The One with 10 days at sea, a westbound Panama Canal during covid-19 trip report

otten

DIS Veteran
Joined
Mar 4, 2015
Well I had originally intended to title my trip report: The long way to Disneyland: a Panama Canal trip report but well, things change.

So to start, some background. We booked this sailing on silver opening day, around 520 days in advance. It had taken me 4 years to convince my husband to take another cruise and he was sure it would be the last. We planned and planned but if there is a lesson to be learned here is that there are things you cannot plan for.

The cast:

me: Megan, the type A planner in the family

Augie: my husband who goes along with my plans

Avelyn: 8 loves villains and Mulan

Isabetta: 5 loves Ariel and princesses in general

So we joke that we have a bit of a travel curse in our family. Disaster seems to follow us when we travel. We have had hurricanes in Disney World, blizzards on South Carolina and a seemingly endless list of other travel hiccups. So we have learned to be flexible but perhaps a bit anxious regarding travel.

The first part of the trip went quite seamlessly. We travelled in two pairs, me and Avelyn on one itinerary and Isabetta and Augie on another. We drove from Vancouver to Seatac and parked our car in the area because that was the best value. We didn’t have any flight issues and all landed within about 30 minutes of each other.

We took a Lyft to our hotel. We arrived at around 9am and quite unexpectedly our room was ready. So we dropped off bags and changed clothes before hitting New Orleans. We went to Cafe du Monde first for beignets and then eventually headed over to city park to visit the sculpture garden and storyland playground. We spent a couple hours there before getting dinner near the hotel then crashing.
 
I was curious if someone would be doing a trip report from the Panama Canal. Seems like there were certainly some interesting choices even before Covid-19. Can't wait to read more!
 


I love reading trip reports and living vicariously through other cruisers. These days it will be a great diversion to read along that I need and I imagine many others do as well. So thank you for starting yours!
 


I am following also, we are booked for the WBPC next year. Hopefully the world will be back to normal by then. What hotel did you stay at? Did you like it?
 
Following. We were on this cruise as well and even though the world was "changing" at home, we had a great time despite missing several ports. We were in our Disney bubble. Ten sea days were defiantly something to experience! :boat:
 
Since we are now in self isolation at home for 2 weeks I should have plenty of time to go through the 2000 photos we took and keep this report updated.

Day 2 - Full Day in NOLA

This was our one full day in NOLA. The first thing we did was a tour geared towards kids with French Quartour kids. We had a small tour group with just one other family and our guide was a social studies teacher. We had a great time learning about the history of New Orleans while walking around the city. It's such a beautiful city with such a rich history. We thought the tour experience was great.

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After the tour we headed to the Court of Two Sisters for the jazz brunch. It was a bit chilly out (by Louisiana standards) so the seating was inside. We enjoyed this also. The girls didn't find much they wanted to eat but they loved the live music. I enjoyed all the seafood.

After brunch we went to Mardi Gras World. They have a shuttle from the French Quarter and offer tours. I thought it was interesting and the floats were neat to sea, especially since it was just after Mardi Gras season. I did find it irritating that apparently the shuttle back to the French Quarter ends before the last tours of the day? Seems like that would be helpful to mention. Anyway, it was a good diversion for a couple hours but I probably wouldn't bother again.

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We were still full from brunch so we didn't end up getting dinner that night. We just rearranged suitcases for embarkation day the following day and put the girls to bed. Then Augie and I took turns going to Bourbon street so we could get a teeny glimpse of that.

We were staying at the Dauphine Orleans at the recommendation of a friend who is a local. It was perfect. It was just a block away from Bourbon so we could go and check things out but the street the hotel was on was really quite. The room was clean and comfortable and the service was great. The rate was really reasonable too. I would stay there again.
 
Following. We were on this cruise as well and even though the world was "changing" at home, we had a great time despite missing several ports. We were in our Disney bubble. Ten sea days were defiantly something to experience! :boat:

I feel a bit guilty in some ways because other than missing Cartagena we really did get to do almost everything we had planning on doing and had a great trip. And of course then we got the discount too.
 
