Panama 08/17 With Andrew Derek

[PURTYPAT1]

Great report, thanks for sharing. If you can remember, tell Brenda, Patricia from the Med says Hi

We are leaving for vacation today, for the "Jersey Shore", looking forward to reading more of your report on the beach.

 

[MagicMe]

Andrew - certainly sounds like you're having a great time - even with the rain!

Hope your sea days are calmer! I'll be checking the PC webcams to keep an eye out for the Magic!!!!

 

[Tiggerfan14]

Does anyone know what time they will be going thru the panama canal? Wanted to try to watch on the web cam?

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

First of two sea days currently we are going through some more heavy storms, Topsiders Was inside only at 8am, when a heavy storm came through, it isn’t to busy I think with the deck party last night and he premier at sea of the Cheetah Girls, One world at 11pm, on the big screen many people are having a lie in.

The ship was cruising at 17 n miles per hour for the first part up to Acapulco, but has stepped up was 23 nmph, yesterday, currently 22 nmph, about a 1,000 miles off Panama, arrival time is posted at 6am, and departure time 7pm. Its 21 c outside, but from the verandah I can see many small storms all over the horizon.

Don Ducky Williams is now on and will give his first presentation to adults at 11am and then kids clubs later this afternoon.

The Art of the story was an excellent show, last night, with live performances of parts of hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Tarzan, Lion king, Beauty and the best, and themed with the narrative of Storytelling, music, sound, Romance, colour and light, it was enhanced still my last viewing in the Med in 2007, and was made first for the Wonder Caribbean 10 night cruises.

Internet coverage and Live TV coverage is very bad out here, and often on a blackout, we are far out at sea, with the nearest land at Guatemala

Tonight’s show is Ricky Kalmon, he is a hypnotist, and only performed on the Magic three times before but is said to be very good indeed. Everyone is going to be hypnotised to buy all the DCL Pins!

There is a murder mystery starting ‘Desperate Shipmates’ a soap, ongoing each day, and clues to solve the murder. Food last night was Mexican in the main restaurants, two lady dancers and Minnie came into each restaurant for a dance last night, and all the wait staff and table linen was very colourful in prime colours, it was very good, and tonight is the last of the rotational meals we are in Parrot Cay for the island dinner.

The deck party last night was well attended, and as well as dancing there was a buffet, also a sweet buffet with chocolate shavings marshmallows, nuts, ice cream and hot fudge, and on the big screen they busted a piñata and sweets came down for the kids.

I am off to Palo private room soon for Brunch, it looks like an inside day today.

The wait staff have told me they are making some changes for Panama day, usually, they have there own rotations, if the staff are on Parrot Cay they do breakfast, lunch and dinner there, Lumieres again breakfast lunch and dinner there all day and the Animators dinner staff, do Topsiders, breakfast and lunch. For Panama day they are all on top deck, Topsiders and a deck BBQ, and they are expecting the top deck to be very busy, no time off, but a lot of staff hopes to see part of the transit.

Just some information from past active threads on the boards, Smoking, no problem, we haven’t had a single issue on our verandah, and seems well organised, On the verandahs now there are signs saying, please be considerate and as a courtesy to other passengers on the verandahs, and ‘you may well consider’ going to the public smoking areas on deck rather than smoking on the verandah. Seems to be slowly tightening up now. Also more warnings that you cannot through anything overboard,

Deck noise, no problems at all so far, my DW didn’t go to the deck party, but was asleep during it, so no problem there and I haven’t noticed anything apart from the thunder and lightning overnight, more the flashes of light than the thunder.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Does anyone know what time they will be going thru the panama canal? Wanted to try to watch on the web cam?

Stateroom TV says 6am local time for arrival, my guess first locak say 7am, and it says we clear at 7pm local time to go off in the Carribean, more exact times will be known tommorow night.

 

[granmaz]

Thanks Derek for all your reports. We are 're-living' it all with you.

