Ep. 369 - Gobble Gobble: The DCL Duo Spend Thanksgiving on the Disney Magic

00:00.00 dclduo Welcome back everybody this week's episode of the DCL duo podcast brought to you by my path unwinding travel and Sam before we dive in. We got to read another review. 00:09.49 Sam Well who I love hearing reviews this time of the day That's true. 00:15.63 dclduo Ah, like hearing reviews any time of day. But this review comes from Logan Writer who writes upested I discovered dcl duo a few weeks ago and have quickly worked my way through the. 00:28.85 dclduo I discovered dcl duo a few weeks ago and have quickly worked my way through many hours of episodes I think my husband might divorce me if I initiate a conversation related to the podcast The only thing I don't like about the podcast is how much it has fueled my dcl obsession which has unhealthy level. On a side note I was shocked to hear that sam chose to sing redneck woman during karaoke on the ship never in 1000000 years would I have guessed she would even know that song let alone choose to sing it for a crowd if a video exists I would love to see it please on an entertaining content. Well thank you Logan writer for that review I can either. Confirmed or deny the redneck woman song being sung at karaoke. Although I do. It's a favor to sams. 01:07.39 Sam Yeah, so Logan um I I understand your shock and surprise you know I am a jewish new yorker so redneck woman is not the first song that comes to mind I think when people think of me. But um I have a voice that was made for country. Let me just put it that way. 01:25.46 Sam And so even though that's not my background I actually think that yeah I think country so suits my voice quite well so it is a favorite of mine at karaoke I also enjoy dolly pardons ah 9 to 5 That's another favorite karaoke song. 01:39.93 dclduo A voice made for country that she's chosen to use in the legal profession instead of making millions as a country pop star there you go there, you have it folks there you have it. But yeah, well, that's for sure. But anyway ah love you honey? Um, all right? So we are here to talk about. 01:45.17 Sam Yeah I listen I'm no I'm no T Swift let's put it that way. 01:57.80 dclduo Our own cruise. No guest this week it's just the 2 of us. Although we might need to grab Nathan to come in and chat about a few things if we can pull him away from roblox this afternoon but we just got back from the Disney Magic a week long seven night Thanksgiving Cruise to the mexican riviera with stops in Porto Val Arta mazzt lawn and combo San Lucas no in sonata in and out of San Diego and ah, yeah, so we wanted to talk all about it I'm going to tell you the theme of this show I've been mulling this over I think the theme of this show for me. Sam is. Has the magic lost its magic a little bit. Um, we do have well we it was a fun cruise. It was a fun cruise I'm not going to deny that but we and some sailing friends of ours had a number of issues on board the magic this time that are. 02:29.68 Sam Oh don't say that Brian this was a very merry time cruise and there was all kinds of magic. 02:44.00 Sam True. 02:46.59 dclduo Leaving me a little concerned about the magic but we're going to focus on the positives First maybe do the nice what we call it the Oreo cookie of feedback. Ah some positives. Yeah some positives maybe a you know a few items of ah constructive feedback and then we'll end on some positives. But. 02:53.42 Sam Yeah sandwich it. 03:03.33 Sam I'm an I'm going to call that a poo sandwich instead of the yeah. 03:04.96 dclduo Now poo sandwich there we go there. We go well. Ah, we did not record as we normally do on board just because I think Sam and I both needed a break from that on this cruise we really needed some time to relax and rest. It's been a hectic couple of months for us. So this is a postgame wrap up in the vein of a normal trip report that we're going to do. Ah, we won't go day by day as we would if we had recorded it on board and instead we're going to hit some of the highlights and themes want to start by saying love love love sailing out of San Diego I I really hope that disney does not completely abandon these San Diego cruises I know. 03:32.38 Sam Yes. 03:39.43 dclduo Ah, they're not on the schedule for so what? Ah fall twenty twenty five or sorry fall 2024 currently they are back on the schedule for spring twenty twenty five. 03:50.38 Sam Right in between the Alaska season and the New Zealand Australia season so there definitely are some sailings in 2025 but we don't know if either the magic or the wonder will be sailing out of San Diego in fall of 2025 because we know fall twenty twenty four. There is no ship. There. 04:08.32 dclduo Right? So hoping they come back because we really enjoy just the two and a half hour flight down the coast to San Diego San Diego is a fantastic city to sail in and out of lots of great hotels right? there on the waterfront across from the cruise terminal. Lots of great food in little italy. 04:23.90 Sam Yep. 04:26.50 dclduo We went to the zoo this time pre cruise which was a blast had a fabulous dinner at a new spot that we tried out right? Sam. 04:32.69 Sam Yes, we ate. It's not new, but new to us. But it's called juniper and ivy and it's one of Richard Blaze's restaurants for those of you who watch top chef so Richard Blaze from top chef. Fame ah, he we actually have eaten at his crack shack if you've listened to some of our previous episodes which was a is a fast casual fried chicken place. But this week this time we actually got to go to a sit down restaurant with a friend of ours and his folks actually watched his kids plus Nathan so we got an adult's only. 05:05.24 dclduo Yeah, there was a fabulous meal. Highly recommend juniper and ivy highly recommend a lot of the restaurants in little italy we've had some fabulous meals there too. And yeah, you can head back in our back catalog to some of our other San Diego ceilings if you want to hear some of our favorites there in San Diego juniper and ivy was the new edition for us. 05:05.43 Sam Ah, date night dinner with a friend. It was really nice. 05:22.90 dclduo This time around as was the san diegos zoo I know we've both been in the past separately Sam but wow yeah, what a great. What a great way to spend a day. What a great way to spend a day. So yeah and I think we only spent a couple hours but ah, but yeah. 05:28.18 Sam Yep, but many years many many years ago. Yeah, such a huge huge place. Yeah oh yeah. 05:41.53 Sam Yeah, sorry I Just thought you were I. 05:41.73 dclduo Are you still there sam no I thought you're going to talk? Ok um, all right. We did stay characteristically all right? We did stay at our customary favorites hotel the spring hill suites which is literally across the street from the ah the cruise terminal there. Maybe 2 or 3 other hotels that are within walking to the cruise terminal but we got to start with 1 complication that we had in San Diego which was that Disney was not the only ship at the pier this time around right? Sam. 06:11.58 Sam That's right Holland america had a ship. Um, what is it called the something coning's dam yes and actually our friends who we had our friend who we had dinner with whose kids were hanging out with our son Nathan they were actually headed onto the conings dam the conings dam. 06:13.51 dclduo The Conings dam I think it was. 06:28.79 Sam Ah, did not get the priority spot Disney had the priority spot right next to the terminal. Um, but yeah, it was a little bit of chaos as figuring out which lines we were supposed to get in for you know luggage drop off and check-in and all of that because both ships were. Um, headed out on the same day from obviously San Diego the code exam had a very interesting interesting itinerary though it was headed to um, it was headed to catalina but then all the way up to San Francisco and then back down to hit and sonata and then back to San Diego so it also had a seven night itinerary which means we had debarcation on the same day as the cone exam as well. So definitely, um, not as good of a port experience when there's 2 ships. It's just a little bit more hectic. There. Um with folks directing traffic and whatnot. 07:18.32 dclduo Yeah, yeah, ah, we had conciur sailing this time. So I don't want to comment on the boarding process because it's unfair for us to talk about it because we kind of breeze right through the first line into the basically the way it sit up in San Diego they've got. Lines outside the terminal for port arrival times they have a specific line for concierge so we were first to get into the terminal get checked in I can imagine that there were a lot of holdups throughout the day just because there was a combined line for security is between Holland america and the disney magic ah the terminal which would normally be dedicated to boarding the disney magic was cut in half in terms of seating for both the holland america coning's dam and the magic and so I have a feeling that terminal got really crowded and that was evidenced by. Our first day departure time right? Sam. 08:12.57 Sam Yes, absolutely we were supposed to leave ah what around like 4 30 or 5 but we were delayed by what like an hour hou hour hou hour and a half. 08:19.50 dclduo Yeah, maybe even up to 2 hours I think they did the well we had muster drill it 4 or 15 wasn't it or four o'clock four o'clock yeah and then normally the ship would depart around four forty five or five o'clock and I'm not sure she really pulled away until closer to 7 in the evening. 