Today is when the real fun begins! We shipped out of Miami and sailed overnight and all of the second day. What is there to do on a day at sea on the Scarlet Lady? It turns out, plenty! In this post I’ll be talking about having brunch at The Wake, walking on the Deck 17 track, playing Bingo with the Diva, exploring lunch options, and dinner at Gunbae. Keep reading to find out more!

Brunch at The Wake

I heard that brunch at The Wake is one of the best meals on any Virgin Voyages ship. With its reputation as one of the fancier restaurants on the ship, I was excited to see if the quality of the food matched. I made a reservation well in advance for a 9:30 AM brunch (I know, I know, it’s technically breakfast at this time but I’m sticking with brunch) knowing how busy it would be. This turned out to be a good thing as there was a line out the door when I showed up for my reservation. 

I was sat at a little booth facing the large windows with views of the restaurant’s namesake, the wake. A wake is a sea trail left behind the back of all ships, and it’s quite mesmerizing to look at. The menu was small yet focused – the complete opposite to the Cheesecake Factory’s 15-page menus. Remember yesterday I talked about how I suffer from decision paralysis? The Wake’s menu makes it easy for me.

I settled on a starter of pastries: a pain au chocolat and a lemon glazed French cruller, both delicious and fresh. For my main, I opted for a split eggs benedict: one with avocado and asparagus and the other with a crab cake. My server also offered me a complimentary mimosa, no doubt to entice me into purchasing the bottomless mimosa brunch, but I kindly declined and stuck to water. Did I mention I don’t drink caffeine? I’m sure all the coffee addicts reading this are wondering where the mention of coffee is. They offer complimentary drip coffee here, and everywhere on the ship for that matter. I learned the hard way that anxiety and coffee aren’t a great mix for me though and I’ve been caffeine free since.

The Wake Brunch: A Food Review

I mentioned starting off with pastries that were quite delicious. The avocado benedict I loved! It was like an avocado toast that was zesty and creamy with a perfectly runny egg. The crab cake benedict I wanted to love, but it fell short for me. I love a good crab cake but there were crunchy bits of crab in there that did not offer a pleasant mouth feel. You know how some people save their shrimp tails and shellfish carcasses to make a seafood stock? That stuff was in my crab cake and I was not a fan. 

I couldn’t not order a dessert at the fanciest restaurant on the ship. My choices were between and apple tatin or a crepe cake. I went with the crepe cake since it was not offered on the dinner menu. Back in Boston I had an amazing crepe cake from world renowned Lady M with layers of salted caramel between each crepe. I drool just thinking about it. I was hoping this crepe cake would be reminiscent of that, but it wasn’t quite there. While the crepes were tasty and the right texture, the flavor was overwhelmingly vanilla and whipped cream. I had 2 or 3 bits of pistachio crumble, which were delicious, and a rhubarb compote that was a bit too sour for my liking. I’d categorize this under a miss for me. 

There were other items on the menu that piqued my interest as well. You best believe I’ll be back again before the end of my voyage to try their other offerings like the French toast and the pork belly eggs benedict. I also love how they have clam chowder on their brunch menu (spoiler alert: I had it tonight at dinner and it was soooo good) but I don’t know if I’d have that for breakfast.

Staying Active on a Sea Day

If I had buttons on my leggings, I would’ve unbuttoned them after that brunch. Unfortunately (or fortunately) my leggings tightly accommodated my now full belly and I decided to go for a walk to help with the digestion. Also so I didn’t fall into a food coma and waste the day. 

I walked up the stairs to Deck 17 and quickly found the open air running track. I was not the only one with this idea! There were a lot of people fast walking and jogging soaking up the vitamin D and sea breeze. Below me, on Deck 16, I could see the wrap around gym with people on the bikes, treadmills, and lifting weights. It’s always nice to see people staying active and it motivates me to do the same. 

6 laps around the track equal a mile, and those laps will go by so quickly if you start daydreaming like I did. There are a couple of notes about the outdoor track I want to mention: it’s incredibly windy up there. You would think taking a brisk walk would be pretty effortless but you’re actually walking against the wind for half of it so there’s a bit of resistance you have to push through. Also, the exhaust from the ship blows directly behind and over the Athletic Club. Each pass by the track toward the aft of the ship had me breathing in the exhaust fumes which is never pleasant if you’re breathing deep while exercising. 

Deck 16, directly below the track, has a bunch of fun exercise equipment as well. There are sit up benches, a punching bag, a mini boxing ring, a see saw, and more. The app has loads of group exercise activities from sunrise yoga to HIIT classes, Zumba, cycling, and more. Since it’s not easy for me to walk on the island (Curacao if you’re reading please build more sidewalks!) I took every advantage to walk as long as possible. 

Bingo with the Diva

Not too long after my digestion walk, it was time to queue up for bingo with the diva. We have a diva on board, a beautiful drag queen by the name of Dixie Crystals, and she hosts a hilarious bingo event. This is an additional cost activity with bingo cards ranging from $35 to $60. You have the chance of winning anywhere from $445 to $1600 depending on how many bingo card sales there were. 

This wasn’t just any old bingo event. There was fanfare, jokes, singing, mini games, and so much more. When the event started, Dixie came out and introduced herself and her co-host and explained how bingo works. Even going through the bingo rules had us all laughing with their delivery. There were 4 rounds of bingo each with a different win formation (straight line, cross, group of 6, T-shape) with the called numbers helpfully shown on the screens. Each number the co-host called out Dixie had a funny quip for them all (don’t even get me started about what she said when 69 was called). 

