thrifty99

A big difference compared to Royal Caribbean is there are very few chair hogs. We came out at 8am to the pool and were the only ones here. Someone did come down around 8:30 and put towels on two of the big loungers next to the pool. On Royal, over half the chairs have things on them by 8am on a sea day. An interesting thing they do is stack all the normal deck chairs at night. They are now just setting them up at 9am. So you really can’t save a normal lounge chair until after 9am.

There was a nice little group of us watching the eclipse on the bow of the ship. The skies cleared up right around the total eclipse time. We even saw a shooting star. Great way to end the day. I was able to share photos my son was texting me from California where he was using a telescope. I attached one of them.

You can see from my profile photo that I enjoy astronomy as a hobby. Here are some photos I’ve taken with my telescopes.

Hoping the clouds break as I’d like to enjoy the lunar eclipse tonight from the sea. The clouds break for a moment but then roll back in.

Made it to the Duel Reality show tonight. This is the one show I wanted to be sure I saw. It is an enjoyable acrobatic style show. The venue is much smaller / more intimate than the typical large theater on a cruise ship. I highly recommend this show. Attached is a brief clip. IMG_7595.MOV

We had dinner tonight at Extra Virgin, the Italian restaurant. Enjoyed the food and great service. We had calamari, cheese & meat tray, meatballs, seafood pasta, New York strip steak, sea bass, the “donuts”, and Affogato trolley (cart) which was like the fireworks grand finale of the meal... Chocolate gelato, whiskey gelato, with espresso poured over, sambucca whip cream, and white chocolate chips / merengue chips on top. OMG it was good.

We were at a beach in the Dominican Republic today. Crazy 1 hour+ off road ride to get there. Would not do it again as the advertised 45 minute ride was over an hour each way. This was the Coconut Bay All Inclusive Beach Day. They also have a zip line adventure at this location. We had a closer beach excursion scheduled but they cancelled it for some reason the first day we were on the ship and this was the only beach excursion left with short notice. The beach was nice and lunch was ok. But almost 2.5 hours round trip to spend less than 3 hours on the beach was not a good balance. Yes, it was advertised as a 45-minute off road adventure to the beach. Reality was a drive down gravel roads full of ruts and bumps. Totally covered in dust from the ride each way. Made the best of it and we did get to see how the real Dominican Republic residents live, but wish our closer beach excursion had not been cancelled.

Thanks for the info on the larger group karaoke. That dish was a tomato based dish that was a substitute for the peas & egg dish as my wife does not like peas. I forget what it was called. They poured a tomato purée over it as well.

Today was cloudy and rainy for a large part of the day. Did some more exploring on the ship. There are not as many “rainy day” activities on the Scarlet Letter as other cruises we’ve done on other lines. We did the Salty Trivia which is a typical trivia game and watched another game show “Scoop - There it is”. Most of the other daily activities involved exercise related events or spa / health related events. We ended up watching a movie in our cabin. We enjoy participating in and watching more trivia, contests, karaoke, etc. but even the karaoke is done in small private rooms for about 4 people versus a big lounge for all to enjoy. We did stop and watch an exercise class this morning. It looked like everyone was having a great time. It was kind of like a Richard Simmons class… the instructors leading it were awesome. Our food today started with breakfast at Razzle Dazzle which is the mainly vegetarian venue. Fortunately I was still able to get a nice breakfast of eggs, potatoes, bacon, and fruit. For lunch we each had a pizza. It was a good pizza with a nice thin & light crust that I prefer. Dinner was at the Test Kitchen which is the experimental experience. Unique flavors and presentation of the 6 courses. We have done similar on Royal Caribbean in their Wonderland restaurant and I’d give Royal the win on this concept. The Test Kitchen food was very good though and the staff presented and explained it well. The music was very loud and the waiter even mentioned he was going to get it turned down as he was having a tough time describing all the dishes over the loud music. It never did get turned down. The rain stopped this afternoon but the sun never came out. We sat by the pool. There is just not a lot of seating around the pool and I wonder how crowded it gets when at 100% capacity. My wife also mentioned it is all steel grey decoration / design around the pool versus brighter colors. They have a couple of hot tubs but they also only have space for about 8 people each. I spent a little time in the casino. I did like there is no smoking that I could see. Very few were using the casino so it does not seem to be as popular. Hoping we get a little better weather tomorrow. Here are a few photos today from around the ship and our meals.

I forgot to mention we relaxed a bit before dinner at The Dock. It is a nice open air bar and eatery at the rear of the ship. Some interesting seating… large lounge “beds” and some low to the ground wood chairs and tables. Speaking of seating… one could make a coffee table photo book of all the unique seating areas on the ship. I’ll post some photos this week of them. We had some shrimp and octopus skewers at The Dock.

