tl;dr: We had a great time. This won’t replace Celebrity as our go-to cruise for a relaxing vacation (this cruise was far from relaxing), but we’ll definitely cruise with Virgin again. Great concept, but the execution needs work.
The good:
Our room was spectacular. It was spacious; well-appointed with plenty of storage, a large bathroom, and a nice bar; and unlike any other ship I’ve been on, WELL AIR-CONDITIONED. If you know me, you know how important that last point is.
Food quality was excellent and most meals impressed us (with the exception of Test Kitchen). The variety of restaurants available to try was a welcome change from our usual Celebrity ship which only has two or three specialty restaurants to choose from. The concept of The Galley was great, but the execution needs work (more on that later). The pizza, which was mostly always available, was shockingly good in the context of being on a cruise ship. The Korean BBQ (Gambae) was a fun evening with a reasonable representation of the food we’re used to at these types of restaurants. I also very much appreciated that there was minimal single-use anything on board. No disposable plates, forks, knives, cups, etc. No plastic water bottles anywhere. Even the grab-and-go food containers were reusable.
Entertainment on the ship was better than we’ve seen, and we participated and attended more events in these nine days than in our past twenty-something cruises combined. While not for everyone, we mostly enjoyed what we saw. NSA was a lot of fun, the pajama and Scarlet Night parties were well-attended and enjoyable, and Duel Reality was fun to watch (even if the dialogue was a bit unnecessary and strained). The “secret” magic show our group attended was excellent and the tricks performed were impressive.
Unlike other cruise lines, cruise staff were encouraged and allowed to mingle with passengers. This created a relaxed environment and added more to the experience than I had expected. The lack of a cruise director was a bonus; instead we had several “happenings” which were various people on staff assigned different duties and personas to direct cruise activities. This obviously worked well given the level of participation we saw and the quality of the programming.
The ship décor was mostly beautiful (a subjective opinion), although much of it was trendy and I wonder how it’ll stand the test of time. The different areas were themed and decorated accordingly, with The Dock and The Wake being especially pretty. The nightclub was an excellent venue for all different types of activities. The private karaoke rooms were a fun (if sometimes deafening) addition.
The crowds on the two different cruises varied widely. We were, for once, in the middle of the age range. We’re used to being among the younger people on ship despite not exactly being young. We also enjoyed the diversity; it was a much more non-white crowd than usual.
Service overall was excellent at the restaurants. The bars were a different story, which I’ll get to, and not necessarily the employees fault.
The wristbands which replaced the typical sea pass card were a nice addition. It was always right there on your wrist and easy to use to get on and off the ship, open your room, and charge your drinks.
The “meh:”
The itineraries were boring. Bimini beach club was a nice break for the day. Key West is Key West (not my favorite place in the world), and Puerto Plata was a work in progress. I know Virgin will have more varied itineraries in the future, which I look forward to experiencing.
Signage throughout the ship was pretty lacking and unless you memorized the layout, finding things could be a struggle, even after several days on board. The stairwells and stateroom hallways were a bit sterile (again, subjective). Good luck finding a public bathroom. They were few and far between and often hidden. And the optical illusion bathrooms were a bit much. You needed to look closely to see if where you were about to walk was a mirror or the hallway to the toilets in several of the bathrooms. EVERYONE we talked to had the same issue with the optical illusion bathrooms to the point of it being comical.
The pool was pretty small for a ship of this capacity. Shaded areas were sparse, and the windows at the edges of the pool decks did not open, creating stuffy spaces with no airflow. On the upside the pool was refreshingly cool and aside from the buck-wild Vegas-style pool party moments, was usually pretty accessible and not overly crowded. And back to the bathrooms: the entire pool area had exactly two unisex toilets where lines often formed. Sometimes going back to the room was just quicker. The ship REALLY needs more bathrooms by the pool.
Richard’s Rooftop, the suites-only area, was decent. It had two hot tubs, a bar, and plenty of seating. Again, though, shade was hard to come by. With more shade and perhaps a small cool plunge pool, the space would be excellent.
Suites get “rockstar agents” who are basically your concierge for the voyage. We all had different agents from sailing to sailing. Our first agent was nonexistent and pretty useless. He clearly didn’t want to be where he was. One cabin in our group was on the other side of the ship and had different agents than the rest of us, and they lucked out. Both of their agents were excellent and ended up taking care of our entire group. So the lesson here is that your experience is TOTALLY dependent upon your agent, so good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor.
The bad:
The app, the app, the app. In fact, the ship’s entire IT system was god-awful. It greatly hindered a lot of the experience. While I had minimal expectations for the wi-fi (which were met), others in our group had issues with wi-fi working consistently. Then there’s the app itself. It was clunky, hard to navigate, crashed frequently, and often had incorrect or duplicate information. The app was universally hated by guests and employees, so much so that its awfulness was a punchline in several shows. There was no quick-view to see what food or activities were available at the moment, no map of the ship, and no way to message other guests in your party. All of this is pretty baffling given that the company had the opportunity to build an entire system from the ground up using current technology.
Continuing the technology theme, whatever system employees were using to place drink and food orders is equally as awful as the app. Ordering a simple vodka soda could take up to a minute or two for the server to work their way through the clunky system. And this had to be repeated for each drink. This led to long wait times at bars, especially when they were busier. Same for the restaurants.
This cruise is NOT for a larger group. Getting reservations at a restaurant for 8-12 people was a challenge and often impossible. The other spaces in the ship simply can't accommodate a group of more than 6.
Getting reservations for dinner at all was challenging, even for a group of 4. The ship doesn’t seemingly have the capacity to accommodate all guests in the restaurants for dinner. Which brings me to food availability: if you don’t get a reservation and end up in The Galley for dinner, good luck. Half the places were not open for dinner and the food variety was overall lacking during the dinner hour. This was pretty disappointing given the otherwise good quality of food.
Finally, getting a suite doesn’t get you much beyond the room and Rooftop access. On other cruise lines suites get priority for dining reservations, events, and excursions. Not the case here. It is what it is, so just keep that in mind should you choose to book a suite.
All in all, the good far outweighed the bad. The things that were the biggest disappointments are easily fixable, so I’m hopeful Virgin will straighten things out for an overall excellent experience the next time we cruise. The concept works well, the execution needs improvement.
