Favorite family vacation?

[rusty4]

I am looking for something different and affordable this summer too.

One thing we did though depending on where you are from and what the airfare would be is a summer trip to Oregon. That was a fantastic trip. Portland has so much to do. Then the Coast was a treat in itself. It was cool being on a beach and having to buy a fleece jacket! Cannon Beach is wonderful.

http://www.cannonbeach.org/

Haystack rock is the highlight there.

http://www.cannon-beach.net/cbhaystack.html

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

We have done many non WDW trips and loved them all:

Sedona/Grand Canyon (with a night in Vegas to see Hoover Dam)
Williamsburg/Jamestown/VA Beach
Niagara Falls
San Francisco/Yosemite
13 Disney cruises

DCL is a great way to get a Disney fix without the work & stress of the parks.
Also it gets us to beautiful island beaches without paying the exorbitant airfare it would cost to get 4 of us to an island. Just need flights to MCO for most itineraries. The service is nothing short of amazing: they cut my son's meat & crack his lobster.

Our favorite Disney cruise so far has been Alaska. Gorgeous beyond words.

The Med cruise on the Magic is our next adventure touring Barcelona, French Riviera, and in Italy: Florence, Rome, & Naples. I can't wait!

 

[hollypoast]

We went to Disney's Vero Beach resort one year for Spring Break. The kids loved it. It has a disney feel but is very low key and fun. Good luck deciding.

 

[sandeee]

My family loves Disney and the Atlantis too! We have timeshare at the Harborside which we won't be using this year. If you are interested let me know. We charged everything to the room and I found my invoice from last year - we only spent $1600. There were 5 of us and that included the lunches, dinners, teen club that the kids went 5 nights and frozen drinks at the pools. We probably spent another $200 for groceries and liquor.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Just wanted to add, fwiw, that we didn't find Vegas very family friendly at all. We only spent one night there just to see the strip, see a Cirque show then in the am head to Hoover Dam. We're also Toby Keith fans so we wanted to eat at his "I Love This Bar & Grill".
Everything requires walking through a smoky casino.
Staying at a hotel on the strip is outrageous because to have 4 guests in a room, including children, there is something like a $60 pp upcharge for any more than 2 guests per room, which I'm sure is to discourage families from booking. We found a Hyatt Place off the strip that was reasonable, smoke-free & offered free shuttle to the strip instead.

In our walk along the strip, our boys got an unexpected fast lesson in prostitution after seeing topless women pictured on a million business cards that litter the streets.
There were men just standing along the street with shirts stating, "We'll get a woman to your hotel room in 20 mins." Nice.
They even tried to hand dh their cards while the 4 of us walked down the sidewalk and dh holding the hand of our ds then 8.

The whole place just skeeved us. If I won a free trip to LV, I'd take the airfare & drive to AZ, UT, or CA.

jmho

 

[stitchfriend]

Disney.........

 

[Jridou]

Our fave vacay (surprisingly) was a trip we took last fall to Iceland. It was one of those spur of the minute, super cheap ticket trips. Can't recommend it enough, just spectacular !

 

[pigletto]

Disney of course but we also love cruising because there is so much for everyone to do. We like Celebrity the best. We also go to Lake Placid every Thanksgiving with extended family and just love it there that time of year

 

[gjl]

Not sure where you are coming from, but a trip to New England is awesome. Boston has so much history, great food and is a true "walking" city. The coast of Maine is absolutely beautiful with rocky and sandy beaches. Lake Winnepesauke in New Hapshire (near Mount Washington) is where I spent many a summer growing up. Rhode Island has Newport and all the great big old mansions. And you can pretty much drive through all of it in a few hours, so you could even park yourself somewhere and do daytrips (with a rental car) and see so much!

 

[LadyBeBop]

Another vote for a cruise.

The ships are so big, you can spend much of your vacation just exploring them. And most of the on-board activities are cheap, if not free. And the opportunity to visit different places and cultures when you're on shore excursions.

Cruised twice and can't wait to go back. Hoping for 2015.

 

[jodifla]

Cape Cod...the beach, clamming, lighthouses, whalewatching, museums, lots of great seafood, beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

South Florida & the The Florida Keys...great beaches, snorkeling, museums, boating, great seatfood, beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

 

[Belle & Ariel]

Our family favorite is cruising. We usually go Holland America or Celebrity and a week to the Caribbean or Bermuda is cheaper than a week in WDW.
We also love Hawaii and Williamsburg.

