Journal Through Panama Canal

[lat]

Lisa, thanks for the trip report.

Because of your report, I booked a cash and point at Puerto Vallarta and Aruba. I am a plat. member and saw that there is club level at Puerto Vallarta. Were you able to access the lounge? How was the pool and beach?

Thanks so much!!

 

[frdeb1999]

Thanks for the TR. Sounds like you had a wonderful time!

 

[newfamilyman]

Thanks for the report. We'll be going on the EB, and our children are young as well (DS just turning 4, DD7). Do you have any recommendations of things that your kids enjoyed? We're not doing any excursions directly through Disney (except in Cartagena) because so many of them start at age 5, whereas if you book them on your own, that restriction magically drops. Thanks in advance.

 

[calmom]

Lisa, thanks for the trip report.

Because of your report, I booked a cash and point at Puerto Vallarta and Aruba. I am a plat. member and saw that there is club level at Puerto Vallarta. Were you able to access the lounge? How was the pool and beach?

Thanks so much!!

I didn't think about accessing the lounge - I'm sure you could. We got an upgrade (being plat.) and had a wonderful view of the pool and water. The photo I posted was from our room.

We were at the pool mostly, although I would have loved to go to the beach. They had cabanas on the beach (I'm not sure of the cost). They had floats you could rent - $10 a day for most of them, $15 for certain ones. Not sure if you have kids, but the floats were a big hit with mine. They had big whales you could try to balanced on as well as small duckie floats for toddlers. You could keep trading them in - so use one for a little while and then trade in for another. We rented 2 $10 and 1 $15 for the 6 of us and it worked at great. We stayed at the pool that was more of a "kids" pool - had mostly shallow areas. There is also a playground right next to it, but we never went there. The pool right next to the one we were at had a swim up bar - we went there for some snacks. We brought a cooler with tuna sandwiches, chips & cheese, etc from the ship as well as thermas of waters and coke. We still ended up buying some shirley temples and nachos. The prices were not as inexpensive as other places in Mexico - beer was I think about $4 and the kids lunches where $8 or $10.

The pool was not extremely busy, which was nice. I do wish we had left the ship even earlier to make the most of the day.

The hotel room was really nice - very relaxing. The air conditioner felt wondeful after being out in the hot sun! It had a big bathtub and shower. Complimentary water (being on the Starwood floor).


To the poster that asked what to do with younger children: I highly recommend taking a taxi straight to a hotel and hang out at a pool area and get a room. It was great down time for the younger ones - my 5 year old actually feel asleep for a little while in the room while everyone was getting ready for dinner. It was so much more relaxing getting ready for dinner in a hotel room as opposed to our small cabin. It allowed us to stay longer in the port.

 

[calmom]

Isn't there one night missing since the cruise is 15 nights? I saw on another blog that Donny Osmond is scheduled to be onboard one night

It was the prem-ear of Prince Caspian that was left out. I thing they didn't put it so it would be a surprise.

 

[newfamilyman]

To the poster that asked what to do with younger children...

Thanks. I was actually wondering if you had tips for the cruise as a whole with younger children. Thanks again.

 

[ibouncetoo]

Lisa, I didn't know you'd done a report....glad I checked the forum!

Enjoyed our dinner at Topsiders. It turned out that was the only night I didn't do regular dining...I was afraid I'd miss checking in with my tablemates! I did go down to the dining room after our dinner to join the group for dessert and discovered that our server had arranged for some orders of PC chicken wings for Daniel and I (we whined when they weren't on the regular PC menu). I ate one order and took the other TWO back to my statroom for lunch the next day!

It was such a treat to see you and the boys around the ship. I had really wanted to catch some of the family activities at Studio Sea, etc. but it just didn't seem to happen.

A note to all you EB cruisers: Even with 15 days, you still can't do everything!

.

 

[lat]

Lisa, thanks so much for the reply. We have 2 girls 7 and 10, and I will definitely look into the floats. I cancelled our DCL excursion to do the tequila and old town and decided to just hang out at the resort. It is probably nice to be on land for a day. Thanks agian.

 

[NotSoLittleMermaid]

Hi,

We were on the cruise as well and had a great time. Can you tell me where I might get all the cool images people had on their cabin doors. I would love to have some of them. Please let me know. Thansk Sue L

I got a lot of images and ideas from this thread:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1523226


Lisa, I'm enjoying your report and pictures! I'm so glad we had a chance to have dinner together at Topsiders so I could spend a little time w/you and DH. I have some cute pictures of your youngest at dinner (can't remember his name--OG thing!) that I'll either post or email you.

 

[littleaussie]

I love reading your report! It was great to meet you as well. I wish the boys were up to doing the dance with the girls...they got "shy" being the only boys!

The girls were great - that was a great dance rotation.

No worries about the boys, it is to be expected sometimes. It looked like they had fun with their own skits.

I liked to see you guys come in the Walt Disney Theater each night, just to see what you had dressed them all in. . . So cute!

 

[woody73]

Lisa, great trip report. I enjoyed visiting with you and the boys on deck 9.

Woody

 

[calmom]

fellow WB cruisers! We sure had fun didn't we?

Regarding what to do with younger children on the cruise....there is so much it is hard to really pin it down as to what is the best. Studio Sea had a lot of really fun activities - they aren't always crowded so it was easy to go with little ones. Of course all the shows are a big hit. My kids liked the clubs, so they would hang out there sometimes. We mostly stayed at the Mickey pool for swimming - Goofy pool is harder to watch the younger ones.

Sorry I'm not much of a help....really, the whole cruise is good for young ones!
Lisa