Winter vacation thoughts

posted by Jeff | Friday, November 18, 2011, 10:21 PM | comments: 0

I'm not sure why, but we're already thinking about winter vacation plans. Typically, we end up going somewhere between November and March. Last year it was a really awesome week at Universal Orlando. It was really an extraordinary trip considering we had a 10-month-old and had to fly something like 3,000 miles each way.

Maybe it's the hilarious thread on CoasterBuzz started by a guy who made up his mind that Disney World would suck, went anyway, and tells us all how much it sucked. Our last trip there was just shy of two years ago, and even though Diana was six-months pregnant, and we had been Seattle residents for all of two weeks, we had a pretty good time overall. I can't wait to go back, and seeing a promo for "free" dining plan options during certain weeks got me to thinking more about it.

However, one of the things that makes Disney, for us, so much fun, is the dining plan and the evenings at the parks. With Simon, I'm not sure how well that would work. We could probably wing it with the dining if we made all of our table service meals either lunch or an early dinner. Just not sure how much night stuff we'd do since he's really only good until 8 normally. Granted, he surprised us at Universal in January. He was also a different kid then. I dunno, it's not off the table. We'd have to stay at one of the nicer hotels because we'd spend more time there. A friend was telling me today how awesome the splash park is at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

We've talked about doing the off-property stuff around Orlando as well. Diana has never been to any SeaWorld, so that would be a first for her. There's also Legoland and Busch Gardens in Tampa, the former being mostly new, and the latter having several rides new since I've been there. The downside of that arrangement is that you really have to make a day of those parks. There's no retreating back to your room easily. We learned that was essential with Simon. He could probably nap in his stroller, but you never can tell.

Of course, we're talking about major theme park trips, but that's kind of my thing, and we enjoy that stuff. We're fairly certain we'll do a "quiet weekend" at one of the indoor water park resorts at some point, because Simon thought that was pretty much the coolest thing ever when we did it in May. Mostly the wave pool, but with his higher confidence in his mobility now, I think it would be super fun.

The thing I'd really love to do is meet up with one of our couples-with-young-kids friends to hang out for a day or two on one of these trips. Not a big collaborative effort where we have to spend all of our time together, but more of a meet up kind of thing. Friends, you know who you are!


Comments

No comments yet.


Post your comment: