Alaska Cruisetour Questions

[Sea Hag]

Hubby and I are going on our first cruisetour in late August on the Coral Princess. We've gone on several cruises, but no cruisetours.

 

Things I'm wondering about:

• Luggage - what's up with that system where you split up your luggage and only take a small bag apiece on the land tour? We have four nights, two at Copper Rive and two at Denali, before we hook back up with the rest of our luggage in Anchorage. Does anybody have some recommendations on how much to try and bring for the land tour? How big a carry on bag you CAN bring?
  
• Train/Bus/Hotel accommondations: how are these handled? Do the people from the mini-suites get the front of the bus, etc., and the lesser cabin categories get put in the back of the bus and the hotel room with a view of the garbage dumpster? How do they assign these things?
  
• How much did anybody out there spend on food on the land tour portion? They have some guidelines of cost ranges for this in the Princess brochure, but I'd sure like to hear from somebody who's actually done this and can give me some reall numbers.

I'll really appreciate any information that anybody out there can offer!

[stired]

Hubby and I are going on our first cruisetour in late August on the Coral Princess. We've gone on several cruises, but no cruisetours.

 

Things I'm wondering about:

• Luggage - what's up with that system where you split up your luggage and only take a small bag apiece on the land tour? We have four nights, two at Copper Rive and two at Denali, before we hook back up with the rest of our luggage in Anchorage. Does anybody have some recommendations on how much to try and bring for the land tour? How big a carry on bag you CAN bring?
  
• Train/Bus/Hotel accommondations: how are these handled? Do the people from the mini-suites get the front of the bus, etc., and the lesser cabin categories get put in the back of the bus and the hotel room with a view of the garbage dumpster? How do they assign these things?
  
• How much did anybody out there spend on food on the land tour portion? They have some guidelines of cost ranges for this in the Princess brochure, but I'd sure like to hear from somebody who's actually done this and can give me some reall numbers.

I'll really appreciate any information that anybody out there can offer!

 

If you post these questions on the Alaska boards, you will get plenty of info!:)

[spongerob]

What we did was send our garment bag and our better clothes to be held for embarkation on the ship, and just took casual/touring clothes with us, along with the necessities of life.

 

I don't think there is any rhyme or reason to seating on the buses or train. We were assigned to a car for the train, but there was no reserved seating. By the way, meals on the train were quite good but were not included in the cost. Supposedly, passengers who have booked suites on their cruise will receive upgraded accomadations in the lodges depending on availability. Although we were not in a suite, we did get upgraded rooms at the McKinley lodge...nice! It was a two room suite with a huge bathroom that included a jacuzzi tub. We also had a big screen TV, wet bar, and an amazingly comfy bed.

 

I can't reall comment on food costs since our cruisetour was 6 six years ago. It's not all on one folio like on the ship, so it's a bit hard to keep track when you are also buying souvenirs and paying for tours. Two tours in Fairbanks were included in the cost. The Gold Mining/Panning thing was a bit of a tourist rip-off, but the visit to the Athabascan Native heritage site was fantastic.

[Sea Hag]

Hi Spongebob,

 

Thanks for your reply. It all sounds reasonable to me - even the part about there not seeming to be any rhyme or reason. Things are often like that.

 

Good to know that you only took casual clothes. My husband's a really causual clothes type of guy.

[Genessa]

Hi Spongebob,

 

Thanks for your reply. It all sounds reasonable to me - even the part about there not seeming to be any rhyme or reason. Things are often like that.

 

Good to know that you only took casual clothes. My husband's a really causual clothes type of guy.

 

we did a cruise tour on the Coral in 2003 and had a fantastic time. The land portion is completely casual. Jeans are the norm.

 

For the luggage, we found two things. One, we sent all our "cruise" clothes ahead from our starting point, Fairbanks. We had one carry-on each (airplane regulation sized) for our one night stay in Denali, but we got our suitcase back for McKinley where we stayed 2 nights.

 

We're from NY and I had heard horror prices for the food. We didn't find them THAT expensive. Not cheap, but no more than any fine hotel coffee shop. The lodge in Fairbanks had a small breakfast buffet for a reasonable price, coffee and muffins or something were not as reasonably priced.

The lodge also had a bar/restaurant and we had dinner there. The restaurant next door at Pike's was more expensive.

 

The food on the train was extra, but everything we had was delicious. My mouth still waters thinking about the reindeer chili in a bread "bowl". It was around $10 and absolutely delicious and filling (lunch).

 

At Denali, we went to a sub shop recommended here. Around $7 pp, but we did NOT like the food here. The restaurant where we had breakfast the next morning was expensive and the food not so good - it was the "nicer" place.

The pizzeria had decent pizza.

 

At McKinley Lodge, there were two places to eat when we were there - the pub/bar/restaurant and a "fancy" restaurant. You could dress in jeans there, but you had to make reservations and since we were 6, we never got to eat there - all tables for 6 were filled until 10ish. So we ate in the bar both nights and had delicious meals at a reasonable price. Halibut "fingers" and fries was something like $12 - $14. I don't think any entree was more than $20, tops and included some type of side.

 

As for seating. We had assigned seats on the train, but they didn't seem to place them according to your cabin type. We were actually seated right near another small group from a different part of the country who had used the same on-line travel agent.

 

And our rooms were all normal rooms. If they had much nicer ones, we didn't know about it and loved all the lodges except Denali (too much noise, traffic, older wing of rooms) which I think was 'cos we were only there one night.

[NAS-KARR]

I'm gonna attempt to answer some of your queries for you. Bear in mind what I'm saying happened in 04 and some, if any, things may(??)_ have changed.

Dress casual.To eat dinner on formal nites I wore dockers with a blazer & open collar dress shirt..NO PROBLEM.

In AK DRESS IN LAYERS, the weather can be weird at times.

On buses and train cars, is open seating..NO RES.

All your bags are handled and moved for you every time you change overnite locations.

Your mini suite means NOTHING while you are on land, no priv's.

Anytime your are on land you pay for all you eat, different from the ship.

I hope you are taking your land tour part first cause then you'll have the cruise back to rest and I mean rest.I've forgotten to tell you other things I'm sure cause there's so much. If you want to ask me specific questions you can e-mail me:NAS-KARR@msn.com

 

Have great cruise/tour e CIAO,

ps It'll stay light till around around 2100-2130