Booking Virgin Voyages on Points

Ready to set sail on a cruise vacation? With the Virgin Red program, you can redeem points to book a Virgin Voyages cruise for free!

Virgin Voyages is a premium cruise line that offers a unique cruising experience. I recently booked this deal myself and sailed on a 5-night Caribbean cruise. In this article, I’ll walk you through how to book a Virgin cruise with points and tell you what it’s like to sail with Virgin Voyages.

If you’re new to using points and miles for travel, be sure to visit the getting started page and check out our free beginner’s guide to points.

Booking a Cruise With Virgin Red

Through Virgin Red, you can earn and spend points in a variety of ways. One of the ways you can spend your Virgin Red points is on a Virgin Voyages cruise. This deal isn’t always available, but we do see it come around fairly regularly.

When this offer is available, several Virgin Voyages Cruises are usually available to book with points and prices can vary. The most recent deal had Mediterranean, Caribbean and trans-atlantic cruises available. They cost between 95,000-320,000 points per sailing.

The price includes double occupancy for two people. It’s possible to book for just one person if you’d like, but there is no discount given for solo cruisers.

The rooms you can book are The Sea Terrace or Central Sea Terrace categories. These are balcony rooms, most of which include a hammock!

You’ll pay for taxes and fees on the Caribbean sailings, but everything else is included. There are no extra fees or surprises.

What Cruises are Part of This Deal?

In summer 2024, these were the available offers. Note that most of the dates have passed, but the transatlantic voyages are still available (as of September 30, 2024).

• 95,000 points: 4 night Caribbean cruise between June and September 2024
• 115,000 points: 5 night Caribbean cruise between June and September 2024
• 120,000 points: 7 night Mediterranean cruise departing May 12 or May 19
• 160,000 points: 7 night Mediterranean cruise between May and October 2024
• 280,000 points: 14 night transatlantic voyage from Barcelona to Miami departing October 27, 2024
• 320,000 points: 16 night transatlantic voyage from Rome to Miami departing November 28, 2024

What if Those Dates Don’t Work For Me?

We usually we see these Virgin cruise deals pop up once or twice a year. In the past, there have been options for both Caribbean and Mediterranean cruises that vary in length from 4-8 nights for a standard cruise (not transatlantic).

There’s no guarantee, but there’s a good chance they’ll have similar offers again next year. Keep in mind that itineraries and prices could be different the next time this offer comes around. You can find current deals here on the Virgin Red website.

How to Book a Virgin Voyages Cruise with Points

Booking a Virgin Voyages Cruise on points is fairly simple, but the process is not the most straightforward. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to do it.

Choose Your Cruise

Visit the Virgin Red website to see the available cruise offers. You don’t need an account to view the offers but you will need one in order to redeem the deal. On the Virgin Red site, click on an individual offer to see more information.

When you click on an offer, be sure to scroll down and read through the terms and conditions. They include important information about the booking process and what cruises are eligible. For these particular offers (the 4 or 5 night Caribbean cruise pictured above), any 4 or 5 night sailing on Valiant Lady between June and September qualifies, except for the blackout dates noted in the terms and conditions.

Here is a screen shot of some of the fine print. You can see the blackout dates listed under the last bullet point:

Once you’ve looked at the offers, visit the Virgin Voyages website to see if your preferred sailing is available. Click “book” and choose the sailing you’re interested in. Select one or two passengers and click the red button that says “view cabins.”

You can see from this page that for this particular sailing, rooms are available in every category except Rockstar. All of the Virgin cruise deals are for The Sea Terrace or Central Sea Terrace room types, so it doesn’t matter that Rockstar isn’t available. From here, choose “Sea Terrace.” If you need an accessible cabin, you can select that option here as well.

You must book The Sea Terrace or Central Sea Terrace room with this deal, no other room types or categories are included.

Once you click through the Sea Terrace category, you’ll be able to see the room types (Central Sea Terrace, The Sea Terrace, and Limited View Sea Terrace.) The cruise is available if you can see the “book this” buttons. If the cruise is sold out, it will show “unavailable.” If Sea Terrace or Central Sea Terrace rooms are available online for a sailing that’s included in the cruise deal, that means it’s available to book with points. There’s no need to call to confirm availability.

Transfer Points

Once you’ve confirmed availability for the cruise you want, it’s time to redeem the offer.

