Not Much to Say

I've gotten really bad about keeping up with this blog regularly.  I've actually been on here several times the past few weeks, but every time I start to write something I can't.  I have things to say, but most of the time these thoughts swirl around in my head, unable to be put into words.  I don't know why.

I've had a busy couple of weeks, that's for sure.  Work held me captive for 10 out of 13 nights until Wednesday of this past week.  I was pretty miserable for a lot of that time, just wishing for more of a break so I could get some rest.  But I got through it, and thank goodness!

And afterward, my sister Allison and I went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween at the Magic Kingdom!  It was so much fun!  (so much so, that I didn't take any pictures)  I have wanted to go to this for years, and it finally worked out this year!  We didn't dress up, but we did go trick or treating all through the park and got a ton of candy.  That's what I love so much about Disney.  You get to be a kid again.  I think that the Halloween Boo to You parade was my favorite Disney parade yet.  Maybe even more than the Main Street Electrical Parade.

I hung out a bit in Orlando before and after our time in Disney, which was fun.  It's been awhile since I got to hang out down there.  We had fun eating, talking, and watching some of our favorite TV shows. Just fun to enjoy the time that we have.  I wish there was more time for that kind of thing.

I've got some fun plans coming up, which I'll be blogging about another time.  In the meantime, I hope you have a great Monday and rest of the week!

Merida: Brave

There has recently been a lot of controversy surrounding Disney's makeover of Merida for her coronation as the 11th Disney princess.  As you can see above, she has been re-designed to fit Disney's cookie-cutter princesses.  Now, as a lover of Disney I have never had problems with their promotion of princesses.  Despite many of my more progressive feminist ideals, this is one I've not let go of because of the nostalgia surrounding it and the love for Disney that I have.  However, Merida was the first kick-ass princess to be created by Disney.  One who could be a real role model for strong girls.  One who looked normal, who actually looked like... well, a girl.

And, my favorite thing about Merida, of course, is her curly hair.  It took several years for animators to be able to create her hair.  And they were spot on with their portrayal of curls- never perfect, always a little frizzy, hard to contain.  This new version has glossy, wavy curls as opposed to Merida's 3D wild mane from the movie.

It sounds like Disney has backed down from this new design of Merida, going back to the original.  And honestly, I would have no problem with them animating her in a cartoon form for the purpose of coronation, if they hadn't taken that and sexed her up so much, made her look so drastically different (and quite a bit older) than the Merida from Brave.  She was just fine the way she was!

Disney Cruise: Day 7

Enjoying great barbecue at Castaway Cay 

 Allison enjoying a Corona on the beach

Allison's yummy food 

One last picture before boarding the ship 

Our last meal that we ate all alone.  Sad. 

Baked Alaska... delicious! 

Allison is sad.

We are both sad to be home.

The last day of our cruise was awesome!  We spent the day in Castaway Cay, Disney Cruise Line's private island in the Bahamas.  The highlight of that day for us both was parasailing, though we didn't get any picture proof of it.  I signed us up for parasailing, as that's something I've always wanted to do.  I was scared TO DEATH to do it.  We ended up being the last in our group to go up, and I was working myself up the whole time about how high up it was and how unsafe it looked.  It ended up being so peaceful and so beautiful.  Then I wondered what I had been afraid of after all.  We spent most of that day just laying on the beach and relaxing.  Castaway Cay is really neat.  We wished we could have spent more than just the one day there.

One thing we finally treated ourselves to that night was room service.  I ordered a glass of wine, Allison beer.  And we wondered why we hadn't done that earlier?  We were just too tired to go to any of the lounges for a drink.  I ended up falling asleep early, and we had to be off the ship the next day by 9:00 am.  It's kind of sad how quickly you wake up and are kicked off the ship.  Already we were planning when and where our next cruise would be.  Who knows?

Disney Cruise: Days 5&6

Wednesday Beach Day in Cozumel! 

Isn't this how you want to spend all your days? 

Just goofing off at the beach 

Beautiful Cozumel Beach 

Yummy Mexican lunch 

Whenever we went on excursions at the ports, we would wear these stickers so that we always knew who our group was.

"We're having so much fun!"

 Animator's Palate- my favorite place for supper.  It was so Disney!

We became official Disney animators!

I drew myself, how original.

Our masterpiece drawings.

Javier was a great stateroom host!  Loved all the animals he would make out of the towels every night. 

Our table mates.  On two different nights, the photographers came around to take our pictures, and thought we were all family.  They'd ask Mark to take pictures with his granddaughters (meaning me and the girl, Kayley, on the right), and call us sisters as well.  We tried explaining that we weren't related but it never seemed to make sense to the photographers so finally we would play along and just laugh the whole time.  I actually ended up buying this picture, because I really enjoyed our time with our table mates and regretted not finding a way to stay in touch, especially with Mark and Pat. 

That night was the pirate party, as well as the fireworks, which we really didn't get any good pictures of.  However, there was a huge buffet and once again we ate more than our fair share. 

Thursday was another day at sea, always my favorite.  We meandered around the ship a lot of the day, and looked through the shops. 

Yummy coffee from the Cove 

Getting ready to play bingo... although, we ended up not playing bingo due to the ticket prices being ridiculous. 

Taking one of our many walks on deck 4.  Here I was trying to imitate Lucille Ball in the episode of I Love Lucy when she tries to learn ballet. 

Allison enjoying a walk on deck 4. 

