CruisingWalter

Ok we need to cruise with you next time. Our luck isn't anywhere close to that. 😆

I'm glad to hear the reviews were helpful. Yes it was very cool seeing the crew members just be themselves. I mean ALL the cruise lines crews are amazing and they are the reason we keep coming back to cruising for travel. But the VV crew definitely had a more laid back and comfortable vibe about them. 🙂

3?!?!? We were only invited to one. Our friends were invited to 2. I don't think I've heard of anyone being invited to 3. Did you play the lottery when you got home?!? 😄

It will be interesting to see what differences there are between Valiant and Scarlet. There does seem to be more complaints about food quality on Valiant. Not sure if it's a supply thing in Europe, different chefs, or something else entirely. For the most part folks are praising Scarlet Lady's food, but the reaction seems to be mixed for Valiant.

The only constant in life is change. Embrace it! 😀

Yes, they were sealed. We purchased them at a liquor store in South Beach, went with the Fee Brothers brand as I use them at home as well. Orange oil simple syrup?!? I have not tried that one yet. I make my own Panela Simple Syrup, Mint Syrup and Ginger Syrup but have not tried orange oil syrup. That sounds amazeballs.

Glad the episode was helpful! Yeah that Single Sailor pricing is very sweet compared to Royal, especially when you factor in the inclusions. As for the design, if all ships were the same that would be boring. 🙂 The intimacy of Scarlet Lady really works for that cruise and that vibe. The wide open spaces of Royal Caribbean really works for that cruise line and their vibe. The 'luxury resort' spaces on Celebrity really work for their vibe. That's why I find it very hard to compare cruise lines because even the ship design reflects their vibe and personalities. They are all incredibly similar yet so incredibly different. I think that's why we've been on 8 different cruise lines (and counting) because we love exploring the variety that comes with cruising. Again, thanks for the kind words and I'm glad the episode was helpful.

Sorry for the delayed response, I didn't get a notification or I missed it. The wind can be a bit much around the side of the balcony at times, but the hammock is actually well protected by a barrier. But it's a really nice, wide open balcony for relaxing. The only thing is the lack of furniture. So much empty space out there and it would have been nice to at least have a table for four. 🙂 You get two loungers, two chairs and the smallest round table I've ever had on a balcony. We did ask the Rock Star Agent for two more chairs and they were delivered on the third day of a 5 night cruise. Yes, the bar is fully included in your suite. You get one set up and that includes the fridge as well. Of course all the Coke products can be refilled as they are included in your fare. Now the bar was missing rum and bourbon when we got there, so we asked our Rock Star agent to get some and he did. Brought two full bottles. We did bring simple syrup and bitters onto the ship with us but we were able to ask the Rock Star Agent to get limes, lemons and other mixers for us so we could make proper cocktails. https://youtu.be/B4I6YJtueuo Here's a tour of our suite which was 12011A. https://youtu.be/Dy04dQH5abI I also have a full food tour and full review of Scarlet Lady on the channel as well that might be helpful for your research. Again my apologies for the delayed response. 🙂

As others have noted your Rock Star Agent will be able to help with restaurant bookings and from what we heard onboard, the restaurants themselves always hold reservations from the pre-booking. That allows guests to make reservations once they are onboard. We really didn't see our Agent all that much during the cruise, we primarily had him get some different liquors for the bar as we were missing Rum and Bourbon. He also arranged to get us limes, lemons and other mixers so we could make some proper cocktails. Your bar has all the cocktail tools, but the they don't give you any mixers. We brought Simple Syrup and bitters onboard with us because I love to play mixologist. But I still needed a few things and they were able to get some supplies for us from the bartenders. The one thing that may surprise you about all the meals is how long they take, compared to other cruise lines where the meals tend to be much shorter so they can flip the tables. The Test Kitchen for example was a 2 1/2 hour dining experience. They absolutely do not rush you at all with any of the meals on Scarlet Lady. In fact we had to tell the servers at Extra Virgin that we only had 70 minutes for our meal because we were coming from a Secret Show and headed to Duel Reality after dinner. So instead of a four course meal, they turned it into a three course meal serving the pasta and entree together. That was awesome and I highly recommend the affogato coffee dessert. But all the dinners onboard are a relaxed dining experience. It's quite lovely, but something to be aware of if you have reservations for an after-dinner show. As for the experience onboard, we did just post a review on our YouTube channel that focuses on what the experience is really like, not just the 'weird and crazy stuff.' 🙂 I hope this is helpful. We also have a full food review on the channel as well where we eat most everything. https://youtu.be/-R0imB73ajg

