Alaska cruise; Denali confusion

[drlee]

We are cruising Alaska this August, with a two day extension to Denali. The "brochure" for this cruise indicates on day two of the Denali visit, a Tundra Wilderness Tour (lunch included). However, the cruise itinerary that includes shore excursions, does not refer to this, nor can I find any info about it. Has anyone experience with this tour? What time of day and length of tour? Information would be helpful, as there are activities we want to participate in, but don't want to miss any included activities. Thanks for any help.

[marym933]

We are cruising Alaska this August, with a two day extension to Denali. The "brochure" for this cruise indicates on day two of the Denali visit, a Tundra Wilderness Tour (lunch included). However, the cruise itinerary that includes shore excursions, does not refer to this, nor can I find any info about it. Has anyone experience with this tour? What time of day and length of tour? Information would be helpful, as there are activities we want to participate in, but don't want to miss any included activities. Thanks for any help.

 

We are doing a double Denali tour in July. Go to the page where you can book excursions on the day you are taking the Wilderness Tour. If you are scheduled for the morning tour, no excursions will be available for you to book in the morning. If you are on the afternoon tour, nothing will be available in the afternoon and early evening. When we got our express docs, we were listed on the afternoon tour that departs between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. I'm glad we are on the afternoon trip. The morning trip departs between 5 and 9 a.m.!

 

The tour is run by the National Park Service. You can find more info about it at their website http://www.reservedenali.com/play/tours/tundra-wilderness.aspx

[drlee]

Thanks for your help. HAL's website could be friendlier, but then....

[knittinggirl]

It depends on the tour you book. We had the Connoisseur tour, and we had your tour. Which was supposed to go

 

We were loaded on the school bus, and they only let us off the bus a few times. We stopped for wildlife, but the animals were either way up on the ridge or way down the canyon. But some wildlife, you'd want to be way away from you. The guide told us that most wildlife must be about 20 to 30 yards away, but with bears, that's 300 yards, because they can move very fast. I had a 40-150mm with 2x crop factor, and it wasn't enough. But even with my 40-150, I was able to zoom the lens right through the window for some good shots. If I do this again, I'm taking my 70-300 with the teleconverter. And maybe some Depends, since we weren't let off the bus as much as I'd like! Ha Ha . . . We'd been told we couldn't leave the bus because bears had been spotted. The tour guide kept telling us that we had to keep the breaks brief, because she wanted to get ahead of the rest of the buses. Which we managed. By the time we got to the Denali Mountain stop, we were the only bus. But other buses arrived soon after. They have a lot of buses going into Denali, and at one rest stop I counted about 11 or 12 buses. That was the stop with a small gift shop. DH said it reminded him of Peggy's Cove near Halifax.

 

Our tour description also said breaks every 90 minutes, but it seemed like longer to us. If they really upgrade you to a coach, that's a real good thing! We hated having to ride in a school bus, but at the time they said that's all they allowed in Denali National Park.

 

There were some parts on Polychrome pass that were pretty scary, because we were on a narrow road with a huge drop off. Even the driver seemed nervous. But she handled it well.

 

The lunch was a box lunch.

 

All that said, you're in for some beautiful scenery! We saw the wildlife as specs or dots on the ridge, then the next day we ran into a moose in the Denali Visitor Center parking lot.

Edited June 21, 2015 by knittinggirl