Transcript

[0:00] Music.

Dreaming of Bucket List Trips

[0:30] We all have those bucket list trips, once in a lifetime destinations that we'll get to someday.
We're here to help you make your travel dreams a reality.

[0:39] Music.

Introducing the Gold Key Adventurer Society

[1:08] Welcome back to another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer Society.
My name is Dan Leonard.
Hi, Dan. And joining me this week in the studio is Heather Strait.
Hello. And Mr. Jeff Williams. Hey, that's me. It sure is.
Our show, as always, is brought to you by Key to the World Travel.
Key to the World Travel is a full-service travel agency specializing in theme parks, cruising and destinations around the world.
Head to www.keytotheworldtravel.com for more details and an obligation quote on the vacation of a lifetime.
Recently Key to the World Travel was back on board the Scarlet Lady with a big group of friends to party like rock stars. What? I was on there and didn't see anyone.
Weird. That might've been a choice.
I'm not saying on whose part, but you know, that might've been intentional.
Uh, yeah, they were there for the fire and sunset soiree sailing to Key West and the beach club at Bimini. And this week we're going to tell you all about it.
What a Virgin voyage is like, all the things that we love about cruising the Virgin way and why we think you'll love it as well.
But first we've got some guests to welcome to the show. Joining us again this week are Cameron and Hannah Matthews.
Say hi, guys. Hi, guys.
Hi, guys. Ahoy, sailors. Oh, that's, yes, we should have stuck with the nautical theme.
How are you doing? Yeah. It's good to be back.

[2:37] It's wonderful to have you back. It's good to have you back.
You're our new permanent guest, so get used to it. We dragged Cam and Hannah along with us on the Virgin Voyages.
They were Virgin Voyages. We were. Yeah, and we are no longer.
We are virgins no longer. Oh, you got de-virginated. Virginated, that's right.
Divergenated. Divergenated. That's right. Divergenated.

[3:02] It sounds so clinical. It's so, yeah, it's your first time, so along the way, I think we'll probably get some perspective on your experiences, virgin, virgins, what, what you, what's your takeaway of it?
Because you've got experience cruising on at least a couple other cruise lines, right?
Yeah. Yeah. And we've had so many of our friends even just literally an hour ago going, how was it?
What was it? Was it just a bunch of risque adults going crazy?
I think that's what a lot of people think. A lot of people still think that, definitely.
That's really how they marketed themselves right at first, and I think they leaned into that a little bit hard, honestly. Well, a little too much.
Yeah, that's what we said after our first time, was that it was, they leaned too hard into that, that if you go looking for that, you're going to find it, but for the most part it's not in your face.
Hey, I mean, I feel like if you go looking for it, you could find that on any cruise line. Well, that's true.
On a circuit. Let's start out with kind of the big picture. What's Virgin Voyage's whole big thing?
What's like the elevator pitch on a cruise? What is it all about?

[4:09] You know, they kind of started out saying that they wanted to be the cruise line for people who don't like to cruise.
And I- I don't think that's true. No, I don't think so at all.
I think they've kept some of the things that people don't like about cruising, But it's really more of the big takeaways for me is that it's adults only.
So you're never going to encounter a bunch of kids running up and down the hallways and overtaking the pools. No kids.
By the way, Cameron and Hannah are the ideal guests here. They are dilfs. Oh, there.
Dilfs, dilfs, or dinks, dinks, dinks. He's a dilf, we are dinks.

[4:58] You probably could find some dilfs on Virgin, but we are the dinks here, yes.

[5:05] Dual income, no kids, if you're wondering what zinc is. Yes.
And that is the ideal thing for either a getaway without your kids or to go for people that don't have kids and don't want to hear your kids.
Don't want to encounter them whilst on vacation. Yeah.
Forget they even exist. Yeah.
But, you know, they've taken some things that people dislike about cruising, like eating every meal in a main dining room or having a set dining rotation, having to dress up for dinner, formal nights, things like that are gone.
But the rest of it really is still, you know, what you love about cruising.
You only have to unpack once and you get to go to different places.
For people that love that, you can still do it. Like I saw people really getting zooted out for dinner.
Nobody looked absolutely awful at dinner.
These are all adults. They all knew how to dress somewhat decent.
I wore like dress shorts and a button-up shirt.
I didn't see anybody in there to cover up or anything. No, we saw some folks on Beach Club at Bimini Day, we saw some folks stop in one of the bars and they're still in their bathing attire and have a few drinks.
But for the most part, people aren't, you know, just rolling up into dinner wearing a swimsuit or anything like that.

[6:30] But I love the not having a formal night And they're not set dining or set rotation.
You kind of make your own thing.
No big, just giant dining room with the same menu rotated every night.
They don't. And no set dining time, which is. Yes, that's great.
You guys nervous, though, right? Well, not at first.
Yeah.
I mean, yeah. So it did. It was a little bit anxious, provoking, you know, getting into it because they were kept sending emails going, Hey, book, book, book, book, book, book, book, your dining.
And it was a bit challenging to do so.
But all that to be said, once you do get on board, it was easy to get it all taken care of and it all just opens up.
They hold off the majority of the reservations for dining until you get on board, which for a planner like me is not fun.
But then it's all of our people are planners, obviously, because we're travel agents.
So you want to take care of it. Yeah. Yeah.
And you do have to be willing to be a little flexible.
You know, it's if you're I have to be eating dinner by 6 p.m.
Every day, it's it's might be a little challenging. You still can, though, if you just go to the galley.
Yes, yes, that's absolutely true. Yeah, yes. And a little bit of a tip.

[7:45] And a shameless plug for using a travel advisor. There's something that we can do as the travel advisor that guests can't, and we can book dining for you through our travel agent booking engine ahead of time.
And one of the great things about it is that we can just book, we can say, get you a party of six.
If you're trying to do that through the app, you have to know exactly who is going to be dining with you and they all have to be connected to you in the app.
You have to be previously linked and that app is sometimes a little glitchy.
It's challenging. So that's a great word for it. So talking through a travel advisor, you can talk with your travel advisor in advance and get them to secure reservations for you.
We had several who went ahead and because there were so many of us on this sailing, We had a hundred, almost 150 people on this, what they call a circle for their group cruising.

[8:42] And so several of our travel advisors just went in through the portal and booked themselves dining every night for 10 people.
They didn't know who was going to come, but they had that there in advance and you can't really do that in the app.
And that, that turned out great. Then you can swap people in and out and yeah, it's a dining.
There was no problem swapping people in and out.
We did them for six and sometimes it was, you know, these two people, sometimes another.
No big deal. As long as the lead guest sits on there as is one to show up or even says they are, they don't scan your ticket or anything.
Yeah. to talk about dining because it's it's kind of a signature.
It's a big part of their experience. Big part of their experience.
And the the best part about it is that every single restaurant is fantastic.
All the food is really great.
There's no, none of it feels mass produced cafeteria style at all. I don't know about the dessert service that Extra Virgin seemed a little off.

Dessert Cart Fun at the Restaurant

[9:46] But otherwise, they'll just let anybody do it. Just setting up a cart to roll up with a cart and serve your food.
Fun fact.
You weren't there, but our dear friend, Amy Reid, talked to the talk to the servers and had to clear it with the manager to be the one to have, the cart, the dessert cart. The affogato cart.
She cleared it first. So she comes over pushing.
We see her come down the hall around the corner, pushing the dessert cart to serve us our dessert. That was hysteric.
And tried to put whipped cream in my mouth, you know, just straight from the can.
You know, that's what you do on a cruise.
That's good fun. Just fun times. That's just right. What was your favorite meal, Cam?
Cam likes to eat. You know, I could eat. I could eat.
I'm gonna get your shirt that says that. I know, we do. We do.
You know, I think my favorite food was at Pink Agave, which was our first night.
Yes, my favorite too. I loved the dinner there that we had.
Was delicious there, from the appetizers to the, uh, the.

[10:52] Gosh, what were the vegetables that were just so great in that little appetizer, the Mexican squash?
That's what they called it.
Squash Blossoms, yeah. Yeah, that was incredible. That was my nickname in high school.
Squash Blossoms. But I know that Jeff wants to do unspeakable things to the corn dish that they have.
Oh, that's good. It's like a deconstructed street corn.
So it's loose kernels, not on the cob, but it has all the same sauce and what is it?
Cotijo cheese. Yeah. Some kind of delicious aioli sauce, some kind of mayonnaise-based.
A bunch of lime zest.
It's so delicious. I could eat my weight in that. Jeff warned our server, like, bring one bowl for each of us.
And she didn't believe us.
She had to come back with more corn. One bowl for each of us and then two more for me. Right.
Because as I said, the first time I tried it, I wanted to take it out back and get it pregnant.
And you still did? You did. Oh, but then like the main course, Heather, we all got the same thing.
It was called cochinita pibil. It was pork.
Pork, like mounds of pork that you could just smear around and the sauce was so good and they give you fresh corn tortillas. You can make your own little street tacos and put some of the corn on there and some of the guac.

