Princess Alaskan Cruisetour Lodge Question

[DentoAlaska]

We are booked for an Alaskan Cruisetour in July, 2015 (Off the Beaten Path LB7). I was wondering if someone could give me some insight with how far the Princess Lodges are from towns?

 

We will be staying at the following lodges:

1. Copper River Princess Lodge (2 Nights)

2. For Fairbanks (2 nights) all that is on our itinerary is "Fairbanks Hotel"

3. Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge (1 Night)

4. McKinley Princess Lodge (1 Night)

 

Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated. I have looked at the lodges websites and was unable to find definitive location information.

[love2relax]

At the McKinley Princess Lodge, Princess has busses that take you back and forth to Talkeetna; which I guess is the closest thing to a "town". We enjoyed visiting there. In town you also have lots of options for excursions.

 

At the Denali Wilderness Lodge, I can't really think of a "town". There is a strip of restaurants and shops across the highway that is only about a 5 minute walk away. I really hope that you are arriving here super early in the morning, or you won't have any time to go into Denali Park. I made that mistake the first time I went up there. The Natural History Tour (in my opinion) isn't worth it. You will need to take the Tundra Wilderness Tour, or take the park's Eileson Shuttle in order to get far enough into the park to see all of the wildlife.

 

I haven't stayed at the other two lodges, so I can't help with that.

Edited June 27, 2014 by love2relax

[Loonbeam]

Princess uses a number of hotels in Fairbanks, most are either in town or a short taxi/shuttle ride.

 

Denali - as noted, not much of a 'town', there are some stores and restaurants in the immediate area.

 

McKinley - Talkeetna is about 45 mins away, shuttle avail

 

Not sure about Copper River

[katisdale]

Copper River is not near a town. There are very interesting excursion options there as well as hiking/outdoor activities without a cost.

[H2Go]

They all show up on Google Maps if you know where to look. But some of them are really hard to find.

 

1) The Copper River lodge is close to the town of Copper Center, but not an easy walk if I remember correctly. (Although, that might have had more to do with the bear that was hanging around.) There were shuttles that ran frequently to the town and the National Park visitor center.

 

1 Brenwick-Craig Rd, Copper River, AK 99573

 

2) Princess does have a lodge in Fairbanks, but when we had "Fairbanks Hotel" listed we ended up at Bear Lodge, a Wedgewood facility north of the main part of Fairbanks. This was several years ago, though.

 

3) While the Denali Lodge is right off of the highway, the closest "town" is probably Cantwell, 30 miles to the south. There are several other lodges, stores, restaurants, etc. in the immediate area.

 

Mile 238 5 George Parks Hwy, Denali National Park and Preserve, AK 99755

 

4) The McKinley Lodge is pretty remote. They run shuttles into Talkeetna which is about 45 miles away by road. (much closer by boat)

 

Mile Post 133 N Parks Hwy, Trapper Creek, AK 99683

 

 

Hope this helps. I'm looking forward to reacquainting myself with two of these in a couple of weeks!!!

[giselleacttwo]

The only "town" on your list is Fairbanks. (With a bowling alley, hospital, a movie theatre, box stores, the usual trappings of civilization). For those who live near Denali they call Fairbanks "town" because that is where they go for most of their groceries, doctors appts., etc. (It's 120 miles from Denali)

 

Denali is in a tourist center so there are other hotels and restaurants around. McKinley and Copper are removed from all of that, so it's a ride to any other tourism services. Fairbanks is an actual city.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Edited June 27, 2014 by giselleacttwo

[caribill]

My report on my cruisetour may help answer some of your questions.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1727858

[cruisequeen4ever]

We have stayed at the Copper River Lodge and loved it! It's way out from civilization, had beautiful views, and lots of outdoor rec opportunities. It's worth the long drive. The food was fantastic at both restaurants! The staff was classic Princess, friendly. The rooms were clean and up to Princess standards.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[geoherb]

If you haven't done so already, call to change the Natural History Tour to the Tundra Wilderness Tour. (Someone once compared going on the Natural History Tour to going to Disney World and not getting past the parking lot.) With just one day at Denali, you'll want to see as much as possible. If your schedule is like ours was a couple of years ago, you won't be there in time to take one of the shuttles into the park.

 

My travel agent emailed me our Fairbanks hotel assignment a couple of weeks before our cruise tour.

[Gabrielle R.]

