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

[minnieandmickey]

All I can say about cruising the canal with DCL is this: certain have done all 5 Westbound transits they have done. Sent from my iPhone 5 using DISBoards

We did EB in 2008. It will be interesting to do it WB.

 

[Lexa]

Isn't it WONDERful to cruise again with awesome tablemates? Our kids think Lexa and crew should be on every cruise we take! Especially on long cruises, perfect tablemates make a difference.
Are all the SPH cabins in this group? Does anyone have SPH cabin experience? I am thinking of moving to one without SPH.

Are;t you so sweet.....I wish we could take every cruise there is with you guys! It was so fun and it will be fun again!!! Can;t wait!

 

[granmaz]

Hi guys!

I'm not going on this cruise butttt was wondering if anyone has taken the Panama Canal cruise before with disney?! My Fiancé and I will be sailing with captain Mickey through the Caribbean for our honeymoon but wanted to book the Panama Canal on our honeymoon for the early booking discount.. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated as I have heard that you chose another cruise line for this particular itinerary!

Thanks guys!!!

I am sure the Panama Canal experience is similar with all the cruise lines, but I can tell you that a Disney ship going through the Panama Canal is very special to the folks down there and they come out to wave to you wherever the roads come close to the water's edge. The visitor centre is full of excited children(and adults) shouting for Mickey. It is fantastic. I doubt there is anything like that on the other cruise lines.

 

[wilma-bride]

On our last cruise, I arranged private Mixology sessions for our group. It ended up being a bit of a nightmare to organise as it was a Halloween sailing and people were very concerned about things clashing, however it was a huge amount of fun and very popular - we ended up with 3 sessions with 30 people on each. Because it was so much fun, I would be more than happy to organise a similar thing for our group on this sailing, if possible.

I have been in touch with DCL and have had confirmation that they can work with us to arrange Mixology for our group. A few people asked if, due to the number of sea days, we could run sessions with different drinks so they could attend twice so my proposal is to request Mixology sessions and maybe Martini tastings also.

If anybody is interested, please reply here or PM me and I will add your name to the interested list. I am not looking for a firm commitment at this stage. I will be looking to get final names around 3 months prior.

 

[Brixton]

Love Mixology! However, repetitive Mixology classes aren't fun. If DCL can vary the classes, we'll sign up for as many as you organise. Our last WBPC had three, after two of the same we convinced DCL to refund the 3rd.

Not on FB, not an FB fan ... all my info. comes from DIS. Thanks for reposting here as well

 

[wilma-bride]

Love Mixology! However, repetitive Mixology classes aren't fun. If DCL can vary the classes, we'll sign up for as many as you organise. Our last WBPC had three, after two of the same we convinced DCL to refund the 3rd.

Not on FB, not an FB fan ... all my info. comes from DIS. Thanks for reposting here as well

Due to the number of people interested, there will probably be at least 2, if not 3, mixology classes run however these will likely be the same content. I will also ask DCL to add a couple of additional (different) classes if others are interesting in doing additional classes too. So far about a dozen or so have said they would like to do a second (different) class.

 

[Brixton]

Due to the number of people interested, there will probably be at least 2, if not 3, mixology classes run however these will likely be the same content. I will also ask DCL to add a couple of additional (different) classes if others are interesting in doing additional classes too. So far about a dozen or so have said they would like to do a second (different) class.

Thanks! We signed up for beer, wine, and tequila tasting on the PIXAR cruise. I think DCL does a great job with tastings/classes.

 

[NorCalGal]

Due to the number of people interested, there will probably be at least 2, if not 3, mixology classes run however these will likely be the same content. I will also ask DCL to add a couple of additional (different) classes if others are interesting in doing additional classes too. So far about a dozen or so have said they would like to do a second (different) class.

I answered on FB that I was interested, and if you can do a second one that is different I would be interested in that as well. On our April cruise, my brother and I did the tequila tasting and it was pretty good!

 

[mom4fun]

We have booked this cruise. It will be myself, dh and ds 14. Hoping this works out. I wish I could book airline right now,with some incredibly good prices out there but my dh can't fully commit until the end of the year. I have asked to join facebook.

 

[GoofyNewfie]

Speaking of mixologies, do they still do chocolate tasting? In 2013, we were one of the first groups to try it out as they were experimenting with it. It wasn't what I thought it would be at all. It was so much better. Who knew chocolate went so well with alcohol?

 

[csoutherl]

We did the chocolate tasting on our cruise last year and it was wonderful!

I would definitely do that one again!

 

[ravensilverlight]

Chocolate tasting?????!!!!! Count the four of us in!!!

 

[disbride713]

Welcome to all who joined the cruise! We had SO much fun on this one in 2013! Congrats to those who've already paid in full - that's quite impressive

Doubletree - thank you for all the PMs. Rooms are held with my CC until a later date. Because we're nearly eleven months out, we have some flexibility. I will email individual confirmation numbers as soon I have them!

Passports - We chose passports for the 2013 WBPC. The cards COULD have been used at that time, but we were strongly advised to get passports! It was right after the Carnival ship was stranded for days, so we went with passports for medical reasons as well as weird cruise ship reasons

Enjoy your week, fellow DISers

Hello -

I sent a PM last week but haven't heard back, is the ability to reserve at the DT full? If not, I'd like to put my name down for myself and DH.

Thanks!

 

[luvdamouse91]

We would be interested in the Chocolate tasting as well - 2 adults.

 

[granmaz]

Not sure if I have missed reading, but is the chocolate tasting just normal chocolate items or chocolate alcoholic drinks(knowing what Dis groups are like)

 

[wilma-bride]

Not sure if I have missed reading, but is the chocolate tasting just normal chocolate items or chocolate alcoholic drinks(knowing what Dis groups are like)

The chocolate tasting, as far as I am aware, is a pairing of chocolate with wine (possibly liquor).

