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Scarlet Lady

Valiant Lady

Resilient Lady

The best cruise you will EVER get on - it’s an experience, not just a cruise

From the moment we arrived until we left we were entertained and cared for like royalty. Our Gorgeous Suite was everything, and more, than we had anticipated. Our Rockstar Agent Gavin was an outstanding host and took care of us like family. We had some minor reservations prior to boarding that VV may simply be too lively for our age group (early 60’s). Well this concern was quickly dispelled as the cruise entertainment is designed to be as lively or sedate as you wish. The selection of food choices was outstanding as was the quality, freshness and presentation. Drinks were abundant and at no stage saw anyone misbehaving from too much alcohol. Sadly VV won’t be back to Australia next year but we will be waiting for them whenever they return. The staff are all so helpful and happy which is infectious to everyone. Nothing was a problem. If you want to experience the new age in cruising then Virgin Voyages are for you. You won’t be disappointed.

Nothing Was A Problem 

First cruise to test the sealegs. Will be hard to beat. Felt spoilt, plenty of space even on a full ship.

Something for everyone - intovert to party animal. Be in the action, of find a quiet space to relax. Beautiful modern fitout.

Food was high-end with the only flaw being you had to book and they did book out.

Entertainment was amazing! Lots of drag, aerial, fringe-esque shows plus fun side activities such as karaoke, trivia, game shows etc

Gym fit-out was fabulous with lots of space and classes were fun and inclusive.

Scarlet night was absolutely amazing. The whole ship was decorated and lit up in red and all guests wore a “splash of red”. Anything from a red bow tie right up to a full sparkly red ball gown or a red T shirt. Even for a non party animal like myself. I felt I could join in or watch from afar and when I was ready for bed, I could not hear a thing.

Was so sad to leave!

Great service, fabulous immersive entertainment plus a wide choice of specialty fine dining all included. 

Cabins are clean and comfortable as you would expect with a new ship. Plenty of outdoors areas to relax in the sun although the wind can be a problem at times. Indoor public areas could be limited in bad weather. 

Virgin voyages come at a premium price, but you will not be nickeled and dimed for extras, like some other ships. 

We tried 4 restaurants, Extra Virgin, The Wake, Gunbae and Pink Agave. Food and service was excellent at each. My pick was steak at the Wake 

Entertainment at night was plentiful and generally of a high standard followed by late night DJ parties. 

You will need to be comfortable with using a phone app to book dining and entertainment or you will miss out. 

Hope this fine new lady will return to Australia for another season soon.

A decadent indulgence

The ship is less than 12 months old and as you'd expect it's in immaculate condition , we had an Interior cabin it's much larger compared to other Interior Cabins we've had with P&O , Carnival , MSC & Princess .  The food is truly next level , I've cruised with the Lines I've mentioned above but Virgin's food is certainly out in front ! , cruise Staff I've found excellent on all cruise lines and it's no different here ! . The only downside is everything onboard is $ USD ... Casino , Items like Coffee if you go for the Pay Options , Drinks and all the Shops . There  are 28 Eateries which is just unbelievable , you need to book the Restaurants ...  walk in's will virtually find it impossible to get a table , will certainly go with them again if they return to  Melbourne for another cruise season .

Excellent Food

What a hoot.................but only for 5 days.  couldn't repeat the shows  (btw don't ask us to write a plot summary of any of the shows - lol).  very inflexible with any food tweaks even though they ask before every meal if you have any food allergies.  asked for a simple salad or a bowl of veggies some nights or to adjust the cream content of a rich meal and the answer was always a no no no!!!  great for a novelty cruise but not for repeat business or for a longer cruise. Heard a lot of comments about the lack of pools on board and small venue spaces.

Travelled as a rockstar in a seriously suite.  top tip - take a warm jacket to richard's rooftop bar, especially when travelling to tasmania or new zealand and forget your hair that cost $71usd to blow dry an hour before.   there was no dedicated restaurant for people that have paid for a suite.  friends cancelled their massive suite ($4k a night) due to there not being a dedicated restaurant.  also an indoor suite lounge would be great for the colder sailings.

Positives - bento boxes were great!!!!  rockstar agent was good.  lot's of moet and chandon - lol   no kids!!!

P.s.  virgin voyages did not ask to give a review or ratings directly to them.  instead they sent a link to cruise critic.  hmmm...maybe they just don't want to know???

VIRGINS AT RUNNING A CRUISE LINE - A lot to learn.

My review of our Resilient Lady sailing from Feb 22-27.

We had an absolute blast on this ship! Almost everything was top-notch, from the ship itself to the food to the cabin to the staff. The staff (ranging from stewards to Happenings cast to servers in the restaurants and Galley) were all delightful, energetic, and seemed genuinely happy to be there. I loved all the cool design elements in the interior of the ship....very hip, very classy, definitely not the glitzy eye-raping colors you might find on Carnival and other lines. 

