A little nervous about a cruise on Virgin

[lisabucsfan1]

2 hours ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

On The Rocks Bar: Out of Bombay Sapphire the entire cruise. Every other bar had it, so it's not like it wasn't on board

 

Pool Bar: 1:00 on the port day, still very quiet on board. Asked for one of the vodka seltzers.  Was told "yeah, everybody was drinking those yesterday! We haven't restocked yet".  Really?  It's a quiet port day, you know they're all coming back, right?  

 

Sip, the Champagne Bar- here was the winner:  They wouldn't serve me a glass of Dom Perignon.  He said "only by the bottle".  I showed him the menu that listed a by the glass price.  His response, "I just boarded yesterday, I need to check with my beverage manager about that".  I asked again the next two days and got the same response and finally gave up.

 

Casino Bar: Out of Woodford Reserve the entire cruise.

 

 

I've been on 3 VV cruises with 2 more scheduled and a 3rd one in planning stages. All of these are valid complaints and I had an issue with wine on my last cruise at On the Rocks Bar - trying to sub Sauvignon Blanc for Pinot Grigio. That being said, it didn't ruin my cruise, I'll just pay closer attention to my bar tab going forward.

 

I myself have never experienced the "hump anything that moves"... I've cruised with girlfriends and my DH.... not saying it didn't happen, I've just never seen it myself. 

[Travel-and-See]

Yes, even when ordering things on the menu you'll get a "Oh let me see if we have that" from servers.  I also found out that you can't order "Club Soda" you have to order "Sparkling Water" otherwise you may get a Sprite or a Coke. 

 

Another example, at the Test Kitchen they call the non-alcaholic drinks "Zero Proof" but other bars will act like they've never heard of such a thing as zero proof and offer you Coke Zero instead.

 

[CruisingWalter]

On 5/2/2023 at 4:50 PM, Universe93B said:

I will be going on a cruise with my wife on the Scarlet Lady at the end of July - have been on so many other cruise lines.  But I'm nervous about Virgin cruises being "party-only" type due to the no kids atmosphere?  I know people on here ask all the time on "what to expect other than no kids" on VV.  See, I've given up alcohol recently due to health reasons and I can't say it's been easy.  But overall, I feel better in health/energy. 

 

The "Party Only" myth of Virgin Voyages is exactly that, it's a myth. The vibe on VV is very much similar to Celebrity Cruises. Lux casual. Your focus on health / energy perfectly aligns with VV in that you'll find great non-alcohol options from fresh pressed juices to many other drinks throughout the ship.

 

If you want to party hard all night, The Manor is your game. If you want to chill and relax, On The Rocks has awesome music and entertainers, usually a soloist or a trio. If you want to really relax in the evening, hit The Dock on the aft or the 'side porches' on Deck 7 mid ship. 

 

We've been on 8 cruise lines, soon to be 9, and if you like cruising, you should really enjoy VV. It just may spoil you because you realize just how annoying all the nickel and diming is on the other cruise lines. Not having to pay for every little thing is pretty sweet. As is the lack of photographers. That might be my favorite part of the VV experience. 🙂   Here's my overall review of our first Scarlet Lady experience where I specifically talk about 'reality' on the ship vs. 'myth' of what is to be expected. There's also a full food review on there if you're interested. 

 

Just go have an amazing time!

[CruisingWalter]

On 5/3/2023 at 10:28 PM, annmarz said:

I was longing for a "Sanctuary," ala Royal Carribbean, or the Observation lounge at the top of the newest Norwegian ships at times.  Our cabin, however, was blissfully quiet.

 

Try Deck 7 mid-ship next time. I call them the 'porches' but those are really nice spaces on the waterfront. The ship provides plenty of shade on one side of the ship so you have choices between sun and shade. I think a lot of people overlook these spaces during the day and gravitate to The Dock or the upper decks. But the seating is very nice and eclectic in this area. 

[CruisingWalter]

On 5/7/2023 at 8:36 AM, leisuretraveler223 said:

As for the party atmosphere, yeah, that's what it is.  Also note that it's basically a sex cruise.  People are constantly trying to pretty much hump anything that moves. Like getting hit on by guys, girls, couples, every time you speak a word? Then this is the cruise for you.

