Princess vs. HAL in Alaska: Land Portion Only

[Tarpeian Rock]

We've been planning on an Alaska land/sea experience for 2015. For some reason we've been assuming we'd be doing this on HAL. Then we sat back and realized that our one Princess experience last year was far more enjoyable than our last several HAL cruises. So now we're looking at Princess for Alaska next year.

 

Would really appreciate some feedback from Princess Alaska veterans concerning specifically the land portion. We want to do Denali, but beyond that we're flexible. How well does Princess do the land excursions? Ay special pluses or minuses? Thanks!

[Loonbeam]

There are tons of reviews in posts you may want to read (search cruisetour and denali).

 

Princess operates the largest network of their own lodges and has the most train connections versus bus (at least when we compared to other lines), those were the key items for me.

[rockdoctor]

Westmark (HAL) has purchased McKinley Chalet. My TA has reports that they are doing major construction and the CruiseTour people are in make-shift quarters and it is noisy. I have stayed at both the Princess Wilderness Lodge and McKinley Chatet and much prefer the Princess facility. The hill at MC is killer?

[caribill]

Would really appreciate some feedback from Princess Alaska veterans concerning specifically the land portion.

 

Here is our review

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1727858

[HRPro]

We have done land/cruise tours with Princess twice and would highly recommend doing the land portion first. We started in Fairbanks and took the train to Denali for two nights. Definitely change your Natural History tour for the Tundra Wilderness Tour at Denali. You go much deeper into the park and we saw lots more wildlife. We then had two nights at the McKinley Princess Lodge, where we were fortunate to have wonderful views of the Mountain and great food. Talkeetna is a cute town with several nice gift/souvenir shops and good restaurants. Princess train cars are great with comfortable seating at tables and domed cars--choose a cruise tour that uses the trains rather than the buses. Great views of the beautiful Alaskan scenery. Princess manages the luggage very efficiently and everything is well organized. Food is expensive but good at the lodges.

[cruisequeen4ever]

Princess owns their own lodges, and they're of the quality of their ships. The food and service we experienced were outstanding! Princess and Holland America are the veterans of the Alaska cruise/tour industry, so you really can't go wrong with either, but I recommend Princess as a cut above.

 

 

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[Tarpeian Rock]

Here is our review

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1727858

 

 

 

Thanks so much for that amazingly detailed and helpful review! And thanks to all for their comments.