The cruise industry is about to have a massive change in what people are going to expect. After having only a three day taste of what Virgin Voyages has to offer, I can say days later that I am still amazed. I have rearranged my schedule this year to have as many visits as possible once Scarlet Lady moves to Miami. I am also making plans for 2022 when Valiant Lady makes her debut in Barcelona. This review turned out to be much longer than I was intending, but there’s just too much to cover to give a short review of this ship justice. My review of Virgin Voyages is going to be skewed because I am the target audience for this cruise line, but also because I overwhelmingly love cruising. 

While some reading this review do not know me, I think that it is important to offer a bit of perspective. I have done 87 cruises in less than 20 year span. From the first cruise I took on Carnival with 5 people in an inside cabin I was in love with everything about cruising. Since then I have sailed on almost every major cruise line and all been with them all over the world. Out of those cruises 44 of them have been on LGBT focused experiences, but primarily a gay male focused charter. Traveling for me is not a passion, is it a lifestyle.

I do also have to give my travel company Destination By David a plug here. I have turned my passion for travel into helping curate travel experiences and lifetime memories. Whether you are looking for your first cruise, planing a trip to a new destination, or even wanting to take your first LGBT charter CONTACT me, and let me help you make that happen. I never charge my clients a fee, I simply work on commission from my bookings. 

I went through a few hoops in order to get on my voyage. This was Virgin Voyages seventh revenue sailing on the Scarlet Lady and their first charter, but for UK residents only. Praise to my connections with the charter I was cleared for sailing because of the industry I am affiliated with. With that also being said, charters have a very different method of cruising than other sailings. Even with only 500 people onboard, parties went strong until 5am. The crew told me that our voyage was the first time they have worked to their potential. 

Before sailing it took 3 times downloading and deleting the app to be able to get registered. Once onboard I found it very hard to use and I certainly was not the only one to think this. It is not user friendly and finding information is hard. Things definitely missing are simple search functions and walking directions for finding venues and easy to navigate deck plans. I hope before the Scarlet Lady starts sailing out of Miami they are able to make some improvements. I will say that I have had no issues with my October 10 and October 15 sailing.

Like me joining the cruise, my embarkation is going to be a bit different than the other sailors. I flew directly from the United States landing early at Heathrow.  After clearing the nightmare at imigration I took a bus to the port and then a taxi to the designated meeting point. We were then shuttled to the testing center, then to the security center and then to the ship. Lot’s of shuttles but all ran very efficiently, and with a very friendly and lively staff. Boarding did not begin until 2pm, which had me waiting for about two hours to clear security for my final shuttle to the ship to finally hear the words AHOY!

My first stop on this sailing was to my cabin which was a category TR Sea terrace cabin 12034Z at a commissionable rate of $1,458 for three nights. I was able to make this trip with only a carry on allowing me to have all my luggage and two bottles of carry on wine immediately (Cheers). While it is not fair to compare a cruise ship cabin to a hotel room, I immediately felt like I was in a room at a W Hotel, but it was actually functional and well done. I did like that my traditional keycard was a wearable RFID band that could be easily taken off and on. At the beginning of the voyage I kept thinking that I needed to grab my card before leaving, but towards the end I would walk out the cabin without thinking twice. 

Sailing solo I did not experience the unique transitions from one queen bed to two single beds or to have my bed turned into a functional couch during the day. As I mentioned my charter had parties that went until very late and I definitely attended curing a bit of disconnect with my amazing attendant Anthony. In all of my cruises I have never seen attendants with so much energy. Anthony from what I could tell was around my age of 37, but I have had many stateroom attendants aged in their late 30’s before. Anthony was lively and came across as very personable and friendly.

Moving on from my very pleasant experience with Anthony I was impressed with my cabin and just like the rest of the ship has definitely had many unique design changes. My overall impressions with the cabin is very positive, but this is the one area of the ship that I have the most critique on.

I loved having a tablet that could control everything in the room, and I do mean almost everything. From the mood lighting, do not disturb, service requests with my stateroom attendant, opening and closing the curtain and the temperature. The tablet also acts as the remote for the TV, although admittedly I had so much to do during my charter I did not turn it on once. 

