April 8th, 2018 14-Night Westbound Panama Canal from Port Canaveral to San Diego

[plantman]

Hi all I'm Peter 48 my mother Dee 86 and I will be on this cruise. It will be my 6th Disney cruise and my mothers 5th. We are from NJ and it will be the first trip were taking after my father's passing. We will be traveling with friends from California. Looking forward to having a nice time.

 

[PackYourPixieDust]

Hello. Heather (45) and John (72) here. This will be my 11th cruise (YAY for Platinum Status) and John's 9th. John is retired from the aircraft industry and I am still working. Just hit my 28th year at the San Diego Zoo, in addition to owning my own pet sitting business. Our children are of the 4 legged variety (5 cats and 1 dog). This will be our first Panama Canal Cruise. and I am looking forward to it. In addition to John and I, our party will consist of my Mother, Judy and a good family friend, Cheri and the Hunter Family (Brandy, Ned and their daughter Valerie)

Due to the later arrival time we have to stay the day in San Diego and fly home Monday. With your zoo knowledge, where do you recommend we stay Sunday night? We will have an early flight home Monday but plan to do the zoo Sunday after we disembark.

What do you do at the zoo?

 

[Thnlk]

Hi all I'm Peter 48 my mother Dee 86 and I will be on this cruise. It will be my 6th Disney cruise and my mothers 5th. We are from NJ and it will be the first trip were taking after my father's passing. We will be traveling with friends from California. Looking forward to having a nice time.

I hope at your mothers age I will still be cruising. My mom is 75 and hadn't ever been to the Caribbean before and we talked her in to coming this last spring. She had a wonderful time.

 

[NancyIL]

I am Nancy from Illinois (bet you couldn't figure that out! ), and I'll be cruising with my friend Vicki from Florida. We are both in our early 60s. This will be my 7th Disney cruise out of 35 cruises. I wasn't initially interested in previous Disney Panama Canal cruises due to their ho-hum itineraries. However, after going on my first Disney Transatlantic cruise (5/2013) with only a few ports - I was sold on Disney's longer cruises for the great activities on the sea days!

This cruise ends in San Diego on my birthday (yay!), so we plan to spend several days at Disneyland and 1 day at Universal Hollywood. My flights and hotels are booked, as are tours in Cartagena and Puntarenas.

 

[Camonkeygirl]

Would love to know what you do at the San Diego Zoo?!? That's been one of our go to destinations along with San Diego in general while the kids were growing up.
Sounds fun that you have Mom and friends traveling with you!

I am a Lead in the Guest Ambassador Dept. My husband calls me a people keeper

Due to the later arrival time we have to stay the day in San Diego and fly home Monday. With your zoo knowledge, where do you recommend we stay Sunday night? We will have an early flight home Monday but plan to do the zoo Sunday after we disembark.

What do you do at the zoo?

Recommendations on where to stay may depend on if your going to use hotel shuttles, taxis/city buses or rent a car. There are quite a few hotels on Harbor drive close to the cruise ship terminal and the airport and close to public transportation, but a bit more expensive. There is also Hotel circle, which is further away, and a bit harder to get to with public transportation, but has a range of prices, from budget to resort,

The one problem you will run into with the Zoo on the Sunday we depart is that it is Earth Day in Balboa Park (where the Zoo is located), which will bring over 50,000 people to the area. This means full parking lots, heavy traffic, closed bus stops for the city buses and general craziness in the Park itself. The Zoo is typically not too busy once you actually get into the Park

 

[PackYourPixieDust]

I am a Lead in the Guest Ambassador Dept. My husband calls me a people keeper



Recommendations on where to stay may depend on if your going to use hotel shuttles, taxis/city buses or rent a car. There are quite a few hotels on Harbor drive close to the cruise ship terminal and the airport and close to public transportation, but a bit more expensive. There is also Hotel circle, which is further away, and a bit harder to get to with public transportation, but has a range of prices, from budget to resort,

The one problem you will run into with the Zoo on the Sunday we depart is that it is Earth Day in Balboa Park (where the Zoo is located), which will bring over 50,000 people to the area. This means full parking lots, heavy traffic, closed bus stops for the city buses and general craziness in the Park itself. The Zoo is typically not too busy once you actually get into the Park

Well that doesn't sound ideal at all... thanks for your comments and warnings. Darn delta schedule. If I could just fly home that day I would.

