Copper River Alaska Cruisetour

[cruzysuzy]

Finally, DH and I booked our dream Alaska Cruisetour for late May 2021- Anchorage (1 day), McKinley (1 day), Denali (2 days), Copper River (2 days) and then onto the ship.  I've done my CruiseCritic searches but can can't seem to find many opinions on the excursions available at Copper River.  Can anyone suggest good ones or point out ones that are not as worthy?

[cruzluvr2]

DH and I did the 12 hour excursion to Kennicott Copper Mine. It is a long and bumpy ride there and back. We had a beautiful day (September) and rather warm, although a chilly start. As we were readying to return the van driver informed us the A/C was not working, this was on a dusty bumpy road. This did cause a somewhat bad mood as we returned. There is a nice little restaurant there if you'd like to eat, there were other restaurants at another location but information was readily given. We didn't pay the extra to tour the mine, instead hiked out most of the way to the glacier. We are glad we did it but wouldn't repeat. 

 

We did enjoy our stay at the lodge. We did your tour in reverse. While the day's drive between Denali and Copper River lodges is long we enjoyed it greatly. We did see wildlife. There were three buses traveling that tour (same driver from Valdez to Denali) and I do think we had the best of the three.

[npcl]

1 hour ago, cruzysuzy said:

Finally, DH and I booked our dream Alaska Cruisetour for late May 2021- Anchorage (1 day), McKinley (1 day), Denali (2 days), Copper River (2 days) and then onto the ship.  I've done my CruiseCritic searches but can can't seem to find many opinions on the excursions available at Copper River.  Can anyone suggest good ones or point out ones that are not as worthy?

When I did the trip not much in the way of excursions out of Copper River.  The only two that I recall was 1. a couple different ones that went  down to Valdez and 2. A shuttle to McCarthy (Kennicott copper mines).  Both are interesting.

Edited July 24, 2020 by npcl

[donaldsc]

1 hour ago, cruzluvr2 said:

DH and I did the 12 hour excursion to Kennicott Copper Mine. It is a long and bumpy ride there and back. We had a beautiful day (September) and rather warm, although a chilly start. As we were readying to return the van driver informed us the A/C was not working, this was on a dusty bumpy road. This did cause a somewhat bad mood as we returned. There is a nice little restaurant there if you'd like to eat, there were other restaurants at another location but information was readily given. We didn't pay the extra to tour the mine, instead hiked out most of the way to the glacier. We are glad we did it but wouldn't repeat. 

 

We did enjoy our stay at the lodge. We did your tour in reverse. While the day's drive between Denali and Copper River lodges is long we enjoyed it greatly. We did see wildlife. There were three buses traveling that tour (same driver from Valdez to Denali) and I do think we had the best of the three.

 

Based on my experience at Kennicott, the 12 hour trip where you drive in and out hardly seems to be worth it.  We spent 3 days at Kennicott on our driving trip in AK and we could have spent more time there.  On a trip where you drive in and out, you would probably spend more time on the road than at the mine itself.

 

DON

[MainePrincess]

There is a shuttle from the lodge to the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.  There is a nice visitor center there and rangers give guided walks.  Beautiful peaceful place to spend some time.  There are some trails right at the lodge that are nice too.

[leck57]

We did a rafting trip from Copper River via optional excursions. It was great, very easy and not really bumpy at all. It was great and I think was about 3-4 hours with pick up at the lodge.

[cruzysuzy]

Thanks for the replies.  Right now, we're thinking either rafting or something to do with the Wrangell St. Elias National Park.

[reedprincess]

We did the ATV tour, it was fantastic. The guide was truly a gen, a local man with lots of local color, stories, etc.  The drive/ride was loads of fun, up and down the hillside, along the trails around the lodge, out to the edge overlooking the river, etc.  We got twice as long as normal as we were the only tour booked - but even the normal time would have been plenty! We had a blast, and still had plenty of time to hike, relax, enjoy the stunning views of Mt Drum, etc.  We loved Copper River! 

[1025cruise]

You might want to post on the Alaska ports of call board.

[npcl]

3 hours ago, cruzysuzy said:

Thanks for the replies.  Right now, we're thinking either rafting or something to do with the Wrangell St. Elias National Park.

Keep in mind that the visitors center for the Park does really show any of the park, which is huge.  Kennicott, for example, is inside of the park with a 3 hour drive to get to that area.

[cruisequeen4ever]

We didn’t do any excursions there, but we enjoyed the lodge, walking down the trail to the river, watching the movie they show, and the food was outstanding. 

[pkamison]

We did the land portion first then the cruise. Copper River was very nice and the mountain range is fabulous. We did the ATV excursion and had a great time. The guide was very interesting and he took us into back country. Best excursion I have ever been on. They took us on a jet boat from Valdez right us to the ship for our cruise portion. It was great. I am thinking I might go back.

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, pkamison said:

We did the land portion first then the cruise.

how many days was your land portion ?  we looked at one that the land was 10 days and Copper River was the last 2 days ...

[pkamison]

As I remember our land portion was 6 days - overnight in Denali then on to  McKinley then a long but enjoyable bus trip to Copper River for 2 night - it was called off the beaten path I think...very nice trip

For us it was our second trip to Alaska - and we may do a third - 

[Sea Hag]

On 7/23/2020 at 9:01 PM, MainePrincess said:

There is a shuttle from the lodge to the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.  There is a nice visitor center there and rangers give guided walks.  Beautiful peaceful place to spend some time.  There are some trails right at the lodge that are nice too.

This is how we spent the day there, and I think it's a good choice. Very beautiful place.