Ep. 382 - Sometimes Homeless, Always Sailing: Dan and Mikkel Are Back to Share Their 2023 Cruising Adventures

00:00.79 dclduo Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the DCL duo podcast brought to you by my path unwinding travel and sam we have another 5 star review for you, you ready you ready for the accolades. The attention. The love. 00:09.92 Sam Yeah, yes, you know I love hearing all of that. But I especially love hearing from people who we've helped along the way in their Disney Cruise line trip planning. And help them maybe enjoy a cruise a little bit more than they otherwise would have and especially from those who have become Disney Cruise line converts. So thank you all for all of your messages and for all of your feedback. We really appreciate. It. 00:35.45 dclduo Sam We're gonna do this one more time sorry I need you to angle your your your head is in the like bottom you need to like that. Yes, you should fill the screen not just be a little floating head. But. 00:42.30 Sam That better I know but I'm not wearing a bra. So yeah. 00:46.23 Mikkel Um, she sweatshirt ah didn't tell you that your culture some move the girls. 00:51.69 dclduo Well I don't think I don't think anyone you're not go be dancing around I can't We can't lll all right? all right? Let's do this one more time. So this one more time. Are you ready see I need you to be ready before because I'm we're recording the videos. So don't futs around anymore all right, you ready. 00:59.65 Sam Ah, okay, so. 01:03.22 Sam Yes, I'm ready I'm ready I'm ready. Yes. 01:04.56 Mikkel It can tell. 01:10.71 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 mail time mail call review time. 01:17.89 Sam Yeah I love it. I love hearing from you know people who have listened to our show. Maybe we've helped them in planning their next Disney Cruise or maybe we've helped convert them to being Disney Cruise line addicts just like we are but we love hearing the feedback. So thanks to everyone who keeps. Who keep writing in or reviewing the show. We appreciate hearing from all of you. 01:40.50 dclduo Well today's review comes from Ral Sonia who writes this is a the cruise podcast to listen to I love to research everything I'm a paralegal and that's just part of who I am after saying that I would never book a Disney Cruise I did after an amazing trip to W W last year and seeing wish reels. After listening to a couple other podcasts I thought that perhaps there aren't any good ones and I should stick to my true crime pods for entertainment I gave it 1 more chance and came across the dcl duo. This podcast gives me that researching fix that I need before my trip. Their podcast offers a variety of opinions from guests and while their opinions are subjective. They are objective. It's nice to hear about different cruise lines as well as disney in fact, one podcast made me tell my husband that in fact, we were not going with a cruise line for ah for Alaska trip. The variety of guests will allow any listener to find something in common with the reviews I'm looking even more forward to my wish trip this spring. Well. Ral Sonia that was for March of this year so her wish trip presumably happens and we hope that it was amazing. I say her maybe ral is a guy so their trip happened I'm sure I hope it was amazing if it was ral sonia I don't know if that's your actual name. Just write in. Let us know we'd love to hear how the how the trip went and if you're going back on Disney Cruise line but for now we'll just say thank you for leaving us the review and if you want to read us leave us a review we will read it on the air so head over to Apple Podcasts leave us a 5 star review. We don't read the bad ones on the air. Thankfully, there are enough of them or not enough of them can skip over them easily as we scroll through. 03:12.78 dclduo Ah, but leave us a review over at Apple Podcast we'll read on the air at the top of the show as a thank you? So with that say we got some fabulous guests who we have not talked to in nearly a year I am so excited to have them back on you want to you want to introduce our fabulous guest for today. 03:24.18 Sam Absolutely I am so excited to welcome back to the show Mikale and Dan from sometimes sailing and sometimes home those are their 2 blogs that they run. They are constantly traveling right now they are like. On the other side of the country from us. But they've just gotten back from like several international trips. So welcome mckell and Dan to the show. Yeah, um. 03:46.64 Mikkel Thank you, You great to be back. Love you. But. 03:48.79 dclduo Have you rebranded the sometimes home blog to just never home now because we can't keep up with all of the fabulous travels. You've you've had and actually we're talking before the show and all of your things are in storage. You're just living the Nomad Lifestyle now. So I feel like it should be never home. But anyway. 04:02.60 Mikkel That would be more accurate right? yeah. 04:09.10 dclduo Ah. 04:10.17 dclduo Ah, ah, well, we're going to focus on the sailing. Yeah sometimes homeless. Ah well, we're going to focus on the sailing aspect of your blogging because you've been doing a ton of fun small ship cruises some luxury cruises some big ship sailing too I think I've seen but ah. 04:11.33 Sam Ah, some sometimes sometimes homeless. Maybe ah. 04:28.99 dclduo We can't cover all of your travels but we wanted to do kind of a topical show some of your favorites that you've seen out there before we dive in why don't you give folks I mean your credibility is already well-known to longtime listeners of this show. But why don't you give your folks the folks out there your cruising creds I'll say. 04:32.77 Mikkel Um, yeah. 04:46.89 Mikkel Sure, um, thank you for that amazing introduction. We absolutely love being on our favorite cruise podcasts and guests of both of you. Um Where do we begin? Our cruising basically focuses on small format cruises. But we're no stranger to big cruises. We've gone on Disney Cruise line several times several times we're gold not platinum or pearl but are you guys Pearl or you're about to hit Pearl. Ah. 05:09.20 dclduo We are now we are now we just got home from my from my we just got home from my twenty fifth perus yeah sam's twenty fourth so 05:10.23 Sam Well to be fair Ryan yeah so I will be pearl. 05:13.17 Mikkel Um, major. 05:17.79 Mikkel Oh sorry here's one of parents. 05:21.71 Sam I will be pearl soon? Um, but Brian is the only member of our family that is currently Pearl Nathan and I are just lowly Platinums at this point. Ah. 05:29.69 Mikkel Um, a heartney mazzle tub. So that's yeah, um, that's major we are not anywhere close but we're definitely in gold. Um, so we love Disney Cruise line of course. But yeah, mostly small small format cruises and I'm historically a photographer. 05:32.20 dclduo Ah, thank you. 05:48.89 Mikkel And travel writer obviously dans the marketing group guru And yeah, it's a great. Okay, yeah. 05:56.44 Sam Ah. 05:57.74 dclduo Yeah, what I know now is when Sam would typically put her plug in because mikale takes some fantastic photos. So be sure to head over to their blogs. We've had mikale on the show. The last time we were just talking was last january I think to talk about a wedding that you photographed. 06:01.70 Sam Ah. 06:04.83 Sam Yes. 06:15.30 Sam On on the wish. Actually yeah. 06:17.30 dclduo On Disney Cruise line yeah Yeah 06:17.69 Mikkel Yeah, it was amazing. It was one of the first weddings on the wish and we will be back on the wish in February for another wedding I'm photographing. So if anybody's on the wish and on the second to fifth and sees a photographer and a bride and groom say hi don't be shy if this comes out. 06:33.19 Sam Um, yeah. 06:35.60 Mikkel And and if not, you know. 06:37.72 dclduo Well well where to begin like give folks a sense of some of the cruises you've done over the last year I mean we followed along, we've seen so many so what? What are some of the some of the ones you've taken that stand out to you. 06:38.65 Sam Ah, love it. 06:51.98 Mikkel Do start from march ah that I god ah so our first one was in March with celestial cruises and we left from Athens and did what they called the 3 continent crus so we got. 07:06.30 dclduo How wow. 07:09.31 Mikkel So we got to hit 3 different continents starting in Europe then we went to Africa and then technically turkey is in Asia so we hit Asia and then back over back over to Europe it was ah I believe it was a seven day cruise and. 07:21.58 dclduo Oh wow. 07:26.49 Mikkel Kind of a shocking bucket list cruise like it was it was the things you you learn about in art history or in in history class and and it's like oh those are the pyramids. That's nice or we're in Jerusalem and then turkey was amazing. We also stopped in cyprus. And then just the Greek isles I mean if you can't go wrong on a Greek Island really so that was March. Yeah, yeah, then we did ah right from there we went because that landed or docked in there was a closed jaw to Athens Athens to Athens. And then we went our second cruise was with emerald and we did the western mediterranean so that was from Athens and we wound up in rome also another seven day but we visited some some greek islands and then did a lot of italy. So we did sicily we did naples pompei was in there. Yeah from naval from naples oh because we overnighted in naple right? Yeah we're also doing great stuff. Um I know that we ended up in chevitovic. Yeah, it's hard to say like. 08:27.43 dclduo Nice. The. 08:40.54 Sam I. 08:42.56 Mikkel Yeah, it's like Rome. We have some this brain and then it went to rome only things to add. Um celestial cruises is a greek owned and operated Cruise line. Love that it was like so Greek. It's a mid-size ship. It was about like 800 passengers. Yeah yeah 800 trip 1200 and the ship had since changed. They have a newer ship and they're bringing on and even newership. So they're constantly refreshing their fleet. It sounds like also we did go to jerusalem as he said, but you know in an amazing quick change of itineraries. They. Obviously are not going to Israel anymore. Um, so they do have a different port for their 3 continents crews right now which you know we still recommend and obviously with their quick response. They're like very responsible um and tuned into that we know Windstar also changed their itinerary. They were supposed to go to the Middle East but they are not this year 09:17.96 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 