DaveInTN

You know, people can never be happy.  On the one hand, they are always complaining that Disney doesn't have enough thrill rides.  And now those same people are going to complain about this.  

So...Disney will entice people to spend the extra money to stay in Club level accommodations, so that they can have the privilege to spend extra money for fastpasses.  I hadn't seen the official announcement that The Year of a Million Schemes was extended.  Sweet!  

You know, people can never be happy.  On the one hand, they are always complaining that Disney doesn't have enough thrill rides.  And now those same people are going to complain about this.  

Some people think it's all about them.  They want to make a name for themselves with the like-minded fools on social media.  I don't care what your politics are; there used to be a thing called decency and decorum in this country.  You didn't yell and scream and act like a fool because there were likely children watching and learning from your antics.  How many kids have been at the Hall of Presidents over the past decade as decency has eroded in this country, and had what should have been a beautiful and patriotic show ruined because some idiot made a scene.  If I were there with my kids and someone acted like that he'd end up on social media for another reason.  Listen, I get it.  We don't always like the person in the White House.  Fortunately, our Founders gave us this neat thing called Elections to do something about it.  Making a scene at a show populated by robots in Disney World doesn't make you a #resistor....it makes you a jerk.   

You know, people can never be happy.  On the one hand, they are always complaining that Disney doesn't have enough thrill rides.  And now those same people are going to complain about this.  

There's no room for Hungary in the World Showcase.  If you're hungary, you're doing it wrong.  

Some people think it's all about them.  They want to make a name for themselves with the like-minded fools on social media.  I don't care what your politics are; there used to be a thing called decency and decorum in this country.  You didn't yell and scream and act like a fool because there were likely children watching and learning from your antics.  How many kids have been at the Hall of Presidents over the past decade as decency has eroded in this country, and had what should have been a beautiful and patriotic show ruined because some idiot made a scene.  If I were there with my kids and someone acted like that he'd end up on social media for another reason.  Listen, I get it.  We don't always like the person in the White House.  Fortunately, our Founders gave us this neat thing called Elections to do something about it.  Making a scene at a show populated by robots in Disney World doesn't make you a #resistor....it makes you a jerk.   

Oh...so like a Filet O Fish?  

Some people think it's all about them.  They want to make a name for themselves with the like-minded fools on social media.  I don't care what your politics are; there used to be a thing called decency and decorum in this country.  You didn't yell and scream and act like a fool because there were likely children watching and learning from your antics.  How many kids have been at the Hall of Presidents over the past decade as decency has eroded in this country, and had what should have been a beautiful and patriotic show ruined because some idiot made a scene.  If I were there with my kids and someone acted like that he'd end up on social media for another reason.  Listen, I get it.  We don't always like the person in the White House.  Fortunately, our Founders gave us this neat thing called Elections to do something about it.  Making a scene at a show populated by robots in Disney World doesn't make you a #resistor....it makes you a jerk.   

Some people think it's all about them.  They want to make a name for themselves with the like-minded fools on social media.  I don't care what your politics are; there used to be a thing called decency and decorum in this country.  You didn't yell and scream and act like a fool because there were likely children watching and learning from your antics.  How many kids have been at the Hall of Presidents over the past decade as decency has eroded in this country, and had what should have been a beautiful and patriotic show ruined because some idiot made a scene.  If I were there with my kids and someone acted like that he'd end up on social media for another reason.  Listen, I get it.  We don't always like the person in the White House.  Fortunately, our Founders gave us this neat thing called Elections to do something about it.  Making a scene at a show populated by robots in Disney World doesn't make you a #resistor....it makes you a jerk.   

Some people think it's all about them.  They want to make a name for themselves with the like-minded fools on social media.  I don't care what your politics are; there used to be a thing called decency and decorum in this country.  You didn't yell and scream and act like a fool because there were likely children watching and learning from your antics.  How many kids have been at the Hall of Presidents over the past decade as decency has eroded in this country, and had what should have been a beautiful and patriotic show ruined because some idiot made a scene.  If I were there with my kids and someone acted like that he'd end up on social media for another reason.  Listen, I get it.  We don't always like the person in the White House.  Fortunately, our Founders gave us this neat thing called Elections to do something about it.  Making a scene at a show populated by robots in Disney World doesn't make you a #resistor....it makes you a jerk.   

Some people think it's all about them.  They want to make a name for themselves with the like-minded fools on social media.  I don't care what your politics are; there used to be a thing called decency and decorum in this country.  You didn't yell and scream and act like a fool because there were likely children watching and learning from your antics.  How many kids have been at the Hall of Presidents over the past decade as decency has eroded in this country, and had what should have been a beautiful and patriotic show ruined because some idiot made a scene.  If I were there with my kids and someone acted like that he'd end up on social media for another reason.  Listen, I get it.  We don't always like the person in the White House.  Fortunately, our Founders gave us this neat thing called Elections to do something about it.  Making a scene at a show populated by robots in Disney World doesn't make you a #resistor....it makes you a jerk.   

