Virgin Voyages cruise ship Scarlet Lady will depart from Port Miami today June 23, and set sail on a Transatlantic voyage back to Europe. Virgin Voyages is committed to repositioning the Scarlet back to Europe where she is expected to arrive on the 6th of July, at her birthplace Genoa, Italy.
According to our source, there are still about 270 crew members waiting to be repatriated. All of them have been tested for Covid-19 and the ship is officially Covid free. Unfortunately, despite these test results, the CDC didn't change the ship's status and Virgin is still unable to get the crew on commercial flights to be repatriated home. These crew members will be repatriated on flights once Scarlet Lady arrives to Europe.
Re-launching of the ship is still planned for the 16th of October, and Scarlet Lady should go back to Miami at the end of August.
Virgin Voyages’ first cruise ship made Its Debut at the Port of Dover on February 21, making its first public appearance. The next stop was Liverpool where she docked for two days before setting sail on a transatlantic voyage to New York, before sailing down to her homeport Miami. Unfortunately, this was the only voyage for Scarlet Lady.
Virgin Voyages had to cancel New York City arrival on the 1st of March, shortly after the first case of coronavirus was discovered in New York State. Instead, the ship set sail to Miami where Virgin Voyages was planning a big welcome celebration for Scarlet Lady.
Later the company canceled Miami launch celebration citing recent developments and emphasized that there are no health concerns among all people on board.
"In light of the current global headlines, we want to ensure everyone feels it is the right time to celebrate with us. While Virgin Voyages has not been affected, we feel that postponing our launch celebration to a future date is the responsible thing to do." Virgin Voyages said in a statement. Scarlet Lady crew didn’t have any health concerns or issues on board and the ship elevated health protocols when Virgin Voyages took delivery of the ship.
