Wonderful Travel Experiences with Your Child/ren

[jinkies4]

What a wonderful thread! I just had to join in...

 

Two years ago my mother took our whole family to Hawaii on a cruise, DH, DS 7, DD 3, my sister, and BIL. We had a fabulous time! The kids still talk about the black sand beach, swimming with dolphins, playing in the ocean, seeing sea turtles, etc.

 

Our kids our great travelers. They did great on the flight - Milwaukee to Salt Lake City to Honolulu. I packed a bag of surprises for them: snacks, games, books, little toys to keep them occupied.

 

On the flight home a week later, my DD3 says, "Mommy, are we going to another island?". I told her no that it was time to go home. She started to sob and announce rather loudly that, "I want to go to another island!". My DH told her that Mommy and Daddy didn't have any more money so we had to go home. She is still sobbing and says, "Well just go buy some more money!". By this time everyone around us is laughing hysterically because she didn't want to leave Hawaii. I just had to ask my daughter where we should "buy more money". I got the DUH look from her and she said, "At the bank!" Needless to say, we didn't go buy more money and she had to go home.

 

Since then we have taken the kids to Disney World for 10 days last fall and my mother is taking us all on another cruise this summer to Alaska. The kids are so excited to see whales and pan for gold. I love to see these places through their eyes.

 

Thank you everyone for sharing your wonderful "children" stories!:)

[Onessa]

Hey Jinkies - Great story! what part of GB are you from? We live near Pamprim Park.

[Luv2Cruise525]

So I thought I would add a different perspective to this thread (hope that's ok!). I'm a teen (18) and absolutely love cruising/traveling with my family. I much rather cruise with my family than my friends. I have so much fun with my family, that close family friends want to cruise with us because they know they will have a good time haha My brother and I are two years apart and are best friends... no one believes that we never really fight! My family and I eat every meal together (lasting 2 hours) on a cruise and also go to the night show. A lot of teens want to bring a friend on the cruise but I think that being by myself, pushes me to meet people and get me out of my comfort zone. I've made amazing memories with my family and have meet awesome people on my cruises!

[Warm Breezes]

So I thought I would add a different perspective to this thread (hope that's ok!). I'm a teen (18) and absolutely love cruising/traveling with my family. I much rather cruise with my family than my friends. I have so much fun with my family, that close family friends want to cruise with us because they know they will have a good time haha My brother and I are two years apart and are best friends... no one believes that we never really fight! My family and I eat every meal together (lasting 2 hours) on a cruise and also go to the night show. A lot of teens want to bring a friend on the cruise but I think that being by myself, pushes me to meet people and get me out of my comfort zone. I've made amazing memories with my family and have meet awesome people on my cruises!

Thank you for your insight. Your family sounds a lot like ours. My kids are just under 3 years apart and they rarely fight. They are good friends with each other at 15 and 12 and love to hang out as a family on a cruise doing excursions, dinners, and shows together. I don't know how I became so blessed. I am sure you and your brother are a very special blessing to your parents too.

[Luv2Cruise525]

Thank you for your insight. Your family sounds a lot like ours. My kids are just under 3 years apart and they rarely fight. They are good friends with each other at 15 and 12 and love to hang out as a family on a cruise doing excursions, dinners, and shows together. I don't know how I became so blessed. I am sure you and your brother are a very special blessing to your parents too.

 

Yeah... that sounds like us! Thanks so much! A couple years ago on the day of a really big celebration, me and my brother looked at each other and said "we're twins!" and we were hugging each other while also being a little crazy. My dad was then explaining to others at the celebration how close we are and how amazed he is at our relationship. When I was in high school, once a week we ate lunch together just the two of us and we always walked around school together. The teachers thought we were adorable and they told my parents how they want children just like us! I guess I got extremely lucky in the sibling department :)

[Ula]

Yeah... that sounds like us! I got extremely lucky in the sibling department :)

 

Actually you had a brother and that helps. Sister's different story. Enjoy your time, with age and growing up this will be a fond memory. But do not worry in years you will again vacation with your folks. We do one a year with mine and lets just say we are all seniors or close to it.

Sometimes my sister who still has school kids can bring some of the kids along and it is a great holiday. Her oldest son at 21 may be on the cruise of a lifetime. He has tested for the Navy. Family vacation is so very important.

[Luv2Cruise525]

Actually you had a brother and that helps. Sister's different story. Enjoy your time, with age and growing up this will be a fond memory. But do not worry in years you will again vacation with your folks. We do one a year with mine and lets just say we are all seniors or close to it.

