Ep. 321 - Rollin' On the River: A Six Night DCL Out of New Orleans

00:00.60 dclduo Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the Dc L Duo Podcast brought to you by my path unwinding travel sam safely ensconced in your green room which you provided a walkthrough tour of for our patreons not too long ago. All the. 00:11.67 Sam That's right, That's right, Yeah, my popcorn bucket collection a couple of sippy cups that I have some of the artwork in here. You know it's real. It's real fancy. 00:16.62 dclduo All of the elements of your of your fabulous green room there. But yeah. 00:27.26 dclduo Yes. 00:29.88 Sam Ah, and of course my tobo cheek is always next to me but not for every show the earlier in the morning that we record then it's usually a cup of coffee. Um sometimes iced sometimes hot. 00:32.81 dclduo Oh my gosh. 00:43.61 Sam Ah, but yeah in the afternoon when we're recording or the evening when we're recording. It's always a to Topa chico. 00:47.90 dclduo Well the dc do will maybe be brought to you on my path unwinding travel but Samantha is brought to you by Tobo Chico so well we're excited to welcome pack a 3 pete guests all the way from the big easy welcome Tracy. 00:53.20 Sam Ah, that's right I know wait That's right. 01:00.40 Tracey I. 01:01.51 Sam So good to have you back Tracy we we know we we spoke to you not too long ago about a great sailing. You did out of New York city all the way up to new england it was sounded like a really fun trip and then you were just recently on. The magic again. So you've been just sailing quite a bit but it's lovely to have you back? Ah before we dive into talking about your cruise. Why don't you remind folks of your Disney Cruise line background how many times you've sailed and which ships you've been on. 01:35.76 Tracey Um, we've been on all 5 This was ah I don't know 14 or 15 But this year this has been a busy year for us like we weren't even platinum when the year started and this was cruise number 6 in the last twelve months 01:48.40 Sam Oh my goodness. Yeah. 01:50.19 dclduo Wow. 01:53.13 Tracey It's just worked. It's just worked out like it's just I mean the magic came here. So of course I'm going to get on. 01:56.14 dclduo Yeah I mean it's it's got to be super nice when the ship is within reach of you within driving distance right? Like that's our problem is it's never within driving distance I guess when it's in Vancouver but those Alaska cruisers are so pricey. Yeah. 02:04.95 Sam It is when it's when the one. Yeah when the wonders in Vancouver it's it's in driving distance. But yeah, those cruises are true. 02:12.18 dclduo But several hours several hours I think what is it's probably what a half hour for you Tracy to get to the port or. 02:17.85 Tracey Oh not even like when when the ship is in port we drive past it every day to and from work in school. We'd cross over the river so it's maybe a 10 minute drive from a house to drop off at the drop off line I live really close to the river though. 02:22.10 Sam No. 02:30.87 dclduo Nice, nice, nice. 02:32.74 Sam That's amazing. Yeah that's awesome I love it because just seeing the magic or the wonder depending on which ship it is that's in Porta New Orleans it's just such a lovely sight to see I mean the other cruise ships that pull in on. On the river are just not nearly as pretty as a Disney ship is yeah. 02:52.18 Tracey I agree. 02:53.78 dclduo Yeah, we were bun when we were there recently couldn't watch her sail in because I free it was I was watching the times and she didn't make it in until like past Eleven o'clock at night or something crazy. So yeah, we just weren't able to make it down there. But. Tracy. Let's talk about this fabulous cruise you took out of New Orleans on the on the magic um with this was not your first time on the magic you've been on Disney Cruise line many times I got to believe you were on the magic before oh ok, but all right. 03:19.54 Tracey Yeah, this is actually our third time on the magic in twelve months 03:25.56 Sam And right because remember their new england one was also on the magic because she's the one who's been doing the East Coast and then you know did Galveston and New Orleans because the wonder has not left the west coast the wonder has been out of San Diego for the whole year before it's going to sail over to Australia and New Zealand so 03:32.56 dclduo Yeah, yeah, yeah. 03:40.51 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 03:45.53 Sam Yeah, it's been kind of a different. It's kind of nice that you guys have had the magic there. Um for a change since it's been the wonder um is there any any disappointment though in the fact that the magic has no New Orleans themed restaurants or bars like the. 04:02.40 Tracey I definitely miss the wonder being in New Orleans it's funny because the wonder was a last ship we went on. It was the first ship ever went on. It was the last ship I went on before the pandemic and I was kind of like. 04:02.59 Sam Like the wonder does. 04:15.66 Tracey I'm so glad the magic's coming. You know I've been on the wonder enough and now I That little wonder was the last ship I went on. It's not coming anywhere that's accessible I'm like I miss the wonder. 04:23.63 Sam I Love it I Love it. 04:24.80 dclduo yeah yeah I do think it's an odd choice for them to put the magic into New Orleans considering the wonder has Tiana's place and um, that bar outside of Tia's place and of which is the front. Not the french the french quarter lounge right? Yeah because the buy you is on the wish. 04:34.78 Tracey Yeah, yeah. 04:34.95 Sam Yes. 04:38.48 dclduo Um, they guess so got all the Abita beer bottles up on the on the bar. Ah for the french quarter lounge. So I don't know I'm hopeful I'm hopeful. She might make a triumphant return in New Orleans one of these days. But yeah, well this was a six night itinerary you shared off air and it went to. Cos a Meon Grand caman did they get that right? Nice what made you choose this itinerary was it just a length or I guess they're all pretty similar going out of New Orleans they don't have much variation. 04:55.92 Tracey Correct. 05:06.60 Tracey Yeah there I would say you know the itineraries aren't great, but we did 2 dcl excursions really enjoyed both of them. Um, you know I think coamel is kind of like the Nasa of the western caribbean you know, almost they go there almost every sailing but um. 05:18.10 dclduo Yeah. 05:23.13 Tracey You know we still managed to find something different that we hadn't done before and really enjoyed it. 05:26.31 dclduo Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know. 05:26.67 Sam Yeah, yeah, and what was the attraction to this this particular sailing the 6 nights because I know that some of the cruises that go out of New Orleans are only what 4 or 5 nights right. 05:40.60 Tracey Right? This one? um y'all know I'm the budget cruiser. So this one the price was like amazing on the Disney plus promotion and so I think that was and it was the one of the longest ones that they offer out of New Orleans 05:45.51 dclduo Oh nice. 05:45.58 Sam Oh yeah. Oh that's such a good point I keep forgetting that you know several of the ships were eligible for that Disney plus promotion which is no longer I don't think happening I think it already expired but it was for sailings for basically early this year 05:50.80 dclduo Nice. 06:08.38 Sam And it was the third and fourth cruiser. What were they were they free or 50% off or yeah free. So that's a huge I mean that's a huge value of course they're typically kids so and the kids the price of a kid is less than the price of an adult as long as they're not the first or the second cruiser. 06:11.30 Tracey Free. Yeah. 06:26.57 Sam But that's still a huge huge savings tell us Tracy who is in your normal stay. Ah sailing party and who went with you on this cruise. 06:32.67 Tracey Um, normally it's myself my 2 daughters and my mom and then um, my motherin law and father in law. We probably sail together like 50% of the time and then ah on this cruise. 06:45.97 Sam Um. 06:48.11 Tracey We got to have my sister in law and my niece and nephew who were first time cruisers. No fun. Yes, right. 06:51.70 Sam Oh fun. So it's a big family party this time and with some first timers. Oh my goodness. How did you prepare them for what they were getting themselves into I always find you know. 06:52.74 dclduo Wise. 07:07.19 Sam We liked it. We we always talk to first time cruisers and we asked them. You know how do you prepare right? and most of the time the answer is they go to Youtube and they start searching for for videos sometimes they'll have searched podcasts and they'll find us or the dcl podcast. Um, you know sometimes they're reading blog articles. But. When you're sailing with an experienced cruiser like yourself. You got a resource built in so. What? what kind of information did you give them before you all sailed as to what to expect or what they might want to book. 07:35.10 Tracey Um, I mean the the kids are young. They're 7 and 6 so you don't need to give much information. We're like we're going to get some spra costumes and we're going to do bibbity bobbyy boutique and you know we're going to swim the pool and. They just get really excited. Um, the youngest when we first told her she was scared. She was like I don't want to I don't want to go so then we did go to Youtube and pull up some videos and that um, any fear she had evaporated immediately. She was very excited. So if anybody experiences that with a child. 