 

[Thnlk]

I am Nancy from Illinois (bet you couldn't figure that out! ), and I'll be cruising with my friend Vicki from Florida. We are both in our early 60s. This will be my 7th Disney cruise out of 35 cruises. I wasn't initially interested in previous Disney Panama Canal cruises due to their ho-hum itineraries. However, after going on my first Disney Transatlantic cruise (5/2013) with only a few ports - I was sold on Disney's longer cruises for the great activities on the sea days!

This cruise ends in San Diego on my birthday (yay!), so we plan to spend several days at Disneyland and 1 day at Universal Hollywood. My flights and hotels are booked, as are tours in Cartagena and Puntarenas.

Nancy just curios what you are doing in Puntarenas. We have never been there before.

 

[NancyIL]

Nancy just curios what you are doing in Puntarenas. We have never been there before.

I booked the Puntarenas Highlights 10-in-1 tour with Thumbs Up Tours Costa Rica: https://www.thumbsuptours.com/eco-puntarenas-highlights-unlimited.

Trip Advisor wrongly refers to the port as "Punta Arenas," which is in Chile, but here are the reviews of the company: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attract...ours-Punta_Arenas_Province_of_Puntarenas.html

 

[Thnlk]

We are really looking forward to castaway cay it's been a few years since we were there last.

 

[PackYourPixieDust]

I haven't had much time to focus on this cruise yet. I'm not 100% sure where we stop yet. Heh. We've had a busy year of travel and have 2 disney world week long trips plus a weekend before our cruise. Those have been our focus. I haven't decided if we want to just come in later before the cruise and sleep at the airport or if we want to spend time in Disney springs. Decisions...

This is a long cruise so I need to find some excursions to do with my son. He's never liked the pools on DCL cruises. (Well at least since he's been potty trained.) They've always been too crowded so I think I need to find some excursions that involve a pool or a beach for him at some point- besides CC.

 

[Thnlk]

Only 36 more weeks until we start our cruise

 

[ElizCanning]

Hello! Our family will be on this cruise in April - our kids will be 7 and 12 on the trip. This will be our 8th cruise with DCL. Really looking forward to it!

If anyone is interested, I would love to organize two fun activities -

1 - A Lego Club. We could do it several different ways. We could work together on one big build (an example might be a model of Castaway Cay), with a plan ahead of time, and folks would sign up to build specific sections. Or, we could work on smaller builds together around a Disney or cruise theme - everyone bring supplies to build pirate ships, or supplies to build your own version of the Wonder, etc. Or we could do both a big group build and the smaller builds! Kids AND adults would be welcome.

2 - A 5k or 10k walk/run on board the ship. Folks could register ahead of time, complete the distance on any day they choose, and simply collect your medals afterwards on the ship. We could even raise a little money for a charity we all vote on ahead of time. If the cost was $20-25, that would cover a really nice, custom medal on a ribbon or on a keychain, and the rest would go to the non-profit.

If you're interested in either of these, let me know here or send me a message.

 

[Va-NanaTink]

Hello! Just found this group! This cruise is a big 60th birthday celebration for DH and I, (we both turn sixty at the end of March) and it was also supposed to be a retirement celebration for me, but the need of a new roof and new HVAC system this year put the kibosh on me retiring and still keeping the cruise. Cancel this cruise??? I think not! I'm fine with working another year, and will probably do two. Anyway, this will be our 15th cruise, our 4th over 7 nights, our 3rd Panama Canal, but our first Westbound AND first time through the new locks! Our last cruise was the 2015 Eastbound Transatlantic, so we are REALLY excited to go!! It's been too long for us! Haven't been on the Wonder since 2014 EBPC, so looking forward to seeing all the changes, especially Tiana's Place, though I did love Parrot's Cay.

 

[happycruiserGOLD]

Hello! Our family will be on this cruise in April - our kids will be 7 and 12 on the trip. This will be our 8th cruise with DCL. Really looking forward to it!

