SO MYLES IS IN THE DISNEY COLLEGE PROGRAM YOU GUYS: POST 1 (DAY 1 OF DROP-OFF!!)

Well hey everyone!

I know, right? It’s been a MINUTE since my last post. 

Well, really kind of more than a minute. It’s actually been like 149,700 minutes since my last post. 

Give or take. 

There’s just been a lot going on you guys. As I mentioned in this post – back in October of 2023, I was laid off. And that whole thing? It was a rough six months, not gonna lie. It’s real hard to buy Vans shoes and candy when you’re broke.

Depressing stuff.

But.

BUT.

BUTTTTT.

I did it you guys. I got a job! I started there a few weeks ago so I am just feeling settled in enough to shirk all my responsibilities in order to get you guys this blog.

Heh, Nah. I’m just kidding new job. You know I love you.

Please don’t fire me. I really like candy.

Alright so these next few posts…

I know I mentioned this a little while ago, but just to catch you all up to speed – Myles took a semester off from Seton Hall this semester to take part in the Disney College Program (DCP). Which was obvs squad exciting on account of this was something he’s wanted since he was little. 

His program started in January, so he’s been doing this whole thing for about four months. And yeah, I am just getting to it now. Don’t give me that. 

So back in January, Nickie and I traveled down with Myles to drop him off at Walt Disney World. And yeah, I never blogged about it. Whatever you guys. I was in my deadbeat era. 

But there were pictures taken with the intent of writing a blog. 

Soooooo.

This series is gonna start with our January trip. And then we are gonna time jump New Girl style to a few months later, after I secured a new job, to when we went down to visit him for a few days. 

I know, man. We breaking ALL the rules. Whatevz. It’s my blog. 

Let’s get on with it. 

Let’s hope it works out better than that last season of New Girl.

Dropping Myles off as he starts the DCP: Day 1

OK so as I mentioned, most of us went down to drop Myles off. Owen, unfortunately, had too much going on at school. 

Nerd. 

The rest of us though? The rest of us were at the airport EAARRRRllLY. Here’s Myles at 6:30AM. Already through security.

Our flight wasn’t until like 8:00 so we stopped off at Davio’s post-security for a quick breakfast. 

Now, Davio’s IRL? It’s like one of our favorite restaurants. 

Davio’s at the airport?

For breakfast?

I dunno, man. 

Place was more like Davey O’s.

It’s like, how do they get away with calling this Davio’s? It’s like airports are some sort of Thunderdome where you can call restaurants whatever you want and charge like $5 for a pack of Dentyne. 

I’m serious you guys. The airport be playin by its own rules. Look, here’s the yelp listing for the Hudson News convenience store at Logan Airport.

Four dollar signs.

For a convenience store.

And we are all just sort of like, “yeah. fine.”

Right though. Back to breakfast. 

I only have two pictures of food here. I know – “only two pictures of food from your breakfast at an airport restaurant?”

I am a huge disappointment. 

I think though that’s because both Nickie and Myles got the Brioche French Toast with Vermont Maple Syrup and Berries. 

I went for the Bacon, Egg, and Cheddar Breakfast Sandwich with Breakfast Potatoes.

OK fine. It was pretty good for an airport situation. But I stick by my Thunderdome comment.

After we finished our breakfast, we got to our gate by 7:20. 

Thing was pretty fly.

And we were boarded by 7:50.

Once in the air, YOU KNOW I got some Pop Chips.

While I wish I could tell you I read on this flight to look hella-smart in front of all y’all, I can’t. I ended up watching a couple movies.

One new-to-me:

And one old standby:

Theater Camp was pretty good. I liked the whole mockumentary style of it and I mean…Ayo Edibiri was in it. So of course it was good.

And I mean. Easy A. Of course it was great. It’s a masterpiece.

By 11:30, we were out walking the new Terminal C at MCO.

Meanwhile, back home, my mother-in-law Sharon had arrived with her dog, Abby, to take care of Owen and the doggos. Look guys – Owen and doggos.

As we were walking through the airport, we had to get a pic of Myles in front of this whole situation. 

On account of EPCOT was where Myles was gonna be learning the custodial arts. Yup, dude’s a custodian at EPCOT.

We rented a car for this trip since we had to get to Myles’s new home for the next few months and take him shopping for necessities like towels and Oreos. 

I mean. What else do you need?

Ooh. Did we rent from Dollar or Thrifty?

I’ll never tell. 

The important thing is by 1PM, we made it you guys!

And we headed right for Disney Springs to grab some lunch. Oh right, here’s the car we ended up with. 

It was um. It was a car. I dunno guys. January was a long time ago and I’ve destroyed A LOT of brain cells since then.

Lookit though. Myles’ first few steps on Disney property as a cast member. Mark it down. January 15, 2024. 

Lunch today was at The Boathouse, one of my favorite restaurants in all of Walt Disney World.

Sorry. The BOATHOUSE. For some reason, they capitalize every letter like an old man complaining about wokeness on Facebook. Or I dunno, maybe I’m supposed to scream it. 

