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This is Cruise Radio.

Hey, I was going. My name is Doug Parker.

Thank you so much for checking out this episode of Cruise Radio. Happy to have you here. Coming up on this week's show, we'll get a review of Virgin Voyages brand new. Well, it's not really brand new. It's been out for a while, but just hasn't sailed. So we'll get a review of Scarlet Lady from UK journalist Dave Monk, otherwise known as Shipmunk, on Twitter. Cruise Radio News, your three things you need to know daily found just opposite of this. Just search Cruise Radio News or in video format at the Cruise Radio YouTube channel. All right. Travel writer Dave Monk just returned from a four-night cruise aboard Virgin Voyage as a new ship, Scarlet Lady. Now they tried to launch this ship last year, so early 2020, but of course, COVID happened,

so it was docked or ported for months and months and months. Now it's back into service, and Dave's here to talk all about it. Hey, Dave. Hi, how you doing? Good, my friend. Now, when this ship debuted last year, so like March of 2020, it was in the UK for a hot minute. Did you get a chance to go on board? I did have a two-day visit to the ship when it arrived in Dover.

Gotcha.

Before we get to the ship itself, I want to take a step back and

give us some pre-cruised thoughts. What were you kind of formulating in your head? Because Virgin is definitely,

well, we'll just say game changer for the cruise industry. Yes, it's very different. Having had that

short experience in Dover,

unfortunately, the weather wasn't great. This ship will look great in the Caribbean, I'm sure,

but so far it's had to deal with mainly English weather. So the first impression when I got on

then back in February 2020 was I went to the top deck

and I thought that swimming pool looks a bit small for a ship with 2,800 people potentially.

And also it's quite, it's been designed largely by people that have not been involved in the cruise industry before,

which can be good and it can be bad in different aspects.

Inside, it's quite an inward-looking ship.

It's got lovely lounges and bars.

It's got a fantastic nightclub.

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