WannaBeImagineer

Looks like a nice relaxing vacation!

Did you have a reason for heading up to that area?  See the sights, work, better weather, just curious?

WBI

3 hours ago, Specularius said:

One big piece of advice...Take the longest cruise available. There is so much to see that the short cruises are just too short. Make sure that whichever cruise you book makes a stop in Icy Point Straight (Hoonah). It was the best stop of the entire cruise with the best fresh crab place ever at a reasonable cost. Also, always be looking outside. There is a breath taking view with every turn of the ship. It is nothing like cruising the Bahamas or the Caribbean. I am still working on pictures for my report. It is going slow with 2 weeks of work to catch up on.

Thanks, we'll definitely do a 7 day, I'm not sure if we'll be able to pull off the 9 day or not. 

That's what I've heard about the stuff to see everywhere!  Thanks again.

WBI

Another video update:

Day 2, our first full day.

On 7/20/2018 at 10:54 PM, Specularius said:

Home from the cruise. It was FANTASTIC! Loved the Wonder. There were a couple of things that are better on the Dream, such as Senses Spa, but the smaller ship was just so much fun. We were surprised that our Captain was the same Capatain we had on a previous cruise aboard the Dream, Captain Henry Anderson. The weather was great, the scenery even better, and the crew was Awsome. I learned a lot that may be valuable to other Fiends in the future and I will get that out in a trip report coming soon. Now to catch up on laundry and recoup from the trip. Left Vancouver at 58 degrees and arrived home to 103 degrees. Talk about wanting to go back right now!

Glad to hear it was great!  We also loved the Wonder and I want all the details on Alaska, I'm scheming on going next summer, 2019.

WBI

On 7/20/2018 at 11:14 PM, LONE-STAR said:

Thanks for all the  replys. Everybody is fine. It is actually a tire blow out that did interior damage  on top of the outside damage. And since it knocked a couple of walls lose there afraid there is structural damage and they decided it would be better to just total it. I was shocked at first but the more I thought about it they are probably right.

That sounds crazy but I can believe it after the little bit of damage my last blow out caused.  When making the repairs I saw just how poorly constructed it is.

On 7/21/2018 at 9:34 PM, LONE-STAR said:

I know it's crazy. I am not  even sure if I will  buy another one at this point. This was  our 3rd trailer since 2002 and I am not sure I want to do it again. 

I get that, we've only had ours for four years and I've already talked about it.  Especially when we go on a vacation without it and it ends up sitting for an extended amount of time.

WBI

1 hour ago, DaveInTN said:

I love long flights.  I might be weird, but I like airplane food, especially on European airlines.  Lufthansa has really good food, and the free flowing wine isn't bad either.  I just like the little trays with the various compartments, and exploring the unusual options you see like different brands of butter, sauces and such.  Then again, my wife laughs at me because I like hospital food too.  When she was in each time we had a baby, I was always asking her "you gonna eat that?".  LOL>  

Oh, and my sister says that Spain is her favorite place to visit.  She travels pretty extensively and she just loves it there.  

I like the long flights too, these were 8.5hrs on the way there and 9.5 hrs on the way home.  I didn't sleep a wink on either one.  I too like the food on international flights, even though we were on Delta the food and snacks were actually pretty good and tons of variety, not to mention the free booze. 🙂

We had heard similar things about Spain, and we really liked Barcelona and the coast, especially the food.  The food was all reasonably priced compared to other countries, we only had one disappointing meal, we think it had become famous so they marked up their prices and the price didn't reflect the quality.

WBI

Whoa, sorry to hear about the RV, hope everyone is ok!

WBI

17 minutes ago, slices said:

Wow, that's a good price for flights to Europe over the Summer.  Looks like you had a good time. Last time I was that way must have been about 20 years ago.

It was a super deal for flights to Europe!

We had a great time, it had been 8 years since our last Europe trip, a lot has changed in our family since then.

WBI

11 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

 

My kids used to go barefoot around the site, and even dig with shovels and pails in the coquina.  This gravel is not kid friendly.  Or pet friendly.

TCD

The full hook up sites at Grayton Beach State Park are made completely of this small limerock gravel.  W actually loves it, it's super easy to dig in and then smooth back over, and it's great for playing trucks.  Plus it doesn't stick to him so there's not tracking it in the house.  It's not the greatest for walking barefoot on but I have done it at Grayton.

