Denali Raft Adventures Inc — Attraction in Alaska

We had a really bad guide. But the beauty of the scenery salvaged an otherwise extremely disappointing tour. The scenery is gorgeous as expected. Kenai peninsula is much better. The suits didn't leak at all. Be sure to squeeze the air out prior to zipping up or you'll be a michellan man. We originally scheduled the Canyon tour hoping for class 3 or 4 rapids. This was cancelled because the river was class 5 in parts. Later, our guide, Luke, said the company doesn't have insurance for class 5 rapids and that is why they have to cancel our reservation. Completely reasonable, the company sold us on rebooking the adventure tour claiming that it is normally class 1 or 2 and it currently had sections class 3. Our guide Luke, took us all downhill from there. The suits didn't leak, but my boots didn't zip up properly. I would expect the company to pull any equipment not fully functional. Luke, tried to be personable but kept forgetting people's names. After an hour of being called by several different names, he should've just accepted that he's not good with names and it's actually offensive to be called by multiple incorrect names for several hours. Luke fixated and spent the first half of the tour hitting on one of the girls on the tour who was a guide for something else with another company. At first, it was cute and funny. But it got old, then annoying, then halfway through when the guide took pictures of everyone with a nice backdrop, my wife and the guide girl saw he had a picture of another girl on his phone home screen. After that, it was pretty obvious the guide girl was no longer interested. Regardless, half the trip fixated on one person was disrespectful to the rest of the group. Luke explained very early on why we were avoiding certain aspects of the river, which he called holes, that would theoretically be unsafe because they could bend the boat in half or throw someone off. He also said the boat was old and soft. At first, I thought the company should replace their rafts more often if they aren't safe to handle a class 2 rapid, even if it is a hole, it's still class 2. I don't actually think there was anything wrong with the boat. Luke just didn't want to get wet and that ruined the experience for anyone not in the first two spots on the front of the raft. Someone asked about his kayaking shoes and he joked about how the most important thing about rafting was looking good before explaining that they are extra grippy when wet. He lied and overstated the severity of holes because other rafts were hitting them, and we would always conveniently miss them. He said that the company frowns on bringing guests back dry. I sat in the back next to him and was completely dry the entire tour, then he soaked me in the last five minutes. Tried to play it off like a grand finale, but with five minutes left to go, I'd've preferred to stay dry. What an *ss. The furthest person from him might have had a good time because Luke was targeting her a lot. There were splashing wars with other kayaks when the river was boring. These wars were always front of kayak to front of kayak and nobody on the sides or back ever had an opportunity to participate in the war. Probably, because the guides don't want to get wet and get caught in the crossfire. Luke made up a bunch of bs history about the area. We were warned from locals to be skeptical of the big name tour companies because the seasonal guides will make things up if they don't know the answer to a question. Luke repeatedly fabricated stories about the history or geography. I understand that the adventure tour wasn't designed to be super wet and wild, but it should certainly be accurate if you are providing educational anecdotes. If you aren't detoured, pun intended, then make sure you sit in the front and be prepared to fact check everything you hear. From now on, I need to learn to solo raft and/or find a different company. From other conversations I've had with locals, there aren't a lot of better options....

A big Thank You to the team! We had a great time! My wife and I took the McKinley two hour run and had a blast. We had debated what to do for our time at Denali, either taking the bus all day into Denali or taking the rafting trip and walking some trails. The raft combined with the trails was a great choice for our day, but we did find out that you can see Mt Denali at mile maker 10 into the park, so maybe a half day each of the bus and rafting would be a good choice. We were on the McKinley Run, and found this river run rather benign. We wish we would have taken a more difficult river. The bottom of the boat has pockets to slide your foot into to help stay in the boat, a nice feature. The next choice with whether to paddling or not to paddle, we elected not to paddle. Turns out that we liked this choice because it allowed us to pay more attention to the scenery, visit with the other passengers more, tease the guide, and otherwise enjoy the trip more without holding a paddle. We went down the river with another boat that had paddlers, it seemed that they paddled less than 10% of the time and paddles would be a distraction, from what we saw. Using your camera is at your own risk, they say, so I didn't bring it. Wish I would have brought it, two others on our boat did and it there were many calmer areas to take pics. A baggie hanging from a string or a light jacket with a zipper pocket over the wet suit and under the life preserver would work. About staying warm, the wet suit is awesome, it is a high dollar, excellent piece of gear. The only exposed areas are your hands past the wrist, and head above the neck. I wore dish washing gloves, like is recommended on their website, along with a stocking cap, and stayed plenty warm. When we were putting in the boat, I volunteered to help the guide slide out the boat onto the river and went right out into the cold water up to my thigh, and the wet suit worked well. I had three small splashes on me and I was at the front of the boat. Given the equipment used, we thought the price is a great value, especially since lunch at the park is $30. Overall, it was about 3 hours of time, with 2 hours on the river. Their website guidelines were helpful....

My review is sadly a bummer one. If you worry at all about size inclusiveness this is not the company to use. I was so scared and nervous to go rafting but so excited to see Denali in a different way! My sister has gone rafting, swam with manatees, gone scuba diving all while in different locations and states. In each location some sort of suit was required for the activity. I was worried about my size and if I would be able to wear the required suits. She assured me that every water activity she has gone to has had at least 1 of each "plus" sizing. While getting the briefing a girl stated they would give you the size based on "your eye, hair, and aura color" and that was the sweetest! Sadly after giving me the suit they believed would be fine it was just BARELY too small. I was so embarrassed and of course upset. I wish I knew the girls name but she was so sweet and really tried to help me feel better and they offered my sister and I a refund since we couldn't go. She refused to go without me. However, "alfredo" is what he was called said loudly in front of the other guests "you gave her a XXL and it didn't fit?!" Which was absolutely humiliating. My sister was shocked that 2x is the largest size they would carry when Florida carried up to 5x. I know the suits are expensive, I know that I am not the ideal size for a lot of activities. But it would be great to put on your website that you have a weight limit or suit size limit so that potentially it will save any future heartache and need for refunds to be given. Our friends who continued on with the raft said that it was fun but also was a bit of a disappointment and alot of just paddling on calmer river with only a couple rapids. Luckily they had a cool guide and it wasn't...