Virgin says it's reinventing ocean travel

Note that the word 'cruise' is not in the title. It's Virgin Voyages, if you please, not Virgin Cruises as originally announced.

Richard Branson, the flamboyant British master of everything Virgin, including airlines, cellphones, space and trains, is now going into the ocean travel business, and intends, he says, to do it differently.

Branson appeared with the head of his new company at a Miami Beach hotel to highlight some announcements. Three ships have been ordered, and construction is on schedule at Fincantieri in Italy; they will enter service between 2020 and 2022. The three are identical, and one will call Miami home.

Tom McAlpin, head of Virgin Voyages, said "it should be a departure from the ordinary getaway," but gave no details except that the company has solicited suggestions from potential customers (Virgin calls them "sailors") and have gotten 25,000 responses.

The other big news for the company is a contract with a Swedish clean-energy company, Climeon, that will provide a system to turn waste into electricity on the ships, reducing their carbon footprint by about 5400 tons of CO2 per ship per year.