If You See It: Eat It! Via Panama to Disneyland - Completed and Link to New Trip Report 2/24

[jedijill]

That presentation looked fascinating! Glad sleep helped you feel better...I hate getting sick in vacation.

Jill in CO

 

[Flossbolna]

I am glad you felt better. I think it is a bit of a tradition to pick up a cold on a Panama Canal cruise. I got a really nasty one in 2011, but managed to avoid it this time. I did the same presentation on our Hawaii cruise in 2012 and really enjoyed it.

Corinna

I read comments from the people who were on the EBPC this fall and their bug seemed to be far worse than the one we had! But it seemed like really half the ship was coughing! Luckily it was a thing that was quickly over!

 

[Flossbolna]

Oh Jeff would have loved loved loved that presentation! How fascinating. So glad you felt better.

The dreaded cruise cold. We both got one as well. For me I truly don't think it's so much picking stuff up from others but all that recycled air and AC which my system is just not used to. Mine turned into a sinus infection but luckily didn't really hit hard till we got home.

Love the comment about no one being drink enough over the age of 9 to dance. Too funny!

Forgot to mention I loved your Panama magnet, how fun is that.

The presentation was very cool! And to me the title was not as clear that that was going to be what it was about! So, added bonus!

I had no problem on my first cruise, but that was only 5 days. I used to get sick from the AC because it dries out one's mucosa (that's what my dictionary says it is called in English, the literal translation from german would be "slime skin", I am talking about the inside of the nose). I started bringing a salt water nasal spray with me, especially on air plane trips. I guess I should start using it on cruises as well! I feel that preventing the nose from drying out really helps to not pick up all the bugs flying around!

 

[Flossbolna]

That presentation looked fascinating! Glad sleep helped you feel better...I hate getting sick in vacation.

Jill in CO

Sleep is one of the best medicines!! And the presentation was one of the highlights to me!

 

[Flossbolna]

From there we went to enjoy time at the pool and on deck. It was rather crowded, so I had to find a spot on deck 10. There it was a bit windy, but still nice. The good thing is that up there you have a great view of the ocean. And there was plenty of space.

This was my view:

I felt like I had not enough pictures of the ship…

This was my favourite pool bar server:

Here you can see the adult pool mid afternoon on a sea day:

more ship:

Since I was feeling better I could get a drink of the day! Today’s drink was called Ooh La La and it was explained to us that it was like a mojito with elderflower in it. Sounded great to me and I convinced Michael to get one, too. Thinking back, I wonder whether I had two… This was a very tasty drink!!

At some point Daisy appeared at the adult pool to hang out with us as well. She was just walking around chatting with people in the pool and on loungers, posing for pictures etc.

Today’s show was another special show. The performers of the Walt Disney Theater (meaning the people who are in the shows that Disney produces) had put on a special show. It was called “Let’s go to the Movies” and it was a trip through the history of the film musicals. We definitely wanted to see this and it turned out to be a wonderful show! These people are really talented and it was great to see them perform something different than Disney songs. You could tell that they really enjoyed it, too! I found it interesting that they chose lesser known songs from the musicals they featured. Or at least they were lesser known songs to me.

After the show it was time for dinner and our restaurant this night was Triton’s again. This really was our favourite dining room.

The menu today was called Master Chef. Link is here: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/master-chef-dinner-menu/

I orderd a drink, I guess it was the Tartini (Citron Vodka, Chambord, Lemon Juice and Sprite) as it sounds very much like what I would love:

Michael had the Serrano Ham, Spicy Tomato, Kalamata Olive Bruschetta on toasted Italian Country Style Garlic Bread:

I had the Double Baked Gruyere Cheese Souffle with Maytag Blue Cheese, Spinach and Mascarpone Cheese:

I remember really liking it, but it ws also very heavy!

For the salad course I have no memory who had which salad, so you just get both pictures without further comment.

The first is the Beefsteak Tomatoes and Baby Mozzarella topped with Arugula Leaves and a Balsamic Drizzle:

Not really “baby” mozzarella and no arugula in sight. Once again the menu makes it sound more exotic than it turns out to be.

