CELEBRITY CRUISES vs VIRGIN VOYAGES | Staterooms, Dining, Entertainment, & More!

[@TwoGayExpats]

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[@Johnny847]

Thanks for the review! I will outline why we will never sail with Virgin Voyages again. We did the Virgin Resilient Lady, from Auckland to Sydney, 12 night cruise. Ugh! My 56th cruise and I will never sail Virgin again. Meal after meal of dishes of hot foods arriving at the table, room temp, cold, or one time partially frozen. The food itself was no better than fast casual restaurants in the USA. We met at least a dozen couples who never were able to obtain a dinner reservation. Later, we found that the cruise line expects 600-800 passengers per night to eat in "The Galley". Almost all of our reservations were before 630PM. Every night we would sit in an almost empty restaurant. Yet the host station, would tell us the restaurant was fully booked that night. We ate at the bar, in Extra Virgin twice, seated at 545PM. That restaurant was completely empty until 730PM. That is totally ridiculous to not have those empty seats being used!!! The entertainment venues are too small. We waited in lines for every show, most times over an hour. The entertainment is very good, if you can get into the venue. But having a drag queen show is not a reason to sail on Virgin. Our cruise had poor sailing weather. So all 2550 pax were squashed into the very limited public areas that are inside the ship. The Lady ships are warm weather cruisers, best suited to flat oceans. The ships themselves are boring and poorly designed. The cabins are cramped with very tight bathrooms. The beds have 5" mattresses that are very hard. While no kids is great, the average age on our cruise was 51. VV even states their average guest age is 48. The VV app is ridiculously poor. Crashes constantly. Everything has to be done on the app. Which means that one is constantly on their smartphone while on vacation. A cruise vacation is supposed to be care-free. AND, if you complain, the staff marks your cabin # as being complainers. So then the service you receive is even worse! Virgin Voyages states that we do things differently, but saying that should not be an excuse for delivering a very sub-standard (for the industry) cruise product. Virgin Voyages has been habitually cancelling cruises, sometimes with very little notice. They cancelled our cruise with 6 months notice. I guess they thought guests should be thankful for that notice. But in the end, never again, will we sail on VV.

[@TwoGayExpats]

Thank you for sharing! We completely agree with every point of your review. We don’t know how it keeps winning awards. The retention rate/return cruiser percentage must be super low!

[@ENGBriseB]

Parhaps ther newer ship will be better, still like the X not oTT.

[@bbt9592]

Loved the Celebrity Beyond, nothing compares. It was beyond amazing.

[@TwoGayExpats]

Love it! It’s our gay cruise blogger friends favorite ship as well!!! 🙌❤️🌈

[@bbt9592]

Great review!! Have not been on Virgin and your detailed comparison reaffirms that we are sticking with Celebrity. Millineum & Beyond are different but both incredible experiences. Agree, Celebrity focuses on the details that matter. Thank you!!

[@TwoGayExpats]

100% agree! Thank you so much!! 😊

[@philipgillard261]

Its clear you guys are in the uptight crowd who enjoy classic cruising. I have done both and prefer Virgin but it's all personal preference. I enjoy not having to dress up for anything like on Virgin, where Celebrity wants you to dress business casual after 5pm. Also, why didn't you do a price comparison? Virgin would have clearly won that category as everything is included in the price where Celebrity nickel and dimes you to death. Personally I would not avoid a future cruise on Celebrity with Virgin is clearly my preference.

[@TwoGayExpats]

Everyone has their preference, and we hardly think we’re uptight 😂 You also don’t have to dress up on either cruise line. We don’t. Virgin also requires you to bring pajamas, red outfits, etc like a frat/sorority party, so if that’s your thing, we support you! Also, our 13-day transatlantic with standard drink package, including premium coffees, plus wifi and gratuities on Celebrity’s brand new ship was less than a few nights in the Caribbean with Virgin. Prices change, and deals are to be had on both, but Virgin had upsells everywhere! On every menu, every experience to feel like a rockstar. And you have to pay for all drinks with no free drinks given even in the casino. Our bill was $0 when leaving Celebrity and hundreds of dollars leaving Virgin. So we didn’t include pricing, and Virgin would not have won from our experiences. We’re glad you found the cruise line that works for you. Our goal was to help people decide which gay-friendly company is right for them ❤️

[@JJCruise]

We loved this breakdown! Great job guys. We also agree…the gays are easy to spot on Virgin Voyages! 💅🏻

[@TwoGayExpats]

Thank you guys! You’re the best cruise bloggers out there!! 🙏🌈❤️

[@elnamayberry]

I am sailing on the Celebrity Constellation on a TA in November and with VV on the Resilient Lady out of San Juan in Feb 2025, so it will be interesting to see which line does what better.

