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

Remember that on the day when we were waiting for someone to show us our new room, the nice CM from guest services got us a reservation for one of the galley tours?

Well, this was today at 3:15pm.

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So, that’s where we headed. We were all meeting at the back entrance for Triton’s and one of the entertainment CMs greeted us, but then handed us over to one of the chefs. 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!

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In the picture above you can see the hot drinks stations. The whole area where they get the drinks is tiny!! I think one of the reasons why the servers like to greet you with your first drink is not only for the guest’s comfort, but also it reduces drinks station traffic incredibly, if they don’t have to all head there at the beginning of the meal,

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And then I saw this wall:

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It had all the lunch menus for Triton’s for the whole cruise with pictures!!! Wow! I was a bit too shy to take detailed pictures of everything, but here is one with more detail:

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There was more interesting stuff on the wall in form of this time table:

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Unfortunately it came out blurry. This was a detailed description of which food would be offered when and where on the whole ship! So, if you ever want to know something – like what kind of theme the lunch buffet has or if Cabanas/Beach Blanket is offering a buffet one night, when the fake cheesesteak sandwich is being offered at the pool, it is all there in this master plan. You just need to find someone who will tell you! I think your head server would be a great place to start to ask!

This was for this nights dinner:

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more kitchen:

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And now we are over in the Parrot Cay side of the galley. The both galley connect.

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This I found interesting:

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See the two walkways leading out of the galley? One is the entrance and the other one is the exit – so it is a one-way system. Makes totally sense with the large trays they are carrying around!

Here is where the food is put out for the servers to grab:

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One of the interesting things during the tour was that the chef taking us around had been working on the Fantasy until recently. 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.

We then left the kitchen through an empty Parrot Cay:

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Carpet in the hallway towards Parrot Cay:

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After this we spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool. We were still so full from the brunch that we decided to skip dinner.

We watched a beautiful sunset over the Pacific:

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And then we saw the moon up in the sky…

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The adult pool was empty:

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Continued in Part 2
 
At some point we got burgers from the pool deck as out dinner. I really liked the burgers there. Especially in the evening, they were always freshly made.

We got cleaned up and headed to the late show. Tonight was a couple performing who were doing acrobatics and singing. I was not sure at all whether this would be my cup of tea – and quickly found out that it was not.

I was a bit amused that there were warnings before the show that this might be a bit adult – I could not see at all what was considered adult. To me they were wearing typical European circus costumes. That means very little. No one here considers this “adult”, but I guess they were a bit too revealing for American sensibilities. Or maybe Disney is just really so super carful to not step on anyone’s toes and most American were wondering about the same thing as me!

We sat right next to the walkway in the theatre and after 10 minutes or so I quietly walked out and got my book to sit in Diversions and read there. This had become a new favourite place on the ship for me! It was far less crowded than the Outlook and it had very comfy chairs! And snacks!

Michael picked me up when the show was done and we headed up on deck to check out the Pirates’ Party:

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We found a place to sit in the adult pool area and waited there until it was time for the fireworks- Those were great as always! There is something very special about fireworks on a ship!

After the fireworks we wanted to get a drink and realised that there was the Pirate buffet going on. So, we joined the masses! Since we had not had a large dinner, this was a perfect evening snack!

We were greeted by this nice entrance display:

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I liked the watermelon pirate!

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Chili and tortillas:

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Ham:

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We got some snacks there and really enjoyed them!

And then I needed to head ot bed, I really was not feeling so well still. And we were greeted by a little dog in our cabin:

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Up Next: How to Build a Ship
 
I did the galley tour in 2011 and really enjoyed this. Do they still give you a cookie during the tour?

I gather there had been a number of complaints after the early show that day so they added the adult content advisory after that. I did not see the show as I had no interest in it.

The Pirate buffet looks nice. After 13 cruises, we still have not experienced this.

Corinna
 
I am just glued to your report. It is making me so excited for our trip in May! I am learning so much! I've decided my dh and I need to do the palo brunch and I love that we can make it our lunch.
 
Great update!
I can finally say I am all caught up here again. ;) No fun when regular life interferes with staying on top of things here.

Palo brunch looks amazing. I never looked at it as "lunch". Great idea. We used to go lateron in the morning around 11.30 because we could never get an early reservation. The last few times we have been right at 10am and enjoyed around two hours of snacking. (Being European we take our sweet time when eating. :rotfl2:)
I quite like the gorgonzola and grape pizza. But you are right it can be a bit on the sweet side when they overdo it on the grapes. If they get the ratio right it really is good!

We love the seared tuna. So good! And your desserts look yummy too! Tom likes the marinated berries, while I am the "death by chocolate" kind of person. :rotfl2:

Ah, you got to go on a galley tour. :woohoo: That is so much fun. We have done it on the Magic, Dream and Fantasy and I will agree, the newer ships' kitchens are much more modern.
Isn't it exciting to peek behind the curtain and see how they make so many meals happen?

