CruisingWalter

We stayed at the Kimpton Surfcomber for a night before our Scarlet Lady cruise. Really nice quaint hotel right on the beach and a short walk to a bunch of a great restaurants. About a 15-20 minute drive to the port due to the traffic, but it's super easy to get there. https://www.surfcomber.com/

Just saw this on Twitter as well. Congrats to all the winners!

1:30 check-in means you'll be onboard by 2. 2:15 check-in means they should be onboard by 2:30.

If Wikipedia is to be trusted, 🙂 it doesn't look like Virgin has all that much skin in the game. They didn't even come up with the idea, Tom McAlpin did marketing research to see if a "Virgin Branded Cruise Line" would resonate before approaching Virgin with the idea. The ownership is simply listed as Virgin Group and Bain Capital with Bain having the majority ownership. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Voyages

I remember Freedom of the Seas serving Starbucks coffee in the Promenade years ago. I didn't realize this was a new thing, I thought Starbucks coffee has been in the Cafe Promenade for quite some time.

It's interesting you mention the sound quality because that's something we picked up on too. Real sound designers and concert venue designers were obviously consulted because every single venue sounded amazing. Slam Adams (or whatever his last name was) was simply amazing with his blues guitar in On The Rocks each evening. My only quibble was the Scarlet Night Pool Finale was overdriven causing distortion, but the party itself was insane. Celebrity was the first line we really noticed to be extremely LGBTQIA friendly and VV is certainly even moreso. I LOVE the individuality of the crew with no need to hide who they are. We are big Celebrity and Princess fans but absolutely loved the Scarlet Lady experience. I think the one thing that really doesn't come across is just how intimate the ship is. No super high ceiling atrium, no super high ceiling MDR, just primarily 'single story public areas' that make the ship feel much smaller and intimate than it really is. Having now sailed the ship, I find that was a brilliant design choice to make the public spaces decidedly smaller. The only thing they really need to do when the ship goes into drydock for the first time is to remove the net and reconfigure that aft space. It's super uncomfortable and only good for a social media selfie. Replace that with a lovely aft pool, maybe with a swim up bar and it could also be another performance venue for Scarlet Night or evening musical performances. I don't know about your cruise, but on our cruise that entire aft space was completely empty other than folks taking a selfie.

First off, the tattoo parlor was fully booked during our sailing. The record store is approx. 12 feet long. Don't need a drink package, you can go with a Bar Tab or just pay ala carte. Also the booking have been kept lower for a while by design. Now they are finally opening up basically the entire ship with the new changes by the CDC, minus the quarantine cabins. No kids IS the reason so many of us book in Virgin. I'm curious how many people sailing today don't have a smart phone. You really need one on pretty much any ship today to manage reservations, on Carnival we used it to get notifications that our tables were ready, etc... Your reasonings on why bookings may or may not be low simply don't add up. The main reasons for the low bookings initially was a misguided marketing campaign that left many wondering if the ship was friendly to 'traditional cruisers.' The answer is a resounding YES. As the marketing campaign has changed and as more travel vloggers are sailing the ships, you're seeing the bookings starting to rise. If you're a fan of Celebrity, Princess, Royal or NCL you'll probably like Virgin Voyages. But that wasn't obvious in the original marketing campaign that was centered on 'those who have never taken a cruise.'

I hope you're being sarcastic. There's no added benefit to being a "Mega Rockstar" except you get your bar refilled for no additional cost. All Rock Stars get use of Richard's Rooftop and the private golf carts at Bimini and a Rock Star Agent. And every single person onboard gets the same benefits onboard the ship with the freebies. As for the silver vs. gold on the wristbands, my wife and I had one of each for our Cheeky Corner Suite so there's no differentiation for the wristbands either. It's whatever color you get, it's on the black and red differentiator for Rock Star vs. Sailor. Honestly now that we've sailed Scarlet in a suite, we don't see any reason to book a suite again. The bar and turntable was nice, but since so much of the ship benefits are included for everyone, I don't see a reason to spend the extra money on a suite again. Yes I was able to bring the alcohol home after the cruise, but it was about $350 worth of liquor. And Richard's Rooftop was barely used because it's 98% sun when the ship is moving because they can't put up the umbrellas when its moving. And honestly if you want to get into Richard's Rooftop, most anyone can, they really don't seem to check. Just follow someone in when they open the door, the crew most likely won't kick you out except maybe during the champagne party each night.

They are now allowing 10% unvaccinated to sail and that number will be adjusted as they get more data.

I can confirm we sailed with 1100 passengers on July 8th, that info was given to us by the Rock Star Agent for our suite. He said it was the largest sailing to date at that time, I'm not sure if Richard's Birthday Bash was bigger, it looked like they had a lot of people. With the rules relaxed on testing and unvaccinated folks now welcome on the ship, we can expect that number to go up.

You won't find out capacity info from Virgin Voyages, you'll find out when you get onboard. The bartenders are the best folks to ask how many people are sailing. We had 1100 on our July 8th sailing and we were told that was one of the largest sailings they've had so far. Now with the lifting of the testing rules and adding in unvaccinated guests, that number will most likely start to climb. I'm absolutely certain you can request half portions, though I will say the portions on Scarlet Lady are much more reasonable than they are on many other ships. The Test Kitchen is a small meal anyway. Extra Virgin the portions were a nice size. Pink Agave you can make a meal of the tapas easily. The Wake, well the Wake is amazeballs. The Dock has FABULOUS tapas for a small meal. And The Galley has a really great selection of foods including one of the best salad bars I've seen at sea. The only other advice for you is if you are sensitive at all to very loud music, bring some earplugs for the Scarlet Night party up on the pool deck. That is VERY LOUD, but amazeballs.

When we sailed with Princess on a Land/Sea tour, we packed two different sets of luggage. One for land, one for sea. Princess took the sea based luggage and held it until we got to the ship. All told we had four pieces of luggage, 2 full sized pieces of luggage and two carry-ons, plus two backpacks. So for the land portion, 1 full size and 1 carry on came with us. The BEST piece of Alaska advice I can give you is to purchase a 3 In 1 jacket from a company like Land's End. Fleece inner liner, waterproof windbreaker outer liner. Can wear the fleece or the windbreaker individually or together as one jacket. That was the only jacket we took with us for the 17 days we spent in Alaska and then Vancouver. The other advice is layers. It might be 38 in the morning and 68 by afternoon. The ability to peel off layers, especially if you're on an excursion is awesome. And those chemical warmers for gloves and shoes do work, and they work well. I only needed them for my boots one time but I was so glad I had them for a white water rafting trip. 🙂 Have an AMAZING time in Alaska, simply one of the best cruise experiences ever.

When we're headed to the ship. We use those plastic sleeves with the wire loops specific to cruise line tags so they're very secure on the bags.

I don't know if anyone is hosting them yet. We have not seen any mention of a CC party/gathering on our NCL, Carnival and Virgin Voyages cruises since the restart.

Wha?!? I've never seen a cruise ship deliver an iron to a stateroom. The answer has always been 'no but you can send your clothes to be pressed in the laundry."

Actually not illegal to fly near a cruise ship. The Cruise Spotter has been posting spectacular drone footage of the ships leaving Miami and other ports along with some ports of call on his YouTube and TikTok channels. His nighttime work is absolutely stunning. Especially the Royal ships and the Scarlet Lady. https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCruiseSpotter

We use the Downey Wrinkle Release and it's really really good. Not 100% but give your clothes a good spritz and hang them in the closet. 10 minute later, you'll be amazed at how many wrinkles are gone. Alternatively, send your clothes to be pressed. I used to do that literally the moment we got to our cabin. I would put the clothes out for the room steward so the first time he/she came into the room, they would take my clothes to be pressed. But the Downy solution works so well I don't bother any more.

Ours didn't. We didn't hear anything from the agent until we got onboard.

There's not loud techno music everywhere. In fact most of the ship is rather quiet. The loudest music is when the DJ is at the main pool for their set during the day, inside The Manor when it turns into a night club and on the pool deck during Scarlet Night. Other than that, it's actually a very quiet ship, not at all what we were expecting. The vibe really reminds me of Celebrity which is not surprising given that many of the crew come from Celebrity, Seabourn and Disney.

For those looking at ear plugs, these are the ones I use, they're designed for concerts so I can still hear the music and lyrics quite well. Just at a lower volume. They're much better than those foam plugs many people use which are designed to essentially block out all noise. I also wear these to fireworks shows at the theme parks so I can still hear all the music, but the explosions are much quieter. 🙂 https://a.co/d/9Xjb7l3

Let's put it this way, the music was so overdriven it was a wash of sound to my ears and really hurt. But when I played it back on my phone, it actually sounded ok. But that pool area was fully designed to be an outdoor entertainment venue with full concert sound system. Nothing like the sound systems you see on other ships. It's spectacular for sure, I didn't make it long enough for the pool dancing, but I understand that's one of the best parts. Next time I'll have the ear plugs in the pocket at the ready so I can really enjoy the show. 🙂

It was certainly a surprise for them to be so quick out of the gate with the news. But it's possible they felt it was a great opportunity to capitalize on the CDC announcement. Their limited itineraries made it easy to be first since it appears none of their Caribbean destinations require visitor testing any longer. The 10% unvaccinated falls right in line with CDC guidelines for a 'highly vaccinated' cruise. Adding the 10% allows VV to exploit that rule for more adults as the 'family friendly' cruise lines tend to fill that allotment with children. You will see many complaints about that on the family friendly boards. Before this year is out, depending on what BA.5 does, testing will most likely be gone from all cruise lines and countries, and that 10% will be higher. I fully expect Carnival to be first with raising that percentage as they have the most ships and raising that number will allow more adults to sail unvaccinated. Right now Carnival, Royal, Disney and NCL have most, if not all, of that 10% filled by children.

We had the same experience and that's what prompted us to get ear plugs before our NCL Escape cruise. 🙂 SO MUCH BETTER with the ear plugs. And funny, I wear hearing aids too and I could not turn them down enough to enjoy Scarlet Night. My ear plugs were in the cabin and by the time I walked back, I decided to make a night of it there.

Oh you must be one of the cabins below Richard's Rooftop. Those look sweet. Just bring some ear plugs. Scarlet Night is AWESOME but I could only make it through about 10 minutes of the pool party, I forgot my ear plugs on this cruise. If I had them, I would have stayed much longer, it was so much fun.

No U.S. port required a negative test. It was the CDC that laid down that requirement. On July 18th they eliminated the Cruise Program so all U.S. ports do not require a negative test to enter them. Just like the CDC dropped the requirement of a negative test for U.S. citizens to return home from Europe via air travel. The decision on whether to test or not now rests solely on the cruise lines themselves in coordination with the various destinations they travel to. If the destination requires a negative test for entry, then the cruise line will have to require a negative test to sail.