08:27.14 Sam It was at 4 Yeah. 08:38.62 dclduo I think it was right after dinner. Maybe right before dinner I can't recall. But anyway I definitely delayed a friend of ours who was sailing with us shout out to ah Craig and Kelly morll out there ah said that they were loading up rolls of carpet. Ah long links of pipe. 08:41.32 Sam Me. 08:55.77 dclduo And some other things So there's it seems like there was a lengthy delay in getting the ship re provisioned and getting some materials on board. Perhaps if they needed to make repairs which may come into play in the middle of our sandwich conversation today. So ah yeah. 09:01.61 Sam Um. 09:06.14 Sam Yeah, hey 1 1 thing I wanted to mention about embarkation is we actually this was the first time this ever happened but I actually saw one of the cast members the port cast members choosing the family of the day they happened to be sailing concierge as well. 09:21.76 dclduo Um. 09:25.45 Sam And um, I ended up talking to them after and they've actually become friends of ours now I'm not going to mention their names here now. Um, but I did find out from their youngest who apparently is not good at keeping secrets. But after they got to board the ship. They got a personal interaction with. The big cheese himself. Mr. Mickey Mouse yes well I'm going to talk about them later on I want to give him a shout out later on in the show. 09:42.21 dclduo Yes, yes, it was that Chris Sam yeah we we can say their first names can't we. We can give a shadow now I'll just it like yeah, just yeah, good. 09:57.66 Sam Okay, let me redo that then so one thing I wanted to mention about embarcation and marcation day. That's a little bit new for us is that for the first time ever. We actually saw a port cast member choosing and welcoming the family of the day meaning they we saw them being selected as the family of the day and um, they happened to be selling concierge shout out to Chris and Aaron and their girls piper and ingrid. And ended up finding out from talking to them. You know quite a bit on board. Um, that there's a ah I guess a big secret. Not so much of a secret as their youngest spilled the beans. Um that after the family of the day boards at least on this sailing. They got a personal interaction solo. With the big cheese himself. Mr. Mickey Mouse 10:50.40 dclduo Nice yes and ah big shout out to Chris I'll just call him out now we may talk about this a little bit more here in the show but big shout out to Chris for teaching us lana. Yeah, we played a little lanna on board and ah yeah, more to come on that I suppose but. Sam let's break this down in terms of some of the special stuff special activities on board the dining that sort of thing. So let's start off with this was a combined Thanksgiving and very merry time cruise. So the atrium was decked out. 11:11.24 Sam Yep. 11:17.80 Sam Yes, the atrium was gorgeous with all of the garlands and throughout the ship there were garlands you know decorations for Christmas for this being a a maritime themed cruise of course a huge tree in the atrium. As well as a large gingerbread house in the atrium. So really, what we've expect. We've come to expect on the classic ships when I say the classic ships I'm actually talking about the the first four. So the the magic the wonder the dream and the fantasy a large tree and a large gingerbread house I say. The classic ships as opposed to the wish which also has a very large tree but has this small gingerbread house thing on a table so it's more of a gingerbread sculpture rather than a gingerbread house. Yeah, it was really beautiful I thought the Christmas decorations were on point. I will say I did not see really any other holiday decorations. Um I e you know Hanukkah or kwanza. But I really don't expect them anymore because it's just the world we live in so um, beautiful decorations all throughout the ship. Um, really nice. Ah for some Christmas cheer especially over you know a holiday week. 12:29.14 dclduo Yes, and when you had some fun activities on board him you went to the well we were all at the tree lighting kind of but you saw it and it was It was packed like that Itrium was packed. 12:38.62 Sam Yes, yes, so the 1 my 1 complaint about the tree lighting is that it was only done once on the cruise and I I know that sounds silly of course why would you light the tree twice but. It was done in between the dinner seatings. So it was done in the first night in between early and and late dining so at seven thirty so there was actually um, no mainst stage ah theater show or actually no there was it was just a variety act that night but there wasn't one of the um one of the standard ah main stage shows that night in between dinary dining rotations. They had the tree lighting. So the you know the characters ah came out. It was the fab 5 characters and they did a countdown and and lit up the tree and it was really beautiful and it was really nice. Um ceremony and a little bit of you know, dancing from the characters. But it was very very crowded. So finding a a spot with a good view was hard unless you got there early unfortunately I couldn't get there early I raced from dinner to get there. Um hour we had a great dining team this this time around I'm just going to shout out to abriil and satorka so abri from. Mexico such toica from Indonesia but it's such an amazing dining team but despite having an amazing dining team. Dinner is not short and so you know I ran from you know a 7 fifteen I think it was ah from animators to the atrium. 14:03.39 Sam And you know had to sort of squeeze my way into a spot to get any kind of view so I did get some video. Um it was quite fun. But I just wish that it wasn't so difficult to get there if you had late dining. It probably be easier but you'd have to skip the show. That's the only issue. So yeah. 14:17.67 dclduo Sam throw elbows in the theater. How many children should you shove down to get a good seat fan. 14:23.00 Sam And no I did not throw any elbows I did hear about people throwing elbows in the theaters and whatnot. But um, you know I got lucky while we were lucky in that when you're if you're sailing concierge. You can get into the theater early. Um, but you've got to be like e o gill's or wherever the meeting spot is like 45 minutes before the show starts. So you've got to be early anyway, you could probably get just as good a seating if you were um, just early for the show and right there when they opened the doors which is about 30 minutes before so yeah I mean I there was no, there were no children harmed at least not by me. But you're talking holiday activities right? So you want. Do you want to stick on that Brian. 15:01.45 dclduo Yeah I was just going to comment really fast. We did have early dining which you just mentioned Salmon I will say still not my favorite dining slot. Ah nor normally I don't like early dining because I or I should say I prefer late dining because I can get extra pool time in when the pool has kind of cleared out. 15:07.12 Sam Same. 15:17.65 dclduo Ah, that wouldn't have been in play this ceiling because it got super dark by five o'clock thanks to daylight savings. Yeah, it was cooler. It was definitely cooler sailing but I always left dining feeling like I want to do something but I don't know what I want to do and you know Sam would normally head to the show. 15:20.52 Sam Yeah, and colder. 15:33.66 Sam Um, but there was still like an hour between sometimes yeah. 15:34.69 dclduo Um, I Just you know it? Yeah, it just it felt like there wasn't just I don't know I just didn't feel like I look we have late dining. It's like we'relieving late dining and it's either a choice of adult show or head to bed and it feels late enough you could head to bed but early dining. I Don't know I found myself back in the stateroom watching the On-deman Tv a few times. So yeah. 15:54.87 Sam Yeah I agree and and the reason to be clear. The reason we chose to do early dining this time around is our friends that joined us they live on the East Coast and they already need to do early dining when they're on the East Coast because their kids um go to. Bed you know on the early side and so it's just too. It's hard for them to keep their kids out for late dining now this for them would have been even you know 3 hours even later because of the time difference and so we opted for early dining so that it wouldn't be you know Eleven o'clock at night for their kids to be eating. Basically so you know it. 16:09.64 dclduo Yeah. 16:21.93 dclduo Yeah, yeah, was was happy to do it but it just confirmed my I prefer later dining. So yeah. 16:30.41 Sam Yeah, agreed, especially if we're selling East Coast and so this wasn't as bad because we were sailing from the west coast but you know talking about um the holiday activities a little bit. Um I would say there weren't a. Ton of holiday activities. There were there were some holiday crafts that happened on board I didn't do any of the crafts but there were um holiday crafts. There was um, ah storytelling with Mrs Clause which I have done on a previous mar time sailing. So I didn't go to it. Ah, this time the the previous time I had done. It was just Mrs Clause reading a couple of books one being the night before Christmas and then I can't remember what the other story was but another sort of Christmas ah Christmas story. So um, there were long lines to get into d lounge for that activity that activity did happen several times across the cruise. But unfortunately a couple of times when it was happening were afternoons on port days and so you know those times were sort of difficult if you had a longer port excursion but I would say you know the big. Ah well there were also times to meet and greet with Santa but um. They happened a few times on the cruise and then they were supposed to happen 2 more times on the cruise on the last two full days but those got canceled and more on that I won't won't spoil. Ah, the reason why because I know we're going to talk about that but those meet and greets got canceled and so we. 17:56.88 Sam Did not actually get to meet and take a picture in front of the tree with Santa so I would say that was 1 kind of disappointment but the big holiday activity or the new holiday activity was a new holiday deck party. So it was mickey a minnie's. Holiday party I think is what it was called and it was a really fun deck show with a lot of live singing and dancing from the mainstage cast along with you know the the fab 5 characters I thought it was a great new deck party. What did you think about it. Brian. 