UPDATE 2/21 TO 5/23 !!!
I will have the next installment posted in a day or two or three....
Here is our review through the Panama Canal. Also, here are the photo links. The photos are "Raw" I have not had time to put them into too much order or pretty them up.
http://www.hpphoto.com/servlet/com.hp.HPGuestLogin?username=kjmcbride&password=77274280
May 13, 2005
5:20 am and we are off to the airport for a 7:20am direct flight to Orlando. Luck is on our side; we have 3 seats for the 2 of us. We land early by 10+ minutes, off to get the luggage and pick up the mini van. We stop at our favorite casual restaurant Sweet Tomatoes for lunch with my twin and her mom and then we are off for a quick stop for H2O and on our way to pick up Peter & Jen (hygiene99) at the Boardwalk hotel.
We are off to port Canaveral and the Radisson. We had a mini meet for dinner at Grills with a dozen other cruisers.. YUM YUM YUM and then had a pretty early night, for mom & I . However 2 people we all know from Mass. spent a lot of time in the hot tub.
May 14, 2005
We were all up early in the am and had breakfast and e-mailed winotracy a phone picture of us all in our travel t-shirts, we are ready to head to the port by 8 am, and decide to start a tail gate party in the parking lot. Peter and I drop mom & Jen off with all of the luggage and then Peter & I return the van at AVIS. We meet Scott H & Lynne at the car return and we all go to the port and the parking lot pre-cruise party.
By the time we made it to the parking lot, a bunch of other Disers had arrived and the fun began. We are watching the people leave the ship, and were asked many times if we were going on the Panama cruise I think a lot of people were jealous of us all. DCL finally lets us into the terminal just shy of 10am. We (hygiene99 & Bettemom) are the first into the terminal. I have never seen it empty. We shared the 1st place in line, of course it means absolutely nothing
Just about noon after they have boarded the people needing more time, and the suite guests we boarded. DCL had streamers hanging down in the entry and tons of confetti floating down. The lobby was FULL of crew / cast members, I do not ever remember so many people waiting to greet you. Waiters were handing out FREE drinks and directing you to lunch. We had a light lunch and by the time we were done our stateroom was ready. We have a Cat 9 this trip. Deck 2 right across from the elevators, the cabin was in a fantastic location. On the bed were 2 gifts from our fantastic TA and our Castaway Cay gift, a really neat blanket with the Panama cruise info printed on it.
Sail-a-way party was fun, met many of the Disers on deck. Exchanged many sail-away gifts. We were given these really cool Mickey pocket holders for a sail-away gift. We all hung them as fish extenders and then for the next 2 weeks every day you would find at least one gift from someone in them. What a great idea . DCL was handing out really cute big fans, (large Disney hand) waving goodbye with the Panama dates on them. I have an extra fan if anyone on the August cruise wants to get an extra from the August trip and trade.
Found out that right after the ship cleared US waters they would start selling the 1st LE 500 map (port Canaveral) pin. Went to get in line for a voucher at the clubs deck 3 and finally at 5:50 I had to leave to go get ready and meet our dining Disers for dinner. We had already set up a group table of Disers.
Well this turned out to be a disaster. Even though we confirmed our group table 2 days earlier, DCL loaded a new software program and most linked reservations were erased. So for the 1st night, no dining companions, no LE pin All of us were separated into different dining times and rotations. It took about 6 hrs for the dining captain to get everything organized. The next evening we were all together. The Dining captain made an effort to check with me each day and make sure everything was going well. We had a super table, and it was nice to talk with everyone before we arrived at port.
Tonight is a pretty early night for us, especially since we know tomorrow will start the trip of a lifetime .. Goodnight!!
May 15, 2005
Castaway Cay Day.
We decided to stay on the ship and get organized for the next 2 weeks of our trip of a lifetime.
