Earliest time off Valiant lady in Miami?

[colesc15]

Hi. First time cruising virgin. We normally carry off our luggage on Royal and many times are off the ship and through everything by 7-7:30.

 

Assuming no unusual coastguard delays/clearing the ship, is there a similar process in virgin when we can carry our luggage off and be off the ship by 7-7:30? 

 

Thanks. 

[rebeccac]

It is possible, but it will probably be a bit closer to 8am until you can get off the ship based on my previous experience self-disembarking.  

[colesc15]

Is 8am generally the earliest? 

[rebeccac]

It can be earlier, but it seems like very often it is closer to 8a.  I'd say plan on exiting at 8a and if you are able to disembark earlier consider it a nice surprise.

[cantgetin]

Normally 7:30 or a bit later.  The earliest sign up time for those NOT self-disembarking is usually 8:00.

[CruisingWalter]

On 5/10/2024 at 11:05 AM, colesc15 said:

Hi. First time cruising virgin. We normally carry off our luggage on Royal and many times are off the ship and through everything by 7-7:30.

 

Assuming no unusual coastguard delays/clearing the ship, is there a similar process in virgin when we can carry our luggage off and be off the ship by 7-7:30? 

 

Thanks. 

 

The earliest we've walked off the ship is 7:30. We self disembark directly to the Brightline train back to Orlando. 

[colesc15]

We've always been onboard Royal ships by 11 am or so, but it appears boarding is later for virgin? What's the earliest people generally board? 

[gumshoe958]

11 minutes ago, colesc15 said:

We've always been onboard Royal ships by 11 am or so, but it appears boarding is later for virgin? What's the earliest people generally board? 

Boarding typically starts between 1 and 2pm. The flip side is you can stay on board (and in your cabin) until around 10.30am on the last day.

[CastleCritic]

45 minutes ago, gumshoe958 said:

Boarding typically starts between 1 and 2pm. The flip side is you can stay on board (and in your cabin) until around 10.30am on the last day.

 

That was the case, but when I got off in Athens last year the room attendant was knocking on the door every 5-10min after 9:30 even though the 'do not disturb' light was on.  Pretty sure they made the "you don't have to go home but you cant stay here" announcement at 10, in either case it happened right as I walked out of the cabin.

[jon81uk]

56 minutes ago, CastleCritic said:

 

That was the case, but when I got off in Athens last year the room attendant was knocking on the door every 5-10min after 9:30 even though the 'do not disturb' light was on.  Pretty sure they made the "you don't have to go home but you cant stay here" announcement at 10, in either case it happened right as I walked out of the cabin.

Sounds like you got unlucky with an impatient room attendant. We’ve not had an issue before leaving the room after 10am, although on the recent transatlantic it seemed almost the entire ship waited til 10am to disembark causing massive queues around the entire of deck six and seven. But generally as you say you only start hearing the announcements from 10am and you can disembark as late as 10.30am.

 

1 hour ago, colesc15 said:

We've always been onboard Royal ships by 11 am or so, but it appears boarding is later for virgin? What's the earliest people generally board? 

as soon as you’ve booked get the VV app and go into the check in steps, do the last step first and select an arrival time. For those not in suites this will be sometime between 2pm and 4.30pm. You can turn up an hour before (especially for later times) and see if they are ready to allow you to board, but you do risk having to wait outside. Muster drill is around 5pm and they usually serve free sparkling wine 5.45-6.15pm during the sailaway party. 

[CastleCritic]

1 hour ago, CastleCritic said:

 

That was the case, but when I got off in Athens last year the room attendant was knocking on the door every 5-10min after 9:30 even though the 'do not disturb' light was on.  Pretty sure they made the "you don't have to go home but you cant stay here" announcement at 10, in either case it happened right as I walked out of the cabin.

I thought that might be the case with the number of people who had been in the galley at about 9, but I walked right off the ship, certainly took a lot longer to get an elevator up from deck 4(?) to 10 on embarkation day.

[cantgetin]

3 hours ago, colesc15 said:

We've always been onboard Royal ships by 11 am or so, but it appears boarding is later for virgin? What's the earliest people generally board? 

When you book, download the app and select a "terminal arrival time."  The earliest available is 1:30.  You are asked to not arrive at the terminal more than 30 minutes in advance of your time--if you do, you'll be waiting outside.  Rockstars will board first, then those with priority boarding.  It goes really quickly.  We have usually been IN our cabin before 2 with a 1:30 time.  The nice thing is that your cabin is ready when you board. You go to your room, drop carry ons, freshen up if you choose, then go to the lunch location of your choice (Galley, Pizza, The Dock, etc.)

If you have a later boarding time, like 3pm, you might want to arrive about an hour early.  You might stand in line for a while, but will likely be checking in and boarding prior to your time.  Do complete all the boarding stuff on the app in advance.  That's what makes boarding go so quickly.  If you haven't, there is a "help" area to get it done without slowing down those who did it in advance.

Edited May 12 by cantgetin

[colesc15]

I submitted my Royal status of diamond plus to Virgin. We'll see if that does anything 

[jon81uk]

1 hour ago, colesc15 said:

I submitted my Royal status of diamond plus to Virgin. We'll see if that does anything 

as this thread is discussing boarding and departure times, it seems useful to state that status match now won’t make any difference for those things. 
 

it will get you to the first rung of the VV sailing club and give you blue extras of one speciality coffee per qualified person a day, a bag of laundry and an invite to a drinks reception.

Edited May 12 by jon81uk