18:30.99 dclduo Yeah I thought it was a fun deck party I mean I'm still of the camp. Once you've seen one Disney Deck party you've seen them all I know that some people I know that some well but I mean it's just it's characters and outfits with cast members I mean this one felt like it had a little bit more I don't know like. 18:39.73 Sam Ah, this one was different. Ah. 18:49.30 dclduo The costumes seemed a lot better than what I've seen in the past the the quality, the quality of the cast members I mean the cast members are always fabulous, but this this felt a cut above in terms of some of the singing and dancing that was going on on the stage. So yeah, it was good. Lots of snope. You know just to to get everybody ah in the Christmas spirit. Um. 18:50.30 Sam Yeah, they were new. Yeah. 19:03.91 Sam Yeah. 19:08.23 dclduo But it was it. It was a 15 minute deck show and then there was a big dance party after that we didn't stay for. So yeah. 19:11.48 Sam Yeah I will say one of the things I noticed that was different so a lot of the times. Ah the deck parties like the sail away party is most most of the folks um in the salaway party are part of the onboard entertainment staff. Not the main stage cast and so. They are you know they'll be dancing and they'll hype you up and whatnot. But they're not like singing whereas this de party included the mainstage actors. Um, and so there was actually live singing going on. Um as well as some you know they were singing along to a track. But. I thought that this woman was of a higher caliber as far as the you know dancing and singing because you have you know, trained actors performing. So. It's a little bit different than sort of cruise entertainment staff who most of whom can can dance but they're not um, they're just not the same. Caliber dancers and singers right? So anyway I I thought this was a better deck party than normal and the costumes both for the cast members as well as the characters were new and I thought really fun. So I gave I give this one a big 2 thumbs up for holiday entertainment. But I would say. That was pretty much it for the holiday entertainment other than of course the characters being dressed up in their holiday. Best on I'll call this holiday night so the night before Thanksgiving so Wednesday night of Thanksgiving week was when most of the holiday activities happened. Um. 20:41.79 Sam Not the tree lighting because that happened the first night but it was the the deck party as well as characters in their Halloween in their Halloween and their maritime costumes so that day which was you know most of the afternoon because we were at port that day. Um at I believe mazzolon. Um, the characters were out doing their meet and greets in their holiday attire and I point this out to say the other days they were not wearing their holiday attire. So folks who have who have never been on a maritime cruise just because it's a maritime cruise does not mean the characters will be in their holiday attire the entire week they will be in their holiday attire usually on a specified. Day. They all had new holiday attire and interestingly enough different holiday attire than what they were wearing in the deck show. So there were basically 2 different outfits that each character had 1 for the deck show and one for their meet and greets on board as opposed to on Thanksgiving night the characters were wearing their formal wear. So um, they had you know tuxedos and tails and whatnot so very very cute costumes throughout the cruise. Of course you know the first day. It's their typical you know sailing stuff. Um there. The I think the first night they were wearing. Um. Their regular formal attire. Let me call it that ah they had pirate costumes for pirate night. They had Christmas costumes for holiday night. They had different formal wear for Thanksgiving night and then they were back to their I'll call it sailing attire so lots of different opportunities to take pictures with characters. 22:16.43 Sam In different costumes as well as there were some Marvel characters on board. This was not a Marvel day at Sea Cruise of course, but there was um, a couple of days where we there were character meet and greets with um with Marvel characters. 22:29.00 dclduo Yeah, and we should say this was also a Thanksgiving cruise but the only real special activity for Thanksgiving beyond maybe some arts and crafts things that were going on is dinner that evening. They don't have Mickey and many are the characters out in some kind of Thanksgiving outfit. 22:41.69 Sam Yep. 22:45.76 Sam Correct. 22:46.68 dclduo Used to do that. But I think that they are deemed to be sort of somewhat culturally insensitive now and so they don't put them in those outfits anymore? No so yeah, no, no special deck party for Thanksgiving nothing in the atrium that we saw so you know I'm sure that there were kids club activities and other activities. You know. 22:52.66 Sam Right? No pilgrim or Native American Costumes no. 23:05.70 dclduo Make a handprint turkey that kind of thing but um, really, it's dinner that evening which we'll talk about in a few minutes so I do think we should pause here to talk about ah what help what happened on board from a health standpoint because that impacted some of the christmas. Are the the very maritime activities in particular Santa Claus was not available to us on the last day when we got dressed up in our jammies to go get pictures with ah Santa and Mrs clause so you would talk about what happened about halfway through the cruise. 23:26.32 Sam Yep yep yep. 23:36.62 Sam Yes, so when we got back from or I guess it was our I'm trying to remember which night this was this was um, thanks. 23:42.85 dclduo Well we should. We should maybe clarify to the itinerary here was CDayCDayMose law okay port of a Arta Mae law cabo c day San Diego 23:50.78 Sam No puerto vi artto is first. 23:57.83 Sam Correct so on I'm trying to remember if it was mast law night or if it was per of our art night or sorry Mae one or um cabo san lucas night. Ok. 24:09.51 dclduo It would have been before cabo san Lucas I'm pretty sure. 24:15.92 Sam So on masset long night which was the ah that was actually holiday night. There. What we noticed a difference between before dinner and after dinner and what that difference was was that the. Character handlers who will normally take a photo for you with your own camera told us after dinner. So before dinner they had taken photos of me with my camera or with my phone in addition to the photographer taking you know, professional photos with their camera. But after dinner when I went and saw the exact same character handlers with a different character. Um, they would not take my phone. They would not take guest phones to take pictures so immediately because Brian and I of course know that these are health protocols when they do things like that. There is something going on. There is either you know covid or some kind of virus that has the numbers have you know spiked and so they have instituted certain protocols by the next day you could not serve yourself at cabana's you could not serve yourself food in the concierge lounge. You could not get yourself a coffee ah on at the concierge lounge. You could not get yourself soda or ice cream or coffee or anything on the pool deck everything became cast member served. 25:42.12 Sam There were not masks instituted although some cast members are a handful of cast members that wear masks but most of them don't um and then actually our friends. Their daughter got sick the next day. Ah violently throwing up. Basically this that night 25:55.76 dclduo Yes, so it was it was it was norovirus. Ah there was a norvirus outbreak on board. It was not covid and so we heard lots of stories of people becoming violently ill for 24 hours and having to quarantine and get some help from the medical center. We heard from our friends. 26:00.30 Sam Exactly. 26:13.77 dclduo Whose daughter fell prey to it that the medical center was completely overwhelmed. Um. 26:20.30 Sam Yep, and it was mostly people vomiting but I did hear there were a lot of people who had both vomiting and diarrhea. You're welcome. Yeah. 26:25.66 dclduo Well thank you for that added element and dimension of the discussion here sam apologies to those driving with their kids who are now like yuck. Ah, but I will say so great. Kudos to Disney for instituting protocols on the ship to try to bring. Cases back under control there. They were clearly sanitizing really enforcing handwashing and hand wiping Sam mentioned all the ways. The crew were self-serving. We noticed it did impact service in some of the venues because ah it was also running through the crew at the same time it was running through the passengers and so main dining. Ah, was understaffed and they were having to pull staff in from Palo to make up for that shortage or Palo was getting shifted more into cabanas like they were they were trying to keep up with what was going on onboard in terms of staffing santa. 27:01.32 Sam Yep. 27:15.47 dclduo Pray to it. We heard ah from someone that Santa fell down the stairs in his costume and don't know if that was related to him being sick or not but Santa was taken off the schedule. Ah the shows in rapunzs were impacted so we didn't get the lantern show or we got half of we. 27:17.63 Sam Yep. 27:26.65 Sam We yep it. We didn't get the full show. Yeah, we got the beginning of it correct. 27:34.62 dclduo Yeah, we got half. Well we got half of it the late sit seating. Got none of it. Ah so so it impacted the show there. So anyway, ah kudos to Disney for putting protocols in place here's the 2 things I'm going to offer as some constructive feedback to Disney one of them is really not new. Ah, but was frustrating even during covid ah, but 1 of them is something I've never really seen them do which is it's apparent to everyone on board that something's going on but there was no announcement made nothing in no message in the app. Nothing like that and I think when you have an outbreak like this going on that is. 28:04.52 Sam Um. 28:10.49 dclduo I Don't want to say easily solved but at least easily reduced and mitigated by people doing things like washing hands staying in their cabins if they're not feeling well like those sorts of issues telling people. What's going on so they can take more precautions themselves I think. Would it be helpful ah to know if I wash my hands more I might not get this Thing. We did hear some people saying well they weren't sure if it was food poisoning so they left their cabins right? and it wasn't food poisoning and so um, when that happens it's It's really best to I think let people know what's going on so they can take some precautions. 28:28.41 Sam Yep. 28:36.33 Sam Yeah. 28:45.62 dclduo The the thing that Disney has sort of it seems like done even during covid and that we heard from our friends is if people were ill and they went to the health center. They're basically being given this you know impossible option of well if we test you and it comes back. Positive. Ah then you know it's at our expense blah blah blah. But if we test you and it comes back negative. Then it's at your expense I do not think it is right? They did this during covered to to Sam and and and Nathan I think at one point where was like well if we give you a covered test. It's and it's positive. It's free. But if it's not you're paying for it and I look at that and go you want people to report you you like. 29:04.98 Sam Um, yeah. 29:20.60 Sam Right? And to self quarantine if you're not doing you know they don't have the protocols they had during Covid where they quarantine me right? They don't have that going on anymore. Um, at least they didn't if they do Yeah, it's self monitor. 