[12:10] Oh, you're making me hungry. If you're someone that likes to eat and is somewhat adventurous and just I'll try whatever, the place, because most of those restaurants in larger groups, especially, they prefer to just kind of, can we bring you some of everything?
All of it. So we had literally every one of the appetizers. I think every night we were upset.
Just bring us all the stuff. We were a party of six going, how about we just do, you guys choose the main course, but we're going to bring you every appetizer in every second course.
We're just going to bring it all. Yes.
And then if you want more, you just order more, because it is still like a traditional cruise, you can have as much as you want.
Pink agave is like upscale.
Tapas sized Mexican food. Yeah. So all the plates are kind of small.
So we had a hundred of them.
Yeah, I would say a runner up. A runner up for me was Gunbay.
I love them. Gunbay was Korean barbecue where they Gunbay, Gunbay, Gunbay, Gunbay, where they cook the food right there at your table in the center, on the hot plate that they have.

[13:07] And again, so much food. And so much food. All the drinking games.
And drinking games were involved.
During dinner. That is not a if you're going for romance and want to talk to the person you're with, Penn Bay is not your place. No, it is a it is a party.
All of the tables, whether you're a couple or not, hold six.
So it's better if you go with six people. Yes. But if not, just know you're going to be seated with other strangers.
But, you know, being on there, I've been sat with people I didn't know.
And it wound up being a ton of fun. So they they play games and it's loud. It's fun.
Loud. It's amazing. Get loud. It was so fun.
Yeah. Jeff, what was your favorite restaurant?
I think Pika got it still, but Kenbei is a close runner up.

[13:52] They're all really good. And in fact, I really liked Extra Virgin far more this time than the last time.
And the food we had at The Wake was killer. It was delicious.
So yummy. Yeah. Yeah. The steak.
You call it the Steakhouse, right? The Wake. Yeah. Yeah. It's a traditional fine.

[14:11] We tried. Be prepared to wait a while there. It takes a bit.
Because they are all steaks and they're all cooked to order and cooked to temperature, everything.
Takes a good while, so pack your patience. They also have started serving brunch at both the wake and razzle dazzle.
So you have that option on every day, even on your last morning, you can go to brunch at the wake or razzle dazzle, which is excellent, because that's different than other cruise lines.
They want you in the quick service and off the ship, and Virgin's not like that.

[14:47] No, I was so surprised at the amount of breakfast options on the day we had to disembark.
There were so many options. I'm like, and, okay, I know it's a little tangent right now but the fact that we did not have to get off the ship until 10.30 in the morning.
That was awesome. That is like unheard of on any other cruise line.
You were off the ship by like 8 a.m. And we were not just off the ship but we were off the ship through customs in our car driving away within like 30 minutes. Unheard of.
So they let you go at your own pace.
And they also now this was new this time to have facial recognition.
That was amazing. As you walk off, it scans your face and you just keep walking unless there's an issue or didn't even have to take our passport out.
Neither did we. I don't have a passport. No, no, barely now have one or two people at customs in case there's an issue, that's different just from when Dan was on there last time.
It was quick then. but now nobody, they just scan you. It's like when you enter Europe or leave Europe, it's like that.
So that was great. I want more ports to do that. I hope Port Canaveral comes to that.
I was gonna say though, the fact that there were no kids also meant it was just, it was just streamlined for us.
That's a great point. I hadn't thought of that. You're right exactly.
I mean, you know, you can have adults that are acting like two-year-olds, but you're right.
I feel attacked. I'm out. Bye.

[16:11] We didn't see too much of that, a little bit. But going back to the food, so you have a variety of restaurants, right?
We've got an Italian, you've got your Mexican fare, you've got your Korean barbecue, you've got your steakhouse, you've got vegan, which is razzle dazzle.
They also have a secret menu that's got meat on it, if that's what you're looking for.
One of their main dishes is a candied millionaires, billion dollar bacon.
Yeah. Billion dollar bacon?
Yeah. It's like a candied, peppery bacon. It's supposed to be amazing.
But it's on the secret, sinful menu. The rest is vegan. Well, you know, here on this podcast, we like a good secret menu, so.
Yes, we do. That's what the good stuff is. And then they have the test kitchen, which is if you are a real adventurous eater and want to just eat a bunch of new stuff and don't waste it.
It's a fun culinary thing. Yeah, and that's at that menu. You just go and they serve you what the chef wants to serve you.
It's kind of a little bit of a trust the process. The next time I'm going to have to try a test kitchen, but I keep being on four and five night things where that one is the sixth restaurant I don't try. Yeah.
I really do. It's the prettiest restaurant. It is pretty. Gorgeous.
On board. I've never even set foot in there. Oh, it's beautiful.
I'm honestly not even sure where it is.
My mustard trail was there. Oh, fun. That's the only reason I got to see it.
It's right off of the shops on five. I super love the pizza place, but this time was, this was my third time on the Scarlet but the first time that I tried the hot dogs.

The Social Club: Fun for Grown-Up Kids

[17:37] And they were so good. Do you want to talk about your favorite section of the ship?
If I knew the name of it, I would happily say... The Social Club.
Thank you. The Social Club is my favorite part of the ship. The Kids Club.
Yes. Because, isn't that the fun part? It's the Kids Club, but it's fun.
Yes, it is fun. It's a kid's club, but it's fun.
There are no kids. It's for grown up kids. Yeah, when they were designing the ships, they were still gonna be called Virgin Cruise Line, BCL, and they were going to be a family cruise line.
And so they designed this space to be like a- The kids club.
An arcade and toys and games and whatever. And the kids club just became an adult kids club.
So there's- Which is the freaking best, man. It's so fun.
It's awesome. Free arcade going on. And it's not just an arcade.
It's very specifically a retro arc.
Oh yeah, all the retro good. They've got some 80s music playing all the time and tabletop Pac-Man and original Super Mario Brothers and Donkey Kong and it's awesome.
It's so fun. Air hockey and shuffleboard and foosball.

[18:41] Yep, and one night they do a college games tournament where they bust out the beer pong and other games like that to play.
Yeah, and then they've got a cabinet. I love the cabin to full board. Just full board. Yes.
And you can just take them anywhere on the ship. We did. We stole, well we didn't steal, you're allowed to take it.
We took Cards Against Humanity and took it into the, what is it called, the dock bar?
Yes, it was my sister's first time ever playing Cards Against Humanity.
And she is very good at it. She's very funny. She is filthy.

[19:14] Yeah, she seems very demure and innocent, but apparently. They have boozy milkshakes along with the hot dogs in the social club.
Oh yeah, so in the social club they have that. And then right off the social club is a nautical pirate themed establishment.
What is this? It's called Ship Loose Cannon.
That is great. And we did that on the final day, and they have an octopus multi-shot drop. Octopus!
Yeah! Yeah. And they call it five shots, but this is five enormous rocks glasses full of a very strong rum punch kind of thing with like multiple kinds of rum and whatever.
And we raced it like idiots. Could have just drank it like a normal cocktail, but we all chugged it.
I was shamed into chugging it. Heather and I, we're so thin and demure that it upset both of our stomachs, so.
And Andrew, we're fine.

[20:13] I will not be chugging that one ever again. Alcohol.
Yeah.

Giant Clam Shells and Tiki Drinks

[20:19] So that's group drink. They also have another group drink there that's a giant clam shell that you all just kind of shove your face in and slurp it up. I don't know about that. Lots of straws.
You've got straws. You've tried that. You've got some of that on your Tinder profile.
I was going to say, you love shoving your face in a clam, don't you?
Have you shoved your face into this clam, Dan?

[20:37] I might have partaken in the giant clam. Tell us about it. I haven't done that.
What is it? It's a tiki drink. It's a gin tiki-ish drink.
How did we miss that Heather? How did we miss it? I don't know.
Because you were focused on the shaktipus.
I feel ashamed. Because the statues of shaktipus are everywhere and they're cool.
So pro tip, they say that the bartenders will occasionally eat you and see shanties and stuff there, but I never witnessed that.
They have an internet jukebox in there though that's totally free, and so you can load it up with the most obnoxious songs that you want.
That would explain why we were in the Pirate Nautical Bar and Metallica Master of Puppets was playing. Yeah.
I spent, I loaded up with an hour's worth of Smash Mouth and Chumbo Wobble when I was in there. Oh no.
And left. No, I was rocking out. Hey now you're a rock star on repeat for seven hours and then walk out.
Rest in peace.

[21:35] Yeah. Some other great lounges we checked out were, I think our favorite was Sip, which is the champagne bar, which is located on deck seven.
And we went to high tea at SIPP one of the days. It is lovely. It's kind of a, I guess it's a champagne bar primarily, but they have a lot of champagne cocktails.
But all these places, even if they're pirate themed or whatever, they have a full bar that can make any kind of drink you like, as well as their featured cocktails and stuff.
But SIPP has my favorite vibe. It's just very chill and it's a thoroughfare.
So it's a good spot for that's why we love it. And Virgin Voyages is the ultimate place.
Yeah. People watching. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
So fun. Folks are walking through all day long. You will see some things. You'll see it all. Yeah. Yeah.

[22:23] Oh, but that was all good. All fun. Yeah. No, all fun. It's there's a live music bar that has, there's a small acoustic stage that's just under the stairs where there's always somebody playing.
And when that person stops playing, the band will kick up in On the Rocks, which is kind of a porous, walled.

