Scarlet Lady: All retail shops including Booty Free are empty (July 30 sailing)

[AdoraBelle]

Everything is empty and locked up. Bare shelves. MAC has some stock but seems to be closed. There are a few things in the “logo” stores (also closed— but it’s night one and maybe they open later). Even the vinyl is gone. 
 

I’ve heard they’re changing retail partners so I assume they won’t go without retail shopping forever (I was surprised that even the liquor store was shut down/gutted), but this is a heads up for people who like to shop onboard or have Loot to spend. 

 

 

[cantgetin]

My guess would be that they are doing the changeover on that ship.  We were in VL when they changed--all shops were closed for about 5 days, shops were locked....then boxes started appearing in the stores and sometimes people working to set things up....and finally, one at a time, they reopened,  The sunglass shop opened the last night of our 15 night cruise.

[CatchaWave42]

Thank you for the update! Can you let people know later in the cruise if they ever open? Guessing too much to do in 1 sailing. Thanks!

[jaxcruisinguy]

Could have sworn the new vendor had already placed merch/staff on Scarlett back in May. Interesting…

[chefchick]

So what kind of stuff will be replacing these…do we know?  I have NEVER been interested in shopping on a cruise ship but I do remember walking by the Scarlet Lady stores and thinking some of those items actually looked interesting.

[CineGraphic]

16 minutes ago, chefchick said:

but I do remember walking by the Scarlet Lady stores and thinking some of those items actually looked interesting.

 

You should see the items they DON'T have on display! lol (Yet another cruise ship 1st)

[cantgetin]

7 hours ago, jaxcruisinguy said:

Could have sworn the new vendor had already placed merch/staff on Scarlett back in May. Interesting…

Don't know about that.  They did Valiant in April and May.

[jon81uk]

9 hours ago, chefchick said:

So what kind of stuff will be replacing these…do we know?  I have NEVER been interested in shopping on a cruise ship but I do remember walking by the Scarlet Lady stores and thinking some of those items actually looked interesting.

I didn’t look at the womenswear but in the menswear store (on Resilent Lady) they had the new brands I’d never heard of. Whereas old supplier had plenty of clothes I would have bought if the prices were better. 
 

There is now a Louis Vuitton store but otherwise it felt similar to the old selection of a watch store, menswear store, beauty and fragrance, womenswear and handbags. 

[cantgetin]

On Valiant, there were previously 2 logo shops.  One was replaced by the Louis Vuitton shop.  The new stuff for the most part has designer names attached and really high prices.  There is another purse shop, a watch shop, jewelry shop, some of the ugliest clothing I've seen, JLo area, makeup shop, etc.  The only places I'd shop are Sundries and Logo.  The other stuff is either stuff I'd never buy or stuff I can get on Amazon at a much better price. Oh, sunglass shop could have more selection but is overall nice.

[roj2323]

The lack of photos in this thread is disappointing. 

[AdoraBelle]

Everything is still empty except one store that has items boxed up to be shipped elsewhere (to other lines’ ships). Booze store is empty. MAC is closed and about half the merch left has been boxed up. Logo stores closed.

 

Have sailor loot and nothing to spend it on. I tried to buy a bottle of bubbles at sip to take back to my room, but they said they’d have to open it first. 
 

I probably wouldn’t have wasted one of my MNVV deposits on this sailing if I’d known. (I like using the loot to buy silly stuff I wouldn’t buy otherwise.) 

[jaxcruisinguy]

21 hours ago, cantgetin said:

Don't know about that.  They did Valiant in April and May.

I think both were done. My May sailing on Scarlet the logo shop closest to extra Virgin used to sell rayban products, all were gone and a sunglasses shop for Coral products was opened near on the rocks. That  was not there in Nov 21’ on scarlet. 

[AdoraBelle]

2 hours ago, jaxcruisinguy said:

I think both were done. My May sailing on Scarlet the logo shop closest to extra Virgin used to sell rayban products, all were gone and a sunglasses shop for Coral products was opened near on the rocks.

