We are in our late 40, early 50's, campers, traveled for 5 weeks every summer when our kids were young. Hit most states in the lower 48. Camping is fun, but work. So we decided to take the land tour, mostly because this was our present to us and we wanted to be taken care of. We went on the Celebrity Summit Cruise Tour, 14 days total. We booked our own air, as it was much cheaper than the cruise air. Our trip was in Sept of 2002.

We flew into Fairbanks on a Saturday. Got there 2 hours late due to delays in Seattle, but Celebrity was there and took over. After listening to everything said about cruise tags and airports, we did not put our cruise tags on our luggage. The Celebrity staff that met our plane took our luggage receipts from the airline and found them anyway. They had us check to make sure that they had them all, and then showed us to the bus. We never touched a suitcase. The bus was brand new, beautiful, a lot of legroom and huge windows. We were given our room keys in the bus, and our luggage was in the room before we were! We stayed at Sophies' Station, which is a "suite hotel". The rooms were old, but furniture was new and the rooms were spotless. We were met in the lobby by our cruise director, who quickly filled us in on the next day's itinerary. We were given new luggage tags to differentiate the luggage we needed everyday, and the luggage that we did not need until the cruise. It worked great for us, as we had packed cruise cloths in one suitcase. It was around 10 pm by this time (2 am our time as we are from Fl) so it was a quick drink and bed.

The next morning we had breakfast on our own, and met up with the rest of our group at around 9 am. We were taken by "our" bus to the Riverboat Discovery Cruise. This was a large stern wheel riverboat that took us on a 4-hour trip down the Chena and Tanana Rivers. Seating available on all levels and we saw several wheelchairs and folks with canes. We stopped for a guided tour of an authentic Athabascan Indian village, saw Susan Butcher's Iditarod dog camp, saw a bush pilot take off and land, and many animals along the riverbanks. Those who had difficulty walking were still able to view most things from the riverboat. It was a class act the whole way. We were given free coffee, juice and donuts the entire length of the cruise, along with a yummy snack of Salmon. All along the way we were treated to an amusing monolog of the history of the area. Well worth the trip. After that we reboarded the bus and went to "downtown" Fairbanks were we all split up for lunch. Then back on the bus and off to pan for gold at the El Dorado Gold Mine, a working mine on the outskirts of town. Again, a very educational afternoon, mixed with a little train ride and the chance to pan for gold and get rich quick. Wheelchairs were accommodated, and it had little walking unless you choose to walk around the area. On the way back we stopped at a section of the Alaskan Pipeline, and learned all its history and present day functions. That evening was free, and after an eat-in dinner we were in bed. Friends we had met did go on an Artic Circle Plane ride, left at 5:30 and returned at 12 midnight. They said it was very enjoyable, but dark on the way back. It would have been nicer earlier in the summer, when it stayed light longer. Read more