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By Ben Cardew

Pop/R&B

November 5, 2021

Rarely has a reunion seemed as superfluous as ABBA ’s. In Europe and Australasia, 40 years after they first broke up, ABBA remain omnipotent, an ever-present part of the pop landscape, like guitar solos and interminable Coldplay album rollouts. The band’s legacy may have dimmed slightly in the 1980s, after their split at the start of the decade. But since the early 1990s—and particularly following the release of ABBA Gold in 1992—ABBA’s traces can be found in every nook and cranny of cultural life, from musicals to movies, Madonna to museums .

That means the stakes for the band’s comeback, with Voyage , are both impossibly high and curiously low. (As ABBA co-songwriter Benny Andersson recently told The New York Times , “What is there to prove? They’ll still play ‘Dancing Queen’ next year.”) ABBA could return with a song as irrationally perfect as 1975 hit “S.O.S.” and it still wouldn't resonate with the same lived-in emotional significance as the 19 songs on ABBA Gold . At the same time, as long as ABBA 2021 sound vaguely in line with the classically inspired, slightly nerdy Swedish pop overlords of popular memory, their recorded return will be loaves and fishes to their fans, who have already forked out in their thousands to watch digital avatars of Agnetha, Benny, Björn, and Anni-Frid prance around a London stage.

Much like the forthcoming digital residency, the band’s new album falls somewhere between the lure of nostalgia and the pull of the present day. Voyage is a mixture of songs, old and (mostly) new, that have all the glam boogie, scandi-disco bounce, and epic pop construction of the band’s revered catalog, with some tentative nods to the passing of time. They may have kept the music on Voyage “ absolutely trend-blind ” to modern pop production, but Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad's vocals have a slightly world-weary, aged tone to them, their vocal range a touch lower than in their pomp, while the album’s lyrics frequently speak of old times, faithful friends, and the demands of parenthood.

It feels almost rude to ask for anything more. Voyage is as richly harmonic, smartly constructed, and satisfying as you might expect of Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, two of the most talented songwriters in the history of pop music. “Keep an Eye on Dan,” “No Doubt About It,” and “Don’t Shut Me Down” are home to some of the best pop melodies of the year—vaguely unpredictable yet glaringly obvious once heard. They’re also fantastically arranged, with hooks piled on top of hooks, gently arranged on a bed of unusual musical choices, like the suggestion of reggae on “Don’t Shut Me Down” or the gnarled-around-the-edges electronics and irregular cowbell on “Keep an Eye on Dan.” The musical winks to the band’s past are a nice touch, too: “Keep an Eye on Dan” closes with the same piano melody that opens “S.O.S.,” while the soaring flute opening of “Bumble Bee” is surely a nod to “Fernando.”

But, as Benny and Björn’s very successful if never entirely satisfying post-ABBA musical Chess demonstrated, without the vocals of Agnetha and Anni-Frid—perhaps pop music’s most durable lead vocal combination—ABBA are just BB. Their voices are what make the group, and they’re still capable—both solo and in duet—of expressing melancholy and ecstasy within the same breath. On “I Still Have Faith in You” when Anni-Frid declares her enduring faith after all these years, as if through gritted teeth, you can feel the maculate defiance, her voice strong but still haunted by the passing of time. And Agnetha’s delivery of "Don't Shut Me Down”’s opening lines—“A while ago, I heard the sound of children's laughter/Now it's quiet, so I guess they left the park”—is nothing short of devastating.

ABBA understand, perhaps better than any other band, the epic importance of pop music against the humdrum rumble of everyday life. Pop matters to ABBA because people and feelings matter. But ABBA know that pop can also be ridiculous, and it is a relief to find that the band haven’t jettisoned the outlandishness that marked some of their best material, even as they reflect on the passing of the years. “When You Danced With Me,” the very second track here, is a crossover between pop and Celtic jig that even Ed Sheeran ’s “Galway Girl” might consider just a bit too much . “Little Things,” which follows, is a Christmas song that ends with a children’s choir singing about “tiny elves with wings.” Maturity might bring wisdom, but Voyage proves you don’t have to be boring with it.

And yet, by ABBA’s own imperial standards, this is more ABBA Silver than ABBA Gold. “Just a Notion,” the album’s third single, was originally rejected for the band’s 1979 album Voulez-Vous (the Voyage version puts the original vocals over a new backing); winningly chirpy as the results are, that kind of knock back would never have happened to “I Have a Dream,” which places “Just a Notion” squarely in the second tier of ABBA recordings. “I Still Have Faith in You,” meanwhile, is two thirds of a brilliant song, let down by the rather earthbound melody in the song’s verse (if, indeed, it is a verse—these things can be hard to define with a band as hook-laden as ABBA), where Anni-Frid sings “Do I have it in me?/I believe it is in there.” “I Still Have Faith in You” is doubtlessly a great song. But you suspect it would not have passed the band’s titanium quality control in the 1970s, given the strength of some of their unreleased material. In ABBA’s best songs, every second is golden.

Still, a second-string ABBA record is far better than most pop groups can muster, and Voyage is the rare post-reformation album to build upon the band’s legacy without abandoning what we loved about their classic records in the first place. That makes Voyage a surprisingly necessary trip into the present from a band who could have coasted on the warm fumes of adulation ad infinitum.

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ABBA’s ‘Voyage’ CGI Extravaganza Is Everything It’s Cracked Up to Be, and More: ‘Concert’ Review

By Mark Sutherland

Mark Sutherland

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“To be or not to be, that is no longer the question,” declared ABBA co-founder and musical mastermind Benny Andersson at the start of “ABBA Voyage,” the Swedish quartet’s first “concert” in over 40 years. And if that sounds like a curiously existential way to begin a pop concert, well, this is no ordinary live show.

For a start, despite Andersson’s insistence that “This is really me, I just look very good for my age,” it’s actually his de-aged, computer-generated avatar — or “ABBA-tar,” if you must — that is speaking his pre-recorded words. Alongside him are the similarly CGI-rendered forms of his bandmates, all looking as they did — or, in truth, actually somewhat better than — they did in their ‘70s heyday.

Meet, then, the prefab four, playing a show that is billed, 100% accurately, as “a concert like no other” — which doesn’t mean it isn’t every bit as big a deal as it would have been had ABBA reformed for a more traditional concert.

Staged in the purpose-built ABBA Arena near East London’s Olympic Park, the world premiere performance nonetheless attracted royalty of both the showbiz world (Kylie Minogue, Keira Knightley, Kate Moss) and actual sovereign variety: the King and (dancing) Queen of Sweden walked the red carpet in support of one of their nation’s leading exports.

However, it was the presence of all four real-life members of ABBA — Andersson, co-founder and co-mastermind Björn Ulvaeus, and lead singers Anni-Frid Lyngstad and the usually reclusive Agnetha Fältskog — that caused the real stir, proof of the demand fueling this technologically ground-breaking (and presumably wildly expensive) new concept in entertainment. ( Andersson and Ulvaeus spoke with Variety about the shows last year and earlier this week.)

The stakes, therefore, are high. If there are nerves, however, these ice-cool Swedes — and their similarly unflappable producers, Svana Gisla and Ludvig Andersson — don’t show them. And, as it turns out, there was little need to worry.

True, as the digital foursome emerge from the floor — like Doctor Who’s Tardis, the arena appears bigger on the inside, appropriate for tonight’s adventures in time and space — the spectre of “Rock Circus,” a spectacularly naff animatronic Madame Tussauds attraction that ran in London throughout the ‘90s, hung in the air.

At first, the movements seem a little too jerky, the lines a little too obvious. But then, just as when you saw the initially-somewhat-unconvincing dinosaurs in “Jurassic Park” for the first time, your eyes adjust, the willing suspension of disbelief kicks in, and they begin to feel like living, breathing musicians, rather than the product of 160 motion capture cameras and one billion computing hours by Industrial Light & Magic.

Certainly, the crowd has no problem giving these computer programs a round of applause, a standing ovation or a shrieked declaration of undying love. This, after all, is their chance to witness something most of them had never seen before, and all of them thought they’d never see again – some of the greatest pop songs of all time delivered, at least tangentially, by the original protagonists.

And these avatars certainly capture ABBA’s original exuberance, minus the Jurassic tendencies that tend to blight decades-after-the-fact reunions in the real world. The pre-publicity stressed these weren’t holograms, and that’s true — these digital doppelgangers look almost indistinguishable from real people from every angle, with each tuft of hair and outlandish ‘70s costume rendered in occasionally terrifying detail. They can dance, they can jive, they can even make bad jokes about pausing for costume changes — and the crowd are having the time of their lives, teetering on the brink of delirium throughout, despite their majority VIP status.

But then these songs tend to do that to people. After a slow-ish start with the lesser-known songs “The Visitors” and “Hole in Your Soul,” the set delivers the hits just like any ABBA tribute act. However, some notable classics, from “Super Trouper” to “Money, Money, Money” and “Take a Chance on Me,” are absent — smart money is surely on versions of these already being in the can for future setlist tweaks. But any quibbles are drowned out by a youthful, 10 piece live band — put together by Keira Knightley’s husband, James Righton, formerly of “new rave” sensations the Klaxons — that means “S.O.S” and “Does Your Mother Know?” have rarely sounded so punchy.

Meanwhile, the accompanying visuals are out of this world: extravagant light effects, interstellar backdrops and CGI Tron costumes mean that, in the unlikely event you are underwhelmed by splendid versions of “Knowing Me, Knowing You” and “Voulez-Vous,” there’s always something to look at.

The budget doesn’t seem to have quite extended to a full avatar show — there are some bizarre, animated interludes, possibly designed to boost the bar takings, while “Waterloo” simply features joyous archive footage from the very beginning of the band’s journey into the public’s affections.

This “Voyage,” however, is ultimately about more high-tech pleasures. It succeeds so well that you would be surprised if other entertainment centers weren’t already queuing up to host the show (which is booked in London until at least this time next year), and if other groups with pan-generational fanbases and aging personnel weren’t already exploring something similar.

By the time the closing salvo of “Dancing Queen,” “Thank You for the Music” and a genuinely emotional “The Winner Takes It All” arrived, the crowd was so immersed that a digital rendering of ABBA as they are now fools almost everyone into believing the real Agnetha, Benny, Björn and Anni-Frid are onstage — that is, until the four of them really did shuffle on a few seconds later.

After 90 minutes with their younger selves, it feels strange to see them like this – mostly grey-haired, Frida with a cane, all suddenly rendered mortal like the rest of us. But it perhaps makes sense of why they embarked on this ludicrously ambitious project, rather than simply getting the band back together.

We’ll sadly never know for sure, but maybe, just maybe, “ABBA Voyage” will turn out to be even better than the real thing..

View this post on Instagram A post shared by ABBA (@abba)

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Abba Voyage review roundup: Critics deliver mixed verdicts on ‘naff’ and ‘sentimental’ new album

‘voyage’ is the swedish band’s first new release in four decades, article bookmarked.

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The first reviews are in for Abba’s new album, Voyage – and its fair to say the verdicts are mixed.

Voyage is the first album from the Swedish pop hitmakers in four decades, and comes ahead of a new tour that will spotlight the band’s “digital avatars”.

Two songs from the album – “I Still Have Faith in You” and “Don’t Shut Me Down” – were released back in September. Another single titled “Just a Notion” dropped last month.

One of the most enthusiastic reviews of Voyage came from The Independent ’s Helen Brown, who gave the record five stars.

In the review, which can be read here , she describes the album as a “terrific, family-friendly smorgasbord of a record that delivers all the classic Abba flavours”.

The Times also had positive things to say about Voyage , with reviewer Ed Potton awarding it four stars.

