Spring break is done in Northern Virginia, but now is the time when many families are considering and preparing for summer vacation and what to do with their children and hopefully keep them well entertain.  Many parents schedule summer vacations and of course as parents we want to photograph every moment.  It’s the best time to record your kids playing freely and enjoying themselves during the summer.  Unfortunately, the lighting is not always the best when we’re attempting to take pictures of our children or when we want to do a family selfie.  Here are a few tips to get the best family vacation photos.  

1.  Avoid Back Light

Have you ever taken a picture with the person’s back facing the window?  The light behind the subject will cast a shadow making them hard to see.  The best way to correct this is to have the person face the window.  This will put the light on their face instead of their back.  This is true for a room light as well.  Although sometimes those pictures can come out cool.

2.  Best Light (Optimal Light Conditions)

The best time of the day to take pictures outside is immediately after sunrise or before sunset.  This is due to the optimal lighting conditions.  Taking pictures in the shade will also give your pictures wonderful color and you’ll also avoid the annoying squinted face.  

3.  Focus on your child

Living so close to Washington DC and all the different monuments and museums that are readily available.  It’s easy to just tell our children to stand in front of the monument and as parents we want to get the monument and our child in the picture.  However, I encourage parents to get down to your child’s eye level and experiment with different angles instead of wide-open overhead angles only.

4.  Photo the moment

Does your child have a favorite way to stand?  If so, break away from the posed picture and photograph that funny stance.  You may be surprised how the picture turns out.  A great idea is taking a picture of your child trying a new food or drink; walking on sand for the first time or taking a plane ride.

5.  The Best Mode

Oh, my goodness it’s so hard to take pictures of kids with your cell phone especially if their moving.  Have you ever taken a photo and it dark and blurry?  Me too.  Moving around is their job, so it may be difficult to get a picture of young kids standing still.  Therefore, the best camera mode is to use “action” or “sport mode”.  This will help the speed of your camera by increase the shutter speed to freeze fast action.  Think of your shutter speed as your eyes blinking.   

6.  Don’t just photograph the destination; capture your family

Taking pictures of your family enjoying the vacation will be the best and most interesting photos of your vacation.  These are the pictures that will make you smile, cry, and/or laugh.  Not the picture of the scenery of your vacation location.  It fun to take pictures of your favorite Disney Character.  However, the picture of your family members enjoying the go carts at Disney will be more valuable to you.  

7.  Give everyone a camera

One thing I like to do is give my kids a camera.  You’ll receive a totally different aspect of your vacation.  Giving your kids a camera will also keep them busy and entertained.  You’ll also see a different version of your family vacation.  A disposable camera or an inexpensive digital camera is a great way to keep the expense low.  

Moms, although you’re typically the one photographing your family’s summer vacation, make sure you get in some of the pictures as well.  I often forget to do this myself and when we come home from vacation, I’m in a limited number of pictures.  If you ask a stranger to take pictures of your family while on vacation, ask them to take more than one or two pictures (preferably four).  Doing this helps ensure you have at least one picture where everyone has their eyes open, looking at the camera, and smiling.  These tips will help tell the story of your family’s vacation experience.  Have fun on your summer vacation.

Tamieka lives in Woodbridge, Virginia with her husband, two boys (14,10).  She the owner of Tamieka Smith Photography.  In addition to creating a fun atmosphere for family while taking professional portraits, Tamieka enjoys taking vacations with her family and photographing every possible moment.  You can find her on Facebook, Instagram, or on her website.

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Overcoming Obstacles

In order to convince my husband to travel more when our kids were young, taking them cruising was a big pitch. I felt like I had to have the presentation perfect complete with statistics, video with slides and cost analysis.

Okay, I totally did the cost analysis and also had all the answers to his objections.

Creating experiences is what matters for us so to this day that’s what we aim to accomplish. What do we want to experience? How do we want to experience it? How can we share our experiences with others so they’ll want to do the same?

Tell me Thursday

Today is tell me thursday….we want to hear from you our readers and followers. We have answered private messages this week from followers on drink packages and how to work around them when not everyone in the cabin drinks or wants to spend the money. We’ve also answered questions on island excursions to St. Kitts, Thomas and Nassau, Bahamas.

SHARING IS CARING

We come across articles all the time about the value of travel. This one we felt was too good to pass up! Enjoy reading and then go, book that cruise you’ve wanted to do or vacation. Start making those experiences happen.

