Month: March 2023

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Nine Tuesday 17th January 

by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Tuesday 17th January

Following a decent sleep for Louise and me, we awoke to Emily’s tales of some people snoring nearby keeping her awake. These walls must be very thin if she could hear snoring from next door as it cannot have been coming from within our cabin.

We got up around 7.30 and slowly got ready for breakfast. We watched the ship arrive into Nassau from the balcony.

Once I was satisfied that the captain no longer needed my help guiding him into port, we headed up to Marceline Market and it was pretty busy.

One of the reasons we hadn’t cruised before was a “fear” of being captive in a defined space with a load of people and having to queue for stuff. This was realised at this breakfast sitting as there were long queues for all the food stations. Had we known what we were doing we probably would have gone to the Roy or Walt Disney restaurants for a sit-down do rather than battle through these crowds.

We found a table and took turns going getting food which was decent.

We left about half an hour later and started the search for somewhere to spend the day sun-worshipping. We had decided not to go ashore into Nassau, mainly due to some things we had seen on-line about safety concerns which were probably unfounded, but to be honest, having committed to the cruise, it would be good to spend time getting to know the boat etc.

We found some chairs up on the adults-only deck, which disappointingly only meant that children were not allowed on it.

We enjoyed the view.

This was our neighbouring boat.

We left after about half an hour as the chairs we were in were not suitable for long-term sunbathing. We moved to another location where we found two sunbeds and ordered a drink. Whilst the ladies enjoyed those I set off on a walk of discovery, hoping to find a quieter area where we could all sit or lie down at once.

Our spot on deck 14 from yesterday bore fruit and I went back to collect Emily and Louise and relocated us up to a much more civilised spot.

We would settle here for the day.

My phone told me it was 73 degrees but it felt much hotter, to be honest. It was lovely.

We had more drinks and didn’t do a great deal for the next few hours. More drinks, relaxing, some reading and I think I went for a wander at some point.

You will notice that we did not have lunch, a side effect of a late, large breakfast, but after Emily had gone back to the room around 3 to catch up on some sleep, I sourced ice cream from a still very busy Marceline Market around 4pm.

At 4.45 we went back to the cabin. We quickly showered and changed and were back out at 5.25 heading for the Walt Disney theatre for the Ariel show.

It was quite a different take on the tale (get it?) but very enjoyable and Emily cried.

The show lasted an hour at which point we wandered to the Nightingales piano bar for some pre-dinner drinks.

The pianist soon arrived and performed songs themed around classic 90’s Disney movies.

This drink became a staple for me over the next few nights. I can’t remember its name but it came with a hammer to break the ice ball and release the drink. It tasted a bit like Baileys so was more dessert than a drink.

I mentioned the price of alcohol in Disney earlier in the trip. I would say that this was our main expense on the cruise. Of course, that is because pretty much everything else is included, but I would say a round of three drinks would be costing $50+ a time with a tip included. I don’t drink much so I don’t know if this is too shocking but it certainly added up over the duration of the cruise. Enjoyable though they were!

We left at 8.05 for our dinner sitting in Arendelle at 8.15. We were greeted with a huge queue to get in.

We were seated quickly enough and looked over the menu….sideways.

The dining experience here is a good one. There is a show being performed pretty much throughout the meal and our food was good.

Emily started with whatever this is.

I think Louise and I had soup, that was more pie than soup.

I had wondered where The Corrs were these days.

Louise had the chicken dish.

I had the Ribeye steak which was a bit fatty for my tastes but I think it is supposed to be?

Before dessert arrived Olaf did a tour of the tables.

Apple cake for dessert was very nice.

When Edi, our server, asked Louise what she wanted for dessert she said nothing. So he brought her a plate with the word nothing written on it in chocolate sauce.

We finished eating around 10pm and we were, to be honest, knackered and full and needed to go to bed. We had a slight detour on our way out of the restaurant. Having lost our bearings we wandered into a backstage kitchen area before several cast members pointed out we shouldn’t be going that way. We did then find the exit and made our way back to the cabin.

We were greeted with this belter.

A lovely day of doing nothing came to an end with me already realising that writing about sitting in the sun leads to short posts!

Till the next time…..

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Eight Monday 16th January 

by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Monday 16th January

Up at 7am to the horrors of packing. The plan had been to use one case for the three of us for the cruise, which was where we were headed today. We would then leave the other two in the car. It soon became clear that this would not work and we would need two cases.