“ Voyage is a reassuringly familiar blend of clear-eyed sentiment, outrageous musicality and utter indifference to fashion. Like much of Abba’s back catalogue, these songs can sound naff on first listen, yet you’re pulled in by Benny Andersson’s melodic oomph and Bjorn Ulvaeus’s eccentric lyrical insights,” he wrote .

Neil McCormick’s three-star write-up in The Telegraph was less effusive in its praise, arguing: “There is nothing here that strikes the pure gold seam of their classic 45s.

“ Voyage is weighed down with too many portentous theatrical ballads and schlager-style romps that sound like minor off-cuts from the Seventies.”

The i ’s Kate Solomon gave it just two stars , writing: “There’s a sort of Sound of Music feel to the whole endeavour; a slightly daggy, overly sentimental attempt at recapturing something that had already been lost.”

It also received two stars from The Guardian , whose reviewer Jude Rogers wrote: “Rather than reflecting poignantly on the past, much of the rest of Voyage feels terminally stuck there.

“[Songwriter Björn Ulvaeus] recently said these songs were written ‘absolutely trend-blind’. It shows. Including tracks such as the rejected 1978 single ‘Just a Notion’ (a reminder of early, jangly Abba glam, but nothing more) and ‘Bumblebee’ (a naïve attempt to say something universal about climate change) makes you doubt their quality control.”

Voyage is available to listen to now.

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Essaying the pop culture that matters since 1999

ABBA’s ‘Voyage’ Is More Than Pretty Good

ABBA have pulled off a very good reunion album with Voyage despite the odds and expectations. The bar remains where they left it nearly 40 years ago.

ABBA need no introduction. If I have to explain to you why the arrival of their new album Voyage is so historical, then you probably don’t care much for music. I framed it this way to my children: the last time ABBA had a new album, it was released the day after my fourth birthday. Not only was the ABBA reunion something that many of us were convinced would never happen, but the gap between the last album and this one — 39 years — is an eternity in the world of pop music. Not even Beatles and Who fans had to wait that long for the Anthology series and Endless Wire .

The wait, compounded by unreal expectations, will skew everyone’s impressions of Voyage — at least at first. “And I’m asking you to keep an open mind,” Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad sing in unison on the single “Don’t Shut Me Down”. “I’m not the same this time around / I’m fired up, don’t shut me down.” In other words, they’re asking you to take (another) chance on them. “I Still Have Faith in You”, the other single released ahead of Voyage’s arrival, could be interpreted as Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus trying to reassure themselves that this reunion was a good idea. The rhetorical “Do I have it in me?” is a more common refrain here than the title itself. That sets Fältskog and Lyngstad up to rejoice that “We do have it in us / New spirit has arrived / The joy and the sorrow / We have a story / And it survived.”

You may be thinking, “ABBA’s lyrical confidence is all well and good, but what about the music?” It’s a fair question, and the answer depends on what you want after a 39-year silence. Do you want ABBA to have evolved during their time off, the way Portishead did between their second and third albums? Or do you want ABBA to pick up where they left off? For Voyage , the group is, for better or worse, opting for the second option. There may not be a direct hit here like “Dancing Queen”, but you will find echoes of “Chiquitita” and “Waterloo” here and there, ringing out like they were products of the late 1970s/early 1980s Swedish pop scene.

That’s not to say that Voyage is a complete rehash. The aforementioned single, “I Still Have Faith in You”, is a power ballad with a modern touch thanks to a big drum sound and a blindingly optimistic chorus. The keyboard sounds of “Keep an Eye on Dan”, were probably considered cutting edge when Depeche Mode’s fame reached its zenith, but their incorporation into the ABBA sound is reassuring nonetheless. This bitter tale of split child custody is just one example of ABBA’s willingness to address the elephant in the room: their divorces and disbandment.

“I Can Be That Woman” had to have hit close to home for someone, capturing a vulnerable moment in a strained relationship. It’s one of Voyage’s most tender moments, and it’s almost unfortunate that such a lovely cadence would grace clunky lyrics like “You say you’ve had it / And you say ‘screw you’ / I say ‘I love you’ / And I know it’s true.” Countering all that tension is “Little Things”, a happy ode to marital and domestic bliss as a couple’s children wake up on Christmas morning: “As a brand new day is dawning / It’s a lovely Christmas morning / And why don’t we stay in bed for a while.”

If this all sounds a little too reflective, you don’t need to worry. ABBA still know how to have fun. “When You Danced With Me” bounces on what could best be described as a Celtic riff, painting a picture of two old acquaintances reuniting at a village fair: “You’re just here for the music, that’s all, or could it be / You miss the good old times when you danced with me.” Voyage’s third single, “Just a Notion”, is a holdover from a 1978 demo the band abandoned, and one can argue that this 2021 version is an improvement in the vocal department. With a rollicking piano rolling along and simple lyrics like “Just a notion, that’s all / Just a feeling that you’re watching me,” demonstrate that ABBA know when to be fun and frivolous. 

True to the spirit of the 21st century, ABBA are addressing climate change head-on with “Bumblebee”. It’s a heartfelt piece of pastoral folk that clashes with the warning that “It’s quite absurd this summer morning / To think we could be trapped / Inside a world where all is changing / Too fast for bumblebees to adapt.” Closing song “Ode to Freedom” is too vague to be considered political. The understated sweeping strings underscore the song’s abstraction: “If I ever write my / Ode to freedom / It will be in prose that chimes with me / It will be a simple / Ode to freedom / Not pretentious, but with dignity.” 

“Ode to Freedom” sends Voyage out not with a bang but with a sigh of relief that ABBA have pulled off a very good reunion album despite the odds and expectations. The bar remains where they left it nearly 40 years ago and they have thrived within their own limits. Voyage might not surpass ABBA’s timeless collection of gold hits, but it’s certainly better than the disappointment people will purport it to be.`

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The First New ABBA Album in 40 Years Was Worth the Wait

By Rob Sheffield

Rob Sheffield

Nearly 40 years ago, Abba were in the studio for one last time, to cut a tragic ballad called “The Day Before You Came.” They knew this was goodbye; both couples in the group had finalized their divorces. Agnetha Fältskog recited a bleak tale of total emotional isolation, words scripted by her ex-husband, doing her vocals in a darkened studio with all the lights out. It was the last thing they ever recorded. A splendidly melodramatic finale for this most melodramatic of pop groups. And that—as far as the world knew—was that for Abba. Until now.

So how the hell did this happen? The Swedish super troupers ride again with Voyage , and there’s never been a comeback story like this one: all four original members of a great pop band, reuniting after 40 years apart, with all their powers intact. This album would be a one-of-a-kind historic event even if the songs blew—but it’s vintage Abba, on par with their classic 1970s run. It evokes the days when the Norse gods ruled the radio, combining two of the Seventies’ hottest trends: heartbreak and sequin-studded pantsuits. 

For Bjorn, Benny, Anna-Frid and Agnetha, their last album was the 1981 gem The Visitors , a frosty electro concept album of synth-pop paranoia and mid-life despair. Their tunes were as cheery and bouncy on the surface as prime Elton John, making them the world’s best-selling act, but loaded with Leonard Cohen levels of angst. Who else would put a song called “Disillusion” on their first album? 

But since then, the Abba legacy has just kept booming. Each generation falls in love with their hits all over again. They helped invent goth—you can’t imagine Joy Division or the Cure or Berlin-era Bowie without “S.O.S.” They taught Kurt Cobain how to write hooks. If the pop-star scale goes from “obscure” to “legendary,” Abba zoom right off the chart and land on “Cher tribute album, right after the scene in * Mamma Mia 2 * where she steps out of a helicopter to belt ‘Fernando.’”

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Voyage piles on the tragic drama—it’s a whole album of “The Winner Takes It All,” without any “Mamma Mia” or “Take a Chance On Me.” They were always in love with adult gloom, going back to the divorced-mom power chords of “Knowing Me, Knowing You” or “Hey Hey Helen.” As Pete Townshend told Rolling Ston e in 1982, when he shocked the world by coming out as an Abba fan, “Abba was one of the first big international bands to actually deal with sort of middle-aged problems in their songwriting.” And that was in their younger days. Now that they’re all past 70, they haven’t exactly lost their appetite for emotional-crisis soundtracks. 

As always, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson write the songs, but now they leave the singing to the ladies, Faltskog and Anna-Frid Lyngstad. They put Voyage together while plotting their 2022 “virtual” live residency in London. These concerts won’t have mere holograms—instead, they’ve got what Benny and Bjorn call “Abba-tars.” 

“Don’t Shut Me Down” is the prize of the new tunes: Agnetha prowls outside her ex’s home, waiting for the right moment to knock on his door for the first time in years and seduce him. It’s a completely over-the-top scenario—just Abba’s specialty—in the style of their Seventies disco bangers, complete with “Dancing Queen” piano frills. Agnetha takes satisfaction in noticing that her ex hasn’t redecorated since she left, because “These rooms were witness to our love / My tantrums and increasing frustration.” (Could there be a more Abba lyric? No, there could not.)

“No Doubt About It” goes for Eighties synth glitz, while “Just a Notion” is a frisky Seventies leftover—a Voulez Vous outtake with vocals recorded in 1978. The fact that vocal tracks from four decades ago fit seamlessly with the new ones—it’s a tribute to Abba’s obsessive machine-tooled precision. “I Could Be That Woman” is a lavish ballad where a woman watches her estranged lover cuddle someone named Tammy—it turns out to be his dog. The couple argues (“You say you’ve had it and you say ‘screw you’”), while the dog watches and judges them. The dog might be the most emotionally stable character on the album. But like all the couples in these songs, this one has a long, tortured history with no happy ending in sight. You can’t say Abba don’t stay true to their vision.

It wouldn’t be an authentic Abba album without some stomach-churning filler, so beware before you brave the Christmas ditty “Little Things.” But otherwise, Voyage reflects how far these four have traveled, musically and emotionally. There’s no embarrassing attempt to get up to date with the bops the kids are into these days, a compliment to their integrity. Instead of chasing trends, they stick to the classic sound they perfected years ago, the sound that has kept influencing modern pop ever since. As they once sang, the history book on the shelf is always repeating itself.

When the woman in “Don’t Shut Me Down” knocks on that guy’s door, her greeting is, “I would believe it’s fair to say you look bewildered.” And indeed, it’s a surprise to have these Swedes back in the game. But it’s a bigger, sweeter surprise that they returned so full of musical vitality. All these years after “Waterloo,” Abba still refuse to surrender.

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Voyage review: ABBA's first album in 40 years is a treat for the Swedish band's fans, a gift that keeps on giving

Agnetha Fältskog and Anni Frid Lyngstad’s voices have not aged at all. When they sing, the whirligig of everyday life stands still. They are spectacular, emotional, and vibrant in every track.

Pitch perfect! Harmonies that assail your senses in a whoosh of wondrous riffs… Rhythms that will not leave your mind. I still get goosebumps every single time, without fail, when I hear ABBA’s ‘ Knowing Me  Knowing You,’  ‘ I’ve Been Waiting for  You ,’ ‘ One Of Us,’  and ‘ The Winner Takes It All .’

What is it about them that makes this Swedish quartet  so special, so magical ? Why don’t their songs ever go away?

I thought  The Visitors  in 1981 was their last album. But miracles never cease. ABBA is back after a 40-year hiatus. It is like they had never left.

The 10 songs of their new album  Voyage  are so wonderful they left me giddy with happiness. I clapped, I wept, I sang along. At the end of the album, I felt miraculously refurbished, rejuvenated, cleansed, blissed. And yes, blessed.

Time stands still as the two spectacular songstresses blend vocals to create an incandescent harmony. Let me tell you, Agnetha Fältskog and Anni Frid Lyngstad’s voices have not aged at all. When they sing, the whirligig of everyday life stands still. They are spectacular, emotional, and vibrant in every track.

