Wednesday June 21, 2023 Take Southwest airlines to Nassau, Bahamas. Hotel Transfer: Majestic Tours, book thru Atlantis hotel 2 weeks before the trip. Stay 4 nights at Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas.
Thursday June 22, 2023 Explore hotel
Friday June 23, 2023 Two hour tour of Nassau: 2 historic places are Ft Findale and Queen staircases.
Saturday June 24, 2023 Explore hotel
Sunday June 25, 2023 Check out Atlantis hotel, fly to FLL, from FLL fly to John Wayne airport.
After Thanksgiving, we took a road trip to Las Vegas with the main goal is to visit Grand Canyon West which is about 2 hours from Las Vegas.
We left for Las Vegas on Black Friday; never seen so much snow along the freeway like this. We took a quick exit on 395, stopped by the gas station for William to play with the snow; he totally loved it. Luckily we brought the slide. Then we stopped by Fashion Outlets next to Primm Casino for lunch, this outlet is dying: halves of the stores are closed. Grandpa went to the Primm casino while we went to have lunch at the Outlet (Grandma did not go with us this time). Note that the Mc Donald here is always crowded, the line was so long!
We arrived at the Luxor hotel around 1:30 PM; our room was ready because we checked in on-line as soon as they sent us the email providing the instructions to email; which I received around 1 AM in the morning. As always, William’s favorite part is to jump up and down on the hotel bed! Too bad it was cold, the pool was closed so William did not get to swim but he seemed to be ok with it.
After waiting for our sisters and brothers to get their room, we went to Pho So 1 for dinner. Then we went to Bellagio to watch the Water Fountain. It was so crowded so we took a detour to park at the other hotel and walked to Bellagio. After a long walk we finally got to the Water Fountain but William refused to go out to watch: he covered his ears. The music was so nice but he found it noisy. So he ran around the Bellagio hotel, I ran after him, and we ended up at the Garden, where we meet the rest of our family. The garden was so beautiful but William refused to stroll around the garden so we had to leave early. It was a long walk in a cold night but William was ok; he kept complaining that “I walk too much” but that’s about it: no crying or kicking!
We left Bellagio around 10:30 PM but when we got to our hotel room, it was 12:00 AM! I totally hate Luxor hotel for not having enough parking for its guest! (see below comment about the parking).
This time we did not explore Las Vegas much because the next day we went to Grand Canyon West, then we left Las Vegas the next day.
About Luxor: The lights are very dim in this hotel which I don’t really like; and it smells! lots of smoke that I could not stand in the lobby for too long; we could smell smoke even inside the room (and the room is non-smoking!). Worse part is the parking: its parking lot is so small: one day the parking attendant re-directed us to the Mandalay Bay hotel parking because this parking was full! We are not familiar with the area so we had so much trouble first to find the Mandalay parking entrance; second is to find the entrance to the Madalay Bay hotel from the parking structure: the parking was so huge! and then to walk from Mandalay Bay hotel to our hotel is quite a bit, especially it’s late at night and the casino is crowded! we arrived at the Luxor’s parking lot around 11 PM; and by the time we could park the car at Mandalay Bay and found our way around to get back to the Luxor hotel, it’s 12:00 AM. Unbelievable! I don’t think I’d stay here again.
William has been watching clips about Legoland hotel from Youtube.com; seeing how much loves to watch it over and over again, I decided to book 1 night at the Legoland Hotel, knowing it’s not cheap.
After days of researching for the price from several travel web sites, I finally found a day that was cheaper than other days: Sunday Sept 8. The pirate room is $178.00, plus tax and resort fees, came out about $264.00 total; which is not cheap but affordable. It was Sunday night, that’s why it was cheaper.
I told him about this trip a few days before the departure day, he was every excited.
So Sunday morning, we woke him up about 7:30 AM. He walked toward the door with only … diaper on. So I told him he needed to put clothes on before we could go out.
Our first stop was McDonald to get him hash brown for breakfast, then picked up Grandma and headed our way to Carlsbad where the hotel located. Our plan was to check in the hotel first, the check in time is 4:00 PM so we’d go to San Diego’s Balboa Park and then when the room was ready, we’d drive back to the hotel.
We arrived to the hotel around 9:30 AM. William loved it so much that he ran straight in, jumped right in to the lego pit, ran around the hotel while I was waiting on line to check in. Tim had a hard time to catch up to him as the hotel was so crowded with children.
After checking in, they gave us a temporary card to use the pool so we decided to check out the pool. On the way there, William wanted to get in the Disco elevator. It’s exactly what he saw in the clips: as soon as the door closes, the disco light is turning and the music is on. I’ve never seen him smile so much!
