Ep. 356 - Frábær Skemmtiferð - A 10-Night Icelandic Cruise Adventure on 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 and Sam Winter is coming because we're headed to Iceland this week I think this is a second episode. We might be doing on an Iceland Cruise but I'm excited to talk about it because Iceland is quickly coming to the top of my list of cruises that I want to do on Disney Cruise line 00:24.43 Sam absolutely absolutely now it's not um, we're not talking frozen because we're not going to Norway on this cruise but we're talking Iceland so a neighbor. Um, but it is cold and it is a different kind of cruise than I'd say cruising in the med. But I'm definitely excited to talk about this cruise and it is I would agree with Brian it's definitely on my list as well. So why don't we welcome our guest to the show who actually went on this cruise because Brian and I did not sail to Iceland. 00:52.00 Kelly Maples Um, hello Thank you for having me. 00:54.42 Sam So welcome Kelly well I should say well yeah I should say welcome back? Um, since you were on about a year ago to talk about another european crew is I think we're making this a habit aren't we. 01:07.51 Kelly Maples Yeah, it sounds like it because next summer we're going to do another cruise in Europe as well. So we're creating an expensive habit. 01:15.57 Sam Um, you are you are well Kelly before we dive into talking about this really awesome cruise you went on and this cool itinerary that you went on why don't you remind folks about your Disney cruising. Ah, credentials your Disney cruising history and sort of how you started with Disney Cruise line I know you are platinum cruiser. So ah, you are certainly certainly experienced. Why don't you tell folks? what kinds of sailings you've done and how you got started. 01:43.11 Kelly Maples Um, our first official Disney Cruise Line Cruise was back in either 2013 or 14 and we did um a eastern caribbean but my first Disney Cruise was a long time ago. Um on the big red boat. Um, the pre the precursor to Disney Cruise light when I was a teenager. Um, since ah, our first Disney Cruise back in 2013 or 14 um I think we've been on 13 sailings now and we've done eastern and western caribbean Alaska um, 2 different Mediterranean itineraries now we did Northern Europe we've done um the different holidays at sea. Um. And star wars day and Marvel day at sea as well. 02:23.16 Sam Wow you have a ton of different itineraries and a really interesting cruising experience especially with the big red boat. Not a lot of people I think can say that because that partnership didn't last for very long um, has your cruise line history repopulated in the. Disney Cruise line website because you will be able to find out whether or not whether it was twenty thirteen or 2014 if it's in the website. 02:45.38 Kelly Maples Oh yeah, yeah, it has repopulated I should look because I can't remember what year but I was happy to see that's back so we can remember all of them. 02:51.92 Sam Yeah, it is a really nice thing I love like looking back at that and then remembering oh that's the that was the second cruise I took that was the third cruise I took because at this point they all kind of mushined together as far as what the I know which ones I've done but the order kind of mushes together. Yeah. So tell us, um, the itinerary you took how many nights was it where did it sail out of. 03:17.28 Kelly Maples So this was a ten night um itinerary and we sailed out of Sam Pamp Southampton in England. 03:21.53 Sam Awesome and this was on the dream for her first season or no her second season in Europe right? No first season in Europe yeah, that's right, that's right, awesome and Southampton obviously took over the the sailings. 03:29.74 Kelly Maples First yeah, last year we were um on the magic in Europe. 03:39.65 Sam That used to go out of dover. Um, they're both ah dover and Southampton are pretty close as far as equidistance to London so I imagine you probably flew in into London but before we get there. Let's talk about why you chose this itinerary what were sort of the things when you were deciding. You know where to cruise what were the things that drew you to this itinerary. 04:00.54 Kelly Maples Well we are looking for a new itinerary one that we haven't done before um we really had fun last year but it was very hot as it was again this summer um in the mediterranean so we were looking for cooler weather. Um, and we've heard so much about wonderful things about Iceland we did make one stop in Norway as well and we really wanted to see those places. 04:12.11 Sam Yep. 04:20.37 Kelly Maples Um, and so this itinerary gave us a chance we are supposed to have 5 port stops but we unfortunately only made four of them. Um, but ah it gave us a chance to see a lot of Northern Europe and that's a place. We've never been before. 04:31.28 Sam Oh awesome. Well so tell us who's in your sailing party. You're obviously planning this this amazing trip out of Southampton who's going with you. 04:42.97 Kelly Maples So it's my family of 5 so my husband and I and then we have three kids they're 13 um, but twelve fourteen and seventeen almost 13 and then we also had 19 of our friends and family with us. So there's 24 of us in total. Um. But that made it really fun to have so many people we had ages 2 to almost eighty sailing with us. 05:00.88 Sam Oh my goodness. Wow but 24 people I well they can't fit you all at 1 table in the dining room I imagine. 05:09.89 Kelly Maples So it worked out well there's some 12 kids and then a baby and then 12 adults. So the adult sat at 1 table and the kids sat at another table next to us and we shared the same server. We had an awesome serving team. So that meals are really nice because you know it's hard for all 24 people to do everything together but we always came together at dinner which was really a fun time when we could talk about our day. 05:33.43 Sam That's awesome. Was it like let's talk a little bit about the pre-booking process or the booking process. Um, pre-saling um was it difficult to coordinate because you've got you know that many people and I imagine. You know, quite a few staterooms. Probably what like 6 different staterooms or maybe even 7 depending upon how many people in each room. 05:52.27 Kelly Maples yeah yeah I think thes have had 7 um, well we booked ourselves initially for the 5 of us and then we told our friends and family. You know hey we're going would you like to join us and um. Eventually over time. They all decided to join us so we didn't wait to see if everyone's schedule aligned but then fortunately it did and it was really nice. 06:13.98 Sam Awesome And who handled all the booking where you because I know you are travel agent um with ah a fairly new travel agency. Um did you handle all the booking for this this large group because I imagine that's it's kind of a lot to coordinate. 06:20.71 Kelly Maples Oh. 06:29.29 Kelly Maples I didn't do all of it I did some of it but we had already booked some of it before I started to work as a travel agent so I didn't want to um, take that benefit away from the travel agent who had helped us because she's helped us a lot over the years 06:33.23 Sam A. 06:42.80 Sam Oh awesome. So let's talk about getting there. Um, where are you all coming from I'm guessing probably not all from the same place in the United States and how are you getting over across to Europe. 06:55.59 Kelly Maples So some people are from California and the rest of us were on the East Coast Florida Virginia Pennsylvania New York um my daughter actually went two weeks ahead of us and she did a summer program at Oxford um, and then I met her there. Um. 07:09.74 Sam Oh awesome. 07:12.68 Kelly Maples And the 2 of us spent a few days in Oxford and bath which were lovely and then we spent one day in Paris and then everybody else met us in London everyone flew to heathrow and we spent a few days. Um in London um touring around together. We also saw back to the future of the musical together. Um, before heading to Southampton. Um. 07:27.28 Sam And love it. Awesome I have to ask what did you think back to the future of the musical because obviously've listened to our show where we talked about going to see it in London. 07:32.23 Kelly Maples For the cruise. 07:41.77 Kelly Maples Um, I thought it was great. Our friend is actually um, one of the producers. So um, he got us tickets at the last minute and it was the night before the premiere in the United States um the special effects were really cool. Um, it was if you know we have teenagers they can be hard to please but they they enjoyed it as well. The little kids liked it. 07:44.33 Sam Wow. 07:54.66 Sam The. 07:59.18 Kelly Maples Um I think it was a real crowd pleaser. It was very fun. 07:59.84 Sam Oh awesome. Oh I'm glad to hear that because we really enjoyed it too. We we saw it obviously knowing it was going to open in in New York City but prior to it of course opening there and we thought the special effects were fantastic and then it was just such a fun fun show. It's it's maybe not some a deep show as far as you know if you compare it to I don't know let's say like ah Hamilton or a dear Evan Hansen but such a fun show and you know such great special effects and and great dance numbers as well. So yeah, really fun. Awesome. 08:23.14 Kelly Maples And yeah. 08:29.45 Kelly Maples Yeah, and I love the music. 08:34.99 Sam Well let's talk about um you know once everybody gets to London how do you? How did you guys get up to Southampton for the actual sailing. Did you go? you know that morning of the cruise. Did you go there a day before and and how did you travel there. 08:49.81 Kelly Maples So we left the morning of the cruise and we arranged a private transfer which for us was ah a full bus that um, stopped at stonehenge on the way and we visited Stonehenge before um, going um boarding the ship and it was a nice way to See Stonehenge you know it's kind of out of the way from London but. 08:55.91 Sam Um, oh cool. 09:06.75 Kelly Maples Ah, it was only a small detour um on the way to the port. 09:10.66 Sam That's a great idea I would never have thought of that. But I love that because you're right stonehenge is kind of a schlep from London you have to take essentially a day trip to go and and do it because it's a couple hours away and um, but if it's. You know, sort of on the way or or arguably on this short detour from getting to Southampton what a great what a great idea so good on you. Um I love that all right about what time did you get to the port of Southampton. 