Joining in!! Hello from a fellow Vancouverite! Who is also quarantined for 14 days as we just came back from Hawaii last night (and we were originally booked on the WBPC cruise, too!)
 
Joining in!

I honestly wasn't following that closely so I really don't know what happened with this cruise, but am curious to find out!
 
Following! Was reading all about this cruise on twitter and here, so can't wait to read your TR too!
 
How was the kids tour? Worth while? Something you'd do again, and what ages was it geared for?
 
Reviving this after a loooooong hiatus lol. I went along time not wanting to think about this trip because it was so connected to the pandemic in my mind and my mental health took a bit of a beating in the last two years. It was a bummer to revisit a trip without knowing when we’d travel again and having nothing new to plan. But now that I’m regaining my optimism, it’s time to work on this report. While it has been two years I kept a lot of notes and voice memos as we went along.

Anyway, without further ado:
Embarkation Day

Today’s Disneybound: Fab 4 Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Daisy

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Finally. After a year and a half of planning and waiting (lol that I thought that was a long time to wait for a cruise) the day had arrived. We were going on board the Disney Wonder for a 14 day bucket list adventure.

But first, food. Avelyn was very eager to try alligator sausage. Obsessed even. So I looked for a nearby place that served them. We ended up at Daisy Dukes French Quarter. She ordered pancakes and a side of alligator sausage. The surprise on the server’s face was fun. She was such a picky kid for a long time so it’s great to see her be more adventurous. She loved the sausage. While she was eating them a big guy from a table over came up and told her he was too scared to try alligator sausage. She was proud of that.

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After breakfast we took the long way back to the hotel and walked along the water so we could see the boat. Once we arrived back at the hotel we finished gathering our bags and headed to the lobby to grab an uber.

There was some sort of construction or something going on nearby so there was a lot of traffic right outside the hotel but the drive to the port didn’t take long. We had a PAT of 11:30 and arrived around 11:15. Be got a boarding group of 8. Once through security and all that we ran into the family we were going to be eating with for the trip. We met on that other site and since we had kids of similar age we requested a table together. This worked out super well.

When our boarding group was called we joined the line to board. They did a temperature check right before getting on and then that was it! Time to get on the ship. We boarded at around 12:30. So exciting to hear our name announced after a 5 year gap.

The first stop after boarding was to sign up for the Coast to Coast campo it which is something that was offered on the PC and TA sailings. It’s a sleepover at Oceaneers. Not sure what the status of this is now. After that, to Lumieres for lunch. On our way to Lumieres we ran into Tiana, the first of many character encounters. Characters were everywhere on this sailing which was really fun.

It was a bit of a wait for the sit down at Lumieres but I wanted to try it instead of cabanas. I think next time we’ll just do Cabanas though. After lunch we went to the kids club open house. On our last cruise Isabetta was too young for the clubs and Avelyn was too shy so we were definitely hoping to make more use of the clubs this trip.

After that we did the muster drill. Funny to think that was one of the last of that version of muster drill?! Quite looking forward to the new app check in version. Then we had the sail away party. This is where you really saw how few kids were on this cruise. Then we set sail down the Mississippi!

We had early dining and dinner on day 1 was in Animator’s Palate. Let the Magic Begin Menu, no show. This was our first meal with the B family. They also have two girls and the kids got along like a house on fire. In fact after dinner the four of them wanted to check into Oceaneers and on the way there what do you know, a Cinderella siting! So while they were occupied in the club DH and I got a drink in the French Quarter Lounge and then walked up on deck for awhile. Back inside the lobby atrium we ran into Daisy Duck and she tried to still my man! Wait til I tell Donald. 1736-66610101-Classic CL Daisy Sailor 4 Starboard-46297_GPR.jpg

We also saw Minnie Mouse and then after getting the kids from the club we got a picture with Mickey in our Fab 4 outfits before heading to bed after a very busy day.
 
I’m so glad you’re back! I’m looking forward to reading the rest of your report.
 

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