Super Star Virgo

[cruiseaddict6583]

Great to see that this thread is still updated.

Here is my long overdue review from my trip on the Virgo in December.

EMBARKATION – It was quite messy, with all passengers having to wait the boarding gate but when boarding commenced Star Cruises and Singapore Cruise Centre staff made sure that it was a smooth embarkation and indeed, it was. We were one of the first to embark and it was great to be back onboard after so many years.

CABINS – We headed to deck 10, our cabin was located amidships on the portside. Step out to the balcony and there was an impressive view of Keppel Bay. Our cabin was clean, as always – the staff did a terrific job. Bathrooms are quite cramped – with walls/partitions between the shower stalls, sink area and toilet. Drawer and closet space was just enough. There were two single beds and a convertible souble sofa bed. Being on the balcony is an exhilarating experience when watching sailway or while the SuperStar Virgo raced along on the Straits of Malacca. To all contemplating which cabin category to choose before your cruise – it is worth EVERY SINGLE CENT to have a Balcony Class or Suite Category (admiral class) cabin!!

RESTAURANTS/DINING – Food was better quality than what we had a few years back, and as always did not disappoint us. We spent our dining credit at the NOBLE HOUSE restaurant – we do not regret that one bit. Food is excellent and definitely better than most mainstream ships from other cruiselines.

PENANG – This was our first stop on our cruise. Instead of tendering to the Church Street Jetty we were ALONGSIDE, yes, in the new Penang Cruise Terminal! Now passengers who are not booked with shore excursions do not have to wait for those who have to get off first, and by 1P.M. We were outside, the SuperStar Virgo looking as splendid as ever. We went to Prangin Mall for some shopping, then headed down to Lorong Selamat – to all reading this thread – LORONG SELAMAT IS A MUST GO for foodies! We headed to “Kafe Heng Huat” for its famous Char Koay Teow – which tasted heavenly. We were planning to go back to the ship after that but our cab driver recommended a trip to the Pinang Peranakan Mansion – very beautiful artefacts on display. Do not miss. After a guided tour we headed back to the ship, getting back on board was easy minus a short wait.

PHUKET – We did not go on shore in Phuket and I do regret that, seeing the lush greenery and beautiful beaches (from the ship). Plus the sparkling water and the occasional jetski passing by and circling our ship. Tenders were BUSY – especially in the morning and before departure. Tried out the new Mega Waterslide – a must try as well. The view from the very top provides a breathtaking view of Patong Beach. We departed half an hour early (but gates were closed at the same time) and headed back to Singapore.

SERVICE – Attentive. Although sometimes it was evident that there was difficulty coping but all was still smooth. Our cabin attendant Jeff from Myanmar was excellent!

Disembarkation was smooth and efficient. I will definitely sail again – Anyone up for the 5 Night special cruises?

[Leesha_P]

Well, this is my first post, I have been a long time lurker of this thread, and am so excited, after MONTHS and MONTHS of planning, we are now 7 days out from sail away on DH and my second SSV cruise.

 

We are doing the 5N SOM Balcony Class deck 10, same as we did almost exactly 2 years ago for our honeymoon, this time with my in-laws, best mate and his gf along for the ride and we cant wait. What a way to spend our second wedding Anniversary.

 

Hubby cant wait for his Tiger in frosted mugs, and I cant wait for my cocktails and fabulous shows, friendly staff and waking every morning to a wonderful new view.

[boeckli]

Well, this is my first post, I have been a long time lurker of this thread, and am so excited, after MONTHS and MONTHS of planning, we are now 7 days out from sail away on DH and my second SSV cruise.

 

We are doing the 5N SOM Balcony Class deck 10, same as we did almost exactly 2 years ago for our honeymoon, this time with my in-laws, best mate and his gf along for the ride and we cant wait. What a way to spend our second wedding Anniversary.

 

Hubby cant wait for his Tiger in frosted mugs, and I cant wait for my cocktails and fabulous shows, friendly staff and waking every morning to a wonderful new view.

Congratulations on your first post and your second anniversary. :)

Hope you have a wonderful cruise on the great SSV :D

[cruiseaddict6583]

Well, this is my first post, I have been a long time lurker of this thread, and am so excited, after MONTHS and MONTHS of planning, we are now 7 days out from sail away on DH and my second SSV cruise.

 

We are doing the 5N SOM Balcony Class deck 10, same as we did almost exactly 2 years ago for our honeymoon, this time with my in-laws, best mate and his gf along for the ride and we cant wait. What a way to spend our second wedding Anniversary.

 

Hubby cant wait for his Tiger in frosted mugs, and I cant wait for my cocktails and fabulous shows, friendly staff and waking every morning to a wonderful new view.

 

Enjoy your trip:)

This is what you might see on the sailaway from Singapore - I filmed this video; you should come to this spot on the stern promenade for a breathtaking view.

The video might take a while to load though.

[skittles11]

Sailed on Virgo 2yrs ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. Leaving again 5 day cruise in March with our children and other members of family. Hope we are not disappointed this time, there has been so much negativity recently. we spent most of our time near the Taverna so hope it is still reasonably quiet up there. Will be different this time sailing with the kids but they are 16, 13 and 10 so should have a ball in the pool and on the waterslide. Anyone else from Australia sailing then?

