DENALI, Alaska — Of the five lodges that Princess Cruises operates in Alaska, the one on the doorstep of Denali National Park has the size, the reputation and the history that a flagship hotel — or a flagship anything — should have.
At 656 rooms, it is the biggest of the five lodges with which Princess cruise passengers have become familiar.
At 656 rooms, it is the biggest hotel in Alaska.
The lodge at Denali is a destination. From it, you drive only three miles to see the sights of the park. From it, you drive only three miles to board the train for a nine-hour trip to Whittier, the Princess port in Alaska.
It’s a village unto itself, with shops and restaurants and attractions just moments from your room. It’s a busy place — occupancy is over 90 per cent May to September — and, 
like many Alaska tourist stops, it’s a temporary home to a younger demographic of tourist.
“In 1987 [the year the lodge first opened], the average visitor age was 76 years,” says Bonnie Westlund, the resort’s General Manager. “Now it’s 62. We’re now seeing more and more multi-generational families visit.”
In its early years, the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge was a victim of the Curse of Good Friday. On the anniversary of the great earthquake (1964) and the Exxon Valdez oil spill (1989), a fire broke out Good Friday in 1996. It was a major blaze, burning the core of the property, yet the lodge was virtually re-built, opening in time for the annual spring season just six weeks later.
“I’m told they were literally moving furniture in as guests were arriving,” says Westlund.
Across the highway from what locals call Glitter Gulch — a ragtag collection of shops and hangouts that in other locations might be called a strip mall, the classy Denali Princess stretches almost the entire length of the “gulch.” Sitting high above the Susitna River, its 
spectacular vistas on the other side do not include Mount McKinley, which is visible from the park, and give it the look and feel of a five-star cabin in the woods.
The signature restaurant is the King Salmon…no imagination necessary to know what that featured menu item is. There’s also a nightly dinner show at the Music of Denali Theater, built to replace (temporarily) the burned-out kitchen from the 1996 fire and now where 
young performers double as waiters before singing in a musical, Alaska-style. And a third, pub-style eatery called Base Camp Bar & Grill overlooks the river.
The lodge is a “base camp” for atypical wilderness ventures, from aggressive hiking to helicopter rides to nearby (25 minutes) glaciers, but more than anything it is the entree to the national park.
Princess passengers can plan cruisetours so that they stay three or four days in what is — considering that you’re in the middle of the “last frontier” — a glorious contradiction.
When you’re managing a place like this, that contradiction can be explained by the need for WiFi:
“People tend to forget that we’re in the middle of nowhere,” laughs Bonnie Westlund. “They think the Internet grows on trees!”
In the wilderness, almost everything does.
In the news…
• Natalie Cole on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 for jazz club in October
• AIDA ships to offer flat rates to Internet customers
Today at portsandbows.com: All the latest cruise news
Celebrity Millennium
7 nights
July 10, 2015
Anchorage, Hubbard Glacier, Juneau, Skagway, Icy Strait Point, Ketchikan, Vancouver
Inside: $449
Cost per day: $64
www.celebritycruises.com
You never quite know what you’ll see when the sun’s setting in the South Pacific, and the contrast of the clouds off the coast of Hawaii can be typical.
Any cruise ship leaving San Francisco late in the day can deliver this view (if it’s not raining) as you prepare to slip under the Golden Gate Bridge.
This was the result of repeated attempts (no motor drive here) to catch the sun as it dipped below the ocean’s horizon…did we make it?
The reflection of the setting sun is always speelbinding, as it was for us, off the coast of South America from the appropriately named Norwegian Sun.
This could be any ocean scene at sundown, so you’ll just have to take our word that it was near Puntarenas, Costa Rica, from, the Celebrity Millennium.
This photo from the port of Puerto Quetzal, Guatamela, made it into our archives even though we hadn’t even begun writing about cruising!
Many cruises visit Hawaii long enough to disembark and enjoy the sun from the shore, enabling the ever-present palm trees to help frame the shot.
