Cruising The Canal May 1, 2015 (Roll Call in Post 1)

[LocustPoint]

Be warned -that is a really 'dry' book, like reading a history textbook (which I guess it really is) but I am glad I pushed myself through it. I keep thinking I should try to reread it - will have to work on that. I have also looked at the excursions - I will have to go and check out the secret river excursion in Cozumel - we typically have a beach day at Nachi when we go.

Thanks for the warning as well, I purchased the book last night. I figure I have over a year to read so all is good! I'm also hoping my love of history helped with the dry parts! LOL

Each day I get more excited about this trip and I still have my Southern Caribbean cruise in September with my husband before I can REALLY get excited about this cruise. It's going to be a fun filled year getting to know every one and begin planning activities during the cruise!

 

[Kirbo]

Hello!!! We are so excited for this cruise! I will be traveling with my friend and her family as well! I have 3 kids and she has 2!! Ages 12,11,8,6,4!! Can't wait!!!

to the boards!


Thank you for the link to the PC TR with all the pictures. It was a lot of food porn! I am very much looking forward to all the wonderful food.

 

[tlynk]

We booked this cruise today

I have a terrible habit of booking a cruise and changing it, so I am almost tempted to not post on here, just in case, but I honestly think this is going to happen

This will be our fifth DCL trip. We were scheduled to be on this year's EBTA but had to cancel, so this one next year is our make up cruise.

It'll be me, my husband and our twin girls (ten at the time of sailing).

Hello, DH and I signed up for this cruise and are beyond excited! We were originally signed up to go on this year's EBTA as well. Due to DH's job we had to cancel and we are going to WDW for a week instead. DH can't travel the last two weeks in May, so this cruise was the next best option. However, DH is more excited about this one than he was about the EBTA. This is our first Panama Canal cruise and our 6th cruise on the Wonder. I'm hoping nothing gets in the way of this trip!

 

[KathleenlovesMickey]

Hi. It is just my husband and I on this cruise too. I get the impression there will be a lot of adults.

I already sent a PM to one of my fellow moderators, asking for the threads to be merged. Unfortunately I can't do it myself as I only have 'moderator powers' on the UK boards



Hi Kathleen, I am so excited for this itinerary. Our first 14-night too. My main concern at the moment is how I'm going to bring enough clothes with me

Ha Ha I know I completely over packed on my last one just a few weeks ago. I am promising myself I will NOT do that again and for 14 days I will allow myself a few hours of laundry. I am also hoping for warm weather so I will bring a few bathing suits which I hope to be in most of the time. I also noted on my last one that dressing up is only done by a few people so I am not planning on bringing many dressy clothes this time.

 

[KathleenlovesMickey]

Does the ship take all day to go thru the locks? I have heard that you have to get up very early to get a good place to see everything. I would love to hear from people who have down this what to expect that day.

 

[wilma-bride]

Hello!!! We are so excited for this cruise! I will be traveling with my friend and her family as well! I have 3 kids and she has 2!! Ages 12,11,8,6,4!! Can't wait!!!

Woohoo!! I'm so excited that we're booked for WBPC!! By the time we cruise here, it will be our 8th cruise, 2nd time on the Wonder. It's going to be my myself, DH, DS who will be 10 and 1 month shy of his 11th b-day & my DD who will be 7. I'm not looking forward to notifying the school of the 11 day absences . Hey but a parent has to do what a parent has to do lol
I think it will be a very educational trip for them
Looking forward to getting to know you all. We're from Connecticut. And we are going to keep this a surprise from our kids

Hello all, I have also booked the Panama Canal..woohoo!!! We originally wanted to do the transatlantic but we didn't really like the port stops so we choose the Panama Canal.. We are Travelling from Western Australia and it's me, my Hubby Jeff and our 2 sons. Alex our oldest turns 12 on the cruise and our youngest son Axel will be 8.
We are super excited, we have been on the Fantasy in May last year and I got hubby hooked on cruising and he choose to go again before we even left the cruise...lol
Looking forward to getting to know you all...xxx

Vicky

Hi all and to the group. I am really looking forward to meeting everyone. As the cruise gets closer, I'm sure there will be a few meets and other activities organised. We had a lot of stuff going on last October on the Fantasy and it was a lot of fun doing stuff with our new cruising buddies

Wow, there are quite a few pages already .

