We woke up and had breakfast in the Galley. Then at 10:30 we went to the pool deck. I dropped CSP off on a comfy lounger and I went in to The Tune Up for a pedicure. The nail polish on my 4th toe on my right foot had fallen completely off! It was driving me bananas and we still have Sailor Loot to spend, so I decided to treat myself. I haven’t had a pedicure in years! I always do my own. The Tune Up is on the pool deck and the floor to ceiling windows give you amazing sea views while you’re being pampered.
While Sheela was working on me, the lady next to me was getting a hydration IV!!! ON A SHIP!!! I’ve had quite a few IVs in my life, but never voluntarily and never on a moving vessel in the ocean! It was wild!
After my pedicure, (I chose red since we’re on Virgin),
I collected CSP and we stopped back by our room for a minute then went to Trivia at the Social Club. Adam the Spark was hosting this trivia!
We hadn’t seen him all week! He was the Happenings cast member who welcomed us onto the ship and remembered me from our last cruise.
We chatted after trivia a bit and he told me that working on the Happenings cast on Virgin Voyages is his dream job! He’s such a delight and has the best British accent.
After trivia we went shopping on High Street in all the wee boutiques. We didn’t find anything that we had to have though. Then we took the opportunity to take pictures in the Manor’s entry way since there wasn’t a show currently, so no one else was around.
We then went to lunch at the Pizza Place. Afterwards we went up to the pool deck to chill out but it was super crowded and the music was too loud (or maybe we’re just too old!). We couldn’t find anywhere to hang out in the shade so we went down to the lounge area on deck 7 to read and chill. That’s one thing about Virgin’s ships, there is no shortage of places to go relax with a book!
A while later we went to the Virgin Voyage’s store and bought some Virgin Voyages shirts (I can wear them to work). Then it was time to go back to our room to freshen up for trivia and dinner. This trivia was celebrity trivia and we won again! We won 2 free drinks! Yay!!! This time, instead of gift cards for the drinks, the trivia host took us straight to the bar and had us order 2 drinks right then.
CSP chose an Old Fashioned and I got some rum fruity drink I can’t remember the name of now, but it was good!
CSP also got himself a Guinness before dinner.
Dinner tonight was in Razzle Dazzle.
Oh no!!! I JUST realized CSP’s eyes are closed!!! Doh!The famous carrots!CSP’s Mahi MahiDelicious fried chickenNashville Hot CauliflowerMushroom saladSmoked creme brulee
We snapped a couple of pictures on the way back to our room after dinner- the ship is so modern and cool!
And that’s it for today! Tomorrow we are at the beautiful island of Bimini, where Virgin has their own beach club!
Today we are in beautiful Cozumel, Mexico! It’s a gorgeous day!!! There are 8 (!!!) ships in port today! We are docked next to the MSC World America.
We woke up and got ready for the day then went to brunch at Razzle Dazzle.
I got the acai bowlI also had the waffleThe famous cruffin!I got the blueberry green tea cheesecake for dessert.
I’m not a fan of cake, so I got the blueberry green tea cheesecake for dessert. I should have gotten the razzle cake!!! Oh well, now we have another reason to book another Virgin Voyage!
CSP had the salmon bowl and the mushroom tartare. He really liked both! And of course he had a cruffin and their famous bacon!
We saw Abby Lee Miller! She came in to Razzle Dazzle for brunch while we were there. I snuck a photo.
She’s the dark haired lady in the black.
We decided to stay on the ship today and take advantage of an empty ship! So after brunch we changed into our swimsuits and headed up to the X shaped pool. It’s like a giant hot tub without the hot. There are bubbles! It rained on us a bit.
That’s the MSC World America there next to us with the water slides.
After we had our fill of the pool, we grabbed a light lunch at the Galley, then stopped at the future cruise desk to ask some questions. If you book another cruise while you’re on board you get a great deal, including some sailor loot (on board credit).
We went up to the top deck to take a look at Cozumel.
Then it was back to the cabin for nap time!
CSP fell asleep in the hammock! We woke up and got dressed really quick to go to the Roundabout to hear the Myth of Scarlet Night. That was interesting!
Then we raced back to our room to shower and dress for dinner at the Wake. I wore my red dress and CSP wore a navy shirt and khaki pants. HA! He doesn’t have anything red yet!
