Scarlet Night on Virgin Voyages: What to Expect and What to Wear

February 6, 2024

Summary: Scarlet Night on Virgin Voyages is the night where everyone gets dressed up in red and parties the night away. In this post, I’m sharing what to expect and how to plan for your next Virgin Voyages Scarlet Night.

If you’ve seen any Virgin Voyages ships, Instagram reels, or just general marketing, you probably know that they love a red theme! It’s what makes you immediately know it’s Virgin over other cruise lines. This red theme even extends to parties on board! Each cruise, Virgin Voyages hosts a few theme nights, including “Scarlet Night” where everyone dresses up in red and dances the night away.

However, I understand that if you’ve never been on a cruise, or if you’ve never sailed with Virgin Voyages, you might be struggling with planning for this night or just be unsure of what to expect. That’s exactly why I’m writing this post!

Keep reading for ideas of what to wear, what the party looks like, and everything else you’ll want to know about Scarlet Night on Virgin Voyages.

Table of Contents

What is Scarlet Night?

Scarlet Night takes place one night on each Virgin Voyages cruise. The whole ship is full of activities including karaoke, live music, and the main event – a pool and dance party. The only rule (that’s not actually enforced, but fun to take part in) is that everyone wears red! If you want a full breakdown of activities and times, you can usually find that in the app while you’re onboard, or you can grab a physical itinerary each day at sailor services, the coffee shop, and a few other locations throughout the ship.

Personally, I’d recommend making a reservation for one of the more formal restaurants on Virgin Voyages for this night. This way, you can eat a nice dinner, then make your way over to the Scarlet Night party!

Curious about the food on board? Here is a list of all the Virgin Voyages Restaurants and which ones you NEED to try!

What to Expect at the Scarlet Night Party

The Scarlet Night dance party on Virgin Voyages usually takes place by the pool on the open air deck. However, when we were sailing, it was raining that night, so we had our party in The Red Room which is completely covered.

While we had a different experience than most, I imagine the party would have been similar if it were by the pool. There was a stage in the venue where a DJ was spinning a fun mix of throwbacks and new music surrounded by professional dancers. It was a fun show to watch, but it was even more fun to dance along with them.

For the most part, everyone was dancing, with a few people standing along the edge of the crowd just taking everything in. There were also bars set up in this room so you didn’t have to go back outside, but the drink options were limited as they were temporary setups.

What to Wear to Scarlet Night on Virgin Voyages

While the “wear red” rule isn’t technically enforced by anyone, most people actually did wear read. While packing, I struggled with what to wear on Scarlet Night because I wasn’t sure how dressy everyone else would be. It turned out that it didn’t really matter how dressy your outfit was. I saw some women in floor-length velvet gowns and some women in red sun dresses (this was me!) or a red top.

For men, a red polo or short sleeve button down would be perfect. If you don’t have a solid red option, then a black or white shirt with red accents would also work just fine.

This is the night that everyone got the most formally dressed up, so if you want to have a fancy night on the cruise, this would be a good time for that!

Other Virgin Voyages Theme Nights

The other theme night that Virgin Voyages does across their entire fleet is PJ Night. This also typically happens on the deck, but it was raining again for us, so our Pajama Party was in The Manor (the nightclub with an entrance in the Casino). PJ Night is exactly what you’d expect: everyone dresses up in their favorite pajamas and dances the night away. Nothing like clubbing in comfortable clothes!