Panama Canal Trip Report: Day 8 At Sea

Day 8:  At Sea

 If you would like to start this trip report from the beginning, click here.

Note: I do not feel right posting pictures of fellow cruisers who have not given me permission to use them on the blog, so I will blur out the faces of people in the background of my photos. I’m sorry if it looks funny, but I want to respect their privacy.

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You can see this day’s Daily Navigator by clicking here: Navigator Day 8

I woke up this morning at about 7:30 to the sound of thunder.  I looked out the window and saw this:

We had been fortunate to have great weather so far (except for the storms the afternoon before which were good in a way because they kept the temperature cool), so I wasn’t too disappointed.  That’s another great thing about a 14 night cruise – bad weather isn’t as disappointing because you are on the ship for so long!

I decided to walk up to deck 9 for some coffee and my husband joined me.  The girls were still asleep.  Deck 9 was wet, windy and deserted:

I didn’t get any pictures, but there were quite a few yellow jumpsuit guys working on stuff on deck 9 despite the wind and rain.  There was also a lot of thunder and lightning.  Back in the room, I watched the morning show and enjoyed my coffee.  It was actually very cozy with the storm outside.

About 9:00, 2 of the girls were up so we went to Cabanas to get some breakfast and left the third girl sleeping in the room.  We did bring back some food for her because we’re nice like that.  Next we decided that this would be a great morning to shop for souvenirs for people back home.  We were pretty much done with our own shopping at this point, but hadn’t yet bought anything for friends and family so off we went to the shops.  Here are some of their selections:

By the way, Gold and Platinum Castaway Club members get a 10% discount in the shops onboard.  This took quite a chunk of change off that Dooney bag I bought a few days prior.  My husband collects watches, so he had to look at every single watch onboard.  They had Disney Invicta watches which were new since our last cruise.

I also photographed the Dooney & Bourke selection in case any of you were interested.

About 10:15, we sent the girls back to the room so we could go to Captain Puckett’s 10:30 am lecture, “Operation of the Panama Canal”.  They always had the option of going to the youth spaces, but never wanted to.  They preferred to hang out in the room.  One great thing about having 2 rooms is that we were never in Greg’s way if he wanted to clean the rooms while we were there.  We would just all go into the room he wasn’t cleaning, and then when he was done we would switch to the other room so that he could clean the other one.

On the way to the lecture, we stopped by guest services to tell them that our flight in San Diego left before noon.  The Navigator said to let them know if this was the case so we did.  I asked why they wanted to know, and she said it was so that we would receive the luggage tags that would be called first upon disembarkation.  This didn’t really matter to us because we planned to carry all of our luggage off the ship ourselves to save time, but she also said that we would get a different disembarkation instruction sheet on the final day of the cruise.  Our flight left at 11:39 which I was a little nervous about, but it was our only option to get to the East Coast before midnight.

This was the first day that Captain Puckett’s lectures were in the Buena Vista Theater instead of the Walt Disney Theater.  The only complaint I have about the Buena Vista Theater is that the rows are so darn close together. There is just no leg room whatsoever, and if someone wants to walk past you, its like a game of Twister – right hand on chair back, left hand on arm rest, hiney in, left foot underneath chair next to you, etc.

The Captain began the presentation by telling us that the weather at the Panama Canal today was terrible and that we were very lucky that we went through it yesterday and not today.  He said we hardly would have been able to see anything today with all of the wind and rain.  Whew!  That would have been a huge bummer.  His presentation was great as always and when it was over, we went to the rooms to get the girls to work on the photo challenge for the day, which was chairs.

 

At one point we were near the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique and our youngest wanted to pop in for some pixie dust.  Anyone can stop by anytime they are open for some free pixie dust.

I also noticed these posters in the forward stairwell which are a nod to the previous Route 66 theme in this area that was changed during the dry dock a few months prior.

I love that they kept these here.  Even though it was kind of cheesy, part of me liked the previous theming so I was glad to see that it was not completely forgotten.

After a while, I decided that I wanted to go to the Disney Vacation Club Preview presentation in the D Lounge, not because I am interested in joining DVC, but because I wanted to try and win the drawing for a $200 onboard credit.  It was rainy outside, so why not?  I think the girls continued working on the photo challenge while my husband and I went to the D Lounge for the presentation.  We arrived and took a seat and I immediately noticed that they weren’t giving out free drinks like they used to.  They were only handing out bottled water.

We sat through the presentation which was not too long and there was not a lot of pressure to join which I appreciated.  However, we did not win the drawing.  Boo!

 We were getting hungry for lunch so we tracked down the girls and went up to deck 9.  The storm had turned to a light sprinkle and the pool was open.

