Our Wonderful "Pixar" Pacific Coast Cruise, October 7-14, 2012 ~ Completed! ~ w/ pics

[BDACE]

Oh, this is so sad! The trip is almost over... AGAIN!

It looks like you had a great day at the zoo and what wonderful pic's. We're native San Diegans so we go a lot but we never see that many animals in one trip. We usually only stay for a hour or two until it gets crowded or too hot. Sorry, I'm using hot as a relative term in this case.

Oh, we also refer to you as Zoner's... LOL!

[tink,too]

Looks like you all had another great day. Fab photos of all the residents of San Diego Zoo as well.

[PlutoRocks]

I love the San Diego zoo! I've been twice - the second time we went we bought 2 day passes and we opened and closed the zoo both days - I still felt like I didn't get to see and do everything I wanted. I enjoy just hanging out and watching the animals.

[disneyfaninaz]

Originally Posted by BDACE

Oh, this is so sad! The trip is almost over... AGAIN!

It looks like you had a great day at the zoo and what wonderful pic's. We're native San Diegans so we go a lot but we never see that many animals in one trip. We usually only stay for a hour or two until it gets crowded or too hot. Sorry, I'm using hot as a relative term in this case.

Oh, we also refer to you as Zoner's... LOL!

I know, right? I know exactly what you mean about just going to the zoo for an hour or 2. We do the same here, but I don't usually go near our zoo during the summer.

Originally Posted by tink,too

Looks like you all had another great day. Fab photos of all the residents of San Diego Zoo as well.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by PlutoRocks

I love the San Diego zoo! I've been twice - the second time we went we bought 2 day passes and we opened and closed the zoo both days - I still felt like I didn't get to see and do everything I wanted. I enjoy just hanging out and watching the animals.

It is one of our favorite places to visit as well.

[disneyfaninaz]

Saturday, October 13, 2012
Ensenada, Mexico

It was never our intent to get off of the ship in Ensenada. None of us are huge fans of Mexico and really had no desire to go shopping or sightseeing here. We were going to treat this like just another sea day.

We started putting into port at about 7:30 AM. We were greeted by a large contingency of sea lions barking their welcome.





Evidently, we weren’t the only ship in town today as a Carnival cruise ship was already docked. The captain turned us around so we backed into the town and blew our beautiful horn.



Our character breakfast was this morning in Parrot Cay. Luan was busy at work making napkin hats for those at our table. DNeighbors got Peter Pan and Jasmine. L, DE and DD got Minnie Mouse. DH got Goofy. LE got Captain Jack and I got Dumbo ears made with plate covers. Man, are those heavy! We had a great time and a good breakfast.

After breakfast, I wanted to get started on packing. So I had DH dig out all of the stowed luggage. Since we backed into the pier, our verandah overlooked the town, so I got some more pictures of the sea lions.



At 10:45, DD and I headed back to the Promenade Lounge for Disney Movie Trivia. There were some hard questions, but we only missed 3 out of 25 possible. But we didn’t win, again. Like I said, there are some serious trivia buffs on board this ship. After trivia, we took DD swimming again at the Goofy pool. Tangled was just starting on the Funnel Vision. We ate some lunch while up there. DH wanted to get off of the ship just to say he did and I had wanted to get a good photo of Donald on the back of the ship since we hadn’t had a chance the entire cruise. At about 1:00 PM we disembarked, went through the little market they had set up and walked along the pier. Unfortunately, Donald was on the wrong side of the ship and I still didn’t get a good picture of him.



Oh, well. We headed back through security, through the market where my DH picked up a shot glass and a few coins before heading back on board. We were probably on Mexican soil for about 10 minutes total. That was plenty for us.

On our Cruise Meet Thread, one of our fellow cruisers, Denise, arranged for us to participate in the 2012 Worldwide Photowalk while we were in Ensenada. Evidently, this was the first Photowalk ever to take place on a cruise ship. We were honored. She even made door magnets for us. Anyway, we were to meet at the Café Cove at 2:00 PM to begin our walk. Unfortunately, fewer people showed up than expected and one person had to bow out because of technical difficulties with his camera battery.



We started out our walk in Palo. We got permission from the manager to walk around and take photos while nobody was there. We then took some pictures from the deck and got a group shot.







We then headed down to the Atrium, where again, we had it all to ourselves and took photos. I took photos for about 2 hours before splitting up. It was fun meeting people with an enthusiasm about photography and learn new tips and techniques from.





Afterwards I headed back to the stateroom and finished packing. At about 5:30 we head the horn sound and we started pulling away from the dock. Adios, Ensenada.

Tonight was Till We Meet Again dinner. We were at Animator’s Palette tonight. We had our tip envelopes all ready to go for Sasha, Luan and Tektas, our head server. All of these gentlemen were wonderful with the girls and we enjoyed their service tremendously! I love the parade of nations during dinner when all of the servers come out with their nation’s flag and the chefs bring out the Baked Alaska.