 Oh yes, I did notice that in this album, there is more of Anni Frid than Agnetha. In the earlier albums, it was the other way round. Not that I am complaining. Anni-Frid’s opening song ‘ I Still Have Faith In You ’ has the power to move mountains. It is an epic composition, the troughs and crests in Anni-Frid’s vocals are embraced by lyrics that are a love letter to the ABBA themselves: “Do I have it in me, I believe it is still there….” The composition soars like an ‘ Eagle,’  roars like a ‘ Tiger, ’ and  buzzes in your head like a  ‘Bumblebee .’

That is the title of  Anni-Frid’s other stunning solo towards the end of the album, where she is just lounging in the garden listening to the sounds of bees, watching the world go by. This is quintessential ABBA: arcadian, insulated from the travails of civilization. The most terrifying thing in this album is a broken marriage: in the deceptively fiendishly feisty ‘ Keep An  Eye On Dan,’  Agnetha’s vocals wrap themselves around lyrics about a woman who has come to drop her little son at her estranged husband’s place. It is a very in-the-moment song, and yet the undercurrents of pain, heartbreak, and even domestic violence follow us way past the song when Agnetha hits the last note.

That feeling of being lost in the moment, which made ‘ Dancing Queen ’ the all-rounded ABBA anthem, is predominant in ‘ Just A  Notion,’  where a woman checks out a man across the room, pretty sure he is going to hit on her. The singalong riff in this song reminded me of a beloved old ABBA song, ‘ I Do I Do I Do.’  But that is a rare sighting. Probably imagined by me. ABBA never, repeat NEVER, repeat themselves.

The ambrosial originality of the tracks ‘ Don’t Shut Me Down,’ ‘No Doubt  About It,’  and ‘ I Can Be That Woman ’ hit me hard. Really hard. These are monumental songs and sounds only ABBA can create. Buried under pain, the melodies play out in a ravishing refrain, creating pockets of perfumed paciness and pungency wrapped in a hazy urgency.

All three songs have Agnetha singing about a woman who has messed up, and wants a second chance. It is not very fashionable for women in pop songs to admit  about messing up a relationship and asking for another chance. ABBA did it in their last album in the timeless reggae-tinged song ‘ One Of Us.’  The three sorry-I-messed-up songs in the current album are high on melody and emotions. The cadences are  brought together in a tight and cuddly hug of indefinable feelings, exuding a timeless beauty and harmony.

‘ When You Danced With Me ’ conveys a quaint Celtic dance-along cadence. It is a narrative song, and can easily be turned into a movie: a woman in a village suddenly finds herself face-to-face on the dance floor with the man who deserted her for the city. No recrimination, no rebukes. No complaints. Just the moment. And the dance. An irresistibly inviting song.

The Christmas spirit of ‘ The Little Things ’ is hard to resist. The song, with its abundance of unalloyed  joy and especially the beautiful children’s choir, reminded me of  ABBA’s ode to innocence, ‘ I Have A Dream.’

The dream never faded. The melodies are today as vivid, vibrant, and imperishable as they were 40 years ago. In the closing anthemic song of  the album, ‘ Ode To  Freedom,’  Anni-Frid makes a wish: “I wish someone would write an ode to freedom that we all could sing.”

She is doing just that in the song. Do you have it in you, ABBA? Oh yes, oh yes! You certainly do. It is like you were never gone.

Listen to  Voyage   here.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based journalist. He's been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. see more

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Seeing and being are not the same, arts & culture.

The art and life of Mark di Suvero

Virginia Woolf, 1902. Photo: George Charles Beresford. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

When Virginia Woolf’s The Voyage Out begins, Mr. and Mrs. Ambrose are making their way from the Strand to the Thames Embankment, where a rowboat will take them to a steamer that will take them across the Atlantic to South America. Helen Ambrose—fortyish, beautiful, hard to please—is quietly weeping. “Mournfully” she regards the old man who rows the boat and the anchored ship he rows them to, for they are “putting water between her and her children.” They are joined on this journey aboard the Euphrosyne —the first voyage out—by Mr. Pepper, a prickly scholar who went to Cambridge with Ridley Ambrose, and twenty-four-year-old Rachel Vinrace, the Ambroses’ niece, whose mother is dead. She’s been raised (to unsatisfactory fashion, in Helen’s eyes) by her father, Willoughby Vinrace, upon whose ship they travel, and her other aunts. Among this group on the ship, Helen fears she’ll be “considerably bored.” (The specter of boredom is important in Woolf’s work; Orlando strikes me as a novel about life’s infinite richness, and how life is still somehow a bore.)

The ship drops anchor again in Lisbon, where they collect two additional passengers for part of the journey, none other than Richard and Clarissa Dalloway, characters Woolf would go on to write several stories and another novel about. The Dalloways’ snobbishness puts Helen off, but they connect on the subject of children. “Isn’t it detestable, leaving them?” Clarissa asks. “It was as though a blue shadow had fallen across a pool,” Woolf writes. “Their eyes became deeper.” Their talk makes moody Rachel feel excluded, “outside their world and motherless.” Helen is consumed with thoughts of her children now, but soon she will seem to forget them almost entirely. It is just one example of the book’s most prevalent theme: the limiting nature of perspective. The people in England and the people on ships are unreal to each other. “But while all this went on by land, very few people thought about the sea. They took it for granted that the sea was calm … For all they imagined, the ships when they vanished on the sky-line dissolved, like snow in water,” Woolf writes. “The people in ships, however, took an equally singular view of England. Not only did it appear to them to be an island, and a very small island, but it was a shrinking island in which people were imprisoned.” Much as it’s nearly impossible to imagine being hot when one is freezing cold, or happy when one is miserable, the passengers on the Euphrosyne can hardly imagine what life is like in London, or that it goes on at all.

Helen and Rachel initially regard each other with mutual underestimation. Scant formal education has allowed Rachel to flourish in music, as she simply pursued her own interests. But she knows almost nothing about the world—her lack of schooling leaves her with “abundant time for thinking,” but thinking is not equivalent to experience—which baffles and frustrates Helen. Meanwhile Rachel’s ageism is such that she imagines the middle-aged are ready to die: “ ‘My aunts said the piano would come through the floor, but at their age one wouldn’t mind being killed in the night?’ she enquired.”

Everything changes when Mr. Dalloway kisses Rachel. This comes as a shock (“Life seemed to hold infinite possibilities she had never guessed at”), a shock so great she’s not sure if she liked it or not. There’s “something wonderful” about it—suddenly she sees herself “as a real everlasting thing, different from anything else”—yet she’s so disturbed she gets up in the night to lock her door; “She could not sleep again.” The following day, the Dalloways disembark, and Helen and Rachel discuss them. Rachel had been mesmerized by their social position, their taste; Helen says Richard was “pompous and sentimental.” Rachel tells her about the kiss, which seems to her inexplicable and terrifying. Helen considers:

From the little she knew of Rachel’s upbringing she supposed that she had been kept entirely ignorant as to the relations of men with women. With a shyness which she felt with women and not with men she did not like to explain simply what these are. Therefore she took the other course and belittled the whole affair. “Oh, well,” she said, “he was a silly creature, and if I were you, I’d think no more about it.” “No,” said Rachel, sitting bolt upright, “I shan’t do that. I shall think about it all day and all night.”

At this point, Rachel becomes Helen’s project, a substitute child. She decides it’s her duty to teach Rachel “how to be a reasonable person,” to achieve some awareness of herself and her place in the world, and proposes to Willoughby that Rachel stay with her and her husband when they reach South America, rather than traveling into the Amazon with him. This takes some persuasion, but “Helen prevailed, although when she had won her case she was beset by doubts, and more than once regretted the impulse which had entangled her with the fortunes of another human being.” This is not the first hint that things will go poorly when they reach their destination—but “the moment for presentiments” has passed, or there was never any moment at which fate was not unfolding, fate both random and inexorable.

In Santa Marina, a fictional South American port, Helen and Rachel take up a habit they call “seeing life,” “strolling through the town after dark” to look at strangers. On one of these evenings, the women push open the gate of a large hotel and go up to the terrace, with its “row of long windows open almost to the ground”: “They were all of them uncurtained, and all brilliantly lighted, so that they could see everything inside.” From this viewpoint the hotel people look unreal to them, as if lit up onstage, as if they could not see their audience through the fourth wall. But they can be and are seen, when Terence Hewet turns “his full face towards the window,” where his friend St. John Hirst is sitting, “near to them unobserved all the time.” Discovered, the women flee.

Woolf’s next move is to take us deeper inside the hotel, where Helen and Rachel could not go—all the way into the minds of the guests. It’s one of several key scenes in the novel with a sudden perspective shift, from outside to inside, observer to observed or vice versa. Inside the rooms, the guests are of course real people, from their own perspective, that is—real by virtue of having interior lives. Another concern of the novel is the question of reality versus illusion, the “two different layers” of existence: the “real” world of thought and feeling under the surface world, the theater of pretense. (If The Voyage Out is less experimental in form than the later novels for which Woolf is best known, its characters are all the more moving for the ways they try to break convention from within the conventions of Edwardian fiction—reminiscent of Forster.) Here we meet the rest of the book’s important characters, who end up forming what you might call the women’s karass —Kurt Vonnegut’s term in Cat’s Cradle for a team that forms, beyond rational understanding, to “do God’s will”—more lives whose fortunes become entangled with theirs. Most significant among them is Hewet, an aspiring novelist who falls in love with Rachel.

It’s Hewet’s suggestion, prompted by a comment of Hirst’s (“Did you notice how the top of the mountain turned yellow to-night?”), to haul this karass up the mountain on donkeys for a picnic. This trip up the mountain is the second of three nested voyages in the novel. Like the kiss on the ship, it opens up the sense of the possible. It’s an idea, a whim really, that comes together easily—a decision acted upon, or at least a decision that feels like an action. It’s also an excuse to spend time with the women they encountered at the hotel window. Hirst, a promising, arrogant young scholar who insults everybody, is fascinated by the older, unavailable Mrs. Ambrose, whom he thinks the most beautiful person he’s ever seen. And Hewet is drawn to Rachel, for mysterious reasons; she’s not a beauty or a charming conversationalist; people think of her as “vague.” She doesn’t understand them and they don’t understand her either. But some force pulls him to her.

At the summit, there’s another reversal of perspective. Arthur and Susan, two other guests on the expedition, sneak off alone and become engaged. First, we experience the moment as they do, as bliss: “ ‘Well,’ sighed Arthur, sinking back on the ground, ‘that’s the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me’ … ‘It’s the most perfect thing in the world,’ Susan stated, very gently and with great conviction.” Hewet and Rachel, also walking alone, come across the couple in the trees, and their view of the scene is quite different:

The woman, who now appeared to be Susan Warrington, lay back upon the ground, with her eyes shut and an absorbed look upon her face, as though she were not altogether conscious. Nor could you tell from her expression whether she was happy, or had suffered something. When Arthur again turned to her, butting her as a lamb butts a ewe, Hewet and Rachel retreated without a word. Hewet felt uncomfortably shy. “I don’t like that,” said Rachel after a moment.

From her angle this moment of radical change in Susan’s life looks like violence. Seeing and being are not the same. (“One doesn’t want to be things,” Hewet says, explaining his chosen vocation; “one wants merely to be allowed to see them.”) Finding their own little clearing, Rachel and Hewet talk, the impression of the lovers still lingering. Rachel attempts to tell Hewet about her life back at home, in Richmond, “overcome by the difficulty of describing people.” “It’s impossible to believe that it’s all going on still!” she exclaims. In some sense “it all” isn’t; what Woolf shows us is all that goes on. She is the “undoubtedly mad” god, to borrow Hirst’s words, in charge of their fate. But even in the world of the novel, Richmond doesn’t quite exist—not in Santa Marina. Do things continue out of sight, so far away, and run on the same clocks? It’s looking, or being looked at, they believe, that makes things real. But looking has limited power.

