Scarlet Lady May 13 - 18, 2022 on board review

[thrifty99]

We are boarding later today (2pm) for our first Virgin cruise. We have sailed many times on Royal Caribbean and looking forward to trying something different. 
 

Feel free to ask any questions. 

[godzukihop]

See you on board. 

[thrifty99]

10 minutes ago, godzukihop said:

See you on board. 

What??? I heard we had the ship to ourselves!!! 😀

 

I’ve heard it may be a low passenger sailing (700 - -800) but will know for sure later today. 
 

Safe travels to the ship!! 

[sid_9169]

I board exactly two weeks from today for a back to back. You're going to love the food on board...

[dukefan94]

We just left the Scarlet Lady in tip-top shape for you!  Have a blast! ☺️

[godzukihop]

2 hours ago, thrifty99 said:

What??? I heard we had the ship to ourselves!!! 😀

 

I’ve heard it may be a low passenger sailing (700 - -800) but will know for sure later today. 
 

Safe travels to the ship!! 

Rockstar agent told me sailing at 60% capacity. 

[thrifty99]

58 minutes ago, godzukihop said:

Rockstar agent told me sailing at 60% capacity. 

That’s a nice number. Not too empty and not too crowded. 

[thrifty99]

Well, check-in went very fast and smoothly until the “waiting for the test results”. It’s been about 45 minutes for us so far and some around us have been waiting 90 minutes. Must be some glitch in getting the results posted. 
 

Recommendation - get your own test if possible as those people are walking right on.  

[johnnylikely]

Gosh, my one was 500 ish people. You have to wonder how much they are losing...

[scaught]

weird question but any idea what the minimum bet is at the craps table? When I was on in in December it was $25. Hoping they dropped it to something more reasonable....

[thrifty99]

2 hours ago, johnnylikely said:

Gosh, my one was 500 ish people. You have to wonder how much they are losing...

A supervisor working on getting the test results told me there were just under 1000 on this cruise which would put it around 37%. Heard a few different numbers so not sure what is truth. 

[neverendingcruising]

2 hours ago, scaught said:

weird question but any idea what the minimum bet is at the craps table? When I was on in in December it was $25. Hoping they dropped it to something more reasonable....

It was $10 for at least parts of our voyage a few weeks ago. The table was busy though and I couldn’t even get close enough several times to see the minimum. 

[thrifty99]

3 hours ago, scaught said:

weird question but any idea what the minimum bet is at the craps table? When I was on in in December it was $25. Hoping they dropped it to something more reasonable....

Yes, just checked and craps is $10 minimum 

[thrifty99]

Had a delicious dinner at The Wake tonight. Another tip… schedule dinner around 6:00 - 6:30 and you will enjoy a nice view while departing Miami. We left port at about 6:45 tonight and enjoyed the view as we sailed away. 

For dinner we had clam chowder as an appetizer and the Hanger Steak and Salt Crusted Dorade for entrees. We had sautéed mushrooms and twice baked potatoes. The Dorade is a white fish and has a great presentation. They cook it in a salty pastry. Then they bring it to your table and remove the pastry which the skin adheres to. A beautiful and delicious piece of fish remains and they drizzle a caper lemon butter sauce on top. It was wonderful. 
 

For dessert we had the baked Alaska and chocolate mouse tart (which was luscious). I forgot to get photos of the desserts. 

[thrifty99]

We are staying in a Sea Terrace (Ocean View Balcony) cabin. It is a nice size - I don’t get too hung up on cabin size.  I just like / need a balcony as I can get claustrophobic at times. 
 

The only comparison I can make is to Royal Caribbean ships. I do prefer the storage / closets of Royal Caribbean better. This cabin has just a couple of drawers (4) with two of them only 2 inches deep. 
 

I bring some strong magnet hooks and this helps for some extra clothes hanging. 
 

The balcony is small but functional. The hammock could be nice to hang out in. 
 

The room is much more high tech than other cruise lines. You have a tablet to control the TV, order room service, request maintenance, control lights, control room temperature, and even open/close the window curtains. The entertainment in cabin is much better with a nice selection of on demand movies to watch for times you want to relax a bit in the cabin. 
 

[thrifty99]

I forgot to mention we relaxed a bit before dinner at The Dock. It is a nice open air bar and eatery at the rear of the ship. Some interesting seating… large lounge “beds” and some low to the ground wood chairs and tables. Speaking of seating… one could make a coffee table photo book of all the unique seating areas on the ship. I’ll post some photos this week of them. 
 

We had some shrimp and octopus skewers at The Dock. 
 

Edited May 14, 2022 by thrifty99

[thrifty99]

Today was cloudy and rainy for a large part of the day. Did some more exploring on the ship. There are not as many “rainy day” activities on the Scarlet Letter as other cruises we’ve done on other lines. We did the Salty Trivia which is a typical trivia game and watched another game show “Scoop - There it is”.  Most of the other daily activities involved exercise related events or spa / health related events. We ended up watching a movie in our cabin.  We enjoy participating in and watching more trivia, contests, karaoke, etc. but even the karaoke is done in small private rooms for about 4 people versus a big lounge for all to enjoy. 
 

