Liz Hough, Author at LiBT Agents ONLY site

I am opening up and you may be surprised.

Why I Do What I Do?

I am sharing the REAL reason why I do what I do and you may be surprised.

I recently had a friend look over my website and told me I was missing a key element, Why do I do what I do. As I started to explain to her how I became a travel consultant she stopped me and told me that it wasn’t the “Why.” So after some soul searching and a lot of thinking, I wanted to share with everyone my “Why.”

Travel is a passion of mine and it is something I absolutely love to do. When I personally travel, I get feelings of excitement, relaxation, interest, curiosity, and a bit of anxiety. When it all comes together I have created a memory that reminds me of all of these emotions.

I have traveled to 17 European countries, and in each country, I experienced what I just described. I felt excitement when we were roaming the canals of Venice and thinking this is nothing like Italy in Epcot Center (even though it is a good replica).

I felt relaxation in Scotland when my husband and I enjoyed an anniversary dinner on Rose Street in Edinburgh drinking Scottish beer. I was interested in touching a 1000-year-old entrance to a library while in Ephesus in Turkey.

I was curious what smoked lard and Palinka tasted like in a small café in Bucharest, Romania. I was anxious going up the cogwheel train to Jungfraujoch in Switzerland while my head was pounding from altitude changes. The best part of travel is that when I am not traveling and I think of those places I instantly get a smile on my face regardless of the emotion that I felt.

Was I travel consultant when I did all of those things? No. It was because of those trips, journeys, vacations that I decided I wanted to help plan those types of experiences for other people. I wanted to make sure that when someone came to me for planning a vacation to another country that we planned something amazing and unique. A journey of memories that causes emotions which can be triggered back at just the thought of them. When I plan a customized European vacation for someone there are many times an emotion from one of our trips will come up and I just get a smile on my face. So I guess in some ways my job makes me smile, a lot. What a great job to have!

It has taken a friend who had a smile and her head tilted to one side, asking my “why” to really understand why I love my job. It is the people who I plan amazing journeys with, who I now feel are friends, it is the amazing places that I get to go and experience, and it is being able to spend more time with my family that has really made me love my job.

I want to thank everyone who has planned an amazing vacation, trip, or journey with me. You have been a great support to my business and when you work with me you are also supporting my family.

Fill out the form below to get started planning your next European Vacation. Looking for a motor coach tour, self-drive, or private tour, we can easily put together the perfect European vacation for you and your family’s needs.

When you book your vacation with a member of the Life is Better Traveling Team, you are supporting local families and business. Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past 4 years, we have become an AMAZING travel agency due to your support!

Kids and Plantations, oh my!

Liz Hough on

When you travel to the south there is one destination that is always a must, a plantation. What is a plantation? It is a large estate with usually several hundreds of acres of land, multiple working buildings, beautiful gardens, some type of cash or food crop, and many working animals. Plantations are large enough that they can be an all-day sight-seeing tour, but when you have two little kids a full day looking at flowers and crops is not too exciting. Around Charleston there are several plantations to choose from and they each offer something unique and different to enjoy. One plantation was highly recommended to us by another mother who said she takes her children there and they really enjoy it. If another mother recommends it then it must be good right?

So we planned to spend half a day or up to 6 hours at the Middleton Place. It was about a 25-minute drive outside of Charleston on a 2 lane road that had multiple plantations. We decided on the full experience which included a 45-minute horse drawn carriage ride around the plantation, entrance onto the grounds, and guided tour of the house. There were also additional tours of various parts of the plantation during the day including a tour of the flower gardens. When you are touring a plantation, it is best to get there earlier in the day to try and beat the heat, however, with kids, you get there when you get there. We got there around noon and decided to take the guided garden tour. There were only a few of us on the tour and the lady we had was extremely knowledgeable about the history behind the plantation, but the kids were hot and ready for something different.

After the tour ended, it was time for our horse drawn carriage ride around the plantation. The kids thought this was so much fun because they love horses and with it being so bumpy, they felt like they were on an amusement park ride. As the estate was quite large, this was a great way to get around the grounds and see the different buildings and natural beauty of the property.

