Family destinations

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When you are in the beginning stages of raising your family, when your days are full of diaper changes, temper tantrums and kissing booboos, the fact that you’ll really have only eighteen summers with each child you have might not cross your mind. But an that is a reality that you have to face. Here are some vacation ideas that you really should take with your children before they leave the house.

• First of all, you should get your whole extended family together and go on a cruise together. Cruises are a great trip for extended families to take together, because there is so much you can do on a cruise? Do you want to spend most of your time by the pool, or you might want to take that cooking classes. The boys of the family want to do sports stuff most of the time. And your parents know that they want to take full advantage of the spa. Your whole family can meet up for dinner and compare notes.
• Every family should go and visit America’s favorite mouse at least once. Disney has two huge theme parks. Does your family love riding rides together? Are your girls just crazy about the Disney princesses? Do your boys love everything to do with “Toy Story”? I’ve also heard that Disney cruises are fantastic, and that everyone should go on one at least once.
• DC is a truly fascinating place. They have all kinds of memorials and museums for you to visit and explore. People are welcome to visit the Capitol and White House. And they also have a great zoo. You will learn a lot, but they also have some fantastic parks where your family can play together, and you will be able to choose from a lot of great restaurants.

Places your family will love this fall

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I am going to take a couple of different vacations in July. One will be with my family, and the other will be with some good friends of mine. Believe me, I am starting to really feel the need for a break. It is not that I do not love this job, I do, but I am getting tired. But if you are thinking that you would feel more comfortable if you and your took your first vacation after all of this that is going on in the fall. Or maybe you are doing a big family family gathering this summer, but want to do a trip with your immediate family this coming fall. Either way, here are some ideas for you.

• Niagara Falls used to be the place where a lot of honeymoon couples would go. You will love looking at the beautiful colors were of fall. You might even enjoy looking at it from a helicopter. You might also enjoy riding were the ferry or picking apples.
• Or you might want to go to Colorado Springs and enjoy the beautiful mountains. This is a beautiful place to hike. This is also a great place to take in the fall leaves. You might want to go rafting on their Echo Canyon River. This is also the home of Focus on the Family.
• We’ve talked about Vegas recently, and what a family friendly destination it is getting to be. It will be hot in the summer for sure, but fall is a wonderful time to go. If you are looking for something to do outside of the city, you may want to go explore the deserts that are around there. You may also want to enjoy some water sports while you are there.

More first day cruise tips

Let’s get back to our discussion about what you should and should not do your first day on your cruise. And just to clarify, most cruises allow you to get on board around lunch time, so you should have pretty much of the afternoon and evening to do all of these things.

• The spa books itself up rather quickly, so make sure to get down there the first day. You might get a free sample massage, or you might get entered into a free drawing.
• This is probably a no brainer, but if you arrive on the ship in uncomfortable clothing you will want to get changed into something comfy pretty quickly. No one is going to really care about what you look like. Most ships are wear anything you’d like now.
• You will want to make sure that your swim suit is accessible, because a lot of people will not be at the pool the first day anyway. Take advantage of the pool being quieter than usual.
• Like the spa, specialty restaurants get reserved quickly. Make sure to get your own reservations in as soon as you can.
• If you have your kids with you, go down and get them registered for the kids’ club, and make sure everything is in order there. They might have an introductory session that first day. This is also a great time for you parents to meet the adults who will be supervising your children.

Midwest destinations

Everyone wants to make the most of their vacation. Most people do not take enough vacation days as it is. But right now when everyone is being told to stay home, everyone is probably dreaming of vacation. Today we are going to be looking at some Midwest destinations that you might want to explore.

• And the first one we are going to look at is Indianapolis, Indiana. There is more to do here than just go to that Speedway. It may be pretty obvious if you read this blog, but I’ve never been into sports at all. There are several nice museums there, including one dedicated to the sport. My aunt used to live near Indianapolis, and I know they used to have a fantastic children’s museum.
• You might also want to try Cleveland, Ohio. Yes, this is a pretty big city, but it is also a beautiful place. Lake Eerie is a great place to practice your favorite water sport. They have a national park where you can enjoy a lot of outdoor activities.
• Do you want to just chill out at a beach somewhere? Check out Indiana Dunes County. This is just an hour outside of Chicago, so you might want to do a few city days and a few city days. At this beach you can enjoy the water any way you like.
• Duluth, Minnesota has several great state parks. You will see beautiful waterfalls. It is also a great place to go mountain biking

Disney’s Fantasy

Okay, you know that I love Disney. I love most of their movies, I love watching my little nieces go on and on about Disney princesses. I also love what I read about how Disney treats their guests. Today we are going to look at some things you are going to enjoy about cruise ship Fantasy. I hear that Disney cruises in general are wonderful. Everyone wants to go on one, and Disney never has any problems filling their ships. But like I said earlier, today we are going to specifically look at the Disney Fantasy.

• First, every Disney cruise has a pirate night. Please participate. You will be sorry if you don’t. They have one kid party, and one party that is just for adults if that is something that bothers you for whatever reason. Don’t be shy, nearly everyone everyone dresses up on this evening.
• Disney has a place for every age group to enjoy getting wet. Nemo’s Reef splash pad is for babies and toddlers. Younger children will enjoy Mickey’s Pool with its gentle slide. Donad’s Pool is pretty much for everyone who enjoys swimming and watching movies at the same time. [Sorry, I know we went through this just yesterday.]
• Do look at the art on the walls. Some of it is actually animated. [It’s Disney, go figure.] And there are games you can play with this art. You may want to try one of these games if the weather gets bad at some point. Okay, yes, we know that Disney cruises are on the pricey side, shall we say? But Disney’s inside rooms are more spacious than most. All sleep three to four comfortably. And Disney lets even those who are on the inside look outside with Magical Portholes. And all cabins come with showers and tubs, tubs being a rare find on a cruise ship.

