Would you Cruise on Virgin Voyages Ships FOR A YEAR? Introducing: the Virgin Voyages Annual Pass!

One thing that I really respect about Virgin Voyages is the fact that they’re constantly trying to ‘make waves’ (pardon the nautical pun) in an industry that’s remained pretty ‘samey’ for a long time. Since their launch, they’ve repeatedly tried their hands at different initiatives to attract more and more ‘sailors’ (or ‘passengers’ to most cruisers) to their ships, and I commend that!

Of all of the initiatives that they’ve tried to bring to the market, I think this is possibly the most exciting yet: the Annual Pass!

Before we get into the detail on this one, this has launched with really interesting timing! I’ve just launched a new series over on my YouTube channel, where I’m sharing with you what it was like to spend 10 months of a year living on cruise ships (as a passenger). I did things pretty differently to buying an Annual Pass, as I ship-hopped around lots of different cruise lines - Virgin was one of them! You can watch episode 1 of this series via the link below - please come over and subscribe to my YouTube channel and support my adventures!

So, what is an ‘Annual Pass’ from Virgin Voyages?

Well, in a nutshell, holders of the ‘Annual Pass’ will be able to book an unlimited number of cruises, or ‘voyages’ in Virgin speak, over a 365 day period, on any of the line’s ships: that’s Scarlet Lady, Valiant Lady, Resilient Lady and Brilliant Lady. This means that you’re not limited to one ship if you don’t want to be - you can ship hop across the whole fleet to cover your preferred part of the world, rather than stay in the same area.

This isn’t the first time Virgin Voyages have tried to offer longer-term cruising options - they launched a ‘Season Pass’ last year, where you could book for, for example, the whole Summer season. This Annual Pass now takes this thinking to the next level, and offers those financially secure enough to afford it a whole new way of life that few others will achieve!

What type of cabin will I get as an Annual Pass holder?

If you’re anything like me, you probably heard about an offer like this and assumed you’d probably get allocated whatever cabin types are left onboard before you board the ship. However, as an Annual Pass holder, you’ll be assigned a Sea Terrace cabin on every one of your cruises. In the Terms & Conditions on the Virgin website, it states that sailors with an Annual Pass may be housed in a Central Sea Terrace, or a Limited View Sea Terrace if there aren’t any of the Sea Terrace cabins available.

Yes, that means that you could spend up to 365 days of the year in one of those famous Virgin Voyages hammocks, if you really wanted to…! That said, there’s a whole world for you to be exploring - why stay in a hammock the whole time, right?!

Of course, you’ll have the option to upgrade your cabin, where higher grades are available. You can’t do this for the whole duration of your pass, but you can take part in Virgin’s ‘Level Upgrade Program’ for each of your cruises. In other words, you’ll be able to pay extra to upgrade your cabin for each cruise.

To check out a Sea Terrace cabin like one you’d be assigned if you purchased an Annual Pass, here’s my YouTube tour of this cabin grade!

If you book, you’ll be entitled to a whole host of additional benefits!

Have you heard of the Virgin Voyages loyalty programme? Their 'Sailing Club’ offers you the ability to climb the loyalty ladder with this cruise line, and has 3 levels: Sailing Club, Blue Extras and Deep Blue extras. As a customer purchasing an Annual Pass, you’ll automatically have Deep Blue Extras assigned to all of your reservations from Day 1. This means you’ll receive (on each voyage):

• Speciality Coffees - you’ll score 2 of these per day, so make your way to the Ground Club (the onboard coffee shop)

• Bar Tab Credit - you’ll receive a $100 bonus to spend on drinks

• Exclusive Cocktail Event - there’s usually one of these per voyage

• Unlimited Premium WiFi - this is a big one! Cruise ship WiFi can be super expensive, so it’s great to have this included. With this package, you can connect multiple devices and they’ll be able to stream. I know what you’re thinking - could you really ‘work from home’ on a cruise ship?!

• Complimentary Laundry Service - 2 pressed items, 1 speciality item cleaned and 1 bag of laundry washed, dried and folded

• Priority Boarding at Embarkation Port - this means you won’t need to wait in line - you’ll breeze straight through!

• Dedicated Sailor Services Support - something going wrong? This team should be able to fix it!

Okay, how much will it cost?

Here we go - the big question - how much is it going to cost you to swap ‘land life’ for a sea breeze for an entire year? Based on double occupancy in a Sea Terrace cabin, the price is $120,000 (that’s US dollars, by the way), plus additional taxes and fees for voyages. If you’re reading this from the U.K., then you’re looking at about £94,800, or about €114,000 if you’re in Europe.

If you’re a solo traveller looking to take advantage of this offer, you’ll still need to pay the full price above, but you wouldn’t then pay the additional taxes and fees of two people. Poor show, Virgin!

You can, of course, add a second passenger to your reservation closer to the time - at that point, the additional fees will be charged.

It’s important to note that you’ll still be subject to additional fees and taxes after you’ve bought the pass. It’s impossible to say how much these will be, due to the fact that fees differ all over the world, so I guess it would depend on which ships and routes you chose to pad out your year. Eek!

I’m in! When can I board my first ship?

You need to be able to start your adventure in January, February, March or April 2025 on any Virgin cruise ship.

How do I book an Annual Pass, and how can I pay?!

To make an Annual Pass reservation, you’ll need to call Virgin Voyages directly, or speak to your Travel Agent. According to their website, the Annual Pass is the first cruise product to accept a cryptocurrency payment option: Bitcoin. You can pay using Bitcoin, or a more widely accepted payment method - the choice is yours!

It’s worth highlighting that full payment will be required at the point of making the booking.

To any Travel Agents out there reading this - there’s some VERY healthy commissions available if you sign someone up to this - good luck!

When can’t I cruise if I have an Annual Pass?

Virgin are clear on this one - you’re not allowed to book any voyages that overlap with each other. For example, you can’t book a cruise and join it on day 3 or 4. All of your bookings must sit independently with no overlaps.

It’s also not permitted to book onto a ship when it’s considered ‘impossible to sail’. An example of this could be when a ship is booked for an independent charter. For a charter, the bookings are usually handed over to whoever has opted to book the ship exclusively, and so it’s not possible for Annual Pass holders to sail during these windows unless they were to book separately with the charter operator. Remember - if one ship is booked for a charter, you can just ‘ship hop’ onto another Virgin ship!

What are the ships like onboard?

Virgin’s ships are VERY different to what else is on offer from the cruise industry. Rather than expecting to find a traditional ship at the end of the gangway, I’d recommend you expect to find more of a trendy resort. I think this is one of the main reasons for Virgin attracting a whole new audience to the world of ‘cruise’.

Here’s a few photos to give you a feel for the vibe onboard…

So, is it for you?

Well, I guess you’re the only one who can answer this question. I’ll be following this one closely - that’s for sure - I’m so intrigued to see how it goes. To find out more about the Annual Pass, you can head over to Virgin’s website by clicking here.

Why not check out another of my Virgin Voyages posts? Just click here to be taken there now!