[22:44] Monstrosity. Cave atmosphere, very nice bar, very good, and a lot of fun bartenders in there and good drinks, and you can even get baby birded with vodka drinks.
That might have happened. Traveling with Aaron Jones. Yeah, yeah, Good times. Good times. Good times. But yeah, lots of different lounges and bars for you to enjoy cocktails or like tea time, which was fantastic.
That was so cool. Elegant and lovely. Yeah. Something great to do on a sea day and just in the afternoon.
Just a sea day. It was just sea day on this sailing. On my previous cruises, they did it in there every day from one to four.
I don't know whether they. Maybe they did and we weren't there from one to four.
I think what your problem is, is they probably don't do it on Beach Club Day because the staff is at the Beach Club.
That's true. Yeah. Probably.
You know, it's traditional tea, you choose your tea, everybody gets their pot of tea and then they bring the tower out with all the sweets and the little sandwiches and yeah, just eat and drink the whole time, which is a big part of the Virgin experience.
Eating and drinking day. Yeah, I would say if you had gastric bypass surgery and a recovering alcoholic it may not be this place.

A Food Court Unlike Any Other

[24:01] Yeah, I think everybody would love it They would I mean they've got you know ice cream at the lick me till ice cream, It's not Disney Cruise Line style. I'll serve it is real, Quality stuff yeah, it's delicious late-night eats at the pizza place, and then the galley serves up all I mean It's breakfast all day.
It's a food court, but not a food court. Yeah, 24 hour at the diner.
Hands down, I would say the best of the I don't want to call it the buffet because it isn't not, but that it's a food hall.
It's a food hall, which was an order that would replace the buffet.
But it's hands down the best of any time. we saw so many people that were not.

[24:47] Getting that you can sit down and order, and they were going up and standing in lines at each of the spots.
And while we, you know, we would just sail in, put the flag up and wait for service.
To be fair, they don't make it clear. We were getting our food quicker than the people that were standing there.
Yeah, so make sure you just sit at the table, the flag is right there, and just, and they come very quick.
Yeah. To come take your order and bring your food. Story of my life, Kim. Yeah.
Those flags are never getting up. I think that they could do with some signage that kind of says, you know, sit down and put your flag up and order.
What in general they could do with some signage across the ship, like bathroom signage, things like that. Yeah, a little bit more, and they don't- It's very subtle to the point where you can't see it.
They do a printed schedule of events only on your first night.
Is it in your stateroom? If you want it the rest of the time, a printed one that's not in the app, you have to go- It's on deck seven. Yeah, you have to go to deck seven and grab one.
And we didn't know that. We definitely missed some things. Yeah.
There's so many kinds of stuff going on. Yeah. There's Dan Leonard, our fearless leader here, engaged himself in 90s boy band workout dance.
Workout. Did you Dan?

[25:58] That was, uh, yeah, I stuck around for a little while. I didn't complete the whole course.
I didn't graduate. You said bye, bye, bye. Yeah, I got, I got to bye bye and then Jeff and Heather said, let's go grab a drink somewhere.
I said, aye, aye, captain.
And his workout beer was empty anyway. Oh, yeah, you can't work out without a workout beer no, no.

[26:20] We'll say Dan looks amazing in a unitard.

Variety of Shows and Acts on Virgin Cruise Line

[26:26] The way hugs the sweaty buttocks Wow, oh my, That's a different podcast, yeah This is the first time we tried the dinner show. We did not I had not done that on either of my other, Did you do that one Dan?

[26:45] It's a ship show. I remember Aaron did that in Cyborg.
It was excellent. Told everybody how fabulous it was. Fantastic show.
If you like old time variety shows, like 60s vibe, that's exactly what this is. Ship show.
They got a great energetic host who comes out, they got a live band and a singer and dancers, dancers and contracted gymnasts and acts that do a full 92-hour show with dinner.
Act cycle through on a contract basis, but every act we saw, they're all circus style acts.
So you had a trapeze and you had a guy that did the traditional ribbon thing, but he was doing it on a hall tree, which was, he was called the flying gentleman.
That guy was my favorite. That was awesome.
Yeah, that was really, he was like pantomime and trapeze or whatever.
I don't know. It's hard to explain, but incredible acts. And the host was hilarious.
Yeah. And then if you're a big fan of drag queen shows, they've got their resident, the diva on our cruising.
It was Caricature and hosted many different events and their own big diva show, which was absolutely hilarious.

[28:00] A great thing to do around the world with the diva. Yeah.
So you can book these also with your assistance from the sailor services, right?
When you get on board, you're getting your dining, take care of your shows, taking care You don't always need the reservations, though. You could luck out and just kind of walk in.

[28:16] Many of these shows perform multiple times throughout the cruise.

[28:20] That's what I like. It's most of the big shows you could, if you miss it or it conflicts with dinner, you can catch it again.
Yeah. Sometimes they get like we were in one that was canceled due to technical difficulties, but we could go and see it later when they did it.
So yeah, you don't have to be so rigid. Like I tend to be when I travel, you can actually loosen up a bit.
What? Uh, you could, you know, you can loosen up and really just, you know, vacation when you're on board and just go with the flow.
It's definitely of all the cruises we've been on, I think it's the most relaxing.
Yeah, for sure. They encourage that, like it's encouraged to just chill.
So if you're thinking Virgin Cruise Line is risque or just a non-stop party, I really don't think it is.
It really is what you're saying. I mean, it could be if you really wanted it.
It could be, but I felt that the vibe was relaxed.
Yeah. Everyone was just relaxed and taking things slowly and just enjoying themselves.
And it really was quiet a lot of the times in places. And you're like, oh, this is just so nice.
Yeah, I had not noticed this till Cameron pointed this out. But in the in the common, like when you get off the elevators in that common area around the stairwells, there's still music. It's light music.
But in the hallways that are actually adjacent to your bedroom door, no music.

[29:44] And in fact, they were pumping white noise in. So is it that like real?
Yeah. Chill, sleep late vibe. And it's amazing.
He pointed out, and I hadn't really noticed it, when you get up in the morning, if you get up at nine or 10 and you're heading for breakfast, there's so many red lights still on versus, you know, especially the family cruise lines like Disney were getting up early to get to the pool in the morning.
Everybody's running around. You'd get to the pool at 1030 and there's four people there like everybody's asleep in cruise, which for somebody like me, I love it. I love it.
Yeah. But, you know, like you're probably thinking, so then it's a party all night long.
Well, they do party and they have dance clubs where you can enjoy that.
Or if you're someone that doesn't stay up that late. But you need to go to those places to do that.
Yeah, you have to go to those places for it.
But if you want to get up earlier, they do sunrise yoga upstairs on the aft of the ship, is really a nice experience, a nice big wide open area on the back of the ship.
So you can take it more relaxing and carefree, or if you want to be more of a, you know.

[30:49] Get up late night party on the track if they have extensive fitness areas.
Both sides of the gym. Yeah. There's a spin.
One whole side is like pelotons and treadmills. And then the other side is all weight.
The cheetah totters also. OK. The cheetah totters.
For the kids. Jeff and I had a lovely afternoon. We sure did.
Yeah. Having bro time. Just some bro time, teeter-totty. Yeah.
Boys just want to have fun. That's right. They had cornholes set up next to the teeter-totters.
Yeah. Somewhere there, but it's- Basketball court.
So Dan and I spent most of our time doing, it was cornholing.
You created a new game, did you?
Fun. Half teeter-totter, half cornhole.
That sounds so filthy. Teeter-hole. It really does. That's a good challenge.
Do one more in totter. Teeter-hole.
T.M. Anymore? Do you have any more variations? Get it out now so that Dan can just cut it all out.
We did a lot of shopping on this trip. A lot of shopping. We had a lot of yacht bucks.
I call them yacht bucks.
Virgin has an amazing series of incentives to get you on the boat and especially to get you back on the boat.
So the onboard credit was off the chart this time. I think we all walked away with some Ray-Bans.
Yeah.

[32:16] So there's two categories of this onboard credit, right? They've got they've got your bar tab, which you can buy in advance.

[32:25] Or you can be awarded it when you book.
And that's in 300 dollar increments or sometimes they give you bonuses.
Yeah, if you buy at least one bar tab before you get on the ship.

[32:36] You'll get at least $50 extra. And then, so you can use that for any alcoholic beverages, your fancy juices, fancy coffees, those kinds of things.
And we should mention real quick, the drinks on the ship are A, not expensive, and B, they are all high quality liquors that they're using.
There's no well drinks, there's no bottom shelf stuff.
And a side note on that, unlike other cruise lines, you can actually share that bar tab.
Yes. So like Hannah and I just shared one the entire time. A lot of cruise lines don't let you do that.
Mm-hmm. Cameron had her covered. I had her covered, as it literally said on the app.
And then a side note on that side note, what's great about Virgin Cruise Lines- This is the most important thing.
Is that so much is included with your cruise fare.
This is the closest to all-inclusive cruising I've ever experienced.
A hundred percent. Yeah. So the food, everything we've talked about, there's no upscale dining.
So all the food we've talked about is included.
There are little options within the menu. If you want, you know, like a wagyu steak or something, you can do that.
A tomahawk at the wake was extra. Yeah.

[33:55] But most of it was all included. So is sodas and juice, like your orange juice, your sodas, water.
You have water and sparkling water in your stateroom at all times.
Yeah, that might have been my favorite thing.
Where on other cruise lines, it's not in the room and you have to buy it and have it brought to you.

[34:15] No tipping on their cruise life. So that is a huge selling point in my eyes.
How about Wi-Fi? Did you have to pay for Wi-Fi? No. Wi-Fi is included.
Wi-Fi is included. They say Virgin's thing is that Wi-Fi is a basic human right. Yep.
That's right. And it's included. 2023, damn it, it should be. Yes.
And another great thing is now that we're on Wi-Fi here with them, that no other, cruise line that I'm aware of, you guys correct me, but I love that they will match any other competitors frequent cruising programs. So like for us, all I did is go online and go and connect my Castaway Club from Disney Cruise Line and just match that up there. And because I was already a silver sailor with Castaway Club, it automatically got me the next step up of Wi-Fi, so premium Wi-Fi.
Yep. It got us an X.
We got the premium coffee, ten dollars a piece per stateroom each day.
The premium coffee, even if we didn't have the really good. Yep.
Amongst other cool little perks, you get a free load of laundry, get a free meet and greets.

