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.

 

[lostpro9het]

My wife loves Geirs fragrances. But I must warn you - that Laila is the Devil! She puts a little of that stuff on and she knows that I’ll give her anything she asks for. Another random trip? Dang you Laila!

It never gets old!

wait what?? another one ?

ok

We definitely want to try Tangierine on our next trip in September.

DO IT!

Yay! Glad to see you've started your report! We haven't had internet all week thanks to the 13 tornadoes that tried to destroy Dayton, so I was excited to 1) have internet today, and 2) see your report was up! Can't wait to hear about everything, but especially the cruise since we are hopefully taking another one in 2021!

We're getting closer! When in 2021 are you thinking? Got an itinerary in mind?

Im in glad to see your report not happy to hear it will be the last for a while

I'm mostly certain I'll do another in October when we do the 5-night Magic out of NYC to Bermuda

Caught up and following! The brie fondue picture makes my mouth water BIG TIME it looks fantastic!

It was pretty good, but that veggie platter really stole the SRT show.

I'm in for the TR!

SUHWEEET!

 

[TheMouseFan]

We're getting closer! When in 2021 are you thinking? Got an itinerary in mind?

It is a graduation trip for Logan, so sometime that summer. Probably June. Not sure yet if we will go Caribbean or Bahamas.

 

[lostpro9het]

Saturday May 11th cont.
After SRT we decided to head to HS via the IG. We ended up walking the boardwalk towards BW and catching a boat from there to HS. We had FPs for ST, TSMM, and RnR. We made right for ST to cash in our FP before heading over to Basline for a beer and a break. Ballast Point Black Marlin Porter:

We enjoyed some people watching and phoned home to check in on the kiddo. After a bit we strolled over to TSMM. The DW was feeling confident only to be dashed again. She has a system, she says, but it had yet to come to fruition.

Only slightly distraught my bride still had the fortitude to hit the road in her super stretch.

As we exited RnR and made for the exit we passed a billboard that we typically don't appreciate. DL/CA has us spoiled and can’t wait to go back!

.

As we, briefly, left HS we noticed that Mickey was really popping today!

We had a dinner ADR to get to but had enough time to walk to The Swan for the best Italian on property. Even @wdisney9000 has moved it up to his #2, behind Fazolis but just a head of Chuckie Cheese, and he knows quality Italian...

 

[lostpro9het]

Saturday May 11th cont.

So I’ve harped and joked about it for a while but I mean it. Il Mulino is flat out good. The food is great as is the service and there are no kids in swim suits running around playing with soccer balls. They do not accept DDP or gift cards but they do take TiW. Today’s dinner was on par if not exceeding previous visits. Like always, you are provided with complimentary appetizers and bread service. The sliced salami and eggplant could be a meal by itself for me.

I was also happy to see they modified their beer menu and added more dark beers. I went with the Hawaiian Lion Coconut & Coffee Porter. This might be the first Florida brewed beer that I actually enjoyed! My untapped notes read: 4.25/5 “Solid! So smooth and perfect balance of coffee, coconut, and sweet”

The DW went with a Sicilian red wine

For dinner we decided to share the mushroom risotto, mixed greens, and meatballs. They even brought the meal out split up on different plates for us.

The food was fantastic. The manager stopped by no less than two times to ask us how we were enjoying things and even commented that it was he that added the beer to the list as it was one of his favorites as well. He talked about the brewery and what goes into make this particular brew. As is custom, we were tapped out and no room for food remained…but there was just enough left for Limoncello! I mean, who says no to free alcohol!?!?

After dinner we rolled out of The Swan to catch a boat back to HS for a few more rides.

 

[bee]

I need to try that porter!

 

[LadyBelle]

DL/CA has us spoiled and can’t wait to go back!

I'm trying to get a trip together to go out there and see it for the first time. All these SW:GE vlogs and DL/DCA vlogs have me excited.

 

[imahistorygeek]

I'm trying to get a trip together to go out there and see it for the first time. All these SW:GE vlogs and DL/DCA vlogs have me excited.

Our next venture out to DLR will probably be fall 2020. We want to book a Vancouver/San Diego repositioning cruise. If we can work that out, then we will tack on a visit to DLR and it will be our fist experience with Galaxy Edge. It looks really neat.

 

[KellBelle]

Following along.. I will definitely consider Il Mulino.. it looks delicious!

 

[lostpro9het]

I need to try that porter!

Im actually craving it now. Well worth a go.

I'm trying to get a trip together to go out there and see it for the first time. All these SW:GE vlogs and DL/DCA vlogs have me excited.

DL is a double edged sword, though, you can never unexperience it and WDW will forever seem a little less magical because of it.

Following along.. I will definitely consider Il Mulino.. it looks delicious!

Worth a visit!

 

[wdisney9000]

We had a dinner ADR to get to but had enough time to walk to The Swan for the best Italian on property. Even @wdisney9000 has moved it up to his #2

When I called it "#2", it was more of a reference to a bowel movement. .

Now please have Phoebe Cates fetch me a slice of Chuck E Cheese, and some tokens for the game room.

 

[sheriffwoody]

Here for this one! Sad we won't run into you guys down there again...maybe someday!

 

[LeighM]

I have to be honest - as someone who has reached an age to need reading glasses for everything - these new shower dispensers may not be all bad. If I don't read the small bottles before getting into the shower and then place them in a specific order, I am never sure if I am washing my hair with shampoo, conditioner or body wash. But I'm pretty certain I would be able to make out what is in which bottle given the size of the words on them

It took my husband 2 days to realize that he was washing his hair with body wash and not the shampoo LOL.

