Day 6: En route to the Panama Canal

And we're off! For those of you out there who love seeing the cool GPS track: *hums the Indiana Jones theme song*


And don't forget, you can click on the graphic for an actual interactive Google Map!

Lets see... another sea day, what oh what were we to do. Well there's always food! Actually, we had a few things going on during this sea day. Captain Puckett gave another guest speech on what to watch for when traveling through the Panama Canal, which we would do the following day. He was again very informative, and gave us lots of facts about going through the canal, what to watch for, what happens, etc. He was definitely entertaining and worth listening to. For future cruisers going through the Panama Canal, I hope they bring him back!

One really cool thing they do on the Disney Cruise Line is show a new first-run Disney movie if it premier's during the cruise. They announced a midnight showing of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I would have totally gone, but it was the evening before (or morning of) that we would be going through the canal. I didn't want to be so tired. Also, the next evening, after going through the canal, they showed the movie as the evening entertainment. Good enough for me!

Not a whole lot of interest happened on this sea day, but I can talk about something near and dear to the hearts of Disney fans (and employees) everywhere: merchandise! There was a lot of special merchandise on the trip, obviously because of it's rarity. There were plenty of Panama Canal crossing gear, hats, shirts, sweatshirts, pins, postcards, mugs, magnets, luggage tags, and more. I took several pics, then there's the stuff I ended up bringing home with me too. Some were definitely Panama Canal themed, others I just found funny! Here is a little gallery of sorts of some of the merchandise from the ship:

Check back at http://mynameisnotjonas.blogspot.com for pictures and my blabbering on the Panama Canal!

Day 5: Aruba

Land ho!!! At long last we reach the island nation of Aruba, which a member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. And technically we dock in the capital city of Oranjestad, but who's keeping track?



Aruba's motto is "One Happy Island" and it seems fitting. People seemed pretty happy!

Someone in our group (yeah, that was me) suggested a jeep ride without first realizing that Aruba is a oddity; Aruba is a desert island. According to our Aruban tour guide, Aruba receives 18 inches of rainfall annually, and the weather is mainly sunny and warm all year, about 82 F degrees. Very nice weather, let me tell you what! The north/eastern coast is plummeted with tradewinds from Africa at about a constant speed of 30 MPH. Most of our jeep tour featured this coast. It doesn't have the pretty white sandy beaches, or resorts. Just... dirt. And jeeps know how to kick up dirt!

We visited a few cool places. First we saw the California lighthouse. It it at the far northwestern corner of the island and named for the steamship California which sunk not far from the spot. It's a popular snorkeling/scuba diving attraction. The lighthouse itself was a cool sight, definitely a photo op. I also saw a pretty cool looking golf course, which is called Tierra del Sol or ("land of the sun").





After the lighthouse, we took our jeep (although it was really more like a Land Rover) off the main road and down the dusty north/east coast. We were jeep #2 in our group, but we still got a decent amount of dust. The jeep was covered, that definitely helped prevent a repeat of the jeep sunburn I got in Cozumel! Did I mention the dust? Along the coast we stopped once for some pictures just along the side of the dirt road. People have put stones on top of each other for good luck and fertility. Well I'm all for good luck at least!!

Our second stop was a little higher up and away from the coast at the Alto Vista Chapel. This Catholic chapel was built in the 1750s, and then rebuilt in the 1950s. It was kinda neat, very small. It was the first church built on the island, and is still used today.

We continued south and east along the coast and stopped briefly at a natural bridge. The sea eats at the rock limestone leaving a hole, or creating a land bridge out of the remaining rock. We also went to another natural bridge.

Another place we stopped was some sort of ruins. I have no idea what they are or what they were, but they appear to be made out of little pieces of rock!

Our jeep tour took us to De Palm Island, a private island where they have food, bars, water sports (snorkeling, snuba, swimming, beach, a small water park for the kids), and... that's about it. Lunch at De Palm Island was on the slightly disappointing side of "just okay." There wasn't a whole lot of selection, almost no seating, and it was well after 1:00pm before we got to eat. We ate, and lounged under a covered area near the water park for about an hour. I think I might have fallen asleep once or twice. Finally, we decided to skip the rest of De Palm Island and see if there was any interesting shopping back in town by the ship. My dad needed a camera battery, and my grandparents were looking for table runners.

