Review: Virgin Voyages – Resilient Lady - Greek Island Glow 10/1-10/8
I have been able to cruise on almost all the largest cruise lines over the last 25 years. I was genuinely excited when I heard Virgin was bringing together key executives from all the major cruise lines to create a new cruise concept and brand. Also, as a car guy, I learned years ago that you never buy a new model for the first two years to allow them to get the kinks out. I should have yielded that perspective when deciding to book this Virgin cruise.
Virgin Voyages commenced it's first paying guest cruise in August 2021. No one would expect a new cruise line to be a well-oiled machine on day 1. However, while Virgin's concept and overall strategy are truly amazing, There are still a lot of kinks that still need to be addressed.
Concept: I loved the concept and value proposition Virgin presents on its cruise line. Some of these are no kids, no "traditional" timed dining, no hard sell or "add-on push" employee engagement, app-driven, allowing for cell phone controlled guess experience, and environmentally focused.
Pre-Cruise Transportation: You can coordinate with the cruise ship on airport pickup or pre-excursion airport pickup and terminal drop-off. The issue I saw with this process was the lack of representation at the airport. There was no signage. The person I met at the airport was the excursion operator but not a cruise line representative. We missed our connection and lost our luggage. When I tried to call Virgin to notify them that I was going to miss my pre-board excursion – I couldn't connect with anyone. They don't have 24/7 customer service. Customer service would have opened up after the cruise was leaving the port. On the day of the cruise, you are on your own to figure things out. I grabbed a taxi, but only when I needed to be there for my check-in.
Pre-Board: The process was fairly seamless. I loved that they don't allow you on the ship until it's ready. You don't get on and have to sit in a corner waiting for your room to be ready. The bags were delivered quickly, so it made for a quick start to the vacation.
Rooms: We never go with the Suite packages. I like understanding how most cruisers experience the cruise, so we had a Sea Terrace room. Overall, I loved the room (pictures attached). Some things could be more functional, but overall, it worked. The stateroom attendance does need to do a better job of introducing guests to the room and how it works. The room is controlled through both switches and the app. She did NOT advise us how the A/C worked and how it tells you if something is presenting the A/C was running. So, for the first day, it was hot in the room till I caught up with her, and she finally told us how to fix the problem. While I appreciate that Virgin doesn't want their guests to feel smothered by their employees, finding my stateroom attendant was nearly impossible. While the app does allow you to ask for some stuff from the attendance (linen, water etc), there is no "call button" to request them to stop by.
Pre-Trip Info: When we boarded, we had no clue there were NO plastic water bottles sold or distributed on the ship. The only way to carry around water would be to get a glass of water or bring your own reusable water bottle. While I love the concept, they did NOT do a good job conveying this before the cruise. We had to buy 2 "Resilient Lady" reusable water bottles on board.
Food: Amazing. I am a foodie. I have traveled the globe eating at dozens of Michelin-star restaurants. I also love to cook as well. This was by far the best thing about this ship. I love that all sit-down dining is specialty-style restaurants, and yes, I ate at all of them. Food was absolutely incredible. I did attach some pics. Our favorite restaurant was Razzle Dazzle (surprisingly), with our least favorite being Pink Agave. I only had one bad dish, and that was at this restaurant. The only downside is that if you aren't a foodie and are a meat and potatoes type eater, you probably will spend most of your time in "The Galley, " similar to a food hall where you have different food stations with various options.
Beverage/Spirits: Major Shortfall. However, I have learned since the cruise that they have no procurement team. They use a 3rd party procurement provider. They need to get their act together. I was repeatedly told, "That wine is not available." They have these lists of alcohol and wine all over the ship, but often, they don't have what's on the menu. What irritated me was they advertise Clase Azul on their website, digital displays on their ship, the app, and honestly, everywhere. There was NO Clase Azul on the ship. When I asked one of the Bartenders, he said, "We have never had Clase Azul on the ship ever." This is terrible branding and, quite frankly, lying to the consumer. There was no coffee creamer. At first glance, there are only Milk and Skim Milk at the coffee stations. No creamer at all. A lot of people were complaining about this. If you needed a Milk alternative, initial glance was the only way to get this was to go to the "Coffee Bar," where they had specialty coffee. However, one of the staff told me if you look in the fridge under the coffee pot station, you can find all kinds of milk alternatives. While the beverages were priced reasonably, the availability of a lot of wine/liquor was very disappointing.
