Scarlet Lady : So much Potential, So much Disappointment

[baelor]

1 hour ago, _tacocat_ said:

There are a few blogs that posted screenshots/PDFs of all the menus after their initial voyages.  This one is pretty comprehensive and also has a separate page with bar menus. https://eatsleepcruise.com/virgin-voyages-restaurant-guide-with-menus/

 

I thought the food was generally awesome - as others have said, they're not typical cruise ship/americanized restaurants.  Extra Virgin is more northern Italian vs. the "red sauce" Italian that people usually think of, and Pink Agave is Mexican vs. Tex Mex.  I get the lack of customization options at the Pizza Place because it'd be difficult to manage 40 different pizzas at once.  I was able to add extra garlic to a white pie every time I got one, but that was already an ingredient so I guess that's why they did that.

 

Desserts throughout the ship were the only things I found lacking, if you can even call it that.  Most of the desserts in the galley were SO sweet and our crepe cake in The Wake tasted sour/spoiled.  That said, there were a few bright spots - popsicles in the Galley, baked Alaska (itty bitty, but perfect size for after a heavy steak dinner!) and lemon cheesecake in The Wake, affogatos at Extra Virgin and churros at Razzle Dazzle.

Thanks for all the insight.  Was even the ice cream place a bust?

[_tacocat_]

8 minutes ago, baelor said:

Thanks for all the insight.  Was even the ice cream place a bust?

Ah totally forgot about the ice cream place!  It was tasty, but we only ended up going there maybe twice because there was so much food everywhere else.  We were also staying in an aft cabin, so we didn't tend to cross mid-ship for "quick bites.  We usually ended up at either the Dock House (really good shrimp skewers and they had chocolate hummus as a dessert, which sounds gross, but was actually pretty interesting) or the Galley. 

 

We also didn't get a chance to try anything at the Social Club, but they have candy and boozy milkshakes there.  Definitely going to hit that up on our next trip!

[baelor]

6 minutes ago, _tacocat_ said:

Ah totally forgot about the ice cream place!  It was tasty, but we only ended up going there maybe twice because there was so much food everywhere else.  We were also staying in an aft cabin, so we didn't tend to cross mid-ship for "quick bites.  We usually ended up at either the Dock House (really good shrimp skewers and they had chocolate hummus as a dessert, which sounds gross, but was actually pretty interesting) or the Galley. 

 

We also didn't get a chance to try anything at the Social Club, but they have candy and boozy milkshakes there.  Definitely going to hit that up on our next trip!

Thanks for the added insight!

[WIBadgerFan]

Recently returned from a four-day in late May.  Your review could have largely been written by me so thank you so much!  I'm 52 but don't feel as old as VV seemed to be trying to make me feel.  I did include several of those points in my review back to VV, hoping they do something about those items that can be easily fixed.  The constant blaring techno music with absolutely zero genre variety especially at the crazy crowded pool deck (where there is no shade except the edges) alienates many customers. They do indeed try way too hard to be different.  They need to consider that some things are not broken on other lines: reasonable pool sizes, actual performance talent (please at least get a comedian and actual bands for the public spaces).

I did love the food in general, especially Wake and that amazing filet!  I loved Pink Agave and was glad they didn't have Tex-Mex personally but I agree that having something like fajitas wouldn't kill them.  The one reservation per restaurant was also irritating to me, especially since we had fewer than 1000 Sailors.  While it's not desert, the French crueler at Wake in the morning was incredible, almost as amazing as the filet.  At least one can go to Wake for breakfast every day if you want.  I did enjoy the other food venues as well, especially the Mediterranean options at the Dock House where the shrimp and beef were amazing.  

One more food note: why was lobster non-existent except the Wake's +$ seafood tower?  Maybe the perfect steak in every venue makes up for it, in fact the ribeye at Pink Agave might have been my favorite steak of the many examples.  I loved the pizza options offered, especially the truffle egg, which has to be among the best pizza at sea.  Agree on the lack of variety options for the Galley but the existing avocado tacos and empanadas at were fantastic.  I hate buffets and the Galley even as is a far better option for me personally.

I loved the balcony room technical features.  I hated the tiny bathroom and wasted space in the remainder of the room.  The hammock was probably my favorite part of the cruise.  I agree entirely on the Bimini comments, both good and bad (that leather-textured overcooked fish was sad but the venue was incredible).

So as Sid described in detail in his trip narration (thank you Sid!), the food was indeed the highlight.  It will bring me back to the ship alone.  I'll avoid the main pool and Duel Reality for sure next time but will repeat the Grog Walk, Scarlet Night and Pajama Party.  Hopefully they can at least play some of the great vinyl options offered in the record store...the Stones and Pink Floyd would be grateful.