 

I have no idea which Virgin Voyages cruise you went on, but that's 180 opposite our experience on 2 cruises so far and the opposite experience of all our friends who have been cruising on VV since the restart. Both in Miami and Europe. Clearly you didn't like your cruise so now you don't want anyone else to go on VV. 

 

VV is not perfect, no cruise line is, but what you're describing is not VV. At least the party atmosphere all day. Scarlet Night is a HUGE party. It's crazy and it's loud. But that's one night. And even on that night, you can have a quiet evening out on The Dock or other areas of the outside away from the party. 

[cantgetin]

Water's posts, as usual, reflect our experience accurately.  There are ways that VV could improve the experience, but after 29 nights on VV, in both the US and Europe, I've never experienced anything like leisuretraveler223's complaints.

If you want to party, it is there, particularly late in the evenings.  If you don't want to party, there are lovely venues with music or other activities.  I will note that food quality in some restaurants was not as good on our most recent cruise as previously.

[leisuretraveler223]

2 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

 

I have no idea which Virgin Voyages cruise you went on, but that's 180 opposite our experience on 2 cruises so far and the opposite experience of all our friends who have been cruising on VV since the restart. Both in Miami and Europe. Clearly you didn't like your cruise so now you don't want anyone else to go on VV. 

 

VV is not perfect, no cruise line is, but what you're describing is not VV. At least the party atmosphere all day. Scarlet Night is a HUGE party. It's crazy and it's loud. But that's one night. And even on that night, you can have a quiet evening out on The Dock or other areas of the outside away from the party. 

 

 

April 19th, four night out of Miami.  First night, pajama party on upper deck. Large contingent of barely dressed eagerly grinding up against everyone. Sat at bar for five minutes, gentlemen commented about his girlfriend digging on my wife, said they were swingers and "there are a lot of us on board". 

 

Next night, Scarlet Night.  Countless people telling us to head to the "after-after party" for some excitement.  More discussion, it was a swingers get together.

 

The following two nights in the dance club it became almost a joke. I would walk to the bar to get us drinks and when I would come back, I would be asked the tally- meaning how many propositions.  It was multiple times every time you walked around in the club.

 

I don't know what to tell you. Maybe there was some unofficial swingers get together on that particular sailing. I am not trying to present any false narrative here. I've been on one four day cruise, and once the sun went down, that was the overwhelming theme.

[jon81uk]

10 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

 

April 19th, four night out of Miami.  First night, pajama party on upper deck. Large contingent of barely dressed eagerly grinding up against everyone. Sat at bar for five minutes, gentlemen commented about his girlfriend digging on my wife, said they were swingers and "there are a lot of us on board". 

 

Next night, Scarlet Night.  Countless people telling us to head to the "after-after party" for some excitement.  More discussion, it was a swingers get together.

 

The following two nights in the dance club it became almost a joke. I would walk to the bar to get us drinks and when I would come back, I would be asked the tally- meaning how many propositions.  It was multiple times every time you walked around in the club.

 

I don't know what to tell you. Maybe there was some unofficial swingers get together on that particular sailing. I am not trying to present any false narrative here. I've been on one four day cruise, and once the sun went down, that was the overwhelming theme.

Does sound like there was some unofficial swingers gathering on that particular cruise!

[Travel-and-See]

15 minutes ago, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

 

April 19th, four night out of Miami.  First night, pajama party on upper deck. Large contingent of barely dressed eagerly grinding up against everyone. Sat at bar for five minutes, gentlemen commented about his girlfriend digging on my wife, said they were swingers and "there are a lot of us on board". 

 

Next night, Scarlet Night.  Countless people telling us to head to the "after-after party" for some excitement.  More discussion, it was a swingers get together.

 

The following two nights in the dance club it became almost a joke. I would walk to the bar to get us drinks and when I would come back, I would be asked the tally- meaning how many propositions.  It was multiple times every time you walked around in the club.

 

I don't know what to tell you. Maybe there was some unofficial swingers get together on that particular sailing. I am not trying to present any false narrative here. I've been on one four day cruise, and once the sun went down, that was the overwhelming theme.

I will say the 4-night has a more party crowd. When I was in line to get into the Circus Disco the girls behind me were saying they wished the ship had an upper age limit so it was only 18-30 year olds... 

 

The longer cruises definitely have a different vibe..  I'm sure that's true for any line. 

 

It sounds like you there was something unique about your particular cruise, some sort of meet-up. That definitely would have made me feel awkward about the cruise as well. 

