Don't book a cruisetour

[Thrak]

2 hours ago, Sea Hag said:

So far, we've only done one cruisetour, and it was great. Room we had at the Denali lodge wasn't spectacular, but it was perfectly comfortable.

 

Our first time at the Denali lodge we were on the second story and our window looked out over the river behind the lodge. There was a small "island" in the river and we watched a mother moose and her calf on the island from our window.

[Lady Arwen]

13 hours ago, Polopup said:

 

My issue wasn't so much about Alaska hotels and that they might be lower standard.  Other hotels I have stayed in Anchorage and Juneau were just fine.  Its that Princess and Princess marketing materials really "sold" me that the "lodges" were better than they are.  I don't feel Princess was really honest in what you were getting. 

 

I should have actually booked an independent tour of Alaska on my own and it would have been half the price, better quality and I would have seen MORE of Alaska.  It wasn't Alaska that fell short here, it was Princess that fell short.

 

Sorry, but Princess did not fall short, you did.  There are so many options available to everyone to research destinations and accommodations.  You did not do your your due diligence.  You just looked at a website and then booked it.  For future reference, do what we all do…..search, search, search before booking.  And,  you could have come to us for advice and opinions.   Next time.

[voljeep]

on the Alaska cruisetours thru Princess - aren't you basically choosing .. 2 nights at each lodge?

 

Is any length 'more rushed' than another?

 

4 nights = 2 lodges

6 nights = 3 lodges

[bassmk]

We did an Alaska cruisetour with Holland America back in 2017 and it was fantastic. No, the hotels and lodges weren't luxurious by any means, but they weren't disgusting at all. And we spend so little time there that we didn't care. We loved the train. I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but it sounds like your expectations were a little too high. That's the good thing about places like Cruise Critic...you can come here to find out more about your trip and possibly temper those expectations a bit.

 

We have and Alaska cruisetour booked for September 2025 and I can't wait.

[Paula_MacFan]

We have a 15 night cruisetour on Sapphire booked for the last week of May and first week of June.  We have 3 nights in Fairbanks, 2 nights in Denali, 1 night at McKinley, and 2 nights at Kenai.  We don't have the 9 hour train ride to Whittier but rather the 4 hour train from Fairbanks to Denali which sounds like a better option for us.  I did a lot of research here on CC and TripAdvisor, as well as other sources.  We specifically chose a cruisetour that included the Kenai lodge as we want to do the Kenai Fjords NP all day cruise. 

 

We are independent travelers and do other types of trips besides cruises (long road trips, class A motorhome, etc).  I know we will have to pack our patience on a group tour such as this.  The convenience factor seemed worthwhile after I did the math.  I priced out hotels, transportation, included activities and meals, and it was about the same as doing it on our own.  Several people on the Alaska CC forum have reported car rental costs that are astronomical.  I feel like the price we paid will be fair for the services we're getting.  

 

We've been to Alaska before on a cruise only, but this will be our first land portion.  In a few years when we officially retire we'd like to take a summer and do a big proper road trip with plenty of time to do it justice.  But for now I'm looking forward to the trip we have planned.  I really think research is the key and don't book a 3 day land tour thinking you're going to see much besides the train or bus.  

[karatemom2]

12 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Our first time at the Denali lodge we were on the second story and our window looked out over the river behind the lodge. There was a small "island" in the river and we watched a mother moose and her calf on the island from our window.

 
Exactly why the statement that you see all of Alaska on a cruise is so untrue. This is only an experience you get on a land tour. I hope to be as lucky one of these years when we do it!!

[Jnsplace1]

I disagree, I liked my cruisetour very much.  of course I researched the heck of which one would fit time and budget.   I knew that some of the hotels may not be awesome, since it was linked to the amount I was willing to spend.  Which was fine, it's a hotel.  I was there to see the land.   

 

I guess, it falls into expectations.  I agree marketing material can overstate things, and it's certainly not sunny all the time in Denali area.

I find if you want wilderness, then it's going to be a rare find to be in a high level hotel.  Particularly when tourist season is short.

[Sea Hag]

12 hours ago, Thrak said:

 

Our first time at the Denali lodge we were on the second story and our window looked out over the river behind the lodge. There was a small "island" in the river and we watched a mother moose and her calf on the island from our window.

That is so great! I love moose. Mooses. Whatever the plural of that is. We got to watch a small herd of them in Tetons nation park a few years back. Wonderful animals.

