Is Connoisseur escorted worth it on a land/cruise to Alaska?

[Id rather be diving]

We did the 15 day connessiour tour last summer to celebrate my 50th birthday.  We did 2 nights each in Fairbanks, Denali, McKinley, and Kenai.  Originally we were not going to do the connessiour tour because I thought we could do it cheaper by paying for food ourselves.  But we had friends who really wanted to do the connessiour, so we switched.  After experiencing the trip, it was absolutely the best decision for us.  My husband is mobility impaired and our tour director took care of every last detail for us.  As we were waiting for our Tundra tour, I mentioned to her that the shower stool in the shower was really low to the ground.  I told her we could make it work because my sister was traveling with us, but was telling her for future guests.  When we returned from our tour, I got a text from her just as we were walking into our hotel room asking if housekeeping had delivered a more appropriate shower stool.  I went to the bathroom and the Cadillac version of shower stools was waiting in the bathroom.  She came to us on the bus and asked us each day if everything was okay, we’re the accommodations okay, etc.  our entire tour group was able to get a private train car because my husband’s mobility issues required us to be on one of only 2 handicap train cars, so the other 30 people in our group were thrilled to be in our group. Ha ha.  Due to our tour director this was the MOST relaxing trip for me in the last few years.  I am usually calling ahead to ensure everything is in place for my husband and always three steps ahead of everyone to ensure things work.  This trip I sat back and let Alexa handle everything.  This for me was worth every penny!  And after having done this tour, even if not traveling with mobility issues, I’d spend the money and do this again and again.  

I LOVED having our meals all paid for up front. I know myself well enough that I would have only had the $56 halibut one night rather than every night if I had to pay for it each night.  The rest of the time I would have opted for chicken.  This is a personal thing for me, but throwing it out there in case you know this about yourself as well.

We really got to know the other 30 travelers with us because we spent so much time together.  They also made the trip extra special.

We hope to book this trip again in 2022.  I, too, did a lot of research and reading Caribill’s trip review to know what to expect.

[Travlin grrl]

I need to do a land tour!! I've done Alaska twice but not the land portion. After reading these I want to add that on.

[voljeep]

On 8/29/2020 at 12:35 PM, Id rather be diving said:

connessiour tour

yep, if/when we go back we would do it that way ... land first, then cruise, and I believe they come in 6,8 or 10 land days before the 7 day cruise

[Cruisen Elf]

2 hours ago, Travlin grrl said:

I need to do a land tour!! I've done Alaska twice but not the land portion. After reading these I want to add that on.

 

Definitely!

[zalusky]

The train ride is very special:

 

[Thrak]

One our last Connoisseur Cruise Tour the last train portion not only included lunch but 2 alcoholic drinks per person. I was quite surprised.

[Lucky TGO]

36 minutes ago, Thrak said:

One our last Connoisseur Cruise Tour the last train portion not only included lunch but 2 alcoholic drinks per person. I was quite surprised.

Wow!! 2 alcoholic drinks that’s good enough for me Thrak signed me up.😁

Your Pal,

 

[Thrak]

28 minutes ago, Lucky TGO said:

Wow!! 2 alcoholic drinks that’s good enough for me Thrak signed me up.😁

Your Pal,

 

 

You, sir are a smart ass but I'm guessing that is no surprise to you.

Edited September 1, 2020 by Thrak

[Lucky TGO]

4 minutes ago, Thrak said:

 

You, sir are a smart ass but I'm guessing that is no surprise to you.

Hi Thrak,

I’m sorry!!  
Your Pal,

Tony

[Loki S]

I’ve started doing some research into the option of a Alaska Cruisetour. Do you book tours once you arrive at each lodge?

[Steelers36]

On 9/1/2020 at 12:10 AM, Thrak said:

 

You, sir are a smart ass but I'm guessing that is no surprise to you.

You can post that again!!  Er, I guess I just did!

[Mflem1278]

We did connoisseur in June 2016.  It was awesome.  Everything was taken care of.  Our tour guide helped us make some additional excursion reservations.  She was there to answer any questions we had on anything or handle any problems we had. Some in our group had problems with their rooms and she immediately took care of it.  She was very very informative - had been doing it for several years.  But she wasn't in your face all the time either.  Just available if needed.  I would do it again.

