Princess Land Tour Planning Help

[esquire20]

Hello all of you Alaska Experts, I live in New Jersey and would like to take a Princess cruise SB Whitter- Vancouver, in June. I would like to do 5 days land tour first. I would like to utilize the Tour Saver Princess Lodge/rail passes for Denali and Mt Mckinley lodge. I would like to fly in to Anchorage, how do split up the 5 days? Which lodge do I do First and does the Princess passes include Bus. Thank you in advance for your help.

[mytime53]

Do you have your dates chosen yet? That could determine your itinerary as far as when to go to Denali and what you could do there.

[esquire20]

I am thinking about June 17, Thank You

[mytime53]

The entire park road is scheduled to open June 8, so my suggestion would be to head straight up to Denali, spend the time you want there, and make your way to Whittier. How long to spend in each area and which places to visit depends on your interests (and when you arrive in Anchorage).

 

Are you determined to use the train and not rent a car? That also would change recommendations. If you stay at McKinley lodge, you get off the train in Talkeetna and shuttle back and forth. If you take the train, you are only going to be able to see Talkeetna, Denali, Anchorage, and Whittier. It takes a lot longer to travel by train than by car. So, basically, you would probably be

day 1: Anchorage

day 2 train to Talkeetna--McKinley Princess

day 3 train to Denali and at Denali--Denali Princess

day 4 Denali--Denali Princess

day 5 back to Anchorage

day 6 train or bus shuttle to Whittier

And if you have to be in Whittier on day 6, then you only get 1 afternoon and 1 morning at Denali, which may or may not be enough for you.

[esquire20]

Hi,thank you so much for your itenerary, it sounds great, could I not take the train from Denali directly to Whitter to pick up the ship? and yes I would like to take the train because thePrincess package for the lodging includes the rail pass with the Lodging, puschase one day and get one free. So the plan is to do 2 days at the Mckinley princess ans 2 days at the Denali. Thanks again for your help. Leslie

[Lookingforfacts]

People on this board won't agree but you should price a Princess cruise tour.

 

It sounds like you want to do the Princess land tour but want to save some money. Look for promotions.

 

Some problems with what you want to do.

 

1. Unless something has changed the direct rail from Deanli and McKinley Princess depot is limited to passengers who book a tour with Princess.
   
2. I think you'll have to stay overnight in Anchorage if you want to go with the rail.
   
3. The Princess coupons include R/T rail from Anchorage. I have no idea what it would cost to change the rail portion.
   
4. I don't think Princess includes transportation from the bus depot in Denali to the Denali Princess with the toursver offer.
   

I think you should forget putting the rail tour together on your own. Either rent a car or book the cruisetour with Princess.

I think you

[Lookingforfacts]

People on this board won't agree but you should price a Princess cruise tour.

 

It sounds like you want to do the Princess land tour but want to save some money. Look for promotions.

 

Some problems with what you want to do.

 

1. Unless something has changed the direct rail from Deanli and McKinley Princess depot is limited to passengers who book a tour with Princess.
   
2. I think you'll have to stay overnight in Anchorage if you want to go with the rail.
   
3. The Princess coupons include R/T rail from Anchorage. I have no idea what it would cost to change the rail portion.
   
4. I don't think Princess includes transportation from the bus depot in Denali to the Denali Princess with the toursver offer.
   

I think you should forget putting the rail tour together on your own. Either rent a car or book the cruisetour with Princess.

[Texas Tillie]

Hi,thank you so much for your itenerary, it sounds great, could I not take the train from Denali directly to Whitter to pick up the ship? and yes I would like to take the train because thePrincess package for the lodging includes the rail pass with the Lodging, puschase one day and get one free. So the plan is to do 2 days at the Mckinley princess ans 2 days at the Denali. Thanks again for your help. Leslie

 

Please read on this board about the McKinley Lodge. You are stuck in the middle of nowhere - an hour from Talkeetna. Princess does not allow any vendors other than the ones that they use (and take a BIG cut of the fee) to come onto the property. There is nothing to do at the property - and the mountain is only visable about 30% of the time. You may be penny wise and pound foolish trying to use coupons that place you in a situation where you are "saving" money but wasting precious time when you could be doing/seeing something spectacular in Alaska.

