Princess AK land tour lodge departure times?

[mlbcruiser]

If you did a Princess land tour that included 2 nights each at Princess' Denali and McKinley Lodges, about what time did you have to depart those lodges for your next destination? (Specifically, if you did a northbound cruise w/a post cruise land tour.) Just trying to find out about how early we'll have to depart each lodge on the day we check out. (Re: McKinley Lodge, the Princess itinerary mentions something along the lines of, "You might want to spend your time having a leisurely cup of coffee". They mean before the trip back to Anchorage.)

 

Thanks for any info.

Edited May 7, 2016 by mlbcruiser

[georgiacat]

I have notes from our Princess Alaska trip in 2011. It said we left the ship at 6 am to board the train for Talkeetan; the train left a 7:10 am.

I did not note the time we left McKinley Lodge to Denali lodge, but we had lunch on that train; must not have been too early.

We took a 10 am bus from Denali to Fairbanks.

Left our hotel at 3:30 am to go to airport for flight home.

Wonderful trip, but my husband remembers all the early days.

[CMM]

We are doing land first on Sept 12 then cruise starting Sept17 in 2016 and it will look like this. Not exactly what you are looking at, but might give you some perspective. We will have 2 nights each at Denali Wilderness Lodge and Mt Mikinely Lodge

 

Day 1 Arrrive in Fairbanks stay at hotel

Day 2 8:15 am Depart for Riverboat Discovery

1:00 coach to Denali

4:00 arrive Denali Wilderness Lodge

Day 3 Tundra Wilderness Tour (we upgraded to this 7.5 hr tour) We requested the 7 am departure since we wake early on our own.

Day 4 10:00 am Coach to Mt McKinely Lodge

Day 5 Open

Day 6 1:30 pm Rail to Whittier to cruise ship for 7 day cruise.

[jmcmo]

Each land tour is different. We are on a NA5 tour and it appears we leave most lodges in the later morning or afternoon, but yours may be different. The HA5 is the same tour times.

[mlbcruiser]

jmcmo, we're on one of the Denali Express tours that also begin with an H. (I think it's HA5 maybe?). Glad you posted because I was hoping our departures wouldn't be too early in the a.m. I also hope we don't have to disembark the ship at 6 a.m. to head to Denali, either - Ugh!

 

Thanks, everyone, for the info! Hard to know exactly how similar our schedule

will be, I guess.

[jmcmo]

I'm pretty sure that if you are going to Denali right off the ship then you will have an early departure that day. Ours is listed in the travel summary as train being from 815 -545 that day, therefore assume we will disembark quite early to begin travel at 815. The HA5 tour is the same as NA5 except we have the Connoisseur package that includes the meals.

[napunani]

In 2012, our PRINCESS lodge departures were 8am; lodge luggage set-out was 6am.

[paul929207]

Each land tour is different. We are on a NA5 tour and it appears we leave most lodges in the later morning or afternoon, but yours may be different. The HA5 is the same tour times.

When is your trip? We are on NA5 sailing July 9 on the Coral, followed by the land tour.

[jmcmo]

Hellopaul929207

We are on the NA5 departing on Coral Princess June 11.

[paul929207]

Hellopaul929207

We are on the NA5 departing on Coral Princess June 11.

Have a great trip.

 

Any comments you can post will be appreciated.

[jmcmo]

We planned this trip five years ago and had to cancel due to health issues one month prior to sailing so this trip has been researched to the fullest. we are doing the exact trip this time but added the meal plan. I'll post the highlights and things most people are asking after the trip.

[LeeW]

When we took a bus from McKinley to Denali it left fairly early, like around 10. Even though the main road was closed due to an accident we still beat the train by three hours.

 

When we took the train we got bused to the train depot and then had to wait until the train arrived. If you are taking a train you can get some idea by looking at the train schedule, but trains run late pretty often.