Rob 0:01
Hello, and welcome back to the rad dads podcast, the podcast by dads and for dads. I’m your host, Robert Schilt, joined by my co host Salvatore Minervini,
Sal: Paid co host
Rob 0:10
Paid co host my pennies and bourbon and maybe a cigar this episode we’re gonna be talking about family vacations, we understand it’s COVID-19. And we understand most people will not be taking a vacation unless you’re driving to the shore and maybe renting a shore house or driving to a lake house, something like that. But we want to kind of look at, you know, the future and something better than then what we’re experiencing right now
Sal 0:33
Or places you’ve been,
Rob 0:35
Or places you’ve been. So while I was younger, and before I got married, or probably before I kids, I enjoyed going to the Caribbean, I would say right now going to the Caribbean wouldn’t be my number one destination unless it was like a family resort like a high end or you know, maybe like paradise island, Bahamas. But I think one of the more favorite places I’ve been recently with with my kids and my family is Great Wolf Lodge, and Disney. So Sal, you’ve had experience with both of those. What’s your take on them?
Sal 1:08
As far as vacation wise, once a year vacation is a must in my house. We break our we break our humps all year. And we look forward to that, you know, one to two week vacation, just to get away and relax and you want to call Disney a relaxing vacation.
Rob 1:22
That’s not relaxing at all. I mean, how many times have you been to Disney?
Sal 1:26
I love going on vacation, especially now that my kids are nine, nine and 11. But Disney my kids have seen Disney five times. And I am fucking done with Disney. Well before you say holy shit five times. People usually go once I have family that lives in Orlando. And I also have a timeshare, which is 10 minutes away from the Disney parks. So we saved a ton on hotels and resorts by either staying with family or staying at a resort. And contrary to popular belief. It is not the most magical place.
Rob 1:59
Oh, come on. Why not?
Sal 2:01
All I hear parents yelling is no stop. We’re not buying that you don’t need another stuffed animal. We don’t need that one. We don’t want a goofy hat. Come on, Mom, please. And plus, depending on what time of year you go, if you go in August, God bless you. It is the hottest time of year in Florida. And is worse time to be there. You’re standing on line for hours to go on rides. And no thanks.
Rob 2:26
Setting the expectation with your kids, right. But it’s then getting overwhelmed with everything that’s going on. So for the first time experience, a lot of people do you know, the breakfast is with the princesses or the lunch. I don’t know we didn’t do a lot of Princess stuff. But we did go to the beauty and the beast breakfast where you know, it was more you know, you had to have a reservation, you got to park early, you could walk around, but you’re gonna go on rides. And that was fun that that was a unique experience. I actually never did that before. But five times, five friggin times. So, I mean, I would say by going five times with children, you’re probably an expert. So why don’t you give us some tips
Sal 3:07
If Look, if you plan it right. If you go the right time of year, which is early on February, March, when it’s not hot, it’s doable. But you got a plan, plan, plan plan. Don’t go down there trying to wing it. You need reservations for pretty much all the restaurants. If you go down here thinking, Oh, I’m staying at this hotel and blah, blah, blah, we can walk in and have a party of five No, ain’t gonna happen at least two weeks prior or three weeks prior to you guys heading out to Disney called make reservations. I know that’s kind of tough because you’re going to play by ear on how your day goes with the kids. What time we’re going to get back to the resort. You plan that you tell the kids Hey, we’re going to leave first thing in the morning. We’re going to catch breakfast on the way we got to be back at the hotel resort whatever. at six o’clock, we got 630 reservations or seven o’clock reservations. But plan plan plan is what I can tell you
So want to hear something funny. So my wife did all the planning did all day setting everything up. And that plan lasted all of five minutes we got there. And I looked at when we were going to do what resorts and trying to figure out when the resorts opened early. And what she didn’t realize is because you were staying on a Disney Resort. So this is one tip. If you’re staying on a Disney Resort, you can actually get into the amusement parks an hour early but that hour early alternates by day so one day it’s Magic Kingdom one day it’s Animal Kingdom one day it’s Epcot you want to align your days and your passes to those early hours.
Yeah, but I think that’s based on the package that you buy. So I mean, I’m gonna be honest with you. My wife did all the the planning for Disney. She did all the research she did all the wheeling and dealing. At one point we had reservations at multiple resorts because she was trying to get the best price for us.
