Trip Report-ish Post: Resilient - Greek Island Glow May 28

[_tacocat_]

Waiting at ATH for a few more hours for BA to open up my flight's check in, so figured I'd do a report on my trip!

 

I've been on Virgin plenty, but this was the first one I'd been on outside of the Caribbean.

 

Embarkation/Ship Orientation

This was SO laid back and much different than Miami.  We got there a little early because our teeny boutique hotel had 11am checkout.  After wandering around the Plaka area post-checkout, we decided to head over to the port in a cab.  A LOT of cabs in Athens don't take credit cards, but Uber exists as a taxi-hailing and payment service.  We ended up just going a regular cab and paying cash.  I think we got to the port around 12:30, and we were greeted, bags taken by porters (who, refreshingly, were not hounding us for tips before even taking our bags like in Miami 🙄).  We were then directed to one of two tents - I think one was for Rockstars/VIP and Deep Blue/Splash of Romance early boarding people, and the other was for everyone else. 

 

It was kind of chaotic once they started checking people in.  Unlike Miami where you are directed to a specific desk to check passports/get your bands, we had roving checker-in-ers.  As more people came in and sat down, it was difficult for them to keep track of who had checked in already and who needed to go back and get the newbies.  After about 20-30 mins of "will they ever get to us?" we got our bands and sat for about 10 more minutes.  At that point, they said if we had our bands already, we could proceed straight to security check.  5 minutes later we were on the ship!

 

There's no big fanfare like in Miami, as you board from deck 4 in Athens.  We had one Happenings Cast Member greeting on the way in, and then it was off to the races!

 

It took about 15 mins to book everything we wanted/rearrange dinner reservations.  It felt like we were missing something because we're usually in such a frenzy to book fitness classes, activities, and shows, but it was SUPER laid back.  Given how port-intensive this itinerary was, there was a lot less stuff going on around the ship, but still enough so you'd never be bored.

 

THE POOL

One thing I've noted in comments on other threads is that the pool is different.  The far shallow end across from the stairs is shorter, so the deep part of the pool is longer.  I also swear they either expanded the width of the pool, shrunk the deck area where the daybeds are, or got bigger daybeds because the beds now fill the whole white part - I thought I was usually able to shove an ice bucket for wine in front of the daybeds on the other ships.

 

Alas, even on a 1,400-passenger voyage, our sea day was stricken with "chogs" that reserved chairs for themselves and 20 comrades all morning.  Yes, we were able to get seats by the pool, but why TF do people think claiming seats all day is okay?  As pax loads go up, VV needs to do something about this nonsense.

 

Restaurants

All the restaurants are the same as the other ships, but Razzle Dazzle has a brand spanking new dinner menu.  IT WAS AWESOME.  They are still very veg-focused, but they've added a bunch more meat options.  I got almost everything on the menu between two dinners there - nashville hot cauliflower, short rib pastrami, maple bourbon glazed pork belly, leek and feta pasta, fried chicken, and a few of the desserts.  I liked Razzle Dazzle a lot before, but I could see how the menu didn't look that thrilling on paper.  Don't skip dinner at RD!

 

It also seemed there were more daily specials in the galley - there was a burger of the day at the burger place and something usually at the diner and dash counter in the late afternoon/early evening.  The pizza place also had specials (anchovy one day, hawaiian, and one with chorizo and tomatoes), although I stuck to the tried and true Pretty Fly For a White Pie.

 

Extra Virgin has a new treat yourself (Porchetta) and they fiiiinallllllyyyyy had white truffles, so I added those to my carbonara.  YUM!

 

Opa Hour is a new concept at the dock.  From 4:30-6:30 every day except embarkation day, they had a menu with lots of Greek mezze plates, in addition to the normal menu.  Only made it there once, but it was tasty!

 

Shops

I haven't been on the other ladies since LVMH took over, but holy crap do the shops on Resilient miss the mark.  The retail has been reoriented, such that the tattoo shop is where the sundries store used to be, the left "logo store" retail box is now the sundries store (and it's essentially a candy store now - no fun games, hammocks, water bottles, etc. in there, and a very small selection of meds/personal care stuff).  No visible sex toys, but I didn't ask the worker if they were just hidden hahahah.