When The Galley is slow, you can walk up to any food station, place your order and take your food. When The Galley is busy, they want you to go to a table, use the QR codes on the table and place an order with a server, restaurant style. Each table in The Galley is numbered so they know where to find you. I will say in our one experience with a busy Galley on the morning of our Puerto Plata visit, the 'restaurant style' approach broke down. Servers running around, ignoring our table for a good 5 minutes or so. The chef at "Let's Taco About It" noticed we were getting ignored and walked over to take our order himself. At that point, a server noticed the chef with us and finally stopped to take our orders. In the future I hope VV allows guests to place any order at any food station ourselves and if they want the servers to bring the food to us, that'll be fine.

If I were to guess, I would say Equinox at 25 since that was designed for the larger Edge class ships and Infinity at 29 since it's the smaller ship. But that's just a guess. Good to know about that shuttle service if we should ever need it.

That seems to be a constant for every dang parking garage at a cruise terminal. When we disembarked the Carnival Mardi Gras in Port Canaveral in March there were literally hundreds of people waiting for two elevators. I ended up carrying the luggage up one flight of stairs. 🙂

If this is helpful for anyone who wants to know what it's "really like" on the Scarlet Lady, our review just went live yesterday. I approached this review from the perspective of the things that surprised us and things we were not expecting when we boarded the ship. Like how the ship had a vibe more like Celebrity Cruises vs. a "party ship."

I don't really have much to complain about with RCI as we have had very good experiences with them in the past and will be sailing Symphony in December for the first. time. But what I can offer is that we have sailed 8 different cruise lines now over 18 cruises. We have yet to have a bad cruise, but certainly some experiences have been better than others, even across the same cruise line. I know there are folks who stay loyal to one cruise line, but we've very much enjoyed the variety of experiences, particularly in terms of food and entertainment. The one constant across all the cruise lines is the warmth of the crew, but the quality of the food and the overall value of the cruise itself varies widely. But again, we've never had a bad cruise. If you want to elevate your food experience and try a different cruise line, I would highly recommend Virgin Voyages, Celebrity Cruises and NCL. But with the caveat that NCL's main dining room is meh, but it's the specialty restaurants where they shine, particularly Ocean Blue and Food Republic. Of course Disney has an amazing food game too, but their premium pricing is the reason we've only taken one Disney cruise. NCL also has the lovely waterfront area on the Breakaway class ships and the images I'm seeing from the first sailing on the PRIMA look absolutely stunning. If you're interested in trying another cruise line and you really enjoy good food, here's two episodes we recently published on the Scarlet Lady. The food game totally lived up to the hype and with every single meal included, it was like eating out at a restaurant every single night. Also, all soft drinks and really good WiFi is included too. My wife was able to stream TikTok all day long with the basic WiFi, I upgrade to the higher speed for $10/day and was able to do two, one-hour livestreams from the ship no problem. This is the overall review of the ship, presented from the perspective of what the ship experience is really like, not all the 'weird and click bait stuff' from other vlogs. The overall vibe is more like Celebrity than what we expected. https://youtu.be/-R0imB73ajg This is a full food review where we ate pretty much everything. 🙂 https://youtu.be/pBolzKvXjMU I really do hope you will try another cruise, either with RCI or another cruise line. Since you have six cruises with RCI, you might want to try Celebrity as they do share cruise points. Celebrity is an elevated experience over RCI. We have only sailed four Solstice Class ships so far and I'm eyeing the Beyond when she comes over for the winter season. But you'll find those ships to be more of an 'adult resort' vs. a family playground. Variety is the spice of life and there are something like 350 cruise ships sailing right now. I encourage you to try more options and not let one bad cruise experience turn you away from another amazing vacation.

