10 Things to Know About Cruising on Virgin Voyages

Travel Lists cruises
10 Things to Know About Cruising on Virgin Voyages

If you had asked me a few years ago, I imagine I would have stressed that “cruising,” as a model of potential vacation, really wasn’t my cup of tea. I tend to hate being in crowded areas with rowdy people, and there’s something equally distasteful and tacky to me about the kind of phony forced frivolity and party atmosphere I’ve always associated with images of giant cruise ships. Factor in the countless families with gaggles of small children in tow, and it always sounded more like a nightmare scenario to me than a relaxing getaway.

That perception finally changed for me once I discovered the still-new Virgin Voyages, an adults-only cruise line from Virgin Group that deftly balances a freewheeling atmosphere with upscale dining and more youth-oriented branding. Finally, this was a cruise line that seemed legitimately designed with people like my wife and myself in mind: Childless 30-something millennials who both want to have a good time (within reason) and enrich our imaginations via cultural tourism.

And so, we went–we booked a 7-day Mediterranean cruise on Virgin’s second ship Valiant Lady (there are three currently in service, with a fourth coming soon), and were blessed with near-perfect balmy weather as the ship whisked us from Barcelona, Spain to ports in France, Italy, Corsica, Ibiza and back.

 

All in all? It was a very positive experience, one that helped confirm my change of heart in whether cruising was a type of vacation “for me,” although I still don’t know if I’d ever want to be surrounded by kids on a conventional cruise line in the future. What I do know is that it helps to be armed with as much information about the cruise line and its ships/opportunities as possible in advance, so here are the most helpful tidbits I learned during our trip. Note: We paid our own way, so this was not a press trip by any means–just the post-trip opinion of a Virgin Voyages customer.


1. Adult Vibe

The first thing one notices here is, as mentioned, the complete lack of children and teenagers. That really is a blessing–the pool decks are free from the screaming of little kids, and it means every space, every nook and cranny, restaurant and lounge, has been designed with adults in mind.

But what kind of adults are we talking about here? It’s an inescapable reality that the cruise industry largely caters to older adults and seniors, and this will be true of pretty much any cruise ship. That extends to Virgin Voyages as well–there were definitely some seniors in attendance. At the same time, though, the other sailors also seemed to represent many Millennials in their 30s and adults in their 30s and 40s, with even a smattering of 20-something cruisers as well. There were well-dressed European urbanites, rubbing shoulders with tattooed dudes who seemingly spent the entire trip in a bathing suit. Dress code? It was nonexistent, reflecting a “come as you are” sensibility above all else.

The overall tone of the ship was thus crafted to be welcoming, playful, and mildly salacious, albeit in a harmless way–an ice cream stand with a suggestive name, or entertainment options built around sexually charged comedy. They’re all just reminders that you’re on the ship with adult peers, rather than harried parents.


2. Most Features are Included

Virgin Voyages is very much built around the philosophy that your initial cabin fee should cover the vast majority of onboard features and expenses: That if you don’t want to spend more money on the ship, you really don’t have to. All the food is included, including the specialty restaurants (more on them briefly) that the culinary concept is built around. Wifi internet access is included. All standard drinks, such as coffee, tea, juice, soft drinks, etc., are included all throughout the ship. Onboard fitness classes are included. Nightly shows? All included.

Ultimately, the only things that broadly aren’t included are alcohol, shore excursions, spa treatments and certain premium drinks such as espresso-based coffee drinks.

 


3. Specialty Restaurant Dining

Most cruise ships are built around a primary dining room or buffet that can service huge numbers of sailors at once, but Virgin has completely done away with that concept in favor of a larger number of smaller spaces to eat, primarily in the form of its numerous specialty restaurants. The Valiant Lady was equipped with six of them that would fall into this category, each filling a different archetype: Steakhouse, Italian restaurant, Mexican restaurant, Korean BBQ, vegetarian-focused restaurant, haute cuisine/molecular gastronomy restaurant, etc. Diners could essentially attend these specialty restaurants as many times as they wanted, making reservations via the ship’s onboard, phone-based app. But that’s still only the tip of the iceberg, because additional food options included always-open concepts focused on food such as pizza, Mediterranean tapas, burgers, noodles, tacos, pastries or diner classics.

The result is a palette of choices that is extremely broad, to the point that it’s really quite difficult to even fully sample the breadth of it in a 7-day cruise. One almost needs to map out their plan of attack ahead of time, if you desire to sample something from every single eatery–we barely managed to cover the bases, tasting food from a few of the smaller concepts on the last day of our trip just to complete a personal, quixotic goal.

