Bar Tab & Sailor Loot Questions

[MayB5]

23 hours ago, Gilligan69 said:

We are embarking on a Virgin Mediterranean cruise this May as part of the My Next Virgin Voyage program.  We had such as good time on our Virgin Greece/Croatia cruise last year, that we took advantage of the program.  I'd like to touch on the aforementioned requirement that sailor loot can not be used for things that you book prior to your sailing, such as excursions.

 

The sales staff on ship did not make an effort to tell us this when encouraging us to sign up for the program. Instead, the salespeople hyped up all of the great things that you could use the sailor loot for, such as excursions.  Virtually all excursions, at least the most commonly sought after ones, sell out before the boat sets sail. Which means, your sailor loot is pretty much worthless as far as excursions goes.  We didn't know this when signing up for the offer. 

 

As I write this, we are 2 days away from the app opening up to restaurant bookings and (gasp) the spa listing.  If they now also take reservations for spa prior to the cruise, we will be extremely upset, in light of most desired times/services being booked up, such as sea days.  It will become just another thing the loot can't actually be used for.  Now if its simply a listing and not a reservation opening, then we should be OK.  But we are nervous. Perhaps I can update this post in a few days once we see how spa appears on the app.

 

Anyway, the point of my post is that for promotions where sailor loot is offered, be mindful that if you were planning on using for any experiences that would require you to reserve prior to sailing, then don't.  Because sailor loot can't be used that way.  Makes no sense to me, but comes off as deceptive when you tell sailors you can use it for an activity, all the while knowing that the activity is usually booked up prior to sailing.

Spa treatments can only be booked once onboard according to the VV app, just checked for our cruise next month 🙂

[Gilligan69]

OK, so the app opened up last night and as prior commenter said, spa only shows menu/pricing. No pre-cruise reservations, so good on that front.  My warning on excursions/sailor loot still holds though. If its important to you to have peace of mind with a popular VV excursion(s) lined up prior to cruise sailing, don't plan on using sailor loot.

[chefchick]

Can sailor loot be used in the casino?

[cantgetin]

37 minutes ago, chefchick said:

Can sailor loot be used in the casino?

Yes, 

[rebeccac]

However, you can only cash out your winnings not any of the loot you used to play.  

[cantgetin]

Right....don't convert to promo chips any more than you plan to use.  Can always convert more, but can only get back winnings

 

[ErLee]

On 4/1/2024 at 12:54 PM, Gretchendz said:

 

Since they can be transferred to another person once, many TAs buy as many as they can and transfer them to their clients who have never sailed Virgin. The client reimburses the TA the $300, then the TA books the client on the cruise, and the client gets all the perks.

This is exactly how we ended up looking our first VV cruise for next week! A friend that's a travel agent did exactly what you described and we and some friends bought two of them from her. It was a great deal!

[DCGuy64]

15 hours ago, ErLee said:

This is exactly how we ended up looking our first VV cruise for next week! A friend that's a travel agent did exactly what you described and we and some friends bought two of them from her. It was a great deal!

Did you mean to say "booking" your first VV cruise? Or "looking" at your first VV cruise?

[ErLee]

9 hours ago, DCGuy64 said:

Did you mean to say "booking" your first VV cruise? Or "looking" at your first VV cruise?

Booking 🤦 We leave tomorrow

[raphael360]

On 4/4/2024 at 3:13 PM, chefchick said:

Can sailor loot be used in the casino?

Sailor loot yes, bonus bar tab, no...

[DCGuy64]

On 4/12/2024 at 6:00 PM, ErLee said:

Booking 🤦 We leave tomorrow

Nice, I hope you have a great time!

[Nang]

Hi, we are currently in the process of booking our first VV cruise - 21days Athens-Miami Oct '24 on the Resilient Lady which is actually a 7 day/14 day back to back. If we purchase some bar tabs will they carry over to the 2nd leg of the cruise or cut off at the end of the 7 day first leg? I expect to buy at least 3 and know at most one (mine) would be fully spent after just 7 days.

[jon81uk]

26 minutes ago, Nang said:

Hi, we are currently in the process of booking our first VV cruise - 21days Athens-Miami Oct '24 on the Resilient Lady which is actually a 7 day/14 day back to back. If we purchase some bar tabs will they carry over to the 2nd leg of the cruise or cut off at the end of the 7 day first leg? I expect to buy at least 3 and know at most one (mine) would be fully spent after just 7 days.

No it only applies to the one booking it is bought for. You can’t carry it forward even if doing B2B. Only way round it slightly would be to buy bottles and store them for the next leg of the b2b.

 

Or you buy one for the seven night and more for the 14 night. 

Edited April 16 by jon81uk

[cantgetin]

2 hours ago, Nang said:

Hi, we are currently in the process of booking our first VV cruise - 21days Athens-Miami Oct '24 on the Resilient Lady which is actually a 7 day/14 day back to back. If we purchase some bar tabs will they carry over to the 2nd leg of the cruise or cut off at the end of the 7 day first leg? I expect to buy at least 3 and know at most one (mine) would be fully spent after just 7 days.

The bar tab will not roll over.  It ends at the end of each leg. This includes purchased tab as well as any acquired thru loyalty or as a booking bonus..  Most cruises have at least some bar tab attached as a perk at the time of booking.  But it purchasing, you will need to attach some to each leg of the trip.  If you book thru a TA, they can often attach some loot or other discounts even on a first cruise that you won't get by booking directly thru VV,.