I’m thinking about taking a Virgin Voyages trip after winning a big online lottery and finding myself with some extra cash. I’m torn between going to Miami or Barcelona, but I can’t seem to locate any information that makes sense about the cost of the drink packages unless I book the cruise first. Has anyone traveled on Virgin Voyages and can tell me the details of the drink packages, including how much they cost?
In addition, are drink packages usually worth the money based on your experience with other cruise lines? I’m attempting to determine if paying in full now or ordering items individually is preferable. As I plan my vacation, any information about the value of these packages—especially on Virgin—would be incredibly helpful.
It can assist you if you plan to drink regardless. Imagine that you are heading to a bar with a gift card. Depending on the size of the gift card, you may receive a free bonus if you receive a “gift card.” It would be the same as going out for the evening if you didn’t receive the gift card.
Just to make sure this is really clear - Virgin Voyages do a prepay bar tab which gives you a bonus amount BUT is not refundable once you’re onboard (I see a good number of people miss this detail and lose money at the end). Essentially it’s a commitment to spend a specific amount on board, so you lose the “excess” if you don’t meet the commitment.
My general recommendation is to guess/estimate what you’re likely to spend, buy a bar tab for 60% of that (on your first cruise) and go pay-as-you-go afterwards. If you want bottomless drinks, there are options (bottomless brunch, primarily), but generally they’re not the cruise line for that.
I’ve sailed Celebrity with the zero-proof package, and my caffeine-addicted travelmate & I did manage to make it worthwhile, but you REALLY have to drink (and OMG my poor liver if I’d had an alcohol package) to make it worthwhile, they’re rigged to mostly make money for the cruise line.
I think any drink package is worth it if you intend to drink. It really boils down to doing the math.
I think VV does not give you a number of drinks or fixed drinks per se but a dollar amount. So if you drink Coors light, you could probably drink alot more vs if you were drinking Grey Goose martinis.
I’d check around youtube and perhaps look online for some menus to see what you would want to drink and their costs.
If you go out of Miami, I believe you can use their drink package on the private island so that is a bonus.
ETA, I would look at your itineraries as well. A port heavy med cruise will offer less time to drink versus say a Caribbean cruise where you might have more sea days or more lame ports like Nassau or Freeport where you might stay on the ship.
For my wife and I, a drink package is almost always purchased as we stay on the ship for a great number of ports as we’ve “been there done that” for many of the ports.