Why Travel Became Our Biggest Investment (Even When Life Was on 1.5x Speed)

Three boys. One family. Years of Disney trips, balcony nights, and forever friends. Here's why travel became our biggest investment.

When people find out we have three boys, the first thing they usually say is "your hands must have been full." They have no idea. With three kids under one roof, life didn't just move fast, it felt like someone had permanently set the house to 1.5x speed. Meals, homework, practices, family dinners, meltdowns, bedtime, repeat. Marco and I loved every minute of it and also, some days, could barely hear ourselves think.

That's the thing nobody tells you about parenting: it's not that you stop being yourselves, it's that you stop having the space to remember who that is. And we found, again and again, that the version of us who could think clearly, who could actually hear each other finish a sentence, who could remember why we fell in love with this whole chaotic life in the first place, that version of us only fully showed up when we stepped outside our everyday responsibilities. Even for a little while.

That's what travel gave us. Not an escape from our family, an escape into it.

The balcony rule

Somewhere along the way, we made a habit of it: all five of us crammed into one hotel room, no separate space to retreat to, and every evening we'd end up on the balcony together with whatever snacks we'd smuggled from the day's adventures. No screens buzzing, no schedules pulling at us, just one shared day to talk about. Those balcony nights are some of the best conversations we've ever had as a family, better than most conversations we've had at home, if I'm honest, because there was nowhere else anyone needed to be.

Disney, before it was easy

We became Disney regulars back in the early 2000s, and it wasn't for the reason most people assume. Our boys had food allergies, and in those days, very few destinations anywhere in the world were set up to handle that with any real care. Disney was. It’s so amazing that families can now enjoy this same care many places in the world, and we are so grateful to our Disney theme park and cruise vacations for keeping our babies safe for years. That reliability meant we could actually relax instead of white-knuckling every meal, and it opened the door to something we didn't expect: the chance to really watch our kids, closely, trip after trip, and see who they actually were.

What we saw in our kids surprised us in the best way. One of our boys bonded hard with me over something I've never grown out of: keeping the child in you alive, no matter how old you get. He's studying to be a teacher now. Another fell completely in love with the Imagineering side of things, the technology, the engineering, the way a great meal can be part of the storytelling, and he's working toward an AI/ML degree with dreams of building roller coasters one day. And our third learned something on those trips that's followed him well beyond them: how to plan a "perfect" day, watch it fall apart a little, and roll with it anyway. That skill, bending instead of breaking when things don't go to plan, has become one of the ways he manages his anxiety at school today.

We didn't set out to discover any of that. We just kept traveling, kept paying attention, and it revealed itself.

Forever friends, and Nonno e Nonna

Some of our richest trips weren't just the five of us. We traveled often in bigger groups, and for most of our vacations, Nonno and Nonna came along too. There's something about shared adventure, a delayed flight, a rainy day rerouted into something better, a sailing where everyone ends up at the same dinner table, that turns travel companions into forever friends, and turns grandparents into co-conspirators in your kids' best memories.

Looking back, every trip, every sailing, every ordinary balcony evening added up to something we didn't fully understand we were building at the time: trust. A family community our boys can carry with them forever, built on "good times" we actually lived, together, away from the 1.5x speed of everyday life.

That's why travel has been our biggest investment. Not because of where we went, but because of who we became, and who our kids became, every time we went there.

Marco Finocchi 11/5/21 Marco Finocchi 11/5/21

Reflections of the past 18 months, AND sharing our new adventure!

Reflection and New Adventures!

As many of you know by following our Facebook, Instagram and Tik Tok channels (@travelwiththefinocchis), we were set to travel RIGHT before the pandemic began. Literally set to arrive March 12, 2020.

That time was traumatic for so many of you reading along, and it was no different for us. While our son sat severely ill from the virus at our local children’s hospital, we managed the business as it collapsed, and our lives all changed in an instant.

As we begin our journey on our first international trip since that gloomy week, we’ve chosen to reflect. And reflect we have.

It’s been a HOT minute, but we are thrilled to share that our son recovered and that our family is still booking travel for families across the country.

As we reflect, we realize how many times that we could have walked away from the business. Many Ontario travel agents understandably HAD to walk away as paychecks stopped, and wouldn’t start until families travelled again. Travel agents in aren’t paid until families return from travel. That meant a very long road ahead for Canadian travel agents!

So, we had to decide what to do. Assign our families to the good hands of others at Pure Magic Vacations to manage? Encourage people to cancel and move on to others and just move on to a different industry?

Well, we just couldn’t do that. It felt like we were leaving family. The people that are in our lives everyday, some of you booking 3 and 4 trips a year with us meant that we spoke to you weekly!

We’re not saying that there weren’t moments. There have been and if we are honest, with long hold times, cancellations, and constant change, we still have them (although fewer and far between). We have just refused to let this destroy our passion for helping families re-connect through travel.

SO many of you small business owners KNOW what we are talking about. So many families affected. You have been our inspiration. You’re dedication encouraged ours.

THAT passion has never changed. So we hung in there and made a commitment, just like each family does when they commit to travelling together and making memories from amazing adventures. It’s not always without challenges, but the reward is INCREDIBLE.

Now, the light is at the end of the tunnel!!! We can see it. With slow, safe, steady steps we have decided that now is the time for us to venture out into the world again, at the same time that you are beginning to visit our email inbox :)

Our adventure this first time is “just us two”. Our kids are already booked on two vacations for next year, but this year, we needed a MOMENT. Can I hear an Amen families?!

A moment to focus, a moment to re-connect, a moment to feel the excitement again of boarding the plane, stepping foot onto a cruise ship, smelling the sea air, dining with friends, and finally, experiencing the magic and thrills of our beloved theme park vacation.

There will be new challenges, there will be learning curves, but this time around we feel prepared, and we are determined to learn so that your family has the best level of service going forward in the future.

We hope that you follow along on social media with us. We LOVE to interact with you, so send us your DMs, comments, and questions. Let’s make this fun for ALL of us!

To start, we’ll share what will be in store for us this month.

During this vacation, you will Travel with the Finocchis on social media as we:

Complete our antigen tests necessary to fly from Toronto, to the US, and also required to board the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line
Head to YYZ for our Air Canada flight to Miami Florida, using the Arrive Can app and other forms
Fly into Miami, and stay overnight at a Miami airport hotel
Sail with Royal Caribbean from Fort Lauderdale for 2 nights, 3 days on the new Odyssey of the Seas
Complete our PCR tests on ship and included with our cruise to return to Canada
Visit COCO CAY, and show you all that we can
Rent a car to begin our journey to Orlando!
Stay overnight at Cabana Bay Resort, at Universal Orlando, with videos of the Holiday celebrations with the Grinch and in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and adding Express Pass to our tickets
Head to Animal Kingdom Lodge at Walt Disney World Resort where we will use the Disney Genie+, buy Individual Ride Selections (hopefully) for Rise of the Resistance and Ratatouille.
Flying home from Orlando to Toronto with Air Canada again, using the ARRIVE CAN app and other forms necessary

This is the time to ask us questions, follow our channels and take part in the fun! If you haven’t done so yet, remember sign up for reminders to your inbox, so that you can also get an updated on new promotions and offers that we do our best to send weekly.

Thanks for taking the journey with us. We miss you all, and can’t wait to work with you soon,

Michelle and Marco