Trip Report #tonyfromspain: A Prophet Surf ‘N Turf story

Whelp, now that the Freestyle/Greco season is over, I’ve completed my course setup for my summer class, and I’ve finished my laundry I can kick this beast off!

!!!DISCLAIMER!!!​

For those overly sensitive to satirical sass, poor spelling, and overall weak grammar then please feel free to excuse yourself now because all bets are off from here on forward… As @Zipitidoda would say, there are plenty of prophetisms to come.



Still here? Swell!



Most of the backstory can be found here How to celebrate a proper 20/40 in just 18 months.... For those suffering from krikosophobia (I’ll let you stew on that one), the long and short of it is that we’ve been planning this trip for over 18 months and we are celebrating our 20th anniversary and our 40th birthdays since they both occur this year! I have mentioned that one of us has yet to hit that milestone and the other is indeed a full 40? I can tell you who still 39 but that would just lack class…it’s me…I’m still 39 and she’s older me! ;):D Anywho, there will be some park visiting, WDWMagic member meetup, and a 7-night cruise in this TR.



Anyway, this journey starts out with a late flight out of the busiest airport in America. We worked to late afternoon and drove down the northern most Marta station. We took Marta down to ATL thinking this would not only save us money on parking, which it did, but also time since Hotlanta has some of the worst traffic, ever. Sadly, we didn’t win the “saving time” game as about half way down a train on the same track broke down causing some delays that put us at the airport less than 2 hours before our flight. We quickly checked our bags and waded through security. We had planned on having a nice sit down meal at the airport but settled for Jersey Mikes since we were now time strapped.
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Unfortunately, 24 hours prior to our flight we forgot to log into Southwest and complete precheckin and we ended up with a real late boarding group. I was legitimately concerned we would not be sitting together on this trip but thankfully we found a pair of seats together near the rear of the plane. I’ll let the DW speak to how this affected her trip. IMO this was one of the BEST flight experiences we’ve had! The head attendant seemed like he was classically trained in the Jungle Cruise Skipper arts and was VERY entertaining. There were no issues with our flight at all! We even got to see the HEA fireworks as we approached MCO! As we made our descent we were notified that it was one of the attendants birthday and a request was made for all of us to turn our flight attendant lights. We all followed the request and they then turned off the cabin lights as we all sang happy birthday to the birthday boy. He then “blew out his candles” as we all turned off the lights as he blew, a very cool experience! As we disembarked I, of course, had to get a photo with the birthday boy and his crown!
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We took the MCO monorail to the main hub and collected our bags. We were flying later than normal and I didn’t want to leave bag pickup and delivery to the Disney folks because I didn’t want to be woken up at 1am when our bags got delivered to our room. Our luggage was on the carousel quickly but I got us turned around and took a small detour before we finally made it to the DME queue:

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Thankfully they opened another line up and we were quickly waiting in our bus queue. There must have been a slew of cheer and or teen events going on this week because the DME lines were chalk full of rowdy teens and inappropriately dressed 7 year olds. Soon we were on our bus with about 12 other people but then just sat there for at least 15 minutes. We waited and waited and then, all of a sudden, a mass of teen conventioneers with a few parent chaperones walked on and filled up the remaining seats. Finally we pulled away with the notice that we would be hitting POR first before making our way to the POLY. It wasn’t long before were in the bubble! We unloaded our teen patrons and made for what should have been a short trip to the POLY but the Mouse’s road construction turned it into an almost 30 minute drive! We finally arrived at the Polynesian sometime between 11:30 and midnight!



Still to come: Our room!
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We pulled into the Poly pretty late and they had only one CM working the counter. I sent the DW in to get in line for the checkin while I waited for our luggage to be “unbused”. She was still waiting in line when I entered the lobby.
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We were next in line and were quickly through the process. I gave the CM both our bands and asked “please make sure they both work. He tested them and said “good to go”…so whose band do you think didn’t work when we got to the room? Yup…me. Despite deactivating all but two of my bands before the trip my band still didn’t open the door. Too late to care about it tonight so we used the DW’s and to get in and get situated. We were In Moorea for the first time and had a nice view overlooking the landscape, but we wouldn’t see that until morning.
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Still to come: A beautiful "May the 4th", CM same name challenge, and a little sheriffwoody action
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yeah!! Excited for this report! From what I saw on the ol’ Instagram, looked like a wonderful time was had!
We did! DCL continues to provide wonderful experiences for us!