It’s not the Boathouse. It’s the BOATHOUSE!!!!1111

Here’s a picture of the menu. For all my Google-challenged friends. 

As with every meal at the BOATHOUSE!!!!!! this one started with these sexy buns. 

Parker House Rolls all drenched in butter and cinnamon icing. These things are intense experiences. When some people are stressed out, they take themselves mentally to a beach or a mountain or something like that. When I’m stressed? I take myself mentally to these rolls.

They paired nicely with a Bud Light. 

Oh also, when I got up to go to the bathroom, I took a picture of this sign.

Because I mean. I guess?

But what about spaceships? Spaceships are pretty cool.

Myles went with the Fried Atlantic Clam Strips with Chipotle Tartar Sauce and Lemon.

Nickie and I went splitsies for lunch, splitting the order of 2 Filet Mignon Sliders with Maitre D’ Butter and Truffle Fries…

…and the “Yacht Club” Club (Roasted Turkey Breast, Cucumber, Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Avocado, Chipotle Honey Mayo, Swiss Cheese, and Multigrain Bread served with Kettle Chips).

Both were good for sure, but I think I’d give an edge to the sliders. That Maitre D’ Butter on those things is Leh. Git. The issue though? Sometimes the BOATHOUSE!!!11one one skimps a little on the butter, which really hurts the dish. So it’s a gamble. That you always win. Because they’re filet mignon sliders. But you don’t win like…as much. 

Heck of a metaphor right there. 

After we finished up with lunch, the Cloud Goddess was ripe with rain babies.

So we figured it would be a good time to leave Disney Springs and head over to check into our home for the next couple days – Disney’s All-Star Music Resort! 

Which was actually a new resort for us. And that’s exciting. On account of we collect new Walt DIsney World resorts like Bert collects paper clips. 

For those that haven’t stayed here – or at any of the All-Starts for that matter – these are ginormous resorts and each resort is broken into these smaller themed areas. For example, at All-Star Music, they have sections representing all the hottest music styles the kids are listening into these days. Like Rock and Country. And Jazz.

And, um…Broadway? 

Also…wait…Calypso?

Whatever. Fine.

I’m just bummed they never finished their originally promised Gangster Rap section. 

Since we had already checked in on the app and we knew where our room was, we were able to drive directly to our room which – as some sort of joke being played on us by the cosmos – was in the Country section. 

Let’s go check out the room, eh? 

The bed situation in these rooms is that there is one queen size bed that is not ashamed of what it is.

And one queen bed that pretends to be a table.

Don’t hide yourself away, queen.

As you walk in with the beds on your right, there is this little coffee station slash fridge area to your left.

And lookit. Disney Coffee!!!!

The bathroom was one of those separated sink and toilet dealies. 

Which is good. On account of I don’t wanna get those two mixed up.

Again.

Here’s the TV, you guys. With our name on it. My favorite show.

Oh and our room also came with a “Hey Disney!” Alexa. 

Which is like a normal Alexa, except you have to say “Hey Disney” instead of “Alexa”. And it doesn’t do as much. 

We didn’t spend too much time in our room at this point, heading out to explore the resort a little at about 3:30PM. 

Like all All-Star resorts, this one has all these larger-than-life icons themed to the specific sections of the resort.

Look at the SIZE of those maracas.

Though we weren’t eating, we still walked through the food court. 

Which is the best kind of court. Way better than the traffic one. Slightly better than Night. 

So many gifs today huh? I’m really making up for lost time. 

It’s like the gif that keeps on gif’n.

We had some time to kill, so we stopped in at Maestro Mickey’s, the gift shop at All-Star Music. 

You know, we used to not really stay at the All-Stars all that often, but now that there are like hardly any Disney Stores anymore, I appreciate them. Because they literally feel like you’re staying in just sort of a giant Disney store, with all the rando statues and 90s feel to everything. 

I see you, All-Star resorts.

While we were inside Maestro Mickey’s, we mentioned to the cashier that Myles was beginning his DCP tomorrow and she gave him a button to commemorate his new adventure. 

We also FaceTimed with Hannah. To commemorate his new adventure.

We were doing a lot of commemorating his new adventure. 

It was getting time to start getting ready for dinner so we headed back to the room. On the way, we passed an Ariel statue, which had us nostalgic for when Myles met Ariel as a little boy and was all kinds of shy and nervous. 

So we asked him to try and recreate his nervous smile for us. I think he did a stellar job.

Now…

…and then.

Sunrise. Sunset.

When we got back to the room, the AFC Wild Card game was on, which we watched as we got ready. And no, the Patriots were not in there. I would like to remind future Wayne this was the Mac Jones era. 

It was a dark time, future Wayne. I really hope robots haven’t taken over the world. 

But I mean…if they have? I was always a big fan of robots and was excited for them to become our overlords. That’s Wayne Goodreau that said that.

Hail the machines. 

Please don’t burn me with your laser eyes/laser fingers.

Oh right. Well, it was Steelers-Bills.

