Optional Meal Plan on land portion of Alaska Cruisetour

[marym933]

We are doing a Double Denali Cruisetour (R6C) in July. I've been to Alaska before, so I know that the food can be pricey. The food package is $199 pp for 2 dinners and 2 breakfasts in Denali, lunch on the train, plus dinner in Anchorage. I am told gratuities are included. Can I hear from passengers who have bought the meal plan. Is it a good deal? How is the food quality?

[ponstad]

I actually have the same question - found this post earlier.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1954528&highlight=optional+meal+plan+alaska

 

Are there any opinions regarding the meal plan from more recent cruisers?

 

Thanks

[marym933]

I read that thread and anything else I could find on the web. Not a lot of current info out there.

[agabbymama]

I think the food plan is more for convenience than for savings. My cruisetour was a few years ago, but we didn't purchase it, thinking we could save money by choosing our eating establishments. We were on an 8 day land tour, and traveling by coach and train. Usually arrived into towns around 5:30-6:30 and were ready for dinner, not searching for a restaurant, so ended up at the hotel restaurant anyway. Servers were always surprised that we didn't have the vouchers.

 

Many of the frequent traveler's advocate restaurants on this website, the same as many advocate independent travel versus a cruisetour. Everyone doesn't travel the same, nor eat the same. We are big eaters, breakfast lunch and dinner, if you get my meaning. A muffin and coffee would never do for breakfast for my husband.

 

If I remember correctly, our mean plan was $349 pp and I think we spent close to $400 pp even going to a market in Skagway and buying fixings and water. We were allowed the food & water on the coach and the train, but it was a hassle carrying that case of water.

 

Only you can decide if the meal plan will work better for you, or if you plan to try and eat at places away from the hotels. The vouchers are only good at the HAL hotel restaurants.

[Browser495]

We are on the triple Yukon/Denali cruise tour in July. I guess because the land tour is longer, the price for an optional food plan was close to $900 pp!!!! This covered breakfast and dinner at the hotels. We usually don't eat a big breakfast, and we like to explore the towns so we didn't want to be locked into the meal plan. We are a bit apprehensive about some of the comments on this board about long waits at some restaurants, so there is a big trade-off: convenience (food plan) vs independence. We decided against the food plan, but it all boils down to personal wants and needs....

[oaktreerb]

I took the price of the plan and divided it by the meals provided and decided not to get it. Ours was a first and lengthy tour into the Yukon and we found that we ended up eating at the hotels that honored the meal plan since it was the most convenient location! The people who had paid for the meal plan seemed to be happy with the plan....I heard no complaining and it saved them from wondering where to eat. The food will be good. It's the easy way to go.

 

The only problems I see with the meal plan is that it limits your choice of restaurants and light eaters might be tempted to overeat since meals are already included!

 

Have a great trip!

[Lady Chew]

We had the two-week land tour in 2013, and we elected to not purchase the meal plan. We are not gourmet eaters, so it would be less expensive to eat on our own, since few of our meals would be very expensive.

 

It worked out very well for us, we found some really nice local restaurants in each town, and I guess we were lucky in that we never had any hassles or wait time in any of them.

[sotiris]

We are on the triple Yukon/Denali cruise tour in July. I guess because the land tour is longer, the price for an optional food plan was close to $900 pp!!!! This covered breakfast and dinner at the hotels. We usually don't eat a big breakfast, and we like to explore the towns so we didn't want to be locked into the meal plan. We are a bit apprehensive about some of the comments on this board about long waits at some restaurants, so there is a big trade-off: convenience (food plan) vs independence. We decided against the food plan, but it all boils down to personal wants and needs....

 

We, too, have decided not to get the meal plan. I have looked at the menus of some restaurants (I have a list of several for each stop) and, while more expensive than at home, we could find several things we would like to try, many with a local touch. I will try to keep track of the costs and report back at the beginning of June on how we fared.

[marym933]

We, too, have decided not to get the meal plan. I have looked at the menus of some restaurants (I have a list of several for each stop) and, while more expensive than at home, we could find several things we would like to try, many with a local touch. I will try to keep track of the costs and report back at the beginning of June on how we fared.

