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!
 

LeighM

Well-Known Member
*My Austin trip is the first flight I have taken by myself in years. Made it to the airport no problem. Got turned around in the airport, but that's not unusual for me to get lost. It took me many trips to figure out the layout of MK. I flew into Austin and it's such a tiny airport - from my seat on the plane to the baggage area was less than 5 minutes. If you've every had experience with ATL, you know 5 minutes is pretty much a pipe dream. My flight home was a bit more scary. For those of you following my fear of flying issues, this was...an experience. The weather was bad in ATL. I didn't know how bad until the pilot comes on and says we've been flying in circles for about 30 minutes waiting for clearance in ATL. He said we were going to have to make a decision in the next 10 minutes because our fuel reserves were low. That's NOT what I wanted to hear. He comes back on and says we're being diverted to Birmingham. We've had turbulence almost the entire flight, so I'm a little on edge. We get to Birmingham and sit for a bit. We refuel and wait for our moment of opportunity and we're off! The pilot says we will have medium turbulence, but there was hardly any at all. So, for all you fearful flyers out there, the book SOAR help me so much in dealing with this. If flying is preventing you from going to WDW, DL, or anywhere overseas, get this book and read it. I would have never been able to book flights to DL without it.

I refused to fly because of my fear of heights and claustrophobia but my husband convinced me to fly to WDW in 2016. The trip from Richmond VA to Orlando was perfect. My husband was so thankful my first time ever on a plane went smoothly. I was still terrified and was on anxiety meds but I didn't have anything really to be scared of - although my ears were extremely pained. BUT!!! Our return trip was horrible!! That was during Hurricane Matthew. Our flight wasn't delayed but it was still extremely windy in Orlando and it was bad take off. It felt like the plane was almost pushed off the runway. My husband told me later it was the worst he's ever experienced. The pilot told us that he had to take a detour because of the hurricane over the Carolinas and to expect severe turbulence. Not what I wanted to hear. My bladder goes insane when I'm nervous and I kept waiting for the light to go off. I finally told the flight attendant that if I couldn't use the bathroom that instant, then I was probably going to pee myself in the seat. She let me go and told me it was the best chance I was going to get because we were going to go into the storm in about 15 minutes. The last 45 minutes of the flight was at maximum flying altitude over the hurricane. The turbulence was rough. People were groaning and getting nauseous, including my husband. I got through it by holding onto the seatbelt and pretending I was on Toy Story Mania LOL. The pilot came back on and said we might not be able to land at Richmond because of the wind and rain but finally got permission to land, which wasn't great but still better than take off. The husband told me that if I got through that flight then everything else would be a picnic :) I was still scared during our second flight to MCO but I did have the comfort in knowing I made it out okay after the previous bad flight.
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
I refused to fly because of my fear of heights and claustrophobia but my husband convinced me to fly to WDW in 2016. The trip from Richmond VA to Orlando was perfect. My husband was so thankful my first time ever on a plane went smoothly. I was still terrified and was on anxiety meds but I didn't have anything really to be scared of - although my ears were extremely pained. BUT!!! Our return trip was horrible!! That was during Hurricane Matthew. Our flight wasn't delayed but it was still extremely windy in Orlando and it was bad take off. It felt like the plane was almost pushed off the runway. My husband told me later it was the worst he's ever experienced. The pilot told us that he had to take a detour because of the hurricane over the Carolinas and to expect severe turbulence. Not what I wanted to hear. My bladder goes insane when I'm nervous and I kept waiting for the light to go off. I finally told the flight attendant that if I couldn't use the bathroom that instant, then I was probably going to pee myself in the seat. She let me go and told me it was the best chance I was going to get because we were going to go into the storm in about 15 minutes. The last 45 minutes of the flight was at maximum flying altitude over the hurricane. The turbulence was rough. People were groaning and getting nauseous, including my husband. I got through it by holding onto the seatbelt and pretending I was on Toy Story Mania LOL. The pilot came back on and said we might not be able to land at Richmond because of the wind and rain but finally got permission to land, which wasn't great but still better than take off. The husband told me that if I got through that flight then everything else would be a picnic :) I was still scared during our second flight to MCO but I did have the comfort in knowing I made it out okay after the previous bad flight.

That sounds like a really scary situation, but you handled it well. My fear is the crashing part. I feel like I can handle bad weather a little better now that I've had some experience with it.
 

cfry06

Well-Known Member
Thanks for following!
From inside the room you couldn’t tell which floor you were on, i.e no noise from above! The patio felt less private, obviously, and it was like we were on display while others walked by. It would be nice if they put MB readers on the sliding doors. That would make it more appealing to quickly enter/exit the room from that side as well. That said, third floor Tokelau is still our favorite, especially if you get a partial theme park view. And, yeah, that convenient walk from TTC is very nice. Fingers crossed the Rockford Peaches make the 2019 NYC boat.

Would love to make the NYC boat! It would be last minute (opening a new branch Sept/Oct at work next year), but I’m going to try! To hold us over, we just booked a B2B on the Dream before our Tgiving trip to WDW! Have to live it up now - we are on PTO blackout in 2019 Jan- April!!

