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This is probably the biggest difference. Yes, they are allowed to hang out with guests. They can have dinner with you if you invite them (on their off duty time, of course) and there is no charge for them to eat with a guest. If they join you for drinks at a guest bar, they pay the same price as a guest; if they drink at the crew bar, it is MUCH cheaper. If you make friends with "Happening Staff," they often invite you to "secret parties." You'll get invitations like "Meet me at X place tonight." That will be a small, fun event...not creepy or anything.

OK, the ports....I doubt that Celebrity really goes to either Florence or Rome. They probably dock at Livorno and Civet..vecchia (spelling). Each of these are almost 2 hours from the cities they claim to visit by bus; Rome can also be accessed by train. While tours like "Florence on your own" are likely offered, you won't be able to get in to anything unless you purchase "skip the line" tickets in advance. This ticket type is included in most guided tours. On my first trip to Europe, I spent about a week in each of these cities and saw them. I later did i from a cruise ship with family--barely scratching the surface . Virgin makes a point of using ports where the ship docks at the city; where you can walk to see the location. They also try to do overnight stays, allowing you to see more of a location. While it doesn't really matter in Barcelona (go a few days early to see the city,) Virgin docks at the WTC, right at the end of Las Ramblas while Celebrity docks at the larger port about 2 miles away...too far to walk with luggage IMHO. The larger port also imposes a charge on taxis which will be passed on to you. The ports on Celebrity are the more common cruise ship ports...I've done most of them, so I'd consider the new ports on VV a plus. You'll be drinking "free" on both, so that's a wash. (drink package on Celebrity, Rockstar suite on VV gives free drinks all over ship) All restaurants on VV are the quality of specialty restaurants on Celebrity but have no fee. True, you can only make one advance reservation at each, but there are 6 and you have a 7 night cruise. In Rockstar, your onboard host will make any additional reservations you wish, no limits. On longer cruises, (12-14 nights), VV allows 3 advance reservations at each restaurant in regular cabins. They do take walk ups, and will advise you of the wait (usually only a few minutes) THe "vegan" restaurant also has "naughty" items on the menu which are meat. Food is a tough call--Virgin food was great, Celebrity was the best food I'd ever had on a cruise prior to VV. I prefer The Gallery to Celebrity's buffet, although Celebrity had the most varied buffet of any ship I've been on and I loved El Bacchio. VV has food outlets in many locations, each serving different items. Atmosphere/entertainment are VERY different. Celebrity is sitting in a theatre for big shows, although they had some great quickie shows around the ship like an a capella quartet. Virgin has lots of "pop up" shows, no Broadway or review type shows, and it is really hard to explain the big entertainment. Odd, to say the least. Celebrity has better pools, no contest. If you are offended by PDA, innuendo, etc. VV may not be for you. Crew--VV is great, more casual, more interactive with guests. Normally, I recommend long cruises over shorter because I like cruising. Spa--essentially the same. Fitness classes--included on VV and very creative. Lots of fitness places around the ship as well. Passengers--Celebrity was a significantly older crown than VV. VV average age about 50 with a few people in the 70-80 range. Celebrity, average age about 70 with lots of elderly people. Celebrity was much more traditional cruising, VV is different. In fairness, Celebrity was several years ago and on an older ship, not this new one. Overall...the biggest difference between suite and balcony cabin on VV is free alcohol. Yes, there are a few other perks. On Celebrity, the suites are more elevated. Have been on Celebrity (not this new ship), DCL (multiple ships), Princess (suite and regular cabin), etc....40+ cruises, 6 lines total. Europe 6 or 7 times. So, summary length of cruise--Celebrity ports--toss up for me food--virgin passenger mix--VV service--slight nod to VV entertainment--depends on what you want traditional-Celebrity new and different--VV

I'm sure they have thousands of people calling, but they should have been ready for this situation. My TA advised me that the best way to get thru to an agent in the US was to call at 8am Eastern time. That was his advice after I spent 2 hours on hold while trying to book a cruise! (he was in the middle of the Panama Canal, so not really able to help and I didn't want to risk losing the cabin)

Virgin is great for active people--all exercise classes are included and there are several places with equipment you can use on your own. Food is amazing. Age groups vary....average age is probably 45-50. Adults only. It is a younger group than we encountered on Celebrity or Princess. There are some 70-80 year olds, but not a lot that we saw. We encountered more "old" people on Disney (grandparents, mostly) than on Virgin. The entertainment is very different than on other lines--watch YouTube videos to understand that. There are no singles group meets that I'm aware of, but it isn't hard to meet people. Many things on the ship have sexual innuendo, but it isn't over the top. Very vegan friendly, but great steaks, seafood, etc. as well. Again, worth trying (I'd never had good, creative vegan food). Is it a good fit? That's hard with not knowing your DS or friend. Shorter cruises 4,5,6 days, tend to be younger than longer cruises.

