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Scarlet Lady / Live / Solo - Oct 6 - 10 2021...

sid_9169

By sid_9169,
in Virgin Voyages

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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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The entire month of November 2020 seemed to last forever, being busier than usual at work, as well as the everyday news cycle, filled with the doom and gloom of the pandemic, as well as the election results, which seemed to go on forever. Then came Thanksgiving, when “the experts'' warned against even visiting with your own family. For us, it was just a nice Thanksgiving meal as usual, in my case, 2 different meals, first with my dad, and then afterwards at my mom’s… The media wasn’t going to scare me away from enjoying the gluttonous holiday with my family.

 

Fast forward a week or so, to December 2020, when Virgin Voyages dropped the hammer on sailings all the way up to May 9th 2021… This would cut very close to my June 2nd sailing, and it bagan to look like this thing was just never going to happen. A couple of days later, I received an email saying that my June 6th sailing had now been chartered. I had the choice of a refund, rolling the money over into another sailing, or actually taking the chartered cruise as planned. I looked up “Atlantis charter cruise”, and it turned out to be a gay and lesbian cruise… (Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Just not really my thing) My June 2nd through 6th cruise was still intact (for now) so I looked into sailing the week prior to June 2nd, that being called “Dominican Daze”, which was much less preferable to me than visiting Cozumel, my all time favorite port. After spending close to an hour on the phone, I was booked in a solo sea view cabin on the May 28th through June 2nd sailing… Any further cancellations, and both of these cruises would most assuredly be nixed, putting me back to “square zero” again... I said a prayer, and hoped for things to become right with the World by then. It was still 6 months away, and 2 corona virus vaccines had recently been given emergency authorization. Maybe, with a bit of luck, I would finally be able to sail the high seas again………

 

Of course, soon enough, both of these sailings were cancelled, and I found myself all the way back to square zero… I was sooo frustrated, thinking about all the hours that I had spent on the phone, booking and rebooking… I almost just decided to get back the money I had originally paid, and try for something elsewhere. I decided to give it one more go, and in March 2021, I found a couple of sailings all the way out in May / June 2022… Hopefully, by then it would actually happen. After about an hour on the phone, I was booked again for the FIFTH time… A four night to Key West and Bimini, followed by a five night to Cozumel and Bimini… The first leg in a Solo Insider, and the second in the exact same Solo Sea View that I had already been booked in twice before. 

 

I pretty much put this entire thing on the back burner, as it was still more than another year away. The Scarlet Lady had returned to Europe, after spending some time in Miami. It was also around this time that Virgin announced that all passengers and crew would need to be fully vaccinated prior to sailing. I wasn’t really excited about this, but it was still so far out that things might change a hundred more times before then. The CDC was still blocking cruises from the US for the foreseeable future anyway. 

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Sea Viewer

Sea Viewer

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Sid, reading  this preview brings back so many  memories  of  last year  and how much our lives were changed  by circumstances  outside  of  our  control . But we survived and cruising  has restarted  and next week  we will both be sailing, although  on different  ships.

I thank  you  for your posts  during  this time, even though  I  didn't  always  post I read and appreciated  them.

Hope  you have a great  cruise, I  am just a little  jealous of your  upcoming  week. 

 

Mary  

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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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Going slightly back in time, to February of 2021, Virgin Voyages planned to give away 1,000 cruises in their Shipload of Love contest… A Cruise Critic forum member, @ceilidh1 and her kids produced an entry video in my honor, and the first time I saw it, I already knew it was a winner… Several weeks went by, and the contest closed in mid March. A month later, in mid April, the winners were to be announced. Soon enough, I received an email from my “nominator”, and I had in fact won a free Virgin Voyage!... I wasn’t able to officially make it known until some legal paperwork had been filed and approved. The IRS was going to end up getting a cut, as they would be issuing me a 1099 tax form for the value of the cruise. (About $2,400) In mid May, the email came through that I was declared a winner, and I was given an “access key” that would allow me to log in and select my free cruise. Here I am, having waited over a year for my original cruise to happen, and now I had another one to plan!

