Ep. 302 - A Waddle of Penguins: An Adventures by Disney Trip to Antarctica

00:00.43 dclduo Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the DCL duo podcast brought to you by my path unwinding travel and Sam it's cold here in Seattle but nowhere near as cold as the destination we're headed today I don't believe so are you ready? you bundled up you warm. 00:13.85 Sam Ah, that's all right? You know I I have a sweatshirt next to me that I could put on if I get cold but I feel like I'm going to be okay since I am in the comfort of our home as we're recording this episode but I am really excited to talk about this. 00:21.27 dclduo Yeah. 00:27.21 dclduo But yeah. 00:32.11 Sam Adventures by Disney trip just to give our listeners a little preview. Um, we've got 2 guests here who went on and a very unique abd itinerary. So we'd love to welcome ta and gene to the show for the very first time. Welcome guys. 00:44.87 Kara _ Gene Hi. Thanks thanks for having us. 00:47.89 dclduo Yeah, no excited to have you both and we're going from the bluefooted boobies of the galapagos all the way up to I suspect the penguins of the Ant Arctic is that right? I'm before we before we dive into talking about your ab d. 00:49.79 Sam Yeah, they. 01:01.28 Kara _ Gene That's right. 01:07.76 dclduo Always like to get our crew before we dive into your trip with Abd We always like to get our guests cruising background So have you cruised before and what kinds of cruises have you taken. 01:20.95 Kara _ Gene I have only taken 1 cruise before and it was a five day Carnival Cruise in college. So ah, kind of a yeah, very different experience than this one and and that was really it. 01:27.75 Sam Very different experience. Yeah. 01:35.82 Kara _ Gene Yeah, and I had never taken a cruise before. So I definitely made sure to get my patch but ended up not being a big deal. 01:41.34 dclduo Yeah, well let me start with then how did you decide to go to the Antarctic. We'll talk about how you'd got to abd to take you there but how did you decide that the antarctic is where you want its head next because that is drastically different than a five night carnival crews so 01:42.33 Sam Nice, nice. 01:59.76 dclduo How how did you land on Antarctica. 02:00.37 Kara _ Gene Well I turned 40 and my wife asked me where you know where do you want to go. We can do a trip where do you want to go and I have always just been fascinated by Antarctica since I was a little kid and when I first learned that you could actually go there that just seemed. Amazing. It just seemed like it was something that would be totally out of reach to an average person. So the opportunity presented itself and I jumped on it. It took her a little bit ah a lot bit of convincing I guess I should say she's from New Orleans originally so going to Antarctica seemed seemed a little much but got her on board and. And I think we're both super happy that we did it? yeah and and by the way when I asked him where he wanted to go. He said Antarctica and then explained that he had always wanted to go there and this was the first time he'd ever told me that so I was a little bit surprised because in the you know. 02:48.56 dclduo The. 02:53.63 Kara _ Gene Ten or eleven years that we've known each other. He'd never said anything about Antarctica so it did it took a lot of convincing but eventually I was I was there. 03:03.21 dclduo Um, well it. 03:04.37 Sam Yeah Kara would you have um, would you have assumed in a warm weather location for a Fortieth birthday trip. 03:10.13 Kara _ Gene I Don't know what I had assumed but I just I didn't assume you know icebergs. 03:18.48 dclduo Ah, well, it's a it's a stunning destination from what we've heard so I can't wait to talk to you about it a bit more but let me next ask why adventures by Disney because I think there's a couple of cruise lines that go to Antarctica or a couple of you know expedition. Cruising adventures. You could take to Antarctica Adventures by disney being one I think Nat Geo has won um I know there's some other cruise lines that have done some bespoke ships to ah to head that direction and so curious how you landed on adventures by Disney. 03:48.25 Kara _ Gene Yeah, so we worked with a wonderful lady. Her name's Karen and she was a really great travel agent who helped us research just a ton of different options and I think you know we we looked at a wide range. There was. Work. There was not geo. There was like silver seas a bunch of other um cruise lines and and Karen did a great job of you know, describing and giving giving a summary of each you know ship and the feel that each of them had and adventures by Disney just seemed to. 04:09.75 dclduo O. 04:26.51 Kara _ Gene Check most of the boxes. It seems like it would be. You know the right combination of fun and you would get to see a lot of stuff but also be very comfortable in a really nice ship. Um with good food and and great people. So and also. You know everybody knows that Disney plans things to a t and everything is supposed to be really magical and it was right? So you know for a trip like Antarctica we didn't want to leave anything to chance and so we felt like Disney was definitely the most qualified organization to take us there. 05:03.35 Sam Yeah, yeah. 05:04.82 Kara _ Gene Yeah, and I'd say the the size of the ship as well. So some of those ships being such a big expedition are really quite large. You're on that ship with a lot of people and it just seemed like that would be a lot just some giant hotel out all the way to Antarctica that seemed like a lot so the size of that cruise was something that really drew us to it. And and even that that this is what we were picking it based just on the marketing materials alone. We'll probably touch on this later but I think those marketing materials vastly under soul. The experience that we ended up getting ended up being like way even better than than we thought it would be based on that. 05:37.82 Sam Wow Now were you guys traveling with your kids or was this adult. Yep yep. 05:38.00 dclduo Now were you wait hold on hold it wait hold on one second Sam but but can you give me 1 more question here and then you can go so were you disney people before you took this cruise I mean have you gone to the theme parks and such because. Adventures by Disney usually attracts a crowd that has some connection back to Disney itself and so I'm curious was this just kind of your first experience with Disney all up or had you been Disney Enthusiast before 06:05.18 Kara _ Gene I don't I wouldn't say we're Disney enthusiasts I mean I've I had been to Disney World a few times as a child and my dad loves disney so he he got me, you know, kind of into Disney when I was when I was younger we would go I think we. Probably went I don't know 3 or 4 times to Disney World um so you know it's a magical place and but I wouldn't say that we're Disney enthusiasts necessarily right? like Gene had never been a Disney world until. 06:24.62 dclduo Who. 06:40.46 Kara _ Gene Went about three four years ago yeah I mean clearly like everybody we've seen every one of the movies and and we we have a three and a six year old so Disney plus is on non. Ah so we are in that case but I think part of what it right? I mean you did list off several. 06:52.93 Sam Ah. 06:57.30 Kara _ Gene Lines that do go to Antarctica and it's true. There are a lot of options. But unlike some other places that um, these disney the ibd goes it really is a little bit of a limited bunch even though there are several places that go to antarctticica. It's not as many places that go to Africa or go to Europe or any of those other places. 07:07.00 Sam Let me. 07:15.64 Kara _ Gene So it's a smaller set and so from those different cruises that take place Disney really popped out at that point because there just aren't as many places going. Yeah and again I think for me Disney popped out. Not again, not necessarily because. 07:23.24 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 07:23.37 Sam Bright. 07:30.75 Kara _ Gene We love disney so much and we're like super into Disney right? Disney's great but we're not again, we're not enthusiasts I think we chose that one because Disney has a reputation of just making everything magical. 07:45.49 dclduo Yeah, yeah, and we should also pause really fast and say you mentioned Karen a few minutes ago full disclosure. 07:45.55 Sam Yeah. 07:47.46 Kara _ Gene And that was the main reason that they stood out. 07:56.69 dclduo About Karen who's been a guest on our show many many times and is the owner of our show sponsor my path unwinding travel. So as you listen to this episode if you're thinking about booking and adventures by Disney Cruise afterwards Karen and my path unwinding great resource and we thank them for the sponsorship of this show. So. 08:09.65 Sam Yeah, so 1 thing I wanted to ask but I now I think I know the answer because you mentioned your kids are 3 and 6 so I'm going to I'm going to guess but I'm going to ask you did your children were your children coming with you on this. Antarctica Cruise or is my assumption correct that this was an adults only trip. 08:32.66 Kara _ Gene Your assumption is correct. This was an adults only trip for me and gene so it was it was two weeks total without our without our kids and I know. 08:45.24 Sam Bravo. I know people people I think we get some judgey um comments and looks from people when we tell them that we travel occasionally without our sun and we traveled. To Europe in September of this year on ah cruise and the norwegian fjords and we were away from our kid for two weeks and so I love when I hear other parents of young kids making sure to take time for themselves and for their relationship. So. Good on you guys congratulations I love that. But. 09:17.60 Kara _ Gene Yeah, and and shout out to to my parents who you know did all of the child care for us while while we were out they they live in New Orleans and so they they took a drive to Charlotte North Carolina where we live and stayed with both of our kids for for two weeks 09:23.57 Sam E. 09:37.18 Kara _ Gene So they had a blast and they were spoiled so you know. 09:41.74 Sam You know they need that Grandma grandpa time. It's important. 