Virgin Voyages Bar Tab: How Much Do You Really Need?
Before our five-night cruise aboard Virgin Voyages’ Resilient Lady, one of the things I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out was how much Bar Tab I actually needed.
I used a drink calculator, looked at the prices of the different drinks I thought I would order, and tried to come up with a realistic estimate of what I would spend over five nights. My travel partner did the same.
I purchased a $200 Bar Tab and received a $25 bonus, giving me $225 to spend. My travel partner purchased a $300 Bar Tab and received a $50 bonus, giving her $350.
At the time, those amounts made sense based on what we thought we would drink.
By the end of the cruise, we both still had money left.
And after actually using Virgin Voyages’ Bar Tab system for an entire sailing, I have a much better idea of what I would consider before deciding how much to purchase.
What Is Virgin Voyages Bar Tab?
Virgin Voyages does drinks a little differently from cruise lines that offer traditional drink packages.
Instead of purchasing a package that covers eligible drinks throughout your cruise, you can pre-purchase Bar Tab. Think of it as a pool of prepaid credit specifically for premium beverages. As you order eligible drinks throughout your sailing, the cost is deducted from your Bar Tab balance.
And Bar Tab definitely isn’t just for alcohol.
You can use it for cocktails, beer, wine, mocktails, specialty coffees, fresh-pressed juices, smoothies, and other premium beverages.
That was important for me because I’m really not much of an alcohol drinker. Over the entire five-night cruise, I had a grand total of five alcoholic drinks.
But I love mocktails, specialty coffee, fresh juices, and smoothies, so there were plenty of other things I thought I would use my Bar Tab for.
Some Drinks Are Already Included
Before deciding how much Bar Tab you need, it helps to understand what you don’t need it for.
Virgin Voyages includes several basic beverages with your cruise fare, including still and sparkling water, fountain soda, standard juices, drip coffee, and tea.
So, if you’re perfectly happy with those options, you could potentially spend very little on beverages.
But if your morning starts with a latte, you want a fresh juice or smoothie during the day, you like mocktails, or you enjoy a cocktail with dinner, those premium beverages are where your Bar Tab comes into play.
Specialty coffee was definitely one of the things I knew I would purchase.
Virgin Voyages has two specialty coffee locations across its ships. Grounds Club is located on Deck 7, near The Social Club, while Grounds Club Too is located inside The Galley on Deck 15.
Having more than one place to grab specialty coffee made it easy to work coffee into my day, and those purchases were part of my Bar Tab just like a cocktail or mocktail would be.
How Much Do Drinks Cost on Virgin Voyages?
Knowing roughly what individual drinks cost can make it much easier to estimate how much Bar Tab you might actually use.
Prices vary depending on what you order, and they can change, but these ranges give you a good starting point:
Drink | Typical Price |
Specialty coffee | $4–$6 |
Mocktails | $6–$11 |
Beer | $7–$9 |
Basic cocktails | Around $11 |
Many cocktails | $11–$13+ |
Wine by the glass | Often around $9–$15 |
Fresh juices | Around $7–$10 |
Smoothies | Around $9–$13+ |
This is also why Bar Tab can add up even if you aren’t a big alcohol drinker.
Let’s say you have a $5 specialty coffee in the morning, a $7 mocktail during the afternoon, and an $11 cocktail with dinner. That’s about $23 in premium beverages for the day.
Over five days, that same pattern would use about $115 of Bar Tab.
Add another cocktail on a couple of evenings, a fresh juice, a smoothie, or drinks at The Beach Club at Bimini, and you can see how $200 or more in Bar Tab doesn’t necessarily sound unreasonable when you’re sitting at home planning your cruise.
But the opposite can happen, too.
Maybe you’re off the ship for most of the day in port. Maybe you have your specialty coffee in the morning but don’t want that afternoon mocktail. Maybe you planned on having smoothies and then never order one.
The math you do before the cruise can be perfectly reasonable. The harder part is predicting what you’re actually going to want once you’re onboard.
The Bonus Bar Tab Can Make It Tempting to Buy More
When we purchased our Bar Tabs, Virgin was offering bonus Bar Tab based on the amount purchased.
I paid $200 and received another $25, giving me $225.
My travel partner paid $300 and received another $50, giving her $350.
When I was looking at the options before our cruise, I honestly don’t remember seeing them without some type of bonus attached.
And that’s where it can become tempting to move up to the next amount.
You see that spending a little more upfront gets you even more bonus Bar Tab, and suddenly the larger amount can look like the better value.
But after actually using it, this is the part I would pay much more attention to:
The bonus only has value if you’re going to use it.
