My husband and I just returned from a two week vacation in Alaska. We flew into Anchorage, where we rented a car and began biking & hiking excursions for the first few days. We had excellent weather (65-70 degrees) and no mosquito concerns. Packing seemed to be the biggest challenge in preparing for this trip. We found the following items to be invaluable: lightweight rain jackets, Smart Wool long sleeve tops & socks, sneakers & hiking shoes and a light weight fleece jacket.
We joined the land cruise portion of our Royal Caribbean cruise and traveled to Talkeetna, Denali and Seward. One important note, the Denali upgrade to the tundra wilderness tour is a must. We saw wildlife during the early hours of the morning; the group that came into Denali later in the day, saw very little wildlife.
The Radiance of the Seas is a very nice ship. The employees were friendly and exceptional in the area of customer service. The entertainment was all over the board... Excellent to very average at times. We made the decision to skip the shows on at least one occasion; instead, we chose to whale watch from the back of the ship...Very nice whale show during the evening we departed Ketchikan.