Saturday, October 17 - At Sea

 Today is the first of 8 sea days.  My idea of heaven.   I'll post photos as the day goes on, but for now, here are some thoughts about the ship and Virgin Voyages.  Please note that while I doubt if I'll cruise Virgin again, I'm having a great time and it's a matter of preference.  If I was a 30-something, fond of working out and not into food, this would be my cruise line of choice.

What I love

--It's a ship.  I'm at sea.  Food, entertainment, etc. are secondary

--The hammock.  Holland America, are you listening?

---The service.  It's an international staff, and similar to service on all the main lines, has been friendly and professional.  Jonah and Ash, my cabin stewards are excellent.  

--The friendly passengers.  I'm traveling alone but am surrounded by people and I have had no problem striking up a conversation and meeting interesting people.  I'm grateful to have my cabin/balcony for alone time.  I also love the diversity of passengers and crew.  Holland America tends to skew older/conservative.  Virgin is younger/liberal.  Imagine a drag queen working on HAL.  You can dress formally or informally.  No one cares.

--Free arcade that I seem to be one of the only people using. 

--Free karaoke rooms that are popular but available in the morning when they open at 10.

--No announcements.  It is so pleasant to not have someone making announcements all the time.  Instead they use technology.  

Why I Probably Won't Cruise Virgin Again

--Food/restaurants.  There is no main dining room.  You have a choice of the Galley (called Lido/buffet on other lines) or restaurants which require a reservation.  The only reservations I've been able to get (and I started long before getting on the ship) are for Gunbae and The Test Kitchen.  Both are group dining experiences, for dinner only.  I like the concept of a variety of specialty restaurants, but when you're not allowed to eat at them, what's the point?  I haven't been able to get reservations and they say you can walk up.  That worked once for me last year.  It hasn't worked at all this trip because each time I've tried, it's been a 1-2 hour wait.

    The Galley and room service are the only options for breakfast.  Room service must be pre-ordered.  I tried to order yesterday, mid-afternoon, for today's breakfast.  The ONLY time available was 10:30 a.m.  And the choices were scrambled eggs, egg white omelet or cereal.  Along with fruit/pastries.  The same food as the Galley.

    There are other options - the Dock House for tasty snacks but that's during happy hour rather than lunch or dinner.  The Sun Club Cafe has bao and poke bowls (and really good sweet/spicy popcorn) but is only open for lunch.  I can get a hot dog at the Social Club at night or pizza at the Pizza Place which I just noticed opens at noon today. 

    Room service is an option for lunch or dinner but is a $10 up-charge (except for pre-ordered breakfast) and has a limited menu.  

--Lack of customer focus.  Here's an example.  Last year was my first cruise on Virgin and they offered to match my HAL status.  Well, not exactly, but they gave me the base status that you normally receive after 3 cruises.  I get one free bag of laundry in 2 weeks and a free coffee each day.  BTW, you must have one coffee per day.  You can't skip a day and have two the next day.  Anyway - when I booked this cruise I assumed I'd get the same status as last year.  Nope.  I called Virgin and was told that was a one-time special and I had to earn status.  After that, I found a fabulous travel agent who specializes in Virgin and got me the free coffee/laundry again.  But why did I have to fight for it?

    Lines for everything and use of venues that are too small.  I enjoy the live music and magic shows in the lounges.  But recognize that they are popular so offer more alternatives or larger venues so it is not always SRO.  There has been a line for every show/event.  Are they trying to create a buzz by having a line that trails through the casino into another part of the ship just to get into a venue? 

Photos!

I woke up at 5, read for awhile, napped a bit and woke up to this view.  

I'm not much of a bagel eater but if you are, this is the place.  At lunch, instead of bagels you can get a tossed salad.

Not into bagels?  How about cold stuff like chia, oatmeal, muesli, etc.

Some tasty looking breakfast sandwiches.

There are three hot items.  They've been the same everyday.  Last year the same three options were offered for 14 days.

You can also get scrambled or an omelette.  Along with chicken sausages, bacon, potatoes and roasted tomatoes.

A new option, that opens at 8 a.m.  Until today this was the regular or vegan eggs Benedict.

Sushi at lunch.  At breakfast, take away containers of different varieties of fresh fruit.

