What It’s Like Having Your Virgin Voyage Planned

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com. Well, some older friends and some new friends this week. I've got Lara Yordolian with me, Belle Bass, Sky Melissa Newman, and Skye Newman. They're married, by the way.

Starting with you, Lara, just give a little what is it you do? So I'm a beauty and lifestyle expert, and I also am a content creator and author of a token's book. Which is very good. Signed copies available.

I'm new. I work for magazines. I do a lot. Belle.

I'm a freelance fashion editor, disability advocate, and content creator in New York City. Melissa. I help run a brand called a Naz Swim and just face swimmer with my best friend. If you're going to be going on a virgin cruise, you have a sparkly red.

Absolutely. Check out our sparkly red bikini. And Sky. And all of them.

I'm a business consultant, so I work with CEOs and CFOs all over the country. Perfect. Which you have none of you done any of that this week. No.

No. Right? Nope. You put that aside.

Yeah. So Laura, tell me, what's your usual travel style? Is it are you a planner or are you spontaneous? I'm both.

I like to have a loose plan so I have some focus, but then I like to see how I feel, and so I have options. Yeah. And we're gonna get to a bigger story about you here soon. Um, Belle, do you feel like you are a planner or spontaneous?

I'm definitely more spontaneous. I just see how the day goes and go from there. Yeah. Yep.

Always. And then Sky and Melissa. I mean, you're you're the married couple here. So if I pitch is the place, yeah.

Then I find where we're gonna stay. I would say we're very spontaneous. We don't like to have said plans because feelings and and energy changes. So sometimes we want to do some things, sometimes we don't.

So it's nice to have other people plan it for us and then go with the flow, you know. So, Belle, uh, what was the first thing you did when you get on when you got on board the Scarlet Lady this week? Definitely put all my things down and then go to the bar. Hey.

Hey, I like that. Margarita style. Yeah. And did you ever pair that with any food?

Ooh. Yes. I look for sweets. Okay.

Always. I always look for sweets first. And what was you that what was your best meal? Oh, that's also a really good question.

I like gun bay. Yeah, gun bay was fantastic. Yeah, the Korean, I like Korean barbecue a lot, so I think that might be my favorite. The kimchi was really, really good.

The fried rice, the kimchi fried rice. I really like that. Now, Sky and Melissa, this is your first time on Virgin as well. Um I do have to ask you though, you were invited on this trip.

What made you say yes? Well, we both love to travel. And um, I mean, we just can't say no to travel, honestly. That's what we bonded over, and that's how we met.

And like we never turned down a trip. I can't think of one we ever had. Yeah. If you asked us to go somewhere, we go.

Where we go. Simple as that. Now, Laura, is there anything you packed that you haven't used yet? Quite a few things.

Um, well, there was such an agenda and so many different types of events, and I didn't know how many things we'd be going to, so I like to have options, but you know, it's all summerware, so it all fits so beautifully into a suitcase. And thank God we had great weather. That's good weather. Such great weather this week.

Now, Belle, I do have to ask you this. How do you think your friends would describe your travel personality? Overpacker. I'm very famous for overpacking to the point where other people come and look at what I thought.

Definitely overpacker, maybe a little bit chaotic to leave the whatever the situation is. We always have to leave with extra time because I'm kind of paranoid about being late to the airport. And I'm totally okay with it. I'd rather be way early than late.

Right. No, that's well, that is good. I agree with that. And especially when you're coming the day before, because if you don't get up here by the time the ship leaves, the ship will leave without you.

Yeah. There's no saving you. Now, is this anyone's first cruise? Second.

Second cruise. Yeah, not our first. And you've cruised celebrity before. I have.

So what do you think is different between celebrity and virgin? Um, a lot of things. Celebrity was a lot bigger. They have a very big focus on their like Molier and food and wine.

I feel the food here is really amazing as well, but it's a little bit more relaxed. And the activities here are amazing. The crowd is different. Um, I mean, I did very different stops, but I think they both are exceptional options when it comes to cruising.

I've heard a lot of nightmare stories, and either one I would be happy to go on again. There's there's a market for everything. Yes. Um, now this has no children.

So has anyone missed any children this week? Not us. I really do not, but some of the things. I did say that.

Like on day two, I was like, I kind of miss kids. She's like, anybody else? I don't have any children. But you do miss them.

I think I just like the energy the kids bring. You'd like celebrities too. Not a lot of kids, but like they exist. We have four, so we're trying to get away from our kids.

Yeah. It feels weird to like not see like a water slide and a bunch of children. It does feel a little weird. Yeah.

