anchorage

The shuttle bus trips into Denali NP are sometimes too long for a child, anyway. So, as mentioned, you could drive to Talkeetna for a river float trip that would give you a good chance of seeing wildlife and views of McKinley.
My husband and I spent several hours watching float planes land and take off! And you are fairly likely to see a moose in Anchorage. (We actually saw more moose in Anchorage than we did in Denali NP and we were only in Anchorage for a couple of days.) You could walk or bike the Coastal Trail, watch the fishing at Ship Creek, go to the Aviation Heritage Museum, Wildlife Conservation Center, zoo, and the Native Heritage Center, and the Botanical Gardens has nice walks and nature trails.
Days are long, so you could take day trips south from Anchorage and see a lot, too. Portage glacier and Byron Glacier (look for ice worms) are certainly close enough for a day trip, and Anchorage.net says Exit Glacier is 2 1/2 hours south. Seward and the Alaska Sealife Center are 125 miles away.
Look at http://www.anchorage.net/ for more ideas or search this forum. There have also been lots of postings about Alaska with kids and Alaska on a budget.

As Alaska isn't a cheep place to vacation, Anchorage is much more affordable place to stay than the outlying areas, with lots to do and see in and around town.

Oh you can do Denali in a day from Anchorage. It's known as the suicide run and entails getting up at 3:00 a.m. to drive to Denali to catch an early shuttle back to Wonder Lake and then driving back to Anchorage that night.

For starters: Try the train. There are day trips from Anchorage to Seward, which will save you the hassle of driving, plus free up your time to watch the scenery. Seward has the glacier/wildlife cruises you're looking for, plus fishing, the Sea Life Center, etc. That knocks out a bunch of your list right there.

It is getting close to our Alaska trip and I am left with a few more bookings to make. The food is served buffet style in chafing dishes, go back to Seward and find a good local restaurant to reminisce about the wildlife and glaciers that you just experienced! I enjoy the Wildlife Conservation Center for bears though, it is on the Seward Hwy near Portage Glacier.

Hi, my grandson (7) loves the zoo and it's a great place to let the kids run a bit and burn off some energy.

my family (2 adults/2 kids) are looking for a nice B & B around Anchorage for one night in June. we will need two rooms with 3 beds.
the few that I am considering because they look nice by the pictures are : Alaska Frontier gardens, Mangy moose and Grand Alaska.any thought about there or others?

If you can pass along some details we might be able to give you some better options based on those. as I am in a freaked out state currently, I just booked two nights at Captain cook (2 bd suit) as a back up plan. (we are not too keen on camping out).

We have one spare day in Anchorage at the end of June and are looking for the best one day bear watching trip. I have read several who think you need more time to veiw the bears or it is not worth it. I have stayed in both and would consider the Seward Windsong Lodge to be the quieter of the two in my experiences. They also have a wonderful restaurant on site.

Can you tell me what Seward itself is like? We think it'd be too much of a hassle for us to stay one night in each place. As mentioned Rust's is good as well as Regal Air.

I will be busy doing all the follow ups,appreciate the time taken. Any thoughts on how best to maximize my time by seeing as much as possible. I don't think you could go wrong with Glacier Brewhouse, The Snow Goose, or Humpy's. we have kids 8 and 13 who are pretty adventurous but the 8 year old bores easily.