Vacation planning for families, couples and multi-generations

I’m linking up with Shay and Erika so I can participate in their monthly “How We…” question series. This month it’s all about vacation planning…

Let’s be honest, our vacation dreams and budgets rarely line up…am I right? I would love to be a jet-setter but that just isn’t in the cards. Instead we typically manage one big vacation a year and then try for a couple weekend getaways, which sometimes include traveling with just my mom or a girlfriend or even by MYSELF!

We’ve done Disney and of course that’s fun, but with our wide range of our kids ages and stages we are always on the lookout for vacations that offer something for everyone. Enter cruising! The last four years we’ve gone on Carnival Cruises. yes, it’s true…I’m a cruise girl…I LOVE to cruise! The ocean, the fancy dinners, the buffets, the entertainment…bring it on! Oh and if the kids are with us, we LOVE the kids clubs. Our kids have had nothing but great experiences making new friends and participating in fun activities while we adults can go and do adult things. 🙂 (which, by the way, often include sitting on our balcony or taking a nap! #we’reoldandtired #livingthewildlife.

Planning our cruises has been a piece of cake. As soon as we’ve decided when/where to go I hop on the phone with Starla, the most awesome Carnival Personal Vacation Planner ever! She always finds us great cabins and good deals that most often include on-board spending money. Typically we plan and book a cruise 12-15 months out and pay just the deposit at booking. We then make payments over the course of 6-8 months or so. It’s great to be able to space out the payments…makes it a little less painful on the pocket book.

When deciding what time of year to travel we try to take into account our kids school schedule, but honestly if it makes more sense to travel when school is in session then we do just that. We are firm believers that learning doesn’t just take place within the four walls of a school building. In fact what better way to learn about the world than to actually explore it! That being said, we do give the school plenty of notice and request that the teachers send work packets for the kids to complete while we are away. We aren’t total rebels! HaHa!

Our 2nd Cruise to the Bahamas

So far we’ve cruised to the following countries:

The Bahamas
Belieze
Mexico
Honduras
Canada

as well as cruised up the eastern coast of the U.S. and visited Massachusetts and Maine. All of our cruises but one have been 7 days (our first ever cruise was only 5 days). BUT our upcoming cruise is a 14 day southern Caribbean trip with my parents…no kids!

Cozumel

That brings me to the next point…not all of our trip include the kids. We alternate years…last year we did a big trip to the Southern Caribbean with the kids, but the year before just Nick and I did the east coast cruise. We find that having those trips all to ourselves really helps to energize our marriage.

Mexico

I keep a running list of places I’d like to vacation to in my yearly planner. Here’s just a sampling (a girl can dream right?)

Asheville, NC (to see the Biltmore!)
Indianapolis, IN (to see the Drum Corp International finals)
Waco, TX (all things Fixer Upper. I tried to do this one but jacked up the schedule and missed it all!)
Ocean City, MD (only my two older girls have been there)
Pompeii, Italy
London, England
Berlin, Germany

New York

I am the vacation planner in our household. I find and book the hotels, airline tickets, rental cars, airport transportation, restaurant reservations, tickets for attractions as well as handle most of the packing. My older two girls now pack themselves so that’s great! Seriously though, by the time we get in the car to head out on vacation I’m already exhausted! LOL!