June Disney Trip (with a 16 year old's view!)

Today, we have another guest blogger.  The Birthday girl herself!  Unfortunately, she missed the memo about having pictures to accompany it!  When she writes for me, I normally edit it pretty heavily. But this time she asked me not to...so I am granting her this one wish.   

Starting next week, we will be having some posts about cruising!  One of my favorite subjects!

Disney trip June 2K16

June 18^th 2016

     This Disney trip was for my birthday. I took my friend Cassie, and my niece Alyssa- along with my mom who actually paid for the trip. We decided to stay at Port Orleans French Quarter this time, because it was very friendly and clean compared to other less expensive on-property resorts. The first day we got there, the check in was pretty fast. We had a nice room and friendly service from pretty much everyone at the resort. That night we went to “Ohana’s” for dinner at the Polynesian resort. The food was amazing (especially the wantons)….

June 19^th 2016

Today was actually my birthday (and father’s day)

First we went to church (we got lost on the way so we were late), and after that we headed back to the hotel and then to animal kingdom. We ate at Pizzafari and then rode all the rides that we liked. We didn’t have enough time to see shows though, considering we had to be at Hollywood studios for our fast passes. We got on the bus and went to Hollywood studios around 2:30 or so. We rode the basics first, which were tower of terror and rock’n’rollercoaster. Then, we walked over to toy story mania and got to ride in the new section of the ride. After that ride, we decided it would be almost time for our dinner reservation. We were late getting to dinner at Sci-Fi drive in, but it didn’t matter anyway because the food was disgusting. I mean the milkshakes and water bottles were good, but the actual food would’ve been better if it wasn’t raw. Literally all of our burgers/steaks were reddish in the middle. After dinner, Cassie and I went over to tower of terror while mom and Alyssa went to the voyage of the little mermaid. We rode tower of terror 4 times in a row. Then we went back to the hotel and basically collapsed. We were exhausted

June 20^th 2016

 Today was our Epcot Day… aka the day I could finally spend my money on cool but useless things from around the world

The first objective for the day was to find a ride with a small line that didn’t require a fast pass. All of our fast passes were for after lunch, excluding spaceship earth

We figured since it was Cassie’s first time at Disney world that she didn’t want to be the only one to be having all the first experiences. So we went to mission space. I had ridden it before, but only on the green mode so we picked orange for the first time. The wait wasn’t long for the ride but we saw a lot of people backing out and deciding not to ride, so that made us a little nervous. When we got on the ride and honestly it wasn’t that bad. When we got off it just made our legs super wobbly. It was getting close to lunchtime so we chose to head over to the counter service restaurant in Mexico. The food was absolutely amazing to be honest. We had a reservation to go to at the beach club’s beaches and cream for a Kitchen Sink ice cream. It was huge and we obviously did not eat it all. After our ice cream we went to Soarin’ and test track, which were equally fun. It was time to head to our dinner reservation so we went to Italy to eat tutto italia, which was really good. We didn’t stay for fireworks because we were too tired but we still had fun.

June 21^st 2016

Magic kingdom day

It was a pretty straightforward day all around, even though it was our last day

We had a pass for the early morning magic so that was cool. Except it was basically useless. It only got us in 45 minutes early than it normally would. We got to ride the mine train, and peter pan early so that took care of that. We went to Space Mountain and a couple of other rides before we went to lunch at “Be our guest”. The food was amazing, no surprise, and it came out fast because we pre-ordered. We rode more rides, saw a few shows, and got some snacks then watched the electrical parade at 10. Cassie and I decided to stay for the extra magic hours but ended up leaving anyway because our feet hurt. All in all it turned out to be a good day at my favorite park

In conclusion, the trip was fun. Hot, but fun. There were a few bumps along the road but nothing that we couldn’t fix relatively easy. I rate the trip10/10, and would definitely do again.

 

Guest Blogger

You are in for a treat today!  The Grand Princess is writing today's blog and supplying her own photos for it as well.  This is roughly her 12th trip to Disney, and in a little over a week she will be 9.  She is the Diva part in the title of Two Teens and a Diva...Enjoy!

Today we went to Disney's Animal Kingdom it was Bri's birthday. We rode Mt. Everest, It was fun! We then went to the Kilimanjaro safari, we saw so many animals. I had a great day.

