Disneyzellin through the Panama Canal,12/9 - 12/23 on the Wonder Updated 6/9/13

[QuiltTeddy]

Originally Posted by DisneyZell

.....Disney you own for something like 25 years.

Just thought I'd pop in here. You own for 40 years, not 25. We are definitely not "Disney addicts", but in our opinion it is worth every penny. We've taken all of our Disney cruises using points, cruised on Holland America to Alalska using our points, given friends points when we couldn't use them and they's stayed at Topnotch at Stowe (5 star resort) and the Mardarin Oriental in DC (where the inaugural balls have been held). You aren't just tied into Disney properties and locations. It's also tied in to RCI for locations. It's all personal choice.

Tonight's adult entertainment were Alfred & Seymour. Holy cow these guys were absolutely hilarious...they used music, comedy (both slapstick and verbal), made fun of each other, and clearly have a great time putting on the show. I ran into one of them several times through the rest of the cruise and had a couple quick conversations with him. They were doing a family show the next night...but more on that later.

These guys were the best! We saw them on our Mexican cruise. I've never seen DH laugh as hard as he was laughing during this show. All I can say is (1) I'm glad we were not late and (2) did not sit in the front row!

On the final night of our cruise, as our table was always one of the very last to leave the dining room (we were late seating), we suddenly heard someone yell across about 4 tables "Hey, you owe me change from my bill!" We looked over and lo and behold it was Alfred and Seymour. DH went over and chatted with them and Alfred started saying he loves New Yorkers because we "get their jokes" and the Californians just don't get them and have to go back to their cabins and think about it before they can laugh. Of course the people we were with were from California, so it led to a rather heated debate in the dining room. We ended up walking out and chatting with them and when we got to the main atrium, DH asked if it would be okay if I took a picture of him with them. Well as it was the final night and there were character photos taking place in the atrium, it was PACKED. Suddenly Alfred yells (and I mean yells) "Hey, you in the white outfit, come make yourself useful and take a picture so she can be in the picture with us." It was one of the "white suits" and now that he had been so loud, it seemed as if everyone in the atrium was watching as pictures were taken. Yes, quite the last dinner!

[woodleygrrl]

Actually the length of ownership you cite is not quite correct. it varies according to resort.

Old Key West, Boardwalk Villas, Beach Club Villas, Villas at Wilderness Lodge, Vero Beach Resort, and Hilton Head Resort end on January 31, 2042.
Saratoga Springs memberships end on January 31, 2054.
Animal Kingdom ends on January 31, 2057.
The new Bay Lake Towers listings end January 31, 2060.

[Kirbo]

I've never seen Alfred and Seymour, but after reading about them here, I sure hope they're on our EBTA!

I just looked up the flash mob on youtube. That's pretty funny

[DisneyZell]

Originally Posted by aan1701

When it comes to the time changes, that's why I only do the WBPC. Not only is it three hours backward but I get dropped off at home.

Sent from my iPhone 5 using DISBoards

That is definately a smart way to do it I still feel like Disney owes me 3 hours of cruise time!

Originally Posted by pharmjenn

Thanks for the flashmob instructions. I loved watching everyone, and attempted to record with our new (cheap) camcorder.

yup, I'll be posting one of those (from our facebook page) when I do the next installment.

Originally Posted by Linda67

Wow, a DCL flashmob, what a ton of fun that must of been

I however have two left feet so you have probably been booted off my team

nah...I have three left feet and I was able to do it. I'm sure I looked like an idiot doing it...but it was fun. And again it was something I had never done...so another claim to fame!

Originally Posted by PizzieDuster

I saw on you tube a flash mob...was that you guys? Looked like so much fun!

yup! We were involved. Kinda off to the side. I'm never center stage on this stuff!

Thanks for the kind comments everyone!