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How do I keep the kids entertained while cruising?

We asked our followers on Facebook what’s one question they have about cruising and that question made me smile! Simply because I feel like I’ve perfected this.

It’s one thing to think about keeping kids entertained when flying or waiting at the airport or riding but when you are cruising you have other times when you are ‘waiting’:

Waiting to board ship, waiting during the muster drill, waiting during meals, waiting for shows to start, waiting for the kids club to open, waiting for excursions or tenders, and of course waiting for mom to finish getting ready for dinner!

First things first, if you haven’t already signed up to the Blog to get the downloadable packing list I say go for it right now! Just head over to https://cruisingwiththefamily.com and hit the subscribe button at the top or fill in the form on the pop-up! Ok?

I’ll wait for you.

#1 Download our Packing List

You’re back! Great job. Guess what? That was the 1st step to keeping the kids entertained.

This is my top item because we’ve culled this list from all of our journeys since our kids were infants. So this is all inclusive for the ages you’d need up to ours currently (4 and 7). We also continue to expand so if you see we are missing something let us know! Just add it in the comments to this blog.

We offer an area on the list specifically for kids to help keep them entertained. The entertainment really happens the moment you begin the travel whether that means by car or air. Make sure that each child has their own small carry on and if they are too young just make sure you have one pocket within your diaper bag for easy access. Our favorite all time travel bag is this one and it just broke!

Pack small toys that are easy to put into your purse for when you are onboard. It’s helpful if they can pack it themselves and if they are younger make sure you choose some that don’t get much use.

#2 Pre-Shopping

If you are like me you shop in advance for the items you need such as toiletries, so why not items to keep the kids entertained?

I always start my pre-shopping with a trip to the Dollar Tree. If you don’t have one near you they are also online. This is my first stop because even working on a tight budget for let’s say a 7 day cruise I can spend about $6 total per/child and get them at least one new item or toy per day!

We all know kids LOVE getting new items. Some of my favorites that we get from there are:

– coloring books (I bring a baggie of our own crayons)
– sticker books
– education books such as numbers, alphabets, reading comprehension
– seek and find books
– stampers

My favorite items can be purchased on Amazon. Check out our Setting Sale page. The sticker puzzles are my kids’ favorite. It takes them quite a while to do the larger ones and the smaller ones have kept my little little busy while waiting for meals and she loves them! They have ones for boys and girls! And guess what? Great time right now to grab some on Amazon and put them in baskets for Easter coming up if you do that!

Some parents take the time to wrap the new items to make it even more exciting. Let me be perfectly honest with you. I don’t have the time for that when I’m preparing for us all to travel so I usually put them in their carry on’s after they’ve chosen what they want!

All of these items that you buy I’d bring a new one out each night to help entertain.

#3 Visit the Library

This happens to be the best idea ever. We visit the library often for books, puzzles and moves. Our library offers Launch Pad Tablets and they are ingenious.

The tablets (check out the video below) are fully loaded and require NO WIFI. Plus they come preloaded with books, puzzles and games. They are for ages Kindergarten through 5th Grade.

So, I don’t need WiFi for my kids and don’t need to spend tons of time downloading programs, movies or games on our old phones or tablets.

Now, we do bring with us those old phones of ours. Our kids love listening to music and we have a few games such as color by number, cooking games and when they were little books like The Monster at the End of Book.

So, check out your local library! You never know what they have and it’s FREE! The rentals are week long. Sometimes I login to renew while we are traveling so that I don’t incur late fees.

#4 Go ‘Old School’

Going ‘Old School’ for me means back to the basics of NO electronics. Our parents didn’t have those options and we all survived.

I have come to learn that if someone complains because my kid is causing a scene or fit, it’s their problem. Clearly, I will remove them if it warrants and discipline as necessary. We also know we can plan ahead and try to avoid anything negative happening.

My parents have given our kids travel Tic Tac Toe and Hangman and they love it! It’s super easy to carry and it doesn’t get old! You can also just pack pen and paper and play both!

Bring binoculars for when you dine in the buffet area. It is tons of fun to sit near the window and look through them to find flying fish! And we’ve found tons of them and even pointed them out to others who had no idea!

