MIAMI, April 22, 2026 — Virgin Voyages, the award-winning, kid-free cruise line, and Google Cloud today unveiled Rovey, the cruise industry's first AI Crew assistant, at Google Cloud Next in Las Vegas. Developed in collaboration with Google Cloud, Rovey is the first element of Project Ruby, Virgin Voyages' AI initiative designed to support the full Sailor journey, from initial discovery through booking.
Built with Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, Gemini models and BigQuery, Rovey can navigate the many variables that shape a cruise decision, where itinerary, timing, pricing, destination mix and onboard experiences all intersect. It makes recommendations, delivers personalized answers and helps Sailors find the right voyage, the right Shore Things and the right experiences. Rovey then guides users through the booking process with a level of contextual support that moves beyond search and into genuine decision-making.
Most AI in consumer travel follows the same design. A Sailor asks a question and the system retrieves the closest match from a static knowledge base and returns an answer. The session resets. The Sailor starts over next time. This is keyword retrieval dressed as conversation.
Rovey was built from a different premise. Using the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, the question the engineering team started with was not how to answer cruise questions faster but rather, “What would a skilled Crew member know about this Sailor's thinking, and how would they know when to say what?” Every architecture decision followed from there.
The result is an assistant designed to understand where a Sailor is in their decision and respond in a way that reflects what they have already considered. A Sailor comparing cabin categories gets a different conversation than one who has not yet settled on a departure region. A Sailor who has been exploring Shore Things for three days gets something different again. The planning state shapes the exchange.
Andy Schwalb, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Voyages said, "The partnership with Google Cloud gave us both the infrastructure to answer Sailor questions at scale and the intelligence to make every answer feel like it is tailored for that specific traveler. What we built reflects a decade of thinking about how technology should serve the guest experience rather than be layered on top of it.”
Rovey was developed with Google Cloud providing the underlying AI infrastructure and model capabilities, while Virgin Voyages brings structured data, behavioral insight and domain expertise from one of travel's most complex booking environments. Rovey was designed to operate as a decision-support system, capable of guiding Sailors through a high-consideration purchase with context-aware recommendations, rather than a simple Q&A tool.
"We are excited to collaborate with Virgin Voyages and leverage Google Cloud’s leading AI technology to enhance the cruise booking process," said Sam Sebastian, VP, North America Regions, Google Cloud. "By powering Rovey with our AI tools, Virgin Voyages is able to mitigate booking friction, deliver personalized travel recommendations at scale, and build deeper, more valuable connections with Sailors."
Billy Bohan Chinique, VP Global Brand Marketing and AI Transformation at Virgin Voyages added, "We have always built this brand from the inside out. Experience first. Everything else follows. Rovey is that philosophy applied to the one moment we could not previously reach at scale: the moment between a Sailor thinking “I wonder if…” and finally saying “I’m going.” Rovey lives in that space. And it sounds exactly like the brand it represents.”
Seven future expressions of this project are planned, each targeting a distinct friction point across the Sailor experience from discovery through the voyage itself. Rovey is the first. Future releases will address additional touchpoints on the same platform architecture, on a rolling cadence.
Rovey is coming soon to VirginVoyages.com.
About Virgin Voyages
Promising to Create an Epic Sea Change for All, Virgin Voyages is the award-winning, exclusively adult cruise line founded by Sir Richard Branson. Delivering unforgettable, relaxing vacations at sea, Virgin Voyages launched at the end of 2021. Inspired by superyacht design, its fleet of Lady Ships exemplify an elevated, boutique hotel at sea with contemporary spaces that strike the perfect balance of nautical chic and glamour. Currently departing from the sun-soaked cities of Miami, Barcelona, Athens and San Juan, the fleet offers more than 60 unique itineraries, sailing to 150+ incredible ports of call. On-board, 20+ eateries feature culinary experiences from Michelin-star chefs, stylish workout spaces and group fitness classes are offered daily, and a festival-like line-up of intimate and larger-than-life shows are on the agenda. Paired with modern, tech-savvy cabins, designer suites fit for a rockstar and a mermaid-inspired spa and thermal suite, the brand is taking the industry by storm. For three consecutive years – 2023, 2024 and 2025 – Virgin Voyages won best cruise line in Travel + Leisure’s highly coveted World’s Best Awards for mega-ship ocean cruise line, along with the 2023 and 2024 Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards for best large ocean cruise line.
