Denali Park Village — Hotel in Alaska

Ended up at Denali Park village lodge after reservations at princess wilderness lodge were abruptly cancelled (without any assistance to rebook elsewhere) due to riley fire. While the location on the Nenana river is beautiful, this property was terrible. Reserved and paid for a riverview room, but was provided a room with a view of the dumpster. The food is awful. Overcooked. Bland. Overpriced. Breakfast buffet not worth $30. Room is outdated, completely worn out and tired looking. Insufficient lighting. Very small bathroom. feels more like an outhouse. Room was hot. Only air was a very dusty fan. Beds uncomfortable. Doors don't close all the way behind you. Narrow halls. Lax or nonexistent security and safety procedures. My room keys were deactivated and I was able to get them re-keyed at front desk by providing the keys and a room number. The desk personnel did not ask for my name or ID and did not confirm who I was and that I belonged in the room. Absolutely unacceptable. Yet, none of this was the worst part of Denali Park Village Lodge. The worst part is the complete lack of service. From the beginning, this stay made our visit to denali the worst part of Alaska. Front desk couldn't find our prepaid reservation. Once found, they placed us in a room with view of the dumpster rather than the riverview we paid extra for. We were given our keys and went to our room. Room was disappointing given what we paid. The keys did not work. We were forced to return to the main building with luggage in tow to get keys activated. We asked about dinner as we had arrived at our destination at 830. We were told there were two options: one closed at 9 and the other at 930. We were seated at restaurant that closed later. We ordered. Service is extremely slow, not very responsive, seemed uninterested when we wanted to order. We had dinner and we were interested in dessert. Our waiter said kitchen was closed (it was 930 and the kitchen was closed. No desserts could be ordered. I've never been to a Restaurant that refuses a customer because they couldn't be bothered. Due to the riley fire in denali, the park was closed, and we had nowhere to go. Shuttle did not run to any other hotels because the park was closed. Despite having numerous shuttle buses, DPV did not offer any transportation service. Despite us asking 3 or 4 times, they could not provide any way we could get to a place 10 minutes away without having our own car. They made absolutely no effort to ease the disappointment of the many travelers whose denali tours had been canceled due to the fire and who were unable to book something else. While we understand things like wildfires cannot be planned for and can affect availability of things to do, I have never visited anywhere that did not even bother to make the process easier on their guests. Closing the kitchen right at 930 so Guests who had been seated in the dining room before closing could not order dessert is poor service. We received no service for our room despite hanging the sign provided by the hotel to request maid service. We had to go to the front desk to request towels and personnel told us rooms are only cleaned for those staying a week or more. "It's in the contract" is all they said. Personnel seemed put out like we were inconveniencing them They offered no help to find an excursion or hike and missed an opportunity to make money and help guests at the same time. Not a single person we encountered was helpful in any way. They seemed annoyed that we had questions, could not tell us how far away the train depot was, offered transportation options thst weren't in service, and generally misrepresented themselves. Instead, DPV has left a terrible impression and brought to a disappointing end an otherwise amazing trip to Alaska. Don't believe their website: this is not a crown jewel. Their lodge and "cozy" cabins are anything but cozy and relaxing. "Fine dining" may have been available at other hotels in the area but it certainly isn't at DPV. ...

