Stealing the Magic for 2 - WB Panama Canal - Updated 7/5

[IAmAHiddenMickey]

Thanks for sharing! Any lithograph from Ducky Williams??

Yep... I'll be posting a pic in the next update

 

[IAmAHiddenMickey]

Great report! I wish I was there with everyone. Tell my mom and dad(Harry and Donna) that everything is good here and I hope they are having a great time, if anyone sees them. I can't wait to read more!

We were excited to see your post, we ate with your parents at dinner! They were great to talk to, and I believe we saw the pictures of your kids

 

[IAmAHiddenMickey]

Enjoying your TR. We cruised with you and Jill back on the 10 nt and had a lot of fun! Now I am reading all the WB Panama Canal cruise TR to get me through to August when I get to go for my Honeymoon! Can't wait to read more.

Congrats on your upcoming wedding, and I know you guys will have a ton of fun in August!

 

[IAmAHiddenMickey]

my son and I ran into you two several times onboard. I remember the diplomats from freedonia but I don't think I ever saw any royalty. I can't wait to see the rest of your report. We will be posting our own very soon well after we get through the over 2000 pictures my "private photographer" son took. I had a great time on the cruise but have to admit it was looong.

Can't wait to read it and take a look at the pics!

 

[IAmAHiddenMickey]

Hi Matt and Jill! What a fantastic cruise this was! It was a pleasure dininig with you both. I am thoroughly enjoying this trip report and reliving all of the Magic through it. Matt you have a great writing style. I love the humor! Can't wait to read more!

Donna

Thanks! We enjoyed eating with you guys as well! Just think, if you hadn't eaten with us you wouldn't have been loaded with cheese sticks and rice crispy Mickey bars!

 

[JLSE50]

Day 6 – Sea Day!

.......Today was also the day that we were hosting the scavenger hunt. The night before we left for the trip, Jill had me print about 40 copies of the scavenger hunt at work, because our printer at home was broken. I had to guard those papers with my life! If anything had happened to them, I don’t believe I would have made it on the cruise due to my many broken bones.

Luckily for me, the papers made it home that night and made it to the boat as well. We headed to deck 4, but it looked like our meeting place at Studio Sea was being used for something else. Jill and I setup shop outside between the Vacation Club desk and the new cruise bookings desk. Temptation rears its ugly head! Luckily some people showed up to do the scavenger hunt and kept us from exploring either desk. Since we moved to a different starting location, I had to go around and assalt, I mean ask, people wearing green lanyards if they were looking for the scavenger hunt. Most of them were not and move quickly away from my person.

Jill making the prizes while I try to find players for our game.​

We didn’t have quite as many people participate as we expected, so we ended up with a lot of extra Hershey bars. That turned out great as we were able to give them to our room attendant and dining room servers................

We loved the hunt. I am glad for the photos we got as a result and we enjoyed the candy bar. The Jill-made wrapper is going in the scrapbook!

Jan

 

[LisaG520]

We loved the scavenger hunt too!

Great trip report!!!

 

[NotSoLittleMermaid]

Hi Matt,
Looking forward to then next installment. Love your sense of humor!

 

[Jennifer48]

Ok I'm caught back up

I had Sasha as my server in Palo last September. He was great! He kept bringing out desserts and after that he was like "would you like another entree?" Very nice guy.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Shannon1984]

I was wondering if those 2 empty seats were my parents. I figured it out when they showed me a picture of everyone with the assistant holding Planky.
I love reading your trip report. I wish I would have went on this cruise. My parents can't stop talking about it, but i love hearing it.

Thanks for the report Matt!

 

[tiggrbaby]

Great trip report! Thanks for taking the time to share!

Anxiously awaiting more....

 

[LisaG520]

Loving your report.
Great to have met you.
Thanks for your scavenger hunt.

Wish I had known there was a C.C. scavenger hunt. Was it only for our cruise or is it a regular thing? Where did you get the booklet? What was the prize?

Also wish I had known you have to get the schedule for Galley Tours from Guest services and reserve a place. We would have liked to do that but kept checking the Navigator for times and not finding any we assumed there were none.

Guess we have to go back---the list is forming.....