The De Palm Island people called us a cab, a really nice van that was 4 days old, plastic still on the seats. It was $15 to head back to the ship, maybe a 20-25 minute drive past the airport back to the port. We checked out the shopping scene, and I really didn't find a ton that I liked. They had some nice touristy stuff, that was cool. We found a camera shop, they wanted about 1.5-2 times the price for anything so we said no thanks. I did pickup a few small things, magnets, a cool little surfboard.

We made it back to the ship in time to get cleaned up for dinner. I established a routine where I'd shower every day at around 4:00-5:00pm. You'd be outside in the hot, sweaty steamy weather, and the evening shower felt nice.

Dinner was back in Parrot Cay for a Caribbean theme. Here was the dinner menu:

We skipped the dinner show that night. I don't remember why. But I'm sure we had fun!

We did have a deck party that night, Tropicalistexpliadocious or something. Deck parties mean food, dancing, Disney characters, music, and more food.

Up next we have a sea day before the voyage through the Panama Canal!

Day 3-4: En route to Aruba

The tlog continues. What a trip this was! Day 3 (Monday, May 12th) and Day 4 were days at sea, where I got to explore the finest ship on the seven seas (not just the seven seas lagoon). This was a special cruise, and Disney spared little in treating us well, even on sea days.

After getting up, I had breakfast in the Topsider buffet. Every morning they had a nice breakfast with scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, toast, waffles, fruit, oatmeal, bacon, sausage, and so much more. In addition, I never failed to take advantage of the omelet station. There are more breakfast options, such as a full-service, seated breakfast in Lumière's or another buffet in Parrot Cay.

I also headed up to the Cove Cafe for a morning mochachino, a blended frozen coffee creation. And boy was it good! The funny thing is that the Cove Cafe has frequent buyer cards, buy 5 specialty coffees, get the next one free. I made good friends with Danielle, Benita, Paul, and Suzy up there. I guess I was a regular. LOL.

My whole family ended up sitting, relaxing and reading on Deck 4. This is an outside area (which also serves as a walking/jogging/running track, 1/3 of a mile long) with padded deck chairs, the life rafts, and the wonderful sound of the water lapping against the hull of the ship. I call this therapy myself.

We attended a Disney Vacation Club gathering. My parents are members, but they raffle things off, such as $100 on-board ship credit, so it pays to go. Literally. And we got free red hats!

Disney did some extraordinary things on this cruise. They brought on several guest speakers to help fill some of the eight days at sea. One of them was Captain Ken Puckett, retired senior pilot and port captain on the Panama Canal. He was extremely entertaining, especially if you caught him at lunch (ask him about the spider monkey, the filipino chef and the pig, or the Eskimo stowaway)! Capt. Puckett gave a guest speech on the building of the Panama Canal that we attended, and then another one on traveling through the Panama Canal.

This was a formal night, which means you can get as dressed up as you want. I took my tuxedo which mostly fit! ;o) My parents and I took a picture with Brent from Australia, our cruise director. Brent (along with Captain Thorn) was on the May 2006 7-day Western cruise that we took.

Fitting for formal night, we dined in Lumière's, a fancy, french decor reminiscent of the namesake from "Beauty and the Beast." I'm not going to type out menus, I'll just post the pictures! Something particularly incredible to note this evening was the Golden Mickey dessert. Here are the pics:

The after-dinner show was "The Golden Mickeys" featuring Ensign Benson (har har), and a mock awards show for the Disney cast. The highlight of the show was the 'pre-show', where a mock Joan/Melissa Rivers interviewed little kids dressed up in their fancy outfits, being shown live inside the Walt Disney Theater.

We had back-to-back sea days on the way to Aruba. I took my AT&T Tilt that I won in Orlando with me because it has a built-in GPS. I love maps, and love to study them, so the GPS was cool to plot where all we went. Now, I can look back and see pretty much exactly where we were!

Our second day at sea featured another guest speaker, Jeff Kurtti, the project creative consultant for the Walt Disney Family Museum. He gave an indepth presentation of the goals, plans and dreams of the museum. Jeff himself is a huge Disney nerd, being both an imagineer and consultant at various times. His guest speeches came in the Buena Vista Theater, the Disney Magic's on-board movie theater. My parents are excited that the Walt Disney Family Museum is coming to San Francisco's Presido!

