Virgin Voyages For Your Valentine?

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When Sir Richard Branson announced his newest Virgin venture would be to "reinvent" ocean cruising, his involvement alone proved enough to generate excitement. 

I immediately thought of our son Jay and daughter-in-law Sasha as the target audience.  The meeting with Virgin I attended yesterday confirmed the new cruise line's concept would be perfect for them.

Let's take dining.

Instead of a buffet, which Branson, as a major advocate of the environmental movement, finds wasteful, Virgin has The Galley, a "food truck"-type alternative.  This food court assembles freshly prepared meal outlets similar to what busy working-people like Jay seek out regularly for lunch in big city streets.

In addition, there are lots of alternative restaurants rather than one large dining room, and none have service fees.  Actually, there are not gratuities of any kind, including for stateroom stewards and dining staff.

Extra Virgin is a casual Italian eatery, while The Wake offers "a theatrical take on steak & seafood."  

Razzle Dazzle has lots of vegan offerings, plus "naughty cheats" like fried chicken, which sounds perfect for our vegan daughter Amy and her boyfriend Lukas whose favorite restaurant is Popeye's.

Pink Agave has Mexican fare, while the Dock is like a hip patio mezze bar on the Greek Isle of Crete.

Gunbae has "lively Korean BBQ with a social edge."

Want to test cutting edge gastronomy formulated in beakers?  The Test Kitchen could be your groove, or you can opt for the comforts The Pizza Place or Coffee Shop to get more down to earth.

For dessert, there's Lick Me Till Ice Cream...read that slowly enough to hear it.

All those eateries would appeal to our culinary-experimenting son-in-law Laszlo and our daughter Gina, but unfortunately Virgin has a "No Kids" policy.

If you're under 18 years-old, you won't be allowed to cruise on Virgin Voyages, even if you're as sophisticated as our granddaughter Emma.

Mention of that policy brought a near unanimous cheer from travel agents in the room.

Revolutionary?  To some extent perhaps, but Viking River and Ocean Cruises took a bit of Virgin's thunder on adults-only by instituting that policy in 2018.

Virgin, however, is a line more focused on that sexy, jet-set couples scene imagined for a Sandals or Club Med All-Inclusive resort rather than exploring castles and Cathedrals like Viking.

In fact, I would say Viking seems very much like Hard Rock All-Inclusive Resorts in Mexico, complete with guitars hanging on the walls in Mega Rock Star Suites, but Hard Rock allows kids.

The concept of reinventing the cruise market comes down to giving it that urban cool vibe you find in Santa Monica, Soho or downtown Jersey City.

Virgin calls it "Rebellious Luxe."

Early videos showed young, beautiful young people very much like our kids enjoying the big time lifestyle, but a funny thing once people started booking.

It turns out that rather than bringing in an entirely new market to cruising, at least initially Virgin has proven to be a new alternative for people who already love cruising...especially adults who love to cruise but prefer to avoid kids.

Lines like Oceania and Azamara accomplish something similar by not providing children's programs without cutting off young families like Gina's that will transition to becoming empty-nesters later.

Virgin imagined a very tech-oriented line, one that's disposable plastic and paper-free, so it's not a line for someone who refuses to give up their flip phones or land lines. 

Once again, Virgin is not the first to introduce the idea of a wristband instead of boarding documents and room keys, as Princess Medallion Class has continued is gradual roll-out, one that has been hindered by some customer resistance, but they still have the old school alternatives, which Viking has ditched entirely.  

Tech-challenged need not apply.

Then again, the set-in-there-ways folks wouldn't want to switch from their more comfortable way of cruising to this new approach for the most part.  It's for the young and young at heart, like 70-year-old Richard Branson.

Rebellious Luxe also means re-imagining entertainment.

While the specifics aren't too clear, from what I could tell it is almost more like street entertainers and flash mobs to some extent, designed to give everyone a unique experience.  However, this situation is fluid and will evolve as necessary to give guests what they want.

There is an alternative approach of several specialists in different areas replacing one cruise director, and apparently some will be celebrities, as Mark Ronson will be "Minister of Music" on inaugural cruises of the Scarlet Lady, Virgin's first ship.  Mark will also perform at Virgin's private beach club on Bimini Island for those on the June 5 Mayan Sol voyage.  If you don't know who Mark Ronson is, that may be a clue that this may not be the perfect fit for you, though you would probably like his music and Virgin.

One element of concern for me is that the main showroom on the ship for more traditional shows (but still completely unique approach) has been built to hold about 700 of the 2770 passengers on board, with the idea of a sort of three ring circus dividing the audience around the ship.  Princess has dealt with some theater overflow issues using a similar concept in recent years, especially on shorter cruises.

However, Virgin has built in some other features that should have direct appeal to the young and the restless, hopefully luring those non-cruisers to Virgin Voyages.

Sir Richard reaches back in his entrepreneurial bio to include a vinyl record store on board, and suites have vinyl record players.  That's exactly the type of thing to excite Jay and Sasha, who collect vinyl.

In what they call a throwback to the sailors' tradition of getting a tattoo when they crossed the equator, there's a tattoo parlor on board for anyone who wants to get the Virgin logo or some other commemorative tramp stamp during the cruise.  There's also temporary henna, for those who don't want to accidentally make a permanent mistake.

There's a Drag Queen night at Razzle Dazzle, not unlike a themed cruise months back aboard U By Uniworld, a river cruise line that has a lot in common with Virgin Voyages, both in terms of their initial target demographic and emerging reality of buyers.  U also had a tattoo themed cruise, incidentally.

With considerably more broad appeal, there are several very cool nightclubs, including a retro ballroom with a huge dance floor and Richard's Rooftop, a very chic club exclusively for RockStar Suite guests.

There's much more to the Virgin story, including destinations, which we've barely touched on.

Briefly, think jet set flying into Miami to head out on an enormous mega-yacht to a private beach club on Bimini.  Add another stop, maybe in Cozumel, the Bahamas or Key West for a lark.  Because this is the jet set, there's no time to dawdle.  4 or 5 nights, and that's it for Scarlet Lady, the first Virgin ship, other than a week-long cruise at Christmas and one other sailing.

Originally, Sir Richard planned to bring American voyagers to Cuba, but President Trump nixed that by re-instituting the travel ban designed to break the Castro communist stranglehold on Cuban citizens.

Next year, twin sister Valiant Lady, kicks off live on the Mediterranean with week long cruises to the hip ports like Ibiza, Marseilles, Mallorca and Monte Carlo, with overnight stays to have time to revel in the night life.  Then, she moves to the Caribbean to do week long cruises.

In 2022 and 2023, two more Virgin vessels will join the fleet, but we don't know exactly where they'll be going just yet.

Are you ready to see cruising anew? 

Maybe it's time to be a Virgin Sailor.