On Board Scarlet Lady right now - not impressed so far... Questions welcome.

[Rhea98]

On 3/28/2023 at 8:17 AM, TripsYouMustDo said:

.. Also impossible to book dinners. 

On Valiant Lady ATM. We were finally able to book some dinner ressies but were told Extra Virgin wouldn't even be able to accommodate walk-up: result of having 2100 Sailors on board ( which is considered a full ship as far as delivering services is concerned). We were not concerned about no "specialty" dinners until discovering that half Galley  venues close at3pm.

 

Also connecting to WiFi on Android... I had to enter my DOB. Through their Calendar widget. Couldn't type it in. Could select a year in the Widget. Ended up having to click on an arrow to go back month-by-month. We are both in our 50s. So it's 12 month * 50 years = 600 clicks to enter our birthday to connect to the ship Wifi.

If I recall, touching the 2023 on upper left of app window opened the years from which point I then used the arrow to get to the month. I'm 75 so, yeah, scrolling back wasn't an option. I tried to disconnect and forget to recreate so I could screenshoot it. It just kept auto-logging in. Didn't clear cache/data.

 

Anyone else on Android? Is this really this silly? Or did we not figure out a secret way to enter your date of birth without clicking on the calendar 600-some times? 

 

[Travel-and-See]

24 minutes ago, Rhea98 said:

 

A couple of notes... keep checking for reservations, I was able to get into Extra Virgin on my last cruise when an opening came up. 

 

Also.. the Galley DOES have a nightly dinner special which is often very good. 

 

My experience is you can always get into one of the restaurants, Razzle Dazzle and Gunbae are the easiest.  Razzle Dazzle has some of the best food in my opinion. 

 

This is frustrating though and honestly Virgin needs to address this. I've never seen the restaurants actually full, so maybe they are understaffed? 

[scubagal44]

17 minutes ago, Travel-and-See said:

 

This is frustrating though and honestly Virgin needs to address this. I've never seen the restaurants actually full, so maybe they are understaffed? 

 On my Valiant sailing in the Med with 2200 sailors, yes, the restaurants were full.  Everyone trying to get in via walk-in was turned away at each restaurant I was at every night, and lines to check in with a reservation were long.

[cantgetin]

The Galley closes at 3, but many of the stations open for evening hours.  Check you app or the daily paper guide for specific hours for each.

[Travel-and-See]

1 hour ago, scubagal44 said:

 On my Valiant sailing in the Med with 2200 sailors, yes, the restaurants were full.  Everyone trying to get in via walk-in was turned away at each restaurant I was at every night, and lines to check in with a reservation were long.

Oh I meant I haven't seen them physically full - there always seem to be open tables even if the restaurant is "fully booked" 

 

The most annoying version of this was Brunch at Razzle Dazzle. The restaurant was half full, the group of employees in front of me were seated, but the restaurant was "fully booked and couldn't accept a walk-up" 

[scubagal44]

45 minutes ago, Travel-and-See said:

Oh I meant I haven't seen them physically full - there always seem to be open tables even if the restaurant is "fully booked" 

 

 

Yes, I did mean physically full lol.  On my sailing, dinners were "fully booked" literally - no open tables, and the tables were so close together that I was basically bumping elbows with the tables on either side of me.  The Wake is the only restaurant we didn't feel packed into like sardines, with a bit of breathing room.  

[ociana]

On 3/28/2023 at 5:17 AM, TripsYouMustDo said:

 

Anyone else on Android? Is this really this silly? Or did we not figure out a secret way to enter your date of birth without clicking on the calendar 600-some times? 

 

If you click the year it will show a drop down to select your year, instead of scrolling through the calendar. First time I ever saw that feature in a phone calendar menu it threw me off as well, but I run into everywhere now.

[cantgetin]

THey definitely manage availability and some crew schedules based on number of cruisers.  It really doesn't make sense to be working enough crew to serve 2000 if there are only 1200 on board, so people get a little more break time.  There is a crew meeting prior to embarkation where they are made aware of the number of sailors and any alterations to plan.  I suspect, but cannot confirm, that they may also remove some tables when the ships are less booked.  We never felt packed like sardines, although seating in RD and Test Kitchen was a little tight.

[dazadelaide]

All these negative comments are becoming very stressful.

Our cruise on Resilient lady in oct is fully booked so some of the issues mentioned above are a concern.

We have cruised quite a bit over the last 15 years and usually just go with the flow about meals 

 knowing that we will always be able to find something to eat somewhere.

