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

[Flossbolna]

Day 14, May 11

Day at Sea
Dress Code: Semi Formal
Dinner Menu: Taste of California
Show: Disney Theatrical: Gavin Lee
Weather: Cloudy, 78°F/26°C

Today's Navigator can be found here.

Today was Mother’s Day. But I am not a mother, so for me it was nothing special. And my own mother is not very interested in it either, so I did not have to worry about that. But I have a nice Mother’s Day story!

It was also the second of the four sea days and we were getting into a routine of being lazy on the ship!

Once again I was up halfway early and got some tea to go to the Cruise Director’s Morning Show at 8:30am. Today it was quite funny as Ashley had arranged with the producers of the show that she was going to call her mother from the ship to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. Her Mother was pleasantly surprised and they chatted for two or three minutes. It was really rather sweet. It made me realise how isolated those people working on a cruise ship really are from the general world. While Ashley’s mother was pleasantly surprised, Jimmy was surprised as well – but not pleased about it that Ashley now was the loving, caring child. And he was not. So, he decided that he needed to call and surprise his mother as well. When his mother answered the phone he told her that her “favourite son” was wishing her a Happy Mother’s Day and she was at first really baffled and then asked: “Peter, is that you?” We got a good laugh out of that and once she realised that it was not Jimmy’s brother, but Jimmy calling her, she was quite happy, too.

Jimmy also liked to ask trivia questions during the show and there was a promise that people could win something. Today he asked about which country had the southern most capital in the world. In case you want to try to guess yourself, the answer is in white:

I ended up guessing this correct and after the show Ashley asked for my room number and said I would get some prize.

After the morning show I headed to Beach Blanket for some breakfast and while passing through took some pictures of Shutter’s, the place where you buy the pictures taken by the onboard photographers.

interesting carpet:

This area was only added during the last dry dock in January. I think it is a great improvement and looked very nice!

Today I went for a bit of a different breakfast:

As you can tell by the fog on the lens, the weather had improved and I was eating outside. After my breakfast I headed to my new favourite spot: deck 4 to read. I had read on the Navigator that they had a character meet with Cinderella, Suzy and Perla and decided that I wanted to go there. The line was really short and I quickly got my picture and then returned outside to deck 4.

At some point I met up with Michael. We wanted to go to another talk by George Scribner at 1pm, so we got an early lunch at Triton’s before that.

Here is today’s menu:

Michael had the Cream of Cauliflower Soup:

And then the Whole-Grain BLT:

I had the Cajun Spiced Ahi-Tuna with Romaine Leaves, Avocado, Hard-Boiled Egg and Louisiana Hot Sauce:

This was a great dish! But the hot sauce lived up to its name and was really spicy!

After lunch it was time to listen to George Scribner about the Making of the Gran Fiesta Tour at Epcot:

Theater shot:

He worked on that attraction as well and told us a lot of the process again and how they made the little animated sequences with the Three Caballerors. He talked about how Donald is such a well loved character by the animators and that it is considered a high honour to be allowed to draw Donald.

This is a picture of Walt and Lillian visiting Mexico:

Here is a picture of when they were filming on location in Mexico. All the films were done in Mexico city:

I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of this ride, I would prefer something that shows more of Mexican culture. But I also thought the ride was horribly dated before its refurbishment. I just wish they had taken the old ride into modern times, instead of adding characters.

We had a lazy afternoon, certainly spent some time at the pool. I also had some cake form the Cove Café:

I have no idea what this was, but it was delicious. It had some kind of buttery caramel taste. It was one of my favourite things to eat on the cruise! I am glad I did not find it until the second half of the cruise, who knows how many I would have eaten otherwise!

I also got a chicken strip as a snack at some point:

In the afternoon we headed to the stateroom and I was just about to leave again when I realised that we had a pretty large bag hanging from our fish. My prize had been delivered. I unpacked it and this is what I got:

A re-usable shopping bag (which I really use here at home!), a water bottle, a hat, a key chain and a note book. Michael got the hat – I think he never wore it as he loved that DVC hat! In all our pictures he looks like the walking DVC commercial with that hat!!!

It seems that I used the opportunity and also took a picture of the map of our cruise on the stateroom TV:

And a view out of our obstructed window:

Up next: A Taste of California

 

[dolphingirl47]

Unfortunately the Mickey's PhilharMagic presentation was the last of the George Scribner presentations that I managed to go to as they always clashed with my plans after that. It was interesting to read about the Three Caballeros presentation. I wonder why your bread baskets were so bare. We had always three or four pieces of whatever the speciality bread was for that night and then the same again of the generic bread and we tended to have 4 or 5 bread baskets on the table. I also enjoyed the German main course, but went with the Cheddar Cheese soup.