After our carriage ride it was time to take our tour of the house. The house was air-conditioned, which gave us nice break from the heat, but it was also dimly light due to the 200-year-old paintings and other valuables. The tour was very interesting for adults as the guide went through a good amount of history, but the kids were bored and unimpressed by the children’s room. I wouldn’t recommend the house tour for children as there are a lot of artifacts that required no touching, and this can be difficult for kids (especially ours!).

After the house tour, we headed over to the barn and blacksmith area. We were able to see the horses being fed, and the kids found out that there were three cats roaming the area so it became a game to find them. At a certain time every day, one of the employees brings Bessy, a cow, up to a special area where she is milked. She was an older cow and very tame, which is why they chose her to milk. The kids all gathered around to see what was happening and to our surprise, they let the kids milk her also. This was a lot of fun for the kids, probably the best part of their day.

We spent 4 and a half hours at the Middleton Plantation and I would say that it was worth taking them, but I would plan next time to get their when they first open to try and beat the heat. We were also careful around any water as there were alligators lounging around on the grassy areas near one of the ponds, and definitely take bug spray because there were a lot of bugs.

Next up…Charleston, S.C.

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If you haven’t been, here’s why you must go!

Our family recently took a family vacation to Charleston, South Carolina. The last time my husband and I were in Charleston we didn’t have any children and we enjoyed the pleasures of Down Home Southern Cooking. We walked around the romantic waterfront and sat in front of the iconic Pineapple fountain while watching the sunset project beautiful hues of pink and purple onto the bay. We walked around the entire historic district taking in the sights of various mansions, quaint alleyways, and hearing ghost tales of years that have gone by. One thing about Charleston is that the historic district remains the same, not much had changed in the past 10 years since we were there last. Except, this time we had two little ones with us.

We didn’t have much time at the Pineapple fountain before one of the children had a meltdown and didn’t want to get a picture as a family, but we tried anyway. The meltdown probably came from a long day of excitement, playfulness, and good food as there is a lot of amazing things to do in Charleston with children. Every day the kids were exhausted, ate well, and couldn’t wait to get out of the hotel the next day to see where we were going next. One thing to make sure of when you travel to Charleston with the kids is to make sure they get a good, hearty breakfast. There are so many amazing breakfast places in the historic district and we found them by simply asking our concierge where to eat. There is an amazing place on Meeting Street called Toast that has homemade biscuits the size of my hand. They may be large but they are not heavy. We visited Toast on several occasions as they had some interesting breakfast items that we wanted to try, and the food was consistently good.

Anywhere we travel, if there is an aquarium or zoo, it is a must stop on our itinerary. It had been 10 years since I was last at the Charleston Aquarium so I didn’t recall exactly what was there. Our first stop was to the outdoor enclosure which was a nice surprise. It was a large pool containing several rays. If the rays come close to the surface of the pool you can actually touch them. Now if you have recently seen Finding Dory, there is a part in the movie where the animals in the “touch pool” don’t really liked to be “touched” and when the kids put their hands in the water they all start to find hiding places. I felt like this scene played out when we were at this pool as the rays clearly didn’t want us to touch them because they all stayed at the bottom! There were two windows on the bottom of the pool that you could look in and see the rays swimming around happily and that kept the kids occupied for some time.

Inside the aquarium they have several great exhibits including their large tank with a sea turtle that is my size in height. They put on various educational seminars about every half hour at various exhibits throughout the aquarium and these seminars really kept the interest of the kids. One seminar was about alligators and crocodiles, and at the end of the seminar our children actually had the opportunity to pet an alligator, which was a huge excitement for a 5-year-old. After talking with another employee about what fish and rays eat, she gave each of us a small cup with uncooked shrimp. The kids put the shrimp on the end of a rod and then they feed the rays. This was a interesting experience because the rays come up to the glass and use the glass as guidance to find the food. They are quite aggressive when it comes to food and the large rays would push the smaller rays to the side to get the food. Again, pure excitement for the kids! I would highly recommend a half-day to do the aquarium, and try to schedule it so you can see the seminars.

