Ep. 381 - Bonus - You Only Packed a Carry-on?: A Westbound Transatlantic Sailing on the Disney Dream

00:01.68 dclduo Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the DCL duo podcast brought to you by my path unwinding travel and Sam it's review time it's review time time. Ah. 00:08.35 Sam Um, yay, it's review time. It's my favorite time of the day. No I should though I should though I should look at the mirror. 00:14.65 dclduo We don't do it way a second we don't sit and read reviews every day We're not like we're not not those people. 00:21.73 Sam Like stare at the mirror and just read reviews out loud to myself. It's it seems like something that they would do on Snl was that um you know I'm good enough I'm smart enough and gosh nor't people like me that whole skin. Yeah I know you're. 00:22.93 dclduo Yeah. 00:31.64 dclduo Well let's get to the review then after that amazing self- revelation by sam I feel like we need an intro song for this like you know, like the backpack song from Dora the explorer but there we go. Yeah, all right here we go this one comes from Nick Casale the third or Nick Cael the third who writes. 00:38.56 Sam Yeah affirmation daily affirmations brian. 00:50.66 dclduo Great podcast focus on Disney Cruise line brian and sam I am a huge fan of your podcast I really enjoyed the show format and the quality of the audio even when you are recording from a ship. The audio is amazing I need to know what portable microphone you use the content of this podcast is Disney Cruise line focus and the guests that come on the show have all been great I love hearing everyone's perspective on Disney cruising. My family has sailed Disney twice and we are looking forward to our 1 bedroom concieurs sailing on the wish for my birthday in may this podcast has given us a lot to look forward to for that sailing and has helped us prepare I really enjoy the show. Keep up the fantastic work now for context setting. This review is left. 01:14.40 Sam So who. 01:26.59 dclduo In March so Nick we hope you had a great time in that 1 bedroom concierge sailing of yours and to answer your question in the review we use a Zoom. 01:29.69 Sam Awesome. 01:37.38 dclduo Each in 5 recorder when we are out in the field recording so there you go. That's how that that is how the magic happens on this show. 01:40.25 Sam Yeah, that is not our home recording setup our home recording setup is a little bit more complex than that. But thank you for the review Nick and thank you for listening. We hope you had a great cruise. 01:51.71 dclduo Yes, super appreciate it. Nick thanks for taking the time to leave a review and if you head over to Apple Podcast right now and leave us a 5 star review. We will read it on the air. So there you go but Sam we got an exciting show tonight don't we want to introduce our guest. 02:04.68 Sam Yes, absolutely I am so excited because we get to talk about 1 of our more unique cruise itineraries with a brand new guest now she's not new to Disney cruising. But she's new to our show welcome to the show. Jeanette. 02:20.12 Janette Billings Hello hello. 02:23.43 Sam Yeah, thanks for joining us Jeanette we're so excited that you reached out. Um, this is a great itinerary that you got to do the westbound transatlantic and this was on obviously the dream instead of on the magic that's been done obviously the the last several years um but before we dive into our topic of the show we have to ask you about your cruise creds tell us how many times have you sailed Disney Cruise line have you sailed any other lines and what kinds of itineraries have you done. 02:57.92 Janette Billings Okay, ah so this was our eighth cruising our eighth sailing on dcl we haven't cruised on anything else. But we're not exactly closed off to it. We just we like the experience that we've had so far. Our first experience. Um, cruising it was back in 2009 my husband and I were nineteen years old um had only been dating for a year and his family was going on a cruise and it actually wasn't intentional. They. Were supposed to stay in the animal kingdom lodge. They are Dbc members his parents are and the kadani village wasn't ready yet and so they ended up giving them a credit for Disney and whoever they were speaking to said. You know, have you ever considered a cruise and so they they never had they just jumped on it. We went on the cruise it was funny because you know Christian my husband had asked hey can I bring my girlfriend and they said well you know. She can if she can come up with the money for it because he's 1 of 5 children. So his parents bringing along the kids even with the credit that they had from Disney it was still going to be kind of a costly vacation for them. Yes, they had to have 2 rooms. Ah so. 04:23.38 Sam Yeah, and multiple rooms too. 04:31.18 Janette Billings I don't think they were expecting me to come up with the cash but I had worked all summer and I was saving and I showed up to their house with an um envelope full of cash and put it down on the counter and you know I was able to go and ever since then you know we're married now. So it all worked out. 04:45.54 Sam This is her. 04:47.84 Janette Billings And have been vacationing with them to Disney and actually that was the only cruise that we have cruised on with his family since then we've tried to go on other ones but medical reasons in nineteen we had a british isles cruise. That was canceled and then all through 2020 we were all trying to cruise together. We had the baltic one? Um, which unfortunately that itinerary doesn't exist anymore. We had a Norwegian Cruise scheduled and Northern Europe which his parents were able to do right before. 05:06.79 Sam Right. 05:23.70 Janette Billings Our transatlantic so well getting back to the cruises that we've done we did that in 2009 and then we didn't sail again until 16 and that was 2 years after Christian and I had gotten married but I had just finished graduate school. 05:25.49 Sam Um. 05:43.16 Janette Billings We wanted to celebrate you know, being adults out there in the real world and before we had to start where I had to start a full-time job. We went on this cruise and it was to the med so that was our second one. Yep we were 26 years old and I still got carded at the co. Um. 05:45.20 Sam I Love it. 05:53.74 Sam Oh awesome. 06:02.90 Janette Billings Was at the cove cafe. It was hilarious. You know they said are you sure that you're 18 and older this is the adult only section and looking back. You know it was hilarious because we saw a lot of young couples this time and we're like that was totally us. We just looked like children. Um, and after the med we did. The atlantic or sorry not the Atlantic the Alaska after the med we did an Alaskan Cruise in 2018 we went with our best friends so it was 2 couples. No children. We'd went had a blast didn't know what we were getting into not realizing when we booked it. It was one of the most. And so itineraries but we made it work. Um, 2019. We did the mexican riviera so we were on the wonder again and then ah the pandemic happened and so we couldn't cruise but. 06:49.30 Sam Awesome. 06:59.71 Janette Billings You know we kind of got antsy So as soon as they had opened up the itineraries we jumped on it and so at this point we had only ever sailed on the magic and the wonder and we wanted to try to complete the fleet before the wish had come out and so we did. 07:09.50 Sam Oh yeah. 07:18.94 Janette Billings A three night cruise on the dream and then another three night cruise on the fantasy and which was it's really unique for that ship. It was just one of those repositioning ones and we happened to hop on it and then we went on the wish. 07:26.89 Sam A. 07:38.47 Janette Billings And we were actually supposed to be on the in. Ah one of the inaugural sailing so on the third sailing and when they had postponed it. We got the 50% credit and so we sat on that for a while until we couldn't anymore and we found. It was either the Northern Europe cruise or the transatlantic the westbound transatlantic and we wanted it to go big because we had this huge credit so we went and we got um, we actually decided on the northern european cruise there is one more book. Or 1 more room left to book and then as soon as we got online. It was gone. So yeah, so and yeah, so it didn't happen and then we said well I guess it's the transatlantic. We got the very last room. It was twelve five 2 2 and it was just. 08:18.56 Sam I Oh Wow Sir like I guess that's not going to work I guess. 08:23.70 dclduo Yeah. 08:34.28 Janette Billings It wasn't a sweet or anything like that. It was just the typical verend room. Ah but it are it was our first time sailing concierge. So we said we had to do it. We have this incredible? yeah. 08:36.23 Sam Here. 08:44.63 Sam Yeah, 50% off concierge transatlantic cruise I mean that's the way to get your money's worth right? I mean it's still an expensive cruise. But at 50% off it's a lot more reasonable. 08:52.91 dclduo 1 it. 08:55.20 Janette Billings Um, yes, um. 08:58.56 dclduo 1 was this was this just was this adults only I feel like it was was it just the the you and your husband or did you have kids in toe. Amazing. 09:08.14 Janette Billings Nope, it's just me and my husband we don't have any kids we have a cat here at home and that's that's it. Um, so yet it was just the 2 of us. 09:15.33 Sam Remember those days Brian he I know well I'll listen um, ah yeah, amazing jeanette. That's ah listen it was fate I feel like it was meant to be. 09:18.54 dclduo Vaguely Sam Vaguely I remember them vaguely. Yeah those those halcyon days. Yes I remember them. 09:31.10 Sam That you were supposed to be on the Transatlanta Cruise and in concierge I love that up so you mentioned this was your first time doing concierge right? How come you know? how? how did you sort of land on that was it literally the only room left on the cruise or was it you. 09:38.47 Janette Billings Yes. 09:50.41 Sam Decided ok, let's we want to splurge we want to do concierge and there was no restriction on that 50% discount from the wish cancellation. 