Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Just back from Alaska

We took the 8/23 northbound Carnival Spirit cruise from Vancouver to Whittier and had a GREAT time! I traveled with 3 kids (2,5,7) and two parents, oh yeah, and my husband!

Vancouver was a beautiful city, we flew in the day before, stayed at Hyatt which was your avg hyatt, booked thru priceline. ($125)
Embarkation was a breeze, we got to pier at 11:30 and were having lunch on ship by 12:30. If you have kids they do give you an early number to get onboard.
We had WAY too much luggage, you do wear your clothes more than once and one formal outfit does for both nights. I could have done with two big suitcases for the 5 of us instead of 2 big and two small. I did a load of laundry around day 4 because my closet was beginning to smell. Plenty of washer/dryers onboard.

We did "smuggle" booze onboard, no problems in our checked luggage.
Also ran up a little bar bill too, those souveneir drinks always look good, but, luckily hubby was lucky in the casino and won around $1,500 on blackjack!

Ports were awesome, buy souveneirs in Ketchikan or Juneau better selection and prices. Weather was great..50-70degrees every day, only some morning showers in a few ports but ended by time we got off ship.

Did a whale watch/kayak excursion in Juneau with Juneaukayak.com and saw lots of whales, sea otters. great guides and nice kayaks. They provided a great lunch.
In ketchikan, kids loved the lumberjack show and the Salmon running up the creek were awesome!
Kids opted to stay on ship for Skagway and Sitka and it was a good choice for them, we did lots of walking around town/shops. not their thing. Do the train in Skagway, not much else to do.
Debarkation in whittier was a cinch too. Traveled to our car rental in Anchorage via Alaskan Leopard Comedy tours and had a wonderful 4 hr tour.
Rented a minivan thru Affordable Beaters in Anchorage and got a Suburban for $75/day. This is not a great company, We noticed a leak in our tire after a 40 min drive and luckily we were across from an auto shop who replaced the valve and when we returned the car they didnt want to reimburse us! Said we were responsible for tire changes and flats.

Traveled north to Palmer, did the Alaska State fair and we all had a blast. We were very tired by then and check in to Alaska Gold rush B&B(2nights $260). Had a cute cabin and breakfast.
Drove to Iditarod museum in Wasilla and did sled dog rides 2x $10each per person. Well worth it considering the sled dog excursion on the cruise was amost $500 PER PERSON! Mr. Reddington and his dogs were there (he's a famous ititarod racer) with some pups. We all loved it. Everyone was so friendly.
The Independence gold Mine was a great stop, our B&B gave us gold pans and we did some panning , maybe we'll get lucky next time

Stayed our last night at the Inlett Towers in Anchorage. It was ok, nothing special but nice enough. A very long walk to shops though, I would stay closer to the stores next time. They did offer a free shuttle to airporth though.
After the long (12hr)journey back to NY I can only say great things about Carnival and our trip.
Oh yeah, we did ship our luggage home from anchorage via Luggage Express and Fedex. Citibank Platinum MC offers this service for free once a year. I will let you know if it worked (my luggage expected home on Wednesday)