Easy to please cruisers (except we do like good wine) need booking advice

[happy cruzer]

Hello,

 

Have gotten great advice on the boards here in the past. So thanks in advance!

 

Looking to book for the first time on Virgin and my TA does not book them.  So I'm going to DIY.

 

Want to book an outside cabin. 

 

About the only thing we are particular about is wine with dinner.  We normally carry on wine.  Most wine by the glass is just so so (being nice 🙂 ) on the other lines.  Do they do wine packages, beverage packages, carry on policy and enforcement?

 

Any info about the booking process and Virgin in general?

 

What does a first time booker need to know?

 

Thanks.

 

[jon81uk]

You can carry on two bottles of wine per cabin in your carry-on luggage.

 

same as most other lines, they might charge corkage if you bring your own bottle to dinner.

https://help.virginvoyages.com/helpportal/s/searchresult?userInput=Can I bring my own wine to dinner#reload

 

I think all the wine I had was good it’s quite affordable by the glass too, most are $7-12 but there might be a few high end options too. Virgin include gratuity in the initial fare, so you don’t need to add the 18% on drinks either. 

 

there is no drink packages, but currently with the special offer you get $300/600 to spend on drinks.

If you need more, or there is no free bar tab on your cruise, you can buy bar tab. If you pre-pay $300 you get a bonus $50. Bar tab is non-refundable but can be spent on any drinks.

 

you don’t have to pre-pay drinks, if you don’t have bar tab then your credit card is charged on the last night.

Edited April 21, 2023 by jon81uk

[cruisingagain2023]

I recommend using a Travel agent that works with Virgin voyages. You will likely get extras beyond what you get booking directly. In my recent experience, it was significant depending on what type of room you book. 

 

 

[FFMilesJunkie]

The wine list on board is not bad.  We found that the basic formula they use is wines by the glass = about 1/2 the retail price of the bottle and wines by the bottle were about a 100% markup (which is not bad compared to most restaurants on land).  For example, they were pouring a Paul Hobbs Bonanza Cab in the Wake for $12 per glass.  This wines sells for about $20-25 per bottle in a shop. We bought one of our favorite Stone Street Cabs for around $85 when it sells in a shop for about $40.  They also had a Rosso di Montalcino (one of my favorite baby brunello) for around $40 per bottle in Extra Virgin.  

[Fogcityca13]

I agree the wine by the glass selection is pretty decent and the markup is pretty fair. 
 

I booked my first voyage, and then the next 3 with a TA. Virgin auto assigns you a cabin, there is no deck selection/preference. If you are particular about we’re your cabin location is a TA can be a big help. TA’s can view the inventory. If you want to book yourself, you can open a bunch of tabs on your browser and keep booking until you find the room you want, thank Sid for that tip.  There is not much more to booking. The only add ons are the Bar Tab and Splash of Romance. Status matching is also something to look at as well.

[Giraffes]

32 minutes ago, Fogcityca13 said:

If you want to book yourself, you can open a bunch of tabs on your browser and keep booking until you find the room you want

Or you could call sailor services after booking and they can make the change to the cabin you prefer.

[_tacocat_]

if you're expecting to have 100 point wines with dinner every night, you'll be disappointed.  i wouldn't call their selection so-so, but it's also not like you'd find at a steakhouse/nice restaurant on land.

 

that said, the wake has a "magnum trolley" program that has a lot of good wines - i think they were around $20-30/glass for things like caymus and i'm blanking on what else on the cart haha.  they have a decent wine program at the wake and test kitchen, and extra virgin offers taste and glass pourings. we ended up DIYing our own italian wine tasting at the bar at EV with some snacks one evening by splitting 4-5 "taster" pours.

 

there are somms at the wake, test kitchen, and i can't remember which other restaurant (i don't think it was EV) that can help you out.  francois was on scarlet at the wake, then moved to test kitchen, then moved to valiant at the wake.  he was our best friend when we sailed as mega rockstars because we'd hit him up every day at the wake for our 2 bottles of wine.  we did mega smack in the middle of supply chain issues, so the wine list did not reflect reality, and they had things that were off menu.  the somms were happy to go hunting in the store room for whatever we asked for (and brought us some interesting off menu wines!) and we usually got it the next day.

[happy cruzer]

Thanks for all the helpful info.  Anyone have link to a deckplan that shows the actual footage of different cabins?  So far we seem to be in 9378A; looks like there may be larger outside cabins that may be worth calling about?

 

Thanks for the advice about the wine.  Are bottles of wine covered in the bar tab?  Is the corkage fee covered in the bar tab?

 

 

[jon81uk]

4 minutes ago, happy cruzer said:

Thanks for all the helpful info.  Anyone have link to a deckplan that shows the actual footage of different cabins?  So far we seem to be in 9378A; looks like there may be larger outside cabins that may be worth calling about?

 

Thanks for the advice about the wine.  Are bottles of wine covered in the bar tab?  Is the corkage fee covered in the bar tab?

 

 

9378 is a standard sea view, if you want a balcony you need a sea terrace room. Other than that the rooms are roughly the same size. The sea view rooms are either in the front of the ship like this one or down on deck 5.

https://www.cruisedeckplans.com/DP/deckplans/deckbydeck.php?ship=Scarlet-Lady&deck=9
 

bar tab can be used for all drinks, hot, premium soft, wine, beer, cocktails. 

[CineGraphic]

We brought some nice Chiantis and Riojas on 2 of our 3 sailings, and were never charged a corkage fee when bringing bottles with us to dinner.

 

Here's a link to all of the drink menus.

Each venue has it's own unique selection.

The better reds will be in "Extra Virgin", and "The Wake"

https://profcruise.com/virgin-bar-menus-2023/

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by CineGraphic

[_tacocat_]

Corkage depends on who actually waits on you- we didn’t get charged the first 3 or 4 times, and got charged the next time.  Pro tip, pour yourself a very large glass on your way in- no corkage haha.  My husband and I have done that a couple times on the way into the wake and extra virgin (basically split a bottle in 2 glasses)

[cantgetin]

VV lists a sea terrace cabin (balcony) at 225 sq. ft, and a sea view (porthole) at 197...but they are essentially the same cabin except for the balcony.

We can't recommend TAs on this site, but I would highly suggest you use one.  To sell VV, the agent must do their training; that's why some agents don't deal with them.  However, those that do often have special offers available to you, even with a first booking.  They can offer a zillion little helpful hints and services.  I booked our first cruise on my own and my next 3 with an agent.  Shoreside sailor services can be a pain...agents have their own portals and can avoid the crap!  I'm not an agent or any sort of travel professional.

Tootles!

[jon81uk]

General advice for sailing with Virgin Voyages,

Once you’ve booked, download the app and do the six check in steps, the final one is to choose the embarkation slot, the earlier times go first.

 

At 45 days to go you can reserve dinner restaurants in the app.

Then once onboard you can do fitness classes, activity and show reservations in the app. Some fitness classes fill quickly. There will also be more times available for dinner once onboard if you need to move something and you can book brunch in The Wake and Razzle Dazzle.

 

 Hope that helps

[CineGraphic]

Virgin pays the highest commission rates in the industry, even on pre-cruise add-ons like the bar tab program, so you will always get something extra for booking with an agent.