DC on a Budget

I know you guys probably have had enough for DC trips for a while. But I can't help to post about how we did this trip on a budget. It's probably one of my best trip that I have planned everything and think about budget and try to stick to it. Most of our other trips were just wing-it type.. We planned and then we went and then we came back to pay the price later. So here are some of the things we did to give us a fabulous vacation without breaking the bank.

1. Accommodation - Using Priceline for hotel : This was my 2nd time I have used priceline. Everytime, I feel very nervous. It's hard to be calm when I don't know what hotel I will get. But overall, I was very happy with our bid. I got a 3.5 star hotel (Sheraton Crystal City) for $80/night during the busiest week in DC - the Cherry Blossom week. Typically, we love to stay in an apartment or hotel suite with kitchen. But this trip, after I did the price comparison between a condo in downtown DC versus a hotel across the river, I found that we would save over $500 (even after adding the cost of eating out for staying in a hotel) over a week stay.

2. Transportation - Using public transportation aka the Metro : The Metro ride was actually one of the highlighted during this trip for Mr. Z. So needless to say, it's priceless and very budget friendly for us. We stayed in the hotel that only a few stops from the Mall. I checked out the fare in advance and compared to the 7-day pass. I found out that it was cheaper to actually buy individual tickets rather than the pass. Because normally, we planned one museum per day so we just took the metro to our destination and we walked around.

3. Transportation - Drive to DC : That's another reason why we chose DC for our Spring Break vacation. Flying for a family of 4 could easily cost over $1000. In order to save on traveling fee, we opt to find a vacation spot that within a driving distance. DC is about 10 hours from Atlanta. It wasn't bad thanks to portable DVD.

4. Food - Check out cheap eat : I am a big fan of TripAdvisor forum. There are great posts about where to eat on different budget. I also checked out Washingtonian for their cheap eat list. It was a great source to find out where the locals are eating without breaking a bank. We did spurlge one night for a fabulous dinner at Old Ebbitt Grill.. All I have to say is.. Yummo!!

5. Food - Restaurant gift certificate : I admitted that I just recently discovered restaurant.com. It has been such a great site to give us permission to eat out without breaking our budget. Then I realized that I can do the same during my vacation. All I had to do was a little bit of planning. I first checked out what restaurants were available in the area that we will be in or visit during our trip. Then I checked out the review from travelling forum like Tripadvisor. In the end, I opted for the more familiar restaurants that we knew well. I got gift certificate for Ted Montana Grill and Z Pizz. Also to add more to the saving, wait when restaurant.com runs their 80% off promotion to buy your gift certificate. I got $10 gift certificate for $0.60. During our trip, we had great dinner for less than $40 for a family of 4.

6. Shopping - Set price for souvenir : This might not be an issue for everyone but for us it was always the one area that nudge us way pass our budget. So this trip, we had set the limit on the souvenir per kid and it was much easier to shop. There wasn't whining about wanting that $50 toy because they could read the price and saw that it's over the budget.

7. Activities - Find free or cheap activities around town : Granted DC was easy to do cheap activities because most of the museums are free. But this can also be applied to other cities as well. We actually went to Baltimore for a day to visit the Children museum. I know that doing museum everyday will probably bore Miss J and Mr. Z to death. So a little break from that was a big welcome on this trip. We were able to save money on the Baltimore trip because we had a national wide family pass that the Port Discovery is a member. So we didn't have to pay for the entrance fee. Be creative and find a way to have fun without breaking a bank!

What other ways do you do to help saving on your trip? Please share! :)

Travel Planning

Half of the fun of traveling is the planning part. The time spent surfing the internet to read all you can about your destination, where to stay, what to eat, what to do..

Matt from Frugal Traveler has a great post on his blog today. I have learned so many new tools that I can use on my future planning. Check it out here.

Around the Blogosphere

This week, I haven't been around blogosphere much. Here are the carnivals that I participated in this week.

