Inside a Virgin Voyages Cruise Ship Casino (with pictures)
I've now cruised on all of the cruise ships from Virgin Voyages, and an area that I get asked so many questions about is the onboard Casino.
In this post, I thought I'd answer some of the most frequently asked questions about the Virgin Voyages casinos, and also share with you some pictures that I took on my recent cruise onboard Resilient Lady.
One of the great things about Virgin's ship design is that (so far) all of the ships are more or less identical. This means that the casino is in exactly the same place on every ship. You're going to find the casino on Deck 6 of the ship, towards the front. At one end of the casino, you'll find 'the Red Room' (Virgin’s take on a cruise ship theatre), and at the other end is 'the Roundabout' (in 'cruise speak', this is what Virgin refer to their main atrium as).
In the middle of the casino is the entrance to 'the Manor', which is a multi-use entertainment venue onboard, and the main venue for late-night nightlife onboard. You get the picture - if you're going to be enjoying the evening entertainment onboard your Virgin cruise (of course you will be!), then there's a pretty high chance that you're going to find yourself passing through the casino, or spending time nearby throughout your cruise - this design won't be accidental on Virgin's part, I'm sure!
The layout of the casino is pretty easy to get to grips with - you’re going to find all of your table games in the middle of the room, and then you have 2 areas of slots (one on either side of the tables). At one end of the casino, you’ll find the cash desk, where you can also speak to a member of staff, a smoking room and an ATM, and then the other end houses in casino bar, where you can grab a drink while you play (drinks are chargeable in here, so just like any other bar on the ship).
In order to tell you more about the facilities here, let's move on to some of my most frequently asked questions on the topic of the Virgin Voyages casino...
Which games and activities are available in the Virgin Voyages casino?
In the casino onboard, you're going to find a wide range of machines and tables, so I'd be pretty confident that you'll find something to suit your taste. On Virgin's website, they confirm that they currently house 115 slot machines on the main gaming floor, and a further 11 in the smoking room (more on the smoking room further down this post!). In addition to the machines, there's a pretty wide range of other games available:
Craps,
Blackjack,
Blackjack (Perfect pair side bet),
Single deck Blackjack,
Craps (odds are 3,4,5),
Three Card Poker (Six Card Bonus side bet),
Ultimate Texas Hold'em,
Double Zero Roulette,
Single Zero Roulette.
Can you smoke inside a Virgin Voyages casino?
Smoking on the casino floor is strictly prohibited on Virgin ships. However, as mentioned above, there's a smoking room directly beside the casino (you'll find it just behind 'the cage' - where you cash out etc), and there are a few machines in there.
This means that, although you can't smoke within the actual casino itself, you don't have to go far. I've seen other cruise lines where smokers need to move to the upper decks to smoke, so Virgin have been pretty accommodating here!
Is the casino exactly the same on all of the Virgin cruise ships?
While I can't give an exact answer on this one, I can confirm that I've found the answer here to be yes. Location-wise, they're always towards the front of Deck 6. Size-wise, they do feel pretty much identical, and the machines also felt the same - I didn't notice anything different between the casino facilities on Scarlet Lady, Valiant Lady or Resilient Lady.
How do you pay for casino credit / how do you charge for machine/gaming credit?
Ok, this is an interesting one. You want to play, but how do you charge to your account? There are a few different ways of doing this...
The first option that you have if you're playing the tables is that you can charge to your account via 'the Cage' (the cashier desk where you also receive your cash winnings). Here, you can purchase table chips in exchange for cash. Alternatively, you can always drop cash directly onto the table to enter any game at any time.
Thinking about slots, there are a few things to consider. First, you can enter cash directly into the slot machine, which doesn't come with any additional charges. Secondly, you can scan your wearable bracelet (photo below - everyone gets one of these - it's Virgin's alternative to a room key) directly onto the slot machine to charge to your cabin account. Note: charging directly to your room from the machine will come with a 7% fee on whatever amount you charge (correct as of Summer 2024). For example, if you charge $100 to your account, you'll be charged $7 on top.
Do Virgin Voyages cruise ships have ATMs onboard?
Yes, Virgin ships do have ATMs. Infact, you'll actually find an ATM on the casino floor. For this reason, it's always a good idea to leave your debit card back in the room after you lift the amount of money you'd like to play with - it's never a good idea to have direct access to more money while playing!
Is the casino open throughout your cruise / what are the opening hours of the casino?
Generally speaking, cruise ship casinos aren't permitted to open when the ship is docked, or close to land. For this reason, you should expect the onboard casino to be closed during all of the port calls, and also during the time where the ship is heading back out to International waters. My general advice here is that the casino should open within about an hour of the ship leaving most ports, but there could be other restrictions at play.
In terms of opening hours, my general experience would suggest that the casino on a Virgin cruise ship will open when the ship is back out at sea each night (or from just before lunchtime if it's a sea day), and it'll usually close well into the night - about 3am/4am/whenever it gets quiet from what I've seen on previous cruises.
If you're planning to spend a lot of time playing on your cruise, it would be worth checking your itinerary to ensure it's the right one for you! Lots of people assume cruise ships will always leave port at 4pm/5pm, but I've recently cruised with Virgin and left port as late at 11pm, and so there was limited playing time on these days!
What currency does the casino operate in on a Virgin cruise ship?
You'll be playing in US Dollars ($) in the Virgin casino, so be sure to bring the correct currency. This won't change even if the ship is sailing in a part of the world that doesn't use the Dollar. For example, on my recent European cruise, we still used the US Dollar for onboard spend, and not the Euro - a common mistake for newer cruisers!
I've never played before, but can I learn how to play in a Virgin Voyages casino?
Yes! Not every cruise line offers this, but Virgin does offer some basic casino training. From what I've seen on previous cruises, these events will usually take place on the first day of your cruise, but they might be repeated on sea days before the casino officially opens for the day.
Here, you can expect crew to walk you through how to play the tables, and they may also have demonstrations on the slot machines, too! These 'training sessions' won't cost you anything, so could be fun to pop along to!
Does Virgin Voyages have a loyalty programme for their casino players?
This is quite a recent addition to the Virgin casino landscape. I've got a whole post dedicated to this topic, so CLICK HERE to head over and check that out! This programme looks to incentivise frequent players, and you may even get a comped (free) cruise through it!
Have I ever won big in a casino on a Virgin cruise ship?
Unfortunately, my answer to this question remains NO. When I cruise, I tend to operate at the much lower end of the bet level, and stick to slot machines (at the point of writing this post, I don't really understand a lot of the table games...!).
While I haven't ever won 'big' in a Virgin casino, I do really enjoy the experience in there. I only ever take the money I'd be willing to lose, and therefore have always left happy at the end of my cruise!
Hopefully you've found this post useful to provide some insight to what you can expect from the casino on your upcoming Virgin Voyages cruise. If you have, I've got so much more to tell you about here, both here on the website and also on my YouTube channel. Why not sign up to my free e-mail newsletters? Just click here to do that! Also, come and subscribe to my YouTube channel to learn so much more from the world of Virgin, and my other ships, too. Just click here to be taken straight there!
For advice on gambling, or to receive help, you can visit a number of different sites. Here's a link direct to Gambleaware.org - always play responsibly.
To see more from onboard Virgin's stunning cruise ships, you can check out the videos below, which are ship tours that I put together while onboard - enjoy!