Then when we got to the pool, he did not want to leave! He ran into the pool, I had to run after him to get him back because our plan was to visit Balboa Park first. On our way to Balboa Park, he kept saying “I want to go back to the hotel”, “Our room is not ready yet, so we can’t go back!” – I told him.
We did not spend much time at Balboa Park because William did not enjoy it; so we left around 12:00 PM. After lunch at McDonald, we headed back to the hotel; William slept on the way. Our room was still not ready yet so we stopped by Costco, which is only 5 minutes from the hotel. Grandma and Tim went to shop while I stayed and watched William sleeping in the car.
Balboa Park
3:30 PM William woke up and so ready to go back to the hotel.
Picking up the key was fast, our room was 2056 on the 2nd floor. The hotel is not that big so we had no trouble finding the room. It’s a beautiful and spacious room that can fit 5 people nicely. William was so excited to climb up the bunk bed. “You’re gonna sleep on the bunk bed tonight, ok?” – I asked. He said “OK!”. It was the first time that he wanted to sleep by himself.
It was 4:50 PM, the pool is closed at 7:00 PM on Sundays so I hurried William to put on his swim suit to get down to the pool. He’s under 48 in so the pool attendant asked him to put on the life vest. Soon after, he ran to the pool and play with those floating legos while Grandma and I enjoyed taking pictures. It was a beautiful day with white clouds, not too hot or sunny.
By 6:00 PM, it started to get cloudy and cold so I asked William to get off the pool; Took him a while to listen.
My sisters families on the way home from Sea World stopped by the pick up Grandma and paid our room a visit. It was so fun seeing everyone. They all loved the decors of the room; too bad they did not stay long; they had to go home because they all have school & work on Mondays.
We had dinner in the room ( I bought hot dog, sandwich from Costco), then we came down to the dance room, William stayed there and jumping around for a little and ran to the lobby where the pirate ship is and played there. After that Tim took him to the game room.
He did not sleep until 1:00 AM. Both Tim & I were tired and were so ready to sleep but William was still hyper, running around turning on TVs, climbing up and down the bunk beds!
Next day, after breakfast I took William to the pool but it was closed. When it was time to check out, I asked the font desk and they said the pool will be shut down for a few days but we still could use the pool in the Castle Hotel which is next door! I wished I asked sooner so that William had more time to play in the pool.
So we walked to the Castle hotel, it has a very nice play ground and a big projected screen near by the pool. William did not wait long to get into the pool; and he stayed there until 12:00 PM. I had to ask him to get out several times before he actually walked out of the water.
We stopped by Costco again to fill up gas and buy lunch. William ate half of the turkey sandwich really fast. He must be hungry after swimming.
It was about 1 hour drive from hotel back to our home.
I can tell William had so much much; he enjoyed the pool the most. He smiled a lot when we used the dance elevators too.
I’ve never seen him smile that much during the time we were here at the hotel.
Grandma and me, selfie time 🙂
Grandma Tuyet
About The Legoland Hotel
Parking: The hotel will charge $22.00 to the credit card on file for the parking ($28 for Valet Parking) so when you get to the parking lot, tell the attendant that you’re staying at the hotel, they will give you the pass to display on the dashboard and will not collect the parking fee at that time. They will write down the date on the pass; and you can park your car any where in the parking lot. The parking is right in front of the hotel entrance; you can load your stuffs before park the car. Show this pass to them when you go in / out to avoid paying the parking fee.
The Pirate Room: It’s a spacious room with very beautiful pirate theme decoration. There’s a box of small lego in the room for you to play but you can’t take them home. There’s a small treasure chest near the door; to get the password to the lock you have to answer 4 questions. This question sheet is given to you when you check in. If you answer them correctly, you can open the chest and whatever inside the chest is yours to take home. We got 4 packs of lego to build the bird)
My answer was: 1624 ( How many chef hat in the Mini cafe? 1. How many red stripes in the Castle Play Aread? 6. How many Swords above the dragon in the lobby? 2. How many hot dogs on the wall near the survey ipad? 3)
There are total of 3 TVs: 1 in the sitting area, 1 in the bunk beds area and 1 next to the queen bed. The couch can be pulled out to turn into 1 queen bed. Our view from the window is the pool which is ok.
They provide lots of towels, tissue boxes and toilet papers. The toilet is designed for the little ones to sit on. There’s also a little wooden chair for the children to stand next to the sink. The restroom is so clean.
Complimentary Drinks: The juice pouches and water bottle with coffee are free for you to use.
