Ep. 303 - Bonus - Holland America Throws Down: HAL v. Disney Cruise Line

00:00.00 dclduo Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the DCL duo podcast brought to you by my path unwinding travel sam youre green group Sam Your Green room has been invaded by pillows what's going on. Are you taking a nap. 00:14.43 Sam There is is I am not sleeping this is from our um, our house sitter um left kindly folded up. She stripped the Murphy bed and folded up everything and so there's pillows and a big blanket sitting next to me. 00:16.74 dclduo Are you sleeping during the podcast now. 00:32.92 dclduo Yes, for for those of you who cannot see or have not watched 1 of our video podcasts. Ah we have like a riviera style Murphy bed in our guest room and so sams sits on a couch in front of it and yet we were in New Orleans this past weekend and had someone watching our. 00:34.20 Sam But yeah. 00:49.61 dclduo To adorable yet ramuntious dogs. So well Sam we've talked Disney Cruise line versus Celebrity Cruise line we've talked Disney Cruise line versus royal caribbean cruise line. We've talked Disney Cruise line versus Carnival Cruise line and tonight we're talking that's true. That's true. 00:51.77 Sam Or crazy tougs. 01:04.47 Sam And even virgin Voyages we have recently? yeah we are talking Disney Cruise line versus Holland America Cruise line and we have a great guest to welcome to the show for the first time. Welcome Sarah. 01:09.48 dclduo But tonight Sam what are we talking. 01:20.71 Sarah Holland Um, hello I'm so excited to be here. 01:24.74 Sam We're so excited to have you. Thank you for joining us to chat with us about Disney Cruise line and hall in America cruiseline before we get to the main topic of our show we of course need to ask you what your Disney Cruise creds are you know, have you how many cruises have you been on. Ah, what ships and then what your general sort of love of Disney comes from. 01:47.59 Sarah Holland Well so this was my very cruise very first Disney Cruise and so I have now been on the wish so I can finally say yes I am silver I've completed it. However, yay celebrations. However. 01:57.40 Sam Um, yay. 02:03.44 Sarah Holland All of my other cruises have been on Holland America line because my parents are huge Holland america cruisers they have the true creds. They probably have over a year's worth of days on cruise ships by now. Oh yeah, they're over 300 I think they're pushing somewhere around 400 so I have lived vicariously through them. 02:08.76 Sam Ah. 02:13.35 dclduo Wow. 02:15.10 Sam Um, ah wow. 02:22.32 Sarah Holland Um, but my very first cruise ever was an eight day seven nights out of Amsterdam for Norway which was fantastic if you're going to do it first. Go to Norway it is incredible. 02:30.15 Sam Oh amazing. Yeah. 02:37.82 Sarah Holland And then my second one was eight day seven night ah caribbean with key west grand turk amber cove and half moon key and also wonderful but completely different vibes. So this was nice to compare. 02:47.42 Sam Oh really nice. Yeah. 02:55.85 Sarah Holland An older style cruiser versus like focus on families and just being bouncy and it was it was interesting. Had a good time. 03:04.21 Sam Yeah, that is I mean very very different cruise lines. What? Um, what made you decide to so Hol in America is easy answer right? Your parents cruise on hall in America. So you're going to if you're going to cruise with them. That's what you're cruising. But how did you choose to cruise on Disney Cruise line for the first time. 03:22.40 Sarah Holland Well huge Disney person and I'm an annual passholder and the past couple years obviously cruising has been a little bit difficult. It was especially for me for getting back onto a ship more because of scheduling and life. But we had put this cruise together with some friends. I think in May Twenty Twenty two and we were actually supposed to be on a halloween on the high seas four day three nighter in September however, there was a hurricane named Ian who came in and said guess what you know this cruise. 03:54.76 Sam Ah, nope. 03:59.13 Sarah Holland Not going to happen even though I tried I tried my best I was watching my flights just slowly disappear. My friends are canceling and shifting and I'm holding tight like yes I can drive I've tried 14 hours this isn't our problem and my husband my husband's like why we're going to be. 04:05.76 Sam Yep. 04:10.61 Sam No big deal. 04:13.90 dclduo Ah. 04:16.93 Sarah Holland At the polynesian and we can't leave our room I was like but we're going to meet the polynesian club level like it'll be fine. He's like no, you can't do this so eventually it all got canceled on that I think Tuesday or Wednesday and we rescheduled for December of twenty twenty twenty twenty two. 04:23.54 Sam Ah. 04:36.84 Sarah Holland And we upgraded to a five day 4 nights um instead so we added the extra day. Um, which and now instead of Halloween it was the very merry time Christmas so that was fun like and we still got to go and stay at the poly I finally knocked out my monorail like stays. 04:45.33 Sam Um. 04:54.43 Sam Oh nice. 04:55.49 Sarah Holland But it was still I was I was I was happy it happened I was happy to have that extra day because I've only done long cruises and having like a short cruise I was like this is I was like I just want a see day. So other than that I've been to Walt Disney world this weekend will be trip number 18 04:59.54 Sam Yeah, the extra day is huge. 05:08.55 Sam Um, yeah. 05:15.32 Sarah Holland Since 2015 because I didn't start going to Walt Disney world or any Disney thing until 2015 I was about to turn 32 and I took my parents I finally got to go for the first time and it ignited an absolute obsession. Um I went to Disneyland for the first time last year and I'll be back from my fortieth this fall. And now I've done Disney Cruise line so I need to get myself out to all Lannie. That's the next thing that's within the next year or 2 hopefully yeah I know I know in session. 