There is one more voyage. A smaller group—each voyage further separates this cluster from the rest of the world—embarks on a risky expedition up the river, deeper into the jungle. (The wealthy eccentric Mrs. Flushing says to Helen, “If you want comforts, don’t come. But I may tell you, if you don’t come you’ll regret it all your life.”) On this voyage, Hewet and Rachel again break away and become engaged. They unknowingly mirror the earlier scene on the mountain, now as actors, not as audience: “This is happiness,” she says, though doing what before she had only watched now fills her with a “sense of unreality”: “the whole world was unreal.” In one of the novel’s strangest passages, Helen appears to find them walking and then tackles Rachel to the ground, where they roll in the long grasses: “A hand dropped abrupt as iron on Rachel’s shoulder; it might have been a bolt from heaven … Helen was upon her.” It’s an animalistic gesture both affectionate and protective. For Helen has another premonition of disaster: “She became acutely conscious of the little limbs, the thin veins, the delicate flesh of men and women, which breaks so easily … Thus thinking, she kept her eyes anxiously fixed upon the lovers, as if by doing so she could protect them from their fate.” There is the question, now, as to which voyage out will not correspond with a voyage in, which bracket will not be closed.

Helen cannot protect them. They all return from the riverboat, seemingly safe; then disaster arrives in the form of a fever that traps Rachel in bed, separating her from Hewet: “her heat and discomfort had put a gulf between her world and the ordinary world which she could not bridge”; “her bed had become very important.” She is now “alone with her body.” Her bed is her ship, and such is her delirium—an exaggerated form of her usual confusion—that the others are barely visible. As Woolf writes in her 1926 essay “On Being Ill,” “the whole landscape of life lies remote and fair, like the shore seen from a ship far out at sea.” Hewet cannot reach her either, and the abyss between their “real” selves grows, so that being in the room with her, in physical proximity, is torture.

We don’t get the sense that Hewet and Rachel had each found their one true predestined love. Instead there is a sense of contingency, of chaos prevailing. Earlier, reading in the equatorial heat, she’d felt “awe that things should exist at all.” And why these things and not others? And how long can they exist? It’s this underlying meaninglessness that makes Rachel’s life so tragic. Because her knowledge is limited, her desires are small. “It isn’t as if we were expecting a great deal,” Rachel says at one point to Terence, imagining their life ahead, together, back in England, “only to walk about and look at things.” I wrote “No!” in the margin. They want so little, and won’t be allowed to have it.

Elisa Gabbert is the author of five collections of poetry, essays, and criticism, most recently The Unreality of Memory and Other Essays (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) and The Word Pretty (Black Ocean). She writes a regular poetry column for the New York Times , and her work has appeared in Harper’s , The New York Review of Books , A Public Space , The Nation , and many other venues.

Introduction by Elisa Gabbert to a new edition of the book The Voyage Out , by Virginia Woolf. Introduction copyright © 2021 by Elisa Gabbert. Published by Modern Library, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved.

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Procedures: A guide to safe passage planning

Above image is used for illustration purposes only

Voyage planning is a key element of Bridge Resource Management (BRM) forming the foundation the bridge team will use to ensure the vessel’s safe transit along its intended route. A voyage plan (or passage plan ) is a comprehensive, berth to berth guide, developed and used by a vessel’s bridge team to determine the most favorable route, to identify potential problems or hazards along the route, and to adopt bridge management practices to ensure the vessel’s safe passage. During passage planning, portions of a voyage that have the potential to pose the greatest risk should receive additional review, and the limits and conditions for undertaking those portions of the voyage set in advance.

As the phase in period for ECDIS use has been completed in July 2018, all applicable vessels should use ECDIS systems for planning, moving from traditional paper chart navigation. Port state control inspections also started to be detailed and extended on passage plan review, a factor which adds more difficulty and pressure to Bridge officers and Masters.

Prior proceeding to planning, it has to be ensured that all initial actions and setup/start up information has been already incorporated to ECDIS. Special attention should be given when entering Vessel’s information for dimensions and the Consistent Common Reference Point which is defined as “a location on own ship, to which all horizontal measurements such as target range, bearing, relative course, relative speed, closest point of approach (CPA) or time to closest point of approach (TCPA) are referenced, typically the conning position of the bridge.”

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SOLAS chapter V (Annex 24 and Annex 25) provides the legislative guidance for Passage planning in shipping sector. In accordance with this guidance, there are four stages for planning a voyage:

• Appraising all relevant information
• Planning the intended voyage
• Executing the plan taking account of prevailing conditions
• Monitoring the vessel’s progress against the plan continuously

In this article we will refer only to the two first stages, Appraising information and Planning the intended voyage.

This stage of plan is aimed to identify that the required electronic charts are available and corrected up-to-date and all other relevant publications (paper or electronic) are available and up to date.

Safety contours should be established and information relating to weather, current, tides, chart datum, draft, speed, environmental limits, air draft, squat and general hazards, such as high traffic concentrations, should be prepared and made available.

The concept of safety contours is a key function specific to electronic charts and the whole safety of the passage is dependent on this information being correct. So, if a navigator fails to set this correctly, then an incident might occur.

The safety contour marks distinguish between ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ water. If the navigator does not specify a safety contour, this will default to 30m. When the safety contour is not displayed to the specified value set by the navigator, then the safety contour is shown to the next deeper contour as per the default layers in the electronic charts.

During route planning, an indication will be made if the route is planned to cross the ship’s safety contour. At the time of route monitoring, ECDIS should give an alarm if, within a specified time set by the navigator, own ship is likely to cross the safety contour.

The division between ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ water is highlighted by chart coloring (usually blue color used to indicate unsafe area and white or grey for safe area).

Safety contour should be calculated based on safety depth. Safety depth is the sum of Maximum Draft (static)+UKC (Company’s Policy)+Squat(Maximum)-Height of Tide. As safety contour produces alarm mariners should be very careful to the value that they select. The safest way is to choose a safety contour equal or greater to safety depth.

After setting the safety contour, the next task is to set up a safety domain. IMO specifications require ECDIS to trigger alarms in the following circumstances:

• If, within a specified time set by the mariner, the vessel will cross the safety contour
• If, within a specified time set by the mariner, the vessel will cross the boundary of a prohibited area or of a geographical area for which special conditions exist. (no go areas, restricted or prohibited areas, naval exercise areas etc.)
• When the specified cross track limit for deviation from the planned route is exceeded (distance to be determined by mariner)
• If, continuing on its present course and over a specified time or distance set by the mariner, the ship will pass closer than a user-specified distance from a danger (eg obstruction wreck or rock) that is shallower than the mariner’s contour or an aid-to navigation.

To achieve the above, mariners should specify a safety domain for the vessel, effectively contained by the following parameters:

• In depth, by the safety contour and safety depth
• In forward extent, by the look-ahead time or look-ahead range
• In lateral closeness by a specified distance.

The Anti-Grounding Cone (may also be known as the Safety Frame or other name dependent upon the manufacturer) is intended for setting the size of the area that will be used for the chart data analysis and for the generation of the Anti-Grounding alarms, Area Alerts and Navigational Alarms.

The trigger points for Alarms and Warnings are defined by an Anti-Grounding Cone projected Ahead, Port and Starboard of the vessel. The size of the Anti-Grounding Cone will depend on the ECDIS system in use, as well as the size, maneuverability and speed of the vessel. Once a danger has been picked up in the Anti-Grounding Cone, it will be necessary for the vessel to avoid it and this delay / time to maneuver must be taken into account when setting up. The safety domain requires the navigator to input the vessel / voyage specific parameters and so this must be done at this stage. Master should be consulted to determine these parameters prior installed.

After the appraisal stage, planning officer now begins the track planning. It is essential that the ‘built in automatic check’ function is used throughout planning stages, however it must be remembered that effectiveness of the automatic check system relies on the accuracy of the safety parameters set by the user.

Passage planning on an ECDIS requires almost the same procedures as for a paper chart and the navigator must follow the same “best practice” guidelines as per the Bridge Procedures Guide. However, with ECDIS, the process is complicated by the fact that the navigator needs to know what information is already incorporated into the ECDIS and what is not and this is where a weakness of ECDIS is exposed.

Reference should be made to the traditional passage planning documents (printed or electronic), such as NtMs,tide & current tables, Lists of Lights, sailing directions, NAVTEXT etc. relevant to the proposed passage.

Once the navigator has all the relevant documentation in hand, the plan can commence and the first thing to check is whether waypoints for that passage already exist in the ECDIS database. If so, it can be uploaded for re-use and, by running an initial check, the ECDIS will verify if the plan is safe for the dynamic parameters previously set.

As well as alerting the navigator to any parts of the plan that are outside the safety domain parameters, the ECDIS will also alert the navigator to charted features of relevance on the passage, such as traffic separation zones, restricted areas, anchorages etc. How alerts are presented to the navigator are dependent on the manufacturer with the best automatically jumping to the problem area and others providing a simple dropdown list. If no pre-loaded waypoint list exists for passage, then navigator will have to start from creating waypoints.

The main problem that traditional mariners find with this is the small screen size which makes it difficult to obtain outline overview obtained from a small scale paper chart. However, in practice, the advantage of ECDIS is that by putting in departure and arrival points, any obstructions will be identified and the navigator can then move waypoints and re-check the outline route.

For longer ocean passages, the ECDIS is really useful since it can instantaneously offer a great circle or Rhumb line route or a combination of both, thus saving much tedious plotting.

Once a viable outline passage has been established, it is then essential to check the whole route in detail using the zooming and scrolling facilities. This is easier and less error-prone than drawing course lines on a series of passage charts of differing scales.

However, it is essential that this process is done with extreme care, because many chart features -such as submarine cables- are hidden on the different layers of the ENC and essential detailed information -such as notes pertaining to precautionary areas- needs to be accessed and analyzed for relevance by means of clicking on the ! symbol to obtain the “pick report” relating to the feature.

Every planned passage plan should be saved in both ECDIS systems (primary and secondary) in order to be ready for use in case of equipment failure.

Master should review and approve the plan and all officers assigned with duties of navigational watch to review and sign it accordingly.

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Refer to the Nautical Institutes publication Bridge Team Management Second edition Captain AJ Swift FNI and T J Bailey FNI An industry standard for passage planning, the guide covers practical coastal and estuarial navigation and bridge organisation for use on both paper and electronic charts. There is detailed information on preparing a navigational plan and navigator’s notebook and ways to monitor progress in ‘safe’ water. Other chapters cover team management, error chains, casualties and causes, bridge organisation, passage appraisal, situational awareness and executing the plan.

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ABBA Voyage Review: A Jaw-Dropping Journey Of Discography

Head of Entertainment, HuffPost UK

This review contains major spoilers for the Abba Voyage live show.

If ABBA had ever accepted the rumoured offer of $1billion to reform for a reunion tour a few years back, the anticipation of seeing Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid back on stage for the first time in forty years would’ve been at fever pitch.

Walking into the multi-million pound, purpose-built ABBA Arena in East London for the very first night of the ABBA Voyage show, there is that heightened sense of anticipation, but it’s laced with an overwhelming feeling of ’what the hell am I about to experience?’

Shrouded in secrecy, despite months of hype and tantalising teasers, the band’s Björn and Benny repeatedly stated that it was definitely not going to be one of those posthumous hologram shows put on for the likes of Whitney Houston and Frank Sinatra.

They also struggled to truly explain what the difference would be, other than that instead of being holograms, each member of the group would be performing as digital avatars (or ABBAtars as they have become known), which sounded a lot like… holograms.

