We Almost Missed the Ship! Our Honest Virgin Voyages Review (feat. Kristen Woods)

SPEAKER_02 0:00

The travel drama, the boarding day, the cabin, the food, the excursions, the deparkation, and how Virgin Voyages stacks up against Carnival and Royal Caribbean.

SPEAKER_04 0:11

So if you've been cruise curious, cruise loyal, or cruise skeptical, grab your favorite beverage and let's get into it.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Welcome back to Travel Time Stories with Shannon, where real stories meet real journeys and healing happens one conversation at a time. I'm your host, Shannon, coming to you from the Lone Star State of Texas. And whether we're talking about road trips, international adventures, or life lessons learned the hard way, we're here for it all.

SPEAKER_04 0:52

Hi, everyone. I'm your co-host Dan coming to you from Missouri. Today's episode is a little extra special because we have our sister, our best friend, and our unofficial third co-host joining us.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

Kristen has been on the show before, and we are so excited to welcome her back again. She puts the tree in our trio.

SPEAKER_04 1:13

She just returned from selling on virgin voyages.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

But before you picked your hammocks and cocktails, let's just say getting there was an adventure all on its own.

SPEAKER_04 1:24

Kristen, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Thank you. Thank y'all so much. It's so good to be here again. Yes, an adventure indeed. So I'm I'm happy to come and share as it's my first time sailing on Raging Voyages. So I'm I'm ready to get into it. So thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Awesome. So have you ever been on the way to the airport and thought, there is no way we're making this cruise?

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Honestly. Oh, okay. Transparently, I had that thought weeks before we got there. Like I felt I don't know. I was like, it's not really happening. It's not really happening. And I think it's because we sailed in January, and we've never sailed at the beginning of the year. It's always in the fall or even in December. But we decided to celebrate my husband's birthday. And just the end of January just felt weird to me. And then we finally are packed and ready to go. And even like a couple of nights before, Shannon, you had let me know because you're like an amazing travel agent. And you know, uh, my sister, we're like, hey, the weather, they're starting to cancel, they may be canceling flights. And I'm like, great. So we're flying to Miami and then sailing out of Miami on Virgin. And so we decided to make the call and get a different flight, fly out a day early, and that's what we chose to do to make it to Miami in time. Fly out Friday to make it there to sail out by Sunday.

SPEAKER_04 2:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

And even that was just pushing it.

SPEAKER_04 3:02

Yeah, guys, you have to know before Kristen ever stepped foot on a virgin voyage ship, there were, I mean, the flight delay, stress levels at DEF CON 5, and at least one moment where missing that ship felt so real.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Yeah, um, up to the point of sailing off. So our flight was originally nonstop from Houston to Miami. And then we, because of flight cancellations and the weather that was coming through, we got another flight flying in Friday from Houston to Chicago. Houston to Chicago to Miami. Um, and so we were fine with that, whatever. We just wanted to make it to Miami, and so we left on Friday uh around two, flew to Chicago, and then left Chicago, and like 40 minutes in, the pilot was like, Oh, so sorry guys, the door handle is like coming off and it's not latching for some reason. So we're gonna have to like ground and like reroute to Indianapolis. And in Chicago, it was already like negative one degrees. So we get to Indianapolis and it was like negative 19 or something like that. It was crazy. We're coming from Houston and at the time it was like in the 70s. So we get to Indianapolis and we're there from like I don't know, 11 p.m. to like 3 a.m. Just waiting. Um, I think it was one or two, and we finally made it to Miami at four in the morning. And even when we got to Miami, y'all, listen, it was just like crazy because we got to Miami, had an Uber scheduled. I don't know, okay, I don't know if I'll be able to explain this to where like in the audio it'll make sense, but you know, you pre you can pre-schedule an Uber. We did it like two weeks, three weeks in advance. The Uber was supposed to pick us up, obviously in Miami, take us to our hotel. When we got rerouted to Indianapolis, the Uber an Uber driver in Indianapolis took our ride and said, Hey, I'll drive you from Indianapolis to your hotel in Miami just to get the fare and cancel the, he canceled the ride. Like he picked it up.

SPEAKER_02 5:33

Yeah. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

How does that even happen? Exactly. So I'm on the plane, and when they when we get to Chicago and we find out, or when we're in flight, and he's like, hey, the door handles were coming off, we're going to Indianapolis. I'm like, all right, well, let me try to cancel this ride. By the time we touched down in Indianapolis, the Uber driver in Indianapolis already picked up our ride and then saw the destination and was like, nope, it's not gonna be in Miami. So he just canceled it and charged us, and we got charged for that ride. And I'm like, wait, wait, wait. There's no way you're gonna drive from Indianapolis to Miami, dude. Like, how, you know. Yeah. So even that, that was a trial, and we finally get to Miami, and our Uber driver keeps circling the airport for like 30 minutes and keeps passing us up. So we're like, we're never gonna get what? Oh my god, like we weren't going to make it. Oh my gosh, I shouldn't want to go. So yes. Um, I'll stop it there, but there was more even getting to the port. So yes.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

It's been a wow. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Yeah. Yeah. It was that's that's crazy.

SPEAKER_03 6:54

That's insane.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Yeah, it was crazy. Uh and then they gave us like, you know, a little credit to eat in the airport and everything was closed. So they're like, we'll give you some credit. And we're like, well, it's 1 a.m. Yeah, what what good is it?

SPEAKER_04 7:08

There's nothing open. Which I've never understood that. People fly at night. We're all on different schedules. I don't get why there's not a couple of places open, you know?

SPEAKER_02 7:21

Yeah, yeah, you would think. What do I exactly? Yeah. So today, folks, we're gonna break it down the travel drama, the boarding day, the cabin, the food, the excursions, the deparkation, and how Virgin Voyages stacks up against Carnival and Royal Caribbean.