09:35.38 dclduo I didn't even realize I didn't realize when Star was over in that part of the world. Yeah, what is so celestial where do they fall in terms of the you know are they luxury or they midrange like where do they fall. 09:37.31 Mikkel Um, that's far that yeah. 09:37.65 Sam Um, me. 09:44.41 Mikkel No yeah I would say they're midrange to more budget, but everything's all cart you know so like if you want to add a drinks package they have something crazy like 7 drinks packages I know what you're thinking. That's impossible. How did they have 7 drinks pack. 09:59.83 dclduo Yeah. 10:03.11 Mikkel I actually think I'm being conservative. They might even have 9 if you want drink if you want to add excursions if you want to upgrade some dining like so everything's kind of all a cart but it's still really affordable and um, you know the places that I went to were just like really cool and you know they had bus to get us there because even. 10:04.26 dclduo The. 10:07.56 Sam Ah. 10:17.71 dclduo Yeah. 10:22.14 Mikkel Docking in Egypt to go to the pyramids. It's a good 3 three and a half hour journey to get to Cairo and then to Giza where the piromans are so like big chunk your day you're on a bus. Um, so they were great with that and getting us and like our tour guide was amazing. This. 10:29.78 dclduo Oh wow. 10:35.51 Sam Um. 10:39.99 Mikkel Egyptian woman who had a great personality and spoke better english than us probably she was great. So that was really cool so that was celestial and then emeralds iturra is the ship we were on. They have a sister ship coming out called Emerald Siarra it's a sister ship which you know for anyone listening it just means it's architecturally the same exact ship. 10:44.52 Sam Ah, yeah. 10:59.73 Mikkel Um, interiors are just different, but it's a luxury 100 passenger 18 and up luxury Yacht it was great. yeah it was great we had a really good time. It's beautiful. It's hard to not be happy on a ship like that doing what you love cruising in Europe especially um. 11:05.39 dclduo Go out. 11:05.47 Sam Oh wow. 11:15.60 dclduo Um. 11:18.76 Mikkel Gosh we went to like he said we went to Sicily and Naples of course now I'm naming all the places he already named so that's not really helpful I'm trying to think where else we weren't it seems like a lifetime ago like we think of the crazy year we've had and we're just like oh my god we were we were in italy and yeah. 11:27.87 Sam Ah. 11:35.76 Mikkel Um, afterwards we stay in italy for a week so we did like all the major hits because I hadn't been to italy since 2001 I think and Dan had never been there so we did all the art its and yeah, so we went from javitaekia over to rome I hope I'm saying that right? It is a really hard name um over to Rome and then we went to. 11:43.72 dclduo Oh wow. 11:55.34 Mikkel Florence and we ended in milan so that was really cool. We ate a lot of pasta a lot of pasta. Yeah, a lot of pasta um, saw all the the sites and the David and the doomos and all those things so that was great and then after that we stayed in madrid for a month and. 11:58.90 Sam Yeah. 12:13.99 Mikkel <unk> for a month. No cruises, lots of train travel just seeing those areas. We've been there in the past but we wanted to you know, kind of live there for a little bit. We came back in june June use I had a disney cruise line wedding to photograph. so yeah so dan actually wants to see his parents. This is tmi and. 12:22.98 dclduo Nice. 12:27.45 Sam How awesome. 12:33.48 dclduo Um, yeah. 12:33.88 Mikkel I went thinks with my best friend on the wish and then we met up in July to go on a Tennessee River Cruise with American Cruise lines which was phenomenal. Yeah, that was a lot. Yeah and like when you think of american rivers. 12:44.10 dclduo How well. 12:53.64 Mikkel You know, obviously the Mississippi comes to mine or the rio grande or you know maybe the Colorado but the Tennessee River we just gorgeous just the scenery and just you know that leisurely pace just going down the river and was it was very very impressive. Yeah yeah, that was 8 12:53.74 dclduo Yeah. 13:06.74 dclduo How long was that Cruz I'm curious. How wow. 13:12.41 Sam Oh wow. 13:12.42 Mikkel Eight days seven nights um we boarded from so it goes that particular itinerary goes from Chattanooga to Nashville or the opposite and when we say Nashville it is in Nashville like the river goes Nashville like right up against Broadway Street so that was really cool like. 13:21.54 dclduo Ah. 13:23.00 Sam Oh cool. 13:32.10 Mikkel Ending in Nashville with school because you sail in and all the skyscrapers are there and starting in chattanooga was awesome because Chattanooga is actually like an amazing little town with a ton of things to do. 13:41.73 dclduo Yeah. 13:41.73 Sam Here. 13:43.83 Mikkel So I was happy to be back there and Dan be there for his first time so that was really great and cruising on an American Cruise line is really different because I know it might seem obvious when I say it out loud but you would not necessarily think that the crew is all american but there is strict laws about. Um, where american shifts need to be built to be flagged as United States ships and the amount of crew and on board that is percentage of um us citizens so that was kind of like a unique experience which brings us to Alaska. 14:05.80 dclduo Yeah. 14:19.88 Mikkel Because we cruise on an alaskan- owned ship with alaskan dream cruises and one of the reasons we were interested in that cruise line was because they are Alaska native owned um partially from the Klingit nation from you know, native people. Um. 14:33.20 Sam Ah, cool. 14:35.94 dclduo More. 14:39.74 Mikkel Couple that started alaskan dream cruises. The wife is from cling it culture so that was like super cool, um and doing this shit forty Nine Forty Nine yeah 14:50.43 Sam How many passengers on on something like that 49 how how many we how many were on the american um ah cruise lines. Ah the Tennessee river cruise. 14:53.69 dclduo Oh how. 15:02.57 Mikkel Yeah, the cruise that we did it was like somewhere around like a hundred. Yeah um I don't think it was at capacity but it was pretty close. Um and it was definitely an older crowd like this probably isn't great for your young kids because most of these cruises to be honest are 18 and up but I will say. 15:17.25 dclduo Oh. 15:19.57 Sam Ah. 15:19.94 Mikkel Like I do wish that I saw more younger people on it because like what an amazing experience and you know if you're if you have like a very mature teenager when they hit 18 or even when they're 21 and can drink like how lovely to have a little drink or mocktail who knows like. And sail on just like gorgeous waterways during summer for that and Alaska was just like incredible. Yeah I actually don't even know if it's 18 and up on alaskan dream cruises I don't think it is I think you could be younger I think it's just because there's not a lot of activities for kids like they had to go on bigger cruise lines. 15:53.63 dclduo Oo. 15:54.50 Sam Okay. 15:55.86 Mikkel I love being in catch a can we ended our sailing in catch a can and like literally we saw the wonder pull up it was so right? There's like a video of it on our Instagram I was like so giddy because our ship docked in catch a can our ship with alaskan dream cruises called barren off dream. That's the 49 passenger 1 16:01.80 Sam Ah. 16:14.88 Mikkel And we got off and it was like super early. It was actually really cool and a little misleading to be there that early because it was empty if you've ever been catching it. No, it's never empty and we were there for three days after that so we would go to like the little. There's a guard shack. 16:21.41 Sam Oh. 16:32.40 Mikkel Um, by all the ports and there's a marker board there and it says the ships coming in and the amount of passengers that are on the ship. So like every day we would walk over there and see what ships were coming in and how many passengers were on board so it just so happened that the wonder pulled up next to our ship and it looked like it could just like. Engulf it. It just look like eat the ship like there's exactly yeah, exactly. 16:49.89 Sam Yeah, it it would it would even just be like a little snack because the forty nine Nas centers versus 2400 twenty five hundred. 16:58.19 dclduo Yeah, so so I want I want to go back for one second to the American River Cruise you did the Tennessee River Cruise I've always been fascinated by these we have um I think american river cruises does one near us down the um the columbia river that's right. 17:13.76 Sam Columbia. 17:14.76 Mikkel Um, to pins Rivers or pop. 17:15.74 dclduo Yeah, yeah, yeah, and so I'm curious like what was the onboard experience like on that River Cruise like what was your your cabin like ah you know you've sailed high end cruising. You've done budget cruising like where where does it fall in terms of the onboard experience and. You know like the food on board. Are you eating on the ship or because you're docked I mean place like Nashville's got amazing restaurants and I assume at some of these ports you probably dock for multiple days or at least ah you know an overnight kind of stop. So yeah, just curious what that experience is like. 17:45.61 Mikkel Yeah, you you want to take the food and entertainment and I'll take the way we were don sure so food the food on on board was was pretty good I would I would say a good solid seven and a half to 8 It wasn't a standup. 18:02.00 dclduo Okay. 18:04.78 Mikkel Um, amongst cruising but there were some standouts amongst the meals and some there were some winners and some losers. Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely um and then but that's that's part of it too is like when you are in port you can jump off and maybe go get a drink and. 18:08.42 dclduo Yeah. 18:21.66 Mikkel Maybe go to a bourbon bar or go get Nashville chicken or something like that. You can definitely build your your own adventure on a cruise like that my turn and I'll take entertainment to them. 18:24.13 dclduo Yeah. 18:34.37 dclduo Placed. 