 

[cmash95]

i remember they had dolce con leche on the buffet during the mexican deck party. and I miss ducky so much!!! I wasn't up on deck during the canal crossing but my family said that it was very busy all day up there, they had the bbq and music and the characters sort of milled about. also everyone seemed to want to be at the front of the boat, so my son stayed at the back and got pictures of the locks closing. he said there was plenty of room back there. oh and as far as the bbq, the meat seemed dry and a bit tough for me but the fixins were great!!!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

The day has again warmed up the same as previous days, after the heavy rains of this morning, it has been partly cloudy this afternoon however with lots of sunshine, and the pools are reported as being between 29c and 30c.

Currently in my room, and the seas I would say are calm after a bit of movement this morning, the TV says moderate.

We had a great brunch this morning in the private room of Palo, they have added things since my last visit, including a Blue Cheese and Grape pizza very nice, and Oysters, Palo was full today, and whilst the weather wasn’t nice it improved during our time there.

I had a berry soup, very good, Veal, lots of different cheeses, and then quite a few desserts, and I missed the British theme dinner in Topsiders, however on a quick look through it didn’t seem very British to me!

Great company with other Disboard members.

Got my Pins, thanks for suggestions, I didn’t want to do the ‘lottery’ at the start of the cruise, it just didn’t seem right, with two kids if one didn’t get something or didn’t get a full set. But I went to Upbeat and they gave me two full sets, well I say full, the Port Canaveral one isn’t there it was ‘missing’ from the ship, they have located them and the Wonder will bring them out to us at Castaway Cay and we can have them last night of the cruise. The pin sets are nice and like the Med come with a map of the cruise in hard cardboard so you can fix them in that if you wish.

I overhead complaints re rooms need the laundry, we had our stuff done at 1pm Friday after getting back from Acapulco, it wasn’t too busy then, got two machines but drying was an issue, one machine gave you 20 mins only the other dryers 40 mins. It can take 2/3 times to dry your stuff out, that delays others. But it appears people are doing their laundry all hours of day and night and talking loud there, so the people in the rooms nearby are not getting sleep.

It’s been said that some people dry there shoes in the dryers and that makes a big banging noise.

Smoking on the open decks is a bit of an issue, its starboard side now, not very well sign posted and if you want to be in the shade near your kids swimming in the Goofy pool there is basically only smoking areas to sit down. People smoking Cigars near that family area is worse than I have noticed before when it was port side, IMHO, should be limited to Deck 10 open deck only, not the bits enclosed in. I know DCL say is ok, and smokers will feel they have a right also to enjoy the cruise, needs more guidance.

Meeting more and more people and everyone seems to be having a great time. I am told the Hypnotist is very good, in fact after the show everyone queues up to re book another 6 cruises and pay all there money to Disney (joke)-Be interesting to see that show tonight.

No more updates on Panama crossing but TV says arrival at 6am, that would be the Panama pilots getting onboard, so I think first lock will be about 7am.

I have herd that the October release of 2010 cruises will have a preview of 14 days for everyone to see what is on offer, and the price ranges. So for example preview date could be October 7th, and they go on sale October 21st.

 

[DMMarla07860]

seems like a amazing cruise so far, hope you will post some pictures once you get home and aren't tired from the long trip

I went to Hard Rock Park today and actually saw a family of 5 wearing Disney Cruise Line shirts lol, and we talked about how we wanted to be on this cruise it was funny

 

[Tink rules]

Stateroom TV says 6am local time for arrival, my guess first locak say 7am, and it says we clear at 7pm local time to go off in the Carribean, more exact times will be known tommorow night.

Hope you have a good crossing... We were delayed just a little bit going into the canal... but it was great once we got there!!!

 

[Tiggerfan14]

cool what time ?

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Currently 7am, here on the second Sunday of the cruise, yes a week gone already. We awake to Sunny skies, calm waters and few clouds.

Last night we had rain throughout dinner and the show, and then whilst it stopped on board, from our verandah we saw a very active lighting storm just on the horizon, lighting strikes every few seconds, I thought it was an at sea version of Wishes, a very natural light show.

