Alaska Cruisetours - What were your highlights or regrets?

[lucky cal]

We are considering several Princess cruisetours in Alaska for 2015 and I would love to receive some advice and feedback from this board. If you've done an Alaska cruisetour with Princess, what were the highlights of your tour? Are there any locations or activities you would skip if you had to do it over again, and why?

 

Is there anywhere to find Princess cruisetour itineraries that are more specific than just Day 1, Day 2, etc., for the land portion? An itinerary that shows what time you arrive and depart each stop on the tour would be helpful for planning and understanding how much time you truly have at each location. If these exist, I can't seem to find them on the Princess web site.

 

Finally, other than having the freedom to go where you want and when, are there other compelling reasons to go with a DIY tour instead of an organized cruisetour? Looking at the prices in Alaska during high season, I'm not sure that big cost savings are likely. I enjoy planning the details of our travels, but I don't have as much time to do so as I would like so I'm leaning toward a cruisetour in order to eliminate some of the hotel and transportation research and arrangements.

 

Thanks in advance for the advice!

[caribill]

We greatly enjoyed our Princess Alaska cruisetour and can't think of anything we would have done differently on the land portion.

 

See what we did at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1727858

[cruisesusie]

When you go to Denali, make sure you take the Tundra Wilderness tour. There's another one which is much shorter and you probably won't see any animals on that one. The Tundra Wilderness tour is 7-8 hours and fantastic.They give you a box lunch which isn't much. You can go across the street to Subway and get sandwiches, etc. We did the cruisetour 3 years ago and loved it. If you go in the summer be prepared for mosquitos. We were there in late May and we missed them, but we heard they can be a problem. Bring warm clothes - you'll need them when you get close to the glaciers.

 

Susan

[TW6cruiser]

We picked cruise tour PB7 for next August. When we received our confirmation we received all the times for the land portion. If that is one you are interested in let me know and I will post the times. We picked the Connoisseur tour category based on comments from family that have gone and loved it. With the food vouchers and travel included, it takes a lot of the unknown factor out of the trip planning.

[Pia1913]

In 2009 we too did the all inclusive - 8 days land, 4 lodges. Would never do it any differently. Love that I had nothing to think about other than be there.

[5fathom]

We did cruise tour in August on the Crown. Highlights were the Princess Lodges at Fairbanks and Denali. The beautiful coach ride from Fairbanks to Denali where we joined the 30% cub. Spectacular ! The Hubbard glacier and Glacier Bay. Perfect weather, sunny and in the 70's. A brief shower in Juneau. Even bright and sunny in Ketchikan, which is rare. The lowlight, was the nearly 9 hour train ride from Denali to Whittier. The last couple hours were tiring. If you choose a tour that in includes Mt McKinley Lodge you would board in Talketna which shortens train travel by a couple hours.

[geoherb]

I second the suggestion to upgrade from the Natural History Tour to the Tundra Wilderness Tour. That day was the highlight of our cruise tour--the train ride from Fairbanks to Denali and then the tour. The lines at the Subway were too long, so I bought sandwiches at the coffee shop a few doors away. They were good. The box lunch on the Tundra Wilderness Tour is more like a box snack. Bring plenty of water along as well.

 

We did not do much at the McKinley Lodge--but that gave us a chance to relax. I would have rather had another night at the Denali Lodge.

 

A couple we met on the plane ride from home to Fairbanks did a lot more than we did. I don't know where they found the energy to do so much, especially since they were a decade or two older than we are.

[tmitchell82]

When we were at Denali Lodge, we took a flight seeing tour that landed on a glacier inside of Denali National Park. It was amazing to fly around Denali and the landing was incredible. Had some time after we landed to walk around on the glacier and take some good pictures. Expense, yes, but well worth it IMHO.

 

Tim

[nukesubsailor]

This last July a group of 12 of us took the escorted connoisseur cruise tour. It was 8 days on land followed by a 7-day cruise on the Crown Princess. This was the 2nd Princess cruise tour for me but the first one was much shorter. It was also my 6th trip to Alaska, both with Princess and on my own.

I emphatically recommend taking the longest escorted connoisseur tour offered. It takes all the worry out of the trip. It gives you a detailed time table on your booking confirmation. Each day of the tour, your escort will give you a letter with all the times and info about meals and luggage pickup you need to make the trip go smoothly. This tour will give you the best tour of Denali park. Your escort will provide narrative as you travel from lodge to lodge by both motor coach and train. We had a great escort named Jack Curtiss. He really knows Alaska and loves to answer any questions you might have.

