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!
 

DisneyJeff

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Day 3, 2nd day at sea, cont.:

Still heading aft I came upon the Aqua Lab. I tell ya, the kids on this cruise have it soooo good. I think I wanted to play in this area when things were in full swing.
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I'm with you. That Aqua Lab does look like fun!!!
 

MomofPrincessGrace

Well-Known Member
@lostpro9het, Have you ever ridden the AquaDuck? I imagine that it can get quite warm in there.
We did it many times when we cruised the Dream. I really dont remember it being hot or stuffy in there. It did get super foggy the morning we ported in Nassau due to the rain, but it was really cool. Best time to ride it is at night, or when everyone else is still in port and you can ride it multiple times without a wait.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
@lostpro9het, Have you ever ridden the AquaDuck? I imagine that it can get quite warm in there.
We have. Its fun and not as hot as you think it should be. There is almost a constant mist/spray happening during the ride from the water splashing up and from the propellers moving you forward.


Day 3, 2nd day at sea, cont.:

So finally I got the call from DW that room service delivered the goods so I grabbed the hot food and met her in the room. We were so excited for the beautiful day.
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Now with it being an at sea day that was flat out perfect we spent over half the day looking at this.
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We could not have been more content relaxing in the adult pool area making some friends with a married couple from Canada who just so happened to have the same first name as my sister and brother, kinda weird and kinda neat. Of course we had plenty of CC to get us through these trying times
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The moon was still out too and that was cool to see
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After a few hours the captain decided to play some tunes using the ship's horns. We were sitting there really enjoying them when it hit me, "Why aint you recording this fool?!?" My timing was poor and only managed the last tune of about 6 that he played.


So, again, we spent the majority of the day relaxing at the pool up until around 1:00 when we decided we would grab some lunch and catch a movie. We made for our room to clean up first and change into some dry clothes. I was amazed at how beautiful the water was today. So amazed that I had to pop open one of my beer exchange draftees. This was the T-Rex porter by Port Rexton Brewing out of Newfoundland. My Untappd notes read 3.5/5 average porter with decent taste.
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dizfan917

Well-Known Member
There are, IMO, there are a few eateries in WDW that provide a consistently good meal. Tangierine Cafe is one of those places. I've never had a bad meal and it always tastes the same, which I like. I know what I'm getting and I know it will be good. I always choose the veggie platter. Despite the deep fried falafel, it always feels like a light meal.

On a related note, if you do like falafel, The Mara (at AKL - Jambo) serves up a great meal with falafel.

I've had the Schwarma Platter (Chicken and Lamb, I believe) trip after trip after trip for many years and always enjoyed it. I've opted for other options the last few visits, but I think I'm ready for a repeat once again in July!! :geek:
 

DisSplash

Well-Known Member
You have some really great photos of the many well-appointed ship details! I think I took more pictures of my food than the ship itself! 😜. One of these days, we’ll get to hang out in the adult section ... Our kids have not really taken to the kids clubs, and so they stalk us all over the ship. 🙄. I suppose it’s a good thing that our kids still want to hang with us, right?
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
You have some really great photos of the many well-appointed ship details! I think I took more pictures of my food than the ship itself! 😜. One of these days, we’ll get to hang out in the adult section ... Our kids have not really taken to the kids clubs, and so they stalk us all over the ship. 🙄. I suppose it’s a good thing that our kids still want to hang with us, right?
Thank you! Yes, enjoy their attention now because when the teen years hit...*poof*...

Question: Are you able to order hot food with room service? Or is the hot food better elsewhere?
For breakfast, the room service is limited to continental offerings. So you’re we’re talking toast, pastries, cereals, etc. as well as milk, tea, juice, and coffee. The lunch/ dinner menu has more to offer in the way if hot food.

I'm going to have to leave my 6 year old with my parents or in the kids club this October for some pool time in the adult area. I've never spent time there. Only 98 more days...

That view from your room is amazing!! We are staying on deck 8 (aft) but in a regular veranda room.
You’re going to have such a great time. Maybe your folks will cover you for at least one night!
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 3, 2nd day at sea, cont.:

So after we cleaned up and changed we decide to grab some lunch and go see The Last Jedi in 3D. We decided on just grabbing some food from Flo's and taking it to the Buena Vista Theater. Along the way you could see the madness that is the family pool.
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We ended up sharing a couple burgers, greek salad, and some prosciutto.
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Movie and food was good and we still had plenty of time after the show to get more pool time in, and we did. I ended up digging into another one of my draftees
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This was JDubs Passion Wheat. According to my Untappd notes: 3/5 yup, its a passion fruit wheat. Apparently I had this beer once before in Epcot during F&W and just didn't remember it as this was my second time logging this beer. So, we relaxed and pooled for a bit and this meant more hydration
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This was Powder Monkey by Heavy Seas. According to my Untappd notes: 3.25/5 an ok ale with buttery notes.

In all, we easily spent 6 hours pooling it up today and could not have been happier. It was getting close to the 6:15 show time so we made for the room to clean up and change for the evening. Saw some cuteness along the way.
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Tonight's show was BnB's "family" show. This was an excellent "G-rated" version of the show from the night before. They invited some kids up to play with them and that only added to the hilarity because, yeah, 6y/o are unpredictable.
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Up next: Royal Court for dinner
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 3, 2nd day at sea, cont.:

After the show we didnt have far to go for dinner as Royal Court is mid ship in the atrium. IIRC, Team Buffalo was dining in Cabanas this evening and wouldn't be joining us. This was something I didn't know was an option as we always do the rotational dining. We would learn from them later that all the menus that are offered in the three restaurants are available in Cabanas too! I could see this being a good option if you don't want to stick to 1 6:15/8:15 dining regiment or if something just comes up. We caught up with Team Nashville and talked about how we each had a great day and shared what we did, or didn't, do. Soon the service team was on us with menus and bread. For we went with the fried brie, french onion soup, duck confit, and farmhouse salad.
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 3, 2nd day at sea, cont.:

For the mains I went with the duck, it was a duck overload for pro9het tonight and I have no regrets. The DW went with the salmon.
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After the mains we were pretty much toast, over did it with the starters. I couldn't walk away form the table without trying one sweet thing so I ordered the apple tart, it as excellent.
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I don't know that we did anything this evening as we had a busy day planned in St. Maarten tomorrow and wanted to be rested up for it. We said our goodbyes to Team Nashville and made for our stateroom. Tri was still improving on the "art".
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 4 St. Maarten:

Had a wonderful sleep last night and we woke up hopeful for a beautiful day. Once again I was up around 6 and rushed to the veranda to see it was beautiful out! We noticed they had run up the flag which meant we were close to port. I ran up to Cabanas to grab some food for our veranda breakfast which we enjoyed as we were making port.
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 4 St. Maarten, cont:

As we finished up our breakfast we made port. Typically it has been our experience that when we make port the ship will do a 180 and back in. This was the first port in our 6 cruises where we went in nose first. Not a big deal just interesting.
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