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Thursday, February 27, 2014

Trip Report: New Year's at Disney World [Day 3] Hollywood Studios + Epcot NEW YEAR'S EVE

December 31, 2013 - Hollywood Studios + Epcot

We went to Disney's Hollywood Studios around 10AM. I had made all of our FP+ reservations for that morning and afternoon. As soon as we arrived, we immediately rode the Tower of Terror (my favorite), and we also had FP+ for Toy Story Mania and Rockin' Rollercoaster. You can no longer do this. I was lucky enough to be grandfathered in because I booked far enough in advance, but now you can only make a FP+ for either Toy Story Mania or Rockin' Rollercoaster, but not both in the same day. Kind of a setback.

We ate lunch at Pizza Planet. It's been a while since we've done that!

12.31.13

Monday, February 24, 2014

Trip Report: New Year's at Walt Disney World [Day 2] Waldorf Astoria and Magic Kingdom

December 30, 2013 - Pool and Magic Kingdom

Rachel looked at the week's forecast and decided that this was the best day for her pool day. The sun didn't come out until the afternoon, though, so we spent the morning sleeping in and watching Disney Channel.

Also, something to note is that the Waldorf Astoria is kind of like a Vegas hotel in the way that you may be getting a five star resort room for a three star price, but the food is still the five star price. If you're wondering prices, it's like a bowl of cereal for $7 or a cup of coffee for $4 (though the room did have a Nespresso machine with free cartridges that the restocked throughout our stay). It's just obnoxious because I could buy a box of Frosted Flakes for $4 - I find it immoral to charge $7 for a bowl. My point is it's not higher quality food, it's just more expensive. Food at Walt Disney World hotels is much more reasonable.

12.30.13

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Trip Report: Walt Disney World - Ringin' in a Magical New Year!

Our 2013 holiday started with an Eastern Caribbean Cruise on the Royal Princess.

Embarkation Photo

We planned to visit Walt Disney World for New Year's Eve because we purchased annual passes when we visited in October. However, hotel prices for that time of the year are steep - more than we wanted to pay. So we started looking into other alternatives. We had narrowed it down to the Swan or Dolphin resort which would be convenient, and we know that they are nice because we have stayed there before.... or the Bonnet Creek resort area because I've heard great things about Bonnet Creek, and I've always wondered about it. After much debating, we realized that this was our opportunity to try it out. With our annual passes, we got free parking at the parks, so transportation was not an issue. We also already had Magic Bands, and I had already made FP+ reservations on My Disney Experience (as annual passholders who stayed at a Disney Resort during Magic Band testing, we could make FP+ reservations up to 60 days out on our My Disney Experience account). It was the perfect time to see if an off-site resort could work for us, so we booked the Waldorf Astoria at Bonnet Creek.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

2013 Christmas Cruise on the Royal Princess - Eastern Caribbean

2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise - Day 8 - Disembarkation

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

December 29, 2013

We were in port this morning beside this little ship... Pinar del Rio

12.29.13

Princess requires that you leave your room by 8AM. We were originally assigned a 10:55 departure time because we never bothered to fill out the departure time request form. However, a quick visit to Guest Services, and we were able to disembark the ship at 8:05 AM.

Friday, February 21, 2014

2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise - Day 7 - At Sea

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

December 28, 2013 - At Sea

Today, we got up early and sat in the pool chairs which are on risers. We were able to watch The Proposal on the movie screen.

12.28.13

I couldn't get close to the ice carving demonstration, and I never figured out what they were making.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise - Day 6 - At Sea

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

December 27, 2013

One of my goals for this trip was to take long exposures of the ship at night. This is something that I kind of started on my Epic cruise with a gorillapod. This cruise, I brought my travel tripod and remote with me. I knew that I wanted as few people as possible in the frame, and like I said before, the key to that is patience..... or getting up remarkably early. I set my wake-up call to 5 am, and while I did not want to get up, I knew that the photographs would be worth it, and I'd regret it if I didn't.

I started with the pool deck.

12.27.13

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise - Day 5 - St. Maarten

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

December 26, 2013 - St. Maarten

This morning, we awoke in St. Maarten. Rachel had her massage this morning, and she came back really happy saying it was the best massage she's had on a cruise ship and that she really liked her masseuse. After she returned, I went with her to get breakfast at Horizon Court.

12.26.13

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Magical Disney Days Competition - I need YOUR help!

