Help with planning Alaska land tour with Princess Cruise

[Arwen]

Hi everyone!

 

We are planning to book with Princess Cruises for an Alaska cruise.  This will be our fifth time to Alaska.  This time we are going with another couple and we want to do a pre cruise land tour of Denali. We would like to go in June.

I know that Princess offers these packages. But it is difficult to find the specific information I need.

 

Both my hubby and his friend's wife have mobility issues.  Neither one needs a wheelchair, but walking long distances or short ones that are difficult are a no-go.

We thought that booking the Alaska Denali Train tour would be good, and would book the Gold Star category.

 

Is this worth it?  As I understand it, we would spend each night in a hotel?  I have read mixed reviews of the hotels.  

Do you see much or is there a lot of boring stuff?

 

Just trying to figure out which is the best way to see the scenery and catch a glimpse of wildlife in a reasonably comfortable manner.

Thanks everyone who chooses to respond.

[cruzrbachoua]

We just did a land tour before our cruise.  We did the 12-Day Connoisseur Escorted.  We flew into Anchorage stayed the night in a hotel, then took a bus to Mt Mckinley stayed 2 nights and the rooms can be far from the main lodge where the dinner areas are at...with some being hills.  Next we boarded a train to Denali lodge stayed for 2 nights...again the rooms are further out from the lodge main area with dining.  There is a path that was a bit of a hill that ran behind the rooms and lodge...from there we took a bus to the train depot to board the train for the 9 hour train ride down to Whittier.  In our train we had to go up some narrow stairs to get to our seats and the lunch car was downstairs.  I did see they had a small lift of sorts and tried to use it for one of the passengers but the issue was they couldn't find the right key.  Bottom line is on the train there could be narrow steep stairs leading to and from your seats.  There were handrails on each side to hold onto though. I hope this helps..if you have any other questions please ask. 

[mtnesterz]

The first thing would be to download the free Princess Alaska brochure from the Princess website. That should answer many of your questions.

Having done an Alaska Cruisetour, I highly recommend going the extra money for the Connoisseur tours. Which includes many of your meals and excursions on the land portion. Agree about doing the land portion first, which again, is more money. Supply and demand.

The Wilderness Lodges are nice. If you stop in Anchorage, you will stay at the Captain Cook hotel and that could use some updating, but that was some years back.

I don't know what you consider boring, but the bus rides are long. We did see some wildlife from the bus. The distances involved in your land portion are more than maps would lead you to believe. 

We saw a lot of wildlife, but bringing good quality binoculars is a must for this. Consider a clip-on telephoto lens for your phone. We got lucky and bought a high quality binoculars at a garage sale for a fraction of new price. But however you get them, you'll want them.

Is it worth it? Yes, I won't tell you wrong, this one's gonna hurt you in the wallet for real, but I'm glad we did an Alaska Cruisetour. I think you will enjoy it too.

I see you've cruised Princess before, so I would suggest booking this through a CVP who would have more specific knowledge than if you just a called the oursourced call center.

[t&atravel]

3 hours ago, Arwen said:

Hi everyone!

 

We are planning to book with Princess Cruises for an Alaska cruise.  This will be our fifth time to Alaska.  This time we are going with another couple and we want to do a pre cruise land tour of Denali. We would like to go in June.

I know that Princess offers these packages. But it is difficult to find the specific information I need.

 

Both my hubby and his friend's wife have mobility issues.  Neither one needs a wheelchair, but walking long distances or short ones that are difficult are a no-go.

We thought that booking the Alaska Denali Train tour would be good, and would book the Gold Star category.

 

Is this worth it?  As I understand it, we would spend each night in a hotel?  I have read mixed reviews of the hotels.  

Do you see much or is there a lot of boring stuff?

 

Just trying to figure out which is the best way to see the scenery and catch a glimpse of wildlife in a reasonably comfortable manner.

Thanks everyone who chooses to respond.

