pl281

@sid_9169 Correct - Although in talking with my accountant we are going to list it and then back it out with the note that the prize hasn't been claimed yet - this way if the company does end up filing the 1099 (even though the email said they wouldn't) we are covered

I'm on the March 23rd on Scarlet Lady - On Sunday Morning (45 days) at midnight I went into the app and was able to book everything. I will say that it took about 30-45 seconds for the availability to load and then I had to select my wife as part of the party.

I actually shut off wifi on my phone just to make sure that didn't cause any weird conflicts.

@sid_9169

and they sent an email saying if you didn't travel in 2021 disregard the email and if you cancelled outright disregard - 

I thought that was the case as you didn't get the value until you've actually cruised

@sid_9169

We got it as well - the way they secured it is legit - it would have been helpful if Virgin gave people a heads up - I also wasn't sure if we were going to get it for 2021 or 2022 as based on when you actually sailed

@Sha-Sha221

Without looking at the length for the moment. A Disney Cruise is going to be VERY different from a Celebrity cruise in terms of the onboard experience. 

Disney is going to be much more family oriented and be a bit more of an immersive experience like going to the parks - where as Celebrity will have some families, but the on board experience is more akin to being in luxury resort.

I would also say that a New England / Canada cruise is typically more about the destination than the ship - meaning most people are going to explore / sight see - and while there are some things near the port - often times the sights are 15-20 minutes + away. 

You mentioned that you have knee issues - regardless of which you decide you will want to be careful with cabin selection as you could end up doing more walking just around the ship vs what you would do in port.

My last comment is price - whenever I've looked at Disney - I have found that there is a premium since you are paying for the "Disney" of it all - You may find that you can actually get more for your $$ on Celebrity (and perhaps go on an excursion) then you would on the shorter trip with Disney

@drewdawg199

Yes I need to do that as well - it's only a couple our drive for me - it's just finding a good long weekend to do it

So I sent an email to Sailor Services at 1:30 today and got a reply in 20 minutes. 

I wanted to let them know I waited over an hour on chat for an agent. They said chat is busy due to all the promos.

I was asking if my March cruise is really going to Key West - they said as of right now it is the plan to go to Key West - time will tell - but I'm guessing we may end up in Nassau. This is a just a trip to get away so whatever it is - it is. 

I had started a roll call for this trip but it appears no one else has joined yet.  

@sid_9169

Thanks - I hadn't even seen / heard that - I'm on in March (as of right now) so I was curious

@Virgin Voyages

Has anyone seen / heard anything on the status of Terminal V - It is my understanding with everything going on in the world it was delayed - but I haven't heard / seen anything as to status / estimated opening date.

@Tennant

Not sure how many kids that young have been on recently due to vaccination requirements  - and whatever there was pre-covid would be vastly different.

I do remember from many years ago that they need to be out of diapers - For one age group it is play time but you have to stay with them.

I recently saw in a post that Royal just made it for certain activities that the parents (even with some older kids) have to stay with the kids

@Virgin Voyages

I just saw you replied to a post from someone who was upset with their cruise. I was surprised to see that you only had 5 posts so far.

You asked the person to send you a message with their contact information - You may not be aware, Cruise Critic does not allow for direct messaging 

I hope that you will continue to monitor the Cruise Critic Board as there is both a mix of real time reviews, as well as complaints and also questions asked of past "sailors" which having an official answer from the cruise line will be best.

I have not yet been on the ship - my wife and I will be on the March 23, 2022 sailing. Right now we are scheduled to go to Key West - I haven't heard if this will be changing or not as I haven't seen any communications if this will change as I know many of the larger ships are currently skipping Key West. 

I'm really surprised that I haven't gotten any "countdown" / "reminder" emails - I don't even recall seeing an email letting me know excursions were available to book. 

I have gotten about 5 emails per week as "sales" emails.

I also wonder when we will be getting our "bands."

As we are "local" to South Florida we will be drive to the port - we are really looking forward to checking out the new ship / cruise line. 

Thank you again for taking the time to review this and other posts and I look forward to seeing your reply on other items.

As it is against the CC rules to post email addresses and I don't want to post my booking number - You should be able to look up my account via my Sailor Services case from back in October - case #131680 - This should hopefully have my email as well as be able to find my booking information.

So far other than the limited communications regarding the actual cruise vs sales emails  - things have been good so far

@Dontbookavirginvoyage

Welcome to Cruise Critic - I see this is your first post. Having been on many cruises myself - I can tell you what you experienced can happen on any cruise line. 