At Denali we enjoyed the dinner theater that they did... I can't remember the name of it... But it was there at the resort. We also enjoyed the restaurants in the 'town' I can't remember the name of the one restaurant- But it is right across from the Princess Denali... It looks like a little hole in the wall cafe (The Salmon bake??? ) They had a great breakfast We enjoyed that. We also enjoyed a pizza/bar that was at the opposite end of the town.... It's been 3 years so can't remember the names...

 

A McKinley we enjoyed the Restaurant there 20' 23 I think was it's name. One couple we met said that they did salmon fishing and brought a salmon to the restaurant and they fixed it for them. Said it was enough to feed 6 dinner PLUS they ate breakfast from it.

 

We also did the early morning shuttle to Talkeetna. There is a great little restaurant there that serves customers as they sit at a long table. We met 6 climbers who just got part way up McKinley. We had fun visiting with them. The food was amazing! It was fun to see this little town.

 

Have fun in Alaska!

[DentoAlaska]

Thank you all so much for the information you gave me. I depend on these forums for the "real picture". I know our days will be full but it's always nice to see as much as possible outside of the planned excursions. Several posters have said to change the Natural History Tour to the Tundra Wilderness tour so that change is on my radar.

 

Caribill...thank you so much for giving me the thread for your review. It was very informative!

:D

[IdahoCruises]

Some interesting news about Denali area this morning:

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dozens-airlifted-from-flooded-denali-national-park/

[RDC1]

We did a similar tour last year

 

 

 

1. Copper River Princess Lodge (2 Nights)

 

The lodge has a shuttle that runs to the national park hq that will also stop in Copper River. Copper River is very very small. Not much there to speak of. Those on out tour that did get off in town indicated no reason for one to do so. The Park (Wrangell St Alias) HQ was worth a quick visit. Unless you just want to kick back at the lodge you will need to book an excursion.

 

 

3. Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge (1 Night)

 

This is in the most of what one could call a town in the area. There are some restaurants within walking distance. There are free shuttles to the park HQ.

 

4. McKinley Princess Lodge (1 Night)

 

This lodge is 47.9 miles from Talkeetna. They do have a shuttle to/from there. Don't recall if there was a fee for the shuttle or not. We were transferring to Talkeetna in the morning to catch a train to Denali. So we just caught an early shuttle (they did not charge for that since we had a transfer there already).

[barbierahrah]

Thank you all so much for the information you gave me. I depend on these forums for the "real picture". I know our days will be full but it's always nice to see as much as possible outside of the planned excursions. Several posters have said to change the Natural History Tour to the Tundra Wilderness tour so that change is on my radar.

 

Caribill...thank you so much for giving me the thread for your review. It was very informative!

:D

We were on the Coral May 31 and a 4 day tour afterwards. We took the train from Whittier to McKinley Lodge. The train was nice and a beautiful ride. McKinley Lodge is nice, but very remote. There are a couple of restaurants on site and large indoor and outdoor seating areas at the Main Lodge. A free shuttle runs around the property and stops at the various room areas. You can pay $5 for a shuttle that runs hourly to Talkeetna and get excursions or meals there. We went on a jetboat ride. There are some walking trails at the McKinley Lodge. A bus took us from McKinley to Denali Lodge. Again, the Main Lodge has a lot of seating and a gift shop, with a couple of restaurants and a pizza place on the property. Our room was great. Across the road were numerous shops and places to eat. We did the shorter Denali History Tour and it was fine. We actually saw moose and a grizzly. Guess we were lucky, and the scenery was beautiful. After trains and buses and more of that to come, I was not inclined to go another 8+ hours on a bus. The shorter, 5 hour trip was just fine with me. In Fairbanks we were assigned to Bear Lodge, the Wedgewood property. The rooms were OK, the restaurants was pretty awful. There was virtually nothing else close by, but there was a free shuttle to various places in town that we did not take advantage of. In Fairbanks we did the Gold Dredge Tour and the Riverboat Cruise (w/lunch) and enjoyed both of those immensely.

[reney313]

Glitter Gulch is the small shopping area across the street from Denali Princess Lodge. There are a couple great restaurants, at the far end is Prospector's Pizza which I LOVED. There are also some fast food options like Subway and a gem of a Thai food cart.

 

The Salmon Bake restaurant (also very good...and owned by the same people as Prospector's Pizza) has a shuttle to Healy, which is a town about 10 minutes away, I believe. We didn't have a need to go, but if we had another day there we probably would have just for a change of scenery.