Trip Report The “Cruising is not for me” Surf n’ Turf Spring Break Shenanigans Trip Report *Completed*

All the who’s and what’s can be read over here:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/round-five-twelve-months-of-shenanigans-ends-with-a-family-surf-n’-turf-spring-break.911138/

The Cliff’s Notes version is that we took our annual spring trip but for the first time it would be during Spring Break week. The trip also marked the first time the DD would be going on a cruise, something the DW and I couldn’t wait for her to experience. Another first would be our crew experiencing the Poly, super excited about this too! So, without further ado, let’s get this party started!

Wednesday:
We still had to get through the work day before we embarked on the trip which included me teaching my 5:30 computer ethics class and the DW’s Jazzercise class. I picked her and the DD up at 7:00 right after swinging by Zaxsby’s for some to-go chow. We were on the road by 7:20 and heading down GA400 towards Macon for our overnight pit stop. We pulled into Macon around 930-9:45 and checked into the La Quinta inn. The hotel served it’s purpose, a place to sleep part way to the bubble. The DW and I knocked out some grading before calling it a night by 11:30.

Thursday:
So the alarm was set for 5:30 but La Quinta had other plans… About 4:00-4:30 the smoke alarm in the room began chirping..you know that chirp, the one that says “hey, the battery is dying, change it”. Only problem is there is no taking this smoke detector down and replacing the battery. This meant every two minutes or so the detector would chirp. Good luck sleeping through that! So we were up and put La Quinta behind us before 5:00! The good news was that we would be to Disney that much earlier the bad news was that NOTHING drive-thru was open for breakfast yet! So we drove a short while and made a pit stop at a Walmart to pick up some things we forgot, something we’ve gotten quite good at lately; forgetting. By the time we left The Marts McDs was open! So we grabbed some quick food and made for the bubble! About 3 hours of uneventful driving later and we hit our first sign of hope!
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About two more hours later and we were there! Don’t let the clouds in the pic fool you the weather was GREAT!
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Soon we were pulling into the Poly’s parking lot. It was WARM! I checked in with the front desk but our room was not ready, they’d text when it was. We decided to check out the grounds a bit and hang at the pool.
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A family of ducks getting some shade!
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With that I decided to relax at the pool for a bit since I still had some classwork to deal with while the ladies branched out for some food.
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Soon, the ladies were texting me to come over to the DVC pool as it was quiet and had some good looking food options. It was pretty beautiful over there for sure too.
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DD went with the kid’s Hawaiian burger
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DW went with the kid’s fish taco
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I went with the pork sliders
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The food was excellent, especially for a pool side snack shack! So we relaxed here a bit longer before the ladies took to exploring the Poly and GF some until our room became available.

Still to come: An amazing standard view room and The Grand Floridian Café.
 
Last edited:

cgersic

Well-Known Member
This may seem like an ignorant question since I'm not a "cruiser", but are those candies free like the rest of the food? I ask because I don't see any prices. :) Thanks!
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
What I've noticed from the cruise pictures so far, is just how clean, bright, and attractive everything is on the ship. It's really uplifting just to look at your photos. Also I like the pictures you took of the outside of the cruise ship as well--very impressive and stylish vessel.

Looking forward to more!! :happy:

This is one of my favorite things about DCL. Granted, we have never sailed other cruise lines, but we've pulled up beside some and (you will see some of these pictures soon) the condition of the outside was terrible. There was so much rust. If the outside looked that bad, I imagine the inside isn't that much better.