5/16 & 5/17 2 sea days ahead
We are up early as usual, and have 2 sea days ahead of us. I will not get into specifics on what we did on sea days, just the highlights. The cast / crew all seemed excited about this trip, as most of us were.. DCL was releasing the 2nd map pin today , so I went to get into line about 2hrs early and as I rounded the corner in beat street here is the line. We had no problem getting our vouchers. As soon as the line was a minimum of 500 (pin limit) they just handed out the vouchers, so we were finished in a very short time. We could collect the pin up to 11 pm that night.
A rumor started that day that DCL was going to issue all the pin vouchers at once. Some people were getting really ugly about the pin situation, and the need to wait in line.
That night a memo was placed in cabins at bed turn down, saying that tomorrow morning at 8 am all the pin vouchers would be handed out. So at about 10 pm we go upstairs and a line has already formed for the night. We joined in with many of other guests & Disers (we were about the 40th in line) and had the biggest sleepover that DCL had ever seen. By midnight -1 am the pin line actually went down the hall, through the atrium and into Parrot Cay restaurant. We got our vouchers in the am and were finished with pins. We had a couple days to pick up the pins. Unfortunately many of the jumbo pins were damaged and that caused additional problems. (For those of you on the August Repo cruise) ***RUMOR RUMOR RUMOR *** This may be rumor or it may become fact, but this is what I was told last week on the ship The Captain for the Aug repo cruise is Captain Tom. He is a stickler for rules and will not allow guests to sleep in lines in the halls waiting for pin vouchers. In addition DCL is mulling the thought of NO pins for August after the fiasco that was created by the May Panama Cruise Pins. Will this happen? Hopefully NOT. As I said this is a rumor that was circulating last week on the ship.
For all dinners we had a brand new menu designed each evening. They are cute, the meals . Dinner was nice, we received Beauty and the Beast pins in Lumieres at dinner along with a mini musical show. Nice having entertainment with dinner.
Some nights good, other nights Bla!!! If you are in the mood for home food forget it !!
Was a Pretty normal day for us. Up early to see the sun rise. and DCL had a great
Behind the Scenes series, on the Haunted Mansion today. Tonight our first celebrity guest a guy named Joey Fatone from an All boy singing group is to host the Mouseketeer show tonight. We had some activities specific to our Disers group and other than that just a nice relaxing sea day.
5/18 Curacao
We arrived in the early morning perhaps around 7-8 am, the captain was not shy about using the ships horn. Being morning people we were on deck 10. What a lovely place to sail into. The buildings show so much influence from the Dutch, the colors are fantastic. They have a really cool suspension bridge for walkers only. When a ship/boat has to leave port the bridge actually swings back to be perpendicular with the shoreline. This is the only time the water taxi will run. The water taxi drivers have no time schedule. Be prepared to walk. It was pretty hot and steamy today. Made sure we drank lots of water!! After the ship docked we had dancers and other performers in costume greeting us as we got off the ship. Like all the other ports we visited we had no scheduled excursions, just went off on our own. This time we just walked around the city. Had a crazy photo taken with 2 HUGE iguanas sitting on my head. Thankfully I was wearing a hat that day. After walking around town for a couple hours mom & I headed back to the ship for lunch and a break. On the way to the ship in a town square we encountered probably 40 young schoolchildren 4-6 yrs old all dressed in school uniforms. They were on a lunch break / filed trip with teachers to see the ship. Had a blast taking photos of the children (with the teachers permission) and then showing the kids themselves. Those kids were just too cute!
Met up with Michelle & Michael (8yrs) for lunch at the ship (they are also dinner companions) then we also collected Lynda & Cash (service dog) (they are also dinner companions) to go to the open air market, about a 10 minute walk. Spent a couple hours shopping, then back to the ship to get ready to leave port.
When it was time for the ship to leave it was amazing, just about every inch of space was taken by people at the shore to see the ship leave. Everyone was waving; it was a lovely send off. The Captain backed the ship out past all the piers & docks and small ships all the way to the ocean, once out in the open ocean we spun around and said goodbye to Curacao.