18:37.38 Mikkel Entertainment actually is some of the best like small bands and everything which you would like maybe think was possible because you're close to Nashville Music City which you'd be right? There was like this most of there were several nights of bluegrass bands bluegrass performers I would say 1 married couple who's. They met through music. They've been doing music. They were amazing. There was a quartet that was amazing. Bluegrass um, and there was also these 3 singers that they had on for most of the crews who actually live in Orlando and some of them are in the frog choir. Um, at. <unk> world impairing potter but they were great and we actually got to sail with them because they were there for most of the crews so that was great. The entertainment actually like for a ship that size going through. You know the united states was almost like into a river cruise in europe that they're bringing on kind of local acts except for the three women that were kind of. Brought in for musical nights but it was great like I was blown away by the musicians and the singers do you agree? Yeah yeah, it was it was it was fun too because you really felt like you were in the whole southern sort of nashville culture while you were there and it's like. 19:44.54 dclduo Who. 19:48.86 Mikkel This is what every night's like you have opera grand oleopery stars like performing ah in your backyard. Yeah, that was cool. Um, in terms of the itinerary. We didn't actually overnight anywhere except for Nashville the last night which I guess when you starve the cruise it's your first overnight. 20:01.30 dclduo Okay. 20:08.80 Mikkel Um, but it goes to some small towns in between that we've never heard of but like you know there's a city called paduca I think it's in Kentucky that I was like know it. 20:14.64 dclduo It is it is in Kentucky because I oh I'm from Louisville Kentucky originally so yes, patuca I'm aware of yes yeah, yeah. 20:25.22 Mikkel Um, perduga um and the like National Quilt Museum is there and we were maybe gonna go maybe not, We were walking Around. It's a great walkable city especially from the Port. It's right downtown. And um, we're walking around and we saw another couple from the crews and we were chatting with them and they were like the museum's amazing and I love crafts. But I was like okay ah yeah, sure quilting I'll go in. 20:46.36 dclduo If. 20:49.90 Mikkel I Mean these are like not your grandmother's quilts like I've never seen it's just almost like they're just like modern artists and fabric is their medium. It was incredible. I'm so glad we went in. Um I like can't even describe it like just. 20:55.10 Sam Oh wow. 20:57.12 dclduo Yeah. 21:05.74 Mikkel Look up Google the national quilt museum and kaduka and they were like current exhibits. It was like mind blowing who knew who knew quilting could be like that. But like we walked around and I dress may. It's insane. Um, but like that's just 1 example of a city that like kind of surprised us some you know. Was so lovely. They have a seawall that has just murals all over the walls. We saw a guy actually painting one and these are like commission murals that are beautiful just like the history of the area. So that was like kind of you know like gems like that I hate to use wordhanded gem but they kind of are and then even to like see you know like you cruise on the danub river or like the rhine or the mozel and you see you know castles and it was actually. 21:35.33 Sam No. 21:40.88 dclduo O. 21:48.86 Mikkel Really fun to look at people's like expensive lake houses I assume but they're like they're river houses. Yeah, and then like instead of you know another boat passing a spike was usually like you know, somebody on vacation on a jet ski like on the Tennessee River so that was really cool. Yeah. 21:53.57 Sam Ah, yeah. 21:54.94 dclduo Ah. 22:03.30 Sam Yeah. 22:06.79 Mikkel Um, there are some cool locks on the river too so that was like really amazing. Yeah I mean what like a pleasant surprise because we looked in the into the colombian snake rivers chip too and because we were going to Alaska like you know a or two later and just the time changed. We were just like. 22:08.20 Sam Oh wow. 22:16.95 Sam Yeah. 22:19.24 dclduo Yeah. 22:24.74 Mikkel Just stay on the East Coast and do Tennessee and like see that part and you know do Nashville and then also like if you do a preer post Cruise extension like we did we were in chattanooga for a few days. You know it just feels so good to spend money like invest in America and. Give money back to like small businesses and everything and those restaurants because we did eat at those restaurants like in the city. Um, we were preimposed and then also in Nashville we were able to extend and go to Franklin which is just south of Nashville and like talk about a town that I don't want. 22:42.87 dclduo Yeah, yeah, yeah. 23:00.17 Mikkel Ah, ton of people to go to because I want it to remain a secret but I'd be happy if it got more tourism because it's actually like the best kept secret is where all the Nashville stars live they live in Franklin so they actually have the best open mic nights in a. 23:13.30 Sam Ah. 23:18.82 Mikkel An area called leapers fork where like Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton are neighbors there. That's where they live. So yeah, it was amazing and they have an incredible downtown area. Um. 23:24.38 Sam Oh Wow. E. 23:32.42 Mikkel Love the artist's pink and then I saw she was in Franklin like a couple weeks after we were there and my mind was blown and it's only 30 minutes south of Nashville so like if anybody ever does cruising or any trip in Nashville like please go to Franklin Tennessee it's amazing whoo tangent. Ah. 23:46.53 Sam Wow and I love it I Love it I Love it. 23:51.76 Mikkel And we love travel and you know cruising is included in that and we love bringing new destinations and cruise lines and everything to mine. So how oh my god I have to go visit. Yeah and like Brad Paisley and his wife Kimberly Williams um 23:51.79 dclduo Ah. 23:55.54 dclduo Yes, we have a friend who lives in Franklin but I did not know that it was the town to visit for music. So there you go? yeah. 23:57.22 Sam Yeah, yeah, we didn't we had no idea. 24:10.70 Mikkel Kimberly Williams brother has like this incredible sustainable farm that would beekeeping that you can visit and they do like these dinners and ah, it's just amazing. You have to go? yeah. 24:20.12 Sam I Love it that sounds awesome now for these kinds of cruises these like I'm going to call them small ship cruising I Know there's a lot of variety here. But when you are. Booking something like this do you have to like pre-book your excursions like you do on largeship cruises I Mean to be fair on a largeship cruise you don't have to prebook excursions. But if you don't pre-book excursions. They're going to all be filled up so it's very difficult to do is sort of a last minute thing but I'm. 24:40.98 Mikkel Are. 24:50.41 Sam I'm curious on the whole how it works in like the small ship cruising world since Brian and I really haven't done any? Um yeah, how does that work. 24:57.90 Mikkel Um, you can either pre-book or wait the thing with small ship cruising is that they look really expensive from the start I think like some people get stiffer shock. But then as you investigate what that price includes it includes more than your regular. You know, big ship cruising Now. Don't get me wrong. It's still more expensive because supply and demand there's less space on a small ship cruise and normally it's like a little more luxurious. 25:28.18 Sam Right? so. 25:33.10 Mikkel But you know, just an example like beer and wine is usually included with lunch and dinner. It's not included on big shifts. The excursions are usually included whether you opt for you know option a b or c a b and c are included or you could do something on your own if you want to venture off, we were on one cruise. I think with was it viking and boraux and there was one couple that no matter where we went they were like we booked our own thing all right, which you can do you know Um I think the other interesting thing about small ship cruising is that there's so few people on the ship and they obviously know exactly who's on and offboard that I'm not. Advocating for not being at at the ship for all aboard time but they're not going to leave you and like 100% on ah on a big ship like they cannot wait for 2 people right? but I are are the on our Alaskan dream cruise there's literally a marker board and it says like you're. Your stateroom name and you just moved to magnet if you on order. Ah so that's how small it was so. 26:31.98 Sam But it's like the schedule at Denny's. 26:41.92 Mikkel Like the alaskan Dream Cruise is a really good example because I think a lot of your listeners can relate to wanting to go to Alaska or having been to Alaska especially on Disney Cruise line like Princess is also a leader in cruises in Alaska Hall in America line. We saw a lot so the thing about the alaskan Dream Cruise was that. 26:47.50 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 27:01.45 Mikkel Every port we went to. We had a local guide um very often a native person like klingot culture. Um, that was showing us around and then we might have some free time after but that was all included in the price. So like we didn't have to sign up for an excursion. There were 1 or 2 places that we could add on. Um, like 1 of them. A boat would take you to this bear islands that you had you know, exponentially greater chances of seeing wild bears. Um, that was like a couple hundred dollars more just because of the nature of getting there. Everything's more expensive in Alaska anyone who's researched that or been knows that. But. Yeah, it's kind of a mix but I would say overall like more is included with it and that includes excursions oh and that Brian you asked about the onboard experience for american cruise lines. 27:50.13 dclduo Yeah. 27:52.75 Mikkel Actually the ship was like one of the brand new ships that we've been on I think it was American Serenade They're all kind of like named after ah, songs isn't the right word that I Love yeah like I love shit name it like American Jazz American serenade that kind of thing. Um. 28:01.65 dclduo Yeah music. Yeah yeah. 28:10.49 Mikkel And love ship naming. So I always get a kick out of that, especially like with the treasure celebrity cruises just came out with like excel Xel Um, so ship naming is always like kind of a fun thing but in the center of the atrium which is you know Also a quarter quarters actually being generous. 