From Atlantic to Pacific gee the traffic is..non-existent! We're Cruising!! - WBPC 2/24/19-3/10/19 - COMPLETED

[ukintheus]

Day 4 - Tuesday, February 26th – At Sea Day #1

We had a good night of sleep and I woke up at about 8 am. Ahhh…better. I went and sat outside on the veranda and Scott slept until about 9. We went to Cove Cafe for a coffee and discovered the cute machine they have now to add a picture on top.

There were a couple of chairs free outside so we sat for a while watching the waves and Cuba go by.

Deciding that we needed a bite to eat we went up to Cabanas but ate light this morning. Finally! I got muesli but I'm not sure what Scott got.

Mum and Maureen had gone to the first presentation in the Walt Disney Theater by Capt. Puckett. Mum and I had both read his book before we came on board, which was a good read. We all got finished at about the same time and met down in our cabins. Today 75% of the ship had been invited to the Platinum and Gold reception at 11:15 am so we left a little early anticipating a big crowd, and we were not mistaken!

Everyone was offered a glass of prosecco, mimosa or non-alcoholic sparkling wine on the way in.

We were introduced to some of the crew, and then we were shown a behind the scenes look of Dreams. It was really interesting, no pictures of course, but basically you got to see how they run the show in the background vs. the show we see as the audience. We all enjoyed it and it was nice to see something different. We all had things we wanted to do at 1 pm so we went to deck 9 and found some snacks to tide us over.

It was a picture perfect day and you could see a lot of the Cuban coastline.

The camera saga was still continuing and I had bought another internet package so that we could try and find somewhere on Grand Cayman that might be of use to Scott to fix it. In the end, after much gnashing of teeth and discussion, it was decided that it would probably just be easier to buy a new camera. To be fair, he’s had that once since about 2012. So, Scott and I went to our first ever shopping presentation to see what we could find out.

The shopping presenter told us that he would try and find some stuff out for us, and that he would have the information for us if we went to the Shopping Desk that evening. While we were doing that, Mum and Maureen went to the second Capt. Puckett presentation, which they said was very good. Scott and I ended up watching the repeat of the Captain Puckett presentation from this morning, which was showing on TV. After it was over we joined Mum and Maureen on the verandah to watch the waves. It was now about 5 pm and a perfect time to get a drink. Maureen and I both got the drink of the day, which was a High Tide, and Scott got a beer.

We sat outside until the sun started to come around and it got too warm to sit there any longer. Scott and I went inside to watch the second Capt. Puckett presentation. I may have taken a nap. There was also a really pretty sunset tonight. I wish that we had this view every night!!

We got ready for dinner early and went down to play 50's and 60's music trivia in the Crown and Fin. Scott stopped off at the shopping desk to see what the guide had found out. Unfortunately, the information he had was all very vague and not particularly helpful. With hindsight, I think that he found that none of the stores that he had connections with had what Scott needed, so he just punted.

Jo from the UK was the club host in Crown and Fin, she is our absolute favorite, and we really enjoyed her humor all week. We did horribly on the quiz of course! I tried to get everyone to have some photographs taken in the atrium but it was an absolute zoo so we gave up and went on to dinner at Animator’s Palate.

I had the Prosciutto, the walnut and arugula salad and the beef tenderloin.

Scott also had the salad and the chicken.

Maureen had potato soup and beef tenderloin, and Mum had the potato soup and the beet salad.

As it was the first of the two formal nights the photographers came around and took some photos.

It’s a nice idea but it’s hard to juggle getting all of you in one photo without it looking awkard, as you can see.

We all shared desserts tonight. Fig pudding, ice cream sundae and some kind of chocolate cake that wasn’t that great. It doesn't look all that great in the photo!

Charlie had another puzzle for us to solve, and we busied ourselves with that while we waited for the show to begin.

 

[ukintheus]

Mickey made a grand entrance – I always enjoy the shows in the dining rooms, but have to admit to it being a bit strange without all the kids there joining in.

Scott managed to get some decent photos of the crew that we have met in the past. Judy (usually in Palo).

Maggie.

Putra - he's such a goof!

And lastly Charlie and Sasha.

We left the dining room as soon as the show was over and had our pictures taken on our way through the lobby atrium.

