petechan

Just came off the Diamond Princess this October. Just as pink845 said, the buffet food was about the same as the food offered when I went on Princess cruise to Alaska last year, except there is a ramen station, and for breakfast they had congee and miso soup on offer. In the dining room there were one or two Japanese inspired starters and sometimes a main dish as well. Most online excursions had a Japanese and English version, with the latter being more expensive. Also to mention, there was a $10 shuttle from the port to the train station in Iwakuni and to the city of Busan in case one wanted to travel independently, which is doable with some preparation.  In the other ports, one could get to the train station using the local trains/subways. I would encourage you to look into it, was an enjoyable trip! 

I haven't taken a cruise to Manila but I grew up there. Looking at the taxi tour mentioned, most of those sites are not far from each other and can be accomplished easily from the port. Tagaytay is quite a bit away and Manila traffic is horrible and rains just make it worse. If you decide to go to Tagaytay, make sure you can return in time to your ship. $200 is ridiculously high for a single person tour excursion.

When is your cruise? We are sailing in Sept and we have looked at Chilkoot - they look very good and we have seen a couple of good reviews of them too.

 

I just don't know when to book?

I just booked with Chilkoot for the Yukon Bus and Rail. if you email them, they will tell you the times that they have travelling on the day you will be in port and they will also tell you how many seats they have, so you can have some idea how soon you should book . I know you are travelling later, but when I asked about Sept. 19 last week , they had 13 seats left and so the bus seems half full already.

Mapleleaves,

Seriously thinking of doing the afternoon TWT as you suggested. The salmon bake shuttle that is mentioned, does that actually pick up at the WAC, or does it just drive up and down the highway between the prospectors pizza restaurant, the salmon bake and somewhere called Healy' base camp? On the map it looks like the Denali lodge would be a short walk from either the pizza place or the restaurant. So I guess a late dinner followed by a short walk would be one solution?

Thank you again mapleleaves, you have been so informative. I called Princess and the info is not favorable.

They apparently don't leave Mt. McKinley Lodge till noon and they take the rail (my mistake- I did not know there were two ways to get between the two lodges), so with another bus transfer after that they only get to Denali Lodge at 5 pm. I don't know why they don't leave in the morning- they said it was to let us enjoy the "Alaska Experience". Is there that much to experience around Mt. McKinley Lodge?

I was actually planning to squeeze in an upper Nenana rafting on that day if I could, but it raftdenali tells me they only do 10 am and 3 pm pickups that time of year so if I could not do that on Sept. 15 and still make any of the bus tours. I'll ask my companions if they are willing to do the night walk. I hope they enjoy it. (I wanted to go to Spain for vacation!)

Okay, just spent almost an hour on the phone with Princess Cruise and also Reservedenali about Sept. 15. this is what they have

Princess: they don't offer Tundra Wilderness Tour on that day but they have a Teklanika tour offered through the Lodge. It leaves at 2 pm and gets back at 7 pm. Price is $85

Reservedenali offers the full Tundra Wilderness Tour for $130, one at 7:10am which I can't make since the Princess shuttle starts at 7 am and the second one at 1:30 pm that returns at 9:30pm (which means no shuttle back to Lodge either).

Both are still available at this time.

Is the longer tour worth the hassle of walking in the dark? (BTW sunset is 8:30 pm that day). Advice?

I should have taken an earlier sailing at the end of August. That one was $150 more per person for the inside cabin. I guess I'll just reserve the princess TWT on Sept.15. At least I'll get to see something. I'll consider it my "free" excursion. :)

reservedenali sells the TWT tour on that date (Sept.15). They still list the travel time as 7:10am to 3:10pm. Do you mean they don't tell customers till they arrive that they've signed up for an abbreviated tour for the same price. What do they do with the leftover time?

Thank you again mapleleaves,

Too late to reschedule now since I've bought plane tickets already. I didn't contemplate the Alaskan climate sufficiently it seems, I could only take vacation later in the year and I didn't realize the season would be so short. But I will certainly take up the dog sledding and the park shuttles as you have suggested.

Mapleleaves,

Thank you for your advise about walking vs not.walking.

Unfortunately based on the schedule of the tour I am taking, we transfer from Mt. McKinley Lodge to the Denali Lodge on Sept 14 and our free full day is on Sept. 15. It seems from the reservedenali site that the last day for both Toklat and Eielson shuttles is Sept. 14. Even though the travel time seems to be only 2 hrs, not knowing exactly when we will arrive at the Denali Lodge prevents me from reserving either of the shuttles on Sept. 14.

Does the Tundra Wilderness Trek and the Shuttles pretty much go on the same road? and it is just a matter of how far they travel? In which case I suppose there would be no reason to take a shuttle on Thursday and do the Tundra Trek the next day then.

I was looking to book the Tundra Wilderness Tour through the reservedenali website because they charge $130 vs Princess charging $165. But the shuttle from the Princess Denali lodge only starts at 7am and the tour leaves from WAC at 7:10 am. Is it safe/advisable to be walking from the Lodge to WAC at 6am in September? Or just eat the extra cost?