Travel-and-See

For Shows, be sure to catch Duel Reality - it's a modern theatrical circus show that is incredible. I watch every performance of it when I'm on board! Ships in the Night is a good show as well in the main theatre and I would definitely recommend it. Also- be sure to catch the musicians that play each night at the bar under the main staircase. (The bar is called "On the Rocks") - there are usually 3 artists per cruise. The ships band which is usually nothing special, and then a guest band, and a guest solo artist. The solo artist is often a guitarist, I believe Morf is on the Scarlet Lady right now and he's INCREDIBLE. On my last cruise on the Valiant Lady the Oscar Ornelias band was the guest band and they were also incredible and I watched them every night. They will be on Scarlet Lady as well they said. If you like to dance - there are regular themed dance nights in the Manor - it's right next to the casino. Combining Dinner and a show is the Ship Show - it's fun. I'd recommend it for the overall experience. The food is fine, but not as good as the sit-down restaurants. The Wake, Test Kitchen, and Pink Agave are the best overall restaurant experiences in my opinion. Razzle Dazzle has some of my favorite food and is usually pretty fast to get in and out of. I liked the food at Extra Virgin (I ate wayyyy too much) but to me it was the most boring of all of the restaurants decor / theme wise.

I'm really confused by this response. I'm not sure why I would be aware that the ship is not fully staffed. If the ship is not fully staffed, they should not be sailing with 100% sailors though. I had been told by a crew member that reservations were not needed for Breakfast / Brunch, it wasn't a difficulty. Just sharing my experience. I think it looks bad when you seat a table of crew members in a half-full restaurant and then tell a customer that he can't be accommodated. If you think that's good customer service than we can agree to disagree 🙂 I never said one word about the app? It has worked ok for me on my cruises but I do agree that Virgin relies on them too much.

That is no longer offered - I was actually on the last sailing of Scarlet Lady that featured the show... the crew in the "Happenings Cast" was literally begging people to go to it to show support. From what I heard it is not a show I would enjoy, and I'm glad VV is moving to more traditional acts like magicians. (The following cruise had a magician in the manor instead of Never sleep alone). I think your overall review is accurate and realistic. There are many flaws in VV current product and I think you pointed them out well. I would only argue that the price really isn't bad when compared to similar products like Celebrity. If you add in a classic drink package, wifi, and tips the cost of a comparable Celebrity cruise is about the same and that's before considering specialty dining. (I found the food on Virgin much better than Celebrity MDR). How was the "Happenings Cast" on your cruise? I haven't been overly impressed with them but I think the Scarlet Lady has a new group since my last trip.

I take Brightline to the Cruises in Miami as well and so I just wanted to mention that Brightline has a very nice station / waiting area with a bar / snack bar and plenty of comfortable seating with charging ports. It's a great place to hang out while waiting to head to the cruise terminal. On my past Virgin voyages I didn't have DBE (although my next cruise should have it!) - so I just waited for my later boarding time at 3:00 / 3:30. I gotta say... waiting until 3:00 is nice - no crowds and no lines. Just stroll right in! But I'll look forward to the early boarding on my next VV. 🙂

Glad to hear it's extended - the Bar Tab is perfect for me. On other lines when they offer "Free Drinks" it's a package that doesn't include premium drinks. I like how Virgin says "here's $300... spend it how you like!"

They also use the phrase "Always included Luxury" on the homepage. On other cruise lines I've gotten used to eating dinners in the buffet since I don't want to share a MDR table for every meal. (As a solo passenger I don't mind meeting new friends, but the forced conversation is a bit much. I'll usually eat in the MDR 1 or 2 times on a week long cruise). I know what you mean but honestly, it's kind of nice how quiet and relaxing can be. One of the nice things about Virgin is the variety of restaurants - I genuinely wanted to try them all and even now I want to go back to them again! One negative is that it's never communicated to servers the party size. I check in and have reserved as a table for 1, but then each meal time am asked "is anyone else joining you? Or is it just you?" - kind of annoying. For as much as the servers stare at their phones you'd think the phone could tell them the size of the party on the reservation. haha.

There are times when there is a more "party" atmosphere, especially around the pool but there are lots of quiet areas around the ship. Most of the bars and lounges are very quiet unless there is live music... just like any other cruise ship I've been on. And several of the musicians will be more acoustic vibes anyways. With the exception of boarding the ship (Welcome Party) and the pool parties, the Virgin Ship is about the same as Celebrity in my opinion.

For Sit-Down Restaurants, the Wake and Razzle Dazzle are the only ones open for Breakfast / Lunch / Brunch. All of the sit-down restaurants are open for dinner. For the Galley, all of the stations are open for lunch. The Diner, Burgers, Sushi, and Salads as well as the Baked Goods are open for dinner and there is usually a dinner special as well. All of the restaurants are quite good. Your favorites will vary on taste - one of the nice things about Virgin is they have so many great options it's hard to try them all on a single cruise! I hope that helps, if you have more specific questions feel free to ask!

