I’m back home, and I’m finally back online!

I originally started writing this on Sunday after getting home on Friday. Right now I’m on my laptop because all of my notes from the trip are saved in Apple Notes, which makes it much easier to organize everything. I’m hoping to spend more time writing on Monday, assuming I’m not stuck on the phone with the health insurance company for hours.

I also need to help Karissa with her FAFSA again. Her school says they need the FAFSA for the 2026–2027 academic year, which surprised me because I was pretty sure we had already completed it. I’ll double-check everything tomorrow to make sure nothing was missed.

The health insurance situation has been frustrating. They wanted proof of income submitted by the 31st; the very day I got home from my trip. Since I was traveling, I missed the deadline. That probably means I’ll have to reapply for coverage and wait a few weeks for everything to be reinstated. It’s not exactly how I wanted to spend my first days back home, but it is what it is.

Despite all of that, I had an amazing vacation at Disney World and aboard Royal Caribbean’s Utopia of the Seas.

One thing I can say without hesitation: Florida is HOT. And the humidity? Absolutely relentless. I don’t think I’ve ever sweated so much in my life. I’ve lived in humid places before, but Florida really takes the cake. The air felt thick the moment we stepped outside, and within minutes I felt like I needed another shower.

Unfortunately, my CeraVe facial sunscreen was not made for that kind of weather. It kept pilling and sliding right off my face as soon as I started sweating. Next time I travel somewhere that humid, I’m definitely going to research sunscreens that are designed to hold up better in heat and humidity, and preferably one that doesn’t sting my eyes every time I sweat. For the rest of my body, we used spray sunscreen. It worked well enough, but I think a cream sunscreen would probably have provided better coverage and lasted longer.

Before leaving for vacation, I packed my L’Oréal Glowtion because I thought it would give me a nice healthy glow in photos. As it turns out, I didn’t need any help looking glowy. I was already glowing, from all the sweat!

I also ended up tanning about three shades darker over the course of the trip. I think my Filipino side really came out with all that Florida sunshine. Between walking around Disney all day and spending time on the cruise, I got more sun than I have in a very long time.

Disney World itself took a few days to figure out. There’s definitely a learning curve. Between understanding the Lightning Lanes, learning the layouts of each park, figuring out transportation, and planning around wait times, it felt a little overwhelming at first. But once I started getting the hang of how everything worked, navigating the parks became much easier, and I was able to enjoy the experience a lot more.

Monday

Even though I had a wonderful vacation, it feels good to be back home and settling into my normal routine again.

One of the first things I did was reschedule my medication management appointment until next month. Since my health insurance is currently in limbo, I didn’t want to keep tomorrow’s appointment and end up paying entirely out of pocket.

At the moment, I’m waiting for the insurance company to call me back. Thankfully, they offered a callback option instead of making me sit on hold for what could have been hours.

As for the trip itself, Tommy gave me the idea to split everything into multiple journal entries instead of trying to squeeze it all into one giant post. I’m planning one journal entry about Disney World and another dedicated to Utopia of the Seas. Luckily, I took detailed notes every single day while I was traveling, so I won’t have to rely on my memory to fill in the details.

Later in the day, I finished resubmitting my health insurance application and uploaded all of the requested documents. Hopefully everything processes smoothly this time.

After that, Karissa and I checked on her FAFSA. Sure enough, there were a few things that needed to be submitted, so we completed that as well.

Once all of that was finished, Alex, Lex, and I made a quick trip to the post office before heading back home.

My original plan for the afternoon was to spend a few hours studying and then come back to writing in my journal.

I also made the decision to skip doing laundry today. I’ve already washed everything from the trip, but somehow the laundry basket is already almost full again. There was simply too much on my to-do list, and I didn’t want to overwhelm myself by trying to do everything in one day. The laundry can wait until tomorrow.

As it turns out, studying isn’t going very well.

My mind keeps wandering back to my journal, and honestly, that’s what I want to finish first.

The Disney World journal is finally complete, so now it’s time to move on to writing about Utopia of the Seas.

…

Success!

I finished my Utopia of the Seas journal, too. It feels really satisfying to have both trips documented while everything is still fresh in my mind.

Now all that’s left is to post everything.