Ep 388 - An Extra Dose of Aloha: Sailing Back-to-Back from Vancouver to Sydney

00:01.21 dclduo Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the Dc L Duo Podcast brought to you by my path unwinding travel and Sam as we have taken to doing it is a review time. 00:14.23 Sam Woohoo I Love me some review times this time of day. 00:17.91 dclduo What you said that in another episode and I was like what is that this a she wouldn't like them in the morning and she doesn't like them at night only in the middle of the day does she want to hear her no because I know she's on her phone looking at them all the time. Ah, right. 00:28.27 Sam Ah I would like them on a train I would like them in the rain I would like them here or there I would like them anywhere Brian ah. 00:34.51 dclduo But she only likes some 5 star. So here. We go this one is from s a a reiner who writes ideal for Disney planning enthusiasts I was referred to this podcast from another Disney planning Patreon group and I am so grateful that I followed through with their recommendation we are about to take our first ever Disney Cruise and it will be our children's very first cruise ever. Disney planning can be complex but some of us take great pride in understanding all of the ins and outs and nuances to go along with it. Thank you dcl do over both entertaining and extremely useful content I feel much better prepared for this last minute summer cruise and even more excited after listening to a variety of your episodes keep up the fabulous work. So there you go Sam. Thank you. 01:09.55 Sam Oh well, you're welcome listener and thank you? Yeah, that's awesome. 01:12.92 dclduo Thank you Essay Reiner yeah Yeah, thank you essay reiner for that review. We really really appreciate it and for all of you out there once again, if you leave us a 5 star written review over an Apple Podcast we will read it at the top of the show. We still got quite a few to work our way through and of course as always if you just want to hit those 5 stars. It helps us out greatly. So. With that see we got a fabulous guest and another fabulous cruise to talk about today. You want to intro our guest. 01:35.60 Sam Yeah, actually we got a fabulous 2 cruises to talk about on today's show because John our guest who is a first time guest on the show went on 23 nights back to back on the beautiful disney wonder. Of course across the I don't know is that the pond across the across the pacific ocean and so what a great What a great 2 cruises to be able to talk about so welcome to the show. John. 02:05.54 John Guin Um, it is great to be here. 02:06.98 Sam Well, thanks for joining us. We truly appreciate it. We're very jealous of the number of nights that you were on a ship we have yet to be on that many nights consecutively. But before we dive in and start talking about that. We've got to hear your Disney Cruise line credentials since we know this was not a first time cruise for you all. 02:28.12 John Guin Right? So this was my eighth cruise and my wife's ninth cruise that's counting the second cruise um, mostly the cruises we have done have been down in the caribbean on marathon weekend. So go out and do the castaway key five k. After running the the marathon races back at Disney World I've also gone through the Panama canal again on the wonder from the West Coast over to Galveston and we have done the norwegian crews on the um. 02:48.49 Sam Nice. 03:04.10 John Guin Disney magic and finally we have done the Hawaii to Vancouver british Columbia Cruise about 6 or seven years ago now and we always wanted to do the the Vancouver to Hawaii Cruise and that was met. 03:14.15 Sam Oh nice. 03:21.82 Sam Awesome! That's fantastic now. Did you do the dream marathon weekend Cruise in 2020 right before the world shut down because if so we were on board with you. 03:22.31 John Guin That goal was met this year 03:34.54 John Guin No, the last year we got down there to do that was 2019 we we just missed that was the year that we had the cruise from Vancouver to Hawaii booked but we all know how that turned out about six weeks before 03:40.77 Sam Ah, so he just missed each other. 03:49.90 Sam Right? right? right? Well let's talk about what prompted you all to book the Vancouver to Hawaii Leg and then of course the Hawaii to. 03:52.50 John Guin Setting sail. 04:04.60 Sam Australia to sydneyney Australia Leg. Yeah, how did how did you guys come to the decision. Well first of all actually who's in your sailing party and then secondly how did you all come to the decision of booking these 2 amazing itineraries. 04:15.45 John Guin So the sailing party was my wife and I and a family friend for the first leg from Vancouver to Hawaii we had tried to book a cruise with our our friend about six years ago and it just didn't work out. Then my wife and I also tried to book that cruise during 2020 and that didn't work out for obvious reasons and as we were driving through the mountains north of Seattle about a year and a half ago my wife was on her phone and noticed that hey the wonder is now there. They're booking trips from Vancouver to Hawai and we've been wanting to do that and I said well let's go ahead and let's book our cabin for October and we did that and then she said oh hey look at this that that ship is also going to go from Hawaii to Australia and with thinking about it all for 3 or 4 seconds 05:05.29 Sam I. 05:07.34 John Guin It occurred to me and I said that would be a sign from from karma if our same cabin was available that we should go ahead and just do backtobacks and so she tapped on her phone a few more minutes and said oh yeah, it is available and I've got us booked for it. 05:20.68 Sam Wow. 05:23.60 John Guin Ah, retired this year anyway and that turned out to be our retirement cruise all the way across the civic. 05:28.65 Sam Oh my god so basically like the gods were shining down on you telling you, you must book. This crew is ah oh I love that that's fantastic. Well congratulations on your retirement. First of all. 05:34.78 John Guin Someone wanted us on that ship and it oh it was so much fun. 05:46.20 Sam That's big news and what a way to celebrate fantastic all right? So where are you guys coming from in that and heading to from you know to get to Vancouver. 05:56.20 John Guin We left Fredericksburg Texas that's a small town almost in the exact middle of the state to go up to Vancouver Vancouver is not new to us. We spent 30 years previously in Seattle that's where I was retiring from. So. 06:09.98 Sam Oh that makes sense why you were driving up. You know North of Seattle at the time that you found out about this wow no. 06:18.95 John Guin Ah, no, the timing was a lot tighter than that so we left Fredericksburg got up to Vancouver two days before the cruise and settled into this pan pacific hotel and got ready. Our friend met us the day before. 06:25.19 Sam Here. 06:34.24 John Guin Were no problems at all with getting on the ship. It was great to wake up in that hotel for people that don't know the Pan-pacific Hotel is the hotel that is on the pier to which the ship's more so you wake up in the morning you look out your window and the ship is right there. 06:49.35 Sam It yeah, it's really, um, it's even closer than in San Diego where you can only stay across the street from the pier. You can't stay essentially on top of it like you did, but that's yeah, great location all right? So you say boarding process super duper easy. You're right there. 06:56.26 John Guin Exactly exactly. 07:06.46 Sam Ah, let's talk about being on the ship for that many days how many sea days. Do you have when you're heading from Vancouver to Hawaii. Okay. 07:15.45 John Guin That were was 10 total and then the second leg was 13 actual days fourteen calendar days because of crossing the dateline. 07:25.62 Sam Right? right? right? right? You lose a whole day when you cross the dateline. Okay, so in talking about the the first let's talk about the first leg and talk about um. Ports first and then we'll talk about all those days at sea because you actually start off with a whole bunch of days at sea and then you end with a whole bunch of days at port right. 07:45.59 John Guin Exactly exactly the first 6 days are actually sea days and that's to get from Vancouver to Hawaii because we had been on the opposite leg of this Hawaii to Vancouver. 