[00:00:00] Speaker A: Yes, well, we never miss matrobate no matter what, so that. That was a must do.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: And did you try to encourage your parents to do it or are you like, no, I don't want to see them do it.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: We talked about this and at the end of the day, we were just like, I don't want to hear this about you and you don't want to hear this about.
[00:00:32] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by my path Unwinding Travel. And Sam, I am still remiss in our listener review category. My part of the show here at the beginning, I.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: Here, I've got a review for you. This is coming from a listener named Sam. She says, brian, you're awesome. Keep doing what you're doing.
[00:00:54] Speaker C: Well, I appreciate that. Thank you, Sam from Seattle. All right, well, but we've got a fun topic tonight. We're going to be talking a little Disney dream post dry dock, a little lighthouse point, a little sailing out of Fort Lauderdale. Is that right, Sam?
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Yes. I'm super excited. Yeah. We're gonna have Lindsay on the show today. Welcome to the show, Lindsay.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Hello. Hello. I'm so excited to be here. After being an avid listener, you have helped me prep for my past few cruises.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: Oh, that's sweet of you to say, Lindsay. We're excited to chat with you. Now, you are not a first time cruiser. You are now a what, three time cruiser. Is that right?
[00:01:35] Speaker A: This was my fourth.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: So you're. I'm finally almost at and close to gold. One more to go, Lindsay.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Yes, don't worry, we have it booked.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Oh, nice, Nice. Spoiler alert. She's hooked. All right, well, now we. I know from our show notes ahead of time that you are actually a former cat cast member. But let's. Let's go back in time, Lindsay, and tell. Tell our audience where your love of Disney originally comes from. And then let's talk a little bit about what you did as a cast member.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: Yeah, of course. I mean, I do have to blame the love of Disney on my parents who took me there. I think I was like six to eight weeks old the first time.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Wow.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: You couldn't even go on any rides.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: No. You know, I might have gone on the Mexico boat ride because there is a photo me in the stroller in front of the pavilion. So maybe that was it.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: But yeah, it was just, you know, our family annual trip. We would go to Disney World either in December or at the end of summer before going Back to school. And as I got older, you know, I found out about the Beer and bomb guidebooks for Disney World. Would read them, would quiz my parents on them.
So I just, just really loved it. And, you know, we grew up in Pennsylvania, but eventually I did move to Florida, worked there a little bit. I've also lived in California, which I currently live in. So in my adulthood, I've always chosen to live in the vicinity of a Disney park. I've also, you know, had the opportunity to work for Disney for about three to four years total and really got to do a lot of different things with the company. I worked in the parks at Journey Into Imag with Figment and Illuminations. Rest in Peace.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: I love both of those things.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Yes, thank goodness. And then I also led tour guides in the parks for student groups that were coming to learn about the science behind, you know, the roller coasters and Haunted Mansion. Such a cool job.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Yes. We would take them on Space Mountain with the lights on, like backstage at Haunted Mansion so they could see how the special effects work.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: So that's cool.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: So, so incredible. And then after, you know, being at Disney World for about a year, I moved to California and eventually got a job working on an animated show for Disney Channel called the Owl House.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: Yes, I know that show. Yeah, of course.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Such a dream come true to work on that show. And then after that, you know, having these different experiences, it made me want to work in kind of the talent acquisition, recruitment side of things. So I was doing that for a coup and even got to run the ESPN LinkedIn account. So I feel like in one way or another, I've worked for almost every part of the company, unfortunately, was impacted by their mass layoffs that they've been going through, but really grateful for all those experiences.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Well, I'm sorry to hear about that. You were impacted by the layoffs, but that is pretty amazing, all the experiences you've been able to have. That's really cool that you got to run the LinkedIn in California.
[00:05:02] Speaker A: I was like, am I qualified for this? I'm just a girl. I don't know.
[00:05:09] Speaker B: I love it. Well, tell us, when did you start cruising with dcl? You've had. This is your. Your fourth cruise that we're going to be talking about today. But when did you start cruising with DCL?
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Yeah, the first time, I think I was about nine, 10 years old. And it was on the Wonder. Only the Wonder and Magic existed back then. And I think it was kind of a short basic, probably like Nassau And Castaway Key. I sadly don't have a ton of memories other than just general. Oh, that was good memory.
[00:05:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well if you were that young, plus those were those. That was when the Wonder was doing what the Wish is currently doing. Which reform it.
[00:05:45] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. So you know, it had been many, many years. My first cruise back after that with Disney was 2022. We did an Alaskan cruise. Seven nights out of Vancouver on the Wonder. And then last summer, the trip of lifetime 11 night Mediterranean on the Dream.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: Ooh, yes.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: And then.
[00:06:09] Speaker B: Amazing.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Yes. Oh, it was so, so unreal. And then brings us to this cruise which was five nights out of Fort Lauderdale on the Dream. Again, interesting.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: So you've, you have four cruises, two of them on the Wonder and two of them on the Dream. So that's really interesting that you, I mean obviously Alaska Wonder is the only one that goes to Alaska. So you, you know, when you're choosing Alaska, at least right now that's your choice. It's not. You don't have a choice of ship. And then same with Europe. When you're doing Europe, it's whatever ship Disney's got there. And obviously they had the dream there this past year.
Wow, that's super. Or last year I should say, because this year it was the fantasy. Super interesting. Well, what made you book the Dream in December of 2024 or for a sailing in December of 2024?
[00:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah, well, I gotta say, I feel like I manifested this one.
It was one of those nights, you know, when you're just scrolling. And this December 2024 was my 30th birthday. So I just thought for fun, let me see what itineraries are out there for that time of year. And the dream came up and stood out immediately because it took place on my actual birthday and my actual birth date. It would be at Lighthouse Point, Lookout K. Oh yeah. And I do have a question before we go further. Like what is the better shortened term for that?
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Just Look Out Key. Just look out Lookout Key.
[00:07:46] Speaker A: We'll go with that. Thank you.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: Yeah, that's how we, that's. We don't even refer to it as Lighthouse Point anymore. We just, we just say Look Out Key because it's Castaway Key and Lookout Key.
[00:07:55] Speaker C: That's they emphasized several times Lookout Key at Cast. Or sorry, Lookout Key. Lighthouse at Lighthouse Point pm. So there you go.
[00:08:03] Speaker A: So it's me with the long names.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: With the long names. Yeah, exactly. So I feel like we just talk about them as Lookout Key and Castaway Key. Now that's it's just easier. Yeah.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Well, yes.
[00:08:14] Speaker B: So your birthday. Your 30th birthday at Lookout.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: Yeah. It's like, what's better than that? Of course, with the holidays, though, you know, it makes it for a pricier cruise.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Of course.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: So I just put it out there. I texted my parents, showed it to my boyfriend, like, hey, did you see this cruise? And a couple months. Exactly. Hit, hit. And a couple months go by. I don't know, you know, if my parents were having, like, their own midlife crisis or what happened. But they just call us and they're like, we booked this cruise for the four of us. So sweet.
I am still in shock that it happened.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Listen, the best cruise is a cruise that somebody else pays for. I'm just gonna put it out there.
[00:09:01] Speaker A: That is for sure.
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Because they're, as we've talked about, Disney cruises are not inexpensive. So.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: Yeah. If you. If somebody else is footing the bill, all the better. Nice.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: So.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Well, how.
[00:09:16] Speaker C: Well, yeah. Can I ask before we dive into that, I wanted to know. So this was a Lookout Key sailings. We were just saying, were you excited to get to Lookout Key? There was a lot of sort of mixed reaction to Lookout Key. So I'm wondering, as you headed into this cruise, what was your mood like heading to Lookout Key?