Between each round, Dixie would do a performance or a mini game. She also showcased all of the Happenings cast members so we got to know them better. The mini game was my favorite. She selected two participants from the audience and had them look at an extremely zoomed in image on the screen and asked whether they thought the image was a berry or a bug. The audience also participated. 

I didn’t win anything with bingo, but I had such a great time. The cast does an amazing job of turning a boring game of bingo into a fun and whacky hour. It doesn’t hurt that the grand prize was close to $1700 either. That’s some good motivation right there!

A Different Type of Lunch

Doing bingo with the diva drained my battery a little bit, so I decided I’d take my lunch to my cabin today. I wanted to enjoy the crisp ocean breeze and swing in my hammock reading my kindle and eating lunch. I decided to stop by the juice bar right before The Dock and take a peek at their grab and go section. I love how they offer these all over the ship in reusable containers. They’re super easy to take and pop into your mini bar!

The turkey sandwich, tres leches, and chocolate mousse caught my eye and I thought, “yep, those are coming with me.” I brought them back to my room and realized I didn’t have any cutlery so I hiked up 5 flights of stairs to the Galley to grab some utensils. When I got to the Galley, I saw that some menus had changed and I was intrigued. Firstly, Noodle Around offered Pad Thai which I just had to get. Secondly, Let’s Taco Bout It introduced a greek menu with falafel, souvlaki, and more. I made a mental note to come back for that one. One pad thai and cutlery roll up later, I was back in my cabin. 

The turkey sandwich was so good. Like, why was it so good? It’s a sandwich! It had a kalamata olive aioli that brought everything together between the peppery arugula and fresh turkey slices. It also came with kettle cooked chips which surprisingly stayed crunchy despite being refrigerated. Tres leches with pineapple compote was just okay. The leches mixture was only sitting at the bottom so the top of the cake was dry. The chocolate mousse, oh man, that was decadent, dark, and enjoyable. The pad thai was sad. I wanted to like it, I love a good pad thai, but this one was suffering from a severe lack of moisture. Baked under the heat lamp for too long, methinks. 

Productivity Levels Between Lunch and Dinner

I’m going to be real with you – after lunch I fell asleep in the hammock. Just what I was trying to avoid! I couldn’t help it though, the swinging was so enticing. I’d love to tell you I took a few hours to productively tour the ship and take pictures and explore, but no. I took a nap. It was a great nap, too. 

Dinner at Gunbae – an introvert’s nightmare?

I had dinner reservations at the Korean BBQ restaurant, Gunbae, at 5:45 PM and felt torn leading up to it. I love Korean food and Korean bbq, but I hate socializing especially with strangers. I was both looking forward to the food and dreading making small talk. The dinner turned out better than I expected!

I was sat at a table with two other couples and a sad seat left unoccupied next to me. They made me feel welcome, though, and we all chatted about our backgrounds and our experience on the cruise so far. If I have to socialize, I’m glad it’s easygoing conversation. Our server greeted us and introduced us to the Gunbae dining concept. Before eating, we play a drinking game involving the traditional Korean liquor, soju. We played a game called 3, 6, 9 where we went around the table saying numbers and we had to clap if the number contained a 3, 6, or 9. 

This game was the perfect icebreaker to get everyone laughing and eager to experience more. I ended up winning 3, 6, 9 with my laser focus and loud internal voice going CLAP! The food here was fantastic. Ten out of ten. You first start by being brought a collection of small side dishes, usually kimchi, beansprouts, watercress, and eggplant. You can also order some appetizers before the bbq meats are brought out. I ordered kimchi stew with white rice while others at my table ordered the fried chicken and seafood pancake. 

The food came out quick and the people at my table were saying they were full before the meat even came out! Tip to the wise: skip the enticing appetizers and save your appetite for the meat. Our server is the one who cooked the meat on the grill in front of us and served everyone. The poor guy was working overtime tending to several other tables, playing games with them, coming back to us to flip our meat. He did a great job. Dinner concluded with a special Valentine’s dessert of a heart-shaped chocolate mousse filled with caramel cream. I’ll be thinking about this dinner for the next few months, at least.

Super Bowl Sunday on Virgin Voyages

I’m not a sports girl. Never have been. I’m willfully ignorant of most sports happenings, but I couldn’t ignore the buzz about the ship as people were talking about the Super Bowl. Every TV at every bar on the ship was playing it. They also played it on the big screens in the Red Room (theater). Because of the increased activity, I decided to walk a few more laps on the track after dinner before retiring to my cabin. 

The track at night is totally empty and it’s more relaxing with the glow of the red lights from the ship. The Athletic Club bar on Deck 16 was playing the Super Bowl as well and I could catch the cheers and groans from passengers watching the game on the day beds out there. 

I snuck out of my cabin later that night to grab a little snack. A jalapeño cheese pretzel from The Social Club. I almost burst an eardrum passing behind a woman who was yelling at the TV at some Super Bowl activity happening. Was the pretzel worth potentially blowing out an eardrum? Not really, it was super salty. I’d give this snack a pass next time. Glad I tried it though!

Sea Legs Update

I felt the boat moving more on Day 2 than the first day. It wasn’t anything too bad, but it picked up when I was having dinner at Gunbae. Instead of feeling like light rumbles I started to feel a distinct up and down movement. Again, nothing too bad and I didn’t have any sea sickness symptoms, thankfully. You, dear reader, will be the first to find out if I barf at any point during this trip. I have a really long no-barf streak though, so I wouldn’t count on it!

Day 3 will be our first stop on this itinerary at Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. Will I be getting off the ship and exploring what the port has to offer or stay on the ship and enjoy the lesser crowds? Find out more in my next post!