Princess Bus Transfer Time Whittier to Anchorage

[3 WI Cruisers]

My husband and I and 3 additional couples are booked on the Sapphire Princess Northbound arriving in Whittier May 24, 2025. We are doing a DIY land portion after the cruise and planning on taking a bus transfer and picking up rental cars at the Anchorage airport. Now that we are less than a year out we would be able to book our rental cars but I can't find what time the Princess bus transfer from Whittier to Anchorage would get us to the airport so we know what time to put in for rental car pick ups. What is the earliest Princess bus transfer we would be able to get on to get to the airport and approximately what time would it get us there? It looks like there are also a few other bus options to get from Whittier to the airport, Whittier Bus looks like it's about the same price when looking at their 2024 rates (I'm assuming they will most likely be higher for 2025) and leaves the Whittier terminal at 8:45 and arrives at the airport at 10:30. The Park Connection Bus leaves Whittier at 9:45 and arrives at the airport around noon, but is about $25 more than the Princess transfer or the Whittier Bus transfer. We would like to get to the airport and our cars picked up as early as possible because we will then be driving up to Healy for our Denali portion of our trip. 

[CruiserBruce]

The ship will have off loaded all passengers not continuing on by 9:30. So the last bus will leave by 9:45 in order to catch the 10am tunnel.

[NWA395]

I can't answer your question directly in the Princess transfer however, the ACT bus would also be an option.  We are renting from AVIS at their downtown location and the ACT bus drops us off at the downtown AVIS location as well as other locations.

 

YMMV

[3 WI Cruisers]

20 hours ago, CruiserBruce said:

The ship will have off loaded all passengers not continuing on by 9:30. So the last bus will leave by 9:45 in order to catch the 10am tunnel.

Thank you that is very helpful to know

 

Cheryl

[3 WI Cruisers]

20 hours ago, NWA395 said:

I can't answer your question directly in the Princess transfer however, the ACT bus would also be an option.  We are renting from AVIS at their downtown location and the ACT bus drops us off at the downtown AVIS location as well as other locations.

 

YMMV

Thank you! I was unaware of the ACT bus, that looks like another good option. We are going to rent from Avis also using the Avis Alaska site.

 

Cheryl

Edited June 11 by 3 WI Cruisers

[NWA395]

4 hours ago, 3 WI Cruisers said:

Thank you! I was unaware of the ACT bus, that looks like another good option. We are going to rent from Avis also using the Avis Alaska site.

 

Cheryl

Just and FYI,

I was checking car rentals last night and we ended up changing our booking to Enterprise which saved us about $600.00 over AVIS on our 11 night rental.

 

 

[3 WI Cruisers]

26 minutes ago, NWA395 said:

Just and FYI,

I was checking car rentals last night and we ended up changing our booking to Enterprise which saved us about $600.00 over AVIS on our 11 night rental.

 

 

Thank you. 

Did you check rates for Avis on the regular Avis website or the Avis Alaska site, avisalaska.com

We have an intermediate SUV rented for 10 nights the end of May-beginning of June 2025 for less than $550.00  The same vehicle type on the regular Avis site, Avis.com is over $1,700.00. I'm not sure why there is such a big difference in price but I have read from others on Cruise Critic recommending Avis Alaska. I just checked Enterprise and Costco for our dates again and they are significantly higher too. 

[NWA395]

On 6/11/2024 at 6:56 PM, 3 WI Cruisers said:

Thank you. 

Did you check rates for Avis on the regular Avis website or the Avis Alaska site, avisalaska.com

We have an intermediate SUV rented for 10 nights the end of May-beginning of June 2025 for less than $550.00  The same vehicle type on the regular Avis site, Avis.com is over $1,700.00. I'm not sure why there is such a big difference in price but I have read from others on Cruise Critic recommending Avis Alaska. I just checked Enterprise and Costco for our dates again and they are significantly higher too. 

Thanks, we will check the avis alaska site.  Wow, just checked and they want $2400.00 plus for an 11 day August/Sept 2024 rental.  I think we'll stay with Enterprise.

Edited June 13 by NWA395
additional information

[3 WI Cruisers]

7 hours ago, NWA395 said:

Thanks, we will check the avis alaska site.  Wow, just checked and they want $2400.00 plus for an 11 day August/Sept 2024 rental.  I think we'll stay with Enterprise.

Yikes that is crazy expensive! It's amazing how car rental rates can be all over the place.

[CruiserBruce]

1 hour ago, 3 WI Cruisers said:

Yikes that is crazy expensive! It's amazing how car rental rates can be all over the place.

Alaska has a long history of high rental car rates...going back many years.

[ChemistBabe]

We used the ACT bus.  Cheaper than Princess and truly enjoyed our bus driver.  He was a great tour guide and quite droll.  (Of course, your experience may be different.)

Super easy and same timing as the Princess transfers as everyone uses the same tunnel.

[sharon_pei]

Just came back from the exact same itinerary with princess and did the transfer to airport from whittier to pick up rental car. we arrived at the rental car counter @ 10:45am sharp.