09:58.48 Janette Billings It was exactly that the fact that there was no um, there was no restriction because normally we'll try to do a placeholder but you can't there is no benefit when you to that with you book concierge so he just figured you know let's go ahead and do it. It's a long itinerary. So we're getting the best bang for our buck. Um and the westbound trends atlantic was a bucket list cruise that we didn't think we could do for a while and so we just we just booked it for a lot of. Our family and friends at no us where we travel a lot We're kind of spontaneous travelers and so we booked this when we booked it. It wasn't the last room on the ship. There was plenty still going or still available. But this was the last concierge room and after the experience of losing out on the Northern European one we. 10:51.29 Sam Yeah, yeah, now 1 thing for folks to know about concierge is you can't cancel a concierge room now that isn't to say you can't change it to a different cruise but it's a non-refundable deposit. So if you. 10:51.52 Janette Billings We just booked it. 11:09.22 Sam Decide you can't do concierge you can move it to a regular room. It's just you can't get a refund on that deposit or you can move it even to a different cruise but that's one difference with with concierge. So Jeanette. Let's start with ah your pre booking process. Um. You know, obviously you're going to have a lot of cds on any transatlantic or Transpac Pacific crossing um and you had the benefit of the prebooking through shoreside concierge tell us what? Um, what kinds of things were you looking to prebook I'm going to give a. Yes, and say you got everything you wanted. There's no caban ass because there's no castaway key. But if you want drink tastings you want Pallo you want remy all that kind of stuff I'm guessing you could get whatever you wanted. 11:45.40 Janette Billings Yes. 11:57.65 Janette Billings Yes, we booked everything that you pretty much could book so we did quite a few drink tastings. We ended up cantaling a couple just because you know we we knew with the lounge and everything that we wouldn't really need it. Um, but we kept. I Kept the champagne and we loved the chocolate and the core my husband did um he did a tequila margarita tasting and or we actually did that one together and then he did I think a martini tasting. 12:25.18 Sam Nice. 12:33.70 Janette Billings By himself. So when I had the champagne tasting he had his and that was all set up by shoreside and so just we just kind of told them you know when we wanted it. We didn't want to miss any shows we wanted to make sure that it wasn't after dinner because we've done those and it. 12:36.98 Sam Oh nice. 12:48.33 Sam And. 12:51.94 Janette Billings Those are kind of brutal after you have dinner and we got our late seating. 12:53.92 Sam So yeah, you have a totally you have a totally full stomach and then there's a ton of alcohol to taste. It's not the best timing I would agree. Yeah. 13:03.90 Janette Billings No, um, but and also you know you might want to enjoy a glass of wine at dinner too and so after drinking during that and adding on a drink tasting which they're usually pretty generous with you know, it's a fun night can be a not so fun night after all. Ah, but we were able to get the dining rotation that we wanted which we didn't realize but you know searching on Facebook and reading blogs Reddit we realized that was something that we could do ah we didn't I booked. 13:35.90 Sam Yep. 13:39.23 Janette Billings Didn't book anything at the spa for myself. But we got Christian the shave and he ended up loving it. Yeah and the only things that we didn't get was just because they weren't offered so they were. 13:44.35 Sam Oh that's one of Brian's favorite things. Love that. 13:57.94 Janette Billings Couple of excursions they just weren't offered I think it was one for bermuda that we wanted and they didn't have it this time and I think it's just because we were only we weren't staying a night and so it was very limited on what they had um, but everything else we got exactly what we wanted and. 14:06.77 Sam And. 14:17.90 Janette Billings That was such a great experience and tipping ahead of time you know adding um just onboard credit whenever we needed just to make sure that we weren't worrying about anything as soon as we got on board. 14:32.10 Janette Billings I'm going to miss that you know if we ever cruise again and we're not concierge. 14:35.60 Sam I Know it is. It's it's it's hard Listen It's so it's wonderful I mean the the extra benefits of all that pre-booking stuff and having shoreside concierge and then on board of course having kind concierge to book things for you and to never have to deal with. Guest services or or even the spa or anything like that I think that is you know that's a huge benefit That being said, we will still cruise non conciers we are planning on cruising non concies. Um, but it is yeah it I I totally understand where you're coming From. It can be hard. It is hard to go back. 15:10.39 dclduo Yeah, you don't like I like to tell people this, you don't have to sail conciiers have an amazing cruise on Disney Cruise line if you want to splurge and be a little bit more pampered concierge is there but I'll also tell you that there are other cruise lines out there offering. Far more for the same price dis he's charging for cocier. So so the the value proposition is getting a little out of whack in my mind but ah, but it's it's a it's a it's a great way to be pampered. Yeah, um, we're certainly looking forward. We as we're recording this. It is about a week before two weeks before Thanksgiving and we will be. 15:27.36 Sam Through true. 15:28.65 Janette Billings Yes. 15:33.12 Sam Um, yeah, yeah. 15:46.10 dclduo Sailing concierge for the week of Thanksgiving and it will be lovely I'm sure. So yeah. 15:47.38 Sam Yeah, yes, so Jeanette did you book any adult dining at since you know you had remy and Paulo as options on the Disney dream. 15:57.11 Janette Billings Yes, so we actually booked Apollo twice and both for dinner and we are in the unpopular camp of Apollo dinner versus over Apollo Brunch Yeah, and we actually we got to experience brunch on our med cruise. But. 16:01.80 Sam Nice. 16:10.57 Sam Ah, versus brunch. Wow Um, with the buffet. 16:16.56 Janette Billings Like so it was Pre- Pandemicdemic. We had the whole experience. You know we did the buffet also ordered off the menu and we loved it. I felt like a princess. The server was amazing. Um, but dinner I don't know what it is about dinner is just more real. It just feels more Relaxed. It feels more intimate and we like. Everything on the menu. Um, so we we did Apollo twice and then remy once we had never done remy dinner before we did remy brunch. Loved it and just wanted to try the elevated experience this time. 16:51.17 Sam Awesome! Love it. Ok well, we'll circle back to talk about those in a little bit more detail because I definitely want to hear your thoughts on on remy dinner. Um, well let's start by talking about. Ah. Like logistics where were you sailing out of and how did you get there and did you spend time you know before the sailing wherever that was. 17:12.98 Janette Billings Yes, so we were flying from the East Coast we sailed out of South Southampton so we flew into London heathrow and it was our second time ever experiencing it and it is what everyone says it is. It's just chaotic. You have to prepare yourself. 17:30.94 Sam Yes, yes, ah ah, ah. 17:32.88 Janette Billings You know we took a red eyee so we we worked the day that we were leaving took a late night flight out had the red eyee we um, booked bulkhead seats. So you know we at least had a little bit of blood room. Um, and. 17:51.59 Janette Billings I slept a little bit I Cush's not a very good flyer so he didn't sleep that much but we powered through it. You know you get to London heathrow they kind of heard you through the corridors the blendon heathrow to get out. Ah I think I clocked in it around. 45 minutes to an hour before we got to the end of everything. Um. 18:11.48 Sam Oh yeah, I mean the whole process you you know going through customs and it's such a huge airport and there's so many those long hallways that you have to just to get to like where you get your bags. It's it's It's a crazy experience. Absolutely. 18:20.21 Janette Billings Yes. 18:25.69 dclduo Busy I think it's the busiest airport in the world. So yeah, yeah, yeah. 18:30.44 Sam Yeah, that sounds about right? It's busier than Jfk I would say and I feel like jfk' is probably the busiest I don't know in the United States except maybe I I don't know l a x and o'hare are bear are and a land I don't know anyway, they're all crazy but he throw seems like craziest. Ok. 18:37.64 dclduo Yeah, Atlanta not Atlanta yeah. 18:39.66 Janette Billings Um, yeah. 18:46.50 Janette Billings Um. 18:48.10 Sam So you you finally get out of a heathrow. Did you guys spend any time in London before the. 18:54.13 Janette Billings We did? um so we initially we were going to spend two days and take the shuttle down to Southampton with everyone else on the way down, but we decided we didn't really want to risk that and we wanted to See Southampton too so we only stayed. 19:11.24 Janette Billings One night in London and we stayed at the georgian hotel it was in near westminster near Buckingham Palace and so when we left the airport. We took a bus and got our way down there and it was probably. Ten o'clock in the morning so still too early to check into the hotel. But luckily we were able to leave our bags and so we left our bags and just hit the ground running and we went to a bunch of places we knew with just 24 hours we couldn't really go to anywhere that had queues. It was more of the you know. 19:32.73 Sam Um. 19:44.58 Sam Right. 