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

[sid_9169]

 

It was around mid July that Virgin Voyages announced their Sea Blazers program, offering special, lifelong benefits to those sailing in the inaugural season… It included things, such as a $125 bonus when purchasing a Bar Tab. $300 off your next cruise, plus 10% off your next cruise. And, an exclusive, limited run welcome gift. Of course, I wouldn’t be eligible, since my 2021 sailing was a “prize” in the Shipload of Love contest, and not a “paid” cruise. Never mind the fact that they’ve had my money since January of 2020, and I had booked and intended to sail on several occasions already. Those of us who had pushed our paid for sailings out into 2022 would receive NOTHING for our efforts… 

 

It was also mid July when the apartment I had been living in went under contract, and I received an email from my landlord terminating my lease, and giving 60 day notice to vacate… Pretty harsh for someone who had paid their rent on time every single month since the day I moved in. It came as a true kick to the groin that I needed to get my life going in the right direction, and fast. Not that I didn’t already get up and go to work every day, already. But, due to the way I had conducted my life in the past, it was all coming back to bite me on the back side. I needed to do some serious soul searching now, and make some hard decisions, or I was in danger of living in a van down by the river. And, I don’t have a van…

[sid_9169]

Someone in our group on "the other page" received their bracelets in the mail today... They're in a Rockstar Suite, so maybe the upper class categories did get mailed out. They claim that I'm supposed to pick mine up at the terminal.

 

 

 

[sid_9169]

 

On Friday August 6th, the Scarlet Lady set sail from Portsmouth for the very first time with paying passengers… It was only a 3 night “cruise to nowhere”, but it’s what I’d been waiting to see for sooo long… The initial impressions began to come in, and it seemed to be positive from most. Other than the abysmal mess of the corona virus testing and embarkation process, the food as well as the ship itself “wowed” the passengers. Some mentioned small bathrooms in the cabins, but others were blown away by the general quality of the food at all of the dining locations. This came as great news to me, as the vast dining options were one of the things that I was looking forward to most. 

 

It was also around this time that I found a condo in my price range close to work, and the process of getting approved began. It seemed as if every time they asked for more documents, that even more would follow. Bank statements, tax forms, credit checks, ect… They wanted me to take a real estate class online to familiarize myself with the whole process. Coming to the realization of the increased amount of responsibility began to weigh heavily upon me… Could I really afford to do this? Would I be able to keep up the increased amount of payments for the next 30 years, or basically the rest of my life, and beyond? I was up to my neck in the process, and all I could think about was getting moved and FINALLY being able to go on my long awaited for cruise… It had been since December of 2019 since I had last been on board… Would I even remember how it was done? I had been studying the deck plans for over a year and a half, and I was definitely ready… 

 

By mid August I had closed on my new condo, and immediately began the process of painting and cleaning prior to my big moving day… I was at last beginning to have a bit of optimism about the future, even though it seemed that the World itself was crumbling. The rise and continued spread of the “Delta variant”, the collapse of Afghanistan, the earthquake in Haiti, ect… It was August 18th when I received an email from Virgin Voyages stating a port change from Key West to Nassau… While Nassau isn’t my favorite port, I really didn’t care where we went at this point, as long as the ship actually sailed. Honestly, after all this time since being on a cruise, I may not get off the ship anywhere. In fact, they’re going to have to drag me off the ship on debarkation morning “kicking & screaming”...  

 

 

Edited September 30, 2021 by sid_9169

[LincolnLog]

Congratulations on your perseverance and finally getting to be one of the lucky ones to try Virgin. I tapped out after the last cancellation and now I’m watching this all unfold with great bitterness and envy…our cruise was scheduled to leave tomorrow and it was the final one to get canceled. We were ALL IN too. We used our 200% credit to book a rockstar suite, we had two prepaid bar tabs, a cabana in Bimini, and it was all paid for. I still don’t understand why they canceled when other lines have been back for weeks or even months, or course I got no explantation. Anyway I swore that I was going to stick my head in the sand and try to avoid hearing anything about these initial sailings, yet here I am…..😆

[sid_9169]

 

 

Dinner tonight at Nakato, a Japanese hibachi steakhouse... Shrimp tempura and a beer to start.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2021 by sid_9169

[Saint Greg]

21 hours ago, sid_9169 said:

Just found this on the port of Miami Facebook page... Richard Branson and the mayor of Miami on board the Scarlet Lady for a photo op... I predict the Sir Richard himself will be on board her first sailing. We'll see...