If you spend more money upfront to get a larger bonus and then reach the end of the cruise trying to figure out how to use what’s left, you didn’t necessarily get a better value.
Unused Bar Tab is lost at the end of the voyage. You can’t cash out the remaining balance, and you can’t simply turn it into regular onboard credit and spend it on something else.
That’s exactly why I wouldn’t let the bonus alone determine how much Bar Tab I purchased.
Bar Tab and Sailor Loot Aren’t the Same Thing
This is another important distinction because Virgin Voyages also has Sailor Loot.
Bar Tab is essentially onboard credit restricted to eligible beverages. Sailor Loot is much broader onboard credit and can be used for eligible things such as retail purchases, spa treatments, tattoos, Shore Things booked onboard, and premium beverages.
So, if you have Sailor Loot, you have quite a bit of flexibility in how you use it.
Bar Tab doesn’t work that way.
If you have $60 left on your Bar Tab, you can’t decide you’d rather spend that $60 shopping or put it toward a tattoo.
It remains beverage credit.
That distinction becomes particularly important toward the end of your cruise if you realize you’ve purchased more Bar Tab than you’re going to use.
What I Thought I Would Drink vs. What I Actually Drank
Before the cruise, I tried to be realistic.
I knew I wasn’t going to suddenly become someone who drank several alcoholic drinks every day just because I was on vacation.
Instead, I included things I genuinely enjoy: specialty coffees, mocktails, fresh juices, smoothies, and some alcoholic drinks.
My travel partner drinks more alcohol than I do, so her calculation looked different from mine.
On paper, both made sense.
But here’s the part that is difficult to calculate before you’ve actually experienced the cruise:
Your days don’t necessarily go the way your drink calculator does.
You might picture yourself having a specialty coffee in the morning, a fresh juice later, a mocktail by the pool, a cocktail before dinner, and another drink afterward.
And you absolutely might.
But then you’re actually onboard.
You have breakfast. You’re heading to an activity. You’re getting ready to go into port. You’re off the ship for several hours on an excursion. You come back and get ready for dinner. You go to a show. You’re full from dinner. You’re tired.
Or you simply don’t want the drink you thought you would.
That’s what makes estimating Bar Tab different from simply adding up drink prices.
It’s not just about what you could spend.
It’s about what you’re realistically going to want while you’re actually living out your itinerary.
Port Days Can Make a Big Difference
Our five-night cruise included two sea days, along with stops in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, and Bimini, Bahamas.
Those port days matter when you’re thinking about how much time you’ll actually spend purchasing drinks.
We spent part of our Puerto Plata day away from the ship on an excursion. In fact, the only smoothie I had during the entire trip was one I purchased during our excursion in the Dominican Republic.
Smoothies had been part of my pre-cruise Bar Tab calculation, but I simply never ended up getting one onboard.
That’s a perfect example of how something can make complete sense when you’re planning at home and then just not happen once you’re actually traveling.
Bimini was a little different because Virgin Voyages’ Beach Club is part of the Virgin experience, and Bar Tab can be used for eligible beverages there.
So, Bimini can still contribute to your Bar Tab spending.
But the larger point remains the same: itinerary matters.
A five-night sailing with several days spent in port may produce very different drinking habits than a five-night sailing where you’re spending considerably more time onboard.
There Were Plenty of Drinks I Enjoyed
I don’t want the fact that I had Bar Tab left to make it sound like I wasn’t ordering premium drinks.
I was.
I had specialty coffees, mocktails, and several alcoholic drinks during the cruise. I tried drinks at different restaurants and bars, and I used my Bar Tab throughout the sailing.
The difference was simply that I didn’t use as much as I had anticipated.
And my travel partner, who drinks more alcohol than I do, didn’t use all of hers either.
Toward the end of the cruise, she was intentionally ordering more drinks because she was trying to use up what remained.
She still didn’t use all of it.
That was probably the point when it really clicked for me that having more Bar Tab doesn’t automatically mean you’re getting more value.
Then I Had About $60 Left
Toward the end of the cruise, I had around $60 remaining on my Bar Tab.
At that point, I was definitely thinking about how I could use it before we left the ship.
I bought two specialty coffees, which I happily drank.
I grabbed a couple bottles of water for the trip home.
And I still had money left.
While I was at Grounds Club, I was talking with a crew member working behind the counter about my remaining Bar Tab and what I could do with it. I was considering buying some of the canned drinks they had stocked there to take with me.
During that conversation, she told me they were setting up a temporary wine station right next to Grounds Club where Sailors could use their remaining Bar Tab to purchase bottles of wine.