We saw Lincoln that day.  Great movie!  At first I didn't like the idea of watching movies in the theater on the ship, because it seemed like a way to waste great vacation time.  But by Thursday I was so tired, it seemed like a great idea.

One of the cool bathrooms on the ship.  We just had to take pictures! 

 Ok, so I didn't actually eat that.  I had high ambitions to try to be adventurous with food choices.  Not even Allison would eat it, though, so I don't feel so badly.

 And we ended Thursday by seeing Oz premiere at midnight!  Good movie, though I wished they had based it off the actual Oz books.  Most people don't know that there was an entire series based around the land of Oz.  The story we are all familiar with was just one of many books.

By Thursday we were starting to get really exhausted.  I can kind of see now why people only do 4 or 5 night cruises, though I still say I wouldn't want to do any shorter than what we did.  Having the day at sea helped a lot, because there is so much less pressure to do a lot of things in a short amount of time.  By this time we felt very at home on the ship, knew our way around, and really just enjoyed simply being on the ship and relaxing.  We were ok with spending time in our state room watching an on-demand Disney movie (or the documentary about Walt's life... *sniff*) or sitting at the coffee shop by the pool.

For the next cruise, I'd be totally fine with fewer excursions and just more relaxing, but we'll figure all that out when the time comes.  Anyway, only one more post left and I'll be done documenting it!

Disney Cruise: Days 3&4

Monday morning we were scheduled to go to the Grand Cayman, but due to high winds we were unable to be cleared by port authority.  I was actually totally ok with an extra day at sea, because I most enjoyed our time on the ship anyway. 

Eating a yummy lunch at Cabana's, our favorite breakfast and lunch buffet. 

Sitting out on deck 14 to watch the sunset.  Definitely one of my favorite things to do! 

The beautiful ship at night 

A delicious bananas foster 

One of the many yummy meals I had.  Actually, this was among the biggest portions we were ever served.  One thing I really liked about the ship is that they serve true portions. 

Javier, our state room host, always made our room look awesome after supper! 

Tuesday we sailed into Costa Maya, where we got to go on a tour of the Mayan ruins. 

We're at the Mayan ruins! 

You can't tell here, but I had climbed up some very steep steps to get to the top.

Coca Cola Light in Mexico!

Sitting out by the pool watching a movie, one of our very favorite things to do! 

What about Shoe La La?

Monday and Tuesday were great days on the cruise in my opinion.  Due to the cancelation of the Grand Cayman, we got even more time on the ship to explore and have fun.  We spent much of that day out at the pool, browsing through the shops, and eating good food.  Because of the cancelation, we arrived into Costa Maya extra early and stayed extra late, though we didn't spend any more time off the boat outside of our Mayan tour.  It was difficult to browse through the shops with the sales people constantly trying to grab your attention to come buy something from them!  We had even more interesting experiences with that the next day in Cozumel.

Even though I loved being at the ports, I honestly mostly just enjoyed being on the ship.  After all, I felt like that was what I was paying the big bucks for so why not make the most of it that I could?  There was so much to do.  I never really felt claustrophobic like I thought I might.

I'm still re-living all of last week in my mind.  Can't seem to get back into reality, though I think being back at work tonight will probably help with that all too well.  Anyway, I probably keep repeating myself, but it really was such a wonderful week!

Disney Cruise: Days 1&2

If you don't like looking at people's vacation pictures, I suggest you ignore this blog for the next several days!

Getting ready to board.  We were so excited! 

Just before boarding.  A very nice couple with many years of Disney cruising experience helped us out with the process, and offered to take our picture!

It was windy from the start!  We hadn't even set sail when this was taken. 

Getting ready to get a tour of the ship from Joshy.  This is just outside the Walt Disney Theater. 

Sailing Away Dance Party! Allison convinced me to go, and we had a blast dancing!  I'm pretty sure we were the only adults without kids at that party, as everyone else was already at the adults-only lounges. 

Dancing like the two cool kids at heart we are! 

First night's dinner at Palo- adults only dining.  Amazing! 

One of my favorite things about the cruise, was that you could go anywhere at all hours.  The first few nights, we took midnight walks around the walking deck, then explored the ship on our own terms.  It was fun and adventerous! 

Goofing around late at night 

Eating breakfast the second day.  The movement of the ship bothered me more than I thought it would, and here I was already feeling seasick.  Fortunately two good naps and some dramamine took care of that, but not a whole lot happened that day.

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Our first night dining at our table with our servers and table mates.  We ended up getting great table mates- a mother and daughter named Elaine and Kayley, and a nice older couple named Mark and Pat. Ended up having a great time at all our meals with them, as well as running into them around the ship!

Another late night walking around the ship.

Gosh, can't fun times like this be more often?  Though Allison and I hadn't really been planning this cruise for very long, it still feels like such a let-down when it's over.  Back to reality.  But I'm glad I got to go.  It was the first "real" vacation I've ever been on.  I have traveled quite a bit, yes, though never in this fashion.  I've never stayed in such a nice resort such as this cruise, or been catered to so much as I was on this trip.  Not to mention, we didn't have any cell phone or data access, so there was no texting anyone or checking in on Facebook!  The isolation was quite nice.  And now that I'm home, I'm on Facebook quite a bit less than before.

Man, can't wait for the next one.  Where will it be?  Eastern Caribbean?  Panama?  Alaska?  Who knows, but I can't wait!