Kids are finally out of school and now it's time to figure out what to do to keep them busy through the summer. I really don't want to have them playing video games all summer long and wanting them to get out of the house more often. I know that Bella is going to be tagging along with me around the house and in the garden but the boys just want to sit in the house and play on their Playstation.
I started looking around for some good summer camps in the area, but can't make up my mind. Perhaps with Father's day coming up, perhaps my husband may take the boys fishing so I can figure this out.
I know usually I just want to go on how I get cheap vacations throughout the country, but I'd really like some input here. Perhaps it will help me decide where we can take our next vacation. So if you are reading this, can you please leave me a message. At the end of the Summer, I'd like to recap on the top Summer Camps in the country.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
First of all, make sure you drink lots of water! With having so much fun, whether baking in the sun or running through the forest, dehydration can come on and make a miserable experience. Sometimes marathon outings to the bars and clubs with our friends can leave us dehydrated. Margarita's may be liquid, but they don't always hydrate.
I hate to be a mother hen about it, but sunscreen is a must! Even adults need to remember this when playing too hard too long and not recognizing the adverse effects of the sun until much later. Of course, you want to make sure that you moisturize afterwards. Not only will that help keep from peeling and developing wrinkles from overexposure to the sun, but it will keep the tan you worked so hard on. I recommend using something with aloe.
If your vacation is taking you to the wide outdoors, make sure you bring bug repellent. Even my husband doesn't mind the Avon lady coming around when I pull out the Skin-so-soft when we are camping. It's amazing how well this baby powder smelling product repels mosquitoes!
Finally, make sure you change often. I know it sounds gross, but from sweating and sand, the one thing that is more irritating than sunburn for me and my kids is rash burns from sand and sweaty or wet clothes.
Hopefully remembering and being prepared for these small things will help your next vacation be as joyous and refreshing as the summer shade. Happy Vacationing!
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Live life - Love the Journey!
The truth is, my husband is a contractor which requires us to travel throughout the US a lot. It is a home based business, which means I am stuck looking for the best hotel deals for our stay. With 3 kids that takes a lot of time, trying to arrange for child care and still keeping an eye on our expenses. I realize that not everyone travels so much, but they have similar worries.
When we first got married, all the traveling was exciting! But then the searching, the booking, the crappy hotels, they all starting taking their toll and it wasn't fun anymore, and I wound up just staying home.
About 5 years ago, when my oldest baby turned 5, we had gone to Orlando. Money was tight and Disney tickets were expensive for us, but my son wanted to go! In the hotel lobby, there was a lady selling discounted Disney World tickets. I knew their had to be a catch, but we fell for it anyway. We had to take a 2-hour timeshare tour. I knew that my son would have been disappointed if I said no, so off we went.
During the tour, we were told of all the great amenities of the resort we were touring as well as all of the theme parks, restaurants, and shows in the area. Although we weren't really interested in buying a timeshare at the time (that's for old people, we thought), it really opened up my eyes to what was around besides the four walls of our dingy hotel room. Suddenly, the business trip became a vacation!
When it was time for the next "vacation", I looked on the internet to see if Gatlinburg had any of these time share deals. I was surprised to see that there was!
After about a year, I had found so many websites that gave us these discount vacation packages for taking a timeshare. One website in particular, Rooms101, seemed to have a lot of locations that we visited, which really cut my time searching. They seemed to have prices around the same as Expedia and Hotels.com, but the perks for taking a timeshare tour really made this a find!
I guess if I had to recommend a travel website, I would have to say Rooms101 for now. As long as you don't mind taking an hour or so for some sales guy to push you to buy a timeshare, it's definitely the way to go! But if anyone knows of a travel agency that wants to pay me to go on vacation for them, let me know.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
2013 Orlando Vacation
Let's see, what would you like to know about our vacation? We got into Orlando around 6 on Tuesday and got over to the Encantada Resort that we were staying at. Of course, the kids wanted to get into the Disney parks and all the signs all around didn't help with that, but we didn't have that scheduled for the following day.
We hadn't eaten after the long flight and the kids were getting anxious, so we decided to order pizza from a local pizza place and head to the pool area. I always forget how it seems the day lasts longer down there. The kids played in the pool and my mom, who lives in Ocala, came to visit us. Around 10, we pulled the kids upstairs to get ready to stay with Na-na so we could go on the timeshare tour the next morning. I'd like to tell you that me and my husband went out for a romantic evening without the kids that night, but we wound up just going to bed - man, we are getting old!
