My husband and I took the Holland America Land & Sea Journey on the Zuiderdam. We flew to

Anchorage where we were met at the airport for transport to the Westmark Anchorage for the start of the Land portion of our trip. It was the first trip of the season so that may have accounted for the disorganization the next morning as we were taken by bus to Holland America's own domed rail cars for the trip to Denali. The train ride was great -- so many miles of forest and beautiful scenery! McKinley Chalet's are where you stay and they are OK but clean. The only drawback on the land portion was your luggage had to be outside your room door each morning of travel by around 6:30 am. That means you have be up and ready by then or you have to carry anything you use to get ready with around with you the rest of the day. All the hotels you stay at are Westmarks or the McKinley. They are all clean but I would only call the Fairbanks & Dawson one's attractive (both in very different ways).

We stayed 2 nights in Denali. The wilderness tour was taken on the full day there. We saw numerous caribou, several moose, ptarmigan, a Dall sheep (a dot on the mountain). Some on our group also saw a lynx. Every where we went on buses, they made plenty of stops so we didn't get tired of sitting. Read more