Virgin Voyages Help & Support for Health & Safety

In keeping in line with the rest of the travel industry, we’re now opening our voyages to everyone and have removed all vaccine and testing requirements beginning 10/30/22 on Valiant Lady and 10/28/22 on Scarlet Lady.

24 hours prior to sailing, all Sailors are required to fill out a health declaration (aka the health check form) in the Virgin Voyages App. Those who have answered “yes” to any of the questions will be sent to a secondary screening for further evaluation.  We invite your attention to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (“CDC”) general information for cruise ship travelers here.

Before the voyage: If you test positive for COVID, or were exposed to COVID within 10 days of departure, Virgin Voyages will allow you to change your voyage date, or provide a full future voyage credit to use toward a booking at a later time. Taxes and fees and bookable amounts are refunded to the original form of payment. 

At the terminal: While all Sailors no longer require COVID-19 testing prior to their embarkation date, if you are exhibiting symptoms while boarding or indicate on your Health Form that you aren’t feeling well, Virgin Voyages reserves the right to test you and your traveling companion(s) for COVID-19 at the terminal (or on board), and will cover the testing fees. If you test positive for COVID, you will not be able to sail but Virgin Voyages will provide a full future voyage credit for use toward a booking at a later date.

If you test positive for communicable disease while on board, you will remain safely in your cabin. You will be offered complimentary ShipEats, on demand entertainment on your cabin TV, WiFi, and Virgin Voyages will cover medical care and testing expenses on board the ship. Our Ship Crew will work with you and local authorities to agree on a time you can safely disembark from the ship at the end of the voyage. Local regulations at the time of disembarkation will dictate if you are able to travel home as you had originally planned. We do not require travel insurance to sail, however, we strongly advise our Sailors to purchase travel insurance, and to make sure that it covers/includes COVID-related expenses as well as emergency repatriation.

We never want you to miss out on even one day, so we’ll also offer a prorated daily Future Voyage Credit (FVC), based on the price paid for the voyage (excluding taxes and fees), to anyone placed in isolation. For example, if you test positive for COVID on day 2 of a 4-night voyage, and need to isolate for the last 2 days — you would receive a 50% FVC based on the voyage fare paid, excluding taxes and fees.

Our main goal is to provide the appropriate, effective, and efficient response to any communicable disease, all while ensuring the health and safety of our Crew and Sailors as well as the communities we visit. In order to achieve this, we are implementing the most up-to-date hygiene initiatives and utilizing the best practices available to sanitize and disinfect our shipboard environment. This includes the installation of sanitizing dispensers throughout the ship, the implementation of touchless faucets, the placement of increased hygiene signage, and the utilization of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-registered disinfectants. Additionally, we have also adopted the use of advanced cleaning tools such as fogging to further enhance our cleaning efforts. Furthermore, it is important to note that our ratio of terrace cabins is one of the highest in the industry — allowing plenty of access to (salt-infused) fresh air. Thus, we are committed to providing a safe and healthy environment for all onboard.

Our Crew’s safety and health is important, crew are fully vaccinated. Crew members are isolated when possible communicable disease might be identified.

Sailors should notify Virgin Voyages of any existing high-risk health conditions no later than 48 hours prior to departure. If you need any help determining if you fall into a high-risk group, or to notify us of your high-risk condition, please contact healthcheck@virginvoyages.com.

In addition, anyone who has failed the pre-voyage assessment or failed the 24-hour pre-voyage health questionnaire (by answering “yes” to any of the medical questions contained in the health check form) will be required to have a health evaluation with our Vikand Medical Care team at the boarding terminal to assess their ability to travel safely.

Any Sailor who is deemed to be in the high-risk group, or who our onboard medical service provider  deems unfit to travel following a health evaluation at the boarding terminal, will not be able to sail with us and will be denied boarding. All Sailors should consider their own individual risk level for severe illness, and make travel decisions based on that — as well as conversations with their doctor prior to booking or sailing with us.

To reiterate, if you have any questions at all about whether you are considered high risk or not, please reach out to healthcheck@virginvoyages.com and we’ll gladly help.

Please discuss with your physician prior to travel. For more information, refer to the links below:
CDC: https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/page/traveler-information-center
UK: https://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/destinations.aspx / https://travelhealthpro.org.uk/countries 

In the case of positive COVID-19 cases on board, we’ve outlined our protocols for isolation and contact tracing to ensure the best possible care for impacted Sailors, and protection to other Sailors and Crew on board.
Our  protocol aboard our Lady Ships is as follows:

• Any Sailor who has signs of COVID will receive complimentary medical care on board via our onboard Medical Team — our medical center is equipped with the latest PCR testing capabilities to test for COVID-19 and other viral diseases.
• In case of a positive PCR test, those Sailors will be isolated under Virgin Voyages Infection Prevention & Control protocols.
• The medical team will follow up with any close contact.
• Our highly trained medical team will treat impacted Sailors with the best care until we arrive back and are in port, and the impacted Sailors can be transferred to local medical facility or has indicated by Port Regulations
• If negative, we will test for other viral infections as well, for example, influenza A & B, etc., and if any of those tests are confirmed, treatment is administered accordingly.
• Isolation may not be required for the above cases, but our medical doctors on board will determine on a case by case basis.