6 and 9 yr old Springbreak - Disney or AI in Caribbean?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both are good options to have.

Disney - would you consider going in January instead of Spring Break? The biggest con to Disney during Spring Break would be the crowds. If you could pull your kids out of school for a week in January, that might be a better time to do Disney.

AI - we've done the AI Spring Break vacation the last two years and my kids had such a fun time. Pick an AI with a good kids club and lots of different activities. My two did not get bored the entire week.

Not the OP, but what AI brand and country did you choose and how old were you kids at the time?

We went to Dreams in Punta Cana and Tulum. I've recommended Dreams on this board before.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both are good options to have.

Disney - would you consider going in January instead of Spring Break? The biggest con to Disney during Spring Break would be the crowds. If you could pull your kids out of school for a week in January, that might be a better time to do Disney.

AI - we've done the AI Spring Break vacation the last two years and my kids had such a fun time. Pick an AI with a good kids club and lots of different activities. My two did not get bored the entire week.

Not the OP, but what AI brand and country did you choose and how old were you kids at the time?

We went to Dreams in Punta Cana and Tulum. I've recommended Dreams on this board before.

OP here - we were looking at Dreams Cancun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both are good options to have.

Disney - would you consider going in January instead of Spring Break? The biggest con to Disney during Spring Break would be the crowds. If you could pull your kids out of school for a week in January, that might be a better time to do Disney.

AI - we've done the AI Spring Break vacation the last two years and my kids had such a fun time. Pick an AI with a good kids club and lots of different activities. My two did not get bored the entire week.

Not the OP, but what AI brand and country did you choose and how old were you kids at the time?

We went to Dreams in Punta Cana and Tulum. I've recommended Dreams on this board before.

OP here - we were looking at Dreams Cancun.

Dreams Tulum poster here - Dreams is wonderful with kids. Great kids club, you can't beat the food - just a great all around choice. Why Dreams Cancun? I didn't appreciate this at the time of booking but did once we got there - do you plan to do any excursions? Some of the excursions (Tulum Ruins, XCaret, Xelha) were closer to Tulum so we didn't have to spend as much time getting to those excursions. There seems to be lots of great Dreams properties in the whole Riviera Maya. They also are building a new one. We probably will take a break from the AI vacation next year, but if we ever do an AI vacation again I would want to go to their latest!

[Anonymous]

I also would not do disney at spring break. A cruise might be a good option for you, but I've heard that the ones out of Baltimore are mostly the booze cruise half week ones. Some of the cruise lines have adjoining cabins that you could get. (Not sure if you'd be nervous about them having access to a balcony if you're in a different room...I do think it's hard to fall off those balconies unless you are stinking drunk and trying to show off.). The ease and selection of food is such a major bonus--it really is huge for me not to have to worry about how, when and with what I am feeding my kids. That's typically such a PITA on vacations. Plus they end up trying new stuff because it's all there and included!

I'm curious--are you seeing rooms at dream where they can sleep in a different room? Or were you going to get 2 adjoining? I was looking at dreams earlier in the year, but finding it difficult to figure out rooms and pricing. It looked like if you wanted 2 rooms, they were going to charge you for 4 adults at the AI rate. That does look like a fun vacation, though. We've thought about Atlantis too, but I think the suites are maybe further from the main pool area, and I've heard the food is overpriced and not very good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both are good options to have.

Disney - would you consider going in January instead of Spring Break? The biggest con to Disney during Spring Break would be the crowds. If you could pull your kids out of school for a week in January, that might be a better time to do Disney.

AI - we've done the AI Spring Break vacation the last two years and my kids had such a fun time. Pick an AI with a good kids club and lots of different activities. My two did not get bored the entire week.

Not the OP, but what AI brand and country did you choose and how old were you kids at the time?

We went to Dreams in Punta Cana and Tulum. I've recommended Dreams on this board before.

OP here - we were looking at Dreams Cancun.

Dreams Tulum poster here - Dreams is wonderful with kids. Great kids club, you can't beat the food - just a great all around choice. Why Dreams Cancun? I didn't appreciate this at the time of booking but did once we got there - do you plan to do any excursions? Some of the excursions (Tulum Ruins, XCaret, Xelha) were closer to Tulum so we didn't have to spend as much time getting to those excursions. There seems to be lots of great Dreams properties in the whole Riviera Maya. They also are building a new one. We probably will take a break from the AI vacation next year, but if we ever do an AI vacation again I would want to go to their latest!

It was the cheaper than the others and still had great reviews. I guess we should think about excursions but I didn't really have plans to leave the resort. They take all day. How long do you stay when you incorporate excursions? We were only going to stay 5 nights but if we do excursions it sort of cuts the resort time shot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also would not do disney at spring break. A cruise might be a good option for you, but I've heard that the ones out of Baltimore are mostly the booze cruise half week ones. Some of the cruise lines have adjoining cabins that you could get. (Not sure if you'd be nervous about them having access to a balcony if you're in a different room...I do think it's hard to fall off those balconies unless you are stinking drunk and trying to show off.). The ease and selection of food is such a major bonus--it really is huge for me not to have to worry about how, when and with what I am feeding my kids. That's typically such a PITA on vacations. Plus they end up trying new stuff because it's all there and included!

