How to pack for land portion of 11 day Denali Explorer tour June 27-July 8 2017

Coral Princess 11 day Denali Explorer EB4 tour June 27-July 8 2017, packing list for the 3 day land excursion prior to boarding ship:

The 3 days prior to boarding the ship are what I am trying to plan since the main suitcase will be on the ship. The 3 days include Fairbanks Riverboat Discovery Cruise, Denali Princess Lodge/Natural History Tour, Denali to Mt McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, Rail to Whittier and temps are forecast between 40s at lowest and high 60s low 70s at highest (this is about 10 degrees lower highs than what was forecast this past week).

My thinking is:

1 pair heavy jeans, 1 pair mid-weight pants, one pair lighter weight cargo pants that can convert to capri length

1 short sleeve t-shirt, 1 3/4 length sleeve knit top, 1 long-sleeve t-shirt

1 lightweight zip-front hoodie, 1 medium weight

1 very lightweight down vest (can be worn over or under hoodies

1 packable nylon rainjacket

running shoes

long-sleeve t-shirt & yoga pants for PJs

rainhat/umbrella

any need for fleece gloves & hat for this portion of the trip? (I was planning on leaving those in main luggage for glacier viewing on ship)

considering 1 long-sleeve turtleneck that can be put under the 3/4 length top--good idea or not needed?

No need for shorts, correct?

(Not sure what to believe about temps/forecast, as alaska.org has higher temps for interior this time of year, but weather underground forecast doesn't match those numbers)

Thanks in advance.

The only time I needed shorts was on the land portion and I wore them there every day. Otherwise, you sound good. Take more socks than you think you'll need.

Your user name made me laugh out loud as I gaze at the items strewn about the room while I make decisions about what to pack...in a word, "frantic" :-)

I am surprised you used shorts on the land portion--on the river and in denali park too? I was thinking it might be cold enough in the park for a hat/gloves!

Just added a pair of short to my bag--did you travel the princess line? I am wondering if I am making a mistake to rely on princess to transport my 3-day bag (a lightweight nylon tote with clothes I'm not wearing, pjs & toiletries, not meds) from lodge to lodge? Does luggage get lost or delayed?

Your user name made me laugh out loud as I gaze at the items strewn about the room while I make decisions about what to pack...in a word, "frantic" :-)

I am surprised you used shorts on the land portion--on the river and in denali park too? I was thinking it might be cold enough in the park for a hat/gloves!

Just added a pair of short to my bag--did you travel the princess line? I am wondering if I am making a mistake to rely on princess to transport my 3-day bag (a lightweight nylon tote with clothes I'm not wearing, pjs & toiletries, not meds) from lodge to lodge? Does luggage get lost or delayed?

We did the Discovery Riverboat tour on June 3rd. It was 78 degrees with no clouds. It was uncomfortably warm. I brought a couple pair of zip-off pants (the legs zip off) with me for the land portion. When it go too warm, I just zipped the legs off and, VIOLA, shorts!

Weather in alaska and the PNW is not predictable, except maybe a day or 2 out. The key is to wear layers and carry a small pack.....if the day warms up you can shed your outer layers, or, if the day turns ugly your jacket is stored in your pack. With layers you're prepared for anything.

A pr of shorts and swimsuit don't take much room.

Look at photos in past trip reports to see what people are wearing in various weather conditions. Look at arymay's current report.....sunshine to rain.

Weather in alaska and the PNW is not predictable, except maybe a day or 2 out. The key is to wear layers and carry a small pack.....if the day warms up you can shed your outer layers, or, if the day turns ugly your jacket is stored in your pack. With layers you're prepared for anything.

A pr of shorts and swimsuit don't take much room.

Look at photos in past trip reports to see what people are wearing in various weather conditions. Look at arymay's current report.....sunshine to rain.

Thank you--I searched on arymay and don't see anything current on alaska, then went to her blog and couldn't find anything current there. Is there a specific discussion board where her report is posted? Her reports look very helpful so I would like to find the Alaska one. Thanks!

We are packing now for our cruise & land tour. All of our layers clothing assortments are going with us on land portion. The only things thus far that we don't "need" on the land portion is formal night clothes. I might find a few more things to maybe make one piece of luggage not accompany the 3 of us on land but I doubt it.

Since the weather is unpredictable we will have rain gear, hiking boots, shorts, pants, scarf, gloves, hat-- on prior land tours many of these items go unused on both the land tour and the ship.

The last 2 land tours we did- we were shorts the entire time. We have had coats on at glacier viewing and then another year have been out with shorts and short sleeve shirts during glacier bay day.

we have been on land tours with fellow passengers sad that they didn't have some items that they sent off to meet me at the cruise ship or Fairbanks.

I guess it just depends on what the entire packing list looks like

- there are three of us going and at present we are only bringing 3 carryons - so we are not packing separately for cruise or land- everything is going along with us because everything is not much. No tuxedos and formal gowns this summer- If we dress up, I want pictures, if I get pictures I want them to be great so we end up standing in multiples for various photo stations. Kids wanted no pictures and no formal wear and just have pizza and get back to club :). First in about 30 cruises for no formal wear :(

Thank you--I searched on arymay and don't see anything current on alaska, then went to her blog and couldn't find anything current there. Is there a specific discussion board where her report is posted? Her reports look very helpful so I would like to find the Alaska one. Thanks!

Her current trip report is called ' 14 days on the NCL SUN to Alaska May 2017'. Its probably within 2 or 3 posts of this one. Its a great photo journal as was her trip report in 2014.