It took over an hour to get everything strewn around our room into our cases and bags before showering, making a coffee and then heading to the car at 9am.

As ever, breakfast was a priority and we decided to go to an IHOP and the closest was up on the 192.

There was no wait to be seated and we chose –

Me – Split Decision

Louise – French Toast

Emily – Omelette

It was all very tasty and very good value.

It was still only 10.30 when we finished eating and we assumed far too early to be heading to the ship. We went for a bit of a drive around Celebration as we hadn’t been for a while.

We stumbled across some delightful properties.

Proper picture book stuff….

We left before we got arrested for taking photos of strangers’ houses.

We then set the sat nav for Port Canaveral, which showed an arrival time of 11.45. Our boarding slot wasn’t until 1.45pm, so we had no clue what we would do to kill that time once we got there.

This added to my overall feeling of anxiety at doing something new. I had no idea how any of this cruising stuff worked and I didn’t like it. Some research may have eased that anxiety but life had been busy pre-holiday so here we were, heading into the unknown.

We did the uneventful straight drive out to the coast.

In the photo above you can see our Toll Pass thingy. I would certainly say that the extra few minutes it takes to pick one of these up at the airport is worth it. You can just sail through the Sun Pass lanes and not have to worry about finding change etc.

Enough pictures of roads now?

Have some water instead.

Back to roads again.

As we neared the terminal, I naturally turned down the radio so I could concentrate and luckily was able to follow a Disney Cruise bus into the right place.

As we entered the relevant area at Terminal 8 someone directed us to a spot to drop off our luggage. We handed them over and in my “I don’t know what I’m doing” state, I handed over a $20 tip rather than the $5 I intended. If America could make the notes look different to each other that would be great. What do you mean $20 was correct??

We drove into the car park, paid $95 and left the car there.

As we headed for the check-in bit Louise of course needed a restroom so Emily and I stood with the cases starting at the entrance to the terminal, so close but yet so far.

After about six hours (I do not exaggerate) Louise returned and we made our way in. I need not have worried about killing that extra time before our check-in slot!

We were still a little ahead of our boarding slot but I figured we’d see how far we got.

As we got to one of the check-in cast members the first hurdle and therefore small piece of advice I can share is, they need a physical copy of your ESTA. I did not have one. Luckily I had mobile data on my phone and she had to wait whilst I logged onto the ESTA site, retrieved each one and showed her the copy on my phone.

Not stressful at all.

Next, we went through security before heading up to the place where you waited until your boarding group was called.

We sat for about an hour before that happened. Once group 22 was announced I had no clue where to go or what to do, so wandered about until we found the right place. We were boarding!

As we reached the entrance a CM asked for our surname and we were announced onto the ship. A lovely touch and the environment into which you arrive is really impressive.

It felt like we were surrounded by professional cruisers who were not randomly wandering about aimlessly like us. But we enjoyed the wander while waiting for our room, sorry cabin, to be available. Getting your bearings on the ship is probably the single biggest asset to getting the most from the cruise, so do more research than I did.

Eventually, we found our way up to deck 14 and took in some of the views.

At 2 we headed to the room. No luggage yet but we dumped our bags, including a very heavy Ryan, and headed back out to explore.

Any concerns about the size of the cabin, especially with three adults in it were dispelled. It was fine and our bed was probably the most comfortable one we had all trip.

We had some lunch in Marceline Market at 2.45. Just some chicken tenders and burgers with some beer, wine and rum for Emily. She was at sea now!

Sam, a UK chap behind the bar, somehow talked me into spending $16 on that beer glass. It was mine for the whole cruise (you get a card to redeem for a glass) but as I drink about three beers a year I doubted I would remember or have anywhere near enough beer to get any value from it.

We continued to explore.

I didn’t think we were getting to Nasa until tomorrow?

Ah, sorry it’s Nassau we are heading to!

We stopped in another bar called the Keg and Compass and I had a Guinness, Louise a wine and Emily another Rum and that took us almost to our sailing time. I appreciate that may not be the correct technical term.

Rather than join the crowds watching the sail away party we returned to deck 14 where it was more peaceful and had some fab views as we left port.

Whatever the coming few days had in store, at least we weren’t on that boat.

