IF YOU GIVE A MOUSE YOUR MONEY - a Delightful Westbound Panama Canal Adventure for Kids of All Ages
- Thread starter MickeyEarrings
- Start date
MickeyEarrings
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2012
Mark wanted me to post this photo. As he was taking a photo of me and my pretty blue drink the waiter arrived with the pretzel airplane. And I'm easily entertained by shiny things!
Last edited:
adSimba
Always another adventure with Mickey
- Joined
- Dec 18, 2014
I only wrote one trip report ever but it took crazy long, it is so easy to read so hard to make
happy wanderer
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2017
I loved reading your first entires, and cannot wait for more! We are thinking of the PC cruise in the next couple of years (we have Bahamas in November and Alaska in May, 2018). Our daughter is intrigued, and will be a teen when we go.
How was the Hummingbird cake?
How was the Hummingbird cake?
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
MickeyEarrings
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2012
YOU’LL MEET LOTS OF NEW FRIENDS – Embarkation day, Sunday April 23
We must have been excited, because we woke up before our alarms. After showering, we put our cruise tags on the three bags we would be sending ahead to the ship and headed out to breakfast around 7:30. I need protein in the morning, so I had biscuits and gravy with sausages,
and Mark had a vegetable omelette.
We shared some beignets, but I dropped the chocolate dipping sauce on the ground…they were just fine without it.
The cruise line letter left in our room the previous evening said our bags would need to be ready to be picked up at eight, and we should meet in the front lobby at 11:45 for the noon bus. Sure enough, as Mark was enjoying his second coffee around 8:30 our bags rolled by on a luggage cart! We sat outside the food court for a while, reading and checking all the messages on social media from our cruise group friends. Eventually Mark left for a walk by the river while I went back to the room to reread our camera’s instruction manual. Check-out time came around, but Mark was still walking. I decided to just stay where I was until he returned but I gathered up our things and moved outside when I saw a housekeeper looking in the window to see if we were gone yet.
After Mark returned we went to the gift shop for a bottle of water for the bus ride, then set out to find a chair by an electrical outlet so he could charge his phone. A young family I recognized from our cruise group was there, so we chatted for awhile. We were on the bus and on the road promptly at noon, arriving at the port just a little after one o’clock. At the port, my Mickey Mouse carry-on was a troublemaker again, this time because they thought my luggage scale was a taser. After we got that straightened out, check-in was a breeze, and we were on the ship and in our room in no time!
Let’s talk about this room for a moment – we chose a category 10A deluxe inside stateroom, better known as a secret porthole room. It was originally sold as an ocean view room, but because it has an obstructed view it was reclassified as an inside room. There are only a handful of them, and they are quite a bargain; we saved almost $100 a day by having this room rather than a verandah room.
Anyway, we took our things up to our room, number 5022, and immediately met our stateroom host, Agung. He was a sweet young man from Indonesia, and by the end of the cruise I just wanted to put him in my pocket and take him home with me. Anyway, he said if we needed anything to let him know…and soon after, we did – the lights wouldn’t turn on! He said there was some kind of temporary outage going on, and the lights did indeed come on shortly afterward. We checked out our Castaway Club gifts and the items we had preordered through DCL’s Gifts & Amenities page, then decided we would get some lunch at Cabana’s.
Cabana’s has hand washing sinks outside the doors, and I was surprised to see two of our tablemates there washing up for lunch! Deb & Tim would be joining us and another couple from our cruise group every night at dinner. I, of course, knew who they were, but when I said “Hey, look who’s here!’” poor Mark didn’t have a clue, because the wives had arranged it all! We all got our food, and found a nice table outside on the stern, in the sunshine. After lunch, Mark and I walked around decks 9 and 10 for a while before heading to the Crown and Fin for our group’s meet & greet event. It was from 2:30 to 3:30, but I don’t like crowds or noise, so I thought if we went at three it wouldn’t be so overwhelming. As we got off the elevator on deck three, I could already hear them – and I wondered if all four hundred of us had shown up for the event! As we walked into the room, it was literally filled with people – every seat seemed to be taken, and people were standing shoulder-to-shoulder…and I knew I probably wouldn’t last very long there.
