Travel Thursday: Travel Essentials {Feature Post}

Hello All,

Today for Travel Thursday I am taking a slight break from my current Disney 2014 Recap to do another type of Travel post. Recently I was contacted by Turo (Formerly Relay Rides)  which a car trading services. Find a city near you by clicking here. Basically people can list their cars on this website and people who are vacationing in their area can rent their car. It seems like a way to earn some extra cash while you travel. 

They inspired me to write this post about what my must have travel essentials are. All opinions in this post are mine and was not told what to write in this post.

-Some sort of identification

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That one is probably pretty obivious but its one thing that I find myself checking for every time I leave on vacation. I find myself double and triple checking that my ID is in my bag.

-My camera

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I love to take pictures and I love to document memories. So having my camera with me everywhere I go is a must have. 

-My Computer

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This might sound a little strange. Your supposed to be on vacation, your supposed to turn off the real world. But when I bring my laptop I don't normally use it for work, school or social media. I like to have my computer so every night I can load all the pictures and any video clips I have on to my computer and clear my memory stick. I don't want to be somewhere and have to delete pictures half way through the vacation because my memory stick got full. Plus, watching movies are fun for long plane flights.

-My phone

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Especially when I'm travelling in a group I need the ability to keep in contact with them. Plus instagraming pictures are fun and music when I fly is really nice.

-Chargers

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Because of all the electronics that I need to bring with me I definitely need my chargers. These are things that I double check for before I leave.

-Tylenol, Ibuprofen or Advil 

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You never know when a headache is going to hit you. And if you are anything like me you can get pretty crabby if my head hurts or I'm not feeling all that great. Having something to make me feel better definitely helps.

-Extra/In Case of Emergency Cash

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I always bring money to buy souvenirs but you also want to have some extra cash. You never know what kind of pickles you might get yourself into that you can't use a credit card in. In the same boat if you only use cash you should bring an emergency credit card for larger purchases or in the small case you run out of cash. 

-Band-aids

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Especially if you're walking a lot you might develop a blister. Or if you me you might fall and end up with a very uncute cute on my leg.

-Raincoat or Umbrella

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As we all probably know my favorite place in the world to travel to is Disney World in Florida. And it rains almost once a day there so I try and remember to bring some sort of rain protection for when the skies decide to open.

Those are my travel essentials and must haves. What are some of your travel essentials and must haves? Let me know in the comments below! 

Disney at Christmas 2014: The Character Meet and Greets

Hello All,

Today I am snowed in for this year's major blizzard. But its okay, Megan and I are planning on curling up and watching Netflix until school starts again. But with all this snow I'm definitely wishing I was back in Florida where its not snowing!

One of my favorite parts about going to Disney is that feeling that I am five years old again. I don't feel like I need to act like an adult and I'm not ashamed when I freak out about seeing character or my want to snuggle up with one of their adorable stuffed animals. But today we're going to talk about the characters I met. *Disclaimer: I know the truth about Disney characters but I still take part in the magic!***

On the day we went to EPCOT as we were heading over to Soarin' we saw that Chip and Dale we're out meet and greeting so I hopped in line to meet my favorite chipmunks. They were favorite sweet. We "talked" about why they weren't wearing their Christmas scarves and they mimed that it was too hot! It was a good meet and greet but not the best one that I have ever had with Chip and Dale. 

When we went to Hollywood Studios I was wandering around and I saw that Mike and Suley from Monsters Inc had next to no line so I hoped in line. The family in front of me had the cutest little girl who was probably about 3 or 4 years old. When it was her turn to meet them. She feel absolutely in love with Suley. It was like watching a real life version of Suley and Boo from the movies. 

After that family Mike and Suley had to take a scare break and they left for a couple of minutes. When they came back Suley came back first and attempted to open the chain entrance by himself. But it claws were to big but he was a good entertaining sport about him. The meet and greet I had with them wasn't all that good. I just hugged them and got the pictures and you can even tell the pictures are pretty awkward.

The final character I meet was Princess Tiana. I was walking towards Tower of Terror to take some pictures (I believe that is the most photogenic building in Disney) and I saw that she and some other characters were meet and greeting. She was super sweet and made me fan girl like every time I meet her. I also am so glad that i got to meet her on the Hollywood Studios day because normally I meet her at Magic Kingdom but unfortunately I was sick on that day.