You know what? Maybe you and I need to go experience a carnival cruise together. Oh god, glad you can't. I've never been on a carnival cruise.

I don't know. Just save your save your time. Just save your car. Don't do it.

Don't do it. This is cool. You do earlier bad things. I did go to a wedding on a carnival cruise.

That sounds crazy. And it didn't leave the dock, and I'm glad it didn't. I would have swam back to shore. Oh my god.

Are you sure you guys want to do that? I don't know. With Belle? It could be an adventure.

It could be an adventure. With your stomach issues? What a level of quality here. It's like Walmart and both of you.

Well, okay, both of them. Target versus like Rosso. We do have to take a moment of silence for one of our guests. Unfortunately, he's no longer with us on the trip.

Well, he is with us. Man down, man down. But he didn't die. And he's not off the ship.

He's down bad. He's down bad. He's down bad. He's done well.

But on the bright side, he is up on blackjack, so that's you know. Now, Melissa, did you have any time to hit the pool deck? Kind of checked it out a little bit. Uh he got in the hot tub.

It was a little hot for me, but he was loving it. And I don't like to get my bane suits wet, so I just sat on the side. But I loved it. The energy was great.

There's a lot of people there, and it was a good time. Now, what about Scarlet Knight? That was fun. That was fun.

The dancers and the energy on the deck was insane. Flashing the water and dancing. And the host is the best. What's her name?

Carlos. A woman named Carlos. Name Carlos is the best. She brings the energy.

She gets people hyped. I love a hype personal. Staff. Staff with like dancing and getting people.

It's about one person, but everybody was so fun. Yeah, I was speaking about this to Brian. No, the staff's incredible on this. We were just speaking about this, how like they they look like they love their job.

And like that shines through, and that makes the experience so much better for everybody else. 100%. Most like staffs, I think, on food ships are professional, whereas this one's like fun and we just want to have a great. They want to be part of the party.

And they work hard, man. Like, there's never like a second where the energy isn't like at a hundred. And I love that about them. Like, that's so cool.

And some of the dancing. Oh, yeah. Laura and I were greeted by people off the ship at the first port, and we were like, oh, they don't have the virgin energy. And then we got on the ship, we were greeted by new people, and we were like, oh yes, that's the virgin energy.

We're like, this is it. We had to get a picture with them because we loved it so much. They had such good energy. Literally.

Yeah. Now, Laura, you discovered a very interesting side effect of cruising after being in Asia for the last month. I sure did. It is that a cruise after a trip, especially one with a big time difference, like 12 hours, is the best way to get over jet lag.

Like you can eat at any time. There's always an activity. If you're up at a weird hour, you can still like have something to do or go to the gym, and there's so many activities that keep your energy up. It's the cheetah.

It's honestly the best. And especially this just being like a four or five-day cruise, like I'm gonna be fine when I go back to New York, which is a miracle. Unless things go south tonight and we we get a little rowdy. But I feel so in control of my body because I'm like, okay, we can.

I'm usually the person who's gonna be in bed at like between like reading in bed at like 9 p.m., maybe 10. So like staying out until like 1, 2 a.

m., I wouldn't have been able to do it, but it has my jet lags. Yes, jet lag has been amazing. I'm ready to go out at 1 a.

m. That doesn't even scare me. Well, we have the Y2K party tonight. Right.

Does everybody have their outfits? Oh, we do, yes. Okay, good. We all fitted and ready to go.

Well, I would have never thought jet lag could be cured by a cruise, but now I think I'm gonna start doing that. Especially if you're like in a time zone where you can stay up later. Like I love that I'm energized at 10, 11, and want to do it until two in the morning. Like, I love being that person.

Right. Shout out to Diet Coke. Shout out to Diet Coke, yes. We're still looking for that sponsorship.

Now, Belle, what's the vibe of the cruise compared to what you expected it to be? I think it's definitely a little more fun than I expected it to be because it's mostly like it's mostly people who just want to party and have a good time. It's a little less serious than I thought it would be because I heard things about like a Norwegian cruise where it's mostly like people who are a little more serious about their trips. They want to like see the Somali A and go to dinner and then go to bed.

This is more like there's a fine line between wanting to party and also going to dinner, but also still going to bed. I actually do that, but I also think Virgin as a brand is fun. And so I felt like even just like growing up on like Virgin Records and taking like Virgin Plus, I just remember Virgin Records. I sure do.