I recently went on a trip to Alaska with my wife for our 10 year anniversary and the Denali Park Village was our second hotel and by far our least favorite. To start, when we got off of the adventure train to the visitor's depot, I saw a bunch of nicer looking vans and buses picking people up, but the Denali Park Village shuttle was actually just an old bus. While I know that isn't the hotel or stay itself, it should have been a warning sign immediately. As a small positive, the bus driver was fantastic -a very outstanding individual who gave me some recommendations on activities to do at the lodge and places to eat. He basically saved my entire stay at the Denali Park Village from being a complete train wreck. Once we got the lodge, it was nice, but I was disappointed that I paid extra in order to get a room with a view only to have a small window looking out onto the river. We were able to listen to it at night, but I could have done that without the extra fee. The other issue we ran into was that this hotel does NOT have a shuttle service available. They will pick up and drop off for the train rides in, but nothing beyond that. What happened was that my wife and I wanted to go into downtown Denali to explore and eat after one of our events. I asked one of the bellhops if they knew when the shuttle would be available and he informed me one never existed. When I went over to the front counter they said it was a common complaint they ran into. Luckily one of the employees was nice enough to offer us a ride since he was already headed that direction and I would just have to find a way back. Once we figured out a way back, (which involved a different hotel’s shuttle and then waiting 2 hours for the Denali Park shuttle to pick up new visitors) I asked to speak to the manager when we got back. I told the manager that I was surprised there was no shuttle or cabs in the area, especially with the lodge being a bit further from downtown. The manager, Zach, told me that there was never a shuttle service available and he did not understand why I was upset. I explained to him that I wasn’t trying to argue that fact, just bringing it to his attention that it would be a nice amenity. At this point, Zach became extremely defensive with me and told me that it was not his concern because it was not something they would be offering. I felt like this was very unprofessional because I wasn’t looking to start an argument or gain anything from the hotel, just wanted to bring a possible improvement opportunity to them. When we went to leave the next morning, the shuttle driver mentioned to me that the manager went to him after this conversation and blamed him for me talking about the shuttle service! I am shocked that after I paid for a room upgrade, had several meals in their restaurant and paid for extra services, that this lodge cannot be bothered to try to accommodate their guests. I would not recommend this lodge to anyone. I honestly had a better experience with the Princess Lodge in the 5 minutes it took for them to help me and wife find...

So disappointed that Royal Caribbean choose this hotel as part of our package. What a disappointment!!

We were assigned a cabin. Our only view from the cramped room was the back of the cabin in front of us. The bathroom was so small, the towels were kept in the main room by the front door. We had to walk sideways between the end of the bed and the wall to get to the bathroom. And they don't tell you this anywhere, but the only place to connect to wi-fi was in the main lodge - quite some distance away from most of the rooms and all of the cabins. This made it impossible to do our required eMed Covid testing in the privacy of our own room (embarrassing!). The cabins don't get wi-fi, don't have A/C, and to make matters worse, the entire area around the cabins stank of raw sewage. The cabins aren't clearly marked, making it easy to get lost in the area. We also found no laundry facilities, the closest ice machine was broken, and there was nothing to do other than look at the river (which is beautiful, but not enough to keep you busy for hours at a time).

The hotel also holds you captive for food. Your options for breakfast are only a $20/person continental breakfast, or a $29/person full breakfast. Dinner options are a $55/person very-limited-menu buffet (which didn't smell good) or a $22 greasy single-patty burger. The hotel makes sure they stock no food items (other than a few bags of chips) in their two gift shops/general stores, and provide no transportation into town for access to other restaurants. There is absolutely nothing nearby except the Grizzly Bear Resort across the main road. The hotel doesn't even provide microwaves in-room in case you brought your own food. There is a Starbucks, but its hours are very limited - we never saw them open. The hotel definitely has you by the short-hairs when it comes to eating. The bar at this hotel does sell steak tips (which they were out of), nachos with salsa, and pretzels with a good cheese dip if you're not $55/person hungry. Still expensive, but a better option for the person that would rather save their dollars for activities and souvenirs.

We did find that a small general store across the busy highway (at the Grizzly Bear Resort) had snacks and boxes of donuts which made breakfast more realistically priced. They also have microwave meals and will let you cook what you buy there. There was also a Thai food truck in the Grizzly's parking lot that was decent. It is quite a walk in order to get some reasonably priced food though. They were doing quite a brisk business because the Denali Park Village is outrageous and purposely holds you and your dining options captive.

Shame on this hotel!

I would happily never...