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Today I wanted to tackle a topic that comes up about Virgin Voyages time and
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time again, and it's part of a booking decision that every Sailor needs to make
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when they're booking their Virgin Voyage.
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And one particular question that comes up time and time again is
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are "Lock It In" Rates worth it?
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Well, in today's guide, we're gonna look at what a "Lock It In" Rate is, and
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whether the pros and cons outweigh one another to make it worth your while to
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make sure that you snag a really good price for your next Virgin Voyage without
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losing too much of the core experience.
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My name is David from VV Insider, which is a website that's all about Virgin
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Voyages, including information guides and all the latest news and updates
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about all four Virgin Voyages ships, from making sure that you've chosen
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the right cabin before you sail all the way up to previewing the restaurant and
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bar menus to check to see what you want to eat and drink before you set sail.
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All of these things and more, including some exclusive vacation planning tools
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that you can use free of charge are all available on our website, vvinsider.com.
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But today we're gonna delve into the "Lock It In" Rates that Virgin Voyages offer,
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which are often some of the cheapest rates available for any given voyage.
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but what might look like a great deal on the surface does come with some drawbacks
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that you really need to be aware of.
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so in order to make sure that you've made the right choice before you
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set sail, hopefully this video will answer a lot of those questions.
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So first of all, what is a "Lock It In" Rate?
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Well, "Lock It In" Rates are what Virgin Voyages call their guaranteed room rate.
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so if you've ever sailed with any of the cruise line, this might
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have been called the GTY rate.
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When you are booking your voyage.
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and what this effectively means is that you're locking in the cabin type
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that you selected, which means that you'll be given any room available
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in that cabin type as long as it's free and available when you set sail.
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So when are "Lock It In" Rates available?
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Well, first thing to mention is that "Lock It In" Rates are not always available.
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They only become available on certain select sailings
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generally, if you're looking for good "Lock It In" Rates , a really
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good place to go is to have a look at our "Offers & Deals" page.
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Where we list off all the voyages that have "Lock It In" Rates available,
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starting from $89 per Sailor per night.
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It's worth mentioning though, that these type of rates are offered on every
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single one of the cabin categories.
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So all the way from Insider where you get the very best prices possible, but all
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the way up to the Mega RockStar level.
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Now because you're not assigned a cabin, nor are you able to choose a cabin.
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This means Virgin Voyages are going to give you a great discount in order
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for that flexibility on their part to give you any room that they fancy.
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now we have a tool on our website called the VV Insider Cabin Lookup Tool, which
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ordinarily allows Sailors to put in the cabin number for their particular
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sailing to see information about their cabin, including the pros and cons.
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Yes, there are some cons to some cabins.
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And the reason why we list off this information is that all
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cabins are not created equal.
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Some cabins are in noisier areas of the ship, and some balcony cabins have
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metal balconies, and maybe they're lacking an iconic red hammock as well.
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So there are certain things that people need to check before they sail.
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Now, you can only do this if you know what your cabin is.
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So as long as you haven't booked a rate that doesn't allow you to move your cabin,
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you'll be able to read the information about your cabin and
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ask Sailor Services or your First Mate to move you to a different one.
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But of course if we now apply that to the "Lock It In" Rate scenario,
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because your cabin isn't assigned to you until just before you sail, and
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even at that time you're still not able to change your cabin, you could
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be automatically assigned one of those cabins that you might have wanted to
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avoid had you booked a different rate.
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and because you've been given that discount from Virgin Voyages for
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that flexibility on their part, you are not able to make any changes.
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So you're kind of stuck with it.
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that, of course is one of the biggest and the most obvious
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drawback to booking one of these.
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So if being able to choose a cabin is really important to you and you'd
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rather avoid those noisy cabins or those cabins with any other sort of drawback,
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then maybe this isn't the rate for you.
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there are of course some other things that you'll need to consider
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when choosing one of these rates.
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One other thing is that you are only gonna get Basic Wi-Fi,
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the Basic Wi-Fi is fine for casual browsing.
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It will be a little bit slower, but you won't be able to do things like streaming.
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You do at least have the ability to pay for Premium Wi-Fi when you're on board,
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even if you've chosen a "Lock It In" Rate.
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Another big drawback is that you are unable to make any
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changes to your booking at all.