[35:31] They keep extending that to they keep threatening to do away with the matching of the deep blue extras, the blue extras being extended.
So it's a great, no, it's a great, and you have a dedicated sailor services person for the Deep Blue extras. Well now, Cam, you'll have it anyway because you're a frequent sailor with them.
That's right. You never go back. But that's another great perk.
Everything we're talking about. We're not here to steal other girls.

Sailor Loot: Opportunities and Benefits

[35:55] Yeah, and then Sailor Loot is their onboard credit and they have so many opportunities to get Sailor Loot if you're part of a circle like we were.
If you book online and or book while you're on board for a next sailing, you get some Sailor Loot.
I ended up with $1,200 that I could spend. Hannah and I had $700 in Sailor Loot plus a $300 bar tab.
And they were emergent. And we were finding, like, on the last day, we're like, we gotta spend this money.
Right? It doesn't roll over. It doesn't roll over.
Hannah found a beautiful purse for sale in the stores.
They have their areas called, what is it, Fifth Avenue? No, the High Street. High Street.
High Street. And it's a lot of luxury shopping. Prada, sunglasses, and high-end Louis Vuitton.
Yeah, and I bought a pair of Ray-Bans that were less expensive than I've bought Ray-Bans anywhere else. So they're cheaper, they're duty-free.
And with all the sailor loot, you're going home with some awesome souvenirs from your trip that are nothing else. You can shop and sell it all on eBay and pay for half your cruise again.
But that sailor loot can do your shopping there. Your sailor loot can also be used for beverages if you run out of bar tabs.
That's what I wound up doing on a previous cruise.
I had a smaller bar tab and I will say I was sharing a room so the bar tab didn't stretch.

[37:19] As far as it did for me. No, but the sailor lute?

[37:25] Let me shake for champagne and other things. It's so flexible.
You can use it to pay for your excursions when you get off the boat.
You can even, I'm pretty sure you can use it in the casino.
You can. I didn't think you could and I found out too late that I could have been gambling away my money.
You're telling me now that you could have been playing the cat's slot machine that whole time?
You're allowed to put it in. You can't just like immediately withdraw it, but you can gamble with it.
So if you put in $50 and you end up, say come winning and you're at 70, it'll give you 20.
It's not going to let you just take that say little bit. But any winnings that you get off of it, you do get to keep our cash. Anything above your, you put in.
Yeah. That's cool, I didn't know that. And you can also use it for a tattoo at Squid Ink.

[38:12] Yeah, that's right. That's what my wife did. Yes, that's what I did on my last cruise.
Yeah, Squid Ink is such a cool concept. When they announced that, I was like, what?
That's crazy. But they have really good artists And they'll bring in world-class artists from well-known shops and have them come on and do a shorter, typically I think a sailor crew contract is in the months, but they'll bring these guys on for two, three weeks at a time.
They get to live on the cruise ship and do well and make money and get new clientele.
We had folks that got tattoos and piercings. Several piercings.
Several piercings, yeah.
So some pro tips with the squid ink. You got to make sure that you line up very early.

[38:55] To get an appointment. They open up to make appointments on the first day at 7 p.m.
7 o'clock. Get in that line because it fills up quick and it's gonna look like you're gonna make an appointment in your app, but you cannot make an appointment in your app.
And neither can your, if you're in rockstar status, your concierge can also not make you to be able to. Not anymore, sadly.
But so, just know that. You have to physically go to the shop.
But there were, by seven o'clock, there were about seven or eight people, I guess.
Dan's wife, Kendra, was in there. First, she was first in line.
She was first in line.
And what people, the reason people wanna be first, there's plenty of appointments.
Yes. But what people want is to get it on the last day so that if you're getting a tattoo on your leg, you can still swim.
But they do phenomenal work. They're a full-service shop, so it's not just a board of flash that you can choose from.
You can bring them whatever picture you want, and they will put it on your body.
Kendra showed up with a Gold Key Adventure Society mascot, Hunchy the Bear.
A character I designed with some beautiful tattoo-style lettering that Dan designed for her.

[40:09] I'm really excited by this thing, and it came out beautifully. It looks fantastic.
It's awesome. Her tattoo artist said that it was the first time tattooing a tiny, tiny band-aid, and she was very excited to do it.
She's like, well, also it's an insurance policy for me because it's going to take either a really good story or a lot of touch-up work to explain that to another dude.
So I figure if she's got my podcast on her arm, I'm probably safe for at least a little while. Good one, Dan.
Nice. So this is why you've done this. It's all coming together.
He was just being used. Poor Bungie.
It's all coming together. He was just being used.

Efficient embarkation and attentive crew on board

[40:49] But yeah, so that's, I mean, the sailor lute, the bar tabs, they're incredible, what you can use them for, and the amount that they just wanna hand out to you because they want you to.
Yeah, it was great.
We touched on the fact that how quickly, like you were able to leave the boat later when you disembarked.
But when you get on the ship, your room is ready the second you get on, unlike most cruise lines where you get on and your rooms aren't ready till three o'clock or four o'clock or whatever.
Soon as you get on, these things are ready, And they start boarding as early as 1.30, I think, for the rock stars and then two for the peasant. Really by two o'clock, there was no line.
Yeah. Yeah. We like walked right on.
And so, this is because they have an army of workers on this ship. They really do.
I remember the stats when we were on a trip earlier, we had an education session where they were telling us, so they have like two crew members to, or three crew members or something to, it's an amazing ratio of guests to crew members, like it's twice what normal cruise lines are.
They treat them well, and there's a lot of them.

[41:58] So they're everywhere, you can't just sling a cat, and I tried, and that cat was pissed, but I tried to sling a cat without hitting a crew member, and I could not.
No, and you see them all the time on the decks, on their breaks, playing the games on deck, or enjoying food. Yes, because they're allowed to eat in the restaurants with the guests when they're off duty.
Like regular human people.
Yeah, it's crazy. And they're all happy.
I mean, like you can tell that Virgin takes good care of them and we could feel.

[42:28] That right away from the moment we walked in, Hannah and I, I mean, one, we were like, oh my gosh, there's no kids. And it just was so efficient.
No offense, parents, but it was so efficient to go in there and it was just relaxed, chill.
They had plenty of staff. we got banded up and we were on board and being welcomed with an awesome DJ right there in that atrium area, and it just kicked off the cruise in a big way.
I got to DJ later in the cruise. We did. Oh, really?
You know, whether we were really doing it or not, it was good times.
I was in my head. Oh, yeah. What were you playing in your head?

[43:07] Classical music. Oh, you were spinning some Brahms? Yeah, I was playing the hits by Gaspacho and the Marks.
And speaking of the hits, they also have Groupie, which is a karaoke bar, and they have private karaoke lounges that we broke into, no, we snuck into after closing because it just was open.
It was closed and so we go in there and it says closed and I was like, I wonder, oh, that's too bad. I wanted you to see one of the booths. So we tried the door and it was open.
So we just went in and everything. We sang some songs. It was fun. It was so fun.
I remember me saying, and all I did was to mail the solo from Jerry Rafferty's Baker Street. Yes. Beautiful. It was beautiful. Yeah, we all loved it.

[43:57] It was a party. Speaking of a party, you know what Virgin's really known for what they talk about all the time is Scarlet Night. So Scarlet Night is their big evening. It happens one time a cruise, one evening a cruise and where the entire ship is taken over in red. Literally the lights change all inside and outside.

Scarlet Night: Virgin's signature evening event

[44:16] And octopus arms everywhere. Yeah, and everyone's encouraged to dress red or some version of the Virgin logo red, right?
And it was it was so much fun. So fun. Ordinarily, it is a pool party.
We unfortunately this cruise, there was a lot of lightning in the area.
It was tropical storm Ophelia was north of us, but we there was a lot of bands of lightning.
So our sail away party and our Scarlet Night had to happen inside because of the lightning.
You might say you're Ophelian, the effects of that. It's coming, Dan.
Dan Leonard, ladies and gentlemen. There it is. There it is. Yeah.

[45:00] So they moved Scarlet Night inside to the Red Room, which is a big, cool, multifunctional theater space.
Yeah. Normally it's up on the pool deck and there's a giant inflatable octopus with like laser eyes and it's a very cool vibe.
Now you guys have done this before, so you've witnessed or you've experienced the full version of Scarlet Nightmare outside. Bye.

[45:26] I'm thinking from what I've heard from you talking, what I've heard others who have sailed on Virgin before.
I think this is where Virgin is getting this reputation a little bit of the risque is Scarlet Knight.
Can you? Yeah. What are your thoughts on it? Is it Scarlet Knight is not all that crazy. Not bad.
No. Here's here's the thing. They make it sound so mysterious that it sounds like there's got to be something crazy going on because they don't want to tell you what it is.
But it's not. It's a pool party. Yeah.
And I mean, they're doing like half the type of nerdy, like, seeing nothing, you know?
People jump fully cloaked into the pool. Things aren't seen weird.
Like they have this lady, I forget what she's called, but the whole thing, there's like the lore of this octopus and this whole thing.
But this woman with this, I've seen two of these on two different showings. The hostess?
Is that what she's called? The hostess, that's it. And she has an amazing voice.
And she comes out and sings this song that they've written for Scarlet Nights. And it's amazing.
And then dancers dance. And it takes over the ship. Yes. It takes over the ship.
There's stuff happening everywhere.

