Bar Tab question

[Juju113]

Hey all! We are just 7 days away from cruising!! Valiant Lady here we come!! This will be our first Virgin Voyage and I have a question about the bar tab. Hubby is a light beer guy. He doesn’t deviate from that much except for the occasional glass of wine. I’m the mixed drink, champagne, wine drinker. With that being said, what would you all recommend for a starting bar tab? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated 😁

[MNcruisingcouple]

We were on the Jan 27 sailing of Valiant Lady and loved it!  Hope you have a fabulous cruise. 

Average cost - Beer $7-9; Wine $9-15; Cocktails $11-15.  Wine and cocktails went up from there if you chose very high end options.

So how many you are going to drink each day will determine what kind of bar tab you will want.  

We started with $900 and had to work to use it but my DH is not a day drinker at all.  So everyone's personal milage is going to vary.

[rebeccac]

You can google "Virgin Voyages bar menu" and you will find several people who have posted the menus with prices.  One thing to bear in mind is that the prices you see are the actual prices, there is no gratuity added on top.  

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

I see no benefit to the bar tab purchase. 

Yes, they add $50 to $300 but you lose what you don’t use. Drinks are the same price whether you use a tab or not. $50 is not worth it to me. I would just use whatever perk tab was given and settle at the end for anything else. We ended losing $450 that I paid for and were drinking things we would never normally drink to get rid of the balance.
 

As far as beer selections, my son is a light beer guy and was disappointed with beer selections. I don’t drink beer so can’t comment on that. 

Edited February 10 by WatermelonSugarHigh

[jon81uk]

1 hour ago, rebeccac said:

You can google "Virgin Voyages bar menu" and you will find several people who have posted the menus with prices.  One thing to bear in mind is that the prices you see are the actual prices, there is no gratuity added on top.  

Just be aware some of the sites uploaded menus two years ago and a few prices have gone up, for example standard Heineken beer is now at least $6 not $5, house/well spirits went from $7 to $8 or more.

 

Also it depends if you really want latte/cappucino or similar or just the free drip coffee, those are $4 a time.

 

Weve usually got through about $50 per person per night in drinks on average, but a lot of that was just Absolut vodka and Sprite or similar at $8, if you want fully mixed cocktails from the menu at $11-15 then you might spend more. Also if you are a day drinker you’ll probably spend more than those who just have drinks with dinner and in the evenings.

 

Do check if you got some promo bar tab from your booking offer (look under add ons in the app or website).

[MNcruisingcouple]

3 minutes ago, WatermelonSugarHigh said:

I see no benefit to the bar tab purchase. 

Yes, they add $50 to $300 but you lose what you don’t use and can only use on alcohol. Drinks are the same price whether you use a tab or not, so we would just use as we go and pay at the end. $50 is not worth it to me. I would just use whatever perk tab is given and settle at the end for anything else. 
 

As far as beer selections, my son is a light beer guy and was disappointed with beer selections. I don’t drink beer so can’t comment on that. 

 

For us personally, we would have no problem using $300 so it makes sense to purchase the bar tab and get the extra $50 (if we don't already have enough with the promos).  That being said, if you are at risk to not use it up, it makes total sense to just pay as you go.

There are options for everyone. 

[jon81uk]

7 minutes ago, MNcruisingcouple said:

There are options for everyone. 

And there are now options to get $100 and $200 bar tabs with lower bonus amounts.

[cantgetin]

The big questions are how long is the cruise and how many of those beers and wines will you drink in a day.  Do be aware if looking at menus that many prices have increased in the last year; I can't speak to the alcohol since Nov.  Beers were $5-7, Wines ballpark $10-12, Cocktails 10-17  but as someone said, sky's the limit on wine and cocktails depending on what you order.
You can now get a bonus on $100, $200, and $300 bar tabs purchased at least 2 days before sailing.  If you will drink at least $300, (includes premium tea, coffee, smoothies, and cold pressed juices as well), the $300 gives you a $50 bonus.  We've  never spent our entire bar tab but we've almost always had bookings that included a bar tab.

Do a quick "how much."  3 beers and 2 wines per day is about $50.  Is that enough?  IF you get a bar tab and don't use the price you paid, you are losing money.  Better to buy less in bar tab and pay the rest on your credit card than to chase a bonus.  Or find some friends who have way more free bar tab than they can use!

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

1 hour ago, MNcruisingcouple said:

 

For us personally, we would have no problem using $300 so it makes sense to purchase the bar tab and get the extra $50 (if we don't already have enough with the promos).  That being said, if you are at risk to not use it up, it makes total sense to just pay as you go.

There are options for everyone. 

I edited my comment to drinks vs alcohol.  We did use it for coffee too which was very good.  I will say quality of cocktails, liquor selections and wine selections were great.

i just asked my son what light beers they had, and he said what he saw was Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Lite, Amstel Light and Corona, Heineken .  They were out of Coors Light.  Maybe he was just being picky because that sounds like a decent selection of light beers to me 😂 so just ignore my earlier comment. 🍺 He doesn’t like to drink the higher alcohol IPAs or Ambers, but he did say he really enjoyed the Virgin label tap beer at the Crafthouse. He said he did not go to the pool bars at all so maybe they had more selections there. 
Have fun! 

