Adventures by Disney- Greece

We did our Greece ABD in 2017 and they've since tweaked the itinerary a little (and added some awesome things!) but I thought I'd share why we loved visiting Greece! 

 

Acropolis Tour It was amazing to visit the ancient citadel high above Athens that is home to historic ruins, including the famed Parthenon.  As always, having a local Greek guide that was full of information made the visit that much more meaningful and educational.  I'll never forget the awe in standing out, looking at Mars Hill, where Paul spoke to the Areopagus. It was an extremely hot day when we visited and the guides made sure everyone had plenty of water... Guide Kacey even had a mister bottle she walked around cooling anyone off that wanted it.  How's that for service?

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• Delphi Another amazing historical stop! We learned more Greek history at the mystical home to the Delphic Oracle and the Temple of Apollo.  The local guide talked us through everything we were seeing and, as usual, I learned SO much more than if I had just been wandering on our own!
  
• Volcano Hike This  “lava walk” on Santorini went to the volcano’s rim and it was an exhilarating hike for sure!  Our local guide taught us all about the formation, volcanic activity, fumeroles, etc and it was worth every step up to be rewarded with the amazing views from the top. 
• Aegean Sea Swim & Natural Springs Everyone loved the dip in the sea!  Some of us spread the mineral mud from the bottom of the natural springs... some of us would rather watch.  But all had fun!
  
• Volcan Winery Great family-owned winery at the base of a mountain.  Delicious wines and a fabulous meal!  They also had a cute underground museum teaching about the history of wine making in the region.  I love that ABD always plans kid-friendly activities during wine tastings as well so adults can listen and enjoy, and the kids get to do their own fun thing!  
  
• Oia Exploration Ahhhh... the iconic Greek town of Oia!  Exploring this small town that offered a cityscape of white and blue-domed houses was everything I had seen in pictures.  The ABD guides knew *just* the right spot for the best photo ops as well and they made sure every family had their iconic visit captured perfectly!
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• Spinalonga Fortress  Beautiful medieval ghost town & fortress that we got to explore at first with a guide, and then more on our own.  This former leper colony is steeped in history and stories, and taking kids here is such a powerful learning opportunity!
• Tsaziki-making We always love a cooking class with ABD!  Making this yogurt-and-cucumber dip was easy to learn and SO good to eat.  
• Kombolói-making Of course, what trip would be complete unless you got to make a cultural craft! We made your own kombolói, or “worry beads” in a private class.  Lots of beautiful beads to choose from and I always love how each of our family members makes the perfect craft that represents their personality.
• Cretan Mountain Village Walk This was probably our favorite activity, and I had totally ignored what the visit to Crete even was!  We got to stroll through the olive groves and see the sights of this rustic village in the Cretan mountains.  The sights, the people, the FOOD... Crete is definitely some place we would visit again. 
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  By: Heather Williams
  Jo@traveltimetravel.com

  
  Let us make your vacation even easier!  We'll help you plan from the start and can advise you and handle your arrangements, including dining, fast passes, room requests, discount application, and celebrations.  We are the same price or less than if you book on your own, and you get us for FREE!  Have an expert on your side at zero cost to you and contact one of our agents today!
  

  
  
  
  

Adventures by Disney- Central Europe

Our Central Europe ABD was one of the greatest metropolitan adventures we've ever done!  Prague was a beautiful city to explore with so much history to learn.  We had some AMAZING food experiences throughout the trip, but one of my favorites was our walking food tour through Prague.  Never have I had so many authentic, delicious bites and I'm really missing the sausages right about now.  

Salzburg was probably my favorite city with beautiful scenery everywhere.  Salzburg was also my favorite stop because our Sound of Music tour was out of this world!  So many movie moments and even a special treat at the gazebo (shhh... can't tell but maybe you can figure it out from the pics!).  We truly enjoyed our dinner at St. Peter Stiftskeller restaurant and loved getting to know our trip mates even better.  One of our Salzburg days, we had to option of hiking to the Ice Cave, or going to a local farm for a cheese making class.  We chose the cheese making and it was the BEST morning ever!  We toured the small family farm, learned how to make cheeses from the farmer's wife, and had an amazing cheese tasting time.  I love that ABD incorporates alternate activities if there's something that might need one.  We chose the cheese making since we had been in Norway and Iceland prior and were ready to not be around ice. Ha! 