After witnessing the first ever performance of the show, I can see why Björn and Benny struggled to explain it. I can also understand why they kept their cards so close to their chest.

It is quite simply, awe-inspiring.

This👏is👏ABBA👏Voyage👏 pic.twitter.com/6kGQ2zu1TU — ABBA Voyage (@ABBAVoyage) May 26, 2022

“We’re playing tricks with people’s minds and they’re willing to let us,” Björn said ahead of the show’s premiere.

“For the time fans are in the arena, they believe we are real and are on stage. They’re at a concert with ABBA.”

He’s not wrong.

From the moment we get our first glimpse of the group - rising onto the stage as reimagined 21st century pop stars - it’s abundantly clear that this is definitely not a hologram show.

We are all instantly transported into a universe where the real and digital worlds collide. The entire arena is wrapped in swathes of light and sound. If the acoustics weren’t so impressive, I swear I would have heard 3000 jaws simultaneously hit the floor.

And just as I was popping my jaw back into place, it’s gone again at the realisation that the opening song is not one of the group’s mega-hits but the title track - and firm fan favourite - from their 1981 studio album, The Visitors.

“I have been waiting for these visitors,” Anni-Frid sings.

Not half as much as the adoring crowd have been waiting for them.

Then it’s into another deep cut, Hole In Your Soul, a nod to the group’s final tour in 1979, when it was last performed. That was ‘peak ABBA’, which is why the versions of the band we see on stage tonight are based on that era, albeit with 21st century hairstyles and wardrobes courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana, Manish Arora, Erevos Aether and Michael Schmidt.

Does Your Mother Know sees Björn get his solo moment, but after one verse he disappears to give the (real life) backing singers and excellent live band their moment in the sun.

Speaking of which, Chiquitita is performed in front of a giant eclipsing sun, perfectly timed to fully disappear as the song ends. The crowd go nuts.

If I had to nitpick at where some momentum is lost it would be the two songs that didn’t feature the ABBAtars. Instead, Eagle and Voulez-Vous were accompanied by an animated story.

Maybe I was missing something, but not having them perform these songs felt like a missed opportunity, especially after they’d just donned those futuristic Tron-like outfits seen in the promo pics to perform an explosive version of Lay All Your Love On Me, complete with choreography by the award-winning Wayne McGregor.

Did the ABBAtars need to catch their breath? Some of the audience certainly needed to freshen up as many opted to head to the bar at this point.

Unnecessary animation aside, there were some genuinely warm and humorous moments in between numbers when the band ‘interacted’ with the crowd. At one point Benny started playing the opening notes of the EastEnders theme tune (yes, really), which is when I genuinely thought I’d entered a parallel universe. It certainly felt that way in the arena.

Like the (super) troopers that they are, they saved the best to last .

There wasn’t a single bum on seat - including those belonging to Kylie Minogue, Kate Moss, Keira Knightley and the King and Queen of Sweden who were all in the audience - for the finale of Waterloo, Dancing Queen and The Winner Takes It All. At this point, the emotional connection between the group and the audience was palpable.

I walked into that arena thinking ‘what the hell am I about to experience?’ and walked out buzzing with an overwhelming sense of ‘what the hell have I just witnessed?’

The future, that’s what.

ABBA Voyage set list:

• The Visitors
• Hole in Your Soul
• Knowing Me, Knowing You
• Does Your Mother Know
• Lay All Your Love on Me
• Summer Night City
• Voulez-Vous
• When All is Said and Done
• Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)
• Thank You For the Music
• Don’t Shut Me Down
• I Still Have Faith in You
• Dancing Queen
• The Winner Takes it All

ABBA Voyage is now booking until 28 May 2023 with more dates to be released soon. For more information go to abbavoyage.com .

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Abba: Voyage review – no thank you for the music

After 40 years, the makers of once-sparkling pop are back – but the glamour promised by this album’s two terrific singles goes horribly unfulfilled

T he journey to Voyage, Abba ’s final studio album and their first in 40 years, began with a tweet from their shiny new Twitter account in August, coaxing people to “join us”. Billboards across London followed, featuring images of a sort of solar eclipse, a glitter ball in a sci-fi silhouette. A week later came news of a 10-track album and a “digital avatar” concert residency in a custom-built London arena. The signs were good. Here was a band alive to their legacy as makers of sparkling pop, but also to the spirit of disco’s futurism, understanding that they had to harness the shock of the new.

In September, one of two album taster tracks, Don’t Shut Me Down , fulfilled this brief exquisitely, morphing from vulnerable Swedish noir to piano-and-horn-propelled pop-funk. Its impact was unexpected and exciting and it became Abba’s first Top 10 hit since 1981, charging Voyage with the promise of forward motion and glamour – qualities that felt wildly attractive in our messy, mid-Covid times. And so it is hard to reckon with the disappointment that Abba’s ninth album delivers, as it prefers to languish in often bafflingly retrograde settings.

It begins with I Still Have Faith in You, the other taster track released in September. An epic example of the “bittersweet song” Anni-Frid Lyngstad and Agnetha Fältskog refer to in the lyric – in their different, yet still lovely, older voices – its meditation on how to confront and own the ageing process is precision-tailored, in glistening silver thread. The opening, elegiac string phrase yearns for resolution throughout, before returning wistfully in the song’s final bars. The second verse’s soft drum rolls (by Per Lindvall, veteran of Super Trouper and The Visitors) are among many fine, musical details that urge the women on. It is, admittedly, a little cheesy, but its tenderness still feels triumphant.

But rather than reflecting poignantly on the past, much of the rest of Voyage feels terminally stuck there. When You Danced With Me tells the story of a girl left behind in Kilkenny when a boy she loved “left for the city”. She’s spent years waiting for him to return, we’re told; presumably she’s oblivious to the existence in Ireland of train routes, driving tests or text messages. The Celtic-leaning melody in the intro recalls Abba’s incursions into other global settings, such as the Mexican battlefields in Fernando, or the Spanish-Peruvian musical moodboards of Chiquitita. The overall effect doesn’t prompt folkloric nostalgia, but mild nausea.

Then comes the album’s big crime against sense, sentimentality and sequencing, Little Things, a Christmas song shoved in at track three. All about the delights of the season, it includes a children’s choir singing about their grandma (the St Winifred’s school singers would sound like rebel punks in comparison), but also, in a jolting juxtaposition, intimations about mum and dad’s sex life. Particularly weird is the implication of a grim transactional quality behind a romantic gesture. “You’d consider bringing me a breakfast tray, but there’s a price,” Lyngstad sings, having noticed her partner’s “naughty eyes”. You hope if she’s presented with a breakfast sausage, she’ll impale it then bin it.

Admittedly, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson have never been the most enlightened lyricists on the feminism front. One of Us and Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight) are two Abba songs among many featuring a fraught woman desperate for any man to pop along and quick-fix her loneliness. Now four decades have passed, and one can’t help but despair at the chorus of I Can Be That Woman (“You’re not the man you should’ve been / I let you down somehow”) and that’s after its terrible lyrical twist about a female her husband is sleeping with, who turns out to be … a dog. Keep an Eye on Dan offers another miserable monologue from a pining divorcee, spoiling its fantastic mixture of Visitors-era iciness and Voulez-Vous-era disco propulsion.

Ulvaeus recently said these songs were written “absolutely trend-blind”. It shows. Including tracks such as the rejected 1978 single Just a Notion (a reminder of early, jangly Abba glam, but nothing more) and Bumblebee (a naive attempt to say something universal about climate change) makes you doubt their quality control. At least Voyage’s finale, Ode to Freedom, hints at a grand, closing statement, pastiching and stretching a phrase from a waltz in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. But then its lyric talks about the futility of writing an ode that’s worth remembering, which leaves an odd note, especially when we’re talking about a band whose songs are known around the world.

“If I ever write my ode to freedom / It will be in prose that chimes with me,” it concludes. Maybe it’s a reference to the female members’ preference for privacy, or even Abba’s determination to keep creating their unusual song structures in their Swedish reading of English – but it also suggests Abba feel they can exist in their own bubble. They can’t. In the past, they excelled when they twisted the sounds of their times in their own way, when they were within glam, disco and electronic pop but also apart from these genres; when their idiosyncrasies elevated them, rather than diminished them. If only they had stopped at those two knowing songs, leaving the rest to our dazzling imaginations.

• Pop and rock

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Sources: ABBA avatar show prepping to play Las Vegas Strip

“ABBA Voyage” would play in a custom venue on the Resorts World property.

Can you hear the drums, Fernando? Or, can you hear the speculation of the “ABBA Voyage” virtual concert production playing the Strip?

We can. Sources familiar with the production indicate the computer-generated show is to play a custom-built facility. Resorts World is said to be the leading contender, on its former “Enchant” space, though the site is not yet finalized.

The plan is to run the show as a limited engagement, extending if it builds momentum.

We expect the momentum to catch up. The band has sold 150 million records worldwide. Its music was the centerpiece of one of the few Broadway-styled productions to play Vegas, “Mamma Mia” at Mandalay Bay.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by ABBA Voyage (@abbavoyage)

The show stars the original ABBA lineup of Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad in their CG-generated, 1979 clones.

The real-life ABBA members are all in their 70s and have no plans to return to the stage in live performance. Nearly 25 years ago, they reportedly turned down $1 billion to headline a 100-show tour.

But for “ABBA Voyage,” they spent five weeks working in motion-capture suits to generate the act’s distinctive choreography.

The London show is designed by Industrial Light and Magic, which has also worked on the U2 production and “Postard From Earth” at the Sphere. “ABBA Voyage” reportedly cost $175 million to develop and is one of the priciest live shows in history.

ABBA Arena, which seats 3,000, features LED screens that add visual depth and nearly 300 speakers. As of this past September, the show has since sold 99 percent of its capacity, and made more than $2 million a week with an average ticket price of about $105.

A 10-piece orchestra backs the avatar performers, delivering hits such as “Dancing Queen,” “Waterloo,” the above-mentioned “Fernando,” and the universal ABBA theme, “Thank You for the Music.” One source who has seen the show more than a dozen times in London said, “It’s mind-blowing.”

John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His “PodKats!” podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts . Contact him at [email protected]. Follow @johnnykats on X, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.

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Honoree Blake Shelton will be joined by a number of stars at the Las Vegas fundraising gala, including Emmy and Tony Award winner Kristin Chenoweth.

He’s a three-time Grammy Award winner, an artist who has amassed 23 billion streams world wide. He’s a proud Las Vegan, and he’s leading a “Human Love Rebellion” to a chic Strip theater.

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Abba Voyage Review: No Ordinary Abba Night at the Club

With a concert spectacle mixing wizardry and technical skill, the band makes a case for its continued relevance.

By Juan A. Ramírez

LONDON — I kept turning to my friend, wanting to tell him how young and fresh the two women that put the As in Abba seemed on the giant screens ahead of us. Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad were not actually in the room with us, but that’s the kind of stupor Abba Voyage dazzles you into.

Though the Swedish pop band has not played London since 1979, holographic “Abbatars” of the band, modeled in their likeness from that year, are currently filling up a custom-built arena for a 90-minute concert of their greatest hits. A combination of motion-captured performance, animated sequences and a live 10-person band make up the spectacle, which makes a floor-thumping case for the music’s continued relevance.

Projected on a screen that envelops one side of the spaceshiplike auditorium, the Abbatars play mostly as if it were a real concert. They “enter” from below the stage, make banter with the audience, ask for patience as they switch costumes, and return for an encore.

It would feel corny if it weren’t so triumphantly fun, and the Friday night crowd was certainly along for the ride. Largely a mix of couples in their mid 60s and younger, disco-leaning gay men, the attendees sang through every number with the intensity of a therapeutic ritual. Abba Voyage is an exercise in symbol worship that separates itself from an ordinary Abba night at the club through state-of-the-art production values.

