Day 2: Friday, April 25 was the first full day of our trip and it started bright and early for me. I woke up so early that I had the chance to take pictures of the sunrise like the one up above. Pretty soon everyone else woke up and we headed to breakfast without Todd, who wanted to stay at the condo. After breakfast at the Peach Valley Cafe we went back to the condo and got dressed (we went to breakfast in our pajamas). Once we were all ready to go we got in the rental van and headed to St. Augustine to visit the outlets and get some lunch. I visited the Michael Kors store and the Kate Spade store but didn't find anything to buy. After shopping we headed back to Daytona for Marisa's birthday dinner at Bonefish Grill. Once we were done with dinner we went back to the condo and played Phase 10 until midnight. Day 3: I woke up at 6:30 on the morning of Saturday, April 26 and got showered and dressed before finishing my packing for the cruise. We left the condo at around 8:45, which was ahead of schedule. Even with a restroom break we got to the port earlier than expected, around 12:30. It took a long time to get on the ship due to some delays, so we were hot and sweaty by the time we got onboard. After a little bit of exploring and then doing our muster drill, it was time for sail away. It was so much fun to be out on the balcony, drinking champagne and waving to everyone on shore and on the webcam!! After we took off we stayed pretty busy. We got showered and went to dinner in the main dining room. I had requested a table for us by the window, so we had a good view of the ocean while eating. I thought the food was really good! A lot of people online say the food is just mediocre, but I liked it. After dinner we went to see a comedy show that was pretty funny. Then Cynthia, Jeri, and I went and decorated Marisa's room with the birthday banner and balloons we brought. She was excited and happy when she saw the decorations and realized we had decorated for her! Later that night we spent time in the cantilevered hot tubs, which are 120 feet over the water! It was a good way to relax and get ready for bed. I thought about going to the casino after that, but I really wanted to un-pack and get organized so I went back to my room at around 9:30. Overall, the first day of the cruise was very tiring and overwhelming. It was so exciting to finally be on the ship, but at that point I was ready for a day at sea spent relaxing and hanging by the pool! Tomorrow I will write about day 4 and our time in Belize!
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My trip is over and now it is back to reality! I actually got home on Sunday evening, but it's taken me a while to unpack and get re-situated, so I am just now getting a chance to do a quick blog post. The trip itself was a lot of fun. It was just as good as I hoped it would be and we got to see and do all kinds of fun stuff. The group I traveled with was a great group of people and we had each other cracking up the whole time. I am going to do a full breakdown of the entire trip, including pictures. I will probably go day by day so you can get an idea of everything we did and all the places we went. First, let me introduce you to the people on the trip so you know who I'm talking about during my upcoming posts:
My trip started on Thursday, April 24 was a travel day for me. My flight didn't leave Denver until 2:40, so I had all morning to get ready. It was actually worse than a morning flight because the day seemed to last forever! When it was finally time to head to the airport I had very little traffic and got there in record time. I also got lucky and was selected to go through the TSA pre-check line, which meant I didn't stand in line for security at all! I was at my gate really early and worried the time would drag, but it ended up going by pretty fast. Before I knew it I was on the plane! Before boarding, I had noticed a large group of people traveling together and soon figured out they were a cheerleading team headed for a world tournament in Orlando. They were pretty spirited, so it turned out to be the loudest flight I've ever been on!
We finally landed and I met Marisa and Cynthia at the baggage claim. Soon we were on our way to Daytona after a quick meal at Carrabba's. We got to the condo at around 11:30, so we all hung out until midnight so Marisa could open her cards for her 30th birthday. We headed to bed shortly after that, all tired after a long day of travel. 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:
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!
Like I mentioned in my post for my packing test run, I needed a few more items for my cruise. I wanted another dress and bathing suit so I'd have more options on the trip. So I went to JC Penney on Monday and found not only three dresses, but also two bathing suits! The American Living Empire-Waist Dress is my favorite dress that I found at the store! I think it will be perfect for our formal dinner on the cruise. This dress is the Worthington Side-Draped Drop-Waist Sheath Dress and is a bit more casual, but I still think it will be nice for a dinner dress. This dress is from Ana and wasn't on the JC Penney website. It's very comfortable and flowy...just hopefully not too flowy for a windy day! This is the Liz Claiborne Bandeukini Swim Top and Classic Hipster Swim Bottoms. I love that even though it's a 2-piece, it still looks almost like a 1-piece. The Liz Claiborne Shirred Halter 1-Piece is a classic silhouette. I think it is very flattering for all shapes and sizes. The best thing about doing this blog post is that it led me to the JC Penney website, where all the clothes I bought are on sale for less than I paid. Now I just need to compare prices to see if it's worth re-ordering everything online for the cheaper price!
Ever since booking my cruise I have been scouring the Cruise Critic website. I have read all of their "First Time Cruisers" articles and spent hours upon hours going through their message boards. Here are some of the tips and tricks I've picked up along the way, some specific to Royal Caribbean and others more generic:
The last tip worked out awesome for me! Yesterday morning I decided to check out the Cruise Critic Price Drop tool and noticed that balcony rooms on my cruise had dropped price significantly. I was originally booked in a Promenade room, so I was one step below a balcony. I called customer service at Royal Caribbean and asked them if they could check and see if I was eligible for an upgrade. The guy I spoke to was very nice and said that I was indeed able to get a free upgrade to a balcony room! I was super excited because all along I wanted a balcony but couldn't justify spending the extra money, especially because I'm alone in my room and still paying the price for two people (which honestly baffles me). The best part of the story is that I emailed the group I'm traveling with and they called and got the free upgrade for the other three rooms in our group. Two of the rooms are even adjoining, so we can remove the balcony divider and have a balcony twice the size of a normal one! I can already envision spending evenings on the double balcony drinking wine and watching the sunset! There must be a ton of other tips and tricks out there for cruising, so if you have anything else you'd like to add please make a comment below.
