Scenic Train Ride from Anchorage to Denali on the McKinley Explorer

I highly recommend the Gold Star service on the Alaskan dome train! This was an incredible experience. Seats were spacious and comfortable. The commentator was great and present in the car with us, available for questions, and super friendly and professional. The food was far better than expected. Meals included had options and felt more like an actual dinning experience at a restaurant than a meal on a train. Obviously the views were also incredible. Booking the trip was simple to figure out and reasonably priced for the experience. Overall, very happy we went with this experience, would recommend, and would do it again if I return.

The Alaska Railroad is a wonderful way to see so much beauty that Alaska has to offer. We had 3 experiences on the RR: Wilderness Express Dome, Gold Star Dome, and a non-dome car. The Wilderness Express experience was one of the best customer service experiences I’ve had. We checked in at Fairbanks with the Wilderness Express team who took care of checking/handling our bags, escorting us to our seats, managing the breakfast seating, and providing commentary throughout the trip. We were able to see our first moose from the domed car. The Gold Star experience was also a luxury dome - we took it from Seward to Anchorage. The views were tremendous, and we were even able to get beautiful pictures of the back of our train in front of a mountain. Our dinner service in the dining car was very pleasant. I had the pot roast and my husband had salmon Alfredo. In both of our domed car experiences, we had to couple up with others in the dining car to be most efficient with seating. We met some really nice people and enjoyed the conversations. Our final experience was not in a domed car, and it was a much shorter trip than the others; this was the leg from Whittier to Anchorage where we travelled through the combination train and automobile tunnel - that was a cool experience! We were still impressed with how much of the countryside we could see from the lower car. It was nice that even though the lower car did not include a meal in the dining car, there was a cafe where sandwiches and other things could be purchased. The only downside in all of our RR experiences was that the cafe had sold out of several sandwiches and all chips before our leg of their journey.

We took the train from Anchorage to Seward to catch our cruise ship. It was actually a Celebrity Cruise excursion operated by Alaskan Railway. The trip took 5 hours. The trip was great the food served was good. I’ve attached a photo of the menu for reference. The train even slowed down is areas of interest for photos and the servers where very helpful in providing information about the trip and area.

took the train from Fairbanks to Anchorage and had a pretty good time. they served 3 meals- breakfast, lunch, and dinner which were all great. we saw great views of Denali and some wildlife, would definitely recommend

Definitely one of my biggest adventures in my life! Alaska Railroad 🚞 is an amazing experience! Go for it if you are in Alaska. You can catch it from Denali Park and it goes to Anchorage and is about 6-8 hours. The beautiful nature around that you see while traveling with it is magnificent. Steongly recommended it! 🙌🏻