Las Vegas' Monte Carlo

I've been to Vegas numerous times and Monte Carlo would not be my first choice of hotels. In fact, TravelMan stayed there for his bachelor party 16 years ago, so unless there had been a major reno, I wouldn't have given it the time of day. However, I was invited on a trip. And the lodging had already been arranged, so Monte Carlo it was.

The line for check-in was quite long and didn't seem to move quickly. The rooms are what I refer to as basic rooms...one king bed, a desk, and a bathroom area. The bathroom what was most aging about the room; although, the carpet in the room needed to be replaced. The bathroom needed a major update. Plus, the water pressure was not good for oh, “me of thick hair.” Parts of the bathroom felt very dirty, which I'm assuming were mold. Things like the light fixture being cracked and not repaired shouts to me, "We don't give TLC to our hotel rooms."  

Sink area in bathroom

Broken light in bathroom

However, the bed was comfortable and the room was reasonably quiet.

The pool was always very crowded. It was difficult to find a chair but we managed. It was difficult to get food and beverage service at the pool.  Additionally, you had to move your location a lot if you were hoping for sun.  This pool gets a lot of shade throughout the day.

View from my room -- it was considered a pool view.  As you can see a ton of shade at the pool.  This was around 8:30am...so the sun will move, but then the tall buildings on the other side quickly cause shade as the sun moves.

The hotel is certainly not a luxurious experience; yet, the location is somewhat good for the strip. If you can get a room for an affordable rate, then don't turn it away just based on it needed a renovation. Yet, be aware you are booking an average room that needs updating. As a little travel tip when booking, Monte Carlo is associated with the Hyatt. So if you have free rooms on your Hyatt account or points you want to spend, this is another reason to consider Monte Carlo.

The company I had with me on the trip made up for any deficiencies of the hotel.  We had a great trip.

TravelLady Rating: The Monte Carlo would not be my first choice of hotels in Las Vegas.  Yet, if the room were free or extremely discounted, I wouldn't say no.  Yet, I would know what to expect.

Embassy Suites - Deerfield Beach

Our family of four stayed at the Embassy Suites Deerfield Beach for New Year's Eve 2015. We had an ocean front room with a wrap around balcony (suite 404).

View from our room

This room could use some updating for sure. However, for us, it was nice to have a suite set up with two bathrooms, a king size bed in one room, and a pull out queen bed in the other. The view of the water was just beautiful.

For the facilities, I used the fitness center one morning. It is small; the equipment could be updated. Yet, the equipment I used was all in working condition. We enjoyed the pool. The bar had good service, and the towel supply was always in stock. If you follow my blog, then you know I believe that hotels should offer free internet. Embassy Suites Deerfield Beach does not. However, if you are a Hilton rewards member, then internet is included. We are not Hilton Reward members but had an easy fix. We went to the front desk, signed up, and had free internet within minutes for the duration of our stay.

The hotel was busy while we were there between it being New Year's Eve as well as the Orange Bowl for the college play-offs.  The staff didn't seem rattled by the crowd; they were pleasant and ready to help when needed. The breakfast buffet was crazy busy both days we were there, and the food was blah. We never attended the evening receptions that Embassy hosts. 

The beach is just outside the gate of the pool. It was easy to access. As someone who grew up in Florida, I am not a fan of “manmade/man-placed rocks” on the beach. I didn't ask, but they are probably there to help stop erosion. Beach chairs could be rented for $12/each per day. This is overpriced; bring your own chairs if possible. Something else that was overpriced was the parking. Consider this when booking.

TravelLady Rating: The location is great. If you are traveling with your family and want space in the hotel room, book a balcony, ocean-front room. Also, I used hotels.com when booking this room two days prior to arrival and got decent pricing.

Southwest Bonus Is Back

The 50,000 point bonus is back with Southwest when you apply for the Southwest Chase Credit Card.  This is one of the fastest ways to make your way to the Companion Pass. Click {HERE} for the details of applying to the card.  {HERE} is the blog post about fast tracking for a Companion Pass.

September contest - ENTER to win!

Planning a trip can be time consuming. While there is so much information out on the web these days, it can still be confusing. A travel agent is a great service to use for planning your trips, but can they really save you money? Turns out he answer is yes, because travel agents don't charge customers for their services.  (They are paid by the hotel, cruise ship, etc)

We've teamed up with Storybook Destinations and for every person who mentions this blog, Our Family Loves to Travel, when inquiring about a trip will be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card. If you book a trip, you'll be entered again. This will run for the entire month of September. Where do you want to go...on a cruise, a trip to Disney, the beach, Italy, Sandals, snow skiing? Inquire with Storybook Destinations to find out what trip might be right for you.