Buffet Breakfast: is included with the booking. They count the heads when you check in for breakfast. The maximum count for our room was 5. Which means you can not go in / out multiple times.
Castle Hotel: the room key at 1 hotel will work in other hotel. The playground at the Castle Hotel is really nice with a big screen playing movies all the time. There’s a hot jacuzzi next to the big pool but of course it’s too hot for a summer weather.
Hotel Deal: Wait for Groupon deal. If I had waited, I’d have saved around $60.00 for the same room & same date. But booking with the hotel is non-refundable so I could not cancel.
The highlight of our summer trip this year was to go rafting on the Stanislaus River in Oakdale, which is about 2 hours driving from San Jose.
6:30 AM we left the hotel, stopped by Huong Lan Sandwiches to get some Pate Chaud and coffee for breakfast; then headed to the meeting point Golfland. We were on time but there was not many people there; and my friend was still picking up his friends, so we decided to go to the Knights Ferry.
Arrived to the Knights Ferry about 9:10 AM. We needed to check in at the parking lot near the bridge first to get our bands and pay for parking, then we head back to the bridge and walked down the stairs to where the boat ramp is. This is where they gave us a short orientation about safety and what to do, and make sure we all had the life vest on before letting us board the raft. Our family of 10 people fit nicely in this big raft.
Our group of 10 Julie, Thân, Danny & Tracy Võ Eliza, Bryan, Victoria Nguyễn Michelle, Tim & William
Soon after we left the ramp, friends from other rafts starting to attack us with water guns and buckets full of water. We came prepared too, so we attacked back with the water gun and water buckets. Vy, Bryan and Eliza was so vigorously in fighting back :). Soon we all were wet from heads to toes.
William at first loved the boat, the water but he did not like the water war; he asked “I want to go back to the car!” so I hugged him and tried to shelter him from all the water splashes. After that he was fine; he tried to use the water gun to shoot others too.
The river is beautiful, lots of times we can see the rocks at the bottom so some parts are not that deep. When we stopped for lunch around 12:30 PM, William refused to get out of the water, he loved to play with the paddle in the water.
After lunch, we continue our way to the Orange Blossoms ramp, which is about 3 miles ahead. This leg of the river has more waves which added more excitement to this fun adventure.
We love this place with shallow water and lots of rocks; this is near the end of trip.
We arrived to the Orange Blossoms point around 2:00 PM. There were River Journey Adventure staffs waiting to pull our raft to the shore. This is where we had to take our stuffs and got off the raft and gave back the safety box (they let us borrow for free). William did not want to leave just yet, he ran back to the water that I had to pull him back. There was a shuttle waiting there to take us back to the parking lot. So it was a one way river trip.
It was definitely a fun trip for everyone; it’s 1 of the family trip that we will remember as we go thru life. And most importantly to me is that William had fun and he was happy to play with the water.
Cost: $33.00/pp (child or adult). If buy more than 10 tickets then the website will automatically apply discount of $3.00 off.
A friend (Do Vu) from San Jose asked if we wanted to join his friends to rafting on the Stanislaus river. We’ve never rafted before so it was very tempting so I asked my sisters if they want to go. The answer was Yes, so we decided to go. It was that easy!
After a few sleepless nights of researching for the hotel that can fit 10 pp, I settled on the Hyatt House in San Jose; which has 2 rooms with 1 king and 2 queen beds and 1 sofa can turn into a queen bed and a kitchen. It’s about 700 sqf so it fits 10 of us nicely. ($550.00 for 2 nights includes tax).
William was very excited when I told him that we were going on a mini-vacation.
Our trip started at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning. Our first stop was a McDonald in Ventura for restroom break and some harsh browns for William, he loves harsh brown!
Next was Solvang, a Danish town; but William did not like it; he insisted to go back to the car.
William was whining and wanting to go back to the car. He never likes hot weather!Walking around townWilliam’s cousins: Danny and Tracy Vo; Bryan and Victoria NguyễnThe 3 sisters: Eliza, me & my older sis Julie
William’s behaviors got better after we made the coin. He loves to make the coins wherever there’s a coin making machine.
Here’s the coin with Solvang symbol: the windmill.He did not want to leave until he can make some coin. Tim had to go buy some stuffs to exchange for quarters so that he can make one.
Leaving Solvang after the kids have a chance to eat some ice cream; and my brother in law Thân tasted some cheese, we arrived to San Jose around 4:30 PM.
But the room was not ready yet; they said to come back at 5:00 PM so we sat on the lounge near the pool waiting for the room. William was so excited and ran around the hotel without waiting for me.