Here’s where the points come in! If you don’t have enough Virgin Atlantic Flying Club or Virgin Red points in your account to book the deal, you can transfer credit card points to Virgin.

Important: Don’t transfer any points until after you’ve confirmed that the cruise you want to book is available!

Most major banks transfer to Virgin which makes it easy to get the points you need for the cruise. Capital One transfers directly to Virgin Red while the other programs transfer to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. It’s easy to connect a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account to Virgin Red. More on that below.

These are the programs that transfer to Virgin:

• American Express Membership Rewards 1:1
• Capital One 1:1
• Chase Ultimate Rewards Points 1:1
• Citi ThankYou Points 1:1
• Marriott Bonvoy 3:1 with a 5,000 bonus for every 60,000 points transferred

Note: While most of these programs transfer at a 1:1 ratio, Marriott Bonvoy points transfer at a 3:1 ratio. This means that for every 3,000 Marriott points you transfer, you’ll only get 1,000 Virgin points.

It’s usually not a good idea to use Marriott points this way because you can lose a lot of value. But, if you’re short by a few thousand points and you have a lot of Marriot points, it may make sense for you.

How to Get More Points

The easiest way to earn a lot of points quickly is to sign up for a new credit card with a welcome offer. Some offers can earn you enough points to cover an entire cruise with just one credit card signup!

Visit the best offers page to see the top card offers that are currently available.

Bonus Tip: Sometimes the banks offer transfer bonuses where you can get even more points. I booked my cruise while American Express had a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic. That meant I only needed to transfer 89,000 American Express Membership Rewards points to get 115,000 Virgin points. Enough to cover a 5 night cruise!

How to Link Virgin Red to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

If you don’t already have them, create a Virgin Atlantic Flying Club account and a Virgin Red account. Both are free to join. Once you have both accounts, you can connect them.

Visit the Virgin Red website and log in to your account. Click the drop down menu and go to “Account”. From there, choose “Link account” and you’ll be able to add your Virgin Atlantic Flyer Club number to link your accounts.

Once your accounts are linked, you’ll be able to see your Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points in your Virgin Red account.

Redeem the Offer

To redeem the offer, visit the “spend” page on the Virgin Red website. Select the offer you want and click the “redeem” button

Points will be deducted from your account as soon as you click “redeem.” You should get a confirmation e-mail right away. A few days later, you’ll get another e-mail with an access key. The access key is the code you need in order to book your cruise.

According to Virgin, the access key can take up to three working days to arrive. I got my access key two days after redeeming the cruise offer. The access key looks like this:

Once you have the access key, it’s time to officially book your cruise. Visit the Virgin Voyages website, select an eligible cruise, and start the booking process. Virgin recommends using a laptop or desktop computer rather than a mobile phone to complete your cruise booking.

Choose your cruise and sailing date, then you’ll be prompted to select a room type. Select Sea Terrace and from there, you can choose The Sea Terrace or Central Sea Terrace.

With Virgin, you don’t get to select a specific cabin number. They select the cabin for you within the room type you select during the booking process.

It’s important to note that you can’t upgrade to any other cabin type during booking, this will invalidate your access key. You may have the option to upgrade your room later, if you’d like.

On the next screen, you’ll see your selected cabin type and the fare breakdown. Don’t click check out yet! Scroll down until you see the “Access Key” box.

This is where you’ll enter your access key and the subtotal will change to $0. Remember you’ll still have to pay the taxes and fees for Caribbean sailings.

More About Taxes and Fees

Taxes and fees only apply to Caribbean sailings. These vary depending on the sailing and will be charged when you click “check out” to complete your booking. Here is some example pricing of the taxes and fees for the voyages that were available this past summer:

• Riviera Maya departing August 25, 2024: $326
• Riviera Maya departing September 22, 2024: $422
• Dominican Daze departing September 27, 2024: $370

No taxes and fees apply to the transatlantic sailings so when you book one of those voyages with points, your cruise will be completely free!

Some Things to Know about Virgin Voyages

Adults Only

Only adults 18 and up can sail on a Virgin Voyages cruise.

All-Inclusive

While most cruise lines are considered all-inclusive, Virgin takes it a step further. Gratuities, soda, non-pressed juices, wifi, fitness classes, and specialty dining are all included.