Wish I had the ingredients for one of your infamous Castaway Cocktails to sip while reading!
You and me both! That POG juice is quite elusive here in the Peach State.

PS: LOVE #tonyfromspain ! :cool:
IMO, one of the, if not the, best adult entertainment hosts for DCL!
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Despite being up ridiculously late, we’re 9:30 bedtime folk, I was up well before the alarm…and sunrise for that matter. A story I forgot to mention was that when we entered our room last night there was only decalf coffee for the coffee maker! That simply wouldn’t do so I called housekeeping around 12AM last night to get regular coffee pouches. See, I like to set the coffee maker up the night before so all I have to do in the morning is hit the button and the pot is brewing! So I woke up bright and early, hit the button, and sat outside while things were brewing and the sun was rising
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Oh yeah, it’s May the 4th today! I keep this on me all the time but also have a mint one in storage because I’m a packrat like that!
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We strolled along the beach towards the main house to catch a monorail to MK. We walked through security just in time to catch the next ride out! Soon we were out front. The weather was perfect and so far the crowds seemed lite.
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We walked onto SM first thing. We had no FP at this park today as we opted to get some for AK later in the afternoon. SM is still one of my top 2 rides, if not the best.
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I’ve said this before, and this trip was no exception, we’ve taken a real shine to just walking the parks and doing whatever. This is in sharp contrast to our past days of park, gotta ride every ride twice, commando attitude we once had. A perfect example of this is the fact that we rode The Many Adventures of Pooh, HA! Pooh I’m so juvenile. While walking through the queue I wondered why we hadn’t ridden this in so long. Then the ride began. Oh yeah, now I remember, I’m not three years old any more.
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Up next: My band won’t open my door but it finally gets my name on the screen!
 

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
Woot! Tonyfromspain moved to the Fantasy? So we Ladies Cruisers will get to visit with him again this year!

We had Tony on the Ladies cruise back in September! Loved him. My other fave has been Jo! She’s quick witted and quite a hoot!

We had Jo on the second Ladies cruise in 2014, enjoyed her so much, and then she was on my Canada cruise on the Magic in 2016. She is a hoot, especially when hosting Match Your Mate!
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
I don't feel like quoting any of Sean's posts, so I'll just go from the beginning up to where he stops.

We booked this cruise on opening day (whenever that was). We've been planning, planning, and planning. It was a bit surreal to actually be going on this trip. We (meaning not me) went from "it's a boat in the water" to a 7-night cruise. This was our first cruise as gold, which doesn't mean a whole lot except that were are thisclose to platinum.

I'm fully on board with this title, because #tonyfromspain was amazing! He made the adult activities extra fun and one night, well let's just say, #tonyfromspain really interacted with the crowd and a pole.

Where was I? Oh yes, the traveling day. We had to sit on MARTA for a bit and I heard a fascinating story of how MARTA is supposed to be quicker and that she wanted her money back. I almost wanted to just give her the $2.50 for her trip. :rolleyes: We finally arrived at the airport late, but still with time to sit and relax. And this is where I lost my tervis water bottle. That was really the least of my worries. Since we did check in late to SW, we had limited options for seats. It was fine, though, and we had some sports fans watching a game around us having a great time. It was loud in the back in the plane, but I put on some Sherlock and relaxed.

Before I knew it, we were in Orlando. It's different flying at night. I don't mind it a bit.

DME lines were long, but we were soon on our way to the Poly. We checked in and had, I think, a pretty good location. The room was beautiful, as usual, but I will say that once you've sailed DCL and slept on the cruise beds (that includes the pillows, duvet, and linens), you'll think deluxe resort beds and pillows are junk. There is that much of difference. We could just walk over to the TTC. MK was not busy when compared to spring break. My only real complaint about our park trip was POTC. It was down several time while we were there. Boo.