I often travel with friends and choose to have the beds separated. The way the beds separate to create an L shaped area is awkward to me. Having to sleep with what can seem like an L shaped couch is a bit strange.

The closet has a lot of space and open design with curtains to replace physical doors but I personally need more shelving. There simply needs to be more storage to be able to completely unpack. 

The bathroom is the one area I have to say I was disappointed with. It has to be the smallest bathroom I have ever had on a ship. The functional counter space is very small leaving very little room for counter storage and there is a massive lack of shelf storage. When opening the door to get in the shower the door takes up most of the space in the bathroom. I felt like I was doing acrobatics to get into the shower. However the shower space was very generous and the rainfall shower head certainly did not disappoint. Having a hand held shower and the rainfall was a great added benefit.

I was only on the ship for three days, and with 20+ food venues I did not get a chance to try them all.  I can promise that, to the distress of my waistline, I am going to accomplish this in October.  I will be onboard for ten days on two five day back to back sailings so I will have a chance to try every venue at least once. I am mainly going to focus on covering my thoughts on the food since every venue is so unique It would be hard to cover it all. The images on the Virgin Voyages website does a great job of showing how truly unique they are.

I am able to give my overall impressions on the venues that I was able to visit during my visit which are The Galley, The Wake, Extra Virgin, Pizza, and Pink Agave. My experiences with all of these were overwhelmingly positive, and with all 20+ dining venues included in the cruise fare, I found most of my meals better than paid specialty dining on other cruise lines. To think that these were what Virgin Voyages considers the equivalent of main dining on other cruise lines, I can not imagine what they would create for a paid specialty dining experience.

I started my first food experience with The Galley and having many late meals after many drinks it seems that this venue, which is the replacement for the traditional buffet, should get the most attention. My first experience here at 2:30pm on the day of embarkation was with a server named Romina. Romina was a vibrant and attentive with an amazing personality. Romina has a pierced nose ring and many visible tattoos exposed with what I would call pride. I was a bit taken away at first, not having a full grasp on what Virgin Voyages is trying to convey with their brand. It didn’t take much for me to understand that they want their crew to be themselves. Tattoos do not matter, roll up your sleeves and show off what makes you, you! I found myself often asking crew members about their tattoos and what they meant to them, it brought on so much conversation and really created a personal connection. If at this point my thoughts on a fun lively crew who are encouraged to be themselves does not sound appealing to you, may I recommend Holland America where my jewish grandma will be most of the year.

Romina saw me taking photos and looking around and took the time to explain to me how The Galley worked. I could sit anywhere in the service area, find any server, and order anything I wanted from the menu. I jokingly asked if I could order the entire menu, and she said no problem. Having Anthony and Romina as my first points of contact definitely started off my cruise right, and my experiences all three days with the crew was 100% positive.

Night one I joined two friends in The Wake which also happens to be my muster station. Having a sneak peak of this venue before dining and not knowing where I was I thought I walked into a specialty dining venue. I had to confirm with my station that It was one of the 20+ dining venues. This is what most people on the ship referred to as the steakhouse rather than using the proper name because the menu is focused on giving a classic steakhouse experience. Of the three restaurants that I did visit for dinner this one is the one that I would have to say I could have been a little bit more impressed with. The starters were absolutely amazing, but all three of us at the table felt that the main courses and side dishes did not feel fresh. It has to be hard for a kitchen to have five items from the grill and five side items coming out fresh on a busy night, but everything that we had felt like it had been sitting for far too long and was not made to order. I definitely plan on going back and I hope that with more sailings the kitchen will be able to make improvements. There are also many things on the menu that were not from the grill that I must try.

Night two I joined friends for dinner at Extra Virgin, the Italian restaurant. In order to get a proper feel for the authentic food I went to dinner with two people who are Italian. This restaurant was by far the best one that I visited and the Italians that I was with said that the sauces and pastas were very authentic. We ordered so much food that our server wanted to make sure we knew how much we were ordering, and I can promise that we did not waste anything. The only dish that we thought needed some improvement was the carbonara, while good the sauce was a bit off for a carbonara dish.