Granted, foodies may find themselves wishing for a bit more variety from each restaurant concept, if they visit it multiple times during a cruise, and those with unadventurous tastes may be turned off by some of the off-the-wall concepts of one of the more daring restaurants, like the molecular gastronomy inspired Test Kitchen. But with that said, it’s hard to imagine any cruise line managing to infuse this much novelty into dining on a daily basis, all the way down to the completely different design aesthetic of every restaurant. Dining will probably be the #1 feature of many Virgin Voyages customers, for good reason.


4. A La Cart Alcohol

Virgin again differs from many of the other major cruisers in that they don’t offer any kind of “all you can drink” packages, making alcohol and premium coffee drinks a la carte throughout the ship–both at the various themed bars (some favor beer, cocktails, wine, etc.) and the specialty restaurants. Instead, they offer a choice: Simply pay as you go by flashing the wristband that will be on your arm for the entire voyage, or buy a “bar tab” package in advance with preloaded money for alcohol, with the incentive being that the cruiser will chip in some bonus value for your tab. The consumer’s choice basically boils down to “will I drink $___ on the trip?” In terms of value, the bars are pretty reasonable overall, with basic cocktails and beer being fairly cheap, but high-roller pours being much more expensive. Trust me when I say that you can wreck a bar tab quickly by ordering neat spirits here.

Pure selection is again a major feature, though, as individual bars (and all the specialty restaurants) sprinkled through the ship all tend to have their own unique cocktails. For those who enjoy bar-hopping, this is a big plus, as it gives incentive to explore and move from place to place. Can those cocktails measure up against, say, a world-class cocktail bar experience? Perhaps not, but many are significantly more ambitious (especially in the restaurants) than what you’re likely to find on other cruise ships.

Also surprisingly robust: The selection of mocktails and zero-proof cocktails found throughout the ship. Several times, I ordered mocktails at specialty restaurants, and found these drinks to be particularly impressive. The Test Kitchen even goes so far as to offer an entire mocktail pairing menu for its six course dinner, which is a level of commitment to zero-alcohol beverages that one doesn’t often see in the food industry.

 


5. The RockStar Bump

There are technically three levels of cabins aboard a Virgin Voyages cruise: Normal cabins, “RockStar” quarters (suites), and “Mega RockStar” quarters. But given that the last group is a small collection of extra-swanky and expensive cabins for people dropping serious coin, the average cruiser really only needs to make a choice between regular cabins and some of the lower tier RockStar suites, which are relatively only marginally more expensive. This is the room we ultimately decided to book, an aft suite, primarily because RockStar status comes with a wide bevy of other perks, all of which add up to serious value.

For starters, you get your own in-room mini-bar, fully stocked with 375 ml bottles of various spirits: vodka, bourbon, scotch, rum, gin and tequila are all included. Also thrown into the deal are some half-bottles of wine, a few beers, and various pieces of glassware. On a cruise where alcoholic drinks are all a la carte, this is a pretty huge value all on its own, provided you like the idea of wine or cocktails on your own patio. Likewise, you can take advantage of the lack of charge for room service in RockStar quarters to ask for other items to suit your in-room cocktailing–we requested lime juice at one point, and it was promptly delivered.

There are also more routes to free booze for RockStar sailors, especially in the form of free glasses of Moët & Chandon champagne every day at 5-6 p.m. on the “Richard’s Rooftop” skydeck, an area reserved for RockStar sailors. Suffice to say, the amount of free, high quality champagne one can drink this way over the course of a week is pretty obscene, given that the same sparkling wine is $21 a glass at any other time.

There are various other perks to RockStar status as well, including expedited boarding and disembarkment, and your own “RockStar Agent” to contact for anything you need, but between the quality of the room, its terrace (more on that coming) and the free alcohol alone, we judged it well worth the expense.


6. A Mixed Bag of Excursions

Most cruises offer shore excursions (for an additional fee) in each port, and Virgin Voyages refers to theirs as “Shore Things.” We participated in a variety of these excursions in most of the ports that ranged from simple–boarding a transport bus from Marina di Carrara to Santa Margherita Ligure in Italy–to much more involved, including kayaking in Ajaccio, Corsica or bussing to a winery for a wonderfully picturesque tasting and tour in Ibiza.

The latter was a real highlight, both for the wine and the sheer delight of getting out into the Ibizan countryside, but one should know that the relative value of these shore excursions can be something of a roll of the dice. The Ibizan wine tasting, for instance, was quite expensive, but ultimately a really enjoyable and enriching experience. Several of the guests on that tasting, however, complained that they had attended another winery/bicycling excursion a few days earlier in Toulon, France that had included a very small amount of wine that they felt was nowhere near adequate for the price they had paid. In some cities, guests may find venturing out on their own to be a more rewarding option.

