A little history on us. We are early 50's from the Chicago area. We began cruising 7 years ago on the Millennium. This was my 11th cruise, my husband's 10th and our 9th on Celebrity. We traveled with another couple from Illinois who have cruised on Princess and Disney. This was their first Celebrity cruise but their 3rd time to Alaska (our first). We chose the Cruise Tour #1, Fairbanks to Seward and a 7 night Southbound cruise on the Millennium, Seward to Vancouver.

As there are limited flights from Chicago to Fairbanks, we opted to fly in the day before and spent an additional night at Pikes Lodge. We landed at about 1:00 a.m. Fairbanks time, 4:00 a.m. Chicago time. It was warm and sunny. A little weird. Needless to say we didn't sleep much the first day. Pikes Lodge is very pretty and homey. The rooms a little dated but comfortable enough. We took the shuttle to the downtown area and did some sightseeing and stopped at the Fudge Pot for lunch. Very good. We took the shuttle back to the hotel as we were to meet with our tour guide at 3:00. The one criticism I would have in doing this type of vacation is although you leave home with every bit of information you need for your cruise, there was very little information about the land cruise portion. We met Patricia, our guide and she was able to answer all of our questions. All I can say is that Royal Celebrity Cruise Tours hires top-notch people. She and our driver, Jeremy, made this experience so special. The rest of the evening was spent getting to know fellow cruisers, having dinner at Pikes Landing (next door) and finally getting some rest.

The first day we went on the Riverboat Discovery Tour (fabulous) and spent a little time in downtown Fairbanks. We boarded a beautiful motor coach and made our way to Denali National Park. We stayed the next two nights at the McKinley Village Lodge. We were fortunate to be in their brand new building which was beautiful and a step up from Pikes. Super comfortable beds, free laundry, amazing views and a lovely deck to sit out on and have cocktails in the evening (even though it was still light out). My husband signed up to do a flyover of Mt. McKinley this evening. It was something he will never forget. The next day we were spending the day at Denali National Park. Although they provide water and a snack, they encourage you to bring a lunch with you. At this point, you're a captive audience so the only option is a bag lunch from the Starbuck's in the lobby. Although it's very convenient, $15.95 for a sandwich, bottle of water and piece of fruit seemed like highway robbery to me. The 8 hours or so we spent in Denali was beautiful but maybe a little long on a re-furbed school bus. We saw caribou, bears and Dahl sheep. Amazing. Read more