With the official announcement coming that the Virgin Group will enter the cruise business with funding from Bain Capital, Cruise Industry News has collated some rumors surrounding the start-up:

• Funding: Said to be well over $2 billion, which if true, would indicate the cruise line plans to build huge vessels.
• Delivery: Rumors persist that ship designs are well underway, or in fact, already done. With these in place, and a yard decision imminent, a vessel could be delivered as soon as late 2017.
• Shipyard: If Virgin intends to big build, there are three yards with the space and slots available in the above time frame: Fincantieri, Meyer-Turku and STX France.