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!
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Day 5 St. Thomas, cont:

Our staging tie was approaching and we had to head forward to the Walt Disney Theater to meet with our excursion group. Team Timon today. We waited about 15 minutes then exited as groups to the port. It was still raining a bit but when I saw our bus drivers name I just knew things were going to change!

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Things are tougher than I thought in Hollywood.
 

Zipadeelady

Well-Known Member
Kayaking was so much fun! Like Sean mentioned, the drive to get there was SCARY. There were many sharp turns and steep hills.

I'd never been on a kayak, so there was a bit of getting used to what we needed to do to move forward, but one we figured it out, we were good to go.

These first two videos are the mangroves part of the excursion. This was just the beginning and we were already having a great time. The beauty of this place (as you will soon see) was breathtaking. The trip through the mangroves brought us to something scary (to me) and something amazing: jellyfish and millions of hermit crabs.
This looks like a great excursion! I would love it, maybe not the hermit crabs though. :hungover:
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5 St. Thomas, cont:

So we paddled for a while but our group was getting real spread out so the guide started diverting folks into mangrove cove. We all collected here for a short break to hydrate while the guides gave us a lesson on the mangroves, local wildlife, and teh impact of the storms.
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One item the guide pointed out is the large population of "jellies" bellow us. He was quick to point out that they didn't pose a serious threat to us but could leave us with irritated skin if we tangled with one. If you look closely you will see them, they are the round mushroom shaped objects.
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Naturally we couldn't leave this area without the guide hopping in the water and picking one up. He did pass it around and I held it for a bit. The "consistency" of this guy was that of a jello mold covered in olive oil.
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5 St. Thomas, cont:

So after we collected the whole group and got a little education it was time to forge a ahead. We paddled on for another 10-15 minutes and came upon an island that was or next destination. We beached our boats and explored the coast a bit while the group made their way to the shore. I was fascinated by the volume of interesting shells on this beach. I even scored some costume jewelry!
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Once everyone made it to shore we all grabbed some water and headed inland. We were cautioned to be very careful of where we step as the ground was alive.
@Zipitidoda you'll probably want to stop here
So the reason we were warned about the ground is because this island is inhabited by thousands of hermit crabs!
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The ground was literally moving with them!


Now, they were easily scared and if they noticed a shadow suddenly cover them they would duck and cover so you had to stand still for a few seconds before they would start moving again. Our guides told us all to find a fast looking crab for a race. I looked around and found one that looked energetic and brought it over to the group. The guide drew two circles on the ground and told us to put our racing crabs in the middle circle. We were then told to make a lot of noise to get them going but not to cast shadows on them. The first crab to reach the outer circle would be the winner. Our crab came in third.
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
Our guide said that if we accidentally stepped on them it more than likely wouldn’t hurt them. The guide said their shells are able to withstand pressure of someone walking in them (depending on size of shell and person).

If you’ve never seen how hermit crabs change their shells, you should look it up. It’s really neat.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5 St. Thomas, cont:

We continued up the coast to a shoreline covered with a different type wildlife. As you looked out you could see all these black spots with red dots just under the water. We would learn that these were infant sea urchins. There were also some adult urchins scattered about as well.
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We also noticed a lot of what looked like fossils attached to the rocks. There were actually chitons and according to the internets and our tour guide they are marine molluscs that latch onto sea rocks. Let em tell you, they are fused on there! I tried to pluck one off but they are "one with the rock"!
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Some further exploration had us finding some more sea life. These little guys were more pretty good at hiding and you had to look closely in the nooks to find them. Naturally I couldn't come this far without holding some wildlife. It was pretty neat seeing how the sea urchins move.

