Word Paralysis - Yes it's a Thing

from Pinterest - and my nightmares

Did ya miss me?

Seriously, I apologize that I have been gone for so long. I have no excuse, other than I sit at my computer and feel like I have nothing to write about. Which is lame and not true, but I sit here and just stare at the keyboard, willing it to type on my behalf. (Apple, if you're reading this and could get working on that technology, that'd be great.)

So the other night, I was perusing Pinterest and other blogs that I read in order to hopefully get inspired. Of course, this turned into a time-suck black hole of unproductivity where I mostly found funny memes, recipes I'll never make, and YouTube clips of babies and animals. Seriously, watching a baby paw at a dog who paws back never gets old.

Luckily for me, in the midst of nonsense a gem shone through. I was checking in with one of my FAVORITE sites / favorite people, Glennon Doyle Melton over at Momastery. If you're looking to get both inspired and joyful, while snot crying at the same time, Glennon is your gal.

One of her most recent posts (which you can find here) struck a real chord with me.  Glennon does amazing work, she's a great writer and speaker, and I found we might have a tiny something in common. To my shock, I discovered that we are both sometimes scared to write.

(Like how I just lumped myself in there with a master like Glennon?)

She writes, "After the Alabama event, Sister and I stayed up late in the hotel talking about the fact that here on the blog, I’ve been writing directly from my heart less often than I used to. I think I just started putting weird pressure on myself. This place has gotten so big, and over time I convinced myself that everything I wrote needed to be shiny and shareable and big and amazing. So I started writing essays instead of love letters. Meh. That’s not what we need all the time is it? We just need to show up for each other. Tired, full, broken, sparkling heart to tired, full, broken, sparkling heart. I am not here to prove myself, I’m here to serve you....Showing up > Showing Off. So anyway, here I am. I’m going to write directly to you once a week. Nothing fancy. Just: Here I Am. Also sometimes I won’t. No problem."

The point of her post is MUCH greater than just this section, and I implore you to read it all because she has a really beautiful message. But this particular section hit me over the head.

Let me preface the following by saying: In NO way am I comparing my writing to hers. We're here sharing about travel and Disney and beaches and cruises and all that, and she's literally changing people's lives. But when she says, "I started putting weird pressure on myself...", I felt my stomach drop and the cartoon light bulb was over my head. That's why I haven't been pushing the Publish button - I've been nervous/anxious/scared about it not being good enough.

I've told you all before but we're going to do this again. I LOVE writing this blog. I love sharing with you, and to my shock and amazement, you've loved it right back. Which both excites me, and if we're being honest, scares the crap out of me. I know there are SO many choices out there when it comes to blogs (especially blogs centered on travel and Disney) and the fact that you continue to read mine is really humbling to me. None of you lovely people pressure me in the slightest, but I feel like I have to REALLY deliver the goods so you'll keep reading. Which is weird and bizarre and truly, a total waste of time on my part. I can't make anyone read, or keep reading, so I'm going to (try my hardest to) give that up that pressure.  As a recovering people-pleaser, it'll be a hard road but I'm walking down the path.

From now on, I'll just write. Some days it'll be War and Peace (there I go again; trust me, it'll never be War and Peace) and some days it'll be just me, here I am. Writing about what I love and the places I love. As Glennon says, Showing Up IS greater than Showing Off. So I am committed to Showing Up, and if the only person who reads that day is me, that's OK too.

Have a magical day!

Movin with Mickey Update!

Happy Monday, folks; hope you all had a great weekend!

This will be a quick post, but I wanted to update you on my Movin with Mickey progress. I was able to get in quite a few steps on the cruise so it really bumped up my total! Right now, I'm over 390,000 steps.

I did pretty good on my cruise in terms of getting in exercise and eating well. I still had dessert, ice cream, etc but I also kept an eye on the choices I was making. I came home the same weight as I left, which I consider a win!

I will update you more in another post on my other goals and how those are going, but I wanted to get the steps update out right away this morning.

Have a magical day!

Trip Report - Hawaii bound on the Disney Wonder - Thursday, September 10, 2015

Today was our third (out of five) sea days and guess what was on the plan? 

Relaxation. Yes, I know you’re surprised! :)

After having breakfast with Michelle at Beach Blanket, I got ready for the day and decided I’d like to see the newest Avengers movie in the Buena Vista Theatre.  I’d seen it at home when it was released, but thought it’d be a nice way to spend the morning. 