Grace from the Philippines was our server. She is SO nice! She let us ask her a lot of questions about crew life. Also, we were able to request a table by the window to see the wake of the ship. Love that!
the pull apart bread and herb butter is SOOOOOOOO good!!!I got the bread puddingCSP got the coconut panna cotta
I totally forgot to take photos of our entrees! I had the shrimp and grits and CSP had a steak.
When we went back to our stateroom after dinner we noticed our balcony was bathed in red light. Another sailor snapped the photo below from the dock in Cozumel. How cool is this???
This morning slept in a bit then we went to breakfast in the Galley. It was so busy! I was seated and eating while CSP was getting his breakfast food. This man came up to me and asked if he could sit with me. I said yes, so he sat down. CSP was surprised to see our guest when he came back and he gave me quite the look! Ha! Our guest was from West Virginia. We chatted a bit, but when CSP came back Mr. West Virginia finished up really quick and took off without another word!
After breakfast we went to our cabin to get ready for the day. We noticed the safe wasn’t working so we told Roel, our stateroom attendant. Maintenance was there to fix the safe within 10 minutes and the safe was fixed in 3 minutes flat! Great service!
Then we went down to Sip Lounge for afternoon tea. So nice! Regular afternoon tea is $19 each, or you can get tea with champagne as well for $35 each. You get unlimited tea and they bring a 3 tiered tray with all sorts of delectable delights!
^^^Scones . 2 savory and 2 regular.
^^^ The sweets. Look at that rainbow cake!!! Everything was delicious!
^^^ Finger sandwiches. V fancy!
CSP is a coffee guy but he enjoyed his first afternoon tea!
They served the tea in clear glass teapots. We felt v fancy! It was also v relaxing to sit and people watch for a couple hours while enjoying tea and snacky snacks.
After tea, we went to trivia. Then to music trivia at On The Rocks bar at the Roundabout, and we did TERRIBLY!!! Back to the social club where I taught CSP how to play Rummikub. Then we played food and beverage trivia…and we won! Well, I won. CSP tried to help on a couple of questions. lol. But CSP’s standard answer is “BOB” and he’s convinced one day he’ll be right! LOL
When trivia was over you had to stand up and wooo! Then stay standing and woooing if you had more than 10 right, then 15 right, etc. etc. I got 27 right and was the only one yelling Woo! The guy who was hosting trivia said “That one little woo”. LOL. We won two free drinks! Fun!
After trivia we went to get our free coffee drinks then went up to our room to freshen up for dinner. Dinner tonight was at Pink Agave. We turned in our free drink coupons and CSP got a Toda La Noche and I chose a coconut margarita- so good!
We were seated for dinner next to a couple from Rocky Mount, NC! Small world! On the other side of us was a solo sailor. Virgin Voyages is GREAT for solo travelers! They even have cabins built just for solo sailors.
Street CornPescadoChicken Enchiladas
After dinner we grabbed my tumbler from our room, refilled it at the Galley, then went to the Dock at the back of the ship on deck 7 for Stargazers. We got great seats- a wee love seat. And two of the happenings cast told us stories under the stars – old legends etc. It was so nice!
The wake is so beautiful!The moon was so bright tonight!
On the way back to our cabin I grabbed a quick handmade popsicle.
These are available in the Galley and the flavors change each day!
After our fabulous nap, we showered and got ready for dinner. Dinner tonight was at The Wake- arguably the fanciest restaurant on the ship. We were seated next to a couple we met on our stingray excursion today! She said to me- “Oh! I hardly recognized you guys with clothes on!” Ha!!!
CSP got a steakCSP’s clam chowderI got the roasted chickenAsparagus & Twice baked potatoesMushroomsWedge saladMyer Lemon CheesecakeCoconut Panna Cotta- Delicious!
We found out that there’s a celebrity on our cruise! Abby Lee Miller from Dance Moms is sailing with us. I don’t know her, but I’ve heard of the show. I’m going to keep an eye out to see if we can spot her!
After dinner we went to the Manor for a show. Tonight’s show started at 10:15, so it’s a good thing we took a nap today! The show is called Lola’s Library.
It’s a wild, immersive show with storytelling, acrobatics, and singing. All of the shows on Virgin are so different from anything we’ve ever seen! They are really great, just makes it hard to describe! As the show was starting, the cast weaved through the crowd interacting with everyone. ***Warning- Lola’s Library is a bit risquè, so keep that in mind.*** But it IS an adults only cruise line!
After the show we went to the galley for ice and water then went to bed.
