An "update"...

The itinerary as posted is still accurate, the only addition would be Tuesday/Wednesday in ANC - I'm not going to do a longer trip than that. I can give suggestions for those wishing to stay longer to visit Seward or Homer (both of which are awesome and well worth the visit).

The Tuesday addition would be either:
1. Tour of Anchorage-area sights and drive to Girdwood for snowmachine trip (or skip the snowmachine trip but drive to Girdwood to enjoy the amazing views if the weather is decent).
- or -
2. Drive to Seward for one hour Resurrection Bay cruise and visit to Alaska SeaLife Center (cruise contingent on weather).

As for everything else:

Friday night hotel in Anchorage - your choice, you just need to get a taxi to the train terminal Saturday morning (about $12 from downtown, and chances are we can carpool).

I've stayed at each of the Hilton properties, and all are okay to good - haven't tried the Sheraton (and it seems to get mixed reviews). Hotel Captain Cook is nice but expensive, and I've also stayed at the hotel next to the Benihana - it's got large rooms that can easily sleep six (can dig up the name if anyone cares). So you pick the hotel that you need the stay credit with...

Saturday:
Train/Flight Package - waiting on response from Alaska Railroad - will call again in the morning. Price last year was $239 (am attempting to negotiate a group rate).

Hotel - am working on groups rates at the following:
$84 Princess Lodge
$80 Springhill Suites by Mariott
$89 Holiday Inn Express
$56 Westmark (Holland America)

Right now the Westmark is the cheapest at $56 per night w/ free shuttle, parking, and Internet. Not sure if we'll be able to do better than that. The Westmark and the Princess Lodge are located next to each other and very close to the airport (as I think the HIX is), while the Springhill Suites is in a great location at the heart of downtown.

Sunday:
Waiting on a return call from Chena Hot Springs Resort regarding group rates. If that doesn't prove much of a discount, would one of the Alaskans who may join us be willing to assist in booking as an AK state resident (you get a pretty decent discount from what we "foreigners" get...)

Activities - also waiting on group price quotes. Please take a look at this page for details on what's available and published prices: http://www.chenahotsprings.com/index.php?id=winter

Monday -
Waiting on Alaska Railroad for train/flight pricing. It does look like AS has cut one of their evening flights, so our only options to return on Monday are AS190 at 5pm or AS192 at 8:45pm - both would return to Anchorage with enough time to catch most connecting red-eye flights back to the lower-48 (and probably even enough time to catch a beer and a burger or pizza at one of the local watering holes).

Hotel for those staying over - again, probably your choice as there will be very few people sticking around for the non-FAI portion. I'll either be in the Hilton or the Sheraton depending on where I need a stay credit more...

Activity costs for the ANC-portion are as follows:
5 hour snowmachine trip - $240. They're hesitant to offer any group discount, but my guess is some flexibility exists - I know I didn't pay anything close to that the last time I used this company for the same tour. If the weather cooperates, it's both amazingly beautiful scenery and a lot of fun. If the weather is bad, they've still run the tour (unless it's really bad), but you don't see nearly as much and it can be a little less fun (you're going along at 30-40mph and can't see dips and holes in front of you that really help to define the term "bone-jarring"). The first time we made it to the glacier but couldn't get to the ice caves, the second time we did both and the ice caves were amazing!

Details - http://www.snowtours.net/winter.html

The Seward cruise is $69 and includes free admission to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center which is just down the street from the snowmachine place (timing may prevent us from visiting the AWCC however). Details at http://www.kenaifjords.com/638.cfm

Note - the cruise operates on Wednesdays, so we'd either have to do this Wednesday (I'm happy to stay an extra day), or see if they'll run one Tuesday for our quite small group (if they did run it on Tuesday it would likely be on a smaller boat - keep this in mind if you suffer from motion sickness).

Alaska SeaLife Center - I'll call on group discounts if there is any interest in going here, though we are likely too small to qualify. More details can be found at http://www.alaskasealife.org/. It's a neat place, but at $20 a bit overpriced in my opinion. It used to be included for free with the Resurrection Bay cruise on Kenai Fjords, but it looks like they've subbed the AWCC for the ASLC.

Finally, if there is enough interest, I'd be happy to take those few remaining in ANC after the FAI portion to Homer on Tuesday (returning Wednesday). In Homer, we'd stay at the Land's End hotel and while there go to the Pratt Museum ($6 - http://www.prattmuseum.org/) and bum around the spit a bit. In 2006 this was the premier place for seeing and photographing bald eagles. In 2007 they changed the laws on feeding and it was still a good place to see bald eagles but not as good for photography. I have no idea what this year will be like, but Homer is an interesting place to visit with some incredible scenery both surrounding the town and along the way. It may (stressing the may part) be possible to stop in Seward on the way back Wednesday in time to catch the Resurrection Bay tour, and then get back to Anchorage with enough time leftover to visit some of the sights and/or a museum (the Anchorage Art museum is a nice stop and reasonably priced).

Were it summer, I'd suggest parking at the DOT building and watching the seaplanes takeoff and land, but unfortunately the water will be frozen solid...

I hope this helps a little bit and I hope to have the final rate quotes for hotels tomorrow (Wednesday) so that those who wish to reserve and pay right now can do so.

Frankly, the only imperative (other than a flight to ANC) is the train+flight package that I hope to confirm in a few hours time and a confirmed booking for the Aurora snowcoach tour for those interested (it'll be a very cold and very late night - I think we started at 10pm and didn't get back until 2am - but it was definitely worth it).

Any questions or concerns on the above, please feel free to PM me or post here, and I do apologize for the delay in my response and the lack of group rate details - hopefully this will all be resolved tomorrow!

BTW, for photos from the same trip from 2006, you can visit my website at http://www.biatphotography.com/photo...p?g2_itemId=13. If okay with another FTer, I'll post a link to his photos from the 2007 Fairbanks-only portion.