19:48.69 Janette Billings Go by the places rather than go inside and really experience them. But. 19:52.48 Sam Yeah, well yeah, you can get a picture outside westminster abbey you can you know take a picture of big Ben in parliament you can you know it's it's ah you can. 19:57.66 Janette Billings Um. 20:02.98 Sam Do a good bit of sight skiing without as you mentioned going inside and doing the tours because that you really need. Ah you know extra time for any any highlights from your your time in London and and how was the. 20:08.81 Janette Billings Yes. 20:16.80 Sam Was the how was the hotel to your was it to your liking and did you feel like the location was good that sort of thing. So. 20:23.22 Janette Billings I thought the the location was okay, it wasn't too bad. You know everywhere you go in London you kind of have to take public transportation and we're pretty comfortable with doing that so we did the taxis um to get to the borrow market. We did do the underground. A couple of times and that was actually a lot simpler than we initially thought it would be um and then where the hotel was it was kind of an up and coming neighborhood and it felt safe it just we were it. It was. Strange kids all of the buildings just looked the same when you're going down. So it's yeah ah yeah, it was. We. Loved it. We loved the the character of it. We you know, walked around the corner and down the street a bit to get to a local coffee shop and. 21:02.45 Sam That that's hard. Yeah, easy to get lost. 21:16.29 Janette Billings It didn't feel touristy at all which is kind of what we liked. So yeah, we would stay in that area again or another one. Um, the hotel itself was it was really cute. It was a beauty a boutique hotel and um. 21:19.49 Sam Um, yeah. 21:35.46 Janette Billings You know they're older buildings so they didn't have Ac and it was actually a very warm weekend and we got an email a couple of days before saying you know, just warning everyone that it is an older building. They don't have Ac in their rooms. 21:38.99 Sam Oh Wow yeah. 21:52.52 Janette Billings Will provide a fan in the rooms and we can ask them to change the duvet to just a top sheet if we wanted to and so that we did that we got the fan and we had the fan blowing on us just directly that entire night had the window open. It was very very hot and we were up on I Want to say. 21:59.45 Sam Um. 22:03.53 Sam Yeah, yeah. 22:11.71 Janette Billings Maybe the fourth level and so a lot of stairs going up. Um, and you know heat rises. So it was It was pretty warm. It was pretty warm at night. Um, and we were. We were glad to. 22:14.19 Sam Ah. 22:20.39 Sam Yes, yeah, pretty warm on the fourth floor. Yeah. 22:30.25 Janette Billings You know, kind of just be out and about in the cooler air when we could be. 22:31.72 Sam Yeah, and this is this is the end of September then or is this early October middle of September. Okay. 22:37.67 Janette Billings It was the middle of september actually it was yas the we arrived there on September fifteen 22:46.87 Sam Ok, that's right I was trying to remember exactly when the ships had you know back across and I never remember the exact timing. Um, yeah so I mean September can't can be still warm in London so sounds like it was. Ok, so then you decide to head to Southampton that very next day right um and have one night in Southampton before you you sail out. How did you guys get down there and um I don't even know if it's down but down or up there I have no idea directions. 23:16.30 Janette Billings Yeah. 23:18.88 Sam Sorry to anyone from the u k that's listening I'm terrible at I don't know England's that well um, but yeah, how did you get to Southampton and what did you guys get up to there. 23:29.27 Janette Billings We went. Um, we went down on bus so on a bus it was I want to say close to 2 hours that we were on the bus and it it was smooth. It was pretty easy to get down there. Um, and we were right down the street from the bus station. Our hotel was which is kind of why we chose it. We just wanted to make sure that we could. You know we only packed with carryons. So for a transatlantic cruise you know that was kind of wild. Um, yep. 23:55.60 Sam And oh wow wow Jeanette that is really wild. 23:58.72 dclduo We wait yeah wait wait we we have to stop there for a second you packed for like what is it fourteen night fifteen night how long was the ceiling. Okay, so 11 nights though plus the time on either end. 24:06.72 Janette Billings It was actually a lot shorter. This one was an eleven night cruise yep yes yeah 24:13.21 Sam Um, right plus the time on either. Yeah laundry is the strategy Brian. 24:15.86 dclduo Wow. Okay, so what's this straight? What did you? So ah full disclosure full disclosure I've gone. Well yeah, I've gone to Europe before and a carry on but it involved like you know, finding places that would do my laundry on the cheap kind of thing does that that what you did did you or did you manage to like you know. Have enough clothes to get you onto the cruise and then you did laundry on the ship. What was that what was the strategy there for folks at home. 24:38.22 Janette Billings That's what we did. We had enough to make sure that we could do laundry on the first or second day of the cruise and but that also include I mean it was a longer cruise so we had formal night we had to pack that. Shoes take up a lot of space. So I have a pretty strict role of I only bring 3 pairs of shoes I brought 4 this time but I feel like pool shoes don't really count. Ah. 24:57.96 Sam Yeah, so you have to have sneakers you have to have flip flops and you've got to have like 1 or 2 pairs of like sandals shoes. Whatever you're going to wear with your dresses for dinner. Basically right? Yeah, that's what I do I it's I try and limit myself to that. Those. 25:11.28 Janette Billings Yep, yeah. 25:16.73 Sam Or whenever we cruise if it's a shorter cruise I'd limit it to 3 Yeah, but that's hard. Yeah, shoes are a problem. 25:21.68 Janette Billings Um, yeah, yeah, so they were very heavy packs I will say that so we had our packs and um, a personal item and we. So we had to carry that you know that was us being responsible for our luggage and we um, we were burned I think on our honeymoon and that was the last time we checked the bag to a destination and so our rule is you know we carry on. 25:50.55 Sam A Wow yeah. 25:57.77 Janette Billings Our luggage going to a destination but we can check whatever we want coming back? Ah so. 25:59.88 Sam Yeah, that's a smart I mean because when you get home. You still have clothes right? So what versus if you're flying to your like your honeymoon and you don't have clothes for several days. That's not really that fun. Yeah, that makes sense. 26:05.79 Janette Billings Yeah. 26:15.93 Janette Billings Ah, yeah. 26:18.76 Sam Ok, so you get to Southampton carrying your very heavy packs and personal items. What did you guys decide to do in Southampton before the crews left. 26:29.36 Janette Billings So We got there kind of middle of the day so we had just enough time to you know, put our bags in our room so we got we stayed at the Moxie Hotel which is you know, really really close to the Port. Um. And walkable around downtown South Hempton and so there was actually it's a very very large boat show or so sporting water sporting Boat show and. 26:50.40 Sam Who. 26:58.84 Janette Billings It was absolutely packed and I feel like we still need to go back to Southampton because they had with it sort of being a convention and boat show. They had those fences that were lined and you couldn't really see into some areas so there are some parts that were just completely blocked off. Feel like that kind of prohibited some views out that would have been really great to see some of the ships coming in and so a lot of the restaurants. Yes, a lot of the restaurants were busy. You had to have a reservation um and we did not so. 27:23.82 Sam Yeah, that's a bit of a bummer. 27:35.78 Janette Billings We kind of begged our way in to a little place. Um, we we stopped by a little pub there. They had this little old town. Um, and not sure what. Ah, was called the duke of Wellington so it's this little pub and we got some drinks there and we were hoping to get some food because you know we had this long bus ride and they actually weren't they had changed their schedule because of the boat show so they weren't going to. They were done selling food and then. 27:50.87 Sam So fun. 28:05.30 Sam Ah. 28:09.72 Janette Billings Ah, least for lunch and then they had to basically save all of their provisions for dinner and the reservations were um, picked up. So yeah, so we ended up finding a place called the Pig on the wall and we we ate their hat and. 28:12.72 Sam Oh my goodness. 28:22.55 Sam Dude. 28:27.79 Janette Billings Kind of squeezed us in so you know we were sitting in lounge chairs rather than actual like an actual dinner table or out on the patio. Um, but it was It was a good time. We still had ah a nice time there and we went. Oh. 28:31.69 Sam Me. 28:39.57 Sam Nice all right? So oh sorry, go ahead. 28:45.83 Janette Billings So they they have a mall there at Southampton and I know here in the states you know malls are kind of getting run down. No one's really going there anymore. It's not really the culture but we were so surprised that malls in Europe you know are just anywhere else. You know it's very much the place to be It's kind of you know that old era that we used to know. Um so one and checked out John Lewis loved the department store. It was fun to walk through and just kind of live that nostalgia of being in a department store and everyone still shopping and buying their clothes. There. 29:20.17 dclduo Yeah I was since say the at least in the u k right when we go to London department stores are like a oh they're amazing. There is selfages herods fortnham and mason they all have yeah the big departments source of the food halls. Ah did yeah with they they did partners. 