Cloud9 Bob

I sailed TSL in mid June, 2022 and the ship docked right at the foot of Mt. Isabel del Torres. I picked the 10:30 AM cable car/city cultural tour. I'm glad I picked the earliest tour as the mountain gets foggy in the afternoon on some days. A small A/C and WIFI enhanced tour bus took us to the cable car and we did a 15 minute ride to the top. I enjoyed the ride up and we opened some windows and got an wonderful fresh breeze combining mountain and ocean air. On top of the mountain you get an incredible view of Puerto Plata. There is even a rain forest up there and you get a guided tour. Bring water and comfortable shoes. Then we went for lunch and some short city cultural stops like Independence Square. It was a teriffic excursion and I highly recommend it. It takes about 3 hours and was reasonably priced...$55 USD. I booked through the cruise line. You could possibly squeeze in two excursions, but it would depend on which two you tried to combine. Personally, I wouldn't because I would feel rushed and would also be concerned that I might miss my ships embarkation time. I'm sure people do it, I'm just not one of them. Enjoy!

I think they offer some sort of military discount at the time of booking. I'm sure you can call the 800 number to check with an agent. Be prepared to be on hold for awhile though.

Hi Walter, great review and spot on. Wished I'd found that blues guitarist on my cruise. It's the kind of music that floats my boat (pun very much intended). I liked the food at the Beach Club Bimini more than you though. I enjoyed the curry chicken because I was expecting heavy Indian and I got a lighter Thai like/coconut milk version that was a surprise and very pleasant. Tried the pulled pork too and found it tasty, not too "Bar-B-Que saucy" and yet not overly dry, as one might expect at a beach club luncheon where everything struggles to survive the steam table. Guess the trick is not to be jaded by the level of food onboard. I was warned by a previous cruiser that the Bimini lunch had a hard act to follow, so I prepared myself accordingly. LOL! 😆

Every cruise line has its differences and its similarities. As Walter says in his sig, my favorite cruise line is the one I'm on. I agree. TSL has many unique things and some things I wasn't crazy about. That said, I'm sure i'll sail on her again very soon. My top three Scarlet Lady features are adults only, all inclusive, and teriffic food. I could go on and on, but I already did in my review (below) from last June:

Excursions are more reasonably priced. Crew is happier and it shows. You can get a tatoo on board. Water stations in place of one time use bottles. They actually have Naragansett beer in bottles and tap. If you leave from Miami, you may even meet Yakov before entering the embarkation corrals 😊

I did the Dominican Daze as a solo recently. Here's a link to my review. Going solo was fine and Virgin Voyages was excellent...except for a mishap with my luggage. https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2862016-scarlet-lady-review-what-i-loved-or-didnt/#comment-63619286

If I'm remembering correctly it was 7:30 AM to 8AM.

I know that there is a "time sensitive" gap that you must buy the insurance after the initial cruise deposit and before 14-21 days (varies by insurance policy) to get CFA (cancel for any reason rider). I guess I read too much into the wording and assumed you had to buy their insurance if you reside in NY. 😄

I was creating a new booking today and was perplexed by something on the Celebrity site. When you get to the part where it asks if you want to include travel insurance, there is a note at the bottom that says somehting like "residents of New York must purchase insurance at time of booking". I was wondering if this meant you must buy the Celebrity sponsored insurance or does it mean you can go with a third party such as insuremytrip.com? I checked the Celebrity sponsored insurance limits and I could do much better for a cheaper policy cost with alternate insurance. Anyone have any light to shed on this requirement for NY residents?

Too bad, I missed that one and would have loved some blues and salsa as a change. Mostly I found the piped in pop music everywhere....with a capital E 😄

I suppose it could be arranged, but when underway, I found it humid and breezy outside. Fine for lunch but I don't think I'd like to have dinner there. Lighting would come into play for me too. YMMV.

