Panama Canal Cruise Recap: Day Three
Today we scratched the first of five ports off our list and as the day comes to a close, we’re reflecting on a great day in beautiful Cabo San Lucas.
The Disney Wonder arrived at our first stop on the Mexican Riviera around 9am this morning. This is a tender port, which means the ship cannot dock due to a shallow harbor. Instead, water taxis (called tenders) take passengers to and from the ship. Disney Cruise Line has a very organized system for getting everyone ashore without creating massive lines and clogging the gangways and tender docks. If you’re on an organized excursion, you meet at a specific place on the ship and are escorted to the tender boat (or to the pier on the days we dock). If you are going ashore independently, you visit the Buena Vista Theatre (the ship’s movie theatre) and get a tender ticket and wait in that venue until called. When I arrived shortly after 9:30am there were only three people ahead of me. On days when we dock, those without excursions may simply come and go as they please.
The ride on the tender is only about 5-6 minutes and we dock in a lovely harbor next to a beautiful outcropping of rocks. The harbor is more or less in the shape of a U with the tender port on one edge and the rest of the semi-circle being the home of various marinas, shops and restaurants. Some of our group went snorkeling in the crystal clear waters, while others enjoyed a guided tour of the city. Some of us (including me) decided to simply go ashore and explore the area around the port. I found a lovely restaurant called the Cabo Cantina and enjoyed some mariachi music, some great Mexican food and some very friendly and hilarious waiters. I will certainly be sure to visit this spot on future trips to Cabo San Lucas. Today, in addition to the Disney Wonder, the Oceania Regatta was in the harbor so the shops and restaurants were filled by guests from two cruise ships. There are approximately 1900 guests onboard Disney Wonder and although I do not know the current count onboard Regatta, the ship typically has between 600 and 650 guests.
After a delicious lunch and a stroll through some of the shops, I headed back to the ship. Our group decided to skip this evening’s show in favor of watching the Astros/Dodgers World Series Game 5. The game went so long that we were able to go to dinner and return for the end.
Dinner tonight was our second “rotational” dining night. The last time I sailed on Disney Wonder, the restaurant was called Parrot Cay and to be honest, it was the least impressive of the ship’s dining venues. Since then, it has been transformed into a New Orleans Jazz & Supper Club called Tiana’s Place, based on the Disney film “The Princess and the Frog.” The lovely Princess Tiana welcomed us to her restaurant and introduced an amazing jazz band that played throughout our dinner. Tiana also visited every table and had a nice chat with us. I even got another photo with her (I had met her at the Princess Gathering yesterday). The food was some of the best we’d had so far, and although there were some other amazing choices on the menu, I opted for the vegetarian dish of the night – an amazing lentil risotto. It was perhaps the best dish I’ve had on the ship so far – and that’s saying something. Simply delicious.
After dinner, we returned to the Crown & Fin pub to catch the end of the World Series game. Those who watched the game already know how exhausting it was and between that nail-biter and our long day ashore, we all decided to turn in afterwards and rest up for our next port, Puerto Vallarta. We also get one hour less sleep tonight as we must set our clocks ahead one hour as we sail into a new time zone overnight. This is the first of three times we’ll do this during our voyage to Galveston.
We arrive in Puerto Vallarta tomorrow morning. Until then, good night from the Pacific Ocean and the beautiful Disney Wonder.