As I rounded the corner to the theatre, I smelled that “you’re at a movie” smell - popcorn. YUM. I couldn’t resist, and bought some popcorn in a reusable Disney bucket. For $7.50, you got the popcorn and bucket, with refills at $3.50.

The movie was about two and a half hours, so then it was time for lunch! :) (are you sensing a pattern here…..eating and eating and more eating). They were having a BBQ as another lunch option, but the crowd was pretty good-sized so I decided to just do the regular lunch buffet.

After some couscous salad and veggies (OK, OK, I had dessert too….I’m on vacation!), I decided to make my way to Deck 10 to read my book. And there I stayed for about 2 hours. HEAVEN. Michelle recommended a book to me and so while the internet was at a cooperating point, I was able to log into Amazon and purchase it, and download it to my Kindle. Score! :) it was a super relaxing afternoon; I was on a chaise on Deck 10, facing the ocean and just reading and watching us sail peacefully across the Pacific.

Some people have asked about the sea conditions as you cross the open ocean. We had AMAZING weather and it’s been such a calm passage. I haven’t noticed any difference between this cruise and when we’re sailing towards the Bahamas or Caribbean. As I sat here writing this, I was watching the ocean and it was just perfect; small waves here and there, but quite calm. There had been some hurricane activity in the area last week and so we weren’t sure if we would need to go off course and sail around storms, but so far so good.

After a quiet and calm evening, I did some more reading in the room when Michelle and her son went to a movie. Michelle and I then had a fabulous dinner at Palo - antipasti, appetizers, that amazing Filet and of course, the Palo Souffle. We rolled ourselves out of Palo and right into bed. With full bellies, we were asleep in no time!

LIVE from the Disney Wonder - Tuesday, September 8th 2015

Today was our first of five at sea days. These days are my absolute FAVORITE of any cruise itinerary; honestly, if they could do an itinerary where they just sailed around nowhere and you had all sea days, I would book that in a hot minute.

We all slept really well. I am still getting used to the time change, and so I did wake up early, about 4AM (which is 6AM at home). However, I was able to get back to sleep until about 8:30AM so that was great. I’m trying to get on the current time sleeping-and-waking schedule and so far, so good. Once I got up, I went and grabbed some coffee and Michelle and I sat on the balcony, chatting for a few minutes before it was time to get ready for Palo brunch!

Oh Palo brunch…..you guys, seriously ~ I could go ON AND ON. It’s so delicious. At $30/person I feel like it’s well worth it. There are so many great options - fruits, savory items, caviar (YES), pastries, desserts as well as made-to-order items that you can have as well. Michelle and I decided to split a pizza (they will do half and half if you want to try more than one flavor), I got Eggs Benedict (the BEST) and Michelle chose the Chicken Parmasan. You also get a complimentary beverage like a mimosa or sparkling wine and of course soda, tea, coffee, etc are included. Michelle knew (name) from past cruises and so we requested him. Another excellent DCL server! Really, these folks are amazing.

It was a nice leisurely meal, and we were there about an hour and a half. After eating, we decided to visit the cruise shopping options. There is a SUPER CUTE Mickey and Minnie graphic for these Hawaii cruises and I wanted to get a Tervis cup with that graphic. I like having a larger cup to fill up at the beverage machines vs their smaller cups they provide and figured they’d have a special one this cruise, so I didn’t bring one from home. I’ll probably go back and get a magnet and that’ll be the extent of my souvenir shopping.

After changing out of the dress I wore to Palo, I decided to go up the adults area on Deck 9 and do some blog writing. Another thing I love about cruising is all the uninterrupted writing time I have, and so far this cruise has been no exception.

I spent a nice hour or so writing blog posts, and then decided to head to the room for a bit. Having a balcony is SO nice, it was great to spend some time out there with my Kindle and read, watching the ocean go by…..bliss.

Dinner tonight was at Animator’s Palette, one of my favorite menus of the cruise. Michelle and I split the pasta pursettes, which is right up there for me as one of my favorite DCL appetizers EVER. I also had the squash soup, and the beef tenderloin. I typically don’t choose red meat but decided to go out on a limb today and was so glad I did - it was delicious. We also saw the special show they do at Animators with a special guest - Mickey Mouse! This is my favorite incarnation of Mickey Mouse and so I always love this show.

I ended my night in the Rainforest spa, in the saunas and showers. SO relaxing. I also discovered they have the facial cleaners and toners that they use in the spa, free and available for our use.

We ended the night by watching movies in the room, and drifted off to sleep. We got a notice in our room that we were to turn our clocks back an hour before we went to bed - getting closer to that Hawaii time zone!