07:53.82 Sam Wow. 08:00.89 John Guin I kind of knew a little bit about what to expect the first two days were going to be pacific northwest October weather in other words cloudy drizzly temperatures in the 50 s and just cold enough that even the kids wouldn't be willing to go into the pools the first couple of days because it was too cold. 08:04.87 Sam Um. 08:06.87 Sam If it. 08:15.98 dclduo With. 08:16.18 Sam Right? yeah. 08:20.43 John Guin So um, that turned out to be the case so I was ready to be inside the ship doing the character greets doing the trivia um hanging out at the cove cafe things like that for the first couple of days 08:23.86 Sam Here. 08:35.65 Sam Yeah, very very smart. Yeah now. Um, what about the what kinds of special stuff. Did they have on board when I say special I mean unique to this itinerary did they have on board before you even get to the Hawaiian islands. 08:51.57 John Guin So they had a guest speaker from New Zealand an oceanographer and his name was channelel so sounds like channel but channel and he was a fascinating oceanographer I went to a couple of his talks in person watched the rest of them on video. Um. 09:08.97 John Guin I'm also among other things retired Navy So I was really interested in getting the the ocean oceaner graphic point of view on how ThePacificIsland works or you know the Pacific Ocean works the tides the currents, the wind patterns things like that and we got to cover that. So. It was very interesting to me. Personally what was interesting about him is that at the end of the cruise I ran into him in an elevator and he he said he initially he didn't really want to do this Cruise. He. He was approached with ah the idea and he didn't want to do it but his kid said oh yeah, Dad let's do it. We're get to go on the the Disney ship and he decided to go ahead and do it for his kids and at the end of the cruise it was an eye-opening event for Him. He didn't know how much fun his family was going to have. How interested the crab would be and what he had to say and the interaction he would have with the cast members on the ship and he loved it then he he was looking forward to going on another cruise and I just thought that was interesting. He went from not really wanting to go and just going because of his family to actually wanting to go again. Amazing How they. 10:15.74 Sam Wow! Oh yeah, yeah, well imagine though he his family got to go for free though since he was working on the ship basically new. Ah, yeah, yeah, well that. 10:18.50 John Guin The hooks get set into you like that. 10:28.16 John Guin Um, Warren would hope oh yeah. 10:31.52 Sam Kind of awesome I love having you know it's wonderful when they have you know naturalists or other kinds of scientists to kind of tell you about where you're going to be in the world and what you're going to see that's ah pretty awesome. Do they have any ah hawaiian specific. Um I think I've heard of times where they've done. Ah, ukulele lessons or Hula dancing lessons that sort of a thing. 10:54.78 John Guin They did have that they also had some hawaiian entertainers that got on board once we got to Hawaii so for the 6 the first few c days. No, they weren't there. But when we get to Hawaii they would pick them up. They would come on board for the the shows. 11:04.13 Sam Um, so fun. 11:12.73 John Guin The the other shows they had in the evenings were things like Eric Jones a magician sleight of hand. Absolutely amazing. 11:19.49 Sam He's fantastic. Oh yeah, we just saw him we literally just saw him on the magic he was so so good. Yeah. 11:28.50 John Guin Absolutely ah Ventriloquist Taylor Monson and family. Oh yeah, my wife loved him. She was a giggling and laughing at his entire show. 11:31.64 Sam Mason. Yeah, he's been on our show. Taylor Mason shout out. 11:38.30 Sam Here. 11:40.39 John Guin We had to go to his his shows that were in the Walt Disney theater he did a couple of smaller shows later in the evening. Um, we we had to go to all of those. 11:47.77 Sam Oh I Love that? Yeah, they bring on some great variety acts in general but you get more of them of course on these longer these longer sailings. 11:57.10 John Guin And the quality of the axe is is absolutely amazing I've cruised on some other cruise lines that aren't up to the same level as Disney and you'll get illusionists and ventroler quest but they're just not quite the the quality that you get with the Disney Cruise eye 12:15.38 Sam Yeah, what other lines actually have you sailed on John I think that's always a helpful. Um, you know comparison for folks to know what? what experience you have outside of Disney as well. 12:25.16 John Guin Ah, Caribbean is the other line and again it's yeah and Carnival Sorry and again not quite there. 12:27.34 Sam Royal yeah, yeah, that's okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, why? But we hear you know Brian has gone on royal caribbean with Nathan once now where headed. To try them actually twice this year or this coming year. Um, ah and you know I have heard good things from a lot of folks but I'm also knowing to temper my expectations in certain areas. Let me just put it that way. Yeah. 12:57.82 John Guin Um, tempering expectations is going to be a motif coming up. 13:02.25 Sam Ah, nice, all right? Well let's talk about ah some time in the in the Hawaiian islands. What's your your is your first port of Call helo. 13:04.51 dclduo Um. 13:10.90 John Guin It was when we were there. We went on a a broad tour. Our our friend hadn't been there in a while so we went on a a tour of the island an overview of the island to the black sand beach. To a small shopping center to the banyan trees that they have in Hilo places like that and it was fantastic. The the black sand beach that we went to is one where the sea turtles come in and when we were there they weren't on land. 13:39.82 Sam Oh wow. 13:45.15 John Guin But if you just walked around the edge of the beach and looked in the water you would see them swimming around and the the silly joke I was telling people as every dad would the word the Hawaiian word for turtle is honu and when they get caught spinning in a little circle. 13:57.32 Sam Move. 14:02.27 John Guin It's a whole new world. 14:04.16 dclduo Now Oh my gosh dad joke of the year right? there? ah. 14:04.19 Sam Ah, ah, new were ah that ah that is amazing John I love it I love it I live for that kind of stuff. But. 14:14.60 John Guin I Told that and they actually let me on the bus back to the ship. So thank you for being forgiving. 14:19.40 Sam I I I love it I love it listen I love ah I love a turtle I love a turtle joke that works for me. Ah, all right? Well Helo sounds like ah a great ah great stop um what was your what was your second stop. 14:23.90 dclduo Ah, and. 14:35.16 John Guin We went to Honolulu and this is not the final stop at honolulu we going to go to Honolulu for a day then to Kawa and Maui and then back to Honolulu and when we went to Honolulu the first time. 14:40.14 Sam Right. 14:54.57 John Guin Ah, our our friend went off to the whole cultural center polynesian cultural center and my wife and I went to the bishop museum which is close to the ship pier. Ah but is just just far enough that you don't want to walk so we caught the tour bus there. Um. Went to the museum I was fascinated with that place I could have spent the entire day there they had life-size whale castings that you could see movies from the way Hawaii used to be to the way it is now lots of artwork. Interactive exhibits for for young kids. A great gift shop. Um, one of the challenges we had is that a lot of the ports we went to. We didn't get a whole lot of time in the ports. So if you wanted to do shopping you either had to do that as your entire day. Because you really didn't have enough time to do one of the the cruise line tours and get a lot of shopping time in but again I could have spent all day there and this is where we kind of hit a speed bump on our tour. As we were going through the the museum. My wife was coughing and was getting a little bit nervous because of the potential for having covid and when we got back to the ship. Her cough wasn't getting any better so we went down to the nurse and both took the covid test I was negative. 16:10.91 dclduo M. 16:24.52 dclduo Now now. 16:25.17 John Guin She was positive and it's exactly exactly so this was an interesting lesson in what Disney Cruise line is doing about covid positive tests in October Twenty Twenty three 16:26.74 Sam Ah mamer. 