Star Princes 6/13-6/25 12 day Alaska/Denali northbound review- TONS of pics...

[saxgirl84]

more from the train.... it ended up taking us almost 10 hours to get to the Denali lodge, we had quite a few times we had to pull over for other trains, or slow way down for sharp curves. it was a very enjoyable, comfortable ride. I spent a few hours outside taking pictures, and enjoying the scenery. there was a dining car, but they also had a menu you could order from, and have the food delivered to your seat.. we didn't eat anything from the train, we had packed a few snacks to hold us over after a rather large breakfast on the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[saxgirl84]

some trumpeter swans we saw along the way

 

 

we had a naturalist from Denali board the train at one point, and he came in to talk about the native animals and give us some info about the park. he had a Dall Sheep horn with him

 

 

and Aliy Zirkle was also brought onboard to talk about her dogs, and her adventures. unfortunately the pictures I took of her did not come out at all

here is the card she gave us...

[saxgirl84]

We had finally made it to the lodge! while on the train, they passed out packets with the information we needed, and our room keys, which made it very easy and quick when we arrived at the lodge! the bus driver took us directly to our buildings, even though the grounds weren't that large..

 

 

we had 2 double beds in our room-

 

the room was very comfortable, rustic decor, but seemed very newly renovated.

 

the only thing I didn't like was our room was right at the top of the stairs, and there is no air conditioning in the rooms, so we had to keep our window open, since it was so warm... however we had to keep the drapes closed since we were at the top of the stairs, so anyone could see right in... there was a ceiling fan, which we used, so it wasn't unbearably hot...

 

bathroom

 

sink and closet area

 

[saxgirl84]

the view from right outside our door:

 

 

more view of the grounds...

 

view from the walkway

 

the deck by one of the restaurants

 

 

[saxgirl84]

the main lobby area-

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Yvonne]

I've just spent an hour (or more!) reading your great review and ooing and aahing over all of your fabulous photos of your cruise/tour to Alaska!! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing with the rest of us. :)

 

I, too, live in Michigan (in the middle-of-the-mitten) and my husband and I will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary in September so we are currently trying to decide WHAT we want to do to celebrate that next summer/early fall and Alaska is one of the places we're thinking of visiting. Hawaii is the other one, but we're both learning more towards Alaska as we think we would enjoy that more. So, I'm starting to do a little more research and everyone we know that has cruised to Alaska has gone on Princess so we're leaning towards that line as well.

 

I am so enjoying your scenery photos, and the wildlife, and the flowers, and the ship, and the...and the.... just everything! Awesome! Can hardly wait for the rest of your review, and I'm going to make my husband sit down to read it and look at your wonderful photos too!! Thank you again for sharing!

 

P.S. Would you be willing to share your e-mail address with me? Since there is no private message feature here at Cruise Critic (I wish there was and don't understand why there isn't) I'm sure I'm going to have questions in the next few months and once you're done with your review I might not be able to get your attention here. Mine is Chattyaholic@hotmail.com. If you'd rather not be bothered, that's okay too. :)

[Keith1010]

Great review.

 

Keith

[saxgirl84]

the next morning, we were booked for the tour into Denali. We were going to upgrade to the longer tour, but our TA wasn't able to get us all on a longer tour together, and by the time he informed us of that, it was too late to book in smaller groups, so we just kept with the shorter tour... after reading all the previous review, I was a bit disappointed because most people say you don't see much on the shorter tour... however it worked out in our benefit, as this was a rainy/cold morning... the one and only time it really rained on us the entire trip, so none of us were complaining!

 

here are some pictures from the one stop we made during the tour, to an old park ranger shelter building that was moved off the road a while back. it had begun to rain pretty steady at this point, so we didn't spend a lot of time here.. just enough to hear a little history, and snap a few pictures...

 

 

 

 

cozy inside...-- these are still used randomly in the winter when the park rangers do their rounds..