So that that I’ve heard too from from a bunch of people. But the thing with the amusement parks is it’s that static. What comes into play is your hopper when you buy that Hopper, so have your hoppers for three days, those three days, you have to make sure you’re going to those parks. Yeah, I’ll tell you what young kids, Epcot is probably something you could skip, or pretty much doing a morning we pretty much tackled all the rides in that first hour. And then went on a couple country rides. Because Epcot, if you remember going into Epcot, all those major rides are before you get into into the country to loop so you can tap if you’re quick. And you know what you want to get to, you could get through all of them. And then you can go to whatever country rides if you want to go to one of them. I think some of the countries have some roller coasters or something like that, you can do that. But for us, we got through all of them. We were done with that. And we ended up at Morocco for lunch because we didn’t figure out where we wanted to go beforehand. And just pick a random country and at one on their lunchenettes,
Wear comfortable shoes and comfortable clothes. You’re definitely gonna need it because there’s a lot of walking so our favorite spot hands down, you’re gonna say well you have you have a timeshare watch that timeshare we wanted to see what the experience was like on Disney property. So one year my wife multiple reservations and multiple resorts try and get the best deal. So we wound up staying one year at the beach club, and the following year the yacht club they’re joined when I tell you the way you’re treated on Disney property is amazing. They actually really care how your day went or how your day is gonna go through really nice people the beach in yacht is on man made lagoon which is connected to a bunch of different other resorts. One of them which is the swan, another one I believe is ABC something
Rob 6:43
so is the swan, the one that has the character dinner or breakfast
Sal 6:48
thing they all do, because the beach and Yacht Club, they had a character dinner because
Rob 6:52
I know that was one of the big things is one of the resorts. That’s right next to I think it’s Magic Kingdom has actually a character buffet and the characters come out and they do it. Not all of them do. So we stayed at Disney port Orleans resort Riverside. Pretty cool, because there were like five different areas. Each area was a little bit different flavor of New Orleans. So one was the bayou one was like Bourbon Street one was something else. That was really nice. And that one’s pretty wallet friendly, too. From what I understand. I have no idea I’d my wife, like just like yours. My wife did a lot of this research. The closer you get to Magic Kingdom, the more expensive it’s going to be right. And some of the things are worth it. We wanted to go to I believe it’s the animal resorts, which is apparently like you get a tree house and you kind of
Sal 6:52
Oh, Iknow what that is. I think they since closed it down.
Rob 7:41
Oh, that’s awesome.
Sal 7:42
There’s a great barbecue restaurant in there, too.
Yeah, you went there, right?
Yeah,did the best experience you asked the waitressfor ketchup
Rob 7:50
for ketchup yeah you told me this.
Sal 7:52
And then she asked you to scream it at the top of your lungsfor ketchup
Rob 7:56
the animal kingdom Lodge.That’s what it’s called.
Sal 7:59
So they asked for you to scream catch up the top of your lungs. And then you get every single ketchup bottle in the restaurant. People from other tables, bring the ketchup bottles to your table. It was freaking awesome. The waiters, the waitresses, they entertained the customers and it was so much fun.
And then what the one thing I will say that we definitely used and we felt was valuable was the endless cups. So you got those mugs. I don’t know what the price is, but it was worth it. Whatever it was, the more I filled it up with coffee in the afternoon water or soda or iced tea, whatever it was. But you had those you filled them up whenever you went through the canteen. You filled them up and at least with I think my sons were four and six or four and seventh time. I’ll tell you going to the amusement parks. They lasted about we got to each amusement park like I was saying it like 8am they lasted about till 12 to one and then they kind of got burnt down since you had the hopper, you’d come back. So what we would end up doing is we would go go back to the hotel, go to the pool. And then if they wanted to go back, we’d go back. If not, then we’d hang out. But some nights we had activities like we did the Peter Pan one that takes you on the boat through the lagoon.