DZ

[DisneyZell]

Originally Posted by QuiltTeddy

Just thought I'd pop in here. You own for 40 years, not 25. We are definitely not "Disney addicts", but in our opinion it is worth every penny. We've taken all of our Disney cruises using points, cruised on Holland America to Alalska using our points, given friends points when we couldn't use them and they's stayed at Topnotch at Stowe (5 star resort) and the Mardarin Oriental in DC (where the inaugural balls have been held). You aren't just tied into Disney properties and locations. It's also tied in to RCI for locations. It's all personal choice.

These guys were the best! We saw them on our Mexican cruise. I've never seen DH laugh as hard as he was laughing during this show. All I can say is (1) I'm glad we were not late and (2) did not sit in the front row!

On the final night of our cruise, as our table was always one of the very last to leave the dining room (we were late seating), we suddenly heard someone yell across about 4 tables "Hey, you owe me change from my bill!" We looked over and lo and behold it was Alfred and Seymour. DH went over and chatted with them and Alfred started saying he loves New Yorkers because we "get their jokes" and the Californians just don't get them and have to go back to their cabins and think about it before they can laugh. Of course the people we were with were from California, so it led to a rather heated debate in the dining room. We ended up walking out and chatting with them and when we got to the main atrium, DH asked if it would be okay if I took a picture of him with them. Well as it was the final night and there were character photos taking place in the atrium, it was PACKED. Suddenly Alfred yells (and I mean yells) "Hey, you in the white outfit, come make yourself useful and take a picture so she can be in the picture with us." It was one of the "white suits" and now that he had been so loud, it seemed as if everyone in the atrium was watching as pictures were taken. Yes, quite the last dinner!

Figures you would come along and correct me Point taken, and like I said, some folks think it is an incredible deal, and for the right person it is. Just sayin' that for us the lifetime ownership of Marriott strikes us as a better deal. If we did not own Marriott would we consider Disney? Probably. I'm guessing we are just jaded by the fact that we already own for life, so to hear the amount of money you have to lay out and only get it for a finite period of time was a bit shocking. But to restate, I'm in no way making fun of or harassing (more than normal) the folks that own DVC. So no one take offense.

That interaction with Alfred and Seymour sounds right with my conversations with him in the hall. It was the taller one that I was talking to and the guy just looks funny in everything he does. We were in stitches and it's so cool that you guys got that special interaction and, of course, got to order around the guys in the white suits!

Originally Posted by woodleygrrl

Actually the length of ownership you cite is not quite correct. it varies according to resort.

Old Key West, Boardwalk Villas, Beach Club Villas, Villas at Wilderness Lodge, Vero Beach Resort, and Hilton Head Resort end on January 31, 2042.
Saratoga Springs memberships end on January 31, 2054.
Animal Kingdom ends on January 31, 2057.
The new Bay Lake Towers listings end January 31, 2060.

Thanks for the specifics. I apologize, again I wasn't trying to mislead.

Originally Posted by Kirbo

I've never seen Alfred and Seymour, but after reading about them here, I sure hope they're on our EBTA!

I just looked up the flash mob on youtube. That's pretty funny

Yeah, definitely hope for that, it was a great time!

I'm not sure if they will do the Flash Mobs on all longer cruises or what...I would bet they do because it did make it's way around youtube....free advertising for DCL...I'm sure they love that!

[DisneyZell]

so apparently I annoyed alot of people with my comments about DVC. Unintentional so please forgive me

Today was another great lazy day. We got up and headed up immediately to the adult pool to snag some chairs. We put down our stuff and went to get breakfast. We brought that back to eat on the comfy chairs. Nice way to eat breakfast.

We met up with Doug and Audrey and proceeded to spend the morning chatting with them. Who know that Canadians could put up with Americans so easily.

But then it was time...for the Flash Mob! In this version DW and I are off to the left by the hot tub. I think we will flash on a few times. Credit to Jeff for this video!

http://youtu.be/3983VoZoGfI

Again this was alot of fun to do, and I recommend you join in. There were a few surprised faces around us which was pretty fun to watch. At the end we just walked off like nothing happened. pretty funny!

After that we grabbed some lunch and sat at a cute table by the bar in the adult area to eat. Nice, relaxing lunch at sea. Gotta love that, and gotta steal those little moments that is for sure.

