HAL or Princess for a 2010 Alaskan cruise tour

[wwinfl91]

HI everyone,

 

My wife and I are considering a cruise to Alaska in 2010 maybe with my sister and her husband. We have all made one other cruise to Alaska and now want to see Denali and some of the interior as well as doing a cruise.

 

We have cruised on both HAL and Princess and have enjoyed both cruise lines but we have no experience with how either of these two cruise lines handles things on land in Alaska.

 

My sister has especially expressed an interest in seeing Mt McKinley so that has to be included in any cruise tour we do. We will probably want to go during the June thru August time frame although I know this is also the peak season for Alaska. We would also probably be looking at a week's cruise and at least a week on land.

 

What I especially interested in is your opinions of HAL tours, lodging, food and transportation during the land portion of an Alaskan cruise tour. If anyone has been on both a Princess and HAL cruise tour in Alaska any comparisons of the two would be appreciated.

 

I'm going to be posting this on the Princess board as well as on the Alaskan board in hopes of getting some good replies from a variety of opinions.

 

Thanks in advance for your assistance in helping us decide which one to take.

 

Have a great next cruise.

[fun_seeker]

HI everyone,

 

My wife and I are considering a cruise to Alaska in 2010 maybe with my sister and her husband. We have all made one other cruise to Alaska and now want to see Denali and some of the interior as well as doing a cruise.

 

We have cruised on both HAL and Princess and have enjoyed both cruise lines but we have no experience with how either of these two cruise lines handles things on land in Alaska.

 

My sister has especially expressed an interest in seeing Mt McKinley so that has to be included in any cruise tour we do. We will probably want to go during the June thru August time frame although I know this is also the peak season for Alaska. We would also probably be looking at a week's cruise and at least a week on land.

 

What I especially interested in is your opinions of HAL tours, lodging, food and transportation during the land portion of an Alaskan cruise tour. If anyone has been on both a Princess and HAL cruise tour in Alaska any comparisons of the two would be appreciated.

 

I'm going to be posting this on the Princess board as well as on the Alaskan board in hopes of getting some good replies from a variety of opinions.

 

Thanks in advance for your assistance in helping us decide which one to take.

 

Have a great next cruise.

We did the Alaska/Denali cruisetour several years ago on HAL. On the way up to Anchorage we noticed that the Veendam appeared to have the same itinerary as one of the Princess vessels. We would pull into port before the Princess ship and leave port after the Princess ship, which meant that we had more time to spend in each port, if that is of interest to you.

 

As far as the lodging, the hotels were equivalent to a well maintained Holiday Inn with the exception of Denali where the lodging was in rustic cabins. The food was invariably good. The tours in Fairbanks and Denali were interesting and fun. The buses for the tour in Fairbanks were quality coaches and the rail cars on the trip from Fairbanks to Denali and then to Anchorage were the glass roofed observation cars that enabled us to see the scenery and wildlife as we encountered them. Views of Denali (Mt. McKinley) depend very much on the weather as it is wreathed in clouds most of the time. We didn't get very good views from Denali National Park, but the weather cleared on the trip down to Anchorage and we did get a beautiful view from the train.

 

If you can go in June, that is preferable to August because there are fewer mosquitoes to deal with in June. It is with good reason that Alaskans refer to the mosquito as the state bird.

[wander]

In the past few years we have gone on an Alaska cruisetour with both Princess and HAL. Both were excellent!

 

In term so of the ship portion, loved them both, but overall would pick our HAL cruise on the Ryndam over (small margin) the Coral Princess. Why? My only real plus to HAL was the size of the ship and the crew, although the Princess crew was wonderful as well.

 

Shore portion - a toss up. Both lines have so many options and many of them are almost identical between lines. However, there are some differences and only you can pick which you prefer. Our lodging sites in Denali were so very similar. Strangely, in Denali HAL includes the longer, more expensive Park tour during which you usually see much more wildlife. Princess includes a "Natural History" tour where you may learn enough but do not go far enough into the Park to see much wildlife. For an additional fee Princess will change your tour and I, and many others, would definitely recommend this change. It is usually worth the extra money.

 

One plus to Princess is that they also have a lodge in McKinley State Park with a spectacular view of the mountain WHEN it is not obscured by clouds. They say that only about 30% of the folks who go to Denali and McKinley parks see the mountain. However, the day we spent at the McKinley Wilderness Lodge (Princess) there was not a cloud in the sky the whole day and the view was spectacular. They have a huge deck with chairs for viewing I spend over eight hours on the deck, looking, taking pictures, reading, looking........ BUT, we were fortunate, many folks do not see the mountain and there is not alot else to do there unless you want to take a Princess tour.

 

Our HAL cruisetour ended in Fairbanks. We took a one day extension through HAL and flew to Anatuvuk Pass for the day.. That was a fascinating, fascinating experience, but one needs a bit of an adventurous spirit to enjoy it. I would do that again in a moment, but once again we were fortunate as the skies were clear and the Brooks Mountain SPECTACULAR.

[RuthC]

My HAL cruise/tour was too long ago to have much valuable information for you.

But I can advise that you do the land portion first, then the 7-day cruise down to Vancouver. And that's for a couple of reasons:

First, the land tour is exhausting! You are not on vacation! You have to be up early, with your luggage out even earlier (at least it seemed that way :rolleyes:). And the evenings end late, too.

Second, it's a much longer flight home from Anchorage or Fairbanks than it is from Vancouver. Why end such a nice trip knocking yourself out getting back to real life.

Whatever you choose, though, you will have a grand time.

[bathtubjake]

I've done two cruisetours with HAL, including summer 2009. Nearly everywhere we went, Princess was there too. Either of them will give you a great experience. In Denali, HAL stays at the McKinley Chalet which sounds exotic but is really basic cabin/motels. The buildings are spread out in a mile loop that stretches down a hill. There is a shuttle between buildings and the main lodge. The main lodge (restaurants, lounge, gift shop) is much nicer than the actual rooms. The first trip, we stayed in a new building which was equivelant to a nice Holiday Inn or Sheraton. Last summer, our room was equivelant to a Quality Inn or Ramada. There are many more of the lower quality rooms. Last summer, we walked over to the Princess Lodge to see what it was like. It was only about a mile away and much nicer. The buildings were all newer, and the site itself was flatter. The hotel buildings were much closer to the main lodge and did not require hiking up and down hills. The lodge and gift shop were larger and more comfortable. If the Denali experience were to make my choice, I would choose the Princess lodge.

 

On the rest of the cruisetour, HAL stays in Westmark Hotels which are very basic. They look like Holiday Inns that have not been updated. If you get off the luxurious ship and then stay in a Westmark, you will be disappointed. Starting with the Westmarks makes them a little more palatable. The Anchorage Westmark is dark, cluttered and confusing. The public spaces are small and cut up. The rooms definitely need updating. The Fairbanks Westmark has large public spaces and some new rooms and some that need a lot of updating. I believe the tours were put in the older section and several tours stay there each night.

 

HAL buses are generally large and comfortable, for a bus. When choosing your landtour, there are a few that do not have a dedicated guide. I would definitely recommend a guided tour. We did without last summer, and it was ok, but there was definitely a difference in that we were the only people who knew where we were going and therefore, we HAD to know what the next step was. A tour of this magnitude is definitely better with a guide.

 

Of course, the scenery is spectacular! No matter which you choose, you won't be disappointed. You won't be spending much time in hotels anyway, but they do have some differences.