I've just ordered "Path between the seas", it's aparently a very interesting book about the construction of the canal.

And right now, I'm browsing excursions, so exciting!
We were on the Western Caribbean itinerary last year and did the secret river excursion in Cozumel, which I can't recommend enough. It was such an amazing experience, even my parents, who were very apprehensive at first, absoulutely loved the mystic atmosphere.

I'm so excited about this cruise that I keep forgetting about our Eastern Caribbean in August.

I had a look at that book too. Unfortunately, it's not available on Kindle (as far as I could see) and I can't actually read a 'proper' book any more - I have got so used to my lovely, light Kindle that books are too heavy for my now weak wrists

Thanks for the recommendation for the secret river. That is the excursion we are looking at for Cozumel. On our Western last year we did Nachi Cocom which was good fun but DH and I would like to do something different this time. We figure there will be other ports when we can visit the beach.

Can't believe how long this thread is already and we're not even a week into bookings. Does anybody want to wager how many threads we will end up with before this cruise actually rolls around

Kathleen, from what I have read, it takes about 12 hours for the ship to go through all the locks and people start to arrive up on deck 10 from about 4am Now I am a morning person but even I balk at having to get up at that time on vacation

 

[aan1701]

Ok did everyone pay their deposits?

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[feenie]

Does anyone know if DCL offers transfers from Fort Lauderdale Airport?
We usually fly Southwest, and that is where they fly to.

I wish we had a cruise between now and then, but we are working on plans for a quick trip to WDW in November for my birthday. We canceled a Magic Cruise in November to book this one, because for 800.00 more we could get two weeks, and we have wanted to do the Panama Canal for years.

 

[aan1701]

Well since it does not look like the other thread is going to be merged I thought I would check in here. Deposit paid for this. If we go this will be our 6th WBPC with DCL. DCL does not offer transfers from Ft. Lauderdale. I work for SWA so this is where I will be flying into. For this cruise we are doing the same thing we did for last years. We are staying at a Hyatt House on a great rate. 109 for a one bedroom villa and then the next day drive to Miami. We are renting from Alamo. We have a one way car rental for 24 hr for 28 with tax from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami for a full size using the discount code provided on the WDW Passholder page . Then we will use Alamo's free shuttle to the port.

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[wilma-bride]

Does anyone know if DCL offers transfers from Fort Lauderdale Airport?
We usually fly Southwest, and that is where they fly to.

I wish we had a cruise between now and then, but we are working on plans for a quick trip to WDW in November for my birthday. We canceled a Magic Cruise in November to book this one, because for 800.00 more we could get two weeks, and we have wanted to do the Panama Canal for years.

We normally cruise every other year so we are not too worried about not getting a cruise in this fall, however not sure how that will work out for us with the new policy on cruises booked on-board since we like to cruise 2 years apart.

I hope you manage to get that trip to WDW in for November.

Well since it does not look like the other thread is going to be merged I thought I would check in here. Deposit paid for this. If we go this will be our 6th WBPC with DCL. DCL does not offer transfers from Ft. Lauderdale. I work for SWA so this is where I will be flying into. For this cruise we are doing the same thing we did for last years. We are staying at a Hyatt House on a great rate. 109 for a one bedroom villa and then the next day drive to Miami. We are renting from Alamo. We have a one way car rental for 24 hr for 28 with tax from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami for a full size using the discount code provided on the WDW Passholder page . Then we will use Alamo's free shuttle to the port.

