Resilient is my middle name - Christmas with Virgin Voyages

[bPeteb]

Disney Wonder sailed late in the afternoon. A really pretty looking ship and looks a nice size but it's capacity is 2400 and our gigantic ship is 2600


Gunbae for dinner. Gunbae is a Korean bbq restaurant. You are sat with other passengers and participate in a drinking game early in the sitting. Lots of soju to start the night.

Heaps of fun but our table was a bit awkward as we had two vegetarieans with us. Their food had to be cooked first so the plate didn't get meat on it. A really lovely couple, who we saw around a few times after, but they left well before the other couple and us had finished.

Lots of food - we had meat and seafood for six, not just the four of us.

 

[bPeteb]

Sailway was 2pm. That gave us time for another good walk.


this flittle fella had fallen from it's nest way up in atree. Not much we could do to help it


I think we did about 15,000 steps before we stopped off at Customs House Hotel again for another delicious stout.


Hobart and the Derwent were looking pretty darn good


there was a seaplane excursion to Bruny on offer the day before. I can't remember what it cost, but it was a terrifying. For anyone who had paid the five figure sums for the mega Rockstar suites I suppose it was small change



finally tried a burger and it was good. There were no huge serves of anything. Loved that they did this. For those who needed more, they could eat as many of anything as they wanted


sailaway down on The Dock. We managed to get a space in the shade


the carafe of sangria was USD53!! It was not great either. No idea how they'd made it so overly sweet



the swell from the Southern Ocean increased as we headed down into Storm Bay but it was as spectacular as the last time we sailed south, that last time to Antarctica

 

[bPeteb]

There is a dinner show offered on RL called Another Rose. We booked that as soon as we got onboard on Saturday. I thought we had to book through ship's services when we boarded so headed there straight away. They explained we needed to log out of the app then back in for it to work. Another Rose then became available to book.

It's USD50 each. We had $100 from Qantas Cruises so it was a good way to spend that loot.

The night includes a welcome coughtail or two, bottomless rose, and coughtails served with each course of the meal. Food was great, booze was great, show was excellent.

We sat beside another couple who had booked the cruise with no idea what they were getting. They were in their early 70s and were having a ball. Loving the food and entertainment and had managed to get a couple of walk-in dinners.

 

[bPeteb]

Every VV cruise has a Scarlet Night. It's the entertianment highlight. It's suggested to everyone that they dress up in somethng red. The ship is bathed in red light, inside and out.

The entertainment staff roam the ship with lots of spot performances. Then at 10.30pm there's a huge poolside dance party, followed by an afterparty at The Manor.

Southern Tasmania and the Tasman Sea had other ideas. As we headed north out of Storm Bay we sailed into dense fog. The last time we heard a fog horn was in Greenland. It was thick enough that it drenched our balcony


and apparently the pool deck, as Scarlet Night was moved into the Red Room.

For us it was a big disappointment. The dj was rubbish. He really played to the daggy crowd. Too much ABBA and Bon Jovi. Hardly Ibiza beach club. The crowd thinned pretty quickly and we went with them. We didn't bother with The Manor

a bizarre amount of blue light bathed the Red Room
View attachment 364110

 

[kookaburra75]

Prepare for a rant -

This 'we want this cruise to be the same as the other cruises we've been on' was a bit of a common theme across our six nights onboard. To me it indicated that people had booked this cruise with no knowledge of what to expect. I overheard people saying they'd only sailed with Princess and they wish 'this cruise' was more like that. That they wanted to hear 'happy music' playing like on Royal Caribbean. They thought it would be better if they allowed family groups (meaning kids). The one thing I've forgotten to mention, the most important thing of all - VV is adults (18+) only.

I was part of a conversation in the Facebook group for this cruise with a gentleman who said "yet again the minority is telling the majority what to do". Excuse the language but wtf????? He believed VV was catering for the minority and that the majority onboard were having to put up with the tastes of that minority.

What he was actually referring to was his distaste of the open displays of 'diversity'. The drag queen, the shows that had LGBTQI+ content, the flamboyant entertainment staff, the dance music playing around the ship. I'd imagine he also didn't like the tattooed VV crew, and especially didn't like the large number of fairly obviously gay passengers on board.