[00:09:35] Speaker A: So it was pure excitement because when it was booked, no one had been on it, so I didn't know anything. But then, you know, even listening to this podcast and hearing the reviews, it was saying, still, you know, so many months away. So I just felt like, okay, I. There's some valid complaints there, but I feel like, you know, we're not going on one of the first sailings. I think they'll be able to fix some of those things, but more on that later.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: All right, well, so how many day itinerary was this cruise on? The Disney Dream?
[00:10:09] Speaker A: So it had four full days.
First day, Nassau, Bahamas, then Castaway, Cayenne, Lookout Key, and then day at sea at the end.
[00:10:19] Speaker B: Oh, very nice. So you got to do Castaway as well as Lookout.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Yes. Double dip. That was Disney cruise bucket list for me. So very happy to have that checked off.
[00:10:30] Speaker B: I have to correct you, Lindsay. It's called a duo dip.
[00:10:36] Speaker A: Is the double if you go to the same one. Well, because GCL Duo.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Yeah. So we. Yeah, it's. Well, so double dip has traditionally been thought of as two stops at Castaway. Right. That's what people use it. That's what people always used it to describe. So we kind of. I don't even Know who came up with it? I don't think it was actually us. I think it was one of our listeners who came up with it and said and called it a duo dip if you went to Castaway and Lookout. But we, they were also giving, you know, a nod to us. And so now.
Yeah, exactly. So, so now we think of it as a duo dip if you go to Lookout and Castaw. Whereas a double dip would be if you went to the same place twice. But I don't know, you could do a duo double dip and you go.
[00:11:21] Speaker C: Double usually means like two of the same thing. Right? You're shoveling the thing and duo is like two different things.
[00:11:28] Speaker B: Like Brian and Sam sold some things. I like, I like it.
[00:11:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:34] Speaker B: Well, that's an awesome, awesome itinerary. So was yourself, your boyfriend and your parents going on this cruise then?
[00:11:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: And had you sailed out of Fort Lauderdale before?
[00:11:45] Speaker A: No. So this was the same cruising party. We all went on the Mediterranean one last year on the Dream. But this was our first time out of Fort Lauderdale. That was another thing that really enticed us because my parents are retired. They sort of do the snowbird thing where they live in Fort Lauderdale actually. So that is one way, you know, for us to save money on future Disney cruises when we can just go there. We don't have to pay for an extra hotel, like, you know, those kind of extra expenses, like we have a place to be. So yeah, that was a great draw.
[00:12:20] Speaker B: Now you and your boyfriend are coming from California, is that right?
[00:12:23] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Okay, so you're flying all the way across country, but then staying at mom and dad's the night before the cruise, I take it, or a couple.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I think we came in like a couple days before and just did some things in Fort Lauderdale. We love it there. Lauderdale by the sea is our beach of choice. But they have so much, you know, nice things to do. So we soaked that in and then after the afterwards we stayed an extra day too. But that was mostly just couch potato mode because we were go, go, go on the cruise.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: Oh, of course, of course. Now for you all then, do you take, did you like Uber to the port so you wouldn't have to, you know, park the parents car at the port or did you guys drive there?
[00:13:04] Speaker A: We did drive there and with the parking, I forget the exact price. It wasn't as terrible as we would have thought. But just with all the luggage and everything, I don't know, it might have been cheap. I'm not really sure which would have been cheaper. But we had the rental car, so why not?
[00:13:23] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well, tell us about the check in process at Fort Lauderdale. We've been through Fort Lauderdale now since obviously Disney moved there. But what did you think about the, the port terminal? The check in process was everything smooth. I feel like they've got operations pretty well running nowadays and I'm guessing. Yeah, we're like that. Yeah, yeah.
[00:13:44] Speaker A: I don't know, you know, if I'm the best person for a review given that my last two were Vancouver, so not an official Disney one. And then in Italy, so even further from the Disney experience. But it was so cute with all the decorations and it was decorated for Christmas and the line went really fast. There was a castaway, Castaway club line that went faster. We don't remember that being a thing at the other ports. I don't know if we missed it or it just wasn't offered but that really helped us get on. We did kind of flub a little bit and where we forgot to check in and get our port arrival time until a few days later. Oh gosh. Yeah, yeah. We had been, Brendan, my boyfriend and I, we had been in Japan around that time. It was also around the time I got laid off. I just was not thinking that far ahead.
So our time wasn't until like 1 or 1:15 and we're like, oh, I hope this doesn't take that long. And I feel like we were inside in like 20 minutes. It wasn't bad.
[00:14:54] Speaker B: Yeah. I feel like with those later port arrival times they're usually like got the operation really smooth sailing and you'll get like through check in and onto the ship pretty quickly because you don't have. There's more of a backup and it usually takes longer if you're there earlier. And so you know, it's not, it's not a bad thing to have a later port arrival time. It's just a matter of like how early do you want to be on the ship? Of course. And, and how early do you want to be at either, you know, cabanas or sit down lunch.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: So I think, you know, having been on the dream already, I don't feel like we missed anything. We still had our lunch at cabanas and at that point, you know, the shops aren't going to be open yet. Like they were just opening up the rooms to go into. So it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be when we realized that we messed up.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think people don't realize maybe that like it's There aren't really organized activities yet going on until, you know, the earliest there will be things is like maybe at 1:00. And those are generally like open houses where you can go and explore. It's not like they're. You're not, you're probably not missing. You can't, as you mentioned, you can't have the shops open. There's no bingo happening. Right. Because you can't have those things at port. You know, the most that you, it's possible you could miss is like maybe an early, a very early trivia, which there might be like one, but there's, it's not like there's a lot of goings on. It's more open house activities, you know, so people are sort of touring the ship and eating. So it's. You're not missing much if you're, if you get on at 1:30 instead of 12:30 or, you know, 12 or something. So, yeah, no big deal.
[00:16:34] Speaker C: And if you, if you're, if, if you have a later port arrival time or later boarding group, right. Like sometimes, like they push through the boarding groups really fast and by the time you show up to the four, you just check in, walk right on. You're not even waiting in the terminal, which is not terrible. Like the last cruise we did, was it the, was it the fantasy? No, it was the. I can't remember if this is maiden voyage, Sam. Like group two, which is basically everyone who's pearl. And I think Platinum doesn't have to choose. Right. And.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: No, just like pearling. It's pearl and concierge. Yeah, Platinum's a lower.
[00:17:05] Speaker C: It took them like an hour to do just through group two or something crazy. So.
[00:17:11] Speaker B: Yeah, so you're exactly right. Yeah.
[00:17:13] Speaker C: If you don't want to wait at.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: All, just, just go show up a little later. Exactly, exactly. Well, let's talk about what you all got up to, you know, on, on that day. And do you have any sort of traditions of what you like to do as a family? Obviously this, you said this sailing party, your boyfriend, your parents, you've all sailed together before. Do you have like traditions that you do or there are things you like to do on day one that make you feel like, okay, we are now on vacation.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, this is something that gives us a special connection to the dream. Growing up, my, you know, traveling party to Disney World often included my grandmother, who is known as Ma, and her favorite character was Donald because she was just as sassy as.
So there's just been moments like after she passed that, like, we would have a random server at Walt Disney World, just give us a Tiny Donald toy or. Yeah, just little things like that. When I go to Disneyland and park on the Donald level, just by chance, I'm like, oh, it's going to be a good day. So to have Donald in the atrium on the dream. And then he was the one that was doing character meet and greets at the time we walked in, we were just like, we have to. That needs to be our first stop. We have to get that picture. So that was a really special thing. But in general, love getting a photo with a character. In my experience, the line tends to be shorter than at later points because some people are just like, ready to go eat or do the next thing. So that's a good tip that we have. But then, yeah, we usually just do the classic, like, cabanas, visit the room, make it to the Sail Away show. And every time my parents, they, they get that little drink that they're selling in the souvenir cup and they're like, what do we do with this?