Oh yeah,
Rob 9:12
that one was really cool. It starts out at at one of the hotels. Smitty. There Captain Hawk, Peter Pan. I think that’s it from the characters. And it starts out with like, a dinner some desserts, and then you take this boat ride, you see the fireworks come back, you get to get pictures with the characters. That was that was probably one of my more favorite things we did because it was it was definitely the kids enjoyed it. I probably enjoyed it as much as they did, to be honest. So I think that’s what definitely one experiences, I think. Also the other thing you have to realize is if you have younger kids, some of the things aren’t going to resonate like we went to animal kingdom. my four year old at the time, he was four didn’t want to do the dyno stuff because it was scary. I
Sal 9:54
think that’s why we went five times because it never resonated with my kids. So we finally figured the fifth time would resonate.
Rob 10:02
Sal just got a look. That was great, perfect timing.
Sal 10:05
I think he’s everything. Love you, honey.
Rob 10:09
So besides Disney, so I’m trying to think of anything else that was really like Disney specific. Listen, Disney does a great job. When you get there, you get on the Disney bus that takes you right to the resort. We really didn’t wait to get into our room, it was pretty quick place we went, which is Riverside, they had multiple pools on the bay pool was great, but each little section had their own pool. So if you wanted something that was less intrusive, or if you wanted something that was a little bit more private, there’s probably only one or two other families there and you can go hang out there and we did that a couple times because it was closer. The other thing I will say is right before we went unfortunately a child was was snagged by an alligator died. The father tried to save him, but it was unsuccessful, especially in the New Orleans area where if if you know anything about New Orleans, New Orleans has a ton of gators outside of outside of it in the bayou. Any of those lagoons there are there are gators there. And there are signs that say it. But I think what parents need to and dads need to and moms need to understand is if keep an eye on your kids can’t have the kids down by down by the lagoons. Yeah, playing in the water or even walk. So every time we walked we would stand to the side the furthest away from the lagoon and I would pretty much be on my guard to make sure my children weren’t anywhere near it. And God forbid that would have happened. I didn’t have to experience it. But you have to do what you have to do and you’re kind of walking next to your kids to make sure that doesn’t happen. And listen, I probably wouldn’t have thought about that before what happened happened. So you know, unfortunately it happened to a family if you go keep an eye out because there are signs everywhere that says there’s gators here I didn’t see any I don’t think honestly I can’t remember and I think if if I would have seen one it would stick in my memory but just uh just some advice forthe parents out there
Sal 11:55
We we went after that happened and Disney put up all kinds of signage and ropes right by the lagoon. But prior to that, they kind of almost treated the lagoon in certain areas like a beach area where you can sit on a beach chair and
Rob 12:10
I think that’s where it happened if I’m not mistaken.
Sal 12:13
Yes,
Rob 12:13
that’s even worse.
Sal 12:15
Yep.But being there as many times as I’ve been I’ve never seen a gator in the lagoon never. So when we stay at the beach and Yacht Club, we use the water taxi which is right out the back door of the beach in Yacht Club that takes us to the parks. And that’s another thing I like about it. You don’t have to leave the resort you leave the resort but no cars you can have a water taxi and go where we went. You can walk to Epcot. That’s how close it was. Oh, wow.
Rob 12:40
It’s pretty cool. And then Downtown Disney I don’t know if for anybody who hasn’t been there
Sal 12:44
Disney springs
Rob 12:45
It is now Disney Springs. That’s what I was trying to look up real quick on what it was called. Now Disney Springs. It’s a money hole. You will spend a couple hundred dollars easily there. There are good restaurants there though. There are some decent good restaurants thing. Morimoto has a restaurant there. There’s an Irish Pub.
Sal 13:01
Gloria Stefan Coco bongos. Yes.
Rob 13:03
Coco. Bongos. That’s right. There’s a great number of restaurants down there that you could look up
Sal 13:09
We’ve been there so many times to Disney that we’ve seen the transformation from when it was called Downtown Disney to what is called Disney Springs. Now parking back then there was no parking. It was terrible. They’ve got parking garages. They have live music. If you’re looking for stuff to do at nighttime after the parks or if you feel you’re done with the barge and you don’t want to do the parks. I highly recommend going down to Disney Springs. If you like cigars and get yourself a nice cigar. They got a nice cigar shop there. But it is a nice place bars restaurants.
Rob 13:39
I didn’t know there’s a cigar place there look I learned something new,
Sal 13:41
great place to bring the kids there’s a movie theater
Rob 13:44
That I did know. I mean,
Sal 13:45
I think there is Circus du Soleil.