16:42.96 John Guin And they're following Cdc guidance. So the good news is we weren't asked to leave the ship. She got isolated to another cabin on the same deck as what we were on. We were on the port side. Her new cabin was on the starboard side. Ah, they didn't give her a key to get into the the room because you're isolated to the room and their logic was they explained it to us if you step out of the room. You can't get back in. We don't want you back in because if you step out of the room you're going to get taken off the ship. So. 17:15.60 Sam Right? right? We know you've break it. You've broken your quarantine. That's what so they? That's what they did with me and this was back in 2021 um, during you know with covid protocol so I was isolated in I was isolated in a. Room on deck two. Even though we were up on deck eight at the time. Um, that's where they stuckck me and there was actually a wing of isolation there but I was not given a key to the room that I was put in. So yeah, interesting. A sorry, go go on John. 17:44.22 John Guin Right? it and this is a few lessons came out of this. Her room was actually better than the room that my our family friend and I got left in she had ah her lani the balcony. 17:52.21 dclduo No. 17:52.89 Sam Ah, ah. 17:58.21 Sam Yeah. 18:00.18 John Guin Had a compass and had some charts nautical charts on the wall which again I'm an eighty geek so that really appealed to me. She had all to herself and we learned. 18:02.75 Sam Oh cool. Yeah. 18:09.82 dclduo You were like John John I feel I feel a tickling back of my throat I think I'd like to stay in this or ah, ah. 18:13.58 John Guin Well and then they told her that she would have to be isolated for five days and then after that she'd be allowed out and that was soothing for us because this was happening while the the guests were going to turn over in a couple of days 18:14.82 Sam Ah, ah. 18:23.17 Sam Ah, yeah. 18:32.88 Sam Right? Oh yeah, because you didn't need to dis it because ah gosh that would be such a a yeah headache if if you had to disembark in Honolulu and not be able to get back on the ship because yeah, yeah, oh that's. 18:32.93 John Guin So we were going to be able to stay on the ship and do the second half of our crews. Oh my. 18:44.87 John Guin Yeah, crushed dreams and that didn't happen. We we also learned exactly one of the traits that the head waiter has our head waiter was named John as well. 18:50.69 Sam Well, that's good. 18:59.30 Sam Okay, if. 19:02.71 John Guin And he took my life under his wing called her for every meal with the menu for the what the restaurants were serving and had that delivered so she didn't just have to deal with room service in the the somewhat limited room service menu. 19:09.29 Sam Here. 19:15.58 Sam Right? Oh that's really nice now. Did they do that for breakfast and lunch as well or was it just for dinner and you know all 3 fantastic. Yeah. 19:17.51 John Guin She was getting the regular meals from the restaurants while she was in quarantine. 19:25.45 John Guin all 3 all 3 like I 1 of the questions you kind of have perhaps is what does the head waiter really do and this is an example of the extra mild heat. He took or extra a mile. He walked for us. 19:39.27 Sam Yeah. 19:43.95 John Guin Very beneficial kept her off of that very limited menu get her some variety and then for the the next 2 islands um Maui and now really really in Kawai I didn't do any of tours we had signed up for tours. 19:46.68 Sam Yeah, absolutely. 19:57.48 Sam Here. 20:02.42 John Guin I stayed on board to help her with running errands getting her coffee things like that in between meals so that was our our time there I missed Koai that was a beautiful island I've been to it before I want to go back and Maui was now. 20:06.77 Sam Yeah. 20:16.26 Sam Is. 20:22.70 John Guin When we were there. It was just reopening from the devastating fire La I had that isn't where we tied up or anything like that but they were reopening and so it it felt good about being able to go into town. Um. 20:24.83 Sam Right? right. 20:37.27 John Guin There and and help out the local economy recover from that that hardship. 20:39.23 Sam Absolutely absolutely. 20:39.93 dclduo So so John just to rewind for a second I just wanted to highlight 1 thing for our listeners that we have we have heard we experienced I want to see if it's true in your case, we've heard that the health center so you walk down you did the right thing you reported you you know you both took tests it sounds like. I'm guessing they charged you for your test but they did not charge your wife for her test. Ok ok, good. 21:04.20 John Guin We didn't get charged for either test. The the nurse was absolutely Wonderful. Um, she very clearly explained what what they were required to do what their policies were what our rights were whether or not we wanted to be tested. Um, and things like that so she she was 100% crystal clear with with the whole process beginning to end she would swing by and check on my wife every day there was another woman. It turns out that also came up positive so she was running up there once a day to check on the people that were left in the. 21:27.39 Sam Um, listen. 21:36.40 Sam Yeah, yeah, what. 21:37.83 dclduo So that's that's good to hear because we have heard that like so on our recent cruise we had a neurovirus outbreak and we've seen this or heard this from Disney for both Covid and now Norovirus they were sort of like well if you test and it comes back. 21:38.25 John Guin And isolation like that. 21:55.14 dclduo Positive we won't charge you. But if you tested it comes back negative. We'll have to charge you for the this which I have always thought is a yeah which is a ridiculous rule to have so I'm glad that they did not apply that in your case John so yeah, yeah. 21:58.77 Sam Which is a totally perverse incentive. Yeah. 22:07.32 John Guin Bright. 22:08.15 Sam Yeah, quick question John also to follow up on this. Um, obviously your wife probably caught covid on the ship. Um, and I say obviously because you had already. You had been on for six days prior to hitting Hawaii when she you know developed symptoms did Disney offer any compensation for any portion of your cruise fare and did they refund your excursions that you had planned on taking. 22:38.98 John Guin For the cruise fare. Not to my knowledge they didn't offer that they did give us full refunds for both of us for the tours that we missed and that was completely fair to me we were both on the ship. You know both getting the meals things like that. 1 of us couldn't walk around. Um. 22:44.93 Sam Okay, yeah, that that makes sense. 22:52.86 Sam Okay. 22:56.91 John Guin But that was that was the the fair thing in my eyes. 22:59.32 Sam Yeah, all right? Well so let's let's talk about the process in Honolulu then so she's just yeah, so she's just finishing her quarantine time I take it like right then literally that day. 22:59.38 dclduo Yeah, yeah. 23:07.90 John Guin Um, ah. 23:11.34 John Guin Um, right. 23:14.97 Sam Um, and you've got to you know Disembark and then reembark is there a tell us about that process and were there any complications in general? Yeah yeah, tell us about that. 23:21.15 John Guin Um, oh there were complications. So ah, her Her process was simple. She stays in her cabin all day she doesn't Disembark. She doesn't get back on the ship anything like that. She just stays in and everyone in the ship knew about it that was fine for me. The. Process was to get a yellow card from guest services. That said you're reboarding you don't have to pack up your like but since we were staying in the exact same cabin we didn't even have to pack up our luggage all I had to do was have that yellow card they recommended getting off for last call and they're calling out. 23:47.90 Sam Right. 23:58.83 John Guin Ah, chippendale and Nikki and Donald Duck luggage tags things like that they said just wait till the end wait for last call. Go off the ship immediately get back in line with that yellow card which I understood to be kind of like ah ah the ultimate and fast pass you immediately go to the the fur of everyone. 24:00.59 Sam Right. 24:09.86 Sam Um, yes, that's what they do are back to back cruisers you and and then vendors are basically getting on back on the ship First That's what it's supposed to be. 24:23.73 John Guin That's what is supposed to be that message didn't get down to the independent contractors that were working the doors to let people back into the cruise terminal. So I wound up getting in line with a bunch. The the first group the first boarding group essentially um. 24:30.42 Sam Ah, ah. 24:40.29 John Guin Dvc Members Platinum Pearl members things like that and that was kind of interesting because we started talking about what is your next cruise things like that a lot of these people were on the inaugural um wish Sailings and. 24:42.29 Sam Yeah. 24:55.42 Sam Um, oh yeah. 24:57.34 John Guin They didn't have good things to say about the inaugural cruises on the wish. So. 24:59.12 Sam Yeah, yeah, and surprise. 