The Pro9hets and Peaches will be on opposite Disney coasts this Thanksgiving! :cool:
 

Gurt

Well-Known Member
Another great trip report im looking forward to the next ones.

@imahistorygeek I too hate flying I have been known to cry in the airport before I have even got on the plane, thankfully whilst I still don't like I am getting a little bit better which is all a bit ironic really as when I was a child I wanted to be cabin crew!
 

imahistorygeek

Well-Known Member
@imahistorygeek I too hate flying I have been known to cry in the airport before I have even got on the plane, thankfully whilst I still don't like I am getting a little bit better which is all a bit ironic really as when I was a child I wanted to be cabin crew!

I've come close to crying a few times, especially those first few flights after not having flown in years. It gets better every single trip. There's a part in the book I read that explains what is happening on the plane every step of the way, from boarding to getting off the plane. I re-read it every single trip.
 
Awesome trip report!

I actually asked my wife if she wanted to do one for our 20th next year and her response was "Go on a Disney cruise without the kids would not be a good idea. They may kill us!"

Oh well, maybe for our 25th!! She also doesn't get going on a Disney cruise as grown ups. I tried to explain to her some of the things ya'll did but she still looked like I had 2 heads for suggesting it!
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Awesome trip report!

I actually asked my wife if she wanted to do one for our 20th next year and her response was "Go on a Disney cruise without the kids would not be a good idea. They may kill us!"

Oh well, maybe for our 25th!! She also doesn't get going on a Disney cruise as grown ups. I tried to explain to her some of the things ya'll did but she still looked like I had 2 heads for suggesting it!
True story, we went on 2 Disney cruises and 4 WDW visits for 4 consecutive anniversary trips under the guise of us "going to the cabin in the mountains". Around year 5 we just started telling the DD what we were really doing. You're adult parents, you deserve to treat yourself! As for Disney Cruise as grown ups, obviously its awesome! Why does Disney have to be for kids only, that's what I don't get.
 
True story, we went on 2 Disney cruises and 4 WDW visits for 4 consecutive anniversary trips under the guise of us "going to the cabin in the mountains". Around year 5 we just started telling the DD what we were really doing. You're adult parents, you deserve to treat yourself! As for Disney Cruise as grown ups, obviously its awesome! Why does Disney have to be for kids only, that's what I don't get.

That's awesome!

Maybe we will have to try that!

I agree that Disney doesn't have to be just for kids!!!
 

Captain Barbossa

Well-Known Member
Enjoyed reading your TR! It was nice to see what exactly goes on during a Disney cruise. Please don't think I'm stupid, but I didn't realize it stopped at other islands, like St. Maarten, along the way to Castaway Cay. The food looked good too. But nothing could beat the view from y'alls room! Looking forward to your next TR!
 

lostpro9het

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Enjoyed reading your TR! It was nice to see what exactly goes on during a Disney cruise. Please don't think I'm stupid, but I didn't realize it stopped at other islands, like St. Maarten, along the way to Castaway Cay. The food looked good too. But nothing could beat the view from y'alls room! Looking forward to your next TR!
Thanks for following along! DCL has several itineraries that allow you to visit many different places. We’re slated to do a trip out of NYC next year on tye Magic that visits Bermuda for two days. After that, i could see us trying the western Caribbean that visits Mexico. Yeah, the food is excellent but dang is it too easy to over eat! 63 days til our next surf n’ turf adventure!
 

Songbird76

Well-Known Member
True story, we went on 2 Disney cruises and 4 WDW visits for 4 consecutive anniversary trips under the guise of us "going to the cabin in the mountains". Around year 5 we just started telling the DD what we were really doing. You're adult parents, you deserve to treat yourself! As for Disney Cruise as grown ups, obviously its awesome! Why does Disney have to be for kids only, that's what I don't get.
I think a lot of people who have never been to a Disney park hear the word "Disney" and think of princesses and Mickey, and amusement park food. They don't know that there are resorts themed to caribbean beaches, or Hawaii and they don't know that you can get great food, pretty much any kind you want. I've been trying to convince my brother to come with us to Disney for years, and he really wanted to, but his husband has never been there and can't imagine it's a good value. Their daughter is now 5 and we FINALLY got them to agree to go with us next summer....I think they will be hooked. It's just one of those things you have to experience to understand the magic. I've been to theme parks here and they DON'T have anything but fries and hotdogs to eat, and the theming isn't NEARLY as great as Disney. Even Disneyland Paris doesn't have very good food. But if those were my only experiences with theme parks, I wouldn't be gung-ho to go to Disney without kids either. Disney is just in a league of its own and you won't know that until you've been there and seen it for yourself.
 

LeighM

Well-Known Member
That sounds like a really scary situation, but you handled it well. My fear is the crashing part. I feel like I can handle bad weather a little better now that I've had some experience with it.

That's the funny thing for me - I'm not afraid of crashing. I figure the death will be so quick that it's as painless as it could get. The falling sensation is what gets me and why I hate turbulence.
 

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