Resilient is my middle name - Christmas with Virgin Voyages

[mx838383]

I jumped in when they had the special with 50% off sea terraces. A bargain when compared to some of the current prices.

 

[SYD]

I jumped in when they had the special with 50% off sea terraces. A bargain when compared to some of the current prices.

That’s true for pretty much all the major cruise lines. Book in advance and all sorts of deals (companion travels free / half price, drinks credit or general onboard spend credit etc).

 

[antycbr]

Just finished VV to Burnie - thoroughly enjoyed it. Loved how the staff are able to mingle with passengers and show some personality rather than being robots. Took a punt and purchased an open dated future cruise - let’s see if the 2025 season happens or if I’ll be off to the Med or Caribbean…

 

[asterix]

Just finished VV to Burnie - thoroughly enjoyed it. Loved how the staff are able to mingle with passengers and show some personality rather than being robots. Took a punt and purchased an open dated future cruise - let’s see if the 2025 season happens or if I’ll be off to the Med or Caribbean…

@antycbr I was onboard too and had a great time. Back to regular life now.

 

[luxury-lizard]

Hum - I was also onboard and have a different opinion - I guess we're (MR LL and I) are just a different demographic. We "splurged" on a Rock Star Suite which was a great cabin - 50 sq meters with a great bathroom - we felt the decor was too dark but that's the Virgin theme.

A few of the things we felt were not great were:-

• There is not sufficient space in the full service restaurants for all passengers for dinner - getting reservations is a bit of a s*** fight if you did not book months beforehand (which we did). We were not particularly impressed with the food in any of the venues
• If you cannot get a reservation for dinner your only choice is to use the "galley" - a large food court style dining area (open from about 5am - 2am) - certainly not high end dining. At busy times this area is a bit of a mad house - hard to get a table.
• None of the full service restaurants serve breakfast but 2 of them serve brunch (from about 7am - 1pm) and getting a reservation is almost impossible - you can try a walk in which is possible before about 8am
• No drinks are included (not even soft drinks or barista coffee) - prices are all in USD and while Virgin advertise they have 'reasonable' prices I disagree - a glass of wine is about $20, a bottle of Penfolds Bin 128 was $A150 (would be more like $100 in a high end Sydney Restaurant), a glass of champagne is $A24 etc - coughtails closer to $A30. (Note Rock Star Suites have a Happy Hour 5-6pm where all drinks are free).
• Activities on sea-days are limited to many different workout classes and various contests in the many bars.
• Overall the ship seemed very crowded - not sure why - as we have sailed on (only) one other large ship (Celebrity).

Our suite was just under $1000 per day which was great value but om regular Virgin cruises (say one week in the Med) it's $2500 per night putting it on a par with many of the high end small ship cruise lines - so it really depends on what you're looking for.

 

[asterix]

Hum - I was also onboard and have a different opinion - I guess we're (MR LL and I) are just a different demographic. We "splurged" on a Rock Star Suite which was a great cabin - 50 sq meters with a great bathroom - we felt the decor was too dark but that's the Virgin theme.

A few of the things we felt were not great were:-

• There is not sufficient space in the full service restaurants for all passengers for dinner - getting reservations is a bit of a s*** fight if you did not book months beforehand (which we did). We were not particularly impressed with the food in any of the venues
• If you cannot get a reservation for dinner your only choice is to use the "galley" - a large food court style dining area (open from about 5am - 2am) - certainly not high end dining. At busy times this area is a bit of a mad house - hard to get a table.
• None of the full service restaurants serve breakfast but 2 of them serve brunch (from about 7am - 1pm) and getting a reservation is almost impossible - you can try a walk in which is possible before about 8am
• No drinks are included (not even soft drinks or barista coffee) - prices are all in USD and while Virgin advertise they have 'reasonable' prices I disagree - a glass of wine is about $20, a bottle of Penfolds Bin 128 was $A150 (would be more like $100 in a high end Sydney Restaurant), a glass of champagne is $A24 etc - coughtails closer to $A30. (Note Rock Star Suites have a Happy Hour 5-6pm where all drinks are free).
• Activities on sea-days are limited to many different workout classes and various contests in the many bars.
• Overall the ship seemed very crowded - not sure why - as we have sailed on (only) one other large ship (Celebrity).

Our suite was just under $1000 per day which was great value but om regular Virgin cruises (say one week in the Med) it's $2500 per night putting it on a par with many of the high end small ship cruise lines - so it really depends on what you're looking for.

I agree there definitely isn't enough capacity in the full service restaurants. We were fortunate to book ours in when bookings opened to non-Rockstars on January 1st and got Extra Virgin (dinner 1st night), Gunbae (2nd night), Pink Agave (3rd night), The Wake (4th night), Razzle Dazzle (breakfast on the shore day). We also got in to The Wake or Razzle Dazzle for breakfast on the other days by turning up at around 8AM as you said.

My favourite restaurant restaurant was The Test Kitchen which we ate at when we were aboard for dinner and a show on December 6th. Being gluten free Extra Virgin had limited choices for me. We didn't enjoy Gunbae as our staff decided they would choose what to bring instead of letting us choose and the restaurant for very loud due to the drinking game being played all around. Pink Agave was fantastic, the steak was amazing and the number of gluten free options was terrific.

