Cloud9 Bob

Sailor services was clueless to IT issues. If it weren't that the IT manager happened to be walking through the space, I'd still be wondering why VPN's dont wotk onboard. 😁

Darn! My favorite too.

Ditto with the cabanas at Bimini Beach Club. Pricey and they don't even keep you dry if it should rain.

I kept the basic wifi to see what it could or couldn't do. I was able to text and make video phone calls using WhatsApp on iPhone. Texting no problem at all. Decent quality with a tiny stutter here and there on video chat, but still very usable. Regular surfing and email was good. YouTube was not great, yet certain other sites worked for streaming at standard def resolutions. Download speeds measured by SpeedTest varied between like 3 and 10. Not great at all but surprisingly usable. Biggest disappointment was that the Virgin IT department blocks all VPN's regardless of the level of speed you pay for. Bad move IMHO, because I only wanted to use it to safeguard some banking transactions....which I decided against chancing. VV touts all these innovations, but dropped the ball on that one. I will say that I had very little trouble with the Virgin app though. Just needed to close open programs and the occassional hard restart.

Garage G - 921 North America Way Parking

Too bad! I think you should give up the pickleball for a week and experience this line. 😜

I've said many times that I'm the odd man out having very little trouble with the app....well at least no trouble a reboot of my phone couldn't fix. The thing that really bothered me though was that they don't allow use of private VPN's to safeguard the transmission of data....like when I want to connect to my bank and transfer funds. I spoke to IT and was even willing to upgrade to the faster service, but they said VPN is a "no go" on either service. Still can't figure why??

About an hour up top. There is a smaller version of Christ the Redeemer Statue up there and there is also a path that runs around the rain forest. The guide will explain everything as you walk a path. I forgot the name of the lunch place, but it was a beautiful garden type of small restaurant. The food was very good and they had the best coconut flan I've ever had. There was also a stop at a jewelry store that deals in handmade jewelry from the area. Independence square was fun too. Not only was it historically significant but there were some humorous elements like the man that was riding the donkey....you'll see. 🙂

I sailed TSL in mid June, 2022 and the ship docked right at the foot of Mt. Isabel del Torres. I picked the 10:30 AM cable car/city cultural tour. I'm glad I picked the earliest tour as the mountain gets foggy in the afternoon on some days. A small A/C and WIFI enhanced tour bus took us to the cable car and we did a 15 minute ride to the top. I enjoyed the ride up and we opened some windows and got an wonderful fresh breeze combining mountain and ocean air. On top of the mountain you get an incredible view of Puerto Plata. There is even a rain forest up there and you get a guided tour. Bring water and comfortable shoes. Then we went for lunch and some short city cultural stops like Independence Square. It was a teriffic excursion and I highly recommend it. It takes about 3 hours and was reasonably priced...$55 USD. I booked through the cruise line. You could possibly squeeze in two excursions, but it would depend on which two you tried to combine. Personally, I wouldn't because I would feel rushed and would also be concerned that I might miss my ships embarkation time. I'm sure people do it, I'm just not one of them. Enjoy!

I think they offer some sort of military discount at the time of booking. I'm sure you can call the 800 number to check with an agent. Be prepared to be on hold for awhile though.

Hi Walter, great review and spot on. Wished I'd found that blues guitarist on my cruise. It's the kind of music that floats my boat (pun very much intended). I liked the food at the Beach Club Bimini more than you though. I enjoyed the curry chicken because I was expecting heavy Indian and I got a lighter Thai like/coconut milk version that was a surprise and very pleasant. Tried the pulled pork too and found it tasty, not too "Bar-B-Que saucy" and yet not overly dry, as one might expect at a beach club luncheon where everything struggles to survive the steam table. Guess the trick is not to be jaded by the level of food onboard. I was warned by a previous cruiser that the Bimini lunch had a hard act to follow, so I prepared myself accordingly. LOL! 😆

