Virgin Voyages
7 reviews
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The Mediterranean cruise we took with Virgin Voyages was overall a disappointment. We sailed on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady in September 2025 and wish to convey the following: Pros: The Hammock...what a winner idea! Breakfasts generally good. Some great singer entertainers on board. Plenty of really hot water. Breakfast fruit Bento boxes were… Read more
great. Ice-cream and popsicles were great. Burgers and fries were generally good.
Cons: Food in general monotonous... plain, boring and very limited in variety...school cafeteria grade, if not worse. Did not enjoy most of the strange offerings in the specialty restaurants. Service in many restaurants hit and miss. Food often slopped on plate in The Galley in an unappetising fashion. Almost always line-ups for most venues. Cabin was not thoroughly cleaned on arrival. Had to use sani-wipes on several surfaces, including outer edge of toilet bowl, as well as request cabin to be vacuumed as it clearly hadn't been. Limited storage if both "sailors" pack a medium suitcase. Bathroom tiny though shower size is good. Bathroom could use some shelving left of basin. No kettles in cabin and can't request one. Shows are generally lacklustre. Ship decor is very minimalist and industrial compared to other cruise lines. Some outdoor cushions in poor and dirty condition. The morning tea was awful...stale, crumbly scones, inedible sandwiches and desserts you could get for free from the Galley. (I literally felt sick after eating one of the sandwiches.)
Out of the 12 days and 13 nights for a Mediterranean cruise, there were a total of 7 sea days!
I think the quality of food, service and entertainment have deteriorated on this ship, given the positive reviews from a few years ago.
Again, really disappointed with this cruise experience as were so many others we spoke with...some from other countries, including Americans themselves who were cancelling future-booked Virgin cruises.
Positives 1. Friendly crew with a very positive attitude. 2. Very roomy cabin (even if the bathroom was a bit small) 3. The mode of food service versus self-service, plus the prepacks of salad, sushi & fruit. 4. The choice offered by a bar tab versus a tiered drinks package. 5. The quality of the live music acts. Negatives 1. Very… Read more
uncomfortable ‘industrial-style’ seating (ie hard metal bench seats & wooden chairs) and an over-abundance of lie-down day beds instead of comfortable seating. Seating height is poor as railings are directly in your eyeline.
2. The limited and monotonous selection of food in the Galley (general dining area).
3. Booking a restaurant was difficult – seats just weren’t available.
4. The live music acts are excellent but there’s limited variety (ie no country; no classic rock or country rock; and where’s the house music DJ?) and aren’t on frequently enough.
5. The app is cumbersome - no search facility for location/time of individual acts/events; no direct access to disembarkation process (ie tags & times).
6. Poor communication of food availability – eg we wouldn’t have known food was available on the Level 7 rear deck if one of the bar staff hadn’t told us!
7. Air-conditioning in the common areas was far too cold.
8. The ship took 23 hours to dock in Ibiza from Majorca, so we lost an on-shore day in Ibiza which was extremely disappointing; and then departed late afternoon the next day for Barcelona instead of evening.
Overall Comment
Great crew but a very limited food selection, restaurants are difficult to get into, seating is uncomfortable, live music entertainment is limited, climate control is poor, and the sailing schedule didn’t consider maximising guests’ on-shore time.
Virgin needs to improve guest comfort and value. Unfortunately, our experience didn’t live up to the hype.
- +4
Room for improvement all around – Was on the Resilient Lady from Melbourne to Hobart to try Virgin Voyages. Overall I was left disappointed in a lot of aspects due to Overcharging, restaurant Bookings issues, Entitlement of virgin Flight/ground crew onboard. During the voyage there were multiple occurrences of bar staff over charging for drinks (charging for 2 when only… Read more
purchasing 1, or charging drinks to the room without scanning the wristband). Once queries at sailor services the charges were resolved 1-2 days later (5 day cruise) would have good have to have these overcharges cleared up same day as with the preloaded credit (bar tab) it makes it more difficult to calculate especially when there is 20% that has been incorrectly charged.
Bookings were poorly managed overall for both shows and restaurants. Upon talking to other guests and staff there is a major updates needed as there were people with multiple restaurant bookings for the one night. This resulted in all bookings being booked out within an hour of being on board the boat. And the walk ins welcome isn’t accurate as were were waiting at the front of the line before restaurant opening and was turned away saying they weren’t accepting walk ins tonight, then 20mins later walked past for the bathroom and there were taking and seating walk ins.