Since I have a 7 year old girl she is into “hand shakes” as she calls them. So for instance, Miss Mary Mack or for those who are closer in age to me we used to call it Miss Suzie.

Lastly, pack some snacks. It’s not quite ‘old school’ and you may be thinking why would I do that when I’m cruising? I mean isn’t’ there food available all the time? While there are quite a bunch of food options it’s not always available and it’s not all SNACKY food either. So look at the packing list we gave you a ton of examples.

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When the Hurricanes hit, our family began looking at ways to give back to help them recover. Some of our favorite destinations suffered tremendous damage. Coral World in St. Thomas for one and so much of Puerto Rico. I know people who cancelled plans to visit the islands because they might not have been 100% and my heart breaks when that happens. The islands NEED us. They need tourism. Sometimes when you see such devastation it may not be in the area you are visiting yet your dollars help so many.

So in honor of MLK, Jr. day here are some ways you can give back when you vacation to the islands.

1. Voluntourism: many lines such as Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Princess, Holland and others offer excursions tailored to giving back. Excursions could include immersing yourself in their culture and helping plant gardens or trees, removing trash from the beaches, and working with children or the elderly. Don’t want to pay to do an excursion why not bring an extra plastic bag and while out walking on the beach grab the trash on your way! A small way to help and get everyone involved in the clean up.

When we were in St. Marteen in April 2018 we found so much metal wash ashore that my husband picked up what he could and took it the trash.

2. Onboard: You may notice if you’ve been onboard before special fundraising efforts. Carnival raises money for St. Jude (Groove for St. Jude) and Royal Caribbean raises money for the World Wildlife Fund. They will ask for cash donations but most of the time they raise awareness and money via events like the Groove for St. Jude-a dance party or 5K walks around the top decks onboard. In exchange for your donation you’ll receive a t-shirt, bracelet and sometimes other goodies such as receptions and more! You can also participate by purchasing items in the gift shops where the money is donated back to the cause.

3. Pack for a Purpose. This site is a great one for all travelers. The program implies exactly as stated. Pack up goods for a purpose. It’s as easy as going to their website: www.packforapurpose.org and selecting your destination, finding the local resort, hotel or tour company participating (where you drop your goods), choose the supplies you wish to take from the specific list and then when you are in town drop them off! How easy is this? We are looking into doing this on our next trip in May! This is the direct link to the Islands: https://www.packforapurpose.org/destinations/caribbean/.

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“Do you use a travel agent or did you do that all by yourself?” That’s a question I get asked quite often.

The answer is that I’ve done it both ways and I prefer to use an agent. The main reason for this is the time savings and extra perks. I want to make sure that you know most agents make their money off commissions from the various hotels, cruises and flights they book. So you normally won’t spend any money hiring an agent. Make sure to ask if they charge added fees for their assistance and if they do you might want to find a new agent.

We all have the credit cards that give us rewards and points for travel and you can think of an agent like that. When we book through ours we are getting some added onboard credit or treats sent to the room. The travel agents have greater buying power and earn their own credits to pass onto clients.

We may only have an extra $25 onboard credit and yet that can be applied to anything from drinks to bingo to excursions to our gratuities. Every little bit helps when you’re trying to stay within budget. Besides, tell me one person who doesn’t like something for FREE—let alone FREE MONEY?

The second reason I prefer using our agent is for time savings. I do a lot of the research myself and it can be a time suck. Similar to when we get onto social media for one thing and then an hour has gone by and we are wondering ‘where did that time go?’.

I recently had my eye on wanting to sail again this year. We typically do anywhere from 2-3 in a year. When we cruised in May 2018 and visited the Next Cruise desk we knew that our big little and little little have several days off coming up in November for a school break and thought about going away then. So, we had our eye out but didn’t book. I figured I can look into something last minute (which doesn’t really exist to get a great deal and book last minute though more on that in a future post). So in August I sent an email off to our agent and said hey we have these dates open send me anything that is sailing from New Jersey, Baltimore and Fort Lauderdale during this time. Within about a day I had over 10 cruises to review. I was very intentional when I wrote as well because I knew that Royal Caribbean was offering their kids sail free promotion. It was so much easier to sift through a few different pdf documents to weed out what we would and wouldn’t want and then look into the cost of travel to make a decision.