1) Delicious Baby presented Carnival of Cities: The best way to get to travel around the world without leaving your house.

2) Living Almost Large presented Carnival of Money Stories: The Cartoon edition is very clever and fun. You have gotta read all the cartoon. It will lighten your day from all this financial crisis news.

3) Fix My Personal Finance presented Money Hacks Carnival #33th: The Octoberfest edition is filled with goodies for your finance, investing, saving, retirement and career. Just drink responsibly.

4) Dollar Frugal presented Festival of Frugality #146th: The Benjamin Franklin edition has great round up for overall financial advice from wall street to main street.

Around the Blogosphere

Last week I was featured in a few money carnivals. Each carnival has such a great post. It took me a while to check them all out. Sit back, relax and check out all the posts.

1) The Financial Blogger presented Money Hacks Carnival # 32: The Have You Ever Edition featured my Coupon of the 21st Century.

2) Funny About Money presented Carnival of Money Stories #78: With the delay, you get twice the stories this week. So it's a great place to read about various money stories ranging from trying to have a baby, buying a house, getting rid of the house and living on the road, cooking on your vacation and even green cleaning products.

3) Value For Your Life presented Festival of Frugality #145: The Gratitude Edition has a great round up and provides a new perspective during this turmoil time, to be greatful with the positive things in your life.

4) Trip Delivery presented Carnival of Cities: I love this carnival. It gives me a chance to go around the world without even leaving my house. Check out trip from Chicago to Washington DC down to Atlanta. Then cross the Atlantic to London, Amsterdam and around Europe.

Around the Blogosphere

I have been featured in a fews of the great carnivals this past week. Each of them has a great list of posts. It's worth to check them out.

1) Living Almost Large is hosting Money Hacks Carnival #29, The Food Haven.. Check them out after your lunch or dinner. Otherwise, you might be drooling all over your computer.

2) Frugal Babe is hosting Festival of Frugality #142. Check out posts ranging from food, recession, saving, shopping, frugal living and everything else in between.

3) Family Travellogue is hosting Carnival of Cities. A great carnival with a lot of great posts of 2 weeks worth. Give you a chance to travel around the world from US cities like my submission of Chattanooga trip to Pattaya, Japan and London.

4) Georgia On My Mind is hosting Georgia Carnival #44. If you are Georgia blogger or plan to visit Georgia, this is a place to check out. Great round up of anything Georgia.

50 Places of a Lifetime By Intelligent Travel

Today I read the blog on Intelligent Travel on this post - '50 Places of a Lifetime'.

What a great post. It has inspired me to look at what is my own list so far. I was amazed at how many places I have seen and how many more places I have yet to see.

The list includes the link to National Geographic site for each city with detail ranging from hotel, restaurant, entertainments, must-do lists and photo gallery. This will be my must-check before we plan any big vacation. I'm a sucker of completing a list. So I will have to try my best to check this one of mine!

Here is my list. I have managed to see 20 out of 50 places. I guess it helps that I lived or live in 3 of the cities.

Atlanta - My current hang out. A great city of the South.

Bangkok - My birth country. There is no place like home and there is no food like Thai food.

Beijing - Oh.. Beijing.. I would love to go back there to shop on Silk street.

Boston - Bean town. I went there over a decade ago. So a lot might have changed.

Chicago - The Windy City. And they are not joking about that. I went there during Winter.. Duh.. What was I thinking about!

Dublin - A quick side trip on one of my business trip. Lovely country.. Really...

Florence - I don't think you can go wrong with any city in Italy. Just the history alone will make you feel smarter already.

Hong Kong - With our recent trip to Hong Kong, I still want to go back there again. The food along will be so worth it.

Las Vegas - The Sin City. Do they provide daycare in the hotel? :)

London - It seems like a lifetime ago when I visit the Big Ben. It's about time to revisit.

Los Angeles - With the biggest Thai population in the US, I can get my Thai food fix from here. If only I live closer!