25:00.60 dclduo Yeah, there there's a there's a divisiveness around around the wish I'll say there's there. There are plenty of folks out there who like the wish I think folks who sailed on her earlier experience some of the bumps that in Kinks and many of which have been worked out now. So yeah, yeah, yeah. 25:14.74 Sam Yeah, the the first so we were on the maiden voyage and then obviously like the first several months were the inaugural sailings and from what we experienced then and then sailing on the wish you know like nine months later um ah 25:16.61 John Guin Um, ah. 25:32.75 Sam She was in her groove at that point right? So there were definitely things that were not ready and there were definitely um you know hiccups. Let's call them makeups bumps in the road as Brian called them. We personally think that there's a one a lot of wonderful things about the wish she is very different than the other the other four ships but um, that's. Not to say she's you know worse just different. Um, but that was our that's our experience. But I we know there's a lot of ah controversy out there on whether you know people like the wish or not yeah. 26:03.65 John Guin And I have to take everyone's word for it because I haven't been um then when I got into the line. All I had to do was check in with the the check-in desk and get back on the ship. But they gave me the health questionnaire said had anyone in my party which was just me been in contact with someone who's positive for covid so I had to check yes and so that caused another 45 minute delay they had me sit on a little bench to the side. The manager promised that they wouldn't forget about me or anything like that. 26:17.95 Sam Um, oh ah, yeah. 26:31.43 Sam Yeah. 26:33.48 John Guin Ah, but it did take a while for again, the the temporary workers which might not be the right word to use about people all working the the cruise terminal there for Disney that one day um, got in touch with the ship to go through the process for how to let me back on the ship. 26:42.26 Sam Sure. 26:50.10 Sam Right? right? that makes sense because they're not well I mean it's it's annoying because obviously the ship already knew what was going on and that you were coming back on. Um, but you're right, they the folks at the port are not um, they're not like full-time Disney employees right? they're. 26:53.41 John Guin Um. 27:08.61 Sam They've got just the your sailing that's coming in and then the sailing coming out and then on the you know, however, many months she's in Australia and New Zealand they'll have her on the way back and that's it right? So they know it's not like they are Disney. Dedicated employees. They are you know often temporary port employees. Yeah yeah, all right? So after a lot of Rigamaro. You eventually get back on the ship and I take it. 27:26.50 John Guin Um, you understand exactly. 27:35.65 John Guin Exactly and got back on settled right back in nice weather so immediately headed back up to the deck to to relax things like that ready for more C days and let me just say at this point. 27:50.13 Sam Um. 27:54.97 John Guin For me the favorite. My favorite part of this trip other than Pago Pago were the sea days I loved them just being able to sit by the pool and relax have a cup of coffee. Maybe one of the drinks of the day later on in the afternoon. Ah and with as few people as there were on the she for these longer. 28:05.71 Sam He. 28:14.77 John Guin Transfer Voyages you usually are able to get a chair or a lounger in the shade One of the prime pieces of of real estate so to speak and there's just not people there fighting for them and you don't have those problems. 28:24.35 Sam Um, yeah, oh yeah. 28:32.20 John Guin So It's very relaxing to go up to deck 10 sit in the shade listen to the kids in the kids pool go down to the adult area for some quiet time hang out at the family pool watch funnel vision things like that and for me that was a wonderful and might again. My second favorite part of the crews were just those C days being able to relax perfect weather. Gorgeous sea around you. Fantastic time. 28:57.10 Sam Ah, mate. Amazing! Amazing now speaking of um, the number of passengers. Do you have any idea about how full the ship was on. On both your first leg and your second leg. So from Vancouver to Hawaii and then from Hawaii to Sydney. 29:13.82 John Guin There were I was told about 1700 guests on each leg but I was also told nearly ninety five percent capacity and. 29:19.54 Sam Oh wow, that's great. Yeah, so the ship. 6. 29:28.87 John Guin Why are these 2 numbers so out of whack with each other when hold 4000 some people will say capacity is based on the number of cabins that have at least 1 person in them and then we're also talking about what is the total number of people on the ship so but less are them. 29:43.36 Sam Ah, so you had a lot of rooms with people in them but probably not rooms with 5 people in them. He had lots of rooms with 1 and 2 people in them. 29:51.16 John Guin Exactly a couple but the kids aren't there for this cruise. So instead of like you're saying instead of 3 or 4 people in a cabin. There's only 2 things like that. 29:55.89 Sam Right. Yeah, so that's a good that actually is a great segue to demographics like what would you say were the you know ages of the folks on let's talk. Both cruises first the you know you're you're Vancouver to Hawaii Leg and then second your Hawaii to Sydney leg. 30:20.26 John Guin Ah, the number of kids were that went to the kids club at least were in the dozens I don't think there were a hundred kids I'd I'd be surprised if there were that many if there were they must have stayed down in the cabins all day. 30:26.58 Sam Um, Wow. Ah wow. Yeah, yeah, so not a lot of young kids maybe more more in the the sort of teenager age range. But yeah, not a lot of kids on that sailing. Wow. 30:42.77 John Guin Exactly exactly most of the couples there were or the adults here were actually ah my my age the retired age um just looking on the ship think of it that way the Cruise director actually made a. 30:43.79 Sam Yeah. 30:52.75 Sam Yep. 30:57.51 Sam Yep. 30:59.62 John Guin A small joke about that on during one of the morning shows saying that? Oh we love grandparents on these cruises grandparents pay for everything and yeah, that got a chuckle out of the room too because it was a lot of grandparents there. 31:00.85 Sam He. 31:10.21 Sam Ah, yeah. 31:15.79 Sam Ah, yeah, ah that makes sense well when do you you and your wife get to reunite then is it the day 2 of of this. Ah the second leg of this cruise. Oh the third day okay 31:24.00 John Guin The morning of the third day. So right, it's released she comes back to our cabin we stayed in our cabin we didn't get to go to her slightly better cabin but but we were alone at that point. 31:33.28 dclduo Yeah. 31:36.39 Sam Ah, yeah, yeah. 31:39.18 John Guin So she was happy to be out and we spent the day doing the things she wanted to do which was go around to the mickey's mains sell to do some shopping hang out on the pool deck things like that. 31:46.20 Sam Sure. Yeah, so your friend only joined you for the for the first leg and and then left from Hawaii I take it. 31:51.11 dclduo Um, I'm curious. 31:54.57 John Guin Yeah, she she went to alani for I think 3 or 4 days after we were after we left and then went back to the Seattle area. 32:03.31 Sam Nice. 32:08.80 dclduo I'm curious. Did you get to say it feels to me like there were a lot of people doing the back to back on this cruise. Did you get that sense as well were there ah not a lot of ah familiar faces on the second cruise. 32:20.12 John Guin There there were enough familiar faces that you noticed it I I would guess probably about 10 to 15% of the the people were back to back I expected it to be a few more than what I actually noticed though I expected there to be maybe. A third of the people. But again three and a half weeks is a lot of time off and the temptation to stay in Australia for a few days which we did as well would make that a month long vacation which I understand is going to be hard for a lot of people to be able to fit into there. 