 

Where the right/main logo store retail box is on other ships is an LVMH "vintage" store.  The clerk in there basically said they were "vintage" in that they were not the primary sale, but a lot of the stuff was just bought and returned new stuff.  There weren't any vintage vintage items in there.  It also seemed wildly overpriced for items that are still manufactured and available at primary retail prices.  I didn't see anyone purchase anything whenever I was in there.

 

The logo store is where the tattoo shop is on the other ships, and the merch was pretty crappy and limited.  Most things with the Resilient mermaid were super pixelated and junky.  This is the first time we haven't bought something in the logo store.

 

The watch shop is similar to Valiant's was when I was on - lots of new watches, with the occasional pre-owned Rolex sprinkled in here and there, then there's a Bvulgari store, the men's and women's boutiques, Marc Jacobs and the jewelry store.  There's also a sunglass store, but no makeup/cosmetics store.  Interestingly, not a drop of JLo Beauty aboard!

 

Entertainment

The entertainment on resilient is on SUCH another level.  There are 3 new shows, as well as Miss Behave, Around the World with the Diva, etc. from the other ship.  Duel Reality, Ships in the Night, and Untitled are not on Resilient.  Summary of the new shows below:

 

Persephone: this is kind of an Untitled Dance Party-like experience, but with a Greek mythology twist.  This is a standing-room show in the red room with lots of different stages/platforms.  It's a fun retelling of the Persephone story, so you'll get a nice refresher if you didn't pay attention in high school world history 😉  I recognized a few of the cast members as former Duel Reality cast members from prior voyages.  I thought it was cool, but it did take a little while to get the momentum going.  I heard from one of the entertainment ops managers that they were thinking of bringing it to other ships, but I think it's most effective while sailing around Greece!

 

Lola's Library: I really wanted to love this.  I really did!  This kind of fills the void NSA left, but execution was a little meh.  For anyone who sailed on Valiant towards the end of NSA's run, Dr. Anna (aka Meg) now plays Lola, the ship's sexy librarian, and a former Happenings Cast Member, Dean, plays her goofy assistant, Dewey.  Without giving too much away, the show is split into three chapters - you can pop in for 1 or stay for all.  Each chapter covers a different genre of books, and there's a LOT of action throughout each: aerialists, dance, singing, etc.

 

My bone to pick is that it's such an awesome concept, but the pace just drags.  Every time they have to re-set the stage or aerial equipment, they take a 5-10 min break and walk around telling you to go to the bar and grab a drink - both verbally and with signs that are shoved in your face.  Felt kind of tacky.  On top of that, there are 15 min intermissions between each of the chapters, so there's a lot of waiting for stuff to happen.

 

My other issue is that they never opened the doors for shows in the Manor until at least showtime, then it took about 30 mins for everyone to get settled before they started.  If you wanted to catch one of the later chapters, they'd basically be 30-45 mins behind for all of them.

 

Another Rose: This is the first paid show that is happening on VV.  Waaaaay back before launching, there was rumor of them having a paid dinner show called Another Rose... 4+ years later, here we are.  When the Resilient lineups were initially posted, it showed three different seating tiers, ranging from $55-75 per person.  All entertainment and food is supposedly included onboard, so this was kind of a shock.  After their friends & family sailing, they bumped everything down to $50 per person.

 

For science (and because I had a ton of Sailor Loot to spend), I went to the show last night.  It was awesome.  The whole experience was super immersive, lots of stuff going on, and included your unlimited choice of their 3 signature cocktails during the pre-show period, then free flowing sparkling rose throughout the rest of the night.  I got way more than $50 of value out of those drinks!  The food was phenomenal - nothing like Ship Show's dinner experience - and the entertainment was top notch.

 

I still do think it's BS that there's no way to see this show without paying, and if you don't drink alcohol, you're not really getting your money's worth out of the experience.  Maybe they'll add a free option at some point?

