It is surprising to visit for the first time the command post of a ship in which thousands of passengers and crew travel. As we begin to wander among the tables full of controls, we find one that catches our attention: the one that allows us to communicate using Morse code. A small island of 19th century technology surrounded by cutting edge technology.
This almost seems like a hallmark of the Valiant Lady, a state-of-the-art cruise ship operated by Virgin Voyages. A year ago she began to sail the seas. We have visited it to learn about the innovations that it incorporates.
Inside, technology does not seem to be very present, at least at first glance. The ship has a novel air, but both the shape and the color range chosen for the exterior design give clues to the spirit of this ship: matt gray (technology) with the bright and saturated red (party) of Virgin.
The interior design of the Valiant Lady, one of four ships in Virgin's fleet, includes many of the innovations expected on a cruise in 2023. The aesthetic, while conveying an air of modernity, has an air of good design, the classic American design of the 1950s.
One of the keys to this cruise, which has its main port of operations in Barcelona, is that the travelers are all of legal age. Of course, those who are looking for erotic parties à la Eyes wide shut should look for another boat. The absence of children is more about not finding dinosaur-shaped desserts on the boat. And all that that entails.
Returning to the control room, Juan Manuel Moreno shows an almost endless list of communication systems and navigation instruments. He explains that this boat has a high-precision radar, capable of detecting really small boats and objects in the water.
This officer says that the Valiant Lady travels on autopilot, although with the watchful eye of two of the crew. Given this information, we asked him if artificial intelligence is something that can play an important role in the future of this class of ships.
Moreno replies that in reality, in ideal conditions, the Valiant Lady can reach port on autopilot. Although he also qualifies that these conditions are very difficult to give. There is no technology on the horizon yet that can replace a crew. At sea many unforeseen events can happen.
As we visit more and more corners of this immense ship, we are even assailed by the doubt of how it is possible to design the different spaces. The design changes as we move through the different rooms: restaurants, discotheque, theater, recreation areas. And there's plenty to see on the 12 floors we have access to (the other five are crew-occupied).
The ship has 17 stories and measures 277 meters long by 42 meters wide. Its maximum boarding capacity is 2,700 passengers and 1,150 crew members. She was built in the Italian Fincantieri shipyards and made her maiden voyage in 2022. This year a sister ship, the Brilliant Lady, will also cross the seas.
One of the things Virgin said was taken into account in its construction was low noise and vibration levels. As we were able to verify on a journey through a calm Mediterranean Sea, the vibrations are only perceptible when being completely still. Like when we sit on a chair in a quiet space.
Many of the Valiant Lady's technologies are hidden from view. The cabins are accessed from extraordinarily long corridors illuminated by LED lights to save energy. They look like scenarios taken from any sci-fi movie saga.
In all cabins there is a home automation system that is designed to be used frequently during the trip. It is controlled with a small tablet that allows you to create lighting environments in the room (quite successful), open or close the blinds, access numerous movies and series on the television (subtitled in Spanish, but not dubbed) and request services such as clean the cabin or ask for food to be brought to us.
Another interesting element for passengers is a bracelet with NFC technology. This allows you to pay for anything on the ship, leave or enter the ports and access the cabin. The passenger also interacts on the ship and is informed with the Virgin Voyages mobile application.
But if we liked something about this journey, it is that we don't have to be glued to a phone all day. Something that is appreciated when traveling for pleasure. It is much better to talk to the crew members, who are very close and friendly, than to fight with an app. Although there are things that we do not know if it is possible to do without the app, such as reserving a table in a restaurant.
Employees can chat in a relaxed way with passengers. And that is important for the passenger, but also for the workers of the Valiant Lady. They seem more relaxed than the staff on other ships. In fact, it can be easily seen that these do not have to hide a tattoo or can do things like dye their hair any color.
Shows on board can be surprisingly complex staging. The huge interior modular theater is striking, which allows you to completely change the seats and move the stage. Even in full performance, as it happens in the Duel Reality dance show. In which professional dancers interact with the public so that they dance with them.
It is hard to believe that there could be such an extraordinary theater on the high seas. Not only because of the facilities, but also because it is supported by a team of professionals who control the setting. These also make possible live performances by musicians that take place at various points on the ship throughout the day. The acoustic and lighting technology of the Valiant Lady is quite sophisticated.
If one wanders far enough, for example, they will find themselves in a room with old video game machines, which remain almost dark, recreating the atmosphere of arcades, or karaoke booths. They are two of the many corners that can be found on this ship.
There are also six restaurants serving a la carte. There is no buffet at the Valiant Lady, among other things to prevent food waste. One of the restaurants even offers avant-garde cuisine in a futuristic environment, the 'Experimental kitchen'. Once again, we are surprised to see something like this on a ship. One of the meeting centers is located on the 15th floor, where there is a huge restaurant that offers various types of food 24 hours a day.
Elena is a Mexican crew member who explained to this newspaper some secrets that go unnoticed on the ship. On the spiral stairs of the shopping area there is a huge circular lamp. But in reality this luminous sculpture is a huge compass. One of its lights always points north. Elena reveals to us that the detail was the idea of Richard Branson, the well-known magnate who owns Virgin Voyages.
What is somewhat disturbing is seeing the Valiant Lady's chimneys working throughout the voyage and even when docked in port. It is not a secret that cruise ships, like passenger planes, are in the eye of the hurricane regarding CO2 emissions.
When inquiring about whether the Valiant Lady has some kind of technology that mitigates this, we found out that emissions have been reduced somewhat using Climeon technology, a company specialized in transforming waste engine heat into clean energy. Although obviously like all ships of this type, the Valiant Lady consumes an enormous amount of energy and emits CO2 into the atmosphere.
Virgin Voyages is currently trying to remedy this by buying carbon offsets. These consist of ensuring that one ton of carbon dioxide is destroyed, removed or prevented from entering the atmosphere. For this, initiatives such as renewable energy projects are used, which reduce the emissions that contribute to climate change.
Although this type of compensation has received criticism. They do not seem to be anywhere near a solution to avoid climate change. At the moment it does not seem possible to create cruise ships powered by hydrogen, although there are already some experimental ships of this type, or by other types of renewable energy.
A Norwegian company has indeed presented a conceptual project for a clean cruise ship. It is expected to go sailing in 2030. Of course, we like the idea that single-use plastics are prohibited on the boat and that the water is recycled.
The Valiant Lady is a different cruise. In which technology is not omnipresent but it is one of the hallmarks of this boat. At a time when uchronies and television productions about the possible end of the world abound, traveling on the Valiant Lady feels like an injection of optimism.
