Virgin Voyages promised a vacation with a unique approach to how cruises look and feel, and they weren’t wrong! Scarlet Lady’s superyacht design is glitzy and glamorous, and that goes for the decor and lifestyle too, it’s certainly not traditional and formal.
If you like formal nights and dining at the captains table you won’t find that here.
A twist of luxury and innovation, a Virgin Voyages cruise is aimed at younger adults 18+ years, or young at heart, for those looking for lively bars and cool entertainment venues by night, and cosy cabanas and DJ sounds round the pool by day.
The theme is all about fun, wellness…
and good food! If you want pampering you must try Redemption spa (it was $70 for a day pass giving you access to the sauna, steamroom, salt room and mud bath), plus a wonderful menu of additional treatments, or there were shops aplenty, such as Bvlgari, plus the first ever tattoo parlour at sea, Squid Ink.
Seriously! (apparantly there’s some historical roots back to sailors celebrating nautical milestones by receiving tattoos), in fact many of the crew were sporting tattoos, another nod I guess to Virgins’ relaxed and more modern approach.
Onboard you really can do as much or as little as you wish.
There were so many different seating areas, inside and out, many with daybeds great for lounging, especially nice I imagine in the Caribbean which is where Scarlet Lady will be heading.
Excercise lovers will find a huge choice of fitness classes from yoga, kettlebells, spin and even a gravity-defying bungee class.
There’s an outdoor running track, The B-Complex gym, top deck boxing ring and training room.
The gym is on both the port and starboard side so you always have amazing sea views! There were many educational workshops to choose from each day, examples are The History of Timepieces, Virgins’ brand history & its path to the Seas, 50’s Makeover Masterclass, Posture Alignment to name but a few.
BUT the talk of the town was Scarlet Lady’s Resident sexpert Dr.
A who held hilarious and educational classes on how to incorporate ‘play’ into your sex life (FYI no clothes were removed during these sessions) and it was certainly a hit with couples and singles alike.
If you like edgy, fun and a little bit naughty you’ll love this! Other venues provided live music, Bingo with The Hostess and The Gamers Lab has retro arcade & board games.
Examples of events included a Hollywood glam pool party during the day, and a glamorous ‘Scarlet Party’ at night where sequins or a splash of red clothing are suggested.
There wasn’t a typical showlounge with West End performances, instead there were a couple of venues, such as The Red Room which hosted a comedian (not for those easily offended!) or an incredible acrobatics show by Dual Reality.
This was a lively ship and there was always music playing around the ship, including in some cabins thanks to the in-suite record players! (I’ll talk about that in a minute).
Likewise, if you simply fancied somewhere super stylish to sit & watch the waves or read a book there were plenty of quiet nooks to accomodate.
With over 20 eateries we literally didn’t have anywhere near enough time to experience them all on a 4-night trip but we gave it a good go and the food was amazing! A personal favourite was The Wake, a wonderful fine-dining restaurant open for breakfast, lunch & evening meals.
Most restaurants are bookable on your online app with flexible dining times ranging from about 5-10pm most evenings.
Some of the smaller dining venues were 24hr! We stayed in an amazing Rockstar Quarters Suite called Seriously Suite (SS) which opens you up to some unique privileges for Suite passengers only, such as: exclusive treatment and terraces (Richard’s Rooftop Terrace), priority booking access onboard, large marble bathroom, hand woven terrace hammock, full sized, fully stocked mini bar, Peek-a-Boo shower in the bathroom, record players ready to spin your favourite vinyls plus select beverages included in your suite.
We had a Rockstar Agent who came and introduced herself to us and we could text her on our app if we needed help with anything, she always replied promptly.
I have to say the crew were amazing, everything was so well organised and they were all so friendly and chatty.
There are no crew wearing stripes, not even the captain! As the ship was sailing at a reduced capacity we never felt that space or social distancing was an issue, in fact due to her size there were so many places to go none of the venues or areas ever felt too busy.
Pre-boarding we were advised we would need a covid test perfomed at a test site near the port, at no cost to us, with results coming back in 15 minutes.
Although we had a long wait in the queue to have the test performed by medically trained staff, once the results were in we were free to board and we were on the ship within minutes.
In my opinion Scarlet Lady is different, in a good way! I would definitely recommend this ship if your preference is for Ibiza style dance music round the pool, rather than ballroom dancing, but with the luxury touches, excellent dining and service you’d expect of other premium cruise lines.