The Children’s Museum of Charleston is another must when visiting Charleston with the kids. It is all one floor and there are seven large rooms each with a different theme. I personally like the castle themed room, but the pirate ship was a huge hit with the kids. The seven rooms are: the arts and crafts room, the castle room, water play room, large building blocks room, pirate ship room, the baby play area, and grocery shopping room. Each room was designed to have the kids engaged in some type of activity and they were able to dress up in various characters in some of the rooms. It was fun to see the kids dressed up like pirates and running around a pirate ship yelling at each. I also enjoyed the grocery store because the kids have a shopping list and then they must go around and pick up the items. Once they have retrieved all of the items they bring them to the kids sized check-out line and the parents can scan their items. The kids pay with fake money and they can bag their own items.

If you have little ones under the age of two, there is a whole area that is enclosed so the kids can’t get out. They have soft pillows, slides, climbing stairs, and big foam blocks for the little ones to play. The time flew by so fast when we were here that we didn’t get to go outside to ride the big fire truck or do any of the other outdoor activities. I would highly recommend the Children’s Museum for either a half-day or if the weather is nice and you can play outside, a good 6 hours.

Check out next week’s ezine when I talk about how to survive at a plantation with kids!

What would you do?

Liz Hough on

If You Lose Your Passport Abroad, Would You Know What To Do?

These Six Steps will Save you Time and Energy…

I recently read an article about a woman who lost her passport while she was traveling overseas. She was frantic, and didn’t know what to do besides go to the closet U.S. Embassy to get a new passport. When she got there they asked her if she had a list of things that they need to get the process started for a new passport but she didn’t. She spent several hours acquiring the things on the list before she went back to the embassy. Once everything was submitted to the embassy, it still took time to get the passport prolonging her trip.

Even though most of us think that a scenario like this won’t happen to us, the truth is we need to prepared when it does. So for your next trip abroad, even to Canada, here is what you need to do if your passport was lost or stolen.

Step 1. Get another passport photo taken right away. You will need a passport photo for the embassy to issue you a replacement passport so get that first.

Step 2. You are going to need identification, evidence of proof of U.S. Citizenship, and your travel itinerary. The best way to have all of this is to make COLOR copies of all these things before you travel abroad, and place copies in your suitcases or other bags that you are taking with you. An easy way to have an electronic version would be to scan in your passport and email it to yourself. Having copies of these will really be handy. If you don’t have copies, make sure that someone you trust from home can get access to them to fax them to the appropriate embassy.

Step 3. Try to access a passport application (DS-11 Application for Passport), and the statement form for Lost or Stolen Passports (DS-64 Statement Regarding a Lost or Stolen Passport ). Having these printed out and already filled in will help you get through the process faster.

Step 4. If you have filed a police report with the local authorities, make sure to bring a copy of the police report with you.

Step 5. Head to the nearest U.S. Embassy or consulate that can help you get your replacement passport issued. If you aren’t sure where it is, someone within the U.S. can call the Office of Overseas Citizens Services, U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C, at 1-888-407-4747, and they will be able to locate the nearest one for you.

Step 6. Pay the fees associated with getting a replacement passport, however, applicants who are unable to pay the fee will be asked to provide names of persons they feel would be able to assist them financially if there is sufficient time.

Once you have been issued a replacement passport the passport is valid for 10 years for adults and 5 years for children. If you were issued a limited-validity, emergency passport due to urgent travel plans to allow you to return to the U.S. or continue on your trip, once you return home, you can turn in your emergency passport and receive a full-validity passport. Most embassies and consulates do not issue passports on weekends or holiday that they are closed. If it is a life or death emergency they do have after hours duty officers available to assist you in any way that they can.

For your next vacation abroad, make sure to make color copies of all of your identification and give copies to friends and/or family here in the U.S. that you trust. If you have a travel agent who is available, please give them the information also. I always advise my client’s to send me a color copy of their passport so I can easily email and/or fax it out quickly.

Safe Travels!

Airlines are upset.

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New Changes in Favor of the Consumer?
Find out what 3 changes are coming your way next time you fly…

If you have been following the news this past week, then you may have heard that congress has passed some air travel legislation that will help the consumer, but may upset the airlines and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The lengthy lines to get through security at the airport have been felt across the nation, and by those in the House and Senate too. The new bill wants to offer several ways to expedite the screening process including keeping the PreCheck screening lines open and available during peak and high-volume travel times, especially at the airports who see a huge volume of travelers. When the PreCheck lines are closed, there must be a way to expedited the screening process using “every practicable effort.” What is the definition of “every practicable effort?” Only time will tell. The bill is also requiring that TSA increase the number of people enrolled in the TSA PreCheck program by making it more available for people to enroll. This could be done through Kiosks, mobile devices, and/or other mobile platforms.