 

Nightlife

SO different than any other voyage I've been on!  Usually we're in the manor or some other party every night until the wee hours, but with the early wakeups for tours, long port days, and activation of the Manor for more shows, there were only 3 nights of actual nightclubbing in the manor - 80s dance club (awesome), scarlet night afterparty (I was in bed at that point haha), and We Fancy (gold themed party - this one was kind of weird.  We thought it would be like Heartbeat or Boomvang on the other ships, where cast members from the shows and Happenings come out, do a 10ish min performance, then open up the dance floor.  We Fancy had 6 Happenings Cast members clearing the dance floor what felt like every 15 mins to do a choreographed dance for a song, then bringing people back.  Still fun, just kind of odd).  This was also the first voyage we've skipped PJ party.  We both got into our jams looked at each other, looked at our alarm for the next morning, and just went to bed in said PJs hahahaha

 

Ports/Excursions

Virgin's excursions seemed pretty limited at most ports, which was kind of disappointing.  We had a ton of loot to use, but we didn't want to chance our desired excursions selling out, so we booked a few ahead of time.  Also, you need to remember to bring towels from the ship for water-based excursions.

 

Santorini - this is a tender port.  If you book an excursion from VV, they'll message you when/where to meet.  We were directed to the Red Room, given a card with a number on it, and directed to a tender that drops you off at the bus meeting point port.  If you tender without an excursion, they'll bring you directly to Fira and give you a roundtrip cable car ticket.

 

We had booked Scenic Island Valleys & Oia Village, but it was changed to the Scenic Santorini & Oia on Your Own tour right before we got on.  Their message said that based on Sailor feedback, rather than going to a viewpoint, we'd have an extra hour and a half time to experience the breathtaking Oia Village.  Our tour guide Hara was great, and we got to Oia pretty early in the day so it wasn't too crowded.  After about 90 mins of exploring on our own, we got back on the bus and went over to Fira.  I really liked this format of tour, as I abhor giant follow-the-leader group tours.  Hara gave us a quick orientation on the highlights of each area, plus some directional orientation.  We did a ton more exploring (and eating and drinking!) until we wanted to head back to the ship. 

 

There were several ships in port, and when we were in line for the cable car at about 4:30-5, a bunch of idiots from these other ships kept trying to cut in line - some more successful than others - because "they'd miss their boat."  We waited for maybe 30-45 mins to get a cable car down, but I'm sure it would have been quicker if we'd gone later, as we were the last ship in port.  I've heard it gets absolutely insane during the summer, like 2+ hour waits with rampant cutting throughout the line.  No thanks!!!

 

Rhodes - I had no clue what to expect from Rhodes, but we booked the Tsampika Beach Break & Ancient Lindos excursion.  We started with a ~50 min ride to Lindos, a bit of a hike up to the Acropolis, and a lightly-guided tour of the Acropolis.  We then had about an hour of free time to wander around Lindos, then got back on the bus to go to Tsampika Beach.  You get a lounge chair + umbrella + 1 soft drink included, and they have alcohol and food for purchase.  The weather was pretty garbage, but it was still a good time.  Back to the bus, then back to the ship.

 

Bodrum - booked the Coastal Gulet excursion.  Our guide was an archaeologist, so she had lots of tidbits to share as we sailed around.  There were 2 opportunities to get into the water, then we had a full lunch of grilled chicken, fish, various dips and veggies and sailed back to port.

 

Mykonos - we had booked a beach club excursion that was supposed to come with chairs/umbrellas and maybe some credit, but we never figured it out.  This was cancelled on us a few weeks ago, and it turns out that the beach club got in trouble for building illegally on their property, so they got shut down.  Womp womp.  VV's excursions in Mykonos are super limited, and I haven't heard a positive review yet of anything that anyone's done.  I heard terrible things about the beach hopping sailing this week due to weather (they should have cancelled, but didn't and everyone felt really unsafe), and the beer and wine excursions from the maiden sailing.  I opted to charter a boat myself and sailed around the island.  The weather was hot garbage - SO rainy and windy, but the island was still really neat to see from the sea!

