CruisingWalter

Glad it was helpful. My YouTube channel has a playlist for Scarlet Lady including a food tour, cabin tour and either tomorrow or Monday it'll have my full review. The food tour will really give you a good sense of the quality and service. Here's the channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/WheresWalterTV Here's the food tour. Hope it's helpful. 🙂

As GT is the measure used to call a ship "The biggest ship in the world" surpassing the Oasis Class I have to suspect that's what the VP of Hotel Operations was referring to in this article from May. Each successive Oasis ship has been dubbed the "biggest ship in the world" based on GT. "As reported by Travel Weekly, the Senior Vice President of Hotel Operations, Sean Treacy, confirmed, “Icon will be the biggest. It launches in the fall of next year and will be the first new ship class for Royal in a decade,” Sean Treacy said. It was further confirmed by a spokesperson for the cruise line, who said: “Icon-class ships will be bigger than our Oasis-class.” https://www.cruisehive.com/icon-of-the-seas-will-surpass-oasis-class-ships-as-biggest-in-the-world/71772

Not sure if you can mirror to the TV, I'd doubt it unless you bring an HDMI cable and connect directly like the person mentions above. If you want to stream video, you'll need to upgrade to the higher speed WiFi. My wife was able to stream TikTok just fine with the base WiFi, but could not stream YouTube or any other video service. I paid $10/day for the high speed and was able to do two one-hour livestreams from the ship and could stream video from most any service.

All the venues can offer health conscious meals I believe. The Test Kitchen is definitely the lightest meal because it's a micro gastro experience. We recently sailed Scarlet Lady and I did post a full food tour of our journey that might give you a sense of what it's all about. It's a really really good food experience, one of the best we've had in our years of cruising.

As others have said 7:30 was the earliest folks could walk off. For flying on disembarkation day, I would never book before 2:00pm just in case.