Today we went to Disney's Magic Kingdom. We did the early magic hours it was nice because there was no people .First we rode the minetrain it was very fun! We then rode the tea cups we got dizzy, but it was still fun.

Today we went to Epcot. We first rode Soarin' since it was new the line was out the door, but it was worth it. We then went around the world, it was fun.

Today we're leaving, I had a great time, I would go again.

Two Teens and a Diva do Disney --part 3!

And, finally we come to the last day of our park days.  This one started extra early.  We were doing the Extra Morning hours at Magic Kingdom.  Our instructions told us to be at the front gate to enter at 7:45.  The day before this as well as the day after this one, the park opened at 8 am.  Today’s opening was 9.

Castle as we walked in 

We arrived and were instructed to wait in a single file line.  Our bands were scanned and we were given a special band to show we were allowed to be riding and eating breakfast.  So far so good.  With the exception of the single file line.  Remember, we had already been scanned, so basically we were already ‘in’ the park.  Already through the turnstiles, just not yet inside the arches.  And we waited.

And waited.  And waited.  In a single file line, we waited.

Then, surprise it is now 8 am and they FINALLY let us in.

With only a few rides open, it was our chance to ride those rides, leaving the rest of the day to tackle the remaining part of the park.  We head to Seven Dwarfs.  One of my favorite rides in Magic Kingdom.  The four of us walk into the ride area.  They ask us how many are in our party and we say 4.  They send us into a line to ride next.  Two in each car.  So far our wait was zero minutes.  As we went in, I notice the opening in the line to go for repeat rides.  So far so GREAT! 

The first two of us get in the ride car…and when the second two go to get in…nope sorry.  There are some Cast Members who are here to ride!  Yes, the cast members got to ride breaking up our party!   Outrageous!  Since they only have one train running that morning, we waited until the first part of our party returned and tried to speak to them to let them know to wait…and then we ride.  We come back and our party is no where to be seen!  They had not heard us tell them to wait, and did not know about the return to ride again!

By the time we find them, the wait time is now really up there, so we head to the next ride.  We then rode Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh.  Guess what we now hear?  The opening ceremony for rope drop!  And wait, they got to come in at 8:40.  We had exactly 40 minutes in the park prior to opening.  We decide to head over for breakfast at Pinocchio Haus.  Even though I put on the reservation that one of us was gluten free, there were no gluten free options for breakfast other than a few pieces of fruit. 

So, my review of the early morning magic at Magic Kingdom is a complete bust! For the price we paid it was not something I would recommend or sell to a client. 

From Little Mermaid

Small World

This is also our Be Our Guest lunch.  I will give Be Our Guest lunch a big 5 stars out of 4!  It never disappoints!  A little side note.  We added a fourth person to our trip sort of last minute.  I was unable to change our 3 to 4 people.  I ended up getting a second reservation with only one person with a five minute difference in time.  While in theory this should have gone smoothly, in actuality, the cashier had a bit of problems with it. We had preordered.  He could not figure out how to charge the dining plan.  We ended up having to give him our order all over again!  So, while this will work, be prepared for a bit of extra time or effort.  While not a major deal, thought I would mention.

Shortly after lunch, the teens decided their feet hurt (remember me saying that would come into play?).  They voted overwhelmingly to return to the room to swim.  (It was already in the 90’s). 

We headed back to the room, where the teens proceeded to nap for three hours while I took the Grand Princess to the pool! I obviously have the only two teens in the world that would rather nap than to explore Disney!  LOL.

We did end up back at Disney for our final Fast Passes and to have a counter service dinner at Cosmic Rays.  The girls managed to ride every single ride they wanted to.  I managed to get a lot of people watching in. Over all we had a blast!

The Grand Princess and I headed back to the room by 9pm.  It had been a very long day for us, and I still needed to get things packed because we had an early morning breakfast reservation at Polynesian.  The teens of course decided to stay for the fireworks.  The park was open until midnight.  

They ended up leaving the park shortly after we did!  What can I say?  We are a bunch of party animals!