[greatam]

Hi,thank you so much for your itenerary, it sounds great, could I not take the train from Denali directly to Whitter to pick up the ship? and yes I would like to take the train because thePrincess package for the lodging includes the rail pass with the Lodging, puschase one day and get one free. So the plan is to do 2 days at the Mckinley princess ans 2 days at the Denali. Thanks again for your help. Leslie

 

 

I must be missing something. Looking at the Toursaver website, it appears the rail tours are either 2 days McKinley Princess (a real waste of time) OR 1 night Denali Princess and 1 night McKinley Princess. Both tours leave from ANC.

 

The tours are pay for one person, get the second free. NOT book and pay for one nights lodging and get the second day free. AND in the fine print-CANNOT combine with other coupons. So if you use the Toursaver coupons, you have to choose either one night each Denali/McKinley WITH the train or book the hotel ONLY deal and book your own transport. The hotel ONLY deal is kind of a rip, as there are often nights where the Denali Princess can be booked for $125 per night or less and the McKinley Princess is very often $100 per night or less.

[Budget Queen]

This poster needs to find out, FIRST, what they plan on doing with their time and what the areas offer. As for the Whittier/Denali train, I have not seen that offered outside of the cruisetour packages, and would NOT be what the toursaver offers are.

 

 

It is far superior to have a car rental, if going independent. It's a significant "handicap" to have to rely on hotel shuttles at Denali park, if you want an early start using the shuttle buses. Taking a tour bus, from the lodge is the highest cost option, seeing the least with the Tundra Wilderness tour, compared to getting farther into the park. Same with the McKinley lodge, a place I would never be without a car, in my opinion.

 

There are Alaska RR coupons to also look at using, instead of using the Princess lodging, other lodging may be of interest as well, especially in Talkeetna.

[mytime53]

Hi,thank you so much for your itenerary, it sounds great, could I not take the train from Denali directly to Whitter to pick up the ship?

 

I posted that itinerary thinking that you would look at it and think," hmmm, lots of time spent in travel here and not much time doing anything."

 

Because by the time you take out 8 hours of sleep and an hour for dinner and some time for breakfast, you are probably spending more time on the train or shuttle bus than you are at your destination. Okay, so that's an exaggeration, but not much of one. It takes 7.5 hours on the train from Denali to Anchorage. In that amount of time you could drive and enjoy other stops along the way.

 

No, you can't take the train from Denali to Whittier.

http://alaskarailroad.com/travel/Schedules/tabid/98/Default.aspx

[Lookingforfacts]

Same with the McKinley lodge, a place I would never be without a car, in my opinion.

 

Based on your previous posts the Princess McKinley Lodge is near the bottom of the list of accommodations you'd consider in the Talkeetna area. With or without a car. Has something changed.:)

 

It sounds like the poster might wind up with the all the disadvantages of a a Princess cruisetour without any of the advantages.

[esquire20]

Thank You all for your kind replys, It will give me something to think about. I am thinking ahead for June 2012 season. Thanks again Leslie

[Dianejk]

We are going on the Vancouver to Whittier on May 28 to June 4th.....

I read this post with great interest as I have not confirmed my plans after our cruise. We have 3 and 1/2 days after our cruise. If my DH and I rent a car to drive north to Denali, do you miss out on scenery scene on the train?

 

2. What hotel/lodges would anyone suggest in Denali both for view and things to do?

 

3. I really want to go on a dog sled ride while in Alaska. What is anyones' suggestions?

 

Thanks for any help!!!

 

Diane

[Budget Queen]

We are going on the Vancouver to Whittier on May 28 to June 4th.....

I read this post with great interest as I have not confirmed my plans after our cruise. We have 3 and 1/2 days after our cruise. If my DH and I rent a car to drive north to Denali, do you miss out on scenery scene on the train?

 

2. What hotel/lodges would anyone suggest in Denali both for view and things to do?

 

3. I really want to go on a dog sled ride while in Alaska. What is anyones' suggestions?

 

Thanks for any help!!!

 

Diane

 

3 1/2 days is not a lot of time to include Denali Park. What is the 1/2 day?? You have an afternoon flight home??

 

The Parks Highways and the Alaska RR, just about parallel each other, Anchorage/Denali, so definately no advantage to the train on that segment. Whittier/Anchorage, does parallel.

 

You need to allow 6 hours for the drive, Anchorage/Denali, plus 1 1/4 hours Whittier/Anchorage plus tunnel time. Time for a rental car pick up, supply shopping etc.

