My First Virgin Voyage
Scarlet Lady Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Third Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 8
4 Night Fire & Sunset Soirees (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: May 03, 2023
Ship: Scarlet Lady
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 5 months ago
Review summary
I have been loyal to royal my entire cruising life and this is my first cruise outside of the Royal Caribbean brand. Everything Virgin does they do it with purpose and they deliver an incredible product. Even in the places where Virgin fell the shortest, they still exceeded most of my expectations. The open-mindedness and inclusiveness of the crew and the entertainment programs is unmatched from anything I've experienced while traveling any style.Embarkation
Their process is a little slow. Lots of sitting around, but they have a comfortable place to do it. Priority boarding is not clearly marked. Found it confusing.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The food is all over the place. Some venues I loved, some I don't think I would return to. And if I didn't like it for dinner, oddly, I might like it for breakfast or lunch.
The food is fit forward, not a lot of huge servings or sides, and not a lot of bread or sweet sauces. Everything is plated really well. Beautiful presentation of their food. Loads of desserts to satisfy your sweet tooth. I don't eat sweets, but everything looked like a kids dream.
Grab n Go from around the ship is a really great concept. Loved to grab Cesar salad and sour by the pool or go back to the room.
Onboard Activities
The Scarlet lady was pretty relaxing, there are not a whole lot of activities during the day but they do have a few classes, fitness and hobby types. They have a few social gatherings in their venues and they'll have a couple bands playing here and there. There is a lot of fitness equipment around the ship, like a boxing ring for instance.
We also really love to be able to sit around virtually any part of the ship and lounge and there's no children so you can relax anywhere on the ship.
Entertainment
Pretty low key during the day, get to kick back, relax with no kids and as the evening approaches and dinner gets served the mood changes into the nightlife where the shows and events are off the hook.
Their shows are very original and there's a little something for everybody every night.
Children's Programs
Not a single children's program on the ships and that is why it gets five stars!
Service and Staff
We're used to Royal Caribbean and the politeness and luxury service you get on their smaller ships, but when you come to Virgin you experience it totally different level of service.
Virgins staff want to be there to entertain you, to party with you, and to be your friend and see you have a great time. I've never experienced a crew quite like the one on my first Scarlet lady cruise.
Ship Quality
The ship is a little confusing at first because there's not a lot of obvious signage on where to go and they do label things a little differently than your traditional ship, but by the end of our 4-day cruise we were navigating that ship like any other cruise we've been on.
The ship is spotless, one of the cleaner ships I've ever been on, and again I can't stress the fact that there are no kids running around.
Cabin / Stateroom
We stayed in a balcony, and the balconies are great. They have hammocks which is unique.
The rooms are very minimalist but we found them to be very efficient. Good amount of storage. We missed the drawer under the bed until the last day of the cruise. Extra blankets!
The technology is a bit much at times, especially after many hours of drinking. But it's fun.
Ship tip
Bring pajamas for the pajama party and bright reds for scarlet night. Come prepared for themes!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Just boarded the ship. The trolley is a great free option to get from Bay Side Park to the port.
There is also a courtesy shuttle so you can drop your bags in the AM and go to bay side and come back at your boarding time, bit the trolley is better, shorter lines.
The Beach Club (Virgin Voyages), Bimini Bahamas
We went to virgin's private beach club. This place needs work. There are other things to do in Bimini and it seemed like a popular thing was to just grab a golf cart from nearby the port and drive yourself around the island. But we didn't do that. We went with most everyone else to the club.
The food was dry and taste it old. None of it was very good. The bar lines were atrocious. It took 30 40 minutes to get a single drink.
Now in their defense, this was the very second time virgin had sold out one of their cruises so there were a lot of us and they weren't ready for it. I have since been on another virgin voyage and this place has come a long way!
That being said, the pool is fun and the beach is fun, but that's about all it is. So don't expect too much.
It's key West, once you've been somewhere on the west coast in Florida. You've kind of been to all the places. We got off for a little bit. Had lunch, visited a couple of attractions nearby on foot and got back on the ship.
Disembarkation
Like their embarkation process, we found the debarking process to be quite slow. However, we are not one to usually leave on the last day and fly home. We usually stay one more day so we're not rushed off the ship.
So this slowness is very welcome for us. We were able to get up slowly, pack the remainder of our things and head down to a venue and have a nice breakfast for an hour before we got off the ship at our own pace. Much different than the lines were used to and the kick in the butt you get on Royal Caribbean.
Traveler Photos
