Travel with the Whitakers

  Somehow 2020 is about to end. Parts of this year seemed like they went so slow – I’m looking at you March and April – and then other parts of the year sped by before we knew what was happening. The last couple of months have gone by super fast, and it has brought us to Christmas. There are a lot of mixed emotions out there about holiday traditions – some people love them, and some people hate them because they feel like they’re being forced to do something by people that aren’t alive anymore. As a family we have created our own holiday traditions over the years, and today we’re going to share them with you.   Decorating for Christmas – We have two outdoor decorations, one inflatable and a Star Shooter light projector. We normally put these up the first weekend in December. Indoor Decorations – We normally get our tree and decorate it and the inside of the house with simple decorations two weeks before Christmas. Christmas Cookies – I love to make some sort of cookie with t

If you know us, or have read posts from us before, you know that we love Disney food! For months before a trip to Disney World we plan where we’re going to eat (gotta get those ADRs!), and then when the trips get closer, we start looking at menus and thinking about what we might like to eat. We even think about what snacks we might want to get so that we maximize our snack credits when we use the Disney Dining Plan.  So, last year when it was announced that Regal Eagle Smokehouse was going to open in the American Adventure Pavilion, we were excited. We love Epcot – the rides, World Showcase, and of course getting to enjoy food from around the world. A new quick service restaurant would give us something new to love about the park as well!  When we took our trip last February, we only had one day to spend at the parks, so we only went to Hollywood Studios to visit Galaxy’s Edge. On my latest trip in October, though, I spent a day at Epcot and got to eat at Regal Eagle! Here are my thoug

 All four of us have been taking trips, at least short trips (camping/ trips to see family, etc.) for most of our lives. We’ve been to quite a few places, gotten to take quite a few trips, and we are so thankful for all of our amazing experiences. Today we have for you some of our favorite travel memories. Bella Meeting Mickey and Minnie. Eating Mickey bars (on cruises.) Playing with Scarlett (during our trip to Pittsburgh). Sliding on the Slinky Slide (on the Disney Wonder.) Christian Swimming at the good internet hotel. (In Dallas) Building a droid (at Galaxy’s Edge.) Sledding at Grandma’s! Playing at Grandpa’s treehouse! Playing Disney Infinity on the Disney Dream. Riding Test Track for the first time! Riding the AquaDuck! Howard Our entire Alaska cruise. Visiting Castaway Cay. Visiting Heidelberg.  Taking both road trips to and from Pittsburgh. Miriya Camping in Gettysburg My first trip to Disney World when I was 12.  Spending two weeks in Scotland!  Walking through the river in No

 Looking back, 2020 has been a strange year for the whole world. It has impacted every single person – the closures, lockdowns, that time where the grocery store shelves were practically empty – it has also greatly impacted travel. I don’t need to tell you – for a long time no one could really travel anywhere. Some avenues of travel are back open, but we still have a long way to go before we can travel like we did before March 2020.  So, what are our thoughts about 2020 travel here at Travel with the Whitakers?! Well, we have a lot of thoughts. First, I’ll get the bad out of the way. Business wise, it has been rough. I won’t go into detail on that, but I’m sure that you understand.  Now for the part where we’re thankful. We are so thankful that our cruises at the beginning of the year took place when they did. We sailed from Port Canaveral at the very end of January, and from New Orleans at the beginning of February. We got to experience two amazing Disney ships and ten nights of magic

 Do you have someone in your family that loves to camp?!  Three of the four of us love camping. Bella has never been camping, but that will change soon, hopefully. Christian went real camping for the first time in October 2019 with Cub Scouts and he loved it! Before that he had been camping in a tent, but in the house. Since last year he has camped in the tent in the house, we’ve camped in the backyard, and last month he went camping with his Cub Scout Pack again.  He loves camping so much, that he kept the tent up in his bedroom for almost five months, one weekend a month I would camp in there with him. Last month I got to go camping with his Cub Scout Pack the weekend after I got back from Disney, and we had a lot of fun.  What is your favorite thing about camping? C – Being at the campsite, and playing games and sleeping in the tent.  H – The opportunity to unplug. M – Being in nature, and eating food that’s cooked over an open fire.  What is your favorite campfire snack? C – S’more