SPEAKER_04 7:41

So if you've been cruise curious, cruise loyal, or cruise skeptical, grab your favorite beverage and let's get into it.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

All right, Kristen. So you already kind of told us a little bit about what happened, but let's rewind for a minute and tell everybody how this trip came about. Did you book it like far in advance? What made you decide to book this trip? Who, who I was going, that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

Yeah, sure. So uh my husband and I originally were going to book a like a resort, like just fly somewhere and do an all-inclusive resort because we're so used to cruises being all-inclusive. We just wanted that to be on land this time. And we had already tried Carnival and Royal. So we were kind of cruised out. We're like, we're getting the same experience. It's really not going to be much different anywhere else. But then we saw like the prices, and we're like, we could get this for like a good cruise and then go to some other places along the way. So Virgin Voyages was one that popped up in you, Shannon. You had even like recommended, like, what about virgin for the price point that we were looking at? And so we kind of saw some of the options and we're like, okay, let's try Virgin because we hear it's really good. It is new, it's still considered new, I think the newest. And we were like, okay, well, we're gonna get like a good, you know, the good uh the best bang for our book, basically. So we booked it from uh sailing out of Miami to go to Cozumel and Bimini, Bahamas, which is where uh Virgin has their own resort island, resort style island. So that's and it was for my husband's birthday. We went with in January, close to his birthday. We're actually there on his birthday, so it worked out really nice.

SPEAKER_04 9:33

What were you guys most excited about?

SPEAKER_01 9:34

No kids. Amen to that. Um, when we realized it was truly like no kids, it was adults only. Like, okay, this is different. I am looking forward to that. So otherwise, we have no frame of reference for virgin at all. So we did not know what to expect. I did watch some videos beforehand and I still it still didn't click, you know. I it was just kind of like watching this experience other people were having. But I'm like, okay, well, a cruise is a cruise, is a cruise. So but the no kids definitely takes it to a different level.

SPEAKER_04 10:16

Good to know. I wondered. I mean, I figured it did, but but it's nice to hear someone actually say that it's worth it.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

It's a different, it's a different environment for sure. So did starting the trip stressed from the flight delays and detours and everything else affect your first day, like boarding day or whatever?

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Okay, so um we happened to have sailed uh on a weekend where there was like this huge marathon and they shut the like half the city down. So we stayed 20 minutes away from port, the port. Like 25 minutes. Um, it took us two hours to get an Uber to get to the port. Still got out, we were not at the port yet. We were at the port, but we weren't at the uh entrance for Virgin, the terminal. We got out and walked the rest of the way. Girl, oh my god. Too far, but I had to pee so bad, I'm telling you. I had to walk fast. I walk fast by default, but I have never been so determined in my life. I was like, if there is a gas station, I don't use gas station bathrooms, but today will be the day. Right to live to tell the story. So we ended up tipped our Uber driver so well because she was navigating very well and it was just back-to-back traffic. So we were stressed just making sure we got to our boarding time. We we got to check in during our boarding time. But once we got there and used the restroom, the boarding process was really smooth. Like it was, we just walked in and it was no line. Wow. It was very open. Now, granted, I did um, I kind of splurged on my husband and bought like this. It's called Splash of Romance package, and it comes with like an early or priority check-in, but we were already kind of behind anyway. So we ended up like boarding with other people. So we all just walked in. They um they check your like passport or your your ID or whatever, but they have little stands where they just have everything set up for you. So it it really gave us a lot of relief, like knowing, okay, like we don't have to wait in line at the Miami terminal. I don't know everywhere else, but they don't Virgin doesn't allow you to come early. So if you if your check-in time is 2 30, if you come at 2, there is nowhere for you to wait. So you just show up when you're supposed to show up and then you just walk on through. So I thought it was really that that was really helpful for us.

SPEAKER_04 13:08

I was completely different. What the port experience was like, it sounds fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 13:15

It was really nice. Yeah. We just walk right up, and then the check-in was um, you get your you you check in with an agent. They had everything, your your band, your wristband, and all of that. So I we can get into that also. But yeah, it was just it that made it a lot less stressful. We were like, okay, we're finally here, they got us taken care of, so we can we can move on.

SPEAKER_04 13:39

So one of my favorite things is when I step onto that ship. I I'm serious. I always get super excited. I just smile, it makes me happy, and I'm ready to get a drinky. So what did what was your impression when you first stepped onto the virgin ship?

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Um, it was nice. It was it's similar where you just walk through and they have like this party crew. After you check in, they give you a wristband, like a bracelet, not a wristband. It's a bracelet with your with all access to everything. There is no lanyard, there's no badge, no card, no nothing. Everything is accessible through your bracelet, um, and the chip on the bracelet. So they give that to you and you walk on board and just they have like this party crew, like a happenings cast is what they call them. They're like cheering you on, welcome you on board, and then you walk into the ship, and then so your room is ready immediately.

SPEAKER_04 14:38

Really?

SPEAKER_01 14:39

What? It's ready when you get on board.

SPEAKER_04 14:42

No.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Are you kidding me right now? No waiting till after 1 p.m. or 2 p.m.

SPEAKER_03 14:48

Like it is with Wow.

SPEAKER_01 14:50

Your bracelet is activated, you can go straight to your room and you can do all of your um, what is it, your safety, your mustard drill? Your mustard drill all in the room. And then you go meet, you go to the spot where you would go um to your do your muster, like just to attest that, hey, I'm here, I did it, and and that's it. But no, your room is ready when you get on there. So that's what I was most excited about.

SPEAKER_04 15:18

Girl, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:20

Yeah, and we didn't have any check bags, so or we brought everything with us, and we literally just had a carry-on in a backpack, and so we didn't have to wait for luggage.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

I'd love that the room is already ready for you. You don't have to wait around. No, that is amazing. Yeah, yeah. That was number one for us.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

I hate waiting when we get on. Yeah, me too.

SPEAKER_01 15:44

You know, yeah. No, they they had everything open, the ice cream shop was open, pizza shop was open, everything, everything was open, but your room was ready. So we could get ourselves together, then walk back out.

SPEAKER_02 15:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:58

That's nice.