The room: We stayed in a mid-ship sea terrace room, and while not large in any sense of the imagination, it was comfortable, fashionable and had lots of storage space (except in the bathroom).  The bathroom was tiny, tiny, tiny. I discovered you could sit on the toilet, brush your teeth, and spit out at the sink at the same time. Good for multi-tasking, I guess. The shower, though, was nice and big, and featured a rainshower head and hand-held wand. I might spring for an XL sea terrace or suite if I could find a good price next time. But really, how much time do you spend in the bathroom?

The food: I loved how all the "specialty" restaurants, which you pay a steep price for on other cruise ships, are all included in your fare. We ate at Extra Virgin, Gunbae, Pink Agave, The Wake, and Test Kitchen for dinners, and Razzle Dazzle and the Wake for brunch on sea days. Almost everything was hot, beautifully prepared, and graciously served. Favorites were the mushroom tartare at Razzle Dazzle, meyer lemon cheesechake at Wake, the steak at Extra Virgin, and everything at Pink Agave. Only issues were a lukewarm, dry, overcooked and flavorless piece of salmon at the Wake, which I sent back and got the filet mignon instead. Husband got a lukewarm vegetable tart at Test Kitchen, and they returned with a fresh, piping hot one. 

The ship itself: relatively new, spotlessly clean, comfortable and a pleasure to sail in. I'd gladly take another cruise on her.

Entertainment: mixed. We loved the Persephone show, with its array of daring aerialists, acrobats, dancers, sexy beasts from the underworld, and a talented vocalist. The music wasn't our jam, but that's okay; it was an incredible performance. We also saw The Mind Mangler (just okay), and the Miss Behave show, which in our opinion was just plain stupid. I understand that many people like this show, but to us it was barely watchable. We left after about 20 minutes, because it wasn't getting any better. We are not prudes, we have a son who is a drag queen, and we are ok with salty language, so it wasn't any of that. Just plain not funny. We didn't see any other shows, but if we cruise again I'd like to see Another Rose ($50) and Lola's Library. We did, however, enjoy the trio in The Dock House, Sons of James. We'd like to see comedians, maybe a jazz or blues combo, or a cooking demostration or lecture about wildlife in Tasmania, or something like that. But our disappointment with the shows did not mar our experience; there was plenty to do and see aboard the ship. We also enjoyed the trivia contests.

Scarlet Night: Other than dressing in red, we did not partake of all that Scarlet Night had to offer. We did see the dancers in the Roundabout, but after that just a bit of walking around the ship taking pictures. We are not big drinkers or partiers. I have seen many questions on this forum and other VV groups about whether elderly/non-partiers (and I realize the two are not mutually exclusive. Rock on and rock hard, baby boomers. More power to ya) are welcome on this ship. Absolutely. You can be as raucous or as sedate as you want to be.

Technology: like others have said, the app can be a bit fiddly, but eventually you can get where you need to be. The included wifi was fine for most things (we didn't try to stream anything).

Accessibility: mixed, primarily due to pre-sailing Sailor Services communications. My husband occasionally uses a mobility scooter for walking long distances; it is powered by airplane-safe, TSA-approved lithium ion batteries. I filled out a special services request, was initially told no problem and was later told via email that no lithium ion batteries were allowed on the ship. We left his scooter at the hotel. However, on board we saw several wheelchairs and mobility scooters, all powered with lithium ion batteries. The people using them said they had no problems getting them on the ship. Very confusing.

This was our 8th or 9th cruise, but first on Virgin. We've also sailed Carnival (no more!), Norwegian (meh), Princess, Celebrity and Holland America. We would definitely sail on Virgin again!

A fun time was had by all!

Virgin was advertising with new cruises in Australia, so we thought let's try its, as we been on many (10) cruises (80% are Princess Cruises). There is nothing where we could pick on, all the staff are carrying a warm hart, the food has a big WOW factor we could eat that everyday, one restaurant that was jumping out was the Test Kitchen different but yammy. The service on board was excellent, we had problems with the Virgin app it was solved in minutes. The shows where to our likings a bit to modern, if you don't watch you don't know.  The host of our journey ( the Resilient Lady ) what a beautiful designed ship in every aspect. We had a sea view stateroom it was modern, we liked that you control the room with a ipad. What brought or attention was the design of the ship, completly different than other Cruise Liners (great architect).

Is it possible to have in the Virgin app a page so you can follow the where about of the ship during the journey (nautical miles, position etc)?

Keep it up, this great start.

Great experience 

Having being one of the few that was lucky enough to get the cruise on Velocity Points, we were looking forward to seeing what this Cruise Line offered compared to others.  

