Richard Branson’s Virgin Voyages is the newest cruise firm seeking to lure distant staff into touring the world as they telecommute, however as an alternative of locking folks right into a multi-year journey, it’s providing a shorter possibility.
The corporate has introduced a “Scarlet Summer season Season Cross,” which is able to enable passengers to sail on 4 consecutive weeklong Mediterranean cruises. That’s a distinct method than the one taken by the failed Life at Sea cruise or the more moderen Villa Vie Residences providing.
The value of the prolonged Virgin cruise is a good bit extra as nicely. Villa Vie, which stated it had secured the boat for the journey earlier than providing it, is charging passengers $33.000 per yr to sail the world. Virgin will cost $10,000 for only a month, although that’s a per couple price.
Cruises will depart in June, July, August and September. They’ll embody WiFi and a $10 espresso credit score in addition to laundry providers and most meals (although you’ll pay additional for reveals and sure upscale menu objects). You’ll even have entry to a member’s solely sundeck, the cruise line says.
As with the opposite prolonged cruise choices, a part of the concept is to reap the benefits of the notable variety of distant staff, who discovered throughout the pandemic that they may nonetheless do their jobs with out having to commute into the workplace every day.
The primary firm to promote this scuttled its cruise weeks earlier than it was scheduled to set sail, leaving some passengers stranded. Regardless of vows to return the deposits of tens of hundreds of {dollars}, some passengers say they nonetheless haven’t gotten their a reimbursement.
Final December, Villa Vie introduced its personal 3.5-year cruise, which is scheduled to set sail in Could. Costs for passage on that journey begin at underneath $33,000 per yr—and passengers have the choice of renting or shopping for a cabin.