Boy this is a long post! Dinner the night of Day 4 was back in Animator's Palate, and we were in for the show tonight. The restaurant begins black and white, a proverbial empty canvas.
During the course of the meal, color starts to filter into the room, through the paint brushes that hold the ceiling, and above the palates. At the end of the meal, the whole room is lit up in a plethora of colors. Even the wait staff are colorful!

I didn't get a picture of the menus. I think I also skipped the show this night. It was a ventriloquist, and I really wasn't interested. I soaked in the tub, walked around on deck and dried off!

Tune in next post for more stories and pics!!

Day 2: Castaway Cay, Bahamas

Here we go, day two. It was an absolutely gorgeous, hot, and steamy day on Castaway Cay. FYI, that last sentence did not rhyme, because "Cay" is pronounced "key" as in "Key West." Crazy Caribbeans and their English, I tell ya.

What is Castaway Cay? You can read about it at wikipedia, but I'll explain a little. It's Disney's own private island, a 1,000 acre plot west of Great Abaco Island. It's beee-aaauuu-tiful. I wish I could visit more often. They need to put condos or villas there or something. I know I'd go! Castaway Cay has many activities, such as jet skis, para-sailing, banana boat rides, snorkeling, scuba diving, swimming, sun bathing, biking, hiking, and of course eating and drinking (this is a cruise after all!).

There are some less active activities (can you use the root word active twice in a row?) such as a cabana massage on the beach. I'm sure it's very therapeutic laying down getting all your knots untangled with the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, the wind through the palm trees...

Oh where was I! It was very warm, but not too hot, upper 80s or lower 90s. It was great weather for the beach, the shade, the hammock, or BBQ!

We spent some time on the island, but didn't have any excursions booked ahead of time. I enjoyed some time on the beach, food (of course), and my new passion, photography! I found some beautiful flora. In this shot, the flowers on the right are African tulips. I'm not sure of the ones on the left, but they are beautiful too.

Another attraction that Disney added is the Flying Dutchman ship from Pirates of the Carribean. I got a decent shot of it as well. We got a visit from Captain Jack Sparrow, although I neglected to take my picture with him this time.

Dinner this night was good. It always was. Here's the menu:

Appetizers:
Tostada Vera Cruz, Braised Eggplant, Green Olives and Cilantro, chilled on Basil Tomato Loaf
Smokey Chicken, Vegetables and Cheddar Cheese Fritters with Smoked Salt and Pomegranate Barbecue Sauce
Baked Crab Martinique, Jumbo Lump Crab baked in a Creamy Cheese Sauce
Island Jerk Tuna and Conch Ceviche, Marinated in a Yuzu, Soy and Ginger Dressing and served with Fragrant Shitake Mushrooms (or fungus for you, Devon)

Soups and Salads:
Cold Cream of Mango and Papaya flavored with Passion Fruit
Cream of Sweet Onion Soup with a Cheese and Calamata Olive Crouton
Parrot Cay Salad, Lettuce with Tomato Dressing
West Indies Caesar Salad with Spice Dusted Croutons and Parmesan Shavings
Tropical-style Fruit Salad, drizzled with Honey-Lime Syrup

Main Course:
Island Roasted Rib-Eye of Beef, Island Spiced Rub, carved to order and served with Double-baked Potato and Green Beans
Mixed Grill, Grilled Beef Tenderloin, Lamb Chop, Bacon-wrapped Sausage and Jumbo Shrimp with a Cabernet Mushroom Sauce
Pan-Seared Grouper with Baby Shrimp Lemon Butter on Olive Oil Potato and Cauliflower Puree with Grilled Zucchini
Caribbean Roast Chicken, Mashed Sweet Potatoes, Corn Kernels and Spinach with a Spice Glaze
Barbecued Pork Tenderloin with Prickly Pear Glaze, Caramelized Pork Tenderloin, Carved to order, served on Commeal Cake, Mango and Papaya Coleslaw with Spiced Kale

I missed the dessert menu... but I bet it was goooood. :o)

Happy Mothers' Day!

