Family Travel Adventures

If you live in Central Florida and you have children, there’s a good chance you’ve been to one of our many theme parks….at least once. Our family gets a lot of use out of our Florida annual passes. Universal Studios in Orlando sometimes offers the 2 park/2 year deal, which we purchased. The passes are good throughout the year, with limited black out times. Our Disney passes are seasonal, which are not valid for a few months during the summer. If you are looking for a fun vacation, but don’t want to travel far some of the theme park resorts can be a great choice. If you’re a Disney fan, some of the resorts on Walt Disney property are as fun as the actual theme parks. There are so many choices, whether you opt for a value resort (under $100 a night) or one of the higher priced ones, like the Grand Floridian (over $300 per night). Whichever you choose, be prepared to get the “Disney” treatment. You can be sure that everything is very kid friendly and there are PLENTY of things to do. The Disney buses run to and from the resorts, the parks, Downtown Disney and the Disney Boardwalk. On two different occasions, we’ve stayed at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and the Wilderness Lodge. I can’t say enough about the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We chose the Savannah View room. Our balcony overlooked a 33-acre wildlife preserve. Imagine waking up and seeing a giraffe outside your window.

We were able to see animals the entire time we stayed (which was 2 days and 1 night). The best times to see animal activity were morning and early evening. It was pretty incredible. Here’s something I wish I had of known before I booked our stay. You can request a room with a small refrigerator at no charge. Your dining experiences can get pretty expensive if you and your family are staying for a night or two. Pack fruit, cereal, milk and plenty of snacks. Bring some bottles of water to keep in your room, too. We could have saved a lot of money, especially on the smaller meals and snacks. Our best bet was to spend our dining dollars on breakfast one morning at the Whispering Canyon Café in the Wilderness Lodge. You have to love a waiting area that has a table full of Lincoln Logs to entertain kids. All of the waitresses and waiters are very loud. When they come to take your drink order, they throw straws and napkins on the table and at your kids….I’m sure that sounds kind of weird, but funny none the less. It’s a place where you’re child can act like he/she would prefer to act in a restaurant….silly, loud and squirmy. Be sure to have your child ask the waitress for catsup. When they do, the waitress yells to everyone in the restaurant to bring catsup to this table. It’s quite the spectacle. You end up with about 50 bottles of catsup on your table. And of course there’s always a guy at the next table that asks for a beer in hopes that he’ll have the same luck. They sing the Hokee Pokee. Kids of all ages seemed to be excited about this. The café also has a barrel of broomstick horses for a race that kids can participate in (during the meal of course). It’s great fun. My kids were a little puzzled by the fact that it was “okay” to play around and be a goofball at the dinner table. They behaved better than any time before…talk about reverse psychology! We wanted to see the Whoop Dee Doo Revue, but they were booked up. Please leave a comment if you’ve been to see this. I’ve heard it’s great!On our recent stay at the Wilderness Lodge, we took a boat over to Fort Wilderness for a Chip and Dale Campfire Sing-A-Long. Bonfires were lit, and the marshmallows and hot dogs were roasted. You can buy the hot dogs and chocolate bars, marshmallows and graham crackers or you can bring your own. Another fact, I wish I had of known. After the bonfire, you can stay for a movie by the campfire. We opted to take the boat back. Luckily, we were just in time for the night parade. We sat on the beach and watched an electrical parade light up the water….very cool.My 2-year-old daughter’s favorite part of our mini vacation was the baby bunnies and ducks. Throughout Fort Wilderness and the Wilderness Lodge baby and adult bunnies and ducks walked around the landscape and would literally come right up to you. There were many “Snow White” moments for my little girl.If you don’t have park tickets or annual passes to the park, don’t worry. My 6-year-old son must have asked me a million times if we could please leave the Magic Kingdom and go back to the resort. It’s funny to think that a really cool swimming pool and an arcade trumps the Mouse. It’s just that good!!