09:37.53 Kelly Maples We got there around two o'clock 09:42.80 Sam Okay, and how is the boarding process. Obviously this is you know this year was its the first season Disney Cruise line was sailing out of Southampton on a regular basis. They did some I believe the u k staycations um out of their and the sort of pandemic times. Um, but this is obviously different with regular full sailings on the dream. Um, which is obviously a bigger ship than the magic. How was that the process would you think of the port having sailed of course out of Port Canaveral you know how smooth it can be was it. Was it a well-oiled Disney machine or something else. 10:18.54 Kelly Maples It went very well. Um, you know we did get there late. So like I said we got there around 2 I think um, a lot of people probably got there a lot earlier than us so that may be part of the reason it went so easy for us. But the porters met us right out front from our motor coach and loaded the luggage right into the port. There was like a little luggage. 10:20.37 Sam Here. 10:35.98 Kelly Maples Um, conveyor belt and we kind of just walked in checked in and walked right on the ship. No waiting probably like 15 minutes it was really nice. 10:38.77 Sam Awesome! Oh wow, that's awesome and do you guys have a tradition like when you get on the ship we are going to and I'm going to say blank for a lunch. Or we are going to the kids club or we are going to the pool deck like what's your tradition when you get on board a Disney Cruise line chip. 10:59.92 Kelly Maples Usually we go straight to Kabanas um, my kids like that better than um, going to the sitdown lunch. Um, this time I was a little bit later and we had already eaten um and our rooms were ready. So this time everyone kind of just went to their rooms. Um, and then we eventually um, found our way to kaban is I think. 11:03.35 Sam Me. 11:13.56 Sam Awesome! Nice now what kind of stateroom did you guys choose I imagine you've probably been on the dream before and you are a family of 5 Did you guys get 1 stateroom 2 staterooms and and what's your what kind of state room. Do you like to stay in and what did you choose for this sailing. 11:31.32 Kelly Maples Initially we had booked the deluxe family stateroom with verranda that sleeps 5 but then they had some gty pricing where we could get 2 veranda state rooms. Um for four for less money than the one so we switched to the guaranteed room. You know we didn't get to choose our room. 11:33.66 Sam Oh. 11:44.56 Sam Ooh. 11:48.50 Kelly Maples Um, but we had a nice room um midship on deck six and they were connecting and that way we had 2 bathrooms and more space to spread out. Um as my kids get bigger. We we prefer to connecting rooms when that's possible. Um, so it worked out really well for us. 12:01.69 Sam Oh That's awesome. Yeah I imagine with teenagers. You know we only have one child and and he's nine so he doesn't spend a whole lot of time in the bathroom right now. But um I imagine with Teenagers. Having that extra space and the extra even though you have the split bathrooms I'm sure in those rooms. It's still nice to have really you know two separate bathrooms. Yeah. 12:23.33 Kelly Maples And 2 real full beds. Um, my son is getting really tall. He's taller than my husband so I'm glad he could stretch out in a full size bed. 12:29.66 Sam Ah, oh you mean your kids don't really fit in that ah bunk bed that that flops down from the ceiling. 12:35.45 Kelly Maples The other two do but the oldest It's definitely yeah, he's he's done with that I mean if he has to do it. He'll do it. But when we can get him some an extra bed That's nice. 12:41.60 Sam yeah yeah I will say I tried to sleep in that um bunk bed 1 time really just for one night and it's it was not a good night of sleep. Let me just put it that way. It's not a real. 12:50.24 Kelly Maples Oh. 12:57.87 Sam Mattress is like more of like a foam mattress I felt like and it's not a full length bed. So if you're a taller person. Yeah I'm I'm not sure that that's ah, some place you want to sleep The couch bed is not too bad though. Yeah, so let's talk about um this sailing. Um. 12:58.10 Kelly Maples Me. 13:17.43 Sam Let's talk about where where it went to or where it was supposed to go to because you mentioned at the top of the show you were supposed to have five port stops. You only had four port stops when you're in Europe on ah Disney Cruise the stars really are the ports. Not to say there isn't plenty of wonderful things to do on the ship. But as of course an experienced cruiser like yourself. Um, while it's lovely to spend time on the ship and and do some of the activities that you really enjoy. Um, you're going to Europe to see the places you know you're getting off at so what were the port stops. Yeah. 13:49.68 Kelly Maples Exactly or the first ah Portsop was cherbbog so that's in the normandy region of France um, and then we are supposed to have 3 stops in Iceland um reikjavik um Akayri I'm sorry I probably pronounced it wrong. Akaureri. And then um ice a fordor we were supposed to stop in but we were unable to stop there. Um, and then we also stopped in olusison Norway and we end at the cruise in Copenhagen Denmark 14:17.89 Sam Oh awesome. That's a really great itinerary. Um, okay, so you start off at sherberg if I'm saying that correctly. Um. What what did you guys? get up to in Cherber and what kinds of things were offered if you remember from when you were choosing. 14:35.21 Kelly Maples Um, Disney mostly offered um either a half day or full day. Um d-day Beach tour and I think they had another one where you would just go and eat some crepes and then come back. Um, we all did private excursions um a bunch of us took an e-bike tour. Um. It was Lovely. It was so beautiful all along the coast and they packed a picnic of all local French food. Um, and that took the whole day that was great and then some of our group went on a private went on a private D day tour um and they really enjoyed that as well. 15:05.32 Sam Awesome now when you say private tour did you book those through Disney Because I know there are a couple of private tour options through Disney or did you book them on your own. 15:15.80 Kelly Maples Um, we booked them on our own we didn't do any Disney Excursions this trip. 15:18.61 Sam Interesting I want you to kind of tell explain to our listeners why you made that choice because I think a lot of people are hesitant to make that choice and and you know there's a lot more options out there. Obviously if you don't stick with Disney Excursion so I'd love to hear your rationale for you know how you went with. Whatever tour company. You went with and and why you felt confident in that. 15:41.13 Kelly Maples Um, we Well we're confident in it. We have a lot of experience doing it. Um I think all of the tour groups. You know they make it um their goal to get you back? Well in advance usually more than an hour before you're supposed to the all aboard time. Um. 15:44.99 Sam Um, livena. 15:59.50 Kelly Maples And now with the internet and Tripadvisor and ratings I'm I'm sure if they got someone back late that would destroy their business. So I've always been very confident sometimes they're even a little bit more conservative than they need to be um and if you know like I've read a Rick Steves article how missing the ship is actually exceedingly rare. So we weren't we're not particularly worried about that though you know I realize it's a possibility. Um, but I just think that when you plan on your own. The excursions can be more creative. They're more flexible. Um, there's no age limit. Sometimes there's age limits that Disney imposes that might not be necessary. Um and they're usually more affordable. Um. 16:26.53 Sam Um, okay. 16:30.78 Sam Right. 16:35.34 Kelly Maples Only time I would say is this cruise we didn't have any tender ports but last year we did and for the tender ports the page that the um people on the dcl excursions get to get off the ship a lot earlier so that might be a time I would consider a dcl excursion in the future. Um. 16:39.16 Sam Is it. 16:47.39 Sam Right. 16:53.62 Kelly Maples But this time we didn't have any tender ports so we just did all um things we booked on our own. So. 16:58.52 Sam Yeah that's an excellent tip if for tenderports um dcl excursions get generally priority and and so they make sure you're getting off the ship in order to meet your you know tour guide versus if you're doing something on your own. You've got to wait until they just say sort of open tenders for anyone. So excellent point. Kelly um, well I'd I'd love to hear about the the ebike excursion. Um, where did you guys end up like going. What did you get to see and and are ebikes difficult to ride I've never ridden. Ebike. 17:33.92 Kelly Maples I don't think they're difficult to ride. Um, we had you know 2 twelve year olds with us who are fine at riding normal bikes and they didn't have any trouble. Um, it was a lot of rolling hills so I was very grateful for the ebike. Yeah, there's certainly times when just pedalling would be fine, but um, the assist up the hills made ah a lot more enjoyable. 17:36.18 Sam Is. You know. 17:49.25 Sam Right? Oh wow. 17:51.17 Kelly Maples Think we went about thirteen miles we we made a lot of stops along the coast. Um, and there'd be some sometimes sometimes we would get off and you know take a short hike to look at all the cliffs in the water and we went through a bunch of small villages. We saw so many beautiful hyd ranges in every color you could imagine. Um, we saw a bagette vending machine. 18:07.45 Sam But we that get vending machine I Love that? Yes, definitely I Love that. 18:09.58 Kelly Maples But was very french. Yeah I took a picture of it I can send it to you? Um, we they yeah rode their bike through some tunnels that they use during um World War two ah to in in case, the um, the citizens need to Escape. So It wasn't really that wasn't like a heavy history tour they did mention some things about Wol War two but it was more of like a scenic bike tour um and a picnic and we had some time on the beach. 18:35.83 Sam Um, oh awesome, What company did you end up booking that ah that excursion through because I honestly it sounds amazing. Awesome. 