Trip Report Buffalo, Bugs, and Beer - A lostpro9het Surf 'n' Turf report.

Alright, alright, alright let’s get this beast going! As pointed out in the PTR, this trip had some purpose to it and I wont rehash the reasons why here. I will say that we had an amazing time saying goodbye with some great surprises along the way. With that, lets go!

Saturday May 11th
We got up bright and early at 04:00 and were pulling away by 04:30. This seems to be the only time one can navigate through Atlanta without hitting traffic, sadly the same cannot be said for Henry County’s traffic. Anyway, our go-to pit stop is always Tifton where we fueled up and grabbed some breakfast at Starbucks, we skipped ChikFilA for some reason. About an hour later and we passed the boarder.

All was going swimmingly until around the time we hit Gainesville. Then it was tick….tick…tick..tick. The swarm made its first appearance. The windshield started to look like a Jackson Pollock painting that could not be undone with wipers and fluid. I swear, lovebugs bleed quick dry contact adhesive, more on this later. Soon we were hitting the turnpike and then 429 to Western Way. We made right for home.

 

[DisneyGigi]

Love the Starfish, Sand Dollar, And Conch pics!

I have a box full of hundreds of sand dollars from Jekyll Island.

We at low tide one year at Holden Beach found tons of Lightning Whelk shells. (Many years ago) We kept them and dumb like, I was only 19 at the time, in my defense- thought we could let them dry and pull the snails out. We ended up burying them in the yard- after we got home. The smell was horrid. Now if it is alive, whether sand dollar, or whelk, I take a picture and leave them be.

Had a few small star fish wash up on me while laying in the surf once too, but wasn’t quick enough to catch one.

Great pics!

 

[lostpro9het]

Wednesday May 15th, Castaway Cay, cont.

So they rolled us out of Palo after about 2 hours of dining. This is worth pointing out too, while we average 2 hours a meal at Palo it NEVER feels long and strung out. Its amazing how the time really flies. Anyway, Palo is aft and so is our room so we had a very short trip back to our room where we changed into some less formal clothes for the rest of the evening. Nicky had already turned the room over and left her creation along with the gratuity envelopes for the trip.

Tonight's plan was pretty busy. First up was magic show, followed by cognac tasting, pirate fireworks, and entertainment in The District. Good thing we had coffee with dinner! We made our way down to the Walt Disney Theatre for the show.

We were one of the first ones in and claimed my favorite spot.

Folks were flowing in when the door adjacent to our balcony opened up and out came Shawn Farquhar. He watched the folks get settled for a minute before ducking back into the door and off for the stage.

He is an excellent entertainer and magician. His show this trip was different than the previous one which was nice because he could have been lazy and just as easily done the exact same routine.

anybody else think this???
no???
just me?

I see it too, Audrey II of the sea...

 

[lostpro9het]

Wednesday May 15th, Castaway Cay, cont.

Wow, what a week. K-12 is in full swing now and we're getting worked! My college classes start tomorrow as well so I don't think things will slow down much anytime soon so I might as well suck it up and finish this thing. In other news, less than 59 days til we sail the Magic from NYC! Now on with the show!

As I mentioned earlier, we had a busy night "planned" and next up was our cognac tasting. We've done the bourbon tasting, tequila tasting, wine class, and mixology in the past and always had a great time with DCL's drink seminars. We're not cognac drinkers so we were heading into this experience like a couple of true newbs. The seminar was to take place in the Outlook Lounge. This lounge is about as high up on the ship as you can get while enjoying a beverage. We had visited here on a previous cruise while exploring the ship but never to enjoy a drink. The lounge, as its name would imply, overlooks the main deck.

As we entered our drinks were already poured and arranged.

From the looks of the arrangement this was going to be a small group. Sure enough, it was us, another couple, and two individuals. If you do the glass math you can see some folks didn't show...what ever will become of those extra glasses of cognac? Before we got started I did a little more exploring to take care of some things.

Getting started, we were greeted by Predgia from Serbia. He was well versed in the ways of cognac, its distilling process, and regions of origin. He talked briefly about our lineup for the evening and went into further detail on each during the tasting.