Sometimes my sister who still has school kids can bring some of the kids along and it is a great holiday. Her oldest son at 21 may be on the cruise of a lifetime. He has tested for the Navy. Family vacation is so very important.

 

 

Haha! I always wondered what it would be like with a sister or even an older sibling. We already have a dream of having both of our families living in a HUGE house on the water in Austrailia haha

[sunrise&set]

I haven't read through the other posts yet, but will add my great experiences travelling with children:

 

We have taken our older children on 2 cruises and they loved it! Especially the girls. The first one they were 15, 12 and 10 and we had lots of great quality family time. The best was swimming with the dolphins which none of us will ever forget. I also loved having dinner together EVERY night!! The second cruise, they were 17, 15 and 12 - we went zip lining, parasailing, jet skiing and cave tubing - very, very fun!!

 

We now have a 2 year old and he has been on 2 cruises and we are planning another for next February. He was 13 months old on the first and he was FABULOUS! He slept great, ate great and had LOTS of fun. We went again this past January when he was 23 months and had another great time. He travels well LOL! DH cannot wait for him to get older to go swimming with the dolphins again.

[jinkies4]

Hey Onessa,

 

We live right next to Bay Port High School!

[Onessa]

My DD (now 13YO) has gone on every trip we've taken since she was born - including at least eight cruises. I honestly believe that a family spending time together away from all of the daily distractions of work, school, etc. is valueable no matter what the ages of the people in the family. And even if the child is "too little" to remember the trip, the experience becomes a intrical part of their overall development.

 

The stories from the trips become a huge part of our family folklore - from our last trip for example:

• Our front-row seats to an impromptu, very colorful argument between our bus driver and the truck driver who he cut off (thank goodness it was all in Italian!),
  
• My DD explaining American Thankgiving traditions to a table-full of Brits, Germans, a Bolivian and a Guatamalian, as well as our Hungarian waiter, South African assistant waiter, and Indian head waiter. ("and my state, Wisconsin, is the largest producer of crandberries", she says by way of convincing the Bolivian to try some of the suspiciously wiggle and rather lumpy bright red mass that was encroaching upon his turkey. )
  
• My DD actually winning a foot race against some high school seniors from a foriegn exchange program in Isreal who where in Olympia in Greece on a class trip (one of them was from the northern suburbs of Milwaukee and was so darn homesick that he convinced their teacher/tour director to "adopt us" for their tour after he saw my DH's GB Packer cap)
  

Our DD gets to meet other kids and hang out with them as well as still spending a lot of time with us. For example DD was part of our on-board trivia and scavenger hunt team (we joined up with a family from Michigan that we had met in the airport). We were 8 for 10 (and now have enough RCCI cruise "trinkets" to last us the rest of our days!)

 

I know that her Dad and I would not trade even one day of any of our trips with her for a week ANYwhere without her (I wouldn't have had a kid if I wanted to travel alone as a couple!). I know she enjoys every minute of our trips. And I believe that most of the other pax we meet and talk with appreciate her company as well as ours (one of our tablemates from a cruise we took last year, confessed that as a substitue teacher for kids about her age, she was not "thrilled" when she saw a 13YO was among her tablemates -- but she went on to say that she truly did enjoy her company and was very glad that she did not ask for a table reassignment -- which had run through her mind).

 

PS - and Jinkies4, we've got a lot of friends in the Bay Port HS area - both on the Howard and Suamico side of Lineville! Cool!

[cardbucfan]

Love this thread! We love to travel with our kids and they still really like to be with us. Like one of the other posters said, we are really fortunate that we have been able to give our kids the travel experiences they have had (certainly way more than I had!). With our older son going off to high school in the fall, we see the time racing away and still have a long list of places we want to go with them!

 

A couple of my favorite trip memories are:

-being at Hawaii Volcano National Park on my son's 10 year old birthday and the look on his face when we hiked across the lava fields-pure joy!

-last year in Yellowstone, my then 11 yr. old son said " have you ever seen anything so beautiful?!"

-ziplining in Costa Rica and their grins as they flew through the trees

-snorkeling in the Galapagos Islands with sea turtles and sea lions (especially the sea lion that tried to mate with my son!!!)

 

Can't wait for our cruise to Alaska and the looks on their faces when they see glaciers!

[cantw8togo]

Our DS was 4 yrs old on our last cruise and he was hesitant to go to the kids club, however one day he decided to stay. After about an hour, my DH and I peered through the windows of the kids club to see if he was enjoying himself and when we finally spotted him, he was up to his neck in the ball pit with the other kids and the councillor reading stories! It was such a charming place for story time.

 

We are heading north to Alaska in three weeks time and I'm excited about all of the adventures that the kids will experience.

 

N.