Getting off HAL, getting on Scarlet Lady. A few questions for the experienced

[Don Kehote]

To preface:  I have been on only 8 cruises.  Every single one, a Carnival ship.  

 

After our last CCL Cruise, we were feeling a little bit let down.  I mean, any cruise is a good cruise (ymmv), but it just felt like....blah.  So, we cancelled our next trip, and switched over to a HAL cruise as the timing and price were both right.

 

Last week, the stars aligned just right, we performed the incantations, and found ourselves booked on Scarlet Lady.  We're literally getting off the HAL ship in Fort Lauderdale, and heading right down to Miami to board Scarlet Lady just a few hours later.

 

Question 1:  Will We Die?  I am thinking that this will be a rather drastic change of pace. 

Question 2:  Will they attempt to push me back into the sea?  I'm already a "Big and Tall" shopper, and over 50 now.  Should I expect to join Poseidon in the murky depths, or can I count on feeling like I belong there?

Question 3:  I see lots of people mentioning making new friends, or how the ship is intimate and conducive to conversation.  I'm ordinarily pretty quiet, but I do like to have fun.  At the same time, I can have a great time without saying a word.  Should I get a T-shirt that says something like "Quiet, But Fun" to make things clear; that I'm not a jerk, I just don't talk a lot until I'm off-guard?

 

We're terribly excited.  We watched a few videos (Where's Walter did a FANTASTIC food tour), and are almost a little afraid that this is going to ruin the cruise experience that we always loved by being...a LOT better.

 

Thanks!

[rebeccac]

We've been on both lines (as well as Carnival) and yes they are different, but I enjoyed both.  Certainly, the passengers skew older on HAL, but VV isn't just millennials (and not everyone is a fitness buff).  There is a very nice mix of age groups.  I think if you accept both lines for what they are, you will have a great time on both.  

[CruisingWalter]

12 hours ago, Don Kehote said:

Question 1:  Will We Die?  I am thinking that this will be a rather drastic change of pace. 

Question 2:  Will they attempt to push me back into the sea?  I'm already a "Big and Tall" shopper, and over 50 now.  Should I expect to join Poseidon in the murky depths, or can I count on feeling like I belong there?

Question 3:  I see lots of people mentioning making new friends, or how the ship is intimate and conducive to conversation.  I'm ordinarily pretty quiet, but I do like to have fun.  At the same time, I can have a great time without saying a word.  Should I get a T-shirt that says something like "Quiet, But Fun" to make things clear; that I'm not a jerk, I just don't talk a lot until I'm off-guard?

 

We're terribly excited.  We watched a few videos (Where's Walter did a FANTASTIC food tour), and are almost a little afraid that this is going to ruin the cruise experience that we always loved by being...a LOT better.

 

Thanks!

 

Well first off, THANK YOU for the kind words about the Food Tour on our Where's Walter TV channel. I'm really glad that was useful for you and we happen to have a full Scarlet Lady Review dropping tonight or Saturday morning which answers a lot of your questions. We're having fun with the channel and our TikTok channel as well. 

 

But Question 1: No, you won't die. The ship is very laid back and casual. I think the vibe onboard the ship is very similar to Celebrity. What you see in a lot of the vlogs is the 'sexy and weird' stuff because they need clicks and views. But in reality, it's actually a very laid back and quiet ship for the most part. The casino is non-smoking if you like to play the games in there. The super loud event will be Scarlet Night but the loudest part is up at the pool deck and I have to admit, it is SPECTACULAR. But bring your ear plugs. Other than that, the 'loud shows' are in The Manor or the Red Room. I would recommend Duel Reality in the Red Room, it's a cool show and the Diva drag show in The Manor, super fun. 

 

Question 2: Tony at La Lido Loca did an episode about being tall, old and fluffy, noting how welcome he felt on the ship. The ship is very much 'come as you are.' You can tell they realized they messed up the original marketing because there are people OVER 60 on the website now. 🙂 You can be as quiet or as loud as you choose to be. Daytime trivia, arts and crafts, scavenger hunts, the AWESOME retro arcade that had this kid from the 80's having flashbacks. 🙂 We're 56, I'd say the average age was between 45-55 on our cruise with some folks clearly in their 80's or 90's. 

 

Question 3: Nothing says you have to talk at all. If you're concerned crew members or the Happenings team will continually be coming up to you to ask you to have fun or do something, they won't. In fact you don't even have any photographers on board to bother you. I'm willing to bet you could go the entire cruise without saying a word if you so choose. Could cause some issues ordering food, but you could do it. 🙂 

 

It WILL be different than HAL but honestly, not all that different except for the crew. The crew is much more casual and laid back on VV while HAL is very traditional and more starched. Both offer excellent vacations and I think you did it the right way around. HAL then VV. If you did it the other way around you'd feel like you're getting nickeled and dimed on HAL for all the things that are included on the Scarlet Lady. 

 

Again, my sincere thanks for the kind words on the food tour! 🙂

 

 

[Cloud9 Bob]

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:

 

 

[cantgetin]

VV is different from any other line, but lovely.  I'm over 60, overweight, etc.   Love it.  VV is largely about doing your own thing.  My friend says it is a ship for people who don't want to line up and be told what to do!  Supposedly, in the first 6 months of operation the average age on VV was 47, 50% of cruisers were married couples.  If you want to sit and read or watch the waves, no one will bother you.  If you want to join a work out class as a single, no issues.  The only exception is Gumbae where it is table top cooking and you will be seated with others.