Oh c'mon!  Do it!  It's a once in a lifetime opportunity for you (hopefully).  

Trip Number Two:  Spring Break at The Fort
Ok, enough with the wedding and Commodore 64 distractions.  The wedding was a 2016 event, and this is a 2017 report.  So, moving along....
When we left off, our first trip of 2017 had concluded.  That was in mid-February, and was only INC and me.  But we only had a month to get through until our family Spring Break trip....and this one was to the Fort!!!
It's been several years since we've stepped foot in a Disney park, but for our Spring Break trip I did buy park tickets.  Only....they were water park tickets.  We still aren't ready to go back to the theme parks.  But we'd never done Disney water parks, and a water park annual pass is fairly reasonable.  
I don't have a full photographic record of this trip....as I have previously stated, I had no intention of doing a trip report, so I just took pics here and there.  Accordingly, this section of the report will be a bit sketchy but I'll post what I can.
We left home on Friday afternoon and made it to our overnight spot just south of Dothan in time for dinner and some sleep.  That got us to the Fort on Saturday in the afternoon.  We got settled into the site and enjoyed our evening.  On Sunday, we headed to our first water park....which was Blizzard Beach.  No pics from this day, so I won't say anything about it because I do have pics from other water park days I can share.  I'll just say we enjoyed BB, but having visited Splashin Safari at Holiday World in Indiana, BB was underwhelming.  Great theming, just so-so rides and attractions.  
On Monday is where my first pics of this trip pick up.  We spent the morning hanging around the campsite to relax and do some laundry.  Izzy, as is her custom, was up early.  And she was hungry for some biscuits and gravy, so she headed over to Trails End and got herself some takeout.


We were all set up in 530...which was one of the sites I requested when I faxed my request in that last week.  


This is one of the sites that backs up to the canal.  

How do I remember that we did laundry that day?  This pic was my clue.  

We also took Elena of Avalor to the playground....which we do pretty much every day at the Fort.  
I raced her down the slide.  
We also got in some pool time that afternoon.  I recall the weather was beautiful.




Do you see that food truck sitting there in the field by the pool?  I was pretty stoked about one thing on their menu that I wanted to try....the roast beef on kimmelwick roll.  I posted back at the time about it, and about my disappointment in it.  So I won't rehash that here.  If you want to read my review of the sandwich, you can find it here:  http://www.fortfiends.net/topic/18327-fort-wilderness-food-truck/?do=findComment&comment=503050
That evening, we went to the campfire program and movie....primarily because I wanted to check out the food truck, and everyone wanted Mickey ice cream bars!!



My advice on this is....if you want Mickey bars, get them from the Trading Post.  The ones on the food truck are soft.  So you need to eat them quickly or they'll fall off the stick and/or melt.  
I'll leave it here for now.  Coming up....we go out for breakfast.  Any guesses where?  And INC and I go on a date!  Oh, and we'll eventually get to some water park pictures.  Stay tuned....
 
 

Hmmm, I was hoping for

Let's get this portion of the Trip Report wrapped up.  I have a lot of ground to cover with our other trips, so we should wrap up the cruise and move on to Spring Break.
But before we wrap up, we have some very interesting pictures to view first.  
As I have teased, our encounter on the beach with the dog wasn't the only time we'd run into our 4 legged friend.  After returning to the ship from our day on Castaway Cay, we went to the cabin to get cleaned up for the evening.  As I did the day before, I called down to room service to order a cheese plate that we could enjoy on the verandah with some wine.  I really, really would love to be doing that right now.  Anyways, we got cleaned up and headed out to enjoy our evening.  
We had to finish up the wine we brought onboard, so we walked with our glasses.  I think you aren't supposed to do that....but after a couple of glasses of wine I turn into a rule breaker.  Also, as is often the case when walking around the World Showcase at Epcot, I can't resist a British phone booth when I'm drinking.

Don't judge.  I've seen y'alls pictures.  You can't resist the phone booth either.  
Our first stop of the evening, as I'm sure won't be a surprise to anyone, was the pub for a drink and some wings.  Instead of beer tonight, I opted for a scotch.

As you can see in this picture, the place was still empty.  It was early, but the place does fill up later on.

Even though it was early, they brought out the wings and we enjoyed some.  
At this point, we still had a little time before that evening's entertainment, which was the new Frozen show they debuted on the Wonder after the refurbishment.  The Navigator indicated there was a Minnie Mouse character meet in the lobby atrium, so we wandered over there to check things out. 
We arrived in the atrium, and INC grabbed my arm and said "look who's in line for Minnie".   
I turned around, and there they were.  
Yes, you guessed it.  

But wait....was the dog wearing a hat??
Yes, indeed, it was.
And not just a hat.  When it was their turn to meet Minnie, they turned and I got a better look.  The dog was wearing a full captains uniform.  
I bet you've never seen a mouse high fiving a dog before.

The interaction lasted for a few minutes.  And they turned to face where Mom was standing so she could take pictures.  