Entertainment: This was OK but not great. My issue with entertainment is that you must ensure entertainment that the general public can understand. Having a British Comedian makes it a waste as the way Brits speak vs. Americans or other countries is hard to understand or get the jokes. I was very impressed with some of the "adult concept" entertainment, such as Persepone and Lola's Library, which were great! Loved them! Some of the acts like the "Diva" could be replaced. She wasn't impressive at all. The DJs, musicians, and singers otherwise were amazing. The Scarlet Night was also fun; make sure you bring a red shirt or pants!
Excursions: We went on organized excursions for every port. Poala, who was part of the Shore Excursion leadership team, did quite well organizing and getting guests the best experiences possible. No more stickers!!! I can't tell you how much I hate wearing excursion stickers. They are in every picture. They are gone! The process of booking and adjusting your excursions and getting off the ship was great. The big failure was on the excursions. While I love that they don't carry around placards during the excursions, the excursion leader didn't do enough at one of our ports to help people know where to go and which bus was ours. We sat waiting on the bus waiting for 2 couples, and she didn't leave the bus to find them. We had to wait till they noticed or found the bus in a sea of other busses. In addition, if you are going to have cruise staff on the excursion, whether they are on the clock or not, they should still have an obligation to help or facilitate problem-solving when this type of thing happens. We had a logistics team member on our bus but he was not "on the clock" and did nothing. In fact, at the beginning of the excursion, he left the group to go off on his own.
Positives to Note:
• Peppe in Gunbae was by far the best employee we have experienced. She is absolutely amazing.
• The staff overall all was super friendly, always happy, constantly smiling, and pleasant to deal with
• Specialty restaurants are FREE. You don't have to pay for better food.
• Wifi – incredible. You don't even have to upgrade to premium service. We had the basic service, and it was great throughout the entire ship.
• Room Keys – no more! They use the wristband concept. So much better. However, we got some mixed information from sailor services on whether you can wear it in the shower or the pool. Make sure it's tight enough that the anchor clasp doesn't fall off. This happened several times.
• Automated room controls, including Do Not Disturb/Make the room light indicators, automatic retractable blinds, lighting controls to change the ambiance etc.
• Sailor Services on the App – you can pick up your app and ask for help from Sailor Services and get a rapid response.
• The $30 laundry bag was amazing – I literally had them wash and fold 24 outfits with 1 bag. It's unlike most cruise lines where you can only fit 10 items.
Additional Negatives:
• #1 failure of the cruise line – Sanitation. It was rare to see anyone wiping things down. Often, the sanitizer stations were an afterthought. Of course, the results – well, if you watch the news, they recently had an outbreak on Scarlett Lady. This is because they don't make it a priority.
• Leadership is not present. You can't figure out who is actually running things. After digging, I can tell you that Leadership typically wore golf shirts, and staff wore tee shirts. However, I had some major issues and finding leadership was impossible. It would be nice if a leadership board showed who was running the ship or they held a mixer introducing guests to meet the leadership. I have no idea who was even driving the ship.
• Hours of Operations – the hours listed on the materials are not always accurate. It depends on the ship schedule.
• There is no way to convert money or even bet money! They apparently have two ATMs on the ship – one of which wasn't working the 2 times I tried to use it.
• Toiletries. The toilet paper was terrible. It was like recycled cardboard.
• Cross Training. The Galley had a member in one of their stations out sick. The person replacing her had no idea what he was doing. Apparently, they don't have backups or cross-train people, which adds confusion and poor service.
• Disembarkation day. They need to open breakfast early. The disembarkation excursion getting you to the airport left at 7:30am. Breakfast didn't open till 7am. They need to open breakfast up at 6am on disembarkation days.
Overall – Love the concept – just having some new cruise line growing pains. I plan on going on another cruise with Virgin next year in September on a different ship to see how they have evolved. I look forward to an update on how the changes have improved.
Michael Glinter has traveled to 68 countries, 5 continents, and 31 US states by boat, air, land, and RV! He has independently been hired to review business operations and provide a "no sugar added" approach to the guest experience.
