Thoughts/Alaska Cruisetour 8/1-8/13 Southbound

[alabama ghost]

We were on the cruisetour arriving in Fairbanks on 8/1. Group of 9 on land tour. Two nights in Fairbanks, one night at Denali Princess and two nights at Mckinley Princess before cruise leaving Whittier on 8/6. Added 2 to our group in Whittier.

 

Overall great trip! Just a few ideas pop out to me:

 

1. Did Princess air. On way to Fairbanks we were seated in different rows which made for a lot of reading during the 5 hour flight!

 

2. DH's "Travel with Me" suitcase sent to the ship from Fairbanks. He had a rough time for 5 days with no clean underwear or "cosmetics". (My word for it, not his!)

 

3. Food was expensive on land tour. Trying to fast and make up for it on the cruise just didn't work.

 

4. Fairbanks - Riverboat was great, especially the dog sled visit.

 

5. Denali - Natural History Tour was okay, guide was excellent. When we go back we'll try to be there long enough to take the 8 hour shuttle in Denali. "School buses" really weren't bad.

 

6. McKinley Princess - saw Mt. McKinley early one morning. Highlight of our visit here. Went into Talkeetna on a shuttle--neat little town.

 

7. Arrival in Whittier. Traffic was stopped while our train went through the tunnel. Easiest embarkation we've ever been through.

 

8. College Fjord and Glacier Bay. Spent about a day and a half on our balcony with binoculars. Wonderful experience. Whoever thought having a balcony on Alaska cruise was a waste was sure wrong for our trip!

 

9. Skagway. Went on helicopter ride to glacier. Fabulous experience, even though DH fell twice on the ice--none of us got sick. Very hot while we were in town, probably upper 80's.

 

10. Juneau. Took Mendenhall Glacier/Whale Watching excursion with Princess. The glacier part wasn't all that memorable, but the whale watching was fabulous, bunches of whales. A highlight of our trip.

 

11. Ketchikan. Hired cab driver to see highlights of town, then took the funucular (spelling?) up the hill from Creek Street to a lodge and ate lunch there. Beautiful view of the port.

 

12. Vancouver. Really not there long enough, but we've been here before. Went through customs in the dock area, then to airport and long return home.

 

Any questions? I'll try to answer.

 

Pam

[scmomofboys]

Pam,

Nice review. What ship were you on? We are planning family trip next year for 17. Did Princess seat you all together on the train? How about your rooms on the land portion-were you near each other? Glad you had a great time. Can't wait for next year!

Kathleen

[alabama ghost]

Kathleen -

 

We were on the Island Princess, out of Whittier on August 6. Yes, we were seated together on the train. You were seated at a table, two on each side facing each other. We had an odd person, so she was seated with 3 people who were not in our group, but in the table next to ours.

 

As far as the rooms at the lodge are concerned. At Denali Princess we were all together. At McKinley Princess, my aunt was by herself in a different building. Her sister had cancelled the trip and my parents had cancelled the land portion. I think they would have been together. This was inconvenient, we asked to get it changed when we checked in but were told they were full.

 

Have a wonderful time!

Pam

[Genessa]

Kathleen,

 

we did the tour in '03 and Princess definitely seated us near each other on the train - we were 6, not 17, but as the tables seat 4 on the train we were in one group of 4, and dh & I sat with a couple from their own group of 6.

Turned out, they had booked with the same travel agent we had booked with.

 

There was a larger group(12 or so) that was seated together at one end of the train, also.

 

All our hotel rooms were next to each other, none adjoining.

[scmomofboys]

I appreciate your quick replies. We did the land tour two years ago, but it was just the 4 of us, DH & 2 sons, so I didn't know how they treated a larger group. I feel better about it now. Thanks!

[firsttimecruisin]

We are also looking into a Princess cruisetour S/B. If you had it to do over again, would you increase the number of land tour days? Was it a hassle to move from one lodge to another? How was the luggage situation handled? Also, is there any correlation between the level of stateroom reserved on the cruise portion to the type of room given on the land portion? Thanks for info in advance. We're trying to decide if we want to use Princess for the entire trip or to use a private tour company for the pre-cruise. Kathy

[Genessa]

We are also looking into a Princess cruisetour S/B. If you had it to do over again, would you increase the number of land tour days? Was it a hassle to move from one lodge to another? How was the luggage situation handled? Also, is there any correlation between the level of stateroom reserved on the cruise portion to the type of room given on the land portion? Thanks for info in advance. We're trying to decide if we want to use Princess for the entire trip or to use a private tour company for the pre-cruise. Kathy

 

 

we did one of Princess' southbound tours - 2 nights in Fairbanks (and we added a third night as we were flying from east coast and were glad we had a complete day to adjust), 1 night in Denali, 2 nights at Mt.McKinley Lodge, 1 night in Anchorage. The only thing we might have added was another night in Denali, but we really had everything timed well and did everything we wanted to when we were there (Tundra Tour day of arrival, hot tub sitting after pizza eating late that night, horseback riding the next morning, then straight to the train to Talkeetna).

