Holland Cruise and Princess Property?

[bucky0926]

We have a land/cruise tour with Holland America. Just printed up the itinerary and it turns out we are staying at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge instead of the Mckinley Chalet. How far is one property from the other? Does the river run close to the Princess property as my hubbie wanted to fish and it was right out in back of the Mckinley. Any big differences I need to know about? If you had the opportunity to stay in one vs the other which would you choose? I heard the Mckinley Chalet were just finishing up a renovation so I wanted to stay there and am disappointed. Thanks Leaving 8/15 and can't wait....

[Coral]

According to google maps - they are 5 minutes walking distance between the two (or .3 miles).

 

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Denali+Princess+Wilderness+Lodge,+5+George+Parks+Highway,+Denali+National+Park+and+Preserve,+AK+99755/McKinley+Chalet+Resort,+240+George+Parks+Hwy,+Denali+National+Park+and+Preserve,+AK+99755/@63.7480925,-148.9091692,15z/data=!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x56ccd8af25a5d46b:0x8ea9a956e6139e73!2m2!1d-148.9010428!2d63.746062!1m5!1m1!1s0x56ccd8af137b7d57:0xbec05fd7d18d6d98!2m2!1d-148.9013206!2d63.7501232

Edited August 2, 2016 by Coral

[gpb11]

FYI, HAL and Princess are sister companies under Carnival, and they jointly operate Holland America Princess for the land tours.

 

The river is right in back of both properties, and also quite a ways down steep embankments. Over by the bridge there is access used by the rafters. I saw no such at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge two months ago.

 

IMHO DPWL is slightly better located in terms of access to Glitter Gulch, walking over to the bridge to view the river, and even walking over to the park entrance (a mile or so).

 

We stayed at DPWL and it was fine. We didn't go over to McKinley so I'm not sure how different it was and wouldn't have had any way to see inside the rooms either.

Edited August 2, 2016 by gpb11

[gpb11]

FYI, from the marketing materials for the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge (link) here's a good photo showing what I mean by the river being down a pretty good hill.

 

Not that he couldn't get to the river, but doing so may be more involved than the Google Maps suggest.

 

[frugaltravel]

There is no fishing in the Nenana River. It is glacially fed and too much glacier water. You are best fishing closer to Anchorage/Seward somewhere.

[AKCabinDude]

Not sure about access, but there are in fact grayling in the Nenana River. I don't know if the salmon make it up that far, but they are present in the lower reaches. That said, The river is awfully fast in the Glitter Gulch area. As previously noted, in the summer the Nenana is full of silt. If fishing is the point, have fun and know that there are fish. If catching is the point, all I can say is that I've never seen anyone fishing anywhere near there (as seen from the highway and rest stops), nor have I ever heard folks talk about it, at least not until the river clears up once the summer melt is over.

 

 

 

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[drneal]

I stayed there and I wouldn't think about going down to the river.

I wouldn't count on fishing.