Making History! A 2017 Westbound Panama Canal Trip Report **Complete**

Still more pictures of the breakfast buffet. As you can see, there were plenty of options.

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While I was taking pictures, the boys decided to grace us with their presence.

Jimmy's breakfast plate

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James' breakfast

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To our amazement, we finished breakfast in time to catch the 8:30am showing of Beauty and the Beast in the Buena Vista Theater.

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What a spectacular movie! My whole family enjoyed it.

After the movie, Emily went off to the Oceaneer Lab, James returned to the cabin to get cleaned up for the day, while Jimmy and I headed up to deck 9 for a snack.

We arrived at 10:50am. Eye Scream didn't open until 11am. I'm shocked there wasn't a puddle of drool under him.

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While we waited, I took pictures of the peaceful deck.

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Fearful that we might waste away during the ten minute wait, we grabbed a few items to tide us over.

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Finally, Eye Scream opened. Yay!

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Strawberry and Mango - Yum!

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Jimmy and I enjoyed our treats while watching Inside Out on the Funnel Vision.

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After awhile, Jimmy headed off to the Edge. I met back up with James, and we went to deck 4 to read. Ahhh! Now, this was the life!

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My kids love the cabanas breakfast buffet. Our last trip my oldest was doing his own tray for the first time, and holy cats the bacon he chose. Like seriously grapefruit size gobs of bacon. And he ate it all!
 


I just ate dinner, but my mouth is watering looking at the buffet!
 
Loving your trip report! It's nice to relive this wonderful cruise through your report. I was in the audience when your husband was brought to the stage for the comic show.

And Nan was our stateroom host on our 2015 WBPC cruise. She was awesome. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to see her this time.
 


My kids love the cabanas breakfast buffet. Our last trip my oldest was doing his own tray for the first time, and holy cats the bacon he chose. Like seriously grapefruit size gobs of bacon. And he ate it all!

That sounds like Emily on our previous Panama Canal Cruise. She went CRAZY with the bacon on the first morning. She, however, barely ended up touching it. She wasn't a fan of DCL bacon. At home, that's another story...

Jimmy went nuts over pastries, though. He loved those things.

I just ate dinner, but my mouth is watering looking at the buffet!

I know what you mean. Just posting them made my tummy rumble. ;)

Loving your trip report! It's nice to relive this wonderful cruise through your report. I was in the audience when your husband was brought to the stage for the comic show.

And Nan was our stateroom host on our 2015 WBPC cruise. She was awesome. I'm sorry I didn't get the chance to see her this time.

Thank you. Nan was fantastic. She was so sweet. She was so excited to go through the new Panama Canal Locks. It was great to see the CMs as excited as we were.

LOL at Jimmy's face in front of the closed Eye Scream!

I know! He kept saying, "So close, but so far away."
 
At 12:30pm, we attempted to gather the kids for lunch. Jimmy wouldn't leave the Edge, but Emily tagged along with us for one reason only -- Mickey bars!

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Guess whose lunch this is?

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She promised to grabbed something "real" on deck 9, but she could only get Mickey bars at Triton's.

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James and I actually wanted sustenance. For his appetizer, James ordered the steak salad. He really enjoyed this.

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I had the Portobello mushroom carpaccio. This was delicious. I especially loved the cheese that was served with it.

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For my main course, I had the gemelli pasta with a side of shaved parmesan. I would definitely recommend this.

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For his main course, James had the salmon. He liked it, but was already full from his steak salad. He needed to save room for the most important part of any meal...

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Dessert! I had the cherry crepes...

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...and the macadamia nut pie. Both were good, but not spectacular.

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James had the sundae and an extra side of vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce.

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By the time we finished lunch, Emily was itching to take advantage of the empty pool deck. She and James changed into their swimwear, while I grabbed my tablet. Before I abandoned them for a shady place to read, Emily wanted me to see her go down the water slide.

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Emily at the bottom of the Twist & Spout.

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It wasn't long before Emily found a couple of her new friends. Mom was immediately forgotten.

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With James on deck 9 with Emily, I headed off to Deck 4 where I read for about fifteen minutes before the next movie I wanted to see began.

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The Force Awakens


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After the movie, I returned to our cabin to find this on the vanity.