“To be or not to be — that is no longer the question,” the band member Benny Andersson declares in a prerecorded solo address, and questions about live performance, truth, eternity and transience are frothed up into the sheer giddiness of (almost) being in the same room as one of the biggest acts in pop music history.

It’s hard to pin down the reasons that such a strange, 21st century endeavor is a crowd-pleasing success, but Abba’s music has its own strange alchemy. Take “Mamma Mia” (performed here in rhinestone-emblazoned pink velour jumpsuits): Why is the hook an Italian catchphrase? Or “Fernando” (sung against a dramatic lunar eclipse): What could these four Swedes possibly have to say about the Mexican revolution? And yet, something about the earnestness of those songs, reflected in the audience’s full-chested belting, has made them inescapable pop standards.

Those two songs are performed straightforwardly, the Abbatars life-size and center stage, with surrounding screens projecting close-ups for those seated in the orchestra level, behind a massive dance floor. Most of the numbers are done this way, recreating a concert experience; the audience was overjoyed to dance along and applaud each step of the way. Choreography, based on the band member’s real movements, but captured from younger body doubles, hit its peak during “Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!,” with the digital Lyngstad doing high-kicks and twirls that I’m not sure the real one was capable of in her heyday.

A couple of songs, however, played more like immersive music videos, with the full size of the screens used to tell more thorough visual stories. The band famously sang and performed through its own breakup, and “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” a 1977 anthem mirroring the dissolution of romantic and professional relations in the group, is here performed as an Ingmar Bergman-esque study in missed connections. Its members’ fractured faces sing across a hall of mirrors before ultimately embracing in reconciliation.

Less successful than those episodes were two fully-animated numbers, set to “Eagle” and “Voulez Vous,” following a young traveler’s journey through forests and pyramids, and culminating in their discovery of giant sculptures of the band member’s heads.

Those songs recreate the interstitial bits of a “real” concert, as do speeches from each Abbatar about their success and artistry. The best of these interludes saw the band present the footage from their Eurovision Song Contest-winning performance of “Waterloo,” the song that catapulted them to fame in 1974.

Abba’s music is deceptively complex. What sounds like a simple little song reveals itself to be an intricately layered web of harmonies, melodies, real and digital instruments and angelic English vocals, ever-so-slightly outside the band’s Scandinavian comfort zone.

It’s a mix of wizardry and technical skill that, decades later, after movies and musicals and greatest hits compilations, is still at the pinnacle of pop maximalism. To hear the closing piano riffs on “Chiquitita” in a crowded arena is an exalting experience, and despite its eyebrow-raising premise, Abba Voyage miraculously takes flight.

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Virgin Voyages   Reviews

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Reviews 3.5.

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Most Epic Experience

I had the most amazing experience anyone could imagine. I’ve often experience car sickness as a passenger. So I prepared myself, by buying lots of medications for motion sickness. I never use any of those items, because I was just fine. It was the smoothest sail ever!!! The food was amazingly fresh, the ship was immaculately clean, the staff were awesome. The entertainment was wonderful !! I had so much fun experience, I’m exhausted talking about it. I just want to recover and plan my next voyage.

Date of experience : March 24, 2024

Sexual advances from a Crew member with no action taken..

Similar to the review posted by Michael Healy on 14th March my partner too was hit on by a staff member called Dion J***** who propositioned her for sex. Again, similarly to the other review left by Michael it was reported to VV customer services but they have done nothing at all. Absolutely appalling.

Date of experience : September 09, 2023

unforgettable

My trip to international turf floating on international waters with friendly faces and exceptional service on VIRGIN VOYAGES was top rated and pure fun! The ships food and entertainment was very diverse and provocative and will have you wanting more. I'm really regretting I haven't sea traveled before! Now, All I can say is Cheers to VIRGIN VOYAGES for setting up an experience of a lifetime! If you are looking for a secluded great time and worry free enjoyment THIS IS IT!

Can’t rate this cruise line highly enough.

Exceptional service. 4 and 5 star restaurants. Food was amazing. Cabin and balcony had ample amount of space and good facilities. We never struggled to find seating/loungers to relax or participate in the many activities. We will be back for sure. Pity next season for us down under has been cancelled🤨

Date of experience : March 27, 2024

Pulled a scam the day after the cancellation period

One day after the full cancellation period they decided to remove an entire country from the itinerary based on their own feedback. They offered everyone on board $11 in sailor loot for the inconvenience and that's it! After getting real feedback they changed their stance within 12 hours. These people will do everything they can to ruin your vacation

Date of experience : March 28, 2024

Sad To Report

I’m surprised that such a nice experience can be ruined due to corporate greed. There was a $453.68 charge on my account. I called customer service and now they are refusing to honor their agreement and give me a refund. I have writing that I’m due this refund but I will need to take legal action. If you sail with them be sure to get costs writing.

David Lewenz room 8202Z review of his experience

On a scale of one to 10 I’d give an overall reading, rating about 8.5. The free brewed coffee on a scale of one to 10 was about a five staff and I mean all the staff 10 solid and food quality and presentation 10 solid the room accommodations were very nice but tight there’s no way two people can share a cabin with a balcony comfortably Architectural interior design of the boat was also there was a phenomenal amount of planning that went into building this boat. It shows in all areas. Charging $200 for tour of the bridge and engine room is just plain stupid if it was $50 a person, I probably would’ve paid it . The workout facilities were good not as good as my gym membership at lifetime fitness but it worked and I got a good workout every day. Track was also very nice. I use room service once and paid the seven dollar delivery charge and I understand you got offset your labor cost somehow Drink package was good quality of drinks was very good. Ships entertainment live venue was OK. The two comedians were terrible but the Vil show was very funny and good the bar music, particularly the Hispanic group was excellent and the food was also

Date of experience : March 22, 2024

Meh. Just Meh.

Meh. I don't see what the hype is about. Let's start with the food. Not any better than any other cruise line. The reservation process for the restaurants is not great. So many people could not get into a restaurant the whole trip. The "galley" is a good idea (sit down and order) but not great in execution. The entertainment is average. Duel Reality being the best, the rest? Not worth it. The comedian acts were sadly unfunny and crude. The Diva is sad example of entertainment. Not funny. The pool layout is subpar. So small and crowded. The room (Sea Terrace) was decent. Pretty good size room. Though the bathroom in so small only one person can get ready at a time. I will say though, the rain shower was great. We did love the "no gratuities" idea. That is great. Other cruise lines should jump on that. It was so nice not to have crew begging for tips. No one was ever really in your face trying to push things. The "adults" only thing was nice as well. Though I wonder if that was an excuse for the entertainment to be raunchy and crude. Overall, for the money Virgin charges, usually well over $200 usd a night per person, they are not worth it. Even if the price was on par with other Lines, there would no reason to pick Virgin over any other Line.

Date of experience : March 29, 2024

The Resilient Lady is a lovely, modern ship. The restaurants, food and staff are exceptional. I am, however, disappointed by the lack of concern over what could become quite a problem. I was bitten by something in my cabin. The bites look quite like those of a bed bug. It took 3 visits for an investigation and I never received an update from them. I was promised a call and was to have my laundry done-never happened. Another in our group was also bitten and I've since discovered another on a different floor. The manager was not interested and seemed not to want to take any precautionary measures to prevent a possible outbreak or that I may take it home. I spent a rather unpleasant 2 weeks with weeping itchy bites. Let's hope it doesn't spread.

Date of experience : March 15, 2024

Simply exceptional! Well done Virgin Voyages - Resilient Lady

From start to finish, our Virgin Voyages experience aboard the Resilient Lady was nothing short of extraordinary. Here's why: 1. Engaging Communication: Timely and entertaining emails built excitement and kept us informed. 2. Efficient App: The Virgin app streamlined everything from pre-boarding to post-cruise activities. 3. Exceptional Service: Sailor Services excelled both online and in person, addressing queries promptly. 4. Smooth Embarkation: Despite minor weather concerns, embarkation was efficient, though contingency plans for rain would enhance the process. 5. Outstanding Staff: The crew's warmth and helpfulness added immensely to the experience. 6. Superb Michelin-starred Dining: Fine dining and The Galley Bistro provided exceptional culinary experiences. 7. Luxurious Accommodations: Our Sea Terrace room offered comfort and serenity comparable to a five-star hotel. 8. Abundant Amenities: Bars, entertainment options, and ship facilities catered to every need. 9. Wellness Oasis: The Redemption Spa provided a tranquil escape with top-notch amenities. In conclusion, our experience with Virgin Voyages aboard the Resilient Lady was nothing short of spectacular. From the attentive service to the luxurious amenities and diverse offerings, every aspect exceeded our expectations. While Virgin Voyages may come with a slightly higher price tag, the value proposition is unparalleled, with complimentary offerings ranging from dining to WiFi. I wholeheartedly commend Virgin Voyages for setting a new standard in cruising and eagerly anticipate our next voyage with them. Bravo to the entire team for a job exceptionally well done!

I’ve been on 20 cruises with 7 cruiselines

I’ve been on 20 cruises with seven different cruise lines, if Virgin Voyages is your first ever cruise you’re really setting yourself a really high bar.! Fantastic food and restaurants, amazing that soft drinks is unlimited and included. The only thing is getting used to booking all the restaurants and shows which unfortunately we missed out on some due to high demand and overbooked. Small theatre!

Date of experience : February 22, 2024

Lovely customer service from Nicholas

Been going back and fourth with customer service for a while over an issue. Everyone is always so lovely however, really pleased with Nicholas who I spoke to today. He is one of the supervisors and was really friendly and happy to resolve my problem as quick as possible. I really appreciate it! Thank you so much. We absolutely love Virgin Voyages. We had our first ever one last year and have since booked 4 more.

Date of experience : March 14, 2024

ZERO CUSTOMER SRVICE

I have NEVER felt LESS important to a company than Virgin !! The cruise itself was ok and the service was alright. The ports were lack luster , excursions limited. The dinning availability was awful. Eating dinner at 10pm is NOT ENJOYABLE. The icing on the cake was when we were at their "private" Beach club in Bimini and due to their neglect of pathways, my toe was broken. NOT ONCE did anyone inquire if I was ok after I was in Medical and xray .We disembarked the next day and as they hurled us off for the next group of victims,I was never offered a wheelchair or help getting through disembarkation !!!! The pJ party was great. Other than that ......Terrible experience.

Date of experience : February 25, 2024

First time on Virgin Voyages and I…

First time on Virgin Voyages and I would highly recommend. Zero kids! Must be 18 and over to be on the cruise. It was party like. But lots of fun. Also, don’t forget your red for Scarlett Night! They also strive for a culture of not needing to tip, so not stressing when you don’t have money with you - like at the pool! Lots of shows and activities. The food was great, for the most part - you can skip Razzle Dazzle in my opinion … and everyone else I talked to. Pink agave and Extra Virgin was good. But I’d definitely recommend Gunbae, go see Bayu. He was amazing. We were supposed to go to the DR but due to a medical emergency we didn’t make it. Hope the person is ok. But definitely unfortunate we didn’t make it to the DR though. I’d still travel on Virgin again. They did it right.

Overall a good experience BUT...

