Ep. 374 - Nightmares About Tiny Elevators: A Western European Cruise 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 you want more accolades more reviews more stars. All the things right. 00:11.17 Sam Ah, that's right? Well you know I'm giving myself a reward in advance I'm drinking a topo chico right now. Um you know to reward myself even though um I haven't gotten the verbal reward I'm going to get right now from a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts 00:26.00 dclduo Well here you go? Yes, we have many of them to clear through the backlog I should say this one's coming in from January of this year so we had a lot to get through. We've not been as diligent and reading them at the end of the show. As we said we would be and so I've decided to build them into the front of the show as a way to really thank folks who. Are leaving us these wonderful reviews. They provide us with a lot of energy and encouragement. So this one comes from the real an who writes awesome dcl duo always look forward to seeing this podcast in my feed positivity and knowledge about dcl and beyond is abundant. Thank you so there you go Sam Short sweet to the point. But. 00:57.88 Sam Yeah, awesome. Thank you, Thank you the real and we love you too and we're happy that you're real and not fake. 01:02.84 dclduo Energizing nonetheless on this. Ah. 01:08.76 dclduo Yeah, yes, we're only inviting now someone to come and review the fake and so ah, but thank you to the real and for that fabulous review. But I digress we've got a great show for you today. Sam You want to talk about our fabulous guest and what we're going to be talking about. 01:22.62 Sam Yeah, I'm excited because we're going back over across the pond to Europe to talk about a western european itinerary I feel like we've been covering the Northern Europe european itineraries quite a bit. We've done a couple of you know med cruises as well. But this is. An awesome itinerary. We haven't had anybody on yet to talk about this particular one and so I want to welcome Eric to the show. Thanks for joining us Eric yeah, this is awesome now. Tell us, um, before of course we dive into the cruise we've got to talk. 01:48.87 Eric Morrow Happy to be here. Sam. 01:58.27 Sam About your cruising credentials and your Disney credentials. How did you get into cruising and where does your love of Disney come from. Yeah. 02:06.82 Eric Morrow Sure well, ah we took our first Disney Cruise when our son was 4 years old about probably six months before our daughter was born and so it was sort of that you know last vacation just as a unit of 3 02:21.82 Sam Yeah, yeah. 02:23.89 dclduo Um, yeah. 02:24.63 Eric Morrow And we did a three nighter to the Bahamas and at the end of the cruise. My wife and I looked at each other and said that was great but it was too short and ah, you know so we've been cruising since then. Every few years we we just don't quite have the time or the money to cruise every year and we live kind of distant from our families. So we're always traveling to go back there as well. But I actually was first introduced to Disney probably when I was about 1 year old going to Disneyland as. As a kid growing up in Southern California and went probably several times a year as a kid and then starting in junior high and then in high school. We'd go every year and do a concert at Disneyland with our orchestra. 03:15.65 dclduo There. 03:17.62 Eric Morrow So that was always kind of fun because it was me and you know 40 or 50 of my friends running around the park together with minimal adult supervision. Ah. 03:26.54 Sam Um, isn't that the best I did that in choir in high school. We went to Disney world because we were I was on the East Coast and we did. We got to sing in epcot and it was fantastic. It was just like so much fun. As like a young teenager running around Disney world with my friends. 03:43.50 Eric Morrow Yeah, it was fantastic and then um I guess I met my wife actually in Virginia but it turned out she was from orange county and lived about 10 minutes from the park. So after we got married. Ah. And we travel back home to see family that kind of be an annual thing that we do and waited until our son was about two and a half to take him for the first time and then since then we've gone not every year but almost every year to either Disneyland or Disney world. 04:11.98 dclduo Nice, nice. 04:12.40 Sam That awesome. So your youngest first experience on Disney Cruise line was actually in the womb is what you're saying. 04:17.85 Eric Morrow No, no, no that that was my daughter's youngest Disney Cruise line experience was in utero and she still claims. It were like you didn't you didn't pay. You're not on the manifest. She's like I was there i. 04:25.61 Sam Ah, ah yeah, yeah, yeah I love that? yeah. 04:30.85 dclduo Dick. 04:36.59 Eric Morrow She's like she's like I should be gold too. 04:38.55 dclduo Yeah I I concur I concur. Yeah, she was she she she participated in the Disney dining for sure. Ah yeah I mean yeah for sure and Eric I should pause and say I can tell from your background. It's a sure bet that you were in the air force perhaps at some point in your life. 04:43.30 Eric Morrow Absolutely. 04:44.31 Sam Right. 04:53.18 Eric Morrow Yeah, that's correct I went to the air force academy did twenty years in the air force retired in 2013 and yeah it was. It was a great career and wouldn't change a thing about it. Oh thanks, very much. 04:56.22 dclduo What. 05:03.66 dclduo And we would be remiss for not thanking you for your for your service. Erics I just wanted to I went to acknowledge I'm staring at for the listeners out there who aren't going to get a chance to see the video I'm staring at flight helmets and challenge coins but a bunch of stuff so surerbet and so I just want to thank you for your service Eric um, well let's talk about. How you decided to take this cruise because you know you mentioned you don't you don't live close to the port. Ah, you got a it's a it's a big ah expense to to get out there and do a cruise but you went all the way to Europe this time for a cruise and so how'd you land on heading over to Europe and to Barcelona for a cruise. 05:24.32 Sam Um, yeah. 05:37.50 Eric Morrow Sure so our previous cruise was I guess mid-may of 2022 and when we got off the ship. We started talking about. Of course you know what do we want the next crews to be. We didn't book a placeholder because we we weren't quite sure. When we were going to do it but then we started looking at the western europe we were sorry we we started looking at the european cruises and we talked about possibly doing a med cruise. Ah, and ultimately landed on the western europe because I have 2 sisters that live in England. And so this was a route that would kind of give us ah a taste of Europe if you will and then end in England and we'd have we'd we'd be able to spend a couple of days with them before flying home. 06:18.68 dclduo Oh. 06:24.41 dclduo Nice had and have you had you been over to Europe before the kids been to europe or anybody's first trip over there. 06:25.26 Sam Perfect. 06:30.96 Eric Morrow So first trip for my wife and children or or I guess first trip to the continent for my wife and children. We'd been to London before and then I'd been to europe a few times for work when I was in the air force. 06:41.82 Sam And. 06:41.91 dclduo Okay. Yeah, Okay, yeah, yeah. 06:49.26 Sam Yeah, that makes sense now um tell us for um, your cruising background. You mentioned to us off-air that you've been on now all 4 of the original ships so you haven't been on the wish but you've been on. The magic The wonder the dream and the fantasy was this your first time on the dream. 07:05.86 Eric Morrow No, we were previously on the dream for I want to say a fornite either a 3 or a fornight combined with a park stay back in 2013 kind of as my retiring from the air force vacation. 07:21.88 dclduo Nice, nice. 07:22.41 Sam Oh nice, nice, awesome. So I bet you're excited to hear she was going over to Europe um as opposed to the magic going over there. Obviously it's a big change for Disney Cruise line and the bigger ship being over in Europe for that season. 07:34.27 Eric Morrow Yeah, yeah I think we would have done it no matter what I would say I'm probably a fan of the bigger boats and my wife is a fan of the smaller boats because she doesn't like the crowds. 