Stealthdog

Every line we have been on since COVID has been weak in the MDR. Food is always subjective. Just got off Majestic Princess and were not very impressed with the MDR - it was a little better than Royals MDR and a little worse than Disneys. On Celebrity we ate in Blu (or speciality dining) every night, so not an equivalent comparison to Princess MDR.

The back-to-back (some call it side-to-side) on different ships can be exhausting too. We did one last year - by the time we figured out the first ship and got to relaxing we were on the next and had to start all over again. I’d consider a longer sailing (10-12 days) or back to back on same ship.

For the afternoon of our full Denali Day we did two trails - the Horseshoe Lake trail and the Meadow View Trail - we took about 2.5 hours for the Horseshoe and about 45 minutes for the Meadow View. The trails in Denali are mostly easy to follow. Occasionally there are Wooden post signs at forks that give trail name, direction, and distance. There are times where you will come to a fork, or see a small trail lead off. Always stay on the main trail - it will always the bigger, wider, and probably clearly man-made compared to the smaller and usually dirt paths that lead off. You will probably see lots of people on the trails - if you don’t you probably wandered off the main trail. The next two posts will provide information and photos of the two trails we took. Lots of wildlife on both. Below is another general trail overview, some safety information they post, and an example of the sign posts you will see on the trails.

Here are all the posted information about the Park and Shuttles that can be found outside the National Park Visitor Center. Not sure what much of it is, but might be helpful for some planning - looks like good information if you are doing the Denali park on your own. And some looked like programs available for the next week - but gives a good idea of programs that may be available when you go to the Park.

The day after arrival in Princess Denali we wanted to do the complete day at the National Park. We didn’t have time for breakfast at the lodge so we picked up a couple of pastries to go at the River Run Expresso, which is in the lower level of the Main Lodge next to the gift shift (pic below). It was fairly quick and they will heat up the pastries if you want. It was a good option for a quick service. We got on the 830 shuttle from the lodge to the National Park because we wanted to go to the first dog showing. At the Visitor Center there will be a number of signs outside that post all of the shuttle information, presentation times, and other details about the park. The day we went, a naturalist was giving a guided tour on one of the trails (not sure which one), which may be a nice option for solo travelers, people in the park by themselves, or those who just want to participate in a guided tour. Inside the Visitor Center is a gift shop, museum, and help stations where park employees will give more maps, help develop your itinerary for the day, and answer any questions you want. The person helping us warned us that there were moose sightings at the Horseshoe Trail. Below is a 1 page snapshot of all the trails, distance, time it takes, and difficulty of the trail. I’m not sure how accurate the time information is - we took our time doing the Horseshoe and spent about 2.5 hours doing it, but the sheet says 1 hour. There are also seasonal pamphlets and general pamphlets that both include more detailed maps you can receive inside the Visitor Center.

First night in Denali lodge we had dinner at the King Salmon. We were lucky to get a 730 reservation. There weren’t any desirable reservation times on the 2nd night, and because we wanted to try on lodge one night and off lodge another night, we went with the King Salmon first night. it was really busy in the restaurant - almost every table was full even at 730-800, and it seats alot of people. The menu is very similar to the menus we saw at Kenai and McKinley, so it wasnt exciting. We shared the Scallop Caprese, I got the NY strip and Eric got the Salmon. It was an ok dinner, nothing great and the quality of food was fine. But, the prices approach prices you pay at a top end steakhouse at home…..depending on where home is - it is almost the price we pay at a high end steakhouse in DC or a good steakhouse near Disney in Orlando (aside - if you to Disney, the further away you go, the lower the prices are). Given the cost, it was a disappointing experience with just ok-good food - should be excellent or best ever for that price. Do yourself a favor in Denali - eat outside the lodge property. You will save yourself the hassle of not being able to eat at a time you want and save your pocketbook. I’ll repeat this sentiment in another post for our breakfast for our departure day. Unlike the other lodges, you will have a number of places to eat, that will be just as good and much cheaper, right outside the lodge. If you have vouchers because your landtour package includes food, call the restaurant ahead of time and make reservations. Don’t wait until you arrive - Princess Denali is just too busy.