5/19 Sea Day
Today is a sea day. Getting ready for the big event tomorrow. The PANAMA CANAL. I Went to a great lecture on the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. The theatre was packed. It was a great time, super funny guest speaker. Making sure I have all the camera batteries charged up fully. Packed the backpack with all that I will need and I am all set for tomorrow. Had a shopping lecture and attended the Disney art auction. Ended up buying an original plate from Animators Palate and a DCL white life-ring. Art pieces were going in the many thousands, a little to rich for our blood. We also had a lecture on the Panama Canal. That was super interesting Early to bed tonight. We have wake up at 3:30 am , we are due to arrive outside the 1st locks somewhere around 5 am.
5/20 Panama Canal, We are There!!!!
It is really happening, we are about to start a fantastic day, going all the way through the Panama Canal. I am up on deck about 4:00 am and what do I find? a bunch of young people (teens) who slept the night on deck 10 to get a good viewing area. Good for them, I actually gave some thought to that myself. I staked out an area for a group of us and everyone arrived shortly after I did. We stayed at deck 10 forward right above the captains bridge. It is still pitch black out. We can see the lights from many different types of marine vessels that are waiting a chance to go through the Canal. If you do not pay the extra $$ to get a scheduled time then you can wait days until they let you go. The pilot boards the magic and we know that soon we will start. We see the tugboats coming out into position. All of this takes a good hour or so to get organized. Meanwhile, DCL had set up breakfast stations all over the decks. You never had to walk more than 25-30 steps without finding a snack area. This time of morning it is pretty breezy and pretty chilly, however shorts and t-s are the attire since we know it will get very hot today. We finally start moving with the help of the tugs and our own power. It is around 6:30 am. By now the deck is getting pretty crowded. Everyone on the ship was so generous to step out back from the rails and let someone get in to take some photos. Entering the 1st locks we had a collision with the wall of the lock. All kinds of alarms sounded and everything came to a stop, until it could be determined that no significant damage occurred. Later we found the damage in one of the bars at the round porthole. A chunk of cement was later taken out of our ships hull at a port stop. (Remember this collision story later). We have a shipping container barge in the lock next to us. They are about a minute or 2 ahead of us. You are able to gauge what is happening to your ship by watching that ship and seeing if you are rising or sinking. I always thought that you would feel the movement in the canal, we felt nothing, I think probable because the ship is so large. After we clear this set of locks, which is about 8:30 am we head to breakfast. By now it is HOT !! Lots of water, sunscreen & hats. The captain puts us at anchor in lake Gatun for an hour or so. What a beautiful area. We are able to watch other ships make their way up the locks into the lake.
We leave after an hour or so and start traveling the length of the lake, we are on the way towards the Pedro Miguel Locks. We finish those locks around 2:00 pm and then enter the last set of locks Miraflores Locks at 2:20 pm. They have a visitor center at this location and all 5 visitor decks are PACKED with people waiting to see the Magic come through. They are all waving and cheering. It was wonderful. We took a small break back in our cabin, by now it is 102F in the shade on deck . Like I said, lots of water today .
While in our cabin, deck 2 porthole view midship we go down the last lock. It was amazing, just like we were sinking into the earth. I ran to deck 3 and the portholes there are covered by the walls of the lock up to 6inches from the top. It was very neat to see. We actually saw some areas of the locks where people had carved some artwork.
The end of the Panama Canal is approaching with the Centennial bridge (and amazing suspension bridge) and then the Bridge of the Americas. Gorgeous arched bridge. After we pass under that bridge we are now in the Pacific Ocean. We have gone further on the Disney Magic than anyone else ever !! How cool
Time to head to the cabin, tank up on some water and air conditioning and get ready for dinner. Forgot to add, a night or two ago we received a commemorative book in our cabins about the Disney Magic and the Panama Canal. We would do this trip again in an instant if DCL every goes again.
