Cruise tour meals question

[cruisecat63076]

I am looking into taking cruisetour 15 on hal how much should i expect to pay for meals on the land tour

[sparky-elpaso]

I am looking into taking cruisetour 15 on hal how much should i expect to pay for meals on the land tour

 

We went on an RCI cruise tour in Aug 2008.

 

Average meal cost for 2 of us on the 5 day land portion - Fairbanks, Denali Natl. Park, Talkeetna and Anchorage - both adults:

 

Breakfast - $25 to $35 - usually at whatever hotel we were staying at

 

Lunch - $30 to $40 - train, in town, etc.

 

Dinner - $35 to $55 - usually in the hotel

 

If the hotel has a breakfast buffet it's usually not too bad considering it's all you can eat.

 

And you usually get large portions. It probably would be possible to split an entree and then you might have room for dessert.

 

Of course, total price depends on whether or not you have something other than iced tea or soda to drink. We aren't big drinkers - I think we each ordered a beer for dinner once.

 

We never had a bad meal though - the food was always excellent. Especially the fish and chips.

 

For an idea of what you might see:

 

[MercedMike]

Of course it depends on how you eat and what you eat. Restaurant meals in Alaska are somewhat expensive but not outrageous. We took the long tour through interior Alaska so that affected it somewhat.

 

On the train meals were moderately expensive -- about $15-25 for breakfast and about $20-35 for lunch, per person. They were quite good.

 

Breakfast at the hotel was probably 25% more expensive than it would be in California. There were some nice buffets. What we did for breakfast many days was powdered juice, powdered hot chocolate and fruit bars or granola from our bags, and that was plenty. On the bus they usually made a snack stop mid morning -- we had some wonderful cinnamon rolls! They usually made a lunch stop someplace and there were options. A miner's stew with biscuits was maybe $18 bucks or so. On our layover days we could walk to a restaurant in the area and again paid maybe 25% more than we would in California. In Whitehorse we went to dinner with Murray (Yukon) and had a nice Italian dinner at fairly reasonable prices.

 

Otherwise dinner at the hotel was usually a good option and ran maybe $25-35 ($30-45 with a single glass of wine. Of course two cocktails and a bottle of wine and after dinner drinks will run that up a lot!!)

 

A lot of people say that meals in Alaska are ruinously expensive and we did not find it that way. It depends on what your dining out experience is, I guess. If you are comparing it to Denny's, it is pretty expensive. Comparing to the restaurants in a Mariott in the US it isn't much more.

 

Check out our trip report and pictures at http://www.bully4.us/ct.html or for the Denali/Fairbanks part check http://www.bully4.us/ct3.html

 

Have a GREAT cruise!

[Budget Queen]

A good ball park that I recommend is to budget 50% more than you would at home.