Rob 13:48
They just filed for bankruptcy. Because
Sal 13:51
Disregard
Rob 13:52
I mean, they still may be there. I know. The way bankruptcy filings work. I think we beat Disney to a pulp tons of options. But I would definitely say I’ve been there a bunch of times throughout my lifetime. But once as a parent and I think the experience I was there when I was in high school and one play at least three or four times I went or as I I went through my high school years I went three or four times I was a senior in high school once I went after graduating college like in my early 20s and then I’ve been there since kids. It’s a different experience every time that that’s for sure. But I will say probably my favorite is with the kids because you get to see them like they love it. They just enjoy
Sal 14:32
Its all about making memories.
Rob 14:33
Yep,
Sal 14:34
Thats what it is all about
Rob 14:34
They just enjoy it. But I mean again, like I touched on earlier it’s setting the precedent before you go in is you’re not getting five hats. You’re not getting something and every world. You can get one thing Little Timmy everyone’s gonna be a little Timmy. Now, you’re gonna do one thing. And you have to decide that you know, telling a four and six year olds one thing, it’s a little bit harder when they’re younger, but as they get up as higher single digits and then preteens. It’s more It’s a much easier conversation. They still may not listen but at least but then you get the attitude. Yeah. And I get the I think Disney we did a good job covering now Is there any other other places your family likes likes to go to so
Sal 15:12
my wife and I we made a commitment we since this whole Disney debacle we are committed to vacationing at a new spot every year. I keep hearing about this place in Aruba. Think the Radisson used to own it. My brother was there he says great family spot very family friend friendly. The weather is phenomenal. The food is fantastic. Aruba is on our radar, Bahamas is on our radar. I’m trying to actually which my wife won’t do but the kids are all for renting an RV. I want to I want to rent an RV in the worst way and hit the West Coast hit like the Grand Canyon or or Yosemite or Yellowstone. That’s something I would love to do. But trying to convince them it’s been we’ve
Rob 15:56
We’ve been talking about we were supposed to we had two vacations planned this year, one’s a new spot for us. The other one actually was a new spot for us as a family that my wife really wants to go there, which is New Orleans. And I think now that’s not really a kid spot. But you’re talking, you know, April ish, right after Easter. It’s not really a bad place. But you’re obviously not going to be hanging out on Bourbon Street, you’re going to be you know, going to the other places, the local places doing more of like the plantation tour or the bayou tour or take the boat down the Mississippi so that that I wanted to do and experiencing the food and what New Orleans has to offer. It’s definitely been there once it’s an amazing city. It’s beautiful. But my wife has been wanting to go there for years and we don’t feel comfortable leaving our kids anywhere. The other place we wanted to go was Paradise Island. I’ve been there over 10 times we bought a timeshare my parents have a timeshare.
Sal 16:42
So your Paradise Island is my Disney
Rob 16:45
Exactly. It’s grown over the years. You know, when I originally went there, it was just the two towers connected with that with that bridge, that iconic bridge that that rents for like $40,000 a night or whatever it is. But now going as a family is a much different experiences going as a teenager, going to the club and having a good time with your younger brother. It’s more about engaging your kids in it and they do actually a really good job. So when I started going there, they didn’t really have a kids club. You know, all the kids like you go on vacation, the kids end up meeting each other and hanging out anyway.
Sal 17:16
Right? You’re talking about the Atlantis
the Atlantis now they have a kids club data teen club as we got older but for us we had been going there so long that the team called de makes sense for us and we kind of knew what we wanted to do. We had a good time. I would like to go back let my kids experience that. That would be fun. There’s waterslides there’s lazy two lazy rivers. I mean, rock climbing amazing.
The Atlantis is gorgeous. That’s one thing my wife and I did when our one year anniversary. It’s not cheap. So that’s why we said we’ll do it for our one year anniversary. wouldn’t know when we were going to do it next. I was actually amazed when we were there. There was an insurance company who had their thousand top sellers and their entire family they were hosting.
Rob 17:58
That’s awesome.
Sal 17:59
anyone listening if you ever priced out of Atlantis, that’s crazy. That’s crazy.
It’s definitely a place as expensive. We are fortunate enough to have a timeshare but we’ve had a timeshare since they’ve opened
You want a Disney timeshare, you want to switch
Rob 18:11
No definitely not agree actually talking about that off air about timeshares and how that works. So we’re lucky it’s definitely a beautiful place.