07:44.57 dclduo Yeah, that's that's a common refrain. It's common refrain for sure. Well what kind of state room. Did you end up booking on board for family of 4 07:45.70 Sam Yeah, yeah. 07:55.54 Eric Morrow We had an ocean view family deluxe with veranda so a few extra square feet compared to the standard veranda stateroom. Ah but it was just about perfect for the 4 of us. 07:56.98 dclduo Nice. 08:06.32 dclduo And and how much mediating had to be done over the the bunk bed in the room. 08:10.48 Eric Morrow Not too much. My daughter did not want the top bit bunk. My son didn't care so he was like yeah I'll climb up there. That's no problem even though he's 20 years or now is twenty years old was 19 now was 20 at the time of the sailing. So. 08:16.77 dclduo Brah. 08:26.38 Sam How did he fit in there. How did he? Yeah Okay, okay, good to know. 08:28.90 Eric Morrow It was it was It was a it was a tight fit getting into bed and then once he was in bed. He was fine. 08:33.82 dclduo Nice so wait where where did your daughter sleep. They wish you on the couch. Okay, all right and you didn't have the Murphy bed and I don't know if that that room has a murphy better night. Yeah. 08:38.11 Eric Morrow She was on the bottom. Yeah no. 08:39.38 Sam Had the couch bed. Yeah, what's up some of the rooms have it. So so some of the family deluxe verandas have the Murphy bed and some don't be basically those are the rooms that then will sleep will potentially sleep 5 people. Or some of them don't have the bunk bed and then have the Murphy bed instead. So but it's kind of random and you know unless you really do the research and because you want a particular configuration. It's not that big of a deal if you're a family of 3 or 4 to get 1 of those 4 person rooms. Yeah. 08:57.32 dclduo Right. 09:13.30 dclduo Um, it's and so it helds your daughter at this point then for the sailing. 09:13.98 Eric Morrow Our daughter was fifteen. Yeah had had to think for a second. 09:19.74 dclduo Ok, all right? So you've got. 09:22.00 Sam Yeah, so she's been sailing for a long time her whole life. Ah. 09:25.70 dclduo Yeah, so you've got it. You got an eighteen twenty society member and excuse me so you've got an eighteen twenty society member and a vibe member essentially with you. Yes, all right? all right? And what what castway clubs ask were you at this point are you. 09:31.47 Sam And. 09:35.82 Eric Morrow Yes. 09:37.77 Sam Awesome. 09:43.78 dclduo Goal. Okay. 09:43.91 Eric Morrow So my my wife and I were both gold when we boarded ah our son this was his fifth so he's now gold because he's completed it and this was our daughter's fourth. 09:52.80 dclduo nice nice nice all right so coming into the cruise with like the booking windows and that sort of stuff because I know we say this all the time in Europe the ports of the star of the show. So you're probably wanting to find some good short excursions to do some things to do. Ah, was that gold booking window helpful. Were you able to get the stuff that you were hoping to get pre ah pre cruise. Okay. 10:18.50 Eric Morrow It was. We got just about everything that we requested. Um, you know we we booked Shore excursions at every port as well as um, Pollo Brunch and the remy dessert tasting. 10:32.98 dclduo Oh nice. Ok, well, we we're going to definitely have to ask you about the remy dessert tasting. We're we're on a roll now Sta we've had several shows where we've got people going to remy which is like unheard of. We usually don't have people on have gone to remy so I'm excited about that. Um, let's talk about getting over there. Ah. 10:38.83 Sam Yeah, yeah. 10:47.16 dclduo Assume you flew into Barcelona you know a day or so early just to make sure everything worked out is that is that right. 10:53.82 Eric Morrow Yes, so we left it. You know sailing is on a Saturday we left Thursday evening from ah the DC area flew direct into Barcelona arrived Friday morning and pretty much had the whole day to. 11:02.97 dclduo Oh nice. 11:08.87 Eric Morrow Explore Barcelona which was interesting because we we thought about our shore excursions and we hadn't really planned out too much of what we were going to do in Barcelo excuse me about what we're going to do in Barcelona until probably. Ah. 11:21.98 dclduo Um, yeah. 11:27.99 Eric Morrow Forty Eight ish hours before departure and then I downloaded a couple of Youtube videos that I watched on the plane over to get some more ideas. 11:34.58 dclduo Yeah, well that's a wildcar day too because you're arriving you know, potentially early in the morning in Barcelona you've probably not gotten a ton of sleep on the flight over and so I that's a day to play by ear a little bit in my book. You know I I like to book Sam can contest this when we go over to London. I like to book some sort of late night tour not you like not like ten o'clock but like 7 eight o'clock at night because it like forces us to be up that late so we can go head but but yeah, it's ah it's a good day to play by your so what did you end up getting up to in Barcelona. Do you have a you have a fun preruise day. 12:09.82 Eric Morrow Um, yeah, so we we took the we took a cab into our into Barcelona checked into our hotel early and then our son was kind of tired. Didn't really feel like walking around the city too much so he stayed at the hotel with the bags and my wife my daughter and I went to park mont ja week which is like a big kind of hill with ah with park gardens. Ah, castle lots of stuff to do. 12:45.49 dclduo Nice, nice and did you ah how'd you pick the hotel where you stayed was it through Disney or did you get it on your own. 12:50.62 Eric Morrow Note we got it on our own using our travel agent. 12:54.66 dclduo Ok, good I mean did it work out. We always ask because sometimes European hotels that they're not always quite what you expect from an American hotel because they're smaller footprints and usually smaller rooms smaller beds all that sort of stuff. But how did it work out for you. 13:09.75 Eric Morrow It worked out really well. Um I you know our our prime consideration was getting one room with enough room for the 4 of us which like you said is is kind of a challenge in Europe sometimes our room had a double 2 singles and you know then. 13:16.12 dclduo Okay, yeah. 13:27.75 Eric Morrow Ah, pretty decent sized bathroom for the 4 of us and that was perfect. We really didn't need a whole lot of extras because we you know the the hotel is not the star of of the of the vacation. Um, and you know the the biggest. 13:38.33 Sam Right on the trip. 13:41.40 dclduo Um, yes. 13:47.30 Eric Morrow Kind of probably surprise for us is um, a lot of the buildings in Barcelona are old apartment buildings and so we were on the third floor which for americans is actually the fourth floor. 14:03.65 dclduo Um, yeah. 14:04.80 Sam And right you've got ground floor then first floor then second floor then third floor right? Yeah yeah. 14:04.85 Eric Morrow Um, of this apartment building and there was a correct correct and there was a very very small elevator that fit me and the bags but that was it and so you know. 14:16.95 dclduo Um, yep, yep. 14:17.96 Sam But right stare walking a lot. 14:23.90 Eric Morrow A lot of people like and we were doing a lot of stair walking and the elevator was a little bit jerky and kind of scared my daughter a couple of times. 14:33.20 dclduo I've had I've had nightmares of being on one of those European elevators and getting off and trying to get all the bags off and then watching the door close it goes back to the lobby without my luggage. But yeah, no I I feel pain there well in what was the hotel you stayed at. Do you remember the name of it. 14:43.19 Eric Morrow So it's a place called fontanella by bcn urban rooms. So it's it the the it it's not a traditional hotel like most americans would think of a hotel. It's it's not a Marriott or a west end or something like that. It literally is basically. 14:47.11 dclduo Ok. 14:55.17 dclduo Um, yeah, yeah. 15:02.71 Eric Morrow A apartment that has been converted into a hotel. So basically when you walked in the door to the apartment. There was the kind of front desk right there and then up and down the hall that the main hall of the apartment there were I believe 7 or 8 rooms. Off of the off of a hallway each with its own kind of you know it's unique cipher lock code for the door. So once we had the code to get in the main door off the street to get into the door to the apartment and then to get into the door to our hotel room. We were all set. 15:29.98 dclduo Um, okay. 15:40.51 dclduo Only 3 codes to manage I got you? um well and so how was it getting from you know where you were staying down to the port was that a pretty pretty easy transfer. Did you? how'd you get down there. 15:49.46 Eric Morrow Very easy. There was a cab stand at the end of the block. So we just walked down to the end of the block hot in a cab and I would say 10 minutes later we were at the port. 16:00.68 Sam So nice. 16:02.00 dclduo Nice and what did you end up doing you mentioned? um where the sites you saw in Barcelona ah, do you get any any good spots for food that you'd recommend to people ah pre cruise. 16:13.75 Eric Morrow Um, we found a place called ah Koonig which is actually kind of a a chain restaurant near Las Rombless and we picked that because it had mostly or it it. It had it had a good topist menu and it had good burgers. 