When the interaction with Minnie was over, they started to walk away.  I wanted to ask where Tennille was, but INC wouldn't let me.  
Part of me feels a tad guilty about taking pictures of strangers on a cruise.  But I came to the realization that, if you dress your dachshund up in a captains outfit and take it to meet Minnie Mouse, you are probably ok with the attention.  
So, after that episode was over, we went to see Frozen, A Musical Spectacular.  Like most of you, I was fairly sick of Frozen by the time we sailed on this cruise.  But I love the productions they present on DCL cruises, so I didn't want to miss it.  And it was excellent!  Very well done I thought.  I would love for Anna to see it some day.  She'd go nuts.  
After the show we made our way to Royal Court for dinner.  Mr and Mrs Perky Prepperson were again dressed in matching outfits.  They really annoyed the crap out of me, and gave me at least one reason why 3 nights was plenty.  Anyways, dinner was good, but this was our least favorite dinner of the 3.  Animators Palate and Tiana's were both fun experiences, while Royal Court is just a nice restaurant.  There isn't a fun atmosphere or show...it's just dinner.  Still enjoyable nonetheless.
So what did we eat?
I started with some delicious garlic butter.  They threw some snails in to round it out, but let's be honest...we order it for the garlic butter and crusty bread.

INC had some mushroom ravioli...this was not a good dish.

They had duck on the menu, and I love me some ducky.  It was served with roasted root vegetables.

Dessert.....



And that was that for dinner. 
Not wanting our last evening to end, we headed back down to the nightclub section to listen to some music.  One observation I've had on my two DCL cruises, which may not always be the case, is that the nightclubs are never packed.  They seem to get a decent crowd, but I imagine being geared more toward families than some other cruise lines may impact that.  The places were probably half full.  Regardless, we enjoyed ourselves, and I got some artsy pictures down there.

I thought the lights down there were really cool.  I thought it might make a good picture of that last light if I stood directly under it looking up.

It didn't.
But that didn't stop me from trying it again on another light.

After that excitement, we turned in for the night.  We had put our luggage out in the hall earlier to be picked up, so all we had to do was go to bed and wait to be kicked off the ship in the morning.
After breakfast and debarkation, we made our way to the luggage pickup and then to our DCL bus transport to MCO.  We had to get our bags and take them to the bus, but I think if you purchase your air travel through Disney and do onboard checkin, your bags will go to the airport automatically.  (I think....maybe someone can confirm that).  
We made it seamlessly back to MCO, and safely home to Nashville.  Cruising out of Port Canaveral is SO easy, IMO.  MCO is an easy airport, having Disney transport available takes a lot of stress away, and the entire process is easy to me.  
My overall thoughts on the cruise?  Awesome!  Yes, 3 nights is too short.  There is no doubt about that.  But our only option was not going.  So it was completely worth it to us.  I wouldn't hesitate to do another 3 night Disney cruise if that was all we could get away.  But truth be told....7 nights to Alaska would be better!  (no, that's not foreshadowing.  We have not done or booked that cruise.  Yet.)  
Well, that's it for Trip #1 of 2017.  But don't go away....this report is just getting started!  Coming up next....Spring Break at the Fort!  And yes, Carol, that will include Anna pics.  

It's Castaway Cay day!!!!
I've never made it a secret that I hate beaches.  And fortunately I married a like minded person.  So we simply don't take beach vacations, and all is well in our world.  
When we did our first DCL cruise, we had a day at Castaway Cay.  We had all the kids with us, which meant the typical day of trying to keep Anna from eating so much sand that she poops sandcastles.  I'm not kidding.  She gets so sensory overloaded that she tends to scoop up handfuls of sand into her mouth.  So needless to say, our first CC day was fairly short, and we headed back to a quiet ship after lunch.  
So this time, we'd get to experience CC without having to watch kids, worry about applying their sunscreen, stop them from drowning...you know, all that parental garbage.  We could just "be".  And I'd been told by several of you all that we needed to check out Serenity Bay, the adult-only beach on the island.  So, that was our plan.  
Oh, and one other thing.  We had booked a couples massage at Serenity Bay!  So let's go....
There is something to be said about waking up to this view.

We enjoyed our usual coffee on the balcony, with an island view on this day!

Ah, what I wouldn't give to be doing that today, instead of working and dealing with bitter cold temperatures.  
Anyways, back to the ship.  A glance to the right toward the beach confirmed what many have previously posted about....the giant fake palm has been defrocked.  

They hadn't started letting folks debark yet, and believe it or not I was hungry, so we headed out to get some breakfast before leaving for the island.  
Instead of doing the buffet this day, we opted for table service at the Royal Court.  



Sometimes it's nicer to sit and be served rather than dealing with a buffet.  Especially on Castaway Cay day, when it seems everyone is hitting the buffet at the same time before they allow you to leave the ship.  It was fairly peaceful, and after enjoying our food and coffee we headed down below to leave the ship.  
When going to the family beach, you have the option of taking the trams or walking.  I think walking is at least as fast, if not a bit faster.  But to get to Serenity Bay, the walk is pretty far, so we rode the trams all the way there.  Before long, we were settled into chairs and this was our view.