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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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The ship was set to begin some fully vaccinated sailings from England in early August, prior to her trip back to Miami… Apparently, there would be no traditional TransAtlantic cruise, and the first sailing from Miami was set for September 22nd… As much as I wanted to book the very first cruise available, the one following went to Cozumel, and also included my birthday. How great would it be to finally, after more than a year and a half, be able to take my annual “birthday cruise” again?... I logged in using my special access code, and found a selection of cabins ranging from completely free to a few that would incur a small additional fee. I clicked on an XL Sea Terrace that would run me a couple of hundred dollars above the prize amount, and placed a call to Virgin Voyages to get the ball rolling. I wanted to use some of my leftover Future Cruise Credit to cover the additional amount, and several minutes later, it was set… The cruise that I had waited sooo long for, and booked over and over, was now only 126 days away!... My life was still uncertain at this point, as my apartment was back on the market, but at least I had something to look forward to now. I had been working on this “Review” for almost a year and a half, and at times I thought the whole thing would end up in the garbage… With a renewed sense of optimism, I decided that it was time to go out and get myself vaccinated, so that I would be “good to go” for this occasion. 

 

Around this time in Atlanta, you could pretty much decide whichever of the 3 available vaccines you wanted, and get them quite easily, and in many cases, without an appointment. Many of the local pharmacies were offering them, so on a Saturday afternoon in late May, I strolled down to the closest Walgreens, which was offering the Pfizer version. I asked about getting an appointment, and they said “what about right now?”... Alrighty then, that escalated quickly… She handed me a clipboard, and said to fill it out. I didn’t have my reading glasses with me, but there was an entire rack at the end of one of the aisles, so I grabbed a pair that worked. It wasn’t long until they called me back, and 3 minutes later, I walked out of there half vaccinated… I actually didn’t even feel the shot itself, and even debated whether I had even had the shot. He assured me that I had, so I just took his word for it. I didn’t have any ill effects whatsoever, other than a slightly sore arm the next morning. 

 

I went back to the same place 3 weeks later, and this time walked out soon after fully vaccinated, and carrying my fully filled out proof, which was little more than a piece of thick paper that anyone with a laser printer could reproduce easily. The pharmacist claimed that there was a database containing the information, but I was still skeptical. Around this same time, the 3 major cruise lines had announced plans to sail from the US in July, but there was still a battle going on in a couple of states over “vaccine passports'', which many thought was the key to returning to service safely. Celebrity and Royal Caribbean were in the process of their first sailings departing from ports outside the US, and things seemed to be going okay, but these were “100% fully vaccinated” sailings. I just hoped that whatever impasse between the cruise lines, the states, and the CDC would be worked out sooner than later. If they returned to cruising from the US and an outbreak occurred, the entire industry could come to a halt once again, and may not survive. It had been more than a year and a half since I had been on board, and my only hope was that my birthday cruise would be “a go” this time around…

 

I still had close to $550 in Future Cruise Credit that I wanted to try and use. They wouldn’t allow me to purchase the “Bar Tab '' with the credit upon rebooking, but said it could be used for “Shore Things” as well as some hotels in Miami that they had partnered with. I called to inquire about possibly doing that, but the only hotel available for my sailing date was the Faena South Beach, at a rate of $1,900 per night… Scratch that idea… I asked if I could just convert it into on board credit (or, “Sailor Loot” using their nomenclature) and they said I could… They would allow it in $25 increments, so I ended up with $525 to spend on the ship for a 5 night cruise. That would be probably close to enough drinking money for the cruise, and at least I wouldn’t have to be “out of pocket” for too much more. There were also some menu items that were over & above the “included” price, and I would likely want to try some of those as well. This was going to be my first cruise in a lonnng time, and I wanted to “go big”... The only thing left to do now was book my flights and hotel for the night prior to sailing.

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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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For my birthday last week, my mom got me a nifty map of the Caribbean, complete with push pins to mark all of the places I've been... I'll be adding one new pin soon for Bimini, which I've never been to. I've heard that it has a really nice beach with beautiful blue water...

 

 

IMG_20210930_083912722.jpg

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ceilidh1 "Live from...." Rare

ceilidh1

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4 hours ago, sid_9169 said:

Going slightly back in time, to February of 2021, Virgin Voyages planned to give away 1,000 cruises in their Shipload of Love contest… A Cruise Critic forum member, @ceilidh1 and her kids produced an entry video in my honor, and the first time I saw it, I already knew it was a winner… Several weeks went by, and the contest closed in mid March. A month later, in mid April, the winners were to be announced. Soon enough, I received an email from my “nominator”, and I had in fact won a free Virgin Voyage!... I wasn’t able to officially make it known until some legal paperwork had been filed and approved. The IRS was going to end up getting a cut, as they would be issuing me a 1099 tax form for the value of the cruise. (About $2,400) In mid May, the email came through that I was declared a winner, and I was given an “access key” that would allow me to log in and select my free cruise. Here I am, having waited over a year for my original cruise to happen, and now I had another one to plan!