Hey there. So my wife and I have sailed Royal, Carnival, Celebrity, NCL, Princess, HAL, Disney and most recently Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady. Going into the VV cruise, I was prepared to be a 'one and done.' We originally booked the cruise because we really liked what VV was pushing with their food game. WE love good food, so we figured, let's go for it and booked pretty much as soon as the bookings opened here in the states. 3 years later we finally sailed Scarlet as a Rock Star in a Cheeky Corner Suite. I was totally wrong. The Virgin experience FAR exceeded my expectations and I'm ready to book more VV cruises. And the experience is FAR different than what I was expecting based on the vlogs we watched. First off, we found out that many of the crew are from Disney, Seabourn and Celebrity. The level and quality of the service shows. Prior to this cruise I would have told you to get the best service to sail Celebrity or Disney, but Virgin is right on par with both of those lines in terms of service. Secondly, Virgin has one of the highest pay scales in the entire industry AND the crew gets free WiFi. We heard from multiple crew members that the free WiFi is a HUGE. There is no other mainstream cruise line that gives them WiFi. And all crew members are allowed to eat the same restaurants we ate in. They were some of the most relaxed and laid back crew we have ever met, but incredibly attentive and fun. The ship itself is beautiful, I don't think folks really show the ship that well in vlogs and even watching my footage back, it doesn't capture the true feel of the ship. It has a casual elegance about it. At times retro, at times cheeky, at times very elegant. What truly surprised me is how intimate the ship is. There is no 3 story atrium or 3 story main dining room. Most all public spaces are single story, so the ship feels much smaller than it really is. There is so much seating everywhere with tons of nooks and crannies tucked all around the public spaces. Even the restaurants are not big boxes, they also have a lot of nooks and crannies so you feel like your sitting with a couple dozen people, not thousands of people at dinner. The ship honestly feels to me like it was designed to encourage socialization vs. being a big showplace to say "wow, look at this amazing ship we designed!" It was more like " here's your private resort, take off your shoes and stay awhile." In fact there are times you almost forget you're on a ship because it is so intimate. I flat out loved that aspect of all the various seating. The food exceeded all expectations. Prior to this cruise I would have told you Disney has the best food experience with Celebrity right behind. VV is right on par with Disney, with the exception of the Remy restaurant on the Disney Dream and Fantasy. Because all the meals are included, each and every night is a true restaurant experience. You don't feel like cattle lining up for the MDR or helping yourself to a buffet. Going to dinner is a true experience vs. just getting something to eat. We didn't have a bad meal all week with The Wake being the standout both for brunch and dinner and Razzle Dazzle being amazing for brunch. The Test Kitchen was incredibly unique, Pizza Place was AWESOME (egg and truffle pizza, yum!), Pink Agave is both excellent food and they have 120+ Mezcal and Tequila in the bar, Extra Virgin was good, and the food hall concept in The Galley is a step above any buffet except Disney. Most of the food in The Galley is made to order so it's much more fresh than anything you'll get in a buffet. Even the best Royal Caribbean restaurant doesn't hold a candle to the food we had on Scarlet Lady. Although we have not tried Wonderland yet, we will be trying that on Symphony in December. Afternoon tea was probably the best we've ever had at sea, but that's not surprising given that it's a British cruise line. Every single bar I tried was awesome, even the pool bar makes awesome cocktails. Usually the pool bar is your frozen slushy and beer bar, but this one was really good. On the Rocks is an awesome bourbon bar. Sips Champagne lounge is your late night coffee stop as well, they have one of the most beautiful bars I've ever seen on a ship, and their espresso machines are hand pulled. So cool. I was VERY concerned about the entertainment going in to the cruise because I saw all the 'weird stuff' in the vlogs. There is SO MUCH good entertainment throughout the ship that has nothing to do with the main theaters. On The Rocks has small bands, singers, we saw Slam Allan blues guitarist who was amazeballs. Evening trivia happens in the Dock House or Loose Cannon most nights. There was stargazing one evening out on The Dock. In the Red Room is a mix of shows that are definitely unique. I watched about 10 minutes of Untitled Dance Party Thing and it's about what you would expect from an experimental dance show. Duel Reality was their take on Romeo and Juliet with a lot of influence from West Side Story, it was a lot of fun. Ship In The Night is supposed to be good but it was cancelled on our cruise. The Diva drag show in The Manor was so freaking funny, she was great. The Manor is known for that amazing mirrored entrance but once you get inside, it's modeled after the original Studio 54 in New York and is an awesome venue. The arcade is completely free and features all retro games that made this 'kid of the 80's' feel like I was high school again. The Social Club IS AWESOME. Lots of games, including a cabinet of childhood favorites like Chutes and Ladders and Hungry Hungry Hippos along with Cards Against Humanity and Exploding Kittens. They have arts and crafts daily, scavenger hunts, trivia and more going on during the day. The schedule is NOT packed like many other ships, but there is a steady schedule of things to do. There's something for everyone on that ship. Oh and there is dodge ball. Actual, full on dodge ball in the sports court along with all sorts of super fun dance classes like 90's Boy Band Dance Class. As for the 'risque' stuff, yes they have a 'sexologist' or whatever she's known as who puts on a show called Never Sleep Alone and another show in The Manor. If you want to go see that, go. We watched 10 minutes of NSA and it wasn't what I expected, it was a cabaret style show that was trying a little too hard to be provocative. But in terms of 'risque' or 'sex' throughout the ship, it wasn't there. Other than the dildos in the sundries store. The ship was very relaxed and laid back. If you want to party all night, The Manor has you covered. If you want to sit back and listen to music at a bar, On The Rocks and a few other venues have you covered. If you want to sit and chat with friends, you can do that. The Casino is just the right size for the ship, it has oversized windows along one side which I've never seen on a ship, and like Celebrity the casino is non-smoking. My FAVORITE surprise was the private karaoke booths. I NEVER do karaoke, but they have three private booths, small, medium and large and we had SO MUCH FUN. I don't know the last time I laughed that hard on a cruise ship. The WiFi is solid. Awesome coverage throughout the ship and my wife had no issues streaming TikTok all day long on the basic WiFi. I paid $10/day to upgrade and did two one-hour livestreams from the ship with no issues and I could stream video from pretty much any site or service. It's the best WiFi experience I've ever had at sea. Having the food, soft drinks, sparkling water, WiFi and gratuities all included in the far was liberating. Not having to sign anything at the bars, not having to pay for any Coke products or even sparkling water, even the candy was included at the Social Club Diner. It's so nice to go to dinner and not have to worry that 'we're paying $55-$150 for this meal.' We've already paid for it and if we want to have multiple entrees in the steakhouse we can do it. 🙂 Yes, they have that silly too small of a pool but we did discover that the pool area itself is lovely when you go there in quiet times. Generally before 10:30am or when the ship is in port, like we did at Puerto Plata. It's quite lovely. The one area that was wasted is the very back of Deck 16 with that god awful net. It's awesome for an Instagram but hideously uncomfortable. That entire aft area of Deck 16 wasn't even used during our cruise. My hope is that when the ship goes in for the first drydock, they replace the net with a new aft pool, maybe one with a swim up bar and a new music venue. If they do that, Scarlet Lady will be an almost perfect ship. The overall vibe of the ship really reminded me of Celebrity. Celebrity has that casual elegance about it, I call it the white glove treatment but without the stuffy attitude. Virgin is the same, just a little more casual. I'd say the average age on our ship was between 45 and 55. We're 56 and felt right at home on the ship. The crew was just awesome. The Bimini Beach resort is now one of my favorites, really beautiful beach. If you enjoy going on Celebrity or maybe P&O over in England, you'll probably enjoy Virgin Voyages. Honestly if you're a fan of cruising you should really give them a try. It really IS different cruising without children. So far on 18 cruises with 8 different cruise lines we've never had a bad cruise. But the Scarlet Lady definitely ranks up there with the best of them. If you have any other specific questions about VV feel free to ask, happy to help.