All this just make a booking and if none available just walk up and you might or might not be able to get in is not how I would want to spend my day.

Hopefully all will be ok by the time we get to our cruise as there seems to be so much to enjoy about virgin.

Daz

 

[Rhea98]

12 hours ago, ociana said:

 

If you click the year it will show a drop down to select your year, instead of scrolling through the calendar. First time I ever saw that feature in a phone calendar menu it threw me off as well, but I run into everywhere now.

Thanks for letting me piggyback. Just using your reply to post screenshots I just took. Click the 2023 in upper left then the years appear.

Edited March 30, 2023 by Rhea98

[raphael360]

On 3/28/2023 at 12:06 PM, Travel-and-See said:

Forcing guests to wear certain clothes is the opposite of luxury to me. 

I'm taking my 5th VV cruise on Friday and this mention of a forced dress code is the first time ever I've seen or experienced references to "guests being forced to wear certain clothes".   I've found quite the opposite to be true both online and onboard.  The only clothing referenced on VVs website is: Please wear at least a bathing suit in the dining rooms: See full dress code on VV's website at: https://help.virginvoyages.com/s/searchresult?userInput=What is the dress code

 

On board, sailors wore whatever they wanted which is a stark contrast to my dozens of Celebrity and Seabourn cruises which said men shall wear sports jackets and/or tuxes on formal nights.

[jon81uk]

30 minutes ago, raphael360 said:

I'm taking my 5th VV cruise on Friday and this mention of a forced dress code is the first time ever I've seen or experienced references to "guests being forced to wear certain clothes".   I've found quite the opposite to be true both online and onboard.  The only clothing referenced on VVs website is: Please wear at least a bathing suit in the dining rooms: See full dress code on VV's website at: https://help.virginvoyages.com/s/searchresult?userInput=What is the dress code

 

On board, sailors wore whatever they wanted which is a stark contrast to my dozens of Celebrity and Seabourn cruises which said men shall wear sports jackets and/or tuxes on formal nights.

the reference to dress codes was when talking about other lines not VV. 

I stated other lines insisted on forced dress for dinner, like you have said about Celebrity and Seaborne. 

Generally other lines sell themselves as “premium” by insisting on jackets for men etc. 

 

whereas VV as you say is more relaxed and don’t need those gimmicks to make it luxury or premium.
 

personally the idea of dress codes like that puts me off doing any other cruise line, no matter how “premium” they are meant to be.

Edited March 30, 2023 by jon81uk

[TripsYouMustDo]

On 3/30/2023 at 4:06 AM, raphael360 said:

I'm taking my 5th VV cruise on Friday and this mention of a forced dress code is the first time ever I've seen or experienced references to "guests being forced to wear certain clothes".   I've found quite the opposite to be true both online and onboard.  The only clothing referenced on VVs website is: Please wear at least a bathing suit in the dining rooms: See full dress code on VV's website at: https://help.virginvoyages.com/s/searchresult?userInput=What is the dress code

 

On board, sailors wore whatever they wanted which is a stark contrast to my dozens of Celebrity and Seabourn cruises which said men shall wear sports jackets and/or tuxes on formal nights.

Agreed, went to all dinners in a T-Shirt and shorts, didn't have a problem. That included The Wake, Test Kitchen, Korean BBQ (can't remember the name), Extra Virgin. 

 

Many people didn't wear PJs for the Pajama Party and didn't wear Red for Scarlet Night (both of which are overhyped IMHO). 

 

I never had anyone make me feel like I was underdressed. So while I criticize VV for other things, dress code wasn't one of the things we had an issue with. Just off the ship BTW, will post an update shortly

[TripsYouMustDo]

On 3/28/2023 at 6:52 AM, jon81uk said:

For food from 10pm to 1am Pizza is the best option. Also it’s on deck 7 so no need to go upstairs for it!

I just wish ice cream was also available late night. There are no sweet things to be found after 10pm 😞 

Agreed. Tried getting something sweet after the Scarlet Night pool party/after-party, nothing to be found. No cookies, cakes, or even waffles or pancakes. The sweetest thing available was sweet tater tots. Which is what I got. Very strange for a cruise ships with over 20 dining venues. Again, Carnival with 24-hour ice cream at the buffet comes to mind... And Royal has plenty of sweets in their 24-hour cafes. 

 

We learned our lessons and grabbed some deserts during the day the next day, put them in our fridge (balcony cabin had a mini-fridge, I assume all cabins probably do - please chime in if you were in an inside).