We woke up early and went to the Galley for breakfast. Then we went to the meet up point on the ship to board the tender. The meet up point was at the Roundabout in the middle of the ship.
Virgin is v organized with the tender boats, and we were on our tender with minimal waiting. While we were waiting on the tender boat to leave for shore, we saw a sailor boarding the tender wearing a baseball cap that read “I’m sorry about my husband”!!! SO funny!!!
We walked through the cruise terminal area, consulted our map and set off on foot to find Captain Marvin’s for our excursion.
Our ship, the Resilient Lady, as seen from Georgetown, Grand Cayman.
We walked for an HOUR before we finally found it!!! Captain Marvin’s is in the TINIEST office/store front I’ve ever seen in my life!!! Barely bigger than a telephone booth! And it’s located directly in front of the cruise terminal! We’d walked right past it! DOH! Luckily we were on the first tender and our tour didn’t start until 10 am so we found the store just in time. Whew! We took a short bus to the boat.
Our crew for the day were Aster, JJ, and Fred. All v nice men who are v knowledgeable. We boarded the boat and set off. There were only about 25-30 people in our group. We stopped in V V choppy water so people could snorkel for about a half hour.
It was pretty cold and choppy so I opted out of snorkeling. CSP hopped in the water for a bit, though he had a hard time snorkeling because he couldn’t get a good seal on his snorkel mask because of his beard.
Note the buckets of squid!!!
Then everyone boarded the boat again and we set off to our main destination- STINGRAY CITY!!! We were so excited!!! We hadn’t swam with the stingrays in years!
If you’ve never heard of stingray city, it’s a sandbar out near Grand Cayman where the fishermen would stop and clean their catches each day. They’d throw the fishy leftovers over the sides of their boats into the water. The stingrays figured out that if they hung around that sandbar, they’d get fed regularly. Aster gave us squid to feed the stingrays. Stingrays have eyes on their tops and mouths on their undersides and they suck the squid up out of your fist. They gave both me and CSP hickeys on our hands!!!
They are completely wild and are not in captivity in any way. They are so sweet and playful and friendly- the puppies of the sea! JJ would hold a stingray (the large ones are the females) and we could pet it.
JJ and a male stingray. The females are MUCH larger.
JJ would even say to the stingrays “Give kisses” and they’d hold up their faces for kisses!
Soon there were stingrays everywhere so we could hold them ourselves! Fred was in charge of taking photos of all of us and I don’t know how he did it, but he got great shots!
The water was super choppy because of a cold front coming in so I was constantly getting knocked off my feet!
I got smacked in the face! Bahahaha!!! They are so soft, so it didn’t hurt!
CSP is 6 feet 5 inches tall, so he didn’t have a problem like my short self did!!!
Look how BIG this stingray is!!!
We were able to spend about an hour with the stingrays, then we all got back on the boat to go snorkel up by a barrier reef. It was cold and rough out in the water, so we skipped getting wet again. One guy, we’ll call him Andy, got SO seasick from the boat bouncing around. I felt so bad for him. So did his FIL. So they just laid there on the floor of the boat. But then they didn’t know where Andy’s wife (and FIL’s daughter) went. So FIL (who was probably in his 70s) would just lay there screaming for her! We’ll call her Amanda. So every 2 minutes you’d hear “AMANDA!!! AMANDA WHERE ARE YOU?? AMANDA ARE YOU THERE??” By the 3rd or 4th call for AMANDA!!! I was about ready to snatch her up out of the ocean myself! She had gone snorkeling by the reef but didn’t tell them or they didn’t remember. Oy. LOL
The boat took us back to the dock (which interestingly was in a neighborhood. Like, you’re driving on the bus on a main road, then we turned into a neighborhood, then boom there are the boats. Wild! ). So we got back on the bus that took us back to town to Captain Marvin’s. By the way, they drive on the opposite side of the road in Grand Cayman and gas was running about $5 a gallon. Since we’d seen so much of Georgetown on foot earlier that morning, CSP and I went straight to the tender to get back on the ship. We hightailed it up to the Galley for a late lunch, then went to our stateroom for a nap. Is there anything better than peeling off a wet bathing suit and taking a nap in a nice, cold room when you have a full belly??
Next up…dinner at the fancy restaurant and a v v interesting show!!!