Okay, I’m a mom and I love my kids dearly, but I do think everyone needs a little “adult time”. Though, my favorite thing in the world is seeing my two year old’s face smiling first thing in the morning, not too mention informing me she’s hungry, I really miss sleeping in…even if it’s to 6:30am. So, in the heat of July, my husband and I decided to entrust our children with my parents in order to take a long awaited vacation from it all. Because we only had a small amount of time and money, we didn’t want to waste a lot of time traveling by car, train or plane. We just wanted some R & R and some time alone. Wow, remember time alone? Anyway, we decided to book a cruise on Carnival Fun Ships. It seemed like the best idea. We loved the fact that we paid for everything ahead of time, but most of all we were able to lay around by the pool and sip pina coladas while we traveled to our ports of call. It was odd at first. You know….the part about relaxing. There were no children to look after. It took me a while to unwind, but my husband had no trouble. We sailed on the “Miracle” which is a relatively new Carnival Ship and visited places like Grand Cayman, Costa Maya, Belize and Cozumel. We were able to pre-book excursions or reserve spots while we were on board. Each port had a lot of character. I have to be honest, out of all the ports, I enjoyed staying on the ship. It is true about finding rare gems, like Alexandrite, in some of these ports, but you could also find the same beautiful jewelry at comparable prices on the ship. I spend way too much time in my car chauffeuring children to soccer games, piano lessons, school….you name it, I was actually happy to just stay in one place. I did get off the boat in all the ports, but if I did it again I would have stayed onboard in Grand Cayman and Cozumel. We went snorkling off an island in Belize. This was fun, the water was beautiful, there was a lot of rum punch and a man selling shell jewelry….which I bought too much of. In Costa Maya, my husband and I went on the Mayan ruin excursion. It was fascinating, but extremely hot. I’m glad I did it, but I kept wishing I were back on the boat.

My first favorite thing about cruising was getting to do absolutely nothing while we were sailing to each port. If anyone has experienced a road trip with a 2 year old, you understand how the travel time is never the favorite memory of the vacation. Well in this case, there’s no stopping the ship because someone has to go to the restroom. You basically lay around all the time. That’s if you want to. There are endless things to do, like yoga, swimming, gambling in the casino, great shows, dancing…all kinds of activities for adults and kids. But for me, I was enjoying being leisurely.

My second favorite part of my cruise was the portraits. I know that must sound silly, but if you’ve ever spend hundreds of dollars on family portraits, you will feel cheated when you see what Carnival can do. I took full advantage of this cruise perk. I would recommend this to anyone. There are a couple of formal dinner nights that you can get all dressed up. Use this as an opportunity to get some beautiful pictures at an unbelievable price. This is from a woman that hates to take pictures. Before the trip, I had no pictures of myself in my home The cruise photos my husband took of me on our digital camera looked terrible….awful, just awful (I’ve deleted all of them). Anyway, I don’t know what Carnival does, maybe they have a guy in the back room that’s really knowledgeable on photoshop, but these pictures looked great. I couldn’t stop buying them. And even then, I don’t think I went over fifty dollars. Now, my pictures are all over my house.

I also loved the all inclusive part of the cruise. I did go to the spa for a massage and buy a few things. They make things so easy. You get a Carnival card to purchase any “extras”, and you get to monitor your spending anytime via the television in your room. At no time were we surprised or confused about our bill. It was all very clear. The staff was friendly and very accommodating.

Just like anyone who has been on a cruise will tell you, there is good food everywhere. You will gain weight. But enjoy it. I know I gained about 10 pounds, but you couldn’t tell in those portraits.

Calling home or even emailing was expensive. I called every few days, but my parents could contact me at any time, if there was an emergency with my kids. There were certain ports of call that my cell phone did work.

Anyway, I could talk all day about my cruise adventure. I recommend this form of traveling to any parents who would like a getaway. I love the fact that you can enjoy all aspects of the trip, even getting there.

If you’ve never cruised, Distinctive Escapes Luxury Travel Consultants and Carnival Cruiselines is holding an event Wednesday May 30^th at 6:30pm at Appleton’s Café, 3575 West Lake Mary Blvd., Lake Mary, Florida. There will be food and giveaways. But you need to RSVP at 407-322-0344, as seating is limited. Find out everything you need to know, like passport info, deals on those “precious gems” you can only find in the Caribbean, the cost, the ports of call…anything you can think of. See you there!!

Momadventures

Travel arrangements for Momadventures made by Distinctive Escapes Luxury Travel Consultants. For great adventures for your family call Craig or Greg at 866-628-8226.   www.Distinctiveescapes.com

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