29:26.49 Sam Ah, we love the department stores. Yeah. 29:32.27 Sam They have food at least the ones in London. Yeah yeah, but yeah, they're definitely. You're right? They're still booming over there. 29:33.70 Janette Billings Um. 29:39.49 dclduo Part they did department stores right? So yeah. 29:47.17 Sam Um, all right? Well so let's talk about embarkation. Um the next morning as embarkation day for you. All? Um, how did the process go I know Southampton was the the major embarkation port that in Barcelona were sort of the major embarkation ports for the summer so I imagine by the time you're sailing which is the last cruise out of Southampton they've got their process pretty well down pat. But I'm I'm curious am I is my assumption correct. 30:18.74 Janette Billings Yeah, so actually it was a little bit confusing and on the Facebook page everyone was trying to figure it out and then sort of a couple of weeks right before the cruise we were able to hear directly from disney and our travel agents. You know that? what. Our cruise terminal was going to be so we were cruising out because it didn't match the document that they had sent us so we actually ended up cruising out of the queen elizabeth terminal I think the q e 2 terminal and you could walk but it was. And a lot of people were expecting to be able to walk to the terminal but this one was all the way at the end of the dock and it was a very very long dock so it was more like a 45 minute walk for people and. 31:09.72 Sam Oh Wow Well and you've got this boat show going on right? So it's like crowds and chaos and going on. Yeah. 31:15.60 Janette Billings Yes, yeah, so someone on the Facebook page brought that up. You know, brought that to the attention of everyone and they said as soon as you get to your hotel when you get to Southampton just make sure that you get a taxi settled. And so that's what we did. We got a taxi book by moxie so we were all set in the morning we just showed up at the time that they said they would be down there and they took us straight into the terminal and since we were concierge we were able to get there pretty early didn't have to wait too long. Got our bags you know on board and. Just waited. We probably waited only half of an hour and then we were on the ship. 31:51.34 Sam Wow. Okay now I got to ask you the question about your bags. So I know you have the policy of not checking bags on the airplane. What do you do at the Cruise terminal. Do you hand over your bags for the porters to put your bags on the ship or do you actually carry your bags on board. 32:10.30 Janette Billings Typically we carry our bags on board and just because we I I like to I like to unpack as soon as I get on there So I'll keep. 32:24.59 Sam Shift. 32:24.89 Janette Billings I Don't want to wait for my bag. So I know some people you know, depending on how busy the cruise is sometimes they're not getting their bag until well after they're able to get into their staterooms. So we like to unpack as soon as we get on board and then I will go and commandeer and iron from one of the laundry rooms and I'll. 32:32.29 Sam The. 32:44.21 Janette Billings You know, iron everything that very first day hang it up and then we're set. We're unpacked and but this time our packs were really really heavy and we said you know we have concierge our rooms are ready by noon. So let's go ahead and just do it so we just send our bags. 33:01.68 Sam Yeah, that's definitely one benefit for concierge. Not only is your room ready early but typically your bags come early as well. Um, those concierge tags I don't know what magic goes on with the porters but I feel like. 33:10.99 dclduo Um, yeah. 33:11.22 Janette Billings Um, and. 33:19.50 Sam When we stay concierge on the ship. We get our bags quicker than we ever did. 33:20.48 dclduo I I suspect that the concier staff on that floor is down there trying to find those tag like 1 they probably put the tagged luggage for concierge in a special area and 2 They just come down and grab it like as soon as it comes on but Jeanette I am with you as soon as the bags Arrive Sam can tell you I am like. 33:26.65 Janette Billings Yeah. 33:36.80 Sam Yes, yes. 33:38.72 dclduo Unpacking even on a three night Cruise I like I want to fully unpack I want to feel like I'm here for my vacation not living out of a suitcase. So love to unpack. 33:40.21 Janette Billings Yeah. 33:43.54 Sam But we have to do it. We have to do it like sequentially because when we try to unpack at the same time inevitably Brian is getting annoyed with me because I'm like in the way like I don't know what it is about his method. 33:56.85 dclduo I Want to be efficient I Want to be efficient with my unpacking and I love to if I can be unpacked before the muster drill I am a happy happy person. Yeah. 34:04.23 Sam And I know I just need to like get out of his with the best. Our best cruises are where I get out of the way like I go deliver magnets or something and let him unpack and then I come back and unpack myself and Nathan it's just easier. 34:06.80 Janette Billings Yes. 34:19.30 dclduo I fully I fully embrace my compulsion and my compulsion toward organization like I I am like I'm like what's the character from big hero 6 where it's like everything has a place. 34:24.69 Sam And then he organiz reorganizes it I'll like unpack stuff and then he'll reorganize it. 34:33.94 dclduo Everything has a place. So yeah, there you go there, you go. 34:34.94 Sam Ah, yeah, all right jeanette. So we're you're on board. The beautiful Disney dream. Um, did you get to enter into the atrium. That's always a question when you're not at port canaveral. 34:48.44 Janette Billings We Yes, we did we entered into the atrium. Um, and it was it was strange just because it was concierge and so there wasn't that energy of people that were in there. It was sort of just you know the officers and. 35:03.17 Sam Um, ah yeah, it's quiet. 35:06.38 Janette Billings And the people and then they usher you into the um the Royal Palace to yep for our lunch for our concierge lunch. So yeah, it was. It was a little bit different and the um the sailings that we had before this we were used to that little skit that they did because of covid. 35:11.14 Sam For your lunch. 35:24.33 Sam Oh yeah. 35:26.37 Janette Billings Um, so it had been a little bit different. This was our first cruise that we felt like it was completely back to normal. 35:30.21 Sam That makes sense. Well so for our listeners if you're staying conciers. You can still go to Cabaanas for lunch. You don't have to go to the sitdown lunch but the benefit of the sitdown lunch unless you're on the wish which doesn't have this. Um, is you get to meet your concierge hosts and they'll come around to your table and make sure any of your um bookings are taken care of if you need to cancel something if you want to book something that you weren't able to get in advance or you know something like that. So all right? Jeanette. Let's talk about. Ah, your ports because obviously you had some um, some interesting ports ah doing this transatlantic. You're leaving from Southampton What's your first port of call. 36:06.47 Janette Billings Slash me. 36:13.16 Janette Billings The first port was Vigo Spain and this one kind of stumped a lot of people because the dream hadn't been there in a really long time I think they may have only been there a couple of times before and it had been several years so even the crew I had asked our concierge host. So we had David Mira and Susannah and I had asked Susannah and Mira you know, can you recommend anything for vgo because we didn't we had an excursion booked and for Vigo and lisbon and we decided. You know when we did more research on those ports you could just walk right off and we love those kinds because we can just go explore ourselves and the excursions that we had you know you had to be on a bus for out and back. You know you'd be sitting for at least 2 hours sometimes 3 and we just didn't want to. You know, take up our whole day like that. So Vigo we canceled our excursion decided to walk right off and it ended up being our favorite port. It was very unexpected. We loved it. It was a smaller town and. 37:16.30 Sam Oh wow. 37:25.17 Janette Billings It was all up on a hill so we got off the ship and we knew that there was this fortress that you can get up to and so we decided to go straight up there before the crowds were really picking up and um. Like most most of the shops weren't even open yet. But we stumbled upon a little art shop and ah just the people were so nice. The woman that were running the shop. They didn't speak much English and we didn't speak much Spanish but we still made it work and she was really. 37:59.20 Sam And. 38:01.97 Janette Billings Trying to use english they were very very sweet. Um, so we bought some local art from there and then you know, hoofed our way up the hill to get to this fort and it was amazing views when we got up there. There was a photographer. Was out and I could just remember enough high school spanish to make out that he was saying you know you need to get here early this too many people you have to get here at 5 for the good pictures. You know, um, but it was it was beautiful. It was a beautiful day. It kind of reminded us of being. 38:37.28 Sam Is. 38:37.55 Janette Billings Um, in Sorrento and just how blue and the water and the sky was and there's this cliff that went down. Um, but we we didn't have anything planned. We knew we wanted to go to oyster street there's a street that's right by the port. 38:55.47 Sam Um. 38:55.68 Janette Billings Um, maybe a couple of streets back and it's called Oyster Street So it's where a lot of vendors. There's a lot of seafood restaurants and then they have oyster vendors So these oyster vendors they're kind of these little stands between the restaurants. 