We're just cruisin' along...

[Grumpy4]

Joanne!!!! LOVE LOVE LOVE the trip report so far! But even more, I love that you're back home with us!

Can't wait to see more!

[MTNGIRL]

Great report Jo Jo. Thank you so much for sharing and I'm so glad you had such a wonderful time

[Earkid]

One of my favorite memories is sitting on my veranda with Joanne as we headed into the Pacific Ocean and watched the sun set. We counted how many ships we could see queuing up just from the starboard side and I think we counted 35? It was amazing to see so may ships so close to us.

[pratt55]

Your pictures keep getting better and better. For some weird reason I really like the one of the porthole and seeing the side of the lock.

[Villains Fan]

Originally Posted by Earkid

One of my favorite memories is sitting on my veranda with Joanne as we headed into the Pacific Ocean and watched the sun set. We counted how many ships we could see queuing up just from the starboard side and I think we counted 35? It was amazing to see so may ships so close to us.

One of my favorite memories too Shayne .

Originally Posted by pratt55

Your pictures keep getting better and better. For some weird reason I really like the one of the porthole and seeing the side of the lock.

It was funny because we were in the lounge where that porthole was (making origami animals ), and suddenly everyone saw us going down as the wall was going up in the window. Everyone left the lounge and ran to the window and the poor CM trying to teach us origami suddenly was talking to an empty room. He decided it was a good time for a 10 minute break .

[Melonballer]

I am enjoying the reports too. Once they are finished I'll show my mom. She did the canal a few years ago. I hope one of these days we will get a Disney ship doing Alaska cruises out of Seattle. After the one I did a few years ago I told my mom the only wya I would do it again is if it was a Disney ship and there was a Micechat invasion. LOL

[SummerInFL]

Beautiful photos! The canal is so fascinating! Tell me, what camera did you use for the underwater photos?

[penguinsoda]

I am so loving all of these reports and pictures from everyone! Its so cool to see the different perspectives and shots! Can't wait to see the rest of the story!

[Villains Fan]

Originally Posted by SummerInFL

Beautiful photos! The canal is so fascinating! Tell me, what camera did you use for the underwater photos?

I just used a cheapy Kodak underwater disposible camera. For a disposible camera, it took pretty good pictures.

[SusieP.]

Awesome, Joanne!

[Villains Fan]

So with the Panama Canal behind us, we still had 2 days at sea before arriving in Acapulco. While a lot of it's a blur (too much relaxing turned by brain and memory to mush!), I'll show you some of the other stuff we did...


One of my favorite things to do were the assorted craft-type classes around the ship. I went to 4-5 oragami classes:

My first origami flower:


I also made an origami water lilly (forgot to take a picture of it ) and a tulip, which didn't turn out so I decided it looked better as a pressed flower (I squashed it :lol). And here's the frogs my tablemates and I made:


A couple of us also took the towel folding class and made 3 different animals:

My elephant:


My puppy:



My monkey (Yes, it really is a monkey!), ok, not one of my finer artistic moments




On board was one of the Disney animaters, Don "Ducky" Williams. He gave a few lectures, auctioned off a few of his lithographs, raffled off some of his spur on the moment character drawings, and was just a really friendly, interesting person. One day, we all came back to our cabins to find a Ducky Williams lithograph for each of us. He later had a signing to which we could have him sign our lithographs (or anything you chose to have him sign). Here's a picture of Wolfy999 getting his signature on her lithograph:




He also taught a few drawing classes. Alphabassetgrl, skywaygrl, and me went to his class to draw Mickey...here's our drawings (mines on the bottom):


They also had martini, tequilla, and wine tasting seminars. Unfortunately the martini and tequilla tastings sold our within the first 2-3 days, so I couldn't do those , but I did manage to do a wine tasting seminar one afternoon. We compared old world to new world wines:


We sampled to Rieslings, two Chardonays, and two Shirahs (one old world, one new world or each). This was pretty fun and I had no problems laying in a lounge chair and relaxing (and napping) the rest of the afternoon after this .

There was also cooking demonstrations, health seminars, bingo, art auctions, game challenges, and all kinds of activities throughout the day.

One of my favorite places on the ship was the Vista Spa. There was a room they called The Rainforest where you could buy a daily pass ($15) and spend as much time as you wanted for the whole day. The main room was all tile with mosaic tile pictures on the wall, a fountain in the middle, suble lighting and four warm stone couches that moulded to your body. There was a sauna, a steamroom, a really hot steamroom, and an aromatherapy mist shower....it was heavenly in there. Chernabog and I spent a couple of hours in there a few times on the trip, just going back and forth between each room. Here's a picture of the main room:


I wish I had taken more pictures of the spa, it was just so beautiful. The private massage rooms, the couples massage rooms with the private jacuzzis on their own balcony, and the gym were all just incredible!

