Panama Canal Trip Report: Day 1

Day 1: Boarding the Ship

 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.

Also, anytime you see red text, it is a link to either product information or another one of my blog posts that gives more detailed information about that topic.

You can see this day’s Daily Navigator by clicking here:   Daily Navigator Day 1

This is the day we had been waiting for for over a year – the day we would board the Wonder for our 14 night adventure!  I don’t remember exactly what time we woke up, but I know that we left the room right at 8:30 which was the earliest that they might pick up our luggage.  It was a little bit stressful trying to get all of the suitcases ready (as well as the DCL luggage tags put on them) by 8:30 just in case they showed up right then.  Here is a copy of the instructions they gave us about the luggage:

We finished at 8:30 on the dot and left the room to get breakfast.  We headed to the food court in the airport and while we were walking I remembered that there was a Chick-fil-A and I started craving it.  We walk up and the Chick-fil-A is dark…..yep, it was a Sunday.  Does anyone else always crave Chick-fil-A on Sundays?  Anyway, we settled on McDonald’s and got our food.  I took a picture of my new Belle bag that I was using for the first time:

This was my only carry-on for the ship today, and all of the others just had a backpack.  We really try to not carry much onto the ship since we have to lug it around until rooms are ready at 1:30.

About 9:00 we headed over to the area where they have the DCL transfers.  Dad had to use the bathroom, so while we waited we sat in the awesome airport chairs (bolted to the ground in case you never noticed) and took some pictures.

I totally dropped the ball on our Disneybounding game this cruise, although my husband and 2 of the girls attempted to pull something together at the last minute.  Above you have Aurora and Jasmine, and you will see my husband’s in a little while.

I almost never take selfies, but I upped my selfie game this cruise (or tried to anyway).  Here is my first selfie of the trip:

There were already quite a few cruisers there, so we got in line with our passports and cruise documents ready.  It was at this time that we first noticed the difference in the type of crowd.  It was almost completely adults!  I had heard that this would be the case from several people so I was completely expecting it, but it was so strange to actually see it in person.  There were tons of people there, and other than our own kids, I think I only saw 2 other kids at this time.  I was actually looking forward to this aspect of the cruise so that hopefully my kids could enjoy less crowded pool and youth spaces.

 It didn’t take long before we were getting on a bus.  We were some of the last ones on, but there were some empty seats towards the back.  I tried to take another selfie:

Since there are 5 of us, one of us had to sit with a stranger and that ended up being me, which I didn’t mind at all.  I actually like chatting with strangers on the bus rides.  I ended up next to a woman who was sailing with her husband but had left her 2 teenagers at home with the grandparents as they couldn’t miss that much school.  We discovered that we both have a fear of flying (although mine has gotten much better over the last few years, thank goodness) and talked about how we cope (she swears by Xanax!).  I enjoyed talking with her and before I knew it we caught our first glimpse of the ship.  I don’t know why I always take this picture because it always turns out horrible, but I just can’t help it.  Seeing the ship for the first time is always so exciting no matter how many times you’ve done it before!

We pulled up to the terminal right at 10:30, got off the bus and walked inside.  At this point I breathed a huge sigh of relief because at this point, nothing (traffic, plane delays, illness, injury, etc.) could keep us from getting on that ship other than no passports (which I had been making sure were in my bag all morning!).

There was a short line for security and then we were greeted with this sweet sight:

We were finally here!!!  The line was still very short so we only waited about 2 minutes before it was our turn at the counter.  We got our first Daily Navigator and were assigned to boarding group #3 (we had chosen a port arrival time online of 10:30 am):

The girls also got gold lanyards for the first time (this was their 6th cruise, but our 8th) which was very exciting!

Check in was quick and easy, and when we finished I immediately went to the supervisor’s desk at the end to check for upgrades.  This was the first cruise that I can remember that didn’t have the “Sorry, Mickey is sailing with a full ship, no upgrades available” sign on the counters.  I had no intention of upgrading as we were in 2 connecting rooms, but I was just curious to see what was available because the sailing had appeared to be sold out online.  There were 3 or 4 people in front of me in line that took a while, so I probably waited about 10 minutes before it was my turn.  They had no rooms for 5 available, but they did have a few other rooms available although I didn’t ask for details as I felt bad holding up the line for others who really did want to upgrade.

