The Cruise I Never Thought I Would Take! Scarlet Lady Feb 27-Mar 4 Review

[ceilidh1]

Just got back and will be posting my thoughts over the next few days. Bear with me, being back to reality is just sinking in!

 

A little background…I am an (almost) 50 year old with two kids. I have sailed many times in the past, mostly with Princess but also NCL, Carnival, Disney, HAL, and Royal Caribbean. I have never cruised without kids and have not been on a vacation without children in 14 years! This cruise was booked over a year ago, in the height of Covid, but assuming that Covid would be a thing of the past at this point! My 50^th birthday would be celebrated while sailing, when docked in Bimini! This cruise would be myself and a girlfriend that I met on a past cruise!

 

As the cruise date grew closer, instead of feeling excited I began feeling stressed and anxious. Living on the West Coast of Canada, Covid has had its own set of rules. I have followed every recommendation/requirement/rule/mandate since day one. I have masked, stayed home, kept my bubble small, social distanced, got tripled vaxxed, not travelled. I’ve done it all. I never thought we would still be in this situation, but Covid is still very much a thing. My anxiety has mostly centred around testing – one antigen test required 24 hours prior to flying to the US, one antigen test required at the port, one PCR test required prior to flying back to Canada. So much could go wrong. I could test positive and not be able to fly, I could test positive and not be able to sail, I could test positive and not be able to come home. I talked myself out of going and back into going so many times. I finally set myself a “standard.” IF Canada dropped the PCR requirement to come back home, I would go. Well, lo and behold, a week prior to me leaving Canada did indeed drop the PCR requirement. Instead I only need an antigen – doesn’t really make a difference since I already pre-purchased the PCR test (I guess I really was planning on going after all)!

 

[ceilidh1]

Lots of folks seemed to have a lot of trouble with the Virgin app. Pretty much everything is done on the app and it was, apparently, very glitchy and troublesome. I must say, I had no issues with it. I was able to do all of the pre sailing stuff and booked dining as soon as it came available, More recently I was able to book shore excursions and then a few of the onboard activities that opened up. Many of the activities can only be booked onboard. In terms of shore excursions, the only thing I booked was the cabana at Bimini – I literally was up at midnight of the day the bookings opened as Bimini is the day I turn 50. I’m not even sure we “need” a cabana, but if I’m pushing the boat out anywhere, it’s going to be today! I also wanted to add the bar tab and get the $50 bonus, but when I tried to do so online I wasn’t getting any extra added. I ended up calling and the agent told me that my booking wasn’t eligible for the bonus. Not a huge deal and I didn’t go all “Karen” about it, just said that I didn’t really see any advantage to pre-paying in that case. I joked that it was a shame as I was planning on utilizing the tab since I would be turning the big 5-0. The agent immediately said that she would see what she could do…two minutes later, she came back and said that if I did the $300 tab she could add an extra $100 and would put a notation on my account for the birthday celebration. OK – sign me up!!!!

 

SPOILER: My cruise buddy had nothing but trouble with her app, despite having a more updated phone than me. It didn't work well pre-cruise and never worked on the ship at all - just kept getting a white screen or a "Uh-OH, looks like you're not connected to the Internet" message (she was...). At one point, she went to Sailor Services and they deleted it and reinstalled it. It worked for about 20 minutes then went back to the white screen....

[ceilidh1]

 

We booked our flights relatively last minute since we weren’t 100% sure we would be going…We found some semi decent prices/schedule with West Jet. Flying from Vancouver Thursday evening, overnight to Toronto and then morning Toronto to Miami. We planned on doing only carry on since the connection in Toronto is HELL if you are trying to make a US flight. Be warned – if you have never flown from the West Coast via Toronto…don’t do it! The flight from Vancouver is considered domestic, so you can’t pre-clear US immigration. This means that, in Toronto, you have to collect any checked bag and clear US customs/immigration. Even with a 3 hour connection time, this can be tough! Our flights had almost 3 hours between them, and we still chose to do only carry on. This was the right choice.

 

The flight from Vancouver ended up being delayed as it was “too full”. This meant we sat on the tarmac for almost an hour while a new flight plan was submitted. Now our connection time was under 2 hours. The flight itself should have been uneventful – I sleep pretty well on a plane and planned on sleeping the whole way. What I didn’t plan on was having a kid in the row in front that alternated between screaming and watching Paw Patrol with the volume on full. I don’t think anyone within 10 rows slept!

