Cruise Tour Options

We're on star princess leaving 7/23/16 from Anchorage, but are going to Denali first. We can fly from LA to Fairbanks with a2-3 hour layover in Seattle, a long day, or fly NS to Ancorage, which means we will have a 9 hour trip from our last Denali lodge to the ship. Any advice would be greatly appreciated if anyone has done this itinerary. Barbara

What do you want to see and do? I assume this is a DIY trip with a rental car since you have already booked the cruise. If Fairbanks is an important stop then it makes sense to start there and work back to Anchorage and Whittier. But if you are only interested in Denali and points south, working round trip from Anchorage making stops for overnights in both directions works. No one says you have to drive from Denali to Anchorage in one day when it is DIY. If you are thinking about a Princess cruise tour, again think about what you want to see and do. They have many to choose from.

We just did this trip in August. Arrived in anchorage at 1pm, rented a car & drove 4 hours to McKinley creek cabins, about 15 min to Denali entrance. Spent the night, grabbed a lunch at their cafe the next morning & rode the bus to katishna (6hours)! Booked a air taxi flight (55 min) with katishna air taxi. It was awesome! They land near the entrance to Denali and drove us to our car. It was 3pm, and we drove back to anchorage and spent the night. Visited anchorage, then drove down to meet the ship. Saw wildlife, the glacier from the air & mt McKinley. Very doable, we weren't too tired. Had some road construction, but never had more than a 15 min delay. Hope this helps! Very easy to do a DIY trip!