05:39.18 Sam Yeah hashtag goals I love it I love it. Well, that's kind of funny that you your first trip to Disney World was one that you as an adult took your parents parents on is usually the other way around. But I like it I like. 05:54.92 Sarah Holland A. 05:54.94 dclduo So so Sarah I want to ask because there's been speculation. There's the wish has been a divisive ship within the Disney Cruise line community but there's been some speculation that you know if you've never cruised Disney before and your first experience with Disney is on the wish you know might not be so bad. 05:56.85 Sam It works. 06:14.78 dclduo Right? And so I'm curious your first experience of Disney was on the wish how would you rate it scale of 1 to 10 Ah, where's a fall. 06:25.13 Sarah Holland Um I would I would give it probably a good solid between 8 and 9 there's a couple weird things that I had read about and I experienced them and I said yes, why would you do this? However, that I feel that's being very knit nit picky. It was solid I had an absolute wonder time. Wonderful time The cast members were incredible I cried I sobbed walking onto the ship I actually you know we we went out of port canaveral and we're finally there and I'm walking in and they announced our last name and and I just lose it and I just like have to flip my. 06:50.52 Sam Ah. 07:02.90 Sarah Holland Glasses onto my face like pull down the sunglasses and just walk through I I didn't even try to grab like the little wish wand because I was just overwhelmed I was like oh my god it really is pretty and there's Cinderella and prince charming and there's a person that they're doing and I ditched my husband and my. 07:17.00 Sam Um. 07:22.61 Sarah Holland About to be 9 year old and just ran up the stairs because I am just crying I just I was just emotionally overwhelmed by the whole entire thing I ran all the way up to the very top got away from everybody else. Calm myself down I was like okay'm want take a couple of pictures with my little oluel and in the picture that I have you can see Mickey Mouse in his handler. Walking right to me because I'm the only person there and it set me off again and I just started sobbing uncontrollably and Mickey Mouse comes over to me and I just bear hug poor mickey and just apologizes tears are of like I'm so sorry it's just been such a thing to get. 07:58.70 dclduo With. 08:00.99 Sarah Holland Here and they're just patting me on the back and comforting me I was like okay I'm really sorry. Thank you I apologize this I do that when I meet Mickey it just overwhelms me I don't know why I don't even care about Mickey that's not even my favorite character and it just oh, it was good. 08:18.80 Sam Oh my god that might might be the best entry story I've ever heard for your poor eight year olds and husband what were they thinking? ah. 08:19.31 Sarah Holland It was. It was wonderful. Yeah you. 08:26.34 Sarah Holland And my husband literally said where did Sarah go because I was gone I had I think they had gone down to the kids club because I had to go figure out where they were I had no idea I was gone for probably 30 minutes and then I came down and I went down the slide and. Realize that slide is really made for small people. It's not made for adults because it was an adventure and I was like I'll never do that again. Um god down there found everything but it was it was you know I feel like Disney people could always be very nitpicky. We don't like change. We want things to be a certain way. 08:59.14 Sam Right? yeah. 09:02.27 Sarah Holland And I could tell that with the design of the wish it's different from the dream and the fantasy and everybody really loves you know Magic Wonder you have you have your own ship. You have your favorite restaurant. But if you just go on and you haven't done anything it was it was wonderful I I mean I cried I cried multiple times. 09:18.73 Sam Um, yeah. 09:21.60 Sarah Holland Like throughout the entire cruise so you know it's great. Give it I guess I'll give it a 10 Oh I'll come back on it. it was a 10 it was it was wonderful could it had been longer. Yes, that would be like by main no plane they need to stop doing three night and 4 nights they need to do much longer cruises. That's it I know. 09:25.13 Sam I Love it. Ah. 09:32.45 Sam Um, yeah, oh yeah. 09:35.76 dclduo Well unfortunately the wish is per purpose quote unquote purpose built for 3 and for night. So I think the treasure is the one that will end up doing the 7 nights which will be interesting and it'll be interesting to see if in the future they dry dock the wish to make some improvements to enable seven night cruises or not um. 09:40.25 Sarah Holland Um. 09:49.19 Sarah Holland And. 09:51.73 dclduo But let's talk about Holland America for a second It's a cruise line that I have very little familiarity with and so I don't know if there's ah, a level of introduction here. You can give our listeners around Holland america I mean they are a you know global cruise brand um, ah. Don't think they're as big as royal carbban but I don't know but you know what's your experience been with Helen that's true. Yeah. 10:13.38 Sarah Holland Um, yeah I look going to say. 10:13.50 Sam Um, they're based here they're based here in the Seattle area and they're a part of carnival corporation because car so car I will so sorry to jump the gun here but they carnival corporation owns Carnival Cruise line Princess Cruise Line Holland America and maybe 1 other one that I'm missing I can't remember yeah that sounds right? Yeah, so they. 10:32.89 dclduo Yeah, that makes sense so what's your what's your experience been Sarah with Holland America like what what kind of ships are we expecting and itineraries and you know just general background on Holland America from