First, was it worth it? The answer is undeniably YES!

First the flights. We arranged our cruise booking through our local TA and couldn't have been more pleased with our Representative. We booked in late February and got the last two outside cabins (2 friends went with us). We booked the airfare as part of the cruise with Holland after reading other cruise critics advise that this might eliminate any issues with late arrival and catching up with the boat if your flight was delayed. (This was really unneeded as we did the Denali NP land portion first). If I had it to do over again, I would not have booked through Holland? Why? For some reason they booked us from Lexington, KY to Atlanta (1 hour), Atlanta to Minneapolis(2 hours), and then Minneapolis to Anchorage (7 miserable hours)via Delta. Why not route through Detroit or Chicago using another airline, cutting down the flight time? Coming back from Vancouver, BC, we were booked on United to Chicago (3 hours) and then to Lex (1 hour). The flight from Atlanta to Minneapolis was on an Airbus so there was plenty of room. The flight from Minneapolis to Anchorage was on a 757. Of course the rude lady in front of me, immediately leaned her seat back in my lap. I jiggled her seat hoping she would get the hint. Instead she turned around after 30 minutes and accused me of being rude. Finally after 30 more minutes of jiggling she lifted the seat back up... I would book my own flight and not use the cruise line in the future.

Arriving Anchorage, (on Thursday 25th) the Holland staff met us and stayed with us while we gathered our luggage, got us to the right bus and had us at our hotel (Westmark) in about an hour. This was about 12 MN EST after we had left Lexington at 0630. The Westmark could certainly use some refreshing, as it is 1970's vintage hotel... All the recommended restaurants nearby the hotel were full with an hour or more waiting, so we had a late meal in the Westmark hotel restaurant. Nothing fancy but it probably was as good as we could have gotten at either of the overbooked breweries or pizza places nearby. Read more