Panama Canal Trip Report: Day 5 At Sea

Day 5:  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.

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.

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You can see this day’s Daily Navigator by clicking here:  Daily Navigator Day 5

 I woke up about 8:15 and did my usual morning routine of checking email, catching up on trip notes, and watching the morning show.  This morning we had reservations for the character breakfast at 9:30.  I was able to reserve this online before the cruise.  Before long, everyone else got up to get ready.

We got to Animator’s Palate right at 9:30 and were seated right away.  Almost immediately, our server began making the girls napkin hats.  I didn’t take note of our server’s name, but from the photo below it looks like a really long one:

This one had to use her iPod as a mirror to approve the design.

She looks pretty happy with it!

One thing I will note is that before this, we had only done two other character breakfasts on DCL.  The first was way back in 2013 on the Magic, and it felt very rushed.  I remember the servers moving at a feverish pace and the characters practically racing by.  It felt like they wanted us to hurry up and leave as fast as possible.  This was when you did not reserve a spot online before your cruise, but instead everyone on the ship was assigned a specific character breakfast based on your dining rotation.  We did it again on the Wonder 6 months later and although not quite as bad, it still felt rushed.  Shortly after that, I think they did away with them for a while before bringing them back (only on 7+ night sailings, and this time with Disney Jr. characters plus Mickey) with the online reservation system.  Well, I am happy to report that this breakfast was nothing like our previous ones.  We never felt rushed at all and it was very relaxed and enjoyable.

Right after we ordered our food, a service dog was walking by our table at the same time as Pluto.  Understandably, the dog got quite agitated at Pluto and started barking.  Pluto began to try and play with the dog which freaked the dog out even more and Pluto’s handler was like, “Uh, Pluto, I don’t think he likes that.”  Then, Pluto acted sad and started walking away until the service dog’s owner stepped in and nicely explained to Pluto the right way to introduce himself to the dog.  Then they had another try which went much more smoothly.  It was all pretty cute to watch.  It was happening so close to us that it was hard to get pictures.  You can only see Pluto’s arms on the left here:

This is Pluto walking away after they made up:

This was the menu.  I don’t think it has changed since our first character breakfast in 2013:

I think my husband and I shared these 3 plates between us:

At some point this one changed her napkin hat to a bow:

Before long the characters started visiting our table.  Although we had the classic characters, I think it was because ours was a longer sailing.  I believe that right now, most 7 night sailings have the Disney Jr. characters as well as Mickey.

That is our main server Levy smiling on the left:

 After the character breakfast we went to the Port Adventures desk so our 10 year old could sign up for the talent show.  This was listed in the Navigator on the first day.  There was a binder on the counter for people to write their name, room number, and what they would be doing for the show.  There were also some basic instructions and it said to keep an eye on the Navigator for rehearsal times.  My daughter was only the third person on the list, and it said they would cap it at 10 people.

Next my husband and I decided to get in line at the future cruise sales desk because it was open.  The girls decided to work on the day’s photo challenge while we did this.  Today you had to locate light fixtures:

Since we last sailed, the Wonder has changed the method in which you wait for your turn at the future cruise sales desk.  You used to just stand/sit in a line right next to the desk to hold your place in line. Now, they have a check-in station which allows you to scan your card and it places you in the line.  The monitor shows you how many people are in front of you.  This is what it looks like:

We were #5 in line when we signed up.  We hung around the area for a few minutes and I noticed that Doc McStuffins was out for an appearance:

I also watched a crew member vacuum the already spotless atrium floor.  I love how clean DCL keeps their ships.

We spotted the girls as they hunted down light fixtures:

We decided to go browse the shops while we waited.  Captain Puckett’s lecture in the Walt Disney Theater was starting in about 30 minutes, and I guess they hadn’t opened the doors yet because there was a line all the way to the midship elevators.  We looked around the shops for about 15 minutes and then decided to go check where we were in the line.  We were already at #2 so we stayed there and waited.  I discovered later in the day that a message had been sent to our wave phone that we were next in line.

After just a few minutes it was our turn.  We already knew that we wanted to book an Alaska sailing for 2018, so we just had to decide on the date and room(s).  The first few and last few sailings are by far the cheapest, so we picked 8/27/18 because it includes labor day weekend, which means one less day of work for my husband to take off.  It was cheaper to get a verandah room plus an interior room across the hall, rather than just 1 verandah room for all 5 of us, so that it what we did.  WE ARE OFFICIALLY BOOKED FOR ALASKA!!!  I have wanted to do this for years so I am beyond excited!

We finished up a few minutes before 11:00 and I really wanted to go to Captain Puckett’s lecture, “Piloting a Ship Through the Panama Canal” at 11:00 in the Walt Disney Theater.  We had told the girls that when they were finished with the photo challenge to go back to the rooms and wait for us there.  We went to the theater right as the lecture was starting and managed to get two seats way on the side.

The lecture was very interesting.  Captain Puckett estimated that DCL was charged about $500,000 for the Wonder to go through the canal.  When it finished about 12:00, we went to the rooms where we found the girls watching cartoons.  I wanted to see the fruit carving demonstration on the Goofy Pool stage at 12:15, so we all went up to deck 9.  Here is the fruit carver getting ready:

I’m not sure these are all in the right order, but he ended up carving a flower into the watermelon, as well as constructing the penguin and monkey.  It was very impressive.

