One of the trips that we booked WAY back when (at least the end of last year) was a cruise to the Caribbean. We love cruises for what they are, how easy they are, and were really looking forward to enjoying some relaxing time on the water.

But here is the issue with great deals and Thanksgiving travel. Sure, they sometimes go hand in hand but othertimes, well… just yikes! We got a great deal on the cruise – $500 per adult for a 7 day cruise in a stateroom with a balcony. Kids were free. AH-MAZ-ING. But then we go to book the airfare to Florida. $650 per person for the times that we need. We even toyed with the idea of not going nonstop (yes, I know. It’s a bit bougie to only want nonstop but it is just so much easier!) but even those tickets were over $600 per person. Yikes!

Then, there is COVID. We were so optimistic that by Thanksgiving of 2021, everything would be back to normal. We even had hopes that our kids would be vaccinated by then, based on some information we received from our pediatrician. But this is an ever changing situation (which, you would have thought that I would have learned by now) and with the new CDC news that looks like the vaccine won’t be available for kids until midwinter, it just all seems too much.

So we made the decision to cancel. Luckily, we have free cancellation until August 1st. One of the rules we set for ourselves for any travel booked until the whole WORLD got the all clear was that it had to be refundable or without change fees. In this case, that was one of the smarter things we have done.

Now we look to planning our alternate trip. We already have the time off and we certainly don’t want to let good vacation days go to waste. We have done several road trips in the US this year and have had such a great time. We have also discovered a new love for National Parks. I recently learned about the White Sands National Park and I am obsessed with seeing it. So in the end, we might be spending Thanksgiving in New Mexico!