Everyone visiting NewYork for the first time needs a friend like Coreen Bourke. The lifetime New Yorker and retired phone company administrator was our designated Big Apple Greeter (www.bigapplegreeter.org), volunteering her time to show visitors like us the New York neighborhoods she knows so well. It’s a free service underwritten by generous donors....

 It is 10:30 p.m. on the first night of a Mediterranean cruise and The teen club, appropriately named "The Stack" on deck 10 of the Disney Magic is packed with 100 teens and their three energetic counselors....   (Read all about our 10-day Adventures by Disney tour in the Med in my travel diaries this week and next)

 Like all those other big parenting moments, it doesn’t go exactly the way we've been imagining it since our children first went off to preschool. Parents who expect one Kodak moment after another will invariably be disappointed -- just like the time when the kids whined at Disney World, or the time it rained in Hawaii. That's life with kids.....
 

 Camping purists—like my wilderness-loving daughters—would turn up their noses at this, but with two young kids, we’re glad for the space, the AC,  the beds,  the fridge, running water and shower, and when it rains, not being in a soggy tent. ... 

For once, Michelle Obama isn’t creating a trend. She’s doing what’s trendy. I’m talking about her mother-daughter trip to Spain this week with Sasha while Malia is at sleep away camp....                                    Also:   New Travel Diaries -- an RV trip through Colorado                   

 Thanks, Harry. Suddenly, teens, college students and  even twenty somethings  who aren't big fans of family vacations much less getting  out of bed early are standing in line before 9 a.m. with their parents,  positively giddy with excitement....

For years, everyone from the FAA to the American Academy of Pediatrics has been saying that young children are safest when restrained in a  safety seat on board an airplane...

 Since New York started this program in 1992, the Big Apple Greeters have squired around 95,000 visitors from around the world and have a cadre of more than 300 Greeters who range from 20-somethings to those in their eighties who share a passion for New York that they want to pass on to you.

 Especially when it’s hot—as it has been unbearably so on the East Coast—and especially on vacation, it can be tough to keep your cool. The kids are going to bicker and complain just like at home, even though you are spending  $$$$ for hotels, meals and souvenirs, not to mention entertainment....

 The cruiselines certainly think bigger is better.  I’m heading out for a quick look-see of Norwegian’s new EPIC (http://epic.ncl.com) -- 153,000 tons! -- which is being billed as the world’s largest floating entertainment venue...