Confused - can't understand reviews for Resilient Lady vs. Valiant Lady ????

[Kordy]

HI - I'm considering sailing with Virgin and just like anyone here, I'm doing my research on cruisecritic.  My options are Resilient Lady and Valiant Lady that both have a decent itinerary.  We all know that Virgin's ships are almost identical, with the only difference being the shows as well as the artwork around the ship and maybe some small color scheme changes (and crew changes)... Valiant and Resilient came out one after the other, in 2021 and 2023.

 

So to my surprise, looking at the reviews of both ships on cruisecritic, I see a big difference between VALIANT LADY and RESILENT LADY and it's not even because of a small review sample - it's based on 300+ reviews of each:

 

VALIANT LADY:

Reviews: https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruise/virgin/valiant-lady/reviews

Editor's rating: 4.5 / 5

Cruiser's rating based on 331 reviews: 3.7 / 5  (real reviews from 300+ people who went on the cruise!) <-- average score

Dining Rating: 4.5 / 5

 

RESILIENT LADY:

Reviews: https://www.cruisecritic.com/cruise/virgin/resilient-lady/reviews

Editor's rating: 5 / 5 (perfect score)

Cruiser's rating based on 338 reviews: 4.3 / 5  (real reviews from 300+ people who went on the cruise!) <-- great score

Dining Rating: 5 / 5 (perfect score)

 

I've been looking at cruisecritic reviews for other ships within the same class on other cruiselines, and I don't see such big disparities ... If I were to trust these reviews, it makes it look like these are TWO VERY DIFFERENT ships and one should choose RESLIENT LADY over VALIANT LADY any time of the day!

 

What does the community feel is causing such a difference in reviews of 2 almost identical ships ?

Edited September 11 by Kordy

[Kordy]

My thinking is that it might be related to food quality or the crowd either being more American or more European... I started to see patterns in the reviews and it seems that FOOD QUALITY scores have the biggest difference.  I know that for example American food tends to be more seasoned and desserts tend to be sweeter, as that is what Americans prefer and for Europeans, the food is less salty and less seasoned and desserts are not as sweet, as that is how the Europeans prefer it.   Also, on average Americans may prefer to have more fried options available, than the Europeans as well as access to things like cupcakes, choice of bagels, muffins - not always available.

 

Could this be the reason for such a big difference in reviews and so which of these ships is more European and which is more American, when it comes to food?

 

OR MAYBE: Is the food very different on European itineraries vs American itineraries?  Just thinking aloud !

Edited September 11 by Kordy

[cantgetin]

We've noticed wide differences in food quality even on the same ship 6 months apart. Different head chef?   Different recipes based on departure port (BCN vs Miami?). THe basic menus are the same, but the recipes are different; this was confirmed by servers on one of our cruises when we commented that an item tasted different than "last time."  Also if you've done Scarlet, that and Valiant have a bit of a "been there, done that" feel while Resilient feels new and different.

[Alegeeter]

Resilient has new better entertainment. And if these reviews are more recent Valiant has been doing the short 4/5 day Bahamas and Caribbean runs while Resilient has been in Europe. That alone could lead to a skew in reviews.

 

That said I was on Valiant in January and Resilient in July. I loved both and I'd rank them very other than the better entertainment on the latter. 

[CruisingWalter]

Resilient has been sailing completely different areas than Valiant, especially of late. Resilient has primarily been in Europe and for a while in Australia while Valiant has been in Miami for over a year now. 

 

While the ships are basically the same, the experiences will be completely different due to the different areas of the world, different clientele onboard and different vendors who supply the ships. Not to mention the the dining team will be completely different. So it's a bit of an 'apples and oranges' comparison with the two ships operating in completely different environments. 

 

Choose the ship that best meets your needs and book it. You'll have a good time on either ship. We've sailed Scarlet and Valiant so far. We're on a 2 night preview with Resilient in November. We've had a great time on all the Ladyships.

 

[Travel-and-See]

12 hours ago, Alegeeter said:

Resilient has new better entertainment.

"Better" is subjective. I'm going to guess that for me, nothing will beat scarlet lady with ships in the night and duel reality. I'm also 100% against an extra charge for entertainment so that's a big strike against Resilient Lady as well.  

[Tralfaz1138]

5 hours ago, Travel-and-See said:

"Better" is subjective. I'm going to guess that for me, nothing will beat scarlet lady with ships in the night and duel reality. I'm also 100% against an extra charge for entertainment so that's a big strike against Resilient Lady as well.  

Someone just posted a review elsewhere of their experience on Resilient out of Portsmouth.  One interesting issue they encountered was that they said their booking for Another Rose one night was cancelled due to "not enough interest" (which left them with no dinner time booked).  They said every other show was packed such that they ended up either standing or not being able to get in so the lack of interest in Another Rose doesn't seem related to a lack of interest in shows by the sailors.

 

It is a challenging situation.  My wife and I will be on Resilient for our 2nd time in a couple of weeks and I doubt we'll go to Another Rose.  It's a great show and I highly recommend seeing it, but I don't know that it's worth $100 to see it again even with our MNVV sailor loot.  Perhaps if we have loot leftover and it's still scheduled for the last night.  I am curious if, as more sailors go on repeat cruises on Resilient, if they'll see interest in the show starting to drop off.

 

We loved or experience on Resilient last year and are looking forward to our 2nd time.

Edited September 12 by Tralfaz1138

[jon81uk]

8 minutes ago, Tralfaz1138 said:

My wife and I will be on Resilient for our 2nd time in a couple of weeks and I doubt we'll go to Another Rose.  It's a great show and I highly recommend seeing it, but I don't know that it's worth $100 to see it again even with our MNVV sailor loot.  Perhaps if we have loot leftover and it's still scheduled for the last night. 

I’ve seen Another Rose twice now and agree with this, if we didn’t have loot to spend I probably wouldn’t book it for a third time. You pretty much get value from all the drinks, but it’s a lot of drinks within two hours. Also the weird gap in the middle of the show when they move the floor tables around just annoyed me this time. It is some of the best food in the ship though, they need more Indian food!

[Tralfaz1138]

14 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

You pretty much get value from all the drinks, but it’s a lot of drinks within two hours.

...

It is some of the best food in the ship though, they need more Indian food!

My wife doesn't really drink so that also factors in to the value of the show, and mocktails can be hit or miss for her as well.  I do agree about the food.  After seeing people saying the Ship Show food was not great before our 1st cruise I wasn't sure what to expect with this dinner show, but it was a solid dinner experience.