kat228

Ship: Scarlet Lady

Cabin#: 11009A

Deck #: 11

Cabin Category: Suite Aft Suite

Sleeps: 2

Cabin Location: Aft

Terrace/Window/Obstruction: None

Noise Issues?: nothing inside the cabin, but the wake is loud and you can hear the music from the Dock on the balcony

Wind Issues?: None while in motion, but when docked in Bimini on a windy day, you could feel it.

Connecting Cabin? Where Does it Connect?: none

Hammock: Yes 

Metal/Glass Terrace: Glass

Advantages/Problems: with no covering on the porthole in the shower, you’ll get morning sun which isn’t conducive to trying to sleep in

Would You Book Again?: Yes

Comments: Overall we liked the cabin, though it was a little small for a suite. The balcony more than made up for it and we enjoyed having such a large private space.

Thanks all! Some good ideas here. 

First time on Virgin, sailing over Christmas. We booked with a TA and have $600 in sailor loot, and $300 bar tab. What are your favorite ways to spend sailor loot? 
 

My husband and I aren’t big drinkers, so I don’t think we’ll go over $300 in drinks, but if we do, can sailor loot also go towards drinks?

I stumbled on your review since you posted a link in a different post. I'm glad I did since we were on the same cruise!! Glad you enjoyed your vacation as much as we enjoyed ours (despite the awful heat.) Fascinating to me how we went to the same exact places and yet our vacations were so different 🤗

Here's what our cruise looked like: 

On 8/8/2019 at 11:03 PM, lyssa13 said:

Kat, thank you so much.  We are your same age and generally RCCL cruisers that are looking for a change.  We are eyeing April 2020 for .a Caribbean sailing...I know it's probably different on a European itinerary where the ports are so important and you may not be out late, but did you feel like bars/entertainment stayed open late?  Were there others your age onboard?

I think there was a good mix of ages on board, some our age, some older, some younger.  

And you nailed it - we were heading back to our room by 1030/11 most nights because we had fairly early starts most nights. But I can say that when we were going back, there was always live music going on and plenty of people out and about. 

11 hours ago, hcat said:

 

Did you get to use the new tenders?

Our sailing (June 22) there was one of Celebrity's new tenders and two local tenders. 

Hi Dave,

We just got back from the Edge a few weeks ago. You'll find that any heating elements may be confiscated when boarding a ship, so I would advise against bringing your own travel kettle - vtcruising's suggestion of requesting room service should work out well! 

For tenders, we tendered in Villefranche and it couldn't have been easier. Just went down to the deck and got on the next tender. We asked the day before how the process worked and they said if they have too many people, they do change to tickets, but only if necessary. 

Enjoy your trip!

1 hour ago, Floater4life said:

Interesting. I'm a Boomer and I thought I was the demographic they were targeting..... Active, sophisticated...foodie...adventurous...all with discretionary income.  Oh well maybe they hope we all enjoy.  I enjoyed the Casino bar as well and had some interesting drinks in Eden.  Blu was great and I LOVED our sommelier.   

Was your sommelier Jomkwan? She was amazing!!

No reason we can't all enjoy!

23 hours ago, zitsky said:

Hi kat228.  Interesting report.  Nice pictures.  So do you think you had a different experience, being millennials?

I think some of the complaints I heard were instead benefits to us. For example - things being in an app rather than printed. We're very comfortable living our lives with tech, true to our generation, so it was a bonus for us. Also the music did skew to current hits, or hits within the last 20 years that for the most part we knew that my parents would not have. 

Otherwise no - but I heard so much leading up to this cruise about how Celebrity was "targeting millennial consumers" and a lot of people seemed to have opinions on that. So I figured I would at least throw an opinion out there that was part of that targeted demographic. 

20 hours ago, gui888 said:

Hi Kat!  Do you remember what nights Dinner on the Edge was offered?  We will be on the Aug. 3rd sailing.  Also, what time did they start letting people off the ship in Rome?  Thanks!

Sorry, I don't remember when it was offered. I think it was offered once, I remember seeing a sign for it, but that's about all I remember.

If you carry your bags off yourself, I think it was as early as 6:30am, if not 6am. We wanted to get off around 9, so we were a little more focused on that. 

Sorry I'm not more help!

