I had originally wanted to sail round trip from San Francisco so I didn't have to get on a plane to get to the ship, but my husband wanted to add a land tour so I worked with a wonderful Princess travel consultant who was a great help. I like doing my flights and transfers through the cruise company I am working with as it puts the whole package together very smoothly.

Had a great time working our Princess Consultant with different items I wanted and got my trip put together the way we wanted it. When we got to Denali my husband and I were really looking forward to going to the Arctic Circle on a plane. That was going to be the big highlight of the trip. The rest of the trip was low-key. Shortly before it was time to leave Princess called and asked if we were interested in an upgrade to a suite which we took and picked room L721. It was great! The views were wonderful from both balconies and the cabin was very comfortable. The dining room staff was excellent and our room steward was good and always had our room ready for us when we would come back from being out. We really enjoyed the ship for a nice restful time.

Then came the land part of our tour. The train ride from Whittier was fun and we enjoyed the talks they had. We got to our room at Mt. McKinley and found it was all the way in the back of the property and upstairs (no elevators). My husband and I have hip and knee problems, but not bad enough to ask fro ADA rooms. Wish we would have for the land part of this tour. At both McKinley and Denali our rooms were in the cabins furthest from the main lodge and on the second floors with no elevators. Our room at McKinley had a slight view and we did get to see a moose eating outside our window at 12:30 AM which was fun, but otherwise not much fun. The next day we headed for Denali and our driver was really a lot of fun with her stories. Got to Denali and had the worst room ever. Again back of the property, upstairs and after walking past all the rooms with great views of the mountains and river we turned the corner and our window had a bunch of trees and a cabin right in front of it; no view. Oh well, looking forward to our tour of the Arctic Circle the next day. For anyone staying at the Princess Denali Lodge, if you get to the King Salmon Restaurant between 4:30 and 5:30 PM ask for the early bird special if you like prime rib or salmon. They had it on special and it is really good and no as expensive. Got back to our room after dinner and sorted our our clothes for the next day. At 9:30 that night we get a call that our Arctic Circle tour was cancelled due to not enough people signing up. Not happy, but we had breakfast the next day and wandered around. My knees were hurting so we took the shuttle to Denali and walked around a little at the visitors centers and couldn't wait to get out of there. Finally we boarded our bus to Fairbanks and had a nice drive but we were really tired of seeing trees and mountains. Read more