Trip Report How did you ever get the kid to like cruising? Sea turtles, mate… sea turtles. Surf n’ Turf 2017

To quote the Jewish Elvis, “Hello Again”. For those interested in a back story leading up to this short and sweet journey towards a series of firsts you can have at it here:
Going for gold, a Disney trip full of firsts!
What turned into the most stressful and ridiculous two day work week, we slept hard and fast to a 04:00 wake up on Wednesday morning. I opted to make breakfast and coffee for the ladies this morning to reduce our number of stops on the way down. I even filled up the night before to make our drive smoother. We cruised through the ATL and soon were filling up in Tifton before 9, half way there! Another 3.5 hours and we were turning on to 192. Lunch was the first order of business and the ladies outvoted me and chose Cracker Barrel. I was hopeful we would hear about our room during lunch but we had not. After lunch we hoped for the best and made for The Grand Floridian and soon we were passing through the gate.
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As we pulled into the parking lot we still had not heard if our room was ready so I ran in and checked with the DVC desk. Our room was ready! We parked and made our way to our room.
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Up next: What a lobby!
 
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lostpro9het

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Continuing on, we still encountered much wildlife and new artifacts. We soon realized we were pretty far off the shore but there were still a few buoys to check out. The weather was still fantastic and the water was quite comfortable so were in no rush to head in.
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I little exploring more and I found myself looking over a powder keg of nostalgia! Quickly, flashbacks of cramped humid sea exploration fun came over me as I happened upon this:


I truly don’t know why the that ride has such a pull for me but it does! I spent a good amount of time circling the Nautilus and reminiscing when I heard Laura just about lose it!

Still to come: Nothing makes the ladies lose their shii…stuff like some sea turtles.
 
imahistorygeek

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
I couldn't help it. It was a amazing. Here's the story:

I was swimming around just looking (Sophie's somewhere out there) and I see this fish. I did not get a picture of it, but it was one of the most colorful fish I'd ever seen. The color of the scales reminded me of candy corn. If anyone knows the type of fish, please let me know. I never saw another one like it.

I look up to call over Sophie because it's an amazing fish. She's also yelling at me to come to her. I kept telling her to come to me to see this amazing. I'm pretty sure she responded something like this: I don't care about that fish. There's a sea turtle! This is an accurate representation of me trying to get over there.

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I've read that sea turtles are common in the snorkeling lagoon, but it was still an amazing site to see. Again, I completely recommend this experience.
 
superchc80

superchc80

Member
imahistorygeek said:
I couldn't help it. It was a amazing. Here's the story:

I was swimming around just looking (Sophie's somewhere out there) and I see this fish. I did not get a picture of it, but it was one of the most colorful fish I'd ever seen. The color of the scales reminded me of candy corn. If anyone knows the type of fish, please let me know. I never saw another one like it.

I look up to call over Sophie because it's an amazing fish. She's also yelling at me to come to her. I kept telling her to come to me to see this amazing. I'm pretty sure she responded something like this: I don't care about that fish. There's a sea turtle! This is an accurate representation of me trying to get over there.

giphy.gif


I've read that sea turtles are common in the snorkeling lagoon, but it was still an amazing site to see. Again, I completely recommend this experience.
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Ha! This made me actually LOL.
Turtles love sea grass, so it isn't unusual to find them near it. They are gorgeous though, aren't they? Did your mystery fish have large black eyes? If so, google squirrelfish and tell me if that is the culprit. If not, let me know any details you can remember and I will see what I can do. BTW, loving the trip report!
 
imahistorygeek

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
superchc80 said:
Did your mystery fish have large black eyes? If so, google squirrelfish and tell me if that is the culprit. If not, let me know any details you can remember and I will see what I can do.
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I know this is going to sound crazy, but think of this fish with with indian corn minus sparkles (not candy corn - my mistake) colors. Each scale looked to be a different color.
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superchc80

superchc80

Member
imahistorygeek said:
I know this is going to sound crazy, but think of this fish with with indian corn minus sparkles (not candy corn - my mistake) colors. Each scale looked to be a different color.
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Try spotlight parrotfish (maybe scrawled filefish, but that might be too far off). Sidebar: Disney and fish id?! Two of my favorite things in one post? Someone fan me! ;)
 
cfry06

cfry06

Well-Known Member
Ohhhhh Castaway...how I love thee...

While Phil has snorkeled there, for some reason I've always been too chicken! I'm not a huge fan of swimming with wildlife. But reading through your report/pictures, I really think I need to give it a go!

