Resilient is my middle name - Christmas with Virgin Voyages

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

We've not ever been Christmas people. A fractured family saw us deciding to give it a miss last year. We had mum up the week before for lunch. Dementia meant it was forgotten soon after. There just seemed no real point in 'celebrating' so we decided we'd go away this past Christmas.

We'd read announcments that Virgin Voyages was coming to Australia on the brand new Resilient Lady. I hadn't really considered it but bAlt sent me a link to the itineraries and suggested maybe Christmas in Tassie. I'm sure it was more tongue in cheek but I surprised him by responding with a big yes.

We booked in Feb through Qantas Cruises who, on top of the USD300 bar tab the booking came with, also threw in USD100 sailor loot.

For an obstructed view Sea Terrace we paid $3478 for six nights. Definitely not cheap but VV ships have no specialty dining meaning all meals, in any restaurant, are included. There's also no tipping and wifi is included.

The original itinerary was Melbourne - sea day - Hobart - sea day - Burnie - Melbourne with the ship overnighting in Hobart on Christmas Day and leaving at 2pm on Boxing Day. We didn't care about that as we had friends in Hobart we'd catch up with, but that Dec 25 visit would see Hobart pretty much shut up.

Booked rewards Y seats for bAlt, revenue Y for me, Brady Apartment Hotel for the night we flew down and Intercontinental Rialto for the night after the cruise finished.

In late October we were advised of an itinerary change. Basically it was reversed so that we would be at sea on Dec 25, a much smarter idea. New itinerary Melbourne - Burnie - sea day - Hobart overnight - sea day - Melbourne.

Like most of the mainstream lines (even if VV is far from maainstream) VV offers a bid upgrade. I tried to talk bAlt into bidding for a Rockstar Suite ($2400) but he would only go as far as a minimum $340 bid for a Central Sea Terrace. That was accepted three days before the cruise.

The total price we paid was way less a central sea terrace was at time of booking and much much less then they were going for a couple of weeks out from sailing. We moved from 10366Z, as far forward as you can go, to 10110Z, pretty much central as described.

QF631 left close to 30 minutes late but we managed to get into Melbourne just five minutes late. SkyBus took forever to arrive but it did, and we were at the Brady just before 11:30pm

One bed apartment. Spacious, clean, short walk from Southern Cross

SYD · Jan 5, 2024

We’ll be on the same ship in the Med later in the year. Interested to see what you think.

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

SYD said:
We’ll be on the same ship in the Med later in the year. Interested to see what you think.

stay tuned...

kookaburra75 · Jan 5, 2024

Strapping in for your trip report.

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

I forgot to mention we were a big question mark of even sailing. My mate Colin had been doing very well since he joined the family in March. Unfortunately the removal of a large part of me didn't stop my colitis, so on October 30 I had the rest of my lower digestive system removed. Some call this getting a Ken butt (oh so smooth), but since the release of the Barbie movie I believe it should be called a Ryan Gosling butt.

Another potential larger spanner was the identification of a pre-cancerous cyst in my Pancreas. When it rains it pours. I had a small portion of my pancreas removed on November 29, less than four weeks from sailing date. The pathology of the, surprisingly considering the 6000+ count, came back negative, and were good to go.

My dear old mum then had a major turn while I was recovering in hospital from my second op. What we'd thought was her dementia suddenly getting worse was actually a brain tumour. Mum deteriorated rapidly. There was cancer through her lungs and tummy and on Dec 19 Mum decided she'd had enough and quietly went to sleep. 92 is a great innings.

Ok, just had a few more tears but enough of that. As mum would say, get on with it.

VV sells itself as young and vibrant, like all things Virgin. They are crazy looking ships with an emphasis on fitness and entertainment. Their target market is diverse, tech savvy people.

With this in mind, and after I had been researching like a lunatic, 45 days out I logged onto the VV app at midnight US east coast time, to get our restaurant bookings in. One of the major complaints about VV is the app, and the poor experience many have with it. I'll say straight up we had none.

