Alaska Railroad Fairbanks naar Denali One Way

I did Fairbanks to Denali then Denali to Anchorage a few days later but I couldn't submit multiple things. Anyway. Fairbanks to Denali was in adventure class and Denali to Anchorage was Gold Star. Gold Star was a much better experience. More comfortable chairs, better viewing, hot meals. I wouldn't call adventure class bad but if I did it all over again I would do Gold Star the whole way. I love traveling by train. More leg room, don't have to stow bags, get up whenever you want. Sometimes I wish the US had gone in more on train travel like Europe. But I digress. My favroite part was in an around Denali. One of the most beautiful places I've ever seen.

Very professional service all around. The station staff in Fairbanks were welcoming and enthusiastic. The check in was simple and took little time, as did the baggage check in. The station is clean and bright with a wonderful gift shop and model train display. The train itself was sparkling clean, inside and out. The staff on board were super funny and always around. Good announcements throughout the journey. Seats were very comfortable, and the viewing from inside was excellent as was the open portion at the back of our car. All the windows were spotless !! The trip journey is awesome, with great views of mountains, water and animals. It was truly everything I had expected. My only issue was the foods service. The lunch included only an entre as did dinner. I would have thought for the price of Gold Star service the dinner would have included perhaps a soup or salad as starter before the main course. They also had no dessert on my trip. I also tried the food in the snack car, it was fast, cheap and fun to try. That aside, the trip very much one that every train fan should try.

We paid for “Gold Star” service from Fairbanks to Anchorage on the Fourth of July, 2022. Once in a lifetime experience for us and one of the things we had never done on four trips to Alaska starting in 1996. This trip was sorely over promised and under delivered. A 12 hour trip in a domed car mostly through forests and seeing basically one osprey and two swans and some rafters and some mountains. But the worst thing was the food service. We paid for three wonderful meals….our lunch came around 4:00 and was the sandwiches we could have bought in the bistro car IF they had told us they had run out of food. One in our group of 11 who had not been served earlier had a stone cold hotdog….they were out of soup, salad, burgers, veggie burgers….but yet they came up with some burgers for dinner???? There was no plan for feeding the gold star people…no plan for getting people moved through the dining car…not loitering because there were people upstairs not fed….if we 11 solo travelers had not banned together and complained we might never have been fed…..very poor communication and service. We wasted money and two days…flying to Fairbanks to ride the train one way back to Anchorage…the day on the train and tomorrow flying to Juneau! We should have flown to Juneau yesterday. Don’t waste your money on this as an excursion…see it only as a means of transportation to Denali or Talkeetna..which we have been to previously…..as an EVENT…riding the great Alaskan Railroad… it’s a first class RIP OFF, spend 500 dollars on something else! Long day wasted.