28:15.18 dclduo Yes. 28:28.59 Mikkel It it could fit into 1 tiny teeny pocket of the grand hall in the wish ship but like you know it's like an old microphone sculpture with like music notes growing around it which was like really cute and a good photo opportunity but our stateroom on that ship was actually like. 28:34.22 dclduo Ah. 28:45.67 Mikkel You would consider it like a suite on you know a Disney ship and it was it was just a normal room. It was like really big so that was kind of a nice surprise and it was like nice blue tones and like very nautical like color palette not nautical feel but color palette strip was great. 28:46.53 dclduo Okay. 28:58.54 dclduo Yeah I think I think whenever I think about river cruising so one I think about growing up in Louisville where we had the you know a river boat that that docked right in downtown right? But yeah, but like the paddle wheeler and it was not. You were not cruising on this thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but the. 29:04.70 Mikkel Um, amazing. Yeah yeah, Pat Miller Jason what got what my most and yeah, if anybody's watching pop card. Um. 29:17.43 dclduo But these are more like small yachts. Basically that they're building now to do the river cruising and and I also have in my mind kind of a more rustic style of cruising than what you might experience on ocean ship. But I should say that I have checked out american river cruises. Ah more than once and some of those ships certainly rival Disney in terms of their. Their decor not from a Disney aspect but from just like ah they're building really nice new boats to support these river cruises. So yeah, yeah, where else in the world have you been on a cruise ship this past year besides you mentioned Alaska the river cruising where else have you gone. 29:41.90 Mikkel Um, death. 29:49.67 Mikkel Um, yeah, is that it on our cruises after after Alaska we came back I had a wedding to photograph at the end of September no, we went to the beginning of September no from Alaska we came. Over oh my god I'm forgetting 1 okay, there is 1 more god poor hell he an America line holland american fighter day. That's what it was yeah designer dam picks up in Boston and it ended in Quebec then we went up through the maritime providences. So. 30:08.31 dclduo Um. 30:11.77 dclduo Oh. 30:14.73 Sam Ah. 30:24.80 Mikkel Ah, first up was Maine yeah, we were in bar bar harbor bar love if anybody's ever been there or is thinking I'm going and just like the cutest town and we were in acadia national park that was what we opted for a kadia for the excursion then we went up to Prince Edward Island we also 30:28.88 dclduo E. 30:41.20 Sam How beautiful. 30:44.48 Mikkel Yeah, which yeah, just such a great. Yeah, just ah, a fun place that you just it just feels comfortable being there but immediately and also sorry if I might add the best welcome we've ever had at any port anywhere. 30:50.90 Sam Is so. 31:01.38 Mikkel They were chucking oysters complimentary they were handing out lobster rolls complimentary. They were giving you from all the it was insane and it was pouring outside which I think had nothing to do with it. Um, it was just like. 31:13.51 Sam But they did the but they did the the main style with the mayoise though right? not the not the Connecticut style with the butter. Ok, ah. 31:21.72 Mikkel If it was mayo. It was very light. Yeah, like it was almost you a lobster. Yeah yeah, yeah, um, which was amazing like just oh and there was like um they were doing the first nations dance there that was great. Sorry okay back to. 31:25.43 dclduo Yeah. 31:34.36 Sam Now this way we this was Holland though. So is this a large ship or is this a smaller ship then. 31:38.79 Mikkel It was large but 1 of their smaller large ships if I can say that the zeidder dam which was it's not 1 of their newer ships and actually in one of the ports we pulled up right next to another hallll in America line ship. Yeah double double the dose. 31:45.91 dclduo Yeah. 31:45.97 Sam This is. 31:52.44 Sam Oh Wow! wow. 31:58.30 Mikkel Um, so that was great. We went to halifax where there's a titanic portion of the cemeteries is Titanic um I don't know how. 32:00.97 dclduo Yes, yeah, how'd you find Holland. Overall we've heard we've heard you know good things but like you're on an older ship which I found if you're on an older ship. The experience is different than being on one of the brand new. You know mega ships that they're all building. But. 32:03.46 Sam And. 32:19.97 dclduo How was the experience overall for you in Holland. 32:22.22 Mikkel Yeah I think if we sailed with Holland again we would try to find a newership. It was fine and great and like we met great people and the food was good, especially at in the restaurants that you had a book. The food was really good like I remember an italian restaurant like being a standout for us. Um. And I would sail with Holland America line again I would want to experience a different ship just because the zyderd dam didn't blow me away also because they have a ship within a ship concept almost like the haven or the retreat for norwegian and celebrity. 32:43.26 dclduo Yeah. 32:53.16 Mikkel Um, but it was hard to experience because they kind of retrofitted it for that and the way that they did that was like sort of cabbaanas outside on the top deck but this was New England and the weather wasn't that fantastic like in the end of August beginning of September and. 33:04.30 dclduo Um, if ah. 33:10.85 Mikkel It was hard to enjoy that space when like they have to move all the furniture. That's not tied down when it's windy so like half that went away so that's like a major reason that we might not seek out that ship but we've done that itinerary and been on it. So why not variety. But. 33:15.12 dclduo Yeah. 33:27.32 Mikkel Yeah, there were pros and cons but I liked it I would do it again. Yeah. 33:28.97 dclduo Yeah I'm curious to you. You have done so much cruising. So I wanted to ask a question I actually was thinking about it back when you're talking about italy do you still do the onboard excursions the short excursions like do you book through the cruise lines or are you at this point like we're getting off I mean you mentioned Cairo that sounds like 1 you would need to kind of. Do through the cruise line to be safe, um, not security wise but to make sure you got there and back on time and they hadn't sailed away with without you but or do you just get off the ship and kind of go wander or like what? what's your yeah What's your strategy in terms of when you're import. Are you booking something with a cruise line. Are you doing something on your own or is it a mix. 34:09.64 Mikkel It's really, um, a mix it depends on it depends on the itinerary depends on the poor but we'll we'll just sit down and and go through it and say is this something we want to do or you know and then if not, it's like well we'll figure it out for us. We'll just go when wander. You know and we're we're comfortable doing that too. Yeah I think an advantage of small ship cruising is that they really do dock in a great area so you don't have to take a taxi somewhere or you know travel a far away the thing about the celestial cruise was that they don't dock right next to like you said Cairo like it's really far. 34:26.84 dclduo Yeah. 34:32.32 dclduo Who. 34:42.96 dclduo Oh yeah, yeah. 34:45.58 Mikkel So you want to make that transportation for all the reasons that you said um, but 1 of the things we love about small ship cruising is that it takes you to the heart of where you're going or if it doesn't you can get on transportation and then you know like some places on the Tennessee River Cruise um there was just a shuttle going to the center of town and you can get on get off it was every 15 minutes actually 1 place. We took it and then we were like we can walk this. We walked back and we walked back. The weather is. 35:09.83 Sam You nice? Well well and you said for these smaller ships Most of the time your excursions are included in your in the cost of the the cruise unlike in larger ship cruising. Do you find that there's you know, sort of a difference when you. 35:12.93 dclduo Ah. 35:17.86 Mikkel Right. 35:28.29 Sam Like let's say you booked. Ah ah an excursion on a a large ship that doesn't always leave you time to walk around on your own. Do do most of these excursions leave you some time to walk around on your own obviously setting aside. The one where you're going to Cairo where you probably don't have any time to walk around on your own because there's so much time on the bus. But yeah, do do most of the excursions in these like particularly smaller ports give you some time on your own. 35:46.46 Mikkel Um. 35:51.94 Mikkel Yeah, it's a mix I would say some do some don't but I think more often than not, you do have free time at some point and because the heart of where you're going is right there or even if you walk around for an hour I mean the small town's on the Tennessee River Cruise you couldn't even find something to do for an hour unless you sat down to get a drink or you know something like art there. Um so a lot of it's just like being open to sort of main street America americana kind of things. Um, but yeah mix I think also like the more we sail and the more we've been on cruises the more we understand how cruises. 36:09.60 dclduo Now. 36:24.26 Mikkel Function and when you have to be back and like where the flexibility is or what's too risky to do like and come back to or you know you can find if you look our favorite aggregator of excursions is viter so you know you can go on viter and look at it. It'll say if. 36:27.38 dclduo O. 36:43.79 Mikkel You know they deal with cruise lines or you know a big green light for us is like if it says that it's picking you up at a cruise port. Well if they're picking you up at the cruise port chances are they're dealing with Cruise passengers all the time and if they have good reviews. You would assume that they want to keep their business going so you know and also like if we ever go to a Vp place. 