One of my best cruises with stand out food and but improvements need to be made! I left the cruise with a bad sore throat, fever, chills, and weak body for days after because of dryness (or filth or filter not being replaced) from air conditioning in the insider, solo cabin. As for the crowds, it’s a mixed bag where you don’t have a cruise community vibe. Some sailors are just uncultured and not well traveled.
Embarkation
2 out of 5
The embarkation is a confusing, chaotic mess if you decide to come hours early. They will likely send you on a shuttle to go the Bayside Mall with low quality shops and restaurants.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
The Gunbae Korean BBQ was excellent, and so was the service. You have to share a grill with other sailors, and unfortunately, I shared it with a rude individual who doused salt and pepper all over our community grill and meats like the idiot she is.
Most of the food was the best I’ve had at sea, excluding room service menu items, which were bland, and the following:
Dinner at The Wake, the main entrees and desserts were dry and unflavorful - steak and salmon, all desserts.
Dinner entrees at Pink Agave - The appetizers, chicken tamales, guacamole, corn, tuna ahi were standouts. Main entrees, fish, and steak were terrible. I asked the chef if he used organic, grass-fed, or wild-caught for the meats, he replied “Prime”.
The Test Kitchen was an interesting experience but not worth partaking in. You will be left hungry and likely won’t enjoy some of the ingredients they use.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
I had onboard credit because my original sail date was rescheduled. I mostly enjoyed the spa with a 3-hour pass at the Thermal Suite (they don’t give you more time than that) ($69), a 75-minute, 3 Step Exfoliating Massage ($300), a blowout at Dry Dock ($69), and a pedicure ($100).
If I didn’t have credit, I wouldn’t have done all of these services because I think they are overpriced compared to other cruise lines. The high quality and experience aren’t really there either. During the blow dry, my hair and neck were being pulled uncomfortably. As for the salt scrub massage, the salt was not patted on, not rubbed in like it should have.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Service and Staff
3 out of 5
Some of the Gen Z sailor services crew members seemed like they were over it and I was met with rolling eyes, bored, irritated looks whenever I had a question or had to go to them. It seemed like I was the one bothering them. There was one incident where a family with multiple children snuck into the Bimini Beach Club, stole the food, littered, acted loud and entitled. I told several crew members but they brushed off any idea of getting a supervisor over or security, a cocktail sever said, “We don’t have that” when I clearly saw them walking around. After 90 minutes, I finally made the complaint on the app where the security eventually came and removed the family. Prior to that I walked to the guest service desk at Bimini Beach Club, and a blonde, Ukrainian, female crew with glasses told me coldly and sternly, “You don’t need to tell me, this is already reported”. I attempted to help her locate them and she continued to talk over me loudly and not let me finish my sentence. If there is anywhere where the crew should be the most understanding, patient, caring, and helpful it should be guest services. And for this sailing, it clearly was not.
Ship Quality
1 out of 5
The crew can do a better job at wiping and cleaning common areas like elevator door buttons, tables at The Galley, Karaoke Room, “The Groupie”, etc. I did not see the crew clean and wipe down areas in public spaces outside of the rooms and hallways as much as other lines on a full capacity sailing. I wish the ship had more sinks, not hand sanitizer stations that were empty.
The ship doesn’t flow well, lots of small spaces/venues and dead ends.
I had an insider solo cabin, and midway through the cruise, I started to have an itchy, irritated throat and would choke and cough in the middle of the night. I had assumed this was the lack of ventilation from the small room and cold air conditioning. During disembarkation, I felt my body become weak, painful sore throat, and eventually got a fever that had lasted until now, as I write this. If this is due to the air conditioning, I strongly urge Virgin to clean their filters and at least use a strong HEPA filter.
My room smelled like feces the entire time, assuming it's the plumbing. Other parts of the ship had smelled like this as well. I was surprised since this is a newish ship.
Cabin / Stateroom
1 out of 5
Read previous segment. The solo insider cabin was too small and the air conditioner got me sick to the point where my throat is still wheezing and feels like there is razor blade in it. The plumbing smelled like feces the entire sailing.
Ship tip
The food and drinks were mostly good as well as the service in the restaurants and housekeeping. The interior design of the ship was aesthetically pleasing but the flow of the ship was bad. Some of the entertainment tries too hard to be different or raunchy. It ends up being as corny as the other traditional cruise lines. \This experience was definitely not as cool and hip as I thought this line would have been (according to early marketing and demographic push). After all of this, I will say it is still a good line with improvements to be made with cleanliness, customer service, and embarkation process. If I didn’t have the Virgin VIP perks, I would not consider to sail with them again at the current prices.
Sorry you had some experiences that weren’t great. We have been on 2 Scarlet Lady cruises (Nov 2023 and Jan 2024). I do know they are strict with their embarkation time slots and have heard of the shuttle to Bayside if you arrive too early thanks to a fellow YouTuber before we took our first one. Hopefully your next one will be better.
I seriously doubt your illness upon disembarkation was due to the air conditioner. Sounds more like you picked up a cold/flu virus somewhere along the way. Hope you're feeling better now.
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