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.
 
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thursday cont.:
So after a little relaxing and photo taking in the room, the DW and I decided to make for the pool again to swim before dinner. The DD decided to live it up in the room streaming Netflix…sigh. We had a fun hour or so relaxing in the pool but it was getting close to our ADR time so we cleaned up at the room, changed and decide to walk to the Grand Floridian Café. The walk was a nice one, saw them setting up for the Spirit of Aloha at Luau Cove and some setup for a wedding on the beach between the Poly and VGF. Before you knew it we were entering the lobby of the GF where we were greeted with this:
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While soaking in the lobby we were treated to some live musical talent.
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We were bumping up against our ADR time now and went to check in.

Still to come: Dinner at the GFC, The DD ditches the oldies, and Kona before the boat.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thursday cont.:
So we checked into the Grand Floridian Café and were quickly seated.
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I scouted the menu beforehand and had an idea of what I would get but the menu had changed, theme we noticed a few times on this trip:
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Despite the near empty restaurant the service was a bit slow. Soon we were greeted with our waters and bread before giving our order.
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I went with the Spinach Ricotta Ravioli, it was very good but not very filling. I’d remedy this a little later ;-)
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DD went with the same thing as me but add the grilled shrimp to her dish.
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DW went with the Shrimp and grits
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It was during dinner that the DD decided she did NOT want to go to MK with us. Say what?!?!? She’d rather head back to the room and watch tv. I was closing in on angry dad mode. We all talked it out some and figured if she wanted to go back then she could. DW and DD agreed it would be ok for her to take the monorail by herself all the way back around to the Poly. I was NOT a fan of this idea but was outnumbered and conceded the point but made sure she sent me a text when she got to the Poly and again when she got to the room. The silver lining to this decision was it meant some alone time at MK for the DW and I which is quite awesome to be honest. No moody kid making faces the whole time or tapping her foot to leave. Still, I would have preferred he to come enjoy the park but no matter, Team Parents would get it done.

We hopped off the monorail and was on our way to MK but not before I was “Randomly Selected”, another theme for this trip. The weather was beautiful, I was with my bride, and we were at MK. Not even moody teens and cargo short profiling CMs could bring me down now! A little magical selfie, that haze is magic just go with it!
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A little busy this evening but we had no plans other than to burn a few FPs.
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We walked around a bit, made our way towards Frontierland and used up a BTM FP before it was snack time. The DW had read about the new churro bites at Pecos Bill’s and she had to try them. Me, I kept it simple:
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With bellies fuller, we made for Fantasyland and used up our SDMT FP before we walked onto Little Mermaid and collected our DVC 25th Anniversary pins. Our SM FP was approaching so we made our way over to Tomorrowland but not before a spin on CoP and People Mover. Sadly, we once again got to experience some technical difficulties with CoP and got to enjoy a few scenes more than we would typically like. Anyway, time to use that SM FP! We approached the ride and noticed the line was extended to the opening, oh boy! It ended up being a 20 minute wait but I’ve never seen the line backed up like this for FP:
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After SM we made for MILF(still funny typing that out). I got to play the role of Sully thanks to my epically trim beard and ability to make scary faces!
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It was now starting to get late and we had an early ADR for Kona before the boat tomorrow so we made for the Poly. We had the good fortune of walking right up to a boat ready to take us back to the resort. It was a pleasant ride back and the weather was wonderful. Here is a little pic from the back of our house
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Still to come: Kona Breakfast and boarding the boat!
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
Grand Floridian Cafe - One word review: Fine. I actually thought it a bit run down compared to the opulence of the Grand. The food was good, but nothing special. There are better TS out there and I believe we will stick to them. Final note on the Cafe - wrinkly, cheap menus. Paper menus are cheap, but I guess with the frequency they change, paper is the cheapest option.

