number of people on a Princess land tour?

[Sea Hag]

This may have been asked and answered, but I can't find it through the search function.

 

We're going on a cruisetour at the end of this month, and my husband just asked me how many people were on each of the land tour portion of a Princess cruisetour. I don't have a clue.

 

Anybody out there know? We're going by bus from Valdez to Copper River, but I don't know if there'll be one bus or many. :confused:

[flaglinda]

We went on a slightly different cruisetour, but we had 51 on our tour. Linda

[Sea Hag]

That sounds about like one bus load. Thanks for the info.

[jrw]

When we did the Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay land tour (part of our cruisetour), it was limited to 1 "escorted" group of 30 and 1 "non-escorted" group of 30. Therefore, 2 motorcoaches. Hopefully you will be going "escorted", here is something I posted the other day:

 

...we went on the Princess "Escorted" tour. That is more expensive than the basic option, however, on the Escorted tour all of your meals, excursions (not cruise excursions), and tips (including tips aboard ship!) are covered. Two groups (one group per motorcoach, 30 people each group) went, one Escorted, one not. The "not" group complained often because food is extremely expensive (especially as you travel to the far reaches) and when adding that, plus excursions, plus tips -- their costs were significantly higher than ours. Many of them sat out on excursions due to cost. Consider both options and try to estimate what all those items would cost out of pocket. Aside from being less $ in the end, we also didn't have the worry of carrying lots of extra cash. It is not like being on the ship where all your charges go to your shipboard account -- you need cash on the land tour if going non-"Escorted"...

 

I'm not familiar with your land tour, but if it's anything like ours and you are going "non-escorted", be sure to bring a good bit of cash. On our land tour, most everyone in "non-escorted" ran out of cash much faster than they expected and there was no way of obtaining cash in the remote areas we visited. It was unfortunate for them, they did not realize how expensive food up there is, on top of the excursions.

 

HAVE A WONDERFUL TRIP, I AM SURE YOU WILL LOVE IT!! :D

[Sea Hag]

When we did the Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay land tour (part of our cruisetour), it was limited to 1 "escorted" group of 30 and 1 "non-escorted" group of 30. Therefore, 2 motorcoaches. Hopefully you will be going "escorted", here is something I posted the other day:

 

 

I'm not familiar with your land tour, but if it's anything like ours and you are going "non-escorted", be sure to bring a good bit of cash. On our land tour, most everyone in "non-escorted" ran out of cash much faster than they expected and there was no way of obtaining cash in the remote areas we visited. It was unfortunate for them, they did not realize how expensive food up there is, on top of the excursions.

 

HAVE A WONDERFUL TRIP, I AM SURE YOU WILL LOVE IT!! :D

 

Hi John,

 

Thanks for your reply. I'm really very confused about most of it. We never were offered "escorted" or "non-escorted" as options, and I wonder if those only apply to the tours going up to Prudhoe Bay. We're only going to Copper River Princess Lodge and Denali Princess Lodge, then back to Anchorage for a night before flying home.

 

I'm sure the food for our tour will be expensive, and I'm trying to figure out how much cash to bring. What I'll probably end up doing is taking a guess at it and then doubling that. Think that might work? :D

 

And I'm also sure I'll love it!

[jrw]

Hi John,

 

Thanks for your reply. I'm really very confused about most of it. We never were offered "escorted" or "non-escorted" as options, and I wonder if those only apply to the tours going up to Prudhoe Bay. We're only going to Copper River Princess Lodge and Denali Princess Lodge, then back to Anchorage for a night before flying home.

 

I'm sure the food for our tour will be expensive, and I'm trying to figure out how much cash to bring. What I'll probably end up doing is taking a guess at it and then doubling that. Think that might work? :D

 

And I'm also sure I'll love it!

 

Hi Sea Hag...sorry for delayed response...I neglected to "subscribe" to this thread and just happened upon it again tonight.

 

Not a big deal, but I'm the Renée half of my sig...LOL...was dating hubby at the time of my Alaska trip and he was not with me.

 

I'm really not sure if all land tours are offered as "escorted" or only certain itineraries. Too late now to worry either way.

 

As for cash for the land portion, it depends if you will have excursions, and I don't know if you were given any advance info on those (?). I would say to bring about $100 a day per person. Although, where you are going won't be quite as remote as where I went, and being 8 yrs since the time I went, maybe there is ATM access in more places? Aside from finding someone who went on your land tour, it really is hard to judge. It was a relief for us to not have to carry much cash and have everything covered except souvenir purchases. The food costs are really a lot higher, and adding excursions and tips, it goes quickly.

 

Have a great time! :)

 

-- Renée

[Budget Queen]

Certainly with you going by bus, you aren't going to have more than 50 or so people on the bus. But the lodges are generally full in season, with both lodges holding many groups. Go to the Princess Lodges website, should be able to find capacity.

 

As for your food costs. Budget 50% more than you would at home. Most everywhere takes credit cards. The Denali Princess does have way more options for food than the Copper Princess, If available, the best dining there is the Copper Center Roadhouse. Copper River Salmon is just fantastic. In the past there have been shuttles to there. Interesting small museum. But, hopefully you are doing a fly in to Kenicott, road trip to McCarthy etc. of something??? Very remote beautiful area that requires tours.