This post is by Sue Tindell.
It was probably inevitable that billionaire Richard Branson would get himself a ship. A fleet, in fact, as the British entrepreneur who has gone into space on his own rocket has decided that he wants to give people a means to sail the oceans in style. So, when Virgin Voyages offered us a chance to sail on its brand-new ship, the Scarlet Lady, my husband Dave and I didn't hesitate. We flew to Miami on November 6, 2021, and the next day boarded one of the most incredible cruise liners we've ever seen.
Scarlet Lady is the first ship in Branson's new fleet, and by the time we came aboard it had been sailing in the Caribbean for only a couple weeks. Some of the kinks hadn't yet been ironed out, but a week on board convinced us that Virgin is onto something with these ships.
Saturday-Sunday, November 6-7 -- Minneapolis to Miami and the ship
I always advise my clients to fly to the port city a day or two before boarding the ship, just in case there are delays or cancellations of a flight, so we flew to Miami the day before our scheduled boarding. Masking was still required in airports and on planes, so we tolerated that and eventually arrived in Florida after a long day of driving and then flying.
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| Ah, the glamour of travel...waiting for the hotel shuttle. |
Virgin, of course, has incorporated the latest technology into its cruising experience, starting with an app that passengers can use for just about anything from ordering drinks and food to finding out where their "shipmates" are to getting updates on entertainment and shore excursions. While it certainly comes in handy, what we found as we walked around the ship was that many passengers were sitting in lounges or by the pool, staring at their phones.
The line has also done away with the in-person lifeboat drill. Every passenger is asked to watch a video in their cabin as soon as they settle in, which was like something from MTV, with rock singers and dancers telling us about life jackets and where our muster station was. We had to wonder how many of our fellow cruisers actually bothered to watch it.
One thing we liked right away was the size of the ship. At only 2700-passenger capacity, Scarlet Lady and its sister ships are on the low end for cruise liners. For this voyage, the ship was maybe at 50 percent capacity, so there was plenty of room, but even full, these ships would offer a much less hectic experience than some of the massive Carnival ships we've sailed on in the past.
Virgin advertised this ship as an "adults only" cruise, and while at first we weren't quite sure what that meant at first (A clothing-optional pool? A spin-the-bottle lounge?), we found out that they want to cater to adults without their children. Since the average cruise passengers tend to be in their 50s or up, Virgin is making a concerted effort to reach a younger clientele. Therefore, the decor and atmosphere of the ship are decidedly "hip." Sometimes, a little too hip for us, but people seemed to enjoy it.
One of the dining options we'd enjoyed on our Princess cruise to Alaska three months earlier was the pizza, so we thought that our first night on board would be a great time to visit Virgin's pizza den. Unfortunately, the food was mediocre at best. We made the best of it, though, and retired to our cabin, looking forward to our first day at sea as we sailed west to Cancun, Mexico.
Monday, November 8 -- At sea in the western Caribbean
On any cruise, the first morning at sea is always exciting. What to have for breakfast? When to hit the gym? What to do the rest of the day? Fortunately, we'd had time the day before to see some of what the ship had to offer, and there was plenty.
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| The Scarlet Lady is all about the experience, getting in touch with yourself...like playing in sand! |
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| You always need to know where the bars are on the ship, and this one had plenty. This is just one of them: modern, sophisticated, ergonomic. |
We also toured the spa, which is always at or near the top of my list of places to see on the ship: Scarlet Lady spa.
On this first morning aboard, Dave went out on deck and shot this video as we cruised north of Cuba: Sailing past Havana.
We spent the day wandering around the ship, meeting our fellow passengers and exploring. As dinnertime approached, we were looking forward to our first semi-formal meal, hoping the fare would be better than what we'd had the night before. Well, we weren't disappointed. At the Razzle Dazzle, we had what was certainly one of the best meals we'd ever experienced on a cruise ship.
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| Dave chose the bowtie pasta with pork, and bacon on the side. Mine was heirloom squash ravioli with chestnuts. At the top of the photo is our appetizer, mimolette cheese tots with smoked bacon. For dessert, blueberry green tea cheesecake for me, and chocolate mousse and toffee for Dave. It was all delicious! |
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| Dave's only complaint: he ran out of bacon! And it was, really, the best bacon we'd ever tasted. |
Tuesday, November 9 -- Cozumel, Mexico
We were up early enough to see the sunrise over Cozumel.
We'd scheduled a scuba refresher dive, since neither of us had been diving for a few years, and as we went ashore we couldn't help noticing the much smaller Viking ship docked beside the Scarlet Lady.