I will continue with my thoughts after the next update.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our “wherever we may roam” stroll had us walking on to IASW next. Its crazy what can put a smile on your face but there is something so classic about this ride that its hard not to be tapping your feet and smiling through the whole ride. DW and I swore we saw several new items on this boat trip.
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My magic band won’t open my door but it finally gets my name on the screen!
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After IASW we made for Liberty Square but the way was roped off! Turns out we still had about 5 minutes before EMH ended and the park officially opened up. We made use of the Tangled bathrooms while also looking for some special hoof prints while we waited. As soon as the rope dropped we made for HM to parry with some friendly spooks.
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Up next: A CM game I was destined to lose, one of the best perks of DVC membership, and ‘Ohana with a twist.
 

WDW74

Well-Known Member
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Settling in with a Magic Hat BarRoom Hero for the ride...
“When Boston legends, The Drop Kick Murphy’s, come hang out at your brewery, you better be ready to brew with them. We were, and we did, and together we created BarRoom Hero. This traditional pub ale benefits their Claddagh Fund Charitable Foundation.”
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
View attachment 286626

Settling in with a Magic Hat BarRoom Hero for the ride...
“When Boston legends, The Drop Kick Murphy’s, come hang out at your brewery, you better be ready to brew with them. We were, and we did, and together we created BarRoom Hero. This traditional pub ale benefits their Claddagh Fund Charitable Foundation.”
Ahhhhh....you know me so well! When I saw them in March, Ken Casey talked about this happening but fat chance me finding it here in the deep south. Color me jealous!
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So after HM we moseyed over to the wildest ride in the wilderness! Since it was only a few minutes after official opening we were able to walk right on.
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As we exited the ride we noticed a lonely photo CM and decided to oblige him with our awesomeness.
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Upon tapping my band for the pictures I noticed his name tag and had to get a selfie with the CM since it’s a rare sighting to see someone else with the proper spelling! Already up by one point I thought this would be a good time to play “Lets see who can get their picture taken with the most CMs with the same name!” game. Again, intoxicated on finding the 5 leaf clover of a CM we made for Pirates while searching out CMs.
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As we approached PotC a common theme emerged, “Sorry, folks, Pirates is closed.” This would be a bummer as it is one of our favorites despite the moronic changes of late.

It was approaching 10:00 and we decided it was time to head over to EC to grab AP magnets and some lunch. We made for the front of the park and took the TTC monorail to catch the EC monorail. I’m happy to report that both trains ran perfectly and got us to EC in no time!


Still to come: The picture that blew up the internets, some fine people watching, and Backlight Land attempts to add a piece of flair.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Soon we were circling the golf ball and then took full advantage of both the “guest without bags” security queue as well as the AP turnstile. Crowds were moderate so far and the weather was still wonderful! We stopped for a quick selfie in front of the ol’ Titleist Grande
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As mentioned before, one of better Members Benefits that DVC ownership offers is the DVC lounge at EC. This air conditioned oasis is perfect for the long hot days in the bubble. The lounge offers “complimentary” hot and cold beverages, snacks, computer and printer access, and, maybe most importantly, iPhone and Android charging cables! Also, as mentioned before, as you check in at the lounge you are reminded that they request you keep your shoes on! Its sad they have to say this but its even sadder that we saw folks ignoring this rule when we got up top! Alas, I was too high on air conditioning and snacks to care!
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Speaking of snacks, every few minutes a CM walks by with a cart doling out snacks of all kind for those that are interested. I personally favor the gummy bears but today they had something new, Twizzlers! It was with this that we about broke the internet.
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For whatever reason this picture blew everyone’s mind. We were goofing and I told her to take a bite out of it but the internets lost its and thought this was normal behavior and wouldn’t stand for it! I’m pretty sure she got disowned by half her relatives :p

After some figurative and literal recharging we decided it was time to get out AP magnets on! We made for the location when DW noticed this:
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I give you a 2:00 meltdown at 12:30! This little decided to throw herself down and just spread out with a fine little tantrum while mum just tuned her out. It was quite enjoyable from this distance! By the time we made our way over the tot got scooped up and carried away. We walked inside and grabbed these beauties!
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Up next: Maybe figments biggest fan who hates all things parsley and then some AK fun.
 

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