Have you ever had your luggage lost or delayed by the airline and didn’t receive your luggage fee back? Well, that will now be a fight with the airline that you will no longer have to undergo. If the airline does not deliver your luggage to you within 12 hours after arrival of your domestic flight or 15 hours after your international flight, the airline will be forced to quickly and automatically refund you “any ancillary fees” you paid for your checked luggage.

For those who have family members under the age of 13, this next portion of the bill that has passed is a huge win. Children under the age of 13 are “to be seated in a seat adjacent to the seat of an accompanying family member over the age of 13” at NO Additional Ancillary Fees! These ancillary fees are usually in the form of a seat selection reservation fees including, choosing a window or aisle seat.

Here is a website that shows some of the fees for seat reservations for each airline: http://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/4564745/chart-what-it-costs-to-select-your-seat-location.html. The caveat is that this only applies to economy or coach class seats. If a family would like to upgrade to economy plus, business, or first class additional fees would be applied. This rule will probably upset the airlines the most as this will take away from their billions of dollars they earn each year on seat reservation fees. However, it has been a problem with the airlines not accommodating keeping families seated together when they travel. As a parent, it is a very scary thought that my child would be sitting next to a stranger while I am on the same flight.

Over the next couple of months, I hope that we see these changes and they make our lives simpler for when we travel by air.

What two things ruined my day.

Liz Hough on

Amusement Park Disappointment!
What two things ruined my experience…

It has been awhile since I have written a review, and I think this is the first time that is it not going to be so nice. I am the type of person who tries to see both sides of the story, which my husband doesn’t like, but I can’t even see the other side of the story when it comes to negligence at an amusement park.

Over the weekend we took our family to Idlewild and Soak Zone Amusement park near Ligonier, Pennsylvania. Ligonier is a beautiful town filled with amazing stores, restaurants, and the Ramada Inn which has beautiful, clean spacious rooms. Just a few miles down the road is Idlewild, which was founded in 1878 and is the oldest amusement park in Pennsylvania. I appreciate older rides such as their roller coast that was built in 1938, and I do enjoy the Daniel Tiger neighborhood that they have built for little kids. I can’t say anything about their Soak Zone as we didn’t venture into that part of the park, but the rest of the park is nicely catered to those who have children under that age of 12. Idlewild is the sister park to Dutch Wonderland, and we have been to Dutch Wonderland on multiple occasions, so I assumed that Idlewild would have the same high standards that I have become accustomed to at Dutch Wonderland. Not so much!

At Idlewild you pay for your parking and tickets at the entrance booth. Once you pay, then you have to find parking. They do have plenty of parking, but they lacked descriptive signs to let you know where to go for additional parking, so we just followed a path past cars, packed in like sardines, until 20 minutes later, we found a space. Unsure of we were in relation to the park, we started to follow people figuring someone had to know how to get the rides. Once we got to the park, finding a map of the park became impossible. Typically, at the entrance to the parks you find a stand with maps, but there was nothing. We started to walk around and get onto rides. I didn’t really have any problems with the actual rides as they seemed to be pretty well kept, but the ride attendants weren’t very friendly and some of them even ignored the guest while talking with each other. This made me feel a bit uneasy on some rides, as I want to make sure that my kids and I are safe on the ride.

There was one ride I was very excited about, Daniel’s Tigers Trolley ride. It is a somewhat interactive ride and I was excited to hear that the conductor had a script to follow. When I hear that there is a script, I immediately think of the Jungle Cruise at Disney and we always get the most amazing and funny guides, but I can’t say that is what we got on Daniel’s Tigers Trolley. Our guide seemed less than enthused to be taking probably her 10th round of guests, and it was like she was a robot with a monotonic voice. The ride was great, but again, the attendants fell flat.