29:22.45 dclduo Yeah. 29:31.80 dclduo Yeah, it's all it's all self. It's set. Well it's self quarantine in your room they will They do send email around to different venues so you can't like still check your kid into the kids Club. They'll get flagged. Ah you can't get off the ship in Port If you're still under quarantine and So. Ah, they will flack you if you try to disembark from the ship. 29:47.22 Sam But they don't keep you from going to dinner. They don't keep you I mean they sort of expect you to it's on your honor as far as activities around the ship and and going to the dining room and things like that I don't think so. 29:55.17 dclduo Um, they they might say something to you at dinner I mean they might they might have said something to you at dinner. Ah. 30:02.31 Sam I don't think so because our stateroom our our stateroom or our servers did not know that um 2 from our party why they weren't joining us for dinner we had to tell them that night so I yeah 30:10.61 dclduo Yeah, but anyway I I think Disney like I I actually think what's going on here is disney doesn't want to know because they don't want to have to report to the Cdc and blah blah blah and I just say that is not a good strategy Disney like tell people what's going on on board. 30:20.42 Sam Yep. 30:26.80 dclduo And enable testing to figure out if someone's you know sick because they have norovirus so that people can get the right medications and and all of that sort of stuff so that's why 2 pieces of constructive feedback for Disney we managed to largely knock on wood I mean we would have been ill by now if we'd got noroirs. But so none of us got it thankfully. 30:34.42 Sam Yeah. 30:47.00 dclduo Of their friends. You know party of 4 I think only one of them got it so you know but we saw lists of people our Facebook group talking about? Yeah yeah, so anyway, um so anyway, that's constructive feedback number number one I suppose but Sam let's talk about some stage shows. So. 30:52.50 Sam Yep, in our Facebook group. Yeah. 31:02.25 Sam Yep. Are you talking about me or you talking about the main stage. 31:05.80 dclduo We didn't make it. 31:10.00 dclduo Ah, but we'll get to your ah booty shaking in a second. Um I went up at the mains stage. So Sam I so full disclosure I made it to exactly zero stage shows on this ship I am not your roving Broadway reporter that is Sam. 31:16.55 Sam Um, sure. Yeah yeah. 31:24.92 Sam Yeah, yeah. 31:26.15 dclduo Ah, Sam did not go to all of the stage shows ah 1 in particular that we missed that we really wanted to see was Taylor Mason and we just didn't make it out to see him. He has been on the show before fantastic fantastic variety act. He's a. Ventriloquist and comedian and just all around great performer and and we did not and we did not make it to the magic act but we heard amazing things about the close up magician. 31:42.14 Sam And sings and plays piano. And yeah, he's fantastic. Anyway, he. 31:52.50 Sam Well I did see him though. So let me let me go through what the the shows were because I wrote down the so this was 7 nights right? So night one Taylor Mason night 2 was twice charmed which is a twist on the cinderella story night 3 was Eric Jones who performed magic. Night four which which was pirate night was actually wish the new movie premiered in the Walt Disney theater it was the night before it was coming out on land so we had it on board in the in the main Walt Disney theater we did not go see that night five was Ivan Skinfield's fantastic show. He is a juggler. Night. 6 was tangled of course the Rapunzel story and night seven was Disney dreams which as folks who have been on Disney Cruise line before may know it but it is a ah a story that was created or a show that was created for Disney Cruise line using um songs from various. Ah. Movies for in the Disney catalog I did not go to any of the variety acts in the main stage but I did go see Eric Jones do magic in his ah the adult show in fathoms. He was fantastic. He's been on. Um, pen pen and Teller's show and he has fooled them twice. Ah, so both times he was on he fooled them. He is a amazing ah close up magician just really fantastic. Not just card tricks but all kinds of stuff. Um, no, he'd been on I think he's I think they've only had. 33:17.31 dclduo I thought he I thought they said he'd been on 4 times that he'd fooled them 4 times. 33:26.54 Sam People on twice but he also did like America's got talent. He's done a bunch of these various shows and yeah, anyway, he's he's really, really, really just top notch. Fantastic if you get to see him on board a ship or anywhere else. It is a treat. Um, so I was happy to go see him do that I miss the juggler. And as you mentioned we did not we missed Taylor Mason as well. Um, and I didn't go see wish or to pirate night deck party or anything because we were in Paulo that night but I do want to talk about twice charmed tangled and Disney dreams because. I've seen them before this was only my second time seeing twice charmed um, because it's only on longer sailings on the magic and it's a really fun show. I'm really glad I got to see it again, but tangled was just especially good on the sailing. And I have to say it's giving beauty and a beast a beauty and the beast a run for its money. This was such a good production of tangled I mean it. It always is but this cast was just especially fantastic. So really wonderful if you get the chance to on the Disney Magic sea tangled and I would actually say Disney dreams was also particularly good on this sailing. Um Disney dreams is on the magic but it's also on I think on the wonder if I'm not correct if I'm correct on that anyway, really it was a ah wonderful show and so I have to give. 34:54.59 Sam Lots of kudos to mainstage entertainment on the Disney magic for just a fantastic bunch of shows and 1 other thing that I got to go to which was Gail Bennett who is the broadway visiting performer she was lady trymaine and twice charmed and she was. Mother gothel entangled and she did ah performance in fathoms. They call it songs forever after on the last full day in between the dinner seatings and gosh darn. It. She is so good I was floored by her voice. She was actually um, ah. Ah Mary Poppins in the in the I believe the national tour or the broadway show I can't remember but anyway she was. She's fantastic. So shout out to Gail Bennett for just a wonderful wonderful show in fathoms on that last day 35:48.61 dclduo All right? Well is that everything on show Sam anything else you want to cover you we or do we head to booty shaking now. 35:56.41 Sam I guess we have to head to booty shaking. So um, so what? I'll tell folks is ah there was before the Eric Jones adult magic show. There were some games going on in fathoms and I I got there kind of in the middle of them and so there was a game going on on the stage they had been doing I think intuitions is what they called the first game show but they'd been doing various games tisa who used to be the club host but now is just part of ah entertainment staff. On the magic. Um because I don't have a club host role anymore was leading and she asked for 2 people who had not participated in any of the adult games and our friends Chris and eraron started shouting and pointing at me and so I stood up and got on stage. Little did I know that I was going to be engaged in a head to head dance off competition something I am of course very well suited for that as I'm I'm joking I I am not a trained dancer by any means I I did musical theater and stuff when I was a kid but. I never had any formal dance training other than a couple of years of ballet when I was in like you know preschool and I hated it so much that I quit. Um, so anyway, ah they what it was was a when I say head to head dance off they played songs. 37:21.22 Sam And there was a curtain between me and my opponents we couldn't see each other and we were supposed to do whatever the song was whatever the dance was that went with the song. So like the Mockerina I kid you not the chicken dance. Um you know and and stuff like that. So ah vogue came on of course Madonna's vogue um and I yeah I killed it. Let me just put it that way I had like very very loud. Cheers my um, opponent got almost you know or very few cheers other than the friends that she was there with and I no she she did not. 37:49.50 dclduo Did did she get but did she get boot off stage like Eminem Sam she okay all right did not all right. 37:56.44 Sam No, people were friendly. She did not get boot off stage. But apparently she was doing a lot of just jumping around because she didn't know the she didn't know the dances. So yeah, yeah, so yeah house of pain. Yeah anyway, so she she didn't know of the dances and I knew you know. 38:02.48 dclduo Crisscross She's doing crisscross right? Nope brown right? No no, that's house of pain I don't remember. 38:15.10 Sam All of the dances took me a minute to get ah let me whip and let me name a you know whip Withp me name anyway. So you yeah, you don't know that. Okay, well anyway that one I that one was the one. It took me a second to remember what that was um and how it how it goes. But anyway I got them all. Yeah. 38:19.91 dclduo I Have no idea what you're talking about. So so yeah. 38:33.60 Sam I had to do the gangham style dance so that was fun. Yeah yeah, it was ah it was ridiculous I made a total fool of myself. But I won and I walked away with some prizes so you know some Disney Cruise line swag regardless yeah regardless. 38:35.42 dclduo Nice. 38:45.70 dclduo Sam you're prone to making a total fool of yourself at any Maven moment. Yeah so I'm glad that you were acknowledged for your Tom Foolery um adored by the crowd as you are by every listener of this podcast because you know you need more accolades in your life. You really do. 38:52.70 Sam Yes, that's. 39:00.30 Sam That's right that's right I will say this is going to be I'm going to give a little plug for Patreon right now if I can Brett and so if you join our you know patreons and help support this show and. You will get to join our Patreon Facebook group and there that is the exclusive place to see about 30 seconds of footage of me dancing ridiculously to the chicken dance. So I'm just going to put that out there. 39:24.11 dclduo I'm not sure that sells Patreon but ah, you know folks you you can decide but there you go you get access to a Patreon Facebook group. You can see sam shake her booty. So there you go all right? Well we got to move on Sam We got to move on. We got a lot more to cover here. Um, why don't we talk a little bit about. 39:28.22 Sam Ah, that's right. 39:41.37 dclduo What do you want to do food all right? Let's do excursions I have got up our our price list for our excursions so we can talk about those. So let's start first with port of Iarda we did. 39:42.00 Sam Now let's do excursions first. 