If You See It: Eat It! Via Panama to Disneyland - Completed and Link to New Trip Report 2/24

[Poolrat]

I think you did a beautiful job enjoying the city.

I am sure the government makes sure the area most tourists see as seen as safe or it would be bad for cruise ships if the word about a dangerous stop got around.

Truly a beautiful city with some lovely landmarks.

Sorry lunch wasn't a better fit for both of you.

 

[schmass]

Joining in! I followed you over here from my TR. I'm really interested in this report because a) The Wonder is the only DCL ship I haven't been on and b)my MIL decided she really wants to go on the Panama Canal cruise at some point.

I see that you have been to DLP many times - do any of your TRs detail those experiences? I think I'm going in March, and am a little overwhelmed with the planning!

Okay, off to read through your whole report now...

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

They were obviously very comfortable just being out there on their own as a group of four girls. For me that was the point when I realised that I was not in a really scary place at all, but a very civilised place that was just a bit different from what I was used at home.

Certainly a very good indicator that the bad reputation may be overblown.

I also learned that there is a river in Colombia which has been named after me!!

Somebody owes you some money!

Ketchup in a pouch!! I thought it was very funny, but so practical!!

The use of the dollar sign on the price made me do a double-take!

It was amazing how much less we got bothered by the souvenir sellers when we were not part of a group.

Interesting...I guess they know what to look for.

Besides the table problem, it also turned out that today was kind of a seafood buffet. And Michael does not eat seafood. This really gae him very limited options!

Uh oh...

 

[Flossbolna]

Did you talk to anyone that did the rosario island tour? This is an excursion we are considering.

Sorry, no. It seemed that most people did some kind of sightseeing tour through the city and the carriage ride seemed to be most popular. Why don't you try to post on the main Cruise Line board here to ask about it? You might be in luck with the recent EBPC cruisers hanging around still?

 

[Flossbolna]

I think you did a beautiful job enjoying the city.

I am sure the government makes sure the area most tourists see as seen as safe or it would be bad for cruise ships if the word about a dangerous stop got around.

Yes, we had a good day! Actually Cartagena is quite a resort town it turns out. It is very popular for people form Argentina and Chile to come on vacation it is winter there. And that certainly might be a reason for enhanced safety measures.

Truly a beautiful city with some lovely landmarks.

I had never a very strong interest in visiting Central or South America, but after these two cruises that took me to Mexico and Colombia, I am realising that this was rather short sighted of me and that there is a lot of beauty to be seen.

Sorry lunch wasn't a better fit for both of you.

Well, as my sister would say: what were we expecting on a boat in the middle of an ocean? I would love it if they would write it in the navigator what kind of "theme" the lunch buffet has that day.

 

[Flossbolna]

Joining in! I followed you over here from my TR. I'm really interested in this report because a) The Wonder is the only DCL ship I haven't been on and b)my MIL decided she really wants to go on the Panama Canal cruise at some point.

I see that you have been to DLP many times - do any of your TRs detail those experiences? I think I'm going in March, and am a little overwhelmed with the planning!

Okay, off to read through your whole report now...

How nice of you to come over!!

If you haven't been on the Wonder, I can wholeheartedly recommend her (even though I have not been on any other DCL ship so far! )

I never wrote a real TR for any of my DLP trips, but I have some written some "bonus" updates about DLP in previous reports.

The 1995 trip is covered in these two posts:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34873593&postcount=457
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34873614&postcount=458

And the 2011 PTR/TR thread includes pictures from the 2011 trip, links to all the updates in the first post:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2681713

If you have any questions, just ask ahead, I am happy to help! Otherwise, the DLP section here on the DIS has been very helpful for me for planning trips in the past. It is really much easier to plan a DLP trip than a WDW trip! Heck, you could even just do it as a day trip from Paris. That's what I did in August of 2012 (I had an AP that year, so it was especially easy).

 

[Flossbolna]

Certainly a very good indicator that the bad reputation may be overblown.

Yes, I would expect CMs to be quite smart about which ports are safe and which aren't. And I just can't imagine DCL going to ports that are highly dangerous.

Somebody owes you some money!

I am not sure the Spanish colonists want to pay me royalties! Hey, but then there is the lady suing Disney because supposedly they stole her life story to make it into a film called Frozen!