16:29.95 dclduo You know the. 16:30.90 Eric Morrow My son's a burger guy. My daughter likes French fries and onion rings and chicken fingers Even though she's a teenager and so we got a mix of just appetizer top us kind of stuff and it worked out really well for us. 16:34.12 Sam Um, ah. 16:40.79 Sam Perfect. Yeah. 16:42.69 dclduo I worry about the youth of today. The food in Spain and you're having a burger. No but I feel you're paying because our son would be wanting the mac and cheese. So I totally get it. Um. 16:47.58 Eric Morrow Yeah I I had some octopus that was absolutely fantastic. 16:52.39 dclduo Nice, yeah yeah, very nice, very nice. All right we get down to the port. The lovely disney dream is waiting for you. How was the boarding experience onto the dream. We've heard some of the ports had some hiccups getting loaded up and so how was it in Barcelona. 16:54.75 Sam Yum Yum! yeah. 17:07.27 Eric Morrow It was actually pretty good when we when we got there, we had to wait outside for maybe maybe 10 minutes or so just queuing up in line because there was a there was a bus that had arrived right before us. 17:19.90 dclduo Um, yeah. 17:25.34 Eric Morrow And then once they let us in we were queued up waiting to go through security and that was maybe a maybe a 25 minute wait or so um, they there's there's I think limited what what they said is there's limited seating. Inside the actual port area and inside the actual terminal so they had to wait until they were ready to start boarding just about before they let us in because there were already groups in there and so we got in we checked in with the Castaway Club desk 17:45.59 dclduo Terminal. Yeah. 18:02.54 Eric Morrow And then found some seats and probably within a couple of minutes of finding seats. They started calling boarding groups and we sat around for again. maybe maybe 10 minutes or so before they got to a boarding group 9 or whatever. What? whatever we were and then we were on the ship. 18:19.78 dclduo What what was your? Ah what was your port arrival time and ah while we're time at Port arrival times I Assume you got to participate in or got to experience the sort of the tiered check in process for the sailing and did that make things a little bit smoother for you or not. 18:35.69 Eric Morrow Um, let's see port arrival time I believe was either ten forty five or eleven so we we were. We were in a fairly early boarding group. Um, and. 18:42.82 dclduo Oh wow, it's early. Ok yep. 18:51.74 Eric Morrow I didn't necessarily notice a tiered check in process I know they they had like the regular kind of first time cruiser line and then they had a castaway club line. oh oh I'm I and I know what you're talking about so ah as as far as the the tier check in before. 18:59.52 dclduo Right? Sorry I would look just me to click. Yeah, go ahead, Go ahead. 19:11.27 Eric Morrow Going out on the cruise that worked out pretty well I believe we were at I want to say like thirty eight days or something like that and it was very smooth I actually as much as I wanted to stay up till midnight i. 19:17.30 dclduo Yeah. 19:30.40 dclduo Um. 19:30.83 Eric Morrow I slept through that so I got up in the morning and I was panicked but checked in and it was it. It worked out just fine. 19:33.50 Sam And ah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're finding that it's not as big of a deal nowadays. Um, they've sort of they seem to have gotten booking I don't know just down smoother at least in certain ports obviously Barcelona is a port that. 19:35.23 dclduo Great. That's good to hear. 19:50.60 Sam They were at a lot this summer I think Southampton also was a port that they had sort of less issues at the bigger port the bigger the port and the more times disney sails out of it the easier the process seems to be and then with tiered check in it just makes things quite a bit easier in general. Um all right? so. 19:57.19 Eric Morrow Um. 20:05.73 dclduo Yeah. 20:09.30 Sam You you board the beautiful Disney dream. Do you guys have a routine when you all get on board a ship of where you go first and did you follow that routine. But. 20:20.42 Eric Morrow We followed that routine to a tee. We went immediately to cabanis for lunch. Um, you know we were able to sit kind of look out over the port a little bit um, ate our meal. 20:37.46 Eric Morrow By the time we got done eating the meal I feel like it was almost time to no, it wasn't quite time for rooms I feel like we walked around a little bit. Um and then they started opening rooms so we went down dropped off our bags ah in the room. And then went to go explore a little bit more took our daughter to vibe to check out the Teen club which thought was pretty neat but then surprisingly never went back to again. 21:08.15 Sam Oh my god the teen club on the dream and the fantasy is the best 1 um because they have have that that open deck on the front of the ship that now on the wish has been taken over by the rainforest room but it's like this cool outdoor space with like some hot tubs and stuff in there I would. 21:16.73 Eric Morrow Oh. 21:27.67 Eric Morrow Yeah I I would have been all over it. Ah, she she decided she just wanted to hang with us for the majority of the crews. Yeah, but then I think. 21:28.13 Sam To Hang out there but not with the teenagers. Obviously. Wow, That's kind of nice. Yeah. 21:44.95 Eric Morrow But else did we do wandered around a little bit more and then it was time for sail away and or or I guess Muster drill and then sail away and everything. So um, that was kind of the first day on. Ah. 21:51.58 Sam Um, and muster. Yeah, yeah. 22:01.69 Eric Morrow The ship we had dinner at animator's palette and then ah so my my my daughter decided she wanted to do all the trivia. So we ended up doing a lot of trivia on the cruise. The first night we had Pixar Trivia we had Mickey Mouse trivia 22:03.41 Sam Nice. 22:21.70 Eric Morrow And then there was a game show in the D lounge called Mouseketeer Madness and my son who is probably the most un ah you know non game show person out there happened to join us and his number got called. 22:22.93 Sam Oh yeah. 22:38.52 Eric Morrow And he ended up winning masketeer madness and getting a medal. 22:40.13 dclduo Nice, nice. 22:41.20 Sam Ah, that Ah so um, that's so much fun. How cute did you guys end up winning any of the trivia that you went to yeah. 22:48.25 Eric Morrow We came really close a couple of times but no and my my daughter was extremely frustrated, not only because she wanted to win but especially because our son had won and she had not. 22:56.23 Sam Yeah. 23:01.96 Sam Ah, ah well I tell you those trivias are really really hard like we did trivia on our last cruise we did I can't remember it was one of the music trivia I think it was 80 s music trivia and we did like pretty reasonably well. But. The team that won I mean there were multiple teams ahead of us. We weren't we weren't close to winning or anything like that. But the team that won got a perfect score and I'm like how do you know every song and every artist from like this tiny little snippet I just can't it's yet. 23:24.38 Eric Morrow Price. 23:24.86 dclduo Yeah. They they don't I caution schate agains a self-grading paper thing is I like I can tell like and phones are that high speed internet has compromised the integrity of Trivia I think so there's too many perfect scores. There's too many perfect scores winning and like I like that song trivia we did where clearly. 23:36.44 Sam Ah, you think some people are cheating. 23:49.37 dclduo Half the crowd didn't know one of the songs and yet these people knew it right? So I call Shenanigans I call shenanigans. 23:51.69 Sam Yeah. 23:53.20 Eric Morrow I don't I I are our previous cruise to this one I actually ended ended up winning a Tv theme song trivia. So that was nice except for it. They were still coming out of covid. 24:03.18 dclduo Um, nice. 24:08.80 Eric Morrow They didn't have medals so I got rice crispy treats instead. 24:11.24 dclduo Ah. 24:11.57 Sam Um, ah what a bummer What a bum I mean not that rice crispy treats. Are you know, bad or anything just yeah, not a bummer night grade My I love it. 24:17.67 dclduo Aesha saved it and brought it back for a later cruise me like I like to trade my rice crispy treat for a medal ah like to trade it in well. Ah what I'll go. Um. 24:24.88 Sam Well let's but. 24:28.69 dclduo Let's talk ports. We always like to talk ports were in Europe because you know talk of the caribbean the ship is the star of the show and everyone's been to most of the ports. Ah but in the Europe you're there for the ports and so you leave Barcelona where are we headed first. 24:41.80 Eric Morrow So our first our first day was actually a sea day which was kind of cool um had some you know lots of free time on the boat. We did the Paulo dessert tasting that day. And then we actually sailed through the straits at gibraltar that evening so that was a pretty unique experience. You know you look to the right and you can see europe about you know, 5 to 10 miles in the distance you look to the left. You can see North Africa and Morocco about 5 to 10 miles in the distance. 