Overall, the rides were good and it seemed that they were kept in good condition. However, the park was very dirty. One of the women’s bathrooms has bird poop all over the floor and stall doors even though there were no birds in there at the time. Someone dropped their ice cream in the middle of the walk way and when my husband told the game attendant about it, the guy told him someone would eventually be around. I always take my refillable water bottles to fill them water from the fountain, but there were no fountains in site. I finally found one but it didn’t work. It seemed like they were not concerned about cleanliness nor about how satisfying the customer.

Maybe I just have high standards from going to Kennywood, Dutch Wonderland, Hershey, and Disney, but this park could be really great they just need to adjust their level of cleanliness and service. Will we go back? Only time will tell.

Smaller is better…

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Especially when you have a lot of walking to do all day.

When planning this last trip to Walt Disney World we gathered the family around the dinner table and talked about what we were looking for from a Walt Disney World resort. Over the years we have stayed at deluxe, moderate, and value resorts, our last trip in October was at the moderate resort Caribbean Beach. A great resort with a great pool, sit down restaurant, and pirate themed rooms, but also one of the largest resorts on property. We were frustrated trying to get on crowded buses and walking a long distance to get to the pool and food, an inconvenience when staying in the pirate themed rooms. So this time the family decided we wanted something smaller, intimate, but with a great pool. The Port Orleans French Quarter was chosen.

The Port Orleans resort is two resorts in one. There is the Riverside resort where the building mimic large mansions of the South. The main area has a sit down restaurant, Boatwright’s, which features Southern style cuisine, and a large pool and playground for the kids. Riverside is the larger of the two resorts, and there is more space between the buildings so the parks shuttle buses stop at four different bus stops around the resort. Riverside is the only other moderate resort on property that has themed rooms, Princess themed rooms. These rooms are a lot of fun if you have little Princesses of your own as there are firework displays in the headboards, and Aladdin’s Magic Carpet is in the carpet. Riverside also has a boat dock where they have continuous service to and from French Quarter resort and after 10am to Disney Springs.

There is the French Quarter side where the building, sidewalks, fountains, and main lobby area mimic New Orleans’ French Quarter. The French Quarter has a nice pool with water slide and a kids’ splash zone. There is also an outdoor bar by the pool and an indoor bar where at night they bring in bands to play music.

The entire resort only has about eight buildings and even if you are in one of the farthest buildings it is only a 2-minute walk to the pool and food court. French Quarter is the smallest of all the moderately price resorts and you enjoy this when you head to the one and only bus stop. The buses were never crowded and they now have installed televisions with time tables as to when the next bus will arrive for each park or other destination. There were also never any lines when we left the parks for the French Quarter bus stop.

French Quarter also had a boat dock where boats would come every 10 to 20 minutes to either take you to the Riverside resort or to Disney Springs. We decided to use the boat a few times to head to Disney Springs and it took about 10 minutes to get there, but you went past parts of Disney that I have never seen before including the Tree Top Villas at Sarasota Springs, Disney Vacation Club clubhouse, and an amazing view of Disney Springs from the water. The boat dock at Disney Springs was conveniently located right around the corner from Art of Disney, and we never had to wait for more than 10 minutes to get a boat.

When traveling with small children who are tired, cranky, and hot from a long day in the parks, I was glad to not have to wait several rounds to get on a bus to get back to the resort. I enjoyed getting up early and walking down to the food court to get my cup of joe (and my husband’s beignets), and I really enjoyed the whole atmosphere of the French Quarter. I think our family has found our favorite Disney resort that we will stay at time and time again.

How do you measure priceless service?

Liz Hough on

Have you ever considered a service you received “priceless”?

My husband and I needed to buy new sneakers for our upcoming Disney vacation because when you take a Disney vacation you walk, on average, 12 miles per day. Since the last time we had purchased sneakers was five years ago, I figured they wouldn’t last 12 miles per day, so off to the sneaker store we went. Now when you take a vacation, taking the right pair of shoes is something that we actually take time deciding on. Do you take flats, flip-flops, sandals, sneakers, dress shoes, the decision seems endless! However, when you take a Disney vacation, sneakers are must and preferably sneakers that aren’t five years old.