The use of the dollar sign on the price made me do a double-take!

It seems that the dollar sign is used in a number of countries for their currencies. I like the € sign that we got with the Euro. Before our currency was a plain DM while you had the $, the British have the £, the Japanese the ¥. So it is only fair that we got our own fancy letter!

Interesting...I guess they know what to look for.

It was really quite a pleasant surprise to me!

 

[Flossbolna]

While Michael was taking his shower, I went up on deck to watch the ship depart from Cartagena – knowing that it would be five full days before we would have the possibility to step on land again!

First a few impressions of Cartagena and the port:

I watched the ship officers preparing for departure on the bridge:

And then I watched them packing the entrance area on land away:

I walked to the front of the ship and saw that some CMs were using their pool:

There are often comments about the crew pool and how it is never being used by the crew. This day, there were some people enjoying the sun there. And once we got moving, I realised why it is not very used at all. Nearly as soon as we started moving and still did not have a lot of speed at all, these people were nearly being blown away. It is really windy down there!

I obviously headed back into our stateroom because I took a picture out of our window of the port – another shot where you can see the obstruction:

But I wanted to be up on deck for sailing out of Cartagena. Cesar had told us that the harbour of Cartagena is special as there is only one narrow channel into it and there are two forts guarding it on both sides. Therefore it was a very important harbour as it was so safe. Here we are about to leave the last edge of the city behind us:

A view back to the old city:

I think the dome to the right is the Cathedral that we visited.

Trying to be artsy with obvious hidden Mickeys and flag:

Strange ship passing by:

Here we are finally approaching the exit with the two forts:

You can see that the buoys lead our way and that they show a rather narrow path.

Small fort on our left:

And larger fort on the right:

And once we were through there, they were coming to pick up the pilot:

I actually went to watch the pilot leaving the ship, but stupid me did not realise that the best spot to do that would be on deck 4… So I tried to take pictures through the plexi glass on the upper decks, but they all came out blurry.

At 19 minutes pst 4pm I was back in the stateroom – as evidenced by this picture:

After we had left Cartagena I headed down to Diversions as there was another trivia game going to be played and I thought I would give it a try. When I got there every table was occupied but I spotted one couple of our neighbouring table (the stylish couple) and they saw me and invited me to join them. I was grateful for that. But I totally was not good at all at those questions. There was so much American pop culture in them that I just had no chance at all. It still was fun and I learned some things. But I liked the other trivia that I had done with Michael better (and that was not solely because he is such wonderful company ).

After the trivia I was planning to hang out in the Outlook Café and read for a little while. When I got there I ran into the Florida couple from our neighbouring table, so I started to chat with them for a while. By now it was time for Michael to be done with his massage and I looked for him, but he was neither in our room nor at the pool. I found a spot at one of the windows in Diversions. Trivia was over and it had emptied out. It was wonderfully quiet, the seats were comfy and I enjoyed the view out of the window while being in an air conditioned room after all the heat we had today. It was really nice. Oh, and they had these nice snacks out for pre-dinner snacking. Vegetable sticks and ranch dressing, tortilla chips and salsa. Maybe also olives. I had left Michael a not in our room where I was and was expecting to see him soon. After a while he still had not appeared, so I went for another search. He wasn’t at the pool, but our hot tub friends were. I think at first they had not seen him, so I continued to search him and when I returned to the pool Michael had been there searching for me and they told me that he went back to our stateroom to look for me there. So, I hurried back there and found him! I had been really wondering where he was as it was now well after the time his massage should have been over. It turned out that after his massage he took a nap at the spa! They have loungers in the dressing room (in the part where the sauna and the showers are) and he lay down there – briefly – he thought and enjoyed listening to the relaxing spa music. The next thing he knows is that he wakes up some time later in an empty dressing room. It sounded like the massage was really good to put him in such a relaxed mood!

We had already decided to skip the show tonight when we saw that it was a Magician. Neither of us is big on Magicians and on a cruise of 15 nights it really makes sense to pick and chose the shows you like, I think otherwise it gets very repetitive.

