As our children write their letters to Santa, we invited the Parenting Panel to come up with their own Wish Lists, too! We asked the Parenting Panel: What is on your travel Wish Lists?
Chris, also known as GusMan, is always planning his next family trip to WDW and loves to help others plan their trips as well through sharing his experiences. Chris starts us off:
Fortunately, my wife and I have two great kids that love to travel. Be it by plane, car, or ship, they know the whole routine. Sure, every once in a while we hear an “Are we there yet?” from the back seat, but turning up the radio usually drowns that out for a few-hundred miles. A person could always wish that it was easy to find more affordable flights for around the holidays, but I think, at times, you have to make sure there is a defined border between an obtainable wish and fantasy.
If I could have a wish list for making travel easier, I think I would concentrate on things that would make everyone’s life a little easier. After all, if you make vacation experiences better for the masses, the greater the reward for all. Of course, there are some things that I wished for in the past to help myself out, but I think others would love those ideas as well. Some of my top wish lists would include:
- Ideal weather conditions for your travel destination. Sure, this is tall order for some regions of the country, but I think there should be a general rule that it should not be warmer in Chicago than it is in Orlando.
- Keep the family healthy during your entire trip. Nothing puts a dark cloud over a vacation like a sick child or parent, so let the bugs hit either before or after a trip.
- I would love to have the ability to charge my camcorder or camera while sitting down for dinner without having to drag around my charger. After all, it is the marathon touring days where you realize that you left your spare batteries in the other camera case, which is probably at home.
- Speaking of camcorders, I think a great wish would be to have a pair of sunglasses that had an HD video camera mounted on the side that automatically fed into a high capacity disk drive. I would like that combination of devices constantly recording so that I do not have to worry about if the camcorder was started in time to capture the image of my kids doing something memorable. This device would also be waterproof so that I could use it on water rides or the water parks.
- Free or cheaper Internet access at the resort hotel would be very nice. Of course, I would not use this for work related e-mail. However, I would love to keep a backup of my photos online so that if a memory card goes bad, I would have nothing to worry about.
- I would love to see the different Christmas parades at Disney without having to look over or around parents who insist that their child cannot see if they do not sit on the parent’s shoulders. (Not to mention that doing so can be very dangerous for both the high-riding child and surrounding guests.)
But to be honest, I think my biggest wish would be for the ability to take my kids out of school any time during the year without it impacting their ability to learn the missed material. This may seem selfish at first, but in this day and age, sometimes parents find themselves so busy with work that when you actually have the chance to take time off, the kids are in school. When the kids are on vacation, work tends to be busier. For the past few years, the two rarely were in-sync. It leaves me wanting more without the ability to fulfill that need for another year or so.
Vacation is not just a time to be away from “life” but a real chance to make memories with the family. Regardless what a person’s travel wish list may show, I think the goal remains the same. I would be more than willing to invest in any thought, idea, or gadget that would give me the ability to make additional memories while on vacation. Who knows—maybe I will invent that camcorder invention after all.
Emily Loftus is a wife, mom of two, portrait photographer and Disneyland fanatic from Reno, Nev. Emily shares her list:
My Holiday Wish List for 2010
- More postcards! I love love love to send postcards, and I feel like they are fading away. There aren’t many options anymore, and many of them have been the same for many years. I’d love some NEW postcards that would be available to purchase in the Disney theme parks.
- A new sit-down restaurant at Disneyland Park. Our favorite thing about the Walt Disney World Resort was all the awesome themed dining. We do love Blue Bayou, but we’d love to have another cool restaurant at Disneyland Park, too!
- A place where you can have a family meal, with everyone at one large table. On our recent visit to the Walt Disney World Resort we were disappointed with the number of times our party of 15 had to be split into two different tables. It just doesn’t work out that well. With six kids, all of whom want to sit together, it inevitably leaves one or two adults sitting with all of the children, and everyone else sitting separately. It’s just not ideal for having a large family gathering. Bigger, specially reserve-able tables would be an amazing addition, and we wouldn’t even care if we had to sit in a corner.
- An affordable option that suits the needs of the members of our family who aren’t huge Disneyland Resort fans. Of course, I can’t for a second even begin to imagine why someone wouldn’t love Disneyland Park, but my dad just doesn’t. He’s tried, but it’s just not happening for him. There just isn’t anything for him to do in the Disneyland area, so if we want to go, we have to go without him. I have a couple ideas: What about a climbing gym at Downtown Disney? Or even just bike rentals, and a bike path? And I’m sure we’d make use of a service that would help him find something he’d love to do. There has to be a tour company that provides a ride to the beach, and a stand up paddle board rental for one price. How about a concierge-type service that would help us find something that’s more his speed? Then we could still enjoy our vacation as a family, reconvene each night at dinner and share our day’s stories.
- Our family absolutely loves the email-able Buzz Lightyear ride photo, and I would love to see a similar offering on other rides. I’d even pay $5 for a digital image I could email to friends, but I definitely wouldn’t complain if it was free!
- Lastly, What I wish for most is: The perfect Disneyland Park day. A day with lovely weather, light lines and great moods. A day that we can remember forever as our perfect day in Disneyland!
