Mt McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge — Hotel in Alaska

Wife and I woke up one Saturday morning and decided to be play tourists for the weekend. We were surprised to find same-day availability for a room at Princess Mt McKinley considering it was a weekend in July. We were also surprised to find the price wasn't terrible considering what's charged for lodging closer to Talkeetna. So we grabbed a standard room for the night.

Two hours north of Anchorage you'll find the campus perched just east of the Parks Hwy around MP 133. The campus is a mile or two back off the highway so there's no road noise. There are two restaurants, a small bar, gift shop, coffee shop located on campus. We ate at the smaller 20320 restaurant and found it was just OK. The prices weren't actually that bad considering the location and the salads were huge, but overall the food at 20320 was just kind of meh. We looked at the menu for the main restaurant and didn't see anything that appealed to us and it was a bit pricier but again, nothing out of the ordinary for tourist season.

We ended up eating breakfast the next day at Mary Carey's McKinley View Lodge and Cafe, which is a hidden gem located about 5 miles north of the Princess Lodge, just off the Parks Highway on the left. Definitely worth the drive if you have means of getting there and the prices are far better than those at the Princess restaurants. Try the chicken fried steak, they have the best in Alaska!

The 2-story dormitory style lodging buildings are spread around the campus, each a short distance from the main lodge. There are shuttle buses that run constantly to get you around campus, or it's a short walk to the main lodge area.

There are NO ELEVATORS in the lodging buildings. Pretty sure the tour group people have their luggage handled by staff, but take note if you're not coming in on a tour, you may have to hand carry your bags upstairs if you're on the second floor. Also the rooms have NO REFRIDGERATORS. Again probably not a big deal for tour group folks, but for those coming in with cooler items expecting to have a fridge/freezer, take note there isn't one in the rooms, so make sure you have plenty of ice in your cooler.

The room itself was comfortable....outdated but comfortable enough. Rooms are definitely due for a refresh. Heard others complaining about noise but we were fortunate I guess, as we didn't experience any noise issues during our stay. Amenities were the usual - coffee maker, TV, soap, shampoo, etc...The rooms don't have AC so I don't think I'd want to stay here during one of our rare 80+ degree days.

There are lots of activities aimed at tourist folks...nature walks and such. A walk up to the treehouse was worth it, especially in the morning when all the tour bus folks were getting ready to leave. Practically had the tree house to ourselves and thew view was spectacular. Grab a coffee and hike up the hill. The trail from the lodge is pretty steep, but you'll get there if you're in half decent shape. You can also drive up to a small parking area and walk a shorter distance, but it's still a bit of a climb albeit shorter and not as steep.

Found staff to be very friendly for the most part. Most are from outside of Alaska, working on contract for Princess. We got a chuckle overhearing one of the nature guides telling a tour group that the monkshood plant is more dangerous than the wildlife. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely worth knowing not to touch or eat monkshood, but I'm pretty sure you want to be just as aware of the mama bears and moose, especially if they're with their little ones!! lol

Overall we'd probably stay again for an easy button weekend getaway. It was quiet and relaxing and put us near Byers Lake where we like to hike and enjoy the lake...

We spent 2 nights at the Princess McKinley Wilderness Lodge. We found the rooms to be well appointed, clean and comfortable with special thoughtful touches, like a clothes line in the bathroom and a time controlled heater to keep the bathroom warm when showering. The rooms are set in a series of buildings with ours close to the main lodge, but far enough away to be quiet and private. There was very little noise in the building as the rooms were well build and sturdy.

The surroundings are breathtaking and if you are lucky enough to see Denali and the other mountains on a clear day, you will never forget it! The walking trails were noted on the map and were quite an easy walk.

There are 3 main dining options and an espresso bar. The prices are fairly high which is to be expected given the remote location and that generally the cost of supplies is higher than many other states. The service at the expresso bar was slow and indifferent. The line is enormous in the early morning, especially when Denali was clearly visible and there are lots of people up early to photograph the majestic and beautiful mountains.