your point of view. 10:33.64 Sarah Holland Um I Want to say Seaborne is like the other one. Yeah. 10:49.36 Sarah Holland Okay, um, mine started out because of my parents that became very focused on cruising because they did an Alaska Cruise tour I want to say in 2013 and for several years I was more just in the background. Not really paying attention because I was dealing with my own life. My parents are retired. They're so going gallivanting around but the really nice thing about Howland America it is geared more towards the 55 and up crew. Um, you still have families on there. They do still have kids clubs. It's not. As over-. The top ships. Um I feel sizewise a lot of their ships will compare to the magic and wonder and they have a lot of smaller ones that can go and do very unique itineraries. Um Holland is the first group first cruise group. To really go into Alaska they were. They've been in there for 75 years so if you want to do Alaska I actually did a cruise tour with them last summer. Um I just did the land portion for a variety of things and they were fabulous I have never experienced Alaska like each. And I can't even imagine like doing Alaska and not now doing a cruise tour because you get to see just like the small amount of the islands if you're on any other cruise ship and then you get to go into the wilderness and actually experience like this is Alaska and it is huge and it is massive and denali is crazy. 12:19.13 Sarah Holland So you can do you can do that. But however, they also go all around the world. My parents have now done their seventh continent as of last November they hit australia they've been all around South America and into Antarctica they've been all over Eastern Europe they've been all over south. Southeast Asia day you can go into Norway and go as far north as Yon Maren and svalbart because they've done that a couple times now. Um you can go out to Hawaii with them. It kind of you know everything always depends on the year there ships range from the conings Dom which is what I did on my Norwegian Cruise out of Amsterdam and that ship I don't know the size off the top of it. But I would say it was very similar in size. Um, maybe maybe a little bit smaller than the wish. Um, not as much spectacular stuff but they do ah more educated entertainments like we had a lot of things from the Bbc we had gorgeous like dance troops that would come on and do our nighttime shows. Um, the food was incredible. Focus on having food from every port like if you're going to a specific place. You're going to have like if you're in the lito deck. The food there is going to be themed around wherever you're going to be staying I know which like in the food was fantastic and that was a weird thing for me because I had never really done main dining. 13:40.14 Sam So cool. 13:49.95 Sarah Holland Because we would just we would do some specialty stuff on the like on the cruise ships with mom and dad because they would use their benefits with that cruise line you get more the more like stars you get like I'm just a 1 star but they are 4 star mariners about to be their fifth star and they have they just they get all kinds of stuff. It's. 14:09.17 Sam On Holland so so they have a main dining room right? I presume they all elderships have like a 1 main dining room where you can eat every night or they have like probably similar to what we hear on royal which is where you can sort of dine at these different specialty. 14:09.77 Sarah Holland Kind of jealous in a way. Um, yeah, just like oh look at these things I. 14:28.78 Sam Restaurants for an upcharge or maybe not an upcharge if you have a certain level of status or if you're staying at like a concierge or some other kind of similar level is that similar to how it works. Okay. 14:32.94 Sarah Holland The. 14:38.28 Sarah Holland Yes, and then they also have their lido deck. So that's their buffet and that's open for breakfast lunch and dinner and that was one critique that I heard about the wish that surprised me a little bit. 14:45.44 Sam Um, right. 14:53.26 Sarah Holland I Think in the previous ships buffet was self-serve so you could just go and serve yourself like with any dump stuff on your plate and go on with this one. It's always been those small little plates skill pick whatever you want you know and go take it back to your your little spot and go bring back more and take it back to your spot so that wasn't really a big change for me. 15:00.82 Sam Yep. 15:12.43 Sarah Holland Because that's all I had actually known. Um, they have depending on the ship. They will always have probably 2 to 3 specialty dining locations and I've done the pinnacle grill which is their premiere one and it was wonderful I would say from what I have read about remy. Um, it's not as fancy as on chantte I don't I don't think it is and just from like looking where onantte was it's it's not like that. But it is a private dining room with just wonderful high class service and I would say probably level of maybe pao between pao and remi. 15:44.17 Sam Um. 15:47.60 Sam Yeah, so me. 15:49.39 dclduo So it's interesting I'm I'm just looking at a little information about Holland America in general and it it appears they have 1 2 3 maybe 4 classes of ship and ah looks like 11 ships in their fleet. 16:02.77 Sarah Holland And. 16:03.96 dclduo Ah, they they do say on the caribbean as well have you taken a caribbean cruise on Holland America Sarah. 16:08.57 Sarah Holland Yes I that was my second one it was out of Fort Lauderdale and we went to key west we went to grand turk we went to Amber Cove which is in the dominican republic and then we went to half moon key which is their private Bahamian Island um you'll see that's where the carnival ships will go as well and that was really interesting to it compare and contrast um half moon key to Castaway key number 1 unlike royal they pronounce key everybody pronounces key the same so you don't have to sit there and go like I don't know exactly. 