Anarchapulco Convention 2018:
A Parents Experience.
This post is our experience (my two girls and me) at the convention and some suggestions to make it MORE family friendly.
We are a family four with two little girls aged 7 and 3 years old. We have travelled all the way from Australia (20 hours total flight time) for the convention and also a holiday. My husband attended most of the Anarchapulco and Cryptocurrency Week seminars and events. I was mostly alone with our two girls for a week and a half.
It ended up being a struggle to keep the peace with the kids and me feeling like I wanted to tear what is left of my hair out.
Keeping two kids happy was a big challenge most days. We took a few trips to Walmart to buy Froot Loops and other foods for the kids to keep in our closet because they were fussy eaters and the buffet restaurants are wasted on them. The nearby McDonald's wasn't discovered until after the last day of seminars, it could have saved me some stress.
As for activities we went to the beach once for horse riding but the sand was insanely hot so we spent most of the time in the swimming pools, resort play area and our room. The sun was a bit brutal between 9am-2pm so we did most of our swimming from 3.30pm onward. When we traveled outside the tourist area we realized one thing, most places don't open till 11am.
When we planned this trip we were told it was a family orientated convention, it didn't fully deliver on that. There was a parenting seminar and a bus tour that us girls attended, looking forward to that was the only thing keeping me sane.
My suggestions for next year would be:
- Kids discos with face painting (or other activity)
- Mums or Dads night outs on a rotation, mums one night and dads on another. A gathering out in the downstairs bar or a beach side hut (the opening ceremony was GOOD) for a few drinks.
- Bus tours to El Rollo and/or Papagayo Adventure Parque
- Arts and crafts day in one of the rooms
- Pool side swimming gatherings. A pre arranged area (with backups in case of occupation by other guests) where parents and kids can chat and swim.
- Dinners with kids. Ask the restaurant to provide kid friendly options (non spicy) foods at the buffet.
These are just a few ideas I could think of.
Next year's convention will be attended by my husband who has bought his early bird ticket plus 2018 videos. As for us girls, we have a whole year to decide if we will come back but not until we have a full plan to keep the kids from 'killing' each other and my sanity intact.