Just booked 2018 Oct Panama Canal EB on the Disney Wonder, questions!!!

Wife and I decided to try our first Disney Cruise with my 5 and 3 years old boys booked the 14 day Panama Canal from San Diego to Galveston. We've never done anything more than 7 days before so question for anyone whose been on these 14 day cruises on Disney. Are their any repeats of Menu and Shows, or do they actually keep it fresh for all 14 days? How's the internet on DCL (we found Carnival and Royal Carribean's internet passable). unfortunately since it's 14 days long, I'd probably still have to do some minimal work related stuff from time to time which requires internet. Also this will be an Holloween on the High Seas sailing which we know our boys will love, is that just a one day thing or multiple days? Those are my 4 main questions. However any comments are welcome in terms of your experiences with DCL vs Carnival or Royal. We're very excited for this trip.

I took this cruise a couple of years ago, and am taking it again this October. I'll try to answer your questions, although I've never sailed Carnival or RCCL so don't have any perspective to share on that.

The entire 14 days were fresh menus and shows--no repeats.

I don't use internet at sea, so can't answer that one. My work knows I vacation in order to get away from the stress of constantly being connected, so they understand when I'm gone and not "on the grid".

The last time I took this cruise, Halloween on the High Seas wasn't "a thing", so I can't say for sure but I've heard that special activities take place on multiple days during the sailing.

We did the EBPC in 2015 and have booked this cruise again in October 2018.

As the previous poster notes, there were no repeats on shows or menus. Additionally, DCL had superb entertainment as they do when there are a large number of sea days. Notable performers were the group Voiceplay and Broadway star Susan Egan.

We had a lecturer that gave us a history of the PC over several days leading up to going through the canal. Panama Canal Pilot Captain Pucket was our lecturer - he does this often and is entertaining as well. There was also a lecturer from the Walt Disney Museum in San Francisco.

Internet is passable. You will get 50 MBs free and need a package for additional MBs. It's semi-pricey. My mobile provider also has a package that works on DCL, but my gut says to use the cruise' internet (visions of a high cell bill discourage the mobile provider option).

For HOTHS. there will be a big Halloween tree in the ship atrium/lobby, and you will see Halloween decorating elsewhere as well. As I recall, there was a gradual lighting of the tree over successive days with a grand event at the end. We were on the ship October 31 and it was well attended and well done. Ours was the last HOTHS cruise that year, and the ship transitioned to Very Merrytime Christmas near the end of our cruise.

The Panama Canal is an engineering wonder and worth doing at least once. The ports are so-so but it's a fun cruise with many sea days. We played a lot of trivia and made many new friends. Many are doing this cruise again in 2018 (it also tends to be a good value if you like sea days).

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We LOVE that long cruises. There will be special entertainers on board, different menus/themes each night, and enough time to really enjoy yourself and the ship.

The internet is not bad. You can get 50mb free if you sign up on embarkation day. That allows you to make any adjustments needed (do you have ALL your data eating stuff turned off?) and see how long it lasts based on what you are doing. My 20 something survived on an $89 package for 14 nights of cruising, but of course she wasn't downloading stuff. Actually, she only used about half the package! If you need to do something major, most ports have locations with free internet.

As above, HOHS is primarily a one day event with small things throughout the cruise.

Thanks for the responses. Two additional questions, anyone remember what is the cost of various internet plans? Also how much upcharge is Palo for lunch? Is it also $30 like it is for dinner? Thanks in advance!

You can see the current prices on the DCL web site. The largest plan (which we did) was $89. You can't upgrade once you have purchased--it isn't like Shutters where if you buy a small package and want more, you can upgrade to a larger package and just pay for the larger one. If you buy a small package and want more, you have to buy a new package. The larger the package, the cheaper the per mb rate.

Brunch and dinner costs in Palo are the same cost.