25:01.47 dclduo Lice. 25:15.99 Eric Morrow And they actually kind of canceled the whole adults only area at the bow of the ship and let everybody up there because that was the best place to where you could stand and see both sides without having to run back and forth across the ship. 25:25.20 Sam Oh cool. 25:27.75 dclduo Yeah, light. 25:32.19 Sam That's a really cool thing to get to do I mean not a lot of people get to go through the straights and so that's just a really cool experience. Yeah I love that they did that. That's smart. 25:40.32 dclduo Yeah, yeah, how is the Palo. Ah you said palo dessert tasting. Yes. 25:44.70 Eric Morrow Yes, so it was phenomenal. Um, basically they bring out 6 different desserts. Ah, there's wine pairings with them if you choose to do so we did on our previous crews. We did not this time. Um, and. You know each each dessert is it's it's not a huge dessert but they have chocolatey ones they have sweeter ones. Ah the pastry chef comes out and explains how they make each one and you know why it's named the way it's named and everything and. You know my personal favorite was and that's the star of the show I think is something called citron. It basically is a pastry lemon so it looks like a lemon and then when you crack it open. It has like a ah like a lemon lime ah curd in the middle of it. 26:32.00 dclduo Ah, yes. 26:39.84 Eric Morrow Ah, that's you know, super sweet, absolutely delicious and the chef explained that that one actually takes about 48 hours to make and they have to make it in the walk in freezer because it can't melt. 26:53.11 Sam I right? right? wait this is in remy not Paulo right? Ok yeah yeah. 26:53.38 dclduo Wow! yeah. 26:55.73 Eric Morrow And has to it. It has to set up right and everything. So yes, this isn't remy I'm I'm I'm I'm sorry Yes, the the the. 27:04.16 dclduo Remy Okay, all right? Yeah yeah, okay. 27:05.94 Sam No, that's okay I was just like I was like because we've had that dessert but we've had it in remy in Enchantte but we have it so we've never done the dessert experience but we've but yeah, but we've eaten in remy and we've eaten an ench chante and we've had some of the dessert. So obviously overlap. 27:12.50 Eric Morrow Okay, well definitely worth it. 27:22.53 Sam But I've we've never obviously gotten to sample like that kind of array of desserts. Um, which would be kind of a cool. Okay. 27:27.20 Eric Morrow Right? It's a two p M yeah so um, you know you're you're yeah you're you're you're definitely eating a little bit lighter after after that dessert. 27:27.86 dclduo When is it is it in like the middle of the day or okay, so just a little light snack before dinner. Yeah, ah. 27:40.70 dclduo Yeah, well still probably really delicious. Yeah, the French no desserts if they know anything at all. So there you go there, you go. 27:46.70 Eric Morrow Absolutely So our. 27:49.77 Sam Oh yeah, that sounds awesome. We'll have to do that. Yeah, at some point Brian we'll have to do that one because we have not done the dessert experience and um on any of the ships. Yeah I love that. So. 28:00.82 Eric Morrow Yeah, so our first port was actually um the I guess second day from Barcelona and we stopped in cadi's which. 28:09.99 dclduo Yep. 28:14.60 Eric Morrow I don't think the ship has been there either before or certainly not in a long time because it was in the local paper. We found out later and like it. It was very notable that the Disney dream such a large cruise ship came to cutties and then we did a short excursion called beekeeper for a day. So we boarded a bus drove about an hour from cutdi to a town called ah hadez della frontterra and we went to the be ranch and so when you arrive at the b ranch because they kind of you know, talk a little bit about the place. It's a family owned and operated business. 28:34.26 dclduo Um, oh. 28:53.80 Eric Morrow And has been probably I think they said for like the last fifty years or so but they give you a beekeeper pursuit that you put on and then they lead you into kind of the forest all all the trees where they keep the beehives to you know, try and keep them a little bit cooler. So they're not out in the sun. 29:11.68 dclduo Huh. 29:12.15 Eric Morrow And then they open up the beehive pull out the honeycomb. Let you see the Honeycomb. You know they're they're smoking the bees. The bees aren't super active but they kind of walk it around and you can see that you can see the bees and they're you know they're flying around and everything. Also. And then you go back to the the bee museum and take off the suit then they show you how they jar the honey after it's been extracted from the honeycomb and. Then they have like a little presentation about bees and why they're important and the different kinds of bees and then there's an opportunity to make candles out of the beeswax and then they had a light snack for us that. My wife and I devoured the kids were less interested. It was like a um, almost like a egg sandwich on ah bread with like a big pepper as well. Um, so pretty tasty. Um. 30:21.38 Sam Um, go interesting. 30:21.77 dclduo Um. 30:26.13 Eric Morrow And that was the b museum. It probably was oh three and a half hours or so um, all told maybe 4 hours from the time we left the ship until the time we got back? Um, and it was hot. Um, cutdis and Herez Del Frontera are at the far southern side of Spain um, you know right? there at the at the near the kind of that lowest tip part of Spain and in fact, ah. You know they they told us that that part of Spain is further south than anywhere else in Europe so further south than sicily further south in the budd of italy um, you know and and you know very like like right across the straits from Morocco so they said it. You know it. It regularly gets up into. 31:06.52 dclduo Go out. 31:11.29 Sam Ah, wow. 31:22.30 Eric Morrow You know the mid C so you know probably 1 teens ah in fahrenheit during during the peak of summer. 31:31.53 Sam Smith? Yeah, yeah, we're talking like a desert climate basically similar so more similar to the Middle East than to most of Europe. Yeah. 31:35.61 Eric Morrow Yes, yeah, okay. 31:36.80 dclduo Yeah. 31:42.63 Eric Morrow Yeah, um I guess we found but but both being southern californians we found Spain in general to be very much like California and the ah that southern part of Spain. 31:49.63 Sam Yes. 31:56.96 Eric Morrow And even Barcelona a little bit to be more like kind of the ah you know l a area San Diego area ah if they didn't pipe so much water to to Southern California um and then the other part of Spain we visited was much more like the central coast or Northern California 32:19.53 Sam Bright? Yeah, oh interesting. 32:23.64 dclduo Nice, Well the bee keeping Shore excursion sounds fascinating but it also sounds like our son's nightmare. Ah so yeah, yeah, he you screaming through the woods. Yeah yeah. 32:27.36 Sam Yeah I totally true Nathan will be terrified. He's terrified of me. Yeah, it does sound really interesting I would love to do it. But yeah, he's he was like terrified I'm I'm kind of terrified to be fair of getting stung by a bee as well because I've never been stung but he stepped on a. Be actually he stepped on a b now twice. But once the first time was at alwani oddly enough of all placess. Ah of all the places. So it's just you know random random. 32:49.59 Eric Morrow My daughter got a beast sting on her foot at Alanie. Also. 32:59.28 dclduo Um, well, where are we off to next Eric. 33:00.18 Eric Morrow So after Barcelona our next stop was beautiful lisbon Portugal and we weren't really sure what to expect with lisbon and so but but we knew we wanted to get out and see the town so we. 33:06.19 Sam He. 33:20.17 Eric Morrow Scheduled a the hop on hop off tour. Um and you know one of the selling points for it was that it went by the Aquarium and both of my children are animal lovers which is part of why we did the beekeeper thing but they really wanted to see the. 33:21.20 dclduo Yeah. 33:38.33 Eric Morrow Aquarium in Lisbon. Also I hear it's one of the best in Europe so we got on the hop on hop off and the driver basically said okay, we're going to go to the tower of belem which is a big kind of sightseeing spot. 33:55.58 dclduo Who. 33:57.61 Eric Morrow And then and then after that we'll take you back to the city center so you can transfer to the other bus what he neglected to tell us is basically leaving the port the hop on hop off was just going to follow the hop on hop off route the entire way. To the tower of Belin and then back the city center and by the time we got back to city center we'd been on the hop on hop off for an hour and a half both of my kids were hot and tired and every like my wife and I were both like you know I think we're going to call it because if it takes another. 