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
Day 2, at sea day #1, cont.

It’s been a busy morning so far and we well into noon which meant one thing, lunch! We talked it over and neither of us felt like heading up to Cabanas so we decided to order in. Again, another nice thing about DCL is complimentary room service. We are sure to tip our room service server since they are providing great service and are not a part of our rotational service team. While we waited for our food I want out on the veranda to pop open on of my beer exchange selections. It was still raining but our veranda cover kept us dry! I decided to start out with the Blazing Sun Double NEIPA.
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This brew came courtesy of a Maple Leaf traveler and is a beer I’m pretty sure I’d have a difficult time getting down south. My Untappd notes read 3.5/5 with mild hops and slightly juicy. I remember it being a good hot weather beer.

Rather quickly our food arrived! We decided to share a few plates. We went with the chicken finger plate, club sandwich, greek salad, and the “all hands on deck” cheese plate. The AHOD is one of our favorite room service items to get and usually get one or two every trip, in addition to the mickey bars!
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We were feeling pretty good after lunch and figured it was a good time to book our placeholder for a future trip. We made our way to the vacation planner area and filled out the info card to be seen.
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There was a bit of a wait to book so we decided to head to O’Gills for some drinks and to escape the lobby madness, you’ll see why in a minute. O’Gills had a few folks sharing the same idea as us. Each DCL ship has an exclusive beer brewed for them. On this ship it was the O’Gills ale, I know pretty creative name for the beer amiright? Anyway, I went with an O’Gills, my Untappd notes read 2.75/5 a basic ale light in flavor, 687 was better. The DW went with some green concoction, I cant remember the name of it right now.
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Still to come: lobby madness, merchandising, and more beer!
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2, at sea day #1, cont.

After some time at O’Gills our spot for the placeholder queue was near. We made our way back to the atrium area and witnessed the princess madness. I think regardless of rain outside this would have been the same view.
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Our name was finally posted on the vacation planner board and we had some facetime with Ann-Marie from the UK. We spent a few minutes with her setting up our placeholder and transferring it to our agent. The process was quick and painless.
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After our booking we went down to explore the gift shop to pick up a few items. We found a replacement Tervis for the DW who so generously decided to donate her last one to the ATL airport. We passed the other fancy chair and mosaic along the way.
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Still to come: We are not experts at Disney Park trivia, bingo, and the sun is out!
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2, at sea day #1, cont.

So the lobby was still abuzz with princess madness and there were some activities coming up in the D Lounge. We decided to go try our hand at advanced Disney park trivia. To get in the right state of mind for this type of trivia I walked over to O’Gills to grab a beer I’ve never had before as well as some pretzels. The beer was Duke’s Cold Nose Brown Ale by Bold City Brewery out of Jacksonville. My Utappd notes read 3/5 and lite on flavor for a brown but I might repeat it. (I didn’t).
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So now I was all geared up for trivia only to learn that Disney park trivia != WDW park trivia. There were so many questions from DLA, DLP, SDL, and TDL. We conceded the game after about four questions but still gave it an effort. We made some shots in the dark and lucked out on a couple but no were near to earn any swag for this trivia game. Despite the butt kicking we had fun. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait long or go far for our next adventure. Up next, also in the D Lounge, was bingo!
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To get in the right state of mind for this adventure I made another O’Gills run. I came back with a La Fin Du Monde by Unibroue for me and a Loose Cannon by Heavy Seas for the DW
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If you’ve ever read one of my TRs you know I cannot do Disney without a La Fin or a Golden Monkey. I was first turned on to the Unibroue beers at the Canada pavilion and love what those maple leafs brew up. Beer & Bingo was exciting but no big winners today. After the game we decided to head back to our room to rest for a bit before tonight’s show. Of course the first thing I do upon entering our room is to sprint to the veranda to see if its stopped raining…and it had!
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We relaxed for a bit and either watched Flight of the navigator or Wreck-it Ralph on demand. It was now closing in on 6:00 so we made our way forward to watch tonight’s show, @imahistorygeek will have to tell you which show it was it may have been Believe but I’m not sure. Sorry for the lack of show pictures but they ask that you take no photos of the live presentations. I’m not sure I mentioned it yet but tonight was formal night on this cruise so folks were dressing to the nines tonight, and they were not alone
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Still to come: Classyish dinner, buckets & boards, and Tri is trying…
 
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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2, at sea day #1, cont.

So dinner was approaching and we had to get ready so back to the room! A few minutes later, for me, and about an hour, for her, and we were ready for Enchanted Garden!
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Somehow I managed to not take any pictures of the restaurant! I think I have a few from our next time here. We were promptly seated and said our hellos to Team Buffalo and Team Nashville. We shared stories from the day as well as what was happening back home. Both teams were great couples to share dinners with and made for some enjoyable nights. We were greeted by our service team who were busting tail to make us happy. We were delivered the bread service while we looked over the menus.
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For aps we went with the mushroom tart, cucumber roll, and farmhouse salad.
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Still to come: Mains, ends, and entertainment.
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2, at sea day #1, cont.

For mains the DW went with the seared sea bass and I had the pork medallions. Mine was awesome and I didn’t hear any complaints from the DW.
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For the sweets to close us out we went with the pecan tart and the fudge brownie sundae. They also got wind that it was our anniversary and brought out a little extra.
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Dinner was excellent again and we spent plenty of time chatting each other up right until it was time for some entertainment. We made our goodbyes and the DW and I made for The Tube.

We got some face time with our activities director Tony, #tonyfromspain, who was entertaining as all getout and briefed us on what we were in for the rest of the cruise before introducing tonight’s act.
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Full disclosure we learned a few months prior to the cruise that Buckets n Boards would be a headliner for our cruise and I was not impressed. The thought of two goobers tap dancing and beating on buckets sounded less than DCL standard. I’m happy to say that I could not have been more wrong! These guys were awesome. Their improv comedy was perfectly ingrained in their stage show and they did a great job of feeding off the crowd while getting them involved. I cant say enough about these two and would be perfectly happy if they headlined a future cruise. Here is a small taste of their bit.


Again, great time in The Tube but as the show ended we were wore out and ready for some shuteye. We made it back to our stateroom and saw that Tri had only marginally improved on his offering but I promise they get better.
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Still to come: Day 2 at sea, more boat pics and so much pool time.
 
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imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
I believe we will schedule all future cruises around Buckets N Boards. Honestly, these guys were amazing! There was a main showing and then the adult showing. The Tube was packed. People were sitting on the floor and basically crammed in as much as possible. DCL had also set up a live feed in another location in the adult area.

One of the many things I liked about a longer cruise was the different shows. It was great seeing the theater productions, but the variety acts were just as great.

Looks like BNB is on several DCL itineraries AND on the Magic. We've been wanting to sail the Magic and we have a placeholder, soooooo

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lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I will agree with you @lostpro9het dinners with you and your wife and Team Nashville were very enjoyable and fun,and yes our servers were definitely busting their humps taking care of us. Buckets and boards were very good in both the show before dinner and the adult show in the Tube.
We couldn’t have asked for a better set of tablemates! Y’all made dinners fun!
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 3, 2nd day at sea:
Now that we’re done with Everything is 'going to Disney to get a passholder magnet' Awesome! we can get back to this journey. Once again I woke up way too early for being on vacation. Like the day before, we scheduled room service for 07:00 and I still had some time to kill. Unlike yesterday, the weather was AWESOME! Thankfully the rain had found somewhere else to go today!
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I went topside again to take some quiet pics, made my way forward to Satellite Falls
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