When I first sailed Virgin Voyages back in August 2022, I was taken aback by the way the cruise line presented itself and the actual passengers onboard.
The people I met ranged from mid-30s to late 60s. Everyone seemed open-minded and looking for a good time, but more in an "I'd love to make some new friends" than an "I'm looking to swap partners on a casual basis.
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The cruise line, however, seemed to be leaning into the sexy aesthetic, which did impact my cruise. On the first night, for example, I did a pub crawl and met a group of women in their 30s that I would hang out with for most of the cruise.
We had a good time, but I made it clear I was married and was looking for friends, not trolling for something else. The pub crawl ended at a space atop the ship and the woman coordinating it said to go back to our rooms and put on our pajamas for a pajama party,
I took that as the opportunity to bid my new, younger friends, with whom I had shared a communal beverage called the "Drunktopus," goodnight.
When I saw them the next morning, they told me the pajama party vibe was more sweatpants and Spongebob pajamas than 80s Playboy Mansion. That disconnect, however, continued across the ship.
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Image source: Virgin Voyages
Virgin Voyages has/had a perception problem
Virgin Voyages had lots of little touches that suggested the cruises were meant to be a little racy. I did not receive one of its famed sex kits — containing a vibrator, condoms, and $30 vegan lube — but apparently, they were still being given out.
Having worked for Playboy when they bought a men's lifestyle website I helped create in the early 2000s, I'm hardly prudish. I did, however, find the Scarlet Party, a ship-wide fiesta of sights and sounds, a little over the top.
It ended with crew members simulating sex and ending up in the pool. The whole thing seemed, well, unnecessary.
I was less bothered by the sex therapist show, which was aimed at couples, and the drag show was more about music than anything sexual.
It was a little over-the-top, however, that the convenience store that sold M&Ms and Tylenol also had a wall of sex toys. That seemed sort of value signaling as that seems like an item most passengers would pack rather than bring onboard.
It seems that now, just a couple of years later, the cruise line knows it went a little far and maybe created the wrong perception.
Virgin Voyages tries to change its image
Virgin Voyages CEO Nirmal Saverimuttu admitted that the cruise line's attempts to present itself as more adult, perhaps went too far.
“I’d be the first to admit that when we launched the brand we made some mistakes," he told The Telegraph.
He shared that the cruise line did not do itself any favors by allowing people to perceive it as an adult cruise line rather than a cruise line for adults. He called some of the programming choices as not thoughtful and made it clear that they amplified the wrong parts of the brand experience.
“I think the issue with the adult entertainment was that it fed a narrative that this was a very narrow product with a very risqué kind of feel to it. And paired with the fact that we didn’t have kids on board, it painted a picture of something that was very exclusionary rather than being inclusive,” he shared.
Aside from dropping the sex kits and the sex shows, the company has tried to mature its marketing to show what the cruise line actually offers.
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Instead of leaning on sex. Virgin Voyages has built up the idea that it breaks stuffy cruise line norms. It's also very LGBTQ+ friendly but in a welcoming, not overly adult, way.
Having sailed the cruise line multiple times, it's built more around the idea of indulgence and recovery. You party till the wee hours, then get up for morning yoga. Or, if you're not that aggressive, a morning gelato by the pool.
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