First cruise ever. WOW why did I leave it so long? The Wprl at your feet is how I’d describe this trip. The places the staff the ease of booking . The food is such a treat. Lovely 🥰
This was our first ever cruise and we were so excited new ship new voyage exciting times! We booked with Imagine Cruising and from the moment we booked till this day( complaints) it's an ongoing nightmare! This was advertised as an 80s extravaganza we had 3 hours of 80s entertainment throughout the 11 night cruise.Madera was cancelled before we boarded, which we received $50.00 pp in our wallet which we were unaware of until a fellow sailor told us there was no option it was there and if you paid for the rockstar experience for some reason you received $100.00 pp?????? They ran out of the beer my husband liked half way through the voyage.I has a spa experience which I paid for and then found out that this should have been free? Still waiting for monies to be refunded.We had on our Imagine Cruising Iternary and also booking confirmation 2 days in Lisbon VV only planned to go for 1 day! Which the time was cut short due to an unfortunate incident on the boat understandably so. There was absolutely nothing to do on the boat and we were on it a lot! The information on our booking also stated that any covid tests or otherwise would be done at the port and at the last minute I phoned IC for another issue and they told me over the phone we were required to apply and do a LFT ASAP and said I should have received an e mail which I had not ( received after the phone call!) I was so anxious.I was taken Ill and stayed in my cabin for 2 days only to find out in disembarking there was a covid outbreak on the ship! had I had known I would have reported it as I tested on disembarking and was positive.The health and safety on board was another issue we were told to watch the information on the tv and then report to a certain place to complete and to be signed off as it were, next thing we know it came up on the tv to say all sailors had completed there H and S!!!!! The disembarking was absolute chaos crowds of people huddled together at this point I was still unaware of covid on board, I actually didn't find out till I got home.The app was never working so we went everyday to get the problem sorted. Miscommunication between VV and IC conflicting answers one did not know what the other was doing.When we first boarded the ship we had to collect our tickets for the 80s acts(3 hours) which again was chaos,afterwards we went to see a VV crew member about another issue and mentioned the collection of the tickets and replied he didn't know nothing about them? Which we thought was very strange! To say this was our first cruise we were so disappointed and dissatisfied this was not what we booked we came off feeling myself Ill and very flat we could not wait to get off.We are still in a dispute with IC regarding all of the above and feel we have had 2 weeks of our holiday taken from us at a high cost for almost nothing in return. We arrived in Portsmouth late so had to stay overnight in a hotel as we had a long journey ahead of us if you are exhausted reading this it just goes on!
Response from Virgin Voyages: We are sorry that you had a disappointing cruise. As we've discussed with everyone who sailed on this voyage this cruise was a charter organised by Imagine Cruising and the cruise was not the quality we would expect to deliver as standard with Virgin Voyages.
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Fantastic from start to finish: such welcoming crew, delicious high-quality meals, fun evening music and cocktails with a good kick!
My first cruise and exceed my most bold expectations: travel, food, entertainment! Very indulgent
When we arrived shipside we were not welcomed as if it was a luxury experience and had to struggle aboard with our suitcases.
The room was very noisy all day and long into the evening as we were just below the gym area. It was a very comfortable room with a sea view, but being on the 13th deck there was a huge overhang which hampered the view and we hadnt been made aware of either the noise issue or the restricted view.
We couldn't secure a booking at any restaurant until we complained about it near the end of the cruise. It seemed that loads of groups had booked up everything and we weren't the only ones complaining that we couldn't get availability at any restaurant at any time.
The comedians weren't funny at all and at the last gig I don't believe anyone there laughed once. The musicians were the same one almost every night and she seemed to have issues every single night and so only sang a one or two songs.
We felt the food in the individual restaurants wasn't the quality of our previous cruise and were quite disappointed with the menu. The galley was generally good though. We also felt the entertainment wasn't as good as our previous Virgin cruise.
Maybe we had high expectations as we had been a Virgin cruise before. We felt considering this was a cruise where most folk were 'indoors' most of the time Virgin could have tried a bit harder with the activities as if you dont like zumba or karaoke you are pretty much stuck.
Not sure I would pick Virgin again
I’ve been on 2 virgin cruises it luxury food was amazing & crew & entertainment brilliant
The food is incredible, especially Extra Virgin restaurant. The takeaway food is also amazing, the sushi boxes are fresh and tasty.
Love the no kids element! Great atmosphere - it's what you make of it, you can find an area on the ship that suits your vibe.