[@TwoGayExpats]

Yes, we’d love to hear what you think!! Excited for you!

[@dm3889]

I think it all depends what type of cruiser you are. I thought that celebrity was great all and all. Amazing venues, and great entertainment. There were a lot of kids on the cruise I went on and I’m sorry that alone Virgin will always win for me. I don’t like drinking around children it bothers me. I also don’t cruise to be around children but that’s me lol. I found the people on Virgin to be more upbeat. More relaxed due to no kids being around. I wish they had actual drink packages but I’ll live lol. Overall, Celebrity is very nice but just like most cruise lines for me kids is my determining factor.

[@TwoGayExpats]

Thanks for sharing!! And thankfully, we’ve not had a Celebrity experience with many kids as we opt for longer cruises. But that definitely makes a difference we understand that! 🤪

[@MaxEvans-cz2no]

Thanks for the great video! An open question to anyone: If you are on a general cruise that is not all gay such as Atlantis or Vacaya, would you say the gay people on board are mostly couples? I'm single and don't want to feel awkward but not sure I'm up for the hard core party atmosphere of the all gay cruises.

[@TwoGayExpats]

We’ve met a number of singles who often like gaming on ships! You can meet other gay travelers at the nightly LGBTQ meetup on all Celebrity ships! Virgin does not have meetups but you’ll find lots of gay couples and groups of gay friends traveling together in our experience. Hope that helps!

[@MaxEvans-cz2no]

@@TwoGayExpats Thank you! This certainly helps

[@Traveltheme706]

We are a gay couple from Australia we are the same we woudnt feel comfortable with the party atmosphere not to mention all the young gays walking around with their perfect bodies (something that i dont have)😂

[@dm3889]

I would say try both. I’ve been on Virgin three times now and once on celebrity. I would say on Virgin it feels like at least 30% of the cruise is gay. It’s an overall better comfort level for me. I would close to 50% of the crew is also lgbtq from gays, trans, lesbians, etc.. Celebrity did have some gay people but I didn’t feel an overall nice vibe from straight people on the ship. I’m going to give it another go but I think you should try both. I would say celebrity was the better ship but Virgin was the better experience for me.

[@TwoGayExpats]

Thanks for sharing!! Great insight! 🙏❤️

[@ricardoramos1474]

I am so glad you guys were honest about your review. I do agree with you that Celebrity is best if you’re a seasoned cruise traveler. If you travel using the gay cruise trips on celebrity, it is definitely a different experience, a lot of their normal services do get omitted. If partying is your thing then this is your thing, but if you’d like to enjoy a cruise for what they are, do the non-gay cruise which is half the price for the same itinerary and same cabins. Thank you again guys for this great video!! 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[@TwoGayExpats]

100%! We use ID90 app to book incredible deals on Celebrity. The gay cruise charters are crazy expensive 😱 but we’d love to do one at some point just to have the experience for reference! We tried for La Demence next year on Celebrity Infinity since more reasonable, but it sold out in seconds!! Thanks again for sharing.

[@stustuart7323]

my husband and i loved your review.....thanks and greetings from san diego

[@TwoGayExpats]

Thank you! 🙏 We love San Diego too! ☀️

[@davidhenington7679]

Doing the transatlantic in April 2025 on the Ascent. Looks very relaxing. Did yall get bored!

[@TwoGayExpats]

Not at all! We prefer the sea days! Last time was a 3-week transpacific on an older Solstice class ship, and we still loved every second of it! There’s so much to do and plenty of fantastic entertainment! You’re going to love it!

[@davidhenington7679]

@@TwoGayExpats thx! We hear there are usually lots of gay men on these longer cruises. Sounds great.

[@TwoGayExpats]

@davidhenington7679 100%

[@ReachTim]

Hmmm....I've been on a number of Celebrity cruises----all-gay charter cruises via VACAYA. So, they're even better than what you described here, i.e, no kids and the entertainment is fabulously over the top, not to mention all the fab theme parties, etc. I have been wanting to try Virgin, but some of the things you observed here would be a real turnoff for me. Maybe some day. Many thanks for the fun video!