18:46.30 Kelly Maples I think that one's called private France tours but I can um I'll up. Update you and let you know. 18:52.60 Sam Oh that sounds fantastic. So now you so this was your only stop in France. How was the food I got to ask about the food. 19:01.18 Kelly Maples The food was delicious so they brought local breads cheeses. Um pickles meat and fruit and then um, some local Custer and they had some cheeses that are made with unpasteurized milk. So it's like illegal cheese that you're not allowed to like take out of the country or anything but it was delicious. 19:15.33 Sam Yeah. 19:17.35 Kelly Maples Um, they put out red checkered um blankets and they we are sitting on the cliffs and they put out this lovely picnic and they had um, sparkling cider for the kids and champagne for the adults and the food was just great and the guides were really friendly and um, you really enjoyed it. 19:36.53 Sam Ah, fantastic. Yeah, right, right? right? Well I love that they get. They brought the illegal cheese I mean it's not illegal in France to have unpasurized cheese. It's just illegal in the United States and some other countries. Um. 19:37.31 Kelly Maples That's the only food we really ate in France you know was that lunch but it was great. 19:45.24 Kelly Maples Right in this states. 19:51.78 Sam Ah, to have unpasteurized cheese but they you know the French eat it all the time. So you know they they seem to be doing just fine. So I'm sure it was fine. 20:00.65 Kelly Maples Yeah, they were telling us that the um pasteurization process changes the way the milk tastes and I I think they're onto something because it was delicious. 20:06.35 Sam Um, yeah I love it. So then your your first your next stop was in ah your first stop in Iceland right? I'm I'm gonna I can't remember the name of the place I know it starts with an a what was the name of this next. 20:21.89 Kelly Maples Ah, the first place I had sent them in um, out of order or less and Rapy Vick was our first stop? yeah. 20:22.50 Sam So oh riovvi comes me first. Ok and Reykjavik is ah obviously a bigger city. Um, your first thought being kind of a smaller town. Um, what kinds of things were available to do in Reykjavik and and what did you guys end up doing. 20:41.19 Kelly Maples So there are a lot of um golden circle tours. There was a snorkeling tour. There are trips to the blue lagoon. Ah they were the main things offered by Disney we booked a private tour so we took 2 small um ah buses like sprinter vans. 20:45.38 Sam Are the. 20:54.66 Sam We do. 20:56.71 Kelly Maples And we did the golden circle but we also did a couple things besides the main highlights of golden circle. We also went to a dairy farm. Um, we had lunch. We ended it at the blue lagoon but we stopped at the main things like thing levere. Um. Gulf lost waterfall geyser to see all those things. It was just a jam packed wonderful day and we had a lot of time. So we I think we got off the ship at 8 or 9 a m and didn't have to be back until 10PM um and we got back at Nine Thirty p M ah and um. 21:22.62 Sam Um, oh wow. 21:27.20 Kelly Maples Think it was probably like 1 of the best days I've had on any vacation. It was just wonderful. Our guides were great. Everything we saw was so beautiful. Um, it couldn't have been better. 21:39.80 Sam How did that work with the kids I mean that's ah obviously ah, a really long day even for adult travelers and I know you're in a you know you're in a van. So. It's not like you're walking the entire time but it does kind of a marathon you know touring day. Um. Ah, you know how did the kids hold up were they bored with were they interested. 21:58.80 Kelly Maples No I think they really enjoyed it. Um, last year sometimes I thought like with the more historic sites on long days. They would kind of get tired and you see their eyes glaze over but this was really active. We were out there. It was cool outsides I think that kept them awake. They got to see like you know. 22:04.70 Sam Yes, yes. 22:15.30 Kelly Maples You know, very unique, breathtakingly beautiful sites. Um, who do things like stop for ice cream too. They love the geyser they um it was a warmer day when we were there warmer for Iceland and sometimes they would get wet and they would run up and like then try to run away from the guys before they got wet. 22:18.90 Sam With. 22:31.68 Kelly Maples Um, so I really think they enjoyed it. 22:32.20 Sam Oh I love that? Yeah I feel like everything you're telling me is making me think more and more that if you're going to go to Europe in the summertime you you've got to do something like this. You've got to do sort of the Northern Europe route and and skip the med because the med I don't know it. And as much as I would love to go back to the med in general. Um I haven't done a cruise there. But I've traveled there a little bit on land. But it's so hot in July and August and um I think that's is hard on any traveler but especially hard on those young travelers. 22:52.60 Kelly Maples So. 22:59.62 Kelly Maples Yeah. 23:07.92 Kelly Maples Yeah, and we had some older um travelers with this as well. Yeah, last year some days it was so hot we would have to go back to the hotel and not explore things in Rome. We wanted to just because we were so hot so this year we just put on a code if we were cold and just keep going so um, this weather was a a lot. Ah, easier to travel in. 23:25.57 Sam Yeah, so um, what was this? How did you book this tour who was this tour booked through because it sounds honestly, really wonderful, especially being able to see so many of the natural sites of Iceland and you know and kind of getting to explore and be outdoors. 23:38.54 Kelly Maples So this was with nice travel and they were um, they worked with us to we kept adding people as I mentioned we booked the cruise and people kept adding so first there was like 5 of us and then 9 and then 13 and then 24 and they just kept being very gracious and. 23:49.23 Sam Ah, right. 23:57.70 Kelly Maples Increasing the number of people they could accommodate ah for us and they took care of everything like all our blue lagoon tickets were already purchased so we didn't have to wait in line when we got there. Um, they coordinated everything. Ah so it was really nice and there was some downtime in the van and then they would tell stories and play icelandic music and that did. 24:04.68 Sam Oh fantastic. 24:16.55 Kelly Maples Give the kids an opportunity to rest a little bit to um when we were driving between one site to the other we thought that was fantastic. It was lovely. The water is just as bright blue as you see in all the pictures. Um. 24:19.25 Sam Um, oh yeah and how was the blue lagoon. 24:33.69 Kelly Maples Was very relaxing. We were there in the evenings we did that was the very last thing we did before we went back to the ship so there are certainly other people there but I didn't feel like it was too crowded at all. It was easy to get a locker. Um, they give you a wristband and on the wristband includes 1 drink or like a smoothie for kids. Um, or I know two per person and you just go up and um. Touch your wrist band and they would serve it to you right? in the water you didn't have to bring your wallet with you anywhere? Um, it was at such a nice temperature. They also had like a little um sauna that a lot of our um group went in but I just stayed in the water. Um, because it was um like a dream is it was really um, very relaxing, very beautiful. It was really fun. 24:55.94 Sam Oh amazing and for. 25:12.59 Kelly Maples And they give you face masks. So um, with the minerals from the water. Yeah, like there's a little hut and they just scoop out face masks and give it to you and everyone has these white face masks on it's floating around with their drinks. 25:12.72 Sam Um, ah, it's like a spa. Yeah. 25:25.12 Sam Oh My goodness. So for those listening who don't know what the blue lagoon is is. It's basically this natural wonder of the world where there are these like mineral pools I'll call it right? But they're they're naturally you know made they're not manmade and um and so they're these Like. Baths I guess is ah so you know natural baths and they're warm and they're you know, have all these natural minerals in them and people soak in them and kind of it's kind of a spa day. But it's a you know naturally made Spa. So really, really cool I Love it. Did the kids enjoy that. 25:59.61 Kelly Maples Oh everybody, loved it like from the 2 year old to the eighty year olds we everyone loved it. We didn't we are all disappointed when it was time to get back on the bus. Um. 26:05.23 Sam Awesome! How did the 2 year old of all people. How did the 2 year old do on this long day. Did they I mean did they nap in the bus or something. Yeah. 26:16.23 Kelly Maples Um I wasn't on her bus but I'm sure she took a nap. Um, she's a really easy happy 2 year old she's the youngest of 5 kids so she kind of rolls with the punches. Um, but she loved it they and they do make children under nine where um. 26:21.66 Sam Oh wow. 26:29.65 Kelly Maples Ah, swimmys so she had swimmies on in the bluegoon but she was she was in there happy as could be. 26:32.90 Sam No awesome. Well if that sounds like an amazing day in rekjavik what was your next stop I guess the following day in Iceland. Okay. 26:41.18 Kelly Maples Um, so we are supposed to stop at isfjoor. Um, but due to a problem with dredging the harbor we weren't able to go um and Disney didn't tell us till a day or two before the cruise which was disappointing. Um. 26:54.50 Sam Yeah. 26:56.46 Kelly Maples This has been a known problem our Facebook group knew it everyone knew it and and other cruise lines um made alternative plans for their guests. So Norwegian Cruise line did an overnight in Ryjavik um to make up for it and then celebrity cruises used um, tender so they could still stop at ice if you would or um. 27:02.93 Sam Are within. 27:09.66 Sam Um, the growth. 