[46:31] And that's the cool thing. Dancers dance by and around and above the pool, and then they start splashing the audience a little bit from the shallow part of the pool.
How funny. And so the idea is they're like, hey, we're all getting wet.
Let's just go for it.
And then they encourage people to step into the shallow part of the pool to dance up on the pool deck and in the pool around them.
And then, of course, people are drinking and we had, the first time we were on, we had 10 or 12 of our crew was just there in like almost borderline formal wear, beautiful red dresses all the way in the pool.
I was going to jump in. I was so excited.
In your little shorts outfit, that would have been amazing.
I had a summer suit, folks, which is a short sleeve suit.
Yes.

[47:18] Yeah. It was shorts, not pants. And shorts. Super comfy. Super fun.

Follow the Happenings crew for a party train experience

[47:22] Yeah. It's so good. And the cool thing about that night, before they get out to the pool, is it's almost like a party train where you kind of follow the happenings crew, the entertainment folks around, the main decks of the ship, and they stop outside of the game room area, and they do a song and dance, and they've got things going on.
There's small theater presentations that go on. They also have a station where you can get your face bedazzled. Ooh.
I didn't see the bedazzled station. I didn't see that. It was there.
It was right in that long table right next to the return bookings thing.
Oh, where the net was?

[48:04] Yes. No, where you do your missed connections messages on the net. Yeah.
But another cool thing that Virgin does not advertise, but it is becoming known, and Hannah, and I got to experience it. We got kidnapped on Scarlet Night by the Happenings team. Yep.

[48:23] They're all, you can't take pictures, you can't take video. Are you ready just to go with us and have some fun?
And they were like, we just went, yes. So they took us behind the scenes, like we went down crew quarters, you have to be very quiet.
We had to do a pretend pirate hook with our finger. And they took us to literally like an under the red room, which is one of the main theatrical venues.
Beneath it, there was a full bar down there, a crew bar, all done up really nice.
And they just kind of took 15, 20 of us and we were just sat down there and the happenings crew there, they're all serious and they got us all into like a pirate mood and we're talking about a pirate tangent to the Scarlet Knight folklore story.
And in the end, they gave us a villain tale, they did a little bit of up-close magic, which was awesome, which was really cool.
While talking about this story and just interacting with us and laughing, then we got a free rum drink and they took us on back to the party.
It was like 20 minutes, but they do these little mini, I'm going to call them kidnappings, is what it is. So if you are lucky enough and they do these, they just don't advertise it and they don't let anyone take pictures for it.
So if anyone from the Happenings team, not some one from the state group, make sure they're wearing a nametag. Even when they're in their fun, sexy outfits, they all have a nametag, you can tell who works there. And it was so cool.

[49:50] Really really that was and that was a really memorable part and the happenings team one of the things that stand out spectacular.

[49:57] They bring the energy they bring the fun and they are just that the team that's doing the games throughout the ship and doing the party, Virgin's version of a cruise director. They don't have one cruise director director. So they are there the team, These are some talented talented people and my favorite thing is and this you know has the potential to be when people think it's so risqué and so wild.
There's a lot of different kinds of people. So you might have a trans person or a gay person or a fat person.
And that's what I love about it. I agree. People of all people, sizes and races and shapes and whatever.
But they're all out there and they're all entertaining. They're all feeling their sexiest and all represented.
Yes. And all different.
They get to have kind of control over their costumes. They're all a variation on like a crew member safety costume that you see like crew that yeah, like the jumpsuit that workers wear when they're painting or varnishing or scraping barnacles, but they'll have like cutoffs or fringe or a cowboy hat.

Creative costumes and varied entertainment options for all tastes

[51:01] A cowboy on this one was amazing. They're all just different people.
They always have an up-close magic person. They always have some kind of mentalist person.
Yeah, the charmer and that kind of thing.

[51:14] There's Some are better than others, as we have learned. And they always have a diva, and I think that's it, too.
There's always like a drag queen hostess for some of the goings on.
But if any of that is unappealing to you, you can easily avoid it as well.
It's that there is something for everyone.
Everyone's welcome. All types can feel comfortable. Everyone's welcome.
Yes. I think everyone's welcome, and there's something for everyone.
But my favorite thing is the different sizes and races of everybody. Yes.
So their dancers include people that are like really big people and whatever.
They're all amazing talents and they're all just so attractive and so sexy in their own skin. There's going to be someone that you can relate to and I love that. Yes.
And you can feel comfortable with how you like to dress. If you want to dress up, dress up.
If you don't want to dress up, don't dress up. It's just amazing.
Because you're going to see the same from them. All different.
They're all dressed differently. So the crew reflects that completely and we're out on Bimini day on the beach club.

[52:16] I think the happenings crew for me really stood out on our day in Bimini.
So if you take a Caribbean itinerary, which is the majority of their cruises right now, a lot of them, they've got a lot going on in Europe coming up.
But especially next year, they have all kinds of different stuff.
But Bimini is their semi private island experience in the Bahamas and super fun.

[52:38] That water, by the way, is the prettiest water I've ever seen in my life, like right around Bimini Island is incredible.
Beautiful turquoise, and they have not one but two huge swimming pools that apparently is classified as a river.
The diva told us it's actually classified as a river. It's so big.
On one side, they have a volleyball net on in a portion of it.
So folks were playing volleyball.
It was great to see. But it's more quiet. A quieter side, and then on the side that is coming to my mind right now, with the Happenings team, at one o'clock or so, every day on Bimini, they do the float parks.
So fun.
And they take all these, you know, uh, floatation rafts and toys and unicorns, and unicorns.
And they're ridiculously awesome. They had a Barbie, Barbie cars, inner tubes galore, and they just filled the pool.
Giant unicorns and rainbows and just ridiculous donuts and Versace-looking stuff.
And they filled the pool with all this and everyone just gets in the pool.
And then the happenings team did about no joke, about two and a half hours of non stop entertainment. Yeah.
They had a DJ who was playing the tunes and this thing was fully choreographed for about two and a half hours.
Yeah. Some of them dancing up top, dancing below. They would change out.
They had bubble makers. Mermaid tails. Squirters. So it was fun.

A vacation that caters to both the adventurous and relaxed

[54:02] And I really felt like we got to channel our inner kid.

[54:07] Experience, right? Yeah, totally. You would think the look at it like, oh, this is like a kid's pool party. No, we're the kids and we got to have fun. Speaking of the kids as adult things, they also on the beach that day have camp games, they call it, where they have foot races and all different kinds of survivor style almost games down on the beach.
So people are down doing like summer camp contest games down on the beach. Yeah.
Next to people who are passed out in a lot of places. So it's literally both ends of the spectrum, anywhere in between.
You can have the vacation you want.

[54:47] Yes. And the club was great. They tram you right there, right from the port there in Bimini.
So it's a very short little tram ride. About a 10 minute ride maybe. Yeah.
Yeah. Like one stop to go to Resorts World, the casino and hotel there.
And the other, and then right to the beach club, the beach club, which is private to Virgin when all of your, all of your points, all of your points or your yacht bucks are good on the same. Your wifi works. The wifi works.
Terrific. Yep. Uh, the two pools or all the beach that you want down there, the turquoise was gorgeous.
Uh, they've got the bars there, the entertainment, I lost count of how many, um, hammocks were there for everybody. Oh yeah.
Oh yeah. Good enough on any other island. They have so many hammocks that anyone could use.
That's the way I came for Disney. There's six hammocks. Or they're just exclusive to Cabanas.
Now they do have a few Cabanas that we did get to experience on the pool deck there, which was a great add-on feature. Highly recommend.
But hammocks everywhere, which was so great to experience.
And then as I was exploring the whole property, they have really cool deck areas that are are just covered and you could just, that are, you know, fully plush and plenty of shade or sun. Yep, everywhere.
Lots of spaces to hang out and relax. And hammocks are kind of their thing.
If you have a C-terrace room, you're going to have a hammock out on your deck.

[56:16] And then in addition to the Bimini Beach Club, they have the Rockstar area.
So we haven't really talked about Rockstar. Do we need to explain what Rockstar is on Virgin?
It's kind of their concierge level, really. So it's the suites categories.
They have rockstar category and mega rockstar.

[56:37] Jeff and I each had a rockstar suite, which was- Heather and I were up at Richard's Rooftop, which is like a private lounge for- Private sun deck. It's an outdoor sun deck, and they have a bar.
For rockstars. For rockstar level people. And we were looking down like, oh, what is that?
Is that a bar? Is that a club? What is this huge balcony? We think it was a hot tub and multiple hammocks and like plush furniture.
Figure out what, like, was this the, I don't even know what we were, so we couldn't figure it out. We finally figured it out. I pulled up the deck plan.
It's two of the mega rock star, the biggest suite they have.
It's called the massive suite. Each side of it is, these are the massive suite.
Each side is one half of the entire back side of the ship. And they have their own hot tub and multiple hammock.
They have a hot tub, plunge pool, hammock, table, chairs.
In their state room they have a guitar room a guitar library library We have a selection of three electric guitars Wow an acoustic guitar and a little amp that they'll bring you, We did each have a record player and a selection of record.