SPEAKER_02 16:00

So tell everybody what type of cabin you had.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

I had a balcony cabin cabin. So we stayed in, I think it's a sea terrace with a balcony, and it was in the center of the ship. So um, and it was on the 14th deck. The the cabin was really nice. It had a hammock in the uh on the balcony, so that was nice. Nice. That was actually my first time using a hammock, so that was really nice. Everything is accessible and controlled by your bracelet and a tablet. So you access your room with your bracelet. Um, and then inside you have like a tablet, like an iPad, or you know, and your curtains, the lights, everything is controlled by that tablet. The TV, everything. And so us being like with tech nerds, we were like, Yes, I already knew that. So like I was hoping to see like my husband's like face light up, like, oh, the curtains, the lights. Yeah, that it was it was great. It was great.

SPEAKER_04 17:09

That's amazing. So when you guys first opened that door, were you just you just love your room?

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Yeah, I think what we really liked about is how modern it looked. Even the like the bedding looked modern. Everything was like Virgin Voyage is like red, gray, white, like it's their branding, of course. Even down to like the little water, it come come with unlimited water. You don't have to buy water bottles, you don't have to worry about water. It's sparkling and still water as much as you want. So I love that. Yeah, we usually bring our own water and like especially like sparkling water, we bring that along with us, or we have to pay those amounts to you know get bottles of water. It's just a hassle. But no, glass bottles waiting. You could ask for it as much as you want. The curtains, like I said, were really cool. And and then the TV was like the channels are like regular TV. You had news, you had Cartoon Network, but you also had all of the regular cable stations to watch all kinds of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

So you did have to watch the same movie over and over and over because there was only like one on the TV, like 11 times in a two-week period, no joke. Girl, we was on the 14-day carnival cruise, and uh I'm telling you right now, if I ever see Ferris Feelers Day Off again, it's gonna hurt somebody.

SPEAKER_04 18:40

I'm gonna lose it.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

Ours was when the I don't know why my husband picked this one when we were on the cruise, but it was uh that movie, it was like the zero patient. It was the one where the the virus spread. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:58

I can't think of the name of it, but I know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

I come in. I come like from the balcony watching that movie about the virus spreading to everybody's group of people.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

You just got dang Chris. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_03 19:16

Don't watch that.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Oh my what is going on? This is not the time to be watching that. And you fall asleep on it.

SPEAKER_04 19:26

I'm getting out the hand sanitizer right now.

SPEAKER_00 19:29

Yeah, sanitizer.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

But yeah, no, they had like CNN, they had um all the different news sources, all the different movie channels. It was really nice.

SPEAKER_04 19:43

So we're nice, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

And it broke it on the tablet. It breaks it down by mood or genre or what you're feeling like. Oh, cool. Even the lights, they had like they had like a nice time light, like when it was lightings.

SPEAKER_00 20:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:03

I was like, okay. Did you play with all the light settings? I would have. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:10

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 20:10

I would have been I would have been laying in bed playing with the light settings.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

We did. And they had nice lights behind the um bed for like very dim, like it only lit up your area. It was really nice. They yeah, they had nice towels, that blankets, all the things. So it was really nice.

SPEAKER_04 20:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

Yeah. Speaking of the cabin, uh, so you've been on Carnival and what all how was the storage space?

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Because yeah, storage was I think it was the same. It was adequate. They had some underbed space that we didn't even use. So the storage under the bed. Uh, there was a whole closet with drawers. They had so our bed was one king bed or queen bed, I guess, but they you could turn it into a sofa, like a little lounger. What do they call it? Futon kind of style. So you take one of the beds, they move it to the side and they turn it into like a futon that has storage as well. So it had it had plenty for us. We we we used all of the drawers and the closet space, but the closet was really, it was really nice to have that too.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

And the bathroom was really spiffy. It was like a, I don't know, the it looked modern. We, you know, it was smaller, I will say. It's a small bathroom, but I like that everything was really accessible. Um, you had magnetic side sidings to certain areas so you can hang things up. Oh, nice. Um, and the shower was actually like a rain shower. Oh, yeah. Uh huh. I didn't like it particularly.

unknown 21:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 21:59

But my mother Enjoyed it very much. So it was not enough.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

So what would you say the age range was on the ship?

SPEAKER_01 22:12

I would say one in five on up. And just look there were some celebrating 90th birthdays. There were oh wow, okay. There was a there was, I I promise I think this girl was like she just turned 18 and this was her first. Like she looked very young. I was like, it's had no kids. But I think it was like mid-20s, maybe uh upper 20s on up. Um, but like the most we saw were like maybe 30s, 40s, like maybe, yeah, in that range. Um, it kind of really varied and it depended on like we went on a six-day cruise, so those tend to be older, um, like an older crew, because you know, a lot of people are trying to, they're doing the four-day kind of take a day off of work and then do that. But this was at the end of January, people are back at work. Um, so we saw we saw like 30s, 40s, you know, and then upper up uh the age range as well. So it was really diverse.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

Awesome. That's good. Yeah, I was wondering about that. I didn't know if there would be more people like my age, you know, older, or if it was more people younger.

SPEAKER_04 23:28

So or my age, even older than older.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

No, no, they had it all. They had all agreed.

SPEAKER_04 23:37

So Kristen, I had to ask you. So did it did it feel like a party ship, or was it a more relaxed type of laid back atmosphere?

SPEAKER_01 23:48

Yeah, no, it didn't feel like a party ship. We were trying to purposely get on a an itinerary that was a little slower paced. This felt like it's a smaller ship, so I think it's like 2700 uh is the capacity. And it we did not feel crowded at all. We we were questioning if it was fully booked, and it it was, but it seemed like it was like COVID times. Like elevators were empty. Wow, we didn't have any problems getting an elevator. Um, and people were just overall more chill, and I guess maybe because they don't have the kids, I don't know, but it was just very chill. We were people were nice. Shannon, you know, me and elevators, I don't talk to anybody, I hold my breath and but I actually had conversations.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

I was like, okay, so proud of you. And I'm like, yeah, I don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Yeah, you're not you weren't jam-packed in there.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah. Oh yeah, no.