Alaska is awesome but it is expensive. I believe one would be wise to get the most out of it you can and do the longest tour. It will be a lot less costly than making multiple short trips to Alaska to experience everything the state has offer.

[SueFrankuk]

We have just done the last cruise of the season out of Seattle and was the biggest dissapointment, we knew we weren't going to do glacier bay but still thought we may see glaciers, wildlife, whales and so we will be one of few who will not be going back to Alaska

Seen the glaciers in Chile and the wonderful scenery in Norway

 

Still lots of cruises to look forward too

 

Sue

[lucky cal]

We picked cruise tour PB7 for next August. When we received our confirmation we received all the times for the land portion. If that is one you are interested in let me know and I will post the times. We picked the Connoisseur tour category based on comments from family that have gone and loved it. With the food vouchers and travel included, it takes a lot of the unknown factor out of the trip planning.

 

Cruisetour PB7 is definitely one of the ones I was looking at because it included Kenai and that is one of our priorities. If you would post the itinerary for the land portion, that would be most helpful.

 

Thanks!

[Pia1913]

This last July a group of 12 of us took the escorted connoisseur cruise tour. It was 8 days on land followed by a 7-day cruise on the Crown Princess. This was the 2nd Princess cruise tour for me but the first one was much shorter. It was also my 6th trip to Alaska, both with Princess and on my own.

I emphatically recommend taking the longest escorted connoisseur tour offered. It takes all the worry out of the trip. It gives you a detailed time table on your booking confirmation. Each day of the tour, your escort will give you a letter with all the times and info about meals and luggage pickup you need to make the trip go smoothly. This tour will give you the best tour of Denali park. Your escort will provide narrative as you travel from lodge to lodge by both motor coach and train. We had a great escort named Jack Curtiss. He really knows Alaska and loves to answer any questions you might have.

Alaska is awesome but it is expensive. I believe one would be wise to get the most out of it you can and do the longest tour. It will be a lot less costly than making multiple short trips to Alaska to experience everything the state has offer.

 

What we did: 8 days, followed by 7 night cruise. Though in our case the cruise was 25 days. You said it much better than I did.

[Calif. Cruisers]

We did the last Cruisetour of the season a few years ago. The Tundra Tour was not offered (even though we signed up for it ahead of time.) Please note that this can happen on these end of the season trips as the road is opened up to locals to drive on, so the buses don't take the tours out.

We signed up for the evening wake-up call for the Northern Lights on the first night in Denali. The lights were out the second night but we didn't get the wake up call (don't know if we needed to sign up each night, or if it just didn't work- Bummer!)

We had an absolutely fabulous time otherwise, and can't wait to do this tour again. We did Anchorage (1 night), McKinley (1 night), Denali (2 nights) and train to Whittier.

[momzcruzing]

We just returned 3 weeks ago from the last cruise tour on the Island Princess of the season. I chose mid-Sept trying to avoid overcrowding in the ports as many ships have already moved out. Many ports we were the only ship.

 

Also while knowing it would be rainy, I'd heard that it brings out the intense blue in the glaciers & leads to more calving of the glaciers. (We saw the entire face of a glacier calve in Glacier Bay-gasp!!!) Also late in the season you are more likely to see the Northern Lights & miss the mosquitos (we never saw one)

 

I read the Alaska boards extensively and I would recommend that you do that. I knew to sell the Natural History tour back to Princess and book the Tundra Wilderness tour thru the park's website. It was fabulous and the mountain was fully out, a very rare happening- YIPEE!!

 

We flew into Anchorage several days prior to the beginning of the tour, rented a car ($68 for two days) and stayed at the Aleska Resort (beautiful). From there we took the Prince William sound tour independently and planned to do the Kenai Fjord tour but weather stopped us.

 

Joining the Cruise tour, we chose one that did NOT include the meals and often ate off site and saved $$. We enjoyed many meals at the Princess lodges but the menus are limited and all very similar & I was very tired of the Princess food by the last lodge even tho we had only eaten 1/2 our meals there.

 

All lodges had in room coffee makers so breakfast was easy & free. Coffee & instant oatmeal or a Builder Bar. Very helpful for early tours.

 

Be sure to book a ship going into Glacier Bay (that is why you choose Princess) That is top priority! In the ports look for the independent tours, e.g. Island Wings in Ketchikan.

