Virgin Voyages, the new lifestyle brand set to disrupt the travel industry, has released itinerary details and cabin designs for the company’s first ship, Scarlet Lady. With four and five night voyages to the Caribbean, Sailors will set sail in sleek uber yacht style with Virgin Voyages’ patent pending cabin design featuring the Seabed, a completely new transformational bed that converts from full-sized bed to lounger. The Seabed allows Sailors the unique opportunity to transform their cabin from a quiet hideaway to relax to a place to revel among friends.
The Scarlet Lady will sail a variety of Caribbean voyages befitting of any curious traveler’s tastes, with four and five-night Havana After Dark itineraries featuring an overnight stay in Havana, Cuba; five-night Mayan Sol voyages to Costa Maya, Mexico and five-night Dominican Daze voyages to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Sailors will be able to explore more with extended hours in port with an overnight or a late-night sailaway on all voyages.
Cabin Design
While at sea Sailors can enjoy all of the action of the Scarlet Lady and retreat to their private hideaway overlooking the ocean, with 93 percent of cabins offering an ocean view and 86 percent featuring a Sea Terrace. The sea will be the headlining star of the cabins aboard the Scarlet Lady with Virgin Voyages’ exclusive patent pending cabin layout designed by PearsonLloyd with Virgin Voyages’ Design team, which uses intelligent architecture to optimize space and views of the ocean. The cabin is custom-created to accommodate the Seabed, the first-ever transformational cabin bed at sea, specially engineered and handcrafted by Walter Knoll in Germany. The concept of the Seabed came from the convivial nature of cruising, and gives Sailors more space for social gatherings in the cabin– and eliminates the unspoken awkwardness of inviting new friends over with no place for them to sit but on the bed. Instead, Virgin Voyages Sailors can enjoy their cabin in two distinct ways as a place to revel or a place to relax.
“We didn’t want to create the same old box of a bedroom that our Sailors would only use to lay their head down at night, we wanted to reshape the entire cabin experience,” said Dee Cooper, senior vice president of design for Virgin Voyages. “Whether it’s sleeping, socializing or stargazing they desire, our cabins will transform to match our Sailors’ whims. Stylish yet somehow still informal, these cabins change the face of modern sea travel.”
With clever cabin lighting, the mood lighting will automatically adjust to enhance the time of day based on where the ship is in the world, reflecting the blue seas and the gold to purple sunsets of the Caribbean waters. The cabins will feature PIR presence sensors that automatically detect when someone has left the cabin and go into energy saver mode, where blinds will close and air conditioning will adjust to an eco-saver temperature, conserving energy to support the company’s commitment to operate one of the cleanest fleets at sea.
With thoroughly thought through design, Virgin Voyages deliberately chose to use top quality materiality throughout the cabins, like a saddle leather chair, complete with with refined stitch detail. Most standard cabins will have transitional Seabeds, in-room entertainment with 43”+ 4K flat-screen HDTVs, mini bars, glam areas and flexible wardrobes. All cabins were engineered to optimize bathroom space featuring rain shower heads for a spa-like wash.
All terraces aboard Scarlet Lady will feature custom-designed hammocks, handwoven by artisans from Yellow Leaf a social enterprise that fosters women’s empowerment and community transformation in rural Thailand.
With several cabin categories there are 1,330 cabins aboard the Scarlet Lady and 78 RockStar Suites. Every Sailor wishing to voyage aboard the Scarlet Lady can find their special hideaway with roomy XL Sea Terrace cabins, Sea Terrace cabins Sea View cabins, Insider cabins, Social Insider cabins that sleep up to four in a chalet-style bunk and Solo Insider cabins designed and priced exclusively for the solo traveler.
Itineraries
Sailors will embark on their journey aboard Scarlet Lady from Miami, where they can toast to the Magic City’s colorful evening skyline as the ship sets sail at 7 pm.
“Our research with Sailors unearthed their desire to go to places that allow for a variety of experiences,” said Diana Block Garcia, vice president of itinerary and destination development for Virgin Voyages. “We set out on an adventure to find overnight destinations that have a combination of opportunities for high energy exploration and places for relaxation, as the perfect complement to our Virgin Voyages experience. We have composed itineraries that have a sense of palpable culture, history and above all induce that carefree feeling that you only get while on holiday.”
The Scarlet Lady will offer four and five-night Havana After Dark itineraries that will take Sailors on a cultural quest through Cuba, with an overnight stay in Havana that will afford Sailors ample time to explore and visit Cuba’s warm and friendly residents through people-to-people exchanges.
Virgin Voyages’ Mayan Sol itinerary will be a five-night voyage to Costa Maya, Mexico where antiquity contrasts modernism, with Mayan ruins just a stone’s throw away from the port and colorful coral reefs that lie just off-shore. Virgin Voyages has partnered with ITM Group to bring Sailors to this incredible paradise filled with rich history and excitement.
Sea lovers will revel in the Scarlet Lady’s Dominican Daze voyage, where she will journey to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic on a five-night sailing. Voyages to Puerto Plata will be an ocean lover’s dream holiday. Puerto Plata is the perfect place for Sailors to catch some waves at surf school, explore trekking through canyons or catch a cable car up the mountain to buy handicrafts in an artisan village or enjoy endless island views.
The Scarlet Lady’s inaugural 2020 season will open for bookings this Valentine’s Day, February 14. On this special day, Virgin Voyages will reveal more details relating to the ship’s onboard experience as well as an additional destination to be featured on all voyages. Details about on-shore experiences offered by Virgin Voyages, or Shore Things as they refer to them, will be released in late 2019.
Future Sailors and First Mates, travel advisors, are invited to check out Virgin Voyages by visiting www.virginvoyages.com or following @virginvoyages on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.