Jan

The do the CC scavenger hunt on all the cruises. When we did it in 2006 the morning of CC we went to Rocking Bar D to get the booklet but I think you can get it at guest services also.

 

[JLSE50]

The do the CC scavenger hunt on all the cruises. When we did it in 2006 the morning of CC we went to Rocking Bar D to get the booklet but I think you can get it at guest services also.

Thanks. I made a note.
Jill and Matt seemed underwhelmed by the prize. Any thoughts on that?
Jan

 

[Tigger1221]

Regarding the Castaway Cay Scavanger Hunt. It was alot harder than I thought it would be and not near as fun. Set aside a good bit of time for this as some of the clues are hard and not clear. If you want a good scavanger hunt buy Passporter's Scavanger Hunts. That said if you do it don't leave it for last thing and start at No.1 and do them in order. There were only 5 other people doing the Scavanger HUnt and only 1 had a child.
Information about what the scavanger hunt is about.
Highlight if you want to see. It doesn't give answers or anything like that but some want to be completely surprised.You don't find "things" you find letters and what disney saw and I saw were different.

We may be in the minority by not liking it so I recommed you try it for yourself.

 

[IAmAHiddenMickey]

Day 7 – Panama Canal Day!

Yes my friends, the day is here! The day we had been dreaming of for so long was just a few moments…

RIIINNG!

“Hello?”

“Hi ya pal! It’s time to get up and have a magi-“ SLAM!

It’s true, not only were the rats and fowl all over the boat, but now they were calling us at 6:00 AM! After getting to bed around 3:00 AM, that was not someone we were looking forward to hearing from. But the mouse had broken our sleep spell, and up we got so we could see the Disney Magic for only the second time enter the Panama Canal from the Atlantic.

We rushed to get dressed (me without my usual morning shower) and go up on deck. We were in such a rush we forgot to put on sunscreen or grab our bottles of water. Most of you after reading the last sentence are probably going “How could he forget something so important? How in the world could he even function without a shower?!” You morning shower people know what I’m talking about.

We got up on deck 10 and grabbed a spot near the midship elevators. Ian, Sukie, Michelle, and Barbara were on deck as well, and we muscled in on their spot. I think they invited us eventually It was a gorgeous morning but was already starting to get warm. Jill of course was freezing. There were a lot of ships out there, waiting to go through. Disney however apparently bought a Fast Pass, because we were heading towards the locks!

First view of the locks.

Where do either of these ladies store all those outfits?

A closer view of the locks.​

Now, while we were not at the front of the ship, we still had a pretty good view of what was going on. Last night we saw people sleeping out in deck chairs and on towels at the front of the ship. My thought – enjoy the view! If they wanted it that bad, I wasn’t about to take it away from them.

I already had enough red on so if I fried like a tomato it wouldn't be so noticeable.

You can see the three steps of this lock.

The traincar that has cables that attach to the ship and hold us in place as we go up or down.​

I do have to apologize for some of these pictures, as we did not notice that the condensation had made droplets on the lens. It was so bright we could barley see the LCD screen as it was, so we didn’t spot it until we got home and started looking at the pics.

A closer view of the steps in the locks.​

We actually got a late start because a U.S. submarine showed up and jumped the line. For those of you watching the webcams, they actually had to turn them off as the sub passed. They had a guide come on board that was speaking over the loud speakers about the process of going through the locks, the history of the locks and the history of Panama. The sun was getting higher and as we pulled into the first lock, I ran down to the room to get some sunscreen. I’m actually allergic to the sun and get a rash that looks like poison ivy if my arms are exposed too much. It was not a very good idea to go out without the sunscreen in the first place!

As I came back up on deck, I noticed that the ship was moving forward. I found Jill and Sukie and asked if they noticed the ship going up. They both swore up and down that the ship had not moved since I left. I let them know that we were about to crash into the next set of lock doors if we hadn’t gone up! It takes about 8 minutes for the water to fill the lock, and they hadn’t noticed a thing!

We moved up the other two steps and entered the lake. It would take quite a bit of time to move through the lake, so we ended up going to Topsiders and grabbing some breakfast. Then for us it was off to bed!