After this I turned around and noticed that the line to get the kids’ wristbands for the youth spaces had almost no one in it.  We have never done this at the terminal before because the line is usually crazy long, and you can do it on the ship with no line at all.  This is what it looked like:

We got the girls their wristbands with no wait at all.  My oldest is 12 so she could go to either the Edge tween club or the Oceaneers Club/Lab.  Even though we were pretty sure she would not end up going to the club/lab, we got her a wristband just in case.  A youth counselor also told us that because of the small number of children on this sailing, our 1o year old would be allowed to go to the Edge as well (normally reserved for 11-14 year olds).

After this we went outside for some photos with the ship.  It looked like it might rain at any minute.

Too bad his eyes are closed!

I practiced my selfie technique:

A nice man walked by and noticed us struggling with the whole selfie thing and offered to take our picture:

Next we went back inside to find a place to wait and send some last minute texts to friends & family.  We also started looking at the Navigator.  At this time we noticed just how COLD it was inside the terminal.  I swear it must have been about 60 degrees in there!  We were all shivering, even those of us that tend to be warm-natured.  Only my husband had a jacket which he was nice enough to share with the girl who was complaining the most.  Here she is attempting to stay warm:

Remember his Disneybound attempt?  Smee!

Several people noticed and commented on it throughout the day.

About 11:45 an announcement came over the speakers that introduced the family of the day and said that boarding would begin momentarily.  Then, at 11:50, another announcement stated that due to “inclement weather”, boarding would be temporarily delayed.  I am not sure what that meant and I have never heard of this happening before.  I checked the radar on my phone and it looked like this:

When I checked the motion of the rain, it was pretty much staying in place and not even moving towards us.  Strange.

No worries because 2 minutes later at 11:52 they announced that groups 1 & 2 could begin boarding.  That sure was a short weather delay.

Group 3 was announced at 11:53, and as we were walking toward the Mickey ears, they announced group 4 at 11:54.  I don’t think the groups are always called this close together, I think it was a combination of the fact that we were not only on one of the smaller ships, but there were way fewer people on this sailing than normal (more details on that later).

Here we are walking through the ears:

About to get our cards scanned for the first time:

We always bypass the boarding photo but this is what the background looked like:

Getting closer!

I love seeing these huge smiles!

They announced our family as we boarded and it was magical as always!  We had already decided that we were going to go to Triton’s for the table-service lunch (Cabanas after boarding can be a scary and dangerous place in my opinion, although we may have boarded early enough to avoid the chaos) so we walked over to the Triton’s entrance and were given our first hand wipes of the cruise!  Woo hoo!  I regret not taking a picture to commemorate the moment.  I did take a picture of this cutie though:

We watched a few other families board the ship:

Triton’s was pretty empty since we were among the first people to board the ship:

We were shown to a table and our servers were Harry (South Africa) and Cassie (Australia).  They were wonderful!  We had fancy napkins:

Since they just started doing this table-service lunch in Triton’s after the dry dock last fall, I was curious to see what the menu would be like.  I thought it was a nice menu.  I apologize now for the lighting in all of my food & menu photos from here on.  It seemed like in every dining room, there was an overhead light right about me that cast a shadow.

For our appetizer, we shared the beef empanadas which were very good:

For my entree I chose the grilled salmon salad and thought it was outstanding:

My husband chose the sliced roast beef sirloin and said it was good:

One of the girls chose Minnie’s mini burger:

The other 2 chose chicken tenders but I was sitting too far away to photograph them.  I tasted one and thought that it was not as good as the ones you can get by the pool.  We skipped dessert because we knew we would be getting ice cream cones later.

We were delighted when our server started making us napkin hats!  He even taught the girls how to do it.