09:43.60 dclduo Um, well. 09:46.30 Kara _ Gene That's right. 09:48.10 dclduo Well, let's talk about the trip itself now a little bit and got to start with the preparation. Ah, how much reading up. Did you do in advance you know where were you headed to get information about sort of what you'd be up to or did you just. You know, sort of leave it all in the hands of adventures by Disney because that's that's what they do. 10:09.25 Kara _ Gene Yeah, we kind of left most of it in the hands of adventures by Disney. Um, in fact, you know there were a couple days that weren't all that planned out in bonos airs and I think we we emailed Karen maybe. a week or two before we were like oh wait. Maybe we should figure out what to do when we're there for two days because we again disney you know, kind of takes care of everything and so we weren't really in the headspace of doing a ton of planning. Um, so the only real research I think we did was on the. 10:38.48 dclduo Oh. 10:45.68 Kara _ Gene On the weather. We did some research on the weather and we looked up some other people's packing list. But other than that it was mostly looking at pictures of Antarctica and just getting super excited about going um and our our time we Kara mentioned that we um, we didn't have much plan for buen aires and we should have done that that wasn't Disney's fault ah, we decided to go in a day early and do it that way. They also opt offer an option where you can do a Disney kind of Pre Antarctica couple days in Buenos Aires and a couple of people we met did do that and said it was fantastic. We didn't do that. We decided to do like an extra day on our own and for that. 11:04.66 dclduo Um, yeah. 11:23.79 Kara _ Gene We we wish we'd prepared a little more because graness errors was awesome and we just didn't know where to go is kind of information overload. You can go here or there everywhere so planning that out probably would been better or go in the Disney route. 11:36.12 Sam They yeah, they do those short escapes they call them I think in in most of the cities that they are leaving from for abd trips or for even sometimes cruises in europe they do a lot of those um like a 2 3 i. 2 3 day itinerary. So that's cool to know that there there was one available Bous Aius so what did you guys end up doing in buenness areas then. 12:00.78 Kara _ Gene Walking a lot we we Um, there is a really cool cemetery I Know that's kind of a weird thing to say but it's just just amazing and it just goes on and on that was was really cool. 12:15.16 Kara _ Gene Try out some restaurants. Yeah, the bookstore. They they converted this old theater um into a bookstore and it's just phenomena there's lights everywhere and several stories and it's this old bookstore is really cool. Um, what else did we do longer there you know I just really liked looking at the architecture. It was. It was beautiful and I think they call boenos airres the Paris of the south right? It was just it was such a lovely city and some of the architect architecture reminded me of um, New Orleans a little bit just in the intricacies. You know of the buildings. Yeah. 12:47.35 Sam And oh yeah, the metal work and stuff right? I feel like the balconies are very similar to New Orleans architecture yeah 12:53.50 Kara _ Gene Yeah, so it it was the weather was great too right? because when you're leaving for these, you're going in their summer and so it's a great break from kind of the the cold weather we were leaving just to walk around. They have beautiful parks and and things to see just by walking so it was just a great time to have that extra day and. I would say I think I can speak for karo strongly recommend getting there at least one day ahead of time because if not you leave very early the next day to go down to uswaya and so having that extra day which isn't mandatory but it almost should be because you really need that extra time to kind of decompress as you get there. 13:25.71 Sam E. 13:30.82 Kara _ Gene And also practice the phrase. Ah no Ablo es spiol. Yeah because people just I don't know the you know the the people in bonoceres they they do not their first inclination is not to speak to you in English. So. 13:34.42 dclduo No. 13:48.37 Kara _ Gene You know they they would just start talking really fast and I took I took some Spanish right in high school and college but definitely was never fluent and so I would always just get a blank stare on my face when they when they started speaking and and then they would say english. And I would say c. 14:09.63 Sam I love it love it now did you get to see any of the um, a Avida perone stuff like did you go to I know there's a museum there. That's ah ah, an Avida Museum I always think of Avida because I know the musical and you know it's. 14:24.29 Kara _ Gene Yeah, no, we didn't We didn't do that I think if we did it over again I actually would tack on the Abd Short Escape Um, because they they probably know all of the all of the right places to go right? And another thing I wish we would have done. There was. Um, a Tango show that would have been that would have been really fun to see like gene said yeah we spent a lot of the time walking around and just kind of just kind of wandering the streets which was fun for a little while but eventually my feet were on Fire. So. 14:42.34 Sam Oh yeah. 14:59.72 Kara _ Gene We did go to a steakhouse though and Argentina is kind of known for their stakeeaks and for a very good reason it it was phenomenal steak down there. 15:02.71 Sam O yum. 15:07.18 dclduo What you know what I realized we should step back for one second talking about abd is if every one of our listeners out. There knows what it is and so if you're new to the show you haven't listened to some of our back catalog. We've we've covered abd a few times but abd adventures by Disney. Is a signature offering of Disney that does land based river cruising expedition cruising ah trips that are fairly all inclusive come at a pretty hefty heist come at a pretty hefty price tag. But. You get kind of the Disney service and experience that we've been hinting at all along here. But it's a great way in some ways to see places outside the Us where you don't want to have to do all of the planning yourself and so abd provides that kind of signature. Um. White glove experience to visit some of these places so we've had shows on abt trip. So we've had shows on abd trips to Egypt the galapagos same where else have we gone. We did the Southern California abd at one point. 16:18.15 Sam We did. Ah we we covered an african safari 1 once? um, we've also talked about in the United States we've talked about the I'll call it the Southern California abd that goes to the Walt Disney studios and Disneyland and a few other kind of exclusive. 16:21.57 dclduo That's right. 16:35.80 dclduo Yeah, and we've and we've covered some short escapes in advance of cruises in places like Barcelona um, and some others. So if you want to learn more about if you want to learn more about abd you can head into sort of the back catalog there but just wanted to provide that frame of reference for folks and then. 16:35.86 Sam Places that you can't go outside of that tour yes and their group travel. 16:54.58 dclduo Pose the question back out to Karen Gene here what was included in this trip. Ah because I think abd handles everything from basically your airfare in or you can ask them to hotel stays sort of pre adventure. The adventure itself and then. Kind of getting you back. So what? what was covered in the sort of cost of the trip. 17:19.70 Kara _ Gene So what was covered in the cost of the trip was the hotel stay in buenoserres not the pre night we paid I think additional for the pre-night the extra day that we did um but included also in the price was the flight from. 17:31.28 dclduo Oohoo. 17:36.80 Kara _ Gene From buenos airres to uswaya. Um, you know all of the all of the stuff that we did in uswaya to include what was that the the end of the world train that we went on so there was an excursion there. There was a meal there. Um. You know all of the food that you could ever and drinks that you could ever want to consume on the on the ship. All of that was included um airfare you know back from ah uswaya to Gwen else. Aris Disney handled that that was great that we didn't have to worry about you know, booking. Booking another flight and again they just they took care of all the logistics of that and for those who who may not have been that far south in the world who why we kept mentioning uswa out. That's where you sail from that's the very tip of Argentina um, that's where you're going to sail from. So. Yeah I mean Kara mentioned it all what they cover. It's easier to say what they didn't cover so they didn't cover the flight there and back from our home to Buenos Aires and they didn't cover the additional night stay that we we chose to do other than that you could go there. Everything's going to be covered from the time you you. Land in winness areas till the time you leave. Yeah and and you know Brian you mentioned that like I think you said the abd cruises and this cruise in particular I think does come with a heftier price tag and um it was it was worth every single penny. 