Cruising with Virgin Voyages
They took everything you dislike about cruising and kind of turned it upside down. Overall I felt like this was a much more relaxed version of cruising. Lots of things to do at your leisure, plenty of opportunities for entertainment, and a really cool, updated version of cruising.
What You Need to Know About Virgin Voyages
- No kids allowed
- Most of what you need for this cruise happens in the app. Make sure you download this and complete all the tasks it asks of you, including uploading photo of your passport. Connect anyone else who is traveling with you so you can book things for each other.
- When you arrive at the port, make sure everything in your sailor checklist in the app is completed. It will speed things up significantly. From parking to walking onto the ship we were on in under 30 minutes.
- As soon as you board, connect to wifi and book your shows! They booked up quickly. Many shows are later, so book dining accordingly.
- Book dining before you board too! Reservations for dining open up a few weeks in advance.
- Wifi is included, we went with the free one and kind of wished we had upgraded because it was a little slow. What’s App and social media worked really well, though (of course).
- We purchased a drink package before we boarded – they had a promotion where you bought $300 and they gave you $100, it was worth it in my opinion, and we spent a little more than that on drinks.
About the Food:
Food is usually one of the things that cruises revolve around, and it’s no exception here. There is no all-day buffet – even at breakfast you sit down and order food with waitstaff. You can go to one of the restaurants open for breakfast or at The Galley, which is the most similar to the buffet on typical cruises. They have a few options you can grab and take with you (pastries and bread, some yogurt and cold options) – we LOVED the overnight oats and chia pudding. We had brunch at The Wake one morning and it was very good.
For lunch, we tried The Pizza Place and The Dock House, both were excellent. I loved The Dock House – it is on the back of the ship and has the most chill environment with big teak seats and day beds for lounging all over the place.
They also have little to go containers in different places throughout the ship, with items like Chicken Caesar salad, charcuterie boards, and tres leches. Great when you need a quick snack to take back to your room or to munch on out on the deck.
There is an ice cream shop on board too, and their flavor options were yummy (no soft serve machine on this ship)!
Dinner options were great. Each restaurant has its own decor, music, and ambiance, and in each one, I had a hard time remembering that we were on a cruise. They truly made each space feel like a separate place. We ate at Extra Virgin (Italian, beautiful decor, delicious food), Test Kitchen (experimental, decor is like a science lab and the waitress are all in lab coats, cuisine was the most eclectic but everything surprised us in a VERY good way!), Pink Agave (elevated Mexican, everything was delicious), Gunbae (Korean BBQ, they cook table side so do not wash your hair this day, but they play drinking games which are fun, and the food is delicious). We didn’t have dinner at The Wake, but this would definitely be the more traditional option. We were most surprised by how much we enjoyed Test Kitchen, as we had heard from multiple people beforehand that they didn’t love it. If you’re not adventurous with food, then I might skip it, but I really do think you would be missing out. It’s a very cool experience.
Entertainment
There are so many spaces aboard the ship for entertaining. There are shows each night (we went to a few of them and skipped a couple others), there is a casino, a tattoo and piercing parlor(!), several different bars, live music, a theater and a nightclub (The Manor, which is where we took the photo at the top of this post). The shows we did attend were great. If you aren’t able to reserve tickets, get there early – there are usually plenty of standby seats available.
Instead of a Gala Night, there is what they call Scarlet Night. Everyone dresses in red and there are all kinds of activities on board to celebrate, including a late night pool party.
The Ship
We were on the Scarlet Lady, and she is a beautiful ship. They left no corner unturned when designing this ship. There were so many beautiful spaces on the ship – they definitely took social media and content creation into account when they designed it! Don’t miss the entrance to The Manor or Pink Agave, they were spectacular!
Staterooms
We booked a Sea Terrace room which is a fancy way of saying a balcony. The rooms can be configured in a bunch of different ways, but we didn’t explore those options. Staterooms are pretty standard – there is a super comfy hammock on each balcony and there is an iPad in each room where you can control lights, curtains, and browse entertainment. I will say the water pressure in the shower was excellent (it’s one of those weird things I’m picky about).
Ports of Call
We stopped at Key West and Bimini (It was a four night cruise and we had one day at sea). We have been to Key West many times so we just walked a little and got back on the ship for lunch. We were really looking forward to Bimini and Virgin’s Beach Club at Bimini, but it was soooo windy and a little rainy. We did get down and lay by the pool for a little while, the area is so beautifully done and we really wish we would have been able to enjoy it a little more.
Overall, we loved our experience and would definitely return on Virgin Voyages. We had a lot of fun, and while we love our kids and love taking them places, it was so nice to be somewhere where there were no other kids to worry about, either.
More questions? Drop them below and I’ll answer them in my newsletter!
Xoxo