The other is Leaves of Boston Bib & Radicchio with Cherry Tomatoes, diced Cucumbers and a Citrus Vinaigrette:

We both ordered the same entrée, the Center Cut Beef Tenderloin and Lobster Medallions . USDA Choice Cut of Beef with caramelized Carrots and Snow Peas on a Potatoes Cake and Sauce Bernaise.

We both ordered it without the Lobster:

The picture is before Renato came with the Bernaise Sauce. Michael chose not to get the Bernaise Sauce, but asked to get some Worcestershire Sauce and Renato was so happy that he asked for it again as he had kept that bottle and moved it from restaurant to restaurant every day to have it handy when Michael wanted it again!

I did not have dessert, but Michael orderd the Caramelized Apple Cheesecake on an Oreo Cookie Crust with Cointreau, Crème Fraiche and Cranberry Coulis. This is what he got:

He started eating this and was kind of surprised that there was no apple and then we thought that an oreo cookie crust needed to be darker as well. So he asked Renato and he insisted on that this was the cheesecake that he ordered. But we showed him that there was no apple at all. So he went off to inquire and came back with a totally different looking cheesecake. It turned out that the one Michael had gotten was the cheesecake from the kids menu. Somehow it was placed on the rack with the apple ones and that was where Renato had gotten it from. Michael liked the adult one much better than the one for the kids…

When we got back to our cabin after dinner we were greeted with a reminder that the cruise was nearing its end. We had already gotten the tip envelopes, a print out of our room charges (not that bad, everything considered) and two certificats that we crossed the Panama Canal:

We were at first a bit surprised that they gave us the tip sheets already then, but it made sense. With this being a long cruise, there were probably many people who wanted to adjust tips and with giving these out early, they were giving people more time to go to guest services to adjust tips.

We had an early night as the next day we would have an exciting day at port!

Up Next: Michael Finds a New Love

 

[dolphingirl47]

How nice that Daisy came to hang out at the adult pool. That Drink of the Day sounds delicious. The show that evening was the only show I went to all cruise and I absolutely loved it.

Corinna

 

[nodnol]

I like the view from deck 10. it "looks" quiet compared to the pool.
And waht a funny effect of someone swimming in the windows!!!
I was wondering, why none of you chose the Rasperry Tartlet, it had Mango Coulis... So you don't really stick to your own rules?

 

[schmass]

The talk about the building of the ship looks so interesting! I have seen a DCL special on TV where they talk about it a little, but I'm sure the captain went into so much more detail. And so cool that people could ask questions, too.

Seeing the signs that your trip is coming to an end is always so sad...

 

[Flossbolna]

I like the view from deck 10. it "looks" quiet compared to the pool.
And waht a funny effect of someone swimming in the windows!!!
I was wondering, why none of you chose the Rasperry Tartlet, it had Mango Coulis... So you don't really stick to your own rules?

Yes, deck 10 is far quieter than the pool deck! But also windier. Some people had large clothes pins for their towels on the deck chairs. I thought that was a smart thing to bring!

Those windows are at an angle and mirrored and sometimes you can get some fun effects with that! The one you refer to was just by chance!

And I don't thing a Raspberry Tartlet with Mango Coulis counts as being a Mango dessert???? And we also were trying not to order "No sugar added desserts" - that just sounds plain wrong...

 

[Flossbolna]

How nice that Daisy came to hang out at the adult pool. That Drink of the Day sounds delicious. The show that evening was the only show I went to all cruise and I absolutely loved it.

Corinna

I think the Ooh La La is on one of the drink menus for the bars - maybe only on the newer ships. But when I was poking around, I saw it on some menu.

It was a great show and with Gavin Lee certainly one of the highlights of the shows!

The talk about the building of the ship looks so interesting! I have seen a DCL special on TV where they talk about it a little, but I'm sure the captain went into so much more detail. And so cool that people could ask questions, too.