Today was a sea day! Before I jump into how we spent the day, I want to tell you a bit about Virgin Voyages as a cruise line. It’s an ADULTS ONLY cruise line. So, no one under the age of 18 on board. And that makes for a very quiet, relaxing vibe. No kids running up and down the hallways! The halls are quiet. Now, don’t get me wrong, if you’re looking to party you can definitely party on Virgin!!! There are lots of bars and night clubs and hot spots and parties!!! But if you’re looking for a relaxing week where you can keep to yourself and read a book in peace, you can totally have that too.
We slept in a little, woke up at 9. Up to the Galley for breakfast. There are no buffets on Virgin. Instead they have the Galley- a food hall concept with different stations where you are served. There are also grab and go options. And you can always be served by raising the flag at your table, and a crew member will come over and take your order then deliver your food. I got the yummy French Toast.
CSP got some ramen. He said “I’ve been craving this since we left!” I personally can’t eat spicy ramen for breakfast but CSP LOVES it!
He also had his daily salmon.
While we were eating, Vikos (a server from Extra Virgin) spotted us and came over to say hi. He’s hilarious! He said he spotted me from across the room and that I was glowing. He asked CSP, how do you get work done being married to this woman who glows like this? SO sweet!!! I swear, I LOVE the crew on this ship!!!
After breakfast we went to Grounds Club for our free daily coffee drinks (since we have loyalty status).
After coffee we went to the gift shop to buy CSP the red Virgin blanket
and me the bejeweled purple tumbler.
CSP fell in love with the red blanket (there’s one on every bed in the cabins) on our last cruise. Now, let me tell you about the deal we got on this cruise. We booked this cruise about a year and a half ago. I purchased a MNVV certificate from my boss. MNVV stands for My Next Virgin Voyage. She had a bunch of these certificates that she bought when she was on her Virgin cruise. The certificate cost $300. In exchange for the $300 we got $300 off the cost of our cruise, plus $600 in on board credit (that can be used anywhere on the ship) AND $200 in bar tab (to be used on alcohol). What an amazing deal!!! So we bought the blanket and tumbler with the on board credit (called Sailor Loot).
After shopping we went to the casino and blew through $20 on the slots. Then we lined up for the Bingo with the Diva bingo card sale.
Bingo with the Diva is incredibly popular so you have to line up early just to buy the cards. Then we waited 45 minutes after buying our cards for the bingo to start! BUT we got great seats.
Bingo was PACKED!!!
Wesley the Diva and Megan the Bounce hosted the bingo. It was so fun and entertaining! We only played 4 games, but dang – the prizes were amazing! Big money! The largest jackpot on the 4th game was $1900!!! We unfortunately didn’t win. Whomp whomp.
So many insta worthy spots on the ship!!
Next we went to the Galley for salads and drinks- a late lunch. Afterwards we went back to our room to pack our day bag for tomorrow. CSP didn’t trust the waterproof phone case I brought so I had to do a water test on the phone case to prove to my skeptical husband that his phone would be safe. LOL Mine is just slightly too big for the case, which passed the test. Yay! We were about to go to the Dock for Opa Hour but it started raining pretty hard. So we took a nap instead. We woke up then got ready for dinner.
Dinner tonight was at Razzle Dazzle.
I got the Nashville Hot Cauliflower as my starter. OMG. We both loved this SO MUCH!!! It doesn’t even taste like cauliflower at all. And it is SO crispy! I can’t figure out how they cook it. Amazing. We also got the famous smoked carrots but I didn’t realize my picture is blurry.
Pretend it’s art. Ha! Those carrots are incredible. For our main courses, CSP chose the mahi mahi
and I got the leek pasta. SO good!
For dessert we shared the rum apple cake. Yum!
The cinnamon ice cream was to die for! After dinner we went straight back to our room for bed because tomorrow we have to get up super early for our excursion in Grand Cayman!!! Stay tuned!!!
We freshened up for dinner and our show then went to the Sip bar where CSP got himself an Old Fashioned. I had filled up my tumbler earlier. We waited for the Red Room to open then got seats upstairs.
The show tonight was Persephone, or as CSP called it- PURSE A PHONE. Bless! LOL. The way this show is presented is that the crowd doesn’t sit in rows of chairs, but rather they stand and the show is v immersive and is all around the crowd. But I have bad knees so hence, we went upstairs and grabbed seats in the balcony. The show is SO GOOD! It’s gripping and funny and features amazing acrobatics and aerial work. Click the pics to enlarge. I was amazed that these performers would be flipping all around and hanging from the ceiling with NOTHING under them but hard floor!
