Guess what? I finished another book! Yup I've been a reading fiend lately. For those of you who may be interested that means I've read 7 books (As Old As Time, When It Happens {No review}, Since You've Been Gone, Just One Day, Anna and the French Kiss & The Hating Game) out of my goal of 15! That means that I am 47% of the way towards my goal and two books ahead of schedule. Now that all those boring stats are out of the way let's talk about the most recent book. Was it everything?
The seventh book I read this year was Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon. This book wasn't orginally on my To-Be Read List mainly because it was so hyped up and I often avoid books that are too hyped. That is until they get made into movie, then I have to read them. Which is why I decided to read Everything Everything. And for all of you who haven't seen the Everything Everything movie trailer yet I'll add it right now.
Looks cute right? Plus I love the male actor (Nick Robinson) from his days on Melissa and Joey. So, I had to see but I wanted to read the book first because 8 out of 10 times I feel the book is better then movie. So, one day when I was at Barnes and Noble buying a different book I decided to pick it up.
Everything Everything follows the main character Madeline who has SCIDs which basically means that everything and anything can make her sick. Because of that her mom keeps her indoors in order to keep her safe. One day a boy named Ollie moves in next door and almost imedatily Madeline is enthralled. They start a relationship via emails and IM. The more Madeline gets to know Ollie the more she wants to get to know the rest of the world.
I read a few reviews on Good Reads where people stated that they feel that Madeline is a very selfish character. But I didn't feel that she was. Instead I felt that she was a character who was too sheltered and never got a chance to make her decisions. I didn't fault her for being selfish, I actually loved that she had a selfish feeling to her.
There was a plot twist to the novel but I guessed it about one hundred pages in. I didn't want to believe that it could be the actual twist. And then it was and I loved it! It made sense with the rest of the book and instead of being angry about the twist I had a feeling of empathy towards the situation. I'm trying to be vague so I don't give it away.
My least favorite part of the novel was the ending. It went by way to quickly and I wanted to know more about what happened next. I had more questions about where the characters lives will go from there.
Overall I really enjoyed the book. It doesn't surpass The Hating Game for me but I still really enjoyed it. On a scale of 1-5 with five being AMAZING and one being horrible I rated this book a 4.20. I would recommend the book to the typical I love cheesey Young Adult book readers.
Happy Travel Thursday! Today I'm discussing my favorite day of the trip. But because I was having so much fun I didn't take pictures because I was too distracted having fun, so I apologize for the lack of pictures. If you missed reading posts from day 1-6 you can find their links on the master post.
So, another day another early morning. Our morning started out with room service (FUN FACT: The majority of food offered through room service is included in the price of your cruise) because it meant we got to sleep a little later. For this excursion we knew we needed to wear bathing suits as well as some water shoes. Once we were ready we headed down to the D-Lounge which was our meeting spot.
Soon they walked out to the pier in Falmouth, Jamaica and were usheredover to our bus stop. This bus ride was much shorter then our last port of call (Refresh your memory here). This one was only 10 minutes long and our tour guide was amazing. He taught us so much about the Jamaican culture. Once we got to our destination which was, Chukka, which is an adventure type park with rafting, zipling and Kayaking.
Mama Judy and I had decided to do the River Tubing option. So, loaded us and the rest of our group of river tubers into an open air vehicle and took us up the hill. The ride was so bumpy and I was along the side. I was convinced that I would have a huge bruise on my ribs but luckily no bruise or even pain later.
When we got to the rive they broke our tour up into smaller groups to make the tour groups more intimidate. Then they helped us get into the inner tubes so the tour could begin.
While the rest of the tour was climbing on I lost my sunglasses but luckily our tour guide dove down and got them for me! So, shout out to our tour guide!
Once everyone was on board our tour guide started paddling us. He did a small ice breaker where we said our name, where we're from and our favorite part of Jamaica had been so far. After the ice breaker our tour guide re-named Mama Judy and another man, mom and dad and referred to them as that throughout our journey.
Our tour guide was so intelligent and pointed out things that we would be have missed otherwise. He also was so funny. We would "re-write" popular songs to fit the tour. My favorite one re-write was the Lazy Day Song by Burno Mars. The original lyrics are "Today I don't feel like doing anything; I'm just going to lay in bed" but he re-wrote it to, "Today I don't feel like doing anything; I'm just going to lay in my tube". Which made me laugh so hard.
