Virgin Voyages Launch VoyageFair Choices, Changing their Fare Structure into Three Options
If you’re like me, you’ll have loved cruising with Virgin Voyages for the simplicity of it all. I’ve always really appreciated the fact that I know that I’ll get perks like WiFi, soft drinks, gratuities and a few other elements included when I take a Virgin Voyages cruise. This is one of the key elements that have made this cruise line stand out from their competition over the last few years, and one of the key reasons that so many first-time cruisers often feel so comfortable booking their first cruise on a Virgin Voyages ship - it’s just so much easier to get your head around. However, a huge change is coming to the way that cruising with Virgin Voyages works…
Virgin Voyages have now announced ‘VoyageFair Choices’, a move that they suggest will bring more transparency to their operation.
It offers passengers (or ‘sailors’, in Virgin-speak) more options and therefore more ‘ways to get onboard’. They’ve waved goodbye to the old approach of having one tier for most sailors and another for ‘Rockstars’ (suite guests), and have now welcomed in a three-tier approach to choose from.
This key change comes in on October 7th 2025 and, from that date, anyone booking a Sea Terrace (or below) cabin will need to choose one of three fares when they book their cruise: ‘Base’, ‘Essential’, or ‘Premium’.
These are the three available tiers for Virgin cruise bookings made after October 7th 2025 - which would you choose?
So, what do each of the tiers get you?
Base:
Basic WiFi, allowing messaging, social use and general browsing - 1 device
Dining reservations available from 15 days before sail date
Non refundable fare - no date changes and no name changes
Premium drinks: No
Priority support: No
Essential:
Classic WiFi, allowing messaging, social use and faster browsing. WiFi audio calls are also included, and this package will allow 1 device to connect.
Dining reservations available from 45 days before sail date
Date changes are allowed on this fare, but only Sailors 2-4 on the booking can change names
Premium drinks: No
Priority support: No
Premium:
Premium WiFI, allowing messaging, social use and faster browsing. WiFi video calls and streaming are also possible on this connection, and 2 devices are permitted to connect.
Dining reservations available 60 days before sail date.
Date changes are allowed on this fare, with all Sailors being able to change names.
Premium drinks: £15 (USD) per Sailor per night (you can purchase additional, too)
Priority support: there’s a dedicated phone line to help with anyone booking on this fare.
Planning to book a Sea Terrace (or below) cabin type? You’ll now need to select one of three fare tiers to apply to your booking.
You can see a full breakdown of what’s included within each fare in the below image, which is also available on the Virgin Voyages website:
Planning to sail as a Rockstar or as a Mega Rockstar?
The change to this level is less than what’s coming for everyone else. The main change for these tiers is dining, Rockstars and Mega Rockstars will now be able to book 120 days before their sail date - a significant difference to the current window.
Rockstars and Mega Rockstars will be impacted the least with these upcoming changes.
Ok, let’s talk about tips (or gratuities)…
You might want to pay attention to this point - this is a big one. Previously, Virgin Voyages haven’t charged extra per night for tips/gratuities, like almost every other mainstream cruise line out there. This is something that I’ve historically loved while cruising with Virgin - no lump sum being added to my account half way through the cruise, thanks to the fact that my contributions have already been added to my account in advance.
Now though, this is changing.
Going forward, gratuities will be billed separately. These can either be paid in advance, or they can be paid for onboard, which a small cost-saving available to anyone taking advantage of the ‘pre-pay’ option.
The ‘Pre-Pay’ rate for gratuities will be $20 per Sailor per night, with the ‘Pay Onboard’ rate being $22 per Sailor per night. In other words, for a 7-night cruise on a Virgin Voyages ship, you should expect to either pre-pay your gratuities at a cost of $140, or pay $154 onboard.
How are Sailing Club perks impacted by this change to fare tiers?
Here’s the good news - they’re not. If you’re worried about how these new tiers will impact the loyalty programme, then fear not - nothing changes there. If you’re currently benefitting from ‘Deep Blue Extras’, you’ll continue to do so even if you opt to book a Lock-It-In rate for your future cruise.
Looking forward to booking your restaurant reservations for your Virgin Voyages cruise? Well, now you’ll need to comply with the rules relevant to your fare ‘tier’.
What will this change mean for cruise fares? Will the ‘Base’ be much lower than at present?
Well, this is where it gets interesting, isn’t it? In short, we don’t know the answer to this one yet - we’ll need to wait and see. The initial communication from Virgin Voyages suggests that the ‘Essential’ fare is what you’re currently used to getting from their product, so that would suggest to me that the ‘Base’ fare will need to be considerably cheaper in order to avoid dissatisfaction from their customer base.
As much as I hate to say it, ‘time will tell’…!
So, what does this mean for Virgin Voyages?
This is where it’s really interesting. Virgin Voyages have spent the last few years since their launch enforcing the message that they do things ‘differently’, and they’ve given the strong image of being much more ‘straight-forward’ than so many other cruise lines. No complicated fare structures - everybody gets WiFi, soft drinks, fitness classes etc.
These changes seem to be the introduction of a class-based system on the Virgin ships, something that I’m not initially convinced by. It feels like a similar approach that you’d see with the Virgin Airlines product - will we be paying for luggage in the future? I hope not…
As a Sailor in a regular cabin type, it’s not just Richard’s Rooftop that you might wish you had access to on your future cruise…
To me, this feels very similar to the ‘experiences’ that you can book when you cruise with MSC Cruises: Bella, Fantastica or Aurea. With these ‘experiences’, you unlock different perks on the ship. These experiences are available to all ‘standard’ cabins onboard MSC Cruises ships, with the MSC Yacht Club then being an equivalent offering to the likes of the Virgin Voyages Rockstar concept.
Ultimately, if the prices are much less than the other options (and than the current pricing) when booking the ‘Base’ fare, then I could probably buy into this concept to a degree. However, if the price of the ‘Essential’ package is higher than what we’re currently seeing for Virgin Voyages, I probably won’t be sold.
Does this mark the start of a cruise line that’s always been fascinatingly different to the competition conforming to the industry norms? Well, let’s wait and see…
You can find out more about VoyageFair Choices on the Virgin Voyages website: click here.
Want to see what I’ve historically loved about cruising with Virgin Voyages? Just watch the video below from my most recent cruise onboard one of their ships!