Adriatic Sea

You could make a decent 900 x 900km map in this area if not bigger. With countries like Italy, Croatia, Serbia, Greece and Bosnia. Real world history this would make for some Bosnia war campaigns as NATO ran strike missions out of northern Italy and enforced no fly zones in the 90’s as well as offer a good variety in terrain and carrier ops. I don’t think I’ve seen this Region be suggested before so wanna see what the community thinks

Here is a VERY long review of the Adriatic Sea & Greek Gems cruise from July 2-9, 2023 on the Resilient Lady!

I know this is a newer itinerary and had trouble finding detailed info when I booked, so hopefully this is helpful for someone.

This was my first Virgin Voyage (second cruise overall). I went with my girlfriend, we’re in our mid-20s. There were only 838 people on board our ship, so that definitely contributed to the experience we had. Overall we had a great time and will definitely be sailing with the cruise line again.

SHORE THINGS AND OTHER PORT INFO:

Starting with this since you can get most of the other info by looking at reviews of VV’s other ships.

• We flew into Athens a day early and stayed at the Elia Ermou, which was an amazing hotel. Used FreeNow to get to the hotel from the airport which cost about €50. We walked around Plaka/Anafiotika, grabbed drinks at Boo!, and dinner at Attic rooftop. Highly recommend all of these places, although Attic was a bit overhyped. The next morning we booked an Acropolis tour through Viator — I wouldn’t recommend doing the Acropolis without a tour tbh. Our guide was amazing and we wouldn’t have really known what we were looking at without her. She also took us to the museum and we got to wander around the excavation area below, which was incredible.

• For the Split port stop, we had booked ziplining in Omiš through Viator. It’s supposed to be about a 30 min drive, we got in an Uber and it ended up taking an hour due to summer traffic. Unfortunately, while the weather was fine in Split, it was storming in Omiš and our ziplining was pushed back. Make sure to book excursions early in the day in case weather pushes them back! We ended up on a €10 boat ride down the Cetina River, which was beautiful but our boat broke down and we had to get towed. A day full of bumps lol but still wonderful.

• In Dubrovnik, we booked the Lokrum Island Kayak Expedition Shore Thing. It was our favorite thing we did the entire trip. Being on the water made the hot day so much nicer, it was a beautiful way to see the city, and swimming in Betina Cave was incredible, although a bit crowded due to other tours. We ended up seeing a tour group of VV crew members there! I would highly recommend this Shore Thing, but also keep in mind that it is pretty strenuous as we kayaked for about 2 hours. And don’t forget water shoes for Betina Cove, it’s very rocky. We also walked around the city, did about half of the city walls, and attempted to visit Buža Bar, but it was too crowded.

• Kotor was the most beautiful city I have ever visited. We booked the Montenegro by Land & Boat Shore Thing. While Our Lady of the Rocks and Perast were very beautiful, ultimately we were all squished onto a boat and the tour guide’s microphone wasn’t working so I wouldn’t say it was the best experience ever. It was just fine. We had originally booked the Morning Sailing through Boka Bay and I wish we would’ve kept that excursion, although that one didn’t stop at Our Lady of the Rocks. We also explored the old town of Kotor, I would highly recommend taking pictures at the River Gate/North Gate.

• In Corfu we booked Cruise Me Up’s Daily Cruise on their wooden vessel, and devastatingly it was cancelled due to high winds. The owner Spiros was so kind and gave us several recommendations for what to do instead. We ended up grabbing a taxi to Paleokastritsa. We took a much shorter boat tour from Agia Triada beach, then headed to La Grotta bar which was INCREDIBLE, it literally felt like something out of a movie. We swam (bring your water shoes!), bought an inner tube, and watched people cliff dive/use the diving board. It was very busy however, so I would recommend getting there even earlier than we did. We took a chance and grabbed the bus back which was actually a very easy experience.

