abyc.org<\/a>.<\/p>\nSmart girl<\/p>\n
Virgin Voyages officially arrived on the West Coast on Monday, April 6, as the 912-foot Brilliant Lady made its first visit to the Port of Los Angeles. The ship sparkled. It definitely had a Las Vegas vibe, with bright lighting along the exterior deck spaces.<\/p>\n
The ship \u2013 in keeping with the Virgin Brand \u2014 was different from any ship I\u2019ve been on. The ship is designed for \u201cadults only,\u201d with multiple dining and drinking options, including a Korean-style \u201ccook it yourself\u201d dining area, and multiple bars in each of the dining spaces.<\/p>\n
The ship was designed to transit the Panama Canal with ease, with the lifeboats mounted higher and set farther in-board than on its sister ships. That design change is what allows Brilliant Lady to travel the new, wider Panama Canal locks without scraping the fenders or violating clearance rules.<\/p>\n
The most memorable part of my visit to Brilliant Lady was the Broadway-style show \u201cRed Hot\u201d that was a biography \u2014 set to dance, music and acrobatics \u2014 of Richard Branson\u2019s adventuresome life. It was the best performance that I have witnessed in on-board entertainment.<\/p>\n
The show was a playful reminder of all the world\u2019s records he has broken, companies he has formed and achievements he has made. The live performance also featured video highlights of Branson\u2019s amazing life.<\/p>\n
One local connection was Virgin Oceanic, an undersea leisure venture for which Branson partnered the late businessman Chris Welsh. Welsh was based in Newport Beach and later acquired the boat \u201cRagtime.\u201d Today, Welch\u2019s life partner, Tina Roberts, inherited the boat, which is often berthed in Alamitos Bay.<\/p>\n
Brilliant Lady set out April 7, heading south. It now begins a season of West Coast sailings, including itineraries to the Mexican Riviera and Baja California, before heading north for the Alaskan cruise season.<\/p>\n
Splash down<\/p>\n
Recently, a retired Long Beach port pilot sent me a photo of the new Virgin\u2019s Brillant Lady \u2014 the ship was in San Diego for the Artemis II splashdown. The ship\u2019s jumbotron style lighted letters flashed \u201cARTEMIS,\u201d along with a heart. Branson made history by flying to the edge of space aboard his company Virgin Galactic\u2019s VSS Unity spacecraft.<\/p>\n
It seems we all have space fever.<\/p>\n
I was on a long drive and listened to the play by play of the splash down via CNN with Anderson Cooper at the mic. It felt like it did 53 years ago \u2014 before technology. Listening to geeky scientists overthink, I was holding on to every word.<\/p>\n
Finally, Cooper confided in his audience that the conversation brought him back to his childhood playing \u201cDungeons and Dragons\u201d and coming up with bizarre what ifs. I\u2019m so glad the next generation is interested in space programs again.<\/p>\n
Carnival clarification<\/p>\n
Recently, I discussed updates to local sailings as Carnival Firenze gets ready to move to the EastCoast. Last week, the staff at Carnival Cruise line clarified the future plans for the ship.<\/p>\n
Carnival will offer four new sailings for Carnival Firenze from Long Beach from Oct. 12 to Nov. 20, said spokesperson Julie Leonardi.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese sailings are part of our Sailings Exclusively for Adults (SEA) program and will be available only to guests who receive a targeted offer,\u201d Leonardi said. \u201cThe sailings feature a mix of Mexican Riviera destinations.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is interesting timing \u2014 with Virgin Voyages entering the Los Angeles market with a, \u201cadults only\u201d cruise line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend and Long Beach Yacht Club Judge Advocate Dave Weil\u2019s power boat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,3929,3930,131,133,132,137,3738],"class_list":["post-270760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-california","tag-grunion-on-the-water","tag-grunion-sports","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news","tag-los-angeles-county","tag-the-grunion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GRG-L-OTW-COL-0416-01.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GRG-L-OTW-COL-0416-02-1.jpg?w=620\")
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