We had an issue with the Internet access while on board the ship. We would log in (which of course causes the timer to start ticking), and then would try to load the web pages. Unfortunately sometimes it would take forever...and forever...and forever. While we understood the internet would be slow...sometimes it wasn't doing anything and up until that point we figured that we had lost about 25 minutes waiting for everything to load.

We went down to guest services and explained our issue. unfortunately the internet person wasn't there (not sure where she was...waterskiing behind the ship? I mean...we are in the middle of the ocean! ). The very nice CM took a trouble ticket and promised that we would be called about it later.

At the same time Disney had the option to buy Panama Canal post cards and send them out when we crossed the canal. So at this same time we bought a couple of cards so that we could send them to the kids. I thought this was a cool service that Disney offered since we could not get off the ship in Panama (more on that later).

DW headed up to the adult pool again to fill out the post cards, I went to Diversions to watch a little football. I thought it was cool that they had the games onboard so that we could watch. Yes, I pass a lot of my free time watching the NFL. I also spend a lot of my free time working on my fantasy football team and it killed me that I couldn't spend our precious internet minutes doing that research! I found a table and sat with a couple that was watching the game as well and chatted with them while tuning in and checking e-mail.

So at this point I figured a couple of things out. First the internet is much better in public areas such as Diversions. It also is good up on Deck 9 and 10. Not so good in the room. So if you are having issues with the internet go to the public areas.

We had set up an e-mail address for us on the cruise. Dang again I'm getting old and not sure if I told you this already. We had a couple of issues with Microsoft on this...they kept making us confirm who we were so that we weren't spamming (with all 10 e-mails a day that we were sending). That confirmation was really hard via the ships internet...so if you are setting up an e-mail for your cruise, use it for a while in advance, and confirm it via your cell phone (one of the options so that you don't have to jump through hoops). I think I used 15-20 minutes doing this confirmation game. very annoying.

Anyhoooo, with my mac I can set up new e-mails to come in automagically. I finally figured out to do that on the ship so we could compose e-mails and "send" them. Then when I connect to the internet it would send and receive, I could then disconnect and repeat. So each session (when I wasn't fighting with Microsoft) was a minute, maybe 2. This was great for the long trip and we never went over the first allotment (100 minutes I think is what we bought). So a good tip for you if you are going to use e-mail!

Later we headed back to the room and ordered Mickey bars via room service. We had not done that as of yet...and it sounded good to both of us. yum!

While we were there the phone rang and it was the internet guru. She, at first, tried to tell us it is just slow on the ship, etc. etc..but when I explained what happened she was very understanding and gave us 25 minutes back. This was nice as if they didn't do that we would have had to buy more minutes. Again lesson learned that you should do the internet in public areas as I no longer had any issues after that.

Then again I don't really understand this as I was connecting to the router without an issue (where they were charging me the minutes), just not to the internet. But for whatever reason it's faster in the public areas...so go there!

Dinner tonight was in Animators again and it was Savour the World menu. DW didn't write down what she had...so no food discussion tonight.

After dinner we went back to change and went up to the goofy pool to watch our beloved Patriots on Funnel Vision. They were playing the 49ers...though what they were doing couldn't really be considered Playing. They were aweful!

There is Tom on the big board.

Credit Zach with taking this picture! Nice!

Had to get one of me with the big board

And lounging watching the game.

DW was disgusted by how they were playing so she headed back down to the room. She was also still not feeling 100%. I stayed up until halftime and then also went down to the room.

Now, in the Patriots' defense, they did come back in the second half and made a game of it...until DW woke up. Then they lost it. So I blame her.

oh well, it is what it is.

We set a wake-up call for 6am...tomorrow was the Panama Canal crossing and we wanted to be up on deck to see us go under the Bridge of America's.

We both went to sleep...kind of. I never really slept. We were moored in the bay and I kept hearing noises. Plus I knew they were going to refuel the ship and I wanted to see that as I thought it would be kind of cool. So I didn't sleep much. Neither did DW...but more on that later too. I keep doing that!

