From the time Virgin Voyages hit the cruise scene, I was excited to give them a try. They were going to be the ones to disrupt the cruise industry and I'm all for a little disruption (except for when it involves flights). Then I had to wait because all their initial itineraries were too short or too repetitive for me. Next, I got a little concerned that their ships might be entirely full of instagrammers and influencers. Then a great plague swept through the universe, stopping them in their tracks before they even got started. And then finally I spied an itinerary with a new port on it for me. Then I booked it - and invited some friends. Come on along for the ride! Twelve hours before departure, our first flight got delayed enough that we couldn't make our connection. After a few hours with an Aeroplan agent who was not hip to the ways of flight rebooking yet, we got that sorted. Wee hours of the morning drive to Fredericton (yet again), a pick up of our travel companions, and we get the show on the road. The rest of the day goes: Montreal, breakfast, coffee, delay, fly to Houston while watching movies, a mad sprint through Houston airport and right onto the next plane, another flight of movie watching, an arrival in San Juan (with our luggage!), taxi, hotel check in (DoubleTree by Hilton San Juan), food consumption (so thankful we made it just before room service was done for the day! - we enjoyed it outside on our hotel balcony), and sleep.
Bring on the real day one! To start the day, we decided to go visit friends at the Fairmont El San Juan for coffee. I didn't see much of the hotel, but the lobby has a whole lot of wood panel and part of it was being commandeered by Jimmy Kimmel's uncle for filming something or another (and no I didn't know who that was, someone else did). Back to our hotel to pack up and then we headed to the pier to drop off our luggage (loved being able to do this, very organized). We walked around in the varying amounts of rain for a bit before meeting up with our friends. We had some time before our check-in slot, so we had a delicious lunch at La Madre - recommend. Once back to the port, check-in was a breeze, very quick and organized. No waiting around and we were on the ship in no time. Onboard, we found tasty beverages (hello legit coffee shop!), hung out a bit, did our muster drill (watching a video and scanning in with a crew member in the designated area), and explored. We didn't check as soon as we boarded, but Virgin claims that your room will be ready when you board. Our luggage was already there when we got there. Our room was a sea terrace (13046Z) in the aft portion of the ship. The room had plenty of storage (closet, cabinet, underbed, and more), but could use some comfortable seating. There are two chairs in the room and one is more of a little padded stool. You can request they turn your bed into a couch, but what if you need a nap?! The bathroom is very small. The balcony has two chairs, a little table, and my favourite thing of all - the hammock. I looked at it initially and thought that's silly... but then I tried it, and sitting and having a little swing, listening to the ocean, and enjoying the view - highly recommend!
Sailaway was later in the evening, so we unpacked and had some supper at Razzle Dazzle. Tasty salad and delicious pasta for me - the dessert was a miss though. Did some more exploring, watched the sailaway from Puerto Rico, and then we enjoyed bevvies and tunes from the Draught Haus. The performers were really excellent and I think part of that comes from shorter contracts. I stayed up later on this ship than I have on a ship in a long time.
First stop - Tortola. Tried The Wake for breakfast - one of the two actual restaurants open for breakfast - was fine. Found coffee (have I mentioned I loved their coffee shop!), worked some - our typical morning. In the afternoon, we did an island tour here, in an open air bus truck (essentially a pickup truck with bench seats in the back and a cover over the top, but nicer than I'm describing). Honestly, I have no idea where we went - up some hills, down some hills, stopped at some lookouts, someone puked (not us), stopped at a marina for a drink, and then back to the ship. For supper, we also ate at the Wake... really great desserts, but the rest was good too. More bevvies, a drag show about travel, and that's a wrap for Sunday.
Monday found us in Guadeloupe - a new port for us. We booked a tour here - a visit to Valombreuse Garden and then to Lekouz brewery. The garden was lovely, but there was far too many people on our tour for that to be a guided tour. Eventually it started to pour and we made our own way back to the start point and waited for the rest of the group to finish. The brewery visit was much better (except that they were out of IPA). For supper, we checked out Gunbae (Korean BBQ) - they did a great job and we all left full (even me, who they had a completely vegan setup for). Highly recommend the drink in the disco ball - I've named it Disco Juice, but that's not the right name. Tuesday we landed in Barbados. We didn't get into much here - eat, drink, beach, return to ship. For supper, we tried the Italian restaurant, Extra Virgin. For all of us, it was our least favourite. Some random ship exploring wrapped up our day.