Well diddums. We've been on fourteen cruises across all of the mainstream cruise lines except MSC and Costa. There have been times on some of those 'mainstream' cruises where other passengers have made us, as a gay couple, feel quite unwelcome. We chose VV to feel welcome and we did.

VV is a cruise line that is 100% about diversity. About pushing boundaries. The entertainment is raunchy. The music is electronic, and often loud. The crew are colourful. It is tech based. If any of these offend you, or scare you, then choose mainstream. Don't go on VV and complain and make the people who have chosen VV specifically to feel comfortable, uncomfortable. The 'majority' have enough choices out there. This minority member wants you to stay there.

Rant over and back to our holiday

People are funny things sometimes. Many a time I've talked with people while travelling, and they complain that "... it's just not like home..." - then why even leave home!

But we're glad that you and Al are having a great time. MrsK isn't a fan of the cruise scene (never being on a ship), but she is warming to the idea of a short cruise on Virgin. She did remark that she would have to buy a bad Christmas jumper, but I could just use my normal wardrobe.

 

[love_the_life]

Nothing wrong with 8pm!

The restaurants on Silver Muse didn't open till 7pm so those early eaters would have been quite put out (unless they wanted pizza). Silver Note (jazz) opened at 8pm.

 

[RooFlyer]

That's a hellava big ship!!

 

[bPeteb]

We had three bookings for our last day and evening - brunch at Razzle Dazzle, dinner at The Wake and then the last showing of Persephone.

More around the ship first
Lift lobby deck directions


Sip Bar, the champagne bar where they serve coffee and bakery items through until early afternoon, then a grand afternoon tea



seahorse anyone?


very much enjoyed our brunch at Razzle Dazzle. We should have gone more than once




the food was excellent, as was yet again, the service

 

[bPeteb]

Between brunch and a late dinner we needed more cake, of course


then went back to the cabin for a bit of a nap. Al suddenly shouted "look out the widow" and there were dozens, maybe hundreds of porpoises (?) out in the sea beside us. I raced out and filmed them for ages before realising I hadn't pressed record. All I managed were these two 'spot the porpoise' shots

 

[bPeteb]

We went and grabbed a coffee late in the afternoon at the speciality coffee shop on deck 6. Then played food trivia at the Social Club. I enjoyed the trivia. We've been to trivia on every ship we've been on and this was the best. Lost of different topics, different hosts, definitely not easy.

Then it was time to get on our good(ish) clothes for our final dinner. For this I chose The Wake, RL's steak and seafood restaurant. Regarded as the best restaurant onboard I'd give it a 15/10 for ambience/location, 8/10 for service and 6/10 for food.

We could not have been seated at a better table! We were literally looking back along the wake of the ship



the service was a bit all over the place and the food was underwhelming

marrow bone, meh. Too much bread, not enough marrow


bAlt's beef tartare was more successful


my hanger steak was past medium rare and was miniscule


bAlt had the beef wellington and said it was good, but too much

desserts were a baked Alaska. Again a bit meh


and again bAlt thought more of his, a lemon cheesecake


we then went to the final show of the cruise, the last performance of Persephone. This was by reservation only, no walk-ins. They checked your tag for admittance. Only took videos of this so cannot post anything. It was quite amazing. You see it in the Red Room and the performance happens all around you. Lots of hot young men and women in varying amounts of clothing retelling the ancient story of the love between Persephone and Hades. It was a brilliant way to end the cruise

and that folks is just about the end.

You have a choice of leaving your bags outside your door before 11, or taking them off yourself the next morning at the time you selected. Again, this was an app thing. We'd received messages telling us to select a time and by the time I read it the first three slots -10:30, 10:15 and 10:00 - had gone so I selected 9:45. I am guessing that a lot of the non-app crowd were trudging off very early

Full moon from our balcony as we slowly sailed across Bass Strait

 

[Flyfrequently]

We went and grabbed a coffee late in the afternoon at the speciality coffee shop on deck 6. Then played food trivia at the Social Club. I enjoyed the trivia. We've been to trivia on every ship we've been on and this was the best. Lost of different topics, different hosts, definitely not easy.

Then it was time to get on our good(ish) clothes for our final dinner. For this I chose The Wake, RL's steak and seafood restaurant. Regarded as the best restaurant onboard I'd give it a 15/10 for ambience/location, 8/10 for service and 6/10 for food.

