This review is from our experience two summers ago with the Overnight Stay Tour. Let me preface this by saying if you are not accustomed (or willing) to spend the night in a cold tent without running water and room service, this is probably not for you.
Accommodations are a bit misleading in the sales materials. Sleeping quarters and bedding are some unleveled tents placed on wood pallets with a few cots covered in dog hair. It's cold at night and the tents are not sealed well, so you'll need to run the propane space-heaters but if it runs out of fuel in the middle of the night be prepared to grab some vise-grips and swap the tanks out yourselves (if you can find one that is not empty).
Be prepared to hang out with some less-than personable loner-types who are not much of tour-guides. You are basically on your own to do as you like; which is mostly hang out with the dogs and ask questions about them. The staff in the office was helpful but since the helicopter is on a schedule some of the preparations did feel rushed.
Food is minimal; they send up a pizza (dinner), bottles of OJ, and some danishes with you for the morning. I suggest getting into Seward early and eating a late lunch in town. Drinking water was also an issue, we had to reuse juice bottles as not bottled water was available.
The actual sled ride was a bit of a disappointment although they gave us two trips as we spent more time up there then originally planned. You do about a mile loop of the base camp and it was a pretty slow pace due to the morning sun beginning to melt the snow. You do not 'drive' the sled, you either sit in front of the musher or stand on a second sled behind him. Seeing how disorganized and 'wild' the dogs were when hooked up made it evident that they animals are not trained monkeys, they are hard-working, eager-to-please, love-to-run little machines.
And the worst part of the trip: We were supposed to be flown back out around 9AM weather permitting. Weather was beautiful but noon rolled around and no chopper yet. At this point we discovered the only means of communication they had with the rest of the world was a radio which did not work because their antenna was down at the airport being repaired! They sent us up there with no working means of modern communication; I found this to be unacceptable as if an accident occurred things could have gotten ugly quickly. So other than hunger coming around we had plans for that day to meet people in Anchorage and were becoming concerned. Finally around 3PM (6 hours late!) the helicopter appeared. The staff became the most helpful of the entire trip right around this point, probably looking for a tip which at this point I had decided was not earned. They seem unconcerned with the 'missing' helicopter nor the inability to communicate with the base.
The helicopter ride was awesome. The pilot was by far the best employee. He was really cool and was giving guided tour of the area on the way up. He even took us on a side-trip to hunt down some bear, which we found in a valley near the glacier's base; a mother and her cubs. Seeing the land from vantage point was incredible. The trip back was even more exciting as we literally had to shoot an opening in the mountains to get back to the airport; due to terrible cloud cover below. He had made several unsuccessful attempts earlier to get to us that morning.
And then there were the dogs. Any dog lover should drop everything at the chance to hang out with these animals in the environment we were in. I will leave out a lot of detail here as it's something which should be experienced. A full-night's sleep is probably out of the question but I didn't mind waking up every couple of hours to 50 baying dogs breaking the erie silence up there. The dogs were quite friendly and many loved to be petted. Some were shy, and a few were best left alone. By far the most entertaining were free-roaming puppies Jane, Stella and Beamer. Incidentally we picked a good time to go as this was their last day of freedom and were in the process of joining the chain-gang that afternoon as we prepared to leave.
So with the unexpected 'extra time' that morning I learned most of the dog's names by the time we left and really enjoyed myself. Realistically, what your money gets you is access to the glacier and the camp with limited survival requirements (food, water, shelter). So if you go expecting to camp-out and be pretty self-sufficient you'll love it. Otherwise opt for the normal Dog Sled tour and get the safer, abbreviated experience.
Here are some photos from this trip:
http://schertz.name/photos/0806-Alaska/Seward
http://schertz.name/photos/0806-Alaska/To%20Trappers%20Creek read more