Land Tour (Princess) Excursions

[rma2001]

I've looked at the excursion page, but it doesn't seem like they list any specifics (https://www.princess.com/excursion/exlistfordestination.page?portid=TKA&t=A&exType=L#filter-options), so wondering if anyone had any knowledge of what was available.  I have an email out to our TA as well.

 

We have a couple days at the Denali Lodge and are planning on the Tundra Wilderness Tour for one day and a ranger lead program and sled dog program for the other time, so we are good there.

 

We do have an afternoon and morning at Mt McKinley lodge as well.  I wanted to do a flight seeing tour, but my wife has nixed that after the crash this summer.  Is there anything recommended at the lodge?  I know that the town is quite a ways away, so if we can avoid another long bus trip to the town, that would be nice.

 

It will be my wife, 5 year old daughter and my parents.  We are active and my daughter could stay with my parents if there was something active that she couldn't go one.

[Marvie227]

If it helps you, the land excursions are just starting to show up on my personalizer for next July. The Denali Lodge excursions can be booked now. The Mt. McKinley Lodge aren't there yet but I expect them to show up any time.

[capriccio]

You will probably get more responses by posting this on the Princess forum:  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/119-princess-cruises/

[AKStafford]

2 hours ago, rma2001 said:

We do have an afternoon and morning at Mt McKinley lodge as well.  I wanted to do a flight seeing tour, but my wife has nixed that after the crash this summer.  Is there anything recommended at the lodge?  I know that the town is quite a ways away, so if we can avoid another long bus trip to the town, that would be nice.

There's really nothing at the McKinley Princess lodge except a few walking trails.

You could head into Talkeetna (where you were going to be going to catch your flight if you were doing a flightseeing trip) and do a jet boat trip with Mahays': http://www.mahaysriverboat.com/  

My in-laws did this a couple of years ago and loved it.

[mapleleaves]

The lodge is lovely but very isolated.   The town of Talkeetna about 1/2 hr away. As PP noted, nothing there but a few walking trails.

Look at the town web site to see what interests you. Flightseeing is the main attraction due to Talkeetna being so close to the mountain.  If your wife doesn't want to fly, she could wait at the airfield or wander around the village.   https://www.talkeetnachamber.org/

 

To save time,  some folks will ask to be dropped off in town on the way thru,   rather than go to the lodge.  Your luggage will be sent to your room. Then you can take the shuttle when you're ready to leave town.

[rma2001]

That is good to know about being dropped off.  My wife's concern with flying is mainly it's a small plane and one happened to crash (same vendor I was looking at) the day that we were talking about it.

 

A down day could be nice to just relax and take a hike, but I will look at what the town offers.

[rma2001]

Looks like I was one day early with this thread, I'm now seeing options on the site.  Thanks all!

[donaldsc]

On 10/23/2018 at 7:56 AM, rma2001 said:

I've looked at the excursion page, but it doesn't seem like they list any specifics (https://www.princess.com/excursion/exlistfordestination.page?portid=TKA&t=A&exType=L#filter-options), so wondering if anyone had any knowledge of what was available.  I have an email out to our TA as well.

 

We have a couple days at the Denali Lodge and are planning on the Tundra Wilderness Tour for one day and a ranger lead program and sled dog program for the other time, so we are good there.

 

We do have an afternoon and morning at Mt McKinley lodge as well.  I wanted to do a flight seeing tour, but my wife has nixed that after the crash this summer.  Is there anything recommended at the lodge?  I know that the town is quite a ways away, so if we can avoid another long bus trip to the town, that would be nice.

 

It will be my wife, 5 year old daughter and my parents.  We are active and my daughter could stay with my parents if there was something active that she couldn't go one.

 

There must be something to Talkeetna except for the fact that many of the Denali flightseeing flights depart from there because lots of CCers love the place and some of them even stay there.  However, personally I can't figure out what anyone sees in the place.  We visited Talkeetna when we did our driving tour of AK and stayed there maybe 2 hours.  I didn't even feel that it was worth the 14 mile drive on the spur road from Parks Highway.

 

Obviously just my opinion.  You will get lots of posts that will disagree w me.

 

DON