Saturday May 21ST & 22nd
It is hard to believe that ½ our cruise is finished already. However, we do not need to pack this Saturday .We had a pretty normal morning. Puttered around, did e-mails to home (internet was a complete gridlock disaster this trip). Spent a couple hours on deck 4 lounge chairs reading.. After lunch we have a Disers scheduled pin trade meet in the Promenade lounge, hosted by Disneypindiva (Leslie). Had a real nice time. Made some wonderful pin trades for my collection. A few cruise guests came up and said they wish they had known that DCL was having a pin meet, they would have brought pins to trade. I think many people were amazed that an internet group was able to schedule so many group activities.
Adult craft sessions in the Promenade lounge, WOW how can I describe these events, Hmmmm, OK, if any of you folks have ever attended the Bridal dress sale at Filenes Basement in Boston, or seen it reported on a news show that should give you an idea what many adults were like. We gave up after 10 minutes and left, it was wayyyy to intense and the childish behavior was to much.
Tonight is semi-formal dress, and photo time. We kind of gave up with the photographers. They were very nice, however with our photos, with the exception of 1 they always printed the photos when my eyes were blinking.
May 22ND
Quiet day, we did nothing too intense. We did go and see the movie The Pacifier, we thought it a cute movie. Already am thinking about having to leave the ship on Saturday. Now we cant say we have a week to go
Nothing else going on for us tonight, a little stroll on deck and a relaxing night in the cabin. Wanted to get everything ready for our day in Acapulco. We had no excursions planned and we decided to just get off the ship and play it by ear.
Goodnight
May 23RD Acapulco
Well as usual, up on deck early to view our arrival into Acapulco. Tugboats with water cannons, and water plumes met us. We could see quite a few people in the park across from the Mexican Navy Pier
(Where the Magic was docked) to see the ship come in.
On the Disers web site we had all been talking with a gentleman from the ACA Port Authority. He was able to answer many questions for us and give great suggestions. He started a contest with the group; the 1st person who could locate his office would receive an ACA polo shirt. Well, that sounded like too much running in the hot & humid Acapulco to us, but, my little brother would like a Port Authority shirt, my brother sends us a specific Polo shirt that Roberto was very interested in having. We were watching the docking process from deck 4. When we got close enough to the pier, our Polo shirt went sailing down to Roberto, he was very good at catching it. Roberto was part of the official welcoming party that came onto the ship right away, so he brought us one of the same shirts he was trading. So some person got way to hot running all over the port area (from deck 4 we only saw 1 person actually run for the shirt) to find the polo shirt. Our polo shirt was delivered to us in the next couple minutes, and we did not even have to get overheated After all, this is vacation time !!! The consolation prize was an official ACA Port Authority Cat, Roberto said they had about 30 of them running around
We decided that we would leave the ship after lunch and hire a driver for a tour, and sightseeing. We invited friends to join us and we just had a blast. Our driver was fantastic, we had about a 3½ hr tour, and we went to the hills and could look down to the ocean and see the ship far away. We also visited an area up in the hills overlooking the water that is called Acapulco Beverly Hills, unbelievable condos and gorgeous locations. As I said our driver was fantastic, I would recommend him to anyone. He is fluent in 4 languages and learning Japanese right now. If you are going to Acapulco and want to have a private tour and a wonderful driver than look for Louis right outside the terminal, I will look for his phone #, then you could arrange ahead for him to meet you at the pier when you ask him to be there. Louis also did take us all to do some shopping, and in addition we had a wonderful history lesson on Acapulco.
We had to get back to the ship to get ready for Pirate Night Festivities. All the Disers also had a group photo taken in the atrium that evening.
Before we left Louis and our tour he asked what time we were leaving that night. He then decided to bring his wife and 2 children down to see the ship that evening. We all made plans to meet in the park across from the ship that evening. Louiss family was so charming. We brought his children some pins from the ship, some candy and a little DCL souvenir. We said goodbye and back on the ship to get ready to depart. He was a great tour guide & driver and I am sure anyone who hires him with be very happy.
As we are pulling away from the pier the historic fort right across the street fired a cannon salute to us, how very special
After we left the pier, the Captain took us into the middle of the harbor and we had a great fireworks show. What was so nice is people in the park were able to see the fireworks also.
What a great day we had !!
