princess cruise tour ja5

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Alaska ja5 tour

By hawkette64 , April 21, 2023 in Princess Cruises

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We have the ja5 tour booked with princess to Alaska.  Has anyone upgraded the included transfer from Whittier to Anchorage?  A transfer is included, however they offer an excursion with additional stops from Whittier to Anchorage.  Thank you.

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Princess Alaska Cruise Tour Denali Explorer JA 5 - Anchorage Forum

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Princess Alaska Cruise Tour Denali Explorer JA 5

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I am wondering about suggestions for excursions. On the cruise we stop in Ketchikan (6:30 am - 3:00 pm), Juneau (8:00 am -9:00 pm), Skagway (7:00 am - 8:30 pm) and disembark in Anchorage where our land tour will begin.

On the land tour we will be staying at Hotel Captain Cook (Anchorage ), Mt. McKinley Wilderness Lodge; taking a train from Talkeetna to Denali and staying at Denali Wilderness Lodge for two nights. Most afternoons seem to be available for leisure time.

We see there are options for excursions on both the cruse and land portions and wonder if anyone has any suggestions. We are not trying to break the bank, but have just one time to visit Alaska.

Maybe there are things we should do on our own in the ports and during the afternoons on the land portion vs booking an excursion with Princess?

Appreciate any suggestions and especially watchouts

Thanks mucho!!!!

15 replies to this topic

We are taking the same trip but in late August. This will be my third time cruising and the first time including the land portion. I can highly recommend taking the White Pass & Yukon train tour out of Skagway. We enjoyed all of the ports. We did have a terrific small boat trip from Juneau to a private island for a salmon bake that allowed for seeing otters along the way. Hope this helps a little.

It sure does. I had considered a salmon bake excursion, but dont think the spouse cares for the delicacy

Who is traveling and if there are children, what are their ages?

Note that you do not arrive into Anchorage when you finish the cruise . You arrive into Whittier which is about a 90 minute drive from Anchorage.

Here is an example of the JA5 cruisetour: https://www.princess.com/cruise-search/details/?voyageCode=A322&resType=T&tourCode=T3AJA5

Steve, does your tour end in Fairbanks? Please check to see that it is the same as the one you're taking (dates don't matter, but time in ports, land transport, etc.) If it isn't, please find the EXACT link on that site and post it so we can see what is included.

This is the link to our cruise/tour: https://www.alaskacruises.com/itineraries/12-night-denali-explorer-tour-ja5-cruise-and-land-tour_grand-princess_ja5-5-6-2023.html

Thanks much. We are from North Carolina so naturally we hope to see some "animals" Bears and Moose are on the top of the list!

Here are a couple interesting things I see on the Princess Excursion pages:

Nothing seems overly exciting. The native village or totem park could be a possibility

The Mendenhall Glacier sounds interesting. I also combo trips: Mendenhall Glacier/Salmon Bake/Salmon Hatchery and Mendenhall Glacier/Juneau Tram. Whale watching sounds exciting, but expensive

Klondike summit or a combo trip with the Summit maybe

First off, as a fan of Denali NP, I strongly suggest that you just skip the Natural History Tour in the park. That goes 17 miles into the park and you can take a free shuttle bus 15 miles into the park and replicate 90% of that tour on your own for free. Instead, go to reservedenali.com and book an East Fork Transit shuttle bus for about $33/person. This is way less expensive than the upgrade to the Tundra Wilderness Tour that you could also do. Generally the transfers from the Denali Princess lodge to the bus depot start about 7am, so don't book your departure time until at least 8am. That will give you time to get to the bus depot and pick up your transit shuttle tickets. When you pick them up, also tell them that you are on a cruisetour and already paid the entrance fee when Princess booked the DNHT for you. That way you don't have to pay the $15/person entrance fee again.

Secondly, the McKinley Princess lodge is almost 1 hour bus ride from Talkeetna. I would suggest you take the bus from the McKinley Princess lodge to Talkeetna in the morning and meet the train in Talkeetna. It should depart about 12.30pm but you can double check that. Saves you back and forth to/from the lodge a lot.

In Juneau, you can take a bus or taxi to Mendenhall Glacier. You could also rent a car that day to go to the glacier then do other things like drive further north of Auke Bay. Don't buy tickets for the tram until you are in Juneau. If it is a cloudy day and you can't see the top of the tram from the street there is little sense in going to the top just to see clouds.

You could check with Chilkoot Charters for a combo trip in Skagway. It would be a smaller group than if you booked through the cruise ship.

Many of we regulars on this forum usually suggest doing the land tour on your own. This is a good example. McKinley Princess lodge is in the middle of nowhere and unless Denali the mountain is out, it's kind of a non-day. Then the included natural history tour is great if you like history and culture of the national park. But if you like scenery and wildlife, this doesn't do it. The tundra wilderness tour is much better or IMHO the East Fork Transit shuttle is even better yet. Why pay for the tour when you have to adjust it to make it the most worthwhile?

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