[@Wild1995]

Great contrast review

[@TwoGayExpats]

Thank you!! 🙏

[@barrygleen2042]

I am a ta with sixty cruises under my belt. I have been in Virgin but feel with all honesty that celebrity’s edge class shops are sailings finest hour and you can’t you are a true sailor without having sailed on one of them. We have three edge class trips coming up including a 22 day extravaganza around Australia New Zealand on the Edge.pure unabashed luxury.

[@TwoGayExpats]

Love this. Thanks for sharing and agree 100%. That trip also sounds amazing! Thanks again and safe travels!!!

[@cristianonyc]

I didn't have a good feeling about Virgin , you cleared that for me . Celebrity Cruises all the way !

[@TwoGayExpats]

100% 🙌🙏

[@ctrabada]

We just came back from a 4 day cruise on Valiant Lady. We are Celebrity cruisers. Although we enjoyed our sailing, we are not rushing to book another VV cruise. We much prefer Celebrity for the reasons you and other posters have said. I hated making lines everywhere; the pool was human soup; we felt cramped and missed atrium; everywhere was low ceiling; except for Pink Agave and Extra Virgin the food was meh; I did not like the galley and missed the variety and better quality of Oceanview Cafe (and I'm not a fan of buffets). We liked the entertainment and loved the crew. Amazing crew.

[@TwoGayExpats]

Totally agree! Thanks so much for sharing! 🙌❤️✨

[@benjaminsmith2287]

Great job but the only problem I have with this is you're basically comparing the Edge experience to Virgin. The Solstice is a whole different experience to Edge. I know there are some Celebrity aspects that carry over to both but you don't find all the shows going on in venues on Solstice that you do on Edge. And nowhere on Edge is there a place like the Ensemble bar for a more intimate overall space to enjoy the music combo. I also feel that Edge ships don't have the variety of quiet spaces that the Solstice or Millennium class do, or social spaces for that matter. Also, I think the overall size difference between Solstice and Edge is negligible. Especially since you can't access the front area of the Edge if you're not a suite passenger. One thing that seems clear though is Celebrity lost their "best food" on premium line designation. Most put Virgin ahead. And I kind of disagree that coffee is included on Celebrity. You have to pay for the package for the included coffee, so you do pay extra for it. Celebrity's small touches are always nice and when the service is right, they do cater to you very well.

[@TwoGayExpats]

Thanks for sharing your perspective! We don’t necessarily agree with your feedback since you’re mainly comparing Edge versus Solstice (not the topic of this video) versus overall Celebrity versus Virgin. For example, we had incredible entertainment on both Edge and Solstice class ships with Celebrity so for us, it’s better than Virgin. Food regardless of ship class on Celebrity was not as good as Virgin and so on. Of course, it’s impossible to compare every detail apples to apples since different cruise lines, ships, inclusions, pricing, etc. so these are our general observations. It’s very nuanced as you rightly point out.

[@ReachTim]

Hmmm.....I've been on a number of Celebrity cruises, but they were all-gay cruises via VACAYA. So, they are even better than what you described here, i.e., no kids and over-the-top fabulous entertainment, not to mention the fab theme parties, etc. I have not tried Virgin, but I'm a little turned off by the negatives you described here. Maybe some day. Thanks for the fun video!

[@TwoGayExpats]

Vacaya sounds amazing! We’d love to give them a try! Thanks for sharing!

[@tommyboynv]

I’ve taken a 21-day back to back on Celebrity Edge in Australia and will be on the Ascent for a Greek Isles cruise in August. I’ve really liked Celebrity, but Virgin is tempting…

[@TwoGayExpats]

Amazing! The Greek islands cruise on Apex was our first intro to Celebrity back during pandemic. It’s an action packed week for sure!! We too were tempted with Virgin-had to try it-and it’s now known it’s not for us. Virgin is more expensive for much less too! IKEA staterooms, overcrowded ship spaces, lackluster entertainment, we could go on. BUT it is a younger demo with a higher percentage of gay travelers. It’s also a party crowd for sure with bachelor and bachelorette parties. Give it a try on a shorter cruise to see if you like it-that’s the advice we received from some cruise blogger friends and were so happy we didn’t do a longer cruise with them!! Have an awesome time in Greece!!

[@tommyboynv]

@@TwoGayExpats thanks much, I will! Early retiree here trying to follow some of your travel examples through cruising! Keep up the great work!

[@ReachTim]

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[@ReachTim]