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My husband and I went on our very first Virgin Voyages cruise in the summer of 2022. I already gave you an overall idea of what we thought about it. And – SPOILERS – we loved it so much that we’ve been on 2 more since, and have another 2 on the books for 2025.

But there were a few things we encountered that will probably never make it into one of our blog posts about Virgin Voyages or, for that matter, even the most well-researched Virgin Voyages (VV) website – including their own!

I mean, everyone will tell you that kids aren’t allowed on this cruise; it’s strictly 18+. And all will mention that basic Wi-Fi, as well as non-pressed juices, sodas, teas and drip coffee are free on the ship. But there are plenty of things that, I think, are important to know when planning a cruise on VV that might be a little bit more difficult to find out.

This list is made up of things Joe and I experienced, as well as what several people we know, said they noticed.

Wristbands and luggage tags

Many cruise lines send luggage tags ahead of time so you can attach them to your bags and the porters know where to bring your stuff when you arrive. At VV, you drop your luggage off upon arrival. The porters ask you for your cabin number, and they put it on a VV baggage tag, similar to the ones they use at the airport.

With Virgin Voyages, you’ll receive a wristband (used for checking in and out of the ship, charging for drinks and souvenirs, and opening your cabin door) when you check in at the kiosks on the 2nd floor of the terminal. If you have a regular cabin, it’ll be red. Your wristband will be black if you’ve splurged on a Rock Star or Mega Rock Star cabin. And if you have some other status, whether purchased or earned, that will be in the form of a ribbon you wear around your wrist.

The app is buggy

Everything you do on VV – reservations for meals, activities and excursions, etc. – are all done on the VV app. Heads up that the app is VERY buggy and it will crash as often as it works. Generally speaking, these hints should help:

• It works best on a late model phone, updated with the latest OS and running the latest version of the app.
• The app is a memory hog. So if you have a bajillion apps running in the background, that increases your chance that it’s going to be glitchy. Shut all those unused, unnecessary apps down, all the way.
• The app isn’t intuitive; make sure you’ve taken the time to learn to use it. A lot of people get frustrated trying to do something on the app, simply because they’ve not invested the time to learn how it works.
• Make sure you shut the app down completely every time you use it. Just like The Weather Channel app, if you don’t shut it down, it just “hangs,” more often than not, the next time you open it.
• Specific to Verizon Android users: if you have Digital Secure on your Verizon Android o/s phone, that may cause problems accessing the VV app. DS is a VPN and it blocks the Virgin app. After boarding, try disabling all VPNs in your phone settings, and remove app level protection in DS in order for the VV app to work once on board.

They only email 1 person

Maybe it’s because we were working with a travel agent who only put down Joe’s email. But any time there was something we needed to know – like a new form we had to fill out ahead of time – the email only went to him. The thing is, I’m the one who checks email on a regular basis, whereas Joe may only check his email every few days. So make sure that emails go to everyone involved – or at least to the person who actually, you know, reads their emails ;-).

Meal, activity and excursion reservations

So let’s say you’re all ready for your cruise, you’ve downloaded the app, and filled out all the info it asks of you. You go to make some reservations and you notice that they only have a limited number of reservations available before your cruise. Maybe only 3 available times for The Wake, or only 9:15pm or later for The Test Kitchen. Don’t panic! They’ll open many more opportunities on the day you set sail. In fact, brunches at the Wake and Razzle Dazzle are only available when reservations are made on the ship’s Wi-Fi.

So if you don’t have all the meal reservations you’d like by the time you get on board, make them once you board the ship – there will be plenty to choose from.

By the way, even if you try to make a reservation for dinner and there’s no availability, go anyway. There’s no guarantee they’ll be able to accommodate you, but restaurants will do what they can to make room for you.

Have friends on board?

Except for solo cabins and the occasional triple, most cabins only hold 2 sailors each. So if you’re with more than 1 other person, your party will have more than 1 cabin. Use the app to link with them before you get on the ship to add to each other’s agendas for meals, shows, etc.

