Alaska Discovery

Arrive today in Fairbanks, in the great state of Alaska, on an adventure that brings together the best of both land and sea. As traveler’s arrival times vary greatly, we have no group activities planned during the day.
Hotel Name: Westmark Hotel

Step aboard the popular Sternwheeler Discovery, an unforgettable journey showcasing Alaska’s diverse culture and rich history. Make stops along the way to meet the people and get a taste of local life. Take a scenic motor coach ride to Denali National Park. Tonight, enjoy a musical performance that tells the story of the first brave men to summit Denali followed by dinner.

Breakfast Included
Lunch Included
Dinner Included
Hotel Name: Holland America Denali Lodge

Visit Area: Fairbanks
A home rule city in the state of Alaska, Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region. The city of Fairbanks was founded by Captain E. T. Barnette in August 1901 while headed to Tanacross, where he intended to set up a trading post. Fairbanks has a history of gold mining, which dates back to when it was founded. In 1939, major infrastructure in the territory occurred for the first time, in part of a larger effort by the federal government during the New deal and World War II, which fostered an economic and population boom in Fairbanks. The city of Fairbanks is home to a number of attractions and events which draw visitors from outside of Alaska throughout the year.

This morning, travel deep into Denali National Park on the Tundra Wilderness Tour* which affords the best opportunities to view the region’s wildlife. Learn about the history of the park and see why Denali is one of the top three reasons that people visit Alaska. The remainder of the day is at leisure.

Breakfast Included

Admittance: Sternwheeler Discovery
Board the legendary Fairbanks riverboat, the Sternwheeler Discovery, for an unforgettable cruise showcasing Alaska’s diverse culture and rich history. Make stops along the way to meet the people and get a taste of local life.

Your day begins with a scenic train ride to Talkeetna. Savor every moment inside your luxury domed railcar. View the incredible landscape from glass-ceiling railcars and open-air observation platforms as rail guides provide expert commentary. Check into the iconic Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge, perched on a ridge offering unforgettable views of Denali.

Breakfast Included
Hotel Name: Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge

Admittance: Music of Denali Dinner Theater
Telling the story of the first men to reach the summit of Denali is the focus of the rollicking Music of Denali Dinner Show. Told over a period of two hours while guests dine on a family-style meal of Alaskan salmon, BBQ, mashed potatoes and apple crisp, the show is sure to delight.

Depart for your ship, stopping en route in Anchorage, Alaska’s largest city. Continue with a scenic drive along the Chugach Mountains. Drive along the Turnagain Arm to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center. Discover where orphaned or injured bears, wolves, porcupines, and moose are cared for in a 200-acre rehabilitation site. Arrive in the port of Whittier where you’ll embark on your 7-night Holland America cruise aboard a fabulous floating resort designed to make your stay on board truly memorable. You will be dazzled by the entertainment in the state-of-the-art lounges and a myriad of dining options. While on board, breakfast, lunch, dinner and nightly entertainment are included.

Breakfast Included
Dinner Included
Hotel Name: Holland America Cruises' Westerdam

Admittance: Denali National Park
In 1917, Alaska named its first national park Mount McKinley National Park and nearly 70 years later the park was expanded and renamed Denali National Park. This vast land has a fascinating ecosystem and is more than a park — it is a wildlife reserve. And perhaps its biggest claim to fame is being the home to North America’s highest peak, Denali, ascending more than 20,000 feet. This massive park is now more than 6 million acres, an area that can be compared to the size of Massachusetts. The park is home to nearly forty different varieties of mammals, but the most popular residents are moose, caribou, wolves, plus brown and grizzly bears. Denali is Alaska’s heartland and brings you up close to its majestic beauty and natural wonders.

When conditions allow, your ship cruises up to the mammoth Hubbard Glacier, one of Alaska’s largest glaciers. Have your camera ready and take in the natural beauty of the glacier's stunning surface.

