aussielozzie18

Then we headed for a beautiful winery. Our guide said it looked like a villa in Tuscany. On arrival, lots of apple trees with apples and inside the beautiful villa for wine tasting with the lady owner. $10 a taste (then taken off cost of a bottle of wine) or you could buy a single glass of wine from 6 varieties. We all sat outside the villa in the shade to sip our wine (at our own cost). Very nice location. Camera battery died at this point - so brochure photo. Funny thing was every time any of our group headed back inside to use the toilets, a loud gong would sound. Bit of an Adams Family moment that made us laugh.

Chocolate factory? Yes please. Stocked up on gifts and bought a yummy ice-cream. Anvers Chocolate Tasmanian Devil made out of chocolate

Next up Mersey Bluff Lighthouse and lookout at Devonport. Beautiful day for it.

Lunch (at our own cost) was at Windows on Westella cafe on the outskirts of Ulverstone. The site contains the Broad Acres Vineyard and the manufacturing facility of pickled onions. I thought I liked pickled onions but I wasn’t keen on these: For mains I chose Tasmanian Fish & Chips. I was too busy talking to take a photo (we had one long table) this is a stock photo from their website. My actual portion was bigger. Apparently their specialty is waffles but we didn’t stay for dessert.

Next stop was the beachside town of Penguin - where the fairy penguins come ashore. Big Penguin statue in the park and bins covered in Penguins. Had 20 mins here to stroll the Main Street. Rather liked the Antique shop here. Loved the street library in the main park too.

That’s good to know. On Hellyer’s website, a tour can be arranged but this day tour didn’t offer it. Simply a shop stop but we weren’t rushed.

Onto Fernglade Park in Burnie for Platypus spotting. Beautiful location with two viewing platforms over the water. Didn’t see any platypus but did see a couple of pademelons (small wallabies) on the bush track between the two platforms. A flood had occurred in Burnie last year. They had 100mm of rain. The water was not clear as it would normally be. Guide said she usually sees platypus on every second tour or thereabouts.

Next stop was Hellyers Road Distillery. Beautiful location and lovely premises. This was basically a shop stop. You could do a couple of tasting at $4 each - at your own cost. Bought the coffee cream liquor. Had no issue bringing it back on the ship.

Was tempted to do a tour to Cradle Mountain whilst in Burnie. Decided against it due to travelling time there and back. Those that went spent 3hrs there and took beautiful photos due to the lovely weather. Instead did a private full day tour booked online beforehand. First stop on the Coastal Delights Sightseeing Experience was an scenic lookout over Burnie Port and town. Was informed that 7 cruise ships have not been able to dock this season due to either striking dock workers or weather.

Here are the menus for Extra Virgin The Wake Forget to take photos at the time. Printed these off in pre-cruise research.

Burnie, Tasmania. We had perfect weather. Warm, sunny, no breeze. Working port, so free shuttle from ship to town centre. Before we hopped off shuttle bus, the female Mayor hopped on wearing her gold ceremonial chain and gave each bus load of cruisers an enthusiastic welcome. When we offloaded from bus, Local tourism people greeted us & provided info if required. A very small market was also set up at the shuttle drop off.

Dinner at The Wake Restaurant. So named as it overlooks the wake. Really nice interiors of this restaurant and the food & service was top notch. The bread - warm - omg 🤤 Entree: Clam Chowder - yum! Continuing with seafood, Had a lot of promo loot (OBC) to spend so splurged on seafood - an additional $50. I actually did a silent OMG when this bowl of seafood was served. Lobster, crab legs, mussels, oysters etc. Dessert was Baked Alaska Yummy! Cant wait to visit Alaska in May and have crab legs again….

Agree & yes that those are dishes I wanted to try as well as others.

Sounds great. Wish I had seen it. Did either of you participate?

@Sea Dog Greg, hope post op situation improves for you.

@George C Sorry to read of your health scare. Glad all tests were ok.

@dani negreanu I would like to echo MJ’s comments for your dear friend Alex.

I am doing a photo review of the Resilient Lady in the Australian/NZ forum and have posted photos of The Galley, Virgin’s version of the buffet and all the food eateries available within The Galley.

This area was very popular for cruisers to play board games & puzzles - all supplied by Virgin. A food area nearby with free lollies in a jar and a range of free sweet treats. There was also apparently a games room close by - The Arcade - with old style machine games that could played for free but I didn’t see it.

Our roll call had organised a slot pull on the first sea day at 1pm. Entry was $20usd. I had fully intended to go and the casino was conveniently located next to the bingo venue but unfortunately I came out of Bingo with a pulsating headache so had to give it a miss. I needed quiet time and fresh air. Speaking of our roll call, in the lead up to the cruise, our admin posted a call out for any one interested in meeting up on board with a couple who were swingers 🍍 Admin stated it was an inclusive line so she was happy to post the request anonymously on behalf of the couple.

On the first sea day, went to Bingo with the Diva. Bingo booklet sales were 11.15am-11.45am outside the venue. Bought the large bingo booklet which was $45usd. It Bingo started at midday and ran for an hour. Bingo had a very enthusiastic host & the Diva who did audience interaction and sang two songs in between Bingo games. Winnings started off at $500 usd then the second last game was approx $1.5k in USD. For the third game, the host announced this was a green coloured sheet game. We all looked at those around us in puzzlement all thinking our booklet was missing a sheet, as our sheet was clearly brown The host then said hang on a minute, switched the venue lights and the brown page turned green. Second last game prize was $1.589k USD which I came this close to winning. Ahhh… Final game prize was $2.119k USD and two young friends each won. All prize winners announced when asked that they were from Sydney. The young woman who was the prize winner of the big jackpot was so excited, of course, and proudly announced she was from Campbelltown. This was a fun game of Bingo but it was very LOUD.

Just returned from my first Virgin Voyages cruise. A four nighter on Resilient Lady. It was excellent. Restaurant food & service was top notch. Hope you all have a great time too. Will be following along.

I also use a particular online TA - which cannot be named unfortunately.

So, first restaurant on board was Extra Virgin (Elevated Italian Eatery serving fresh handmade pasta). Bread/focaccia for starters was so fresh and yummy. Entree was fried artichoke - yum Main was fish (was fine but wish I had chosen the pasta). The tables of 2 are very close to together, so was drooling from a short distance over those who had chosen the pasta. Dessert menu: Dessert choice - yum. The service was top notch. In hindsight, I wish I had asked the waiter for his suggestions for mains. I feel I didn’t get the full experience of the menu. Definitely keen to dine again at Extra Virgin.

Sailaway was scheduled for 5.30pm-7pm. Always enjoy a sailaway party and was told the Virgin one was not be missed (especially as there was free flowing champagne) but had already prebooked dinner at 6pm and was reluctant to mess around with dinner bookings….other issue was had eaten a late lunch at 4pm so wasn’t particularly hungry at 6pm but didn’t want to waste the opportunity to eat at the restaurant booked with only four nights on board.