Onboard spending money
Sailor Loot, Bar Tab, and where they actually come from.
Two different things with two different sets of rules, and almost everyone uses the words interchangeably. Here is what each one is, which one your drinks come out of first, and the six separate places this money turns up from.
No figures on this page on purpose. Virgin's offers change month to month and a number typed into a web page is a number nobody updates. For Bar Tab arithmetic, with a verification date on it, use the Bar Tab calculator.
They are not the same instrument
This is the part people get wrong, and it is worth thirty seconds.
Sailor Loot
Onboard spending money in the broad sense. It goes on the spa, the shops, the casino, shore excursions and the Beach Club at Bimini, as well as on drinks.
If you are going to be handed one of the two, this is the one worth having.
Bar Tab
Drinks, and only drinks. It does not cover Grog Walk or Shot for Shot, which surprises people who assumed a tab was a tab.
You can also pre-purchase it in tiers, and Virgin adds a bonus when you do. That is what the calculator is for.
The order your drinks draw in, which nobody tells you:
- Bar Tab first, until it is gone.
- Then Sailor Loot.
- Then the card on file.
Which is why buying more Bar Tab than you will drink is a worse mistake than it sounds. Leftover Bar Tab has nowhere else to go.
Three things people get wrong
All three come up after the money is already committed.
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It shows up before you sail, but you cannot touch it until you are onboard.
It appears in your Sailor account ahead of the voyage, which reads like it is available. It is not. Nothing can be spent until you have boarded.
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It is not refundable and it has no cash value.
It is not a deposit and it will not come back to you as money. If the sailing does not happen the way you planned, this is not the part you get back.
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Whatever you do not spend is forfeited at the end of the voyage.
It does not roll to the next sailing and it does not come off the final folio. Unspent is gone, which is the entire reason to size a pre-purchased Bar Tab to the bottom of your range rather than the top.
Six places it comes from, and they stack
This is why headline numbers on other advisors' sites look so large. They are usually a stacked total of most of this list, not what that advisor is handing you.
- Virgin's own promotions. Run by Virgin, changed monthly, applied automatically when your booking qualifies. The largest single source most of the time, and none of it comes from an advisor.
- Pre-purchase bonuses on Bar Tab. Buy a tab in advance and Virgin adds a bonus on top, scaling with the tier. The calculator works out which tier is right for how you actually drink.
- What your fare already includes. Some fare types come with Bar Tab built in, per Sailor per night. People routinely buy a tab they did not need because they never checked what they already had.
- Sailing Club status. If you have sailed Virgin before, your status changes what a pre-purchased tab is worth. The calculator applies this for you.
- MNVV certificates. Bought onboard for your next voyage, and they carry onboard spending money with them. Worth knowing about before your first sailing ends, not after.
- Buying it outright. Always available, and the least interesting option, because it is the only one with no bonus attached.
So what do I actually do about it?
I watch the first four, because they are the ones that move.
Virgin's promotions change monthly and they do not all combine the way you would assume. Fare types differ in what they include. Status changes the arithmetic. Buying a tab at the wrong tier quietly wastes money at the end of the voyage, and nobody tells you afterwards.
Keeping track of that is the job. It does not add anything to your fare, because the cruise line pays me a commission out of money you were already spending, whether or not you use an advisor.
And on top of Virgin's own, I add in Sailor Loot per Sailor, up to for a cabin of two.
Applied to your booking, spendable onboard, and subject to everything on this page: not refundable, no cash value, and forfeited if you do not spend it.
Want me to check what your sailing already qualifies for?
Send me your ship and your dates. I will tell you what is currently running, what your fare already includes, and whether buying a tab on top is worth it for how you drink.
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