GregD

We have made it! All of our luggage did as well. Despite the stress of the really short layover in Atlanta, today has been quite easy. We picked up our rental car and have a picture of how that went… Eventually we got our new whip for the next few days. We were all starving at this point, so Red Robin it is for lunch. Quick, easy and familiar. Added bonus is that it’s very close to the airport.

Despite what my neighbor (neighbour?)to the North (well actually South) says, you should do so at least once. This Thanksgiving one of my cousins came up from North Carolina. Her daughter had never seen snow. Conveniently (depending on who you ask) we had a snow storm that morning, so she got to experience all the activities. We had a snowball fight, built a snowman etc. it was nice to see the fun in these things again through the eyes of a child. It was really nice to let go of adulting for that brief moment.

Update on luggage, just got a flurry of notifications. Per the app, all our bags have been loaded! Almost done boarding, next stop Orlando.

Made it to the next gate just in time for boarding to start. We are all on the plane…..our luggage

Free WiFi on this flight. Our connection is going to be super tight. We pushed back on time but, we lost an hour due to planes needing to be de-iced.

On the plane. Next stop Atlanta!

Good morning from the airport! We managed to get some sleep and our early packing payed off. We were OTD a few minutes early too! @TheBoss518 bonus gold status helped us get checked in sooner as well, and the TSA precheck line was quick too. Total time from getting in the line at the counter to through security was a whopping 22 minutes. It would have been faster except there…..were….shenanigans courtesy of my youngest freeloader. His backpack got flagged for secondary screening because he insisted on bringing a new magnet toy with him that he got for Christmas. Picture tiny magnetic beads that you can sculpt with. Needless to say, this showed up as a very dark blob on their screens they could not identify. The agents did have fun playing with them for a few minutes though. Ang and her girls made it through the normal security line pretty quickly today too. We are all enjoying some coffee and just waiting for the plane to board.

All our bags are packed, we’re ready to go. The weighted blanket is in there too. I think John Denver missed out by not having these as the lyrics This is how it is in our house too. The tree in the photo belongs to @TheBoss518 We just get to look at it.

Merry Christmas to everyone in this great blog family we have here! I hope Santa brought you everything you wished for! I heard back from Helia with all our changes and requests, and everything has been updated and noted. At this point we are on cruise control. It will be a busy day but early night for us here. We will be OOT at 3:30am on Thursday to head to the airport....bring on the coffee!

There are two freeloaders in this photo....

Pre-cruise food porn. I made @TheBoss518 and the freeloaders filet with the bourbon cream sauce. We even used the fancy plates. Now we are tucking into a Christmas movie. We are enjoying these moments before the freeloaders no longer want to spend time with us.......well, I spoke to soon. As I was typing this, freeloader 1 got a call from one of her friends and has now disappeared. It was fun while it lasted LOL

Update oh Helia, when I responded to her email today, I payed closer attention to her initial email to me, and noticed a few things, She absolutely read the survey because there were things there that was only mentioned in that. It sounds like there may have been some issues with people complaining about seats "please note that we have 11 Star Class Suites, and we do our best to do a fair rotation for the best seats for our Guests at shows." I hate how people have to ruin it for everyone else. Other things to note, Packing is progressing. We are down to shoes, makeup, formal wear etc etc. rearrangements are happening to get the weighted blanket in the luggage! @asquared17 thank you for noticing my personal growth when it comes to packing etc.

Do they know the name of the place?

Let me know if they have luck and recommendations with cigars! I will be on the hunt too. The guys on my shift are cigar guys.

I live on heavy doses of coffee and sarcasm…..if you haven’t already guessed

Another pistachio cold brew for @asquared17

Yeah, when you reached out about getting the same table, I just purchased the 5:15 which was the only time slot available that was close to 5:30, figuring 15 minutes would be easy to adjust for. With how slow everything was with my shoreside genie, I didn’t want to lose out. When we were on HM we didn’t pre-book hibachi and was told, “we can get you in, but only at this time slot” I didn’t want that situation happening again.

Speaking of, I did just get the email from Helia. She wrote a very long email, with all the standard overview stuff. I can say that I don’t think there was much communication between her and shoreside. Some of the things are correct, others are wrong. We had requested night 1 in CK for dinner, because filet, but Helia has us at CP150. She did mention Lydia’s birthday, so maybe she was thinking she would move us there for a “fancier option?” There also was no mention that we plan on doing hibachi with @Lovetocruise2002, even though shoreside did say they would pass that on. She did say that we would be refunded what we paid for it though. I will email her back with everything that needs to be said and see how it goes. I do know that she is a new genie so there isn’t too much out in the wild yet. The friends we made on Indy though had her when they were in the RLS in November, so I will be sure to get the scoop from them. @cathypower, feel free to chime in!!

FYI, this is what Chicken Piccata is supposed to look like. @TheBoss518 married me for my cooking, certainly not my looks

Missing person report was filed on Lindsay

Definitely just a form letter.

Just got an email from my shore genie passing me off to the ship genie, with no mention of who it will be….cue the Jeopardy music please.

You are further south than I actually am

Can I get on the airplane yet?

Potato….PotAHto