Trip Report: Virgin Voyages Resilient Lady

We've posted several club reports from on board Virgin Voyages Resilient Lady cruise ship sailing on a 2-nt cruise to nowhere from PortMiami. This Trip Report is mainly about the ship itself.

Resilient Lady's maiden voyage was in May, 2023 so she's barely over a year old. It had been sailing cruises to the eastern Med from Piraeus just outside Athens. She just arrived in the United States and will be sailing cruises from Miami and San Juan. The ship joined her predecessor ships Scarlet Lady and Valiant Lady.

We spotted the brand new Resilient Lady in Piraeus last May when we our ship Norwegian Jade docked next to her.

As mentioned, this was a 2-nt cruise to nowhere. She departed Miami Friday evening and immediately headed out to international waters so the shops and casino could open. She then headed north in the Gulf Stream overnight before turning and heading south all day Saturday. She entered Bahamian waters around mid-day and one could see the Bimini Islands for awhile around lunch time.

Virgin does things differently than most other cruise lines. Passengers are called Sailors so the Reception Desk is called Sailor Services.

We're big fans of cruise ship buffets and this is another difference on Virgin Voyages. The buffet, instead of being one or two long cafeteria-style lines like on most cruise ships, is divided into food stations with cute names. "Let Us Taco About It" is the Mexican station. Good news: With just one restaurant with an upcharge to dine in, all specialty restaurants including the steak house and Italian restaurant are included in your fare.

"Noodle Around " is for bowls of Asian fare.

"Hot Off The Press" is a panini station.

"The Daily Mix" is the salad bar. There are several more too, all staffed and taking orders for you personally. This was a thing we did not care for. On most ships we like to carry our plate up to the trough and shovel food directly on to it. Here they take your order and give you one of those restaurant buzzers to tell you when your order is ready. My burger/fries order took 20 minutes until the buzzer went off. The advantage though is hot and fresh cooked to order food. The dessert station was impressive too.

When we heard Virgin was doing a 2-nt cruise, we originally booked an Inside cabin. A month later prices had come down so we were able to snag a Balcony cabin for just $36 more than what we had paid for the Inside. The cabin was pretty standard compared to other ships The bathroom was the tiniest ever.

One thing we really liked was the cabin numbering system. On nearly all ships you arrive via stairs or off of the lifts and then have to figure out which hallway to walk into. You review the signs to see which hall has your even or odd numbered cabin. Every time. But on Virgin the cabins on the Port side have a large A on the hallway door and Starboard cabins have a large Z. So you immediately know which hallway to head to.

With Black Friday happening this week, there are a number of Virgin sailings with $99 per person per night deals. So this is a good time to check their website to see if there is a cruise for you . Keep in mind that under that new California law, cruise price quotes now include all taxes and charges. In addition on Virgin Voyages, cruise prices include crew gratuities.