Maria Leonino

    Over time, the variation of family vacations have evolved. Nowadays, families take trips to other countries, states and travel by cars, planes or cruise ships.

    Popular times to travel are around Christmas, spring break and the months June-August. At this time, children are not in school due to break, so families travel as a getaway.

    Families travel to all different climates and places. Ski trips to mountains, beach vacations, and tourist or historic attractions are a few of many popular vacations.

    Another way to travel is through cruise ships. On a cruise, families travel to multiple different countries or cities all over the world, all within days or weeks.

    I have done different forms of vacations such as beach trips, historic spots, and cruises. For a long time I would only travel to North and South Carolina beaches, but my past two vacations have been cruises.

    When I was younger, Outer Banks, North Carolina and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina were the main places I went to. My family, along with my aunts, grandparents and cousins always came with me.

    A traditional way for families to vacation is by staying on a beach house or hotel, which is what my family would do.

    In the Outer Banks, we always rented a home for a week on the beach. We would drive down together and have a routine of going to the beach, dinner and doing a late night activity.

    The same routine would remain in Myrtle Beach, except I stayed on a hotel. Myrtle Beach has a variety of activities and more to do, which is what I favored over Outer Banks.

    About three years ago, I went to Hilton Head, South Carolina for the first and only time. Unfortunately, this vacation was my least favorite. I did not care for the island or the place we stayed.

    My two most recent vacations have been cruises, and those two are my overall favorite out of all my vacations.

    Last spring break I went on a Royal Caribbean cruise with my aunt and cousin. We left out of Tampa, Florida and cruises to Key West, Florida and Cozumel, Mexico. The cruise was a total of five days.

    On cruise ships, there is buffets, free food, putt-putt, pools, basketball courts, live shows, casinos, game rooms, and much more. They are basically mini towns all in one place.

    I was very nervous for my first cruise because it is scary to think about being in the middle of the ocean with nothing surrounding me. The boat does get very rocky and at times it was scary, but overall the beautiful places I have gotten to see trump it all.

    This past spring break I had the opportunity to go on another cruise, this time with thirty-one amazing people. We left out of Tampa, Florida again and traveled to Cozumel, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Grand Cayman Island.

    This time, my mom, dad, brother, sister, aunts, uncle, grandparents, cousins, and many extended family members attended. The trip served as a “family reunion”, as well as my aunt getting married in Cozumel.

    We were on the ship for seven nights and traveled through Carnival cruise ship. A nice aspect of the trip was there was a block of five rooms all in a row with most of my family members, so we were all by each other.

    The cruise ship staterooms are very small, but also a fair amount of room for two-three people.

    I enjoyed getting to see so many beautiful parts of the world that I normally would never have traveled to. Experiencing the different cultures, food and overall lifestyle of other people is truly eye opening and amazing.

    Overall, traveling using a variety of vacation spots is important and everyone should be able to experience different places and travel.