19:05.90 dclduo Oh. 19:09.28 Kara _ Gene Every single one. Um I think the the 1 thing that we definitely wanted to to mention it wasn't included in the you know in the cruise price you had to pay a little bit extra for this was kayaking um the the most amazing experience. Ever and so I had never been kayaking before so of course like you know why not make your first time kayaking in Antarctica. So um. 19:37.36 Sam You go big or go home I say. 19:40.61 Kara _ Gene Yeah that's right and now I'm forever ruined for kayaking because anywhere else I go I'm going to be like well this is lame. This isn't Antarctica she was a pro though and there are two person kayaks and I totally agree I mean it is extra and it fills up That's not a guarantee that you can get a spot. So if. You're considering going to Antarctica you want a book that definitely try to get in one of the kayaking trips. But yeah kara they they teach you they they teach you how to go kayaking and by the end of it. She was in the front seat and I was doing the steering and she was barking orders telling me to dodge this junk of eyes and. 19:59.26 Sam Um. 20:15.61 Kara _ Gene So clear that Penguin and it was amazing. 20:16.44 Sam Ah I Love that. 20:19.55 dclduo Well, let me ask this, we've had guests on who've done these expedition cruises and 1 question. We always have is packing so you know you mentioned you were headed to buenos airs and it was nice and warm. There. Ah I don't know if that trend continued once you hit Antarctica and so. You know how did you think about what you needed to bring with you and I assume there are some limitations on how much you can bring given kind of the size of the ship and and all that sort of stuff. So how did you approach packing for this trip. 20:47.47 Kara _ Gene Yeah, so I joined a Facebook group I think it's called the Antarctica travel group or something like that so that wasn't through adventures by Disney I just kind of came upon it and that group was actually really helpful. The guy who runs the Facebook group had a packing list that he posted. So. Um, I kind of followed that and then we also of course Karen um, our travel agent gave us some tips on on what to pack and you know I'll say I think we overpacked a little bit. Um I wish we had known just how warm. We would get when we were actually on land like doing you know some of the some of the excursions because I could have left a fleece or 2 at home and had a little bit extra room for to smuggle a couple of penguins home. Um. 21:42.68 Sam Um, I think that's round upon. 21:45.39 Kara _ Gene But apparently on some other cruise is ah sort of an aside that I don't think this was an adventures by Disney Cruise I think it was a different cruise line but evidently there was some guy who took a penguin from you know one of the landings and put it in his bag. 21:45.62 dclduo Ah. 21:58.62 Sam Yes. 22:04.12 Kara _ Gene And brought it back to the ship but it was our cruise and I don't think it was an abd crew. Don't do that. But yeah, definitely don't do that but that sounded kind of wild. Um, yeah, so anyway I think yeah I think we overpacked a little bit. We. 22:06.83 Sam Ah. 22:09.45 dclduo Yeah. 22:13.70 Sam Oh my goodness I. 22:21.52 Kara _ Gene You know I'll tell you we were each able though to get to fit everything into 1 large suitcase each and you're right Brian there there is a weight limitation um, in particular I think for the flight from buenoserres to uswaya. Um, that was sort of the flight they kept referencing in terms of the weight limitation but you can take you know ah a large suitcase and then a carry on but we were able to successfully pack everything in there. It's just you know I knew that I was wearing leggings. You know most of the time that we were hanging out. 22:46.00 Sam Me. 22:57.96 Kara _ Gene On the cruise ship. So I just I tried to pack as light as possible and I knew I could just you know, kind of rewear some things too. Yeah I would say most of your days. You're just going to be in the 30 s it's not that cold. It's their summer. So it's really not that cold and odds are. You will hit a day or two that is warmer than you expect probably not colder than you expect. So when you're packing 1 thing to keep in mind is that they provide boots. They don't allow you to use your boots they need to sterilize their boots every time you do a landing so they provide boots which is great. So don't pack boots. They also provide a parka which is fantastic. So leave some space because you actually get to take that home and it's it's a great park. It's really nice. So leave some space to make sure that you can bring that back with you but that does most of the heavy lifting. Um I would say rather than cold don't even focus on it doesn't get that cold. 23:49.35 dclduo Oh. 23:49.63 Kara _ Gene Wind is the bigger thing so you want to make sure you pack some windproof pants. That's critical and then after that it's really just layers. So if you pack basically 1 pretty warm set of base layers. So a top and bottom and 1 light. 23:51.94 Sam Um. 24:06.35 Kara _ Gene Set of base layers. You can mix and match those and you'll be fine. That's really all you need in terms of base layers like a pretty warm set and ah a lighter set and you'll be good to go because we definitely had one day blue sky sun out it was um I almost didn't even want my base layers at all. It. It was very warm that day so it would probably be warmer than you think. So look at your bag take a couple things out because you don't yeah and and even the girl from New Orleans right says don't pack that many layers I you know I was fine most days with just one base layer you know top and bottom ski pants and then the park of it. 24:28.95 dclduo Um, yeah. 24:30.00 Sam Um, yeah. 24:46.35 Kara _ Gene They gave me and that was really all I needed except for I think I put another um you know, lighter mid-layer on for kayaking but that was that was pretty much it. You really don't need that that many. Clothes. Yeah,. The only thing I wish I packed that I didn't were more sets of pajamas because they do several pajama days on Board. Everybody's just walking around as you're going traveling there and back and you're not getting off the boat. It's just pajama days left and right so more of those would have been nice. 25:09.70 Sam Ah, yeah. 25:14.73 Sam Oh that sounds fun but jam a party. Love it. 25:22.16 dclduo I'm curious as you're talking about this what kind of communication did you get from adventures by Disney in advance. Did they send you anything to sort of help prepare give you a sense of what the weather would be like or anything like that where you really you know sort of yeah yeah, yeah. 25:32.13 Sam Or tell you to not bring boots. For example. 25:35.40 Kara _ Gene They did Yes, they told us that and I I believe they sent a packing list. It's sort of rough guidelines for what you would want to want to pack. Yeah I would say you know the only the only suggestion I might have for abd is to is to say you know. 25:39.45 dclduo Ok. 25:52.30 Kara _ Gene Don't overpack the typical guest wears these types of layers or these types of things right? and the average temperature is you know between X and Y they didn't really send that type of information we had to. 26:02.20 Sam Um. 26:11.68 Kara _ Gene We had to research like the temperature and stuff like that on our own. But um, yeah, they they said don't you know don't bring a heavy coat because you will get a parka and don't bring boots. 26:15.35 Sam Um. 26:21.91 dclduo Interesting. 26:24.46 Kara _ Gene And I think they're they're trying to plan some people might just run a little cold in general so they want to make sure that you're not cold, but just to give you a feel I I never went in any more than just my base layers in parka and and my snowpantts that was it I didn't have 3 sweatshirts on or anything like that and you'll prefer because there's some. 26:28.80 Sam Right. 26:34.69 Sam Me. 26:43.57 Kara _ Gene Sometimes you'll be hiking and things like that where you'd much rather have the mobility than to be kind of stuffed up in a bunch of layers. 