34:23.42 dclduo If. 34:26.48 Sam Oh. 34:34.61 Eric Morrow hour to hour and a hal hour to hour and a hal hour to get out to the aquarium and that bus runs less frequently. We're not sure we're gonna make it back to the port in time. So we ended up we ended up walking from city center just down kind of along the main boulevard ah back to the port. 34:37.42 Sam Right. 34:42.10 dclduo Little wow. 34:52.61 Eric Morrow Which was an interesting walk. We stopped at a pastry shop and I don't even know what they call them. But there's like a a traditional Portuguese little kind of tart. Ah that we picked up a couple of and you know made our way back to. 35:02.63 dclduo Oh. 35:11.73 Eric Morrow The the ship and then had some well deserved rest after that because it was again another hot day and between being on the hop on hop off that the top floor didn't have a lot of shade and. Then the walk back we were we were kind of tired at that point. 35:33.40 dclduo Yeah, did ah um, did you get a chance to to I this when we did Norway one of the things we liked was we would get into these ports and we could get off and do a little bit of exploring but then kind of had. A long day in the ports and so you were able to like we had lunch one day at a little place in Norway. Did you find the ability to kind of do some short time and then also explore on your own and that kind of stuff or was it really like got to do the shore excursion then we're back on the boat. 36:05.66 Eric Morrow Um I I would say there definitely was opportunity to do ah a little of both I'd say we didn't we didn't take full advantage of that just because you know by the time we got back to the ship got the kids back on board. Then it was like we you know we don't feel like going back off the ship to find a place to eat again. Um, and I would say we we were probably you know we were probably coming back ashore or sorry probably coming back on board. Um, two 2 30 and then departure was around for thirty four forty five ah most of the days that we were in port. 36:51.22 dclduo All right? So more like a typical court sort of port day like the caribbean or something like that. That's interesting. That's interesting. Ah, any other highlights from ah from Portugal before we head ah to our next port adventure here. 37:05.33 Eric Morrow Ah, no I mean I I guess the 1 thing I'd say is like ah again with the hop on hop off. Um I think it would be great. We we actually went to portive to the port adventures desk. And tried to get some information about what that entailed and what the route was and where where it stopped and they didn't have any information and they were like well it's the weekend so they're clothes will try and get back to you and then Monday they didn't get back to us and then Tuesday was was the shore excursion I guess. 37:22.35 dclduo Yeah. 37:38.30 Eric Morrow You know what? I'd say is for most of Europe um, at least the places we stopped if you just wanted to explore kind of the port city area. Um, which you know was cadi's lisbon. Um, you really didn't need a shore excursion. We could have not done any shore exccursion got off the boat and lisbon walked around seen everything because the the port in lisbon is right next to downtown. Um, so we we could have walked around seen whatever we wanted to see. 38:05.32 dclduo Um. 38:10.37 dclduo M. 38:17.42 Eric Morrow If we'd wanted to take a cab to the Aquarium we probably could have done that um and it would have been better for us I think than doing the hop on hop off. 38:24.99 dclduo Yeah I mean I would say research the ports right? because some of the ports are actually like if if you want to see rome you got to you got a 90 minute bus ride from the port to Rome but to your point like some of these like actual seaport towns that are large european cities but sit on the coast. 38:30.56 Eric Morrow Bright. 38:42.67 dclduo Yeah, you'd probably be able to get off the ship and and walk into town heard some mixed things about was it copenhagen that we were talking to somebody about the other day Sam that was like they had shifted ports from the downtown city center to a more industrial port outside of Copenhagen. So definitely worth doing your research because I do think you can get a lot done on your own if the port is. 38:48.36 Sam Yeah. 39:01.60 dclduo Easily accessible into the ah the downtown area but Eric where are we headed next. 39:03.57 Sam Yeah, yeah. 39:04.45 Eric Morrow Right? right? So after lisbon we went to Vigo Spain so back to Spain vegos in ah, not the far north of Spain but further north from portugal in the galicia region. 39:09.40 dclduo Oh no. 39:21.93 Eric Morrow And we then did a ah port adventure to Santiago de Compostella which is the end of the Camino the Santiago or sorry yeah, the Camino the Santiago pilgrimage. 39:28.97 dclduo Yes. 39:39.61 dclduo Yep. 39:39.88 Eric Morrow And so you know for hundreds of years people have walked from all over Europe to this to the cathedral of st james in santiago and it was phenomenal. We we parked at there's a big bus terminal and then walked into the old city. And really got a feel for you know what european construction in the oh if I were going to guess maybe seventeen hundreds was like um maybe earlier and but stopped at a little cafe. Ah. And of all things hot chocolate and a chiro and you you you you dip your chiro into the hot chocolate. Um, very well let there there was there was probably you. 40:23.69 Sam Ah, how does it compare to the Disneyland cheeros. 40:32.35 Sam Ah. 40:35.86 Eric Morrow Less cemon sugar on the one in in Spain. Um I I I probably have to give the disney land cheros the edge but it definitely was better than the Disney World cheru 40:39.49 Sam Yep. 40:46.46 dclduo Now. Yes. 40:47.91 Sam Ah, there, you go see you know the difference you know exactly what I'm talking about Eric? Yeah now ok tell me so for the non-catlic on this ah on this call the one I'm the jew in the call. Tell me about this the pilgrimage so this is a famous cathedral I take it for catholics. 41:05.18 Eric Morrow It's It's a famous cathedral for catholics I'll say I was raised Catholic but have been nonpracticing now for a few decades and I I had I had actually never heard of the Camino the Santiago until. 41:14.69 dclduo You're in good company Eric you're in good company. 41:22.17 Sam Okay. 41:22.19 Eric Morrow Ah, we started getting ready for this trip. But. 41:22.44 dclduo Yeah, now see we had it. We had a friend do it we we know someone who did it remember we had a friend from law school who did this a few years ago yes 41:29.81 Sam Oh yes I now I know what you're talking about. But I yeah I don't I mean I'm was raised jewish what do I know about famous cathedrals except maybe like Notre Dame right like sorry Notre Dame um ah 41:35.73 Eric Morrow Right? but but there ah but so so there isn't just one route there are places to start all over Spain and actually even into France and then you you know you hike in some cases hundreds of miles. 41:43.92 Sam E. 41:57.54 Eric Morrow Down to this this church to this cathedral in in a little town in Spain and so we we walked around we looked at some things we did not. Ah. 41:57.55 Sam Um, wow. 42:02.88 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 42:03.50 Sam Um, cool that sounds fun. 42:12.14 Eric Morrow We We weren't sure exactly how much time we were going to have so we did not try and book a go inside the Cathedral tour. Ah but then actually on the walk back to the bus we decided hey let's just kind of walk through the the modern town a little bit. 42:15.64 Sam E. 42:31.20 Eric Morrow And see what's there and maybe try and grab a little food and so we went into this little pastry shop and my wife and I practiced our Spanish show a little bit and the pastry shop owner practices practiced his English a little bit. Um and. 42:43.57 Sam I Don't you love that when you try and speak Spanish and they speak English to. 42:49.91 Eric Morrow Yeah I mean I I would say that that was the highlight of the day for us is as as cool as everything else was just you know talking to a guy about like hey you know how are you doing as your day you know what are you selling? What's good here that was and and then he. 43:03.48 Sam Um, he. 43:05.80 Eric Morrow He knew somebody who had moved to Los Angeles and so he was asking us about Southern California and it was it was just a great great experience. We probably spent you know, maybe 20 minutes or so just like like we we popped in to get a few cookies and ended up spending 20 minutes or so talking to this guy. 43:08.20 Sam Oh cool. 43:24.20 Eric Morrow And then walked back up and got on the bus for what's it was about an hour bus ride back to vigo. 43:27.96 Sam Cool. Well that sounds like a fun excursion all right now your last port before you get to your dissembarcation port is la havre in France right? What did you guys get up to there. 