Our three children are adults now and have families of their own. We have two beautiful granddaughters aged 6 years and 18 months. The adults don’t really need anything for Christmas but that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to give them something. It just gets harder every year to figure out what.
As a family we love having shared experiences from family dinners to weekends away, and it is no surprise that we have all emerged from the pandemic with a burning need to expand our horizons and venture out into the world again. So for this holiday season we decided we would share the gift of travel, to bring back that special time together and introduce the newest members to the sheer joy (and chaos) of a family vacation.
We decided to travel in early January so the first grader wouldn’t miss too much time away from school and the costs would be lower post holiday season. I will be retired by then and our children had all banked holiday time during the pandemic so it was not a problem to coordinate time off for four families.
Once we had decided when the next conversation was where. It didn’t take long for everyone to agree that this year would be a magical one as we introduced our granddaughters to Walt Disney World. (And one very excited son-in-law who has never been.)
One characteristic that all of our children have inherited from us is the need to be budget conscious, but not stingy on the experience. That has added an additional challenge to our planning.
We booked a 6 night stay at a value resort in the park then added 5 day park passes. Ken and I agreed to pay an amount equivalent to what we would normally spend for Christmas and birthdays for the next year as our gift to each family and the kids will pay the rest. Three families are going to drive, and the other one will fly since they have the baby. To help them offset the cost of flying we will take their extra clothes, diapers and stroller with us so they can avoid checked bags.
Disney has fridges in all of their hotel rooms and each resort has toasters and microwaves available for the use of their guests. We plan to take in groceries, easy to do since we have a vehicle, so that we can eat breakfasts in the room and pack snacks for lunch in the parks.
Our budget then allows for dinners in the parks at fanciful Disney Dining locations; character meals, all-you-care-to-enjoy family fare and buffets to meet the tastes of a diverse group. Selecting our dining destinations was as much fun as any part of our planning process.
As we get closer to our travel dates we have been getting together for planning meetings, surprisingly easy since most of us had worked remotely during the pandemic. Who knew that would be a silver lining to zoom meetings!
It all seems to be going well but, who knows? Next week I plan to interview my children to get their thoughts on planning a family vacation and I will bring that valuable research back to you. I think! Depends on what they say. I’m sure it will be all good stuff.