• That Day We Had Afternoon Tea On Scarlet Lady
• Scarlet Lady Cruise: Memories Of When I Didn’t Take Many Photos
• Scarlet Lady Day 3: The Third Day

… and the responses were not positive.

The lack of potentially compelling titles is an artefact of us not really doing anything that different on this day at sea. You might think that with such a long lay-off from cruising due to the pandemic we’d be keen to do everything going. You might think that this would especially be the case on such a different ship as Scarlet Lady. Perhaps, with hindsight, we should have been a bit more outgoing, adventurous, seeing what was going on, but that’s not really who we are or why we generally cruise. We’ve always been about the destination and exploring ports, with the luxury and convenience and sense of motion that comes from being on a cruise ship very much secondary benefits; albeit great ones that make us favour holidays at sea over those on land. These “seacation” cruises coming out of lockdown took away that main driver for us and we slipped easily into the “inbetween ports” mode of travel once more, content to mostly read, drink, eat, and just relax. Just relaxing is great for your physical and mental wellbeing, but facilitating the generation of snappy post titles about cruises on luxury ships… not so much.

We intend to try out a few more things when we cruise again with Virgin in 2022 on Valiant Lady, now that we have more of an idea about what the cruise line does and what it offers. Perhaps there will be more interesting posts after we’ve done that. I wouldn’t count on it because I know me and I know what bores my readers to tears.

So, if we didn’t do much, then what exactly did we do on this final day of the cruise, en route to Portsmouth? Well, the one thing that we did do that wasn’t eating and drinking was have a proper walk around Scarlet Lady, taking lots of video as we went.

Now, I’m not a video person normally. I know that when it comes to documenting cruises people broadly fall into the bloggers or vloggers camp. The personable, attractive, or egotistic people prefer to use video. I like the first of those sorts of people – well, the clue’s in their adjective – and seethe jealously at the second group while avoiding like the plague the third bunch. I also don’t fit into any category there which is why the written form and photography are the realms in which I inhabit. But when it comes to finding out about things – cruise ships, for instance – people also fall broadly into those who prefer to read and those who would rather watch moving images. To simply ignore one group of people trying to get information goes against what I’ve always asserted the internet should be about and so I have begun to consider embracing – after a series of microscopic baby-steps – video a little more. Maybe my voice will appear on a video in 2029. Perhaps a split-second reflection of my ears around 2036. Anything could happen.

I took a lot of video. The raw clips you don’t want to see, trust me. However, I have edited together several minutes of venues inside and outside taken across this Scarlet Lady cruise. If you’re the sort of person who prefers a seven-minute video to a four-minute read then you’re in for a treat (temporarily removed).

All the video for this cruise was taken on my phone. I had to stop to move files off my phone and onto a portable SSD a couple of times because I was running out of space. I’ll probably use more of a hybrid solution of phone and camera video in the future because my camera deals with low light so well and allows me to really play around with depth of field while my phone has better opportunities for stabilisation through using the gimbal. Gosh! Who cares about any of that!?

Video bits done in the morning, we decided it was time for just some general relaxing, and since it was around lunch time we thought we’d get a bite to eat. An aborted attempt to hit the pizza place – no available seats inside and it wasn’t really the weather for eating on the promenade deck – was followed by us walking by the Lick Me Till… Ice Cream spot and deciding to try some out. We’re really annoyed that we didn’t try some before this last day because they were fabulous. Different flavoured cones and different scoops of flavoured ice cream added up to a ridiculous number of combinations possible and we only managed two of them between us.

Ice cream is not a lunch, though, and we’d intended to find something a little more substantial when we wandered past the Sip Lounge and spotted some stands containing what looked suspiciously like an afternoon tea on them. We’d not seen them mentioned in any pre-cruise blurb, we’d not heard anyone talk about them, we’d not seen it promoted anywhere, but we sat down and asked a passing member of staff. Yes, apparently, there it was, tucked away on one page of the lounge’s menu: afternoon tea. A choice of teas and an option for some fizz as well, and of course we went for the fizz as well. It should be noted here that this was one of the few exceptions to the rule on Scarlet Lady in that this food cost extra. It should also be noted here that this was absolutely wonderful. I mean, you can tell that just from looking. Proper green tea in a proper ball tea infuser. Proper cream. Proper way too much food. Perhaps we should have ordered one afternoon tea between us, but that feels like cheating.