You can totally survive on the Grab N Go. I think we went through at least four of those charcuterie boxes over the course of the cruise. Those were legit, really awesome. With a few slices of bread you could make amazing sandwiches if you wanted to. There are least two Grab N Go stations. One on Deck 7 as you walk out onto The Dock at the aft of the ship. And one in The Galley on Deck 15 as you head out to the pool area. They're loaded with breakfast items in the morning. The Grab N Go lunch and charcuteries during the day and I'm honestly not sure if they're still running at night as I didn't look But The Galley is running at night which is essentially a huge grab N go. 🙂

Oh yeah, that mousse was there most days at the Grab N Go in The Galley. So freaking good. 🙂

We just posted a 30 minute review on our YouTube channel that might give you some more insight on what the ship experience is really like vs. the perception. Beyond my original written answer above, this might be helpful for you as well as it does answer some of those 'differences' question. https://youtu.be/-R0imB73ajg

Wow, you are too kind. I'm glad the review was useful! We were so surprised by how different the ship and cruise experience really was onboard. I just tried to present an honest look at what the ship is really like vs. the 'perception' to allow folks to make a more informed decision on whether to cruise VV or not. Thanks again for the kind words!

You can bring booze onboard from any port, but it will be taken by the crew and returned to you the final night of the cruise. This is true for any cruise line. Your bags will be x-rayed when you come back on board the ship at each port. As for take-away, I'm honestly not sure. You can certainly take away from The Galley, and there is the Grab N Go both at The Galley and The Dock. Your best bet is to stop by the restaurants and ask the host if it's possible to get a meal to go. As others have noted, they do not advertise this, nor do they seem set up for it, but it's possible you can ask for an order 'to go.' Certainly much more selection in the restaurants than what you get from the room service which can be lacking. I will say that the room service quality was a step above what we've received on other cruise lines. And don't forget the Diner And Dash in The Galley is your 24 hour eats, and if you want coffee after the Grounds Club locations close (they do close early) you can go to Sip Champagne bar. They make an awesome cappuccino there.

We've heard from a few others that they had what sounds like better food than us. That fish I in the episode was so dry it was very difficult to even cut in to. But the beach resort itself was so lovely that we had a great time there. That beach and the gentle shallows walking out into the water was so lovely. It's definitely my favorite private cruise resort at the moment. As for Slam Allen, yeah he was amazeballs. There was a solo singer who appeared in On The Rocks as well who was quite good as well. The music overall on that ship is quite impressive. Thanks so much for the kind words!

Thanks for the kind words and I'm glad we achieve our goal. The very questions that started this thread were precisely what I was trying answer and convey what the ship is really like, not all the 'crazy and wild' stuff that seems to permeate all the other vlogs. A friend of ours who is a prominent cruise vlogger really had no interest in VV until we told her what it was really like onboard. When you're actually onboard the ship, the experience runs counter to what we were expecting. Jealous that you're going back onboard already. I'm still hoping we can get on one of the 8 night Valiant cruises while she's here for the winter season. The only complaint about our cruise was that 5 night was just not long enough. 🙂 Again, my sincere thanks for the kind words!

@Don Kehote as promised our full Scarlet Lady Review is now live for your viewing pleasure. I approached this review from the perspective of things that surprised us or that we did not expect on Scarlet Lady based on other vlogs. Enjoy!