The sunset you caught is wonderful! I just love those!

What? No turkey legs at the pirate buffet? :rotfl2: I always plan on making it to the buffet, but since we usually go to Palo on Pirate night we are usually still pretty full. :sad2:

Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to hear more. :thumbsup2
 
Hello!

Brunch looks even better on the computer screen than in the phone. We should definitely book its for our cruise!
Unfortunately the picture of your first plate doesn't show though….
 
What a shame that you still did not feel well. I think that morning show must have been so funny. Drew is a hoot at the best of times. Palo brunch looked great. We always have the same combination of pizza. Here in the UK decent pizza is hard to come by so this is a highlight for us.

Corinna

Drew is really great! I got to chat with him once and he just a great CM.

I think it is a popular pizza combination. And I can see the appeal if pizza is hard to come by. I rather focus on the things that are difficult to get here in Germany like caviar and seared tuna! ;)

I just love Palo Brunch. On our cruises out of San Pedro and Galveston we did it on both sea days, This trip we are only doing it once on the last sea day, but I could do it multiple times as I love the Chicken Parmesan and could eat any of the other entrees. It is so much nicer than the other breakfast options as they really cook everything to order.

I'm also not a big fan of the grape pizza either.

The show with the cruise director sounded like it was funny, but I would have probably enjoyed sleeping in, especially if feeling under the weather. I have my moments for getting up early, but for the most part enjoy a good lie in when on vacation.

I haven't really explored the entrees that much as I love egg benedict and all the buffet items. But I think that focussing one time on the buffet items and then on a second visit on the entrees would be a great way to make two different meals out of it and therefore enjoy a bigger variety... Hm, you have given me ideas there!!! :thumbsup2

I was really surprised that I did not like the grape pizza. Usually I like the combination of cheese and grape. It might have been the combination with the tomato sauce underneath... Maybe I need to order it next time without the tomato base... :scratchin

I enjoy sleeping in as well on vacation. But when I am in the US, it takes quite some time to totally acclimate myself to the different time zone. I just wake up naturally rather early and feel awake. I think it really was sign of being under the weather that I could even sleep that long! Of course after that I got really used to sleeping in and while at Disneyland I could not motivate myself to get up early to explore the park even though I had the best intentions of doing lots of rope drops!
 
Seems like every time I finally get a chance to get caught up, you post another chapter!:rotfl2:

Sorry!! And I already have another one up! But it prevents me from keeping up with your TR... I just feel like I need to finish this one soon before I forget everything!

He probably got it just so he could offer it to you. It's a professional-level smooth move.:rotfl:

:lmao: Mo, he ate it himself!! He can be smooth - but not professional-level! ;)

Grape pizza? No thanks. :crazy2:

Well, you would be able to find other things!!

I can understand that. Part of the reason we don't go to WDW every year is that we like variety, but we also feel like it might lose some of the novelty and magic if we went year after year. Is that blasphemy on these boards?:rotfl2:

No, not at all. I myself have been spreading out WDW visits as well. Of course there have been quite a few other Disney things in between. But even just a different park or the cruise bring change. And everyone is different. Some like the comfort of something they know - you are obviously more the type who takes pleasure in exploring the unknown, like going on a massive road trip with three kids and a baby in tow! :rotfl2:
 
I did the galley tour in 2011 and really enjoyed this. Do they still give you a cookie during the tour?

I gather there had been a number of complaints after the early show that day so they added the adult content advisory after that. I did not see the show as I had no interest in it.

The Pirate buffet looks nice. After 13 cruises, we still have not experienced this.

Corinna

Yes, we got a cookie. We just could not bring ourselves to eat it, we were still so full from brunch!

Aha! The mystery about the announcement is solved. Well, during the time I was there, there was nothing special about the costumes in my opinion.

I was surprised how substantial the food offerings were on that pirate buffet. I think for us it worked really well to have Palo brunch on that day and then skip the normal dinner (we really are not big fans of that menu as so many) and then pig out on the buffet!

I am just glued to your report. It is making me so excited for our trip in May! I am learning so much! I've decided my dh and I need to do the palo brunch and I love that we can make it our lunch.

I am happy to hear that you are enjoying the report! One of the reasons for writing it is exactly to point out what there is to do! I guess you have read jegsnakkernorge's trip report from the 2013 PC cruise? She did a lot of the extra entertainment as well, but different things from what I did.
 
Oh my goodness was I behind! So many many things I want to comment on and I am quite sure I won't remember them all.