Two Teens and a DIva do Disney in June...part two

Our Second day in the parks was a totally busy one! We hit Epcot at rope drop.  This was the day before the Frozen ride opened and a few days after the new show started at Soarin.   The two teens headed for Mission Space (oh my!) while the Grand Princess and I headed to Soarin to grab a DAS Fast Pass.  To keep from being gobbled up by the masses heading to Soarin, we stopped to watch a performance by the Jamminators (garbage can drummers).  They were pretty great!  I was going to try and get a video, but once the crowd had passed, they packed up and left!  Boo.

We arrived at Soarin by five minutes after park opening (so we took 20 minutes to get there).  The DAS fast passes were already at an hour and 30 minutes out.  Meaning there was a 90 minute wait in the stand by line. 

We quickly found out that with most people at Soarin the rest of the park was pretty empty!  The four of us headed to Test Track for our first ride of the day as a group.  We went stand by, which was only 10 minutes.  After this we rode again with our Fast Pass. 

Panoramic view across the lagoon.

After an hour at Mouse Gears doing what girls do best…SHOPPING!  By this time the worlds had opened up and the girls wanted to grab an early lunch at the Cantina.  I opted to wait because we had reservations at Beaches and Cream for a Kitchen Sink. 

Teen's haul from Epcot!

After a quick lunch we moseyed over to Soarin for our DAS Fast Pass, where the stand by wait had mellowed to a 45 minute wait.  We were able to see it in the new theater!  They didn’t have the whole theater opened.  Unfortunately we rode on the left side…all the way to the left!  This was a real eye opener!  The previous film did not have a lot of straight up heights…it was more an over all wonderment.  The first thing I noticed was Neuschwanstein Castle seemed to lean a bit more than I remembered.  

Soon, it was all too obvious that Monument Valley, Eiffel Tower, and the Taj Mahal had suffered the same malady.  Not only that, the CGI animals and people seemed…off.  For instance the people wandering around and enjoying Taj Mahal had to be at least 8 feet tall and thin as rails!  Or maybe a basketball team was visiting while they filmed.  I can’t wait to go back and see it from the center.  I’m sure some of the issues I had with it would be corrected by a more center seat.

A brief stop to view some pretty fish in the aquarium!

Afterwards a leisurely walk over to the International Gate and headed to Beaches and Cream.  The Kitchen Sink did not disappoint, but the four of us were not able to eat it all.  I do wish they kept the Kitchen Sink bowls in the freezer.  A nice cold metal bowl would have helped keep the ice cream from melting…but one fresh from the dishwasher had zero chance!  Last year we tried a regular one, this year we opted for the chocolate lovers.  I think I liked the regular one better.  The Chocolate Lovers seemed to have more brownie and cake than ice cream. 

Kitchen Sink Chocolate Lovers Version

By this time, the four of us are barely able to move! We entertained taking the boat back over to the International gate, but we missed it by seconds!  We did wait about four minutes before I decided that waiting wasn’t something I wanted to do so the Grand Princess and I started to walk back toward Epcot.  The teens let us get about ten yards in front of them before they decided they would walk.

We noticed the workers putting up a fence by the beach area.  The area was roped off.  There were Cast Members manning the rope.  NO one was getting onto the beach.  No ONE! A little boy had a beach ball he had collected autographs on.  It went out of his hands and just under the rope.  Nope…the CM would not let him retrieve it!

Back in Epcot, we rode Figment (another one of our Fast Passes).  This ride remains a bad use of a Fast Pass, but with little options in tier two, what could you do?

At this time I have to mention something the teens may not appreciate.  I am walking with a cane.  The Grand Princess is in a Special Needs wheel chair/stroller.  The two teenaged girls are both physically fit and healthy.  By this time in our day they were both complaining about their feet hurting!  Both we warned to bring good walking shoes.  Both were warned we would be walking about 10 miles a day.  This is only our second day in the park. While it was one teen’s first visit, the other one has been over ten times!  No excuses!

The aforementioned sore feet came into play the remainder of the trip!

The remainder of the day we walked around world showcase shopping!  And Shopping.  And Shopping.  Until it was time for dinner at Tutto Italia.

As usual, Tutto Italia did not disappoint!  For the second time that day we had to waddle out of a restaurant!  I have heard some people compare it to a high priced Olive Garden.  I have to disagree!  I would give that designation to Mama Melrose and Tony’s, well it is more like a Fazzoli’s with real plates.  But Tutto Italia?  We LOVE it!

