Cruise Date: June 29–July 4, 2025
Ceremony: July 3, 2025
“We spent $1,100/night expecting our dream wedding cruise—what we got was a half‑baked Farce‑yacht.”
I'll be rewriting this into blog format, but feel free to follow along!
Some Context
Our first cruise with Virgin was over Christmas 2024, just after the "election" of Tangerine Palpatine. We had booked it before, but after the first step to America's decline, we really needed the cruise to pull some joy back into our lives. Virgin mostly delivered on this for us. Scott got to see me in the happiest state I'd ever been in with him. This locked in our choice for where we wanted to get married. We got extremely excited at what Virgin was doing with their ships, and hoped that THIS could be our go-to for holidays. Shortly after we got back, we tried to book our wedding onboard, but someone had already chosen that voyage for theirs, so we booked this Cheeky Corner Suite (largest terrace), so we'd have backup options to host our own wedding onboard that week. I'm still confident, to this day, that if we had wanted to use The Perch to do our wedding, everyone who might be relaxing up there on a sea day would gladly take a drink to stand aside for 30min while we had our ceremony; likely joining in! The energy on board was great!
But it seems that Virgin Voyages is still working on their problem management skills as they grow; and we just happen to get punched in the proverbial gut over and over on our wedding cruise, to the point where it's hard to recover the energy they took from us with the current global climate. We were hoping the Rockstar experience meant we wouldn't have any issues, and if we did, they'd be handled like an $1100/night room VIP guest should. But we were wrong...
Day 1 (June 29): Embarkation & Immediate Shock
On embarkation day, we boarded with the other "Rockstars" (after the "Splash of Romance" sailors, for some reason), but skipped the welcome-aboard drinks to go take a shower for the sail away party, as Scott and I had been shepherding our group of 10 other sailors that morning, to ensure everyone got onboard with everything they needed. And this is where it all started...
We turned on our shower and let it run for a few minutes, with nothing but cold water. I've worked on ships before, and I know on turnover day they do maintenance, so I gave it the benefit of the doubt. But when Scott turned on the sink to help speed up hot water deliver, we were greeted with brown water (see picture). Cleanliness is one of our anxiety triggers, so this just started adding to the stress from herding cats that morning. We reported it to Mary, one of our housekeepers, as Irina wasn't available just yet. After about a full 20-mins (we timed it), the water came in hot and clear-looking... so we took our showers, but requested clean linens.
We went to the sail away party with our friends and family, and had a good time; though they have changed the policy on what they're giving away, so the champagne is not endless anymore. Oh well, we brought our own and were prepared to spend more. Though after we got back to our room to get ready for dinner, the linens were still on the floor and the water was cold and brown again. We immediately called Irina, and she came in to see the problem. She called to maintenance and had someone come up to look at it. It was reported to us later that evening that it was supposedly fixed, and when we got back from dinner, everything seemed to work.
Day 2 (June 30): Sea Day & a Missing Door
Well, Day 2 not off to a great start; we awoke to cold, brown water again for
- Brown, Cold water again in the morning; reported it again. "fixed again". Irina promised us this day, that the water would be taken care of by the "Deck manager", and the bathroom door would be "fixed" by the plumbing team.
- Discovered the missing bathroom door this day (photo)
- Messaged Irina first time that morning, but the call forwarding didn't appear to work, so we reported directly through sailor services via the in-room phone.
- Had brunch with our friends and family, but service was severely lacking; This comes back later.
- We had our friends and family over, but with the missing bathroom door, folks didn't stay long. nobody wants to go to the bathroom with no privacy.
- Scott requested a meeting with Irina's manager, Jonathan, at this point. We were on day 2 without guaranteed access to clean water, and now the bathroom door was missing.
- Scott was trying to give me a worry-free week for our wedding, while Irina and Jonathan were just spinning up his anxiety by not fixing the root causes of our issues.
- My parents took our reservation at Pink Agave, because we were dealing with so many issues; our first missed significant experience. I specifically booked dinners with different groups each night so we could spend this joyous occasion with our friends and family.
- Also adding to this is our inability to have intimate time ON OUR FUCKING WEDDING CRUISE. How are we supposed to be confident we can clean up before/after, with these water problems?!?