 

Just my ideas & my preferences. Enjoy! Alaska is magical, not to miss!! :)

[lucky cal]

This last July a group of 12 of us took the escorted connoisseur cruise tour. It was 8 days on land followed by a 7-day cruise on the Crown Princess. This was the 2nd Princess cruise tour for me but the first one was much shorter. It was also my 6th trip to Alaska, both with Princess and on my own.

I emphatically recommend taking the longest escorted connoisseur tour offered. It takes all the worry out of the trip. It gives you a detailed time table on your booking confirmation. Each day of the tour, your escort will give you a letter with all the times and info about meals and luggage pickup you need to make the trip go smoothly. This tour will give you the best tour of Denali park. Your escort will provide narrative as you travel from lodge to lodge by both motor coach and train. We had a great escort named Jack Curtiss. He really knows Alaska and loves to answer any questions you might have.

Alaska is awesome but it is expensive. I believe one would be wise to get the most out of it you can and do the longest tour. It will be a lot less costly than making multiple short trips to Alaska to experience everything the state has offer.

 

Thanks for your recommendation. I just wish I could see detailed itineraries for the land portions of the Alaska cruisetours in order to better understand the travel times between each lodge and the true amount of time we would have at each location. This would help us to make a decision on which cruisetour would work best for us ... Just as you would evaluate and compare cruise itineraries to determine which ones would provide you with the most time in port.

 

If anyone knows how I can find that information or can post it, that would be so helpful!

Edited October 15, 2014 by lucky cal
Typo

[lucky cal]

We just returned 3 weeks ago from the last cruise tour on the Island Princess of the season. I chose mid-Sept trying to avoid overcrowding in the ports as many ships have already moved out. Many ports we were the only ship.

 

Also while knowing it would be rainy, I'd heard that it brings out the intense blue in the glaciers & leads to more calving of the glaciers. (We saw the entire face of a glacier calve in Glacier Bay-gasp!!!) Also late in the season you are more likely to see the Northern Lights & miss the mosquitos (we never saw one)

 

I read the Alaska boards extensively and I would recommend that you do that. I knew to sell the Natural History tour back to Princess and book the Tundra Wilderness tour thru the park's website. It was fabulous and the mountain was fully out, a very rare happening- YIPEE!!

 

We flew into Anchorage several days prior to the beginning of the tour, rented a car ($68 for two days) and stayed at the Aleska Resort (beautiful). From there we took the Prince William sound tour independently and planned to do the Kenai Fjord tour but weather stopped us.

 

Joining the Cruise tour, we chose one that did NOT include the meals and often ate off site and saved $$. We enjoyed many meals at the Princess lodges but the menus are limited and all very similar & I was very tired of the Princess food by the last lodge even tho we had only eaten 1/2 our meals there.

 

All lodges had in room coffee makers so breakfast was easy & free. Coffee & instant oatmeal or a Builder Bar. Very helpful for early tours.

 

Be sure to book a ship going into Glacier Bay (that is why you choose Princess) That is top priority! In the ports look for the independent tours, e.g. Island Wings in Ketchikan.

 

Just my ideas & my preferences. Enjoy! Alaska is magical, not to miss!! :)

 

Thanks! Glacier Bay is a must for us and a top reason why we're considering Princess.

 

Can you speak to the amount of time you had to spend at each location on the land tour?

[lucky cal]

When we were at Denali Lodge, we took a flight seeing tour that landed on a glacier inside of Denali National Park. It was amazing to fly around Denali and the landing was incredible. Had some time after we landed to walk around on the glacier and take some good pictures. Expense, yes, but well worth it IMHO.

 

Tim

 

Tim,

Thanks for the great videos. Looks like a fantastic trip. The land tour you took is similar to one we're thinking about. How did you feel about the amount of time at each location on the land portion of your trip prior to boarding the ship? Was it enough time at each location? Did you want more or less of any location? Anything you would book differently if you were to do another land tour?

 

Dawn

[Kinkacruiser]

This is what the 2015 Connoisseur tour looks like. Hope it helps.

 

 

May 25 Rail: Whittier To Talkeetna 7:15AM 12:45PM

May 25 Lunch Aboard Train

May 25 Transfer: Rail Depot To Lodge 12:50PM 2:01PM

May 25 3 Course Dinner Mountain View Rest.

May 25 Mckinley Princess Lodge - 2 Nights

May 26 Breakfast At Mountain View Rest.

May 26 Day At Leisure

Date Description Arrive Depart

May 26 3 Course Dinner Mountain View Rest.