Criticisms of the afternoon tea on Scarlet Lady were simply that it wasn’t advertised well enough and that I could have done without the blue cheese thing. Did Virgin buy a job lot of blue cheese before sailing? It seemed to appear quite frequently in dishes.

Stuffed, we headed back to our room – you know our room; that Seriously Suite cabin – to rest with some sea views, something from the complimentary bar, and put some music on the turntable.

The final evening on Scarlet Lady started with dinner that we’d booked at the Wake restaurant. The dining venue did not disappoint in terms of its view, and the menu offered was very good indeed. There were plenty of options and you could easily come back night after night and choose something different. I decided to try the bone marrow as starters which wasn’t to my liking but hey-ho! You don’t know until you try, do you? The main course and dessert were perfectly good, though. My wife’s filet mignon main course was very good, it’s true, but it wasn’t quite to the same standard as on a Princess ship in the Crown Grill. That’s fine; everyone’s got their specialities and you can’t be the best at everything. Where Virgin excelled in this dinner was the bread. Oh my! That was incredibly good. They should just have a bread place on board that makes those. My half-Irish blood bubbled with joy eating that bread. I’m quite fond of the bread is the gist of what I’m saying here.

Just the last night to get through then, and, after a quick wander onto the aft deck to get some fresh air following dinner, we made our way back inside for some drinks to conclude this cruise. It was more crowded in most places than it had been on the previous nights but understandably so given the drop in temperature and increased wind velocity along with no pool parties to persuade the masses up on top. However, finding seats was never an issue on Scarlet Lady as she always seemed to have plenty around, and a quick message from friends saw us meeting up with them at the Roundabout area. Live music nearby, plenty of chatting, and sampling of some different alcoholic beverages once more rounded off the day nicely.

That concludes this travelogue series on our UK Scarlet Lady cruise, short simply because the cruise was short, and not in any way comprehensive because there was far more to do than we reasonably could have done and because we didn’t know what to expect so didn’t approach this trip with any firm plans. Things will be different on the next cruise. There are shows we’d like to see, cocktail evenings we’d like to attend, activities we might be interested in now that we know a little more about them.

We’d been unsure about Virgin Voyages and Scarlet Lady from the first PR releases, and we’d been convinced that what they were planning to do was unsustainable given the sort of people who cruise and the itineraries and durations proposed. She’d not been a ship we thought we’d be interested in, but pandemics and home-porting down the road from us have a way of changing people, and perhaps the delay had a way of altering Virgin’s original plans a little and tempering them towards the existing cruise fanbase a little more instead of trying to start from a clean slate. I don’t know for sure, but the result was a thoroughly, thoroughly fantastic experience. The ship’s not perfect – I really missed a proper pool to swim in and sometimes it felt she was trying too hard to be a little too different with food and drink offerings – but she’s bloody close, and none of the gimmicks felt gimmicky; they felt right. We’d talked to plenty of people on this ship and nobody had a bad word to say about her. We even talked to a retired couple who almost exclusively cruised with Cunard and they were talking about booking more cruises on Scarlet Lady. That’s quite the recommendation to try her.

For some inexplicable reason, despite not heading to bed until the third hour after midnight, we were up bright and early. To clarify: the weather was bright. We were not bright. We were somewhat zombie-like. We decided not to go for brains, but had some breakfast anyway then thought a bit of a walk on the open decks and some sea air might do us the world of good. Or kill us.

The early hour lent Scarlet Lady a little bit of a ghost ship feel. We are not nature’s early risers on cruises – there’s usually something so soothing about the gentle rocking motion and the odd creak of metal as ships cut through the waves gently overnight that we’re quickly pushed into pleasing comas – so witnessing a ship with so few people around until bright sunshine was unusual. The only time that typically happens for us is when we cruise in Asia and our body clock is so out of sync with the local time zone. Cruising off the coast of England? Unheard of! Maybe we were still buzzing with excitement at how this ship was making us feel. Maybe it’s just another symptom of old age.

You’ll see from some of the photos here the wide variety of and large number of seating options on Scarlet Lady. While everything seemed a little lower than we’d really have liked – we’ve got knees to think about – we can overlook that a little as we realise we’re not precisely Virgin’s target demographic. The range and number of seats, though, we loved. Even though it was sailing at nowhere near capacity on this cruise we generally thought that you’d not struggle to find somewhere to sit or lie down even if it was.

