Bar Tab and Drinks on Virgin Voyages

Quick answer: Virgin Voyages has no drinks package. Water, soda, non-pressed juice, tea and drip coffee are included for every Sailor. Everything else (cocktails, beer, wine, fresh-pressed juice, barista coffee) is paid for by the drink, either on your card or from Bar Tab, a drinks credit you buy before you sail. Virgin adds bonus credit when you prebuy, the cutoff is 24 hours before sailing, and anything unspent is not refunded.

What you drink without paying

Virgin calls these essential drinks: filtered still and sparkling water, non-pressed juices, sodas, sachet teas and drip coffee. They are part of every fare, at every bar and eatery, so a Sailor who does not drink alcohol and is happy with drip coffee can sail the whole week without a drinks bill.

The line sits at "premium". Fresh-pressed juices, smoothies, barista-made coffee and every alcoholic drink cost extra. Virgin's drinks page lists its prices with the tip already included, so the number on the menu is the number on your account.

How Bar Tab works

Bar Tab is not a package with a daily limit or a set list of drinks. It is credit: you load an amount before your voyage, and premium drinks come off it until it runs out, after which your card on The Band picks up the rest. The rules, from Virgin's own pages:

• Where to buy: the Virgin Voyages app, My Account, your travel advisor, or Sailor Services by phone.
• Cutoff: up to 24 hours before sailing. It is not sold onboard.
• Bonus: Virgin adds bonus credit when you buy ahead. The terms are on Virgin's Bar Tab page and can change between sailings.
• Where it works: onboard and at The Beach Club at Bimini.
• What it covers: premium drinks, alcoholic or not, and the corkage fee if you bring your own wine to dinner.
• What it does not cover: the spa, and packaged bottles to take home.
• Leftovers: not refunded at the end of the voyage, and not carried to your next one.

You can check the balance during the week in the Sailor App under My Wallet, which also lets you download it as a PDF.

How Premium fares change the picture

On bookings made on or after October 7, 2025, Virgin's VoyageFair Choices page lists a daily drinks credit as part of the Premium fare (Sea Terrace and below). Base and Essential do not include one. If you are on Premium, count that credit before deciding how much Bar Tab you need. Our fare types guide covers what else each level changes.

Working out whether to buy it

The honest test is how you drink at home. Bar Tab only makes sense for money you were going to spend on drinks anyway, because leftover credit is lost. A few rules of thumb:

• Buy a modest amount rather than a big one. Once it runs out, The Band simply charges your card, so running short costs nothing extra.
• Count only the nights you will be onboard in the evening. Port days with a late all-aboard time often mean dinner ashore.
• If you plan to bring wine to dinner, remember corkage comes off Bar Tab too (see bringing alcohol aboard).
• Sailors aged 18 to 20: Virgin's ticket contract says you can only buy and drink alcohol while the ship is outside US territorial waters, which cuts into how much of a Bar Tab you would use.

If you are sailing with a group

Groups are where Bar Tab gets interesting, and also where it is easiest to overbuy. Virgin is clear that one Bar Tab can buy drinks for anyone: a cabin-mate, a friend from your group, or someone you met at Scarlet Night. So the group does not need a Bar Tab per person.

When a group should skip it: if people drink very differently, or nobody wants to keep track of who owes whom for rounds, it is simpler for everyone to pay by the drink on their own card. When it works well: two friends sharing a cabin who drink about the same, who load one Bar Tab between them and split the cost before boarding. Agree on it while your group is talking in the Nautir app before you sail, not at the bar on night one.

Solo sailors are the simplest case. Load what you would spend at home over the same number of evenings, or skip it and pay as you go.

For how Bar Tab fits next to Sailor Loot and The Band, see paying onboard. To see which Virgin sailings have a group aboard, look at our hosted group sailings.