27:15.77 Kelly Maples But Disney didn't didn't do any of that and so we could see it. We sailed by it and you could look longingly at Iceland but we knew we were missing out on a great day and I was disappointed but then after we saw how much we loved our first day I was even more disappointed because it's such a unique place but we'll just have to go back. 27:29.50 Sam yeah yeah I mean another another Northern Europe cruise I guess is in your future now. Um had you booked a private excursion there and were you you know. 27:34.26 Kelly Maples Um. 27:40.58 Sam Were you able to cancel it or had you waited knowing that there was kind of an issue and knowing stopping there was a little bit up in the air. 27:48.46 Kelly Maples We we did? Um, we booked it a private excursion months in advance before I knew there was a problem but they were very gracious and um, refunded us as soon as they found out that ah we wouldn't be able to stop. 27:52.34 Sam Um, yeah. 27:58.15 Sam Yeah, well, that's a bummer. 27:58.39 dclduo And and and did Disney did Disney do anything in terms of like onboard credit or anything for the miss port stop. 28:06.80 Kelly Maples No, they didn't um and you know I understand like mechanical failure whether these things might happen on any cruise. Um, but this was something that they had known about for you know months? Um, so I was disappointed. It's not what I expect from Disney. Um. 28:16.34 dclduo Um, yeah. 28:21.21 Kelly Maples I Mean otherwise it was a great trip but that that was disappointing and I think a lot of people on the ship were disappointed and they didn't extend our port time or anything anywhere. 28:25.18 dclduo Yeah, yeah I did that? yeah that seems understandable, especially for that itinerary because you you want to see Iceland That's the the point of the itinerary. So yeah. 28:25.75 Sam Yeah. 28:37.35 Kelly Maples Yeah, and it was already a c day heavy. Um Cruise. So um, yeah, and so now there was another c day and I love sea days. Um, but especially for some of the older teenagers and I think they started to feel um you know, trapped on the shit. 28:38.95 Sam Right? As you got ten days yeah 28:51.30 Sam Yeah, so you get an extra c day. What's your next port in Iceland acarary okay acarary I'm gonna have to try and remember that name. But. 28:57.44 Kelly Maples Um, the next one was agureri and that's in Northern Iceland 29:07.23 Sam A little more unusual than the others I feel like everybody's heard of Raikjavik right? So what? it? Um, what did you get up to in. Um I can't even say it. It's already slipped my mind. 29:16.98 Kelly Maples I actually look at the phonetic pronunciation of it every time I say it because I can't remember it's Akarari um, so we did a very similar um thing that we did in Reykjavik we um, hired another private company this time we were all on 1 bus. Um. And ah, we made multiple stops again. So we saw um, godda floss which is another godda foss excuse me which is another beautiful, gigantic, amazing waterfall. Um, we saw a bunch of different lava formations that we hiked through we had um. 29:45.59 Sam How cool. 29:49.50 Kelly Maples Lunch at a wonderful small farm to table restaurant that was like in the hometown of our tour guide. He knew everyone there. Um, and um, we went to a place with all that I um cannot pronounce with all steaming um like just steam and boiling mud. 29:53.84 Sam Yeah, that's so cool. 30:07.28 Kelly Maples Ah, pots coming up from the earth from all the volcanic activity so you would see like boiling like holes and craters with boiling water in them. Ah and then mud boiling and then steam came up. It did smell like Rotten eggs. So some of the kids were really dramatic about that. But it was like another it looked like another planet. Um. 30:07.40 Sam Oh cool. 30:17.90 Sam Um, yeah, right this whole first mill. 30:24.72 Kelly Maples So we made many stops there and then we ended that day in it lagoon too and this time we ended in one called forest lagoon um, which was also um, beautiful. It was a more compressed day because the all aboard time was um I think like four 30 was a shorter day but we started at 7 in the morning. Um, and. 30:38.46 Sam Thanks. 30:42.72 Kelly Maples Our guide there was the owner of the um of his tour company and he was excellent. Probably 1 of the best tour guides I ever had. Um, he was trying to make sure we could fit everything in he took our orders for lunch on the bus. Um, so that the food would be waiting for us and we got to the restaurant because the restaurant wasn't used to having such big parties. Um. 30:59.10 Sam The. 31:01.48 Kelly Maples Because it wasn't like a tourist restaurant. It was a more local restaurant and we tried some delicious fish. There's fish called Arctic Char um, that's native to Iceland and it's related to salmon but it was really good. It's probably our best meal of the trip is very good. 31:05.52 Sam Is it. 31:12.32 Sam Oh Wow and and what was the name of this tour company. Um, if you remember so awesome. 31:17.93 Kelly Maples Um, that's called saga travel SA g a 31:23.63 Sam How and you did you find these these couple of iceland tours that we've been talking about. Did you find these companies through Tripadvisor or some other website. Um. 31:32.57 Kelly Maples Yeah I use chipadvisor but I also Google you know you know tours and rijavik tours and acuary and then just read reviews. Um, and I email um them to see see how accommodating they are um and both of the people we use in Iceland were so accommodating and um and really very helpful. So um. 31:37.74 Sam Um, literally. 31:52.30 Kelly Maples I Could tell right away that they would do a good job because just how they were how quickly they respond on email. 31:52.64 Sam Yeah, yeah, well and with a bigger group. It's you know it is kind of hard to coordinate. Especially you know if you got have to have like 2 vans as you mentioned did you have when you had 2 vans. For those tours did you have like were there 2 tour guides like 1 in each man or how did they sort of arrange that for you all. 32:14.59 Kelly Maples So that when we had 2 vans the drivers served as the tour guides. Um, you know they would just talk over the speaker and tell us everything and then um, the second day in Iceland we were all on one bus so we had a driver and a tour guide. 32:16.23 Sam If it. 32:26.50 Sam Oh nice, fantastic, awesome! Well that sounds like good another great day. Be it a a short. Yeah, be it a shorter day than than Reykjavik. Um, and so your your next port would have been a listened am I right. 32:30.50 Kelly Maples Was great. 32:41.44 Kelly Maples That's right. 32:42.49 Sam I love and we loved ol listened. But why don't you tell us what you got up to in olisten which is in Norway for those listening. 32:48.41 Kelly Maples So in the morning we took speedboat rides through the fjord so we were on ribs those rigit inflatable boats. Um, and it was really cool. They you when you get there. They give you this huge waterproof windproof suit suit and goggles. Um, and then on the. 32:56.52 Sam Um, oh yeah. 33:06.82 Kelly Maples On the boat. You straddle the sea and have to hold on really tight because you go very fast. Um, but it was great because you got to go into the fjords and see more than you would see just on the ship. Um, but it was also like a good adrenaline Russian The teenagers Really loved it. Um, we got to see some just breathtaking mountains and fjords. 33:09.58 Sam The same. 33:26.74 Kelly Maples Um, and we're on the boat for about 2 hours so then we came back and had lunch and then we um, we did a hike we took a short um like a less than five mile cab ride and it's called sugar topping and um. It's a really nice hike on a ridge and you can see the town on one side and the fiords on the other side. 33:44.10 Sam Oh wow, That's awesome now. Did you do that part of the day on your own or did you have a tour guide for that. 33:50.10 Kelly Maples No, we just did that on our own. We just done took taxis to and from the start starting point. 33:55.68 Sam Awesome! Well it sounds like you all are a somewhat adventurous travelers in the sense that you're you know, willing to sort of venture out on your own was everybody in your party kind of of that ilk Would you say. 34:09.74 Kelly Maples Mostly yes and the momi hike that um 2 of our older travelers. They did do a Disney excursion where they took um, a bus tour in that afternoon. Um to see that to there's that hill where everyone walks up the steps I think you guys did that when. 34:19.70 Sam Um, yep, we did that? Yeah, exactly well funny enough we did as well we ended we did the ah city tour that included the. 34:23.98 Kelly Maples So they took the they took the bus to the top of it so they didn't have to climb the steps but otherwise yeah, um. 34:33.71 Sam The bus to the top of that Hill and we ended up not taking the bus Down. We ended up walking down with our friends. But yeah I I Would highly Recommend. That's a great lookout point for sure and I wish that we had actually walked up. It. It would have been. You know, totally doable for us. But we happened to take the city tour that included that. So Yeah and how did they enjoy that that tour and and and I guess how did the group enjoy all listened. 35:02.75 Kelly Maples Um, I think the group as the whole as a whole really enjoyed Olen um I think um for some of the kids that was their favorite excursion was the speedboats through the fijords. Ah the um city tour was not very popular with the 2 people who did it in our group. 35:16.16 Sam Oh interesting, Interesting Yeah, it probably depends a lot on you know your chore guide and that's one of those things that's kind of hit and miss. Um, we enjoyed it but it was only a part of partial day so we ended up you know, walking around ourselves and I think we enjoyed that even more. 35:23.74 dclduo 1 our errors. Well. 35:30.15 Kelly Maples I like me. 35:30.42 dclduo Well ours wasn't a city tour see I remember it was the tour that it meandered through the city but we ended up at that museum outside of town to look at old Norse structures basically and they and then they drove us to the top of that Hill and we walked down. Yeah. 35:40.89 Sam Oh that's right? and then we came back to that lookout point. Yeah. 35:48.50 Kelly Maples That's what they did it was in the afternoon because um, they did also go on the boats with us. But then they did that in the afternoon when we went hiking. 35:53.12 dclduo Yeah, that's one of the things I loved about that itinerary was that you could get morning and after in time that the the stops were fairly long. So yeah, it was a nice benefit of the itinerary not not Iceland we haven't done iceland yeah, no, no. But I mean Norway. 35:55.53 Sam Um, that makes sense. 