I’m telling you, the talent on this ship is incredible!!!
After the show we stopped by the Virgin Voyages branded gift shop to take a look around. Then it was time for dinner!
Dinner tonight was at Extra Virgin- the Italian restaurant on board. We were seated at the same exact table where we sat on the last cruise last month! This time our server was Marko from Bosnia. He is hilarious!
CSP got the mussels and charcuterie board for his appetizers. I tried the meatballs.
For my entree I chose the chicken ….
and for my pasta I chose the ricotta gnudi.
SO delicious! CSP chose the sea bass, which he ate on the last cruise too, and I forgot to take a photo of it.
For dessert CSP chose affogato….
and I chose the bomboloni. SO yummy!
After dinner we were exhausted from this long day so we went back to our room and right to bed! Next up… tomorrow is our first sea day!
Today we are going on another Virgin Voyages cruise on the Resilient Lady!!! This cruise we booked over a year and a half ago, wayyyyy before I won our last Virgin cruise! Yesterday we set off from home to West Palm Beach. We stopped at Buc-ee’s (natch) in Brunswick, GA for lunch.
The only problem with Buc-ee’s is that you have to eat in your car because they don’t have tables. We finally made it to our hotel in West Palm Beach, FL after an uneventful drive. We stayed at the Homewood Suites by Hilton. LARGE room, very clean.
This morning we woke up, had our free breakfast at the hotel, then got gas before hitting the road for Port Miami!
These birds at the gas station cracked me up! SO unbothered.
Our port arrival time was 2:45 PM. We arrived at about 2:00 PM and found our parking spot. We were so excited for this cruise!
We walked over to the terminal from the parking garage at about 2:20 PM and found that they were already letting our boarding group get on the ship. Embarkation was easy peasy and quick. We were walking down the gangway to the ship when I spotted Adam the Spark. Virgin ships don’t have cruise directors like most cruise ships do. They have the Happenings Cast instead- a group of people with different specialties who lead the sailors in activities all around the ship. Adam the Spark hosted most of the trivia tournaments on our last cruise. Anyway, I was about to board the ship and Adam was greeting the sailors. He saw me and yelled “She’s back! It’s my gorgeous girl with the purple hair!!!” I couldn’t believe he remembered me! We had only had one conversation on our last cruise! Apparently I’m famous! LOL
After boarding we went straight to our room, 10102Z, to drop our carryon bags. I had a surprise for CSP. I hadn’t told him that I’d booked us a special room with a larger balcony (without having to pay more!). It’s all because of the way the ship is designed that 10102Z’s balcony juts out a bit at an angle, providing us with a good deal more room out there than the standard Sea Terrace room.
Here is a full tour of the room (don’t worry, it’s still just a couple minutes long) :
As soon as we dropped our bags, our room steward Roel came by to introduce himself. SO nice! I took pictures of the room and filmed the above tour. BTW, this time around I found the included hair dryer! It is in a black bag on the black shelf in the black closet. No wonder I missed it last cruise! It’s a wee travel hair dryer though, so if you need more power than a stiff breeze to dry your hair, I suggest bringing your own!
We watched the safety video,
then we opened the door to go check in at our muster station and found our luggage had been delivered that quickly!!! So efficient! We brought our suitcases inside then checked in at our muster station. We got our free coffee drinks from the Grounds Club on deck 7 then decided to skip the Galley for lunch and went to the Pizza Place instead.
We chose to split the Pretty Fly for a White Pie pizza. Look at how much red pepper CSP topped his half with!!! I don’t know how he has any tastebuds left!!!
After lunch we went back to our room to unpack and set up the room for the week. We bring magnetic hooks to attach to the walls for extra storage, and we had to set up our CPAP machines.
My mom called as we were unpacking, so I chatted with her and Hale while CSP talked to his parents from the balcony.
We set sail at 5 PM and we watched sail away from our balcony.
Just like our last cruise, we sailed past MSC’s World America.
In the above video you can hear our neighbors, who were from NY and were v vocal! LOL
Miami is not our favorite port, but she sure does have a gorgeous sky line!
I took advantage of the large balcony and hopped into the hammock.
I knew CSP would be occupying that hammock the rest of the week so I had to sneak in some time in it while I could!
It was now time to get dressed and freshen up for dinner and our show.
