When you go on vacation, you most likely will want to bring something back to help you remember the trip. It’s great to be able to look at something in your house, months after you’ve gone on a vacation and have memories come flooding back when you look at the item that you bought while away.

It doesn’t have to be expensive to get a souvenir that you will like, and that will help remind you of your trip. As a matter of fact, it’s most likely the lesser expensive items that you’ll use more often and will be more of a daily reminder of your trip.

The picture above is a great example. While I was in Walt Disney World in September of 2007, I bought a pack of 6-coasters at the gift shop in the Magic Kingdom. How much did it cost? $6.00. How often do I use them? Every single day. It’s great. Whenever I pick up my glass to get a sip of my drink while watching TV, I see one of the coasters, and it instantly reminds me of my Disney World vacation. I can remember picking them out, as well as how much fun I was having at the time, and for the rest of the trip.

Another great souvenir that I got was a spoon holder for while I’m cooking. It’s in the shape of Mickey ears, and cost a whole whopping $7.00. I use this a few times a week when I need to put the spoon down when I’m mixing things on the stove. It also reminds me of my trip, and didn’t cost much at all.

Don’t get me wrong, you can buy a lot of things that will remind you of your trip…I’m just suggesting that less expensive items that you will use often can really give you the most for your dollar, and help keep your vacation alive until your next trip!

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I mentioned it last month, but I wanted to say it again in case someone missed it. You have until June 22nd to book a Walt Disney World trip with FREE Disney Dining. This means that if you stay on property and get at least a 1-day park pass (of course you can get passes for as many days as you’d like), you’ll get FREE meals for everyone in your party!

You really can’t ask for more than that. I’ve done this twice before, and it’s incredible. You will get to eat at some really great restaurants, and won’t have to worry about the price!

The package is a little bit different than in previous years, but it’s still great considering it’s FREE:

Each day, each person in the room gets 1 quick serve meal (which includes an entree, dessert, and drink), 1 table service meal (which includes an entree, dessert, and drink), as well as a snack credit which can be used on many items such as ice cream, fruit, drinks, etc.

Tips are no longer included, so you’ll still have to pay for that…but think about all the free food you will be getting each day!

It really is worth it, since you have to pay for a hotel room anytime you go anyway, so you would still have to pay to eat. I’d much rather just pay for tips than have to pay for my meals plus tips!

I’ll be going again in 2009 (hopefully they’ll have free dining again!) since I was just there in 2007, but I really recommend it to everyone.

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The Grand Canyon is an amazing place to visit. The problem may be, that you don’t want to plan an entire trip around the Grand Canyon. What if you were visiting Las Vegas, and spent one of your days visiting the Grand Canyon? What if you didn’t have to do the drive yourself?

This is exactly what we did, the first time we were in Las Vegas. We spent one of the days doing a bus tour like one offered by the Grand Canyon Tour Company.

It’s a great deal. Usually for under $200.00 for 2 people, they will pick you up on the Las Vegas Strip early in the morning, give you breakfast, take you to see the Hoover Dam (albeit a short visit!), give you a buffet lunch, and take you to the Grand Canyon. You won’t get back to your hotel until late at night (as it’s a long drive each way…) but it’s worth it!

They also offer other tours, such as a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon, so you’ll have to see which is the perfect tour for you. Either way, it’s an easy way to get to see the amazing Grand Canyon, without having to do the long drive yourself, and you can still spend the rest of your trip in Las Vegas. I am so glad that we did this tour, and would definitely do it again.

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Going to Las Vegas anytime soon? If so, make sure you stop by Caesars Palace! They have just unveiled a Payard Chocolate Clock. During operating hours, it dispenses free chocolates every so often! It’s located at Payard Patisserie, so it should be easy to find. The clock is 13 feet tall, and is truffle inspired, looking like ribbons of melting chocolate.

It sounds like it would be an incredible sight…plus who could turn down free chocolate?