Day 0-1: Orlando and Port Canaveral, FL

Well cruise fans, it's time to start my trip report! I flew into Orlando on Friday, May 9th. I had a wonderful flight on Midwest Airlines. If you get a chance to fly, check them out. The seats are wide, lots of leg room, and baked chocolate chip cookies on board!

I got a chance to visit with a good friend of mine from college, who took me on a Target run. I took an extra carry-on bag specifically to board the cruise ship, and planned to stash some bottled water in it. The ship sells bottled water, but they want $35 per case. Ouch! I got two cases of Target brand for $8, although I had to cart it around quite a bit until our staterooms were ready. I really recommend this for other Disney cruisers. Additionally, you can bring other adult beverages aboard. Ironically, Disney is one of the only cruise lines that allows you to do this.

I stayed the night with my parents in the Hyatt at the Orlando International Airport. They transport you right from the hotel to the cruise terminal, and you can get a nice view of palm trees, fountains, and of course, people strolling through the terminal.

The Disney Magical Express bus ride from the airport to the cruise terminal is about 45-60 minutes one way. We were up early, and were on the first bus out to Port Canaveral around 9:15am.

The cruise terminal is very nice. In the center is a scale model of the Disney Magic ship. Disney characters also pay a visit for a photo opportunity to help pass the time until embarkation. We got all checked in, and were awarded a card for group 4. When they called our boarding group, we were ready to go through the yellow Mickey, take our picture, and cross the gangway onto our home for the next 15 days.

After crossing the gangway and into the Disney Magic atrium, the cruise staff announces your family's name, and everyone cheers to welcome you aboard. I snapped this picture on the left, and it looks like some of the cruise staff wanted to pose. :o) The atrium is beautiful, a nice open space for various events, and also the main guest services and shore excursions desks.

We had a lunch buffet at Topsider's. They feature buffet-style service, open seating, and always casual dress for breakfast, lunch and dinner. After lunch, we got into the stateroom, unloaded our gear, and took part in the muster drill. That's "muster" not "mustard." :o) (Don't worry, there'll be more food later.) The muster drill is required by international maritime law, you grab your life jacket and report to your muster station as a drill. Ours was actually in one of the dining rooms! Most people have to go outside in the hot, sticky weather, but we lucked out there.

Dinner the first night was in Animator's Palate, which is one of the three dining room in the rotation. This room has Disney draft sheets sketched on the white walls. In the course of the meal, the walls change colors to reveal all the colors of the palate. I'll show pictures on a different day, they didn't do this on the first night.

The meals on the cruise were absolutely fantastic. I got pictures of nearly all of the menus. Our first menu was something like this:

Appetizers:

• Peppered Tuna Roll with a moulis, Cucumber Salad, drizzled with a Rice Wine Vinegar Miso Dressing
• Crown of Scallops and Caviar Macedoine, Marinated Scallops, Fresh Vegetables and Herb Mayonnaise, Smoked Salmon Deviled Egg, garnish with Caviar
• Cajun Spiced Calamari served with a Fire-roasted Pepper and Lime Dip
• Chicken Crispy Enveloppe, Marinated Chicken Tenders in a Flaky Roll with Fresh Carrot Salad and Moroccan Spices

Soups and Salads:

• Blue Crab and Seafood Chowder with Sour Dough Croutons
• Chilled Watermelon and Mint Soup made with Yogurt and Vanilla Ice Cream
• Roasted Vegetable Salad, Vine-ripened Tomato and Apple Slaw
• Mixed Leaf Lettuce with Heart of Palm Salad with Honey-Orange Dressing

Main Course:

• Seared "Blackened" Ahi Tuna Jambalaya, Center cut Tuna on Seafood and Vegetables Louisiana Rice
• Slowly Roasted Rack of Pork, Sweet Onions Gravy, Carved to order, Finished "au Jus," served with Braised Cabbage and Buttered Fingerling Potatoes
• Mesquite Gilled Chicken Breast with Cream of Corn and Bacon Sauce, Served on a Biscuit and Crushed Sweet Potatoes with Collard Greens
• Caribbean Seafood Curry, Lobster, Shrimp, Scallops, Monkfish and Squid sauteed in a light Curry Sauce with Basmati rice, topped with Cashew Nuts
• Chipotle Grilled Sirloin Steak on the Bone served with Monterey Jack Cheese Potatoe and Onion-Tomato Stew

