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USACruise holidays and staying in shape have historically not gone well together – but not so with Virgin Voyages. Here’s how to stay healthy on cruises.
Cruise holidays and staying in shape have historically not gone well together – but not so with Virgin Voyages. Here’s how to stay healthy on cruises.
Virgin Voyages ships are home to a number of healthy restaurants (and over 20 plus eateries in total) making sure your taste buds are satiated without your waistline paying the price.
Food market The Galley serves healthy options all day long from soups to salads, Sun Club Cafe plates up meals high in lean protein and healthy fats while Razzle Dazzle Restaurant has an array of plant-based veggie dishes.
During Well-being Season, it will be even easier for health-conscious travellers to be good. From January through March, Virgin Voyages is highlighting all the mouthwatering dishes on menus throughout the ships, from fresh fish dinners to tasty bowls of chicken over greens. Does this mean we can eat twice as much…?
“What shall we do with a drunken sailor?” has been a popular sea shanty for almost 200 years but cruisers these days with can easily stick to their Dry (or dry-ish) January resolutions and wake up hangxiety-free.
Juice bar Gym & Tonic is wellness central for thirsty seafarers; it offers fresh or cold press juices, made-to-order shakes and Reset Cocktails. You can stick to your goals while eating too – Mediterranean restaurant The Dock House serves up detox-friendly cocktails.
As with its grub, Virgin Voyages is helping savvy sailors on the beverage front during Well-being Season. Healthy Happy Hours will be held featuring health-conscious mocktails and innovative drinks made with the healthiest spirits and ingredients onboard.
The events will also provide great opportunities to meet other passengers and maybe even swap wellness tips (can you do the crane pose? No, us neither).
Talking of yoga, fitness is easy to keep on top of while you’re sailing with Virgin Voyages, and we don’t just mean taking the stairs instead of the the lifts.
The gym – B-Complex – boasts weights, state-of-the-art Techno Gym equipment and a yoga studio. You can hit up the machines yourself, splurge on a personal training session or sign up for one of the many free group fitness classes – there’s everything from HIIT to bungee classes.
Meanwhile, up on deck, you’ll find The Athletic Club, incorporating an active Training Camp room, boxing classes, a full-on basketball court and adult-sized seesaws. The Runway jogging track also wraps around the ship for those who want to stretch out their legs with the wind in their hair.
During the Virgin Voyages Well-being Season, sailors can enjoy engaging activities, personalised treatments and rewarding wellness programs designed to match their lifestyles.
Virgin will be putting on wellness workshops and classes specially curated to help guests understand the various aspects of a healthy lifestyle and how to integrate them into their own, covering topics ranging from nutrition to posture.
If you fancy something really special and exclusive there’s the Ready Set Glow Package. This features a private yoga class, an Evolt scanning session complete with a private nutrition seminar focused on your wellness needs, a three-hour all-access pass to the Thermal Spa and a relaxing 25-minute taster treatment. Yours for only $200.
It’s a truth universally acknowledged that heading to the spa on holiday is the perfect way to indulge in some crucial self-care – and Virgin’s offering certainly delivers. Redemption Spa’s Thermal Suite includes a mudroom, salt room, saunas, steam room, hot and cold plunge pools and heated marble hammam benches.
Pampering and beauty isn’t hard to come by on these adult-only cruises. You can treat yourself to quartz-bed massages, IV treatments, Botox, manicures and more at The Tune Up or get a new ‘do in the salon and beauty parlour Dry Dock. Virgin Voyages even hosts Stubble & Groom, a gentleman’s barber shop.
As for looking after the inner you, mindfulness is one of Virgin’s priorities during Well-being Season, with the cruise line offering calming exercises, acupuncture, brain games, puzzle races and more. Spirituality is also taken care of thanks to relaxing guided meditation sessions, invigorating vinyasa flows and cleansing breathing classes. Ommm.
In short, there’s a high chance you could return home fitter and healthier, inside and out, than you were before! We’ll raise a no-secco to that!