Storybook Destinations

Vacations@StorybookDestinations.com

www.StorybookDestinations.com

Direct 1-719-964-1718

*Contest Terms & Conditions: Applicable to new inquires and bookings as of September 1, 2015, with Storybook Destinations. Must mention the blog, Our Family Loves to Travel, at time of inquiry. Open to all US residents during the contest period (September 1, 2015 to September 30, 2015). Winners will be drawn from all the entries received up to 11:59pm/MST on September 30th. Drawing will be held on Friday, October 2^nd. Additional conditions may apply.

Traveling with your Sitter

Whether you call the person who helps you watch your kids a nanny, a babysitter, or an au pair, the same basic questions run through everyone's head when it comes to traveling with them. This post is written with the hopes to clear up how you may want to address travel with your nanny.

For the purpose of this post, a sitter is defined here as a person caring for our children. This person does not live with us full time, nor is caring for our children her full-time job; additionally, she does not care for them on a daily basis. On the flip side, she is one of the only people, outside of family, who cares for our children when we are not available.

When our children were younger, we almost always traveled with our sitter. Now that our kids are older, we often find a resort with a kid-zone or child care. Having our sitter with us was piece of mind. And let's all be honest, traveling with our sitter made the trips more enjoyable.

Here are some tips:

1. Your sitter may not be familiar with travel – When you begin discussing traveling with her, don't assuming she knows the area you are going, that she has a passport, or that she'll know your expectations. Therefore, it's important that you...
2. ...Set the ground rules – It is important that everyone has the same expectations of the trip. You don't want anyone to come home disappointed. What will you be paying for on the trip? What will the sitter be responsible for? Will there be compensation in addition to the trip? How will meals be handled? What will the sleeping arrangements be? When will the sitter be expected to watch the kids?
3. Make sure your sitter has a passport – Our sitter didn't have a passport, so we covered the expense for her to get one. Passports can't be gotten at the last minute, so there needs to be some planning.
4. Work out a schedule for your sitter to have downtime – Your sitter may not have the opportunity to visit your destination outside of the trip. She will want to have time to explore the area. Plan to allow her to do this during your family time, so it doesn't take away from your vacation. Plus, you'll want to include your sitter in some of your fun as well.
5. Remember your sitter is sacrificing something – While your sitter loves being with your kids, she is sacrificing something of her own personal life to travel with you. Make sure she knows she is appreciated and that she is comfortable with the terms you have agreed on from the points mentioned above.

Another thing we always did that you may want to consider is we allowed our sitter to bring a friend. The friend had to pay her own way, but she was welcome to share the room we got for our sitter. This always ended up being a positive for our family. We had another set of eyes watching our children. Plus, when our sitter had her downtime, she had a friend with her. In our experience, this worked out to be a win-win for everyone.

While I have listed the five tips above, you may still want to have a suggestion specifically on how to pay your sitter. Certainly, what we did may not be right for you and your sitter. This is something you need to establish while working through #2 above. I can only share what worked for our family and our sitter with compensation.

The sitters we took happened to always be college girls. They never had to take time off from a full-time job or miss a class to travel with us. We would arrange our travel time to coordinate with one of their semester or summer breaks. We did not pay them hourly. They were invited to go on a trip with us as well as bring a friend along. We always covered all of our sitter's travel expenses such as getting a passport, airfare, her own hotel room, and food. Additionally, we would give our sitter a pre-agreed amount of money for each day. The amount of money was based on where we were going. Whether she spent the money while traveling with us or saved it, that was up to her. All of the terms were given to the sitter ahead of time, so she could be in agreement prior to committing to the job. (Believe me when I tell you we had a number of sitters hoping they would be invited on one of our trips. Therefore, if the first one asked didn't like the terms offered, we had other sitters who would have jumped on it. However, we compensated fairly, and the first sitter we asked always was thrilled to accept the job.) It has always worked out beautifully for us and our sitters. They got to go to the Bahamas, Hawaii, Las Vegas, and various beaches in Florida with us.

Taking your sitter on vacation with you may seem like a huge luxury. However, if the terms are worked out ahead of time and you've budgeted appropriately, you may find that it isn't as big of a financial burden as you may have assumed it was going to be.

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Marriott Tempe at The Buttes

This is not the fanciest place you will stay as far as Marriotts go. However, it is clean, has a unique atmosphere, a fun pool, and the staff is nice. As I mentioned the hotel has a unique atmosphere; buildings are placed in a hillside with small caves. Some of these small caves have hot tubs. The pool has a great desert feel. The landscaping is native to the desert as well.

The breakfast buffet was included in our room rate, and I admit – VERY IMPRESSIVE! We could select from a variety of fresh fruits, cold cereal, hot cereal, an omelette station, bacon, sausage, eggs, boiled eggs, breakfast potatoes, toast, juice, coffee, and fresh waffles with toppings.

The room is what I refer to in this blog as a “standard room”...meaning a bathroom, 2 queen beds, and room for a small desk. It also had a mini fridge and a safe. The room felt a little old and worn; however, it did not feel dirty.