 

[lostpro9het]

Here for this one! Sad we won't run into you guys down there again...maybe someday!

And maybe September 2020 sounds like a great time to take your wee mountaineer to DL.

 

[sheriffwoody]

And maybe September 2020 sounds like a great time to take your wee mountaineer to DL.

We probably will go to California next year! But most likely in the summer because my mom goes and she likes to go on summer break The heat always follows us out there too...

 

[lostpro9het]

Saturday May 11th cont.

To wrap this day up we took the boat from the Swalphin back to HS and decided to ride ST one more time.

Still feeling the mood, we did something we rarely do and decided to meet up with some characters. We started out strong with a great Wookie encounter.

We then progressed to some legitimate fear with with a Ren M&G. Legit fear hear folks...

We concluded our Launch Bay visit with a BB-8 visit for the first time. Ya'll, that cat is HEAVY! We ultimately settled for a Glamour Shot before bidding our farewells.

To complete our HS visit and close out our night my Bride checked off a bucket list item and bested me in TSMM.

Thankfully she kept the gloating to a minimum.

With that we made for the exit. We heard grumblings from some guests that Fantasmic had been cancelled as we left. The new bus stops look nice and regrettably I didn't even think to grab any pics. We had a short trip to AKL and were soon cleaned up and in bed.

Up next: a day at DTD and a Magic Meetup

 

[lostpro9het]

Saturday May 12th.

So with no park plans this morning we had the great idea to sleep in and take things slow. Fat chance, we weer up before 07:00 but did take things slow...enough. We enjoyed our Entenmann's and coffee on the balcony. Thankfully the lovebugs were not bad here but we were game planning on how to get the car clean. We researched a bit and found one about 10 minutes away with decent reviews so we decided to get there when they opened figuring they would be busy. We rolled out of AKL around 08:30 and made for the car wash. We passed these sophisticated devices for replenishing the H2O products, I was tempted...

AS expected the car wash was hopping but we were queued up and cleaned in less than 20 minutes.

We gassed the car up too and made for DTD. We strolled for a bit taking in the stores still deciding where to eat.

While walking around we settled on Frontera for lunch for the first time but still had some time to kill so we went into Pandora to pick up some Mother's day gifts, I'll let @imahistorygeek share those pictures. We then cased Sprinkles to pick out what we would have for dessert.

 

[lostpro9het]

Saturday May 12th cont.

With it being Mother's Day and all we figured the restaurant would be jumping, it was not. My immediate thoughts was that I liked the themeing but the tables were too close together. Again, it wasn't busy but they decided to sit us between two other occupied tables that could have put their elbows on our table.

For drinks we went with water. I like Mexican beer about as much as I like Florida beer so I passed on it for lunch. The DW did go with the watermelon margarita and while I'm not a fan of margaritas this one was fresh and good!

For mains the DW went with the pork belly.

and I went with the carnitas.

Food here is really good but the pricing is not inline with what you are getting and the seating is LeCel tight. We wont be back but its not because of the food.

We left DTD after this to go see if our room would be available yet.

 

[imahistorygeek]

Toy Story - I only won because of one thing. Fox in the henhouse.

Love Bugs - Cement on your window. When we got back to GA, we stopped by the car wash. The kid running the show was not happy and did a terrible job cleaning the windows.

Sprinkles - This is my third time trying a cupcake. This place is overrated. It's cute, but I've made better cupcakes at home and I don't cook.

Frontera Cocina - I really liked the food and would eat here again. I don't like the price, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Pork belly was a risky choice for me, but it was SO GOOD. Those black beans were the star of the dish. I could eat these every single day. The margarita was great. It was fresh watermelon juice, no syrup. It also wasn't overly sweet, which sometimes happens with fruity margaritas.

Pandora - This is the first time I stepped out of the Disney theming, and went with Pandora's Trees of Life. The necklace is small, but it is exactly what I wanted and I purchased earrings to complete the set. They work with both casual and dressier outfits.

If you read out previous TR about our trip to WDW, we were not exactly having a great time. This time, however, we were having a great time. I don't know if it's because the crowds were not terrible or we were about to head to a cruise, but this short trip to the parks was nice.

 

[Laura Loves Tigger]

Love your Pandora set. So pretty!

 

[lostpro9het]

Saturday May 12th cont.

So we drove to VGF to see if our room was ready yet, it was not, boo. We did drop off our gear with bell services and parked the car before making for the boats.

We trekked across property to the boat docks where several people were already waiting. We took this as a good sign that the boat would arrive soon...it did not. We waited and waited while folks started leaving a little at a time. It became clear no boats were operating so we trekked back across property to the monorail. Finally on our way we were soon in the magic.

We had a FP for HM and decided to cash it in. This is the FP line BTW:

We checked out the HM gift shop before making for Tomorrow Land. This cat was cute:

We really didnt have much of a plan so we took in CoP and the PeopleMover before we got the room text. We decided to head back to VGF to freshen up before our magic M&G. We would pass an old friend along the way!

[TANGENT TIME]
So today was opening day for DCL gold members to book the Fall 2020 itineraries.. We had been eyeing the west coast repositioning cruise to combine with a DLR visit. Today we took care of have that plan:

[/TANGENT TIME]