We were invited to join five couples on this cruise. Eight of us did the land portion and we met up with the other four on the ship.

We We flew from CT to Seattle and then on to Fairbanks. We were scheduled to have an eight-hour layover in Seattle, but when we went to check in with Alaska Airlines, they told us we could take an earlier flight that was leaving in an hour. The charge was $25 for each of us. Really sweet!

When we got to Fairbanks, the Princess desk was right next to the baggage carousel We got an envelope that had all our information for our first hotel, including keys. As soon as we retrieved our bags, we handed them over to Princess baggage personnel. There were buses that took us to the hotel.When we got to our room, our bags were waiting. We stayed at the Fairbanks Princess Riverside which is located on the Chena River. It was beautiful. There are two restaurants on site and we ate at the pub both nights. Very relaxing and the food was good. Outside of the restaurants, there is plenty of room for groups to gather. They also have a great gift shop. Room was very clean and bed was comfortable. We were hoping to see the Northern Lights but it went from a beautiful, sunny day in the high 50s to being cloudy late at night. Read more