39:49.28 Sam Oh good. 39:54.71 dclduo PVO 3 p v o 3 anyone have a bingo out there now I'm kidding that is the number of the excursion that you can find on the Disney Cruise line website. Ah it was paradise beach adventure and porto vi artta just so you know this cost $87 for an adult $44 for a child. We. It was an all inclusive resort day basically or a resort few hours I guess I would say we got off the ship in port of a artta it was a dock. It was not a tender boarded a bus a coach bus and were driven about thirty thirty five minutes from the port to. 40:18.76 Sam Here. 40:29.30 Sam Yeah, but I say about 30 minutes this was the short this was a shorter drive than or mazel on. 40:34.30 dclduo Yeah, so we're driven to a resort hotel The resort hotel had I get we were given wristbands. We got access to I think it was 3 different pools one of which was adult only so really 2 different pools. They did have direct beach access and then. Drinks were included including alcoholic beverages for adults. All food was included on board are sorry at the resort. Um, there was a splash pad area for kids a small one. Ah, we did take some video of this excursion so we might put that out up online I was testing a new camera we have for upcoming adventures by disney so I'm not sure if it worked the way I wanted it to but may have that out up online say what were your overall impressions and then this is another. Place where I have some feedback about these all inclusive resort adventures. Although we might want to talk about the second one before I give this feedback. 41:24.80 Sam Yeah, so sorry excuse me. Yeah I mean it was it was ok. It wasn't like my favorite resort ever. Let me put it that way we were at the marvelval vacation beach club I think it was called um in puerto vi artta and or in nuevo vi artta um, it was. It was fine. It wasn't like the nicest resort I've ever been to. But I would say it was a it was a decently nice resort. Um, the drinks as you mentioned were included um, the food was included I didn't think the food was that great and that's. In part because they didn't lean into mexican food like they were trying to serve like more american food and I just wish that we could have gotten some good tacos there I know that was something you were kind of hoping for um this was a I think a pretty resort it looks but like most of these resorts they look better in pictures than they do in person. Um, the beach was nice. Um like most of the beaches in Mexico or at least the ones we've been to at resorts. Um, there is an area of the beach that is part of the resort and then there is a rope and then the rest of the beach is public and so the vendors selling stuff can't come into the private part of the beach but they can if you go down by the water. Um, I will say the water here was not as nice. It wasn't as clear or wasn't clear at all. It was mostly murky. Um and the waves were pretty um, pretty rough. So this was not great for beach swimming. So we really spent our time so swimming at the pool. 42:58.55 Sam Um, there were a couple of I'll call them water slides but they were little kid water slides like as you mentioned at this splash pad area so they were not water slides that I mean Nathan could go on them and he did go in them a couple times but they were not like thrill water slides. There was no real water park. This was a little kid. Water park water slide. So I would say um, young elementary age. Kids is what this their little water park was good for and then they had a little splash area and even smaller waterslide for like the little babies and toddlers. So it was. It was a nice um day. But. It's not It's this is kind of a one and done I would say for me. 43:34.91 dclduo Yeah, let's get out on the table the second resort da second because we did a second one of these in mozzet lawn and that one was yes MZ 26 all inclusive beach resort is the title. 43:45.88 Sam Yep MZ 26 43:54.38 dclduo It is $81 for a child and one hundred and twenty one dollars for an adult so more expensive than the first resort for this one. We exit the ship and we border it and for this one we exited the ship and boarded an open air double decker. 44:05.38 Sam Yep. 44:13.69 Sam And yep. 44:14.13 dclduo Bus So the top was totally exposed and the interior of the bus also was windowless so like it you know you were sitting with the open air. Ah oh very easily. 44:21.51 Sam Yeah, so your phone could have fallen out very easily and and my hat actually did fly off at 1 point. Thankfully it flew off into the bus and not off out of the bus but I was wearing yep. 44:32.54 dclduo Yes, we were bust we were bust 45 minutes from the port ah, a leisurely pace on the way out because they were trying to do kind of a tour at the same time but about 45 minutes from the port. Over to this resort on the far side of mazit law in an area that looks like it's being built up is a little bit newer. Ah here. Yeah here here we arrived, we're shuttled in with a welcome drink had to wait in a room which I have some feedback about that in a second. 44:51.29 Sam Yes, definitely newer area. The Reu Emerald Bay was what it was called. 45:03.39 dclduo Ah, had access again to pools All food was included all beverages were included. This one had a waterslide water park. Um, unfortunately here so lot more pools. There were definitely more pools. You could take advantage of yeah. 45:09.71 Sam Yeah, oh much many more. This was a much this was a much larger resort with I don't even know how many pools at least 5 like large pools and then a couple of adult only pools with swim up. Bars and then it had a splash pad water park area for the little kids and then a bigger water slidede water park area for adults and and bigger kids. No. Yep yeah. 45:36.93 dclduo But none of the pools were heated. None of them were heated and they the weather that day was not fantastic in and the morning it was pretty overcast so we weren't getting that nice Mexican sun to heat everything up and so those pools were. Cold cold cold including there was an adult pool that looked like it had hot tubs in it but turns out it was just bubbling the water they were freezing. Um I will say for my part on this one once the sun came out the pools were kind of nice. Um it was also nice. They gave us cards to get towels from the resort which I'll talk about that. 45:58.36 Sam Jump. 46:12.57 dclduo In a second the towel situation. Um food was not as good. Um the resort we were at in more variety but but here's to your point here's my problem. It's it was like american they were serving chinese food at a Mexican resort. 46:18.45 Sam More variety of food though. Bigger variety of food. 46:27.50 Sam Yes, yeah. 46:29.68 dclduo You know where's the saviche. Where's the guacamole. Where's they did have some guacamole out. Um you know where are the tacos we're like we're in Mexico and americans as much as their palates. Love hamburgers and french fries I think if there's a second food in this country that people love. 46:40.23 Sam Yep. 46:45.57 Sam Yeah, and tacos are pretty accessible. Yeah I agree I think you know that I this I actually thought the food was a little bit better at this look at this this second resort this Rio Yes, the drinks were worse The the drinks at the yeah, the. 46:45.70 dclduo Ah, Mexican food and so I had to yeah. 46:53.38 dclduo The drinks were far far worse. The drinks were terrible to the point of being undrinkable at times and we did I did want to say 1 more thing they we did find tacos but they were at like a they came out as a snack after lunch. It's like we'd eaten this like. 47:03.45 Sam Yeah. 47:08.97 Sam Yeah, straight already and. 47:11.79 dclduo This lunch that was okay that we didn't love and then finally the tacos appear and they were actually fairly good. So yeah. 47:16.66 Sam Yeah I will say I thought this beach was nicer than the first beach. So this the beach at maset law I thought was nicer than the beach. We went to a part of a artta it was still rougher waters. So I did not really spend time swimming I just kind of waited in the water and walked to the beach a little bit with my friend. Kelly. Um, and again it was the same setup with the you know the resort had a bunch of chairs had a ton of really actually nice chairs with cushions and even had some cabanna type things which I assume was an extra cost. We. We didn't you know inquire because we we spent our time mostly by the pool. Um, but again had that sort of rope line so that the vendors couldn't come. Into the resort area but you had to go past the rope line to get to the water so this was a ah much bigger beach much bigger resort. Um I thought this resort was overall prettier but again looks better in pictures than it does in real life. Let me put it that way. So it was. It was nice but over. 48:08.55 dclduo Yeah, and so here's. 48:13.43 Sam This was this one was I would say overpriced. Yes, sorry. 48:17.13 dclduo You done? Yeah, So here's my constructive feedback on these on both of these port adventures I would say both of them were all inclusive. Adventures. Um I probably should have known better but didn't. Ah, but here's my feedback one we had to take our own towels off the ship and like did well for the first resort it was unclear right? like I think we could have not gotten towels but we didn't test that theory at the resort. We never tried to get extra towels from the resort. 48:35.31 Sam Or they told us to but we didn't actually need to. 48:49.16 dclduo Tell distribution I don't think but we don't know we don't know and here's can I Just do this Sam Can you not I did not interrupt you ok but I didn't interrupt you when you were doing your can you let me talk please. 