Trip Report I Did NOT Get Locked Out of the Hotel Room Naked at Busch Gardens! (Sorry. It would have made for good drama!) COMPLETED!

So.....I tried to negotiate another trip to Disney this year with Philmonster, but I knew it was a fool's folly before I even plead my case. He absolutely refuses. "Not until Star Wars opens". GRRRRR. As if we will be able to get near the place once that happens. Or afford it, etc.

BUT...........

I got him to agree to do a Tampa/St. Pete trip toward the end of April. Errr....hurray? Annnyway......

QUESTION:

Are you guys interested in a Busch Gardens trip report during their version of food and wine? If not, no worries, but if you want more insane misadventures from the Thomas party, I'm happy to post them.

Lemme know.

PS - How far is Tampa from WDW? Two or three hours? Maybe I can ditch the monster and take a bus to the mouse one day during the trip.

 

[MinnieM123]

Adventure Island is no Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach, but it was fun all the same.

Actually, from that film clip, I think I like it better than TL or BB.

 

[build_it]

In Buddy's next segment, we meet the men of Mangrove...
could be a very thunder from down under/magic mike kind of moment

 

[MinnieM123]

the Carrie White blood shirt. You may recall her from California Grill a few years ago:

So, I'm looking at the hideous Carrie blood shirt above, while also recalling that you were mortified about Phil's Hawaiian shirt & striped shorts outfit, a few days before. Sorry, Buddy, but what's good for the goose is good for the gander -- no more complaining about Phil's "ensemble"!!

 

[Rista1313]

Part Eight - The Carrie White Blood Shirt Comes Out of Retirement!

So, Spinners is a bit of a tourist trap, but we are tourists, and we could not resist the trap of going to the top of a tall building and spinning around while eating overpriced mediocre food. We did it at the Space Needle in Seattle a few years ago:

View attachment 290271

Yeah, basically, we'll spin on anything. Errrrrr........ummmmmm.........annnnnyway.........

So on to Spinners at the Grand Plaza. The vibe is actually not too different from California Grill, and I sure wore the right shirt!

View attachment 290272
Oh my God, how did that thing come out of the closet......again??? I thought I was supposed to have burned that, but apparently no, because here she is girls, here she is boys, the Carrie White blood shirt. You may recall her from California Grill a few years ago:

View attachment 290273
Ugh. Hideous now. Hideous then. Now I really am going to burn it. By the way, I really seemed to enjoy whatever was in that bowl at California Grill, huh?

Anyway, focus, focus Buddy, get to the point. Errr......I guess the point is just showing a bunch of pictures of us at a spinning restaurant. So here we go:

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It was actually a lot of fun, even though the food was pretty average and pretty expensive, but like many places at Disney, you are clearly paying for the atmosphere and the experience. And we were fine with that, especially after a million more cocktails.

And all of a sudden it is almost midnight. I mean now, not during the trip, and I need to get to bed for an early meeting tomorrow. So thanks for reading more of our insanity, and I will be back to you in the next few days with the conclusion to this report.

All the times we've stay in St Pete beach and I've never went to spinners.. (what kind of tourist am I?) Our condo is just a few blocks down the road from your hotel.. closer to the big pink hotel at the end. There are so many good seafood places to eat there, that I always look at the spinners menu and decide it's overpriced and I'm not doing it!

 

[Gurt]

I like your shirt it looks good. Win on the sea view.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Part Four - Saturday, in the Park, I Think it was the Fourth of July

Well, it wasn't. The Fourth of July, that is. It was the end of April. But it might as well have been the Fourth of July from how crowded it was. I'm starting right at the parks, because remember, I don't have that many pics for this trip, and I'm borrowing a few of these, but the park was about this crowded:

View attachment 289774

Grr. But then we learned it was the last weekend of Food and Wine Festival, and Flo Rider was performing, so it all made sense. Most rides had two hour waits or more, so it's a good thing we did almost everything yesterday.

So...what should we do? I guess start by taking a picture of the Monster with an afternoon cocktail in a surprisingly uncrowded space:

View attachment 289775

You might ask, where is everyone???? Free answer: In ride lines!!