The pineapple people

Virgin Voyages is the most open, all-inclusive and accepting cruise I’ve ever been on. That being said, we saw a lot of pineapple people on our cruise. If you’re into that, no judgement here, and more power to you. But if you’re not, you may not want to wear anything with pineapples on it. Especially upside-down ones. Just sayin’ 😉

Intimacy kits

If you’re with a special someone and want to go (ahem) “below deck,” intimacy kits are sold in the gift shop near Extra Virgin (the Italian restaurant) so you can have fun and stay safe. (Note to those who may be interested: the jelly included in the kit is 100% vegan and glycerin, glycol and paraben-free.)

Food & beverage

You can buy growlers of beer and drink them all over the ship.

This is a heads-up that the Italian and Mexican restaurants are “authentic” versions of each nationality, not Americanized versions. So don’t go to those restaurants expecting to see chicken parmesan or a Chimichanga on their respective menus; you’ll be deeply disappointed.

None of the restaurants give really huge portions (although we practically rolled out the door of the Italian restaurant), but Test Kitchen in particular has 6 “tastings” on their menu, rather than full plates. Joe and I generally try to eat “right,” without overstuffing ourselves, and left Test Kitchen comfortably full. But we saw many people complain they didn’t get enough food there and left hungry, so they got a pizza or a burger or whatever afterward. If you’re used to big servings, plan accordingly.

They don’t have “doggy bags” at any of the restaurants so if you don’t think you’ll be able to finish, BYOB (bring your own bag). And yes, each cabin has a small fridge so you can store food & beverages there.

Charging your devices

It goes without saying that you should bring chargers for your devices. But sometimes people forget. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you’re in luck – they sell Apple chargers on the ship. However (and this may have changed), they (Inexplicably? Stupidly?) don’t sell chargers for Android devices. You can ask your cabin attendant if they have any Android chargers others have left behind that you can borrow, but there’s no guarantee that they will.

That being said, there’s a Samsung tablet in each cabin – you can charge your Android devices on the tablet’s charger. It’ll also work for late-model iPhones that are charging pad compatible.

Also, although the cabins have plenty of wall plugs and USB ports, if you sleep on the side of the bed closer to the window/terrace, the closest plug may be a good 6+ feet away (hello, design flaw!). Oh, and extension cords are not allowed on VV ships (unless Electrical approves them); they’re considered a fire hazard).

Photos

VV has lots and LOTS of photo ops that are perfect for Insta, FB, etc. One thing they DON’T have on board is photographers. So someone won’t be taking photos at the restaurants, pool, dance parties, etc., hoping you’ll buy copies at the end of the cruise. If you want photos, take photos. Or ask the people working on the ship to take your photo – they’ll always be willing to oblige.

Those hammocks!

There is a hammock on the terrace of most cabins that have a terrace. There are also hammocks all over the Virgin Resort on Bimini, if that’s part of your itinerary. Y’all, these hammocks are AMAZING and, for me, were one of the best parts of our cruise.

The company that makes them, Yellow Leaf Hammocks, were featured on Shark Tank a couple of years ago. Anyway, VV sells the hammocks on the cruise ship, but it was my experience that they only had one style available, in only one color choice.

Yellow Leaf Hammocks has several color choices on their website, as well as 3 different styles of hammocks – the “Chair” style that’s on VV, their “Signature” hammock (that one is available in classic size and family size – those were the ones at the resort on Bimini), and a cotton rope one that looks like the signature hammock but is made with 100% natural cotton instead of acrylic.

Heads up that all 3 styles are also available, still from Yellow Leaf Hammocks, on Amazon.com. And as of this writing, they’re less than on Yellow Leaf’s main webpage. I ordered one on Amazon and was also offered a coupon (the fine print on the coupon says it’s only good for a limited time, but they didn’t specify how long that “limited time” is).

Cabin bathrooms

VV supplies you with towels for wherever you go – they’re by the pools, at the spa, and they even offer you towels as you disembark on some port days, if there’s a beach in the area. However inside the cabins, they typically give you bath towels, hand towels and makeup remover towels. But no washcloths. The makeup towels are the size, shape and texture of washcloths. But if you’re using one to remove makeup, you may not want to use it to wash yourself in the shower. So either bring your own washcloth(s), or ask your cabin attendant for extra makeup remover towels.