Edited February 10 by WatermelonSugarHigh
Responded to wrong person 😂

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

40 minutes ago, cantgetin said:

The big questions are how long is the cruise and how many of those beers and wines will you drink in a day.  Do be aware if looking at menus that many prices have increased in the last year; I can't speak to the alcohol since Nov.  Beers were $5-7, Wines ballpark $10-12, Cocktails 10-17  but as someone said, sky's the limit on wine and cocktails depending on what you order.
You can now get a bonus on $100, $200, and $300 bar tabs purchased at least 2 days before sailing.  If you will drink at least $300, (includes premium tea, coffee, smoothies, and cold pressed juices as well), the $300 gives you a $50 bonus.  We've  never spent our entire bar tab but we've almost always had bookings that included a bar tab.

Do a quick "how much."  3 beers and 2 wines per day is about $50.  Is that enough?  IF you get a bar tab and don't use the price you paid, you are losing money.  Better to buy less in bar tab and pay the rest on your credit card than to chase a bonus.  Or find some friends who have way more free bar tab than they can use!

I heard a LOT of people last few days saying they were scrambling to use up bar tabs. We bought two bottles of Veuve Clicquot Rosé for our table at Gunbae on the last night. 

Edited February 10 by WatermelonSugarHigh

[jon81uk]

6 minutes ago, WatermelonSugarHigh said:

He said he did not go to the pool bars at all so maybe they had more selections there. 

The only beer on tap at the pool is Heineken and sometimes Strongbow hard cider. They do have cans of others but biggest

selection is at the Draught Haus bar. Most beer drinkers at the pool seemed to either have draught Heineken or cans of Corona.

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

6 minutes ago, jon81uk said:

The only beer on tap at the pool is Heineken and sometimes Strongbow hard cider. They do have cans of others but biggest

selection is at the Draught Haus bar. Most beer drinkers at the pool seemed to either have draught Heineken or cans of Corona.

It’d be cool if they offered some selection of local beers from the Caribbean islands visited on board.  I’m not really into beer, but I’ve been known to suck down a bucket of Caribs or Piton on the beach myself. I really enjoy Piton if it’s ice cold. 

[cantgetin]

We did not use up our bar tab on the last cruise.  We bought two bottles, and were still willing to share with anyone who didn't have a tab!  But then, we had one of the huge promotion deals.

One nice sharing trick if you have more than you will use--if you see crew in line at Grounds Club, offer to have their order put on your tab.  They do have a premium coffee/tea location in the crew part of the ship, but that is often too far to go if they are on a short break from their station.  If they get it in a guest area, they pay the same amount we do and charge it to their "crew card."   Just a nice gesture and puts a few extra dollars in their pocket.  Same at the restaurants--you can offer to pay for a round or get a bottle for crew at a table.

[Juju113]

Thank you all so much for the advice. Lots to think about and consider and just a few days left to go!!!

[garycarla]

On 2/10/2024 at 9:25 AM, WatermelonSugarHigh said:

I see no benefit to the bar tab purchase. 

Yes, they add $50 to $300 but you lose what you don’t use. Drinks are the same price whether you use a tab or not. $50 is not worth it to me. ...

 

If you drink $400 worth of drinks on the cruise, the bar tab is of GREAT BENEFIT.

[cantgetin]

1 hour ago, garycarla said:

 

If you drink $400 worth of drinks on the cruise, the bar tab is of GREAT BENEFIT.

Exactly!  If you use what you paid for a bar tab, it is a "break even."  If you use ANY of the bonus, you came out ahead.  Bonus can be $10 (on $100 tab) up to $125 (on $300 tab with max loyalty). $50 and $100 on $300 is common.
We have never lost money on a bar tab, but most of our bookings have included a generous "free" tab and we have not always spent all of that.

[WatermelonSugarHigh]

8 hours ago, garycarla said:

 

If you drink $400 worth of drinks on the cruise, the bar tab is of GREAT BENEFIT.

I wouldn’t say $50 added is a “great benefit” if there’s a chance you don’t use it.  Two of us got the flu the last two days of our sailing ( as did a LOT of people on our sailing) so we use it all. It’s a gamble. 

[WanderingBrit]

If you’re sailing as a Rockstar you’d need to be a more committed drinker than me to get value from pre-purchasing bar tab. Between what’s in the room and the sunset hour we’re not spending a lot extra - but we’re not party people.

[Tralfaz1138]

9 hours ago, WanderingBrit said:

If you’re sailing as a Rockstar you’d need to be a more committed drinker than me to get value from pre-purchasing bar tab. Between what’s in the room and the sunset hour we’re not spending a lot extra - but we’re not party people.

My wife and I ended up in somewhat the same boat. That said, it was a 15 night cruise so between the drink pairings at Test Kitchen, specialty coffee, wine at dinner a number of nights and a single malt to burn off the remainder our last night I was able to work through it.  But I had a few bottles left in the bar, some of which I took with me when we left.  We have a $300 bar tab included with this next trip as part of booking it so we'll see how that goes.  With the Moet hour now changing to a drink menu, that will make the bar tab even less necessary (though at least this time it was just included versus something I paid for the last time).

[Travel-and-See]

Looks like bar tab promotions are only available for balcony and above now.

[jon81uk]

5 minutes ago, Travel-and-See said:

Looks like bar tab promotions are only available for balcony and above now.

It’s been that way for all of January and February. 
 

They also stopped mega rockstars getting it, as drinks are almost unlimited for mega anyway.

[cantgetin]

So many deals are only available for sea terrace and above that it often makes sense to pay the difference to get one....besides, I like the hammock.

[Travel-and-See]

I’ll still get a small bar tab and coffee credits so I’m good.  I’m a strange one, I think I prefer inside rooms although the hammock is comfy (got a free upgrade once).