Well, eventually, we had to get on a line too and we decided to go for Congo River Rapids:

View attachment 289785

It's basically the same thing as Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom. Here is a random YouTube video of it:



And here is what I looked like after it was over. A drowned rat, and both of my eyeballs had clearly popped out of my head and been reinstalled incorrectly.

View attachment 289788

If I ever make that face again, someone please come to my apartment and shoot me in the head.

That shirt I am wearing is from the Broadway show, Once on This Island, which just pulled an upset and won Best Revival at the Tony Awards on Sunday (over My Fair Lady, which had been expected to win). It's pretty much my favorite show of all time, so shameless plug, although I guess not so shameless since I don't really have anything to do with it aside from having seen it about five times. But if you are in NYC, see this. It is basically a reimagining of The Little Mermaid:



Sheesh, this trip report is all over the place. Well, I told you I didn't have that many pictures, and it's been a while, so I'm doing my best, dammit!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ummm, err....uhh, ehhh........where were we?

Oh yes. I was soaking wet, trying to save my ancient phone from drowning, and Phil made a new friend:


View attachment 289795
I think they are gonna get along great!

Now, you may be wondering, if this is Food and Wine Festival, why are there no pictures of food or wine? Well...that is a very good question and here is the answer: Unlike EPCOT, Busch Gardens Food and Wine is confined to a very small area, and is not all over the park. And it is in an area that is not really that convenient to get to - in an out of the way nook, in the shadow of a roller coaster that is no longer operational. So we decided to try to do rides during the day, and Food and Wine Festival starting around 6PM (park was open until 10).

Well, it was mobbed. Mobbed more than I have ever seen Disney. Here is the one and only picture I took t at Food and Wine. Phil Monster, are you ready for your close up?

View attachment 289800

That is the entrance to the Food and Wine area, and I know it doesn't look that crowded, but trust me, it was insane.

We bought a 12 ticket tasting thing (so, 12 tastings) for around fifty bucks each, and we could barely get to any of the tasting huts. Grrrrr.....

Anyway, just to give you an idea what the whole thing looked like, here is a Tim Tracker video of a press preview event to this year's festival. Clearly, he and Jen liked it more than us, but then again, they got all their stuff for free at the press thing.



So........Food and Wine didn't exactly work out for us. And as we sail into the sunset on this portion of a rather dull trip report that is trying too desperately to be entertaining, here is a Phil Monster against a sun setting over a Tampa savannah (If you look closely, you can see giraffes in the background). PS - What the hell is he wearing????? A Hawaiian shirt and striped shorts???? What the??? I let him go out the door in that?? (I just noticed this now - I did not even notice it on the trip - senility is clearly setting in.)
View attachment 289806

Back to you soon with another portion that is hopefully more interesting. Or something.

Actually all the colors match up, so it works. If the stripes were wider, it wouldn't though.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

It is that impact of LuLaRoe

Matching poke dots with patterns and fine stripes with patterns. Apparently dots and stripes have become neutral.

While LuLaRoe does have some men's clothing it is mainly women's but the overall fashion world has been impacted by their mixing of bold and less bold mixtures. Seeing it all over now.

I don't like LulaRoe. I have no issues with stripes and patterns, or polka dots and patterns. Been doing that way before they became a thing. They are overpriced, and the quality is not worth it. Shocking, I know.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

An interior designer for a hotel company that I worked for (years ago), told me that stripes and patterns can work together nicely. But the main point is to balance out the two. She said that you can only go "big" with one of the elements (pattern or stripe), and then the other element would have to be scaled down in size, so that it would be complementary. I don't think Phil's outfit was horrible, but I think it would have looked better if the stripes in the shorts were thinner, to balance out the Hawaiian design on the shirt.



I love this picture! Those eyes!

Oh @MinnieM123, you and I are in sync. Sort of said the same thing about the stripes and pattern. I said if the stripes were wider it wouldn't work. I was close to saying they should be thinner myself. I think they are at the crux for fashion acceptability.

