Eric's 14 night Disney Panama Canal Cruise - May 2005

2 adults 2 kids ages 5 (Zoe), and 18 months (Max)

The cruise was great with many high moments. I would have to say that I would never take a long trip with an 18 month old again though. Sharing a small stateroom with two kids is something I would not wish on anyone. Max actually got a little sick for a few days which curtailed our fun just a bit as you could imagine. The day he got back home he miraculously recovered!! Zoe had a fantastic time though and really got to take advantage of all the great activities. As you might expect, there was a lot of activities surrounding the "princesses" such as parties and special autograph and photo sessions.

Some things you might be interested in that we did not experience before. Somehow we were chosen by a rookie guest services woman as a "magical family" for the cruise. Almost every day we received gifts and notes such as video game cards, Disney story books of various types, stuffed Disney characters, picture frames, 6-packs of evian water, character-signed pillow cases, and phone calls asking us if we needed anything at all. That was really great. The first day in the room since we were repeat customers we received a big blanket with printing on it commemorating the panama canal crossing which we will get a lot of use from. Everyone on the ship also received a hardback book all about the history of the panama canal which was really great. On the last day everyone also received a beautiful signed lithograph by Don "ducky" Williams specially drawn about the connecting of the two "worlds" with the cruise ship in the middle. We will definitely get that framed.

The weather was fantastic for the vast majority of the time with only a couple of hours of rain on only one day and some chill on the last day at sea. The ports were a mixed bag I'm afraid. Curacao was pretty but the people were surly and not very friendly to tourists. We only were in the downtown section so I can't say anything about it outside of that area. We did not do an excursion at that port. Talking with other guests basically confirmed what our experience had been. After a day at sea we went through the canal which was as dramatic as you can imagine. I and another person actually went up on deck at 4:00 a.m. to get good spots on deck 9 forward.

You will probably hear about this or already have but the people on this cruise were very different from most all other Disney cruises. There was of course kids on the boat but not nearly as many as any other sailing. This cruise was filled with insane Disney fanatics. Disney apparently offered many commemorative items such as t-shirts, pins, etc. The pin traders were on full force. People were actually fighting for places in line to get some of the pins as Disney apparently did not anticipate the demand for these pins. People were sleeping in the halls in front of the shops to get a voucher to buy the pins. Since they ran out of so many items hundreds of people complained and the President of the cruise line actually wrote a letter that was delivered to everyone's stateroom apologizing and stating the more stuff was being made so people could order it. The people we made friends with actually woke up at 5:00 a.m. one morning to get some voucher for a special pin and they were 387 in line. I am not making this up. In addition because the average age of the people on this cruise there were all sorts of medical problems. On the second day when we were in Castaway Cay, a 68 year-old man died at the adult beach while snorkeling. Apparently he had a massive coronary in the water and of course nobody noticed for a while because he was swimming. They tried to resuscitate him on the beach but he was already gone. We ended up leaving Castaway Cay 1.5 hours late because they had to make arrangements for a helicopter to pick the body up. One other thing was while we were going through the last lock in the canal before entering the Pacific, the boat was actually lowered 4 inches so an older couple could get in an ambulance. They were able to walk off the ship and that was while we were still in one of the locks.

Acapulco was dingy and dirty with quite a bit of smog. My wife and daughter went on the "family" beach break excursion but were very disappointed. They could not swim in the water because of the undertow and they were constantly hassled by locals trying to sell them things. The excursion operators actually had to station people at the edges of the beach to keep the locals away. The highlight of Acapulco was the night time "Pirates of the Carribbean" deck party. That was actually a lot of fun with very nice live fireworks display. Local people were lined up on the dock to see the boat off and see the Disney characters which both came off the ship and also waved from various decks. I can't say much about Mazatlan because we stayed on the ship but various people I talked to said it was okay but nicer than Acapulco. The shore highlight was definitely Cabo San Lucas. It was beautiful and the locals were very nice. We walked all around and had a fantastic Mexican lunch at a place called Pancho's which was about a 15 minute walk from the ship. I think our next vacation will be a week in Cabo. The landscape was gorgeous and the water was beautiful. You might want to warn people about time share people on the dock right when you get off the tender. We were suckered (lied to) and ended up going on a time share tour of the resort. I have to clarify and say that I was actually glad I ended up going because seeing the resort definitely convinced me that I wanted to come back as renter (as opposed to a time-share owner). The resort is called Pueblo Bonito at Sunset Beach. The reason I am telling you is that a lot of people on the cruise got suckered into going so people should be aware of what it is and make their decision from there. I have to say though that it was probably the most beautiful resort I have ever seen and that is coming from someone who does quite a bit of travel. I wouldn't buy a time share but I would definitely rent one for a week. Other that that I would highly recommend Cabo but once again we did not go on any Disney sponsored excursions.

I think DCL probably learned a lot from this first 14-day cruise. This is not to say that things weren't smooth, they were. The food was great, the service was excellent as usual and they went farther to provide entertainment for everyone. One night they actually flew in "Boyz 2 Men" for a show which was great. I think it was hardest on the crew because of the amount of sea days and because this crowd was defiantly not your usual father-mother-kids group. Guest services were constantly packed with people complaining about the dumbest stuff. Lastly, our stateroom was really nice and I would definitely recommend the port hole for those who can afford it but do not want a verandah because of kids. My children loved looking through the window and it really made the cabin feel bigger with all the light that it got during the day. I would not get an inside stateroom again. The only bad thing is that our cabin which was room 7010 was right across from the hall from where the room cleaning crew went in and out of. On the first and last day when they were moving all the luggage around, that door loudly slammed literally hundreds of times. It was incredibly annoying. In addition during every day when the crew came out with their cleaning carts the door slammed more which was very disturbing to our kids who were taking naps. Please keep this in mind if you have kids who nap during the day. I would also be careful of proximity to laundry facilities because that is also very loud with lots of foot traffic at all hours.