Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has always looked to apply a cheeky twist to whatever field it enters, and cruising is no exception.

His fledgling Virgin Voyages is basing its approach on cruise with a difference: adults only, no kids allowed.

“If you’re not 18, you’re not getting on the ship,” chief executive Tom McAlpin tells TW+ at company headquarters in Plantation, south-eastern Florida, just outside Fort Lauderdale.

“We all love our children and grandchildren and we have nothing against families, but it was the moms and the dads who said: ‘You know what, we need a break from the kids too’.

“They were very vocal in that they wanted something that was an adult experience, and we could provide a more romantic, more elegant, more sophisticated style of experience, so we did it for adults only.”

By 2023, Virgin Voyages aims to shake up a sector that is dominated by Carnival Corp, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings.

It plans to launch four scrubber-fitted, 2,770-berth Lady sisterships at a cost of $2bn, starting in spring 2020 with the delivery of Scarlet Lady from Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri.

“Think about the experience you have when it’s just you and your significant other, as opposed to being in a dining room with a crying baby, having kids on the elevator pushing every button and gangs of 14-year-olds running around the ship at two o’clock in the morning,” McAlpin says.

Branson is convinced that an ample adults-only market exists, because no other cruise company provides only 18-and-over experiences.

“I’ve never wanted to go on a cruise before — but I can’t wait to sail on Virgin Voyages,” the company founder tells TW+. “I love seeing our ideas turn into reality, and watching the progress on Scarlet Lady is so exciting.”

But the Virgin Voyages cruise is not just about the passengers (or “sailors”, as Branson likes to call them). It’s about respecting the 1,160 crew members, the natural environment and business partners and communities inside and outside of the industry. It is also about hiring a diversified staff led by Wendy Williams, Canada’s first female cruiseship master.

It’s a matter of creating “the right culture” to deliver what McAlpin calls “this epic sea change”.

“As the cruise industry has grown with bigger ships, they’ve been trying to cater to a wide variety of different segments,” McAlpin notes. “They’re marketing to young families, old families, seniors, couples, young couples’ groups and everything in between.”

That one-size-fits-all model creates a “generic experience” that can be found on any passengership, he argues.

“We don’t want this to be the best week of the year. We want this to be the best week of your life. It’s healthy to rekindle that relationship and to really get to know your partner better.”

For Virgin Voyages, it all comes back to standing out from its competitors.

“It’s adult by design, so that differentiates us. It’s every element that we looked at across the board as to how we make it different,” McAlpin says.

Those elements include sailing only medium-sized vessels and offering a mostly inclusive voyage that offers six speciality restaurants. The ship features a theatre that turns into three different configurations during the cruise, and a wellness programme that offers yoga, grooming and a “Redemption Spa”.

Redemption Spa? “We think about this as an opportunity to detox and retox. You get the ability to have fun but take care of yourself as well,” he says.

“We think we’re in a category of one. We call it ‘rebellious luxe’. You get to experience what you want when you want it”.

Exhibit one: Virgin Voyages’ app-driven extra “Shake for Champagne” instantly produces a $95 bottle of bubbly with the shake of a mobile phone.

“If you shake your app, bubbles will appear and a screen will appear that says Push for Champagne,” McAlpin explains. “If you push that button, you’ll get a bottle of Moet & Chandon delivered to you wherever you are on ship because we know where you are on the ship. We can bring it right to you.”

The approach is a breakaway from white-glove dining with 20 different utensils and “marvels as far as the eye can see”.

“We’re about a relaxed environment, a laid-back environment, but high quality, always about high quality. We’re never about nickelling and diming,” McAlpine insists.

To that end, the Scarlet Lady has 78 spacious RockStar Suites at up to $10,950 per cruise, depending on itinerary, and 46 lower-priced singles cabins.

“A five-night voyage for two people costs about $3,000. If you think about $1,500 per person, it’s pretty affordable with all the gratuities included, basic beverages, wifi, all of [your] meals,” McAlpin says. “Rebellious luxe is a rock star service.”