Normally we would be all over booking aft cabins as they are our favorite. But the aft cabins on Mardi Gras are on full display of the pool and waterfront area on Deck 8. And with folks in that pool till 10pm or later, you really don't get much in the way of privacy and it could get quite noisy at times. They look like lovely balconies, but that's one ship we would not book the aft balconies

No, NCL is not buying VV right now, though I would not be surprised that is the end game in 5-10 years, to cash out by selling the company to someone else. If they build up to be a formidable player in the adult-only cruising market, they would be an attractive bolt-on cruise line for someone else. It's an excellent sign for the brand and I'm very happy to hear that business is picking up. Looks like it is picking up all over from the sound of things now that the policies are being relaxed more.

Looks like things are full speed ahead for Virgin as they just took in a fresh round of investment led by Blackrock with additional funds from Bain and Virgin Group. "Virgin Voyages closed on $550m in new capital, led by BlackRock and including new financing and additional capital from existing investors Bain Capital Private Equity and Virgin Group.The line said it also received additional unspecified 'support' from existing lenders." Full Article: https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/finance/virgin-voyages-gets-550m-fresh-capital-led-blackrock-bain-virgin-group?fbclid=IwAR0fRBN3JvJaxR0lTzElQvdEGV-I5s7qIkexx2F3BzCBW8nIPsfoXyB4ZwU

You can also buy bottles of liquor or wine from the bars at the end of the cruise. Can't use it in "Booty Free" but you can use it to buy liquor at the bars if you want to take some home.

If Slam Allen is onboard he was a amazeballs in On The Rocks each evening. Incredible blues guitarist. We commented how good the piped in music was throughout the ship, it was a mix of modern, classic rock and folk throughout the day. The Scarlet Lady house band was impressive as they played many different styles of music at varying performances. The Diva drag show is a mix of classic disco and broadway. Untitled Dance Party thing is an eclectic mix of music. As others have mentioned, excellent guitarists were popping up in the Roundabout and out in The Dock on Deck 7 Really the loudest "techno music" will be when the DJ is active. He tends to play a lot of dance music (obviously) and when he's up at the pool or spinning near vinyl, that's when you'll hear the most dance music. But as far as the ship being all 'techno music' it's not. In the evenings, you'll most likely enjoy the On The Rocks venue based on what you described which is the small club with singers, guitarists and small bands. You may also enjoy Duel Reality show in The Red Room. There's also something going on most night in The Dock House and The Loose Cannon. We've now sailed 8 different cruise lines and I would put the vibe on Virgin akin to Celebrity. I've always found Celebrity to be that white glove service without the stuffy attitude. The food and service is akin to Disney which is not surprising as we found out that a fair number of the crew are from Disney, Seabourn and Celebrity.

It does appear to be standard for the Havana Bar across the fleet. 🙂 https://www.carnival.com/onboard/havana-bar

I will say booking a Havana cabin on Mardi Gras puts you mere steps from the best coffee on the entire ship. The Cuban coffee in the Havana bar was my go-to spot for coffee every morning, with the Bar Della Rosa for cappuccinos right behind. After one disappointing cup of cappuccino at Java Blue I never went back there. As for the Havana section itself, we did notice just how small it was looking down from our extended balcony on Deck 12 with that little plunge pool. As these ships were originally slated for AIDA, a Havana section was probably never part of the original plans. Looks like Carnival simply detached the exterior walkway that would have gone around Grand Central (you can see the walkway on P&O IONA) and made the front section 'Havana.' On Loft 19, we really didn't see much of anything going on up there on our March cruise, but the Serenity area is absolutely lovely. Fantastic salad bar for lunch each day next to the bar that so many people onboard didn't know about. Shhhhh, keep it a secret! 😄

That's a fantastic tip, never thought about booking an interior close to an exterior patio area. Nice!