Neither of us felt like going to the Dining Room for dinner either. Beach Blanket Buffet was actually offering a buffet that evening, an Indian buffet. And I was really interested in that. But since I got Michael there for lunch, he said that he was going to have that burger that he wanted for lunch now for dinner. I thought it was only fair that since I got to choose lunch, he got his choice for dinner – even though he offered to just split up. But I was very glad that we did not split up as I got a really good burger! And a chicken strip as a side! Sorry, still no pictures!

After dinner we went to the adult pool and enjoyed hanging out there as it was really empty. If you are willing to skip dinner and/or show, this is the best time to explore and enjoy the public areas as they are so wonderfully empty!

We went back to the room rather early and I headed for bed. Michael however wanted to see Frozen at 10:30pm. I was too tired for it and thought I would still have another week on the ship to see it. But then I never got around to it. So, I still have not seen Frozen to this day! I feel like I must be the last DISboard member to see it!

We had a towel rabbit tonight – good that neither Michael nor I kill rabbits!!

Up Next: Oh wie Schön ist Panama! (Oh, how beautiful is Panama)

 

[eandesmom]

After that I did some more exploring. I thought I might want to sit outside on the “secret” deck on deck 7 aft. This is a small deck that is kind of hidden as you get by it walking along a corridor with staterooms. It is open to the public most of the time, I have read that they sometimes have weddings there.

I've heard of this, mean to look and the forget. Which is really silly as we were on deck 7. Forward though. Not as fun with no chairs though.

I decided to get a drink from the drink station and then head back to deck 4 to read a little while before I would get Michael. Walking past our stateroom I noticed through the little hole in the door (the one for seeing who is in front of your door) that it was light inside the room, so I went in. I found a very grumpy Michael. It turned out that directly opposite of our room was a door which the CMs used to go “back stage”. And that door was banging every time someone walked through. This had woken him up. And then he was complaining that he was just starting to drift off again when Jimmy came on and started “yammering on” about all the fun stuff one could do on the ship, while poor Michael only wanted to have the fun of sleeping. Sometime in the afternoon I saw two guys working on the door opposite our room and asked them if they were repairing it and they confirmed just that. It was never supposed to bang and after they were finished with it, it never banged again during our cruise. However, Jimmy became quite a grievance for Michael (I guess “This is your Bingo Buddy Chris” was just behind) as we could hear the general ship wide announcements very well in our stateroom. I think it was partly due to being very close to the elevator lobby and also the noise from deck 4 being able to travel into our stateroom. The first few days I thought Michael was being overly sensitive but then one day I was in the room during one of those announcements and you could understand every single word inside our room. That’s not the way it is supposed to be!

I convinced Michael that we should watch the Cruise Director’s Morning Show on TV since I had missed it that morning due to having my wonderful massage. He graciously agreed despite being rather annoyed with Jimmy disturbing his sleep.

that door would have made Jeff very cranky too. Luckily we couldn't really hear Natalie, our CD in our room, but then again we were not in there most of the time she was yammering away.

I did not know there was a cruise directors show on the TV, that's pretty pathetic.

For his main course he had the Cheese Croissant Sandwich with Minute Steak, Caramalized Onions, Swiss Cheese and Horseradish Mayonnaise served with Potato Chips:

Obviously he got some kind of slaw with it as well. I think he liked it quite well and even commented on that the steak was very decent meat quality for what it was.

I had that one day and it was quite good and a lot of meat!

I think this was when Daisy enquired from Michael why I was not wearing a ring and Michael came back that obviously Donald had not given her a ring either. Which made her rather sad and a bit mad at the absent Donald, but Michael told her that she was wonderful anyway. From then on, Daisy was a huge fan of Michael and continued to flirt with him… I told you, those characters on the ship are a lot of fun, because you really get to know them if you see them a few times.

oh how funny!

I had the Mozzarella and Plum Tomatoes:

It had been a long time since I had ordered this dish. It is such a common party food here that I had kind of stopped eating it. But I felt it was fitting after all the lovely antipasti and wanted something that was not too heavy. It was very nice mozzarella, but the tomatoes could have been a bit more flavourful. And I would have liked more basil.

After the salads we were being served a palate cleanser: a lemon sorbet. This is delicious:

For my main course I got the Grilled Tuna - Truffle-infused Potato Risotto with Garlic marinated Artichokes and Tarragon Veal Jus:

This was amazing! The potato risotto is small cubes of potato cooked in cream. And the tuna was perfect. I will have a hard time to order something else from that menu when I am back at Palo at some point in the future.