So I feel like this is actually very on brand for them with their like fun. So I like agree with what you're saying compared to, but it's it's a nice, it's really is them from what I've experienced. Lots of red on this ship. That's for sure.

Now, Melissa, what would you tell your past self before boarding? My past self? Um, she's like, You're gonna have a great time. That's good.

Okay, you're gonna love this? Do you have any where's the were you at did you have any nerves boarding at all? No, I love the travel. I'm very adventurous, so I was just excited.

Yeah. And how did it feel to leave the kids behind? Um it was a little nerve-wracking because I had uh figure it out in a week, but my mom had them and it's sorted, and she said they're well behaved, so I'm happy. Perfect.

We love you, mom. Thank you for taking care of the children. Thank you, Mom. Now, um, Sky, what has been your go-to spot on the ship?

Go-to spot is actually right where we are filming right now. The best uh live music has been here. Uh, what's the the band's name? Kennedy and the group.

Kennedy and the groove, shout out. They are phenomenal. Check them out on Instagram, and the drinks here are fantastic. I'm a big fan of like a sultry, like dim, like dark, like thunder bar.

And this place is really cool, so this is being my go-to spot. Like, and it's right by the casino, so that helps. Has anybody been to the pizza place? Oh, us late night.

It's a pretty great discovery. We didn't know it existed. I I'm trying to like break. I know I'm trying to break even with all the drinking I'm doing.

I'm trying to eat somewhat healthy. So you're gonna get it. So, like, I'll break. Well, we're getting new pizza.

Uh fine, pizza. It just appeared. Okay. We'll try.

It was first top in. It was a late night spot, so it's like the only spot, and we didn't even know we were walking out of manor, like after dancing for hours, we were like, oh my gosh. And just saw it and ordered three pizzas. They're about this big, so they're like, and like it's four slices, so it's not like a big thing.

It's like fresh. And we sat in the corner, like, and we saw a lot of people there, so we're like, this is gonna take a while. And I feel like it went pretty fast. And they made it to go too if you went to go or just say, so we just like took them back to our room and hung out.

Me and Ross at 2 a.m. went up um to deck 15 where they make the burgers, and they were making just normal burgers, and I thought like a smash burger, so I said to this lady, could you just smash this burger for me? So she smashed this burger, and I curated my own burger.

I asked them to make me an egg and I put a hash brown on and I put the um spicy air early, and I made the best burger that has ever been created. I don't think we're getting that on carnival. Oh no. But I do like how flexible the staff is here, though.

It's like if you ask for something, they're like, sure. She was like, I've never done this before, but I was like, hey, you're doing it now. So now none of well, Belle and Laura, you know each other. Yes.

Yes, she was my date to meet you the first time. Exactly. The first time we met you were the date. We've all become friends, but Skye and Melissa, you're completely new to the group.

Yeah. So how has it been getting to know each other on this experience? And you you did an excursion? Yeah.

Yes. We rented a golf cart, we had so much fun. Everything, everyone was like so welcoming, and I just felt like our worlds like collided for a reason. Like it couldn't have been more perfect.

Like I felt that I loved hanging out with them and getting to know everyone. And I just uh meeting people that I would truly hang out with outside of this environment. And I think every single one of the people we've met, like I would truly, and I've already we're planning to go visit them all. I love learning things from them and just like valuing their opinion and just absorbing all the wonderful knowledge they have.

And I love a creative, like people that are creative and like trying to branch out of the norm and do things that you know they're truly passionate about. I really respect that. And I think every single person, yeah, is trying to do that. So I really respect it.

So of the four of you, who's already planning their next cruise? Oh, me. I'm begging you to take me on the one you said you're going to this summer. Oh, did I agree?

Yes, you did. Oh, Greece. It actually Greece is in the fall. No, you you you said it bees are the fall.

The beezer goes in the whenever you wherever you go, wherever you go, we fall. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. So now Melissa and Skye, how does this compare to other vacations that you've taken?

There are no kids. We've gone on some very epic vacations. I can only imagine. But from a cruise standpoint, because we have cruised quite quite a few times.

I would say it's the best cruise. 100% the best cruise I've been on. It was really nice not to. So Skye gets to have this, but like I didn't have to plan something for us.

That's what I was about to say. Yeah. Is it was nice to not have to worry about the planning aspect. But he never has to worry about that.

Which I don't because I have to worry about the paying aspect. But um, it was just nice for me and Melissa to be able to be like, all right, the ride to the airport sorted from the airport to the hotel, the hotel. Were you shocked when you got the notice that you didn't even have to drive to the airport? Absolutely shocked.

