Virgin Voyages Rolls Out Big Changes

You miiiiight have heard about some changes that Virgin Voyages has introduced. Not only did Virgin send emails out to clients that are currently booked on a voyage, the information was quickly splashed all over the online discussion forums. To say the least, there was debate…

There are a lot of strong reactions by customers and netizens. We get it. Change, especially when it comes to a familiar thing that you like, is unnerving. When that happens, I find it helpful to take a step back, pause, and try to make a dispassionate analysis; well, at least as dispassionate as you can be. So, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.

The Changes

First, these changes ONLY APPLY TO BOOKINGS MADE AFTER OCTOBER 7, 2025. If you make a booking before that date, these changes will not apply to your booking.

For all bookings made after that date, take a look at this chart.

Virgin Voyages’ provided chart of the new fare categories.

This outlines the changes pretty well, but let’s clarify some points right away.

The Rockstar and Mega Rockstar categories have an increased pre-voyage dining booking window of 120 days prior to voyage start.
The “Standard Cabin Types” means all cabins that are not Rockstar suites- Sea Terraces, Limited View Sea Terraces, Slightly Smaller Sea terraces, XL Sea Terraces, Sea View Cabins, and all Insider Cabins. I will use Standard Cabin Types for the rest of this article when referring to this group of cabins.
The Essential category is, broadly, what everyone who books Standard Cabin Types has been experiencing.
These changes take effect October 7^th, 2025 and do not affect bookings made by that date. If you made a booking before October 7, that “legacy booking” can be change to one of the new tiers later, if you wish.
There is now a fourth internet category called Basic. Wi-Fi access is still provided to all sailors, but this new category is the slowest and has the most restrictions on uses.
There is also a change to how gratuities are paid, which we’ll discuss in more detail a little further down.

Now, let’s dive into what all those things mean.

Digging In

Effectively, there are two new categories of booking, Base and Premium. Both of these categories only apply to booking Standard Cabin Types. The other two categories from the chart above are the Essential and Lock It In Rate categories. These latter two categories are experiences that people are familiar with, even if “Essential” is a new name. However, they too have some changes to them.

Lock It In Rate

Previously, Lock It In Rate bookings were able to book dining 45 days out from sailing. That is now 15 days.
Internet access is now limited to the new “Basic” category.
With the Lock It In Rate, you cannot change the date of sailing, the names on the booking, which cabin you are assigned, or receive a refund for cancellation.
Everything else on the chart is the same as it has been for Lock It In Rates but, yes, this does represent a benefit decline for this type of booking from what existed before.

Base

This is a new category, but it seems very similar to Lock It In Rate.
Dining reservations open up 15 days prior to sailing.
Internet access is set at the new “Basic” category.
Cabin is assigned at booking but Virgin has the right to change it up to 7 days prior to sailing.
Just like the Lock It In Rate, booking this fare means that you cannot change the date of sailing, the names on the booking, which cabin you are assigned, or receive a refund for cancellation.

Essential

Dining reservations open up 45 days prior to sailing, which is the standard experience currently.
Internet access is set at the “Classic” category. This Wi-Fi category is currently known as “Basic”. Until these changes, this was the internet package included onboard the ships and anyone who has sailed Virgin Voyages is likely familiar with it.
Cabin is assigned at booking and you are able to change it. Changing the date of sailing is also allowed. Finally, bookings at this fare are eligible for Future Voyage Credit if there is a cancellation, subject to the cancellation policy terms.
One, potentially, significant change is that name changes to booked sailors are only allowed for the second to fourth sailors. The primary booked sailor (the first name on the sailing) is no longer allowed to change.

Premium

This is a new category of sailing rates on Virgin Voyages.
Dining reservations open up 60 days prior to sailing, which is not as far in advance as RockStar bookings, but is ahead of all others.
Internet access is set at the “Premium” category. This Wi-Fi category already exists onboard. It is faster than “Basic” or “Classic”, but not as fast as the “Work From Sea” category and has fewer restrictions on uses.
Cabin is assigned at booking and can be changed, as can the date of sailing. Bookings at this fare are eligible for Future Voyage Credit if there is a cancellation, subject to the cancelation policy. Finally, this rate category, unlike Essential, is allowed to change the name of every sailor booked. This, potentially, is a significant benefit over the other fares.
Premium also gets access to Priority Service support, which means that Virgin Voyages will prioritize responding to your messages for assistance.
Premium bookings are also given $15 per sailor per night in Bar Tab.

RockStar and MegaRockStar

The only change to this category is an increased pre-voyage dining booking window to 120 days prior to voyage start.

Gratuities Change

One of the most discussed changes is the gratuities change. These are not listed in the chart shown above, since that doesn’t seem to be the purpose of that chart. Virgin Voyages listed these changes, in the communications we’ve seen, further down the announcement from the new sailing rates.