[ldubs]

13 minutes ago, Sea Hag said:

That is so great! I love moose. Mooses. Whatever the plural of that is. We got to watch a small herd of them in Tetons nation park a few years back. Wonderful animals.

 

Meese

[Mark_K]

3 minutes ago, ldubs said:

 

Meese

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
But the plural of ox should be oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and showed you my feet,
When I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be kese?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
So plurals in English, I think you’ll agree,
Are indeed very tricky, singularly.

[Lady Arwen]

1 hour ago, Mark_K said:

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
But the plural of ox should be oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and showed you my feet,
When I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be kese?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
So plurals in English, I think you’ll agree,
Are indeed very tricky, singularly.

So good!  Thanks!

[fpsphil]

We are doing a a 4 day cruise tour going south in May. Super excited and fully prepared for "roughing" it a bit since we will be in the wilderness. Super excited to see a different side of Alaska though that is off the beaten path and its all tourist like Skagway, Juneau, and Kechitickan

[TRLD]

We have done both a Princess cruise tour that included 3 lodges (Denali, Wilderness, Copper River).  We have also done Alaska several times on our own, by renting a car and driving (we have relatives in Alaska).

 

The cruise tour tends to be a higher cost per day, but not by much.  By the time you book hotels, pay for your rental car, pay for gas and meals the cost is not cheap.  Alaska is a very big state and you can spend time on a bus, or on a train or driving, but it takes a lot of time to get places.  Doing it yourself or on tour you will spend a lot of time traveling.  A car gives you more freedom to move around from the hotels, but a tour gives you convenience of not having to deal with a number of things and letting someone else do the driving.

 

The worst part about a land tour to Alaska is that unless you book an excursion you are pretty much stuck at the lodges, which except for Denali tend to be somewhat isolated.

 

These days the hot spots such as Denali, Steward, Homer, etc can actually get pretty crowded.  Last year when we were there you could barely even find parking in Talkeetna and the Talkeetna Alaska Lodge was running $460 per night before taxes and fees.  A hotel that is nice by Alaska standards, but we would not consider it to be any better than the Princess Wilderness lodge about 20 miles or so from Talkeetna one can book independently of a tour from about 200 to 250 per night.  The main attraction for both is proximity to Talkeetna and a good view of Mt Denali when it is out.

 

As far as hotels and once you get away from Anchorage, or the Alyeska in Girdwood, the Princess lodges are pretty much on par with anything else you can find.  Pre Covid we have done the trip on our own, but still booked some nights in Princess lodges because they had availability and were less expensive than other hotels in the area.

 

The next time we do a trip we would probably take the train to/from Denali and Fairbanks and then rent a car to go down on the Kenai to Seward and Homer.

Edited March 21 by TRLD

[nasa1974]

We did the Alaska land/cruise twice. Our first started in Fairbanks and we slowly traveled south to Whitter. Our second started in Anchorage and proceeded north then a looong train ride to Whitter. The one thing that most people don't realize is that there is only one set of rails that is used for both normal traffic (cruise lines) and freight. Freight has priority. On our first land portion we were 3 hours late getting to Whitter because we had to keep pulling off onto to a side rail to allow the freight traffic to pass us.

We felt the lodges were comfortable and clean and required a little walking to get to different areas of the facilities. But the views were outstanding. On our second cruise we even had a snowball fight with friends at Mt. McKinley Lodge.

[loge23]

What a misleading title for a thread!

Clearly, it should have read "an Alaskan cruisetour" at the very least.

I can't comment on the Alaskan cruisetours as we haven't experienced any - we did book one once but cancelled it after we received the itinerary which had us getting up and out at dark-thirty AM most mornings - we're not early risers. We're not crazy about the Alaskan cruises anyway.

But back to the cruisetours. 

We took a Princess cruisetour in Spain fairly recently and it was one of the best trips we ever took! The hotels weren't the Ritz, but all of them were fine, business-class hotels. We had several included meals - all were in wonderful restaurants and we all had a wonderful time.

The provided coach was huge, very comfortable, and very clean. There were no "dark-thirty" wake-up calls. Our guide, an independent guide that Princess hired for the tour, was excellent.

So, do feel free to book a Princess cruisetour!