I will have the next installment posted in a day or two or three....
Here is our review through the Panama Canal. Also, here are the photo links. The photos are "Raw" I have not had time to put them into too much order or pretty them up.
http://www.hpphoto.com/servlet/com.hp.HPGuestLogin?username=kjmcbride&password=77274280
May 13, 2005
5:20 am and we are off to the airport for a 7:20am direct flight to Orlando. Luck is on our side; we have 3 seats for the 2 of us. We land early by 10+ minutes, off to get the luggage and pick up the mini van. We stop at our favorite casual restaurant Sweet Tomatoes for lunch with my twin and her mom and then we are off for a quick stop for H2O and on our way to pick up Peter & Jen (hygiene99) at the Boardwalk hotel.
We are off to port Canaveral and the Radisson. We had a mini meet for dinner at Grills with a dozen other cruisers.. YUM YUM YUM and then had a pretty early night, for mom & I . However 2 people we all know from Mass. spent a lot of time in the hot tub.
May 14, 2005
We were all up early in the am and had breakfast and e-mailed winotracy a phone picture of us all in our travel t-shirts, we are ready to head to the port by 8 am, and decide to start a tail gate party in the parking lot. Peter and I drop mom & Jen off with all of the luggage and then Peter & I return the van at AVIS. We meet Scott H & Lynne at the car return and we all go to the port and the parking lot pre-cruise party.
By the time we made it to the parking lot, a bunch of other Disers had arrived and the fun began. We are watching the people leave the ship, and were asked many times if we were going on the Panama cruise I think a lot of people were jealous of us all. DCL finally lets us into the terminal just shy of 10am. We (hygiene99 & Bettemom) are the first into the terminal. I have never seen it empty. We shared the 1st place in line, of course it means absolutely nothing
Just about noon after they have boarded the people needing more time, and the suite guests we boarded. DCL had streamers hanging down in the entry and tons of confetti floating down. The lobby was FULL of crew / cast members, I do not ever remember so many people waiting to greet you. Waiters were handing out FREE drinks and directing you to lunch. We had a light lunch and by the time we were done our stateroom was ready. We have a Cat 9 this trip. Deck 2 right across from the elevators, the cabin was in a fantastic location. On the bed were 2 gifts from our fantastic TA and our Castaway Cay gift, a really neat blanket with the Panama cruise info printed on it.
Sail-a-way party was fun, met many of the Disers on deck. Exchanged many sail-away gifts. We were given these really cool Mickey pocket holders for a sail-away gift. We all hung them as fish extenders and then for the next 2 weeks every day you would find at least one gift from someone in them. What a great idea . DCL was handing out really cute big fans, (large Disney hand) waving goodbye with the Panama dates on them. I have an extra fan if anyone on the August cruise wants to get an extra from the August trip and trade.
Found out that right after the ship cleared US waters they would start selling the 1st LE 500 map (port Canaveral) pin. Went to get in line for a voucher at the clubs deck 3 and finally at 5:50 I had to leave to go get ready and meet our dining Disers for dinner. We had already set up a group table of Disers.
Well this turned out to be a disaster. Even though we confirmed our group table 2 days earlier, DCL loaded a new software program and most linked reservations were erased. So for the 1st night, no dining companions, no LE pin All of us were separated into different dining times and rotations. It took about 6 hrs for the dining captain to get everything organized. The next evening we were all together. The Dining captain made an effort to check with me each day and make sure everything was going well. We had a super table, and it was nice to talk with everyone before we arrived at port.
Tonight is a pretty early night for us, especially since we know tomorrow will start the trip of a lifetime .. Goodnight!!
May 15, 2005
Castaway Cay Day.
We decided to stay on the ship and get organized for the next 2 weeks of our trip of a lifetime.