There have been several fires started by people smoking on balconies...most lines have become quite strict about prohibiting this.

Prices on VV include the tip--no added 18%.

Thank you for your excellent review. While I don't agree with everything you said, it was a very interesting summary. We've encountered cases of no one really knowing what would happen on B2B cruises on other lines as it has sometimes changed from one cruise to another based on the number of people/cabins doing B2B as well as Customs service demands. I'm surprised that you were only allowed to eat in each restaurant once on each leg. The usual policy is that you can only make one advance reservation at each restaurant, but walk ups are welcome and can usually be seated within a few minutes. I am concerned about how the restaurant situation will work when they actually have the ship at capacity. While the restrictions have been lifted, most cruises are sailing at 25%-50% capacity. There have been some changes made on VV cruises of 12-14 days. For these, you are allowed 3 reservations in each restaurant in advance. They also added an addition "of the day" item in many of The Galley stations. For instance, at the taco station they had the three standard tacos, but added a 4th which changed each day. There have been many changes since cruises started in October 2021; I suspect these changes will continue as VV sees more guest comments. THANK YOU for the information that the beds in suites don't divide. That makes it an easy decision--I won't be booking a suite on VV.

I totally agree that VV is having a hard time figuring out where they fit in , and their potential sailors are having the same issues. Based on the original ads, I would never have tried VV; my impression was that it was a ship full of 20 somethings cruising on daddy's money. That's totally not the demographic cruising now. They are also considerably more expensive than something like Carnival....but then, they offer a much better product (my opinion only). Many of my cruising friends in the 50+ age group won't even consider VV despite my trying to talk them into it. They are very comfortable and have lots of loyalty status on other lines and see no reason to switch. A VV person on the phone said that their target for my upcoming cruise is to be 65% booked, but that they are not close to that now. And every cabin type other than suites is available.

No charge

The above is the original menu. They are also currently serving a vegetarian menu on request. The video in OP shows food from what is supposedly being tried out as a new menu; date of start has not been announced as far as I know.

Our best estimate of what will be happening on the TA is the recent 12 night cruise. We know that there were added "daily special" items in The Galley. There were yoga classes every morning. There are tons of fitness classes daily--you tube has videos showing some of them. There are at least 3 gym areas on the ship that are available for your use. The biggest problem on Virgin is figuring out what is happening where...some things seem to just pop up around the ship without being on the schedule. Enough for you is impossible to say. What we've often done is to try a shorter cruise on a "new to us" line before committing to a longer cruise.

Recently, if you didn't like a course you were able to substitute the same course from the vegetarian menu. For instance, if you don't eat mushrooms, you could get the gazpacho for the first course. I don't think this happened early on in their cruisings.

They have several yoga classes

My understanding is that what she was served was a "try out" menu; it is proposed that this will be the new Test Kitchen menu, but it is not in place yet.

No one knows about Virgin as they haven't been cruising for long. On most lines, production shows stick around for years. Even those that are not very good are often "teaked" a bit before being ditched. There is a menu change coming to Test Kitchen--not sure when it will debut.

Virgin has made a big deal of the fact that The Galley is NOT a buffet. It was never supposed to be a typical buffet where you fill your own plate. Whether they planned on you going to each area to pick up whatever food you wanted there, we'll probably never know as the launch was delayed and the set up only appeared as the "take your order and have it brought to you" method. It will be interesting to see what happens as the ships become more full. My understanding is that restrictions on occupancy have been dropped on ships sailing from the US, but continue on cruises departing from Europe. A Virgin rep commented to me that the "target" for our cruise is 65%, but bookings are not there yet. I'm not sure if that is some sort of a limit or if that is their booking goal.

I'm not on any of your cruises.....is the code that you hand out the same as your booking code?

I second naming outstanding crew--if you don't know a last name, first name and where they worked is fine. On almost every line, guest comments influence all sorts of benefits from a few extra hours off while the ship is in port to raises and promotions.

Yes, there is a small fridge in the cabin. It is unlikely that you will be the only overweight person on your sailing...but I guess that depends on the date you book! The people on board are significantly older than you might think from the ads.