Thanks for reading; I apologize that my internet has been spotty and I’ve not been able to post live blogs as I would like, so these are a few days behind “real time”. 

Have a magical day!

LIVE from the Disney Wonder! Cruise Embarkation Day - September 7, 2015

Monday morning, Labor Day - you know what that means! Cruise day! We were all so excited. I woke up EARLY (both from excitement and getting used to the time change) and was ready to get cruising!

Michelle and I had chatted earlier that day about the check-in process. She’d wanted to look and see if there were rooms available for upgrade and because of that we knew we’d want to be one of the first ones to check in. We talked to the staff and found out they were doing check-in at one of the ballrooms / meeting rooms at the Pan Pacific, starting at 10:15AM, so arrived plenty early. They had lots of chairs set up, so we were able to wait in comfort. You CANNOT beat going down an elevator from your room and then being right at check in! Score!

We also had a chance to chat with some of our fellow cruisers, and met a very nice couple from Canada. Do you ever find that when you meet people on a cruise, you tend to run into them a lot? It’s the second day and we’ve seen this couple at least four times. :) We also talked to one of the DCL agents, who told us the cruise wasn’t full and so upgrading shouldn’t be an issue. (There are about 2,000 people on our cruise; capacity for the Wonder is about 2,500). We also found out there are tons of Platinum and past cruisers on this sailing, and not a lot of children (which isn’t super surprising with this time of year). Michelle’s son is one of only 50 kids at the Edge club (for 11-14 year olds) so that’s pretty nice also.

If there are available rooms on the cruise on the sailing date, they will offer them at an upgrade price, based on category and room type. From chatting with the agent, we knew there were quite a few Oceanview and Balcony rooms available and initially we’d wanted to look and see if we could get moved to a different Oceanview room. You need to check in before you go to the Supervisor’s desk to ask an an upgrade, though, so I went in the check in line with our passports and info and Michelle went to stand in line at the Supervisor’s desk.

Since we were there early, I was 3rd in line to check in. (TIP - even if you are a Castaway Club member and can go in a different/special line, scope out the one with the shortest wait and go there. Oftentimes, the waits at the “regular” check in will be shorter than the Concierge / Platinum or Silver/Gold Castaway Club lines.) It only took a few moments for them to scan our passports and take our signed check in forms, print our Key To The World cards and give us our lanyards.

Michelle then we into the Supervisor’s line, and was told there were Oceanview rooms available but there was also a Balcony that was a pretty great price. Since it was the lowest category of Balcony room they had, it was MUCH cheaper than the next nearest Balcony upgrade, so she went for it! Yay! We would have been just as happy in the Oceanview room, but having the Balcony is VERY nice.

After we got all checked in, we went up to the room to freshen up and get her son, then made our way to the security lines. Since we were leaving Canada, we needed to go through US Customs before boarding. It was very similar to the process going into Canada; we scanned our passports, got a printed form and then presented them to a US Customs agent. Once we were given the clear, we made the short walk onto the Disney Wonder! They announced us, the crew members clapped and cheered, and we were officially on vacation! YAHOO!!

We decided to go to Parrot Cay that first day for lunch. When you get on the ship, at least one of the sit-down dinner restaurants is also open for lunch, with a buffet style meal. You can also go up to Cabanas / Topsiders / Beach Blanket, which are the cafeteria-style places and have a buffet there as well. I tend to prefer the sit-down places, as it’s usually quieter than going to the cafeteria. Don’t worry about missing out on your favorite first cruise meal items, however, because the menus at both places are exactly the same. :)

After a delicious lunch, Michelle and I went our separate ways. She had some requests to make for excursions and dining, and I wanted to explore the ship. I hadn’t been on the Wonder since 2008 and so I wanted to be sure and reacquaint myself. I got some pretty great pictures, and also got my steps in for the Movin with Mickey challenge! :) Win win!

After the requisite safety drill, we were off and sailing! When you leave the port of Vancouver, you have the most gorgeous sail out with Stanley Park and the mountains in the distance. If you sail out of Vancouver in the future, be sure to make time to sit on deck or on your balcony to watch as you leave Vancouver. It was pretty amazing!

Speaking of dining, we have the BEST dining team. Luisa is from Italy, and our friend and fellow MWT agent Ellen recommended her; they met on Ellen’s Alaska cruise this summer. We were super glad she was available for our serving team. In order to get here we did have to switch from the 8:15 to the 5:45 dining time, but that was not an issue for us. We found out that Ellen had also let Luisa know that we were going to be on the cruise, so I think she was pleased we requested her. We also have Kenan as our assistant server, from the UK. They're both wonderful, we couldn't have better servers. I’ve always had excellent servers on DCL and this cruise is going to be no exception.

