Why I Chose Virgin Voyages and Why I’d Choose It Again In a Heartbeat
Why Virgin Voyages is The Perfect Cruise Line for The 60 and Over Set
There are a lot of cruise lines in the world. I chose Virgin Voyages for our Mediterranean adventure and it turned out to be one of the best travel decisions I have ever made. Here is exactly why — and why I think it might be the perfect cruise line for women over 60.
Let me start with a confession.
When one of our travel group first suggested Virgin Voyages, I hesitated.
The branding felt young. The marketing felt bold. The whole aesthetic suggested a cruise line designed for someone considerably more energetic and considerably less interested in a proper night's sleep than I considered myself to be.
I was wrong.
Not slightly wrong. Completely, thoroughly, happily wrong in a way that I am still thinking about months later and will probably still be thinking about for years.
Virgin Voyages is not a young person's cruise line. It is an adults-who-appreciate-quality cruise line. And there is a very meaningful difference between those two things.
What Made Me Say Yes
The decision came down to three things that kept coming up in my research: the ship was adults-only, the dining was all included, and the itinerary was exactly what we had been dreaming about.
Three for three. We booked.
What I did not anticipate was how completely right it would feel from the moment we stepped on board. How the ship would manage to be simultaneously stylish and comfortable. How the staff would strike exactly the right balance between attentive and unobtrusive. How six friends with thirty years of shared history would find that Virgin Voyages understood, without being told, exactly what we needed from a vacation.
Let me tell you what will keep me coming back for more.
Adults Only — And Why It Matters More Than You Think
I want to talk about the adults-only policy because I think it is more significant than it might initially appear.
It is not about disliking children. But there is something genuinely different about a vacation environment where every single person present has chosen to be there as an adult, with adult priorities and adult expectations. Virgin Voyages is the only mainstream cruise line that offers an adult only experience.
The energy on a Virgin Voyages ship is calm in a way that other cruise ships simply are not. There are no water slides themed around cartoon characters. There are no buffet lines shared with sunburned families negotiating with small people about what constitutes an acceptable lunch. There is no ambient noise level that requires you to raise your voice to be heard across a dinner table.
There is instead a comforting sense of ease. Of people relaxing on their own terms. Of conversations that can be had at a normal volume. Of evenings that go exactly as long as you want them to — whether that means dancing until midnight at Scarlet Night or turning in at nine with a good book and absolutely no judgment either way.
For women over 60 who have spent decades accommodating everyone else's needs and preferences, the adults-only environment is not a luxury. It is a revelation. And the price point starts at $700 a person. Your hard earned retirement dollars are going to good use here.
The Dining — Included, Exceptional and Endlessly Varied
Test Kitchen on Virgin Voyages Was Our Favorite Restaurant
Here is something that surprised me about Virgin Voyages: all dining is included in the fare.
Not a buffet. Not a single restaurant open at limited hours. There are a total of six specialty restaurants and the meals are included in your fare. Each one is unique in their thoughtful design and the type of cuisine they offer. They include everything from a sophisticated yet lively Korean concept to a gorgeous steakhouse, and an exploratory Test Kitchen that became the favorite of our entire group. No surcharges. Reservations are needed, but the Virgin App makes it easy to secure your spot. What I love about this, is there is no moment at the end of a magnificent meal where the mood is broken by a bill.
You simply eat. Wherever you want. Whenever you want. As many times as you want.
For our group of six this was transformative. We ate together when we wanted to be together and separately when individual preferences diverged.
The quality was consistent in a way that genuinely surprised me. Cruise ship food has a reputation that Virgin Voyages is actively and successfully dismantling. The ingredients were exceptional. The preparation was careful. The service was fantastic without being performative. We never once had a disappointing meal.
The Galley deserves its own mention because it is unlike anything you expect when you hear the word "buffet" in a cruise context. The Galley is Virgin Voyages' answer to the traditional cruise ship buffet — and it is a complete reinvention of that concept. Rather than the chaotic, everything-under-heat-lamps experience that buffets on other ships can be, the Galley is a beautifully designed marketplace-style space where different stations offer freshly prepared food throughout the day. It feels more like a food hall in a great city than a ship cafeteria. The quality is consistently high, the variety is genuine, and it is the perfect solution for mornings when you want something quick before a port day or afternoons when you come back hungry and don't want to wait for a full restaurant experience.
The fact that I could eat sushi for lunch, and then tacos for an afternoon snack, had my Rebel Heart filled with joy. Did I mention the noodle bar? I haven’t had ramen that good since I left Southern California. Yum! My husband loved the burger bar, and the fresh baked goods. And don’t even get me started on breakfast. There are so many choices that even after 8 days, I couldn’t have tried everything, even if I was so inclined.
For our group of six the combination of specialty restaurants and the Galley meant we were never once in a situation where food felt like a compromise or a logistical challenge. Every meal was a pleasure. Every option was genuinely good.
We never once had a disappointing meal.
The Ship — Boutique Hotel Energy on the Open Sea
Virgin Voyages ships are designed with a sensibility that feels closer to a boutique hotel than to the floating shopping malls that characterize some of the larger cruise lines.