 

 

That would be wonderful! Thank you!

[kicia]

I like hearing your opinions on this. No one in our group of 10 is taking the meal plan. We are doing a 6 night land tour before our southbound cruise on July 12 and we are just going to go with the flow regarding food. I know everything in Alaska is pricey because we've been there three times in the 90's but never a cruise there but still think we'll come out ahead since none of us really eats a lot.

[ksqueak]

We didn't take the meal plan, also thinking it was expensive. But what we did was bring our own breakfast for most mornings. Packets of oatmeal were great! Allowed us to save some. Just ran plan water thru the coffee maker first, then made coffee. By the way, I contacted the appropriate department since I also wanted to bring a bag of apples but was told no.

[Darrell6t]

We are taking the Double Denali starting June 28 from Vancouver. I printed the documents yesterday with the most detailed itinerary I have seen to date. And I saw no mention of any sort of meal plan. Where is the info about this? I wonder about it, though my inclination is to do meals on our own.

[marym933]

We are taking the Double Denali starting June 28 from Vancouver. I printed the documents yesterday with the most detailed itinerary I have seen to date. And I saw no mention of any sort of meal plan. Where is the info about this? I wonder about it, though my inclination is to do meals on our own.

 

 

I read about the plan on the web. I called HAL for the information.

[sotiris]

We are just finishing the land portion of our cruisetour so I thought I would report on our food adventures. We did not take the meal plan ( only about 5 of the 41 people on our tour did) and we were very happy with our decision. We spent about half of the cost of the plan. This included some snacks ( muffins, fruit, cinnamon buns, etc.) We did not have salad or dessert at every meal and in some places we shared a meal.

 

Fruit is very expensive -$1.50 for one banana or apple. When we got to Dawson we bought 4 bananas for $1.50 at the Bonanza Market. Sodas can range from $.50 to $2.50 a tin.

 

Those with the meal plan are limited to the hotel restaurants and while we did eat at a number of them, it was nice to discover local delicacies with new friends.

[Browser495]

We are just finishing the land portion of our cruisetour so I thought I would report on our food adventures. We did not take the meal plan ( only about 5 of the 41 people on our tour did) and we were very happy with our decision. We spent about half of the cost of the plan. This included some snacks ( muffins, fruit, cinnamon buns, etc.) We did not have salad or dessert at every meal and in some places we shared a meal.

 

 

 

Fruit is very expensive -$1.50 for one banana or apple. When we got to Dawson we bought 4 bananas for $1.50 at the Bonanza Market. Sodas can range from $.50 to $2.50 a tin.

 

 

 

Those with the meal plan are limited to the hotel restaurants and while we did eat at a number of them, it was nice to discover local delicacies with new friends.

 

 

Thank you for your excellent and timely feedback! This makes me more comfortable with our decision not to purchase the meal plan. I think your suggestion to purchase some fruit, snacks, water, whatever at a market is a good one. That's what we shall do!

 

We hope you enjoyed your land portion of your holiday.

Edited May 25, 2015 by Browser495

[Shmoo here]

Thank you for your excellent and timely feedback! This makes me more comfortable with our decision not to purchase the meal plan. I think your suggestion to purchase some fruit, snacks, water, whatever at a market is a good one. That's what we shall do!

 

We hope you enjoyed your land portion of your holiday.

 

That's what we did on our cruise/tour. We hit the local market in our first town (Whitehorse) and purchased soda, juice, sweet rolls, trail mix, crackers, peanut butter, cheese, and fruit. Didn't buy any water, as we got water on most days from the excursions we were on.

 

We opted for this because we're not big eaters, and we found that most days breakfast was included, and practically every excursion we were on included a meal (lunch or dinner). So we just filled in with our store purchases.

 

We resupplied as necessary (Tok, and Denali).

[Browser495]

Thank you for the good advice, especially on the purchase (not) of water. Just wondering....we start in Yellowknife/Dawson City and then fly to Fairbanks. I would think that would also limit how many grocery items you buy (flight/security restrictions), so I was thinking to minimize such purchases anyway, and if needed buy things on a day-to-day basis.