26:48.49 Sam Um, yeah, that makes sense So let's talk um about the the itinerary I feel like you know that's obviously key. Um, we know you you get to uswaa you. 26:49.97 dclduo Face this. 27:02.78 Sam Get settled there What kinds of stuff Do they have you do there and then we'll talk about obviously getting on the ship and and all the locations you went to off of the ship. 27:12.38 Kara _ Gene Yeah, so inuswaya we took the the end of the world train in Tiara Del Fuego and that was that was really cool. It's um, a train that goes through part of the Patagonia and you can you know mail a postcard from the southernmost. Um, post office there so that was really cool. Um, and then they you know after that um little trip that was when they checked us on to the ship. Um and just entering the ship was was magical like when we walked on there it was. 27:28.70 Sam You call. 27:45.38 Kara _ Gene You know there was a person playing piano and they hand you a glass of champagne and it yeah it was. It was just yeah out of this world and now is probably a good time to to point out that this ship that they put you on is gorgeous I mean you walk on and it is just like a. Fancy Very fancy French hotel you know, like she said there's a pianist who's always playing. Um, there's there's the Champagne. There are French pastries around for you to eat just very comfortable sitting areas. So as you walk on. 28:06.54 Sam Um. 28:19.13 Kara _ Gene Because up till this point you've you've done whatever you've done in Buenos Aires you've been on planes left and right you've seen part of Patagonia and then you hit this ship and it's just so relaxing and so beautiful and so just wonderful and you're going to be on that for a while. It's just a really great feeling that oh this is where we're going to be that's. That's really nice. Yeah, and I'll point out it is a fancy ship but you don't have to be a fancy person to you know to really enjoy it I mean everyone on the trip all of the guests right? were were really laid back and. 28:43.42 dclduo So. 28:53.70 Kara _ Gene Disney did a really nice job of making making a really comfortable and warm and fun atmosphere. So it's it's a luxury experience without stuffiness if that makes sense. Yeah I think I mentioned the pajama days right? So think that when you you think about what you should pack. 29:02.50 Sam Yeah, yep. 29:10.72 Kara _ Gene It's It's very much Um, you know you look around you feel like oh I shouldn't be here because I'm just wearing fees and it's easier, but so is everybody else like do not pack anything fancy. There'll be no need for it at all. Yeah, that's going back to your original I think question about what we did in Newswaya we. 29:20.48 Sam Yeah, speaking of the oh sorry, go ahead. 29:28.89 Kara _ Gene We you know did the end of the world train and then after we checked in on the on the ship. There was a little bit of time to walk around which we did but unfortunately because of the time of year we went I think it was New Year's Eve or new year's day Thursday it was New Year's day and so there were. 29:40.15 Sam E. 29:48.60 Kara _ Gene You know there was really nothing open unfortunately in the little town and and it looked like such a cool place right? I mean we still walked around. Um, but there really weren't any shops or anything open and we actually left off a huge thing that we did was a catamaran tour through the Beagle channel which was awesome. 30:05.71 Sam Oh cool. 30:08.49 Kara _ Gene There were. It's just beautiful. You've got chile on your left Argentina on your right mountains coming up from from the water on either side really pretty. We stopped I had this 1 place to see ah a I guess I should know is it a flock of pangus. At this point i. Um, but there were just a ton along the along this one island that they brought us to see so that was really cool and they serve lunch on board and it's it's a really big comfortable catamaran. You can take all kinds of pictures so that was really cool and at this point you're feeling like this is amazing right? You've taken this. 30:43.30 Sam He. 30:45.81 Kara _ Gene Train tour around Patagonia and seeing all these beautiful mountains had launched out in this really cool place in this park that they've got there. You've gone on this kavaran tour you've seen penguins you've seen you know everything. It feels great and you haven't even done the thing that you're down there for. 31:01.56 Sam Right? You haven't even got on the ship. Yeah, ah how now can I ask about the the passengers. Okay. 31:02.32 Kara _ Gene Heart. It feels like a vacation. 31:05.92 dclduo Well to answer it to take on on one second on 1 second on ah to to answer the question many names you can call a group of penguins apparently they are called a wattle. Um, they can also be called a formality of penguins. So. 31:19.51 Sam I Like that. 31:21.80 dclduo Lots of terms here. So yes, the more you though the the more you know the more you know the internet is never wrong, right? So anyway, um, go ahead. Yeah. 31:22.22 Kara _ Gene Block isn't one. Are you sure? are you sure? Yeah there you go. 31:27.90 Sam Ah. 31:31.32 Sam Yeah, so I wanted to ask how many you you kind of mentioned the passengers. So I want to ask how many passengers are on the ship with you you know ah approximately if you know. And then what is the demographic of these folks look like what what ages because I know that you know adventures by Disney some of their expedition cruising and some of their experiences are I like to call them kid friendly. Not little kid friendly. Let's just be clear. But so I am curious to know if there were any families. Or if this was more an adult soul in the experience and then if it was what sort of the age range kind of looked like to you all? yeah. 32:12.90 Kara _ Gene Yeah, so I'll answer your first question about number of guests because of course Disney told us so there were one ah hundred and sixty passengers and then a fun little tidbit is there were. Was it like 165 crew members. There were more yeah more crew members than guests which is amazing but you could feel that right because of just the level of service and how incredible just the whole ship experience was um, several families. You know, not a ton of younger kids. 32:30.27 Sam Wow, That's a yeah. 32:30.67 dclduo Oh wow. 32:46.40 Kara _ Gene Probably the youngest kid was what 8 or 9 yeah I think the recommended age for children if you're going to bring children for this one is a little higher than most abd trips. It's 10 I think and I think I would stick with that. Um I probably wouldn't bring a kid younger than 10 um, there were several teenagers. They kind of formed their own click while they were there and got along phenomenally there were people like us our age just traveling alone. There were people older bringing their older kids with them I mean so in terms of what the typical passenger looked like there's no answer to that really was just. Different groups of people doing different groups of things full families not families at all different age rangers. It was really great that way. Yeah, and I you know I think there were about a dozen teenagers. So it's not like the the ship was overrun with you know teens and I think you know it was. It was so funny I think. We started calling them actually a flock oh there's the flock of teen girls who all made friends together and you know they would all you know sort of be by each other no matter if you saw 1 you saw the rest it was really was really cute. 33:47.35 Sam And. 34:02.74 Sam I love that all right? So let's talk about the cruise itself you get on this beautiful magical ship. Um, can I ask actually if it ah who actually owns the ship. Do you know the I forget who Disney Partners with for this. 34:17.57 Kara _ Gene Yeah Disney Partners with panant which is a ah french cruise company and they do it right. 34:27.63 Sam I love hearing that. Ok. So let's talk about the itinerary and then we'll talk a little bit more about the amenities of the ship. Um I feel like that's that's a topic we want to cover since it sounds like it was quite a luxurious place to be but. I think that you know the highlight right? The reason you go to Antarctica is the scenery the wildlife all of that where did you all go and what what were you? What were you excited to see and and what did you get to see. 34:54.28 Kara _ Gene Well I think before we even get to the itinerary. There is something worth noting is the Drake passage. So this is the way that you get from Argentina to Antarctica. It's kind of famous for its the term is laker shake. So. 35:00.10 Sam Me. 35:11.70 Kara _ Gene It can be relatively calm and you have no problems or it can be I mean you should look it up because there's quite a few videos of waves crashing against the side of the ship and it can be very rough so we fortunately got a relatively calm passage through there but that is something to. 35:17.99 Sam Um, news. 35:25.88 Sam So. 35:29.85 Kara _ Gene Be aware of and even if you normally don't get seasick if you were ever going to. It's probably through this drake passage so do want to point that out that that is part of the trip and it takes you about two days to get through all of that before you actually get to get off the ship and and do some of these fun things. 35:46.77 Sam Cool. Yeah, we have heard about the drake passage. We've heard it's it's quite rough I am someone who does get seasick and rough seas. So if we ever go on one of these I will definitely be getting that patch. Ah um. 35:58.22 Kara _ Gene Yeah, and and I think something you know I think you're asking about what kind of landings and you know expeditions. We did something else to note about Antarctica is you know I know I think we mentioned earlier the web the weather was was pretty. 