Photo Trip Report – Panama Canal Cruise plus 3 days in DLR

[jegsnakkernorsk]

So by this point it is almost noon and I have yet to shower. I meant to shower after working out and shuffle board, but dad had to eat or would have passed out then and there, remember? And then I meant to shower after breakfast, but then mom called on the wavephone to tell me she had a seat saved for me in the front center for the art of entertaining cooking demonstration. Then I planned to shower after that when DSis texted on her wavephone that she was coming to Studio Sea to see napkin folding and to save her a seat. So, a few hours later than I expected, I'm finally free of all family guilt and obligation and back in my stateroom.


After showering I decide to find my family and figured they would probably be getting lunch at beach blanket buffet on the 9th deck.

For some reason, stopping for ice cream before lunch makes perfectly good sense on DCL - it was on my way after all.


About this time my wavephone was vibrating constantly with missed calls from Mom and Sis wondering why I'm not with them at beach blanket.

I came to the buffet through the back entrance and missed the hand sanitizers - I carried purell in my purse but coming in the back way makes it hard to get silverware and napkin!


Since I would have been heading against the current of the buffet lines, I settled on the paella station and got a spoon from the dessert buffet.


I wasn't sure if DSis had gotten any paella and the line was so long I figured I would get two bowls and either she or dad would like it too - nothing worse than showing up with something no one else has and having them all eyeing your food - then you have to share - yuck.



I found the table the family was hunkered down at and no, DSis didn't know about the paella and yes, she did really want it.

Mom and Dad took off about the time I got to the table, but dad came back to bring us both this dark chocolate dessert - dad drowned it in chocolate sauce for us - was too much though - even for me.


I'm looking over the navigator for the day and can't figure out where it was that they hurried off to after lunch, but now I see there was a singles lunch at Tritons - maybe I should have gone there instead!

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

Finally! ONE postcard has been received. It was delivered to a friend in Vienna, Virginia. So it took over a month and there's still about 23 postcards out there from us - we were busy that first 24 hours getting cards written to be sent from either Castaway or Panama.

 

[Luv2Diz]

Thanks for posting! WDW and CC sounds great - is that a land/cruise package? What ship is that?

This was an 8 night cruise out of Galveston on the Magic. They ran cruises with the CC, WDW and Key West port stops during the spring this year. We were on the May 10 cruise, the last one before the Magic headed to Barcelona.

Our day at WDW was an excursion. The cruise price included transportation to WDW and a 1 day park hopper ticket. This has been my favorite cruise itinerary so far! We had a great time!

Looking forward to more of this TR. (The behavior of some of the CMs is sad. Hopefully that didn't continue throughout your cruise?!)

 

[pequele]

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This photo also shows how bright that clock is - I had to turn it towards the wall at night to keep it from blinding me.

That's too funny! I find the switch for the dimmer "function" but STILL have to throw a towel over it because turning it around for me only makes it glow off of everything else! Seriously, I am blind at night without my glasses so the clock could be 40 ft tall and I STILL wouldn't see if but too much light drives me bonkers!

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

This was an 8 night cruise out of Galveston on the Magic. They ran cruises with the CC, WDW and Key West port stops during the spring this year. We were on the May 10 cruise, the last one before the Magic headed to Barcelona.

Our day at WDW was an excursion. The cruise price included transportation to WDW and a 1 day park hopper ticket. This has been my favorite cruise itinerary so far! We had a great time!

Looking forward to more of this TR. (The behavior of some of the CMs is sad. Hopefully that didn't continue throughout your cruise?!)

That sounds like a great itinerary. So WDW was a day excursion? Do you have a trip report? I am curious what you choose to do in that time? I was thinking that adding Disneyland to the end of this cruise made perfect sense since it ended in LA and thought that they would do a few cruises out of LA, but they turned the ship around and just had a short repositioning cruise after ours up to Vancouver with an overnight in San Francisco that all the cast members were looking forward to. But after this trip, I know that a day excursion to Disneyland and California Adventure would have amounted to waiting in line three hours to ride Radiator Springs in Cars Land and that's about it! As it was it took us three days there to ride it once! More to come..