You are better off booking a cruise tour that is attached to the cruise (see link to itineraries below). Booking a tour separately imho is too difficult to get the timing right. I believe you went through this sometime last year as well (maybe not you. Lol)?  You might want to refer back to that thread because there was a lot of good advice there.

 

https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/cruisetours/

Edited December 28, 2023 by t&atravel

[Paula_MacFan]

3 hours ago, Arwen said:

We are planning to book with Princess Cruises for an Alaska cruise.  This will be our fifth time to Alaska.  This time we are going with another couple and we want to do a pre cruise land tour of Denali. We would like to go in June.

 

I'm not sure if you're looking at June 2024 or 2025, but our late May/early June 2024 cruisetour has been sold out for months.  Also all the excursions we have booked have either been sold out for awhile or if they are still available, they have gone up in price.  

 

My advice if you are looking at 2024 would be not to wait too long to book.  I know there are still cruisetours that can be booked but prices are only going up.  I've read that Alaska bookings are very strong and some excursion/tour providers are already booking for 2025.  

 

Good luck in your planning 🙂  

[Torfamm]

I did a Princess Lodges rail tour that was completely separate from my cruise and loved it. There was no bus travel nor were there lots of organized group excursions or planned meals. We could pick the excursions we wanted at each lodge or book something on our own. To me it was the best of all worlds - hotels, train tickets and transfers arranged, leave luggage outside your door each departure morning and find it in your room at the next destination but spend each day as you wish. To me, traveling every leg by train was way better than doing half by bus on a land tour.
 

https://www.princesslodges.com/alaska-rail-tours/learn/

 

I chose this unescorted 6 night tour from Fairbanks to Anchorage and would highly recommend it. 

https://www.princesslodges.com/alaska-tours/itinerary-3ts/?from_search_query=dG91clR5cGU9ZXhwbG9yZXImc2VhcmNoT25seT0w#3TS

[Tranquility Base]

22 minutes ago, Torfamm said:

To me, traveling every leg by train was way better than doing half by bus on a land tour.

True......unless one wishes to include stays at the Kenai Lodge or the Copper River Lodge.

[JerseyExplora]

I find this chart (https://www.princess.com/learn/cruise-destinations/alaska-cruises/cruisetour-options/cruisetour-finder/) to be helpful in figuring out the differences between the packages.

 

A lot of the packages include Princess lodges. I liked the lodges. I found Youtube videos from past visitors to be really helpful. The lodges can be somewhat spread-out and there is a shuttle that is helpful if you are in a cabin that is farther away from the main lodge. 

 

Every step of the way they asked if anyone had mobility issues and seemed to have help available. Doing an actual tour of Denali will require some walking or using one of the wheel chairs they have available. 

 

 

[cruisequeen4ever]

If you are mobility challenged, I would d

not do Goldstar and would advise that you book directly with Princess for the whole cruise tour. Goldstar requires climbing up narrow steps to get to the seats and down to get to the bathrooms and dining. If you have limited mobility, that would not be fun to do, especially while the train is moving. Also, the Goldstar seats are basically standard airplane or bus seats, whereas the seats in Adventure class (if you book directly with the Alaska Railroad) are wider and have much more legroom as long as you request car E or F. The seats on the Princess train are all pretty much the same as each other, depending on whether you are on a train that has the dome cars where you sit on the second floor in regular style seats like Goldstar or if you are on a train that has booths facing one another with a table inbetween on the first floor. 
 

The reason I recommend going through Princess for the whole thing is because they have the whole process down to a science and do it really well. They own their own hotels here, so the product is generally consistent. You can advise them of your limited mobility, so that they can ease your way through the cruise tour. Upon check-in, you can advise your guide that you are mobility, challenged and request that they get you rooms close to everything at each stop. Princesses is used to helping people with limited mobility and has excellent customer service, so I’m sure they would be able to assist you.