Type Subsidiary Products Cruises Founded 4 December 2014 Key person Tom McAlpin | Industry Tourism Website virginvoyages.com Area served Caribbean Sea | |
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Key people Tom McAlpin
President and CEO Headquarters Plantation, Florida, United States Parent organizations Virgin Group, Bain Capital Profiles | ||
Virgin Voyages, formerly Virgin Cruises, is a cruise line with an office in Plantation, Florida, USA. It was formed in a joint venture between the Virgin Group and Bain Capital; the latter have a majority shareholding. Virgin Group announced the establishment of Virgin Cruises on December 4, 2014; it is scheduled to begin operations in 2020. In October 2016, it was announced that Virgin Cruises was rebranding as Virgin Voyages.
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Management
Virgin's inaugural President and CEO is Tom McAlpin, a founding member of the launch team for Disney Cruise Line and later its president. Prior to being appointed to head Virgin, McAlpin had most recently served as CEO of The World, a residential cruise ship.
Fleet
On June 23, 2015, Virgin announced that it had signed a binding letter of Intent with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri for the construction of three cruise ships to be delivered in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The ships will be mid-sized vessels of 110,000 GT each with 1,150 crew, and 1,430 guest cabins capable of hosting a total of more than 2,800 passengers.
The final contract for the construction of the ships is expected to be signed by the end of 2015, and the total cost of the project would be under US$2 billion.
According to Tom McAlpin, the three ships will be a premium product, with a high percentage of balcony staterooms. They would differ from other cruise vessels by their "design, size and program onboard" and be targeted to the "young at heart."
Virgin's first ship will be home ported initially at PortMiami, Florida, and it will operate a range of seven-day Caribbean Sea itineraries departing each Sunday.
Virgin was the first major cruise line to partner with Climeon Ocean. Through the partnership, Virgin would include a clean energy system on its ships that generates energy using heat from the ship engines to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. In 2016, McAlpin announced that Virgin had signed a building contract with Fincantieri, an Italian shipyard, that included three 110,000-ton, 2,700-passenger ships.