And now the Coral shop is gone too. 🙂

 

(I’ve definitely bought RayBans onboard before, but I can’t remember if it was Scarlet or Valiant.) 

[jon81uk]

3 hours ago, AdoraBelle said:

I’ve definitely bought RayBans onboard before, but I can’t remember if it was Scarlet or Valiant.) 

Valiant had a sunglasses store from day one, the same space on Scarlet is the MAC cosmetics.

[tbmrt]

Any word on what stores are replacing these?

[jon81uk]

16 minutes ago, tbmrt said:

Any word on what stores are replacing these?

Based on what is on Resilient Lady it’s very similar to what was there before, menswear, womenswear, watches, jewellery, fragrance and beauty and handbags. Plus the logo store and a chocolate (the giant stuff normally found in airports) and essentials (toothpaste etc) store.

 

the brands of clothing were different compared (more expensive and I’d not heard of them) to our previous sailings but the overall offerings was similar.

[Sherry84]

This is unfortunate, we sail one week from today and have all this sailor loot that we now have nothing to spend on. I was really looking forward to purchasing liquor and some stuff from the logo store. 😞 

[Travel-and-See]

I feel like this is a prime example of how Virgin falls short, they just decide to do something without any thought to the guest experience or how it looks.  It should be so obvious, that at an point a manager should say "no we can't do it like this" but yet... that doesn't happen. 

 

Just from a visual guest experience, it looks terrible to have all the stores closed and gutted. On top of that there is the guest inconvenience and the argument that part of what you are paying for is not there. (I know people aren't paying to shop on a cruise ship... but they are paying for an experience of which the shopping is an advertised part of).

 

I really like Virgin but this is the type of thing that really should not happen, ever. 

[CineGraphic]

13 minutes ago, Travel-and-See said:

It should be so obvious, that at an point a manager should say "no we can't do it like this" but yet... that doesn't happen. 

 

It's not a great thing to have zero retail during a sailing or two, but how do you suggest they get one vendor to pack up everything and remove it from the ship, and have a new vendor bring in all of it's new stuff on-board? Cancel a sailing? That would cost them a fortune, having to give everyone bonus future cruise credit, reimburse everyone for flight/hotels.

[Travel-and-See]

7 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

It's not a great thing to have zero retail during a sailing or two, but how do you suggest they get one vendor to pack up everything and remove it from the ship, and have a new vendor bring in all of it's new stuff on-board? Cancel a sailing? That would cost them a fortune, having to give everyone bonus future cruise credit, reimburse everyone for flight/hotels.

Cancel a sailing? Jump to extremes much? haha. 

 

Schedule the change-over to happen over the course of 2 sailings - and have it be store by store so that throughout the cruise only 1 or 2 stores are ever closed at a time.

[CineGraphic]

1 minute ago, Travel-and-See said:

Schedule the change-over to happen over the course of 2 sailings - and have it be store by store so that throughout the cruise only 1 or 2 stores are ever closed at a time.

 

My guess is that the contract terms wouldn't allow it.

[Travel-and-See]

2 minutes ago, CineGraphic said:

 

My guess is that the contract terms wouldn't allow it.

If that is the case then you simply write the contract so that it is allowed. 

[CineGraphic]

13 minutes ago, Travel-and-See said:

If that is the case then you simply write the contract so that it is allowed. 

 

Easy to say in hindsight, but I don't think either party expected things to go the way they did. Usually these relationships tend to be long term.

[Lustate]

1 hour ago, Travel-and-See said:

I really like Virgin but this is the type of thing that really should not happen, ever. 

 

It is also worth remembering that on most voyages they have port days and on them days the shops are shut anyway. I would imagine you will have something up and running soon, and would be by the end of the voyage for sure on something like the logo shop. 

[Sherry84]

Refresh my memory but "sailor loot" can NOT be used for drinks/bar tab, correct?