07:58.90 Sam Oh. 08:12.39 Tracey Please be sure to pull up the videos of kids having fun on the ship and ah that should put their fears at ease. 08:16.45 Sam Yeah, that's a really great point inside that you know you don't think about it. But I guess some kids who you know maybe never been on a boat. Ah in particular a really large boat and might be a little nervous about it and not know what to expect whatsoever. That's awesome though. Um. 08:23.69 Tracey Um, and and. 08:35.13 Sam Well so tell us what kind of room did you select and I get and I guess what was sort of the selection of rooms because obviously you were with a larger party for this sailing. 08:46.29 Tracey Ah, we were in 2 rooms. We were just our regular standard inside. Oh no, I'm sorry deluxe inside. We made sure we got the split bathroom and then um, the other people in our party were assigned a handicapped accessible room. 08:52.90 Sam A. 08:58.75 dclduo M. 08:58.91 Sam Oh interesting. 09:01.41 Tracey This crew was completely sold out. They tried a few times switching rooms but there was nothing um the room was huge obviously right and the pull down beds are larger than what are in yeah like the ones that come down off of the wall I don't I wouldn't say they were double but they were definitely bigger than. 09:06.16 Sam Yeah. Oh interesting. 09:20.66 Tracey Sand couch and bunk bed. Um, so that 2 small children could fit comfortably in them and did a number of times. Um, but it doesn't it didn't have as much storage. So my mother in law that's whose room it was she loved it and she. 09:25.35 Sam Oh wow. 09:29.97 dclduo Ah. 09:33.40 Sam Easy. 09:39.43 Tracey Is hoping to get another room like that I wasn't a big fan again because like there's a lot of space but it's just not well utilized to me like the space is there for a wheelchair to be able to move around freely and turn around that That's not a great use of space to me and then no split bathroom. 09:46.85 Sam Um, yeah, we've seen. 09:53.36 Sam Right? right? We've seen actually 1 of those rooms. 1 of our friends that we sailed with kind of likes also likes to sail in one of those rooms and we so we of course got to look at it and it is like very spacious but I agree with you. It's the shape is a little bit odd assuming it's similar to the 1 your mother in law was in um and it's there's like nothing there. So. There's not It's not like it's a bad use of space. It's just like what are you going to use the space for there's not furniture to fill it right? So it's not like there's an extra couch to sit on. There's still the one couch. Um and then the bunk bed right. 10:20.00 dclduo And. 10:20.39 Tracey Like. 10:32.10 Sam And then there was just this empty space I Guess if you had like a lot of small children who like to play on the floor. Maybe that wouldn't be a good use of space. But other than that you're right? like there's a lot of room for a wheelchair to turn around or to just set a wheelchair or scooter or something right? Um, that's interesting. Yeah I wonder. 10:45.55 Tracey Really. 10:51.60 Sam There must just not have been somebody who needed an accessible room and so they just happen to put them in that in that room. Yeah anyway. 10:56.22 Tracey You know I guess. 11:02.80 dclduo Well let's talk about the port stops you had Tracy because so we've been to cosml before um but what did you get up to in Cosmel you mentioned Disney Port Excursion so I'm curious which one you did. 11:15.75 Tracey We um myself and my daughter my oldest daughter who's 12 did coral reef restoration. Everyone else did stay on the ship. Um, but it sounded really interesting to me. Um, maybe. From reading the description. It sounded like a bit of you know what do they call that ecotourism or volunteerism. That's they call it? Yeah um, we really didn't do much work but we really enjoyed it. Um, so we walked off the pier we met on board of course, walked off. 11:33.52 dclduo He yeah. 11:46.97 Tracey Onto the pier and then immediately bordered a smaller boat take maybe a 15 minute boat right? over to the other side of the island have you all been over there. Yeah so um, kind of 1 There's like I think there's another cruise dock over there. There weren't any ships and. 11:52.63 dclduo No I don't think we have. 12:02.52 Tracey There weren't many ships imported all that day on Sunday it's not a busy day over there. Um, so we went to it now I can't remember the name of the tour provider. But um, so we went and we had um, a presentation there where they it was about the lifecycle of quarrel right? I really enjoyed it. My daughter enjoyed it. It definitely would not be Everyone's thing. Um, we learned a lot. We got to observe some coral that was no longer growing. We got to observe the coral that they're growing in tanks and then we got to go out um into like a mangrove area really close to the shore. We planted some mangrove seeds got to see a few small tide pools. Um, and then we snorrkled for about 45 minutes and got to see the coral restoration like the coral that they've started to grow in a tank and then they transplanted into the ocean. Um, and I've done a few. Underbar things like we've done the submarine and some other stuff in kasimel this was definitely some of the best coral. Um I've seen in that area so that was really encouraging. Lots of that's a really pretty finish I'm sorry, go ahead. 13:05.42 dclduo And did did it did everyone in your party did did everyone in your party take that excursion and was it suitable for everyone or did a few folks hang back. 13:16.24 Tracey No, it was just me and um my twelve year old daughter. You know the first timers they just stayed on the ship and my younger daughter with her cousins who are much closer to her own age. 13:18.19 dclduo Okay, okay, yeah, yeah, fair enough fair enough, Got you got you go ahead to. 13:20.85 Sam Yeah. 13:28.15 Sam Um. 13:30.70 Sam Sorry, just. 13:30.16 Tracey But I would say um the tour guides the tour operators were extremely patient if you had not snorkeled before like they really took their time with you. Um, maybe we we've snorkeled a lot but there was another family who hadn't and I think the son may have had um, some special needs and he wasn't really. Like his parents were trying to help him that wasn't really working but when the guide would work with him and this that's the way with all kids right? like they're not going to listen their parents. But if the other person is helping them and explaining it to them. Um, you know him with the buoie and everything he was able to enjoy some of the snorkeling too I think he was pretty anxious. Yeah, but with the help of the guide patience and. 13:52.53 Sam Um, yep. 14:02.51 Sam Oh that's awesome. 14:09.32 Tracey Um, a new buie and a V so you know he could know that he absolutely could not sink. Um, he was able to to get it and have a good time. We all were. 14:16.91 Sam Yeah, how long was the excursion and did they include any you know launch or anything in it. 14:25.28 Tracey Ah, lunch wasn't included. There was a really small restaurant there. Um, how long was it probably all of that was like that we snorled for probably 45 minutes so all in all, that was probably like two and a half hours then we waited like maybe. 14:36.22 Sam Ah, nice. 14:41.91 Tracey 15 to 30 minutes for the boat to come back and get us take us back to the ship. Um, they had a bathroom there. It was pretty clean. They had some showers to ranch off. They had all of that there at the facility. Yeah. 14:45.94 Sam Is. 14:53.69 Sam Um, oh that's really nice. Yeah, and you said you booked that through Disney Cruise line but it was an outside tour provider. Obviously right. 14:54.44 dclduo Nice, nice, nice. 15:04.22 Tracey Right? Um, it was called Coral Reef Cosmel Coral Reef restoration. 15:06.59 dclduo Nice I Met to ask you. 15:08.68 Sam Awesome! Awesome! Did you when you got sorry when you got back to the ship um or got off of the boat. Did you guys do any sort of walking around Cosmo or did you just get back on the ship to enjoy the beautiful Disney magic. 15:23.43 Tracey We just stayed on the ship I thought for a minute about um, walking down into like the the centro to try some Mexican food but I was like I just I just want to relax like I just want to sit here. 15:33.42 Sam But for sure. 15:37.39 dclduo What was the weather like on the cruise Tracy meant to asset upfront. Um, because it was a little cold in New Orleans when we got there and then it was kind of all over the place while we were there so I'm just curious. How was the weather and for the cruise. Overall. 15:48.71 Tracey Ah, beautiful and perfect the weather in New Orleans has is all over the place this time of year. Um I think it was like in the 80 s the day or 2 we left and then we get back and like it was in the 40 s for like two weeks so I don't know but the what. 15:54.22 dclduo Yeah, yeah, yeah. 16:04.90 Sam It's just New Orleans I I is just crazy. 16:06.20 dclduo Ah, well, that's why. 16:08.34 Tracey Ah, water was so the the temperature was great. It wasn't cold. Um, every the weather was beautiful and perfect in both ports. 16:14.59 Sam Awesome. 