We had a Sea Terrace (balcony) which we only paid 79,999 Velocity points for, the room was very light and bright.

Contrary to what you found, soft drinks were bring in the Galley and bars, there were also free cans of soft drink available in ShipEats if you ordered and paid for an item to avoid the delivery fee. I had lemon lime and bitters, dry ginger ale and Coke Zero at various bars and never had to tap my band.

We matched our Carnival status before the end of 2023 and so got Deep Blue Extras which gave us USD10 coffee credit a day and USD100 bar credit. It was supposed to be per cabin, however we each got USD10 coffee credit a day and USD100 bar credit. We ended up buying a heap of kombucha cans from the coffee shops in order to use up our bar credit as we aren't drinkers. We were a little confused as we'd spent some of our bar credit on the first day aboard and the next day our credit was reset and no trace of the previous spend could be found.

Contrary to you, we found the ship wasn't overcrowded, the only place it was busy was the Galley and the shows, everywhere else the ship was not crowded. I guess we hung out in different parts of the ship.

We'd watched Persephone in December. The shows we watched this time were 'Around the world in 80 minutes', 'The Mind Mangler', 'Miss Behave' and all three episodes of 'Lola's Library'.

We had a great time, but we're used to sailing on Carnival for around AUD100-150 a night pp so we didn't buy the USD600 OBC and USD300 discount for USD300 deal they had going as that required a future booking of a minimum of a Sea Terrace. If we cruise again on Virgin Voyages we'll be going in an interior which even then will still be around twice the Carnival price we pay.

 

[bPeteb]

We were not particularly impressed with the food in any of the venues
No drinks are included (not even soft drinks or barista coffee)

Of course everyone has their own taste but it's surprising you found no food particularly good. We haven't ever sailed luxury lines (unless you count 80ish days on The World) but have sailed a lot (100+ nights) on mainstream including HAL, Celebrity, Princess, NCL, RCCL and the food on Virgin was the best we've had at sea (excluding The World).

Soft drinks are free. Either by dispensers or in cans at bars. Not sure why you thought that they weren't. Barista coffee isn't free on any mainstream line. Again, I haven't sailed SS or RSS or other luxury line where it well might be.

Agree that the restaurant booking process is literally cough but we booked when it became available and we ate everywhere we wanted to at the times we wanted to. I felt very sorry for older people (older than my 60) who just weren't app people.

There was always a table somewhere at The Galley. Not sure how many were onboard for your cruise but we had 2200, maybe 2400, I think? We were happy to sit up on stools on the high tables against the windows so didn't notice if normal tables were in short supply.

We won't ever be $1000/night people so maybe our expectations aren't the same. For us nearly $600/night was a price we most likely won't ever pay again unless it's on an expedition far south or far north.

 

[luxury-lizard]

@bPeterb and @asterix - I guess I was mistaken about soft drinks (since I rarely drink them) - and some food was in fact OK. Our usual cruise lines are Ponant, SIlversea, Seabourn and Scenic so you are right our expectations were probably quite different than perhaps many other guests. For those cruising using Velocity points or other specials then I can see they would be totally happy. For the price we paid we were happy enough just a bit taken aback at some aspects which after a a couple of days you get used to.

(note the cruise lines I mentioned all inclusive - which includes all beverages (except premium wines and liquor), room service, and depending on the itinerary shore excursions).

 

[bPeteb]

@bPeterb and @asterix - I guess I was mistaken about soft drinks (since I rarely drink them) - and some food was in fact OK. Our usual cruise lines are Ponant, SIlversea, Seabourn and Scenic so you are right our expectations were probably quite different than perhaps many other guests. For those cruising using Velocity points or other specials then I can see they would be totally happy. For the price we paid we were happy enough just a bit taken aback at some aspects which after a a couple of days you get used to.

(note the cruise lines I mentioned all inclusive - which includes all beverages (except premium wines and liquor), room service, and depending on the itinerary shore excursions).

Very much apples and oranges then. If your expectations were for VV to be anything like the lines you quoted then you were always going to be disappointed. It's sold as mainstream +, not luxury -.

As you know but others might not, sailing as a RS gives a sailor a bigger cabin, access to Richard's Rooftop (seemed empty most of the time) where bubbles are served each evening for an hour, a one fill minibar (unless in a MRS) and access to a concierge, that from the people we spoke to couldn't do much. It's not like MSC Yacht Club or NCL's The Haven with their own restuarants, pools and bars.

We paid with our own money, not points, and it wasn't on special when we booked. We did get a USD300 bar tab as offered at the time we booked.

As you could see from my review, the cruise was miss and hit for us as well. We'd think twice before booking with VV again, even with our mainstream expectations .

 

[luxury-lizard]

Just one more thing - our concierge did come through for us a couple of times - securing a restaurant booking when everything was fully booked (brunch) and bookings for a couple of shows. Also - I failed to mention we found the service to be excellent - prompt and friendly at all venues.