8 hours ago, Cruise Junky said:

Hi. Can you provide contact details of your wine tour out of Villefranche? Thanks. 

It was through this company: https://www.nice-wine-tours.com/provence

I mentioned it, but just so there's no surprises, you do have to get yourself from the Villefranche port to the Nice port. We gave ourselves 2 hours which was too much time. You'd need about 60-75 minutes if grabbing a taxi. Tender took about 20 minutes, but of course you need to time it right. Taxi was about 15 minutes.

11 minutes ago, hcat said:

Great review... loved your writing style and upbeat perspective...

Photos are all excellent...good memories for us of EDGE and some of the ports...we loved Valencia!

 

We are probably your parents age or older but we  really enjoyed EDGE,  and our AQ class IV stateroom.....Maybe we are the " new age " millenials! ( ha ha) 

 

Thanks for sharing ..hope you post this review on the Cruise Critic review  board..it will be appreciated by many cruisers!

4 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

That must be what I am too! 🙂

Glad you enjoyed @hcat! 

Careful, if you're a millennial you'll start killing industries, lol! 

2 hours ago, vtcruising said:

It's funny because some were worried about eating at the hallway side because of potential noise, but when I visited Blu, that area looked the best place to sit. These are the tables for two that I had picked out. 🙂

 

 

Those tables would be nice! I like people watching and you'd be able to see a little outside the restaurant and a lot of what's going on inside. If Jeshna & Lebron are still there on your next cruise, ask for them and sit in their section, you'll be well taken care of!

1 hour ago, vtcruising said:

Thanks for the great review. With only one sea day (and all you did on that one day), I can see why the IV worked so well for you, especially with the heat. Your excursions sounded great - a good mix of sights, food and wine. Nice job planning it! I've been to several of those ports, but after reading this, I can't wait to go back to that area again!

I understand why the IV aren't super popular in the Caribbean, but I think in Mediterranean, Alaska (my husband and I think it would be a fantastic ship in Alaska), or a Norwegian Fjord cruise would all be great with an IV. 

We were planning for a long time...we put a lot of thought into it. Luckily it lived up to our expectations! Hopefully listing out what we did will help others who are planning 🙂 

Reading @MrsEmmaPeel's review, I realized I forgot Evening Chic night....

So since we were in Blu, we technically didn't need to participate, but still had clothes along that would work. On our cruise, the nights were Valencia and Villefranche. The guys wore slacks and button down shirts - no ties (though they had them along in case they felt underdressed. They did not, even just walking around the ship after dinner.) Us ladies wore cocktail dresses. In both cases we felt that we fit in just fine. Certainly not the fanciest, but also not the worst dressed. 

1 hour ago, MrsEmmaPeel said:

Wow - totally missed one important item in the stateroom description; in a move that I can only call stunningly bad for a ship that is so modern, if you have an IV stateroom with the bed by the window (maybe others, too) and the bed is made up as a King, there is no power plug on the side of the bed near the window!  For those of us who keep our cellphones by us on the bedside table every night, it was VERY annoying for the person sleeping on the window side of the bed.  Maybe it was there, but we never found it, and we kinda tried moving things around to look.  Given they are trying to pull a younger, tech-savvy crowd on Edge (something I am now certain of, having cruised her), this was, to be blunt, a boneheaded omission.

 

Yes! My husband kept his plugged in at the box, mine was at the nightstand since I was where the outlet was. Worked out okay since I'm the one who turns on the alarm, but it would have been nice to have one at each beside instead of 2 on one. 

1 hour ago, MrsEmmaPeel said:

  

We also attended Eden's "Revelation" show.  We ended up really enjoying it; the show had more to offer than some of the previews seem to imply.  Yes, there is a certain bit of modern/new-age setup that you need to be willing to enjoy or at least let pass by, but the show itself had some cool dance, juggling and acro/aerialism.  oh, and if you happen to be a Pink Floyd fan, you love at least one part, a rendition of The Great Gig in the Sky, live rendition of Clare Tory vocal included.  We liked the show a lot, but do not come expecting a classic cruise ship revue show.  It definitely falls more into the Experience category.

  

 

I think an "experience" is a good way to describe it. We loved it, but it was definitely unique!

