Tell Us About Your Summer Vacation (camping, best, hotel, hotel)

[princesspolamalu]

There was a post earlier in the summer asking everyone where they would be going this summer on vacation and now that the summer is over I was wondering how the vacations went. Let us know where you went this summer and how it went. How was your trip? Would you reccomend it too others?

[115db]

I didnt do a whole lot. Worked. But Ive gone to Calif a few times to see family. My dad has been not well these days so a lot of family is trying to talk me into moving out there, as it would be more sensible than making all these unplanned trips everytime he has a relapse or something goes wrong. Other than that, our trip (my daughter and I) to NYC in Sept is very tenative but if that doesnt work out, the family is all going to meet in Oklahoma for Christmas, so it'll be a nice, quiet country style holiday.

[princesspolamalu]

Originally Posted by Power Surge

I didnt do a whole lot. Worked. But Ive gone to Calif a few times to see family. My dad has been not well these days so a lot of family is trying to talk me into moving out there, as it would be more sensible than making all these unplanned trips everytime he has a relapse or something goes wrong. Other than that, our trip (my daughter and I) to NYC in Sept is very tenative but if that doesnt work out, the family is all going to meet in Oklahoma for Christmas, so it'll be a nice, quiet country style holiday.

Srry to hear about your dad. Hope he is doing better. A country Christmas sounds like a load of fun though. Not looking forward to the holidays just yet.

[115db]

Lol about the holidays, I was in town just a couple of days ago and one of the stores (cant remember which one), was just starting to put a hint of Xmas stuff out. Dang and we havent even hit Halloween yet!

[gardener34]

Went to disneyworld in beginning of June. VERY hot and humid and rained buckets the first 3 days. Stayed in a hotel off disney property.

Good rides, but excessively crowded in the magic kingdom. So much so - we hardly enjoyed it. We got there an hour early, got in, immediately took the train to the back of the park and the rides there were already an hour wait - 10 minutes after opening.

To see magic kingdom, we finally resorted to the strategy of foregoing in during the day altogether - and getting there at 6:00 at night. That worked out well as we went on whatever ride we wanted to with a minumum of wait time, esp. after 9:00.

We won't be going back for years. Very expensive, and I think even the kids were overwhelmed with how crowded MK was.

The rest of the parks were good though - favorite was epcot, the civilized park. Excellent park and food!

And they had mgm star wars weekend which was a big hit with my son. That was a very fun park - but restaurant facilites were underwhelming as most seemed to be sit outdoors and eat. Who wants to do that in FL?

The one indoor pizza place we found had literally a 40-50 person line for each register. We left the park to eat lunch.

Next time we go back to FL - I think we will forego disney property for the most part. FUN - but expensive and exhausting... we are doing a relaxing, fishing, camping northwoods vacation in 2007.

[Rcm58]

Got back from Belize about 3 weeks ago, second trip this summer, had a great time and the kids enjoyed it but the sad truth is they have more fun still in areas on the beach in the USA. Oh well we tried...lol

[princesspolamalu]

Originally Posted by gardener34

Went to disneyworld in beginning of June. VERY hot and humid and rained buckets the first 3 days. Stayed in a hotel off disney property.

Good rides, but excessively crowded in the magic kingdom. So much so - we hardly enjoyed it. We got there an hour early, got in, immediately took the train to the back of the park and the rides there were already an hour wait - 10 minutes after opening.

To see magic kingdom, we finally resorted to the strategy of foregoing in during the day altogether - and getting there at 6:00 at night. That worked out well as we went on whatever ride we wanted to with a minumum of wait time, esp. after 9:00.

We won't be going back for years. Very expensive, and I think even the kids were overwhelmed with how crowded MK was.

The rest of the parks were good though - favorite was epcot, the civilized park. Excellent park and food!

And they had mgm star wars weekend which was a big hit with my son. That was a very fun park - but restaurant facilites were underwhelming as most seemed to be sit outdoors and eat. Who wants to do that in FL?

The one indoor pizza place we found had literally a 40-50 person line for each register. We left the park to eat lunch.

Next time we go back to FL - I think we will forego disney property for the most part. FUN - but expensive and exhausting... we are doing a relaxing, fishing, camping northwoods vacation in 2007.

This is about what you will get at disney in summer. I think it is a much more enjoyable vacation during the fall months except for the few weeks before Xmas. Especially weather wise and also as far as the crowds. This is also true during the winter months and even up until April or so before spring breaks and schools letting out.
As far as the expense that will never ease up. I know some ppl feel that it is much more expensive, but I think it is well worth it to add a meal plan when purchasing your Disney vacation package. You get 3 meals per day plus a few snacks I think. Its a bigger expense up front but works out in the end.
I love Disney and as a former employee understand the ins and outs of the place. One thing is for sure, I would never take my son during the summer.