[Bugis]

Six of us (family) are booked on Virgo 7th March for the 5 day cruise and are looking forward to the cruise and a few days in Singapore. We have cruise on Virgo many times over the last 6 years and many things have changed, recently. The most obvious is the passenger makeup as many people here have mentioned BUT you are in Asia and this is to be expected so don't let any particular person or group spoil your experience as Virgo is a beautiful ship and it visits wonderful places, stand up for yourself!! As for the Taverna and the Pool they are now very crowded and noisy but an interesting spectical. Up around the bar it fine as there are not many drinkers on board.

 

Relax and enjoy the diverse cultures.

[wanie87]

i'm sooo stuck with this forum... really get me excited to cruise... cant wait to cruise for my honeymoon...

[Freedale]

Like others I have found so much terrific information on this board. Thanks to everyone. We'll be on the Virgo in June and one of the ports is Redang Island. I'm thinking of staying on board that day - my question, is the Spa good and will it be open? I think that it would be great to have a bit of pampering. Also, does anyone have a price list for spa treatments? Again Thanks. Di

[themaxydog]

Like others I have found so much terrific information on this board. Thanks to everyone. We'll be on the Virgo in June and one of the ports is Redang Island. I'm thinking of staying on board that day - my question, is the Spa good and will it be open? I think that it would be great to have a bit of pampering. Also, does anyone have a price list for spa treatments? Again Thanks. Di

 

Unlike alot of cruisers I prefer to remain on the ship in most ports, it has to be pretty spectacular for me to get off. You will notice that no one is around and the crew are looking for something to do so you are really pampered. The spa will be open and there is a good chance you will get a discount because the ship is in port and they are not busy. From memory a little over AU$100 will get you a good pampering. All the bars and eateries will be open as usual as well. If you are into photography it is also a good time to get internal pictures of the ship with no one around.

 

To all of you who are about to sail or are thinking of sailing Virgo you have selected the best ship in Asia IMHO. I have just returned from 6 nights on Legend of the Sea and stayed in equivalent accommodation on both. I can say that the overall experiance and standard was far superior on Virgo than Legend. Yes Virgo is a newer ship so there are differences in styles and features in the accomodation, but there should be very little difference in the level of service provided to that accomodation and there is. Star must exploit their ability to show Asia to the world with their level of service by bringing more newer ships to Asia and running longer cruises, they have the product.

 

We sailed Legend to see if the RCCI product suited us and we had three cruises in mind to book after it finished, two were RCCI and one was NCL, we chose NCL.

[Freedale]

Thanks for the info about the spa and staying on the ship when in port. Also it's good to get feedback about other cruise lines, as a comparison to Virgo. It's our first cruise and I really wasn't that thrilled about going on the Virgo as we've been to Singapore, KL, Penang and Phuket. Reading the posts on this site has given me a new enthusiasm and I am really looking forward to the cruising component rather than the destinations.

[blackvelvet]

Our first cruise this coming July on the Virgo. We have had a lot of trouble getting a couple of cabins together largely due to large group bookings. I’m a little concerned what affect this will have on our first cruising experience. My wife and I and my 15 yr old son have two inside staterooms. We originally had outside cabins but were “bumped” off one cruise and had to settle for the inside staterooms on another, due to large group booking of approx 800 people on both cruises. Have to cruise in the school holidays so not much choice with the dates.

We are staying 3 nights pre cruise in Singapore and then 7 nights on the Virgo. So looking forward to visiting Phuket/Patong Beach again. We have holidayed there twice in the past two years and love the place. Does anyone know if the Virgo docks at the port on the Phuket town side or tenders on the Patong Beach side? We are hoping it stops on the Patong Beach Side as there is so much to do from there (my son loves the Go Karts).

If anyone is crusing to Phuket I would recommend a “Penang Chicken Curry” at the “O-Top” markets near Patong beach (yummmmmo).

Hope there is a mixture of cultures on the boat and also quite a few Ozzies.

:cool:

[graflea]

We have just cruised on the Virgo on the 14th March. It anchored at Patong Beach. I'm always amazed at how beautiful the ship looks while sitting at a bar at the beach. We also went on the go karts. It was a hairy drive in a tuk tuk up the winding hill to get there, which gave us lots of laughs. We then went back to the beach for some lunch. The guys hired jet skis and went out around the ship. Meanwhile us girls did some shopping. Time for drinks at a bar and back to the ship for the gala dinner. This was our 4th cruise on the Virgo and certainly not the last. I'm sure you will also love it.

[blackvelvet]

We have just cruised on the Virgo on the 14th March. It anchored at Patong Beach. I'm always amazed at how beautiful the ship looks while sitting at a bar at the beach. We also went on the go karts. It was a hairy drive in a tuk tuk up the winding hill to get there, which gave us lots of laughs. We then went back to the beach for some lunch. The guys hired jet skis and went out around the ship. Meanwhile us girls did some shopping. Time for drinks at a bar and back to the ship for the gala dinner. This was our 4th cruise on the Virgo and certainly not the last. I'm sure you will also love it.