We came back to the front desk, the room was still not ready yet, they said “10 more minutes!”. William could not stay still, he ran up and down the elevator and played with the curtain next to the bar. Moments later, the front desk came and told us our room was ready. What a happy moment for us after a long drive, 8 hours!
To make up, the hotel offered us free parking and a plate of snack/fruit. William took the red apple and ate it while jumping around the rooms.
About an hour later, the kids went to the pool; they definitely had some fun there. It’s a heated pool but they keep it only at 70 degree so it feels cold.
William played by himself in the corner, occasionally shoot the water from the water gun.Our nephews and nieces enjoyed the pool also.William finished the whole bag of pop corn – a treat from the hotel
Next day, Sunday, we went rafting which we had so much fun (see the post here )
Then in the afternoon, we went to the Our Lady of Peace Church and Shrine in Santa Clara, which is famous for its Statue of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. William ran around the spacious garden freely. It’s a beautiful statue of Mary.
Short trip to Palm Springs with my Mom and my sisters’ families (total 13 people), stayed that Palm Canyon Hotel for 1 night, then took the Aerial Tram to the Mountain Station for some snow. It was cold but that did not stop William from lying on the snow! He especially loved the swimming pool and jacuzzi at the hotel because it’s heated.
Our first stop was at the Cabazon Dinosaurs, took a few pictures with the giant dinosaurs. If you want to take the Adventure Tour then the admission is $13.00 but we did not. Then we headed to The River of Rancho Mirage for lunch. It’s a beautiful place; William loved to play with the water in the man-made pond.
Got to the hotel around 3:00 pm and they let us in early (check in time is 4:00 pm). The villa is so roomy that the children loved it. It has 2 bed rooms with each has its own spacious bathroom. One room has 1 king bed which we stayed in, the other room has 2 queen beds for my sister and her 2 children and my Mom. We also booked a studio for my older sister which has 1 bed and 2 sofa bed. Both have fully equipped kitchen and full size refrigerator.
After a short break, we went down to the pool, William immediately jumped in with his Dad; and didn’t leave the pool until it got dark.
Sunday noon 8/19/2018. Seeing William likes water so much so we decided to book 1 night at the Great Wolf Lodge Resort so that he can play in the water park. The water park is only offered to the hotel guests so that’s why we had to book 1 night even though it’s only 10 minutes driving from our house.
From the look of his face I know he really liked it but refused to try on different things like slides or wave pool. At first he kept standing near the water fountains, and then we found this area for toddlers and took him there: he refused to get in, we had to carry him up and put him down in the shallow pool. After a few minutes in the water, he stopped kicking and starting to play with the water.
We let him play for about 2 hours in the pool and then took him to the room; it’s 5:30 and every one was hungry so we drove to the Vietnamese restaurant near by for some fried chicken rice. William had 2 bites of the chicken and felt asleep on my thigh!
He woke up when we carried him out to the car after dinner. There was entertainment for children in the hotel lobby with music so we stayed there a while; William enjoyed his new bubble machine and ran around with it. On the way back to room, he saw the pop corn stand and asked for it. So we bought him 1 bag, the finished the whole bag! Poor little boy, he was hungry because he did not eat at dinner. Then we watched Tarzan on the Tivi; he did not fall asleep until the movie was over.
Memorial Holiday weekend, we went camping with a group of friends (VCF – Vietnamese Cyber Friends) at Zion Park. We left our house on Thursday and drove to Las Vegas, stayed at MGM Grand for 1 night, then drove to Zion Park (3 hours drive) and camped at Watchman campground for 1 night. The plan was to camp 2 nights but the weather was too hot and William had an accident at the daycare right before we left so we only camped 1 night then headed home on Saturday. We got home around midnight on Sunday.
The whole trip, the only time William was happy is to ride the shuttle bus and to play with the water in the river. The weather was too hot (85 degree and above) to make it impossible to sit in the tent during noon, so William had to sit on the chair outside. I know he was tired and just wanted to lie down but every time I told him to get in the tent, he’d get in for 1 minute and then ran out even when we turned on the fan inside the tent.
William would not want to go near the sand so we had to take pictures from the pool.
Cancun trip Fri Aug 18 – Thur Aug 24, 2017.
AeroMexcio airline, stop over in Mexico City for 1 and 1/2 hour. Arriving to Cancun from LAX around 11 PM. On the way back home from Cancun, arriving to LAX around 11:30 PM.
Hotel: Grand Park Royal Cancun Carribe for 6 nights, all inclusive.
Total cost: $1,600.00
William had fun playing with the truck
Cancun t-shirts, William has Cancun Go (Pokemon Go game).
Our big family, not counting my brother’s family who already flew back to Maryland after 5 days at this hotel.