SPEAKER_04 24:49

That is so horrible.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Yeah, it was a really good vibe.

SPEAKER_04 24:52

So more adults-only type vibe.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Yep, absolutely. We all were very, it was very mature. I felt like even though people were celebrating birthdays and weddings and all that stuff, I didn't know where they were because I felt like it was about to be like that because we saw several groups, but we never heard anyone. Nobody was acting crazy. It was just really nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:19

Yeah, that is good. Awesome. So, how about uh were there a lot of melanin on the ship? That's a good question.

SPEAKER_01 25:28

Yeah. I don't I would say it was really diverse. So one thing I will say about Virgin, and I and I guess because I don't actually I don't know why, but there were people from all over the world. We often sat next to people that were not even from the US, they were from Italy, they were from everywhere coming on Virgin. Yeah, it was really nice. Yeah, so we were really impressed, and it kind of kind of spoke to like the I guess the caliber of what Virgin is trying to do because I don't know how many people are coming from Italy to go on Carnival. I Carnival's great. I just, you know, it's just more like, okay, we're in the US. I'm here in Houston, so I'm still not a Galveston. I don't know how many people are coming to Galveston per se, coming all the way down, you know. So with Virgin, I you they had a lot of it was a lot of diversity. So yeah, melanin was definitely there.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

That's good. I like I prefer to have a diverse group on the ship.

SPEAKER_04 26:32

Me too.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Because uh that's what I like on vacation is getting to meet and interact with people from all different backgrounds and stuff and learn learn about them. So that's good to know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:45

Yeah, for sure. Oh, so let's talk about other than your bed, the most important thing on the ship, which is the food.

SPEAKER_01 26:56

Now, I will say about the bed, that was probably the most comfortable cruise bed I've slept in.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Really?

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yes. Now we had a mattress topper, which we they gave it to us. Um, we asked for it, but they were like, We're out. But I guess they found one somehow. But that was comfortable. It did I didn't even realize like, okay, this is like a cruise ship bed or a hotel. Like it it felt nice. So I say that. The food next level. I this I don't know, like we don't have that much time, but the the quality of food was great. I think also one of the reasons is because they have people coming from all over the world. They need to be able to speak to that. Everything is included. And when I say everything, we did not have to pay for any specialty. There, there is no specialty dining. Everything is specialty, everything is restaurant style or like a food hall style. So they're another phase. Everything is either you walk up to get it, or you can sit at a table, scan your QR code, or raise a flag. They'll come to you and you order, and then they just someone brings it to you. They have about five or six restaurants on the ship that are all included. You have to make reservations. They do book out, like they really do book out. And all of that was really, really good. We tried all but one just because of time and and all of that. But from breakfast on down to dinner and snacks, it it was great. It was 24-hour food too. So Wow.

SPEAKER_04 28:33

So it didn't shut down like at midnight or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Some places, like the restaurants did, but you can get like like I could get an omelet at like 4 p.m.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Get out of here. Breakfast all day.

SPEAKER_01 28:49

Breakfast all day. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 28:51

Oh, that would be awesome.

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:55

I love pancakes for dinner.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

I didn't even get my omelet. And I used to eat omelets every day when I'm on a cruise. Traveling for that matter. But yeah, the food was even like we didn't feel full or stuffed, or like, you know, sometimes when you're traveling, you're eating food that may not be the healthiest, but you feel like sluggish, or we didn't feel any of that. They um they had a gelato shop there on there on on the ship, and that was great. Changed the f the flavors every other day. Um wow. Yeah, yeah. And you can get as much as you want.

SPEAKER_04 29:32

So just not vanilla and chocolate.

unknown 29:35

No.

SPEAKER_04 29:35

Or swirl.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

Right. And and you're not and you're not paying extra for the gelato either? Because on Carnival and Royal, you pay extra for the gelato.

SPEAKER_04 29:46

Yeah, right. Because we did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

The gelato was free. That was almost 24 hours. I think they closed at like 3 a.m. Um, pizza, you know, they had like terramisu. They had um I had uh what is that? It's the Gordon Ramsey has it. Um, it's one of his famous dishes on Hill's Kitchen. It's the meat and the the beef inside, and then it's in a croissant, like a leaf.

SPEAKER_04 30:16

Beef Wellington.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Beef Wellington. Oh yeah, beef wellington, yeah. Have that on the shoe.

SPEAKER_03 30:23

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

For no ex for no extra charge. No, that was that was like the the the dish of the day for that little piece of the shop. Um Mexican chips and salsa all day. I mean oh it was next level.

SPEAKER_04 30:42

Yeah, we're booking on virgin for that alone.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

I'm just saying. Yeah, just for chips and chips and rock.

SPEAKER_04 30:54

So what was your favorite? What was your favorite restaurant? I mean, all these places to eat, how do you pick?

SPEAKER_01 31:01

We actually forgot about one restaurant. We didn't even realize it existed until the last day we were getting off the ship and we passed by. We were like, oh man, we didn't even know it was there. Our favorite one was probably it was either at the Italian, it's called Extra Virgin, and or the Mexican, which is Pinkagave. Their food was delicious. Extra virgin was a real, like they make their pasta. Um wow. Oh my gosh. We had some kind of dish that was just amazing. They made like they made us some kind of dessert, like table side. They just came and like made it. Yeah, it that was really good. The quality was really good.

unknown 31:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 31:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 31:44

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 31:45

That's so impressive.

SPEAKER_02 31:48

So did you have any specific meal that you were disappointed in?