 

 

[geleisen]

I wonder if the food perception is a cultural difference. Looking at the Mexican and Italian and Korean menus, I would not be surprised if this was a menu if I walked into an Italian or Mexican or Korean restaurant in London. Obviously the US and UK have quite different food cultures, but I certainly wouldn't consider the menus at these to be particularly froufrou or avant-garde.

While I have not yet sailed with Virgin, I definitely think that the clear desire to be different for the sake of being different permeates through Virgin's brands with varying success. However, the fact that VV has been so open to feedback and already been making changes is a very positive sign to me. 

I think that watching which things they adjust, like their menus and the music volume, etc. will be a very good indication of what sort of clients they are looking for as they mature and truly cement their brand positioning. 

[jon81uk]

19 hours ago, WIBadgerFan said:

, actual performance talent (please at least get a comedian and actual bands for the public spaces).

Ive done both Scarlet and Valiant cruises from the UK and there was both house and guest bands on both and guest comedy acts on both. One was the travelling nerd with a rubix cube magic/comedy act. Also saw a UK indie band last summer and a blues band this year. For the shorter cruises it felt like a good mix of house and guest entertainment to me.

[WIBadgerFan]

5 hours ago, jon81uk said:

Ive done both Scarlet and Valiant cruises from the UK and there was both house and guest bands on both and guest comedy acts on both. One was the travelling nerd with a rubix cube magic/comedy act. Also saw a UK indie band last summer and a blues band this year. For the shorter cruises it felt like a good mix of house and guest entertainment to me.

Interesting!  I guess I should try it from Southhampton instead of Miami next time!  🙂
I did hear multiple sailors comment that they didn't understand why there was not a comedian.  Hopefully they implement that change on all sailings.

[sweetest8]

I was on the 2nd leg of your B2B.  This was our 2nd VV sailing.  After our 10.2021 VV sailing, I had declared Virgin as our new favorite cruise line.   But I also noticed the likely drug use and borderline behavior in/around the pool and in the Manor on this sailing.  I'm all about a good party (which is why I was at the pool and in the Manor every night), but this was borderline trashy stuff... and the trashy stuff was 100% absent on our 10/21 sailing.

 

For the food, I do think that VV has some of the best food at sea without having to pay for upcharge dining.. but they do try too hard to do "something extra and over the top" to most everything.  For instance,  the breakfast avocado burrito is so good, except they add a sweet-pickled purple floral/onion/cabbage thing to it... the flavor was just off... I thought it was me but our travel mate agreed (I tried to order it on the side but was told that would be a 30 minute wait).  Or even some of the sauce/garnish drizzle.... perfect dish and then the final drizzle sauce is just a bit extra/off.  I will say, on our 1st sailing our Wake dinner was kind of Blah, and this 2nd sailing the Wake dinner was much improved and one of our favorite meals.

 

They need to have better DJ and live music.  Both sailings the music on board and on Bimini was disappointing, though this sailing was better.

 

Wifi is pretty good.  I love that there is no All-you-can-drink package... drinks are so reasonable with tips included and I would think helps to keep the out of control drinking in check. 

 

I really hope that VV can figure out their small misses, find their sailors and fill their ships.  I feel like they got the Big things totally right, but they have a lot of little things to figure out and this is a tough time in a tough cruise market to try to do it.

 

 

[DChabira]

33 minutes ago, sweetest8 said:

I was on the 2nd leg of your B2B.  This was our 2nd VV sailing.  After our 10.2021 VV sailing, I had declared Virgin as our new favorite cruise line.   But I also noticed the likely drug use and borderline behavior in/around the pool and in the Manor on this sailing.  I'm all about a good party (which is why I was at the pool and in the Manor every night), but this was borderline trashy stuff... and the trashy stuff was 100% absent on our 10/21 sailing.

 

For the food, I do think that VV has some of the best food at sea without having to pay for upcharge dining.. but they do try too hard to do "something extra and over the top" to most everything.  For instance,  the breakfast avocado burrito is so good, except they add a sweet-pickled purple floral/onion/cabbage thing to it... the flavor was just off... I thought it was me but our travel mate agreed (I tried to order it on the side but was told that would be a 30 minute wait).  Or even some of the sauce/garnish drizzle.... perfect dish and then the final drizzle sauce is just a bit extra/off.  I will say, on our 1st sailing our Wake dinner was kind of Blah, and this 2nd sailing the Wake dinner was much improved and one of our favorite meals.