That was something being offered on our particular sailing, so I wouldn’t necessarily count on it being available every time. But it would have given me another way to use what I had left.
Unfortunately, I was flying home with carry-on luggage only, so taking bottles of wine through airport security wasn’t going to work for me.
With what I still had left, I bought about four canned drinks.
They were some kind of sugar-free açaí drink, and since I normally love açaí, I thought they sounded good.
They were not.
I ended up throwing them away.
And that little experience probably illustrates my Bar Tab takeaway better than anything else.
I technically spent the money.
But buying something simply because I had Bar Tab left didn’t mean I got value from it.
I’d much rather put that money toward drinks I genuinely want during the sailing than reach the end and start looking for things to buy because the remaining balance is going to disappear.
So, How Much Bar Tab Do You Really Need?
There isn’t one amount that works for everyone.
Someone who drinks several cocktails each day is going to use Bar Tab very differently from someone who primarily drinks specialty coffee and mocktails.
And even two people who normally drink about the same amount can have completely different spending patterns depending on their itinerary.
Before choosing an amount, I would consider:
The length of your sailing
How many sea days you have
How many port days you have
Whether you’re planning long excursions
How much alcohol you realistically drink
Whether you regularly drink specialty coffee
Whether you enjoy mocktails
Whether you’re likely to order fresh juices or smoothies
Whether your itinerary includes The Beach Club at Bimini
How much time you realistically expect to spend onboard
And I would base those answers on how you normally drink, not on how you imagine Vacation You might drink.
If you normally have one alcoholic drink with dinner, I wouldn’t calculate your Bar Tab assuming you’re suddenly going to have four cocktails every day simply because you’re on a cruise.
At the same time, don’t underestimate all of the nonalcoholic things you may enjoy.
A morning specialty coffee, fresh juice, afternoon mocktail, and another premium beverage later can add up even without much alcohol.
Would I Buy Bar Tab Again?
Yes.
I like that Virgin’s Bar Tab isn’t limited to alcohol, I like having prepaid credit available for the drinks I want, and I definitely like getting bonus Bar Tab when it’s offered.
What I would change is the amount.
Based on my own drinking habits and what I actually used during this sailing, I would probably purchase less next time.
The bonus is a great perk when you’re going to use it. I just wouldn’t let the bonus be the reason I moved up to a larger Bar Tab than I realistically needed.
How Bar Tab Differs From a Traditional Drink Package
If you’ve sailed with Royal Caribbean or another cruise line that offers traditional drink packages, Virgin Voyages’ Bar Tab works differently.
With Royal Caribbean, you can purchase a drink package that covers eligible beverages throughout your cruise. Depending on the package you choose, you can order included drinks without paying for each one individually or watching a prepaid balance decrease.
Virgin Voyages does not use that model.
Instead, Bar Tab is a set dollar amount. Each time you purchase a premium beverage, the actual price of that drink is deducted from your available balance. A $5 specialty coffee takes $5 from your Bar Tab. An $11 cocktail takes $11. You continue using the balance until it runs out.
That means the way you think about your beverage spending before the cruise is a little different. With a traditional drink package, the question is usually whether the package makes sense for your drinking habits. With Virgin Voyages, the question is how much you realistically expect to spend on premium beverages during your sailing.
Neither system changes what you actually enjoy drinking, but understanding the difference can make Virgin’s Bar Tab much easier to plan for if you’re accustomed to sailing on cruise lines such as Royal Caribbean.
Why I’m Glad I Experienced Bar Tab for Myself
And honestly, this is one of the reasons I’m so glad I took this cruise myself.
I’ve booked Virgin Voyages for clients plenty of times, but there are some things you understand differently once you’ve actually experienced them firsthand. It’s one thing to know the prices, what Bar Tab can be used for, and how the system works. It’s another thing to actually put it into practice over the course of a sailing.
Port days, excursions, meals, activities, and just how you spend your days onboard can all affect how much you actually drink. You may look at a drink calculator and think you’ll have a certain number of coffees, smoothies, mocktails, or cocktails every day, but then you’re off the ship for hours in port, busy doing something onboard, or simply don’t want what you thought you would that day.
I came home with an even better understanding of those little nuances of Virgin Voyages, and that’s important to me.
Now, when I’m helping my clients figure out something like how much Bar Tab makes sense for them, I can go beyond simply explaining how it works. I can help them think through what their actual days are going to look like and what they’re realistically likely to use based on their itinerary, plans, and drinking habits.
That’s the part a drink calculator can’t tell you.
Planning a Virgin Voyages Cruise?
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