5/16 & 5/17 2 sea days ahead
We are up early as usual, and have 2 sea days ahead of us. I will not get into specifics on what we did on sea days, just the highlights. The cast / crew all seemed excited about this trip, as most of us were.. DCL was releasing the 2nd map pin today , so I went to get into line about 2hrs early and as I rounded the corner in beat street here is the line. We had no problem getting our vouchers. As soon as the line was a minimum of 500 (pin limit) they just handed out the vouchers, so we were finished in a very short time. We could collect the pin up to 11 pm that night.
A rumor started that day that DCL was going to issue all the pin vouchers at once. Some people were getting really ugly about the pin situation, and the need to wait in line.
That night a memo was placed in cabins at bed turn down, saying that tomorrow morning at 8 am all the pin vouchers would be handed out. So at about 10 pm we go upstairs and a line has already formed for the night. We joined in with many of other guests & Disers (we were about the 40th in line) and had the biggest sleepover that DCL had ever seen. By midnight -1 am the pin line actually went down the hall, through the atrium and into Parrot Cay restaurant. We got our vouchers in the am and were finished with pins. We had a couple days to pick up the pins. Unfortunately many of the jumbo pins were damaged and that caused additional problems. (For those of you on the August Repo cruise) ***RUMOR RUMOR RUMOR *** This may be rumor or it may become fact, but this is what I was told last week on the ship The Captain for the Aug repo cruise is Captain Tom. He is a stickler for rules and will not allow guests to sleep in lines in the halls waiting for pin vouchers. In addition DCL is mulling the thought of NO pins for August after the fiasco that was created by the May Panama Cruise Pins. Will this happen? Hopefully NOT. As I said this is a rumor that was circulating last week on the ship.
For all dinners we had a brand new menu designed each evening. They are cute, the meals . Dinner was nice, we received Beauty and the Beast pins in Lumieres at dinner along with a mini musical show. Nice having entertainment with dinner.
Some nights good, other nights Bla!!! If you are in the mood for home food forget it !!
Was a Pretty normal day for us. Up early to see the sun rise. and DCL had a great
Behind the Scenes series, on the Haunted Mansion today. Tonight our first celebrity guest a guy named Joey Fatone from an All boy singing group is to host the Mouseketeer show tonight. We had some activities specific to our Disers group and other than that just a nice relaxing sea day.
5/18 Curacao
We arrived in the early morning perhaps around 7-8 am, the captain was not shy about using the ships horn. Being morning people we were on deck 10. What a lovely place to sail into. The buildings show so much influence from the Dutch, the colors are fantastic. They have a really cool suspension bridge for walkers only. When a ship/boat has to leave port the bridge actually swings back to be perpendicular with the shoreline. This is the only time the water taxi will run. The water taxi drivers have no time schedule. Be prepared to walk. It was pretty hot and steamy today. Made sure we drank lots of water!! After the ship docked we had dancers and other performers in costume greeting us as we got off the ship. Like all the other ports we visited we had no scheduled excursions, just went off on our own. This time we just walked around the city. Had a crazy photo taken with 2 HUGE iguanas sitting on my head. Thankfully I was wearing a hat that day. After walking around town for a couple hours mom & I headed back to the ship for lunch and a break. On the way to the ship in a town square we encountered probably 40 young schoolchildren 4-6 yrs old all dressed in school uniforms. They were on a lunch break / filed trip with teachers to see the ship. Had a blast taking photos of the children (with the teachers permission) and then showing the kids themselves. Those kids were just too cute!
Met up with Michelle & Michael (8yrs) for lunch at the ship (they are also dinner companions) then we also collected Lynda & Cash (service dog) (they are also dinner companions) to go to the open air market, about a 10 minute walk. Spent a couple hours shopping, then back to the ship to get ready to leave port.
When it was time for the ship to leave it was amazing, just about every inch of space was taken by people at the shore to see the ship leave. Everyone was waving; it was a lovely send off. The Captain backed the ship out past all the piers & docks and small ships all the way to the ocean, once out in the open ocean we spun around and said goodbye to Curacao.
5/19 Sea Day
Today is a sea day. Getting ready for the big event tomorrow. The PANAMA CANAL. I Went to a great lecture on the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction. The theatre was packed. It was a great time, super funny guest speaker. Making sure I have all the camera batteries charged up fully. Packed the backpack with all that I will need and I am all set for tomorrow. Had a shopping lecture and attended the Disney art auction. Ended up buying an original plate from Animators Palate and a DCL white life-ring. Art pieces were going in the many thousands, a little to rich for our blood. We also had a lecture on the Panama Canal. That was super interesting Early to bed tonight. We have wake up at 3:30 am , we are due to arrive outside the 1st locks somewhere around 5 am.
5/20 Panama Canal, We are There!!!!
It is really happening, we are about to start a fantastic day, going all the way through the Panama Canal. I am up on deck about 4:00 am and what do I find? a bunch of young people (teens) who slept the night on deck 10 to get a good viewing area. Good for them, I actually gave some thought to that myself. I staked out an area for a group of us and everyone arrived shortly after I did. We stayed at deck 10 forward right above the captains bridge. It is still pitch black out. We can see the lights from many different types of marine vessels that are waiting a chance to go through the Canal. If you do not pay the extra $$ to get a scheduled time then you can wait days until they let you go. The pilot boards the magic and we know that soon we will start. We see the tugboats coming out into position. All of this takes a good hour or so to get organized. Meanwhile, DCL had set up breakfast stations all over the decks. You never had to walk more than 25-30 steps without finding a snack area. This time of morning it is pretty breezy and pretty chilly, however shorts and t-s are the attire since we know it will get very hot today. We finally start moving with the help of the tugs and our own power. It is around 6:30 am. By now the deck is getting pretty crowded. Everyone on the ship was so generous to step out back from the rails and let someone get in to take some photos. Entering the 1st locks we had a collision with the wall of the lock. All kinds of alarms sounded and everything came to a stop, until it could be determined that no significant damage occurred. Later we found the damage in one of the bars at the round porthole. A chunk of cement was later taken out of our ships hull at a port stop. (Remember this collision story later). We have a shipping container barge in the lock next to us. They are about a minute or 2 ahead of us. You are able to gauge what is happening to your ship by watching that ship and seeing if you are rising or sinking. I always thought that you would feel the movement in the canal, we felt nothing, I think probable because the ship is so large. After we clear this set of locks, which is about 8:30 am we head to breakfast. By now it is HOT !! Lots of water, sunscreen & hats. The captain puts us at anchor in lake Gatun for an hour or so. What a beautiful area. We are able to watch other ships make their way up the locks into the lake.
We leave after an hour or so and start traveling the length of the lake, we are on the way towards the Pedro Miguel Locks. We finish those locks around 2:00 pm and then enter the last set of locks Miraflores Locks at 2:20 pm. They have a visitor center at this location and all 5 visitor decks are PACKED with people waiting to see the Magic come through. They are all waving and cheering. It was wonderful. We took a small break back in our cabin, by now it is 102F in the shade on deck . Like I said, lots of water today .
While in our cabin, deck 2 porthole view midship we go down the last lock. It was amazing, just like we were sinking into the earth. I ran to deck 3 and the portholes there are covered by the walls of the lock up to 6inches from the top. It was very neat to see. We actually saw some areas of the locks where people had carved some artwork.
The end of the Panama Canal is approaching with the Centennial bridge (and amazing suspension bridge) and then the Bridge of the Americas. Gorgeous arched bridge. After we pass under that bridge we are now in the Pacific Ocean. We have gone further on the Disney Magic than anyone else ever !! How cool
Time to head to the cabin, tank up on some water and air conditioning and get ready for dinner. Forgot to add, a night or two ago we received a commemorative book in our cabins about the Disney Magic and the Panama Canal. We would do this trip again in an instant if DCL every goes again.
Saturday May 21ST & 22nd
It is hard to believe that ½ our cruise is finished already. However, we do not need to pack this Saturday .We had a pretty normal morning. Puttered around, did e-mails to home (internet was a complete gridlock disaster this trip). Spent a couple hours on deck 4 lounge chairs reading.. After lunch we have a Disers scheduled pin trade meet in the Promenade lounge, hosted by Disneypindiva (Leslie). Had a real nice time. Made some wonderful pin trades for my collection. A few cruise guests came up and said they wish they had known that DCL was having a pin meet, they would have brought pins to trade. I think many people were amazed that an internet group was able to schedule so many group activities.
