Princess train Anchorage to Talkeetna

[TVlife]

We are going a Princess Alaska land tour before a cruise this summer. We depart from Anchorage by train to Talkeetna. I’m trying to understand if we can get to town from wherever it is that the Princess train stops or does Princess take us directly to the Mt McKinley lodge via bus with no choice to be brought to town.  A tour company is telling us the Princess train depot is not in town and we would need to get to town as they are not allowed to pick up at the Princess train depot. Thus say it’s called the Woodpecker train depot. 

[azbirdmom]

The train depot IS in Talkeetna (or within a block or two of the shops / restaurants).  The McKinley Princess lodge is about 45 minutes away.  They do have shuttles that go from the lodge to Talkeetna for a fee.  You would have to ask about the feasibility of staying in town once you exit the train and getting on the shuttle to the lodge later.  They used to allow this years ago but I'm not sure what they may do these days.  And it would be surprising if Princess found another depot to disembark train passengers for their lodge since the train pulls cars from Princess, HAL, Celebrity, and their own Alaska Rail cars.

[railman]

We did this trip a number of years ago.  I recall Princess expects you to spend time in Talkeetna before continuing to the lodge.  They ran shuttle busses on a schedule for when you wanted to go to the lodge.  There was also a boat trip which optionally dropped you off at the lodge with a short shuttle ride at that end.  The train station is a block away from the center of town.

[sirclean]

It has been at least 5 years and I was going the other way.  I would be surprised that they would put you on a train with a bunch of people and then expect you to find your own way tot the hotell.

 

When we were there, as was said above, there was a regular shuttle to the hotel.

 

It is a very nice resort.  I hope you are there more than one day.  Walk the trails, walk the roads, look at all of the statues that they have done.  Take lots of pictures! 

[caribill]

There are two train depots for Talkeetna.

 

When we did a cruise tour in Alaska, the arrival (from Denali,  north of Talkeetna, not from Anchorage) was at the in town depot. We immediately boarded buses to the Princess lodge.

 

When we left Talkeetna, the depot used was the one away from the town. Buses went directly from the lodge to this out-of-the-way depot. If you were already in town that morning, there was a shuttle from the in town depot area to the out-of-the-way depot being used. This depot (at least when we were there) has no building and no rest room facilities.

 

Maybe Princess can tell you which depot you will arrive at.

 

Princess does have a bus shuttle (for a fee) that goes between the lodge and the town if you want to visit the town on your own.

 

Below is photo of the out of town train depot.

[5:00_Somewhere]

9 hours ago, railman said:

We did this trip a number of years ago.  I recall Princess expects you to spend time in Talkeetna before continuing to the lodge.  They ran shuttle busses on a schedule for when you wanted to go to the lodge.  There was also a boat trip which optionally dropped you off at the lodge with a short shuttle ride at that end.  The train station is a block away from the center of town.

 

This was our experience. We enjoyed our time in Talkeetna, then we took a boat excursion on the river(s) which dropped us at the lodge when it was over. We really enjoyed it. 

[odie1024]

1 hour ago, 5:00_Somewhere said:

 

This was our experience. We enjoyed our time in Talkeetna, then we took a boat excursion on the river(s) which dropped us at the lodge when it was over. We really enjoyed it. 

That sounds great, we will be boarding the ship on June 18th and was looking forward to spending some time in this little town, will have to check out boat excursion.