The passage through the canal was just wonderful, it really makes me want to experience it someday. The rain the next day though, yuck! Although perhaps after such a full day of sun, the timing wasn't horrible. So many of your dishes looked delicious, it was making me quite hungry and sad I don't have another cruise booked. I love that you went to so many of the offered activities, we were/are horrible about that and so this is the only way I get to see some of what is offered and it seems you really had some neat "extra's" due to the length of the cruise.

It's funny, I don't think I've ever paid attention to what the menu says about the breads, but agree they are usually always the same thing each day!

I hope to stay caught up now, work travel is slowing down after this week thank goodness!
 
Flossbolna said:
Yes, we got a cookie. We just could not bring ourselves to eat it, we were still so full from brunch!

Aha! The mystery about the announcement is solved. Well, during the time I was there, there was nothing special about the costumes in my opinion.

I was surprised how substantial the food offerings were on that pirate buffet. I think for us it worked really well to have Palo brunch on that day and then skip the normal dinner (we really are not big fans of that menu as so many) and then pig out on the buffet!

I am happy to hear that you are enjoying the report! One of the reasons for writing it is exactly to point out what there is to do! I guess you have read jegsnakkernorge's trip report from the 2013 PC cruise? She did a lot of the extra entertainment as well, but different things from what I did.

I have not read her report. I would like to but upon doing a search, I can't find it. Do you have a link?
 
Great update!
I can finally say I am all caught up here again. ;) No fun when regular life interferes with staying on top of things here.

Palo brunch looks amazing. I never looked at it as "lunch". Great idea. We used to go lateron in the morning around 11.30 because we could never get an early reservation. The last few times we have been right at 10am and enjoyed around two hours of snacking. (Being European we take our sweet time when eating. :rotfl2:)
I quite like the gorgonzola and grape pizza. But you are right it can be a bit on the sweet side when they overdo it on the grapes. If they get the ratio right it really is good!

We love the seared tuna. So good! And your desserts look yummy too! Tom likes the marinated berries, while I am the "death by chocolate" kind of person. :rotfl2:

Ah, you got to go on a galley tour. :woohoo: That is so much fun. We have done it on the Magic, Dream and Fantasy and I will agree, the newer ships' kitchens are much more modern.
Isn't it exciting to peek behind the curtain and see how they make so many meals happen?

The sunset you caught is wonderful! I just love those!

What? No turkey legs at the pirate buffet? :rotfl2: I always plan on making it to the buffet, but since we usually go to Palo on Pirate night we are usually still pretty full. :sad2:

Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to hear more. :thumbsup2

I know all about being behind on other people's threads!

Michael is not at all a breakfast person, so lunch worked perfectly for us! I think we will do this in the future, too. We got a lot of attention from our server as she was not busy at all towards the end of our meal. And we were there for a little over 1.5 hours, too.

I really enjoyed all the peaks behind the curtains that we got during that cruise, there is another big one coming up in the next update!

No, the turkey legs actually look quite disgusting in my opinion!! :snooty::lmao: The buffet worked really well for us this time! We will see what we do on the next cruise. WE are discussing of trying out main seating the next time as we felt we often went too bed still feeling too full from dinner.
 
Hello!

Brunch looks even better on the computer screen than in the phone. We should definitely book its for our cruise!
Unfortunately the picture of your first plate doesn't show though….

Only a little over 4 months until we get to try to book Palo brunch! :cool1:

And I added the picture, thanks for telling me! I had forgotten to add the link!
 
Oh my goodness was I behind! So many many things I want to comment on and I am quite sure I won't remember them all.

The passage through the canal was just wonderful, it really makes me want to experience it someday. The rain the next day though, yuck! Although perhaps after such a full day of sun, the timing wasn't horrible. So many of your dishes looked delicious, it was making me quite hungry and sad I don't have another cruise booked. I love that you went to so many of the offered activities, we were/are horrible about that and so this is the only way I get to see some of what is offered and it seems you really had some neat "extra's" due to the length of the cruise.

It's funny, I don't think I've ever paid attention to what the menu says about the breads, but agree they are usually always the same thing each day!

I hope to stay caught up now, work travel is slowing down after this week thank goodness!

I am even more behind on your TR! I haven't even posted on it yet!! Need to get that done asap!

One day of rain on a 15 day cruise is really not too bad! And there was plenty to do!

I think we got to do so many activities because the cruise was so long and had so many sea days. All your cruises so far have been either short or port intensive. In those cases I would not take part in those activities as much either. And some of them were really rather special! I skipped quite a bit even. All those cooking demonstrations and the talks by the former Panama Canal Captain....

The bread thing kind of bothered me, and it bothers me even more in hindsight when I can compare my pictures with the menus when I write this. I am really thinking about sending an email to Disney about it!