I know this might come as a huge shock, but we all decided to be real adults and go and see Majority Rules and Match Your Mate in Azure with Jo. It was absolutely hilarious and we all had a great time, the place was absolutely packed. We got finished at about 11:30 pm and headed back to our cabins as we were now all tired from such a busy day of doing nothing. Evidently too tired to take a photo of the towel animal too.

Up next: Grand Cayman

 

[ukintheus]

We had Jo as our club host for the second time last month and hopefully she's still onboard for Alaska this August, she's a riot!

Look at all those empty chairs on CC!! Wow.....I'd love it to be that empty the next time we go

Darn it for the camera....if it were just a 'regular cruise' (you know, Caribbean, Mexico, whatnot) then it wouldn't be such a big issue but this is the Panama Canal so yeah, I'd want our DSLR to work, too. I'm crossing my fingers he gets it working later in the cruise, guess I'll just have to keep reading

CC was so quiet at the family beach....it's a shame it was so early in the year so we couldn't really take advantage of it because you know I'm not getting my toes near cold water....let alone parts north of my toes!!

 

[bcwife76]

Ok I was wondering, now looking at your photos - we had Charlie as our asst serv on the Wonder at the end of March! He was super sweet! And those crayon puzzles.....I think we solved one I consider myself a fairly intelligent human but when they pull those damn crayons out.....

 

[ukintheus]

Ok I was wondering, now looking at your photos - we had Charlie as our asst serv on the Wonder at the end of March! He was super sweet! And those crayon puzzles.....I think we solved one I consider myself a fairly intelligent human but when they pull those damn crayons out.....

He was very sweet, I agree. Those flipping puzzles though! You know that it can’t be THAT hard to figure out, but there were several that stumped us. Scott’s a smarty pants though and started getting them during the second week. I don’t think I got one.

 

[lorimay]

Yay! Another Panama trip report!
My husband and I were on the cruise also, looking forward to reading along.

* We are in one of your pics at the sail away party......
So many great memories.

 

[ukintheus]

Day 5 - Wednesday, February 27th – Grand Cayman

Today we were up a little earlier and joined Mum and Maureen to go to Cabanas for breakfast. Scott and I decided to grab a coffee from Cove Café along the way which delayed us quite a bit as they were really busy. Here are the cute pictures on top though!

Everyone decided to go with a bigger breakfast today with the thought process that we were going ashore, which meant that we would have to move ourselves slightly more than normal.

These biscuits and gravy that Scott got don't look good. And I'm not sure about the fried uncrustable either!

Originally we had no plans for today. I had thought we might go to Royal Palms if the mood struck us, but after Camera disaster 2019 that had changed a bit. So the plan now was to see if the vague directions of the shopping host made any sense, and, if not, Scott and I would head to the camera store and Mum and Maureen would do some shopping. With breakfast over and done with, we came back down to our cabins and watched our approach into Grand Cayman.

As soon as we were close enough to get a signal, we fired up the Internet on our phones to try and find a place to buy Scott a new camera. I had found a place called Cathy Church while I was using the ship wifi and from what I could tell nothing else seemed to be showing up.

One of the ships docked next to us was the Liberty of the Seas. Scott and I had sailed on this ship out of Galveston a couple of years ago.

As soon as they announced that it was time for tendering we got ready and went to Buena Vista theater, got our tender tickets and sat and waited. It didn’t take that long, we were the second group off, I think.

We made our way through the crowded port and out onto the street. We were hoping our internet would work better, but it was still a bit sketchy. Scott went and asked around at a couple places for a camera shop, but after lots of walking around and asking questions nobody seemed to know where it would be. At this point we split up and Mum and Maureen did a little bit of shopping for Christmas ornaments and t-shirts, and then decided they were going to get back on the ship. They hit up the Tortuga shop and bought a couple of rum cakes, and decided it would be nice if they could have some Baileys and whiskey to drink on the ship. Of course, as soon as they boarded they discovered you can’t bring it back to your cabin, and it was held for the rest of the trip. I think they were embarrassed that they had forgotten – rookies!!!!

