Just got back from a short cruise to Hobart and back - tried Test Kitchen - had the exact same menu - The Wake, Pink Agave, Gunbae, The Dock and most of the other non-booking eateries on board - great number of choices and, most of all, GREAT FOOD.
So glad you liked the food on Virgin, they really do an amazing job, and for us, set the standard for other cruise lines below the Ultra luxury level to get to.
Booked on the Resilient Lady for Greek Island Glow and found you doing research. Finding your videos really useful & looking forward to shore visits & any tips for first time sailors. Thanks!
Thank you, glad you've found it useful. The biggest thing we always say to first time cruisers is go with the flow. Have fun. Don't worry if you don't get to do everything you planned before hand and be flexible to change and go with what you think is best on the day. For Resilient Lady specifically do try and see The Miss Behave Show (sit nest the front), Persephone and Mind Mangler. And the dinner show Another Rose is well worth the $50 up charge in drink alone. If there's anything specific you want to know just ask or join our Facebook group where quite a few of the group have already been on Resilient Lady and we've one couple who boarded her today so.plenty of impartial advice. Linzi and Mark
Oh no..... It will some come around, and with each new video each week, that's one week closer to getting on :) When you do get it, you will love it. Thanks for taking time to drop us a comment, we really appreciate it, and have a lovely day. Linzi & Mark
Razzle Dazzle by night is fantastic, you will love it, apparently they are rolling it out across the fleet eventually, so hopefully in less than 300 days you try it :) Linzi always struggles with something, and a leaf in a cocktail is no exception. He He He
you answered one of my questions in the video :) i was going to ask if we can go into the bars at the restaurants for a drink, without eatiing there, but you just explained that you can, thank you :)
Glad we answered it 😂 Just remember that the restaurant bars are only open during the restaurant hours so close quite early compared to the other bars onboard which is a shame because the red bar and the tequila bar are amazing.
Thank you so much Steve, glad you enjoyed it. It was a nice surprise to wake up this morning to exactly 5000, and you've been with us since right at the start, thank you :) Hope all is well, Linzi & Mark
@SuiteNatured I've enjoyed the journey you two have taken and look forward to future voyages. I hope someday we'll cross paths and enjoy an adult beverage (or two) together. Cheers
@@stevehattrick1946 we would love to cross paths on a cruise with you Steve. We've met with a few people from the Suite Natured Facebook group on the last couple of cruises and everyone of them has been fantastic. So no pressure when we meet you 🤣
@SuiteNatured Oh great, I'll have to be on my best behavior, or it'll be a black eye for Western Canada. Should I bring a small hammer and goggles in case Linzi orders anything in an orb shape. That situation has been lacking in your more recent videos, have the cruise lines caught on to the liability aspect, and removed them from the menu's? Cheers
We are sure you'll do Western Canada proud Steve 😂 We mentioned the spherical desserts ourselves last week in a similar vein 🤣we do think they may be onto us and giving us alternative menus when they spot us.
We very much enjoyed the "old" Razzle Dazzle, both for brunch and dinner. You are right that some of the breakfast dishes weren't all that great, but I took that as a personal opinion and there were plenty of other things that were good. Honestly, the secret steak at dinner was one of the best things on the ship. I'll be interested in seeing whether this new menu for dinner will move to all of the ships and to try it out on our next cruise. Nice thing about Test Kitchen is that if you don't like something or can't have it for some reason, you can substitute the same course from the vegetarian menu. We, as a party of 2, requested and got one of the tables in Test Kitchen as did the couple seated next to us.
Hi Kathryn, Great point about the ability to swap out on the main test kitchen menu for the vegetarian one. We had heard that in the past but never seen or spoken to anyone who had done it. We will, on Brilliant Lady, make sure to check that out and to ask for one of those tables too 😀 Speaking to the crew they told us there were plans to roll out Razzle Dazzle By Night to all ships very soon, which they absolutely should do. Have a lovely day. Linzi and Mark
Great video as always! 😄 For the cocktail pairing at Test Kitchen, would you say the cocktails are sweet? I’m not a fan of sweet drinks and can’t decide if I should go with the cocktail, or the wine pairing.