48:50.46 Sam Correct correct I We didn't but I think other people did so I'm pretty sure we okay fair I think they told us I think they told us that the towels were included. Okay, okay, yes. 49:08.18 dclduo Going to start over all right? So here's my constructive criticism on both of these ah beach adventure. All inclusive things. The first is the towel situation. So when we checked in in Porto Bay Artta I asked the cast member if we really needed to take towels off with us because we were going to an all inclusive resort. And they were emphatic that we needed to take towels needed to take towels I don't know if we needed to take towels. They had towels at the resort and so I'm like unclear why we had to schlep Disney Cruise line towels off the ship and back wet towels by the way back when we were at a quote unquote all inclusive resort the descriptions for both of these. Resort ah you know shore excursions by the way are super lacking. They they say all inclusive. But then it's like Well'll keep it I got to bring my own towels towels aren't included now the second resort they were but we had already sch sleptpped Disney Cruise line towels ah, with us based on our first day experience at the second resort they gave us cards for the towel so we could have checked towels out but beyond that the descriptions for neither of these you know port adventures really specified like what's included in all inclusive and yet they both had a line in them that said make sure to bring cash or credit cards for incidentals and. Souvenirs and that's really broad and so it left us wondering like our drinks included our food included like we we didn't know going into the day what was and what wasn't included. You know at these prices sometimes Disney is just charging you for basically the transportation and access to a chair. So like these prices aren't completely out of line with we had to pay to go to Megan's bay 50:40.12 dclduo Beach in the past, especially the like the $87 shore excursion in Porto Vita that I feel like pretty close to what we've paid to go to Megan's bay and at Megan's bay you pay your own food. You pay your own beverage right? So it was great that they actually did provide that stuff as included but that was not in the descriptions and I'd really encourage Disney to go back and update the description so it is clear to people. Whether they need towels or not ah and that the food and beverage is included so they know that going in last thing is just um, like the amount of time you spend on a bus to get to these places like these end up being all day kind of treks where you're off the ship at you know, eight thirty Nine a m. 51:11.47 Sam Yeah. 51:19.92 dclduo You got a half hour to an hour long bus ride to get to where you're going then you get you know 3 or 4 hours which is better than some of the beach excursions they do and some of these other ports I don't want to criticize them over that. But then you're back on a bus and like the second one of these we did you know it was like the we were hoping to get back in like 35 minutes since the bus had been so slow to get us out there. But then the bus detoured and wanted to show us around the city too and it's like I like I I just don't need that at that point like we've been off the ship for a long time. So as you contemplate doing any of these like all inclusive kind of resort days here's what I would say one read the description carefully to um. I would from now on going I'm going to compare it to what I could have gotten on board and at the end of the day I could have gotten a chair on the ship next to the pool which probably would have been empty because 70 to 90% of the ship got off in these two ports. Ah. I could have paid my drinks and never even began to approach the $87 or the one hundred and twenty one dollars I spent as an adult to go to one of these would have had my towels would have had access to free food and frankly, the food on board I think would have been better than the food at these resorts and so I would just say so buyer beware of these all inclusive. 52:14.98 Sam Yep. 52:33.42 dclduo Resort adventures I think going forward I'm really going to be skeptical of them and and I just don't know that they're they're worth it now that I I do want to say we had a fabulous all inclusive resort shore excursion in either Cosamel or Costa Maya I think it was cosmme. Ah where we went to a beach for the day we we paid like. 52:49.88 Sam Yes, it was causml. Yeah. 52:52.49 dclduo Paid like $20 to have like a lounger covered lounger. The drinks were included and they were good drinks. They were Flowing. You didn't have to wait for them. Ah, the food was included and the food was actually pretty good that day they didn't have a pool when we were there although I don't know if we just didn't have access to the pool because it was during Covid but regardless. Was actually a good adventure I would do that one again. These 2 not so much and I think I'm just going to be a little bit more buyer beware on this stuff. So yeah. 53:18.29 Sam Yeah, so though the the other excursion though we need to talk about Brian is our luxury snorkel and sale excursion. What was the number on one of this and what was the cost I can't I don't have that in front of me. 53:32.77 dclduo This was a cla 36 cabo San Lucas Mexico the ultimate luxury sale and snorkel. It was a hundred and eight dollars per adult and it was $88 for children. Ah. Reminder Cabos and Lucas is a tender port and so we did not dock. We were anchored. We had to meet in the Walt Disney theater we had to get our towels that we got on a tender boat that took us to the dock. Ah where we lined up to wait for the sailboat. There was probably a group of I don't know maybe 70 or eighty people. Maybe. Even slightly more they broke us up into smaller groups of about like I think sixteen Eighteen maybe 20 on some of them. Our group was I think 16 ah we boarded a sailboat ah that was owned by cabo adventures all the boats that were doing this were owned by cabo adventures. Um, and we sailed. To a private marina area near a resort I should say we we sailed under power to get there. We then had about 45 minutes to snorkel in the ocean and then we left to head back to the ship and that's when they put the ship's sails up in order to have us experience sailing in cabo. 54:33.63 Sam Um. 54:44.22 dclduo Ah, the wind was pretty dead that day so we weren't really moving fast and we basically sailed back into Cabo and was taken back to the dock to get back on the ship. 54:58.70 Sam Yeah, and I want to actually mention that cabo adventures actually runs a ton of the port adventures in Cabo we've done a dolphin swimming excursion or dolphin encounter excursion that was with cabo adventures. We've done. Um. I feel like we've done a few a few excursions through cabo adventures and generally speaking pretty well run I'm not perfect as as as you know, many excursions are with like you know delayed buses and things like that sometimes but the good thing about kabo is once you get off the tender. You're kind of right there and there's a lot of stuff. Pretty close by I have to give this ah this excursion a thumbs up I thought this was a great excursion. Um, you know we had some. We had a captain one. We had ah first mate slash bartender slash entertainment slash food service Hush whatever. Ah, slash lifeguard um, yesra a on board and we had photographer sophie as well who helped out not just with the photography but also helped out on board. And they were a wonderful crew. We had some really nice other folks you know with us it was just the 3 of us our our friends ended up staying on board because their daughter had gotten sick and um, it ended up as Brian said only 16 of us on this beautiful sailboat. 56:22.54 Sam And so we were up on top of the sailboat pretty much the whole time except when we were in the water and they made us like some really nice food and snacks and and a nice lunch and yeah I thought it was a really great excursion. This was Nathan's first time snorkeling. He got in the water for a little bit snorkeled for a little bit. He was quite nervous because there were a ton of fish around. Um because Juan had thrown a bunch of bread and kept throwing bread into the water. So the fish came right up to the back of the the boat. But. I thought this was a really fun excrusion I thought the food was really good and um, the staff or the crew of the of the boat were really nice and yeah I enjoyed this. What would what did you think Brian. 57:02.72 dclduo Yeah I thought it was a great extent of the 3 assertions you went on I think it was obviously the clear winner and the best 1 Um, ah you know I do still still tend to be skeptical of these just because you gets it's it's it was like an all day excursion and we had 45 minutes of snorkeling right? So so. 57:06.90 Sam Oh yeah. 57:15.50 Sam Yeah, sure. 57:16.85 dclduo You know like I I always am a little wary of a bunch of time spent on a boat to get some place and then you get like 45 minutes and then you're out of there I will say I will. 57:22.81 Sam Well, right? Well we did have to be back on board I think it was a 2 15 all aboard for this port to the shorter day. 57:33.70 dclduo Are you going to keep interrupting. It's really driving me crazy Sam I know but I don't interrupt you and you're interrupting me constantly. Overall I thought the food was good on the I think the food was some of the best we had local Mexican food I Thought that was great. 57:36.25 Sam No I was I'm sorry I was just trying to clarify. Sorry okay. 57:52.56 dclduo Um, it was a little too long sailing I wish they would have cut the sailing time down because the boat was not really moving and Nathan ended up feeling seasick because of the motion of the boat was it was going so slow. We were just bobbing around in the water which is not great for anyone but overall I thought it was a great excursion. My one. Continued criticism of kabo is the tendering um in the morning it wasn't terrible was big tender boats that got us in and I'll say actually in the afternoon this time since we were the only boat dock. They used big tender boats but there was a long long long line at the port to get on the tender to get back to the ship and I'd just love to see that process run more smoothly. It may just be a consequence of tendering. Ah but I'd still love to see if there's a way that that they can improve. It may just be a consequence of tendering but i' still love to see if there's a way for them to improve that going forward. So but Sam we got to get we got to get to food. We're we're way over budget on time here for this show and there's a lot to talk about with food. So. 58:44.86 Sam Um, yeah. 58:47.29 dclduo Ah, what is there to know for folks out there who are thinking about taking one of these week long thanksgiving cruises on board Disney Cruise line which I got to put in a plug. It is glorious to be on Disney Cruise line for a holiday because there is no driving anywhere to people's houses. There's no food prep there's no cleanup there's just eat your dinner and you know put on your stretchy pants and you can wander around the ship. So sam what what should people know about the fabulous food on board a week long. Ah Disney Magic Cruise 59:11.84 Sam Yeah. Yeah, well so they should know that you'll get basically the the 3 standard rotational menus and then you'll get the 3 alternative rotational menus so you'll get 2 different menus and animators 2 different menus in repunzles. So the repunzles menus are one of them. They call the thug menu one of them. They call the lantern menu. And then you'll get 2 different menus in lumerres. Of course one being the standard menu and the other being the one that has lobster on it. So um, and you will not get the pirate menu. Woohoo. So this is the exact same essentially setup that we had when we did thanksgiving on the fantasy a couple of years ago you don't get the pirate menu what you get instead is the Thanksgiving menu and I did post the Thanksgiving menu in our Facebook group if you want to see it. Um yourself. But I what I will say about the Thanksgiving menu is um I'll say 2 things 1 is get the turkey I mean that's just the way you know your traditional will have to get the the turkey for Thanksgiving I did get that and I also ordered the ravioli um, which was a like a pumpkin ravioli that had sage too much sage. 01:00:26.92 Sam Not bad, but definitely not my favorite. Um, and then the last thing I'll say which I know you will echo is why the heck Disney Cruise line do you not have pumpkin pie. You never have pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving right? like. 01:00:36.60 dclduo Home get I um and I I watched a video of of us a time lapse video of Costco selling out of pumpkin pies Disney just get get an agreement with Costco get the pies on board. Ah. 01:00:48.69 Sam Yeah, just go get a pie just go come on so they have pumpkin cheesecake as one of the desserts and then they have this like chocolate peanut butter pie and they have an apple pie. Um, you know you had the apple pie and thought it was kind of meh. Not great. Ah, mostly puree pump yeah puree apple and then some a few chunks of Apple but not real. Yeah. 01:01:02.97 dclduo The apple pie with the problem with the desserts on that menu. They're just being too cute pumpkin cheesecake. Everyone just wants pumpkin pie the apple pie I just want a standard classic sliced Apple. 