But there were some people I really wanted to make sure I met: Bart and Hym, Joh and Gary, Kimmy, Wendy, Elaine, Daniel & Adam, and so many more!… so we plunged in. Despite the noise level, I had a good time meeting all the people I had come to know through our computers over the past year – many, many hugs were given! Wendy had made lime green Mickey heads for us to hang from our lanyards to identify each other, and Bart & Hym had name labels for them – they came in very handy! Wendy even pixie dusted us with a Sorcerer Mickey head for Mark, and Wall-E and Ellie Badge Mickey heads for me. I was able to relax a bit after I met Robert and his service dog Barnaby, but we left early nonetheless. Our luggage had arrived, so we did some unpacking before Muster Drill, and we hung our fish extender and put up our door magnets – at least, the ones that would stick. Our door had apparently been repainted many, many times! So most of the magnets came inside and decorated the door connecting us to 5024. We also had our first "visitor" on our "verandah" - the little platform outside our porthole!
Afterward we went up to deck 10 where Mark tried to identify the Space X buildings.
As he was looking off the port bow I noticed we were moving already – and it was only about 4:25! I texted the kids to tell them where to find us on the webcam, then headed over to the starboard side to our usual spot. I wasn’t sure we would even be on camera because the Oasis of the Seas looked to be in the way, but we were. There was a tour boat accompanying us for awhile, with all the people aboard waving big white Mickey hands!
I think we were way down by Jetty Park before the Mickey whistle sounded – it would have been nice to have a little horn war with the Oasis… After sail away we went back to the room to finish unpacking, but it was soon time to leave for our 5:45 dinner. I had the big stuff all put away, but the desktop was a huge mess; I had to trust Agung not to move anything, or I would never find it!
Our dinner rotation was TP-TR-AP, which meant Tiana’s Place, Triton’s, and Animator’s Palate. We chose early dinner because there is no 7:00 dinner – seriously. 8:15 is just too stinking late for us to eat, so early dining it was! We were assigned to table 40, which is near the door in all three dining rooms, and it was a different shaped table in each dining room, which I liked. We got acquainted with our other table mates Kathy & Fred as we looked over the menu.
Tonight we were enjoying the “Let the Magic Begin” menu, which was the same in each of the three dining rooms. I had to laugh at myself because everything I chose started with the letter “C” –
The Fried Spiced Calamari, served with a lemon-garlic mayonnaise
Couscous Salad
Mesquite Grilled Chicken Breast, on wilted spinach and crushed sweet potatoes served with Cream of Corn and Bacon sauce -- that creamed corn and bacon was one of the best things I ate on this cruise!
And dessert was the Dark Chocolate Bombe, which was basically a chocolate mousse with a swoopy decoration.
Mark eats a mostly vegetarian diet, but he eats seafood as well; his dinner was
Smoked Salmon Carpaccio
Arugula and Baby Spinach Salad
And Pan-Seared Halibut
He had the mango cheesecake for dessert but I didn’t get a picture of it. I don’t think he was overly impressed by it, but overall I think we all enjoyed our dinner.
Mark is not a “show” person, and especially doesn’t like the welcome-aboard show on the first night. So while he walked out on deck after dinner I went back to the room and found homes for all the stuff on the desk. Our first towel animal of our cruise was a dachshund! – you’ve set the bar high, Agung!!
A blister on my heel I had developed earlier in the week was now bleeding, so I stayed off my feet and worked on prepping fish extender gifts for delivering later. After Mark returned to the room he pulled the privacy curtain so I could sleep while he watched a movie, but we were really moving by then (as we always do on the first night) so I got up and took two benedryl to ensure some good sleep.
We must have been excited, because we woke up before our alarms. After showering, we put our cruise tags on the three bags we would be sending ahead to the ship and headed out to breakfast around 7:30. I need protein in the morning, so I had biscuits and gravy with sausages,
and Mark had a vegetable omelette.
We shared some beignets, but I dropped the chocolate dipping sauce on the ground…they were just fine without it.
The cruise line letter left in our room the previous evening said our bags would need to be ready to be picked up at eight, and we should meet in the front lobby at 11:45 for the noon bus. Sure enough, as Mark was enjoying his second coffee around 8:30 our bags rolled by on a luggage cart! We sat outside the food court for a while, reading and checking all the messages on social media from our cruise group friends. Eventually Mark left for a walk by the river while I went back to the room to reread our camera’s instruction manual. Check-out time came around, but Mark was still walking. I decided to just stay where I was until he returned but I gathered up our things and moved outside when I saw a housekeeper looking in the window to see if we were gone yet.