32:57.71 dclduo No. 32:58.50 Sam And yeah, we wish we could fit it into our lives. But it's just not feasible with work schedules and school schedules I mean it maybe if it were in summertime or over the Christmas holidays you know something like that. But the time of year and you know. 32:58.55 John Guin To their lives. 33:14.30 John Guin Um, yes. 33:17.84 Sam Just work schedules being what they are. It's very I think very difficult which is why as you mentioned it was a lot of grandparents on the crews load. So let's talk about some of the special stuff on. 33:26.73 John Guin Um, yeah, fast. 33:31.99 Sam Board Ah before of course you you get to your first port stop because your port stops are all way out in the Pacific. So as you mentioned you had a few days. Ah yet a few C days at the beginning. But yeah, what? what did they do on Board. What kind of fun stuff. Did they get up to on board and. On the way across the pacific. 33:52.84 John Guin Um, one of the things that we got invited to was the gold level castaway key club membership get together. So we got to go down to the Walt Disney theater with all the other gold members on board. They gave out champagne and non-alcolic drinks. 34:00.20 Sam Oh nice. 34:10.75 John Guin Before you went in and we got to see a dress rehearsal of the Golden Mickeys Not a not a dress rehearsal a a cast rehearsal and what was interesting about that particular rehearsal is that when the scene changed. 34:16.98 Sam Oh so fine. 34:29.32 John Guin It was a different set of actors from the entourage that were doing the second scene and the the director you know, pointed out did everyone noticed that and well a lot of us raised our hands here and we we did. It was different people and it turns out that the next um, ensemble was on board in addition to the the. 34:32.30 Sam Oh fun. 34:49.36 John Guin Ones from that sailed with us from Vancouver to Hawaii so there was going to be a crew or cast member literal cast member turnover for the people that do the shows. The new crew was on board rehearsing getting ready to take over from the previous crew. So it was nice to be able to see that. 34:50.50 Sam Oh this. 35:06.40 John Guin And you got to again when you're hanging out up on the the sundeck or things like that you'll look over and think that the guy sitting next to me in that lounge chair looks a lot like he could be tarzan in an alternate universe and things like that so you can have conversations with them and and things like that. 35:13.32 Sam But. 35:20.23 Sam Ah. 35:25.70 John Guin They were on board relaxing getting ready to take over the shows. 35:28.53 Sam That's awesome. Yeah, you know it's something that you might actually see on other cruises too. People don't realize but particularly the entertainment staff. They have a little bit more freedom as to where they can hang out and they can hang out more in the in some of the guest spaces than some of the other cast can. And so you so once in a while you'll see them Sometimes you can see the dining staff managers not the regular dining staff but you can see them you know hanging out at the adults only ah quiet cove pool or something like that. 35:58.67 John Guin There have been a few times on our Panama and Al Cruise where we would go to ah an evening dinner and look over to table that had a bunch of 20 something young ladies sitting at it and you're like though they look very royal and regal and and. 36:02.46 Sam I have. 36:09.20 Sam Yep. 36:12.59 Sam Yeah, those are some princesses I think yeah, ah yeah, hey yeah. 36:14.13 John Guin I had I I couldn't quite put it together but there they were the the other highlight that they do on cruises that are of the longer length and and someone tried to explain to me that if the cruise is X number of days long. You get a laundry. 36:32.60 Sam Thank you. 36:32.92 John Guin Halfway through the cruise and if it's x plus five days long they they do a crew talent show and I know other guests have talked about the talent show. It is amazing if you get a chance to see one of those I really recommend it. It just drives home. How talented. 36:38.70 Sam E. 36:51.26 John Guin The cast members actually are I've had people that gave me the the art walk through the ship pointing out the the art deco style art andvo style. It turns out that they've also spent 3 years in the costing department on Broadway shows or. 36:56.17 Sam E. 37:05.10 Sam No. 37:08.39 John Guin Things like that and so they come out for the talent show and they sing and I thought you were in the props department I was I wasn't good enough to actually get up on stage to to sing I was only in the background cast on stage and it's just crazy how talented those people are highlight of the crews. 37:20.68 Sam Ah. 37:24.37 Sam Oh I Love that I'm so jealous we still have not been on a cruise where they've done the talent show. We've been on a couple of the you know longer cruises where they've had special performers but we have not gotten that darn talent show and I wish that you know I wish that to happen because. 37:26.40 John Guin Really was. 37:41.92 Sam I yeah I love hearing about you know the different talents or the many talents of of the casting crew of Disney Cruise line because as you mentioned sometimes you get like a singer out of a you know a server or something like that and react really cool stuff. 37:57.85 John Guin A shout out to cer she one of the cast members on board. She was the irish penny whistle champion. At one point Ed she played the penny whistle for us for the the talent show and I love me some irish folk music. Ah. Yeah, what an evening. What an evening. 38:16.50 Sam Oh yeah, how amazing is that? That's so cool. Well what about?? um, some of the other special experiences on board were there. Do they have any you know I can't remember from our previous shows that we've done about this this with the sailing. Did they have an didn't they have like an imagineer or somebody important on I can't remember. 38:38.87 John Guin They had a national Geographic photographer who whose name I I'm forgetting right now come out and give talks every day and show some of the photos. He's taken and he ah we bought his book. We got him autograph it. 38:44.40 Sam Um, ah. 38:48.49 Sam Oh cool. Well. 38:55.13 John Guin He had the ability to explain what fstop and focal length and camera speed and all those other terms that I know nothing about how they actually work and why the camera and how to make them so that you could see what your're human or I see so you get the entire. 39:12.15 Sam I like. 39:14.87 John Guin Panorama or you want to bring it in and focus on just the bird or the plant that you want and this is why you change these settings and this is how it affects the field of vision of the the camera and that was just the the first talk he gave was that and he he was fascinating another another. New Zealander talking with us. Um, so he was a special guest. They also ah, unofficially were doing some dress rehearsals for a so ah, show on the top Deck. So normally where they do the um ah pirate night or frozen night things like that. 39:47.39 Sam Um, ah. 39:53.10 John Guin They were doing another show couldn't take photographs or anything like that and I had no idea what the show was going to be I went up and watched them the the actors weren't wearing costumes they were just in street clothes doing that walking through the the thing and it turns out that was a show that um, ah. The Marvel Heroes Night show. 40:11.74 Sam Oh yeah, that they then did in on the Australia New Zealand sailings yeah 40:18.63 John Guin Right? We got to see the soft opening of that on the wonder and I thought that was just amazing and unique and found out later. Oh now this is another show from from another ship that they just brought to this one? Ah but for for not expecting it and not knowing what was going to happen ah letting that Disney show take me completely by surprise. 40:26.17 Sam Yes. 40:34.25 Sam Me. 40:36.31 John Guin Which in the internet world of today is kind of hard I was stunned. It was so fascinating to me how they had um hydra agents repelling down the ship funnels and then it running through the the guests as we stood around watching the show and they had video of those. 