Denali cruise tour

[Murphy08]

Good morning - we are cruising on the Noordam next week followed by 2 days in Denali and I have been excitedly reading all of your posts.  Last week we ran into an issue and are wondering if any of you regular Alaska cruisers have any thoughts or advice.    We received an email that said we have been bumped from the Tundra Wilderness Tour due to “space constraints.” No explanation as to why us, how this happened etc.  We have had our reservations since last October.  According to the email, we will now be going on the Natural History Tour.   In compensation we will each be given $50 to spend in Denali Village.   We were quite upset as we were very much looking forward to the Tundra Wilderness tour and understand that the Natural History tour is not anything like what we wanted (wildlife, nature, going further into Denali) and contacted our TA.  Our TA was told by HAL that this is not their doing, but that of the Park Service, as they “oversold” and nothing they could do.  I find this wholly inadequate.  Is this normal?  Is there a way to fight it?  Am i misunderstanding the Natural History tour - maybe it is great?  Is there another tour that we could do (likely would have to be a private tour)?  I see there is a shuttle bus going into Denali, but not sure how that works.  This is likely our one and only trip to Alaska and going to Denali was a big part of the draw.  Any thoughts, suggestions, would be greatly appreciated.  

[MSJAS]

I've just spent the last 2 days in Denali on a cruisetour that included the Natural History tour.  We chose to use the Green transit bus instead and are so happy we did.  We could have upgraded to the Tundra tour with the cruise line months ago but chose not to for the reason you are describing.  Sometimes the park service does downgrade the tours last minute.  As far as using the transit Green bus rather than the tours, it's very inexpensive and in our experience doing this twice with different drivers, they do stop and point out wildlife and offer an unofficial tour if those on the bus show even a tiny interest.  Now, we were willing to walk away from the cost of the included tour and had no problem paying directly to the park the modest fee for the Green transit bus.  We loved our experience for what it's worth.

[Murphy08]

Thank you so much!  Is the Green bus something you can get at the Denali Village/McKinley Chalet resort or do you have to go somewhere else to get on it? 

[MSJAS]

We purchased our tickets on the park website.  Our lodge still had tickets available as did the park but visitor numbers were a little lower than usual according to the employee at the park I spoke to.  To guarantee your preferred time, you might want to book in advance.  When you order online you receive a reservation.  Your actual tickets are picked up at the bus depot in Denali.  They ask you to arrive 20 minutes before your scheduled bus.  We used our lodge courtesy bus to get to the park bus depot.  It was all very easy.

[Murphy08]

Thank you so much.  This makes me feel better that there are alternatives!  

[Brandis]

We're doing a pre-cruise with Royal Caribbean and the Natural History Tour is included. The program says that an upgrade to the Tundra Wilderness Tour could be booked with the guide on the train the first day for $42 or so, which we would like to do if it is available.

 

I'm surprised that NPS would be able to oversell tours, I was thinking that the cruise lines probably would buy entire busses and NPS would keep those separate from the busses they sell to the public. I've dine the Tundra Wilderness Tour twice in the past, and it was all people from the same tour group on the bus.

 

Regardless of which tour we're doing, are they usually having the earlier tours for the groups, starting around 5:00/5:30 or could it be anything?

 

[goofygame]

What are the differences between the two tours?  I'm doing the Royal pre-cruise and the lack of pre-tour information is annoying.  

[McGarrett5oh]

We received an email about 2 months before our upcoming cruise from Holland America asking us if we’d be willing to downgrade.  So overselling seems to be more than a one off occurrence.   I understanding that the shorter tour is more educational and the longer tour is more scenic.  

 

[Brandis]

31 minutes ago, goofygame said:

What are the differences between the two tours?  I'm doing the Royal pre-cruise and the lack of pre-tour information is annoying.  

I agree, the cruise documents which you receive about 30 days before the cruise have some more informations, but still not very detailed! Since they don't give any times either, makes it hard to do plans for individual tours in Talkeetna or Denali.

The "basic" Natural History Tour only goes up to where the gravel road starts, the Tundra Wilderness Tour is almost almost double that distance, turning back where the landslide happened a couple of years ago. I believe, before the landslide, it was even longer.

