Easily the best and my favorite day of the week. Day three was at Magic Kingdom! The Christmas party ticket was money well spent. It was another early morning and we were in the parks by 8:45 am. We had a breakfast reservation at Be Our Guest at 9:30 am. We walked down Main Street USA semi fast so we could be early to our reservation. There is just something magical about walking down the street and seeing the castle. It’s the most amazing feeling in the world. Breakfast at Be Our Guest was equally amazing. It was a bit pricey ($28), but it was really good. I had the Croissant Doughnut. It was amazing, I love anything fried and the banana caramel sause was so good.  The inside of this restaurant looks like of the beast’s castle. There are three rooms to sit in and each have a theme. Since we went during Christmas the “windows” in the castle showed the forest while it was snowing. It was absolutely magical.  After breakfast we took pictures in front of the castle and we explored the shops down Main Street. 
Then we headed in to Tomorrowland! We had our first fast pass here at Space Mountain- the best of the three mountains in my opinion. This ride has always been my favorite at Magic Kingdom and at Disney World. My goal is to one day ride it with the lights on because I hear that it is so much better like that. After Space Mountain we went to ride Walt’s Carousel of Progress.None of my friends on the trip had never been on this attraction so I was really excited to take them to see it. This attraction holds a special place at Disney World, it was first debuted at the world Fair and it will never be shut down or removed from Disney World because Walt Disney himself created the ride and it will always serve as a memorial to him. TIP:if you are hot or just need to sit down for a spell, I absolutely recommend this ride. It is air conditioned on the inside and it is a moving theater that allows you to sit down and rest. Then we headed to meet Stitch. He has a meet and greet where Stitch’s Great escape used to be. The we headed through Fantasyland. We stopped at Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique to get fairy dusted. TIP:You do not have to be a certain age to do this, the “fairy godmothers” in the store will do it for anyone as long as you ask nicely! 
Then we headed in to Frontierlandfor our next fastpass. I had never been on Big Thunder Mountainbefore this trip and it was definitely a great ride! 
We then headed to Advenureland for some Dole Whip! TIP: There are two places to get Dole Whip in this land. Aloha Isle has the actual pineapple Dole whip and other fun creations and Sunshine Tree Terrace and specialty dole whip creations. While eating our dole whip we walked to the area back in front of the castle and sat down on the hub grass a took a little break. 
After our break we headed back into Fantasy Land for our last planned fastpass of the day. We were going to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. This was a new ride to me because it was not at Disney World the last time I had been at Disney, so I was really excited to experience this ride! It was amazing and the end where you can see into the seven Dwarfs cottage is so adorable! Around this time Disney workers were trying to start clearing people form the park who did not have party tickets. We headed to rideIt’s a Small World. It was not packed at all, we walked right on. 
Around this time if you did not have a ticket to Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Partyyou were being directed to exit the park and ticket holders were given a wristband and a party map! All heck broke loose after this. We all scattered trying to do everything. I went to ride The Voyage of the Little Mermaidby myself, then I rode Space Mountaintwice by myself and then two more time with some of my party members. I wandered around to the food stations to see what there was. I got a Snow Cone from Auntie Ray’s Galactic Goodiesand I got hot chocolate from somewhere. We then went to wander downMain Street USAto experience it at Christmas. During the Christmas party is “snows” (its bubbles) and it is wonderful and magical. We started to find our group so that we could find a space to sit/ stand together for the fireworks show. I can attest that my family were never fireworks or parade show people at Disney, but Disney really knows how to do fireworks and parades. I am a changed person and I can’t believe I was missing out on these sections of Disney!
Our day at Magic Kingdomwas the best day of the week, though I will say after being up and around at the park for over 15 hours we were definitely delirious trying to find our way back to our hotel. If you never have walked around Port Orleans: Riverside, it is very hard to navigate in the light and when you add darkness and exhaustion, it was terrible. I think we walked around for 20 minutes just laughing!