But, while we may not be as young (or wealthy, or healthy-minded) as Virgin seem to aim at, we do still have a streak of the young-at-heart about us, and so, even with raging hangovers, we tried out the swing chairs and the see-saws and played table football. And really enjoyed it all. We’re pretty introverted normally so that lack of anyone else around probably helped here too.

One thing I didn’t enjoy as much – and given how much we like art in general, and love modern and abstract works – was the artwork that Virgin selected to showcase on their ship. You could see examples of this outside the elevators where a wall was decorated in the same style with a single piece accented to indicate the floor, but there were some pieces on the top deck too, one of which is shown below. I like minimalism, I like modernism, I like the bubbly feel of late 1960s and early 1970s art, and so there’s no reason I shouldn’t like this. But I don’t. It’s pretty dull, really. For a generally flashy, highly stylish ship as Scarlet Lady, this felt basic and cartoonish. But it’s art. And we all react differently to it. I don’t doubt that there will be some people who “absolutely love” it, and perhaps genuinely so and not just because they want to come across as super-positive for reviews. Oh me! I’m such a cynic.

We weren’t the only people awake, of course. You’ll always find those achingly desperate to stake out their spots around the swimming pool (or XL-size bathtub on Scarlet Lady) even when they’ve got absolutely no intention of using it (the selfish bastards) and those utterly bizarre folk who have to start a day with a jog on a treadmill.

The mid-morning and early-afternoon parts of this sea day aboard Scarlet Lady were a blur of quiet moaning – it helps the body process alcohol – and reading and relaxing on our balcony, and perhaps an hour’s snooze, but we reached a point where we thought we might risk a hair-of-the-dog so made our way to the Draught Haus for a beer each. This didn’t go down as well as we’d hoped, and resulted in us nursing our pints for the best part of ninety minutes.

However, what was nice was that we got to experience some of Virgin’s pop-up entertainment that we’d heard about. This was in the form of some close-up magic from Andy, one of the many entertainment staff aboard whose remit is broader and more individualistic than you’d typically find on another cruise line where everything is managed by one cruise director. The tricks were good, we couldn’t see the sleight-of-hand nor work out how all the backs of the cards changed pattern, and Andy was nice enough to create a fancy fan-shape and pose for a photo too. You can also see from this photo just how casual the general look of the crew on Scarlet Lady was, although it’s worth noting that there was never any problem with identifying one from a fellow passenger.

Another lovely element to the close-up magic was that it reminded us of our very first cruise – and we chatted to Andy about this after his tricks – when we’d also seen some close-up magic. That had been on Diamond Princess, off China, in the atrium, with my wife and I sat with the magician under the watchful gaze of tens of dozens of people on the staircases and levels looking down. We liked this quiet, more personal approach more (that introverted thing again), and we loved that we got to reminisce about that first cruise. There were a number of times on this weekender cruise that we felt like that. Virgin did a spectacular job of making everything feel fresh and exciting.

We’d struggled with our beers so we hit our balcony again for the rest of the afternoon, and we decided to drink water. Water. Us. Anyway, sunshine, drinks, books, the sight and sounds of the sea, and the best company: it’s what cruising is all about.

Scarlet Lady’s Extra Virgin Restaurant

Scarlet Lady may have some fancier dining establishments but it also caters to some more general and widespread tastes, and Extra Virgin is her take on an Italian restaurant, the place we’d booked for this evening’s meal. We’re big fans of Italian food. It’s often our first choice if we’re holidaying in the UK, and we’ll nearly always book into the Italian speciality restaurant, Sabatini’s, if we’re on a Princess ship, so we felt it made sense to see how it compared.

The first thing to mention, of course, is that there’s no cost for the food; like almost all the food on a Virgin cruise ship, it’s included in the price. The restaurant had its own character and was stylish, modern, but not typically Italian in appearance. No problem there, though. The quality of the food in Extra Virgin couldn’t be faulted, and for our tastes there were probably more options in food choices that we could pick from when compared to Princess, but I think we both felt that we still preferred Princess – not by much – over Virgin here. One element we really did enjoy, though, was the build-your-own approach to the affogato; we had a lot of fun interacting with our server to choose the precise types of ice cream and accompaniments to that. We would be extremely happy to eat at Extra Virgin again.

My wife went for the Braised Mini Meatballs followed by the Oxtail Agnolotti, while I picked Smoked Chicken Liver Mousse with Potato Gnocchi as the main course.