39:05.43 Sam Um, how cool. 00:00.00 dclduo All right? You are a good gennet. 00:02.25 Janette Billings Okay, so we knew we wanted to go to Oyster Street everyone kept saying you know that's or what we were researching said that Oyster street if you love seafood you have to go there and so after the fort we made our way back Down. We actually Stopped. We saw a little wine shop stop there and then grabbed a bottle to bring on the ship and then made our way back down to Oyster Street just to get some lunch and there are. Just countless seafood restaurants that all look the same. They all have you know the pictures with paye. Yeah and seafood all over the place and they have vendors so oyster vendors that are basically these little stands that are right in the middle of all of the seating in front of these restaurants and so they're not connected to the restaurants. 00:50.45 Sam Oh cool. 00:54.38 Janette Billings But they have a sign that says you know if you want their oysters to sit at a restaurant and then tell them that you want oysters and they'll go to the nearest vendor and you know bring them and yeah and they'll set them at your table and we we wish we could have trusted them a little bit more. But. 01:00.98 Sam Oh cool. 01:10.28 dclduo In. 01:13.13 Janette Billings Being our very first cruise port and being you know, but full date to like day three yeah we were we got shellfish that was cooked rather than raw oysters and we really we like oysters. We love seafood grew up on the coast. But. 01:16.00 Sam Yeah, you don't want bad shellfish. 01:29.67 Janette Billings Yeah, we just we didn't do it that time Maybe another time we'll go back and we'll experience those years. 01:34.65 Sam Yeah I can understand that. Yeah you just there's a lot of risk with Raw I mean there's risk with even cooked shellfish right? But there's another level of risk with with raw shellfish. So yeah I mean maybe some oysters rockefeller. But um I'm guessing they didn't serve that I'm guessing just. 01:39.82 Janette Billings Oh. 01:48.66 Janette Billings Yeah, no, they didn't have that. Yeah. 01:52.50 Sam Yeah, yeah, well that sounds like fun. Um, did you guys get up to anything else in Vigo. 01:58.90 Janette Billings So after Oyster Street so it took a little bit of time to walk all the way up to the fort and so it's walking up a hill and then they had escalators so outdoor escalators actually to help people get up towards the top. 02:04.26 Sam Right. 02:13.13 Sam Um, oh cool like at Universal Studios Hollywood. Ah yeah, these are like I've never seen escalators like that before by the way at the other the ones? yeah. 02:16.37 Janette Billings Um, yes, you have a lot like that but they were yeah so it's it was really wild just the juxtaposition of the cobblestones and then you see this escalator right next to it and so you're going up. Going up these hills and so after oyster street we ended up, you know we only had gotten 1 bottle of wine and we knew we were like well we can bring on a couple a couple more you know onto the ship so we went back. 02:48.49 Sam Sure. 02:52.62 Janette Billings That wine shot because we saw the one that was more popular and it just it wasn't as quaint and you can tell it was sort of the touristy place to get alcohol and so we made our way back up the Hill and took the escalators back up and. 03:02.35 Sam No. 03:10.71 Janette Billings Um, the owner of this wine shop didn't speak a lick of English and but he had someone that you know it was a local that actually owned another restaurant down the street and it was funny because he literally was just there to be the translator for him. 03:12.62 Sam Yeah. 03:20.59 Sam Um, eastern. 03:29.00 Janette Billings And they just spend their day. Yeah, and they spend their day together. You know they're just drinking wine all day and enjoying all these little appertifs and um and appetizers and things like that and he's. 03:29.20 Sam Um, Wow for the for the day because they knew the ship was in port. Ah. 03:44.52 Janette Billings Person that helps sell the wine for this owner and then the owner you know if he has questions the owner he'll ask the owner and then you know he'll say no this is the kind of wine that they want if that's what they're looking for. That's what they like this is what I recommend and it was such a great experience. It was so picturesque. 04:01.95 Sam That's so fun. Yeah. 04:03.55 Janette Billings Um, and so we had a glass. We enjoyed 1 more glass of wine. Got our second bottle and then made our way back down to the ship. So yeah, the itineraries unfortunately the port um, the port time was really really short. So. 04:09.91 Sam Awesome. 04:17.47 Sam The. 04:20.80 Janette Billings On the med I remember we had like our excursions could be 9 hours long the ones here it was max for 5 hours so we didn't have a lot of time on off um, off of the ship in the ports. 04:22.83 Sam Oh yeah, full day. Yeah. Yeah, okay, so after Vigo, you head to lisbon Portugal is that right? and tell us what you got up to in Lisbon. 04:40.29 Janette Billings So lisbon again. We had canceled our excursion I think we were supposed to get off and have muscles somewhere um on a boat and see another old city but we decided you know just to walk off see lisbon so we walked straight off. And um, a lot of people went and joined excursions even walking tours but we kind of canceled ours a little bit late so we there wasn't a lot of room left on other tours and so I'm a big Rick Steves fan everywhere we go I try to buy a Rick Steves book and vigo that is is not a popular enough port yet that he doesn't have a book for it. So but I got his little snapshot of lisbon and kind of went off of that. Um, and so got the little tarts. The little. 05:18.73 Sam Yeah. And. 05:36.91 Janette Billings Um, pasttes denada and went to one of his recommendations for that. Loved it. You know, just got a couple. The first time we went walked around a bit and then stopped again and got some more there and some coffee. Um, and yes. 05:36.99 Sam Um, oh yeah. 05:50.38 Sam Sounds yummy. 05:54.44 Janette Billings And sardines are really big there and um I don't know if you if you have been to Portug gold before but yet the sardine cans are just beautiful. It's just artwork all over the sardine cans and so we brought a couple and you know there isn't. 06:02.44 Sam Oh cool. 06:11.78 Janette Billings Really a restriction of bringing those on a plane so we were able to do that and I wanted to get some tile so that was something that I researched in the Rick Steves books and there was a store really close to the port. 06:12.73 Sam Oh nice. 06:27.91 Janette Billings Where they sold more authentic tiles. So there's a lot of rip-offs you can buy them. You know at um I guess I shouldn't say rip-off. It's just a replica of the the beautiful tiles of the streets. They're everywhere up on the. 06:43.75 Sam Um. 06:45.32 Janette Billings On the buildings and on the street. Everything is tiled and um, he does say to be wary of what you're buying and just to make sure that it's not something that was stolen off of but building. You know that's something that they're struggling with right now and so he gave some reputable places to purchase. 06:59.37 Sam Um, is. 07:04.29 Sam Um, right. 07:04.83 Janette Billings You know Replicas of tile and the one that he gave that I want to it was this little storefront and then it looks closed so we almost walked away and then we saw a little sign with an arrow in Portuguese you know, saying to go next door. So We went next door and it was a hotel but we said you know we asked about the tile and the concierge basically like took us it was in the lobby but it was these double doors and it just opened up into the studio and so it was. 07:26.70 Sam Um, go. 07:40.40 Sam Oh cool. 07:43.25 Janette Billings Yeah, it was It was kind of a private experience. It was really cool. Got my pick of whatever tile I wanted and found one and that we wanted to you know, have in our house. So yeah. 07:54.97 Sam Awesome! That sounds like a I mean that sounds just like a ah perfect quaint day in lisbon. Um Now. Ah. What was your next port I Imagine that you're at sea after this for a while am I right? or is there another port. Yeah. 08:08.45 Janette Billings We are typically I think normally the west pound transatlantic would stop at the azores but that was dropped off on the itinerary which is that's a bucketless place for us so we were kind of. 08:15.89 Sam E. 08:21.77 Sam Is just. 08:24.82 Janette Billings Sad that we didn't get to go but it was five more days at sea and then we went to bermuda. 08:30.57 Sam Awesome! All right? Well let's talk about Bermuda Um, what did you guys get up to there and what did what did you plan and what did you actually end up doing. 08:37.95 Janette Billings So we had an excursion. This was the only excursion that we kept and it was a katamaan experience and we almost booked. It was like these caverns and a Flamingo experience and it looked really really cool. It had great reviews. 08:53.38 Sam Um, is. 08:57.22 Janette Billings But we said if we're going to be in Bermuda and it's our one warm port we're going to get in the water so we did the katamaran experience where we got. They took us out to a reef and we got to do some snorkeling and that was really really fun. We had never snorrkeled around. 