 

[Gabe1]

I don't like LulaRoe. I have no issues with stripes and patterns, or polka dots and patterns. Been doing that way before they became a thing. They are overpriced, and the quality is not worth it. Shocking, I know.

My DD lives in Lula Roe. I have multiple Disney shirts and a Minnie dress I . Put in wash hang up done. Never had a bad garment. Key to Lula is like anything never pay Rack Rate.

My DD Small World dress.

 

[DisSplash]

Part Six - Let's Go to St. Pete Beach!!

But first, we still need to have Sunday night dinner, and the van driver from the hotel drove us to this pretty amazing Greek restaurant called The Acropolis!
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They have amazing food and belly dancers and they throw napkins all over the place!
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I don't really remember everything we ate, but Phil had two sangrias!!!
View attachment 290240
They were doing two for one drinks when we got there, but for some reason, they served both drinks at the same time. Maybe that's a Tampa thing. What you can't see is that his shirt says American Psycho on it (from the Broadway musical). Let's go back in time about an hour ago for a better shot of that, when we had the complimentary happy hour at Embassy Suites:

View attachment 290241
Yup. That about sums it up, folks. He should wear that shirt every day.

No pics of me at Acropolis or at Embassy Suites happy hour. I must have been feeling shy...or in need of more beauty sleep.

Which I got. That night. And then the next day, we took a $90.00 (yes $90.00) cab ride to St. Pete Beach!

The hotel we picked was called The Death Star....I mean The Grand Plaza Hotel, and here it is:

View attachment 290252
I mean....no complaints. Except that now I was practically in the poor house after shelling out $90.00 plus tip for the cab and upon check in, we were informed about a resort fee of like $25.00 per day. Grrrrrr.........

But look at that place! I guess I can be in the poor house when I get home as long as I get to stay there for a few nights, right? The only problem is that we booked standard view room, and so I was fully prepared to check in to my parking lot view.

Well, we checked in, went up to the room, and here is the view we were greeted with:

View attachment 290253
Ummm.......okay, then. I can live with that.

Running out of photo room, so back to you soon with more.

I absolutely love Greek food!! What did you have? My faves are Spanikopita and Pastitsio (no calories there, ha!).

OMG That view is so worth it!! Absolutely gorgeous. I hope you took your morning coffee (or whatever) out on the balcony and soaked it all in!

 

[Tony the Tigger]

a) You secretly love the Carrie shirt.
b) Was this a plot to show Phil how it's even more crowded at BG, and make him go back to WDW next time?
c) Here's the authentic Caribbean Judy Garland, mon, wearing something that kind of matches the Carrie shirt, with a big d, er, thingie on her head, and fighting with a horse while singing. (I'm sure there were drinks involved at some point also, it was Judy, after all.) It's basically a reimagining of nothing like The Little Mermaid.

 

[BuddyThomas]

a) You secretly love the Carrie shirt.
b) Was this a plot to show Phil how it's even more crowded at BG, and make him go back to WDW next time?
c) Here's the authentic Caribbean Judy Garland, mon, wearing something that kind of matches the Carrie shirt, with a big d, er, thingie on her head, and fighting with a horse while singing. (I'm sure there were drinks involved at some point also, it was Judy, after all.) It's basically a reimagining of nothing like The Little Mermaid.

LOL!

 

[BuddyThomas]

Part Nine - Let's wrap this boring report up and pray for a better Disney report in the near future!

So the next and last day of our little vacation dawned, and what is there really to do on a beach vacation?

Lie on the sand. Swim. Drink. Repeat. Okay. Challenge accepted.

First, we dived into the ocean. Here is my lame attempt to be The Rock. More like the very pale, small, and somewhat squishy rock.

But that water, right? They do not call it Clearwater for nothing!

And here is the vacationing monster. If I could just get him to take one more step or two, maybe the undertow would yank him out to sea.

I kid. I kid the Phil Monster. And anyway, he decided to play in sand instead.

Look how close the Death Star....I mean our hotel....was to the beach.

And before we went inside, I decided that I was Shamu and did a trick.

Well....apparently, my neck fell off in that trick. If anyone finds my neck, please return it to Buddy Thomas on Burns Street in Forest Hills, New York.

