In all of our years of traveling, we had never been on any of the Virgin Voyages Cruise Ships… until now. We embarked in Barcelona, Spain to do a Trans Atlantic to Miami, and then to do a back to Back cruise on the same ship, and same room in the Caribbean.
We SOLD our house in Canada in early 2023 and have been cruising on ships around the world. We have tried so many different cruise lines, and have always been asked which our favorite ship is… Well, I actually think that one of our favorite cruise lines now, is Virgin Voyages.
OUR OBSERVATIONS OF THE VALIANT LADY
Most everything on this ship ran pretty smoothly. There are so many things that we noticed right off the bat, such as…
1. There are NO kids anywhere. We were worried that although this ship has "No Children", we figured that it would be packed full of 20 year old people just partying all of the time. On our trans Atlantic cruise, this was definitely not the case. I would say that the actual average age on this ship would have been around the mid 50's on the transatlantic, and perhaps in the early 40's for the Caribbean 7 day cruise. Either way, we really felt right at home, and fit right into the environment.
2. The entire ship staff all seem truly happy, and interested in the passengers and their job. The staff gets to be a part of the passengers… for example, they get to eat in the same areas, they get to dance, drink, interact… it is obvious that they are encouraged to make sure that passengers are having a nice time, but it is because the staff is happy too!
3. The ship has a constant cool vibe to it… whether it is because of an inclusive evening show, or you are walking through an empty area of the ship alone…. There is chill music throughout, and it sets the tone for everything.
4. During the 14 day trans Atlantic, the ship NEVER EVER felt crowded. We always felt like there was somewhere to sit, and that the entire ship of passengers and crew seem to respect everyone’s space. People were always very polite. For example, people would hold doors open for one another in the elevators; when people would talk with you, you could tell they were actually LISTENING to what you would say... in other words, nobody seemed rushed.
On the other hand, the 7 day Caribbean cruise was different. There were a lot of people packed together, it was very difficult to find places to sit, and it felt extremely crowded everywhere we went. More people would look out for themselves, and not be as respectful for other people's space.
5. Virgin Cruises will not get nickel and dimed for anything. We had actually received free drinks for participating in some activities, and we have played a few games which gave us a few bonuses, and we always found that there was a special for the next voyage that you can actually combine with other deals that you will find. We found our voyage to be very generous in prizes, giving random tokens of appreciation, drinks and more.
In addition to this, we experienced a bar credit, free gratuities, free wifi... we didn't have to spend money on anything, and we didn't end up with an additional bill at the end of our cruises.
6. There is a great selection of vegan choices in all of the restaurants. The food isn’t your typical same old same old either. .. the food experience is pretty incredible and it does change from week to week. In fact, there is no real "buffet", most of the food is in a restaurant style setting, or a take-out style, which was very convenient in all cases.
7. The customer service department is the best we have experienced on ANY cruise line thus far. They are always asking you about your experience, they follow up, they listen, and they solve any issues immediately. For us, we think that this is where Virgin Valiant Lady really shined!
EMBARKATION, B2B, AND DISEMBARKATION ON THE VALIANT LADY
Embarkation
Embarkation Day was pretty much a disaster in our eyes. We had been on a few other cruise lines at the same Barcelona terminal, and the other embarkations went so much smoother.
When you travel with Virgin, you are assigned an embarkation time. Don’t even bother trying to come outside of your time, or you will be turned away and forced to wait somewhere else.
When we arrived at the terminal, the lines were incredibly long, and it was apparent that a lot of people didn’t follow the rules of looking at their scheduled embarkation time. What resulted was a huge clump of people just standing and sitting around everywhere, that one could not even see where to go.
There was a long line just for dropping off your bags, and then you had to join another longer line to get into the embarkation terminal, and then a third to get to check in. Virgin does not give you luggage tags or anything, so they make the process a long one as someone literally hand writes out your luggage tag while you are in line dropping it off.