I went for the overnight oats, fresh fruit with yogurt and the wonderful date bars.  I've been looking for those because I loved them last year but today is the first day I've seen them.  They seem to have replaced the trail mix.

I will not starve, for sure.  I like having the fridge so I can go up and grab my breakfast early then keep it for when I'm hungry.

This is where I spent much of my day.  Me, Mr. Kindle and some trail mix.  Best spot on the ship.

Lunch was the fruit I got at breakfast plus the charcuterie.  Tasty.

My day was a balance of walking, eating and hammock time.

During one of my walks I ran into Nancy, Bill, Rayann and Jack playing cards so stayed awhile to kibbitz.  The man with the great t-shirts (Will?) came by with another great shirt.

I couldn't get a reservation for dinner so decided to try to walk up.  This is Extra Virgin, an Italian restaurant.  I couldn't get a reservation here on last year's cruise, either.  This is the line of people who had reservations, 15 min. after they opened, so I didn't bother waiting.  I headed to Lucky Lotus/Razzle Dazzle, with low hopes but there was no line and I was seated immediately.  With a view of the water.

I opted for 3 appetizers instead of a main.  All were tasty.

This is the pan roasted vegetable dumplings.  Not at all what I expected and a bit oily for my taste but tasty.

The honey Siracha sticky ribs were my favorite.  Main course sized and possibly the spiciest thing I've ever been served on a ship.  For me, a perfect spice level.  

I also enjoyed the duck bao.  There were two but I ate before I remembered a photo.

I asked my charming waiter to surprise me with dessert.  He did - with two delicious, huge desserts.  This is a mango pudding.

The carrot cake was a special (they had special app/main/dessert for three days) and delicious.  Dense, very sweet and rich with large chunks of nuts.  Sadly, I couldn't finish the desserts and wasn't allowed to take them back to my cabin.  Which is probably for the best because I would have finished them before bed.

The restaurant was full by the time I left.  It's a comfortable setting.  The tables are close enough together to encourage talk between tables.  The couple next to me also cruise a lot and we were comparing notes on other lines vs. Virgin.  They were able to get restaurant reservations but haven't seen any shows in their two Virgin cruises because they aren't able to stand in line long enough.  We agreed the cruise is great over all but queuing theory is not Virgin's strong suit.  Dinner was lovely, though, followed by, you guessed it...a walk and more hammock time.

Friday, October 17 - Santa Cruz de Tenerife

 I skipped dinner last night (a 9 course lunch will do that) and headed to see the show "Persephone".  There was a long line and then I learned that there are no seats for the show.  I considered if I wanted to stand in a crowd of people for over an hour and decided no.  As I was walking away, I ran into two couples I'd met at dinner.  After a brief confab, two of us headed to trivia while the other three opted to see the show.

After trivia and the show we hung out for an hour or so, then I headed to bed.  But on the way, I realized I could watch the show from the level about the main stage.  Great costumes, singing and dancing, along with silk aerials but I'm glad I wasn't downstairs standing in the middle of it all.

Shockingly, I was up past midnight and slept in until 7:30 this morning.  We have five time changes coming in the next week, so it will be interesting what time I'm waking up by the time we get to Miami.

I wanted to do a helicopter tour here but it was sold out, which saved me a LOT of money.  I don't like lining up for busses just to get out of Port, so have decided to stay on board.

Photos!

We'd just docked when I got up.  Not a bad view to wake up to.

The P&O ship Azura is docked next to you.  3,500 passengers.

Tenerife is surprisingly (to me) hilly.  It would have been a spectacular helicopter ride.  

Views from my balcony while docked.

Someone kayaking?

Can you see how far out/tiny the kayaker is?

I've been going wild at breakfast.  Another take-out dish of overnight oatmeal with fruit and cashews.  Delicious.

I thought it was a drill.  The Captain announced "man overboard" on the port side, while docked. Shortly after, I watched them store the boat used.  While I was taking this photo a couple from Atlanta stopped by and said it wasn't a drill but had no details.  Workers have been cleaning the balconeys and outside of the ship.  It could have been one of them, or who knows.  I hope it was just a drill.    

I'm proud to say I've exceeded my step goals every day by just walking around the ship.  This is the pool on a port day.  Guaranteed it will be packed for the next 8 sea days.

