Denali Explorer vs. On Your Own

[lakes123]

What are the differences between each of these land portions on Alaska Cruisetours? Is the Denali Explorer worth the extra cost?

 

We have not been to Alaska and not been on Princess. Looking at a 10 day cruisetour June 2018. Just trying to narrow down some options.

[azbirdmom]

Denali Explorer has the Natural History Tour and train travel instead of a bus to the ship. You can pay the difference and upgrade to the Tundra Wilderness Tour. For us the train is worth it.

[Host Jazzbeau]

We got great advice here on the Alaska forum that showed how easy it is to do this DIY. You can see the details in my blog (link in signature).

[Potstech]

If you do it on your own you will have to make all the arrangements for the land tour yourself. That would be transportation and lodging. Do some research and see what the price difference would be between the two. I did and went with the Princes Cruisetour with the Tundra Wilderness Tour upgrade. Was great not having to worry about anything other than what to eat.

[azbirdmom]

The Princess On Your Own does include transportation, it's always a bus though. This is from the 2018 Alaska brochure:

*On Your Own cruisetour options do not include Direct-to-the-Wilderness rail service, Natural History Tour into Denali National Park, Sternwheeler Riverboat Cruise or Gold Dredge 8 Tour in Fairbanks.

Here is a direct link to the brochure which makes it easier to see the differences: https://book.princess.com/images/cc/brochure/downloads/Princess-Alaska-2018.pdf

[lakes123]

The Princess On Your Own does include transportation, it's always a bus though. This is from the 2018 Alaska brochure:

*On Your Own cruisetour options do not include Direct-to-the-Wilderness rail service, Natural History Tour into Denali National Park, Sternwheeler Riverboat Cruise or Gold Dredge 8 Tour in Fairbanks.

Here is a direct link to the brochure which makes it easier to see the differences: https://book.princess.com/images/cc/brochure/downloads/Princess-Alaska-2018.pdf

 

Thanks for the link. That is very helpful.

[geoherb]

We went with the Princess cruise tour (starting in Fairbanks, then Denali, Mt. McKinley Lodge, and Anchorage before getting on the ship in Whittier). I enjoyed the included activities--steamboat excursion and panning for gold in Fairbanks, train trip to Denali, and Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. These were activities we probably would not have done on our own. We upgraded to the Tundra Wilderness Tour. From talking to the people in our group who took the Natural History Tour, I'm very glad we upgraded.

 

For us, booking a last-minute cruise tour, the price was a lot less than doing it on our own would have been. Looking at later this summer, there are 12-night packages starting at $1,530 (including port fees) available on the Princess website--before any type of discount your travel agent can get you.

[FLSteve11]

The Princess On Your Own does include transportation, it's always a bus though. This is from the 2018 Alaska brochure:

 

*On Your Own cruisetour options do not include Direct-to-the-Wilderness rail service, Natural History Tour into Denali National Park, Sternwheeler Riverboat Cruise or Gold Dredge 8 Tour in Fairbanks.

 

 

 

Here is a direct link to the brochure which makes it easier to see the differences: https://book.princess.com/images/cc/brochure/downloads/Princess-Alaska-2018.pdf

 

 

 

That's not quite correct. We're doing the "On your Own". 4 night tour (DBX). We took the train on the 4 hour trip from McKinley Lodge to Denali lodge, then on the 8 hour bus ride to the ship. The Denali Explorer tour does the opposite. So you get the longer trip on the train then, and can checkin to the ship while on the train. They do a bus ride between the two lodges instead.

 

 

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