Alaska - HAL vs Princess Cruise Tour

Any recommendations as to which line has the better cruise tour. We are thinking 10-11 day trip. Thanks

I couldn't tell you which is best as I've only done the HAL Denali/Yukon cruise tour. I was impressed at how organized our tour was, Everything went off well and everything was taken care of for us. HAL has been bringing people to Alaska for 70 years now and has the itinerary, lodging, travel, rest stops and included excursions down pat.

We would do it again. It was great!:)

HAL has a lot of offerings but so does Princess and while they each have their own itineraries they work together whenever necessary. HAL has the best Denali train cars (forward facing seats) and a very nice Denali experience and you can still walk over to the Princess lodge and enjoy their site. HAL includes the longer TWT into the park while Princess only includes the shorter Natural History tour on some cruisetours.

The Princess lodge at Talkeetna (Mt. McKinley) is pretty remote. HAL hotels are more centrally located for lodging and activities. Princess has more lodges but they may be remote.

HAL has the Yukon itinerary which includes 2-3 nights in Denali, plus Fairbanks and Anchorage with 3,4,and 7 day cruises. If you have only 10-11 days and don’t care about the cruise but want to have more time on land the Yukon Y3C or Y3L itineraries are the way to go. Look at the D5 or D6 for cruise plus Denali with HAL. Can you add more days....or some will say you should just rent a car and DIY to Denali.

HAL has a lot of offerings but so does Princess and while they each have their own itineraries they work together whenever necessary. HAL has the best Denali train cars (forward facing seats) and a very nice Denali experience and you can still walk over to the Princess lodge and enjoy their site. HAL includes the longer TWT into the park while Princess only includes the shorter Natural History tour on some cruisetours.

 

The Princess lodge at Talkeetna (Mt. McKinley) is pretty remote. HAL hotels are more centrally located for lodging and activities. Princess has more lodges but they may be remote.

 

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Just to clarify.

Princess seems to be retrofitting their trains so all the seats sit forward. They are also using some of HAL's cars.

While Princess does often include the Natural History tour, you can upgrade to the Tundra tour if you want.

Princess and HAL are both operated by the Holland America Group. You would be surprised how much they share certain things.

There are a few Princess tours, that you can not upgrade the NHT.

I also suggest you strongly consider looking at investing more time. A 3 or 4 day add on, in my opinion is a poor choice. Way too much time is in transit, with little time at only a few destinations. My minimum, frankly is a 7 day add on. With cruise tours, you are going to run into wasted down/wait times, so even more important to have your tour include what you want. It is more efficient and you can do more, going independent, if of interest.

Thanks everyone! The Princess site seems to have much more information re the wilderness Lodges that you stay at during the land days. I cannot find that same info on the HAL site. Does anyone have info re lodging with a HAL trip vs the Princess land portion? Thanks again!

Thanks everyone! The Princess site seems to have much more information re the wilderness Lodges that you stay at during the land days. I cannot find that same info on the HAL site. Does anyone have info re lodging with a HAL trip vs the Princess land portion? Thanks again!

May I suggest that you directly access the individual hotel's web sites for information about which you are seeking?

I very recently sought to book a Princess or HAL tour to Denali with a connection to a cruise. Given the price quoted, reading the 3.5-4.2 and related comments reviews on TripAdvisor for all 3 of the Lodges along with what I learned from thoroughly studying the hotels' web sites, I decided, for me, the price quoted for such accommodations included as part of the tour was unreasonable. The public areas of the Lodges appear wonderful. To me, the rooms seem less so. And, the need to access a shuttle to transfer from where one's room might be to the Main Lodge is a major turn off.

I think that if I had tried to book during the Fall of 2017, the price would probably be more acceptable given the level of Lodge accommodations provided.

We have done both HAL and Princess land trips and liked Princess's lodges better. We did upgrade to the Tundra tour. I really do not like the HAL tours that leave the ship half way through and drive North. When I spoke to a friend who is a HAL rep - - they are not that popular.

Both Princess and HAL have a long history in Alaska of investing in many aspects of the visitor industry here. Not only hotels but coach services like Greyline. They operated pretty much independent until Carnival Corp created a new division in 2013 where they placed Princess, HAL, P&O Australia and all HAL and Princess Alaska infrastructure holdings under a single over all management "The Holland American Group".

They then put Stein Kruse in as CEO. Princess has five large "Wilderness" lodges up here, if one wants to count the one in Fairbanks as wilderness. HAL, who was the first player here if you consider that they bought out Chuck West (Mr. Alaska), owner of "Westours", in January 1971. HAL hotels now operate under Westmark Hotels. However, HAL and Princess guests are intermingled in all these hotels.

We have never taken a Princess cruise tour in Alaska but have in other parts of the world. We have always had excellent experiences on those and were very satisfied. I'm not sure how HAL handles their cruise tours up here, but I spend a lot of time in the Wrangell Mountain country of the interior and often stop at the Princess Copper River Wilderness Lodge for lunch, I've ran into HAL groups there on more than one occasion.