Seeing the signs that your trip is coming to an end is always so sad...

Captain Fabian really made it very personal. He told a story about how on the day the Dream (I think it was the Dream) was handed over to DCL, it was a very cold and snowy day and it was his daughter's birthday. He had a picture of the showy road to go with it and it kind of added a special level to the whole talk.

It was sad that the cruise was coming to an end, but I still had another week in California to look forward to!

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 17, May 14

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Distance from Panama Canal: 1869 Nautical Miles
Average Speed: 18.1 knots
Distance so far: 3667 Nautical Miles
All Fast: 7:17am
All Aboard: 4pm
Cast Off: 3:55pm
Dress Code: Cruise Casual
Dinner Menu: Toy Story Dinner
Show: The Magic and Mind-Reading of Wayne Hoffman
Weather: Sunny, 88°F/32°C

The first time after five days that we would step on land!!

We had big plans for an excursion today! Before we booked this cruise, Michael had ordered a DCL planning DVD and brought it to Germany when he came to visit. We watched it together and they were highlighting what kind of excursions they were offering in various ports. At one point they were talking about dolphin swims and then they also mentioned swimming with sea lions. Michael saw that and absolutely fell in love with the idea of swimming with a sea lion!

We checked and it was being offered as an excursion in Puerta Vallarta and from the beginning we knew that this was what we were going to do in Puerta Vallarta. I never really looked at our other options.

In the time before our cruise I told quite a few people that we were going to swim with sea lions and nearly everybody here in Germany was making a comment about whether I was not scared that they would bite off my face. Of course I was not! I have no idea why biting a face off was so commonly associated with sea lions, it was really bizarre!!

There were different departure times for the sea lions and we had chosen a mid morning time. I guess you all can guess why we did not chose a 7am departure time…

I got up well rested and felt like my own self again. I was going to find some breakfast and look at Puerta Vallarta from deck 11. Unfortunately I had forgotten to bring my camera with me. But I had my Iphone with me. I think I wanted to see if I had gotten any text messages during the previous days and wanted to make use of the Mexican mobile network. With my German phone I only pay roaming fees if I receive phone calls, make phone calls or send texts. Receiving texts does not cost anything and I had switched of mobile data.

So, I decided to take a few pictures with my Iphone of Puerta Vallarta:

Obviously I stopped on deck 4 first for a closer look… There was a music group greeting one excursion group:

panoramic shot:

And then suddenly I get an email. A very unpleasant surprise email telling me that I have exceeded a certain amount of data! I had been sure that I was not going to use a lot of data on board. You can use the ship’s wifi, but have to pay for data. You can either pay for packages or pay as you go. I chose the later as I could not see myself using up 100MB in two weeks if I was not planning to do more than send a few emails. Well, somehow I had. And then it dawned on me! Some time ago I had activated photostream on my IPhone!! And had totally forgotten about it! At home this was not a problem, as it was set to only be working when I was using wifi. Well, that’s what I was using now. So those few pictures of Puerta Vallarta (there were some more) were just eating up data!! Arg!!! So, dear readers: Don’t make the same mistake as I did! If you use the ship’s wifi, go through your apps and disable everything that you don’t need! Otherwise it will eat up your data!!

After breakfast (I think I brought a banana and some bacon back for Michael as this was his usual request) I got Michael and we had a look at Puerta Vallart together. This time taking pictures with my camera:

One of the most talked about landmarks of Puerto Vallarta is this:

It is walking distance from the ship and it seemed that the crew loved it to get stuff for themselves!

Our meeting point was in Diversions. It was quite full in there. But when we started to sign up, they ended up giving us quite a few different characters. I think we were five different groups in the end. Lisa, the CM from Germany working for Port Adventures was there and it turned out that she was coming with us to take part in the sea lion swim as well. That was nice as I got to chat with her a bit more. She is really nice!


We finally got off the ship and I had to take a picture of our beautiful ship:

Somehow Michael thought I had enough pictures of the ship already and kept teasing me that I took one every time we left her. But I think it is nice to have one of the ship in every port!

