Alaska Railroad Corporation — Local services in Alaska

This is the popular train ride that you hear of online "THAT YOU GOTTA DO!!" Months prior my wife and I were trying to book this train from Anchorage to Fairbanks under the Gold Star Status. It was booked solid and we missed our window. *As a recommendation book the Gold Star in the other direction like we did from Fairbanks to Anchorage the train actually won't be as crowded. We also booked our trip in July of 2025 .

Let me simplify my review by saying do the GOLD STAR ride if you want to, but just after 3 hours of looking out the window of repetitive scenery with only one animal sighting vaguely in the distance. It will start wearing out its welcome and you will be bored and tired. The 3 included meals actually made the trip seem to go a little faster in that it was more stimulating to eat, than stare out a window all day. *But keep all your receipts because some of the waiters added extra charges to our credit card payments in the form we feel, were added tips even double charges on a cookie my wife bought for 6 dollars and was charged 8 dollars. Of course we disputed the extra charges on our credit card and won, but to be so petty like that is ridiculous. I would imagine we are probably not the only ones out there who experienced this little added inconvenience, but others probably just let it go. Another point on their dinner menu they had a meal listed with chicken. So my wife ordered the chicken because she can't eat cheese or dairy which the other dishes had in them. Our waitress came back telling us that they didn't have chicken because they didn't pick that up before the trip. To me that is criminal. Customers are paying a little over $500 bucks each and perhaps like my wife could not eat the other meals because of allergies. They should have made it a "point" to get that meat otherwise they should have a back up menu, that doesn't indicate something they don't have. Seems like there are more KIDS running that train and kitchen than seasoned adults. *The meals were all fresh and delicious. VIP seating comfortable and recline all the way back. A lot of bathrooms to accommodate passengers. There is NO WIFI on the train, perhaps something they should consider offering to their Gold Star customers? **If you plan on sitting all the way in the front like we did the seat by the window will always have the BEST VIEW. I was seated in the aisle seat of "C 3 D" and a short glass plate was blocking my forward view. Something that should not be there because it was annoying not to be able to see forward. All front seats do not have a built-in tray table to eat off of. On the other hand, the front seat of "A 1 B" is the better seat in that there isn't anything blocking your forward view for both the window seat passenger and the aisle passenger.

Comfortable ride, great food, NO WIFI, nice outside deck but repetitive scenery for 12 hours. Otherwise do the less expensive seat and bring your own lunch, you'll thank me later.

*The Review...

I'm an Alaskan resident and have taken the Alaskan Railroad many times over the past decade. However, I recently repeated a trip on the Coastal Classic route from Anchorage to Seward that I hadn't done since I first moved up here.

The low tide and morning sun was great on waters of Turnagain Arm as we made the beginning part of our journey. However, as a night owl, I was dead tired after the 6am check-in that I slept most of the route because I knew I would see it on the ride back.

After a few cozy days in Seward, I took the train back. I was most excited about the dinner as I remember it being stellar. Although the portions were small, the food was still delicious and the adult beverages were good.

My favorite part of the ride is the S-curve near Bartlett Glacier. It reminds me of an old wooden roller coaster. Plus, it's great for getting side views of the train to photograph. Going through the rock tunnels near Spencer Glacier and along the banks of Kenai Lake are also nice scenic photo ops.

As for the handful of negative comments about the train, I think 99% of them would be resolved if people set expectations and treated it like a flight from the airport:

It's chilly, bring a blanket It can be noisy, bring noise canceling headphones If you want to sleep, bring an eye mask Go to the bathroom before getting on if you don't like small bathrooms Don't rush to baggage claim when you arrive because they have to unload the crates by forklift and then remove each item by hand, so casually stroll and take train selfies and use the bathroom beforehand Most trains aren't a full capacity, so if you don't like your seat just move around within your car If you're not in first class (Gold Star), it may take 2-3 hours to get seated for a meal if the train is full because just one dining car and you may have to sit with strangers, so if that bothers you eat ahead of time and bring snacks The train takes 2x as long as driving, so hopefully you're doing it for the train aesthetic and gorgeous views because it's cheaper and faster to take a bus between towns Expect delays between 30-60 minutes due pulling over for freight, so don't book tours or flights two minutes after the train arrives in town Few places aboard to charge phone, so charge it beforehand or have a battery pack All payments aboard are by debit or credit card, no cash If using the TourSaver coupon, it literally says to book at least 48 hours in advance otherwise you can't use the discount Probably half the route doesn't have cell phone service, so just enjoy the ride and put your phone in airplane mode I highly don't recommend doing the 12-hour ride between Anchorage and Fairbanks. Cut it up with an overnight or two in Talkeetna and Denali. Both a nice towns with charm and history.

The only thing standing in the way between you and good trip is your poor...

The Good, The Bad, & the indifferent tourist experience:

Overall, we are extremely disappointed by our railroad trip from Anchorage to Denali and back onboard the Denali Star. If you are a tourist, realise that this train journey will take up a full day of your vacation, and there are better alternatives for that time. If we are to make that journey again we will take a bus or more likely get a rental car.

Now, first the good part of the journey. That was the return trip from Denali to Anchorage on 31st May 2021 where we had the Gold Star service. Good seats, good food served in a friendly and efficient manner plus, of course, great scenery. Surprisingly to us, fearing the worst based on the outbound journey, the train reached its destination just a little bit later than scheduled. We got pretty much what we had expected.

The bad part of our journey was outbound from Anchorage to Denali on 29th May 2021. We rode Adventure Class. Our first impression was the broken seat we had been assigned. Fortunately for us, the train wasn't fully occupied which meant that we could easily change seats. Soon after the train left Anchorage we decided to get breakfast. At the buffet car we discovered that the majority of items listed on the menu were unavailable. The few items on offer were in short supply, and passengers arriving there later in the journey were surely presented with a very poor selection of items to eat or drink. After we disembarked we heard that Gold Star passengers fared even worse than us with regards to food/catering. There were several flag stops, which is fair enough, but the train slowed or came to a complete stop on several other occasions for no apparent reason. No announcements were made to offer an explanation for the slowness, and previously helpful/friendly railroad employees disappeared from the face of the earth in the latter part of the journey. The train eventually got to Denali a little over two hours after the scheduled time. This lateness was causing stress amongst some passengers who had other timed commitments.

We had foolishly believed the hype about how great the Alaska Railroad experience is. Don't make that same mistake. Indifferent is how we now feel towards the Alaska Railroad Corporation and Indifferent is our assessment of ARC's attitude towards...