It's a beautiful day here in Southern California! I'm out in my backyard.
It's nearly the end of February and it feels like winter is over.
I'm wearing my "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?!" shirt today because...
I'm going to be talking about Virgin Voyages and their brand-new cruise ship "Scarlet Lady".
And before I get going I should mention that I have not sailed with Virgin Voyages myself...
But I've got a really good friend that did just cruise on Scarlet Lady...
And that's really what this video is about.
It's Jim Zim's video about Emma's video about Scarlet Lady!
Emma Le Teace is my pal who I've never met in person...
But we've known each other for a couple of years online. We even did a video together...
About the MSC Seaside.
And Emma just got home from a one-day preview cruise on Scarlet Lady...
And posted a video to YouTube that I found really interesting.
So, the whole point of my video today is to point you to Emma's video...
And get you to watch that to learn about Virgin Voyages' ship, Scarlet Lady.
I'm going to show you just a few highlights that I hope will intrigue you enough...
That'll make you want to go over to Emma's channel and watch her full video.
Let's start with a short clip from her introduction...
There's certain things about this ship which I loved and others where I really think that Virgin have made massive mistakes.
Virgin specifically hired people who hadn't worked in the cruise industry before to design this ship and it is really obvious.
Wow! OK, well... She made it quite clear that she's going to be honest in her review and that she was less than impressed!
Let's hear some more...
I was so ready to fall in love with this ship and the Virgin brand...
Unfortunately, I came away more convinced than ever that Virgin aren't a cruise line for me.
I'm sure they're for somebody but it just isn't for me.
Yeah, that was my impression too... Without ever even having been on the ship.
I'm a 62 year old guy. This ship is not for me.
And here are some important things that Emma points out about bad design choices that were made in the cabins.
The cabin, for example, has no storage.
There are no drawers or cupboards anywhere in the cabin apart from in the closet by the door.
I would like to have a few drawers by the bed and at a minimum a drawer for chargers and cables over by the desk.
I pack very lightly and I still think that I would find the lack of storage a problem.
The closet itself is a good size... There's lots of shelves and there's space for hanging clothes.
Realistically, you'll probably have your suitcases in here, too... because they won't fit under the bed...
Which is what most people do with their suitcases.
if you have a particularly small suitcase it might fit under the bed...
But anything bigger than a size small is not gonna fit and it's going to have to go in the wardrobe.
Now that is a big design problem because if you can't store your empty suitcases under the bed...
Then you're either going to be tripping over them all week long...
Or they're going to be hogging up a lot of valuable closet space.
And Emma also pointed out this bad design choice...
There is something interesting in the closet though.
It's the main light switch to the cabin and the Do Not Disturb button.
I had friends who stayed on this ship who actually never managed to find the button!
I did, but it took me about 20 minutes.
I've been cruising since I was a child and I've been on 29 cruises to date.
I've never seen such ridiculous placement of a light switch.
It makes no sense to me at all.
You literally have to push your clothes out of the way to find the light switch.
I hadn't even unpacked. I didn't have anything in the closet and it still took me 20 minutes to find the light switch!
Mostly, Emma didn't hold back in her video.
Sometimes in that situation, where a cruise line invites a YouTuber onboard for free...
The YouTuber is a little reluctant to criticize the cruise line.
After all, they would like another free cruise sometime in the future!
But mostly, Emma didn't flinch at telling the brutal, honest truth!
Here's what she had to say about the tiny bathroom in her cabin.
The bathroom is very well designed and looks very modern.
That said, it is the smallest bathroom that I've ever had on a cruise.
I've literally stayed in a wigwam which had a bigger bathroom than this cruise ship... which is just crazy.
There was just one time when I felt that Emma was too polite and let Virgin Voyages off a little too easy...
The cabin had a pretty big balcony compared to other cruise ships... which is definitely a plus point.
Oh, come on, Emma!!! Look at how tiny that balcony is!
I can't believe she called it "a pretty big balcony".
Now if that totally dysfunctional stateroom wasn't enough to put you off this ship, listen to this...
An area which has received a lot of negative comments online is the main and only swimming pool onboard.
This is the pool and it is tiny!
You would be lucky to get four people in the actual pool.
The outer part does get filled with water but this is more of a splash pool than a swimming pool.
I don't really know what else to say about this. It is just tiny!
Scarlet Lady is going to hold over 4,000 passengers.
Much smaller cruise ships with other cruise lines, like Princess...
Have four or five swimming pools.
This one is just SO small.
So, I want to encourage you to go over to Emma's YouTube channel and watch her full video.
I think it's really interesting.
A brand new company designs their very first cruise ship.
What could go wrong? (he chuckles)
A lot of things!
Well, that's pretty much it. Jim Zim's video about Emma's video about Virgin Voyages' Scarlet Lady.
That's a heck of a title!