Meanwhile, Scott and I decided to go and find the Cathy Church camera shop. We ended up back at the port because we were told it would be the easiest way to get a taxi. We found plenty, but as soon as I said where we wanted to go, they ambled off and never came back because it was in the opposite direction of 7 mile beach and they knew it would be just the two of us. Ugg....so I called the camera store and they gave me directions and said it was a do-able 1 ½ mile walk. So off we went! I’m pretty sure that nobody else on the ship was having the same adventure, so I guess you can call it “unique”. We didn’t have sidewalk a lot of the way, and the road was dusty but you could tell that locals walked it quite a bit as there were tracks to follow.

Here's the only photo I took along the way....

We found it in the end and I am really glad that we ended up at this particular shop because they were very helpful and they had the camera that he was looking for. The best news was that because there’s no tax in Grand Cayman we actually got a better deal on it then if he had bought it off Amazon in the states. Yeah! Not! It was an unexpected expense, but Scott loves his camera so much and loves taking photographs, that it was completely worth it in the end. Plus this was a major cruise – it would really have been a shame to not have some of his great photos. So, the bonus was that the camera shop is at the Sunset House hotel and so we sat and had a drink at that bar that was overlooking the water.

The camera shop had told us that the hotel would call us a taxi for the ride back into town, and it was easy to have them arrange that for us. While we were sitting waiting, a couple that were on the Norwegian Pearl were also looking to go back so we agreed to split the cab. They were on a blues Cruise, it sounded like it was a lot of fun. We got back into town and got a tender fairly quickly go back on board the ship.

Mum and Maureen had been relaxing in their cabin so we said hello to them. Mum had bought a Christmas ornament for everybody and so we took a look at those and picked out the one that we wanted, they were really cute. Scott of course started to play with his camera immediately, although he had to wait for the battery to charge, so that delayed the process a little.

We were hungry by now and so we went up and got a shwarma from deck 9. (An ice cream may have slipped in there too.)

We came back downstairs and I watch the second Captain Puckett presentation while Scott read ALLLLLLL about his new camera. I ordered us an All Hands On Deck and we drank the rest of the wine from last night's dinner.

Sail away was at about 5:45 pm and we sat out to watch us go.

New camera.....

By now it was time for the show in the Walt Disney Theater and tonight it was an act with jump ropes, called Flight Crew. I hope that you are suitably impressed by the amount of times we had gone to see the shows so far!!

So Flight Crew were pretty good. Probably not as good as the other acts we had seen the past several days, but it was different. (Random side note - apparently some people in the FB group were offended by this show because one of the guys had a more stuff "flying" than the others - if you catch my drift. The thing that cracks me up about this is that now I wish I could see a re-run to see what they were talking about! )

We decided to skip the trivia tonight as it was TV tunes and we know we would be worthless at it.

We went to look at the photographs that have been taken so far at Shutters and passed by the atrium which was a hive of activity with officer pin trading.

Obligatory photo of the chandelier from my iphone.

And then fancy-pants new camera had to take one as well. Of course. (Shhhhh....don't tell him, but it really does take nice photos.)

Chip and Dale were just coming out.

So I forced everyone to go and get our photographs taken.

 

[ukintheus]

We came back to our cabins, rested for a little bit and then it was time to go to dinner and tonight we were in Tiana’s. I had started getting a scratchy throat which I put down to all the dust along the road that we walked, and thankfully I had some throat lozenges with me that really helped.

We nicknamed this guy Mr. Skinnypants.

Tonight for appetizers we all got the mushroom soup (it is really good.)

Then for the four entrées we all got something different. Mum had the vegetable lasagna, Maureen got the New York strip, I got the swordfish, and Scott got the shrimp.

Louis came around and said hello to everyone.

And Charlie left us another crayon puzzle.

For dessert Scott, Maureen and I got Banoffee pie and Mum had the tiramisu, which was not like a regular tiramisu at all, but she said it was good.

We decided we were all pretty tired tonight after our day off the ship, and so we skipped any of the other shows and came back to our cabins to go to bed. Tonight we had a giraffe waiting for us.

We were in bed before 10 pm, for some reason we were all shattered even though we really haven’t done all that much today. Thankfully we had another at sea day coming up tomorrow to rest and recuperate.

Coming up: At Sea Day #2

 

[ukintheus]

Yay! Another Panama trip report!
My husband and I were on the cruise also, looking forward to reading along.

* We are in one of your pics at the sail away party......
So many great memories.