 

I think they expect most people to just arrange their own beach club or boat activities.  Note that beach clubs are stupid expensive, as is the transportation to get there.  There are like 30 cabs on the whole island, so you need to arrange your own transportation.

 

We went back on the ship around 3 or 4, grabbed an early dinner, and trekked back out around 9pm.  LOTS of bars and clubs, and it was fun to wander around town once it finally stopped raining.  Such cute alleyways and neat colors.  We ended up heading back to the ship again around midnight.  Tenders run constantly all day and night, but they may switch the pickup/dropoff location mid-way through depending on their logistics.  You'll be able to tell in the elevators on your way out and by the bright red VV tents they have set up at the correct location.

 

We woke up pretty early on Saturday and walked around town a bit more, did some shopping and took a bunch of pictures before heading back to the ship for the final time around 12:30.

 

Disembarkation

So uneventful.  We proceeded down to 4 Mid around 9:20 to zero fanfare, just 1 Happenings Cast member waving us off.  There was no passport control, no customs line, no wait.  We opted for the airport transfer shuttle, which was $35pp.  We heard some folks ended up paying $90 for a cab, so our $70 (including great air conditioning and not crazy driving) felt well worth it.

 

Crew

Lots of familiar faces across the ship - I've had almost all of the current Happenings Cast on Scarlet/Valiant, lots of re-casting of other ships' show casts, and seemingly a ton of promotions in the FOH staff.  One of our favorite bartenders has gotten a couple promotions and said he was in-line for more promotions in the future.  Survey feedback and mentioning great crew members by name really does make a difference!

 

Overall Impressions

Again this was SOOOO different than any other VV I've been on.  It was neat to get a taste of all the islands and see where I'd like to spend more time.  I wish VV had more/better quality excursions to choose from, but we were able to make do with what we had.  I also wish it were easier to get from California to Greece, because I'd love to do a back to back of their 2 Aegean itineraries.  I think there were like 120 people that did that between this week and last!

 

One random parting thought... Anyone considering buying a bar tab on the European itineraries should really consider how much you'll actually be on the ship.  It's not like the Caribbean where you can drink all day on your tab at Bimini and have a couple sea days - we were pretty much only on the ship to sleep, eat dinner, and see shows.  We were next to a few tables this morning at the Wake that were panicking trying to burn the rest of their bar tab by buying cocktails and bottles of wine before leaving!

[Freelancer3]

Thanks! Great Review!

[Ilikebigboats]

Thanks for the review! Heading out of Barcelona next month on Valiant Lady, and I appreciate your tip about buying bar tabs, we will probably be to tired to party after the intensive port days 🥱 

[Fogcityca13]

Awesome review! Thanks! Going to be interesting getting through $1,200 in loot and bar tab. We might check out Another Rose even though I’m not too keen on the mandatory up charge. It would make more sense if they changed for VIP seating. Safe travels back.

[Goodie322]

Great review! Thanks. We are going on the July 30th sailing. What is the earliest we can disembark?

[_tacocat_]

1 hour ago, Goodie322 said:

Great review! Thanks. We are going on the July 30th sailing. What is the earliest we can disembark?

I think they started letting folks off a little after 7:30.  Your only real bottlenecks are the elevators (have to leave via the mid gangway, and my elevator was basically full by the time it hit floor 10) and any waiting for a cab.

 

someone said their friend got off around 8:15 and got to the airport around 9… then had to sit outside for a while until their check-in counter opened!

[singleflyer]

8 hours ago, _tacocat_ said:

Santorini - this is a tender port.  If you book an excursion from VV, they'll message you when/where to meet.  We were directed to the Red Room, given a card with a number on it, and directed to a tender that drops you off at the bus meeting point port.  If you tender without an excursion, they'll bring you directly to Fira and give you a roundtrip cable car ticket.

