Mt McKinley / Denali - Princess Excursion Suggestions??

[big bro]

Hi All,

 

We are staying at the Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge and Denali Park Lodge. We are looking for suggestions or experiances with excursions?? We are finding the land tour portion of our cruise confusing due to lack of info on arrival and departure times from the different lodges.

 

Thank you!

[mapleleaves]

The Princess Lodge web site has a list of Princess excursions available from each lodge.

 

The McKinley Princess is near Talkeetna. If you take their shuttle into town you can use outside vendors. You'll just need to be mindful of the shuttle schedule to/from the Lodge. Flightseeing is the most popular activity. I've attempted it twice but was weathered out, so be sure to have a back up plan. The Chamber of Commerce has a list of activities and vendors:

http://www.talkeetnachamber.org/

 

The Denali Princess is located in Glitter Gulch, just outside the park, so you will have easy access to independent vendors. If you can't walk to them, they will probably meet you somewhere closeby. Again, the Chamber of Commerce is a good resource for vendors and activities; http://www.a1cms.com/_dcc/activities/

 

Have you looked thru the 2013 trip reports in the STICKY above. There are some cruisetours in that list. start with reply #45 which has a listing by cruiseline. Reading about other peoples experiences might help you with your plans.

 

As for when you arrive ..... pretty sad that Princess can't provide that information. If you are travelling by train, look at the Alaska Railroad web site.. There's only 1 departure per day, so you should be able to determine your arrival time. If you're travelling by bus .... perhaps the trip reports can give you some insight about arrival times.

 

If you don't know how much time you have at each destination, how will you know how much time is available for excursions, if any at all? I know the short cruisetours only provide enough time at Denali for the NaturalHistoryTour, NHT. You arrive mid afternoon on Day 1 and leave at noon Day 2. The NHT only goes to mile 17 and there are 100 miles of park road available. I think you really need to examine your itinerary and figure out exactly what you're getting.

Edited July 21, 2014 by mapleleaves

[amymoore]

We did the Devil's Canyon tour in Talkeetna. It was about 2 1/2 hours getting there puncuated with stories and about 30 minutes of out of this world rapids. A good deli lunch on the way back. Bathroom on board. Are we glad we did it? Yes! Would we do it again? No. Check out you tube for a video of what it was like.

[Glaciers]

While in Talkeetna you might consider the Alaska Railroad’s Hurricane Turn train. It travels up to Hurricane Gulch and then back to Talkeetna. Folks who have rural cabins along the way stand by the tracks and flag down the train to get back to town. We’re going to do it a week from Friday.

http://www.alaskarailroad.com/travel/OurTrains/HurricaneTurn/tabid/102/Default.aspx

 

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g31136-d4324746-Reviews-Hurricane_Turn-Talkeetna_Alaska.html

 

As mapleleaves indicated, you’ll need to be mindful of the shuttle back to the lodge. They used to stop running about 8pm.

[Budget Queen]

Hi All,

 

We are staying at the Mt. McKinley Princess Lodge and Denali Park Lodge. We are looking for suggestions or experiances with excursions?? We are finding the land tour portion of our cruise confusing due to lack of info on arrival and departure times from the different lodges.

 

Thank you!

 

Post your actual tour, with mode of tranist and days. Experts here, can tell you immediately a lot of details you may not be aware of.