Remember those sore feet I mentioned earlier?  The girls decided to leave before fireworks.  By the time fireworks had started we were back in our room with the girls ready for bed.  My girls are real party animals!

For entertainment, we did go by the food court and grab a hot chocolate before bed!  

Arrival Day June 2016

We left Saturday morning at 6 am. The trip was basically uneventful.  Ran into a tiny bit of rain after we got into Florida, but other than a bit more traffic than I was expecting, it was a pretty boring drive.

We're Home!

Arriving at Port Orleans French Quarter, our room wasn’t quite ready, but within 5 minutes it was.  We had requested a ground floor room close to the transportation.  Our room was perfectly situated, close to transportation and less than two minutes (at a slow pace) to both the pool and the Main Lobby.  We couldn’t have asked for a better location if we had specified which room we wanted!

After unpacking and freshening up we headed to the Polynesian for dinner at ‘Ohanas.  And the rain started.  And I remembered I had forgotten my wallet (including picture ID) so we had to go back to the room!  During this time it was raining so hard I could not see where I was going.  Somehow we made it back to the room and grabbed my wallet and headed back to Polynesian.  Good thing we were heading out early!

Last time we went to dinner at Polynesian there was plenty of parking.  Not so this time!  The time we saved by driving (instead of using the bus system) was wasted in looking for a place to park.  There is some construction going on with the parking lot (never did find out what that was) making less parking spaces available.

We finally make it inside (after another brief shower as we are walking from the farthest spot in the lot!) and we are a few minutes early.  We are allowed to check in and we spend some time looking at the pool and lake from the lobby. 

I would like to insert here a personal observation.  I have zero idea why anyone would want to stay in the over water bungalows.  The water is yucky.  Looking out from the second floor lobby, the only blue spot you saw was the pool! 

Our dinner was fabulous!  Everyone ate way too much food.  Our server was more than attentive, and the entertainment (which I did not remember from before) was great!

Arriving back at the room, we all decided to go grab some hot chocolate at the Quick Service.  Another of the nice features of having such a small resort!  

Disney Trip June 2016

Wow, it has been a while!

It is hard to believe it has been 2 weeks since our Disney trip, but somehow the time has really gotten away with me.  I’ll start with just a brief overview of our trip and then will fill in more details with later posts. 

The trip was to celebrate my daughter’s 16^th birthday.  I traveled with two teenaged girls and an 8 year old.  Next time I will definitely go back to Art of Animation Suites.  One bathroom was not enough!

We had fantastic weather, and the only one who was sunburned was of course, me. 

I have decided that Port Orleans French Quarter has the absolute BEST transportation of any resort!  Having only one stop, a small resort, and not sharing a bus meant we always had a seat.  Even dealing with a super large Special Needs stroller didn’t make too much of a difference.  The only thing that would have made a difference is if the rented stroller had a locking mechanism to keep it folded while on the bus.  Each bus driver kept telling us that we could keep it open and they could strap it in, but that seemed silly to us to strap it in and she not be able to ride!

Some of the joys of a smaller resort were the little things.   Like when teenaged girls thought they needed a nap mid day and the grand daughter and I thought we should go to the pool or shop instead.  Only took two minutes to walk from our room to either the pool or the snack bar or the gift shop.  And the bus stop was only steps away…which was great on those nights when we were dragging ourselves back to the room!

This trip was only one week after the horrible gator incident, and we definitely noticed the heightened awareness of this.  All beaches were closed and roped off, and the signage was much more noticeable.   We saw CMs manning the beaches to make sure no one accidentally ventured in to the roped off area, not even to retrieve a beach ball that had rolled under the ropes!

We tried new things and gave a not so favorite place a second chance (regrettably it did not change our opinion).  Over all it was a great trip.  I’m armed with all sorts of information to help my clients make good choices.

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Be sure to check back for the first installment of our trip report

June Disney Girls Only Trip

You would think I had learned my lesson last year, when I went on an adventure to Disney with teenaged girls.  Nope, we are doing it again this time for a sweet sixteen birthday celebration!  As with last year I am hoping for a couple of guest blogs from the girls.  We’ll see how that turns out this year!

