When my wife and I decided that we were going to take our kids on their first cruise, we were pretty excited.  We knew that this would be the biggest vacation that we were going to take while our kids were living at home and we wanted to make it memorable.  We knew that it was going to cost us more money than we had ever spent on a vacation, but we knew that it would be worth it.

We started saving our money over a year beforehand and we were pretty sure that we had our finances in check before we started the drive to the airport.  But tragedy struck and we ended up in an accident.  Our minivan was totaled, but no one was hurt, so we went on the vacation anyway, fully knowing that when we returned home that we would need a new vehicle.

On the plane, we spoke to the kids about the problem and asked them if they minded that we wouldn’t do some of the family activities that we had planned.  We also asked them what was most important to them so that we could make decisions based on what the family wanted.

As it turned out, our oldest daughter searched online for the best swim with dolphins promotions and we were able to do all the activities we had planned and still had money left over for when we returned home.  Sometimes you wonder what you would do without your kids.

Technorati Tags: family activities, swim with dolphins promotions