 

[aqlollipop]

Wow @leisuretraveler223 I'm sorry that happened to you. I would've been uncomfortable with that situation as well. Sounds like you got very unlucky with your sailing, and fellow sailors! I can say, I've been on the 4 night sailing out of Miami twice and not experienced anything remotely like that! Though the 4 night sailings definitely have a stronger party vibe for sure, that's a bit much!

[CruisingWalter]

On 5/9/2023 at 11:19 AM, leisuretraveler223 said:

I don't know what to tell you. Maybe there was some unofficial swingers get together on that particular sailing. I am not trying to present any false narrative here. I've been on one four day cruise, and once the sun went down, that was the overwhelming theme.

Sounds like you had a swingers club on the ship. They're everywhere on all cruise lines and super annoying if you have the unfortunate pleasure of running into them. We've not had that experience and I have to say, all our friends who have gone on the ships have not reported anything like that either. 

[_tacocat_]

16 hours ago, CruisingWalter said:

Sounds like you had a swingers club on the ship. They're everywhere on all cruise lines and super annoying if you have the unfortunate pleasure of running into them. We've not had that experience and I have to say, all our friends who have gone on the ships have not reported anything like that either. 

lol it was ridiculous on richard's birthday bash last year.  there was apparently a large swinger contingent onboard, and after a while it was like - yes, we get it, you don't need to keep advertising!! that and the fact that a lot of that group felt pasties and g-strings were appropriate attire for the pool, and going commando in dresses at the scarlet night pool party was a classy choice 🙄 felt like i was around a bunch of horny teenagers who wanted attention the whole week!!!

[CruisingWalter]

On 5/12/2023 at 11:39 AM, _tacocat_ said:

felt like i was around a bunch of horny teenagers who wanted attention the whole week!!!

 

That would be so annoying. Fortunately we have not run into any of those folks yet, though I have seen a lot of pineapples on doors on many of the other cruise lines.... 🙂 

[aeraen]

My spouse and I, both 60+ and definitely not party animals, were on the Scarlet Lady last month. I can assure you you will not be overwhelmed with a party atmosphere. Unless you want to be, of course. 

[LetsGoToo]

On 5/9/2023 at 10:19 AM, leisuretraveler223 said:

 

 

April 19th, four night out of Miami.  First night, pajama party on upper deck. Large contingent of barely dressed eagerly grinding up against everyone. Sat at bar for five minutes, gentlemen commented about his girlfriend digging on my wife, said they were swingers and "there are a lot of us on board". 

 

Next night, Scarlet Night.  Countless people telling us to head to the "after-after party" for some excitement.  More discussion, it was a swingers get together.

 

The following two nights in the dance club it became almost a joke. I would walk to the bar to get us drinks and when I would come back, I would be asked the tally- meaning how many propositions.  It was multiple times every time you walked around in the club.

 

I don't know what to tell you. Maybe there was some unofficial swingers get together on that particular sailing. I am not trying to present any false narrative here. I've been on one four day cruise, and once the sun went down, that was the overwhelming theme.

 

I had a similar experience on my VV cruise about a week ago. It became a joke to most people on the ship about how many swingers were on that cruise. 

[Roneill76]

;

Edited May 16, 2023 by Roneill76

[Lustate]

On 5/9/2023 at 4:19 PM, leisuretraveler223 said:

The following two nights in the dance club it became almost a joke. I would walk to the bar to get us drinks and when I would come back, I would be asked the tally- meaning how many propositions.  It was multiple times every time you walked around in the club.

See, that's the downside of you both looking like supermodels, which no human could resist. 

[tbmrt]

On 5/3/2023 at 9:02 AM, lisabucsfan1 said:

Echo everything everyone else said. I've sailed 3 times on The Scarlett Lady and have 2 more cruises booked with a prepaid deposit sitting there for the future.

I see you have cruised often on other lines as have my husband and I.  My first VV trip is coming up soon and it sounds like lots of fun.  That being said, I'm a morning person and am hoping I can stay up to enjoy some of the nightlife.  We love to dance (and drink!) and are sure VV will be for us because of that. Will try to nap during the day a bit which I never do on other cruises. 

 

In the past we cruised mostly for the ports, early off the ship,  on private excursions most of the days, and were sleeping by 11 pm latest. Got to a think cruising was over for us since cruising the same cruiselines became repetitive. This cruise will be more about the nightllife for us.  

