Dawn Princess Review

3.5 / 5.0
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Dawn Princess - Alaska

Review for Alaska Cruise on Dawn Princess
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achaholic
First Time Cruiser • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Jul 2004

I took a land/sea (cruisetour, as described by Princess) cruise from Alaska with my parents, brother and fiancE. This was a 11 day trip with some fantastic scenery. We spent 3 days staying at Princess Lodges in the interior of Alaska, before cruising 7 days from Whittier to Vancouver via the inside passage. I have been on 2 other cruises before but only to the Caribbean, so I had a good idea of what to expect. I had cruised with Carnival and Royal Caribbean previously and was hoping Princess was more like the latter than the former even though Carnival owns Princess.

We left Baltimore on 7/23, with a quick stopover in Minneapolis before we landed in Fairbanks. We landed in Fairbanks around 5-6 p.m., which felt like 9-10 p.m. due to the time difference. Upon our arrival, we were told not to worry about our baggage and go to the Princess desk. We were given some colored stickers and our room keys for the hotel and waited for 10-15 minutes. The director then rounded us up and took us to the baggage area where all the bags were neatly organized and we were to "tag" our baggage so it could be transported to the hotel. Around this time, I looked around and noticed that most people were not my age. In fact, they were not my parent's age. There was quite an abundance of grey and blue hair in fact. Now my parents are not young; they are mid 50's. The remainder of the group appeared to be at least 10 years older than them. This was not a big issue for me, but just something that may be of note to younger people thinking about taking this cruise. We were bussed about 5 minutes away to our hotel on the Chena River. The grounds were nice but not overly impressive. There was a wonderful display of flowers but overall just satisfactory. Truthfully, due to jet lag, we ate and went to bed fairly early but I don't feel I missed much.

The next day we boarded the train from Fairbanks to Denali Princess Lodge. The train was probably the best experience on the trip and was a great way to see the land. You are seated at a table on the upper level of the train and have some terrific views. The Denali Lodge was probably the best lodge we stayed at. The lodge rests on a hill above the river (forgot the name) surrounded by mountains. Gorgeous views! There are a even a few buildings across the street with a coffee house, gift shop and a Subway (sandwich shop). My brother and I did an ATV excursion here which was disappointing. We got a few nice views but no wildlife spotting and very few stops to admire the views. I would not recommend it unless you are just interested in riding around on an ATV. You are also booked automatically on a Natural History tour that the park service hosts that is highly recommended. We had a few wildlife spottings and were able to get some breathtaking views of Mt. McKinley (Denali, to the locals) and the park in general. Several reviews advise to book the Tundra Wilderness Tour. The tour is longer but honestly, 4 hours on a school bus was enough for me. I don't think I would have liked to spend 8 hours on the bus. We saw enough wildlife to keep us happy without getting cranky on a not so comfortable bus.

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