Alaska Cruisetour meals

[KirkNC]

I tried a search with no luck.  I am trying to get clarity on how meals work on the land portion of the Yukon plus Triple Denali.   In the itinerary, it mentions a few lunches as do some optional excursions but no mention of breakfast and dinner.  Am I correct that we are on our own for most meals?

 

Thanks in advance.

[Mary229]

Unless it states a meal you are on your own.  The meals mentioned on my itinerary erary are on the bus portion only.  You need to provide for the train rides, breakfast , etc..  my TA was able to have 3 or 4 meals added gratis.  

[Mary229]

PS. If you haven’t seen the complete itinerary please note that there are some very early morning departures.  Since we are doing land first we are bringing our own throw away coffee maker and breakfast snack food.  
 

there are some advantages to doing land first IMHO.  We found from our location that the flight schedules were much, much better flying TO Anchorage and back from Canada.   We are spending some days in Vancouver (never enough time for that town) the taking the train to Calgary.. 

[CATandSQUID]

If it's the Denali tour that is included, you sign up for the lunch box the evening before at the village restaurant.  Before your bus leaves you pick up the box lunch in the main building where the buses are.

[Crew News]

Denali has a restaurant in the center of the lodges that serves huge portions of all three meals at very reasonable prices.  There is also a shuttle service at the resort that will take up the steep hill to the on-property Canyon Steak restaurant or you can walk across the street from there to some other restaurants, including Subway.

 

The food on the train is very good but you are assigned a time to go down to the dining are based on the location of your assigned seat on the train.  Bring some granola bars in case you are near the end of the dining window.

 

The Tundra Wilderness Tour will provide a free snack box with sausage, cookies, cheese, chips, etc. and water to keep you going during the hours on the road.  You can order a lunch box that is very much unspectacular.  Bring some granola bars.

 

Holland America offers a meal plan that is way overpriced and does not cover all meals (read carefully).

 

Here is a link to what you may experience at the resort, including a map of the resort:  McKinley Resort.

 

Enjoy your planning.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for all the information!

[Freckles1983]

3 hours ago, KirkNC said:

Thanks for all the information!

Thank you for posting this question.  I was wondering the same thing.  Esp in regards to the meal plan.  I haven’t been able to find any information on the meal plans.  If anyone has any links to those that would be great 😊 

[12cruise2]

when we did this land/sea tour years ago, the problem was the early departures, restaurants were not open early enough even to have a proper breakfast, etc., so the point is, take some snack bars for breakfast.  I recall we walked across the street to a tiny general store to try to get something to eat.

[dfilpus]

On the website, look for E-brochures. In the Alaska Planner, on page 20, there is a chart listing what meals are in the meal plan for each cruise tour. The meals are in the hotel restaurant. The cost for the plan does save you much money, IMO.

[Mary229]

6 minutes ago, dfilpus said:

On the website, look for E-brochures. In the Alaska Planner, on page 20, there is a chart listing what meals are in the meal plan for each cruise tour. The meals are in the hotel restaurant. The cost for the plan does save you much money, IMO.

I found the e brochures but nothing about the meal plan. Could you provide further guidance?  Thank you

[dfilpus]

12 minutes ago, Mary229 said:

I found the e brochures but nothing about the meal plan. Could you provide further guidance?  Thank you

As I said above, go to the Alaska Planner 2022-2023. On page 20, there is a chart that  lists what is included in each cruise tour. At the bottom of the page, there is chart for the meal plans. Since it is a pdf, you can’t link to the chart directly. The planner is at https://www.hollandamerica.com/content/dam/hal/marketing-assets/PDFs/2022-2023-Alaska-Brochure.pdf

[KirkNC]

15 minutes ago, dfilpus said:

As I said above, go to the Alaska Planner 2022-2023. On page 20, there is a chart that  lists what is included in each cruise tour. At the bottom of the page, there is chart for the meal plans. Since it is a pdf, you can’t link to the chart directly. The planner is at https://www.hollandamerica.com/content/dam/hal/marketing-assets/PDFs/2022-2023-Alaska-Brochure.pdf

Thanks for the link, you would think HAL would send something like this to you when you book!

[oaktreerb]

2 hours ago, 12cruise2 said:

when we did this land/sea tour years ago, the problem was the early departures, restaurants were not open early enough even to have a proper breakfast, etc., so the point is, take some snack bars for breakfast.  I recall we walked across the street to a tiny general store to try to get something to eat.

The hotels will have a breakfast buffet for full breakfast or continental and that’s the easiest in the mornings.  In Fairbanks we sometimes pick up a muffin in the gift shop the night before (if they have them) and have coffee in the room.   Breakfast is a challenge with early departures.  In Denali you can grab the buffet at Karstens in Denali Square at the Chalets.  Continental breakfast includes fruit and Oatmeal which is a decent breakfast on the run.

[dfilpus]

1 hour ago, KirkNC said:

Thanks for the link, you would think HAL would send something like this to you when you book!

Back in 2019, our TA got us a printed copy.

[Freckles1983]

3 hours ago, KirkNC said:

Thanks for the link, you would think HAL would send something like this to you when you book!

I actually do have a copy of this pdf but other than when meals and snacks were included I didn’t see any pricing or information about the meal plans.  I’m gonna give it a better read tomorrow but thank you dfilpus for posting that link 🙂

[Crew News]

13 minutes ago, Freckles1983 said:

I actually do have a copy of this pdf but other than when meals and snacks were included I didn’t see any pricing or information about the meal plans.  I’m gonna give it a better read tomorrow but thank you dfilpus for posting that link 🙂

In 2019, I paid $349 for three days in Denali.

[terrydtx]

19 hours ago, Crew News said:

Holland America offers a meal plan that is way overpriced and does not cover all meals (read carefully).

We did the same land tour in 2019 and you are right, the meal plan pricing is based on the most expensive entrees at all restaurants. We were with our 12 year old grandson and he is a big eater but we saved a lot on buying food on our own. The Denali resort restaurant was reasonably priced with big portions of very good food. Across the highway there are several good restaurants including pizza. In Fairbanks the last night there were several good restaurants within walking distance to the hotel.

 

The lunch boxes for the Denali Wilderness tour were I think $15 per person and worth the cost.