There’s something mesmerising about the sea when you live 50 miles from it. I couldn’t stop looking at it and taking photos.

Back in the room, it has to be said that Emily and I did not feel well. We had not yet established our sea legs and despite the huge size of the boat, we could feel the movement. We rested a bit and then got ready for dinner. We stopped in the Bayou (a bar) for a drink but I couldn’t finish mine as I had to go back to the room to take care of business and my upset stomach.

When I returned we wandered around the very posh jewellers onboard, expertly buying nothing before heading to the Marvel restaurant for dinner.

In another spectacular example of how little research I had done prior to doing this cruise, we were, it has to be said, shocked to discover we were seated at a shared table. Best efforts had been made to match us up with similar folks, in that it was another party of three, two middle-aged parents and an adult child in their twenties but that is where the similarities ended.

Don’t get me wrong, they were lovely people and we would get to know them better over the course of the cruise, as yes, you sit with them at every meal, but we may as well have been from different planets.

As we made awkward small talk and Paul Rudd did some acting all around us (not in real life), we had –

Me – Soup, Steak and a Sundae

Louise – Soup and Steak

Emily – Rigatoni and Gnocchi, who I thought played for AC Milan.

Not great photos, but you try explaining to three strangers from South Carolina why you need to take detailed photos of all your family’s food before they can start eating it.

The food was good and Edi, our server, excellent.

We got some sea-sickness drugs from the shop after the meal and that sorted us right out. We didn’t feel sick at all for the rest of the cruise.

We toddled off back to our room and had a welcome early night. The towel art was off to an impressive start.

Till the next time…..

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Seven Sunday 15th January 

by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Following the only logical way in which you should do the WDW parks, naturally, today was to be Animal Kingdom. If you don’t do them in the order in which they opened, seriously what gives?

I was awake around 6am which gave me enough time to ready myself for the app shenanigans required before riding some rides.

When the time came I secured an (expensive) LL for Flights Of Passage at 12.35, but for once there were choices to be had and it wasn’t the experience previously seen, where you just smash all the buttons presented as quickly as possible and see what time falls out the back.

Of course, Genie+ was bought again accompanied by a good amount of resentment.

After making enough noise to wake everyone else up we left the room at 8.30. The nipple-hardening chill took me by surprise and as we walked to the car I did suspect I was a little underdressed for the conditions. A fifteen-minute drive saw us parked up and on a tram.

Somewhere amidst all this, I had booked a LL for Everest at 9.15 so we walked there first.

See how I expertly and effortlessly have the camera focus on the very important fence rather than the irrelevant characters in the background.

There was already a 40-minute standby queue so our previous trick, when old school FastPasses existed, of riding it once with a FastPass and then going through standby before the queues built up was scuppered.

It was as we made our way down the first hill on the ride that I realised this was going to be life-threateningly cold. We ended the ride with ringing teeth and bright red cheeks but with a smile on our faces.

Breakfast was required. None of the parks cover themselves in glory for counter service breakfast options and here was no different. We ended up at Yak & Yeti for some breakfast bowls.

They were tasty to be fair, yet a little spicy which would no doubt be resulting in some Rennie a little later.

It’s Tough To Be A Bug had no wait so that was chosen next. On the way, we got Emily a hot cocoa to avoid a trip to a medical facility. We walked all the way to the end of a row and enjoyed the show. I think only one small child needed taking out during it this time.

I had at some point secured a Lion King LL for the 10.30 show so that was our next destination. We entered the relevant queue only for Louise to come over all hot sweats and gripes. That is not a rap act, it was a condition that needed a restroom without any delay. She left us to attend to that so Emily and I loitered just before the entrance to the theatre hoping she would return before the show started. She did, but only just which meant we were sat right at the top of the bleachers.

The show, now back to its usual format and not the Covid version, was of course excellent.

Here, the show mirrors my oesophagus following that breakfast bowl.

We then caught the train up to Raffiki’s Planet Watch. It had been some years since we had done so.

It was too cold for the animals to be out and about so they were all sheltering in their heated stalls.

Look at that ass….

I chatted for ages with a Cast Member called Roy or Ray. He had been working for WDW for 39 years and had loved every day. We had a really interesting discussion about the animals and his career. I sent a cast compliment off as he was a proper gent and a gem.

We caught the train back at 12.30 for our Flights Of Passage LL and got there at 1.10. After a ten-minute wait, we entered the first room and eventually got on the thing at about 1.25.

