Prudhoe Bay

[patca]

Has anyone taken Holland America's Tour 21 which includes Prudhoe Bay? We are booked for next August (10 people). I am wondering how many people do they take on this tour. I called HA and they were very vague and didn't really answer my questions. We fly from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay on a small plane and there doesn't seem to be many hotels - only one that I could find. I also read that they have shared bathrooms. I appreciate any help from someone who has done this tour. Thanks, Pat

[NancyIL]

Can't help with the HAL cruisetour, but maybe this thread will help about the area: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=414476

[greatam]

Has anyone taken Holland America's Tour 21 which includes Prudhoe Bay? We are booked for next August (10 people). I am wondering how many people do they take on this tour. I called HA and they were very vague and didn't really answer my questions. We fly from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay on a small plane and there doesn't seem to be many hotels - only one that I could find. I also read that they have shared bathrooms. I appreciate any help from someone who has done this tour. Thanks, Pat

 

Let me dispel the rumors-bathrooms ARE NOT shared. Accommodations are spartan but very clean. Most of the rooms have two twin beds, a small dresser, small TV (like 13"), a shower, washbasin (not a vanity per se) and toilet. Some of the rooms were carpeted, but most were really linoleum tiles (yes, 1970's linoleum). This is for both Prudhoe and Coldfoot. The food at Prudhoe is really good. The food in Coldfoot is OK. The hotels were housing for the old construction camps when they built the pipeline.

 

What do you mean by small plane-10 seat Cessna or similar? Alaska Airlines flies at least twice daily from both Anchorage and Fairbanks using 737 equipment.

 

I have been to Prudhoe twice and have seen the Princess tours. Never really paid much attention to their transport other than the Princess bus (it was parked RIGHT at the front door of the hotel). But I can tell you that there were 25-40 people on each tour. Way too many for a small plane.

 

I think you would have a much better time NOT booking this thru HAL, especially if this tour is a flight one way and surface transport the other. It is really difficult to get all those people on and off the bus in a timely fashion, so not a lot of sightseeing stops. You really will miss quite a bit on the big bus.

 

Try this company-http://www.northernalaska.com/arctic-ocean.htm

 

The first trip we made to Prudhoe, we made our way to Prudhoe independently on a small plane, then got on the van with Northern Alaska. Absolutely fantastic trip-small enough to stop when we saw wildlife (even turned around and went back North on the Dalton Hwy when a trucker told our driver on the CB that there was a large grizzly very close to the road). You definitely won't get that on a HAL tour (if for no other reason than the bus is too large to turn around). And the spectacular picnic under the pipeline next to the Yukon River-tableclothes, nice china and dinnerware, bug spray, and great food. The Princess tours got to eat at the cafes along the way. We spoke to the same Princess people we had seen in Prudhoe in Coldfoot. We saw twice as much wildlife and had a lot more fun than they did.