16:16.25 dclduo Nice all right. That's good to hear. It's why you get on a cruise ship I think this time a year. So that's good to hear. Um, oh for sure. Yeah, what? yeah would you get up to in Grand Cayman Tracy 16:19.15 Tracey No. 16:19.28 Sam Um, yeah, we got to talk about Grand Cayman though. Yeah. 16:27.93 Tracey Grant came in. We love to snorkel so we did another snorkeling excursion. Um, this one was much bigger. The one in Kasmel was probably us in 2 or 3 other families. Maybe 10 people total this one was all ah a large boatful. Um, this one was reef and shipwreck snorkel. 16:34.38 Sam M. 16:43.47 dclduo Okay. 16:45.44 Tracey Um, so you take the tender boat over to the pier Greg Cayman's a tenderport. Um, you walk a like you. There's the the area that you walk through is is not big. There's not a lot there and then you take like immediately off the pier. There's plenty downtown to walk to. Um, you take about a 5 minute walk down to another pier, you get out on their boat. You go out ah on the boat a little bit but I mean if you're a strong swimmer. You probably could swim back to shore like you can see the ship the whole time. You know it's not like you're out in open water. 17:13.80 Sam Is. 17:18.84 Tracey And it's not that deep so we snorkeled called cheeseburg it's called cheeseburger reef because it's pretty close to a burger King there I don't know. Yeah, but that was the biggest most beautiful reef I have ever snorkeled in the caribbean healthy vibrant. 17:25.39 Sam No way. Ah, that's awesome. 17:26.96 dclduo Ah, ah. 17:31.72 Sam Oh cool. 17:36.80 Tracey So um I don't know if y'all how aware yall are of the plight of our quarrel in this world today but it looked great and it was very encouraging and I was happy to see it. 17:43.62 dclduo Nice. 17:45.50 Sam Oh that's awesome was the water like nice and clear so you could see everything I love that. Ah. 17:51.23 Tracey Yes, the water was perfect. Both places. Um, so nice and clear. Not much current. You could just float. You didn't really even have to swim and there you know there wasn't a lot current. You weren't going to drift far away. So I did it. 17:57.66 Sam Is. 18:01.21 dclduo Nice. 18:05.16 Tracey My twelve year old did it and my 7 year old mother did it? yeah. 18:06.82 dclduo Oh wow. 18:08.51 Sam Oh awesome I love snorkeling and I we haven't been to Grand Cayman that's like 1 of those um one of those ports that I feel like we get asked about quite a bit. Um, but. Since we've never been. We are like sorry you know ask you know maybe ask some folks in our Facebook group if they've been were there other excursions that you guys were considering doing or any other um stuff that you all did on your own. Um not as a part of the excursion. 18:41.96 Tracey Um, the first time we went in 2020 we did book an excursion that went to starfish point starfish beach um, because Disney didn't offer it then and they the one that they offered. 18:48.96 Sam Is. 18:59.58 Tracey This time they didn't add it until later and it was pretty expensive. Um, we used an outside tour provider last time I would highly recommend Starfish Beach especially for younger kids or kids who aren't strong swimmers. Um, there isn't a lot there like there's no vendors with chairs or anything like that like you're going to go the water's going to be very shallow and calm. 19:01.80 Sam Even. 19:14.37 Sam Is. 19:18.94 Tracey You're going to see a lot of starfish but it's not um, it's early somewhere you could hang out all day when it's on the complete opposite side of the island from where the cruise port stock cruise boat stock. So I think they said they say the public transit and Grand Cayman 19:22.26 Sam Right? right. 19:36.80 Tracey Pretty good. But I think it's like a 45 minute bus ride each way. Um, but there are plenty of independent tour operators that are going to take you to starfish beach for a little while and then they'll usually they have like 2 other stops a snorkeling stop and stingray city ah, but I mean. 19:37.22 Sam Oh wow. 19:49.50 Sam E. 19:53.77 Tracey The second to you know if you have a young kid who really isn't comfortable blowing the water I don't know how much they're going to like that Starfish Beach I would say is the best for your littlest cruisers. 20:01.38 Sam Yeah, now how long was the the excursion you did this time the snnorkelling excursion. How long did you actually get in the water snorkeling because that's one of the other complaints that some of us have about some of the snorrkling excursions that they call it a snorkeling excursion. 20:01.76 dclduo Nice. 20:20.20 Sam But then you get in the water for like 30 minutes and the rest of the time is time in a bus and time in a boat or you know something like that. How is this one. 20:28.36 Tracey I think we did a probably about forty forty five minutes at each place which I mean for me someone who loves snorrkkeling could I do much longer? Yes, but if you I think that's long enough for your average snorkeller. Certainly. 20:32.71 Sam Oh that's good. 20:40.10 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 20:40.50 Sam Yeah, yeah, well and you got to be lathered up with sunscreen before each time or your back is going to just get baked right. 20:51.93 Tracey Um, I mean I'm at the point now where I'm just like fully covered spf gear I don't even I can't even I can't even with the scream anymore I'm going to burn anyway. 20:58.94 dclduo Ah. 21:01.21 Sam Oh yeah, yeah, no, That's actually a good point I feel like anywhere in the Caribbean um nowadays like I I try to wear one of those like swim shirt rash guard things because it really has gotten um much I don't know much harder on my skin. Um I don't know if that's an age thing or if that has to do with the ozone layer or what but all I know is it's I burn more worse. Um more well global warming. Yeah I mean many many factors right. 21:23.60 dclduo I actually I actually saw last week that the ah the ozone layer is almost healed itself back. So it's probably more of a function of some other climate change issues. But yeah, um, yeah, yeah, yeah. 21:36.58 Sam Was there. Um, did you guys have any food on this excursion I Love asking about food of course so just curious. 21:39.67 Tracey Ah know we didn't have any food but um I'm sorry I only talked about the reef. So after we did the reve well I got back on the boat. We took like a 5 minute ride to a spot a little further over and that's where we sorkeed over the callli shipwreck. Yeah. 21:55.74 Sam Um, oh cool. How did you like the shipwreck. Yeah I feel like that's just. 21:59.45 Tracey Um, it was really cool I mean it wasn't like you know this like this huge world war 2 submarine or thing you know like the stuff you see on the discovery channel. But no, it was definitely cool I had not I had not done a shipwreck before. Um. 22:08.25 Sam Um, right? Ah yeah. 22:08.33 dclduo No. 22:14.99 Tracey So it was cool to see and they gave us some background on the shipwreck I Believe this was around the turn of the century and that shit that was carrying rice or something like that. Yeah, and then the boat sank overnight when there was no one on it. So I don't think there were any casualties while it was docked but um. 22:22.27 Sam Oh interesting. 22:32.17 Sam Um, no and a lot of lost rice I Guess ah love it. 22:32.77 Tracey It's pretty close to shore. Yeah, um, but once we got off the boat when when the tour was over. There was a restaurant. 22:36.36 dclduo Yeah, well. 22:47.93 Tracey Directly to your left and from that restaurant like it was on the water and you could go down like a set of um like a ladder down the stairs and swim in the ocean at the restaurant if you wanted to and then across the street was this place called waffle monkey we didn't go there but I mean I think they had like you know Mac and cheese stuff waffles and. 22:55.79 Sam Oh cool. 23:06.25 Sam Mac and cheese stuffed waffles. 23:07.70 Tracey Stuff like that. It's yeah, it's kind of like a waffle con but has do they not have that Disney world somewhere am I imagining that maybe it's somewhere somewhere else. 23:13.19 Sam Oh that's crazy waffle cone with savory food I kind of like it I mean it's like a crepe right? like people do that all the time with crepes you have you know, savory food in them. Mac and cheese sentence like. 23:14.62 dclduo Oh I think I have seen that yeah I haven't had one but I think I've seen it for sure. 23:32.35 Sam Weird but delicious in one of those at the same time. 23:35.12 Tracey We unfortunately did not try it I think that was a Indian food day on the magic which is always a favorite at Cabana's of mine but I was like excited to get back on board for that. 23:41.60 Sam Oh yeah. 23:48.19 dclduo Ah. 23:48.28 Sam Ah, it's awesome wait. How did you know it was Indian food day We it's funny I don't know that we've ever asked or found out like which day which food is going to be in cabaanas. 23:58.30 Tracey So experience has taught me now on the first day I asked myself I'm like what's chero Mickey Waffle day and what's indian food day. Those are the days that I need to know ah, and um, we. 24:04.24 dclduo Okay. 24:08.38 Sam I love it. That's such a good tip. Okay, we're putting this tip out there for those who who know who haven't been on before or those who didn't know this trick because I didn't know this trick either. But apparently you can ask your servers and they will tell you this well and I feel like. Wish actually has indian food quite often in Kabanas but yeah, the other ships don't I didn't um, it's funny. We I tend to not go to Kabaanas that much. Um, so I'm calling it cabanas. But yeah, yeah. 24:36.56 Tracey Me either. But on those days I make sure that I am there. 