​Day 2- Hollywood Studios
         We started out day two bright and early at Hollywood Studios. By 7:30 we were headed out of the hotel room and headed for the bus. We arrived at Hollywood Studios by 8:15. We headed straight for Star Tours: The Adventure Continues since we did not have a fast-pass for it. This is one of my favorite rides at Hollywood Studios. Star Wars has always been a big part of my life and I love seeing Disney bring the love to life. After this ride we went to meet Olaf. The meet and greet was so cute. Olaf is in his own room and the background is a beach. One of my friends actually cried when we meet him! Then we were off to ride Tower of Terror. This is one of my favorite rides at Disney! The pre-show and the ride before the drop are done so well and it’s just amazing! After this ride we met up with two of our friends that were doing the Disney College Program. There had already been there a full semester, so they revealed some of the secrets of the kingdom to us to help us for the rest of our week. They took us around Hollywood Studios. We first went to Toy Story Land.I was blown away by all the little details that Disney put into this section of the park. It really felt like you had become a toy. My favorite detail is Andy’s “huge” foot print on the floor. We had a fast pass to ride Toy Story Mania. It was a fun ride and the fun mini games were well worth the wait. The ride was actually a good length of time which I found surprising. It was a nice little break from walking. After this ride we walked around Toy Story Land form a few more minutes but ultimately decided not to try and wait the very long wait times for the other rides in this section. After this we headed to the Syfy Dine-In Theater Restaurant. We had a late lunch reservation for this restaurant and were able to include our two new members into our reservation. If you have never been here before the bid draw of this restaurant is that you sit in booths that look like cars and there is a big screen that show preview of old Syfy movies. I think this is a better dining experience if your party is small. The booths only sit 2 people and there were 7 of us. So, we were all paired up and one of us sat alone and we were not able to face each other and talk. It is also very dark in the restaurant, so I didn’t like that. The food was okay, but I definitely could have gotten better food in Hollywood Studios for a cheaper price. After finishing lunch, we said good bye to our cast member friends. After this we took a few minutes to figure out what we wanted to do. We all walked to the Star Wars Launch Bay to meet some characters. While we were there, we meet Storm troopers, Chewbacca, Doc McStuffins, saw Darth Vader walk by. We also saw Rey and Finn walk by on the way to perform in a show. After this our group decided to split up. Blair and I wanted to go and ride the Rock n’ Roller Coaster because it was back to being functional and then head to Disney Springs. The rest of the party wanted to see a few shows before they left for the day. Blair and I headed for the roller-coaster, we had a multi-experience pass because our fast pass for the ride from earlier had been changed since the ride was down. This ride is my favorite in Hollywood Studios. It just sucks that it is prone to break down at least once a day. After the best rollercoaster in Hollywood Studios we headed to Disney Springs. It took about an hour to get to Disney Springs, which included wait time and travel time. It has been such a long time since I have been to Disney Springs, it was before they remodeled it. Disney Springs is so beautiful. I would have loved to have spent all day here. I knew what shops I wanted to visit here before our half day here later in the week. I went and visited Vera Bradley and purchased a Disney x Vera Bradley blanket and campus backpack in Magic Blooms. I also bought a Kate Spade x Disneytote bag. The one that said, “We have made the fairytale fashionable again- Walt Disney.” It’s a white tote bag with silver glitter blocked on the bottom. Then we went to explore the World of Disney. This store is amazing, its gigantic and beautiful. After shopping for a bit, we headed back to our hotel for diner. We ate in the cafeteria dinning place and the food was good and not that expensive. 
​

​It’s been about too long since I got back from my Disney World Trip! So, I’m ready to tell you all about my trip and tips and tricks that I have found that helped me!
 
         A quick overview I went for 6 days and five nights. I attended Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and one of the days we went to Universal Studios. I went with 4 other girls and we stayed at Port Orleans: Riverside.
 
