Razzle Dazzle, Scarlet Nights and Shuffle Board… Beas amazing week in board Virgin Voyages Valiant Lady

Ahoy,

Virgin voyages is not your typical cruise line, this is the first adults-only cruise line of it’s type. It’s unique concept of cruising is apparent as soon as you step onboard. They name things differently for a start, the passengers are called sailors the cruise is called a voyage and us travel agents are called first mates.

I was lucky enough to cruise on board their ship Valiant Lady on the 9th October out of Barcelona. Our itinerary was amazing – Barcelona, Marseille, Cannes, Sardinia , Ibiza , Barcelona

Embarkation was really simple and I was through and on the ship within 20 minutes. I was given my voyage band which is used instead of the generic key card, to wear around my wrist for the duration of the cruise, you can use this bracelet style fob to open your cabin door, purchase things on board and use it to check you in and out when going ashore.

Opening my cabin door for the first time I was greeted with the curtains opening and lights turning on automatically. My lovely ‘Sea Terrace Cabin’, was a large open space and had lots of room for my 7 night adventure, and looking at the amount of restaurant choices there were, it was a good job I was onboard for 7 nights, and of course I tried them all.  The best part of my cabin had to be the hammock on the balcony, after trying several times to get into it elegantly (not possible) I loved sitting here with my book and literally watching the world go by. 

On board there is: the Pink Agave which was the Mexican restaurant which was my favourite on board, who knew sweetcorn could taste so good. Razzle Dazzle, a vegetarian restaurant offering a few ‘naughty’ options. The Wake – all meat and seafood. The Test Kitchen – a experimental 6 course menu. Extra Virgin – Italian ( I liked what they did with the name) and finally Gunbae, a Korean BBQ restaurant letting you sit with your fellow sailors to fine and play drinking games. In a additional to all these, you have The Galley which replaces the traditional buffet restaurant and is replaced with small themed kiosks, where you take your seat and order at the table. And finally the Pizza place, perfect for that late night snack.

Virgin Voyages love exercise, I maybe should of taken advantage of all the different fitness and wellness activities on aboard, with one of the biggest gym areas I have seen on board a cruise ship! There was also pull up bars and a boxing ring on the top deck. But I did join in one class which was the 80s dance class, and as much as I tried the only thing I learnt was that I have no coordination.

A stand out for me though had to be the staff, they a so friendly and happy to be working and so approachable.Normally on cruise lines and in a lot of other jobs tattoos have to be hidden ( I feel they encourage this with their tattoo palar on board). Without a strict uniform and appearance guidelines they could express themselves and be comfortable and for me that came across in the level of service.

A lot of customers who haven’t travelled on a cruise before always wonder if they’ll be enough to do onboard especially for those sea days, Virgin Voyages have everything, from the sail away party to a Pajayma party. To their very own Scarlett night, were everyone wears red, unfortunately the weather was too windy for this to take place up on the pool deck however the night was hosted inside and was a lot of fun. Around the ship there was so much live entertainment happening in various venues, including ‘pop up entertainer’ that would do pop up, roaming shows around the ship. You will never get bored on this cruise, and will not see the same thing twice.

As you have seen I have so much information to tell you about these incredible cruises that I have actually run out of room on here, one tip I would always recommended though would be to take a picture of your cabin number, it helps alot.

I would love to tell you more, so please call in and ‘SEA’ me. 

Bea