After we finished getting ready, we hopped in the car and drove over to Disney’s WIlderness Lodge. Which like. The lobby you guys.

And also? The outside you guys.

Dinner tonight was at Geyser Point Bar & Grill, which is an old Goody favorite. I mean, we love our nice sit-down restaurants and all that, but Geyser Point has to be at least in like the top 3 of counter service restaurants. On account of it’s a counter service that pretends to be a sit-down restaurant.

Well it pretends to be a sit-down in a lot of respects (seating, waitstaff, plussed-up food) but in one respect it falls short – and that’s in the area of reservations. They don’t take ‘em. So we had to walk up and put our name in. It was around 6PM and we were told it could be close to an hour. 

Which was totally fine. 

On account of it allowed us to do a little exploring. 

Geyser Point has this nice little outside seating area overlooking Bay Lake.

Which is popular when it’s not January. 

And since we had some time, we decided to pop into Territory Lounge in the main building. 

Which is one of our favorite lounges on Disney property. Here’s what we had to choose from…

And I mean, we decided to have a little from column A, little from Column B.

I went with the S’more Old Fashioned (Elijah Craig 12yr Kentucky Straight Bourbon, Toasted Marshmallow, Chocolate Bitters).

Oof this was a good drink. The bourbon came through on top, but the marshmallow and chocolate bitters added some subtle sweetness. 

To you guys.

Nickie opted for white wine. 

And I have no idea what white wine this was. Guys, it’s May. This was in January. Do you know how much wine Nickie has had since then?

A lot. It’s been a lot.

For food, we ordered the Territory Popcorn Sampler.

Are you kidding me with this thing? Spicy. Caramel. Sea Salt. Truffle. Barbecue. 

I remember trying to pick a favorite that night and it was near impossible. The truffle was so good, but so was the barbecue. And the caramel was obvs a must. And the spicy? That stuff was SPICY.

I also recommend, if you order the popcorn sampler, to try some different combos. A little bit of caramel, little bit of barbecue was like this smoky, sweet situation. And mixing the caramel with the spicy gave you a nice little spicy-sweet battle. Oh and combining caramel and sea salt? Sweet and salty is a never-lose situation.

Mix everything with caramel. Is what I am saying to you now. 

At 6:45, we received a text that our table was ready so we paid our bill and made our way back over to Geyser Point. We were seated right away.

Yup. That was us after “getting ready” for dinner. We fancy.

I’m really not sure what we actually did to get ready. Push-ups maybe. 

I wanted to get a picture of Nickie but she took that opportunity to show everyone what Geyser Point has to offer.

Here’s a closer look. 

I started off with a beer. Of some kind. 

And Nickie and I went splitsies, splitting the Charcuterie Flatbread (topped with Salami, Brisket, Chorizo, Bacon, ​and Smoked Gouda Beer Cheese). 

And the always-incredible Bison Cheeseburger (served with Bacon, Sweet Crispy Onion Straws, Marionberry Sauce, and Garlic Aïoli).

So good. This was what Myles ordered as well.

Dinner at Geyser Point? It never disappoint.

But there is still more to go you guys. Dinner was not the end. It was only the…um…middle. 

We walked over to the dock and boarded the ferryboat. 

Headed for Disney’s Contemporary Resort. 

We arrived at the resort at close to 8PM.

And quickly made our way up to the Grand Canyon Concourse.

And walked right out onto the observation deck to catch the start of the Happily Ever After nighttime spectacular starting in the Magic Kingdom.

It’s such a cool spot to catch the fireworks. They pipe in the music and it’s def a different POV since you have a clear view of both Cinderella Castle AND Space Mountain. Plus, with the monorail flying by every few minutes, it’s a really neat experience. 

Speaking of the monorail.

We caught one out of the Contemporary lobby after the fireworks finished to get us over to Disney’s Polynesian Resort. When we got there, Myles immediately made his way down to the Pineapple Lanai for a Dole Whip Swirl Pineapple Float and he brought it back upstairs to meet us over at the table we grabbed at the Tambu Lounge.

And as you can see in that picture up there, we had ordered ourselves some drinks. Nickie got herself a Mai Tai and I went in for the Backscratcher. 

Huh? Wha? Pfft, they are NOT the same drink.

A Backscratcher is a lot like a Mai Tai in that it has Dark and Light rum but it also has Guava Passion Fruit Juice, a Jack Daniel’s floater, and most importantly? It comes with a backscratcher.

Stop being stupid.

Oh and football was on you guys. 

Go sports! Score a touchback!

After I finished my Backscratcher, I decided it was probably time to stop drinki…hahaha sorry I couldn’t say that with a straight face. 

I got a beer.

We finished up at around 9:30 and ordered up a Lyft to take us back to All-Star Music. 

And so yeah – that was Day 1 of our trip down to drop off Myles for his DCP. A pretty fun day, no? Which was good because I mean, tomorrow? Tomorrow we actually drop him off. I’m getting verklempt just thinking about it. Love this guy.

See you guys on Day 2!

Next Post – Post 2!