Connoisseur Cruise Tour

[debnjoe1438]

Anyone done the Alaska Connoisseur Cruise Tour? In your opinion was it worth the extra money? About how large are the groups?

 

Thinking about this one in 2015.

 

 

Thanks:)

[shredie]

Yes! Loved it! I though it was well worth the extra money to see so many different parts of Alaska. By "groups" do you mean tours? Our tours were about the same size as normal ones, but I think there were fewer of them. We saw Kodiak, which is so impressive. We also took a day trip to Anchorage where we saw the damage left by the 1964 earthquake. It was fascinating. On one of our buses (in Valdez) the driver pointed out the bar where Capt. Hazelwood got drunk right before he crashed the tanker. We also saw more wildlife in the northern stretches of the cruise, more than I remember from other more southern Alsaka cruises. The only problem I remember is that we had to forego Juneau because of bad weather. But I had been there before, so no biggie. You really should go!

[caribill]

My report on the tour part of our Connoisseur may answer many of your questions. You can find it at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1727858

 

If you have any questions after reading it, just ask.

Edited April 20, 2014 by caribill

[debnjoe1438]

Thanks to both, I appreciate the information.

 

Caribil, I will check out the link :)

[Pia1913]

Anyone done the Alaska Connoisseur Cruise Tour? In your opinion was it worth the extra money? About how large are the groups?

 

Thinking about this one in 2015.

 

 

Thanks:)

 

We did it in 2009; 8 days land starting in Fairbanks. We felt it was worth it and would do it again. Recommend you do land before cruise.

[ndgolden]

We did the connoisseur trip last August - well worth the money - you know how much you're spending ahead of time and we had Alaskan crab legs every night!!! Makes me hungry just thinking about it. For our trip there were 2 buses of people, so maybe 70 - 80 on the same tour. It's also nice to have the dedicated host with you and they let you know when to be where - no mystery. I'd do it again in a minute. I also read Caribill's review - it was really helpful.

[judyjudy56]

We just did a 5 day connoisseur trip in May. We had 39 in our group. We really liked it. All of our room reservations were made in advance so when we arrived at each lodge our keys were there for us. The meals in the lodges are pretty expensive. It was nice to have most of our meals covered in advance. Our tour guide who was with us the whole way was excellent. We really felt we got to know her as a friend. We toured first then cruised so we had gotten to know most of the people in our group and it was nice to see them around the ship. I'm not sure how the pricing would compare with doing things on your own, but we felt it was money well spent. We didn't have to think about than anything. Our tour guide even made our dinner reservations based on our dining time preference.

[susieg]

We did a connoisseur tour last September and felt it was truly worth the extra money. We were given vouchers to cover breakfast and dinner (most lunches were on our own), and as another person said, the menu prices were high if you were paying for them yourself. The vouchers included an entree, drink, dessert, and tip. Also, no waiting in line to check in at the lodges -- we were handed our room keys as we walked in the front door. Family members travelling with us had taken a non-connoisseur trip previously and said they felt the extra money for the connoisseur tour was well worth it. I would definitely take a connoisseur tour again in the future.

[TW6cruiser]

We are considering a princess connoisseur Alaska tour next summer. I am debating between one that starts in Anchorage and goes north, and then back to the ship. Or one that starts in Fairbanks and moves south. That one seems like less travel. How far time wise via train or bus are the Fairbanks, MkKinley, Denali lodges? It seems to make more sense to just start in Fairbanks and move south but I am not sure. Also, I have seen mixed reviews on the McKinley and Denali lodges on TripAdvisor. For any of you who posted here what were your thoughts?

Anyone have more details on the Tundra Wilderness Tour? Everyone says it is better than the more limited tour but no real details why. Thank you.

[Pia1913]

If there's anyone who feels like reading, this is the link to the LIVE I did in 2009; Connoisseur land tour started in Fairbanks.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1054906

[alexspepa]

my wife and a friend did it last year and raved about it...

[Loonbeam]

There are posts on a lot of this in the Alaska POC forum, but I will summarize based on 2009..

 

We did the Fairbanks start-only tricky part was there are less connecting flights to Fairbanks than into Anchorage which limits options, but since you arrive day 0, not a huge deal. On the days we traveled (we made sure to pick an all train trip), I'd say average travel time was about 6 hours point to point.