SPEAKER_01 31:53

We had um the first night we went to the wake and it's a steakhouse. We were kind of okay with it. Um, but I think we we really liked like the bread. The bread. Bread and the butter. It was so and peak.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

That's my favorite part. The fact that you're saying at the steakhouse, the bread was the best thing.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

That's but I had some reviews that the wake is known for it's a steakhouse, but they're not really known for the steak. So try something else. But I wanted steak that night. And then we went to like a brunch, like a breakfast brunch spot in the morning. I forgot the name of it. It was okay. It was mid. Um, so the great thing is we were able to leave and grab something on the way out and still get our omelette or whatever. Oh, they had overnight oats. Okay. Y'all, what they do, which I say is next level for like the adult life, they have a in the um food hall area, like a wall of grab and go things, like bento boxes. So you can just grab your overnight oats. Um, you can grab your plenty of oranges, a lot of fruits that you can just grab and take to your room. So we did a lot of that. A lot of bananas, oranges, apples, and then in the afternoon, evening, they'll have like salads to go, sushi. They were prepping and making fresh sushi, and you can just pick up the box and just go. So they have it all ready, like ready-to-go meals and stuff. If you didn't want anything from the foods, food hall. So that was really nice.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

Yeah, that is nice. Because sometimes you just want something really quick like that, you know.

SPEAKER_04 33:43

And I know on some of the other ships there's nowhere to go just to go grab something, you know, just a little salad or a little bite or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Yeah. Yeah, that was really convenient for us.

SPEAKER_04 33:55

Yeah, that would have been really nice. So, how did it compare to Carnival and Royal Caribbean quality as far as food goes?

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Uh uh yeah, that Virgin was I'm willing to give Royal a chance again, maybe if it was a newer ship. We were told that the ship that we went on was really old, so they didn't have a lot of options, but hands down Virgin, just because of the diversity of the the food options.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:26

And what about entertainment?

SPEAKER_01 34:29

Listen, that's a thing we did not participate in. Oddly. So um, I can't give you any information. Kristen. Well, okay, so because we looked at the itinerary and it had a lot of um, one, a lot of things started a little later, like 8, 9 p.m. And we're like, okay, we're we're getting in the bed at that time. Um, but I hear the shows are great. So when I go on another one, because we are gonna go on another one, we did say we were going to do the entertainment side of it. Um oh, we did karaoke. They do the first day when when we got on there, like the that evening, we signed up for karaoke and it's current Korean style, so you're in your own booth. So you come from Rome, and I felt like that was a great introduction because my husband did not want to do group open karaoke. And so we just signed up. It was just us two. We went, got the mics, and just loaded up the songs and just had a blast. So that that part we did too.

SPEAKER_04 35:41

Oh, that sounds like fun.

SPEAKER_02 35:42

Yeah, that sounds like fun. I could do that with if I'm in my own room. I can't do it being out there up in front of everybody.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

No, I can purchase and I do this almost I do it two or three times a month in my church.

SPEAKER_02 35:55

I was gonna say, girl, you do it, you do it on Sundays at church. What are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01 36:00

Yeah, no, yeah, I can do it at church. I just can't do it in the public with everybody else.

SPEAKER_04 36:06

Uh folks, Kristen can sing. That's all I'm gonna say right here.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

Yes, Kristen should have her own record just just putting that out there.

SPEAKER_04 36:14

She is that good.

SPEAKER_02 36:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 36:18

So did they have any live music on the ship?

SPEAKER_01 36:21

Yes, and it was amazing. So um we lit listened to they had a pianist, an independent artist, but she travels around the world. They had like different bands come in different parts of the ship and just set up and just play. It was really nice. They had a DJ on the on the uh ship inside too that did music throughout the day. Yeah, they had a lot of good uh good live music and different genres of music too.

unknown 36:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:50

Oh, that's good. So you didn't go to shows, but what activities did y'all do? I mean, like the pool. Did you go to any fitness classes? Can you tell us about any of that?

SPEAKER_01 37:02

I can. I'm excited, yes. So uh fitness, I went to we we saw the gym. Gym is great. Like the ship is set up to where if you have a regimen going in food and fitness, you can still be on that same regimen. They had healthy options, they had, you know, not so healthy options for food, but also the gym is set up where they had all kinds of classes included. Don't have to, you know, you just have to sign up. They had bungee classes, they had spin classes.

SPEAKER_02 37:34

What they had the bungee classes? Um, yeah, we're booking Virgin because I've been wanting to try.

SPEAKER_00 37:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:41

Wait, when you say bungee, are we talking jumping off of the bungee cord, bungee? No.

SPEAKER_02 37:47

No, no, we're not doing that. Folks, I'm folks. I'm apologizing for Anne. You, you know, she's she's on up there, senior citizen. They don't know what bungee is.

SPEAKER_01 37:56

That's it because bungee, that's all you see is the bungee, like people jumping off of stuff. But no, it's inside of a room, they have bungee cords hanging from the ceiling, and you're you get like you strap in and then you just like bungee around the room. Like you just oh, I would do that. You did uh workouts.

SPEAKER_04 38:16

Um that would be fun, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

And because we packed really light, I didn't pack a lot of like gym clothes. So I did a Zumba class, which was fun. Um yeah. So they have all kinds of classes as far as other activities, like I paid for a splash of romance package for my husband and I, and that was basically a spa day. So Virgin has a a spa like other cruise ships. What I liked about this spa was it had like the salt room, everything was included for the for like four hours or something like that. So we come in, we did ours at like 9 a.m. on a port. No, we did it on a Cosmale day because there were perfect day. Yeah, we did the Cosmale enough time at this point. So like we're done with Cosmale. So we did like the salt room, they give you a towels, uh slippers, you can go to the mud room, salt room, sauna, steam room. They have coal plunge, they have a hot tub, and they have a marble floor where it's like elevated, where it's just warm, it's heated. So you can just lay the marble and just chill out. People were reading books, just kind of meditating. We just kind of laid there to kind of chill out for a minute. Um, and that's what we did. We we did like the whole four hours, well, maybe like three and a half hours we were there. So it was really nice. The pools are set up, or the hot tub and the coal plunges are set up to where only two to three people can get in. So I really appreciated that it wasn't gonna be like six of us crammed into a hot tub. Um, and it's like that outside too on the deck. The pools out there have they're smaller, but it wasn't crowded, and the hot tubs are only you could only have like three people in there. So I think three or four at most for the outside hot tub. So it was really nice. Other activities, I did, I forgot to bring it. I was gonna show y'all, but I did a um, they had like a painting activity. So like this lady set up a huge canvas on the wall in the ship, and you can go throughout the day and like color paint, just fill it in. It was like a rainbow Amazon kind of canvas. Oh, that's neat. I like that. Yeah, so it was like activities for all kinds of you know, minds and stuff. So I'm a creative, so I spent like a good hour. It was therapeutic to just be coloring away, and before you know, like an hour had passed, and then she cut it up at the end, and we all got to take the pieces that we colored or that we wanted. So um, I took a piece of my of the canvas home with me. So it was nice.

