Alaska Tundra Wilderness Tour upgrade

[Bowler Lady]

We are considering one of Princess Cruise Tours, Off Beaten Path, but only of them the tours only include The History Tour in Denali.

 

Does anyone know if Princess will allow upgrading to the Tundra Wilderness Tour?

 

There is time, as this is not on a travel day...

 

 

[Thrak]

59 minutes ago, Bowler Lady said:

We are considering one of Princess Cruise Tours, Off Beaten Path, but only of them the tours only include The History Tour in Denali.

 

Does anyone know if Princess will allow upgrading to the Tundra Wilderness Tour?

 

There is time, as this is not on a travel day...

 

 

 

In the past it has always been that one could upgrade to the TWT. Just be aware that part of the mountain slid off and took the road with it so the TWT can't go in as far as it has in the past. It's going to take a while to rebuild the road.

 

On the TWT we have seen a wolf - which is extremely rare. It was trying to get a bit of the kill that a grizzly was sitting on. It finally gave up and came up toward the road and the right along the road by the bus. Then it hopped up onto the road and the driver just let the bus roll slowly back down the hill following the wolf. Everybody got really good views of the wolf.

 

The next time we did it the driver suddenly yelled, "Lynx!!!!" and stomped on the brakes. My wife and I were in the right hand front seat - the one that many people don't seem to want - and had a front row view of the lynx running across in front of the bus. Then it "hid" in the sparse brush on the other side of the road - right in full view of our window. The driver opened the door and trained his bus camera on the lynx and everybody else could see it clearly on the monitors mounted around the bus. We didn't need the monitors as we had a ring side seat. The driver was soooooooooooo excited because lynx sightings are very rare. When we passed another bus going the other way the driver stopped and jabbered with the other driver about it and that driver got all excited as well. It's pretty cool that we did the tour twice and each time saw something that most never see.

 

Currently part of the road looks like this:

 

[PhotoFlo]

Yes, it is offered.  Call Princess and use the excursion option.  We have it for our upcoming Alaska Cruise in August.

 

[hpeabody]

It should be offered if it works time wise with your specific tour and there could be a limited number of spaces available as well.  If Princess says yes you can upgrade. DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!

[Bowler Lady]

51 minutes ago, PhotoFlo said:

Yes, it is offered.  Call Princess and use the excursion option.  We have it for our upcoming Alaska Cruise in August.

 

Thanks! Do you have to pay the full price of the excursion to upgrade?

[Bowler Lady]

21 minutes ago, hpeabody said:

It should be offered if it works time wise with your specific tour and there could be a limited number of spaces available as well.  If Princess says yes you can upgrade. DO IT, DO IT, DO IT!

Thanks,I definitely will!

[Bowler Lady]

2 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

In the past it has always been that one could upgrade to the TWT. Just be aware that part of the mountain slid off and took the road with it so the TWT can't go in as far as it has in the past. It's going to take a while to rebuild the road.

 

Thank You, Yes, I did read of the closure. I hope we can still see some wildlife going to the 43 mile marker.

 

You were very lucky to see those sights!! My husband also likes to sit up front if available as he can get car sick on windy and bumpy roads.

[Thrak]

35 minutes ago, Bowler Lady said:

My husband also likes to sit up front if available as he can get car sick on windy and bumpy roads.

 

As do I if I'm not driving. I get seasick and would absolutely want to die on a tender ride but I get the Transderm Scop patch (little round band-aid looking thing I wear behind my ear with time release Scopolamine) and I become impervious to seasickness. It may look silly but I don't have to look at it and it allows me to cruise. I've been through some very rough seas and once we went through the edge of a tropical storm where all outer decks were sealed off and many of the "iron stomach" crowd decided to go lie down in their cabins. I had steak and lobster for dinner at the Bayou Cafe (Coral Princess). Later my wife and I stood on the aft observation deck and watched a magnificent lightning display. Of course, by then, the lightning was behind us. I'm not that stupid!

[caribill]

3 hours ago, Bowler Lady said:

Thanks! Do you have to pay the full price of the excursion to upgrade?

 

Pay an upgrade price, not the full price.

[peachykiehn]

If the Princess tour is full the park service also sells the Tundra Wilderness tour cheaper than Princess. We were unable to

upgrade our natural history tour for the tundra wilderness tour so had our TA cancel the Princess tour and then we booked through the park service. 

 

[Mom&MeCruiseAL]

We are doing the Alaska land portion in July.  We traded the History tour for the Denali Backcountry Adventure tour.  Like other excursions, we had to pay the full amount of the tour when we booked it.  Princess did give us a credit for the cost of the Natural History tour in our total booking cost.  I've done the Tundra Wilderness Tour previously when it was an 8 hour tour.  I thought I would be disappointed in the shortened trip that it is this year.  The Backcountry Adventure tour does not go inside the park.  But it is a 60+ mile trip on National Geographic's #2 "Drives of a Lifetime".  I'm hoping it was worth the switch. 

[Bowler Lady]

2 hours ago, Mom&MeCruiseAL said:

We are doing the Alaska land portion in July.  We traded the History tour for the Denali Backcountry Adventure tour.  Like other excursions, we had to pay the full amount of the tour when we booked it.  Princess did give us a credit for the cost of the Natural History tour in our total booking cost.  I've done the Tundra Wilderness Tour previously when it was an 8 hour tour.  I thought I would be disappointed in the shortened trip that it is this year.  The Backcountry Adventure tour does not go inside the park.  But it is a 60+ mile trip on National Geographic's #2 "Drives of a Lifetime".  I'm hoping it was worth the switch. 

I will be interested in how you like the tour after your vacation. My trip is not until next year. Would love any insight you could provide.

 

Thank you,

Carol

[Bowler Lady]

8 hours ago, caribill said:

 

Pay an upgrade price, not the full price.

That is good news to hear!

[Bowler Lady]

2 hours ago, peachykiehn said:

If the Princess tour is full the park service also sells the Tundra Wilderness tour cheaper than Princess. We were unable to

upgrade our natural history tour for the tundra wilderness tour so had our TA cancel the Princess tour and then we booked through the park service. 

 

I have read about the shuttle as an option.  I am happy to hear that Princess is upgrading or giving credits if you want to do something else.

[Buddysmom10]

We did the upgrade less than two weeks ago.

It cost $35 extra pp.

But we didn't do it until we got there. Went to guest services, they couldn't get hold of the vendor so called me back and said nothing was available for the next day.  I then went to gs and spoke to another guy (who happened to be from the same city as me-so we had something in common)--anyway he really pushed to get us on the upgrade and they "found" two seats.  Plus it was a better time.

 

The original was about 9 am and this was about 3 so we could sleep in a bit.  

[PhotoFlo]

On 6/26/2022 at 10:47 PM, Bowler Lady said:

Thanks! Do you have to pay the full price of the excursion to upgrade?

We only paid the difference between the original tour and upgrade. 

[PhotoFlo]

On 6/27/2022 at 8:18 AM, peachykiehn said:

If the Princess tour is full the park service also sells the Tundra Wilderness tour cheaper than Princess. We were unable to

upgrade our natural history tour for the tundra wilderness tour so had our TA cancel the Princess tour and then we booked through the park service. 

 

I tried getting a credit for the Natural History tour from Princess and book the Tundra directly and it turned into a nightmare of over 20 hours on the phone to fix the mess they created. Hope you have better luck.  

[peachykiehn]

Ours was easy TA just canceled the shorter tour and we received the credit when we paid our final payment. Sorry you had so many problems.