Miami - Our old playground. Ironically, we went there only a few times whenever we have guests. So recently, we just had to become tourists ourselves.

New York - I was there in 1997 for the countdown in Time Square. I did!!! And I don't think I will ever do it again. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime-experience. Let's just say I have a very small blader.

Paris - City of Romance.. No I didn't go there with Mr. Rojo. It would be nice.

Philadelphia - It was Mr. Rojo playground when he was young(er).

Rome - I had such a wonderful time there with my mom and my little wanderlust brother.

San Diego - My favorite city in California. Ok.. maybe after San Francisco.

San Francisco - I think San Francisco is the most romantic city. And I went there when I didn't even have a boyfriend!

Singapore - Hmm.. Orchard street.. shopping.. food.. clean..

Washington D.C - I can't wait to go back. That's all I can say.

Most of my conquer on this list was done before kids and family and marriage and housework and mortgage.. Needless to say, I really want to go back again with Miss J and Mr. Z. I want them to see the world and learn about different cultures, to open their mind and their eyes to all kind of possibilities.

And here is the rest of the list that will be on my to-do now.

Amsterdam
Athens
Barcelona
Berlin
Budapest
Buenos Aires
Cape Town
Dallas
Delhi
Dubai
Istanbul
Jerusalem
Madrid
Mexico City
Montreal
Moscow
Mumbai
Prague
Rio de Janeiro
Seattle
Seoul
Shanghai
St. Petersburg
Stockholm
Sydney
Tokyo
Toronto
Vancouver
Venice
Vienna

I have to say I like this list much better than the famous 1000 Places to See Before You Die book. It's nice to have a huge goal in your life. But come on.. 1000 places? I'm tired just to read it and I didn't even start my trip yet.

50 places are more manageable. Maybe.. just maybe after I'm done with my list of 50 places then I will move on to the bigger list like 1000 places.

So tell me.. what cities you have been? And what would you like to add to your list?

Happy traveling!

WW - Night Life in Macau

The Sin City of Asia - Macau. This is the famous Casino Lisboa. I was told that half of the casinos here own by only one man!

Check out other WW participants here.

Around the Blogosphere

This Monday I want to do a quick round up on my participation in the Carnival around the blogosphere.

Georgia On My Mind presents Georgia Carnival Edition #38.

Perceptive Travel presents Carnival of Cities. Check out cities from Seattle to Beijing.

Credit Card Lowdown presents Carnival of Money, Growth and Happiness #49. With 22 posts participated in this carnival, you will learn great saving tips perfect for this economy.

Mrs. Nespy's World present Money Hacks Carnival #17. A geat post with the Music of the '80s theme. Very great round up from Money Hackers around the blogosphere.

Mrs. Micha present Carnival of Personal Finance #158. The Vampire Slaying edition is a great carnival for Buffy fan and non-fan. Lots of great posts here about saving, frugality and money in general.

Here we are people. My round up for this past week. Thanks for including my post to these carnival. How about you? Have you been on any carnival this past week?

Carnival Cruise - Day 4 - Another Fun Day @ Sea

Day 4 on our trip .. We got another Fun Day @ Sea. We took it easy today. Slept in and had late breakfast. Oh.. this is what I call V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N.. No set plan. After breakfast, we got ready to explore and enjoy the ship. We started off at the swimming pool. I found that the pool in the morning hours were more child-friendly. There were more kids in the pool than drunken adults. I guess they still hung over in their cabins.

After a good couple hours in the pool, we dried up and picked up a set of putt-putt ball and clubs. We didn't get to try it on the first day. It was very busy. Mr. Rojo thought he was in a real golf course and felt the need to show golfer etiquette and wanted to let another group ahead of us. I had to remind him that.. it's a putt-putt.. Plus we were on the ship.. what's the hurry.. Also the group in front of us wasn't gonna be any faster than us.

