Miami’s newest cruise line Virgin Voyages unveils on-board music options for 2020 ship

Richard Branson’s Virgin brand started out as Virgin Records, so it’s no surprise that the billionaire’s new South Florida cruise company, Virgin Voyages, is prioritizing music.

When its first ship The Scarlet Lady launches from Miami next year it will feature a record store, karaoke lounge, and resident DJs, the company announced Wednesday.

The record store, Voyage Vinyl, will have listening stations, record collections and a performance spot for live disc jockey sets. The Groupie will be an on-board bookable karaoke, gaming and movie lounge. DJs in residence who will perform on the ship, at ports, and at Virgin’s destination in Bimini include British musician Mark Ronson, New York-based band Sofi Tukker and American DJ Marc Kinchen (MK).

Keeping with the music theme, each one of the ship’s 78 suites will have a record player.

Branson announced last year that Virgin will join cruise companies Royal Caribbean, Norwegian and MSC by building a cruise terminal at PortMiami, planned to open by 2021. Virgin has ordered three more ships, for a total of four on the way.

This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 9:00 AM.

Taylor Dolven

Miami Herald

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Taylor Dolven is a business journalist who has covered the tourism industry at the Miami Herald since 2018. Her reporting has uncovered environmental violations of cruise companies, the impact of vacation rentals on affordable housing supply, safety concerns among pilots at MIA’s largest cargo airline and the hotel industry’s efforts to delay a law meant to protect workers from sexual harassment.