I am a big fan of Virgin Voyages, but today’s disembarkation process in Juneau, Alaska was very frustrating.
Our group tried to reserve a tender time in the app shortly after it opened, but most of the early time slots were already gone. I assumed booking a 2 PM excursion would still give us plenty of buffer time since the first tenders started around noon, but that was not the case. Out of our group of four, only one person managed to secure a tender time. The rest of us were directed to join a standby line at Extra Virgin, where it was already extremely crowded by around 10:30 AM.
Inside the restaurant, the situation was tense as people tried to figure out whether they would make their excursions on time. When standby boarding eventually began, it seemed that some guests who arrived much later were allowed through ahead of those who had been waiting longer. Communication from staff was also very limited, and there was little clarity about how the queue was being managed.
Although we ultimately made it to our excursion, many others did not. We waited for hours before finally getting off the ship around 1:45 PM.
If you are planning to go ashore in Juneau for independent excursions, it seems important to reserve a tender slot immediately when it opens in the app. Guests who book Virgin Voyages excursions or are in higher-tier categories appear to have priority access, while others may need to rely on standby lines.
Overall, while I still enjoy Virgin Voyages, this part of the process felt disorganized and stressful, especially for passengers trying to manage timed excursions.
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