Corinna

 

[franandaj]

That was a great prize you got! I love the sea days, and just going around the ship checking out what is going on, relaxing and enjoying the various food a beverage offerings that they have. It looks like you found some great snacks along the way.

I love listening to the Imagineers talk about the various rides. I would have tried to go to all those sessions and listen in. This report is getting me so excited for my cruise! Love the photos of the ship!

 

[Poolrat]

Catching up on the last 3 updates....

Sea days look so relaxing - even the wet one- but I think I would also be eating nonstop.

I am glad you found the desserts yummy - I do have a sweet tooth and would really have to watch myself.

A rainy day would be welcome - just one- for something different.

The Talks look really interesting as did the Wii competition. Who won??? I am hoping the Captain did so your docking is not in jeopardy.

 

[disbride713]

All caught up and really enjoying your trip report and all the photos. It makes me look forward even more to our upcoming PC cruise! Thank you for such a good writeup on Cartagena, it reminds a bit of San Juan which we enjoyed visiting and felt safe walking around..I'm looking at booking the same excursion.

It seems that on longer cruises they have the time to add different activities that you wouldn't normally get on a 7 day or shorter, so also looking forward to those activities.

Great job so far , can't wait to read more!

 

[Flossbolna]

Unfortunately the Mickey's PhilharMagic presentation was the last of the George Scribner presentations that I managed to go to as they always clashed with my plans after that. It was interesting to read about the Three Caballeros presentation. I wonder why your bread baskets were so bare. We had always three or four pieces of whatever the speciality bread was for that night and then the same again of the generic bread and we tended to have 4 or 5 bread baskets on the table. I also enjoyed the German main course, but went with the Cheddar Cheese soup.

Corinna

I am glad that I could help out with giving you some info of what it was about!

How strange that your bread baskets were better filled...

 

[Flossbolna]

That was a great prize you got! I love the sea days, and just going around the ship checking out what is going on, relaxing and enjoying the various food a beverage offerings that they have. It looks like you found some great snacks along the way.

I love listening to the Imagineers talk about the various rides. I would have tried to go to all those sessions and listen in. This report is getting me so excited for my cruise! Love the photos of the ship!

Yes, I was very happy about the prize!

Sea days are just so relaxing! And I definitely found very good snacks!

The imagineers talks during the longer cruises are really one of the great features of DCL. I know a lot of cruise lines have "enrichment" talks and I am the type who would probably like those on a lot of topics. But talks about Disney are pretty high up there in my list of what is really interesting!

 

[Flossbolna]

Catching up on the last 3 updates....

Sea days look so relaxing - even the wet one- but I think I would also be eating nonstop.

I am glad you found the desserts yummy - I do have a sweet tooth and would really have to watch myself.

A rainy day would be welcome - just one- for something different.

The Talks look really interesting as did the Wii competition. Who won??? I am hoping the Captain did so your docking is not in jeopardy.

You already understood the biggest problem of cruising: overeating!! I gained so much during this vacation... It was kind of embarrassing!

I did not watch the Wii competition until the end, but I know that the Captain won. So we got docked at Puerto Vallarta safely!

 

[Flossbolna]

All caught up and really enjoying your trip report and all the photos. It makes me look forward even more to our upcoming PC cruise! Thank you for such a good writeup on Cartagena, it reminds a bit of San Juan which we enjoyed visiting and felt safe walking around..I'm looking at booking the same excursion.

It seems that on longer cruises they have the time to add different activities that you wouldn't normally get on a 7 day or shorter, so also looking forward to those activities.

Great job so far , can't wait to read more!

Glad that you are enjoying the TR! I wish I could go on the next PC cruise as well! Writing this really makes me want to do it again!

I think the walking tour is a good tour for a first glimpse of Cartagena. Just be prepared that you will be left off on your own at the end!

Yes, there are all kind of additional activities and I think this is where the entertainment team really has the possibility to shine and come up with ideas of what to do. There was no chance you could take part in all the special events!

 

[Flossbolna]

After some afternoon pool time we got ready for this evening’s show. It was going to be a performance by Gavin Lee. He played the Bert in Mary Poppins in London’s West End and then came to Broadway to play the same role there. Michael and I had both seen him in Mary Poppins in London (before we met) and we knew that we did not want to miss that show! It was a wonderful show where he performed all kind of different songs from different musicals – and of course something from Mary Poppins. He is a fantastic dancer and it was great to see him combining song and dance.