SPEAKER_04 41:01

It's really cool. What a great memento to have.

SPEAKER_02 41:05

I love that idea. Uh, because I love to color and stuff like that, so that would be awesome to get to do something like that.

SPEAKER_04 41:12

Me too.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

Yeah. So you said the spa had a mud room? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

They give you a little, they give you some mud, um, go in there, and we didn't do that because um I I just didn't want to put mud on me. But yeah, but we did like the salt, the Himalayan salt room, and just sat there and that would be awesome. We even did the cold plunge, it was great. So yeah, yeah, they have it all there.

SPEAKER_04 41:40

Nice. The spot sounds really nice.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Sorry, the splash of romance package does come with other perks, priority check-in. They also have what's called Shake for Champagne. So you download the Virgin Voyages app. And oh, let me explain. Let me explain. To obviously do all your things or activities, but at any point, you can shake your phone and somebody will bring you a bottle of champagne where you are with glasses.

SPEAKER_02 42:20

What? That is cool. Oh god.

SPEAKER_00 42:26

Let's do it. Yeah, we should get and it was like, your champagne's on the way.

SPEAKER_01 42:31

And I'm like, Oh, okay. So that really worked.

SPEAKER_04 42:36

Cool. That really worked then.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

Yeah, and um, it was like a big old bottle of like Moet. So I'm like, Wow. You don't even drink. Like, what are we drinking? I was like, can we shake for like hot chocolate or like chocolate milk? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 42:56

Pick your beverage.

SPEAKER_02 42:58

Right. Yeah, they should have it where you could pick your beverage, yeah. Yeah. Not everybody does champagne, so no, I'm not a champagne person. Unless it's a mimosa.

SPEAKER_04 43:09

I was gonna say, unless it's mixed with pineapple juice or orange juice, then yeah, yeah. Yeah, exactly. So what ports did you guys visit?

SPEAKER_01 43:19

Um, it was Cozumel and Bimini, Bahamas. So we stayed in for Cozumel. And actually, we got off the ship in Cozumel um just to see because we didn't port at the same port. So I was confused. I'm like, Oh, where's the long stretch where you go and walk down the long you you weren't at the long pier? No, it was really mall, like a mall area where we had to go through two access points. And I was like, I can't. I don't know what this is. Let's get back. But yeah, we didn't really we got back on this ship. Um, but the Bemini Bahamas. was the resort uh island that Virgin has, and that was amazing. Uh the weather was not hot, but it wasn't it wasn't too warm either. We actually had hoodies on pictures. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it was in the 60s in Wendy, but it was beautiful. And you know how different cruises have like certain areas like you can buy a cabana or you can have those where you can pay for like a whole covered cabana. And I will say it is pricey, but it might be worth it if you have like a big group split the cost. But they also had really nice covered smaller cabana things that were totally open, free for everyone. So me and my husband found one and we just sat there all day and chilled on the beach, had a covering and everything and it was no extra cost. Um and then the food was included too and it was like real food. It was beans and rice it was jerk chicken um all you can drink like fountain drinks are free all included um on and off the ship and you don't have to do anything. You do have to pay for alcoholic beverages but everything else was included.

SPEAKER_02 45:15

That's unusual because usually on the private island you have to pay extra for the food and drinks. Right. Really?

SPEAKER_01 45:23

Yeah oh that's not included okay we've never been on to one where there was a private island. Okay good to know yeah it's usually always extra no they had a whole what Virgin does is they don't have cruise directors they have a group of people that collectively just are hype people. What the second thing Anne that I liked about that cruise was you weren't waking up at like six in the morning seven hearing the little bloop blue bloop welcome good morning blah blah yes nobody made any announcements the entire space really wow nothing and so it just really felt like you were really chilling out just doing your thing nobody was over this loudspeaker doing any of that come don't miss out this class don't miss nothing right nothing I love that so grown up they yeah yeah they're like you you can figure it out you have the app and they have like uh paper printed out schedules for the day too and in the elevators it's all like digital so this the schedule is all on the elevator walls too so oh wow oh wow that's cool I like that yeah yeah I want to see the picture of that that's cool yeah so tell us about the Bahamasy and cool and we were supposed to originally do jet skis but they canceled the um the excursion because of the weather right um so we just really got out on the beach and it was clean it was nice they had music it was a whole resort like I said you grab your food they even they even thought about like um sitting at the they had tables where you could sit and eat but they had the little fans to like combat the flies like to keep the flies away and stuff oh yeah little things like that it was really set up very well um so in carnival those people that kind of almost harass you with the drinks you want a drink do you want to drink not one person not one person asked us for a drink or asked us about a drink um so we appreciated that um so it was nice it was beautiful people we were just people watching that's what we do we just watch and we watched all the people do their social media pictures in 60 degree weather trying to act like it was 90 degree and he's quivering so hopefully that's gonna come across in your Instagram yeah right we're pretending yep so did you have any peer runners no no peer runners so one of the reasons why I think that is is the also the port time the length of time we had so we would dock in Cozumel at like 8 a.m and we didn't have to be back until 8 p.m wow oh wow that's awesome so 12 hours that's nice we were like okay this is really nice I don't feel like I have to rush people can do things if they wanted to and it was like that in the Bahamas I think it was like either 7 p.m or something like that but we left late it was it was night yeah it was evening by the time that's awesome you can only you know if you only have like a three four five hour window you can usually only do one thing maybe you know so longer port times would be awesome I would really like that nice yeah so how was debarkation when you got back to the port getting off smooth you pick a time before like the night before they'll ask you hey when do you want to leave you can leave earlier if you want but they they didn't they didn't announce anything either now that I think about it they you just go and leave you just get your stuff and leave and they we we left off of deck four so we just took the elevator down it took a little bit of time to get an elevator that day but we still caught one and when we left and got off the ship it was literally just walking right out the door we just were kind of wondering like why is it so easy here but in other places it's not yeah it's so stressful. Yeah people are on the stairs people are there was no waiting like nobody was waiting for anything because they also had everything open too the food hall was open um until I think like 10 30 so yeah we actually left at like eight or something like that but you could still be on the ship up to 10 30 oh my gosh carnival you have to be off by eight isn't it just eight or nine or something like that. Yeah something like that it's early it's early yeah yep and it is not usually very well thought out organized no and we left again there's no way there's a waiting area uh to get like we took an Uber to the airport um but if you time it just right you just walk up your Ubers there or whatever and just just leave it was really easy.