43:31.14 dclduo Very cool, very cool. 43:45.17 Eric Morrow So Laavv was interesting. Um, you know most of the other ports all a short time was around 9 a m all a short time in la have was like 7 and so we got off the boat at about seven fifteen got on a big motor coach and then we had a 3 hour riding to Paris. 44:05.86 dclduo You say la havere is like in a a true industrial shipping port for for France. Yeah. 44:06.13 Sam Oh go off. 44:10.30 Eric Morrow Yes, and it it it looked it. It was I mean you know Bare Bones Huge Shipyard You know if if you looked into the distance you could see container ships getting outloaded and offloaded. Um. But the the motor coach pulled right up to the cruise terminal we hopped off got on the motor coach and there was a French guide on the motor coach that talked to us a little bit about excuse me about the the Normandy region that we were traveling through. 44:44.40 Sam Um, yes. 44:44.52 Eric Morrow On our way to Paris and so we we got to Paris and there was sort of the like okay get your cameras ready because when we come out of this tunnel. You're going to see the eiffel tower and we came out of the tunnel. The eiffel tower was right there. 44:56.30 Sam Right? right? oh. 45:02.49 Eric Morrow Ah, we parked walked over to one of the bridges leading to the eiffel tower for a foot quick for a quick photo op. My daughter was thrilled. She's taking spanish in high school and or sorry taking french in high school and was super excited about going to Paris. Ah. 45:08.46 Sam You. 45:17.36 Sam Oh awesome. 45:19.99 Eric Morrow And think she's she's wanted to go to Paris for years. So this was this was kind of the all all her day. Um. 45:26.50 Sam Oh little bucket list thing for now. Did you guys? Um, or how long was the the bus ride from have to oh ok sorry I missed that. 45:32.87 dclduo He said that he said 3 hours I let me ask you different question um to how time did you get on the ground in pair because a 3 hour bus ride means a 6 hour round trip. So I'm curious much time you actually got in the city. 45:40.90 Eric Morrow Right? We were probably in the city for about 3 hours so so it was it was it was very quick like like I said we we refer to this as sort of our european sampler trip. 45:49.12 dclduo Wow. Okay, that's a. 45:51.60 Sam So it's quick. 45:57.33 Sam You have. 45:57.94 dclduo Such yeah. 45:59.95 Eric Morrow And we now have plans for what we what we do the next time we go back? Um, as great as it was to visit Europe by by Cruise we will probably not do a cruise the next time we go. 46:08.92 dclduo Yep, yeah. 46:10.20 Sam Right? This was like when you go to the Olive Garden and you get the tour of Italy Sampler poter. Yeah. 46:17.95 dclduo But I don't think this was anything like that. But ah, nice try Sam. Ah yeah, but so I guess what sites were you able to hit and I mean for a 6 hour round trip bus ride 3 hours in the city I got to assume that makes some time for you to get something to eat at some point. So yeah. 46:32.43 Eric Morrow Yes, so so after the photo op at the Eiffel Tower We then drove along the Se ah across another bridge to the Arc deriolph in the big circle. 46:45.77 Sam If he. 46:46.86 dclduo Um, will. 46:48.40 Eric Morrow Kind of took a loop around the arc to Triumph and then drove up the shams. He a ah to the plus Delic Concord and the bus parked kind of right near plus Dela Concord and the driver basically said okay, be back at two thirty 46:51.30 Sam Listen. 46:56.17 dclduo Who. 46:56.27 Sam Okay, yeah. 47:05.43 dclduo Okay. 47:07.43 Eric Morrow And you know if you want to try and go to Notre Dame um here's how to get there using the metro. Um, if you want to go back to the eiffel tower here's how to do that. But you won't have time to go up the eiffel tower um, and we chose really just to. 47:19.50 Sam Right. 47:26.19 Eric Morrow Stroll up and down the shamps. He Las a um, you know and and see the sights. So ah for for me, it was an especially you know, noteworthy trip mostly because we were there on a. 47:31.20 dclduo Yeah. 47:45.41 Eric Morrow On a Friday and that Sunday was the final day of the tour the frances which finishes on the shampsi ise so they had the stands all set up. They had the hospitality rooms for the teams all set up that a little souvenir shop that I had to go buy a few things at um. 47:50.58 dclduo The. 47:51.41 Sam Oh cool. 47:57.82 Sam Right? This is. 48:04.88 Eric Morrow But other than that it was just sort of people watching you know, walk up the Shampsie L A ah. 48:08.49 Sam You mean you didn't spend your time buying Louis Vittonana ormez on the shamps. Hey. 48:12.10 dclduo No. 48:14.28 Eric Morrow Ah, no, we we did stop for some ah macarons and we also stopped at a little sidewalk bistro for lunch. Um, where my daughter got to practice her her French a little bit and the the waiter was very kind I was like. 48:18.33 Sam Nice. 48:22.75 dclduo Nice. 48:27.39 Sam Love it. 48:32.34 Eric Morrow Oh that was so good. You should speak French all the time. Ah, and then ah we walked back up the other side of the Boulevard Um, and then got back to the bus probably just. 48:33.13 Sam Yeah, oh you I Love that good encouragement. So you know. 48:51.24 Eric Morrow About right on time hop on the bus another 3 hours back to the port and we arrived back at port. Oh I want to say just in time for dinner it was it was probably five forty five or so when we arrived back at the ship. 48:52.98 Sam Um. 49:05.59 Sam Yeah, that's a long day now quick question did they have as as an excursion option going to Disneyland Paris I just don't interesting. Ok. 49:14.11 Eric Morrow They did they they they did. It's it's it's on the far side of the city I think but but the you know and our ship did not even even though we got back to the ship at 6 49:15.96 dclduo Oh my God that how would that work I mean that's further away isn't it like oh my gosh. Okay. 49:23.91 Sam Yeah. 49:32.53 Sam Um, oh okay. 49:32.66 Eric Morrow All aboard time was Eleven p M so like had we hired a private car. We could have stayed in Paris longer or you know for the people that went to Disneyland Paris I believe their excursion again left at 7 a m. 49:35.60 dclduo Um, oh wow. 49:38.56 Sam Are easy. 49:47.47 Sam Um, right. 49:49.35 Eric Morrow Probably got to Disneyland Paris Ten ten thirty ish and then they got to stay there probably until ah seven thirty you know set 7 7 30 so it was it was a good chunk of the day we we looked at that we went. Yeah, it would be cool to visit Disneyland Paris we're like but. 49:55.73 Sam 7 p m or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 49:57.79 dclduo Yeah. 50:08.82 Eric Morrow You know for for everybody except me's first trip to Paris we have to go to actual Paris we're not going to go to the park. So what we'll. 50:11.51 Sam Right? They got to go to bed you have to go to actual Paris. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 50:15.12 dclduo Yeah, yeah I would I would imagine I would imagine that would be an expensive Shore excursion too because you need the tickets to the park plus the transportation. Yeah yeah, and I just don't know that you would get the I mean. 50:22.93 Eric Morrow It was. 50:30.27 dclduo We had someone on recently who commented like no the parks were really meant to be seen and like just a few hours. You know? So yeah. 50:32.56 Sam A single day. Yeah, yeah. 50:33.14 Eric Morrow No, no yeah I think ah what what we talked about was at some point in the future going back and you know probably doing 5 to seven days in Paris with a day or 2 at the parks as part of that. 50:47.69 dclduo Smart yeah yeah, did they have any since ah you mentioned driving through normandy I was curious. They have shore excursions that went out to like Normandy Beach and that sort of thing. 50:48.90 Sam Yep. 50:55.75 Eric Morrow They did they had they had excursions to the the d-day beaches. They had an excursion to Mase Michelle um they had excursions to somewhere else in Normandy to like Monet's house 51:01.57 dclduo Oh yeah. 51:10.71 Eric Morrow Actually most of the excursions I would say were in the normandy region with the exception of Paris. 51:16.99 dclduo Yeah, yeah, yeah, what makes for a long day. So I'm sure you got back to the ship exhausted I mean even just sitting on a cramped bus for 3 hours is exhausting so sure he got back exhausted. Ah. 51:27.94 Eric Morrow Yeah, yeah. 51:30.77 dclduo Yeah, so do you get a c day after this to recover to because you you end in dover right? or in Southampton. 