[Cruisen Elf]

11 hours ago, Loki S said:

I’ve started doing some research into the option of a Alaska Cruisetour. Do you book tours once you arrive at each lodge?

 

With a cruisetour, some tours are already included.  The cruisetour description should specify which ones are part of the package.  You can do some things on your own, but in Alaska, my experience was that you usually had to book tours through the cruise line as Princess, at least, seemed to have an arrangement with the tour operators to handle it this way.   I would recommend booking any tour you really want to do ahead of time, as many are sold out well in advance of your arrival at the lodges.

 

Here is a link to the Alaska boards, which is filled with loads of great information:  https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/33-alaska/

 

Alaska is amazing!  Enjoy!

[leck57]

11 hours ago, Loki S said:

I’ve started doing some research into the option of a Alaska Cruisetour. Do you book tours once you arrive at each lodge?

 

No, I would book them before. You can book them on Princess just the same way you would book ship tours. You can book at the Lodges but some were booked out.

As Cruisen Elf states, some tours may be included such as the Tundra Wilderness Tour, Paddle steamer in Fairbanks etc. This depends on the type of tour you book. We did a Connoisseur Tour and highly recommend them as an option. 

[floid]

Coming back here to give our view after just coming back from a 6-day extended Connoisseur tour.  In a nutshell, no, it’s not worth it.  If you are 85 and can’t walk, or enjoy several days riding around on a bus/train with a brief stop in a couple 2-start resorts, then this tour is for you.  For everyone else, you will be sorely disappointed.

 

I won’t talk about the cruise itself since that’s not what is being asked.  The tour is 90% sitting on a bus or train…days on end.  The pace is painful.  For example, today we drove from Copper River back to Anchorage to end our tour.  It is normally a 3.5 hour drive, but we made it into a 7-hour all-day drive.  I think the pacing is both to delay the arrival at the next destination to give time for the previous load to get out of the way, and the multiple stops attempt to give some justification for having a tour guide so they can talk about things and show videos.

 

If you tour Alaska on your own, by all means you do not want to go to these Princess destinations, with perhaps the exception of Denali.  These are old 2-start resorts - owned by Princess, staffed with untrained and unsupervised international workers.   Lookup the cost of the resorts for staying on your own.  We happened to be the unfortunate group this year that was impacted by a wildfire right next to the Denali resort resulting in lost power and water for the 2-days we were there.  The park was also closed.  We learned that the resort provides water to the whole area around the resort (their pumping station).  The fact that the resort does not have the contingency plans to at least keep the water pump in service with the loss of power is nothing less than negligence.  The resort manager should be fired on the spot.  But it wouldn’t surprise me if that person isn’t a seasonal foreign worker with no experience.  

 

The tour guide was nice, but could easily be replaced by a recording on the bus.  The tour guide has no autonomy and must answer to the Princess headquarters.  That person is also a seasonal worker, and literally has no purpose other than to be an excuse to extract more money out of the traveler.   This contrasted with an Insight tour, where the tour guide has full autonomy to make spot decisions for the benefit of the trip.   In this Denali example, the tour guide could do nothing.  They had no autonomy to make offsite arrangements for anything.

 

No only would I never do another Princess cruise (did you know they are run by Carnival?), but by no chance would I ever do a land tour with them.  I did not get to view and experience Alaska on this trip…it is like I never went at all.  If you can walk, drive, and do things on your own, definitely do not waste your money on this trip.  This is not Alaska…

[Arizona Wildcat]

45 minutes ago, floid said:

Coming back here to give our view after just coming back from a 6-day extended Connoisseur tour.  In a nutshell, no, it’s not worth it.  If you are 85 and can’t walk, or enjoy several days riding around on a bus/train with a brief stop in a couple 2-start resorts, then this tour is for you.  For everyone else, you will be sorely disappointed.

 

I won’t talk about the cruise itself since that’s not what is being asked.  The tour is 90% sitting on a bus or train…days on end.  The pace is painful.  For example, today we drove from Copper River back to Anchorage to end our tour.  It is normally a 3.5 hour drive, but we made it into a 7-hour all-day drive.  I think the pacing is both to delay the arrival at the next destination to give time for the previous load to get out of the way, and the multiple stops attempt to give some justification for having a tour guide so they can talk about things and show videos.