 

You need to decide the "things to do", but in my opinion, the only reason to go to Denali park is to get INTO it. Meaning a shuttle bus to at least Eielson. Plenty else to also consider, but you aren't going to have much time, and likely only a few hours on the first and last day there. Hiking is excellent, rafting, ranger programs, sled dog demo, etc etc http://www.nps.gov/dena

 

As for a sled dog "ride", glacier dog sledding is available out of Juneau and Skagway. With a cart ride on dirt, Caribou Crossing via the Yukon with either a tour or self drive out of Skagway, is a cheaper option, vs ship tours out of Skagway and Juneau. Tours available near Denali park, and the cheapest short ride is in Wassilla at the Sled dog Headquarters, with Reddington dogs, less than 5 minutes. :)

[mapleleaves]

We are going on the Vancouver to Whittier on May 28 to June 4th.....

I read this post with great interest as I have not confirmed my plans after our cruise. We have 3 and 1/2 days after our cruise. If my DH and I rent a car to drive north to Denali, do you miss out on scenery scene on the train?

2. What hotel/lodges would anyone suggest in Denali both for view and things to do?

3. I really want to go on a dog sled ride while in Alaska. What is anyones' suggestions?

 

Thanks for any help!!!

 

Diane

 

IMHO you miss more when you're on the train because you don't have the ability to stop and enjoy any sights along the way. This link highlights some of those sights. (the spirit houses at Eklutna are my personal favorite). http://alaska.org/driving/denali-drive.htm

Is your flight home Wed 6/7 at midday? 3 1/2 days isn't a lot of time but certainly enough to visit Denali. It depends on how you feel about driving. It might be too costly to rent a car from Avis in Whittier and return it 3 days later to Anc, but price it out. The cheaper option might be to transfer to Anc then pick up a R/T rental.

Without knowing your return flight, here's a VERY rough itinerary so you can see for yourself if it's too much travel time.

Sunday - long day: Whittier to Anc (the Park Connection bus is 9:45am - noon), get rental car, 5 hr drive to Denali. Take your time and enjoy some stops. Even with stops you could get to Denali by 8pm.

Mon - shuttle into the park

Tue - visitor center exhibits, dog sled demo, hike in the park. Drive to Wasilla (ididarod headquarters) or to Anchorage.

Wed - return car. Get to airport around noon

Here's a link to lodging in the Denali, Healy area.

http://www.alaskaone.com/_dcc/accommodations/

[CruisingGoddess]

There seems to be a lot of confusion on this topic about the OP's question so I'm going to post my EXPERIENCE from last year...

 

Like many people on an Alaska cruise, we had the option of booking the cruise only or book a cruisetour, which included a land tour of Interior Alaska (usually Fairbanks and Denali National Park). We really wanted to go to Denali National Park before our cruise but the cruisetour seemed very pricey (about $1k-$2k more per person) and we didn’t really want to go to Fairbanks and I didn’t want to do the Denali tour included in the cruisetour. At the same time, I wanted to experience Princess’ glass-domed rail cars and Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. I consider staying at Denali Princess and riding their rail cars part of the experience of my trip. It's nice to be pampered and not have to do the driving! So instead of a cruisetour, I booked a rail package from PrincessLodges.com. The package included train to Denali on Princess’ rail cars, 2 nights at Denali Princess, and motorcoach back to Anchorage. Plus, we had the flexibility of doing whatever we wanted once we were in Denali. We used a 2-for-1 coupon from the Alaska TourSaver book and saved $300! The cost for the 2 of us was $587.38.

 

Full details of what we did, how it worked out, and everyone is on my blog:

 

http://moonprincess.com/travel/category/cruises/alaska-2010/

 

The TourSaver book coupons have changed from last year. If you want to know specifics about what you can and can't do, call Princess Lodges directly, not listen to people here guess. By the way, Princess never asked me for the physical coupon and I winded up reselling my book when I returned for $80. So the book itself cost me $20 and I saved almost $700 with it.

[Lookingforfacts]

The toursaver website lists the princess offerings. The package listed by the PP (2 nights at the Denali Princess with transportation) isn't an option for 2011.Princess has other promotions. It's possible the OP might get a discount on something like what the pp got, without even needing toursaver. Last few years Princes offered website promotions which were similar to toursaver pricing.

 

I'll correct some misinformation provided by the pp. Many of the princess cruisetours skip Fairbanks. Princess is now offering cruisetours with just lodging and transportation. Book your own tours. A cruisetour offers direct transportation to/from Denail and your ship.