Beautiful pics and family. I have never seen it snow, except to drive through it in the mountains. I am planning to visit Niagra Falls and Canada some time in my life time!!!!!! Rosa

Great Pictures you are getting me really excited about this trip... THANK YOU THANK YOU grace

Oh wow! 'Real pictures of my ship! It looks bigger here than it does in the brochure. *gasp* This sooooo real now. So tell me, what do we have to pay for on the ship? I know we have to pay for any alcholic beverages but what about softdrinks, coffee, bottled water, cappacino, etc? Also, are all the restaurants on the ship no charge or just the buffet? Is the entertainment free? I have a list of questions to ask the travel agent (and these are on that list) but I'd like to hear from real people. Custer listens to Sirius radio at work and tuned into a travel channel. The host said cruise rates were at an all time low and recommended buying insurance. That way if your financial circumstance changes you can cancel the trip and get most of your money back. Like I said, this is really a cheap trip. We had some costly repair bills on our haying equipment which cuts into our off shore money but that's okay. Custer and I do best on our own. We really don't do well with 'leaders'. LOL Lori

We did a fly into/out of Anchorage and rented a car for ten days about ten years ago when the kids were teens. We drove to Denali for a super guided horseback ride into the north part of the park then drove the Denali Highway, so remote, to Paxon, then down to Copper Center. We stayed in a hotel there that was part of one of the cuise lines stops. Lots of cruise people and they stopped there to watch the salmon run. But the highlight of out trip was the trip to Kennecott Copper Mine and the little town of McCarthy. You cannot easily drive there and can't take rental cars because of the road so we opted to charter a flight for the day. We flew out of a Copper River sandbar- Fabulous pilot! Beautiful scenery and not at all expensive for the four of us for the great experience. Hiked the Glacier and spent the day touring the area. So Cool! Kids loved it. If you do one thing- do that. The scenery of the mountains in that range makes Denali pale in comparison. IMO. We then drove down to Valdez and caught a ferry to Whttier (MUST SEE but if you are doing a cruise you will see all the water sights - but you have to book the ferry for a car, weeks in advance in summer) and then drove to Seward ( not much there and a snooze compared to what we had seen earlier) again IMO. Back to Anchorage and flew home. Kids kept asking when were going back. They are in their late 20's now and I think they would still go with us again...;) Happy anniversary! Our 30th is this summer and we decided to buy a convertible and drive through Maine. We've never been. I'll have to start a Maine thread...