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The history of Virgin Voyages: from Branson's 2014 plan to a four-ship fleet

Richard Branson's Virgin Group announced Virgin Voyages in 2014, and a pandemic delayed its first ship's debut until 2021. Here is how it grew into a four-ship fleet, and what is new.

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Virgin Voyages' Resilient Lady, one of four Lady Ships, docking at Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal on February 3, 2024. Photo: Dicklyon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Virgin Voyages' Resilient Lady, one of four Lady Ships, docking at Sydney's Overseas Passenger Terminal on February 3, 2024. Photo: Dicklyon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Photo: Dicklyon, CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), via Wikimedia Commons

Virgin Voyages carried its first paying guests in August 2021. The idea for it is much older. Richard Branson's Virgin Group announced the company in December 2014, a full six and a half years before that first sailing. Here is how a cruise line with no ships became a four-ship fleet, and what has happened since.

Virgin Voyages' Resilient Lady docking at Sydney, February 3, 2024. Photo: Dicklyon, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The 2014 announcement

On December 4, 2014, Virgin Group announced the formation of Virgin Cruises, a new cruise line. In the same announcement it named a CEO and its lead investment partner, Bain Capital. Bain published the release. It did not disclose the financial terms.

Tom McAlpin was the first CEO. He had most recently run The World, a residential cruise ship, and he had been president of Disney Cruise Line as part of its founding management team. Virgin said the line would be based in the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area and would build two ships. It did not say when it would start sailing.

Branson set the tone. "We plan to shake up the cruise industry and deliver a holiday that customers will absolutely love," he said in the release. Bain's Stephen Pagliuca said Virgin Cruises would "help reshape consumers' expectations of what a cruise experience can be."

Miami and Fincantieri

Branson made the next announcement in person. In June 2015 he flew a helicopter across Biscayne Bay in Miami, landed at Museum Park and raised a Virgin Cruises flag with McAlpin. He said the line had picked PortMiami as home port for its first ship, due in 2020. Bain's release on the event also said Virgin had signed a binding letter of intent with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri for three mid-size ships of about 110,000 gross tons each. They were due in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

On October 18, 2016, at another Miami event, the company announced it would be renamed Virgin Voyages, according to Marine Log. The letter of intent for the ships had been firmed up. Fincantieri later said the construction contracts took effect on December 20, 2016. It put their value at about 2 billion euros for three ships, all to be built at its Sestri Ponente yard in Genoa.

In October 2018, Fincantieri and Virgin signed a contract worth about 700 million euros for a fourth sister ship. It was due at the end of 2023.

Adults only, no buffet, no tips

Virgin sold the ships as something other than a standard cruise. Guests must be 18 or older. The line calls its fleet the Lady Ships, a play on "your ladyship," according to its fact sheet.

Food was the biggest break from tradition. In November 2018, Virgin said Scarlet Lady would have more than 20 places to eat, with no buffet and no main dining room. There would be no assigned seating or dining times, and restaurant food was included in the fare, Seatrade Cruise News reported. Branson said the ship would have "no stuffy formalities, boring buffets and no main dining rooms."

The venues included a steakhouse called Wake, a vegetarian restaurant called Razzle Dazzle with meat add-ons, Korean barbecue with grills built into the tables, a Mexican restaurant, an Italian trattoria and The Galley, a food hall with more than eight shops and carts.

Tipping worked differently too. Virgin bundled service gratuities into the fare, so guests were not asked to tip. That changed on October 7, 2025, when the line began listing gratuities as a separate charge. Guests can prepay $20 per person per night or pay $22 onboard. Virgin said the total cost of a voyage did not change and that no tipping is expected anywhere onboard. The line still describes the policy as a no-tipping one. You can read the details on our Virgin Voyages line page.

Scarlet Lady and the pandemic delay

Fincantieri delivered Scarlet Lady on February 14, 2020, at Genoa. The ship is about 110,000 gross tons and 278 meters long. She has more than 1,400 guest cabins for more than 2,770 passengers, plus 1,160 crew.

The ship was ready. The world was not. On March 12, 2020, Branson and McAlpin wrote that Virgin was postponing its inaugural season until July 15, with the maiden voyage on August 7, 2020. Two days later, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a No Sail Order for cruise ships, effective March 14, 2020. Virgin later announced plans to start sailing in October 2020. That did not happen either.

Scarlet Lady carried her first paying guests on August 6, 2021, from Portsmouth, England, according to Virgin's fact sheet. Her first sailing from the United States, the "MerMaiden" voyage, left PortMiami on October 6, 2021. Seatrade's headline that day was "At last, Scarlet Lady embarks on maiden voyage from Miami." It offered four- and five-night trips to the Caribbean and Mexico. All passengers and crew had to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

"After many years in the making, we are excited to officially launch Scarlet Lady and welcome sailors in the US aboard for an unforgettable experience," McAlpin said.

Valiant Lady, Resilient Lady and Brilliant Lady

The other three ships arrived on a slower and bumpier schedule than first planned.

Brilliant Lady is also the only one of the four that can sail through the Panama Canal. That has opened West Coast and Alaska trips. See our Scarlet Lady page for the ship that started it all.

Who has run Virgin Voyages

McAlpin led the company from 2014 until September 2023. On September 8, 2023, Virgin announced a $550 million funding round led by Ares Management. In the same release it said McAlpin was retiring as CEO and becoming chairman of the board.

Nirmal Saverimuttu took over as CEO. He came to the business as chief commercial officer in 2014 from Virgin Group, and in early 2021 became president and chief experience officer, according to the release. "Nirmal is a great friend and experienced leader who lives and breathes the Virgin Voyages culture," McAlpin said.

Where things stand

The line has kept busy in recent weeks:

Virgin Voyages remains a privately held company backed by Virgin Group and Bain Capital. Its fleet is the four ships Fincantieri built in Genoa. We found no announced order for a fifth.

Sources

Cruise Frog checked each date and figure in this story against the documents below.

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