Only 66 days until we depart?!?!? Uh-oh! Time to fire up the Trip Report!
Welcome, welcome, one and all! Please join me, as I freak out, planning for our 14 night Panama Canal Cruise and my first EVER trip to Disneyland! (The more the merrier!)
A little background....
My name is Jenn. I am an ex-Disney Cast Member of 13 years, who now works as a private travel agent in Boston and is now, and will eternally be, TOTALLY obsessed with all things Disney. I have been on 11 Disney Cruises but this will be my first one over 7 nights! It's going to seem like a dream, or a "Wonder", I guess.
I am traveling with my husband, Jay, who works with me and is fairly equally Disney obsessed, (though few people are quite as... shall we say "dedicated" to Disney as I am. I am sure since you are on the DIS Boards, you can relate!).
Jay and I actually met on a DCL trip back in April of 2003. We fell in love and then got married on another DCL trip in September of 2005. Since then, we have celebrated 3 different anniversaries onboard and this time we will be celebrating 8 years!
We usually travel in a herd, with various family members and friends, but this time it's just us. Holy cow! JUST US....for a 17 night vacation! Woo-hoo!!!!!
We booked this trip just a few weeks back, in late May, using our awesome Travel Agent deal. And we figured, since we are going to the West Coast, may as well do our FIRST TRIP EVER TO DISNEYLAND!!! I know, right? Totally sacrilegious that I have never been! I cannot WAIT to walk where Walt once walked and dreamed! We will be staying at Paradise Pier, starting on September 11th, and staying until the morning of the cruise, on the 14th.
We got great flights on Jetblue, from Boston to Long Beach, and Galveston to Boston, all for about $300 per person. We are planning on doing a private transfer from the airport to DL, and DL to the port, as well as a private transfer from the port in Texas to the airport.
We are booked in a Cat. 9 GTY, so I am eagerly anticipating getting a cabin number. We honestly don't care WHERE we are on the ship, but it's always fun to get your GTY cabin number! (Fingers crossed for an upgrade!)
As for Disneyland, we don't have any major plans, other than to hit DL and DCA, and see absolutely everything in two days, including Haunted Mansion Holiday. Oh, and we do have a reservation to keep....at CLUB 33!!! Whaaaaaatttt???? Yep, you read right! We have AWESOME friends, (whom we ALSO met on a DCL trip), that live in the LA area and have some sweet hook ups. As long as we get the green light later this month, we will be dining at Club 33! (Talk about making a trip hard to top!)
As for the cruise, no major plans there either. We are not usually excursion people. We tend to be "hang-out" people, hence why we are so psyched about 7 nights at sea! We will for sure get off the ship in each port, but we will most likely go off on our own and come back to the ship whenever we are done.
I did make Palo brunch and dinner reservations, and we are hoping to see our friend, Sasha, whom we adore. I have heard from those on the Alaskan trips that he is, in fact, on board and should be through our cruise, so here's hoping. It's strange for us to be on the Wonder. We have a LOT of crew member friends on the Magic and some on the Dream and Fantasy, but very few on the Wonder. The Magic will always be special, since Jay and I met and got married on it, but I do have to say, I like the lobby, Triton's and Route 66 much better than Lumiere's and Beat Street.
I loooove planning for Disney Cruises, so as always, I went nuts and made a super detailed spreadsheet of which nights were which menus/dress code/shows/ports, etc. From that, I requested PTA as the dining rotation, so that we get Triton's for most formal meals, and Parrot Cay for Pirate night.
So now, we are in countdown mode. I believe everything is planned out that needs to be. I'm just waiting for the trip to get a little closer to get more details from DCL about which movies will be showing onboard and whether or not they plan on having any "special guests" on our cruise, like they have had Susan Egan, Don "Ducky" Williams, etc., in the past.
If anyone is traveling with us and wants to see my spread sheet or any of the menus, let me know...I can hook you up!
And if anyone has done the PC before and has tips or "must do's" in the ports, feel free to share!