51:34.96 Eric Morrow Yes, so so basically we left La Hov at 11 p m and I think just went out into the channel and did donuts until it was time to come into Southampton the next morning. So our our sea days were our very first full day on the ship after after debarcation day. 51:42.28 dclduo Um. 51:45.13 Sam Yeah, yeah. 51:45.28 dclduo Okay. Oh. 51:54.49 Eric Morrow And then ah the day between Vigo and lajave. It's ah it's a far enough transit that we had a c day that day. Also. 51:59.94 dclduo Okay, got you? Well after you disembark in Southampton did you head straight home or did you spend some time in London or. 52:06.82 Eric Morrow So we spent the weekend in London arrived Saturday morning we had we were originally planning to take the train into London from Southampton so just a you know taxi from the port. However, there was a train strike the weekend that we were. 52:25.97 Sam Ah, no. 52:26.99 Eric Morrow Arriving so literally right before we left the us I switched that up and got us a private van that took us into London we stayed in a neighborhood called Elephant and castle and my. 52:42.86 dclduo Um, yeah. 52:46.90 Eric Morrow I have I have a sister that lives in London I have a sister that lives in Bristol and so the 2 the 2 of them met us at the hotel and we did basically Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday in London and then Monday morning we took the tube from Elephant Castle to paddington station. Got the heathrow express and then flew home and all the travel was perfect until we hit toronto and hit hit toronto. Our flight got canceled due to weather. 53:06.00 dclduo Yeah. 53:15.98 Sam Um, oh no. 53:23.40 Eric Morrow And they didn't have another flight going out later that day so we had to spend the night in Toronto got up the next morning instead of going direct back to Baltimore we had a connection through Jfk got to Jfk had lunch there got on the plane taxied stopped. 53:34.62 Sam You know. 53:36.70 dclduo The. 53:42.92 Eric Morrow Spent 3 hours on a ground stop on the tarmac at Jfk and and then they were like yeah and and then they said you know we're going to try and make it out just in time revved up the engines we were taxiing and then they came on the intercom and said you know folks. 53:44.55 Sam Um, ah ah Jeff dev ks the worst the worst. 53:45.41 dclduo Oh my gosh. 53:59.76 Eric Morrow We actually don't have enough fuel to make it to to make it to Baltimore anymore. We're going back to the gate and at that point the 3 hour mandatory get off the plane roll applies. Ah so your flights canceled until tomorrow morning and at at that point. 54:00.40 Sam Of Baltimore oh my god. 54:08.42 Sam Oh my god. 54:12.52 dclduo Oh my. 54:14.46 Sam Ah, and then you're stuck in New York ah and your home right? right? Yeah, oh my yeah is at that point you're driving distance to home but still you have to rent a car I mean that's a pain in the butt and a one way rental. Ah yeah, ya. 54:18.40 Eric Morrow We rented a car and drove the 4 hours back to ball back to the DC area 54:21.39 dclduo Wow Wow. Well. 54:28.90 Eric Morrow Um, right. 54:28.48 dclduo I Will say if you're I will say if you're going to encounter difficulty and travel always better on the back end of the trip than the front end of the trip kind of. 54:36.16 Eric Morrow Absolutely. 54:38.92 Sam And better when you're in the US or Canada right? I mean as opposed to you know, being having to deal with it in a european country and perhaps in on a non-english speaking country would be even more difficult of course. Yes, no, ah yeah, yeah, well, that's. 54:48.20 Eric Morrow Definitely right. 54:50.47 dclduo Yeah, yeah, well we skipped we skipped? Yeah, we we skipped over some of your ship time and so I want to rewind for a second and just ask any big highlights I mean other than the yeah, the dessert tasting you did but anything that was a really big highlight for you. 54:55.60 Sam That's a trip. 55:04.47 Sam And the trivias. Yeah. 55:08.90 Eric Morrow Um, I would say Paulo Brunch was awesome I I been hearing about it on your show for years. My only question is like how do you eat that much because i. 55:20.51 Sam Ah I'm going to tell you? um. 55:22.51 Eric Morrow I was I I like my my my wife and I we had the breakfast course I had some pizza and then I got the chicken parm and I was like man I can't eat I had like four bites and I'm like I am out. 55:26.35 Sam Yeah, yeah, yeah. 55:35.59 Sam Okay, I'm going to tell you the secret or the dcal duo secret at least to how to how you eat pollo brunch first rule is you don't have it at like ten o'clock in the morning you get you try for a later brunch time so like 11 or twelve second rule is you don't. 55:39.42 Eric Morrow Okay. 55:41.20 dclduo Um, no. 55:48.37 Eric Morrow A. 55:54.70 dclduo Skip breakfast. 55:54.69 Sam Eat anything that morning you drink coffee because we live in the Seattle area and we must drink coffee in the morning or we're both zombies so we drink coffee in the morning if my stomach is really like empty I might have like a bite of a muffin or a bite of a croissant in the morning but really I don't eat breakfast and then we don't eat the egg course. Well. 55:54.87 Eric Morrow And. 56:14.49 Sam With some exceptions occasionally Brian will eat the egg course I don't eat the egg course at all I have tried some of the egg courses in Paulo and I don't think they're worthwhile. That's me if you love the egg course and yeah. 56:26.60 dclduo I pick I pick my battle I pick my battle if I feel like having the eggs then I'm not having like the soup or like going crazy with the pizza. Um, but yeah, you get. We have the fortune of eating there enough that we can kind of pick our battles. But. 56:40.30 Eric Morrow Fair fair. 56:42.84 dclduo Yeah, if it's if it's your ah your first time. Ah, perhaps your only time. Yeah, yeah, think it's a you got to? It's a it is a it is work to eat as much food and they will and they will not. They will not be shy about bringing you more. So yeah. 56:51.10 Sam Yes, but the other yeah but the the other secret though for this applies to me and sometimes actually to Brian Brian more recently I don't eat dessert apollo brunch ever. So I'm not a huge dessert person to begin with I like there are a few desserts on board that I love. 56:53.40 Eric Morrow Um, yeah I. 57:10.49 Sam Namely oreo cheesecay I also really like the amarettto souffle in Paulo at the at dinner but I'm not like a huge dessert person. So I pretty much don't eat the dessert at brunch you did you. 57:17.49 dclduo Yeah, but to be fair I didn't have the dessert course this time but I did have the Natella chrissant I did have I did you know I I eyed a sticky bond at the end to be sure but I was just way too full at that point. Yeah. 57:29.87 Eric Morrow Yeah I think my my wife and I comment was like it's not just brunch. That's like every meal of the day and so we we didn't eat breakfast. We had pallo brunch I believe we had like an eleven o'clock seating or so and. 57:29.90 Sam That was a dessert that was a dessert course I mean. 57:38.31 Sam True. Okay, yeah. 57:48.70 Eric Morrow We rolled out of there and we're like all right so appetizers only for dinner and that's and and and we followed through on that. 57:53.33 Sam You? Yes, yeah well and you absolutely like have to have well so we always do late dinner so that's one other thing too if we like late dinner is ah because by then you're like okay I could eat something but you're right I don't eat a I eat a smaller dinner usually after Apollo. 57:54.80 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 57:59.82 Eric Morrow And. 58:11.17 Sam But again I skip the egg course and I skip the dessert course and and I'm just feeling stuffed. That's really how it all happens Eric yeah. 58:14.69 dclduo Yeah, ah, all I can say is the new format is is less ah well doesn't have to be less food but I can ah Eric I you would be shocked at what it used to be with the buffet like yeah like like. 58:16.64 Eric Morrow Right. 58:29.00 Sam I Oh yeah. 58:31.27 dclduo Oh my gosh multiple trips to a buffet plus a sit down meal plus dessert you know all that I mean it was ah it was so much food so it was it was yes. 58:36.65 Sam It it was gluttonous and it was amazing. It's still a gluttonous and amazing though. But yeah, it is ah it's a gluttonous meal go with an empty stomach if that means even skipping dessert the night before do that. It's so good. Yeah, and don't do a back to back? um. 58:48.56 dclduo Yeah, exactly. 58:54.41 Eric Morrow Bright. 58:54.91 Sam Adult dining. So if you're doing apollo brunch for anyone who's listening. Do not do apollo or remy dinner the night before you will not your stomach will be too full to eat brunch and then same thing for after apollo brunch don't. 59:07.59 dclduo Yeah, dope plan. Yeah. 59:09.41 Eric Morrow Of. 59:09.69 Sam Plan on a big dinner. Don't pay. Don't plan on Apollo dinner or a remy dinner but even in main dining like you're it's gonna be especially if you have early if you have early dinner I don't know how you're gonna be able to eat anything or much of anything anyway. 59:19.60 Eric Morrow Right. 59:19.63 dclduo Yeah, yeah, well Sam I think it's time. Do you think it's time I think it's time. 59:25.64 Sam Yes I I think it's time unless unless there's anything we've missed Eric anything we've missed. We haven't talked about on the show before we subject you to a little bit of judgment. 