We tour ‘Brilliant Lady’, the fourth Virgin Voyages cruise ship

On Wednesday, Virgin Voyages held a preview day in Portsmouth to show off ‘Brilliant Lady’, the fourth (and, for now, final) vessel in its fleet.

On Thursday the ship set off for a test sailing to New York via Dublin and Halifax carrying only ‘friends and family’, before its first proper passenger-carrying voyage in the Caribbean.

We went down for a look. Whilst you could buy tickets for the event for 7,500 Virgin Points (a bargain, given nine hours of unlimited food and drink, including a full restaurant meal), our tickets were comped. Virgin Red also paid for our travel costs and a hotel.

I’ve never been on a cruise. In fact, I had never even been on a cruise ship – not even for five minutes, for an event or a tour – which is why I was keen to do this.

(A lot of cruise customers collect frequent flyer miles, because you are often looking at buying one-way flights to and from your vessel if you are not cruising in a circle.)

Am I now convinced that I should? Not really – but if I was, a few days in one of the top ‘Brilliant Lady’ suites with the very decent food and drink available on board would not be a bad choice. I know readers who redeemed Virgin Points for cruises when they were roughly 100,000 points for a week and enjoyed it.

This is NOT a review of the ship – just a few impressions.

The ship looks HUGE when you first see it. There are bigger ships out there, but 1,400 cabins and 17 floors seems enough to me. Here’s an angle you’ll never see again, because it was taken from the bridge:

Yes, they let a handful of media guests visit the bridge after going through airport-ish security. Here is Conny having a go at being Captain. Disappointingly they don’t have a 3-foot wide Jack Sparrow-style steering wheel. It’s guided by the smallest joystick – about 5cm tall – you’ve ever seen.

The bridge itself is huge – far bigger than I ever imagined, running the entire width of the ship – because, despite multiple cameras and screens, the crew need to be able see out from all angles. There are usually only four people there, and often just three.

Let’s cut to the chase. What is the top suite like?! Well, book a ‘Massive Suite’ – right in the bow of the ship – and this is your private terrace:

Yes, your own whirlpool, a dining table, loungers and some more stuff you can’t see. It’s a bit bonkers. Apparently this is normally taken by small groups, hence the dining table for six – one couple books the ‘Massive Suite’, the rest book standard cabins and then everyone congregates in the suite.

Here’s the living area:

This is a typical balcony from one of the larger rooms, but even the smallest rooms with a balcony have a hammock:

Bathrooms are relatively similar irrespective of cabin category, although the ‘Massive Suite’ has a lovely standalone bathtub too.

This is the bed of a ‘Rockstar Suite’ – this category has a window into the bathroom behind the bed. The bed itself is similar across all cabins:

This is a standard cabin with a balcony (there are a few internal cabins too but I didn’t see one) which, realistically, is what most people will book:

There is so much to see, do, eat and drink on the ship that it is pointless trying to show it all.

There’s a 17th floor running track around the ship:

…. there’s a 16th floor basketball court:

…. and boxing ring, there are many areas with loungers and bars:

…. a very smart theatre, a huge amount of shopping, a casino, a never-ending list of places to eat and drink (but NO buffets – that’s the Virgin Voyages rule) etc etc. It goes on and on.

Here’s the main pool:

If you book a high-end suite, you get access to ‘Richard’s Rooftop’ which is a large private outdoor area at the bow of the ship. This contains loungers, a bar, a number of jacuzzis etc and is presumably less busy than other areas. Here’s a small part of it:

You can see above that some guests brought their swimming gear just in case the hot tubs were activated, and got lucky!

We ate in The Test Kitchen, which is an ‘experimental dining’ restaurant. It’s basically a mini Heston Blumenthal-style place, where the name of the item of the menu is just a vague guide to what you will get. Here is venison covered in chocolate sauce:

It was pretty good (obviously not Heston-quality, but meals are free on board) and I suspect the sort of thing that marks out Virgin Voyages from the competition. Note that most alcoholic drinks on board are not free, but packages are available.

We’ve only touched on a fraction of what is available. Despite six hours on the ship I know there is a lot I didn’t see, including a large fitness centre with free classes.

What I hope I’ve got across is that Virgin Voyages is NOT your archetypal pensioner-filled cruise line. (It isn’t kid-filled either – children are not allowed.) I even felt that, in my 50’s, I might be a bit old for the target market but I suspect – with the ability to pick and choose how you relax and how you eat and drink – I’d find enough to like. Tips and gratuities are not allowed either, so that’s one less thing to worry about.

If this has piqued your interest, you can find out more about ‘Brilliant Lady’ and the rest of the fleet on the Virgin Voyages website here.

You can spend Virgin Points on Virgin Voyages cruises but it is now pretty much revenue based redeeming and the pence per point ratio isn’t usually too great. You can earn points on cash bookings – see the Virgin Red app for details – but at a weirdly poor rate of 100 points per person per night.

Thanks to the Virgin Red team for the invite.