I am all about supporting local businesses so we headed over to our local Fleet Feet store, which does have several stores through the east coast, but I believe are individually owned. We walked in and we were instantly greeted by one of their employees Abbey, who I have actually worked with on some pairing with our Magical Racecations agency, but none the less, greeted us with a huge smile. We told her we were there for sneakers and she had asked if we were ever measured. We looked at each other in confusion and said, “I don’t think so.” She explained to us the process that they go through in measuring our feet and from our measurements they can provide the best selection of sneakers. I honestly didn’t know there could be process for measuring your feet to find the best fit, but I only had to try on 3 pairs of sneakers before finding the perfect ones for me. At another big brand shoe store I had tried on 10 plus pairs and didn’t find one pair that I even liked!

When we checked out our bill for our sneakers it was more than what we would have paid at the big brand store, but the service was worth the extra money. So what does this have to do with travel? Well, just like the millions of pairs of sneakers out there, there are millions of choices when it comes to travel so how do you know what is the right fit for you? This is where a travel consultant can act as your “travel measurer” to help you find the right destination, hotel, resort, or cruise for you. How do I do it? I have a series of questions that I like to ask every person who contacts me about an upcoming vacation that they want to take. My first question is always “Why do you want to go to that destination?” This may sound a bit standoffish, but most people tell me that they saw it in a magazine or on the travel channel and thought it would be nice. Yes, it is absolutely nice but when you take a vacation, believe it or not, you have goals or objectives that you want to accomplish on that vacation. My job is to get a better understanding of those goals and objectives and find the perfect fit so you can meet most, if not all them on that vacation.

So if you are nervous about using a travel consultant in planning your next vacations, consider me as your “travel measurer” so that you have don’t have to research 10 different sites where you may or may not find the perfect fit. Call me so I can find your perfect fit for you!

What can a travel consultant can do for you?

Liz Hough on

Is your travel consultant doing their best for you?

I have to start this week’s newsletter with saying that I absolutely have the best clients any travel consultant could ever ask for. I love planning travel for all of my clients, so when I hear that something goes wrong, I have to find out why! Last week I had an amazing group of people take a nice romantic weekend getaway to Jamaica. The weekend was filled with great friends, good food, and fun. Unfortunately, the return home didn’t go as smoothly as the rest of the weekend. What should have been a 5-hour journey home turned into 15 hours of miscommunication, multiple flights, and several tired people who just wanted to get home to their families.

Now waking up the next morning and reading their emails, I couldn’t believe that they had gone through this nightmare but I was on a mission to find out what I could do for them. You see some travel consultants feel that once you have left for the vacation, their job is done. I don’t feel that way. Every one of my clients gets a document holder with all final documents including my business card to call even when they are on the trip. Let’s be honest, things happen, and I have been on my own vacation where I had to call 5 different companies to get one answer while standing in the middle of a room while on vacation. There are several hours of my vacation I am not going to get back! So when one of my clients is going through the same thing, I want them to call me so I can take care of it and they can relax.

So what are some of the things that a travel consultant should do for you?

1.Be available – When looking for a travel consultant ask them if they are available after hours or on the weekends. Will they be there for your when you are on the vacation or even after the vacation? Make sure that they are available to help you when you need the help.

2. Friendly – Make sure your travel consultant is friendly from the beginning. It is tough to work with someone who isn’t excited for you to take this trip. They also might not be willing to help you if something goes wrong during the trip.

3.Knowledgeable – When a travel consultant has been there or done their research and they can make the travel planning easy for you, make sure you keep them for life. You want to make sure that you have someone who knows how to weed through all the options and is helps you make the best choice for your vacation.

4.Provide all final documents through the mail – I have talked with many travel consultants who still refuse to mail final documents to their clients. They tell me they are green so they just email everything to their clients. Emails get lost, so I believe is printing everything out for my clients and mailing it in a nice, easy to use packet. And if for some reason you need the documents later, I can always email them.

5. Follows-up – Whether you came back from an amazing vacation or a horrible vacation, your travel consultant should follow-up with you to see how everything went. A follow-up should occur within the first two weeks of you returning. Besides, you spent so much time together planning, why wouldn’t the travel consultant want to know how it went?

A travel consultant should be an advocate for you from the time you are planning your vacation with them until after you return home. Make sure to use these tips in helping you find the best travel consultant for you.

Congratulations to Mary!

