This cruise was in celebration of our 40th wedding anniversary. We went with the idea that we would only go to Alaska one time in our lives, so we wanted to be there as long as possible. We chose a cruisetour that included a 5-day land portion before the cruise, going from Fairbanks, to Denali, to Talkeetna, to Anchorage and then to the ship. So we will start with the land portion.

We arrived a day early and flew into Anchorage so we could be in Anchorage for our anniversary. The next day we ate at the Snow City Cafe, which serves breakfast all day (awesome food!), and then rented some bikes and road the coastal trail. We are not exactly athletes, but we did manage to ride to Earthquake Park, which was about a 12-mile ride round trip. Not bad for us old folks! Then it was on to the airport and our flight to Fairbanks for the RCI land tour.

The lodging that RCI chose was very nice. We stayed at the Wedgewood Resort in Fairbanks, the Grande Denali which sits up on a mountain and overlooks the park, the Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge which has a grand view of Mt. McKinley out the back, and the Marriott in Anchorage. The restaurant at the Wedgewood was great, but we didn't eat at the others. The rooms were comfortable and clean, other than a slight oversight by the cleaning staff at Grande Denali--they left a dirty coffee cup and a used washcloth in the room, but no big deal. Read more