That being said - I wanted to touch on some of your items -

1) Arrival Time vs Boarding Time - I am assuming that you had a 1:45 check-in time based on what you posted. Even Pre-Covid you can find many posts about delayed boarding time - that was typically due to late arriving ship, housekeeping, shore side staff or tech issues - as well as too many people showing up early. Since there is also the testing now - that could delay things especially if they were at a higher capacity due to Holiday sailing

2) Safety Briefing - Since cruises resumed earlier this year, to the best of my knowledge all of the ships have done away with the traditional safety briefing where everyone gets together about an hour before the ship sail. Now you watch a video in your cabin or in the app - and then check in at the meeting area for your cabin.

3) Dining/Reservations - You mentioned the app wasn't working - One thing I've been doing for year with travel - even just air travel is to print / bring a paper copy in addition to the e-ticket - This way incase my phone goes dead or something happens I have a backup. YES Virgin needs to figure out why the app is so bad / so many people have issues with it

4) Your friend's charge - 100% absolutely go to guest services - there can be a number of reasons - sometimes it is a pre-authorization - in other words - they don't know how much you are going to spend so they do an authorization with the credit card for a small amount - if it is approved - then they know they will be able to collect it - if it doesn't then they may ask you to put cash on account or provide another card. - This is common practice.

Hope your trip gets better

@sellwingri

While I haven't been on Virgin yet, I've been following the board as we have a cruise coming up in March.

1) Based on reviews posted so far the age range is anything and everything

2) There are a number of dining venues  - you need reservations but they are pretty much all included in your fare - so you have many options

3) My understanding is that while there are daily activities - it isn't as formalized as what you might be used to on Royal.

We normally are on Celebrity but figured we would try this out just to see what it is like

I would look at some of live reviews that have already been posted to get a better idea

@Manda917

Spring break yes there will be more kids - here is the information on the Celebrity website. https://www.celebritycruises.com/things-to-do-onboard/camp-at-sea

As I recall from past cruises (and postings) - they will sometimes merge the groups but only if there are only a limited number of kids - not something they regularly do.

I know they have various paid activities for the kids PJ Party - Dinners and some other items.

As I said you know your kid best.

@Manda917

Hello from up the road in Boynton Beach...

We have an 8 year old and have only taken him on Celebrity - Our son has ASD so the less activity / etc is actually better for him.

They do have a kids club on Celebrity (not sure what's going on right now with COVID restrictions) there are many on CruiseCritic that have said they have taken their kids (or grandkids) on Celebrity - and there are those that will tell you to stay away.

It really depends on your child / what their needs are - also where you are going. We've been taking trips for sightseeing - which our little one enjoys.

If your son needs lots of activities / playground etc it may not be as good -

Let me know if you have any other questions.

I guess I wasn't one of the winners 😞 what bugs me is that I even messaged via instagram and via email to ask if notifications were made - and I got 0 response not even a sorry you weren't selected - just nothing

@sid_9169

Did you happen to notice if they had Global Entry at the port - although from the sounds of it getting off the ship isn't that big a deal

@sid_9169

I know you are posting on your live blog thread - if you could cross post the end result here just so it's easier to find 🙂  this is insane - 

I really hope this is "start up" glitches - although they had 2 months in the UK to work through most of this IMO

@sid_9169

This @(&)#%&# moment brought to your by......
Um -

1) I agree with @garymfreedman you should have been upgraded not downgraded

2) what sort of compensation are they providing you ???

@garymfreedman

Celebrity is my main cruise line, and over on that board - folks complain about the glitchy website and app - but as you said you would thing VV who had all this ramp up time would have all these things figured out.

So i'm not going until March - but I like to be prepared - everything was working except for my passport it was saying I needed a visa - My wife's worked fine - I filled out the email form on the website (which seems to be limited to like 140 characters LOL)

They got back to me to say oh my citizenship is correct so maybe its an issue with my passport - well I went back into the app deleted the photo and re-did and guess what it worked.

I had started the process back in March/April of this year - when they were still having app issues - I'm guessing it was an underlying profile issue but who knows - now we just wait 🙂

Random question - I'm not cruising until March but I started the whole process - it's only showing partially complete on the passport page - and that still after re-installing the app - will that start working as we get closer?

@cdn_tbird

I missed that last line - but I'm about a 30 minute drive to the port so for me that isn't a big deal

@canderson

They are providing transportation to FLL - so it's more so people that have flexible schedules

@amevola

Long and short of it - any group shot is an automatic disqualification