[TripsYouMustDo]

On 3/28/2023 at 8:48 AM, Travel-and-See said:

I've been on both Virgin Ships in 2023 and I agree - service is VERY uneven. On Celebrity Ships you can't walk by an employee without a friendly greeting, on VV it is common for employees to completely ignore you.  But then other VV employees are the nicest ever and are super genuine.

 

Tip to the Original Poster - make sure to see Duel Reality - it's the best thing I've ever seen on Cruise Ship by far. It was produced by the same company that produced Ships in the Night.  

I'm not sure what the difficulty is in you understanding that a simple request should be honored by a "Luxury" cruise line.  I would also prefer the papers be delivered to my room the night before like on Celebrity.  It's a very simple and logical request.  

 

Thank you, and agreed - Duel Reality was INSANELY good. That was *the only* thing on Scarlet Lady that blew me away and made me think about sailing with VV again. We go to Vegas a couple of times a year every year not to gamble but for the food and the shows. Both my wife and I thought that the quality of the acrobatics in Duel Reality was as good or better than many Cirque du Soleil shows we saw in Vegas (and travelling ones). We ended up seeing Duel Reality twice (from two different viewpoints) and enjoyed it equally both times. That was a really well done show with minimal props but incredibly talented performers. I got to talk to one of the performers in the show and found out he performed in Amaluna (Cirque du Soleil) for six years and worked in other shows of similar caliber. I wasn't surprised. My comment about MSC shows being better was prior to us seeing Duel Reality and now I stand corrected in that regard. 🙂 (And happy about it)

 

And yes, my point about getting paper schedule delivered to the cabin was exactly that. For a cruise lines that's supposed to be luxury, relaxing, accommodating, etc, etc., their  rudeness and refusal to accommodate such as simple request was unacceptable. I've met the lady in guest services that spoke to me and she was just as rude in person BTW. Can't believe they put one of the rudest people on the ship to work in guest services... 

[TripsYouMustDo]

On 3/28/2023 at 8:54 AM, jon81uk said:

Personally I don’t see Virgin Voyages as a luxury cruise line. They just do things differently compared to some others. 
Whereas other lines do sell themselves as luxury or premium and insist on guests wearing formal wear and other similar rules. 

Directly from VV web site:

 

"Ahoy Sailor! Welcome to Virgin Voyages: our adult only cruise ships redefine luxury cruise vacations". 

 

You were saying?

[TripsYouMustDo]

On 3/29/2023 at 8:47 AM, LibratPDX said:

It's unfortunate that you're having to deal with so many brick walls, ugh.  I understand they are about conservation, but I don't think it's a big deal if a pax specifically asks for a paper schedule, it's a request that should be granted.  I would suggest asking the room steward for it though maybe?  I have heard they can be/have been accommodating for this specific thing!  

You're clearly tech savvy, but one of the key things I was told is to make sure I have ZERO other apps running on my phone when using the app.  To be fair, my sailings were no where near as full as yours is, so that may be part of the issue as well.  For as tech forward as VV likes to be, it's odd that their app is often glitchy.

You can't turn back the clock, but if you sail with VV again, definitely book your dinners as soon as you can (45 days before the cruise).  And while they show full on the app, many have stated they can be booked upon boarding with Sailor Services. 

One of the bummers for us regular folk is that rock stars get on the ship and are able to book everything first, with limited space in the fitness classes, they fill up quickly.  But as others have said, if you show up at the time of the class, they may have no-shows and you could still get in, same as shows that are showing as fully booked.  AND if shows are fully booked, check again the day of, sometimes people cancel.  I was able to book and not have to be in the standby line for a show that had been fully booked on my last VV cruise.  

If you haven't tried it yet, the Ship Eats are great and the $7 delivery fee is waived if you order something there is a charge for 🙂 

I hope you enjoy the rest of your cruise!

 

Thank you, all great tips! Agreed with them all. To everyone else reading this - definitely check in immediately at 45 days before the cruise. Check-in is available on the app only, not on the web site. That's the first cruise line I've encountered that doesn't allow you to check in on the website using a normal laptop/desktop. And yes, book everything as early as you can.

 

We were able to get in stand-by into the fully booked Ship Show. We saw people get in into the booked up Duel Reality (actually the crew member asked to scan their bracelet telling them that often seats are available because someone cancelled, and sure enough they were, so they ended up not even needing to be in stand-by line).

 

We never tried to get in without *any* reservations to any restaurant, but we did come a lot earlier a couple of times (e.g. Korean BBQ yesterday we showed up at 6:30pm having a 9:30pm reservation, so essentially stand-by I guess) and were accommodated. 

