The Mermaiden Voyage of Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady
I had the opportunity to sail aboard Virgin Voyages brand new cruiseline. The newest ship is called the Scarlet Lady and on October 6, 2021, she set sail on her mermaiden voyage on of Miami.
Take a look at our overview of the cruise and its happening. Read below for all of my thoughts and further details. This just might be the perfect cruise for you!
The Itinerary
October 6 - Port of Miami
October 7 - Port of Nassau
October 8 - Bimini Beach Club
October 9 - Day at Sea
October 10 - Disembark at Port of Miami
Overall
Virgin Voyages is under Richard Branson’s umbrella of companies—most notably his music label and Virgin Airways. So, as you can imagine, this cruise had lots of fun, musical extras. This included a small vinyl record shop. They even include a delivery of particuar recording to rockstar-level suites. We got to take a step into the Cheeky Corner Suite and had the opportunity to see these thoughtful details firsthand.
Moreover, Virgin Voyages can be broken down as an adults-only cruise for foodies, health nuts, and those seeking inclusivity aboard the cruise. If that already sounds like it is for you, let’s get you on that ship! Fill out this contact form with your dates, guests, and any other details you would like me to know.
Some fun extras is the hammocks in every suite with a balcony along with convertable beds in some of those smaller suites. They convert into a couch with a chaise. You can change it yourself or request sailor services to change it for you!
Boarding Process
Virgin Voyages is the first cruiseline to have guests take a rapid anitgen test at the port.
Queue up outside the terminal and register for your test inside the terminal
Security
Take your rapid test (rockstar queue goes to one location and remaining guest go through another queue.)
Seucrity again
Waiting area for test results. (Ours actually took much longer than the expected wait time. We had to go to the desk to ask for the results.)
After negative results: Check in with your reservation number, passport, and vaccination card. Here you will link your band for your room key and payments throughout the cruise.
Cabins
I did already share some of the deatils of the Cheeky Corner Suite. Our personal cabin was the Sea Terrace. The other options available were Insider, Sea View, and XL Sea Terrace.
Virgin Voyages includes Rockstar Level suites (similar to your standard Club Level). The perks included with this level are complementary choice beverages, rockstar dedicated agent, early booking, private lounge access.
These suites include the Brilliant Suite, Cheeky Corner Suite, Seriously Suite, and Sweet Aft Suite.
The top tier level is called the Mega Rockstar Level. Each of these had extra perks with them that gave access to a private lounge, expeditited queue areas, bottomless in-room bar, a dedicated rockstar agent for your room, premium wifi, and daily spa access.
These rooms include the Massive Suite, Fab Suite, Posh Suite, and Gorgeous Suite.
Venues
The Scarlet Lady had two main entertainment venues: The Manor and The Red Room. The Manor acted more as a nightclub, but also had a 70s-themed exercise class on select days. (Definitely a hilarious favorite for guests.) The Red Room hosted the “untitled danceshowpartything” and “Duel Reality” which was an acrobatic retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Both shows were excellent, expertly choreographed, and favorites among guests.
Dining
There are six premiere dining locations aboard the Scarlet Lady. The fun part? They are all included in your cruise fare! Sure, there are a few dishes that may be extra, but dining in these locations themselves do not cost you anything cost. That’s amazing in the cruise industry!
Instead of going through each one… I want to rave about my two favorites.
Gunbae
This is the first Korean BBQ at sea EVER. If you know me at all, you know I am rediculously excited about this fact. We had a blast dining here. Sure, the food was a bit Americanized, but it worked and was so fun! They also included a drinking game which included the whole table interacting together. Overall, it sets smiles on everyone’s face and set the tone beautifully for the rest of the meal.
The Test Kitchen
This dining experience truly blew me away. I was not expecting the level of expertise and detail in this meal—which did I mention was included in your cruisefare? The best description I have heard is experimental dining for this restaurant. The prix fix menu has dishes that put a twist on what you might think would be typical for those ingredients.
Just as a wide overview, the strater had a msuhroom cooked to be spreadable on bread. The next dish had an overeasy egg cooked at 145 degrees for 2 hours to be just perfect. That egg was served over applewood smoked peas. Do you see the theme of that experimental dining I mentioned?
Scarlet Night
Just about every cruise line out there has a “formal night.” Well, Virgin Voyages does its own twist on that. They call it “Scarlet Night.” Some of the messaging on the app made it out to be this adventurous, explorative night. We attended just about all of the events. While you could take it far, we found that you could have an enjoyable time without being forced into the description given of the night.
First, it started with a ship-wide dance party somewhat like a flash mob. Following that, crew members dispersed into small groups for games and music. There were tiny pockets all over the ship of games occuring like charades and heads up, live musicians, and mermaids and mermen for photos.
Next the party moved to a pool party with choreographed dances. Again, you could choose to stand to the side or jump in the pool and dance with everyone. Your choice!
Lastly, the next big event moved into The Manor for more of a nightclub experience. This was about the time that we ducked out to catch some sleep. Still, I had heard many questions about just how involved this night was. I think you coud take it or leave it how you wanted to. There were so many things to do and I loved that aspect of it!
The Not-So-Great
I never want to review something on its first day and really slam it with bad reviews. We all have testing and tweaking that we do until something gets really amazing. I want to give everyone the chance to get to that point. Overall, I truly thought this cruise was incredible and such a different, more relaxed way of cruising.
However, there were two things that we all said really could be improved.
The Bands
The App
On the note of the bands, I saw many people who could not get them to stay on properly. I saw even more whose bands were entirely fallen apart. The concept of these bands were fantastic in that they were recycled plastic salvaged from the ocean. What a great way to repurpose them! Yet, even with that great intention, they needed to be much more durable for the constant use they had.
Then we get to the app. The high level look of it was not super organized. I found that many other guests had a hard time navigating the app. Once that was figured out, the app itself was still buggy. I personally had a couple reservations with guests randomly removed and one reservation completed deleted.
Again, I want to cover all of this with this ship is completely new as is the app. I am sure that Virgin is working on these issues. Even so, I want you to be aware if you do decide you want to hop aboard this cruise soon!