Virgin Voyages for Canadians
No buffet. No children. No bill at dinner. You have already paid for the restaurants, the wifi and the everyday drinks, and it books in Canadian dollars.
Is Virgin Voyages a good fit for a Canadian traveller?
Virgin Voyages is an adults-only cruise line, eighteen and over, with four ships sailing the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, Alaska and the Mexican Riviera. It suits Canadians who like an all-inclusive week because it is built the same way: you have paid for the restaurants, the wifi, the group fitness classes and the everyday drinks before you board, rather than meeting them on a bill at the end. You can book it direct in Canadian dollars, or as a package with flights through Air Canada Vacations and earn Aeroplan points on it. Service gratuities are the exception. They apply either way, so you prepay them or settle them on board.
A Canadian buying a week in the sun buys a package. One price, in Canadian dollars, flights and transfers folded in, settled before anybody leaves the house. It is such an ordinary way to buy a trip here that the alternative feels like a trick.
Which is the trouble most cruise fares have in this market. The number you see first is the smallest number you will pay, and the rest turns up later: a charge for the good restaurant, a charge for wifi, a service charge on every drink, sitting on top of a daily gratuity you are already paying. In Canada that pattern is not merely unpopular. Advertising a price that way is largely unlawful here, and stricter again in Quebec. We are out of the habit of it.
Virgin is the cruise line that behaves most like the trip you already know how to buy. Not in every respect, and the places it does not are the ones worth knowing before you book.
The minimum age to sail, on every ship and every sailing. There are no children aboard and no children’s facilities to design the day around.
Restaurants rather than a dining room, and the ones you would expect to be a paid upgrade are included in the price.
No buffet and no fixed sitting. You book a table for when you want it and the food is made to order.
Scarlet, Valiant, Resilient and Brilliant Lady. Their deck plans carry the same restaurants and bars as each other, so choosing between them is about where they sail rather than what is aboard.
What is different on board
Everyone aboard is an adult
The minimum age to sail is eighteen, with no exceptions and no children’s programming to design around. That decides the noise level, the pools and the hours the ship keeps. It also frees you from the provincial break calendar entirely, which is the thing that usually dictates when a Canadian family can travel and what they pay for the privilege.
No buffet, and no sitting assigned to you
There is no buffet and no fixed dining time. You reserve a table when it suits you, and the food is made to order. If your memory of cruising is a line at a hot plate and a table of strangers at half past six, that is the part this line has taken out.
The good restaurants cost nothing extra
Korean barbecue at Gunbae, Mexican at Pink Agave, Italian at Extra Virgin, a steakhouse at The Wake, and a tasting-menu kitchen at the Test Kitchen. The rooms you would expect to be a paid upgrade are included, and the deck plans carry the same names on all four ships. This is the biggest departure from a normal cruise fare and the reason the comparison holds at all.
Wifi and the fitness classes as well
Wifi comes with the ticket rather than sold by the day, and so do the group fitness classes. Still and sparkling water, soda, drip coffee and tea are covered. Alcohol is not, and that is the honest line between this and a resort week where the bar is open.
The tip does not follow you around the ship
On many sailings a daily gratuity is only the beginning, and a service charge reappears on every bar tab, every spa treatment and every dinner. Here one daily service gratuity is the whole of it, and Virgin’s own booking page says so: no surprise charges and no extra tipping on board, ever. For a market trained to expect the all-in number, that difference is felt.
Louder and looser than you are picturing
There is no formal dress code, no captain’s table to be seated at and no photographer waiting at the gangway. Passengers are called Sailors, the entertainment runs closer to a festival than a theatre bill, and Scarlet Night is a deck party rather than a gala. Whether that reads as a draw or a warning is the most useful thing to know about yourself here.