[DCThunder]

My brother and sister-in-law are doing a Nat Geo/Lindblad "cruise" from Sitka in May.  That's complete with the wet landings from RIBs and the long hikes in the rain forest.  The trip ends in Juneau and he's then flying to Fairbanks for a weeklong land tour, including some hiking on Denali.  He's a big birder so will be lugging his big spotting scope along.  I'm going to be very interested in hearing how this trip goes when he gets back.

[aForestr]

22 hours ago, Sprocket said:

Too late lol!  Booked the 10 nighter on the Sapphire in June.  My husband was a logger and worked up and down the B.C. coast and inlets for decades, He’s happy not having to stay in a bunkhouse and eat in the cook shack.  We’ll be fine.

You'll be fine.  I also worked in the woods and spent a lot of time in, lets say, less than 5 star accommodations,  I think we hear, see and enjoy things the flat landers just can't imagine. The land tours are what you make it out to be.  When we stayed at the lodges they even had sheets on the beds.  Who could ask for anything more.

[donaldsc]

While I would not personally take a cruisetour and I have taken a number of AK trips - I disagree with the OP's comments.  If you read the many comments on CC about AK cruisetours many many people have taken them and most of the people seem to be satisfied by them.  I suggest that the OP did not read the detailed description of what was promised and obviously expected something different from what he got.

 

DON

[ldubs]

8 hours ago, Mark_K said:

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
But the plural of ox should be oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

If I spoke of my foot and showed you my feet,
When I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?

If the singular is this, and the plural is these,
Why shouldn’t the plural of kiss be kese?
Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
So plurals in English, I think you’ll agree,
Are indeed very tricky, singularly.

 

7 hours ago, Lady Arwen said:

So good!  Thanks!

 

Awesome!  

[startedwithamouse]

On 3/20/2024 at 3:35 PM, leck57 said:

Couldn't disagree more. We did a Princess Alaska cruise coupled with a Princess land tour and it was one of our best trips. Couldn't recommend it enough.

You say "one of the worst experiences of your life"....and you live in LA. 🤔

Spoken like an LA tourist.

 

Obvious you stuck to the tourist traps?

 

So Cal is paradise. 

 

 

Edited March 22 by startedwithamouse

[cr8tiv1]

I did a cruise tour way back when.  Don't remember much about the rooms, but enjoyed sitting on the veranda seeing Denali....every day (it was that clear).  Coming from California,  could "feel" the small earthquake tremors on the deck.  

 

On the train ride over, everyone was on "moose alert".  We saw one really scraggly undernourished guy munching is a small marsh.  Check that off my bucket list.

 

Nice float ride down the river...too hot for any animals to be out.  

 

Saw much more animal activity in Yellowstone/Grand Tetons than I did in the heat of the summer in Alaska.

 

But still enjoyed the time on land.  Probably won't ever do it again.

 

 

[Outerdog]

On 3/20/2024 at 2:37 PM, Polopup said:

I think being in solitary confinement in a prison would be better.

 

All in all it was one of the worst experiences up my life.

 

Do you expect people to take these comments seriously?

 

[leck57]

12 hours ago, Sea Hag said:

That is so great! I love moose. Mooses. Whatever the plural of that is. We got to watch a small herd of them in Tetons nation park a few years back. Wonderful animals.

 

I took heaps of moose pics on our Alaska land tour - this one is my favourite

 

 

[Thrak]

9 hours ago, TRLD said:

Last year when we were there you could barely even find parking in Talkeetna and the Talkeetna Alaska Lodge was running $460 per night before taxes and fees.  A hotel that is nice by Alaska standards, but we would not consider it to be any better than the Princess Wilderness lodge about 20 miles or so from Talkeetna one can book independently of a tour from about 200 to 250 per night.  The main attraction for both is proximity to Talkeetna and a good view of Mt Denali when it is out.

 

When we did our 7 week camping trip to Fairbanks we were in our little teardrop trailer. Every once in a while we got a room for the night and one of the places we booked was a B&B not far from Talkeetna. It had the advantage of not only being very near to Talkeetna but also very near to the Denali Brewing Company. They do, of course, have a brew pub in Talkeetna but we enjoyed visiting the actual brewery and having beers at a table outside and talking with the locals.

Edited March 22 by Thrak

[Sea Hag]

10 hours ago, leck57 said:

 

I took heaps of moose pics on our Alaska land tour - this one is my favourite

 

 

I love that moose! 🤩