Three stars because of the hotels even though we paid for superior rooms they were all terrible except for one night in Girdwood. Tours were great and the train Goldstar service was great.
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Our trip to Alaska was great hotel were awesome the train was better than I expected. We will do again the future. Thank you
Excursion was well planned..on time and lodging was very nice.. food on the train was average and the menu never changes so if you have multiple train rides I would bring some snacks. The animal preserve was disappointing..enjoyed the rafting, iditerod adventure, glacial cruise out of Seward and the Denali park bus tour. The road to the base of the mountain was closed so this trip was 40 miles shorter than expected. Beautiful scenery. Lodging and restaurant at the Hyatt (WildBirch Hotel) in Anchorage was very nice however the rooms can be a 10 min walk with luggage since. No porters were available on late train arrival. Really hard cause our room was the last and furthered from the from desk. . We did have one scheduling conflict while traveling with another couple.. we were booked on two different buses at different times for the Denali tour. The hotel tried to contact the guide service but were told changes had to be make through booking agency. When I called if was after hours and left a message. I was very persistent and the hotel manager gave me another number of the tour company which I contacted and got resolved in about 45 minute. I later did receive a follow from your company which i advised the mater was resolved!
We had an amazing trip to Alaska! It was one of our top 3 vacations ever! We loved taking the train from place to place. All the excursions were fabulous too.
2 long days of train rides. Itinerary was confusing. First on the itinerary was the hotel for the night. Last on the itinerary was how to get from present hotel to the train station. That should have been first. Three nights in Anchorage. First and last night but then backtracked one night back to Anchorage. That did not make sense. Since I had to pick a specific date for my tour, I assumed there would be others on the tour. That was not the case. I told the Vacation by Rails office that I was a vegetarian. That was not passed along.
The sites chosen were outstanding. A great variety. While each outing was well planned, there was little to no direction given as to when to leave the hotel to catch the train or shuttle to arrive timely for our outing. I believe some guidance with a "who to contact to verify" would be extremely helpful. It was a truly awesome trip.
Well organized.
At first our Alaska rail trip seemed to be pretty good, as ANY vacation is always fun to just get away. However, after spending so many hours on the train, it became boring, crowded with seats way too close together especially for the GOLDSTAR SERVICE. That does get you seats on the top of the train BUT those seats are smaller in length than the "normal" ones just for a few free drinks which is just NOT worth it. Hotels on the trip are NOT the best, must be some negotiated rate discounted to keep train passengers going to the designated hotels. They should have just given us more OPTIONS with us being able to choose better hotels. One hotel was horrible, 2 others were not good, and maybe one only was OK at best. We will never do another Rail Trip after this one. Too bad as some of the site seeing was pretty spectacular, but at the cost of not hotel accommodations. Meals also were not very good considering the price of the Rail trip ... should have had more choices. Wildbirch Hotel in Anchorage was horrible. Alyeska Resort in Girdwood was OK at best. Seward Windsong Lodge was not good at all, like a hotel out of the 1950s. Denali Bluff's Hotel was the best of ALL of them at least the room was better. I was able to reserve then next week at the Staybridge Hotel in Anchorage for about 1/2 the price of these hotels booked by the Vacations by Rail and they were SO MUCH BETTER than the Wildbirch in Anchorage there was NO COMPARISON for hotel rooms. Also the rail trip back from Seward was long, slow and tedious if you are squashed into the GOLDSTAR seats above, that we ended up abandoning part of our Rail trip and just got off and rented a truck to finish up our tour instead of train. Lastly our final part of our Rail trip we disembarked at the Anchorage Train Station and the LUGGAGE and PASSENGERS were all herded into the train station in a huge mess with people tripping over luggage because one of the trains was late because of landslide (normal for train routes in Alaska), but the station personnel should have managed to separate the riders disembarking from the luggage being sorted out by the returning passengers from 2 different trains arriving at the station at the same time. It was a real cluster ... Staff was GREAT, but then again they don't run the program, they only work there. I do commend the STAFF 100%.
Cars and bathrooms well maintained.