36:03.44 Sam Yeah. 36:15.80 Kara _ Gene Mild but it can change on a dime and you know your landings really depend on the weather conditions and and there are there's a whole crew of naturalists and expedition guides that make sure. You know wherever you're going to land is passable and it's safe and you know everybody everybody can do it? Um, so as as much as you know Disney you know can try to plan exactly what you're going to do each day. It doesn't always. Work out that that's the exact thing that you're going to do but Disney always has a plan b plan plan c and plan d so even if plan a didn't work out. You know it's like plan b here's what we're going to do and plan b is even better than plan a and these are the reasons right? so. 36:52.00 Sam And. 37:10.11 Kara _ Gene Um, I just wanted to to point that out that you know even if the itinerary says you know day one you're gonna go here in day two. You're gonna go there. You may not but you're always going to be going somewhere and it's always going to be beautiful. Yeah, and I mean I just want to echo that because this. 37:24.15 Sam I. 37:28.34 Kara _ Gene To me is one of the most impressive parts about that cruise is that you cannot predict the weather down there in Antarctica but they will do absolutely everything they can to make sure that you're doing something whatever it is the best thing that you can do so if the weather's just not up for it that day. Maybe they'll take you out on a zodiac tour and you're still going to see amazing things and in fact, some of the best things we did were zodiac tours where we saw whales and we saw an emperor penguin on an iceberg and we we saw all this stuff even though the weather was terrible and they will the crew I mean to their credit. They will move the ship they will keep trying to find different bays and different safe places where you can go and they will keep doing that and they'll do that all night to prepare for the next day so even though it's really unpredictable and it's kind of like well is it worth it. Are we gonna get terrible weather the whole time. 1 of the bet and the most impressive things for me was. How hard they work to make it work to make sure you were always doing the best thing because it's a lot of work and and it just showed that they really went the extra mile to make sure that you were doing something awesome and all the excursions I mean we did a bunch of fun things. Um to be sure but they're all just. Different ways of experiencing Antarctica so it doesn't really matter which one you get to do because you're going to experience Antarctica in some way and for this trip in particular I just feel like you're there for Antarctica to see this amazing thing. That's so far away from everything else and so to be able to see it in different ways. 38:59.93 Kara _ Gene No matter what those excursions are. It's all awesome. It's just all just great to do so the first landing that we did was Deception Island and I think this was actually one of Jean's favorite places. Do you want to talk about that. Yeah, so this is a um. Yeah, you have to look it on a map to fully understand it. They call it Deception Island because if you sail around it. It just looks like a very mountainous island but there's this one little channel where you can go in and you realize that the whole thing is donnut shaped with mountains going around in this circle and the middle of it is all water. 39:30.95 dclduo The while. 39:32.30 Kara _ Gene And the reason for that is that it's an active volcano that that erupted and the weight of the magma basically collapsed the island in on itself and so now there's this waterway that you can get through there and it's still an active volcano. There is it is. Like much of Antarctica where it is land covered in glacier but in this particular place that glacier is then covered in ash so the whole thing is black. It's black beaches black mountains. It's it's phenomenal to look at this place and there there is wildlife there not the krill. It's because it's an active volcano the water there is so hot that it actually boils the krill alive and they just they're just tons of Krill washed up on the so not what you think about right? Ah, a boiling stewpot in the middle of Antarctica but that's what's going on here and it's just such a unique landscape to see these. Gray and Black Hills that are just expansive with this giant waterway in the middle of it very cool and they take you that particular trip as a hike but that's where you first land and I feel like even though for me, it was Deception Island if you go on a different cruise. It might be a different place. It's that active. Getting out of the zodiac and setting foot on Antarctica for the first time I feel like no matter where you are. That's probably going to be your favorite stop? Yeah because for all the hesitation I I had with going to a place like Antarctica when we did get out of the zodiac and we you know we set foot on Deception Island and I just looked around i. 41:04.67 Kara _ Gene This is going to sound really corny and cheesy but I like teared up and kind of cried a little bit because it is just unlike any place that you've ever been before and the air is so easy to breathe and there's so much life everywhere. You just. Just don't realize how full of life Antarctica actually is yeah any any pictures you see even professional pictures and definitely better than the pictures I took on my off on 12 they it just cannot do it justice from being down there. It just feels so much different than what you think you kind of know about Antarctica that. Just being down there and experiencing that is just amazing. So gene loved Deception Island I really liked Port Lacrox and part of that stop was we got to see this several colonies of penguins and and. Like many people I think I can just sit and watch penguins all day just all day long and um, they're really you know I think by now they're they're pretty used to humans. Um, they don't necessarily you know, come up to you can't feed the penguin it's definitely bad. Um, and they you know they brief you on what you can and can't do right? like you're supposed to say stay a certain number of feet away from them. Um, you know and and they always have the right of way right? like whenever you're walking somewhere. 42:31.31 Kara _ Gene But it was It was really fun to to watch them in their natural habitat just way different from when you see them at like an Aquarium or something right? but um, it. It's just so it was so fun to to see you know the males going and getting rocks to build nests. And they would they would go steal rocks from each other and bring it back to the female and there's a certain um species of Penguins they're Gentu Penguins when they get the rock they they actually bow. The female. Um and then they drop it at her feet and then you know he go the male goes and and gets another rock. Um, but it was It was really fun to Watch. There is a lot of Penguin poop whenever when whenever you you're like oh no, we're coming up on penguins. 43:16.90 dclduo Ah. 43:23.68 Kara _ Gene Can smell it. Um, so a lot of Penguin poop. But but you get used to it and they're They're so fun to watch I should have what they're very clear. 43:30.13 Sam Gene did you find Kara a nice pebble or rock. 43:37.88 Kara _ Gene And I got to give them credit for this as Well. They are very clear about not disturbing anything and and they made the point right? that even though you want to take a souvenir home right? You want to take that pebble home to say I've got a little bit of Antarctica They are very clear on what damage that will do. If every one of you takes one pebble and that happens over and over again. Those Penguins run out of things to make their nests. They're on Endless supply of pebbles. Even though it appears that way now but they are so great about. 43:59.31 Sam Right. 44:07.54 Kara _ Gene Just making sure you leave Antarctica the exact same way like Kara said there are little penguin highways they make these little roads that they travel. It's amazing. All you see is their little heads popping up and down above the snow but you you give way to them. And they they give you this whole briefing on making sure before you make any landing. You don't have cough drop wrappers in your your pockets so that if you reaching to get your phone and that wrapper drops on the ground and you don't realize it you know and they they brief you on all of that and make sure and I think at one point they did find something and shamed people pretty hard. Yeah. Um, that you just you need to leave this place as natural as it possibly can be because that is what this place means it's it's the purity of it and we don't want to have our intervention there I mean we're there to see and not to to kind of you know, leave our Mark and they do a great job of making sure that. Passengers don't leave their mark. There. Yeah, the naturalists were really good. Um, you know at talking about just the environment of Antarctica and in fact I think at the time of year when we went um usually the penguin chicks are starting to hatch but because it. You know rained um more than usual this past when it was winter I guess there when they normally lay their eggs. They they laid their eggs later than normal because it was too wet to lay them when they normally do and which this is something I didn't know this you know. 45:38.77 Kara _ Gene Snow is bad for penguin eggs because the the moisture seeps through and then makes the the baby you know, non-viable so they were the naturalists were just really great about explaining everything and and making sure that you really understood the impact that that we have on. On the environment and the the other thing I'll mention about the naturalists they deserve I mean to me there were 3 groups of people on this trip. There was the Disney group. There was the crew and there were the naturalists every single one of those groups was phenomenal in their own right? The naturalists. They will give lectures on board. They will talk to you even if you're not on board in a formal lecture. They will be talking to you while you're out doing these excursions educating you on what you're seeing because a lot of it. You wouldn't really appreciate until they point out that this is what these penguins are doing or that's what this mountain is or whatever it might be. Um, so they do a phenomenal job. So in addition to scouting they're up first thing in the morning scouting these sites making sure everything's safe. They're out there the whole day I mean they they are working hard but you can tell they love it so these these people love what they do. They love the subject matter. It really shines through and I mean that really comes across That's a great part of it to have this group of naturalists who are just knowledgeable and really into what they're doing kind of leading the way for you. It's fantastic. Yeah, and and some of the naturalists have you know specific areas that they're. 47:11.51 Kara _ Gene That they study or even really specific special skills like one of the naturalists I love telling people about this one of the naturalists has this really special skill he makes steps or stairs out of snow and ice. Which made you know some of the landings much easier and more accessible for all of the guests to experience certain areas. You know of Antarctica so that was really cool. Yeah, and and those steps are needed because you are doing a fair bit of hiking for some of this but something that pays I mean if you're thinking about going to Antarctica in your share. You know. Am I going to be up for tredging through all this snow or what have you they make ah a point of telling you look if if you don't feel up for this very long hike. We're doing. You can do this path instead you know, stay on the beach and see this and and they'll tell you usually if there's a hike involved. There's an alternate option as well. So if you. Don't really feel like doing a lot of hiking. It's not that big of a deal that said the hiking isn't that bad. You're not really trudging through snow. Usually there's some kind of path that's out there for you. But if you don't like to hike at all. There's still plenty for you to do there. 