[00:19:12] Speaker B: Right, Listen, the refills are on the drink of the day. You can get it for, like, it's a little bit less expensive if you bought that cup on day one, I think.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: So I don't know if the drinks are that good, though, in my opinion. I, you know, they're just fruity drinks. They're okay. I mean, they're fine. But, you know, that's their, their kickoff.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: To the vacation mode. And then my family, like, we all love to shop, so we pretty much usually rope drop the shop or like, get there within the first five, ten minutes.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Oh, wow. And it was there any good, like, merchandise that you were looking for or that you found on board? I mean, this was a maritime sailing, right?
[00:19:56] Speaker A: So, yeah. Well, I'll tell you what.
In general, I did feel like the maritime vibes were underwhelming in across the board. And the merch was not an exception to that.
I had seen in past years that they would have merch that was specific to Disney Cruise. Like, it would have the Disney cruise logo and Christmas holiday stuff happening. But it was the same exact stuff. They were selling, like the same spirit jersey they're selling in the parks. It just says Disney Cruise Line. The same ears, the same backpacks, everything. So I didn't buy anything. I actually had a Disney Cruise maritime, like, sweatshirt that I had bought from a Disney outlet in Fort Lauderdale. So that's a pro tip for those of you sailing out of Fort Lauderdale. The Sawgrass Mills Mall has a Disney outlet that is entirely theme park and cruise merchandise.
So I found some really great cruise finds there. So this was from a past year, but I was like, I like this better than anything they offered on the actual cruise.
[00:21:09] Speaker C: I actually saw. I actually saw.
[00:21:10] Speaker B: I know what you're saying, Brian.
[00:21:11] Speaker C: We're recording this and in like two weeks after the maiden voyager, three weeks after the main voyage, and they already had merch at that Sawgrass mall from the main voyage of the Treasure. They had like polo shirts or something.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: So, yeah, they had the polo shirts and they were. I think somebody posted in our maiden voyage group that they were like. It was like 16 for the polo shirt. That was like. Yeah, that was like 45 or 50 on board. Yeah. And just, you know, literally a week or two before. It's crazy. And yeah, and they, they take. It's funny because the like, maiden voyage merch, they take off immediately after the maiden voyage. Maritime merch, they take off immediately after maritime ends. Right. But it ends up somewhere because Disney's not like burning that stuff because they're like, we're going to make money off of it if we can. Right. So they'll send it to the outlets.
[00:21:57] Speaker C: I would have preferred that the maiden voyage stuff either be burned or frankly go to Cast Connection. That's where for the main voyage stuff to go.
[00:22:07] Speaker B: I think some of it does, but I don't know how they decide what goes where. Yeah, it's a big mystery to me. But yeah, I'm with you, Lindsay. I would say that the last couple of years, all I've seen that has been different from park stuff as far on cruise line for maritime has been maybe one T shirt each year and that's it. And everything else is the same. And actually I have the spirit jersey from 2023 that is the Disney Cruise Line version, but it is the same as the world and land version. It just says Disney Cruise Line on the back and has the Disney Cruise Line logo on the front. So it's really the same spirit jersey. I really liked that one. So I of course got it.
[00:22:50] Speaker A: But yeah, I think it just depends, like if you're. If this is your one, like Disney experience at the holiday season and you don't go to Disneyland or Disney World regularly, you might not even notice that it's the same. But as somebody that goes to Disneyland frequently, I was like, eh, I wanted something different.
[00:23:08] Speaker B: Totally get that. Totally get that. All right, well, you guys rope drop the. The merchandise. You are eating it at cabanas. That Day. Are you guys into, you know, trivia or crafts or, you know, what are the kind of activities that you guys like to get up to on board?
[00:23:28] Speaker A: Yeah. So with this cruising party, the trivia is not on the table because my other traveling members just do not carry the weight. I gotta say.
[00:23:40] Speaker B: You have to carry all the weight.
[00:23:42] Speaker A: Exactly. You do it too much.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: Too much. Yeah.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: The Alaskan cruise I went with by best friend Susie, who's equally Disney obsessed. And while we didn't win, like, we were very, very close. So I was just like, yeah, this isn't gonna happen. But we do enjoy the drawing lessons, which. I don't know if you've talked about this recently, but there is, like, a cruise line wide update with that which surprised us. And I know.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: I don't. I don't like it. I know you tell everybody about. I haven't talked about it. You're right. We haven't talked about it, I don't think at all, because I stopped going to the drawing lessons. But why don't you tell folks what it is? Because you're right. It's across the cruise line now.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: Yeah. So previously, the entertainment host would teach you how to draw a character. And we even had a magical moment on the Wonder, where earlier in the itinerary, we just really enjoyed the entertainment host. We asked, hey, could we do Panda May from Turning Red? And by the end of the week, he had trained and gotten approved and then was able to do that based on our requests. So right now it is just fully structured, planned in advance, because the entertainment host isn't teaching it. It's a video of a Disney artist teaching you, going very fast.
I'm somebody that draws so much in my free time, and I was overwhelmed.
So it just wasn't as fun or personalized anymore. And you can't have that fun interaction with the host as much because they're really just, you know, talking about the video.
[00:25:24] Speaker B: Yeah, I. I really don't like this change either, Lindsay. I think it's really a bummer because in previous years, as you mentioned, you have an entertainment cast member who's standing there drawing with you, and they could slow down or speed up depending upon how the group is doing, and they could answer questions. Now, to be fair, any of the these people were not in any way professional artists, so they would have to, like, learn themselves how to draw this character. And so they maybe weren't the best artists themselves. But I still feel like it was a more personal interaction and a better interaction than what you're Getting now, which is just a video and now you're having a professional artist, you know, as you mentioned, who, who is a, you know, a Disney artist teaching the class. But because it's on a video, it is pretty fast. And there's no personal touch. There's no, I mean, their, their drawing will be awesome, but your drawing might look like, you know what.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So that is one that we do tend to look for. My boyfriend loves the cooking demonstrations and the free, the free food, the free bite that you get.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:33] Speaker A: On this cruise. And this is just, you know, a comment for both onboard activity and entertainment. But we had a boy band cover band. It was amazing. I kept joking to my mom, like, did you book them for my birthday cruise? Because I grew up from NSYNC all the way to now where I love BTS and the K pop boy band groups. So they had two performances and then an activity the first night. They did boy band covers of Disney songs as well as like, wow. Yeah, like the four, they're called the Collective Five. You can look them up on Instagram. They're Orlando based and they've done, they did four Towns.
[00:27:22] Speaker B: I love that.
[00:27:23] Speaker A: Yeah, they did Four Town. That was a total dream come true. And then they did an adults only show that was like BTS, NSync, even some of the older groups, Jonas Brothers, like, I feel like they were hitting kind of every five to ten years of boy bands. And then on our C day, they hosted a workshop. So like, you want to join a boy band or something like that. And they taught us this, the dance move to Bye Bye Bye.
[00:27:54] Speaker B: That's amazing.
[00:27:56] Speaker A: And there was a dance battle. My mom kept laughing because she's like, I'm the oldest one here. And we had just had Paolo Brooks.
[00:28:04] Speaker B: Oh my God.
