My list of dream family vacations is a long one, but a visit to the Galapagos, a safari in Africa and a cruise along the Alaskan coast are high on the list. Turns out the ultimate family vacation provider, Disney, has those places high on its list as well.
Adventures by Disney, the tour operator that understands how to do organized tours for kids, is adding eight new trips for 2009: South Africa, the European Alps and the Galapagos as well as a new tour of Italy (Sorrento and Florence), and three U.S. tours--Alaska, the Northeast (Boston, Newport and New York City), northern California (Lake Tahoe, Yosemite and San Fransisco)--and one that empasses parts of the United States and southwest Canada that visits two of the most beautiful places on Earth--Glacier National Park and Banff.
The Disney tours aren't cheap, but they are fab. At least the Viva Italia trip I took last summer with my kids (Rome, Tuscany, Florence and Venice) certainly was. (Early booking rates for the Viva Italia tour are about $3,000 for kids and $3,400 for adults, not including air fare.) The accommodations were first rate, the two Disney tour guides were endlessly cheerful, helpful and efficient, and the trip was educational as well as fun. My only complaint was the food. In the land of pasta (have you ever met a kid who wouldn't eat spaghetti?) the tour operators arranged for the kids to get burgers, fries and chicken fingers at several of the meals. Since the meals were set ahead of time, there was no choice. It was a small disappointment in an otherwise nearly perfect experience.
When traveling, there's always the question: To tour or not to tour? Generally, I am of the opinion that not to tour is best. It gives you the flexibility, as my husand likes to say, to go in search of the world's biggest ball of twine. (It's how we ended up spending a pleasant afternoon in Plaines, Ga., on a trip home for Orlando one spring break.) But when traveling with kids in tow, there's something nice about knowing someone other than you is taking care of everything. It was, without a doubt, the most relaxing trip I have ever taken with the kids. All I had to do was remember what time to show up the next morning. As a mom, I couldn't ask for more.
Have you been on a Disney tour? Was your experience as great as mine?