He mentioned that he was on the cruise with his family and how he was experiencing his daughter’s joy in meeting the princesse.

It seems that longer cruises regularly have one “star”, some performer who is usually on broadway or similar. I found his show to be absolutely spectacular and it is something that on land would easily cost quite a nice admission fee.

After the show it was time for dinner at Animator’s Palette:

A Taste of California was this night’s dinner menu. The menu can be found here: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/taste-of-california-dinner-menu/

We were greeted with a very interesting napkin display:

Not sure whether I mentioned this already, but our servers had a different outfit for every single night!

The bread today was supposed to be a San Francisco Sour Dough Loaf:

Yep, the bread basket looked like every other day…

Michael started with the Creamy Cheese Polenta with Wild Mushrooms garnished with a Parmesan Crisp:

I had the Olive Oil Marinated Artichokes drizzled with Balsamic Vinegar and Micro Greens:

These were some of the best artichokes I ever had! And I am an artichoke lover and if I see them on a menu, I usually have them. They were perfect! They were better than the ones we had on our antipasti plate at Palo. They were so good that I ordered a second serving of them! I think I shared the second plate with Michael who was quite impressed as well and he does not even care for artichokes that much.

We both had a salad, one of us had the Napa Valley Romaine Salad – Romain Leaves with Feta Cheese, Caramelized Sweet Onions with a Zinfandel and Tarragon-Infused Olive Oil dressing:

I think this was Michael’s choice. And he was not pleased that they added feta cheese to his salad, while they were hiding the onions.

I had the Garden Field Greens with Mesquite Chicken Strips with Crumbled Eggs, Chives and Sun-dried Tomatoes combined with a Citrus dressing:

It was good, but rather large.

As a main course Michael had the Lemon-Peppered Sonoma Chicken Breast with Port Wine Glazed Shallots, whole roasted sweet Carrots, and Green Asparagus over Wild Rice with Natural Jus:

This was another entrée that he really enjoyed, if I remember correctly.

I got the Whole-Wheat Garlic Linguine Pasta topped with Hoisin-glazed Cod Fillet and sweet Bok Choy with a light Ginger Sauce:

Ok, looking at the description, I have no clue where the bok choy was, but I did not mind that missing at all! But the pasta and the fish and the sauce were absolutely wonderful. It was so great to get something different for a change. I thought that there could have been more of the sauce and the fish was a tiny bit too dry. But otherwise a great entrée!

We looked at the dessert menu, but nothing stood out and we were both rather full. So we decided to just skip dessert and enjoy the rest of the evening.

Leaving the restaurant we found some ducks in the atrium:

They are dressed in their finery because it was Semi Formal Night – I think it was timed on purpose to coincide with Mother’s Day.

From there we moved to Wavebands to watch Match your Mates. Our pool friends were there as well and we joined them. It was good that we were there rather early as it filled up! The show was moderated by David, the club host. He was excellent! He was really new on the Wonder, I think this was his first cruise working on the Wonder. He had been on the Dream before and was commenting on how different this cruise was.

The show was really funny and David was a great host. The newly-wed couple had gotten married on the cruise before ours and now were honeymooning on this one – together with her parents and her sister. There seemed to be some rivalry going on between the groom and the sister and David exploited that quite merciless. But it seemed as if all contestants had fun!

I also found it interesting how he managed to avoid picking one couple that really wanted to be picked. I got the vibe that he knew that they would not make a good show.

After the show we found a scary reptile in our room:

At some point during the cruise we talked to our stateroom host about how those longer cruises are a challenge for them as they need to come up with more towel animals. We thought the crocodile was a clear winner!

After changing out of our semi-formal clothes, we went for our customary mile around the ship:

And then I fell into bed really tired. I also had started to develop a slight cough and was hoping to sleep it off…

Up Next: Death by Dessert

 

[franandaj]

Those dinners look great! I hope that they serve something equally tasty, even though mine is only a five night cruise. I'm getting so excited! Love all the updates! Especially seeing the ship corridor at night!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Match Your Mate was so funny. For me it had another layer of funny as I got to know our newly weds on our back to back cruise last year and then bumped into them again this cruise.

I have some food envy now. I can't believe that I did not spot the polenta. I suppose I knew from the start what I wanted and did not look any further.

Corinna

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Her Mother was pleasantly surprised and they chatted for two or three minutes. It was really rather sweet. It made me realise how isolated those people working on a cruise ship really are from the general world.

