As I shared in our financial update, we’ve booked a family trip for Q1 2012. A couple of times a year the kids and I may take a mini-vacation to see relatives and as a family we try to take time off to do day trips but it’s been fairly rare for us to take a big vacation like the one we’re planning.
The last big vacation that we took was about four years ago, we took a cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Sea. Everyone had an absolute blast; it was the best vacation all four of us ever took together. I will admit, the trip to Hawaii that we took when I had to “work” at a trade show was probably on par but that didn’t include the kids so I’m not counting it.
Since we had so much fun visiting the ports of calls, the wonderful meals and the awesome kids’ activities we’ve decided to do it again. We’ve book our cabin and are starting to look at excursion options. The husband and kids think they are going to get me on a zip-line, we’ll see about that! I’m still getting grief for not climbing Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica so I may need to show them what I’m made of.
Obviously a trip like this requires some financial planning. One of the things that I like about booking with Royal Caribbean is that you can book the cruise with a small down payment and then pay off the balance within so many months of your trip. Since we don’t ever seem to be able to get a vacation fund going this is a good way for our family to take a trip but still pay cash for our vacation. I try to make a payment every check, even if it’s a small one so that I don’t lose momentum. I’m always afraid of a big Uh Oh moment when the final payment is due.
My plan is to start a feature called Travel Thursdays where most weeks (not all) I’ll share my thoughts on various vacations spots, recommendations as to what worked well for my family, business travel with kids, my tips on traveling, etc. If there are any topics you would be interesting in reading about or if you have an idea for a guest post I’d love to hear it.
Do you have any exciting trips coming up?
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Our next 'exciting' trip will be to an RV park about 2 hours away. I won a free 3 day/2night stay plus a $50 gas card.
ReplyDeleteWe just got back from a trip to North Carolina to adopt/pick up our 2nd rescue dog (in less than 6 months - good grief!). We're now the happy owners of a 9 week old Chihuahua puppy we named, Willy. He's Willy because he loves to give everyone & everything he meets wet willies - people, the other animals in our house, stuffed animals... he's pretty funny.
Not quite as 'BIG' as your trip - but still family oriented and things we all love to do.
I would LOVE to get a RV and my husband refuses. He isn't big on driving vacations (won't take them at all) so I don't see one in our future at all. Plus - how col is it to win a free stay and gas care?? The point of vacations is to make great family memories, if you are doing what you love and the kids look back with great memories that's all that's important.
ReplyDeleteYour Willy is a little cutie, I can't wait to see more pictures of him.