The rain stopped but delayed events such as the kids Coast to coast camp out with on deck activities,

Now the show last night you cannot rave enough about it, the Hypnotist, he, asked for people to come up on stage, who were over 18 and no health issues, there were about 12 chairs; lots of people ran up, he said it would feel as if they had a deep sleep afterwards.

They went under very quickly, well I say they one or two didn’t, and they were sent back to there seats, however one to two in the audience did fall under, and he got them up on stage to replace the gaps.

Firstly there were a lot of group ‘suggestions’ he got them to perform, they thought there was a terrible smell around and had to move chairs to get away from the smell, they thought paper napkins were $100 bills and they all hid them around their person.

He got them to pull faces when he had his back to them, and then he planted individual suggestions on a few of them, one was the greatest Jonas brothers fan, and he planted the suggestion that a man in the audience was one of them she went up for a hug and a signature of her arm, another forgot his name all show, a lady when she saw that was told the laugh uncontrollably, and then when he pulled her up, she turned into Minnie mouse, well she thought she was.

They thought they were all Hanna Montana, they al where glued to their seats and couldn’t get up,

At the end of the show they were told if they see Chastain they had to rub his bald head as it’s a good luck charm, and they all came back up on stage when he did his closing speech.

On the kids coast to coast, camp out it was delayed due to the earlier rain; we saw my DS, on the goofy pool area they were in teams and set a challenge like putting a tent up, hard as its in the wind, his team did well, and maybe because he won a challenge like that at cubs a few weeks back. It was very windy though.

Chip and Dale were there dressed up for campfires, and they had pizza and s’mores desserts.

We are 500 miles off Panama, have passed all the countries of El Salvador, and Nicaragua, 30c in all pools at 7am, I can see the coast of Costa Rica, we are near a port I have called at before on Princess cruises, Puerto Caldara

DS has just come back, to the room after his sleep over, whilst I have been typing this up.

Tonight’s dinner is Princess and prince dinner. I have had this twice before on the 2005 repo and also in the Med and its semi formal, night, the only one on the cruise, we have twice charmed on. Second week’s movies and TV have been delivered to the room; this includes Wall-e and Prince Caspian.

We have talks on Panama Canal today, and an adults version of the hypnotis show at 10.30pm, WDT.

No news on Panama tranist times but TV just says 6am start, I think first lock 7.00am, they have handed us leaflets on Panama in our rooms now.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Panama times update from the Captain at 12 noon.

Panama approach at 6.30am.

At first locks 8.40am!!! A bit later than last time in 2005,

Clear all locks by 6.30pm.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

Sunshine but with more clouds than this morning with some rain storms around but nothing hitting us so far. Seas light. 1049 miles out of Acapulco and 389 miles to Panama.

 

[Tink rules]

Panama times update from the Captain at 12 noon.

Panama approach at 6.30am.

At first locks 8.40am!!! A bit later than last time in 2005,

Clear all locks by 6.30pm.

That's sort of the schedule we had... a little later but a good passage anyway...

Have a good time...

and a note of caution...

STAY AWAY FROM THE "SLIPPER DESSERT" IF IT LOOKS LIKE A PURPLE SKIN ON TOP OF CAKE... IT WASN'T GOOD!!!

 

[jlawall]

Thx Andrew......enjoy tomorrow!

 

[orlandothebeagle]

Glad you are enjoying it,the weather sounds like it is not bothering you too much, and still giving us info! Maybe we can rebook in october?? for next time? that would ease our pain

 

[scottishwee35]

Andrew : Thank you for your information

and have a great times tomorrow, remember photos

hope the weather is good too.

Scottishwee35

 

[edna mode]

All the WB'rs will be watching you tomorrow. We'll be up at 6am to see you go through. Be sure to look for Mickey by the bow anchor as you go through Mira Flores.

 

[ibouncetoo]

and a note of caution...

STAY AWAY FROM THE "SLIPPER DESSERT" IF IT LOOKS LIKE A PURPLE SKIN ON TOP OF CAKE... IT WASN'T GOOD!!!

Hopefully we complained loudly enough that they've 'tweeked' it or replaced it! (actually, the insides were good).

See you on the web cam tomorrow!

.