True. One of those things we never really think about.

After lunch it was time to listen to George Scribner about the Making of the Gran Fiesta Tour at Epcot:

Cool! Bonus Imagineer talk!

I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of this ride, I would prefer something that shows more of Mexican culture. But I also thought the ride was horribly dated before its refurbishment. I just wish they had taken the old ride into modern times, instead of adding characters.

I don't think much of it, either, except that it's air-conditioned and usually not a long wait.

A re-usable shopping bag (which I really use here at home!), a water bottle, a hat, a key chain and a note book. Michael got the hat – I think he never wore it as he loved that DVC hat! In all our pictures he looks like the walking DVC commercial with that hat!!!

Not a bad prize pack at all! And I'll take the hat if Michael doesn't want it.

It seems that longer cruises regularly have one “star”, some performer who is usually on broadway or similar. I found his show to be absolutely spectacular and it is something that on land would easily cost quite a nice admission fee.

That is quite a nice perk to being on the longer cruise.

The show was really funny and David was a great host. The newly-wed couple had gotten married on the cruise before ours and now were honeymooning on this one – together with her parents and her sister. There seemed to be some rivalry going on between the groom and the sister and David exploited that quite merciless. But it seemed as if all contestants had fun!

That does sound like a good time! I wonder how my wife and I would do...

At some point during the cruise we talked to our stateroom host about how those longer cruises are a challenge for them as they need to come up with more towel animals. We thought the crocodile was a clear winner!

Agreed! They really out-did themselves with the crocodile.

And then I fell into bed really tired. I also had started to develop a slight cough and was hoping to sleep it off…

Uh oh...

 

[Flossbolna]

Those dinners look great! I hope that they serve something equally tasty, even though mine is only a five night cruise. I'm getting so excited! Love all the updates! Especially seeing the ship corridor at night!

Hope you are enjoying some delicious food right now

Match Your Mate was so funny. For me it had another layer of funny as I got to know our newly weds on our back to back cruise last year and then bumped into them again this cruise.

I have some food envy now. I can't believe that I did not spot the polenta. I suppose I knew from the start what I wanted and did not look any further.

Corinna

We saw the newlyweds a few times around the ship as well - and I can imagine why you got to know them as they seemed to be character lovers!!

I know what you mean about food envy! I have seen pictures of dishes that I did not get and then thought why the hell did I not get this???

 

[Flossbolna]

True. One of those things we never really think about.

When you are on the ship longer, you start to realize how there are really two separate worlds on these ships!

Cool! Bonus Imagineer talk!

It was a real bonus!

I don't think much of it, either, except that it's air-conditioned and usually not a long wait.

Exactly! I wish they would have more really immersive rides in the World Showcase. Germany was supposed to get its own River Cruise, but that was never built...

Not a bad prize pack at all! And I'll take the hat if Michael doesn't want it.

Sorry, but Michael was rather keen on it - even though he ended up wearing nothing but a DVC hat all the time. However, if you are interested in a DVC hat, I can easily get one for you!

That is quite a nice perk to being on the longer cruise.

Yes, even though the entertainment is generally pretty good even on the standard cruises.

That does sound like a good time! I wonder how my wife and I would do...

You must not be shy at all to take part in that game!!! There were some mean questions! Hey, but it made it great fun for the audience!!

Agreed! They really out-did themselves with the crocodile.

Yes, I really loved it!

Uh oh...

Yes, rightly so...

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 15, May 12

Day at Sea
Dress Code: Cruise Casual
Dinner Menu: Pirate Menu
Show: The Acrobatics & Music of Rebecca & Donovan
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 82°F/28°C
Today's Navigator

Remember how I went to bed with a slight cough the night before with the hope of being able to sleep it off. Well, the next morning the opposite had happened. I woke up around 8am thinking I wanted to go to Jimmy’s Morning Show, but realised that I needed sleep far more. So I went back to sleep and woke up at around 10:30 am. Finally a morning when we both got up at the same time!

We slowly got ready – I think we watched the Morning Show while getting ready and this was the day after the sleepover in the kid’s clubs. Or maybe it was the day before??? I know that the sleepover was kind of timed to coincide with Mother’s Day. I thought that was a nice way of giving the mothers some time off if they wanted it! Well, the morning after the sleepover had a funny episode in the Morning Show. The officer responsible for organising the characters was called Drew, he was not very tall and looked so young. Ashley had mentioned on the second Morning Show that some guest had made a comment as he had seen Drew, Ashley and Jimmy together about whether Drew was their son since they were all dressed in matching outfits. So, after the sleepover Jimmy and Ashley got a call during the Morning Show from a CM from the kids clubs telling them that they have failed to pick up their son Drew on time, scolding them for forgetting all about him. Shortly thereafter, Drew came storming in, dressed as a kid, all excited about how wonderful the sleepover was and what kind of mischief he had been up to etc. It was a lot of fun. I really had the impressions that the CM were really enjoying doing stuff like that because they had the time for it and it was fun for them as well.