 

nails on the outside of the windows to keep the bears out

 

the house for the dogs - they said there were typically 10-20 dog houses surrounding the 3 original cabins (the other 2 were dismantled and used for fire wood for this remaining cabin

[saxgirl84]

I've just spent an hour (or more!) reading your great review and ooing and aahing over all of your fabulous photos of your cruise/tour to Alaska!! Thank you SO MUCH for sharing with the rest of us. :)

 

I, too, live in Michigan (in the middle-of-the-mitten) and my husband and I will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary in September so we are currently trying to decide WHAT we want to do to celebrate that next summer/early fall and Alaska is one of the places we're thinking of visiting. Hawaii is the other one, but we're both learning more towards Alaska as we think we would enjoy that more. So, I'm starting to do a little more research and everyone we know that has cruised to Alaska has gone on Princess so we're leaning towards that line as well.

 

I am so enjoying your scenery photos, and the wildlife, and the flowers, and the ship, and the...and the.... just everything! Awesome! Can hardly wait for the rest of your review, and I'm going to make my husband sit down to read it and look at your wonderful photos too!! Thank you again for sharing!

 

P.S. Would you be willing to share your e-mail address with me? Since there is no private message feature here at Cruise Critic (I wish there was and don't understand why there isn't) I'm sure I'm going to have questions in the next few months and once you're done with your review I might not be able to get your attention here. Mine is Chattyaholic@hotmail.com. If you'd rather not be bothered, that's okay too. :)

 

 

I'm so glad you're enjoying the review! I'm sorry it's so long, but it's hard to eliminate pictures because it is such an amazing place! Congrats on 40 yrs of marriage! this would be a great way to celebrate that milestone!!! I have not been to Hawaii (it's on my list of places to go!) but have seen pictures from my parent's 25th anniversary trip and it too looks amazing... If you do decide to go with the trip to Alaska, you can definately reach out to me with any questions... my email address is my user name here @yahoo.com feel free to ask away!

 

there's only a few more days left of the review. I'm hoping to be able to complete it tomorrow, as I've got to get ready to head over to the church and help out with Vacation Bible School for the evening...

 

looking forward to talking soon!

[saxgirl84]

Great review.

 

Keith

 

 

thank you! I'm glad so many seem to be enjoying it!

[saxgirl84]

we lucked out, yet again, on our trip! After we got back on the bus, we started down the road a little farther into the park... there was another bus and some RV's stopped on the side of the road, apparently looking for some wildlife... then we spotted what they were watching. 2 moose!!! and they were rather close to the road...

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Yvonne]

Thanks for your e-mail address, I do appreciate it. And please don't apologize for your review being long, I LOVE l-o-n-g detailed reviews with TONS of photos so I'm thoroughly enjoying yours. :) I will be sorry to see it end. :)

 

Both sets of our parents went to Hawaii for their 25th anniversary, and we would like to go there (probably a cruise out of California so lots of wonderful "sea days" plus seeing the islands) too. But we are finding that we are more drawn to seeing Alaska first, as we love Northern Michigan and all the wildlife, etc.

 

I think we need to make our final decision soon though and get it booked. And to me, half the fun of any cruise is looking forward to it and all the wonderful research on the ship and excursions, etc.

[saxgirl84]

we sat and watched these two for about 10 minutes, as they seemed to not even notice we were there..

 

 

 

mom crossed the road in front of the bus and baby followed a couple of minutes later...

 

 

 

we went a bit farther into the park, but the rain was picking up, and windows were fogging up, so we couldn't really see to much else. I was kind of glad we didn't upgrade to the longer tour, as we were told later in the day that they didn't get to see too much because of the weather...

 

we did go back to the visitors center later in the day (a free bus from the lodge to the visitors center runs ever half hour!) and hiked around a bit and enjoyed the scenery.

 

 

 

 

 

they had a short 15 minute video about the park and the area which was very well done. and then they had some different exhibits around the building. it was a great little trip into the park, and I'm glad we decided to head back after the rain stopped.