13 minutes ago, ginak1112 said:

I think that most of the EDM clubs open at midnight. The restaurant we ate dinner at told us about Club Lio which is a famous cabaret supper club. They called to get us on the list because there was an event going on there, and it would be nuts. It was standing room only but we had so much fun and were sad to have to leave. I think the acts go on until 6 am lol

WOW! That sounds like a...unique? experience. Probably one you'll never forget!

La Spezia

Also now on our "places to return" list is Northern Italy. We loved this region. We did a food tour that took us out to the Parma region (just slightly over an hour from the port) and visited a Parmigiano Reggiano factory and Prosciutto di Parma factory and stopped for lunch. We could have also visited a balsamic vinegar factory, but we were so worn out from the heat that we opted to return to the ship - plus we had decided that we would return, so we'll hit that up next time!! Like Valencia, getting out of the city and into the countryside was really wonderful. Plus when there's food involved, we're always happy! This was definitely a more unique experience and got us away from the crowds for a day (this port is usually reserved for visiting Pisa or Florence, but we knew we'd want to spend time in those cities when we weren't on such a time crunch.) 

View from lunch!!

Rome

Our cruise finished in Rome (I realize I forgot to talk about disembarkation! It was really easy, we opted to put our bags out the night before, they took them, we ate in Blu one last time and were picked up at the port for a private transfer. We used the same company to go to the airport at the end of our trip.) We stored our bags and explored the St Peter & St Paul festivities...it was literally a Roman holiday on June 29. That night we did a small group pasta making class that was a ton of fun and now I need to try and recreate it at home! Especially fun if you've been to Rome before and want to try something different.

These blankets of flowers were lining the streets leading up to the Vatican. 

We also did the Borghese museum which was an unexpected highlight. We booked just regular tickets through the museum and then explored the gardens afterward. That afternoon we did a small group (6 person max) Catacombs tour which I highly recommend as well. They took us under St Clements Basilica and explained how a 4th century church was built on top of a 1st century house, and the 12th century church we see today was built on top of that. Then we went to see the catacombs where early Christians were buried. It was simply fascinating. There were larger groups there, but I think the 6 person group was the way to go. 

Our final full day was spent with our friends doing the Vatican with an early entry tour (my husband and I have done it before, and didn't want to deal with the crowds!)  They were happy they've seen the Vatican, but as neither one of them is Catholic, have no real desire to do it again. Also, even with the early entry tour it was still incredibly crowded and they waited over an hour to get in. My husband and I went for coffee and did a little souvenir shopping instead. That afternoon we did another 6 person max tour for the Colosseum Underground and Roman forum. The underground of the Colosseum was incredible and very captivating. 

If you have any questions about any of these ports or the ship, feel free to ask! I'll try my best to answer 🙂 

Just now, ginak1112 said:

How late did the ship stay in Ibiza? We went in Celebrity last year and had a great day. We went to a the beach during the day and then back out at night to dinner and a crazy club that we will never forget! The ship left at midnight and we were wishing it was an overnight. Not many ships go there. 

We were in Ibiza until midnight too. If we were there later we may have attempted a club (maybe...the last time I was in a club was a decade ago, lol!) but I have to imagine they aren't very busy until later?

Marseilles

In Marseilles we opted for a Private tour with Provence Amazing Tours. I desperately wanted to visit a Provencal market because it was a very romantic idea in my head. It was a little less romantic in practice as this is when the heatwave really took hold in Europe. We visited Sanary-Sur-Mer's market, where we purchased items for a picnic - cheese, sausages, baguette, olives, strawberries... And then went to a winery for wine, of course! The winery graciously let us have our picnic in their wine cellar instead of outside in the heat, which was very kind of them (and also a really awesome experience.) From there we went to a few other villages and saw some beautiful scenery.  It was a gorgeous, but very hot day!

Sanary-Sur-Mer

Part of our picnic lunch

Village of Cassis

Villefranche (Nice):

In Villefranche we did a wine tour that left out of the Nice port - we were able to grab a cab pretty easily to take us essentially one town over (35 euros each way. There's also a bus you can take, but we opted for convenience over cost.) This tour included 3 wineries and lunch. This was the day when a record was set for heat - we checked and it was 110 degrees fahrenheit at one point in the day. So in all fairness, it was not an ideal day for a wine tour. Our guide did a great job trying to keep us cool - opting to explain processes to us in the wine cellar rather than the vineyard. Celebrity offered a tour that went to one winery and included lunch...this one was less expensive and we got more out of it. I would chose this option again, despite needing to figure out a little logistics. In addition, we really feel like we know this region better and are more well informed when we go to the wine store.