 

We had booked Scenic Island Valleys & Oia Village, but it was changed to the Scenic Santorini & Oia on Your Own tour right before we got on.  Their message said that based on Sailor feedback, rather than going to a viewpoint, we'd have an extra hour and a half time to experience the breathtaking Oia Village.  Our tour guide Hara was great, and we got to Oia pretty early in the day so it wasn't too crowded.  After about 90 mins of exploring on our own, we got back on the bus and went over to Fira.  I really liked this format of tour, as I abhor giant follow-the-leader group tours.  Hara gave us a quick orientation on the highlights of each area, plus some directional orientation.  We did a ton more exploring (and eating and drinking!) until we wanted to head back to the ship. 

 

There were several ships in port, and when we were in line for the cable car at about 4:30-5, a bunch of idiots from these other ships kept trying to cut in line - some more successful than others - because "they'd miss their boat."  We waited for maybe 30-45 mins to get a cable car down, but I'm sure it would have been quicker if we'd gone later, as we were the last ship in port.  I've heard it gets absolutely insane during the summer, like 2+ hour waits with rampant cutting throughout the line.  No thanks!!!

 

 

I'm thinking of booking the "Scenic Santorini & Oia on Your Own" for $75.  Basically for two reasons:

 

1. Getting to Town - I have heard the line for the cable car is extremely long to get up (and apparently getting back down as well).  I don't want to wait hour(s) to get up to Fira.  I also don't really want to hike up or take a mule.  

2. Visit Oia - I understand that there is a boat you can take from the place where the tenders let off, but I also wonder how long of a line there would be for that.  It also looks like there is a bus so maybe that is an option.

 

I figure if there is a line to get back down the cable car, it would be easy enough to hike downhill.  

 

Anything I am not thinking through?  I'd rather just explore on my own but $75 to not have to worry about lines and transportation could be worth it. 

 

 

[Fogcityca13]

13 minutes ago, singleflyer said:

 

I'm thinking of booking the "Scenic Santorini & Oia on Your Own" for $75.  Basically for two reasons:

 

1. Getting to Town - I have heard the line for the cable car is extremely long to get up (and apparently getting back down as well).  I don't want to wait hour(s) to get up to Fira.  I also don't really want to hike up or take a mule.  

2. Visit Oia - I understand that there is a boat you can take from the place where the tenders let off, but I also wonder how long of a line there would be for that.  It also looks like there is a bus so maybe that is an option.

 

I figure if there is a line to get back down the cable car, it would be easy enough to hike downhill.  

 

Anything I am not thinking through?  I'd rather just explore on my own but $75 to not have to worry about lines and transportation could be worth it. 

 

 

We booked that tour for our July 9th trip for those exact reasons. The day we are in port, 3 ships will be arriving within an hour of each other. Due to the timing I feared the cable cars and water taxis to Oia would be packed. You might want to check cruise mapper and see what other ships will be in port with you. 
 

@_tacocat_ did the excursion have you use the public bus to get back to Fira? I head the water taxi’s have a private bus.

[cantgetin]

Thanks for the review--great info.

 

Similarly, we have boarded in Barcelona which we found to be far nicer to do than in Miami.  THe terminal appearance in Miami is prettier, but the system in Barcelona was smoother!  

Shops....we were on Valiant when they did the changeover.  All shops were closed for the first 5 or 6 days of our 15 night cruise, and the sunglass shop opened only on the last night.  I was seriously not impressed.  There were previously 2 logo shops; it had been reduced to one and the other converted to a Louis Vuitton purse shop.  There was at least one other purse store, a watch store, jewelry store, sundries store (as you noted, mostly munchies, but a few other things), and the general area that had some clothing, makeup, etc.  The resortwear shop that had been upstairs had been moved down near the other shops.  Bottom line, I was totally unimpressed.  We bought a few things on the last night as we had some loot that needed to be spent, but my opinion was that this new merchandising was NOT an improvement.

[_tacocat_]

11 hours ago, singleflyer said:

Anything I am not thinking through?  I'd rather just explore on my own but $75 to not have to worry about lines and transportation could be worth it. 

Yep that’s basically why we chose that one.  You get some good history/geographical context from the guide as you’re driving too.