We dropped the kids off at Camp Carnival after the golf game and headed to our cabin for some power naptime. Mr. Rojo went to visit his familiar faces in the Casino. He did pretty well in the casino. We are not big gambler. We set a limit of the money we are willing to loose and that's his fun money. It's just like purchasing another ticket to an excursion. :)

After dinner, we went to the Bingo game and Magic Show. It was a fun night. We didn't win anything but the kids enjoyed the show. The guy was pretty funny. After that we headed back to our room and was greeted by Mr. Dino.. A big day ahead of us tomorrow. Grand Cayman!

I know there were a lot of activities at night that we could join. But for me, that's the beauty of cruising.. You can do as much or as little as you want. There is no rule.

Check out what we have done so far on this cruise here.

13 Countries I Have Visited

This week Thursday Thirteen is all about the countries that I have visited. I don't list it in any particular order. Enjoy!

1) China - I went there during a couple of business trips with the company I used to work for. What a great experience! We got to see the Great Wall, Forbidden City and shopping at Silk Street. If we have a chance, I will go back in a heartbeat.

2) Hong Kong - We went there a couple years ago during our family trip back to Thailand. It was like a family reunion trip with my mom, my sister, my brother and my cousin. We had so much fun there. What a lively city and the food was incredible and exotic.


3) Mexico - Our recent cruise had a stop in Cozumel. We only spent a day there. So I know that I will have to go back there to experience and explore more of this beautiful country.


4) Cayman Islands - Love it, love it, love it!!! Another port of call on our recent cruise trip. Oh what a beautiful beach! I think I can just stay there by the beach all day long.


5) Jamaica - Colorful and interesting country. We didn't get to explore much this trip. But I know that we will find another opportunity to go back and be more adventurous next time.

6) England - I went there about 10 years ago with my mom and my brother. Big Ben, London Bridge, Trafalgar Square and Harrod's.. Too little time, too many things to do. I need to go back there before my friend moves away.

Picture by fraise

7) Switzerland - On the same trip to London, we also went to Switzerland. Checked out watches and stayed in a beautiful B&B. What a beautiful country!!

8) Germany - I couldn't believe it has been 10 years already from that trip. We stopped by Heidelberg. Checked out the castle and enjoyed lunch at the town square.

Picture by mattwyn

9) Italy - Rome.. what can I say.. No need to explain. We have to go back. One trip is not enough for this country full of history and great architectures.

Picture by RZen

10) Scotland - A business trip took me to this lovely country. We got to check out the Edinburg castle and visited Glasglow in Ireland. Very peaceful place. I would love to go back there with Mr. Rojo.

Picture by sZelee

11) France - Shopper heaven.. Not so much for me at that time. As a poor student, I didn't get to enjoy all the brand name stores. But who can forget your experience in Paris. There is no other city like it.

Picture by idreamofdaylight

12) Bahamas - The Carribean paradise. Our first visit was for our honeymoon and followed by our first cruise. We had a great memory there for blue ocean and great snorkel.

13) Singapore - Another great oppotunity from my ex-company. We got to live there for over a month. What an experience!

Picture by travellingzenwolf

Since a handful of the countries I visited were from way before the digital camera era, I didn't have the digital copies of those pictures. Thanks to the internet I am able to find great pictures from other flickr users.

Check out other TT participants here.

Carnival Cruise - Day 2 - Fun Day @ Sea

This day was a fun day at sea. It was a day to explore and totally relax. Lots of you guys should try this sometimes on your vacation. DO NOTHING. It's really enjoyable and addictive. We woke up not so early today. I decided last night to order room service for breakfast. It wasn't such a good idea. Our family needs meat for breakfast and continental breakfast from the room service didn't have any eggs or bacon.

After breakfast we made our way to the Camp Carnival. We didn't get a chance to register the kids yesterday. The registration process was fairly simple. They gave you a cellphone that we would keep for the entire week and we would need to show that whenver we pick them up. Off they went... At last.. Time alone..