 When Can We Cruise Again?! This is a question that has been on a lot of minds, including my own, since the middle of March. The answer is, sadly, not simple. There is no specific date for when cruising can resume, but there is a list of requirements that will need to be met before cruise ships can set sail with passengers again.  When cruises first started to get cancelled there was hope that things would get better quickly. Here we are, eight months later and things are most certainly not better at all. For a while the CDC had a no sail order in place, and CLIA had one of their own as well. The CDC’s order was no renewed at the end of October, but there are restrictions that are in place and requirements that need to be met before cruising can begin again.  What are these requirements? • Successful simulated voyages with crew members only.  • Enhanced cleaning on cruise ships. • Lower ship capacities. • Shorter sailings. • Enhanced air management.  • Testing for crew and

t’s hard to believe that it has already been a month since I was getting ready for my trip! I had such an amazing time, and I can’t wait to go back again at some point with the whole family. I also highly recommend taking a solo trip to Disney World if you have a chance to do so. I hope to do so again at point in the future, too!  During my trip I was able to enjoy some tasty treats from the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival! This year’s festival is running for the longest ever. It started back in July when the parks first reopened, and it is still going on right now! It will end just before the Epcot Festival of the Holidays starts on November 27, 2020.  Part of planning for my trip was reading over all of the Food and Wine Festival menus and decided what options I couldn’t pass up during my day at Epcot. I decided on five options, and I enjoyed all five. I’m here today to tell you about each of those items and which on I enjoyed most.  If you’ve never been to a festival at E

 I hope that everyone had a fun, safe Halloween yesterday!  I have been back from my trip to Disney World for two weeks now, and I figured that it was time to talk about what it was like to take a solo Disney trip for the first time.  Let me start off by saying that we have taken quite a few trips in the last nine years. We have taken trips as a family with the kid(s), we have taken adult only trips before we had kids, and we have taken trips with extended family including grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends. Each trip to Disney World is different, and each is what you make of it.  This trip was different, even in the planning stages, because there wasn’t too much planning that could go on once the trip needed to be rescheduled. When I started planning it was weird to pick dining locations and attractions to Fastpass without consulting others. Normally we let everyone that we’re traveling with weigh in on the dining conversation. Once the Disney Dining Plans were put to t

 It has been longer than I wanted between posts, but things got super busy right before my trip, and then I was in Florida, and it was right back to being busy again after I got home.  It has been a week since I was at Disney World. I had an amazing time, and felt quite safe the entire time. It was nice to be back in the Magic again, and it was nice to get some time alone.  During my stay, I put together some of my thoughts, and I'm here to share them with you today.  Magical Express - I took Magical Express from MCO to my resort. While waiting to board a bus queues are spaced apart from each other to maintain distancing and guests in each queue are physically distanced with the help of ground markers. Check In - Online check in is strongly encouraged, and as long as there are no issues you can go straight to your room once you arrive at your resort. My room was not ready when I arrived, but I was able to go to the front desk and get my room assignment. Enhanced Guest Room Cleanin

 The main reason to go to the parks, at least for most families, aside from food, is for the rides! Two weeks ago, we started a bracket-style show down for each of the theme parks’ rides! This week we have Disney’s Hollywood Studios!  We have only included attractions that involve getting into or onto a ride vehicle. We have not included walking trails or show type attractions. We went through the list of attractions and voted on which one we would rather ride from each match up.  Our winner is…  Rise of the Resistance!  Which ride would be your winner?! The current situation in the world will eventually come to an end, and when it does, and you’re ready to travel again I’d be happy to help you plan and book your next magical vacation. For your FREE quote and to get started contact me at miriyawhitaker@worldofmagictravel.com . For more Disney and travel information follow me on Facebook ! 