Thanks for joining in - we had such a great time, it really was an awesome cruise. I'm ready to do it again!

 

[lorimay]

Thanks for joining in - we had such a great time, it really was an awesome cruise. I'm ready to do it again!

ME TOO!
I was just looking at the Florida resident special offers, Lol
We have the WBTA booked in Sept. I can't wait that long!!!!

 

[ukintheus]

Day 6 - Thursday, February 28th – At Sea Day #2

We got up fairly early and ordered room service for breakfast. Our servers last night had told us that there was going to be curry in Cabanas for lunch, so we decided to eat light in anticipation of stuffing ourselves later. Room service delivered double our order so I popped next door and got Mum and Maureen to come and share it with us. The seas had a bit of action going on today, there was some good spray coming off the bow.

We all went to watch the Captain Puckett session at 10 o’clock. It was very good, he definitely has a lot of information and he is a great presenter. I think his health isn't so good these days though, so I wonder how much longer he will be able to continue to do these trips.

We then came back to the room to hang out for a bit. It was a gorgeous day.

We all went to Cabanas at 11:45 am for a quick lunch before going on for our afternoon events. Scott and I had a wine tasting booked in the Cadillac Lounge at 12:15 pm, and Mum and Maureen were going to go and see Christopher Robin in the Buena Vista Theater at 12:30 pm, so we had a lot going on!

Yummy curry for lunch today.

There was a ton of stuff on the navigator that appealed to us today, so we were having to pick and choose what we could do vs. what we wanted to do. Scott and I only had 20 mins before our wine tasting so it was a stuff yourself and run kind of lunch.

All the tastings on this cruise were sold out very early on due to the high percentage of adults. It definitely made for a different type of cruise. Anyway...enough of that...and more of this!!

The wines were all good. I didn't care for the La Crema Chardonnay - I'm not a huge fan, but the rest were yummy.

We hadn't done a wine tasting in a long time and we both enjoyed it at lot. As usual the sommelier was very good, and made it really interesting.

These two really took my fancy, so I took this photo to try and find them at home at some point.

Mum and Maureen were still in the movie when the tasting ended, but Scott and I went to the Crown and Fin for a couple of the quizzes.

We continued with the wine theme.

We had a couple ask to join us for the second one - they were from Canada and were very intense! Totally the opposite to Scott and I. They were very keen to join us for 70's trivia in Azure later on - I believe the guy even made Scott shake on it.

I still had my sore throat so I figured it would be a good medicinal treat to go and get an ice cream. When we got back to the cabin there was a present left from the ladies on the FB group who had organized the private tour with Dora in Cartagena tomorrow. It was so kind of them and I was surprised because we had organized ours ourselves and not through the two FB groups. I'm also guessing they had to organize with Guest Services to get it delivered into our room?

The Facebook group for this cruise was HUGE – something like 700 members – and they were a bunch of organizing fools! We didn’t participate in much, but it was a fun group to be in for all the anticipation pre-cruise.

Mum and Maureen got back to their cabin at about the same time as us. We were ready for some relaxation so we tried to find the second talk by Capt. Puckett but they didn’t have it on the TV yet. We watched Mama Mia II instead and I caught up on my trip report notes. After quick showers for Scott and I, we went down to see how bad the lines were for a character meet and greet. The answer was...bad.

We opted to try Woody outside Preludes and by the time we got there the line was fairly long. We waited 25 minutes and got our photo done, but we decided that was enough for one day. I’m not that keen on character meet and greets anyway, let along wait in line for one.

We came back upstairs and were just in time to catch the sunset.

We collected Mum and Maureen and went to see Maryellen Hooper in the Walt Disney Theater at 6:15 pm. She was very good, we all really enjoyed it and laughed a LOT. After that we went to the gift shop to buy Mum a cheap watch as her battery had died in the one she always wears. They didn’t have much of a selection, but she picked the Minnie Mouse face with a red band. It was only later that I remembered that I have the exact same watch at home!

Then it was time for 70's trivia which tonight was in Azure because of the amount of people that were attending. Mr. Canada had evidently been touting for other trivia players, and had found some other people he must have thought were a better bet than us.

Jo had got a new playlist, so it was tricky! We scored 32 and were not close to winning but it’s always good fun, and Jo makes it hilarious.