[00:28:06] Speaker A: But we did our best. And then they surprised us with the classic In Sync Merry Christmas, Happy Holiday song. So super fun.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Oh, how fun. Oh my goodness. I am actually, I'm super jealous. That's really, really fun. Okay. I found them on Instagram already, the Collective five. But they spell five with the number. And then I V e boy band. Oh my God. I am going to give them a follow. Absolutely. I love it. It, that's so fun. Okay. That I, I, I'm surprised that they had, you know, Disney has different variety acts that they invite on board. And we actually had an acapella group on our fantasy cruise over New Year's Eve that were great. Yeah, they were, they were called Moonshot. They were really fantastic. And that was a, a Mixed men and women group. And they did, you know, Disney stuff one night in the main theater. And then of course they did an adult only show in the tube, which was super fun.
But I love that when Disney has those kinds of groups. I find some of the, I mean some of the magicians are great, but some of the like contortionists and jugglers and stuff like that, I could just kind of.
[00:29:15] Speaker A: Yeah, like that's usually when we would skip it. So to see that. Okay. One of the nights where there's not a main stage show to see like those as extra options was just so exciting. It really added a lot. So I hope they bring them back many, many times.
[00:29:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, did you guys get up to a lot of adult only activities? Obviously you were a party of four. Adults. Like, were you big into going to like the like the adult game show things in the evening like Match youh Mate and all the other kind of silly games that they do?
[00:29:48] Speaker A: Yes. Well, we never miss Match or Mate no matter what. So that, that was a must do.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: And did you try to encourage your parents to do it or are we like, no, I don't want to see them do it.
[00:30:00] Speaker A: We talked about this and at the end of the day we were just like, like I don't want to hear this about you and you don't want.
[00:30:06] Speaker B: To hear this about us.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: So, you know, not. Not this time. Maybe someday in the future I will try to get up there, but.
[00:30:18] Speaker B: Nice. Well, which is. Is. Is Match youh Mate your favorite of the adult only shows? I feel like that's a favorite for most people, but in general there, you know, there's majority rules, there is pop. There's a bunch of different game shows that they do.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: Yeah, that's definitely our top. We did Majority Rules, which was fun, but I feel like that one really takes the cake for us. The Match youh May.
[00:30:44] Speaker C: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation? Great news. The fabulous team over at My Path Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel travel. My Path Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, Adventured with Disney, Relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park, vacation or adventures by Disney. Or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, My Path Unwinding travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOMYPATHunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
All right, so Lindsay, let's shift over to ports for a bit because you had an amazing sailing going the doing the duo dip. As we discuss up front, I want to dive into Lighthouse Point because that's the new destination for Disney. And before we get your thoughts on Lighthouse Point, I did put a call out to our listeners. Now this is back in September, so I'm a little behind here, but I did put out a call to our listeners to to call in and leave us some messages about what they were what they thought about Lighthouse Point based on sailings that they were doing back then. And for everyone out there, I'm sure it's not so long ago, but if you are new to the show or new to Disney Cruise Line, Lighthouse Point was a very divisive new stop for Disney. I will say that both Sam and I sort of really enjoyed Lighthouse Point from the get go. I was fortunate enough to do a preview sailing to Lighthouse Point and Sam joined us, joined me after with Nathan and then we had our podcaster. So we went to Lighthouse Point three times and then I went for I really enjoyed it. I think Sam really enjoyed it. I think most of the people on the cruise that we were on that we knew and had talked to really kind of enjoyed it.
[00:32:48] Speaker B: It.
[00:32:48] Speaker C: Some of the big drawbacks that were pointed out by many sort of larger, bigger channels out there were the length of the pier. So there is a lengthy pier to get from the ship to Lighthouse Point to get, you know, just off the ship. I will say that just for again anyone out there who hasn't listened to those episodes, the the pier exists because of the agreement that Disney made with the Bahamas and they had to protect a coral reef around the island. So if they had not had the pier then you would be tendering into Lighthouse Point which would make it it very, very difficult. So there is a long walk on the pier. Definitely some things that Disney could have done to make that walk a little bit better. Although they have made some improvements over time and I Keep hoping, fingers crossed they will add some sun sales to it like Royal Caribbean has on their Coco Cape here. The other big commentary from folks was just that there were some island pests, as we like to call them, hovering around the food, especially on the early stops.
Disney did a lot of things to try and reduce those island pests, AKA the flies away from the food and the food eating areas. And I think they, they used fans, they covered the food, they were spraying pheromones throughout the island to try and attract them to different places. Lots of reasons why those pests are cropping up on the island, but those two things were kind of a floating through the community as like big reasons that people were really hating Lookout Key as a first stop. And I will say we bucked that trend. We really enjoyed Lookout Key and I know some other creators out there that really enjoyed it too.
So I did put a call out to listeners because we went in June. I wanted to hear what the updates were and so we had some folks call in. The first person that called in was Christine from Kokomo, Indiana and she said that they had recently gone to Lighthouse Point on a three night Halloween on the highway sea sailings on the Disney Magic. She did say that the pier was rather long but not unmanageable and that they did put a call out in the app for anyone who needed assistance down the pier that there was a place that they could meet up and get a ride down the pier. I think her recommendation, her voicemail as I'm reading it, is essentially use your energy to get to the beach so you get off first because you might have to wait longer if you want to use their transportation and then save your energy for the walk back back. So she did acknowledge the pier was long, recommended sunglasses and hats to get down there, no way around it. She did feel like the Disney had taken appropriate steps to mitigate the flies and protect the food and said that the flies were no more manageable than being at a barbecue, an outdoor barbecue at a park. So that was kind of her feedback about it over. Overall she seemed to enjoy the day there. She did highlight that there was a family cabana that was available that she should have snagged but did not. So that was Christine's thoughts. The other person who called in was Craig from Lake Mary, Florida who said that he was also on a Halloween on the high seas cruise on the Magic to Lighthouse Point in September.
He did have a cabana and said that may have colored his observations. Only negative that he seems to cite is that there was no beach chairs for all of his guests and that some of the food on the adult beach area. So it sounds like he had a Serenity Bay cabana was not his favorite. We've heard that from other people too, that the food over there at Serenity Bay is not as good as maybe some of the other locations on the island. I don't know if that's still the case. But overall found the beaches to be gorgeous, the water to be perfect, the sand to be soft, and really, really enjoyed it. And actually said, as we have said, that we actually now prefer Lookout Key to Castaway Cay. So with that, with that in mind, with all of that context, Lindsay, it's time for the big reveal. What did you think Lookout Key and you know what, what challenges, opportunities did you find there and what things did you love? Love?
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Well, overall I loved it.
So really happy to share that we really didn't have many issues if, if any at all. Walking the pier didn't really bother us. I mean, we're just kind of of the feeling like we're eating so much, sitting a lot. Like that's our chance to walk a little bit.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
Get a little bit of movement in after all of the food. Right. That's how I look.
[00:36:58] Speaker A: Exactly. And then one thing I would say too is, is that for Christmas they did have decorations and they were playing Christmas music. I don't know if other times of the year they have any decorations or any music playing. But that made it, you know, so that we weren't really thinking about the walk. So I liked that they do have music.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: They don't have decorations, but they do have music as walking.
[00:37:22] Speaker C: They have that song that they commissioned specifically for the island. Yeah.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: Yes. But they had other kind of Caribbean music also, Brian. But yes, you're right, they did have a special song. Song.
[00:37:31] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Well, I'll have to go back and hear that song because ours was just the Christmas, like, islandy Christmas song playlist that I think it was the same exact one that they were playing on Castaway Key as well.