36:03.00 Sam Yeah, well you mean Norway not not the not the excursion. Yeah, right? no no I mean you mean you mean Norway in general not the excursion. Yeah because it was a half day excursion that we ended up doing yeah well I it was that your that was your last. 36:13.56 dclduo Yeah. 36:20.28 Sam Port stop and then of course you you get into copenhagen and I write about that. 36:25.12 Kelly Maples That's right? and then we spent um so we spent 2 nights in Copenhagen and then some of um, our party spent 3 nights and they um took a tour to Sweden as well. But um, in Copenhagen we took a little these mini private canal boat tour. Um, and then we went to tiboli gardens. 36:40.31 Sam Oh yeah, the amusement park tell me I I Really want to go to Tivoee gardens and I hear great things tell us about Tivoli gardens. 36:41.63 Kelly Maples Which was really fun. 36:48.78 Kelly Maples So it's right in the center of Copenhagen right in the city. But when you go in you don't even feel like you're in a city anymore. Um, and that's ah, reportedly where Walt Disney was inspired to create Disneyland um, and you can definitely see it. Um, it. 37:00.35 Sam Is it. 37:06.49 Kelly Maples It's beautiful. Um, at nighttime. There's so many pretty it lights um, all different rides. The trash cans look exactly like the trash cans in Disneyland I don't know if that was always the case. Um, ah you don't have. There's different kinds of admissions so you can just pay to get in and not go on any rides. Um or you could pay to get in and have unlimited rides. Um. If you didn't pay for unlimited rides. You can just pay with a credit card um to go on like 1 or 2 rides like if you want to go with your kids so in our party um the adult ended up not going on any rides and the kids would run around and go on a bunch of rides together. They had a lot of fun. Um. 37:31.80 Sam Um, is. 37:40.63 Kelly Maples They went I went one night and then a lot of people went a second night I kind of wish I went a second nigh second because it's really it's very pretty um and yeah, there's lots of lots of restaurants there. Lots of sitdown restaurants like Italian Restaurants japanese restaurants pizza places beer gardens. Um, so there's a lot of fun places to eat as well. 37:44.88 Sam Yeah. 38:00.49 Kelly Maples And the lines really weren't very long. You know we were there in the middle of the summer um there's concerts there every night. Ah so it was very affordable. You could just walk there. It's rate in the city. Um I highly recommend it. 38:10.42 Sam Awesome! Any other highlights from the from your time in Copenhagen. 38:17.76 Kelly Maples Um, we also took a ebike tour of that that city and got to just see a lot of it. Um, like um I can't remember the name of ah one of the beautiful palaces. Um, and then ah just walking around in Copenhagen they have really cool. Um. Playgrounds with these like built-in trampolines in the ground that the children really loved and um, we saw the little mermaid statue. Um, everyone likes to get their picture taken there. Um, and our hotel was very. We really like your hotel to it had a big courtyard in the center. So. 38:36.19 Sam Um, oh cool. Yeah. 38:48.25 Kelly Maples Everyone didn't stay at the same hotel but um on our last night there. Everyone came just hung out in the courtyard. Um, which was very relaxing. Um, it was really pretty courtyard with all different sculptures and different tiles and like little nooks and gardens. Um, so it was a really pretty city I'm glad I got to see it. 39:03.20 Sam Yeah, what was the name of the hotel that you stayed at. 39:07.82 Kelly Maples Um, Axl Gold ah Goldsminden 39:11.85 Sam Axl Goals Menden okay sound. Ah these names are probably impossible to to remember? Um, ah well it's it sorry go ahead. 39:17.32 Kelly Maples Yeah, and I'm probably murdering them. Yeah. 39:24.15 dclduo So Kelly I'm interested because you sailed on the see. Do you want me to go Sam or no, ah Kelly I'm interested because you sailed on the magic last year in Europe and you sailed on the dream this time around any differences you notice being on the larger ship. 39:29.53 Sam Yeah, sorry, go ahead. 39:30.40 Kelly Maples Oh. 39:41.16 dclduo Ah, in Europe I've we've gotten some email I'll say from people who have said that they've noticed a few differences here and there between the 2 ships in terms of you know, just the size of the ship and what that means for the atmosphere on board and things like that did you notice anything or was it about the same. 39:54.71 Kelly Maples Um, it was a little bit more crowded than last year but also you know when we were on the magic last year they were in at full capacity yet. Um, so one of our cruises was like very empty went last year on the magic um very like almost too empty. There wasn't like that kinetic energy. You would go to game shows then one would be there. Um, so this year there was definitely more people but I don't the crowds didn't bother me as much because you don't really spend that much time swimming I mean there were some days we did but I usually when I feel the coral. That's when that pool deck is so mobbed and since um. It was a northern european itinerary and we didn't spend that much time at the pools I didn't really feel that um at shows and movies. We didn't have trouble getting seats or anything. Um I do like the the adult pool better on the smaller ships like the magic and the wonder so last year in the minute I really enjoyed spending time there. Um. But this year there weren't that many days that we really went in the pool. We did spend a lot of time in the rainforest. Um, which was really nice to have access to during ah the cooler weather. 40:56.69 Sam And well and the rainforest room is way better on the dream and the fantasy than the magic and the wonder because at least you've got that outdoor deck with the hot tub on it I think at least. 40:56.90 dclduo Um, yeah. 41:08.46 Kelly Maples Yeah, definitely and but the rainforest did sell out the um, the morning of the like our first morning we bought our we bought our passes soon as we got ah on board. Um, and then by the next morning some people in our party were disappointed because when they went to go to go buy them. They were already sold out. So. 41:14.92 Sam Um, oh Wow um. 41:25.56 Kelly Maples You know that is 1 thing that maybe was different compared to last year because ah it was a crowded ship. 41:30.13 dclduo And and did you notice any you know issues the dream first time over we heard about some snags I mean beyond sort of the miss port stop with just you know the crew the ports being ready things like that did you notice anything on your sailing like that. 41:45.76 Kelly Maples No I heard I've heard people complain about that as well. But we we didn't feel it I thought that the crew was great. Um, the food was as good as it always is um so we really didn't have any complaints about that I thought they did a great job. 41:57.97 Sam So awesome. 41:58.91 dclduo Yeah, do they? Um, when you miss your port stop to they offer anything extra on board the ceiling. Well Okay, yeah. 42:05.70 Kelly Maples They did not. It was just a normal C day. Yeah, they just said that like they did say in the email before cruise they were going to make it extra magical. So I didn't know if there would be anything special. Um on that C day. Um, but it was just a normal C day. There was a special gathering for um. 42:19.97 Sam Um. 42:22.98 Kelly Maples Gold Platinum and Pearl cruisers. But I believe they would have had that anyway on one of the sea days. So. 42:25.31 Sam Um, listen. 42:27.67 Sam Yeah I mean they probably would would have um they might not have done it on that day. But yeah, they would have had because it's a I think they do it for 7 nights and longer they do those special receptions which often include you know, seeing a sort of backstage view of. 42:32.33 Kelly Maples Right? yeah. 42:45.75 Sam 1 of the onboard shows which of course on the dream could be beauty and the beast which is obviously phenomenal. Um. 42:52.24 Kelly Maples Yeah, it was great. That's what art it was it was um you got to see like the technical aspects of um, 1 or 2 scenes of beauty and the beast. It was interesting. 42:59.92 dclduo Yeah. 43:01.15 Sam Yeah I love that we got to do that with with Aladdin this was pre-pandemic years ago. Um, we weren't even platinum at the time but the friend that we were selling with was and it was just fantastic. Such a great view into that sort of backstage side of things. 43:11.97 Kelly Maples Man. 43:17.30 Sam I'm curious for entertainment. Obviously you're you're going to have your standard um 3 mains stage shows but what additional entertainment did you have beyond the the standard mains state shows. Do you remember. 43:30.90 Kelly Maples Um, there was a visiting Broadway um guest so he had um a cabaret one night but I was really surprised. It wasn't in the Walt Disney theater last last year um in Europe they had 1 like that in the Walt Disney theater it was just in um, evolution. Um. 43:37.85 Sam Oh. Okay. 43:45.37 Kelly Maples But very good but it was crowded. It was only one night um there is the standard juggler um and ventriloquist. Ah they had the world premiere of the honet mansion movie which is really quite good. Um, and then they had an excellent um her name's greta and I may say her last thing wrong Sloan. And she is a famous violinist from Iceland she's won eurovision. Um I think two separate yearss um, and it's not like the classical violin music. It's really fast upbeat. She's amazing singer and violinist. 44:14.37 Sam Um, yeah, like a rock violinist. Oh cool. 44:16.91 Kelly Maples Yeah, and she did 2 different shows. She did a main show for everybody. Um, and then she did one for the adults only one night um and ah she was just fantastic. Um I was really happy that we could see her. It was um, much better caliber than you'd expect for like a cruise ship performer. She was just outstanding. 44:33.24 Sam Oh that's awesome and I love that they brought on a local performer I feel like that's always you know, really nice. Did they have any do they have any naturalists or or anyone on board giving talks about what things you might see in Iceland um I know they do that for Alaska i. 44:39.53 Kelly Maples Yes. 44:51.60 Sam They I don't think they did that when we were in Norway but I'm just curious if they did anything like that on your sailing since it was a longer sailing. 