We had walked down the beach a bit where we were able to snag a hammock with a couple of lounge chairs.  Unlike the family beach, where the same Moms who go up to the pool deck early in the morning to save loungers with towels seem to rush off the ship as soon as they open the gangplank to save all the shaded loungers they can find, Serenity Bay seems to have plenty of loungers, and even hammocks, to go around.  Perhaps it's a bit easier when the smaller ships dock, as the capacity of the Dream and Fantasy are that much higher that the chairs probably disappear faster, but we had no issues getting a nice spot that had a bit of shade. 
I wandered out into the water to take this pic looking back at INC.  Notice all the empty lounge chairs.

That right there is heaven.  
If we ever take another DCL cruise with our kids, I am making a deal with my older girls.  I pay for your cruise, and you are in charge of your younger sisters while Mom and I go to Serenity Bay.  Sounds fair to me, right?  
Some Buffalo Bills representation in paradise.

It wasn't long before I had company.  

Do you see it?  
Sting Ray...



I had company up above too.  

I'll take sting rays and pelicans over other humans any day.  
Oh, and this too.  

And....this.

Our massage was scheduled for early afternoon, so we basically laid around on the beach all morning.  We didn't rent bikes, we didn't snorkle, we didn't explore the shops or anything.  We laid around.  And it was heavenly.  
Well, we may have enjoyed another drink or two as well.  Along with the laying.  
Anyways, eventually we did get hungry.  I know, hard to believe.  So we wandered over to the BBQ spot at Serenity Bay and hit the buffet lunch.  
Beach lunch...

That there is a steak sammich.  
Like the regular family beach BBQ spots, they have burgers, hot dogs, and bbq at Serenity Bay.  But they also have steak.  The kids over at the family beach don't get steak.  
Suck on it, kids.  
I wanted to try the steak, and I thought it might be tasty to put it on a roll with cheese and some steak sauce.  
It was.  
After lunch, we headed to the bar to get another drink.  You can be served at your lounge chair by roaming waiters, but you can also belly up to the bar for a beverage.  This is what the bar looks like. 

Like many buildings on the island, it's themed like an old airport hanger.  
We grabbed some seats there near the bar to sit for a bit, and enjoyed the beach views from here.

The people watching in these situations is always good too.  
At this point, we noticed something a bit unusual.  There was a man wading in the water holding a small child.  At the adult beach.  Which seemed to be a clear violation of the rules, but being Disney this didn't surprise me.  
What did surprise me was when he turned slightly, and we realized that it wasn't a child he was holding.  It was a dog.  

This dog was wearing a life vest.


The man clearly loved his dog, because he appeared to be taking selfies of the two of them.  

But it also seemed like they were posing for someone else.  They were taking selfies, but they were also smiling and looking toward the beach.  That's when I first noticed that the man and dog were not alone.

Mom was on the beach with the BIG camera!  
Also, check out that overloaded stroller in the last picture.  That was the dog's stroller.  I don't think we ever carried that much crap around for 5 kids, much less for one dog.  But that's none of my business.  
Anyways, after they snapped their fill of pictures, the man and the dog exited the water.  


Like any good parents, they wrapped baby up in a towel.  


So there you have it.  No kids allowed at Serenity Bay.  But dogs are apparently just fine.  
At this point it was about time to head over to the check in area for our massage, which is basically right behind the bar.  But don't worry, if you think that encounter with the dog was the bizarre experience I referenced earlier....things get much, much stranger later in the day.  Let's just say we have't seen the last of our furry friend.  
So let's wrap up this excursion on Castaway Cay.  We did the couples massage, which as GREAT!  It was done in a little wooden bungalow right next to the beach, so you could hear the waves and the seagulls.  Very relaxing.  Yes, very expensive.  We could have gotten 3 massages back home for what it cost.  But the fact of the matter is, we never do that at home.  We enjoyed this very much, and it was a one time splurge, so we felt it was worth it. 
Afterwards, we reluctantly started heading back to the ship.  We took the tram from Serenity Bay to the tram depot at the family beach, where we spend a little time browsing through the shops.  
We got our obligatory ship-in-the-background selfie.


And we then hopped on the tram back to the ship.


This is always a sad sight....

And with that, our Castaway Cay day was over.  
We headed to the cabin to get cleaned up for our last evening, which would include dinner at Royal Court and the new Frozen, A Musical Spectacular show!!
Oh, and another encounter with the pooch.  

Onward to our At-Sea Day...
One thing I forgot to mention, is that we were able to book a Verandah cabin on this cruise.  Being our first cruise without kids, and more specifically our first cruise without Anna, this was a big deal for us.  I've never felt comfortable booking a verandah cabin with Anna....she's a bit too unpredictable.  But we had one this time.  And we really enjoyed it!  I loved getting up early and having coffee out there.  And as I usually do when cruising, I ordered coffee from room service every night before going to bed (quite possibly with cookies and Mickey bars too....but let's keep that quiet), and it stayed warm in the carafe all night.  No waiting for my first cup in the morning!  
After coffee, we hit Cabanas for breakfast, then began our day of leisure.  
We spent quite a bit of time on the adult deck.