24:39.77 dclduo Yeah I got I got to I got to try Caan Iss out on one of the embarkation days this time Sam because everyone marcili market. Yes, on one of the embarkation days because I figure forget who it was we were talking to you might have been drewan Haley that said that they had chicken tiki masala on embarkation day and that it was delicious. 24:44.84 Sam You mean marceline? Yeah, but yes, we're. 24:57.84 Sam yes yes I was thinking I was thinking that we should do that on our first cruise ah is coming up because we are doing the back to back and we've got friends sailing with us on both of the cruises. But um. 24:58.79 dclduo So I got to give that a try. 25:13.40 Sam There is a split between concierge and non concierge and so not everybody will ba like go the same lunch if we do sit down lunch but so I'm thinking marcelene market plus um I don't know if you've ever had this tracy but the. Oreo cheesecake on embarkation day. It's only at lunch you can have you can get at the sit down lunch but they also have like the small pieces at cabanas or marceline market um, or at least I've I've seen it but in smaller pieces and it is like the best cheesecake ever. And I've even got the recipe for it. I'm sure I'll never make it but 1 of the waiters. It was the restaurant manager guy when I mentioned how much I love it. He's like oh let me find you the you know the recipe and so he gave me the recipe for it. Yeah. 25:46.82 dclduo Yeah. 26:00.18 Tracey I'm actually not a cheesecake person. 26:02.79 Sam You know that's a lot of people are not cheesecake people and I'm not a big dessert person but Cheesecake is the kind of is a dessert I can get behind um I have to say I'm quite particular about my cheesecake though I don't just eat any old regular cheesecake. 26:14.90 dclduo See and I'm I'm trying to figure out how I can make chicken Finger Chicken Tiki Masala on the wish so that will happen for anyone out there who wants to review that is going to happen. 26:21.91 Sam But I think you just ah I think the answer is you just get chicken fingers and then you get chicken Tiga massal and you put it on top of it is that what you're talking about. 26:22.55 Tracey If you figure that out I would be so intrigued. 26:30.58 dclduo Yeah, well, we're gonna find. 26:30.65 Tracey Oh I did take your I did take your pro tip about the the chicken fingers from Kabanas being like more fresh than the ones out on the pool deck and I I think you were right? We we actually had to go to Kabanas on imp importation day because. 26:38.78 Sam On the pool deck. 26:47.15 Tracey Like I said we've been on a lot of cruises which has led to quite a few missed school days already. So my kids went to school that day to like two o'clock um so yeah, we and so like literally like picked them up from school 10 minutes later we're in line getting dropped off with our luggage and then we express walks. 26:52.30 Sam Um, oh Wow! wow. 26:53.78 dclduo Wow. 27:04.00 Tracey Walked off for the first time on debbark day and everybody went to school and work that day too. Do talk about a rough transition back into reality. But um, we missed our andpanaas that was I was so sad I love the embarkation empanadas that's like. 27:06.69 dclduo The. 27:07.77 Sam Yeah I love it. Oh like I love him. Ah yes. So that's the 1 thing you have to get go to sit down lunch in order to get the empanadas for those who are listening who haven't been on Disney Cruise line before every day has a different menu at lunch and of course at dinner. Although there's the the traditional rotational menus repeat because as you're moving. They are serving different people essentially. But yeah, one of the great things on embaration day in sit down dining at lunch is a beef empannata and Brian likes the muffle at a sandwich as well. Um, although Tracy you probably have some thoughts about the muffle out of sandwich because being a new orleanian. Um, it's not a traditional muffle out of sandwich. It's like quite huge, really? Ah, but. 28:02.17 Tracey Yeah, my thought is I'm not eating that. So I mean I feel the same way about the be yeah is like for everybody else. That's fine but I don't thanks My no thanks. 28:07.35 Sam Ah, you don't touch that. Ah, ah oh and probably not like shrimping grits and jumbally and stuff on board I no. 28:21.83 Tracey Now no. 28:25.82 Sam Ah, you're shaking your head. Ah for those who are not watching on video but listening Tracy is shaking her head and making a really funny face like nope. 28:30.61 dclduo Yeah I can appreciate I can appreciate that because like when we go to alanni and we go to the I forget the Makahiki 1 of the one of them does sushi and I'm like we live in Seattle we get terrific sushi in Seattle and yeah lo little lalu ole lo the olelu room. Yes. 28:41.54 Sam Yes, O La Lo Yeah oh O lelu. Yeah. 28:49.67 dclduo And we get terrific seafood or seafood in Seattle sushi in Seattle especially in like the oelu room just does not measure up I'm sure that there are before everyone writes me who's been to Hawai i' sure there are fabulous sushi restaurants in Hawaii I'm not knocking the sushi in Hawai I'm just saying on property at alllani I don't need it. So sure Trace I want to. 28:58.12 Sam Yeah, just Disney right. 29:02.91 Tracey Got it good to know. 29:06.66 dclduo I want to rewind for a second because you had some first time cruisers with you and so you know we skipped right ahead because you're a experienced cruiser but I'm curious what your first time cruisers thought about the ship when they boarded and just you know what were their first impressions around Disney Cruise line when they got on. 29:24.62 Tracey Um, they were ecstatic. They were 6 and seven so I mean we we unfortunately did not get to board with them like I said um, my kids had to go to school. They were free to get on the ship immediately. They were like they called our name. They told me when we got on board. Um, the saila away party watching them with such a blast. Um, you know sailing with me of course I know I'm like look y'all need to get in this special area in the front I love that so much for the kids I'm so happy that they do that I because I don't I feel like. 29:43.39 Sam Yeah. 29:55.29 Sam Um, yes, the kids only area. Yeah. 30:00.20 Tracey Um, the wish maybe they didn't have that. 30:03.86 Sam You know I don't know I can't remember um it's been so long ago. But I feel like they maybe did I Just we were up above though we we were We were not on the floor when we did sail away on the wish we were all the way up above. Um. 30:10.40 Tracey Did they I don't know. 30:21.63 Sam Drinking champagne um, and Nathan was there with us and we were like wearing our ears and stuff but it was August so or July August whatever the date was it was so like so darn hot we were sweating like I ended up having a we didn't stay the whole time Brian um, and our friends stayed out. The whole time out it sail away but I had to take Nathan inside because he was just his poor Seattle body was just schwitzing. It was like not yeah yeah, well and you yeah yeah, well and you. 30:47.76 Tracey Yeah, the heat is oppressive at those times not going to lie and that's with like the sail away breeze. 30:58.27 Sam You have like you guys are used to it because in New Orleans it gets that hot and that humid it's really the humidity I think that really did always does us in um, but the combination is just brutal in the summertime and we just don't. 31:10.20 Tracey Yeah, no I I definitely understand. 31:13.93 Sam Yeah, and we just don't get that here in Seattle. 31:15.83 dclduo So so what did the what did the new kid cruisers think of the kids club were they able to ah to go in. 31:21.94 Sam Um, oh yeah. 31:24.13 Tracey Ah, yes, we took well so my daughter who is also 7 she was very like large and in charge with this group. You know for so excited to show her cousins the kids club and how everything works. Um, yes, they went and had some time down there during open house. 31:30.80 dclduo Yeah. 31:30.41 Sam Oh yeah. 31:41.18 Tracey Ah, and then after sale away they hit the kids club immediately. Um, we had to do like the whole thing I kind of forgot about like you get the the parent has to come down and like verify the first time and everything I was checking them in so it took a minute to get them signed in but ah. 31:54.34 Sam Yep. 31:59.20 Tracey Yeah, they were really really excited to hit the kids club. 32:00.14 dclduo Nice. 32:01.81 Sam Oh I love that? Yeah yeah, you've got to sort of check them in the first the first time ah ever they have to be checked in and you know they either give you your band at boarding. Um. In the port or sometimes they give you your band once you get on board. It kind of depends I think on if you preregistered them or not um and then if you haven't if the if you're new to cruising you've got to give a password you got to they want to check and find out if who can sign the kid in and out of the club. All of that kind of stuff. If your kids got allergies if your kids got any kind of medical issue. They need to know about all that sign up stuff happens. But yeah, we kind of forget about that right? Tracy is you know once your kids have been on so many times it's like the process is so so quick now um to sort of register them that it's you know it's. 32:40.52 Tracey Great. 