Another day in Salzburg was spent in the salt mine (super fun!) and at a local brewery for beer tasting!  If you don't drink, no worries... ABD always makes sure everyone is covered and they offered a number of non-alcoholic drinks including a local lemonade made with hops.  It was delicious!  

We made our way to Vienna for the last few days of our trip. We started our time with a tour of Shonbrunn Palace and a strudel making demonstration.  Absolutely yummy! An evening private after-hours  tour of the Vienna Zoo was really fun, as was the dinner inside the zoo under the Emperor's Pavillion.   The next day was full of more fun with time at the Spanish Riding School (we went inside the stables while everyone else had to watch from behind the glass walls), and a private waltz class with a great teacher.  I was SO proud of my husband and 15yo son for taking part and rocking the waltz!  Definitely will always treasure the memory of waltzing with my hubby in Vienna... and we would have NEVER done that without ABD! 

Something we really appreciated on this particular trip was the amount of on your own time given, especially in Vienna.  There are SO many choices of things to do, or you can just take it easy and take a nap.  YOU get to decide your pace for free time!  We've learned to really value that free time built in.  We've found that when ABD gives you on-your-own time, it's because there's interesting things to see, do, and eat in your location.

By: Heather Williams

Jo@traveltimetravel.com

Let us make your vacation even easier!  We'll help you plan from the start and can advise you and handle your arrangements, including dining, fast passes, room requests, discount application, and celebrations.  We are the same price or less than if you book on your own, and you get us for FREE!  Have an expert on your side at zero cost to you and contact one of our agents today!

Adventures by Disney - San Francisco

I love the Short Escapes offered by ABD!  They offer the perfect taste of an ABD without having to get away for a week or more at a time.  This little whirlwind of San Francisco was the perfect weekend.  Some of our favorite highlights:

     

San Francisco Bay Bike Tour You could pedal along the edge of the Bay and into the Golden Gate National Park Recreation Area for a beautiful tour of the area.  We are not bikers though, but we never worry because we know ABD always plans a good alternate activity.  For this trip, it meant a guided motor-coach tour of the city!  We loved sitting back and relaxing with our family and a few friends and seeing the beautiful city from that vantage point.  

 Golden Gate Bridge Visit The guides made sure we had LOTS of opportunities to get those iconic photos everyone wants when they visit San Francisco!  I love visiting cities with guides who are "in the know" about perfect photo spots because I'm not sure if I would have been able to find them all.  And, there's something to be said for having someone there to take all your photos so you can be IN the pictures too!

 Muir Woods National Monument The giant redwoods towering hundreds of feet above us was breathtaking.  Muir Woods is set up beautifully for an easy hike through the forest and I loved having family free time here to just explore a bit.

   

    Walt Disney Family Museum One of the best curations of Disney knowledge and artifacts I've seen.  This one stop makes the whole trip worthwhile!  You start with a private guided tour which is always valuable in that you learn so much insider information.  After our tour ended, we had free time to either visit the shop, check out more items in the lobby, or revisit.   With tons of information, actual mementos and artifacts from Walt's life as well as Disney in general, and a farewell room that brought tears to my eyes, we actually went through the museum a second time on our own just to take it all in.

      

   Silverado Vineyards What fun we had at this Disney family vineyard in Napa!  The afternoon was full of yummy lunch, beautiful scenery, a great tour of the winery with delicious wine tasting (or alternate drinks if you don't like wine), and we finished up with a SUPER fun grape stomp competition.  We split into teams and rolled up our pants to see who could produce the greatest output and perfect our method.  Those that didn't want to stomp were able to hang back and cheer us on!  Lots of laughs and I'm not sure how productive we actually were, but it was fun working with trip mates to perfect our strategy!

 Yoda Fountain Photo Op at Lucasfilm Of course we loved the stop at this iconic fountain, and we loved our little private tour of the Lucasfilm offices.  Loads of memorabilia to snap pics with... Darth Vader or Ninja Turtles anyone?!

By: Heather Williams

Jo@traveltimetravel.com

Let us make your vacation even easier!  We'll help you plan from the start and can advise you and handle your arrangements, including dining, fast passes, room requests, discount application, and celebrations.  We are the same price or less than if you book on your own, and you get us for FREE!  Have an expert on your side at zero cost to you and contact one of our agents today!