And those were the characters I met on this trip. I loved my meet and greets and was definately cool to meet Mike and Suley even if the meet and greet was pretty awkward. 

Disney at Christmas 2014: The Best Tweets of the Trip!

Hello All,

Its Thursday and that means its time to talk about travel!

If you follow me on Twitter then you probably know that I LOVE to tweet! And being in Disney doesn't stop my love to tweet. I decided I want to be able to remember these tweets and would share them on the blog! Some are funny, some are cute and some are just random. But they are all Disney-fied!

Day Before Tweets:

You guys should have seen how excited Mama J was the day before the trip! It was so cute!

Yup that's right, I didn't pack until the last minute, but in all honesty I never pack until the last minute.

3:45 AM was the first time my alarm went off, I got up around 4 AM.

And in all seriousness, who can sleep the day before vacation? I know I can't!

Thursday (EPCOT Day):

Need I say more?

There were 2 Dunkin' Donuts in my home airport but no Starbucks. What is that craziness?

Need I say more?

That is just one of the many reasons that I am grateful that my parents both became DVC members.

It was a long day but beyond worth it!

Fun Fact about me. I hate and I am scared of fireworks. Watching them and hearing them give me an anxiety so after watching the Candlelight Processional it was only 10 minutes until the fireworks were going to start. I literally ran out of the park while dodging strollers.

Friday (Hollywood Studios Day):

Hollywood Studios is my favorite park and I'm always happy to go there!

Watching that character meet and greet was honestly the cutest thing I ever saw in the whole world. I'll be talking more about it in an upcoming post!

I don't remember what I was watching but I do love people watching.

That is so accurate, like I honestly just babble and stutter and get completely star struck and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Saturday (The Day I Was Sick):

Gah! There is nothing worse (the heat, the lines, etc...) at Disney then being sick.

I don't want to even think about the day that was suppose to be Saturday. I was so excited for it!

Sunday (Going Home)

I'll be back at the Magic Kingdom soon but its still weird to not going to the castle, its like you aren't really amerced in the magic.

I had some time to kill between getting back from Downtown Disney and have to catch the bus to the airport. So like any good blogger I started planning out post!

And getting on the Magical Express sucks but when it a bus that normally drives people to the cruise ship makes it 10x worse!

And that's what I tweeted while I was in Disney. If you don't already follow me on Twitter then follow me. I update there almost daily!

First Few Days of Spring Semester 2015

Hello All,

This first week is over and I can tell this semester is going to be busy but I am ready and determined to have another great semester! As pre-usual I want to share how the first week went with all of you guys! 

Monday:

Mondays are great!

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I know that probably sounds crazy, who likes Monday? But my Monday doesn't start until 11 AM! #SCORE but hold on, it gets better, its done by noon! #DoubleSCORE On Mondays I only have 1 fifty minute class. Although it definitely won't be my strongest class, its Bio, more specifically Zoology. The teacher seems nice and the class doesn't seem all that over whelming. After class I picked up my 10 books I need for the semester, grabbed lunch and headed back to my suite. Later in the day I got to see one of my best friends, Mandi and we also drove Natalie from Finding My Voice  home. I spent the rest of the day relaxing and hanging out.

Tuesday:

The day that never ends! Since I only have one class on Monday I have 4 on Tuesday and Thursdays. My first class starts at 9:35 and is a Media Studies class. I have a friend from my class last semester in this class, plus the class is really small, like 9 people. The teacher is really cool and seems like she'll be a great professor. After that class I have an hour and fifteen minute break where I got lunch and watched some Netflix. Since it was the first day I figured I wouldn't spend to much time in the student center and find my next class. Which was a creative writing poetry class. My friend from my creative writing class last year is in this class so Yay friend! This professor seems really cool, he's a former poetry editor and really seems to know what he's talking about. Next I headed over to my Communication 215 (Small Group Com) and this class will be interesting. For the whole semester we will be working in the same small group to do EVERYTHING  from quizzes to test to all the project. My final class that day is Communication 200 which is all about design. This one I'm a little bit nervous about because everything we do is on a Mac but I'm a PC person and don't know a lot about Macs. After all of my classes I went back to my room and started organizing for the semester and eventually got dinner with Megan. 

