{"id":24534,"date":"2015-06-23T01:00:51","date_gmt":"2015-06-23T08:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cruisingdoneright.com\/?p=24534"},"modified":"2015-06-23T01:00:51","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T08:00:51","slug":"tuesday-23-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/?p=24534","title":{"rendered":"Princess's Diamond In The Wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Lodge\"<\/a>DENALI, Alaska — Of the five lodges that Princess Cruises<\/a> operates in Alaska<\/a>, the one on the doorstep of Denali National Park<\/a> has the size, the reputation and the history that a flagship hotel — or a flagship anything — should have.<\/p>\n

At 656 rooms, it is the biggest of the five lodges with which Princess cruise passengers have become familiar. <\/p>\n

At 656 rooms, it is the biggest hotel in Alaska.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, the Princess port in Alaska. <\/p>\n

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, \"Bonnie<\/a>like many Alaska tourist stops, it’s a temporary home to a younger demographic of tourist.<\/p>\n

“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.”<\/p>\n

In its early years, the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge was a victim of the Curse of Good Friday<\/i>. 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.<\/p>\n

“I’m told they were literally moving furniture in as guests were arriving,” says Westlund.<\/p>\n

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 \"Susitna\"<\/a>spectacular vistas on the other side do not include Mount McKinley, which is<\/i> visible from the park, and give it the look and feel of a five-star cabin in the woods.<\/p>\n

The signature restaurant is the King Salmon<\/i>…no imagination necessary to know what that featured menu item is. There’s also a nightly dinner show at the Music of Denali Theater<\/i>, built to replace (temporarily) the burned-out kitchen from the 1996 fire and now where \"Base<\/a>\"Village\"<\/a>young performers double as waiters before singing in a musical, Alaska-style. And a third, pub-style eatery called Base Camp Bar & Grill<\/i> overlooks the river.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

When you’re managing a place like this, that contradiction can be explained by the need for WiFi:<\/p>\n

“People tend to forget that we’re in the middle of nowhere,” laughs Bonnie Westlund. “They think the Internet grows on trees!”<\/p>\n

In the wilderness, almost everything does.<\/p>\n

In the news…<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/u><\/p>\n

• Natalie Cole on Cunard's Queen Mary 2 for jazz club in October
\n\t• AIDA ships to offer flat rates to Internet customers<\/span><\/p>\n

Today at portsandbows.co<\/span><\/a>m: <\/strong><\/em><\/span>All the latest cruise news<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Celebrity Millennium<\/a>
\n\t7 nights
\n\tJuly 10, 2015
\n\tAnchorage<\/a>, Hubbard Glacier<\/a>, Juneau<\/a>, Skagway<\/a>, Icy Strait Point<\/a>, Ketchikan<\/a>, Vancouver<\/a>
\n\tInside: $449
\n\tCost per day: $64<\/strong>
\n\twww.celebritycruises.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… Continue reading Princess's Diamond In The Wilderness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,32,25,36,15],"tags":[45,138,78,912,72,819,35,712,1100,2001,26,27,957],"class_list":["post-24534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruise-industry-news","category-deals","category-people","category-reviews","category-stories","tag-alaska","tag-celebrity-cruises","tag-celebrity-millennium","tag-cruise-bargains","tag-cruise-deals","tag-cruise-news","tag-cruises","tag-denali","tag-denali-national-park","tag-denali-princess-wilderness-lodge","tag-phil-reimer","tag-ports-and-bows","tag-princess-cruises","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vitaluna.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}