Heads up that there is no electric outlet in the bathroom. If you want to use an electric razor, charge your electric toothbrush or blow dry or curl your hair, you’ll have to do it outside the bathroom. And if you want to have a night light in your bathroom, you’ll be out of luck (just like at this bizarre hotel). Fortunately, the cabin lights can be adjusted to 5%, which is enough light for most people to find their way to the toilet, but not too much light to wake them up.

Also – if you’re in an XL Terrace cabin, both the shower and toilet rooms have doors that are made to stay closed unless you manually open them. If you have to use the toilet in the middle of the night, I discovered you can hang a towel over both the towel bar on the door and on the wall to prop the toilet door open. That way, you don’t have to worry about finding the door handle in the dark.

Room service

VV offers room service for a $10 Ship Eats fee (the fee is waived if you purchase a premium drink or anything else you would have to pay for, such as better coffee or fresh-pressed juice). It’s available 24 hours a day (breakfast from 5am to 11am and other foods from 11am to 5am), but heads up that the service ends at 11 pm on the day before you disembark the ship.

The Ship Eats service fee is waived for Rock Stars and Mega Rock Stars.

When in port

When you’re in port, you may or may not be in the same time zone as where you set sail. Miami, for example, is on Eastern Time, but Playa del Carmen/Cozumel is on Central Time. SOME (but not all) ship captains keep “ship time” the way it was when they left their original port – so it may be 3pm in Cozumel, but 4pm on the ship. Other captains switch to local time. They’ll announce this, but make sure you keep track, especially for excursions and whatever time you’re required to be back on board.

Also, depending on where you’re in port, bring bug spray. We had no problems at Bimini, but others on our ship got eaten up by bugs.

The 3-hour spa pass

The spa on VV has all sorts of treatments available for purchase. They also have a 3-hour spa package that allows you to experience their sauna, salt room, mud room, hot tub, cold tub, pool, etc. The package is available from 11am to 2pm or 2pm to 5pm and you can come and go as you please.

The 3-hour spa package has 2 different prices – a cheaper one for for port days and a more expensive one for at sea days. The price is mentioned on the app, but ONLY ON THE DAY OF. So you may be in port, see that it’s the lower price, sign up for tomorrow (which is a sea day), and suddenly get a bill for the higher price. If you sign up in person, like we did, they don’t even mention the price.

And speaking about the spa…

Heads up that the people who run the spa are from a third party vendor, and the person who does your massage, mani/pedi, etc., will to try to upsell you everything under the sun (a friend of mine said the person who did his massage came up with absurd claims for magic potions to relieve his sciatica). And it’s always a really hard sell, too.

Tipping

As I said earlier, VV is a non-tipping cruise. Their crew is said to be paid well, at least in comparison to the rest of the cruise industry, and tips are not required or requested. That being said, if someone on the cruise was particularly helpful, you CAN tip them; you don’t HAVE to. Writing a letter to VV about a particular crew member or members can also help them to get bonuses, etc.

Also, remember that people you encounter for your VV cruise – particularly the porters at the terminal – are not VV employees. Kindly tip them, if you’re in a country where tipping porters is customary. Here’s an international tipping guide for who, what, why, where, when and how to tip.

Disembarkation

Like many cruise lines, you can leave your luggage outside your cabin by a certain time on the evening before disembarkation. The cabin attendants will pick up your bags and you’ll find them as you leave the ship. You get to choose what time you’ll need to disembark and pick up your luggage, although you’re also welcome to bring your luggage yourself and disembark whenever you feel good and ready, as long as it’s by “last call.”

Heads up that the earlier disembarkation time you choose, the less crowded it is, although everyone needs to be off the ship by 10:45am. If you wait until around that later time, the queues are minimal.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

As I said, some of these were things that Joe and I noticed while we were on our VV cruise. However, other people noticed other things, as well. So a HUGE THANK-YOU to Marney B., Chris-James C., Kay C., Suzanne E., Barbara H., Lin H., Nancee H., Paul H., Sue H., Richard P., Alexis R., Mark S., Shannanaghans S. and Amanda W. for their input for this post!

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary