The 110,000 GT vessel was initially set to begin operating on 1 April 2020 but the COVID-19 pandemic postponed her official debut until 6 October 2021, after which she sailed her inaugural voyage to the Bahamas from her homeport of Miami.

[6] Branson christened the vessel in Dover on 21 February 2020 during an industry visit for the ship,[16] but formal naming festivities were scheduled for 19 March 2020 in her homeport of Miami, which were later curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[17][18] In March 2022, Virgin announced American singer Jennifer Lopez would become an investor and the brand's "chief entertainment and lifestyle officer", thus making her the informal godmother to Scarlet Lady and her fleetmates.

Following her delivery, Scarlet Lady began by hosting media and travel industry representatives on stops in Dover and Liverpool before continuing on her re-positioning voyage to the United States.

[21][6] Virgin had prepared preview events in New York City, but was forced to cancel them due to the pandemic so the ship sailed directly to Miami instead.

[23] On 12 March 2020, Virgin announced an initial postponement of the ship's inaugural season, with the pre-inaugural sailings slated to begin on 15 July 2020,[24][25] but these were cancelled in May 2020.

[24] Numerous debut timeframe adjustments for Scarlet Lady followed before Virgin decided to send the ship to Portsmouth, England to perform a limited summer 2021 season in the United Kingdom designed as a "preview"; from 6 August 2021, she operated six short sailings that varied between two and four nights-long and had enforced capacity restrictions for fully vaccinated British guests.

She was now scheduled to sail shorter itineraries, ranging from four to five nights round-trip from Miami to the Caribbean and visiting various ports including Havana, Puerto Plata, and Costa Maya,[35] in addition to Bimini.

[36] In June 2019, in response to the United States's government re-instituted ban on passengers from entering Cuba via passenger and recreational vessels, Virgin swapped out all visits to Havana with calls to Key West, Florida and also added a fourth itinerary option to visit Cozumel on five-night sailings, along with two seven-night holiday sailings to Puerto Plata and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

[37] On 31 October 2017, Branson and president and CEO of Virgin Voyages, Tom McAlpin, revealed that the company's first ship would be exclusive to adults, requiring that all guests be ages 18 and over.

[13] Chief Commercial Officer of Virgin Voyages, Nirmal Saverimuttu, also attributed the decision to the company's aim to target "people who would not typically consider a cruise holiday" and might be interested in a "cooler" and more "intimate" setting.