Breakfast Included
Lunch Included
Dinner Included

Admittance: Tundra Wilderness Tour
The Tundra Wilderness Tour offers wonderful diversity for visitors. Travel 53 miles into the park to the Toklat River area where incredible scenery and some of the best opportunities to view the park’s wildlife await you. This tour also provides in-depth information about the history of the park. While we can’t promise or predict when wildlife will show, the tour allows plenty of opportunity to look for Dall sheep, moose, caribou, wolves and grizzly bears.

Cruise into Glacier Bay, a spectacular national park and preserve that is a treasure trove of tidewater glaciers and scenic coastal islands. Its rich world of marine life and large concentration of tidewater glaciers is Alaska at its best.

Breakfast Included
Lunch Included
Dinner Included

Admittance: Luxury Domed Rail
Reliving the golden age of train travel, are the luxury domed railroad cars provided by Princess Cruises. Allowing guests to travel from the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge a mere 8 hours to Whittier and the awaiting cruise ship, the domed cars provide ease of travel for up to 880 passengers. With panoramic views from the dome-covered cars and the open-air viewing platforms, guests are delighted with the majestic wonder of Alaska.

Skagway is your first port of call where you have the entire day to explore its gold rush history and see why it is called the “Garden City of Alaska.” The town is small but big on adventure with many things to see and do!

Breakfast Included
Lunch Included
Dinner Included

Visit Area: Anchorage
A young city founded in 1915, Anchorage is a vibrant city of just over 300,000 people. From its humble origins as a railroad town for the Alaska Railroad, the largest city in Alaska maintains its frontier history in an idyllic mountain setting.

From massive scenic mountains to historic buildings, there is so much to explore in Alaska’s capital city of Juneau.

Breakfast Included
Lunch Included
Dinner Included

Drive By: Hubbard Glacier
Nicknamed the galloping glacier, Hubbard Glacier is located in Disenchantment Bay. At 76 miles long, this is the longest tidewater glacier in North America and slightly larger than the state of Rhode Island. A tidewater glacier is a slow moving mass of ice and snow that flows into the ocean.

Your port of call today is Ketchikan, known as the “Salmon Capital of the World” and the “City of Totems.” Located on the tranquil Revillagigedo Island, Ketchikan is home to the world’s largest collection of totem poles.

Breakfast Included
Lunch Included
Dinner Included

Drive By: Glacier Bay
Located just west of Juneau is the national park known as Glacier Bay. A UNESCO World Heritage site, this park features some of the world’s most spectacular tidewater glaciers, which regularly calve into the sea. Calving is the process of ice breaking from the face of a glacier and forming ice bergs.

A wonderful day of sightseeing awaits as your ship sails along the amazing Inside Passage.

Breakfast Included
Lunch Included
Dinner Included

Visit Area: Skagway
Lying at the head of Lynn Canal is Skagway, one of the driest places in an otherwise soggy southeast. While Petersburg averages over 100” of rain in a year and Ketchikan a drenching 154”, Skagway gets only 26” annually. At the height of the gold rush, Michael J. Heney, an Irish contractor, convinced a group of English investors that he could build a railroad over the White Pass Trail to Whitehorse. The construction of the White Pass & Yukon Route was nothing short of a superhuman feat, and the railroad became the focal point of the town’s economy after the gold rush and during the military buildup of WWII.

Your cruise ends this morning in the vibrant Canadian city of Vancouver, leaving you with many wonderful memories of your tour to the last of the great frontiers.

Breakfast Included

Visit Area: Juneau
As the third largest city in Alaska with a population of around 30,000, Juneau was the first town founded after Alaska’s purchase from the Russians. The town was founded on gold nuggest and in 1880, Sitka mining engineer George Pilz offered a reward to any local Tlingit chief who could lead him to gold-bearing ore. Chief Kowee of the Auk Tlingit tribe arrived with such ore, and Pilz sent Joe Juneau and Dick Harris, two vagabond prospectors, to investigate, and the town formed around the original mining camp.