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July 15, 2026 – Alaska Railroad to Denali

Day 3 started very early with alarms at 5:30am and our luggage had to be packed and outside the room by 6:00am for transport to our next stop in Denali. Denali National Park is one of my favorite places on the planet so I was very excited to see it again.

Boarding the motor coach to the Alaska Railroad station in Fairbanks

We met Kate and Sara shortly after 6am and again grabbed breakfast in the Seasons Cafe. We all ordered hot drinks and a combination of scones and breakfast sandwiches. We then joined Papa and Claudean in the lobby for a few minutes while we enjoyed our breakfast.

July 13, 2026 – Travel Day

This is our family’s second trip to Alaska, and it is a favorite destination for all of us. Back in 2017 we did a two-week trip with Papa, and this time Claudean, Patsy, and Ben are joining us as well.

Flight to Seattle

Today is a travel day, and it started very early with wake-up at 3:30am so we would be ready for our Uber to the airport at 4:30am. Our itinerary was to fly from Nashville to Seattle and then Seattle to Fairbanks with a tight 45-minute connection in between.

The day began a bit later than some of the others, which meant that we were able to have breakfast in the main dining room, which was delicious! After this, we met in the Royal Theater to be dismissed into our tour groups for our one day in Turkey.

The day started very early with breakfast in the Windjammer. After this, we met in Studio B, the ship’s ice rink, to be dismissed off the ship and onto our tour buses for the Greek island of Santorini. Unlike other ports, we had to board tender ships to take us from the cruise to the Athinios port, and also unlike other ports, the rest of the island was not accessible on foot from the Athinios port. We boarded a bus which climbed the tall mountain to get us to the rest of the island, which had to make seven hairpin turns as we climbed! Fortunately, our driver was well prepared.

Our day began attempting to visit the main dining room for breakfast only to discover that our phones had not adjusted to the time change involved in sailing from Italy to Greece and had woken us up an hour too late to attend breakfast. Breakfast in the Windjammer was still great, though!

Our day started slightly later today, meaning that we got to enjoy a nice breakfast in the main dining room. I ordered two delicious chocolate chip pancakes. We then headed back to the room to sunscreen before heading to the Royal Theater to meet up with our tour group for the city of Messina on the island of Sicily.

As mentioned previously, the day started very early with a quick breakfast at the Windjammer. After this, we headed to the Royal Theater to meet up with our tour group for the day. After leaving the ship, we headed to our bus and met our tour guide for the day, Valentina.

The day started early with a delicious breakfast at the same place we went on the day of the Vatican tour. It turns out that in Italy, breakfast is usually just pastries and coffee, so we went back to this restaurant for its American style breakfast. I also got to try Italian hot chocolate, which was SO good!

Today was an absolute whirlwind of amazing architecture and the highlights of Rome! Finding breakfast was a bit difficult; a lot of restaurants are closed on Sundays in Rome. Fortunately, we found a quick bite to eat before heading to the Roma Termini to start our Big Bus tour.

We slept in a bit this morning as we had not planned to try and do anything in Athens before heading to the airport for our flights home.

I awoke a little before 8:00 AM to find that our flight from Athens to Philadelphia had been delayed, leaving us only 40 minutes to make our connecting flight. I knew this would likely mean we would miss our connection unless the second flight was delayed. I spent a few minutes looking at flight schedules and really could not find an alternative that would get us back to Nashville any earlier than tomorrow. We decided to just proceed as planned and then figure it out once we reached Philadelphia if we missed our connection.

For the final full day of our epic Italy & Greece vacation, we started with alarms around 6:30 AM. Today we had scheduled for a van to pick us up at 8:00 AM for a visit to ancient Corinth, Cenchrae, and other surrounding sites. This ended up being the most jam-packed day of our trip.

Our final morning aboard the Voyager of the Seas began with a wakeup around 6:30 AM at the port in Piraeus, Greece. We got ready and then went to the Windjammer Marketplace for a final buffet breakfast before getting off the ship.

We sailed into the Greek island of Mykonos early this morning and our wake up was before 6am the get ready for our tour that met at 7:15 AM.

Wow did we pack in a LOT today in western Turkey, and it was amazing! For me, this was right up there with the day we did the Colosseum last week in Rome.

Today was absolutely packed, but we had so much fun! We started the day with breakfast a few minutes from the Vatican, which was absolutely delicious! After this, we met up with our tour group for our three-hour Vatican tour.

It was another very early morning for day 9, with our alarms set before 6am for our arrival to the Greek islands of Santorini on the Aegean Sea. This was the first time in Greece for all of us!

Today was a day at sea and we intended to get up around 8:30 AM. The ship’s time moved forward one hour at 2:00 AM and we mistakenly thought our phones would automatically adjust since we were connected to the ship’s WiFi. 

This was our final day in Italy, which has been an amazing experience. Today we were on the island of Sicily just off the tip (toe) of the boot of Italy. 

It was an early morning with all of our alarms set before 6:00am so we would have time for breakfast before meeting up with our excursion group at 7:15 AM. The plan for today was a tour of the city of Sorrento and the ruins of Pompeii. 

Today was our final morning in Rome before we headed to the Roma Cruise Terminal at 11:00 AM. The weather was much cooler than previous days. It was cloudy and windy with temps in the 70s to start the day. It got much warmer, but the highs were supposed to stay in the 80s.