Was it time to let a cruise line plan my holiday? A skeptic steps aboard Virgin’s Scarlet Lady | Canada Voices

Lining up dockside in Barcelona, I was dying to board the Scarlet Lady, if only to get out of the blistering June sun. It was to be my maiden voyage on a cruise ship – fittingly, one run by Virgin Voyages – but I wasn’t sure if I was a cruise person.

During the trip, I planned to kayak off the coast of Palma de Mallorca; walk along the Croisette at Cannes, France; explore Napoleon’s birthplace in Ajaccio, Corsica; see Michelangelo’s David and other Renaissance masterpieces in Florence; and finally disembark in Civitavecchia, an ancient Italian seaside town, on my way to Rome.

For an itinerary like this, I was happy to set aside any misgivings and keep an open mind.

But I’d always assumed cruises were not for me. My favourite trips seemed to involve hardship: hiking up to Masada in Israel’s Judean Desert before dawn to watch the sunrise from the top, or hunting for a good meal in Prague not long after the Berlin Wall came down. The challenge made the payoff sweeter, or so I believed.

This luxury cruise, with its indulgent promises of fine food, endless activities and top-tier service, was a chance to test that assumption.

With Virgin Voyages, bad boy British billionaire Richard Branson sought to put his own stamp on the luxury cruise industry, offering adults-only, all-inclusive cruises with a casually upscale vibe and no stuffy dress codes. The ship’s fanciest accommodations are the “RockStar Quarters,” which come equipped with turntables and a wall of guitars.

Risqué touches are part of the branding, from the names of the ice cream counter (“Lick Me Till … Ice Cream”) and duty-free boutique (“Booty Free Shop”) to the naked mermaid painted on the hull.

But the main appeal is the dining. Michelin-star chefs Matt Lambert and Brad Farmerie created the menus, and top interior design studios Tom Dixon and Roman and Williams contributed to the decor. (I loved the Instagram-worthy entrance to Mexican restaurant Pink Agave, a corridor lined with lights designed by Dixon that look like tentacle-less jellyfish.)

Scarlet Lady, now one of five vessels in Virgin’s fleet, is considered mid-sized. On my cruise, I was one of 2,570 passengers (slightly below the ship’s capacity).

After a quick safety drill for passengers, the ship prepared to leave port and I headed to a departure party at Richard’s Rooftop, an exclusive bar for guests in the pricier suites. I joined a group of affluent-looking millennials and Gen-X travellers in casual designer clothes and sipped free glasses of Moët & Chandon champagne as the ship glided out of the port. A few deeply tanned couples reclined on circular white daybeds, while in the common area below, a younger crowd in bathing suits drank and socialized around a small pool. This was not the cruise crowd I had expected.

For dinner at sea that night, booked through an easy-to-use app, I went to Test Kitchen, one of the ship’s six specialty restaurants. Clad in sleek stainless steel and glass, the space had a lab-chic aesthetic. Diners sat at metal tables or around a food prep area where cooks used tweezers to place flower petals on precise rows of dishes.

The inventive five-course tasting menu was designed by Lambert, a New Zealander who earned a Michelin star for his Manhattan restaurant, the Musket Room.

The server welcomed diners by name and described each course. The first, a small plate listed on the menu as “eel/soy,” offered luscious squares of fatty eel packed with umami. The second, “scallop/black garlic,” was served under a glass dome filled with applewood smoke. The server lifted the dome with a flourish, revealing scallops infused with smoky flavour.

After my first meal, I began warming to the Scarlet Lady.

My first excursion (called a “Shore Thing” in Virginspeak) was a kayak outing in Palma de Mallorca. Our small group paddled past cliffs dotted with opulent villas and continued down the coast through waters that were otherworldly shades of azure. We swam and snorkelled at a (supposed) pirate’s cave. The adventure was a highlight of the entire cruise.

In Cannes, I organized my own exploring. I hatched an over-ambitious plan to climb a hill to see a museum housed in a 13th-century church. It was 33 degrees that day and felt even hotter, but I stuck to the plan, then walked briefly along the famous Croisette. When I started feeling light-headed, I returned to the ship.

During our stop in Florence (again sweltering), I got lost on the way to pick up my ticket to the Galleria dell’Accademia to see Michelangelo’s David. I had almost given up when I finally found the ticket office, and then ran to the gallery.

The art was sublime, but all the stress made me question if I’ve been fooling myself: Maybe it’s not true that hardships make for more rewarding travel. When we spend our lives constantly juggling a thousand work, parenting and household responsibilities, maybe it’s okay to let someone else take care of the details when we’re on vacation.

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My fellow “sailors” (more Virginspeak) seemed to have no hesitation in embracing life at sea. Conversations inevitably led to stories about past vacations. One woman told me about a once-in-a-lifetime voyage along the Alaskan coast that made me envious; another new friend talked about the excesses of LGBTQ trips around the Caribbean. It was not unusual to meet people who had been on a dozen cruises, many of them now converts to Virgin.

“This ship invests in small, distinct experiences,” said Josh Rubin, a New Yorker who runs a lifestyle website with his husband, Evan Orensten. (Orensten has been on 40 cruises, he told me.) Rubin said he likes Virgin for its cuisine and the ship’s nearly all-inclusive pricing model, as some other cruises charge even for essentials such as bottled water and WiFi.

Michael Jay Anderson, a fellow sailor from North Dakota who has been on six cruises, said he likes Virgin’s “flirtatious vibe.”

“Virgin cruises let you entertain your inner child,” he said, and joked that cruising is not just for “newlyweds and nearly deads.”

I saw what he meant during the Scarlet Night party. The immersive, ship-wide event included Cirque du Soleil-style theatrical performances and ended with a euphoric dance party around the pool. Passengers had been instructed to wear red, so the crowd was a pulsating sea of scarlet.

It was a great spectacle and a chance to bond with my new friends.

The next evening, I swayed in the hammock on my private balcony and watched the sun slip behind the Mediterranean horizon. It occurred to me that until now, maybe I’ve been working too hard to enjoy myself on vacation, missing the point: It is okay to relax.

Now, if only someone could arrange some Shore Things for me back at home.

If you go

Virgin Voyages’ seven-night Greek Island Glow sails again in May, 2026. A standard, Sea Terrace cabin would typically cost about $9,472 for two, including taxes, fees and gratuities. Discover more destinations at virginvoyages.com.

Make your dinner reservations long before you board the ship. Tables at some restaurants are snapped up well in advance. Some last-minute spots are kept for walk-ins, but you could end up hungry while you wait in line.

Glasses of champagne are free at all the bars whenever the ship pulls out of port, but otherwise, they are added to your bar tab.

The writer was a guest of Virgin Voyages. It did not review or approve the story before publication.