Disneyzellin through the Canal,12/9 - 12/23 the Wonder Final Chapter updated 8/21/13!

[sarahhchan]

I'm starting to read now! just found it, so I'll get started!

 

[4everluvDisney]

I know! Glad DH finally got around to posting another update. I think we need to do trip reports for all of our vacations...I love reliving them and remembering everything we did. We are off to Hawaii for 2 weeks very soon, so I will have to keep that in mind and maybe bring my journal!

Wow!! I'm jealous.... Have a fab time .

 

[disfaninca]

Thank you so much for your trip report!! I love your writing. You are quite entertaining! This report is really getting me excited for our EBPC this September! Can't wait!

 

[LindaBabe]

Good Job, Zell! So nice to remember our trip

 

[nirrakel]

I just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed all your trip reports, I feel like I've sailed right along with you! If I ever win the lottery I shall pay for you to go on a cruise just so I can read the trip report!

 

[DisneyZell]

OK, so maybe I did...and maybe I didn't.

When I left you last we had just gone to bed after Costa Maya. One last day at sea...and then, sadly, the end of our vacation.

Today was a lazy day...not much on the agenda other than hanging out. DW likes to get a jump on the packing...so that is something she got started doing. I took advantage of the movie theater and went to see The Odd Life of Timothy Green.

I really enjoyed the movie, good characters and a good story. It never really got any big press...which I always find interesting about movies. Sometimes they like to roll out the red carpet and advertise the heck out of the movies. This one did not get that treatment...and should have done better than it did IMHO. Maybe I should start running Disney Studios. I'm assuming they read these TR's...so go ahead and IM me so we can arrange a start date for me.

Anyhooooo....we did head down to the Innovations: Theme Parks and Resorts presentation. This was....eh, ok. The innovations were cool...when the presentation was created. Which was likely in 1998. A bit disappointing as I'm sure Disney has some cool stuff that they could update that document with...but they probably don't present it that much...as they were trying to fill the time on such a long cruise.

After that we headed up to Cove Cafe to check e-mails one last time on our trip...get a couple of goodies to eat (yum, wish Cove Cafe existed in my house), and then walked out by the pool where they were just finishing a boat building contest that was going on. To be honest I was not even really aware that there was a contest. I saw one gentleman building a cool wooden boat throughout the trip....I just figured it was a hobby. But there were quite a few people who had made boats for the contest...and they were all on display. Apparently I need to pull my head out of the sand or something!


wait, wait, wait. So I just realized that I missed something important. I was very confused. I blame it all on DW because she did not write about it. And I blame myself because I usually don't take a picture of our towel animal until I go to bed. So I had pictures out of order which was very confusing for me, and you all know how easily I get confused!

What I missed what the midnight gala buffet at Tritons. Now I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of midnight buffets..it's just not good for my tummy to be eating that late. However we had never seen one of these before because we always skipped it....so we did decide to hit that one.

Very elegant

Apparently no one else feels as I do about midnight buffet.

They had some great designs on the deserts...

And cool ice sculptures. Where do they keep blocks of ice that big? Do they bring them on board at a port?



There is DW with her take....

And Zach too

The deserts were good...and there were certainly tons of them. However, I did not feel like the crew treated the guests very well. They were very anal and pushing us to one spot or another...and frankly borderline rude. They also clearly wanted us to leave. I assume this is because this is an extra thing they have to do and remember reading in a book that they all hated these midnight things. But the guests don't schedule them...the cruise does.

I'll be honest...I would have been perfectly ok without this...and doubt we will hit it again. The Pirate Buffet is more than enough for us!

We did, however have a good time with Doug, Audrey and Zach.

Zach and Audrey chowing down

Audrey had taken a class (maybe two classes?) on napkin folding. So she was the teacher at our table. Maybe this was why they wanted us to leave?

Audrey in full teaching mode.

Audrey finished hers. Zach's...well that didn't turn out quite so well.

Dw got it done!

Still not sure what Zach was doing!

When we got back to the room we laid out our take from FE gifts. Now that is alot of stuff!
What the heck are we going to do with all of this???

 

[DisneyZell]

OK, ok, now I'm back on track. Not sure exactly how that happened...but it is what it is. Now we go back to the future and our regularly scheduled program....

Tonight was the last night for dinner...so we brought our tip money with us along with a bottle of wine for Dina and some beer for Frano. While this is technically not allowed, the always seem happy to receive the left over alcohol. From what I understand they all share it. I hope that is true...as they all work so hard...and deserve the release!

We had the parade of nations as always...there is Dina. Apparently she does not like to look at the camera!

And Frano. He genuinely looks like he is having a good time. Do you suppose it is relief? finally! no more dealing with these crazies!

Here is everyone at our table one last time....

I was able to sneak in a surprise here. DW's birthday is on the 29th of December...so I figured it would be good to get a birthday cake. I set Audrey on the task of getting the message to our servers and...

we did it! Happy Birthday DW!

Again, Frano is really into it. hmmmm....

it was a nice desert...but not the full cakes they used to give!

Got our picture with our severs. They did such a good job.

And one with just us and them

When we got back we had a card in our stateroom that I was very entertained by. I thought I had snapped a picture....but apparently not. It said something like "anything you take from your room that is the property of Disney Cruise Lines will be charged to your credit card". I don't know why I found this funny as I'm sure people take things all the time (pillows from the Fantasy for example).

Not being one to leave well enough alone I went out to talk to our room steward Herold. I looked at him absolutely straight faced and asked him for a screwdriver. He looked confused. I showed him the card and told him that since it's an option I would like to take the hairdryer off the wall of my bathroom at take it home.