 

Going further into the park probably increases the chance to see wildlife, which is the main draw for me. I think the shorter tour stops at an abandoned cabin, but when we did the longer tour in the past, one of the many stops (they make bathroom breaks every 90 mins.) was also near an abandoned cabin we got to visit.

[wolfie11]

The Park Service limits the number of tours and shuttle buses allowed into the park each day.  The cruise lines oversell the tours.  Anyone in the know wants the Tundra Wilderness tour, as you seldom see animals on the NHT and the talking heads are boring.

[brlrph]

We visited Denali on a princess land tour a couple of weeks ago and did the natural history tour. We were too early for the Tundra wilderness tour.  We thoroughly enjoyed the 6 hour tour. Our driver ,Brian, was very passionate and informative  on the journey.  He pointed out  moose ,bear, caribou ,  sheep , porcupine,snow hare  and a ptarmigan .  We were treated to clear views of Denali on all 3 days there  

[Brandis]

22 minutes ago, brlrph said:

We visited Denali on a princess land tour a couple of weeks ago and did the natural history tour. We were too early for the Tundra wilderness tour.

Do you mean too early season-wise or the start time of the tour?

[wolfie11]

2 hours ago, Brandis said:

Do you mean too early season-wise or the start time of the tour?

DNHT started May 12, TWT started May 20.

[markeb]

Just a point of clarification. The NPS doesn’t actually sell or operate the tours. It’s a contracted vendor. The link on the Denali NP site takes you to the vendor to buy the tours. If they’re oversold, it’s possible the vendor simply can’t support the number of tour requests for that day. I also assume there’s a cap on capacity into the wilderness area and they could be exceeding that cap. We were just there and Aramark was running a LOT of tours about 20 minutes apart. We were on TWT 22 in the afternoon and met up with TWT 26 at our last break. And that’s late May!

[MtnSeaGirl]

I would like to ask a question also about Denali.  I have never been to Alaska so please excuse my downright ignorance 🙂.  I have read and read.  Some say Denali is not worth ( bad choice of words ) going to until the Park Road reopens completely as you don't get the better views and the mountain is often obscured. Would some of you seasoned Alaska travelers recommend pushing Denali to a time the road is completely reopened or go anyway?  We are trying to decide whether to spend our time in Denali or spend our time near Kenai. I want to go to Denali, but I don't want to go just to say I have been if the experience may be lacking in the park.  I want to see the mountain of course, but I understand the odds are not in my  favor. 

[wolfie11]

I went two days ago and it was amazing as always.  We saw moose, caribou, dall sheep, a bear, a porcupine, ptarmigan, and Arctic ground squirrels.  The weather was nice and the mountain was out.  Yes, it’s disappointing to not be able to go all the way in, but it’s still “worth it” to me.  The road probably won’t be fixed until 2027 or later.  The permafrost is thawing everywhere and there are more problems than just Pretty Rocks.  If you want to wait 4 or 5 or 10 years for it to be “worth it” that’s fine, but I’ll still go every chance I get.

Edited May 31 by wolfie11

[NancyIL]

The park road is open only to East Fork at Mile 43 this year - whether you’re on a tour bus or a transit bus. 

[MtnSeaGirl]

3 hours ago, wolfie11 said:

I went two days ago and it was amazing as always.  We saw moose, caribou, dall sheep, a bear, a porcupine, ptarmigan, and Arctic ground squirrels.  The weather was nice and the mountain was out.  Yes, it’s disappointing to not be able to go all the way in, but it’s still “worth it” to me.  The road probably won’t be fixed until 2027 or later.  The permafrost is thawing everywhere and there are more problems than just Pretty Rocks.  If you want to wait 4 or 5 or 10 years for it to be “worth it” that’s fine, but I’ll still go every chance I get.

Did you do the Tundra Tour ?  

[brlrph]

On 5/30/2024 at 1:40 PM, Brandis said:

Do you mean too early season-wise or the start time of the tour?

The tundra wilderness tours started running a week after our visit 

[wolfie11]

1 hour ago, MtnSeaGirl said:

Did you do the Tundra Tour ?  

Shuttle bus.  It goes the same distance but it’s not an official tour.  Cost is $33.