cantgetin

There are lot of non-alcoholic options on board--specialty coffee and tea, cold pressed juices, smoothies, as well as mocktails

Bottom line for us--same TA itinerary 3 times, wifi was different quality each time.. in order, April 2023 best (Starlink, premium), October/November 2023 ok, some glitches (Starlink, Premium), October 2022 awful once we left land (not Starlink, premium not offered due to lack of quality).

Book as soon as you board, either on the app or by going to Razzle Dazzle. A significant percentage of reservations are held back until after boarding. If all else fails, go to the restaurant at 6pm and ask if there is a time they can work you in!

He said that he will not be on Scarlet in April...I asked. He also said that you can see his schedule if you look him up under "A Woman Named Carlos: (or it might have been "called" rather than "named,:

Carlos was on Valiant in November 2023--he was GREAT. By far the best diva on any of our cruises. Unfortunately he won't be on our next cruise. He did bingo at least twice....plus several other activities.

It is amazing....and HUGE!

You are correct that you can "sell" your reservation to someone. else by changing the name. If you booked thru a first mate, I'd contact them as they will advertise the availability to their client list....if you are part of a social media group for the cruise date, you might also want to advertise it there (people might have friends who want to sail). The reason I like going thru.a travel agent is that it keeps the financial transaction safe for everyone. The new sailor pays the agent who then changes the name(s) and refunds the original sailor. If doing it privately, there is a lot of trust issue involved with someone you don't know. If you have travel insurance and must cancel for a covered reason, that would be another way to recoup your costs.

That's different.....in our cabin, closing the door was not enough; it needed to be locked for the AC to run. We did note that our most recent cabin had a sticker on the balcony door indicating this while the previous cabin did not.

Agree--the steak in The Wake in November was far improved from April/May, but was still not the best steak on the ship. We were very sad that the "secret steak" in Razzle Dazzle had been discontinued, but the steak in Extra Virgin was excellent, as was the pork in Pink Agave. The chocolate taco recipe in Pink Agave had been changed and was again, better than before,

I have no experience with the phone. On Valiant with premium, no problem with zoom or teams but unable to connect at all with vpn. Without VPN, worked fine with a mininal bit of lag. Lag was more obvious than in April, when there was none....but it was still functional.

When separated, they are each twin size....so together, they are the width of 2 twins.

We started with Status Match, then got our 2 cruises.

November 2023 on Valiant, you could not use a VPN. The internet was good (Premium), but not as good as April/May 2023.

I bring a sweater or lightweight jacket for times on deck at night. We did 14 nights on Valiant in November and did not find it cold in the restaurants. I only wore my cover up outside in the evenings when the ship was moving quickly (breeze from ship movement and evening temps). FWIW, I tend to be cold....no problem on VV.

We've seen foood changes from our first to our most recent cruise, crew confirmed that some of the recipes had changed even when item names remained the same. We felt that most of the recent changes were improvements, other than the evening menu in Razzle Dazzle. The removal of the secret steak was a huge disappointment. As to beds--fingers crossed for changes when Scarlet dry docks next summer. The whole couch flip thing and the L was an interesting experiment, but not a very successful one IMHO. The change from bed to couch is a lot of work for the room host and very rarely requested. Entertainment varies from one cruise to another. Usually there is some that is quite good and some that could use improvement. Cruise ship work is a job, but not typically viewed as the high end of the entertainment world. Same for Happenings Cast; we've seen some great and some "not so good" cast members.

PJ party is the first night and starts well after the dining rooms close. Scarlet night basically starts about 9, but there are things that start earlier like face decorating (prepare to stand in a long line) or "The legend of scarlet night" which lasted all of 5 minutes on our cruise. A member of the Happenings Cast tells their "back story." You can find this recorded on YouTube. Scarlet night is often the second to last night, but can change depending on itinerary, etc.

Wow! We'e typically had ours within 15 minutes of our arrival, but it never beat us to the room!

Cruise Critic makes it hard as we can't recommend TAs. Go to some of the recommended YouTube videos, other social media groups for your anticipated cruise dates, etc. There are many places that I would happily share the names of several that I'm aware of, but I can't do it here. Some of the best YouTubes about Virgin are by "Where's Walter Travels", the same guy as "CruisingWalter" above.

You nailed it. But the question might be "If no one is in the room, why does the AC need to be on? And, you can't lock the balcony door from the outside, only from in the room. SO, in order to lock you out, your roomie would have to lock the door and then exit. SO, you can go out, close the door, and the AC will be shut off. But you'll have a way back into the room. Or your roomie can lock the door, keeping the AC on, but locking you outside! That seems like a bad idea to me. The room will stay cool for a while without the AC running, especially if the curtains are closed.

It depends on your relationship with your TA. My TA normally stays up at night to help clients with reservations. She asks that we send her an email in advance listing approximately what we want and any other notes on what is acceptable. For example, I listed "start with Pink Agave and rotate thru everything except Test Kitchen....about 8pm". I also told her that I'd try to do it on my own first.--she told me to pm her on FB if I wanted her to jump in. SO, after I got my 4 made and tried for a while with only getting kicked out, I pm'd her. She had them all within 15 minutes. It helps that she's in Central time and I'm Eastern time in the sense that she isn't up all night for clients. As to what's available the next day, the answer is "whatever has been released and wasn't grabbed the night before. You can also call Shoreside Sailor Services the next day and they can do it for you....don't know if they're open today, but most of them are not US based. Would I call my TA on Thanksgiving? No, but I don't call her ever. We communicate thru email, text, or private messages on line. Honestly, we would have had the communication in advance and she would have told me whether this day was special to her or not....she tells me to contact her any time, but I do try to be respectful of her and realize that I'm one of many clients. Reality--if you have your act together in advance, it will take her under 15 minutes to do the dinner res. Normally, I'd respect the holiday UNLESS she had told me otherwise.

For my last 14 night cruise, I got 4 nights booked, then a zillion crashes. Turned the project over to my TA who got everything.

If your concern is motion, the more midship and lower to the water line you can be, the better.

Hope he's right but I wouldn't count on it.

I've gotten $2.54, $.50, and $.03 notices all on the same cruise. Fortunately, I have a PIF notice and my TA tells me to ignore all the rest--that she is on it and nothing to worry about. It just gets REALLY old. I'd also love to know why VV can't transfer my passport info from one cruise to the next without requiring me to re-enter and re-photograph it each time. Strange, as other cruise lines can not only move it from one cruise to the next, but can notify me if any of the passports in the family need to be updated before booking another cruise. Their IT is unbelievably bad.

I had removed mine and carried it with me the first time at the Sailor's Club cocktail party. Never needed it for anything at sail away.....Yes, I pulled it out of my pocket and walked in. But the "check in" line was only a few people long, so after that didn't both with it. I find the ribbon very irritating, so take it off as soon as reasonable...but can tuck it in a pocket if needed later.