I'll have to play devils advocate here. For me, what works is ginger capsules and laying in the bed of an inside cabin. I listened to the advice of "go up on deck and watch the horizon" and I almost got sick right then and there. I did make it back down to my cabin and immediately felt better when back in bed staring up at the ceiling. Boring, yes, but at least I found what works for me.

Sometimes you will ask 3 different staff members something and you will get 3 different answers. It was funny, when I cruised TSL this June, I had all my dinner reservations booked except the last day which was Bimini. I left it open, but finally decided to try dinner at Razzle Dazzle. The app wouldn't let me reserve a dinner spot. The first staff member said they were probably booked up (highly unlikely for this venue). The second said there was probably a glitch in the app. I then started walking around the ship. I passed a dining manager and asked him. Finally I got the answer I was searching for. The reason you can't book RD for dinner on a Bimini day is because the staff is used at the Beach Club for service. Made perfect sense. Case in point, not everyone has the answer. Some will find out for you and some will guess 🙂

I picked a 10AM disembarkation time and nothing was checked...I was waved right through. I think it may matter more if you want to leave very early.

It's all about the algorithms. Virgin feels that even if every one of the passengers that were screwed on Valient never came back, that it would be worth it for the exposure and new revenue the TV exposure will produce. Personally, if I were Richard, I would have refused to dump those that were showing good faith, and booked my new ship. I would have them cordon off areas to shoot in and that's that. Take it or leave it. He doesn't realize that the good generated by doing that would cement more loyal customers (and excellent word of mouth) than what he'd get from The Bachelorette demo. The ship looks like earth after a nuclear holocaust. It was downright eerie. There are literally thousands of crew just sitting in their cabins doing nothing. Go figure.

I tried the call back option at noon and got a callback at 5 PM the next day! I always try to be flexible, but that's downright unacceptable.

I'll assume you mean a Miami departure. I had a 1:30 PM check in time last month. Arrived to the port at around 11 AM. Bags were checked and I sat around reading until about 1:00 PM when they opened medical line that checked vaccine cards/passport. Was asked at about 1:15 PM to wait in the 1:30 PM check in line. I was in the Virgin Voyages building at 1:40 and on Scarlet Lady at 1:50 PM.

I sailed mid June and the casino was having IT problems even than.

I can so relate to this. It’s one of the remnants of traditional cruising that I have always found awkward too. I think a much better idea would be to have a designated photo corner or actual ships studio. Those that actually want photos could visit and I bet they would make better subjects.

I was in a solo insider and did not have body lotion.

Yes! They give you a nicely scented small bar of glycerin hand soap for the vanity basin and the showers all have Red Flower premium body gel, shampoo and conditioner. You also get a hair dryer.

I sailed TSL about a month ago. There is a certain bar area outdoors where they have this party. It gets moved indoors for bad weather. It was very quiet there almost up until about 9 PM. I went back in a couple of hours, and it was pretty crowded. There was DJ music and it was loud, but not as loud as Scarlet Night. Some people had pajama outfits, but the great majority were much younger sailors than the mix of people on Scarlet Night and most did not have pajamas. It was more of a small summer dance party at a local bar. The people there seemed to be having a ball, but Im in my 60’s and felt more comfortable at the Scarlet Night festivities. The crowd for the pajama night seemed more 20’s and 30’s and I never saw the drag queen there, but did on Scarlet Night which was more of a “performance” event leading up to the dancing in the pool.

That was such a fun night. A couple of sailors asked me what show I was in! 🤣

Having just cruised TSL recently I would liked to have seen a few things changed. Bigger pool, different entertainment (comedian maybe?) and not so much piped in music of one particular genre.

I sailed Scarlet Lady last month solo. Had no problems talking to people. Most were totally friendly and receptive. Like anywhere else, some people are more chatty than others. It's what you make of it. You can be as social or as introverted as you desire. Most people on the ship want to be social and have fun chatting with strangers.