36:44.94 dclduo O. 36:59.60 dclduo Yeah. 37:03.86 Mikkel Knowing the lay of the land is like really comforting. So if we ever go back to sicka Alaska well we know how small sigca is and we know that you know getting from point a to b can happen in this much time because the whole like main road is only thirteen miles so it's like just like a familiarity like if we go back on the. Danu river you know we know like passout is a really small german town and like we know the lay of the land. So I think it depends if we've been there before it depends what's available it depends you know on all those things but yeah mix. 37:34.42 dclduo Yeah, what's a good to. It's a good tip to check it like we we love tripadvisor vi it or for the larger sailings. There's like short excursions dot com I think it is Sam or something like that that that we've we've looked at we haven't used in the past. But. 37:46.46 Sam You? Yep yep. 37:50.40 dclduo As you drill into these. You can also find some of these will give you like return to ship guarantees right? Like if they miss the boat if it's their fault You miss the boat. They'll make sure you that you connect back up with your ship in the same way that a cruise line excursion would so a good good tip to read the fine print there for sure. 37:52.99 Sam So. 37:53.12 Mikkel Right running. 38:04.53 Mikkel Um, yeah, also like understanding the more we talk to um, like tour operators just because we love a good chat about small business is. 38:16.63 Sam Yeah. 38:19.53 Mikkel How much of a cut the cruise lines take now we understand it's a profit. It's a for profit business. We support the cruise line. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. There's there's pros and cons. But if you know all is looking good and like Brian said there's a guarantee and there's good reviews and all those things. 38:23.99 Sam All right. 38:37.90 Mikkel Even if viader takes a small percentage. They're still getting more money when you book directly and that can actually really make or break their business or their income for for the year so those are things we think about too. 38:51.31 Sam Yeah, that's a really good point I mean there are some cruise lines I'm sure that are able to get you some special access right? that you might not be able to book on your own. Um, but other than that I mean I understand the idea of get you know. 38:58.34 Mikkel Yeah, so. 39:07.33 Sam Paying the small business directly versus paying the cruise line all right I. 39:08.82 Mikkel Yeah, and to your point a good example I still can't believe it every time I say it. But when we we were when we were in turkey which a portion of turkey is in Asia like he said we were in kashirtasai and. 39:22.17 Sam Um. 39:23.87 Mikkel I Guess there's an agreement with celestial cruises that they will take us to a carpet maker like Turkish rugs and um, we actually ended up buying a rug. That's what I can't believe um and. 39:28.56 Sam You call. 39:37.79 Mikkel We felt good about where we were purchasing it because we knew that there was a partnership and it was a legitimate vendor that was going to mail the rug and you know we could trust and we are happy to say we do have the rug in our recesion and our storage unit and we do have it and it was a trusted vendor but you know. I've read stories on Cruise Forums that like people were scammed with their rug and yeah because we went to a vendor that celestial cruises has a partnership with and because we bought a rug and because the manager had to drive us back to the port after we bought. 40:01.19 Sam Oh my goodness. 40:14.91 Mikkel Um, everybody else had already gone. We know that they actually pay the cruise line for you know that privilege to bring people there so we felt like really secure in the transaction that it wasn't going to be a story that other people that hadn't gone to a trusted vendor that like maybe just went to a store along the Port. You know and did their own transactions so there was definitely pros and cons to those kind of things. 40:41.20 Sam I'm going to pause us right here because ah Brian can't we we can hear each other but he can't hear us. Um, so yeah, yeah, it's okay, you're okay, um, let me just tell him stop and. 40:44.50 Mikkel I was wondering what happened I'm like what do we do. 40:57.42 Sam Start I Just paused I'm just texting him. 41:00.10 Mikkel Yeah, no words I'm readjusting my legs. Oh. 41:08.89 Sam He can't he can't see or hear us by the way I know yeah we can see him. But yeah. 41:11.42 Mikkel Oh. 00:00.00 dclduo And you're good same go ahead. 00:02.67 Sam So want to shift topics here and and talk about food and food options on these smaller you know ships because you've obviously you've done Disney Cruise thing you're going to go on the wish again mielta to photograph another wedding of course. Um. And so you you know the options on the you know, big cruise line ships and and most people who listen to our show probably do at this point you know you've got main dining. You've got ah usually a buffet on larger ships and then you also have like pool deck food on you know on larger ships. That's sort of I would say the 3 categories plus I guess room service but room services you know, limited options typically speaking but I'm curious about these smaller ships. You know you're talking you know as small as 49 um, as big as you know several hundred. Ah what are the. Typical food options that are on these ships is there only 1 place to eat and what's what is your experience been with sort of the quality of food and is it fancy food or can one get chicken fingers in french fries. 01:03.72 dclduo Yeah. 01:07.40 Mikkel But that's so wonderful. Fair question. Yeah I would say it really depends on the size of the ship most of your smaller. Let's say um now I'm just I'm just making up a number here, but let's say 200 passengers below. There's only 1 dining room but it but it really varies on the size but on the ship itself and the design of yeah but that is yeah, that's your central hub and you go down and almost by the end of the cruise it feels like assigned seats because you always go to the same thing. 01:27.94 Sam And. 01:34.97 Sam Um, yes. 01:39.30 dclduo Oh. 01:40.18 Sam Yeah, ah, we're creatures of habit aren't we Dan. 01:41.78 Mikkel Yeah, yeah, like you like really make an effort to mix it up with're sitting with? yeah yeah, and then if you're you know you sit in somebody else's seat. They're like what what? why? What do you might see it exactly like would you would you really start to form those relationships. 01:53.48 Sam Ah, that's my seed. 01:59.73 Sam The. 02:00.16 Mikkel Too with the people. But yeah you you get to know them and it's like oh I'm sitting with you know who has a gluten aller chain. Yeah yeah, exactly yeah, but the caliber of the food I would say is definitely above like some cruise lines I mean I have to say. 02:06.30 Sam And who's allergic to shellfish right? yeah. 02:19.75 Mikkel So excuse me lumine. Um, that's part of the would cheat at on celebrity cruises is great I would say you know high caliber level of food that we've had on a cruise Line Sam's not kidding when she says the chicken Farm Apollo is the best she's ever had. 02:36.84 dclduo Where. 02:38.70 Mikkel Blown away at that brunch I was like we have to get it. Sam says it's the best she's ever had on podcast and then it's true actually somebody asked me if I wanted chicken par at a italian restaurant after that and I said now I can't it's just not going to be good as. 02:41.11 Sam So good. 02:55.34 Mikkel If actually so I think that's a lose for this restaurant so you know true. Um, but speaking a room yes and go ahead. Sam. 02:58.00 dclduo Hey you were in Rome at the time so I was understanding I was kidding. 03:03.63 Sam Um, you know and I was going to say you know they don't actually do chicken par in italy generally is different. It's not fried so it's very different than like ah, what we think of as chicken par in in the US so it's not really. 03:16.30 dclduo Yes. 03:16.14 Mikkel Um, yeah, who are yeah yeah, um, but on Emerald andzer in particular I was so impressed by their Cacio Pepe which is basically um pasta with cheese and pepper. 03:19.18 Sam It's American Italian not actually Italian italian. 03:29.26 Sam E. 03:35.82 Mikkel Um, if you get it in the United States they make it with cream that is not how Cacio Pepe is made. It's made with cheese. Um, so I was like super impressed. They had a pasta every night because we were in the western mediterranean and we were in italy so they like had a pasta kind of of. 03:37.79 Sam It's. 03:40.28 dclduo O. 03:48.57 Sam In. 03:52.14 Mikkel Night and we would order it with the people we were sitting with and they would serve at family style I mean there's definitely misses and not good dishes on small ships just like there is on big ships there to answer your question about Chicken fingers. They are very accommodating. They want you to Eat. So. You know there's usually like an anytime menu like there is on most big ships like even if you know they don't have it on every day's Menu. You can usually ask for just grilled chicken breasts or a steak or French fries like they you always have some sort of potato or vegetable Im chat. 04:23.85 Sam So. 04:26.44 Mikkel The best food we've actually ever had consistently for every single meal on a cruise was a barge cruise and it was max capacity of 8 passengers. But there were only 5 of us on that sailing and there were 4 crew members and our chef Toby was incredible and every meal was just like. 04:34.49 dclduo Yeah. 04:46.20 Mikkel Holy craft this is so good. But you know that's expected when you're cooking for 5 people. Not even you know 49 so yeah and you know we like that. There's local sustainable seafood caught by people you know on alaskan dream cruises or even on. 04:47.50 dclduo Um, yeah. 04:49.35 Sam Ah. 04:53.90 Sam Um, right. 05:05.36 Mikkel You know we've been on main when when Jammer cruises which are stale broke cruises when the captain literally and right exactly boat. Yeah, yeah, yeah to get the lobsters. So um, yeah I mean I would say that like overall when we think of it. The food's a little better. Um, that. 05:07.86 Sam Go with the lobster fest. Yes, yeah. 05:11.61 dclduo Yes, and I remember I remember the lobster the lobster bake. Yes, ah. 05:21.81 Sam Okay. 05:24.54 Mikkel Big ships and also like they really focus on wine programming and a lot of these but you know that's to say like we were on princess cruises and we were at a wine pairing dinner and that was great. So we love food too. So we love that you asked about that. And you know it's always something and we have like a really high standard for food. We're 2 adults, no kids and like this is our passion. You know, cruising and traveling and food is so much a part of the culture. So and it's really, um, a mix of whether or not. 05:49.71 Sam Yeah. 05:55.67 Mikkel Cruise lines actually focus on the local ingredients and local cuisine I think a lot of people don't realize like even if a menu is tailored to the danub river so you're going to Germany and you're going to Austria and you're going to hungry and like you're like oh this menu is like so local and it's like no that I don't. Mean to burst. Anyone's bubble but like ah corporate approved the menu and the chef didn't put it together in the kitchen right there you know so there's always like a little gin with the yang for where you are and the food quality and everything but there and their are buffet is on small shifts. So just it's not for every meal sometimes I'll launch the welcome lunch. They'll do. 06:18.10 Sam Right. 