It normally takes me weeks to prepare for my cruises in general – getting all of the paperwork together, fighting with the internet to upload all of the necessary information, organizing my clothes and trying to limit the number of pairs of shoes I am taking, paying bills in advance, getting the mail put on hold, finding out the COVID restrictions and what’s needed in terms of vaccinations and testing in our destinations, it seems to be endless.

Not with a 5 day Virgin voyage out of Miami

I love everything Cunard, except for the website. It really is rather pitiful. The Virgin website? Guess what? It works, it is user friendly, it saves your data (yes, really it does), the app is actually very useful. Wow! Whatever else is a disaster, I have to say that the Virgin technology rocks. Even I could master the app in one sitting. I booked all of our restaurants, I uploaded all of our necessary details, I checked out the shore excursions, sorry “shore things”, in no time I was “shipshape”. The app tells me that I only have 14 days until I sail. Soon I will be sipping champagne after a deep tissue massage at the Redemption Spa. How on earth can an app know me so well?

You let the app know what time you would like to check in, and it promptly tells you that you are confirmed for that time slot.

There is no large main dining room on the ship, but there are several smaller restaurants, so I went ahead and booked us in to a different one for each night of the cruise, at a time that suits us.

You can book dining, book a shore thing, browse the event line up, browse spa treatments, view the ship spaces, and view your agenda all from the comfort of your sofa. So far so good.

My app tells me that there is a pyjama party on the first night of the cruise. Hmmmmm. Do I need to go out and buy some pyjamas, or as Brian is strongly hinting, should we give it a miss?

What we think we will definitely get involved in is the “Scarlet Night” on the last night of the cruise. Apart from everyone wearing scarlet I’m not sure what else happens. I’m also not sure if my Cunard Red dress counts as scarlet. Time to go shopping.

On the subject of clothes, packing will be simple. Usually we take 3 or 4 suitcases on a cruise – this time we may even get by with just carry-on luggage if Brian can be persuaded to leave all of his cruise goodies behind. Keep the duct tape maybe, but abandon the rest.

Swimsuit, shorts, T shirt and sandals by day, sun dress and sandals by night. Add some toiletries, a sun hat, sun screen, and there you are. Must not forget the sliced biltong of course.

One small bag, and we should be good to go!

And as my app tells me – we have 14 days until we sail. Never have I been this organized before. It bodes well.