At the conclusion of our lovely meal in Extra Virgin we headed to the hub of the ship and discovered, for the first time, that the vinyl store was open. This gave me a chance to peruse and pick up something. Upon returning it to our cabin we discovered that we’d also been left with a gift of a couple of Virgin bags. We’re used to getting these on Princess cruises so it was nice to see them appear on Scarlet Lady too, and they were very nice, very good quality too.

As the sun was dipping towards the horizon and we had a perfect view of it from our balcony we thought we’d enjoy some of it with another drink from the bar. How terribly civilised.

A Splash Of Scarlet Night

This was the night that Virgin called their Splash of Scarlet night. There had been some encouragement for people to add some red to their clothing for the evening and I’d donned a rather appallingly bright Hawaiian-style shirt for our meal – and got an “Oh, that looks lovely” from one of the crew that might even have been genuine and not patronising in the slightest – but decided to ditch it in favour of something that felt more comfortable after we’d returned to the room, mostly because there were hardly any other people doing so. However, just because not that many passengers were in red, the same couldn’t be said for the ship which attracted some mood lighting for the occasion in various locations. We soon found ourselves in the Dock House where we had the chance to sample a few more of our favourite cocktail there, the Fig Sour, and do a bit of people-watching.

And for the second time that day we were treated to some more pop-up entertainment. This time it came in the form of a couple performing folk songs and shanties, later to be followed along by a high-energy dance quartet who reminded us that there would be a pool party on the top deck later in the evening. We had already known about the pool party but those sorts of things don’t appeal to us as much as they do to others so we contented ourselves with something a little more relaxed, even if it meant we’d miss the giant octopus and light show. Maybe we’ll see what it’s like on our next Virgin cruise.

We ended up spending the rest of the evening back in the Draught Haus once more after wandering through to see if there was anything else to see entertainments-wise, spotting some cruise-blogging friends, and joining them for some drinks. We also spotted some existing (and made some new) cruise-blogging enemies, but I don’t want to spoil the overall positive feel of this post so perhaps that’s a tale for another time. You can tell we were still feeling the after-effects of the evening before because we decided to try the bar’s “Shot Tails” in order to keep the volume of alcohol down to a sensible limit.

The evening finished up back in our room (always the best place to find yourself) and one more treat from this Splash of Scarlet night on Scarlet Lady as we discovered that the balconies were also all lit up in red. Coupled with the thick fog we were cruising through this made for a uniquely atmospheric experience. We had a quick drink on the balcony with the door open, listening to the Jurassic 5 album I’d bought earlier. A very nice way to end off a very relaxing day.

In the next post in this Scarlet Lady weekender cruise travelogue series I’ll cover the final full day aboard Scarlet Lady. Another dining venue to try out, some afternoon tea as well, and a lot of video footage taken for a change.

In this post I’ll cover what we got up to on our first night aboard Scarlet Lady. If you’ve read travelogues elsewhere on this site or if you’ve met us in real life or if you’ve parsed the title of this post using your expert comprehension of English then you’ve probably guessed that the words “food” and “drink” will feature heavily. You would be absolutely right.

Scarlet Lady Test Kitchen

Virgin do things a little differently from most cruise lines, and certainly a lot different to all the cruise lines with whom we’ve sailed over the years. The idea of one or more main dining rooms has been made to walk the plank and sent to a watery grave, replaced instead by smaller, more specialised restaurants. This transforms the cruise experience on Scarlet Lady into one of regular speciality dining nights, but with no additional cost for the food. Those restaurants on the cruise ship can be broadly grouped into two types: themed and experiential. Both types feature a limited menu range, although the themed restaurants will have more choices. This simplifies what the kitchens aboard need to stock and what the chefs aboard need to know how to cook, but it also means they can do this cooking very well.

Prior to the cruise we were able to make bookings for restaurants, but only the experiential ones. In order to ensure that everyone gets a chance to try the food they like you’re only allowed to book once per location initially with the possibility of more spaces becoming available once you’re aboard and a wait-list of some description comes into play. Very sensible, and we liked this approach a lot. The only experiential restaurant we wanted to try for this taster cruise was The Test Kitchen and we booked it for the first night on Scarlet Lady.

Of course, we didn’t go straight to dinner. Animals go straight to dinner without a drink first, and we’re not animals. We made our way to On The Rocks for a couple of cocktails.