Yeeessshh. That is horrifying. And apparently Phil agreed, because he is swimming out to sea:

Bye Phil! While you are swimming to the Bermuda Triangle, I discovered that there is a car service right outside the front of our hotel, and it says that it will take me to Disney world for $195.00 round trip. Unfortunately, they only allow people with necks to get in their cars, and also unfortunately, mine fell off in the ocean, and also, this is the end of the vacation, and I'm pretty much flat busted broke, so I'll have to do some better research next time.

That afternoon, as one of our last things, we decided to go to the Florida Winery. And in case you don't know, Florida has a LOT of wineries!

We went to Number #8 - The Florida Winery.

I am not going to make any comment about it. I am just going to show some wines from it:

Your have to love orange wine fermented with chocolate syrup, correct? Ooops. I was not going to comment. Too late.

How about some of these instead?

Okay so it is all fruit wine - what did we expect? And Phil and I actually got that Hurricane 5 White Sangria, and it was.........edible. What is the drink word for edible?

Kidding, kidding. They have a lot of fun flavors. I think it just might be too sweet for a couple of raging drunken lunatics like us. But if you are in the area, definitely go. The staff is super cool and it's a very fun experience.

Well folks, with that, I think that's all she wrote. I didn't take any getting home pictures, and who wants to see those anyway?

But you know what this all means right? I went somewhere of Phil's choosing, so now he has to let me go to WDW!

You've been following our stupid rules for a while, and clearly, we're going back to WDW.....as soon as I can figure out how to afford it, LOL. That is always Phil's Trump card (oh my God, did I just say Trump in one of my trip reports?? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!).

Ahem. What I meant to say is that Phil is like Stepmother in Cinderella when she tells Cinderella that she can go to the ball as long as she finishes all her chores......or however that goes. Because Phil always thinks I will never find a way to afford it, but I always manage to sell a play or get a new production of something and then I have to break the bad news to him.

Well anyway, thanks for following along on what I totally admit was a pretty dull trip report, and just because of that, I am going to post one little epilogue that might at least add a slight bit of excitement. That is coming in just a few minutes.

 

[BuddyThomas]

EPILOGUE - Opening night of The Boys in the Band

So.....I think I've said what I do for a living. I'm a literary talent agent, and I represent playwrights, lyricists, and composers.

One of my clients is Mart Crowley, and 50 years ago, Mart wrote a little play called THE BOYS IN THE BAND, which is commonly acknowledged as the first mainstream gay play. It played over 1000 performances off-Broadway in the 1960's.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the play and we were all very lucky to be able to set up a Broadway production, with a lot of stars, produced by Ryan Murphy:



Well, opening night was as soon as we got back from vacation, and here is curtain call of the show. Mart, my client, is the older gentelman who they drag on at the end.



And after that, on to the cast party! I'm in a tuxedo for the first and hopefully last time ever:

Why do they make these things so uncomfortable???? Grrrrr....I had better have a drink to deal with it. Let's see what the specialty cocktails are at this party:

Hmm....I think I will have an Anxious Queer!

Well, Phil was also there that night, but now that I am looking through photos, he didn't really take any of himself. So, here are a couple more of the no-neck monster.

A cocktail and a glass of wine. Well!!

And again?? Fun fact. I am actually just holding Phil's drink while he takes a picture of me.

We sat here, with Mart, which was very cool. And later in the night when we started to get silly (started???):

Yeah, that's right, I stole Zachery Quinto's "reserved
sign.........but only for five seconds.

I have all sorts of pictures of this thing, but since I am already putting people across America and the world to sleep, let me just post one more and we can finally be done with this wacky thing.

Yeah, that's me trying to sing The Lullaby of Broadway at like 1:30 in the morning in front of Penn Station after the party. Classy as ever.

So, with that, you guys, I guess I will head away into the sunset until next time, and hopefully next time will be a legit Disney trip. Thanks for reading, and for all the nice comments, and here's to a great upcoming summer!!

