Scarlet Lady: It Gets Better Than This….Right?

[SCruiseFam]

Hopefully. 
 

I consider myself to be Virgin’s target demographic ( I’m in my early 30s, fairly tech savvy and I’m looking to have a fun/easy going time on vacation) and still its Day 2 on Scarlet Lady and I’m not looking forward to the rest of this vacation. 
 

Let’s start with the cabin. It just doesn’t get cleaned? No seriously, I’ll leave my cabin for hours and hours in the morning or at night with the light on indicating I’d like my cabin cleaned and no one stops by to clean it. Day 2 and I don’t know what stateroom attendant looks like or if I have one. Im

used to the Oasis class ships of Royal Caribbean, you know where you can leave your cabin for 15 minutes to get a coffee and come back with your bed made and towel monkey.
 

Next, the Galley. The idea of the Galley is great: take a seat, someone stops by to take  your order and they deliver your food to you. The problem is execution has me preferring the frustration of the buffet because what actually happens is you take a seat and wait 30 minutes or so to grab someone’s attention and then another 30 minutes for you to get 1/2 of your order and a lot of apologies. 

The positives? When the food eventually comes it’s actually very good. And I love the amount of quiet places to sit on this ship. 
 

I hope Day 3 and onward gets better and I actually get my cabin cleaned and my french toast, but I honestly don’t think I’ll sail on the Scarlet Lady again. 
 

Someone needs to convince Royal Caribbean to have an adult-only ship 😞 

[Janthere]

9 minutes ago, SCruiseFam said:

Let’s start with the cabin. It just doesn’t get cleaned? No seriously, I’ll leave my cabin for hours and hours in the morning or at night with the light on indicating I’d like my cabin cleaned and no one stops by to clean it. Day 2 and I don’t know what stateroom attendant looks like or if I have one. Im

 

Wow that is absolutely not the norm and I am sorry to hear that has been happening - I am actually shocked that your cabin steward hasn't introduced themselves to you by now! Is there any chance you are using the red button instead of the blue one? I would definitely press the button on the tablet in the room for cabin service ASAP so this can get rectified going forward. You shouldn't have to be chasing them down to get this done that is for sure. 

 

As for the galley, do you see staffers standing around or is everyone just busy? Sometimes I think they mistake a single person as waiting for their partner and so don't approach. Also, I thought I saw that there are now signs on the tables with a little red flag that you can raise to alert the staff that you would like to order? 

 

I hope your cruise gets better soon! 

[singleflyer]

Yikes, this doesn't bode well for my trip in two weeks.  I wonder if it is a really busy sold out ship or something?  Is there someone you can call about cleaning your room?  Seems like that should be an every day thing (or even twice a day?).

[cantgetin]

This is not at all what I experienced.  We met our cabin steward within the first 10 minutes!  Cabins are cleaned up to 1pm.  You press the blue "clean" light, not the red "do not disturb" light.  If you want service after 1pm, you need to put in a request on the app and make sure your red light is off.  They do not scan the halls looking for lights after 1pm.  We have done 2 weeks on the line and never had a problem with service.  Also, if you see them in the hall, you can let them know what you need....but the blue light should get you service every morning.  If your red light is on, no one will ever disturb you--be sure it is OFF if you order Ship Eats (room service).  They WILL clean the room twice a day, but you need to request the second cleaning on the app.  They will also deliver fresh towels, water, or whatever else you need with a request on the app.

In The Galley, the little folder on the table should have a flag that you elevate to indicate that you want service.  This is a new feature and is what they have long done in The Dock.  The flag indicates that you want staff to come over.  You can also catch someone standing around as you come in, but the norm is to signal with the flag which they will lower once they take your order.  We did have some issues with waiting before the flag system, but that seemed to solve things.

[WanderingTravels]

2 hours ago, SCruiseFam said:

Hopefully. 
 