During lunch we signed up for our free 50 MB of wifi (actually 100mb since we were in 2 rooms) and also set up the chat (texting) feature on our DCL apps.  This allowed us to text each other onboard (no fee, you can use it without purchasing an internet plan) during the cruise and came in very handy.  Download the app before your board the ship (or sail away) so that you don’t have to use any of your free mb to get it.

After lunch we wanted to go check out the youth spaces since they had been completely transformed since the last time we sailed on the Wonder a year and a half ago.  Shutters had also received a makeover.  They no longer print out all of the pictures and put them in binders.  You can still buy prints, they just don’t print them until you order them.  Here we are about to pass through it:

First we went into the Oceaneer’s Club.  It is very similar to the one on the Magic:

Next we walked through the connecting corridor to the Oceaneer’s Lab.  I love the carpet in here!

Here is the Oceaneers Lab:

Next it was time to check out the new Edge tween club, which took over the space of the arcade during the dry dock.  Here is my 12 year old excited to see it for the first time, along with a random arm:

 

The space is small but very well themed and seems like a fun place to hang out.

Now it was shortly after 1:30 so the rooms were ready and we wanted to drop off our backpacks.  We were in rooms 6516 and 6518 which are towards the front of the ship on the starboard side.  For lots of photos and details, you can read the stateroom reviews here:

Wonder Room 6516

Wonder Room 6518

Our 7 year old had this invitation waiting for her:

She has never been to a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique before in the parks or on a ship and she was very excited!  I have since reviewed our experience there which you can read about here.  She is very much into clothes, hairstyles and accessories so this was going to be right up her alley!  I had reserved it for the second formal night, which was actually the Monday of the following week (not the next day) which I am surprised they did not specify on the invitation.

We also received confirmation of our onboard credits from our travel agent and DCL (since this had been an onboard booking):

We actually received an additional $200 OBC from DCL for the onboard booking since we had 2 rooms, but I forgot to take a picture.

We also received a Castaway Club gift that was brand new to us!  After receiving the same (or similar) beach tote for about the last 6 cruises (maybe more, I have lost count), we were surprised with a sling backpack and 2 luggage tags.  We received them in each room:

On the desk I found our tickets for the 1 port adventure we had reserved through DCL, as well as our tickets for the character breakfast, princess gathering, and Frozen meet & greet (all reserved online):

None of our luggage had arrived yet which was not a surprise as it was still so early.  We decided to go check out the Senses Spa.  I admit I am not really a spa person (there are just so many other things I would prefer to spend money on) but my husband really wanted to see it.  I knew the girls would be super bored (they were) but I was a good sport and went along.  I was worried about the spa ladies playing the “hard sell” game but they really didn’t.  I never felt pressured to sign up for anything.  I felt funny taking photos inside the spa because it was really crowded, but you can click here to see photos of the spa on the Dream.  The spa here had a very similar feel to it.

After we left the spa we were right next to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique so we went to have a look.  I love the carpet on the stairs leading up to it!

No one was in there except a cast member so I was able to get lots of pictures:

Next we decided that we needed to eat our first ice cream cones of the trip.  We were on deck 9 aft near the spa, which is where the Quiet Cove adult pool is.  In order to get to the ice cream, we would have to walk through the adult area with the kids.  I didn’t think we should and started to go down to deck 8 to get to the midship stairs, but one of the spa ladies assured us that we could walk through with the girls as long as we didn’t stop.  So, we did it this time, but we didn’t make a habit of it during the rest of the cruise.

This is what the Quiet Cove Pool area looked like:

Our first ice cream cones of the cruise!  The only flavors available today were chocolate and vanilla.

The Twist & Spout slide had just been added during the dry dock so we went to check it out:

I was also excited to see that they had added the shawarma station just like on the Magic:

There were 2 Carnival ships docked right next to us:

We sat for a while and watched Tangled on funnel vision while we finished our ice cream and then went back to the room to see if any of our luggage had arrived.  It had, so I started unpacking in the hour or so that we had until the safety drill.  At this time we met our stateroom host, Greg from the Philippines.  He was awesome and we really grew to love him over the next 14 days.

