Virgin Voyages, the world’s newest cruise line and the ocean-going arm of Sir Richard Branson’s multinational empire, has been running a ‘ship tease’ campaign on social media through October as it prepares to lay the first steel for its newbuild Virgin I.
The event will take place at Fincantieri’s Sestri Ponente shipyard in Genoa, and anyone can tune in to the live stream on Facebook and Instagram. In language that spectacularly under-states the level of excitement in the industry, a Virgin Voyages spokesperson said “we have decided to share a few little announcements”.
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As anticipation builds through October for the release of more details about the exterior and interior styling of Virgin Voyages’ first ship, the event is being promoted by a daily #shiptease countdown.
Virgin Voyages is not only the world’s newest cruise line, an exciting newcomer to an industry dominated by a handful of goliath brands (namely Carnival, Royal Caribbean, NCL and MSC), it also promises to be the most ‘edgy’ and avant-garde of the mainstream cruise lines.
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The steel cutting for the first ship in March, for example, took place to the basslines of a DJ and Virgin Voyages does not plan to take passengers on-board, but sailors, in an apparent nod to Cunard’s tendency to refer to its itineraries not as cruises but as voyages.
In previous articles, we have speculated on what you might find aboard Virgin Voyages, but the cruise line has since clarified that it will provide a pared-down experience; an “escape from the chaos” previously attributed to the casinos and kid-filled creches of cruise experiences.
Virgin Voyages invites sailors to adventure, explore and express their free spirit on trips that will be tailor-made with the millennial in mind. What all this means for the on-board experience will be made clearer on October 31st, which is why the travel and cruise media eagerly await the event.
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