Mr. Rojo and I looked at each other with disbelief. We were alone. What were we gonna do by ourselves. First stop, we checked out the casino. It's one of the to-do list for Mr. Rojo. Being New Jersey boy, he had spent countless hours during his college years in Atlantic City. So casino was one of the pro for the Carnival cruise over Disney for him. I walked around and tried to play some slot machine but they looked too confusing to me. Plus the smoke was unbearable for me. So we decided to take a quick nap. Then it was lunch time and we picked the munchkins up from the camp carnival. I anxiously waited to hear the verdict from them.... They LOVED it!

After lunch, we walked around and checked out other areas like the gift shop. It's nothing much just a typical gift shop. I was hoping for more stuff. But I guess I should be thankful. :) Otherwise, our expense might get even higher. I spot the ornament that I will get later for my collection. Checked one off from my list.

Then we headed back to Camp Carnival for a build-a-bear workshop. It was a family activity that we got to do with them. This wasn't a Build-A-Bear company but a Carnival version. You bought a bear and a set of outfit. Then they gave you an extra Carnival outfit. Then you stuff the animal with your kids. Mr. Z picked a fireman outfit for his pal. He named him ..whatelse.. Thomas. Miss J picked a girl sailor outfit and named her Faley. I have no idea where she got that name from. But it's cute name. After the workshop, we dropped them off there for another hour. Then we promised them the pool time afterward.

The Pool... hmm.. Don't expect the Olympic pool size here. There are 3 pools on Lido deck. It's not fancy pool. I think the time to go to the pool is also important and should be taken into consideration. After a few days we noticed that the pool in the morning had more kids and less rowdy. The afternoon time in the pool could be rather rowdy from adults who had worst behavior than kids. They enjoyed the whole afternoon with some break of frozen yogurt.. Oh... The frozen yogurt... We lived on them for the whole week. Now we are going through the withdraw phase of frozen yogurt. It's that good!

Then it was dinner time. Tonight was a formal night. So Mr. Rojo needed to run to self-service laundry room for a quick ironing. We didn't know about all the different props Carnival setup in the Lobby deck and Promenade deck. Maybe it's a good thing! That's how you ended up spend your child college fund from cruising. Each picture can cost up to $20. And sometime you are so into a moment that you forgot to even ask how much till they ring up the total. We almost made that mistake..

I didn't want to bore everyone to death with what we eat every single night on the cruise. But tonight was special night. It was Lobster night. My poor husband now allergics to shell fish. He loved to eat lobsters. We think his quota for lobsters in this life is up. He has consumed all the lobsters allowed for life so no more. NO LOBSTER FOR YOU!.. Well, being a good wife I couldn't NOT order lobster. I just wanted him to know that he didn't miss out much. And I wasn't exaggerated. The dish looked good but the taste was so salty even my can-eat-anything-and-everything taste bud couldn't stand it. So I was only ordered one dish. No repeat for lobster like I was originally planned.

After dinner, it was nice to get back to the room that had been clean up before bed. That's one of the thing that I will miss the most. Better service than a hotel in my humble opinion. They clean up your room twice a day. Plus we loved to see what animal will make its way to our room.

We were too wiped out to even venture out for the show that night. That's one thing that we didn't take advantage of that much, the nightly show... You can call me snob but I just didn't feel like watching it after seeing Disney production on Disney Cruise. I'm sure it will be a great show. But sometimes and somehow I rather sleep in.. It's my vacation.. so I can do what I want, right?

Carnival Cruise - Day 1 - Port of Miami

Good morning, Miami.. We got up real early today and drove down to see our friend who generously (with no choice) agreed to let us park our car at their house and drove us to the port. Once we got to their house, we spent about an hour talking and catching up. Then off we went.