Oh I meant I haven't seen them physically full - there always seem to be open tables even if the restaurant is "fully booked" The most annoying version of this was Brunch at Razzle Dazzle. The restaurant was half full, the group of employees in front of me were seated, but the restaurant was "fully booked and couldn't accept a walk-up"

The flag system didn't really help much in my experience. The issue is not how long it takes to place an order, it's how long it takes for the order to actually get to your table. When it's busy, you will be waiting a while. I've also regularly been served other peoples food.... they food runners don't really check to see if it's your order, they just put it on the table and say "enjoy" and walk away. To be fair.. I ended up trying the noodle place because of this and it was pretty good! haha.

A couple of notes... keep checking for reservations, I was able to get into Extra Virgin on my last cruise when an opening came up. Also.. the Galley DOES have a nightly dinner special which is often very good. My experience is you can always get into one of the restaurants, Razzle Dazzle and Gunbae are the easiest. Razzle Dazzle has some of the best food in my opinion. This is frustrating though and honestly Virgin needs to address this. I've never seen the restaurants actually full, so maybe they are understaffed?

Virgin uses the word Luxury in many of its ads. Forcing guests to wear certain clothes is the opposite of luxury to me. But I do agree, the end product is not really a "Luxury" cruise line.

I've been on both Virgin Ships in 2023 and I agree - service is VERY uneven. On Celebrity Ships you can't walk by an employee without a friendly greeting, on VV it is common for employees to completely ignore you. But then other VV employees are the nicest ever and are super genuine. Tip to the Original Poster - make sure to see Duel Reality - it's the best thing I've ever seen on Cruise Ship by far. It was produced by the same company that produced Ships in the Night. I'm not sure what the difficulty is in you understanding that a simple request should be honored by a "Luxury" cruise line. I would also prefer the papers be delivered to my room the night before like on Celebrity. It's a very simple and logical request.

YAY! I'm glad it got better! Have you seen Duel Reality yet? Don't miss it if you have the chance... it's the best show I've ever seen on a cruise ship by far! And I agree, the food is legit good on Virgin!

I've traveled solo on Virgin and have boarded at 3:00 / 3:30 and haven't had any issue booking the shows I want. And all of the shows have standby lines and from my limited experience LOTS of people usually get in from the standby line. For restaurants, as long as you are flexible just keep checking the app and all different restaurants will open up. Many times I'll make a reservation, and then cancel and rebook a new one as different restaurants open up. Razzle Dazzle seems to be available the most and has some of my favorite food. While they advertise the many vegan options - they also have steak, salmon, chicken etc. - and the Vegan Green Tea Cheesecake is the best dessert on the ship in my opinion! And of course you can always check to see if you can get in on standby, on my last night of the 2nd cruise I regretted that I still had not tried Test Kitchen so I stopped by and they got me right in.

I've taken 2 cruises with Virgin (one one each boat) and it's pretty inconsistent to be honest. I've had quick breakfasts at Razzle Dazzle and a painfully long one as well. Same with the Galley. Sometimes you sit down down and BOOM - here's a server ready to take your order and the food is out in about 5 minutes. Other times it can take painfully long. But to be honest, it's not very different than other lines... sometimes on Celebrity they have multiple egg/omlette stations and I can get my order in very fast, other times it seems to take forever. So while it's worth discussing as the inconsistency can be frustrating, it's not anything to worry about too much.

I had a similar situation... the servers have no clue what is or isn't available they just scroll through the app to see it. So saying something like "and I'd like beets" will result in the server staring at the screen for 30-60 seconds looking for beets. There also isn't any signage indicating if you can or cannot order directly from the counters. I think part of the issue is that Virgin still doesn't know the best way to handle the food hall and what works for 1/2 full sailings doesn't work when the boat fills up.

I've sailed twice on Virgin and on my last Voyage there was a day that my room did not get cleaned or attended to. It wasn't the end of the world but this certainly hasn't happened to me on any other lines. Service in the Galley and the Dockhouse has been VERY inconsistent for me on both cruises. Sometimes I'm greeted right away, sometimes it's a reasonable amount of time, and still other times it's an unreasonable amount of time and I watch as other guests are served before me, even though they arrived much later than me (and yes I raised the flag). So I can totally understand the OP's frustration. There are some wonderful things that Virgin does differently, but also some frustrating things as well.

The singer and band were quite good. The MC was VERY mediocre and was just talking through his lines. The specialty acts were VERY good. At my performance, they had 2 aerialists, a contortionist, a bow and arrow act, and a roller skating acrobatic duo. The food was fine but was more like typical hotel convention center food. Also they will seat you with fellow passengers. Honestly, I wish I could have enjoyed this show in the main theatre without the meal.