SPEAKER_04 50:45

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 50:47

Wow so did traveling home go smoother this we did uh my husband and I did not sit together for three out of the four flights that we took um but it was really smooth um we had internet I think on what one of the flights last two flights we had internet access the whole time so it was coming home was a lot easier even in Miami straight it took like 15 minutes to get to the airport um and then we just we just left yeah wow so would you change anything about your travel planning yes I would stick to nonstop flights but what what we did we went through Shannon we went through you and um as our travel agent which you always do a phenomenal job so it gave us a peace of mind and you know me I'm also a researcher so I'm like what about this and this and this and I know at one point you probably were thinking like you could have done this yourself like why but I was like nope I want to keep doing but I I think I would maybe do more of the like for travel planning maybe pick an itinerary that had different ports um just kind of be more intentional with that because it's only so many times you can go to the same places and do the same things it's kind of like why you know yeah why did I go here again yeah yeah but yeah nonstop flights that would be good one I agree with that I always opt for nonstop flights that option as well so the comparison we'll go down the line here virgin versus carnival for food virgin okay we're gonna go straight to cabin Kristen what about crowds virgin and overall vibe on the ship yeah virgin all the way wow all right so now virgin versus Royal Caribbean service wise ooh uh I gotta say virgin only because of the diversity I feel that certain cruise lines only have certain people are all only from like certain parts of the world like that do service and I I wanted to mention this really quickly everybody on that ship did everything so you had people that were from like Zimbabwe that was doing like the IT technical stuff but also they switched it up and also did food service. You had someone from Tanzania or um Taiwan that was doing like they were kind of like they came out and they were like the captain's quarters or whatever captain's group but also they were food service they did like the they were an attendant you know type of it they were doing everything. It wasn't just one type of person and I really appreciated that because we saw so much diversity on that ship for not just the cruisers but the staff from all over the world. So we always make friends with staff members we cruise don't we Shannon for that alone I would say virgin. Awesome how about the ship amenities virgin value for the money that's that's a good one because Virgin I could see how it'd be a little pricier but I think we compared it to Royal and we've only been once on Royal I and it was a longer cruise I think it's a really good value honestly I would still say Virgin I I don't want to sound biased but yeah I mean we got a lot gratuities were included so we did not have to think about that at all. Once we paid it was that was the that was the cost. You were done yeah it was done yeah and the specialty dining and all of that workout classes yeah it was definitely worth it and Wi-Fi too right was included Wi-Fi was included you could do social media internet just basic internet browsing you can message you can text message you can do all of that so the signal was pretty good throughout the whole okay you know how on Cosm uh Carnival or even on Royal you have to pay to like message the people on the ship at least what you don't have to do that because we had just our regular we use WhatsApp so I mean it was fine.

SPEAKER_04 55:46

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

That's that's awesome you know that's another bonus. You almost have to add up all the perks that you get with virgin that you end up paying for on the other cruise lines I mean yeah the extra all that adds up it does and I mean I'm not wearing my Virgin Voyages sweatshirt but I got one because I was that excited I'm like why are why am I buying a Virgin Voyager sweatshirt? I do not work here so excited I'm like yeah I'll get one of those sweatshirts and I wear it a lot because it's nice and cute. Um I found like it was that good of a trip to where I'm like okay we gotta do this again and then explore it in a different way because from what I understand all of the ships are the same and they just switch like entertainment itineraries. So you actually don't know what kind of entertainment you're getting until you get closer to the the time you uh fail. Yeah you can look in that app three weeks ahead of time and there's like only one thing and I kind of freaked out I was like this is going to be boring but literally every day they added to the itinerary so it just kept growing and growing and growing and so we really we liked that even though we didn't do anything but we did like that we had options.

SPEAKER_04 57:11

Yeah that's really cool. So what was your favorite thing about virgin voyages?

SPEAKER_01 57:17

No kids no um but I think the vibe of it all was very mature we felt like we were being taken care of the service experience was really upscale um the room was nice it was just an overall mature trip that really left us we didn't feel exhausted getting off the the trip we actually said we would I asked my husband I was like could you do like six more days of this he was like yeah I could and that's that's big yeah our cap is like the five to six days and we're but we actually didn't want to get off the ship we were like oh man you know we're getting fed really good here I gotta go back to my Chipotle balls I don't know what we're gonna do that's great and we're not and we're not dissing Chipotle because we love Chipotle so if you want to sponsor us Chipotle reach out we literally had Chipotle when we got we'll tag you guys so what was the what was the biggest surprise our rooms being ready when we got on the ship we were we thought they would be ready like in a few minutes like maybe 30 minutes they were like go ahead your room's ready like this is great yeah we were definitely pleasantly surprised about that I would have been too that would have been nice so would you sell virgin again yeah I would we um actually put a deposit down already for girl yeah we um we committed we were like we're gonna do this again they give you two years to book so we're like yeah let's just put the deposit down and see where we want to go and so this next time we're hoping that we could do a little something a little bit further maybe fly in somewhere else other than Miami and uh nice go go a little bit further.