The churro bites were good. I don't believe they differed from the churro you can buy from the cart, but they do have a bit more crunch because more dough is exposed to the oil. I wasn't crazy about the chocolate-flavored spread. I'd get it again.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday morning!!
Time to get up, get fed and get to that boat! We had a 7:30 ADR for Kona, what has become a cruise tradition for us now. We decide to pack up the car and drive over towards the lobby rather than coming back to the room and then leaving after breakfast. We made the lobby with a few minutes to spare. BEHOLD, and amaze in the wonder!!! An ornery teen smiling before 7:30 in the morning!!!
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As you can see, folks were just cramming to get into Kona this morning…
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As is Kona tradition, the DW and I went with a press while the DD had some Stitch Juice.
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Today, the DD went with the ham and cheese omelet, the picture may not do it justice as it was a huge portion.
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The DW and I shared the Big Kahuna breakfast, it was great as always. In the past I usually order this myself and end up regretting it later so this time I did the smart thing and shared. I still came away STUFFED!
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After another fantastic Kona breakfast we were ready to make for the boat. After a quick fill up at the gas station formally known as Hess, we were on our way!

Still to come: Boarding the boat, operation rum runner, and gotta find that Dream icon…
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday cont.

So after about an hour of uneventful driving and a few dollars in tolls we crested the last bridge and could finally make out The Dream
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The chill bumps you get approaching this beauty may rival that of the WDW gates.
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We quickly made our way around to the curbside porter and dropped off our stateroom luggage and for the third level of the parking deck to queue up for our first checkpoint. While moving in the queue we heard the most unfortunate sound of about glass breaking behind us. We turned to see the small family a short ways back had managed to drop a 6-pack of beer. Felt a little bad for them to start their cruise that way but it was our turn at checkpoint one. Now we had short wait on the bridge to get through checkpoint two with the scanners and metal detectors. Perfect time for a family selfie:
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After passing through the second checkpoint we were finally in the lobby!
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We made for the Castaway Club check-in line and were out in about five minutes! Boarding group 2! We still had about 30 minutes before we could board so relaxed a bit and took in some people watching while we read over the navigator. We got a little face time with the mouse too, I’m pretty sure I take the worst pictures…
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SO CLEAN!!!
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Still to come: Boarding, Cabanas, Vanellope’s, and did I mention rum?
 

MerMom1981

Well-Known Member
Grand Floridian Cafe - One word review: Fine. I actually thought it a bit run down compared to the opulence of the Grand. The food was good, but nothing special. There are better TS out there and I believe we will stick to them. Final note on the Cafe - wrinkly, cheap menus. Paper menus are cheap, but I guess with the frequency they change, paper is the cheapest option.

The churro bites were good. I don't believe they differed from the churro you can buy from the cart, but they do have a bit more crunch because more dough is exposed to the oil. I wasn't crazy about the chocolate-flavored spread. I'd get it again.

Kinda sad to hear the GF Cafe is so lack-luster. We were planning to give it a try this summer.
Looking forward to trying those churro bites though!
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
I'm sure Sean will go over this, but I wanted to give you a outside view of the location our cabin. We had the most fortunate luck of securing a stateroom with a dividing wall and two giant portholes. It gives the allusion of two separate rooms. Our room was at the very front of the boat, right were you see the rows of portholes. Great room for three people.

 
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday cont.
So it was time to board! We were in the boarding group two so we didn’t have to wait long at all. We quickly made our way past the final checkpoint and bypassed the bluescreen picture opportunity. As you approach the entrance the CMs will ask you for your last name so they can announce your family as you enter the boat, it is a pretty cool feeling. I decided to have a little fun though. For whatever reason our little tribe has had this inside joke of referring to ourselves as “The McGillicuttys”, my apologies to any McGillicuttys out there, and I decided to go with it here. So as we approached the MC he turned to me and asked me our name and with the straightest of faces I said “The McGillicuttys”. He looked at me sideways for a second, smiled and spoke into his mike “And welcome The McGillicuttys!” to a round of applause from the crew. The announcement actually made the DD smile and laugh sooooo…Win for Dad!
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So after boarding we made our way to Cabanas for lunch before exploring the ship. If you are bored and are so inclined you can read our previous cruise TR’s to find out what a Tervis half filled with POG juice means, those that have followed along know what’s coming :D
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Still to come: Vanellope’s, exploring the ship, and wait, I thought only beer and wine were allowed?
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Friday cont.
So after lunch we walked out to the main deck to see chaos was being unleashed on the family area:
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We looked over our shoulders and noticed that we were right in front of Vanellope’s so we figured we’d check it out while we had some time to kill. It was as very cool shop that the DD would come back to later on the trip to enjoy.
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Still to come: exploring the ship, getting jealous of the kids club, and the room is ready!
 

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