Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge in Fairbanks, Alaska

Princess totally takes advantage of its cruise passengers at this hotel. Guests have little option but to use hotel dining facilities as it is very far away from main road options. There is a $5 per person surcharge for a shuttle to downtown Fairbanks! At best it is an very overpriced 3 star facility. Rooms are functional and nicely appointed but not any better than the nearby Best Western or Pikes Landing. The staff is friendly and aims to please. However, although I understand that Alaska is expensive, i believe Princess has taken it to the lunatic fringe. Prices for food and drink higher than midtown Manhattan or Chicago. Breakfast ranges between $15 and $20 before ordering tea or coffee at $3.99 a cup. They provide free coffee (but not tea) in the room without benefit of non dairy creamers. Guests better be experienced travelers to survive land tour process. Five guests missed their buses because , in spite of their written instructions, no announcement is made in lobby. Outside it is mass confusion with literally hundreds of guests milling about trying to figure where and which bus is theirs. Very poor organization with no guest relations person available to assist with general questions. Every person left to fend for themselves . Same lack of organization at airport picking up guests at airport for transfer to hotel. Keep in mind that most guests have been traveling for more than 10 hours on average and most flights arrive very late at night Thankfully I opted out of the overpriced Princess hotel fee to arrive a day early and was able to stroll out with my baggage to waiting taxi (hotel funded) to nearby hotel that was a solid 3 star hotel with free breakfast and free return transportation to pick up Celebrity airport transportation. As it turned out the hotel delivered me directly to the Princess hotel on their shuttle rather than to airport which was about 2 miles further as a courtesy as it was 7am and they were not too busy. Could not imagine the horror of living thru the Princess hotel check in the night before after midnight with hundreds of other guests waiting on line to get their room keys. Heard some very ugly stories from fellow guests. To add insult to injury their land your bus driver/your guide is not trained to instruct guests to keep seats that they are in at every stop! This led to the guests to race and scramble for preferred seating over and over at every stop! A terrible experience. Good luck Princess hotel guests!