wifi Archives - Journeys Are My Diary

How To Have A Really Successful Family Holiday

March 2, 2017 by Bel Leave a Comment

Going on vacation with your family can be extremely stressful. It can be hard to not only get everyone on the same page, but the communication can lack in some places. Planning out the perfect holiday isn’t easy, and it takes patience and a plan. Preparation is key, and you’ve got to invest some of your time to plan a vacation that is successful.

Communication is essential

When you are planning a family vacation, communication is going to be crucial. You want to avoid a lot of drama caused by miscommunication and instead, make sure that everyone is on the same page right from the beginning. This means that you should sync up your flights, how you are getting to the hotel and even what you are doing throughout the stay. There are a lot of different apps out there that can help keep you organized and keep your family in the loop.

Be realistic with your money

This is another thing that can cause a lot of drama. Money can be tight for some family members, and that is why being practical with money up front is huge. While you are planning out what you are going to be doing throughout your holiday vacation, make sure that you incorporate some free things, as that will help offset some of the costs for those that have thinner wallets.

Pad your time

What this means it that if you are set off across the country with your family to check out different amusement parks or malls, leave a chance to explore. You might have a list of things that you want to see and a list of stuff that you want to do but pad your time. Leave time in the agenda for family-time too, that’s important, and it will help everyone bond and be a little closer.

Keep it active for the group

If you are not a keen conversationalist with your family, why not up the ante and plan something active? A sporting event is one of the best things to go to with a group. It also provides a lot of memories for your family, and it doesn’t require a lot of personal interaction. To make those memories last, a Charleston family photographer can help capture the fun and connection in a relaxed, candid way.

Safety first

Whenever you are traveling with a bigger group, preparation is essential to keep the stress at bay and to ensure that everyone is safe. If you are going with small kids, you should keep a photo of them as well as the entire family on you at all times. The younger kids should also carry an identification card with their parents’ names, address and phone number of where you are staying. Safety first, especially when it comes to family holidays.

Have a packing party

Packing is probably one of the most stressful things when you are preparing for a trip. You have to make sure that you have everything and that is why coming prepared with a checklist and having a packing party is huge. Make a game out of it, see who can pack up everything the fastest. There are also packing hacks that you can use to understand how to pack for a longer trip without the stress.

WiFi is paramount

Finally, don’t try to fight it, WiFi is going to be vital when you are traveling. If it is a cost? Spring for it. It will stop a lot of fighting, a lot of drama and it will make the trip that much better. There are also a lot of ways that you can get WiFi for free and save a few bucks.

Now that you know some of the best ways to cut down on the stress and to have a fabulous family holiday, what are some of the tips that you have? Share them!

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August 10, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

This week I’ve had a handful of pics to choose from but I love this one taken on Sunday. We spent the morning looking for a car for Chris and since we had to take the girls with us, they needed to behave themselves. They were absolutely stars and so we treated them to lunch at McDonalds (Chris needed to use the wifi too!). We’re having a lovely summer. I hope you are too!

Product Review – Logitech Harmony Ultimate Hub*

May 31, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

This week I’ve been trying out my new Logitech Harmony Ultimate Hub* and I’m in love with it! In this modern age its not really unusual for households to own 3+ remotes to control all their entertainment, so when I was offered a solution to this, I snatched it up. The Logitech Harmony Ultimate Hub is both a gadget and an app, that makes controlling your TV, DVD player, Sky box, Xbox etc. all much simpler. With the use of the hub (and an IR mini blaster if necessary) you can connect all your tech via the wifi and then control it all with an app. Genius right?

Not only is the Harmony Hub super easy to set up, it’s also super stylish. It’s sleek black, curvy shape will fit in perfectly next to your TV and entertainment. Everything is black these days it seems! The contents of the box are all fairly self explanatory, with the option for both UK plug or AC adapter.

As I mentioned, setting up the hub is really easy. Place the power adapter into the hub, plug the power into a socket and switch on. While you’re waiting for it to boot up, download the Harmony app from either Apple or Android store. Set up an account and you’re ready to go. Sync up your app with the hub first, then add your devices. Once they’re added you can even add specific short cut functions, it really is impressive. I didn’t use the IR mini blaster but this gives you the ability to connect a device that’s possibly a bit further away from the main entertainment centre. It basically extends the reach of the hub. Don’t worry you don’t need to remember my instructions, as instructions are also included in the box. Not only that but the app is so step by step that you really can’t go wrong.

Please excuse my messy lounge but as you can see the interface is really simple and easy to follow.

The Logitech Harmony Ultimate Hub is such a good idea for this modern age. Instead of dealing with loads of remotes, you can have it all in one place on an app. Universal remotes are a great idea but even those tend to be out of reach, beside the TV etc. If you’re anything like me, your phone is always to hand. Even last night, I reached for my phone to turn up the volume, just so I didn’t have to get up and get the remote control. This is such a great gadget and I would definitely recommend it.