EMBARKATION/DISEMBARKATION:

• We were able to get a 1:45 embarkation time even though we weren’t rockstars and didn’t have any extras (we booked through an agent who was able to get us this). The area they had us sitting in while we waited to board was extremely hot. Honestly my biggest recommendation for this whole trip is to bring a handheld fan. It was so hot everywhere and I forgot most places on this itinerary don’t really use air conditioning. Of course the ship itself was always well cooled though. We were able to get on the ship’s wifi very briefly while waiting in this area and we booked all the activities we wanted. Soon afterward though it kicked us off and we weren’t able to get on again until after we were actually on the ship. It was a bit more chaotic of an experience than the very well-oiled embarkation we did at Ft. Lauderdale with Royal Caribbean but overall totally fine.

• Disembarkation was very easy, we left around 10:15. My only recommendation would be to book transportation to the airport ahead of time, there was a long line of taxis but some didn’t take card and it was overall more stressful than it would’ve been if we had something lined up.

ENTERTAINMENT, EVENTS, AND CREW:

Overall the activities and shows on board were absolutely incredible. The crew seemed happy and well taken care of, and it was especially exciting to see such a diverse group of people with tattoos, piercings, etc. running the show.

• As far as shows, we saw Miss Behave, Mind Mangler, Persephone, Lola’s Library, and went to the Hostess’ Cabaret. I really hated the shows on my last cruise so I wasn’t expecting much, but every single one of these was amazing and worth going to. The performers are so incredibly talented and it’s fun seeing them in different roles each night. The interactive nature scared me at first but ended up being one of my favorite parts. My favorite show was Persephone, and my girlfriend’s favorite was Lola’s Library!

• For parties, we attended the PJ Party, Scarlet Night, and We Fancy. The crowd was awesome and we always felt safe as a queer couple. We did jump in the pool in our clothes during Scarlet Night and I highly recommend it lol. These themed parties (along with 80s night) are really the only dress-code type events so be sure to pack for them if you want! Definitely not required though.

• Okay, the handheld fan is my biggest recommendation, but my second biggest rec is to book the Grog Walk for Night 1. My girlfriend and I are not very social people, but we made like 10 friends at this event and got to hang out with them for the rest of the trip. It really made our experience, was one of my favorite nights, and was well worth the $50 for the amount of alcohol we got. Crew members Alejandro, Nate, and Juanita ran the event for us and they were incredible!

• Other recommendation… if a cast member tries to steal you away, just do it. :)

• The only event we didn’t have the best time at was trivia as we ended up at a magic-themed event even though that wasn’t listed on the agenda. We don’t know anything about magic and came in last, lol.

FOOD AND DRINKS:

I won’t spend much time on this as there’s plenty of info about VV’s food, but it was amazing. Don’t miss Opa Hour at the Dock House. We were scared to sit with strangers at Gunbae, but ended up having the most fun 2.5 hour dinner ever.

ROOM:

• BOOK A SEA TERRACE ROOM!! Especially for this itinerary. Hammock is worth the hype. Waking up early to watch the ship sail into Kotor was magical. We loved our room, had no issues with the bed, etc. The bathroom was small but was fine for us.

APP, TECH, AND TROUBLESHOOTING:

• The app is glitchy, that is true, but not nearly as bad as I’ve seen people say. Keep in mind that the app won’t work when you’re in port — even if you have cell service, you can’t access the ship’s itinerary when you’re off the ship’s wifi. That was the most frustrating part for us.

• Our tablet in our room was also glitchy — we couldn’t get the music to work and at one point it disconnected and we needed to contact sailor services to get it fixed.

• Sailor services was, in general, extremely helpful. We also needed to talk to them because all of our cruise credit was on my account, so we were getting charged when my gf swiped her bracelet. They fixed it immediately.

That’s it (finally)! Feel free to ask me any other questions you have. For clarity, I am not a travel agent. Just experiencing post-cruise depression.

Shiey just dropped a new video on his website