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When Virgin Voyages say this is a "Lock It In" Rate, they really
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do mean that it is locked in.
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So even if you wanted to change the booking in a positive way, let's say
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you wanted to make an upgrade, so you wanted to go from, let's say, an
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Insider cabin to a Sea Terrace cabin.
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You are not able to do that.
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Your booking is locked in.
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Another scenario is if you wanted to bring another guest along.
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So let's say you had a solo booking and you wanted to bring
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a companion along on that voyage.
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Well, unfortunately, you would have to make another booking
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for that change or amendment.
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So it's worth making sure that your plans are pretty much set in
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stone before you decide to book.
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You'll also, with this type of booking, only have a 15 day dining
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booking window, which means that you are not able to choose any
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restaurants or make any reservations until 15 days before your sailing.
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Because Sailors who've booked an Essential Fare are able to book 45 days out.
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those who've chosen a Premium Fare get a 60 day dining window.
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And finally, RockStars are given 120 days to decide where they'd like to dine.
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By the time that 15 day dining window opens, you're gonna be left with very,
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very few options indeed, and you may need to make some last minute bookings for
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dining when you get onboard the ship.
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And even then, you're not gonna have a huge selection to choose from.
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because those bookings are locked down, it also means that these type
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of bookings are not refundable.
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That means any payments that you've made towards one of these
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bookings, excluding taxes and fees will be completely non-refundable.
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So if you decide to change your mind or you decide to make a change in the
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future, you're not able to get that money back as future voyage credit
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and apply it to something else.
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You're not able to get it back in cash or a credit card.
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It is completely forfeited.
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Like I say, if you do need to cancel, you will at least
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get your taxes and fees back.
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Another drawback that catches a few loyal Sailors out is that
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you're not able to use an MNVV.
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That's a "My Next Virgin Voyage" placeholder discount.
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A little caveat to that is that you are able to use an MNVV
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discount with a RockStar or Mega RockStar "Lock It In" Rates.
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So just keep that in mind.
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And then finally this is a really interesting drawback which
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catches a few solo Sailors out.
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And this is something if you are traveling by yourself, you'll
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really want to know about.
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Be very wary before you book a "Lock It In" Insider or a "Lock It In" Sea View.
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That's because Virgin Voyages can assign you any cabin inside of that category,
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which means if you've booked a "Lock It In" Insider rate, you may be given
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a Solo Insider room, which is a lot smaller than a standard Insider room.
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What's more, you might be paying more for the "Lock It In" Insider rate
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than it would've cost you just to book the Solo Insider rate all along.
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The same is true for the Sea View category, but there are so few Solo
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Sea View rooms that it's less likely.
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You certainly don't want to be paying for something that has all of these
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restrictions when you could have booked a standard rate straight away.
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So after I've listed off all of those drawbacks, who in their right mind would
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book one of these "Lock It In" Rates?
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Well, actually we book "Lock It In" Rates all the time,
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and that's for a few reasons:
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Primarily; the number one reason that we book these "Lock It In" Rates is
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because we do like to plan ahead with our trips.
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Oftentimes a huge consideration with these trips, especially when
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these trips are further afield and require long haul flights.
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We are booking flights and hotels along with the cruise anyway,
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so it's very likely we're gonna be making it on that vacation.
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We also make sure that we have travel insurance, so if anything untoward did
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happen, which meant that we couldn't travel, at least we'll be able to cover
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the cost of the cruise using insurance.
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And realistically, if you look at the "Lock It In" Rates
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and the deals available, the prices are very good indeed.
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Sometimes the price difference between the "Lock It In" Rates and the standard
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rates on voyages is a huge jump.
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and we like to look at the bigger picture and weigh up whether it's
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worth taking that discount in exchange for the cons, and most of
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the time we think it's absolutely fine
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. I will say, of course, that comes from our experience where we have
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sailed with Virgin Voyages in the past so we know what we're getting.
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If you are making this booking for a special occasion, or if you've
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not experienced the brand before, then maybe you do wanna have a
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little bit more control over your experience, so might be worth making
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sure that you have a standard rate.
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This isn't necessarily a pro for a "Lock It In" Rate, but just a note,
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you are able to still upgrade your cabin using the upgrade bidding system.