16:29.81 Sam Ah. 16:38.76 Sam The same. Yeah they and they pronounce it correctly. Key not K No I know stop with the rhyming nonsenses pronounce it like the bahamians pronounce say hit. 16:46.78 Sarah Holland I Know oh this rhyming nonsense like stop that it's it's key just the key exactly it is you have to tender to get to Halfffman key. Um, just because it's so shallow which was one of the things that surprised me because when I finally got there. You know how. 16:57.16 Sam Oh interesting. 17:05.62 Sarah Holland People will see like there's beautiful photos of the Bahamas and the water's so blue and you're like no no, no, no, no it is you roll up there because it's so shallow that you just see the sand automatically and the water just turns so blue and I have pictures that are just shocking and I was just like I I'm wondering. 17:10.69 Sam Um. 17:25.13 Sarah Holland Will casta away ki be like this but it looks like Castaway is a little higher up. So I think that is a change in the fact that they can tender. They don't have to tender in they can dock and so because of that it changes because they have that protective cove and have have been keyed didn't but you could go horseback riding into the water. You could do all kinds of stuff. 17:44.17 dclduo Oh and to go back to for one second I just wanted to be fully accurate here. So Sam Carnival Cruise Line owns carnival cruises of course. Ah, but also I eat a Costa. 17:59.13 Sam Oh. 18:00.22 Sarah Holland Okay. 18:01.80 dclduo P and O Kennard Princess Holland and seaborne so the empire of carnival cruise line extends vast. So yes. 18:05.71 Sam Wow. So even more than yeah, yeah, but we but we were correct on all the ones they have. We just missed a couple but. 18:06.82 Sarah Holland Oh yeah. 18:16.50 Sarah Holland Yeah, yeah, yeah. 18:16.13 dclduo That's right, you did not. You did not make the cover all but you did get the the postage stamp is that the Bingo term Sam But yes. 18:20.77 Sam Yeah, that's right Sarah did you need to stop for a second. Yeah, it's okay yeah I saw you motioning but that's what happens with Mike Arc it so no big deal if you need to stop at any time. Just. 18:20.81 Sarah Holland Yes, um, my son walked in and he was looking at me and I was like go away close door. Yeah I was waiting for that I was ready for the dog to then jump in too and. I'm back in the bedroom just like hiding going like please This is probably the quietest place that's ah. 18:43.27 dclduo Well let's so let's step back for a second and talk about we like to kind of go through the process here. So any major differences in your experience Sarah between booking a Disney Cruise and a Holland America Cruise 1 Cruise line better than the other there. 18:56.37 Sarah Holland Yes, yes, so the differences are the Disney Mindset versus everybody else in booking a cruise and if you have booked a Disney trip. You know that. 19:09.98 dclduo Ah, ah. 19:15.22 Sarah Holland You will have to be up really early at some particular time to do x y and z before your trip and you're going to have to fight to get x y and z on an excursion because you need to be concierge or then you need to be platinum gold silver first time so that doesn't happen. 19:18.51 Sam Me. 19:34.00 Sarah Holland Um, you book and then you're able ah depending on how far out you are you can start booking things as they pop up and that's really handy. Um I didn't I think I've only done 1 actual excursion on Holland America more because I just wanted to go and hang out. Um, when we went to our Norway Cruise we did a train excursion. Um, and that was my very first one. So my dad did everything and then we just wandered around the cities after that and then in the caribbean I had thought about doing one particular excursion in Amber Cove where you can go sliding down the waterfalls I think similar to Duns River falls over in Jamaica only it's over in Dominican and I had gotten a horrible sunburn the day before at grand turk so I decided I wasn't going to do that which was a very wise idea I just sat in the shade and went oh god. 20:19.73 Sam Um. 20:23.49 Sam M. 20:32.21 Sarah Holland Regretting all of my decisions but you have to bring apply the sunscreen if you're just you have to do it and make sure the sunscreen lands on your skin. Um, but other than that, there's not really the demand that you need to get up at a particular time to go to the onboard booking. So just you know look. 20:40.83 Sam Um. 20:51.43 Sarah Holland You do have to pay for them as you book them I think that's probably like a bigger difference because with Disney it just gets charged at the end. Um, so that way I think that helps you you also have drink packages. You can't you can still book spa stuff and they have other onboard things that you can go and do but for the most part. 20:51.81 dclduo Oh yeah. 21:10.28 Sarah Holland It is just the fact that you don't have to worry about running around and I need to have you know everybody needs an account but I don't need to worry about like all these other times. It's just okay, you've booked congratulations um start looking at things and when you're ready then you will be able to do whatever you want. 21:18.73 Sam And. 21:29.68 Sarah Holland Just make sure to do your onboard booking at the end by it. Yeah, there's there's that premium. Um, you can. 21:30.74 dclduo How does how does the cost compare Sarah is is Disney more expensive or are they on on par. 21:47.89 Sarah Holland Do their pinnacle and neptune suites and it will be probably on a level with a lot of the concierre stuff. Um Disney I still feel from looking at a lot of pricing some of their concierge will definitely jump up, especially with those longer sailings. Um, looking. 