After visiting St. Augustine and the Florida Keys and the southern most tip in the continental United States, our Florida Road Trip had us going up the Gulf Coast to the lovely sandy beaches of Clearwater Beach.
Our Florida Road Trip was the perfect way to say goodbye to summer. I’ll be sharing more about our experience and the places we stayed within EverythingMom’s Everything Travel section.
Goodbye Summer! Until we meet again, next year.
Taking a beach vacation with the family can be tricky when you have, uh, the family. I know when my husband and I have gone, we love to just hang out on the sand, in the sun, with a drink. But add kids to the mix and everything changes.
In 2004 Beaches Resorts started an exclusive partnership with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, giving kids the chance play and have fund with some of their favourite Sesame Street characters at the Beaches Turks & Caicos Resort Villages & Spa and Beaches Negril Resort & Spa. Kids could experience Story Time with Elmo, Baking Cookies with Cookie Monster, Exploring with Grover and more.
I attended a media lunch recently, with special guest Big Bird, to announce that Beaches Resorts has extended their partnership with Sesame Workshop until 2015 and that Sesame Street pal Big Bird will be joining the rest of his friends at the Beaches Resorts.
Our family hasn’t gone on a beach vacation in a while, trading in our lounge chairs for amusement and water parks to keep the kids happy, but the inclusion of Sesame Street characters at the Beaches Resorts makes it that much more appealing (and feasible) to have a vacation that both parents and kids will enjoy.
And who doesn’t like Big Bird.
With a family of five air travel can get pricey so we tend to vacation in destinations we can drive to. That doesn’t mean we’re only visiting surrounding cities. We’ve driven across the United States to Las Vegas, Nevada (when my youngest was four-months old). And just last summer we drove down to Orlando, Florida. However those types of drives require a lot of vacation time since most of your trip seems to be driving. But all that changed we discovered the Buffalo International Airport.
If you’re thinking of taking a family trip, here are four good reasons to fly out of Buffalo:
Cost Savings. This is by far the best reason to fly out of Buffalo versus Toronto Pearson International airport. Our last few trips cost us $65 US a person, one-way. That works out to about $650US for all five of us to fly to Florida; slightly higher than the cost of just one person flying out of Toronto, even with the exchange rate. And if you’re driving to the airport, parking at the Buffalo airport is much, MUCH cheaper than parking at the Toronto airport.
Later Check-In Required. Flying to a US destination, say like Florida, is viewed as a domestic flight from Buffalo by an International flight from Toronto. Domestic flights don’t require you to be at the airport until about 2 hours before your plane leaves unlike international flights that require you to be there 3 or 4 hours before in order to go through customs. With small kids every hour you don’t have to be stuck in the airport is important.
Easier Customs. Now this is my personal preference (others may disagree) but I prefer going through customs at the boarder versus the airport. Probably because the kids can be entertained with a movie versus causing mischief in the airport. Somehow standing in a line with a lot of people is more stressful than sitting in a line of cars.
More Shopping. Depending on when you flight is, you might be able to sneak a trip to Target in either on the way down or on the way back. And who doesn’t want to stop at Target?
And if you happen to be flying to Disney World, another bonus is Magical Express. You can probably use the Magical Express if you fly out of Toronto, but I’ll take any excuse to talk about Disney again. And although this post references Buffalo, I’m sure any US border city will offer the same advantage over flying out of Canada.
Happy Holidays!
Look out, it's Viking Girl
On our recent trip to Disney World we spent one day in Epcot, touring the world. The first country on our visit was Norway. And when in Norway there’s nothing more fun than being a Viking. (funny, my youngest is getting so big, she’ll be 3 this December, but somehow in this picture she looks like my little baby still. Must be that large troll creature behind her).
When we go away on vacation I can always count on the kids making adjustments when we get back. This last trip, our week in august to Disney World, was no exception. It came as no surprise that my two year old daughter would show up in the middle of the night wanting to sleep in our bed. You see, when we’re on holidays, to avoid paying for two rooms, we split beds in one room. My husband and son in one and myself and my two girls in the other. So my daughter was use to sleeping with me the whole week. It’s understandable she didn’t want to give that up.
For about a week my daughter would come to our bed for an early morning sleep. When the visits stopped I had assumed she had adjusted to being back home and sleeping in her own bed. Well you know what they say about assuming.
