Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge

[KyOh]

We will be staying here on our land tour portion of a Princess tour in June. We will arrive by bus from Anchorage and leave the next day by bus for Denali. I can't find arrival and departure times. We just want to know how much time we have at the lodge on both days. Is there any hiking right around the lodge area that you don't need a guide for? We'd like the chance to really stretch our legs without booking an excursion to the state park nearby. In the photos they show what looks like a museum and a ranger type program. Again, I can't find this info on their website. Thanks to any of you who have stayed there before.

[JoAnneNYI]

When we booked we got our itinerary all printed out on our booking confirmation from princess via our TA. It will give all your times. We arrive 4:15 from Denali princess lodge and leave next day 12:45 by rail to Anchorage. Other than hiking around the other activities would be ATV, Jet boat , rafting and shuttle to nearby town small Talkeetna. If plan to do any plane or heli sightseeing they will have best pricing.

[frugaltravel]

There are short trails near the property but nothing major. The lodge is quite remote for a purpose. You can take the shuttle from McKinley Princess to Talkeetna (I think $10 RT). Lots more to do in/near Talkeetna. There is a nice Talkeetna Lakes trail not too far from town (you could take the Talkeetna Alaska Lodge shuttle from where Princess drops you off, which would cut off about a mile of walking along a walking/bike path to the Talkeetna Lakes Trail).

[JoRoy218]

You can fnd itinerary info on the Princess site. Sign in, then go to My Account, then Upcoming Cruises, then Cruise Personalizer, then Calendar and Planning, next page will be Itinerary. Go to McKinley lodge and hit + and will open up that section to show you arrival time at Lodge. Hope that helps.

[bidtrips]

Does anyone know how accurate the arrival and departure times are for the tour buses on the Princess Landtours to the lodges?

 

We also have a short time at McKinley lodge going north, and are trying to take a flightseeing trip on arrival day.

[Glaciers]

As mentioned the trails are fairly short.

https://www.princesslodges.com/amenities/mckinley-walking-trails/

[smrtypnts]

You can fnd itinerary info on the Princess site. Sign in, then go to My Account, then Upcoming Cruises, then Cruise Personalizer, then Calendar and Planning, next page will be Itinerary. Go to McKinley lodge and hit + and will open up that section to show you arrival time at Lodge. Hope that helps.

Perfect directions thank you so much!

[CMM]

If time permits do not overlook interesting excursions.

If weather is clear you will enjoy nice views at the lodge, but there was not much to do at the lodges. We were very disappointed with this. The trails are short. We took a guided naturalist walk. The man said since it was a small group he would give us a choice. Did we want to go on a trail ? He said he typically looks at the flowers and stays in the parking lot area! We all said trails! after about 45 minutes of him showing us laminated pictures of plants many of which were not on the property and talking about fern varieties in the states we were all were from, I slipped away from the group. We were still very close to the parking lot on the nature trail.

I did enjoy a speaker scheduled. It was a woman who attempted a hike to the top of denali. She showed slides and gave personal commentaries about her experience. Those speakers would be good to go to. There isn't any live music etc or even bingo for that matter at the lodge. Not that I like bingo, but I thought there would be things going on. We signed out scrabble and played in the lobby with many snoozing folks. It was foggy so not much views.

That being said the trip was one of the best experiences we have ever had! So glad we went.

[Budget Queen]

Does anyone know how accurate the arrival and departure times are for the tour buses on the Princess Landtours to the lodges?

 

We also have a short time at McKinley lodge going north, and are trying to take a flightseeing trip on arrival day.

 

It is significant if you have bus or rail travel? Easy for planning flight seeing is with the rail. IF by bus, you need to be a little conservative with the time, since buses can run into construction PLUS don't forget to add at least an hour for the transfer to Talkeetna with your flight scheduling. You can book with the cruiseline which takes care of all this.