The year of anticipation couldn't have prepared us for the excitement we felt as we finally sailed away on the beautiful Sapphire Princess!

Before sailing Southbound out of Whittier on June 23rd, we spent our first night, June 20th, in Fairbanks at the lovely Sophie Station Hotel. The rooms here were very nice, and the quaint little bar had the most delicious tempura-fried halibut on their hors-d'oevres selection, so we just ordered a couple of those for our dinner. The next morning we took the Discovery Riverboat Cruise and had a wonderful time as well as a very informative tour. I would recommend this to anyone who has the time to do it,(about 4 hours). That afternoon, we boarded our motorcoach and set out for the Denali Princess.

After reading many pros & cons on this hotel,I have to tell you that we were more than pleasantly surprised as we were taken to our room in the new part of the Denali Princess known as Canyon Station. We had an absolutely luxurious 2-room suite complete with 2 flat-sceen TV's, a solid glass 6'foot walk-in shower and a 6 foot jacuzzi tub. There was even a phone in the bathroom! The balcony looked out over the river and we were treated to eagles, silver fox, 1 brown bear, and many water-rafters yelling with delight. I would definitely give this location 5 stars. Our trip to Mt. McKinley the next day was delightful - however our view of the mountain itself was spoiled by a forest fire south of the area that completely obliterated the view with smoke. In fact, there was a letter issuing a smoke advisory for asthma & emphysema sufferers waiting for us when we got back to our room. Too bad - it was the one thing we missed seeing on this otherwise perfect trip! Read more