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Looking for the perfect vacation for the whole family? As I mentioned last week, Disney is offering FREE Dining if you travel between August 24th and September 20th. You have to stay on property, but since they have all types of hotels, you’re sure to find one that fits your budget. United has a great deal going on right now where you can book your trip to Disney, get the FREE dining package, and get a great price!

I can’t recommend Disney’s FREE dining offer enough. We’ve done it twice now, and really enjoy it. Hopefully they’ll offer it next year so we can do it again. We figure since we went last year, that we’d go somewhere else this year. But it makes your vacation so nice and easy not to have to worry about paying for your meals. You’ll also get some great meals when you have FREE dining, and since you won’t have to worry about the cost, you can order what you’d like, and get to try some really great foods!

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It’s finally here!! If you’ve looked into going to Walt Disney World in August or September, most likely you’ve heard of the Free Dining Plan they have had the past few years. We took advantage of it in September 2005, and this past September as well.

It’s back! If you plan on going to Walt Disney World between August 24th and September 20th, and are staying on property, as long as each person has at least a 1-day park ticket, you will get FREE Disney Dining with your reservation!!!

Considering it usually costs $37.99 for an adult, and $9.99 per child, you are getting a great deal. What exactly do you get with the Disney Dining Plan?

Each day, each person gets: 1 quick serve meal (which includes an entree, dessert, and drink), 1 table service meal (which includes an entree, dessert, and drink), as well as a snack credit which can be used on many items such as ice cream, fruit, drinks, etc. Tips are no longer included…but think about all the free food you will be getting each day!

We have taken advantage of this deal twice, and both times it was incredible! We ate some really great meals, and it didn’t cost us anything. The best part was, we went in September after most kids had gone back to school, so it wasn’t even very crowded! We were able to walk onto most rides without having to wait in line. So between that and the great (FREE) food, it was an amazing trip. Actually, we’re hoping they do it next year so that we can go in September of 2009. It’s fun going every other year for us!

To book the Free Dining package, you can either do it at the Disney Web Site, AAA, or at your local travel agent. If you do go, have fun!

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Rumor has it that FREE Dining at Disney will be offered for late August -Mid September starting tomorrow, April 10th. I have taken advantage of this twice before, and can’t tell you how great of a deal it is.

Tomorrow I’ll be back with more details on exactly how you can book your trip…and get your meals for free! Since I did this last September (and was just at Disneyland last month), I won’t be booking this year…but I’m hoping they’ll do it again next year because then I will take them up on it!

I’ll have all the details for you tomorrow!

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Just last week, the Trump International Hotel and Tower Las Vegas opened! If you’re looking to go to Las Vegas soon, and want to stay there, you can get a good deal through Orbitz.

They have a Sizzlin’ Hot Vegas Sale going on right now where you can get $50.00 off when you book a qualifying vacation package for travel between March 24 and August 31, 2008. You have to book by May 18th to get this deal.

You can also get a $25.00 resort credit & 3rd night free at Trump International Hotel and Tower Las Vegas, so that could be a pretty great deal!

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I was really looking forward to going to California Adventure. It was a NEW Disney park for me! I had been to all of the ones in Orlando before, and Disneyland wasn’t really “new” to me since I had seen much of it at the Magic Kingdom, but California Adventure was mostly new (minus some of the rides from other WDW parks.)

So I was really excited the second day of our trip when we started our day there. We had a lot of fun, and enjoyed a whole bunch of things. Here are just a few of our highlights.

I would have to say the most enjoyable part of the day was when we saw Aladdin - A Musical Spectacular. That was really good, and we both really liked it. We also really enjoyed the Disney Animation building. While we skipped out on Turtle Talk with Crush (because we had done it 6-months ago in WDW), it is still a really cool technology! The other things though, we did go through, and really enjoyed. When you first walked into the building, they had a whole bunch of Snow White pictures set up, and they were really cool to look at. We also really liked the Sorcerer’s Workshop. That was really nice, and decorated really well!