Based on our experience with Toy Story, DD and I knew we needed to get to the theater early to see Dreams. We got to the Walt Disney Theater and waited for them to open the doors at 8:00 PM. We were able to get great seats in the middle of the row close to the stage. Then we waited. Before we knew, we were caught up in Dreams. I love this show and it brings a tear to my eye every time I watch it.

After the show, DD and I headed back to the stateroom to change clothes and put our luggage out for the stewards to collect. I made sure we all had our clothes for the next day and tagged our luggage. We had purple Minnie tags. With our luggage all set, we headed back down to the 5th deck to watch Till We Meet Again with the characters. DD really wasn’t interested in meeting any characters, so we just observed. DNeighbor’s DD got to meet Peter Pan again as well as Anne Marie from Dreams. She even chased Captain Hook out of the door onto deck 4 by doing her crocodile imitation. We all sang “M I C, See ya real soon, K E Y, Why, because we like you. M O U S E” and watched the CMs as they flung Mickey ear confetti from deck 5 to the atrium below. Afterwards we went through the stores one last time and headed to bed.



Our towel animal was a seal.



Next: Home again!

[BDACE]

Your emotican says it all...

[disneyfaninaz]

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Well I’m afraid I have put this off long enough and must suffer through the end of our wonderful cruise, again!

Since we had early dining, our breakfast time in the morning was 7:00 AM in Animator’s Palette. Tektas told us at dinner the night before to leave our carry ons in the stateroom and collect them after breakfast. It was much nicer going to breakfast without our bags. We had a good breakfast and a tearful goodbye with lots of hugs for Sasha and Luan before heading back up to our stateroom.

They were disboarding guests by calling specific character tags. We had gathered our bags, went out on Deck 4 and settled on Deck 3 when purple Minnies were called. We got in line and noticed that the See ya Later” sign had not been hung. So disappointing. Anyway, by 8:30 we had our KTTW card swiped one last time and headed towards customs. As we approached, I noticed that we were on the starboard side of the ship and it was backed into port. Could I get my Donald shot? I tried, but we had to move to quickly for me to get a good one.



We went through customs, handed the officer our passports, answered a couple of questions and we were on our way to gather our luggage. We found a porter and got all of our bags in 5 minutes. The porter then took us to the place where our hotel shuttle would pick us up by 8:50 AM. I had not heard good things about departing cruise ships in LA, but I have to say that our departure was very well organized and quick.

Our shuttle showed up within minutes, our bags were loaded and we were off back to our hotel to get our car. We retrieved our car from the parking garage, loaded our bags and left for our 6+ hour drive home.

Well, that was our wonderful cruise. I have to say that of the three we have taken, this one was my favorite. I hope your enjoyed reading about our adventure along the pacific coast.

Until next trip!

[BDACE]

There are no words to describe this day any better than this...

Thank you so much for all the time and care you took in telling us your story. It was so wonderful to relive it even if it did have to come to an end.

[jlmarr]

Yes, thanks to disneyfaninaz for sharing. We were on the Sep 16th cruise, and we also thought this was our favorite cruise out of the five we've done, three of those not DCL.

[RweTHEREyet]

So, once it was pointed out that I would be sailing under the Golden Gate bridge, if my B2B actually does come to be, I searched San Francisco in the Trip Reports section and look where it brought me. Thoroughly enjoyed your report and your lovely pictures.

I am a very amateur photographer, but DH is a serious photographer, so I am sure the two of you could talk camera stuff all day long. I have no idea how he will be able to bring all the gear he is going to want to have on the Alaska sailing.

[disneyfaninaz]

Originally Posted by RweTHEREyet

So, once it was pointed out that I would be sailing under the Golden Gate bridge, if my B2B actually does come to be, I searched San Francisco in the Trip Reports section and look where it brought me. Thoroughly enjoyed your report and your lovely pictures.

I am a very amateur photographer, but DH is a serious photographer, so I am sure the two of you could talk camera stuff all day long. I have no idea how he will be able to bring all the gear he is going to want to have on the Alaska sailing.

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge was indeed a marvelous experience. You will have to get up early though, along with half of the ship to be on Deck 10 in time.

As for the status of my photography, I am certainly in the class of being an amateur myself. I only wish I had the skill to have to choose which equipment to bring with me on the Alaskan cruise. However, with the scenery that we are going to see, I don't see how anybody could take bad pictuers.

[RweTHEREyet]

DH would have loved doing a Scott Kelby walk on board as he has done a couple here in town and enjoyed them.

I am sure that DHs camera bag will far outweigh his suitcase and he will probably actually have more camera stuff than clothes with him.

No, I am the true amateur-have a Nikon J1--which I call Nikon for dummies. I love it though, far better than my old point and shoot.

[Luv2Diz]

Very enjoyable TR.....wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing!

[disneyfaninaz]

Originally Posted by Luv2Diz

Very enjoyable TR.....wonderful photos. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for reading.