Thank you Luke 😀 The cocktail pairing is not too sweet at all. The only one that is quite sweet is the dessert one but so the dessert wine too. Having had both we prefer the cocktail pairing. Hope this helps. Linzi and Mark
i love the look of the desserts, im a big dessert fan , often i have dessert as my main meal rather than a normal savory main (i think you guys may call the main meal entrees), can i have more than 1 dessert at the restaurants?? as im in love with the look if them, i could try one of each hehe
Hi Debbie, one of us is a massive dessert fan. You can probably figure out who 😂 Yes you can have as many desserts as you want. And if you just wanted to go in, eat a couple of desserts and leave they are absolutely fine with that. I suspect most cruise lines would be too, but Virgin encourages you t really do it your way. Linzi and Mark
Hi, oh good question. We've actually seen them do both a split.voyage swap over (so mod way through a cruise swapping to menu B) and a alternative day swap. However book one day in there as soon as your app let's you and then when you get on board just pop to the restaurant and they'll tell you which menu is which day and you'll be able to easily swap days. We've never in our Virgin Voyages cruises seen test kitchen full to capacity. Hope this helps. Linzi and Mark
im a bit wary of test kitchem, i would defintely not eat the mushroom or blue cheese component, but i would eat the others if i could have the peas minus the egg and the beef cooked up well done, rather than the pink beef that they serve you. im not sure if they would do that for me though. my fiance would try it all :) hes more adventurous with his food than me
They do have a fairly un-discussed vegetarian menu too, as well as menu B, which doesn't have the mushroom or blue cheese on it so it might be worth be looking at that one before deciding which night to go. But do go. It's a great experience and if you ask them they will swap out dishes if they can with the alternative The couple sat next to us last time had a few swap outs. We can't say 100% about the cooking of the beef as we both have it rare/medium rare but we would be amazed if they couldn't cook it more for you. Linzi and Mark
so so sorry about all of the questions, please forgive me..... at gumbae do they cook the meat seperate to the seafood?? i dont eat fish or seafood of any type and if my meat had a fishy taste it would make me feel very ill. so i was hoping that it would all be cooked separately
Don't apologies Debbie. Ask as many as you want (and you'd be most welcome to join our monthly live stream Q&As on the 1st Sunday of each month is you wanted to). They cook on the same hot plate but the shrimp is done first and the meat later and they do re-oil and season the plate in between. If you have the whole table (six people) then you can say you don't want any fish.
Thank you Caroline. That is great to know that. We've never seen it ourselves but not been on a table in there with a vegetarian or vegan, but we are not remotely surprised Virgin do that, they seem to be one of the best when it comes to this sort of thing. Linzi and Mark
You absolutely can Debbie. As long as they have the ingredients you can mix and match or ask for more or less of any ingredient. The egg and truffle pizza is amazing 😍 Linzi and Mark
Terrific review guys...in depth, informative and very entertaining.... cheers
🤟👍
Thank you so much Arthur. So happy you enjoyed it. Linzi and Mark
your videos are so detailed, its amazing. Thank you!
Thank you Gurman that is very kind of you.
Hope you are having a lovely day.
Linzi and Mark
Oh my lord this review made us hungry! Great video as ever 😊
Thank you Ben :)
Making this videos always makes us hungry too, but glad you enjoyed it.
Have a lovely Sunday,
Linzi & Mark
fantastic video :) so super informative, thanks for sharing :) loooove your videos :)
Thank you so much Debbie for your lovely comment and questions.
Have a lovely Sunday.
Linzi and Mark
Linzi, thanks, you are so entertaining, I laughed aloud several times 🤣 watching your review. Cheers Dale
Thank you so much Dale, so happy you enjoyed it 😂
Linzi and Mark
Just got back from a short cruise to Hobart and back - tried Test Kitchen - had the exact same menu - The Wake, Pink Agave, Gunbae, The Dock and most of the other non-booking eateries on board - great number of choices and, most of all, GREAT FOOD.
So glad you liked the food on Virgin, they really do an amazing job, and for us, set the standard for other cruise lines below the Ultra luxury level to get to.
