snarfbeast

Ship: Valiant Lady

Cabin#: 14011 A

Deck #: 14

Cabin Category: Cheeky Corner Suite, Biggest Terrace

Sleeps: 2

Cabin Location: Port, Aft

Terrace/Window/Obstruction: No

Noise Issues?: YES. Every morning at 3am they clean the outside deck on 15. The sound of moving furniture woke us up almost every day. We registered complaints with sailor services and our RS Agent, and are hoping they'll figure out how to move furniture without dragging it.

Wind Issues?: No

Connecting Cabin? Where Does it Connect?: Yes, connects in the far outside corner.

Hammock: Yes

Metal/Glass Terrace: Glass

Advantages/Problems: Great big balcony! Couch, 4 chair dinette set, and two loungers. Way more furniture than you possibly need. Interior is oddly shaped, but large. The little seating area and chair are more useful for storing things than sitting, they're awkwardly placed. 

Would You Book Again?: NO. The noise issue is a deal breaker.

Comments: We are spoiled by the giant balcony. Sitting on the couch or loungers while coming into and leaving port is great! You get the same view from decks 13 and down, so I'd avoid this one if you can due to the noise issue from deck 15.

We just got off the 8 day Valiant cruise as well. The lines were very long, and while I didn't see anyone turned away, every seat in the house was full for shows we saw in the Red Room and Manor. I assume there were people that weren't able to get in.

We were lucky to be Rockstars this cruise, and were told by our agent to arrive 35 minutes before show time (5-10 minutes for Ship Show), and there would be a priority line. That line was let in first, so we had first choice of seats. The big line is let in immediately after priority.

We showed up just as the normal line was entering the Manor for one show (which had a huge line), went to the front to ask if there was somewhere we were supposed to go, and were "cut" into the line and guided into the venue by staff. We ended up way off to the side but got to see the show. 

As far as I know, there were no reserved seats for RS's. For Duel Reality, the RS line went in first, then the big line, then they let people into the upper section when all of the lower section had filled.

Honestly, I would not want to have to wait in line and would likely just skip the shows if we weren't RS. Some of the lines started forming 45 minutes or more ahead of the show, and especially for The Manor, having to manage the line through the Casino must be a pain.

We're booked on the Eastern Caribbean Antilles voyage on Valiant Lady on Apr 6 2024, have been for a while now. This voyage _shouldn't_ be affected by the Brilliant Lady hi jinx, at least it didn't seem like it would be when I looked a few weeks back. It's immediately after the announced changes, so I thought we were good.

However, it no longer appears on the site when I search 2024 Caribbean voyages, which has me a little worried. It looks like this itinerary was removed completely, though we still have the booking. Looking closely at the press release, it sounds like Valiant is taking the shorter cruises out of Miami starting in April. 

I haven't gotten any communication from Virgin about this, and like I said, we're still booked per the website. Did I miss something here?

Ship: Scarlet Lady

Cabin#: 11011Z

Deck #: 11

Cabin Category: Cheeky Corner Suite

Sleeps: 2

Cabin Location: Starboard, Aft

Terrace/Window/Obstruction: None

Noise Issues?: During rough seas, there was a definite "thunk" from below somewhere as the ship rolled side to side.

Wind Issues?: On the March 2022 Mayan Sol voyage, there was a LOT of wind (so much that Bimini was cancelled), but only a little made it into the balcony area, which was actually the perfect amount. Sitting in the Hammock got a bit more.

Connecting Cabin? Where Does it Connect?: Yes, connects via a door in the far outside corner.

Hammock: Yes, positioned away from loungers.

Metal/Glass Terrace: Glass

Advantages/Problems: The shape of the room is pretty awkward, it's a long curve with a sitting area crammed in the far side. The bathroom is large-ish, though long and narrow. Entry into the room dumps right into the closet, which feels a bit more cramped than a room this expensive should feel. There are two sliders to the GIANT balcony, which seems like one more than you really need. The way the balcony wraps around the corner of the ship gives you some pretty nice views when coming into port and while underway.

Would You Book Again?: Likely. If a huge balcony is important to you (it is to us), it's hard to beat this one.

On 7/5/2022 at 9:40 AM, Jmillsarch said:

I checked my Virgin account today and had a credit on my dashboard.

 

We had originally paid $1868 towards our sailing.

 

The credit on my Virgin account is for $1767.02.

 

Not 2x like promised or even 1x what we paid.

 

Weird.

 

James

Similar thing here. The FVC i now see in my account is close to 100% of what we initially paid, but it was broken into two credits of 50% each. I also got a refund of just under $200 on my CC.

When i emailed customer service, their reply was that the 200% credit was split across the two sailors in the cabin. That is the same thing that happened when our July 2020 cruise was cancelled: we ended up with 2 credits: one in my name, one in my wife's. Her credit never appeared in my account because it apparently doesn't connect them unless you have a voyage booked? They "connected the accounts" when we booked a cruise earlier this year, and got both credit amounts.