The tour lasted about 90-minutes. When it ended they helped us out of the tubes and we re-loaded into the open air van which brought us back to the main location. I forgot to mention earlier in the post that they did have lockers that I believe for 5 USD which wasn't bad. We got our stuff from our lockers and went to the bus stop. We had to wait about 20 minutes for a bus to come back. While we were waiting we talked to a couples also from Connecticut! Small world right?
Mama Judy and I agreed that if we ever do a cruise that went to Jamaica again we do another Chukka excursion but we next time we will do one of the packages that have two activities included. Like the tubing and zip lining because we had so much fun but it went by too quickly.
When we got back to the tour we explored the port a little and looked at the menu at Margaritaville. Mama Judy loves Jimmy Buffet but their was nothing on the menu that really appealed to her and it was so expensive. We were both so hungry though so we stopped at Auntie Anne's for some pretzels.
We didn't stay on the port long, instead we opted to get Cabanas for lunch on board. And then went to relax up at the Rainforest (Part of the spa) where we laid on the warmed loungers and sat in the hot tub for a little while.
After that we went and saw Finding Dory at the Buena Vista Theater. While we were watching the movie the ship started moving. It was so relaxing, so much so I fell asleep in the movie! Don't get me wrong Finding Dory is a great movie! I was just so sleepy.
After the movie Mama Judy went back to the Rainforest for a little while, while I went to get ready for dinner. After getting ready we went to see a show at the Walt Disney Theatre. While I was waiting for Mama Judy I was talking to a cast member who said this particular show was her favorite. The show was called Wishes which was about three friends who went to Disneyland and were preparing for the next chapter of her life. I really enjoyed it!
Then it was time for dinner which I believe it was back at the Enchanted Garden. That night our table mates told us all about the trivia games they had been playing. We decided that we would go and play that night. I did pretty well but not perfectly...those question were hard. I also want to go to more of the trivia games in the future on cruises, I have to put my Disney knowledge to work.
After the trivia game we decided to hit the hay because we were super exhausted. This was probably my favorite day of the whole trip! I loved the excursion. I will add my YouTube review done below so you can check it out.
And before I leave here's a quick picture of our towel animal that night.
*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 ***
I'm chugging along with 2017 reading goal and I am 40% done with it! That's right I've read 6 books out of my goal of 15. (Read reviews: As Old As Time, Since You've Been Gone, Just One Day, Anna and the French Kiss) Recently I have been super into reading, the 45 minutes to an hour each day that I have set aside to read is a time that I look forward to, especially with this last book. So, without further ado let me tell you about what has been my favorite book so far this year.
The sixth book that I read this year was The Hating Game by Sally Thorne. This book followed the narrator, Lucy who is the executive assistant of the co-CEO of a large publishing house. She spends most of her day playing "games" like the Staring Games with other executive assistant, Josh. And she believes she knows one thing, she HATES Josh. But after the announcement of a potential promotion the two start being push together more often and Lucy starts to question just how much she really knows.
I discovered this book thanks to Gabby from gabbyreads on YouTube. In a few of her videos she raved about this book and since almost every other book I've discovered from her I loved I decided to give this one a shot. And I was hooked by the end of chapter two.
First is that I loved both the characters. Lucy was confused and self conscious about the changes in her relationship with Josh without be obnoxious. And Josh felt like a much more likable verison of Christian Grey from the widely popular book series Fifty Shades of Grey. He has his demons and was distant without having the slightly abusive feeling to him.
The romance was the perfect pace, the feelings at least from Lucy's side (the only side we truly get to see) felt natural. One of my favorite things about romance in books is when the moments between the two romantic leads give me butterflies. So many of the moments between Lucy and Josh gave me intense butterflies.
The one of the things about the book that I didn't like was the timeline and the pacing. It often felt like the interview for their big promotion was coming up quickly but then all the sudden it was still over a week away. I would often get confused by that. But if we're being honest I might have been missing reading the time line. If you have read the book or if you do let me know if this something you struggled with.
The other thing that I didn't really like was the ending. Yes, the book and the loose ends were tied up nicely but for me the moment fell pretty flat. Especially after so many of the moments throughout the novel gave me butterflies. I just didn't experience them in the last chapter and I feel like with this book I should have.
Overall on a scale of 1 to 5 I rated this books a 4.75. I highly recommend this book to just about anyone especially if you like contemporary romances.
Happy Travel Thursday! I'm going to continue on with my Disney Cruise recap. If you've missed any of the posts for days 1 - 5 you can find the links on the master post. But other then that let's get going.