The scale is intentionally intimate. The cabins are genuinely well-designed — real storage, a proper bathroom, a bed that allows for real sleep (you know how important my sleep is to me.) The common areas feel intentional rather than cavernous. There is art on the walls that you actually want to look at. There are spaces that invite you to sit and stay rather than corridors designed to funnel you past retail opportunities. The kind of spaces that draw you in and make you want stay. A lounge for playing board games and doing puzzles, an arcade with all the games we played in the 70s and 80s - and they’re free. Want to workout? Well there’s a gym for that, a basketball court, and a pickleball court which is very popular with our generation.
Our cabin had everything we needed and nothing we didn't. The bathroom had actual counter space. The storage accommodated two people's luggage without requiring advanced spatial reasoning. The bed was comfortable enough that I looked forward to it each evening — which, for a woman who spent months battling menopause insomnia before discovering magnesium oil, is not a small thing. The icing on the cake is that every balcony room has a hammock. Swinging while you watch the wake from the ship is a stroke of genius. As an early riser, I can attest to the fact that swaying in my hammock with my coffee while the sun rose before me will be one of my favorite memories of this voyage.
The overall feeling of the ship was one of being somewhere that had been designed for people who notice quality. Not ostentatious. Not trying too hard. Simply good, throughout, in a way that compounds over the days you spend on board.
The Itinerary — A Mediterranean Dream
Virgin Voyages Mediterranean Cruise - Rome to Barcelona
Our Mediterranean itinerary with Virgin Voyages took us to:
Rome — where six people and six GPS applications walked six miles through the eternal city in pursuit of the best fettuccine of our lives and found it at Il Vero Alfredo, which has been making pasta since 1914 and shows absolutely no signs of stopping.
The Amalfi Coast — where we took a ferry along one of the most spectacular coastlines in the world, ate caprese salad beside the sea with a lovely bottle of rosé, and I fell completely in love with the farm stands and the philosophy of food that I have been trying to bring home to Georgia ever since.
Ibiza — where our friend Greg who lived in Ibiza, took us to the Blue Marlin Beach Club and introduced us to a citrus sangria made with cava that I am still thinking about and a decadent lunch that we definitely deserved.
Cannes (Monaco & Monte Carlo) — where we took a terrifying bus tour along winding roads up steep cliffs to the most glamorous principality in Europe, watched the changing of the guard, argued with a French waiter about sharing entrées, discovered the Formula 1 track being set up around us, and came devastatingly close to ordering James Bond martinis at the Casino de Monte Carlo, but for a bus schedule conspired against us.
Barcelona — where the Sagrada Família reduced me to reverent silence, La Boqueria Market swallowed us whole for the better part of an hour, and the Aperol Spritz at the end of seven miles of walking along La Rambla felt like the most deserved drink of my trip.
Every single port was extraordinary. The itinerary was not just a list of destinations — it was a curated journey through some of the most beautiful places on earth, strung together by the comfort of a ship we were genuinely happy to come back to each evening.
What Virgin Voyages Gets Right for Women Over 60
I have thought about this a great deal since returning home and here is what I have concluded:
Virgin Voyages succeeds for women of our generation not because it targets us specifically but because it gets the fundamentals right in ways that happen to align perfectly with what we actually want from a vacation.
We want quality over quantity. Virgin Voyages delivers a smaller, better experience rather than a larger, noisier one.
We want to eat well without friction. The all-inclusive dining removes every possible moment of stress or calculation from the experience of enjoying a meal.
We want adults around us. The adults-only policy creates an environment that feels genuinely elevated rather than merely luxurious.
We want a ship that feels like somewhere rather than just a vessel. The boutique hotel sensibility means you never feel like you are simply passing through on the way to the ports.
And we want an itinerary worth the journey. The Mediterranean route delivered five extraordinary ports and experiences I will be writing about — and talking about, and dreaming about — for the rest of my life.
The Practical Details
Ship: Valiant Lady services routes to The Caribbean, Puerto Rico and The Mediterranean.
Itinerary: Mediterranean — Rome, Amalfi, Ibiza, Cannes, Barcelona.
Who it's for: Adults 18 and over. In practice the demographic skews significantly toward experienced travelers in their forties, fifties and sixties who appreciate quality and have learned what they like.
What's included: All dining at all restaurants, group fitness classes, entertainment, basic wifi, tips. Drinks packages available separately.
What to know: Book excursions early — the best ones sell out. Pack for the dress codes — Scarlet Night requires red and you absolutely want to participate. And if someone offers to take you to the Blue Marlin in Ibiza, say yes immediately.
Book at: virginvoyages.com
Would I Go Again?
Without a moment's hesitation.
In fact the conversation among our group of six about where Virgin Voyages might take us next began after we all got home. The Caribbean is being discussed. Nobody has said no to anything yet.
And if this blogs takes off like I expect it to, who knows maybe we can get a hundred or more 60-Something year old women to take The Rebels Without A Care cruise together (I just came up with that)! We can make shirts that say “Virgin No More - Rebel To The Core”. I’m having fun just thinking of the mayhem a flock of Post-Menopausal women could create on one of those dazzling ships!
Virgin Voyages. Highest possible recommendation. From a woman who hesitated and was completely, thoroughly, happily wrong to do so.
The Rebel Roams series continues with individual posts on every port — Rome, Amalfi, Ibiza, Monaco & Monte Carlo, and the extraordinary independent escape to Tossa de Mar, with Barcelona as our final leg of our vacation.
Have you cruised with Virgin Voyages? Or are you considering it? Tell me everything in the comments — and if you have questions about our Mediterranean itinerary I am delighted to answer them.
The Rebel Age · Travel & Adventure · The Rebel Roams