We are packing now for our cruise & land tour. All of our layers clothing assortments are going with us on land portion. The only things thus far that we don't "need" on the land portion is formal night clothes. I might find a few more things to maybe make one piece of luggage not accompany the 3 of us on land but I doubt it.

Since the weather is unpredictable we will have rain gear, hiking boots, shorts, pants, scarf, gloves, hat-- on prior land tours many of these items go unused on both the land tour and the ship.

The last 2 land tours we did- we were shorts the entire time. We have had coats on at glacier viewing and then another year have been out with shorts and short sleeve shirts during glacier bay day.

we have been on land tours with fellow passengers sad that they didn't have some items that they sent off to meet me at the cruise ship or Fairbanks.

I guess it just depends on what the entire packing list looks like

 

- there are three of us going and at present we are only bringing 3 carryons - so we are not packing separately for cruise or land- everything is going along with us because everything is not much. No tuxedos and formal gowns this summer- If we dress up, I want pictures, if I get pictures I want them to be great so we end up standing in multiples for various photo stations. Kids wanted no pictures and no formal wear and just have pizza and get back to club :). First in about 30 cruises for no formal wear :(

Thanks for your reply--sounds like I need to plan for every possibility for the 3-day pre-cruise land tour, so I'm adding a pair of shorts, the turtleneck and fleece hat/gloves. Maybe I should have planned to take the 25" suitcase with me so trying to cram everything I might need into this small carryon (17x14x6) wouldn't be so difficult, but nobody else in our travel group is doing that. They have all cruised before many times, so their experience must be influencing that decision.

Her current trip report is called ' 14 days on the NCL SUN to Alaska May 2017'. Its probably within 2 or 3 posts of this one. Its a great photo journal as was her trip report in 2014.

Thank you! very beautiful--I will probably look in more detail when I return as I'm pretty frantic about getting everything done by Tuesday morning :eek:(yn)

Thanks for your reply--sounds like I need to plan for every possibility for the 3-day pre-cruise land tour, so I'm adding a pair of shorts, the turtleneck and fleece hat/gloves. Maybe I should have planned to take the 25" suitcase with me so trying to cram everything I might need into this small carryon (17x14x6) wouldn't be so difficult, but nobody else in our travel group is doing that. They have all cruised before many times, so their experience must be influencing that decision.

are you not going to have anything else besides the one 17x14x6 bag ? I would love to only have 3 tiny bags ;-)

for our land tour I want rain gear, light weight jacket, SLR camera, extra lens, binoculars, hiking boots, etc .... I take our valuables on the train in a small backpack and then let the clothes go in a 21" down below. We are on a 9 night land tour though- so no way could get by with 17x14x6 :). much of the layers will probably never be used though LOL

FWIW The weather report for Healy, Alaska is pretty good for the Princess/Mckinley Lodges area as it is only 10 miles away. I could rely on their hourly reports while I was at the McKinley Lodge two weeks ago.

Your user name made me laugh out loud as I gaze at the items strewn about the room while I make decisions about what to pack...in a word, "frantic" :-)

 

I am surprised you used shorts on the land portion--on the river and in denali park too? I was thinking it might be cold enough in the park for a hat/gloves!

 

Just added a pair of short to my bag--did you travel the princess line? I am wondering if I am making a mistake to rely on princess to transport my 3-day bag (a lightweight nylon tote with clothes I'm not wearing, pjs & toiletries, not meds) from lodge to lodge? Does luggage get lost or delayed?

I was on Holland America, so up there sort of the same thing as far as I could tell. The bags were fine and always get to where we expected them to be. Arriving in Denali we had one extra suitcase delivered to our room but after inspecting the contents decided it was nothing we needed so gave it back to the attendants (just kidding people, no outrage to waste on this thread!) The staff were outside the buildings as we arrived so it was very easy to hand it back over and also get a key that was not working replaced.

We actually saw the luggage behind the scenes work in Fairbanks. Our room looked into the back. They had a couple of small / medium white moving van type of trucks. The bag's tags were checked and loaded and sent on to their destination.

The one we sent to the ship arrived in our cabin just as if had left it at the port while boarding.

If you are white water rafting the warmth layer is whatever you wear under the dry suit (opposite from snorkeling in Ketchican in a wet suit where you wear a bathing suit ) The suits are space suit like so it doesn't have to be leggings type of pants but my suit did allow water in (maybe because I jumped off and swam with the boat for a quiet section) so I'm not sure jeans would be ideal either. The suit shouldn't have allowed any water in and they did pull my suit aside when we got back and they saw I was wet.

The water was 38" and the air was 83" that day.

See attached for your options of Joint me tonight luggage and join me on board.

While its great to only take essentials and not overpack.....and if you can do that with the under the seat bag on rail- excellent. I wonder if your friends are taking the small bag and still having an item "join me tonight" and even if they are not- you can and it should not effect them :)

https://www.princess.com/downloads/pdf/faq_answer_legal/CAB_Alaska.pdf

Thanks for posting this. We booked an 11 night Alaskan Princess cruise tour for next June 2018. I have been reading as much as I can find about Alaska and the cruise tours.

Here's my suggestion based on our land/cruise tour through Royal Caribbean July 30-August 11th 2017.

Don't overpack like We did!! Fortunately for us, the entire vacation was warm (80's) and sunny so we didn't need half the cold weather items we packed.

Each hotel we stayed in during the land portion had self service laundry facilities. I purchased travel size Tide detergents (99cents at Walmart) and packed some fabric softener sheets. I did laundry on the evening before heading to our next destination.

You will have a wonderful time!

Karen