And then there's the characters that wander all around the ship. Not only is there a full schedule of all the characters photo locations, but they are in nightly shows around the ship. They also just wander around a lot. Here's a couple shots I got:

Mickey and Pluto waiting for the elevator (really!), I also was in the elevator with Stitch one night (that made for an interesting ride):


He waved at me!


Donald just wandering around the decks:


Cinderella's mice taking a walk around the lounges:


Unfortunately, that's all the characters I got pictures of wandering around. It was hard to get pictures when they would just pop up coming around a corner. It was really fun to see them all!

Alright, enough of life around the ship during sea days, let's get back to what goes on at night!

Day 8 - At sea

The show this night was Twice Charmed, the story of Cinderella in a magical new way.





And of course, they lived happily ever after...





That night in the dining room, the theme was Prince and Princesses:

And here's three princesses now:


And three princes (our poor servers, we dressed them up and they were very good humored about it!)


Unfortunately, the rest of my pictures didn't turn out of all our princes and princesses very well, but I'm sure Westley will have some good shots!



Day 9 - At sea

Another day at sea, but it was a little cloudy (although we didn't get rain at all), which made for some dramatic at sea pictures:









Next up...Finally, after four days, we get off the ship in Acapulco!!!!

[Villains Fan]

Laaaaannnnddd Ho! Day 10 - Acapulco

Here we are coming into the harbor in Acapulco:




Hey, who's that driving the ship?????


Why it's none other than the big Cheese himself!


I think we woke up this school of stingrays...they did not look happy as they went by:



I had booked an excursion to swim with dolphins here. While it was one of the most amazing things I've done, it felt totally disorganized. The aquarium was about a 40 min drive from the port and our tourguide was new and didn't really know what to tell us about Acapulco.

There were two pools with two dolphins in each pool. We got to pet the dolphins and swim with them across the pool, we got dolphin kisses from them , we got a ride across the pool with them pushing us across the pool from the bottom of our feet, we got to sing to them while they danced to our song (we sang the Mickey Mouse March ), they sang to us, we formed a line across the pool with linked arms and they jumped over us and back numerous times, and I'm sure there's more I just can't think of right now. We were with them for at least 45 mins and it was a truly amazing experience!!!

One of the employees video taped everything, but then they didn't offer us the video or any pictures other than the one posed one we each took. What a shame, they would have made a fortune because we all wanted a video . But here's my one posed picture:


From there, we were driven back to the ship and I took a couple of pictures from the bus as we were going through the main city:


The Aquarium where we had been. They also had a water park area for swimming:


The Beach Party area...open air bars and restaurants line the beach for a couple of blocks:









This was about all I saw of Acapulco. While it's a beautiful city, it's very large (population 2 mil) and hard to see in one afternoon. By the time I got back to the ship and showered, I only had a few hours until I had to be ready for our reservations at Palo that night.


So, as I just mentioned, Chernabog, Wolfy, and I had reservations for the reservation-only restaurant Palo that evening. The food was absolutely amazing and our server Laura was the best. We had an amazing view from the our window seat of all of Acapulco at night and a glorious sunset. A few pictures:


Chernabog (isn't he handsome?):


The Lovely Wolfy:


Our drinks :


My dinner (Fillet mignon with gargonzola sauce, lobster ravioli, grilled vegetables, and a cheesy potato thing). It was probably the best meal I've ever had...yum!


Next came dessert. It was hard to decide so our server, Laura, decided we each had to have a chocolate souffle and then one of everything else (how I loved her ). We had a chocolate thing that was so rich, one bite was enough, tiramisu that was out of this world, home-made gelato in vanilla, pistachio, and chocolate, plus our chocolate souffles:



Joe's reaction (we all felt the same):


We had a beautiful sunset to dine by:


Again, what an amazing meal! As we finished our meal, it was time to leave Acapulco. Here's a few shots as we're leaving:








But wait, the evenings not over yet, down on the main decks, it was Fiesta Time!!! We missed the whole thing, but came out in time for the food buffet, the last thing in the world we wanted, but the fruit carvings and table settings were wonderful to look at:












So that's it for our day in Acapulco. We have 2 more days at sea until we reach Puerto Vallarta. See ya' there

[GoofyWife]

Hurry, hurry, more, more ...... please!!!

I am having such a blast going through this TR. And, did I mention how jealous I am!! It's clear to see why they Disney Cruise is so pricey (as compared to other cruise lines).

I'll go vacuum and you can add more, ok?

[Hakuna Makarla]

This is an amazing report, and Joanne your pictures are beautiful. I especially love this one.



Go slow, no rushing thru this report !! its t o fun!! add tons of pics, we want to experience this with you lots of pics, please lots of pictures!!!

[mousercise]

Great report

Yay! Pictures of the spa, I was hoping someone would post pictures of it. Was wondering what a spa on a cruise ship would look like.