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Virgin Voyages Brilliant Lady Review: The Great, the Good, and the Bad
- jennifer96117
- Oct 25
- 8 min read
Rating the ship’s accessibility from the viewpoint of a chronically ill, COVID-cautious cruiser
On September 23, I boarded Brilliant Lady, Virgin Voyages’ newest cruise ship, for a ten-night voyage from New York City to Quebec City. Our stops included Boston (Apparently, Augustana never mentioned the drenching fall rain), Eastport, Saint John, and Halifax. I will write a separate blog about the accessibility of Quebec City, the only city we stayed more than a few hours. However, this blog is about the Brilliant Lady and Virgin Voyages itself: the good, the bad, and the amazing.
Virgin touts itself as the most inclusive cruise line at sea. Is that really true? How do they treat their passengers who require special accommodations? Is there a clear policy in place for wheelchair users? How about the air quality inside the ship and outdoor dining options (for my COVID-cautious audience)? Here is what I experienced as a COVID-cautious wheelchair user.
The Great
1. Oh, Doctor, My Doctor
The number one thing you shouldn’t forget when going on vacation is your medication, especially if that medication is for your heart or any other vital organs. I try to tell my clients to check to make sure their medication is packed AT LEAST three times before they leave. Did I actually follow my advice when packing for this cruise? Of course not! Why would I listen to myself?
…And that’s how I found out halfway through the cruise that my Corlanor, the main medication I take for my POTS, was not in my bag. It was after our rainy day in Boston that I had to refill my plastic pill organizer. I searched through my book bag for the extra medication to refill it, only to find out that I had packed an empty bottle instead of my extra Corlanor.
Cue panic. Luckily, we had one more stop in the US (my home country). Unluckily, that stop was in Eastport, Maine, a tiny town that is at least an hour away from any chain pharmacy (or most modern-day luxuries, for that matter). It would be fine if we had a car or knew someone, but there were no car rentals in Eastport, and the closest person I knew was near Portland, four hours away.
After thirty calls and no leads, my husband pushed me to the medical center on board. The doctor assured me that I would get my medicine in Eastport when we docked the next day. The next morning in Eastport, we went back to the medical center. The doctor had contacted a company called Intercruises to drive me to a Walgreens in Machias, Maine–an hour away.
Not only did I get my medication, but I also got a private driving tour of rural coastal Maine from a local. It was breathtaking! We learned and saw way more than we would have if we had stayed in Eastport. In Machias, we went to Helen’s, a local restaurant free of tourists that apparently had the best pies in Maine. It was beyond delicious. Meanwhile, in Eastport, every local restaurant had lines out the door.
The medical center on the Brilliant Lady went above and beyond. If you have a chronic illness like me, you know how hard it is to find good medical staff, but with the staff on Brilliant Lady, I knew I was in good hands. The doctor on board literally saved my vacation, and he gave me a “free” (I’m sure the fee is hidden somewhere in our medical bill) tour of Maine, too.
The Good
1. Friendliness of MOST Staff and Sailors*
*Note: “Sailors” is the term Virgin calls cruise guests on their ships
There were complaints on Reddit from those who went on the last sailing that the people on their cruise were rude to staff and fellow sailors. Luckily, I did not experience that. Besides the line cutters (will get to that later), every interaction I had was pleasant. No one seemed to care that I wore a mask the whole time or used my AirFanta 4Lite when I ate. People also respected my occasional use of my transport chair, and no one accused me of faking it to get special treatment. No one screamed, “Praise God, it’s a miracle!” when I stood up to transfer from my transport chair to a seat in the theater.
Overall, no one cared if I didn’t fit in, and most of the staff were pretty accommodating once they knew what their accessible policies actually were.
2. The Room
The bathroom was way better than the one I have at home. I miss that shower chair. And the hammock? No, it is not an “accessible” hammock, but I really miss that hammock. I highly recommend requesting an accessible cabin if you need one. Virgin has two available: the ambulatory accessible cabin (the one that I had), and for people who cannot walk at all, the fully accessible cabin. There aren’t many, so request it as soon as you book.
We use nasal rinses to help prevent COVID, and our room attendant always had distilled water on standby. They were also good at staying by the door and not coming into the cabin unless we requested it.
3. Plenty to Eat and Drink
If you take COVID precautions, there are plenty of ways to avoid the indoor sit-down restaurants. There is an outdoor seating area in the Galley and The Pizza Place, and The Dock and Sun Club Cafe are fully outdoors. Rainy? Cold? Miserable? You can take anything from The Galley or The Social Club to your room (there’s even a “to go” area with prepackaged limited options in The Galley entrance). The room service costs a $10 delivery fee at the time of writing this, but it is waived if you buy something at equal or greater value, and a lot of their items are from the sit-down restaurant menu. If you want to try eating inside with an air purifier, we did not have an issue using our AirFanta in restaurants (tip: all restaurants are included on board).