I (or my wife) will likely call them at some point when they may be less busy and verify that this is the case again. Seems like an odd way to store the data, especially since she we only have the one account to log in with. Her "account" is just her sailor info that was added when i booked.

We were in 11011Z in late March 2022. The terrace wraps around to the side of the ship a bit, so some breeze does make it in, just enough to be pleasant. The wind was pretty high during most of our voyage, which i'm sure made a difference. The area where the hammock is hung is around on the side so it got more breeze than where the loungers are.

Scarlet Lady March 27-April 1 2022 (Costa Maya and Bimini)

For reference, we're a couple, 40-50 age range, no kids. Cruised before on Royal, Carnival, Norwegian.

Embarkation - 

We stayed in Coral Gables the night before, and arrived via Lyft at the Miami terminal at about 1pm. Straight to the testing tent for a covid test, then to the Rockstar lounge waiting area. Results in about 20 minutes, and boarding started at about 1:50pm. No problems, no rush, though we were directed forward towards an area for booking shows and things instead of aft towards our room. All suites were ready when embarkation began, but our big bags took an hour or so to arrive.

Ship - 

My wife commented several times that "she's so beautiful" when we walked down the dock at Costa Maya. Really nice modern decor everywhere. The sitting areas around the ship were well done and mostly comfortable (the low wood chairs on the patio in The Dock were the exception). Our favorite spot was outside the Pizza restaurant. Just enough shade to keep from being hot, with big lounge-y couches and plenty of space.

Note that there were apparently only 600 passengers on this voyage, so things definitely felt open and spacious (even empty in a lot of areas). There's probably plenty of room for the full load of 2700, but this was probably a once in a lifetime voyage for us.

Food - 

Excellent, delicious, plentiful, etc. The Galley is a food court, as people have mentioned, not a buffet. The salads were very good, the desserts were great as well. The burger was a pretty average diner burger, and the tacos were ok, but IMO not up to the standard of the food in the non-Galley restaurants. We didn't try the Panninis. Bento boxes were nice to grab for a snack.

Our favorite was easily Extra Virgin. So good we went for dinner one night and then "pre-dinner" two days later. The Carbonara pasta was the run away winner of the whole voyage for me, but everything we had there was amazing.

Second was probably the Pizza Place. Fresh made thin crust pizza. Mmmm.

The Test Kitchen was a bit disappointing. The stools we sat on were really uncomfortable, and while the food was kind of interesting, it didn't live up to expectations.

We had a good breakfast the last day at Razzle Dazzle. The churros were totally ridiculous, one order is easily dessert for at least 4 people.

The Wake was delicious, we did get a tip from one of the Crew: the Hanger Steak on our voyage was much better than the Filet (which was still pretty good). We also had brunch, the eggs Benedict were very good. Snacks in The Dock were also delicious.

Gunbae was fun and delicious, but so much food! Our server/cook joked that he'd keep cooking stuff until we tapped out.

Room -

We stayed in a Cheeky Corner (11011 A). Odd shape, but a nice big room. The terrace was absolutely huuuge. And it wasn't even the biggest one! You could easily have 6 people out there for a little cocktail party. Furniture was two loungers, two chairs and bistro table. We spent an afternoon at sea lounging out there with drinks from the in room bar. Only minor downside was that the hammock was tucked around the corner.

The bathroom is long and narrow, but the shower is a decent size. I wasn't a fan of the waterfall showerhead, but the wand worked just fine. Really good water pressure and temperature all around.

Crew - 

Probably the best experience we've had with any crew on any ship (or resort for that matter). They all felt genuinely happy to be there, and happy to spend time chatting with Sailors. On other lines, we have the impression that crew needs to behave a certain way, and that they're "the help", if that makes sense. Not so on Scarlet Lady. They weren't just anonymous crew members, they were all individuals with funny/interesting stories, unique hair, body art, etc.

Ports - 

We went to Maya Chan at Costa Maya, and it was excellent. Quiet, delicious tacos for lunch, super friendly staff. That area of the coast is known for sargassum, but they had a crew keeping the beach mostly clear. Highly recommended. Full when we arrived, but 90% left around 1:30pm, so it was just us and another couple until we left at 5ish. The Costa Maya port area itself is just a busy tourist trap.

Unfortunately, weather kept us from docking in Bimini after 2 attempts, so we got another sea day instead. At least we had a nice balcony to hang out on. =]

Shows -

The Diva was really talented and put on a superb show. Never Sleep Alone was... not what we expected. We were not warned that we would be asked to participate a bit no matter what you tell them on the way in. We walked out after about 10 minutes, but others told us that the second half of the show was much better. Everyone dressed up for Scarlet Night, the pool party was moved to The Manor due to weather.

