Wondering if a tried and tested adventure is wiser to choose than a brand-new one, especially taking the children and grands.

India without any of them, Nepal and Machu Picchu too, required only considering myself but now I’m embracing the notion of multiple generations exploring new cultures together in faraway lands.

Renting a big beach house and taking enough towels I know how to think through.

Twelve days in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam I suspect is quite another matter. Would be a first for me, and could be part of many firsts because next year that’s where Adventures by Disney is taking families for their first time.

They’ve been teaming up family groups since 2005, always with two guides, a driver and local escorts.

Families primarily, with a few trips specified for age 18 and up.

“Stories are the foundation of our trips all over the globe,” Adventure Guide Courtney Robicheaux told me. “The life stories of the people we visit, and the memory stories our guests say they’ll remember for a lifetime.”

I met her on an adventure of my own, cruising without family on the newest Disney ship, named Fantasy: full-day conference with TravelingMom.com bloggers and after-work explorations meeting interesting people all around this 4,000-passenger ship.

She guides small groups of families to Costa Rica rainforests and European cities, South African Plains and North America’s national parks.

“We can go off the beaten path, into homes and gardens, interacting with people in every place, doing with them what they normally do,” Robicheaux claimed.

 “We access experiences we didn’t even know were a possibility,” she said.

I wondered how.

Based on what people on six continents have said to her, here’s the conjecture: “All around the world Disney is loved by people, so they open their doors.”

Hmmm. Room for thought as I consider involving generations of all ages. One clue I can draw on was a visit to my sister in 1992; she was living in Versailles, France when Disneyland Paris opened outside of Paris. Seems it was called Euro Disney then.

I experienced firsthand the delight of French people.  Adults appeared more excited than children having Disney in Europe.

If that Disney delight transfers to many continents, then maybe having a tour fueled with pixie dust is just the group to invite into your kitchen or garden.

“Magical moments sprinkle through the trips,” Adventure Guide Jennae Champeaux said, Fantasy cruising with her colleague.

“We go deep, deep into history and we tell the stories of the places in ways that have meaning.”

Having been a college student in the late sixties, I’m curious about the Disney preparation to tell of those turbulent years for visitors in Vietnam.

Seems like potential for healing and understanding and perspective. Maybe.

Absorbing the stories of a place requires firsthand experiences and that seems to translate to various versions for kids, and for adults. Family time together and touring time apart for experiences to match interests and attention.

If I did the Southeast Asia family trip, here’s how I believe that might break out: adults taking in the architecture of the Temples of Angkor Wat and children on a treasure hunt in a tuk tuk vehicle.

That’s a three-wheeler rickshaw, motor driven.

In Laos we’d all work together at an organic rice farm and in Vietnam we’d choose ingredients at the fresh market and cook our meal with a local chef.

Horses to ride in Cambodia, schools to visit in Laos. And beaches for lounging along the South China Sea.

I like “doing” with local people more than dozing on a tour bus.  Finding connections and similarities with people halfway around the globe does indeed shrink the world and expand possibilities for peace.

At the very least, it’s fun.

Corny that the song stuck in my head as I considered this trip was “It’s A Small World After All.” Corny, but relevant.

Cruise ship after-dinner shows struck me the same way—loaded with life lessons, the kind I heard growing up.

When I realized I was critically rolling my eyes during the high tech, beautifully costumed and staged “Aladdin” performance on the Fantasy, thinking another teaching moment like my mother’s was under way, I stopped short.

Adjusted my attitude.

The entire audience was loving the performance and its messages, shaking heads yes, applauding. Might be just what our unsettled world needs – corny familiar truths as the backbone of travel.

Not sure I ever caught that relevance while taking children to the theme parks, but I did on the Fantasy ship, so now I’m susceptible to the Adventures by Disney travel concept.

The small world statement is hackneyed, heard it so many times. But it’s true. So if I could help my generations, and myself, embrace our sameness with others by taking a vacation … . mighty fine investment.

These are not budget trips: Eastern Costa Rica for seven days starts at $2,999 for adults and $2,849 for children, plus air.

London, Paris and the English countryside, $4,999 adults and $4,749 children. Germany, with the trip titled Once Upon a Fairytale is $3,699 for adults and $3,509 for kids, nine days. Plus air.

Definite guidance about minimum and optimum ages for children for each adventure which ties to what Adventure Guide Champeaux told me: “Families we know how to do.”

Since many of the minimum ages are four and the suggested age is six or seven, they’re confident.

Take a first grader to the Galapagos for nine days? $5,719 plus $6,019 starting price for me, always plus air. Maybe I would do so with this family emphasis.

Perhaps another multigenerational trip I should consider is returning to Disneyland Paris with sister and the children we took there in 1992; they are all in their thirties now and we could invite their little children too.

And 2012 is the 20th anniversary, with celebrations this month through September.

Grand-nieces and nephews for a grand trip to France. Grandchildren to any continent.

“Living legacy trips” Adventure Guide Courtney Robicheaux calls them. “Three generations spending the family inheritance together instead of saving it for an unknown later.”

My family tree includes four generations – young and old enough to travel.