I want to see SNOW!!!

This has been one of the request my daughter has been saying for a couple years now. She even asked if we can move to NJ so she can see snow. So now I'm in search of the nearby attraction within our low budget to grant her that wish.

Using my familiar tool (online search engine), I found this useful website for the Ski Resort in the South East area. And it's easy to remember SkiSoutheast. It has a list of ski resorts in the area.

Here are my short lists from the site that we are considering.

1) Scaly Mountain : This is the snow tubing only resort. It seems perfect for our family since our skiing experience is zero. Plus it's only about 2 hours drive from our house. The ticket runs around $20 and charges per person. Not bad at all.

2) Sapphire Valley : With about 2 and a half hour drive, not much further than Scaly mountain we will be able to experience real skiing. This is a bigger resort with skiing and snow boarding. Plus the ticket price is not bad for a weekend that comes to under $30.

3) Ober Gatlinburg : This will be more of a long weekend trip than a one day trip. Situated in Gatlinburg area allows us to explore not just skiing but other attractions in the area. The downside comes with price tag. Since being in the tourist area, the ticket is more expensive than most and the drive is longer at about 3 hours and 45 mins.

4) Cataloochee : This Ski area includes snow tubing world and skiing. It will take about 3 hours to get there and there is limitation on the height requirement for snow tubing. So it might be a while before we can visit this location.

Hopefully, one of this weekend we will make it up the mountain.

Bring back memory

Planning the Carribean cruise for this May, bring back fond memory of our first cruise with Disney. It was our first cruise and we were so new to this cruising stuff. I don't think we had planned it properly. But overall the trip went well hence we are back on the cruise planning again.

Amazingly enough, the timeframe for this cruise is almost the exact same time as our first cruise. It was in May. We booked the Disney Wonder - 4 night Bahamas cruise through our friend who handled everything. So the booking part was easy enough for us.

With the help from comprehensive online site, I got several tips from experience Mouse cruisers. For one, bring a white T-Shirt or pillow case and you can drop it off at the guest service. They will have all the characters sign the T-Shirt for you. Free souvenir!! The chase to get pictures with different characters was fun as well. It is one of the unique thing that you can't get from other cruises especially if you are a big Mouse fan.

We didn't book or plan any excursion in Bahamas. Just walked out to the port area and then got back on the ship. I would have done it differently next time. I will probably spend more time in researching on what else we can do in the Bahamas.

My favorite was a day at Castaway cay. The beach was crowd but the kids had so much fun in the Sun. Eventhough, we got a bit of overcast day in the beginning of the day and had to wait to dock for about an hour. Overall, we got our relaxing and fun day on the beach.


Then we got a full day at sea to explore and really enjoy what the Cruise has to offer. We walked to every corner of the ship just to see all little things they have hidden that make it truly magical. The pool is one of my favorite since at that time my son was still in diaper and this is the only cruiseline that has separate pool that allow kids with swimming diaper to enjoy the pool as well.

And don't get me started on the food. With so many choices and so many snacks you can get, I didn't even bother to check my weight when I got back. Why bother since I know that it will go up anyway! It's a vacation so let it go!! Service is off the chart which is to be expected when you have Disney stamp on it. I loved the little touch of animal towel in our room every night. You never know what animal you will find in your room!

What can I say. If you don't know it by now, we are a Disney fan family!

Last port on our list - Orcho Rios

Orcho Rios in Jamaica is the last port on our trip. I have heard both good and bad things about Jamaica so I am still undecided as to what to do. One thing for sure is that we will book our excursion with the cruise on this trip. In reality, there are not that many choices we can do with small kids here. Majority of excursions involve a lot of activities and sometimes are not suitable for small children. I will be happy just to see the country and visit the beach. After all, that's what this country is all about. Beautiful beach, laid back people and good food.

The most talk about place to visit is of course the Dunn's River Falls. But I don't know if I want to do that since the kids are too small to walk up the fall anyway. Then again, how often we will get to go to Jamaica.

