JiHi wants us to take TheBoys (age 8/10 now) (and Number Three) somewhere for Spring Break (last-wk March, 1st-wk April - Mar23 is Easter) - just 4 days (plus travel days)

Goals

• sun, fresh air

• variety of things to do

• decent EatIng

• reasonable travel time: so [West Coast] not good idea

Philadelphia: I think we should do this, but she doesn't think it's "enough" of a difference from regular life.

[Myrtle Beach], [SC]? high-temp 74deg

• http://travelwithkids.about.com/cs/vacationssoutheast/a/myrtlebeach.htm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magiquest

Florida - high temp ~80deg, not sure that's warm enough for lots of pool time; [Theme Park]-s are really busy. Flight-time=3hr.

• [Sea World]

• [Universal Resorts]

• [Disney World]

  • http://blogs.bootsnall.com/Seafarer/survivors-guide-to-walt-disney-world-intro.html

• [ClubMed] - Sandpiper location http://travelwithkids.about.com/od/holidays/ss/Valentines_Day_3.htm - $7500.

• [Nick Hotel] - they might be too old already

• costs

  • hotel suite for $300/night

  • $250/person airfare

  • $200/person multi-park ticket

  • food: $60/day/person?

  • rental car $700

  • so that's hitting over $6k

Las Vegas - high temp ~77deg. Flight too far. Too stupid a city.

(Ugh, kids don't have passports yet.)

Other [ClubMed] locations?

• want locations that have the [Mini Club Med] services for kids.

• Cancun: flight-time=4.5hrs: $11k?!?!?

• [Punta Cana] ([Dominican Republic]): flight-time=4hrs (or 7hrs): $4600 room/board, $6600 total (incl air, room, board, everything) (ouch they show 8hrs going, 4hrs returning) (or can pay $500/person to get 4hrs in both directions)

• Guadeloupe: flight-time=6+hrs

Bahamas, Jamaca, etc.

• Atlantis: $2000 for room-only; [JetBlue] flies direct to Nassau (3hr, $300/person)

  • holy crap they don't have Broad Band in the rooms. Service is available at the Beach Tower lobby, Coral Lounge in the Coral Towers lobby, Plato's Lounge in the Royal Towers lobby and all pool decks at Atlantis and Harborside.

• Sheraton [Cable Beach]: suites sold out, would have to get 2 rooms so overpriced

• Beaches Turks&Caicos: $4100 for all-inclusive resort; $600/person air (to get 3.5hr flight times, or pay less to end up with some insane flight times)

• Beaches Jamaica:

  • Boscobel sold out?

  • Negril $3300 resort; $300/person air (6.5hrs each way)

• Breezes Curacao: 6.5hrs each way

Trying to close details on Atlantis

• [JetBlue]: go Wed Mar26 (lv 11:25am), return Mon Mar31 (lv 11:20am)

  • ouch comes out to almost $500/person - ah, very date-dependent (of course) - they don't automate the process of finding a cheaper date, but do give you easy links to try prev/next dates for either leg

  • coming back a day (Apr1) later knocked it down to $300/person (direct each way)

• Atlantis

  • just added that extra day: now seeing $4800 for room?!?! and $6000 for a "package" that doesn't seem to include anything else pre-paying taxes and surcharges?

    • Taxes: 12%. Utility surcharge + maid tips: $11.50/person/day! Optional "travel insurance" gives you some cancel/change capabilities in case something bad comes up.

  • Mar26-Apr01: $6000 pkg (Reef, Harbor Suite - king bed in 1 room, sleeper sofa in other, 1000sf)

  • Mar27-Apr02: $5058 pkg (Reef, Studio Ocean View - same bed types, but single big room, 520sf)

  • Mar28-Apr03: same as prev

  • Mar29-Apr04: ah, adds some much cheaper: $2700 for a [Coral Terrace] 300sf room (but still king plus sleeper). And kept the low [JetBlue] price. Done.

    • had to close the deal by phone (888-528-7155), because their reservations website went down!

Getting Passport For Kids

Considered Changing Kids Names

Settling details for while at Atlantis

• staying in [Coral Tower]

• want reservations for initial meals

  • hmm lots of fancier places are dinner-only: we were hoping to save money and crowds by doing those for lunch...

  • Sat dinner: Carmine's - argh, they don't take reservations unless you have 6+ people. [Chop Stix] has nothing until 9pm. Woman says go to "casual" places, which don't take reservations, before 7pm, and shouldn't have too long a wait.

  • Sun breakfast/buffet: Marketplace (buffet) - nobody takes reservations for breakfast/lunch

  • Sun dinner: [Chop Stix] (the kids are used to lots of Asian food, so a safe bet)

  • I'm supposed to be able to do this through their website, but I can't seem to get into my Plan. Are they MsIE only?

Atlantis info

• http://www.atlantis.com/

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis_Paradise_Island

• developed by [Sol Kerzner] who also did [Mohegan Sun] casino

• he's doing an [Atlantis Palm] in DuBai

• 
  

• at least some of the dolphins came from the Marine Life Oceanarium destroyed by [Hurrican Katrina].

• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53374-2005Feb25.html

We're back!

• the fish were really amazing

• FlickR:AtlantisBahamas

• brr what is this NYC 40degF shit!??!

• food was really expensive (many of the non-junk places typically charged $50 for just the entree). [Retaurant Review] notes:

  • on any given meal, a number of the restaurants will be closed, so don't take a long walk to one without checking first

  • [Chop Stix] asian place was better than we expected.

  • pizza place was horrible, esp given huge line/wait

  • [Waters Edge] had nice breakfast buffet, overlooking [Cownose Ray]-breeding-sanctuary lagoon

    • but [Market Place] buffet food was a little nicer, and staff was a bit better

  • between skipping high-end places, and eating on weird schedule (late breakfast, early dinner, ad-hoc snack as lite lunch) we found no waiting/availability problems

• we didn't do a lot of a-la-carte stuff, so we didn't feel the bite of those prices. The kids were plenty happy playing on the sand, in the kiddie pool, or doing inner-tube rides.

  • heh, since I took each one-at-a-time on double-tubes, I got to ride more than them!

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