44:58.93 Kelly Maples They didn't I was expecting that maybe they would because just like um you mentioned in Alaska we would go to those but they didn't have any of those things. 45:06.61 Sam Yeah, well if Disney if you're listening um I feel like in these locations where it's all about the outdoors which I feel like you know Iceland is all about the outdoors. Norway is all about the outdoors and of course Alaska is all about the outdoors. Bring on a naturalist I feel like they could tell you you know they could do teach so much and and people would enjoy that and and it wouldn't really um, be a huge expense for Disney to do something like that. So. 45:33.73 Kelly Maples Um, definitely especially with so many C days it would have been nice I think it would have been well attended. 45:40.28 Sam Yeah, anything special in terms of food on board. Of course you're going to have your standard you know rotational menus and whatnot. Um, but did you have any any you know special menus or anything that really stood out to you that was different or extra. 45:55.77 Kelly Maples Um, well food wise we did some extra special things in the adult dining. Um, in the main dining room. Um, there was the frozen menu one night instead of the pirate menu but otherwise there weren't any like um, really special menus that I noticed. Um. 45:57.87 Sam Who yes. Is it. 46:08.85 Sam Me just. 46:11.61 Kelly Maples And a bunch of us are vegetarian. So sometimes maybe I don't notice when there's really um, things that other people would appreciate. Um I thought the food was very good I would um except for the scrambled eggs in cabanas. But otherwise all the food was great. Um, they were like extra bad this time the scrambled eggs and cabaas I would just order them from the omelet guy and then they were good. 46:19.94 Sam I. 46:25.45 Sam Yeah, yep, that's what I do too. Although I will say when we were we just got off the wish and the eggs in Marceline market weren't as bad as I they have been before so but in general I I yeah. 46:31.40 Kelly Maples Um. 46:40.81 Kelly Maples Ah, let's get this. 46:42.84 Sam So I don't know if that was just we just got lucky but I agree in general the scrambled eggs on board any Disney Cruise line ship are disgusting um and should not be served to anyone but. 46:53.40 Kelly Maples But I would like I will give a shout out to our main dining room team. Um, besides that they handled you know a party of 24 and they did a fantastic job but the night that we were in Reykjavik as I mentioned we didn't get back till nine thirty so that was an hour into our dinner because our dinner started at eight thirty um and 47:03.85 Sam I Thought okay. 47:11.34 Kelly Maples You know it's not 1 or 2 of us. So we when we came in 1 person from our party walked up and said you we just got in. Can we eat and they said sure I don't think they realized me and 23 of my friends but they accommodated all of us. Um, and we all got to eat our full dinner. Um. 47:23.52 Sam Ah, wow. 47:28.29 Kelly Maples And like the head server was helping they were really working hard that we would have a great dinner so we didn't have to just go up and have like you know pizza or broom service. Um, so I really appreciated that because I didn't even I wasn't even going to ask if we could um, eat in the main dining room. You know we were an hour late I didn't think that. 47:35.65 Sam Um, yeah. 47:44.55 Kelly Maples They need it to do that for us. But I we really all appreciate it very much where everyone's tired and hungry and we are so happy that um, we could ah have ah our meal together. 47:52.10 Sam Yeah, one at that point that a lot of the deck food is already closed like you mentioned pizza is still open but like hamburgers and hot dogs and stuff that's usually closed. You know before then. So. 47:58.34 Kelly Maples Yeah. Rate. 48:05.87 Sam You would have been quite limited between pizza or as you mentioned room service which does take a while to get to your you know from the time you order to get to your room So that's really really nice. You you mentioned you did some adult. 48:10.78 Kelly Maples Here. 48:20.36 Sam Dining We love of course talking and hearing about adult dining. What which experiences did you do because you're on the dream. So there's remy and Pollo available to you. 48:27.35 Kelly Maples And I had never been to remy before but I was there twice this time. Um my but my best friend and I did the dessert party and that was so much fun. Um, the desserts were so good. The chef would come out and describe each one of them. They are all beautiful I took pictures of all of them. 48:33.16 Sam Um, oh nice. 48:46.10 Kelly Maples Um, but most striking was the lemon thing I don't know if you've ever done the dessert. Um. 48:49.00 Sam Ah, yes, we and we just had it on the wish it's this. They actually have the same that same dessert. But why don't you describe it for people. 48:58.16 Kelly Maples So It comes out on a plate and it looks just like a whole lemon with a little green leaf on it. But it's not a lemon at all. Um I I believe they like um slice lemons and limes really thin and keep blanching them over and over again to take out the bitterness. Um, and then they put them in this in the center of this um white chocolate creation and they shape it like a lemon um and it's even the texture of the lemon so they spray paint white chocolate on it to make the texture then they stick a leaf in it and then when you crack it open inside is all of that cooked lemon and lime and it's the white chocolate with the citrus is um. It's delicious and it's just so Cool. It's really fun. 49:32.54 Sam Yeah, it's really beautiful. It's it's funny I I have to say I actually don't like the taste of it. Really I've had it several times and I not I I haven't yeah developed the taste for it. I'm not big on citrus desserts in general. But it is one of the most beautiful and creative desserts I've ever seen and Brian loves it. He eats the whole thing every time so well by that point in the meal because we're usually eating a full meal by that point in the meal. We're both like somebody carry us out of year. Yeah. 49:56.34 Kelly Maples He's lucky then he can have 2 50:02.84 dclduo Yeah I can't I can't do double duty on tasting menus that is just way too much food but you know I was I was just going to say I'm actually a little disappointed. They're using the same dessert and remy I'd love to see them kind of have differentiated menus a little bit. So yeah. 50:09.70 Sam Yeah. 50:09.44 Kelly Maples Um, yeah. 50:17.11 Sam Well yeah, well we had that dessert for the first time in remy and then they you know chef almont ah, or chef Arno but brought it over to the wish. Yeah yeah. 50:23.94 dclduo Yeah, yeah, I Just ah I'd love to see him keeping it fresh kind of across the the fleet. So yeah. 50:29.36 Kelly Maples But I think the best tasting dessert at the dessert party was their cream broullett. Um, it was a very very thin cream bruullett like thinner than a cookie but it was delicious. Um I also appreciated that they tried to make each dish kind of match the dessert. Um, so it was visually pleasing. Um. 50:33.36 dclduo E. 50:33.49 Sam Oh yeah. 50:47.49 Kelly Maples And then you could add a wine pairing to it. So ah, we did that as well. It was um that was a really fun afternoon. Um, and then um we had never done remy for dinner or brunch before um as I mentioned my husband I are vegetarian so we didn't really know like if there would be a good value there with French food. 50:51.48 Sam Oh awesome. 51:01.33 Sam Yeah, so. 51:04.24 Kelly Maples Um, but I had read online. Um some vegetarians saying it was one of the best meals they ever had So we had brunch there. Um and we really enjoyed it. It was really good. It wasn't like afterthough vegetarian food. You know it was really stuff that they had um you know planned specifically for vegetarians and we did let them know in advance. Um, ah. 51:18.38 Sam Yeah. 51:21.52 Kelly Maples So I was really glad we had brunch there. Um and I like that and then one evening towards the end of the cruise all of the adults had dinner in pao I am booked us a private dining room and um, we yeah the 10 of us ate at this giant round table. It's the biggest round table I've ever seen. Um, and ah. 51:30.83 Sam I Love it. 51:40.85 Kelly Maples That was a ah, fun evening really quiet and um, different than being in the main dining room with all the kids. 51:44.47 Sam Oh I love that? Yeah I mean the adult dining on board Disney Cruise line is I think fantastic Brian and I always try and partake in at least one adult dining meal whether that's a brunch or a dinner but usually one of each frankly. Um, unless it's a three night sailing and then we have really just got to limit ourselves because it's just too much food. But yeah, ah, awesome. Well it sounds like it was an amazing cruise. Um, is there anything we haven't talked about on this cruise. 52:02.53 Kelly Maples Um. 52:06.49 Kelly Maples Yeah, we had a lot of time to space out all our calories on the ten day 52:19.35 dclduo Well I I wanted to ask about twenty fifth anniversary ah because this was a twenty fifth anniversary sailing and we've heard mixed reviews of the twenty fifth anniversary at sea for the dream over in Europe especially as to availability of merchandise and some other things. So. 52:22.90 Sam Oh that's right. 52:33.92 dclduo Did they do anything special on board. How are the twenty fifth anniversary celebrations. 52:39.31 Kelly Maples So the very first night um that we boarded they had like the twenty fifth anniversary party um it's very similar to the Captain's cocktail reception that they have so they brought drinks out and had music. Um, all the characters came out and there was a little dance party and they all had on their like um, a colored twenty fifth anniversary outfit so it was it was kind of like ah 1 of the Captain's parties and there were free drinks which I think a lot of people appreciate. Um but it wasn't like ah anything really fancy or exciting. Um, and then we were on board for the actual twenty fifth anniversary so I think it was July Thirtieth was the twenty fifth anniversary of the first sailing on the magic. 