22:04.25 Sam Um. 22:05.69 Sarah Holland Dealing with a lot of my parents cruises in the last five years um you can get a much higher priced cruise that would probably bounce out to about the same but you can also do like a lot of things like more budget. Friendly. So I think a lot of it depends if you're doing a caribbean I think it's going to be cheaper if you're going and doing a three week Australian Cruise which is what they just did thanks to a lot of their future cruise credits that kept on rescheduling that. Yeah that one will be a lot more if you have a veranda you. 22:21.65 Sam Um. 22:40.28 Sarah Holland But they also really focus on longer trips and that was something that I had learned from talking with a couple folks. There is that one of the things that Holland new america is really doing is trying to get away from a lot of the standard like locations that are in the caribbean or that are in Europe and they're wanting to go and explore more unique. 22:42.61 Sam Right. 22:59.47 Sarah Holland Itineraries I know that there are talks now about some of their Alaska trips if you can think of Alaska and how it has that very long arm that goes out into the baltic sea doing some crew stops there with their smaller ships in the next couple of years yeah so you can actually do. 23:00.98 Sam Um. 23:07.85 dclduo Who. 23:14.57 Sam Oh Wow um. 23:17.44 Sarah Holland Maybe those eleven twelve night cruises where you're not doing the cruise tour but you're really seeing a lot of the smaller islands and I know that there's also some talk about doing that in the caribbean with those more unique longer sailings you can go and see more things. Um, you know I think back to some of the ones that mom and dad have done. Um. Even in southeast asia and they just hit like all kinds of little tiny places and big places. Um, you can go and do circumnavigations of Japan. They're actually going to be doing one of those with princess. Um here like this year which I'm really excited about um so that'll be kind of. Be nice, a little change. They have to step out of their comfort level and I can learn about princess. 23:56.64 dclduo Yeah I was I was going to say the interesting thing about Holland is looking at their ship capacities. They get down into like the sixteen hundreds are actually the fourteen hundreds and only up to about 2600 it looks like. 23:58.59 Sam Yeah, ah. 24:06.37 Sarah Holland Okay. 24:16.40 dclduo And so that's actually much smaller than the wish and more on par with kind of the the magic class. Yeah and smaller I mean Disney's magic class ships. They have a passenger capacity of ah 2700 so 24:24.32 Sam The magic and the wonder and smaller. Yeah yeah. 24:28.00 Sarah Holland Um. 24:36.34 dclduo Those are some small ships if they're down in the 1400 so that yeah that does enable them to get into some spots that um even the Disney magic and wonder might not be able to get into so that's that's really interesting. Um. 24:36.85 Sarah Holland Yeah. 24:50.98 dclduo You mentioned the Disney and everybody else and sort of the like to call the rope drop culture infusing the cruise line. Um, how is it from the standpoint of the port experience the embarkation experience. Ah you know yeah, go ahead. 25:04.92 Sarah Holland So oh sorry for interrupting so that was actually a lot better now. Granted my 2 experiences one is in Amsterdam and 1 is in Fort Lauderdale the answer amsterdam 1 was pretty good getting onto the ship and getting off I think at the time I was like half paying attention and more going. Oh this is this is what a cruise ship is you we do this and we do that but they had yeah I was I think about it I go like okay yeah, we we do these things. Um. But it was you comparing it to being at portnaveral um and being over at Fort Lauderdale I think was like more apt it? Yeah um. 25:52.19 Sam Um, yeah, that's probably a good comparison. Yeah. 25:56.23 Sarah Holland It was kind of a hot mess when we were over in Fort Lauderdale and it was not because of Holland america they had a couple of alarms that had sounded and so everybody had to stop what they were doing and go do other things I think we were a little bit delayed but I remember more getting off of the ship and that customs. Took I think an hour for everybody to clear. Oh it was. It was just such a line and I remember distinctly preparing myself for that with the wish and thinking about okay our flight time and we have our transfer and we never stopped moving. We had our luggage with us because we forgot to send it down. 26:16.17 Sam Oh wow. 26:35.90 Sarah Holland Um, late night because we were just not paying attention to anything and I was like oh it'll be fine I was like we'll walk it off. It's not a big deal and we just kept moving. We just went down the whole entire line I fell at port canaveral because it is owned by Disney that was the smoothest and just. Perfect experience for if I have to do any type of waiting it. It was wonderful I wish all all waiting things can be like that because we just never stopped. 27:03.44 Sam Yeah I think I think they've really got it down pretty pretty well at Port Canaveral you know Fort Lauderdale is a decent port to sail out of I think in general um, it's a crowded. Port and so depending on which terminal you're at you may be sharing you know terminals with other cruise lines and and if it's not a dedicated terminal to that particular cruise line. It might be more chaos. But I mean Fort Lauderdale is a very large cruise port as well and so it it shouldn't be. 27:27.75 Sarah Holland Um. 27:35.20 Sam I Would guess they're you know, not too different. But yeah there you may have to deal with just inefficiencies on the part of individuals that are working the port that sometimes the cruise lines have very little control over in general. So that's interesting. 