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This sparkling cider was a gift from Guest Services as an apology for our air conditioning problems. How nice! I immediately put it in the refrigerator to chill.

I was still in the room when James and Emily returned fully waterlogged and ready to dry off. I returned to deck 4 in order to give them space to do just that. I sat on the opposite side this time, following the shade. We were parked next to the Norwegian Jade. It was safe to assume that their all aboard time was rapidly approaching because people were running to the ship.

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By the time James and Emily got cleaned up, it was time for James and I to head to ballroom dancing. James had gotten a bit too much sun today and wasn't feeling particularly well. So he sat back and watched, while I danced the hustle with Jarrod. Oh darn! ;)

Seriously, though, it was amazing being able to dance with someone who knew what he was doing. Don't get me wrong, I know how fortunate I am that I have a husband who will dance with me. I am truly blessed. Also, let me be clear, I am no better of a dancer than he is. We're both equally terrible. It was just really nice to have Jarrod take the lead because no matter how bad I was, he always kept us on beat. It was also lots of fun to try out new moves that would have left James and I tangled in a pretzel-like heap on the floor. Thanks Jarrod! You're the best!


Because I was having so much fun dancing, we didn't leave early like we should have, and we were late to dinner in Animator's Palate. Unlike us, our kids were responsible enough to arrive on time. This was a common occurrence throughout the cruise. At least our children were raised right. ;)

Tonight's menu was the standard rotational menu at Animator's Palate. I forgot to take a picture of it, but you can find it here: http://disneycruiselineblog.com/menus/animators-palate-menu-magic-wonder/

James started with the baked potato and cheddar cheese soup.

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I had the butternut squash soup.

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I also had the chicken and walnut salad.

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Jimmy ordered the kids' pizza and was immediately reminded that this was not the same pizza that was served on deck 9. Needless to say, he didn't care for it.

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No matter. In the end, he joined Emily and I in ordering double Black Truffle Pursiettes as our main course. We all LOVE these things!

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James, being the odd man out, ordered the beef tenderloin. He seemed to enjoy this as much as we enjoyed our pasta.

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A special visitor came to dinner.

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Once Mickey left, it was time for dessert. We got a special surprise this evening. Yesterday, I'd told Levi, our server, how much I'd LOVED the warm chocolate-hazelnut lava cake. So what did he do? He had the chef prepare five of them for our table. What a treat! Even if he'd turned out to be the worst server in the world after this moment (which he wasn't in the least), I would have forgiven him because of this one brilliant move. The dessert was as scrumptious as it had been the other day at lunch. Pure heaven!

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Jimmy also ordered a sundae.

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James passed on the lava cake for his go-to dessert - vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce.

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I love these. Couldn't get enough of them on my last cruise. Can't wait to have them again :)
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Subscribing! I was also on this cruise and have a TR of my own

I know! You had your trip report going before I even finished unpacking. LOL! I've been reading yours along with Linda and Joh's. I love experiencing this vacation from everyone else's perspectives. It just shows how much there was to experience on this incredible cruise. Keep up the great trip report. I look forward to reading more. And thanks for coming along on my journey as well!
 
Here are a few of the desserts we'd ordered prior to Levi surprising us. We ate the ice cream and took the desserts to go. No fear, they didn't go to waste.

Warm, sticky date pudding

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Warm, sticky date pudding and crunchy walnut cake

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After dinner, I went for a walk by myself on deck 4. It was a lovely evening outside.

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After I met back up with my family, our next stop was the Walt Disney Theater to see Hector is Magic.

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https://www.facebook.com/pg/hectorismagic/photos/

Isn't he a cutie? Hector wasn't just gorgeous, he was a pretty darn good magician, too! My whole family enjoyed the show.

From the theater, the children ran off to their clubs, while James and I went to Azure to watch The Edge Effect.

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https://www.facebook.com/pg/EdgeEffectMusic/photos/

They were an incredible A Capella group. Their rendition of Hallelujah gave me chills. James and I liked them so much we decided to stick around for their second performance.

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In between The Edge Effects' two shows, Joh, the adult entertainment host, led us in a game called Intuition. Once again, James volunteered me to participate, and I was selected to go on stage. The goal of the game was to match my teammates answers to random questions. For instance, one of the questions was, "What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the name Dolly Parton?" Surprise, surprise, all six contestants came up with the same answer, and no, it wasn't country music. I had fun playing. Plus, my team won! We were already getting quite the collection of plastic medallions.