53:11.60 Sam Oh yeah. 53:16.94 Kelly Maples Um, and they made a lot of announcements about it but otherwise, um, not much merchandise wise um I did see some things in the um gift shop I wasn't really stopping for in particular I saw stuff for it but not a lot most of it was more dream in Europe than Twenty fifth anniversary 53:32.63 dclduo Oh. 53:34.26 Sam Yeah, um, speaking of speaking of ah sort of these celebrations. You did have the frozen deck party. We know we know in Europe they in general, you're not going to have fireworks. So if you're sailing to Europe just expect. You're not going to have fireworks at sea. Um. I don't know if there's any exception to that rule. But that's sort of the general rule and you usually have the frozen deck party not the pirate deck party. How was what did you think of the frozen deck party. We've experienced it once we weren't like super impressed to be perfectly. Honest, oh. 54:03.80 Kelly Maples So we did not have the frozen deck party. Um, on this cruise they um they debuted the Mickey's color spin party instead of the frozen deck party. Um, so we thought it sounded cool and we thought like maybe there'd be like a cool light show. Um. 54:09.75 Sam Oh. 54:11.38 dclduo Um. 54:20.53 Kelly Maples So we Harry to finish our dinner and run up there and it was really disappointing and I think everyone left in the middle of it I think maybe for really little kids. It would be fine but all the characters play different deejays like and each one of them has a different color jacket on and they played some music. Um, but it was really kind of underwhelming. Um. 54:24.19 dclduo Well. 54:26.26 Sam Um, oh yeah. 54:35.71 Sam Yeah. 54:38.30 Kelly Maples You know I understand they cannot fireworks but I would have rather had the frozen de party we saw that once um, in Alaska and that was definitely better than Mickey's color spin party I think that's more for like the under 6 crowd. Yeah. 54:45.35 Sam Oh well? Yeah, yeah, well that's a bummer but good to know that it now if you're in Europe maybe you might not actually have the frozen deck party now that they have the color spin deck party. Interesting. Um, what did you think of the merchant general because you you did mention that there was some you know ah dream in Europe merchandise we've seen some of it online. Um, certainly everybody you know Disney Merch fiends ah by everything regardless of how good it is. We saw some pictures we thought there were some. Some quite cute stuff but wondering what you thought of it. 55:24.73 Kelly Maples I thought there were really cute ah shirts and sweatshirts I think the most popular merch on our ship seat was that there is um, he Hansen ah jackets in navy blue or white and they had he Hansen on 1 sleeve and Mickey Mouse's face on the other. They were very cute. Um. 55:31.81 dclduo Oh. 55:33.18 Sam Um, oh yeah. 55:36.35 Sam This. 55:40.49 Kelly Maples But luckily they sold out of the color I liked before I decided I want it one because I I really don't need it. Um, but there are whole families in them. Um, and they only had like white and extra large left by the end of our trip. They didn't they sold out of most of those but I felt like dream in Europe shirts and things like that throughout the whole. Um. 56:00.52 Kelly Maples Whole ah trip. So I don't think they ran out but we don't buy a lot of that stuff. So I'm not I didn't look particularly for it. 1 thing in the stores that was a big hit that I was surprised with is the guest the carrot weight the teenagers every day would do the guest the carrot wait they loved it. 56:07.10 Sam Cool. 56:17.34 Sam Really like for like for stones. 56:20.35 Kelly Maples Yeah, like yeah like um I was walking in the shopping area with my sisterin law and then I'm like I think that's you know the 2 boys in the jewelry store. You know they're you 17 year old boys and um I like that's weird and we went to go see them are like what are you guys doing and then it was that they're like it's guess the carrot way and. 56:29.70 Sam Yes. 56:40.17 Kelly Maples They did it every every night all the kids like the the like the littler kids the bigger kids they they had fun doing it and a couple of nights um people would win. You know it's like a silly little thing that you win but um it it gave them a lot of joy you win a crystal. 56:48.39 Sam Right? Yeah, nobody's winning like right right? you win you win like a so. So so so worth So what? he the? How do you say that name swars. 56:53.23 dclduo Do you mean? you don't win the diamond. You don't win the Diamond itself I'm I'm flabbergasted. Ah. 56:59.33 Kelly Maples <unk>sky Chris yeah in the chosen. Yeah, but it's set and like it's set in like aluminum. It's it's not the yeah. 57:01.82 dclduo <unk>orsky oforsky. 57:05.97 Sam Yes, exactly thank you I couldn't think of how do we say? no right right? I know. Ah. 57:11.47 dclduo I love that you can pronounce such to veckia Sam but you can't pronounce Sorski. So. 57:21.27 dclduo Anything else him? Oh God No no, no no. 57:23.18 Kelly Maples Um, and um. 57:23.46 Sam Brian I was gonna ask Brian did you have anything else you wanted to ask? Okay Kelly anything anything we haven't talked about that was perhaps unique or memorable to this ah to this sailing before we subject you to my rapid fire. 57:40.62 Kelly Maples The other thing I would say it's the first time my kids ever went to vibe like they've had the opportunity um many times but I think they were always like shy to go by themselves my 2 oldest or old enough to go. Um. 57:51.10 Sam Um. 57:51.60 Kelly Maples But this time since there's so many kids they they really had a lot of fun going to Buybe We didn't really see them very much. Yeah I was happy then a little our kids didn't go to the kids club as much as I had thought um my my kids are little. They really liked it. 57:57.80 Sam Well, that's always a good sign right? I mean ah. 58:03.62 Sam Oh interesting was were there were there less sort of younger kids on the cruise in general. Do you think based on the itinerary I mean obviously it's summertime so kids are out of school but just curious just if it was sort of a little bit. 58:12.65 Kelly Maples Ok. 58:21.54 Sam Skewed a little bit older on the age of the kids. 58:24.75 Kelly Maples I don't think so I I feel like I saw kids of all um, every age just as many many as usual, 1 other highlight would be our Cruise Facebook group. Um I always join our cruise Facebook group like you know you you learn a lot um like our cool um speedboats in Norway I found through someone mentioned it on our Facebook group. But. 58:28.16 Sam Um. 58:35.16 Sam Um, yeah. 58:43.20 Kelly Maples The um, the guy Larry who ran ours. He was wonderful. Um, it's the best cruise Facebook group I've ever been on. They arranged a um ah Pajama breakfast one day. Um, and I think probably like 80 people went to that he made everyone name tags that look like the key to the world card with their name and like the Disney letters. 58:51.49 Sam Oh fine. 59:01.12 Kelly Maples There were raffles and besides fish extenders. There were ornament exchanges and magnet exchanges. There was a bar crawl. Um, it was really just like the most involved. Um cruise Facebook group I've been in and it it was made it made it really fun. 59:14.61 Sam Wow, that's awesome. We you know we to this day talk about our Southern Caribbean Cruise in 2019 that had also similarly a ah, really active and really fun. You know Facebook group and 2 really great admins. And I have now I have since admin a couple of groups mostly for shorter sailings like on the wish and it's just a ton of work. Um to do all of those things and I am not half as good an admin as I'm going to shout out to rayney and Robin I'm not half as good an admin as they are and it sounds like not half. An admin as this guy Larry was because it's just it really is a huge commitment to do all of you know to arrange all these exchanges and if you arrange things on board obviously on a shorter cruise. Most people don't do arrange activities or group activities on board because there's just so much to do in such a short period of time. But. You know kudos to people who who really do that. It's um I told Brian I'm I'm not doing it again after the I have one I think one more that I'm adminning in for sailing in November and then I'm done with adminning and not because it's it's not fun. It's just it's a lot of work and. 01:00:13.96 Kelly Maples Um, yeah. 01:00:23.60 Sam With a full time job and a podcast and a kid and a husband. It's It's a little more than I need on my plate. Yeah. 01:00:28.36 Kelly Maples It's a lot. Yeah that they even arranged a 5 k with metaldals and they they did a lot are the all the admin people in our group that did a wonderful job and there were raffles I had 1 an Iceland travel book and he custom made coasters. Um, that said the dream crews that I won in a different raffle. Um. He designed t-shirts and sweatshirts and baseball caps that you could order before the crew. So a lot of that like merchwise we ordered those before um, the cruise I have a cute hoodie that has like specific to our sailing on it. So it's really yeah, he really like added a lot of value I think for everybody in the Facebook group. 01:00:48.77 Sam Oh my goodness. 01:01:03.21 dclduo Very cool. 01:01:04.28 Sam That's awesome. Well good on him. Well. 01:01:07.77 dclduo Any more questions sam all right? Well Kelly before I hand you over to Sam for rapid fire I wanted to ask did you actually just as an aside and then I'll ask the question again. Did you say what cruiser doing next year yet 01:01:11.21 Sam Nope I'm good I got it and I'm ready for rabbifire. 01:01:25.15 Kelly Maples Um, so we're we're doing 2 Disney regular cruises. We're just doing um a marvelble day see for 5 nights. Um that kristarstaran came in during spring break. We're going to do the 10 night Southern Caribbean in July and August which I'm looking forward to. 01:01:35.74 Sam Who yes. 01:01:38.67 Kelly Maples Um, especially with lighthouse point and a bunch of stops. We've never been to. But then we're doing that adriatic expedition cruise on adventures by Disney um in June and I'm really very excited about that. 01:01:45.37 Sam Oh. 01:01:50.14 dclduo Okay, let me let me tee that up risk really fast because um, I'm just curious. So um, so Kelly you mentioned at a part of the show. Usually you say this toward the end we ask? What's next and I I know from talking to you off air that you've got quite a bit up, but. Mentioned that you're going back to Europe again and I'm curious. What what? Cruise are you taking back in Europe with with Disney. 