48:20.12 dclduo let me ask this so um let me ask this so 2 2 questions really one. What's the demographic of the folks who are on board this cruise um or did you ask demographic. Okay, and did you ask activity did. 48:31.80 Sam So I already asked that we already covered that. Yes, yes. 48:34.27 Kara _ Gene Well I don't know I don't know if we really answer. Do we answer the demographic question. 48:37.94 dclduo Ah, go ahead. 48:41.13 Sam Um, well yeah, Gene said it just it that it was varied. It went like all the way across the board I think one of. 48:44.83 Kara _ Gene It was and in terms of I mean I think you're probably asking about sort of physical fitness maybe of the the goods. Okay, yeah. 48:50.35 Sam Yeah, wait, let him let him ask the question first and that tee to tee it up. Yeah yeah. 48:54.37 dclduo Yeah, so let me rephrase it then So how active would you say this cruise was and you know how fit do you need to be to go on one of these cruises. Do you think. 49:07.96 Kara _ Gene So I would say if you're you're just moderately fit can kind of go for long walks and not be winded at the end of that you're going to be more than fine. It's not a very excruciating type of thing. It's not physically demanding. There are hikes you're going to be moving around. You know, um, you will probably get a little more out of it if you are at least moderately in shape so that you can do all of these things but the only place I would say is an absolutely. Deal Breaker If. You're not in shape would be the kayaking simply because you need to be able to get in and out of that kayak while you're on the water and if you're not at least a little dexterous to be able to do that. That's gonna be tough and in fact, a couple people. They said you can't go even though I imagine they refunded them. But. They want to make it safe for you. So If you're not able to do that kind of thing kayaking would be a little tough but in terms of the rest of it I think just moderately in shape is is totally fine. 50:09.95 dclduo Let's talk for a second about the experience on board itself I don't think we asked about your stateroom on board. Um, what was your stateroom like and you know does you feel like it. 50:24.89 dclduo Roomy enough. There's enough space for you and all the stuff that you had to bring with you. So how was your stateroom. 50:27.62 Kara _ Gene The state room was was gorgeous and it was so nice because you know our bed was made every day which is not something that we do at our own home. So it was always you know, nice and clean and and made off and. 50:37.39 dclduo Yeah, ah. 50:43.55 Kara _ Gene That was really Nice. You know to feel like you were being taken care of. But definitely there. Yeah, there was definitely enough room for all of our stuff. Um, it was very good use of space we had enough you know drawers to unpack and put you know. Pajamas Base Layers socks, Etc. There's a place to hang your clothes. Um, it space was was never an issue and strongly recommend um getting a balcony because we were like hm. 51:13.71 Sam Um. 51:14.37 Kara _ Gene We're really going to use this balcony some of the best views we got of Antarctica were from the little balcony. Um, you know on off just off of our stateroom. 51:23.47 Sam Now Did you need any like dress up clothes meaning was there like any kind of formal night or did you feel like you had to you know, sort of change for dinner versus wearing your your base layers or your pajamas on pajama days. 51:39.73 Kara _ Gene No, um, in fact, abd said don't bring dressy clothes be mindful of what you're packing right? because there's a weight limit and they emphasized you know it's it's very casual. So no formal Captain's dinner or anything like that. 51:45.94 Sam Me. 51:53.60 Sam So. 51:56.68 Kara _ Gene And in fact, I think you know the shoes I wore the whole time were these slippers these hard-sold um slippers so that I could easily go out on the decks. Um, and not you know slip if it was a little wet but very very casual even for. Even for dinner in the really nice formal dining room like I said before it was it was a luxury experience without you know the stuffiness of feeling like you had to to dress up and and look really great. The whole time. Yeah I mean so they're white in the restaurant. There are really 2 restaurants. 1 ne's a little bit. More casual some buffet and the other is white linen but you're sitting at that white linen in your slipper. So yeah, definitely to don't pack anything formal. It's a waste of space and you will so actually stand out casual is definitely the way to go with that. 52:38.00 Sam Um. 52:39.19 dclduo Um. 52:45.51 Kara _ Gene The food we should talk about the food Very very good food. 52:46.77 Sam Yes, definitely we need. We always have to we love talking about food. We always like to see it for sort of towards the end of the show. So this is the perfect time tell us all about the food. We want to hear all the des. But. 52:57.36 Kara _ Gene Yeah I mean the the French What can I say the French Really really know how to do it right? I mean you know I'm I'm not a big breakfast eater I was eating breakfast every day on the on the ship right? and and everything was. You know, despite your being on a ship in the middle of nowhere right? Everything was just looked and tasted so Fresh. Fresh fruit fresh salad and if you didn't want salad. You know there was always a freshly made hamburger or um, you know sushi whenever you wanted and or if you wanted Ah, the. Take for dinner at night you could have that um and for dinner at night you know the the menu changed daily or if you just wanted I Guess at Stake you could have that um my favorite I think our favorite part that we discovered a little bit later into the cruise was teatime. 53:52.38 Sam I Will you're speaking my love language I Just have to tell you that right now. 53:52.62 Kara _ Gene So every day at at four P M so they yeah so they had tea time and um it was in you know it was in the lounge and you could go and you could get hot tea or cold tea. But but the best part of tea time was. Dessert that came along with teatime. So every day there was a new pastry or dessert that that we could try so that was that was a nice little surprise I think the other thing we really liked was on the sixth floor. It was called the observation deck. It was just a nice little lounge. 54:19.20 Sam Awesome! yeah. 54:29.32 Kara _ Gene Um, but there was a gentleman who was usually working behind the bar. Um, you know up on that deck and like clockwork when we would walk in. You know we would sit down and you know. Bring our books and we would start reading and he would come up to us and say can I get you a latte or a cappuccino and you know then he would bring you mixed nuts and he would bring you this you know, freshly brewed cappuccino with you know some dark chocolate on the side I mean it was I felt like a princess. 54:58.72 dclduo Well. 55:02.18 Sam Ah. 55:02.86 Kara _ Gene And they also this was this was really fun too. Um, they had a cocktail of the day every day that that changed out and those were those were quite good. Those were always ah a nice little ooh. What are we gonna drink tomorrow. Yeah, they actually had a ah. 55:10.83 Sam Yum. 55:17.89 Kara _ Gene How to make your own cocktail class that you could sign up for and we did but we were so called up in trivia that time I think that we didn't and and that's something that we've completely glossed over. Um, we've talked mostly about the trip but we haven't talked at all about the the Disney staff who are just. They make your time on board. Amazing. There's always something There's no pressure to do it by any means you could sit in your cabin or on the observation deck or whatever you wanted. But there's always something going on and they are the most lively fun staff I mean I don't know if we just got the best 4 that Disney has to offer or what but they was phenomenal. Ah, these people they they it was just so fun. Just having them around. Yeah so they're yeah so so um, abd calls calls this group of people adventure guides and I mean I wanted to take them all home with us. 55:58.67 Sam What kind what kinds of activities. Do they plan on board. 