Virgin Cruise to debut in 2020! Yes it’s finally happening!

Virgin Cruises has been a little up in the air lately with what was going to happen with this new venture that Billionaire Richard Branson is so determined to start, and you can help him in the design of what the ships will have on board. If you want something really out of this world – tell him and he might just do it.

Richard Branson has his fingers in so many pies, and he has openly said “It’s no secret that I’ve dreamed of starting a cruise line for a very long time,” and why not it’s such a huge market and expanding each and every year.

Tom McAplin who is the Virgin Cruises President, who has previously served as the president of Disney Cruise Line and of late been the president of World of Residensea said that the ships will be built ‘around the needs and desires of the customer’. He has encourages people to visit the company website to leave feedback to create the ideal Virgin Cruise ship.

Virgin Cruises has signed a letter of intent with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri to build not one but three ships. The first of which will launch in early 2020. The 110,000 ton ships which will hold 2,860 passengers will be launched in 2020, 2021 and 2022. The first ship will be based in Miami and sail the Caribbean, and in direct competition with long standing rivals Royal Caribbean and NCL, however with standards slipping across many cruise lines this may see many turn to Virgin for something a little different.

Virgin has partnered up with a private investor Bain Capital to fund the project.

We are seeing new cruise lines pop up all over the place at the moment, what with the new P&O venture with Fathom taking the Adonia from P&O and placing her in a market dedicated to people that want to make a difference to the world, and then Viking River Cruises launching with Viking Ocean Cruises, but not only that we are seeing lots of new ships joining the current mainstream cruise lines, it is just going to keep growing and growing.

Virgin has not released any more details on what the ships will have or look like so I guess it’s just a waiting game but this time in 5 years we should have the first of 3 Virgin Cruise ships on the water sailing the Oceans of the world!