The first round we would be sampling Hennessy VS which I thought tasted woody and had a bit of a burn. It tasted good, though. Up next was a Remy Martin VSOP. This one was less woody than the Hennessy but still had some burn going down. Next was Courvoisier XO. This one might have been my favorite of the night. It was very smooth, had no burn, and great flavor. The final tasting of the night was the Remy Martin XO. This one was, IMO, very similar to the Courvoisier and was a close second.

With that we tasted them all...BUT...there were still two sets of tastings on the table from the two guests that did not show. Predgia told us to have at it, and we did! I got an extra Courvoisier and RM VSOP. He also told us we had the whole night in the lounge if we wanted to hang so hang we did! We had plenty to finish drinking and struck up a conversation with a solo taster, we'll call her Southwest Kate. Southwest Kate was a former DL CM who now worked for Southwest. She was more than eager to chat up the night and we obliged her. She told us some great, and not so great, stories from her tenure at DL. While we were conversing we heard the PotC music strike up outside. We asked Southwest Kate if she wanted to stop and go watch them to which she said "pass". We were perfectly fine passing too because the conversation was exceptional and we've done the pirate fireworks plenty of times in the past. Southwest Kate then went into a series of stories with her current employer and the benefits of SW. We were intrigued and feed the discussion with many questions. She did say that she and her coworkers, if presented favors, prefer packaged candies and snacks, not chocolates, as well as face masks. Maybe @imahistorygeek remembers more details as I'm sure there are as this conversation went on for over an hour after the seminar! The time flew by and as we were pushing midnight we bid Southwest Kate a grateful goodnight and a pleasant trip before making our way back to our room closing another great day on The Dream.

 

[blreinsel]

Sean was our favorite bartender at the pool bar all week!

CHOCOLATE CHIPSSSS COOKIES. I'm trusting that you'll understand this so I don't look like a fool.

I love these reports even more than I already did now that I'm a DCL junkie. I'm simultaneously drooling and crying over all of our shared Dream experiences.

 

[lostpro9het]

Thursday May 16th, Day at sea.

Whether it be the abundance of cognac, the awesome DCL beds, or our jam packed day we slept wonderfully and morning was soon upon us for our day at sea. The skies looked promising.

We opted to change our in room routine and decide to have breakfast poolside today to get some choice seats.

We made camp here pretty much all day, which ended up being a beautiful one. I broke away a little later to grab some POG juice for my CC mix. The family pool was not yet madness but that wouldn't last.

As I said, CC mixed.

We pooled and relaxed for a good while and the adult pool stayed relatively calm, especially for a day at sea.

CHOCOLATE CHIPSSSS COOKIES. I'm trusting that you'll understand this so I don't look like a fool.

Of course we do! Sadly, probably 98% of the members here, and one ornery grammar nazi, probably think you've been drinking the Prophet kool-aid a little too hard. ;-)

 

[Zipadeelady]

What time do you head out to get your pool chairs before everyone comes down in the masses?

 

[lostpro9het]

What time do you head out to get your pool chairs before everyone comes down in the masses?

It varies, but typically we are hitting Cabanas when they open, 07:30 then getting settled. The poolside breakfast picture above was taken at 8:13. The empty family pool pic was taken at 9:04. YRMV.

 

[LadyBelle]

Thursday May 16th, Day at sea.

Whether it be the abundance of cognac, the awesome DCL beds, or our jam packed day we slept wonderfully and morning was soon upon us for our day at sea. The skies looked promising.
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We opted to change our in room routine and decide to have breakfast poolside today to get some choice seats.
View attachment 399398

We made camp here pretty much all day, which ended up being a beautiful one. I broke away a little later to grab some POG juice for my CC mix. The family pool was not yet madness but that wouldn't last.
View attachment 399400

As I said, CC mixed.
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We pooled and relaxed for a good while and the adult pool stayed relatively calm, especially for a day at sea.
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Of course we do! Sadly, probably 98% of the members here, and one ornery grammar nazi, probably think you've been drinking the Prophet kool-aid a little too hard. ;-)

Okay, so there is a little one in the kids pool with the lifeguard, but no parent?

