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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MinnieM123

Premium Member
So the next morning came fast and I was up early. I couldn’t bring myself to sleep in on our last full day. So I made for the busses and was soon at MK. For whatever reason they had modified the entrance to day and moved bag check and body scanning to the guest services side. Now here is where the “randomly selected” sham shines brightest (@MinnieM123). Not having any bags I was making my way through the far left of the crowd when a CM security guard came barreling through THREE lines of folks from the far right. This CM was no small dude either; think older John Candy but a foot taller. He came up on me as fast as he could and out of breath from his sprint to “randomly select” me. My 99.9% randomly selected rate had me wondering if cargo shorts was a “randomly selected” trigger so I attempted to inquire, sadly to no avail. Our exchange went as follows:
Him: Sir you’ve been (out of breath gasp) randomly selected this way please(out of breath gasp)
Me: Is this because Im wearing shorts with pockets?
Him: Sir you’ve been randomly selected this way please(out of breath gasp)
Me: You sure did push through a lot of people to randomly select me, should I not wear shorts with pockets anymore?
Him: (out of breath gasp) Sir you’ve been randomly selected this way please
Me: Are you allowed to even look me when you talk to me? ( the CM wouldn’t even look at me and this bothered me most?!?!)
Him: Sir you’ve been randomly selected this way please

Anyway, after my fun with Disney's John Candy I decided to take out some frustration on Zurg for a while. Then caught a ride on SM

Oh my gosh--this is so funny!!! I enjoyed your in-depth conversation with the screener (who also did not make eye contact, let alone answer a simple question)! Just so you know, every day I wore cargo capris, but only was selected at "random" twice, but in one day only. o_O (Maybe it was the color of capris I wore that day--who knows?? :rolleyes: ) So I'm not sure if it was just the cargo shorts you wore, that tipped off this (out of shape guy) that you might be dangerous to MIckey and the gang. :D

Seriously, they've got to either get rid of this stupid RANDOM "system" :eek: or just install enough of these machines, so that everyone goes through.
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
Why? I LOVE Zebra Domes!! I even made a special side trip for lunch over to AKL (The Mara), so be sure I wasn't deprived of this delicious dessert!! :hungry:

I wanted to like them, I really did. Maybe I had built up the expectation of them and they failed to deliver. I just didn't like them. I'd take the chocolate cake in a tub any day over these things!
 

MinnieM123

Premium Member
I wanted to like them, I really did. Maybe I had built up the expectation of them and they failed to deliver. I just didn't like them. I'd take the chocolate cake in a tub any day over these things!

Well I can certainly agree that chocolate cake is always a good substitution for almost any other dessert! (With the Zebra Domes, people either love them, or hate them. Never heard of anyone sort of liking them.) But I'm in the Zebra Dome Fan Club (I just made that up! :D ha!)
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
This was my first taste of Zebra Domes that everyone raves about.
2 words: Never again.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way! We've eaten at Boma twice for dinner. I made myself get them the second time just to make sure I didn't miss something the first time! Nope! Just didn't like them, and don't care if I never see one again, let alone eat one!!
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way! We've eaten at Boma twice for dinner. I made myself get them the second time just to make sure I didn't miss something the first time! Nope! Just didn't like them, and don't care if I never see one again, let alone eat one!!

When I bit into the first one I thought maybe I'm just missing something. We shared them, so I think I ate my half. Despite not liking them, I couldn't let them go to waste.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So after a relaxing afternoon at the pool we were getting close to our ADR for Il Mulino. We took a little detour around the boardwalk before making our way to the Swan.
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Soon we arrived and were quickly seated. I’ve praised this place countless times and this review is no different. Im so glad it does not participate in the DDP. We have been here a few times and each experience has been excellent. Tonight’s visit included the same service team we had in our very first visit about four years ago!
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They start you out with complementary appetizers and bread. That is a mix of eggplant, tomato, parm, and seasoning on the left(very tasty) and salami on the right.
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The DW and I stared out with drinks. I’ve had the Philosophers before and it was good. I gave the Einstok a 3.5/5 with the note that it was a “nice porter with good flavor”.
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We placed our order and the DW and I decided to share the Insaccati Misti for Two( this picture came about half way through us eating on it)
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We also shared the Manicotti (this is just half of it!)
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The DD went with the pizza
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Finally, no Il Mulino meal is complete without the complementary house made limoncello
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I tell ya, if you’ve never given it a go you need to give Il Mulino a chance! IMO it smashes Via Napoli and even Tratoria al Forno doesn’t stand up to it. They are consistent, have great service, have great food, and you don’t see kids running through the place with soccer balls playing games while you try to eat.

