Wordless Wednesday... China 2006

Planning a trip is half the adventure!

Our family has been enjoying cruise vacations for 17 years! We have cruised on many different cruise lines including Carnival, Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Princess and DCL.  We have cruised Canada, Hawaii, Alaska, Mexico and to more of the Caribbean islands than I care to admit!  A matter of a fact, we have visited many of the islands more than once.  Po, at just 5 years old has been on 3 cruises, Shasha, age 8, has been on 5 and DH and I have just completed our 15th cruise! (Well, actually I have done one more than DH but who's counting... that's 16 for me LOL:) It was time to expand our family travels overseas!

 We have been on many cruise lines and choose the line that is right for our family based on itinerary and price.  Shopping for cruises is half the fun!  We are vacation planners and always plan at least 11 months out ... but usually more on the time frame of a year or two before our vacation date!  This gives me lots of time to plan, learn about our destination and pay the bill! We booked our July 2014 Western Mediterranean cruise in February of 2013 and then built our trip to Italy around the cruise dates. Our last five cruises were with Disney Cruise Line and we were admittedly a bit nervous about booking the Norwegian Epic. Would our kids enjoy a cruise without the characters? Would we like the Freestyle Dining (we weren't fans on one NCL cruise but loved it on our second!)? Would the ship be too big or too crowded? And finally... WOW those inside rooms are SMALL for a family of 4 that is used to spreading out over a cabin double the size! On the other hand, we knew that this cruise was going to be port intensive and the value of the NCL cruise just couldn't be beat! Indeed, for a family of four we paid more for the airfare to Europe than we paid for the 7 night cruise!

Our family while on board the Norwegian Epic
July 2014

After returning from our Disney Fantasy cruise and vacation to Walt Disney World the summer of 2013 we contacted our travel agent to book us airfare and hotels.  We decided that we wanted to fly into Venice, Italy, and stay for 2 nights, take the train to Rome and explore for 3 more nights before boarding the Epic on July 2, 2014. It added 5 nights onto our vacation and it was worth every minute and penny!  In all honesty, we could have stayed another week to visit the Dolomites, Milan and the Tuscan region! By the end of September our flights and hotels were booked! (We flew Delta from JFK to Venice on June 26, spent two wonderful nights at the Hotel Palazzo Priuli and spent three nights at the Crown Plaza Rome, St. Peter's, cruised on the Norwegian Epic for one week and returned home flying Delta from Rome to JFK on July 9.)

Now thanks to Trip Advisor, Rick Steves, Cruise Critic, DisBoards and the travel blogs of many others I was set to begin researching tour companies, luggage and how to pack carry on only for a 14 day trip with two young children! That 's right... 14 days Carry on ONLY!

Ready. Set. Adventure...An Introduction

Our family at The Leaning Tower of Pisa
July 3, 2014

We love to spend time together as a family. We love to travel. We love all things Disney. We love cruising and we love to plan new adventures!

We are a family of 4... Myself, DH, ShaSha and Po. My husband, DH and I have loved to travel since our first trip together! After traveling to adopt our two children from China and Taiwan we knew that sharing our love of culture, history, fun and adventure needed to be shared with them! Together, we travel to Walt Disney World twice a year, enjoy visiting National Parks and love cruising!

This summer we ventured to Europe for our first time... and it was love at first sight! So what else would we do but share our stories and begin planning our return to Europe next summer!




Traveling... It leaves you speechless and then turns you into a STORYTELLER!
                                      -IBN BATTUTA