Hope your life is slowing down a little bit this fall - but of course the Christmas madness is certainly going to start soon! :goodvibes
 
Day 16, May 13

Day at Sea
Dress Code: Cruise Casual
Dinner Menu: Master Chef
Show: Disney Wonder Performers celebrate movie musicals in Let’s go to the Movies
Weather: Sunny, 82°F/28°C

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! By this time in the cruise I felt like half the ship was coughing!! I really tried to be very good in not spreading the virus any further and was very vigilant about sanitizing my own hands. Seems like other people were not as careful… Otherwise I should not have gotten it…

This morning I had found another interesting talk in the Navigator and with sleeping in, I nearly missed it! When I arrived at the Buena Vista Theater, they had just started and there were no seats left. So I just stood on the stair at the side.

This was my view:

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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!

Here you can see the time line of how the whole process works out over different years. The funny thing is that the watermark “Seite 1” is German and means “page 1”.

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They were talking about the design process and how the Disney ships are inspired by the classic ocean liners:

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They were talking about how the evacuation of the ship is simulated:

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And then how they got a local school in Papenburg involved to actually have real evacuation trials with the lifeboats with a group that would be made up as on an average Disney cruise, i.e. with lots of kids in the group:

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They talked quite a bit how the owner of the company supplying the lifeboats was at first rather taken aback that Disney requited a special design for the lifeboats – the bottom part looks like an old fashioned boat. But then he was so excited to make these lifeboats and loved the challenge. Of course besides the special form, they still needed to have the same stability etc. as other lifeboats.

They were both very impressed with the work at Meyer Werft and the whole process of building the ship. The ship is actually built in blocks that are then put together. And they pointed out how amazing it was that they had an exact time table as to when which block would be added and that you could set your clock after when this was being done.

Another interesting fact is that after they had signed the contract and started building they actually went back and did some redesign because there were some new security measure being required. The Dream and the Fantasy would have been grandfathered in already, so they could have built the ships without these added measures. But they put them in anyway. 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!

The talk was supposed to be 45 minutes, but it took much longer. And then people were asking questions and questions and there were CMs coming to kind of try to get the Captain to leave. And the entertainment CM bringing the microphone around was relieved by someone else. But the Captain was really reluctant to stop the presentation. It was all really fascinating and you could tell how much he was enjoying talking about this! So, if you ever meet Captain Fabian on one of your cruises, ask him all you want to know about the Dream and the Fantasy, I am sure he will happily talk to you about it!

When it was finally was over and I left, I saw that there were crowds gathering in the atrium. And I remembered that I had seen that they would have the Pixar Pals Party in the atrium at 12pm. I think this is what they do on the Alaska cruises instead of the Pirate Party. We got it as a bonus because it also was kind of the dress rehearsal.

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It kind of was a bit strange with lots of lound music, very energetic CMs and dancing characters – and cruisers standing around just looking at the madness and trying to get pictures. I guess were supposed to join in with the dancing, but nobody over the age of 9 was drunk enough to do so…

I met up with Michael and we headed to Parrot Cay for lunch. No idea why. But we really enjoyed lunch there!

We both got rather similar things:

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I like the buffet at Parrot Cay better than at Beach Blanket because it is more accessible and not one very narrow line. It makes it easier if there are not so many people to just jump in where you want something instead of having to follow the whole long line and being held up by one person not being able to decide whether they want one, two or three olives. I also took some pictures fo the offerings. They were surprisingly similar to what we had on our boarding day:

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Dessert selection:

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The thing with cream on top was a mango mouse and it was so delicious. And this was when we realised that everything we had that had had mango in it had been delicious so far. So we decided that the motto of the cruise “If you see it, eat it” needed to be amended to “If you see something with mango, eat it”. And we tried to follow that wisdom for the rest of the cruise! It also has much less bad consequences for your waist line!!

Up Next: Ooh La La
 
I'm getting hungry now… but did you have blue yello?
I liked the bird they made out of the pineapple and the zucchini :)
I know the presentation by Captain Fabian was interesting, because I think this was the thing you told me most about when you cam back. Well, maybe second to the cabin problems!
But is there again a missing picture - the one with the timetable?
 
I'm getting hungry now… but did you have blue yello?
I liked the bird they made out of the pineapple and the zucchini :)
I know the presentation by Captain Fabian was interesting, because I think this was the thing you told me most about when you cam back. Well, maybe second to the cabin problems!
But is there again a missing picture - the one with the timetable?

Oh, sorry about the picture! It is added in now!

Yes, the presentation was fabulous. And it was a totally unexpected bonus!

I would have thought that I told you a lot about how fantastic Carsland is at DCA!! :confused3 But maybe not!

The buffet decorations were really neat. I loved the bread sailing ship.

And I think I had the blue stuff - I think it is jello in English, not yello?? The mango mousse was better though. :goodvibes
 
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
 
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.
 

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