We are leaving for our first family vacation
tomorrow. Well, that's not exactly true, we've gone to my parents
house at the beach plenty, and the Outerbanks with my in-laws, but,
this is our first vacation just the three of us, on an airplane.
Planning it has been stressful enough. But now that it's almost here,
I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea.
I started planning last summer when Doug and I were given two free United vouchers after the whole Savannah
debacle. (And by given, I mean I had to call and complain, a lot.) And
Doug rightly pointed out that this is like the time we went to the
bad restaurant and our meal was a disaster and they gave us a coupon to
come back and we went back and it was still bad. Why, oh why, are we
flying United again?) But, because I am a stickler for all things free,
I really wanted to use them. (And yes, I wanted a vacation. And yes, I
will be using a lot of parentheses today). He also pointed out we were
spending thousands of dollars just so I could use free tickets. He's a
riot, that husband of mine.
Originally we were planning for last year because the tickets said must use by December 2007. To me, that
means fly by, to United, it means ticket by. Which is good, because
Doug got a new job in August and that pushed our vacation back to January.
Then the
dilemma, where to go with a toddler, that is fun for him and us? And
while I really want to go to Disney, I think he is too young and that
is a huge expense. So I started looking at all inclusive resorts. I
decided on Beaches. United doesn't fly there. Then I decided on Atlantis, United doesn't fly there either.
Then
I thought about a cruise. Most cruises have kids clubs that start at
three, not two. We found one line that has a toddler pool (no swim
diapers in cruise pools, apparently it's a law), and one line that has
a two year old program, and another line that had in cabin babysitting,
maybe. What exactly does when available mean? Will it be available? I
called a travel agent to make heads or tails of this nonsense and they
never called me back. (Nice costumer service). And then I thought about
Michael in a very small cabin. Michael, who does not "sleep like a
baby." (If we walk by his room he wakes up). And I thought, hmmm, maybe
not.
This began my pain stacking Internet search to find
somewhere, anywhere we could go. I googled child family travel and got
this list. And of course I fell in love with the most expensive resort on the list.
In the end, we are headed to Club Med
in Florida. What I find so ridiculous, is my mom told me to go there a
year ago. But, all this week we have gone back and forth on canceling. First, my car imploded.
And then Doug had crises after crises at work last week, and we weren't
100% sure we were going until yesterday. And we leave tomorrow. I need
to pack 3 people, one of which is a toddler, in 24 hours. And instead
I'm blogging. Clearly I have my priorities straight.
I am grateful to be leaving somewhere that is 20 degrees and headed
somewhere that is 80 degrees. But I'm nervous. And am obsessing over
every trip advisor review.
I'm refreshing every ten minutes because someone must have just come
back from Club Med Sandpiper and reviewed it in the last 5 minutes.
Some of the reviews are terrible. What if this sucks?
I'm sure you are all wondering by now how exactly I live my life when I
find it this hard to plan a trip? I don't know either.