Every cruise line has its differences and its similarities. As Walter says in his sig, my favorite cruise line is the one I'm on. I agree. TSL has many unique things and some things I wasn't crazy about. That said, I'm sure i'll sail on her again very soon. My top three Scarlet Lady features are adults only, all inclusive, and teriffic food. I could go on and on, but I already did in my review (below) from last June:

Excursions are more reasonably priced. Crew is happier and it shows. You can get a tatoo on board. Water stations in place of one time use bottles. They actually have Naragansett beer in bottles and tap. If you leave from Miami, you may even meet Yakov before entering the embarkation corrals 😊

I did the Dominican Daze as a solo recently. Here's a link to my review. Going solo was fine and Virgin Voyages was excellent...except for a mishap with my luggage. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2862016-scarlet-lady-review-what-i-loved-or-didnt/#comment-63619286

If I'm remembering correctly it was 7:30 AM to 8AM.

I know that there is a "time sensitive" gap that you must buy the insurance after the initial cruise deposit and before 14-21 days (varies by insurance policy) to get CFA (cancel for any reason rider). I guess I read too much into the wording and assumed you had to buy their insurance if you reside in NY. 😄

I was creating a new booking today and was perplexed by something on the Celebrity site. When you get to the part where it asks if you want to include travel insurance, there is a note at the bottom that says somehting like "residents of New York must purchase insurance at time of booking". I was wondering if this meant you must buy the Celebrity sponsored insurance or does it mean you can go with a third party such as insuremytrip.com? I checked the Celebrity sponsored insurance limits and I could do much better for a cheaper policy cost with alternate insurance. Anyone have any light to shed on this requirement for NY residents?

Too bad, I missed that one and would have loved some blues and salsa as a change. Mostly I found the piped in pop music everywhere....with a capital E 😄

I suppose it could be arranged, but when underway, I found it humid and breezy outside. Fine for lunch but I don't think I'd like to have dinner there. Lighting would come into play for me too. YMMV.

I'll have to play devils advocate here. For me, what works is ginger capsules and laying in the bed of an inside cabin. I listened to the advice of "go up on deck and watch the horizon" and I almost got sick right then and there. I did make it back down to my cabin and immediately felt better when back in bed staring up at the ceiling. Boring, yes, but at least I found what works for me.

Sometimes you will ask 3 different staff members something and you will get 3 different answers. It was funny, when I cruised TSL this June, I had all my dinner reservations booked except the last day which was Bimini. I left it open, but finally decided to try dinner at Razzle Dazzle. The app wouldn't let me reserve a dinner spot. The first staff member said they were probably booked up (highly unlikely for this venue). The second said there was probably a glitch in the app. I then started walking around the ship. I passed a dining manager and asked him. Finally I got the answer I was searching for. The reason you can't book RD for dinner on a Bimini day is because the staff is used at the Beach Club for service. Made perfect sense. Case in point, not everyone has the answer. Some will find out for you and some will guess 🙂

I picked a 10AM disembarkation time and nothing was checked...I was waved right through. I think it may matter more if you want to leave very early.

It's all about the algorithms. Virgin feels that even if every one of the passengers that were screwed on Valient never came back, that it would be worth it for the exposure and new revenue the TV exposure will produce. Personally, if I were Richard, I would have refused to dump those that were showing good faith, and booked my new ship. I would have them cordon off areas to shoot in and that's that. Take it or leave it. He doesn't realize that the good generated by doing that would cement more loyal customers (and excellent word of mouth) than what he'd get from The Bachelorette demo. The ship looks like earth after a nuclear holocaust. It was downright eerie. There are literally thousands of crew just sitting in their cabins doing nothing. Go figure.

I tried the call back option at noon and got a callback at 5 PM the next day! I always try to be flexible, but that's downright unacceptable.

I'll assume you mean a Miami departure. I had a 1:30 PM check in time last month. Arrived to the port at around 11 AM. Bags were checked and I sat around reading until about 1:00 PM when they opened medical line that checked vaccine cards/passport. Was asked at about 1:15 PM to wait in the 1:30 PM check in line. I was in the Virgin Voyages building at 1:40 and on Scarlet Lady at 1:50 PM.