So instead, we reached out to the lodge directly and asked to book an extra night for the night before the first day of our trip. While some cruisers have reported having to settle for a local hotel when doing this, we had no issue not only booking an extra night (at our own expense) but also getting to keep the same room for the entire time in Fairbanks. Keep in mind that even though we were at the same hotel, our connoisseur perks didn't kick in until the start of the regular cruise tour so everything from excursion to edibles was at our own expense.
To get to Fairbanks, we had to fly from Baltimore with a layover in Minneapolis. Wasn't a long layover but the airport is large enough for us to grab a motorized cart ride to our next gate. Then on to Fairbanks getting in around 9PM. There was a lot of people arriving today, not just from our tour group, but we easily found the Princess representative waiting for us. The airport to lodge transfer included in our tour booking is the one thing that still applied so we soon joined the crowd boarding a couple motor coaches. Check in was fairly easy and we were in our room 1212 shortly thereafter given the later arrival.
Not too shabby a view outside our window:
This was a connecting room but we just kept the door locked. That's the chair meant for the desk pictured in front of the connecting door.
Nice small table and chairs where we'd bring back our breakfast on the go.
Average hotel bathroom though I'd be curious to know the backstory behind the inclusion of two toilet paper holders. One and Two ply?
Since this is a Princess Cruise Lines owned property, the usual cruise ship bathroom shampoo/body wash dispensers were installed in the shower here too. If you book a suite cabin on the ship, your bathroom will have little bottles of shampoo etc. rather than the dispensers.
It is a bathtub/shower combo so you would have to be able to step up into it.
Our room had two double beds with our own nightstands and lamps.
Since we were in the system as being part of the upcoming cruise tour, we were given our envelope of welcome paperwork this first night. Inside was basic information about the trip, a detailed schedule of what we were signed up for and when, and these different luggage tags.
On a cruise, there is evenings designated as formal nights (or cruise elegant depending on how the line words it) where it is encouraged to dress a little nicer for dinner. As usual, how dressier is up to personal preference and we have never been turned away for not being dressed up enough. Dad's version of dressing for formal night dinners is to wear the long sleeve dress shirt instead of his short sleeve dress shirt. Yes, some people will go all out with tuxes and evening gowns but you won't be out of place if you're like me who goes for black slacks and a sparkly patterned blouse. I keep the comfort and add the bling! On the land portion, there is no formal nights. As a result, this is one item you'd only need on the ship. If there's anything you know you won't need until you get on board the cruise portion, put it all in one suitcase and attach the pink "Join me onboard" tags. On the first night, these suitcases with pink tags were collected and traveled in their own truck not to be accessible again until we got to Whittier. Everything you want to have with you in the hotel each night as the land tour goes on, put in another suitcase and attach the green "Join me tonight" tags along with the tags with the code of the next lodge. Each night before we moved to the next city, we put out our green tagged luggage with the assigned tags for the next lodge outside our room and the employees would whisk it away to be loaded onto the bus. These bags would be simply in the storage area under the same bus we rode to the next town in and then unloaded by the employees there to be waiting by your hotel room.
This lodge had options for a Breakfast Buffet or prepared dishes from a menu. Lunch, cocktail hour, and dinner options were also available. The nice thing about being on the Connoisseur tour is that we were given dining vouchers that were based on courses (i.e. choose one appetizer, one entrée, one dessert) not based on a max dollar amount. Didn't matter whether we chose the cheapest burger or the most expensive crab legs on the menu.
We enjoyed walking around the grounds following the River Walk and Lodge Trail. One of my favorite spots was The Chef's Garden:
Just make sure to watch out for wildlife like moose and bears:
In case you needed a reminder of your tour's schedule, you can check these video screens in the lobby:
If by chance you're one of those strange creatures who want to work off as many calories as they are enjoying, the basement of the lodge held a small health club. Limited cardio machines like treadmill and stationery bike but a good assortment of weight machines and free weights.
There was lockers, shower, and changing facilities within the health club space. You used your room key card to gain access.
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