Ginger Pepper

We are also on a Princess Cruisetour and on the Personalizer we completed our flight arrangements (two days before the beginning of the Cruisetour). Our itinerary on the Personalizer already includes transfers from the airport to the Princess Lodge when we arrive (in Fairbanks at 10:45 p.m.). Also, our travel agent reserved rooms for the two additional nights at the Princess Lodge. Enjoy your Cruisetour too!

Depending on when you will be in Ketchikan, we have reserved a combined excursion to Traitors Cove to see the bears for three hours, returning via a two-hour Misty Fjords flightseeing excursion. We reserved with Misty Fjords (Shona or Michelle handle the reservations and are very helpful). Traitors Cove is at its peak in August - mid-September.

I would suggest that you have a look at the Chilkoot Charters website. They will pick you up right where the ship docks and take you to the bus or train, where they usually have their own car and guide.

Alaska is such a special place that I feel one should go all out and book the 15 day escorted Connoisseur tour. It has 8 days on land and then the 7 day cruise. That is what I am doing next year but I have taken a shorter land tour/cruise in the past plus two cruise-only cruises. Have no idea what ship will be there in 2015. My favorite ships are the Sapphire and the Coral. We will be on the Crown next year because it is the one that the tour meets up with on the dates we can go.

Which date Connoisseur are you on? We are six family/friends starting the Connoisseur in Fairbanks on August 29. Anyway, have a wonderful trip - it's our second trip to Alaska and love it!

We have a full day in Fairbanks before flying out later in the evening. Any ideas what to do? Some of our group would like to go ziplining and since we are already booked on other excursions in ports we were hoping they had ziplining in Fairbanks...does anyone know of any? If not any other suggestions for Fairbanks would be helpful.

We are flying into Fairbanks a couple of days before a Princess Cruisetour in August - we will rent a car and drive to Chena Hot Springs and Ice Museum there. Also, we understand that the Fairbanks Cultural Center has some wonderful exhibits about wildlife and Native Americans

To those of you who have done a Princess Alaska cruisetour....

Do you recommend taking two pieces of luggage...a carry on for the tour part then a regular bag for the cruise? I do not have a carry on and am trying to decide if I need to purchase one. I would like to know how those of you have done it in the past. Thank you for your help.

According to past participants on Princess cruisetours, if you do the tour part first, you can send a suitcase/bag to the ship from the first land-tour hotel and the bag will wait for you in your cabin when you get to the ship after the tour.

I think that someone might have posted the RR's website but here it is again http://www.wpyr.com/index.html Here they describe all of the possible train related trips. Pricing for 2014 is probably there by now (or it will be in early Dec). If you are going to do anything other than a roundtrip summit train I would also highly recommend booking with Chilkoot Tours. For other things to do in Skagway look at www.cruiseportinsider.com

We have booked for next summer with Chilkoot for the 7.5 hour round-trip (train/bus), including lunch and dogcart ride - total price is US$ 211 pp. I phoned their office and Shona answered and was very helpful and accommodating