 

If you tour Alaska on your own, by all means you do not want to go to these Princess destinations, with perhaps the exception of Denali.  These are old 2-start resorts - owned by Princess, staffed with untrained and unsupervised international workers.   Lookup the cost of the resorts for staying on your own.  We happened to be the unfortunate group this year that was impacted by a wildfire right next to the Denali resort resulting in lost power and water for the 2-days we were there.  The park was also closed.  We learned that the resort provides water to the whole area around the resort (their pumping station).  The fact that the resort does not have the contingency plans to at least keep the water pump in service with the loss of power is nothing less than negligence.  The resort manager should be fired on the spot.  But it wouldn’t surprise me if that person isn’t a seasonal foreign worker with no experience.  

 

The tour guide was nice, but could easily be replaced by a recording on the bus.  The tour guide has no autonomy and must answer to the Princess headquarters.  That person is also a seasonal worker, and literally has no purpose other than to be an excuse to extract more money out of the traveler.   This contrasted with an Insight tour, where the tour guide has full autonomy to make spot decisions for the benefit of the trip.   In this Denali example, the tour guide could do nothing.  They had no autonomy to make offsite arrangements for anything.

 

No only would I never do another Princess cruise (did you know they are run by Carnival?), but by no chance would I ever do a land tour with them.  I did not get to view and experience Alaska on this trip…it is like I never went at all.  If you can walk, drive, and do things on your own, definitely do not waste your money on this trip.  This is not Alaska…

A land tour in Alaskawith any cruiseline if you can drive is just plain dumb.  The water issue near Denali was not the fault of anyone except Mother Nature.  Will power out the resorts cannot stay open.  Generator power of that magnitude not reasonable for 2 days.

As for cruising on Princess; all is OK.  Similar with some things better on Princess and others better on HAL or Celebrity.  Best to cruise the itinerary and not the line.

Edited July 5 by Arizona Wildcat

[floid]

Our group of 24 was 70 (except 2 in 20”s, 2 in 50’s) and over that would not drive themselves around. Everyone (literally) said they would not do this trip again.

 

As far as power backup, you are out of your league commenting on this. 
 

Regarding Princess, if you like great food and entertainment, all is not ok, although many from cities that don’t have access to great food and entertainment thought it was great.  I have not been on a cruise yet that I thought was great. This did not disappoint. 
 

The itinerary?  All the cruises mostly go to the same Alaska ports.  All these ports are mostly seasonal workers with the same gift shops, mostly owned by foreigners.  You aren’t seeing Alaska by going to these. 

[Mark_K]

On 8/13/2020 at 4:24 PM, Harrylinden said:

Decided to do a land/cruise on the Coral Princess.Looking at prices and wonder if the Connoisseur escorted tour is worth the extra money? Looking for advice on with or without the Connoisseur for anyone who did it!
Thank's in advance!

Worth it is really a personal monetary decision.  You can definitely save money if you do it on your own, eat at the cheaper restaurants, etc. However, if you tried to duplicate the connoisseur experience, eat three course meals at the better restaurants, etc. I’m not at all sure you could do it on your own and save money.

[floid]

Good point, but saving money for us isn’t really relevant.  But this was not a cheap trip.  I’m sure most on our trip paid less by planning ahead.  By comparison, it was roughly the same price as a 13-day Insight tour of Italy last summer.  But if the Italy trip was 5 stars, this was 2 stars by comparison.  Very different experience.  Sitting on a bus for days just to eat a couple 3-course meals, staying at 2-star resorts, and not have time to explore isn’t worth any amount of money to us.   If a person values sitting and eating without much else, then I can see that they would enjoy this trip.

 

 

Edited July 5 by floid

[Mary loves to travel]

@floid I'm understanding that your comments aren't particular to the Connoisseur version (versus one of the other variations Princess offers), but that you don't recommend doing a land tour with Princess at all.     Am I understanding you right?

 

Mary

[floid]

I didn’t realize there are other versions of the trip (without tour guid, without paid meals) until half-way through.  But, correct, I wouldn’t recommend this for most travelers at any cost.  Again, unless a person only likes to sit and eat.