Still to come: Short visits at MK and AK then the ride home 
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Whelp…got some mail yesterday so I guess I need to wrap this bag of memories up!
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We made for MK and it was HOPPING!! Here is the start of the queue for the PeopleMover!
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We immediately made for SM to use up our FP then headed to Buzz where this happened again…DW was not amused.
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That’s about it on photos from that night. We did take in POTC, HM, and PM before exiting the park. The next morning was our “head home day” and as is our tradition we always close out a trip with a rope drop of AK. So bright and early the car was packed and we made our way to the park. We knocked out 2 trips on dinosaur, we got to stay in our vehicle for the second trip since there was no one in line! Dino was followed up with a whirl the a few dances with the Disco Yeti.
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With that we grabbed some breakfast and made for the park exit and the trip home, booo. Had to make one more stop to see the cutest thing AK had to offer!
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So there you have it, another adventure in the books! We are set to be back in the bubble in less than 20 days for the DVC Beach Bash at Typhoon Lagoon! Some other good news is that I got my CRV back last week which means we will have our SunPass for the trip!!! I’m telling you, that pass makes a difference! This was just one of the tolls we hit on the ride home and it seemed each one had a line this long. All that beautiful real estate to the left is SunPass territory.
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I’ll probably do a live TR for the Beach Bash since it’s so close and will only be a few days so be on the lookout!

Thanks for following!
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
got my CRV back last week which means we will have our SunPass for the trip!!! I’m telling you, that pass makes a difference! This was just one of the tolls we hit on the ride home and it seemed each one had a line this long. All that beautiful real estate to the left is SunPass territory.
Ok, first: So jealous that you have a CRV! That's what I want to get when I finally get a new car. Second, I totally agree, the SunPass is awesome. I hate paying tolls so much, but at least with the pass we don't have the hassle of stopping or getting caught in a line :joyfull:

Another great trip report! Already looking forward to your next one.
 

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
I tell ya, if you’ve never given it a go you need to give Il Mulino a chance! IMO it smashes Via Napoli and even Tratoria al Forno doesn’t stand up to it. They are consistent, have great service, have great food, and you don’t see kids running through the place with soccer balls playing games while you try to eat.

I second this! We love Il Mulino.

Enjoyed the trip report! Have fun at the Beach Bash.
 

Sharkreef11

Well-Known Member
It was a lot of fun following along - thanks for sharing. You're Disney John Candy story gave me a good laugh. Excited to read about the Beach Bash at Typhoon Lagoon. Our trips are typically at the end of the year during F&W or Christmas, so we haven't been able to take advantage of that yet. The thought of running around Typhoon Lagoon at night would be pretty awesome. Looking forward to reading the next trip!
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Well, it's about time you finished this TR! ;) (Although good things come to those who wait, blah blah blah)

Fun read as always...though I was hoping to hear more of Sophie's "cruising is not for me" explanation (unless I missed it somewhere along the way?)

And I noticed four MagicBands for the Beach Bash trip...who's the mystery guest?

I'll say hi to Mickey for ya!
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Fun read as always...though I was hoping to hear more of Sophie's "cruising is not for me" explanation (unless I missed it somewhere along the way?)
I'll let @imahistorygeek address that, she is the one that handled that conversation. I'm too "mean".
And I noticed four MagicBands for the Beach Bash trip...who's the mystery guest?
DD is bringing a friend this trip! For a few years now we have been trying to get some of her friend's parents to let their kids come on an adventure with us and we finally wore one down enough! So this trip will be a party of 4!
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
Since this is the end, I'll go ahead and explain the title.

We're on the cruise, DD isn't feeling 100%. The sea sickness IMO played a lot into this. She didn't like teen club, she stayed in the room... A LOT. She basically declared crusing was not for her. So with that info, we moved our May 2017 cruise on the Wonder (with her) to October 2016 on the Dream (without her). I'm sad to be missing out on the Wonder and even more sad that she does care for cruising.

And to top it all off, she says that she's tired of Disney and she's fine if we go without her. She wants to visit other places. I get that. We've been trying to do that. But it still didn't sit right with me. I know it's these pesky teen years, but I would have given my right arm to go to Disney as a kid.

So there you have it, the meaning behind the title. We're ok going without her. We have a great time with her or without because they are two completely different types of trips.

Onward!
 

WDWDarling

Well-Known Member
Great report! Il Mulino looks SO good! Definitely going to have to keep that on the radar.

I'm sorry to hear your DD didn't love the cruise. The last Disney trip I took with my parents was a land & sea trip (3 days at WDW and 4 nights in the Wonder) when I was in high school and I remember being moody at the time just wanting to be back home with my friends. Here we are 8 years later and I understand how lucky I was that my parents were able plan vacations like that and have rekindled my love for Disney and the parks and have a Disney cruise booked for next year!

All that to say, as a once ornery teen, those years do pass and I think having a friend along on her next trip will definitely help.

Until then though, you guys definitely need to keep going so we have more of your awesome trip reports to read :).
 

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