Full disclosure because we work for ourselves we have the flexibility to be able to travel on off times of the year and I do believe this can save quite a bit of money. Prices exponentially go up during the high peak seasons for travel including holidays, spring breaks and so on. It’s like weddings too! Go into a hotel to book a meeting and the price is definitely different than if you are there to book a wedding.

My best advice is to do a little research yourself to decide where you want to go and when. If you’d like to earn a little bit more then link up with a travel agent. We can certainly give you some recommendations. If you really aren’t sure where to start, fill this out and we can help you!

If you want to read about what costs you really pay when booking check out our other posts on that topic here. Hope you’ll take a minute to head over to our Facebook page to give us a like and follow along on Instagram for all the latest Cruising with the Family updates.

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There are so many items that could be on this list starting with proper identification but I think that’s a given. So this list really is what we’ve come to truly rely on when we travel and these are in no particular order of importance.

1. Baby Powder

We know there has been a lot of talk about baby powder recently in the headlines. My stepmother years ago taught us this ‘hack’ if you will and it truly has been amazing. I am not a beach person per se. I much prefer a pool so when the kids were little and as they still are little I can’t stand all the sand that is leftover when we come from the beach. How it works is when you leave a beach and are getting your shoes back on you can simply just use a little baby powder to get the sand off. It literally falls right off. We don’t leave home without it.

2. Sunscreen

This is a must because our family is fair skinned. We want to make sure to be protected. We love using Walmart’s brand which has also been top rated consistently in Consumer Reports. We like the small travel size as well that comes with a caribeaner that we put onto our travel bag automatically so we are never left without.

3. Towel Clips

Ok, I have to admit I’ve already lost a few but did just get a replacement set for my birthday! We love these because it can be quite windy on deck and the last thing you want is for your towel to blow away. The other reason is that everyone on the ship has the same towel and this allows us to know exactly where we set up camp for the day.

4. Extra Bag  (photo of carnival bag)

When we were on a Carnival ship years ago they had a sale in the gift shop one day (they really always have sales) and offered tote bags. This one fully collapsed to lay flat and yet when opened it is like an oversized duffle bag. We bring this with us as it fits in the outside compartment of our suitcase and then use it to store all of our laundry. If you are flying, obviously, be careful with the baggage rules for your airline. Even when we aren’t flying we bring it in case we’ve purchased extra souvenirs. Typically we fly Southwest so each of us can have a carry on and a checked bag and we don’t seem to run into issues.

5. Sticker Puzzles

These have been a life saver for us at meal time and when there have been long waits. I can’t even remember where I found the first ones I got and thankfully Amazon carries them. These have kept my kids busy for quite some time and as they get older they have more intricate ones as well.

6. Personal Water Bottle

We make sure to bring our own water bottle onboard. That way we can fill it when we want and we usually bring one for the girls as well. You can’t fill it all at once you need to get a glass full at a time, however, if you bring it with you to the dining rooms usually the waitstaff will fill them for you.

7. My Own Wine

Yep, you read that right! I bring my own wine onboard. Most cruise lines allow adult guests (21 and over) to bring one one bottle of wine per/person per/cabin so for Dan and I we can bring on 2 bottles. We always buy the screw top to avoid any corkage fees and we ask our room steward to leave us a bucket of ice that we can chill it on if we need and we usually bring the water glasses from the dining room back to use in the room. We will fill a glass and take it to dinner with us. We have brought some wine with us as well to the dining room and expected to pay the corkage fee however, they never charged us! But you can be charged so be careful on that. We aren’t big drinkers so this helps save us on some costs during the trip.

8. Waterproof Case for Phone

No matter what, you are going to be taking your phone with you when you go on excursions and most of you will have your phone with you onboard. Why risk it being dropped in the pool or water when you are out and about? These two cases are very good and some suggestions.

9. Good quality crossbody or lightweight small backpack

We had the best backpack ever until it broke leaving our stateroom to go on an excursion and we were devastated. It was a gift to us for our baby shower. It’s the Baby Sherpa as it’s called and it was perfect in every way for when the kids were little and then even as they were growing and we didn’t need the diapers and wipes and all that stuff. It has a cooling pocket and water bottle holder and different compartments. We loved that bag. Lately, I’ve been taking a crossbody bag with me that has multiple compartments as well and it’s just a good thing to have something you can keep close to you when you are off the ship.

