Alaska Excursions through Princess

[txwriter]

I've searched this thread as well as the Alaska thread and haven't found a resource for people who are looking for information on Alaska excursions specific to those of us who have booked a cruisetour with Princess and are looking for reviews of the land excursions available at the lodges as well as those in port cities.

 

There especially seems to be a lack of info for tours out of Fairbanks (with the exception of the Riverboat Cruise and Gold Dredge #8), Kenai, and Copper River lodges. Also, there seems to be a lack of information on the private tours Princess offers in some ports.

 

I am hoping to start a resource here and hope no one minds.

 

So, if anyone has experience (good, bad, or indifferent) with booking Alaska excursions with Princess, please share here what you did and if you'd recommend it. If you've already done a review, feel free to just post the link with a quick reference of what excursions are included.

[caribill]

There especially seems to be a lack of info for tours out of Fairbanks (with the exception of the Riverboat Cruise and Gold Dredge #8), Kenai, and Copper River lodges. Also, there seems to be a lack of information on the private tours Princess offers in some ports.

 

 

On Cruise Critic the usual definition of "private tours" are tours that are not offered by the cruise line.

 

Princess does offer some expensive tours in a vehicle with a driver such as the four-hour "Private Hummer Adventure" for $599.95. Is this what you mean by "private tours?"

[txwriter]

:)

 

Princess does offer some expensive tours in a vehicle with a driver such as the four-hour "Private Hummer Adventure" for $599.95. Is this what you mean by "private tours?"

 

Yes. I am speaking of those tours that Princess labels as private not actual private tours booked outside of Princess.

[TW6cruiser]

We did a connoisseur cruise tour last summer with Princess and I posted a review on the Alaska cruise section. In Fairbanks, we were there early and did not do any Princess add on tours. We took the bus (easy, picks up at lodge) to the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska one day. It was an excellent museum and well worth the time. We also went into downtown Fairbanks on our own one day for lunch and just to walk around.

 

At the Denali and McKinley Lodges we did not book any optional excursions.

 

At the Kenai Lodge (our favorite) we did a "scenic river float" one afternoon and loved it. It was very well done. It is a calm ride it is not like white water rafting. That was what we wanted. Our guide was excellent and we saw a good bit of wildlife in addition to the beauty of the river.

[RRFPresident]

We did the Connoisseur cruise tour last summer. In Fairbanks we flew in a day early and took the arctic circle flight tour offered by Princess which was a good experience. Around 6 of us (including our traveling party of 2) flew in a small biplane from Fairbanks over the geographic Arctic Circle and landed in Cold Foot, a tiny truck stop town. Driven by van to Wiseman for a tour of an old homestead and a talk by a native Alaskan who showed off his many "treasures" from hunting.

 

In Denali, I took the Husky Homestead tour offered by Princess and highly recommend it. We went to Jeff King's Iditarod racing team's facility and got to hold the puppies before being introduced to the adult dogs who do the racing and watch them pulling a guy on an ATV. Jeff then gave a talk and showed us his racing equipment.

 

McKinley was only one night and right smack in the middle of our land trip so we elected to rest.

 

Last 3 days were spent at Kenai and it was nice because the first day we arrived we were the only group there. Our Princess sponsored excursion to Seward was us 2 and 2 ladies from our tour group that didn't want to do whatever else the rest of their friends were doing. We drove into Seward in a minivan and the lovely young lady escorting us dropped the other ladies off to shop and lunch while we went to the aquarium and then walked to the local museum to view the earthquake video. We ran into our guide while stopping at the lunch spot she had recommended so we invited her to join us and had a nice chat. After we picked up the other two ladies we were driving back when our guide spotted a moose in a field. She actually drove up about a mile and then turned around so she could give us a chance to see what turned out to be mom and baby moose. We also had time left to visit a lake and small glacier that was on top of a mountain on the other side of the lake.

 

The next day I did the Kenai Nature Hike with about 15 others as other groups had arrived. We did quite the long hike but our guide was knowledgeable about every little berry and plant even giving us some edible ones straight from the vine to sample. At the end was a section of the river where we watched salmon jump the rapids to go upstream and our guide had provided a big spread of snacks and water. We did veer from the main trail (led by the guide) at one point because she offered those who wanted to climb up these steep cut out steps along a hill a view of a high glacier. I stayed back with a fellow member of my group who decided after two steps that it was too much for her. Unfortunately, the skies opened up around 100 feet from returning to where we had parked the van at the start of the trail so we were all soaked by the end.

[JoAnneNYI]

just as an fyi....our land tour (followed by cruise) starts Aug 28, 2017 and the lodge tours (at McKinley and Wilderness Princess) are sold out right now. Two days ago were still available. I am hoping they will open up some more soon. If so we will jump right on it! Wanted to do the river float at McKinley.

[txwriter]

We did a connoisseur cruise tour last summer with Princess and I posted a review on the Alaska cruise section. In Fairbanks, we were there early and did not do any Princess add on tours. We took the bus (easy, picks up at lodge) to the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska one day. It was an excellent museum and well worth the time. We also went into downtown Fairbanks on our own one day for lunch and just to walk around.

 

At the Denali and McKinley Lodges we did not book any optional excursions.

 

At the Kenai Lodge (our favorite) we did a "scenic river float" one afternoon and loved it. It was very well done. It is a calm ride it is not like white water rafting. That was what we wanted. Our guide was excellent and we saw a good bit of wildlife in addition to the beauty of the river.

 

We are also doing the river float on the Kenai River, but I was wondering if it will be too much as we are doing it the same night as arriving at the lodge from the McKinley lodge. Do you have thoughts on how long the ride to the Kenai lodge is?

[Thrak]

We did a 13 day connoisseur cruise tour earlier this year. We were totally surprised by the river boat tour in Fairbanks. Really enjoyable and informative. FAR better than we had expected. :) I'm a bit unclear on the definition of "private" tours offered by Princess though.

Edited November 16, 2016 by Thrak