32:52.51 Sam Like takes a second that first time. 32:53.16 Tracey And even though their mom had filled all that out in advance like I couldn't drop them off the first time their mom had to be there to confirm all of that information. The first time I mean even though she had you know she listed me as one of the people that could sign them out. 33:01.67 Sam Ah, right right? pretty. 33:09.62 Tracey That Very first time she still had to be there to ver or or guess someone in their stateroom had to be there to verify that information. 33:14.20 Sam Um, yeah, that makes sense that's um, yeah, did they did they all enjoy the kids club then it sounds like they I mean if they wanted to go back right? after sale away. Um, did they kind of spend a lot of time there over the course of the the six days 33:28.34 Tracey Yes, in fact I would say like by day three there was a solid routine of get up hit cabanas make you waffles an hour and a half of pool time. Clean up a little bit kids club. And then onto like evening activities later that day maybe like a movie or something. Yeah. 33:44.64 Sam Oh wow. Yeah, oh that's awesome, which means a little bit more relaxing adult time for you. What did so how about your your 12 year old was your twelve year old um interested in the kids club or. 33:51.27 Tracey Right. 34:00.53 Sam The Tween club or just kind of hanging out with mom. 34:03.78 Tracey She's never really taken to edge I mean she'll give it a chance but she really does better honestly when um I connect her with like we'll use the Facebook group and reach out you know and she'll connect with like 2 or 3 other kids in advance. And then they kind of just kind of do their own thing once they're on the ship. Um I would highly recommend that to any parent. She's been doing that since she was maybe like 8 even when she was in oceaneas. So but if she had a friend to like hanging out the pool with they're hanging at the kids club with it made the crews so much more enjoyable for her. 34:27.15 Sam Um, oh awesome. Yeah. 34:35.50 Sam That's awesome. 34:35.89 Tracey Ah, keep trying to encourage her to like give edge more of a chance but I don't know I guess she's just too cool for school. 34:42.34 Sam Ah, well yeah, I'm a little surprised she doesn't like um, kind of connect with those friends and then them go to edge together right? because they do all kinds of fun activities for those listening who don't know what edges it's the it's the tween club on board. So it's for 11 to 14 year olds I believe. 34:42.74 dclduo Ah. 35:00.92 Sam So there's overlap between 11 and twelve year olds are allowed to go to either the ocean years club or edge or both obviously at different times and they don't need to check themselves. They don't need a parent to to check out in and out of edge. They just need to be the right age. Um, and then the same for vibe which is the teen club which I think is like 13 through 17 if I'm not incorrect. So there's some overlap there too. But they do all kinds of like fun like their own kinds of trivia and own you know board games and video games and. There's some cool spaces for them to kind of hang out in. But I think that's super smart Tracy connecting them ahead of time with other cruisers of similar age when you do that? Do you just kind of post in the Facebook group does anybody else have a twelve year old or a 12 year old girl or or whatever to kind of. Find someone to connect them with or how do you kind of make that connection ahead of time. 35:58.90 Tracey So she doesn't have any social media. But for this I'll let her like pick a picture and post it of herself in the group and write a short little description about herself and then you know usually other parents will either like we can do met Facebook messenger kids or just texting. If they have phones. 36:17.69 Sam Um, awesome. That's super helpful and I'm sure makes for a better cruise experience for everyone. So what? what kinds of stuff. Let's talk about what the adults got up to on board. You've got you know you've got your your twelve year old is. 36:23.00 Tracey Yes. 36:33.26 Sam Hanging out with some friends that she's made who've got the 7 year old really occupied with her cousins doing pool time and doing kids club time. What is Tracy doing on this cruise and you've got you said it was your sister in law right? and your and your and your mom. What were you all doing. 36:49.10 Tracey Yes, um, we would spend some time on the adult pool deck you know, made out. There was a lot of um, sleeping in those inside state rooms. Um. 36:55.88 Sam Um, yeah. 37:03.15 Tracey You know, get up kind of have like a a leisurely breakfast. Um I didn't make it to lunch in the dining room as often as I would have liked because usually I was trying to be out by the pool when they were out by the pool and you know those that was hours are really short. Um. 37:16.20 Sam Um, they are they are I feel like it goes by really really fast I find um I find we like never end up doing any kind of sitdown lunch and even we don't even get to Cavanas for lunch that often. It's usually just like. Hamburgers Hot dogs, Chicken Fingers Pool deck type food just because it's quick and easy right? when you're hanging out at the pool with the kids. Oh yeah, yes. 37:37.32 Tracey Yeah, or schwarma on the magic I Wonder that is a nice option. Um, we did have Apollo Brunch Probably the best Pollo brunch I've ever had it just the food just was perfect. It was. 37:40.00 dclduo Yes, yes. 37:49.17 dclduo Blue. Nice. 37:50.79 Sam Ooh What was so good about it. 37:55.49 Tracey Everything was so good. We of course had the chicken palm and the lasagna. You know my mom tried the Fritta I'm like don't even waste time with that breakfast food like don't do it. 38:04.86 Sam So funny. We ordered the frittata once um on one of our more recent cruises. Um and Brian actually did order the one of the not the benedicts but the florentine more recently actually and liked that 1 but I had ordered the frittata I don't know if several cruises it go just because I was like I I should probably try some of the breakfast breakfast food and Tracy exactly what you said Why am I wasting my time I took like 2 bites and I was like it's fine. It's but it's just like an omeelette. It's like a dry omeette. 38:34.34 Tracey Great. 38:35.98 Sam When I waste room in my stomach on this one I can have I can order 2 chicken palms if I want. 38:42.89 Tracey What did we have. We had both soups and they were both really good. Um, of course the bread. All the bread. Um I can't remember what else but I mean we had brunch on in October that we had dinner on the dream in. 38:46.42 Sam All the bread. 39:00.17 Sam I. 39:00.90 Tracey January both pollo this one was like head and shoulders above both of those meals I don't you know it's just how things are I don't know why sometimes it's so much better than others. But yes we did have a mar pizza. Yeah, we had a cow zone in October and we. 39:07.23 Sam Um, ah wow Yeah, did you have the pizza to or the cow zone. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 39:20.13 Tracey Didn't it was fine. It was nothing special. 39:23.34 Sam That's is funny Brian that was Brian's reaction to the cow zone as well. We decided um, not too long ago. But we've decided to just try the cow zone instead of the pizza because we always get the pizza and we're both like yeah this is good. Um, but Brian's like it's not the pizza. Let's never order this again. But I mean it wasn't like yeah I mean it's not like it's not bad for those listening the cow's zone is fine. It's just as Tracy said it's just nothing special same with the frittata. It's fine. It's just nothing special. Um and the italian food. 39:42.90 Tracey Pro tip never order the cow zone. 39:59.31 Sam Um, on the menu. Well of course cowzone is italian but the the soups, the celery soup and the tomato soup are just fantastic. The chicken palm and the lasagna as entrees are just fantastic. Any of the pizzas. You cannot go wrong with any of the pizzas. They're all fantastic. Um. There are several amazing desserts. But really the bread I mean can we like as you said all the bread Tracy like whether you get the savory breads or the sweet breads. Um, and actually you should ask for both? Um, they're just so so good. Oh right. 40:31.20 Tracey We did and I ate both. 40:38.48 Sam An entire basket of like savory breads and an entire basket of like sweet like a croissant like an almond K croissants all just pastries right? Ah yes, yes, ah, all of that I love it I But you're right, There are times where it's just better than other times. 40:44.75 Tracey Yes, and kind of little like Nutella roll. Yeah, all that. 40:58.50 Sam Did you guys do any spa spa time all right? Oh my goodness. Wow Well you know you still did have. 40:59.70 Tracey No, we didn't even do rainforest. 41:08.56 Sam Three days at sea did you guys? do you said there was some movie time. Did you any the trivia's or any of the family game shows on board. 41:16.46 Tracey Yeah, we did a few trivia my the 12 year old daughter does love trivia so I know you know when I see those like this is something that I want to prioritize um, especially just to has some time just me and her she really enjoy I enjoyed trivia too. 41:30.98 Sam What about. 