Cruise holidays are immensely and increasingly popular, with new megaships launching featuring a dizzying array of amenities from waterparks to go-karts. Yet, despite aesthetic upgrades and increasingly multi-level enormous super-suites at the top end, the overall cruise line passenger experience within the cabin itself has seen evolutionary rather than revolutionary change even as the size and scale of the ships in which they’re installed have nearly tripled in the last twenty years.
Cruise ship cabins and their integrated bathrooms are largely prefabricated from a set of standard elements, in a different location to the ship itself, then slid into the ship during its construction. By and large, most are long rectangles usually arranged perpendicular to the centerline of the ship, with the bathroom by the door and the bed beyond, sometimes with a seating area, sometimes with a balcony.
Within the industry, Virgin Voyages has tried the hardest to break out of the sameish cabin mold. The line’s first ship, Scarlet Lady — on which I cruised around the western Mediterranean last month, as a paying passenger — was launched in 2019 and started hosting guests in 2020. She’s about to enter dry dock for the cruise ship rough equivalent of an aircraft’s heavy check, although without removing all interiors as in an airliner.
First, some context in which the cabin experience sits. Virgin Voyages’ three — soon to be four — ships are roughly medium-sized compared to most new ships. They have just over 1400 cabins, of which over 1000 are the Sea Terrace balcony, including the XL Sea Terrace category which really just adds a larger bathroom — the standard bathrooms aboard are very compact, even for a cruise ship. The other cabins on board are roughly equally split between inside cabins (just over 100), outside cabins with a window or porthole but no balcony (just under 100) and suites, which Virgin calls RockStar Quarters.
Focusing in on the Sea Terrace, which is about 80% of cabins on board, most sleep two, either in a large double bed or with half of the double bed rotating as a single bed to create an L-shaped pair. Some cabins have pull-down extra beds, although this is not so much of a demand or requirement on Virgin since the line is no-kids, with an 18+ age restriction.
The side table area is covered by the single bed that swings around into L-shaped mode. Image: John Walton
Underneath the comfortable mattress (a topper can be added to make it extra-plush), the surface of the bed is actually a deep blue fabric that looks and feels like a sofa. This layout is unique to Virgin Voyages, and in some of its early marketing (and indeed early operations when it began sailing in 2020) the line suggested that the cabin could be swapped between full bed mode and full sofa mode by the crew on a daily basis. Given the amount of work this takes, though, it’s not the standard experience today.
After several trips, I’ve asked for it just once — even when sailing solo. I prefer the double bed to a single, I’m happy to kick up on the bed to read during the daytime, the armchair is fine to sit in, and if I’m relaxing I’m probably in the genius red hammock outside on the balcony, also unique to Virgin.
The signature red hammock is absolutely genius. Image: John Walton
A limited number of accessible cabins featuring level access bathrooms, ramped exits to the balcony, and adequate space for wheelchair users or travellers with certain kinds of mobility restrictions are also available across some (but not all) of the cabin types, although the extra space in the larger suites means that these may be inherently more accessible than regular cabins for some passengers’ needs.
The cabin aesthetic’s evolution has been fascinating to observe as Virgin has developed its ships over the last five years. Unlike some other lines, Virgin doesn’t shy away from the fact that this is a ship rather than a floating mega-hotel: the mirrors look like portholes, guests are referred to as “sailors”, the cabin corkscrew is designed to resemble a sextant, the bedside lights look like they belong on a ship — and, yes, there’s that bright red hammock outside.
Scarlet Lady’s aesthetic is slightly different to and a little more space-age modern than the later ships. Image: John Walton
Following Scarlet Lady’s launch, Virgin has adjusted some of the standard cabin’s soft product and aesthetic, mostly by adding in more natural elements. For example, third ship Resilient Lady’s balcony curtains are a natural beige burlap, while the wardrobe curtains are a red-and-white canvas, replacing a more shimmery modern curtain. As the earlier ships have been in service, many cabins have also had a wall of wooden battens installed behind the TV to break up the white wall and add in some nature.
Resilient Lady features new, warmer and more natural curtains. Image: John Walton
These are by no means major changes, but they do respond to some earlier cabin feedback that the aesthetic lacked some softness for some passengers’ tastes, and on balance the new cabin and extra natural features do make a difference.
Virgin updated Resilient Lady to have lamps with a woven effect shade. Image: John Walton
After several Virgin Voyages now, it might sound odd that your author’s favourite part of their Sea Terrace cabins isn’t in the cabin at all: it’s the fantastic red hammock outside, infinitely more comfortable than other lines’ balcony chairs, and frankly a lot cooler too. Swinging gently in the hammock listening to the bustle of a port or the waves at sea, especially at sunset, is an utterly blissful experience.
Other cruise lines — here the Norwegian Breakaway a few years older than Scarlet Lady, viewed from my balcony — don’t have hammocks. Alas. Image: John Walton
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Featured image credit to John Walton
