8th November 2022

Virgin Voyages launched last year with lots of fanfare, threatening to shake up the industry. Have they managed it? Our Beccy sailed with them last month, here is what she thought...

Embarkation

The itinerary for our cruise was the French Daze & Ibiza Nights. Having heard very mixed reviews before sailing - it seems Virgin might be the marmite of the cruise industry - we were keen to experience them for ourselves. 

Embarkation was very easy and we were given our band - a cool little wearable token that doubles as your room key and your payment device on board. We had a spacious Sea Terrace balcony cabin with a very cool swinging hammock chair, perfect for reading a book. When Scarlet Lady launched last year, some of the feedback sailors gave was regarding the lack of storage in the rooms, but we found Valiant Lady had enough for our needs. The bathroom, though very small, had a really powerful shower and the essentials like shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. The bed converts into a sofa during the day, if you want your cabin steward to do this for you, there is a tablet in the room to request it. The tablet also plays music, draws the curtains and sets the lighting.

Before you sail, there is an app to download and this is really crucial to your cruise experience. Everything on board is booked via the app and it was amazing - you could book shows, check how much you have spent, make dinner reservations and - my personal favourite - shake for champagne. If you shake the app three times anywhere on the ship, a secret gold screen pops up and if you press that, someone will shortly appear with a bottle of champagne. 

Status Match

Virgin Voyages offer a status match with other cruise line's loyalty programs,  and one of the perks of that was getting a free 'shake for champagne' bottle.  They also offer a $ 10-a-day speciality coffee credit, one bag of laundry complimentary cleaned, priority boarding and more. They are called 'Deep Blue Extras'

The ship has a huge focus on health and wellness, so there is lots of sporting equipment, free exercise classes and sunrise yoga. These do get booked up very quickly, so if you want to book something, get on the app as soon as you're on board. If you are struggling with the app - sailor services on deck 5 are able to help you get things booked. We did an 80s Boy Band exercise class which was lots of fun.

Food & Entertainment

When Virgin Voyages launched the food offering was front and centre of their brand, claiming their ships had no buffets, no main dining rooms and set dining times. All of the restaurants are available to book with no supplements and the food is incredible. There will be a full restaurant dining breakdown coming to the blog soon, as it's too hard to do each restaurant justice in a couple of sentences, but the food and drink offerings are nothing like standard cruise lines and foodies will be in heaven. Even the little tapas plates you could get at the dock house and grab-and-go options were delicious - shout out to the pretzels at The Social Club. Room service is fantastic too and comes served in really cool stacked dishes, with no trays in sight!

The entertainment was excellent but some might find it very risque compared to other cruise lines. The drag bingo was hilarious, but not for the easily offended. We saw an excellent magic/comedy show and The Ship Show was brilliant, an old-school variety show style format but with contemporary performers. The singers and musicians around the ship at it's various bars were all brilliant and the Scarlet Night party was loads of fun. 

Summary

There were some issues that we felt could be ironed out, the service sometimes could be a little hit and miss, but the crew that went above and beyond more than made up for it and we felt the pool area needed to be a bit bigger, given the destinations they are sailing to are sunny. But overall, they offered exactly what they said they would, a completely different cruising experience. We would definitely sail with them again. If you haven't tried them yet, go with an open mind and prepare to be dazzled. 

Want to sail with Virgin Voyages? You can find their latest offers here