Ahoy! This morning we woke up at 6 am to get dressed and get breakfast up in the Galley. Then we went back to our cabin to get our luggage. We decided to take our own luggage off the ship since we have such a long drive home, so we wouldn’t have to take time to find our luggage in the terminal. Debarkation was FAST, and v organized, and easy! We went from our cabin to our car in like 15 minutes. V nice! There was a recycle bin on the way out of the terminal for our bracelets, or you could keep them as a souvenir.
FULL DISCLOSURE- I didn’t want to end our recap of our first Virgin Voyage without mentioning how we came to go on this cruise. I am a Vacation Consultant for Expedia Cruises and back in May of this year I went to a Virgin Voyages roadshow presentation. Then I booked quite a few Virgin Voyages for clients. A couple of months later I received an email saying that because I attended the roadshow then booked at least 3 Virgin Voyages, I was entered into a contest to win a Virgin Voyage, and I WON!!! I could pick any cruise I wanted as long at is sailed in 2025. I immediately called CSP and we figured out when he could get off work that matched up with a sailing, and we chose this one. We had to pay taxes and fees, but that was a small price to pay to experience this fabulous cruise line! We are endlessly grateful to Virgin and my BDM Tracy for this cruise!!!
I also wanted to make sure to leave our review of our stateroom. We were in 13126Z, which was a central Sea Terrace stateroom.
First of all, I love that there’s a doorbell (no more wondering if that knocking noise is for us or the people next door). There are also buttons on the wall in the closet, next to the stateroom door for Do Not Disturb and Spill (just in case you make a mess that needs immediate attention).
The closet is spacious, but there aren’t enough hangers. That’s easily remedied by asking your room attendant for extras. We had plenty in no time flat! There are lots of drawers and shelves and 2 baskets. We couldn’t fill up all the space we had for our clothes.
It’s so nice to have fresh water in your room daily. You have the choice of still or sparkling or both.
The vanity is a good size and comes with 2 little shelves/cubbies. I would love it if it had 2 drawers, then it would be perfect. I pack all my toiletries in zipper pouches so it was easy enough to put them in the cubbies, and I just kept my makeup in my cosmetics bag.
There are a TON of electrical outlets in the room. This made us V V happy as both CSP and I use CPAP machines. There is an outlet on each side of the bed so no need for extension cords like on other cruise lines. Plus each outlet has USB ports. NICE!
I looked everywhere, but could not find a hairdryer, although Virgin does provide a hot tools mat for your flat iron. So be sure to pack a hair dryer.
LOVE the C shaped table you can move around the room. V handy. And love having a full length mirror right there in the room.
The cabin is mostly v quiet unless someone slams a door. Otherwise, you’d think you’re the only people on the ship.
Bathroom- good amount of counter space. Also, there are glasses in the bathroom as well as on the vanity, so no shortage there. The shower is large for a cruise ship. You have the rain shower head and a handheld. This shower has the BEST water pressure of any shower I’ve ever taken! CSP too! Virgin provides shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Plus there’s hand soap by the sink. There were only 2 bath towels and 1 bath mat, so we asked for more towels and got them v quickly. They provided makeup cloths and wash cloths. The lighting in the bathroom is really good.
The lighting in the cabin was not nearly bright enough to do hair and makeup at the vanity, so I was v glad I brought my lighted travel makeup mirror. There are light switches by both sides of the bed too. V convenient. The bed was really comfortable. Four pillows, plus a couple throw pillows. There’s a huge drawer in the low table by my side of the bed where I kept my packing cubes. The low table also had a tray (I saw a couple people on the cruise carrying food back to their room on their trays).
There’s a tablet on the vanity that controls everything in your room from opening and closing the curtains, to the lighting, to the tv.
The balcony features two metal (but comfy) chairs, a small table, and the famous Virgin hammock. It’s v comfy and easy to get in and out of. CSP spent a LOT of this cruise in that hammock! Also, our balcony had an overhang so it stayed dry when it was raining in port. The hammocks are hand made by women in Thailand.
Overall we loved our spacious, comfortable, modern stateroom!
As for our thoughts on our first Virgin Voyage overall, we LOVED it! We can’t wait to take another Virgin Voyage! The food was excellent. The entertainment was great- you could always find something to do or you could always find a place to lounge and do nothing. The ship is modern and clean and beautiful. The crew are so friendly and helpful, plus they seem really happy and to really like each other. The app has a lot of room for improvement, and we told Virgin this in our post cruise survey. But overall the app was more helpful than not, and you can still get paper daily newsletters at the coffee shops or sailor services.
