Trip Index
- Embarkation, Pink Agave
- Bimini, Extra Virgin, Day at Sea, The Wake, Gunbae
- Puerto Plata, The Wake, Scarlet Night
- Day at Sea, Dock House, Pizza Place, Test Kitchen, Razzle Dazzle
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This morning, after a leisurely main dining room breakfast, our 4-night cruise on Freedom of the Seas came to an end. We stayed onboard as long as we could, getting kicked off the ship at 9am. A benefit of being one of the last people to get off a cruise is that your luggage is easy to find in the terminal. Since we stayed in the Ben and Jerry's Sweet Suite, our bags were tagged as "Suite" and were placed in the section closest to the exit. We went quickly through customs and headed towards our next cruise.
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| we're not the last off |
Scarlet Lady, the first ship launched by Virgin Voyages, offered a different take on cruising, catering to adults only. I was looking forward to the experience, especially the complimentary specialty dining - no main dining room or buffet on board. Other inclusions: wi-fi, soda/juice, gratuities, and group fitness classes. In the early days of Virgin Voyages, a custom-printed "Band", which served as the key card, was shipped to home. Nowadays, it's handed out at the port and no longer personalized.
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| map provided by Virgin Voyages |
Using the Virgin Voyages app, we were able to complete check-in ahead of time by entering our passport and credit card details and taking a selfie for our security photo. We also booked reservations for the specialty restaurants and the "Waterfalls of Damajagua" shore excursion. Show reservations had to wait until we got on board.
Terminal "V" was still under construction; Virgin Voyages borrowed other cruise lines' terminals in the meantime. Today, Scarlet Lady was docked at the Norwegian Cruise Line terminal. Embarkation didn't start until 11am, so we were put in the "Too Early" line. Since I have been blogging my travels so late, I need to remind my readers that passengers needed to test negative to board a cruise during this time. For our previous cruise, we had to do our own testing. Virgin Voyages provided complimentary testing at the terminal - one less thing to worry about. Guests used their phones to scan a QR code to provide personal information to the third-party company administering the tests. Not everyone had a smart phone to do this - port staff had to use their own devices to help a few people complete the online form.
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Eventually, Kaleb and I were admitted into the terminal around 11:30am. Our vaccination cards were checked and testing occurred. My nostrils were hardly swabbed. Results were emailed to us within 15 minutes. Upon presentation of negative results, we were led into a waiting lounge and provided a boarding group card.
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We have been so used to boarding cruises around 12pm or earlier, so it was quite unexpected to begin embarkation at 2pm. We had no idea about this; I would have packed some snacks for the long wait. We weren't the earliest ones either - the couple ahead of us in line had arrived to the terminal at 6am as they had taken a red-eye flight to Miami. In the meantime, since the waiting area was close to the dock, I was able to get onto the ship's wi-fi and book a few show reservations. I was surprised to see all of the group fitness classes were full already.
A silver lining to embarking so late was that all cabins were ready to be occupied. We could tell this would be a different kind of cruise, based on the vivid hallway lighting.
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| it's magenta! |
44-second clip of our Sea Terrace (balcony) cabin:
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There was a tablet on the desk that controlled the lights (hue and brightness), TV, music, curtains, you name it. You could even select "moods" to activate pre-set lighting schemes and music to create different atmospheres.
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| bow chicka bow wow |
Note that most communications from the ship were delivered via the app - as Virgin tries to be a different kind of cruise, absent are the constant announcements about upcoming events, shopping sales, bingo, etc. The daily schedule was published in the app. Announcements were only made prior to sail-away, and that was the last we heard anyone speak on the PA system until the power went out later in the voyage, but we'll get to that...
While Kaleb and I were settling in our cabin, I checked the app and read a few notifications regarding our itinerary - the port days were swapped. I'm glad our excursion was booked through Virgin as any changes would be handled by them automatically.
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| announcements in the app |
There's also a fun feature of the app - Shake for Champagne. With the app open, guests shake their phone and a screen to order champagne shows up...pretty neat!
15-second "Shake for Champagne" (I didn't complete the order...):
After we checked in to our muster station and listened to a brief talk from one of the staff about emergency evacuation, we headed up to the Galley, a food court-like area but with servers taking your order, then delivering the food. No buffets on Virgin! There were a few areas (sushi, salad bar and bakery/desserts/fruit) that were self-serve or had someone behind the counter dishing it out onto a plate for you. Menus were provided via QR code printed on the table. (paper menus were available upon request) What we didn't know in the beginning was that there were "daily specials" at some stations, and it would have been best to walk around the Galley first to see what was on offer; if you were interested in ordering one, you'd tell the server the name of the dish, as the QR menus only listed the always-available items.