So VERY much has changed since we went last year…in fact so VERY much has changed in just the past month or so!  We have several new surprises in store for this trip.  A few new untried things as well as a couple of favorites. 

In the lines of “what was I thinking?” will be the fact that four girls will be staying with one bathroom!  We are staying at one of my favorites, Port Orleans French Quarter.  I love this resort for the size and charm.  So small that it is almost like a hidden gem, and all the charm of old New Orleans!  Although the pool is smaller than other resorts, it is the one we love the most.  Having stayed there four times previously we are not expecting any surprises, although it will be the first time we have relied on Disney transportation while staying at this resort.

Of course, after we had decided to make both Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom only half day parks, Disney goes and releases some new nighttime goodies at both parks!  We will miss the Animal Kingdom offerings and concentrate only on the ones at Hollywood Studios. 

We had also considered making a day at Harry Potter World (aka Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure) but we were unable to make the budget stretch far enough for this trip.  Maybe next time!

I can’t wait to see what the girls think of this trip.  It will be one girl’s first real trip to Disney (unless you count the one she made as a small child), of course, Miss B and the Grand Princess are veterans of Disney.  They will all be given instructions that they need to be prepared to make at least one guest blog. 

Start looking for these guest blogs sometime around the end of June!  Now, off to start yet another list of all things needed to get done before we leave!

Free Dining

Free Dining

Yes, it is that marvelous time of year again, when Disney releases their Free Dining promotion.  You look at the dates – yes, those are the dates we want to visit!  You look at the resorts that are excluded – nope, don’t want any of those!  So, you are all set, right?  Well, not really.

Remember, Disney is first and foremost a business.  Releasing any promotion is a calculated business move. If resort A is selling well there will be fewer rooms available during that promotion.  If resort B is not selling as well, there ‘might’ be more room available; but again, think of it the way a business owner would think.

A business owner says, “If I have to give away dining to people to stay, I want to get as much money from them as I can.  I’ll make the ‘deal’ contingent on a few more expensive things (like park hopper and a minimum number of day’s tickets) and only offer my most expensive options (like a preferred room with a view).  Then, if I only offer a limited number of rooms for each day of the promotion, I can create my own artificial ‘shortage’ (Remember the Cabbage Patch craze of the 80’s or the more recent Tickle Me Elmo?)

“Then I’ll keep promoting it even though I know all the rooms are gone!”

Like it or not, this is a basic business principle.  Get the customer craving your product until it is gone, and keep them wanting it.

Bottom line is, just because your dates are right and your resort is included in any particular promotion (like Free Dining) doesn’t mean it is available for YOUR dates and resort.

So, now you are sad.  You can’t find Free Dining for your dates and resort.  Now what?

Free Dining is not always the best deal.  Let’s do some simple Mickey Math.

Free Dining vs a percentage off room

If you have one adult going for four nights in a moderate resort, your savings will be $63.70 with Free Dining

If you have two adults and two children under the age of 10 going for four nights in a moderate, your savings will be $692.40 with Free Dining.

If you have one adult staying for four nights in a moderate, your savings would be $234

If you have two adults and two children under the age of 10 going for four nights in a moderate, your savings would be $234

If you have either of those two scenarios staying in a Deluxe your savings would be $489.60

To complicate it a bit more, remember that both of these promotions may be going on at the same time.  With each promotion Disney has, there are separate ‘pools’ of rooms allotted to it.

In our hypothetical scenario we have a Free Dining promotion where they decide to put a total of 20 rooms per day during week A, and only 10 rooms a day for week B.  For the same resort.  Then to break it down farther, for week A, they allot only one standard room, and the rest are split up between various views.  While for week B, they allot no standard rooms, only an assortment of various views.

In this hypothetical scenario we also have a percentage off room promotion.  Here they decide that for week A, they want to put a total of 35 rooms in the pool for each day, and for week B they want a total of 10.  For week A, they are allotting only one preferred room and the rest are standard.  For week B, they are all standard.

From a purely business standpoint, with Free Dining, they want to get you to pay for the preferred rooms.  That way they make more money.  For the percentage off rooms, they want more standard rooms to get the deep discounts.

