We always avoided family cruises, at least up until this past month when we took our first ever family cruise and we were hooked immediately. Family cruises can be budget friendly and worth the time and effort. Here are my top ten reasons why we will take family cruises again. Top Ten Reasons to Take Family Cruises. 1. The service is exceptional. Incomparable. The closest I can compare there experience to is staying at a Disney resort. That’s how well taken care of you are. The staff ratio to tourist ratio was something like 1 to 3. It was outrageous…
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e have travelled a fair bit as a family and yet we have always avoided cruising. Why? Well, I always thought it was a lot of work booking the cruise, then the flight and then figuring out all the logistics. I also thought it was too expensive. My husband has always been reluctant to cruise because of rumours we heard from friends. We heard that you wait for everything because of the number of people. We heard that the rooms are way too small and they make you feel claustrophobic. We wondered out loud if we would all get seasick. I wasn’t…
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We ended 2014 and started 2015 with our first cruise together ever. It was fantastic. Service was amazing and there was always something to do. The ports were stunning and the excursions each topped the next until we landed in Grand Cayman near the end of the trip and it was beyond gorgeous. This is my Wordless Wednesday post. It’s hard to be wordless about something so incredible. This is my new favourite form of family travel. It was our first cruise ever, but I am pretty sure it won’t be our last. Our first impression here the day we…
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I don’t know if I can even put into words how much I love active family travel. We just returned from a New Year’s cruise. It was our first cruise ever and after a week at sea I am slowly getting my land legs back. My heart is still warm from the time spent with family and the many awesome excursions we did together. Swimming with stingrays on a reef just along the coast of Belize rocked. Snorkelling alongside my husband and daughters while stingrays, looking prehistoric and unfazed by our presence, swam just beneath us was something we all…
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By now you know that gifts from the World Vision gift catalogue 2014 matter. They matter to children like these girls who are able to attend school in Colombia thanks to sponsorship and often thanks to donations from the gift catalogue. They matter to the boys in this picture playing soccer and building a healthy outlook for life in an area where drugs, gangs and poverty are very real threats to children. They matter to children you might never meet all over the world in so many countries that need help. Tonight on twitter, we are talking about the impact…
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Johan Espinosa has been linked to World Vision for most of his life. He was sponsored at the age of five and grew up to be sponsorship coordinator in Bucaramanga, Colombia where I visited recently with World Vision Canada. His journey from sponsored child to inspirational leader building futures for sponsored children in Colombia is nothing short of remarkable. His story is a beautiful illustration of what becomes of sponsored children in Colombia. One of Three Brothers Espinosa was one of three brothers. They lived with both parents and their father worked, but they were still barely getting…
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The amazing team of workers we spent the last day with when in Bucaramanga, Colombia. I was there with World Vision Canada to document the work that volunteers do and to share stories of child sponsorship and the impact that makes. What an honour, truly. The Trip It was a trip that puts the world in perspective in many ways and helped me to see advocacy at work on a global perspective for children. I am sharing my journey to Colombia with World Vision Canada here on the blog in a series. You can read Part 1: The Briefing…
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The women of Morales Duque, in the south of Colombia, have gathered us inside a community centre. I am here to listen to their stories, as a representative of World Vision Canada visiting this country of contrasts. They hand us treats, and a traditional Colombian corn drink and a certificate signed by each member, thanking World Vision Canada. I thought I knew what strong resourceful women looked like. I know a lot about strong women in the context of Canada and the United States. I have never had to look far for brilliant female role models. My Mother, my grandmother,…
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People told me I’d be changed after travelling with World Vision Canada. That’s fair, of course and true and yet also trite. Inadequate. Changed Words sometimes are so thin, evasive and even limiting. Changed doesn’t begin to capture the depth or range of emotions that I felt when walking through Asimiflor, a brand new area development program in Bucaramanga, the saddest place I have ever seen children living. My week travelling with World Vision Canada was jam packed with big adventures and interviews and so many stories shared that I will be recounting them for a decade or more. Eye…
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I never thought a soccer ball in Taminango Colombia could make me cry. Let me explain… How Does the Gift of Sports Change Lives? This is what the gift of a soccer ball looks like in Colombia. A team in the middle of a dirt field practising every night. Two young men, sponsored as children, now coaches, committed and clear-headed. Mentors in every way. This is the living breathing outcome of presents from a World Vision gift catalogue. A vulnerable space made into a soccer field in a community where drugs, gangs and crime are extremely big threats to a…