40:45.10 Sam Yes I Love that. 40:55.39 John Guin Same hydra agents running up and down the ship so down on the deck 3 with the running track and things like that they're going up and down that and fighting Captain America and and the black panther and things like that. 40:58.60 Sam Um, this. 41:06.85 Sam Oh that's awesome. Yeah, so we've heard about this and I think they I'm not sure if it's that it was shown on the Marvel day at sea or if it's going to be the new era. It is the new show for the Marvel day at sea sailings as well. Um. Yeah, but it's I think it may be like a revamped version anyway and of course it's been. You know we've heard that it's been playing essentially on the the New Zealand and Australia cruises. But I wonder if this is going to be on the next series of Marvel day at sea cruises as well. 41:38.32 John Guin I I would hope so it was a fun show. It had all of the heroes that you would expect it ties in with stark expo and even has a special guest by one of the key creators of the Marvel universe. Ah. 41:43.30 Sam Is. 41:53.38 Sam Oh leave it at that. All right? Awesome! Well we know that they did something special for the international dateline crossing um was it. 41:55.81 John Guin People that haven't seen the show yet I'll just leave it at that. Be surprised when you see that person on screen. It was a lot of fun. 42:12.14 Sam Or right is it The International D line crossing or the equator crossing I Forget great crossing. Thank you. 42:15.87 John Guin The equator crossing um right, they they had a King Triton ceremony so that you are no longer a polywa you are now a hearty shell back and for all the navy folks out there. It wasn't anything like that. It was a lot of fun. 42:28.22 Sam That's right? ne. 42:33.88 John Guin Um, squirting water on people and and just having a lot of fun up on the deck for that now. What was interesting about that and they didn't make a big deal about this on on ship. Um, they knew that they wanted to actually cross the equator. When people were up originally when they were looking at how fast they were going and everything like they realized they were going to cross in the middle of the night. No one would be up so they sped up for the first few days so that we'd cross at 1045 on October Sixteenth and October sixteenth kind of stuck in my head there for a little bit and then occurred to me. That was the one Hundredth anniversary of the Disney company that was the day that that Disney was founded 100 years before and I thought they would have mentioned that a little bit more but it it just wasn't so on the one Hundredth anniversary of the the founding of the Disney company the first Disney Cruise ship crossed from the North. 43:17.77 Sam Oh yeah. 43:29.00 John Guin To the South Pacific Crossing quager. 43:30.38 Sam Ah, that's so cool that is really awesome. What a fun. What a fun event and it's sort of historical moment to be a part of well. 43:38.58 John Guin And then because because there was a lot of grandparents I'll just share this. Ah we we went up to the deck did the countdown cross the equator and then immediately everyone went back down to this like. 43:48.15 dclduo Are were. 43:49.43 Sam Everyone's to bed I knew you're going to say that everyone went to bed. Yeah me that was it that was it for the night that listen it's a good enough that people stayed up till ten forty five for that. So so let's talk about the ports because you had obviously. 44:01.62 John Guin Um, right exactly exactly. 44:06.68 Sam Super unique ports and not a lot of em. You only had what 3 ports before you hit Sydney. Yeah. 44:10.30 John Guin Only 3 but the first one was one just on the personal side of things I spent the last half of my Navy career trying to get to pago pago in american samoa just any excuse any reason to send me there never happened so I finally got to go there. 44:19.81 Sam Oh wow. 44:25.77 Sam Oh. 44:28.00 John Guin And so I got up early that morning as we're cruising in I'm looking at the islands and if you've seen them short movie Lava Disney Short movie lava with a little singing vol can that That's what Pago Pago looked like just those steep green cliffs shooting up out of the ocean I fell in love with that place immediately. 44:35.91 Sam Yes. 44:41.94 Sam Oh wow. 44:47.59 John Guin Um, then I told my wife if if we would have been able to get here. You know 5 years before this is where I would have wanted to retire but it it is but it was amazing. We pulled into pago pago so we're in a a. 44:56.48 Sam Ah, it's quite far away though. John you know. 45:07.49 John Guin A giant amphitheater for lack of a better Word. You've got those sheer green lava cliffs on one side of you just green plants trees everything growing on them. They've lit off the when you wish upon a star horn. And all these kids that were sitting in front of the school jumped up and started cheering and then the sound started echoing back and forth because bouncing off those high Canyon rolls. It was the right way for me to enter that place that I wanted to go all these years and then when I. 45:37.14 Sam Oh that's amazing. What did you guys get up to um on the on the island. 45:41.58 John Guin Oh my gosh we got on one of the tour buses that everyone was talking about and I had a blast 1 of the thing I got to hear Joe Rhody give a talk a few years ago and he said when you see the tour brochures for tropical beaches. You're going to see the sandy beach with 1 person sitting on a lounge chair on the beach things like that. That's not the way the people actually live and when we got to pago pago when I saw the kids jump up and see the disney ship come in and they all start yelling and screaming and cheering and waiting at us I realize we're not going to get that brochure. 46:01.92 Sam M. 46:18.41 John Guin Adventure here. We're going to get the way people actually live and when we got to the tour buses. We got to experience the way they actually live because they were again old Ford trucks that had custom bus attachments built on top of them for lack of a better word plexiglass windows things like that. 46:19.77 Sam Um, yeah. 46:36.53 John Guin Our high So our tour guide was a high school girl that was taking the day off because she was excited and wanted to talk about her Island and her culture and her family What we wound up doing was a tour to her family's homestead where her um. 46:44.81 Sam Looking. Well. 46:55.32 John Guin Younger sister came out. She's going to be a princess so she was in her regalia. They did a dance for us. They fed us, um some samples of their food chicken with coconut milk on it. Fresh coconut milk cocoa and something I've been wanting to try forever was some breadfruit. Ah. 46:57.31 Sam With. 47:14.30 Sam Um, oh yeah. 47:15.16 John Guin It was so it was it was honest, authentic and real is what we were getting from from these people. They told us they only get maybe 1 or two cruise ships a month so while they have a tourism industry. They're not working on it full time. 47:20.56 Sam E. 47:32.23 Sam Right. 47:34.62 John Guin So this isn't something they do every day This is something that the people that are interested and excited and want to talk about the way they live um would do absolute blast I was a little bit taken aback by the number of. 47:52.42 John Guin And this is gonna make maybe make some people a little bit squeamish the number of mausoleums that were built into the porches of the houses it was. We were driving all of these houses and you look over on the porch and you're like that looks like. 47:58.32 Sam Oh that's very strange. 47:58.60 dclduo No. 48:08.44 John Guin Something that you would see in an above ground cemetery. Maybe from New Orleans or something like that and yes, it's when the grandparents or the the ancestors pass away. They keep them as part of the family as part of the culture and it was like that. Um, exactly exactly. Um. 48:10.86 Sam Here. 48:19.33 Sam Wow So they're in your in the porch. Wow. 48:27.74 John Guin But pago pago was amazing. I recommend it when we got done with our tour. It was three o'clock in the afternoon kind of short and a lot of people were wondering why it was so short and my thought was well. There's only. You know sixteen buses on this island they need these buses to take the kids home from school at three fifteen or three thirty or when every time school was that out and as I'm walking around I noticed. There's a lot of kids at the high school sitting underneath one of the bleachers waiting for buses to come pick them up to take them home. So maybe maybe that's why I can't say it was but. 48:48.60 Sam Oh probably? yeah. 49:04.27 John Guin You know small Island not that many buses not that many resources share and share alike. 49:07.26 Sam Absolutely well that I mean sounds like a really cool place to go really interesting it. It's like very probably similar to Hawaii before Hawaii became alt touristy. 