Another is the lack of availability in restaurants if don't get in and book 45 days out. We got all of the bookings we wanted, at the times we wanted. We heard endless complaints once onboard from people who could not get their preferred 6pm dinner times beacuse they hadn't been made aware. Knowing this stuff comes down to poor information from TAs, lack of general research or choosing a cruise for the wrong reason. More of that later.

Once you've completed all the pre-boarding stuff in the app, you'll be ready to choose your boarding time (in the app) when you get notified. We chose the earliest available, 2:15. This was for a 6pm sailing. It is made very clear that there is no point arriving early as you will only be allowed to enter the terminal at your boarding time.

Melbourne turned on a beautiful sunny day for our departure. I would not like to be sailing from Melbourne if the weather is bad. Everything is out in the open until you get into the Station Pier building. Got into the line, had our apps checked for boarding time, handed bags over and joined the short 2:15 line.

We walked onto Station Pier right just before 2:30, had our 'bands' on by 2:45 and were in our cabin by 3.

VV uses a wrist band to charge everything to your room, identify you when you board/disembark, open you cabin door.

As with the app, we had no issue with the band. It always unlocked our door and more often than not was read straight away to charge drinks to our room. It didn't leave our wrists except for when we were in Burnie and Hobart. Again, heard so many complaints about it not working, or it was inconvenient, or uncomfortable. Oh blah

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

As I said, we had moved to a Central Sea Terrace but our obstructed view would have been exactly the same room, the only difference being the balcony. We had glass and the famous VV red hammock. Our ov had solid steel and a fixed rattan chair.

The rooms are not big. They're unusual. A curtain for the wardrobe door, a bed that can be converted into a day bed (not even tried), poorly utilised space, a tiny bathroom with a decent shower, and of course the hammock on the balcony that sounds like a gimmick but was super comfortable and used all the time.

Central Sea Terrace 10110Z. Cabin numbers are duplicated on each side of the ship, the differentiator is port side cabins are A cabins and starboard are Z. Huge A and Z are at the entrance to each hallway from the elevator lobbies/stairwells.

the ledge to the right of the bed was a large shallow drawer. It was a really dumb kick hazard. if you ask for the room to be converted to day mode the right half of the bed swings around over the top of the ledge so that it is along the wall. Dumb idea that they need to eventually take out of the cabins.

these two carafes of water are refilled each day when the room is serviced

RooFlyer · Jan 5, 2024

After all that, you certainly deserved a good holiday. Hope Colin and his new mate kept their collective heads down for the duration (and more...)

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

More room photos

the 'wardrobe'. Again, we had no issue with this, but going from reviews some do. We've been in cabins where wardobe doors rattled the moment the sea wasn't flat. Lots of hanging space and for us plenty of drawers and shelves

the balcony and hammock. Two chairs, small table and hammock. Way bigger than some of the balconies on older Princess/P&O ships

View from the balcony showing the full walk around promenade
Looking forward. Lots of seating areas mid-ships on both sides

and aft towards our favourite space, The Dock

looking down onto The Dock from The Galley outside deck

looking back across Station Pier into the city from The Galley outside deck

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

We continued our wandering, here's the barber's shop. There's also a very expensive tattoo parlour

We ended up down on deck 7 and sat at The Dock. My surgeon (the mancreas one) recommended little to no alcohol so I started on the zero beers . Yikes! As I said, all food is included with VV except for a couple of paid upgrades in The Wake.

At The Dock the food is all small tasting plates. They were all delicious. This is prawns and polenta. There was also chicken and hanger steak. Every afternoon Opa hour (two hours) from 4 to 6, with small bites of Greek food.

Now to sailaway and my first warning for potential cruisers. Following are three of the entertainment crew. The first, on the scary and uncomfortable The Net, has a liking for hot pants and a fan. They were all hilarious and lovely

the second is The Diva. Every VV ship has a resident drag queen and ours was fabulous. She hosted the bingo, sang in bars, was in The Manor each night. Loved her Scottish brogue and gee could she sing.

and here is The Host. An amazing singer and again she was all around the ship.

