excursions in Alaska........

For the lodge at McKinley, check out the recent Youtube video by EECC TRAVELS

In Fairbanks we enjoyed the museum at the University and the Riverboat Discovery tour

I have cruised Alaska twice through Norwegian and it is extremely beautiful. My impression is that Princess is a step above Norwegian as a cruise line.

I suggest doing a search on each of your excursions. I did one for the Cooper River Wilderness Lodge and received some results including one at Trip Adviser with reviews and ratings.

Princess might also have reviews and ratings for each of your excursions on its website.

Rick Steves may not be the right site for your query.

We did Denali after our NCL cruise with a local Alaska company.

It was great. Denali is great, don't miss it. I don't think you need to spend a lot on an air flight excursion.

I posted a long response on your previous thread, suggesting that you can save $$$ and have a much better experience in Alaska by renting a car and booking your own lodging. This advice is based on my personal experience as a former Alaska resident and now a recent 3X visitor. I also pointed to the TripAdvisor Alaska forum, which is a very friendly and knowledgeable source of information for planning one’s own trip.

But you deleted that whole thread. Does that mean you did not like that suggestion?

If so, but you are open to considering other booking agencies, you might look at Alaska Tour and Travel, which I believe is well-regarded by many who post on the TripAdvisor Alaska forum.

https://www.alaskatravel.com/

Alaska Tours and Travel, that is who we used for our Denali tour. It was great.

In 2002 we took the Princess cruise from Seattle to Anchorage inside passage and enjoyed it immensely. The talks/lectures/discussions about each area were informative and covered the flora/fauna/landscape/geology/history very well. Our stops were Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. We didn't have the budget for the pricy excursions (flights, helicopters, dog sleds, etc.) so took the less pricy ones. In Ketchikan, the small raptor museum and Totem Bight State Park tour (highly enjoyable); in Skagway the White Pass Railroad tour/ride (another good one, with lots of historical info on the ride); in Juneau, none. In Juneau we took a city bus to the Mendenhall Glacier viewing site, and hiked through a rainforest. In town we had a drink at the Red Dog Saloon and visited the Alaska State Museum. In Skagway and Ketchikan we had enough free time for exploring the towns, seeing a vaudeville show, visiting local museums).
From Anchorage we took a four day add-on from Princess, and spent two nights at the Princess McKinley Wilderness Lodge, just eating up the views of Mt. Denali (a real treat!), then a trip to Denali Natl. Park. (Denali Wilderness Lodge). The tour inside the park was through the Natl. Park Service. They don't allow private tours there, to make sure the environment is protected. It was in a small bus with box lunches, and the driver was a NP ranger who provided a superb commentary and pointed out animals we might have missed seeing. Our trip to McKinley Lodge was by bus...beautiful drive, great commentary by tour leader on board.
The trip to and from Denali NP was on a great train ride with a dome top with room for everyone to sit and admire the scenery. Also, dining on the train was great and linen tablecloth quality.

Not knowing if the ship you will be on will be one of the behemoths you see nowadays, I feel we had a terrific experience with the cruise and the add-on trip, plus our in-port excursions. Our ship had, if I remember correctly, about 1500 passengers. I could be wrong, but it never felt like a massive population on board.
The trip was definitely a good one. I would recommend it based on our experience, albeit not a recent one.

(Last thoughts...McKinley Lodge had only two places to eat, both meh. From our stay in Denali NP, there was transportation to Horseshoe Lakes for a nice hike in our free time. Worth doing, since we hadn't bought one of the more expensive optional activities.)
Have a wonderful trip! You will enjoy yourselves, I am sure!

Judy, thank you for writing a nice report on your cruise and post-cruise time in Alaska. Some things in Alaska have changed a bit since 2002, and I want to point out one of those changes in case they are helpful to the OP.

First, the things that haven’t changed—-the locations of the 2 Princess hotels associated with Denali. The Princess hotel websites are not very transparent about this.

The McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge is located at Trapper Creek, about an hour north of Talkeetna by road, and 100 miles south of the Denali National Park entrance. It is not very convenient to either. The one thing in its favor is that they do have a great view of Denali, at least when it is not obscured by clouds (60% of the time overall). Those can last for days on end, especially later in the summer. June usually offers more clear days and opportunities to see the mountain itself, but it is never guaranteed.

Other than gazing in awe at Denali, there is nothing to do at this location but relax, unless you take one of their offered excursions. Then you can go rafting, horseback riding, ATV touring, visit a sled dog kennel, or try other things, all at a cost. You can see the possibilities on the McKinley Princess website:

https://www.princesslodges.com/princess-alaska-lodges/mckinley-lodge/

Note that the photo of the sled dogs on this page under “Excursions” is misleading. The photo shows a park ranger driving a team of dogs pulling a “summer sled” on wheels. This is the national park sled dog team demonstration, an activity you can do for free inside the national park, but not from the McKinley Princess. The sled dog excursion they offer visits a nearby kennel, and costs $185 per person. But you may get to ride in the sled, something you cannot do at the park service demonstration. So if that is important, then it might be worth it. But for a more authentic dogsled ride, you might look into one offered on snow on a glacier—-generally reached by helicopter from Juneau or Seward.

The Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, on the other hand, is right near the Denali National Park entrance in the area known locally as “Glitter Gulch” for its array of large and fancy hotels. It is hardly wilderness; more like a strip mall along the road.

https://www.princesslodges.com/princess-alaska-lodges/denali-lodge/

it does have some frontage on the Nenana River, and you can book a rafting trip there, either on calmer water or rapids. And the same array of ATV and other excursions as are offered at the McKinley Princess. Note that none of these take place inside the national park.

Seeing the national park itself is what has changed a lot since 2002. There has long been a ban on private vehicles driving past Mile 15 of the park road, with shuttle buses and guided tour buses in place to take visitors 60-90 miles into the park to see the landscape and the wildlife. However, a slow-moving landslide in a very steep area of the road became active enough that the road was closed to all traffic in 2021, and they have been working on a bridge over the slide area ever since. It will not be open until 2026 at the earliest. So the tour buses and shuttle buses turn around at Mile 43, and visitors miss seeing the most spectacular parts of the park.

You can read about the bus options and the landslide on the Denali NP webpage:

https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/visiting-denali.htm

https://www.nps.gov/dena/learn/nature/pretty-rocks.htm

Princess cannot operate any of their buses into the park; if you want to do the tour or bus ride you must book with the concessioner. I do not know if Princess offers a shuttle to the boarding area for the various buses. If not, it is a rather long walk. So I suggest you call them and ask, if you are thinking about booking a room at this hotel. I also suggest you read reviews on Tripadvisor, as lately the Denali Princess has been getting negative reviews.

rfp4joy and Lola,
At McKinley Wilderness Lodge, we were in the lucky 30% who had an unobscured view of the top of Mt. Denali for the day and a half we were there. The image changed as the day progressed and the light changed. We gaped like little kids at the magnificence of Denali, and the area around the lodge had some nice walks. There was a lot of interesting flora...Methusaleh's Beard moss on the trees, huge bright red mushrooms, plants and flowers we don't see in southern California. We relaxed and surprisingly didn't get bored. If only the restaurant and cafe were better!

Yes, we did get to Talkeetna. Our bus took us there from the Lodge, and we took the train from there to Denali NP. Since we were on a Princess post-cruise tour, we were driven to the departure point for the bus ride into the park. (Yes, Lola, a bit of glitter gulch by our Denali lodge, but worth it to go into the park.)
Still a wonderful memory, and so glad we did our post-cruise excursion, even though we didn't do the fancier or more expensive and exotic extras. We have some very happy memories!

I've only done the inside passage cruise; it was for my mother's bucket list and very enjoyable. But I have worked in Alaska for more than a year, cumulative time. June in AK, especially on the interior, it can get over 100F. Plan accordingly.

Also you will need some good, above the ankle, boots if you plan on any hiking. the thawed tundra is really hard to walk on and famous for causing injury. I can't say about the guided tours, but the trails can be a challenge in the backcountry.

Do you have to stay at those places? Because I'd suggest Chena Hot Springs as an alternative.

Last, many people have major issues trying to sleep when the sun is still up.

A quick note to add:

If you are in Fairbanks for the summer solstice, there are a lot of fun activities that night - I strongly recommend - it was a highlight of our stay!

When we were in Denali, it was socked in by clouds most of the time, but I got some spectacular pics around 1030 at night (it stays light late that far north)

Sounds like a wonderful bucket list trip you are planning!

Thank you all ! I learned a lot!!!
. Lola, I mistakenly deleted the thread, thought I needed to, to post elsewhere….
We are so excited about this trip I so appreciate all the information : )

We used K2 Aviation out of Talkeetna and did the flight that landed on a glacier. They have an active FB page.

We rented a car and planned our own land portion after the cruise.

Thank you for explaining the deleted post, Rhonda. That takes care of my hurt feelings! ;>)

The above post about flightseeing from Talkeetna is a good place to start with researching this activity. K2Aviation is one of several companies based there. There are also options from airstrips near the Denali park entrance.

https://www.flyk2.com/

They all offer a variety of flight choices, including a simple out and back, with or without a glacier landing; around the mountain (with or without a glacier landing); and over the top (I would not recommend that unless you are happy wearing an oxygen mask to handle the altitude).

Flightseeing companies authorized to fly and land within the park (on the glacier) are listed on this Denali NP page:

https://www.nps.gov/dena/planyourvisit/flightseeing.htm

Hello, We did the Princess land tour ,Cruise 3 Weeks ago. The land tour was fabulous and very easy since everything was handled so smoothly. All you had to do is be on time with your guide. Our guides name is Carlos and would highly recommend him. We stayed at Copper River Lodge, Denali Lodge, and Mt McKinley Ldge. All were very nice. The Fannie Q restaurant in Denali had a great buffet breakfast there. Denali was the most beautiful park I had ever seen. The colors of the tundra was amazing. We did see Caribou, a Red fox, A grizzlies bear but was far away. We got lucky and saw Mt Denali 3 days in a row. Our last 7 days was our Cruise which was very nic and enjoyable as well.