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We grabbed a quick selfie before heading up the coast for some more exploration.
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5 St. Thomas, cont:

After spending some time with the wildlife we continued up the coast towards some natural splash areas. The terrain getting to our destination became very rocky and I started noticing what appeared to be rust seeping from the rocks. The layered nature of the rock combined with the rust had me thinking this was a man made as if they dumped scrap metal here. Our guide educated us on the composite nature of the rock and its susceptibility to oxidation. Turns out it was all nature, I was still fascinated by it.
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Soon we were at our destination. This area was a natural break point for the waves meeting the island. It produced some beautiful scenes in person but trying to capture it in a picture or video proved to be difficult.
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5 St. Thomas, cont:
After spending some time watching the ocean splash we turned around and headed back towards our boats. Along the way we stopped and did some snorkeling. The water was really moving today and it made for some murky pictures in some spots. We did get to see some more wildlife and some natural and man made reef action.
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We snorkeled for probably 30-45 minutes before heading back to our boats for the trip home. Before our trek our guides popped open a cooler full of chocolate on ice! It was a nice snack and gave us an energy boost for the trip. When we arrived back we showered off the ocean and met back up with our friend Mel.
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For those that travel to St. Thomas I do recommend this company for the excursion.
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5 St. Thomas, cont:

Mel brooks did a great job of returning us to the boat unscathed despite some St.Thomas driving scares that is probably business as usual for them. Once we hit the ship we made for Cabanas to grab some lunch to bring back to our stateroom for lunch and a view!
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I tapped into my beer exchange stash and pulled out the 10 Saints. According to my Untappd notes: 2.75/5 Got excited about rum aged on the label but this guy is a no frills lager.
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Thoroughly disappointed by the lager I had to wash the disappointment from my mouth with a Night Swim. My Untappd notes read: 4/5 very nice porter that is smooth, a little creamy with nice coffee notes.
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Fully fed and hydrated we had some title defense to take care of! We made our way down to O'Gills to defend our 90's music trivia challenge title.
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I'm happy to say TSAAEAP successfully kicked and brought home the gol...I mean polyethylene!
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Riding high on our victory we decided to head to The Tube for free drinks at the DVC meet and greet. They were showing off virtual tours of Copper Creek, Polynesian, and Aulani.
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I'm not terribly proud to admit this but I had a Michelob Ulta
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I ended up washing this nightmare out with some comp'd red wines.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5 St. Thomas, cont:

It was getting to be late afternoon and the ship would be setting sail soon so we made for our room to watch as we departed St. Thomas. The weather was still beautiful out and we had high hopes for our day at sea tomorrow.
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It was closing in on 6:00 and tonight's live show was Aladdin. Neither of us are huge Aladdin fans by any means but the live action genie, who made several appearances during the cruise, was worth it alone.
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We went all highfalutin with our theater snacks...port wine and Lays, pinkies up!
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We scored some keepsakes during the show too! We're still calculating their value in Shrute bucks.
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imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
So...this was our first experience with port. We were noobs and didn't realize it was more of an after dinner drink. I've had a good port since then, after dinner, and it's a different experience. It was very good. As a pre-dinner drink, not so much. However, the Lays chips are my favorite and they complement anything.

The money is probably one of my favorite souvenirs.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5 St. Thomas, cont:

After Aladdin we headed back to our room to clean up change for dinner. We still had a few minutes to burn before dinner and decided to walk the midship deck when we bumped into an old friend.
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We continued down to teh second deck for dinner for our second night of Enchanted garden dining.
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We were presented with bread service and I chose a salad for an app.
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Based on my picture I'm guessing the DW went with the shrimp and rice and the mushroom soup as her main and I went with the turkey and dressing.
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To close out our second night at EG we shared the cheesecake and the chocolate sundae.
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 5 St. Thomas, cont:

We closed out our St. Thomas day with some adult entertainment in The Tube. Tonight's act was Marcus Monroe, a juggling comedian.
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Never heard of Marcus before tonight but immediately felt sorry for him. Whoever on the DCL planning team thought it would be a great idea to put a juggler in a room with low ceilings should probably be reassigned. Marcus Did his best with the comedy but struggled with his juggling because of the box he was in. After Marcus's act was over #tonyfromspain came out and got the crowd going for the adult team trivia. Tonight was probably the most unDisney cruise night we've experienced and I dont mean that in a bad way. Lets just say there were poles involved and "things" happened... During one of the challenges I did manage a selfie with #tonyfromspain that was beautifully bombed by a teammate!
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We had a great time with the trivia challenges and as the game ended were encouraged to stick around for the silent disco but we were just too tired. We headed back to our stateroom to see that Tri had been improving on his craft.
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