Panama Canal Cruise Recap: Day One

Note: Our wifi is limited so updates will not be as frequent as we’d like. Today we’re posting the first two blogs back-to-back. Thanks for your understanding.

We’re wrapping up our first day onboard the Disney Wonder. Throughout the voyage I’ll be blogging daily (if satellite internet allows) to chronicle our journey.

Today we arrived at the pier in San Diego around 12:00pm. Check-in was quick and efficient as it has always been on my nine Disney cruises. Our group of 6 was given our room keys and we were immediately led to the boarding area. We took some great boarding pictures which I will share in a future post. A few minutes after taking our pictures, we were welcomed onboard in the traditional Disney Cruise Line manner. For those who have never sailed with Disney, they welcome every family onboard by announcing your family name (“Disney Wonder please welcome aboard the Grum family!”) and then you walk into the beautiful atrium as a line of officers on each side of you welcome you and applaud your entrance. It’s a lovely touch and sets the mood for the entire cruise.

Once onboard, we headed straight to the spa, where several members of our party wanted to book a special cruise-long pass to the rainforest & thermal spas on the ship. This is my fourth voyage on Disney Wonder but my first since its 2016 refurbishment. The spa is completely different and looks great. I’m planning on taking photos of the entire ship and will certainly include the spa in those pictures. Due to limited internet, those photos may not be posted until we return to Galveston.

After our visit to the spa, we headed to Triton’s, one of the three main dining rooms, for lunch. Disney is one of the few cruise lines that offers a buffet AND a seated dining option on embarkation day. This really helps with the flow of people onboard the ship. Usually most cruise lines have a packed buffet on embarkation day. We found eating in the dining room was convenient and less crowded.

Following lunch, we headed to our staterooms to unpack. At 4pm, it was time for the muster drill. On this ship, some of the passengers must assemble at an outdoor station while others are able to attend the drill at an indoor venue. Luckily, my room is in the zone that meets in one of the restaurants, so we were able to have a comfortable indoor seat during the required drill. Disney Cruise Line scans all room keys when you arrive at the drill. This expedites the drill (no head counts) but also helps them determine quickly which cabins are missing. The entire process took about 30 minutes. Very efficient.

At the conclusion of the drill, we all headed to the After Hours area of the ship, which is the adults only area. We gathered in the Crown & Fin Pub, the ship’s sports bar, to watch the World Series. We got to see the first few innings and enjoy a few cocktails before it was time to head up one deck to the Walt Disney Theatre to see our first live show.

On Disney ships, there are two dining times and at those times there are also two shows. We have late dining so we go to the early show each night. On embarkation day, it’s a welcome aboard variety show hosted by the Cruise Director. The show featured a medley of songs from the three live production shows we will see (The Golden Mickeys, Disney Dreams: An Enchanted Classic and Frozen) plus performances from two of the variety acts that will entertain us during this 14-night journey. One was Shawn Farquhar, a magician and the other was wonderful Philippino acapella group called Filharmonic. Each gave us a sample of the shows they’ll do later in the cruise. The grand finale was “Be Our Guest” which both entertained and educated as it told the story of the “rotational” dining on Disney cruises. There are three main dining rooms and each night we will rotate between the three but keep the same table number and wait staff. This is another Disney exclusive and makes for a fun dining experience since each night is a different menu and theme.

We had a few minutes after the show to catch a couple of innings of the World Series before heading to Triton’s for our dinner. Triton’s is one of the three rotational restaurants (Animator’s Palate and Tiana’s Place are the other two). The first night onboard is the “Let the Magic Begin Menu” in all three restaurants. Here’s the menu:

After a wonderful dinner, we decided to call it a night as most of us are still on Texas time (so it feels two hours later than it really is) and this has been a long day. We have many exciting things to look forward to tomorrow, our first full day at sea, including lectures about the Panama Canal and the history of Disney animation, some fun classes where we’ll learn to draw some of the famous Disney characters, plus tomorrow night is the first formal night and “rotational” dining night. We’ll be in Animator’s Palate where we’ll get a great meal and a fantastic Disney-themed show as well. This restaurant has been re-designed since my last sailing on this ship and I’m very excited to see what it has in store.

There’s also a rumor that I might get to meet a few Princesses tomorrow and possibly a couple of sisters from Arendelle. Hopefully they’ll permit me to take some photos.

Until tomorrow, good night from the Pacific Ocean just south of San Diego.