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By the time we left Azure, it was nearly midnight. Still, we beat the kids back to the cabin. Both of them arrived shortly after midnight after their clubs closed. We all went to bed exhausted. Another fun day was behind us.

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Wednesday, April 26, Day at Sea

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Prior to the cruise, at Emily's request, I scheduled our family to meet the princesses in the atrium at 9:30a and the Frozen crew at 10a. On our last cruise, my children had little interest in meeting characters. I was so glad to have at least one of my kids excited about them again!

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While Emily and I were ready to get breakfast with plenty of time to spare before the Meet & Greets, the boys weren't ready to be functional yet, so we headed to Cabanas without them. Neither of us were all that hungry so we just grabbed a couple of muffins to tide us over.

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Satisfied, Emily and I took the elevator down to deck 3 to get in line to meet some princesses. Even requiring tickets, the line went halfway down the hallway alongside Triton's. Having a bit of a wait ahead of us, we began chatting with the couple behind us. After a few minutes, a young cast member approached us and asked to see our tickets. We showed ours, however, the couple behind us didn't realize that they needed tickets. Whoops!

No problem. I asked the cast member if they could just have our two extra tickets and he replied, "Sure!" It felt nice to spread a little Disney magic. That is, until Jimmy showed up not five minutes later. I thought this might be a problem, but once again, the cast member said, "Don't worry about it."


Truth be told, Jimmy had zero interest in meeting the princesses. However, Mama wanted to spend a little time with the children she'd barely seen since the cruise began. So, I gave him a choice: he could either take pictures with us now, or he could come to dance class with James and I later. Since he was already there, he chose to get the mandatory parental time out of the way.

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More princesses...

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When we finished with the Princess Meet & Greet, we headed up one deck to Animator's Palate. Jimmy took his opportunity to escape. Though we lost one man, we gained another. We'd only been in line a minute or two, when James joined us in Animator's Palate. The restaurant was all decked out for winter. Isn't it lovely?

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Emily wanted a few pictures with the décor.

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Leaving the royalty behind us, Emily skittered off to the kids' club, while James and I caught the tail end of Anyone Can Cook. The chef had made pot stickers. They were so good! We used to love the pot stickers on the Pirate Night Menu before it changed. While I used to eat a double order at dinner, at least I got to eat one on this cruise. The cucumber slaw that he served with it was delicious, too.

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Sampling pot stickers made us realize that we hungry. Triton's wasn't open yet, so we went up to deck 9 to see what it had to offer. James discovered throughout the cruise that he couldn't pass the pizza station without having a couple slices. It called to him...

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He also decided to try the shwarma. He got the lamb. He said he really liked it.

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I had the soft-serve flavor of the day. It's either strawberry-banana or strawberry-mango. Either way, it was good.

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James also discovered that he couldn't pass Cabana's without getting some hard scoop ice cream. It looks like mint chocolate chip and dulce de leche - his two favorites.


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Look at all those goodies! It was hard to resist, but I opted to wait to eat anymore until Triton's opened.

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By the time James finished his ice cream, Triton's had opened for lunch. The children opted to get lunch on their own, so we enjoyed a quiet, kid-free meal.

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To start, I had the tomato and mozzarella bruschetta.

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James had the beef satay skewers. This was his favorite lunch dish of the entire cruise. I sampled them, and I must say, dipped in the peanut sauce, they were very good.

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For my main course, I had the farfalle pasta.

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James had the churrasco steak.

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For dessert, I had the chocolate, vanilla, & raspberry cheese tart.

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James had the sundae.

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Being by ourselves, we lingered at lunch a tad too long and arrived at the Golden Mickey's dance class several minutes late. They had already learned the first set of moves so I spent most of the class scrambling to catch up. James sat near me and watched, letting himself digest. We learned the choreography to "You've Got a Friend in Me" that would be performed later that evening in the Walt Disney Theater during the Golden Mickey's.

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Here we are performing what we learned.

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Here was our whole class at the end of our performance, tipping our imaginary cowboy hats. I had a lot of fun. I'd hoped to make it to more of these choreography classes, but it didn't work out that way. Oh darn! I guess I'll just have to go on another long cruise for another chance to take them. ;)

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