We had a delicious dinner at Triton’s; it’s one of my favorite DCL menus. I had the Brie appetizer with a berry jam/compote on the side (TO DIE FOR), the leek and potato soup and the salmon. For dessert, I had another favorite - the Grand Marnier souffle. Good thing I wore my stretchy dress pants to dinner - I needed them!

One of my cruise “splurges” this trip is the Rainforest pass to the spa. For about $20/day, I get access to a special area of the spa where they only sell 30 passes for the length of the cruise. There are AMAZING heated lounge chairs, special saunas and showers, and they also give some some pretty wonderful body scrubs that you can use in the Rainforest or in your room. That and the Pearl Harbor excursions are my “treats” for this vacation. I went into the Rainforest room after dinner, and had a nice relaxing stint there before I went back to the room and to bed.

This is a marathon post :) but I wanted to make sure and tell you all about our first day. Stay tuned for more posts, live from Hawaii!

Thanks for reading along ~ have a magical day!

LIVE from the Disney Wonder ~ Hawaii Cruise, Embarkation Day!

Hello from somewhere in the Pacific Ocean! :) I was hoping to post every day but our internet out here on the Pacific has been spotty. I'll post updates when I can; and when we get to Hilo, HI on Sunday, I'll have even better signal so hopefully I can post some more blog updates. I will also be posting more photos to Facebook and Instagram, so stayed tuned for those!

On Sunday AM, I flew out early from Des Moines and arrived in Vancouver about 11:30AM local time. Michelle (my agency owner) and her son also arrived about the same time, which was great. We went through security and customs at the airport, grabbed our bags, and then got on the train to go from the airport to downtown Vancouver, and the Pan Pacific Hotel.

A quick note about the Vancouver airport; if you’re flying in from the US, you will go through a customs line in order to gain entrance into Canada. Once you get off the plane, customs is the first thing you do (and I didn’t see any chances to visit the restroom before you get in line, so you’ll want to do that on the plane before you disembark). The line can look long, but it moves pretty fast. They have these pretty neat self-serve machines where you scan your passport, answer some questions and then a receipt is printed out. You get in another line (which also moves pretty fast) and then show that receipt and your passport to one of the Canadian customs agents. From there, you are right at baggage claim and then it’s a very easy walk to the train, taxis or shuttles. I would say it took about 15-20 minutes to get through customs.

We then exited the airport and went to the train station; it’s about $6 US to get a train ticket, and it only took about 20 minutes to arrive at the Waterfront station. From there, it was a quick 5 minute walk and then we arrived at the Pan Pacific!

Seriously, you guys - if you sail out of Vancouver, you HAVE to stay at the Pan Pacific. The location can’t be beat; the cruise port is RIGHT at the hotel, so you just go downstairs to do your check in and go through security. They even have a service where they’ll come and get your bags from you, and transport them to baggage services for you! You just attach those baggage tags that come in your documents and they’ll grab them for you. 

The price for a room is about $250-300 per night, but for convenience and ease it can’t be beat. You’re also very close to lots of eating and shopping, as well as places like Stanley Park, so if you’re looking for things to do in the days before you sail there is plenty to do. 

When we arrived Sunday night, we chose to stay pretty close to the hotel and relax; we knew we’d have a busy day on Monday so we wanted to stay close. Michelle and I did end up walking to a market/grocery store that’s about a 5-10 minute walk from Pan Pacific, and getting some snacks and extras we forgot to pack. We then all turned in early, and were getting SO excited to cruise!

Coming up next - Monday: cruise embarkation day!

Bon Voyage! Vancouver and Hawaii, here I come!

Hello, friends! Today is the last blog entry before I leave on my Vancouver-Hawaii adventure on the Disney Wonder. I am leaving home tomorrow afternoon, with an early flight to Vancouver on Sunday morning.

I will be doing a post each day about what happened the previous day, so be sure and stay tuned for those!

I will also be sharing LOTS of pictures and videos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so be sure you're following me there (those links are on the top of this page).

Once we get to Hawaii, I'll also be doing LIVE Periscope videos from the islands, as well as Disney's Aulani Resort, so make sure you're signed up for Periscope if you're not already.

I'm pretty excited to take this journey and am equally excited to have you along!

Have a magical day!