This was my 10th cruise, second time to Alaska and second time on Princess. The 10 night cruise tour was a great experience, I am glad that we took the land portion first. I was first on an Alaskan cruise in September of 2006 on Celebrity's Summit. I must admit The Summit is STILL my favorite ship of all I have cruised. Anyway. We arrived late afternoon in Fairbanks after being on planes and in airports from 4:30 AM, so needless to say we were tired. Alaska Airlines service was as good as I remember and even though I flew coach the planes were comfortable and the crews friendly. The last flight was especially memorable as we flew to Fairbanks, and got a lot of narration from the crew. The views of the glaciers were spectacular. Once in Fairbanks we were met by the Princess Rep and boarded the bus. Some people went to The Fairbanks Princess while we were booked into the Rivers Edge Resort. This was a very nice place, I suspect an older facility, since there were individual cabins. Our cabin was modern, neat, clean and very comfortable, I would have liked to stayed there another day or so. The next morning our baggage was piked up promptly and we ate breakfast before departure in the Rivers Edge Buffet, EXCELLENT!

From there we went by coach to the train and boarded on time and went to our assigned seating in the Domed observation cars. We met two ladies from Canada who would become good friends during the train travel and on the cruise as well.

First stop was the Princess Denali Lodge. Very nice lodge, and of course the scenery was wonderful. I We were scheduled for the 1/2 day tour which was nice however we did not see a lot of wildlife. We ate in the Princess restaurant, I did find the menu a bit limited and prices a bit higher than expected, but the service was good. All In all ate there 3 times, one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner. The morning of departure we ate at the Buffet, I was disappointed with the quality and service, I suspect that this was being run by a contractor and not Princess. Read more