We’ve heard a lot of hype about Virgin Voyages, ultramodern ships, wild parties, and overrun with swingers, but are any of these preconceptions correct?
Many of these views seemed to be perpetuated by Virgin Voyages. With initial promo images and video showing young people constantly partying and looking ecstatic.
So when we found out that Scarlet Lady, Virgin’s first ship, was sailing from Portsmouth. We took the opportunity to try Virgin Voyages and see what the cruise experience is like for ourselves. Virgin Voyages now has four ships, all with very similar design and layout.
Embarkation
Virgin Voyages uses Portsmouth as its embarkation port, just up the coast from Southampton. Generally, embarkation times are later than those of other cruise lines, as disembarkation is later. Just watch out for the steepness of the gangway; it was steep!
We boarded at 2:30 pm, which was the earliest time for general boarding. Once on board, the rooms are ready. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was not good, and the sail-away party was cancelled. A sign of things to come.
Crossing The Bay Of Biscay
Crossing the Bay of Biscay is often ‘tricky‘, but this crossing was rough as the remnants of Hurricane Erin were passing over the area. The swell was big, and this trend continued throughout the cruise.
As a result of the weather, as well as the sail away party, the Scarlet Night party was cancelled. If you’re not familiar with Scarlet Night, it’s the ship’s main party night where guests are encouraged to wear red. It is usually centred around the pool, with people dancing around and often in the pool.
The Ports
It is quite funny how cruise lines can advertise a port for a city, but in reality, it’s hours away. In our case, we stopped at Le Verdon for Bordeaux. Bordeaux is actually a 2-hour coach transfer away.
Luckily, we had booked this cruise to experience the ship and the comedy festival and not for the ports themselves. The ship docked in La Coruna, and it was only a short walk to the city. Bilbao, on the other hand, involved a coach and metro transfer, which took about an hour.
Overall Thoughts On Scarlet Lady
So did Scarlet Lady and Virgin Voyages live up to the hype? For us, no, but we did really enjoy our cruise, and we would book with them again. However, next time, our expectations would be lower, and we definitely know they are not the wild party cruise line.
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Helen S
November 4, 2025 at 2:14 pmI’ve never been on a cruise as I am extremely travel sick but so many people have told me that you don’t feel it when on board; maybe I will try it one day, even for such a short cruise, however with these no fly cruises, departure points are usually Southampton and living in the north east means at least a 7 hour drive sadly. I think a fly cruise might be better suited to us as, maybe part cruise part holiday, hopefully then we will have the chance of better weather in say the Med. Thanks for your review 🙂
Margaret Gallagher
November 4, 2025 at 4:35 pmAmazing itinerary would love in 2026