09:00.57 Sam Yeah. 09:15.41 Janette Billings You know, live coral reef before we've you know, snorkeled around but in the Bahamas but you're just kind of looking in the water at fish. But this one there was so much just inside of the of the reef and it was beautiful of the colors. Um. 09:22.94 Sam Um. 09:33.96 Janette Billings And it was super super salty so we didn't have an issue floating which was really nice. Yeah. 09:36.28 Sam Um, oh that is really nice. Awesome now was bermuda your last port before you. Port back in the Us and and did you port back in Port Canaveral or Miami I can't remember for this. Oh even more fun. That's right that's right I forgot about that. 09:52.37 Janette Billings Um, we actually came back to New York yeah Yeah, 09:56.10 dclduo Yeah, because they have the New York sailings that then Aaron Aaron went on and yeah, yeah. 10:03.51 Sam Did you have was there any port in between Bermuda and New York or is that really your last your last stop. 10:08.81 Janette Billings No that um there wasn't it was our last stop so and since we had never been to Bermuda we actually I think all um, everyone was able to get off. Ship we got there really early so we were able to get off a lot earlier than we thought and our excursion wasn't until noon so we actually got off ship a little bit beforehand got our souvenirs and then got back on board because you know you have to meet on board for your excursion and we did our excursion. 10:23.60 Sam Um, if. 10:32.48 Sam Um, nice right. 10:39.26 Janette Billings Probably had you know an hour left before the all aboard time and we said you know what? we love this port a lot or we really enjoyed it and there was a place that we wanted to stop in before excursion but it was so early that they weren't open. And we love Pubs. My husband loves pubs so we went to a brewery and you know it's part of the Uk Technically so it's like this English pub right in the middle of Bermuda in this tropical place. So yeah, we grabbed a beer and. 11:02.62 Sam Oh that's awesome. 11:15.32 Janette Billings We were kind of we weren't port runners really? but you know we kind of we're we're cutting it very close. Yeah. 11:20.48 Sam Um, yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, you know one thing I'm always curious about um with these transatlantic cruises and then of course Bermuda to New York 11:22.57 dclduo Well, but you made it back on board because you made it to New York but 11:26.38 Janette Billings We did. 11:36.24 Sam What were the seas like were you know, did you have calm seas or did you have rough seas you know at any point during this this. Ah this trip. 11:42.61 Janette Billings Yeah, yeah, so I know it was a couple of months ago now but there were a lot of hurricanes actually in the Atlantic and we were worried about it beforehand it was. It was a little bit rainy. You know the day we left Southampton but. 11:49.10 Sam Who. 12:00.81 Janette Billings The entire time up until bermuda or up until after Bermuda it was you know we were in the Atlantic. So the captain we had Captain Demir we were able to cruise around all of the storms. So it was. It was really fun to see. Off of the ship just them all the micro climatemates that we were going past and so you can see rainstorms in the distance but we never experienced a drop of rain. Um, you know before? yeah. 12:19.34 Sam And. 12:28.38 Sam That's awesome. It's kind of amazing how they can do that though because you're right, they're in the middle of the ocean for several days and so they can just go a little bit north or a little bit tough and so you can end up with this kind of Zig Zaggy route but yeah avoiding the rain is is key. 12:41.54 Janette Billings Um, yeah. 12:43.91 Sam So when you're sailing up from Bermuda to New York you don't have a you're on the eastern seaboards you don't have as much leeway of where you can go. How is the weather there. 12:49.50 Janette Billings No that it was just nothing but rain it was sideways rain. It was hard rain because we were hitting the tail end of the hurricanes which you know of course are the worst rains. So it was windy. It was rainy and the whole time. The cruise was windy because you know you're moving the whole time. 12:55.70 Sam Ah, ah, ah. 13:09.47 Janette Billings But this one was the one where no one could be outside and everyone was looking forward to that last c day but it it didn't really happen. We were all kind of walking around like we had a little bit too much to drink. Um we when we went to remy we had Apollo that night. 13:10.92 Sam And. 13:28.19 Janette Billings Was our last night we went to Pallo and the servers were actually escorting everyone out of the restaurant you know, holding onto their arms. So that yeah so they aren't falling out of the ship. Um. 13:34.46 Sam Oh yeah, so they wouldn't fall oh my goodness. Well so let's talk about some of the onboard experience. We're not going to go through every day because in an eleven night cruise we would we this would fill 3 episodes but um, you know. 13:48.12 Janette Billings Oh yeah. 13:53.45 Sam Love to know that some of the the highlights on board for you and Christian and in particular if there were any sort of special experiences that they did for for this sailing because it was a transatlantic. 14:05.95 Janette Billings So we it was actually so part of you know the twenty fifth anniversary sailings too. But it was almost everything kind of sold out and it kind of fizzled and we. No one was really sure if we were going to have fireworks because the eastbound transatlantic they said that they weren't and they had both the pirate night and the twenty fifth anniversary we unfortunately did not have either um and I think it may have been because of um wildlife or where we were. We just couldn't have it. And maybe the weather too. Um, but 1 thing I remember that we did that we had never done on another cruise was the open house at the vibe. But this time it was open. It was like an adult only open house and it was several hours. 14:57.55 Sam Um, oh cool. 14:59.36 Janette Billings Where the adults got to like sit in the pool. Um, and yeah. 15:03.51 Sam Oh yeah, because on the dream and the fantasy they have that really cool space. That's now on the wish it's the it's the rainforest room on the wish. But it's this outdoor space with like little like hot tubs and and ah like a sun deck. It's really nice. Yeah. 15:13.44 Janette Billings Um, yeah, yeah, so that was really nice. That was a really cool experience because normally you're just walking through in an open house and you you know the kids are there too and it's just a really quick in and out. But that one we thought was fun. There was Jack Jack's 15:22.96 Sam Right. 15:30.68 Janette Billings Diaper dash. We always like to catch but there was only a couple of babies because there were not a lot of kids on this cruise. Um. 15:38.78 Sam Yeah, that makes sense. It's mideptember. Um, and it's a longer cruise. So the kids are in school for the most part. Yeah. 15:44.73 Janette Billings Yes, and they gave out. You know a twenty fifth anniversary gift and we ended up giving ours away because just the packing thing and we we appreciate it and it probably would have some value at some point. But. 15:55.97 Sam E. 16:04.36 Janette Billings We like Disney art but we actually we like the print that they gave the concierge guests better and so we decided to keep that and just kind of pixie does someone else? Um, but yeah I don't think there was anything really unique other than you know, like a different like. 16:07.96 Sam If. 16:17.55 Sam That's nice. 16:23.45 Sam Right. 16:24.17 Janette Billings Had more menus for the cruise and um, the entertainment that they had it being our first cruise act that we felt like was fully after the pandemic. You know we had the energy back on the cruise. 16:37.10 Sam If if. 16:42.68 Janette Billings And so the entertainment was you know in the atrium or in the lounges. There was some always someone around and that was that was really fun to experience and they actually they threw in a second formal night which took you know. 16:55.73 Sam Oh nice. 17:01.73 Janette Billings We were just not ready for it. No one was ready for it because we knew the second night was going to be formal night and then all of a sudden we all get on board and there it is in the itinerary. It was a second to last night was going to be formal night. So yeah, so everyone you know we we didn't I think I just. 17:02.98 Sam Yeah. 17:14.12 Sam Um, yeah, you just wear the same thing you were the second night right. 17:21.40 Janette Billings I wore a dress but we didn't get in our formal gear again. Um Christian was like I'm not I'll just put on a button down you know I'm fine. 17:22.53 Sam Yeah, yeah I will tell you like we don't always dress up for formal night I mean there. It's There's so such variety on board. No, but I. 17:33.20 dclduo Oh no, no come on at this point in our life. We don't dress up for formal night I think we did it on the first couple of cruises and now we're just like yeah well we're not, We're not in shorts. We're not let me put I don't. 17:37.80 Janette Billings Yeah. 17:41.40 Sam I might put on a dress but I don't do anything like formal formal right? like I might yeah so yeah, yeah, well you know, go ahead. 17:48.70 Janette Billings Yeah, oh and oh I'm sorry there was yeah there was I can't believe I almost forgot this it was Bob Holland um he was an imagineer for disney for several years and 17:49.48 dclduo I Don't think we're typically in like shorts and golf shirts. But yeah. 18:06.84 Janette Billings Had worked on. You know so many projects on the parks and hotels and and I think on the eastbound transatlantic podcast you had he was on there too. Um, it was he was mentioned there but we went to every single one of his seminars because my background is architecture Christian is a designer. 18:14.88 Sam Yeah. 18:24.19 Sam Oh cool. 18:26.31 Janette Billings So we were just enthralled. We loved it. Went to all of his seminars and so that meant sacrificing some things that kind of overlapped on his time. Um, but every single c day he had a seminar so that was I think he had 6 or 7 and. 18:41.23 Sam Oh wow. 18:44.80 Janette Billings Yeah, and it was a full house every single time they actually had the first one in the Bona Vista Theater and then after that had to have the rest in the Walt Disney yeah yep 18:51.17 Sam Oh because enough people want it to come. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, they they don't want to turn people away from those did they also have some like cooking demonstrations and stuff that sort of I know they they do have those on regular cruises or. They had them more often pre pandemicdemic but it seems like they're bringing those back for the transatlantic cruises as well. 19:12.87 Janette Billings Yeah, um, they did and some of them were actually nearing those seminars so I didn't get to go I Actually I really enjoy going to those um I did get to go to a cheese seminar. They had a coffee one. We did some towel folding and. 19:16.30 Sam Yeah, right. 19:24.35 Sam Um, new. Yum. 19:26.93 Sam Nice. 19:29.88 Janette Billings Yeah, they had a lot of activities. It was so packed that there wasn't we had to you know, just try try to prioritize our time because we really do enjoy you know sitting around in the lounges and people watching you know or getting to know the crew. 19:45.56 Sam Yeah. 19:49.39 Janette Billings And is the so first time in the concierge lounge and I actually I know the sun deck isn't popular on the dream class ships but I actually I really enjoyed it. It was nice and quiet. A nice respite from from everything else. Yes, they do? yeah. 19:58.91 Sam Um, yeah, well and they've got the hot tub on that sundeck right? Yeah, we haven't been in concierge on the dream in the Fantasy. So Actually I've seen pictures but I have never been in there. So It's I know it's um. I Know the sun deck is closed off meaning there's not views out to the sea and same with the lounge and that's I think what you're talking about people and people don't love that. Um, but yeah I would I think I would enjoy that because I like ah you know sitting in a hot tub when it's quieter especially than you know the other the other pool areas. 20:18.91 Janette Billings Um. 20:28.33 Janette Billings Um, yeah. 20:35.58 Sam Well I would be remiss I feel like if I we didn't ask you about remy? Um, you know we we talk about pallo a lot I feel like on the show and as Brian and I tell people I think Paulo is for for everyone of course, not kids but because they're not allowed in but i. 20:50.65 Janette Billings And. 20:54.26 Sam Feel like Paulo is accessible to anyone. Um, and we don't feel that remy is accessible or on sea tech frankly as well is accessible to everyone and so we try to help. 21:01.95 dclduo Well and and and to be clear accessible for 2 reasons 1 right? You have to be adventurous eater. You have to like you have to be okay with foams and and. 21:01.98 Janette Billings Um, right. 21:06.80 Sam Right. Giving up control I think is part of it too. Yeah, some control. 21:13.47 Janette Billings Yes. 21:14.79 dclduo Well giving up. Well, you have some control at least in remy I feel like you get a better sense of the menu than when you do ah en gentey and you're like in chef's hands right? Like remy you choose 1 side or the other. Ah but I think also cost right? like ballow fifty bucks a person plus a tip and if you won't. 21:26.77 Janette Billings Yep. 21:32.74 Janette Billings Um. 21:34.37 dclduo Wine but you know it's it's it's much more accessible than I just say the bill at the end of a dinner at remy or on Chan take and I can take your breath away for a second. So yes, ah but have plenty of wine to soften that blow. But yeah. 21:43.24 Janette Billings Yes. 21:46.82 Sam Yeah, but I'm curious Jeanette. You said this was your first time doing remy um dinner you had done remy brunch before I think you had mentioned what what did you think about remy and what would you say to. Somebody who says hey I've I've never been to remy I've been topollo I love Paulo should I go to remy. 22:04.77 Janette Billings I think I think it's great to experience once and so we we don't know if we will go back. Not that we didn't like the food but just that we do enjoy Apollo and a lot of it is because of the cost. You know it is very expensive and. We feel like if you go back, you would be getting the same thing they do offer 2 menus so one by a chef by an american chef and then one by the french chef and we got both then they always recommend it that way you can just try off of each other's plates. Um, we did not do the pairing with it. We just got. 22:26.60 Sam And. 22:31.39 Sam This is. 22:37.11 Sam This is. 22:43.56 Janette Billings You know we just chose a couple of nice glasses of wine and decided to go that way and we did get the miyazaki wagoo beef and it was a two ounce you know piece of meat. 22:53.66 Sam Oh yeah, yeah, it's tiny. 23:00.38 Janette Billings But it was $70 and we are friends I don't know if you know Adam and Sherry Legg from leglife they're another like podcast and they do a lot of Disney cruising. But we are friends with them and they hit the last time they went to farm me. They got it and they said it was absolutely amazing. So we we were influenced and we tried it. 23:17.10 Sam Yeah. 23:19.79 Janette Billings Um, and it was a very. It was very very good and we're glad we tried it but we feel like remy is it is a place to splurge and so we prepared ourselves for that. We knew that it would be a big chunk of the cost that we were spending on adult dining. Um. 23:34.58 Sam Is. 23:38.73 Janette Billings But we enjoyed it. We enjoyed the time just the leisurely pace of the dinner and um, you know the servers were fantastic and the whole thing is an experience them presenting the food to you and preparing it in front of you. 23:47.72 Sam It is. 23:56.64 Sam Oh yeah, that cheese cart. Oh I. 23:56.91 Janette Billings Cheese was amazing. Um, yeah when the cheese cart came out. It was it was just it was so great. Um, but but yeah, it, you definitely need an adventurous palate I Think if if you truly enjoy food and you Enjoy. You know, just quality time of being able to sit back In. We. We made sure to book it kind of when the sun was setting and so that was it was fun. It was a nice experience. It was beautiful in the restaurant. 24:30.23 Sam Absolutely. 24:33.27 dclduo I want to go back to some you say because Sam also gets the Mizakki beef nearly every time we go and for listeners out there when you hear $70 for a two ounce portion I want to say 2 things 1 is this cow is living a lifestyle better than my own wherever it is ah and. 24:47.25 Sam Ah. 24:50.57 dclduo To I don't think you could eat much more than two ounces of this beef because it's so buttery and it's so rich and has so much fat content into it that if you if you ate a four ounce portion you might have just curtailed the rest of your evening. So yeah, yeah. 24:52.27 Sam No, it's very buttery. Yeah. 24:56.25 Janette Billings Um, no. 25:05.59 Sam Yeah now I and Brian says every time I mean I've we've only been to remy a handful of times and we actually haven't been to remy in years. Um, when we've gone on the the wish has on chante and that's not an addd on option. It's. The wishes menu on the enchantte is different than than remy's options. So anyway, but I think it's a ah, wonderful experience. I totally agree. Um with you Jeanette though it it is it is an expensive experience. It's probably also not for everyone. Um, but I think if you're willing to give yourself over to the chef. And have the experience you can. You can have a really enjoyable experience. I I also think um while the wine pairings are fantastic. It's a little too much. So I think it's a good tip to go for the either share a pairing between 2 people or and even that's still a lot. 25:46.74 Janette Billings Who. 25:54.10 Janette Billings Yes. 25:56.12 Sam Or just order a couple of glasses of wine. You know, maybe a white at the beginning and then halfway through get a red. So yeah. 26:03.26 Janette Billings Right? And they had the Somalia that will you know cater to what you like and you know give you the best advice for what to pair with the menu that you got um and for I would say for for Remi we have no idea what we ordered We have no idea what we ate we just remember that was very good and and paulllo you know everyone says you know you get the chicken palm or the steak and you remember the dish but remmi is not really one of those places where you can do that. It's you just go in and. 26:36.60 Sam Absolutely. 26:36.72 Janette Billings Go in on it and enjoy. 26:40.22 dclduo Well I have 1 question before I subject to you to what I am now affectionately calling this spanish inquisition. Ah I'm curious. Would you recommend this cruise to others I mean fifth fifteen sorry ah 119 26:51.26 Sam 11 26:56.14 dclduo Say it again. So 11 nights at sea. Ah you know some people look at that and go oh my gosh or 11 nights on the ship not 11 nights at sea. But that's a lot of days at sea I'll put it that way. Ah, some folks look at that and go man I'm going to get just bored out of my minds like I can't. 27:07.50 Janette Billings Um. 27:14.61 dclduo I couldn't do it right? Ah, but would you recommend this cruise to others and if so like what's the 1 thing you would tell people the 1 reason you would give people as to why this was just such a ah great experience. 27:24.66 Janette Billings I would recommend it and for us, we just wanted to give a dream class ship a second chance because the the way we saw them was just on a three night cruise we weren't really able to experience adult dining because we wanted to experience each of the restaurants in rotational dining. 