Bless Your Heart

We are going on our very first Virgin Voyage cruise and we are so excited!!! Yesterday we drove to Cape Canaveral. About 2 hours into our drive I realized I forgot to pack my flat iron! Yikes! CSP said “What is that? Is that something you use every day?” I explained what a flat iron is and that yes, I do use it each day. THANK GOODNESS for Target and their order online then drive up to pick it up service! When we stopped at Buc-ee’s for gas and food I ordered a flat iron from Target and then we picked it up on our way to our hotel a few hours later. Whew! We stayed at the Residence Inn by Marriott in Cape Canaveral.

Today we woke up at 6 am and I couldn’t get back to sleep so we got up and had breakfast there at the hotel. Then we got ready and packed the car back up and drove the remaining 4 hours to Miami. It would have only been about 3 hours 15 minutes but there were wrecks all over I95 and tons of traffic! And it’s Saturday!!! We got to the port of Miami and had to drive the loop THRICE before we saw the TINY sign for Terminal V. Parking is not fun at the port of Miami, but I finally found a space and we made our way to check in.

We checked in for our very first Virgin Voyage at about 2:35 PM. Our assigned port arrival time was 2:30 PM so we were able to walk right in without standing in line. We breezed through security and check in and then we boarded the Resilient Lady! Once you board a Virgin Voyage your room is ready for you so we went straight up to deck 13 room 13126Z to drop off our bags.

Our room is a Central Sea Terrace (translation- a balcony cabin centrally located midship). Here is a tour:

This is the panel outside our door. You hold your bracelet up to the (((.))) symbol to unlock the door (more on the bracelet later). There’s a doorbell (love that!), and the red light indicates Do Not Disturb, a blue light indicates Service Room.

The view of the room from the door.

The closet is the first thing you see on the left. There are 2 shelves with baskets.

There’s a small refrigerator on the left, then 2 cubbies, then a vanity/desk area with a stool.

There’s a chair (v comfortable) that’s next to a low table with a large drawer and a tray.

There is a red throw blanket on the end of the bed. There’s also a C shaped table that you can move all around the room.

The bathroom. There’s a good amount of counter space. The toilet is larger than most cruise ship toilets, which is nice. Tip- ask for extra towels right away. There were only 2 bath towels and one bath mat. There are also 2 hand towels and 2 makeup cloths.

When we got to our room there were also 2 beach towels on the low table. There’s room under the bed for your suitcases. The bed comes with 4 sleeping pillows and 2 throw pillows. The bed is firm, but v comfortable.

The rest of the bathroom. The mirror is lit and v large. There’s nice smelling hand soap on the sink. Your walk in shower is large for a cruise ship. They supply shampoo, conditioner, and body wash in pump bottles. There’s a little shelf, a rain shower head and also a handheld shower wand.

The balcony has 2 chairs, a small table, and a hammock, that CSP LOVES!

We watched the safety muster video on our phones. Our luggage was delivered super quickly so we brought that inside the room then went to check in at our muster station- The Test Kitchen (one of the restaurants onboard).

They had created a mermaid out of herbs on the counter in the Test Kitchen! So pretty!

After checking in for muster, we went up to the Galley for lunch. There is no buffet on Virgin Voyages (yay!). The Galley has a lot of different food stations where you can order food. I got a caprese panini and CSP got sushi.

The Galley was SUPER crowded! We got ice cream then went to the coffee bar for our free coffee drinks of the day (more on that later). Then we went back to our cabin where we met our cabin steward, Agus from Bali. He asked us to call him G. Super nice and helpful man. Then we unpacked and set up our room for the week.

This is a picture of the wearable Virgin gives you at check in. It’s an adjustable rope bracelet with a little anchor closure. The grey rectangle is what acts as your door unlocking mechanism. It also acts as your credit card onboard, as well as you tap in and tap out when you board and leave the ship. The bracelet is waterproof and comfortable to wear. I found it extremely convenient compared to a cruise card.

There was a daily activities newsletter in our room as well. Everything nowadays is in the app on your phone, but you can still pick up a paper newsletter at the Grounds Club coffee bar and at Sailor Services.

The sun set and it was finally time for sail away. We watched sail away from our balcony. The Miami skyline is beautiful.

We passed MSC World America, which is a HUGE ship! It was so cool, everyone was cheering and waving their mobile phone lights!

After sail away we got dressed for dinner. Dinner tonight was in Gunbae. Virgin doesn’t have a main dining room. Instead you make reservations prior to boarding the ship for one of the different restaurants on the ship. They all have different menus and themes. I’d read that Gunbae is a good one for night one because you are seated with strangers. Then you end up seeing those people around the ship the rest of the week.

Gunbae is Korean for “Cheers” and is a Korean BBQ restaurant.

We were seated with 2 other couples, one from Raleigh (!), and one from Cardiff, Wales, UK. They were all SO nice! None of us had ever been to Gunbae so our server decided to just bring us basically the entire menu!

This is a neighboring empty table so you can see how the set up is.

We started with a kimchi sampler.

There’s lotus root, kimchi, eggplant, and some sort of green.

We also had a beef stew, a seafood stew, short ribs, crispy chicken, a cucumber & avocado salad, kimchi pancake, and a seafood & scallion pancake. Food was coming fast and hot and I couldn’t keep up taking photos of it all!

After all those dishes, our server then grilled shrimp, scallops, calamari, octopus, bacon, and bulgogi (strips of beef). I don’t eat pork or beef, but I really enjoyed the chicken and seafood!

For dessert we had black sesame ice cream and a sweet Korean pancake.

Gunbae was really fun and social! The restaurant is located in the back of the ship and boy, the ship was ROCKING tonight!!! Tip- our clothes really smelled like the BBQ after dinner. We had to air them out in our room, so pack accordingly.

After dinner we went up to the Galley to fill my tumbler for the night and while we were there CSP picked up a gingerbread man! So cute!

Then it was time for bed! Tomorrow is our first sea day!