I'm going Cruising!

I've booked a 7 day Mexican Cruise!! I've never traveled to Mexico other than to Tijiuana so this should be fun. I'm not leaving for a few months yet but stay tuned for photos and a summary of our trip. I'll also post some info about how I found deals on the web. In the meantime I'm going to do some research on cruising with a 2 yr old. If anyone has cruised with a 2 yr old and has any tips please share. I'm wondering whether I need to bring a stroller? If so, should I buy an umbrella stroller? Do I need to bring along our carseat for the taxi ride between the airport and terminal? So much to think about! So come on all you traveling Momma's out there share your tips with me.

FAQ’s

Okay, it’s true I haven’t received any FAQ’s since I’ve just started this blog so until I actually here some FAQ’s I’ll make them up as I go along. I can imagine some FAQ’s are probably questions I had prior to visiting Florida so I’m going to ask and answer them here for you in case you also had the same questions as I did. Of course if your reading this and you don’t see an answer to your question then please go ahead and ask and I’ll see if I can answer it for you:

What can I do with a baby at Disneyworld, Universal, Sea World, etc.?

Well, you can take your baby on any ride that does not have a height restriction. I bought an Ergo baby carrier and put my 10 mth old in it and took her on anything I thought looked appropriate. I absolutely love my Ergo Carrier as there is no barrier between you and your baby which means if you are still nursing your baby you can latch your baby on while walking around the park so you don’t miss out of the fun! I spent most of the time walking around with my baby in her carrier with no one the wiser.

What about taking a baby on the noisy rides or shows?

We bought some baby ear muffs to use to muffle the sound while sitting in on the shows and going on some of the noisier rides. We bought ours at an industrial equipment store. They had to be special ordered and were under $20. I did find some on the web but they were pricey especially with shipping.

Did you know about Mousesavers.com?

Yes, I did! I studied those newsletters every month. I highly suggest if you are planning any type of Disney holiday to sign up for this newsletter asap. It not only gives you tons of tips but it alerts you to deals. I bought my tickets for Disney from another website recommended by these guys (www.undercovertourist.com) and was able to buy them at a slight discount (a discount that is less than going to straight to the site as undercover offers an even bigger discount if you use mousesavers code). I was also able to purchase the tickets before the price was raised as mousesavers alerted me that the price was going up. Mousesavers does not only give advice/recommendations for Disney but also Universal, Seaworld, and some of the dinner theatres too.

Do you recommend staying on Disney property?

If you have the money to spend on staying on Disney property then go for it. If it is costing you a fortune and you can’t afford to stay there or are frugal like me then I say stay off property. Most properties offer shuttles of some kind to get you to the parks. Once you are at one of the parks you can ride Disney transit for free. The only advantage I see to staying on Disney property is that you can get into the parks an hour early or stay an hour late on certain days. I was so exhausted that I would never have taken advantage of this had I stayed on Disney property. My parents stayed on Disney property along with my brother and his family and they never took advantage of this offer either. The other advantage/reason why one might want to stay on Disney property would be to keep oneself in the ‘Disney’ spirit.

Do you like owning a timeshare?

So far I do. I haven’t owned it for very long so maybe I’ll change my mind.

Where have you traveled using your timeshare?

Since I haven’t had it for very long I haven’t traveled a huge amount with it as of yet but hopefully I will travel more and more and will blog about it. So far, I’ve traveled to Kissimmee, Florida, Parksville, BC, & Victoria, BC.

Where have you traveled?

I’ve traveled to Vancouver, BC; Victoria, BC; Edmonton, AB; Anaheim, CA; San Diego, CA; Mexico; England, Scotland, Spain, Germany, Belgium, and Netherlands. I am planning on entering posts on each of these cities at some point in the near future but I am a busy mother of a toddler and teenager AND I work full time.

What makes you think you are an expert about traveling?

I’m not an expert but I love to travel and talk about my travels so why not blog about it?

Are you paid by anyone to write or recommend products or hotels?

Nope!