We then took a slow amble to dinner, which involved a stop to watch the ballroom dancing couple leading everyone in a dance in the atrium. Tonight we were in Tritons for dinner.

I had to take a photo of this bread, it had green swirls in it...interesting.

I got the lobster ravioli, the romaine wedge, and the Seabass.

Scott got the seafood sampler, a salad, and he had the Seabass also.

Mum had asparagus soup and the pork.

Maureen had the California garden roll, tomato soup, and the pumpkin curry. I only have a photo of the pumpkin curry though.

The photographers came around again this evening. At the time it's somewhat irritating but now I'm glad they did or we'd hardly have any photos of us all!

Charlie didn't disappoint us this evening and had another good crayon puzzle.

 

[ukintheus]

Time for dessert to roll around. I had the almond tart, Scott had the peanut butter pie, and Maureen had the strawberry cake.

Maureen had been eyeing a Crème Brulee martini on the dessert menu for several nights and tonight it made an appearance. She said it was good, but not as good as a chocolate martini.

Mum and Maureen went straight back to their cabin and Scott and I made a quick stop for me to get a hot toddy from the Promenade Lounge as my throat was still bothering me. I had to give them instructions but they made a pretty decent one! We made it to bed fairly early, as tomorrow was going to be a busy day with an early morning start for our tour in Cartagena. We had this cute dinosaur waiting for us to see us to bed.

Coming up: Cartagena, Columbia

 

[lilsonicfan]

I'm loving your report so far! Thanks for sharing

 

[ukintheus]

I'm loving your report so far! Thanks for sharing

Thanks for joining in. The next two days were packed full, so the posts are about to go super-sized!

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I can totally relate to Scott's issue with his camera. I would be freaking out if my Nikon DSLR quit during the cruise. So glad he was able to resolve the problem with a brand new camera to play with. Hopefully, he can get his old one fixed for a back-up!

 

[chamberlain]

Really enjoying your trip report. We love Jo as well. We had Putra (if it's the same one) as our server but it was on the Fantasy. He was wonderful!

 

[bcwife76]

You. Don't. Like. La Crema Chardonnay????????









That's IT.




NEVER READING ANOTHER WORD OF ANY OF YOUR REPORTS













kidding


teehee....as if I would stop reading.......ha!

Seriously though as you have figured out I love La Crema Chardonnay and it's, of course, DCL that has gotten me hooked on it. At $30Canadian per bottle, however, I do not partake as much as I would like and have found decent alternatives


Anywhooo........glad that Scott was able to replace his camera and tax free Probably not the extra expense you were looking for, but definitely needed for such a monumental cruise

Another lovely day at sea......

 

[TestingH2O]

These biscuits and gravy that Scott got don't look good.

I was so excited to see them on the Magic last month, but they were a big disappointment.

passed by the atrium which was a hive of activity with officer pin trading.

Woah. That's a lot of people. I'm actually kind of worried about this cruise and all the high status adults. I worry that DD won't have as much fine because, let's be honest, the adults are more likely than other kids to be pushy and over the top when it comes to anything that is perceived to be scarce.

Yummy curry for lunch today.

We had Palo on curry day last month. I was sad to miss it.

didn't care for the La Crema Chardonnay

Yeah, we might not be friends any more. Lol! This is the official "I need to treat myself without breaking the bank" wine in our house.

 

[ukintheus]

You. Don't. Like. La Crema Chardonnay????????

Yeah, we might not be friends any more. Lol! This is the official "I need to treat myself without breaking the bank" wine in our house.

Sorry to disappoint you ladies! Let me clarify, I am not overly keen on ANY Chardonnay, La Crema was just the brand that they had. I have no idea why, but Chardonnay gives me indigestion these days, if I drink it, I find I need to water it down. Getting older is for the birds!