Virgin is so innovative and dedicated to sustainability and the environment and that’s wonderful in our opinions. The overall vibe on the ship is relaxed and laid back. There aren’t a bunch of announcements throughout the day like on other cruises. You don’t get bombarded with sales pitches for gold by the inch etc. And we had wondered if we’d be too old, if it was going to be a party ship since there are no kids. There ARE bars and clubs and parties- but if you want to skip them you can and there’s still plenty to do. Also, having the wearable, waterproof bracelet instead of a cruise card is SO handy and freeing. No forgetting your key card in the room and locking yourself out! No digging a card out of your wallet or pocket. No having to wear a lanyard. It’s great!
If you’d like to take a Virgin Voyage, let me know- I’d love to help you plan an amazing cruise with Virgin! And watch this space…we’ll be taking another Virgin Voyage before long!!!
Today we are visiting the beautiful island of Bimini!
We went up to the Galley for breakfast and it was PACKED! We grabbed our breakfast but could NOT find a table anywhere, so we ended up eating in overflow seating in Gunbae.
Looks like a beautiful day out there! We went back to the room to sunscreen up, change into our swimsuits, and pack a day bag. We got off the ship and walked over to where the tram picks you up. On the way, we watched the coolest looking boat dock.
It totally looks like something from a Bond movie!
Our ship- the Resilient Lady.
The tram is free and v handy.
We arrived at the Virgin Voyages Beach Club in like 10 minutes. Here’s a map of the Beach Club. If you remember, I can’t take off my shoes and walk on the sand OR get in the pool or ocean. Whomp whomp. So instead of going to the beach or the pool, we headed over to Belvedere Beach and grabbed a couple of V comfortable loungers under umbrellas (because your girl is PALE).
Gorgeous day!
We read for a couple of hours, then we walked over to the food hut for drinks and a snack. The menu (all complimentary):
We shared the tropical fruit salad. Nothing else appealed to us. BTW, there are drink machines at the beach club too, along with alcoholic beverages at bars.
At around 1:30 PM we decided to head back to the ship to find some lunch onboard. We walked the short distance back to the main house and found that the line for the return trams was LONG. But a tram showed up just as we got in line. It loaded up everyone in front of us except the small group directly ahead of us in line. We were SO CLOSE! But that’s ok, the next tram will be along in about 15 minutes right? That’s what we were told. 45 minutes later, we were STILL waiting when the Rock Star tram felt sorry for us and gave the group ahead of us, CSP & me, and the small group behind us, a ride back to the ship. It took about 12 minutes to get back to the ship and we STILL did not see the return tram!!! While we were waiting, I was chatting with a crew member who told me they have 6 trams so she wasn’t sure what the hold up was. All I know is I’m SO glad we were there in December and not July when the heat is even worse while you’re standing in line!!!
After lunch in the Galley ….
The popsicles are CHEF’S KISS!!! I loved the peach, guava, and mango ones the best! They seem to be made right there on the ship!
…we grabbed chairs by the wee X pool.
CSP got in and swam around while I read.
Pro tip- the music isn’t as loud at this wee pool as it is at the main pool. Eventually it was time for us to go to the room to get showered and ready for dinner.
Dinner tonight is back at Razzle Dazzle.
CSP tried the tuna tartar for his appetizer.
CSP chose the Bleu burger for his entree, with fries. We shared the carrots again.
SOOOO yummy!
I went with the Leek dish. I can’t remember the name of the dish and I wasn’t sure what to expect. It turned out to be a leek pasta dish that was delicious!!!
For dessert we shared the baked pears.
After dinner we went to the Social Club for Scoop, There it Is!, which is a little game show with the Diva, the resident drag queen. I can’t believe it took a whole week before we got to see her!
Honestly, we found this “game show” to be boring. We would have gotten up and left if we wouldn’t have had to weave our way through the crowd. Judging by the faces of the other spectators in this photo ^^^^^ , we weren’t the only bored people. The Diva was talking about how she was tired and it showed. It was like they were just going through the motions. It was v ho hum. Kind of a bummer way to end our cruise.
We then went back to our room to pack and go to bed. Tomorrow we have an early morning as we’re back in Miami! Tune in for our stateroom review, debarkation, and overall review of Virgin Voyages!!!
Bless Your Heart 