It's that time of year... to pause the mad dash of daily life, and try to figure out, how the heck did all those months go by so fast, and what the heck did it all mean?

Family Travel Trend Number 1: Splish, Splash

Our pick for biggest family vacation trend for 2005 is Big Splashes at Family Resorts: a whole bunch of resorts opened private water parks for their guests this year -- such as Nickelodeon Family Suites by Holiday Inn (aka NickHotel), pictured right, in Orlando, which added not one but two water parks.

Trend Two:
new major players on the family vacation scene

In this flurry of water play in 2005, one can see some major new players muscling their way up and out of the local scene. Great Wolf Lodge, for example -- one of the main resorts in waterpark super-town, Wisconsin Dells-- leads the pack in expanding beyond the Dells: its new Great Wolf Poconos resort (left) joins properties in Niagara Falls, Virginia, Sandusky Ohio, and more.

Meanwhile, The Atlantis was already a behemoth in the Bahamas, with it's amazing 14-acre "waterscape". Now, it's not only expanding there -- with an upscale new Tower and a major new waterpark area -- its also about to replicate. The Atlantis The Palms Dubai is being built half-way around the globe, with 50-acre waterscape, a “Ziggurat” Temple with eight waterslides, 2-kilometer river ride, and much more.

These brand-building resort openings make one wonder: what about NickHotel? Can a concept this good be confined to one place?

Trend Three: So who's your animated character?

NickHotel is a good illustration of another trend, with its celebrity residents SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, the RugRats, and other animated characters from Nickelodeon tv.

Animated characters have of course long been a feature at the Disney theme parks,but these days, they're popping up in more and more places. SpongeBob has done guest appearances at a number resorts. Elmo and Cookie Monster hang out at Beaches Resorts, thanks to a multi-year deal with Sesame Street.

So will we see bidding wars, among resorts desperate for cartoon mascots? Stay tuned, in 2006...

The big(gest) picture

There were of course many more Grand Openings etc. in 2005 -- see Family Travel Newsmakers for a few.

All the above paints a picture of a burgeoning time for family travel. Families are traveling more together, a trend that grew after 9-11. Also, it's so easy to "bring the kids" when virtually every resort has a kids' club, and some take kids' programs to soaring heights.

But perhaps the most important travel story of 2005 is an invisible one: no news is good news, as, thankfully, another year of travel has proceeded peacefully with no trauma of terrorist attacks.

Yet 2005 did see destruction: the tsunami and hurricane season battered many tourist zones, not only causing immediate damage but reminding everyone how important tourism is for local welfare. So please remember these areas as we open up the old hearts and wallets, in the last days of 2005.

• See also: Family Travel News-makers in 2005
• 2005: Big Splashes -- new indoor and outdoor water parks at Family Resorts