Review- ICE at Gaylord Palms, Orlando, Florida

ICE at Gaylord Palms

Below freezing temperatures in Florida? Not a chance right? While you would think no, the answer is actually YES! Well, if you visit ICE at Gaylord Palms, that is. Below is my review of the ICE spectacular as it took place in 2018.

The theme is A Christmas Story. The iconic tale of a young boy who wants a Red Rider BB Gun for Christmas.. But you know what they say.. You’ll shoot your eye out! 

A Christmas Story sign

My family and I went to Gaylord Palms on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. While Disney and Universal were packed to the brim, ICE was empty. This was the PERFECT weekend to go! We decided to stay on site for one night. The hotel was amazing from its decorations to its staff and we are so glad we got the opportunity to take it all in!

I requested an early check in for 8:30 am with an Atrium view room. To my surprise I was notified that my room was ready before we even got to the hotel. What a nice surprise to be able to bring my bags upstairs and not have to worry about dealing with obtaining them in-between activities.

Our schedule looked something like this:

10:00 am Story time and cookies with Mrs. Claus

11:00 am meet the big man on campus, Santa Claus

12:00 pm was a break for lunch

1:00 pm snow tubing

2:00 pm view the ice sculptures

3:00 pm Build a Bear holiday treats

4:00 pm gingerbread cookie decorating with the gingerbread man

5:00 pm Santa’s Snow Throw

5:30 pm Reindeer Post Office to write our letters to Santa and confirm what we asked for earlier

6:00 pm Dinner

7:30 pm Christmas Tress Stroll, Scavenger Hunt and cirque De Soleil Dream of Christmas Light Show

8:30 pm Sugary Sweet Story Time with the Sugar Plum Fairy

Phew, are you tired yet? Believe me, I am exhausted just typing out this schedule and we thought for sure the kids would be dead by the end of dinner on this kind of schedule.

Of a special note, much like Disney, you can buy an ICE photopass. It is $99 for unlimited photos. It is good from the day you buy it until the last day of ICE so use it! We bought it and in 1 day they took 60 pictures on it.

I am pleased to report that we waiting in next to NO lines and by 11 am we had completed Story time, Santa, tubing and lunch. In fact, we had allotted 1 hour for tubing during the day. The kids went back all day long to go down those slopes. For Florida babies this is as close as they were getting to real runs and they had the best time!

Meeting Mrs Clause and Snowflake

Mrs. Claus read the children ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas with her elf helper, Snowflake. If any of you have seen Frozen Sing A Long at Hollywood Studios, Snowflakes’ act was much like the Royal Historians. It was such fun! Adults and Children were given chocolate chip cookies and milk to enjoy during the story.

 

A special talk with Santa

Santa was one of a kind. He spent individual time with each child and made sure we got lots of pictures to take home. He also took multiple family photos and nobody felt rushed despite their being other people in line behind us. He even gave each child a good luck token with his picture on it to take home.

Family pic with Santa

The actual Christmas Story ice sculptures were amazing! The detail that goes into this exhibit is like no other. See photos below for just how awesome it really is!

Christmas Story Ice Sculptures

      Build a Bear has a pop-up shop set up right outside of Santa so be sure to be prepared for that! They do not honor coupons but do honor Build a Bear gift cards. This trip each of the kids was allowed to get 1 holiday theme friend to bring home.

 

Ugly sweater cookie

The sweet shop offers multiple different options for gingerbread decorating from houses to men to ugly sweaters. We chose the sweaters as 6 came to a box and that meant one for each of us.

We ended the night with the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Nutcracker Prince reenacting the Nutcracker story. This was very entertaining and a fun interactive way to get the kids involved with some songs. All adults and children were provided with Sugar Plum flavored hot chocolate in a fun take home glass mug.

All in all, the ICE spectacular was just that, spectacular. We are already looking forward to next year and we can’t find to find out what the theme will be!

"I double dog dare you!"

By: Rachel Hollingsworth

Rachel@traveltimetravel.com

Let us make your vacation even easier!  We'll help you plan from the start and can advise you and handle your arrangements, including dining, fast passes, room requests, discount application, and celebrations.  We are the same price or less than if you book on your own, and you get us for FREE!  Have an expert on your side at zero cost to you and contact one of our agents today!