I was lucky enough to be invited to stay onboard Scarlet Lady while she was in Liverpool for her press launch, during which she made her way from the shipyard in Genoa to the port of Miami for her inaugural season. That season of course, end up very delayed. During our overnight stay, we were in a Sea Terrace cabin, Virgin’s name for a blacony cabin.
The cabins of Scarlet Lady have been the cause of a lot of chatter and controversy from the start. Their design is undoubtedly minimalist and streamlined, with a modular converting bed leaving some drawing comparisons with Ikea furniture. I mean, it’s unsurprising, seeing as the designer has recently designed a modular sofa for the Swedish furniture giant.
By day, the sofa/bed is set up to be an L shaped seating area, while by night it swivels to become a double bed, or stays in it’s L shape in its own version of a twin bed set up. Admittedly, I’m not sure about this setup, but it wouldn’t be a deal-breaker for me.
I was concerned about the comfort of the bed – it certainly doesn’t look the most inviting on first look but I had SUCH a comfortable night’s sleep. I’ve slept on plenty of cruise ship sofa beds (more sofa beds than normal beds!) and this was definitely more comfortable than a lot of them.
I do think the converting nature of the beds creates a lot of extra work for cabin stewards, and I think I’d go for keeping the set up as a double bed (we often tell our cabin stewards they can skip the evening turndown for us anyway to give them one less task).
It’s also been noted that there is a lack of storage in the cabins, both in the main cabin itself and in the bathroom. On first glance I didn’t see this as a problem however once unpacked and get ready in the cabin I can see that this would be problematic for those that don’t pack particularly lightly. You would have to be extremely disciplined to keep everything tidy enough to cope with the lack of in cabin shelves or drawers. That being said, I can’t help but feel like this may be rectified on Valiant Lady, assuming the same general consensus continues.
Check out the rest of my Scarlet Lady review here.