B2B (Back To Back)
Because we were on back-to-back cruises, we had to disembark and reembark just to go through customs. Normally, the entire process is about 15 minutes in total, however, the Virgin Valiant cruise managed to make this a 3 hour process.
On other cruise lines, we would normally go through the customs process, then go back onto the ship and enjoy an hour or two of having the ship basically to ourselves. Sadly, when we reembarked, everything on the ship was still closed, so we weren't able to sit in the hot tub, or do anything exciting before the next group of passengers embarked.
Disembarkation
We expected that the process of disembarking would be fairly quick, but it wasn't. We tried to leave the ship at 9:30am, and ended up in a line that took until 11am! Again, in comparison to other lines, this is the biggest weak spot that we could see on Virgin Voyages.
Once we finally got off of the ship, we were happy to see that our luggage was organized by floor numbers, so it was really easy for us to spot, and exit the terminal quite quickly.
We then called an UBER, who took literally 2 minutes to get there, even amongst the thousands of people still entering and exiting the cruise terminal. It was pretty efficient to get out of the terminal.
STATEROOM 12142Z ON THE VALIANT LADY
This stateroom is pretty spacious and bright. It has a queen sized bed that converts into a sofa, should you wish to have it set up that way. Unfortunately, there is only one service in your room per day, so the attendant doesn’t change the room from a living to a bedroom anymore… unless you specifically ask him to do so. (We didn’t as we didn’t want to end up sleeping on a couch at the end of the day.)
The Balcony
The balcony has 2 chairs, a table, and a standard red hammock. The balcony is all glass, so you can see right out and have nothing infringe your view. It is a standard size, and quite comfortable. On our transatlantic, there were very few people hanging out on the balcony, so it was never really loud or annoying as it could be in some cases. It was the exact opposite experience for our Caribbean cruise. We had to change rooms in the middle of our voyage because our neighbors love to party and invite people over, play their music, and be loud all day and night…
Almost every balcony has a red hammock. This is a huge highlight! We both spent a lot of time taking turns relaxing in the hammock. We both wished, however, that there were TWO, and not just one.
VEGAN FOOD ON THE VALIANT LADY
The food on this ship really is quite amazing. There are so many different venues around the ship to get great vegan choices any time of the day.
We spent time in places such as Razzle Dazzle, Gumbae, The Test Kitchen, Extra Virgin, and the Galley Kitchen.
Every single restaurant on the Valiant Lady has something vegan to eat. What we did learn very quickly, is that you have to ask for them to be creative, or to really examine the menu to see if they could combine different foods, to make something delicious to eat. For example, we went to the Extra Virgin Restaurant which does not have a vegan menu BUT we combined the sides from all of their other menu choices and ended up with so much delicious food including spinach, leeks, potatoes, broccoli polenta, mushrooms, and pasta.
You would also find that OPA hour, offered at the Dock, in the afternoon, offers many vegan options that are not on any menu, such as falafel, hummus, and cauliflower quinoa.
At the salad bar, they have tofu… you just have to know to ask for it, as you will not see it!
The point is, that YOU have to ask, and YOU have to think outside of the box. We have been very happy to eat fresh food for the entire 3 weeks that we have been on the Virgin Valiant Ship.
ENTERTAINMENT ON THE VALIANT LADY
The entertainment was unlike any other ship that we have ever been on. IT WAS SO FUN.
We experienced a variety of Diva Shows, Hostess Shows, Magic Shows, and Dance Parties. We also attended Scarlett Night Parties, PJ Party, Trivia, Games, Bingo, and so much more. This ship is literally packed with so many options.
You can participate or not… and there is NO shortage of things to do here!
We never experienced a huge crowd in any of the venues. We never felt squished together, and for the most part we were VERY comfortable on the ship.
In Summary of the Virgin Valiant Lady
We had experienced so many surprises throughout our two trips on this ship. We don't want to ruin any of the surprises for you, but all we can say is that overall, WE LOVE VIRGIN VOYAGES, (in particular the longer transatlantic voyage), and could not be happier with the experience that we have had on this ship.
It was worth every single cent that we paid, and more.
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