We only stayed one night, and I didn't make it to the gym. Therefore, I am not able to report on that.

Unlike the breakfast buffet, the food served at the pool was unimpressive, and the service was slow. The pool is large and there was plenty of seating while we were there. There is a pool at the slide, but my boys said it was slow. This kid aquarium (part of the pool) was a fun place for photos.

If you are looking for a newer hotel with all the bells and whistles, this is not the place for you.  Yet, if you are looking for an authentic Phoenix hotel, you may want to check this out.

TravelLady Rating: We would stay here again and make sure our room rate included the breakfast buffet.

Day 7 - Norwegian Getaway

There is a string of posts about our trip on Norwegian's Getaway. We went on the 7-night cruise which stopped in St. Thomas, Tortola, and Nassau. Our stateroom was 13234 which was considered a family cabin with balcony. To follow along or get caught up click these links: {What to Pack}, {Preparing for the Getaway}, {Day 1}, {Day 2}, {Day 3}; {Day 4}, {Day5}, {Day 6}; below is the review of day 7.

Day 7 - Nassau

Let me start this entry by being honest and sharing that Nassau is usually one of our least favorite ports on any cruise. We lived in Florida for years, and Nassau was an easy trip for a long weekend. Surprisingly, on this cruise, Nassau was the best day we had as a family!

Our kids love Atlantis on Paradise Island. So we decided to budget for a trip to Atlantis. There are two ways to go to Atlantis while you are on a cruise. I suggest pricing out both and seeing what is best.

• Option 1 – Book the cheapest room you can find at Atlantis and check in as a guest, even though you aren't staying there. Comfort Suites Paradise Island is also a part of Atlantis. This is where we usually find the lowest rates for the resort. The older parts of Atlantis are somewhat run down, and these are going to be the least expensive rooms. But just keep reminding yourself that you are headed back to the cruise ship to sleep. When figuring out the total, don't forget to add in all the hotel taxes as well as your transfer to and from the hotel.
• Option 2 – Book the Atlantis excursion through your cruise ship. This will include your transfers.

On Friday morning, we woke up and went for a run on the jogging track and then headed to breakfast at the buffet. The ship didn't arrive in Nassau until noon. So we had time to play on the pool deck for a bit. Since we didn't arrive until noon, it was a little disappointing to know we had to be back on the ship by 6:30. As I mentioned in a previous blog entry, we wish the Tortola port was the noon to 6:30 and the Nassau was the longer port stop. In efforts to make the best of the time we had, our family was one of the first families off the boat at 12:15. We got in a line on the pier that ended up being very long for the excursion to Atlantis. (I guess we weren't the only ones with this idea.) We received arm bands and were shuttled over to Atlantis to play in the pools, slides, and lazy river. We had a great day together as a family. It was nice to get off the ship and actually be able to play in a large pool for awhile. We stayed as long as we could at Atlantis, leaving enough time to visit the extensive aquarium there, before heading back to the ship after a full day of much fun!

Here's our photo of M & B at Atlantis.  Everyone has to take a photo in the "big chair."

This was our last night on the ship. We had reservations at Moderno. The kids wanted to go to Splash Academy for the Farewell Pajama Party. We actually took the kids to the buffet for their dinner, dropped them off at Splash Academy, and went to Moderno kid-free. We asked to sit outside. The ship was already cruising, and there was a wonderful breeze! Moderno is a Brazilian steakhouse. They had a salad bar. I am not always a fan of a salad bar, but this was amazing! Oh, salad bar, where had you been my entire cruise??? If I had known about it, I would have frequented that salad bar all cruise long. We had been warned not to fill up on the salad bar as the meat part of the meal was coming. Yet, it was difficult not to...it was so, so yummy! Just think of all the wonderful and uncommon items on a salad bar you love, and it probably was there! When diners are done with the salad bar and want meat to start coming to their table, the coaster on the table is flipped to the green side. Trays of meat will come one after another. It was a fun experience.

After dinner, TravelMan and I walked around the deck and enjoyed the last night of our vacation. We also had to go back to the stateroom and put out our checked suitcases, so that they would be in the baggage claim the next morning. When we picked our kids up from Splash Academy, they were so confused about their feelings. I think they were shocked to feel sad the cruise was coming to an end. For the three years prior, we have cruised with Disney's cruise line. And we have always loved, loved, loved it! I think all of us were surprised that Norwegian was running a close race with our experience on Disney. (Remember that stateroom attendant I told you about at the beginning of my week's review??? He was really the only major let down on the ship.) As the boys were falling asleep that night, they told us that they want to go back on the Norwegian Getaway next summer instead of the Disney Dream. For a family who has adored their Disney cruises, this is saying a lot about the Getaway!

The morning of day 8, we woke up and got off the ship. (Wah!) We really enjoyed the cruise! We got our luggage, went through customs, contacted Uber, and off we went to our next destination for the day.