41:32.81 Tracey I think we did um I think we did a frozen one maybe a Disney parks one and I mean the ultimate disney fan trivia one. My god is really, it's up that they do at the end. 41:39.67 dclduo He. 41:43.58 Sam And oh yeah, I feel like I feel like most of the trivia is that they do are actually quite difficult I mean the music trivia is probably the the least difficult but those are like the adult only ones? um I actually think the music trivia they do. That's the family one is quite hard too because it's like. These random Disney movies that I don't know I can't ever I can never tell. But yeah I feel like all the. 42:08.41 Tracey See I feel like that's like my specialty like the old people movies that nobody bought I'm like yes I know every song for bed Knobs and brobstick. So. 42:17.40 dclduo Ah. 42:18.41 Sam I love it. Ah got it. That's a movie I haven't watched him forever I need to watch that movie that and like maybe Pete's dragon I feel like those are just some some movies I need to like pull out of the Disney plus ah archives right. 42:32.72 Tracey Right. 42:32.91 dclduo No. 42:35.78 Sam Awesome! Ah, what? Ah, let's talk dining. Um you did we did you did mention obviously we talked a lot about pollo but let's talk main dining love to hear. Um, how your service was there how the food was there I mean. Of course you had probably you know all your standard rotational menus and you probably had because of this six night did you have 2 different repunsel menus or or what did you have. 43:03.36 Tracey Yes, we had both wereunzel menus. Um, we did we have I feel like we didn't have pirate menu on pirate night and I feel like that's not uncommon on the 6 nights because they don't have to have it. So if you. 43:11.59 Sam Please. 43:19.71 Tracey You one have pro night left out al together grab jump on one of those sixs menu. Anyway. 43:23.19 Sam yeah yeah yeah I actually I love I love having pirate night without the pirate night menu which will will get on the three night on the wish that if so that's another one where yeah the three night on the wish I think you're right the sixth night on some of the um. 43:31.59 Tracey Um, that's fair. Yes. 43:39.75 Sam And the magic or the wonder often you get just the 2 rotational menus from each restaurant instead of getting a pirate night or you get a welcome aboard or or something like that you go. It's something special instead of the pirate night which is really not my favorite menu. Um, so then you had the 2 different shows in repunss is that right? Awesome! So for those who are listening and haven't been on the magic repunsels royal table is 1 of the rotational dining restaurants and you get. 43:59.30 Tracey Yes. 44:13.29 Sam Call it the birthday show one night which is where they have the the thugs from the snuggly duckling come in and then you have I'll call it the lantern show on a different night if you're on a sailing that has only 1 standard rotational. Um, usually a shorter sailing. You will have. It's kind of the 2 of them smashed into one so they all happens in one night yeah we haven't but this is what I this is what I've heard from from folks folks who've been on and read in the various blogs out there. You get kind of a truncated version of. 44:36.85 Tracey Oh really? okay I don't know if I've ever done that. 44:51.60 Sam The birthday celebration and so it's got a kind of all merged into one one shorter. Well one show. So It's ah but it's about the same length because they just shorten both parts of it to smussh it together. Yeah, and then you had ah. Lumierres and my oh and animators of course Animators. No oh. 45:14.40 Tracey Yes, and animators was um, pirate night was our animation magic night. So that's how I know we did not have the pirate menu because we just had the animation magic menu which is another thing That's so fun to see with first time cruisers. 45:24.16 Sam Um, oh interesting. We've not oh yeah, how did the kids love and how did the kids like animation magic. 45:31.32 Tracey They loved it I mean I I don't think they've ever seen I mean who's ever seen anything like that before until you see it for the first time on dcl right. 45:40.90 Sam Right? Totally and what about your serving staff. Did you guys have um you know there's sometimes you get good ones sometimes you get okay ones sometimes you get not so good one. 45:52.35 Tracey We had the best ones? Um Maria was our server in October and we bonded with her so much. We absolutely loved her. Maria is from Bulgaria um, and her husband Yvonne is also on the magic right now. Although. Um, Ivan has actually been the dining room captain on one of our other sailings before I've definitely recognized him. Um, and then her ah partner was anju who's from st lucia and um the second night era puzzles you know when you do the like parade around the dining room. He's like come on I'm like all right anju. 46:15.36 Sam It is. 46:24.40 dclduo So. 46:24.64 Tracey If you want me to go I'm going so here we are like holding hands running around the dining route. Yeah, but they are. They are absolutely fantastic. They made our crewise. Um, so so special and magical and um, our head waiter I can't remember his name but he's been with the company for a long time so he's like. 46:27.75 Sam Oh I Love that. That's awesome. 46:29.93 dclduo Nice. 46:44.29 Tracey We're finally going to start doing magic tricks again and he would make sure that he came by and did a magic trick for the kids every night if if he could get there before they bolted from the table for the kids club. 46:56.75 Sam I love it. Oh I love that I so we're really big. We love on the magic tricks. We love it when our servers do that and we have noticed that they hadn't been doing it or not nearly as much. Um, so I'm so glad to hear that that's back I hope we'll get to experience that. On the wish real soon. Although um, probably not in aarendale because in aaron dae there's like no time or space to do magic tricks. Ah, but maybe in the other restaurants maybe like maybe in 1923. We'll get some magic tricks I hope. 47:17.39 Tracey 9 47:22.47 dclduo Ah. 47:27.50 Sam And hope that sounds awesome. But now now I'm thinking next time we're on the magic Brian which is later this year. We all? Maybe we should ask for Maria from Bulgaria because we no no not pallo this is main dining server. Yeah, yeah, we have a lot apollo servers we like but we haven't had we haven't had. 47:33.13 dclduo Well there you go we have we have so many Palo servers though Sam that you know oh main dining main dining. Okay all right? Yeah me. 47:46.77 Sam Bad mean dining servers. We just haven't had like we we haven't had the same luck that we had pre Pandemic Pre Pandemic. Yeah yeah, she's great. 47:53.11 Tracey I know what you mean but Maria is she's going on. Um, but she's going on break when they go on a dry dog I don't know when she'll be back. 48:02.12 Sam Oh okay, we're getting on after the dry dock of course. But um, maybe she'll be back. I don't know. Yeah, maybe not because that wouldn't be that long of a break we're going in September and then November so. Maybe November but probably not September when we're when we're going because that'll be. We're when we're going um should be right after she finishes dry dock or or very you know very shortly after. Okay, so. 48:25.69 Tracey Okay. 48:29.78 Sam Ah, you said dinner ends and the kids are running back to the kids club. What are you doing then each night after dinner. 48:37.48 Tracey Um, so in the Cadillac lounge. 1 thing I do love about ah Disney is that as many times of us as I've been like there's always at least 1 new thing to try right? and I thought that my favorite cocktail was the colette did not think it could be eats. Yes. 48:46.38 Sam Um, yeah, oh yes, in remy? Yes, yes. 48:54.15 Tracey And you can't get it anywhere else. But um, my new favorite cocktail is called a coco royale in keys I don't know whose idea it was to put tequila and champagne in a glass together. But it's 18 it's 1800 coconut which is tequila and my favorite. Um, moa ice chit. There's no ice chilts pour together and they sprinkle coconut flakes on top of it. It is so good. So smooth I'm not a big drinker like usually a drink that's straight alcohol like that would be too much for me and amid strong. Don't get me wrong. It's really smooth but it will sneak up on you. Um. 49:20.37 Sam Oh wow. 49:33.15 Tracey But it what it's the best drink I've ever had. 49:33.72 Sam Wow I might have to try that I mean I have to tell them no shaved coconut because I can't stand the texture and taste of shaved coconut. But I actually don't mind I like coconut flavored things give sounds weird I like a pina colata but I don't like shaved coconut. You know. 49:50.39 Tracey I think you'll like that and I don't think the the coconut ads really any flavor I think it's just you know for presentation. But oh my goodness but 1 of those is the maximum for me like there's no way has more simple. 49:52.58 Sam Who yeah. Was good. 50:05.87 dclduo Ah. 50:07.60 Sam It sounds like a great evening though. Just you know, hanging out in keys there's a piano player playing some maybe some Disney tunes kind of classically played or maybe not and and when I say classically played I mean played in like a classical music styling I feel like that they sometimes do stuff like that and it's really fun. Um. Did you guys see the any of the shows. The main stage shows I mean. 50:29.83 Tracey Yeah, be having first time cruises. We definitely made sure we made it to all the main stage shows. Um, we had gotten kind of comfortable with showing up. You know whenever we want and getting a good seat. Those days are over with I mean if you're not. Concierge you know like you you need to if you want a good seat. You need to be there 30 minutes before the show starts. 