SPEAKER_02 59:37

Well Virgin is now sailing Alaska so I've been looking at those for me and Anne.

SPEAKER_01 59:42

Maybe do Virgin in Alaska so okay that's nice oh yeah you can tell us right for it let's oh we'll let you know on that one Alaska oh well there you go there's too many birds there for Kristen right I'm getting better that's good to know good to know but Alaska is beautiful Kristen I'm just I'm just gonna say it really is and it and to see whales in the wild girl that would freak me out but yeah I'm sure it's beautiful no it's majestic it would not freak you out it's majestic I'm telling you a fish as big as your ship yeah you're really not selling it there sounds great no and uh it will it would be cool to see yeah you have to admit exactly so rapid fire questions luxury or hype luxury relaxing or overstimulating you said over a city life over stimulating relaxing worth the price it's worth the price yes uh who is virgin voyages perfect for what type of person if you want to just get away and have everything laid out have a modern feel to your vacation but also you know you want to kind of sail out on the sea I I feel like it's good for anybody at all ages over 18 of course um I think it's a good fit. I think um what I have read up on is just research the itinerary um depending on how long the itinerary is the vibe of people may change if you're going on like a Thursday through Sunday like a four-day cruise you might have people that are getting off work and you know just using one workday and doing a quick trip and they might want to be a little bit more amped up and ready to party but if you have an itinerary that's like six days or more you're gonna have people that are a little bit more laid back. They are definitely there um on purpose um so uh we did see we did we saw quite a few folks that were working they were there um on their laptops um they had a a social club set up to where you can watch sports and you can get like pretzels and hot dogs and all that stuff that's wow that's nice um yeah and all included so we had we had um people that are gamers um as in not just video games because they do have an arcade there all included um but they had like a game uh area for like board games so you know they had operation and candyland and all this stuff you know so that's cool I think it yeah yeah yeah the the the older games like yeah the retro stuff you know yeah we tried to play operation but some of the body parts were missing so we just made out ice cream but yeah no it touches on everybody on everybody I think every personality type would have be a really good fit um and there was very much so diversity um I I didn't know what to expect as far as that not just like ethnicities but just lifestyles in general it was really diverse so we appreciated everybody feeling inclusive and feeling like they were welcomed and um yeah that's why we would definitely we're we can't wait to sell again.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:38

I love that so one one thing I was worried about with you or hesitant about with y'all going on virgin voyages was because that I've heard so much about you know like everything has like a sexual innuendo connotation to it like even what the ice cream shop is called you know so did that I was worried that that would bother y'all or offend y'all or anything was that really a thing or not really?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:06

I'm trying to the ice cream shop was called like lick me once or twice I don't know yeah yeah yeah we're adults like I know but I'm just saying like you know you're adults but also you know you are very conservative and you're Christians and you know so was that offensive to y'all in any way or bother you no actually we didn't even there there wasn't even any like innuendos that yeah we didn't even notice that um good yeah it was actually my husband he cracked up as as soon as he saw the the ice cream shop he's like that's clever and I'm like what and I'm still trying to read it and understand I was like oh so yeah no it was it was it was fine we didn't have any any issues everybody's there with either their person or their friends or there were family reunions that were there so everybody was really respectful of everybody's space too and who we are so um it was it was nice and it sounded like you guys weren't packed in like sardines like some of the cruises we've been on it is some of them are just so crowded. Yeah no wow where am I gonna catch off of this one we constantly were blowing like up to our our room down our room up to the food hall there was no issue at all so you didn't have any moments where you were like whoa I'm too old for this I mean the entertainment that started at like eight pm girl come on now you're younger than us so so you could Exactly I mean, no, it was nothing that well, I'll say that. No, it was it was nothing that made me feel like, oh, this is like a party boat, or this is like just for young kids. No. Because their age range was really vast, but everybody was adult. They were very mature about it. Um, yeah. I think we saw one person get drunk, and that poor guy, it was he just didn't know his limit.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:27

So he probably felt it the next day, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:31

Exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:33

So it sounds like this was a really friendly cruise, judge-free. Yep. Would you guys do it again together? You are. You've already booked one.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:42

So yeah, we will.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:44

So guys, I think this was a win.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:47

Yeah, it was a win. We even tried to get a what they call a rock star suite. We tried to um bid on a rock star room. I don't know how it works everywhere else, but what Virgin does is you start at a minimum. So they'll say, This is how much we think that you would be able to get it for. And we're gonna put it at the minimum of this. You can't bid anything lower than what they said. So um I did not realize that until I started to bid, and I was like, why is it not taking my number? It's like it's too low. You need to bid higher. We want to splurge one time and actually get a rock star suite because that I would encourage anybody to still look up at a video of those suites. They're next level.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:33

They they really for an anniversary. Something like that. Wow. Yeah. Well, Kristen, you made the flight, you made the ship, and you made it home. Which honestly feels like a win in my book, girl.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:49

Yes, very much so.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:52

Exactly. From near missed travel chaos to hammock naps and cruise comparisons. This one earned its spot in the memory book.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:03

Definitely. So whether you're Team Virgin, Team Carnival, Team Royal Caribbean, or still cruise curious. We hope this helps you decide what type of adventure fits your style.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:17

Yep, exactly. And if you're planning a cruise, learn from Kristen, fly in early, breathe through any chaos that happens, and remember sometimes the drama makes the story better later.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:30

So definitely. Kristen, thank you for being our on the ground reporter for this. This is great.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:37

Thank you. Thank you for having me. I feel so honored to be here with you guys and um just uh keep doing what y'all are doing. I just love this show. So thank you.

unknown 1:08:47

So good.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:48

We're glad you love it. So loved back.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:51

Exactly. And we hope that we'll have you on again for another episode. And to our listeners, if you've sailed Virgin Voyages, we want to hear from you. Drop us a line, let us know your thoughts or comments about Virgin because we haven't sailed yet, but we are considering, so you can help help us make the decision. And until next time, keep traveling your story and keep making memories for life. Bye, everyone. Bye, everyone.