GRADUATION CRUISE 2017 || Travel Day {Day 1}

Hello All,

Welcome back to my blog and my cruise recap posts! Today is going to be the boring day on this trip's recap because there are next to no pictures. But I still want to document the trip. So, enjoy or skip it. And if you haven't already you can check out the recap of the whole trip here. Now that the housekeeping is out of the way let's get started.

On Thursday, January 5 I woke up relatively early because I had some errands to run. I had to run to Best Buy to get a charger for my camera. I also went to DSW to look for water shoes for Mama Judy, as well as I believe target to grab sunscreen I think. 

When I got home I finished packing up my carry on and I charged my laptop. As well as doing some last minute cleaning. I also had to run to my friends Tori's house because she was keeping an eye on our house while we were away and I needed to give her a key. 

Finally it was time for us to leave the house. We had to run a quick errand to Target and then headed to the airport. We got through security very quickly, there was next to no lines there, which is always good. We plopped down in a seat and Mama Judy attempted to take a nap (remember when I napped on the airport floor when I was coming home from Disney in 2015?). Our local airport also had a candy bar so I went and enjoyed some candy. 

We got on board our flight. We were flying Jet Blue which now offers wifi. Which was awesome because I was able to get some YouTube work done from the air. Other then that our flight was pretty smooth and we arrived like twenty minutes earlier the expected. 

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We headed to the ground level and got on board The Disney Magical Express which is an awesome way to get to the Disney Resorts. We were one of the last few people to get on the shuttle so we got going  pretty quickly. We were staying at Disney's Port Orleans: French Quarter. Mama Judy and I had stayed at the Port Orleans when I was younger but I had no memory of the resort. But I will now say I LOVED it. Probably one of my favorites. 

We went to check-in where we ran in some difficulty. Mama Judy's legal last name is pretty unique and sometimes computers get confused. Finally we got it all sorted out and got to our room. We got curled up in our beds and watched a Lifetime movie while we waited for our suitcases. Although I fell asleep before they got there. 

And that was the end of day one. I'm going to try and get these posts up ASAP but I don't want to guarantee when the next one will go up. 

*This post was not sponsored by any of the linked sites. All thoughts and opinions are strictly my own 

and I was in no way compensated for mentioning them ***

BOOK REVIEW: Since You've Been Gone

Hello All,

I'm back with another post! I'm actually trying to marathon write post today so that there may be content on my blog again. I know I've been bad, if you miss me I have been active on YouTube (same name as blog), Instagram/Twitter/Snapchat which all use the user name @judy_judy94. But that's not important. Today I am here to do another book review!

I have officially completed my third book this year! My goal is to read at least fifteen books this year and review as many as possible. I did review the first one (You can read it here) although I didn't review the second one because I was pretty busy around the time I finished it and never got around to writing it. 

So, what was the third book I read this year? I read Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson. Which a book about Emily during the summer between junior and senior year of high school. She goes away on family vacation and returns to find out her best friend, Sloane, has basically disappeared. But Sloane left behind a list of challenges for Emily to complete. The list was:

 1. Kiss a stranger 

2. Go Skinny Dipping 

3. Steal Something 

4. Break Something 

5. Penelope 

6. Ride a horse 

7. 55 S. Avenue, ask for Mona 

8. The Backless dress and somewhere to wear it 

9. Dance until dawn 

10. Share some secrets in the dark 

11. Hug a Jamie 

12. Apple picking at dawn 

13. Sleep under the stars. 

Emily becomes convinced that if she completes all these activities she will find Sloane. Along the way Emily develops a friendship with classmates Frank and Collins. And with Dawn the girl who works in the pizza place next to the ice cream shop Emily works in. Along with the help of her new friends Emily sets off to cross things off her list. 

I must say I loved this book. At the beginning I was worried I would hate the book because Emily fell in a YA troupe I'm not a huge fan of, where the main character is shy and let's her loud best friend does all the "talking" for her. But the more I got to know Emily the more I liked her. Matson also did a great shop of showing the good and bad of having a best friend like that. 

I love reading books that have a romantic element, even if it's not the main element. This book did have a sub plot of romance and I will say I shipped Emily with the book's love interest so hard. Although there was a character who was Emily's boyfriend from before the story started that I low key liked him a little more. 

My favorite part of the book was how developed the side characters were. I feel like I truly got to know the side characters and really could put myself into Emily's shoes. So, many of these characters feel like they could one day get their own novels and stories. 

Overall I rated this book a 4.35 out of 5. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoy YA books, especially if you like the more emotional adventure ones or the ones about friendships. 

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Have you read Since You've Been Gone? What did you think about it? Let me know in the comments below!

GRADUATION CRUISE 2017 || A Trip in Review

Hello All,

Happy Thursday! In January I went on a Disney Cruise with Mama Judy to celebrate my college graduation! I know i've been kind of cruddy at keeping up with my blog post but I have so many pictures to share so I'm going to attempted to share them here. If you guys have been around for a while you know that I often will start vacation wrap ups with a trip in review post (Disney Cruise 2014, Disney at Christmas 2014 & Disney 2015). These are some of my favorite post to do because it gives you a clue about what's coming and it gets me excited. Also I plan to use this post as a home base and link all other post here once they've been written. 

Thursday, January 5, 2017

This was the day our trip started. I spent the morning running last minute errands. Our flight was later in the evening so we didn't land in Orlando until 9:30 PM. We went and checked in a Port Orleans French Quarter and relaxed. 

Friday, January 6, 2017

The first full day of our vacation we spent at the Magic Kingdom. Mama Judy had been to Disney World since they opened New Fantasyland and she wanted to see the new area. We explored the park as well as having lunch at Be Our Guest.

Me at Be Our Guest

Saturday, January 7, 2017

We boarded the Disney Fantasy for our cruise. We were excited to start a new trip as well as explore any changes that were made to the ship. We had dinner at Animator's Palate and went to an event at the Tube.

Our first towel animal (Swan) thanks to our awesome State Room Host, Michael!

Sunday, January 8, 2017

This was our first day at sea. Mama Judy and I enjoyed the Rainforest (one of the treatments at the spa) as well as exploring. We both took naps and enjoyed the day.

Monday, January 9, 2017
On Monday the port of call was Mexico, we got off the boat and saw the Mexican Ruins!

Tuesday, January 10, 2017
On Tuesday the boat stopped at Grand Cayman. Mama Judy had a spa appointment and we were both tired so we stuck around the boat.

Wednesday, January 11, 2017
This was probably my favorite day of the cruise! On this day we got off the boat in Jamaica and experience probably the best excursion I have ever experienced.

Thursday, January 12, 2017
This was our final day at sea the first Star Wars Day at Sea aboard the Disney Fantasy. Since I didn't really know anything about Star Wars I hung out in the adult section and finished the book I brought with me (You can read the review here).

Friday, January 13, 2017
The last day! The last of the cruise is always the worst and the saddest. But on this day we stopped at Disney's private island, Castaway Cay. This was cold and windy but we tired to make the best out of it.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

We finished our trip and headed home...already dreaming of the next cruise! ;) 

And that was a quick review of our cruise. Over the next few weeks I will attempt to get as many post out as possible about our cruise. Thanks for reading!