Eventually I heard the refueling barge...

It was very hard to get a picture of this as my camera kept fogging up with the humidity. And there really wasn't much to see. But alas...why sleep when you can stay up all night!

For some reason I didn't get a towel animal picture...crazy!

And sorry about the lack of pictures...it really starts to pick up now to that end.

Thanks for sticking around!

Next up: Day 11: Panama Canal!

Thanks!

DZ

[QuiltTeddy]

Originally Posted by DisneyZell

so apparently I annoyed alot of people with my comments about DVC. Unintentional so please forgive me

*looks around and wonders just who he annoyed*

Didn't bother me, just thought I'd chime in with the information from when we purchased. Hope you didn't think I was being "snippy" or anything.

Being I'm in the legal field, when we heard the "pitch", I, of course, said there had to be a catch. We didn't buy in when we first looked, but rather came home and I did extensive research because it just sounded like there had to be a catch. Later found out that a number of people who I knew actually owned and were extremely happy. It was only after all this research that I finally acquiesced and we purchased an interest in lieu of purchasing a speed boat, which we would only be able to use, at most, 5 months out of the year.

[DisneyZell]

Originally Posted by QuiltTeddy

*looks around and wonders just who he annoyed*

Didn't bother me, just thought I'd chime in with the information from when we purchased. Hope you didn't think I was being "snippy" or anything.

Being I'm in the legal field, when we heard the "pitch", I, of course, said there had to be a catch. We didn't buy in when we first looked, but rather came home and I did extensive research because it just sounded like there had to be a catch. Later found out that a number of people who I knew actually owned and were extremely happy. It was only after all this research that I finally acquiesced and we purchased an interest in lieu of purchasing a speed boat, which we would only be able to use, at most, 5 months out of the year.

nah not you

[LindaBabe]

Zellin, so GLAD you are keeping up the report!

Originally Posted by woodleygrrl

Actually the length of ownership you cite is not quite correct. it varies according to resort.

Old Key West, Boardwalk Villas, Beach Club Villas, Villas at Wilderness Lodge, Vero Beach Resort, and Hilton Head Resort end on January 31, 2042.
Saratoga Springs memberships end on January 31, 2054.
Animal Kingdom ends on January 31, 2057.
The new Bay Lake Towers listings end January 31, 2060.

WAY longer than the old lady, here, will probably be using it - when my AKL points expire, I'll be 109

Originally Posted by QuiltTeddy

. . It was only after all this research that I finally acquiesced and we purchased an interest in lieu of purchasing a speed boat, which we would only be able to use, at most, 5 months out of the year.

We SOLD our boat to buy into the DVC. Smartest thing we ever did

[neg58]

Umm, we're waiting to sail through the Canal.

Nancy

[tokyodisneydad]

He may be up to the day the ship hit the iceberg and he doesnt want to recall those bad memories.

[bitlerzx4]

DCL flash mob... so awesome!

[QuiltTeddy]

Drew.....gotta love Ford's Microsoft Sync....for some reason I don't have either your email any more, or Deannas. No clue why when I synced the blue tooth with the new phone it dumped you. Can one of you guys email me please?


Tx.

[dededisney]

Originally Posted by QuiltTeddy

Drew.....gotta love Ford's Microsoft Sync....for some reason I don't have either your email any more, or Deannas. No clue why when I synced the blue tooth with the new phone it dumped you. Can one of you guys email me please?


Tx.

I just pm'd you so you should have our email addresses again...sometimes I really dislike computers (only b/c I never know how to fix things when they go wrong!)

For everyone else waiting to hear the rest of our adventures, I am too! But alas, Drew is and has been out of town all week (and last week for that matter), but you can still prod him (he needs that every now and then).

[QuiltTeddy]

Originally Posted by dededisney

I just pm'd you so you should have our email addresses again...sometimes I really dislike computers (only b/c I never know how to fix things when they go wrong!)