Branson Jumps On Board

The latest new’s is Richard Branson made an announcement in Miami last week he will be launching Virgin Voyages between 2020 and 2022. The reason behind this? He feels the industry is lacking in something. These are interesting words and I would like to know how many cruise’s he has been on. He has gone with ‘ Voyages’ as he thinks the word cruise is awful and can’t understand why companies use it in their title.

Founder and President of Virgin Group Sir Richard Branson (L) and burlesque artist Dita Von Teese appear with a Virgin Atlantic Airways 747-400 aircraft at McCarran International Airport June 15, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Branson is celebrating his British airline’s 10th anniversary of flying between London and Las Vegas.

So what will these Voyages offer? He has ordered three ships and each weigh 110,000 tons and carry 2,800 passengers. They aim to keep the ships small so to aim at customers who want Boutique Cruising. You can hardly call 2,800 passengers a small vessel, to me this is mid size. As well as the ships being ‘small’ the design is to make them environmentally friendly and turn waste into clean electricity, aiming to give the ships a lower carbon foot print. Anything to help the environment is good, but it will interesting to see if it reflects in the price.

Richard has hinted that they may sail from Cuba, which is becoming more and more popular as a port. It is nice to change the itineraries around as they can be a bit repetitive if you’ve done them several times.

I do think there is a market for another cruise line. It would be nice if the came up with something a bit different and is attracted to all types of cruisers. Let’s be honest nearly everything he attempts seems to work so I am intrigued to see the design. I imagine it to be wowed by it and I bet they will stand out from the rest. He doesn’t do thing half heartedly dose he?

I do admire what he has achieved, he has got himself where he is today with a lot of hard work. How you not admire him?