Welcome, welcome, one and all! Please join me, as I freak out, planning for our 14 night Panama Canal Cruise and my first EVER trip to Disneyland! (The more the merrier!)
A little background....
My name is Jenn. I am an ex-Disney Cast Member of 13 years, who now works as a private travel agent in Boston and is now, and will eternally be, TOTALLY obsessed with all things Disney. I have been on 11 Disney Cruises but this will be my first one over 7 nights! It's going to seem like a dream, or a "Wonder", I guess.
I am traveling with my husband, Jay, who works with me and is fairly equally Disney obsessed, (though few people are quite as... shall we say "dedicated" to Disney as I am. I am sure since you are on the DIS Boards, you can relate!).
Jay and I actually met on a DCL trip back in April of 2003. We fell in love and then got married on another DCL trip in September of 2005. Since then, we have celebrated 3 different anniversaries onboard and this time we will be celebrating 8 years!
We usually travel in a herd, with various family members and friends, but this time it's just us. Holy cow! JUST US....for a 17 night vacation! Woo-hoo!!!!!
We booked this trip just a few weeks back, in late May, using our awesome Travel Agent deal. And we figured, since we are going to the West Coast, may as well do our FIRST TRIP EVER TO DISNEYLAND!!! I know, right? Totally sacrilegious that I have never been! I cannot WAIT to walk where Walt once walked and dreamed! We will be staying at Paradise Pier, starting on September 11th, and staying until the morning of the cruise, on the 14th.
We got great flights on Jetblue, from Boston to Long Beach, and Galveston to Boston, all for about $300 per person. We are planning on doing a private transfer from the airport to DL, and DL to the port, as well as a private transfer from the port in Texas to the airport.
We are booked in a Cat. 9 GTY, so I am eagerly anticipating getting a cabin number. We honestly don't care WHERE we are on the ship, but it's always fun to get your GTY cabin number! (Fingers crossed for an upgrade!)
As for Disneyland, we don't have any major plans, other than to hit DL and DCA, and see absolutely everything in two days, including Haunted Mansion Holiday. Oh, and we do have a reservation to keep....at CLUB 33!!! Whaaaaaatttt???? Yep, you read right! We have AWESOME friends, (whom we ALSO met on a DCL trip), that live in the LA area and have some sweet hook ups. As long as we get the green light later this month, we will be dining at Club 33! (Talk about making a trip hard to top!)
As for the cruise, no major plans there either. We are not usually excursion people. We tend to be "hang-out" people, hence why we are so psyched about 7 nights at sea! We will for sure get off the ship in each port, but we will most likely go off on our own and come back to the ship whenever we are done.
I did make Palo brunch and dinner reservations, and we are hoping to see our friend, Sasha, whom we adore. I have heard from those on the Alaskan trips that he is, in fact, on board and should be through our cruise, so here's hoping. It's strange for us to be on the Wonder. We have a LOT of crew member friends on the Magic and some on the Dream and Fantasy, but very few on the Wonder. The Magic will always be special, since Jay and I met and got married on it, but I do have to say, I like the lobby, Triton's and Route 66 much better than Lumiere's and Beat Street.
I loooove planning for Disney Cruises, so as always, I went nuts and made a super detailed spreadsheet of which nights were which menus/dress code/shows/ports, etc. From that, I requested PTA as the dining rotation, so that we get Triton's for most formal meals, and Parrot Cay for Pirate night.
So now, we are in countdown mode. I believe everything is planned out that needs to be. I'm just waiting for the trip to get a little closer to get more details from DCL about which movies will be showing onboard and whether or not they plan on having any "special guests" on our cruise, like they have had Susan Egan, Don "Ducky" Williams, etc., in the past.
If anyone is traveling with us and wants to see my spread sheet or any of the menus, let me know...I can hook you up!
And if anyone has done the PC before and has tips or "must do's" in the ports, feel free to share!
We may make the spur of the moment decision to head to 
)
