I don't know anything about VMware (I mean, I know about virtualisation, my first job at IBM was doing Solaris server virtualisation, but I've never managed VMware) - how hard would this be to learn?
Also, I've got my CCNP Route exam booked in for Thursday D:
It's not hard, there is just a lot to it. With the VCP-NV, some of your networking knowledge will carry over but there is a quite a bit of content to the exam as a whole. Certs are great to have, and I will never try to talk people out of getting them, but without the experience it's really only good for learning a bit about a product/service. I might do the VCP-NV but only because I am in an environment that will be going down the private cloud path and potentially using NSX. But for now, the majority of my attention is on Amazon Web Services, I am hedging my bets a bit here but I feel it is a a great cert path to follow in the current IT world and it's very easy to get hands on with it, no lab (physical) environment required, which is a huge boost. Nothing wrong with Azure, Google's or Rack Technologies offerings either it's just that Amazon is the main player and (currently) the most mature.
Good luck with Route, I found that to be the hardest of the 3 for CCNP, if only because routing for me isn't a daily job, it's really just set and forget, extremely true for the likes of BGP (the most in depth of all the RP's).
edit: Oh be sure to get all your exams done before next year if you can, I think they are changing them up in early 2015, seem to remember a bulletin coming out about it.