49:19.68 John Guin I think so it's the Southern Mostst us land south of the equator there I'm trying to figure out how we can get down there and spend a couple of weeks on land that place was as we're driving down the dirt roads to get to the. 49:31.92 Sam Yeah. 49:38.69 John Guin To the families' estate um the trees that are brushing up against us a look out. They're avocado trees with fresh avocados just hanging on them it. It was just such an amazing place. Just full of wonder and excitement I can't wait to get back there. 49:45.43 Sam Oh my God Yeah yeah, I'd just be picking off the avocados and finding me some chips to yeah. 49:54.87 dclduo No, and. 49:55.10 John Guin Are. 50:00.50 Sam Ah, all right? Well let's talk about what was your second port of call. Um, beautiful. Oh interesting. 50:04.00 John Guin That was Fiji and that was my least favorite actually and for a couple of reasons number 1 Um I had seen the brochures for Fiji and so in my mind even though I knew not to expect it I was. 50:15.21 Sam Is. 50:19.56 John Guin Was wanting beaches and the quiet um atmosphere like that. There's so many islands and the way the it works a resort will lease or buy an island and then they own the island and so they do have the private beaches with the lounge chairs and the little drinks that have Umbros on them things like that. 50:36.12 Sam Um. 50:38.90 John Guin We pulled into the working City Um Suva which makes all that possible and the tour guides were definitely professional tour guides so it was like they were reading from a script when they were taking us in our buses to the tour we did which was a. 50:41.62 Sam E. 50:55.42 Sam Um. 50:55.92 John Guin An ecological farm So we went out to the farm. It was advertised as a moderate challenge and it was essentially walking up and down a relatively steep hill. 51:04.27 Sam He. 51:10.80 Sam Oh. 51:12.63 John Guin Ah, which taxed some of the people on the tour to their limits The tour guides actually had to stop the tour in in some ways to be able to help some of the people make it back? Frankly, um so we didn't have the greatest experience there again though? Ah I understand that we weren't seeing. 51:14.77 Sam E. 51:22.57 Sam Wow. 51:31.61 John Guin Fiji at its most relaxing. We were on a challenging tour um with with tour guides in a tourist environment if I went back again I would want to go visit the people as they actually live. 51:33.39 Sam And. 51:43.64 Sam Yeah, yeah, well and it sounds like not really great in the description of the tour or you know not fully accurate in in the strenuousness and we found that you know most of the time the tour descriptions are you know. Decent but occasionally they lack 1 detail and occasionally you know they are incorrect when they you know, tell you how strenuous or not strenuous activity is and as you mentioned this this crews skewed older than Disney's normal ah demographic I'm not not saying that grandparents don't take Disney Cruise line of course they do. But there's usually more parents and children than there are grandparents and this this cruise was kind of was the opposite. 52:34.34 John Guin Yeah, to me the challenge ratings are like um, reading a menu and the menu says the food is spicy well is this you know is this New York spicy or Texas spicy. That's let's get exactly exactly. 52:40.36 Sam Yeah, what level? ah or Seattle spicy. Yeah, yeah, absolutely is it wasabi spicy is it? Ah yeah. 52:42.30 dclduo Okay. 52:55.89 John Guin Um, now I'm getting hungry. 52:58.25 Sam Yeah, there you go all right? Well what was your third port of call. 53:02.65 John Guin Ah, that was New Caledonia so ah french polynesia and I really wanted to go here as well. When I grew up I was reading books like Robert Stuewart Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island and all the South Pacific Exploration books kontiki by 53:15.16 Sam Um, you know. 53:18.74 John Guin Ah, tour hideer all things like that. So I was really wanting to get down to French Polynesia and it was a a fun tour. We went to ah we did a tour went to an Aquarium an overlook of the Island A nice sort of Quiet beach and a shopping center and then back to the ship. 53:38.66 John Guin We actually got recruited by the tour guide that are trying to get people to move there. So if you speak french and want to move to ah french polynesia that's the only requirement pass the french test and you can move in they need engineers there you go Martha I I gave your s speel for you. Um. 53:52.75 Sam Wow. Ah. 53:54.98 dclduo Um, yeah. 53:58.27 John Guin But it but it was nice. It was very much a it was the most modern of the cities or the islands that we went to, you could think of pago pago as being like you were saying Sam close to what Hawaii used to be before everything happened Fiji where we were was industrial. 54:03.90 Sam And he. 54:16.26 Sam A. 54:18.30 John Guin Ah, but this had coffee shops um regular shopping in the downtown area things like that It was a bigger City Bigger island. 54:26.76 Sam Nice. Did you get the sense of whether you know crew were able to get off and spend some time in the ports or or talk to any of the crew about that opportunity. 54:35.55 John Guin Yes, this might be a little bit embarrassing but I won't mention names. There was a little park about three quarters of a mile from this ship after we got back I went on a jog up and down the the coast there. 54:42.37 Sam Is it. 54:53.84 John Guin That little park was kind of isolated from the rest of the island and there were some people that I had seen before that were taking advantage of a nice quiet secluded park on a tropical island to connect with each other. 55:10.63 Sam Ah, oh connect with each other I know what that means children close your ears. Ah, let's move on. No, that's hilarious. That's really funny. Ah. 55:13.51 John Guin Yeah,, let's move On. Um, you know it had to be clear. It was it was It wasn't guests from the ship it was they they were obeying the the rules Of. Um, the rules which they need to Obey? let me be clear about that. 55:34.84 Sam Yeah, yeah, Well now we've covered all of your your port. Ah, your port excursions your port Stops. We've covered some of the special stuff on Board. Um, before we you know before we subject you to of course my rapid fire. Is there anything that we Missed. You know any big events that occurred on board that we haven't talked about or anything you know that you found particularly surprising or unusual about this cruise you know we haven't but ah. 56:01.65 dclduo So 1 Sam have we talked have we talked food but like how do we get through. How do we get through 2 cruises in twenty three days on board without even a mention of food that's that's that's crazy. Um. 56:09.64 Sam That's sorry. 56:16.44 dclduo Yeah John before we go to the things that were maybe surprising and unmentioned I just wanted to ask. How was the food you should have gotten some maybe some you know menus pulled out that were that are you know, not normal for Disney I don't know if you did any adult dining while you were on board or not. But yeah, how was the food experience. 56:30.29 John Guin Um, we we did. We went topollo brunch for one leg of the cruise. The first leg of the cruise and we did a dinner for the second leg and it was Paulo. It was absolutely wonderful. Lava cake lava cake lava cake. Um. The the concern I had with the food was not actually the food because I've been on the longer foods or longer cruises and they rotate the menus around enough so that you do get a variety I was concerned about the eight fifteen we were on second dinner rotation. So Eight fifteen for dinner. 56:57.15 Sam Me. 57:07.43 John Guin Every night I don't necessarily eat at the exact same time every day so I was wondering how that was going to work out after three and a half weeks on board and it it turned out to be okay, um, there were a few days though that. 57:12.16 Sam Right. 57:23.20 John Guin Five o'clock I'm really hungry. Well you know what I can go get a hamburger from pete's boarderbriter and go get some schwarma or I can go get a salad from Daisy's delights so I can make that work and still eat when I'm hungry without needing to necessarily wait for dinner. 57:36.53 Sam Um. 57:39.75 John Guin So that that worked out Kaba is for breakfast every day I had the same creature of Habit I had the same breakfast every day lunch. We rotated around between cabanas and the sit down restaurants. 