Michael had the Beef Tenderloin “Palo” topped with melted Gorgonzola Cheese or Palo Signature Barolo Red Wine Sauce:

It looks like Michael chose the red wine sauce, not the cheese. On his last cruise Michael had the same dish at Palo and thought that the meat was not really that good. He mentioned this to Judy and she very diplomatically said something along the lines that today there had not been any complaints about the meat quality. This kind of answer told me that she was aware that there sometimes were issues with the meat quality. But it turned out that Michael’s steak did not give any rise to a complaint. He likes his steaks well done, therefore the butterflied it. If you choose it medium it will be served as one thick steak. He was very happy with his choice!

All around Palo was a wonderful meal which we really enjoyed. To eat there you have to pay an additional amount of 25 $ per person. Last year we only paid 20 $ per person. I still think it is worth it, even with the price increase. With this being such a long cruise, there was lots of availability and they invited us to come back. However, as wonderful it was, we felt not like we wanted to eat another meal there. I am even still debating whether Palo is a must for the next cruise with Katharina. Especially for a 7-night cruise, I think the dining rooms provide a nice variety. Also, after all, Palo is just a very nice Italian restaurant. And at least here in Nuremberg I know at least 3 similar restaurants, and Berlin has even more. So it is not really that special. For a longer cruise like ours, however, I think one meal at Palo is a wonderful change of pace. Also, if you don’t have your own table (like we did) in the main dining rooms, this is a nice evening to have a meal as a couple.

So funny, we had the exact same meals. Wiht the exception of them never bringing the palate cleanser course and never asking about the souffle which surprised me. Worked out fine as I didn't want it anyway (last time they made us one even though we didn't order it) and we actually didn't want dessert at all. I agree completely with your reviews, down to the quality of the tomatoes and the lack of basil. For the extra $50 it is nice to have a quieter and more upscale experience but I do agree, we have just as lovely, or lovelier Italian here as well.

Day 10,
With no alarm clock set I woke up at around 9am. I decided that I would try to see if I could manage to eat breakfast at Triton’s where they have a table service breakfast. But hours are limited, it ends at 9:30am. I got there at about 9:20am, but they were happy to seat me and there were people arriving after me.

We only made it there one day (Lumiere's in our case) for this very reason, I don't see what it has to stop service that early!

I went to look after Michael at around noon and he was up and enjoying some cartoons on the TV. We looked at the Navigator and Michael decided that he wanted to see the DVC presentation at 12:30pm. Nearly every day during the cruise they have a DVC sales presentation. Michael was curious about how these would be even though none of us was interested in buying any DVC points from Disney.

They did not really tell us a lot of things we did not know, but I got to see some nice pictures of the Villas at the Grand Floridian. However, we both were a little shocked by the sales tactics. They did not even try to sell DVC as a way to save money for vacationing, instead it was all about locking in your future happiness by guaranteeing you that you will go on vacations without having to plan them. They also were very much encouraging people to buy on the ship and not defer the decision about it until they were back home and suggested that you should just put the DVC deposit on your credit card. It all sounded a bit too fishy to me and kind of put me off – and I even own DVC! But I bought it on the resale market…

That is disappointing to read. We went to the members event and didn't feel like they pushed all that hard at all, and the mimosa's were flowing! I am glad we went, got some great sting bags and hats though I am sure we could have gotten them by swinging by the desk later too.

LOVE the new room, that is a fabulous secret porthole window!!!!!!!!!!! Really changes the feel of the room.

While we were eating our appetizers, the Orlando couple next to us was being served a bottle of white wine and the next thing that happens, Shervonne, our assistant server, appears with a glass for me as well as they – for whatever reason – decided that I should share some of their wine. Of course that was the end of the non-drinking day. But what do you do if your very friendly table neighbours offer you a glass of wine????? It was such a nice gesture from them!

You can't say no, that's what! You tried.

While we were enjoying our main course, suddenly one of the members of the cruise staff (those are responsible for all the types of entertainment being offered on the ship) appeared and announced that we should welcome Ariel. And there she was, parading around the dining room, napkin whirling with about 20 kids (all the kids present in the dining room) in tow.

