Scarlet Lady: Virgin Voyages customers left furious and 'disgusted' by hours-long queues for Covid-19 tests before boarding cruise liner

Virgin Voyages’ massive cruise liner was due to leave the city at 7pm last night – but it was delayed by hours as passengers faced a lengthy wait for pre-boarding testing.

As part of their holiday package, cruise ship passengers with the company are required to have two Covid vaccines and also agree to have a negative antigen test before embarkation.

Claire Perry, from Southsea said: ‘We were told to go to the testing site no more than an hour before boarding time.

‘We were due to board at 3 and got to the Tipner site at 2.30.

‘The queues were out of the gate, it was ridiculous. We were there for 2.5 hours.

‘The staff did their best but they had seriously underestimated how long it would take.

She continued: ‘Everyone was very fractious but when we got on board, they apologised and gave us free wine and beer for the first night.

‘The ship is amazing, the crew are so brilliant. There are obviously teething problems but everyone is working so hard to sort it out.

‘They have got to sort the testing out though. It was a simple test you can do at home.’

Customers took to social media to blast the service, with several calling the delays ‘disgusting’.

One user said: ‘Disgusting start to our holiday. We have been in a queue now for 2 hours for covid test. No communication from the Virgin Team. We have been told its at least another hour. This is extremely disappointing.’

Another added: ‘We have now been queuing for 2 hours for our Covid test and have an hour yet to go in this queue.

‘Our embarkation time was 4.15pm and it’s now an hour after that time we are still 2 miles away waiting to get tested.

‘We’ve been offered water but no food and with such a long queue there should be something more offered.

‘So disappointed that this has been the start of our first cruise please do something to resolve this situation.’

The company apologised for the delays and said that staged embarkation times were behind some of the delays.

In a message on social media, a representative from the cruise liner said: ‘Our pre-voyage testing at Portsmouth is taking longer than expected.

‘We apologize to all Sailors for this delay. We're excited for you to experience everything Scarlet Lady has to offer.

‘We'll be providing more info about making it up to you once everyone has boarded.’

A Virgin Voyages spokesperson, speaking to the BBC, added: ‘Part of our on-board experience includes organising staggered embarkation times so that our sailors can board in a more timely fashion.

‘We acknowledge that when times are missed, or not accessible, this can delay the process and impact others.

‘We are fully committed to consistent improvement as we launch this brand and are working with our testing partner to fix this immediately.’

The 277m vessel, which has space for 3,000 passengers, is the largest cruise ship ever to sail from the city.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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