A ship that rocks
Carole Malone enjoys the suite life on Virgin Voyages’ Valiant Lady
Virgin Voyages is going to change the face of cruising. I say that as someone who’d never been – and had never wanted to go – on a cruise before.
So what the hell does she know about it, I hear you say.
The answer is nothing.
But I knew the minute I stepped aboard Valiant Lady – a stunning grey and red monument to futuristic chic – that, whatever the mould had been for cruise ships until that moment, this funky, flamboyant “Lady” was going to smash it to pieces.
OK, so rewind.
When I say I’ve never wanted to go on a cruise, it’s true but The Husband had always said it was
“an itch he wanted to scratch”.
So, when a berth came up aboard Virgin’s second cruise ship (the first, Scarlet Lady, was launched in 2020), I said a hesitant yes.
I’d always had an idea in my head of what cruising might be like and I
won’t say what that was because it might upset people who have been cruising for years. Well actually, I will say it. I thought it would be a bit of a sedate experience for older people (yes, I know I’m old).
Well, Valiant Lady blows that little preconception right out of the water. Because this ship realises Virgin founder Richard Branson’s dream of throwing together a mix of millennials and Generation Z – and making an ocean wave experience that will appeal to all ages. I was on the ship with 60 influencers – a bunch of divine looking, scantily clad twenty
somethings who spend their entire day taking photos of themselves in various seductive poses and then posting them. (And they earn lots of money for it.)
But there were also hordes of millennials and we all rubbed along (and partied) together incredibly well. I imagined I’d be intimidated by The Young Ones and that they’d be bored rigid by us but it wasn’t so.
There was something aboard Valiant Lady for all of us and we all had fun jumping out of our comfort zones and into something we hadn’t done before: a visit to the on-board tattoo parlour, Squid Ink, or maybe the in-house sex therapist Dr Alex. I stress I went to neither. Actually