59:40.85 Eric Morrow I Don't think so um I mean I I will say um, well all I'll I'll wait and we can. We can do the judgment and then I'll I'll catch anything if we don't discuss it then. 59:52.68 Sam All right sounds good. 59:52.82 dclduo All right sounds good all right? Well Eric we have reached that point in the show where I need to hand you over to Sam for some arbitrary questions some arbitrary rules and a dash of judgment or the round we know as a rapid fire sam take it away. 01:00:05.19 Sam Why thank you Brian Eric you have listened to the show for years as you mentioned so you know what's coming I'm going to ask you your Disney favorites and your Disney Cruise line favorites and these are your favorites I don't care about anybody else in your family just Eric's favorites ok all right? who is your favorite Disney character. 01:00:19.20 Eric Morrow All right. 01:00:25.19 Sam And this can be anyone in the Disney or Pixar or star wars or whatever anything Disney Owns universe oh I love blue ah love me some jungle book. Ok what is your favorite Disney movie. 01:00:31.26 Eric Morrow I'm going to go with blue the bear. 01:00:41.50 Eric Morrow Favorite movie. Um, the robinhood movie. Yep. 01:00:47.20 Sam Oh nice, ah an oldie but a goodie I haven't watched that in forever. My goodness all right favorite Disney song. 01:00:55.61 Eric Morrow I'm going to go with when can I see you again the in credits for Recordit Ralph 01:00:59.94 Sam Yes, ah, you know I love an allopy. Don't you so you're trying you're you're just trying to kiss up to me now I think all right tell me. What is your favorite Disney Cruise line stage show and I know you just got off the dream. So it must be. 01:01:17.12 Eric Morrow I'm gonna go with Beauty and the beast it was as as much as I liked the Latin on the fantasy. The last time we were on Board Beauty and the beast was phenomenal. 01:01:26.41 Sam You just one rapid fire. We don't even have to keep going. No, we're but we're going to anyway. Um, but thank you for giving me the right answer for the best Dc Stage show. What's your favorite rotational dining. This can also be on any of the ships. 01:01:40.11 Eric Morrow Ah I'm an animator's palette with the animation magic. 01:01:42.18 Sam Yeah, super fun and a good menu as well with the truffle persettes you hear that Josh Wilson truffle persettes forever all right? What is your favorite Disney Cruise line adult bar space. 01:01:57.42 Eric Morrow Meridian yeah I I found it on our seven night caribbean back in 2022 and spent quite a bit there because we had a huge onboard credit from all the covid stuff. 01:01:58.46 Sam Yes, Also a right answer. Thank you very much. 01:02:11.62 Sam Ah, nice. Well, you know you got to spend it somewhere where else you know we're better than in Meridian I Love it all right? Tell me what is a favorite onboard activity that you like to do yeah awesome. Give me. 01:02:18.20 Eric Morrow Um. 01:02:23.96 Eric Morrow Chervia What else. 01:02:27.49 Sam Another favorite space on the ship outside of meridian. 01:02:31.88 Eric Morrow Um, I would say I really liked the tube on the fantasy. 01:02:37.38 Sam Yeah, awesome I love that whole europa area and shout out to Barcelona I love going to the bathroom in Barcelona ah, for those who don't know there is an area that is decorated of europa is decorated like very gouty. 01:02:48.53 Eric Morrow Um, a. 01:02:52.47 Eric Morrow And. 01:02:54.64 Sam And it is literally called Barcelona and all it is is a bunch of bathrooms but they're like the best bathrooms on the ship all right setting that aside let's talk. Food. Let's talk favorite suite item and favorite savory item on board again. Any of the ships. Any either cruises that you've been on. We'll start with the suite since my favorite is the savory. So. What's your favorite item. 01:03:16.72 Eric Morrow Ah, Geez I'm gonna go with. Ah oh man, there's ah I can't think of the name of it. But there's like an amaettto dessert up in Pallo that is. 01:03:31.46 Sam Yes, it's it is the Amareto souffle. It's fantastic. That is an excellent answer all right? What is a favorite savory food item on board. 01:03:33.84 Eric Morrow Really good there. We go. 01:03:44.98 Eric Morrow Um, I probably have to go with the truffle per sets. 01:03:49.12 Sam Wow! Awesome high praise. Love it. Awesome! Okay, now this is a hard question I don't know if you've done all of the meals at remy or all of the meals Apollo now but let's let's give it a shot remy versus Paulo which one do you like better if you could only go to 1 01:04:04.98 Eric Morrow If we could only go to one probably Pollo Just we have not yet done dinner at remy and I think part of that is like I don't know that I I have some food aversions and. 01:04:13.78 Sam Yeah. 01:04:20.62 Sam Who. 01:04:23.69 Eric Morrow I Don't know that my wife or I would really necessarily get our money's worth from from remy. But we're both big fans of Italian food Sopollo all the way. 01:04:31.49 Sam Awesome! Love it. Okay, you've been on the magic you've been on the dream. You've been on the fantasy So this is a really important question Aqua dunk versus Aqua duck. That's the right answer all right. 01:04:46.72 Eric Morrow Aqueducc. 01:04:50.80 Sam Favorite ship. 01:04:50.35 Eric Morrow Favorite Ship. So I'm gonna have to go with the fantasy just because it's the ship. We've been on the most or I guess we've been on the fantasy twice. We've been on the dream twice and the magic and wonder we were on in 2000 8 and 2012 So it's been a while since we've been on either of the original ships. 01:05:11.50 Sam Yeah, yeah, you'll have to get back on them and decide if everything holds up but you know 7 nights on the fantasy is really hard to beat in general. So I totally understand that. Okay now the last question of rapid fire the question I ask everyone. What is your bucket list. Cruise if you could go anywhere on Disney Cruise line Disney Cruise line doesn't even have to currently sail there where are you going. 01:05:33.12 Eric Morrow If I could do any Disney Cruise line cruise it would probably be a you know a maybe a ten night Australia and New Zealand 01:05:45.87 Sam Awesome! That sounds great. What a great. What a great pick maybe someday that will happen now that the wonder is of course assaiing to New Zealand and Australia but they're doing these like short itineraries that are clearly you know a taste of. 01:05:57.94 Eric Morrow Right. 01:06:02.58 Sam Ah, Disney Cruise line for the australian and New Zealand market but we're hoping for the same. It may be in the the future. Well thank you for playing Eric you didn't get any questions wrong. So congratulations no judgment here and that means you and I both win. 01:06:18.61 Eric Morrow All right when it was all around. 01:06:23.10 Sam That's right. 01:06:23.25 dclduo There you go there, you go I always like to end the show by asking our guests. What's next did you pick up a placeholder on board eric do you have any you eyeing any future Disney cruises or is that land based ah vacation over to Europe ah really calling your name. 01:06:28.55 Eric Morrow And. 01:06:37.69 Eric Morrow I think in the our our next kind of our our next Disney vacation is probably gonna be a trip to alani. Um, we were originally looking at Summer Twenty Twenty four 01:06:44.95 dclduo Um, oh nice. 01:06:50.82 Eric Morrow There's a few things in the family that means we may need to shift that to 2025 which will be oh Gee. No, that'll be before our daughter graduates from high school but probably probably summer 2025 um is alani next summer probably is. Um, back to Southern California ah and some time at Disneyland along with time with family. Yeah, we were there in 2018. 01:07:16.92 Sam It' awesome. You're going to love ellanie. It's it's fantastic. It's oh nice, awesome. 01:07:17.38 dclduo This. 01:07:25.71 Eric Morrow And had a fantastic time. My son can't wait to go back and go Scuba diving again and I think my daughter wants to try it out this time as well. 01:07:32.90 Sam I Awesome! Love it. 01:07:32.63 dclduo Made amazing. Well Eric the next time you sail Disney Cruise line reach out. We love to have you back. You've been a fabulous guest and we just so appreciate you one reaching out to ask us to be on the show for any listener out there who is interested in coming on. We are really easy going people so reach out let us know we love to tell people stories. But. Eric for now just say. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to share your fabulous vacation with all of our listeners. We just really really appreciate. It. Awesome all right now you got to find the the stop button. 01:07:57.28 Eric Morrow Well and thank you for having me Brian Sam 01:08:03.19 Sam Yay! The stop recording button. Ah. 01:08:07.93 dclduo Opened the window somewhere because I can't even find the Zencastr oh there it is somehow it got taken.