Meals, Princess Cruisetour

[sonoran]

We are planning a cruisetour to alaska in June '09. Someone just told us that meals are not included on the land portion of the cuisetour. Princess confirmed it. I know it is a matter of individual eating habits but does anyone have any recent experience with the cost of meals. There is a pre pay package but the tour dept. is closed today, does anyone know the cost. Do all the other cruiselines do the same thing?

[Yukon]

The meal plans are a very poor deal (I was driver/guide on cruisetours for 17 years) - order yourself, allowing 20-30% more than in the "lower 48".

[Excited to go crusing]

we plan on taking some granola & protein bars with us to eat on our land tours. I figure if we eat a big breakfast that morning, on the ship, we can hold out till our evening meal on the ship, plus I want to try some local restaurants etc.

[littlegap]

We are planning a cruisetour to alaska in June '09. Someone just told us that meals are not included on the land portion of the cuisetour. Princess confirmed it. I know it is a matter of individual eating habits but does anyone have any recent experience with the cost of meals. There is a pre pay package but the tour dept. is closed today, does anyone know the cost. Do all the other cruiselines do the same thing?

 

 

We just returned from a cruisetour. Meals are not included, but I don't think that a pre-pay package is a good deal. Food is definitely more expensive than at home, but this is understandable considering where we were. In Denali, we ate at the Bistro...an appetizer (quite large for 2) and soft drinks was about $30. There are some restaurants across the road, but they are just about the same as at the lodge with entres ranging from $25-40. There is also a Subway that is open 24 hrs and one sandwich was about $10. There are a few other restaurants on the lodge property. At Mt. McKinley we ate at the 20,320 and for 2 burgers and drinks it was about $35 and the main restaurant 2 entres and softdrinks were about $70. Also, if you are in Denali and do the TWT, they give you a boxed lunch (snack bar, chips, sandwich and water). This was plenty for us as we had had a good breakfast at the lodge before we left. Breakfast was about $15. There are plenty of options so I would say play it by ear. :)

[sunsetbeachgal]

Just returned from a Cruise Tour..not sure what lodges you will be in? From the McKinley Princess the restaurants in the lodge are the only game in town. We are not big eaters so for breakfast usually had the Continental Breakfast-I think it was $8.95 or something in that range (juice, fruit, coffee, toast or muffin). For lunch you will be on the road (usually touring or on the train?) so more options available-we ate lunch in Talkeetna on the way to McKinley and enjoyed a local restaurant. For dinner the McKinley had bar with casual fare and two other restaurants-food is pricey and OK quality. The Denali Princess had dining options right across the street that you can easily walk to-a nice coffee house, a Subway and a Salmon Bake type of restaurant. Not sure if you are going to Fairbanks, but that had the same variety of restaurants and a nice dinner restaurant within a walking distance. We ate one lunch on the train, and it was quite good but expensive (entrees around $10 each). Food in Alaska is generally around 25-50% more than comparable here-most must be imported. If you are staying in Anchorage, there are lots of options that you can walk to. I carried some snacks with me on the trip (crackers, granola bars, etc) that we could snack on if we needed.

 

Good luck!

[robinsegg]

Completed a Princess Cruise Tour earier this month (our review is posted under Coral Princess Reviews) . Highly recommend the "Samon Bake" across from Princess' Denali Lodge. Enthusiastic servers, great music (70's + 80's) and very large portions. Had dinner and breakfast there.

 

 

Have a great trip.

[ellbon]

in denali i ate at the sub shop one lunch- the local one not subway-huge and good. also was picked up to eat up the hill fron hotel. best ribs-was so worth it.

 

Mck -was bday so ate i nthe high end DR-was excellant. best lodge meal out of three. in general food was more but some places were worth the money.

[agabbymama]

I did a HAL cruisetour and they had the meal plan for $300 pp. We chose not to purchase the meal plan, thinking we could surely find something for less for our 11 day cruisetour.

 

Wrong, by the time the coach arrived in the city, it was already 5:30 or 6:00 so we were ready to eat right away, not try to walk around and find someplace affordable. Just one instance, we arrived in Whitehorse at 6:00, by the time we got our room assignments, went to the room to drop off carry-ons, back down to the restaurant to find dinner was $28-35 and restaurant full, went out to about 3 different restaurants that were recommended, all were full with about an hour wait. We finally ended up eating at a subway at 8:00, soup and salad as it was so late.

 

We finally started just eating at the restaurant in the hotel. The server would always ask if we had the vouchers??? I'm not sure what you got for the vouchers, but at least the meal was paid for in advance.

 

That is the one thing I would have changed if I were doing it again, I would definitely purchase the meal plan. It ties you to eating at the hotel restaurant, but we found we were pretty much tied to doing that anyway. Breakfasts were usually $14 or $15 for a full buffet breakfast, lunches were pretty much non-existent unless the cruiseline provided them because you just didn't stop anywhere to be able to buy lunch, and dinners were usually around $28-35. We had purchased sandwich fixings, chips and water in Skagway before boarding the White Pass Yukon RR, so munched on those the first couple of days, then again at Denali we loaded up with subs & snacks before boarding the TWT.