Princess Cruise Lines offers four types of "cruise tours" in Alaska. Their "Connoisseur tour" is the more comprehensive (and expensive) tour which is basically what they have offered for years. A tour escort is provided with these along with many meals. In response to a proliferation of post-cruise and pre-cruise tours offered by independent parties Princess has come up with a variety of packages offering a lot less than what the Princess "Connoisseur" package does. Princess, has "Off the beaten Path" or "Denali Explorer" or "On your own" cruise tour packages now. The latter three offer a variety of different options but for the most part are considerably cheaper than the Connoisseur cruise tour, primarily due to no full time tour director or meals on those.

Hi: We are considering the Alaska cruise and land tour at the end of June 2018. We are considering Celebrity. They use Denali Park Village and Talkeetna Pike Lodge. Denali Park Village is only a 2 star and didn't get good reviews on Trip Advisor. Also told the meals are VERY expensive. Is it really worth doing the land tour in Denali and Talkeetna before taking the cruise? We have done the Alaska cruise Round trip before. And now want to do the one way route. I hear there's not much there except fantastic scenery. Should we do land tour considering the extra expense. And what are the flights like going to Anchorage? Also, assume the cruise lines look after you on the land tour?? Any advise would be appreciated.

There are a few Princess tours, that you can not upgrade the NHT.

And it seems one of them is what we have booked. I have pretty much read posts about this until my eyes bleed.

We are booked and locked in to Princess Cruisetour in May 2018. T8AJB5 starting in Fairbanks on 25/5.

Our itinerary has 2 half days in Denali. Neither gives us enough time to upgrade to the TWT. We are booked for the NHT in the afternoon of arrival in Denali.

My question is, is it still worth doing the NHT in the absence of a better option? Is there anything on the NHT that if we missed, I would later say "oh darn"?

Are there other things we can do to better spend the time we have? (I'm thinking here White Water Rafting, Back Country Hiking etc.) To be honest, the thought of sitting on another bus for 5 hours after bussing 3 hours from Fairbanks is rather unappealing.

Group of 4 active 60+ Australians doing a (probably) once only tour to Alaska.

All opinions welcome.

And it seems one of them is what we have booked. I have pretty much read posts about this until my eyes bleed.

 

We are booked and locked in to Princess Cruisetour in May 2018. T8AJB5 starting in Fairbanks on 25/5.

Our itinerary has 2 half days in Denali. Neither gives us enough time to upgrade to the TWT. We are booked for the NHT in the afternoon of arrival in Denali.

 

My question is, is it still worth doing the NHT in the absence of a better option? Is there anything on the NHT that if we missed, I would later say "oh darn"?

 

Are there other things we can do to better spend the time we have? (I'm thinking here White Water Rafting, Back Country Hiking etc.) To be honest, the thought of sitting on another bus for 5 hours after bussing 3 hours from Fairbanks is rather unappealing.

 

Group of 4 active 60+ Australians doing a (probably) once only tour to Alaska.

 

All opinions welcome.

You are arriving too early if you are going in May. What day are you in Denali?

And it seems one of them is what we have booked. I have pretty much read posts about this until my eyes bleed.

 

We are booked and locked in to Princess Cruisetour in May 2018. T8AJB5 starting in Fairbanks on 25/5.

Our itinerary has 2 half days in Denali. Neither gives us enough time to upgrade to the TWT. We are booked for the NHT in the afternoon of arrival in Denali.

 

My question is, is it still worth doing the NHT in the absence of a better option? Is there anything on the NHT that if we missed, I would later say "oh darn"?

 

Are there other things we can do to better spend the time we have? (I'm thinking here White Water Rafting, Back Country Hiking etc.) To be honest, the thought of sitting on another bus for 5 hours after bussing 3 hours from Fairbanks is rather unappealing.

 

Group of 4 active 60+ Australians doing a (probably) once only tour to Alaska.

 

All opinions welcome.

On our first Alaska trip we took the NHT as part of our cruisetour. It was raining and I remember being happy that it was short. If you are in Denali at the end of May you are too early for the longer bus ride into the park anyway. You can read about the NHT on the nps.gov website. As I remember we saw two moose very close up on the road where we had gathered for a talk and we saw some ptarmigan. No two experiences will ever be the same. Through the bus drivers comentary you will learn about Denali. If you prefer hiking or rafting you can also enjoy those activities. The long daylight hours will give you time for activities.

Thanks everyone! The Princess site seems to have much more information re the wilderness Lodges that you stay at during the land days. I cannot find that same info on the HAL site. Does anyone have info re lodging with a HAL trip vs the Princess land portion? Thanks again!

Here is a link to my photo review of my HAL Denali cruistour last year including McKinley Resort chalet photos, maps, menus, train photos, Fly Denali excursion, and park photos:

http://www.rogerjett-photography.com/place/alaska-2/denali/

You are arriving too early if you are going in May. What day are you in Denali?

27 May

27 May

You are going too early to get further into the park. June 1 is often the magic date.