After Mark returned we went to the gift shop for a bottle of water for the bus ride, then set out to find a chair by an electrical outlet so he could charge his phone. A young family I recognized from our cruise group was there, so we chatted for awhile. We were on the bus and on the road promptly at noon, arriving at the port just a little after one o’clock. At the port, my Mickey Mouse carry-on was a troublemaker again, this time because they thought my luggage scale was a taser. After we got that straightened out, check-in was a breeze, and we were on the ship and in our room in no time!
Let’s talk about this room for a moment – we chose a category 10A deluxe inside stateroom, better known as a secret porthole room. It was originally sold as an ocean view room, but because it has an obstructed view it was reclassified as an inside room. There are only a handful of them, and they are quite a bargain; we saved almost $100 a day by having this room rather than a verandah room.
Anyway, we took our things up to our room, number 5022, and immediately met our stateroom host, Agung. He was a sweet young man from Indonesia, and by the end of the cruise I just wanted to put him in my pocket and take him home with me. Anyway, he said if we needed anything to let him know…and soon after, we did – the lights wouldn’t turn on! He said there was some kind of temporary outage going on, and the lights did indeed come on shortly afterward. We checked out our Castaway Club gifts and the items we had preordered through DCL’s Gifts & Amenities page, then decided we would get some lunch at Cabana’s.
Cabana’s has hand washing sinks outside the doors, and I was surprised to see two of our tablemates there washing up for lunch! Deb & Tim would be joining us and another couple from our cruise group every night at dinner. I, of course, knew who they were, but when I said “Hey, look who’s here!’” poor Mark didn’t have a clue, because the wives had arranged it all! We all got our food, and found a nice table outside on the stern, in the sunshine. After lunch, Mark and I walked around decks 9 and 10 for a while before heading to the Crown and Fin for our group’s meet & greet event. It was from 2:30 to 3:30, but I don’t like crowds or noise, so I thought if we went at three it wouldn’t be so overwhelming. As we got off the elevator on deck three, I could already hear them – and I wondered if all four hundred of us had shown up for the event! As we walked into the room, it was literally filled with people – every seat seemed to be taken, and people were standing shoulder-to-shoulder…and I knew I probably wouldn’t last very long there.
But there were some people I really wanted to make sure I met: Bart and Hym, Joh and Gary, Kimmy, Wendy, Elaine, Daniel & Adam, and so many more!… so we plunged in. Despite the noise level, I had a good time meeting all the people I had come to know through our computers over the past year – many, many hugs were given! Wendy had made lime green Mickey heads for us to hang from our lanyards to identify each other, and Bart & Hym had name labels for them – they came in very handy! Wendy even pixie dusted us with a Sorcerer Mickey head for Mark, and Wall-E and Ellie Badge Mickey heads for me. I was able to relax a bit after I met Robert and his service dog Barnaby, but we left early nonetheless. Our luggage had arrived, so we did some unpacking before Muster Drill, and we hung our fish extender and put up our door magnets – at least, the ones that would stick. Our door had apparently been repainted many, many times! So most of the magnets came inside and decorated the door connecting us to 5024. We also had our first "visitor" on our "verandah" - the little platform outside our porthole!
Afterward we went up to deck 10 where Mark tried to identify the Space X buildings.
As he was looking off the port bow I noticed we were moving already – and it was only about 4:25! I texted the kids to tell them where to find us on the webcam, then headed over to the starboard side to our usual spot. I wasn’t sure we would even be on camera because the Oasis of the Seas looked to be in the way, but we were. There was a tour boat accompanying us for awhile, with all the people aboard waving big white Mickey hands!
I think we were way down by Jetty Park before the Mickey whistle sounded – it would have been nice to have a little horn war with the Oasis… After sail away we went back to the room to finish unpacking, but it was soon time to leave for our 5:45 dinner. I had the big stuff all put away, but the desktop was a huge mess; I had to trust Agung not to move anything, or I would never find it!
Our dinner rotation was TP-TR-AP, which meant Tiana’s Place, Triton’s, and Animator’s Palate. We chose early dinner because there is no 7:00 dinner – seriously. 8:15 is just too stinking late for us to eat, so early dining it was! We were assigned to table 40, which is near the door in all three dining rooms, and it was a different shaped table in each dining room, which I liked. We got acquainted with our other table mates Kathy & Fred as we looked over the menu.