 

They need to have better DJ and live music.  Both sailings the music on board and on Bimini was disappointing, though this sailing was better.

 

Wifi is pretty good.  I love that there is no All-you-can-drink package... drinks are so reasonable with tips included and I would think helps to keep the out of control drinking in check. 

 

I really hope that VV can figure out their small misses, find their sailors and fill their ships.  I feel like they got the Big things totally right, but they have a lot of little things to figure out and this is a tough time in a tough cruise market to try to do it.

 

 

I saw a lot of drug use. I deleted it from the first draft of my review, as I was afraid they might not publish it. 

[baelor]

On 6/7/2022 at 7:51 AM, WIBadgerFan said:

(please at least get a comedian and actual bands for the public spaces)

VV seems to pride itself on "doing things differently," so I would be surprised if the ships got a standard stand-up comedian.  (As an aside, I am not complaining, since I find stand-up dreadful, but obviously a lot of cruisers disagree.)

 

The lack of live music is inexplicable to me given the existence of Virgin Records.

Edited June 8, 2022 by baelor

[sweetest8]

Yup. I love a stiff cocktail (or 2 or 3 ;-D )... but I'm not into any of the other stuff.  I kept pointing out to my husband when security was watching people.... security had pictures pulled up on their ipads, ect, but they seemed just to be observing.... just waiting for things to get a little too far out of hand I guess.....  

 

I really want VV to make it, I'm sure they have all kinds of lines/limits they are trying to figure out

[WIBadgerFan]

2 hours ago, DChabira said:

I saw a lot of drug use. I deleted it from the first draft of my review, as I was afraid they might not publish it. 

It was pretty hard to miss at the Pajama Party on my cruise among other instances.  I guess it doesn't bother me personally but definitely a big change from more family-oriented lines.

[baelor]

Was the drug use marijuana, or did it also include harder drugs?  That seems weird for a cruise line to allow, although maybe that is part of the target clientele (and not something that VV can openly advertise LOL).  

 

I am still pressed about the dinky pool though.  Who thought that having only one deck pool the size of a hot tub was a good idea?

 

 

[sweetest8]

2 hours ago, baelor said:

 

 

The lack of live music is inexplicable to me given the existence of Virgin Records.

 

even the DJs onboard were odd ... in the way that the pool deck or dance floor would be full/people up and dancing..... and then the music would change styles... like change from Hip hop to Latin or something really drastic.... and so the dancefloor would clear out or people would return to their poolside loungers.  9 times out of 10 when this happened, I would look down at my watch and it was on the hour or half hour..... maybe this is VV's way of getting people to move around, circulate and try a different part of the ship.  IDK, but it's odd and TBH kind of annoying when you've got a buzz and feel like dancing.

 

And on music... unless you're in a rockstar suite, no listening to Spotify of any kind or music channels on the TV in your cabin.  I thought that was odd.  We finally did figure a workaround to get to our downloaded Spotify playlists for our own BT speaker, but it was a PITA.

 

now, to VV's credit, I did not hear Sweet Caroline or YMCA on either sailing... so that was a plus to no boring wedding like music, LOL

[DChabira]

18 minutes ago, baelor said:

Was the drug use marijuana, or did it also include harder drugs?  That seems weird for a cruise line to allow, although maybe that is part of the target clientele (and not something that VV can openly advertise LOL).  

 

I am still pressed about the dinky pool though.  Who thought that having only one deck pool the size of a hot tub was a good idea?

 

 

I don’t even consider marijuana an illegal drug anymore, since it’s been legalized in so many states, either medically or for recreational use. They smoked pot all day long on the balcony just forward of ours. When we were in the pool, I saw people taking something orally that was wrapped in foil. I couldn’t tell if it was pills or powder, but they weren’t snorting it. The use of glass in the pool struck me as very odd and unsafe. There was higher roller in the pool buying bottle after bottle and they were being passed around. They kept washing out their drinking glasses in the pool. Gross! I saw dozens of people drinking directly from the bottles they were passing around. Not very sanitary in this pandemic environment.

[baelor]

12 minutes ago, DChabira said:

I don’t even consider marijuana an illegal drug anymore, since it’s been legalized in so many states, either medically or for recreational use. They smoked pot all day long on the balcony just forward of ours. When we were in the pool, I saw people taking something orally that was wrapped in foil. I couldn’t tell if it was pills or powder, but they weren’t snorting it. The use of glass in the pool struck me as very odd and unsafe. There was higher roller in the pool buying bottle after bottle and they were being passed around. They kept washing out their drinking glasses in the pool. Gross! I saw dozens of people drinking directly from the bottles they were passing around. Not very sanitary in this pandemic environment.