56:13.98 dclduo Yeah, ah. 56:15.60 Kara _ Gene Because you felt connected to each and every one of them. They're just the loveliest people you'll ever meet so smart. So fun. Um, the types of things they did. You know they they organized any programming and any activities that weren't expeditions. Um. 56:15.63 Sam Ah. 56:28.47 Sam So. 56:31.86 Kara _ Gene And you could tell just the coordination and the way that they worked not just with the expedition guides who planned all the landings but with the you know the ship crew and captain fab. We didn't even talk about captains. Ah, another best part of the trip. The captain is amazing. Um, but. 56:46.90 dclduo What. 56:49.48 Kara _ Gene But you know the types of activities they would they would plan would mainly be when you weren't on an excursion right? You you could do trivio or they would set up movie night or and my favorite part night I noticed that gene purposely has not talked about this yet. There was Bingo night and that was really fun. Gene Gene was the first bingo winner that night and no it wasn't no because she'll tell you why. 57:15.20 Sam Oh so fun. Ah. 57:20.23 Kara _ Gene So you know, really fun. They set up this prize table. You can walk up and you can choose what prize you want so gene's the first winner right? So he he gets up there and you know he's all excited to get his prize and you know the adventure guide I think it was Michaela um, or maybe Veronica I can't remember but they asked you know. What's your name where you're from um and so he answers the questions and so they they sprung one on him and they said all right? Well before you get your prize. You need to dance for the crowd and and and gene is many things but he's he's not necessary. 57:50.62 Sam Ah, yeah. 57:57.79 Kara _ Gene A dancer but he is not at all a dancer but he did he danced that night ah and it was real but it was all in good fun right? And so everybody everybody who but who got up also had to dance before they got their prize and it was just the it was the best. 58:04.93 Sam Ah. 58:15.31 Kara _ Gene Yeah, they're there being. There is a really important part of it too because I think we didn't really mention the way the excursions work is you're assigned to a group so it's not all 160 of you go out at once. That's that's just way too many people to have on land. 58:26.96 Sam Um. 58:28.65 Kara _ Gene So you're assigned to a group which means that most of the people on the crews are on the boat at any given time. So even though there's 1 group maybe out. There's a whole other group who's still on the ship. 58:38.38 Sam E. 58:40.19 Kara _ Gene And so they've always got that thing going on so that it's always fun. Even if you're not out doing an excursion It's always fun and another big thing that they did is every night you would do a ah debrief of the day so they'd kind of go over what you did during that day and then they'd let you know, kind of what was anticipated for the next day even though that might change I'd say. 90% of the time it did not change but they would tell you exactly when you would be going out what time your group was going to go out so it was all planned out and you knew about it ahead of time and those were some of the best times so they would make it super fun and get you super excited for whatever it was. You were going to do the next day and make sure that you're well informed if there's anything. Especially you needed to know about it. So that's kind of how you would end your day and then you'd go to to dinner and have some activity that night and they always have there's a theater on board. There's always Disney movies playing on board and there's. 59:28.10 Sam Oh awesome. 59:30.94 Kara _ Gene Yeah, long story short. That's just always something to do and if you don't want to like I said you go back to your cabin you you rest for a little bit. That's totally fun as well. 59:36.83 Sam Now with the groups for the excursions. How did they choose like were you in the same group all the time or was your group did your group change based on what excursion you sort of opted to do. 59:50.30 Kara _ Gene You're in the same group the whole the whole time they do allow you before they assign the groups they say hey if you've made a friend or made a group of friends that you want to be in an excursion group with because you know you're going to be with this group. The rest of the crews. You know you you know. 01:00:07.37 Sam Um. 01:00:08.23 Kara _ Gene Um, sign up on this paper and just put all of your cabin numbers together. So you know there is so much work behind the scenes I'm sure that we don't even know about but they do everything they can to make sure that you have the absolute best time possible. So you know even if. 01:00:19.69 Sam Um, meaning. 01:00:24.55 Kara _ Gene You you walk in. Not really knowing anyone except for you, you know your family who you're who you've gone with if you've made a ah new group of friends. You can you can ask Disney to kind of shuffle things around and they will they will make it happen for you. 01:00:40.81 Sam That's awesome. 01:00:41.69 Kara _ Gene And the other thing I feel like we're shortchanging the adventure guides because they were they were so great so great I want to stress that so much they're actually with you for the whole trip. So um, they're with you starting in Buenos Aires so I guess we didn't really point that out. We're not figuring out how to get down to uswaa they are with you every step of the way and they're taking care of all that as well. 01:00:59.20 Sam M. 01:01:00.98 Kara _ Gene And they give you a sheet and brand this series of things to do and there's they're always at the front desk if you have any questions they're always there. You can just stop in. So yeah, they're doing the whole trip with you and they're the last people you see as you as you leave and so it's really sad because they're they're so fun and they've been such a great time. You know with you the whole time. Um, but they're with you from beginning to end and something else. That's great about the adventure guides is you always have someone to take a picture of you. Um, and they're so generous with you know the way that they offer that I mean it's you know Gene and I would be looking out at some beautiful landscape and. 01:01:29.67 Sam Um, yeah. 01:01:37.85 Kara _ Gene Would always be an adventure guide nearby that would say hey do you want to stick a photo and and we'd say oh yes, we never have someone to take a picture of us so we got we actually got tons of pictures together which was really nice and they set up a website. Um, we. 01:01:43.88 dclduo Oh. 01:01:45.45 Sam Um, yeah, ah. 01:01:54.25 Kara _ Gene Go to that website and get all the pictures. But I think there are like thousands of pictures on that website that they'll just upload for you and but you also have you know pictures that they take of you on your phone so that you have that? Yeah but that's free access you you go there and they've got every picture that they've taken up on that website and so yeah. That's just a ton of pictures and I don't know if I guess it's panant's crew also takes pictures a little bit more professional quality of just your trip. So these are pictures of the the wildlife and the scenery and things like that. It's not really people. 01:02:19.69 Sam So. 01:02:28.75 Kara _ Gene But it's just during your trip. So if you don't want to spend time taking your own pictures of kind of all of that and you want quality pictures those are available for purchase as well. It's kind of like a package so that's kind of a nice option. So if you don't have kind of a professional quality camera but you still want pictures from your trip. 01:02:29.34 Sam Um. 01:02:45.37 Kara _ Gene Those are available as well. 01:02:45.46 Sam Yeah, now you mentioned captain fab I think you said and so you you got you got to tell us what was what was great about the captain and and perhaps the greater crew of the penant ship. 01:02:45.93 dclduo Nice. 01:02:50.92 Kara _ Gene Ah, so good. 01:02:58.59 Kara _ Gene What wasn't great about captain fab. He is a personality unlike any other he was just so fun and he is. He does his job very well. But I mean I'll give you an example, maybe this describes captain fab one night while we're all sleeping getting ready for the next day he plotted a course in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head for the ship to take with that crew and he showed it to us the next day that this is what this is the course that we went. It's a mickey-shaped head. 01:03:21.25 Sam I Love it. 01:03:30.79 Kara _ Gene Um, but he was just so funny and he'll come over the the loudspeaker cracking jokes very funny guy but he'll let you know if there's hey there are whales outside like go take a look or there's you know we're going through such and such. It's a really beautiful scene or you go take a look. 01:03:31.51 dclduo Um, yeah. 01:03:45.54 Kara _ Gene Um, so he's always keeping you up to date. But yeah, he's just a super funny guy at 1 point he was wearing his mickey mouse ears and he jumped into the there's an onboard pool on the deck. There's a heated pool and he just like jumped in with everybody fully clothed and his captain gear Mickey Mouse here soaking water. 01:03:59.80 Sam I oh that sounds like an adventurous captain for sure. No die was thinking the same thing Brian I cannot imagine one of the captains from Disney Cruise line doing that. 01:04:02.13 Kara _ Gene The very funny, very cool guy. 01:04:06.63 dclduo Ah, yeah, does not sound like the Disney Cruise line captains mars istein 01:04:18.27 Sam I Would love to to hear just a little bit about the amenities on the ship you had you mentioned there was ah a movie theater. Um, you've mentioned now there was a pool on deck or was there hot tub Spa um services that sort of thing. What what kinds of amenities were on the ship. 01:04:33.38 Kara _ Gene Hands. 