Denali National Park

Hi,

I have about 24 hours in Denali. What is the best thing to do to see as much as possible. Thanks for your help.

Denali National Park

Welcome to the forum. It would really help us if you told us your arrival and departure times. 8am until 8am would be a totally different plan than say 2pm until 2pm.

Also tell us when you will be there - May will be much different than after June 8th.

John

Denali National Park

Oh thank you John for reminding me of these things. Ok I will be there in June. As far as when I will arrive, that is a little tougher because I am doing a tour/cruise package. I do not see specific times on the itinerary for Denali. I would guess that we arrive sometime late afternoon and leave the next afternoon. Any suggestions will be much appreciated. Can you tell I%26#39;m a newbie to cruising and Alaska!

Exactly what day in June will you be in Denali?

Can you give us a link to your cruisetour so we can see if you arrive/leave by rail (we%26#39;d know the times then) or by bus (we won%26#39;t know the times).

Which cruise line are you with? Where are you coming from? If coming from Fairbanks, you will probably arrive noon or early afternoon, depending on what you are doing in Fairbanks. If you are coming from the south, you might or might not arrive later, depending again on where you are coming from.

Does the cruise line offer any tours when you are there? My guess is that they will offer the Natural History Tour, which is worthless. If this is included, ask for a refund and if you can%26#39;t get a refund, I would just lose the money and start over.

I would try to contact the cruise line and see if you can pry info from them. If you are with Princess, I can almost guarantee you will only get the Natural History Tour.

If you arrive in the early afternoon, I would suggest a shuttle bus to Toklat. There is one that departs at or about 3pm (or used to be). You will get back something like 10-11pm. If this won%26#39;t work this year, find a shuttle that goes further (Eielson or even the 2pm or 4pm camper bus) and get off in time to catch the last camper bus back to the entrance (arrives something like 11pm). You can get the bus schedule once the buses start running in May.

You need to get further into the park than most cruisetours take you - unless your cruisetour gives you the Tundra Wilderness Tour and if so, that is acceptable).

The next day you can stay near the park entrance - sleddog demo, visitor center exhibits and film, WAC film, or light hiking near the entrance.

With all due respect, you really need to find out what you purchased. You just spent thousands of dollars for something that you really don%26#39;t know what you bought. That just would not be acceptable to me but I know everyone is different. But when it comes to Denali, it really is important.

John

I have changed my itinerary to give us 2 days in Denali. John, with all due respect, I had not paid any money yet. I was doing homework to see if this cruisetour was right for me. Thanks for the concern and your willingness to help.

I am now looking at Celebrity cruise/tour #1 as it has a longer stay in Denali.

You won%26#39;t regret having two nights in Denali.

The afternoon of arrival you can go to the visitor center to see the exhibits and the film and/or see the sleddog demo at the park headquarters.

The next day is the Tundtra Wilderness Tour which goes 53 miles into the park. If possible, you might consider switching from the TWT to a shuttle bus. The advantages of the shuttle bus are 1) goes further into the park, especially between Toklat (mile 53) and Eielson (mile 66) which is prime bear habitat, and 2) you can get off the shuttle bus, do some hiking or walking and get back on any bus to continue. Lastly, if you get a credit for the TWT, you will pay a lot less for the shuttle bus than you do for the TWT.

One negative of the cruisetour is that you spend very little time in Seward. They give you entrance to the Sealife Center, which is nice, but if it were me, I would book a Kenai Fjords NP boat tour instead. They will meet you at the train station when you arrive, it lasts 6 hours and they will get you to the ship in time for dinner.

John

Thank you John. I was looking into doing the Kenai Fjords boat trip instead of the SeaLife Center so you just settled that for sure! Are there certain boat companies I should go with?