[saxgirl84]

some of the pretty flowers from Denali---

 

 

 

 

 

 

[saxgirl84]

that evening, we decided to go across the street to the Salmon Bake restaurant for dinner. We asked our waitress what she recommended, as one of the people with us is not a seafood eater... she recommended their pulled pork sandwich for her. We then asked her favorite seafood dish, and she recommended the cedar plank salmon. That was the best piece of salmon I have ever eaten! very fresh,mild and cooked to perfection! if you're staying at the Princess Denali lodge, make the short trek across the street to the Salmon Bake for dinner!

 

 

the decor on the inside was pretty eclectic as well

 

 

 

That is all I can do for today... I'll finish up tomorrow! Thanks for following along! :)

[saxgirl84]

Thanks for your e-mail address, I do appreciate it. And please don't apologize for your review being long, I LOVE l-o-n-g detailed reviews with TONS of photos so I'm thoroughly enjoying yours. :) I will be sorry to see it end. :)

 

Both sets of our parents went to Hawaii for their 25th anniversary, and we would like to go there (probably a cruise out of California so lots of wonderful "sea days" plus seeing the islands) too. But we are finding that we are more drawn to seeing Alaska first, as we love Northern Michigan and all the wildlife, etc.

 

I think we need to make our final decision soon though and get it booked. And to me, half the fun of any cruise is looking forward to it and all the wonderful research on the ship and excursions, etc.

 

 

Alaska is very similar to the UP/Northern Michigan, just on a much grander scale! I am hoping to make it up north sometime before the end of this summer, as it's been a few years since I've been up there! My brother in law has a family house on one of the many lakes up there, so maybe I'll be lucky enough to get to stay there a few nights.

 

I'm sure you'll enjoy whichever trip you decide on, but I'm rooting for you to take the Alaska trip :D

[calurduran]

First of all...thank you, thank you, thank you for this! We are leaving soon for the identical itinerary on the same side of the Star Princess on the same deck just a few doors away so this has been a fantastic resource. In particular I was a bit sad about not having a starboard side room since that's what everyone advises, but I'm feeling better about being on the port side now.

 

I had one question. Between my girlfriend and I we have one pair of binoculars. How much did you use them on your trip? Is it worth buying a second pair (recognizing that we will basically never use them except for this trip) or could we get by sharing them? I just don't have much of a sense of how often they are useful on the Glacier Bay/College Fjord days. Any insight is much appreciated!

[caribill]

I got to the laundry room at about 8:30 and there were already 6 people ahead of me in line, and only 2 washers/dryers (which were already loaded...)

 

For your next time on Princess please realize that each deck (except deck 5) with a laundromat has 4 washers and 4 dryers. Sometimes the laundromat is divided into 2 rooms with 2 washers and dryers in each. The other half is in the other hallway at the same location as the one you were in.

[saxgirl84]

First of all...thank you, thank you, thank you for this! We are leaving soon for the identical itinerary on the same side of the Star Princess on the same deck just a few doors away so this has been a fantastic resource. In particular I was a bit sad about not having a starboard side room since that's what everyone advises, but I'm feeling better about being on the port side now.

 

 

 

I had one question. Between my girlfriend and I we have one pair of binoculars. How much did you use them on your trip? Is it worth buying a second pair (recognizing that we will basically never use them except for this trip) or could we get by sharing them? I just don't have much of a sense of how often they are useful on the Glacier Bay/College Fjord days. Any insight is much appreciated!

 

 

I'm so jealous you get to go in a couple of weeks! I hope the weather is amazing for your trip as well! As for the binoculars, I honestly never used my pair because I had a long zoom lens on my camera that worked better than the binoculars I took with me. However my cousin used hers quite a bit throughout the trip. I'm sure you could get by with just sharing one pair, and you should be ok. If you have a camera that has a decent zoom, or if you can borrow one from someone, I would highly suggest that over buying a new pair of binoculars.

 

I hope you have an amazing trip!