All three lodges are much different from each other. The Denali lodge has a Caribbean resort feel to it (minus the heat and beaches) - there are many 2-story buildings that have the lodging rooms, 4 restaurants plus the coffee/pastry cafe on the property, several little shops, and little shuttles that will take you around the property. You will stay in hotel-like rooms at Denali, just like McKinley. Kenai was different with its cabin-like rooms. Just like all of the other lodges, you will get your welcome package with your keys, map, information, etc. On the information package will include a phone number to reach guest services. When we got to our room, it hadn’t been cleaned. There was a white powder all over the desk (was probably sugar…we hope) and the floor was dirty and clearly hadn’t been vacuumed. We texted guest services, so no need to physically go to the lodge and stand in line to guest services, and they sent someone to clean the room while we went to dinner. Below are pictures of what the room looks like, the lodge map and information, and some pics of the lodge. Denali was by far the biggest lodge, which also means more people and busier restaurants.

The Princess Denali provides free shuttles to the Denali Park Visitor Center (plus other stops in the Park) every 30 minutes and returns back to the lodge every thirty minutes. Below is the shuttle schedule. One of the major complimentary events the Park does is the Sled Dog Demonstration, 3 times a day. There is a Park Shuttle for the sled dog event at the same spot where the Princess shuttle drops you off in front of the Visitor Center. You will see a sign for the dog shuttle - this is where the line to board the dog shuttles will be. If you look at the Princess shuttle schedule the 3 times with the stars on the left are the recommended shuttles times to take to the Visitor Center to get the Park shuttle to the dog kennel. Once you get to the kennel a Park Ranger will give a overview of the rules with the dogs, rough timeline, and some additonal information. Try to get on the first dog shuttle from the Visitor Center to the kennels (there will be 3 or 4 buses) because that will give you more time with the dogs. Once you enter the kennel area, you will see dogs inside the rope and those behind the fences. Dogs will come up to you in both locations if they want you to pat/scratch/rub them. After some time with the dogs, you will move to a seating area will the rangers will give a presentation on the dogs and demonstration of the dogs pulling a wheeled cart. Once this is the complete, the Park shuttles will take you back to the Visitor Center, where you can stay at the park or wait for the Princess shuttle to bring you back to the lodge. The kennel and dog demonstration is worth it - highly recommend you take advantage of this free activity. You can visit the kennels without the Park shuttles and show - from the Visitor Center there will be sign posts you can follow to hike to the dog kennels.

Wow, do I alot of catch-up to do. We are in the for the night tonight, so have time. Tomorrow we are going to go to the North Pole and The Museum of the North before heading to the airport for an evening flight.

Looking at googlemaps and the photos I took, it looks like that is the place that has the wine sign in front of it.

Maybe. We didnt walk in that direction but I think I saw that name when we drove by on the bus. The one I saw had a big white sign in front that specifically advertised their wine selection. It was in the cluster of store across the from lodge and to the right. Having significant internet issues today - it’s taking a minute just to upload a page and don’t want to waste my battery, so will look through my photos again tonight.

Quick stop in Kenana and realize I didn’t include the photo with the wine store. It’s on the far right (photo take from in front of the lodge).

Our Denali Lodge portion is almost over and will be on the bus to the Princess Lodge Fairbanks soon. The Princess Denali lodge is the biggest of the 3 lodges we stayed at. It almost felt like a resort style lodge that you see in the Caribbean - sprawling areas for 2 story buildings for lodging, several restaurants on the property (pizzeria, a pub/saloon like place, and the nicer sit down restaurant) and several little shops. The lodge offers shuttle buses that will take around the lodge property - there are designated sites where you can get on and get off. There is also a shuttle to the “sister” property McKinley Chalet Resort, where additional restaurants, entertainment, and shops are. We did not go to that resort so don’t have information to share. Attached is the information and map of the property. Right across the street is a strip mall-like (or boardwalk like) row of shops, tours, and restaurants. I’m attaching some photos of the stores and googlemaps screenshots (many of the stores don’t show up on google maps). If you are staying on the resort a couple of days and want to do a tour or a excursion outside of the Princess, it looked like there were some options across the street. There is a stoplight and crosswalk right outside the lodge, so it’s really easy to get to the other side. @AJSkarbo the store to get bottles of wine is across the street to the right of the resort. You can’t see the sign in the photos but there is a white sign off the street that says they have the largest wine selection in Denali. I think it’s the one with the big white grocery and liquor sign, but we didn’t walk down there.

There is so much of Denali to break out, so I will create many Denali posts to better organize and make sure information doesn’t get lost. So far we have done the Dog show in Denali Park, 2 trails, took the shuttles, ate on the lodge property, and off the lodge property, so I’ll have alot of pictures, details on times for shuttles and shows, and some recommendations.

