Our First Cruise-Virgin Voyages-Scarlett Lady

Virgin Voyages- Scarlett Lady - December 8th to 13th, 2023.

 My husband and I retired from work on the 31st of December 2018. It took me until now to convice him to take a cruise. We chose Virgin Voyages because they don't have buffets; they don't allow children, and all the gratuities and speciality restaurants are included. To us, that meant, there would be no surprise bills at the end of your cruise. Although this trip included a $300 USD bar tab as part of the promotion, a person could buy one and Virgin will give them an additional $50 USD. In five days, buying all the specialty coffees and drinks we wanted, we still didn't spend the whole $300 USD. We left with $90 USD unspent. So, unless you're a big drinker, I wouldn't recommend spending your money on a bar tab, just pay as you go. The latte's were $4 USD and the drinks averaged $10 USD each.

Embarkation Day

We took the Bright Line train from West Palm Beach to Miami and were at the port less than an hour before our embarkation time. This was perfect as we didn't have to stand in line for long. Our group boarded at exactly 13:45, as promised. It really isn't a good idea to go too early because they board by times. (Unless you bought a suite or a special package that lets you on earlier... we didn't do either.)

I was surprised that the ramp was zigzaggy, just like the line ups at Disney. We eventually made it to the ship, safe and sound and exicited to be there. We could go to our rooms right away because they were ready for us.

The views of the port of Miami were pretty good, so we did one of our famous selfies, which are never, ever flattering. We like them anyhow. We're not exactly perfect, so the photos are reflecting our true selves. At least we're always happy!

We got one perfect shot, in my opinion anyhow, of us on the 17th deck below the Virgin sign. If I knew how to post to my instagram, it would be a perfect photo for it.

Our Room

The balcony room we chose cost us $2,995 CAD or $2,200 USD. For five days, that was about $600 CAD or $440 USD per day for the both of us. That is pretty on par with most cruises, once all we got was included. The room was spacious enough for us and we really enjoyed it. You could ask the room attendant to change the bed configuration into two sofas, but we didn't have a need for this. 

The balcony had a couple chairs, a small table and a hammock that was surprizingly comfortable to sit on. I loved having coffee out there in the morning looking out to the ocean. The air was so warm and the gentle rocking was quite "zen".

The bathroom was adjacent to the closet. A bit small, but the shower was a good size. Lots of water pressure and there was a rain shower head plus a hand held nozzle. Perfect, in my opinion.

There was lots of storage space, albeit the drawers were very shallow. My husband kept his clothing in his suitcase, so I got all of them to myself. The safe was a good size too. We accidentally entered the wrong code one time and our room steward had the maintenance person in within minutes of us reporting it. 

The view from the entrance door to the balcony shows just how spacious the room really was. 

The Rest of the Ship

I didn't take photos of the many venues on the ship because I never took my phone with me. I must admit the free WIFI was excellent and my husband took his phone with him all the time. I didn't really use my phone unless I was in my room. Although we'd heard a lot of negative things about the Virgin App, we had no issues with ours. They warn you to turn off your VPN and maybe this is why ours workd so well. My son and his wife find the Live, Laugh, Love signs cheesy, so I had to get a photo of myself in front of them. 

I was surprised when I tried to swing and the chain at the bottom of the seat jolted me to a stop. This is when my husband captured my "laughing". I think that was serendipitously a perfect shot.

The Beach at Bimini

When the ship went to Puerto Plata, we didn't get off because we'd been to the Dominican Republic before and the weather was too windy for any beach time. There was a lazy river type resort thing there we could have paid to use, but we chose to stay on the boat and take advantage of the empty pools and hot tubs. We did however, get off at Bimini and enjoyed a nice lunch at the Beach Club there. It was quite windy then too, so I didn't bring the snorkel gear I'd brought with me and we just walked the beach for a little while before giving up due to the wind. I was happy that all the booze and food was included as if it was on the ship and the menu was fun. Not the regular hamburgers and hotdogs, but fun food such as curry pumpkin soup and jerk chicken. 

Final Thoughts

We really enjoyed our five days at sea and decided it might be fun to do it again, so we bought the onboard ship offer for $300 USD ($413 CAD). It gave us a $300 USD discount on our next Virgin Voyages trip plus a $600 USD on board credit. That was over $1,239 CAD. We've since used another travel agent who also got us another $115 CAD off and will be giving us another $50 USD on board credit just for being ex-military. We've booked a trip for August 2025 that goes to the UK, Scotland and Ireland. It was very expensive, but we hope this will be a lot of fun.