No, instead of coming all the way down the hall to my room, she discovered a closer alternative:
Two peas in a pod
For the labour day weekend we went to visit friends of ours in Michigan and stumbled upon Disney’s A Christmas Carol Train Tour. You may have heard about the new Jim Carry movie A Christmas Carol expected out in theatres in November. To help promote the movie they’re crossing the country on a train tour. We discovered it at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. The tour still has more stops, though they’re now into the west coast part of the tour.
All aboard the Christmas train
We were able to see some great behind the scene footage, plus costumes and some of Charles Dickins’ original manuscripts on loan from the Charles Dickens Museum in London, England. You could also morph your face into one of four characters from the movie. We’re suppose to get an email when the pictures are ready so we can download them (still waiting for the email for our crazy faces). Then we given a sneak peek of the actual movie.
Behind the scenes videos
Ready for the 3D movie to start
I didn’t realize the movie was in 3D. I’ve never been too impressed by many movies done in 3D (though I haven’t seen many) but this was actual quiet good.
You can check out the Christmas Carol movie trailer
The whole train tour is free, but if you do plan to drop by be sure to get there early. We arrived in the morning and had an hour wait in line. It didn’t seem that long though because of the water stops and carolers and movie preview clips along the line. They even had snow and tattoos and punchout ornaments for the kids to take home.
Higher and higher
One of the great joys of staying in a hotel is jumping on the bed (something the kids aren’t allowed to do at home). Have fun!
King Kong Burger
Another reason I love driving for vacation versus flying is the roadside food stops. When we drove cross country to Las Vegas two years ago (my youngest was 4 months old at the time, that still blows my mind), we encountered a lot of great roadside places to eat. But one of my favourites that I still remember is King Kong located in Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska.
While driving along the highway we saw a large gorilla and neon palm trees and had to stop. It was a fast food joint, but we didn’t know that until we pulled into the parking lot (you would never have guess from the look of the place). But what a pleasant surprise. They made some of the best hamburgers I’ve ever tasted. You know the kind where the patties are hand formed and it towers lopsided with fresh ingredients and a soft bun. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. I hope to someday make my way back there again.
What road side eats have you encountered?
On our last trip to DisneyWorld we flew down for the first time (got a great deal from the TravelZoo newsletter). Since we didn’t have a car, we decided to use Disney’s Magical Express transportation service.
Free Transportation
So you arrive in Orlando, ready to start your vacation and now you need to find transportation to your hotel. But with Disney’s Magical Express bus service you don’t have to worry. They will pick you up at the airport and transport you right to the check-in desk at your hotel. The service is a few years old and at one point Disney thought of charging for it but they have still offering it free.
The buses seem to run continuous between the hours of 8am to 10pm, so it doesn’t matter what time your plane gets in.
Handle Your Luggage
Along with transporting you to your hotel, Disney’s Magical Express can also pick-up your luggage and transport it to the hotel for you too. No need to wait at the baggage claim area. You can go right to your bus and your luggage will follow, delivered right to your room. When flying home you will have to bring your luggage to the bus for check-in, but from there the Disney Magical Express staff will ensure it gets on the plane so you don’t have to worry about it.
Note: delivery of luggage can take up to two or three hours. I would recommend packing a small carry-on bag with any essentials you might need in the hotel when you arrive. You can also choose to pick-up and transport your own luggage if you don’t want to wait for it in your room (just don’t attached to your luggage the special stickers you receive prior to your trip)
Boarding Passes at Hotel
If you’re using the Disney Magical Express service to return home, you can have your boarding passes delivered right to your room the day of your flight. So all you have to do is get off the bus and go right to your plane’s gate. No check-in. No baggage check. Beautiful. This was the best part of the whole service.
Our trip in August we will probably drive, but if we were to flyto DisneyWorld again, I would definately take advantage of Disney’s Magical Express service. The kids enjoyed the experience, riding on Mickey’s bus. It was a great way to kick-off our trip.
Riding on Mickey's bus
That's my baby?
So big: On our most recent trip to DisneyWorld we visited the Goofy Coaster. My seven year old graduated last trip to the big coasters (Space Mountain is her all time favourite) so of course my four year old son wants to follow in her footsteps. Now he’ll never admit it, but my son is not a fast, twirling, zipping kind of ride guy so I thought it best to try him on the Goofy Coaster first (one of those handy travelling to DisneyWorld with young kids kind of tips). When we discovered that our youngest, two year old daughter, falls within the height requirements to ride this coaster too (just) it sort of hit me that she wasn’t my baby anymore. Leave it to a family vacation to bring that to light.
Note: neither my son or youngest daughter seemed to enjoy the Goofy Coaster so I guess there’s still time to enjoy some baby time.
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