To Cruise, or Not to Cruise...

...that is the question.

Our family has begun a nice tradition over the last couple of years. The week before Christmas, there's an all-inclusive ranch resort in New York state that offers great rates. The last 2 holiday seasons, our family has taken advantage of the cost savings and spent a few days at this wonderful, family-oriented place where we can ski, swim, horseback ride, rock climb, have nerf wars, and so much more! We've loved both trips and had planned to make a tradition of it, continuing on this coming up holiday season.

This works nicely with my goals of minimizing the "stuff" in our house. The simple fact is, there's really not much that we need. So we'd rather spend money making memories and enjoying some time away together, rather than buying "stuff". That's not to say that we each don't walk away from the holidays with one or two thoughtful gifts - just that it's not the all-out presents extravaganza that it might have otherwise been.

Here's my dilemma... I've never been anywhere tropical before. The furthest south I've ever been is Florida. I'd love to go on a trip someplace warm, but we can't afford to do both a tropical vacation and the ranch resort.

All-inclusive vacations at tropical destinations sound lovely, but when you're paying for 4 people, they are not affordable. There are some cruise lines that offer "kids sail free" as a standard policy. This opens up lots of options that I would never have considered before. I could see Mexico, Jamaica & St Maarten, all in the same trip!

My husband is slightly claustrophobic, which can present challenges in a cruise-cabin environment. This means that a balcony room is the only way to make this possible, but the promotional offer of balcony room upgrades, combined with a standard "kids sail free" policy, means that a family of 4 can go on a week-long cruise for only a little over $2000, taxes included.

This is tempting...very tempting... but the more I pursue this as an option, the more I feel like I'm casting aside a tradition that I was creating. Then I think, maybe it's the family trip itself that it's the traditon, rather than the location itself... then I think I'm just trying to justify things because the palm trees and warm sands are beckoning me.

I know that these are nice problems to have and decisions to have to make - there are no bad options here. The fact that "to cruise, or not to cruise" is the biggest question on my mind speaks to the fact that my life's in a pretty good place right now.