 The main reason to go to the parks, at least for most families, aside from food, is for the rides! Last week we started a bracket-style show down for each of the theme parks’ rides! This week we have Epcot!  We have only included attractions that involve getting into or onto a ride vehicle. We have not included walking trails or show type attractions. We went through the list of attractions and voted on which one we would rather ride from each match up.  Our winner is…  Journey Into Imagination with Figment!  Which ride would be your winner?! The current situation in the world will eventually come to an end, and when it does, and you’re ready to travel again I’d be happy to help you plan and book your next magical vacation. For your FREE quote and to get started contact me at miriyawhitaker@worldofmagictravel.com . For more Disney and travel information follow me on Facebook ! 

 We’ve talked about all of the Quick Service locations around the four Walt Disney World themes and voted on which one is our favorite in each park! Food plays a huge part in a Disney World vacation, especially for our family. The main reason to go to the parks, at least for most families, though, is for the rides! So, starting this week we have a bracket-style show down for each of the theme parks’ rides! This week we have Disney’s Animal Kingdom!  We have only included attractions that involve getting into or onto a ride vehicle. We have not included walking trails or show type attractions. We went through the list of attractions and voted on which one we would rather ride from each match up.  Our winner is…  Kilimanjaro Safaris!  Which ride would be your winner?! The current situation in the world will eventually come to an end, and when it does, and you’re ready to travel again I’d be happy to help you plan and book your next magical vacation. For your FREE quote and to get started

 A few weeks ago we started our bracket-style showdown of the Quick Service Dining locations at each of the Disney World parks!  This week we voted, and decided on a winner for our number one pick of Quick Service restaurant at Magic Kingdom! We have not eaten at all of these locations, but we hope to eventually. To determine the winner of each round all four of us voted on which location we would rather enjoy a meal or a snack from. To help with this we looked at each of the menus on the Disney World website.  Our winner is…  Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe! Which location would be your winner?! The current situation in the world will eventually come to an end, and when it does, and you’re ready to travel again I’d be happy to help you plan and book your next magical vacation. For your FREE quote and to get started contact me at miriyawhitaker@worldofmagictravel.com . For more Disney and travel information follow me on Facebook!  

 Two weeks ago, we started our bracket-style showdown of the Quick Service Dining locations at each of the Disney World parks!  This week we voted, and decided on a winner for our number one pick of Quick Service restaurant at Disney’s Hollywood Studios! We have not eaten at all of these locations, but we hope to eventually. To determine the winner of each round all four of us voted on which location we would rather enjoy a meal or a snack from. To help with this we looked at each of the menus on the Disney World website.  Our winner is…  Ronto Roasters! Which location would be your winner?! The current situation in the world will eventually come to an end, and when it does, and you’re ready to travel again I’d be happy to help you plan and book your next magical vacation. For your FREE quote and to get started contact me at miriyawhitaker@worldofmagictravel.com. For more Disney and travel information follow me on Facebook ! 

 Last week we started our bracket-style showdown of the Quick Service Dining locations at each of the Disney World parks!  This week we voted, and decided on a winner for our number one pick of Quick Service restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom! And this week we looked at all of the amazing places to get something quick to eat at Epcot! We have not eaten at all of these locations, but we hope to eventually. To determine the winner of each round all four of us voted on which location we would rather enjoy a meal or a snack from. To help with this we looked at each of the menus on the Disney World website.  Our winner is… Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe!  Which location would be your winner?! The current situation in the world will eventually come to an end, and when it does, and you’re ready to travel again I’d be happy to help you plan and book your next magical vacation. For your FREE quote and to get started contact me at miriyawhitaker@worldofmagictravel.com . For more Disney and travel inf

