20050514..May 14, 2005...Official Check in Disney's 1st 14 Day thru Panama Canal

[moocow35]

.

 

[Cap]

Judi and I are booked. Jeff already has us on the website. This will be our third Disney cruise.

Cap

 

[seaulater]

WOW!!! Welcome to all our new cruisers!!! We are going to have so much fun. Beav...loved your pix of the PC from last fall. We did it last May on RCCL Radiance of the Seas. It was great. Can't wait to do it again.

On our RCCL cruise, we stopped in Aruba, Puentarenas, Costa Rica, Acapulco, and Cabo.

Our favorite stop was Cabo. We loved it there. But, we weren't there long enough. We also loved Costa Rica, but only because we went on an all day river rafting trip that was a blast. I'll pull out my stuff from our PC cruise (which we were on right now 1 year ago!) and look up some of the stuff we did.

In Acapulco we went on the city tour and saw the cliff divers, some posh hotels, and other stuff. It was pretty hazy the day we were there, so the views weren't great. But the beach was great and we had a fun time.

We loved our sea days. Couldn't believe that 15 days could go by so fast. In fact, each elevator had the day of the week on the floor and they changed it each night at midnight for the new day. That was a good thing, cuz after a few days that was the only way you knew what day of the week it was!

Okay, I am getting ready to call it a night.

Again, welcome to everyone.....this is going to be sooooo much fun!

Linda

 

[dianthus]

Originally posted by Tigfanjeff
You won't keep us up. Don't worry. I don't think the Palo rush will be bad at all, particularly with ALL the sea days, but I agree with Hygiene99, after last october, I wouldn't try to get more then 20 people together at a time for Palo brunch.

I don't think I'd want a room under the nightclubs though! The DVC rep told me that's where they house them.

Another question for - PPCCs ( Previous Panama Canal Cruisers ) ~Linda, Beav, Gary~ How were the seas and weather on your trip? Linda, you mentioned you did the cruise last year around this time.

 

[jin diesel]

yes, i'd definitely like to hear more from those who've cruised through the canal before!

also, when do we actually get to make reservations for palos and other activites on the ship?

 

[Hygiene99]

Jeff I sent u our Photo from in Front of The BOARDWALK..

Oh yea were I have to go on June 10...

yipee.... Peter

Also there was a cabin change we ARe now on Deck 7
NOT 6 lol

 

[Hannosmom]

We're in! myself, dh, dd, and my sis!

Hey Sarah!!! Looks like we will be cruising together again. Can't wait to see you! And your dh should see all the pins Sarah has collected now! LOL

We are also sailing on the 11/13/04 eastern. That one is for our 32nd anniversary.

 

[Maleficent59]

Peter: looks like you worked out the reservations with Sam! Great!

Hannosmom: hey! It'll be a blast sailing with you and your family again! We're still waiting for the dust to settle! Just found out this morning that I booked three cabins at three separate pricing tiers for the other repositioning cruise. But we're still going on both! Tell Ed, Deb &Sarah we said hello!! Can't wait to see you all (and Sarah's new pin collection)! Ooh - we're on the Wonder in November! We'll just miss you!

-Sarah in CA

 

[Tigfanjeff]

Originally posted by Hygiene99
Jeff I sent u our Photo from in Front of The BOARDWALK..

Oh yea were I have to go on June 10...

yipee.... Peter

Also there was a cabin change we ARe now on Deck 7
NOT 6 lol

I didn't see the photo. Can you send it once more?

For everyone else. If I don't have your info posted now, please send it again. I've posted everything I've gotten so far.

 

[Hygiene99]

Jeff i resent it... if u do not recieve it here is a link to where it is posted on the net u will know All the folks on that page maybe u could just Grab it.. from there....
Here is the link ....http://hometown.aol.de/cruisetoberfest2/homepage/reisen.html

MAL we are very lucky ... and Greatful to SAM....

So we are now in cabin 7041 deck 7

As Sueellen said ( The only thing I can add is that a bit of Dreams magic was applied to the reservation.

Peter & Sam--glad I could help.)

We got very lucky !!!!

Here is the link to the Page TigfanJeff has created if u like ...
http://www.tiggerfan.net/canal

 

[Tigfanjeff]

Peter, got the picture. Should be posted. So far looks like we've got a good hunk of the boat taken

 

[seaulater]

Afternoon all! Just looked at the Magic in port. I am so excited, one week closer to the 10 day Christmas Cruise, and in one more week it will only be 52 weeks till our cruise.

As a PPCC, I am thinking it was one year ago today that we were actually in transit through the canal! I am going to have to check my stuff when I get home (I'm at the office). I'm so excited!