The ship itself is absolutely beautiful.  The layout of the ship is completely different, I think due to the fact that there is no main dining room and there is also no central broadwalk.  The entertainment areas are a lot more open plan, the theatres are smaller and more intimate, but there is not a lot of difference in them.

The lack of a main dining room, I think is actually fantastic, the restaurant style of eating is much better.  The downside, is you HAVE TO BOOK, and for that you better be ready the day bookings open, BOOK EVERYTHING YOU CAN, better to book and cancel than have no booking.  They say that they have walk-in’s available, they do but they are very limited.  We had to rely on a walk in booking every night. We were turned away twice.  What they do say is that they will only hold your table for 10mins, we had empty tables around us for the entire meal whilst others were being turned away!  The upstairs food court dining is again a fantastic choice and the variety is excellent.

Our cabin was perfect,(would have preferred midship but hey it was on points) everything we needed.  No electrical socket in the bathroom and no USB C sockets.  The water pressure in the shower was excellent.  Love the fact that you get a doona and a doona cover.  Lots of pillows, super comfy mattress. 

Pool areas, seating is always at a premium so no surprises there, but they do have a large variety of types of sun loungers.  Only downside, when it’s a sunny day but the air is chilly there is no covered area(from the wind) to sit in the sun.

The usual around the ship entertainment was the same as most other ships.

the The Honey Heart show (Around the world in 80 minutes) was excellent.  Throughly enjoyed that.  

Persephone was different, standing only show, the dancing was very good, costumes excellent but for me that’s where it ends.

The Mindmangler show, well, let’s just say I am glad a friend called and I had to leave to take the call.

Misbehave, too loud, like yelling loud, not necessary, the show was okay, the cast member, Danielle, wow, what an acrobatic performance he did, that was the best part of the show.  

Couldn’t get tickets for The Rose, but at US$50 per person, having not enjoyed the other show, might not have been so bad! 

I am not  stuck on the traditional theatre type shows, but these all have the same genre, and whilst I have no issue with that, they can still be done tastefully, without being loud and crass.  

The other major difference was the crew, the crew on a ship are always excellent, but there is always the pushing for an extra “tip”.   Not once, not a single crew member, did I feel like they were hoping or expecting that “extra”. We did have a chat with one of the wait staff and he has been with other cruise lines and he said this ship is much better, in accommodation, food, wages were a little less but the fact that wifi was included and it was good WIFI, they were able to stay in touch with family far better and more often.  There,again, seemed to be good camaraderie amongst the crew. 

Would I cruise  on Virgin cruise again, yes, the destination would be the deciding factor, then the ship itself with the entertainment being a plus.

Not your average cruise

We chose this Cruise to find out if a short 4-day cruise would suit us.

Overall it was a great cruise on a beautiful ship, we had a balcony cabin on deck 8 towards the middle of the ship, the cabin was spacious and decorated nicely, and the bathroom was small, luckily we are slim built, and it certainly was the smallest bathrooms we have experienced on the 12 other cruises we have done.

The Television was a good-sized TV but only showed American TV shows and a good choice of Movies, my personal opinion is that when the Resilient Lady sails in Australian waters for an extended time it should also show Australian TV shows.

There is no Dining room as it is a cafeteria-style eating area on deck 15, we were early for our breakfast, lunch, and dinner so no long lines to collect the meals, these were served and all food was behind the glass, we both think is an excellent process of serving the persons, very hygienic with very little food wastage, the food itself is of high quality and plenty of choice.

The only downside was that not after I checked our bank statement did I find out that there was a charge of $76.98 for Virgin Voyages Interne Plantation Us, after contacting Virgin Cruises in Australia, this upon explanation by a Consultant, was a Bond charge on our Credit card, he could not explain why such a small amount as normally this would be a $250 Bond, on every Cruise we have done we have never experienced this Bond Charge.

Is this a Charge for the future with all other Cruise Lines?

Would we do another Cruise with Virgin Cruises o the Resilient Lady, we don't think so

Great 4 day Cruise

I am very, very thrilled that the bathroom configuration of the XL Sea Terrace is like that of a hotel room. The cabin is also large (very big indeed for a solo traveller). Finally, a hotel room on a cruise ship!

I am too lazy to make bookings for restaurants; but apparently if you don't book before you sail, the few restaurants that require booking are filled up already. I only managed to get into 2 of those restaurants (1 because of going with solo travellers group which the leader organised for the 1st night only). If only the leader organised solo travellers dining venue for every night (like on some other cruise ships).

I am also thrilled that I could get closed caption for the movies on the TV screen. I only like to watch TV. Apparently, as one cruise line cabin attendant informed me, he has never seen closed caption on the TV screen all the years he worked for the cruise line.

The XL Sea Terrace is a brilliant design

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