Sal 18:19
Don’t buy a timeshare.
Rob 18:20
It’s tough because you can’t always get there and now of COVID no one’s getting there. So I’m not getting on an airplane anytime soon. I think your RV idea is probably the best idea or go camping, which is entertaining
Sal 18:30
About RV you kind of control your environment.
Rob 18:34
Yeah
Sal 18:34
Prior, if you’re renting an RV, of course Yeah. Before you put the family and your things in it. You’re gonna wipe it down sanitize everything to make sure that it’s to your liking.
Rob 18:43
And there’s a bunch of companies that actually do that. And they’re actually they’re booming right now because everyone’s doing or renting
Sal 18:49
Not only rentals, but sales.
Rob 18:51
Yeah, sales.
Sal 18:52
Rv sales have skyrocketed. Yep. Amazing.
Rob 18:56
So I honestly it’s one thing we talked about doing too, but if you rent an RV you have to figure out where you’re gonna where you’re gonna get a
Sal 19:03
Plot your Destination
Rob 19:04
Yeah, your plot your destinations and figure out where you’re gonna stop. That’s definitely an idea. It’s one thing to do. And you know, it keeps the family out of anything. That’s not like, I’m not going to hotel. There’s no way I’m going to hotel anytime soon
Sal 19:16
Like I said, you control your environment.
Rob 19:17
Yeah,
Sal 19:18
Most people would RVs go to campgrounds. Yep. What are you gonna have? You’ll have some camping chairs. You have a fire pit and you’re sleeping inside the RV. When I pitched the idea to my wife and my kids. I’ve been pitching this to my wife for years years. No. Well, my kids heard. We can watch TV and sit in the back on the couch and lay down in the RV while you’re driving. I said yeah,
Rob 19:40
it’s not cheap either, though. Have you looked at them? There’s a expensive as a hotel.
Sal 19:44
Yeah. I think a lot more
Rob 19:45
Yeah, some of them are more
Sal 19:47
Years ago. I think I looked at the price. And I think it was like 3200 bucks for a week.
Rob 19:55
Right now would pay it. You have to vacation. You have to do something you have to get out and I don’t know, it’s tough right now it’s I’m trying to figure out I’m taking a day here in a day there. But that’s not a vacation. That’s just like resetting yourself, right? You know, you want to be able to spend time with your family and have a vacation. I agree. You have to do one major vacation a year. But I know a lot of people’s opinions is well with COVID I’m home already. So what am I gonna take a week? You know what I want to take a week problem is you should take a week because this is not going to end doesn’t look like it’s gonna end.
Sal 20:24
So you need to disconnect you need to put if you got your work laptop, turn nothing off. Put it in the closet. And don’t look at it for a week. Yeah, you need to disconnect. Connect with your kids. Yeah, you’re home with the kids. And you hear them in the background fighting giggling, whatever. But there’s no there’s no bond there. You’re not doing like, you know, you’re not playing a game with them. Or you’re not in the backyard swimming in the pool, dunking them and throwing them.
Rob 20:48
Yeah,
Sal 20:49
So it’s different. We have to once a year go on a vacation.
Did you guys decide where you’re going this year?
Yes, we’re going to go to my summer house, which is attached to my winter house.
So that’s the pool in the backyard.
Yeah, we got to pull so I mean, other than a day trip to the beach, you know, that’s about it.
Now with the new numbers. We’re not going anywhere.
Our state New Jersey, if you are traveling to New Jersey from I think there’s a list of eight or 12 states.
Rob 21:14
Yeah, they keeps growing now
Sal 21:16
It’s a mandatory 14 day quarantine, North Carolina, South Carolina are on there. There’s a lot of South Carolina, Florida, Arizona, is a bunch of but if you come to New Jersey from any of those states, it’s a mandatory to a 14 day quiet,
we may do a shore house in New Jersey not keen on that either. It may not be a bad idea to rent an RV Sal saying like, you know, everyone disconnect. I know it’s hard for some people. If you disconnect, you disconnect. And if it’s an emergency, call me, that’s fine. I’ll have my phone, but I’m not gonna be in a place where I can actually do anything about it. So I can give you my input. I can my suggestions. I’ll have my computer, but I’m probably not by it. And now with COVID everyone’s home and your by your computer. Now is the case where if you’re taking a vacation, you really should be taking a vacation. I mean, you got to survive.