We've done a couple of Med cruises. Depending on the port, you may be at a big city or a small community. Example--at Dubrovnik. the cruise line provided complimentary bus transportation to the walled city. We went on our own from there. Yes, there was a tourist industry, but all the old features of the walled city were there...we walked the area and enjoyed them. In Kushadasi, we did an excurtion that took up to Ephesus, to a museum, and to lunch at a villa where we could pick and eat fruit, there were pony rides for kids, etc. We had traditional Turkish food and were invited to see the first floor of the home (where the kitchen, etc. was). The ports for places like Rome and Florence were quite remote from the cities--a couple hours on a bus/hour on a train. Again, there were cruise line sponsored excursions to see the city, others to just provide transportation and then you could do the city on your own, or you could do the whole thing on your own. If you want to get in to any of the popular attractions, you'll need the "skip the line" tickets that are usually part of excursions. These can also be purchased on your own on line. What surprised me was how many more tourists there were than when I visited 40 years ago. In Florence, we went about a block off the tourist track and had probably the best pizza I've ever eaten at a small place that all the workmen were eating! In Spain (not sure which port) we did an excursion to the Alahambra which included lunch at a local restaurant...fun, worth seeing, not my all time favorite excursion. In Funchal, we went off walking on our own as there were some things that are not traditional tourist things that I wanted to see...and easy walking. It is usually easy to do the "hop on, hop off" bus on your own in many large cities. So yes, you can see the culture, the city, etc. HOW you do it is sometimes a choice--do your homework for each port in advance.

There is a "How to photograph food" class in Test Kitchen--you make a very simple item and then style it for the camera with instruction at all stages. It really isn't a "cooking" class. I don't know about waiving delivery fee for suites, but if you order anything that has a $5 charge, there is no delivery fee for any part of your order. That probably doesn't help if you are in a suite as your specialty coffee, alcohol, smoothies, etc. are already included, at least in some levels of suites. Bottom line, in a Sea Terrace, if I'm going to order room service, I'll add a specialty tea. That gets me the tea and the delivery for a total of $5.

I think you missed the memo about how to have Virgin take your luggage off the ship for you. You book it on the app, then put it in the hall on the last night same as on every other line I've cruised. I also wonder if you missed the many locations that have snacks available--many of the bar type locations have assortments of snacks throughout the day and evening. Pizza has extended hours as has the poki bowl place, etc. 24 hour "breakfast" is available at the Galley, In addition, there are "grab and go" boxes available in the Galley. The pizza place serves salads as well as pizza. Virgin does not have a single snack outlet during the day in the same sense as Bacchio on Celebrity, Cove Cafe on Disney, or International Cafe on Princess. Rather different snack items are available at different locations around the ship. I so agree that longer afternoon hours in The Galley would be nice, and worry about what it will be like on a more full ship. When you said "no food available until lunch at noon," you obviously weren't including the breakfast and brunch selections that are available in multiple locations. Overall a great comparison, and I'm not trying to be "that person," only to point out some of the differences between your report and other experiences.

Thank you for the great information! I'm looking forward to 14 nights in October.

We're on the Med to Miami TA, so I have lots of questions about the longer cruises. How many restaurants were you able to book in advance? (although with your upgrade, that probably didn't matter). Were there any variations to the entertainment that took into account the longer cruise? Thank you for addressing the app issues. Hopefully that will be fixed by October. If it is not too rude to ask, what did you bid for your upgrade?

DCL pays tipped crew almost nothing, so there are essentially no server costs in their restaurants beyond room, board, and uniforms "costumes" for those CMs. Still, I'm surprised at the $17 cost to do the Remy meal...especially as the pricing in Palo has changed so greatly (they still have the prix fixe menu, but most of it is now a la carte). A former CM at DCL showed me his pay stub--he is in a highly technical field that is not tipped. His hourly wage was below minimum wage in the US. However, as he pointed out, he had no living expenses while at sea and was required to pay no taxes in his home country thru a loophole that exempts anyone working "on the water." He could have earned a lot more on land, but then would have had taxes and living expenses. I suspect you are correct in the price model on Virgin, especially considering that Tom McAlpin, CEO of Virgin was the CFO of Disney Cruise Line when it opened in 1997 and for many years thereafter. When I see similarities between Virgin and DCL that are different than on other lines, that's my attribution (which may not be accurate). Glad to hear that others did not have their food "shared" at Gumbae, particularly since one of the items shown in the photos was the upcharge waygu beef. I would not be happy if I ordered that item only to have it shared among the entire table. So as I understand it, OP was traveling with the 5 others who shared the table, correct? Also, if you want more food, can you not order another plate of whichever item to be cooked?