WanderLots

I have to share this....

A while back, I priced flights and a hotel stay at the Cadillac Hotel in Miami Beach prior to our Icon cruise. We decided that's where we'd stay.

Today Allen messaged me that he didn't think that was gonna happen because, (forgetting I'd already priced it out), he had looked it up and balked at the pricing for the Cadillac.

So I reminded him that I'd already priced it out, but that I would check it again tonight. Sure enough, my pricing for the flights to Miami and back WITH the hotel stay, was the same as what his search for JUST the hotel stay was costing.

It really does not cost more to use a Travel Advisor...it SAVES you $$$. We saved almost $1k. And that's only for a domestic, round-trip flight and a 3-night stay. Can't imagine what the difference would have been if it were for a week + vacation.

We booked our flights and room tonight using a packaging service that I have access to as a certified Travel Advisor. 😎 Ideal flight times, awesome, ocean view room with breakfast and welcome drinks, and for a great deal. I'm beyond psyched for this trip! 😍😍😍

Another "camping trip" vacation underway 😍

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=237823969190466&id=100088885941876&mibextid=CDWPTG

The WanderLots Crew is on the road again! 😁 Heading up to Lake Michigan--a first for all three of us.

As usual, Maggie is pretty psyched about it.

I think I'm going to really like these changes. 😍

And I KNOW Allen, "Mister Eats In 3 Minutes and Is Ready to Go," is definitely going to appreciate a reduced dining time! 😂

After perusing the new, themed menus, I'm all hungry again. Cannot wait to be on Voyager in April to try them out for myself!!! 🔱

Nice! 😎

Norwegian Cruise Line Makes Itinerary Changes to Reduce Carbon Footprint Due to its carbon footprint, Norwegian Cruise Line has made several changes to the Norwegian Getaway itinerary, including a port removal.

Royal Caribbean plans loyalty program anniversary celebration Royal Caribbean has big plans for its loyalty program in 2023, according to the cruise line’s loyalty director. Courtney Brant, who serves as Royal...

This sounds promising! 😯😀

Royal Caribbean Group Forms a Strategic Partnership For Destination Development - Cruise Industry News | Cruise News Royal Caribbean Group announced on Monday that it has entered into a new partnership with iCON Infrastructure Partners VI, L.P., a fund advised by iCON Infrastructure, to develop strategic cruise port infrastructure in support of Royal Caribbean Group's robust growth plans, according to a press rele...

🤔

Clear Is a Pox on America’s Airports Happy holidays to everyone but the company for skipping the security line.

From memory, this looks almost just like the balcony cabin on Anthem of the Seas.

The couch was blue on Anthem is the only "big" difference I notice. It's a very comfortable, well thought out room.

So apparently RCL has found a design that works well so they're sticking to it. Can't fault 'em for that, and I appreciate the less sensory-overloading room, where you wanna come back and be able to decompress.

My $1,400 stateroom on Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas wasn't impressive despite being on the world's largest cruise ship The Wonder of the Seas was one of 2022's most highly anticipated cruise ships but I wasn't as wowed by my stateroom as I was the rest of the ship.

Can. Not. Wait.

I sailed on Royal Caribbean's 9,300-person Wonder of the Seas — take a look inside the world's largest cruise ship with a boardwalk, 3 water slides, and a park The new mega cruise ship has over 20 dining venues and eight neighborhoods with amenities for travelers of all ages.

Royal Caribbean cruise ship saves 22 Cubans floating on raft as passengers cheer: report The Symphony of the Seas cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean has rescued 22 Cubans who were spotted floating on a raft near Key West, Florida, a report says.

Keepin' it fresh!

Hopefully....😂

Royal Caribbean Confirms New Menu Testing, Fleetwide Changes Royal Caribbean is planning to roll out streamlined menus to the entire fleet, speeding up service and dining room efficiency.

Carnival Reveals Details Ahead of Venezia Debut - Cruise Industry News | Cruise News Carnival Cruise Line will receive two more ships from Costa Cruises, with the first one, the Carnival Venezia, set to arrive in 2023. The company introduced the new ship at a live presentation on December 12 where they shared what unique features guests can expect aboard the Carnival Venezia. “We....

