Scarlet Lady Weekender Full Review

[Solent Richard]

I've just completed my review of our dalliance with Richard Branson's Virgin take on cruising.

The review on my cruise blog was for a short three day weekender on Scarlet Lady. Here's the link...

 

https://solentrichardscruiseblog.com/2021/09/04/virgin-scarlet-lady-long-weekender/

 

 

*****

 

 

*****

 

[peteukmcr]

Great review and it appears we were on the same sailing as you. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You were also on the same deck quite nearby as we were port side in 14094A. 

Edited September 4, 2021 by peteukmcr

[Solent Richard]

21 hours ago, peteukmcr said:

Great review and it appears we were on the same sailing as you. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. You were also on the same deck quite nearby as we were port side in 14094A. 

So we were, what a shame we couldn't have met up. 

 

I've now caught up with your reviews and photographs. Great minds eh?

 

Had you noticed that Virgin Voyages snook in VAT onto their prices before we cleared UK waters?

 

[twodjs]

All cruiselines are required to add appropriate taxes when they are in port or local waters. The same thing happens in U.S. ports.

[peteukmcr]

3 hours ago, Solent Richard said:

So we were, what a shame we couldn't have met up. 

 

I've now caught up with your reviews and photographs. Great minds eh?

 

Had you noticed that Virgin Voyages snook in VAT onto their prices before we cleared UK waters?

 

Yes, but was expected as it's happened whilst in NYC before sailing and other ports

 

[mnocket]

Thanks for the in-depth review.  I must admit I was somewhat surprised at your final conclusion that VV was not your cup of tea since the review was, for the most part, very positive.  As an older, seasoned cruiser, I've been unsure if VV would be my cup of tea as well.  Could you elaborate on some of the things that we older "traditional cruisers" might find disappointing?  Thanks.

[Cherries Jubilee]

Thank you so much for your review!

[Solent Richard]

On 9/5/2021 at 8:30 PM, mnocket said:

Thanks for the in-depth review.  I must admit I was somewhat surprised at your final conclusion that VV was not your cup of tea since the review was, for the most part, very positive.  As an older, seasoned cruiser, I've been unsure if VV would be my cup of tea as well.  Could you elaborate on some of the things that we older "traditional cruisers" might find disappointing?  Thanks.

Good morning.

Apologies for the late response.

 

I guess I could start with the two main issues, Dining and entertainment. I'm a recent convert to 'Freedom' dining however, on Scarlet Lady, which was by no means cruising to capacity, unless you were very fast out of the traps, most times at one's restaurant of choice were shown as 'booked' or 'unavailable.

 

On entertainment, while I thoroughly enjoyed what was on offer but did note that the sizes of those venues were not really conducive to catering for a 'full capacity' ship and again, the hassle of programming in an entertainment conducive to one's dining programme presented numerous difficulties. 

 

Of course I'm sure Virgin Cruises will, in time, iron out the glitches with the app and its technology but that then only presumes us older 'traditional' cruisers have the modern equipment to use it. I did say I was fortunate in that my iPhone is only a year old  but that is the exception not the rule: so I understand anyway.

 

I traditionally write a review on my blog in a manner that indicates how I found a ship. You may recall my opening statement regarding 'short' taster cruises and then in the summary expanded on that statement. 

 

I trust this goes some way to answering your question. 

 

 

 

*****

[KmomChicago]

Fascinating review of what you note is a new type of cruise experience.  Did you feel the value for spend was reasonable compared with other ships you have sailed overall?  Also, was the lack of children noticeable and weird in any way?

 

I got the impression this cruise line was for beautiful young model types. Would your standard chubby, casual Carnival cruiser feel out of place?

[peteukmcr]

On 9/11/2021 at 6:25 PM, KmomChicago said:

Fascinating review of what you note is a new type of cruise experience.  Did you feel the value for spend was reasonable compared with other ships you have sailed overall?  Also, was the lack of children noticeable and weird in any way?

 

I got the impression this cruise line was for beautiful young model types. Would your standard chubby, casual Carnival cruiser feel out of place?

I can only give our feelings in that the value for spend was reasonable, taking into consideration there was no speciality restaurants which other lines charge a supplement for. Also that all sodas are included in the fare, so if you don’t consume alcohol then you’ll have no real additional costs once onboard.
 

Even if you consume alcohol, prices were reasonable compared to other lines in our opinion, and although there are no beverage packages, the offers given when purchasing the ‘bar tab’ makes the prices even more attractive. 
 

As these sailings are adults only, the lack of children onboard wasn’t noticeable nor weird to us as we knew there’d be none onboard. 
 

As for being a line for beautiful young model types, that’s not our experience as there was a complete cross section of adults on board. 

 

[KmomChicago]

6 hours ago, peteukmcr said:

 

I can only give our feelings in that the value for spend was reasonable, taking into consideration there was no speciality restaurants which other lines charge a supplement for. Also that all sodas are included in the fare, so if you don’t consume alcohol then you’ll have no real additional costs once onboard.
 

Even if you consume alcohol, prices were reasonable compared to other lines in our opinion, and although there are no beverage packages, the offers given when purchasing the ‘bar tab’ makes the prices even more attractive. 
 

As these sailings are adults only, the lack of children onboard wasn’t noticeable nor weird to us as we knew there’d be none onboard. 
 

As for being a line for beautiful young model types, that’s not our experience as there was a complete cross section of adults on board. 

 

Thank you! At first glance I thought this cruise line seemed too expensive. But, when we can travel during off seasons after our teen leaves, with all that is included and the quality of the product, I can see keeping it on the short list if the stars ever line up just right.