27:35.60 Sam Is. 27:42.28 Sam Is. 27:44.65 Janette Billings And like you know this one was the dream. It was this first westbound Transatlantic sailing and um, you get to the ports you you get a few ports but they're great ports so we really enjoyed that and. 27:56.17 Sam Are. 28:01.25 Janette Billings You actually don't get bored if anything we felt like we did not have enough time to do a lot of things that we wanted to do and a lot of times you know we're sitting around trying to lounge but it wasn't really the case at this one. There was maybe a couple of hours every day where we got to do that but other. You know they they keep the itinerary pretty packed and so even on that last night on that last day when we all got rained out. You know they they fluff up that the the navigator a little bit and put more in there. Yeah. 28:30.20 Sam Yeah, more trivia more towel holding or gami. Whatever yeah more stuff to do and during the day and inside. Yeah. 28:37.58 Janette Billings Yeah, and the community was great. So someone had started a whatsapp chat for everyone because you can chat with without cellularish service on board and so it was a great way to you know, go around do fish Extenders Pixie dust you know people are giving tips. So There was ah, an amazing double like Rainbow on day four off the full Rainbow off the side of the ship and it lasted for maybe a minute or 2 and the people are on the chat you know trying to tell each other that it was there and they're sharing Pictures. Just. 29:00.88 Sam Oh wow. 29:09.10 Sam Oh cool. 29:13.26 Janette Billings Community was really fun to have and that you know it's it's a Disney experience. You get to know your servers and all of that. 29:20.89 dclduo Nice, nice. Well it sounds like an amazing time. But Jeanette we have reached that point in our show where I need to hand you back over to Sam for some arbitrary questions some arbitrary rules a dash of judgment are the round. We know as the spanish inquisition. No rapid fire. 29:20.95 Sam I Love that. 29:39.60 dclduo Rapid fires What it's called. That's right? No you just judge them. You judge them? Thank God they're remote or else you probably would torture them. Ah. 29:40.80 Sam Brian you're acted like I torture people all right Jeanette I. Ah right in you're terrible all right? We're goingnna start with your Disney favorites and then we're going to talk some cruise line favorites Jeanette who is your favorite Disney Character you can pick anything in the disney universe meaning anything that Disney owns. Oh yeah. 30:01.17 Janette Billings I Really like pascal. Yes, he's just so cute I don't I don't know why I Just really I Really like him. 30:06.60 Sam From tangled love it. Awesome! He is yeah any changes color all right? What's your favorite Disney movie. 30:15.55 Janette Billings It would be the line King for me and the original so grew up watching that. So like. 30:18.90 Sam Yes, yes, you cannot if you were going to pick the other lion king I would tell you you're wrong, but no, you're correct that is a good answer all right favorite Disney song. 30:31.88 Janette Billings Okay, um, if anything from Tarzan or tangled I feel like such good soundtrack. So I think the the trash in in the camp is the one. Yeah. 30:38.70 Sam Um, yeah, ah, that's so fun. Yeah I love that all right favorite Disney Cruise line stage show. 30:51.64 Janette Billings So I would say I don't know if it's fair because I only saw this once and we ah have only been on the magic ones but it's tangled and just because of mother Gospel whoever had played her was absolutely amazing. The vocals were. 31:01.85 Sam Yes. 31:09.82 Janette Billings Just beautiful. Um, and so powerful. But yeah, okay I thought so. 31:11.85 Sam Yes, that's because she's a Broadway performer so mother yeah mother gothal entangled um on the magic is typically being played by a visiting Broadway artist. So someone who has been on Broadway or on a national tour or in the west end. So generally, ah, not just a professional performer like all of the Disney performers are but like at another level. So yes, but tangled it is a fantastic dcl state show. So that's a good answer. Oh nice Awesome. 31:34.37 Janette Billings Yeah. Yeah, and believe this time it was our first time seeing believe and it was it was great. Yeah. 31:47.69 Sam All right favorite bar on board any of the Disney Ships 31:51.11 Janette Billings Okay, so me and Christian we both honestly we don't like the wish too much but they we love the bayou and I know there's mixed reviews on that but we love the energy that we had. We went on a maritime cruise and so. 32:00.50 Sam Oh yeah. E. 32:09.23 Janette Billings There was a band that was there almost every single night. You know, just the Christmas music and it's just a very pretty bar. 32:15.84 Sam Oh it is. It's gorgeous. All right favorite onboard activity on a Disney Cruise 32:24.33 Janette Billings Um, art of the same show tour. 32:26.66 Sam Yes I Love that? Yeah for those who don't know what that is It is an adults only tour of the ship where they tell you about you know the artwork of the ship. Maybe the carpets of the ship. Maybe the lamps of the ship or lighting fixtures will tell you sort of all kinds of artistic. Design details and theming and and all of that and the tour changes depending upon who your tour guide is so you can go on it more than once on the same ship and actually get a different tour but it's yeah, fantastic. All right favorite rotational dining on any of the ships. 32:57.56 Janette Billings Um, um, we like tea on his place. 33:03.51 Sam Yes, I mean who doesn't love Mardi granite in there. It's fantastic. All right You have been on the magic you have been on the other ships. The dream the fantasy and you have also been on the wish so I have to ask you Aquadunk Aqua duc. 33:08.42 Janette Billings Yep. 33:23.23 Sam Or Aqua mouse that is the right answer actually I will say I do like the Aqua mouse as well. But um, yeah, that's the the. 33:23.44 Janette Billings I Like the Aqua duck. 33:27.10 dclduo The classic a classic. It's a classic. 33:32.83 Janette Billings Yeah, and I've I've been on all of those slides and the aqua dunk it just I mean it takes your breath away and you're just so scared right there at the first couple of seconds yeah 33:40.63 Sam Yes, it's terrifying. Yes, it's it's Liz it I I I have been on it now twice and I will go on it again in about a week so I will not ok. 33:42.75 dclduo Oh it's not terrifying stop it. There are kids let's see this is it's exhilarating. It's exhilarating. 33:48.95 Janette Billings Um, it is okay that is fair. 33:54.58 dclduo It's exhilarating and invigorating all at the same time and I love it I Love everything about it. Ah. 33:58.34 Janette Billings Yeah. 34:00.30 Sam That the next controversial question is what is your favorite ship Jeanette that's the right answer Kate. 34:05.87 dclduo Yes, that is the right answer right? answer. 34:06.42 Janette Billings It's the wonder. So we love? Yeah, we love the magic class that actually was our very first ship and so we we went so long ago that we knew it wasn't even Tiian's place yet. It was still parent key. Um. 34:20.38 Sam Um, oh yeah, yeah. 34:23.12 Janette Billings Yeah, we actually we still haven' an experience for puns. So yeah, we when we went on our med cruise it was right I think the year or two before they yeah. 34:27.25 Sam Oh on the magic. Oh Wow Yeah, oh right before that dry dark. Yeah well, you'll have to get on the magic again because that um the Rapunsels Royal table is fantastic. All right now you have been on what ah many would. 34:40.91 dclduo The. 34:45.12 Sam Call bucketless cruises. You've been to Alaska you've been to the med you've been now on the westbound transatlantic what is your let's call it your next bucket list cruise a cruise you haven't been on that you are really hoping to get on and it can even be 1 that Disney Cruise line doesn't currently sail. But. 34:46.89 Janette Billings Yep. 35:04.49 Janette Billings Yeah I think any cruise that would let me see the northern lights. You know I Really we really want to try and see them one day and I just feel like to see them on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean would be really really cool. But honestly. 35:04.89 Sam You like them too. 35:10.57 Sam Move. 35:23.50 Janette Billings For an itinerary that exists or did exist. It would have been the baltic crews because it it went to I think 7 different countries in 1 itinerary and a lot of countries. We just haven't made our way that you know that far yet. 35:26.10 Sam Um, yeah, yeah. 35:39.91 Sam Yeah to them? Yeah, well thank you for playing Jeanette um, as soon as you said the wonder you won so congratulations. Um. 35:48.22 dclduo Um, see what she had said the wonder but the aqua dunk she would have lost so the the algorithm here sam's scoring algorithm is much like Ai unreliable. And yeah, yeah, there you go? yeah. 35:51.21 Sam Well I it would have been close. It would have been close does it make any sense. Yeah, it's like it's like ah whose line is in any way where the points don't matter and yeah, ah. 36:06.20 Janette Billings But I still won. Yeah. 36:06.16 dclduo To turn this into the gong show soon and just start banging the gong. Yeah yes, yes, well Jeanette I always like to ask what's next anything planned out there for you for a Disney Cruise line sailing. 36:09.17 Sam You still won you won Jeanette. 36:19.35 Janette Billings No, we got a placeholder. We don't have um, we don't have a cruise set just yet our 10 year anniversary is next year but we actually we kind of. We don't think we're gonna do a cruise for that one? Um, yeah, so but Disney is always. 36:31.86 Sam Ah. 36:36.50 Janette Billings You know in the forecast for us where his family is a huge Disney family I'm sure we'll end up at the park somewhere at some point um his parents are thinking maybe Vero Beach for the next get together which we haven't we haven't been but some of his family has so yeah. 36:46.69 Sam Oh nice. Well that sounds awesome. Well I hope you end up with a really great anniversary vacation. 10 years is a lot to celebrate. But thanks so much for joining us today. Jeanette. 37:01.67 Janette Billings Yeah, thank you for having me. 37:06.70 Sam I know I did I knew you were going to be a night. He's looking for the end recording button. 37:06.77 dclduo You stole my line see him. Ah. 37:14.65 dclduo And you know I opened the wrong Zencastr window and it was wiking out so that might have what been caused the problem earlier hold on there.