The dive went well, and we went back to the ship after browsing through some shops. Pretty soon it was time for dinner again, and this time we chose the ship's Korean restaurant, Gunbae, and it was a dining experience, and not just culinary. Virgin wants its diners to do more than just eat, but to consider each time you sit down to be a unique experience. On this score, we gave them an A+.
Tomorrow would be another day at sea, as we sailed west to the Bahamas.
Wednesday, November 10 -- at sea in the Caribbean
This would be one of our favorite days of the cruise. Virgin emphasizes fitness and wellness on board, and had a pretty well-equipped gym and fitness classes. We indulged in both, and Dave got in a session in their outdoor boxing ring!
After another fine meal, we decided to sample the ship's entertainment. Once again, Virgin was taking a somewhat different approach from traditional cruise ship shows. One change was the presence of wandering musicians, who would stop occasionally and perform a song. We weren't sure this went over very well; after the first day at sea, we didn't see them anymore. Another show that seemed to flop was by a clown who apparently had a big YouTube following. We'd never heard of him, and apparently not too many of our fellow passengers had, either, because we heard some of his shows were canceled for lack of interest.
The one show we did go to, though, was packed to the rafters in the ship's nightclub-style theater. It would be by the ship's resident "sexologist," Dr. Alex Schiller. We arrived in time to get one of the final tables near the stage, but, we found out later, not early enough to be selected to come on stage for the "doctor's" show.
The partying, we'd noticed a couple nights earlier, really cranks it up on board the Scarlet Lady, going to the wee hours, but we declined to join in and instead retired to our cabin for another good night's sleep. The next day we would arrive in the Bahamas.
Thursday, November 11 -- Bimini
The most challenging thing about this island was how to pronounce its name. It looks like the word "bikini," so naturally I said, "buh-MEE-nee." No, Dave said, it's accented on the first syllable: "BIM-in-ee." Well, however it's pronounced, Bimini was interesting.
With a population of only 2000, Bimini is one of the westernmost inhabited islands in the Bahamas, only about 55 miles from Miami. Our ship docked and everybody was invited to visit the Beach Club, which Virgin had purchased from another line and revamped. Shuttle service was provided, and we were assured we could hire a local cab to visit the rest of the island, if we chose, but there wasn't much emphasis placed on that. The Beach Club was the place to go, so of course we did, and it was indeed quite nice, with plenty of sand, lounge chairs, shade and food, not to mention yoga on surfboards, which of course I had to try.
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| That's me, third from left. I didn't fall in, either! |
After awhile, we decided to explore the rest of the island. Bimini is actually three islands, and we were on North Bimini, which has most of the inhabitants in the town of Alice Town. My history-buff husband had looked up Bimini and found that in the days of Prohibition in the U.S., Bimini was popular among "rum-runners" smuggling illegal liquor to the American mainland. It's also said that the phrase "the real McCoy" originated here, said to be from a rum-runner who always delivered quality liquor.
The ship's shuttle took us about halfway and we hired a cab to take us to Alice Town. North Bimini is seven miles long and only about 700 feet wide at the most, and of course it's almost entirely flat. Alice Town is in the southern half. We talked to some of the residents at their shops and discovered that they are not pleased about the cruise ships, in the sense that the ships aren't encouraging their passengers to visit the town. Well, we enjoyed it, made some purchases and Dave even got to see the site of the hotel where Ernest Hemingway stayed during his time here, 1935-37.
Our cabbie had said he'd be looking for us to take us back to the ship, but we couldn't find him, so we decided to walk the two or three miles back to the dock. It would be difficult to get lost, after all, and it was still daylight, so we hoofed it, as Dave would say.
We had another splendid meal on board and settled in for our final night. The ship had definitely exceeded our expectations in the food and fitness facilities, and while the decor was a little too "hip" for us and the entertainment left more than a little to be desired, all in all we would recommend Virgin for cruisers who want to have a little different kind of sailing experience.
Friday, November 12 -- Miami and home
Disembarking the ship was as smooth as the embarkation process, so props to Virgin for that one. Pretty soon we were at the airport and several hours later, back at our home in northwest Wisconsin. It was an interesting cruise, to be sure, and we'd had a good time. Will we sail Virgin again? Quite likely. One thing about Richard Branson, he's always changing things around, looking for new innovations. A cruise on one of his ships in 2022 or '23 is bound to be different, and likely improved, from our late '21 experience.
One thing remained the same, though: we'd had a nice time, but it was sure good to be home!
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