You got to disconnect. Yeah, if you really want a vacation to vacation, even staying home, just you tell your boss whomever Hey, I’m done. But emergency like said, Yeah, give a shout. phone call away. But to really decompress. Turn it off disconnect with the family
as much as you can. I think that’s one of the things I love about hiking or hiking and camping, hiking. Most of the places you go hiking, you don’t get service.
Yep.
Rob 22:30
So you’re alone with the people you’re with. Whatever you’re carrying, and that’s it camping. So I went to my my buddy from college has a campsite out in the middle of Pennsylvania somewhere I’ve no idea where we went there, there’s no service. And now when you drive around and you go to some of the restaurants, yeah, sometimes you’ll pick up or they have Wi Fi that you can access. You’re there and you’re hanging out. You’re drinking you’re having a cigar you just chillin by the fire. You can’t
Sal 22:58
So you’re not streaming any like, Pandora,
Rob 23:01
Nothing. There’s not you’re just hanging out with those guys. So you’re chit chat, and you’re talking about everything that’s going on, you’re talking about a family’s, you know, kind of exchanging ideas. They’re just fun. It’s fun to get disconnect that way. And really like, you know, even like just being back in nature is awesome. And that’s what you know, we’ve talked about
Sal 23:19
Something, something I do, and I’ve been doing probably eight or nine years running a bunch of guys that I grew up with, for the most part every February. Usually it’s usually towards the end of February, beginning of March. We do a weekend camping trip. We go to a same spot in Jersey, Friday night, Saturday night, come home Sunday and it’s disconnecting, we’re eating we’re hiking, smoking cigars, shooting the shit, but it’s it’s decompressing. It’s getting away. It’s just sitting around a campfire and just you know sipping sipping your favorite drink your beer, bourbon, whatever. It’s fun, it’s relaxing. And we look forward to it every year. I mean think it’s not this year will be nine years. That’s crazy. Yeah, that’s all coming year will be nine years
Rob 24:06
We did something like that in college. We used to go every year to one of my buddies cabins. I love it. I actually thought you went to Pennsylvania because that’s my air all the campsites I always think of are in Pennsylvania
Sal 24:16
When I when I’d say winter camping, it’s a cabin. We have a wood burning stove inside inside the cabin. For the most part we’re outside all day. We cook breakfast, but we cook everything outside because you’re not allowed to cook anything inside the cabin. nightfall we go inside, we we turn the lanterns on turn the wood burning stove on and we play cards, we listen to some music. Bullshit, you know, it’s um, it’s fun. It’s a really good time. But if there’s anyone listening and you want to, you know, share with us places that you’ve been and some of the experiences you’ve had, we’d love to hear it.
Rob 24:46
Yeah, definitely. So is there any other places besides the Aruba and the Bahamas that you talked about is a good family vacation spot that you’ve been to
Sal 24:53
That I’ve been to I mean, we’ve done Kalahari in Pennsylvania it’s a war it’s a waterpark, 200 and some odd thousand square feet of water parks. It’s fun. It’s not cheap. My kids love it now, especially now that they’re taller can go on majority of the rides.
Rob 25:08
Yeah.
Sal 25:08
Whereas when we first started going, I think we’ve been there four times. We first started going they were limited to the amount of rides if they go on but now now that they’re taller, it’s a fun while you go to Great Wolf Lodge.
Rob 25:20
Yeah, we went to Great Wolf Lodge, we we loved it. I think we went probably a couple of days too long because we went for a full week. So that’s the other thing I would say is if you’re going to go to Great Wolf Lodge, car Kalahari or places like that, I would suggest doing like a four day three, three night because I think that’s ample amount of time. Because there’s only one thing to do you go to the waterpark, so it’s only
Sal 25:31
Or arcades
Rob 25:41
or arcade. So how much are you really going to spend there I think, you know, one or two days for the full days for the kid. So remember the day you check. And typically those places are not it’s not Disney, you’re not getting to your room, immediately you’re getting
Sal 25:53
No,
Rob 25:53
There’s a line, it’s the check in it’s it’s much different customer experience. And then the day you leave, you’re traditionally leaving in the morning. So twice a four day three night and just get out of there, you have two full days there. It’s a fun time when the first day the kids figure out what they like second day, that’s pretty much all they’re doing. And they enjoy it. My two boys loved it wanted to go back this year, and we pulled the plug because of everything that’s going on. But we will definitely be back. Because it’s a lot of fun. I know my older guy loves the water so that you know, that’s why we choose places like that. So if your kids enjoy swimming or enjoy water slides, I would highly recommend one of those places or a place like it. So I don’t have any other places that I would recommend the only other things I know there’s like Hyatt family vacations, which I did when I was a kid, all the kids would go there they do this exercise. Yeah, they do the activities.