If somebody wants to organise a chocolate tasting, feel free. I was going to stick with arranging mixology and one other drinks tasting.

 

[SeaSpray]

Welcome to any and all new cruisers!!

Is anyone going to Disneyland right from the cruise? If so, do you rent a car or is there alternate transportation? DH and I have never rented a car during any of our vacations as we find it more relaxing to not drive.

We're considering spending the weekend at Disneyland, probably the Grand Californian hotel. I've only spent 1 day at Disneyland and that was many years ago, and DH has never been there. We mainly just want to do the "Magic Kingdom" part of Disneyland, which I think is referred to simply as Disneyland??? Is this right? LOL We are WDW experts, but don't know much about DL, except that their Pirates of the Caribbean is supposed to be much better, and there's a restaurant inside called Blue Bayou, which we'd like to dine at.

We'd fly home from LAX at that point. If we don't go to Disneyland at all, we'll either fly right home after the cruise, or possibly just spend one night in San Diego before flying home.

As for Miami, we are already booked via my generous brother's reward points at the JW Marriott Marquis Miami, which is in the Downtown area. We'll most likely get the best flights out of Boston, to FLL, so we'll use the SAS Transportation company to get us from FLL to the Marriott. We had decided that we wanted to wake up near the port on departure day.

As for transportation from the Marriott in Miami to the port, we'll just use a cab I guess.


So far, we are signed up for Wilma-Bride's Mixology sessions; two of them if a second session would contain different drinks!

The Chocolate Tasting sounds good, but neither DH and I are big chocolate lovers, so we haven't decided on that one yet. Does anyone know if they definitely offer that on the Panama Canal cruises??

We are signed up for the FE exchange, but haven't decided on the individual gift exchange yet, although it sounds like a nice idea as well.


I'm kind of rambling here because we are in the middle of a flooded-out basement and dealing with crews of workers in and out of the house all last week, and wondering how this is all going to work out with our homeowners insurance (it was water from a leaking pipe, not outside water), and we have the adjuster coming Tuesday morning. So I'm trying to think happy thoughts about this cruise and take a break from the house turmoil.

I hope everyone is doing well!

 

[Kirbo]

SeaSpray and : about the water leak. How awful. I hope it's quickly fixed.


Another thing being thrown about over there is the idea of a T-shirt. I'm not sure how to c/p that thread over here. If anyone knows how, that'd be nice to have here.

 

[KathleenlovesMickey]

I brought up the shirts. I think someone is going to see if one of the designers can come up with something for us.
As far as Disneyland goes both parks are right next to each other unlike WDW. You really need a day for both at least. The Blue Bayou is great the atmosphere is wonderful. I think its about an hour and half from San Diego. The Disneyland hotels are very nice. My favorite is the Grand California but the Disneyland hotel is great too. If you have any questions about DL just ask.

 

[granmaz]

The chocolate tasting, as far as I am aware, is a pairing of chocolate with wine (possibly liquor).

If somebody wants to organise a chocolate tasting, feel free. I was going to stick with arranging mixology and one other drinks tasting.

Thank you. I might have had a surprise going for just chocolate and finding the slcohol. Maybe a Candy Exchange then. There was one on our last PC or TA, can't remember. Perhaps one has already been arranged for this one. We don't do FE, so haven't looked at similar things either.

Thank you for organising all the drinks tastings even though I can't participate.

Welcome to any and all new cruisers!!

Is anyone going to Disneyland right from the cruise? If so, do you rent a car or is there alternate transportation? DH and I have never rented a car during any of our vacations as we find it more relaxing to not drive.

We're considering spending the weekend at Disneyland, probably the Grand Californian hotel. I've only spent 1 day at Disneyland and that was many years ago, and DH has never been there. We mainly just want to do the "Magic Kingdom" part of Disneyland, which I think is referred to simply as Disneyland??? Is this right? LOL We are WDW experts, but don't know much about DL, except that their Pirates of the Caribbean is supposed to be much better, and there's a restaurant inside called Blue Bayou, which we'd like to dine at.

As for transportation from the Marriott in Miami to the port, we'll just use a cab I guess.

The Chocolate Tasting sounds good, but neither DH and I are big chocolate lovers, so we haven't decided on that one yet. Does anyone know if they definitely offer that on the Panama Canal cruises??

We are signed up for the FE exchange, but haven't decided on the individual gift exchange yet, although it sounds like a nice idea as well.

I'm kind of rambling here because we are in the middle of a flooded-out basement and dealing with crews of workers in and out of the house all last week, and wondering how this is all going to work out with our homeowners insurance (it was water from a leaking pipe, not outside water), and we have the adjuster coming Tuesday morning. So I'm trying to think happy thoughts about this cruise and take a break from the house turmoil.

I hope everyone is doing well!

Hi. Sorry to hear about your flood. I hope it is soon sorted for you. In the meantime, a good idea to focus on this cruise!

A good number of cruisers on our last PC went on the Amtrak train from San Diego to LA. Not sure where the station is in LA, but I know some went to DL so a cab from there must be fairly simple. The station is almost across the road from the port in San Diego, and back a bit. We would think if you are fit and not too many bags then you could walk fairly easily.

DL. It really is worth going to both parks. As someone already said, they are just a short distance across from each other. There is so much more to see here than you will be expecting, and lots that isn't at WDW. We go to WDW quite a bit and didn't expect to enjoy DL, but we love it. We did eat at Blue Bayou a few years ago and enjoyed it. Only a few tables are close to the water for the ride, otherwise it is quite dark and you don't see much. Food was good then, not sure now of course.

The chocolate tasting is with alcohol so might be something you would enjoy. Sadly I would love just a chocolate tasting, yum!!