It has been a while......

Wow, this time has just flown by. I am now back to my blogging and I have to say that I have missed it. So much as gone on and in the process I am strategically planning for our "surprise" vacation. Of course, I never meant to be away this long, because I have so much to talk about in this old head of mine. :) More to come.....

Wordless Wednesday... A View that Never Gets Old!

Wordless Wednesday.. View of Fantasy Land

House of Blues Gospel Brunch in Downtown Disney

I finally got the chance to share my footage from the House of Blues Gospel Brunch in Downtown Disney

My Disney Experiences – Part 1

I thought that I would post a series of my experiences when visiting Walt Disney World Resort, Disneyland, and our adventures on the Disney Cruise Line. I figure that by sharing, I can not only remember what happened, but maybe I can save someone else or give some helpful hints. J

I will start with our 1^st Disney Cruise on the Disney Wonder in June of 2004. We finally got the chance to take our first cruise ever, and I am glad that it was on the Disney Wonder that we got our sea legs. The biggest part of the trip was not the trip itself, but the events leading up to it.

We were scheduled to leave about 6 PM the night before the cruise left. We arrived at the airport at DFW, and then a giant storm came in and pretty much shut down the airport. We waited about an hour, and then we were able to board our flight. At this point, I was thinking, well at least we will make it tonight. Well, after about 3 hours of sitting on the plane and going nowhere (YES 3 hours); we were asked to deplane because the flight was not going anywhere. They then asked everyone to come up to get re-scheduled for flights that would leave in the morning.  We were going to leave at 6:30AM the next morning, but we were going to have to have a layover in Memphis. They were allowing everyone to stay in a nearby hotel, and when we got downstairs, everyone was boarding, so we made the decision to stay for the night. We live in the Dallas area, and we could have gone home, but the flight was leaving at 6:30AM and it was 2 AM at the time. My husband and I watched my daughter sleep peacefully, and of course we got no sleep.

We were finally able to board our flight (A really little one with only three seats across – YIKES!), and we arrived in Memphis. The problem was we had only 30 minutes to make the connecting flight, so the gate agent greeted us and we basically ran the entire way to the departure gate. Finally, we were on our way, and were going to make it in time… So we thought...

Our flight arrived without incident, and then we went to baggage claim. We waited about an hour for our luggage because it had not shown up. It was at that time that we visited the office for lost luggage. They informed us that our luggage arrived hours earlier.

We then rushed downstairs, to get our reserved rental car at Alamo. This was prior to the quick Kiosk and online check in that they now have.  We waited for about 40 minutes and noticed that we were cutting it close with time. It was about 2:00 PM. Thankfully, an agent at L&M Car Rental noticed that we were in a rush, and offered us a car for the same price and restrictions that we had already reserved through Alamo. We took it! 

We got to our car and we are on a way. No more problems!!  NOT!!

Remember that this was prior to the mobile GPS systems, etc., so we relied on the directions from the internet. You guessed it, we got lost. At this point it was about 3:40 PM and I just knew that we were going to be late and miss the boat. We finally arrived about 4:10 PM and a cruise porter came running out and asked were we going on the Wonder, and we said yes. He then rushed us out of the car and told us to just go and he would get our bags. I then heard him radio to someone and stated, “They have arrived”. My guess was that we were the LAST ones to board. We got in, got registered and took our picture. Needless to say, you could see how tired we were. No more issues right??? NOT!!

We arrived at our door, and guess what??? The KEY did not work. So we had to go to Guest Services and they sent someone to let us in and sent a maintenance guy to fix the lock. The maintenance guy was really sweet, but informed us that we could not leave until he was done repairing the door. You know that means?? We missed the Muster Drill!!! I thought that we would get in trouble, but thankfully, they understood J

We then went upstairs to explore a bit and get a bite to eat. I remember eating hamburgers. At this point, we decided to head back to our room, and it was about 5:45 PM, and decided to take a shower, and rest a bit before we go out later and explore the ship. You know what happened next? We fell asleep about 7:30 PM and the next thing we knew, it was 7:00 AM!!  Needless to say, we missed the entire first night.

Thankfully, the rest of the cruise was uneventful and we had a great time. I say all of this to say, plan an additional day or two prior to any cruise, to avoid what happened to us. It has not happened again! But, just in case! J

It's That Time Again!!

It is time for me to get back to doing what I do best. Planning my next trip to Disney World / Cruise! More details to come. In the meantime, here's a sneak peak of what I am working on....... Shhhh.... It's a Surprise!!

Being Prepared for Life Lessons....

What a month!!!

You know how it is, you have so many plans and for some reason, they do not come to fruition? Well, that has been my month.

• It started with our water heater dying and of course we had to pay for the funeral (LOL). You just have to laugh, because it is not the worst thing in the world, just inconvenient. :)  The great thing is that, we were able to get it replacement, and now we can finally replace the drywall, now that the area is dry (win-win).
• I was supposed to attend the The Disney Princess Half Marathon Weekend (2/22/2013), however because of the unexpected expense (above), I had to make a decision. Do not get me wrong, I had no intention of running the half marathon, but I was going to complete the 5K (Remember: NO MORE FAST PASSES). No worries, I will hopefully get to go back in October for The Disney Happy Haunts 5K Trail Run. I guess I should get to training, huh? :)

I say these things to say that things happen, and we just have to be prepared either way. Thankfully, that is all that happened, but as I get older, I have learned to take these things in stride and "go with the flow".

Until Next Time!