 

We finally landed in Toronto, tired and grumpy, but with luggage in hand. We had just under 2 hours to make our next flight, so hoofed it over to immigration. Security line up wasn’t horrendous, but did take about 20 minutes. US immigration line up was HUGE! Only 4 officers working a line of around 200 people. We got through it in just under an hour and made it to the gate around 5 minutes before boarding. I guess we needn’t have been so stressed, since we sat on the tarmac for well over an hour waiting for over 50 passengers stuck in immigration…

[ceilidh1]

A word about testing. I was feeling quite stressed about this aspect. In BC, a Covid test is pretty much impossible to get – even if you actually have Covid. As a result, travel testing has become a big, expensive business. There are places to get travel testing, but the results in 24 hours piece costs upwards of $100. Moreover, most of the places are only open until 6pm – I work until 5pm, so this made them pretty impossible. I also stressed about when the best time to get tested would be – my flight left Thursday evening, but that was “domestic”. The rules seemed to imply that I could test 24 hours before the first flight, but I was worried that I might get turned away once in Toronto. No one seemed to be able to answer when or how I would prove my negative test. I decided that I would buy an online test, proctored via telehealth, and test early Thursday morning. That way, if anything went wrong, I could still try to get one at the airport later on Thursday before my flight.

 

The cheapest option I found for an antigen test was at www.proofofentry.com They offered a test plus travel certificate for $24.99. I ordered it and it was shipped next day – received 3 days later! I’m not 100% convinced that this test was acceptable – you basically scan a QR code and follow step by step instructions to take the test. Along the way, you upload pictures to verify your identity and to show the Covid test result. At no point was there an actual person watching you take the test. Within minutes of submitting the picture of the negative test strip, I received a certificate verifying it. I still wasn’t sure how/when/where I needed to show this, but I felt a little less stressed knowing that I had it! While at the gate in Vancouver, my name was called over the loud speaker and requested I speak with an agent. This was the point where I was asked if I was travelling on to Miami, and asked to show proof of a negative test. The agent barely glanced at it, put a check mark on my boarding pass, and sent me on my way. At no other point was I asked for it!

[ceilidh1]

Let the vacation begin...

Pre-Flight beer at YVR....

 

Leaving behind the snow in YYZ

 

De-Icing the plane

 

Up, Up, and Away...

 

[ceilidh1]

·         Miami

We made the mistake of gate-checking our carry ons while in Toronto. We figured we had no rush to get anywhere, so why not…Well, Miami airport is definitely not “user friendly”. As we headed out of the arrivals area, there were signs pointing to baggage claim in both directions. Um, what? Baggage claim is actually downstairs, so either direction works,  but we didn’t know that…When we finally found out belt, which was at number 2 (we got downstairs at number 10 and it was a LONG walk) we waited, and waited, and waited. Our flight didn’t start coming out for around 40 minutes. Never again. Bags in hand, we headed out to the taxi stand – we originally planned on doing public transportation, but were so tired at this point that we wanted fast and easy. A cab pulled up pretty quickly but the driver said that his meter system was down and we would have to pay cash. This wasn’t an issue, but I had visions of our first experience of Miami being one of being ripped off by a cab driver. Before getting in, we made sure to check on the price – he said that he would only charge $30 flat rate…this was good for us, so we were shortly on our way!

[ceilidh1]

We had pre-booked a year ago at the Hampton Inn Brickell. At the time of booking, this hotel was $340 per night. I kept check on the price in case it went lower – on the contrary, it just kept going up. Last I checked, it was priced at $540 per night! The hotel was in a great location – easy walk to lots of restaurants, a nice mall, and the metromover. It offered a basic buffet breakfast, had a decent bar with happy hour, and a great restaurant downstairs called Batch. I would definitely stay again for the price we paid, but wouldn’t pay the $500+ price tag for it!

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

On our first night in Miami, we were pretty exhausted after travelling for almost 24 hours. We strolled out to Miami Ave, just a 5 minute walk from the hotel. We stopped for dinner and drinks at SoCal Cantina. It was happy hour, so we had their street tacos and a few margaritas. Everything we had was fantastic and the price was great - $3 per taco, and $10 per margarita! Highly recommend this place! HUGE thanks to @sid_9169for telling us about it!

 

 

 

 

 

SPOILER: We had WAY more than two margaritas...

[ceilidh1]

Since I had never actually thought this trip would happen, I really didn’t plan anything specific for Miami. I had never been before and had no idea of what to see/where to go. Our hotel concierge suggested taking the metromover (free transit) to Bayside marketplace. We followed her suggestion and had a nice stroll around the stores and stalls, looked at the water, etc.

 

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

On a total spur-of-the-moment thing, we decided to hop on a boat tour that looked at the homes of the rich and famous. This was one of the best $28 I have ever spent. We got to see Miami from the water, saw the port, the ships, and amazing homes. It was fantastic!

 

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

After this, we hopped back on the metromover and checked out the mall at Brickell Centre. We grabbed some food at an Italian bakery on Miami Ave – sandwiches and desserts to die for, stopped into a CVS for sunscreen and essentials (and a bottle of wine for $4) then headed back to the hotel for a rest!

