Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge closing for summer?

[Glaciers]

Just read a post that the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge will be closed for the summer effective June 16 due to no staff. I haven’t been able to confirm though.

[AKStafford]

I saw the same post... I just tried booking a room on their website and it says  nothing is available... In fact for the whole summer its showing no rooms available...

[diesel1973]

Wonder if the Cooper Landing resort will be closed also. That's my watering hole when I"m fishing down there.

[mrkjones61]

We were suppose to stay there in August for two nights. We have not received any type of communication from Princess about this. Nothing shows up on their website either.

 

[Northern Aurora]

Somehow I am not surprised as we are experiencing a very serious labor shortage here.

[TVlife]

5 hours ago, Glaciers said:

Just read a post that the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge will be closed for the summer effective June 16 due to no staff. I haven’t been able to confirm though.

Can you provide a link to that post?

[TVlife]

6 hours ago, Glaciers said:

Just read a post that the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge will be closed for the summer effective June 16 due to no staff. I haven’t been able to confirm though.

I think this link to Princess lodges  confirms it…

https://www.princesslodges.com/princess-alaska-lodges/copper-river-lodge/

 

[Northern Aurora]

The Anchorage Daily News is also confirming the closure.  The labor shortage is this state is absolutely amazing.

[kamelia]

I can confirm that I've received the Itinerary Change notice for our August 31 2022 cruise-tour:

 

IMPORTANT NOTICES

CRUISETOUR ITINERARY CHANGE

Due to staffing challenges affecting the hospitality industry, we have made the difficult decision to close the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge for the remainder of the 2022 Alaska season. As a result, the land portion of your cruisetour itinerary will be modified and your nights at the Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge will be replaced with nights in Anchorage. As a gesture of goodwill, each guest will receive an onboard credit of $100 per person on the cruise portion of your cruisetour.

Any land excursions booked for Copper River will be refunded to the original form of payment. Land excursions for your updated itinerary will be available to book online within the next two weeks, or in Anchorage.

Please note the itinerary displayed below may not yet reflect these changes. We are working to update itineraries and you will receive an updated booking confirmation and itinerary by Friday, June 10, 2022.

[coolbreeze!!!!]

We were scheduled to arrive at the Copper River Princess for a two day stay on 6/16. We received an itinerary change this morning, saying it will close for the summer and our stay has been transferred to the Kenai Princess Lodge. Oh well.

[Glaciers]

52 minutes ago, coolbreeze!!!! said:

We were scheduled to arrive at the Copper River Princess for a two day stay on 6/16. We received an itinerary change this morning, saying it will close for the summer and our stay has been transferred to the Kenai Princess Lodge. Oh well.

Might be a better move. The last we stayed at the Copper River Princess many were in the lobby on their phones/iPads because there was little to do.

[coolbreeze!!!!]

1 hour ago, Glaciers said:

Might be a better move. The last we stayed at the Copper River Princess many were in the lobby on their phones/iPads because there was little to do.

In all honesty, we agree. I was originally attracted to an excursion to McCarthy but DW said absolutely no to a 14 hour excursion. I was also interested in the catarmaran voyage from Valdez to Whittier but we can schedule something similar out of Seward. It just seems, with all these changes and hoops to jump through,  I should be complaining.

[mrkjones61]

19 hours ago, mrkjones61 said:

We were suppose to stay there in August for two nights. We have not received any type of communication from Princess about this. Nothing shows up on their website either.

 

We received notification last night that our two night stay at Copper River is being replaced by the Kenai Wilderness lodge. 

[donaldsc]

14 minutes ago, coolbreeze!!!! said:

In all honesty, we agree. I was originally attracted to an excursion to McCarthy but DW said absolutely no to a 14 hour excursion. I was also interested in the catarmaran voyage from Valdez to Whittier but we can schedule something similar out of Seward. It just seems, with all these changes and hoops to jump through,  I should be complaining.

 

You should have taken the tour and left DW behind.  My wife and I sometimes do different excursions on trips when we can not agree on what to do.  We spent 3 or 4 days in McCarthy and Kennecott on one of our AK trips.  The place is great!

 

DON

[TVlife]

4 hours ago, coolbreeze!!!! said:

In all honesty, we agree. I was originally attracted to an excursion to McCarthy but DW said absolutely no to a 14 hour excursion. I was also interested in the catarmaran voyage from Valdez to Whittier but we can schedule something similar out of Seward. It just seems, with all these changes and hoops to jump through,  I should be complaining.

Glad you feel good about the changes, seriously.  But do you think the missed catamaran voyage is only worth $100?  How much is the similar excursion out of Seward? 

[coolbreeze!!!!]

21 minutes ago, TVlife said:

Glad you feel good about the changes, seriously.  But do you think the missed catamaran voyage is only worth $100?  How much is the similar excursion out of Seward? 

Absolutely not. A Prince William Sound tour out of Anchorage is $287.95.. Add that to the shortened Denali tour and cancellation of disembarkation testing, we seem to be paying back COVID losses.

[TVlife]

11 minutes ago, coolbreeze!!!! said:

Absolutely not. A Prince William Sound tour out of Anchorage is $287.95.. Add that to the shortened Denali tour and cancellation of disembarkation testing, we seem to be paying back COVID losses.

My trip isn’t until end of July. I am ready to cancel!  Actually my TA called Princess today (because I told her about Copper) and it looks like they will refund the trip. We should know in a few days. I’m not holding my breath but I’m ready to take a credit. I read you are traveling soon. I hope everything works out for you and you enjoy your trip. 

[AKStafford]

2 hours ago, coolbreeze!!!! said:

 A Prince William Sound tour out of Anchorage is $287.95..

$287?!?!? You are getting screwed. Book directly with Phillips Cruises and Tours for $179:  https://phillipscruises.com/26-glacier-cruise/

[Northern Aurora]

While I realize that folks who had booked the Copper River Princess are annoyed, in all fairness to Princess, they didn't make this decision lightly and must have anticipated that some customers would be unhappy.  And, again in all fairness to Princess, the labor shortage here in Alaska is simply stunning.  The Anchorage Daily News published an article today about our unemployment rate which has reached the lowest unemployment rate in Alaska's history.  

 

Where I live, in Fairbanks, it rare to walk into a business and not see a "now hiring" sign.  One of the principle owners of the Chena Hot Springs Resort is a very creative thinker, and their solution is to sponsor a number of Ukrainian refugees.  Given its relative remote location the resort provides housing for their employees (ranging from studio apartments for single folks to houses for families).  Sponsors have to agree to be sponsors for a certain length of time which is not a problem for the resort as they are open year round. So the resort will provide both housing and jobs.

[Glaciers]

Most of the Princess ships in Alaska are in Orange status and have CDC investigations started. No doubt that the labor shortage was the big problem although with all those cruise ship passengers staying at those lodges the lodge staff must be suffering from covid cases as well. It really compounds the labor issue.  There are so many walking around that don’t know they’re infected.  We tested a few days after we returned and were positive.