Day 6: Virgin Voyages | Scarlet Lady | Wellness
One of the aspects I love about Virgin Voyages is their balance of wellness into the cruise. There are several workouts throughout the day and also plenty of healthy options for food and drinks.
The day began with wellness in mind. I headed up to the perch which is on Deck 17 at the back of the ship for Open-Heart Slow Flow Yoga. All of the yoga classes were booked at the beginning of the cruise, but people changed their minds and I was able to snag a spot here! The instructor was clearly yoga trained and not only knew about the physical poses of yoga, but also about the spiritual element of yoga. In this class, we worked on opening our chests and hearts and focused on one of the chakras. It was a gentle wake-up for the day and left me feeling revitalized.
The yoga class was amazing, but not that physically demanding. After yoga, I headed to the training center for a HITT class. The workout was divided into three blocks and each block had three exercises. We did each exercise for a certain amount of time and rotated between the three exercises three times before moving to the next block. In the first block there was rowing, a kettle bell exercise, and a medicine ball exercise. The second block utilized the floor and included push-ups, plank to toe taps, and inclined mountain climbers. The last block utilized the TRS straps and one floor exercise. Overall it felt similar to an Orangetheory class without the treadmill block. We each worked at our own pace and chose our own weights. I love the quality in equipment as well.

Brian and I both own our own business so as much as we try and completely unplug when we are on vacation, deadlines approach. We both had some work to catch-up on. Brian mostly finished his work while I was working out, but I still had some things to take care of. Time to find a quiet place to work. When we saw our ship from the dock yesterday in Mexico, I noticed an area with blue umbrellas. At first I thought it was in the Rock Star area, but after closer examination we noticed it was in the back of the ship. We decided it was outside of The Galley, but when we arrived, no blue umbrellas. I walked over to the railing and looked down. Blue umbrellas! We headed down a couple decks. Still no sign of the area so I began opening unmarked doors. I opened the door to the left of The Wake and it went somewhere! We found The Dock: a hidden oasis. There were very few passengers here, but lots of crew. It was an excellent place to work.

The Dock has a full alcoholic bar, a juice bar, and snacks. The juice bar featured fancy fresh juice similar to what you would find at Restore in Hudson. Over the next several hours, I tried several of the juices. Each was amazing. We were each sprawled out on a bed with umbrella and each bed had a tray for our drinks and a menu. The menu had a little red flag on it, and if you flipped it up, two crew members came by with a food cart. I have an allergy to peppers and up until this point the crew has been amazing with accommodating my allergy. As I looked at the food, they had a suspicious red tint to them that made me think that some form of pepper was used in them. The lady took my allergy inquiry seriously and messaged with someone on her device about if there were peppers in it. The person responded that it was pepper-free. I was still suspicious, but the dish also had pomegranates so it was conceivable that the red came from that. Still, I asked if she had an ingredient listing. She did and she showed it to me. Peppers were not listed in the ingredients so I took the box. I took one bite and 100% it had peppers in it. I gave the box to Brian. Luckily, a small dose of peppers doesn’t put me into anaphylactic shock so all was well minus a sore throat. Our whole time in this area, there was a DJ playing very mellow music. It all created a wonderful vibe. I found my favorite spot on the ship!

Virgin Voyages has a bungee class that many rave about. It was the first thing I tried to book when we boarded the ship. Unfortunately, all three classes were sold out by the time we boarded. Bummer. I asked the crew about it, and they said that it’s common for people to no-show. They said to come to the class early and then I’d be on the waitlist. I arrived 15 minutes before the class while the instructor was setting up. I was the first one there and I thought, good I have a shot. As he finished setting up, I noticed that there were only 6 spots. No wonder it was hard to book! There were only 18 spots total for the whole sailing. Even with our sailing of only about 600 passengers, 18 is not many! All 6 passengers showed up for the workout so I was out of luck. I headed to the Social Club instead where I found my brother and sister-in-law. We grabbed some pizzas and then proceeded to play shuffle board. It was fun!
Dinner tonight was at Extra Virgin which is the Italian restaurant onboard. The menu was a little confusing on courses so we ended up ordering a ton of food. For my “antipasto” I ordered braised mini meatballs, for the “pasta” I ordered pappardelle al ragu, and for the “secondo” I ordered the Spatchcocked grilled young chicken. There was also bread for the table and an “affettati Misti” which was basically a charcuterie board. Since all the food is included, we felt compelled to order from each section of the menu for each meal. Most of the time this has worked pretty well, but it was way too much this time. If I had known how much food it was, I would have ordered a pasta or a main course, but not both. The food here was very good. I loved all three of my selections. Dessert was a disappointment thought. Maybe it was because I was already full, but I only took about one bite of the chocolate cake.

Each sailing on Virgin Voyages includes a Scarlet Night where all passengers and crew are encouraged to wear red. Tonight was Scarlet Night. What I LOVE about this cruise line is the complete lack of dress code. It rubs me the wrong way when a resort or cruise line REQUIRES you to dress-up. Maybe it’s because of years of catholic school and uniforms, or maybe it’s because I’m very picky about comfort, but being forced to dress-up isn’t my idea of a good time. Ironically, I did buy a red dress for tonight, but I didn’t HAVE to wear it.
What is Scarlet Night? I don’t have a clear answer for you, but I’ll do my best. There was a lot of scarlet. It seemed like an all-hands-on-deck sort of situation. There were random pop-up choreographed dance routines and pop-up concerts. There was an octopus lounge and a giant blow-up octopus on the pool deck. People sang songs to move you around. There was dancing around the pool. There was dancing and splashing in the pool. There was a lot going on.
Our Scarlet Night started after dinner. Brian and I were walking around and a crew member advised us to hang around the roundabout for the start of Scarlet Night. We found some seats and a server quickly approached us for our drink orders. While we waited, a crew member with a ukulele asked us if we wanted to see a private concert for a small group of people. We said, sure and followed him. About five couples followed him down the hallway to a nook. Here there was another crew member and the two of them began singing to us. At first I thought this was the concert, but this was the pre-concert. They basically sang about where we were going and how the door we were entering is normally locked. We followed them behind the door and into a hallway. I didn’t recognize the area and initially thought we were heading towards a crew-only area. I was videotaping the whole thing, but then the ukulele crew member nicely sang to me to stop because this was truly a private for-your-eyes-only type of thing. When we entered the room, I then realized why he asked me to stop. We were in the spa! A couple passengers were enjoying the hot tubs and saunas and a small area was roped off with “The Hostess” and a musician. We sat down along the tiled ledges and our concert began. The Hostess was very interactive with us. We were in the “Octopus Lounge.” When the concert was finished, we were basically asked to leave and back to the main area we went. We reclaimed our spots and the thought, “what just happened?” crossed my mind.
Soon another concert began by a group called “Not Lovers.” The guitarist and singer duet sung love songs and were dressed in red spacesuit-type outfits. Brian was starting to nod-off so he retired to the cabin while I continued to try and figure out this whole scarlet night. I began wondered around the ship. There were small little happenings all-around. At some point, I realized all of these little happenings ended with the performers guiding everyone to a central area on the ship. This area was inside and I immediately turned around and went the other way. Lots of people in one area. No thanks. I knew that eventually there would be a party on the pool deck so I found a nice lounger in the corner and made myself comfortable. Not before long, the party moved to the pool. There was lots of singing and dancing and eventually this turned into a dance party. I do not like to dance so this is where my evening ended. Overall I enjoyed the evening and it was clearly the crew’s favorite night of the sailing.
Comments