 

Haven't had a chance to try Ship Eats/room service as we wanted to see the venues besides eating the food, but it certainly can be helpful. 

 

Haven't gone stand-by to the fitness classes as most of the ones I wanted to try were early in the morning and I didn't want to take chance on those. I've heard from a couple of other people that they were able to get in. 

 

The app actually did better after the initial fiasco, so maybe it was more of a glitch. Let's hope they don't make it a habit. 

 

Thank you, yes, the cruise did turn around to a degree, though I did have my "not impressed" face (a la McKayla Maroney) a lot of the time - in the drag show, during the Scarlet Night, during the "seahorse racing" (serious, who came up with that idiocy), and many other times. Duel Reality show was the only "wow moment" on the ship for me.

[TripsYouMustDo]

On 3/29/2023 at 11:09 AM, cantgetin said:

There are many places you can get copies of the paper schedule....There is a stack at each Grounds Club, the big red table on deck 7, and Sailor Services on deck 5.  They do run out sometimes, but deck 5 always has some or they can print one for you!  You don't need to wait or ask anyone at any of these spots, just find the tray holding them and pick up one.

Schedules can change for many reasons....if the sea is rough, some of the shows are not performed for the safety of the performers.  If a key performer is ill, there may not be an understudy, etc.  Same for some classes, although there is generally more back up available in those circumstances.  The app is the most up to date info.

Yes, thank you, we did see them in a few places around the ship (most notably extra-pay coffee shops), but that wasn't the point. The point was that a luxury cruise line should be able to accommodate such a simple request as to deliver paper schedule to my cabin daily, and they should do that with a smile. Most other cruise lines do that, and they do it the day before. When I asked for schedule for the next day at guest services, I was rudely told "We won't print them until tomorrow". Yep, true luxury. I don't mean to come across as a spoiled brat, but refusing simple requests and doing that rudely is not something I would expect from a cruise line that bills itself as "luxury".

 

I understand things change, but when they do - schedules should be updated, especially in the app. Having guests going to the wrong location and waste their time is not something a cruise line should do, and they clearly knew of the venue change well in advance since the paper schedule had the correct venue. That's the point I was trying to make. 

[TripsYouMustDo]

On 3/29/2023 at 12:00 PM, Travel-and-See said:

A couple of notes... keep checking for reservations, I was able to get into Extra Virgin on my last cruise when an opening came up. 

 

Also.. the Galley DOES have a nightly dinner special which is often very good. 

 

My experience is you can always get into one of the restaurants, Razzle Dazzle and Gunbae are the easiest.  Razzle Dazzle has some of the best food in my opinion. 

 

This is frustrating though and honestly Virgin needs to address this. I've never seen the restaurants actually full, so maybe they are understaffed? 

Didn't realize Galley had dinner special. It always feel so sad to eat dinner in a buffet though. I think it goes for all cruise lines. The ambience is just not there. We stopped to grab deserts at the Galley at dinner time (7-8pm), and it was feeling pretty dead and quite in there. I would've hated to eat dinners at the Galley. 

[TripsYouMustDo]

On 3/30/2023 at 4:36 AM, jon81uk said:

the reference to dress codes was when talking about other lines not VV. 

I stated other lines insisted on forced dress for dinner, like you have said about Celebrity and Seaborne. 

Generally other lines sell themselves as “premium” by insisting on jackets for men etc. 

 

whereas VV as you say is more relaxed and don’t need those gimmicks to make it luxury or premium.
 

personally the idea of dress codes like that puts me off doing any other cruise line, no matter how “premium” they are meant to be.

Agreed, they are very casual about dress code (or lack thereof), and I did enjoy that. Even NCL is trying to be "fancy" by not allowing shorts in the MDR and Le Bistro. So silly.

[jon81uk]

43 minutes ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

Directly from VV web site:

 

"Ahoy Sailor! Welcome to Virgin Voyages: our adult only cruise ships redefine luxury cruise vacations". 

 

You were saying?

The key word being redefine. 
Such as my previous example of other cruise lines trying to be luxury by enforcing dress codes. Virgin have redefined it by not having a strict dress code. 
 

 

[Travel-and-See]

2 hours ago, jon81uk said:

The key word being redefine. 
Such as my previous example of other cruise lines trying to be luxury by enforcing dress codes. Virgin have redefined it by not having a strict dress code. 
 

 

They also use the phrase "Always included Luxury" on the homepage. 