Bar Tabs

On most cruise lines, drink packages can add a hefty sum to your bill. Everyone in the cabin must purchase the same drink package, and you can’t share drinks with others. You may feel like you have to order a certain number of drinks per day to get your money’s worth.

Virgin handles drink packages a little differently. Instead of your standard packages, Virgin offers what they call a Bar Tab. Bar Tab can be purchased ahead of time (often with a bonus added) and can be used to purchase drinks for anyone.

On board, you can add to your Bar Tab any time, or purchase drinks individually without using the Bar Tab. Drinks are reasonably priced and include gratuity.

If you’d like to bring your own alcohol on board, Virgin allows (2) 750mL bottles of wine per cabin in carry-on bags on the day of embarkation. No liquor or beer is allowed. You’re welcome to purchase alcohol in port, but these will be held by security until disembarkation at the end of the cruise.

For those who don’t drink alcohol, Virgin also offers a variety of mocktails, fresh-squeezed juices, and other alcohol-free options.

The Virgin Voyages Experience

Since the entire cruise is adults only, that means Virgin can push the envelope a bit when it comes to entertainment, activities, and even music. You’ll hear a bit of language and a bit of innuendo, but in my experience they don’t take it too far. Everything I attended had a solid PG-13 rating or less.

If you want a more “adult” experience, you can probably find it, but if you don’t want that, it’s also easy to avoid.

The Ship

For my cruise, I sailed from Miami on the Valiant Lady.

The ship was very nice and decorated in a more contemporary style than I’ve seen on other cruise lines. You’ll find all of the usual amenities like a spa and fitness center, swimming pools and hot tubs, lounges to enjoy live music or sit and read a book, etc.

They have plenty of places to lounge and get comfortable both indoors and outdoors. They don’t have a library, but the game room is excellent. There’s a wide selection of games and puzzles, plus a free arcade.

The cabin type I booked was the central sea terrace. The room was a bit small (especially the bathroom) but it was clean, comfortable, and beautifully decorated. We especially enjoyed the hammock on the balcony.

As I was traveling with a friend, we requested to have the beds separated. Instead of moving the beds apart side by side, Virgin uses an L shaped configuration which opens up the room quite a bit. You can have your cabin steward remove the bedding during the day if you’d rather have couches, or they can leave the beds made.

Food

On a Virgin cruise, there is no main dining room or buffet. Instead they offer “The Galley” which is basically a food court with several unique places to grab a bite, a few places for snacks around the ship, and a collection of specialty restaurants.

The specialty restaurants include Pink Agave for fresh Mexican food, Gunbae the Korean barbeque, Test Kitchen for creative, gastronomic food, and several more.

The food on Virgin is by far the best I’ve had on any cruise line. The ingredients are fresh and your food is made to order. They pay close attention to food sensitivities and allergies and work to accommodate your needs.

Virgin also has more vegan and vegetarian options than I’ve seen on other cruise lines.

The “Green Pirate” meatless burger with guacamole and onion rings, served with french fries

Entertainment

Our cruise included some of the usual things you would expect like a magician and a comedian, but they also have some unique offerings.

For the main evening shows they had things like an acrobatic retelling of Romeo and Juliet, a drag show, and The Untitled Dance Show Party Thing. The best way to explain that last one is it’s part dance show and part interactive dance party.

Untitled Dance Show Party Thing aboard Virgin Voyages

Activities

Like with other cruise lines, there are activities scheduled all throughout the day so there is plenty to do! You’ll see some of the typical cruise activities like trivia, but often with a Virgin twist.

For example, they have a trivia game called “Risky Quizness” where you have to spin a wheel and do challenges to win (or risk losing) additional points.

If you prefer quieter activities, they also have events like morning puzzles (think word searches and sudoku), yoga, and free meditation classes.

For night life, parties are nearly a daily occurrence. Every voyage features a pajama party and “Scarlet night” where everyone wears red. Party nights sometimes include free “glam stations” for glittery face paint and gems.

Are You Ready to Book a Virgin Voyages Cruise?

I had a great time on my Virgin Voyages cruise and I can definitely recommend this deal! Overall my friend and I had a great experience and we both agreed it was worth the points.

It can be hard to save money on a cruise vacation, especially on a luxury brand like Virgin. The cruise deal through Virgin Red made it possible for us to have an amazing vacation without breaking the bank.