But yeah, so then, you know, the tram went very smoothly. And the way we kind of scheduled out our day first, we had, you know, breakfast on the veranda and just enjoyed the view when we got, you know, walked and went on a tram. Our first mission was to get a photo with Minnie in her Junkanoo inspired dress. Yes, we're really excited about that. And there were some cute Junkanoo inspired Christmas trees around. So we just took some pictures. I was wearing Like a birth, it's my birthday shirt kind of thing. So. Captured the memories. And the line really wasn't. Wasn't that bad because I think a lot of people, when they got there, they just wanted to find their beach spot and do that. So the first kind of character meet and greet wave, I think is probably better than the later one in the afternoon. And then after that, we went to Disney Fun in the Sun Bash, which I heard was new, but I'm not sure. Was that offered when you've gone?
[00:38:49] Speaker B: It was still. I was offered when you were there. Yeah. But was definitely. They were probably working out their kinks. But, yeah, it was. It was definitely awesome.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: I feel that way. Like, it was kind of in workshop mode, but it was fun. It's a nice way to interact with the characters without, you know, having to wait in the line. So we liked that the earlier one we went to had, like, double or double the characters than the afternoon one when we walked by. So I don't know if that's typical, but, yeah, it was Chip, Dale, Goofy, Pluto. I believe in the afternoon when we walked by, it was only Goofy, Pluto, and I'm a Chip and Dale lover, so I won the lottery there.
Yeah. So then after those kinds of little activities that it was, like, time to chill out on the beach. We did do some snorkeling. It was interesting to see the coral that's there.
[00:39:43] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: It's not the bright, colorful coral that you will see in a picture. It kind of looked a little spooky, but. But, you know, that's what they're trying to do, rehabilitate it. So that was surprising. We weren't sure if there was going to be really many snorkeling opportunities there. And then, you know, they have their signature drink in a pineapple cup. Somebody bought me the cup for my birthday. Just a stranger. So shout out to them.
Yes.
That was really nice. My boyfriend played some pickup beach volleyball.
One thing we really liked is that, you know, it was one cohesive of area. You know, castaway. You do have to, like, know where to tram to and everything.
We didn't go to the adult beach on Lookout Key because we just found, like, a pretty secluded area behind it was kind of like a dune of sand with some nice, just, like, beach foliage. And it felt like nobody else was around us for a while. So you can really spread out and find some. Some privacy there.
The food was the only time that we had, like, a weird moment. We all liked what we got, but there was, like, 10, 15, minutes where basically they. There was a sign that said, like, our fish of the day is mahi mahi.
So we kept asking people like, oh, which station? And they kept directing us to different ones. And then they would be like, we don't have this and we don't know and we don't know. And then eventually they figured out why they didn't know because they were serving mahi, period. So it did feel like they were confused. Like when you would ask, like, oh, I saw somebody had XYZ thing, they wouldn't know what it was. So. But we saw no flies and there was plenty of seating. So other than that, it all went smoothly.
And it was nice having it be a duo dip that the food was different than Castaway. So that's a really cool variety there.
[00:41:48] Speaker B: Yeah, you don't. I mean, you're. If you're stopping at Castaway, you don't need to have the exact same food twice. It's nice to have something a little bit different.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: And of course, they're still like the burgers if you're, you know, if you're.
Well, one, a kid who has maybe not. Not as refined a palate, or you're our friend Tracy, who also has that. A kid's palate that you can, you know, still get your burger. But it's also nice to just have a few. A few other options, like the. That chicken sandwich or those paa type dishes, the rice dishes.
[00:42:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I opted for. It was okay. It was good. But, yeah, it was just nice to have something different. And then we did do Rush the Junko celebration. That was super fun.
I recommend, you know, not missing out on that because, you know, in some ways, even more so than Nassau, where it's just. It's so touristy. It did feel like you were getting a taste of like, a real, like, cultural tradition, which is really nice. So I hope that they keep that. When I took a survey at the end of the cruise, they were asking a lot of questions about that, like, do you feel like you're experiencing the culture of the Bahamas at Lookout Key?
So it's interesting that they're asking about that. And then the shops, we did some shopping. Of course, we did notice that the store closed kind of early compared to the, you know, by the time you had to be on the ship. So don't save it necessarily for your last thing, because I think maybe about an hour before you were. Have you had to be back on the ship. It was closed.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: Oh, interesting. That's a Good tip. Yeah.
[00:43:30] Speaker C: Can I ask just a couple specific questions here, Lindsay? So one is, I also want to say it's really interesting to hear them surveying about the cultural aspect.
[00:43:38] Speaker B: I have a.
[00:43:39] Speaker C: A feeling whatever agreement they reach with the Bahamas includes some amount of that cultural stuff that they are going to have to do. So I'm. I'm wondering if they're looking at sort of refining it to, you know, make it more interesting or accessible if people aren't feeling like they understand what it is, etc. Etc. But I love that stuff. So, Disney, if you're listening, I think all of that cultural stuff that has been introduced around the Bahamas and the Bahamian culture is just fantastic in terms of the. Let me start with the store. Since you. Since that's where you left off, did you feel like they had, you know, enough merchandise in the store and sizes and stuff like that? Because one of the improvements they were supposed to have on this island is that they have, like, an actual warehouse there that they can store things, so they're not supposed to run out of things as easily. Did you find that to be the case or was it fairly well picked over? Like, yeah. What was your impression?
[00:44:23] Speaker A: Oh, that's. I didn't think about that. But that makes sense because I think we all felt like the selection was better there than at Castaway.
They had just a really nice variety. I ended up getting a dress that I think the design. I have, the ears as well, are made by like a designer, a fashion designer from the Bahamas, and then a Spirit jersey and I think a picture frame, a pin. That was another thing. On the cruise, there were no very Merry Time pins. And I've been getting one pin from every cruise that I've been on. So I was like, okay, well, this is the birthday on Lookout Cruise, so I'll. I'll opt for that instead. So we were really happy. Honestly, there was probably too much stuff like that I would have. Would have bought, but had to control myself.
[00:45:15] Speaker B: Control yourself? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I found that at Lookout. I found, like, the. The merchandise was plentiful and really, like, much better than. Not that Castaway merchandise is bad. It's just. I just think that there was just more variety.
[00:45:31] Speaker C: I think it's nicer.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: It's nicer.
And a lot of the Castaway stuff on this trip was not even Castaway branded. It was just Disney Cruise Line. So I think the only thing I bought there was the ears that I mentioned, which I could have also bought at Lookout.
[00:45:51] Speaker B: That makes sense. That makes sense. Well, let's talk about the beach at Lookout. You mentioned that you guys found kind of a secluded spot. Spot. I think that the great. One of the great things about Lookout is you actually can find a secluded spot. It really is. The way it's sort of laid out is really conducive to finding, you know, sort of. I want to say it like, it's not, like, complete privacy, but there's just a lot of, you know, space close to it. Yeah.
[00:46:18] Speaker A: I mean, I don't know the exact. Like, was it max capacity? But having gone on the dream the summer before this ship fell, crowded. I mean, for some of the stuff, like in the atrium, you know, the Christmas tree lighting. We had the late dinner, the earlier stage show, we could not get a view of that at all, because by the time the stage show had ended, we're coming out, all the early dinner people were there. So to have. That was the one day of the whole trip where I was like, okay, it's quiet, it's calm.
[00:46:52] Speaker C: And the secluded spot you found, Lindsay, as you described it, it sounded like. So there's the. On the family side, there's the beach that has beach chairs kind of up against a berm, and then you've got access to the ocean. And then you can go up some, like, stairs or walkways, and then they've got, like, more sand between kind of the top of the berm and where the buildings start. And in some of those spots, they've put, like, just a bunch of beach chairs. So you're not. Not. You got to go down. Down over the berm to get to the water. But you're kind of secluded up top there. Is that. Is that where you were Exactly?