We could not have been seated at a better table! We were literally looking back along the wake of the ship
View attachment 364187
View attachment 364186

the service was a bit all over the place and the food was underwhelming

marrow bone, meh. Too much bread, not enough marrow
View attachment 364188

bAlt's beef tartare was more successful
View attachment 364189

my hanger steak was past medium rare and was miniscule
View attachment 364190

bAlt had the beef wellington and said it was good, but too much

desserts were a baked Alaska. Again a bit meh
View attachment 364191

and again bAlt thought more of his, a lemon cheesecake
View attachment 364192View attachment 364193

we then went to the final show of the cruise, the last performance of Persephone. This was by reservation only, no walk-ins. They checked your tag for admittance. Only took videos of this so cannot post anything. It was quite amazing. You see it in the Red Room and the performance happens all around you. Lots of hot young men and women in varying amounts of clothing retelling the ancient story of the love between Persephone and Hades. It was a brilliant way to end the cruise

and that folks is just about the end.

You have a choice of leaving your bags outside your door before 11, or taking them off yourself the next morning at the time you selected. Again, this was an app thing. We'd received messages telling us to select a time and by the time I read it the first three slots -10:30, 10:15 and 10:00 - had gone so I selected 9:45. I am guessing that a lot of the non-app crowd were trudging off very early

Full moon from our balcony as we slowly sailed across Bass Strait
View attachment 364194View attachment 364195

Amazing pictures there @bPeteb - looks like you had a fantastic cruise, thanks for the TR.

 

[bPeteb]

Lazy morning, late breakfast, pack


bathroom products


we'll be back, but not in Oz


Got a didi into the Intercontinental and to our great surprsie there were rooms ready at 10:30am. We could even choose - low or high floor. 718 was right up under the atrium glass. Our only criticism of the room - not a single USB port. Otherwise, a lovely hotel room






we'd been invited to lunch by my old boss at their home down at Altona. Decided against a didi/uber and caught the train.

Sarah picked us up at the station and droove us to their amazing home that looked right onto the beach and across the bay. Beautiful.

Fantastic lamb roast followed by this terrific pav roll


then RL sailed past on her way to NZ. Hopefully not another crowd of wowsers

 

[bPeteb]

Both of us could see in the QF app suggestions that we could move to an earlier flight. We had nothing to do so chose a flight just after lunch. It didn't matter we weren't sitting together. We just wanted aisle seats. Had a leisurely brekkie at the IC


wandered back to Southern Cross to get our pre-booked SkyBus, arrived at MEL to no queues at bag drop or security and a very quiet J lounge

noticed the new A220 too late to get a decent shot


loved the Pat and Stick's Christmas ice cream sandwich


Flight left a little late but got into Brisbane, luckily without too much turbulence, on time. Our bags were out in the first 15 or 20 and we were home 30 minutes after landing.

Will we sail with VV again? Maybe. The price would need to be keener and the itinerary warmer. Saying that, it is a close to premium product and possibly the price isn't bad at all. We are VV's target market, sadly for us a lot of the people currently sailing with VV aren't.

Darwin for a long weekend in three weeks

 

[tgh]

Thanks for another excellent TR.
To me , the Vw shows increasing cruise ship diversification in search of a particular clientele.
It is a pity that many failed to understand the vibe pre boarding and spoiled the fun.

 

[RooFlyer]

That was fun! Thanks

 

[VPS]

Thanks for another excellent TR - always enjoy following you two along (three if you count Colin)

 

[SYD]

Very insightful for my future bookings on RL!

Thanks!

 

[luxury-lizard]

Many thanks for the very informative TR - we're booked on the 4-day SYD-Burnie-SYD in mid Feb - so this has been very helpful. We went whole hog and booked one of the Rockstar suites.

 

[drron]

Thanks for another awesome trip report. The restaurants, food and service sound very good and with the right itinerary would be good except for one little detail. The room size.
We would have to go to at least a brilliant suite which is just about the size we sail in now. The price then not too much cheaper than what we would pay now.

 

[Pushka]

This looks like such a fun cruise for a short break. Not sure I'd do a grand cruise but up to a week would be fab.

looking at you @love_the_life