I consider myself to be Virgin’s target demographic ( I’m in my early 30s, fairly tech savvy and I’m looking to have a fun/easy going time on vacation) and still its Day 2 on Scarlet Lady and I’m not looking forward to the rest of this vacation. 
 

Let’s start with the cabin. It just doesn’t get cleaned? No seriously, I’ll leave my cabin for hours and hours in the morning or at night with the light on indicating I’d like my cabin cleaned and no one stops by to clean it. Day 2 and I don’t know what stateroom attendant looks like or if I have one. Im

used to the Oasis class ships of Royal Caribbean, you know where you can leave your cabin for 15 minutes to get a coffee and come back with your bed made and towel monkey.
 

Next, the Galley. The idea of the Galley is great: take a seat, someone stops by to take  your order and they deliver your food to you. The problem is execution has me preferring the frustration of the buffet because what actually happens is you take a seat and wait 30 minutes or so to grab someone’s attention and then another 30 minutes for you to get 1/2 of your order and a lot of apologies. 

The positives? When the food eventually comes it’s actually very good. And I love the amount of quiet places to sit on this ship. 
 

I hope Day 3 and onward gets better and I actually get my cabin cleaned and my french toast, but I honestly don’t think I’ll sail on the Scarlet Lady again. 
 

Someone needs to convince Royal Caribbean to have an adult-only ship 😞 

how many people are on your sailing?  A while ago someone posted their personal observation, based on several cruises, the more full the ship the more slow the service.

[jon81uk]

That was not our experience with the cabin attendant, they introduced themselves on the first day and regularly said hello. Cleaning was done every day and they were often nearby in the corridor so I approached to ask if needed. 
 

The Galley however we have had several experiences like yours of having to stand up and flag down staff to order and then waits for certain food items. They really need to consider if it would just be better with guests fetching their own meals rather than it having to wait for someone to bus it to your table. 

[Freelancer3]

This new-topic is the opposite of what we have experienced on multiple VV cruises. I do like the new flag system in the galley. 

 

I have found, experienced and warm crew with very good service.

[garycarla]

Met our cabin attendant within 10 minutes of entering room.  And saw them often.

[aviators99]

I'll echo everyone else's reply.  For the two sailings I've done, we met the attendant right away.  But we did board pretty early, both times, and went right to the room.  Using the app to let the attendant know we needed any sort of service was very effective.  Did you try that?

 

We also noted the same sort of problems in the Galley the second time, when the ship was much more crowded.  I left this feedback in the survey.  I spoke with staff and they agreed that they are underrstaffed in the Galley.  This should be solved by VV as they learn what they need, now that they are doing much better (closer to capacity).  Our sailing in a little over 2 weeks will be almost at full capacity, so it'll be interesting to see if they've learned anything.

[SCruiseFam]

10 hours ago, janbear said:

Wow that is absolutely not the norm and I am sorry to hear that has been happening - I am actually shocked that your cabin steward hasn't introduced themselves to you by now! Is there any chance you are using the red button instead of the blue one? I would definitely press the button on the tablet in the room for cabin service ASAP so this can get rectified going forward. You shouldn't have to be chasing them down to get this done that is for sure. 

 

As for the galley, do you see staffers standing around or is everyone just busy? Sometimes I think they mistake a single person as waiting for their partner and so don't approach. Also, I thought I saw that there are now signs on the tables with a little red flag that you can raise to alert the staff that you would like to order? 

 

I hope your cruise gets better soon! 

Everyone had similar questions so I’ll answer them all here! 
 

1. I was using the blue light. 
2. I had to call sailor services to have someone clean come by to the room. 

3. They definitely seem busy in the galley. Again I’m used to Oasis class ships so this ship doesn’t seem full to me but maybe it is to the staff so I’m trying to give grace. But also imagine waiting over an hour each sitting to not receive your full order.
4. I’m glad this wasn’t the experience of some responders here and I hope it’s not the experience of those that haven’t sailed yet but are planning to, but so far this has been my experience. 
 

