Virgin Voyages delays August debut of third ship until spring 2023
Virgin Voyages said Wednesday it won’t debut a third ship with the planned maiden voyage in August, causing cancellations for thousands of passengers.
Instead, Plantation-based Virgin Voyages, an adults-only cruise line, said the Resilient Lady will start sailing sometime in spring of 2023. The new ship is ready but will stay in the Genoa, Italy, shipyard where it was built until it eventually sails.
Virgin cited a staffing shortage and supply chain repercussions, explaining the reasons for delaying the ship’s first voyage that was supposed to be from Athens, Greece. The company also said global uncertainties like the war in Ukraine and the ongoing
COVID-19 pandemic were contributing factors. All passengers will be contacted and offered refunds and credits for future cruises.
“Virgin Voyages did not land on this decision lightly, and despite making tremendous strides alongside the cruise industry as a whole, the brand is not immune to the global challenges the world is facing,” the company said in a statement.
This is the latest setback for Richard Branson’s venture into the cruise industry. Virgin Voyages was set to debut in March 2020, the same month the coronavirus pandemic began and brought cruising to a halt.
The company finally debuted its first ship, the Scarlet Lady, in Miami in October 2021, and that ship has been doing cruises around the Caribbean. A second one, the
Valiant Lady, made its maiden voyage in the United Kingdom in March and is doing summer cruises in the Mediterranean.
The cruising newcomer appears to have been too ambitious with its goal of launching a cruise line with three ships in less than a year, even during the pandemic. The industry’s biggest players
like Royal Caribbean and Carnival usually unveil one or two ships a year and already have much of the infrastructure in place for staffing and supplies for the ships.
Tom McAlpin, Virgin Voyage’s CEO, said in a statement the company’s focus remains giving passengers age 18 and over “brilliant vacations,” and the “pause will ensure we will be ready to go” next year with the third ship.
Regarding refunds and credits for people who bought trips expecting to sail on Resilient Lady in August or the ensuing months, the cruise line will be contacting them in the coming days. They will get a full refund, plus a 25% future voyage credit to use within a year from original cruising dates, and “assistance” with travel changes and penalties for hotels and flights booked related to canceled cruises.
Also, passengers will be offered to convert their paid cruise booking to a 200% “future voyage credit,” and if they buy another voyage in 2022, they also will get a free cruise.