01:04:35.50 Sam We think about you know we mostly talk about large ship cruising. So we know this is going to be a much smaller ship. You're not going to have all the amenities of a large cruise ship. 01:04:43.80 Kara _ Gene Sure, yeah, um, the pool was actually really nice. It was it was outdoor on on deck six I think it was a heated saltwater pool. So it was. It was a very nice little dip if you were feeling a little chilly which we actually did one day and it was it was snowing while we went. Swimming so we got some pretty cool pictures icebergs in the background very cool. Um, so there's the pool and then there's there are a couple of different just common areas. So. There's the third floor lounge where they have a larger bar and they have a bunch of board games and things that you can do. Um, we spent a lot of our time on the sixth floor on the observation deck. There's a small library up there. A pianist playing some lovely tunes. Um, you know you could have a cocktail or a cappuccino if you were up there reading your book. Um, like you mentioned the theater. There was there was a spa. There were spa services and I had every intention of getting a massage or a facial but I was too busy, having fun and doing other things so I never did. But you're right? It's not It's not a huge ship but we were never wanting for anything more than than what was on it. There's also a twenty four seven gym that we we fail to make use of but that is available as well. There are there are 3 bars the the one on the top deck is an outdoor bar that was closed for I think most of the time just because of the the weather. 01:06:11.32 Kara _ Gene But the 2 bars were more than sufficient for the 160 people that we had like I mentioned 2 2 restaurants. Um, that may have done it but lots of observation areas on on all sides of the ship that you could go to as well. 01:06:24.82 dclduo Well as we wind down here I mean we have 2 and final questions. Let me start with who would you recommend this cruise to. Um, it sounds like you had a great time and you would recommend it So I'm curious who you would recommend it for. 01:06:45.68 Kara _ Gene This is not a helpful answer. But I would recommend it for everyone as long as you're as long as you're you know able-bodied enough right to get in and out of ah, a small pontoon boat and walk around a little bit. This is the cruise for you like it is it is a place unlike. Any other you will you will ever see. Um gene I don't know if you have any more specific helpful. Yeah I mean and I would be hesitant to say the same if it weren't for the fact that they do. Take such good care of the environment I mean that is a critical thing for them so to say kind of everybody should go and see antarctticica I would be so hesitant to say that except for the fact that they do such a good job and they're they're not letting a lot of people on land at once and then they're making sure you do not leave your trace there. So it really is I mean if you have the ability to see Antarctica um I've not been to Alaska but I cannot imagine. It's the same if you're kind of wavering well Alaska is cheaper but antarctica is an experience unlike any other and if if you're considering it I would strongly recommend doing it. Um. If you have kids and you want to bring them. We saw kids who were having a great time. There were unfortunately a couple kids who I feel like might not have been in at the right age to necessarily appreciate it. Um, for what it is so I think you know. 01:08:02.46 dclduo And. 01:08:07.98 Kara _ Gene Consider will your kid really appreciate this before bringing them. But if you think they're that kind of kid who loves nature and would really understand what being an anerarcha means absolutely bring a kid I mean those they there were lots of kids who had a great time and they're. Another amenity we fail to mention they have a kids club on board. So there's always activities for the kids and they do do make a point to kind of have sometimes where even if you have a kid. They're taking the kids away so that you can have some adult time as well. But it really is kind of no matter what your your walk in life if if. Antarctica is of interest to you there really should be no barriers to going because it it really is kind of for everyone. Yeah I mean in terms of the kids I think we may have mentioned this earlier but I wouldn't bring any child younger than I don't know maybe 10 or 12 maybe. Um, simply because for 2 reasons right? You want to make sure that they are enjoying and really appreciating and taking in where you are um and you want to make sure that you know they can handle all of the. All of the walks and hikes and everything that that you do without whining about hey how much longer is this going to take? Um, yeah, but yeah I I mean I would just say know your kid. It is an expensive trip so to bring a kid. It's a big expense. But if your kid is the kind of kid who would would appreciate that. 01:09:27.91 dclduo Ah. 01:09:40.27 Kara _ Gene You would make their life to to give them an experience like that to see these things. It was cool. We did see a couple of like father daughter or father son or mother son and that seemed like it was a really special time. Yeah, and that's a great point I mean if you're thinking about something to do with your older child to have a really great trip. This is a great option for that I mean maybe you weren't even considering Antarctica but it's a great time to go with with somebody you care about and see amazing things and have an experience. You're not going to have anywhere else. Yeah, our 6 you will see hundreds of hangins. 01:10:08.60 Sam Yeah, especially if they're Penguin obsessed right? I feel like Penguin if you are Penguin obsessed. This is the trip. Yeah, yeah. 01:10:19.36 dclduo Well, we always like to wrap up with guests by asking what's next ah, did adventures by Disney So peak your interests that you're looking at maybe some other ab d trips or do you have anything in the works. 01:10:32.10 Kara _ Gene Um, it definitely piqued our interest I have a milestone birthday which I will not get specific about um home coming up next year and I am very interested in the Galapagos. So. 01:10:46.79 dclduo Ah. 01:10:47.30 Kara _ Gene Thinking about that before I was saying no I want to go to Bali or Fiji or somewhere and just lay on the beach but I don't know Antarctica got me really thinking I need to be a little bit more adventurous and and see you know what else is out there and so this experience has definitely made me think twice and. I'm very interested in the in the galapagos. Yeah I would say I probably wouldn't let where abd goes dictate where I want to go. But if I had a place in mind that I wanted to go visit there and abd had some type of trip in that area I would absolutely consider it again and I think. I do not want to short change what Disney interjected or injected onto this trip. It could have been a great trip on another line because of the naturalist because of the the crew because of where we were but there was absolutely something that Disney added to that experience that made it so much better. All the downtime you would have had on another ship is just elevated by the Disney experience and I got to be honest, it was an expensive trip but it was absolutely competitively priced with what all the other lines were doing so we would definitely consider them again. 01:11:58.19 dclduo Well and when you get into the cost of planning that out all on your own as well. I have a feeling like it's going to be more expensive than you know, kind of doing it in a ah super budget. Friendly way. But. You know the ease of being able to pay 1 thing and have it sort of all taken care of end to end outside of your flights to buenus Airris and back I mean that's that's worth something. So um, yeah. 01:12:19.53 Kara _ Gene Yeah, and I got to say when we were first looking at lines. There was kind of the budget option and I was heavily leaning that way and and carra did not want to give up on that it was kind of a. 01:12:26.50 dclduo Who. 01:12:32.70 Kara _ Gene Really want to do all of this just to kind of be miserable on the ship as you're cranning with 500 people and blah blah blah so she convinced me and it was the best. Yeah I'm I'm very glad that she did because it was absolutely a better trip even though it was a little bit more. 01:12:37.00 Sam Ah. 01:12:46.51 dclduo Yeah. 01:12:48.16 Kara _ Gene Yeah I was like listen if you're dragging me to the end of the earth I'm gonna I'm gonna be on a really nice ship with really really good food and have the Disney experience the whole time. So take it or leave it. 01:12:53.69 Sam So. 01:12:59.69 Sam Yeah, well I'm going to tell you all you should be listening to episode 2 65 of did the Dcl Duo Podcast where we talk all about. The adventures by Disney to the Galapagos and all the bluefooted boobies that you can see there. 01:13:18.75 Kara _ Gene Definitely check that out. 01:13:19.98 dclduo Ah, well Kara Gene it's been so fun having you on and talking about this cruise. Ah, it's it's just a fascinating destination sounds like such an amazing experience. So glad you could share it with our audience and thanks for taking the time. 01:13:32.70 Kara _ Gene Thanks for having us. It was like fun to relive. 01:13:36.51 dclduo But all right, Let me hit.