May 27 Coach: Mckinley To Denali 10:00AM 12:30PM

May 27 2 Course Lunch At King Salmon

May 27 Music Of Denali Dinner Theater 5:30PM 7:30PM

May 27 Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge - 2

Nights

May 28 Sourdough Breakfast

May 28 Tundra Wilderness Tour Depart 7:00-7:30a 7:00AM 4:00PM

May 28 3 Course Dinner At King Salmon Rest.

May 29 Breakfast At King Salmon Rest.

May 29 Coach: Denali To Fairbanks Hotel 9:00AM 12:30PM

May 29 Three Course Dinner

May 29 Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge - 2

Nights

May 30 Breakfast

May 30 Am Gold Dredge 8/Pm Riverboat 10:00AM 5:30PM

May 30 Three Course Dinner (Connoisseur Tours)

May 31 Tipping Information

May 31 Transfer: Hotel To Fai Airport

[tmitchell82]

Tim,

Thanks for the great videos. Looks like a fantastic trip. The land tour you took is similar to one we're thinking about. How did you feel about the amount of time at each location on the land portion of your trip prior to boarding the ship? Was it enough time at each location? Did you want more or less of any location? Anything you would book differently if you were to do another land tour?

 

Dawn

 

I could have spent another day or two at Denali easily. So much to see and do there if you like hiking and being in the outdoors. Princess's McKinley Lodge was nice, but you are limited to what you can do since there is really nothing else around there. They days on land were long and busy, but we wanted to see as much as we could. Don't think I would have done anything differently, just more time at Denali. Would have liked to have gotten deep into the park. We skipped the Wilderness tour in favor of the rafting so I would not mind that tour in the future. You do spend a lot of time on buses going from place to place so that was one reason we ditched the wilderness tour. Would go back and do the whole thing again in a heartbeat.

 

Tim

[rockdoctor]

We have just done the last cruise of the season out of Seattle and was the biggest dissapointment, we knew we weren't going to do glacier bay but still thought we may see glaciers, wildlife, whales and so we will be one of few who will not be going back to Alaska

Seen the glaciers in Chile and the wonderful scenery in Norway

 

Still lots of cruises to look forward too

 

Sue

 

Been to AK 5 times and I have to thoughts before you give up on AK. 1. Take the Tunda Wilderness Tour on a CruiseTour. Never been on it that I didn't see wildlife. We prefer Princess in the Denali Corridor. 2. Go in June or early July. Don't go late. Scenery is magnificent with the turning leaves but wildlife sightings, very limited. Sorry about your experience.

[timetravler]

My only regret is when we started the tundra wilderness tour, the bus had to turn around due to the fact that it started snowing. However Princess did refund at least half of the money. I certainly did not blame Princess for the snow. It was just one of those things.

My favorite tour was while we were in Denali and did the Husky Homestead Tour. Now I am a dog lover and Jeff King grew up near where I live. He conducted the tour himself and it was fabulous. In case your not a follower of the Iditarod, Jeff King is a 4 time winner and came very close last year to winning again. But he did not want to push his dogs through some horrible weather conditions(a blizzard and extremely strong winds) that he dropped out after the last check point. That is why I loved his tour because you can see right away his dogs safety and happiness comes first. Anyways it is a wonderful tour and full of lots of info and includes free dog kisses, LOL

[AZJerry]

We just did the last NB Glacier Bay tour out of Vancouver followed by the 4-day DA4 land tour that ended back in Anchorage. It was the LAST cruise/tour of the season as many shops, tour ops, etc. (in ports and at Denali) were already closed and the rest were closing after we left. Despite that there was plenty to keep us busy so not a problem. We were told all along the way that the weather was better than it had been for several weeks.

 

We had tried to sign up for the Tundra Wilderness tour but it was unavailable so we took the Natural History tour. Once we got to Denali we found that the Tundra tour was canceled and those assigned to it were transferred to the Teklinika tour. We asked at the lodge and were able to transfer to the Teklinika which proved to be very nice. Doubly nice since our bus only had 8 people so moving around for pictures was easy. I believe we saw more animals in the first part of that tour (the natural history part) than the further into the park. We had to pay for the Teklinika but were promised a refund for the natural history tour. We're still working on getting that refund.

 

A lot of time is spent on land travel. 9 hours or so on the train to Denali, hours from Denali to McKinley, hours from McKinley to Anchorage, an hour each way between McKinley and Talkeetna (where many of the tours start). While the views are nice, it does get a bit old, especially the bus portions at highway speeds.

 

We chose ending back in Anchorage because the cost of an extra day plus the flight from Fairbanks to Anchorage added a significant amount to the budget.