01:01:11.47 Sam Um, yeah, yeah. 01:01:18.91 dclduo Pie instead I'm getting like Apple Pium pie and they call it all a mode but the ice cream's on the side not on top right? I mean it's just they're too cute with the desserts at Thanksgiving everyone just wants either apple pie pumpkin pie or ice cream if you want to go nuts Disney make a pecan pie right? but like but like it's it's. 01:01:33.89 Sam Yeah. 01:01:36.88 dclduo The pies at Thanksgiving are meant to just be simple. Ah bring you back to home right? So yeah, yeah. 01:01:42.56 Sam Yeah I will say I did have a new favorite um dessert from this cruise which was there was I know this sounds kind of crazy. But in. <unk>zels on I believe it was on the thug menu. There is a no sugar added dessert. It's a tyra is so and I actually and I ordered it just because nothing else sounded great that night and I thought this probably won't be very good but I'll just try it I ended up ordering it three nights in a row I loved this. No sugar added tyra miss. So so I ended up ordering it in both lumirs and in animators. It was fantastic. So I just gonna put put a plug in there for sometimes trying a dessert that you would not otherwise think of and it might surprise you and might be really good even if it's no sugar at it. So. 01:02:27.62 dclduo I tell you what if you just crash into a Jersey barrier or are screaming at your radio I'm with you when Sam told me she was ordering sugar free desserts 3 times in a note. Oh fine. Ok whatever, ah still. 01:02:35.17 Sam Ah, it wasn't sugar free. No no, no, it's not sugar free, no sugar added. 01:02:43.61 dclduo I have yet to have one of those desserts. It was really good. So I I will confess I didn't try Sam's dessert because I was so opposed to it morally? Ah, but yeah, normally not great. So maybe this one's good. We we shall see every server I have ever had if I've even looked in the direction of the no sugar at a dessert has talked me out of it. So um, so yeah. 01:02:50.83 Sam Um, yeah. 01:02:59.19 Sam Yeah, the other thing I have to put a plug in for is of course the s cargo if you haven't tried s cargo just try the SCargo you know you can even order it and and just eat one and and you might you know leave it the rest if you're not into it. But. I really like it. It's really good I know that Josh are the villain of the show and Josh feels that um royal caribbean has better ecargo I don't know I've never been on a real caribbean but I will tell you that escargo in lumieres or royal court or royal palace or Tritons are all excellent. Um, and then some other favorites we have to talk about from Cabaanas Brian um, we did get the hot pockets or as you call the mexican roll ups but they are this is a breakfast item if you see them on board get them. They look like a sideways rolled up you know tortilla kind of cut in. In half and it's got like meat and yeah and it's like meat cheese and egg I think in there right? and oh meat cheese and beans and it's it's ah for breakfast anyway, they they'll have him like once or twice during the cruise and we saw them and I got them for Brian and he was so so so excited. 01:03:51.99 dclduo Um, other them Taco Bell at Sea Taco Bell at sea nope meat cheese and beans. That's it. 01:04:10.46 Sam Another thing that they had they only had them I think one day but we actually ordered them a different day so we had them twice. We special ordered mickeki turo waffles. They were oh that's right Craig saw them that's right so they had them twice. We actually ordered them a different day so we had them twice but they were in cabanas twice. So. 01:04:17.91 dclduo Nope they had him they had him a couple other days because ah Craig would tell me whenever they had them. Yeah yep, yep. 01:04:30.38 Sam Um, they were you know they were fantastic. So just those just some favorites. You know we didn't do um we did do lunch out of cabbanas one day and they had quite a bit of like asian food that was mostly pretty good and like low main was pretty good. Um. But yeah, it was ah all in all I'd say food was overall great on the cruise I did have the amaredo souffle again from Paulo we did get the porter house steak I have to say from Paulo for dinner when we went there and I thought that was ah that was. Delicious. Um, that was sort of a change for us from our normal you know standards. 01:05:03.64 dclduo That's my new strategy at Pao now because that porterhouse stak. So we I feel like it was the first time I've gone to Palo and we did not go completely nuts in terms of the amount of food that we ended up eating so it's the porterhouse steak was a nice ah shareable. 01:05:14.50 Sam Yeah. 01:05:19.56 dclduo Main course and then we had so a couple of sides that we ended up splitting between 4 people which was plenty um for for the 4 of us and I did not leave uncomfortably full from Palo dinner and so that's that's a win in in my book. So we did have Palo brunch twice. It was delicious. 01:05:24.94 Sam Yeah. 01:05:37.52 dclduo And we had Palo dinner which was a real standout I highly recommend that Twenty Eight ounce sherable porter house steak perfectly cooked perfectly seasoned just delicious, just delicious. Yeah. 01:05:47.27 Sam Yeah, that twenty eight ounces does include the bone so you're not actually eating you know that much? Yeah, yeah. 01:05:52.52 dclduo Yes, it was not fourteen ounces of steak. It was more like you know, maybe eight ounces each I'd yeah so it was I thought it was a perfect amount of food ah to have so yeah, all right? So we got inter potury around here just the miscellaneous stuff and ah. 01:06:07.63 dclduo To maintain our cookie sandwich so to speak. Um I want to start off with I made the comment at the top of the show that you know had the magic lost its magic a little bit and that's because we experience some mechanical issues on the magic and just some. Places where I think things were rough around the edges in ways that I thought didn't this ship just go through a dry dock and it already looks like it's falling apart again and and I don't want to be look I don't want to be extreme about any of this none of it ruined our crews but it was a head scratcher to us. So. Some things that we noticed one we were in a concierge one- bedroomroom stateroom and I say that not to brag but because those rooms were refreshed as a part of the dry dock. They were completely reimagined. New interiors new soft goods. Ah you know all new, cabinetry, Etc, Etc, Etc we got on the ship I noticed in our room that like some of the particle board that they had used or some of the wood they had used was warping and exposing particle board which was clearly not the intent some of the wood finishes in the room were were similarly warped and sagging especially around the air conditioner. Um. 01:07:17.60 Sam Um, and Moat and the closet. The closet was the worst. 01:07:20.69 dclduo Closet was the worst. Ah, but even we had cabinets in the the living space where the drawer pulls were just they would come off ah or there was a bedside Nightstand drawer that if you opened it too far. It would get locked in position and you have to like reach behind the drawer to lift up this random piece of metal and then you could close it again I don't think that. 01:07:39.64 Sam You know. 01:07:39.69 dclduo Was a design feature I don't think there was I think there was a bug not a feature and so you know collectively I looked at that and then additionally we had an issue on the second starting the second to last night where there was a lot like a loud banging I cannot express enough really loud banging it sound like someone was it feels like felt like someone was up. 01:07:55.31 Sam You could feel it. 01:07:59.66 dclduo On the deck above us like throwing heavy boxes on the deck. It was rattling the whole back of the wall. It was happening when the ship kind of listed left to right? It felt like ah it would it would like kind of it seems like like a almost like a closet door when it would like close and then slam shut right? um. 01:08:07.79 Sam He. 01:08:16.50 Sam Slam but you could feel the vibration. It was so loud you could that we we could feel it in our stateroom not just hear it. It wasn't actually the noise that was as bothersome as the yep. 01:08:21.80 dclduo Well and the and the people were the people next door commented on it too right? and so and you could hear it in the hallway right? And so the first time it happened we thought well maybe they're doing something up on deck that just is too early in the morning and you know, whatever? Well, it's annoying but we'll live with it. Um, you know psdisney I don't understand why you put the conciur state rooms on deck eight when the pool deck's right above and you can hear the chairs scraping on the pool deck in the mornings as they're putting them out like they yeah. 01:08:49.30 Sam Yeah, yeah, so this ah this started for us at like maybe 4 or 5 in the morning it was so we didn't we didn't realize it wasn't I mean we did of course hear the pool deck movement stuff but that was actually a little bit later in the day more like probably around 5 or 6 um, but we didn't realize that what we had heard and we didn't realize till the next night because we were at port that day so we didn't hear any sound during the day because it seemed to only happen when the ship was rocking back and forth. So. 01:09:16.44 dclduo No, that no is a c day we were on a c day but we just weren't in the room that much during the c day because we had massages at like Eight o'clock in the morning for two and a half hours then we had Palo brunch for 2 hours and then we got changed and we went out to the pool deck but later that evening as we were packing up I started hearing this. 01:09:24.87 Sam Oh you're right? You're right? You're right. 