Anyhow, the next day, we got up early to go on the timeshare tour. As many times as we have visited resorts in Orlando, there always seems to be something new! Each place is distinct. I don't know if we were still just tired, or the charm of the resort just captured our hearts, but we may be reconsidering telling our tourguide no to buying a week timeshare.
After the tour, my husband and I took advantage of the kids being with my mom and had a nice brunch at Bob Evans then picked up the kids. They were so ready to go!
Since we came down to celebrate Mother's day as well as my husband's birthday, my husband decided he was going to go spend time with an old friend playing golf at Falcon's Fire, while I got to play super mom with the kids at Magic Kingdom. This was my daughter's first trip to Disney World. You should have seen her face when she saw Belle. She turned to me with her big hazel eyes with a half astonished, half puppy-dog look in her face and asked "Mommy, can I be a princess when I grow up?" It was too adorable!
After walking all day, and the sun had set we found a great place to watch the fireworks. I thought I got some good pictures of them, but still trying to figure out this camera on my phone. Even still, there's always something extra magical about fireworks, especially in this place. After the fireworks were done, I could tell the boys were getting a bit grumpy, and although they insisted on staying, we got back to the car to head back to the resort. NOTE TO SELF: everyone leaves after the fireworks so expect traffic.
The next day, even though we wanted to sleep in, the kids were up early. My husband had gotten a bit of a sunburn from playing golf the day before, so I made sure I lathered him up with sunscreen with the kids as we headed to SeaWorld. The boys had never been there before and thought it was going to be "a stupid aquarium". I had to tease them about that afterwards because they were so excited at the dolphin show and all the exhibits. As we headed in to take our seats for Shamu, my husband took the boys into "the splash zone" while me and my little princess sought higher ground. When I asked the boys afterwards how they liked the show, my younger son, shivering, said "I-i-it w-w-was good".
We left the park early that afternoon and headed back to get changed. We found a nice Mexican restaurant off 192 for dinner. It was the first real meal we had as a family since we started our vacation. Then headed back to the Encantada. We spent our last night relaxing by the picturesque pool area, while the boys ran back and forth from the arcade.
The next day we had to get going to catch our flight home. Now, I figured the kids were going to give me the "Aww can we stay one more day?" routine, but after the boys had told my husband about the new Star Wars weekend, it was him I had to lay down the law with. LOL
Everyone had a great time and we're looking forward to our next vacation in a couple months. What was my favorite part? Besides getting a beautiful tan, seeing all my kids smiling for 3 days - even dad.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
How to get the deals
Now, I know there are some big companies out there that give package deals for your vacation, but if you are like me, I don't like giving my money to big corporations if I can help it. But I'm not stupid either, I want to save money too!
One thing that I found out years ago was that if you go to a place that you have to take a timeshare tour, you get amazing deals! Sometimes it's tickets, or spending money for food or gas. But most times it is a hugely reduced price for your vacation. The problem is, you need to know how to play the game!
Timeshare companies are giving these great deals if you qualify. It's kinda like getting a scholarship. Sometimes you have to be married, sometimes single is OK. Sometimes you have to have to make a lot of money and pass a credit test, and some are more lenient.
These are some things I found out over the years. My husband and I make a decent amount of money and have a good credit score. We, ok especially me, like to get out and see the world! We haven't exactly been sold on the timeshare thing, but as we go to these places we see the stipulation for getting a good deal being a timeshare tour as a personal tour through beautiful resorts. Plus we find out about all the things going on in a city.
We also know that prices change all the time and that the resorts offering these deals only allot a certain amount of rooms for our little getaways. Because of that we try to have specific dates for our vacation ready before we shop around. Of course, we also know that if we are meeting for a business convention or a holiday, that the spaces will be limited, so we try to get the vacation coordinator to set us up as soon as possible.
Sometimes we do have the opportunity to take a last minute trip. Of course, we wouldn't be so stupid as to pick a place that a lot of people would be going to... we would rather find something new. We sometimes luck out on last minute deals and there is availability for these deals in more popular places, but that is rarely the case.
One last thing I forgot to mention. I don't think you should play the system, and one day we might find ourselves a timeshare resort that we do like - we are getting older, you know and might actually settle down. But one of the rules is that you can't go to the same place within a certain time span - like a year or so. So you have to ask questions. But that's no problem for us. We have no problem bypassing Orlando or Las Vegas one year to go to Cancun.
I hope that helps you guys a little to get yourself prepared. If you have any questions look me up on facebook : https://www.facebook.com/toni.farah.750
Florida here we come!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)