10. Small binoculars

This is a more recent go-to for us. The smaller size ones that kids can wear around their neck. We are big fans of looking for flying fish and we always find them and it’s been more fun to see them up closer! It’s also just neat for the kids and is another way of keeping them entertained at times like showtimes, docking in ports and playing iSpy games!

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The always needed resource page

When I began thinking about all that Cruising with the Family is going to be the first thing I knew had to be done was give you all some resources in one location. If you’re like me, a busy mom who juggles all duties including taking care of the kids, cooking, cleaning, working and chauffeuring, I prefer to get as much information from one source as I can. Now, we know that doesn’t always happen but hopefully this will be a great tool for your planning.

First things first, go ahead and hit that little star in the upper right hand of the toolbar that usually says ‘bookmark this page’. Then save it to your bookmarks or better yet to your travel folder if you have one for quick access in the future. When I plan for our trips I always have a ton of tabs open and am trying to find the sites I need. Lucky for you, below I’ve listed several resources that you can click on and it will open in a new tab for you so save this one site and not all the individual pages.

Looking to sail away? Not sure where to go or what line to book?

I’ve always been a firm believer in referrals. My husband and I when we speak to organizations (for our day job) we always make mention that some of the best sales and joins come from word of mouth, member get a member type campaigns. Not sure what I mean think of it like this: I was always a member of Costco for the longest time until my friends told me about B.J.s Wholesale and how you could use coupons. Well guess what? I joined B.J.s! The only reason I did was because of word of mouth and referral.

The same is true for how I feel when we travel. Let’s be real, we all go to amazon to shop and read the reviews, or look at Yelp to see what’s been said about a company. Why not do some research and reviews into your trip?

For me when I look to reviews I do the following two things.

1. Visit Cruise Critic

I have been a member of this community for years. Though it’s a bit outdated in the forum sense it’s got a wealth of information on all things cruising.

TIP: Make sure to read all the reviews and know when they were posted. Clearly an issue that may have existed for someone in 2014 hopefully wouldn’t be an issue now. Also realize there are going to be bad reviews. Personally, I like reading the negative reviews. Though it may be a red flag for me I won’t discount something entirely until I’ve done all the research to know who reviewed it and why they may have given it a bad review. Sometimes their situation may be far from why I’m looking into it.

2. Crowdsource

These days with social media it’s so easy to crowdsource friends, family and friends of friends! Did you know the best posts on Facebook are the ones where you ask for recommendations? Everyone LOVES to give their opinion! Seriously—go post now and ask your friends for a their favorite vacation destination, or favorite cruise line or favorite recipe for that matter! OMG-you will get a ton of responses and ones from ‘friends’ you haven’t heard from in ages.

There are so many options out there when selecting a cruise line. I have to be honest my first experience cruising with my family was when my mom was a travel agent and we went on the SS Bermuda Star. This was in the early 80’s and I think the ship housed no more than 700 passengers. Can you even imagine that today? The smallest mid-size ships now have at least 2,000 passengers. These are my favorites but more on that later! Since sailing the SS Bermuda Star I have gone on to sail the likes of Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian Cruise Lines.

To help point you in the right direction, below is a list of cruise lines in alphabetical order. While these aren’t all of the cruise lines out there, they are the major players these days. Check out their sites and also look at their social media profiles. *denotes lines that are considered luxury

Not sure where to start and want some advice? Feel free to fill out our form and we can help give you some advice!

We are looking to interview cruisers who have cruised with their families! Doesn’t matter the size, makeup or location of where you have sailed! If you are interested in being interviewed for a future Blog post please fill out our interest form and we’ll be in touch!

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One really interesting fact is that you can put a deposit down on the vacation of your dreams and take time to pay it off and even have the opportunity to cancel the trip if you decide it’s just not for you and get your money back. Your full payment is due 90 days before sailing and once that happens there are no changes however prior to that date you can cancel and have your trip refunded. Now how you book matters though and you’ll see this on our booking confirmation. For this particular cruise we chose a nonrefundable deposit. This enabled us to receive extra onboard credit = FREE MONEY for not canceling. We were 180% confident of travel especially since it was taking place in May and we were driving so this was a no-brainer.

So I’ve attached our booking confirmation for our 12 night cruise to the Southern Caribbean in April 2018. And have made my notes on it just like the anatomy of an onboard account. It’s important to know what you sign up for! This is four pages so make sure to check them all out!

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