We ate at the 20,320 Alaskan Grill several times. The food was adequate but disappointing for anyone expecting fine dining. It seems to us that much of the menu was mass produced short order food with some items coming out of the kitchen cold repeatedly. Service was reasonable on one occasion, but the other times we ate there it was inefficient, slow and perfunctory.

We had breakfast at the North Fork restaurant twice. On the first occasion the service was poor, resulting in having to ask for cream for the coffee and separately for a teaspoon. We were then given a soup spoon to stir our coffee! On the second occasion we had an excellent waiter (Tyler). I ordered the express breakfast (Scrambled egg, potato, bacon and a biscuit) and it was stone cold. The waiter offered to return it and bring me a new breakfast. However, when he asked me if it was ok, I told him it was cold again, but it wasn’t his fault. The restaurant has no business serving combined plates of food cooked 2-3 hours in advance with little heat or quality control. The egg tasted like cold rubber institutionalized pseudo egg and the bacon was literally ice cold. That being said, without expecting any accommodations the waiter surprise me by saying that he’d taken off half the price of my meal. I was very grateful for this and thanked him in the appropriate manner.

One evening we had a 7:45pm reservation at the North Fork restaurant, which was meant to be more of a fine dining establishment. We were kept waiting for close to 15 minutes as “some folks were having their dessert”. We gave up and ate in the bar. There is absolutely no excuse for taking a reservation and not being organized enough to honor it, otherwise why bother at all. The Princess Lodges all know how many rooms are occupied and have been in the business long enough to work out a better system. We get up very early and expect to go to sleep early, especially if we have early tour departures in the morning. If you have any concerns about the cost or variety of food during you stay, please bear in mind it is totally isolated and you have no other options, a bit like a theme park. We managed quite well by bringing water and snacks...

Buckle up this is gonna be a long one. When we arrived at Mckinley Princess Lodge (MPL) it was pouring rain and all tours were canceled, no fault of MPL. But how they responded to aprox 200 guests arriving and with over 100 guests waiting to leave has been the worst experience we have had while traveling.

This is a $300+ per night hotel, I expect better than we received.

Food: We arrived at about 11:15am, they only had the coffee bar open at that time for food. At 11:30 one additional restaurant opened. They had 2 servers for the entire shift. They could not give us an estimated time for seating, as the line was huge. When we finally sat, ordered and got our food it was room temperature. The cheese in the quesadilla was not melted. Total waste of money. When we went to the coffee bar after lunch they had no lids and no napkins out. When we asked for napkins because the dispenser was out, the barista pulled out another napkin dispenser and handed us 3 napkins, then put the dispenser behind the counter.

Room: We did arrive early and were told that our room might not be ready, so we waited. At 3pm our room was still not ready, we went to the front desk and asked for an estimated time because our paperwork from Princess Cruise stated our check in time was 3pm. (photo) The front desk person said, it will be done when it is done. It was not ready until 430pm. The room seriously needs to be updated and deep cleaned. There is mold on the celing of the shower room (photo), there is some "patch" work done at the sink (photo), the couch is old and has a dip in it from being sat on so much, the bed was lumpy and the sheets were very scratchy.

Entertainment/Things To Do: With all tours being canceled; tours booked thru Princess Cruise, you would think the MPL crew would help keep their customers busy and happy. Nope. They kept to their daily schedule (photo) with zero effort in going the extra mile. Heck they had yard games that could have been brought inside to keep people busy. We saw corn hole & jumbo connect 4 on the paito. They had plenty of room for these things, 2 huge waiting rooms and a basement room. The basement had a movie about Alaska on repeat. The movie was 15 years old, long and boring. The basement is damp, cold and musty smelling. They did offer a slide show about the Northern Lights for an additional charge of $10 per person. We did end up hiking around campus and did see the treehouse and a moose.

Staff: Never have I received such lousy service as I have had on the Princess line. Princess as a whole has had the rudest employees. This includes Princess Sapphire, Denali Princess Lodge, and Mckinley Princess Lodge.

Skip Princess and go...