Alaska....Anchorage or Fairbanks?

[disneyochem]

38 minutes ago, lstone19 said:

 

I hope you realize that neither Princess nor anyone else other than the Park Service's concessionaire operate tours inside Denali Park. Whether you book the Kantishna Experience tour via Princess, some other outside vendor, or directly with the Park Service's concessionaire, you end on the same one or two buses that run that tour each day. The only difference would be any transportation the tour vendor provides between your lodging and tour bus terminal near the park Visitor's Center. When we did a cruisetour in 2018, we upgraded from the TWT to the Kantishna tour with Princess. I'm curious what benefit you feel you obtained by cancelling completely with Princess and booking the Kantishna tour with another vendor.

The Kantishna Tour through Princess was booked and it was not available on the day we are to spend the day in Denali.  We had the choice to do the TWT tour with our Connoisseur tour or go with the Park Service concessionaire’s Kantisha Tour.  How fortunate that you were able to upgrade; that is not our experience.

 

And, it cost less than the Princess Kantishna Tour......

[travkesa]

So if you were to go from Fairbanks you'd have the chance to see Denali and the national park there and just see more of Alaska in general. And the interior is different from SouthCentral (where Anchorage is) and then again from Southeast (which is where the cruise will go).

 

There are two lodges near Denali with the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge which is very close the park entrance of Denali and then the McKinley Wilderness Lodge which is in the middle of nowhere, if you take the train to this one you get off in Talkeetna and take a bus for an hour ride back north again. The one near the park doesn't have a view of the mountain it's more tucked in next to the national park while McKinley has an outstanding view of Denali when she decides to come out.

 

Basically the difference is you'll see more of Alaska if you start in Fairbanks vs Anchorage. You'll end up going through Anchorage and possibly multiple times between the bus/train, or the airport if there isn't a direct flight to Fairbanks. To connect to the ship in Whittier you must go through Anchorage eventually.

[lstone19]

5 minutes ago, travkesa said:

So if you were to go from Fairbanks you'd have the chance to see Denali and the national park there and just see more of Alaska in general. ...

 

Basically the difference is you'll see more of Alaska if you start in Fairbanks vs Anchorage. You'll end up going through Anchorage and possibly multiple times between the bus/train, or the airport if there isn't a direct flight to Fairbanks. To connect to the ship in Whittier you must go through Anchorage eventually.

 

No. Princess has cruise tours that start (SB) or end (NB) in both Fairbanks and Anchorage but no matter which you start or end in, they go to Denali. You can go Anchorage - Denali - ship or Fairbanks - Denali - ship with other stops also available depending on the length of tour. But the key part is you do not need start or end in Fairbanks to include Denali in the tour. Also going through Anchorage airport or through Anchorage on the train does not provide any opportunity to see Anchorage beyond what you see out the window. If you want to explore Anchorage, pick a tour that start or ends there. If you want to explore Fairbanks, pick a tour that starts or ends there.