This was originally posted by Joanie&Karen on the community forum.
We went on the 2006 Alaska trip and had a wonderful time, both the Olivia cruise and the week we spent on our own in Denali State Park, Seward, Homer and Anchorage. Definitely recommend both to anyone who loves incredible natural surroundings, and great entertainment.
I've picked out about 200 of the 900 photos that we took and put them out on Picasa (a very intuitive photo editing/organizing tool recommended to me by Deidre of Olivia).
http://picasaweb.google.com/jokarjen/AlaskaTrip2006JoanieKaren?authkey=UzNkK17YMXWgz9NligiO0o9ILEs
I know that we had a bunch of questions before we went and I spent a lot of time researching destination/excursion options. Everyone's experience is different, but I am willing to share what we learned from ours if anyone has questions. We stayed in an inside Lower Promenade room (loved it and spent the $1000 of savings on other fun things.), did most of the shore excursions on our own (had a great time for little extra expense), and did the land tour on our own in a rental car (it was amazing and affordable!).
I won't be checking this forum regularly, but feel free to email us and I'll post responses on here.
You all have a great trip ahead of you. Enjoy!