If anyone is interested, I would love to organize two fun activities -

1 - A Lego Club. We could do it several different ways. We could work together on one big build (an example might be a model of Castaway Cay), with a plan ahead of time, and folks would sign up to build specific sections. Or, we could work on smaller builds together around a Disney or cruise theme - everyone bring supplies to build pirate ships, or supplies to build your own version of the Wonder, etc. Or we could do both a big group build and the smaller builds! Kids AND adults would be welcome.

2 - A 5k or 10k walk/run on board the ship. Folks could register ahead of time, complete the distance on any day they choose, and simply collect your medals afterwards on the ship. We could even raise a little money for a charity we all vote on ahead of time. If the cost was $20-25, that would cover a really nice, custom medal on a ribbon or on a keychain, and the rest would go to the non-profit.

If you're interested in either of these, let me know here or send me a message.

so people would bring thier own legos to the ship? how would that work if your building together? how would you get them all back etc?

 

[Thnlk]

Hello! Just found this group! This cruise is a big 60th birthday celebration for DH and I, (we both turn sixty at the end of March) and it was also supposed to be a retirement celebration for me, but the need of a new roof and new HVAC system this year put the kibosh on me retiring and still keeping the cruise. Cancel this cruise??? I think not! I'm fine with working another year, and will probably do two. Anyway, this will be our 15th cruise, our 4th over 7 nights, our 3rd Panama Canal, but our first Westbound AND first time through the new locks! Our last cruise was the 2015 Eastbound Transatlantic, so we are REALLY excited to go!! It's been too long for us! Haven't been on the Wonder since 2014 EBPC, so looking forward to seeing all the changes, especially Tiana's Place, though I did love Parrot's Cay.

What a great way to Celebrate a 60th birthday. We were on the same EBPC cruise in 2014.

 

[Thnlk]

Hello! Our family will be on this cruise in April - our kids will be 7 and 12 on the trip. This will be our 8th cruise with DCL. Really looking forward to it!

If anyone is interested, I would love to organize two fun activities -

1 - A Lego Club. We could do it several different ways. We could work together on one big build (an example might be a model of Castaway Cay), with a plan ahead of time, and folks would sign up to build specific sections. Or, we could work on smaller builds together around a Disney or cruise theme - everyone bring supplies to build pirate ships, or supplies to build your own version of the Wonder, etc. Or we could do both a big group build and the smaller builds! Kids AND adults would be welcome.

2 - A 5k or 10k walk/run on board the ship. Folks could register ahead of time, complete the distance on any day they choose, and simply collect your medals afterwards on the ship. We could even raise a little money for a charity we all vote on ahead of time. If the cost was $20-25, that would cover a really nice, custom medal on a ribbon or on a keychain, and the rest would go to the non-profit.

If you're interested in either of these, let me know here or send me a message.

We would be interested in the 5k or 10k on the ship. I think that would be a lot of fun.

 

[happycruiserGOLD]

and there is a 5k on the ship (on castaway cay) thats free.. are you allowed to collect for a charity? and run your own?

 

[Va-NanaTink]

What a great way to Celebrate a 60th birthday. We were on the same EBPC cruise in 2014.

aka...the Hurricane Avoidance Cruise! We had a blast none-the-less!!! Looking forward to lots of fun once again!

 

[ElizCanning]

and there is a 5k on the ship (on castaway cay) thats free.. are you allowed to collect for a charity? and run your own?

Yes, there is definitely the Castaway Cay 5k. I encourage everyone to give it a try - it's hot but a fun way to start an otherwise lazy day on the island.

Folks definitely run and walk on the ship to stay active. Deck 4 has a designated direction for runners and walkers - Disney posted a helpful sign showing that 3 laps makes 1 mile. You could also walk or run on a treadmill in the fitness center.

The idea for a shipboard 5k or 10k is just for fun - we would do all registration and payments before we sail. There are lots of fundraising sites we could use. On board, folks would complete the distance on any day, then simply collect their medals on the ship. We could set a regular time (say, every sea day from 3-4 pm, in one of the lounges) when people could come collect a big high five and their medal. Keep it simple, keep it fun.

 

[ElizCanning]

We would be interested in the 5k or 10k on the ship. I think that would be a lot of fun.

Awesome! I'll post details here. I've heard from some other folks, too, so I think there's enough interest to go forward. You can also feel free to send me a message here or look me up on other social platforms.