 

 

 

 

 

It's good to see Dick on a Virgin.

[garymfreedman]

Good article on what to expect...

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/articles/virgin-voyages-what-to-expect-cruising-during-pandemic

[sid_9169]

The flaming volcano... A staple of any hibachi meal.

 

 

 

[luvcruzing]

10 hours ago, sid_9169 said:

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.

Funny thing - I got my booster vaccine earlier today at Walgreens and wondered if I had really been given the shot.  I didn’t feel a thing and remembered you mentioning the same thing when you got your first shot back in May.

[sid_9169]

It's going down... (Along with any chance that I lose that last five pounds before vacation)...

 

 

Fried rice, filet, scallops, and shrimp...

 

 

 

 

[sid_9169]

August 22nd came, which was 45 days prior to sailing, and I would finally be able to make my dining reservations… Or, would I? About 4 days before this date, the Virgin Voyages app completely quit working. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling on several occasions, and nothing. I put a call into Sailor Services, and the waiting game began yet again. A half hour or so later, I was able to get through, but it was all for naught… The rep explained that they were “working on it”, and that dining reservations would not in fact be ready at the 45 day mark. She said that they would “let us know” when that would be… It’s interesting how a pimply faced kid living in his mothers’ basement can develop and deploy a perfectly working app, yet Richard Branson and all of his billions still couldn’t get this right… He literally put a spaceship into orbit only weeks earlier, however a simple app was beyond the scope of his money and power… Why couldn’t they just put all this on the website like every other cruise line? I know that they’re trying to be “innovative”, but things were beginning to get ridiculous at this point… I already made specialty dining reservations for my November Carnival Mardi Gras cruise 8 or 9 months ago, so I know that it could be done. The other cruise lines were deploying ships from ports all over America at this point, and I wished that I had just booked myself on one of their sailings, rather than continuing to get dragged along by Virgin Voyages. This had better end up being the greatest cruise of my life, or I may be giving up on them altogether….

 

 

Edited October 1, 2021 by sid_9169

[sid_9169]

[sid_9169]

[sid_9169]

 

On September 2nd I made my big move to my new apartment… It was one of the most excruciating days of my life. Everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Someone that was supposed to help cancelled at the last minute. My mother broke the handle on my toilet at my old apartment. There was only one elevator working at my old building, which slowed the process considerably… It was the longest, most frustrating day of my life. All that I could think about to take my mind off things was FINALLY being able to take my long awaited for vacation in a little more than a month. A few days later, the Scarlet Lady left Portsmouth on her journey to New York City, where some ceremonies had been planned. This would be the third time that she had crossed the Atlantic, as she had spent a few months in Miami last year during the height of the pandemic… I had been reading everything I could regarding the initial sailings overseas, but the Caribbean was where the Scarlet Lady belonged… Was it REALLY going to happen this time?...

 

On September 12th, Scarlet Lady arrived in New York City to much fanfare… Several media events had been planned to welcome her back to the US, and passengers would be able to board her and enjoy all she had to offer, while docked there. My cruise was only 3 weeks away now, and I needed it more than ever right now. All the hard work and frustration that I had endured over the past 18 months, dealing with the pandemic and my housing situation, was hopefully about to get some relief… I completed my pre-cruise check in on the app, which was thankfully working again. The unpacking and organizing at my new apartment was coming together, and my birthday was fast approaching. Were things finally becoming right with the World?...

[sid_9169]

[HeyJut]

Wow Sid-so many pages already! And I sure enjoy a long review. Can’t wait till you get on the ship.

[Prnsessmoi]

11 hours ago, sid_9169 said:

 I still had a flight credit with Delta for my cancelled flight to Jamaica for a Norwegian cruise that never happened, 

 

I was beginning to wonder if you completely forgot about this one. 😉

[ceilidh1]

I figured I would jump in here (not wanting to hijack this live review) and post the video that got @sid_9169 this "free" cruise (I put it in quotation marks as it is completely outside of my logical brain as to why the IRS would/could possibly be able to claim taxes on something that was never actually PAID for....but that's just me). Anyways...