Booked on the Resilient Lady for Greek Island Glow and found you doing research. Finding your videos really useful & looking forward to shore visits & any tips for first time sailors. Thanks!
Thank you, glad you've found it useful.
The biggest thing we always say to first time cruisers is go with the flow. Have fun. Don't worry if you don't get to do everything you planned before hand and be flexible to change and go with what you think is best on the day.
For Resilient Lady specifically do try and see The Miss Behave Show (sit nest the front), Persephone and Mind Mangler. And the dinner show Another Rose is well worth the $50 up charge in drink alone.
If there's anything specific you want to know just ask or join our Facebook group where quite a few of the group have already been on Resilient Lady and we've one couple who boarded her today so.plenty of impartial advice.
Linzi and Mark
Your videos are killing me. We have a whole year to wait until our VV cruise and you’re making me wish it was next week.
Oh no..... It will some come around, and with each new video each week, that's one week closer to getting on :)
When you do get it, you will love it.
Thanks for taking time to drop us a comment, we really appreciate it, and have a lovely day.
Linzi & Mark
Wow - razzle dazzle by night looks amazing. So missing the food from last week already.
Linzi’s struggles with the leaf really made us laugh.
Razzle Dazzle by night is fantastic, you will love it, apparently they are rolling it out across the fleet eventually, so hopefully in less than 300 days you try it :)
Linzi always struggles with something, and a leaf in a cocktail is no exception. He He He
you answered one of my questions in the video :) i was going to ask if we can go into the bars at the restaurants for a drink, without eatiing there, but you just explained that you can, thank you :)
Glad we answered it 😂
Just remember that the restaurant bars are only open during the restaurant hours so close quite early compared to the other bars onboard which is a shame because the red bar and the tequila bar are amazing.
I agree with you, Mark - Virgin pizza is right up there with Princess and MSC. Love the truffle with egg!
Thank you Mason 😄
Oh that Egg and Truffle one is absolutely delicious.
Great video, I'm happy to see your channel is growing. Good on you.
Cheers 🎉
Thank you so much Steve, glad you enjoyed it.
It was a nice surprise to wake up this morning to exactly 5000, and you've been with us since right at the start, thank you :)
Hope all is well,
Linzi & Mark
@SuiteNatured
I've enjoyed the journey you two have taken and look forward to future voyages. I hope someday we'll cross paths and enjoy an adult beverage (or two) together.
Cheers
@@stevehattrick1946 we would love to cross paths on a cruise with you Steve.
We've met with a few people from the Suite Natured Facebook group on the last couple of cruises and everyone of them has been fantastic. So no pressure when we meet you 🤣
@SuiteNatured
Oh great, I'll have to be on my best behavior, or it'll be a black eye for Western Canada. Should I bring a small hammer and goggles in case Linzi orders anything in an orb shape. That situation has been lacking in your more recent videos, have the cruise lines caught on to the liability aspect, and removed them from the menu's?
Cheers
We are sure you'll do Western Canada proud Steve 😂
We mentioned the spherical desserts ourselves last week in a similar vein 🤣we do think they may be onto us and giving us alternative menus when they spot us.
We very much enjoyed the "old" Razzle Dazzle, both for brunch and dinner. You are right that some of the breakfast dishes weren't all that great, but I took that as a personal opinion and there were plenty of other things that were good. Honestly, the secret steak at dinner was one of the best things on the ship. I'll be interested in seeing whether this new menu for dinner will move to all of the ships and to try it out on our next cruise. Nice thing about Test Kitchen is that if you don't like something or can't have it for some reason, you can substitute the same course from the vegetarian menu. We, as a party of 2, requested and got one of the tables in Test Kitchen as did the couple seated next to us.
Hi Kathryn,
Great point about the ability to swap out on the main test kitchen menu for the vegetarian one. We had heard that in the past but never seen or spoken to anyone who had done it.
We will, on Brilliant Lady, make sure to check that out and to ask for one of those tables too 😀
Speaking to the crew they told us there were plans to roll out Razzle Dazzle By Night to all ships very soon, which they absolutely should do.
