We arrived in Acapulco and had already decided we weren’t going ashore at all. We had been to Acapulco in 2005 and were not impressed. Some wanted to see the cliff divers and some other historical sites, but I just wanted to do laundry.
There are three laundry rooms on the Magic and the Wonder. One across from stateroom 7590, one across from 6588 and finally one across from 2096. The cost is $1 per cycle (washer or dryer) and if you don’t bring your own detergent/softener they have some for sale for you as well ($1 per item). The dryer cycle usually isn’t long enough for one load so it cost me $6 for two loads (I brought my own supplies). This is nice for those who don’t want to pack too much. You can also send out your laundry for washing, pressing, etc. The nice part is that we were able to eat breakfast during the first dry cycle and get some other things done during the second one.
It rained quite a bit, on and off, in Acapulco so a number of excursions were canceled. We were only in port from 7:30 am to 1:00 pm so there wasn’t a lot of time to do things on your own. This is the type of situation where I would recommend using Disney Cruise Line’s excursions. If the tour returns late, the ship will wait for you. But if you are on your own, you may miss the boat! We were late leaving Acapulco and it was likely because a tour through DCL got back late.
We also decided to go to the Tropical Rain Forest room. This is the ultimate in saunas and steam room experiences. We had planned to do a cruise long pass but we had too much going on the first couple days, we just never got there. When we checked in on Friday, the cruise long pass price was down to $75! This was only $7.50 a day for our remaining days so we got the pass. The daily price is $15 and you can come back in as often as you’d like. Swimsuits are required and lockers are provided if you need them. They have robes and sandals for you if you wish.
Just before you enter the Rain Forest room, you can get yourself a cup of tea or try some citrus water or cucumber water made naturally. Inside, you’ll find an open room with a fountain in the middle. The room is all tiled with some sea murals on the walls. Starting clockwise around the room from the door, there are four tiled loungers which are heated. This is a great place to read a book or take a nap! The first room is a gentle steam room. This room is fairly large and dark (all done in a deep blue) with benches all around. The second room is a heavy steam room. This room will seat four and has scents of eucalyptus. Next is the first of the showers. I haven’t tried this shower yet, but in the past it was a rose scented shower with a rain forest feel to it (the way that the water comes out of the faucet). Across from the loungers there is a bench that is also heated. The shower next to the bench is a fog shower. Fine mist comes out of the top faucet and it smells like citrus. Finally there is a regular shower with shampoo and conditioner available for you. In each of the showers, the temperature can be somewhat regulated and there are two timed buttons for starting the shower. One controls the overhead faucets and the other controls the ones on the side. There are 6 showerheads, three on each side, to spray you. The final room is the gentle sauna. This is a brighter room (no steam to block the view) done in neutral and forest green tiles with tile benches that are almost more like loungers.
In the afternoon we had been invited to a private wine tasting in Preludes. We met a number of DISers that we haven’t met yet this cruise. It was fun and interesting to share some wines from their home states. Since we didn’t know about this party in advance, we hadn’t brought any wine from Wisconsin so we brought our bottle of Fairytale Cuvee. This is a sparkling wine made by Iron Horse that is made exclusively for Disney. What I was surprised by this wine is that it is not mostly made of the Chardonnay grape. That made this even more enjoyable to me! Many of the wines were very good, but I think my favorite of the tasting was the one from Michigan.
Dinner was a Mexican menu and I must say I was not impressed. The food I tried was ok to good, but nothing on the menu appealed to me. Maybe part of that was due to the increased rocking we were feeling (more of a gentle roll). The dessert I had was a churro éclair cake, which was very good, but I couldn’t eat much.
After dinner were a couple deck parties. One was called the Minnie’s Fiesta Grande Deck Party at the Goofy Pool and the other was the LOUNGE@The Cove. There was a buffet at Minnie’s party, but with late dinner, we didn’t feel like having anything. The LOUNGE was very interesting. They strung sheer panels on one side of the pool area, had a DJ playing Latin music and little desserts were taken around on trays. There were cute little seating areas as well, instead of the usual lounge chairs for the sunbathers. This was a lot of fun. Our table mates brought some flavored tequila that they purchased in Puerto Vallarta which we sampled. The almond tequila almost tasted like amaretto. The orange tequila though tasted like Orange Crush soda. We ran into a lot of familiar faces up there but called it a night when the rocking was getting to be a bit too much for me.
We needed to get a good night sleep and be ready for breakfast at Palo in the morning! We were having brunch in the private room at Palo.
I’ve successfully gotten behind in my blogging. Three days have gone by! After Acapulco we had two days at sea. We had brunch on the first day with some friends met on the boards. This was nice as we got to know some people we hadn’t had a chance to speak to on the cruise yet. We ate with micmse2003, eeyorelvr10, tom31b, Steph10, Arlenesp and Andrew Derek UK. Sasha from Croatia was our server. We’ve had Sasha before and he does a good job. We basically took it easy this day and Bill got in his share of naps. I went to a DISboard martini tasting just to make sure everyone got checked in. There weren’t many people joining so I decided to stay and participate. I even shared my creation, the Whippletini. It’s a yummy dessert martini that everyone liked.
That night was my favorite restaurant, Lumiere’s with their rotational menu. This meant crème brulee for dessert!! We found out about a new wine that was just released for Disney Parks & Resorts (including Cruise Line) called Magicale. It is a sparkling dessert wine that is very similar to Rosa Regale, but it was cheaper than Rosa! On the ship it is $38 a bottle (Rosa is closer to $50). It was very good and I got a couple bottles for our table to enjoy. This is like the Fairytale Cuvee from Iron Horse in that you won’t be able to get it in a liquor store so enjoy this at the parks or on the ship!
On Sunday, we had a busy schedule planned. In the morning, a retired pilot from the Panama Canal gave a talk about what we would experience and how it all works to families and children. Since we had not been to one yet, we decided to go. It was interesting to hear how everything works, even though we had seen it before and kind of knew this.
Afterwards, we went to an Oil & Vinegar tasting. This was very interesting as we learned about olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sampled these plus white balsamic vinegar, red wine vinegar, lemon oil and white truffle oil. We had to eat and run because we were going to be late for another wine tasting with Michael Jordan. This one was on the Terrior of France and it’s effect on the wines of France. We sampled 5 wines from France.
For dinner it was semi formal night and I didn’t care for the menu once again. I joked that I would like pizza for dinner and before I knew it, I had a personal pizza from Pinocchios on my plate! It hit the spot! Once again we went to bed right after dinner. I’m finding this cruise to be very tiring for me and feeling like sleeping more! However, this was the night before the Panama Canal cruise, the only night that we would be setting our alarm so we needed the sleep.
Leave a Reply