MousePlanet columnist Chris Barry his wife Diane, 11-year-old Samantha, and twin 8-year-olds, Casey and Alex, live on Long Island and are all major Disney and Walt Disney World fans. Chris wishes:
I’d have to leave off the obvious wishes wouldn’t I—like a free trip tossed my way once in a while? Considering how much money The Walt Disney Company has gotten out of me over the years, every once in a while I think a complimentary package isn’t too much to wish for—is it? But, I must ground myself in reality and consider a wish that really could come true, I suppose. That said, I think that the Walt Disney World Resort does a pretty good job of taking care of my family on our vacations. They take us back and forth to the airport for free, they offer us a great assortment of resorts to stay in, and, when we’re there, we have a ball and they take great care of us.
The one thing I would really like them to do is rather resort specific. We are a family of five and, right off the bat, that creates a problem for us when we travel. I can’t begin to tell you how many resorts out there have been unaccommodating to us when we need that extra bed. The options usually are to opt for a much more expensive suite or book two rooms. Just like that. Like we’re not already spending a lot of money to travel and have no problem upgrading or adding on a room. There are resorts that do allow rollaways, but let’s face it rollaways are pretty uncomfortable. It’s either that or lug along a sleeping bag or an air mattress and hope no one notices. We’re usually not willing to take that chance.
To be fair, Disney does not do this. There are plenty of options for a family of five. There are the family suites at Disney’s All-Star Music Resort; there are the trundle beds at Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort. Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club Resorts, Disney’s Boardwalk Inn, Disney’s Polynesian Resort, Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa all have rooms with daybeds in them. This brings me to my point. Two of our favorite places to visit, Disney’s Wilderness Lodge and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge do not have that extra option in their rooms.
My wife and I stayed at The Wilderness Lodge on our adults-only trip last spring. We loved it and we kept thinking how much the kids would love to stay there. We have visited the Animal Kingdom Lodge when family was staying there and it’s definitely on our list of places that we must stay one day.
When there are specials you can sometimes get either hotel for around $200 per night. We like to take shorter trips in the off season, so a few nights upgrade to around $200 for either Lodge from the Port Orleans, which we usually get for around $139 or so is very doable. We have paid for the upgrade to the Polynesian and the Yacht Club with a discount pin code, but it’s still a big bump and it can’t always happen. We’d love to stay at either of the Lodges, but we can’t fit.
My feeling is, if they can cram five into a Port Orleans room, then they can fit five into either The Wilderness Lodge or Animal Kingdom Lodge rooms. I’m not sure why they don’t do so, but I wish they would, so we could all take advantage of these two wonderful resorts together as a family. I’m not too fond of the All-Stars and we’ve stayed at Port Orleans many, many times. It would be great to add another few options without completely breaking the bank.
It seems like a small wish, but once again, aside from that free stay in Cinderella’s Royal Suite with a Magic Your Way Platinum Package tossed in, I’m not really asking for much out of them. On a whole, they deliver for me big time, and I don’t want to get greedy, especially around this time of year.
Just an extra bed in some of the Wilderness Lodge or Animal Kingdom Lodge rooms is all I really need.
Mary Kraemer is an avid Disney fan and travel consultant with CruisingCo/MouseEarVacations who loves to travel with her husband and children to Disney destinations as often as possible! Mary shares:
Now that my kids are older and Santa doesn’t play a significant role in our Christmas holiday, we take a much more practical approach to our holidays and gift giving. In some respects, I’m glad to not keep accumulating piles of “stuff” that nobody really needs just to have presents to open but I miss the magic and wonder of the anticipation of Santa’s arrival and the gifts left during the night. I wish we could keep that magic alive because of the special feeling we shared.
But the next best thing, I believe, is spending quality family time together, and we have a healthy appetite for wonderful vacations. We have many destinations on our list, and any would be most welcome. Topping our list is a cruise tour to Alaska, where we’d spend a week on a ship seeing wonderful glaciers and port cities and then going inland to see Mt. McKinley and the vast wilderness of Alaska, as well as some of its wild inhabitants.
Jenny is a former theme park employee, avid Disney fan(atic), and an at-home mom to two Disney vets (5 and 4 years old.) Jenny writes:
What I wish for family traveling doesn’t exist, and probably will never exist: better family accommodations. Now, I realize it will never happen because it just isn’t financially feasible, but how great would a “family pod” on an airline be? An enclosed (soundproofed) room where a toddler who doesn’t understand being confined on a long flight can stretch his legs. Sadly, I would settle for decent service from flight attendants. On a nonstop flight from Los Angeles to London with a 3 year old and a 16 month old, my husband and I were treated to plenty of eye-rolls and heavy sighs when we politely asked for some milk and water for the kids. I understand working in the service industry is difficult, but good service shouldn’t be reserved for first or business class. Our kids were actually quite well behaved and we really did ask nicely, but still we couldn’t get the courtesy of a smile and a “no problem.” We ended up paying to upgrade to business class on the return flight, and the difference in service was night and day.
My second request would be for a hotel room with privacy curtains / dividers in the room. We have wasted either many a dollar getting an adjoining room or many a good evening sitting outside our hotel room while we wait for our kids to fall asleep. It would be so wonderful to have a way to temporarily divide the room just until the little ones fall asleep. And as a side request, I would LOVE for hotels to be able to guarantee that the two rooms I have booked would actually be adjoining. Of course, hotels win out on this deal for us, as instead of taking the chance that my husband and I would have to split up with the kids, we end up booking some sort of suite at more than double the cost of 2 standard rooms.
It’s your turn—keep the discussion flowing!
Visit the Parenting on the Parks section of our MousePad discussion board, and share your opinions about this topic (link), or send your suggestions via e-mail (link). Reader-submitted tips might be used in a future article, and you might be selected to participate in an upcoming panel discussion!