Sal 26:42
Sounds like fun
Rob 26:42
And the parents would do whatever they want. It’s nice.
Sal 26:45
I would I would I would never do that. I we’ve been to so many places where Oh yeah, just leave your kids saying. I don’t know you.
Rob 26:54
Yeah,
Sal 26:54
And I don’t know anyone else in here. And I’m gonna leave my No, no, sorry.
Rob 26:57
Yeah. So see, there you go. There’s difference of opinion. We asked him when we different I would say listen, when I was a kid, and we did it, it was fine. But then again, that was 30 years ago now. So it’s a little bit different world. Now I may watch and make sure it’s good. But I know on cruise ships, they do that they have like the kids area and they allow the kids there and you know, the parents go and do whatever they want. I also know at some other resorts that they have babysitters that will come to your room, which I’m not not really comfortable with, I’d rather send them to a place where like they’re 10 other kids and you know, they kind of know what’s going on, then again, thinking with my kids to the point I’m going on vacation to spend time with them. So if you need a break, or your wife needs a break one person, watch the kids goes gets a drink or does whatever.
Sal 27:39
That’s another benefit. When I when we were going to Disney, my sister in law is that 30 minutes from our resort, we would either go see them for a day, or they would come up to us for a day. And she would tell us if you know they came to see us then my mother in law was with us. My mom would watch the kids and then all the adults would go out we go down to Downtown Disney.
Rob 27:59
Yeah.
Sal 28:00
And that’s hanging out at the bars and restaurants.
Rob 28:02
We when we went to Disney, my mom joined us for a couple days. And that was nice. But I think we’re we’ve kind of beat that to a pulp. I think if if anybody has a vacation spot that you want to like bounce off us or tell us about and we can share with with our followers. That’d be great. We’d love to hear from you.
Sal 28:17
I’m always looking for a new place to go. Let us let us know your experience how you liked it. We’re always up to try new things
Rob 28:25
For dad Lesson number four. If your children are in Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, right
Sal 28:29
Girl Scouts, my daughter did it. Yep,
Rob 28:31
one of the ideas or one of the things that Sal did was uses lead weight lead tire weights for the pine Derby cars. One of the things I did was, which was very interesting is I use the circular weights, put them on top and then put weights at the bottom. So they looked like you know engine shooting fire out the back like it was like the Batman. Right. That’s what I envisioned. And then so it pushed it down. They drilled them into it. And then at the bottom, I put additional weights on it. Now listen, I’m not the most handy guy and it didn’t look amazing, but we took fourth.
Sal 29:02
So it’s all that matters, right?
Rob 29:05
Yeah, there’s something right and it was the only place It was the only area Boy Scouts is great. If you do the pine Derby, it’s fun. The parents do most of the work. The kids have fun in what happens is you know they get competitive. They were definitely talking some smack for six and eight year olds or whatever they were. But it was fun. They had a good time. It’s when it when those pine derby happens. It’s great,
Sal 29:26
but it’s bonding that you can i mean i bonded with my daughter when I was doing it with her it’s it’s time well spent. Yeah. No you you introduce them to tools like power tools and yes, my daughter and power tools and and the weights and stuff.
Rob 29:39
Definitely. You know my son had a good time doing it and then we painted it. We took some spray paint spray paint and downstairs and we enjoyed it.
Sal 29:46
I think that’s pretty much a wrap. Thank you everyone for listening. Be sure to tune in to our next episode where we talk about when to stop big birthday parties or huge gatherings. If you like what you heard, share with someone you like or maybe someone that you dislike You have any questions comments? Definitely would love to hear on your vacation spots. Give us some feedback. Hit us up at theRADdadsshow@gmail.comSo thats a wrap
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