- We were able to get into Pink agave later, but we were interrupted again by the restaurant management to discuss our poor brunch experience. We gave this feedback on our last cruise, but approaching us after a stress-filled day, to remind us of another problem we had, and that you're supposdly going to do something about it, just makes it worse. Come to me with specifics or ask me questions, just not at dinner... with the app-location tracking, come find me on the pool deck, or at lunch (a lighter meal). There's a reason the whole telemarketer-thing at dinner is viewed so negatively.
Day 3 (July 1): Cozumel & Spa Management to the Rescue
- By now, we were REALLY running out of happy energy. It was difficult for us to really enjoy Cozumel, but we went out and made an effort.
- We went out and had lunch at La Choza, a restaraunt I had remembered from my cruise ship days. We wish we would have done Paradise beach, as the $70/pp there would have given us a beach. But I wanted to spend some time with my parents, given our ruined dinner on Day 2. After lunch, we came back to the ship to chill by the pool. It was too hot to do much else, and my Father's heatlh isn't 100%, and I wanted to spend time with him on this trip, and was extremely happy he joined us.
- Back on the ship, our room STILL had issues, and Scott had to tag me in. Given my cruise ship experience, I walked down to the Spa and spoke with the manager there (SUPER friendly, I wish I had her name), bypassing Irina and Jonathan, and she offered us a spa pass for the remainder of the cruise to ensure we had guaranteed access to a hot, clean shower from at least 5A to 9P. But still no guarantees for intimate time.
- After this, I informed Irina of our aggreement. I also cancelled the future voyages booking in exchange for a meeting with Jonathan's boss, Velibor.
- This was also they day where Irina did acknowledge that this is not the service they provide, and they were aware they were failing.
- We have yet to experience a Scarlet Night onboard, as the first cruise we had in December, it was raining and a new cast. This time, we were having such a negative time, and the schedule kept being adjusted, we spent a good chunk of the night in our rooms ugly-crying, because Virign had destroyed our dream wedding cruise, and fucked up the recovery so poorly, we didn't know what it would take to fix, and WE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO BE THINKING ABOUT THIS ANYWAY. I build escalation management organizations, so I deal with Emotional Intelligence as my job, and I couldn't fix this by the ceremony at this point.
- We started out Scarlet night already having a poor onboard experience, with a bartender who had a chip on his shoulder for something. Scott had ordered a drink on their specials menu and didn't like it. He wasn't asking for a refund, just giving feedback and asking for another drink. But the bartender took some offense to the feedback and gave us attitude. He reported this to Irina as it happened, as well. This coupled with the poor expectations set, ruined another Scarlet night for us.
- When we boarded this cruise, we were having daydreams about a honeymoon crossing cruise in a Mega Rockstar suite; a $19,000 voyage. We had been booking time with Future Voyages to come over and discuss. At this point I canceled that meeting and requested a meeting with Jonathan's boss.
Day 4 (July 2): Sea Day & Last‑Ditch Escalation
- We booked Massages this morning to attempt to start rebuilding the energy for the condensed ceremony we decided to have; Our spirit was broken, and Virgin Voyages had taken that from us.
- We used the spa shower several times this day, because our water still took 15-20min (we timed it after the 3rd time) to warm up.
- Since we didn't have a bathroom door, folks didn't want to come over to the patio and the pool was packed, we went to Richard's Rooftop where were promptly kicked out because our guests didn't have black-bands. So my parents came over and hung out just to spend time with us, while everyone else went to other events to try and enjoy their cruise. I was appreciative of the time with my parents.
- I had my meeting with Velibor this afternoon, where Jonathan and Justin (my best man) attended. Velibor seemed to understand the impact and be respectful, but Jonathan needs to learn when to keep his mouth shut. After explaining to him that Virgin Voyages has stolen our once-in-a-lifetime-wedding memories from us, and breaking down crying in Velibor’s office because at this point they’d fucked it up so badly I couldn’t fully recover it in the time remaining (and I build escalation management organizations), he had the balls to try and explain to me how human emotion works by telling me that joy comes from those experiencing the event, and to enjoy our wedding rehearsal dinner later that evening. Clearly this CHILD doesn’t have a lot of significant emotional experiences in life to relate this to yet, so applying standard de-escalation tactics to something so important to those experiencing it is a bold move that did not sit well with me.
- After my discussion with Velibor, we committed to reporting the issues via the app so that it was not covered up by other processes like phone calls and texts to Irina (which appear to have been deleted, now that our case is under investigation with Virgin). We begin reporting it here each time we ran into it.