How to describe the Test Kitchen as a dining experience? Well, you know those intimate, candle-lit locations, ideal for dining for two, the quiet murmur of low conversations across the table from one another? This was like not that. If you’ve got working eyeballs then you can see from the photos below anyway, but think of it as part modern laboratory, part we’ve-moved-all-the-seats-into-the-restaurant-kitchen. Bright. Very bright. Very clean. Rather noisy. Different. Different is what Virgin do a lot of.

Food options here were limited to either vegetarian or non-vegetarian, with the latter adding a further one-course option switch between beef and venison. It was always going to be venison for the pair of us. In addition, there was an option to pay for either a wine or cocktail pairing alongside each course. Not being fans of white wine and knowing how much these pairing menus love to slip those in, and since we’d been on the cocktails already, we opted for the latter. This was $35 per person and included six small cocktails.

First up was a mushroom-shaped paté. I’m not a fan of mushroom (that’s an understatement) and it’s more a texture thing than taste (although quite why anyone likes the taste of soggy cardboard left in the ground is another thing altogether), but when it comes to fancy restaurants I will tend to give the chefs the benefit of the doubt that they know what they’re doing. This was lovely. The same can’t be said for the accompanying cocktail which bore all the flavour of fizzy water, but I’m pleased to say that the cocktails did improve from this low point as the courses proceeded. As to whether the cocktails truly paired with the courses: I’m not so sure. Then again: who cares? They’re cocktails!

Arriving under a smoky cloche was the next course, called “Egg”. I think you can see why.

Seafood is something I’m not a fan of. Fish, I like, but once you hit molluscs and arthropods in the animal kingdom then it’s pretty much a big no from me. However, again, when in a speciality dining establishment, do what the speciality dining establishmentarians do. I’m assured by my wife that the scallops were lovely. I ate them.

The main course of venison then arrived with a layered potato side dish. Now we’re talking! This was all absolutely top stuff. The quality of the meat, the combination of flavours with the sauces, and the presentation were far beyond pretty much any meal we’ve had at sea, and ran some snazzy land-based restaurants close too. And, of course, potato: I’m half-Irish and you can’t go wrong with serving me potato. It triggers my happiness hormones.

From the utterly delectable to the borderline gag-inducing with the next course of blue cheese. I don’t like cheese. Again, it’s a texture thing usually, because I can handle melted cheese but nothing hard. Food with the consistency of erasers on the ends of pencils is a red flag from nature. The taste is mostly irrelevant because I’ll only ever have it with other things that actually have a flavour I like. The same cannot be said for blue cheese, though. I can tell from the look and smell of blue cheese that no, no thank you, no thank you at all is the only answer when it comes to that. The blue cheese course at the Test Kitchen was shaped like a caterpillar for some reason. The taste was indescribably bad to me. The texture was right at the limit of my coping powers. I did, however, soldier through this revolting lump of putrescence. To give balance to this review of this particular course of the meal, both my wife – a huge fan of all types of cheese – and the couple next to us – apparently also cheese people – all agreed it was not pleasant either. That’s not to say that you wouldn’t like it. You might be a complete weirdo. You’re reading this and that gets you weirdo points already.

Anyway, we all ate it. Just.

So, finally, the dessert course, and how could it be anything other than chocolate? Everyone, thankfully, loves chocolate, and this was an excellent finish to the meal, with a nice mix of textures again.

Is the Test Kitchen worth a booking on Scarlet Lady? Of course! It’s free, and there are other places to eat around the ship if you don’t like what you’re served. You’re on a cruise. You can eat pretty much non-stop, so why wouldn’t you try this? We loved the aspect of thinking “Yeah, we’re not in the main dining room of a cruise ship” here, it was great to watch the chefs preparing the courses, and the quality of the food – even if not everything suits every individual’s palate – couldn’t be faulted. You don’t know until you try, though.

To round off and make our evening at the Test Kitchen on Scarlet Lady even better was the company we had on our section of bench in the restaurant. We were lucky enough to be seated beside Lieutenant Commander Natalie and her mum, Kim. The Lieutenant Commander should have been on this weekender cruise with her husband but he’d been called up to head out to Afghanistan at short notice, much to the absolute joy of Kim who then got to take his place on this trip. The other thing that Kim enjoyed was that her daughter outranked her son-in-law. We all talked for ages, comparing how we felt about the dishes in the restaurant, talking about other cruises – well, that’s an unwritten law of all dinner conversations on cruise ships, after all -, and numerous other topics too, and talked so long that by the time we decided we ought to give the staff a chance to clean our area of the restaurant there were probably only half a dozen other people still in there. A good night at the Test Kitchen would be the conclusion here.