50:47.61 Sam Yeah, yeah, which shows did you guys? Um, go to did you go to all the main stage shows Um, did you go to any but any variety acts What what all did you get to see. 50:57.21 Tracey We didn't do the variety acts. Um, which no good reason I mean most of the variety acts. We've seen have been really good. Um I believe we've seen Charles Peachock and Marcus Monroe on the magic both very good I would recommend them. They weren't on this sailing but I don't know I guess. 51:08.79 Sam Oh yeah. 51:13.81 Tracey The theme of this cruise was really like relaxation like taking it very very easy. So um, yeah, sometimes we just didn't feel like hurrying up and getting showered and getting to the theater 30 minutes early to get a good seat. Um, but we had ah twice charmed very cute. Um. 51:15.37 Sam Yeah I. 51:26.58 Sam For sure. 51:26.79 dclduo Yeah. 51:33.70 Tracey Of course tangled and then um, you know Peter Pan what is a dream they believe it's believed right? That's Disney dreams. Okay. 51:37.68 Sam Goal oh the it's um, it's Disney dreams that one's Disney dreams. Yeah, the one with Peter Pan um and Anne Marie yeah Yeah, that's believe. 51:47.80 Tracey Yeah. 51:52.43 Sam So for those those who are listening who don't know have any idea what we're talking about I'll just give you a little little primer so the Walt Disney theater on all of the ships basically have 3 we I'll call them mainstage shows which are broadway style musicals. 51:53.94 dclduo He married. 52:09.38 Sam Ah, one and the magic is called um twice charmed which is a it's kind of ah a twist on the classical Cinderella Tale so it's not the story of Cinderella um, classically it is a different story and it has music and it was made for Disney Cruise line and it's actually a really great show. Um, and then tangled of course is the repunsel animated film brought to stage and it tracks almost completely with the movie and it's very good as well. One of my favorites I would say and then believe which is again a. Story made for Disney Cruise line and it's about a girl who's about to go to middle school and she gets visited in the middle of the night by um, the ferry from pinocchio and then by Peter Pan and gets taken on this journey basically and so you there are lots of. Um, different musical acts from a bunch of different Disney movies brought to life on stage for that show. But yeah so I feel like the magic actually has some of the best onstage or mainstage offerings. Um, across the fle. 53:21.64 Tracey I agree. Um and I would say like theater is just a part of our lives like my kids have been going to shows their whole life. They're very used to it. Ah the other kids we were with haven't but twice charmed and. 53:22.83 Sam Yeah, just. 53:39.18 Tracey Tangled like they move really fast right? They they're flying through that story so they were both pretty in they're both pretty wrapped the whole time right? Um, the last one moves a little bit more slowly and I think the six year old there were parts where she was kind of and bored. But ah she did fine. It wasn't like she. 53:39.94 Sam Nest. 53:45.93 Sam Um, yeah, yeah. 53:57.37 Tracey Causing Chaos or commotion. So I think even if your kids aren't typically into that type of stuff. This is a really good place to try it. 54:04.21 Sam Oh yeah, really good point because they really are only an hour or typically an hour or less I think the longest ones are maybe like an hour and 10 minutes um and they try to start those just like 10 minutes earlier because of that. So. Yeah I think it's a great way to introduce kids to theater to musical theater if they haven't been introduced to it because it's in a much shorter. Yeah format. There's no way Nathan would sit through a 3 hour broadway show let me just put that out there like he's nine years old and he would not sit through a 3 hour show he does not He's not big on the shows to be perfectly. Honest, but he will sit through an hour show and typically will enjoy it It's just not his favorite thing. He would rather be at the kids club or watching a movie in the stateroom or eating popcorn um watching Disney Cartoons 54:36.28 dclduo Yeah. 54:50.82 dclduo Yeah, for sure for sure. Well Tracy I'm curious if you have any like big memories from the ceiling or things that stood out that you wanted to be sure to share. 55:02.82 Tracey No I I think just you know, being able to see the newness everything through the first time cruisers especially young kids like that it made the cruise like that was probably the part that I was the most excited about. 55:17.49 Sam Oh I Love that. 55:19.83 Tracey You know what? I mean like so fun Everything that was so new to them. Of course they enjoyed the fireworks on pirate night like everything thought you know that the being able to get the ice cream caught I don't know how much ice hit ate on these cruises but you know. 55:29.34 Sam How much ice cream they ate. 55:35.66 Sam Yeah, it's vacation. Yeah, it says vacation. Yeah, but. 55:36.87 Tracey That's I guess that's a great part about is you don't have to say no and um, there was another in watching the Youtube videos I did come across the chocolate making one in cosimmo and that 1 looked really great I think I would try that against I would say like you know cosml can be very. 55:50.92 Sam Ooh. 55:56.31 Tracey I don't know like if you just get off the port and walk around like you're going to get exactly what you expect to get but I would say like try some of those different offerings that Disney has out there I really enjoyed hours and I think if I go back I would try the the chocolate making um because ah the Youtube video I watched of it. It was way more than when i. 56:09.50 Sam Yeah. 56:14.35 Tracey guess expected but I guess I should know by now that Disney is going to try and make it really nice for you. 56:16.67 Sam Yeah I really like Kasamel as a port. Um, you know we don't typically just get off and walk around ourselves I think it's a better port than Nasa you write. It is like very you know typical and it is a very common port in that way in the western caribbean but i. Yeah I feel like it's um, there's a lot of really good excursion offerings in Cosmel and I don't find the same to be true in Nasa I feel like in Nasa there's like a couple of decent excursions. But most of it is just doesn't seem all that interesting to me. So. Yeah I think that's a great tip though. 56:54.45 Tracey Oh and in Grand Cayman the only 3 of us did the snorkeling the rest of our party did a dolphin um excursion they they liked. They really enjoyed it. But um, they weren't allowed to take their phones or anything in right and they couldn't take a single picture. 56:58.40 Sam Oh how did they like that. 57:06.73 Sam Oh. 57:11.60 Tracey And the prices for the pictures that she told me I mean you think it was like 4 pictures for $200 or something like that. It was the prices. She told me were wild. She didn't purchase any of the pictures like we bought pictures on our excursion I got to like 5 by 7 s for twenty bucks you know like it doesn't it doesn't have to be like that. So I would say like caveat and. 57:17.14 Sam Crazy. 57:24.75 Sam Bright. 57:30.73 Tracey Mtor You know what I mean. 57:32.70 Sam Yep, that means let the buyer beware for those that don't know Common Latin phrases. But ah, that's ok, you know So then. 57:38.40 Tracey Um, sorry. 57:42.47 Sam But that means the buyer beware is that if you get some if you're gonna do a dolphin excursion and we had the same experience. We did a dolphin excursion years ago in cabo and they did not let you bring your phones with you either and so we do we did end up buying the pictures. We didn't buy the video because we didn't. Do the we did a I'm going to call it dolphin encounter rather than swimming with the dolphin so we did get to get in the water with the dolphins and pet them and play with them a little bit but we didn't get to do the thing where you basically hold onto the dolphin and the dolphin swims with you. Um, which was fine because there was no way Nathan was going to do any of that at the time this was when he this was like his first cruise I think we did on the wonder. Yeah and we went and it went down to cabo so it it was a really fun experience. We liked playing with the dolphin. Um I remember the pictures being quite expensive though and it was your only option for capturing the moment because you did not have your phone. Yeah. 58:41.15 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 58:41.49 Tracey Yeah, and I think if you like if you got 2 or 3 pictures you were gonna spend as much as you did to take the excursion I mean it was it was really exorbitate I'm like come on. That's not fair. 58:50.50 Sam Yeah, yeah, all of those dolphin excursions are quite expensive in general though for sure. 58:56.91 dclduo Yeah, for sure. Well Tracy it sounds like a fabulous cruise. But I think we have reached that point in our show where I need to hand you over to Sam for some arbitrary questions some arbitrary rules and a bit of arbitrary judgment or the and a bit of arbitrary judgment of the round we call. Rapid fire sam I wanted to make a suggestion though for this rapid fire round. You don't take it or leave it. It's your round. But I think we ought to get some of Tracy's New Orleans favorites. Yeah. 59:26.70 Sam Oh I like that you know I was going to do um Tracy's favorites on the magic. So we've done rapid fire with Tracy so we've done our sort of standard um favorites. Um, but ah, let me why don't I mix it up I'm going to ask you some New Orleans favorites and I'm going to ask you some. Favorites from the magic specifically since I'm not going to ask you the standard character movie song questions that we've already you know done with you before? Ok so let's start with favorite jazz club. 59:50.42 Tracey Great. Let's do it. 01:00:02.54 Sam Music venue I should say in New Orleans 01:00:04.32 Tracey Ooh that is a tough one. Um, there's so many. 01:00:09.14 Sam You can give us a couple if if you can't think you know narrow it down. 01:00:15.69 Tracey I would say for this audience um try preservation hall like it's hot. It's crowded preservation hall jazz band is amazing and the sets are short like they do like 5 sets a night forty five minutes each and then if you want. 01:00:26.48 Sam Awesome. 