It was a bit strange, we were enjoying a nice, elegant dinner in the most elegant dining room on the ship and suddenly you have a mermaid parading through it. I found it rather amusing.

that is very odd! I love that creme brulee, it is well done.

Today was our port day in Colombia – the one port that had created a stir every time I told people about it before our cruise. We all have heard far too many bad stories about Colombia unfortunately. I had done some reading about Cartagena before the cruise and I got the impression that this was actually going to be a far more accessible place than one would think when hearing Colombia. It is described as a resort town, is considered one of the gems of Colombia and one of the safest places.

It looked lovely, I would have loved to walk around there. Looks and feels a bit like Old San Juan

To the right of it was a store selling emeralds and Cesar brought us into the store. He then told us that we now had 35 minutes of free time to explore the town and to meet back in front of the store. So, Michael and I headed out and started to explore a bit on our own. It was amazing. All those very aggressive souvenir sellers suddenly were not really bothering us anymore. They still offered their goods, but they did not walk up to us or so. We walked back to the Bolivar Square and the city had become far less hectic. Being in a large group and having other large groups doing more or less the same tour before and behind you created such a hectic atmosphere. Now it had quieted down. On the Square we bought some popsicles from a vendor. I think they were 2 dollars each, we probably could have bartered with her. But I really was not up to that. We explored quite a few streets. There were quite a lot of high end shops and it was really nice! We came across a food store and I was so tempted to buy some Columbian candy but was to chicken to enquire if they would take a credit card for such a small purchase. But we did see this:


When it was about time to meet up again, we went back. We arrived a few minutes early and no one was there. We did not see anyone from our group nor did we see Cesar. Briefly afterwards we did see some others from our group, but only a handful and no Cesar. It was now well past our supposed meeting time and we were getting slightly worried. Finally Cesar appeared and it seemed like most people from the group had not dared to venture out on their own and just camped out in front of the store and had gotten Cesar to bring them back to the bus earlier. This then caused him being late for being back to get us. We were not really happy about it. There had been a few moments when we were a bit scared about being stranded. For me it was a relief to see the other people from our group as I felt that we could always keep together to make our way back to the ship on our own. And we still had plenty of time until sailaway, so there was no danger of missing the ship!

That would have been both frustrating and concerning. We had a similar experience in Barbados.

Poor Michael is having a hard time with food options isn't he?

But I wanted to be up on deck for sailing out of Cartagena. Cesar had told us that the harbour of Cartagena is special as there is only one narrow channel into it and there are two forts guarding it on both sides. Therefore it was a very important harbour as it was so safe. Here we are about to leave the last edge of the city behind us:

A view back to the old city:

I think the dome to the right is the Cathedral that we visited.

Trying to be artsy with obvious hidden Mickeys and flag:

Strange ship passing by:

Here we are finally approaching the exit with the two forts:

You can see that the buoys lead our way and that they show a rather narrow path.

Small fort on our left:

And larger fort on the right:

And once we were through there, they were coming to pick up the pilot:

I actually went to watch the pilot leaving the ship, but stupid me did not realise that the best spot to do that would be on deck 4… So I tried to take pictures through the plexi glass on the upper decks, but they all came out blurry.

So pretty! We love sail aways and this was an especially pretty one

I had left Michael a not in our room where I was and was expecting to see him soon. After a while he still had not appeared, so I went for another search. He wasn’t at the pool, but our hot tub friends were. I think at first they had not seen him, so I continued to search him and when I returned to the pool Michael had been there searching for me and they told me that he went back to our stateroom to look for me there. So, I hurried back there and found him! I had been really wondering where he was as it was now well after the time his massage should have been over. It turned out that after his massage he took a nap at the spa! They have loungers in the dressing room (in the part where the sauna and the showers are) and he lay down there – briefly – he thought and enjoyed listening to the relaxing spa music. The next thing he knows is that he wakes up some time later in an empty dressing room. It sounded like the massage was really good to put him in such a relaxed mood!

What a fabulous reason for him to have gone missing.

 

[schmass]

How nice of you to come over!!

If you haven't been on the Wonder, I can wholeheartedly recommend her (even though I have not been on any other DCL ship so far! )

I never wrote a real TR for any of my DLP trips, but I have some written some "bonus" updates about DLP in previous reports.