We got to the port right around 10:30am. The security check-in was painless. We got through within 10 mins. Then we went up to the terminal and checked-in at the Carnival counter. I already did all my paperwork online (Fun Pass and register for Sail & Sign). So basically, I just handed them our passports and 2 minutes later we were done. We got our boarding group # at number 4. Mr. Rojo thought we should have been here earlier and we might get group #1. Oh! well, I think it's good enough.

We waited around in the terminal for about an hour. The kids were running around and enjoyed the excitement of the cruise. By 11:45am, they started to board the VIP and wedding group. Then the boarding continued. I have to say it was fairly easy and I'm glad we decided to follow one of Mr. Rojo's coworker to get there early. We boarded the ship by noon. Perfect time for lunch!!!

Once we got on the ship, we headed to our stateroom just to see where it is and see if we will be in luck to put our carry-on there. We found it but no such luck on the room to be ready yet. No problem. We were on Verandah deck just one floor down from the Lido deck which is the restaurant and pool deck. What a perfect location! We headed there and found a table by the window. A quick lunch and our vacation was officially begun.

After lunch, we just wandered around to get a hang of the ship and location of different places like Children playroom aka Camp Carnival. My first impression was not good. The room looks much smaller than Disney. But I promised myself that I won't compare the cruise. Otherwise, it will ruin my fun. So I gave it a benefit of the doubt and would wait and see how the kids took it.

Before we could sail, everyone had to attend the drill. Our room was assigned to Muster Station G. Note to any future cruisers, looked at the sign on the boat. It will point you to which direction you have to go for your Muster Station. Well, we didn't. So we walked all the way to the front of the ship and found that our station was in the back right on top of our room. Duh!!

After the drill, we headed back and went up to the Lido deck for the sail away.. Woo hoo!! Bye bye Miami.. See you in a few days..

Then we just enjoyed the view at the back of the ship. This soon would be our favorite spot to just sit there and relax. Our luggages hadn't arrived yet and it was time for dinner already. So we just headed there without changing.

We had early sitting in Pacific Dining room. Our servers were from Indonesia and Phillippines. They were very nice. The food was ok. Nothing to write home about.. Really.. I'm not a picky person. I can pretty much eat everything. But these are not something that are memorable in my opinion. But on the flip side, if you don't like what you have, just ask for different dish. That's the beauty of cruising. I always ordered a couple starters to try it out.

By the time we got to our room after dinner, the luggages were there. So I started to unpack and put everything away. After shower, we were too tired to even wander out. We went to bed at 9pm!!! We asked our steward to setup the room with 2 twin beds and 2 bunks. But we quickly found that it wasn't a good setting. So the next day we asked him to change it to one king bed. By the way, the bed does feel comfortable here.

OH.. as far as the ship itself. I will have a separate review later on what my thoughts are on this ship.. To be continued...

Five Finds for Friday - New Blogs I Discovered

I'm pretty much a newbie in the blogsphere. So everyday I discover brand new (for me) blog that has been around for a while. These are my new find for this Friday that I digg!

1) Money Hacker Network - A place for Personal Finance Blogger to share and discover each other. I just recently join this group.

2) Cheap Healthy Good - Great blog for food and tips on grocery shopping. With detail recipe and picture, I will sure go back to visit weekly.

3) Get Rich Slowly - Personal Finance blog that tells it like it is with no sugar coated.

4) Wise Bread - A blog community with a group of writers focusing on Frugal Living, Life Hacks, Personal Finance, Deals and more.

5) Are We There Yet - Away.com Family travel blog with loads of information.

Five Finds for Friday - Travel Blogs I Love

I know that it will not do justice to have only 5 travel blogs since we all know that there are more than you can count blogs out there. But each day I only have limited amount of time to read so here is my top 5 right now. Ask me again 2 months from now and my list might have changed.

1) Family Travel See The World with Your Kids - This is a great blog with lots of information for traveling with kids. I love to travel and I know that having kids does limit my ability to just pack up and go in the moment notice. But I refuse to give up on traveling. I know it's stressful, expensive and exhausting but it's priceless! We have travel as a family but not as extensive as I would like. This blog gives me a lot of good ideas and tips!