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| line up for fruit and desserts |
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| line up for baked goods |
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| self-serve sushi |
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| line up for popsicles |
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During our voyage, on average, the food came at a reasonable time, but a few times, it was super late or completely forgotten. I figured it was due to lack of crew members, since we were still in the midst of Covid. On these occasions, I lamented the lack of a traditional buffet for instant gratification, but once steaming ramen bowls or juicy burgers with piping hot fries show up to our table, it was worth the wait. We eventually got into the routine of grabbing self-serve items as appetizers after our order was taken, in case our food came late.
If you didn't have any time to wait for a Galley order, there were shelves with take-away boxes filled with sandwiches, salads and desserts. I am guilty of grabbing many a container of decadent Callebaut chocolate mousse to take back to the room.
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| take-away boxes |
After our afternoon snack, we started exploring.
The ship was a ghost town. We found out that there were only about 500 guests on board. Maximum passenger occupancy was over 2700! Even though Kaleb and I loathe crowds on cruise ships, Scarlet Lady was designed in a way to separate people into more intimate spaces and now those areas lacked energy.
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We did enjoy having the free arcade mostly to ourselves. It was fun to play as much as we wanted. The arcade was tucked into a corner of The Social Club (a casual diner and bar) so people didn't find it until later in the voyage.
A popular place on the ship was the ice cream station called "Lick Me Till Ice Cream". All of the offerings are made on board with plenty of choices, including vegan and sugar-free. Waffle cones came in three flavors - regular, red velvet, and midnight vanilla.
Even though the ship was very under capacity, the fact that it was an adults-only cruise made a difference in the ambiance. It felt calm and relaxing, more mature. Everyone was "adulting".
Tonight's dinner was at Pink Agave, serving food inspired by Mexico City. Our server said we'd only need to choose our large plate and he'd bring an assortment of his favorite small plates and desserts. Everything was delicious; I felt the food was more sophisticated than other cruise line's specialty restaurants. It was fun to try a lot of dishes, but it was way too much food for us.
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After dinner, we attended "UNTITLED DANCESHOW PARTYTHING". It wasn't your traditional type of show. There were no seats, as guests were expected to walk around the floor and dance to the music.
Pre-show:
A couple of the many acts:
The show was very strange. I was not a fan of standing for the entire duration, but I did dance a little during the musical portions.
Afterwards, we found "The Groupie" - an area containing private karaoke rooms. The place was self-serve, with sign-up sheets listing that day's available slots. There were three different sized rooms (Blue/2-4 people, Pink/4-6 people, Purple/8-10 people). Sanitizing wipes were provided, but it was hard to notice as the dispenser blended in with the purple curtains at The Groupie entrance. It was awesome to have private karaoke on a cruise. There was a good song selection, but nothing within the past year. Since our cruise was at less than 1/5 capacity, there wasn't a lot of competition for time slots. We were able to snag the last remaining hour in the Purple Room when we got there.
24-second clip of the Purple Room:
As we walked through the Dock House area to get back to our cabin, we ran into the PJ Party event, something you won't find on traditional cruise ships. Again, having just 500 guests on board meant light participation. It looked like half the people there were crew members. Participants were in all sorts of pajamas, including sexy negligees.
And that was the end of our first day onboard Scarlet Lady! Tomorrow, we stop at Virgin Voyage's private Bimini Beach Club in the Bahamas...stay tuned!
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Getting excited reading about these trips and want to go? Contact me at kat (at) yellowdogtravel (d0t) com with your ideas and I can help you plan it! Or if you've already put a deposit on a cruise through the cruise line, contact me to get more information on transferring the reservation to me to get bonuses like extra onboard credit or gifts. I have lots of happy repeat clients - references always available.
Another disclaimer: The intention of this blog was to remind Future Me in full detail about where I went and what I did. I could have made it private, but I frequently get questions from family, friends and internet folks about how I planned things, got deals, etc., so instead of repeating the story over and over, I direct them here. If you are offended by anything I say or do, save yourself the discomfort and kindly click away from my blog. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