While at Extra Virgin my Italian friend told me that I must go visit the Pizza Place, and that it was very very good pizza. I have been traumatized by ship pizza so many times in the past it didn’t really register with me to go for lunch. I was expecting to find a section of pizzas that have already been made, but when I entered I found an ordering station where I was able to have my own personal pizza made fresh, and it only took five minutes. The amazing quality of ingredients and freshness has ruined any ship pizza I will ever have in the future. I may have ordered a few to go to have late night shacks in the room. 

Night three I joined some new friends that I made on the ship for Pink Agave, the Mexican restaurant. When our server asked what we wanted for drinks I told her that I love Mezcal, and she sent over the Tequila and Mezcal specialist to ask what I like in a drink to create the percent one for me. It was so good that I had four of them. In general Mexican is not my favorite genre of food, and when I do have it I like the simpler versions of just a taco or quesadilla. Even though this menu was very creative, I found many things that I liked and was very pleasantly surprised with. I got so wrapped up with my friends, drinks and the family style we did for our entrees that I did not get as many pictures as I should have. I will say that for my dessert I did order the shrimp dish again, it was so good I wanted to have that instead of deserts. However I still had to at least try the others the table ordered and loved them all. 

I also took advantage of the $50 bonus when prepaying $300 for a Bar Tab. Currently there is a program for Sea-Blazers that sail in 2021 on a paid voyage that for Every $300 paid in advance there is an extra $125 bonus. This program will never go away for Sea-Blazers, which is almost too good to be true. Sadly my charter does not allow me to qualify for this offer per the terms and conditions, but I will be back again this year and make sure that I qualify for this. I did try to shake my phone for champagne, but the app was not able to find my location on the ship. 

Being on a charter for my first sailing I did not get to experience what Virgin Voyages has to offer for all of their entertainment. Many shows were replaced with entertainers the charter brought onboard, and some of the offered shows did not mesh well with my dinner plans. The one show that I was able to take full advantage of was Duel Reality. I was amazed at the number of performers required to make this show happen and the creative style to engage the audience. I popped in expecting a typical ship show, and was enthralled the entire time. I am not going to give away any spoilers but I hope this show remains when I come back on October 10th.

The ship has many venues and bars around that are ideal for holding a few hundred people. Think areas with a stage and bar that can comfortably hold 200 people and be able to listen to live entertainment. 

There are two large venues for entertainment. The smaller of the two is The Manor which serves as a performance space and night club. The second venue is The Red Room which serves as the main theater and event space. I did find  both to be a little on the smaller side for a ship that can hold 2,700+ sailors. At full capacity I could see demand issues needing multiple shows per night to be able to accommodate if all guests want to see a particular performance or show. The charter that I was on did use both venues for parties. Normally they have to bring on extra technical equipment like extra lights, lasers, speakers and fog machines. On this charter they didn’t have to do any of that, both venues were really built to be proper event spaces, and I was impressed by the quality of the systems.

Following along with my thoughts on how some of the main venues seem to be a bit on the smaller side, we have to move to one of the most important areas of any cruise ship, the top decks where guests spend their time swimming and soaking up some sun. The top two decks have lots of areas that offer ample space for people to spread out and lounge without being crammed together. However, one area that is painfully lacking in capacity is the main pool and the well-being pool. Virgin itineraries are built to have lots of time in port. This helps people get the most out of their vacation, but there are going to be days where a lot of people decide to stay onboard. For a ship that holds 2,700+ sailors the two pools are not sufficient for the demand. Only one third of the main pool actually has a depth for swimming, the rest is a very shallow wading area. I hope this is something that they are able to address when building the third and fourth ships.

Standard connection WiFI is included with the price of all voyages. On my sailing the ship was not offering a premium upgrade option because of our location causing  connection issues with the satellites. In March of 2021 I was on Celebrity Cruises first return to sailing which was on the Millennium. I did this sailing with premium wifi and my standard internet connection on Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady was much better than the premium service I had on Celebrity Millennium. To keep a fair perspective both sailings had about the same amount of passengers.

Three days on the Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady was not nearly enough time to experience everything the ship has to offer. On September 15 I’ve been invited for a day of fun and activities onboard in New York and will be a great way experience the ship without passengers. More updates and reviews to come after that visit and also my 10 days onboard in October.