At 4:00 sharp we went to our muster station (E, outside on deck 4 starboard side) for the safety drill.  It was pretty quick and uneventful, at least at our station.  Although, at one point a child nearby was having a meltdown and I unfortunately heard some childless ladies next to me complaining about how a vacation is not a vacation if you bring your children with you and that if a mother wants a vacation, then she needs to leave her children at home.  What!?!  You’re on a Disney cruise for crying out loud!!!  According to that logic, there would never be any children on any Disney cruise ever because they certainly can’t cruise without their parents!  Thankfully my children were standing perfectly quiet and still the whole time because I would hate to see these ladies’ reaction if that was not the case.

After the drill it was time for one of my favorite things – the sail away party!  I know some people think it is cheesy and skip it but for some reason I love it.  I am pretty sure that my husband and I love it more than our kids.  We found a spot on the right side of the stage, which has become our go-to spot for sail away parties.  This was our view:

The party was about to start, and I couldn’t believe how few people were on the pool deck.  This was one of the first times that I could really notice that there were way fewer people onboard than normal:

At last the party began!

We discovered that our cruise director would be Darren.  I was excited about this, not because I knew anything about Darren (I didn’t), but because it wasn’t Jimmy or Peter!  I have nothing against Jimmy or Peter and like them well enough, but they are the only 2 cruise directors I have ever had over 7 cruises on 3 ships so I was excited to finally have a different one.

I took a little bit of video during the party:

Once the party was over we went up to deck 10 to watch the ship sail away.  This is something we have done on our last several cruises.  I love the feeling of watching the land disappear – it is almost like watching the real world disappear and you know it won’t return until the end of the cruise.

By this time we needed to head back to our room and get freshened up for dinner since we had the early seating at 5:45.  Our last bag was waiting for us when we got there.  Our dining rotation was TP TR AP which means Tiana’s Place, Triton’s, Animator’s Palate.  We just did that same order over and over for the whole cruise.  We had heard amazing things about Tiana’s Place so I couldn’t wait to see it.

Let me tell you, it lived up to all of my expectations!  The theming is superb:

We had requested a table alone and it was granted.  We were seated at a round table for 6 pretty close to the center of the restaurant, but a bit closer to the starboard windows.

 This was the view of the stage from our table:

This is looking towards the center of the restaurant.  Here I also noticed the fewer number of people onboard because there were several empty tables around us and I have never seen this on a prior cruise.

I loved the dishes!

We met our serving team of Levy (South Africa) and Putu (Indonesia).  Levy handed us our menus which I thought were awesome!  Our head server Englebert (India) stopped by later to say hi.

Tonight was the “Let the Magic Begin” menu across all 3 restaurants, so we were going to have to wait for a different night to taste the beignets I have heard so much about.  On past cruises I have always forgetten to photograph our food, but I am happy to report that this cruise I did much better and remembered to photograph almost every single dish before we began eating it.  You will only see a few half-eaten food photos in this trip report 🙂

Here is the bread service: Freshly Baked Carrot and Scallion Loaf with Cumin and Cilantro Dip

The girls made themselves napkin hats since Harry had taught them how at lunch.

I didn’t normally photograph the kids’ food since they typically ordered from the kids menu and I didn’t think you would find pictures of hamburgers, pasta, pizza and chicken tenders very interesting.  On the rare occasion they did order from the main menu (mainly desserts), I did photograph it.

For appetizers, I got the Chicken Bastilla.  It was just okay.

My husband got the Fried Spiced Calamari.

For the soup/salad course, I got the Couscous Salad.  I loved this!

My husband got the chilled mango and papaya soup which was delicious if you like mango.

For the entree, I got the Pork Tenderloin Wellington.  It was pretty good.

My husband got the Mesquite Grilled Chicken Breast.  I didn’t taste the chicken, but the corn & bacon sauce was incredible!

Levy and Putu started their crayon game early on this cruise:

We weren’t able to solve this one and eventually gave up.

For dessert, I got the Dark Chocolate Bombe which I though was amazing.

