Unlimited Prosecco and a fun craft? Count me in!

We’d already done the Grog Walk and come away convinced that the paid events on board are where Virgin quietly wins you over, so when an art class turned up we booked it without much thinking about it. Bottomless prosecco and a craft is not a difficult sell in this house. It runs in Draught Haus, the same beer bar the Grog Walk takes you through, with one long communal table set up down the middle.

So what actually happens?

They start by giving you a drink & showing you what you’ll be painting, then they guide you through step by step how to get there.

That’s genuinely it. You sit down to a blank canvas, a palette with five colours on it (red, yellow, blue, black and white), a jar of brushes and a jam jar of water, and everything you walk out with comes from those five. The tables are already caked in several sailings’ worth of other people’s paint, which takes the pressure off enormously.

The first stroke is the worst bit. One red stripe across a spotless white canvas and you are completely convinced you’ve ruined it. A few steps later that same stripe is the bottom of a sunset and you start to relax.

Top tip time - don’t wear anything you’d be sad about. Between the paint already on the tables and the fact you’re holding a glass in your other hand, something is getting on you.

I can prove that one. By the end I had more blue on my hands and forearms than I’d managed to get on the actual canvas, and I genuinely could not tell you how.

$35 a sailor, and on the prosecco, it really is bottomless. Not a welcome glass, not one and then a bar tab. They keep coming round. A glass of it is $7 at the bar, so you’re square at five, and I’ll let you decide how much of a challenge that is over a couple of hours. Everything after that is free, and you walk out with a canvas as well.

You really don’t need to be able to paint

You need absolutely no artistic capability and everyone was really pleasantly surprised at how well their artwork came out.

This is the bit I’d underline. The steps are broken down small enough that you can’t really go wrong, and because everyone is working from the same instructions you end up with a room full of the same painting done about fifteen different ways. Nobody’s is bad. A few of them are genuinely lovely.

Ours are a good example of that. Alex’s came out as a proper sunset with a little sailboat and a couple of birds. Mine went full rainbow sky with a much thicker, swirlier sea. Same room, same instructions, same five colours, two completely different paintings, and I think that’s the nicest thing about it.

Alex signed his at the end, and he gets asked whether he’s Ed Sheeran often enough that it’s become a running joke, so that’s the name sitting in the corner of the canvas. We now own an original Ed Sheeran.

Best of all you walk out with it under your arm, which beats another camera roll full of photos you’ll never look at again.

The one catch

It books up, and it books up fast.

Here’s the bit that catches people out. You can’t get ahead of it from home, because booking only opens once you’re onboard and connected to the ship’s WiFi, same as the Grog Walk. So the moment you’re on, that’s the job. Don’t unpack, don’t go and find a drink first, get on the WiFi and get it booked, because the good slots go almost immediately.

Boarded late and it all looks gone? Don’t write it off. New slots get released throughout the first day, so keep checking back.

That’s the only real gripe we have, and it’s a scheduling problem rather than anything wrong with the class itself.

Final verdict

Would we do it again? Every sailing, and I’m not exaggerating.

Great value, 5 out of 5. For $35 you get a proper activity, a glass that never runs empty, a couple of hours chatting to people you’d otherwise never have spoken to, and something to take home rather than another photo. The only way to get this wrong is to not book it the second you’re onboard.

But hey, don’t take our word for it, get on the app and grab a slot yourself!

If it’s the paid events you’re weighing up, the other two we’d book without thinking are Lotería Gigante at $35 for unlimited margaritas and Lolz Super Club at $35 for unlimited drinks and stand up. The Path of the Negroni tasting is the one we’d send you to if you’d rather learn something while you drink.

If you fancy a go yourself, you can find a voyage here.

Prices are what we paid in August 2024. Things move, so check before you book.