Virgin Voyager

Sir Richard Branson invites Melanie and me for "any cruise of any length to any destination in the world."

No Children

“We aren’t cruise ship people.”

After 20 years of ever-so-gentle-but-relentless pestering from an unnamed brother-in-law¹, we got caught with our guard down. Melanie and I caved² for a family get-together cruise in the Caribbean on Virgin Voyages.

The numbers simply added up.

For $2.53 we could fly Spirit Airlines from LaGuardia to Fort Lauderdale³ then pay some not-entirely-outrageous-come-to-think-of-it cruise cost. Stops at Puerto Rico, somewhere else, and a Virgin Island (As in St. Croix Virgin Island, not Prince Andrew Virgin Island.⁴) We were promised “only 5 days” and Virgin has a policy of “no passengers under 21.” Like I said.⁵

Now this is where the numbers and hyphenated words get interesting. They cancelled the cruise for a very simple reason.

“The ship isn’t finished.”

You read that correctly.

“We’re canceling the cruise. We do not have a ship.”

I didn’t know this was possible. Did they lose count of their ships?⁶ This seems like something you might know before offering …