27:48.61 Sarah Holland I will say the the best thing about going out of Fort Lauderdale is the fact that you're so close to the airport. You're so close to hotels and obviously over in port canaveral. It's a little bit of a change you are out there but you can see the space shuttle and I was so excited I was maybe as excited to see the. 27:56.70 Sam Yes. 28:08.25 Sarah Holland Space shuttle building as I was to actually walk on the ship which is crazy but I was so happy. 28:09.58 Sam Yeah I I don't know I think it is pretty cool being able to see the Kennedy Space Center like as you're driving to the port or even from the port you can. Yeah, you can see it like from the ship you can be on the wish or. 28:12.18 dclduo Is. 28:27.45 Sam The fantasy the dream. Whatever ship is in port at port canaveral and you can see the Kennedy Space Center it's really it is cool and if they have a shuttle launch. You can see a shuttle launch scheduled on your particular cruise day. Unfortunately they get rescheduled quite often because the weather has to be like perfect. So just because there's just shuttle launch scheduled you on the day you're selling doesn't mean the shuttle launch will actually happen on the day you're selling. Let's let's talk a little bit about some of the onboard um offerings I'd love to hear what you thought about ah let's talk at activities slash entertainment. Um, on Holland versus on Disney right? Who's doing you know who's keeping you busy during the day or putting on shows in the evening. Um, you know we know obviously Disney does but how does Holland compare in that respect. 29:21.87 Sarah Holland Well you hear from the cruise director on Holland america so much more than you hear from Disney which which surprised me a little bit. Um I expected to hear our guy or I think I think it was a gentleman pop on throughout the day reminding us a lot of different things and. I went to a couple of the shows I think every single show but I hit 2 out of the 3 and it was more of a thing I think on Holland America that they had ah they had the same show twice but it was a little bit more. 29:40.65 Sam M. 29:54.66 Sarah Holland Want to say upscale but I don't want to say that in a way that's like downloading anything that Disney does. It's just it's for a different audience. Um I think 1 thing we've had a lot of different dancers with this beautiful stage that they have in their center stage which is multilevel and it had not. 29:58.64 Sam Here. 30:08.70 Sam Oh. 30:12.78 Sarah Holland And probably like a 270 degree um video boards that would just show various like background things to go along with whatever the show was and one of my favorite ones was Bbc earth. That night they would have a how if it'd be a string quartet but it be something like that they would be playing music while they be show scenes from around the world on Bbc Earth and everything would be tied together and it was honestly breathtaking because it was high definition and you were just like wow just. Wow look at this and then they would also do on the same stage on another night. They would do a dance troop doing a lot of lyrical slash ballet interpretive dance. Do you like various things now just a little bit more like high class as opposed to you like watching the little mermaid which was fabulous. Favorite show. Loved it so much. Um, it's just like a different vive. We've had I've seen magicians I've seen that some comedians I think one of my favorites was it was the norwegian cruise they had a lady who had either 1 or was a top 5 person on. Like they're like the Holland /netherlands version of you've got um like america's got talent or american idol and so she performed the harp and it was amazing like you think harp and you think I'm going to have a great time I'm going to sit here with my drink and I'm going to fall asleep and she was so good. 31:34.65 Sam Um, you. 31:46.30 Sarah Holland I Think she sang along with everything and I was just like Wow and she's saying because she even did some things in I think flemish because she asked if anybody spoke flemish and she was very excited about that. So it's just it's a different vibe. Um, if you're if you've got younger kids some of it on sleep. 31:55.36 Sam So cool. 32:05.15 Sarah Holland Probably they might feel like a little bored but it's it's not really geared as much towards them and that's you know it's a different ship with like a different focus. Um, but you could go and just it's wonderful and it's nice to relax and you get that I'm gone off dinner now I'm going to go get my drink and I'm going to sit there and I'm going to relax and. 32:13.54 Sam Um. 32:22.76 Sarah Holland Then afterwards one of the things that they've really done especially on the cunnings do and I also sailed on the Amsterdam as well. Um, they have their music walk and they have a lincoln center section that is more classical string music. They have a billboard online section which is dueling pianos which was my favorite thing every night to go and watch dueling pianos the ah yes, the only you don't have to like put any money up that was that is like the 1 nice thing because you're like ok you know they're they're doing their thing. 32:41.27 Sam I love doing piano on this? yeah like you can at Disney World at Jelly rolls right. 