And no the CMs that were acting up were the same that another poster commented on, on another day of the cruise as well and it was pretty much all cruise long, but it was just a small group of CMs - think they all played on the main stage and dressed as princes and dancers.

That's too funny! I find the switch for the dimmer "function" but STILL have to throw a towel over it because turning it around for me only makes it glow off of everything else! Seriously, I am blind at night without my glasses so the clock could be 40 ft tall and I STILL wouldn't see if but too much light drives me bonkers!

I hear that!

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

Now that I have your attention . This afternoon all four of us are signed up for the champagne tasting in Cadillac Lounge. They keep everyone out until the drinks are poured at each station, so when you sit down, this is what you see.





Ross from Downton Abbey, UK - apparently he hates that show and how all Americans think that's what life in England is like. That's so ridiculous, we know it's not like Downton Abbey anymore - today in England parents send their kids to boarding schools to learn magic, duh. Anyway Ross did an explanation of each of the drinks after we had a chance to taste. He would quiz the group as to Champagne or sparkling wine.



We started with Proseco, then Chandon Brut Classic, then Moet & Chandon Imperial champagne, then Moet & Chandon Ice Imperial (which Ross said all the kids were drinking - all the young people), and a rose that I can't remember.

After this we all felt good and sleepy and headed back to the staterooms to relax. There was a plate of snacks in mom and dad's room


And Rodrigo had brought a crossword puzzle. This was something they hadn't done in the past, but with so many adults on the cruise and so many days, the concierge team came up with crossword puzzles that they printed out each sea day.

Tonight was the show, Golden Mickeys and also formal night. We hadn't seen the Golden Mickeys before and really enjoyed it.

After the show, they were passing complimentary alcoholic and non alcoholic beverages in the atrium and we took ours to the Diversions were dad could also get a Bourbon.

(This jenga set-up looks like we didn't want to challenge ourselves or we just ran out of energy setting it up.)

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

Each night in the drink section of the menu they listed two alcoholic and one non-alcoholic beverage.


This is one of the two with booze. The avant premiere.


Crispy Cheese Ravioli - this was good, how can you go wrong with fried cheese though.






I liked the turkey dish very much, all but the stuffing, but it's hard to enjoy stuffing when you have a good family recipe.


This is the duck.







These desserts don't have chocolate. I can't tell you anything more than that. I don't bother tasting dessert unless it includes chocolate.

Januar noticed I was attempting to practice my napkin folding and came over to show me how to make the napkin fold of all napkin folds.



Unfortunately, this was our second to last night with Januar, though we didn't know it, nor did he. I'm truly sorry for his loss and glad he was able to fly home to be with his family.

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

Tonight after dinner, DSis and I walked around the ship looking for something to do and came up with going back to the stateroom.




The covered plate is the left overs from mom and dad's room - what ever they didn't want to eat they would sneak in and leave in our room - thanks.
We also got notified of the time change - we gain an hour as we traveled west. And they gave us a nice map/pamphlet on the Panama Canal.

Every night before I went to sleep, I stepped out onto the verandah to see if there were stars or bioluminescence or something to see. Tonight when I stepped out I saw all these flying creatures flying along side our ship. At first I thought they were bats, because they were small and they were flying so spastically - not at all gliding like more sea birds. But then I realized they weren't bats because they seemed to be flying into the dividers between verandahs and bats would have radar to help them around these obstacles. I finally was able to see them a little clearer and could tell they were little birds - hundreds of them. I went back inside to tell DSis to come out and saw on the map on the tv that we were very near to Haiti.


A few birds even landed on our verandah. They were so exhausted that they didn't move a bit when dad went to pet on - he actually did touch this one. These are some type of sparrow. Our little Haitian refugees. It was very sad though since all these birds died. They either fell into the sea or died by morning on the ship. Early the next morning, the deck crew were sweeping up the bodies by the pool areas. No, squab wasn't on the menu that night. The light from the ship must have attracted them is all I can think. Has anyone seen this before?

 

[iloverags2]

Oh my, those poor birds. I would absolutely hate to be the CM tasked with the job of cleaning them up.

