In the beginning of the episode, everybody gets special invitations from SpongeBob, promising each the thing they love most in life. For example, SpongeBob says to Mr. Krabs that he will have free money, says to Squidward that he will have a latte sipping contest, and says to Sandy that she will have a science experiment. Everyone goes to his house, only to be surprised and disappointed that they are going to see vacation slides, which they do not care about. They are about to leave, but SpongeBob persuades them back.
The adventure starts with Patrick squirting the Cheese Fizz on the camera. SpongeBob's parents pull up and get him and Patrick in. SpongeBob looks at a brochure and Patrick suggests a game- Hide and Seek. Patrick gets on the windshield of the boat and Harold yells "Egad!!!"' and loses control. They slide and burst into The Outskirts Outlet Mega-Mall, and Basscar Racing Stadium. Then, they fling off the stadium and head straight into space where a floating cow gets hit by them and lands on the moon. Then, they fall back down to the Earth and slide down a rocky cliff onto the road. SpongeBob then suggests they sing a road song. Everyone sings the road song, and at the end of the song, the engine blows up. They move the boat to a local service station. They wait in an outhouse. Margaret sees a playground and offers SpongeBob and Patrick to play on it. They do, but they slide down a sewer pipe and onto a small puddle.
Act 2
When they get up, they try to get back up, but they cannot. They enter a mysterious red kelp forest with many mushrooms. They hear a hollering noise and run. It turns out it is a small creature. They jump over a cliff, onto an anemone and onto a mushroom. Behind Patrick is a giant fruit fly. They run away and go behind a rock. They hear a noise. It came from a gift shop. SpongeBob wastes his money on useless knick-knacks. They sing the road song wearily. Then, SpongeBob decides to play the road song on a flute he bought at the gift shop.
They walk along past Harold and Margaret and into the forest again. Animals follow them. The animals suddenly run away because the giant fruit fly is behind them. SpongeBob stops playing. When they turn around, they see the fruit fly wants to give them a lift. They then sing the above the road song. He drops SpongeBob and Patrick off. SpongeBob's parents call them over, but SpongeBob and Patrick just fall asleep. Margaret says "Do something Harold!" while Harold says "He's your son, Margaret, he's your son..." As the episode ends.
During a tour of Rough Draft Korea for students of Yongsan International School of Seoul in 2016, various SpongeBob color background books were discovered for many episode segments. One of the books found was created for the second half of "A SquarePants Family Vacation," confirming that it was shipped to Korea sometime during October 2010.[2]
This episode was confirmed and added to the United States Copyright Catalog on June 6, 2011.[3]
The episode was promoted as "Runaway Roadtrip" in the UK and Ireland, but the actual episode is still called "A SquarePants Family Vacation."[citation needed]
This episode is listed and called "SquarePants Family Vacation" in Turkey.[citation needed]
SpongeBob's mother's first name is revealed to be Margaret.
This is the first episode in the series where Harold and Margaret both play a major role.
This is the first episode to be rated PG in Canada.[citation needed]
This episode reveals that Margaret SquarePants knits.
The episode received exactly 100,000 viewers on its United Kingdom premiere and was the third most viewed program on Nick UK for the week ending August 19, 2012.
Cultural references
When the boat is sent flying into space, there is a cow jumping over the moon, which is an allusion to the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle."
Baytona and Basscar are parodies of Daytona and NASCAR.
The Baytona 400 is a race parody of the Daytona 500.
When the Service Station Worker is explaining what's wrong with the car, he repeats word-for-word an exact copy of what the mechanic in Mad Max 2 says what's wrong when another character asks about the condition of a semi-truck.
Errors
When SpongeBob says, "I'm so glad you all could make it...," Mr. Krabs does not have any legs.
When Squidward reads the invitation letter, SpongeBob's house is gone.