Keep in mind, that while the 'pool’ of rooms may be located anywhere within its category in the resort, they are set aside for that particular promotion and cannot be moved around.

So, even if you find a non-discounted room available for your dates, that has absolutely nothing to do with being available for any specific promotion!  And finding one for the percentage off room has nothing to do with it being available for the free dining promotion.

Bottom line…it is Disney’s party and Disney’s game.  They set the rules and they own, not only the ball but the arena you are playing in.

So now the question is, How can I guarantee I get Free Dining?  Well, truly there is no way to GUARANTEE it, but you can greatly improve your chances by doing a few things.  1- Be flexible.  This means flexibility in your dates, resorts, types of rooms as well as the discount.  Don’t be convinced that Free Dining is your best bet! 2- Book the room you want at the price that fits your budget.  Consider a promotion as a bonus, and not a requirement.  Don’t set the bar at “If we don’t get Free Dining, then we aren’t going!”  More often than not, you will be disappointed.  3-Please read and then re-read this one because it is the MOST important one- Use a Travel Professional!

Sometimes (but not always) we might get a semi heads up that a new promotion is about to be released.  When we do, we are up at ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ (literally!) online booking, doing the math, comparing the discounts, making the changes we can online and then calling in the rest. 

Hold times on release dates can be (and usually are) in excess of four HOURS!  And once you are finally with a Cast Member, you are limited to how many things you can do.  Sometimes it is transactions sometimes it is a time limit.

Your travel professional works hard for you.  Often times a release day can start at 4am and does not end until midnight, when the last email goes out.

So, is Free Dining in your future?  Maybe.  But if not, your Travel Professional is here to make sure you get the best value for your

vacation dollars.

Why not cruise? -pt2

Seasickness.

Today we will touch on another reason or excuse to not cruise.  That dreaded word...Seasickness!

You are afraid you will be seasick on a large ocean liner.  It is understandable.  If you have never been on a large ship before, you probably equate that with your ride on a ferry, or small boat.  Even in calm waters, those things can get a bit rough.  Or, you may have taken a cruise 20 or more years ago.

Today’s ships have state of the art stabilizers that I cannot even begin to explain how they work.  While I will agree that you might have a short period of adjustment (to get your ‘sea legs’), over all the movement of the ship is not all that noticeable.  In fact, several nights I have found myself at dinner when we were pulling out of port, and only realized we were moving because I happened to look out through the window. 

Some people find the movement of the ship helps them to sleep at night.  (While I cannot personally vouch for that, I did notice tons of people sleeping in deck chairs!)

But for arguments sake, let’s say you are still worried about seasickness.  I will tell you from someone who suffers from terrible vertigo, the only time it bothered me was when I would be sitting (like at dinner) and look out the window to see the port pulling away.  (or to be more accurate, we were pulling away from the port, but it seemed to be the opposite!) However, when we were on open sea I rarely even realized we were moving!

So, what can you do?  First action is to prevent it.  Some people swear by Sea Bands. I have never used them, but have a few clients that love them.  Again, I’m not sure how they work, but I believe it has something to do with a pressure point on your wrist.  I like the patches.  You have to have a prescription to get them, and each one lasts for a couple days.  Each patch lasts for 2 to 3 days.  Without insurance (because some will not cover it) they run about $70 at my local drug store.  Prices, of course, will vary depending on your local Drug Store.

Then there are the Dramamine pills.  These are available without a prescription, and are only a few dollars.  Several brands including Bonine are available.  Oh no!  You forgot to pack them?  They are available from the ship’s doctor.  And even for sale in most gift shops onboard ship.

If you don’t want to resort to medication (the Dramamine pills tend to make me very sleepy) there are several natural ways to combat seasickness.  Some work and some are just old wives’ tales.  The most common natural remedy is ginger.  Either in tea or candy form.  (this one has a scientific basis, but don’t ask me to explain it) 

But as more than one doctor has said, no one dies from seasickness (Even if you wish you could!) 

Next week, we are going to touch on ...Boredom!

Why not cruise?

Why not Cruise?


Today’s blog will be a bit different.  I always hate when people say they want a good value, but are actually looking for cheap.  They are rarely the same thing.  See, cheap is a price point.  Price is what you pay for something.  Value is the worth (or in the case of travel, the experiences you get from it) of the item you are purchasing.  A $2 watch is cheap, but not a good value. 