Cruises that work best for kids

You may want to keep in mind that your cruise experience can be very different, depending on ship you take. And yes, that even applies to different ships that belong to the same cruise company.

• Let’s start with Royal Caribbean. With them, you are going to to take a look at Anthem of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas,Allure of the Seas and Oasis of the Seas. These are the Oasis Class ships, and they are the biggest Royal Caribbean has to offer. They are also the best families having the most family friendly activities. Each of these ships is going to have a large 3d theater, multiple pools, an ice skating rink, and much more. There will be a large kids’ club on each of the ships. And they will have late night childcare for when you want to enjoy some adult fun. They have a good many family suites so that everyone will be able to stretch out. And they will also have a number of restaurants that everyone in the family will love.
• With Carnival Cruiselines, you are going to want to look at their Vista and Dream Class. They have great children’s clubs, and a good job separating your children out by age groups. not Carnival is only cruise that allows two year olds into their free programs, and yes, they do change diapers. Children are going to love their water parks. They also have family friendly accommodations and restaurants.

And even more on all inclusive resorts

I don’t know about you, but I’m getting lots done during this time. Of course, I do not have children so I am not doing any of this home schooling gig I’m not going to the grocery store myself. Hats off to all who have that stuff and so much more during all of this.

Back to our discussion about resorts.

• Not all resorts are the same. Some have most than one thousand units, a lot of times resorts focus on suites instead of rooms. Other resorts can house only about a hundred people at a time. Does one of these appeal to you over the other? Make sure you book the right kind of resort.
• Are you looking for a great deal on an all inclusive? You will want to look at properties in Mexico, the Dominican Republic or Jamaica. While you might be able to find a great deal elsewhere, these are the places where you will find the great deals consistently
• A lot of the family friendly resorts are going to kids’ clubs. You can send your children there and then have time to yo. Be careful though, some of these resorts say that once you send your children to their clubs being at the club is all that your children will want to do.

More about all inclusive resorts

 

 

I hope everyone had a good weekend, as different as it might have been with everything going on. But anyway. Let’s continue our discussion about all inclusive resorts.

 

• In all of my reading about travel, I don’t remember reading about this. But what this article I’m readings reading now is saying is that food at these resorts is nothing to write home about. And that is perfectly okay if you just eat to live, but not so good if you are a foodie. Aha, they do have “gourmet” resorts, but you usually have to pay more to get in to these places.
• This is a blog about family travel, but sometimes couples need to leave their children with someone they trust and take a trip just a the two of you. There are all inclusives that are for adults only. And even more resorts have sections where children are not allowed. Either of these may be great if you are wanting sometime to relax without children and their noise.
• Of course, if you do want to take your kids with you, some resorts on offer “Kids Stay Free” programs, or other good discounts for children. Some of these places consider anyone over twelve to be an adult, others don’t consider anyone to be an adult but until they are at least seventeen.
• A lot of resorts know you are going to want to get off the property to go and do things. They’ll make it easy and allow you to book your excursions through them You can either do this before you leave on your trip or when you get there.

Group cruises

Taking a group cruise may sound like an absolute blast? But have you actually traveled with that group before. Do you know you are going to still be friends on the other side of this trip? Is that important to you Traveling with friends can be a lot of fun. It can also lead to all kinds of friend drama.

And one of the problems with group trips is that everyone feels like they have to do everything  together. But one of the great things about cruises is that there are so many different things that you can do. Everyone can do different things during the day and then each evening to share the stories.

• The first thing you need to do is to appoint a group leader?. Sometimes no one has a question about who that will be, you just know. This person is going to be doing most of the planning and putting everything together. One person really to make the decisions. This is especially true as if you are going to work with a . Having than one person call the shots drives travel agents crazy.
• The leader may want to go on and decide where he or she wants to go and then ask around to see who wants to go with them. This might be the best way to put your group together.
• If the plan is for a group of families to cruise together, you will waWant to book school holidays. And this may be harder to do unless you do it in summer.

More tips for cruising with teens

Teens, you might enjoy their company, you might not. And that might depend on the day than the teen themselves. But once your you are a parent, you need to figure out ways to live with them, in the good times and in the not so good. Yesterday we started discussing how good a vacation is for a teenager, today let’s continue that discussion.

• It’s after dinner, and you might want to go kick back in you room. But is that what your teen wants to do?  Probably not. They like staying up late and waking up late. Cruises have shows that they can get into. You might want to go to the shows with them, sadly I hear that most of the shows are for mature audiences. The expectation to this would be Disney Cruises. Or you might want to send them to the pool for late night swimming while you enjoy some quiet in your room.
• A lot of cruises that are geared towards families are going to have teen clubs. clubs are well supervised by adults that have been thoroughly checked out.. To keep everyone safe, they do not allow are other adults in these clubs. And besides, teens rarely want to party with their own parents. But you know your teen better than anyone. Yes, a lot of these clubs are split between the younger and older teens Will that work for your teens? I know some older teens prefer to be with younger kids and vise versa
• Teens may does be wonderful, but they often do not make the best roommates. Consider getting them their own room. They will. You will thank yourself. Worried about what they could do while not being supervised? Get an extra key and promise to do random checks.