My Eagle Creek packing cubes arrived the other day and I wanted to try them out right away, so I decided to do a packing test run for my trip. Here is a look at everything I'm taking. As a carry-on, I will be using my green Coach travel bag because it has comfortable straps, it zips closed, and it hold a lot of stuff. The items included in my carry-on are:
Inside my carry-on I will also have a little zipper pouch with all of my cords in it. It will have cords or chargers for my iPhone, iPad, laptop, and camera. Along with my carry-on bag, I will also be taking my full-size purse on the plane with me. I will only be using this purse during our time in Daytona and will use a smaller cross body purse for the cruise. Some items in my purse include:
Inside my checked suitcase will be two cases for toiletries. The smaller one is specifically for my shower items and the larger one is for everything else. Here's a closer look at both. The smaller case is from Soap & Glory and it came from a holiday gift set. I held onto it because I thought it would come in handy some day, and now it has! The items in my shower kit include:
Inside my larger toiletry bag I will be taking:
The zipper pouch inside my larger toiletry kit will be for first aid items. They include:
My travel manicure set will include:
I will also be packing a mini laundry kit in my checked suitcase, which will have:
During the trip I plan on keeping a Smash book of our adventures, so I am bringing the Simple Style Smash book along with a zipper pouch of supplies, including:
Some other items that will be packed in my suitcase are for my cabin stateroom. They are:
And now, finally on to clothes and accessories. The pictured accessories above include:
Here are all of the clothes and shoes I'll be bringing on the trip for both Florida and the cruise. If you're interested, you can see how my outfits are broken out in my last blog post. My list of clothes includes:
This is the final product once I loaded everything into my suitcase. The suitcase itself is a SwissGear Checklite 24" Upright in Charcoal with spinner wheels. I bought it at Target for about $160. I'm hoping the light gray color will make it stand out from the other 95% of suitcases on the luggage carousel that will be black. And that is a look at everything I am taking on my trip! I believe I've thought of everything, but if I am missing something that you have found handy on a cruise before, please let me know in the comments!
I found this cruise outfit guide on Pinterest and it motivated me to put together my own outfits for the cruise I'll be going on in a month. Here are the different outfits I'll be wearing on my 11-day trip: I've done this for past trips and usually something changes along the way and the outfits don't end up being exactly as planned. But at least I know I've got enough clothes to last me the full 11 days and I won't be forgetting anything!
I may re-think the skirts on the at-sea days because I've heard it can get really windy on the ship's deck and I don't want to have to hold down my skirt all day long. I am also going to purchase some comfortable walking shoes to wear on our excursions, so the flats in the pictures will likely be swapped out for more appropriate walking shoes. Online it says we will have one formal dinner for our five-day cruise, so I'll at least bring the dress pictured above and will likely buy another one or two casual dresses that I can wear to dinners on the other nights in case I feel like being a little more dressy. I am a very organized person, so I was excited when I learned about Eagle Creek packing cubes. I originally heard about them on YouTube from Ingrid, whose channel is called missglamorazzi. Here is a link to her packing video in case you want to see the packing cubes in action. Like I mentioned in my last post, I'll be going on an 11-day trip in about a month, so I am in full-on planning mode. I already have a list put together of what I'm bringing along with a newer, bigger suitcase ready to be packed. Once I saw Ingrid's video, I knew that packing cubes were going to be super helpful. I went online to Amazon and got a few of them. Here's what I ordered: The garment folder is probably the coolest piece I ordered. Instead of describing how it works, here's a video where you can watch it in action. The size that I ordered holds up to seven items at a time. The reason I chose the smallest one is because it's almost the same size as the pack-it cube, so they'll stack nicely in my suitcase on top of one another. I plan on doing a full post of my packing process, so I'll share pictures with you of the packing cube, tube, and garment folder in action!
In exactly 43 days I will be boarding my first cruise ever! I am so excited that I've already started a packing list and have already bought stuff for the trip. The actual trip itself is eleven days and the cruise will be for five nights. We will be flying into Orlando on Thursday, April 24 and staying in a condo in Daytona for two nights. On Saturday, April 26 we will drive a car from Daytona to Fort Lauderdale, which is where we are boarding the cruise ship. Our cruise is through Royal Caribbean and we will be sailing on the Liberty of the Seas. We have one day of sailing, then we stop in Belize on Monday, Cozumel on Tuesday, and another day of sailing on Wednesday. We get back to Fort Lauderdale on Thursday at 7:30am. After that we return to Daytona and will stay until Sunday, May 4, when we fly out of Orlando. I am staying in a promenade stateroom, pictured below. The promenade staterooms look out over the Royal Promenade, which is like the "downtown" area of the ship with shops, bars, and food. Here is what it looks like on our ship. The Royal Promenade is located on Deck 5 and my room is on Deck 6, so I will be looking down on all the action throughout the day, which apparently includes parades! Now that I've given you an idea of what the trip will be like, I want to share some packing tips that I've been picking up during my preparation for the cruise. Here are some items to pack that you may not think to bring:
I will keep you posted as the cruise gets closer. I've already booked my excursions, so I'll definitely do a blog post about what we'll be doing on the cruise.
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AuthorMy name is Beth and I live in Denver. I am a single lady in my 30's and wanted to start sharing my awesome and amazing life through a blog. Categories
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