So, day 6 was our day on Grand Cayman. We didn't find any port adventures that we were interested inn doing - maybe in the future, so we were going with the flow. Our original plan was to get off, get lunch and explore a little but we didn't actually get off. More on that later.
So, we got up somewhat early because I had a Princess Meet and Greet ticket for 9:30AM. 95% of Disney Cruise Meet and Greets you don't need tickets for but for their more popular characters they do a fast pass type thing where you don't have to wait as long. If you're interested in booking one of these experiences for your cruise click here and go to the Princess Gathering link.
Now if you read the post about my Frozen Meet and Greet you'll know I had a great experience. But this time it wasn't the case. We were rushed through the line and barely got to talk to any of them with the expection of Belle who was very interactive. One thing I mentioned to Mama Judy was that I had way better experiences with the characters I didn't have to sign up for.
Me and Tiana (my favorite)
Also why do I look like i'm 12 in this picture
Me and Ariel
Me and Belle
Me and Cinderella
After the meet and greet we went up to Cabanas to get breakfast. While we were sitting at breakfast they made an announcement that we would be docking in Grand Cayman much later then expected. We later learned that other ships docking in Grand Cayman didn't even attempt to dock and cancelled their Grand Cayman day. Since Mama Judy had a spa appointment we were worried we wouldn't be able to get out, get lunch and get back to the ship in time and decided to say on board.
The view from the back of the boat
After breakfast Mama Judy went to hang out at the Rainforest section of the spa. I decided that I wanted to watch movies on funnel vision, which is the movie theater size screen on the pool deck. I watched Hercules, Frozen and the first 20-ish minutes of Lilo and Stitch. While sitting out by the pool I got sunburned for the only time in trip. Luckily it was that bad. Just uneven so a little more ugly then the average sunburn.
The reason I didn't watch all of Lilo and Stitch was because Mama Judy and I had plans to go watch Moana at the Buena Vista Theater. Which is the movie theater on the boat where they play Disney's most recently movies. If you're looking for something relaxing to do and to take a break I highly recommended. And let me tell you the theater was packed! I had already seen Moana but it was Mama Judy's first viewing. She found it confusing.
After the movie I went back to take a nap. And then it was time for dinner which if I remember correctly that was another night at Animator's Palate. But I'm not sure because I don't have any pictures from the night. Also if I remember correctly Mama Judy and I went to see one of the shows in the Walt Disney Theater. The only picture I have left is one of our towel friends that our state room host made for us. Tell me in the comments what animal you think it is because I have no clue.
Sorry this post wasn't that exciting and unfortunately the next day post won't be that exciting either. But I have new goals and plans to make travel post more detailed in the future!
*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 ***
So, this post is one I've been excited to write because I got to cross something off my bucket list! If you interest in what's on my bucket list you can click the tab above or you can click here. Also if you want to read the first four days of the trip you can by checking out the master post.
On this morning we had to get up super early! Why? Because it was our first port of call which was in Cozumel, Mexico. This port of call was the one that I had been looking forward to the most. Which shouldn't be surprising to some. If you guys read my blog on the reg (and by reg I mean; when I randomly write and create posts lol) you probably know 3 things about me. 1. I love Disney 2. I love to travel and 3. I have a pretty lengthy bucket list. And I was about to cross something off my list!
So, let's get started. Like I said above we had to get up pretty early. We had to get to our meeting location by 7:45. And before we went to our location Mama Judy ran up to Cabanas (The buffet on the pool deck) to get us breakfast and we quickly ate in the room. And then headed down to the Walt Disney Theatre which was our meeting spot. While we were waiting to leave two of our table mates came down because they were doing the same excursions.
Soon it was time to get off the boat and enter Mexico! They basically walked us from the Disney Fantasy to a catamaran boat. It was about a 50 yard walk if that so we got there pretty easily.
The first view right when we got off the boat. We talked about stopping at the Starbucks but spoiler alert we didn't have time
A view of the Fantasy while we waited to board the catamaran
The water from Cozumel to the main land was super bumpy. They even handed out puke bags. Luckily neither Mama Judy nor I got sick! But Mama Judy felt a little gross. When we got to the main land we attempt to get off the boat and soon learned that our tour needed to be the first off. We were confused though because when boarding they didn't tell us. We and few of the other people on our tour agreed that if we had known we would have sat towards the front so we didn't have to shove through people. But we pushed our way through and got off boat to meet our tour guides.
When we met our tour guides they lead us on about a two mile walk to our bus. They tried to rush us towards the bus but it's hard to rush like 50 people through a street. So, I had some time to snap some pictures.