 

Considering your cruising experience, do you want to stick w/VV and use other cruiselines more for visiting other places?

 

 

 

 

 

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, tbmrt said:

 

 

Considering your cruiing experience, do you want to stick w/VV and use other cruiselines more for visiting other places?

 

 

 

 

 

Virgin for us is about the food, crew, atmosphere, etc.  A decision to use another line at this point would be based on itinerary.  There are too many good things about Virgin to go line hopping.  We're doing about 30 days per year right now.  

[lisabucsfan1]

5 hours ago, tbmrt said:

Considering your cruising experience, do you want to stick w/VV and use other cruiselines more for visiting other places?

 

For now - yes - as cantgetin said, for us it's the food, crew, atmosphere... and there are a lot of itineraries that VV has that I have not previously sailed... thus, for the being we are dedicated to VV.

 

Once I get back from NZ next February, I'll start looking in earnest at other itineraries. Hello Singapore and Bali! 🤗

[Travel-and-See]

For me, I will continue going back to Virgin for the high-quality entertainment, the good food, and the laid back vibe (you never have to dress up, I can wear a hat to dinner every night if I want to!, I'm never having anyone try to sell me anything, etc.).  Because it's a smaller line there is a nice familiarity about returning, you know where everything is, and you want to revisit cool places. 

 

I also want to continue cruising with Celebrity - I find the ships to be more interesting to explore and a bit more "WOW" in the design. I've yet to meet anyone on VV who is as passionate about their jobs as some of the cruise directors and presenters I've met on Celebrity.  And... Alaska! haha. 

 

 

[Tralfaz1138]

6 hours ago, lisabucsfan1 said:

Once I get back from NZ next February, I'll start looking in earnest at other itineraries. Hello Singapore and Bali! 🤗

 

My wife and I are booked on the Singapore to Sydney cruise in November so if nobody else posts anything I'll throw something together about what that cruise is like.  (And we're going to head to NZ after the cruise to hang around for a week or so while we're in that general part of the world).

 

It will be our first trip on Virgin, though we were booked for one of their earliest cruises to Cuba before the one two punch of Cuba getting shut down followed by Covid cancelling that trip.

[lisabucsfan1]

14 hours ago, Tralfaz1138 said:

 

My wife and I are booked on the Singapore to Sydney cruise in November so if nobody else posts anything I'll throw something together about what that cruise is like.  (And we're going to head to NZ after the cruise to hang around for a week or so while we're in that general part of the world).

 

It will be our first trip on Virgin, though we were booked for one of their earliest cruises to Cuba before the one two punch of Cuba getting shut down followed by Covid cancelling that trip.

 

I almost switched out our Celebrity cruise which is our Auckland->Sydney itinerary but ultimately decided to stay put. I will be watching the boards to see what people have to say about that Singapore to Sydney!

 

Enjoy!!!

[Algren1]

On 5/7/2023 at 1:36 PM, leisuretraveler223 said:

Every bar SHOULD have Heineken 0.0.  But in our experience, the bars SUCKED at restocking. It wasn't that the ship was out of something, but every bar we went to was constantly out of various things.

 

As for the party atmosphere, yeah, that's what it is.  Also note that it's basically a sex cruise.  People are constantly trying to pretty much hump anything that moves. Like getting hit on by guys, girls, couples, every time you speak a word? Then this is the cruise for you.

 

Oh, and the ship has all the aesthetic appeal of a 1960s office building to boot!

Just come back from Valiant Lady and I didn't encounter this either. Went with a female friend (I'm male) and neither had this kind of experience. There were some lovely people on the cruise and everyone was friendly and chatty but the notion of it being a 'sex cruise' is not at all accurate in my opinion.

 

"and the ship has all the aesthetic appeal of a 1960s office building to boot!" Don't remember seeing a multitude of right angles and exposed concrete.

 

[cantgetin]

29 nights on VV so far, and I haven't has any of the behavior from other guests that was described above.  Not at all a "sex cruise."  In fairness, I didn't do a lot of late night clubbing.  Some of the entertainment was not to my liking, but other parts were great.  THe one show, "Never Sleep Alone" has been discontinued.  Yes, there are drag shows...but you sit there.  No one was inappropriate and you didn't have to participate if you didn't want to--in one show they did call a few people to participate but not in anything with any sexual leanings.