Late Night On Scarlet Lady

The good thing about the meal we’d just had, with its many but perfectly-sized courses, followed by the long conversation with people we’d just met, was that when we left we weren’t bloated. We’re used to speciality dining on cruises ensuring you feel like you’ve had value for money, and because cruising is a very American-oriented thing “value for money” is typically synonymous with “quantity, quantity, quantity”. We’d much prefer fine dining that feels like it’s special and that’s what we experienced on Scarlet Lady throughout this cruise.

So, we weren’t full, and we were on a fancy ship, and it was late, and we’d been drinking cocktails since the early afternoon. What are a couple to do? Head to a bar. A quick stroll brought us to the Sip Lounge and we picked a couple of drinks from the menu there while watching the odd person or two wander through. In truth, it was a bit quieter than we’d expected, even allowing for the reduced capacity cruise numbers. We’d anticipated more people up and about into the early hours.

Seeking something more engaging, we headed off towards the aft of the ship and stumbled into the Arcade. This was heaven. For people of a certain age – and we’re people of a certain age – this was noisy neon nostalgia. We were here ages, playing most of the games, playing them really badly, listening to loads of 1980s pop music, and having a fabulous time.

Finally sated of video arcade entertainment for this first night, we continued aft, through the Dock House (where we grabbed ourselves another cocktail each; maritime law, and all that) and then outside to drink under the stars. And not just under the stars, as we spotted a couple of Perseid meteors burning up in the night sky too.

By the time we headed back inside we found the bars had closed, but we knew that Scarlet Lady’s nightclub, The Manor, was still an option. We negotiated the mirrored walk to the interior and survived about ten minutes before the type of music being played persuaded us that there was a better option if we wanted a nightcap. Thus it was – after missing the exit and ending up on the upper level of the club initially; seriously, those mirrors and late-night drinking are not a great combination – that we made our way back to our room and its free bar, there to enjoy a bourbon on the balcony before bed.

In the third part of this Scarlet Lady cruise travelogue series I’ll cover the next day at sea on this Virgin Voyages ship. It would be a day recovering from a hangover (for some reason), one that includes dining at the Italian restaurant on the ship, and concluding with the line’s signature Scarlet Night.

It is no secret that when Scarlet Lady was first revealed to the world – well, to the invited hordes of the media and bloggers and influencers and beautiful people – we were far from enamoured with what we saw. That’s an understatement. The ship looked too different, had some bizarre design choices, looked like it was marketed towards a very small demographic, was too expensive, and so on. We were not looking to book a cruise on her then or, probably, ever. But then the world fell apart for a while – it’s still not back together, of course – and plans were put on hold and changed, and schedules were shifted, and all of a sudden Virgin announced they would start Scarlet Lady’s delayed maiden season with a few port-free sailings from the UK – further along the vaccinating people roadmap than the viral cesspit that is Miami – and not just anywhere in the UK, but Portsmouth. Or, as we like to call it, home. In fact, we can walk to the port from our front door in about ten minutes.

And that’s the story behind us booking three nights on a Scarlet Lady cruise. Convenience, of course, but general nosiness too to see what she’d be like with a necessarily older demographic than originally intended (based on vaccination roll-out schedules), and then there was the significant incentive of “sailor loot” that would come with different grades of rooms. We were always going to book a balcony because anything less simply isn’t us, but once we looked at some of the perks with what Virgin call their “Rock Star” (or “Rockstar“; I’ve seen it written both ways) cabins, along with the generous on board credit, we realised we could pay a little more and get a lot more. We ultimately selected the lowest grade of these cabins, what’s known as a Seriously Suite cabin, and the port side in order to enjoy the harbour views as we left Portsmouth. This would end up being an excellent decision.

Pre-Cruise Covid Testing

We were on the third of the regular maiden season cruises and there had been issues with the first of those where pre-cruise Covid-testing was concerned, but I’m happy to say that we experienced no problems at all. Arriving by car at the Park & Ride about an hour before embarkation time as instructed, we were directed immediately to the test centre on the other side of the M275 motorway, joined a short queue, got tested, got the results, were handed our wearable tech, and were sent on our way with very little delay. Back home to drop the car off, pick up the cases, then walk through to the port, check in, hop on a bus, and get onto the ship. Start-to-finish was about an hour and a quarter which meant we were in our room about fifteen minutes after our scheduled boarding time.