 

Sounds like you had a ball. Good to hear its still stopping at Patong Beach. We were there 3 years ago when it moored in the bay and it was a great sight from the beach. That bay wasn't so good for the passengers getting off as it poured rain all day. Still what's a litle rain when you are on holidays! That hill on the way tot he go-karts is an experience, I alwways looked forward to them beeping the hornsa the top of the mountain where the srine is. Supposed to bring good luck so I was told. 90 days and counting down. I hope we have as good a time as you guys.

[ssv]

blackvelvet: Virgo has been docking at Phuket Deep Sea Port for the past few weeks and this will be continue to be the arrangement at least till October unless the berth was pre-booked by other vessel.

[cruiseaddict6583]

blackvelvet: Virgo has been docking at Phuket Deep Sea Port for the past few weeks and this will be continue to be the arrangement at least till October unless the berth was pre-booked by other vessel.

 

how did you find out? And by the way is it better for the ship to dock or to anchor? Because I heard that the transfer to Patong Beach was very time-consuming when the Virgo docked at the Phuket Deep Sea Port.

[blackvelvet]

blackvelvet: Virgo has been docking at Phuket Deep Sea Port for the past few weeks and this will be continue to be the arrangement at least till October unless the berth was pre-booked by other vessel.

 

Thanks SSV. I was hoping it would dock on the Patong Side of the island. But it looks like a 45 min taxi trip to Patong beach. Nothing much open until 11.00am anyway I guess. The Go karts open at 9.00 so will drop in there on the way from Phuket Port so not all lost.

[maclorr]

Have been lurking ever since booking 3 night criuse on the virgo (not sailing 'till September !!!!! :()

This forum is sooooooo helpful...Thank you to all!

Soooo excited...Hubby and I haven't cruised before and were last in Singapore about 18 years ago!

Have booked 2 days either side in Singapore and so looking forward to it...only 4 months to wait :mad:

Have booked an outside cabin with window...is there any way of finding out where the cabin is likely to be ie. which deck?

 

Thanks muchly

 

maclorr

[blackvelvet]

I posted this on your other thread as well .

 

If you have your cabin number you can find where your cabin is located on the Star Cruises web site. The cabin numbers are displayed on each deck plan. Click on a deck plan to enlarge the image.The following link will get you straight there.

 

http://www.starcruises.com/newweb/our_fleets/superstar_virgo_deckplans.aspx

[Cklasse]

Hi, I am going onboard Virgo (again after 10 years).

Anyone here sailing on the 30th May? Can't wait to go for this cruise.

[a&s cruisers]

Hi all, we're booked on the Superstar Virgo on 17 October (our anniversary). This will be our 2nd cruise, we sailed on the Pacific Dawn in 2009. Really looking forward to seeing Singapore, we have nights booked in Singapore either side of the cruise as well.

 

Anyone else going then?

[tweetybelle]

Hi all. We just got back from our two-night Virgo cruise which sailed on the island of Redang. Hubby and I celebrated our first anniversary on this cruise. This was my first time and hubby's second time to cruise with Virgo. We enjoyed it immensely, especially the very sumptuous food. We decided not to get off the cruise when it reached Redang island so that we can fully enjoy its amenities. As one poster here said, "it has to be a really spectacular place for me to get off the ship". We were booked on Ocean View Stateroom with balcony. I've read here that there's 200 credits for those booked on Balcony Class. On our last day, we ate at Noble House so that we'd be able to consume our credits only to find out that it's only 100 credits per cabin. So we had to pay the additional SGD 95. :( But overall, it was a wonderful experience and I'd happily sail with Virgo again in the future. :)

[blackvelvet]

Looking forward to Singapore and then 7 nights on the Virgo in July. The trouble with these countdowns is that it's like watching the kettle and waiting for it to boil. Still about 48 days to go. Give me the strength to last!!!! Anyone else out there suffering the waiting game?:eek:

[Cklasse]

Looking forward to Singapore and then 7 nights on the Virgo in July. The trouble with these countdowns is that it's like watching the kettle and waiting for it to boil. Still about 48 days to go. Give me the strength to last!!!! Anyone else out there suffering the waiting game?:eek:

 

Hehe....my kettle is boiling soon :D Can't wait for the weekend ;)

[blackvelvet]

:eek: Good on You. Wish I was on this weekend. It's finally turned to winter (rain) here and I would like to feel the heat again.

[Cklasse]

Just back from Virgo cruise and man! it was winter in the ship for me. The air-conditioning was so cold indoor that wife and me had to put on jacket to keep warm.

 

One advice, if you are getting off in Singapore, don't take your luggage for dis-embarkation. Leave it to the crews to transfer them to the cruise center. We were diverted to use the crew's gangway for dis-embarkation and was I glad I did not have luggage with me. We had to walk down a rickety gangway and steps to reach solid ground and a few up and down escalators.

 

It was a nice cruise, for a totally "do nothing" holiday.