Kissimmee, Florida

My family recently used our points to go to Disneyworld for 17 days just prior to Christmas. We are new owners and this was our first time staying at a resort that was not Aviawest. I spoke with an RCI agent and she recommended staying at Silver Lake Resort. This resort exceeded our expectations. Silver Lake Resort is very close to Disneyworld. In fact, it borders Disney’s property and from some of the units you can see Expedition Everest in the Animal Park, nightly fireworks, and other Disney Icons. The resort boasts three pools, hot tub, movie theatre that serves popcorn, golf simulator, games room, exercise room, and daily activities. My only regret was that we didn’t leave enough down time just to enjoy the amenities. Our unit was in the 800 block and we stayed in a one bedroom. The Jacuzzi tub was perfect for tired legs and feet after walking all day in the parks and the king sized mattress was heavenly. I slept like a baby.

We purchased a 7 day park hopper pass for the Disney parks which included entry to the water park and entry to Disney Quest in Downtown Disney. We visited the parks during low season and in retrospect I think 7 days was more than enough and we could have gotten away with 5 days. However, I still found the parks crowded for their supposed downtime so I would have hated to see their busy period. I’ve visited Disneyland 6 times and most of those times have been during peak season and I would say the crowds were no different between the two. I’m also not sure if I would purchase a park hopper pass as the parks are SO far apart that you really don’t have the energy (or want to waste the time) to travel to another park. If you’re trying to save money then I would say skip this option. Blizzard Beach the water park was great fun for everyone. They have a lazy river that encompasses the entire park, group slides, extreme height slides, wave pool and a kiddie pool area. The summit plummet is the highest slide and it clocks your speed. My sister in law apparently broke a record while we were there by hitting 65mph going down the slide. Can you say atomic wedgie? Too bad she didn’t win anything like a free pair of mouse ears. Lastly, we visited Disney Quest in Downtown Disney. My 14 yr old son, his two cousins who are 8 and 10 were in gamer heaven. Disney Quest is FULL of arcade games that are free once you pay admission. There are also simulator rides like Pirates of the Caribbean where you wear special glasses and ride on a pirate ship shooting cannons at other pirate ships. They also have the Jungle Ride where you ride in an inflatable river raft down rapids while paddling your way through this wild ride. You will actually get wet. Kids will love this place but make sure you give yourself the whole day to enjoy. The shops in Downtown Disney are fun to walk through and visiting Ghirardelli is a must. So save room for one of their famous sundaes.

In addition to visiting the four Disney parks (Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot) we also visited Sea World and Universal Studios two parks (Universal & Islands of Adventure). Sea World was great to visit when you are tired of all the crowds at Disney and want a slower pace. We traveled with an infant so it was nice to visit a park where you could sit for a good 30 minutes and enjoy a show while the baby slept. The animal shows are quite entertaining and the crowds were non existent. Universal Studios Florida is nothing like the Hollywood version. This park is mainly rides and shops. There is no back lot tour since it is not a working studio. Again, it was less crowded than Disney which made it a nice change of pace but if you have little ones there isn’t much for them to do because of the height restriction. Universals second park Islands of Adventure is even more of an extreme park as it is chalk full of roller coasters and simulator rides. It does have a small kid friendly area called “Seuss Land” but the rides are few. Lastly, we had dinner tickets to Arabian Nights. The meal was excellent but the show was substandard. The particular show we saw was their Christmas show and it felt like it was thrown together last minute. The performers made many mistakes and the microphones were cutting in and out along with the music. What I thought was pretty nice at the end was the performers brought the horses to the edge of the arena and the kids could pet the horses and ask questions. It was a nice touch. However, the pre-show was the best as they had a magician who was very talented. My nephew was in awe as he wants to become a magician. Overall, the show was entertaining (even the mistakes) and the meal was good so I think I would give it another chance if I knew it wasn’t going to be a Christmas production.

My final piece of advice if visiting the Orlando area is to bring a GPS along. The road signs are horrible and even the locals will tell you that they regularly get lost. We wasted hours and hours because we were lost. The maps you can buy at gas stations are just too detailed and cumbersome to use. I think the amount of gas money and time we wasted we could have bought ourselves a GPS and saved ourselves a lot of stress.