#roseallday

Barcelona

We spent one night ahead of the cruise in Barcelona. We originally had planned on spending more time in Barcelona ahead of the cruise, but there was a number of festivals (this will be a recurring theme) being held and the hotel & AirBnB costs in Barcelona were double of the surrounding weekends. They were also booking up really fast considering we started looking in December for late June! I'm a big fan of Boutique hotels and was thrilled to find We Boutique Hotel. It was in a great location, the staff was super friendly, and included breakfast. We didn't have anything specific planned, so they helped us map out a path to walk around the city. And then as mentioned, we used Welcome Pickups to go from the airport and to the port. 

We were at least able to see La Sagrada Familia from the outside. It was incredible!

Valencia:

Valencia has made it onto our list of "places to return." We loved Valencia. From the Port, we did a Paella cooking class that I cannot recommend enough. They picked us up from the port and returned us to the port. We learned how to make paella in a beautiful setting. Really if you're not sure what to do and your ship visits Valencia, you should just book this. It was incredible.

View of the grounds

One vegetarian and one regular paella.

From there, my husband has a friend who is from Valencia, so he picked us up and gave us a tour of the city - the city was prepping for Corpus Christi, so it was very lively in the city center. 

Old city wall & gate

Ibiza

We didn't have plans for Ibiza. We had a lazy morning, then took the shuttle in to the center of town (I think it was 10-12 Euros/pp) to just explore for a bit. It was really pretty, but there wasn't a lot of shade to be found, so be sure to bring sunscreen! (This is the one day I actually got a bit of a sunburn!) Climbing up to the old city allowed us some beautiful views of the bay and our ship.

In Port:

Most ports were walk off and then get a bus to where the tours picked you up from. In La Spezia, the dailies stated that though we were in Port at 7am, the buses wouldn't start until 8:30am. A problem since our tour was due to leave at 7:30am...we called down to Guest Services, but they didn't really understand what we were talking about. I emailed our tour company and wound up posting on the Italy boards here to see if anyone ran into a similar problem. In the end, we wound up planning to just get off and seeing if we could walk: we could not, but the buses were in fact running. So it was just a typo.... one of the few negatives of our cruise. It would have been much better if someone had realized the error when we called down, there were a lot of confused people that morning in a similar situation. 

Only one port was a Tender Port: Villefranche (for Nice.) Back in 2011 during our Honeymoon cruise, we needed Tender tickets in order to get off. Not sure if it's Celebrity in general or just for the Edge, but no ticket was needed, just show up and if tickets were needed they'd start to hand them out. Since we needed the first or second tender, we were there bright and early and had no problems getting off. Not needing to worry about a ticket was really nice. Also coming back there was quite the line to get on a tender, but they were running them frequently enough that the wait was really just to board. The entire process was really smooth.

Final Ship Thoughts:

Overall, we loved this cruise. The itinerary was great (I'll break down what we did in each port next) and the ship was fantastic. The service was even better. We really only had 2 small negatives the entire cruise, which in the grand scheme of things is an A+ in my book. I could tell that Celebrity is trying to attract a younger demographic, but could easily see my parents enjoying this ship too. If you look at pictures and the decor appeals to you...you will enjoy it. If it's not your taste, then you probably won't, but I think you can probably tell that from pictures. We're still not going to be people who cruise all the time, I enjoy land-based vacations (especially in Europe) where I can immerse myself a little more, but for the next time I want to cruise, I will absolutely look up Celebrity again and the Edge and/or her Sister ships will be first on my list. 

