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Book a Virgin Voyages UK cruise this August with your Virgin Points

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Virgin Voyages, the brand new cruise company launched by Virgin Group, is planning a series of UK-only staycation cruises this August.

You can book them using your Virgin Points, with priority booking available until next Tuesday when cash bookings will be opened.

For three weeks in August, the Virgin Voyages ‘Scarlet Lady’ ship will be making six short sailings around the coast of England.

Virgin Voyages UK cruises

The dates are:

  • Friday 6th – Monday 9th August
  • Monday 9th – Friday 13th August
  • Friday 13th – Monday 16th August
  • Monday 16th – Friday 20th August
  • Friday 20th – Monday 23rd August
  • Monday 23rd – Friday 27th August

All sailings depart from, and arrive back into, Portsmouth.

What does it cost?

There are two packages available:

  • the three-night ‘Long Weekender’ cruises will cost 180,000 Virgin Points for a two-person Sea Terrace cabin
  • the four-night Summer WeekDaze cruises will cost 215,000 Virgin Points for a two-person Sea Terrace cabin

All bookings made with Virgin Points will receive a free bottle of sparkling wine in their cabin.

You must book by 13th April.

Cash prices appear to be £499 per person based on two travelling for the three-night cruise and £599 for the four nighter, which means you get just over 0.55p per Virgin Point – in line with most Virgin Red redemptions.

Here is a Sea Terrace cabin:

Virgin Voyages UK cruises

Am I likely to be trapped on the boat for six weeks after a coronavirus outbreak?

Absolutely not.

The good news is that very strict covid rules will be in place.

The bad news is that they will mean that this is likely to be an oldies cruise.

You can only book if you will have had BOTH doses of coronavirus vaccine at least three weeks before you sail.

Given the current UK vaccine roll-out, this means that it is unlikely that anyone under the age of 50 will qualify unless they have been vaccinated as part of their job or have an underlying health condition.

Basically …. if you haven’t had your first vaccination by very early May, you won’t have had your second in time to join the final cruise. You are almost already too late to have your initial jab if you wanted to join the first cruise on 6th August.

Given that Virgin Voyages appears to be pitched as ‘Club 18-30 on the water’ (“Play all night, sleep all day” says the Virgin Voyages website) it could make for an interesting few days. I’m not sure how your average 50+ cruiser feels about spending a few days with:

“the dopest up-and-coming acts in the DJ world“.

Only the dopest residents of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be allowed to book. You cannot travel to the UK to join a cruise.

Children are not allowed. This will block off even more of the potential market, like myself.

How many over 50’s without children are there who want to go on a slightly chilly Virgin Voyages party cruise around the UK? We’ll find out soon enough.

Points bookings must be made via the Virgin Red app or website. If you are not a Virgin Red member, you need to register first – free – at this page.

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards

How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (April 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 15,000 Virgin Points):

Virgin Atlantic Reward+ Mastercard

15,000 bonus points and 1.5 points for every £1 you spend Read our full review

Virgin Atlantic Reward Mastercard

A generous earning rate for a free card at 0.75 points per £1 Read our full review

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & four airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express

40,000 bonus points and a huge range of valuable benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

American Express Business Platinum

40,000 points sign-up bonus and an annual £200 Amex Travel credit Read our full review

American Express Business Gold

20,000 points sign-up bonus and FREE for a year Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)

Category

Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club

Comments (91)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Chris Huggett says:
    10 Apr10 April 08:32

    DOPE? Really? Please don’t lower yourselves to sub-tabloid levels.

    • Rhys says:
      10 Apr10 April 08:44

      You may wish to recalibrate your irony sensors Chris….did you read to the end of the article? 🙂

      • AJA says:
        10 Apr10 April 09:03

        To be fair to Chris I initially thought the same thing as he did. Never heard of the word dope used in this context before but then again I am way outside the 18 – 30 age range.

        I am not sure it is the best advert for Virgin as for those of us not down with the lingo it suggests you’re either going to be drugged up to the eyeballs onboard or you’re an idiot to contemplate this.

        • sayling says:
          10 Apr10 April 10:30

          55 this month. I recognised the use of the word.

          I also expected an high level of whinge in the comments.
          I didn’t expect the Epstein comment, however, which made me laugh, out loud.

    • J says:
      10 Apr10 April 08:51

      No cap, fam, rager they throw down is tope, don’t throw shade bruh.

  • Tracey says:
    10 Apr10 April 08:41

    Being eligible, both mid-50s and have already had both vaccines, I don’t find anything attractive about this. I can’t see the attraction of a ship going nowhere.
    If I was looking for company the fellow passengers are either going to be health care workers seeking a well earned break or octogenarians.
    Fails on the sight seeing, fails on the company; I’d rather spend the money on a few days in Jersey or Gibraltar.

  • Fraser says:
    10 Apr10 April 08:58

    Hmm, 4 nights cruising around England or 2 return ANA First Class flights to Tokyo… Which to choose? 😂

  • AndyS says:
    10 Apr10 April 08:58

    It costs £1,800 with the current 50% offer to buy 18000 points so that’s a lot more than the 500 cash price quoted above! Perhaps the cash price is per person and the points per cabin?

    • Andy says:
      10 Apr10 April 09:04

      We cruise a lot and prices are always per person

      • @mkcol says:
        11 Apr11 April 17:53

        You clearly do not cruise a lot if you think prices are always per person.

    • kitten says:
      10 Apr10 April 13:55

      If there’s 2 of you then you’ve already saved an easy £400 cash off the cost of the cruise.

      This is because of the MPs’-friends-only-supplying ripoff £200 per person since mid-February for anyone returning to the UK. That’s the outrageously 2+ x market pricing for PCR test since February.

      So for 2 of you that’s a £400 cost taken off your holiday right there if you do this inland cruise instead

    • @mkcol says:
      11 Apr11 April 17:52

      The points is per cabin, says so in the app.

  • James Vickers says:
    10 Apr10 April 09:06

    I’m young and eligible and I am tempted to see the ship for a few days. With the levels of testing restrictions for overseas I can see them being fairly popular. Ultimately though the thought of what you could get for the same price will probably be enough to put me off and wait!

  • Nick says:
    10 Apr10 April 09:29

    I imagine there’ll be some bargains in a few weeks. Cruise operators have always dumped a lot of inventory through consolidators, particularly at shortish notice.

    And the purpose of at least some of these cruises is to (re)familiarise staff with how they operate, so they don’t necessarily need a full load to be able to do it. If they can use it as a marketing spinner at the same time, win-win.

  • Anna says:
    10 Apr10 April 09:30

    Hmm, based on the demographic this trip is supposed to appeal to, it’s sounds more likely to end up as “Club 18-30 IN the water”.

  • Jody says:
    10 Apr10 April 09:39

    They did their press launch, then haven’t had a paying passenger since thanks to the pandemic.

    From the many videos and reviews I saw I don’t think Virgin Voyages are for me. The cabins look like a cross between an IKEA showroom and a student form. The bed is a sofa, and is changed from sofa to bed every evening by your cabin host. Serious lack of storage in your cabin.

    The pool is laughably small even by cruise standards.

    The eateries sound interesting and different to your usual cruise offerings.

    Love to know how popular a tattoo parlor at sea will be!

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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