06:18.90 dclduo Right? right? yeah. 06:34.23 Mikkel Buffet because people are coming and checking in and kind of walking on I will say the 1 thing with small ship cruising is that the check-in is so much different. You basically just like walk on the ship. There's no dangway. There's no, you know you walk your passport and they like they bring you and show you. 06:43.84 Sam Oh wow. Yeah, there's no tapping your key to the world card every time you get on every time you get off. Ah. 06:53.79 Mikkel Yeah I mean a lot of these shits don't even have doors that lock we've been on plenty of cruises. The ships that but there is no lock on the door. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so you're trusting Yeah, you're kind of like huh. 06:58.67 Sam A wow. 07:04.52 dclduo Oh my gosh. Ah ah, make sure you make sure you know your stateroom number. Ah. 07:04.81 Sam That is odd. 07:13.26 Mikkel Much like they all look the same. But yeah, yeah, so you're trusting these people from the get go. So yeah, it's definitely interesting. 07:16.18 Sam Ah. 07:20.33 Sam Um, yeah. 07:20.84 dclduo Ah, while we're talking about food I have to ask you mentioned Nashville you actually mentioned Nashville hot chicken. How was it. 07:26.99 Mikkel Yes, in Ashville it's great and actually in Franklin it was great too. It's supposed to be like a little spicy and on this ship it was not that spicy and we're not sure if that's just because of the audience like you know they're trying to be less risky. Um. 07:33.34 Sam This is. 07:38.94 dclduo Yeah. 07:44.86 Mikkel But it was nice to have fried chicken on that cruise and then be able to also get it in Nashville to get the real deal course good to compare the to natural hot chicken is a thing. 07:49.91 dclduo Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, well I was gonna say you said a little spicy I would say people from Nashville would say it's supposed to be mouth burningly spicy if if you're doing it right? Yeah, that's what you need the bourbon on the back end for ah to ah yeah. 07:54.91 Sam Ah. 08:02.70 Mikkel Yeah, exactly I should exactly? yeah. 08:04.92 Sam Yeah, going going to get another topic but sort of related to food food is of course service right? When we think of different cruise lines and you know sort of the more luxury you get typically the higher the level of service. 08:08.56 dclduo Yeah. 08:24.50 Sam Do you find that did you find on these small ships that you went on particular this year that that held true across the board or were there. You know standouts and maybe ones that were fell sort of lower in in that service category. 08:38.57 Mikkel I have 1 opinion of course but I'm curious to hear what you would say actually about that. Yeah I found it was really it definitely to depended on the ship and just the the cruise line itself like a standout for me this year I thought was emerald the Emerald Dipsora I mean it was just such a beautiful ship and the service was impeccable and then like Alaska alaskan dream cruises. It felt kind of like ah it it was much more homey and a little bit more like camping and like the servers are joking around with us and you know it felt much more approachable. So. 09:12.77 Sam So. 09:17.91 Mikkel To me those were the 2 kind of extremes of this year's cruising. Yeah we end. 09:19.49 Sam Yeah, so less less formal versus more formal. Not necessarily bad service in good service just different style. 09:27.22 Mikkel Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it but it really fits both of those examples really fit the personality of the of the ship and started it with like yeah this feels right? and it feels like the way it should be for this particular ship a cough. 09:34.29 Sam And. 09:45.52 dclduo No worries. 09:45.96 Mikkel Sorry the thing I would add to that is that we consider ourselves pretty low maintenance. We don't travel with a lot of bags Literally we don't travel with a lot of bad kids or play. We. 10:00.92 Sam Ah, ah. 10:02.59 dclduo Ah, physical or emotionally yeah we get you? ah. 10:05.91 Mikkel Leave it at Home. We travel with you know the same carry on Backpacks We don't have a lot of demands or requests like so we're not asking for a lot So We're not like testing anyone to see you know so like it kind of depends The the most. I Guess a tentative like experience but I can recall is being in the retreat on celebrity cruises because you get like assigned like a concierge kind of I think they call it a stateroom Butler kind of thing a stayroom attendant. Yeah, um, that like was just such a sweetheart and like. 10:35.59 dclduo Oh oh. 10:42.24 Mikkel Did things for us. We didn't even ask like you know, taking us to the gangway to get off the ship and like making sure we got off in front of people and which is like kind of a perk of staying in the the retreat class. Um, which actually it's not even that much more expensive, especially if you hit it on the right special or deal like people should. Completely nobody should ever be intimidated by a price that they're assuming and they're not really aware of because a lot of the times these cruise lines run specials like you know for black friday or wave season like 2 for 1 free airfare. You know so like they want you to cruise with them. They just have to hit their own numbers. It's a business so like. You know the the retreat could be equal price to what you were gonna book if you catch it on a special so you know I always say like there's very few cruise lines that you need to pay in full from day one or like within thirty days so even if you don't have the money now I'm not saying live beyond your means but like book it. And then see how things are going and if you can find the money I think like a lot of people have money for things. It just depends where they put the money and how they spend it if they're fortunate enough. So like you know, see how it shakes up and if there's a deal grab it and if you need to cancel it and just make sure the deposit's fully refundable and and you know you could do that. There's not been a single time I don't book another Disney Cruise while I'm on a cruise because it's the click of a button to to book it and you get a discount and you're not going to get that once you get off the ship so it's it's an easy yes for us and the service level kind of just depends like Dan's head like. 12:10.39 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 12:14.85 Mikkel The vibe of the ship and where you are and kind of what you've investigated. 12:16.85 dclduo Well in some of the lines you've been talking about I think you mentioned not always like super family friendly. You're talking about adult only travel which then does open up the possibility to like we so we have to sail at spring break. We have to sell Thanksgiving week those those times 0 when you're not going to find discounts but we've heard from plenty of people who found some. 12:23.17 Mikkel My hair. 12:28.82 Mikkel Right. 12:36.88 dclduo Greenman deals even on like Disney cruises where the price opening day is much lower than booking the spring break week. You know that sort of thing and so you know watch out for those like shoulder seasons I will say if you're booking in October November in the caribbean just be prepared for travel disruption with hurricanes and things like that. But. You can find those shoulder seasons when they know they're not going to fill their ships. You can find some really great deals and to your point lots of the cruise lines hol in America norwegian royal carnival especially it's like constant nonstop sales sales sales sales sale even even after opening day. So yeah, yeah, yeah. 13:06.69 Mikkel yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I we don't have kids but we know that in North Carolina a lot of children are on yearround school so their parents end up taking advantage of when they're tracked out they call it. 13:13.55 dclduo What. 13:19.54 dclduo Yeah. 13:25.93 Mikkel For their vacation which I'm sure is very nice for everybody. 13:31.16 dclduo We did. We did talk to a teacher on board. One of our cruises who was in a state that did year- round school or a you know school district that did and she was saying It's fantastic because we get time off from school at times when other schools aren't getting time off. So yeah, um. 13:35.68 Mikkel Um, and and oh. 13:41.85 Mikkel Yeah, yeah. 13:44.80 dclduo But we'd be remiss in not spending a few minutes here talking about some of your favorites from your more recent cruising experience and actually if you want to dig into the the archives the bee size the deep cuts like feel free. Ah but I kind of wanted to start with? Um, what was your favorite cruise you've taken in the last. 13:55.75 Mikkel Um, yeah. 14:04.80 dclduo Year. 14:05.29 Mikkel O year emeralded sorrow. Definitely um, it was just like so much of a cruise is like who's on board right? and with a cruise that size like you get to know people pretty fast and who you have chemistry with I would say and the food was really good and this you know. Scenery was really good and just like just like we literally like pulled right up to Naples and there's like an old you know stone tower right there and that was really cool and you could see like vesuvius in the distance and that was like amazing and also. 14:34.27 dclduo Same for you same same for you Dan or a different 1 14:38.79 Mikkel I would I would have to go with Alaska dream cruises. Yeah, that's great just because it was it was a little bit more rustic and you felt like you were really part of the rugged ness of Alaska and but to micelll's point like just the people really make. 14:40.60 Sam Oh wow. 14:51.70 Sam He. 14:58.90 Mikkel Make it especially on us on a smaller cruise and I I met so many great people on that cruise that I still gave contact today I was just texting with with somebody I met on that cruise this morning and then tomorrow right? and then tomorrow we're gonna we're gonna see another couple that we we're staying with them on the cruise. Yeah. 15:15.93 dclduo Nice. 15:17.65 Sam Ah, wow. 15:18.30 Mikkel Is great and I think like something that was really cool about alaskan dream cruises is how you know it's Alaskan owned. We were fortunate to meet a lot of people in Alaska that work for the cruise line and you can see the shipyard and the ships are built there and also. That the mere architectural size of that ship gets you closer to icebergs floating in the water and like 1 of my favorite things was just photographing like iceberg after iceberg after iceberg I'm like but this one's different and this one's different and this one's different and you can't get that on a bigger ship. 15:45.16 dclduo You're right. 