01:02:11.80 Kelly Maples So it's not on Disney Cruise line but it's with adventures by Disney and we're going to be doing an adriatic expedition cruise that starts and ends in Venice and then we'll make stops in Croatia montenegro and so Slovania um. 01:02:21.90 dclduo Oh very cool. 01:02:25.30 Kelly Maples So I did say that Mediterranean is hot in the summer but I think on ship and all the access to swimming. It should be really fun. 01:02:31.57 Sam Ah, that sounds amazing. 01:02:31.83 dclduo That's very cool. How but how big is that cruise I'm just curious. Do you know. 01:02:35.23 Kelly Maples Um I I'm not positive. It's um, it's run by pona is a french cruise line I think there's 90 state rooms. But I I'm not positive about that. 01:02:37.79 Sam Who. 01:02:38.31 dclduo Are. That sounds like an awesome itinerary I that that one really interests me so that that sounds like an awesome itinerary. 01:02:44.80 Sam Yeah, they do though? Yeah yeah, you'll definitely have to come back to talk about that I know punant does the ones the galapagos ones that did abd runs as well and then we've had ah Chris. Ah, vorbeck on our show to talk about that. 01:03:01.44 dclduo Well Kelly I think we've reached that point in the show where I need to hand you off to Sam for some arbitrary questions some arbitrary rules and a dash of judgment or the round we call rapid fire so sam take it away. 01:03:12.94 Kelly Maples Um. 01:03:13.44 Sam All right? Kelly I'm Goingnna skip over your general Disney favorites because we asked you that the last time you were on the show and instead we're gonna just focus on your favorites from this cruise and of course I would be remiss if I did not ask you what your favorite stage show was. On the dream on this Iceland itinerary. 01:03:36.80 Kelly Maples Definitely beauty and the beast. Um, not just because I don't want to get in trouble from Sam but because it really was my favorite. 01:03:41.28 Sam Well at least you know what people know now if you are on the dream and you don't answer being in the bees it it better be something special. You know I it would have been. Okay, Kelly if you had answered that amazing violinist because I feel like that's something unique that you don't get another sailings. 01:03:50.43 Kelly Maples Ah. 01:03:58.26 Sam Right? Um, so it's ok to give a different answer than beauty and the beast. But if you tell me your favorite show is um, the Golden Mickey's when you got to compare it against beauty and the beast then you know you know you're gonna you're gonna hear it from me. So I love it all right? What was your favorite rotational dining on this sailing and. 01:04:08.85 Kelly Maples And yeah. 01:04:18.10 Sam I ah will tell folks if you didn't know this but the dream now has animation magic in Animator's palette 01:04:26.30 Kelly Maples I think Animator's palette overall is my favorite but my favorite dessert is still in um, real court. It's that cream brilet um not the creamberla. The yeah grand orna you play. So. 01:04:37.89 Sam Oh yeah yeah I feel like people love those souffles on Disney Cruise yeah I like the amaettto one in ah in Paulo the best. Um, but everyone else loves the chocolate soouuffle everyone else thinks I'm wrong and and says chocolate souffle. So. 01:04:41.16 Kelly Maples Um, yeah. 01:04:52.50 Kelly Maples Um, yeah I like the grammar and anyone better than the chocolate one man. 01:04:54.55 Sam Yeah, you know to each his own right? all right? What was your favorite onboard activity from this sailing. 01:05:04.71 Kelly Maples Um, I think going to the rainforest with my friends and um family. It was so relaxing. We did a little bit every day. Um, that was my neighbor. 01:05:11.27 Sam Nice, what was your favorite adult dining because you did 3 different ones on this cruise. 01:05:19.50 Kelly Maples I Think it was the dessert. The remy dessert party was just that was my favorite I'm a dessert person. So. 01:05:25.35 Sam Awesome! All right? What was your favorite adult bar space. 01:05:34.40 Kelly Maples Ah, meridian that's the little one between like remy and Palo. Yeah. 01:05:36.40 Sam Nice. That's the best. Yep yeah, that's that is the right answer as well. So you can't there. There are other acceptable answers on the dream such as skyline. Um, it's a. 01:05:43.35 Kelly Maples Thank you? um. 01:05:50.14 Sam That's a fantastic one as well. But Meridian is is probably the number one answer I would say what was your favorite. We got to talk food items you know. Obviously you're a dessert person but I want it So I Want to know what was your favorite sweet item on board and it can have been anywhere. It doesn't have to be at the remade dessert party. Um, but yeah, and then I'm going to ask you what your favorite savory item was on Board. So Let's start with suite. 01:06:10.43 Kelly Maples I Think my favorite sweet one would be the cream berlet at remy. 01:06:14.77 Sam Nice and what was your favorite savory item. 01:06:21.35 Kelly Maples Um, the indian food that they um brought to us because there was 5 vegetarians um with us. So every night they would bring indian food off the menu and it was delicious. Every night it's so good. 01:06:34.10 Sam Yes I love that I you know people don't think about this but in it's actually because they serve this food in the crew galley um because they have a ton of people from India and Indonesia and other parts of Asia who eat. You know curries and so if you tell them you like indian food or you like curries they will bring you some and there are obviously a lot more They're always going to have vegetarian options because there's a lot of you know there's a lot of vegetarians in that part of the world and that food is fantastic. I love that answer. Yeah. 01:06:55.23 Kelly Maples Yeah I mean. 01:07:03.65 Kelly Maples Um, is so good. Yeah, so. 01:07:06.87 Sam And oh you know Brian and I are not vegetarians but we have had them bring us you know curries and sometimes usually bring you one vegetarian one non vegetarian and so so so good. Yeah, all right? What? What was your favorite ah port during this because this is. You had some really fantastic ones and obviously really great tours. 01:07:29.45 Kelly Maples It's very hard to say um because I loved all of them. Um I think that Acarari was my favorite day though. 01:07:36.10 Sam Oh I thought you were going to say rate give it? yeah. 01:07:39.19 Kelly Maples Ah, Blue Lagoon I Love Blue Lagoon is like my favorite like individual activity. But overall for the day I think it's that it's a hearts there. It's a close very close. 01:07:48.96 Sam yeah yeah I love it. That's awesome. All right now you have been am I correct in saying you've been on all 5 ships now. Okay, tell me this is obviously ah um, you know this is a debatable question at. 01:07:57.85 Kelly Maples That's right? um. 01:08:05.88 Sam For some not for me Aqua Dunk Aqua Duck Aqua mouse yes you're an originalist as well. I love it all right? even though was cold I love that you you're committed. You're committed. 01:08:10.93 Kelly Maples Um I like the Aqua duck. Best. 01:08:15.75 Kelly Maples Yeah, we and I went on and even on this cruise even though it was cold. You have yeah you have to you just have to yeah. 01:08:24.58 Sam All right? Well again, another this is another you know, debatable question which one is your favorite ship. 01:08:26.59 Kelly Maples Oh. 01:08:33.50 Kelly Maples Ah I think it's still the fantasy just because that's the one we've been on the most and that's the one we were on first but um I like all 4 of the original ships a lot. 01:08:35.72 Sam Okay. Nice I noticed there you say all for the original ships that excludes the wish that's all right? Not It's not for everyone. Yeah, all right fair enough. Ok now you've been to the med. 01:08:48.40 Kelly Maples The the which isn't bad but it's just not my favorite. 01:08:56.82 Sam You've been to Northern Europe you've been on some fantastic itineraries in the caribbean what is your bucket list. Cruise you could go anywhere in the world it it may have changed since the last time we talked but you can go anywhere in the world on a Disney Cruise where are you going. 01:09:06.50 Kelly Maples No. 01:09:13.13 Kelly Maples Um, because I've never been there I'm ah I'm interested in going like Southeast Asia like Vietnam Cambodia those kind of places. 01:09:19.30 Sam Oh yeah, what do you think about the ah this is sort of what I've ended rapid fire. But what do you think about the acquired ship. Um, as we're going to start calling it or the global dream and and it's you know with the. Future sailings out of Singapore was that something that you would be interested in doing and consider doing. 01:09:40.93 Kelly Maples I don't think I would I think if I was going to take all the time and effort to travel that far. Um I'd want to spend the time seeing the country instead of on the on a Disney ship. 01:09:48.48 Sam Um, yeah, totally understand that. Well Kelly why don't um you tell our listeners. You know where they can connect with you I know you've got some Facebook groups that you run, um, that are really cool. And you've got your own travel agency and if if folks want to book with you or connect with you tell us where they can find you. 01:10:07.50 Kelly Maples Sure I'm I'm on Facebook and Instagram at after all travel. Um, we have a blog where we write about not just our Disney travels but travels all over um, at afteratravelvel.com and then probably what's most interesting to your listeners is we have a Facebook group that that we started called dcl spaces in places where we talk about. Cool little spaces on the ship and neat places that all these ships visit. 01:10:28.56 Sam Awesome! Well thanks so much Kelly for coming on this show. We really appreciate it and we hope that you will of course join us again, especially to talk about that amazing abd. 01:10:38.92 dclduo Well and Kelly I think you set off marry you, you're visiting lighthouse point next year which we're definitely going to want to hear from people what they think about lighthouse point in comparison to casway key. So definitely hit us up. We'd love to have you back. 01:10:42.30 Kelly Maples I'd be happy to. 01:10:50.00 Kelly Maples Absolutely thank you so much for having me.