Have a lovely day. Linzi and Mark
Great video as always! 😄
For the cocktail pairing at Test Kitchen, would you say the cocktails are sweet? I’m not a fan of sweet drinks and can’t decide if I should go with the cocktail, or the wine pairing.
Thank you Luke 😀
The cocktail pairing is not too sweet at all. The only one that is quite sweet is the dessert one but so the dessert wine too.
Having had both we prefer the cocktail pairing.
Hope this helps.
Linzi and Mark
Based on the vlog photo, are all the specials anatomically correct? 😮
The video is super informative, thanks! But these “yes!” Each 2 seconds of the video 🙈
Thanks Buba, it is something we try not to do and we are getting better, but still a work in progress ;)
can you ask for your main meals for eg, the meat cooked well done, my eggs hard yolk , no cheese on top of my meat etc??
Every cooked meal on Virgin prepared fresh to order so you can have it however you want 😀
i love the look of the desserts, im a big dessert fan , often i have dessert as my main meal rather than a normal savory main (i think you guys may call the main meal entrees), can i have more than 1 dessert at the restaurants?? as im in love with the look if them, i could try one of each hehe
Hi Debbie, one of us is a massive dessert fan. You can probably figure out who 😂
Yes you can have as many desserts as you want. And if you just wanted to go in, eat a couple of desserts and leave they are absolutely fine with that. I suspect most cruise lines would be too, but Virgin encourages you t really do it your way.
Linzi and Mark
@@SuiteNatured love it :)
Do you know how the menu A & B are split in the week? We’re on Valiant next weekend and we’re got test kitchen mid-week I think!
Hi, oh good question. We've actually seen them do both a split.voyage swap over (so mod way through a cruise swapping to menu B) and a alternative day swap. However book one day in there as soon as your app let's you and then when you get on board just pop to the restaurant and they'll tell you which menu is which day and you'll be able to easily swap days. We've never in our Virgin Voyages cruises seen test kitchen full to capacity.
Hope this helps. Linzi and Mark
@@SuiteNatured this is so helpful, thank you!
Good evening guys
Hi Ken & Lindsey
is the bread at the wake warm bread?
It most certainly is. And very tasty. Only Cunard's Steakhouse at the Verandah has better bread at sea, in or opinion 😀
im a bit wary of test kitchem, i would defintely not eat the mushroom or blue cheese component, but i would eat the others if i could have the peas minus the egg and the beef cooked up well done, rather than the pink beef that they serve you. im not sure if they would do that for me though. my fiance would try it all :) hes more adventurous with his food than me
They do have a fairly un-discussed vegetarian menu too, as well as menu B, which doesn't have the mushroom or blue cheese on it so it might be worth be looking at that one before deciding which night to go. But do go. It's a great experience and if you ask them they will swap out dishes if they can with the alternative
The couple sat next to us last time had a few swap outs. We can't say 100% about the cooking of the beef as we both have it rare/medium rare but we would be amazed if they couldn't cook it more for you.
Linzi and Mark
so so sorry about all of the questions, please forgive me..... at gumbae do they cook the meat seperate to the seafood?? i dont eat fish or seafood of any type and if my meat had a fishy taste it would make me feel very ill. so i was hoping that it would all be cooked separately
Don't apologies Debbie. Ask as many as you want (and you'd be most welcome to join our monthly live stream Q&As on the 1st Sunday of each month is you wanted to).
They cook on the same hot plate but the shrimp is done first and the meat later and they do re-oil and season the plate in between. If you have the whole table (six people) then you can say you don't want any fish.
I am veggie and they cooked all my veggies first on the completely clean grill, before they cooked anyone else's food. They're very accommodating.
Thank you Caroline. That is great to know that. We've never seen it ourselves but not been on a table in there with a vegetarian or vegan, but we are not remotely surprised Virgin do that, they seem to be one of the best when it comes to this sort of thing.
Linzi and Mark
and can you get your pizzas adapted to your own liking?? ie not much cheese and lots and lots of pepperoni
You absolutely can Debbie. As long as they have the ingredients you can mix and match or ask for more or less of any ingredient. The egg and truffle pizza is amazing 😍
Linzi and Mark