Cheese Tasting

Disney Character

Disney Character

Mrs. Incredible

A Toy Story Character

After brunch in the main Triton’s dining room, Sandy and I attended a cooking class with chef Georg Paulussen. Chef Paulussen is now the executive chef at the Disney Polynesian Resort.

The recipe for the day was an Avocado Crab and Lobster Salad. The presentation was of most interest to us. The chef cut the base of an avocado off, and using a spoon, easily removed the pit. Once the pit was removed he stuffed the avocado with the crab and lobster salad before peeling the avocado and rolling it in pistachio nuts. The plate was garnished with an edamame puree and served with tomatoes, thinly sliced cucumbers and fresh edible flowers. We enjoyed a small sampler dish accompanied with a small wine tasting.

Our next stop was a lecture by Captain Ken Puckett on the US Construction of a Canal Across Panama. He showed many photographs about the building of the canal, as well as a couple of videos of ships transiting the canal.

Sandy, Kent and I then attended a cheese seminar in the Animator’s Palate restaurant. There we learned a little about cheddar, muenster, brie and gouda cheeses. Cheese is filled with protein but can also have a lot of calories.

By 1:00pm it was time for lunch in the Cabanas Restaurant on deck nine. This buffet style restaurant offers all sorts of cuisines daily including the popular seafood station where they serve shrimp and crab. They have a large salad bar and a dessert bar, as well as multiple drink stations including complimentary soft drinks.

Later in the afternoon there was a Pixar Pals Party in the lobby. About a dozen Pixar movie characters appeared with the ships singers and dancers accompanying them. They all danced and sang songs with the passengers. Cell phones and cameras were everywhere although I found it difficult to get clear photos with the characters constantly moving.

Next, we stopped into the French Quarter Lounge where The Brace Boys were performing jazz hits. This is the same trio as was performing at Tiana’s Place dining room a couple of nights previously. They were excellent and had a standing room only crowd.

The evening’s entertainment was a ventriloquist by the name of Lynn Trefzger. She had a small boy, a bear and a camel dummy that she worked with. She was very funny and her act was very entertaining.

After Lynn’s show and before dinner we enjoyed a pianist by the name of Bongi Maestro who performs in the Cadillac lounge. On this night he was playing and singing Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles songs. He was very good.

For dinner we were back in Tiana’s Place followed by a late show in the main theater with John Charles. John had performed the evening before using a guitar but for this show he only played Beatles songs that were written to be played on the piano.

Puerto Vallarta from the Ship

Puerto Vallarta Beach

Day of the Dead Skeleton

Men Spinning from a Pole on the Beach

View from La Palapa Restaurant

Puerto Vallarta is a Mexican beach resort city and is an international tourist destination. By the 1950’s Puerto Vallarta had begun attracting American writers and artists in search of a retreat from the era of Eisenhower and McCarthy. By 1962 a new airport connected Los Angeles with Puerto Vallarta via a stop in Mazatlán. In 1964 John Huston filmed his movie “The Night of the Iguana” nearby and provided extensive coverage in the US media about the affair of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. This helped put Puerto Vallarta on the map for US tourists.

By 1970 the first harbor was inaugurated making it accessible to cruise ships. Also, in 1970 Richard Nixon met with the Mexican president Gustavo Diaz Ordaz in Puerto Vallarta for treaty negotiations.

The average daily temperature ranges from 70 to 86 degrees with 75% humidity making it a tropical paradise. Today, Puerto Vallarta has become a popular retirement destination for US and Canadian retirees. The population has grown from about 10,000 in the 1950’s to nearly 200,000 today, while the surrounding urban area now totals over 500,000.

For breakfast, Claire, Kent, Sandy and I went to Triton’s restaurant for what they were calling brunch. Brunch meant that you could order breakfast items like the Mickey Mouse shaped waffles or lunch items like sandwiches. While we were there about six staff members came to check on our waiter’s service and the food as Mark had made some comments about the food over the last couple of days. They even had one of the chefs come out and speak with Mark. It was embarrassing how many people came and asked us the same things about the service and the food. I just hope that I have not gotten any of the staff in trouble with my comments about the food and service.

Kent and I took the local city ($1.00 for two) bus from the port into the central district along the Malecon or waterfront. There were still many “Day of the Dead” skeletons along the waterfront set up by local hotels, businesses and organizations. There were also four men doing an unusual performance from a tall pole with four men spinning around the pole on cables as they played the flute.