There is no correlation between the level of stateroom and the type of room reserved, unless you have been on (I think currently) two cruise tours previously. It's possible it is only one previous, but I don't have the info in front of me and it was our first cruisetour so it didn't apply to us. However, none of the Princess lodge rooms we stayed in were bad. Fairbanks Riverside Lodge and Mt.McKinley Wilderness Lodge were both beautiful. Large rooms with modern "rustic styled" decor in pristine condition. Fairbanks had ac & coffee pots in rooms. Denali was the oldest and was a spotlessly clean and decent sized motel room. Nothing to write home about.

Anchorage, which I think many of the cruisetours skip now, we stayed at the Captain Cook which is an exquisite hotel.

 

Princess handles the luggage beautifully and it never seemed a hassle to move from place to place. You are all checked in at each lodge/hotel before you arrive and are given you keys either on the train or as you depart the bus. Couldn't have been easier.

 

It is much cheaper to go on your own, however and very easy to plan. We chose a tour as there were 6 of us and the tour went everywhere someone in our group really wanted to go and lodged us in the type of places we wanted to stay at. We've all done the motels/lake cabin vacations at the shore and summer family friendly resorts and really wanted to stay at "fancier" places. This way, we stayed at the places we wanted to stay, saw what we wanted to see, and did it completely hassle free with no one of us 6 driving, telling everyone when to get up, etc.

 

AS we were very fortunate in seeing Denali several times, and seeing a great deal of wildlife, when we go back to Alaska we will probably go to the Kenai Peninsula and probably stay at the Princess property, either our own reservation or through Princess.

[Momj47]

We are also looking into a Princess cruisetour S/B. If you had it to do over again, would you increase the number of land tour days? Was it a hassle to move from one lodge to another? How was the luggage situation handled? Also, is there any correlation between the level of stateroom reserved on the cruise portion to the type of room given on the land portion? Thanks for info in advance. We're trying to decide if we want to use Princess for the entire trip or to use a private tour company for the pre-cruise. Kathy

 

My DD, SIL and I did the Wilderness Explorer with the 7 day tour up to Prudhoe Bay. We loved it, it was an amazing trip. It wasn't as much of a hassle as we thought moving from day to day. Princess does a great job of moving people and luggage. I don't think there's any correlation on rooms, at least on our tour. The hotels were pretty standard, and once we left Fairbanks, very utilitarian - old oil pipeline construction housing! I liked using Princess for the whole trip - coordination was pretty seemless, we didn't worry about anything getting screwed up, we figured Princess would take care of everything. They even got some masks for my pregnant daughter to use when we went through some fires near the Dalton Highway.

 

We did the land tour first, as recommended by friends, and I think they were right. I would certainly recommend any of their tours. Since I don't expect to get back to Alaska any time soon (rats), we took the longest tour we could.

 

Here's a link to our Alaska pictures

[firsttimecruisin]

Thanks so much for the quick responses. We're leaning toward using Princess for everything just for the ease of it. Thanks for letting me know that all of the hotels on the route were pleasant. Since it is just my husband and myself, I think it would be nice that he be able to enjoy all of the scenery instead of driving (he doesn't like the way I drive-go figure) and I must admit he is a better photographer than I am (kinda hard to navigate and shoot photos). We do have time to choose which precruise would be best for us. After reading many of the posts, it sounds like we have alot of options. This is a great form of information. Thanks again. Kathy Oh and great pictures too!

[alabama ghost]

Our cruise tour was two nights in Fairbanks, one in Denali and two in Mt McKinley. We would have liked to have had more time in Denali, to do a longer shuttle or tour and also we would have liked to have some time in Anchorage.

 

We did have a luggage problem; a Princess rep had told us to put the Island Princess embarkation tags on our luggage before we left home, which we did. We got our luggage in Fairbanks and put the "travel with me" or "straight to the ship" tags on the luggage and they were picked up when we were leaving Fairbanks.

 

When we got to Denali, one of our "travel with me" pieces of luggage was missing. The rep at Denali said it was probably because we had the embarkation tag on it (which was on all our luggage). They said they would get it sent back to us and we would have it by the time we got to McKinley Lodge.

 

To make a long story shorter, we did get the missing suitcase, but not until we got on the ship in Whittier. It was very frustrating to my DH, who's suitcase it was. Thank goodness for laundries!

 

There was no problem with luggage for any of the rest of us. Princess made it easy to go from lodge to lodge, but it was nice to get to the ship and sleep late if we wanted to and not have to pack up every day.

 

A wonderful trip. Hope you enjoy yours as much as we did ours, even with the problems.

Pam