Premium Brands at the Rockstar Bar

[57:52] Bar that was I don't know that I would even call that a mini bar at all.
I mean, you have to say, this is a bar and they weren't fifths, but they were whatever, the next size down, like this little bit smaller bottles, but I had, and they're all premium brands.
Tito's, Provodka, Taramana.
Botanist gin, botanist gin, high-end, Bacardi rum, Buffalo Trace, Buffalo Trace, which is so weird.
Like I have to like stand in line for Buffalo Trace here in Alabama.
It's just in my room on Virgin Places.
But as part of Rockstar on Bimini, they have an exclusive area just for rock stars.
And I have to tell you folks, it is, that part was worth the upgrade alone.
Yeah. They have a full covered bar, alfresco, you know, open air.

[58:46] Really comfortable furniture. Yeah, really comfortable furniture to have a really nice lunch there.
All the food included. Tons of servers, all the, they call them rockstar agents.
If you're in a rockstar suite, you have a rockstar agent who will book all your dining for you, your spa, your just, and just be.
Essentially your concierge. Yeah, they give you their phone so you could text them at any time if you need help.
And then the rooms are a little bit larger. My bathroom was ginormous.
It was gorgeous. Yeah. So pretty.
And then you get a private portion of the beach on Bimini, just to wrap that part up. Yep. Yeah.
On the Rockstar area. Yeah. And you get some things like priority seating in the shows.
So any of the shows we went into, there was a Rockstar line.
So for example, the ship show, we got a really great table close to the stage because we were in the Rockstar line.
Yeah, and the cool thing about that is if anybody in your group of people, so like we each had a rock star room, but some of our friends did not.
So we were able to include them in our reservations and the concierge was able to set that all up for us and link everybody.
No trouble at all. And then they got our benefit when we checked in for shows or things, they got to use the private entrance. It was great. Or expedited entrance, I should say. Thank you.

[1:00:07] So if you're considering Virgin and want, you know, to step up that level, the Rockstar Suites.
And it's not a humongous step up. No, which is why on every single one of their sailings, the suites sell out.

[1:00:23] All of the suites quickly sell out because the value is amazing.
They're always sailing with full suites.
And a pro tip is those bottles of liquor, they're the second to full-size bottles, you, can just take them home.
And I learned this only after I was there. If you were to finish a bottle and needed another, they'll replace them up to two times on your voyage.
So what you need to do is just drink more Buffalo Trees, especially on the last day, have them refill it before you got to go home.
Exactly. I wish I had known. that depends on your level of suite. That's in the fine print, how many times they will replace that bar. Yeah. It depends. I think they will do it one time for the level we were in and two times for a mega. Yes. Yeah. Speaking of suites in the room, cause we had a extra large C terrace if we want to talk about. Those sell out quickly too because of how fantastic they are. Yep. Now correct me if I'm wrong, there's really just, there's A few indoor staterooms, right, then regular C-terrace and an extra-large C-terrace.
There's also some just ocean view, not as many, but some that just have a window, but without a terrace, and some inside.

[1:01:38] 83% of the rooms are either C-terrace or XL C-terrace rooms.
So the vast majority of your rooms there all have the terrace, they all have that awesome hammock.
Yeah, the red hammock. I fell asleep in one night. I took a couple of naps.

[1:01:56] And then kind of the interior rooms are mostly like single occupant that they kind of...
Or they have one that sleeps four and it's just two sets of bunk beds.
Right, yeah, it's like the slumber partner room.
Oh my, that's like summer camp. Exactly. Yeah.
And the main difference between... I like that. It's funny. Yeah, it's kind of funny.
Between a C-terrace and an XL C-terrace is the bathroom.
The C-terrace, the bathroom is tiny. Oh yeah, that's true. And the closet.
So there's a part of the ship where it gets wider, right at the, just before it starts to get narrow again, the ship goes out wide, right at those points is where all the XLs are.
And they have about six extra feet, which doesn't sound like that much, but that gives you an entire sideways closet and your bathroom is literally twice the size.
And it's only about $500 difference depending on the ceiling. Oh, wow.
Yeah. And you have a full counter in the bathroom. Can I just say, it's a passion point of mine.

[1:03:07] This was, of all of the, I don't know how to say it, the, it's not basic level, but basic to mid-level cruise cabins that we have stayed in, And this one was the best bathroom in terms of functionality.
And I always was hardcore Disney is the best because it's the split bathroom and I still maintain that that's great.
This managed to be a split bathroom that hybrid was more functional with a giant counter.
You guys were in an XL?
Yes, we were in the XL. So we had a so good. So we had the bathroom was a very long counter.
Lit mirror. Lots of storage and shelving, and then behind you, you had the toilet on one side with a door and then you had the shower stall as well.
So it still has that split feel.
It's so functional. Somebody could be showering in their own space while somebody was using the bathroom.
Which is nice, because let me say, I was in the regular C-Terrace room in February.

[1:04:18] And if you have even two people, it is totally worth that small upgrade to the XL.
I can't imagine having two people in the bathroom in the regular sink.
No, it's a one-person bathroom. It is sink.
I could rest my arm, my elbow on the sink while I was sitting on the toilet and I had to open the shower doors for a breathing room. Yeah.
And just for a guy like me, there were not nearly enough bath mats. And I'm out. Bye.

[1:04:47] We both could be in the bathroom at the same time and I felt it was, we could fully move in to this bathroom.
So like all of like the toiletries came out and they all had their space on each side for us.
It had a nice ledge. A nice ledge. I don't know why more cruise lines don't do that.
We were like moved in for the cruise.
It was fantastic. And it wasn't just that. It wasn't just the large countertop, but an entire shelf underneath it that ran the entire length.
Full, yeah. And a ledge just above your sink for like your toothbrush and I don't know, it's like so well thought out. The best bathroom that's not a suite that we've ever seen.
To Dan's point, even the one that is the standard room, the bathroom is pretty great by those kind of standards.
Oh, yeah. I just can't imagine two people, especially if I was there with my spouse, trying to share the space.
I did do a trip with a spouse in there and it was fine, but we weren't sharing space.
Like, you brush your teeth and I'm brushing mine. Yeah.

[1:05:45] Because, yeah, certainly no one's going potty while anybody's doing anything else.
The cabins themselves, just in general, though, I really think that they're really well designed.
There's a lot of thought that went into the furniture and the space in there, so it's really functional. Let's talk tech, Dan. Let's talk the tech.
Come on. Oh, man, that tablet.
This is Dan's. Go, Dan. Talk about it.
They've got this tablet that operates the whole room, so you control your TV from your You can control your lights from the tablet. Air conditioning.
Phenomenal. Air conditioning, the curtains on the tablet. And my favorite is super cheesy, but they've got these different modes for your room that you can set it to.
Mood lighting. So you can set the mood. It's not just mood lighting, though, because it controls the TV and the sound and also the curtains.
Cool theme. So you can put it on, like, there's hangover mode and the lights go soft blue and the blackout curtains close. And the blackout clothes on their own.
And there's like I get pumped up for the day mode that like the curtains open up and it's all bright and then there's get it on mode where all the lights go red except for a single bright spot right on the bed.
I didn't notice the white spot on the bed. Well, it depends on your layout too.
I guess. It could be on the floor or over your bed, but it's fine.
Yeah. There's a spot. In my cabin, it was right over the bed.

High-Tech Room Features: Cool Curtains and Modular Furniture

[1:07:09] It kind of puts on kind of like a, like strip stripper kind of, uh, trumpet kind of fanfare that plays for a minute. But also when you walk in at any time of any day, when you walk into your room, the curtains, they open up for you, and like it plays a little sound.
And when you're gone, they close. It keeps your room cool. This was the first cruise line I've been on where the room was cool enough. All the time. All the time. Yeah, it was so cool.
Every time you'd walk in, you're like, oh, I didn't know we'd turn the lights out or shut the curtains, but it becomes a little show every time you walk in.
They open up, the lights, the grads go ahead, come on. The sensors, I guess, after some amount of time, realize you're not in there and they close it all up.
It's so neat. Keep your room nice and cool. And then the bed and the furniture, you can move around in there.
So you can, another thing you can do on your tablet is you can call your, do they call them stewards?
State room attendant. State room attendant. Your state room attendant.
You can ask them to make up your bed.
You can ask them to turn your bed into a sofa. And it turns into like a big sectional sofa so that you can entertain if you want to have- I love a sexual sofa.

[1:08:18] If you want to have friends come chill out in your state room.
Exactly, a spot. I have, they are not going to be doing that with the furniture on their newer ships because from what I understand, people don't like it.
People just want the bed to be a bed. Well, I know that for a while they were- They weren't taking advantage of it.
For a while, they were automatically switching it during the day to a sofa, and they've moved away on the Scarlet Lady and Bat Lady.
Yeah, Brilliant Lady, the beds are going to be regular beds.
They're not going to be those convertible.
And I think the idea was that during the day, you'd have more space, which I love the idea of, but I think that cruise line, especially being what it is, people would get day drunk and want to go take a nap, and their bed wasn't there anymore.
Or do something else people do in beds. Which is what? Watch movies, duh.
Get your mind out of all this. Oh yeah, that's what it is.
Another thing they can do with a modular bed, though, is it's standard, I guess it's probably, not a full, is it a queen?
It's two twins. Two twins. Yeah, yeah.
So they can split it and arrange it into be two separate twins if you are with a friend.