 

After a quick siesta, we went to the hotel bar for happy hour - $5 house white – and enjoyed them by the pool. By then, it was dinner time so we went downstairs to the Batch Pub. I had a Moscow Mule with extra ginger, which literally knocked any other drink I have ever had out of the water. I also had the best burger ever – it had everything but the kitchen sink in it, along with to-die-for truffle fries. Then, back to the hotel where we spent an exciting Saturday evening doing laundry ready for cruise day tomorrow!

 

 

[ceilidh1]

Woke up bright and early and grabbed some food at the hotel breakfast spot. We had pre-booked the shuttle from the hotel to the port for $8 per person, and it was picking us up at 12pm. We had a few hours to kill, so we hopped on the free trolley and took the Little Havana loop. It was interesting to see the “suburbs” of Miami and note the difference in the wealthy financial district compared to the poor, run down areas. After we made it back to the hotel, we sat by the pool for a little while and then packed up our last remaining bits before heading downstairs for the shuttle. The hotel had two shuttles running – ours took passengers for Carnival and us (the only folks sailing Virgin). It took about 20 minutes to get to the port and was a nice, easy ride.

 

SPOILER: The included breakfast at the hotel was a nice little bonus - definitely nothing elaborate, but "make your own waffles" which is always a novelty, cereal, granola, bagels, eggs, juice, coffee and packaged muffins/granola bars/Danish which are handy to take as snacks! I loved that they had coffee in the lobby 24/7 with to-go cups....

[ceilidh1]

·         Embarkation

I obsessively checked the Virgin Voyages website on a daily basis to make sure I knew the exact rules and procedures in place for our sailing. The website clearly states that passengers should arrive 1 hour prior to their embarkation time in order to get tested for Covid. None of the communication from Virgin used the term “embarkation time” but we were given an arrival time of 2pm. I mistakenly figured that these terms must be synonymous, so we arrived at the terminal at 1pm. FIRST MISTAKE! Arrival time literally means the time you should arrive, Embarkation time doesn't even exist (at least not during Covid times). Take note!

 

Virgin has a big, swanky new terminal BUT, for some reason, chose to have all passengers wait in lines outside in the Florida heat. No seating, no water, little shade. The lines were arranged by arrival time – when we got there at 1pm, there were already big lines for 12:30pm / 12:45pm / 1:00pm / 1:15pm and another bigger line for “too early”. As each time slot was sent for testing, the time sign was replaced with the next time slot, which resulted in people having to move from the “too early” line to the correct line for their time slot. It was mayhem and there were no Virgin staff to be seen – only port employees.

 

There was also mass confusion over the sign asking passengers to scan a QR code and register for a Covid test – partly because the Virgin wifi refused to connect! I finally found a port employee who was able to get me connected to the port wifi and we registered for the testing – we later found out that you really didn’t need to register as that could be done at the time of the test.

 

Now began the long wait for our time slot to arrive. We finally got sent in to get tested at 2:25pm, so we had stood in the heat with no water or food for almost an hour and a half. When you enter the tent you are directed to the registration desk – if you registered while outside, they print off a form and stickers and send you for the test. If you didn’t register outside, this is where they will register you. Then you are handed a wristband and instructed to put it on once tested. Then you get your test and can proceed into the terminal for check in. The whole process seemed a little backward – I couldn’t help wonder what happens if you test positive. Your bags have been dropped, you’ve checked in, you’re in the terminal….and now you can’t sail….seems like it would be a wiser system to have the test and results before any of the other steps. But what do I know? First impressions are everything, and this was a really bad first impression.

[ceilidh1]

 

 

SO SO CLOSE!

You get to enjoy this view while awaiting your test results. It's almost cruel - you just want to get on the darned ship already! I wish I could tell you about the swanky new terminal, but we honestly didn't get to enjoy/experience it at all as we were held outside the whole time. By the time we were allowed in (after testing) we only had about a 10 minute wait for the results and then straight to the ship. It looked nice, though...

[ceilidh1]

At check in, the agent had a lot of trouble activating my band – surprise, surprise, the wifi kept disconnecting. It must have taken at least 30 tries before she finally got it to take – not very confidence inducing, especially as she kept telling me that if it didn’t scan properly I wouldn’t be able to get in my room or on the ship. Not what I wanted to hear. For checking in, you need to provide passport and proof of vaccination. Even this seemed to cause some confusion for the agent as my vaccination proof showed three doses of Moderna but she seemed think I had Pfizer. She also was confused about which dates she should enter for the vaccinations – first two or last two. By this time I was tired, hungry, and cranky and just wanted to get on the darned ship. When we were finally checked in, we were told to wait for our results to come by email. Finally I got to sit down and just kept hitting refresh on my email app. When the results finally came in (took about 15 minutes) and it was negative, the relief was overwhelming. It took about another 5 minutes or so for my travel companion’s results, so that was a little nerve wracking. Finally, we were ready to board!