When we got to the bus they handed out our lunch that came with the excursion which consisted of a sandwich with meat that looked like a mixture of bologna and lunchable meat, Mexican Lays (potato chips), a muffin and mango juice. I only ate the chips because nothing else appealed to me.
Once one board they started out by giving us some background information about the Chichen Itza Ruins which were the ones we would be visiting. Then they told us to settle in because we had a two and half our bus ride! Since I had my phone (on airplane mode so I wouldn't have to pay for the expensive international data) and I had some headphones I decided to play some music and took a nap. Mama Judy played on her phone.
45-minutes away from the ruins they woke everyone up. Why? Because they wanted to give us a sale pitch for two souvenirs that you could only get there and that were personalized. One was a Mayan Calendar and the other one had something to do with birth and symbols. I don't really remember. The pitch lasted about 10 minutes and then we all sat there. It was hard to justify going back to sleep because we weren't sure when they started talking again.
FINALLY! We got to the ruins and got off the bus. The walk from the parking lot to ruins themselves was about 5 minutes. We were told that we had an hour to look around but we're highly encourage to stick with the group. I'll be honest that was hard for me because there were two ruins we never even got close to. But the ruins were amazing and mind blowing. I was happy because I was able to officially cross something off my bucket list! Now enjoy the pictures.
One of the ruins we never really got close to...thank God for the zoom button
The other ruin we didn't really get close to
Look our excited and proud I am to be crossing something off my bucket list
After a very quick tour of the Chichen Itza Ruins we headed back to the bus for another two and half hour ride back to the boat. On the ride back Mama Judy and I played on our phones and I taught Mama Judy how to play Candy Crush. She is now addicted and low key mad at me for teaching her.
By the time we got back to the boat we were starving. We headed up to the 10th floor and got some food at the quick service walk up places. While we ate we sat in the adult section and hung out. Eventually Mama Judy headed back to the room to nap while I headed into the spa to get a Fire&Ice Mani/Pedi.The mani/pedi was great but my manicurist was very quiet. Maybe it was because of the language barrier but maybe she was just kind of quiet. (Fun Fact: If you are a Disney Vacation Club member you get 10% off of spa services on port days)
After my spa appointment I headed back to the room to get ready for pirate night! Like a dumb dumb I forgot to take my sign/outfit picture so I'm not 100% sure where we ate. I'm like 90% sure that we ate at The Royal Court which is the Cinderella themed restaurant. I was super excited about our meals at Royal Court because we were sitting in the Princess and the Frog room...aka my favorite princess.
After dinner we headed out to do some meet and greets with characters in their pirate attire. If you remember in my last Disney Cruise post (which you can read here) I met Donald on formal night and told him how snazzy he look. Well during our conversation Donald kept miming fixing his head feather. At first I was confused but then I realized he was asking me if he looked snazzy again on that night. I was so excited that he remembered that I felt like I was five years old all over again.
During our very fun conversation
Traditional Donald and me check kiss picture
Outfit deets: Skirt ~ Kohls, Shirt: Old Navy & Headband: Disney Cruise {Free on Pirate Night}
After meeting Donald I hoped in line to meet Chip and Dale. While we were waiting Mama Judy snapped a picture of Minnie's Pirate outfit because we agree it was adorable.
After our meet and greet with Chip and Dale we went upstairs because Pirate Mickey was doing a meet and greet. While we were waiting upstairs we looked down to see Chip, Dale and Minnie playing tag. It was so cute and funny. Especially to see their attendants trying to keep them under control.
When I went to meet Mickey at first he seemed to be a let's take a picture and move on mood. But when I told him about the tag game down below he became for interactive.
Telling Mikey about the tag game
Now we're talking about something else
And of course a more formally picture
After meeting the characters we decided to head back to our room because we were both somewhat tired. On Pirate Night they do have fireworks at sea but I'm scared of fireworks and chose to avoid them on this particular night. But when we got back to our room we saw are room host (Michael - who was amazing by the way) left us a sloth/monkey friend.
Do you think it's a sloth or monkey?
And that was Day 5 of ours cruise! So, much fun. I'm going to give you a quick review of our excursion (which you can book through Disney by clicking here) but if you want more detail I will link my video review below. So, the one things we really disliked about this excursion was the length, we spend way more time in a bus then at the ruins. But our tour guides were super informative and gave us some really good facts. They also were very social, there was a little girl who taking notes for a school project to make up for being on vacation when she was supposed to be at school and they answer all her questions very patiently. Like I said I'll link the review where I go more in depth.
*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 ***