The weather was very warm and very humid, but along the coast there was a bit of a cool breeze that made it tolerable. We walked south along the waterfront until we reached one of our favorite beach side restaurants called La Palapa Restaurant and Bar. The palapa is a large thatched roof-covered restaurant along the water with many umbrellas, covered tables and chairs out front. We enjoyed the indoor area under the palapa where they have ceiling fans that keep the gentle breeze going. For lunch we enjoyed guacamole and chips, fish tacos on homemade tortillas and a chicken quesadilla. Everything was very tasty and the staff was very attentive.

The evening’s entertainment was titled The Music and Comedy of John Charles. John wandered the audience interacting with the guests about their favorite music. From there he would tell funny antics while he formulated what song he was going to sing. He would then start playing his guitar and singing the song of the guest’s choice. He has a huge range of songs that he knows the words to and has a good voice. He often impersonates the artist, male or female and can sing in a wide range of keys.

For dinner, we were back in the Animator’s Palate Restaurant where the frames on the wall were filled with moving sketches. You can watch the screens as a Disney character is drawn from start to finish. We all had the beef tenderloin which was very good, but the rest of the meal was a bit forgettable.

After dinner we attended a show in the Azure lounge with a comedian by the name of Heath Hyche. Heath is a bit crazy and does a lot of physical comedy running all over the stage, acting out characters and telling stories. Not really my cup of tea but a lot of people in the audience seemed to enjoy him.

San Juan del Cabo Mission

San Juan del Cabo Mission Interior

Katarina from the Day of the Dead Festival

San Juan del Cabo Art

Santa’s Winter Wonderland Ball

Santa’s Winter Wonderland Ball

Cabo San Lucas, or Cabo, is a resort city at the southern tip of the Baja California Peninsula. The population of Cabo San Lucas is approximately 82,000 although with the adjoining San Jose del Cabo they have a population of over 300,000. Cabo is one of Mexico’s top tourist destinations and is known for its beaches and scuba diving.

Cabo is a fairly new city begun as a fishing village. In 1917, an American company built a floating platform to catch tuna. In 1974 the federal government completed the Mexican Federal Highway 1 and developed infrastructure to turn Cabo into a major tourist center. Today the area sees nearly three million visitors a year.

This was a tender port, meaning that we had to board small tender boats (about 50 passengers) to ferry us from the ship, which was anchored off shore, into the harbor. From the harbor Kent and I took a tour called San Jose City Tour where we were taken in an air-conditioned bus about 30 minutes south from Cabo San Lucas to the town of San Jose del Cabo.

San Jose del Cabo has a new-looking central square with concrete pavers stretching a couple of blocks. Newly planted trees have not yet grown enough to provide much shade but there are many park benches waiting for the shade. There is a bandstand and a stage for regular performances for the locals and visitors alike.
From the square you have a great view of the San Jose Mission Church across the street. The interior of the mission is very plain with minimal ornamentation.

The streets surrounding the main square offer numerous restaurants and many souvenir shops and art galleries. Silver jewelry is very popular as are animal forms covered with small colorful beads. Pottery and wooden bowls can also be found in most shops. The town offers American stores like Costco, Walmart, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, McDonalds and more.

Our tour concluded about 2:00pm and we decided to head back to the ship via tender as it was warm and humid and not much new to see. We have been in Cabo several times previously and have explored many of the local shops.

In the afternoon we watched the film the Lion King in 3D in a theater onboard called the Buena Vista Theater. We had not seen the movie before although we seemed to know most of the music from the movie. It was a very sweet movie even though nature is not the kindest.

The evening’s entertainment was a magician by the name of Eric Jones from Philadelphia. Eric was on America’s Got Talent, has performed with Penn and Teller and others. He does mostly sleight of hand magic using cards, coins and wedding rings. Eric is a talented magician and the audience seemed to enjoy his show.

For dinner we dined in Triton’s Restaurant which has a very traditional classic décor. The meal included French traditional dishes like escargot, shrimp cocktail, French onion soup, roasted leg of lamb, Chateaubriand, Crème Brule and so much more.

After dinner we attended the Santa’s Winter Wonderland Ball with the singers and dancers, Disney Characters and Mr. and Mrs. Claus. They sang a few holiday songs and snow fell from the ceiling of the lobby. It was a festive occasion.

Pluto Drawing

Kent, Claire and Sandy at Dinner

Trio at Tiana’s Place Dinner

This was a day at sea as we made our way south towards our first port of call, Cabo San Lucas. We also turned our clocks forward one hour as we are also moving east along the Baja California coastline. As we traveled south the air temperature was rising as well.