Hello lovely readers!

I have entered my Mickey Mouse bedroom in a Magical Disney Days competition, conducted by the Magical Day Weddings blog, and I would really appreciate your help!  I've been an avid reader of Carly's blog since it started in 2008, and it would mean a lot to me to win this competition!

To vote for me, simply go to THIS LINK and "Like" the photo! You can only vote by liking that photo - shares and likes on shared posts do not count (though I would really appreciate it if you shared it with your friends and asked them to vote). Thank you so much!!!




2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise - Day 4 - St. Thomas

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

December 25, 2013 - St. Thomas

Merry Christmas!

We arrived that morning to St. Thomas and were back-to-back with our old friend, the Norwegian Epic!

12.25.13

It was fun because we stayed in an aft balcony when we sailed the Epic in May, so we could see our old stateroom. We loved sailing on the Epic, and would love to sail on her again. Rachel said that the Epic is her favorite ships of all she's sailed on (mine, too). Mom has some strange love of the Grandeur of the Seas.

Monday, February 17, 2014

2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise - Day 3 - At Sea

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

December 24, 2013 - At Sea

So if you have ever been on a cruise before, you probably know that "a relaxing day at sea day" really means "wake up painfully early and find a deck chair." Rachel and I were a little late to the game, parking our butts in pool chairs at 9:30. The chair hogs were out in full force...

12.24.13

Great ideas they have, reserving chairs with their standardized cruise-line issued towels.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise - Day 2 - Princess Cays

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

December 23, 2013 - Princess Cays

Rachel and I ordered room service for the morning. Princess's breakfast room service menu is really limited, and the breakfast sandwiches aren't very good, but it was fun to eat breakfast on the balcony.

12.23.13

2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise - Day 1 - Embarkation

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

December 22, 2013 - Embarkation Day

Since we were so close to Port Everglades, we got to sleep in!

12.22.13

You wouldn't know by her beautiful smile, but Rachel gets annoyed by my constant photography and tells me often that I'm embarrassing her. Inducing embarrassment a sister's rightful job.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise - Pre-Cruise + Getting There

This post is a chapter of my 2013 Royal Princess Christmas Cruise Photo Review.

This cruise review was originally published on Cruise Critic beginning January 3, 2014.  You can read the original review here.

My Traveling Party

My dad, Boyd, is a funny guy - if you aren't laughing at his jokes, you're laughing at how bad they are (and I am told by my boyfriend that I have the same sense of humor)! Dad is a nuclear licensing engineer who is always in need of a vacation.

My mom, Sharon, is always trying her best to bring order to this group of crazies. Before leaving for vacation, she straightens the house - "In case someone breaks in while we're gone."

My sister, Rachel, brings along even more laughter. She has an outgoing personality and will do crazy things just to make people smile. Rachel is a civil engineering major at Clemson University.


Choosing the Cruise

Since 2009, my family has left the Christmas tree and stockings behind (and taken miniature versions with us) to celebrate Christmas on a cruise in the Caribbean. What started as a rather last-minute cruise deal five years ago has evolved into a family tradition. This year, we wanted to spend our holiday doing a cruise out of Florida so that after we could go to Walt Disney World after, since we had purchased annual passes when we were at Disney in October. We like taking longer cruises – our first few were 8 or 9 days, and last year, we took a 10-day Panama Canal Partial Transit on the Island Princess. However, this year, there wasn’t much available in the way of 8 or 9-day cruises. The Independence of the Seas has an 8-day itinerary which I had my eye on for the longest time, but it seemed rather overpriced for a balcony stateroom and never really dropped. We thought we could find a better value, so we started to consider other cruises which we narrowed down to the Celebrity Reflection, Norwegian Epic, or Royal Princess which all sailed 7-day Eastern Caribbean itineraries. Of these, we ultimately chose the Royal Princess because though we loved the Norwegian Epic and would love to sail on her again, the Royal Princess included a stop to Princess Cays which we had never been to before (Reflection was Coco Cay and Epic was Nassau… meh).


Cruise Route

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

So You Want to Cruise for College Spring Break?

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Let's face it - ever since we have returned to school after Christmas break, the topic on everyone's minds has been spring break.  When you're looking at another semester of school beginning with a few months of cold and no football to help get you through, spring break is something to look forward to.  And for the under 21 crowd, a logical solution is to leave the country, and an easy (often airfare-free) way to do it is on a cruise.