[00:47:23] Speaker A: We were in that. In between space. And, you know, there is some of that beach foliage, but we just picked some chairs where it wasn't that high, so we could still see the ocean. And the walk down to the water was short. You just walk some steps down. So worth it to us.
[00:47:40] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And some of the most beautiful sand and water I found.
[00:47:45] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:47:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:46] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:47:47] Speaker B: Was it. Was it too cold to swim in the. We, you know, we. We were. Because we were at Castaway around the same time that you were at Lookout. Yeah. Was it too cold, or did you find it was okay for swimming?
[00:47:59] Speaker A: I thought it was fine.
It takes you, like, maybe a couple minutes to adjust, but I never felt like I needed to get out because I was too cold, so just brave it for a few minutes. That was our best weather day, though. The castaway Day was a little windier, and actually Nassau was windy as well. We had an excursion book that they did cancel because of that and a lot of the castaway, like, I feel like most of the excursions.
[00:48:28] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. All the boat excursions, right.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:31] Speaker B: Especially parasailing, which when, you know, when we. We went to Castaway both on our Treasure and fantasy cruises over the holidays, and all the excursions were canceled at Castaway both times because of, again, winds. Yeah. So we didn't get to parasail at all. But it's fin fine. We. We kind of know that with. When you're talking, when you're talking about winter months, it's just the. There it just tends to be windier. And so it's one of those things just like no going in that if you book an excursion that is like one of the boating excursions or parasailing, like, there's a good chance it could get canceled for weeks. Yeah. Well, tell us about your. Your Castaway day then. Had you booked any excursions at Castaway?
[00:49:15] Speaker A: We did the open air cabana massage.
[00:49:20] Speaker B: Oh, nice. Very nice.
[00:49:23] Speaker A: Yes. That was so lovely. It's so nice. I mean, if you've done a massage before, you know that they often will play like fake beach sound music. So to hear the actual beach and to hear the wind up the palm trees was so relaxing. It wasn't the best massage that I've ever had in my life. But. But, you know, an average massage is better than no massage.
That was really, really special. And it's one of those things that doesn't take up a huge chunk of your day. So that was on the earlier side. Then we went swimming at Serenity Bay, got lunch over there, and then trammed back so that we could do some snorkeling on the family beach.
[00:50:08] Speaker B: Nice. What did you think of the beach over at Serenity? You know, I'll. I will preface this by saying Brian and I have spent time at the beach and at Serenity in years because with Nathan, you know, now we just don't get to go to Serenity and I run by there, but I. I find I never end up going and like checking out the beach. I should have. I could have the last couple times we went. But just curious, like, as far as the beach goes, I. We know that from storms, you know, a lot of the beach kind of eroded. And so it's a very short beach and kind of steeper beach. But what was your experience there? Was. It was, you know, was the beach looking nice or was it looking like it needed more sand.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: No, I thought it looked nice. I mean, it was on the shorter side, but it wasn't steep that I recall. And the color of the water was so, so beautiful.
Really liked it. But we also wanted a chance to snorkel, so that's kind of why we split it up.
[00:51:09] Speaker B: Yeah, Very, very smart. Well, let's jump back on to the beautiful Disney Dream, because we haven't talked shows. And I gotta know, Lindsay, you know, you're somebody who obviously worked in entertainment with Disney. Of course, you know, in a different capacity, not as a, you know, as a performer. But I'm guessing that you're somebody who goes to see the shows on board. You mentioned, what do you think of the shows on the Disney Dream?
[00:51:37] Speaker A: Yes. Well, it. Overall, I love the entertainment. It's why we keep going back to Disney, so we never miss a main stage show. I will say, and I'm sure many people that cruise often probably feel this way. The Golden Mickeys are starting to feel a little tired, but I'm with you.
[00:51:58] Speaker B: Brian still loves them, but I'm with you.
[00:52:00] Speaker A: Here's an interesting update. They did take out the Bob Iger.
[00:52:07] Speaker B: Art finally, which is so funny because he's back. So why.
[00:52:12] Speaker A: Yes, exactly.
The first time I had seen the show, or I guess I don't know if it was the first time. I don't remember on the. On the Wonder if it was there. But on the Alaska cruise when we went at the time, like, I forget if he had come back at that point, but it was like, either that or very close to the Chapek area, we were like, what is this? But, yeah, they changed that to Captain Minnie now.
[00:52:37] Speaker B: Oh, funny.
[00:52:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So that was kind of cute.
But then, like, Beauty and the Beast, I have such a special connection to that show because, you know, in high school, junior high, I did musical theater. And when I started taking voice lessons, you know, a song from the Broadway version of Beauty and the Beast was the first song I was, like, brave enough to sing publicly. And. Yeah. And then being a brunette, like, you know, she was the one.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: She was the option one brunette. Exactly. The rest are blondes. What the heck, Disney, Come on. Gotta give some love for us brunettes.
[00:53:16] Speaker A: Seriously. But, I mean, when we saw it last year, we were blown away. We were like, should we skip dinner and watch it again?
And then, you know, on this time, we, you know, rope dropped. That got the perfect seats, I think third or fourth row, dead center. We had two visiting Broadway performers in the cast. Gaston and Belle's Father. So that was a treat.
[00:53:41] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:53:42] Speaker A: Yeah. So just phenomenal. It still makes my jaw drop. My tears come from my eyes.
[00:53:51] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely.
[00:53:52] Speaker A: Yes. So good.
[00:53:53] Speaker B: And then did either of the Broadway visiting artists do performances in like, one of the other spaces? Like, no.
[00:54:02] Speaker A: And we've had that the last two times. Frozen. We had Olaf and he kind of did like a presentation and then sang one song. And then on the Mediterranean one, I think it was Gaston, and he just performed his own like 30, 40 minute set of Disney songs of his choice. That was also lovely. But yeah, we didn't get it this time. Maybe because it was itinerary.
[00:54:29] Speaker B: You know, we didn't get it on either the Maiden or on the Fantasy Cruise that we were just on, either. So I don't know.
[00:54:37] Speaker A: I hope they don't do away with it.
[00:54:39] Speaker B: I don't. I'm guessing they haven't done away with it, but I know it's like certain itineraries it happens and others it doesn't. And it probably depends on like, what is. What all is going on and what space do they have available. It's probably harder on maritime cruises too, because there's so many.
[00:54:53] Speaker A: There's like the extra stuff. But I did hear a rumor that this was this cast's first week performing.
[00:55:01] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:55:02] Speaker A: To like, if they were trying to fit in, like extra rehearsals and so forth.
[00:55:07] Speaker B: Oh, that would make sense. Yeah, that would absolutely make sense. Well, we haven't talked food, so we've got. We've got talk food a little bit now. When you were on the Dream last, you were in the Med, which tells me that, you know, you may have been in a situation where the food actually was in fact different because. Because they, they do run out of things when they're in Europe. We know. And so they, you know, their suppliers are different. But curious overall what you thought of the food on board the Dream on this sailing.
[00:55:38] Speaker A: Yeah, we had a lot of. Of positive experiences. There was one night where we collectively were like, eh, this was kind of a dud. But otherwise we really liked it. I got scallops a couple times in different dishes that were wonderful. In terms of desserts, my last two cruises, I was always like a little disappointed with most of the desserts. And I think, Brian, there was some podcast. I don't know if it was a recent one or one of the old very merry time ones, but I just remember you saying, like, the sundaes, the Sundays like hit hard. So I'm gonna try the sundae route. I love Ice cream. But I just always felt like, I'll try this fancier sounding thing. But yeah, no regrets. Every time I got the sundae that was, you know, top level desserts.