Entertainment:

In addition to the live entertainment throughout the ship, which we thoroughly enjoyed, we also had the opportunity to check out Revelation or Eve at Eden, Hype!, A Hot Summer's Night, and Kaleidoscope. In general, when my husband and I have done cruises in the past, we usually reserve nighttime entertainment for comedians if one happens to be on the ship, or we seek out live music. We generally do not go to the theater shows as we've found most of them not to our liking - I think that more than anywhere else you can see in the theater shows Celebrity trying to appeal to a younger audience. I definitely recognized more of the songs used in the theater than my parents would have. All 3 of the shows we saw in the theater were also more abstract than I've experienced on a cruise ship previously. While I wouldn't say that any of the theater shows blew me away, I definitely found them to be enjoyable and was happy we took the time to experience them.

For Revelation or Eve at Eden (I forget what it was actually called), first, I can definitely see why they stopped doing it every night if it was the same show. For our sailing, they did it 3 times, which I think was good considering we saw the first one and it was quite crowded. We had one of the fairies come around and ask if it was our first time in the forest, when we said yes, she proceeded to explain the basic premise, all while staying in character. It was very helpful and while I thought the show was something I had never expected to see on a mass market cruise ship, I thought it was excellent. It was perfectly performed and delightfully abstract. I loved it. 

Activities (Celebrity Life):

The only day we actually participated in the Celebrity Life Activities was on our Sea Day. We did the Table Maze (basically an escape room) and one trivia. For the Table Maze, it was actually a little challenging and pretty fun. You could have a group of up to 10, but we stayed with just the 4 of us (and we won.) For trivia, they have reverted to pencil and paper. It was your pretty standard ship trivia, we enjoyed it (we did not win...)

Thermal Suites:

Also on the Sea Day we decided to use the Aqua Class perk of the Thermal Suites. We brought books and sat on the Thermal Loungers (note that this was before the temperatures outside went crazy) with side trips to the other rooms in the Thermal Suites. We enjoyed the morning in here, but by about 11am, it started getting busy and a little noisy. If you plan on checking this area out, definitely go early.

Fitness Center:

The afternoon of the Sea Day I had the opportunity to check out the fitness center. It was well appointed and I enjoyed the forward facing view on the elliptical since it felt like I alone was peddling the ship forward 😉 It was obviously a little busier on the sea day than it was when we were in port, but we had no problems finding the machines we wanted.

8 minutes ago, vtcruising said:

Wow, sounds like Blu was amazing! Did it feel crowded or noisy?

No and no 🙂

We usually ate between 730-830. We never had a problem getting a 4-top table with the same waitstaff. We also sat most nights essentially right behind the sign in the photo at that table and never really picked up noise from outside. Since the hallway really only led to Eden, it was fairly quiet (much quieter than the Steakhouse.)  

Bars/Drinks: 

As I mentioned, we wound up paying for the 4 perks to be "included" which included the premium beverage package. We're not really big drinkers, though I think as I write this, it may sound like we are! I think we only used the bars on the pool decks to grab water and sodas. For Blu, our wine steward was fantastic (definitely better than the sommelier in the Fine Cut Steakhouse) and suggested wines for us to pair with our meals. She also did a great job keeping in mind that we had the Premium package and found wines that stayed within that range. At Blu, our crew tried the Whiskey Blu (I was told it was too sweet), the Botanical Bliss (a winner), and the Nightfall Elixir (also a winner.) 

Martini Bar - we managed to only hit the Martini bar on our last night. Probably a good thing because they were easily the strongest drinks of any bar...even my gin & tonic was STRONG. Delicious and strong. We did enjoy the ambiance and live music. 

Casino Bar - the Women's World Cup games were being played here and they also had some of the better whisk(e)ys to be found on the ship, so we wound up here a few times. My husband can be a little particular about his whisky, but he found one he liked here...it was over the premium package price, but we were able to use OBC to pay the difference. 

Eden - our go-to spot before dinner (and sometimes after) was Eden. Since it was close to Blu, it made for the perfect meeting point. It also had some interesting drinks, great views, and on some nights entertainment. We really enjoyed this space. I'll comment more on the entertainment a little later on. 

Magic Carpet - Okay, another confession: I thought the Magic Carpet was super gimmicky the first time I saw it. Turns out I love it. On the sea day it was all the way on the top deck and there was hardly anyone there. I had one of the champagne cocktails and it was great. We had all split up to do our own thing for an hour or so, and my thing was grabbing a cocktail and reading my book. It was wonderful. On our last night we also stepped out on it and it was a little windy, but really nice at night too. 