The only problem I see is for tent campers.  For RVers I think this is an improvement.

WBI

Well really just the Catalonia region...

Hey ya'll is anyone interested in hearing or watching about our recent trip to Barcelona?  The reason I found those two previous older videos is I've been busy working on some new ones from our trip.

A little backstory.  We're basically obsessed with travel, Disney travel, and just any travel in general.  Because of that I'm always on the look out for good flight deals, and over the last year there's been lots of super cheap deals popping up, including some to Europe.  Add this to the rise of popularity of vloggers like the Bucketlist Family and we were wanting to travel big time.  So one day sitting at work a super deal pops up, under $500 per person flights to Spain from Houston over the summer months!  I send out an alert to Lisa and my mom, we talk but don't commit, that night I check the flights and they are gone, dang we missed it.  We talk more over the next few days and decided that the next time a deal pops up for the summer we're jumping on it, my mom included.  I should add that these super flight deals to Europe don't usually include the summer months so this was pretty rare.

Well guess what happens a week or two later while camping in Fredricksburg?  Delta has the same sale again, and next thing you know I've bought tickets for $499 a person, Houston to Barcelona with one stop in Atlanta and we're bringing the kids and grammy!

Next the only things left to do was everything else, lol.  Originally we planned on touring Spain, I wanted to run with the bulls, Lisa wanted to go to Lisbon, basically we had lots of ideas.  In the end we decided to spend the whole trip in Barcelona.  The more we researched the main things we wanted to do were there and with kids we figured the less travel the better.

So after months of anticipation and planning we flew to Barcelona on July 1st and now I'm here to tell you about in video form.

I won't leave you hanging though, we had a great time, the kids traveled great, we saw a ton and we loved the food!

Here's the first video from the trip!

WBI

22 hours ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

Good job. We loved our trip there in 1977, beautiful in the summer. I thought it was funny to find a German community in the middle of Texas.

Thank you!

It was even beautiful in the winter, but we do plan to go back in the summer one day!

Yeah there's tons of German and Czech communities in Texas, luckily they brought some good food to this area!

WBI

22 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

That's another excellent video, Nick.

Luckenbach Texas might be world famous, but I haven't heard of it before.  That was a long way for you to go!  The food all looks great!

TCD

Wow I thought for sure everyone knew that song!

10 hours ago, LONE-STAR said:

You just blew my mind. Don't you know the song "Let's go to Luckenbach Texas with Willie Waylon and the boys".

 

Agreed!

On 7/17/2018 at 2:41 PM, LONE-STAR said:

Nice video   

Thanks!

10 hours ago, LONE-STAR said:

We had booked a week at top sail the pool was one reason I picked it. But after 3 days of red flag warnings my daughter was done. So we did what any Fort Fiend would do I mean we were already in Florida let's go to Disney. First time we ever booked a trip on Monday night and checked in Tuesday morning. 

That's great!  I can't believe you were able to get a site that last minute!

I''m in, but...

"I've got a bad feeling about this"

lol hope the cousin made it ok

WBI

2 hours ago, kadancer said:

Looks like you had a fantastic time!

Thank you!  We did and we'll be there next year!

12 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Wow that video is awesome!  Props for all the Great Southern visits. And Seagrove Market too I'm jealous!

I got choked up when I saw you playing with your kids in Ruskin Park. My oldest was 7 and the twins were 3 the first time we visited Seaside, and those big trees in the park had just been planted. We used to play wiffle ball in the grassy area between the trees. Every summer. Good times. 

TCD

Thanks TCD!

Yeah we're hooked on the Great Southern Cafe happy hour mojitos!  Plus all the food there is great!  Last summer when their with the inlaws my father-in-law decided we could eat every meal there and be perfectly happy!

Oh wow that's a great memory!  I bet it was even better back then with a little less crowds!  I think we'll end up having years of memories there too, we love it there and I don't see us not going anytime in the near future.

Speaking of the trees, in the 7 years I've been going there it has had some changes, but a big one is happening now, have you seen that they are moving the post office? I guess its not the first time, but this time it's moving to where the ATM is, they are going to block that road off completely and add a couple bathrooms.  Plus they are changing up Bud & Alley's area, moving the walkway towards the beach instead of through the buildings.  Oh and they built a new stage by the school.  A lot is happening right now!