Overall a good experience BUT... My fiancee and I went on Scarlet Lady December 27, 2023 through January 2, 2024. Overall we had a good experience, but I am forced to write a negative review because while we were on the ship, I sent my fiancee in for a massage. While getting the massage, she was asked if she wanted to upgrade for $30, and that is when a 3 month-long nightmare of fighting unauthorized charges began. The spa charged us for two full massages, not for an upgrade. Before disembarking, I noticed the double charge on the cruise ship's app and I called the spa manager, who assured me that the charge for the second service was already reversed on her end, but the app, which was almost always buggy did not show it. When my credit card bill came, it was clear that Virgin did not reverse the charge for the spa service that was never performed. I put in a dispute with my Visa card, and Virgin is fighting the dispute. So, unfortunately, Virgin brought this negative review on itself. Even though we really liked the cruise, I wont be cruising with them again because of shady billing. If only they would refund me the $229 for the spa service never rendered, this could have been avoided and they might have had us as repeat customers. Sir Richard Branson, I expected more of a cruise line that bears the Virgin name.

Date of experience : December 29, 2023

Top notch experience

Top notch experience ! From the culinary ; live events ; cocktails ; spa ; gym; pool facilities ; ports and relaxation at its best ! Can’t say enough to invite others to join the Sailors as us that have enjoyed to come aboard !

Resilent Lady: Refinement and gentle manners

This was such a great experience, with like-minded people. The entertainment was great, food also. Casino had fun vibes. You can party with the people, or just enjoy a quite time in your room. Staff were attentive and well trained. Boarding went smoothly as well. It was genuinely a fabulous experience. Highly recommended. (Note price includes: Tips, Food, Essential Drinks, Wifi (very basic and slow), Fitness Classes, and Entertainment). The Resilient Lady is very convenient ship. You just walk a few metres to the lift to go to Level 15 for the main food area. Then if you fancy, Level 7 for ice cream. You can use the 'Cat Walk' on Level 17 to have a nice walk (or run a mile, if you so incline). There are plenty of free activities to do as well. From Quizzes, Trivia, Puzzles or Karaoke. Most importantly, do not forget the Sail Away Party.

Date of experience : March 02, 2024

Sexual Harassment included for no charge

A blackjack dealer named Ricky hit on my wife and propositioned her for sex. I notified Virgin cruises and they did nothing. Not an investigation, not a reprimand...nothing. If you want crew members to try and seduce your wife, Virgin cruises is for you. I've reported this issue to Virgin Sailor Services and their entire executive team and PR team. I have been ignored by everyone and they still let Ricky sail to this day. Pathetic customer service. Criminal crew. You would think sexual misconduct reports would be taken seriously, they are not. You would think they had enough cameras in the casino to go and investigate the footage. They didn't. They have microphones at the tables picking up sounds, they didn't bother to check the recordings. All they were interested in was ignoring my complaint of unwanted sexual advances so they could leave for the next trip as fast as possible, with enough blackjack dealers to keep their tables open and money flowing. DO NOT GO ON VIRGIN VOYAGES!!

Date of experience : December 24, 2023

The best time for our first cruise

We had the best time on the Scarlet Lady. Beautiful ship. You could do as much or as little as you wanted, there was always activities going on. The food was delicious. We are from a small Midwest town and actually probably preferred the Galley food over the nicer restaurants- we don’t know how to be fancy 😂. The excursions were great, we never had an issue finding where we needed to go. Can’t wait to sail again!

Date of experience : February 11, 2024

First Timers with Virgin

We had a superb time. The entire trip had an air of grown and sexy. The food was great, entertainment was fantastic, and the venues were breathtaking. We scheduled our next voyage during the cruise. Oh did I mention, it's adults-only, yay. The cabin was a little smaller than what I'm used to but all areas of the cabin was useable space. So there was so much more in the smaller space. Also, the personal hammock is totally addicting. I relaxed on the hammock every more during sunrise and in the evening for sunset or afterwards. It was complete peace. Finally, the room service was beyond you dreams. On night, around 10PM, I decided to have movie night with my husband. I ordered, popcorn, cheeseburgers, gummy bears, trail mix, soda, and red velvet cake pops (ordered through the app). My total was $7 for the entire feast and it was delivered within 35 minutes.

Too hip or just right? Here's what it was really like sailing on Virgin Voyages for the first time

With a nighttime show called "Never Sleep Alone" that awards golden condoms to participants, an onboard tattoo parlor and in-room music and lighting settings with options like "get it on" and "hangover mode," adults-only Virgin Voyages clearly caters to a kid-free crowd. Still, I had no idea what to expect as I stepped onto Virgin Voyages' Scarlet Lady .

Leading up to its maiden voyage in 2021, Virgin Voyages marketed itself as the cruise line for vacationers who otherwise weren't interested in traditional cruising. It aimed to appeal to those who were young and hip, wanted to party and craved an atmosphere without little kids running around.

Up until recently, I'd only ever sailed with Disney Cruise Line — and with my kids in tow. However, the Virgin Voyages concept has intrigued me since it launched.

Could Richard Branson's edgy Virgin Voyages truly be a perfect match for trips without kids? Or, would I feel completely out of place and overwhelmed by the rock star attitude featured throughout the cruise line's ships?

There was only one way to satisfy my curiosity — I booked a sailing on Virgin Voyages' Scarlet Lady.

Would the four-night cruise from Miami , with stops in both Key West, Florida, and Bimini, Bahamas, impress me enough to consider Virgin Voyages for future trips? Here's what I took away from the experience — and whether I'd cruise with Virgin Voyages again.

For cruise news, reviews and tips, sign up for TPG's cruise newsletter .

There's a surprisingly diverse crowd on board

Like many people, I went into my cruise expecting most passengers (or "sailors," as the line calls them) to be millennials based on the flashy marketing I've seen from the line. Much to my surprise, though, there was a fair mix of people on my sailing.

Sure, there were millennials in their late 20s, 30s and even early 40s — including me, as I fall within the oldest bracket for that generation — but for every 27-year-old on board, there was also someone close to 70 years old like the cruise line's founder, Richard Branson.

Last year, Tom McAlpin, the president and CEO of Virgin Voyages, told TPG's resident cruise expert Gene Sloan that on early sailings of Scarlet Lady, the average passenger age was in the 50s, with plenty on board in their 60s and 70s. Based on my trip, I'd say that is still a pretty accurate representation.

After a few days on board, it became clear that what passengers had in common wasn't the age listed in their passports but rather the shared desire to have a good time. For the most part, my fellow cruisers were a diverse, inclusive and vibrant group of vacationers who were all eager to strike up conversations with others, regardless of age.

Related: First look: 10 things I love about Virgin Voyages' new Valiant Lady cruise ship

The adult-oriented persona isn't as extreme as you might expect

While there is a "Scarlet Night" celebration featuring lots of red lights and sailors donning their best scarlet-colored attire, the atmosphere on board is far from what you'll find in Amsterdam's Red Light District.

The entertainment we experienced fell somewhere between PG-13 and R, though we admittedly headed to bed by 11 p.m., so perhaps offerings leaned more X-rated as the night went on.

There were a couple of shows that I wouldn't want to see with, say, my parents, such as the previously mentioned "Never Sleep Alone." During that event, participants were awarded golden condoms that granted access to a post-show VIP party. However, those adult activities were easy to spot on the agenda, so you could easily skip them if you wanted a more tame cruise experience.

Beyond the evening entertainment, the vibe was similar to what you'd find in Las Vegas . The pools, restaurants, spa, casino and exercise classes all featured plenty of skimpy outfits and adult-oriented jokes and innuendos, though you could avoid anything that was too outside your comfort zone.

Related: 5 cruise lines to try if you just can't stand being around kids on vacation

Dining options are plentiful (albeit hit or miss)

As far as I'm concerned, cruises are for eating — and Virgin Voyages offers numerous places to dine on Scarlet Lady.

In addition to featuring more than 20 grab-and-go spots and traditional sit-down eateries, there's the large Galley venue with various vendors arranged in a way similar to what you'd find in a food court or buffet.

Given all the options available, there were more places than we could try on our first Virgin Voyages cruise. Still, we sought to sample as much as possible during our four-night sailing.

If you're looking for a traditional sit-down experience, six onboard restaurants accept reservations for dinner: The Wake (which serves steaks and seafood), Razzle Dazzle Restaurant (a contemporary venue with vegetarian and American fare), The Test Kitchen (a laboratory-style eatery), Pink Agave (where gourmet Mexican cuisine is on the menu), Extra Virgin (an Italian-inspired venue) and Gunbae (which specializes in Korean barbecue).

Your cruise price covers dining at all of these spots, plus the quick bite options on the ship. However, some restaurants offer buy-up options labeled as "treat yourself" dishes that cost extra. For example, a half-dozen oysters at The Wake are going to set you back an additional $20, but the steak and clam chowder are 100% included.

Besides the main restaurants, there's the previously mentioned Galley, where you can savor everything from sushi roll bento boxes to 24-hour diner food. It is a hybrid of a grab-and-go and dine-in experience, meaning how you order will vary depending on which station you visit.

Additionally, you'll find casual spots that serve ice cream, pizza, poke bowls and more. You can also order room service; the food is complimentary, but there's a $5 delivery fee.

While I appreciated the array of options at our disposal, I found the quality of the food and service to be hit or miss. Some restaurants I loved so much that I went back a second time; at others, I took a solitary bite of food before deciding to move on.

For example, the tuna poke bowl I excitedly tried at the Sun Club Cafe was patently awful, and the sushi rolls at The Galley were disappointing, reminding me of what I'd find in my Texas grocery store.

Similarly, The Wake was lackluster, to say the least. While some fellow cruisers we met enjoyed the restaurant, it was extremely underwhelming during our visit, serving the worst shrimp and grits I've ever had. Not to mention, the service was slow and seafood options were surprisingly limited for a restaurant that claims to specialize in steak and seafood.

It wasn't all mediocre, though.

Gunbae's Korean fare was not only delicious but served in a setting that was an absolute blast to experience. It really captured how Virgin markets itself by offering staff-led drinking games and communal seating that encourages socializing. We had such a great time there that when we walked into a quiet and sparsely populated restaurant on our last night, we turned around and went back to Gunbae for a repeat experience that was just as memorable as our first visit.

Pink Agave was another standout restaurant. It didn't offer as much of a party vibe as Gunbae, but it still felt lively and served a solid selection of Mexican dishes.

Related: Cruise ship restaurant nirvana: The 9 best meals you can have at sea

The cabins are decent but could be improved

Unless you splurge on a pricy RockStar suite , you'll be placed in a cabin that looks modern but otherwise seems fairly standard, other than the fancy mood lighting.

Our Sea Terrace cabin was spotless and stayed true to the modern theme featured throughout the ship, but it wasn't the most comfortable spot on the whole.

While we enjoyed the red outdoor hammock that was shockingly comfortable and not merely a cute, Instagram-worthy gimmick, as well as the selection of in-room movies, which ranged from the original "Top Gun" to newer releases like "Elvis," the rest of the cabin left a lot to be desired.

The bathroom was quite small, to the point where it bordered on being a claustrophobic experience.

The bed was also rather hard and uncomfortable for my personal tastes, so much so that by the last night of our trip, I was ready to return to my more inviting setup at home.

Additionally, unlike Disney Cruise Line, where cabin attendants make it a point to get to know you and your preferences, Virgin Voyages lacked the same personalized service. I never interacted with a person in charge of our cabin, as it would be serviced while we were out (after pushing a button that sent the request to the crew) by a person that, to us, remained nameless and faceless.

Related: Virgin Voyages to debut cruise loyalty program in 2023, with temporary perks available now

The private beach club is top-notch

While other ports of call vary based on the sailing, a constant for Scarlet Lady is a stop at its private beach club in the Bahamas.

Situated on the island of Bimini, this spot was, in a word, fabulous.

Although it's not quite a private island like Royal Caribbean's CocoCay and Disney Cruise Line's Castaway Cay, that doesn't really matter. You'll feel like you're in an exclusive setting after taking the open-air tram from the ship's dock to the modern, beautiful beach club.