Some isolated exceptional service factoring in the above I would like to thank personally [Name Removed] and [Name Removed] who both were exceptional with trying to address some of my groups concerns and gave some insights into the known errors and hoping they’ll be resolved soon.
Entitlement of Virgin flight/ground crew onboard from talks with onboard staff and guests there seemed to be a high number of Virgin crew onboard (due to discounts for staff) and they seemed very entitled and condescending to other guests which did damper the experience. I understand they are guests onboard too but if they are going to present themselves as virgin crew would have appreciated some modesty and mild professionalism.
App overall needs to be improved as it isn’t consistent the Bar tab isn’t viewable on any of the guests I was travelling with and had to manually calculate how much was left. Amenities overall were clean and well laid out etc. Nothing exceptional but overall good.
NO CUSTOMER SUPPORT – Have tried now for 2 weeks to have someone at their customer support answer a simple question. So far 3 emails and a call that I was left hanging on for 30 minutes (still unanswered) means I cannot get the answer
- +1
WOW. Awesome Virgin Voyages Resilient Lady – Wow. There are great cruises. Then there is Virgin. A whole new level. Richard Branson doesn’t do it like everyone else. His cruises are next level. The ship is brand new and shiny. The staff are obviously happy working for Virgin and it shows. They enjoy their jobs, they don’t appear stressed. They are lovely and friendly. They are themselves -… Read more
tatts, piercings and all. The restaurants, instead of dining rooms, is fabulous. Different culinary experiences from Korean cooked in front of you … such fun …. to pasta and steak/seafood. All were great. The bars are wonderful. So many places to sit and relax. The sip Bar/Champagne bar is wonderful. All soft drinks and (non fresh squeezed) juices, water (still & sparkling), icecream (scooped not soft serve - loads of flavours - waffle cones of chocolate, vanilla, strawberry), popcorn, lollies, etc. are all free. Snacks on the back deck are prawns. At the sail away party bubbles (champagne) were free and plentiful. Again on scarlet night. Richard is not shy with the free bubbles … never had that on other lines not even Cunard. We had a Sea Terrace Balcony. It was roomy although the bathroom is very small (my only negative). The spa area is lovely …. magnesium pool, mud room, pink salt room, hot tub, cold tubs, heated marble slabs and more. Very relaxing. Pool areas were nice with big lounge areas to sit out of the sun. The shows were great albeit a bit risque. We enjoyed them. They were audience inclusive so lots of standing. The impromptu snippets around the bars etc. were awesome. All in all l would highly recommend a Virgin cruise if you are looking for a great time that is different to the way most other cruiselines operate. It was FABULOUS. Thank you Richard Branson for again switching it up and thinking outside the box.
Virgin Voyages not to be trusted – I received an email asking me to complete a survey for a $200 onboard credit. The survey was lengthy and took approximately 30 minutes. The survey stated: “As a thank you, we will send you $200 in onboard credit to use on your next voyage (credit will be shared within two weeks for surveys completed in full). We encourage you to respond quickly,… Read more
as this survey will only be available for a limited time. And rest assured, your answers will be kept completely confidential.
As someone who will get to experience our lady ship, your input is incredibly valuable. Would you be willing to help us out?” Our cruise is for March 5th 2024. Nothing was said about an access key being sent for a ‘ next’ (meaning future cruise). It also said “As someone who will get to experience our lady ship”. When I called customer service, I was told that the survey was for feedback on a past cruise. I explained that the wording indicated it is for someone who will get to experience the ship. I believe that the Survey email was deliberately misleading as no mention of an access key for a future booking after our ‘next’ cruise was indicated in the email. The access key was for our next, after our next (March 5th 2024) cruise. There are 7 couples in our party booked on the same cruise and all filled out the survey with the same understanding, and expectation that the credit would apply to our next forthcoming 2024 already booked cruise.
Don’t bother filling out the survey if you have already booked a cruise, or are booking through a travel agent cruise site. Booking direct from Virgin Voyages website is far more expensive, so the sweetener of $200 onboard credit is definitely not worth it.
WARNING - BOOKING WITH VIRGIN CRUISES FROM AUSTRALIA – Found a good deal with Virgin Cruises on their website. Site stated A700 cruise credit, so made the booking thinking it was in AUD. No where during the booking process did the site ever display that the booking total was in USD. It was only when we received payment confirmation and noticed right at the bottom on the receipt that the total was in USD. Just be extra careful. Luckily we were able to cancel the booking and receive a full refund.
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