My husband and I each got a plate from Cabanas and brought it to the Goofy Pool so we could watch funnel vision.  This was my plate:

On this day I discovered the salad bar in Cabanas which I wished I had found earlier.  In the back, behind all of the salad ingredients, there were always 3 pre-made salads which were very yummy.  In the photo above you can see that there was a cucumber/tomato salad, a couscous dish (seemed like the same one they serve on Castaway Cay), and an sweet & spicy orange mixture which was fantastic.  They were always fresh and delicious.  The girls got their usual pizza and chicken tenders.  The ice cream flavors today were blueberry and banana.

After they ate, the girls wanted to swim so they went back to the rooms to change.  While they swam, my husband and I relaxed at a table nearby.  I noticed that we could see land in the distance.  There were also a lot of birds flying near the ship.

Tangled was on funnel vision, although that wasn’t what was printed in the Navigator.  The funnel vision schedule was off quite a bit during the cruise.

I caught up on trip notes in my journal:

During this time, a huge school of dolphins (20+) appeared right next to the ship.  It was awesome to see but I wasn’t quick enough with my camera to get any pictures.

After a while the girls were ready to go back to the rooms.  We dropped them off and changed into our swim suits ourselves.  The plan was for us to enjoy some time at the Quiet Cove hot tub while the girls were showering.  However, right when we got there, another storm hit and they closed the pools.  I took these pictures just as the rain was starting:

We stayed for a while anyway and relaxed under the covered area listening to the live DJ and watching the sea.  We talked about dinner that night and decided we wanted to skip the main dining room and try Cabanas.  For dinner, it is table service instead of a buffet, and I have always wanted see what it was like.  I did look at tonight’s menu on the DCL app and it was the Vista Menu (formerly Taste Of California) in all 3 dining rooms.

About 5:30, we went down to Triton’s to tell our server Levy that we wouldn’t be there for dinner that night.  I always let our servers know if we won’t be there for dinner so that they don’t think that it is because we are not happy with their service.

Next, we went back to the room to shower and get ready for dinner.  We headed to Cabanas right when it opened at 6:30 pm.  On the way, we noticed that the blueberry ice cream had been changed to strawberry.

We appeared to be the first ones to arrive at Cabanas for dinner.  It looked a lot different than it does at breakfast or lunch.  It was strange to see it completely empty.

We were shown to a table and introduced to our server, David from India.

This was the menu for the night:

For the appetizer, we both got the Creamy Cheese Polenta with wild mushrooms.  It was very good.

The girls didn’t order an appetizer, but David brought them each a fruit bowl anyway after first checking with us.  I’m glad he did because they were delicious.  All 5 of us ended up sharing the 3 fruit bowls.  You can also see the chicken tenders in the background that one of the kids ordered.

This was the view from our table of the area where David would go pick up the food:

We really enjoyed David as our server.  We were his only table for a while, so he spent a lot of time talking to us.  He interacted with the girls really well.  Before we knew it, they were showing him pictures on their iPod of their pet chinchilla.

There is not a soup/salad course in Cabanas like there is in the main dining rooms.  For the entree, I ordered the Portobello Mushroom Ravioli which was excellent.  David offered to bring me another serving since the portion was a little on the small side, but I declined.  I had been eating enough over the past week that I could stand to have a small dinner for once.

My husband got one of the steaks although I can’t remember which one.  He said it was delicious.

My husband and I decided to skip dessert, but the girls chose the Cinnamon Baked Apple Pie from the kid’s menu:

As well as the Caramel Custard:

I noticed that the desserts came on Animator’s Palate dishes.

After dinner, we walked over to the ice cream station so that the adults could get an ice cream cone.  We watched Tarzan on funnel vision (also not on the Navigator) for a few minutes and were the only ones there.

About 8:00, we walked to the Walt Disney Theater to get seats for tonight’s show, “The Vocal Talents of Chuck Wagner”.  We were really looking forward to this show because our 10 year old is a big Broadway fan.  She has done vocal training and children’s musical theater for several years and was so excited to see a real Broadway star in person.  We ended up seeing Mr. Wagner quite often around the ship, and each time she was star struck.  We got there right as the doors opened and got great seats on the second row, right in the center.  I thought the show was fantastic and our 10 year old LOVED it.  The other 2 thought it was “pretty good”.  Afterwards, Mr. Wagner was available in Preludes for autographs and photos so of course we had to go.

Our daughter told him that she planned to sing “Home” from the Beauty and the Beast Broadway show at the talent show on the last night of the cruise (Mr. Wagner played the role of Beast on Broadway).  She invited him to come watch and he accepted!  She was thrilled.

After this the girls were ready to go to bed as there was no karaoke tonight.  We took them back to the rooms and considered trying for another shot at the hot tub, but ultimately decided to stay put.  These were our towel animals for the evening:

By the way, if you or your kids have long hair, the Wet Brush (in the photo above) is a life-changer.

We also received our certificates for “swimming” through the Panama Canal the day before.

Up next:  Day 9 – At Sea

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