Florida 2015 (5 weeks to go) The Planning

February 25, 2015 by Bel 6 Comments

Last week I mentioned that I was going to start a mini-series, documenting the before and after of our trip to Florida this year. Today is my first post of the series and I decided I’d start with “The Planning”.

I love to plan! All of my friends will tell you how much. Whether its planning the next holiday to look forward to, picking the next Murder Mystery we might get together for, or organising someone’s birthday plans – I’m the person for the job. Not only do I like to plan what and when, I also love to plan EVERYTHING to do with the event. I’m a bit of a perfectionist to be honest. And probably a control freak too. But no one in my social group seems to mind, so it’s all good. However, as much as I love to plan a good holiday – I’m not keen on OVER PLANNING. I don’t want to make itineraries or schedules, I don’t want to know what I’m doing every single day and I most certainly don’t like inflexibility in holiday plans. I’m a sort of “fly by the seat of your pants” kinda gal when it comes to the actual holiday itself. All of this has proved very interesting while trying to plan this Florida trip… but I’ll get to more of that later.

These are the people coming to Florida – Megan, Chris, Me, Lily and my Mum

I’ve mentioned several times before, but I feel I should really mention it again, that this trip would not be possible without my mum. Back in January 2014, she announced that she would be taking us as a family (and my brother was offered too but he declined) to Florida in Easter 2015. The girls and I had been saving up pocket money for a short while, with the view to going in several years from then, but never in our wildest dreams did we expect to go so soon or to have someone else pay for the majority of the trip. My mum is the best mum in the world and I love her dearly.

As with most holidays abroad, one of the first things to plan is your flights. Not only that though, but also your accommodation. For us the two pretty much needed organising simultaneously because we wanted to book flights out (and back) while knowing we definitely had accommodation that could accommodate us for the full time. Luckily this wasn’t too difficult as there are LOADS of villa options in Orlando and while mum did all the research on that, I did the research for the flights. In the end we got it all booked back in June of last year.

Flights – Both our flights out and our flights back are in two parts, with short layovers between. Of course there were hundreds of flight options but these suited us best due to length of journeys, time of day etc. We leave the UK on a Thursday lunch time and arrive in Florida later on that evening. Returning home we leave Florida just after dinner and arrive back in the UK in the morning. Both flights are a really reasonable amount of time – the first only 12 and a half hours total, the second less than 10 and a half total. Outbound we’re flying Air Canada and return is United Airlines. I’ve never flown with either before, so I’m quite excited!

The Villa – Our villa is situated in a place called Davenport and it looks beautiful (though very like every other one I looked at from the outside!). It’s 3 bedroom and 2 bathroom. When we were originally looking for villas, my mum asked what my criteria for accommodation was and at first I said I didn’t really mind. However in the end I gave her only two. 1) The villas MUST have wifi and 2) the villa preferably had to have a pool. This place has both, as well as lots of other things so honestly I couldn’t be happier. It is apparently 15 minutes from Disney and 30 minutes from the airport. Sounds all good to me!

After booking both the flights and accommodation, two out of three big holiday costs were taken care of. The flights were a total of £3,239.05 for three adults and two children and the villa was £900 for two weeks. I only mention it really in case anyone has stumbled across this blog post and is looking for approximate costs. Anyway, that left Theme Park tickets as the main outlay that was left.

Park Tickets – After doing A LOT of research, I found that American Attractions was the cheapest option for both our Disney Park tickets and also our Universal tickets too. These we booked in September 2014. We opted for Disney & Universal Combo tickets that would last the full 14 days of our trip. They worked out at £392 per adult and £369 per child (these prices have actually gone up since). With regards to the Disney Parks, this gives us access to all 6 parks (Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach) as well as access to Disney’s Wide World of Sports Complex, DisneyQuest, Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course and a round of mini golf each day at either Disney’s Fantasia Gardens Mini Golf Course or Disney’s Winter Summerland Mini Golf Course. With regards to Universal, we get access to Universal Studios, Universal’s Islands of Adventure and Universal CityWalk.

After booking all three of these things, the bulk payments for the holiday were made. Mum organised a rental car too from limo tampa fl though I have no information about that, but I believe that was probably the next highest amount to pay. After all this was done, there were still other things to organise of course. Even today I’ve booked something else to add to our holiday package. There has been Lily’s passport to renew, holiday insurance to find, ESTA visas to organise, character meals to book, photo passes to decide on and all sorts of other incidentals. While I’m sure no one is interested in passport renewal, visas or holiday insurance, I will be talking a little about character meals and photo passes in my next post! I will also be discussing what we’re most looking forward to doing on holiday, the attractions that most appeal in the parks (and out of the parks) as well as Disney’s FastPass system – or at least what I understand of it. The next post will be next Wednesday (4th March) and will represent our 4 week countdown mark. Though to some extent the content will still fall under the heading of “planning”, I’ll be calling it something like “when we get there”. I hope you’ll all pop back then to see what I have to say!