Alaska CruiseTour . 2012 . Sep 24 - 25
If
Mt McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge is described as peaceful, the
Denali Princess Wildernerss Lodge as busy, then the only word that came to my mind when we stepped into the
Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge was
‘chaotic’. There were guests everywhere looking lost. The corridors were always busy and noisy and filled with people. Hardly the peaceful scenery you would associate with a lodge.
The Main Lodge and Surroundings
This particular Princess facility is unlike the
McKinley and
Denali Princess Wilderness Lodges that we stayed for the previous 2 nights. Although it is called a ‘lodge’, the building and its interior does not evoke the feeling of a Lodge. Built more like a modern low-rise version of a hotel, all the rooms are connected to the main reception area through separate wings.
Road leading to the lodge. Drop off point and Main Reception building.Check-in desk.Edgewater Dining Room.Cozy area.Gift Shop at the main building.
The outdoor refreshment area of one of the restaurants. Fantastic view here.
The Room
It was a relief to retire from the chaotic scene of the main building to our room. The room assigned to us was pretty far from the main building, but that was fine with us as we did not mind the walking. However, we see bags of rubbish placed outside rooms in the corridor leading up to our room. That was neither a pleasant sight nor a good first impression.
We also found a mysterious piece of dirty cloth outside our room as a 'welcome gift'.
We were very disappointed with the room assigned. The room was spacious and generally clean, but immediately upon stepping in, we could tell that that the curtains could not be completely drawn at one of the sides, causing the glaring afternoon sun to blaze right into our room. This is a room on the ground floor and we find it unacceptable that the hotel staff were not vigilant enough to ensure that guests’ privacy are not compromised by such an oversight.
At least the view outside the room was good.
We also found an iPhone charger in the bathroom left over by the previous guest. I won’t want to judge the standard of housekeeping by this, but well, if I could find a phone charger in the bathroom and they did not…..? To make things worse, we had to track all the way back to the reception to hand the item to them. The lady behind the counter looked surprised when we said we found this in our room, but did not even offer a word of apology. Well, I guess that not looking thoroughly through the room to ensure that it is fit for the next guest is the norm here then.
The Experience
We would have overlooked all our misgivings on the lapses in housekeeping, if not for a large fiasco involving our luggage. Those of you who have been following our
Alaska Cruise series would remember us raving about the wonderful logistics management and accommodation of Princess Cruises throughout most of the cruise and land tour.
It is with great disappointment that we relate this negative incident at the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge.
Fairbanks was the last destination in our 11-day holiday in Alaska. Having disembarked from the Diamond Princess
3 days ago, we brought 2 travelling luggages with us to
Mt McKinkey and
Denali and a piece of large luggage was sent directly to Fairbanks.
We knew something was wrong right from the start when we did not find this piece of luggage waiting outside our room as was the case for other guests around us. We immediately called the concierge and was told that they might not have completed their delivery and our luggage should arrive at our room in an hour or so. An hour later, we still did not have our luggage and had to call the concierge again. This time, the bell boy said that it could have been sent to the wrong room and asked for a description of our luggage. (Imagine the anxiety we had – the possibility of our stuff delivered to the wrong room! How on earth are they going to locate my luggage when there are so many rooms in the lodge).
After another hour of anxiety, the bell boy came to our room with a luggage which he hoped was ours, but unfortunately was not. He told us he will get back to us again within half an hour. When that time was up, we called them again and this time, we were told that the luggage could have been delivered to another lodge and they would call all the other lodges and try and get back to me within another half an hour (By this point, I am starting to pull out my hair). A few phone calls and a few half hours passed and we still have absolutely no idea what happened to our luggage.
We had an early flight to catch at 8.40am the next morning and needed the space in that luggage to pack our stuff. It was late in the night when we finally had no choice but to speak to the manager with great agitation and anger. When I asked him to check his records whether the piece of luggage had ever left the Diamond Princess 3 days ago, he never gave me a direct reply and I was entertained with further reassurances that they would get back to us as soon as they can.
At close to midnight, they finally delivered the luggage to us. We were told that the luggage tag had dropped off during delivery and was lost in transit. What baffles me was that even if the luggage tag had dropped off, they had 3 days to classify this as lost luggage and alert all lodges to keep a look-out. But what was given to us was different stories each time we called, a general indifference to our anxiety, and a mechanical reply to all our queries. The whole episode took 5-6 hours to resolve, leaving us mentally and physically exhausted. We had no chance to explore the facilities or to have a good dinner. This is definitely not a good ending to a fabulous holiday.
The Facilities
The only redeeming factor for the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge was the
provision of a luggage weighing scale for guests to weigh their luggage before a flight and the flight departures times and other info at the lobby. This is a simple and thoughtful gesture that we thought all other hotels should offer to their guests.
The hotel provides airport shuttle to the airport, which was included in our cruise tour package. We will be transferring to the airport at 6.30 am on the Alaska Airlines Flight Number 124 to Seattle.
Weather reports were also provided on the LCD screen on Fairbanks as well as other parts of Alaska.
It seems like the lodge also provide scheduled shuttle services (at USD $5 round trip) to Downtown Fairbanks and Fred Meyer, which we were unfortunately unable to utilise due to the luggage incident.
We were also provided with luggage tags with our flight numbers written on them to tag our luggages by the hotel.
The Verdict
It was unfortunate that our last stop in
Alaska at
Fairbanks was blighted by a negative experience. We hope that ours was just an isolated incident (after all, we had such a pleasant time at the
McKinley and
Denali lodges) and that other guests have a better experience with the lodge. We have plans to go back to Alaska again, but will give this hotel a miss.
Alaska Cruise Series
With that, we have come to the end of our
Alaska cruise series. For those of you who have been following our posts, we thank you for your support and hope that they have been beneficial and informational.
With that, we leave you with some fabulous sunrise photos we took at Fairbanks Airport! :)
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