Our first day at Disney actually consists of two nights and one day. This trip was such a fun trip, so let’s dive in!
All in Vacations
Traveling to Disney March 2023
For Spring Break, we went to Disney World with Brad’s parents. We opted to drive to save money. We started our trek after school on Friday. We had originally planned to check Melody out once we were packed and ready, but she had a field trip that afternoon. So I check her out from the field trip, and we headed out.
Disney World March 2023 Planning
It has been over a month since our return from Disney, but I am finally getting to posting all about our fun trip! Brad does not entirely agree, but I must say that this was one of my least tiring trips to Disney World in quite some time. I did get to sleep in one day while he got up early to take Melody to Magic Kingdom (more on that soon), but the trip overall went so smooth.
Carnival App
Well let’s just continue the app reviews with another one this week. My April cruise was the first cruise I had been on in over 6 years! So some things were bound to be a different. A big difference came with the Carnival App. Carnival no longer provided paper copies of “The Fun Times”. Instead, everything you needed to know about you could find in their app. You cannot really explore their app from home, so I was sure to take A LOT of screenshots to share!
Dollywood App
When visiting Dollywood, we were sure to download the Dollywood App to help us navigate the park. While the park isn’t in need of navigation quite like at Disney World, there are some tricky areas. The app can also be useful in finding out wait times, height restrictions, and just general information. It is a great tool to help make your day a little bit easier. We also stored our season tickets in the app. By doing so, we did not have to go get a physical pass card made. Although this can be troublesome if you ever find yourself without internet. But you can also add it to your wallet in your phone to make it easier too. Another negative here is that with Bring-A-Friend tickets, they do not go away once used. So that can be a bit frustrating.
The Chop House
At my mom’s previous job, she would travel a lot for work. She would go to Pigeon Forge often, and one of her favorite places is The Chop House. So on our trip back last summer, we ate dinner there one evening.
Sweet Frogs
Back in May and June of 2022, we went to Pigeon Forge to visit Dollywood. During our trip, we found a cute ice cream/coffee shop on our daily drive to Dollywood from our cabin in Sevierville. The ice cream portion is called Sweet Frogs. It is a traditional FroYo place. But connected to it was a coffee named Smoky Mountain Espresso. It is located on Veterans Boulevard connecting Sevierville to Pigeon Forge. They did have a drive thru, but we went in each time. We literally visited daily. I loved that they had a dole whip flavor!
Gator's Dockside
When we went on our cruise back in April of 2022, we stayed the night before at Homewood Suites in Cape Canaveral. We arrived early enough that we decided to wait and eat nearby. Unfortunately a few places closed early that night, but we stumbled upon Gator’s Dockside.
Homewood Suites Cape Canaveral
When we went on our cruise in April 2022, we decided to stay near the cruise terminal to make the morning easier. My mom had went on a cruise the month before, and I they stayed at the Homewood Suites in Cape Canaveral. It was literally less than 5 minutes to the terminal. The room itself was great and spacious. And the free breakfast the next morning was also nice. I highly recommend it if you are taking a cruise out of Port Canaveral.
Carnival Liberty
As I have mentioned in previous posts, my mom and I took a cruise back in April 2022. We decided to try the Carnival Liberty cruise ship. It offered the best price, and we really liked the idea of getting to go to a private island. It wasn’t Half Moon Cay, but it was still somewhere private and fun. So now I want to share all about the ship!
Fall Break Day Four
We went to Pigeon Forge this year for fall break. Brad was unfortunately traveling for work. So we made it a girls trip including my mom. We found a good deal on a fun hotel, and we used our season passes for Dollywood to give us some additional fun. Emily’s family also was there for a part of a trip giving Melody someone to play with at times. We had a lot of fun, and I have a lot to share! Here is day four!
Fall Break - Day Three
We went to Pigeon Forge this year for fall break. Brad was unfortunately traveling for work. So we made it a girls trip including my mom. We found a good deal on a fun hotel, and we used our season passes for Dollywood to give us some additional fun. Emily’s family also was there for a part of a trip giving Melody someone to play with at times. We had a lot of fun, and I have a lot to share! Here is day three!
Fall Break - Day Two
We went to Pigeon Forge this year for fall break. Brad was unfortunately traveling for work. So we made it a girls trip including my mom. We found a good deal on a fun hotel, and we used our season passes for Dollywood to give us some additional fun. Emily’s family also was there for a part of a trip giving Melody someone to play with at times. We had a lot of fun, and I have a lot to share! Here is day two!
Carnival Liberty Ocean Suite
On our cruise back in April, we opted to stay in a nicer room since it had been so long since we had cruised together. We opted to do an ocean suite. It is in between a junior suite and a grand suite. It definitely did not have as much room as the grand suite we stayed in years ago, but it was still much nicer than most of the rooms we have stayed in. Having the balcony and extra room during our cruise was really ideal too.
Fall Break 2022 - Day One
We went to Pigeon Forge this year for fall break. Brad was unfortunately traveling for work. So we made it a girls trip including my mom. We found a good deal on a fun hotel, and we used our season passes for Dollywood to give us some additional fun. Emily’s family also was there for a part of a trip giving Melody someone to play with at times. We had a lot of fun, and I have a lot to share! Here is day one!
Dollywood Family Trip May and June 2022
I am going to update this page as I blog about our trip to Dollywood in late May/early June of this year. I wanted to keep everything in one place to make it easier to find!
The Old Mill
During our trip to Pigeon Forge in May/June, we tried to enjoy a new restaurant each evening. We researched most places we went to before the trip. But on our last night, we did a bit of googling and came up with The Old Mill. It is a neat place with multiple eateries and shops. There are two dinner locations. We picked the restaurant vs the cafe.
Carnival Cruise April 2022
Follow along as I update this page with all of my blog posts about my cruise back in April!
Till and Harvest
While at Dollywood in May, we had lunch at Till and Harvest. A friend of mine had warned us of potential long lines the later you wait in the lunch hour to eat, so we arrived a little before 11. We were all a little queasy from rides, so we needed the food and the break. Not to my surprise, there was no line.
April 2022 Carnival Cruise Food
On our cruise back in August, we had some delicious food options available to us. We cruised on the Carnival Liberty for 4 nights. This particular cruise ship was larger than ones I had previously taken, and there were definitely more options to take advantage of when we were hungry. Unlike past cruises, if I were ever hungry, it was easy to find something to eat. That was not always the case before. There was such variety, we did not even get to try all of the inclusive dining options. But I did snag some pictures of most of those to share.