IMO, DCL is more well maintained than WDW. I love both, but DCL excels in this area.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday cont.
So after Vanellope’s we made our way around the boat a bit until our room was ready.
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We popped our heads in to the art gallery and was happy to see some new pieces since the Fall.
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After the gallery we made our way aft to the club area of the boat. The light display at Pink is pretty impressive.
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The DD was wanting a treat we we stopped and picked her up this concoction, what flavor(s) it is I do not know!
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Still having some time to kill we made our way to the recently remodeled kids club. Let me be the first to say that I was flat out JEALOUS I could not spend more time here during the cruise! This place was COOL. Any star Wars fan would have a tough time not walking past the entrance a few times here during the cruise while conjuring ways to get in and play!
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The ladies were able to pry me away from the Falcon to check out the rest that the kids club had to offer but my eyes kept wondering back :D.
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Coming up: Room’s Ready!!
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So it was around 1:30 and it was time to check out our room! We had originally booked a stateroom with veranda like our previous trips but decided afterwards we would try for one of the large porthole rooms which, IIRC, was a few hundred cheaper but a lot more room.
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Remember that POG juice I collected before? Well that was just one part of the Castaway Cocktail I make each trip, the other part being coconut rum. I find a 2:1 mix of POG:Rum will put a smile on anyone’s face ;-). Here is the first CC I made of the trip
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We still had some time to kill before we were slated to leave port so we made our way down to the DVC sales pitch. Normally I shy away from this annoyance but its only 30 minutes and they give you free champagne, bottled water, and dessert treats from Vanellope’s. Plus there is a shot for $200 on board credit.
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Still to come: Setting sail, mission: find that duck, and enough Star Wars merchandising to make Lucas a little jealous.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So after the DVC sales pitch it was time to see the boat pull away. We made our way up to the main deck and then eventually the top deck passing the new Satellite Falls along the way.
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The adult’s pool
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Once we were far enough away from port the shops opened up. A few weeks prior to the trip, @EOD K9 asked that I secure him a Disney Dream lobby idol for his collection. ”Sure” , I said, “but what’s a Disney Dream lobby idol?”, I asked. Well it turns out you can purchase miniature replicas of the lobby idol for each boat, the Dream’s, of course, is Donald. So as to make sure I didn’t forget I set up about 10 calendar reminders leading up to the day and even the hour I anticipated the shops opening. So my first tack was to purchase this lobby idol. The first shop said they didn’t know what I was talking about but after some back and forth they directed me to another shop that did have the idol. When I went to purchase it I realized all they had was the display model left and went to purchase that. The CM said she would look for a new one in the back and sure enough after a few minutes she came back with an unopened statue new in the box! Here is what the display model looks like:
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While there we also picked up a dated pin and a Christmas ornament:
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We then moved to another shop and looked around for a bit. Can you tell that Disney like Star Wars?
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Still to come: Mirror Mirror, dinner, and some risqué match your mate!
 

EOD K9

Well-Known Member
A few weeks prior to the trip, @EOD K9 asked that I secure him a Disney Dream lobby idol for his collection. ”Sure” , I said
The wife and I thank you for that!! Of course I am jealous reading this as the wife and I had just gotten off the Magic and checked out of the Poly about 2 weeks prior to your visit. A note to two previous posters, @cgersic Vanellope's will allow you to sample every flavor (I recommend the raspberry/mascarpone combo). Also, having also been on the Magic, both ships are striking and very well kept.
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
I'm feeling your pain. Today is day 5, which makes at least 7 park entrances, and I have been "randomly selected" EVERY time!

Ha! Yah, I'm sure they'll "randomly select" me as well, when I go to WDW in mid-May. Don't ask me why, but if I'm on a train or bus and there's an empty seat next to me, someone always picks that seat. If a stranger is lost and needs directions, they always pick me out of a crowd to ask. So for some unknown reason, I must look approachable and safe--therefore, I figure that the screeners at park entrances will think the absolute opposite--and peg me as dangerous--and direct me to the scanning machines?! :p That certainly seems to be the consistent comment on many threads across the forums lately. ;)
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So after a short shopping spree we decided to take in our first activity, Mirror Mirror. Mirror Mirror is a fun family oriented game that breaks the room up into teams and you compete against each other in different events from “Finish this song” to a relay race involving articles of clothes. We were on team Happy and were pretty awesome if memory serves. Special guest host on the night was none other than Dopey. Dopey excelled at all things that included pointing, waving and smiling…
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After Mirror Mirror we made for our room to rest for a bit before dinner
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Coming up: Enchanted Garden, stateroom animal creations, and Disney Dream beer
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After a little rest which included some Bed knobs and Broomsticks watching in the stateroom on demand it was time for dinner. We made our way down to enchanted garden and were quickly seated at
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On our previous cruises we’ve had the luxury of having a dining room table all to ourselves; this trip would break that streak. We were seated at table 30 which had 5 empty seats left after we sat down. Soon we were joined by a family of 5 that had flown in on a redeye last night/early this morning. While they were pleasant enough you could tell they were TIRED! We made some small talk before we were greeted with our menus, bread service and water. The bread came with a hummus/olive oil dip that was very good! The DW and I each had a Blue moon with dinner too.
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As an app we had the wild mushroom tart and romaine wedge salad.
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The DW went with the broiled chicken with greens and what I think was a sweet potato puree.
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The DD, with some encouragement from our server, branched out and had scallops. They must have been good as she ate them up!
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I went with the pork tenderloin with greens and potatoes.
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For desserts I went with the warm sticky date pudding and I think the DW went with the Esterhazy cake
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Overall dinner was very good, especially compared to our first EG experience on our first cruise. The service was excellent and being seated with stranger didn’t hamper the experience once. When we go back in October we will probably be sure to make sure we have EG in our rotation again rather than skipping the night we do Palo.

So with full bellies the plan was to head back to the room for a minute then head back out in separate directions. The DD was headed to the teen club while mom and dad head to the adult club. When we returned back to our room we had this guy waiting on us…
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Still to come: match your mate, breakfast, and pulling into Nassau.
 

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