Virgin Voyages Sailing Club Perks
Virgin Voyages just launched their new loyalty program and while it could use some improvement, here are some of the perks that we have received as part of our first cruise since launch. Read on if you are part of the Sailing Club as a Sea-Blazer or a Sea-Rover to know what to expect when you cruise with Virgin in 2022.
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The new loyalty program gave us these perks until the end of the year (December 2022). The program was launched just a week or so ago (late August 2022), so I was lucky enough to test the perks as a Sea Blazer for my September 2022 cruise.
This post is part of our extensive Virgin Voyages cruise posts. Here are some other posts about Virgin Voyages:
A Sea-Blazer is considered anybody who has sailed in Virgin Voyages 2021 cruises. Because of COVID and cruise lockdowns, the inaugural cruises of Virgin Voyages Scarlet Lady have been moved from 2020 to October 2021. Because of this, Virgin rewarded those who sailed with them in 2021 with a Sea-Blazer designation, a play on words on trailblazers on the sea.
As part of our initial Sea-Blazer perks, this is what we got:
If you were not part of the first voyagers that sailed with Virgin in 2021, sad to say you can’t be a Sea-Blazer anymore but you can be on the next level, the Sea-Rovers. To get to the Sea-Rover level, all you need is to cruise twice in 2022 on Virgin and you’ll get the same level perks as the Sea-Blazers. Additionally, if you have status in the other cruise lines or with Virgin Atlantic, you can get Virgin to match the status for you.
Having just heard of the new Virgin perks a few weeks ago, I never thought that they would roll it out this quickly. Luckily enough, I was on one of the first sailings they had while they were rolling the program out. Here are the perks if you want a summarized version:
Yes, expedited boarding is available for Sailing Club members on Virgin Voyages. You won’t get on the same line as Rockstars, who have black bands. You will still need to queue up to get into the terminal but once you get to the second floor and check in, head straight to the Sailing Club queue.
From there, they ask for your name or room number, and they confirm if you are indeed part of the Sailing Club. They give you another band that you can use to board the ship early. The first group to board the ship are the ones who bought the Touch of Romance package, which has a completely different wristband, while the second group will be the people who have the Sailing Club wristband.
Being the first people to board the ship means you can go straight to your room with no queues for the elevators. The galley is still relatively empty so you can get food in peace before the crowds arrive.
On the app, there was nothing that mentioned our status nor did we know that there was expedited boarding! I went on my original 2:15pm boarding time as per usual and it was utter chaos.
I’m not sure if expedited boarding is before 2:15pm or if that is the time spot for Sea-Blazers. There were a lot of people in my batch and they did not let in the folks in the later batches (i.e. 2:30pm onwards) until everybody in the earlier group got in.
From talking to other cruisers who got there early, there was a bus offering to shuttle folks to Bayside Marketplace to wait after they checked their bags in. Not sure if they offered to shuttle people back to the port closer to the time. However, one could also take a free Coral Way trolley offered by the City of Miami. Pickup from Bayside Marketplace is outside by a stop and it drops off cruisers on the port by Terminal F/G, which is a short walk to Terminal V.
You can order coffee or tea from the Grounds Club (7th floor), or from the other coffee cart located on the 15th floor. It will originally show up on the app as a charge but they will remove it completely from your folio. I tested it by first ordering a cappuccino from the coffee shop. The program says that we are eligible for $10 worth of specialty coffee per cabin per day. Since I am not a big coffee drinker, and I was sailing solo on this cruise where I tested these perks out, I only ordered a cappuccino for $4 total.
The bill will show up on your wallet on the Virgin Voyages app, but it will disappear after 24 hours. It’s like it never happened! I then tried the perk on a matcha tea latte. The bill showed up as expected but it took a bit longer to disappear from my folio. Same thing with the cappuccino, it’s as if the bill for the matcha tea latte never happened!