The Bad
1. Blunder in The Manor
There is not enough space in The Manor to accommodate everyone. This wouldn’t have been an issue for me if 1) I had known that people in wheelchairs get priority access behind the Rockstar line, and 2) if people weren’t cutting the line like children.
During one of the first few nights we were there, we decided to go to the new show, Murder in the Manor. We thought getting in line half an hour before would be sufficient, but it wasn’t. The regular line stretched across the whole deck and ended on the other side of the ship, where the shops were.
“You’ll be able to get in!” Reassured the staff member watching the end of the line. “I’ve counted!” However, they could not have accounted for the hundreds of people who would swarm ahead of us as soon as the line started moving, like flies to sugar water. By the time the line was cut off, there were at least fifty people ahead of us who did not get in.
Later in the elevator, a fellow sailor told us that wheelchair users were supposed to have priority access in a separate line. No staff member ever told us this. We did eventually go into the priority line for other shows and were let in without issue.
Honestly, I think this stems from it being a new ship. Staff were not yet on the same page about what is available to those who have accessibility needs. I hope this changes as time goes on. It would also be helpful if Virgin Voyages would put what accommodations they have available to those with mobility issues somewhere on their website.
Tip: Go to the shows later in the sailing, as they tend to be less crowded.
2. To Sit or Not To Sit, or the Modern Tender Tragedy
We had two tender ports, and like the issue with The Manor, staff weren’t on the same page when dealing with sailors with mobility issues getting on and off tenders. For starters, the flyer with tender instructions left in our cabin the day prior only stated that passengers had to deal with “a few” steps. I’m not a mathematician, but the ten-plus steps I had to navigate at a forty-degree angle seemed more than “a few”.
Second, there was no routine way to load and unload disabled passengers onto the tender who needed mobility devices. I noticed that there were accessible priority seating in the tender toward the front, but those seats were either folded upward or already in use by staff. So, I sat with the rest of the passengers.
The first time I debarked back onto the ship in Eastport, the crew took my wheelchair off before everyone was able to get off. This meant that I was able to go up the stairs without waiting in line and with my wheelchair close behind me.
The second time in Halifax, this did not happen. The crew let people off before getting my wheelchair, and before I could realize it, I was already in line to get up the stairs. Standing. Waiting. While passing my wheelchair, begging myself to stay upright, my husband told the crew to bring my wheelchair up with me. I didn’t hear what happened next, since I was forced to start climbing the stairs with a sea of people pushing me along.
At the top of the stairs, I became lightheaded. I pushed past the line into a corner.
“Stay in line, please”, a staff member told me.
“I can’t.” I replied, leaning on the wall, “I’m waiting for my wheelchair.”
Finally, I saw my wheelchair. I tried sitting in it, but the crew member pushing it stopped me. “You need to go through security first.”
“I need to sit,” I told him.
He still wouldn’t let me sit. Now, I was really feeling like I was about to pass out. I stood in line, again, to get through security, and I passed through the medical detector. It went off. My wheelchair was right there. I couldn’t do it. I started to sit down.
“You need to go through the metal detector again, please”. Said another crew member.
“I NEED TO SIT!” I finally yelled.
That seemed to give them the hint, and they finally let me sit. They finished scanning me while I was in my wheelchair, something they had done multiple times before and should’ve done to begin with.
Friends, if someone has a wheelchair, and you refuse to let them sit in the wheelchair, I hope you are prepared to pick their limp body off the floor. This was unacceptable. This was extremely dangerous not only for me, but for the people around me. I got on the tender expecting the same smooth transition as the time before. Had I known that I would have to wait in a long line and be physically blocked from my mobility device when I needed it, I would have stayed on the ship.
Virgin Voyages needs to train its staff better. That’s just it. I hope that the staff member who refused me my wheelchair was corrected.
Conclusion
Overall, I would recommend Virgin Voyages. I only had two issues, and both can be easily resolved with a better-trained staff. This was only their third or fourth sailing. Hopefully, the issues stemmed from a lack of experience rather than a lack of training and protocol. Most sailings won’t have tender ports, anyway.
The food was amazing (and there were plenty of options outside of the dining rooms), most staff and sailors were nice and accommodating, the events were a lot of fun (I even got to do Karaoke), and I had a brilliant time.
Want to try Virgin Voyages? The first person to book Virgin Voyages with me will receive these Virgin keepsakes for free in the mail, which include a magnet, a drink holder, and a fabric Brilliant Lady sticker! Act fast! Virgin has an amazing sale going on for October. This includes:
~70% off the second sailor on all voyages
~Up to $700 instant savings — 7+ night Caribbean voyages this winter
~Up to $500 instant savings — 4-17 night voyages through 2027
If you do not need a travel agent but have been helped by my resources, I would really appreciate a tip! Thank you!
NOTE: I cannot actually drink coffee or any caffeinated beverage due to my POTS, so you will not actually be buying me coffee. Money will most likely go to treats for my dog, instead.
If you still take COVID precautions, I have upcoming group trips!
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