For the question on the seas and weather-the seas were calm the whole time, except for the Cabo to San Diego leg the last night. It was a little rough, but I think I was seaworthy by then, so I didn't get sick. And if anyone would get sick, it would be me. I got sick as a little girl on a ferris wheel. The weather was wonderful 85-90 would be my guess each day, but with the ocean breeze and cruising the ocean, it wasn't miserable or anything, very comfortable. On all the sea days we were in swimsuits and coverups. The only time I actually was cold was inside with all that blasted air conditioning going on. I had to take a sweater every night to dinner, shows, bingo, etc. I was cold inside, but great outside. (And I'm redheaded, so hot weather is not my cup of tea).

On the day of the PC we actually got to the canal at around 4:30 a.m. in the morning, and since we had an actual back and center AFT suite, (wish I could be so lucky for next year), we were awake because the ship does something to lighten its load before going through the canal. Not like they dump stuff in the ocean, but my husband told me what was going on, but I am engineering challenged, so I'll have to ask.

Hundreds were out on the front of the ship by 6 a.m. and our "reservation" was for 7:30 a.m. to go through the canal. The ship had a special PC Transit Celebration Day and I think they brought out every tshirt, bag, hat and anything else your little heart desired on the pool deck for great prices. Actually, I figured it was the year before's overstock and they had packed it away all winter while in the Carribean, but what the heck, they had great deals and who could go through the canal without buying stuff from the ship? Can't wait to see what Disney comes up with!!

We actually entered the canal around 8 a.m. (Today, one year ago, I think) and the weather was starting to get a little overcast. As we made our way through it was quite overcast and just misted off and on throughout the day. For those that watch Survivor, not anything weatherwise like what they went through, however I was thinking they were filming that back in Nov. and Dec. The temperature in the canal was very pleasant, wasn't cool or anything, probably around 75-80 degrees that day.

Like I said, the whole cruise had perfect weather, and we really didn't feel much of anything til we left Cabo.

Okay, got some work to do. I'll check back in. Have a great afternoon everyone. I'm excited to see so many new cruisers on our thread!

Linda

 

[BEAV]

We sailed West-to-East in Sept/Oct 2003. San Diego to Ft Lauderdale.

Our ports of call were:

Cabo San Lucas
Acapulco
Huatulco
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
Aruba

We had calm seas the entire trip. As seaulater reported, many people often claim the seas are at their roughest from Cabo north to CA. Weather was hot & humid, as one would expect, but not unbearable. We were fortunate to have cloudy skies the day we traversed the Panama Canal. The clouds really helped shade the intensity of the sun. By the way, I've read lots of message board discussions where people always ask "what's the best time of the year to go through the PC?" Since this region is so close to the equator, it's weather varies little no matter the time of year. Just plan on hot & humid! I've read many cruise reviews where the people were surprised it was as hot as it was in January! Remember...there's no real winter (as we know it) in Panama!

I'm looking forward to sailing in the opposite direction this time. We entered the canal from the Pacific side around 4:30am, which I missed, as I didn't awake until around 6:00am. By the time I woke up, we were just arriving at the first lock (Miraflores). This time we'll cover the territory I missed in the late afternoon.

 

[dianthus]

Peter~

Congratulations on the room change. That worked out so well for you! We were in 7044 a few cruises ago - nice quiet area- very convenient midship location.

Welcome to the Deck 7 DIS "Stompers Club" - hee hee!

 

[Tigfanjeff]

Originally posted by seaulater
bingo

I just thought of something. What is the bingo jackpot going to look like at the end of 14 days?

 

[moocow35]

.

 

[Hygiene99]

Not sure but how big is the Bingo hall was thinking we could have Final Jackpot Dis Meet .... Sure would Be nice if some member of our online Family was to Win the Jackpot ...

Lol peter

And yes we are very lucky..................
dianthus.......
Dont know how they did but they did ....

lol Peter

Also a Very Happy Birthday to SEAULATER / Linda
5/11/59

mine is the 13th i will be 38 peter

 

[kellib36]

When we went in Sept, they had the finals in the Walt Disney Theater...due to too much interest....I won $434 on the first game....4 corners in 7 numbers.....I was a nervous wreck.....I can't imagine having to do a larger game.....

Kelli

 

[kellib36]

I haven't "officially" joined you all, since I'm still waiting for the wishy washy-est of our bunch to commit. HOWEVER!! I do have a question!! When I took my mil on the Magic in Sept, I rented a wheelchair that was at the port when we got there. This time, however, I don't want to rent it for the summer! ;-)

How does a person go about taking a wheelchair on a plane? Seems like we'll have to rent one in Milwaukee and take it with us all the way through. Will the airline "check" it at the gate like I've seen them do with strollers? Never seen it happen...thanks, Kelli

 

[Cheese Please]

Add another former Cruisetoberfester to the 1st Panama Canal Cruise.

Jeff you can take our picture from the Cruisetoberfest III site too. The one that Peter pointed you to.

The Bingo discussion got me thinking about the Castway return cruiser party. I imagine the rate of return cruisers on both of the repositioning cruises will be pretty high. I would guess 80 to 90%. They might have to have multiple sessions just to be able to fit people in. Even with using multiple rooms fitting everyone in at once would be a challenge.

Dave