Alaska - Cruise tour on your own

[immsters]

We are looking to book a cruise tour for us and some extended family. I am so confused at what the difference is between the regular cruise tour and the do it yourself option. Can anyone please explain? It was recommended that we do the land portion first. Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. We have done an Alaska cruise before but didn’t do the land portion so we are really excited to be able to do this. 

[Spikesgirl]

11 minutes ago, immsters said:

We are looking to book a cruise tour for us and some extended family. I am so confused at what the difference is between the regular cruise tour and the do it yourself option. Can anyone please explain? It was recommended that we do the land portion first. Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. We have done an Alaska cruise before but didn’t do the land portion so we are really excited to be able to do this. 

It's pretty straight forward.  If you book with the ship, you do it through the excursion page.  If you book your own, you do the research for each spot you want to visit, then contact the tour guide for prices and options.  They are usually cheaper if you go through the vendor yourself,  but you do need to keep in mind that the ship will not wait for you if you are on a private tour and late.

 

You might have better luck with this over on the Alaska site, as I know there are tons of information and folks who book their own tours there.

[mtnesterz]

Princess offered three levels of tours when we did the land portion of Alaska several years ago. We did the middle offering, the Denali Explorer. On-Your-Own was there, along with the Connoisseur package. I don't know what you meant by "regular." When they say you're on your own, it's just that. Connoisseur included tours and meals. Explorer offered one tour but no meals. At these wilderness lodges, there was no walking to a corner restaurant. It was the wilderness. I just looked at the online menu for the King Salmon restaurant at the Denali Lodge.  Dinner entrees are $30 to $50.  If going again, I'd spend more and buy a Connoisseur package, FWIW.

Tour order: I feel it is better to do the land portion first while you are fresh and then rest a week on the ship.  Bus and train travel wore us down.

Since there are many offerings to consider, I'd suggest that you either download or order the CruiseTour offerings from Princess.  Being February, they are likely pretty well booked for this year.

[frugaltravel]

I strongly Recommended that you do the Land Tour totally on your own independent of the cruise line. What gives you the most flexibility, gives you more options, and you do what you want not what princess wants you to do. Plus with Princess Cruise tours. They almost always only include the Natural History tour in Denali. That does not go very far into the park and is more for history and culture not for scenery and Wildlife. And that's just the beginning of the negatives of Princess Cruise tours. 🙂

[fishin' musician]

Some folks really enjoy the planning and preparation and by doing so will save substantial $$$, likely at least half.  However, some enjoy just going along for the ride without having to deal with the planning details.  It depends on which camp you fall into.  In your case, the extended family aspect may complicate a DIY land tour. 

 

I've done it both ways, and really enjoy planning and booking the individual vendors.  2 years ago I planned a trip for my mobility challenged father in law and me following a northbound HAL cruise.  We got off in Seward, did a Kenai Fjords wildlife cruise, then had Gold Star service aboard the train to Anchorage.  Day 2 I rented a car and we drove to a lodge just south of Denali.  Day 3 we did the Tundra Wilderness Tour and drove to Talkeetna.  Day 4 we did a flight seeing trip in the morning then drove down to Anchorage for an evening flight home. 

 

[Lorabelle]

If you don't mind doing all the planning yourself, I also recommend doing it all on your own without going through the cruise line.  We have done our own Alaska tours 4 times, and it's wonderful to have the flexibility to do things the way you want to do them and spend time in places you want to spend it.  

 

We traveled by car once and rented RVs the other 3 times.  We much prefer the RV method, but we are RVers to begin with.  However, the RV companies are very good at going through the rigs with you and making you comfortable with it before you head out.  It will take a lot of research to figure it all out,but if you enjoy the research, it's a great way to go.  Visit the Alaska board here, go to TripAdvisor and read up, and if you have access to AAA, go and get their maps and tour books.  

 

I do think doing the land first is a great option.  The land part is pretty busy and then it's nice to get onboard the ship and relax a bit more.  Plus, you'll get the longest flight out of the way at the beginning of the trip, and not have to deal with it at the end of a long vacation.  

[voljeep]

we did cruise only in 2007 on the DIAMOND ...

 

if/when we go back, we would definitely book the Connoisseur land tour first - our first world problem would be deciding between the 6 day land ( my choice )- 2 days at 3 lodges ( including the TWT ) 

 

or 10 day land at 5 lodges ( wife's choice )

 

pretty sure I know which we would be booking, huh 😄 🍺

Edited February 12, 2020 by voljeep

[Jnsplace1]

I dont know.  I booked the land portion through the website.  I did all private while on the ship, but on the land, I wanted to have some help.

I was able to upgrade my Denali tour to Tundra.  I also booked an excursion through Princess while at Denali.  The price difference between private and through them was nil (I did the research).  

That said, I did not prepay food.  I wanted the freedom of being able to navigate those waters myself.

[voljeep]

14 minutes ago, Jnsplace1 said:

I dont know.  I booked the land portion through the website

but , you are staying at the Princess Lodges, thru Princess, correct ? - how many nights and different lodges ?

[John99]

National Park Service – DenaliNational Park – Pretty Rocks Rock Slide

Planning your visit into Denali  National Park this summer will be interesting at best.  Rock slides and major road erosion around mile 43 (near PolychromePass) has made that section of the road increasingly unstable.  The road may or may not be open past mile 43 for the 2020 season.  This may affect the Tundra Wilderness Tour.  Trip Advisor web-site has detailed commentary on this the situation.  Also, the National Park Service provides an in depth account on what the problems are and possible solutions.  If the problem is not resolved, I may postpone my cruise/tour for this year until next year.  Plan B:  The Natural History Tour.  So, I will be following this situation closely.

