This year we settled on an Alaska cruise. The trip was many months in the planning. Many people expressed an interest in going, but when it came down to the end, Angie and Steve were the only ones that went.
We could not plan our trip around our anniversary date because the curises to Alaska don't start that early. The earliest trip was the 15th. We narrowed it down to two itineraries. We had decided that it would be best to take the land tour and then the cruise part. This was a very wise decision. The land tour was pretty well paced and by cruising at the end, it gave us a chance to unwind and relax before we traveled home. We were set on Holland America. Based on what everyone else has told us, they are the best company to cruise with.
One of the two itineraries offered a discount through AAA So we choose cruise tour 22. This tour offered us the following features:
Our trip was a total of 17 days, including travel. We had a lot of problems with our airline tickets because of American Airlines. The short story is that we had to have our tickets re-issued 4 times and go to the airport twice before I had the correct tickets. After all of that hassle, American Airlines never even offered an apology. For the long story, you can read it here. We also had problems with Gray-Line of Alaska. Read about that here.
The following is our trip itinerary:
May 15th Fly from San Diego to Fairbanks
May 16th Fairbanks (Alaska Museum)
May 17th Fairbanks (Riverboat/Gold Dredge/Dinner Cruise)
May 18th Train to Danali National Park
May 19th Denali National Park
May 20th Train to Anchorage
May 21st Anchorage to Alyeska
May 22nd Alyeska
May 23rd Alyeska to Seward (Board Ship)
May 24th Sailing College Fjords
May 25th Sailing Glacier Bay National Park
May 26th Sitka
May 27th Juneau
May 28th Ketchikan
May 29th Sailing
May 30th Vancouver
May 31st Drive to Seattle (fly home)