Awesome, thanks so much for the kind words. Hoping to get a full review up this week depending on my workload. You will have a FANTASTIC time! 🙂

We would have except the menu is so limiting, wasn't much there we wanted. We did order danishes and coffee through Room Service but went up to The Galley to get breakfast eggs. I'm glad we went to The Galley cause I ended up with the French Toast Burger from the Burger Bar. INSANE. 🙂

We're big fans of Celebrity and Princess as well, and we've now sailed 8 cruise lines. I have a playlist from our Scarlet Lady cruise in July including a full food tour and cabin tour on our Where's Walter TV YouTube channel that might be helpful. Food tour linked below. We had a cluster with the Bayside Market provided shuttle that we took after dropping off our bags at 11:30 at Terminal V. We were at the appointed pickup location at 1:40pm and after waiting 45 minutes, the shuttle never came back. We ended up booking a Lyft for ourselves and another couple that was stranded at the market. Virgin reps said the shuttle should have still been running and ended up comping our friends for the Lyft through onboard credit. One big thing we would change for our next Virgin Voyage is to book the embarkation night dinner much later. We typically book dinner between 6:30 and 7:00 and that works out fine when we're boarding at 11 or 11:30 and grabbing lunch. With the late 2:00pm boarding, we were snacking and noshing out on the Dock at 2:30 and then snacking on some other stuff as well. When we went to our 6:30 dinner at Gunbae, we honestly were not all that hungry. So I would book our first night dinner more like 8 to 8:30 instead. If you enjoy the pool for a dip, the best times are before 10:30am or staying on ship during a port day. We stayed onboard during our Puerto Plata stop and had the pool basically to ourselves until 2 and even then, there were only a few other couples joining us. The main pool area actually is lovely when it's not wall to wall bodies as it will be on sail away day and sea days. The Test Kitchen was a 2 1/2 hour meal for us and most of the meals were in the 90 minute to 2 hour range except Pink Agave. That food came out very fast. So be aware that you do get a full, relaxed dining experience at most of the restaurants that is absolutely lovely. That can be important if you're trying to time the meal before a show. We ended up having to rush our Extra Virgin meal to 70 minutes because we were coming from a Secret Show and had to make Duel Reality. It's typically a four course meal but they combined the pasta and entree course for us so we could make it. The Dock is absolutely fantastic, do not miss their tapas. The Galley works fine when it's not busy but the service fell apart the morning of the Puerto Plata stop when it seemed everyone on the ship was there. They insist that you sit at a table and order restaurant style. That is if you can flag down a server which took a while for us. When it's not busy you can walk up to any of the food stall in typical food hall style. The quality of the food in there is a step above typical buffet food because for the most part it's made fresh to order, not sitting on warming trays. DO NOT MISS THE SCARLET LADY DESSERT in The Sweet Side if you like dark chocolate. Gloss red on the outside and deep rich chocolate on the inside. Pizza was quite good and the ice cream was tasty. Coffee quality was excellent at both coffee shops, though they close early. If you want coffee after the Grounds Clubs close, go to Sips Champagne lounge where they have hand pulled shot expresso machines. Delicious. Social Club has hot dogs, popcorn, candy and more. The Rueben hot dog was not bad and my wife really enjoyed the veggie dog. Bars were impressive throughout the ship, even the pool bar. I had awesome Old Fashioneds and other cocktails throughout the week. My wife went with Mocktails and noted they were among the best mocktails she's had at sea. The Bloody Mary in The Wake was a standout for her. Duel Reality for us in the one Red Room 'must-see.' Their take on Romeo and Juliet with a heavy West Side Story influence. Ships In The Night was canceled during our cruise and that's the other show we wanted to see in there. Untitled Dance Party Thing was weird but interesting, we stayed about 10 minutes. The live music performers throughout the ship are awesome. If Slam Adams (I think that's his last name) is performing at On The Rocks, definitely check out his amazing blues set. The Diva show in The Manor was hilarious and an absolutely funny moment happened as we were all leaving the theater. They were playing the Love Boat theme instrumental and the entire crowd starting singing along as we were making our way out. We all know the words. 🙂 The NSA show was not at all what I expected, it was cabaret style show with a live band that just didn't work for me, she was trying too hard to be 'provocative.' We left after 10 minutes, other people loved the show. I recommend ear plugs for the pool deck portion of Scarlet Night, it is amazeballs and unlike anything you've seen on another ship, but LOUD. There is an absolutely lovely 'extended patio' on either side of Deck 7 midship with a variety of seating that was underutilized because I don't think a lot of people realized it was out there. They were either aft at the Dock or up on the pool decks. If you want shade, go to the patio on the opposite of the ship from the sun, the ship itself will provide the shade. The Social Club has arts and crafts most days, they open up a game cabinet with favorites from our childhood right up to today's games like Cards Against Humanity and Exploding Kittens. We never did get to any of the trivia but heard through others it was fun. If you're a fan of Princess there is a lot to like about Virgin. I'm jealous you're on a B2B, 5 nights was not nearly long enough for us. I'm hopeful to book an 8 night sailing on Valiant while she's in Miami. Have fun!