We were lead to a small bus and entered it with our group and one other group. The other three groups got a different bus. It was about a 20 minute drive to the facility where we would swim with the sea lions. They had dolphins there as well and the other group were some dolphin swim people.

Sights along the way:

This is the entrance to the facility:

Our group was 13 people and we were split into two different groups. We would all be in the same pool, but each smaller group would have one trainer and one sea lion on one side of the pool and then we did some things together as well.

The facility was very nice. There were changing rooms and there were lockers for our stuff.

Each group also had a photographer and they were telling you to do all kind of things and smile at the photographer etc. I kind of knew that they were going to try to sell you these pictures and thought that if there was a nice one, we might buy one or two. Well, as you will see in a moment, things turned out a bit different! Once we were done, they set up a computer for every party where you could view your pictures. I got to the shop first and started looking at the pictures and was totally surprised how good they were! And then Michael came and he usually is not a huge fan of having his picture taken and often ends up with a somehow strange expression. But he really loved nearly all of his pictures. So – we ended up buying the DVD with all the pictures. Yes, typical tourists! But how often do you get to pose with a sea lion and look good in those pictures???

So, here am I with Cassandra during our sea lion swim:

First me:

And meet Cassandra:

Then I got a kiss from Cassandra:

Here we were supposed to show our mouth:

Sea lions have naturally black teeth, she does not have bad teeth (only I have those…)

Then we were clapping:

And then I got a sea lion to jump over my head:

The kiss and a hug were just me and Cassandra, the photo poses (with teeth, smile, clapping) were actually Michael and me posing together with Cassandra. All in all the same program was repeated for every party and it really was not long at all, I think maybe 30 minutes in total in the water. While we were standing at the edge of the pool, Cassandra kept swimming past us and we could stroke her. She was really very friendly! We also got quite some information about sea lions.

Our trainer had fun picking on Michael and kept teasing him that Cassandra had a thing for him. For the kiss and the hug, the sea lion holds onto you with its flippers and Cassandra did not want to let go of Michael. It was really funny. But Michael was rather smitten by her as well!

After the session, there were showers to get rid of the salt water and we then changed out of our wet swim suits. We also had a small lunch buffet that was available to us. This was not really that good and there was not a lot to do besides eating the lunch. They had some parrots there:

But for the last 30 minutes we just waited for out bus. We were not afraid of missing the boat, but felt that the excursion was over, so why sit around and wait. The souvenir ship was not that big that we could do a lot of shopping there either.

This is one of the things I did not like about our DCL excursions. They all included a lot of waiting around. First the signing up and finally get going off the ship always takes time. And then quite a few of them seemed to have some “dead time” included that was totally unnecessary. You will hear more about this in Cabo san Lucas…

Up Next: Reading Glasses

 

[dolphingirl47]

What a pain about the iPhone and the data. Cassandra looked precious. She looks quite a bit younger than our sea lion Litibu. I am glad that we did our sea lion swim at Las Caletas as there is so much else there.

Corinna

 

[tiggrbaby]

I love the kiss pic!

 

[eandesmom]

Ugh on the data, I can totally see that happening! I had a couple of scares on our cruise thinking roaming was on but it ended up ok so far.

I am about the comment about why you weren't doing an early morning excursion. Michael does like to sleep in doesn't he?

GREAT sea lion photos! I can see why you bought them. I know what you mean about DCL excursions and the waiting, we definitely had that on a couple of ours.

 

[wilma-bride]

You know, it's funny you commenting about the 'dead' time on your excursions - on our last cruise, I knd of felt the opposite. All the excursions we took seemed rushed and as if we missed bits out in the rush to get back to the ship. That was on the Western Caribbean, though, where port time is limited.

I sense that we are almost at the end of the trip report and I feel sad that this is nearly over, partly because it is one of very few trip reports for the Panama Canal cruise but mainly because I am so enjoying reading it.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

You're an updating machine! My latest attempt to catch up...