And Branson is certain that Virgin Voyages’ sailors will never be disappointed with such high-end treatment.

“With our wide experience in the travel industry, from airlines to trains, we have the know-how and appetite to create a unique cruise company, and adults only is the right market for our brand,” he says. “We will deliver voyages that customers will absolutely love, with great quality, thrilling activities and our exceptional Virgin service.”

McAlpin will not say how many Scarlet Lady four-night and five-night trips to the Mexican Riviera, Dominican Republic and Bimini islands have been booked since February. “We won’t release that, but I’ll say we are happy where we are,” he adds.

Like most cruise lines, Virgin Voyages expects most of its first-ever bookings to happen during the industry’s 2020 “wave” season that coincides with the first quarter. “That’s going to be our prime booking season.”

The company is optimistic that its ships will attract plenty of cruise-goers but it is not going beyond four vessels for now.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do with four ships. I think this brand will grow beyond that but I don’t think we want this brand to have 100 ships,” McAlpin says.

Nonetheless, Virgin Voyages has big plans. It expects to build a new cruise terminal in Miami by November 2021 and has partnered Resorts World Bimini owner RockResorts International to build a Virgin Voyages Beach Club.

McAlpin says Bimini in the Bahamas, one of Ernest Hemingway’s favourite haunts, fits into Virgin Voyages’ goal to provide an intimate, sophisticated experience.

“What’s really unique about Bimini is the size of our ship. Not only does it provide a little more of an intimate experience, because you don’t have the scale of 5,000, but it allows you to go places that you really can’t go with a big ship. Think of the beach clubs at Bimini or St Tropez.”

The Scarlet Lady’s itineraries will focus on the Caribbean, but future vessels will head towards Europe and may even offer world cruises. “We move them around the world as needed.”

While China is expected to have the largest cruise market by 2050, McAlpin says Virgin Voyages is keeping Asia on the back burner for now.

“I don’t know if it’s in our scopes for our first four ships, but... with a brand like this and the power of the brand, it is certainly something we can appeal to.

“For us, I think we’ve got a lot of very fertile market right here in the US and UK and Canada.”

I gave up The World to be with Branson

Four decades ago, Tom McAlpin was crunching numbers in a small office for big business.

Having graduated from Florida State University in 1981 with a finance degree, he embarked on a promising career in money management as an entry-level accountant with professional services giant KPMG.

Miami-born McAlpin soon left to set up his own accounting firm, securing a robust portfolio of clients. One of them gave him an opportunity that led to a role as Royal Caribbean International’s director of financial planning in 1986.

“I later went back and got my MBA because I didn’t want to be perceived as a bean counter, if you will, doing only accounting,” he tells TW+. “I started with Admiral Cruises and helped bring the merger [with Royal Caribbean] and spent a lot of time at Royal and learnt a lot of great stuff.”

In 1994, the Walt Disney Co brought him onboard as chief financial officer to help launch Magical Cruise Co before it became Disney Cruise Line. McAlpin rose through the ranks to become president from 2004 to 2009.

Next stop after Disney was The World, a US one-ship provider of domestic cruising whose itinerary varied from voyages through Canada’s Northwest Passage to expeditions in southern Georgia.

“It was a big part of my career,” he says of his time with Disney Cruise Line. “I was there from the very beginning, so I got to understand what it takes to build the business from the ground up with the financial backing, and then moving into The World, creating experiences that are unlike anything else that’s out there.”

While he was at The World, Virgin Group contacted him in 2011 about launching a cruise company with refurbished ships. The idea piqued his interest, but he suggested that Virgin start fresh with newbuild vessels because consumers want new experiences.

“They asked me if I was interested in helping them put together a plan to do that, and obviously they didn’t have the funding and they didn’t have the business plan in place.”

McAlpin made that goal his mission, spending nights, weekends, holidays — all his spare time — helping Virgin Group come up with a business plan and ship design. He also helped raise $725m in seed capital, which led to full-time employment with the company in January 2015.

TW+

No kidding: Virgin Voyages goes adults only