I'm going to jump in and say that, even though I submitted the video (and my teen put it all together), the finished product was a Tribe effort - the original was way too long and violated just about every rule that VV had put in place. The Tribe members talked me through what and where to cut and encouraged me to talk faster to get it just perfect! If you are reading this review and don't know about The Tribe, you really need to check us out here on CC!

 

As always, loving this review @sid_9169!

 

 

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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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Around this same time, the state of Florida won a lawsuit against the CDC, and it appeared to pave the way for the return to cruising from US ports… Was it really going to happen this time? After a year and a half of disappointment, I was optimistic, but I wasn’t holding my breath. Again, I booked myself a room at the InterContinental Miami, and prayed that it was for real this time around… The only thing left to do now was to book my flights. I still had a flight credit with Delta for my cancelled flight to Jamaica for a Norwegian cruise that never happened, so at least I wouldn’t have to fork out even more money on this long awaited return to the sea… At the end of June, I logged onto Deltas’ website, and found some flights that fit my needs and budget. (not too early, and directly behind business class) I came in at just under $300, and I still had $273 leftover in e-credits for my next adventure… Were things suddenly becoming “right with the World'', after a year and a half of chaos?... 

 

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sid_9169 "Live from...." Rare

sid_9169

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On Independence Day weekend, Carnival cruise lines launched 2 ships from US ports, the Vista from Galveston and the Horizon out of Miami. After more than a 15 month hiatus, things were actually starting to get moving again. It was also this same week when I received an email from Virgin Voyages showing a balance of over $1,900 for my upcoming cruise. I knew that it must be some kind of mistake, so I called in to see what was going on. After about 20 minutes on hold, they had everything sorted out, but with no explanation as to what happened. Hopefully, the way was paved for me to board the ship soon, and at last experience what I had been waiting so long for… Things weren't going so well with my apartment search or work, and I just needed something to go my way for a change. 

 

Little did I know, that only a couple of hours after I wrote that last paragraph, that my Scarlet Lady cruise would be cancelled yet again… This time, they only cancelled 3 sailings, but of course, mine was included. There was really no explanation given when I received the email. Only that they needed “a little more time”... Here I was back at “square zero” for the SIXTH TIME… I couldn't believe that after all this time that Virgin Voyages needed 15 more days, and THEN they would be ready to sail… That afternoon, I tried getting through to their customer service, but they were swamped with calls, due to the further “pause in service”. I ended up requesting a call back, and about 3 hours later, I was in the process of rebooking again.

 

I couldn't believe that I was actually doing it, but I was bound and determined to get on board this ship. Their new claimed starting date was October 6th, for a 4 night cruise visiting Key West and Bimini… I threw caution to the wind yet again, and after a while on the phone, I was booked on the NEW first US sailing… Since the “free” portion of the cruise covered a regular balcony cabin, I threw in a couple hundred dollars of my Future Cruise Credit, and went for the XL Sea Terrace on deck 9. I also ended up with $550 worth of Sailor Loot from the remaining FCC from my prior cancellations. Of course, now I would have to cancel and rebook my flights and hotel, which was becoming all too familiar to me… 

 

A few days after booking, I was easily able to cancel my hotel room, but the flights took a few days to be approved… Again, I was in the market for another hotel, but the InterContinental had gone up in price. I came across the Hyatt Centric Brickell, where I had stayed once before. It was even higher, but it had a balcony, so I just bit the bullet and booked it. Of course, the flights for the rebooked cruise were even more, but I still had some leftover flight credits with Delta, so no additional out of pocket costs. I was all set… Again… I actually said a prayer that it was really going to happen this time. Reviews were already coming in on several of the other cruise lines’ message boards, and I was so jealous of those passengers who were lucky enough to be on board the first sailings from America in so long… My “cruise withdrawal” was reaching critical mass at this point, and to add to it, I hadn’t had any sort of vacation, or even a single day off of work since November of 2020… I REALLY NEEDED it to happen this time…

 

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