 

Background: I have followed Sid's live reviews for some time and, in fact, it was solely his and @TheDougOutreviews that finally got me to sail on NCL (and now I LOVE NCL). Following one of his reviews a couple of years back, he began his own little forum that portrayed everyday life in Atlanta. I, and many others, followed from day one and became "Sid's Tribe" (please, go check it out as we are one great community). Those of us in The Tribe have lived through every cancellation in real time, so this review is even more exciting for us! As soon as I saw the VV contest, I knew that SOMEONE needed to nominate Sid. Since I had a tech savvy teen at home doing nothing (thanks to Covid she was only in school an hour a day) I figured I would put her to work. I was back at my job but basically getting paid to do NOTHING so I spent many hours trolling through reviews and Tribe postings and gathering info and pictures. Finally, my teen put it all together in a video and we came up with the "long version". This was not the submitted version - first, it was way too long, second, it violated just about every rule, and third, the submission required the nominee to actually be IN the video (ugh). However, I think this version is by far the best and pretty much sums up all that we know and love about Sid!

Enjoy!

[ceilidh1]

It should also be noted that, when this was originally made the original Tribe postings had 794k views. By the time they were shut down, there was over 100,000k views - is this a CC record??

[Von & John]

Sid  --  I haven't spent much time on Cruise Critic since May...
However, I'd never miss one of your cruises...
Let alone finally cruising on the Scarlet Lady 🙂

Can't wait to get this party started...
Cheers  --  Von

[sid_9169]

 

On Sunday September 19th, Scarlet Lady began heading to her new home in Miami for what they dubbed her “MerMaiden Voyage”... They said that they had “extra special” plans for the first sailing from American shores, including “unexpected events, exclusive experiences” that you won’t want to miss… Hopefully, after all these months of waiting, and being cancelled on and rebooking several times, it would prove to be the “vacation of a lifetime”...

 

A few days later, some in my roll call group reported that they were finally able to make dining reservations via the app… I immediately logged in and tried, but with no luck. I tried over and over and over, but nothing… It turned out that these people were booked in Rockstar Suites, and were allowed early access to the system. Hopefully, in a few days I would also be able to get my dining reservations sorted out. I was however excited that the app was FINALLY working according to plan. I tried to remain optimistic that this would indeed be a great experience, after a long 668 days since I had last been on board a ship…

 

On the morning of September 21st, 15 days prior from sailing, restaurant reservations FINALLY showed up on the app… Only, there was a slight problem. (go figure) No matter which date and time you selected, the system would revert to Wednesday October 6th, embarkation day… I wanted to save The Wake for later in the cruise, but at the same time I didn’t want to miss out on it. I just went ahead and booked it for the first evening, right at opening time. This wasn’t what I really wanted to do, but this was the one restaurant that I definitely didn’t want to miss out on. That day at work, I put in a request for a call back from Virgin Voyages, and the waiting game began yet again… An hour and a half later they returned my call, but they claimed that reservations hadn’t yet opened up, and I would receive an email when they became available. The customer service rep could see that I had indeed made a reservation already, and said that “it must be a glitch”, and to await the email… At this point, I was incensed at the situation, and explained that EVERYTHING that they had promised up to this point hasn’t turned out to be true. She insisted that the “email would be coming soon”, even though I knew she had no idea what she was talking about… Later on that same day, the reservations DID become available via the app, even though I had yet to receive this mysterious email… I went ahead and chose my dining venues for the remaining three nights of the cruise, and at least I knew that I would be able to try out all the places that I wanted most… Night 1: The Wake… Night 2: Pink Agave… Night 3: Gunbae… And, Night 4: Extra Virgin…

 

 

Edited October 1, 2021 by sid_9169

[sid_9169]

[blarko]

Eight pages already and you haven’t even left ATL yet 😀

[sid_9169]

It's looking like a beautiful day here in Atlanta, and I'm praying for a nice easy day at work... I just got an alert through my Outlook that it was time to check in for my flight from MIA to ATL... Of course, that's for the cruise that never happened, AKA: my sixth Virgin Voyages cancellation. I guess that means that my upcoming voyage is the "lucky 7"...

 

 

 

[sid_9169]

Let's get this work day started... Only one more to go after today, and then it's cruising time!...