Denali absolutely. McKinnley I don’t think so. There is a fairly big area right across the lodge where you can shop, including a liquor shop. I’ll include that in a post tonight.

I’m going to do an all things internet post (ship, lodges, and transportation) when we get back home later this week. So far with the lodges McKinley seems to be the worst, Denali the best, and Kenai pretty good too.

After putting the luggage out the door for pickup, we had breakfast at the 20320 Alaskan Grill. I had the blueberry French toast and Eric got some egg meal that included Reindeer sausage (which was awesome, but not pictured below). Sadly, we enjoyed the breakfast at 20320 better than the dinner at the North Fork last night, for probably 1/4 the cost. After our designated meetup time in front of the lodge, we loaded onto a bus taking us to Talkeetna Railroad. There was much celebration on the bus when people realized the AC was working. At the Talkeetna station we had about 30 minutes of free time before the train arrived. There is a bathroom at the station and a little building that provided some tourist information. We were separated into different cars, and boarded the train once it was ready onto the 2nd floor (1st was the dining car). This portion had assigned seatings, but our train was only about 1/3 full so people were able to go to left and right to take pictures and look for wildlife. We could also go on the outdoor platforms between the cars like the a White Pass train. The train to Denali was very similar to the White Pass rail - you will see similar scenery, which is really pleasant. There is also a tour guide on the train that narrates some history and help point out some wildlife. The big difference between the Denali train and White Pass is we had a bartender on board (yay!!!!) and the White Pass had no alcohol. The train had electric outlets so you can charge your phones on board, but there is no Wi-Fi and for most of the trip there was no cell service. Along the Denali train we saw a lot of wildlife too - a handful of bears, swans and other birds, and another moose! So far, the train to Denali is one of the big highlights of the land tour portion.

We at dinner at the McKinley Lodge’s North Fork Restaurant. The food at the restaurant was ok, and we liked they there were some unique dishes on the menu, but generally the food wasn’t as good as the restaurant at Kenai’s restaurant. The stars of the evening were the Tavern Style Onion Soup and Crab Fritters. The Onion soup was on par with the MDR on the ship - it was a little salty but had some great flavors. Eric got the Halibut and was disappointed again by the amount of salt on the Halibut. The duck was ok - nothing great, nothing bad. We had the brownie for desert and it was pretty good. Overall, it was an ok meal but definitely not worth the cost. There were 3 choices for dining at McKinley - I would recommend looking at the cheaper options unless you see something on the North Forks menu you really want.

There were some big difference between Kenai and McKinley lodges. The rooms in Kenai felt more like cabins, while in McKinley was more like hotel rooms. The lodge, restaurants, and outdoor spaces in McKinley were all larger to presumably support a larger number of guests at the lodge. We completed the Lodge Trail (where we saw the moose) and South Trail Park. We never had a chance to do the treehouse and treehouse trail because it was closed every time we checked - likely due to wildlife being seen on the trail. It seems Kenai was much quieter and quainter, but with much fewer activities and tours to participate in. From the observation deck at the McKinley lodge, at times we could see Mount Denali completely from the observation decks Attached are some pictures of the room and facilities around the lodge area.

Arriving at each lodge has the same experience. A Princess rep hands out a packet for each guest which includes room keys and number, map of the lodge facilities, information on hours and activities, and instructions on excursions purchased and details for transportation to the next lodge. Attached is what the package looks like (This is the McKinnley package). McKinnley also had a number of complimentary daily activities that they publish in the lodge near guest services. One additional difference between Kenai and McKinnley is McKinnley provides shuttles to the nearest town of Talkeetna. We traveled to Talkeetna today to take the rail to Denali, but didn’t see the town, so unsure what else is there.

lol yes - the driver offloaded us on the side of the road while he tried to troubleshoot the AC. We had a nice break of 20-30 minutes before we went back onto the sauna bus.

Thanks! Made it to Denali. We will be here 2 days. There was no Wi-Fi on the train, so I’m a little behind. I will post McKinley lodge info and photos and the train from McKinley to Denali when I get a chance.

Slight typo from last post and it’s too late to edit. There is no Essex Room - it was autocorrected. It should say they had an open reservation for 730.