Tonight we were enjoying the “Let the Magic Begin” menu, which was the same in each of the three dining rooms. I had to laugh at myself because everything I chose started with the letter “C” –
The Fried Spiced Calamari, served with a lemon-garlic mayonnaise
Couscous Salad
Mesquite Grilled Chicken Breast, on wilted spinach and crushed sweet potatoes served with Cream of Corn and Bacon sauce -- that creamed corn and bacon was one of the best things I ate on this cruise!
And dessert was the Dark Chocolate Bombe, which was basically a chocolate mousse with a swoopy decoration.
Mark eats a mostly vegetarian diet, but he eats seafood as well; his dinner was
Smoked Salmon Carpaccio
Arugula and Baby Spinach Salad
And Pan-Seared Halibut
He had the mango cheesecake for dessert but I didn’t get a picture of it. I don’t think he was overly impressed by it, but overall I think we all enjoyed our dinner.
Mark is not a “show” person, and especially doesn’t like the welcome-aboard show on the first night. So while he walked out on deck after dinner I went back to the room and found homes for all the stuff on the desk. Our first towel animal of our cruise was a dachshund! – you’ve set the bar high, Agung!!
A blister on my heel I had developed earlier in the week was now bleeding, so I stayed off my feet and worked on prepping fish extender gifts for delivering later. After Mark returned to the room he pulled the privacy curtain so I could sleep while he watched a movie, but we were really moving by then (as we always do on the first night) so I got up and took two benedryl to ensure some good sleep.
Last edited:
Geomom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 17, 2010
If you have a chance, Scott at Disney Cruise Line Blog would like to know what menus were served each night as they're not listed on the navigator's.
http://disneycruiselineblog.com/201...ma-canal-cruise-port-canaveral-april-23-2017/
Loving your Trip report! The Panama Canal cruise is on our "bucket list" once the kids are out of high school...5 more years!
http://disneycruiselineblog.com/201...ma-canal-cruise-port-canaveral-april-23-2017/
Loving your Trip report! The Panama Canal cruise is on our "bucket list" once the kids are out of high school...5 more years!
MickeyEarrings
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2012
It took me a moment to realize that the biscuits and gravy/beignets were not on the boat
That towel animal is amazing and really does set the standard quite high!
So sorry to confuse you! I'll work harder to keep us all oriented!
WldWcnWmn☆
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 17, 2017
Awesome trip report; can't wait to read the rest ♡
MickeyEarrings
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2012
Thanks for the heads-up. I sent a few dates over to Scott. I'll have to look at our cameras photos and my husband's phone pictures well to see if I can help some more
Last edited:
MickeyEarrings
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2012
Thanks Wild Woman! And welcome to the Dis! 
MickeyEarrings
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2012
You will be on the Magic, where we were on the Wonder, so the few things that bothered us may not pertain to your room. In fourteen nights I think we had "visitors" four or five times. I would book this room again in a heartbeat! Here's the stateroom review I submitted:
We spent 14 nights in this port-side secret porthole room on the 2017 WBPC. It sleeps 4, with the queen bed, sofa bed, and bunk. We had plenty of storage space, with a cabinet at the foot of the bed where the old blue steamer trunk was. I researched this room heavily and knew about the obstructed view and the crew door across from our door; I found neither to be overly bothersome. The sofa, however, is in need of repair due to broken springs (?) creating a hole in which one sits when directly opposite the tv. This is an adjoining room, and we heard music and conversations from the couple next door, who were not overly loud people. Most bothersome were two strange noises: one that I believe was closet doors being opened and closed (I thought it was the verandah room above us, but the rooms above were oceanviews), and the second a strange sloshing noise, as when moving water around to rinse off the soap when bathing a child. Not huge issues, but they make this room more a '4' than a '5.' I would book it again in a heartbeat, though! It saved us over $1200 compared to a verandah room. As mentioned elsewhere, you will see crewmen outside the porthole, both in port AND at sea! Dress accordingly
Geomom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 17, 2010
Thanks for the stateroom review, I, too, was curious about the secret porthole rooms. I think we'll stick with our Cat 9C deck 2 oceanviews for a while (unless we can ever find a 'cheap' verandah, ha!) We did 2116 in Alaska on the Wonder, and will be in 2108 on the Magic next summer.
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