- We had our rehearsal dinner that night where I announced the condensed ceremony through tears, and everyone offered to help where they were able. It was hard to ask our guests for help with our wedding voyage, because they're supposed to be guests. But it's nice to know We brought the right friends and family with us, who were willing to help. This was also the first event where I felt like Virgin was beginning to deliver on trying to make things better. Earlier in the week they had offered 1 "Item on Us" or something where they cover a paid item from the menu. I've always wanted to try a tomahawk, so I chose that. Scott wanted to a Surf and Turf, so we chose the other paid seafood option expecting to pay for it. Not only did The Wake cover 2 rounds of drinks for everyone and our "Item on Us", they comped the whole bill; including our custom cake we ordered. It was a red velvet cake with cream cheese (I know, my basic-bitch is showing)... but it was really good. We sent the other half of the cake to the crew to great thanks.
- Later that night, Jason had organized Karaoke in one of the private rooms. This was a lot more fun than I thought it'd be. The song selection and quality were really good. And the audio setup worked great!
Day 5 (July 3): Bimini & Bittersweet “I Do”
- Didn't even try our own water this morning, just went to the spa to shower; didn't want the energy hit.
- Getting to the beach club was a nice experience. The Rockstar golf carts were standing by, and we didn't have to wait.
- We performed our condensed ceremony, which we enjoyed. But were holding back tears and pushing through vows, not even readin our prepared ones, knowing that this wasn't the event we truly wanted for each other; And this week, brought to you by Virgin Voyages, is our memory of our wedding for the rest of our lives.
- After our friend, the Rt Reverend Justin Oldmixon pronounced us married, we had an awesome applause from the beach audience... it was a nice touch that reminded us the types of people who travel on Virgin. Now, if only the company could get their shit together.
- We had originally booked a few cabanas, but cancelled those as we didn't want to give Virign any more money at this point. WE just grabbed seats by the pool, where we had such a great time over Christmas, in hopes that we could pull it again.
- Well, after sweating through the ceremony, it turns out there WAS NO WATER AT THE BEACH CLUB... WTF Virgin? We just put our bikinis on and got in the pool. At this point, fuck it.
- Bimini, overall, is a pretty great place. A massive pool party with unique food, and PLENTY of options for folks to do.
- I ran into the food manager, and he recognized me from the previous night and Velibor's notes, I imagine. He was very friendly and helpful.
- For some reason, everyone started going back to the ship early; it looked like it was going to rain, but never did. It was getting close to our dinner reservations, so we headed back arond 3:30. We wanted time to shower at the spa and change.
- We ended up giving Mom/Dad our reservation for Extra Virgin, so they could have more of a romantic vacation
- We spent the evening going through the rest of our champagne with some friends in one of the hottubs on deck 16-aft. Did galley for dinner.
- Went back to pack suitcases since tomorrow was debarkation.
- All tablet services went offline this evening, as well. This means room controls, food, room services, etc. Nobody showed up until the Embarkation morning.
Day 6 (July 4): Debarkation & Final Slap
- Discovered water bugs in our room (video) that morning
- Debarkation wasn't too bad for us; coming from 14 aft, we have the rear elevators to use.
- Getting past our pedophile-in-chief's Border Bouncers (CBP) wasn't too bad. They harrased our international friends a little bit, but we all got through.
Post-Voyage: Silence...
What We Paid For vs. What We Got
- $1,100+ /night Rockstar Suite with private shower and door → Brown, cold water & no door.
- Promises of effortless service → Glitchy app, unanswered calls, deleted texts.
- A week of joy with friends & family → Anxiety, cancelled events, mid‑cruise crisis management.
Virgin’s own Terms & Conditions and basic consumer‑rights principles guarantee habitable accommodations: running hot water, privacy, and responsive correction of deficiencies. We’re not asking for more than what we paid for… but after a cruise that tore our dream week apart, we’ll settle for acknowledgment, a fair refund, and true accountability.
We're not asking for any more than we feel we should have gotten in the first place for what we spent and what Virgin advertises. However, given how Virgin has handled this onboard, and immediately following the cruise (the Sailor Services "Thanks for the feedback" email and the Red Glove ghosting, they're just making it so hard to be the promoter we wanted to be)