 

 

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[saxgirl84]

For your next time on Princess please realize that each deck (except deck 5) with a laundromat has 4 washers and 4 dryers. Sometimes the laundromat is divided into 2 rooms with 2 washers and dryers in each. The other half is in the other hallway at the same location as the one you were in.

 

 

Ahhh makes sense! I thought I had heard someone say "the other room is just as busy" at one point but I didn't know what they meant :-)

 

It wasn't a huge deal, I could have actually waited until we got to the Denali lodge and had no wait at all, but I wasn't going to chance it. Typically I pack enough clothes to last, but since it was Alaska, I packed for both cold and warm weather and ran out of the warm weather stuff.

 

Thanks again for the tip and I'll remember next time :-)

 

 

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[chocokat96]

This review has been a joy to read! We're off on this same itinerary on the Star over the Labor Day week. There have been lots of Alaska and Princess reviews, but I hadn't seen any Northbound Star reviews - so thank you!! We're also doing a few days in Denali at the end. Your review made it feel all the more real. Your pictures are beautiful! What kind of camera did you bring along?

[Potstech]

Ahhh makes sense! I thought I had heard someone say "the other room is just as busy" at one point but I didn't know what they meant :-)

 

It wasn't a huge deal, I could have actually waited until we got to the Denali lodge and had no wait at all, but I wasn't going to chance it. Typically I pack enough clothes to last, but since it was Alaska, I packed for both cold and warm weather and ran out of the warm weather stuff.

 

Thanks again for the tip and I'll remember next time :-)

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

So you are saying the Denali lodge has laundry facilities? If so can you tell us what they are like and how to pay for their use. Great posting with outstanding pictures and very helpful information.

 

Will be doing the same cruise Next May with 3 people who have never been to Alaska or a cruise so it should be fun. DW and I have both been to Alaaska and I spent a year on Kodiak Island.

[MJSailors]

Thank you,Saxgirl 84 for your continued posts.

Very glad that you enjoyed the cruise portion of your vacation and the Alaskan ports.

My DH and I fondly remember an Inside Passage cruise we took in 2004, but did not do the land portion to Denali.

We regret that we didn't take a Princess cruise tour then. We are considering taking one in the near future,but hesitate to do so because of the travel/touring involved in the land tour.

If you have time,could you give some insight as to the pace of the land tour,please?

Did you find that the times posted to have the bags ready and boarding the train and bus to be difficult or was the pace easy for you and your travel companions?

MyDH and I are active 60+ ,but we wouldn't want to feel overtaxed by the pace of the tour.

I am looking forward to your continued posts and photos of the lodges,scenery and the special Alaskan moments you experienced on your vacation!

[saxgirl84]

This review has been a joy to read! We're off on this same itinerary on the Star over the Labor Day week. There have been lots of Alaska and Princess reviews, but I hadn't seen any Northbound Star reviews - so thank you!! We're also doing a few days in Denali at the end. Your review made it feel all the more real. Your pictures are beautiful! What kind of camera did you bring along?

 

 

Thank you and I'm glad you're enjoying it. I didn't see a lot of North Bound reviews either, which is part of the reason I decided to do one.

 

I took a canon Rebel T3i with a few separate lenses. I also had my iPhone6 along as well, so some of the pictures are from that.

 

Enjoy your trip! I wish I was going back!

 

 

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[saxgirl84]

So you are saying the Denali lodge has laundry facilities? If so can you tell us what they are like and how to pay for their use. Great posting with outstanding pictures and very helpful information.

 

Will be doing the same cruise Next May with 3 people who have never been to Alaska or a cruise so it should be fun. DW and I have both been to Alaaska and I spent a year on Kodiak Island.

 

 

Both lodges that we stayed at(Denali and McKinley) had laundry facilities, however I did not personally use them. I know there were a few from our big group that did, so if I remember to ask one of them on Sunday, I'll update you.

 

Have a great time on your trip next year!

 

 

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