Taking Flight As The Globe Re-Opens

In our March 2021 blog article, we talked about the PIVOT, that is: 

·      P for Planted

·      I for Intelligence 

·      V for Vision

·      O for Opportunities 

·      T for Take flight

Although that article focused more on pivoting in life in general, it made mention of how we’ve even had to pivot in relation to traveling. As I write this, I am beaming with excitement because I feel like I’m tasting travel again! Our family has three trips already booked, and if you know me, then you know that planning for these trips is a lot of the fun for me! That said, it’s been a journey to get here, and the journey included a pivot. During the pandemic, we’ve stayed physically PLANTED at home, venturing out only to places relatively close to home like Coney Island, the Botanic Garden, the Nautical Mile, the Jurassic Quest Drive-Through, Long Island’s North Fork, and Santa’s Christmas Tree Farm, which are all drivable locations. Yes, this airplane-loving, cruise-loving family, decided to visit a few places by car over the course of the past year. We’ve also been spiritually PLANTED in our faith, believing that this pause/standstill in our global travels would be only temporary. In gathering INTELLIGENCE / INFORMATION about the reason for the global pause on travel, we have also gathered INTELLIGENCE / INFORMATION on options available to us at present and potential options for the future. We have a VISION to safely travel the world again. We have had the OPPORTUNITY to be vaccinated to help slow and potentially stop the spread of a deadly virus, and to be able to travel safely again, and we have made use of that OPPORTUNITY, so that the three adults in our house have now received two doses of the vaccine. We are now preparing to TAKE FLIGHT as I’ve researched and planned three future trips, with my eye on a fourth… two of those three / three of those four will be during the schools’ summer vacation months!

Have you been getting excited about the travel possibilities opening up? 

I’m also excited because, with these opportunities opening up, I will be hosting Instagram Live discussions throughout the month of May to prepare us and really to hype us all up before we hit the road, rails, and air again this summer! Did you know that, there are now options to sail this summer as well? Well there are! Our game plan, however, is to start out with at least one drivable family-friendly location [and most likely, two such locations] early in the summer. Then, further into the summer, we will fly out for a big trip, domestically. Then, after that, we will sail again. 

Listennnn… I’ve realized that, for our family, we have to ease into it again. We’d previously been booking those flights, hopping on planes and ships, left and right… and we’re thankful! Thankful for the experiences then… yet, aware of the dramatic changes to life across the globe. We would be remiss to not acknowledge that. Those thoughts have played a role in my plans for future travel. I expressed to a friend the other day that I had been experiencing travel anxiety as I researched summer trips for our family, and that sort of anxiety was not something I usually had to deal with. I had been trying to decide if we could swing a trip to a particular location this summer, but that location is not presently open to us. That being said, as more people are vaccinated and various locations gradually re-open, I anticipate my desired location will also re-open to us. I was seeing all sorts of flight and hotel options, and wanted to grab something quickly before folks really start to flood these booking sites.  I felt super anxious when I started planning and had to balance those thoughts. You know what though, once I researched to a level of satisfaction, I booked our travel, and immediately got into joyful trip-planning mode! That mental and emotional process of “what-ifs” was a doozy though! Whew!  

Have you experienced anything like that / any sort of travel anxiety? 

To combat that anxiety, I think it was helpful for me to go ahead and plan the smaller driveable trip to happen first, so that we can build up to the excitement of our first big airplane trip in over a year! For folks in the New York area seeking driveable locations for family fun in the summer, consider the following locations: 

Primarily fun for older children (over 10): 

• Six Flags Great Adventure, NJ

• Hershey Park, PA

Primarily fun for younger children (10 and under):

• Dutch Wonderland, PA

• Sesame Place, PA

These all have great nearby family-friendly hotels, some of which you can easily walk to the parks from. 

Any guesses as to which one(s) we will visit this summer? 

Across the country, there are many family vacation options, including, of course, Walt Disney World (Orlando, FL) which has been open for quite a while already, and Disneyland (Anaheim, CA) which re-opens today for the first time since shutting down in Mid-March 2020! Other epic theme park options include various locations of Universal Studios, Busch Gardens, and Legoland! All these options have hotels nearby, which make for a great family staycation or vacation, depending on where you live. 

Would you consider these theme park options for Summer 2021? 

Cruisers may be happy to know that a number of major cruise lines, including but not limited to Celebrity Cruises, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, and Norwegian Cruise Line have cruises scheduled to sail from various ports in the Caribbean, Bermuda, and Europe this Summer 2021. We were very excited about Norwegian’s option sailing from Jamaica, visiting Belize, Honduras, and Cozumel, and we still think it’s the best of these new itineraries; however, while we support the requirement that adults be vaccinated, we learned that the line is requiring children to be vaccinated also, and our children are 10 and 6 right now, so there isn’t yet an approved vaccine for their age groups. As expected, all the cruise lines I’ve mentioned here require all adult guests to be vaccinated. Norwegian Cruise Line takes it a step further and requires all guests, regardless of age, to be vaccinated, which is tricky, especially since there isn’t yet an approved vaccine for children, so that essentially, eliminates those Norwegian sailings as an option for us and other families with children under 16… at least, for now. In addition to vaccinations, all these lines require all guests to provide a negative COVID-19 test before sailing. Ships will, of course, be sailing at reduced capacity, with certain changes to onboard services and experiences to ensure high health and safety standards. I honestly think that they will prove to be quite relaxing and a needed escape for many! 

So, with these options before you, and of course, the option to fly internationally to various locations, what option have you selected for your summer travels? If you haven’t yet planned travel for this Summer 2021, then what option(s) are you leaning towards? 

As much as I am often on Instagram, I don’t do much instant sharing on social media or this blog because I like to be in each moment with my family, not worrying about posting moments online while creating them. I do share upon our return from travels/vacations! What I share is still authentic. It’s just not in real time. That said, I look forward to sharing glimpses into our summer travels with you, and even more than that, though, I look forward to experiencing with my family the joy of traveling together as a family again!

My hope for you is that you get to enjoy traveling with your loved ones also!