 

[SCruiseFam]

1 minute ago, aviators99 said:

I'll echo everyone else's reply.  For the two sailings I've done, we met the attendant right away.  But we did board pretty early, both times, and went right to the room.  Using the app to let the attendant know we needed any sort of service was very effective.  Did you try that?

 

We also noted the same sort of problems in the Galley the second time, when the ship was much more crowded.  I left this feedback in the survey.  I spoke with staff and they agreed that they are underrstaffed in the Galley.  This should be solved by VV as they learn what they need, now that they are doing much better (closer to capacity).  Our sailing in a little over 2 weeks will be almost at full capacity, so it'll be interesting to see if they've learned anything.

I have not tried using the app for cabin services I think that’ll be much more effective than the light. Thank you!

[SCruiseFam]

Today is Day 3 and I hope I come back with a better report this evening. 

Thanks everyone for your replies! 

[neverendingcruising]

It's probably important to note that Virgin only does one full service of a cabin per day. There are several limited items you can request directly on the tablet in the room and on the app like water, ice, etc.  You can also chat with Sailor Services in the app if you don't want to call and just tell them what you need and they'll dispatch housekeeping. 

 

I would most certainly put on your survey that you had to ask for even the regular cleaning service. We have personally always had solid housekeeping except for one sailing when there was left over food and drink in the fridge. Galley can be hit or miss, that's great if they've added flags like the Dock, that will probably be helpful. We're sailing again on Wednesday 

[cantgetin]

18 minutes ago, neverendingcruising said:

 

 

I would most certainly put on your survey that you had to ask for even the regular cleaning service. We have personally always had solid housekeeping except for one sailing when there was left over food and drink in the fridge. Galley can be hit or miss, that's great if they've added flags like the Dock, that will probably be helpful. We're sailing again on Wednesday 

I'm guessing that you mean that there was food in the fridge at check in???  Because they don't clean the refrigerator during the cruise.

VV will even do a full cleaning after their normal schedule.  We had a day when one of us slept till 12:30, and by the time we were up and out, we missed the regular schedule.  We just put it in the app and it was cleaned.

[neverendingcruising]

Correct, arrived for our voyage to grab and go containers and various open and unopened beverages. The housekeeping supervisor was mortified. 

 

They will definitely clean your room in the afternoon, it's just that the standard of service is once per day unlike traditional cruise lines (although I've been reading about other lines going to once a day now as well). 

[jon81uk]

35 minutes ago, neverendingcruising said:

They will definitely clean your room in the afternoon, it's just that the standard of service is once per day unlike traditional cruise lines (although I've been reading about other lines going to once a day now as well). 

Although as someone who had never done a cruise before I went with Virgin, I was only expecting the room to be serviced once a day, like a hotel. Unless I said I needed ice or water or something delivered. Same as at a hotel once a day was plenty of housekeeping for me. 

[singleflyer]

Random question; but do they have bar soap still or just liquid pump soap?  I like bar soap for the shower.  

[cantgetin]

On my last cruise, we had a bar of white soap  on the sink as well as shampoo, conditioner, and "body wash" in pumps in the shower.  THey no longer have the funky black soap (nasty, got under your nails, etc) that they opened the ships with.  Sometimes different is not better.

Just to be clear, the one time we requested an afternoon cleaning, it was because we managed to sleep thru the morning cleaning hours!

Edited March 19, 2023 by cantgetin

[CineGraphic]

1 hour ago, singleflyer said:

Random question; but do they have bar soap still or just liquid pump soap?  I like bar soap for the shower.  

 

On our sailing on the Valiant a few weeks ago, there was a full-size wrapped bar of Ivory Soap by the sink instead of the small bars of black soap we had on previous sailings.

 

[Travel-and-See]

I've sailed twice on Virgin and on my last Voyage there was a day that my room did not get cleaned or attended to. It wasn't the end of the world but this certainly hasn't happened to me on any other lines. 

