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Canon Image Challenge | all galleries >> CIC238 Celebration >> Eligible > 18 Seaside Celebration
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12/13/22 Paul

18 Seaside Celebration

Bimini

We went on a cruise with family and friends and we did plenty of celebrating.


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Canon Image Challenge28-Dec-2022 14:50
We did make dinner and shore excursion reservations at home a few weeks prior to sailing using their required app. You need to wait until you board and activate their WiFi to book reservations to the shows onboard. The app has lots of problems but overall it works out ok. Word on the street is their app developer left them for a more lucrative contract with another cruise line leaving them high and dry. Hopefully they get that issue sorted out soon. Since you need to use their app basic WiFi is free onboard and at their beach resort at Bimini which is a nice perk. As always take precautions since it’s a public WiFi

FYI to anyone thinking about cruising Virgin make sure you have the Facebook Messenger on your phone. iPhone to iPhone texting is seamless but android users can’t text at all. We quickly discovered that email worked but Messenger was a perfect alternative communication method.

Paul
Canon Image Challenge27-Dec-2022 04:40
Did you make your dinner reservations before sailing? Most of the ships we've sailed on have one dining room, and all the passengers typically eat in a single setting. The two exceptions that come to mind are the Disney Wonder (most recently in November 2005) and the Wind Surf (most recently in December 2019).

We've only had a balcony on the Wonder (leaving the door open to enjoy the natural breezes resulted in condensation on the cabin's smoke detector, which triggered an alarm and endeared us to the ship's junior officers) and the National Geographic Venture.

I limit my alcohol consumption while at sea and curtailed entirely while wearing a transderm scope patch to cross the Drake Passage (for which I judged meclizine to be inadequate).

Dave
Canon Image Challenge27-Dec-2022 01:00
Dave we sailed out of Miami on a 5 day 6 night cruise and our cabin was was a XL Sea Terrace 225 sq foot room and a 40 ish sq ft terrace that had a nice hammock to lounge in. The bathrooms were much larger than any we’ve ever had in the past and included a rain shower head to boot.

One huge difference with Virgin is the dining, there is no central dining room and the same wait staff every night rather 8 to 10 or so specialty types of restaurants such as Italian, Mexican, Korean, steakhouse…. All were excellent and no extra charge for the style of restaurants. One caveat is you need to make reservations for the restaurants but it’s easy and neons of the restaurants were ever full.

I did not drink to excess since I’d been suffering from vertigo for weeks beforehand and was on meclizine nonstop the entire cruise and had no problems at all.
Paul
Canon Image Challenge26-Dec-2022 20:27
Interesting ship, though still too large for my tastes. From where did you sail? How is the food? Are the more plebian cabins/suites also nice? We can make do without unlimited booze. Napping is great!

Dave
Canon Image Challenge26-Dec-2022 03:15
This sounds like the perfect time for a family celebration.

Jim
Canon Image Challenge25-Dec-2022 15:56
The photo was captured from the balcony of our ship, the Scarlet Lady of Virgin cruise lines, a new concept breaking the typical mold in the cruise industry, one I throughly enjoyed. Since this cruise line is only 2 years old there are a few bugs yet to work out but after this experience I can’t imagine going back to the typical carnival or royal Caribbean.

Virgin allows you to carry on 2 bottles of wine but as it turned out didn’t really need it since the family members had a mega rock star suite which included unlimited booze on ship and a fully stocked and daily restocked bar so they were buying and supplying plenty of drinks for the gang.

Bimini is a tiny Bahamas island 50 miles east of Miami and was our 2nd stop of a 5 day cruise which first went to the Dominican Republic. Virgin has a beautiful private beach on Bimini that we spent the day and enjoyed walking the beach and relaxing under the umbrellas on a low 80s pleasant day in lounge chairs. No comment on if a nap might have been taken or not.

Paul
Traveller25-Dec-2022 09:34
Dear Paul, I saw this as a classic Paul still life set up shot but when I saw the beach/ocean background I knew you had to have been somewhere. Bimini? I was surprised. I have never been there, was it nice?

https://www.scuba-diving-smiles.com/map-of-bimini.html

Traveller