Prior to that, it sounds like a lovely day had by all...even if you started off a bit frantic with all the running around and saving chairs and eating (well, nothing really bad about that!). How was the champagne tasting?

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

Oh my, those poor birds. I would absolutely hate to be the CM tasked with the job of cleaning them up.

Prior to that, it sounds like a lovely day had by all...even if you started off a bit frantic with all the running around and saving chairs and eating (well, nothing really bad about that!). How was the champagne tasting?

Champagne tasting was great. I would recommend it to anyone that likes champagne a little and to anyone who likes it a lot. It was informative and fun.

 

[denamo]

That sounds like a great itinerary. So WDW was a day excursion? Do you have a trip report? I am curious what you choose to do in that time? I was thinking that adding Disneyland to the end of this cruise made perfect sense since it ended in LA and thought that they would do a few cruises out of LA, but they turned the ship around and just had a short repositioning cruise after ours up to Vancouver with an overnight in San Francisco that all the cast members were looking forward to. But after this trip, I know that a day excursion to Disneyland and California Adventure would have amounted to waiting in line three hours to ride Radiator Springs in Cars Land and that's about it! As it was it took us three days there to ride it once! More to come..

So enjoying your trip report. We did the cruise on May 10 out of Galveston simply for the itinerary. The day at WDW was fun, but hectic! No way to see it all, but we enjoyed all we did. Cruisers signed up for a bus depending on which park they wanted to see first. We had never been to Animal Kingdom. It wasn't built when my DH and I went with our children (too many years ago to calculate ) Both are grown guys now. We left Port Canaveral around 7:45 A.M. and didn't pull back into port until 11:15 P.M. This was our choice. They did have buses that would go back to the ship as early as 3:30 P.M.

We stayed at AK (did the Safari ride and all of the shows), stopped for a bite of lunch and about 2:30 then to MK. Time consuming to get there. I had been at a conference in Orlando when the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was revamped to match the movie and wanted DH to see it. That was the only thing we really did at MK. Walked around a bit, but not much. Then we headed to Epcot. Wanted to ride Soarin' but no fast passes and line was an hour long. We wanted to at least have a chance to walk around Epcot a bit, so we passed on this. DCL had a port adventure to end our day at Epcot with a private viewing area of the fireworks accompanied with desserts, ice cream, and drinks (non-alcoholic). Boy, was it nice to sit down! We were then escorted to our bus which was so nice. We crawled onto our bus, hot, tired and fully exhausted. It was very quiet on the ride back! This is a very short overview, but we loved our day at WDW!

This was our first Disney cruise. We are avid Royal Caribbean cruisers, so this one was fun to get a bit of a different perspective.

A friend and I have booked the EBPC in September since its final disembarkation is Galveston. Perfect for us Texans, even though it is a 6.5 hour drive home. Not sure if we are flying or hubbies are coming to pick us up.

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

A friend and I have booked the EBPC in September since its final disembarkation is Galveston. Perfect for us Texans, even though it is a 6.5 hour drive home. Not sure if we are flying or hubbies are coming to pick us up.

Sounds like a great day in WDW! Quite a few people on our WBPC were going home to LA so I think it makes perfect sense to do the EBPC home to Texas! Thanks for reading and for sharing!

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

This morning, like every morning, we awoke around 6 am to the sounds of chairs moving above our stateroom. On our first cruise two years ago on the Magic we were on the 7th deck and on our next cruise we will be on the 7th deck again. The 8th deck is too loud with the chairs being moved on the pool deck above. This morning they were also sweeping up the dead birds as I mentioned before. Mom and Sis got up and wandered the ship. Dad maybe worked out, not sure. All I know is, I was sleeping in! This morning I decided not to move until I had to get ready for brunch. Tough life!



Clearly I wasn't the only one sleeping in today. The goofy pool is empty.

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

DSis and I had tea on the Magic in Palo two years ago and tea and brunch on the Fantasy in Palo last year, this was our first Palo brunch on a classic ship. So I took lots of photos!