All of that is completely vile.  It seems weird that you have a combination of really good/elevated food with total partiers, since you think you would save costs by just putting out cheap and greasy stoner/drunk food.

 

Perhaps VV is appealing to the glitterati set of wealthy young party people who eat a fancy dinner and then do bathroom bumps at the club.

Edited June 8, 2022 by baelor

[cantgetin]

There have been several fires started by people smoking on balconies...most lines have become quite strict about prohibiting this.

 

[baelor]

57 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

There have been several fires started by people smoking on balconies...most lines have become quite strict about prohibiting this.

 

But VV is different from other cruise lines.  It's the cool cruise line!

[brookie848]

I found this review interesting and informative. We sail in the NCL Haven (or in suites if there is no Haven). I've really looked at Virgin, but I haven't convinced myself this would be a good match for us.

 

First of all, we often have a friend join us on our sailings, so when she comes we always make sure we have a second bedroom and bathroom for her. VV doesn't offer anything like that. Their suites will sleep four, but we want her to have her own space, not camp out in the living room.

 

The food is also a concern for us. My husband is a picky eater -- some of that is because he just is, and others is because of years of dietary restrictions for health issues. From the first time I saw VV's menus, I knew he would have issues. He does basically no sauces/dressings/spreads and he would need to modify a lot of the food. And now reading that they don't make modifications easy has really put me off.

 

The other issue we had seems to be rectified at least a bit -- I don't want to fly to Florida for a short sailing. I want my sailings to be at least 7 nights. I know they are now offering longer sailings, so that is good.

 

And I'll be honest, I'd miss the alcohol package (I know if we were in a high-level suite that might not matter). One of my favorite parts of having a drink package is trying things and if I don't like them, I don't feel as if I need to drink it because I just paid for it.

 

I'll continue to be curious and we might decide to try VV in the future.

[baelor]

15 minutes ago, brookie848 said:

He does basically no sauces/dressings/spreads and he would need to modify a lot of the food.

😐 How does he get flavor into things?  I am so confused!

Edited June 9, 2022 by baelor

[brookie848]

10 minutes ago, baelor said:

😐 How does he get flavor into things?  I am so confused!

Honestly, I wonder the same thing. 🤣

 

He is just so used to eating this way that it would be a shock to his system if he ate like a normal person. He will do some things -- sauce for pasta, BBQ sauce if it comes on the meat, but he would never add it on his own. He never uses salt/mayo/ketchup/mustard. No Asian sauces (his Chinese food is just plain and steamed). His gravy is always on the side and he uses a tablespoon amount of it. If it accidentally comes on his food, he scrapes most of it off -- not because he doesn't like the flavor, but because of sodium. He never uses salad dressing.

 

It is insane to me, but he's actually pretty easy to go out to eat with as long as he can modify dishes (we are always apologetic and tip well). I also make him some basic meals that are really simple, and then cook something "good" for myself. It works for us and helps that there are/were some medical reasons for at least some of these restrictions.

 

But I really think VV would be a challenge for him food-wise.

[baelor]

8 minutes ago, brookie848 said:

Honestly, I wonder the same thing. 🤣

 

He is just so used to eating this way that it would be a shock to his system if he ate like a normal person. He will do some things -- sauce for pasta, BBQ sauce if it comes on the meat, but he would never add it on his own. He never uses salt/mayo/ketchup/mustard. No Asian sauces (his Chinese food is just plain and steamed). His gravy is always on the side and he uses a tablespoon amount of it. If it accidentally comes on his food, he scrapes most of it off -- not because he doesn't like the flavor, but because of sodium. He never uses salad dressing.

 

It is insane to me, but he's actually pretty easy to go out to eat with as long as he can modify dishes (we are always apologetic and tip well). I also make him some basic meals that are really simple, and then cook something "good" for myself. It works for us and helps that there are/were some medical reasons for at least some of these restrictions.

 

But I really think VV would be a challenge for him food-wise.

Thanks for the details!  I am glad that it works out and that it actually makes things easier in some ways.  That said, you and I will (hopefully) continue enjoying flavor lol.

[pc_load_letter]

Thanks for the review. Wife and I are 46 and 47 and we love our "party till we puke" Carnival cruises and drink packages but on the flip side, we love aspects of traditional cruising, MDR's and Broadway style shows.

 

But this review makes it a no from me dawg.

 

We're no foodies and hate techno so glad you shared your experiences.