32:55.82 Sarah Holland Um, they would do the music trivia every night and they would play something and they would also do a lot of stuff. The music did tend to be more like a little bit 50 60 70 s eighty s a little bit tiny bit 90 s and a tiny bit 2000 so you know if you're in the 55 and older age group. You're like this is great if you're. In your 30 s sometimes you're like I know these songs and this sounds fantastic. But I'd like to not listen to the the tones of my my childhood I like maybe listen to something a little older but you know s smallable. They also have the bb king. 33:24.10 Sam Ah. 33:30.21 Sarah Holland Jazz club I don't think that's the right name but they would have live jazz ensemble like every night and that would be so lively and you go over they would be more like later in the evening and so all the music could be happening and you could just walk through and just pick whatever it is that you wanted to sit there and you wouldn't you would think oh there's a cacophony of music going everywhere. As much like they they really had it spaced out and timed out well um, but it was you know there's bars everywhere as you can just go grab a drink if you're sitting down someone who would get you something um and it was just really really nice um I would say it is comparable to the. Bar like not as heavily themed as the bars and lounges over on the wish but you know still you can go over and someone's going to go and Thg you down and grab stuff for you and they also have casinos on hallland America which is typical for most cruise lines that aren't Disney just because that's an extra former revenue. Um I don't remember if you could smoke in them or not I don't remember like running into it. It's possible but you could kind of cut through a casino if you didn't really want to deal with that. Um I I liked the spa on the Holland America ships better than the spa on the wish. Um. I will say that I didn't get to go into the rainforest room but I did do a massage both both massages were wonderful, but just like the extra minity of what they had on their like spa area there thessalo especially the. 34:58.84 Sarah Holland Connings dam was the best because they had the beautiful room of all of the loungers. The ceramically heated loungers. You could just stare there and just stare out and no one was in there and it was so wonderful I probably napped there I think for probably about 45 minutes and then i. 35:03.61 dclduo Here. 35:04.58 Sam Oh yeah, yeah. 35:16.24 Sarah Holland Move myself over to there's a sauna here's 4 or 5 different types of showers including a horizontal shower and here's like in in yes, ah you just lay there. Yes that oh heaven. 35:23.42 Sam Did you have the the Lossa ah the loss of therapy. Yeah, those lounge are things. Yeah, those are really nice. Yeah yeah, you lay down. 35:25.69 dclduo Oh those were so fun. 35:32.15 Sarah Holland Horizontal shower that I was like I I don't know do I just lay down you lay down you pull the thing and just dumps on you and I was like hu how about that? um there wasn an I I I want to I Want to say it's that like I know maybe infrared is what it actually was like an infrared spar room. 35:46.70 dclduo Moving. 35:51.24 Sarah Holland And then they would have the whole thoso like wonderful just huge tub and it would have things you could hold on to so you could the water was kind of there was a little bouncy on the sea that day you could really watch the water move around and then it had multiple showers inside there. It was just it was absolutely wonderful and from everything that I've seen with the wish I was like But. Guys would be nice but I was like that even on the smaller ship on the osterdam I was like that. That's that still wins for me but but they were both one of experiences. 36:16.30 Sam Yeah, well, it's it. 36:18.89 dclduo Um, you mentioned that you mentioned that kids might you mentioned that your kids might get bored on a hol in America cruise that begs the question for me. What's the demographic like on board. Do they even have a kids club or kids geared activities. 36:35.79 Sarah Holland They do. There is a club how um, there's not as many kids I feel that I saw maybe probably be 10 to 20 families on each cruise and some of them looked like it was multigenerational. Everybody's going. We're doing something with Grandma grandpa because I'm Norway. Is not like a typical cruise like you're thinking like you know the caribbean um was a little bit bouncier but there were maybe a little bit more kids on that one but not a ton I know they have like scheduled activities and they have the kids club and there's a running track. There's like a sport court. There's not like the big bouncy like play toys inside. They do have pools on the ship. They don't have slides and there's not a kids like splash area but you can go and like have a good time. Um, it's just you know I feel that if you're going on a hall in America Ship you're going because you're going. 37:19.11 Sam Um. 37:25.31 dclduo Will. 37:26.91 Sarah Holland For the itinerary I want to go and I want to see all these places in the eastern mediterranean like my parents. They did one and they hit even into Israel. They got to stay overnight and do all kinds of stuff like over there. Um, you can really go and see like I think they go up into like right up there on the other side of italy and they they go so many more places that a normal like royal or disney ship aren't going to go. So I think it's going to attract more folks who have children who are more independent and they can like entertain themselves like a little bit more I don't need as much of like relying on the kids clubs and granted like kids are going to get bored on every ship. My kid did not like the kids club on the wish. So you know that is what it is do. 37:56.46 Sam Um. 37:58.14 dclduo Here. 38:11.61 dclduo Your kids in like the kids club on the wish. Oh and only goes downhill from there. Ah. 38:15.60 Sarah Holland Oh my gosh I um, it was yeah he just turned 9 He would just turn 9 in December um his weak cruise at beginning of the month and his birthday was at the end. Um. 38:16.35 Sam Yeah, and you said he's almost eight is that right with just or 9 Okay. 38:31.14 Sarah Holland Max Absolutely hated the kids club if you if I brought him in right now he would be oh however, his he absolutely loved the whole sport zone every like the Hero zone. Oh my gosh that was that was his thing I took him up there. 