15:56.21 Mikkel Because you're just you know, further up. It's just the way that the decks are you know you can't get that sure you can use binoculars and of course we brought binoculars. Do it's just like really cool being in kind of like a Ford or Misie Misy Fjoords like 16:03.25 dclduo Yeah. 16:12.62 Mikkel Big shifts. Can't go there so like that was really special calendar for 2024 and 5 ice sp. 16:14.56 dclduo Well you hurry here first Mikay's got a new series of photos coming out frozen is the is the theme so there you go there, you go? Yeah true, a true frozen calendar. Yeah oh my god. 16:24.55 Sam Yeah, right? We just just icebergs right? Yeah instead instead of sexy instead of sexy firefighters. It'll be sexy icebergs. Ah. 16:31.37 Mikkel Yeah, like friends who frozen that was good to yeah sexy ice. It's too frozen colon cool. That's interesting. Favorite port this year 16:33.27 dclduo Oh my gosh. Yeah yeah, well I want to hear I want to hear favorite port that you've been to over the last year on a cruise line. Yeah. 16:47.16 Mikkel My god can you guys think of your favorite port too I'm curious what you would say I might say sickca Alaska I just thought sickca was like so special. We also stayed at this place called twin islands retreat twin islands resort retreat I think it's twin islands retreat ti I r. 17:02.62 Sam Um. 17:06.83 Mikkel And it's owned by this couple who moved to Alaska to kind of like start this like b and b but like it's just it was like the most magical place. Um, and that's kind of how we started our staying sick and then we boarded the ship from there and sick is just like so walkable i. Have a real affinity and fondness for a native american culture. Um, you know so that was really special and learning about tonum pos and ah their national park there you know and learning the story of Tonem Pos and if you're not native. You're not really supposed to tell a story but. Luckily somebody guided us who had you know neither roots in everything in association. So that was really special and we did learn that totem poles are only in the northwest only kind of like Vancouver up to Alaska which we didn't realize they're only like an art form. It's 200 years old tangent very cool I would say so. 17:57.40 Sam Yeah, yeah, there are there are some in in Washington as well because some of the the tribe some of the tribes in Washington also did totem poles and or still do probably yeah. 18:00.69 dclduo Ah. 18:01.30 Mikkel Ah, yeah, that area. 18:08.76 Mikkel And so yeah, what was your favorite I I want to say catch a can I really enjoyed catch can. But I think I'm going to go just Nashville just because the would we were right there right in the city and pulling in I remember. 18:09.69 dclduo What about you dan. 18:22.31 Sam M. 18:27.48 Mikkel You know as we're cruising into the city itself. We popped a bottle of champagne and just like sat back and and watched the city kind of come to us so it was It was just a great experience and just the the accessibility to the city really made that port special. 18:44.80 dclduo You you asked us ours. Our problem is the last year I think we've only been sailing in the caribbean and ah and baha. Yeah. 18:49.88 Sam And baha so so castaway key castaway keys definitely got to be number 1 on the list of on the list of ones we've been to we I would say we haven't been to great ports I'm not saying that the porch we've been to ah are bad but it's just really Bahamas honestly, it's been Bahamas. 18:53.66 Mikkel Scar. 19:07.73 Sam And then like Baja Mexico. So um, you know our our last ah more amazing port was was September of last year so that's outside of the one year Mark I would say in Norway. 19:18.87 Mikkel We were going to talk about September of last year where was it. 19:22.55 dclduo Yeah. 19:23.25 Sam Yeah, that was in Norway I mean we were. We did the norwegian fjords and so all every port was amazing there. Um, you know we had. We had a great time I I would probably sayavvangar if I could include that cruise at easttavanger where we did. 19:37.70 dclduo See you night I would say on that cruise I'd say for me it was ol listened I really loved ol Listenison that was as far north as we got and the views from the the ship because I like to take photos too were just fantastic and so yeah I would say well listen. But. 19:37.72 Sam The hike of Pulpit Rock That was just a fantastic and and terrifying and amazing all at once? Yeah, yeah, that was wonderful too. Yeah. 19:54.65 Mikkel I looking up I excitedated for the Christmas spark gifts for you guys? yes. 19:56.79 dclduo Ask us again in about a month and we'll have a different answer I'm sure off of this adventures by Disney River Cruise we're getting tick. So yeah, yeah, well I want to keep going with favorites here. So we talked about favorite ports. Ah I'm going to. 20:02.59 Sam Yup. 20:13.28 dclduo Change it up and you can say oh same answer but shore excursion like thing that you did I want to make Dan go I'm going to make Dan go first this time. Ah. 20:16.76 Mikkel Oh oh my god is a girl. Yes, please who what was the. What was the island the Greek Island who went to where they had the beautiful white beach the one that we stopped the bus and that's like I make photos for the phone. I'm sure it's somewhere I can't pronounce. That's the problem. Oh Galen's it's like that was your but what? ah was that where we went in the cave. Yeah oh gosh he's really digging deep. There's an island. There's an island that we cannot pronounce the name and had the most gorgeous go ahead. That's it. 20:54.88 dclduo So. 21:05.20 Mikkel Fascinating story for the listeners I wonder if I could find the name of all right? Well I can I can make up something. No, that's a good answer. How would we answer that without saying good. Just say it was a it was a Greek Island and like. 21:09.77 dclduo Ah. 21:24.36 Mikkel We did go in a cave. It wasn't ah that's sorry I'll say something else. He it roads. Yeah rhos was nice. We did the Acropolis. Oh yeah, all right. There were a lot of cats. We just got those. We got. 21:44.21 dclduo Better. 21:45.20 Mikkel Okay, 3 2 1 I would have to say ah Rhos was a great great crew. A great stop on the cruise and just a beautiful island. And the views and we went up to the acropolis that's on the island and the the little towns just just a beautiful beautiful island and we were there before it got busy before easter so that was kind of a nice part. Yeah um, favorite favorite. 22:11.35 Sam Oh yeah. 22:17.98 Mikkel Ah, Excursion excursion. Yeah, we had a tour of roads that was really good. Um, this is so random and sickca and people could do this off of the cruise ship because it's um, not far. Um and you can just take a taxi there. There's a guy that's ah ah, he's a shop teacher at a high school in Sicca. And he started doing these metal Fish. You can make like a metal salmon or a metal help it hell of it. Yeah, you pick your fish and he has a lathe that like plasma cuts it and then you finish the fish you like um you can. 22:39.25 Sam No. 22:53.51 Mikkel Make scales on it. He shows you how to do that and you can torture it so it gets the colors. There were two kids There is totally family friendly like you know you wear safety gongles and he shows you how to be safe and you know you sign a waiver. Um you yeah, you're not cutting the metal. It's already cut. Um, but it was. We're just like. 23:05.69 Sam Ah, yeah. 23:12.93 Mikkel Crafty hands on people. It was just so cool and so different like so different where else can you do that So that was really cool. Yeah. 23:13.20 Sam You yeah. Love it. 23:21.84 dclduo Nice all right. We got to know favorite food item. The show always always comes back to food so we got to know your favorite food item. Ah Mikayle we start with you. 23:25.57 Sam Up. 23:28.41 Mikkel I yeah I have dreams about the cacio pepe on emaled Sora I mean it was like spot on and I love homemade pasta so that was incredible. 23:31.47 Sam Yeah. 23:36.75 dclduo Is that that So when you mentioned it is that the dish I see all the time now and where they've got like a hollowed out piece of Parmesan and they're like stirring the noodles in the Parmesan is that kind of what it is. 23:46.44 Mikkel I would say that's yeah, that's like pretty close to what they're doing. Yeah I mean it's like not you know you make it like that in a frying pan or whatever and but I don't know if like technically that's what they call it like a lot of the time when they're like. 23:50.52 dclduo Yeah, okay. 24:02.19 Mikkel When they put the cheese on they just scrape it on. Not what you're saying but scrape it. It's like a rilet cheese. But what you're saying I would have to assume is like acacioo pepe. Yeah I mean if they add pepper that's like pretty much what it is yeah incredible. What would you say I Also I agree with that. But there was. 24:07.77 dclduo Um, okay. 24:08.18 Sam Um. 24:10.41 dclduo Yeah, nice, nice. 24:22.40 Mikkel Um, just say that though the I don't know that's tomato and and mozaral dish that Toby made on the barge crews I still dream about oh that was wonderful, but this year out this year time we did greek food. We did. 24:33.51 dclduo But. 24:42.60 Mikkel Wish we did? Oh you weren't on the horse. No I didn't kind here. Um there any grief lead there. Yeah, we did the Greek dining table that Greek all right I don't know what stood out about that. So let show was good. Not great meos beer that was cool that they had that that could be your meal of beer. Yeah, it's a meal so that's food for me I would say it was on the on the Greek Cruise just it was just very greek right? like so so it was authentic Greek food and methos beer. Was delicious. So I think it was just the whole experience of being wrapped in just everything greek. Ah yes, yes. 25:23.92 dclduo All right nice all right? Well I've got I've got 2 more questions for you here. 1 of them is one that Sam would typically ask but I'm going to take it this time which is just. 25:25.79 Sam Yummy! Lots of good feta cheese I'm sure. 25:36.92 dclduo You have crossed so many bucket list kind of cruise items off your list like what is still on the list. What is at the top of your bucket list Cruise things to do. 25:47.42 Mikkel I would for me I still want to go to Patagonia and then um, the me Kong River just that's that's those who are still high on my list. 25:49.77 Sam M. M. 26:01.62 dclduo I was going to ask if you had done any river cruises in Asia because I know we had had um, Heidi on who does why am I blanking on the name of her blog but she does a small ship cruising blog. And she was always talking about Asia and river cruises as a way to see asia and so I was curious if you if you were if you had done one yet or were planning to do one. 26:23.50 Mikkel Yeah, we haven't done one but they were closed for closed. They were closed quote unquote for a while because of the pandemic. Um, which leads into my bucket list is a cruise in Japan and also Norway I think we're gonna do Norway. 