See the two web-sites listed below for additional info.  The NPS web-site shows interesting pictures and diagrams.

John         

https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g143022-i1271-k13096505-Denali_NP_road_issues-Denali_National_Park_and_Preserve_Alaska.html

 

https://www.nps.gov/dena/learn/nature/pretty-rocks.htm

 

[Jnsplace1]

I'm paying close attention to this section of the NPS announcement.

At this time, park managers anticipate that the road may only open to Mile 43 on May 20, 2020, rather than to Toklat River (Mile 53), which is the normal distance the road opens each year on May 20. Barring unforeseen problems, the park is committed to opening the entirety of the Denali Park Road on or before June 15, 2020

 

@voljeep  I wish I could stay longer, but I'm doing the 11 day.  Staying at McKinley, Denali (2 nights) and finally departing in Fairbanks.  I'm taking a tour at each location.   You need to stay at Denali for 2 nights to take advantage of the longer tour.   If you are only there one night, you'll be stuck at the 4 hour Natural History tour.

[frugaltravel]

The area about Mile 45 (Pretty Rocks) has been sliding for years, but it has really accelerated the past two years.  It appears that the NPS is hoping to do some work through June 14 that will help secure the area at least temporarily.  Definitely stay tuned.

 

As Jnsplace1 said, you need two nights near the Denali entrance to go deeper into the park.  The Tundra Wilderness Tour is OK, but the transit shuttle bus that goes even 4 miles further through prime grizzly bear habitat is even better.  Plus the transit shuttle bus turns around at Eielson Visitor Center, so you have some additional options there.  Lastly, the transit shuttle bus to Eielson costs about 1/3 of the cost of the Tundra Wilderness Tour.  If staying at the Princess Lodge, they offer a free shuttle to the Denali Bus Depot where the transit shuttle departs from.  Same road, same chances to see wildlife on both buses.  Transit shuttles are usually not filled to capacity like the tour buses.  Transit shuttles don't have the video camera that the drivers of the tour buses have as well as the drop down video screens.  But if I wanted to see wildlife on a screen I could stay home and do that on Discovery Channel 🙂.  So that is not a negative for me.  Almost all transit shuttle drivers give good commentary, though technically it is not required like it is on the tour buses.

 

[hapster85]

We are looking to book a cruise tour for us and some extended family. I am so confused at what the difference is between the regular cruise tour and the do it yourself option. Can anyone please explain? It was recommended that we do the land portion first. Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated. We have done an Alaska cruise before but didn’t do the land portion so we are really excited to be able to do this. 

My take on the "on your own" cruisetour, is they are providing transportation and lodging, but what you do at each location is left up to you. Organized excursions are available, or you can explore on your own, or just hang out at the lodge.

[leck57]

1 hour ago, Jnsplace1 said:

 

You need to stay at Denali for 2 nights to take advantage of the longer tour.   If you are only there one night, you'll be stuck at the 4 hour Natural History tour.

 

Not correct in my experience last year. We only stayed at Denali lodge one night but the next morning we did the full Tundra tour and following that left late afternoon for McKinley. I would have preferred an extra night at Denali but we still did the longer park tour.

I agree with others that I would do the land before cruise option as we were pretty tired by the end of our 8 day Connoisseur tour, which was fabulous. 

[immsters]

2 hours ago, hapster85 said:

11 hours ago, immsters said:

My take on the "on your own" cruisetour, is they are providing transportation and lodging, but what you do at each location is left up to you. Organized excursions are available, or you can explore on your own, or just hang out at the lodge.

Thank you. I guess this is exactly what I was looking for. We will do the land portion through the cruise line as there will likely be too many of us. We are not going until August 2021 so we should have plenty of time to figure out what we want to do while there. Transportation and lodging are the most important things for me to get squared away so I’ll leave that to Princess this time around. 

[Thrak]

We have done Connoisseur Cruise Tours to Alaska twice. We loved them both. Everything was taken care of for us. We arrived at the lodge in Fairbanks where they provided a great breakfast the next morning. Then we had a couple of excursions (also included) and had a multi-course dinner for the group with wine and beer. We tagged some bags to Meet us on the Ship and Princess took care of them. We tagged other bags to Follow Us and they were shipped to the lodges. Meals were provided - my wife loves the 3 kinds of crab dinner at the Denali Lodge restaurant - I think it sells for something like $60 but, since one can order whatever they like and it's included with the tour, that wasn't an issue. We got the "good" rooms at the lodges - not the ones facing the parking lot. Someone mentioned that the Princess cruise tours only include the Natural History Tour but the two connieusseur tours we booked included the Tundra Wilderness Tour. It's also worth noting that should you book a Princess land tour that does only include the Natural History Tour you can "upgrade" the tour through Princess to be the Tundra Wilderness Tour. You aren't just "locked into" the other one.

 

The first time we did the 13 day with a couple of days at Denali Lodge and a couple at McKinley Lodge. The second time we did the 15 day cruisetour that visited Denali Lodge, Copper River Lodge, and Kenai Lodge. Kenai was our favorite by far. We knew going in that there would be a couple of loooooooooooong (8 hour or so) bus trips as the Copper River Lodge is out of the way.

 

Having done the connoisseur tours twice (and loving both of them), if we do another Alaska land tour we would do it on our own but mostly just because it's cheaper and we already know the lodges, etc. We have also done just a 10 day round trip from SF to Alaska (our first cruise ever) and have done a 7 week camping trip that went up to Fairbanks. We like Alaska. 😍

 

A good review (even if it is a bit older) of the land portion of a connoisseur cruise tour to Alaska can be found HERE. This review by caribill was one of the things that helped us decide to do the initial connoisseur tour.