[1:09:34] It is an L shape so you do kind of go head to head or however you want to arrange that.
Many people were on this with us and they were sharing rooms and they said it was really cool that they had more space that way.
It was a great experience.
Yeah, so it's really nice that they thought about making that area as usable as possible for as many different scenarios.
Yeah, so the tech is fun. The lights are fun to play with.
You know, I would recommend that if you're going to do a C-Terrace, do the XL one.
It's worth it. And it doesn't sound like it's that much more of an upgrade.

[1:10:09] They all come with, correct me if I'm wrong, the in-room refrigerator.
And like we mentioned at the top, you get a full carafe of sparkling and still water.
And they'll refill it for you anytime you ask. And you do that on your tablet. You like ice.
They bring in that. I could not believe the level of ice. They brought me a regular thing full of ice.
He had a champagne bucket full. And then a whole champagne bucket.
They always kept full of fresh, wonderful ice.
So much ice. And 24-hour room service, 24-hour room service.
And all they do, they do charge, if you're not a rock star, because I believe rock star gets this prompt. Correct.

[1:10:46] But they do just charge a $7 delivery fee. And it sounds like Uber Eats, but they call it Sailor Eats or Ship Eats.
So think Uber Eats and they just charge seven bucks. You don't have to tip.
That's just what it is. And they'll take that out of the Sailor loot.
And they take it out of the Sailor loot. I highly recommend doing that for breakfast.
And it was so cool how it, usually you're thinking like, Trey's like, I can think of any other cruise I want to have done room service and they have to come into the room and they have to set it down for you and take the lids off, blah, blah, blah.
No, it's all pre-bagged and stacked perfectly.
Hannah and I got two things of French toast, two cappuccinos, and it was all stacked in, a duffel bag. And the guy just went, here you go.
Like, he didn't have to come in. Which, because you know, like in the morning, we're not early risers, Hannah and I, and we just- Really? No. I know you're shy. And we like to have coffee before we leave.

[1:11:39] But, you know, if you've done room service, you're kind of feeling like, oh, I gotta get like kind of done up, comb my hair a little bit before the room service guy's gonna come inside.
They don't. Put on pants. Put pants on.
Pants on to open the door. They don't even have to come in, which was great.
They were actually a little thank you note for that. Yeah. I just thought that was a neat, they have really rethought cruising on so many levels. That's what Virgin is about. They've rethought it on different levels. So if you love to cruise, you really should experience it their way. I'm sure you're going to find things also that are, you're going to be like, wow, this is such an improvement. And I think that they're continuing to improve it sounds like.
For sure.
Yeah. Yeah. Any of the pressure points, pain points, they are really learning as they go.
They want your opinion all the time. Yeah.
They're constantly going, let us know. We want to know. We want to know.
Tell us. Tell us. Tell us.

[1:12:36] Things that I know that you did a lot of prep ahead of time you said you're a planner and you were kind of thinking about filming some things and whatnot but were there any things that either surprised you or things that you had read or heard about ahead of time that didn't quite click and then you got on board you're like oh that's what this is about hmm things that I that we were gonna keep in the podcast it doesn't matter I'm gonna add it in one way or I mean, we were disappointed that there wasn't an actual vibrator store.
Just a shelf in the store. I will say that their selection of some of that in the sort of various and sundry store.

[1:13:21] Was lacking.
Toned down. Yeah. Toned down. And maybe that's on purpose because of the feedback they've gotten.
There were only two vibrators to choose from this time instead of four.
A plethora of lube. They probably had, they used to have, it was a something on the app or there was some way that you could choose depending on what things you're interested in.
It was a QR code you scanned and took up. Yeah.

[1:13:46] And you took a quiz. But if I recall, if I recall, everybody that took the quiz got the same result anyway, so maybe that's part of why they, uh, toned down the selection.
It all said that you should buy the lobster. The lobster.
I think one thing for me that was a surprise, knowing that I believe the cruise was only 500 short of being completely full, was that how empty it actually kind of felt.
So you know, they said it was about 2200 and if you're on board out of about 26 that it can hold 27.
And if you're comparing two ships like, my gosh, now, you know, like the, the Oasis class of Royal Caribbean, the wonders of the sea, those 5,000 people, those 5,000, the Disney Wish and the Dream and the Fan, they're up in those 4,500, 5,000 range, right?
So if you're thinking that size, it's.
Of that on board. And infinitely more communal spaces, I felt. For sure.
Yeah, so like being outside, I felt like there were so many beds and things.
Now it could have been because it was hot, but there were so many spaces outside and a jogging track that I literally sometimes just never saw anybody.

[1:14:59] So I usually think of cruising as you've got to get out to the deck to get one of the chairs, and hold it down all the way up.
I've never had trouble finding a chaise lounge Or a spot in the pool.
There was a plethora of space and I just kept going, wow, and this is almost full.

Plethora of Activities and Bars on the Cruise

[1:15:16] It did not feel like that. There's so many things to do, I think.
Would you say it was a plethora? A plethora?
A plethora. I mean, that was a big surprise. A good one.
There's definitely so many public spaces, like you said, and bars, and there's so many activities, and they do a good job of spreading them out so well that you never feel...
Yeah, tons and tons of activities. Trivia. Tastings.
Deck 7 is my favorite deck because it's just a series of beautiful lobby bars, which, as, a frequent traveler, a lobby bar is my favorite thing, and this is just like five different of those all the way down.
Just boom, boom, boom, lobby bar. And at the end of it, you get the arcade and the kids' space.
Deck 7 is where it's at.
One thing I did, you know, I was noticing as we were coming to the end of the cruise, a lot of the bars do not stay open late.
So if you're thinking that it's going to 2 a.m., they don't.
And I that was a surprise for me. I found out I was a lot of midnight and then you have to move into the club.
They were like, yeah, close at 11. Open super late and the casino and casino bar are open.
So a lot of the bars shut down, like till three. Like it's really late.
Yeah. And pizza is available until two o'clock in the morning.
And then after that until 6 a.m. that you can get burgers at the galley.

[1:16:39] They do breakfast all day folks and all night and all night 24-hour breakfast, So but the key play the key play is when 9 p.m. Dan is thinking about 2 a.m.
2 a.m. Dan and stops by the pizza place to bring a pie back to the room before you go out and have fun.
Yeah, because you can take it to go. And you can drop it off in your room.
Yeah, Danielle was doing that, Chad was doing that. Chad would take two pizzas to his room each night.
I don't know. I shudder to think what that room smelled like. Pizza.
Pizza. And I will say, if you went to the pizza place around midnight when the bars were closing, That, that's when the cruise felt crowded.
Yeah, people waiting for their pizzas. Late night pizza, yeah.
But that also provided the absolute best people watching on the entire cruise.
Oh yeah, their pizza is amazing. So good. It's all like wood fired pizza ovens and really, really good, like a sourdough, good classic Bye.

[1:17:40] Quiet New York style pizza. I tried an anchovy pizza for the first time and it was not my thing.
Anchovy is just like taking a mouthful of salt. It's like a salt lick.

[1:17:52] Wasn't really salty. Kind of like Dan's personality sometimes, but that's another thing.
Salty and a little bristly.
Just a little. Well, he just needs to shave. But there's so much for you to experience on there.
So if you're thinking Virgin is nothing but promiscuity and debauchery, it's not.
It's not. It's not.
Not until I show up. It is kid-free, and it's adult cruising in a relaxing way.
It's much classier. It's classy adult cruising, but not stuffy.
I mean, there's high tea. How much classier can you get? High tea in an arcade.
There are some octogenarians there.
Oh, for sure. There's the whole spread of ages. Oh yeah, we saw a lot of multi-generational adult families.
And so, you know, on the one end they have IT, but on the other end you could be having a drag queen show that taught you about tucking. So, you know, whatever you're into, they got it.
That's right. Something for everyone. Unless you're a child. This is not for you.
No, we got nothing for you. And my adult is not, it is 18 and up, not 21 and up.
Good point. And in international waters, 18 is enough.

Key West Stop and Golf Cart Exploration

[1:19:08] Is where I will leave that. Is enough.

[1:19:11] And you're in international waters 20 minutes after you set sail from Miami.
We did have a stop in Key West. So our first stop was still in the USA. Love Key West.
So fun. Love it. That was our first time. We were so excited to be there.
I love Key West. I love it. That was only my second time and it was a great, great time.
I would highly recommend just getting you a golf cart or two.
I highly recommend it.
Whether it's a six person or a two person or a four or whatever, you can have a golf card just reserved for you and you just cruise around and there's parking lots and street parking all around. you can just go to the different show.
Is that something key to the world can help folks with absolutely? Oh, of course, Yeah, take advantage of Leonard especially. Yeah Self golf cart. Enjoy the island if you're doing the sentence worries.

[1:20:01] Itinerary I went there one time previously on the same cruise and walked and walked and walked and walked and saw all these people Blowing past me on golf cars. I thought I'm never doing this you.
This time we were the ones. And it was great.
Like we drove all the way down to the southernmost point.
Yeah. Which was pretty much just a photo op. There's also a beautiful beach there if you have time for that, but we just all got a group pic and then got back in our golf carts and tooled around and shopped and drank and ate. Saw some cat.
And all that. Went to the Hemingway house, saw the cat.

