How Virgin Voyages is Making Big Waves with their Beverage Program
Hello, Sailor. Want a drink? Come aboard The Scarlet Lady, Virgin Voyages’ newest ship. Just launched out of Miami, Virgin is literally shaking up the cruise industry with just a shake of your phone – for Champagne. And that’s just one of the innovations and style forward features on deck.
There’s An Ap for That
The “Press for Champagne” feature on their sailor (the term Virgin uses for passengers) app really delivers. Once onboard, you can open up the app and summon Champagne from anywhere on the ship. A shake of your phone results in a burst of tiny bubbles on your screen, followed by a “Press for Champagne” button. Press it and within fifteen minutes, a bottle of Möet Chandon Impérial is delivered to you.
The Cocktails
And then there is the bespoke cocktail experience, with the beverage offerings curated to each specific venue onboard. Take away the option of the box type, pay-one-price drink package offered by most cruise lines, and deliver lower price points for higher quality cocktails. Definitely novel ideas.
To this add the meaningful goals of inclusiveness, sustainability, and support of small/local businesses. With these things combined, it’s fair to say that Virgin Voyages is on track to achieve their goal of disrupting the 100 billion dollar cruise industry. The first new cruise line since 2009, some of Virgin’s other innovations include no dress codes, no kids, and the elimination of that nickel and dimed feeling found elsewhere.
Piloting the Ship
Disrupting a tried and true industry such as cruising is no easy feat. To achieve this goal in its beverage program, Virgin brought aboard Charles Steadman, their Senior Manager, Beverage and Bar Development and Operations. Steadman’s background in hospitality though comprehensive was completely land-based.
Charged with re-writing the cruise experience, Steadman looked to recreate a land-type curated cocktail and beverage program at sea. Keeping in mind Virgin’s touchstones of inclusivity and sustainability, he formed a creative collaborative of industry leaders to help build the program.
Notable participants include industry titans such as mixologists Charles Joly and Julia Momose. Hospitality groups such as Cocktail Cartel and Bar Lab bring street cred to the program. The premium experience is enhanced with mixers and garnishes from the likes of Filthy Food, whose packaging also aligns with Virgin’s goal of sustainability.
Crafting Experiences
There is a designer element that interweaves throughout both the design of the ship, restaurants, and bars, as well as throughout the beverage program. There is a storyline running through it all. Tiny bubbles aren’t just on your phone. Tiny bubbles greet you when you step into some of the elevators, a flush of mesmerizing motion on the wall. Near the Lick Me Till Ice Cream shop sits our kind of sculpture: a twisted, oversized Champagne cage, the words True Love painted beneath the sailor pictured on it.
Brand-conscious sailors are offered luxurious spirits at affordable prices, while curious sailors are satisfied by the many types of discovery that can be found on board and in the program.
Exploring the variety of cocktail and drink offerings, the ship’s venues and special events, as well as the food/drink/photography seminars offered is no easy task. This, too, is by design. “People can’t see it all,” said Steadman when discussing the program, “so they have to come back.”
Steadman’s strategy it would appear is on point. Virgin Voyages was announced as the 2021 BevX winner for Best Overall Hospitality Beverage Program.
While it’s nice for Virgin to have been acknowledged, the real winners here are those sailing aboard The Scarlet Lady. Multiple sailors were surveyed during a recent voyage, and all said they were thrilled with the drink program onboard.
Seedlip cocktail photo credit @tracey.broussard
Not having to share space with drunk people trying to maximize their beverage packages was cited as a huge plus. This lower price point for beverages onboard is an example of the smart disruption that Virgin is known for.
Depending on the sailor’s mood, one can find fresh-pressed juices, craft beer from small/local breweries, cocktails curated especially for the venue you’re in, and even drinks made with premium non-alcoholic gins such as Seedlip.
Saint Louis Sparkling Brut photo credit @tracey.broussard
Beer prices are as low as $5 for a Heineken, $8 for a local Wynwood Brewing Co. ale. A glass of Saint-Louis sparkling brut costs $7, while a Tik Tok But The Party Don’t Stop #2 cocktail will set you back only $13.
An especially fun part of the experience costs nothing at all - enjoying the cocktail names. K-Pop Disco Water (made with Pop-Rocks, naturally), Give Me That Dong-Lip, Loca Flaca, and the Sh-Oct-A-Pus, a five-person shot cocktail that’s served from the tentacles of an octopus (not live, thankfully), are just a few.
If they are still missing a drink package, sailors can pre-purchase bar tabs with $50 or $100 bonuses beforehand, to offset the cost. Choosing to structure the beverage program this way has addressed multiple pain points for staff, crew, sailors, and sustainability.
Scenes from Onboard
Staff and crew are given the freedom to either serve the curated drinks, or create spirits based cocktails depending on the sailor’s preferences. Sailors don’t feel obliged to “get their money’s worth” from a package by ordering as many drinks as possible. Because the beverages tend to be custom, it’s more likely that the sailor will drink the cocktail rather than put it aside and ask for something different. Less waste equals more sustainability. It’s a win-win all around.
Sailors also said they enjoyed the wide variety of venues and specialty offerings onboard.
There's Crickets in Here photo credit @tracey.broussard
Dinner at Blue Agave, the upscale Mexican restaurant, saw sailors checking out the There’s Crickets in Here mezcal based drink. An extensive menu of Soju, along with crew member led Korean drinking games are celebrated at Gunbae, the Korean Barbecue restaurant.
Bartender Nadya Chursina, who works at The Dock House, the Greek Mezze restaurant onboard, is a huge fan of the cocktail competitions and theory classes that were held to prepare staff for service.
Dock House servers Renato and Marco wove in and out serving the sailors sprawled on the multitude of lounge beds, stopping to chat every now and then. They talked about the inclusivity they have felt onboard, and marveled that they were told to “be themselves,” when hired. Uniforms echo the relaxed atmosphere, tees and khakis, and even include a partially skirted option for LGBTQ crew members if they so desire.
At The Test Kitchen, mixologist, Augusto Demoliner, teaches the Shot for Shot cocktail and Insta oriented photography class. He is a fan of Virgin’s beverage program because not only does he have the freedom to create, but the lack of large quantity packaged mixes offers bartenders more control. The passengers, he says, are introduced to new spirits and liquors and they are drinking with quality.
“It’s also nice to support small companies where the owner actually answers the phone,” says Demoliner.
Margarita photo credit @tracey.broussard
Demoliner also exhibits Virgin’s sense of play and individuality as he teaches the class. Sailors have been instructed to really, really shake an ice-filled stainless shaker filled with the pomegranate margarita they are preparing. “It’s getting cold?” He asks, deadpan. “Welcome to my life. Keep shaking.”
When someone loudly bangs their spoon around the glass stirring an Old Fashioned, he instructs everyone to quietly stir around the wall of the glass. “You don’t want to wake your wife up at four a.m. when you’re trying to make a cocktail in silence,” he says.
Another of his instructions included the correct way to try a new spirit. Taste, let it sit a minute, then taste again. The second taste is important, he said, because your body is trying to decide if it’s being poisoned or not with that first sip.
These instructions could be applied to many things in life, if you think about it. The question, for example, as to whether or not we should book another cruise on The Scarlet Lady. Absolutely. The first time was just a taste, after all.