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Hi, thanks for dropping in here too I don't know why the threads haven't been merged yet - I have PM'ed both the cruise moderators and the DIS Mod team

I am going to PM Ken (the OP of the other thread) and see if we can work out to close one or the other so everybody is just posting in one place. Then we can get a proper roll-call going and start making plans properly

 

[tlynk]

It looks like we have a great group of DISers!! Lots of postings!

 

[goofprincess]

Well since it does not look like the other thread is going to be merged I thought I would check in here. Deposit paid for this. If we go this will be our 6th WBPC with DCL. DCL does not offer transfers from Ft. Lauderdale. I work for SWA so this is where I will be flying into. For this cruise we are doing the same thing we did for last years. We are staying at a Hyatt House on a great rate. 109 for a one bedroom villa and then the next day drive to Miami. We are renting from Alamo. We have a one way car rental for 24 hr for 28 with tax from Ft. Lauderdale to Miami for a full size using the discount code provided on the WDW Passholder page . Then we will use Alamo's free shuttle to the port.

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Aloha Alan. Tony and I are on this sailing as well. He can't get enough of the PC. The sea days, deck 4. Ahhhhh.

 

[Hijkfamily]

We have 13 months to go!! I wish it was closer but I will have to pass the time at Disneyland. I am also training for RunDisney weekend at Disney at the end of August. I spent ALL day looking at the trip report from 2013. I am so excited for this cruise.

 

[wilma-bride]

Aloha Alan. Tony and I are on this sailing as well. He can't get enough of the PC. The sea days, deck 4. Ahhhhh.

Hi Sandy and Tony, welcome Any tips you could give to the newbie PC cruisers would be most welcome

 

[aan1701]

Hi Sandy and Tony, welcome Any tips you could give to the newbie PC cruisers would be most welcome

This tip will not be popular but I see no reason to cram in the front if the ship for the locks. I have done this trip 5 times, well soon to be 5 times and have never felt the need to do that. You can see just fine from your balcony, or deck 4 or even more interesting from the aft. Also remember we are on the ship for 14 days, no need to cram things in. Just relax and enjoy. It is a great trip.

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[aan1701]

Aloha Alan. Tony and I are on this sailing as well. He can't get enough of the PC. The sea days, deck 4. Ahhhhh.

I can't wait to sail with you again. Maybe we can get another invite to that special place.

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[wilma-bride]

This tip will not be popular but I see no reason to cram in the front if the ship for the locks. I have done this trip 5 times, well soon to be 5 times and have never felt the need to do that. You can see just fine from your balcony, or deck 4 or even more interesting from the aft. Also remember we are on the ship for 14 days, no need to cram things in. Just relax and enjoy. It is a great trip.

Thanks for the tip, however we don't have a balcony so will have to go up on deck somewhere to watch. Glad to hear that there will be no need to join the throng on Deck 10 at 5am though I have heard it is good to see it from different places on the ship so you get a different perspective so I think we will go up on Deck 10 at some point, just to see it from there.

 

[aan1701]

Ok so you don't have the balcony, that's no biggie. If you want to avoid the crowd you can watch for a bit on your stateroom TV. That will be the bridge cam. Then you can explore around the ship later. One thing. Don't eat to much. It's DCL tradition to do a BBQ in canal day. Here is a photobombed pic of rib eye steaks, salmon and sausage on the grill last year. This is a great lunch.

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[*pixie*]

We are meeting with our school's principal today to run this cruise by him. We live in a small rural area, and in the past, our school has been very accommodating when our kids have missed a few days for vacations. We are hopeful that they will feel the same way about 10 missed days! I don't think they can *refuse* to let us pull the kids, but I really don't want to have to battle them about it!

Wish us luck!

 

[wilma-bride]

We are meeting with our school's principal today to run this cruise by him. We live in a small rural area, and in the past, our school has been very accommodating when our kids have missed a few days for vacations. We are hopeful that they will feel the same way about 10 missed days! I don't think they can *refuse* to let us pull the kids, but I really don't want to have to battle them about it!

Wish us luck!

Hope you are successful with the principal