 

3 hours ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

Didn't realize Galley had dinner special. It always feel so sad to eat dinner in a buffet though. I think it goes for all cruise lines. The ambience is just not there. We stopped to grab deserts at the Galley at dinner time (7-8pm), and it was feeling pretty dead and quite in there. I would've hated to eat dinners at the Galley. 

On other cruise lines I've gotten used to eating dinners in the buffet since I don't want to share a MDR table for every meal. (As a solo passenger I don't mind meeting new friends, but the forced conversation is a bit much.  I'll usually eat in the MDR 1 or 2 times on a week long cruise).  I know what you mean but honestly, it's kind of nice how quiet and relaxing can be. 

 

One of the nice things about Virgin is the variety of restaurants - I genuinely wanted to try them all and even now I want to go back to them again!  

 

One negative is that it's never communicated to servers the party size.  I check in and have reserved as a table for 1, but then each meal time am asked "is anyone else joining you? Or is it just you?" - kind of annoying. For as much as the servers stare at their phones you'd think the phone could tell them the size of the party on the reservation. haha. 

 

 

[Janthere]

3 hours ago, TripsYouMustDo said:

 

Thank you, all great tips! Agreed with them all. To everyone else reading this - definitely check in immediately at 45 days before the cruise. Check-in is available on the app only, not on the web site. That's the first cruise line I've encountered that doesn't allow you to check in on the website using a normal laptop/desktop. 

 

 

Actually Celebrity makes you use the app to check in now too. Seems like they are all going to go that way eventually 

[TripsYouMustDo]

On 3/30/2023 at 1:49 AM, dazadelaide said:

All these negative comments are becoming very stressful.

Our cruise on Resilient lady in oct is fully booked so some of the issues mentioned above are a concern.

We have cruised quite a bit over the last 15 years and usually just go with the flow about meals 

 knowing that we will always be able to find something to eat somewhere.

All this just make a booking and if none available just walk up and you might or might not be able to get in is not how I would want to spend my day.

Hopefully all will be ok by the time we get to our cruise as there seems to be so much to enjoy about virgin.

Daz

 

Hey Daz,

 

You will always find something to eat, it's not an issue. There are several eateries that don't require reservations, including The Galley and Pizza. The issue is being able to get in into a specific restaurant at specific time. Even with that we ended up being reasonably lucky on this cruise. If you are flexible, you will probably be fine. Almost all restaurants are open every night (at least on Scarlet Lady). Our plan of last resort was going stand-by to all the restaurants in the order of preference hoping we would get in into one of them, but we did manage to get in in our first choice every night. I'm still not crazy about how VV does the booking thing.

 

The best advice I got on this forum seemed to be to go directly to the restaurant host and book with them a day or two in advance. My wife was able to book reservations to the Wake and Gumbae for a day and two days in advance for 6pm when nothing was available in the app by going directly to those restaurants. I was able to adjust my reservation to the Wake from 9pm to 7:45pm on a short notice (only a few hour) by going directly to the Wake host desk (in front of the restaurant). 

 

We are off the ship now and we did not book another cruise with VV because of those issues, and frankly the daily activities left a lot to be desired, as well as some of the shows (though as already mentioned, Duel Reality was incredible). At the same time it wasn't as bad as it felt initially. Also a lot of people loved the cruise and I heard of several that booked another before disembarking. I guess it all depends on your attitude. For us, it's simply not worth the money they charge. I'd rather sail MSC or Royal for a fraction of the cost. MSC is *a lot* cheaper while Royal has so much more to do. But that's just us.

 

If you have any specific questions ask away and I would be happy to try to answer them (and other helpful folks in this forum, many of which seem to have sailed with VV multiple times). 

Edited April 1, 2023 by TripsYouMustDo

[cantgetin]

Just a couple comments on the above...on our Valiant cruise, ALL the restaurants were open every night from 6 till a last seating time of something like 9:30. 

As to cost, I would suggest shopping carefully and repricing when any new specials come out.  We were in a Sea Terrace (balcony) cabin for $96 per person per night, and on top of that had some "loot." (onboard credit).  We took advantage of the special at the time of booking, early booking discount, and paid in full before 6 month discount.  Our upcoming cruise is actually a tiny bit less on a per diem basis as we added a rebooking on board discount!  I do realize that many sailings cost $300 per person per night, and we may never see the low rates we were able to nail again.  We have 2 cruises booked in 2023, and our TA was already able to rebook one of them to get us a lower fare.  There is also a Florida Resident discount which we do not qualify for.