Scarlet Lady Review
Rating by category
Additional details
For background, I had been on exactly one cruise in my life before. The food on that cruise was awful, the whole experience was very sales pitchy, and I hated everything about it. I was totally turned off of cruises from then on. Enter Virgin Voyages, promising to turn cruising on its head, and I figured I'd give them a shot. After 3 cancellations in 2020 and 2021, I finally embarked on *my* mermaiden voyage on VV.
Embarkation was fairly straightforward. Show up at your time, get tested, check in and wait until boarding time. Rockstars go to a separate part of the terminal but follow the same process. No one boards before 1:45pm, so bring some reading material if you get there early.
For what I'm guessing will be the zillionth time this is mentioned in a review, VV is not like any other line. They have marketed as such, so I'm not sure why experienced cruisers come onboard and get upset that it's not like what they're used to. There is no cruise director - instead, they have the "Happenings Cast," which are 12 people who are charged with creating fun across the boat (The Hostess, The Foodie, The Artist, The Gamer, The Hype, etc.). Accordingly, there are no announcements aside from a welcome on embarkation day, a kickoff to Scarlet Night and a goodbye on disembarkation day.
Cabin Review
Comfortable bed and spacious room. The bathroom was a bit squishy due to the linear layout of the shower/sink/toilet. Lots of places to sit both inside and out, between the couch, chair, deck chairs, loungers and hammock.
Due to the aft location, there was never any breeze. The large balcony was one of the major selling points for us, but it was unbearable to be out there most of the time because it was so hot and humid.
We were on deck 11, which was very quiet and private. There are categories of cheeky corner suites with varying balcony sizes from deck 8-14. You could see almost the entire balconies of deck 8-9 from the Dock House, and you could see the balconies of 14 from the deck 16 net, so I'd recommend decks 10-13 if you're interested in a Cheeky Corner.
The location had advantages and disadvantages - it was very close to the aft elevators, which got you to The Dock House and The Galley very quickly. Some of the restaurants are only accessible from the fore or mid elevators, but once you get the hang of the layout, it's easy to navigate.
I probably would not book this room category again unless it was the only type of suite available.
Port Reviews
Bimini
Tons of seating on the beach and at pool and great food. Virgin's beach club was super nice!
Cozumel
I never need to go to Cozumel again. If a boat stops there, I'll just stay onboard. I have no interest in buying made-in-China crappy souvenirs from the stalls near the port. We did a reef restoration excursion that was great, but themain takeaway from that was basically that all the dive shops and tourists are destroying the reef (touching/disturbing coral, feeding human food to fish, etc.) and it will not be Cozumel's golden goose for much longer unless other providers start taking reef conservation seriously.