Updates On Princess Lodges Around Alaska

Updates On Alaska's Princess Lodges 

Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge (Photo, Princess website) 

UPDATE: THURSDAY, JUNE 9TH 

Cruise Hive, a website that monitors cruise ships, wrote the following on June 9th regarding Princess' Alaska land services:

FROM CRUISE HIVE, JUNE 8TH, 2022 

"Guests will need to be quick to rebook their cruisetours to other options. Princess Cruises normally offers cruisetours to five different lodges. Copper River Princess Wilderness Lodge is closed from those five, and Denali Lodge is no longer accepting reservations for the 2022 season.

"According to the cruise line’s website, the other three, Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge, Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge, and Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, all have very limited availability.

FROM PRINCESS WEBSITE BOOKING PAGE:
As of June 9th, all booking sites with Alaska Princess hotels -- except for the McKinley Princess in Trapper Creek -- showed circles with a slash for every day this summer. The key to the site said the slashed circle means "not available." 

 McKinley Princess Showed Availability June 9th

Other Princesses Looked Like This 

UPDATE: TUESDAY, JUNE 7TH

Princess Cruises has decided to close its Copper River Princess Lodge after only a few days in operation this summer. A local vendor for Copper River Princess told the Country Journal that vendors have been notified the facility will be shutting down for the summer  by the 16th of June. 

Rumors have circulated for several days that the Princess here was closing. Staff in Copper Center, however, have maintained that the decision had not yet been made. 

Princess officially says that "staff shortages" are the problem.  People working closely with Princess say that apparently there has been some sort of Covid concern that has led to the closure, having to do with sick staff coming in from Whittier. The Covid closure seems to affect only the Copper River Princess, not the other Princess hotels.  

Covid is still a serious problem on cruise ships around the world, as outbreaks continue. 

Large corporations in Alaska face a second issue. The Denali Princess, for example, relies on the seasonal employment of foreign workers. They are typically Bulgarian college students, who have been coming to Alaska under what is known as the J1Visa program. The Denali area usually has over a thousand J1Visa workers every year. 

There are 5 Princess Lodges in Alaska: Copper River Princess, Denali Princess, Fairbanks Princess, Kenai Princess and McKinley Princess. 

ORIGINAL STORY:

There are rumors in the Copper Valley that the Copper River Princess will close in a few weeks due to staff shortages. 

The Journal called the Princess on June 3rd to find out more. A Princess supervisor said, "Details are still being finalized on whether the Copper River Princess will stay open. We will know on Monday what will be happening with the lodge. We're waiting to hear more details. There is a slight possibility it may close – but we don't want that happen." 

It's well known throughout Alaska and the rest of America that there is a problem in finding adequate numbers of employees to run stores and seasonal tourism operations this summer.