2) Real Travel - The real story from the real traveler always inspire me. It's nice to see how the real people travel not just the journalist. Plus I get to read about different places that will inpire me to plan my own trip.

3) Less Than a Shoestring - Travel can be expensive if you don't know how to make it more affordable or if you just want all 5 stars hotel and service. But travel doesn't have to be all about luxury. It is more about seeing the world and learn about new cultures, new cities or meet new people. This blog has a lot of great tips on traveling on a budget. Who wouldn't love that!

4) Traveling Mamas - A blog by 4 traveling mommies. Each one brings a different view from different part of the counties. A great blog for overall traveling info, news, or ideas especially for places to visit with kids. It doesn't hurt that they have giveaway on the regular basis. ;)

5) Everything Everywhere - An internet company owner turns world traveler. His blog is as fascinating as the man himself. I love to see where he will be the next day. What a fun way to see the world through other people's eyes.

Five Finds for Friday - Cruising

TGIF.. everyone!

This Friday I can't help but talk about planning for a cruise. As I recently just got an email reminder from my cruise agency company for the rest of the balance on my cruise. During the process of planning this cruise, I have found several sites that are very helpful during my process. Here are my Five Find for Friday this week.

1) Cruise Critic - An amazing website and active message boards with load of information. Here from this website that I learn that people do cruise religiously! The information section is well organized. Best of all, the message board is full of active cruisers who are willing to share their wealth of information and answer any questions.

2) Cruise Compete - This site is like a Lending Tree of cruise booking. You submit your itenerary and they will send to cruise agencies who will respond with their quote. Even if you don't feel like spend a large sum of your money to someone you have never met, this is still a good site to get your baseline and shop around with travel agent company.

3) Cruise Mates - Another online cruise information and community. You can never have too much information when it comes to plan your vacation.

4) Fodors - The destination guide website that provides information not only for land travel but cruise travel as well. It's good to find out what other activities you can do at the port of call. If you are more adventurous you might even find it more interesting than follow typical port excursions.

5) Expedia - I didn't use expedia at this trip because I have no need to find airline flight or hotel. But if you are the DIY type and plan to book your flight and hotel seperately then this is a site worth looking. But keep in mind that most travel agency will handle all your travel arrangement together which might be better choice and less headache.

Well, hope this will be helpful on your next cruise planning. Enjoy cruising!

Check out other tips from Frugal Friday here.

Can I ride?

Today I stumble upon a great blog on Intelligent Travel about the great suitcase just for kid. Trunki - Part suitcase, part toy.. what not to love. Basically, it's a suitcase that your kid can ride on it instead of just pull it. It's the mix of ride-on toy and suitcase. I have to put this on my must-buy list for our cruise. Seeing that there will be a long line to get on a cruise, this will help entertain them for a while. Plus, we have bi-annual trip to Thailand so it will be a big help at the airport.

There are 2 colors for the original Trunki which created by British designer. And they even have a name for each color. How cute!! When I checked on the UK site, there are more designs but I guess for the US customer we will have to wait. Or you can order online and pay for the shipping for the second generation of this design.

So I checked out on Amazon and found the price here:
=> Trunki - Trixie Pink $39.84 for Pink color
=> Trunki - Terrance Blue $34 for Blue color

Well, there will be a test run soon. So more report to follow..

Five Finds for Friday - Budget Travel

I want to start a new ritual on my blog. Five Find for Friday will be about five things I find useful for Friday. It will be something that will help in planning a great weekend trips or an upcoming vacation.

The first one for this Friday is about five websites for planning your vacation on a budget.

1) VRBO.com - The Vacation Rentals By Owner is a good and economical way to save on your accomodation. You will definitely get more for your money when comparing to book a hotel versus a villa at your destination. The site is in a simple design at best. Don't expect any fancy graphic or feature but it gets the job done.

