| IMO | 9805336 |
|---|---|
| Gross tonnage | 108,232 GT |
| Length | 278 m |
| Beam | 38 m |
| Passenger capacity (double) | 2770 |
| Crew | 1160 |
| Service speed | 22.0 knots |
| Builder | Fincantieri |
| Yard | Sestri Ponente |
| Launched | 2020 |
| Maiden voyage | 2021-08-08 |
| Class | Lady-class cruise ship |
| Operator | Virgin Voyages |
| Status | Active |
Overview
Valiant Lady is the second ship of Virgin Voyages, the adults-only cruise line with which the Virgin group entered an industry it had talked about disrupting for a decade. She was delivered in July 2021 — into a world in which cruising had only just restarted — and did not sail with paying guests until March 2022.
Her importance is as proof of concept. Her elder sister Scarlet Lady had been delivered in February 2020 and then spent the pandemic waiting; Valiant Lady was the ship that showed the Lady-ship design could be repeated, and that Virgin's model — no children, no buffets in the conventional sense, no tipping, dining included — was a fleet rather than a one-ship experiment. At 108,232 GT for 2,770 guests she is a large ship that markets itself as a boutique hotel.
Key specifications
The dataset records her at 108,232 GT, 278 m long and 38 m in beam, with 2,770 guests at double occupancy, a crew of 1,160 and a speed of 22.0 knots. Her own article quotes 110,000 GT; that is the line's rounded marketing figure for the class, and the dataset's 108,232 GT is the registered class figure, used consistently across her sisters' rows — a distinction the dataset notes set out explicitly and which is worth preserving rather than rounding away.
Power is diesel-electric, from Wärtsilä generator sets totalling 48,000 kW, driving two ABB Azipod units. Her article gives 20 knots as service speed and 22 knots as maximum; the dataset's 22.0 kn is the maximum figure.
Design and construction
Valiant Lady was ordered in October 2016 from Fincantieri as part of Virgin's original multi-ship order, and built at Sestri Ponente, Genoa. Her coin ceremony was held on 8 February 2019, the date her article also gives for her keel being laid, and she was floated out on 20 May 2020 — in the first months of the pandemic, when the yard, like the industry it supplied, was working under extraordinary restrictions.
The design was set by her sister: a ship that departs from cruise convention most visibly in silhouette and in livery. The Lady ships wear a silver-grey hull with red accents and a mermaid figure at the bow in place of traditional hull art, and their superstructure is deliberately yacht-like, with a raked, layered profile rather than the sheer white wall of a conventional large cruise ship. Inside, Virgin commissioned a roster of design firms new to cruising, aiming for a boutique-hotel and adult-club idiom instead of maritime décor.
She was acquired by Virgin on 1 July 2021.
Naming, launch and maiden voyage
The Lady ships take their names from the phrase "your ladyship" and from Virgin's British heritage — Scarlet, Valiant, Resilient and Brilliant Lady. Valiant is the second of the sequence.
Her introduction was repeatedly rescheduled as the pandemic receded unevenly. At one stage she was to have debuted in the Caribbean from Miami in November 2021, then to have crossed to Europe for the following summer. In the event she was introduced in the United Kingdom: she was showcased at the London International Cruise Terminal at Tilbury in March 2022, and sailed her maiden voyage on 18 March 2022 from Portsmouth, a three-night sailing to Zeebrugge — the date the dataset records. Her Mediterranean debut from Barcelona followed in May 2022, which is why some line material dates her "MerMaiden" voyage to May rather than March.
Career by operator
She has carried one name for one operator.
| Period | Name | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| 2022–present | Valiant Lady | Virgin Voyages |
Her career has been spent as the second Lady ship, alternating between European and Caribbean seasons in the pattern established in her first year, and as the ship that carried the brand into new ports — including, in January 2024, a series of first calls in the Caribbean that were also first appearances for the line in those islands. No transfer or renaming has been reported.
Onboard character
Virgin's design proposition, stated by its executives at her launch as throwing out the rule book, translates into a specific onboard character. She is adults-only — 18 and over — which changes the whole acoustic and social register of a large ship: no children's facilities, no family entertainment, and public rooms programmed for adults in the evening rather than the afternoon. There is no main dining room and no buffet in the traditional form; instead a set of restaurants is included in the fare, and entertainment is weighted towards nightlife, with a nightclub, The Manor, named after the recording studio where Virgin began.
Visually she is glamorous rather than nautical — metallic surfaces, mood lighting, tattoo studio (a much-reported Virgin first at sea, introduced on her sister), and cabins designed with convertible seating so that the same room works as a lounge by day. Read historically, the Lady ships are the clearest attempt of their decade to build a large cruise ship as a lifestyle brand extension rather than as a ship that happens to carry a brand.
Major refits and incidents
No major refit is recorded for Valiant Lady. Her early career contains one event of a different kind: an extended period between delivery in July 2021 and her March 2022 maiden voyage during which she was a completed ship without a programme, a direct consequence of pandemic restart timing rather than of any defect.
No casualty, fire, grounding or collision is recorded in the sources used for this guide.
Sister ships and class
The dataset records her class as Lady-class. Her sisters are Scarlet Lady, the lead ship, delivered in 2020; Resilient Lady, delivered in 2022 and in service from 2023; and Brilliant Lady, the fourth ship, delivered for a 2025 debut. All four were built by Fincantieri at Sestri Ponente to essentially the same proportions — 278 m, about 108,000 GT, 2,770 guests — with interiors and details varied ship by ship. The class is unusual in having been ordered as a complete fleet for a line that did not yet exist in operation when the first steel was cut.
Fate and where she is now
Valiant Lady is in active service with Virgin Voyages, recorded in the dataset as status active and fate "Operating". She is the second of four Lady ships, and no change of name, operator or status has been reported in the sources used here.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valiant_Lady_(ship)