Loving reading over your report and seeing the Wonder again. We were on our B2B the first week if April and hands down the Wonder and the amazing crew moved into line as our favorite! We enjoyed it our first trip a few years ago, but we just had the most spectacular experience this time around! You HAVE to try B2B! We loved it - so neat to get off the ship with nothing, breeze through customs, go right back up the escalator into the terminal for a little & back on the ship. I know you would love it! We were back on in an hour, and had about 2 hrs to explore an empty ship. Oh - and we added on Poly points on board!! Whoohoo!

Have to say, your stay at GF has me interested. Didn't think I would love it, but need to check it out. We are trying Copper Creek for our next stay in Dec.

When is your next WDW adventure? Looking at any of the new DCL itineraries? I'm eyeing Bermuda from NYC...but no Castaway on that one :cry:.
 
lostpro9het

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
cfry06 said:
You HAVE to try B2B!
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We went back and forth for a while between a B2B and a straight 7-night for our 20/40 trip and ultimately chose the 7-night. The idea of being able to hang in your room and not dealing with the port again is intriguing but a longer consecutive night trip won us over since 3-nighters were the most we've ever done.
cfry06 said:
When is your next WDW adventure?
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We have a week booked in September at the Poly, with the points we added on the cruise too ;-) ! Then we'll be doing Christmas week again at AKL.

cfry06 said:
Looking at any of the new DCL itineraries? I'm eyeing Bermuda from NYC...but no Castaway on that one :cry:.
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Bermuda has Laura interested and the double dip during thanksgiving in 2018 has us thinking. I'm strangely attracted to the Canada itinerary but honestly couldn't see myself doing a cruise sans a WDW visit.
 
lostpro9het

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Given that we are 114 days out from our next adventure, I’ve pretty much drug this TR out way longer than I have ever planned, and I’ve been strongly encouraged to close this chapter by my better half ON WE GO!!

So after a few hours of snorkeling we decided to make for the shore. The DD decided she was done for the day! All the time swimming had wore her out and it was nearing lunchtime. We gave her a hug and a kiss and told her to contact us when she got to the room. Laura and I made for the tram to Serenity Bay. Here is our trip to the beach:


Like I said it was lunch time so we went straight for the BBQ.

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We soon realized we had an audience, this little guy was most interested in our activities.
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The food at SB BBQ was excellent as usual but it was time to relax…even more. We made for the beach and was happy to see there was plenty of place to make camp. The weather was still fantastic and the water was comfortable. As we approached the beach we noticed a crane being photographed so I got in on the action when all of a sudden his buddy decided to show him up with an overhead splash landing. He was quite the showboat.
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imahistorygeek

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
The Serenity Bay BBQ is one of my favorite cruising meals. I love cookout food. I could eat a whole plate of potato salad and couscous salad. They also have Lay's chips which are my absolute favorite non-rippled chip.

The pelicans were fun to watch. They ungracefully dive into the water. I'm assuming they're fishing.
 
lostpro9het

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We mozied on down the beach a bit and made camp and decided to just relax for a bit before taking to the water again. This, of course, meant it was Castaway Cocktail time! Thank you mister Tervis for keeping the rum cold!
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Its worth pointing out that I mostly cant stand just sitting in the sun so I hid under an umbrella while Laura took to reading her Kindle.
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Now, we did venture out into the water for a while but were just there for a cool down and not a starfish hunt like before.
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We waded for an hour or so then made our way back to the boat to relax for a bit. The ladies had a show they were planning on seeing and I had a date with a pub before Tritons for dinner.
 
lostpro9het

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our time for Triton’s had come. This would be our first time trying this restaurant but heard great things about it.
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As mentioned before, we were seated and our previous day’s drink order was already waiting for us, as was the bread service.
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Laura started her meal out with the French onion soup, we shared the fried brie, I had the salad and the kid went with the cheese soup. The beginnings were excellent.
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Up next: The mains and the sweet ends.
 
fractal

fractal

Well-Known Member
lostpro9het said:
Continuing on, we still encountered much wildlife and new artifacts. We soon realized we were pretty far off the shore but there were still a few buoys to check out. The weather was still fantastic and the water was quite comfortable so were in no rush to head in.
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GOPR2182.jpg

GOPR2186.jpg

GOPR2187.jpg

GOPR2189.jpg

GOPR2191.jpg

GOPR2192.jpg

GOPR2193.jpg

GOPR2194.jpg


I little exploring more and I found myself looking over a powder keg of nostalgia! Quickly, flashbacks of cramped humid sea exploration fun came over me as I happened upon this:


I truly don’t know why the that ride has such a pull for me but it does! I spent a good amount of time circling the Nautilus and reminiscing when I heard Laura just about lose it!

Still to come: Nothing makes the ladies lose their shii…stuff like some sea turtles.
Click to expand...



So cool!

Did you ever do the Epcot Seas Aqua Tour? If not, I think you would love it.

https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/events-tours/epcot/epcot-seas-aqua-tour/
 

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