01:09:35.32 dclduo Banging again again shaking the whole room and so I notified our cabin steward who notified the head steward for the area. Um, they reported to engineering. We also reported it to the concierge hosts. Ah because we just wanted to light a fire under somebody so we didn't have a sleepless night. Um. Did all that around eight thirty in the evening. You know we're still hearing this banging in our state room come nine Thirty sam reported to the con host and I think you were told at that point Sam that you know engineering had identified the issue it was 1 floor down they were on it right? and let me tell you. 01:10:09.28 Sam Yep, that's what they told me this was probably 9 30 nine 45 01:10:12.96 dclduo Let me tell you they were not on it because we went to bed and ah we decided. Okay, well they're working on it. It's annoying. We're gonna try to get some sleep but they'll fix it and it seemed to kind of go away for long periods of time and then recur. Ah but like they're on it. They're on it well twelve thirty it was just. 01:10:31.44 Sam And and neither of us. Yeah, neither of us could sleep so Nathan had fallen asleep I'm not sure how but I actually think it was worse in our room than it was in the living room of our stateroom I think we it was I think it was more. It was more local to our room area than to his to then to the living room. 01:10:31.50 dclduo Bam Bam Bam Bam like 01:10:39.22 dclduo Yes. 01:10:46.55 dclduo And the room next door. Yeah, so we we we called down to guest services. We come to find out well engineering has identified the problem. There is some piece of loose metal in the floor of our stateroom. The ceiling of the stateroom below. 01:10:50.85 Sam And the room next door. Probably yeah. 01:11:02.32 dclduo That is essentially just rolling around in the floor and hitting things and that's causing this loud noise and vibration but engineering couldn't fix it that night and so at twelve thirty in the morning. Yeah. 01:11:11.71 Sam It was take more more extensive work. They said So I imagine that meant they needed to go into the wall and they couldn't do that with people sleeping above or below. 01:11:21.10 dclduo Yeah, and so twelve thirty in the morning. Ah, we've been awake. We're supposed to be up. You know the next morning at like 6 maybe 7 at the latest because it's disembarkation. Um, the best they first offered us earplugs which was just laughable ah because it's the vibration was the vibration that was really keeping us awake. Ah, and then they offered us a sleeping room on deck seven which we took and so we the 3 of us just kind of walked down to deck seven ah went to bed you know, tried to get some sleep although we were kind of keyed up at that point having been awake for so long. Got a few hours of sleep and then was back to our own stateroom to get cleaned up for the day. So um. It's that kind of thing and then I got to highlight the friends we were sailing with had the plumbers come to their room 3 nights I think it was yeah because there was a terrible smell a sewage smell emanating from their shower ah in the master in the master bathroom that they had in in their suite. 01:12:02.83 Sam I think 4 times. I think 4 times 01:12:10.66 Sam In the master. But yeah, the master bathroom. 01:12:16.70 dclduo And ah, they came to try and fix it 4 different times. Refresh their room give them air fresheners blah blah blah. Um, so you know the culmination of that issue I will say heating and air conditioning still is a problem on the magic loose metal rolling around in the floor. And then some other just the finishes are already. You know, kind of worn off ah you know I'm just I'm a little nervous about how the magic is being kept up. Um I'm just I'm wondering if we have really gone past the end of life for this ship. And they just not willing to kind of let it go I don't want to let it go. But if they're going to keep it in the fleet like they got to solve some of this stuff. That's my opinion. 01:12:57.79 Sam Yeah, on the other hand to let's round out this poop sandwich with some happy things on the other hand we had probably the most fabulous stateroom attendant and assistant stateroom attendant that we've then we've had in a long time. 01:13:12.20 dclduo Oh crew crew on Board ah across the board was was was fabulous or you know some ways through the wonder Crew kind of concrete beyond some of the other ships. But yes, greatest main dining server and assistance server we've had in a long time. 01:13:16.10 Sam Yeah. 01:13:29.35 dclduo Great paulo server. Ah. 01:13:30.15 Sam Oh yeah, Oliver Oliver from Bosnia Herzegovinia um Bosnia Herzegovina um he was wonderful. Um, and then of course we hadleza and suchi as our stateroom attendant and assistant stateroom attendant they were yeah they were wonderful. 01:13:44.29 dclduo Fabulous. 01:13:47.48 Sam We had some great hosts in the conciers lounge. Um that we had g and Selina and junior and then we had fabulous bartenders in the kind and the concier's lounge as well. Yeah raymond old fashioned. Yep. 01:13:53.46 dclduo Junior yeah shout out to Raymond shout out to Raymond he was on he was on my ah old fashioned every night. Loved it. Loved it. 01:14:04.77 Sam And echo was great too as well as glenys yeah I was we had we just had really fabulous staff. Yes, no actually she did Kelly's pedicurere she did wasn't I had sha who did my pedicure. Oh and I had a fantastic. 01:14:08.41 dclduo Had a great to. We had a great nail technician in the spa lillly ah who who did manicure and pedicure for me and pedicure for you. 01:14:23.69 Sam Massuse for my my solo massage. Um, and I'm going to forget? Oh Lin Lay was her name and she was oh my god like magic hands. So yeah I mean we had some really fantastic. Things we even got I'll call this. This was a special little pixie dust we got a little magical moment certificate from our stateroom attendant which is just a certificate saying like I appreciate you guessed right? and so sometimes it comes with you know special you know presence and things like that ours did not but it was just really ah like a nice gesture from our stateroom attendant. Who we actually we had had her as a seatroom attendant in September and she was she was lovely then but we had more interaction with her on this sailing. So yeah, there were some I mean just some really wonderful and. And need I say magical touches on the Disney magic so it was not all doom and gloom of you know some not so great port excursions and some you know. 01:15:12.20 dclduo Hardly yeah heart hardly do look. We still had fun on our port excursions I just look at them and think the values not there for us in the future I wouldn't do them again and you know but buyer beware the mechanical issues that happen on board I think even the morals would say. They still had a great cruise and you know the norovirus thing on board not ideal. Ah, but I think Disney put in some place some great protocols to help protect guests I just wish they would have said more right? but you know overall we had a fantastic time I also wanted to call out 2 other things 1 is. 01:15:40.76 Sam Yep. 01:15:44.86 dclduo Ah, for those of you sailing conciers. We did get a glimpse of the 2024 print they were giving them out on the magic and so it's a lookout key at or sorry lookout point at lookout key I can't keep it straight. The name is too long. 01:15:55.24 Sam Yeah, look out look out key at lighthouse point. 01:16:03.90 dclduo Thank you! The name is too long Disney and so ah, there's a nice print that they're going to have in 2024 across concierge. Ah, if you are someone who sales concierge just nights to have that. Ah, last thing I want to say just to wrap up was ah, disembarkation was very smooth I thought. 01:16:12.70 Sam Yeah. 01:16:18.58 dclduo Ah, we get a little leg up getting off the ship because we're in conscierge. But once we get into the terminal. It's the same process that everyone goes through and customers and border protection this time I hadn't seen them do this in San Diego before at least I don't remember them doing it but essentially they used a little webcam to take photos of the 3 of us. And they were just comparing that as against the data that they had in the system and never even looked at our passports or just like you're you're cleared see you later and then yeah, so it was the fastest I've gotten through that customs experience in San Diego and with two ships and with 2 ships in port that is no small feet. So. 01:16:41.29 Sam Yeah. 01:16:48.13 Sam Yeah, we we? Oh yeah and we also you know got to meet some great folks on this cruise you know as we mentioned the moral family came along with us. We spent a ton of time with them. But we also got to meet. As I mentioned Chris and Aaron and their kids piper and ingrid and Chris taught us how to play the new Disney card game lona similar. It's similar to magic for those of you haven't heard of it. Um, we also got to have a brunch a brunch of 12 with us. Ah Craig and Kelly Mor as well as our Facebook group. Um admin Tina and her husband Craig and then America and her husband and then Erin and Todd listeners of our show and then Annie and Jason another couple who I'd met through I'd met Annie through a different Facebook travel group. So. Really nice to have a brunch of 12 adults in the private pollo room so that was really great as well. So yes, just I think some fun experiences and and definitely there's still magic on the magic. 01:17:52.19 dclduo Yes, all right? where we're going to wrap it up there next up for us is our adventures by Disney trip and just like like two weeks and two days or something. It's even less now. So we're gearing up to head over to. Munich Germany for our adventures by Disney River Cruise followed by a quick jaunt over to a lani. Don't ask or I think we've already talked about on the show so coming out in you know about a month will be our review of our first ever adventures by Disney River river crew is really excited about that. And yeah I can't wait to ah to head over to Europe for the holidays but we'll leave it there. Thanks everybody out there for listening and we'll see you next time. 01:18:33.26 Sam Serial soon.