Wednesday:

Much like Mondays, Wednesdays don't start until 11 o'clock. I went to my bio class and it was pretty uneventful, the teacher explained the first homework assignment and we went over some basic stuff. After class I went and got some lunch and ran to our school club fair to drop off something with a friend. Then I went to find my second class on Wednesday and got lost. I swear I've been at my school for two and half years and still get lost at times. But I finally found the room and realized that I was a lot early then I originally thought. My class was the lab period for my bio class. The teacher only went over the syllabus and let us go. Bio is making me a little nervous though because I was never all that good at science. After class I went back to my room and did all the readings I had for the next day.  Megan and I went to dinner and spend the rest of the night relaxing.

Thursday:

My Thursday schedule is identical to my Tuesday schedule. Expect on Thursday during my lunch break I hung out with my friend from English. My plan for the weeks come forward is to go to the gym after my classes on Tuesday and Thursday so that I can reach some of my goals. 

Luckily for the second semester in a row I only have classes on Monday through Thursday and I have Fridays off. 

I went home for Martin Luther King weekend and spent some more time with Mama J. I can definitely tell that this going to be a hard semester but I think that with enough work, time management and determination I can do! 

If you're in school how was your first week?

Disney at Christmas 2014: Frozen Sing Along

Hello All,

For the first time in forever well technically its the second time, I'm writing about Frozen and the obsession that follows that movie!

I will be the first person to admit that I LOVE Frozen, probably as much as any average five year old out there. I mean I get super excited when the song Fixer Upper (the song the trolls sing) come up on my phones shuffle. I actually think the little girl troll maybe my spirit animal!

With that being said I will be honest, I was a little apprehensive about seeing the sing along show at Hollywood Studios. I was a little worried that the show would be a little to corny or too little kiddish and I would end up hating it. But I still got a fast pass for it anyways because I had to see what it was like.

I went into the theater and it was huge! If you want comfortable seats then get a fast pass because of you wait in stand by you end up sitting on the hard bleachers. The show opened with Ana running out on stage looking frantically for Elsa and introducing us to the historical story tellers. 

The storytellers ended up being our host for the show and they bring us through the story of how Elsa became the queen. If you get good story tellers the show should be hilarious. They tell jokes that appeal to all different members of the family. There were jokes that adults would understand, like 80s or 90s references and jokes that make sense to anyone who has Frozen playing on repeat in their house. 

All in all I would definitely recommend this show to any Frozen fan or anyone who is travelling with a Frozen fan. Not matter who you are you'll hopefully find something that you find funny. Now here are the few pictures that I took while I was watching the show!  

Disney at Christmas 2014: Day at Hollywood Studios

Hello All,

Happy Thursday! This the last day of the week for me and I am ready for the first weekend of the semester. But since its Thursday let's talk about travel!

Our Friday, December 19 I went and spent the day at Hollywood Studios! My original plan was to get to Hollywood Studios for opening, but I woke and wasn't feeling all that great (foreshadow to me being sick the next day LOL). I decided to lay back down and try sleeping a little bit longer and started moving about 2 hours later then my original plan. 

My first fast pass of the day was for their new show Frozen First Time in Forever Sing Along (I'm going to be doing a full post on the show so there won't be any pictures in this one). Before the show started I had some time to kill so I explored for a little while and took some pictures.

Heading towards the Muppet 3D show theater, taken from near Star Tours

Streets of America

Walden Oaken Trading Post sign

Coolest cast member only door in the world at Walden Oaken Trading Post store!

I saw the Frozen show (sneak peak: It was really good) and then went over to see the Muppet 3D show. It was really good at usual and so cute. Fun fact, a friend of mine told me this recently, that this was the last muppets project that Jim Henson ever worked on!

By this time it was lunch time so I headed over to Pizza Planet and got a meat ball sub. To be honest I didn't really like sub, the meatballs were super dry. Everything that I have heard is that the pizza is really good, so I'll have to try it again at some point.

After lunch it was time for my fast pass on the Great Movie Ride. While I was walking towards the enterance I notice for the first time that they had hand prints in front of the Great Movie Ride building.

The Great Movie Ride is normally one of my favorite rides in Hollywood Studios but they were having so techincal difficulties so the show part of the ride wasn't as good as it normally is.

After that it was time for my favorite attraction which is the art of animation attraction. Where you go and take about a 30 minute class about drawing famous Disney Characters. During my class we drew Stitch and in my opinion mine came out pretty well.

Normally I would go see some of the shows at Hollywood Studios but I was really tired and decided to just go back to the hotel. I got the majority of my favorite things done and had a pretty good day!

Here are some miscellaneous pictures that I have from walking around the park.