 

Check out cruisemapper or one of the other port tracking sites (I usually just Googled “[port name] cruise ship schedule”) to see who’s going to be there with you, how many passengers on those ships, and what time they arrive/depart.  If you have 4 ships all leaving at 6, and you’re not leaving till 10, it’s probably going to be miserable to get down on the cable car between 3:30-5:30.  

That’s why we experienced so many line cutters (“I’m going to miss my boat!”) after the 3rd attempt, I just snapped at the next guy and told him that his poor time management wasn’t my problem, and if he really needed to get down he should just walk down the steps.  Alas, the group behind me just let him cut anyway.  It apparently gets worst in the summer because there can be so many twists and turns on the line when it gets long!

[lisabucsfan1]

thanks for this review! Greece is on my list... not sure I can squeeze it into 2024 but definitely 2025

[Tralfaz1138]

Early last year I was trying to decide which of the 3 repositioning cruises that happen later this year to book and my dad "warned" me about Santorini as a cruise stop.  I watched a video one of the performers on Resilient Lady made where they walked up the steps into town.  That looked like quite the hike.  Still a place I'd love to see at some point.

 

Assuming we enjoy ourselves on the cruise we have booked on Resilient Lady later this year I'll likely buy some "future cruise credit" with the intent of booking one of these Mediterranean voyages (this route being a strong contender).  This review was great and very helpful (and I guess I'll be seeing the same ship in November).

[CruisingWalter]

Excellent and succinct review. Thanks so much for this. I'm also hoping some of this new entertainment makes it way across the fleet. It'll be interesting to see what Valiant has when she comes back across the pond for our November sailing.

[singleflyer]

16 hours ago, _tacocat_ said:

Yep that’s basically why we chose that one.  You get some good history/geographical context from the guide as you’re driving too.

 

Check out cruisemapper or one of the other port tracking sites (I usually just Googled “[port name] cruise ship schedule”) to see who’s going to be there with you, how many passengers on those ships, and what time they arrive/depart.  If you have 4 ships all leaving at 6, and you’re not leaving till 10, it’s probably going to be miserable to get down on the cable car between 3:30-5:30.  

That’s why we experienced so many line cutters (“I’m going to miss my boat!”) after the 3rd attempt, I just snapped at the next guy and told him that his poor time management wasn’t my problem, and if he really needed to get down he should just walk down the steps.  Alas, the group behind me just let him cut anyway.  It apparently gets worst in the summer because there can be so many twists and turns on the line when it gets long!

 

There will be three ships in that day; two leave at 6pm and then ours leaves at 10.  Thanks for the advice; I'll avoid trying to take it down during "rush hour" (or I'll walk).  

[jon81uk]

We are currently onboard Resilient Lady. Yesterday there was us, MSC Musica (similar size) and a small Regent ship in Santorini.

At around 11am we waited 45 minutes for the cable car up and about 3pm it was 30 minute wait to go down.

[_tacocat_]

On 6/4/2023 at 9:07 PM, Fogcityca13 said:

@_tacocat_ did the excursion have you use the public bus to get back to Fira? I head the water taxi’s have a private bus.

missed this question the other day 🙂 no, the excursion we booked came with the bus transfer - we took the tender to the port to meet a bus, got driven up to oia, then driven to fira.  i'm not sure about the water taxi bus but i think some folks did it on my cruise.

[jon81uk]

We thought about doing the boat to Oia if the cable car line was long. But took it up and then walked along the cliff top to Imerovigli which is between Fira and Oia and only half hour or so walking from the cable car, then walked back and wandered Fira. I’m glad we did walk along as Imerovigli was much more picturesque whereas Fira was all tourist shops. Oia may have been even prettier but we had done a lot of walking and didn’t want to bother in the end. But looks like public bus would have been easy enough.

 

Just walking out to Rhodes now

[Fogcityca13]

I’m hoping we’ll get to walk over to Imerovigli, looks like lots of opportunities to stop and get a cool drink. July is going to be hot, so the hike from Oia to Fira is off the table. 

[shdixon]

Thank you so much for this. Very helpful