We are staying in a Sea Terrace (Ocean View Balcony) cabin. It is a nice size - I don’t get too hung up on cabin size. I just like / need a balcony as I can get claustrophobic at times. The only comparison I can make is to Royal Caribbean ships. I do prefer the storage / closets of Royal Caribbean better. This cabin has just a couple of drawers (4) with two of them only 2 inches deep. I bring some strong magnet hooks and this helps for some extra clothes hanging. The balcony is small but functional. The hammock could be nice to hang out in. The room is much more high tech than other cruise lines. You have a tablet to control the TV, order room service, request maintenance, control lights, control room temperature, and even open/close the window curtains. The entertainment in cabin is much better with a nice selection of on demand movies to watch for times you want to relax a bit in the cabin.

Had a delicious dinner at The Wake tonight. Another tip… schedule dinner around 6:00 - 6:30 and you will enjoy a nice view while departing Miami. We left port at about 6:45 tonight and enjoyed the view as we sailed away. For dinner we had clam chowder as an appetizer and the Hanger Steak and Salt Crusted Dorade for entrees. We had sautéed mushrooms and twice baked potatoes. The Dorade is a white fish and has a great presentation. They cook it in a salty pastry. Then they bring it to your table and remove the pastry which the skin adheres to. A beautiful and delicious piece of fish remains and they drizzle a caper lemon butter sauce on top. It was wonderful. For dessert we had the baked Alaska and chocolate mouse tart (which was luscious). I forgot to get photos of the desserts.

Yes, just checked and craps is $10 minimum

A supervisor working on getting the test results told me there were just under 1000 on this cruise which would put it around 37%. Heard a few different numbers so not sure what is truth.

Well, check-in went very fast and smoothly until the “waiting for the test results”. It’s been about 45 minutes for us so far and some around us have been waiting 90 minutes. Must be some glitch in getting the results posted. Recommendation - get your own test if possible as those people are walking right on.

That’s a nice number. Not too empty and not too crowded.

If you don’t care as much about the extra cabin space but want the extra services, consider doing an Ocean View balcony with The Key and Unlimited Dining Plan. We have done this and paid $19.99 each per day for The Key = $280. The UDP cost $175 each = $350. For $630 we had the nice benefits of reserved seating for shows, priority boarding / disembarking, and a WiFi account for each of us. We get to eat all week in any restaurant. We usually buy WiFi anyway so the $630 additional is actually only about $430 since we don’t have to buy the WiFi plan. . This is a way to sort of create a suite experience without paying much more for even a junior suite. This is great on the larger ships that have more restaurants and shows.

What??? I heard we had the ship to ourselves!!! 😀 I’ve heard it may be a low passenger sailing (700 - -800) but will know for sure later today. Safe travels to the ship!!

We are boarding later today (2pm) for our first Virgin cruise. We have sailed many times on Royal Caribbean and looking forward to trying something different. Feel free to ask any questions.

We will do a Junior suite for the larger bathroom and extra points when it is not too much more than our standard Ocean View balcony. The good deals don’t happen too often. For example, we sailed in Feb on a 7-night Navigator cruise in a Junior Suite for $2,400 and it was part of their “double points” promotion. We felt it was a good deal to do the suite for the extra room and earn 28 C&A points for the one trip. Our best deal was a 2 bedroom suite 7-night Southern cruise on Adventure. 3 of us sailed for $3400. Wish I could find that deal again!!! The Junior suite normal price tends to be near double the price of the OV balcony and we’d rather take 2 cruises in a balcony vs one in a Junior suite for the same money.

Thanks Biker. I did try a search but my search words didn’t find this earlier thread. Admins - feel free to delete this thread.

I only found this link to the CDC cruise ship tracking this week. It appears it updates daily. Yesterday there were 71 ships in Orange status and today there are 64. There are 92 ships being tracked. Orange means 0.3% or more of total passengers and crew. So 2500 on board = 7 or more cases. I’m sure others have been following this. What is the highest number you’ve seen in Orange or Red status? https://www.cdc.gov/quarantine/cruise/cruise-ship-color-status.html

Thank you Irene. How was the atmosphere on the ship this week with so few people? I heard you have about 500?

Any news of Covid cases onboard? I see Scarlet Lady is on orange status with some cases. Orange means at least 0.3% of passengers and crew have tested positive. If crew is about 1100 and someone posted there are only 500 passengers this week so that would be 1600 total. The 0.3% cases would mean at least 5 cases onboard.

How many are on your sailing? If you find someone to ask, I’m curious how many are on the next sailing leaving this Friday as we are on that.