Puerto Vallarta – Disney Magic Panama Canal Cruise August 2008

This morning I tried to get up early. I think I rolled out around 8:30am. I decided to try to do a little exercise. After all, the Portland Race for the Cure is only a month away and I need to be ready. So, to all of my Team Melanie friends, guess what? I ran, but not on a treadmill! I finally moved my running outside! Yeah! Three laps around deck 4 is one mile. I ran one and walked one as the Magic moved sideways into its spot at the Puerto Vallarta dock. What a great way to start the day!

After breakfast, we took a taxi into town and wandered through some shops. Aaron found a nice leather wallet and Michael found some more cigars. He’s not had much luck with the Cubanos, but he’s enjoying the Mexican cigars.

When we returned to the ship, Michael and I headed to the pool for a dip to cool off. About 30 minutes into a relaxing time, it started to rain. Gee, feels like home. We thought it might be a brief shower, but it is about 4 hours later now and still pouring. I feel bad for Aaron as he is on an excursion – a teen cruise. But, right now, Michael and I are off to Palos for dinner!

I mentioned before that this is our 5th Disney cruise. We’ve had Palo brunch once or twice, but it paled in comparison to dinner. I’m running out of adjectives to describe everything! First we selected a wonderful bottle of wine.

Then, Sylvester from India took over. We had a leisurely meal – 3 hours! Everything was so incredibly delicious.

For appetizers he brought out 3 things: shrimp with asparagus, Portobello mushroom over polenta, and eggplant with salad greens. We both liked the shrimp the best, but we were split on the other two. Then, he brought a pizza that was to die for. After that we had our main course(s). Sylvester chose lamb for Michael and filet for me. On the side, he brought lobster ravioli. We shared everything and could not decide on a favorite. Everything was outstanding. Well, you can only imagine what was next. Dessert. And, Sylvester had to bring 3 different things for us: tiramisu, custard, and their signature chocolate soufflé. Typically given a choice I would pick just about anything but chocolate. Not tonight. The soufflé was amazing.

Tomorrow we have another day at sea. I’ll be spending it in the gym.

Oh, Aaron made it back from his teen cruise in time to attend dinner in Parrot Cay. He was only 1 at a table for 8. This is pretty funny. Who are our mystery tablemates? Will we ever meet them? Aaron’s cruise was fun, but it was raining cats and dogs. They gave the kids ponchos, but pretty much everything got soaked. Hey, they are teenagers and they didn’t really care! He’s definitely made some friends and is having a good time. (I should mention that he raved and raved about his dinner. Even though he was alone, Toney and Marija took good care of him.)

We broke down and used our cell phones this evening. (Mexico rates, 59 cents per minutes with AT&T) I have one of those really big milestone birthdays coming up in a few months and I’ve decided how I want to spend it: at Palos with our good friends. One call was to invite them to join us next February. The second call was home. The A/C is fixed and didn’t cost us an arm-and-a-leg. Thanks for taking care of everything, Brandon and Ashley!

I can’t remember exactly what we have on the schedule for tomorrow. I think we have a margarita and tequila tasting (yahoo!) and Aaron says there is a $10k jackpot I need to win with bingo. Okey-dokey.

There are two things I still want to tell you about – maybe I’ll do one tomorrow. Cleanliness (Donna – listen up, you’re gonna love this!) and towel animals.

Enough for this evening. I just can’t believe what a fabulous time we are having on this trip. Disney truly knows and understands service and family. Yes, this trip is expensive, but for my travel dollar it is the best bargain around.