Another option is to buy an admission to one of the all-inclusive resort by the beach and enjoy another nice and relaxing day on the beach.

Thanks to various resources on the web. I have a lot of homeworks to do for Orcho Rios.

Carnival Planning - Grand Cayman

Next stop on our itinerary for the cruise is Grand Cayman. After looking at several excursions I think it's hard to not try Stingray City. My hubby is a little bit iffy about it after the crocodile hunter incident. But I have heard that it's very safe for these stingrays as they are tame.

Now, whom to book the excursion with. The obvious choice is through the cruise line. But then the downside is it's more expensive than independent reputable local tour operator. Also it will be larger group and that won't be fun snorkling with lot of people around you. So I have looked at a few local tour operators.

1) Captain Marvin - Looks like he is a very reputable one and has received a lot of great reviews. The one thing I have to make sure is timing on the booking and arrival of the ship. Looks as though we will be on the same timezone. The ship will arrive at 7AM. and the earliest time is 8AM. But will that be enough time for us to tender to port? Or we can opt for half-day trip which will push the time back to 9:15 AM. The price is only $5 difference and we will get more stops and extra half an hour.

2) Buccaneer Catamaran - This is another highly recommended tour operator. The plus side for this tour is they meet at 10AM.

Well, my unable-to-decide skill will keep me waited for a while again. Hopefully, I will be able to make my choice soon. Till then at least I know where I will be going. Just the matter of with whom.

Oh! tips from experience cruisers. Shop in Grand Cayman and don't forget Coconut Rum Cake. Hmm.. I like this tip!

Carnival Planning - Cozumel

Our first stop for our next cruise for the Carribean is in Cozumel. This will be our first time to go to Mexico and Cozumel. I plan to take it easy in this port as we will vacation with the kids so need to keep that in mind. Plus I don't want to overdo things to stress ourselves out from relaxing vacation.

After searching and reading through several forums, I think we will settle for a day at Chankanaab National Park. And I opt to do this myself instead of buying a shore excursion from Carnival. I consider myself as a pretty well-traveled person so I don't think there will be any problem getting a taxi to the park. Need to learn a few spanish and probably bring some dictionary. :) Just to be on the safe side.

The park seems to be very nice and perfect for a day on the beach with kids. Also I found a discount coupon on their website for $2 off per person. Not bad considering the ticket price is $16 per adult and $8 per kid. Hopefully, the price will remain the same in May.

Watch out The Carribean - The Q is coming!

After our first cruise experience with Disney, we were hooked. It was nice to be able to just enjoy a vacation without having to plan so much about what to eat and what to do. Well, we did have to plan a bit but not as extensive. Plus the idea of knowing exactly how much we will be spending for a vacation is a new concept for us. As we always ended up with more than we anticipate. So cruising seems to be a good vacation choice for us.

And since we are not going back to Thailand this year, we started looking for an affordable and fun vacation. We decided on at least 7 days cruise to anywhere that we have never been before. So the choices are down to somewhere in the Carribean. The bahamas cruise is out since we have been there twice already. Next we looked at port that we can drive there without flying. Even with that we still have a lot of choices. After that it comes down to price. We decide to go with Carnival as it's the cheapest for all the family oriented cruise. We know that it probably won't be able to compare to Disney but as long as we don't set too high expectation and just enjoy our vacation we should be ok. We are pretty laid back people anyway.

So after looking and checking several days I found a really good deal during the promotion that Carnival gave. Free 6 level upgrades for the same price of Guarantee Stateroom. I kept going back and fort and didn't make any decision till it's too late. By the time I decided to book, the promotion had ended! Another lesson learn here, if you find good deal, go for it!!!

After beating myself up on my incisive decision, I booked the cruise. So Carnival here we come.

We will be sailing on Carnival Victory 7 days - Western Carribean. The ports will include Cozumel (Mexico), Grand Cayman (Cayman Island), and Orcho Rios (Jamaica).

Well, I have 136 days left till we set sail so I have a lot of planning to do for each port. Will keep you post!