[00:56:27] Speaker B: I love it. I mean, that is Brian's. It is one of Brian's go to sort of tips and tricks. I would say that, you know, because oftentimes the regular desserts are a little bit underwhelming and.
[00:56:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Like there would always be either a cookie or a brownie or a cake. Also with the ice cream, I don't think I realized that. So that just raised the bar for sure. I will share a hot food. Take that. I don't think you're gonna like, uh.
[00:56:56] Speaker B: Oh. Oh, no. Is it about my dear truffle presets?
[00:57:00] Speaker A: No, it is not. But another topic that has come up a lot, which is that my family and I, we all love the Pirate Night men.
[00:57:10] Speaker B: I love it. That's a good hot seat. Listen, that's okay. I don't. I'm not mad about it. I'm not mad about it. Lindsay.
[00:57:17] Speaker A: Someone's gotta eat it.
[00:57:18] Speaker B: Somebody has to use that menu. Exactly.
[00:57:20] Speaker A: So we don't mind. And this was something I didn't realize from past cruises, but we were Pirate Night was in animators and all the pirate themed.
[00:57:32] Speaker B: Oh, did you have the art on the wall? I love that.
[00:57:35] Speaker A: So that's a huge bonus. I feel like that's kind of hard to plan. Like, I think it was a happy accident for us. Us. But that was really great.
[00:57:44] Speaker B: But I. Yeah, you'll only have that if you have Pirate Night that happens to be an animators and you're having a Pirate menu. So you have to be on a cruise that doesn't have. If you have like a, you know, it just depends on like the number of night itinerary and whether or not you're going to get a Pirate Night menu. Right. So if you have a Pirate Night but not a Pirate Night menu, you won't get any kind of pirate theming in the dining rooms. But if you, like Lindsay, have the Pirate Night and the Pirate menu and you happen to be an animator, you'll get the, the pirate pictures on the, on the screens. And it is. I, I think animators is. If you're going to do Pirate Night and get the Pirate menu, Animators is the best place to be because then you get a little bit of extra theming.
[00:58:25] Speaker A: Exactly. I was like, ooh, this is extra fun. That we didn't, you know, expect.
But we, we had a milestone which Is that we did Palo brunch for the first time ever.
[00:58:36] Speaker B: Ooh, what did you. Apollo brunch.
[00:58:40] Speaker A: So we. So we had done Apollo dinner before and really enjoyed that. And the brunch.
I don't know if you all prepared me enough for how much food.
[00:58:53] Speaker B: How much food? I hope you didn't eat for, like, at least a couple meals before.
[00:58:58] Speaker A: It was. We were barely hungry for dinner, and the brunch was at noon, and we had the late dinner. So that just goes to show, it was. It was a lot. We ended up, sadly, having, I think, about a whole pizza that we just could not do, but really love it. I don't know if we felt like, oh, we need to do that every single time because you do turn into food coma mode.
[00:59:24] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely.
[00:59:25] Speaker A: But for sure would do it again. And now that I know what I know about the portions, would probably order things somewhat differently.
[00:59:32] Speaker B: Yeah. I feel like we try and tell. Warn people that it's a lot of food, but we also try and warn people, like, don't order the breakfast food. Not. Not because it's not good, but because, like, you gotta save room for all this, like, delicious Italian food. And so. And I think people don't always. They don't always take our advice the first time, but they usually take our advice the second time because it's just so much.
[00:59:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. We had a great server who, like, scared us away from the waffles and pancakes, so we didn't do that. But even with the Italian food, like, we just went overboard.
[01:00:05] Speaker B: It's a lot. Yeah, it's just a lot. And if you get every. Every course, like, we did get. Yeah. The antipasti, which I love. And then if you get a soup, which I also love, and then if you get a pizza, which I also love. And then if you get chicken parm or lasagna, which we both love. Right. Like, so it's. Yeah. And then, of course, there's. Don't forget, like, the bread basket. There's, like, the savory one and there's the sweet one. Right. Like, you just. There's just a pro tip for that.
[01:00:30] Speaker A: They will let you take, you know, the pastry to go. So, you know, the next day was our day getting off the ship, so I took that extra almond croissant to go and had a nice little extra thing the next day when we had to leave the ship.
[01:00:47] Speaker B: Nice, Nice. Be careful with taking stuff off the ship, though. People who are listening.
[01:00:52] Speaker A: Oh, I did not take it off.
[01:00:53] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:00:54] Speaker A: I just ate it at my Table.
[01:00:55] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[01:00:56] Speaker A: With the French toast.
[01:00:57] Speaker B: Yes, exactly. You can eat it on board before you leave. Leave. You can. The only stuff that you typically are allowed to take off with you is, like, pre packaged foods. And so, yeah, you can't take fresh. Fresh foods, especially not fruits and vegetables off. You could get big fines from the Bahamians or from, you know, the U.S. when you're coming back into the U.S. that sort of a thing. Well, I think we're at that point, Brian, do you think, or. Or did we forget anything, Lindsay?
[01:01:24] Speaker A: I think that's really mostly everything.
I will say, with the kind of overall extra Christmas stuff, like I said, there wasn't a ton of, like, it was underwhelming. Overall, even the character meet and greets were a little sparse. Like, we were surprised how often they had the characters in their regular outfits. So I think. Yeah, exactly. So if you want them photos, like, prepare to block a good chunk of time. Like, the lines were so long, like, 20 minutes before the character would be coming out, and you'd be lined up, you know, technically for the other character. So that's something to prepare for. But we did meet Minnie in her Christmas dress, as well as Belle. The Christmas dress.
[01:02:17] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Seeing her in the Christmas dress on board. I don't have a picture. I never got a picture with. With her in her Christmas dress, but that was. That is a nice thing to see.
[01:02:25] Speaker A: So beautiful. So, you know, finally getting those pictures. I think we both got them both on our last day. We kept trying, and either the line would be cut off or it would be a different outfit for some reason. That and the holiday carolers, which, you know, my family's interfaith, and we really appreciated that. There was Hanukkah song and the Christmas song, so those were our top holiday moments. But Disney, if you're listening, I think there could be more from the Very Merry time.
[01:02:57] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:02:58] Speaker C: Nice. Well, Lindsay, as Sam hinted, we have reached that point in the show where I need to hand you back to Sam for some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules, and a dash of judgment or the round we know as rapid fire. So, Sam, take it away.
[01:03:10] Speaker B: Thank you, Brian. All right, Lindsay, I'm gonna ask you some Disney favorites, and then I'm gonna ask you some Disney Cruise line favorites. Favorites. We're gonna start with. Who is your favorite Disney character?
[01:03:21] Speaker A: Chippendale.
[01:03:22] Speaker B: I love. I love. Yeah, well, they're a pair, so you. Absolutely. There's no break. Yeah.
[01:03:27] Speaker A: I was like, is that gonna count?
[01:03:28] Speaker B: No, that is like, Chippendale. You can. I mean, you could pick Chip. You could pick Dale individually, but I actually think it's way more appropriate to pick them as a duo.
[01:03:37] Speaker A: Great.
[01:03:38] Speaker B: All right, favorite Disney movie.
[01:03:41] Speaker A: Frozen.
[01:03:42] Speaker B: Oh, love that.
[01:03:43] Speaker C: That.
[01:03:44] Speaker B: All right, favorite Disney song.
[01:03:46] Speaker A: I am a 90s baby, so I gotta go with Reflection from Mulan.
[01:03:51] Speaker B: From Mulan. Oh, I love that. Who is that girl I see? I. I can't say it that well. It's such a good. It's such a good song, though. Oh, my God. I don't have her range, but yeah. All right, well, what is your favorite Disney cruise line stage show? You've only been on the Wonder. You've only been on the dreams. We have to, you know, pick from one that you. You have seen live in person.