Lighter Fare:

• Roasted Chicken Breast
• Grilled Sirloin Steak
• Baked Salmon Steak

Vegetarian Selections:

• Baked Sesame Tofu Steak marinated in Sesame Oil with braised Brown Rice and Ginger-Soy Glaze
• Vegetable Puff Pastry Turnover with Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans and Mushroom Sauce

Bread Selection:

• Freshly Baked Carrot and Scallions Loaf with Cumin & Cilantro Dip

Desserts:

• Kahlua Chocolate Creme Brulee with Caramelized Cinnamon Apple
• Kona Coffee and Pistachio Pyramid on a Toffee Crunch served with Chocolate and Cherry Sauce
• Florentine Baskets with Maraschino Bavarois served with exotic Fruits and Berries on a bed of Champagne Sabayon
• Apple Tart-Tatin served warm with Caramel Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream
• Banana Caramel Bliss, Mint Chocolate Ice Cream with a Slice of Banana, Pecan Brittle, and Rum Caramel Sauce

Mmmm, it makes me hungry again!

That night (and every night) there was a show or some sort of entertainment piece that was usually good. The first night is more of a 'welcome aboard!' type thing, a mix of characters, some acts that will have longer shows later, etc, a taste of what is to come.

Our next day would be one of the best, when we dock at Disney's private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay (pronounced 'key', like Key West, not 'cay' which rhymes with 'bay'). This also happened to be Mother's Day! Check back soon for that day, Aruba, the Panama Canal, and the Mexican ports of call!

Free Tools For Photos

Yes, I'm still working on my tlog (remember, the 't' is silent :o) of my wonderful trip. I realized that I actually have twice as many photos as I thought. Originally I estimated about 1500. I arrived at this number because my camera shoots in RAW and basic JPEG, which means for each photo I take, I actually get two image files. The RAW (or .NEF) file is very large, and I can manipulate some settings (color, white balance, etc) without modifying the actual photo that I took. It's like a digital 'negative', if you will. The downside is that it's very large, and it cannot be opened by all image programs. I also take JPEG pictures, which gives me a rough view of my shot, if it came out, etc. So anyway, I saw a picture count as 3110, I figured that included JPEG and NEF files. It turns out that only was counting the JPEG files. So I actually do have 3110 pictures to go through, 869 were taken on 5/16, the day we passed through the Panama Canal! Some that I have briefly glanced at have come out well! The reason for this post is I found three free programs that help to organize and do "cool stuff" with your photos. I want to document it so I don't forget!

I realized that I changed the date and time of my camera's clock when I got to Orlando, matched it to Eastern Daylight Time, but never changed it after that. Oops! Digital cameras embed the date and time information into the photos metadata. It's not a scary techy word, metadata simply means 'data about data' or 'stuff describing stuff' or how about 'data properties', that works too. For digital images, this metadata is called EXIF which probably stands for something, and I'm too lazy to look it up. EXIF holds information such as date and time the image was taken, the picture size, copyright information, photographer, whether the flash fired, what the shutter speed and aperture was, and more. Some cameras even have the ability to embed GPS information into the picture, so that you can plot each of your pictures on a map (a process called GeoTagging, more on this later).

I'm getting off course here, so anyway, my camera's date and time were set accurately in Orlando (EDT), however the trip carried us through 4 different timezones. I forgot to change the time at the appropriate spots. What could I do?

I found an application called ExifTool. For you Perl geeks out there, this is really just a compiled interface to the EXIF libraries in Perl. I was able to run one command, and it changed the time for my pictures. Well not all of them. Some needed to go back an hour, some two, and some three. I haven't yet done the rest. Also, ExifTool has an option to rename files based on their date/time stamp. When I finish editing the EXIF information, I'll rename based the correct information.

The second cool utility I found relates to GeoTagging, or the ability to put GPS information in your pictures. I don't have a fancy attachment on my camera that will do that when I take the picture, however I do have a GPS which knows my location and the date/time. GeoSetter is a free application that takes your group of pictures, your GPS data, and tries to figure out based on the date/time where you were, or the closest GPS point to when the picture was taken. The only hitch is that the date/time of your camera must be very very very close to the GPS, or else the pictures will display in the wrong locations.