 

[lostpro9het]

Okay, so there is a little one in the kids pool with the lifeguard, but no parent?

Good eye. It looks that way!

 

[StitchSNK]

Wednesday May 15th, Castaway Cay, cont.

The second conch we pulled was unlike any we had seen before. This guy was pretty unique and was the only one of this type we would find this trip.
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We were still being stalked by these guys.
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And we found one more five legged friend.
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Hubby and I spent a while in Serenity Bay and didn't even think about going wildlife searching!!! Guess I have to make sure we check it out next year! Are starfish weird to pick up? I love your TR. It makes me wish I had taken more photos of our stay on the Dream.

 

[lostpro9het]

Hubby and I spent a while in Serenity Bay and didn't even think about going wildlife searching!!! Guess I have to make sure we check it out next year! Are starfish weird to pick up? I love your TR. It makes me wish I had taken more photos of our stay on the Dream.

It's amazing what you can find at SB when you look. The starfish are easy to pick up but surprisingly heavy for their size. On previous trips we've found some starfish that were over a foot in diameter. Another good place to see wildlife is the snorkeling area at the family beach.

 

[lostpro9het]

Thursday May 16th, Day at sea, cont.

So lunchtime was approaching and I decided to take a walk towards Cabanas to see what I was in the mood for.

The family pool was rather lite

 

[lostpro9het]

Thursday May 16th, Day at sea, cont.

On my way to Cabanas and I got a little sidetracked by Vanellope's:

 

[lostpro9het]

Thursday May 16th, Day at sea, cont.

I reluctantly left Vanellope's in search of real food at Cabanas, we'd return to Vanellope's a little later, though.

Ultimately I went back to Tow Matter's grill for a burger

 

[lostpro9het]

Thursday May 16th, Day at sea, cont.

We spent a few more hours at the pool after lunch before deciding to head back to the room to clean up before some games in 687. Upon returning to the room we were greeted by the dreaded luggage tags. These tags are akin to the Tragical Express hanger you get at WDW and are a sign that the fun is about to end. These tags represent a staging area at port where you may pick up your luggage as you disembark if you choose to have DCL handle your bags for you.

We sat on the veranda for a bit and it seemed we were out running some dark weather but where were heading was all clear.

We cleaned up and made for 687 for a couple hours of fun time with #tonyfromspain.

 

[lostpro9het]

Thursday May 16th, Day at sea, cont.

We settled in at 687 and ordered some drinks. I went with a Kentucky Bourbon Ale and the DW went with an espresso.

First game up today was Disney Park Trivia. Wow, this was tough. We had our butts handed to us by some Disney geniuses in the room.

We didn't dwell on our poor performance for long. The next activity was a drawing seminar with #tonyfromspain.

He wouldn't tell us what we were drawing until we got closer to finishing it. Honestly, since I've never seen PatF, I had no idea what we were drawing even after finishing! Clearly Tony had some practice and I followed along like preschooler, and that may be an insult to preschoolers.

The next round of activity was the TV Trivia Challenge. This we excelled at but came up 1 point short of taking the crown.

 

[PacNWTigger]

I think Ray would approve of your portraits.

 

[Dave B]

Wednesday May 15th, Castaway Cay, cont.

Not deterred by some ominous clouds we continued to forage for sea life and struck some conch gold. This guy blended in so well with the sand I think we may have walked by him a few times.
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Once we realized how well they were camouflaged finding more was easy.
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Do you get to keep the sand dollars or conch shells? Or is it more of a reserve where you can look and put back?

 

[PacNWTigger]

I would imagine the wildlife stays put because they are living creatures, and they would stink up the place on the way home.

 

[lostpro9het]

Do you get to keep the sand dollars or conch shells? Or is it more of a reserve where you can look and put back?

We're strictly catch and release. DCL asks that no shells, dormant or inhabited, leave the island. I'm sure some folks sneak some on board but that ain't our scene. We just like the fun of finding them.

I would imagine the wildlife stays put because they are living creatures, and they would stink up the place on the way home.

Then there's that.