Sorry for this one.  Oh, and those are BUBBLES on my nose!

That last pic may have come after a couple of beers.  Just maybe.  
Artistic shot while relaxing in lounge chair.

Ok, artistic may be a stretch.
We relaxed all day on the deck, and in the pool.  When we were thirsty we got some drinks.  Don't worry, some of them were non-alcoholic.  Have to stay hydrated, you know.  When we got hungry we grabbed food.  We found one counter that had tons of fresh sandwiches, fruit, salads, etc.  It was pretty decent.  Of course, I also had to try the pizza.  And fries.  And some ice cream.  LOL.  
By late afternoon, we headed back to the cabin to clean up.  I called room service and ordered a cheese plate, which we enjoyed on the verandah with some wine that we had brought onboard.  After getting ready for the evening, we headed back to the pub.  We may or may not have had some wings.  
And beer.

We went to that evening's show, which was Disney Dreams.  Like all the entertainment on DCL ships, this is a good show.  Disney sure is good at getting your emotions fired up.  
After the show, it was off to Tiana's Place!  
I was really looking forward to dining here since reading about the restaurant when we booked the trip.  Tiana's was a new restaurant added during the Fall 2016 dry dock.  I love Louisiana cuisine, and I also like The Princess and the Frog, so this was right up my alley.  
As proof that we did indeed dine with Tiana, I offer this.

Yep, that's Tiana all right.
Our dining companions from the previous evening were on hand, again in matching outfits.  And the couple missing the night before was with us tonight.  But I was a bit more comfortable snapping pics this night, having come to the conclusion that I didn't care what those losers thought of me.  
For my appetizer, I tried the boudin.  

I've had boudin in south Louisiana before.  Outstanding stuff.  Have any of you ever had Don's boudin?  


That boudin in the region around Lafayette is DEEE-licous!  Tiana's boudin balls were....a bit not delicious.  Dry, and not too tasty.  So, this started out on a disappointing note.
I also tried a second app....shrimp and grits.  This was a bit better than the boudin.  Not great, but enjoyable.

I don't recall what this soup was.  Or if it was good.  Must not have been too memorable.

In the meantime, while we were enjoying our meal, the floor show was underway.  This was a party, man!



I have to say, 70% of the reason I loved this restaurant was the atmosphere and entertainment.  Like many DCL meals, the food was good but wouldn't blow you away.  But the service, atmosphere and "show" put it over the top.  Tiana's was a blast!
Since it was my birthday, they brought this out.

We also tried the Bananas Foster sundae.

And bread pudding....and Beignets!!!

Like the boudin, I expected those beignets to be a pale comparison of the real deal.  But I was wrong!  Those were delicious little bombs of goodness.
I ate my weight at this meal, and was stuffed!!  It was a great birthday dinner! 
We practically closed the restaurant down, and being the late dinner seating, it was after 10 at this point.  But remember, this was Pirate night!  So the evening was young, and we had more to do.  And, since there is a late night buffet on Pirate night, we had more to eat too!
Pirate night is fun not only because of the party up on deck, but it's also when DCL shoots off fireworks....a rarity on the sea.  
We found a good spot up on the top deck to watch Pirates In The Caribbean.

After the fireworks, it was buffet time.  Keep in mind, we had just finished dinner.  A multi-course feast, with multiple appetizers and desserts.  Which itself had followed all you can eat wings.  I wasn't in the least bit hungry.  But, when cruising, you sometimes have to put on your big girls pants and dive in head first.  
Besides, they had crepes.  And turkey legs!
Just one little plate wouldn't hurt, would it?

I took it in full Pirate mode.....AARGH!

By this point, I was pretty much toast.  Over full.  Over tired.  It was time to turn in.  
We went back to the cabin, and discovered a towel rotisserie chicken hanging from the ceiling for some reason.  That cabin steward had a weird sense of humor. 

Before turning in, I called room service to order coffee for the next morning.  I may have ordered a Mickey bar, too. 
We collapsed into bed for a great night's sleep.  Tomorrow was already our last day....which is the problem with 3 night cruises.  But, it was going to be an EPIC day.  Castaway Cay!  Without kids!  Which means Serenity Bay.  Plus, we had one of the most BIZARRE Disney experiences of all time.  And if you've ever read my old trip reports, you know that is saying something.  I have a knack for stumbling into really strange situations.  And on Saturday, Feb 18, I stumbled into a doozy. 
 

Ok, we have now arrived at Thursday....day 2 of our Birthday cruise trip.  
We awoke at the Wilderness Lodge at our usual "somewhat early" time.  I don't recall exactly, but I never sleep until 7 so it was probably in the 6:30 range or so.  I'm always up first, so I made some hotel room coffee and drank it while waiting for INC to wake up.  By this point, it may have been 7:30 or so, so we had some time to kill.  Our meeting time for the DCL bus wasn't until 11:30, per this letter that was left in our room the evening before.  If anyone was ever curious about the procedure for taking the DCL bus from a Disney resort, including how the luggage is handled, here are your answers.

