MLJS

This morning, as we slow down, you can really feel the boat rocking. The wind is at about 17 mph. The pilot boat had a rocky ride in too.

The cabin temperature. We currently have the temperature set all the way low. My husband thinks it’s still hot in here. I’m a little cool, but my ideal Tom is 74 while his is 66. I’m not sure if others around us have balcony doors open and that is why it’s not quite as cold as our cabin on Scarlet Lady last year. The bed has a duvet and a blanket. The blanket is great for out on the balcony in the hammock-one of my very favorite places. My husband is still old school and prefers a sheet cover. Our cabin attendant was able to bring just the cover that goes over the duvet to use as a sheet and that made my husband very happy.

Every where on the Virgin site, it says no plastic bottles of water or soda. There is absolutely nothing about CPAP machines. I called sailor services and asked about bringing a gallon of distilled water on board with me for a CPAP machine. She initially told me yes that was fine but then about 5 minutes later called back and read off the beverage policy. I emailed guest services and they replied say, yes I could bring an unopened gallon jug of distilled water with me. I included the email. Side note—-didn’t bring the CPAP with me. Have a love/hate relationship with it. So I do not know how hard it would be to get through security. We did get several bottles of water through, which we didn’t realize were in the bag from our overnight stay the night before. they were not checking the wine bottles or really looking through any bags. We were able to get on with 2 bottles of wine in 3 different bags for a total of 6 bottles.

When we first got on, the captain announced that we were going to have a lot of wind on our trip. He changed our route to follow the keys down to Cuba and across that way. For as windy as it is up on the upper decks, you do not feel the ship moving much at all. The stability is so much better than the older ships.

On this cruise, there are 831 passengers. About 1/2 as many as when we were on Scarlet Lady last year. But because there are so few people, they have been moving activities and shows around to different dates and times. So what we planned before we got on the cruise and scheduled the first few hours on board changed. So now instead of Dual Reality running Sunday & Monday evening, they are doing the shows on Thursday. But with so few people on board, there is little wait for restaurants and quite easy to find a chair around the decks. This is my third cruise with 50% or less passengers and I think we are getting a little spoiled.

Time change…..hadn’t seen this discussed previously. Currently eastern standard time in Miami is different than the ports of Puerto Plata, San Juan, an Saint Croix. They did make an announcement about it and left notes in everyone’s cabin. The ship stays on Miami time….so can be confusing The original schedule I pulled of their website when we booked, listed the actual time on the island. so before you leave Miami, I recommend turning off the automatic time set function on your phone/watch, so that it does not change once you get in the different time zone. on deck 4 by the elevators, they had two clocks. One with “ships time” and one with “local time” If in doubt, check here to make sure you are on the right time.

My husband & I booked first mate rates and had my mom in my room and my dad with my husband. They do not offer an extra cabin key like Royal Caribbean or Carnival does, so my husband & mom had to change bands while onboard and then exchanged back when we were in port. We had to do the same on our previous cruise on the Scarlet Lady we did with our niece & nephew.

We arrived Saturday to the cruise terminal about 1:25pm. Our check-in time was 1:45. We did have to make a second look around the port because we missed the drop off/pickup location. It’s a quick right through a parking lot before the Virgin Building. Not marked real well. But we pulled up next a porter, she made luggage rages for us and our bags were set. We left my parents to get in line for the 1:45 arrival. The arrival times lines started to the right of the main entrance, with a row for 1:30, 1:45 & 2pm separated into separate lines. To the left were additional lines for 2:15 and on. We parked the car in the parking garage with no problems and walked across. We were at the end of our “1:45 check-in group” and promptly at 1:45 they moved us inside to the next queue, where we waited a couples minutes and then were led up the escalators. Once upstairs, they checked that you had all online check in done and then let you go onto the next queue. There were at least 30-40 check in stations. They asked for your passport and gave us our Band. We then went through security-which was a breeze. We were on the ship at 2pm. we went straight to our rooms to drop our bags and freshen up. Within 10 minutes, our other bags were delivered to our cabin.

There are some fantastic reviews that have been done recently, so was not planning on doing a long review. But there are something’s that I can add or if you have a question, I will se if I can answer. a little about myself. I have been an avid cruiser for a number of years. I’m platinum on carnival. My husband did not cruise at all until we got married 7 years ago. Now he has been on at least 10. This is our second Virgin cruise. We are also traveling with my parents, who have not cruised on Virgin before.