Day 1
The excitement was real! I woke up at 3 AM to get on a flight and flew to Disney. I few by myself and the rest of my party flew from a different location. 
         The hotel we stayed at was very beautiful. Port Orleans Riverside moderate value resort, but it was delightful. I have stayed at the Poloniasian resort which is a deluxe hotel, but I enjoyed both hotels and I really could not tell a difference. The room service was great, and the help desk was a god send. If you haven’t been to this resort has building where the rooms are located and there are several buildings on the property. Our room building was a bit for from the main building but close to a bus stop.
         Once the girls got there, like a hour after me, we were headed to Epcot!
         Future Land
         We started our day by running to Soarin’, we were running late and were going to miss out fast pass! (TIP: Fast passes have a 5-minute grace period)I was the only one in our group that had ridden it before, so I was very excited to see the girl’s reactions. The all loved it! The ride has always been a favorite, but I love the new show and the smells that accompany them! Then we were off to Mission: Space. We also ran to this one because we were terrible at keeping time and trying to shop! We rode on the orange track, which I the tuff one. I would not recommend if you are prone to motion sickness or even if you think you are. We were all disoriented after this ride. Now we were off to Spaceship Earth! I love this ride! It cute and entertaining. It’s also great when you need to get out of the Florida sun or want to sit down for a spell. Don’t forget to personalize the video that pops up on your ride car, there will be a special video waiting for you to send to all your friends and family! (Picture Opportunity: outside the exit is the famous Bubble Gum Wall)
         World Showcase
         By this time, we were all looking for food. We headed to the World Showcase. (TIP: Start in Canada and go against the crowd)
 We started off in Mexico. We were tempted to eat tacos but since we were all from Texas, we decided to try something different.
The next country was Norway. None of the food options really spoke to us and Frozen Ever After was shut down so we moved on.
Up Next was China! None of us were too keen to try any of the food here but China does offer some great picture opportunities.
Right Next door wasGermany! I was very excited to visit the Karamell Kuche. I got a caramel apple and it was wonderful!
In Italy, we split a piece of pizza from Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeeria it was great. This pavilion has a great view of the Epcot ball from across the lake!
American Adventure is the halfway point in the world showcase. Since we all came to Disney to try new things, we did not get any food here, but I did get popcorn because it is my favorite snack.
We were finally in Japan! I knew exactly what I wanted to get here. At the Katsura Grill they have chicken cutlet curry that is absolutely to die for. Their teriyaki chicken isn’t so bad either. Most of my party ate here because we were starving by this point and didn’t feel like walking back to get food. The portions here are very good I didn’t share with anyone and the cost is great too. After dinner we went an explored the shop that is under the restaurant. It was amazing and very big. It has so many sections of all things Japan. There was a candy section, pearl/ jewelry section/ anima section/ Pokémon section / and a hello kitty section. This store is definably worth checking out.
In Morocco, we stopped at the Tangerine Café and split the walnut baklava. This was amazing! Do try this dessert, I cannot rave enough about it!
Next up wasFrance!Here we found the Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie. We all split a macaroon filled with raspberry and lime crème. It was ok but there was probably better stuff here that we just didn’t know to try.
Lastly, we visited theUnited Kingdom. One of my friends in my arty wanted to but tea so we looked around all the shops till we found tea leaves to take home.
Then we headed back to Future land to find a spot to watch the Illuminated Nations show. Why we didn’t just walk through Canada to get there faster. I don’t know, would not recommend gong all the way back, it’s too far to walk and you would be better to save the energy. The firework show was okay, but I am not really about the shows at Disney, but I saw it once and I don’t need to see it ever again.

​Hello! I recently have just gotten back from a 7-day cruise and before I left I read many packing list and cruise prep but none of them were geared towards my age group most were parents with kids or older adults. So, I decided to give you my packing list to help! This was not my first cruise but the last time I went on a cruise I don’t really remember it and I was young enough that my mother was still picking out my outfits. I hope this helps you. Of course my packing list is tailored to me and can be modified to fit you!


 
Important Documents

• Passport
• Cruise boarding Passes
• Cruise Bag tickets
• Excursion tickets
• Id

 
Clothing

• 8 short/ shirt sets (casual)
• Comfortable travel outfit (for traveling home)
• 8 pairs of underwear
• Strapless bra (for formal dress)
• Regular bra
• 2 formal dresses (# of formal nights depend on duration of cruise)
• 5 casual dresses (for formal dining room on casual nights) *
• Formal shoes (I only took 1 pair that matched both dresses)
• Casual shoes (I took nicer sandals and gold wedges)
• Flip flops (to wear on deck or to excursions)
• 5 swimming suits
• Cover up

 
*if you are not going to have dinner in the actual dining room on the ship you do not have to dress up
Here is my clothing list but yours may be more or less depending on cruise length and where you eat for dinner.
 
Beauty

• Shampoo & Conditioner
• Face wash
• Body wash
• Flat iron
• Moisturizer (mine was tinted and had SPF)
• Toothbrush & toothpaste
• Deodorant
• Razor
• Make-up
• Make up wipes
• Jewelry

 
My beauty list is almost as long as my clothing list but as a girl it’s kind of expected. I also love to take pictures, so I had to look great every day of the cruise. I didn’t actually wear makeup during the day, but I did wear primers and tinted moisturizer. Then I did do make up for dinner.
 
Beach Goodies

• Beach bag (take off for excursions)
• Body sunscreen
• Face sunscreen
• After sun lotion
• A sorority beach blanket*
• A book beach towel*
• A sorority hat*

 
Yes, I am a sorority girl, so I had to take things on my vacation to represent my sorority. So, the last three are optional for you. My cruise ship provided towels, so we did not pack any of those and just took them from the room. So, see if your cruise does the same.
 
Miscellaneous 

• Waterproof case 
• 2 books*
• Portable charger
• Id lanyard*
• Charger
• Surge protector
• Small purse

*I know that not all people love books as much as I do so this can be taken out or you can take more
* my lanyard also functioned as a wallet, but other people had lanyard that connected to a hole in the card, so they would not have to take the card out when they used it.
My miscellaneous packing list includes things that you may not need so feel free to change it as needed.
 
I hope that this helps you and I hope you have fun on your vactation!