Adult craft sessions in the Promenade lounge, WOW how can I describe these events, Hmmmm, OK, if any of you folks have ever attended the Bridal dress sale at Filenes Basement in Boston, or seen it reported on a news show that should give you an idea what many adults were like. We gave up after 10 minutes and left, it was wayyyy to intense and the childish behavior was to much.
Tonight is semi-formal dress, and photo time. We kind of gave up with the photographers. They were very nice, however with our photos, with the exception of 1 they always printed the photos when my eyes were blinking.
May 22ND
Quiet day, we did nothing too intense. We did go and see the movie The Pacifier, we thought it a cute movie. Already am thinking about having to leave the ship on Saturday. Now we cant say we have a week to go
Nothing else going on for us tonight, a little stroll on deck and a relaxing night in the cabin. Wanted to get everything ready for our day in Acapulco. We had no excursions planned and we decided to just get off the ship and play it by ear.
Goodnight
May 23RD Acapulco
Well as usual, up on deck early to view our arrival into Acapulco. Tugboats with water cannons, and water plumes met us. We could see quite a few people in the park across from the Mexican Navy Pier
(Where the Magic was docked) to see the ship come in.
On the Disers web site we had all been talking with a gentleman from the ACA Port Authority. He was able to answer many questions for us and give great suggestions. He started a contest with the group; the 1st person who could locate his office would receive an ACA polo shirt. Well, that sounded like too much running in the hot & humid Acapulco to us, but, my little brother would like a Port Authority shirt, my brother sends us a specific Polo shirt that Roberto was very interested in having. We were watching the docking process from deck 4. When we got close enough to the pier, our Polo shirt went sailing down to Roberto, he was very good at catching it. Roberto was part of the official welcoming party that came onto the ship right away, so he brought us one of the same shirts he was trading. So some person got way to hot running all over the port area (from deck 4 we only saw 1 person actually run for the shirt) to find the polo shirt. Our polo shirt was delivered to us in the next couple minutes, and we did not even have to get overheated After all, this is vacation time !!! The consolation prize was an official ACA Port Authority Cat, Roberto said they had about 30 of them running around
We decided that we would leave the ship after lunch and hire a driver for a tour, and sightseeing. We invited friends to join us and we just had a blast. Our driver was fantastic, we had about a 3½ hr tour, and we went to the hills and could look down to the ocean and see the ship far away. We also visited an area up in the hills overlooking the water that is called Acapulco Beverly Hills, unbelievable condos and gorgeous locations. As I said our driver was fantastic, I would recommend him to anyone. He is fluent in 4 languages and learning Japanese right now. If you are going to Acapulco and want to have a private tour and a wonderful driver than look for Louis right outside the terminal, I will look for his phone #, then you could arrange ahead for him to meet you at the pier when you ask him to be there. Louis also did take us all to do some shopping, and in addition we had a wonderful history lesson on Acapulco.
We had to get back to the ship to get ready for Pirate Night Festivities. All the Disers also had a group photo taken in the atrium that evening.
Before we left Louis and our tour he asked what time we were leaving that night. He then decided to bring his wife and 2 children down to see the ship that evening. We all made plans to meet in the park across from the ship that evening. Louiss family was so charming. We brought his children some pins from the ship, some candy and a little DCL souvenir. We said goodbye and back on the ship to get ready to depart. He was a great tour guide & driver and I am sure anyone who hires him with be very happy.
As we are pulling away from the pier the historic fort right across the street fired a cannon salute to us, how very special
After we left the pier, the Captain took us into the middle of the harbor and we had a great fireworks show. What was so nice is people in the park were able to see the fireworks also.
What a great day we had !!
? Nothing interesting must have happened there.