26:26.72 Sam Right. 26:39.31 Mikkel summer next summer with Windstar still deciding but um, yeah Japan and noraway and we were just in Japan for six weeks but the way that our airbnb reservations worked out with like the available. Cruises that we could do didn't really align. It was kind of like the end of the cruise season for Japan in October into November but still on my bucket list which is Asia but not the mekong obviously so. 26:58.99 Sam Okay. 27:07.82 Sam Nice. 27:10.54 dclduo Nice all right. My last question is well we know you've got another cruise coming up with Disney Cruise line for the wedding. Ah, but beyond that what's next where are Dan and mckail off to next. 27:25.30 Mikkel I Can't even keep up with our own schedule I Really think about we have anybody who wants to travel like you know for a year or just like keep communication together in different locations. Even if you're like you're in the kitchen and somebody's in the living room. Um. 27:30.88 Sam Ah, ah. 27:42.75 Mikkel We have a shared canva doc actually which we have figured out is the best way to look at it at a glance and share it with family and friends who we don't want to give access to our outlook or you know Apple calendars or anything but to answer that. We are hoping to meet up with you guys in munich to have a beer ah will post cheers to Christmas markets we are going on different sailings. But it's really cool. Our trip overlaps again like it did once and that's Anita. 28:03.52 Sam So yeah. 28:13.18 Sam Who. 28:16.55 Mikkel Yeah, um so Christmas Markets Cruise then we're in Florida for a while and then we for sure are going to Amsterdam again in the spring for their tulip season tvd a free book cruise for that. But we'll be there for their. We've been there for their tulip season but never they have a Tulip fast. 28:26.72 Sam Oh wow. 28:29.23 dclduo Um, kind of nice. 28:34.97 Sam Yes. 28:36.27 Mikkel Well associated with it like with a big parade and stuff so we actually scheduled that a while ago because the hotels sell out like over a year in advance so we'll be there and then um, we need to book a cruise to go on like treasure or to lighthouse point or you know. Did you guys book something? yeah. 28:55.60 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 28:56.27 Sam Oh yeah, we've all we have all the things booked mikell we we are. So for those who haven't heard us talk about this before in June of next year we will be on the disney magic um, back to back cruises. The first being a dvc charter cruise for 5 nights and then the second being a three night cruise both of those cruises go to lighthouse point and the three night cruise is our inaugural dcal duo podcast cruise so we are doing lighthouse might yeah so we've got. 29:27.44 Mikkel I Think so yeah I thought so. 29:31.60 Sam A couple of lighthouse point stops there and then in um, in December we are going to be headed on the maiden voyage of the treasure and then in 2025 we also have a treasure spring break crews booked. So yes, we have a lot. 29:44.79 Mikkel A wow. 29:47.30 Sam Lot happening. Um with between the treasure and lighthouse point we're making sure to hit both of those at least twice. 29:51.91 Mikkel We are also going into Pearl plus territory with your number of cruises at this point. 29:59.73 dclduo Yes. 30:01.90 Sam Yes, it will um but we but we aren't sailing on Disney we're recording for those who can't tell we are recording at the end of November we post Thanksgiving um, and we our next cruise on Disney Cruise line is not booked until June so we have. 30:15.36 Mikkel What all that all things you know that. 30:17.68 Sam Yeah, so yeah, ah so we've got we actually have a couple of while we have the abd. So it's still Disney cruising but different right? Um, not dcl and then we also actually have a couple of royal caribbean cruises that we're taking before our next Disney Cruise so 30:37.40 Mikkel Um, for research. Yeah. 30:37.55 Sam Yeah, tuned so research purposes for science. You know, always for science. 30:40.90 dclduo Yeah, it's hard. It's it's hard not to take a look a hard look at royal considering how out of control Disney pricing is getting for their cruises. So we're going to try that one. Yeah. 30:49.49 Mikkel Yeah, and hear that how do you? How do you after all this small ship cruising talk how do you feel about your upcoming adventures by Disney Cruise which we know is on um, charter ships with Amma Waterways a cruise line. We really like. 31:05.51 dclduo I would say that we are overall excited. Ah, it's a it's a short turnaround for us or a shorter turnaround than we would like we've got list a little over 2 weeks after we just got back off of the magic in about two weeks or a little over. We'll be heading over to Germany I think. Our biggest worry is our son and how he's going to do adjusting across a huge time zone leap whether he'll have fun in Europe ah, you know we hear great things about abd making those kinds of trips fun even for the kids and so. Key reason we booked adventures by Disney to do this was we wanted his first time in Europe to be fun for him too. Um, yeah so I think I think that's the part that makes me nervous. 31:42.37 Mikkel Are. 31:46.69 Sam We're worried a little bit about the cold I'm a little worried so Brian more I'm not worried well I'm a little worried about the same things Brian is worried about um but more worried about the cold because it's. 31:52.50 dclduo Yeah. 31:58.37 Sam It's been a while since we've been in a really cold place for you know Christmas time. Yes, yes, but. 32:02.83 dclduo Are you talking about? we live in Seattle it's gotten down to zero here since we've lived here. Ah. 32:08.15 Sam But we tend to leave um to warmer places for parts of parts of the holiday season. So we like to go warmer places. Oh yeah, listen I you know I as as as our friends Dan and mckell know I grew up in New York so I I have not you know I have. 32:08.22 Mikkel You still holder. 32:16.79 dclduo We'll get some mold wine in you and you won't notice a difference. Yeah. 32:19.42 Mikkel All the whole time. 32:27.74 Sam Had to deal with winter before it's just been a while. 32:29.70 Mikkel Yeah, when people say to me you grew up in New York please I'm like it doesn't mean I enjoy the cold weather like you know I'm a warm weather girl I will say it's really cold but did you guys buy hot hands like the ham warmers. 32:42.60 dclduo You know we used to have a bunch of those I think we might have we still? Yeah yeah. 32:44.54 Sam So we still have no, we still have them I saw them pack them. Okay, we will will. 32:47.56 Mikkel Yeah, hacker yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, pack on I'm not gonna lie. It's it could be brutal brutally cold I the only other Christmas Markets Cruise that I was on was right after we met and it was so cold in Vienna like none of us could even stand outside. We had to find a cafe. Um, but. 33:01.92 dclduo Oh wow. 33:04.77 Mikkel It could also not be I mean you know it depends on the season. It was unseasonably warm, really late in Japan this November so you never know but prepare for colds. Yeah, you know the good news is glue wine like you said warms you up and also you can you should be able to don't quote me on this. 33:13.10 dclduo The. 33:22.89 Mikkel I don't know what the adventures by Disney rules are when they're taking over am the waterway ships but you can like buy a bottle of wine and port and bring it on board. Even if you open it in your room. Make sure you pack your portable corks group. Ah yeah, yes. 33:30.18 dclduo Yeah. 33:35.80 Sam Ah, good tip. Good tip. 33:37.89 dclduo Ah, well, well, we're excited. Overall we're excited. Ah maybe I'll just ah pack a hip flast and keep Sam warm with bourbon or something along those lines. But yeah, ah, it'll make for fun, fun vlogging of Sam so there you go. 33:47.85 Mikkel <unk> got to do what you could. That's not a bad point. Actually you should pack your flak somebody gave her somebody gave us one. 33:54.20 Sam Yeah. 33:57.36 dclduo Ah, ah, ah, well as always it has been just an absolute pleasure catching up with both of you. And we talked about at the top of the show but you want to remind folks where they can find and and follow along with all of your fun travels and know we do constantly but ah, do you want to let folks know where they can find and follow you. 34:12.99 Mikkel Sure thanks for asking. It is sometimes sailing at two s is in a row sometimes sailing dot com we are sometimes sailing on Instagram sometimes sail on Twitter because of the character cap on x. What am I missing pinterest sometimes sailing and then where sometimeshome.com and sometimes home on all social media. Thank you. 34:38.20 dclduo Fabulous, fabulous! Well again, thank you for taking time out of your busy travel schedule I know it's taken us a while to like get this all connected and and you know get us all together again but love having you on. Let's not wait a whole nother year to talk to you again because we love having you both on. But for now I'll just say thank you for taking the time and. 34:54.37 Mikkel Um, thank you. Thank you. 34:54.62 dclduo Really, really appreciate it.