Interesting move.

Royal Caribbean removes Concierge Lounge access for Diamond Plus members Royal Caribbean has removed one benefit of its customer loyalty program for its top tier members.

This Thanksgiving weekend Allen and I are thankful for new opportunities. 🤗

This awesome suitcase arrived for me on Wednesday 😍, just in time to dig into my 2nd week of training over the long weekend.

Fun Fact: I'm training to become a certified travel agent! 😎 Because when you research travel in your free time for FUN, why WOULDN'T you make a career of it too? 🤷‍♀️

We're so very thankful that God put in my path when He did, and the means to make it a reality at the same time. When it's meant to be, it's meant to be! 🥰

Here's to the free time to be able to make more memories for us 🥂 AND being able to help others make amazing memories of their own!!! 🤩

VERY interesting day in NOLA!!!

Sadly, we must bid the Big Easy adieu and head home in the morning, but we've had an amazing time in this amazing city. Our last day here was especially notable...possible paranormal actvitity 👀 in our notoriously haunted hotel 👻, catching a Mardi Gras 🦚 Indian tribe's emergence onto the street to begin their walk and getting to walk along with them, and then bumping into a world-famous celebrity 🤩 along the way...just to name a few highlights from today alone. Crazy stuff. Amazing trip. Awesome memories...multiple parades, second lines, plantation tours, swamp tours, haunted history tours, street performances, lots of music, and, of course, beignets, beignets, and more beignets. We got lots of footage and collected some need-to-know tips, so videos to come!

🎉Congratulations to OUR super man on his retirement this week!!!🎉

HUGE development for the WanderLots fam....Drum roll please....

It's OFFICIAL!!! As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, Allen is now a RETIRED man!!! 🍾🥂

(Insert all the old man jokes here) 🤣

TODAY marks his first day off so TODAY we celebrate and today we talk about what this means for WanderLots.
https://youtube.com/channel/UCfpMCPE0wWAEdeiQBTyh1KA

We started WL in the hopes of Allen being able to retire in the next year or two...but that came a lot quicker than expected. That means that we have the potential to go from weekend warriors to semi-full-timers a lot sooner than we anticipated. So now that just hinges on Jessica. In order to be able to start wandering LOTS, Jessica needs to be able to work from "home." Ideally that would entail creating quality content for our channel from all our amazing adventures.

In order for that to be a viable option, we need SUBSCRIBERS. As of this morning, we now have a whopping 28! 😂 So we need your help. We need you to subscribe and like our videos. Even if they're not that great YET.

We know our videos aren't currently the best because we're still learning...but we are improving. Our goal is to produce the kind of helpful content we wish more people were creating...how-to's and advice, reviews, tips + tricks, etc...mixed in with cool sites to see and beautiful scenery, fun personalities, and all that good stuff. We are both researchers and planners, by nature, so we don't just guess at stuff or "wing it." We educate ourselves so we wanna help pass what we learn along and provide VALUABLE content. We're not doing this to get rich or become famous (we actually don't like being in front of the camera)--we just want to be able to travel. Sharing our experiences is what will allow us that lifestyle.

But we need your help in order to get there. On YT, FB, and IG, liking, commenting, sharing, watching, and subscribing...it all helps us. ...come join us on our journey! https://youtube.com/channel/UCfpMCPE0wWAEdeiQBTyh1KA

On our most recent visit to the Smokies, we stayed at one of the newest (or perhaps THE newest) campgrounds in the area: Pigeon Forge Landing RV Resort.

On the way home, while Addie and Presley were passed out asleep, I recorded my thoughts on it via video. So I added that to the footage I took of the facilities, our site, and the creek, and here you have our honest review of it all (Allen's not in this video since he drove separately, but our opinions were in agreement).