Well first off, THANK YOU for the kind words about the Food Tour on our Where's Walter TV channel. I'm really glad that was useful for you and we happen to have a full Scarlet Lady Review dropping tonight or Saturday morning which answers a lot of your questions. We're having fun with the channel and our TikTok channel as well. But Question 1: No, you won't die. The ship is very laid back and casual. I think the vibe onboard the ship is very similar to Celebrity. What you see in a lot of the vlogs is the 'sexy and weird' stuff because they need clicks and views. But in reality, it's actually a very laid back and quiet ship for the most part. The casino is non-smoking if you like to play the games in there. The super loud event will be Scarlet Night but the loudest part is up at the pool deck and I have to admit, it is SPECTACULAR. But bring your ear plugs. Other than that, the 'loud shows' are in The Manor or the Red Room. I would recommend Duel Reality in the Red Room, it's a cool show and the Diva drag show in The Manor, super fun. Question 2: Tony at La Lido Loca did an episode about being tall, old and fluffy, noting how welcome he felt on the ship. The ship is very much 'come as you are.' You can tell they realized they messed up the original marketing because there are people OVER 60 on the website now. 🙂 You can be as quiet or as loud as you choose to be. Daytime trivia, arts and crafts, scavenger hunts, the AWESOME retro arcade that had this kid from the 80's having flashbacks. 🙂 We're 56, I'd say the average age was between 45-55 on our cruise with some folks clearly in their 80's or 90's. Question 3: Nothing says you have to talk at all. If you're concerned crew members or the Happenings team will continually be coming up to you to ask you to have fun or do something, they won't. In fact you don't even have any photographers on board to bother you. I'm willing to bet you could go the entire cruise without saying a word if you so choose. Could cause some issues ordering food, but you could do it. 🙂 It WILL be different than HAL but honestly, not all that different except for the crew. The crew is much more casual and laid back on VV while HAL is very traditional and more starched. Both offer excellent vacations and I think you did it the right way around. HAL then VV. If you did it the other way around you'd feel like you're getting nickeled and dimed on HAL for all the things that are included on the Scarlet Lady. Again, my sincere thanks for the kind words on the food tour! 🙂

Now THAT is a good summation of the VV experience we had on Scarlet Lady. 🙂

The changes are more subtle than in your face. No cruise director, they have a Happenings Crew with various 'leaders' like The Gamer, The Foodie, The Diva who all run their own elements of cruise entertainment and activities. Also no daily announcements of any kind except to let us know when we can leave the ship in port. If you want to see the 'morning show' you have to go down to Deck 6 in the Roundabout around 10:30 in the morning to see the live show that is performed there. They don't do that silly 2am pre-taped morning show. No photographers. No nickel and diming you to death with every food or drink item. No upselling you at every corner. And the crew is well paid, and they have free WiFi so they're not being overly sweet hoping for that tip at the end of the cruise. You already paid a gratuity and they know that. That is a noticeable change. It's a very intimate ship. No three story atriums or four story main dining rooms. Almost all the public spaces are single story so the ship feels much smaller than it really is. It's almost like a mega yacht or a private resort vs. a cruise ship. There is more seating than I think I've ever seen with so many nooks and crannies with seating everywhere. The ship feels like it's designed to encourage socialization with fellow passengers vs. 'showcasing our big beautiful ship.' It's like it's your private resort, kick of your shoes and stay a while. The intimacy carries into the restaurants where they are not just huge boxes with hundreds of people in sight. There are walls, cubbies, nooks, crannies so you feel like you're eating with dozens of people in a more intimate restaurant. Incredibly laid back. No dress code, shorts are fine at dinner, though most everyone was at least business casual. Because you're going to actual restaurants each evening, you really feel like dressing up vs. going to the Main Dining Room where you feel more like cattle. No children is a HUGE difference in the experience and you don't realize just how much until your first full sea day. It's much quieter without the kids and we can be adults and have fun without worrying about 'saying something wrong in front of the kids.' Of course the main entertainment is basically unlike anything else out there, but the small venue entertainment will be very familiar. Singers, small bands, guitarists and the like. You're treated like adults, not cattle. Because so much is included, it's more freeing and the crew truly works to let you have a good time. The one thing I will add, we did the Rock Star experience, Cheeky Corner Suite, because of a 200% FCC when our first cruise was cancelled due to the shutdown. We upgraded from a Sea Terrace to the suite. Now having done that Rock Star experience I can say it's not necessary to have an exceptional experience on that ship. No matter what cabin you book, everyone on the ship eats at the same restaurants, has access to all the same lounges/bars, has all the same inclusions except Rock Stars get a fully stocked bar. Yes the balconies are larger and we have access to a concierge (Rock Star Agent) with some priority boarding perks. But for me, there's honestly not enough value in paying that extra for the suite when so much is included for everyone. I'll be fine booking the Sea Terrace for future bookings. My only complaint about VV was our 5 day cruise was too short. Hoping to book an 8 nighter on Valiant Lady when she comes over for the winter season.