The first thing that jumps out at you is the 11:30 departure time.  On our previous cruises, we like being at the ship terminal by that time.  So we knew that we would not be boarding early.  That stressed me out just a bit, but it shouldn't have.  It all worked out perfectly fine.  But mainly because the Wonder doesn't have an Aqua Duck, so I wasn't missing out on any early rides.   
Anyways, we packed up and, per the above letter, tagged our bags and left them by the room door.  We then headed out to get some breakfast.  Since Roaring Fork was closed for refurb, we wandered back down to Geyser Point to check out their breakfast offerings.  We both got our usual oatmeal, which was actually very nice and served in a real bowl with real toppings.  I don't know if this is still the case now that RF is back open, but it was nice eating by the lake.  
We still had quite a bit of time to kill, so here was where my ulterior motive for choosing the Lodge came into play.  
We hopped a boat to the Fort!!

I got us some coffee from Trails End, and we assumed the position.

Isn't that great??
It's good enough to be able to get away for a few days on a Disney Cruise, and to get to spend the night before the cruise at the Wilderness Lodge....but throw some FPT on top of it?  (That's Fort Porch Time for you newbies).  Priceless!
We relaxed for a while, soaking up what was a gorgeous central FL February morning.  The Fort was incredibly peaceful on this Thursday morning.  Of course, the Wild Womenz were scheduled to descend upon the place that weekend, so there was already an impressive array of law enforcement on standby in preparation for the mayhem.  We were fortunate that we missed that mess.  (ok, in reality I had hoped to see some of the womenz, but that didn't work out).  
We headed back to the Lodge to gather our personal items from the room and check out, then went to our meeting spot in the lobby for the DCL bus.  A DCL represenative met us there with her clipboard and her Julie the Cruise Director attire, and said that we would be delayed because of an "incident".  I asked if everything was ok, and she said that our bus was coming from the Poly, but it was held up due to emergency vehicles that responded to a personal injury situation.  It turned out that a woman tripped over a potted plant and fell down.  I could only guess that this had something to do with the Womenz, but regardless we were told she was ok and after about a 30 minute delay we were boarding our 2nd DEEE-LUXE motorcoach of the trip for our ride to the port.  

it wasn't too long and this came into view.

That sight never gets old.  

It sure is a pretty ship, isn't it??


On our first DCL cruise, we arrived by car and, after checking in, had some time to kill in the terminal before our boarding group was called.  This time, possibly since we were running late from the Womenz Incident, we walked off the bus, through security, checked in and immediately were directed to board.  So...no terminal pics.  Which is fine.  How many pictures of people posing in front of the giant Mickey ears do you need to see?
In just a few moments, were up on deck enjoying a beverage.  

Notice that snazzy lanyard around my neck?  Since this was our 2nd Disney Cruise, we received those Castaway Club lanyards.  I felt so superior to all the 1st timer schmucks walking around lanyard-free.  Losers.  
Then I realized all the Gold and Platinum lanyard people were looking down on me for only being Silver.  That damn Mouse and his unfair class systems.  Always making you want to spend more to keep up with the Jones'.  
Anyways, drink #2 of the cruise was soon in our hands.  

If I remember right, our first night dinner was at Animator's Palate.  I don't believe I have any pictures of that, but I do know what we did before dinner.    
Since we had the late dinner seating, we had some time in the early evening to have some drinks and see the show.  Our first stop was the the new English pub onboard.

Now, I have to tell you, this new pub ROCKS!  Yes, it's a very nice pub.  Yes, it has a good beer selection.  Yes, it has comfy seats, and the usual cruise ship trivia contests and activities.  But none of those reasons are why this place rocks.  
Would you like to know why it rocks??
It's because, every night of our cruise, they served ALL YOU CAN EAT WINGS!!!  
Now, keep in mind, I'm a Buffalo guy.  Born and raised...spent my first 35 years there.  So I know a thing or two about wings.  And having lived away from Buffalo for the last 15 years, I've seen my share of sub-par wings.  And even worse, wings served with ranch dressing of all things.  I've seen baked wings, soggy wings, undercooked wings, etc.  And let me tell you, these wings were top notch!  And unlimited!  And beyond that, they were served with real Bleu Cheese Dressing!!  And the bleu cheese wasn't served in little cups.  It was served in a giant vat....again, ALL YOU CAN EAT!  A GIANT VAT, I tell ya!
Let's just say we nearly ruined our dinner.  Only we didn't.  I did what any man does when faced with a situation like this.  I loosened my belt and sucked it up.  
No, really.  I got a straw and sucked up the last of my blue cheese.  
Anyways, as I said, we had the late dinner seating on this cruise, so we actually had some time to digest our wings while watching the Golden Mickey's.  And then we headed to AP for dinner.  This was our first time ever having table companions other than family on a cruise.  I have to tell you, it was weird.  I'm a fairly sociable guy I think, but dining with strangers put a little bit of a lid on my exuberance, so to speak.  I didn't take pictures that first night.  The 3rd couple was doing Palo that night, so it was just us and another couple that wore coordinating clothing....really, his polo shirt was the exact same color as her dress.  Every night.  But that's none of my business.  
Anyways, I think the food was pretty decent but honestly, nothing else on that ship could compare to those wings.  
I'll leave it at that.  The next day was my birthday, and it happened to be an at sea day, and more importantly, we were scheduled to dine at Tiana's Place, and it was also Pirate Night!  
Coming up.....
 

