My husband and I celebrated our 10th anniversary by taking the 13-night land tour/cruise package from Fairbanks to Vancouver.  It's definitely the best way to see the beauty of the mountains and the glaciers.  My husband and I met several people in our tour group who had never sailed before, and we spread it on thick about how terrific Celebrity treated their guests.  I'd like to say for the record that I'm really not picky - hell, I'll even bring my own container of Clorox wipes to clean the bathroom if I have to - but there was definitely something screwy going on on the cruise part of the trip.

Let me start at the beginning, though.  We landed in Fairbanks to start our 7-day land tour.  This part of the trip was without a doubt the most magnificent and outstanding 7 days I've ever spent on ANY trip.  We were met at the baggage claim in the Fairbanks Airport by a friendly Celebrity associate, and our luggage was quickly delivered to a waiting, spacious bus.  We were introduced to our fabulous tour director, Nicole, and our equally fabulous bus driver, Mike, and from the minute we were delivered to the cozy Sophie Station Hotel, we were treated like royalty.  All the way through the land tour, our luggage was quickly and efficiently delivered to our rooms - we hardly had to handle it at all - and what rooms they were!  From the Grande Denali Lodge to the uber-gorgeous Hotel Alyeska, we were pampered beyond compare.  Directions in "nightly notes" were prepared by Nicole and given out every evening so you knew exactly what was going to happen the next day, what time your luggage was to be in the hall, and where you were to be to meet the bus in the morning.  Absolutely outstanding, and exactly what we had expected from the fine folks at Celebrity Cruise Lines.

The 7-day cruise started out well - we were checked in within 5 minutes, without a single problem, and were greeted by the customary champagne-orange juice service right inside the gangway.  We were also pleasantly surprised to recognize the layout immediately, as the Millennium's sister ship, the Constellation, is our favorite ship (2 cruises so far, and one planned for the fall).  We took the glass elevators to the 9th floor, and then the first strike hit:  The glass elevators were absolutely disgusting.  They had been sloppily scrubbed with what appeared to be dirty water, and Celebrity's well-known spit-and-polish was completely absent.  My husband and I looked at a couple of our new friends, who were eyeing the doors with raised eyebrows as if to say, "You call this terrific?"  I hastily told myself the crew would straighten that out within a few hours of getting everyone on board. Read more