[CruisingWalter]

@Don Kehote as promised our full Scarlet Lady Review is now live for your viewing pleasure. I approached this review from the perspective of things that surprised us or that we did not expect on Scarlet Lady based on other vlogs. Enjoy! 

 

[Janthere]

Walter - thanks for posting the review - it was really great and really captured the "essence" of the Scarlet Lady. We are sailing the end of September for our second cruise (first was in February) and after watching this we are even more excited to go back if that is even possible! 

 

[Cloud9 Bob]

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! 😆

[CruisingWalter]

5 hours ago, janbear said:

Walter - thanks for posting the review - it was really great and really captured the "essence" of the Scarlet Lady. We are sailing the end of September for our second cruise (first was in February) and after watching this we are even more excited to go back if that is even possible! 

 

 

Thanks for the kind words and I'm glad we achieve our goal. The very questions that started this thread were precisely what I was trying answer and convey what the ship is really like, not all the 'crazy and wild' stuff that seems to permeate all the other vlogs. A friend of ours who is a prominent cruise vlogger really had no interest in VV until we told her what it was really like onboard. When you're actually onboard the ship, the experience runs counter to what we were expecting. Jealous that you're going back onboard already. I'm still hoping we can get on one of the 8 night Valiant cruises while she's here for the winter season. The only complaint about our cruise was that 5 night was just not long enough. 🙂 Again, my sincere thanks for the kind words! 

[CruisingWalter]

4 hours ago, Cloud9 Bob said:

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! 😆

 

We've heard from a few others that they had what sounds like better food than us. That fish I in the episode was so dry it was very difficult to even cut in to. But the beach resort itself was so lovely that we had a great time there. That beach and the gentle shallows walking out into the water was so lovely. It's definitely my favorite private cruise resort at the moment. 

 

As for Slam Allen, yeah he was amazeballs. There was a solo singer who appeared in On The Rocks as well who was quite good as well. The music overall on that ship is quite impressive. Thanks so much for the kind words! 

[Janthere]

16 hours ago, WheresWalter said:

Jealous that you're going back onboard already. I'm still hoping we can get on one of the 8 night Valiant cruises while she's here for the winter season. The only complaint about our cruise was that 5 night was just not long enough. 🙂 

Definitely our first cruise was only 4 nights and the upcoming one is 5 but we are booked on Valiant 8 nights in February and really looking forward to having more time onboard to relax and enjoy everything the ship has to offer.  Virgin really needs to come out with that loyalty program soon! 

[Don Kehote]

On 8/27/2022 at 4:23 PM, WheresWalter said:

@Don Kehote as promised our full Scarlet Lady Review is now live for your viewing pleasure.

This must be what being touched by an angel feels like.

[CruisingWalter]

11 hours ago, janbear said:

Definitely our first cruise was only 4 nights and the upcoming one is 5 but we are booked on Valiant 8 nights in February and really looking forward to having more time onboard to relax and enjoy everything the ship has to offer.  Virgin really needs to come out with that loyalty program soon! 

 

It will be interesting to see what differences there are between Valiant and Scarlet. There does seem to be more complaints about food quality on Valiant. Not sure if it's a supply thing in Europe, different chefs, or something else entirely. For the most part folks are praising Scarlet Lady's food, but the reaction seems to be mixed for Valiant. 

Edited August 29, 2022 by WheresWalter

[jon81uk]

6 hours ago, WheresWalter said:

 

It will be interesting to see what differences there are between Valiant and Scarlet. There does seem to be more complaints about food quality on Valiant. Not sure if it's a supply thing in Europe, different chefs, or something else entirely. For the most part folks are praising Scarlet Lady's food, but the reaction seems to be mixed for Valiant. 

as a Brit the other odd thing is that the menus are written in American and names for ingredients or even certain ingredients aren’t familiar, therefore if the mix of people on Valiant is less American it could just be the interpretation of the menu doesn’t go down as well. 
I’ve been on both ships and found the food to be pretty much identical.

 

Currently onboard Scarlet Lady and had a great Butter Chicken curry in Razzle Dazzle last night.

[kwokpot]

On 8/29/2022 at 3:34 PM, jon81uk said:

as a Brit the other odd thing is that the menus are written in American and names for ingredients or even certain ingredients aren’t familiar, therefore if the mix of people on Valiant is less American it could just be the interpretation of the menu doesn’t go down as well. 

About twelve or so years ago I was in London with my family and we went to a British chain restaurant similar to TGI Fridays. One of the food selections had an ingredient called ROCKET. Having never heard of it we asked the server what that was. For the life he couldn't explain it, so he said wait a minute, I'll be right back. He went into the Kitchen and came back with a piece of Rocket. We all said, Ahhh, we call that Arugula. We all had a good laugh!   

[CruzinMermaid]

• Well, Don, I'm dying to know!

 

Have you survived?

Did you enjoy your VV adventure at sea?

Are you already booked for your next voyage?

[CruzinMermaid]

@WheresWalter thank you for the wonderful SL videos - those food reviews, yum.

 

I'm on SL in October with family and on VL in November with a gf - I do hope it's not the case that the food quality is different. I adored SL when I sailed last year and very excited about upcoming adventures.

 

@Don Kehote I do hope you enjoyed your adventure!

[CruisingWalter]

19 hours ago, CruzinMermaid said:

@WheresWalter thank you for the wonderful SL videos - those food reviews, yum.

 

Thank you so much for the kind words! 🙂