All these ships were waiting to go out to the Atlantic.​

We were scheduled to enter the second set of locks around 1:00 PM. We turned on the TV with the bridge cam so that we could keep an eye on it, plus the announcer would point out different things along the way.

Will we wake up in time to see the rest of the canal? Will the DisBoards members who were trying to watch the webcams ever get a glimpse of the beloved Magic? Will I ever finish this trip report?! The answers are coming up… in Panama Canal day part 2!

 

[Jennifer48]

I knew you'd end up back in bed! I don't know how you got up after 3 hours of sleep in the first place!

More please!

 

[IAmAHiddenMickey]

A time lapse of the first lock, the one Jill didn't even realize we had moved up until I mentioned that we had.​

Day 7 – Panama Canal Part 2!

When we last left our traveling duo, they were in a catatonic state inside their stateroom deep within the bowels of the ship. And where was the ship you ask? Not in the Pacific, nor in the Atlantic! We were floating through the middle of the lake that separates the first and second set of locks.

As we approached the second set of locks, Jill got up and started in on the whole “It’s a once in a lifetime thing, you’re going to sleep right through it, I’m going to buy my weight in Panama Canal merchandise…. Blabbity, blabbity”. I couldn’t quite transcribe the rest because I was asleep at the time. The net result was that Jill grabbed the camera and took off to various parts of the ship.

After a few minutes I stumbled up and out into the hallway, down the stairs and out to deck 4 to see how things were going. I noticed that we wearing heading under the first of two bridges that we would be going under. I went up to deck 9 to get something to drink. Meanwhile, Jill grabbed some pictures of the bridge.

The Centennial Bridge

A better view of the same bridge.​

Apparently there was a troublemaker aboard!

A Stitch in time means I'm sleeping through all this.​

Jill got some greats pics off the back of the boat (I mean ship).

Those locks are holding back the whole lake from pouring into the ocean.

Not such a big step this time.​

By this time I had drunk my fill of pink lemonade and also had a big cup of chocolate ice cream so it was off to find Jill. I search high and low, bow to stern until I found her. The ship really seems to get big when you’re looking for something! I grabbed the camera while Jill munched on some chicken fingers and fries. I managed to get some shots of the sub that was in the other set of locks ahead of us.

The reason a lot of Dissers couldn't see the Magic on the webcam.​

After being scorched by the heat again, Jill and I went down to deck three and sat in a porthole inside Beat Street. There was hardly anyone down there and we had a great view of the locks.

So close you could reach out and touch the glass that almost touches the lock.

They say thousands of ships goes through the canals every year, and the Magic is the only one they turn out in droves for.​

We’ve arrived in the Pacific! We caught a glimpse of a hidden sandbar Mickey, as well as the second bridge we were going under as well as some shots of Panama City.

Is that a hidden mickey? You be the judge!

Panama City - Too bad we didn't get to stop.

Bridge of the Americas

Matt and Jill in the Pacific!​

We cleaned up for dinner and Jill got a little pin trading in, but there was no show that night. We ate at Animator’s, and I remember that it was pretty good even though the dining room was practically empty. I think a lot of people ate at Topsider’s for something quick or ordered room service to avoid showing the fancy sunburn they picked up during the day.

After dinner, Jill went off to bed while Ian, Michelle, Sukie, and I headed up to deck 9 to watch “Island on Top of the World”. I had never seen it before so it was pretty funny to watch all the cheesy effects and recycled footage from the True Life adventures. I think at some point we all feel asleep, but it was pretty warm on deck and was a very nice evening all around.

A beautiful evening under the moon.

A suprise lithograph from Don Ducky Williams!​

 

[tksbaskets]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us! It's fun to read along.

 

[ibouncetoo]

Yes, I too slept through (under?) the Centenial Bridge. Did make it back up for Bridge of the Americas. I was SURE we weren't going to fit under that puppy...I swear we only made it by inches.

.

 

[ragdoll]

Matt, I am so loving reliving this trip through your trip report! This vacation already seems like a distant memory or like a dream and we have only been home for two weeks. I think we need a permanent vacation onboard the Disney Magic.

Donna