My husband and kids got the Magical Express Sundae that had mint chocolate chip ice cream:

After dinner we couldn’t wait to hit up the gift shops.  We are gift shop junkies (thanks to my husband – I used to hate them but he has converted me).  On the way I took a few pictures.  If you haven’t noticed yet, the thumbs up became her signature photo pose during the cruise:

We stopped at a bathroom on the way.  I love how detailed and beautiful (and spotless!) the bathrooms are on the ship.

I didn’t take any pictures in the shops this night, but we did buy a few things.  They had some special Panama Canal merchandise that I though might sell out (only the t-shirts ended up doing so) so I snatched up a t-shirt, magnet, pin, and Tervis.  Here is a picture of the Tervis I took later on during the cruise:

 

Here are some pictures of the shirt, pin and magnet that I took after we got home.  I do not like the color of the shirt (off-white) and may never wear it, but I still wanted to have it as a souvenir.  I really wish they had chosen a different color.

We ended up losing the pin at one point during the cruise when it fell off my daughter’s lanyard so I bought another one.

Before we knew it, it was 8:30 and time for tonight’s show, the “Be Our Guest Variety Show”.  It was an introduction to some of the acts that we were going to have their own shows later during the cruise.  When we walked into the theater they were handing out these programs which I have never seen before:

It wasn’t specific to the Wonder, but included information on all of the main stage shows on all 4 ships.

To start the show, Darren welcomed us and gave us all sorts of interesting information about our voyage.  I am a numbers person so I love hearing stuff like this.  I was writing as fast as I could in the semi-dark so I really hope I got all of these right.  If you were onboard with me and know that any of these are wrong, please let me know!

Total number of guests onboard:  1856 (total capacity is 2400-2600)

Number of crew members onboard:  about 1000

Total guests between the ages of 0-18:  256  (typical is 1200+)

All rooms were full (not sure how this is true since they were offering upgrades at the terminal but that’s what he said)

Number of guests from the US:  1400

State with the largest number of guests:  California with 333

State with the second largest number of guests:  Florida with 222

Next 4 countries in terms of numbers of guests:  Canada with 121, UK with 45, and Netherlands with 21

Darren also told us some really big news:  we would be the first cruise ship through the new locks of the Panama Canal!  I suspected that might be the case but had not been able to confirm this prior to this day.  We would be making history!  He also told us that Captain Puckett, former Panama Canal Pilot, was onboard and would be giving lectures about the canal.  I knew he had been on many previous Panama Canal sailings and that his lectures were very popular, but I had also heard rumors that he would not be on this sailing.  I was very glad that those rumors were wrong!

We enjoyed the show.  The acts that performed were an a cappella group called Edge Effect, The Magic & Illusion of Hector is Magic!, 2 ballroom dancers named Willem & Natalia, and then the Disney Wonder stage performers did a Be Our Guest number.  I thought that they were all very entertaining.

After the show it was time to go to the D Lounge for Family Karaoke at 9:45.  Our 10 year old LOVES karaoke and always wants to go to every single session.  Thank goodness she is a night owl because more often than not, the sessions are either at 10:15, 10:30 or 10:45 and last either 45 minutes or an hour.  Her sisters almost always choose to go to bed instead, so she and I have shared many late night karaoke sessions over the years.  My husband and the other 2 did indeed go back to the room at this point to get ready for bed.

Technical difficulties delayed the start of karaoke by 20 minutes.  It was also freezing in there!  This was when we first met one of the entertainment team members named Sarah.  We chatted with her during the delay and ended up seeing her daily on the ship.  We really liked her.  Here we are waiting to begin:

Finally it started but there were not very many people there so my daughter ended up singing 3 songs.  She sang When Will My Life Begin, Part of Your World, and Home from the broadway version of Beauty and the Beast.  While she was singing Home, Sarah tapped me on the shoulder and told me to look towards the back of the room.  Belle was standing there watching her sing!

After the song was over, my daughter went out in the hallway to say hi to her.

It was such a neat moment!

After karaoke was over, we were both exhausted and went to bed.  This was our towel animal for the night:

Up Next:  Day 2 – at Sea

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