I love food, so I obviously enjoyed The Bakery Tour, and the Mission Tortilla Factory. I was surprised that the Mission Tortilla Factory was making tortilla’s right there for you to try! I figured the factory would be a pretend setup, and not be making the tortilla’s. But they were, and they were very tasty! I got a great recipe to make a dessert with the tortilla’s that I can’t wait to try.

I really enjoyed both It’s Tough to Be a Bug and Muppet Vision 3D. While I’ve seen both many times in WDW, it was neat to see how they were set up in California Adventure since the outsides of both were very different.

I thought Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sully to the Rescue was cute. I know it was just a re themed Superstar Limo (which I never got to see), but it was really cute, so I was glad I got to see it.

It was just a lot of fun to walk around, and see a completely different park. I will admit that it isn’t quite a full-day park, so it was good that we had hoppers and could go back over to Disneyland late in the afternoon when we were finished.

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Let me preface this by saying that I live on the East Coast. Because of this, I had never been to Disneyland before last week, but have been to Walt Disney World many times over the years. So any comments I have to make will obviously be biased on the fact that I am much more used to WDW.

I will say that it was VERY cool to finally see the place that Walt built himself. While I know he had a lot to do with building Walt Disney World as well, he was actually at Disneyland while it was open, and therefore I think of this as more of “his” park. So that was really great to finally see it.

First off…I was not impressed with the castle at all! I took some pictures of course, but it just wasn’t anything exciting after seeing the one in Orlando so many times! I was disappointed. I knew that the castles were different (the one in Disneyland is Sleeping Beauty’s castle, while in the Magic Kingdom it’s Cinderella’s Castle), but I still expected it to be just as beautiful. So that took some getting used to.

I have to admit it was very cool to go on some of the rides that are not in the Magic Kingdom. For example, Indiana Jones Adventure was a lot of fun. We knew the type of ride it was because we had been on Dinosaur in the Animal Kingdom in WDW, but we really enjoyed the theming of Indiana Jones.

We were also happy to go on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, which had been at WDW, but was taken down for Winnie the Pooh quite a while ago now. There is also no Alice in Wonderland or Pinocchio’s Daring Journey in WDW, so even though they were geared to much younger riders, they were still fun to do. We both enjoyed the Storybook Land Canal Boats as well, which was cute.

It was interesting to go on Finding Nemo: The Submarine Voyage. Not because it was a particularly fun ride, but because it used a lot of the original 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride, which I had enjoyed in WDW as a child. I really enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean. Even though it is also in WDW, this one was definitely longer with a few extra scenes. That was really fun to experience. So much so that we had to go on it twice. It was also fun to experience the “Original” Enchanted Tiki Room, since the one in WDW has been changed, and while I remembered parts from when I was younger, it was fun to see it again.

One thing I do have to give to Disneyland is their fireworks! I had heard before visiting that the fireworks were better out in California, but wasn’t sure if that would be the case. When the fireworks started off with the same music, I was getting ready to be dissapointed that they were both the same…but boy was I wrong! A few minutes into it, the direction changed, and it was a very different show. I really enjoyed them.

I do have one thing to say to Disneyland. Please, please get a few more nice restaurants. One night while we were in Disneyland, we wanted to have a nice sit down dinner. We looked at the ones in Disneyland, and weren’t really excited. So we figured we’d hop on down to Downtown Disney, since it’s just short walk away!

BIG MISTAKE. It seems everyone else had the exact same idea! There were long, long lines outside of EVERY single restaurant. We finally got to a point where we were starving, and had to eat - so we ended up at Napolini - an Italian deli that’s really meant for take-out, so there are only about 4-5 tables inside. We got Sicilian slices of pizza, but they weren’t very good, and we were stuck eating them on a bench with the pizza on our laps. We learned our lesson though, and the next night took the quick walk back onto the street of our hotel where there were many restaurants, end we ended up having a very good meal.

Overall we had a lot of fun in Disneyland. It was a lot of fun to do some different things for a change, and it was great that it was within walking distance to our hotel, as well as California Adventure and Downtown Disney.

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