Wednesday we landed in St. Lucia. We walked over to where the other ships were docked, had some beer at Antillia Brewing, and walked back to our ship. For supper, we tried the Test Kitchen. Really fun multi-course menu - my vegan menu was delish. Later that evening, the ship turned red for Scarlet Night and an octopus took over. Live performances, games, activities, and assorted stuff all over the ship, ending in a giant pool party and after party. Everyone wears red. It was fun to watch from the sidelines.
Thursday, our last stop of the trip, was in Antigua. We literally got off the ship to try a local restaurant and then got back on. We had a lot going on this week and we were tired by now and wanted to enjoy some down time. For supper, we just grabbed some eats from The Galley. This is an excellent concept, which I especially adore because I hate buffets. It's several take-away style restaurants with different concepts like tacos, noodles, diner, salad bar, sushi, deli. There's also some items you can take away any time from fridges (sandwiches, salads, snacks). Since we're talking about eats, other spots on the ship for easy eats that aren't in The Galley - pizza, ice cream, tapas, baked goods from the coffee shop. All of these and all of the restaurants I've mentioned are all included in your fare. There's no 'you can eat in the main dining room or you pay for everything else' vibe on Virgin. Great value!
Friday - sea day! This was needed by Friday and we didn't get into much. With so many ports on our sailing (which I normally love), I was very excited for hammock time while the ship was moving. There's also tons of cozy spots to hang out all over the ship, so we tried some of those too. Supper - Pink Agave, elevated Mexican. This was likely too elevated - it was fine, but it's not really what I want when I want Mexican.
Saturday - sadly, it was time to go home. But unlike other cruise lines, Virgin doesn't kick you off in the wee hours of the morning. For our sailing, you had to be off by 10:30am. No constant announcements, no getting kicked out of your room, no being forced to wait in specific places - it's brilliant. We went from ship to airport, waited about an hour for the Air Canada desk to open, checked in, ate some mediocre food (we were in a small part of the San Juan airport and ate before we bothered to look around), found some coffee, and got on the longest 4.5 hour flight in history (I hate you Air Canada Rouge). In Toronto, we went through immigration quickly, found some snacks and more coffee, and were off to Fredericton without too long of a wait. In Fredericton, it took them an hour to offload the luggage (definitely my favourite at 1am when we still had a 90 minute drive), but we finally got it. We returned our friends home, drove home without any issues, and fell into our beds around 3am.
Don't mistake how little we did in these ports for disinterest. We were all really burnt out going into this trip and there was stuff going on. A lot of them were repeats for us - there's amazing things to do in all of these ports and we've done a lot of it already. I LOVED the vibe on this ship and I will definitely sail with Virgin Voyages again. In fact, I bought credit on board to sail them again. I love that all the dining is included. I love the different options. I love how friendly they are for alternate diets and allergies. I love that the drink prices are fair (we had a credit booked on a promo and we couldn't even get through it all and we really tried!). I love that there's no announcements, no one is trying to sell you anything, and there's no cruise director. The app is there for everything you need - and while it can be a bit glitchy - it has everything you need to know. When there's an announcement, you'll get it there. There's no dress code - come as you are. The staff are outstanding and the service was excellent - I loved seeing their coloured hair, tattoos, and piercings (most cruise lines don't allow this). Gratuities are included. Wi-Fi is included! The arcade is included. You can get free candy and ice cream! No cruise line is perfect, but Virgin Voyages is now easily one of my favourites (and they were by the end of the first day). The ship never felt crowded. We could always find a place to hang out. You can do as much or as little as you want. There's interesting activities throughout the day (some have an additional cost). There's even a tattoo parlour and piercing studio on board! The bracelet, instead of a room card, took a bit of getting used to, but mostly because I don't normally wear anything on my wrists.
Plant-based friends, this is the line for you. Ange out.
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