And what a room!

Scarlet Lady Seriously Suite 12219A

Other than requiring a balcony, we generally consider a room to be a room and aren’t typically fussed too much about what’s in there and what it looks like so long as it’s functional and not too cramped. For us, it’s usually more about placement of the room on the ship than anything else. However, forget all that, because we instantly fell in love with this Seriously Suite grade of room on Scarlet Lady. We had a wow! moment when we first experienced a balcony room on a cruise back in 2013, and we had another wow! moment when we stepped inside room 12219A.

Stylish! Well, you can tell that from the pictures immediately. Spacious! No scuttling sideways down the side or ends of the bed here! Plenty of storage space, and in proper wardrobes too, unlike lower grade rooms. And the eye-catching extras like the bar and the turntable, both of which we’d make use of.

But, utterly bizarrely, the bathroom was the star of the room. Huge, spacious, bright, and marble-covered, but that walk-in shower was jaw-droppingly fantastic. You could lay down and shower. We didn’t, but we could have. I might on the next cruise, though, now that I’ve mentioned it, because partly on the strength of this room on Scarlet Lady we’ve already booked a similar, follow-up cruise on her sister ship, Valiant Lady, for 2022, and in the same suite because we’ve checked the plans for higher grade rooms and they don’t look as good to us. There’s a room type for everyone on a cruise ship and it turns out that the Seriously Suite is our type of room.

I’ll cover things like the entertainment in the room and our playing around with the drinks and record player in the follow-up post in this travelogue series, but for now here’s a short video from inside our Seriously Suite cabin showing off the space in the bedroom and bathroom, as well as the outside space of the balcony along with its hammock that we initially considered to be a gimmick, but really rather enjoyed as well.

There was a video here, but now there isn’t.

The Seriously Suite cabin on Scarlet Lady was very nearly perfect. If I could make a couple of minor changes then they would simply be maybe a way to block off the peep window between the bathroom and bedroom and/or some form of low-level lighting in the bathroom at night. The window, while fantastic-looking and unique, means an uninterrupted night’s sleep isn’t guaranteed if your partner needs to use the toilet during it and pitch blackness isn’t possible.

Top Deck And Richard’s Rooftop

You’ve got to go exploring as soon as possible – after we’d watched the muster drill video in our room and confirmed attendance for that on the tablet – and so we headed straight up to the top to enjoy a little bit of Portsmouth in the sunshine and see for ourselves what that infamous swimming pool looked like.

We’d seen pictures of the swimming pool when Scarlet Lady had been thrown open to the PR masses, we’d heard people’s complaints about it, and we’d taken a look at the deck plans too, so we roughly knew what to expect. In truth, the pool looked okay, size-wise, for people to gather about socially thanks to the shallow lozenge of water around its main part, and it was actually a little bigger than we’d assumed. But, for us, it was not a pool we could use in any practical sense. And it was surprising, in a way, that a cruise line like Virgin Voyages would make such a big deal about health and fitness, but then provide no place where people who like to actually swim could do so. I’d love to see a lap pool – preferably one with pretty much no loungers around so that it was just for swimmers – make an appearance on later ship designs if possible, because being able to get in a pool and swim while at sea is one of those things we absolutely love.

One of those perks of being a Rock Star Sailor on a Virgin Voyages cruise ship is having access to an area called Richard’s Rooftop. A card in our room allowed us to swipe to enter a closed-off section at the front of the top deck. This brought us into a space filled with various forms of seating, hot tubs, and even trampolines. One thing to mention about Scarlet Lady is that when it comes to seating, there is no end of choice. Even though we sailed well under capacity, I’m sure you’d always be able to find a spot to sit in around the open decks even with a fully-laden ship.

We had good intentions. We had planned to scoot around the top of the ship, getting a feel for things, taking a few photos; then scoot around the main decks, get an idea where things were, take a few photos. Sadly for us, the barman at the bar in Richard’s Rooftop asked us if we wanted a drink and we ended up saying yes because it was a drink and we were us and we were on holiday. So that’s why this first day aboard Scarlet Lady and the explore before sail-away more-or-less came to a screeching halt.

Lunch And Drinks Aboard Scarlet Lady

After our cocktails on the top deck had been supplemented with a complimentary glass of fizz we reached the time when we needed to check-in in person at our muster station. With that necessary task out of the way we thought we might take more of a look around the inside of Scarlet Lady but that plan lasted just as long as it took us to reach the Dock House where another friendly barman guilted us into asking him for a drink.