Welcome aboard to everyone!  Thanks for reading and for commenting!!
After settling into our room, we decided we needed a bite to eat.  I was very interested in checking out Geyser Point, which had just opened that week.  In fact, it had opened on Monday, Feb 13, and we were there on Wednesday the 15th, so while I'm sure we weren't the first Fiends to visit the place, we had to be one of the first handful.  
Here is what we saw upon walking toward the place.  Keep in mind, while most folks have visited by now or at least seen pictures of it, this was all really new to us and walking up, I thought it looked beautiful.  

At the time there was quite a bit of speculation online about whether they have the ability to close the place up somewhat in inclement weather.  I took these pics to show the tracks for the storm shutters.


We got some great seats close to the lake, which I took the above pics from, and soon enough a server came over to take our drink order.  

Not a bad view, eh?

With a bit of zoom, you can even see the shoe tree from here!

We ordered some food....if I recall correctly we had some sort of sandwich, which came with the now world famous Geyser Point WAFFLE FRIES!!  I don't have a pic (honestly, I stopped taking so many food pics over the last couple of years as I had no intention of doing any trip reports), but those fries are GREAT!  They rival Chick Fil A's waffle fries, IMO.  
After enjoying Geyser Point, we explored some of the construction areas around the Lodge.  DVC construction was in full swing at that point, and it was fun checking out all that was going on.  
  


We headed back to the room to rest for a bit.  Before dinner, I decided to check out the balcony.  Not a bad view for a single night resting spot.

So it was now evening, and INC and I were at WDW without kids.  The world was at our fingertips!!  Before the trip, I had researched restaurants, menus, and transportation options.  But everytime I presented a plan to INC, we collectively thought "nah".  Neither of us are the biggest fans of sitting in a restaurant for a multi-course meal with wine and all that stuff.  We much prefer hitting a couple of lounges for drinks and apps.  So I didn't make a dining ADR for this night.  I originally thought we'd do a monorail crawl, including hitting Trader Sam's, but after traveling that day and it being pretty chilly that evening, we ended up just hanging out at Territory Lounge.  And let me tell you....that was a good call.  It was FAN-freakin-TASTIC!   Cozy, relaxing, and all around enjoyable.  
We ordered some beverages.

And some of the pretzel fondue stuff....holy crap this was delicious stuff!

We don't eat much cheese, so it doesn't always "sit well" when I do...but this stuff was worth it.  
I'm pretty sure we had another appetizer or two, but no pics so I don't recall....
I do know that we had the donuts for dessert.  They weren't on the Territory Lounge menu at that time, but we asked our server and they happily got them from Artist Point (which is the same kitchen anyways I presume).  

We chatted a bit with the bartender, and it turned out she was also boarding the Wonder the next day for a cruise!  We actually ran into her a couple of times on board that week, which was pretty cool.  
I'm guessing she paid significantly less for the cruise than we did.  
We hung out at the lounge for quite a while, even lingering to have an after dinner drink which we rarely do.  It was nice knowing that all we had to do was wander back upstairs when we were ready to turn in.  Which we did.  
Coming up in the next update, we'll take the DCL bus to the port and board the newly refurbished DISNEY WONDER!  But before we do that, we have another adventure planned....    

Let's get this portion of the Trip Report wrapped up.  I have a lot of ground to cover with our other trips, so we should wrap up the cruise and move on to Spring Break.
But before we wrap up, we have some very interesting pictures to view first.  
As I have teased, our encounter on the beach with the dog wasn't the only time we'd run into our 4 legged friend.  After returning to the ship from our day on Castaway Cay, we went to the cabin to get cleaned up for the evening.  As I did the day before, I called down to room service to order a cheese plate that we could enjoy on the verandah with some wine.  I really, really would love to be doing that right now.  Anyways, we got cleaned up and headed out to enjoy our evening.  
We had to finish up the wine we brought onboard, so we walked with our glasses.  I think you aren't supposed to do that....but after a couple of glasses of wine I turn into a rule breaker.  Also, as is often the case when walking around the World Showcase at Epcot, I can't resist a British phone booth when I'm drinking.

Don't judge.  I've seen y'alls pictures.  You can't resist the phone booth either.  
Our first stop of the evening, as I'm sure won't be a surprise to anyone, was the pub for a drink and some wings.  Instead of beer tonight, I opted for a scotch.

