Pre Cruise Denali Experience

[doowopbob]

Has anyone gone on the 5 day pre-cruise Alaska Denali Experience?  If so can you give me an idea of the cost and if it was worth it.  Also what size plane do they use to fly from Talkeetna to Anchorage.  I'll never get my wife on a small plane.

[Roxburgh]

We did Denali and Talkeetna on our own. Rented a car in Anchorage and it was a very easy drive up there. Talkeetna to Anchorage isn't that far by car.

 

We spent a day in Talkeetna and took a small plane up on to the glacier. That was fun although I can understand that your wife might not want to do it.

 

We stayed just north of Talkeetna and then drove up to Denali the next day. The park offers lots of very reasonably priced bus tours/trips. We spent a day there and saw bears, wolves, caribou, etc..

 

I can't really compare with a Seabourn experience. However, this one is very easily done on your own.

[hoosier74]

We did the tour offered by Seabourn in the first season they were in Alaska.  I don't remember what it cost but I priced it out individually and it came out close to what it would have cost us. And I also think it would be very easy to do on your own and then you could eliminate the plane.  I see that they have extended it a day in the park and it would have been nice to spend more time there.  We had a really great tour manager.  We rode the train from Anchorage to Denali which was fun.  Had a full day in the park with a tour and got to see the mountain and many animals.  Our big disappointment was that we couldn't fly back to Anchorage because of the weather, but it was scheduled for a small plane,.  I don't know how frequently that happens.  The bus trip back to Anchorage was not a highlight for sure!  They did give us a credit for not being able to fly.   I think I would have liked to take the train from Anchorage to Seward, but that portion of the bus trip was very nice, too.   We took another flight seeing tour later in the cruise  which  made up for the missed plane at Denali.  There were many ports with flight options on the trip but I think they are all small planes which is a very common way to get around in Alaska.