OK, so as I write this and read it it's not funny at all. but it was funny at the time, I promise.

So later that night we are chatting with Herold and his boss walks up and Herold brings it up that I was the one who asked about taking the hair dryer. She looked at me and told me that I could take one and the won't even charge me for it. Ha! Apparently there was much banter below the water line about that one...so I'm entertaining for someone. I'm sure they knew I was kidding....right?

Snapped a quick picture with Herold

That night Susan Egan was going to perform in the Walt Disney theater. We definitely wanted to see that. So after dinner we went up to change and pack a little bit more. We then went down to Doug and Audrey's room to pick them up. They were not quite ready so they poured alcohol down our throats while they finished up. Good times.

We headed out to the show (for those of you who do not know Susan Egan was Belle for the broadway show of Beauty and the Beast). Afterwords she signed autographs and we got one for our boys (whom we knew would not care), and one for the daughter of friends who we knew would think it was way cool because she is aspiring to be an actress.

Audrey got pictures with Susan

DW didn't pose...but there she is anyway.

We then headed over to Wavebands for pub night which was an adult show put on by some of the officers. We have seen this one before and it's definitely worth going to see. I'll leave it at that.

Here they are at the end of the skit

Then it was off to bed for the old folks. Double towel animals today...





But don't worry, I'm actually going to finish up!

We set our alarm for 6:30am (yikes!), woke up in the port.

Bright and early picture of Miami!

Our breakfast was at 7am...and as we liked our servers we definitely wanted to see them again one last time. Of course that's ironic isn't it? Technically if you like your servers you should want them to have a break. But oh well.

We had a decent breakfast..and at 8am we were ready to get off the ship. We went down and had to wait for our luggage to come off (not sure why), we grabbed a porter along with Doug and Audrey and went to meet our shuttle. We took SAS Shuttle which worked out great. We picked up a few more people at Carnival and it was off to the airport. Doug and Audrey got off at an earlier terminal so it was goodbye to our Canadian friends.

We got to the airport by 9:15, and hoped to go stand by on the 11:30am flight. We got it and made it to Boston by 3pm...but then got to sit and wait for our flight to SFO because of weather. Nice.

And that's the end, folks. All-in-all it was a terrific trip. A great way to spent a bunch of time with my wife...and with alot of other people. I would definitely do the long cruise again. It's fantastic to reach the 7 night point and know you have 7 more to go...instead of getting ready to get off. We may be taking a cruise on the Fantasy in March....so keep your fingers crossed for us (it all depends on airfare...which right now is terrible!).

Thanks for reading along....I'm sorry it took me so long to finish. However I can point to one of my other TR's that took 2 years...I'm not even at the year point!

If you have any questions feel free to post them!

Thanks!

DZ

 

[MPS516]

Thank You for this whole report, it has been very enjoyable to follow. The best part is you are finishing just 3 weeks before we leave for Los Angeles to board the Wonder for our Eastbound voyage. We can hardly wait.

 

[tokyodisneydad]

Nice....Ill give u a full review when I get to a PC but since this is my phone and a pain in the buttocks to type on NICE is all u get for now.

 

[Jillpie]

Awesome report, thanks for finishing! If you do another one, can you come back and provide a link, you were so entertaining!!

 

[jedijill]

Another fantastic DZ report! Can't wait to hear about the Fantasy in March....I have faith it will happen.

Jill in CO

 

[aan1701]

I see in your pub night pic that my least favorite DCL cast member, Simon, was on your sailing as well as ours. I was not a fan of his at all. By far the worst club host in 12 cruises with DCL.

Sent from my iPhone 5 using DISBoards

 

[Grooovertoo]

Yea! A finished trip report in under a year too! Nicley done and right befoe football season too!!

 

[DisneyZell]

Thank You for this whole report, it has been very enjoyable to follow. The best part is you are finishing just 3 weeks before we leave for Los Angeles to board the Wonder for our Eastbound voyage. We can hardly wait.

Nice! and I'm so jealous that you get to do that. You will have a terrific time. Now it's your turn to do a TR!

Nice....Ill give u a full review when I get to a PC but since this is my phone and a pain in the buttocks to type on NICE is all u get for now.

um...I look forward to it?

Awesome report, thanks for finishing! If you do another one, can you come back and provide a link, you were so entertaining!!

Thank you! well if you are really bored, check my signature, I have past ones on there..

Another fantastic DZ report! Can't wait to hear about the Fantasy in March....I have faith it will happen.

Jill in CO

Thanks! We sure hope so. Here's hoping that when Southwest releases their fares all of them will come down!

I see in your pub night pic that my least favorite DCL cast member, Simon, was on your sailing as well as ours. I was not a fan of his at all. By far the worst club host in 12 cruises with DCL.

Sent from my iPhone 5 using DISBoards

He was ok. We aren't really club people so we did not have to deal with him very often.

Yea! A finished trip report in under a year too! Nicley done and right befoe football season too!!

I know, right? and had to get it done before football season...or it would have been 2 years!

Thanks everyone!

DZ

 

[BethC1952]

Thanks for finishing this! It brings back wonderful memories of a great cruise.

Beth

 

[tokyodisneydad]

Great job once again!! You have inspired me to make sure to have a corkscrew ready at all times, get the wife the beer mug, join the wine tasting and mixology classes and take advantage of the free New Years Eve champagne on my cruise.

No seriously....nice TR once again....though I still think you should book the Dream for NYE with us....though it seems to be full. Stowaway in a lifeboat.

Are your boys still collecting pins? If yes send me your addy by email again I have something for them.