Alaska Cruisetour - Skip ride to lodge?

[Hate 2 W8t]

We are on the 9N cruisetour to Alaska in August. We don't have a lot of time in the Talkeetna area with just one night at the McKinley lodge. The train takes us from Anchorage to Talkeetna, and then a motorcoach to the lodge. In the interest of time, what happens if I don't take the motorcoach to the lodge? Can I request to take the later shuttle? Will they think they lost us? :p I am more interested in Talkeetna than a lodge, especially since Talkeetna is where all the action is.

 

TIA,

[stephenandrew]

We are on the 9N cruisetour to Alaska in August. We don't have a lot of time in the Talkeetna area with just one night at the McKinley lodge. The train takes us from Anchorage to Talkeetna, and then a motorcoach to the lodge. In the interest of time, what happens if I don't take the motorcoach to the lodge? Can I request to take the later shuttle? Will they think they lost us? :p I am more interested in Talkeetna than a lodge, especially since Talkeetna is where all the action is.

 

TIA,

 

Hi-

We had this same issue last year---we got off the train, and our luggage, etc got transfered to the Motor Coach which went directly to McKinley. Princess runs shuttles every hour (I think) from Talkeetna to McKinley. We enjoyed Talkeetna, took a flight around Mt McKinley, had dinner in Talkeetna, and then took an 8PM shuttle back to the Lodge. Princess made it very easy. Not that there is anything you can do about it, but I would have prefered to spend the night in Talkeetna--the McKinley Lodge is definitely remote, and it took about an hour to get there from Talkeetna. The next morning, we got right back on a bus and left the lodge and went back to Talkeetna. I will say that Lodge has a beautiful terrace overlooking the Denali Mtn Range---was quite spectacular.

[Budget Queen]

See the Alaska board, I replied there. It is 50 miles from Talkeetna to Princess McKinley Lodge.