 

We did the Tracy Arm cruise a couple of years ago. The views were nice and we were able to get closer to Sawyer Glacier than the captain had been for several years before that. But Glacier Bay and College Fjord were way better. We saw more animals during the cruise than in Tracy Arm but, I suspect, that varies greatly.

 

+1 on the Husky Homestead tour. Well worth it to see and here Jeff talking about the dogs and the race as well as how happy the dogs are and how excited they get at the chance to pull the ATV around for practice.

Edited October 15, 2014 by AZJerry
added the last paragraph.

[lucky cal]

This is what the 2015 Connoisseur tour looks like. Hope it helps.

 

 

May 25 Rail: Whittier To Talkeetna 7:15AM 12:45PM

May 25 Lunch Aboard Train

May 25 Transfer: Rail Depot To Lodge 12:50PM 2:01PM

May 25 3 Course Dinner Mountain View Rest.

May 25 Mckinley Princess Lodge - 2 Nights

May 26 Breakfast At Mountain View Rest.

May 26 Day At Leisure

Date Description Arrive Depart

May 26 3 Course Dinner Mountain View Rest.

May 27 Coach: Mckinley To Denali 10:00AM 12:30PM

May 27 2 Course Lunch At King Salmon

May 27 Music Of Denali Dinner Theater 5:30PM 7:30PM

May 27 Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge - 2

Nights

May 28 Sourdough Breakfast

May 28 Tundra Wilderness Tour Depart 7:00-7:30a 7:00AM 4:00PM

May 28 3 Course Dinner At King Salmon Rest.

May 29 Breakfast At King Salmon Rest.

May 29 Coach: Denali To Fairbanks Hotel 9:00AM 12:30PM

May 29 Three Course Dinner

May 29 Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge - 2

Nights

May 30 Breakfast

May 30 Am Gold Dredge 8/Pm Riverboat 10:00AM 5:30PM

May 30 Three Course Dinner (Connoisseur Tours)

May 31 Tipping Information

May 31 Transfer: Hotel To Fai Airport

 

Many thanks Anna! Very helpful.

 

Dawn

[Kirsten T]

I'm obviously in the minority here, but I found coastal Alaska to be far more interesting than the interior. We did Denali post-cruise on our own, using Alaska Railroad and a B&B that had car rentals. Denali had an austere beauty and we did enjoy hiking there, and did see moose, bears and smaller wildlife up close and personal. There's a substantial amount of travel time involved in getting to/from the interior, however - we decided to skip the Tundra Tour because 8 hours on a bus, even in beautiful surroundings, wasn't appealing after a full day getting there. The greater Anchorage area had a lot more to offer than we'd expected. When we go back this summer, we'll spend more time around the coast, which I thought was visually spectacular and offered a lot of recreational and cultural things to do, with easier logistics for a "DIY" kind of traveler.

 

Cheers,

Kirsten

[TW6cruiser]

Our PB7 for next year is as follows: Transfer: Fai Airport To Hotel Luggage Information

Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge -

Welcome Breakfast

Am Gold Dredge 8/Pm Riverboat 10 am to 5:30 pm

Three Course Dinner (Connoisseur Tours) Breakfast

Coach: Fairbanks To Denali 10 am to 1 pm

Afternoon At Leisure

3 Course Dinner At King Salmon Rest.

Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge - 2 Nights

Sourdough Breakfast

Denali Park Tour Options

Tundra Wilderness Tour Depart 7:00-7:30a to 4 pm

Music Of Denali Dinner Theater 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Transfer: Lodge To Rail Depot 9:15 am to 9:45 pm

Rail: Denali To Talkeetna 10:15 am to 2:15 pm

Lunch Aboard Train

Transfer: Rail Depot To Lodge 2:45 to 3:45 pm

3 Course Dinner Mountain View Rest.

Mckinley Princess Lodge - 1 Night

Breakfast At Mountain View Rest.

Coach: Mckinley To Kenai 8 am to 3:30 pm

3 Course Dinner At Eagle's Crest

Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge - 2 Nights

Breakfast At Eagle's Crest

Day At Leisure

3 Course Dinner At Eagle's Crest Breakfast At Eagle's Crest Tipping Information

Coach: Kenai To Whittier 11 am to 1 pm

Hubbard Glacier (Yak Scenic Cruising Glacier Bay

Scenic Cruising Skagway

Juneau

Ketchikan

At Sea

Vancouver

Transfer: Pier To Airport