The Galley is also much more pleasant when most passengers are off the ship.

Another view of the quiet Galley.  I did notice a group of visitors having lunch.  I'm assuming travel agents doing a tour while we're in port.

I misspoke about the other ships in port.  There are 3 - this is the P&O ship.  I think the other was Costa but never did see the name.

Views of Santa Cruz from the ship.

Lunch was Shrimp Pad Thai from the Galley.  I ate the two shrimp.  I left the rest.  Noodles weren't cooked enough and flavor was "meh".  But the view was great and the weather was perfect.  

Mariners - why do ships have this big bulge at the front?  

Mr. Olsen does a booming business with his ferries.

The pad Thai was not good so I grabbed some trail mix.  Can't go wrong with nuts.  This was the first time they've been available.

Why I didn't get off the ship.  These folks were waiting for the bus.  Then they got on the bus and waited for more passengers.  Then drove to the dock entrance and had to take a short walk into town, then reverse the process.  At least it wasn't tendering.

I didn't get the Michelin star meal I hoped for, or the helicopter ride.  Instead, I had a lovely, quiet day.  And saved a bunch of $.

I finally crawled out of the hammock because I decided a mid-afternoon ice cream cone would be good.  I've never tried their ice cream and didn't today because of the line.

I LOVE this shirt.

I love this one too, and need it!  Here's an example of socializing on the ship and why it is easy to travel alone.  This guy came to find his wife who was doing a jigsaw puzzle at the table next to where I was playing cards with folks I met at dinner the other night.  We all started talking and he actually went to his cabin to get his Stud Muffin shirt so I could take a photo.  

This is Bill.  He's married to Nancy.  She and I have a lot in common, we discovered.  Including our names, our fathers' names and we both have a single allergy - and it's the same one.  We also love playing cards and games.

The card playing table in one of the bars.  That's Jack on the left - he's married to RayAnn.  They've 40 year friends, colleagues and travel buddies with Nancy and Bill.  A very friendly, fun and welcoming foursome.

Ah, lounge chairs for those of us who don't love day beds.

I've never seen a Chihuahua service dog on board but there is one.  I've also never seen a service dog that jumps on strangers but that one does.  There are a number of service dogs on board and this is where they do their business on deck 6.  I miss Buddy and he's a very good boy and loves people but nope.

A small reminder that under the fancy decor is an actual working ship.

A view as we were departing.

Free champagne!  I hear it was warm and bad.  

Roland- there were what looked like tiny sunfish all over before sunset as the winds picked up a bit.

We were scheduled to sail away at 5.  At 5:30 I was on the balcony and saw an ambulance with lights flashing arrive.  And police.  They took a passenger away in the ambulance.  Someone told me they'd seen an elderly man in a wheel chair taken away in an ambulance earlier.

More about the food situation later, but dinner was prime rib with a view.  The meat was tasty.  The potatoes were oily and the corn was not good. The view was the best part of the meal.

3 of the little sailboats were towed in by a power boat.  What's up with that?

I'm guessing an oil tanker?  Clearly empty.  And covered with rust.

We didn't depart until after 6 pm.  We just pushed sideways off the dock, then took a slight turn out into the Atlantic.

The Canary Islands, from what I've read, are a warm vacation spot for Europe, much like the Caribbean islands are to the US.  Las Palmas, and the little I saw of Tenerife are similar to mainland Spain in terms of culture. shopping, etc.  But with a Canarian charm.

Dessert!  A macaron and a chocolate thingy that bore a striking resemblance to the puffed wheat bars I've enjoyed in Alberta, Canada.  Years ago at a lunch when I was working in Edmonton, I asked if they thought the chef would share his recipe because they were so good.  Everyone laughed because everyone makes them at home, just as Americans make rice crispy treats.  The bar on the ship was topped with fresh berries and "kisses" of rich chocolate frosting.  Here's a recipe for the classic Canadian treat.

I went to trivia after dinner and met with with the group I played cards and took t-shirt photos with.  Virgin's mascot is an octopus and I'd love to steal this large candle holder.  I can stick it in my blouse with the glass jars I want to steal.

You can join in creating art.

One of the service dogs on board.  This one seems very friendly and wants lots of rubs.