First of all, I hope everyone had a great Easter!  I spent the weekend with my mom shopping, watching a movie, and going out to eat at Olive Garden.  Those are all favorite activities of mine, so it was great!

I also wanted to touch base before I leave on my trip in 2 days.  I think I get more excited with every day that goes by, so I can't imagine how I'm going to feel on Thursday when the trip actually starts!  I can't remember if I outlined my itinerary in an earlier post, so I figured I'd put it in here anyway:

• Thursday - I will fly from Denver to Orlando and meet the rest of the group there.  We will take a rental car to the condo in Daytona that we're staying in.
• Friday - This is my friend's 30th birthday, so I'm sure we'll go out for a nice dinner.  We may try out some miniature golf too, one of our favorite activities.
• Saturday - We will drive from Daytona to Fort Lauderdale and board the cruise ship at around noon.  
• Sunday - This will be our first day at sea.  We also have a formal dinner this night, so we will get all dressed up and be fancy.
• Monday - Our first port is in Belize.  We are doing a tour of the Mayan ruins, so I plan on wearing my comfortable shoes this day!
• Tuesday - The port for this day is Cozumel where we will be touring another Mayan ruin site.
• Wednesday - This will be our last full day on the ship.  We will spend it at sea on our way back to Florida.  We have tickets to the ice show on this day.
• Thursday - We are supposed to get back to Fort Lauderdale at around 7:30.  We may drive down to Miami since we will only be about 30 minutes away.  At some point we will head back to the condo in Daytona.
• Friday - This will be my least favorite day of the trip because I have to stay inside and work remotely so that I can close out the April billings for my job.
• Saturday - We don't have any plans for this day yet.  We've gone to Disney on past trips, so maybe we'll head to one of the parks?
• Sunday - Another non-favorite day…the trip will be over!  We all have early evening flights back home, so we'll spend part of the day in Daytona before heading back to the Orlando airport.

I plan on taking a ton of pictures on the trip, so I will have a lot of posts once I get home.  I am also going to keep a travel journal every day so I will be able to add some notes on what we did and where we went.  My plan is to do a different post for each day, so it will take a while to get everything up on the blog.  

I'm also going to do a Smash book for this trip once I get home.  I had originally planned on doing it during the trip, but I figure I'll have plenty of other things to do with my time!  I'll post pictures of the Smash book once it's done.

The other day I got curious about price drops for my upcoming cruise on April 26.  I checked the Cruise Critic price drop website and saw that the cost of suites had gone down.  I had already upgraded from a Promenade stateroom to an Ocean View balcony room for no additional cost, so I wasn't sure if they would let me do it again.  I called Royal Caribbean out of curiosity and told them that the Junior Suite had dropped in price and asked whether I could be moved to one.  The customer service rep I spoke to said that there was only one Junior Suite available and that someone had it on hold.  So he checked with his supervisor who then checked with their supervisor and they eventually got it released.  He assured me that because the price of the Junior Suite was lower than what I already paid, I wouldn't have to pay for this upgrade either!

Here is what a Junior Suite looks like on the Liberty of the Seas:

Compared to the original Promenade room I was going to have that was 160 square feet, the Junior Suite has much more room to move around, measuring in at 297 square feet with a 94 square foot balcony!

Other than more space, there are other perks to being in a Junior Suite.  Not only is the shower much bigger, but you also have a bathtub, which will come in handy each night when I want to soak my sore and tired feet in cold water.  Also, the balcony is much larger and will include two lounge chairs.  This will be really nice when I don't want to fight the crowds at the pool and would rather soak up the sun on my own private balcony!  

All together the lesson I have learned from this experience is to watch the price drop websites closely and make a quick call when you see the price drop on a room you like.  It doesn't hurt to ask and you may end up with an even better room than you expected!  If it doesn't work out in your favor, just remember that you booked your original room for a reason and be happy with what you chose to begin with.  At least that is what I will be telling myself when my luck eventually runs out and the free upgrades don't happen!

Most of the recipes I try are found on Pinterest.  I currently have 184 recipes on my "Ones I've Made" board.  Of those 184 recipes, very few have disappointed.  Usually I try a recipe for the first time and enjoy it.  Sometimes I like it so much that I continue to make it over and over again.  Dragon Noodles is one of those recipes.  It can be found on the Budget Bytes website, which has figured out how much each ingredient costs and therefore can tell you how much a recipe will cost per serving.

The recipe calls for lo mein noodles, but I find it works just as well with fettuccine noodles.  I also really enjoy the egg in the dish, so I use two eggs instead of one.  Other than that, I've stayed true to the original recipe.  Here it is:

Ingredients

• 4 oz. lo mein noodles $1.13
• 2 Tbsp butter $0.20
• ¼ tsp crushed red pepper $0.02
• 1 large egg $0.25
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar $0.02
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce $0.02
• 1 Tbsp sriracha (rooster sauce) $0.08
• 1 handful fresh cilantro $0.22
• 1 sliced green onion $0.06

Instructions

1. Begin to boil water for the noodles. Once the water reaches a full boil, add the noodles and cook according to the package directions (boil for 5-7 minutes).
2. While waiting for the water to boil, prepare the sauce. In a small bowl stir together the brown sugar, soy sauce, and sriracha.
3. In a large skillet melt 2 tablespoons of butter over medium-low heat. Add the red pepper to the butter as it melts. Whisk an egg in a bowl and then add to the melted butter. Stir gently and cook through. Once the egg is done cooking, turn off the heat.
4. When the noodles are tender, drain the water and then add them to the skillet with the cooked egg. Also add the prepared sauce. Turn the heat on to low to evaporate excess moisture, and stir until everything is coated well with the sauce. Sprinkle the sliced green and cilantro leaves (whole) on top and serve!

If you get a chance to try the recipe, please let me know what you think in the comments!