[ceilidh1]

  Scarlet Lady

Stepping on to a ship for the first time in well over two years was so emotional. I had tears in my eyes, I was overwhelmed, happy, relieved, so many emotions. The crew were all welcoming and wanting to help us get on our way, but I just stood there like a fool not knowing what to do or where to go. Finally, I pulled myself together and headed up to the room to drop our bags. We had a sea terrace, mid ship on the 13^th floor. The room was pretty nice – not huge but definitely big enough for two people for five days. Nice shower with glass door instead of the awful cling-on curtain. More than enough storage for us, lots of outlets, tablet to control the lights, curtains, tv, etc. One thing missing (or maybe I just never found it) was music. It would have been nice to just relax in the room with some background music, but this didn’t seem to be an option even through the tv.

 

 

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

While in the room, we watched the required safety video, which was a little odd to say the least. We were instructed to report to our muster station at The Test Kitchen beginning at 4:30pm, so we headed down there. I had expected it to just be a quick check in as we had watched the video, but it was actually a full lifejacket demonstration so not really sure what the video was for…

 

From here, we set out to explore the ship. I really don’t know where to start with this – Virgin have thought of everything. Every type of seating option, art, bars, restaurants, health and wellness, they have it all covered. By far our favourite place on the ship was The Dock – an outdoor seating area right at the aft with a mezze cart and small bites throughout the day. This was the best place to just relax and stare out at the ocean and there was often a singer/guitarist for entertainment and he was awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

·   Dining

Hands down, the food on this ship was better than any I have experienced on any other cruise line or even in land based restaurants. There were no “misses” throughout the entire 5 days, and I wished there was more time to experience everything that I didn’t get chance to try.

[ceilidh1]

-          Extra Virgin: The Italian restaurant on the ship was our first dining experience. Started with fresh, warm bread and garlic butter, a charcuterie tray, meatballs, carbonara, tagliatelle, pork cheek, New York strip steak. All cooked to perfection.

 

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

-          The Wake: The steakhouse was the restaurant I was most looking forward to. It did not disappoint! Clam chowder, wedge salad, roasted bone marrow, filet mignon, mushrooms, spinach, twice baked potato, cheesecake, chocolate cake. Fantastic food! We saw a few diners getting the upcharge Tomahawk steak, which was HUGE and the surf and turf platters, which also looked amazing! We also did this restaurant for brunch and enjoyed the shrimp, benedicts, and French toast.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

-          Pink Agave: The Mexican themed restaurant was the one that did not excite me as much as the others, but turned out to be one of my favourites! The food is served as small plates/family style and I got to try things I normally wouldn’t order just for myself. I will be honest, I’m not even sure what we ordered but I do know that we enjoyed it all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

-          Razzle Dazzle: The vegetarian/vegan option (with the naughty meat section) was another pleasant surprise. I thought the menu was limited and felt it a little “meh” but the food was actually a knockout! A whole head of cauliflower in a curry sauce, ginger beer chicken, salmon, the potato tots and side of bacon an absolute must do, there was even a “hidden” menu item of steak! Desserts were also a knockout – milk and cookies, rainbow churros, and Razzle Dazzle cake were all amazing! We also did this restaurant for breakfast and highly recommend the Impossible sando, fairy toast, and waffles, BUT the avocado toast was far too hard to actually eat (I left the bread and enjoyed the perfect avocado)!

 

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

-          Gunbae: The Korean barbeque restaurant was probably my least favourite of all. The main dish is cooked at your table, and there was plenty of meat and seafood. The starters were excellent, but the waiter forgot to take orders for rice/noodle dishes, so all we had was a plate of meat and seafood. By the time we were able to order some rice or noodles, we had finished the meat and seafood. The whole thing seemed a little disjointed, though the food itself was excellent and the drinking game was fun. I would probably skip this one next time!

 

 

[ceilidh1]

-          The Galley: The “non” buffet on the ship was akin to a giant food court but with restaurant quality food. We enjoyed a few breakfasts and some desserts here and it was great to just sit and order food that was fresh and hot when it came to you rather than grab food that has been sitting under a heat lamp for goodness knows how long! I loved the to-go boxes and, again, wished I had more time to actually try more of the options available.

 

 

 

 

[ceilidh1]

-          Pizza Place: The name pretty much says it all (not sure if that is what it was actually called). Full, cooked to order pizzas. The chicken pesto pizza was to die for!