Here’s what’s changed, per their communications:

Gratuities will now be listed separately on your invoice. Previously, they were simply shown as part of the price. To be clear, gratuities have always been a part of the fare on Virgin Voyages, they are simply broken out as a line item now.
You can pre-pay gratuities before you cruise for $20 per person per night. This is non-refundable.
If you did not pre-pay gratuities, $22 per person per night will be added to your portfolio and your card will be charged at the end of your trip. Unlike the pre-pay, this is changeable by visiting Sailor Services onboard

Why Make These Changes?

As with everything that gets updated, changed, revamped, or retooled, people ask why it’s being done.

We were invited to a special session with Virgin Voyages management at their headquarters and they were asked this question. Their answer was straightforward, it’s to attract a broader base of customers by offering a broader base of fares.

By offering lower priced fares with the Basic rate, and listing gratuities separately, it allows Virgin to list a lower price for the cruise’s marketing. Lower prices look more attractive to consumers, especially in an industry as competitive as cruising.

As it stands, other cruise lines list their prices without gratuities and include packages to upgrade their experience. Virgin Voyages has not done that but these changes move toward that direction. Following these changes, Virgin’s pricing can be marketed lower than it currently is and, thus, appear more competitive with other lines.

Virgin is insistent that the onboard experience that matters most, meaning the crew, the food, the vibe, the entertainment will not change. This is the message given to First Mates (travel agents) at the meetings and the message in their announcement.

Concerns and Questions

Obviously, many current and potential sailors have questions and concerns. Some of these have answers and some do not. Below are some of the most significant that we have so far. Some of them have been answered at the time of writing and some have not. We will update as we receive answers to anything listed below.

Although Virgin Voyages was clear that these changes do not impact their Sailing Club (Blue Extras/Deep Blue Extras), the Premium rate provides Premium Wi-Fi in the package and that is a benefit that overlaps with Deep Blue Extras. It is unknown if Deep Blue Extras will impact pricing for the Premium rate.
The very popular My Next Virgin Voyage (MNVV) will work with the Base rate but is still restricted to Sea Terrace cabins and above.
Regarding Groups and Circles, Base and Lock it in fares will not be included in groups or circles
RockStars have no “Premium” rate option, which includes Premium Wi-Fi and a $15/sailor/night Bar Tab – something that RockStars do not get by default. We’ve seen people asking about this and it seems that, for now, the answer is if RockStars wish to have Premium Wi-Fi and $15/sailor/night in Bar Tab, they can purchase those à la carte since the other benefits of sailing as a RockStar are already superior to the Premium rate.
How other promotions or discounts combine/apply with these rates is unknown at this time.
At this time, it is unknown how much more the Premium rate will cost or how much booking the Base rate could save.

There are more questions and concerns than just these, but this article is long enough already. If you have questions, please reach out to your travel agent (First Mate as Virgin calls us) and let them know. These new rate categories bring some complexity to booking. Travel agents are there to help you sort through exactly this sort of minutiae and we are doing just that with our clients right now.

Our Take

There’s a lot of unknown in these new offerings that has yet to be made clear. It will take time to figure out how this new system fully works. Yes, we have some concerns that this makes the system more complicated. However, that complexity may bring a flexibility that people didn’t know they wanted. Ultimately, we believe that these changes have the potential to be quite good.

We also are fairly sure that we will see changes over time as customer feedback about the program is taken into account. One thing that Virgin has shown is that they listen to customer feedback. Remember, Virgin Voyages is a business, one with a lot of competition, and they want to keep their customers coming back. They also want to recruit new customers and grow their business.

Bluntly put, Virgin’s pricing almost always looks higher than other lines and they want ways to get the marketed price down so people will consider them. That’s what we believe is driving these changes more than anything else. We see this happen with our own clients.

We are constantly asked about lower looking fares from other cruises and then we show an apples-to-apples comparison that often favors Virgin. That’s a fair bit of research for the average person to do and not everyone uses a travel advisor who can show them that. We don’t mind doing the legwork, but we suspect Virgin’s marketing and sales departments probably do.

In our experience, there are many people that react strongly and positively to simply seeing a low price. It’s understandable, people want to save money. That means that getting the lowest price possible in front of people is important when you’re trying to sell something.

The interesting thing is that many people, likely even the vast majority of them, who see a low-priced fare don’t book that fare even if it’s what got them looking at a specific itinerary or cruise line to begin with. Very often, people will pay for addons to their cruise because they decide they want that extra little something. That’s why the Splash of Romance package is so popular.

Our guess is that the Premium rate will be quite popular and we’ll see more people looking to sail Virgin because they were drawn in by lower advertised fares. Those same lower fares may also prove to be quite popular for people who aren’t interested in what the Essential or Premium rates offer.