01:00:29.46 Tracey If you want something more laid back. Maybe like what you would see in Seoul you want to try snug harbor on um frenchman street um, but I mean I don't I don't get out much anymore. But. 01:00:34.73 Sam Awesome. 01:00:40.34 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 01:00:43.95 Sam Ah, well Frenchman Street is is is packed with all kinds of jazz clubs. So I think that's always a good recommendation in general. Ok tell me where do you get the best. Be yes in New Orleans and you know this is just going to be a point of debate for a lot of people but where is Tracy's favorite bes 01:01:00.30 Tracey If I want be Yas I'm going to go to morning call at the intersection of city park avenue and canal. 01:01:05.56 Sam All right sounds good now regular coffee or chicory coffee Tracy. 01:01:14.54 Tracey O um, either 1 the coffee I the coffee I drink every morning has chicoy in it by the way same I just put the the hot coffee pot away for the season like it comes out in like late December early January and by this time it's it's a way like um I can't drink. 01:01:15.49 Sam All right. 01:01:30.48 Sam Yeah, yeah, oh I hear you Tracy I am ah I'm a big ice iced coffee person in the morning iced americano specifically is what I drink almost every morning unless I'm really cold if I'm really cold. 01:01:32.50 Tracey Like once it gets about like 40 I'm like oo I can have hot coffee now. But now it's back to pool brew every day now. 01:01:50.47 Sam Then I'm going for that hot cup of drip coffee typically all right? Well if you are going to get a pobo a sandwich where are you going in New Orleans Tracy 01:02:01.41 Tracey Um, I'm probably going to go to crabby jacks on Jefferson Highway and get a shrimp remeade and fry green tomatopo boy I just have one not that long ago. Um, but if you just want like the staple um shrimp or roast beef parkway bakery cannot be beat but they're not open. 01:02:05.98 Sam Um, me. 01:02:08.28 Sam E. 01:02:18.80 Sam Um, yeah, oh my oh Wow Yeah, yeah, that's what so I always get from Parkway I Always get the shrimp poboy. 01:02:19.29 Tracey Right anymore I just found that out that used to be but the best time to go now they close like six o'clock it's it's always packed during the day but it's good I mean the food is legit. 01:02:33.50 Sam Brian um, sometimes gets shrimp sometimes he'll get oysters and sometimes he'll get roast beef he he likes to switch it up I I'm just shrimp all the way fried shrimp poe that's Brian's dad loves those too. So I hear you on that. 01:02:41.11 Tracey Ooh their fried oysters probably are the best fried oysters. 01:02:50.12 Sam All right? Well now we're going to go move on to ah onto the magic since that's the ship you sailed on I'd love to know what was your favorite disney stage show on the magic. It's 3 good ones. 01:03:00.55 Tracey Oh yeah I mean I guess it has to be repund but that Cinarella one is so cute I Love it I Really do. 01:03:09.21 Sam yeah yeah I agree with you I think tangled wins but I honestly think that twice charmed is up there. It's really good. It's one of the better. It's I think perhaps that and sees the adventure are like the 2 best ones that aren't based on a movie. 01:03:28.93 Tracey Yeah, the tank tankled go a window because of that I've got a dream number and um, the scene where they are you know, trapped in the cave and they're like drowning and they use the aoke. Yeah, that's that's really cool. So that's gonna edge it out. 01:03:29.11 Sam If that makes sense. 01:03:36.60 Sam Yes, they do a really good job with all that up. Absolutely favorite rotational dining on the magic. Yeah. 01:03:48.97 Tracey Um, on the magic it's going to have to be repunsles I love animators but that the food is really good and repuns. The show is the shows are both really cute I Love repunsles. 01:03:58.18 Sam Yes, and you have to have that um fried sweet bread thing in the pan. As for dessert on I don't remember which menu it's on if it's on the lantern menu or the thug menu but it's it's delicious. There's some great. There's some good desserts in there in general. 01:04:08.94 Tracey I think we ordered every dessert every night. Plus Maria would always bring us a crumb bruullet be from from where I have rest. Yeah so it's always lumirs that's serving it right? She thought she started that the first night and after that there was no going back. 01:04:16.80 Sam Ah, from wherever. 01:04:19.89 dclduo And. 01:04:21.18 Sam I Love it. Awesome! All right favorite bar on the magic. Yeah. 01:04:29.33 Tracey On the magic is gonna be keys. It's that that bar is um I feel like they downside to the piano bars. The newer the ships got like I Love well. Pink's not the piano bar is it. That's the champagne bar. They have a piano player in there I Love pink. Um. 01:04:36.40 Sam Yes. They have a piano in there. Yep Oo La La Pink Both have the piano a piano. It's Teeny tiny. Absolutely. 01:04:46.52 Tracey Yeah, and then nine gials is like this this big. It's like how did they even fit a piano in here. But yeah I Love ah I Love Keys It's like there's always plenty of seating in there and it's very comfortable and of course it's where I had that delicious drink. 01:04:59.70 Sam Ah I'm with you I'm with you favorite onboard activity. 01:05:05.87 Tracey Who um does eating count now right right? or um, just grazing it that I'm telling you that Well I mean I'm sure no one's surprised that the Southeast Asian food on the buffet is. 01:05:09.73 Sam Yeah, why not eating Apollo probably specifically right? ah. 01:05:22.24 Tracey Excellent, right. 01:05:22.76 Sam So good. Absolutely I'm with you on that all right now you've been back on the magic you've been on all 5 ships um has you know, actually let me ask this a different way has your has your favorite ship changed. Now that you've been on the wish now that you've been on the magic several times more recently or what is your favorite ship. 01:05:46.79 Tracey I have to say I was so impressed with the dream I had not been on there in a while we went in. Um January the food quality was really good in every restaurant. Everything was nice and hot every single time I love pink. Um. 01:05:58.44 Sam Nice. 01:06:03.14 Tracey And I mean the service was excellent there. It does change though right? I mean I I mean they're all endearing for different reasons and I'm missing and I'm missing the wonder right now of course because I don't know when I'll get to get back on it. 01:06:07.47 Sam Um, yeah I hear ya. 01:06:16.25 Sam Yeah, yeah, all right? Well I'm going to end with the last question that I always ask because you know for a lot of people this changes. Um, what is your bucket list. Cruise. 01:06:24.64 Tracey So I've been thinking about this and I just realized that like next year you can do Alaska on the wonder then sail out of Vancouver to Hawaii do like 10 nights and do like 10 nights you know, including several stops in Hawaii and then go straight on to Australia. 01:06:41.67 Sam Oh that sounds amazing. It's like a it's a back to back to back to back I think maybe a four is a it would be a 3 or a 4 a 3 Yeah yeah, that sounds about right? Yeah I could I could live with that I'll go on that with you Tracy. 01:06:44.30 Tracey But that's it. 01:06:48.97 Tracey I think it's 3 back to max and that because it's yeah and then you're on there for like 30 nights I think or something. Yeah. 01:07:01.50 Sam We will. It will be completely poor by the time we get to Australia we won't have enough money to come back to United States but same same same I'd love. 01:07:04.76 Tracey No, and I'll be I will I'll be unemployed like I won't even have a job to make more play. 01:07:15.00 Sam Well thanks again Tracy for coming on the show. It's always a pleasure to chat with you? Um, we love you know we love Disney Cruise line you love Disney Cruise line I feel like as much as we do except you don't have it. Love it enough to have a podcast about it. But. 01:07:29.20 Tracey I Might love it a little too much though. 01:07:35.14 Sam But well the if the last year is a test of that then you've passed that test ra see. Ah. 01:07:40.32 dclduo Nice, nice. Well Tracy we do appreciate you coming on to share your crews with us and as always just enjoy having you on as a guest so hope to have you back soon. But for now I'll just say thank you so much and we look forward to having you back and thanks for coming on. 01:07:40.83 Tracey Ah. 01:07:54.50 Tracey Thank you by all. 01:07:58.00 dclduo We see here I've lost the site there. It is. 01:08:01.70 Sam Yeah, he's lost over.