 


7. A Full Cast of Characters

One of the more savvy ways that a Virgin Voyages cruise creates an identity is by turning the key members of its customer-facing crew into what is essentially a cast of named, recognizable characters. There are of course many, many staff members who are simply walking around the ship with a uniform and name tag, but the “special” members of the named cast have a different function–they’re the outgoing, gregarious people who strive to draw sailors into various activities, help them out, or otherwise make the cruise into more of a memorable event.

How does this work? Well, each character essentially has a name and an archetype, and you tend to slowly meet them in an organic way throughout the voyage. The Artist, for instance, can be found teaching art classes or running workshops, while The Charmer is an illusionist who can be found working sleight of hand tricks in some of the ship’s bars or common spaces. Other characters like The Hype, The Bouncer or The Flair might serve as the hosts of games or on-ship competitions. Perhaps they teach workout classes, or jump behind the bar to mix drinks–the idea is that they’re always sort of mingling, ready to chat or interact. The effect is a bit like a wandering character in a Disney theme park, but with less tacky devotion to theme. Personally, I entirely expected to find these characters annoying or cringy, but instead found myself admiring how effectively they engaged with the sailors around them, making even the more introverted people feel at home. Likewise, the ship rewards you for chatting and interacting with these people by potentially having the characters invite you to special or secret functions, in areas of the ship that no one else is able to access.


8. A Lifestyle/Health Focus

The lack of all-you-can-drink alcohol packages hints at the way Virgin Voyages seems to see these ships: As a place to have a good time, but not necessarily a hotbed for all-night ragers. Instead, there’s more of an ethos of balance happening here, and one gets the sense that the company is targeting customers who describe themselves as “working hard and playing hard,” as it were. This manifests in the form of several fully stocked gym areas, and a full assortment of workout classes, ranging from sports tutorials, to high-impact cardio, to guided meditation or yoga. These aspects are supplemented by aspects such as the various juice bars found on the ship, and the aforementioned lineup of zero-alcohol cocktails, which makes ships like the Valiant Lady pretty friendly overall to fitness enthusiasts and teetotalers alike.

Personally, though, I am neither of those things, and even if I’m occasionally hitting the gym at home, I’m not likely to do so while on vacation in the Mediterranean. But that’s the appeal of Virgin’s many options here–none of this stuff is mandatory, and there’s no one trying to convince you to go run on a treadmill while you’re at sea. The programs are easily ignored if you’re like me, but it’s cool that they’re there.

 


9. Terrace Life

I’ve read travel blogs in the past that make suggestions to make cruising more affordable, such as seeking out a room on the interior of a ship, where one has no windows or a balcony. As those bloggers so often point out, you might really only be returning to your room to sleep, anyway, so is the balcony really worth that much?

And the answer is: Yes, it absolutely is. Especially for someone who often prefers to be away from crowds, the private terraces on Virgin Voyages are a wonderful respite and private sanctuary for any traveler, and I wouldn’t have wanted to sail without one. We valued the terrace so much, in fact, that we purposefully sought out a suite square in the middle of the ship’s rear, which results in a much bigger balcony that has room not only for a couple chairs, but full-sized lounge chairs and a small table. And that’s in addition to Virgin’s signature red hammock, which is absolutely as comfortable and pleasant a way to relax as it looks.

Seriously, nothing beats knowing that whenever the rest of the ship becomes overwhelming, you can retreat to your terrace, pour yourself a drink from the private minibar, and watch the wake behind you as you steam toward your next destination. It’s probably the most relaxing experience of the entire cruise.


10. Shows and Entertainment

There are of course nightly shows on a Virgin Voyages cruise, as live entertainment is an expectation that most any cruise line seeks to meet. But given the adults-only demographics, and the younger age group involved in Virgin’s concept, the shows on the Valiant Lady weren’t really your typical cabaret and regurgitated Broadway numbers. Instead, they trend toward the more hip, modern, sexy and avant-garde, as exemplified by the revisionist reimagining of Romeo & Juliet performed by gymnasts and acrobats, titled Duel Reality. These types of shows are hosted nightly in both the multi-purpose Red Room, which can transform into different shapes to suit performances, or in the two-story nightclub known as The Manor.

Simultaneously, however, entertainment and engagement programming is happening throughout the ship’s many smaller venues at any given time. A specialty restaurant not currently in service may be used to stage a millennial-themed game show. Multiple bars play host to trivia, board gaming sessions, videogame pop-ups, or arts and crafts instruction. Several on-board bands bounce between quick sets in various locales. You never have to look far to find something going on.

 

Share Tweet Submit Pin