[floid]

Just to add a little more color, we had a nice conversation with a couple from Holland that was traveling on their own for a month.  They had planned a stay near Denali, but had to divert to Copper River due to the fire (they thought Copper River was very expensive for the accommodations - they paid ~$200/night).  Their itinerary had them going to Homer, Kodiak Island, Nome, and several other authentic places including inland villages.  They have a friend that full time lives in Wasilla who advised them to stay away from all the cruise ship destinations.  I wish I would have heard this advice before planning a trip here.

[Mary loves to travel]

1 hour ago, floid said:

….  I wish I would have heard this advice before planning a trip here.

As you know now, it’s so very important to do research and planning in advance for this type of vacation.  
 

thanks for sharing your thoughts 

Mary

[Rudy888]

14 hours ago, floid said:

Coming back here to give our view after just coming back from a 6-day extended Connoisseur tour.  In a nutshell, no, it’s not worth it.  If you are 85 and can’t walk, or enjoy several days riding around on a bus/train with a brief stop in a couple 2-start resorts, then this tour is for you.  For everyone else, you will be sorely disappointed.

 

I won’t talk about the cruise itself since that’s not what is being asked.  The tour is 90% sitting on a bus or train…days on end.  The pace is painful.  For example, today we drove from Copper River back to Anchorage to end our tour.  It is normally a 3.5 hour drive, but we made it into a 7-hour all-day drive.  I think the pacing is both to delay the arrival at the next destination to give time for the previous load to get out of the way, and the multiple stops attempt to give some justification for having a tour guide so they can talk about things and show videos.

 

If you tour Alaska on your own, by all means you do not want to go to these Princess destinations, with perhaps the exception of Denali.  These are old 2-start resorts - owned by Princess, staffed with untrained and unsupervised international workers.   Lookup the cost of the resorts for staying on your own.  We happened to be the unfortunate group this year that was impacted by a wildfire right next to the Denali resort resulting in lost power and water for the 2-days we were there.  The park was also closed.  We learned that the resort provides water to the whole area around the resort (their pumping station).  The fact that the resort does not have the contingency plans to at least keep the water pump in service with the loss of power is nothing less than negligence.  The resort manager should be fired on the spot.  But it wouldn’t surprise me if that person isn’t a seasonal foreign worker with no experience.  

 

The tour guide was nice, but could easily be replaced by a recording on the bus.  The tour guide has no autonomy and must answer to the Princess headquarters.  That person is also a seasonal worker, and literally has no purpose other than to be an excuse to extract more money out of the traveler.   This contrasted with an Insight tour, where the tour guide has full autonomy to make spot decisions for the benefit of the trip.   In this Denali example, the tour guide could do nothing.  They had no autonomy to make offsite arrangements for anything.

 

No only would I never do another Princess cruise (did you know they are run by Carnival?), but by no chance would I ever do a land tour with them.  I did not get to view and experience Alaska on this trip…it is like I never went at all.  If you can walk, drive, and do things on your own, definitely do not waste your money on this trip.  This is not Alaska…

 

[Rudy888]

Everyone has their own preferences, but we did the 10 day connoisseur land tour last year and were very pleased.

Yes, a lot of time on the bus. Alaska is big and it takes a while to get from point A to B. 

7 1/2 hours vs 3.5 hours maybe. Who wants to drive 3.5 hours without a stop.

Justify a tour guide by talking? I want to know where we are and information about the area.

Could be done with a recording. But the recording doesn't answer questions.

If you did not get to view and experience Alaska on the LONG bus rides you didn't look out the window.

We were in 5 lodges and found the food and service to be very good at all the lodges.

We enjoy the company of others and met, had dinner with (arranged by the tour guide) many of those on our trip. 

I have taken road trips in a car, I drive and really don't see the area. Not fun. I am not a big fan of sitting on a bus but at least I get to enjoy the scenery.

The lodges are not resorts, they are lodges. Big difference. No golf course or indoor pool.

I did not see or interact any International workers. Most were college students. They are seasonal workers because it is a seasonal job. Most lodges are only open 4 months a year.

I get it and agree. Don't waste your money if you do not like what they have to offer.