Do you have any plans for a Seaside trip? 

WBI

17 hours ago, LONE-STAR said:

Reminds me of the trip we just took we stayed at top sail, but I think Grayton may be better due to its location to seaside.

Yeah you were just down the road.  We really like Topsail, with the trees and the pool especially, but we're big Seaside fans so being able to bike their trumps the pool access.

WBI

18 hours ago, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Oh gosh, that was too sweet.  Your babies are getting so big... and that water!!  Love it!  Looks like a great time ❤️

Thank you!  Yes they are, growing all the time.

I know that water was the perfect color, only problem...it was still too cold for me!

WBI

18 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

Hey Nick, are those your paddle boards or did you rent them?  Was wondering how you like that brand....we've only rented but am considering purchasing a couple.  

Hey Dave,

Those are our paddle boards, I bought them a few years ago just for trips like this.  I read a ton of reviews online before buying and these had good ones plus the price point was as high as I wanted to go.  Actually I got lucky and bought the first one to try off of Groupon, it was a previous year model so it was $100 off.  We got it home and tried it out and later bought a second one.

We did have one problem with the Groupon purchased one, it had a seam peel back a little, it never caused a leak, just looked bad.  It was right where it bends when you roll it up. I contacted TenToes and they weren't much help, but in the end it didn't matter, I just used the repair kit that came with it and so far the seem has help just fine.

Keep in mind it takes some work to inflate them, the videos make it look easy but inflating two of them will be a work out.  We've learned to do it in two phases, we get them started up to around 9-10psi, then leave them go have dinner or drinks or something, then the next day or that night we'll pump them up the rest of the way to 12or 13 psi, those last few are where it gets tough.

To summarize we like the brand, we don't use them as much as we should but their great when we do.

WBI

Ok one more video in case anyone is interested.  I just finished this one up today and sorry its a little long.

We once again camped over spring break at Grayton Beach State Park on 30A in the Florida panhandle.  They have a limited amount of campsites and they book up a year in advance but we love this place, mostly for the beach and proximity to the 30A things we like to do, aka Seaside.

Thanks for watching!

WBI

Hey everyone!

I was just looking at some of my ongoing projects and realized I never posted our video from our Fredericksburg trip we took way back in February.

Since there was some previous interest in Fredericksburg, I thought I'd go ahead and post it.  Feel free to ask me any questions.  

We camped at Oakwood RV park, it was pretty good, nothing fancy, our spot was basically a parking lot type area on gravel with a concrete pad for the picnic table.

We at some good German food.

Ate great BBQ

Hiked at Enchanted Rock

Went to the National Museum of the Pacific War

Went to a couple vineyards and wineries

at Mexican food

and all kinds of other things (mostly eating)

WBI

Our last state, we used Magical Express and we got a standard old Mears coach, no Disney wrap, no Disney recording, nothing, it was just an old bus.  It was a little disappointing for a GF stay.

WBI

17 hours ago, DaveInTN said:

I have heard reference to attendance being down this summer.  For those that have been to WDW this summer, and have visited in previous summers, is it noticeable?  And what are the reasons it is down?  Are people waiting for the Star Wars stuff to open?  Is international travel down for some reason?  Is it truly being impacted by Disney's price hikes or is that just speculation?  Are the attendance issues expected to continue beyond the summer season?  

If you'd like to read a lot of numbers based info Josh over at Easywdw.com has posted a few times about it.  He went back and looked at wait times for the past 18 months or something and goes into excruciating detail.  This is one of the posts:

https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/when-is-the-best-time-to-visit-walt-disney-world-based-on-a-lot-of-wait-times/

I think one of the takeaways is that yes, summer crowds are down.  But you have to remember that Disney accounts for low crowds now by shutting down rides for refurbs, reducing staff, ie reducing capacity of rides, and changing park hours, to name a few.  They have ways to make the lower crowd times have waits too.

WBI

14 minutes ago, slices said:

Watched this last night,  the only slightly negative thing I would say is that this isn't going to help with all the people that get confused between Fort Wilderness and Wilderness Lodge. They kind of gave the impression that the DVC cabins at Wilderness Lodge were at the fort.

Good point!  My wife was confused too, asking where in the heck they were getting ready at the way they kept cutting back and forth.

WBI