 

[ukintheus]

Day 7 – Friday, March 1st – Cartagena, Columbia

Preamble for Cartagena has to be included because I was so undecided what to do with this port. All the Facebook Panama Canal veterans were adamant that it would be too hot and humid for Mum, and also that the street vendors were extremely aggressive which made it an unpleasant port. I had already booked a private tour with Dora de Zubiria (who had great reviews on Trip Advisor) and she had been wonderful about giving me advice about Mum via email when I booked. She reassured me that Mum could stay in the AC of the bus if she didn’t feel like she wanted to do any of the walking parts. Ugg...what to do, what to do?? Dora had three private tour buses booked that day, two had been arranged through the FB group and the van we were in were individuals that had booked, but, also all on the FB group. I was so on the fence about cancelling this, but one of the ladies that had organized the FB groups private messaged me and gave me some good advice, and so I decided to stick with the plan.

We had put a room service request on our door last night to be delivered between 6:30 and 7 AM, and I had set our alarm for 6:15 AM. Mum and Maureen did the same thing. Scott and I were both awake before six though and were up and about and ready for the day before room service knocked. It was a gorgeous sunrise this morning as we came into the port.

Getting assistance with docking.

No pics of breakfast this morning as we were too busy watching outside but after eating we went down to the Promenade Lounge at about 7:25 am to meet up with others from the Facebook group so that we could all walk off the ship together. The two ladies that did the organizing did a fantastic job, it was like an official DCL tour! We were off the ship at about 7:40 am and met Dora at the end of the pier.

From here we were split into our three groups and were walked through the port to get to our bus. The port is very nice and has a couple of gift shops along with a large array of exotic birds and animals. Scott couldn’t resist taking a few pics and his brand new camera was charged and ready! This area is the one that a lot of Panama Canal veterans recommended to pop out to, but not leave the port.

We had been split into different groups when we met Dora at the pier but all three groups walked to the buses, it wasn’t a short walk, but Mum made it OK. Here is Dora, I felt lucky that we got her as our guide.

Traffic was really congested coming out of the port as it was right in the middle of rush hour, but the driver worked wonders (rather him than me ) and we soon were out of the traffic and on our way.

The first stop was La Popa Monastery. It was really the main thing I had been wanting to do and it was not available on the Disney tours as the large buses can’t get up the hill. Dora explained that these crosses that line the winding road up the hill are the twelve stations of the cross. They are used for holy day celebrations where they begin in the monastary and go down in to the town.

There were some steps that had to be climbed, but Dora took Mum, Maureen and I to an elevator so that Mum wouldn’t have to climb them.

Before we went inside, everyone stopped and took in the great view of the city.

It was also a good view of the ship. You could see all the Disney excursion buses lined up.

Dora took us around inside and explained all of the history. It was a really lovely place to look around.

To be honest, she gave us so much information on this tour, it was impossible to remember it all. So, I'm not some mastermind - I have had to google a lot of it to remember!

This is what they use to carry the Blessed Virgin down the hill. The ladies of the church hand make a new beautiful dress for her every year, and those were all on display as well.

The chapel itself was fairly small, but it had a very ornate altar.

This is the statue that they dress and carry. I don’t remember what holy holiday Dora said it was that they celebrated. (My guess is that it’s the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.)

One more quick picture on our way out from Scott while the girls were all trying to figure out how to use the lift to get back down! We ended up giving up and Mum walked the stairs down.

There were a few vendors outside La Popa but they weren’t aggressive at all and a polite "no gracias" was all that was needed for them to step back.

We were now off to the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas which was a stop on all the Disney tours. There were tons of cruise line buses and lots of crowds, which also meant lots of vendors. They were definitely pretty aggressive here, but we were only there for a quick photo stop. While Dora was explaining about the Castle the vendors were coming up to the windows of the bus, so Scott and I got off but Mum and Maureen decided to stay on. We got a couple of photos, but the vendors were constantly trying to sell you stuff, so we didn’t stick around for more than a couple of minutes.

Next stop was Las Bóvedas which is attached to part of the city walls. The old dungeons are now artisan shops and we were given time to walk around them, but Dora highly recommended going up on to the wall.

We all managed to make it up there although it was a steep climb. I'm really proud of Mum for toughing it out. That was a steep hill!!

We sat up there for a little while, although we could definitely feel that it was starting to warm up, it wasn't unbearably hot. It was "wow this is warm" not "ugg this is miserable."

I’m really glad that we could say that we actually got on top of the wall so it was well worth the climb. We came back down and took a very quick look at the closest shops and Scott and I got some delicious iced coffee. It was really good, I enjoyed every sip of it but evidently didn’t get a photo.