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!
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
I do like Rendezvous! But i'm like you, I prefer wet ribs over dry ribs. I haven't been there in about 7 years so I think i'm due for another visit! Oooo Jerry's! They're putting one in Cordova so you don't have to go to the hood anymore! :hilarious:
I saw that!! I feel like the possibility of seeing a drug deal is part of the charm though :joyfull: but Cordova is a lot closer to Jackson, so I may be making IKEA/Jerry's runs more often now :D
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
I've got to ask because Tangierine Cafe is on our list to have lunch at.... The veggie platter looks delicious but do you eat all items seperately or do you put them into the pita? I feel somewhat like an idiot asking but i've never eaten anything similar to this. :happy:

It's a legitimate question. Honestly, you can eat it however you would like. I usually eat everything separately (minus the olives, because I hate olives) and dip the bread in the hummus. But you can also spread the hummus on the bread, fill with the falafel and other fixins and eat like a giant taco.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our bus ride from EC to AK was uneventful and quick! We had a few minutes still before our EE FP expired so we took a leisure stroll to view some animals at the front of the park .
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The landscape in front of the ToL was lite and there was a lonely CM looking for folks to picture up. We obliged and even took pic of our own.
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We continued on towards EE and were surprised to see folks already queuing up for RoL and it was still HOURS before show time! EE was fun as always was a blast, unless you’re the first timer sitting behind us!
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Up next: a lounge visit, I liked it better in Aliens, and some very relaxed giraffe.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So after EE we still had some time before our FoP FP expired so we opted to do some people watching from Nomad Lounge. I went with the Wakulla draft and DW went with some mixed concoction that I’ll let her speak to. The theming at NL is wonderful as ae the seats and people watching. I do like how they rotate the tapas menu but wish they would do the same thing with the beer selection. They’ve had the same beer offering since they first opened! Heck, even Baseline Tap House in HS has changed their draft offering twice since opening up. Anyhow, we had great service and it was nice just relaxing a bit before entering James Cameron’s Troll 2 land.
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We were closing in our FP time and we ventured into the only redeeming item from the AK addition. FoP is a wonderful, I can’t deny that! We all enjoy it and I only hope Disney Maintenance keeps the ride in full functioning order but think we all know how this will ultimately pan out. Upon exiting the Pandora Parrot gift shop we noticed the latest “guest enhancement”. This area of the park is already congested enough and this only creates more crowd clots. And, yes, Ellen Ripley wore it better…
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Thankfully our safari FP was ready, not that I needed an excuse to leave this black light poster nightmare. It was around 5:30, IIRC, and the standby queue was still pretty long. Safari was a little slow to begin with, no hippo’s to see and one shy rhino but as we made it to the grasslands things got more exciting.
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Up next: Finish up this safari, room service, and some pool time.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So we finish this safari up with a few more animals.
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We ended our AK day with a 20th anniversary photo op.
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We decided to Uber home and had one already waiting for us at the pickup spot when we arrived. Despite his music choice is AC was COLD and he had multiple Android and Apple charges for the backseat passengers!
 

MinnieM123

Premium 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.

The Mara has great food!! :hungry:
 

Jae99

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 took my parents and uncle to Tangerine Cafe after reading about it in your past trip reports. It definitely lives up to the hype!
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
The name of the drink at Nomad Lounge is Tempting Tigress. I picked it specifically for the bourbon and it did not disappoint. I really enjoyed it and I could walk upright afterwards.

Here are the ingredients: Russell's Reserve 10yr Bourbon, St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram, Tamarind Syrup, and Lime Juice

I really enjoy this lounge. I do miss the days of it being uncrowded and quiet.

@Jae99 I'm glad Tangierene Cafe lived up to the hype!

@Gurt They're a lot of fun! I'm sure there will be more in the future.
 

DisneyMorgan

Well-Known Member
I saw that!! I feel like the possibility of seeing a drug deal is part of the charm though :joyfull: but Cordova is a lot closer to Jackson, so I may be making IKEA/Jerry's runs more often now :D

Haha! Nothing screams Memphis hood more than Jerry's and drug deals! :joyfull: Speaking of IKEA.. I need another trip there soon also! I just read they scrapped the plans for the Nashville store.

And thats the rub...get it, Im a dry rib guy and Rendezvous is toos for me!

Lol!! I think I need a Rendezvous re-do! Maybe I can just put a little sauce on the ribs. Their ribs are delicious, but I still prefer sauce over dry rub!
 

bee

Well-Known Member
The name of the drink at Nomad Lounge is Tempting Tigress. I picked it specifically for the bourbon and it did not disappoint. I really enjoyed it and I could walk upright afterwards.

Here are the ingredients: Russell's Reserve 10yr Bourbon, St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram, Tamarind Syrup, and Lime Juice
I knew it was the Tempting Tigress before you posted the name, @imahistorygeek! I liked it so much that we made homemade allspice dram when we couldn't find the St. Elizabeth in stores, and made our own version of the Tigress. :hungry:

@lostpro9het you pretty much summed up all my thoughts on Avatar Land. FoP is a good ride, but the land as a whole seems so out of place and "meh" to me.

black light poster nightmare
:hilarious:
 
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Traffic was pretty heavy both due to the hordes of people and all the construction. This meant our Uber fare was a little bit more but I was fine with that considering we easily shaved 20 minutes off our travel time. Soon we were back in the room and I called room service to get our dinner ordered. We quickly noted that Disney did what Disney does. They, of course, messed with a good thing to bang our more bucks for their shareholders…so be it.
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Once upon a time the PTF could be ordered in either a child portion(about $30) or adult portion(about $40). Now they have removed the child portion AND upped the adult price, sigh… Anyway, were committed to this before seeing the changes so we went for it and still ordered a single adult portion.
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As you can see, a single adult portion is still plenty for two adults, IMO, and we still couldn’t finish it all! My main complaint, besides the pricing change, is they really messed with the “Sunset Punch”. In the past it pretty much was just POG juice, which was awesome. Now its mostly Sprite with a splash of POG juice, bleh! Honestly, we’ve done this experience twice and I’m not happy with the direction the offering is heading and don’t know that I would do it again. If you’ve never done it I still recommend you try it because ‘Ohana in your room is still a pretty cool experience. Here is the “out the door” cost for one adult:
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The weather was still fantastic out and we had yet spent any time in the pool so we decided to get our swim on for a little bit before calling it a night.
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Still to come: Some early morning MK, a bus to a boat, and a beer exchange!
 

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