 

Service in the Galley and the Dockhouse has been VERY inconsistent for me on both cruises. Sometimes I'm greeted right away, sometimes it's a reasonable amount of time, and still other times it's an unreasonable amount of time and I watch as other guests are served before me, even though they arrived much later than me (and yes I raised the flag).  

 

So I can totally understand the OP's frustration. There are some wonderful things that Virgin does differently, but also some frustrating things as well. 

[MeganGC1983]

I saw somewhere they were adding table flags that could be raised when service is needed in the Galley. That should be helpful. 

[CruisingWalter]

On 3/18/2023 at 11:00 PM, SCruiseFam said:

Let’s start with the cabin. It just doesn’t get cleaned? No seriously, I’ll leave my cabin for hours and hours in the morning or at night with the light on indicating I’d like my cabin cleaned and no one stops by to clean it.

 

Definitely not normal. We did not have that experience nor have our friends who have sailed Virgin Voyages (repeatedly) reported that experience. They are normally on top of the cabins daily. 

 

As for The Galley, it works really well when the Galley is slower and you can simply walk up to the food stations to get what you want. When it's busy, the restaurant style service breaks down, it's been a topic of many discussions here and something I always warn first timers about. NCL has the process down with their iPads on each table allowing the guest to order and the servers simply bring the food. 

 

Virgin's process of flagging down a waiter, placing the order and then hoping your food comes out sometime soon does not work when The Galley is busy. It would be much better to put the food ordering in the app and let the servers bring us the food so we can place the orders much more efficiently. The addition of the flags to the tables is nice, but Virgin just has to look at NCL's Food Republic and the new Food Halls on Prima/Viva to see a clear example of how this can be done.

 

My advice, avoid The Galley during the peak service times, usually breakfast on a port day, and visit The Wake or Razzle Dazzle for breakfast. You'll have a much better experience. 

Edited March 20, 2023 by CruisingWalter

[cantgetin]

We've experienced some of the stations not allowing us to walk up; we were told to sit down and order.....we did that most of the time, but the day we tried a walk up we were in a bit of a hurry.    We waited quite a while that day, and finally flagged down a supervisor who got us a server promptly.  But that was one bad experience over 14 days of cruising; can't tell you how many breakfasts and lunches we had in The Galley during those days......

[_tacocat_]

43 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

We've experienced some of the stations not allowing us to walk up; we were told to sit down and order.....we did that most of the time, but the day we tried a walk up we were in a bit of a hurry.    We waited quite a while that day, and finally flagged down a supervisor who got us a server promptly.  But that was one bad experience over 14 days of cruising; can't tell you how many breakfasts and lunches we had in The Galley during those days......

this is an absolute first world problem, but my ridiculous experience last month was that they refused to allow walk-up ordering at the salad station because "there are too many passengers onboard and this makes it quicker."  the servers have no clue what options are available because they change so frequently. 

 

i pointed out the absurdity, then brought a server to the station with me so i could dictate my order.  she proceeded to write it down on a piece of paper (apparently incorrectly) because the options are also not available on the app, handed it to a person working the station, and i corrected it while in progress.  the guy working said "no this is what was written," and was about to add things that i didn't want.  they either need to go back to in-person ordering for build-your-own salads or provide order forms/pencils if someone is trying to do a custom salad.

[cantgetin]

Tacocat, that is absurd.  I totally believe you, but how crazy can they be....what is written is more correct than the sailor standing there?  And those scraps of paper hit the trash--they have nothing to do with inventory or whatever.

The first issue is that the only way to know what is available at the salad bar is to walk up to it and look.  There is not a list of potential ingredients anywhere that I am aware of.    I understand that the line for salads could get too long; it is likely faster to have a written order than having people decide while they are standing in front of the counter, but refusing to do it correctly on the spot?  Would they rather have it rejected and get to make it again correctly?  That way they could have food waste as well as having to spend twice the time.

I agree that ultimately the right answer to the whole issue of The Galley is to be able to place an order on either the app or thru a device on each table. The flag is an improvement.  In fairness, we usually had good service in The Galley.