We found everything mushy and bland. The actual options they were offering were fine if they were prepared well. We're foodies and explore all types of different foods. Indian and curries are some of our favorites, but what they offered at Bimini during our visit was very meh. Especially compared to what was served on the ship. Next time we go to Bimini we'll skip the meal altogether and just head back to the ship for lunch.

Just the Pizza Place, the Dock and the Galley has a large outdoor seating aft. No restaurants have outdoor seating available, but as I recall they all have large windows for outdoor views.

That's not a perk of being a rockstar, anyone can arrange two different restaurants for the same night. You have to do this in person if you don't have a Rockstar Agent. Guest Services or the dining captains can arrange this for anyone. This is one reason we would not sail in a suite for any future sailings, there's not enough 'value' in being a 'Rockstar' over a Sailor. We had a Cheeky Corner Suite for our sailing primarily because of the 200% FCC when our first pandemic cruise was cancelled. While it was nice having the in-cabin bar, the best perk of the entire trip was the private golf cart at Bimini because those trams are so bad on the roads. Richard's Rooftop we barely used because it's 98% sun when the ship is moving, those umbrellas are useless when it's moving. And there are no restaurants perks because every restaurant is included for everyone vs. a 'suite only' restaurant. Sure the 'rockstar agent' was a nice to have, but honestly the staff on the ship was so amenable, we really didn't need it. On the other 7 cruise lines we've sailed being a suite comes with the added perks of specific restaurants, lounges and other added benefits. But with VV including so much for all Sailors, the differences are minimal. So moving forward we'll be sailing in a Sea Terrace unless VV has a ridiculous sale on Suites.

Some time between 7:30 and 8:00 was the earliest disembark times if I recall correctly. You will use the app to schedule a disembark time, you can do that literally as soon as you get on board so you have your choice of times to exit.

Correct, the first episode will be premiering in August, they didn't give a date. If you'd prefer to be home, I'll happily take that 8 night cruise on Mariner off your hands so you can enjoy the premiere of the episode. 🤣 But seriously, enjoy your cruise, the episode will be waiting for you when you get back!

"Based on feedback..." doesn't make any sense in the least. If you want more time back on the ships all you have to do is return to the ship earlier. Or just stay onboard at a port stop like we did in Puerto Plata where we had the pool all to ourselves for hours. In reality it looks like cost cutting to me because I believe the port fees are tied into how long a ship is tied up. I could be wrong, but I believe by shaving off a few hours here, a few hours there, they're saving some money by not being in port as long as originally planned. I'm also guessing not many people are staying for the 'beach bonfire' in Bimini, opting to return to the ship for dinner instead. The food at Bimini was the only disappointment when it comes to F&B. I'm not sure that food is prepared by the Virgin culinary team, it's probably made by Resorts World and it's really not that good at all, especially compared to the quality of the food onboard. Regardless, the Scarlet Lady experience was awesome for us, I still have to write a review, and I do look forward to sailing VV again in the future.

Via Cruise Hive today, as of August 14, 2022, Virgin will be changing the Miami Departure time for Scarlet Lady and Valiant Lady (when she arrives) to 6pm, instead of 7pm. All guests must be at Terminal no later than 5pm. They've also shortened or changed the times for the ports of call in Key West, Costa Maya, Cozumel, Puerto Plata, San Juan, Fredriksted and Roatan. Bimini is also shortened to a 6pm departure instead of 7pm. According to the article, Virgin has not given any reason for the spate of changes. Full Article: https://www.cruisehive.com/virgin-voyages-shortening-port-times-on-multiple-itineraries/78675