First Look At Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady

Part One - Cabins

I was lucky enough to be offered a press trip opportunity to be one of the first to board Virgin Voyages new ship, Scarlet Lady in Dover. Here are my first impressions. (Although this was a gifted visit, I received no payment and the views are my own.)

Boarding Scarlet Lady was such a big deal for me as she was part of the inspiration to start my blog in the first place. To say my expectations were high would be an understatement! So did the reality match up?

There is obviously a lot you want to know, so to keep it manageable I have written the blog post in two parts. This first post looks at our cabin, with the second post looking at the rest. Stick with it and remember it is all subjective. The only way you will know if it’s for you is to give it a try.

First impressions

Our first introduction to Scarlet Lady was The Roundabout - Virgin Voyages two-storey Art Deco-inspired take on The Atrium - a vibrant space filled with beautiful people and loud music. It felt more like entering a cool bar or club, than a cruise ship. At it’s centre is a wide spiral staircase leading to the deck above, where a DJ was spinning the latest sounds (and yes I do realise how old that statement makes me sound). The Roundabout is surrounded by the ship’s upmarket shops, including of course, a Virgin Voyages merchandise outlet, and one of the ship’s many bars, On The Rocks.

Our first mission was to find our cabin (it would have been to find a drink but the bar wasn’t serving at that point).

Our SCARLET LADY CABIN

Ok, the cabins onboard Scarlet Lady have controversially received mixed reviews across social media, so here is my own honest take on them.

Wall art in Lift Lobby on Deck 11 on Scarlet Lady

Our cabin was a Central Sea Terrace Cabin (Balcony) on Deck 11. With effect from Scarlet Lady’s Maiden Voyage, guests will be provided with ’The Band’, which amongst other things, will automatically unlock the cabin and activate lights. As we didn’t have this, we had first to locate the light switch, which we eventually found behind a curtain (the ‘Do Not Disturb’ button is also here).

On opening our door, I admit I was a little surprised as the cabin seemed quite narrow, in spite of the extra space provided by the convertible sofa/bed.

I’m not sure if it is the colour scheme, or the somewhat minimalist styling, but the cabin didn’t quite work for me. However I loved the flexibility of the SeaBed (see below) .

Cabin Decor and Storage

The cabins are decorated in shades of red, navy and purple and on entering there is a pink/purple ombre voile curtain (same as that covering the balcony door) with a hanging rail, behind it, adjacent to which was a single shelved wardrobe, which housed a safe and life jackets.

Alongside the single wardrobe, is a glossy white vanity shelf/dressing table with a mirror above, housing the (empty) minibar, but no drawers. Along the wall is a good sized wall-mounted TV opposite a chaise-style sofa, which is actually the configurable (convertible) Seabed. Housekeeping will ask your preference of layout (i.e L-shaped, twins, or double), We later discovered a couple of large drawers under the bed, used to house bedding, but could equally be used as storage if you kept the bed made up.

Although I would have liked some drawer space, I think storage would be adequate for a short cruise if only two were sharing.

Scarlet Lady - Seabed

The Seabed did remind me of an Ikea sofabed, not surprisingly, as it had been designed by Tom Dixon who was behind the design of Ikea’s “Platform for Living”. That’s ok as I happen to love Ikea’s scandi style.

When we returned to change later in the evening, our bed had been configured in an L-Shape with pillows head to head (I was sharing with my daughter so it was fine), which meant we retained the spaciousness. However, it did feel like a sofa bed had just been made up (which in effect it had) with just the back cushions having been removed and put behind the curtains, and a sheet, duvet and pillows added. I don’t think this would be the case if we had it configured as a double. It was comfortable enough, and I had a restful night, but it was nothing remarkable. There is a light-wood table that can be upended as a bedside table or length-wise for a coffee table. The sofa has a red nautical throw/blanket for added decoration and comfort for movie-watching.

Scarlet Lady - Cabin Technology

Cabins have been designed to be extremely versatile and high-tech with motion sensors and timers which adjust curtains, lighting and power on entry and exit. These also adjust depending on the time of day, for example drawing the curtains at night and opening them automatically in the morning (which might be embarrasing if you are dockside and sleeping in the nude). The adjustable SeaBed, curtains and balcony doors can also be activated by buttons on the cabin walls. There is also an ipad in the cabin from which you can control lights, curtains etc., order stuff and find out whats going on, plus select movies to cast to the TV (sadly the App wasn’t ready when we were aboard). There are USB ports available, but no UK plug outlets, so remember to take a US or EU adapter with you.

We had the opportunity to talk to an enthusiastic Jamie Douglas, Virgin Voyages Design Director responsible for designing these aspects of the cabin, and we learned that what is supposed to happen on first entry to the cabin is that the curtains open automatically to draw your eye towards the external view. For whatever reason (probably because housekeeping had not long departed) this didn’t happen for us, although the view would have been of very rough, grey seas and Dover’s sea wall so no great loss.

Scarlet Lady - Bathroom

The bathroom Is compact, but with a nice deep glass shower enclosure. The water pressure is good, both for the hand held shower, and the rainshower head. The shower is provided with wall mounted dispensers of body wash, shampoo and conditioner. Housekeeping failed to leave us any soap, even at turndown or in the morning, so we used body wash instead, but apparently the soap provided in other cabins is actually BLACK!

The hand basin is small, and I got soaked by turning on the tap too much, causing water to overshoot the edge of the basin. There is a narrow vanity counter wih a tiny shelf above, suitable for toothbrush etc., plus a small shelf below which was taken up with spare toilet rolls and tissues. So no storage space to talk of. The towels are big, thick and fluffy and in addition to bath and hand towels, Virgin have thoughtfully provided makeup towels (so you don’t feel as guilty when your mascara and foundation transfers).

Scarlet Lady - Balcony

Sadly the weather was so bad during our stay that we were under strict instructions not to open the balcony doors or venture out. From what I could see, the balcony was furnished with a small table, two chairs and a cool red net hammock.

Other Cabin Categories on Scarlet Lady

I believe the decor and configuration described above is common to most of the standard staterooms on Scarlet Lady, although we weren’t able to view any others.

However, we did get to see the much-coveted Mega Rockstar Suites. We were able to visit the one Sir Richard Branson had slept in the previous night (allegedly), complete with electric guitar room. This is where you begin to get that much anticipated luxurious rockstar vibe, but of course, it comes at a price.

For that price tag, you can expect a separate bedroom and living area, marble bathrooms, loads of storage, personal hot tub, a record deck and vinyl records, stunning outdoor terrace plus loads of perks such as daily access to Redemption Spa, a stocked bar plus a daily bar tab and even a hair and makeup team, depending on which Suite you book.

In Summary

I felt the cabins lacked that certain wow factor and level of luxury In terms of bedding and upholstery that I expected, and I would have liked some additional storage, particularly in the bathroom to house toiletries. Of course, this is subjective and you may love the pared back look. Plus I know many people travel much lighter than me!

I did like the configurable SeaBed concept which I thought innovative and versatile. There are many configurations, depending on your party and allows you additional space when not in use as a bed. This is useful when getting ready in the evening.

And whilst I have some reservations about the cabins, you will see from Part 2 coming soon, that most of Scarlet Lady’s public areas are totally fabulous. Make sure you subscribe to find out more.

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Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady - First Impressions