We chose this trip because we’ve never been to Alaska and wanted to see a lot. We did the right thing by doing the 5 day land tour first. We started in Fairbanks and stayed at the Princess River lodge 2 nights. The room was adequate and the beds comfortable. Really enjoyed the River cruise and gold dredge tour but the lunch provided wasn’t good. Perfect weather. On to Denali where we went on the natural history tour. Six hours of being on buses that day was way too much. Luckily we had a great dinner that night at the lodge. Loved the wild life and seeing those mountains. McKinley was next. Beautiful property and fab weather. Another long train trip to Anchorage where we stayed at Hotel Captain Cook. Great corner room with sweeping views of the city and bay. Wish we had more than one night!

We stopped at the Alaskan Wildlife Refuge on the way to Whittier which was wonderful. Up close and personal with injured or orphaned bears, wolves, moose, reindeer and more.

Boarding the ship was easy and our cabin was very nice. I did not hear about a send off at all. I would say my dinners were quite good and just enough food. We had a dining room breakfast one morning but the food wasn’t special so we ate at the buffet the rest of the time even though we aren’t crazy about them. Too germy. Read more