Booked a Balcony, Ended up with a Butler

Our Virgin Voyages Upgrade Saga

Next month, we’re cruising on the Resilient Lady out of Athens. We originally booked a very sensible Sea Terrace cabin —a perfectly good balcony cabin with a hammock. (I kept repeating that to myself while I reminisced about our last cruise in a suite.)

Then came the email: Virgin invited us to bid for an upgrade. (Cue flashbacks of champagne in the private lounge.) So of course we decided to try our hand at the bidding process. Or, more accurately, Shawn transformed into a cruise upgrade economist, built spreadsheets, stalked cruise forums, and did so much math!

All of his work resulted in 8 thoughtful bids on Rockstar Suites… and one laughably low bid on an ultra fancy, completely ridiculous Mega Rockstar Suite, because why not?

Just over a month before the cruise, he noticed a hold on our credit card for the amount of the laughably low bid - WHAT?! We tried not to get too excited —and then it disappeared 8 days later. No change to our room. No upgrade confirmation. Boo! We told ourselves, “It’s fine! We’re happy with our cute little balcony room!” and then each secretly continued to check the app 12 times a day.

Then, boom: Three weeks out, the upgrade became official. Email confirmation. App updated. Virgin’s concierge team reached out. Holy crap, we’re in a Mega Rockstar Suite!

What does Mega Rockstar even mean? Think “Rockstar Suite on steroids” Like, Beyoncé-level extra. Private transfers. Unlimited drinks. Butler service (yes, a butler) to fulfill any reasonable request, and some unreasonable ones. Daily bar restocks. Free laundry. Priority everything.

So what did we learn?

• Bid like you care... but also like you might be joking.

• Do the math (or have Shawn do it, because I barely made it through Statistics).

• Embrace the chaos. This process is just as much roulette as it is planning.

• And check your bid page once in a while—just in case your “LOL why not” bid accidentally wins.

Even if we’d stayed in our original room, we’d be thrilled just to be on this cruise. But this unexpected twist made everything a little more ridiculous—and way more fun.

Stay tuned for the review of our biggest & bougiest cruise yet at the end of June!