- Tickets for Virgin Voyages maiden voyage in April 2020 are now on sale.
- Instead of buffets, more than 20 individual restaurants are included in the price of the cruise.
- According to Bain Capital, Scarlet Lady will be the first of three ships for Virgin Cruises.
- Each will displace 110,000 tonnes and is designed to accommodate nearly 2,800 passengers.
Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin Group are getting into the cruise business, reports Style.
About the Venture
The iconic entrepreneur said on February 14 that Virgin Voyages was officially open for business, with tickets for its maiden voyage in April 2020 now on sale. Virgin Voyages, a joint venture with Bain Capital, will not only be Branson’s first foray into the cruise line business, but also be his first experience with cruises in general. Which means, expect Virgin to break with the status quo.
“I never want to go into a business unless we are going to radically alter it and radically create something that everybody who works for Virgin and everybody who comes into contact with Virgin is going to feel really proud of,” Branson said.
A Love-Hate Relationship
Branson, founder of Virgin Group, has a love-hate relationship with the cruise industry. “I’ve never been on a cruise ship – I’ve never fancied a cruise ship,” Branson, 68, said. And yet, starting an adults-only cruise line has been something he has thought about since he was 27.
About Branson
Branson said the Virgin Voyages of today was not that far off his original vision.
“Basically, we want people who are sophisticated and young at heart – people who want to have a good time,” he said. Branson comes into Virgin Voyages, which was originally founded in 2014, with Bain’s market research that found an “enormous” number of non-cruisers were willing to give cruises a try if the Virgin brand were attached.
As a result, the goal of Virgin Voyages is not to steal customers from mainstream cruise lines, but rather to expand the industry’s customer base. Branson isn’t entering this endeavour without some serious backup.
About the Team
The former Disney Cruises president Tom McAlpin serves as the company’s CEO, while Dee Cooper, the person responsible for the stylish mood-light-drenched cabins on Virgin Atlantic’s airliners, is in charge of design and customer experience.
For passengers, the Virgin Voyages experience is designed to differ greatly from that of traditional cruise lines with free Wi-fi for all and no buffets on board.
About the Ship
Instead of buffets, more than 20 individual restaurants are included in the price of the cruise. In addition, passengers will not be charged gratuities. Instead, the ship’s crew will be paid a salary and will not have to depend on tips for income, McAlpin said.
Virgin Voyages will also follow Branson’s focus on environmental protection.
Measures towards Environment Conservation
McAlpin said that the company would not be allowing single-use plastics on the ships. The company hopes that by doing so it can limit the number of plastic water bottles, straws, stirrers and individual serving packets that end up in the oceans.
“This is bold, this is costly, because companies make a lot of money selling water bottles, but we think this is the right thing to do,” McAlpin said. Instead, the cruise line will offer free filtered and sparkling water at hydration stations around the ship.
Virgin is also working on sunscreen that it said would not damage coral reefs.
An Environmentally Sound Cruise
For Branson, being an environmentally sound cruise line hits close to home.
According to the long-time resident of Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, the lack of regulations barring the cruise industry from dumping human waste into its waters has caused sea life such as whales and dolphins to abandon the area.
He said: “Because the Virgin Islands doesn’t have a specific law against dumping the s— in its waters, [cruise ships] have just been going not far out at sea and jump dumping their whole bilges just to save US$15,000 when they get back to Miami to unload the s— elsewhere.
It’s things like that, even if we were legally allowed to do, you’d never ever, ever catch a Virgin ship doing it.” Virgin Voyages plans to operate cruises from Miami with its first ship, Scarlet Lady, in 2020.
Future Plans
According to Bain Capital, Scarlet Lady will be the first of three ships for Virgin Cruises. Each will displace 110,000 tonnes and is designed to accommodate nearly 2,800 passengers.
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Source: Style