While we were watching the fruit carving, the girls got ice cream cones.  Today’s flavors were chocolate, vanilla, blueberry and mango.

The fruit carving only lasted 15 minutes, and when it was over the girls asked to go swimming.  We went to the room to change and came back to the pool about 1:00.  First they wanted to do the waterslide a few times.  They said the slide was fun, but they wished it was faster.  They said it was a lot slower than they thought it would be.  I have to agree that they didn’t come down the bottom very fast when I was taking these pictures:

It looks like she barely got wet:

Next we went back to the Goofy Pool where they were playing A Goofy Movie on funnel vision.

The pool was not very crowded:

We ate lunch at some point.  Based on my pictures, someone got chicken tenders and I got pizza.

This was a sausage and mushroom pizza.  I have read reports of people thinking the DCL pizza is terrible, but I have always thought it was good.  Not the best pizza I’ve ever had, but still good.  My kids even like it, and they are very picky about pizza.  I thought the daily flavor selection was really good on this sailing.  There always seemed to be 4 or 5 choices available, and they would change some of them from day to day.

We only swam for about 2 hours before it was time to get ready for family karaoke, which was at 4:00 today.  Thank you DCL schedulers!

We had to leave the pool at 3:00 anyway because they were closing it to get ready for the Gold & Platinum Castaway Club reception, which was being held at either 4:00 or 4:30 (I didn’t write down the time and it’s not on the Navigator).  The reception was being held on the deck 9 pool area because there were so many Gold & Platinum members on this cruise (which you will see later) that I don’t think there was an indoor venue that could hold them all.  When we left the pool, they were setting up tons of tables and chairs.

Once in the room I realized that 2 of the girls never ate lunch.  Oops!  I ran back up to deck 9 to get them some pizza and took it back to the room.

At 4:00 my husband and I took our 7 & 10 year olds to karaoke while our 12 year old stayed in the room to watch TV.  We watched karaoke until about 4:4o (it lasted until 5:00) and decided that we wanted to pop up to the Platinum & Gold reception (we’re gold) to get some of the Mickey rice crispy treats that they hand out.  So, we left our 10 year old at karaoke (and told her not to leave until we came back for her) and the rest of us went up to deck 9.

OH MY GOODNESS, the reception was PACKED! It was hard to even walk around there were so many people.  It looked like everyone was having a great time though.  There was live music, characters and officers walking around, appetizers, and free drinks.

Darren had told us the numbers of Gold and Platinum guests on the first night but I didn’t write them down so I am just going off of memory here.  I think he said 300 Platinum and 400 Gold.  If anyone knows that this is incorrect, please let me know the correct numbers and I will update this.

We couldn’t hang around for long (there wasn’t a place to sit anyway), so we found the person handing these out and got 5 for our family.

Then it was back to karaoke to pick up our daughter.  When we got there, she was singing a duet with a sweet girl who was often at karaoke with us.  They teamed up for duets quite a few times during the cruise.

By now it was time to gather the other kid for dinner, so we went back to the room to get her.

Dinner tonight was in Triton’s, and it was the World of Flavour menu.

For the appetizer, I ordered the Vietnamese Spring Roll which was good:

For the next course, I got the Greek Salad which was very good:

Either my husband ordered the same things as me on this night (unlikely), or I completely forgot to photograph his (very likely).

For the entree I ordered the Swiss Pork Tenderloin Medallions which was pretty good:

My husband ordered the Prime Rib:

I also wanted to taste the Indian Prawn Curry so Levy brought me one.  I thought it was really good.

For dessert, my daughter got this and I cannot for the life of me remember what it was but I know she loved it.

Levy told us that this passion fruit creme brûlée was his favorite, so even though I don’t usually like creme brûlée, I thought I’d give it a try.  I didn’t like it.

Thank goodness I had ordered this sacher torte with apricot glaze as a backup.  It was delicious.

 While at dinner we realized that our new Panama Canal pin had fallen off my daughter’s lanyard.  After dinner, we went back to the rooms to look for it and didn’t find it.  I ended up buying another one later during the cruise.

Next we had a little bit of time to kill before the show so we wandered through the shops and atrium for a while.  During this time we passed Darren, who was wearing his light up shoes.  He had mentioned them on the morning show that day, and I was hoping I would get to see them.

Cinderella, Suzy and Perla also walked by at one point.  I had never seen Suzy and Perla on a ship before.  They also weren’t listed as having an appearance in the Navigator so I’m not sure where they were going.

Mickey was also out in his island shirt.  This girl in the photo below had matching outfits for every one that Minnie wore on this cruise – formal, island, beach, Mexico, and many more that I can’t remember now.  She would show up at every character appearance and take a million photos.  It was amazing how detailed and accurate her matching costumes were.  It was impressive yet a bit concerning all at the same time.  I can’t imagine how much luggage she had in order to bring so many elaborate costumes.

At about 8:15 we headed to the Walt Disney Theater for tonight’s show, an a cappella group called Edge Effect.  They were fantastic!  We all loved the show.  These guys are funny, charming, and so talented.

Since there was no karaoke this evening, we all called it a day after the show and went to bed.  These were our towel animals for the night:

Up next:  Day 6  Part 1 – Cartagena, Colombia

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