[01:04:14] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:04:15] Speaker B: But there's really only one right answer to this one.
[01:04:17] Speaker A: I know. And I do have to go. I have to go with Beauty and the Beast. Yes.
[01:04:21] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. Thank God.
All right, we dodged. We dodged a bullet there. Okay. What is your favorite onboard activity?
[01:04:31] Speaker A: Ooh. Well, for this cruise, it had to be the boy Band Collective 5.
[01:04:37] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. Love that. Love that. Well, and if your best friend is with you, it sounds like trivia would be a great activity for you, but if these. But if this sailing party can't hold its own, you know, it's just not. It's not worth your time, really.
[01:04:50] Speaker A: Exactly.
[01:04:51] Speaker B: All right, what is your. What's your favorite bar space on Disney cruise Line?
[01:04:57] Speaker A: This is a tough one, because I don't really like any of them. On the dream.
[01:05:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:05:04] Speaker B: So you got to go on the fantasy. The fantasy is a better, better, better. But actually, you might need to go on the wish or the treasure, because I step it up even another notch. Yeah.
[01:05:14] Speaker A: So I'm gonna go with a wonder space, Just the little. I don't know the exact name, but the kind of jazz lounge.
[01:05:21] Speaker B: That French Quarter Lounge.
[01:05:23] Speaker A: Lounge.
[01:05:25] Speaker B: That's the right answer.
[01:05:26] Speaker A: And love the vibes.
[01:05:28] Speaker B: Absolutely love that. Perfect. What is your favorite rotational dining? Again, you can pick from the wonder or the dream. You don't have to pick from. From just the dream. Yeah. What's your favorite rotational dining rest restaurant?
[01:05:38] Speaker A: I'll stick with that ship. Because going to Tiana's restaurant has been, you know, little childhood dream of mine, and then it finally came true thanks to the wonder.
[01:05:50] Speaker B: Love that. Awesome. All right, we've got to talk a food item while we're talking about dining, so let's go with a favorite sweet item, and then I'll ask you a favorite savory item. So Favorite sweet item on board.
[01:06:03] Speaker A: In honor of this most recent sailing, I have to say, for the sweet meat, the churro, Mickey waffle. Because it was my first time.
[01:06:11] Speaker B: Oh, my God. You're life changing.
[01:06:14] Speaker A: Life changing.
[01:06:16] Speaker B: Love it.
[01:06:16] Speaker A: So incredible.
[01:06:18] Speaker B: So good.
[01:06:19] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:06:19] Speaker B: And don't put any syrup on it, people. It's enough. It's as it is. Doesn't need anything. Just eat it as it is. Maybe some bacon on the side. I love that.
[01:06:28] Speaker A: Yes. Yes.
[01:06:29] Speaker B: All right. Favorite savory item.
[01:06:31] Speaker A: So also in honor of this sailing, I'll go with the tomato soup at Palo.
[01:06:36] Speaker B: That is such a good tomato. I would love to put that tomato soup on pasta because I said the same thing. Yes. It's like the best tomato sauce you've ever had in your whole life. So good.
[01:06:45] Speaker A: Yeah, they said, I think it's just like, olive oil, organic or heirloom tomato, basil, maybe a salt or pepper, like just the purest ingredients. And, you know, we have in our party, like, my mom's not the biggest tomato person, and she loved it. So that tells you everything thing.
[01:07:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. I. I think it's the quality of, like. Yeah. The quality of tomatoes they're using is just. Yeah. Incredible. Okay, favorite ship. You can choose between the Wonder and the dream. Which one do you like? Which one do you like better?
[01:07:15] Speaker A: I really wanted to cheat on this.
[01:07:18] Speaker B: No, you can't cheat. You can't pick the treasure if you haven't been on her yet. Yeah.
[01:07:22] Speaker A: Okay. It's tough one for me. I think, just for sentimental reasons, I'll go with the dream because I've now, you know, collectively. Okay. That's like two weeks of life.
[01:07:32] Speaker B: Yeah. You spend one more time on the dream. Yeah.
[01:07:34] Speaker A: So I'll go with that. But.
[01:07:36] Speaker B: All right. But. But I know that. I know that. I know Treasure was going to be. Because you're a park person. So you want. Yeah. You want to pick the treasure?
[01:07:43] Speaker A: I want those lounges. I do.
[01:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah. You're listening. You got to get on her before you can say she's your favorite.
[01:07:49] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:07:50] Speaker B: All right, well, my last question, of course, is your bucket list cruise. Lindsay, if you could go anywhere in the world on a Disney Cruise line ship, doesn't even have to be someplace that Disney Cruise Line currently sails. Where are you going? Going.
[01:08:02] Speaker A: Well, supposedly, this is happening. They haven't shared a ton of details, but I'm very excited about the Disney Cruise Line.
Japan.
[01:08:13] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, the OLC Channel. Yeah.
[01:08:15] Speaker A: Because I. We were just at Tokyo Disney in the fall, and I've also studied Abroad in Japan. So any excuse to go back there. And I just think everything in the parks there is so elevated. So they're going to do a great job with the cruise line too.
[01:08:30] Speaker B: Oh, I'm sure. Absolutely. Do you speak Japanese? Knees A little bit.
[01:08:34] Speaker A: So I think yeah, that would be enough to, to help me kind of get across that barrier. And also food wise, like in terms of the variety of food on Disney cruises in general, we always wish they had some more like Asian inspired options. So I think that would be exciting to see.
[01:08:53] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, I love that I. Sign me up. I'm going with you. Let's go to. Let's go to Japan. I love it.
[01:08:59] Speaker C: You might also be able to find that on the adventure coming next year.
[01:09:03] Speaker B: Yes. Well, there is going to be. Yeah, they do have that. They do have the Teppanyaki Sushi Asian restaurant. So that'll be. Yeah, there's definitely going to have more of that option available on Disney cruise line, at least in Asia. We don't know about in the US but. Well, thank you for playing Lindsay. Absolutely no judgment. Excellent answers. I'm giving you an A plus across the board and, and soon I think you'll be able to pick the Treasure as your favorite ship because you are going on her, aren't you?
[01:09:36] Speaker A: Yes. In April. So a different birthday. My mom's 70th birthday.
[01:09:41] Speaker B: Oh, yay.
[01:09:43] Speaker A: And another exciting feature about that cruise is that our party is growing. So my sister, her husband and their son, it will be their first cruise, first Disney cruise. And she, she is quite nervous to go on a cruise for the first time. But they're huge Disney fans. They go every year. Oh my gosh. Annual pass holders, even from Pennsylvania. So I just can't wait to live it through their eyes and see what they think.
[01:10:12] Speaker B: Oh, love that. Well, you'll have to come back on the show. Maybe you and your sister can come on the show next time.
[01:10:18] Speaker A: She'll have an interesting perspective.
[01:10:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So we can get the first timer perspective and of course your perspective as a huge Parks fan and now seasoned Disney cruiser. Right. So yeah, we'd love to have you come back. So yeah, definitely after your, your treasure cruise. That would be great.
[01:10:36] Speaker A: Sounds great. Thank you so much.
[01:10:39] Speaker C: Yeah, thank you, Lindsay for coming on and we, we always love to thank our guests for taking time out of their day to share their experiences. All of our listeners out there. So thank you so much, Lindsay for spending some time with us. We really, really appreciate it.
[01:10:50] Speaker A: Thank you. This was.
[01:10:57] Speaker C: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening. This week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows so be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us live, we have a live show now every week Monday nights 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email them at dclduomypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast, links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter letter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here at least, and a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
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