What you are paying for before you board
This is the comparison that matters, and it is not about the ships. It is about which of these are included and which turn up later, because a Canadian buyer is used to having that settled in advance.
| A typical cruise fare | Virgin Voyages | |
|---|---|---|
| Everyday meals | Included | Included |
| The better restaurants | A paid upgrade | Included |
| Wifi | Sold by the day | Included |
| Soft drinks, coffee, water | Often a package | Included |
| Alcohol | A package or per drink | Extra |
| Group fitness classes | Often charged | Included |
| Tips | A daily charge, and a further amount added to what you buy | A daily charge, with nothing added to what you buy |
| Children | Everywhere | None aboard, eighteen and over |
Read down the two columns and the pattern is the whole argument. A traditional cruise fare asks you to buy the holiday and then buy it again in pieces. Virgin asks for most of it up front, in the shape you are used to. The one row that goes the other way is alcohol, and that is the honest gap between this and a resort week where the bar is open.
Two ways to buy it from here
Both are real options and they suit different people, so it is worth knowing which one you are.
As a package, through Air Canada Vacations. Virgin sails are sold through Air Canada Vacations, which means the cruise and the flights arrive as one booking, priced in Canadian dollars, with Aeroplan points earned and redeemable against it. That is the shape Canadians already buy travel in, and it is the better route if you want your air and your sailing to be one decision rather than two. It also changes the baggage arithmetic, which matters more on a cruise than people expect.
Direct, in Canadian dollars. If you have decided and you would rather just pick a sailing, the booking link below prices in Canadian dollars and books straight with Virgin. No forms, no waiting for a quote. We are attached to the booking as your agency, so you keep an advisor without having to route the transaction through one.
Browse and book Virgin sailings
Who it suits, and who it does not
It suits couples and groups of adults who like the all-inclusive habit but have run out of patience with the resort itself, and who would rather have the good restaurant included than negotiate for it. It suits people who want to be somewhere different every morning without repacking. Because there are no children aboard at all, it also suits anyone who has been quietly choosing holidays around other people’s school breaks.
It does not suit a multi-generational trip, and that is worth saying plainly, because that is a large share of how Canadians travel. If the grandchildren are coming, this is not the line, and no amount of it being a good product changes that. It is also not the cheapest way to see the Caribbean, and if the bar is the centre of the holiday, a resort where drinks are included will be better value.
What to settle before you book
- Whether to prepay the service gratuity or let it apply on board, since prepaying is the cheaper of the two and it is the one thing the fare does not cover.
- Whether you want the flights inside the booking or bought separately, because that decides which of the two routes above you take.
- What your drinks are likely to come to, since alcohol is the one thing you pay for as you go, and the main variable left in the price.
- Whether the sailing you want falls in a week you can take, now that school breaks no longer constrain you.
Fly Away Travel Co. holds Gold Tier certification under Virgin’s First Mates program, which means we have been trained on this product rather than reading the brochure alongside you. Booking through us costs you nothing extra either way.
Browse and book Virgin sailings Ask us to package it with air
Common questions
Can I pay in Canadian dollars?
Yes. Booking from Canada prices in Canadian dollars, and booking it as a package through Air Canada Vacations is a Canadian purchase as well. Some figures are quoted in US dollars first, the service gratuity among them, and the Canadian total is set at Virgin’s own rate rather than the day’s spot rate. It is not worth doing that arithmetic yourself: the number on your booking is the number. What still uses your card’s rate is anything you buy on board.
Is it adults only on every sailing?
Yes, eighteen and over, on every sailing and with no children’s facilities aboard. It is the defining decision of the line rather than a policy on a page. If you are travelling with children this is not the product, and if you are not, it is the reason the ship feels the way it does.
How close is it to an all-inclusive resort week?
Closer than most cruise fares, and not identical. The restaurants, the wifi, the group fitness classes and the everyday drinks are covered, so the bill at the end is much smaller than cruising usually trains you to expect. Alcohol is the real difference: at a resort the bar is generally open, and here it is not.
Do I still get Aeroplan points?
Booked as a package through Air Canada Vacations, yes, both earning and redeeming. Booked direct with Virgin, you are buying a cruise rather than an Air Canada product, so the Aeroplan side does not apply. That is usually the deciding factor for people who are already collecting.
Where do the ships go?
The Caribbean out of Florida and Puerto Rico, the Mediterranean out of Spain and Greece, the Mexican Riviera from Los Angeles, Alaska from Seattle, and a season of sailings from New York that take in Bermuda and the Canadian and New England coasts. Which ship is where moves by season, so it is worth asking rather than assuming.