2) Wi-Fi Free Spot - With the new technology you can't deny the fact that internet is part of everyday life. Even if you want to get rid of it but sometimes it becomes handy during your vacation. This site allows you to find out where the Wi-Fi free spot is on your destination. Save yourself from internet cafe charge for your souvenir.

3) Airfare Watchdog - Sign up for the weekly newsletter of home city for any deals during that week. There are deals that are unadvertised and you will be the first one to know. The site will take you to the booking site that has that promotion.

4) Budget Travel - Provide deals and round up of deal of the month. This site is easy to navigate. However, the destination information is not as extensive as other well-known destination guide site.

5) Frommers - This well-established destination guide website is based from best selling travel books publisher. You can literally find the information for any destination with well written information. I always go there first to check out the information about my destination.

So there's my find for this week. There are plenty more that I'm sure are equally good. But hey! you can't please everyone, right?

Let me know what is your find for this Friday! Check out more finds here at Frugal Friday.

Are you ready for Spring Break?

As the Winter is coming to an end and we are approaching Spring, I have been busy checking and planning our little getaway. So here are some deals I found from Expedia. Don't wait till the last minute as good deals and great price will get snatched away. It pays to start early!

How about Spring Break on the beaches:

Pacific Mexico: Flight + 4 nights from $431 - Expires 3/17/08
Hawaii: Flight + 4 nights from $486 - Expires 3/31/08
Cruises from only $199, Plus up to $100 shipboard credit - Ongoing
Caribbean: Book early and save! Packages from $441 - Ongoing

Or how about explore the Cities:

Vegas hotels from $40, Flight + 2 nights from $262 - Expires 3/14/08
Paris: Hotels from $170; Air + 3 nts from $869 - Expires 3/18/08
Orlando on sale: Save 30% on 3+ nights! - Expires 3/28/08

Remember you snooze, you loose!

7 days with Dora?

Royal Carribean is launching a new Theme Cruise - Nickelodeon Family Cruise.

Can you take 7 days with Dora and SpongeBob?

Smart Saving on Cruising

As our cruise vacation is approaching (Yeah!!!), I have learned so much during this process. A lot of people might wonder why since this is not our first cruise. True. But this is the first cruise that I handle all the booking and planning myself. Our Disney Cruise was handled by a friend so I didn't have to worry about shopping for the cheapest one or learning other tips from other cruisers (much to my regret though). So this time, I determined to learn more and be a more educated traveler (or cruiser in this matter).

So here are some of the tips that I learned and did.

1) Book the cheapest stateroom available - This advice might not be for everyone since we all have different priority. For me, this trip my goal is to explore and enjoy ourselves outside our room. So room size or amenity is not my top priority. My budget on the other hand is on the top of my priority. For us, I went for the lowest catgeory which is IS. This is the Interior Stateroom - No Guarantee. It means we won't know where our room will be yet. It's a bit of the gamble at this point. I figure I will pack a lot of Bonnie and Dramamine.

2) Book your excursion yourself - The price of the excursion offering my the cruise company can be as high as 20% more than private tour at the port. However, I have to put a note here that I also book an excursion via cruiseline on certain port. It will depend on your comfort level. Some people just feel safer going with the cruise knowing that they will wait for you if there is any problem. For me, I book an excursion in Jamaica via the ship only because it's cheaper than if I go directly with the resort.

3) Don't try to do too much - Sometimes the best saving is to do nothing at the port. After all, the best way to explore is maybe wandering around. Again, make sure that you have good understanding on the safety in each port. I decided to forego any excursion in Mexico. We will take a cab to the park and enjoy a day on the beach.

4) Stay with friend before boarding the ship - If you like most cruisers who have to fly or drive to the port the day before, the hotel cost will add to your budget. We are lucky enough to have a few friends in FL so we will crash at their place instead of paying for a night in a hotel.