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Broadcasting from the Tripinsurance.com studios in Jacksonville, Florida. This is Cruise Radio.

Hey, what's up? My name is Doug Parker. Thank you so much for checking out this episode of Cruise Radio. So happy to have you here, my friend. Big week this week. Yeah, in fact, on Tuesday, I drove down to Port Miami for a very special announcement by Sir Richard Branson himself. He officially launched Virgin Cruises. He gave us some details about what Virgin Cruises will be, what we'll see, and all the details there.

Basically, he's going to have three ships.

The first ship is going to be based out of Port Miami, and it's going to start sailing in 2020.

But I have to tell you, when this guy does an event, he does an event.

He landed a helicopter in downtown Miami. It's like, who does that? Who lands a helicopter in downtown Miami? And then he did his little 20 to 30 minutes spiel, and he just went away, like just vanished. It was actually really cool and also a lot of opinions about it. So we'll talk to Theresa Norton Masick. She's the cruise beat editor at TravelPulse.com. We'll also talk to Jody at Port Hall Cruise magazine. Colleen from Cruise Critic. Also, retired cruise executive, Art Zabarski gave his thoughts on the launch of Virgin Cruises. Plus, we'll answer some of your listener questions. But before we go any further, I want to play a couple of clips from yesterday's press conference with Mr. Branson. And if you're

listening to this in the future, this was taped on Tuesday, June 23rd, 2015. So without further ado,

here is Mr. or I should say, Sir, Richard Branson. Well, hi, everybody. Thank you very much for coming.

And I'm very happy to share that we're full steam ahead, and we're starting with our hot red

morning. As you know, this virgin takes people a whole way, or all the way. Around the world,

more than 60 million people enjoy our three award-winning airlines, our passenger train services,

our holiday packages, our hotels, and now even our cruises.

Well, it's no secret that I've dreamed of building a cruise line for a very, very long time,

one that offers wonderful service, unique experiences, and plays a positive role in the community and the environment.

In fact, I first started planning a cruise ship company for

under 30-year-olds when I was 27. And I suspect I did it just so I could have a blast on it.

Once I reached 31, I added a clause in the contract that would allow the owner on board.

Since then, it's gone through

a lot of reiterations for under 35-year-olds, under 40-year-olds, and now it's for under 65-year-olds.

Anyway, Virgin Cruzey's plans to make some ways with an original and intimate experience.

So we've chosen two brilliant partners to help create the energy, the fun, the friendliness that our customers know and love.

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