Every one of the 10 (?) loved a chat, a photo, a dance. If I could post videos I could show potential cruisers what sailaway is like. It is a very loud, fast, LGBTQI+ friendly dance party. We loved it. If that is not your thing, and you like the traditional horribly daggy sailaway with line dancing and the macarena, then VV is definitely not for you.

Free flowing champagne, actual champagne, for an hour. I gave in and had a couple, bAlt four!

I spy with my...

see ya in six days Melbourne

we'd had no lunch and the small bites would not tide us over until 8 when I had booked dinner so we wandered dow to The Galley and had some delicious sweet treats

we started talking to an older couple sat beside us. They would have been mid-seventies I'd guess. They hadn't been able to make any dinner reservations prior to boarding and then once onboard none that were earlier enough for them - they wanted between 5:30 and 6:30. Not app people and Sailor Services was not able to help them when they'd called.

This is correct. If you can't do it on the app you have to wait until you get onto the ship. They also said their cabin was small, the music wasn't to their taste and they would have preferred a main dining room with fixed dining. They had been onboard for all of four and a bit hours.

I asked why they'd booked and their answer - "because it was a new ship". They knew nothing else about VV. This cruise wasn't cheap for six nights so it was a lot of money to risk to try a new ship. They were very pragmatic though. They both said it was only six days but they already knew VV wasn't for them. They'd stick with Cunard and Princess.

Then the people on the other side of us chimed in. Much more vitriolic. Again had done no research. Hated the music. Couldn't get the app to work and blamed it on VV not updating it to work on the newest iPhone. I said it can't be that because my iPhone 15 Pro Max was working just fine. Hated the music. Hadn't ever stayed in such a tiny cabin. My favourite line, said with a very posh voice - "we've never had to have dinner in the lido before". I wanted to say "well off you go back to Holland America", but resisted.

VPS · Jan 5, 2024

Looking forward to the rest of the TR because I always enjoy yours. Hugs to you about your mum and hope your health stays stable

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

Prepare for a rant -

This 'we want this cruise to be the same as the other cruises we've been on' was a bit of a common theme across our six nights onboard. To me it indicated that people had booked this cruise with no knowledge of what to expect. I overheard people saying they'd only sailed with Princess and they wish 'this cruise' was more like that. That they wanted to hear 'happy music' playing like on Royal Caribbean. They thought it would be better if they allowed family groups (meaning kids). The one thing I've forgotten to mention, the most important thing of all - VV is adults (18+) only.

I was part of a conversation in the Facebook group for this cruise with a gentleman who said "yet again the minority is telling the majority what to do". Excuse the language but wtf????? He believed VV was catering for the minority and that the majority onboard were having to put up with the tastes of that minority.

What he was actually referring to was his distaste of the open displays of 'diversity'. The drag queen, the shows that had LGBTQI+ content, the flamboyant entertainment staff, the dance music playing around the ship. I'd imagine he also didn't like the tattooed VV crew, and especially didn't like the large number of fairly obviously gay passengers on board.

Well diddums. We've been on fourteen cruises across all of the mainstream cruise lines except MSC and Costa. There have been times on some of those 'mainstream' cruises where other passengers have made us, as a gay couple, feel quite unwelcome. We chose VV to feel welcome and we did.

VV is a cruise line that is 100% about diversity. About pushing boundaries. The entertainment is raunchy. The music is electronic, and often loud. The crew are colourful. It is tech based. If any of these offend you, or scare you, then choose mainstream. Don't go on VV and complain and make the people who have chosen VV specifically to feel comfortable, uncomfortable. The 'majority' have enough choices out there. This minority member wants you to stay there.

Rant over and back to our holiday

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

VPS said:
Looking forward to the rest of the TR because I always enjoy yours. Hugs to you about your mum and hope your health stays stable

thanks VPS

VPS · Jan 5, 2024

bPeteb said:
Prepare for a rant -

This 'we want this cruise to be the same as the other cruises we've been on' was a bit of a common theme across our six nights onboard. To me it indicated that people had booked this cruise with no knowledge of what to expect. I overheard people saying they'd only sailed with Princess and they wish 'this cruise' was more like that. That they wanted to hear 'happy music' playing like on Royal Caribbean. They thought it would be better if they allowed family groups (meaning kids). The one thing I've forgotten to mention, the most important thing of all - VV is adults (18+) only.