We were all loving the ride and with about 30 seconds of it to go (we were literally coming in to land) the ride crashed and we were plunged into darkness. A CM appeared, released us all and then took us to another room where we immediately rode it again! It felt like we had got slightly more value from our LL booking!

We were heading for our LL for the safari now but stopped in Harambe for some authentic African cuisine. I had a pretzel, Emily a muffin and Louise some Lays.

Despite being LL, we still waited about fifteen minutes before boarding. It was mid-afternoon, traditionally a time of few animals when Florida is hot, but the very cool temperatures meant there were a good number of animals wandering about.

A show that has grown on us over the years is the Nemo one here at Animal Kingdom. Whilst never quite forgiving Disney for removing the Tarzan show, this is something we seem to enjoy more each time we see it.

This being my favourite bit…..I do have history with large turtle heads of course.

Louise was tired at this point so she went to have a sit down whilst Emily and I went off to ride Dinosaur. This is probably Emily’s least favourite ride in WDW, but I wanted to ride it so here she was.

As if the Disney Gods were smiling upon her, as we got to the entrance the CMs were announcing it was down. We still entered, hopeful the downtime would be brief, but after twenty minutes and with an impending ADR coming up, we gave up and walked over to Yak & Yeti to meet Louise for dinner.

We were seated immediately, upstairs.

Oddly, at this exact moment, one of my nostrils became unbelievably runny. No amount of blowing and sniffing would sort it. I feared I was coming down with some holiday illness, but (spoiler alert) I never did and this was just a very strange thing that lasted a few hours.

We started with Pot Stickers and yet took no photo.

Lo Mein for me and Emily

Sweet and Sour for Louise.

With wine and cocktails for those that could the bill came to $165.

We endured a very chilly walk back to the tram and drove to Walmart and spent $58 on things for my nose and other bits. Once back at the resort, I went to put a wash on, despite my severe illness and ate the rest of Louise’s Gideon’s cake whilst I waited for it to finish. I went to sleep at ten with a tissue up my nose.

Till the next time…..

The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023 – Day Six Saturday 14th January 

by mkingdon, posted in The Coats, Boats and Little Scrotes Tour 2023

Saturday 14th January

Usually, I might moan (who, me?) about being awakened by an alarm, but after my recent sleeping woes, I was quite pleased to sleep until it went off at 6.45. Nothing says I’m on holiday more than setting the alarm for 6.45 right? Thanks Disney.

With us heading for Hollywood Studios today I knew I had to be up at that time to try and give them a load of money to ride something I had already paid for and to get Genie+. I have moaned extensively already that this park is really struggling currently and always has horrible wait times.

I did what was needed and handed over the money to experience Rise of the Resistance and secure Genie+. $120 lighter (yes, you read that right) we all got ready, layering up for what was forecast to be a very chilly day. It was currently 5 degrees.

We took the car today as we didn’t want to be waiting for the Skyliner in very low temperatures later tonight, which was a shame as I really enjoyed taking advantage of the Skyliner. We parked in Mickey 305, right at the top of the row. We made it into the park behind yet more ticket and finger incompetence and made our way in.

Breaking every rule of theme park touring, we all agreed that we needed food before anything else could be considered. We walked over to Toy Story Land and for the first time tried Woody’s Lunchbox, which I think is a film you can find on the dark web if you look hard enough.

We ordered two breakfast bowls and one Plant Totchos. Everything was very tasty. We got hot drinks too.

It was about $40 and we sat outside in close-to-freezing temperatures because we were on holiday.

Because the Genie+ system works so well, I was forced to book Slinky Dog for 3.40pm before all the slots for the day went and this now meant that I couldn’t book anything else for ages. Every ride already had a really long wait time (yes, I know we should have ridden something before eating!) so all we could do was wander around Galaxy’s Edge for a bit.

In the end, we did a full loop of the park, basically killing time until we could use Genie+ to get on something. We were, it has to be said quite frustrated at this point.

We were headed for One Man’s Dream to kill some more time when Emily spotted that the wait time for Rock N Rollercoaster had dropped to twenty-five minutes from over an hour. Sceptical, yet hopeful we headed over there. It would appear that half of the guests in the park had spotted the same thing and were also heading there. Surely Disney would not post a false wait time to drag guests to another area of the park?

