You’ve booked your Virgin Voyage, you’ve read about the seemingly endless list of places to eat, started scanning through menus and thinking about what you want to try. You know reservations are opening soon, but you still have so many questions. Or you’re just exploring the idea of cruising, and not sure how it works. Well, I’m here to help with some of the most common questions that we, as First Mates, tend to get.
Because Virgin has no traditional main dining room, like you get on most other cruise ships, you can eat in a different spot every night with no specialty dining fees, which is also unique among large cruise ships. However, this means a reservation system, which can cause frustration or even panic for some guests. I’ll pull back the curtain on Virgin Voyages’ dining reservations and what you need to know about it.
Booking Before You Board
Virgin Voyages has several sailing fare categories. They are, Lock-It-In, Base, Essential, Premium, RockStar and Mega RockStar. No matter what fare you’ve booked, though, you will have an opportunity to grab some dinner and brunch reservations before you sail. You’ll be able to make these dining reservations through the Virgin app, or on virginvoyages.com under your booking page.
The trick here is that which cabin and fare type you book, determines how far before your departure date you can make those reservations. In other words, some fare types and cabins get to make their reservations earlier than others.
If you book a Lock-it-In or Base Fare, then the first chance you’re going to have to book any brunch or dining reservations is 15 days before your sailing. If you’re booked under the Essential Fare, that window for dining reservations will open 45 days before the start of the cruise. With the Premium Fare, you will get 60 days. And for those in the Rockstar and MegaRockstar cabins, you’ll get to plan your dining a whole 120 days before you set sail.
Virgin Voyages dining reservation system depends a great deal on what fare you book with.
With all that said, Virgin only opens a portion of their total reservation slots before the sailing. More on that in a moment.
You also need to know that how often you are allowed to book each restaurant will also vary based on the length of your sailing. For sailings of five nights or less, you can have one reservation per restaurant. Meanwhile, those on six-to-eight-night cruises can book twice per restaurant. And anyone on cruises of nine or more nights can reserve each restaurant three times.
Also consider if you’re a diehard fan of one of Virgin’s places, doing a walk-up to the restaurant does not count towards this limitation, it’s just for reservations! You can even do a walk-up and eat at a reservation on the same night, if you’re really, really hungry.
Didn’t Get the Times/Days You Want?
Let’s say you need to eat at 6:30 PM every night, or you really want to snag the Wake for your birthday dinner, but for some reason you can’t get the timeslot you’re looking for. What can be done? Well, don’t worry, there are a few tips a tricks for getting the perfect dining schedule on Virgin.
First, you can come back and check on availability. People change their schedules, cancel cruises, or any number of things. Just because a restaurant or timeslot isn’t available now doesn’t mean it won’t be later. Pop in and check from time to time to see if that slot opened.
Lucky Lotus by Razzle Dazzle is where you’ll head to at the start of a sailing if you need to make adjustments with the Virgin Voyages dining reservation system and you don’t want to use the app.
Second, once you’re on the ship, there are a few ways you can snag those extra times that open up. First, as soon as you are on the ship’s WiFi, you can log in and make or edit bookings. If you don’t have a great phone or are just a little clumsy with your thumbs, you can also make your way to the dining reservation desk, usually at Razzle Dazzle, where Virgin will have crew helping make and alter reservations.
Finally, it can be worth keeping an eye on reservations as the cruise goes on. People will cancel their plans mid-cruise, causing times to open. You never know if the perfect spot will free up the day of.
Virgin’s New Shared Dining – What Is It?
Virgin Voyages recently updated their dining system to allow for “shared tables.” A shared table is one where you will be sat next to other people who are not in your dining party. Many restaurants have called this family style seating. Before you ask, this new system is completely opt-in so don’t worry about being forced to sit with people if you don’t want to.
The pilot program for this is running on a few sailings in October and November of 2026, and if it’s a hit, it will likely be implemented going forward. Now you might be asking yourself the question, why are they doing this?
Well, there are two reasons. First, some people like the idea of dining with random folks they don’t know. They are called extroverts and if you are not one of them this probably never occurred to you. At this point I would say hello to my fellow introverts, but that’s not how we do things, so I’ll simply give you a head nod and then go in opposite directions.
Gunbae style dining is exactly what the line is trying out with the “Shared Tables” option in the Virgin Voyages Dining Reservation system, but now it’s at the other restaurants.
The second part of the answer is to simply give Sailors a little more flexibility when it comes to dining. Virgin has always grappled with the reality that they offer the equivalent of specialty dining on other cruise lines as part of the price. This leads to everyone wanting reservations, and with limited space in each restaurant, that leads to people becoming upset if they can’t get the times they want.
With this program there will be more flexibility. If a 6-person table at Rojo on the Brilliant Lady is being unused for dinner, why not put three pairs of sailors together in a time that might be unavailable for three 2-person tables? And don’t worry about breaking the ice, Virgin plans to have the crew help make those awkward introductions go by in a more direct way.
It’s not like Virgin are… virgins… at doing ice breakers either. Gunbae, their Korean BBQ restaurant on the ship is exclusively this style of dining. I think the line should have this handled fairly well.
If you’re onboard for one of these pilot voyages and feel like trying it out, make sure to give Virgin feedback!
But if you don’t want to do it, don’t. Know that people who choose to participate may have made more space for your table.
No Reservations? No Problem!
If you can’t or don’t want to get reservations, I promise you will not starve. You will do whatever the opposite of starving is. Full-ing, perhaps.
If you don’t have a reservation, consider walking up the evening of. You might have some issues with a big group of people, but if there’s just two or three of you, it shouldn’t be too bad. I recommend going up as soon as the restaurant opens and seeing if you can get in later that evening to give the crew some wiggle room on time to get you in. If you do this, you will get messaged in the app when your table is ready.
However, even if you don’t get into one of the restaurants offered on Virgin, there are a variety of other options. The Galley will have dinner service at the Diner and Dash, as well as burgers, salads, sushi, and baked goods. Some popular dinner options include beef wellington and butter chicken. Unfortunately, the ramen, tacos, and paninis aren’t open in the evening, as the crew that work those are doing dinner service in the restaurants.
It’s not exactly conventional, but you can always just eat all the ice cream you want! You don’t need to use the Virgin Voyages dining reservation system to fill up on that!
In addition to the Galley, you can always grab a fresh-made pizza at the Pizza Place. Virgin offers my favorite cruise pizza of any line I’ve tried. There are also quick options at the Social Club and the Dockhouse. The Social club serves wings, pretzels, and hot dogs, while the Dock offers delicious Greek bites. The shrimp there are a consistent favorite for people.
If you want to eat in your room, you can bring any food back with you and the to-go pizzas, from the Pizza Place, and the grab-and-go boxes in the Galley and by the Dock are all convenient ways to get food back to the cabin .
There’s also Ship Eats, the delivery room service available 24 hours a day. There’s a $10 delivery charge for non-Rockstar guests, but if you order $10 in drinks with your Bar Tab, that fee is waived.
There are also dinner shows as a paid extra held in the Manor. You generally get 5 different cocktails, one for each course, included in the price. And finally, it’s not the traditional dinner, but you can get all the Ice Cream you’d like right next to the Pizza Place.