He was one of the three main dining room head chefs and he told us about the whole process of how they make meals and how they stage them etc. I found it quite fascinating. But I found looking around inside the kitchen even more fascinating!

This sounds like a really neat experience!

He talked about how the technology in the galley on the Wonder is actually quite old and that the Fantasy has much better galleys. He said that it makes working on the older ships much harder and that it also affects food quality to a certain degree.

Interesting. I'm sure that the ships improve as they gain experience, much like anything else.

We watched a beautiful sunset over the Pacific...

Gorgeous pictures!

Not feeling so well the day before I decided that I would just sleep as long as I could the next morning. Luckily, this night sleeping had the curing effect I hope it would have and I woke up feeling much better!

Thank goodness. We really need laws in place to prevent anyone from getting sick on vacation.

The two people in white at the front were Captain Fabian and the Chief Engineer Steven. They were both in the team that was on site in Germany for the whole time while they built the Dream and the Fantasy at the Meyer Werft. And that was the topic of their talk. It was announced on the Navigator under the category “Fun for All Ages” and was titled “Captain’s Ship Building Presentation – Join the master of the Disney Wonder, Captain Fabian, as he shares inside details on ship building at this unique presentation”. I was expecting far less than I got out from it. I was thinking it was going to be some general explanations. But in stead I got a first hand report on the experience of the whole process from contract negotiations to Maiden Voyage for the Dream class Disney ships. And not only from the Captain, but from someone else, who was on the team! Sometimes the Navigators hide the really good stuff far too well!

Fantastic! I can imagine that this talk must have been fascinatign

The funny thing is that the watermark “Seite 1” is German and means “page 1”.

This makes it seem more exotic to the Americans.

One of the new requirements is to have two of every vital element of the ship. These includes the bridge. So both ships actually have two fully functioning bridges. But they did not answer the question where the second bridge is!

You thought those were just simulators in the Kids Club...

Since I was feeling better I could get a drink of the day! Today’s drink was called Ooh La La and it was explained to us that it was like a mojito with elderflower in it. Sounded great to me and I convinced Michael to get one, too. Thinking back, I wonder whether I had two… This was a very tasty drink!!

Sounds like it was very strong as well...

Michael chose not to get the Bernaise Sauce, but asked to get some Worcestershire Sauce and Renato was so happy that he asked for it again as he had kept that bottle and moved it from restaurant to restaurant every day to have it handy when Michael wanted it again!

Good man, Renato!

Michael saw that and absolutely fell in love with the idea of swimming with a sea lion!

Sounds fun! As long as you don't die.

In the time before our cruise I told quite a few people that we were going to swim with sea lions and nearly everybody here in Germany was making a comment about whether I was not scared that they would bite off my face. Of course I was not! I have no idea why biting a face off was so commonly associated with sea lions, it was really bizarre!!

Well, there's a first time for everything, I guess.

So, dear readers: Don’t make the same mistake as I did! If you use the ship’s wifi, go through your apps and disable everything that you don’t need! Otherwise it will eat up your data!!

Thanks for the tip!

So – we ended up buying the DVD with all the pictures. Yes, typical tourists! But how often do you get to pose with a sea lion and look good in those pictures???

Good point! And great pictures! Looks like a lot of fun.

Our trainer had fun picking on Michael and kept teasing him that Cassandra had a thing for him. For the kiss and the hug, the sea lion holds onto you with its flippers and Cassandra did not want to let go of Michael. It was really funny. But Michael was rather smitten by her as well!

Uh oh. Were you feeling a bit jealous?

 

[scrpbookr]

Cassandra is precious! Well worth the wait!

 

[GoofyFan1515]

Sorry I've fallen behind again, but I just had to stop by and say...........

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag Magdalene mein lieber Freund!

Ich hoffe, dass Sie einen wunderbaren Geburtstag zu haben!

 

[Poolrat]

Sorry I am late but

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! !!!!!!!!

 

[dizneeat]

Sorry I am late ........



Happy birthday!​