Meals on Alaska Cruistours

[Lml513]

Are any meals included on the Alaska Cruistours? If not, can anyone give me an idea what meals cost at such places as Denali or McKinley Lodge.

[nmg222]

Meals are not included on the land portion. Each lodge has dining options. Expect to pay 50% higher than local. Lot's of info on the Alaska board.

[agabbymama]

You may have 1 or 2 meals included on your cruisetour, it should say in your itinerary. On our HAL cruisetour 3 lunches were provided. We didn't buy the meal plan, but wished we had. We generally found breakfasts for $14.95 (buffet was the way to go, rather than individual menu order) as all was included for that same price. Lunches were generally $20-25 and dinners $28-35. It didn't matter if you went to the hotels you were staying at, or walked to nearby restaurants.

[Texas Tillie]

I don't believe Princess offers a meal plan like HAL does. Only the "escorted" tours include any meals and the prices for those tours are much higher than the regular tours. If you eat 3 meals per day, it would probably cost $50 or more (including tip) per person per day and that would be if you got some of the less expensive items on the menus.

[Toto2Kansas]

We had no meals supplied with our Princess Alaska Cruise tour (not an escorted tour), and no way to add them even for a charge. Each meal was paid for indiviually, so budget accordingly. I agree, it is quite a bit more expensive in Alaska.

Enjoy!

[sunsetbeachgal]

Hi,

 

The meals are definitely on the expensive side-better you know beforehand! There are a few options-at the Denali Princess you can walk across the street where there is a Salmon Bake type of restaurant, a Subway and a nice coffee shop. At The McKinley Princess you are a captive audience, but there are several options one of which is a bar with pub fare. The food on the trains is also expensive, but good. Suggest you might want to take along a variety of snacks with you-crackers, granola bars, etc. for those in-between times.

 

Enjoy!

[Pam in CA]

We had no meals supplied with our Princess Alaska Cruise tour (not an escorted tour), and no way to add them even for a charge. Each meal was paid for indiviually, so budget accordingly. I agree, it is quite a bit more expensive in Alaska.

I agree; this was pretty much our experience. There was a small cart in the lobby of the McKinley lodge in the morning where we got a coffee, muffin and a piece of fruit instead of breakfast. As for the rest of the time, we just sucked it up, ate at the lodge and put it on our room bill, i.e., credit card. FYI, I absolutely loved the lamb chops in the McKinley lodge: they were about 1.5" thick and encrusted with mustard. Don't know if they still have them but they were about the best I've ever had. VERY expensive but IMHO, worth it.

[packercruising]

When we were on the HAL cruise/tour we got a welcome buffet at Denali when we got there and a box lunch as part of the park tour. Everything else we paid for but the food in the restaurant was good as well as inthe bar. Hope it's the same with Princess.

[Elwinnie]

we will be on the Coral Princehe 7/11/09 with a pre stay at the Mt.McKinley lodge and the Denali Princess Lodge. Any help what to do at the McKinley Lodge?

Thanks

[packercruising]

Check this thread out. It has all sorts of good stuff. :)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=947282

[Stellaglide]

I agree; this was pretty much our experience. There was a small cart in the lobby of the McKinley lodge in the morning where we got a coffee, muffin and a piece of fruit instead of breakfast. As for the rest of the time, we just sucked it up, ate at the lodge and put it on our room bill, i.e., credit card. FYI, I absolutely loved the lamb chops in the McKinley lodge: they were about 1.5" thick and encrusted with mustard. Don't know if they still have them but they were about the best I've ever had. VERY expensive but IMHO, worth it.

 

We are on a Princess Cruisetour and are doing the land portion first. Can we use the ship credit/room bill for meals during the land stage?

 

Have never cruised before and thought that was only for expenses once on the ship...ie., drinks, spa, shore excursions, and not for expenses that we incur prior to boarding.

[Toto2Kansas]

We are on a Princess Cruisetour and are doing the land portion first. Can we use the ship credit/room bill for meals during the land stage?

 

Have never cruised before and thought that was only for expenses once on the ship...ie., drinks, spa, shore excursions, and not for expenses that we incur prior to boarding.

Exactly right!

 

You can charge your meals to your credit card while on the land portion, but you can not use your shipboard credit to pay for things at the lodges. I think that is what you are asking?

[CandCrew]

The thread on the Alaska board that packercruising posted has good information. In short, there is very little to do at the McKinley lodge. There is a short "hiking" path or 2 both only takes 15ish minutes to travel. Most everything else to do is actually either in Talkeetna or on the way to Talkeetna--and it's a 50 minute shuttle ride each way to get there.

[Pam in CA]

We are on a Princess Cruisetour and are doing the land portion first. Can we use the ship credit/room bill for meals during the land stage?

 

Have never cruised before and thought that was only for expenses once on the ship...ie., drinks, spa, shore excursions, and not for expenses that we incur prior to boarding.

That's correct. I can't remember whether we charged our meals to our rooms and paid via credit card that way or paid for each individual meal via credit card.

 

You can charge your meals to your credit card while on the land portion, but you can not use your shipboard credit to pay for things at the lodges. I think that is what you are asking?

Toto is correct. Your shipboard credit and onboard account are completely separate from the cruise tour land portion of your trip.

[packercruising]

Hey can we charge the "My Dad went to Alaska and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt" gift to our room as well? :)

[unicorn63]

Last year when we were at the two lodges each meal was charged to our credit card not our room. While at McKinley lodge we took the trip into Talkeetna and went horseback riding for 2 hours. We thenwandered around the town and through the shops. While there we found a bakery that had wonderful cinnamon rolls. We bought some and took them back to the lodge and had them for breakfast the next morning. The were hugh and much cheaper than anything we could get at the lodge.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Assuming you are taking the train to McKinley Lodge, you get off the train in Talkeetna and then are bused over to the Lodge (an hour). At that point when you disembark the train, you can walk into town (very short) which we did and enjoyed a nice lunch in a little restaurant. There are some restaurants and shops (and lots of flightseeing concessions which we did not do). Then you can catch a later shuttle bus to the lodge.

 

Once at the McKinley Lodge they have at least three restaurants (maybe more?) a bar and a small coffee bar, but that is it for food!!

[Stellaglide]

That's correct. I can't remember whether we charged our meals to our rooms and paid via credit card that way or paid for each individual meal via credit card.

 

Toto is correct. Your shipboard credit and onboard account are completely separate from the cruise tour land portion of your trip.

 

Thanks Pam

 

After I re-read you original post I understood what you were saying about charging to the room vs. shipboard credit. Since we are on a cruisetour our rooms on the land portion are pre-paid so we will either pay for meals with cash or credit card.

[packercruising]

Thanks for the Talkeetna tips! Our tour includes a trip by bus to there.

 

Are there coffeemakers in the rooms and/or is there free coffee in the lobby?

[sunsetbeachgal]

I think I remember that there were coffee makers in the room, but couldn't swear to it. Unfortunately, no free coffee in the lodge.

 

There is a coffee bar in the lodges we visited (Denali, McKinley, Fairbanks) with coffees, lattes, etc and muffins, etc (and it was all expensive by our standards, but that is Alaska!). We normally ate the continental breakfast in the dining room-by the time you add up the $$ for coffee, muffin, etc it wasn't that much more to do the continental breakfast buffet and then you got cereal, fruit, muffins, etc.