[jdavid93225]

As usual, I took a road trip this summer. We went to Lake Havasu City, AZ, where a friend of mine retired. We spent a day there, mostly in his pool, since the daytime temperature reached about 120 in the shade. From there we headed east across Arizona and New Mexico mostly on I-40, turning northeast in Tucumcari on Hwy. 54. We took this across the corner of Texas, then across the Oklahoma Panhandle, and on into Liberal, Kansas. From there we headed north, then east to Dodge City, KS. This was our easternmost point of the trip.

Dodge City was pretty neat, and, of course, had a lot of old west history. We visited the Boot Hill Museum and Front Street, which is the centerpiece of the town as it relates to its old west heritage. We had a fantastic dinner there, along with seeing an interesting show. I would recommend this for anyone visiting the area. We also visited the Wright Park Zoo while we were there. This was a small town zoo, but fun to visit, and worth our while.

From Dodge City, we traveled west into Colorado, and headed up to Thornton to visit my sister in law and my niece and nephew. After that, we headed north to Cheyenne, Wyoming where we saw the Cheyenne Botanical Garden and some other things in Lyons Park. We were there during Frontier Days, and saw a lot of the goings on, but we didn't get to the rodeo. We did get to see the UP #844 Steam Locomotive on its excursion run leave Cheyenne Depot, and return the next day.

We spent a couple nights camping on my property near Wheatland, Wyoming, then headed north on I-25 to where it ends at I-90, then headed on up to Billings, Montana. From there we headed west to Red Lodge, MT. and then took the Beartooth Highway (212) into Yellowstone National Park.

We exited Yellowstone at West Yellowstone, MT. We headed south on Hwy. 20 from there to Ashton, Idaho, then continued south to Idaho Falls, where we intersected I-15. From there we continued south until we reached I-86 near Pocatello. We took I-86 west until it merged with I-84, and continued to Twin Falls.

From Twin Falls, Idaho, we headed south on US 93 through Wells, Nevada, and on to Ely, NV. From Ely, we headed west on US 6 through Tonopah, NV. and on to Benton Crossing in California. We then took highway 120 west to Lee Vining, CA. and on into Yosemite National Park by way of Tioga Pass. We headed into Yosemite Village, then headed south from there into Fresno, CA. by way of Highway 41. From Fresno, we headed back home.

All in all, we traveled about 4700 miles through 11 states in 12 days. It was a pretty good trip, and provided the opportunity to see a lot of places we'd never seen before. After getting home, I was already wanting to go again. I can't wait for next year.

[Billiam]

i had an amazing summer in Hawaii, Canada, and the upper midwest!
My first time to a pacific island! and Honolulu was great. i west to ottawa for the 3rd time and went to this lake and had lots of fun. I went to Chicago for the very first time! I feel like i've been missing out until now! I also went to Detroit, Des Moines, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Madison, and Milwaukee, which was great

But I was in line to get on I-35 w bridge 30 mins before it collapsed, but It got off because traffic was really annoying and acidentally found my hotel. lucky I didn't go over the bridge, because i would have had to turn around and come across it again. That scared me.

[115db]

Originally Posted by gardener34

Went to disneyworld in beginning of June. VERY hot and humid and rained buckets the first 3 days. Stayed in a hotel off disney property.

Good rides, but excessively crowded in the magic kingdom. So much so - we hardly enjoyed it. We got there an hour early, got in, immediately took the train to the back of the park and the rides there were already an hour wait - 10 minutes after opening.

To see magic kingdom, we finally resorted to the strategy of foregoing in during the day altogether - and getting there at 6:00 at night. That worked out well as we went on whatever ride we wanted to with a minumum of wait time, esp. after 9:00.

We won't be going back for years. Very expensive, and I think even the kids were overwhelmed with how crowded MK was.

The rest of the parks were good though - favorite was epcot, the civilized park. Excellent park and food!

And they had mgm star wars weekend which was a big hit with my son. That was a very fun park - but restaurant facilites were underwhelming as most seemed to be sit outdoors and eat. Who wants to do that in FL?

The one indoor pizza place we found had literally a 40-50 person line for each register. We left the park to eat lunch.

Next time we go back to FL - I think we will forego disney property for the most part. FUN - but expensive and exhausting... we are doing a relaxing, fishing, camping northwoods vacation in 2007.

Wow we havent been to a theme park in over a decade, maybe around spring break it would be a good idea for me to take the kids! Will probably have to plan on a couple days out there, as chances are, it will be crowded during that time, but its always crowded anyway, so....make the best of it.