This week, and for the next few weeks, we will be doing a bracket-style showdown of the Quick Service Dining locations at each of the Disney World parks!  This week we voted, and decided on a winner for our number one pick of Quick Service restaurant at Disney’s Animal Kingdom! We have not eaten at all of these locations, but we hope to eventually. To determine the winner of each round all four of us voted on which location we would rather enjoy a meal or a snack from. To help with this we looked at each of the menus on the Disney World website.  Our winner is… Satu’li Canteen! The Cheeseburger Pods was the deciding factor for both kids.  Which location would be your winner?! The current situation in the world will eventually come to an end, and when it does, and you’re ready to travel again I’d be happy to help you plan and book your next magical vacation. For your FREE quote and to get started contact me at miriyawhitaker@worldofmagictravel.com . For more Disney and travel informatio

 It has been six months since our last Disney Cruise, and because we have pushed our next cruise back until November 2021, it will be quite a while before our next one! We’re always thinking about cruising around here, or at least I am! Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about cruise food, and how much I miss it!  For this week’s post we all had a little fun and pretended for a few moments that we were on a cruise. We went through all of the main dining rooms menus and decided on what we would order if we were having a meal there right then and there. This is what each of us would have!  Royal Court/ Royal Palace/ Lumiere’s / Triton’s H – Brie x 2, Roasted Rack of Lamb, Apple Tarte Tatin M – Gastons Escargot Gratinee, Salmon Royale, No Sugar Duo Chocolate Slice Animator’s Palate H – Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes, Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup, Black Bean Chipotle Cakes, Ginger-Teriyaki dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin, and Crunchy Walnut Cake.  M – Tomato Tarte, Creamy Buttern

We can’t wait to set sail on a Disney Cruise again! We love to cruise, but with things the way that they are right now, we’re not sure whether the cruise that we were supposed to take in February is going to even take place. If it does set sail, there is also the possibility that the restrictions necessary to enable it to sail would make it so that we as a family would not have as good of a time as we have come to expect. With that being the case, we have cancelled our February 2021 Westbound Panama Canal cruise and we are now booked on the November 2021 Eastbound Panama Canal! While we have to wait a little bit longer to sail, we think that it will be worth it!  With that all said, we have for you today our favorite Disney Cruise Line Places!  Your Favorite Place…. To Relax C – In the pool. H – Deck 4. M – Deck 4. To Play C – The Oceaneer Club. H – The pool deck.  M – The pool deck, especially if we’re on a ship with the AquaDuck! To Run Around C – Deck 4. H – Deck 4. M – Deck 4. To P

We love to travel. You can tell that without having read anything that we’ve posted just by looking at the name of our blog! There are plenty of world travelers out there that have been to way more places that we have, but there are also lots of people that haven’t been to as many places as we have. Did you know, that some people don’t even ever leave the town that they were born in? Today we have for you a running tally of all of the places that each of us have been.  Bella States: Alabama Arkansas Florida Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Missouri Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Tennessee Texas* West Virginia Countries British Virgin Islands The Bahamas Christian States: Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California* Florida Illinois Indiana Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maryland Mississippi Missouri New Mexico Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Tennessee Texas* Virginia Washington DC West Virginia Countries British Virgin Islands Canada Grand Cayman Jamaica Mexico The Bahamas Miriy

Walt Disney World has officially been back open for just over a week now! Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom opened last Saturday, July 11, and Epcot and Hollywood Studios opened back up on Wednesday July 15! We’re excited to see that things are starting to move forwards and that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Last week we played a game of Would You Rather, Disney Cruise Line edition. This week we’re going to do something similar, but with Walt Disney World!  Drive or Fly to Orlando? C - Fly H – Drive M – Drive. Stay at a Moderate or Value Resort? C – Value, Pop Century specifically.  H – Value M – Value. I love the Moderate Resorts, but the Value Resorts have more of a Disney feel! We also don’t spend much time at home. Visit Magic Kingdom first or save it for last? C – First day. H – Save it for last. M – Save it for last. I like to start with Epcot since it’s my favorite. Take the Bus or Drive to the parks? C - Bus H – Take the bus, unless we need to be somewhere early l