 

The Denali lodge depended a lot on which room you got, some were older, though many have been renovated since then. The newer ones were further away from the main lodge, but they have a tram.

 

McKinley was quite nice in my book, a little spread out. The biggest complaint is that its about an hour into Talkeetna, so you either need to factor that time in, or stay around the lodge, with more limited entertainment options. At that point, we were happier to take a break.

 

NHT versus TWT - The NHT is about 3 to 4 hours, goes about 8 miles into the park and a bunch of the time is spent with a native culture demo. TWT goes 4 hours in and 4 hours back into the park and you may actually get to see animals! One caveat, the box 'lunch' on the TWT is sad, bring snacks or a sandwich from Subway across the street. Also, its a lot of bus sitting (modified school bus with better seats)

 

Photos here some shots of rooms in them. We were upgraded to a suite at McKinley...

 

 

 

 

We are considering a princess connoisseur Alaska tour next summer. I am debating between one that starts in Anchorage and goes north, and then back to the ship. Or one that starts in Fairbanks and moves south. That one seems like less travel. How far time wise via train or bus are the Fairbanks, MkKinley, Denali lodges? It seems to make more sense to just start in Fairbanks and move south but I am not sure. Also, I have seen mixed reviews on the McKinley and Denali lodges on TripAdvisor. For any of you who posted here what were your thoughts?

Anyone have more details on the Tundra Wilderness Tour? Everyone says it is better than the more limited tour but no real details why. Thank you.

Edited June 12, 2014 by Loonbeam

[TW6cruiser]

Thanks to the responses so far. For 2015, all of the Connoisseur tours have a combination of train and bus connections. I'm not crazy about buses which is why I asked.

[caribill]

We are considering a princess connoisseur Alaska tour next summer. I am debating between one that starts in Anchorage and goes north, and then back to the ship. Or one that starts in Fairbanks and moves south. That one seems like less travel. How far time wise via train or bus are the Fairbanks, MkKinley, Denali lodges? It seems to make more sense to just start in Fairbanks and move south but I am not sure. Also, I have seen mixed reviews on the McKinley and Denali lodges on TripAdvisor. For any of you who posted here what were your thoughts?

Anyone have more details on the Tundra Wilderness Tour? Everyone says it is better than the more limited tour but no real details why. Thank you.

 

You can find details in my report mentioned in an earlier post. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1727858

[Loonbeam]

Given the choice, I would prioritize train from Fairbanks to Denali 1st, then Denali to Talkeetna second. Honesltly, Talkeetna to Whittier would be ok on a

bus.

 

There is one advantage to the bus in and out of talkeetna, the train actually stops in town, so it adds time for them to bus everyone from train station to lodge.

 

Thanks to the responses so far. For 2015, all of the Connoisseur tours have a combination of train and bus connections. I'm not crazy about buses which is why I asked.

[susieg]

The train ride is awesome, but the bus rides weren't bad either. We had an all-day bus ride to Copper River that we were dreading, but it turned out to be a great day. The scenery was spectacular the whole way and our guide told us about what we were seeing throughout the trip, so it felt more like an excursion than a drive from one location to another. Our package included Fairbanks, Denali, Copper River, and Kenai. I highly recommend it.

[geoherb]

We took a regular cruise tour in 2012. Many of the things mentioned above--like getting our room keys for the different hotels ahead of time and having our luggage delivered from one to the next--were the same as on the Connoisseur tours. The only thing we missed out on was the prepaid meals and the concierge service of a dedicated guide for the group. But the way Princess does things works like clockwork even with different guides on different legs.

 

Our trip started in Fairbanks. We had two nights there before the train ride to Denali. One night there. We upgraded to the Tundra Wilderness Tour and enjoyed it thoroughly. When we later compared what we had seen with the couple who we met on the train ride, who had taken the Natural History Tour, we were glad we had gone for the upgrade. If you have more than one night at Denali, you'll have time to take a shuttle instead of the tour.

 

The prices of meals wasn't too bad at the lodges. They have their menus online. Most nights we were not hungry enough to eat a full meal. There are some good inexpensive items on the menu. For instance, I had a great salad with salmon at one of the lodges. The McKinley Lodge had a delicious salmon chowder.

 

I economized by bringing our breakfasts with us--granola bars, dried fruit, etc. It was convenient to be able to eat in our room and not have to get dressed for breakfast and go to a restaurant. It was also a lot less expensive.