I was just saying I was happy, you know? Okay. I can drive myself, but I'm glad that I don't have to. It was just nice to not have to worry about parking the car and doing things.

Right. And then when you get home, somebody will pick you up. Exactly. Yeah.

And we had the best chauffeur. That guy could chat and ear the back ear of a donkey, I swear. Like what's the craziest thing you've seen this week, though? Oh, those people that were right here that were doing all those acrobatic stuff, and they had like three people stacked on top of each other, and he was doing a handstand and flipping and the balance that he's doing.

Just crew, right? Insane. Yes, but they were like entertainment crew, and they were doing acrobats. And they did it on the staircase, which is cool because it maybe see above and watch them from below, and you're just seeing like legs.

It was on the stairs. Wait, I got a good one. I got a good one. So the craziest thing that I saw was Brian Hammer full, Captain, and Coach Doubles.

You and I like singing karaoke, you two singing karaoke. That's the best karaoke of my life. I mean, we really like brought the house down. We got it into it.

I would traditionally never sing. Dance and sing the first comedian make fun of. Not like real. You guys did good.

I was proud of you guys. That was the first time I've ever done karaoke, so you actually got me to go up there and it was Carlos and you. I did. I was the back of the dance.

We had so much fun. And I think too, it's harder as you get older to find like a crowd in the music, and the like we was, and then we all jumped in the pool together and danced, and then we club and all danced together. Like that was pretty crazy. That's the craziest thing I saw.

That's right. Yeah. No phones out, just advanced time. That's very unheard of it's unheard of now.

I haven't had that much fun dancing and didn't want it to stop. And like I was just a blast. Yeah, all of us together. We are going to.

Well, we have Y2K tonight. Yeah. So we're not quite done with it. I got my Britney just.

Because that's something I hear from. A little bit. Only because I mean, I think in general they feel older. So I expect it like under a normal virgin crowd, I would say, like it'd be a little younger.

And so, but I think relative to other cruises. I felt like it was a good mix. I felt like I saw a lot of young people my my age that was there, and then there was older people, but honestly, some of the people that are double our age seem to have the best. They were our age range, but they were just so fun and you're good thirds.

Playing pickleball, and he was like, I was out till 5 a.m. last night. He was all proud of me.

It was over like good proud of you. He said he had like the best night ever. It's the same. So we're gonna start with you, Lara.

Um, rapid fire here. Just go, we're gonna go down the row here. What's the one thing you're going to remember the most about this trip? Oh, dancing with my friends.

Ooh. Uh, singing karaoke. I think for sure, because I forgot the words to my favorite song. You were on the spot.

You did great. Also, your mic wasn't like fully working and you kept holding out hair, so it didn't really no one noticed. No one noticed. I think just that I felt so bougie and like VIP and that I was invited on this trip in general.

I just felt over the top and giddy about it. You fancy. I would say uh Key West was really fun for me. I really like just like walking with my beer down the streets and like Do you know that I just realized this afternoon when you told me that you saw a lot of cocks on the street?

Is that why chickens? Yes. He had no idea. He was like, Oh, I was like, Yeah, I found it today that a rooster is a chicken.

We both did actually. Because I kept making the cock comments. Is that why Sky was saying he saw a lot of cops? And I was like, yes.

That's funny. Yes. So that was also very cool. Like there's a coach store, and then there's just a cock chilling outside of the coach store.

One of the things. Not that cock, get your brain out of the gutter, bro. It was such a cool town. I have been to that coach store.

So we are going to have dinner tonight at Extra Virgin, which is the Italian restaurant. It's fantastic. Um, but it's going to be sad to see you all go tomorrow. We don't have to be for long.

We're actually not going anywhere due to incremental weather. We are getting off the ship, which is unfortunate. Yeah. Well, I appreciate that you all came along for this ride.

Thank you for having us. You're very welcome. This uh we can't share the other pieces of what we all did, but I will say it was very exciting. It was fun, and I can't wait to see where that goes.

So I uh got to hang out with my old friends, and we have some new friends, and tell those HOA gays in your neighborhood. Yeah, he's coming from awesome. Well, thank you again. Thank you.

It was a pleasure. I can't wait to party with you all tonight in the club in the manor. And thank you to Virgin Boyges for letting us an amazing trip. And uh, we will see you all next week.

And uh let's go get dressed. Let's do it. Check in with Brian is a production of RH Media Productions, executive produced by Tyler Alexander. The views and opinions expressed in this episode are those of the host and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Reliance Hospitality Global, Limited Co.

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