Since leaving Miami on Friday evening, we’ve had two back-to-back sea days en route to our first port of call — St. Maarten, where Brilliant Lady arrived right on schedule at 8 a.m. If you’ve been following along, you know the Day 1 report covered embarkation, my stateroom tour (complete…

We’re now on Day 3 of Virgin Voyages’ MerMaiden Voyage of the newest ship in the fleet - Brilliant Lady - from Miami, which includes three ports of call — St. Maarten, Tortola, and Virgin’s Beach Club at Bimini in the Bahamas. If you’ve been following along, in my Day…

After a great first day onboard for Virgin Voyages Brilliant Lady’s MerMaiden Voyage from Miami, I'm starting to get settled in and more in-tune with the whole Virgin cruises style.  Sir Richard Branson himself is onboard for this inaugural sailing, which makes this already special voyage even more memorable, as…

After years of anticipation and several schedule shake-ups, Virgin Voyages’ Brilliant Lady has finally made her way home to Miami for her long-awaited MerMaiden Voyage. Originally announced back in 2021 as the fourth ship in the Virgin fleet, she is the sister to Scarlet Lady, Valiant Lady, and Resilient Lady…

Day 7 , the final day of this Eastern Caribbean cruise on Carnival Celebration, was spent at Celebration Key, Carnival’s brand-new $600 million private destination on Grand Bahama Island. This place just opened a few weeks ago, and today was my first chance to see what all the hype has…

Day 6 onboard Carnival Celebration, and today we found ourselves in Nassau, Bahamas. Before we dive into it, the usual reminder—since I’ve been on Celebration several times before, I’m keeping this week’s updates focused on highlights and lowlights rather than full day-by-day deep dives. For more detailed reviews of past sailings, check out the…

Day 5 onboard Carnival Celebration and today we’re at sea, making our way toward the final two ports of this cruise—Nassau and Carnival’s brand-new private destination, Celebration Key. Quick reminder: since I’ve sailed Celebration several times already and done the full day-by-day deep dives, I’m keeping this week’s write-ups to…

Welcome to Day 4 of my trip report from the Carnival Celebration, where I’m currently on a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise. As with the rest of this week’s posts, this isn’t meant to be an in-depth, minute-by-minute breakdown like I’ve done in the past. Since I’ve already written extensive day-by-day…

Welcome to Day 3 of my report from the Carnival Celebration, where I’m currently enjoying a 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise. Today we made our first port of call—Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos. Just as a reminder, since I’ve already written detailed day-by-day reviews of Carnival Celebration from previous sailings (including my most recent…

Day 2 onboard Carnival Celebration was spent at sea as we make our way toward the first port of call on this 7-day Eastern Caribbean cruise—Grand Turk in the Turks and Caicos. As a quick note before diving in: I’ve already written extensive day-by-day reviews of Carnival Celebration, so to…