Sailing now aboard Scarlet Lady 13-19 March. Questions?

[F14Scott]

We're in a Mega Rock Star stateroom, and our car comes to pick us up at our hotel in a couple hours.  I'll be happy to reply while aboard.

 

BTW, we spent last night at the Kimpton Epic. Fantastic view of the cruise terminal (but not the SL, since it is obscured by a neighboring building), plus lots of other interesting stuff. From my balcony, I'm looking at a rooftop soccer game and a manatee that's swimming in the waterway.

[7680]

Would love to hear your thoughts on Virgin! We just returned home from our Celebrity Edge cruise, a few hours ago. Will be taking our adult twenty-something children and their significant others on the French Daze and Ibiza Nights in June. The Edge was a fantastic ship in every way. Food, entertainment, service, amenities….every accommodation. We also had the premium drink package. A bit concerned about some of the things I’ve read, re Scarlett Lady (App frustrations, “sparse” rooms with little storage, chaos at embarkation/debarkation, very small pool, etc). Celebrity was a well-oiled machine. We thought that Virgin might be a bit more happenin’ for the kids, but concerned about being disappointed after such a great experience at a reasonable price on Celebrity. Any feedback appreciated. Thank you!

[F14Scott]

Our first day was fantastic.

 

As a Mega Rock Star, we were picked up at our hotel exactly on time. Five minute drive to Terminal V. Our driver gave our bags to the bellman on the curb, who gave us our wrist bands.  We crossed the street to the testing area, spent about ten minutes getting tested, and then walked back to the terminal to await the results. About 15 minutes later, we got the emails and walked straight aboard. Total time from hotel to stateroom was 70 minutes.

 

The posh suite is great.  There are plenty of videos of it on YouTube, and they do it justice.  We have so much room and plenty of storage.   The furniture is functional, cool, and nice.

 

Our first afternoon, we had bon voyage drinks on Richard's Rooftop, played and won trivia in the Loose Cannon bar, ate an absolutely delicious Italian dinner in Extra Virgin, and saw the Never Sleep Alone show, where we sat in the front row and got called up on stage for some PG-13 fun. Then there was a pajama party.  We got to bed around 0100, full, drunk, and happy.  What a night! 

 

The app is working for me, but it is being a little wonky for my wife, not activating some of the Rock Star functions. Not awful, but frustrating. The crew is working on it. 

 

We are very pleased with the Mega Rock Star status.  For dinner, we were 20 minutes late (due to our trivia game's triumphant conclusion), but they didn't bat an eye and seated us,  in a full room, at a beautiful window seat.

 

At the show, we were led, in a full room, directly to a front-row table.

 

This morning for brunch, we were led to the seats up against the windows, directly over the screws, with a very cool wake view.

 

And, when we asked our "roadie" for reservations to a sold-out pub crawl event tonight, he had us booked in within about 5 minutes.

 

As Mega Rock Stars, all our drinks are free, and last night we bought ourselves and our neighboring partiers a lot of drinks and rounds of shots.  This morning, no charges!  We truly felt like Rock stars!

[britincanada]

We are booked in a Gorgeous Suite in May (attempt number 3 at getting on Scarlet Lady - we originally booked in Oct 19!) - thank you for sharing your experience with us!

[Janthere]

Sounds like you are having a fabulous time so far! We just left the ship from the March 9-13 sailing as Mega Rockstars in a Gorgeous suite. One quick question - who is your roadie and are you on the A or Z side? (we were on A side and had Mimi) 

[F14Scott]

11 hours ago, janbear said:

Sounds like you are having a fabulous time so far! We just left the ship from the March 9-13 sailing as Mega Rockstars in a Gorgeous suite. One quick question - who is your roadie and are you on the A or Z side? (we were on A side and had Mimi) 

We are Z (starboard) with Giri.  He's great.

 

Our second day was as good as the first.

 

Woke up feeling a little, um, unbalanced.  Got coffee from the coffee place, who filled up our giant insulated mugs with mochas, for free as mega rock stars. Ate a delicious breakfast at the Wake (with the aforementioned preferred seating). Worked out. Ate a salad from the Galley. Went and sunbathed on Richard's Rooftop, which was nice because the main pool deck had party music thumping away. Dinner at the Test Kitchen was very good foodie food. We then went to the 70's dance party that also featured ship dancers, jugglers, and acrobats.  It was all festive, lighthearted, and entertaining.

 

Really enjoying the wrist bands and just tapping for everything, everywhere, and making and seeing new friends and buying everybody a round or two is so much fun.  Do they like us, or our free drinks? I guess I'll never know!

 

Also, I.T. got Mary's app fixed.

Edited March 15, 2022 by F14Scott
Spelling

[creativeroutes]

Thank you for sharing and offering to answer questions! Do you have any idea how many people are on board - I was told they are sailing at 60% capacity?

[F14Scott]

1 hour ago, creativeroutes said:

Thank you for sharing and offering to answer questions! Do you have any idea how many people are on board - I was told they are sailing at 60% capacity?

A crew member just told me 800 passengers of a possible 2800.  I'm currently in port at Costa Maya, posting from Richard's Rooftop, and there are two passengers up here, plus our bartender and waiter.

[Raiders4Life32]

A couple of questions....

 

-I know that they include a vinyl record player in the suites.  Does the speaker also have bluetooth capacity so you can play music from your phone rather than only vinyl records?  I'm trying to decide if I need to bring my own bluetooth speaker for listening to music in my room or on the veranda.