Perks received: 

As I mentioned, we decided to pay for the 4-perks to be "included." This included: $300 OBC, Gratuities included, Drinks (which turned out to be the Premium drink package), and WiFi. For the OBC, we wound up using this credit towards the Steakhouse, a little shopping on board, drinks that were over and above the package, and then extra tips. Our friends also used the Spa. 

I need to confess: I took a little convincing to add on the 4-perks. Eventually I did it because our friends wanted to and my husband didn't want to feel like he was always reaching into his pocket, he would rather pay for everything up front. In the end, I'm glad we had the Premium Drinks package - I don't think I'd purchase it outright, but having it included here was really nice and about the right price for what we used. Since it included coffee drinks, I could start with a Latte every day, which was a big bonus for me. My husband likes Scotch and Bourbon, so he used it towards that, then paid the difference. I'm pretty boring with my drinks, you can either find me drinking gin and tonics or white wine, but my husband enjoyed trying the different cocktails, especially at Eden. We usually had wine with dinner too, and it was nice to know it was already included (especially if we didn't feel like finishing the glass.) 

For WiFi - we're usually pretty happy to leave our phones in airplane mode, though I'll bring it with me around the ship since it's my main camera these days. Though since we were traveling with another couple, having WiFi was really helpful since we could use iMessage to find each other on the ship. I was pretty impressed with the speed. I wasn't doing anything crazy with it - basically iMessage and uploading photos to Facebook and Instagram. I dropped the WiFi two or three times during the cruise, but it was really easy to reconnect (I did hear some people complaining about this, but I just don't think it's that big of a deal...)

Celebrity App:

Since I was just talking about WiFi...let's talk about the App! I really liked having the daily activities on the app. It meant I didn't have to carry around the piece of paper with me since I was already carrying around my phone. It was also nice to see the menu for Blu each night on the App. We would be returning to the ship and looking to see what was for dinner that night. I never used it for controlling anything, opting instead for just using the wall-mounted controls or the TV remote or my SeaPass card. The App also occasionally acted up - again, I just force quit the app and logged in again. It was not that big of a deal, though I did hear people complaining about it (again, why? Not that difficult of a problem to fix, it takes 10 seconds.)  Before Muster started, we helped a couple figure out how to install and use it...which tells me that maybe Celebrity needs to push it a little more? 

Dining - Blu:

Blu was our MDR and besides one night, we ate there every night. I was a little worried that it wouldn't be as good as we remembered since we had talked it up so much to our friends. Not to worry, it was every bit as great as we remembered! To start, our service was fantastic, from the moment we walked in, we were treated to some of the best service I have ever had. I could go on and on about the service, but I'm just going to sum it up by saying it was magnificent and worth every penny. The food was just as good as we remembered it being - what I enjoy about Blu is that every night I walked away feeling satisfied without feeling stuffed or full. We also did Blu for breakfast most mornings, when we weren't tight on time in the morning. Again, it was excellent. 

Dining - Fine Cut Steakhouse

The Steakhouse might seem like a weird choice when you have a Pescatarian and someone who doesn't eat beef with you, but when we looked at all the menus, it seemed like our best option. We had 2 steaks, the lobster, and the risotto. Of course, those who had the steaks enjoyed their meals a little more than the others (the risotto was a little too wine-heavy and the lobster was good, but the ravioli it came with was not my favorite.) We had sides which our waiter suggested to do larger versions of that we could share. Our main waiter was excellent. Our biggest complaint on the cruise came with the sommelier at the Steakhouse...he did not want to give our table the time of day. I'll chalk it up to an off night and that they were very busy so perhaps he was overwhelmed, but it left me feeling underwhelmed. The other downside that we didn't care for in the Steakhouse was how loud it was since it was open to below. Not a whole lot the staff can do about that, but it wasn't ideal. I'm glad we used OBC for this evening since I think otherwise we paid too much. Part of that is because Blu is so outstanding and treated us so well that the bar was set really high. 

Dining - other:

We did the buffet for breakfast a couple of times and lunch 3 times. The options were really good and I liked the layout of the buffet. Having the pods meant it was easy to move around and there wasn't really a bottle-neck anywhere. The only thing we didn't like was having the grill on the other end of the ship, we went for fries one day and it was challenging them to bring them back without them flying everywhere!