Day Nine: In Which We Traverse the Panama Canal and Get Really Really Wet Again.

So...the Panama Canal.  Commonly referred to by Christiaan the Cruise Director as "one of the Eighth Wonder of the World."  It's the reason this journey is 2 weeks, instead of 2 months.

We are told that we are scheduled to pass under the Bridge of the Americas at 0700.  It actually ends up taking about an 30-60 minutes longer than that.  Our plan is to sleep as long as possible, while watching on the front-of-the-ship cam to see when we're actually approaching, then race out all disheveled and race back to sleep after we pass under it.  It is, unfortunately, a plan doomed to failure as everyone else apparently got up and staked out spaces at around 0500.  After wandering around aimlessly trying to find a decent spot in the scorching heat, we watch the bridge pass over us and retreat back to our cabin until the next lock.

We get to the Miraflores Locks around 0930.

I am finally able to get something of a view by balancing on the top of a waist-high box with about 6 other people.  I watch the ship enter the lock, and then decide the better part of valor might be to just assume we get out ok.  As the heat becomes ever more oppressive, we have lunch in Topsider Buffet and watch the next lock, the Pedro Miguel, from inside.

Finally, for the last lock, the Gatun Locks, we are determined to watch the whole thing from a good spot.  By this time, most people's interest had waned, so we got a relatively clear spot in front.  The weather had also turned cooler and we congratulated ourselves on a pleasant viewing experience...until we noticed the flashes of lightning in the distance.  The lightning that got progressively closer, until it began pouring down rain on us.

After a considerable time of getting rained on, CMs came by and handed out ponchos.  Finally, roughly 12 hours after our initial approach to the Bridge of the Americas, we completed our journey through the canal, and reached the Atlantic Ocean.

We celebrated by going inside and toweling off, although not with the towels from our new cabinmate:

Dinner tonight is a special menu entitled "West Meets East" with the date printed on it that we are allowed to keep as a memento.

This is my favorite dinner by far on the trip.  The crab legs and lobster are terrific, and cooked just right.

Our day in the Panama Canal came to a close with the delivery of a lithograph by "Ducky" Williams to commemorate our voyage.  Heat and rain nowithstanding, it was a great experience to see such a marvel of engineering and historical significance.  The only downside is that there is no longer any way to deny that the majority of our trip lies behind us, with the Pacific Ocean.

Tomorrow:  Cartegena.

Day Eight: In Which We Spectate Various Things.

Another day at sea.  Mom tries to make the case that the days at sea should be spent in restful contemplation and napping.  I make the case that you can rest for free at home, and neither one of us is entirely convinced.

I start off the day at a demonstration called "The Art of Entertaining," which is a cooking series put on by Michael Jordan, Master Sommelier at the Napa Rose restaurant in the Grand Californian at DLR.  He is accompanied by Gretchen...someone...who is something like the Executive Chef of the DCL, and who used to be something like the Executive Chef of EPCOT before.

They make duck comfit tacos and crunchy fish tacos which are a little amusing, as the duck requires you to get a duck breast and cook it slowly in (separately obtained) duck fat for eons, shred it, etc. and then roll it in a corn tortilla.  Michael Jordan's fish tacos involve you going to the market and getting the Gorton's frozen fish sticks, baking them, and then cutting them in little pieces and putting them in a tortilla.  So some difference in the amount of time/effort investment required.

After that, we attend a talk by the Art Auction folks, where they showed original art storyboards created by Salvador Dali for the animated short he did with Walt Disney called "Destino," and then showed the actual film from the 40's.  It was typically difficult to follow as most Dali works are, but fascinating none the less in its depiction of a love story between a woman and man separated by time, monotony, and various insecurities, who ultimately find connection.  I suspect you'd have to watch it a number of times before you really caught the majority of the details.

After a quick buffet lunch at Parrot Cay, we went to the matinee showing of the new DCL musical, "Twice Charmed," which basically follows a similar plotline to the made-for-DVD Cinderella III animated. 

 

I liked it.  It's definitely a little more ambitious than their other theatrical offerings in it's attempts to tell a whole new story with original music, etc.  The sets and costumes are wonderful, as always, and the Stepmother and Franco, her Wicked Fairy Stepfather (who looks suspiciously like Nathan Lane) are well-delineated characters.  As in the original text, however, the various protagonists come off a little weak, with the Major-Domo actually getting more characterization than anyone else.  The Prince gets a little more to do this time around, and provides what I think is the funniest moment in the play:  When the stepsisters are presented to him as his potential brides, he basically runs off stage, changes his clothes, then pretty much leaps off a balcony and flees away like a bat out of Hell.  I think it's supposed to show his heroic resolve to find Cinderella, but it ends up just looking like abject terror to me.

Cinderella still strikes me as a heroine in dire need of a backbone.  There's one point where she's wrestling with the stepsisters over an object which is supposed to mean the difference between marriage to the Prince and Happily Ever After, and a lifetime of domestic slavery to her stepfamily.  I don't know about you, but if the stakes were that high for me, I expect blood on the floor before anyone runs away with that one. 

Subsequently, we watched Prince Caspian in the Buena Vista Theater.  While greatly changed from the original book as far as I can remember, it was a good action-filled flick, and the kids seemed as though they had become slightly better actors from the first film.

For dinner, we had Prince and Princess dinner, which we were told was a new menu for them.

For appetizers, I had Belle's scallops, with puff pastry.  The kitchen continues its above-average run on scallops.

The featured entree was a chicken Wellington which my Mom said was good but too big a serving for her to finish.  It had a mushroom stuffing.

I had a seafood stew with zucchini and olives.  The seafood is cooked just right, however the sauce is a little one-dimensional, and the rice is frankly hard in bits, as if undercooked.

For dessert I had the chocolate slipper, which was not the same as the chocolate slipper they used to serve at Cinderella's Castle.

The slipper was really more of a decoration than an integral part of the dessert, and the presentation was fairly sloppy--it was like they had amateur night with the piping bag.  The cake was very good though--similar to angel food.

Today's towel animal looks a little like a lobster, but I'm not sure.  Either way, it's doing it's part to prevent cataracts.

Tomorrow:  Panama Canal!