[1:20:36] It's also just fun if you're there with just another person or two just to cruise around on a golf cart. We were trying to go in a group dynamic with literally 12 different people that all had different ideas of what they wanted to do. Not as great, but if you had just had a couple on a golf cart, that would be the place. Just cruise around.
Because it's really a pretty island. The house was really cool to look at. It's a lighthouse.
What are some of their other ports of call? The other one that I've done that I really liked is called Dominican Days that goes to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic in Bimini.
That's where I got to jump off waterfalls. Yeah.
They have a bunch of cool itineraries and they also, the port there, they have just totally redone this whole port and it's gorgeous shopping and art galleries and tchotchke shops and souvenirs and restaurants, but then they have put in a whole beach club at the Puerto a port itself.
So they have a bar there and you can bring a, so I had no idea.
We all got off the ship and we're like, well, I didn't know.
But if you bring a bathing suit, they have a whole free to use to the public for anybody that's there and dock.

[1:21:55] Beautiful beach club is very similar to the vibe at Bimini Beach. Oh, cool.
Restaurant, bar, of course you have to pay for it. It's not part of the ship, but the actual swimming and all that is free.
And then they have a bar and restaurant as well. And monkey land. Monkey land.
Right there. Yeah. There's a Riviera Maya sailing that goes to Cozumel.
We have people in Cozumel right now.
The Valiant Lady does longer.
Southern Caribbean.

Mediterranean and Greek Island Sailings

[1:22:27] Sailings. They're also resilient is in the Mediterranean, Valiant and actually Scarlet's going to be going over to the Mediterranean this summer. Brilliant Lady, their fourth ship is a bit delayed. So they're sending Valiant and Scarlet are trading off some duties and going over to the Mediterranean. They do some Greek island sailings that look absolutely spectacular.
One of the fun things that they do on their Mediterranean cruises, being virgin, they, spend the night in Ibiza. Ibiza!
You can go to the clubs and do all of the Ibiza things. Oh, that's cool.
And they arrange transportation hubs all around Ibiza that are done by the cruise line itself so that you can safely guarantee that you're getting back to the club late, late at night or overnight.
Did you do that, Jeff? No, I have not done it.

[1:23:25] I did have some friends that did it and they absolutely loved it and they booked it again for the year after.
They have lots of your traditional Mediterranean sailings that, you know, visit Rome and the French Riviera and lots of spots in Italy.
I'm really interested in the Greek sailings. They have a couple of different Greek itineraries that look fantastic.
And then actually they're going to be going into the Pacific and doing some stuff in Australia in New Zealand once brilliant lady comes online, yep.
They launched in 2020 and immediately had four ships being built, the fourth of which is about to come out.
I guess it's a little bit delayed, but. And they're all identical, correct?
Exactly, the only thing that's different. So everything we've been talking about tonight.
The entertainment changes. So the shows you'll see are different, Yes.

Virgin Voyages: A Cruise Line in Flux

[1:24:19] But everything else is the same.
The ships are identical. The restaurants and everything are the same.
So you're getting that Virgin experience, but in all these different destinations around the world.
So that's cool. And I assume there's, you know, they had the just absolute misfortune of launching literally COVID year.
They launched the month COVID hit.

[1:24:38] Or didn't launch, I guess. Yeah, they sailed around.
They are now finding their footing and changing, you know, listening to sailor feedback and really trying to be the cruise line that people want.
And I think it's working and the ships are getting fuller and fuller every time I go, which I love to see. Yeah.
They have some stuff in the Adriatic, which is really, really pro tip. The Adriatic is hot.
Do some stops in Croatia and Montenegro, yes. In my Nanner hammock.
The Nanner sausage hammock. You can take advantage of some transatlantics when, you know, when they're repositioning the cruises, which are much longer if you like a lot of sea days.
Those can often be pretty affordable given how long they are because they're, you start in one spot and end in another, so the transportation home might be a little more expensive, but a lot of those repositioning cruises are great.
But if you wanted to do a European vacation, that would be a really fun way to get there.

[1:25:50] Oh, for sure. Yeah. A little bit old-fashioned. Hop in on a steamer ship and then...
A little adult-only sea cruise.
That sounds amazing. And this would be a good time to mention too that if you want to try out Virgin Voyages and get a little bit of some of the extra perks that we talked about with being a member of a circle, Key to the World Travel has a circle planned for next fall on that Dominican Day.
Dominican Day is on the Valiant Lady, departing out of Miami on September 13th of next year. And we do.
Set the circle up today, and it comes with some extra perks you get a bar tab you get some extra bar tab some yacht.

[1:26:32] Yeah, plus you get to sail with a whole bunch of really fun people true. It's true. I promise not to wear any Nana hammocks, Maybe we should do a little live gold key adventure society recording on.

Setting up for a unique event at the karaoke rooms.

[1:26:50] It'll be a real ship show if you know We can get Doc and Hannah to come along.
I mean, great. That's a twist. That's our arms. You know where we could set up?
We could set up actually a groupie in one of the karaoke rooms.
Oh, great. Yeah. Some sound booths in there.
Yeah. Acoustically, it would sound really nice. Yeah. Sold.
Then we get to the big room so we can have an audience. Yeah. That would be fun.
We were in one of the really little ones. They have big ones.
Oh, I didn't know they were different sizes. We were in the little one. Oh.
We ran one that was supposed to hold only four, but they have them to hold up to, I think, 12 or 15.
Wow, they didn't look like they could do that. That's cool.
Yeah, so if you're interested in that, make sure you talk to your Key to the World travel advisor, and they can get you hooked up, or head to www.keytotheworldtravel.com.

[1:27:44] And click on that quote request link, and we can get you hooked up with a travel advisor to help you get started.
Yeah, that's a great itinerary to have your first Virgin Voyages.
It's a five-night sailing. It goes to that beautiful Porta Plata that Jeff was talking about and Bimini.
And we'll try to set up a beach party or a pool party that day. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Pool party in Porta Plata. Say that five times fast.
That's a little smart. Pool party in Porta Plata. Pool party in Porta Plata.
Nailed it. Anyway, if you want to go to a fart party at Fruity Flutter, we'll find you.
Nailed it. Anyway, if you want to go to the fart party at Foodie Flutter, well, first I want to say.

[1:28:25] Thanks again to Cam and Hannah for joining us.
Thank you. Thank you for having us. It's a joy and a pleasure to talk to you as always.
Where anything you want to plug to our listeners while you're here?
Where can we get? Where can they find out more about you? What you're up to? Web or socials?
Yeah, you could follow us at Cam Actor on all the socials and Han you're at Hannah Barry Matthews.
That's right. And our company, Cameron Matthews Entertainment, full service, virtual and live event work, emcee work, travel industry, and many other industries as well. So if you're looking for something that is engaging, energetic and effective for your company, go to www.cameronmatthews with two t's dot com.

[1:29:08] Thanks guys. So is Matthew's TT? Try both and see what happens. See what happens.
Yeah, we have been working with Cameron Matthews Entertainment for a couple of years now and cannot recommend him and them enough.
And we can plug, I think right now, right? Why we just did this cruise.
Yes, we should talk about that.
So coming soon, we haven't set the date yet, but we were on board to create a brand new virtual travel event for anyone who's interested to sail with Virgin and wants a key to the world to make it happen for them.
So you'll be able to, we'll have this live event where you'll be able to see all the things that we've been talking about tonight. And not just see, you could actually get immersed live into the show with me.
S-E-A.
Yeah. Some fun on board.
There'll probably be some prizes involved and definitely a limited time travel incentive that will get set up when we get closer to that date. Some yacht books.

[1:30:06] Maybe some yacht bucks thrown in by Key to the World. That's right.
Yeah. Everybody loves a good yacht. Be on the lookout for that in the coming months.
Absolutely. Well, we'll have all the links up at all the places for that.

Inviting listeners to support the show and plan their dream vacations.

[1:30:18] I'm going to say thanks for hanging out with us again this week.
If you're excited to cruise like a rock star with Virgin Voyages or visit anywhere else, Key to the World Travel has the Scarlet Lady's Red Room full of expert travel planners.
And they're ready to make your vacation dreams a reality. Head to www.keytotheworldtravel.com to get started with a no-obligation quote.
Word of Mouth is the best way to help us grow our show. If you have a friend or two who you think would appreciate our special brand of globe-trotting jackassery, tell them what makes our show so great and send them our way.
You can find links to subscribe to the show on your favorite apps.

[1:30:54] To subscribe to the show on your favorite apps and all the latest Gold Key Adventure updates at www.goldkeyadventures.com. Can't wait to hang out with you again and we'll see you real soon.
Bye y'all. Bye everybody. Bye. Goodbye everybody. To ask a question or share your travel story, you can reach us by smoke signal, carrier pigeon, or send an email to goldkeyadventures at gmail.com and make sure you follow the gold key adventure society on Facebook and Instagram a huge thanks to our sponsor key to the world travel for all your travel planning needs visit www.keytotheworldtravel.com for a free quote and help planning the trip of a lifetime tell them the gold key adventurers sent you that's www.keytotheworldtravel.com Key to the world travel, your key to a magical vacation.

[1:31:46] Music.

Introducing Outer Vibe and their song Hoka Hey

[1:31:52] Thanks to Outer Vibe for the use of their song Hoka Hey for the intro and outro of our show.
Find them on Facebook at The Outer Vibe or check out www.outervibe.com for tour dates, music, merch, and more.
We'll see you next week for another meeting of the Gold Key Adventurer's Society, and.

[1:32:05] Music.

[1:32:15] Until then, remember, life is short and the world is wide, so go have an adventure.