This post will be called “The Moose Changed My Luck” With no clothes to change into, we didn’t want to shower, so we decided to just go out to no one of the trails and hopefully see some wildlife. When we left our room and moved back to the lodge, we saw a nice Horse and Buggy carriage outside the lodge that appeared to be taking passengers around the grounds. Eric texted guest services to see if there were any rooms with a queen/king bed instead of 2 twins, and we started the Lodge Trail. About 5 minutes into the trail we saw a big dark shape in the woods. At first I thought it was Bear. But it wasn’t shaped like a bear and Eric thought it might be a horse. There was no mane it had a furry coat and then we saw the little brown shape behind it. It was a momma moose and baby moose. We carefully moved away down the trail to leave Momma Moose alone and not get rushed. We went back to the lodge to let them know. They thanked us and told us not to tell anyone and then shut down the trail to prevent any encounter between Momma Moose and a guest. While we were chatting with the wildlife desk people Eric got a text to go to guest services. When he got there, they had new room keys for us - they moved us into a nicer room in the lodge building with a king bed and views of Denali! We collected our backpacks from the other room and headed back to the lodge, stopping by the restaurant to see if any reservations had opened. And what do you know…….they had an open Essex’s room at 730 for us. Got to the new room, luggage was already moved. Quick shower and change of clothes and we were seated at the restaurant! Ill post lodge information and pics later. The Moose Changed Our Luck!

This post will be titled “The Bus From Hell” - that is what a lot of people on the bus was calling it. I was about to comment on the age of the buses they use for the land tour portion and this experience kind of reaffirmed my thoughts. The buses are fairly low tech and old. The seats are comfortable and there is a bathroom on board. But there are no outlets for plugs or USBs to charge cell phones and there is no Wi-Fi on the bus. As we go through the Alaskan countryside there are stretches of 20 minutes to an hour where there is no internet service/dead zones, and when there is service it’s mostly 3G. So, make sure you are fully charged before leaving the lodge, or bring a battery charger on the bus. We boarded the bus at 125pm in anchorage and were supposed to be at McKinley lodge by 4pm. When we boarded, the bus was really hot but I thought once we started moving the AC would probably kick in. Within 5 minutes, the grumbling already started and people started yelling out to the poor bus driver to turn the AC on. It’s funny because you would think it’s Alaska, why do you need AC? It was low 70s and sunny yesterday. It felt like it was probably high 80s-low 90s on the bus. After about 30 minutes there was a coordinated attempt to close all the window shades to at least prevent the sun from entering the bus. For about 45 minutes the grumbling continued and people starting taking all their layers off. Eventually the bus driver announced he was going to make a stop to call Princess and see if they could trouble shoot the not working AC system. The bus stopped on the back side of a little hill and a passenger who is a firefighter got us all to move away from the bus because where the bus parked on the side of the road was unsafe and if any driver crossing over the hill wasn’t paying attention they could have rammed into the back of the bus. It turned out there was something wrong with the pressure and the the bus needed to go into maintenance to fix the AC system. We loaded back onto the bus and got to McKinley around 5pm, one hour later than we were supposed to get there. When we parked outside the lodge, the lodges Princess rep tried to board the bus to give us instructions of what to do. The passengers started to riot and told him we were all getting off and he could give us the information off the bus. I don’t have any recommendations on what side of the bus to sit on because no one was paying attention to the outside and all the window shades were down so we didn’t have views anyways. Everyone’s clothes were drenched of sweat from sitting on that bus for about 4 hours, and the riot moved inside the lodge to guest services where there was a steady berating towards all the reps at guest services. We didn’t wait to watch the show and immediately went to the restaurant try to make reservations, which there weren’t any because we were the last bus to get to the lodge and they were already seating for dinner. We were told we could be seated right then, or next available time was 845pm. Because our clothes were still wet, we probably smelled of BO, and just wanted to shower and change, we didn’t want to eat at 515 in our wretched state. It was also too late to sign up for any excursion tours at the lodge. We took our room key to check out our room and drop off the backpacks. The room was a lot different from Kenai - it was hotel style with 2 twin beds. We had no internet service in the room and were too far away from the lodge to get onto the lodges Wi-Fi. And of course our luggage wasn’t there - we called the lodge to ask and were told we may not get our luggage until 7pm. Morale was very low in that hotel room, but our luck was about to change! Bus impromptu stop pics below - got to see a Smokey the bear forest fire sign. Sorry for the upside down bus - my state of mind was so off I probably wasn’t taking pictures right.