With that being said, I want to now speak to every one of you who have NOT taken a cruise.   Yes, you.

One of the biggest reasons I hear for not wanting to take a cruise, is price.  So let’s look at that for a minute. 

On the surface, a cruise looks more expensive (meaning higher in price) than a comparable hotel stay.  But let’s look at it a bit more in detail. 

Land room – what is included for a four night’s stay.  You get a room with a bed and a TV, usually a mini fridge and sometimes a coffee maker.  You get room cleaning, fresh towels, an extra pillow and blanket, and in some places, expensive room service.  A few places now offer a continental breakfast.   Most hotels in resort areas also have a pool and sometimes a gym or exercise room (or at least I am told this…I’ve never actually thought about exercising while on vacation.)

Land room – what is not included for a four night’s stay.  Meals.  Now don’t get me wrong, this could be a small part of your vacation budget…but when I’m on vacation I do NOT want McDonald’s every lunch and dinner!  So, we plan on something a bit more expensive for our meals.  We may eat fast food for lunch, but when dinner comes around, we want real food.  If we are staying at a beach resort that means seafood.    We generally spend as much on food as we do the actual room.  At least!  Also, entertainment.  Shows, shopping, sightseeing.  How much do you spend on that?

Cruise –what is included in a four night’s stay.  Cabin with all the amenities of a hotel room, along with a nice cabin steward who not only cleans it…but does it twice a day, including the turn down service in the evening.  Fresh towels as often as you need them.  Nice towel animals every night! A TV and usually a mini fridge, but rarely a coffee maker.  At least one pool, some have ropes courses and water slides.  Meals.  As in all you can eat meals.  Some are fast food type, some are dining room type, and some are buffet types.  Desserts.  Ditto what is said under meals.  Shows.  Shopping.  Entertainment. 

Dr Seuss Breakfast aboard the Carnival Sunshine

Sunrises

Dining included

Comfy beds

Water Sports!

Cruise- what is not included on a four night’s stay – some specialty dining.  Almost every cruise ship will have a specialty dining room that offers a signature dining experience. These are not included, but can be had for a nominal charge.  Alcohol.  While you can purchase a drink package to add this to your stay and not have to worry about it.  Occasionally there will be a specialty entertainment option on the cruise, this is also extra.  Excursions.  This is when you are in port and want to go exploring your port…although not mandatory to have a good time, these can be fun and even educational (don’t tell the kids) and some are better values than others.

Have you done the math?  I have.  While every trip or sailing is different based on your particular needs and wants, Almost every single time, the cruise is a much better value than a land based vacation...and that is stopping at this point in the calculations.

So, this shows you that when you boil it down to total costs, the cruise often turns out to be a much better value than a land based trip.

Now, let’s take this a step farther.  Your cruise ship moves.  (Duh!)  So, you go to sleep in one spot and wake up in a new port.  No packing and unpacking.  Yet you are now visiting a new country or island… All you do is get up and eat a BIG breakfast (although if you choose, you CAN get a continental breakfast) and head off the ship to explore a new island.  Then after a long day of scuba, snorkeling, dolphins, or just plain shopping, you come back on board and get ready for a delicious dinner.

And you repeat this for each destination!

Now, on a land based vacation, if you wanted to visit more than one island in a short trip, you have to book multiple rooms, transportation between the hotel and airport, and airport to room…the air fare… you get the idea.  Plus, you have to pack and unpack each day!

I hope that gave you some food for thought.  But in case you need a little bit more convincing let me share a personal story with you.  Two years ago, my extended family rented a beach house in Destin.  There were three families to share the expenses.  We cooked at the house all but two nights.  On those two nights we went out to dinner…once as a family group and one night each couple went out for a date night.  We did not go cheap.  But we did not go super expensive either.  This was a normal moderately priced trip during the week prior to Memorial Day.  When we got home I was curious as to what the cost would have been to go on a cruise instead.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much we would have saved if we had taken a cruise!  We could have gotten three verandah cabins for as much as we paid for the lodging and meals.  

Next time we will talk about another of the common reasons for not wanting a cruise vacation… Seasickness.