The club offers a couple of large pools, ample lounge chairs and towels, plenty of bars and a picture-perfect beach. A swim-up bar would have been nice, but that's being picky.

During your visit to the club, any drinks you order are charged to the ship, so bar tab credits you have during your cruise will work here, too. The food, which ranged from snapper steamed in a banana leaf to a salad featuring Bahamian mango and macadamia, is included, though some dishes were better than others. I loved mixing the curry, rice and snapper I ordered all together to create a pretty tasty bowl.

On-island entertainment is available as well, though I can't speak to what happened as the afternoon wore on, as we hit our sun quota by midday. However, rumor has it there was a pool float party that occurred after our departure.

Related: Virgin Voyages hopes to draw cruise newbies like me: Here's my first impression from its first sailing

You won't find the usual cruise experience on board

Virgin Voyages does not simply give its amenities and activities quirky names — like "Lick Me Til Ice Cream" for the onboard ice cream shop. The overall experience is a bit different than what you'll come across on traditional cruise lines.

To start, there are no drink packages — and that was a big complaint I heard on the ship from folks who were used to sailing with other lines that offer unlimited drink inclusion options . Instead, Virgin Voyages offers a bar tab that you can load before you sail. Sometimes bar tab credit is also included with the sailing as part of a promotion.

Blessedly, there are no keycards and associated lanyards to keep up with but rather adjustable bracelets that look like friendship bracelets from middle school. Unlike the ones from your childhood, these have built-in technology that opens your cabin door, allows you to charge things to your account and more.

There are also no set dining times, restaurant rotations or dress codes, though you can — and should — make dinner reservations. As a result, you can dine at whichever restaurant you prefer at a time that works for you.

Other than the cabin cleanings, the crew was more noticeable, too. We saw crew members on the basketball courts, eating in The Galley and just generally out and about around the ship even when they didn't appear to be on the clock, which helped create a more relaxed atmosphere.

Additionally, we didn't have to worry about extra tips, taxes or fees. Tips for the crew, spa services and more are factored into your cruise price, so what you see on the menu really is what you can expect to pay.

Another noticeable (and welcome) difference was how laid-back the line was with announcements and disembarking. Outside of a welcome announcement from the captain on the first day, we didn't hear another peep. On the last day, you just had to be off the ship by a respectable 10:45 a.m., so you could still go to a workout class, play some air hockey and have brunch without feeling rushed to depart.

Related: 21 tips and tricks that will make your first cruise go smoothly

Bottom line

Despite some underwhelming aspects here and there, such as some design choices we didn't love and a very crowded pool area, we had a great time.

The late-night spicy ramen, social atmosphere and fun ports more than made up for any hiccups. For us, it was like a four-day long party without the hangover.

In fact, we had such a great time that before disembarking Scarlet Lady, we put a $300 deposit down on a future Virgin Voyages sailing so we could receive $900 in discounts and credits the next time around.

It's safe to say that overall, the cruise was absolutely worth it — and one we can't wait to do all over again.

Planning a cruise? Start with these stories:

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StarTribune

Tv review: 'star trek: discovery' ends its disappointing voyage.

I have a soft spot for the original "Star Trek" series and believe "The Wrath of Khan" is a genuine classic. "Strange New Worlds," which debuted in 2022, is one of the best adventures in the franchise's history. But I'm no Trekkie. My attempts at a Vulcan salute would probably be interpreted as a gang sign.

So maybe a die-hard fan could explain to me why "Star Trek: Discovery" was such a hit. The series, which starts streaming its fifth and final season Thursday on Paramount+, never tries to wrestle the moral dilemmas with the same gusto that its predecessors did. Capt. Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) takes her cues from James Bond instead of James Kirk, never missing an opportunity to deliver a quip. There's more onboard romance on a "Love Boat" cruise. And the plot in the final episodes seems like a rip-off from "The Avengers," with the rather bland crew racing across the galaxy to locate puzzle pieces.

There are some clever references to past series during these last 10 episodes, but they're reminders that "Discovery" was never in their league. Let's hope the next "Trek" mission is a little more enterprising.

Also this week

'the incomparable mr. buckley'.

William F. Buckley Jr. was a prolific writer who churned out novels and columns for his National Review magazine with spitfire speed. But this "American Masters" edition is most interested in examining the late conservative as a creature of TV, one whose facial expressions were as lively as a Broadway musical. Clips of his series, "Firing Line," make you long for the days when political debate could be entertaining without turning into shouting matches. 8 p.m. Friday, TPT

'Two for One'

Hollywood hotshots are showing their support for Turner Classic Movies by curating some very special double features every Saturday through the end of June. The series kicks off with Martin Scorsese introducing "Blood on the Moon" and "One Touch of Venus," both from 1948. Future guests include Spike Lee ("A Face in the Crowd," "Ace in the Hole"), Patty Jenkins ("The Fisher King," "Synecdoche") and Steven Spielberg ("Jailhouse Rock," "Forty Guns"). 7 p.m. Saturday, TCM

'Dave Attell: Hot Cross Buns'

Nothing is taboo for the New York comic, whose latest special has him riffing on Jeffrey Dahmer, Cracker Barrel and the Jan. 6 riots. The uproarious insults come at such a fast and furious pace that Attell appears to run out of material, filling the last 10 minutes with some tooting on a recorder. Those elementary school instruments are even more annoying when the San Francisco audience joins in. Let's hope Attell keeps the music to a minimum when he appears at Treasure Island Casino on April 26. Netflix

'The Beautiful Game'

Bill Nighy stars as an enthusiastic soccer coach determined to make a good showing at the Homeless World Cup, despite the fact that his best striker never learned that there's no "I" in team. The action scenes aren't as riveting as the ones in "Bend It Like Beckham" or even "Victory," in which we come to believe that Sylvester Stallone could play goalie. But this movie shines when it focuses on the off-the-field interplay among the underdog players. Netflix

Neal Justin covers the entertainment world, primarily TV and radio. He also reviews stand-up comedy. Justin is the founder of JCamp, a non-profit program for high-school journalists, and works on many fronts to further diversity in newsrooms.

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© 2024 StarTribune. All rights reserved.

The Roaming Boomers

Review: american queen voyages.

Posted by David Porter on Tuesday, December 7, 2021 · 2 Comments  

Here is our review sailing with Amerian Queen Voyages.

Carol and I sailed with American Queen Voyages in early November 2021 on the American Empress sailing the Columbia and Snake Rivers.

This was our second journey with American Queen Voyages.  Please read the review of our first sailing with them on the Mississippi River at THIS LINK .

When COVID-19 hit our shores nearly two years ago, interest in U.S.-based river cruises shot through the roof.

Before COVID-19, we saw increased interest in U.S. river cruises which prompted Carol and me to sail with American Queen Voyages back in December of 2019.

Okay, let’s get into the review, and don’t forget to click all photos for larger views .

Our Ship: The American Empress

DECK PLAN. CLICK FOR A LARGE VIEW.

Here are a few fun facts about the Amerian Empress:

• As you can see, she is a paddle wheeler with a “gold rush” feel on the interior.
• All Riverview Staterooms
• 112 Staterooms with a maximum of 221 guests.
• On the top deck, we enjoyed a Suite with Veranda (A), suite #405.

And when we weren’t enjoying our comfortable suite, we could be found enjoying the rocking chairs at the very front of the ship.  It was a fabulous way to take in all of the scenery.

Views of our Suite With Veranda (A)

We found our suite to be comfortable, and with 332 sq. ft to roam around in, we didn’t ever find ourselves crawling over one another. Although, as you can see in the third photograph, the bathroom is on the small side.

In the fourth slide, you can see that the fourth deck offers semi-private verandas.  However, we spent no time on our veranda as rocking chairs called to us from the front of the ship, steps away from our suite.  If you prefer, decks two and three offer private verandas in the smaller veranda staterooms (200 sq. ft.).

Dining Aboard the American Empress

We were on one of American Queen Voyages’ Wine Cruises.  Therefore, besides a wide variety of cuisine available each night, we also enjoyed two wine-pairing dinners as well as a few wine tastings in the show lounge.

When I am on a cruise, I gravitate to menu options that are local.  So, as you might imagine, I enjoyed a lot of Pacific Northwest salmon and halibut.  However, if you prefer a steak, prime rib, or lobster, those options are readily available.

While formal attire is not required, the Astoria Dining Room (pictured below) is a more elegant setting, where the River Grill is a far more casual atmosphere.  Further, alcoholic drinks are always complimentary on an America Queen Voyages cruise.

We often enjoyed a piping hot mug of coffee and Bailey’s while sailing and rocking in our rocking chairs.

Shore Excursions

Unique to American Queen Voyages, we had four of these coaches following along on our journey to offer complimentary hop-on-hop-off shore excursions.

After breakfast each day, the four coaches were lined up and ready to take us on a circular tour of our destination where you could hop on or hop off at your pleasure.  And if you prefer, you could simply stay on the coach and listen as a local tour guide shared information about the destination.  We found this to be a delightful way to explore a destination.  If we desired to spend more time at one of the sights, there was always another bus coming around the loop in roughly 30 minutes.

In addition, there are also optional tours that were more far-reaching to explore other not-to-be-missed sights.  Here is a photograph I shot on the optional tour through the Columbia River Gorge.

And here is a shot of the renowned Multnomah Falls that I captured on the same optional tour.

I could go on and on, but alas, this article is getting a bit long.  We LOVED this journey and highly recommend you enjoy a river cruise on the Columbia & Snake Rivers from our friends at American Queen Voyages.

Oh, and for our next American Queen Voyages journey, I’ve got my eye on one of their new ships coming to Alaska. I will let you know more about that in another article.

If you have questions about this journey, please ask them in the comments section below.  I’m more than happy to answer your questions.

How to Book American Queen and Get Our Exclusive Perks

The American Queen Steamboat Company is a part of our Virtuoso Voyages program.  This means that when you book an American Queen sailing through Roaming Boomers Travel Services, you will receive exclusive complimentary amenities that you wouldn’t get by booking directly with the company.

Additionally, you will also enjoy our expert hands-on service and care for your booking.  And, the price is exactly the same booking with us or booking with the company.

For more information or to book an American Queen Steamboat Company river cruise, please call Roaming Boomers Travel Services at (480) 550-1235 or use our convenient online information request ( click here ) and we’ll reach out to you.

Additional Links:

• American Queen Steamboat Company
• Best Way to Book an Ocean or River Cruise
• Seven Reasons Why You Should Consider a Cruise on the Columbia & Snake Rivers

About Virtuoso Virtuoso® is the leading global network of agencies specializing in luxury and experiential travel, with more than 20,000 advisors. We partner with over 1,800 of the world’s best companies such as hotels, cruise lines, tour operators, and more. Our advisors use their personal connections and firsthand expertise to craft bespoke trips for clients, including unique experiences, special values, complimentary perks, VIP treatment, and rare access.

Category: Travel News & Tips · Tags: American Queen Steamboat Company , American Queen Voyages

2 Comments on “ Review: American Queen Voyages ”

My experience in July 2021 was way different than yours. Food was often served cold. Selections were less that advertised.

We were unable to choose dining times – assigned to what was named “main”. However main was 7:45 pm. Which if you are from East Coast is 9:45 pm.

The River Grille was only opened for breakfast and lunch. Menu items were extremely limited – and as cold as the main dining room options were, the Grille was even colder and hard.

Maybe having the Viking experience has given me high standards. I will be waiting for Viking to do the American River cruise experiences in the future.

Cruiser1203,

If you traveled with them in July of 2021, you must have been on one of their very early cruises after Covid. All cruise lines were having service issues here and there as staffing was a real problem. I’m so sorry to hear that you encountered an issue; I’m confident that the service issues have been resolved as we experienced none of that. Thanks for reaching out.

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