As you can see in this picture, the place was still empty.  It was early, but the place does fill up later on.

Even though it was early, they brought out the wings and we enjoyed some.  
At this point, we still had a little time before that evening's entertainment, which was the new Frozen show they debuted on the Wonder after the refurbishment.  The Navigator indicated there was a Minnie Mouse character meet in the lobby atrium, so we wandered over there to check things out. 
We arrived in the atrium, and INC grabbed my arm and said "look who's in line for Minnie".   
I turned around, and there they were.  
Yes, you guessed it.  

But wait....was the dog wearing a hat??
Yes, indeed, it was.
And not just a hat.  When it was their turn to meet Minnie, they turned and I got a better look.  The dog was wearing a full captains uniform.  
I bet you've never seen a mouse high fiving a dog before.

The interaction lasted for a few minutes.  And they turned to face where Mom was standing so she could take pictures.  




When the interaction with Minnie was over, they started to walk away.  I wanted to ask where Tennille was, but INC wouldn't let me.  
Part of me feels a tad guilty about taking pictures of strangers on a cruise.  But I came to the realization that, if you dress your dachshund up in a captains outfit and take it to meet Minnie Mouse, you are probably ok with the attention.  
So, after that episode was over, we went to see Frozen, A Musical Spectacular.  Like most of you, I was fairly sick of Frozen by the time we sailed on this cruise.  But I love the productions they present on DCL cruises, so I didn't want to miss it.  And it was excellent!  Very well done I thought.  I would love for Anna to see it some day.  She'd go nuts.  
After the show we made our way to Royal Court for dinner.  Mr and Mrs Perky Prepperson were again dressed in matching outfits.  They really annoyed the crap out of me, and gave me at least one reason why 3 nights was plenty.  Anyways, dinner was good, but this was our least favorite dinner of the 3.  Animators Palate and Tiana's were both fun experiences, while Royal Court is just a nice restaurant.  There isn't a fun atmosphere or show...it's just dinner.  Still enjoyable nonetheless.
So what did we eat?
I started with some delicious garlic butter.  They threw some snails in to round it out, but let's be honest...we order it for the garlic butter and crusty bread.

INC had some mushroom ravioli...this was not a good dish.

They had duck on the menu, and I love me some ducky.  It was served with roasted root vegetables.

Dessert.....



And that was that for dinner. 
Not wanting our last evening to end, we headed back down to the nightclub section to listen to some music.  One observation I've had on my two DCL cruises, which may not always be the case, is that the nightclubs are never packed.  They seem to get a decent crowd, but I imagine being geared more toward families than some other cruise lines may impact that.  The places were probably half full.  Regardless, we enjoyed ourselves, and I got some artsy pictures down there.

I thought the lights down there were really cool.  I thought it might make a good picture of that last light if I stood directly under it looking up.

It didn't.
But that didn't stop me from trying it again on another light.

After that excitement, we turned in for the night.  We had put our luggage out in the hall earlier to be picked up, so all we had to do was go to bed and wait to be kicked off the ship in the morning.
After breakfast and debarkation, we made our way to the luggage pickup and then to our DCL bus transport to MCO.  We had to get our bags and take them to the bus, but I think if you purchase your air travel through Disney and do onboard checkin, your bags will go to the airport automatically.  (I think....maybe someone can confirm that).  
We made it seamlessly back to MCO, and safely home to Nashville.  Cruising out of Port Canaveral is SO easy, IMO.  MCO is an easy airport, having Disney transport available takes a lot of stress away, and the entire process is easy to me.  
My overall thoughts on the cruise?  Awesome!  Yes, 3 nights is too short.  There is no doubt about that.  But our only option was not going.  So it was completely worth it to us.  I wouldn't hesitate to do another 3 night Disney cruise if that was all we could get away.  But truth be told....7 nights to Alaska would be better!  (no, that's not foreshadowing.  We have not done or booked that cruise.  Yet.)  
Well, that's it for Trip #1 of 2017.  But don't go away....this report is just getting started!  Coming up next....Spring Break at the Fort!  And yes, Carol, that will include Anna pics.  

Ray, I was glad to read that you also consider it blasphemy to eat your wings with ranch.  I just had a good laugh while reading a column from the local Buffalo newspaper.  A columnist named Rod Watson wrote this week, after the Bills reached the NFL playoffs for the first time in 18 years, that Buffalo fans need to keep football in perspective...because there are far more serious issues that deserve thought over football.  Bills fans didn't take too kindly to his admonition, and hundreds of them wrote comments on the paper's website.  The best comment, though, was "Rod Watson eats his chicken wings with ranch dressing."
LOL!  See...that is a SERIOUS slam against a man's integrity in Buffalo.  
http://buffalonews.com/2018/01/05/hey-rod-watson-heres-what-we-think-of-your-bills-column/?utm_medium=more_stories

Now I am picturing a raccoon stashing starlight mints in a little nest made of sticks held together with Eternabond.  

It's a Festivus miracle!

It's a Festivus miracle!