*I'll be posting a separate video on how to locate this place next. (Since it's not exactly obvious how to get to it.)



https://youtu.be/RX7GWqquUWE

Review of the Smoky Mountains' Brand New Campground: Pigeon Forge Landing RV Resort Jessica speaks candidly on her opinion of our experience at the Smokies' newest campground, called Pigeon Forge Landing RV Resort.We'll have a separate video...

I just came across an ad for this while scrolling FB, and thought that it might help out a lot of campers. (And non-campers too.)

No idea how difficult it is or isn't to use, but by people's comments, it looks like a hit. Only sharing because it looks cool (in NO way affiliated with the company).

https://bedscrunchie.com/pages/bed-scrunchie-landing-page-2-short-copy?fbclid=IwAR1fhgXIV7ttRn845FPKBqUkEs8wkdJ70lqWS81KXXE3F46aRsbKSWFCgoI

Bed Scrunchie Landing Page A Are your bed sheets loose or wrinkly, maybe too short? Perhaps you added a mattress topper, feather bed or protector which could be causing any of these issues.

Saying goodbye to the Smokies means it's time to save lots of memories made into the mental photo album...as well as lots of actual pictures, like this one, to save into digital photo albums...aaaand lots and lots of video to edit for YouTube.
...Which means more videos coming soon!

Last night, my Michael's app notified me that this stuff was half off this weekend, so I went and picked up a super cute camper for us (shown in the thumbnail), and thought I'd share the rest of what they currently have available, since I'm always seeing posts in camping groups asking for ideas, inspiration, recommendations on where to find such, etc.
Sorry it's such a basic video, but I wanted to get it done and posted so I could share it in time so that you could run to Michael's while they are still on sale if you wanted.
Hope it's helpful!

https://youtu.be/mmLNYkb8h6Y

Cute Camper Decor (at Michael's) Cute decor for your camper at Michael's Arts & Crafts (available as of today: May 22, 2021)My Michael's app notified me that this stuff was half off this wee...

Wrapping up our weekend on the Smith Farm in Lebanon, TN. It's nice here, but now it's raining, so we're going home a couple hours early.

Par for the course. It's been one of those trips where everything goes wrong. As I typed that, Allen said "It stopped raining too" meaning "Ugh!" because he just finished putting everything outside away. (He doesn't even know I'm typing this right now.)

Last night, he turned on the drone and it immediately shot straight up into the air and proceeded to fly away.

As a result, we burned dinner a little bit, and I didn't get to film the dinner-making process for a video on our favorite, easy camp meal, as planned.

Our trip to Burgess Falls earlier in the day, also didn't go as planned. So filming that didn't go quite right. And lots of little other things didn't go quite right either.

Sometimes trips just go this way. But we still had a good weekend as a family. And that's the beauty of camping!

Hopefully our next trip goes much better....In two weeks we'll be heading to the Smokies for Addie's 12th birthday. 😍 (So lots of videos on that coming up.)

In the meantime, we're about to shoot a wrap-up segment for our review of another HipCamp site. Will it be 2 thumbs up? You'll have to catch the video.

Here's our 1st video on Aruba, in which we briefly go over highlights of the trip and the top things one must do on their first trip to the island, as well as some information regarding travel requirements in the current world state.

More detailed videos to come later, including Things To Know Before You Go, Bucuti & Tara Resort Review, videos focused solely on some of the activities discussed within this video, and more.



https://youtu.be/flOWj2zlj60

Aruba Must Do's & Need-to-Know's Brief highlights of our week in Aruba (April 2021) in which we hit some of the must-see's and must do's while on this beautiful, unique islandHelpful Links:h...

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, step-moms, grandmoms, mom-in-laws, and everyone else who wears a mom hat or fills a motherly role!

Today's accomplishments:
✅ Got more Lowepro 📸📹 equipment bags
✅ Wireless 🎤🎙️ ordered
✅ Got cool, new ⛺ sites booked for the next 2 weekends....
= Lots of new "camp" content coming soon!!!

Feeling pretty excited at the moment. 😍🤩

➕ Many 🛫🗺️🏝️🧳🏖️⛵💺🗾🛬 videos of the Aruba trip are currently being edited and will begin to be uploaded very soon!