The 1995 trip is covered in these two posts:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34873593&postcount=457
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34873614&postcount=458

And the 2011 PTR/TR thread includes pictures from the 2011 trip, links to all the updates in the first post:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2681713

If you have any questions, just ask ahead, I am happy to help! Otherwise, the DLP section here on the DIS has been very helpful for me for planning trips in the past. It is really much easier to plan a DLP trip than a WDW trip! Heck, you could even just do it as a day trip from Paris. That's what I did in August of 2012 (I had an AP that year, so it was especially easy).

Thank you, I will check out those posts!

I've gotten about halfway through your report so far and am really enjoying it!

Also, you have another German speaker here! Well, kind of. I majored in German in college but I'm a bit rusty. I do work for a German company, though, and visit once a year!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Looks like you had a nice relaxed afternoon. I can't believe that they did an Indian buffet and we had no idea. We both love Indian food. What a shame that you never got to watch Frozen. We watched it for the first time on the Magic last December. I had every intention to watch it again on the Wonder, but never got around to it.

Corinna

 

[dizneeat]

Great updates, Magdalene!
I am sorry for not commenting more, but work was a bit more stressful than usual.
Love all the photos, keep them coming!

Ups, before I forget again. I had to at your comment on not having seen Frozen yet. Make that two of us. I have not seen it either and what is worse than that is that in 14 cruises we have not even made it into a cinema on the ships.

 

[packerbeth]

What a wonderful report! Thank you for taking the time to write it.

My dad was in the US Army, and we lived in Germany for several years, first in Berlin and then Hanau and Heidelberg. I have also been to your lovely city.

I approve your choice of reading material! I'm on the fifth Game of Thrones book, and agree that they are very entertaining.

Looking forward to more. Going to read your last cruise report now.

 

[shanhop]

I would love it if they would write it in the navigator what kind of "theme" the lunch buffet has that day.

I totally agree! They did this when we were on the Magic in the spring of 2013, but it was missing when we were on the Wonder in June of 2014. It was one of my complaints on the survey.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

There are often comments about the crew pool and how it is never being used by the crew. This day, there were some people enjoying the sun there. And once we got moving, I realised why it is not very used at all. Nearly as soon as we started moving and still did not have a lot of speed at all, these people were nearly being blown away. It is really windy down there!

Now that makes sense...another mystery solved!

Trying to be artsy with obvious hidden Mickeys and flag:

I like it!

But I liked the other trivia that I had done with Michael better (and that was not solely because he is such wonderful company ).

Sure, we believe you...

It turned out that after his massage he took a nap at the spa! They have loungers in the dressing room (in the part where the sauna and the showers are) and he lay down there – briefly – he thought and enjoyed listening to the relaxing spa music. The next thing he knows is that he wakes up some time later in an empty dressing room. It sounded like the massage was really good to put him in such a relaxed mood!

Wow, that must have been a really great massage!

So, I still have not seen Frozen to this day! I feel like I must be the last DISboard member to see it!

I'm amazed you've been able to avoid it for so long. It's everywhere!

 

[Poolrat]

Nice Sail away pictures. The story behind the sail away is wonderful and amazing.

Sorry you had to play Hide and Seek with Michael and he didn't even know he was playing. THAT is some massage that he can just nap in the spa.

Looking forward to going through the canal with you!!!

 

[wilma-bride]

Sounds like a lovely relaxing afternoon for you both - but obviously more so for Michael

I didn't realise that BBB offered anything other than the regular dining room menus in the evenings - or was that a one off?

I love magicians, so I hope there is one on our cruise. We saw a fabulous comedy magician, called Shawn Farquaar, on our last cruise. He was amazing.

 

[schmass]

I'm all caught up now and really enjoying your report! My husband and I ordered the same entrees as you and Michael at Palo, and now my mouth is watering and I'm dreaming of that Tuna!

You have convinced me that I need to do a longer cruise in the future. I like how you have so much flexibility to skip the main dining room or a show without feeling like you are missing anything, as well as the fact that you really get to know your fellow cruisers.

 

[adenton2000]

Enjoying your report. Great info

 

[Flossbolna]

Will do replies tomorrow, but I have the next update ready and wanted to post it!