Getting ready this morning took a bit longer as we had to dress better than for a usual day at the pool. We were heading to Palo for brunch! On Michael’s request we had a late reservation, for 12:30pm. So, it was indeed more lunch for us than breakfast. But that worked well!

We arrived a little earlier, around 12:15pm and were immediately brought to our table and greeted by our wonderful server from dinner, Deborah. I think we were the last table to get seated (and we were definitely the last table leaving the restaurant after brunch).

I will start with some pictures of the buffet, even though those were taken a bit later. The buffet was never empty during our whole time there. A few things got low in number, but everything was available until the end.

And the show pieces of the plated dishes that you can order from your server:

And now our selections. This was Michael’s first plate:

I am surprised to see that he had an artichoke, seems like he is starting to like them…

And this is my plate:

The things I was most looking forward was the tuna (delicious) and the caviar (black stuff on toast on the top right). I had caviar for the first time at Palo last year and I found out that I really love that stuff!

We shared a pizza that was half Italian sausage and half gorgonzola and grape. While nice, I am not a huge fan of the Palo pizza. I think the other food is far superior. And I can get very good and inventive pizza many places here. I also was surprised how sweet the grape pizza was.

So, this was my share of pizza:

I then had some sweet breads for a change:

The sticky buns are to die for!!

Michael had ordered the chicken parmegian and let me try some of it. It was nice again, but nothing that gets me excited.

I had the eggs benedict:

And these were far more preferable to me! The sauce hollandaise at Palo is absolutely delicious.

Seems like I went for another plate of favourites:

And then it was time for dessert. This is Michael’s plate:

And mine:

I loved the marinated berries!

We left Palo at around 2pm and felt like we could have rolled out of there!! We were stuffed, but it was all delicious. Directly after the meal we were wondering whether we would want to do it again on our next cruise and felt that while delicious, it would be more special if we would take a little break from it. They were even telling us that they still had brunch and dinner reservations available for the rest of the cruise and we could have gone back, but we did not at all feel like it.

In hindsight I think I would have rather booked Palo brunch at the beginning of the cruise and Palo dinner later. But then the later menus were generally more interesting as they were not the standard ones used on every cruise…

Up Next: A Shiny Galley Part 1 Part 2

 

[dolphingirl47]

What a shame that you still did not feel well. I think that morning show must have been so funny. Drew is a hoot at the best of times. Palo brunch looked great. We always have the same combination of pizza. Here in the UK decent pizza is hard to come by so this is a highlight for us.

Corinna

 

[franandaj]

I just love Palo Brunch. On our cruises out of San Pedro and Galveston we did it on both sea days, This trip we are only doing it once on the last sea day, but I could do it multiple times as I love the Chicken Parmesan and could eat any of the other entrees. It is so much nicer than the other breakfast options as they really cook everything to order.

I'm also not a big fan of the grape pizza either.

The show with the cruise director sounded like it was funny, but I would have probably enjoyed sleeping in, especially if feeling under the weather. I have my moments for getting up early, but for the most part enjoy a good lie in when on vacation.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Seems like every time I finally get a chance to get caught up, you post another chapter!

I am surprised to see that he had an artichoke, seems like he is starting to like them…

He probably got it just so he could offer it to you. It's a professional-level smooth move.

We shared a pizza that was half Italian sausage and half gorgonzola and grape. While nice, I am not a huge fan of the Palo pizza. I think the other food is far superior. And I can get very good and inventive pizza many places here. I also was surprised how sweet the grape pizza was.

Grape pizza? No thanks.

Directly after the meal we were wondering whether we would want to do it again on our next cruise and felt that while delicious, it would be more special if we would take a little break from it. They were even telling us that they still had brunch and dinner reservations available for the rest of the cruise and we could have gone back, but we did not at all feel like it.

I can understand that. Part of the reason we don't go to WDW every year is that we like variety, but we also feel like it might lose some of the novelty and magic if we went year after year. Is that blasphemy on these boards?

 

[scrpbookr]

I love Donald and Daisy's formal night outfits!