With 9 people we can charter a small boat in Whittier with Honey Charters for a 3 hour PWSound tour for the same $ as a large boat. Does anyone have any experience with them?
Also, due to some openings and that the Ramada in Anchorage will only take 1 toursaver coupon per night (and we have 3 families) we are thinking about staying at the Inlet Tower and Suites. The reviews on tripadvisor were good. Any reason not to stay here?

I seem to recall that the Inlet Towers don't have a/c.

They don't have a/c. Will that be a problem in early August? It is a 13 or 14 story building so would having your windows open be good enough? Also, because its hard to find places to take 9 people we're looking at the Dimond Center in south Anchorage. Would this be a good location for the 2 days between Denali and Seward?

Your odds of needing air conditioning in Anchorage are pretty slim. I'm sure some travelers will pipe in about the steamy days in Anchorage, but on the whole it's a long shot.

Plus even on Anchorage's hottest days, it cools off nicely at night. Average high in Aug. is 63 and record high is 82 (in 1978). Average low is 49, record low 31.

AC is more of a concern in Fairbanks, where the summer weather is usually much hotter.

I'll think we'll go with that the first 2 days because the location seems pretty good and it got good reviews on tripadvisor plus we can use the toursaver for jr. suites. We may stay at the Dimond Center on the return between Denali and Seward then since we couldn't find anything in Talkeetna. Thanks for ALL the help!

We went to the Russian dance exhibition in Sitka and then went salmon fishing. I don't think our boat would hold more than 4 people, however. We also took the Holland America cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it, however the average age of the passengers appeared to be in the 50s or 60s. One of our cruise stops was Ketchikan. We went to the lumberjack show, which was fun for all ages and reasonably priced. We also took the "duck tour" (amphibious bus) around the town. Although not extremely exciting, it was a novelty thing to do and would easily accomodate your whole group.

The key thing with a schedule like this is to be somewhat flexible. The area south of Anchorage can be very rainy. The last time I was in Girdwood it was raining so hard the parking lot flooded. The tram under these conditions would probably be a total waste of time. Also, the glacier has receded so much at Portage that it is barely visible from the visitor's center. The visitors center does have some nice exhibits and Grey Line runs a tour boat to the face of the glacier for about $25 per person. A highlight of the drive to Portage is the scenery, and there are often Dall sheep on the cliffs right off the road just south of Anchorage.

Has anyone taken the Orca Cove kayaking trip in Ketchikan? Also, is it worth viewing Mendenhall Glacier if you've gone to Exit Glacier or on a PWSound glacier cruise?

Ketchikan kayaking is just excellent, have kayaked several areas including orca cove. Mendenhall is an easy look, if you are glaciered out then skip it in favor of other excellent available activities.