The Family Spring Break Thread

BrotherWu

BrotherWu

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The wife and I are trying to get ahead of the curve on planning our spring break with the kids, rather than wait until the last minute like we did last year.

In the past few years, we've done the following:

- Arizona. Stayed at a resort in Scottsdale, hit the zoo, pool time, Sedona trip, hiked Camelback.

- Eastern Caribbean Cruise. St. John, St. Martin, Bahamas. Great time. That was on Allure, which is the largest cruise ship on the water AFAIK so it was expensive but it is a great environment for the kids. St. Martin shore excursion was amazing.

- Orlando. Finally decided to do the Disney thing. We stayed at a resort that was pretty nice and it only ran about $1200 for the week. This was a last minute thing that we decided to do due to the shitty Michigan winter. The kids were not much into Disney.


I'm looking for your experiences on warm destinations with a good value for families. I'd like to keep the lodging at about $2000 for the week. We've been looking at everything from the Keys to South Padre to Mexico.
 
O

Obtenor_sl

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Thoughts about Hawaii? Lots of things to do, amazing weather/beaches and definitely kid friendly. Bonus: You're still the in states so no dealing with forex fees, roaming charges or stuff like that.
 
Khane

Khane

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If you do a Caribbean cruise DO NOT use Carnival. Yes it is considered the most kid friendly but it was one of the worst experiences I've ever had and the customer service was abysmal. The first day of the cruise they had a show with a bit of welcome to your cruise type of information. They assured us we could buy tons of stuff duty free and even said "buy as much as you like, enjoy the cheap prices!". At the end of the cruise right before coming into port they sent messages to all our cabin TVs stating the limit on duty free was one carton of cigarettes and one bottle of alcohol unless purchased in St. Thomas, which we were allowed 2 of. I went down and asked the customer service desk why they encouraged us to buy as much as we wanted without letting us know the stipulations on duty free. The woman scoffed at me and said "It's not our responsibility to inform you of your country's customs laws. You should know that." She was techinically correct, I should have known that I suppose, but I just trusted that Carnival would have their customer's interests in mind and not give us misleading information. That was just the last straw after a slew of other problems I had with their customer service the entire cruise, including them double billing me for drinks at the various bars on board throughout the entirety of the trip. I was down at the customer service desk daily disputing charges. I also spent a lot of the trip crapping my brains out from the awful food.
 
BrotherWu

BrotherWu

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I am sure we will do Hawaii at some point but it is pretty expensive and we're on EST so the time change and travel time would really take a toll on the kids.

Khane, we've taken three cruises and all of them have been on Royal Caribbean and the service has been superb in pretty much every way. I guess my only criticisms would be that the ships can feel a little crowded mid-day and the time in port can feel rushed. Then again, almost all of the places we've stopped have been shitholes in paradise so I actually enjoy the the sea days with nothing to do but sit in the kid-free areas, drink mojitos and watch the yummy mummies.

As I said above, the one exception was a day we spent in St. Martin. Cruised around in a speed boat, did some snorkeling and stopped at a little village on the french side and had the most amazing meal of the trip right on the beach. I'd go back there but flights are about a grand a pop.
 
Kuriin

Kuriin

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Wu, I was a huge fan of Costa Rica. Would totally suggest you look into going to Quepos. The water is amazingly warm.
 
Oldbased

Oldbased

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Looking for a new beach for late fall. Must be in the US or a place can travel without passport/visas. Had been going to Daytona for most of my life but that place has just gone to shit now.
Used to alternate with Myrtle Beach but it has gone to golfer land which I am just not into atm.
Want a beach we can walk on, get good food and prefer east coast/gulf due to travel costs. We have no kids. Would like to keep it under $250 a day in lodging/food but I can go up to $400 if needed for a 7 day.
 
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