Princess Alaska Land Fam

Princess Land Fam - September 9-15 2007
By Carol Flanigan

September 9 – Seattle overnight Doubletree Airport
The Airport Doubletree is a surprisingly nice hotel. Recently remodeled and has a very nice outdoor swimming pool, hot tub area and lounge chairs. Good restaurants. Rooms have been recently renovated and have very nice soft goods. Would highly recommend for business clients or leisure clients wanting to stay near the airport.

September 10 – Seattle to Fairbanks
Our group took the 4 hour afternoon non-stop to Fairbanks, arriving at about 7:00pm. We were housed at the Fairbanks Rivers Edge Villas. These are individual cabins, nicely decorated, but still a north woods cabin. I would expect that Minnesotans would compare them to cabins up north and find them not worth the price paid as part of a Princess escorted land package. As part of the escorted package we had dinner included and went to the Princess Fairbanks Lodge for dinner. General impression of this lodge is that it is tired and in need of renovation. Nothing terrible, but worn. The restaurant was nice and dinner was very good. Tab for 3 not including any alcohol was $207.00. This was for 3 appetizers, 3 soup or salad, 3 entrees, 1 shared dessert.

Princess has several properties in Fairbanks – The Princess Lodge, the Bear Lodge, Rivers Edge Villas and a property next door to the Lodge. Can’t remember the name. Clearly the Lodge is the best choice, but the only people guaranteed a room at the Lodge are those on escorted cruisetours. There are only 3 suites in the Lodge, so a suite on the cruise does not guarantee a suite at the Lodge. The Bear Lodge is quite a distance from the Lodge, but shuttles run frequently. It is the quality of a Holiday Inn. None of the Fairbanks properties are deluxe level in my opinion.

September 11 – Fairbanks – Included Riverboat Sternwheeler and Gold Panning tour with a stop at the Pipeline. Both of these tours are well run and are excellent inclusions in the Princess program. The stop at the Pipeline was interesting, but quite short.

Dinner that night was at the restaurant at the Rivers Edge Villas. Food was fine when it arrived, but dinner took a full 4 hours, having received no service for the first hour.

All in all, I would be hard pressed to recommend Fairbanks as worth the time that it takes to get there. Other people I am sure have other opinions.

September 12 – Train from Fairbanks to Denali – Train was about 4 hours with breakfast served on board. Excellent experience. Denali Lodge is much nicer than Fairbanks Lodge. Rooms small, but nice. Lodge itself is well maintained and has the feeling that I think is expected from an Alaska Lodge. Dinner and breakfast were both well prepared, but if we had not been on the escorted program I would have considered the food to be quite expensive. Dinner entrees were $20-$35.00 and appetizers, soup, salad and dessert are extra. Meals would easily run $50.00-$70.00 per person without alcohol. Breakfast buffet was $12.00 and was the expected meal although there was an ala carte menu.

Natural history tour - This is the short tour into the park and I enjoyed it very much. Did not have a problem with the “school bus” transportation. It was really quite comfortable. Our guide was excellent. We stopped several times for moose sightings. We saw about 7 moose total. No other wildlife sighted.

Tour includes a presentation by a native Alaskan. Very good.

We took a $45.00 Princess shore excursion to the Husky Homestead, home of the Jeff King Iditarod kennel of about 75 dogs, including 2 week old puppies. Very well run excursion and very entertaining and informative.

September 13 – Motorcoach from Denali to McKinley Lodge. This was about a 2 hour coach ride. The McKinley Lodge was the high point of the trip for me. This is truly an Alaska Lodge experience. Everything is designed to focus on Mt McKinley and we were lucky enough to see the mountain, although in Talkeetna, not at the lodge. Rooms were simply decorated and very small. There was not enough room to put the suitcase at the end of the bed and have a walk way. There is no town near this lodge. It is very remote, but there are activities at the lodge including a game room, small theater with frequent naturalist presentations, hiking trails, etc.

By this time we realized that the food is basically the same at every lodge. There are some changes in the menus, but also many similarities. Quality was always excellent, but service varied. At McKinley the service was very good. Much of the food tastes the same from one lodge to another.

September 14 – McKinley Lodge to Anchorage

Chulitna Canyon Float. This $99.00, 2 hour river float trip is an excellent shore excursion, but upon arrival the guide asked if we had been told about the hike required at the end of the trip. We said that we had not been told about any hike and she said that the Princess Outfitters have not been giving clients enough information and that they have had to turn people away who were not able to make the climb at the end of the tour. It was a strenuous climb in deep mud to a pick up truck and a ride back to the starting point of the tour in the back of the truck. Hardly a gentle float trip as described in the Princess book.

We didn’t think that we were going to see the mountain on the day that we needed to leave, so we took the 1:30 shuttle to Talkeetna. This is a one hour transfer to town. Talkeetna is a small tourist town that can be seen and shopped in about two hours. (The Holland America lodge is about 5 minutes outside of Talkeetna and also offers excellent views of the mountain.) When we arrived the sky had cleared and we went to the tourist information center and asked where we could go to view the mountain. We were told to go about 3 blocks to the beach for the best viewing. It was spectacular! We spent about 1.5 hours just enjoying the view and then walked back to the Princess transfer coach to the train station. We took the 4 hour train trip to Anchorage, arriving about 9:00pm. The train trip was once again an excellent experience including the prime rib dinner served on board. But, the prime rib would have been $35.00 per person if purchased separately. Salmon spread appetizer was $11.00 and soup or salad about $7.00. Dessert also about $7.00. Wine was $5.50 per glass or $20.00 per bottle for Mondavi Chardonnay. Expected gratuity was 15%. All of the above (except wine) was included in the food voucher as part of the escorted tour.

September 15 – Anchorage to Seattle and Mpls. We departed for the airport at 6:45am, so we did not see any of Anchorage. Stayed at the Captain Cook hotel. Elegant hotel with very nice rooms and public spaces.