While visiting Alaska, we rode the Alaska Railroad several times. The hype was over following the first ride. We rode as gold star ticket holders. This allowed us, as tourists, to sit in the 2-story forward car with the scenic panoramic windows. Along the entire route, each time, we had a hostess that incessantly repeated herself! While this may be her job, eventually passengers began to hear, ‘whah whah whah whah whah whah (imagine Charlie Brown!) So tired of hearing ‘chug chug chug or chuck your adult beverage’ each time we stopped to load/unload people or ‘the train doesn’t leave people, people leave the train (to stretch their legs or take a smoke break!’Breakfast was provided for our first ride! Half of our car’s passengers were directed to a separate dining car down stairs of our 2-story car. We were given a choice of 4 options for breakfast (as well as 4 different choices for lunch when lunch was served.) None of the choices received overwhelming applause from the passengers. It seems as though we all just muddled through in order to have SOMETHING in our bellies! Our first two rides were part of tours in which we were to see several types of wild animals. Between the two rides, we saw a plethora of beluga whales, several trumpet swans, dahl sheep, 2 osprey, several juvenile eagles, a few salmon, and a single moose. We’ve heard about the earthquake of 1964 and the pickled trees it left behind too many times to count! While the railroad is a unique way to get around, I feel once is definitely enough to experience the landscapes of inland Alaska. The mountains, rivers, and other terrain covered by the Alaskan railway really aren’t different enough from one another to warrant additional trips. The train station & gift shop was more interesting than my successive excursions on the actual train. The cautionary safety speech followed by the ‘ALL ABOARD’ call was entertaining. The children’s toys & books, postcards, ornaments, and other knick knacks/collectables in the gift shop drew large crowds before the train left the station, as well!

This is a very long train ride, but definitely worth it. I got to see so much, but the fact that they have tour guides that narrate along the way was great. I learned a lot during the trip. I was in Adventure class. They have good food & beverage choices on board and the train is quite comfortable. I hope to go back sometime and ride the southern route along the coast.

Fun experience! We went from Anchorage to Seward in one day. We wish we had stayed there overnight. It is a nice little town that would have been fun to explore.

My wife and I booked a trip with the Alaska Railroad through their travel department. It was the easiest travel planning I have ever made. Basically I said we want to take two weeks and go from Fairbanks to Seward and stay in Fairbanks, Denali, Talkeetna, Anchorage, and Seward with a side day trip to Whittier. 2-3 days at each and doing excursions along the way. We set the travel window for early July and they sent us travel options including hotels, tours and excursions to select from. We made the selections, made a deposit and then payment as agreed. Not a single issue except for weather causing a tour to be canceled which the fee was promptly returned. Every adventure they set up exceeded our expectations, tours, excursions were excellent. The railroad and hotels managed luggage from stop to stop, all we had to do was either drop it off in the lobby or outside our door and it would reappear at our next hotel. The railroad travel was fantastic, a narrator talked about the areas we were traveling through and alerted us to wildlife along the way. The speed was slow enough to enjoy the scenery and the train would sometimes slow or stop for animal sightings and views.Everyone from the railroad was so kind and thoughtful and we felt very special by the end of our adventure. We are already planning a winter return to see the snowy wonders of Alaska and perhaps the northern light.

We wanted to let all customers know that you need to be extremely careful in dealing with the ticket booth employees. We had an employee completely lie to the three of us today about having to have served in the military for 20 years to qualify for the company's military discount. Per company policy, website documentation and company reservation employee that is 100% not true. The RR has very strict ID requirements but it is not based on years of service. Extremely sad that the company would lie to veterans versus explaining the IDs being provided were not sufficient. Please be aware and take extreme caution with ticket booth employees to protect yourself.