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so you'll still have a reservation number and you're still able to
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log into the upgrade bidding tool.
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So you will be given some options to be able to select what type of cabin
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and how much you'd like to bid to upgrade to those higher level cabins.
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So regardless of the fact that you're not able to make a change to
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your booking, you are able to still use the upgrade bidding system to
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at least upgrade your cabin type.
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And talking cabin upgrades brings me to the bonus point that I wanna
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mention here, is that if you book a "Lock It In" Rate cabin, you
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may snag yourself a free upgrade.
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and the reason for this is because you are guaranteed a cabin in the
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category that you've booked in.
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The specific cabin that you're given won't be assigned to you
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until close to the sailing date.
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So let's say for example, you were sailing on Resilient Lady and all
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of the Limited View Sea Terraces had already been taken, and you'd booked
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a "Lock It In" Sea Terrace cabin.
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Well, what are they gonna give you now?
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They're gonna have to give you a standard Sea Terrace cabin or a
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Central Sea Terrace cabin, because that might be all that's available.
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This type of free upgrade is actually something that we've experienced
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before in the past, and it might be more common than you think
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In the past, we booked a "Lock It In" Insider and were given
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a Central Sea Terrace instead.
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It just means that all of the Insiders and the Limited View and the Standard
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Sea Terrace cabins had all been filled by the time we got our cabin assignment.
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So we were very lucky indeed to be given an upgrade a few levels up
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from where we originally booked.
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This of course isn't a guarantee, and it's probably more likely, let's
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face it, that you'll be given a lower level cabin than a higher one.
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But it is something that does occur.
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So when you eventually get your cabin assignment through in that email it's
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worth checking to see where it is, you might be in for an nice surprise.
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It's worth mentioning though, that These type of rates are offered on every
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single one of the cabin categories.
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All the way up to the Mega RockStar level,
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so you can find a great discount on Mega RockStar Suites by simply booking
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a "Lock It In" Rate Mega RockStar Suite.
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In those instances where you've chose RockStar or Mega RockStar,
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even though you've chose a "Lock It In" Rate, you actually get all of
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the benefits and perks of booking a RockStar or a Mega RockStar category,
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including the extended dining window.
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And if you've chosen Mega RockStar, you get your Work From Sea
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Wi-Fi, and you'll also get your towncar private transfer as well.
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Personally, we've done a " "Lock It In" Mega RockStar deal before and it
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was a very, very good price and we ended up getting all the perks that
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you get with that Mega RockStar suite.
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It's well worth having a look to see if your sailing has it available.
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So the big question is are "Lock It In" Rates worth it?
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In my opinion, it absolutely is.
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But it really comes down to personal preference and whether this is your first
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exploration into Virgin Voyages or not.
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If you are looking to have the full, unencumbered Virgin Voyages experience,
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you want that wonderful balcony, you want that iconic red hammock, you wanna
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have that extended dining booking window.
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Then perhaps it's not the rate for you, but if you simply just want to get
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on board, or if you've been
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on board a few times and you already know what to expect, which is
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very much our case, then I would say absolutely it's worth it.
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I hope you found this guide to "Lock It In" Rates useful if you're
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looking for a great "Lock It In" deal and you want some extra free
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perks included with your booking.
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Then just head over to vvinsider.com/book.
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We've got a whole list of reasons why trusting us with your next
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Virgin Voyage not only helps support the work that we do, which is to
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get all of this useful information out to Sailors around the world,
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but also there are some exclusive free perks for you simply by using our link
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to make your booking, it doesn't cost you any more and you get those extra benefits.
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So it really is a win-win, and it's why I always say it's the best way
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to make a Virgin Voyages booking.
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We're setting sale on Brilliant Lady on a voyage from Los Angeles to
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Vancouver, and I'm gonna capture the incredible moments on that voyage and
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bring you a full trip report next week.
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So make sure that you stay subscribed for that.
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if you've already "Locked It In" and you're looking forward to your
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next Virgin Voyage, something that's worth watching is a guide that we put
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together, which shows you all of the themed nights that you're gonna be
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expecting to see on your Virgin Voyage.
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So if you are looking for something to watch, I would head there next!
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But until I see you next week with that exciting trip report, happy sailing!