 

-For the in room bar, do they include Buffalo Trace as an option still?  I saw an early video when the ship launched that showed that they did back then....just wondering if that was still the case.  

 

 

[_tacocat_]

4 hours ago, Raiders4Life32 said:

I know that they include a vinyl record player in the suites.  Does the speaker also have bluetooth capacity so you can play music from your phone rather than only vinyl records?  I'm trying to decide if I need to bring my own bluetooth speaker for listening to music in my room or on the veranda.

 

 

The speaker in the suite had bluetooth capabilities, but it wasn't portable (had to stay plugged in).  You also couldn't stream music on spotify/apple/whatever unless you paid for the upgraded wifi (they block the ports/filter traffic).

[F14Scott]

Yes. I paired my tablet to the Bose Bluetooth speaker box and jammed to my Spotify at leisure. Being Mega RS, we had upgraded WiFi, and streaming works great.

 

They have Buffalo Trace aboard. I don't know if they'll put it in your room, but they've given us anything we've asked for, liquor-wise.

[F14Scott]

Upgraded WiFi speed:

[marcoigna]

Good day @F14Scott

 

Thank you for all the kewl updates - I like your take on things - some items never been discussed - We are doing a Mega Rockstar on the Resilient TA this fall and can't wait.  

 

I was concerned about having non-rockstars in our suite and consuming the alcohol, but seems not be be an issue - and WOW!!!, buying others and not being charged is fantastic.  

 

They seem to be taking very good care of you with preferred seating everywhere - .... Love it!  and well deserved ...

 

 

 

 

[F14Scott]

2 hours ago, marcoigna said:

Good day @F14Scott

 

Thank you for all the kewl updates - I like your take on things - some items never been discussed - We are doing a Mega Rockstar on the Resilient TA this fall and can't wait.  

 

I was concerned about having non-rockstars in our suite and consuming the alcohol, but seems not be be an issue - and WOW!!!, buying others and not being charged is fantastic.  

 

They seem to be taking very good care of you with preferred seating everywhere - .... Love it!  and well deserved ...

 

 

 

 

The seating thing happened again, last night.  We decided to attend the Dual Reality show (a wonderful display of tumbling, juggling, and arial acrobatics very loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, with the action framed as "fighting"), but the show was sold out on the app.  We called our roadie, and "poof," we had reservations.  When we arrived, they checked us in and led us to the front row, best seats in the house.

 

This brings me to an interesting sidebar.  We can't tell if we are getting such great placement because of our rock star status, or because we put some effort into our apperance.  We notice that many of our fellow front row and window seat guests also happen to be people who are fit and nicely dressed.  There are a lot of, how do I put this delicately, much more casually dressed cruisers who are not perceptibly into personal fitness aboard, but I have the sensation they are not getting priority in the front rows and windows.  I have seen the "what to wear on a cruise" discussion threads, and I know that some people are almost militant about dressing however they feel like, but I postulate that wearing a fashionable shirt, nice shoes, and a good watch (for men) or a cute/sexy dress or outfit (for ladies) might factor into a higher level of service.  The guy with the Marlboro t-shirt, cargo shorts, and socks with Tivas is not getting head-of-the-(cruise)-line priveledges, to my eye.

 

On the having guests in our stateroom question, we actually have conferred with our roadie to host a small cocktail party, tomorrow night.  He's arranging hors d'eouvres and drinks and mixers for us; his only worry was that we'd go too late and disturb the adjacent staterooms, but we promised to be out attending the ship's dance party by 2230, and he thought that was completely reasonable.

[Raiders4Life32]

Are people wearing shorts and t-shirts to dinner as well?  

[F14Scott]

3 minutes ago, Raiders4Life32 said:

Are people wearing shorts and t-shirts to dinner as well?  

Sadly, yes.  The Marlboro shirt guy was a real person in Test Kitchen.  Almost everyone else was dressed in at least a golf shirt and jeans (with many dressed smartly for dinner), but there were/are a few each night who roll right from the monster truck rally to the dining table. 🤣

[tde1969]

"who roll right from the monster truck rally to the dining table."  That may be my favorite statement on cruise critic!!!!  lol

[Raiders4Life32]

That's hilarious!!!  I think my wife would divorce me if I tried wearing a Marlboro t-shirt to dinner.  We live in Los Angeles and do the Carnival weekend cruise out of Long Beach from time to time.  Seeing t-shirts in the dining room are very common, but inside cabins cost about $300 so it's not surprising.  

 

 

[acruisergirl]

Wondering what the average age is on your voyage and would the older (over 60) crowd fit in with the other passengers?

[Omgirl]

Thanks for all the great info. My husband and I are going mega RS in May for our honeymoon (belated) and 1st anniversary. It’s nice to know that the experience is meeting or exceeding your expectations. 

[F14Scott]

15 hours ago, acruisergirl said:

Wondering what the average age is on your voyage and would the older (over 60) crowd fit in with the other passengers?

I'm guessing average is 45 to 55.  Plenty of 60-somethings here.

[LibratPDX]

While I like that there's no dress code, I fully intend to dress up a little at dinner time and will be wearing a few fascinator hats on the cruise.  Nice to know making an effort will be appreciated!  🙂  Plus, I could not stop myself, most of my wardrobe for the cruise is shades of red mixed with black and grey.......