I was part of a conversation in the Facebook group for this cruise with a gentleman who said "yet again the minority is telling the majority what to do". Excuse the language but wtf????? He believed VV was catering for the minority and that the majority onboard were having to put up with the tastes of that minority.

What he was actually referring to was his distaste of the open displays of 'diversity'. The drag queen, the shows that had LGBTQI+ content, the flamboyant entertainment staff, the dance music playing around the ship. I'd imagine he also didn't like the tattooed VV crew, and especially didn't like the large number of fairly obviously gay passengers on board.

Well diddums. We've been on fourteen cruises across all of the mainstream cruise lines except MSC and Costa. There have been times on some of those 'mainstream' cruises where other passengers have made us, as a gay couple, feel quite unwelcome. We chose VV to feel welcome and we did.

VV is a cruise line that is 100% about diversity. About pushing boundaries. The entertainment is raunchy. The music is electronic, and often loud. The crew are colourful. It is tech based. If any of these offend you, or scare you, then choose mainstream. Don't go on VV and complain and make the people who have chosen VV specifically to feel comfortable, uncomfortable. The 'majority' have enough choices out there. This minority member wants you to stay there.

Rant over and back to our holiday

Just dealing with a "friend" whinging - she went on a holiday and it wasn't what she expected - DUH you didn't do your research don't blame the company and she acknowledges she didn't do the research so stop complaining.

Rant over and onto an enjoyable TR

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

Dinner was at Pink Agave, RL's Mexican restaurant. Amazing food, amazing service and the thing I loved most about Resilient Lady, a view outside, as all of the ship's restaurants, and most of the public spaces, do

Crazy entrance

the food

they are crickets in that hugely strong tequila coughtail!

a fantastic start to our dinners onboard

Flyfrequently · Jan 5, 2024

bPeteb said:
stay tuned...

I'm on board @bPeteb ( closest you will get me to cruise though!)

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

First night was a bad jumper and pj party in The Manor, the ship's nightclub. This is the entrance into The Manor

the party didn't start until close to midnight so we took a quick walk around the promenade

before it was time to get our gear on and head to The Manor again

We had a hoot!! Up late as we had nothing planned for Burnie the following morning

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

For some reason I thought Burnie was a tender port so was very surprised, and happy, to see us up against a wharf when we opened the curtains.

If it had been tender we weren't going to bother getting off the ship but we wanted (I needed) a walk.

The Galley is VV's take on the ship's buffet. Food was great quality and from our perspective there was plenty of variety. Cereal and fruit, pastries and cakes, bakery, standard egg and bacon, French toast (amazing!), tacos, noodles, toasted stuff, and bento boxes of fruit/cereal/yoghurt etc. Decent tea, coffee and 'juices' were also included in our fare, plus soft drink, water. Only speciality coffee was extra.

Burnie is a working port so it was necessary to catch a bus out of the port and into town. Buses were queued up ready to take us. Each bus had a volunteer who did a very funny speil as we drove into town. When we arrived on hopped the mayor and deputy mayor. The mayor was wonderful. She loves Burnie a real lot! We've cruised a fair bit and without any question it was the best welcome to any town/city we've visited.

There was a small market set up for us, plus we were told a number of shops had opened specially for passengers of the ship. Burnie is closed on Christmas Eve?

We walked along the beach to the penguin centre then up through the gardens and back into town

bPeteb · Jan 5, 2024

We decided we should sample the local beer

but we were a bit early so headed back up to the market to see if we could be tempted

Some quick snaps of the ship

our original cabin circled

and where we ended up

Beautiful pohutukawa grows in Burnie! Who would have thunk it?

the two gin/whiskey tents did well out of us. Taken off us, as expected, when we got back to the ship and returned last afternoon. We declined a taste of the limoncello. We had it in Italy and disliked it intensely. We caved and tasted it and it was like sweet, sticky freshly squeezed lemons. Delicious!