We did not have passports the first several years but do now. You can get on the ship for most itineraries with an official birth certificate and drivers' license. If you miss the boat in a port or have a medical emergency in which you are hospitalized and left behind, you will have problems. The more I read on cruisecritic about people without passports, the more I feel lucky that we did not have problems when we sailed without.

 

[englishteacha]

Some of our favorites:
Road trip to Cedar Point, stopping at Dorney Park on the way there and at Hershey Park on the way home.
Busch Gardens/Williamsburg
Florida but not Disney: Busch Gardens Tampa, Sea World, Universal
Acadia National Park

 

[maslex]

Our family has always been a WDW family. Then we decided to change things up and went on a cruise. Haven't been back to Disney since.

We love cruising. We've been on 7 so far. One with Holland America, 2 with Disney, 2 with Norwegian and one with Royal Caribbean. LOVE IT !!!

We also decided to go to Tennesee one year (2010) and loved it. Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area. We rented a cabin for the week, went to Dollywood (by no means was it Disney) but cute and the water park there. We're taking a break from cruising this year and going back to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg and renting the same cabin (it was beautiful). This year though we're doing a lot of sight seeing, a couple dinner shows, museums, a few things on the strip (mini golf, go karts, etc).

By the look of your screen name, I'm assuming you're from the Pocono area??? Just wondering, because on our way home from TN, we're stopping by to see my mom & sister who live in the Poconos.

 

[magic kingdom park]

Anyone know the tricks for doing disney cruise without breaking the bank

 

[mm1971]

OK, so dh said he would like to go somewhere else before we go back to disney .... Although it is crazy talk , I realized he probably does get a vote With the kids we have been to Atlantis, loved it but a bank breaker, Ocean City Maryland, Rocky Mountain NP, coastal NC, SC, and GA, Fire Island and of course WDW. All were great, but Disney and Atlantis were our favorites. What were your favorite family vacations so far?

Other than some you mentioned, we enjoyed Niagra Fall, Canada and Aruba.

 

[ssawka]

Anyone know the tricks for doing disney cruise without breaking the bank

Wait for a Kids Sail Free offer.

Other than that, I don't know of any. We are a DVC family, so we rent our points when we want to go on a cruise.

 

[pocomom]

Our family has always been a WDW family. Then we decided to change things up and went on a cruise. Haven't been back to Disney since.

We love cruising. We've been on 7 so far. One with Holland America, 2 with Disney, 2 with Norwegian and one with Royal Caribbean. LOVE IT !!!

We also decided to go to Tennesee one year (2010) and loved it. Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg area. We rented a cabin for the week, went to Dollywood (by no means was it Disney) but cute and the water park there. We're taking a break from cruising this year and going back to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg and renting the same cabin (it was beautiful). This year though we're doing a lot of sight seeing, a couple dinner shows, museums, a few things on the strip (mini golf, go karts, etc).

By the look of your screen name, I'm assuming you're from the Pocono area??? Just wondering, because on our way home from TN, we're stopping by to see my mom & sister who live in the Poconos.

Yep, We're in the cold and icy Poconos!

 

[kkandaj]

As a child, my favorite vacations were to Colorado--Estes Park, Colorado Springs, Denver. I see that you are on a mountain, so this might not be something you are interested in. Visited WDW twice as a kid--and though I loved it--and love taking my kids--our trips to Colorado are the most memorable.

I would never take my kids to Vegas EVER. I had the same experience as a pp. I have only visited once, for a week with my DH. We stayed at the MGM (there for a conference), but went out in the evenings, into the night. There were huge billboard trucks driving up and down the street with almost nude women all over them. Every 10 feet at night was a man handing out business cards with naked women and phone numbers for "escort services" on them. Mom and pop shops that printed t-shirts that we walked by with extremely inappropriate language/pictures on them. I don't know how many kids I saw in the smoke filled casinos at 2AM in the morning, sitting/sleeping in strollers while their parents gambled. Not my idea of a family vacation. I have no desire to go back. There are TONS of places I would rather spend my money.

 

[magic kingdom park]

Wait for a Kids Sail Free offer.

Other than that, I don't know of any. We are a DVC family, so we rent our points when we want to go on a cruise.

I will have to check into that. We usually rent points when we go to Disney World do you rent points out every year and how much a point.Thanks