There were a lot of big school groups in the parks today so if you timed it wrong, the queue you entered could be adversely affected just by one of those if they were in front of you. We joined the standby and it took about 35 minutes to get to the alley. Not bad for a busy Saturday morning.

We returned to our previous plan and headed to One Man’s Dream, and on the way, finally able to make another LL booking, I booked Toy Story Mania for 11ish.

We hadn’t watched the film for a while so it was lovely to see it again.

It was nice now to make use of some of the money I’d spent on Genie+ and to get inside where it was warm as I inflicted a crushing defeat on Emily on Toy Story Mania.

181,000 was the best in our car and still woefully short of troubling any records for the day or week.

Our slot for Rise was approaching so we went back to Galaxy’s Edge and stopped for a drink and a sit-down.

Emily was excited to finally get to experience Rise for the first time as we waited for our slot to roll around. We finished our drinks and I got a notification from the Disney app. Rise was down and our booked slot had now been turned into an “any time today” slot. FFS.

You can imagine what this did to the wait times everywhere else, as everyone who should have been waiting for Rise looked for other things to do. With our LL booking ability still tied up, we found ourselves with another hour with nothing to do unless we wanted to spend it all standing in a queue. As we walked past Rise the CM outside was pretty much saying this felt like an issue that could take a while to fix so it would be best to not hang around and wait.

We consoled ourselves with some Gelato from the cart outside the Muppets. We people-watched for a bit until it was time for our lunch ADR at Hollywood & Vine, booked solely to get us into Fantasmic again without a long wait.

We were seated at 1.50. We hadn’t been there in years either. The food was decent and plentiful as were the characters. Being an all-adult group, we sacrificed Emily as tribute and she was the one to stand up and get photographed with them all. She was not too upset by this.

It had been a while too, for all kinds of reasons since there had been any character hugging. It was nice to see that again.

We each constructed plates of oddly thrown-together food combinations and filled ourselves up.

During lunch, I had booked Smuggler’s Run for 2.50 so that would be next. On the way, we called into the droid shop to pick out Freddie’s present. On a recent Facetime, he had expressed an interest and desire for something Star Wars and robot-related. Whilst we didn’t do the build-a-droid thing we did get him a talking droid soldier which would be very tricky to get home. Louise seemed not to care and made us buy it anyway. It was about two feet hight. I do have a bit of a catchphrase in WDW shops when Louise points at something…

“But how do we get it home?!?”.

It has saved thousands of dollars over the years. It didn’t work today though.

We rode Smuggler’s Run, and each time we do I manage to take in a little more of the story and detail. I am even beginning to have a clue what the aim of the mission is and how to do better at it.

Now, the Genie+ famine turned into feast and our Slinky LL, made hours ago, was due so we went straight onto that.

These people here demonstrated exceptionally bad skills when trying to undertake the complex task of scanning their magic band to get in.

We went past them as they all stood trying to figure out what the thing on their wrist was but as we got into the LL queue further up it turned out we had managed to get ourselves in the middle of their group so Louise let the incompetent stragglers past us much to my annoyance.

Having somehow wrestled the two-foot droid I was carrying into the very small seating area, we rode.

By jingo it was cold.

Whilst doing all of the above I booked us a LL for the next Indy show at 4.30. As we left Slinky I saw on the app that Rise was back up and it looked to have just done so. We altered course and marched straight there. The LL queue was snaking for miles already but we joined it, as we were riding this bloody thing if it killed us.

In the end, we waited just ten minutes to get on. I think some part of the ride was missing, but at least it was up and Emily got to experience it. It was, is and probably always will be an awesome experience.

We took advantage of the aforementioned booking for Indy at 4.30.

Before returning to our new favourite, the Tap House, for a drink. Whilst doing so I was amused and horrified to see…

Whilst enjoying that and layering up for Fantasmic (Ryan had been bulging all day with extra clothing) I eeked out a little more value for money from Genie+ and booked Star Tours for right now, bypassing a 30-minute standby queue.

Once we were done we walked down to Fantasmic. We were in at 7.15 and grabbed a box of popcorn for the wait.

Another awesome show was enjoyed and after a painless exit from the show and the park, we were quickly in the car and back home by 9pm. We got changed and headed for a club until about 3am.

No, sorry, I mean we were in bed moments later.

Till the next time…….