38:33.90 dclduo Ah. 38:40.99 dclduo M. 38:43.40 Sam Um, oh okay, yeah. 38:48.12 Sarah Holland And he saw that there was basketball and there was soccer and we missed the inflatables I think we were doing something else like that day I think it was like na I know so dumb. Um, we actually stayed on ship that day too. We were just doing like so many other things. Um, but it was he did He loved it. 38:52.22 Sam Yeah, and it's only open one day. It's only yeah, yeah. 39:05.81 Sarah Holland Ah, we went up and we played like fosball we played air hockey and he saw basketball my child is obsessed with basketball and so like the c day. Um, right? but like writes there like whenever the c day was like honor crews like he spent probably 5 to 6 hours up there by himself. 39:12.93 Sam Um. 39:22.86 Sam Wow. 39:24.66 Sarah Holland Just and shooting and having the best time living his best life while I lived my best life over in the adult only pool and that was also fantastic. So yeah. 39:31.97 Sam Yeah I love that well see that I mean that's a good thing right? like your kid doesn't have to like the kids club in order to have a good time and some kids really like the kids club some kids really don't um Nathan does now when we first started cruising with him. He wasn't really into it. 39:43.28 Sarah Holland Um. 39:49.48 Sam And I will say he really likes the kids club on the wish. But I think part of that is they have all this like augmented reality stuff right? where you're using an ipad and you're solving something. Um, you're doing some kind of game and our son Nathan is super into video games. That's his jam like he's not a. Big sports kid he likes to he likes you know to shoot basketballs and stuff like that. But it's not really, he would be he would rather be playing video games to be perfectly honest and so if he can do that in the kids club That's what he'll do and there's no limit in the kids club on how long he's playing those games for so I think that's why he likes it but I do find and I think this is probably true for any Cruise line your kid is going to have a better kid or kids are going to have a better time if they have somebody else to play with right. So if they make a friend. Um, whether that's you know on board day one or because you connect with somebody through a Facebook group or something like that if you're concerned about the best tip I could give people is if you're concerned about your kid having a good time. Find a way to connect with another family who has maybe a similar age child who might maybe has similar interests to your child and connect them as soon as you can whether that's before you get on or at least on date one when you're on the ship to meet. 41:12.81 Sarah Holland Yeah, and that we actually had friends who were on the cruise I didn't realize that they were and then at the last moment like oh okay, let's meet up and it was and so when we were over at Castaway Max and my friend's son they just built sandcastle's the entire time. 41:20.92 Sam Oh that's cool. 41:30.44 Sarah Holland And max lived his best life. We didn't even eat on Castaway like everybody says oh go try the barbecue I'm like I don't know I went over there. We snorkeled for a little bit and then right there between the snorkel area and the swim area where that little sign is. 41:30.75 Sam Um, yeah. 41:45.90 Sarah Holland Um, we dragged a couple chairs down so we were always in the shade and I had several pena collatas and I lived my best like I didn't do anything like my husband bird watched the entire island and now he has the fifth most bird sightings on castaway. So if you're into birds. Um Josh Josh is number 5 41:56.79 Sam Um, yeah, ah, that's so fun. Wow If so if you're in obsessed with ornithology. You too can. 42:04.62 Sarah Holland Ah, so there you go? okay. 42:11.94 dclduo So. 42:12.94 Sam Seabirds on Castaway I Love it. But honestly the the you didn't miss much the barbecue and Castaway is not great. The barbecue on the top deck of the wish better. 42:20.74 Sarah Holland Yes, yes. 42:22.90 dclduo So Sarah I'm curious. You mentioned a few minutes ago that you know Holland is known for the destinations. Ah, and I think implicit in that too is you know, sailing the caribbean on Disney Cruise line or any other cruise line. It's really about the ship and not the destinations. In your experience. Did you find that Holland had more port adventures or more interesting port adventures than what you saw offered on Disney Cruise line or was it comparable. 42:53.56 Sarah Holland So I think they had more interesting ones. But also they're going to different reports. Um Grand Turk I know you could do You could do so many things and I just wanted to go over have you all been to Grand Turk before ok. 42:58.51 Sam Nothing. 43:04.27 dclduo Now. 43:05.55 Sam I Have not no. 43:09.13 Sarah Holland So when you pull up the grand turk you're going to dock and there can be 2 ships in at once and you immediately get off the ship and you go through the little clearance spot and then right there is beach that you just go straight over to the beach and it is wonderful and you can keep on going further and clear out of like the little port area. 43:20.46 Sam So awesome. 43:27.71 Sarah Holland And there's a Margaritaville with a free massive pool with swim up bars and everything else and so you can yes, what do you need? ah would you like to hear max's opinion max is like walked in. 43:43.34 dclduo Yeah, sure, let me ah wait let me tea let me teae that up and then we'll we'll go back? Um, what we're just I out. Um just to save our friend Derek who helps me out at the show. Ah some time all right? So hey max we're just talking about the kids club and I hear you might have. 43:45.58 Sarah Holland Okay, okay I was gonna say like. 43:49.25 Sam Um, yeah. 43:52.84 Sarah Holland Yeah. 43:59.52 Sam Ah, wait he needs to he can't hear you Brian yeah yeah. 44:00.37 dclduo Oh he can't hear me yet. Okay I'll wait. 44:01.39 Sarah Holland Yeah, yeah, me make sure I.