The Wonder has a series called the Animator where you can learn to draw different Disney characters. On this day they were showing us how to draw Pluto and so Mark gave it a try. It is done one step at a time starting with a circle and then adding one line at a time. See the results of Mark’s efforts above.

We attended a morning lecture with Captain Ken Puckett who spoke about the history of the years prior to the building of the Panama Canal. Captain Puckett served in the US Navy and the US Army before serving for 16 years as a Senior Panama Canal Pilot. During his career he piloted over 1,440 merchant and military vessels through the Panama Canal, so he is very familiar with its workings. He has quite a sense of humor and will be giving several lectures over the coming week.

There is a Disney Company employee who is the Director of Corporate Communications onboard by the name of Jeffrey Epstein. He gave a presentation about what is happening with Disney. Jeffrey works to provide consistent messaging to the media, employees, and guests. He also oversees the Disney archives, the Disney Fan Club, the D23 Expo, publications, website and social media. Many of the things Jeffrey spoke of were foreign to us as we are not as big Disney fans as many of the guests onboard and knew very little about Disney activities.

There was a Captain’s Welcome Reception in the lobby where they served drinks and had many photographers taking photos of the guests. It was a formal night and many of the guests were dressed beautifully whole others could be found wearing t-shirts and jeans. Many of the guests, particularly the women, wear Minnie Mouse ears and bows on their heads at all times. They come in all colors from black and white plaid to sequin covered and everything in between. Many of the children are dressed in princess dresses and Disney logo clothes are seen everywhere.

Before dinner we attended the Golden Mickeys, a theatrical show featuring songs and vignettes of many Disney musical shows and characters. There is a cast of singers and dancers onboard who performed in the vignettes and many of the most loved Disney characters made appearances, including Mickey.

For dinner, we ate tonight in Tiana’s Place dining room, which is a New Orleans themed restaurant with a small stage to one side. A trio played a variety of music from the south during dinner and Tiana greeted us at the door and came around to each table to meet the guests. The food has a New Orleans theme like spicy crab dip, Louisiana style chicken, etc. We went right to the cabin after dinner to sleep.

Sail-A-Wave Party

Water Slide

Tree Lighting Ceremony

Tree Lighting Ceremony

Gingerbread House

Midday, we boarded the Disney Wonder cruise ship operated by the Disney Cruise Line. The ship with its 11 decks was completed in 1999 and is decorated in the Art Deco style. There are 875 staterooms accommodating 2,400 passengers and has a crew of 950. On this particular re-positioning cruise there are about 1,800 passengers onboard and only about 275 children. On a typical cruise they usually have nearly 1,000 children.

We traveled with our dear friend, Sandy–otherwise known as Ms. P., and her mother, Claire, who lives in Florida. Claire is 92 and just keeps on going. Good for her.

The ship is very nicely appointed and all of the artwork onboard is related to Disney. We explored the ship’s public rooms which are all beautifully decorated. The ship includes many spaces specially designed for children’s activities, including a large water slide on the top deck of the ship.

After our mandatory life-boat drill, there was a festive sail-a-wave party on the upper deck. Most of the guests attended, singing songs, dancing, drinking and enjoying all of the Disney characters who attended.

The evening’s main stage entertainment was a Filipino acapella group of five young men called Filharmonic. They had been semi-finalists in NBC’s hit musical competition called The Sing Off. They also were featured in Pitch Perfect 2 before becoming a viral sensation after their Late, Late Show appearance. They have wonderful voices and blend well together. The sounds they can make come out of their mouths is amazing.

When we arrived, there was a team of people decorating the public spaces for Christmas. They added many artificial trees and garlands as well as fresh red poinsettias. In the lobby there is a very tall Christmas tree next to an almost life-sized gingerbread house. We attended the tree lighting ceremony where Mickey, Minnie and several other characters came to sing carols and light the tree.

Before dinner we enjoyed a drink in French Quarter Lounge where a duo called the NOLA Duo performed. The man played the trumpet, bass and violin while the young woman with a wonderful voice sang a variety of vintage melodies. At different times of the evening they perform different types of music from the blues to the top hits.

For dining, Disney uses a dining rotation between three main restaurants each with a different theme. Our dinner on this night was in the dining room called the Animator’s Palate. The restaurant walls are covered with pencil sketches of Disney characters and stories in black and white. The ceiling has painting palates with colored lights used as the paint colors. The columns in the room are shaped like paint brushes and the walls are covered with framed television screens. Throughout the evening the light colors change around the room and the television screens project altering photos of black and white pencil sketches to full color renderings and photographs of everything Disney. We went to bed shortly after dinner.