Disembarkation - 

No rush, super easy. We chose the latest disembark time since our flight was later that afternoon. We also decided to take all of our bags with us so we didn't have to deal with them in the terminal. Customs was easy and fast since there were so few people on the ship. With a full load i could see a bottleneck happening if they don't have a full staff.

Overall

9/10, would absolutely book again. I took a point off for not being able to dock in Bimini. We booked another voyage for next year while on board.

We just returned from a voyage on the Scarlet Lady last week. We chatted with one of the crew at the terminal while waiting for our Lyft ride, he said it was $300 (plus tip) for the limo to the airport. The vehicles that were there for the Mega Rockstars appeared to be all big black luxury SUVs.

Thanks for the review, we have been on the Sun 3 times and are booked a 4th time in March for the same itinerary, we have done this itinerary before and always enjoy it. We just got off the Pearl and liked the chocolate volcano cake, do you remember if they had it in the MDR?

Did you tour the ruins with NCL in Costa Maya, we usually just take a cab to the beach area but someday would like to do the ruins.

Thanks again for the review.

They only had the volcano cake on the last night. I wish they'd had it every night, i loved it. =]

We booked all of our excursions thru NCL, i believe there were a couple of ruins trips offered in Costa Maya. We chose one called "Chacchoben and Beach Break" (i think) as it was a full day bundle that included a trip to the ruins, then lunch, drinks, and about 90 minutes at a beach club nearby (Uvero?).

My gf and i just returned from a week in the Western Caribbean on the Sun. We had a great time, here's some quick notes that are hopefully useful to others:

The Sun is an older ship (2001), and capacity is about 2000 guests. For our cruise, we were at about 1500. It never felt crowded, we had no problems getting seats for dinner in the MDR or in the buffet(s). Our room was 1204, a Mini-Suite on deck 11, all the way forward. The Mini-suites don't feel much bigger than a normal balcony room, but the bathroom was enormous in comparison (a full sized shower/tub, separate makeup table area, large closet).

We did not eat at any of the premium restaurants, just the MDR for most nights. The food was good, but nothing special. The New York strip steak stood out as rather poor and overcooked, but everything else was acceptable. My favorites were the pork medallions and pork chop. They are also good at cooking chicken perfectly, every chicken dish we had was moist and pretty tasty. Desserts were bland and not worth the calories until the last night, when they had a variety of special chocolate items. Portions on most items were small, which was a good thing. I ordered two entrees and left out the carbs on the second one and that was plenty of food.

The buffet was not as awkward for breakfast as some other reviews led me to believe, though the placement of the omelette station at the start of the line was a little odd. Head all the way to the buffet lines at the aft of the ship, they seemed to always be the least busy, especially on the first day. That also puts you right on the aft patio, which is a great spot to eat.

Service was great for the most part, though our room attendant never did quite figure out that we almost always went out early for dinner and hit the sack early as well (10-11ish). We usually ended up just getting the activity guide and towels from him when we got back from dinner, which worked out fine.

Room service was just ok. The menu was a little limited, and they do not do any hot breakfast. Sandwiches come with the crusts cut off, and potato chips on the side. The strawberry pound cake was delicious, we had that on several occasions after a dinner in the MDR.

Ports were fun: Roatan, Belize City, Costa Maya, Cozumel. On time in to every port, and no problems getting on or off the ship. We tendered into Belize City, which was efficient if a bit packed. It's only a 15 minute ride, so not a big deal. Note: If you get a single hull tender with outboards, sit as far AFT as you can. You get some gas fumes for a few minutes, but the ride is far smoother. The return trip we caught a two level tri-hull that was much less packed and a much much better ride. We did a cave tubing excursion, which was neat, but too short. You ride in a bus for about an hour each way, hike for 30 minutes or so, and spend maybe 40 minutes in the cave. It's very, very busy, lots of other tubers to run into.

At Roatan we did the Maya Key excursion, and it was excellent. Not much of a taste of Honduras, but relaxing and uncrowded. Snorkeling was excellent! The animal enclosures were neat, though the big cats were a bit sad to see (you can tell they are stressed). All of the animals are rescues of some type, so it's noce to see them being cared for at least.

In Costa Maya we went to the Chacchoben ruins, which was great. It's about an hour bus ride, but i think it was worth it. I'd like to go back someday and spend more time wandering the site.

Our Cozumel excursion was paddle boarding and snorkeling. Paddle boarding was great fun, the snorkeling was not that great. There's just not much of a reef or fish activity in the area we went to (Stingray Beach).

I'm not much of a shopper, so the aggressive shops in and near most of the ports were a negative to me.

Google found me this:

http://www.indelb.com/products/hotel/hotel_electronic_safe/@safe_10e_plus

There's a PDF linked from there that says it's 6 1/4" x 11 3/8" x 6 11/16".