Palo has a theme of Italy (Venice/Murano/Pisa). There is Murano Glass and Venetian Masks in the entry way and near the landing for the elevators/stairwell. There is an additional per person charge for dinning in Palo (think it was $20) and it is adults only and there is a dress code.

We were one of the first tables to arrive. The buffet is set up in the center of the dinning room.




Cheese station





Seafood station



Antipasta station



Bread station



Dessert station

You can also order from your server one or more of these items that are here for display.




The open kitchen overlooks the center of the restaurant. Palo is in the very back and very top of the ship, so brunch is a great time to come to enjoy the beautiful views from your table.

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

Our server Sasha from Croatia brought us complimentary mimosas.



I also ordered hot tea.



This photo makes the tea pot look gigantic. It was a personal tea cup size. They no longer do high tea or tea service in Palo on the cruise ships. So this was my replacement!

So how did I do filling my plate?



I'd like to say that I did this just so that I could have a great photo and a full report on the fare, but I did it because it was just all so good! I highly recommend the roasted red peppers, mushrooms, mozzarella, ah, it's all so good. I didn't care for the seafood mousse that I picked up - too fishy for me, but DSis ate it and enjoyed it. I tend to make my trip to the buffet count and take a little of everything! Clearly.

We ordered from Sasha a pizza to share and everyone devoured it before I could get a photo. Luckily they saved a piece for me.


We also ordered entrees from Sasha.

I had the pancakes.


Dad and Sis had the chicken parmesan that Sasha recommended and both raved about it after they tried it. Dad even said it was the best he ever tasted.


Mom had the veal and enjoyed it.


Mom also ordered the cold strawberry soup to clens her palette and she enjoyed it. Until I said it looked like peptomismol.




I made dessert out of the bread station. I loved this sticky/cinnamon bun!



This was mom's dessert plate with Sacher torte we renamed Sasha torte.


Sasha also brought over to us a whole plate of desserts!


When in Palo!

 

[bearsgirl]

Nice picture of your Dad holding up the leaning ice tower of Pisa!

Just a quick note--today I went to donate blood and I am not allowed to donate for a year because of our stop in Nuevo Vallarta. In Puerto Vallarta we elected to Swim with the Sea Lions (or Dolphins) and the Port Adventure was located a little north of the port, in Nuevo Vallarta which is on the CDC's Deferral List for blood donations. Someone had already commented on having a similar experience and I can verify that is the case. Just an FYI for people selecting Port Adventures in the future.

Carry on, Norwegian speaker and Cliff's Notes sister....!
You are doing a lavenous job thus far....

Rebecca

 

[cmesq61]

Really enjoying your report. We're booked on the Sept 14 EBPC. Do you recall whether one has to walk up & down steps to get to the Palo buffet? I walk with a walker & am wondering if brunch would be doable for me.

 

[aan1701]

Really enjoying your report. We're booked on the Sept 14 EBPC. Do you recall whether one has to walk up & down steps to get to the Palo buffet? I walk with a walker & am wondering if brunch would be doable for me.

No steps in Palo. I am sure your server will be more than happy to help as well.

Sent from my iPhone 5 using DISBoards

 

[jegsnakkernorsk]

Just a quick note--today I went to donate blood and I am not allowed to donate for a year because of our stop in Nuevo Vallarta. In Puerto Vallarta we elected to Swim with the Sea Lions (or Dolphins) and the Port Adventure was located a little north of the port, in Nuevo Vallarta which is on the CDC's Deferral List for blood donations. Someone had already commented on having a similar experience and I can verify that is the case. Just an FYI for people selecting Port Adventures in the future.

Rebecca

No blood from you! One year! (Blood Nazi)

Really enjoying your report. We're booked on the Sept 14 EBPC. Do you recall whether one has to walk up & down steps to get to the Palo buffet? I walk with a walker & am wondering if brunch would be doable for me.

Thanks! You'll enjoy the cruise in September and you'll enjoy brunch. I bet your server would even bring you anything you wanted from the buffet to make it even easier on you. You might want to do the tour of the buffet on your way to your table to save the additional trip as well. Sasha brought us a plate from the dessert table without our asking.