I'm curious--are you seeing rooms at dream where they can sleep in a different room? Or were you going to get 2 adjoining? I was looking at dreams earlier in the year, but finding it difficult to figure out rooms and pricing. It looked like if you wanted 2 rooms, they were going to charge you for 4 adults at the AI rate. That does look like a fun vacation, though. We've thought about Atlantis too, but I think the suites are maybe further from the main pool area, and I've heard the food is overpriced and not very good.

I could not figure this out so I planned to just pack us all in 1 room (awful!!!) but we have been to Excellence and we don't spend much time in the room. We leave the room around 8 am and don't return except to shower for dinner and then again at 11 pm. So figured we could make due. My kids are to young to put them in a separate room. DH and I would have to split up. They're 6 and 9. I wouldn't feel safe.

[Anonymous]

We stayed at Club Med Cancun in a Family suite of some sort which meant two full size adjoining rooms, with a door in between. I don't typically vacation with my kids in the same room either, except for one or two nights. We are going to the Reserve Paradisus in Punta Cana and will again have a two room suite--kids in separated room. IfF we leave during an AI vacation it is just one day, and stay on the resort the rest of the time. In Cancun we had horrible weather one full day, when we were going to take the water ferry to Isla Mujeres, but since we lost that day we just stayed at the resort. When we stayed at Club Med Sandpiper we drove to the ocean for a few hours one day and stayed on resort the rest of the time.

[Anonymous]

You'd have to be crazy to got o Disney over Spring Break. Any option would be better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both are good options to have.

Disney - would you consider going in January instead of Spring Break? The biggest con to Disney during Spring Break would be the crowds. If you could pull your kids out of school for a week in January, that might be a better time to do Disney.

AI - we've done the AI Spring Break vacation the last two years and my kids had such a fun time. Pick an AI with a good kids club and lots of different activities. My two did not get bored the entire week.

Not the OP, but what AI brand and country did you choose and how old were you kids at the time?

We went to Dreams in Punta Cana and Tulum. I've recommended Dreams on this board before.

OP here - we were looking at Dreams Cancun.

Dreams Tulum poster here - Dreams is wonderful with kids. Great kids club, you can't beat the food - just a great all around choice. Why Dreams Cancun? I didn't appreciate this at the time of booking but did once we got there - do you plan to do any excursions? Some of the excursions (Tulum Ruins, XCaret, Xelha) were closer to Tulum so we didn't have to spend as much time getting to those excursions. There seems to be lots of great Dreams properties in the whole Riviera Maya. They also are building a new one. We probably will take a break from the AI vacation next year, but if we ever do an AI vacation again I would want to go to their latest!

It was the cheaper than the others and still had great reviews. I guess we should think about excursions but I didn't really have plans to leave the resort. They take all day. How long do you stay when you incorporate excursions? We were only going to stay 5 nights but if we do excursions it sort of cuts the resort time shot.

We stayed for a week and did two excursions. If you don't plan to do excursions and just stay at the resort, would you consider going to Dreams Punta Cana? When we stayed there, the room (we upgraded to a Preferred Room) was a quasi suite. It didn't have two separate bedrooms like you think most suites would have but it did have a separate living room (there wasn't a door separating the living space from the bedrooms). Might not work for your family but just throwing different ideas out there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both are good options to have.

Disney - would you consider going in January instead of Spring Break? The biggest con to Disney during Spring Break would be the crowds. If you could pull your kids out of school for a week in January, that might be a better time to do Disney.

AI - we've done the AI Spring Break vacation the last two years and my kids had such a fun time. Pick an AI with a good kids club and lots of different activities. My two did not get bored the entire week.

Not the OP, but what AI brand and country did you choose and how old were you kids at the time?

We went to Dreams in Punta Cana and Tulum. I've recommended Dreams on this board before.

OP here - we were looking at Dreams Cancun.

Dreams Tulum poster here - Dreams is wonderful with kids. Great kids club, you can't beat the food - just a great all around choice. Why Dreams Cancun? I didn't appreciate this at the time of booking but did once we got there - do you plan to do any excursions? Some of the excursions (Tulum Ruins, XCaret, Xelha) were closer to Tulum so we didn't have to spend as much time getting to those excursions. There seems to be lots of great Dreams properties in the whole Riviera Maya. They also are building a new one. We probably will take a break from the AI vacation next year, but if we ever do an AI vacation again I would want to go to their latest!

It was the cheaper than the others and still had great reviews. I guess we should think about excursions but I didn't really have plans to leave the resort. They take all day. How long do you stay when you incorporate excursions? We were only going to stay 5 nights but if we do excursions it sort of cuts the resort time shot.

We stayed for a week and did two excursions. If you don't plan to do excursions and just stay at the resort, would you consider going to Dreams Punta Cana? When we stayed there, the room (we upgraded to a Preferred Room) was a quasi suite. It didn't have two separate bedrooms like you think most suites would have but it did have a separate living room (there wasn't a door separating the living space from the bedrooms). Might not work for your family but just throwing different ideas out there.

Thanks for this suggestion. Dreams Punta Cana sounded like there were no A/C areas and that is was all open air (roof and possible 1 wall but not closed off from the heat). Also we went to Excellence Punta Cana (adult-only) in August 2015 and LOVED IT, but the mosquitoes were horrible that we sort of wrote DR off. I wonder if they'd be bad in April.

[Anonymous]

If you do Disney, consider the 4 Seasons. It's incredible. And, the kids club is free, they have amazing pools and if you book via Amex or Virtuoso you will get $100 spa credit, free wi fi and free breakfast for 2 per room! They have shuttles to 4 Disney properties too. You will not regret it!