Resilient Lady - July 7th Review

[GnarleeDude]

First time in virgin. We did the week long leg starting from Athens on July 7th and stopping at Split, Dubrovnik, Montenegro and Corfu.  We were in a rockstar suite on deck 12. 

 

We aren’t usually suite people, but on the recommendation of a friend we took the plunge. The suite gets you obviously a nicer room with a huge bathroom. The in room bar comes stocked and they will switch out bottles for you on the first full day (I’m more of a beer drinker, so they swapped 2 bottles of liqueur out for about a dozen beers of Heineken and Corona). We had our own Rockstar Agent (Lewis) who was great. The agents make an effort to find you multiple times a day and check in. We didn’t really need anything from him, but it was nice to have someone to answer questions and offer tips.

 

The rockstars also get access to Richard’s Rooftop on the top deck. There’s no pool, but there is a bar, 2 hot tubs, and plenty of shaded large lounge beds and chairs. On the sea days the pool was packed but this area was nice and chill. You could also order complimentary food at the bar which was nice.

 

Each night from 5-6 was a complimentary happy hour which had many options. I know other lines have restaurants for the suite guests, and I think that would have been a nice touch. Rockstar status also gets you priority embarkation, tender and disembarkation.

 

One note about the room, there’s a huge window in the shower that overlooks the bed and bedroom. While this is nice and romantic, I’m sure it would be awkward if you were sharing the room without your significant other. Also, there’s no way to close off the window, so anyone turning in the bathroom light in the middle of the night is lighting up the entire bedroom. It would be nice if there was some kind of shade on this. 

[GnarleeDude]

We are diamond on RCCL and status matched with virgin. We got a free specialty coffee each day and one free bag of laundry. Both were nice touches. 

 

The internet/app is not great. The app is hard to navigate and constantly freezes up. It also seemed like it was draining my battery super fast. There is free WiFi on board but the speeds are very slow. You can slowly download an email or check in on social media, but doing any kind of video is a no go. They do offer upgraded WiFi for either $150 for the entire cruise of $30 per day. I did this one sea day and the speeds were super fast. I was able to stream video from multiple providers with no lag. If you need actual internet for anything, plan on upgrading. 

 

 

Being new to virgin, the ship layout and fee was obviously different. It did take a little while to learn our way around, but we noticed there are no ship diagrams located anywhere on the ship. The App has an option of the ship overview, but it takes you to a static website with the ship overview and several venues are not listed. This makes things confusing to find, especially the first couple days. 

[GnarleeDude]

Food is obviously very subjective. I know many rave about the food quality on Virgin but we found it to be on par, if not below, other lines like celebrity and princess. The non-buffet Galley market with several food stations was a great feature. You can either order from your table or go to each food stall and order directly. This takes the place of the traditional buffet and they even had several grab and go options throughout the day. The sushi was my favorite and you literally just grab a box and go, it was great. 

 

We dined at all the regular restaurants (Wake, Extra Virgin, Gunbae, Aguave, and Test Kitchen). We liked extra virgin the best. We got the steak at several different venues and just found it edible, nothing that great. 

 

I hit the gym on multiple mornings and found the layout to be a little odd. First, the entrance is directly across from the marketplace, so you walk out of the gym and immediate into a food orgy. Also, the gym is completely split into 2 sections, with cardio machines on one side and weight machines on the other. You have to cross through the mid ship elevators and stairs to get between the two. It makes it difficult when switching between cardio and weights. There were plenty of cardio machines and it never seemed too crowded. 

[GnarleeDude]

The ports were all good, the region was in a heat wave during our trip so we tried not to overdo anything. Note that in Corfu and Dubrovnik there is a complimentary shuttle that takes you from the ship to the old town area. It’s a nice feature and we didn’t see this advertised anywhere, we just walked off and found out.

 

In Montenegro it seems like the popular thing to do is take a small boat tour around the island to the Blue Caves. We arranged this ahead of time but there are about a dozen tour companies set up in a park right near where the tenders dock. If interested, I’d recommend a private tour as opposed to a group. They pack the groups tightly into small boats and it’s about an hour bumpy ride to the blue cave area. The water was rough and the sun was strong, so I can’t imagine being packed into a small area for that long. It’s worth the extra money. 

 

 

We didn’t do many of the shows onboard, but Scarlett night was a fun experience and not to be missed. It does seem like everyone in board is participating, which is fun. 

 

All considered, it was a great cruise and fun to try something new.  There's definitely differences coming from other lines, but happy to answer any questions. 

[1025cruise]

If you had Deep Blue Extras from the status match, you should have had the premium internet from the beginning.

[ceilidh1]

11 minutes ago, 1025cruise said:

If you had Deep Blue Extras from the status match, you should have had the premium internet from the beginning.

Status matching gets Blue Extras, which doesn't include premium Internet. Deep Blue Extras is no longer part of status matching.