She recently earned the distinguished Certified Travel Associate (CTA) designation from the Travel Institute, the travel industry’s oldest education organization. She completed a comprehensive exam-based training program that demonstrates extensive industry knowledge and experience, and she must continue to fulfill stringent education credit requirements each year.

Do you have anxiety about going to Disney?

Liz Hough on

This past weekend I had a booth at fitness expo in Allentown, Pennsylvania showcasing Disney Destinations. The expo was for the St. Luke’s Marathon on Sunday, so those who signed up to run would come in and get their race bibs and shirts. One of my independent contractors and I set up our booth, put on our glowing Minnie Mouse ears, and were ready to talk about all things Disney, and oh boy, did we talk Disney! We talked about everything from runDisney events to Disney cruises, but in our conversations with other moms, there still seems to be this hesitation or anxiety about taking the kids to Disney.

Disney should not be a vacation where anyone in the family has anxiety about going. It is known as the “Happiest Place on Earth” but for some people it can turn into the “Worst Time of Their Lives.” A lot goes into planning a Disney vacation, much more than planning a trip to Williamsburg or a cruise, but I am always telling people, you don’t have to do it alone! We are here to help!

I want to share some of the comments that I heard this weekend because it may be some of the same hesitation that you have or someone you know may have in taking their family to Disney, and what my response was to these anxious moms.

1.) Comment – “Disney is too expensive to take the whole family”

Response – “There are several resorts on Disney property that can be costly but did you know that Disney actually has three resort categories to try and fit all budgets? Maybe the first time you go you can try out a value resort which still offers many great amenities including pools and onsite eating. When promotions come out we can easily apply them to your reservation so you can even save more money!”

2.) Comment – “My kids are too young and they won’t remember it”

Response – “That is the best time to go! If you have kids under the age of three their admission to the park is free and they don’t have to be on a dining plan! If your kids watch Disney Junior and know who Sofia the First, Jake, or even the characters from Mickey Mouse’s clubhouse then they are going to have a blast. The first time I took my youngest was at 18 months and her face was so excited every time she met any of the characters, but mostly Sofia the First. There are plenty of rides that have no height restrictions, and adding Memory Maker to your package allows you to get hundreds of pictures taken that when your child gets older they can see their toddler self with their favorite characters.”

3.) Comment – “Too much to pack like car seats and strollers.”

Response – “Well let’s make sure you stay at one of the Disney resorts then so you can take advantage of the Magical Express where in the state of Florida on all buses and motorcoaches you don’t need car seats, so then you don’t have to bring them with you. You don’t want to rent a stroller from Disney as it will cost you as much as a park ticket for the entire weeks, but we have two stroller rental companies that we recommend in Orlando who deliver the stroller right to the resort so when you check-in they bring it out to you and when you check-out you just give it back to the front desk so the company can pick it up at the resort. No lugging strollers through the airport or packing in the car.

4.) Comment – “Food is expensive at Disney and so are the dining plans”

Response – “If your kids and you have specific snacks that you like I always recommend shipping them to the resort ahead of time. Go to the post office and get a medium flat rate box that will cost you around $18 to ship. Stuff the box with juices, snacks, Horizon individual milk containers, sun screen, etc. My last trip I sent down two boxes of food, one was 20 pounds which would have cost me $45 to ship by regular mail but was $17.45 in a flat rate box. I sent two boxes for under $40 and that left more room in my suitcase for clothes and shoes. Now this may make me sound like a bad travel consultant, but I am not going to sell a dining plan to someone if they aren’t going to get their money’s worth! If you plan on doing a lot of characters’ meals, and what I mean by a lot is around every other day, then the dining plan pays for itself. At that point it is like you are paying for the table service and getting a quick service and snack for free every day. And their quick service meals are a large amount of food!”

5.) Comment – “I don’t know the best time of year to go”

Response – “That is why you call me! There is a lot of historical data to show some of the best weeks to go to the parks without a large crowd of people, but let’s talk about how old your children are and when they are in and out of school.”

Disney is a great place to take the kids at any age. Whether they are toddlers and are in love with Disney junior characters or are teenagers looking for something thrilling, Disney does have something for all ages. So if you are on the fence about taking the kids on a Disney vacation, give me a call and we can talk about all the options that are available for you and your family.