We did stop and watch an exercise class this morning. It looked like everyone was having a great time. It was kind of like a Richard Simmons class… the instructors leading it were awesome. 
 

Our food today started with breakfast at Razzle Dazzle which is the mainly vegetarian venue. Fortunately I was still able to get a nice breakfast of eggs, potatoes, bacon, and fruit. 
 

For lunch we each had a pizza. It was a good pizza with a nice thin & light crust that I prefer. 
 

Dinner was at the Test Kitchen which is the experimental experience. Unique flavors and presentation of the 6 courses. We have done similar on Royal Caribbean in their Wonderland restaurant and I’d give Royal the win on this concept. The Test Kitchen food was very good though and the staff presented and explained it well. The music was very loud and the waiter even mentioned he was going to get it turned down as he was having a tough time describing all the dishes over the loud music. It never did get turned down. 
 

The rain stopped this afternoon but the sun never came out. We sat by the pool. There is just not a lot of seating around the pool and I wonder how crowded it gets when at 100% capacity.  My wife also mentioned it is all steel grey decoration / design around the pool versus brighter colors. They have a couple of hot tubs but they also only have space for about 8 people each. 
 

I spent a little time in the casino. I did like there is no smoking that I could see. Very few were using the casino so it does not seem to be as popular. 
 

Hoping we get a little better weather tomorrow. Here are a few photos today from around the ship and our meals. 

[dukefan94]

@thrifty99 Having just gotten off the ship, your review is helping ease my post cruise blues! 
 

There was “hosted” karaoke a couple of time that was in the evenings (I want to say it was in the Social Club but it is in the event lineup on the app). We did the group as well as the private karaoke and had a blast!

 

We also did the test kitchen but one of your picture was new. What is the picture between the egg and the scallop?

 

Hope the weather stays good for the rest of your trip!

[thrifty99]

48 minutes ago, dukefan94 said:

We also did the test kitchen but one of your picture was new. What is the picture between the egg and the scallop?

Thanks for the info on the larger group karaoke. 
 

That dish was a tomato based dish that was a substitute for the peas & egg dish as my wife does not like peas. I forget what it was called. They poured a tomato purée over it as well. 

[jon81uk]

8 hours ago, dukefan94 said:

@thrifty99 

There was “hosted” karaoke a couple of time that was in the evenings (I want to say it was in the Social Club but it is in the event lineup on the app). We did the group as well as the private karaoke and had a blast!

 

Yep when we were on Valiant Lady earlier this year there was hosted karaoke in the social club one night. I think the drag queen was meant to host but she had covid.

[LATTELOVE]

On 5/13/2022 at 10:38 AM, thrifty99 said:

We are boarding later today (2pm) for our first Virgin cruise. We have sailed many times on Royal Caribbean and looking forward to trying something different. 
 

Feel free to ask any questions. 

Ahh nice!

Definitely will be joining your reviews. 

Thank you for taking us along.

Always wanted to know how cruising Virgin cruises would be like.

We have done over 40 cruises mainly with Royal Caribbean.

Curious to see how Virgin cruises compares.

 

 

[LATTELOVE]

So far extremely impressed with the food and presentation.

[thrifty99]

We were at a beach in the Dominican Republic today. Crazy 1 hour+ off road ride to get there.  Would not do it again as the advertised 45 minute ride was over an hour each way.  This was the Coconut Bay All Inclusive Beach Day. They also have a zip line adventure at this location. We had a closer beach excursion scheduled but they cancelled it for some reason the first day we were on the ship and this was the only beach excursion left with short notice. 
 

The beach was nice and lunch was ok. But almost 2.5 hours round trip to spend less than 3 hours on the beach was not a good balance. Yes, it was advertised as a 45-minute off road adventure to the beach. Reality was a drive down gravel roads full of ruts and bumps. Totally covered in dust from the ride each way. Made the best of it and we did get to see how the real Dominican Republic residents live, but wish our closer beach excursion had not been cancelled. 
 

 

[thrifty99]

We had dinner tonight at Extra Virgin, the Italian restaurant. Enjoyed the food and great service.  
We had calamari, cheese & meat tray, meatballs, seafood pasta, New York strip steak, sea bass, the “donuts”, and Affogato trolley (cart) which was like the fireworks grand finale of the meal... Chocolate gelato, whiskey gelato, with espresso poured over, sambucca whip cream, and white chocolate chips / merengue chips on top. OMG it was good. 

[thrifty99]

Made it to the Duel Reality show tonight. This is the one show I wanted to be sure I saw. It is an enjoyable acrobatic style show. The venue is much smaller / more intimate than the typical large theater on a cruise ship. 
 

I highly recommend this show. Attached is a brief clip.