Alaska: "McKinley Chalet" near Denali Park a bummer

My wife and I recently used Tauck Tours to do their Alaska Land of Discovery
tour, and were very pleased. We wanted to see more of Alaska after this
tour, so after Tauck we added our own extension in Anchorage and Denali
Park, using Alaska Tour and Travel to book the lodging and tour of Denali
National, and renting a car in Anchorage to get there. The Denali Tour, the
real point of this long drive, was quite good. I was surprised, considering
we rode on a school bus and the driver was also the tour guide. But she was
very knowledgeable and accommodating, and we are aware that only a limited
number of vehicles are allowed in the park. The tour and the park held
their own; no complaints there.

Lodging is another story. There isn't much near the park, which may be why
"McKinley Chalet" put up their huge spread there. You get the same feeling
on seeing this as you do, say, in Branson MO. Ersatz, slick and overpriced.
The whole spread is managed by Aramark, which should have raised a red flag
right away. If the rooms had been in the $100 range we might not have
expected much, but these were a bit over $200 for what were homey but simple
rooms. They gave us a room on the second floor with no elevators so we had
to carry heavy luggage up the stairs, stair by stair. The soap and lotion
dispensers were empty. But that didn't matter nearly as much as the shower.
at no time was the temp normal. It scalded us, then froze us, then scalded
again, etc. for the entire length of our shower. When we called the front
desk to request another room, the girl said she would call maintenance
first. She said she didn't think she could move us to another room, as the
hotel was rather fully booked. (this conversation took place after 8 am, and
there were many people checking out, and it's a big resort with a lot of
rooms. She said she would call back after speaking to her manager, but never
did. Then the maintenance lady came, verified the temp. fluctuations, and
said they were aware of it, that it was a bad pressure valve at the hot
water tank and that they needed to fix it soon as customers were
complaining. I then called back the front desk and demanded a room with a
shower that worked , and she gave us one extremely far away, at the bottom
of the hill and the end of the complex, with good shower facilities, made no
offer of any restitution, didn't apologize for the inconvenience and this
room with a nonsmoking emblem on the door reeked of cigarette odor. The
restaurants were OK, but quite overpriced and the atmosphere was better than
the food. We emailed Alaska Tour and Travel with this complaint but
received no response.

We recommend Denali Park highly, in spite of the fact that the chances of
seeing Mt. McKinley are slim; the wildlife and views are worth it. (We were
fortunate enough to catch a view when driving back, on Highway 3). For
lodging, seek something other than this McKinley Chalet; they have something
of a corner on the lodging and restaurant there and know it, so it might be
worth it to look a few miles away from the park.

wayne and marsha, from florida