The third cool utility is actually not a photo utility, so I guess I lied. I took my AT&T Tilt that I won in Orlando, and installed a program called TrackMe. It uses your GPS device and saves points of where you have been on a given interval (30 seconds, 5 minutes, whatever you want). I had this running my whole trip. Unfortunately, when I tried to export my positions, the program ran out of memory! Luckily I was able to open it up with Visual Studio 2008 (long story). Anyway... If you have GPS points and want to plot them on a map, another awesome fee utility is called GPSVisualizer. This utility will generate your points on Google Maps or Google Earth. How cool is that?!

Ok enough for now, I promise I'm working on that trip report!

Don't you love English?

I've got 1500 pictures to go through from my trip, so pardon me it if takes a few days. Many of them are duplicates, where I shot the same thing about 10 times, 5 of them washed out with a flash and 5 are blurry from lack of light. :o) I think I've got a few gems, a few sunset pics, some beautiful flora, a beach (or two or three), and some panoramic highlights.

A side note (and the unfortunate purpose of my blog post today): Don't you love English (or english)? When choosing the suffix '-able' or '-ible', the rule is that if the root word (everything up until '-able' or '-ible') is an actual word, you would use '-able'. Take for instance, the word 'reasonable'. Since 'reason' is an actual word, you would use '-able' on the end. Take the word 'permissible'. Wait, bad example, it appears that 'permiss' is actually a word (even though spell check disagrees with Webster). So why does it use '-ible'? What about the word 'accessible'? Why not 'accessable', since 'access' is a real word?

I can tie this in with my trip. Sorta. One night, the entertainment was magician Mike Super, who won the American Idol-like magic TV show "Phenomenon" (yes I used spell check on that too). He was doing an illusion, and got off on a tangent. He said he wanted to introduce a new word to everyone's vocabulary, the word 'lavenous', an adjective which means absolutely nothing. However, if you are proud of your 'lavenousness', you can get a lavenous t-shirt to strut your stuff.

...and... we're back!

Well I'm back from my *gasp* 17 day break from reality. I went on the 15-day Disney Magic Westbound Panama Canal repositioning cruise. Boy that's a mouthful! The itinerary went like this:

Sat May 10 - Embark in Port Canaveral, FL
Sun May 11 - Castaway Cay (Gorda Cay), Bahamas
Mon May 12 - At sea
Tue May 14 - At sea
Wed May 15 - Aruba, Netherlands Antilles
Thu May 16 - At sea
Fri May 17 - Through the Panama Canal
Sat May 18 - At sea
Sun May 19 - At sea
Mon May 20 - Acapulco, Mexico
Tue May 21 - At sea
Wed May 22 - Puerto Valliarta, Mexico
Thu May 23 - Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
Fri May 24 - At sea
Sat May 25 - At sea
Sun May 26 - Disembark in San Pedro / Los Angeles (with additional visit to Disneyland and California Adventure, overnight stay at Disney's Grand Californian hotel)
Mon May 27 - Back to reality
Tue May 28 - Back to work

LOL

Ok well over the next few days I'll post my travel web log, or tblog. or maybe just tlog (the 't' is silent). I took notes several days about our ports of call, especially the day we traveled through the Panama Canal. What an awesome day!! Here are a few tidbits about the trip for the both of you that read my blog. :o)

* Food!
* Special guests Joey Fatone from N'Sync and Alfonso Ribeiro from Fresh Prince of Bel Air!
* Guest speakers: (1) Retired Panama Canal Pilot Capt. Ken Puckett, (2) Disney World senior artist Don "Ducky" Williams, (3) author, Disney consultant, nerd, and former imagineer Jeff Kurtti and more!
* More Food!
* Magician Mike Super
* Did I mention food?
* Palo fine dining
* Lots (and lots) of crazy Hawaiian t-shirts!
* The Cove Cafe
* Even more food!
* Pictures to prove it!

As you can tell, I haven't eaten much in the past few days. :o)

I hope over the next several days to post some of my trip thoughts and share some pictures with you of my 5,700 mile voyage!