Overall, a good perk if you like specialty coffees and teas. This perk is a minimum of $40 per cabin value based on Caribbean cruises from Miami (4 nights going to Key West and Bahamas), more if you’re cruising longer days.
The invite looks like a very discreet piece of paper left behind on the table in your cabin. It is not going to be slipped under your door, as other people expected. There will be instructions that say where the venue is, what time, and they ask you to bring the invitation so they could admit you to the event.
I did get an invite to said cocktail event. The downside is Virgin actually scheduled my cocktail event not on a sea day, but on a port day! What’s even more annoying is that they scheduled the cocktail event on one of the most popular ports on my sailing – Cozumel.
Given that most excursions mean getting on a different ferry to get from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen in the mainland, how in the heck can people attend a 6pm cocktail event then? My original cruise excursion said it would be over by 5:30pm, but in reality, I only got back to the ship around 7:25pm. The invite did not say how long the cocktail hour will last, but I ended up skipping it altogether.
It would be better if the cocktail hour was done in the afternoon on a sea day. A lot of times, afternoons are not really busy on sea days, and the Bimini port can also be an alternative day since not everyone will stay out on the pool and beach club the entire time the ship is docked.
I also tried the free laundry service perk as part of the perk. You can get a free bag of laundry, freshly washed and folded with 2 items pressed and 1 specialty item pressed.
Regular laundry normally costs $30 and it takes more than 24 hours for them to return your clothes to you. There is an expedited laundry option for $50 where you can drop off your laundry bag before 11:30am and have them back by 5:30pm the same day.
The laundry bag is located inside your closet. It is hanging on one of the hangers and looks like a garment bag. Just take it out of the hanger, flip it upside down, and fill it with your dirty clothes. Fill out the paper on the bag and leave it inside. Then go on the tablet, click services, and click laundry pick up. This will signal to your room attendant to pick up the laundry bag when they clean your room.
Regular laundry did take more than 24 hours before the cleaned items were delivered back to the room. It will be inside the same black garment bag you left your clothes with but they are going to be folded neatly. This perk is excellent – one less thing to worry about when you get home after your cruise, and would lessen the amount of items you will have to do laundry for when you’re back in reality!
The most expensive perk, you get a free shake for champagne per room! This is worth almost $100 but what’s disappointing is it does not benefit folks who can’t drink or don’t drink! If there was an alternative, maybe a $50 Shore Thing credit or something, it would have been much appreciated. However, I’m sure the drinkers out there are probably really excited about this perk.
To shake for champagne, you need to get the app open, turn on your Bluetooth and use the onboard WiFi. Then shake your phone! There is a GPS that tells the servers where to send your champagne and make sure you are the right person who ordered. The champagne would be delivered on an ice bucket with glasses included. It’s very straightforward.
We will definitely try this perk out when my husband and I get back onboard the ship in December!
Virgin is unique in that it offers free Wi-Fi for everyone. There are two tiers when you get onboard: a Basic Wi-Fi service which is enough for browsing or loading photos on Instagram. Basic Wi-Fi is honestly good enough to do basic things: it can load a page easily as long as there are no videos. You can work on it if you have a Chromebook, as long as you are just using basic apps like Documents or Sheets.
However, if you want to upload content on the web or load videos on your phone, you need premium access. Some people actually use the days at sea to work regular jobs, so the premium internet is also a must for people who want to log in to their work computers. I tried the Premium Wi-Fi access and there really is no charge! It does load my videos without much of a lag (on IG reels/FB videos, but I did not get a chance to watch movies on my phone with it). I did not get to try it on a work intensive setting since I left my work computer at home purposefully on this trip!
If you are a Sea-Blazer or a Sea-Rover on Virgin Voyages and sailing this 2022, the perks above will definitely make your cruise a bit better. Are you planning to take advantage of any of these perks on your cruise? Did they deliver as they promised? Let me know your experiences in the comments below!
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