The verdict on Richard Branson’s first adults-only ship Down Under

Outside the wide porthole of the Stubble and Groom barber shop, Tasmania’s east coast rises distantly out of the Tasman Sea. The sounds of a music quiz pour in from a nearby lounge, and expert hands lather my face, pausing only so that I can sip from the tumbler of single malt in my hand. It’s an ordinary afternoon scene on an unordinary cruise ship.

Things are done differently on the Resilient Lady, the first ship from Virgin Voyages to sail in Australia. Hailed as a disruptor in the cruise industry, Virgin Voyages is a curious deviation for Sir Richard Branson, who has never been shy about his dislike of cruising. When it was launched in 2021, it was widely reported as cruising for people who didn’t like cruises, with its ships claiming to draw inspiration as much from super-yachts as other cruise ships.

Resilient Lady is the first Virgin Voyages ship to cruise from Australia.

In December, I was aboard the 2700-passenger, adults-only Resilient Lady as it sailed out of Melbourne on its maiden Australian voyage to and from Hobart. From the outset, the sense of the ship fighting against cruise convention was almost palpable. Want a tattoo while at sea? Tick. A boozy brunch in Bass Strait? Tick. A gadgety gimmick where a shake of your phone signals a crew member to bring a bottle of Moet champagne? Tick.

In many regards, the Resilient Lady is a slick slice of urban life at sea. Spaces around the $1.1-billion ship – the third in Virgin Voyages’ fleet – were created by designers from the boutique hotel industry, such as Roman and Williams (designers of New York’s Ace Hotel) and Tom Dixon, with no previous cruise-ship credentials.

Fancy some vinyl shopping?

The ship’s crew, hailing from about 80 countries, are all coolly clad, with tattoos pouring down arms, and sprinkled among the Resilient Lady’s high-end stores are a vinyl record shop with DJ turntables, a barber who offers a shave over a whisky, a retro video-game arcade and the first tattoo studio on the seas, where two artists are busy inking up to 20 passengers a day.

“About 60 per cent of people getting tattoos are first-timers,” says tattooist Melissa Senesac.

“People see that we’re clean and not scary biker dudes, and they come with their own ideas or just want a memento of the trip.”

Grill your own meat at Gunbae, the world’s first Korean barbecue restaurant at sea.

Dining spreads across 24 eateries, and it’s as far from the boring buffets of my earliest cruising experiences as Brae is from burgers. Among a global collection of offerings – Mexican, ramen, bento, Italian, Korean, a mezze cart that rolls around a sun deck – you can hunt out vegan hot dogs, an icy-pole stand and milkshakes spiked with alcohol, or find style and genuinely top-class dining (all included the fare) at a handful of signature restaurants.

A degustation with a molecular edge at Test Kitchen.

High among them are Pink Agave, a wine-bar-like Mexican restaurant with a mescal pairing menu, and Test Kitchen. Inspired by molecular gastronomy, the latter’s six-course degustation might bring the likes of mushroom pate with powdered porcini, and peas and egg yolk smoked over applewood chips, with wine pairings as precise as any restaurant. Each dish arrives like a reveal in a reality show and is unlike anything I’ve eaten on a cruise ship.

The food is just as fine at Another Rose, an immersive dining experience that blurs the line between dinner and dance. Tables run like tentacles from a stage in the Resilient Lady’s Manor nightclub, and as the tables are cleared between courses of sweet potato chaat, tuna bombs or pan-roasted sea bass, dancers spill off the stage and onto the table before you.

Pink Agave boasts the biggest mezcal collection at sea.

Shows such as Another Rose and the headlining Persephone – Virgin Voyages’ retelling of the Greek goddess’ story – are high-energy, high-strength fusions of dance, gymnastics, pole dancing and rap-like narrative. Dancers hang from aerial silks, Cirque de Soleil-style, and prowl through the audience.

Playing to an adult-only crowd, the shows have more edge – more swearing, more dare, more risque – than traditional cruise acts. There’s a resident drag queen performing shows and leading karaoke sessions, and Richard Simmons-style aerobics classes that bring the leg-warming ’80s back to life. It’s as though a ship set sail and a fringe festival broke out.

Fitness classes are all included in the fare.

Within this swirl of ship life, there are also blessedly peaceful spaces. The Redemption Spa has a full roster of massage therapies along with hot and cold plunge pools, heated hammam benches, a salt room, mud room and a sauna where you can sit in the sill of a porthole and watch the ocean pass by.

Decks are fitted with the likes of a boxing ring and pommel horses, and all fitness classes are free of charge. Days can open with guided meditations, where one morning, as the sun rises unseen behind a bank of Bass Strait cloud, dolphins tag along in the ship’s wake immediately below my yoga mat.

Resilient Lady’s Mega Rockstar Massive Suite.

Passengers in top-end suites – those people known as rockstars in the Virgin vocabulary – have access to Richard’s Rooftop, a private deck with spas and myriad quiet places. And quickly my favourite space becomes the hammock on my own cabin deck, where I spend hours happily suspended looking over Bass Strait and the Tasman Sea.

More than most cruises, this one feels less about the destinations and more about the journey. As we head down Tasmania’s east coast, the Resilient Lady sails far from shore, which is barely visible over the horizon, and most of the cruise’s points of difference are on-board rather than ashore.

Shore excursions are a conventional collection of destinations – Port Arthur, Richmond, Hastings Caves or Mona from Hobart – and there are no genuine lectures on sailing days to pique shore interest. There’s a sense of suspended reality, with curiosity confined to the ship, which looks inward – onto itself – rather than outward onto the world.

From Hobart, the Resilient Lady doesn’t complete the lap of Tassie, backtracking instead through the same east-coast waters to reach Burnie and another day of regular shore excursions to Cradle Mountain and Stanley. On this return leg, the ship sails closer to shore, but even as we pass Wineglass Bay, there’s barely a set of eyes out at the railings. By now, the Resilient Lady is under the spell of Scarlet Night and seemingly the only wine glasses are in our hands, not in the landscape.

Ship-wide party Scarlet Night comes to life on the pool deck.

The ultimate expression of the Resilient Lady’s restless spirit, Scarlet Night is a once-a-sailing, ship-wide party. The cruise ship is lit red, passengers are encouraged to dress in red, and pop-up dance troupes materialise across the ship throughout the evening.

Slowly, performances gravitate to the pool deck, where the dancers bring the combined spirit of all the Resilient Lady’s shows to the pool edge, and then into the water itself. Quickly they’re joined by a surge of passengers – a sea of red splashing into a pool of blue – as hundreds of inhibitions are discarded, turning dress shirts and cocktail dresses into swimmers. Tunes pound at the night sky, and it feels almost as though the party might be audible in St Helens, far over the horizon.

It’s cruising, but not as you know it.

THE DETAILS

Virgin Voyages’ five-night Melbourne to Hobart return sailings start from $1990 for an inside cabin, and $3750 for a rockstar suite*. .
Virgin Voyages sailings in Europe this northern summer start from $5600 per cabin for a seven-night Mediterranean or Greek Island cruise.

NOTE: Virgin Voyages has confirmed it will not return to Australia for the 2024/25 summer, citing unrest in the Red Sea.

See virginvoyages.com

The writer travelled as a guest of Virgin Voyages.

*Prices updated January 12, 2024