You pay for drinks on Scarlet Lady, but all the food is free (with one exception, covered in the next post), and thus it was that we did something terribly sensible and had some small bites for lunch as well.

As an aside here, the food and drinks on Scarlet Lady were of extremely high quality, with a fabulous range too. The only area where things could really be improved is in perhaps catering to more of the conventional drinking tastes; some classic cocktails, staples of many cruises, simply couldn’t be made thanks to a lack of the right mixers or ingredients. This wasn’t a problem for us as we love to make our way through all the fancy and new things on a menu, but we knew some people aboard missed certain drinks they preferred and would typically expect to find on a ship. A Virgin Voyages ship is anything but typical, of course, but it would be nice to provide that option, especially with cruises of longer durations.

We had time to check out the Draught Haus Tap Room before the ship left the port, and by “check out” I mean “grab a couple of drinks”, but you knew that already. Beer on tap on ships is a wonderful thing and long may it continue.

Scarlet Lady Departing Portsmouth Harbour

The remainder of this first post from our Scarlet Lady cruise travelogue series covers the sail out from our home city as seen from our Seriously Suite cabin balcony.

We’ve cruised into and out of many ports during our years of cruising, but many of them, while great because of what they signify – you’re on a motherflipping cruise! -, are much of a muchness. There are exceptions, especially for those who like commanding landscapes (Ushuaia and Kotor are incredible), but if you’re a fan of history or the navy or naval history then overlook my natural bias while I say that you’ll find it hard to beat Portsmouth.

The offshore patrol vessel in the photo below (P233) and her sister ship a few photos after that (P234), both in their distinctive dazzle camouflage, are the HMS Tamar and HMS Spey, respectively. They are the first vessels to be decorated in that style since World War II. It was nice to have that connection with dazzle camouflage on Scarlet Lady, too, as she sports a restaurant called Razzle Dazzle, named for the naval style.

The ship between the two patrol vessels (D35) with the equally distinctive motif of a red dragon on her bow is the appropriately named HMS Dragon. She is a Type 45 destroyer and is the only ship in the Royal Navy with that design on her.

HMS Prince of Wales (R09) is one of two Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers in operational service of the Royal Navy. It’s always fun to hear people exclaim how large an aircraft carrier is, but then you sail past on a cruise ship and completely dwarf it.

In the photo below you’ve got two of Portsmouth’s most famous historical ships. Sadly lacking her full masts is HMS Victory on the right while to the left, hidden inside the shell of a downed flying saucer (maybe), lies the remains of The Mary Rose. Both are fabulous to see, and if you’re ever visiting Portsmouth then try to book tickets for the dockyard to have a look around the pair of them.

Scarlet Lady next cruised past two very prominent sights that you can’t fail to miss if you’re in the Gunwharf area of Portsmouth. The Spinnaker Tower, naturally, can be seen from miles around. Not quite as sky-reaching but equally gorgeous along the waterfront is the museum ship, HMS Warrior, the first armour-plated, iron-hulled, steam-powered frigate.

In the photographs below you can also see a building with a monochrome Union Flag on it. That is the Ineos Team UK building, from which Britain’s attempt to win the Americas Cup under Ben Ainslie has been based.

That brought us out of Portsmouth Harbour entrance and with it some fantastic views of the low, warm, evening sunshine lighting up parts of the old defences along the seafront. If you’d like to read a little more about the fortifications here – the Round Tower, the Square Tower, the Hot Walls – then a little bit of history is covered here: Old Portsmouth Shoreline Photowalk.

Another wonderful sight as Scarlet Lady completed her departure from Portsmouth was seeing the hovercraft to the Isle of Wight take off from Southsea as soon as we’d passed. There aren’t many great reasons to visit the Isle of Wight but if you’ve no need to take your car across on the ferry then a hovercraft ride can’t be beat for loud, fast fun.

That completes this first post of our Scarlet Lady travelogue series, covering our Seriously Suite cabin, a few drinks and photos here and there, and a gorgeous sail out from Portsmouth Port.

In the next post I’ll go through the dining during our weekender cruise as well as the bits of entertainment we caught. We could barely do one tenth of the things we wanted to do with this cruise being so short and everything about the Virgin Voyages experience being excitingly fresh and there being an abundance of choices to make. Hopefully, we’ll be able to address some of that on our next trip with the cruise line in March.