 

[BuddyThomas]

All the times we've stay in St Pete beach and I've never went to spinners.. (what kind of tourist am I?) Our condo is just a few blocks down the road from your hotel.. closer to the big pink hotel at the end. There are so many good seafood places to eat there, that I always look at the spinners menu and decide it's overpriced and I'm not doing it!

You made the right decision, although if you go for just cocktails and apps, the view is kind of worth it.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

EPILOGUE - Opening night of The Boys in the Band

So.....I think I've said what I do for a living. I'm a literary talent agent, and I represent playwrights, lyricists, and composers.

One of my clients is Mart Crowley, and 50 years ago, Mart wrote a little play called THE BOYS IN THE BAND, which is commonly acknowledged as the first mainstream gay play. It played over 1000 performances off-Broadway in the 1960's.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the play and we were all very lucky to be able to set up a Broadway production, with a lot of stars, produced by Ryan Murphy:



Well, opening night was as soon as we got back from vacation, and here is curtain call of the show. Mart, my client, is the older gentelman who they drag on at the end.



And after that, on to the cast party! I'm in a tuxedo for the first and hopefully last time ever:

View attachment 290985

Why do they make these things so uncomfortable???? Grrrrr....I had better have a drink to deal with it. Let's see what the specialty cocktails are at this party:

View attachment 290986

Hmm....I think I will have an Anxious Queer!

Well, Phil was also there that night, but now that I am looking through photos, he didn't really take any of himself. So, here are a couple more of the no-neck monster.

View attachment 290987

A cocktail and a glass of wine. Well!!

View attachment 290988

And again?? Fun fact. I am actually just holding Phil's drink while he takes a picture of me.

View attachment 290989
We sat here, with Mart, which was very cool. And later in the night when we started to get silly (started???):

View attachment 290990
Yeah, that's right, I stole Zachery Quinto's "reserved
sign.........but only for five seconds.

I have all sorts of pictures of this thing, but since I am already putting people across America and the world to sleep, let me just post one more and we can finally be done with this wacky thing.

View attachment 290992
Yeah, that's me trying to sing The Lullaby of Broadway at like 1:30 in the morning in front of Penn Station after the party. Classy as ever.

So, with that, you guys, I guess I will head away into the sunset until next time, and hopefully next time will be a legit Disney trip. Thanks for reading, and for all the nice comments, and here's to a great upcoming summer!!

Congratulations on all of that! Very exciting. That last pic made me miss NY a bit. Oh, and Tuc Watkins? He'll do.

 

[BuddyThomas]

Congratulations on all of that! Very exciting. That last pic made me miss NY a bit. Oh, and Tuc Watkins? He'll do.

If you get to NYC, I'll get you guys tickets.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

If you get to NYC, I'll get you guys tickets.

Next time we visit the fam!

 

[Princess Leia]

Looks like you had a blast on your non-Disney trip! And congrats about The Prom, that looks like a pretty cool show

 

[LeighM]

That afternoon, as one of our last things, we decided to go to the Florida Winery. And in case you don't know, Florida has a LOT of wineries!

View attachment 290962

We went to Number #8 - The Florida Winery.

I am not going to make any comment about it. I am just going to show some wines from it:

View attachment 290966

Your have to love orange wine fermented with chocolate syrup, correct? Ooops. I was not going to comment. Too late.

How about some of these instead?

View attachment 290969

Okay so it is all fruit wine - what did we expect? And Phil and I actually got that Hurricane 5 White Sangria, and it was.........edible. What is the drink word for edible?

Kidding, kidding. They have a lot of fun flavors. I think it just might be too sweet for a couple of raging drunken lunatics like us. But if you are in the area, definitely go. The staff is super cool and it's a very fun experience.

Florida Orange Groves Winery is my favorite winery down there (not that I've been to many of them lol). But I hate wine made from grapes so that seriously narrows down my options! I've had their key lime wine and their mango wine and both were really good to my palate I'm from Charlottesville, VA (which has TONS of wineries and breweries in the area!!!) and my favorite winery there was Hilltop in Nelson County because they also do fruit wines (their cranberry is wonderful during the holidays and their blueberry or blackberry is fantastic any time of year) and have several types of meads that my husband loves.