57:47.93 Sam Ah. 57:57.10 John Guin Get the kafka burger and things like that but dinner was a nice second they they rotated around the menus. It wasn't the same 5 menus over and over again, you would see new things like bolinnaise or. 58:07.31 Sam But yeah. 58:15.22 John Guin Ah, prime rib and things like that enough variety that you could not get bored and now to go back to sam's question ah 2 things that happened that were a little bit unexpected were crossing the international date line that happened in the middle of the night. 58:19.39 Sam Yeah, yeah. 58:31.11 Sam M. 58:34.66 John Guin And it wasn't but that much of an event. There was no great. Big party for it. You just went to sleep one night and got up the next morning and instead of it being the twenty third it was the twenty Fourth Ah a number on a calendar that I frankly wasn't paying attention to was a different number than I was expecting sure or whatever. 58:43.60 Sam Ray just skipped a day. 58:50.70 Sam Nice. 58:53.30 John Guin Um, but the way that I found out that our southpacificcruise was over was the two days before we hit Sydney. Um, right at the end of the morning show the cruise director films out every day and they broadcast it on Tv throughout the day. Ah, the captain interrupted the show with an announcement that in about 15 minutes we were going to hit sixty mile an hour winds and seize up to twenty feet tall because a cold front was blowing out of Antarctica and I would just like. 59:21.51 Sam Oh wow. 59:27.51 Sam No Wow yeah. 59:31.79 John Guin I never thought that it would be involved with a cold front cold front blowing from Antarctica but there we were and so everyone starts getting ready for that. The ship's going to be rocking rolling. He said the ship. The wind may be blowing hard enough to actually put a list or a tilt to the ship. 59:35.79 Sam Yeah. 59:49.85 Sam Um, Wow. Wow. 59:50.20 John Guin And it did it put a small a small little tilt to the starboard side. So if you had a marble it would roll to the one side of the ship. Um, but at the end of three weeks we hopefully I don't know if I'm speaking for everyone I'm speaking for my immediate and we had our sea legs. So. 01:00:05.42 Sam Yeah. 01:00:08.20 John Guin The rocking and rolling wasn't that bad I went up to the top deck to experience the sixty mile hour winds or about 5 of us up there doing that the winds got that high but we never got the twenty foot seas and the captain later said well when we get these reports. 01:00:14.38 Sam Oh My goodness. Sure. 01:00:24.46 John Guin We respond as if the worst case scenario is going to happen. So the worst projection was twenty foot seas that's what he thought that's what he was telling us we needed to prepare for. We didn't get that. 01:00:26.40 Sam E. 01:00:34.47 Sam Yeah, yeah, well you being a retired sailor you were probably like yeah that's no big deal anyway. 01:00:45.19 John Guin Sixty mile hour winds and twenty foot seas that's that's a big deal. It is um but the the wonder handled it? Well the stabilizers kicked in and like I said by that point we should have all had our sea legs and it it really wasn't that noticeable. 01:00:48.70 Sam Physically, yeah. 01:01:02.34 John Guin Except for the final show Disney dreams. They didn't have Peter Pan and Wendy actually flying. So yeah. 01:01:04.13 Sam Right? That's smart. We don't want people on wires while the ship is rocking a little bit more than it normally does. Yeah, yeah. 01:01:08.43 dclduo Yeah. 01:01:15.60 John Guin Um, exactly safety first. Let's let's keep everyone healthy. 01:01:20.86 dclduo So John often we get asked you know or or folks want to know so you did this back to back 23 nights on board a Disney Cruise would you do it again? Ah would you be on a ship that long again. 01:01:32.28 John Guin Yes, absolutely. In fact I was joking my wife is I didn't know if I was going to be willing to get right back on board. We we did a Panama canal Cruz 1 year and when it was done I was done. It was ready to get back to work and things like that. 01:01:42.57 Sam Um. 01:01:45.85 Sam Yeah. 01:01:48.10 John Guin On this one I got off the ship and I said you know I could get right back on it and do the the first four day cruise here down in Australia it wouldn't bother me at all I would do that again. I don't know if I would go back across the pacific the relaxing aspect of going from to the west is that you. 01:01:54.50 Sam Wow. 01:02:07.58 John Guin Get an hour back every few days and we got a total of I think 8 hours back of sleep going the other way you're going to lose those 8 hours and that's going to annoint me. 01:02:07.61 Sam This. 01:02:17.84 Sam Yeah, yeah, that makes sense well sounds like an amazing cruise Now we know from talking to other folks who are on your sailing that. 01:02:18.59 dclduo Yeah, yeah, yeah. 01:02:30.96 Sam You all docked in 1 place in Australia and then the ship was actually going to be moved for its first embarkation. Um, so you didn't really get to experience I take it the the pomp and circumstance. Ah, of you know her arrival because that was all set up at the other dock is that right. 01:02:48.48 John Guin I I didn't realize the ship was going to need a day to basically get cleaned up get refuelled do maintenance on the engines. Whatever they need to do before they start the Australia cruises. So I really wasn't paying attention to that. What did happen which I thought was just in. 01:03:03.27 Sam E. 01:03:08.35 John Guin Credible is when we got to Melbourne we didn't stay in Sydney we we got off the ship got off went over to Melbourne that's where our flight was going to be leaving. There were people on the streets of Melbourne and in the shops talking about the disney wonder over in Sydney. 01:03:22.31 Sam Yeah. 01:03:25.90 John Guin And I got to have a lot of conversations with with just regular people that lived there in Melbourne about what what are people going to do when they go on this ship. One of them had a cousin that was going on the trip in two weeks what do you do on this ship and we got to talk about that and they knew it was there and they were asking questions about it and of course I'm i'm. 01:03:37.56 Sam Yeah. 01:03:45.90 John Guin You know, reping the brand I'm wearing my disney wonderer shirt and the australian new zealand Disney shirt and Disney Cruise line gray long sleeve shirts I have 4 of them I didn't even realize that until I was on that ship and I keep buying the same shirt but but it was. 01:03:48.98 Sam Ah. 01:03:58.67 Sam Ah, sounds about right. 01:04:00.21 John Guin It was a great way to to start conversations with with the folks in Melbourne. 01:04:02.50 Sam Oh that's so fun I Love that. 01:04:05.38 dclduo Well John it sounds like an amazing cruise 23 nights of adventure despite some hiccup sounds like had a great time and I think we have now reached that point in the show where sam gets to ask you a bunch of arbitrary questions apply some. Arbitrary rules and throwing a dash of judgments or the round we know as rapid fire so Samuel take it away. 01:04:24.37 Sam Yeah, all right? John you are ready for this I'm sure but I want to know your personal Disney favorites and Disney Cruise line favorites. So we're going to start with the most important question of all who is your favorite Disney character. Oh same as bro. 01:04:39.68 dclduo Nice, nice. Yep I always like to tell him on board. He's the only one with any sailing experience yet Mickey and Minnie are the the 2 captains so you know it needs a promotion. 01:04:40.27 John Guin Um, Donald duck. He's a sailor I'm a sailor there we go. 01:04:42.76 Sam Ah, in love it all right there you go all right. 01:04:51.79 Sam The captains. Yep, that's right, that's right, but nobody can understand his orders is the problem. You know all right? What is your favorite Disney movie. Oh love that. 01:04:56.33 John Guin Um, there's a reason he's not in charge. Um. 01:05:01.56 dclduo With the and. 01:05:07.58 John Guin Um, tangled. 01:05:10.49 Sam What's your favorite Disney song. Yes, we were just talking about this song today and I have to say on this show there is and we heard this from someone who's from New Zealand there is actually a version of this um of how far I'll go and a bunch of other songs in. 01:05:11.54 John Guin How far I'll go from marwanna. 01:05:30.46 Sam Native New Zealand language maori so 01:05:34.18 John Guin Um, I've heard take Kava I think that I think I'm pronouncing his name right? sing that version. It's a stunning song in whatever language. 01:05:38.87 Sam So good. Yes, yes, absolutely all right now. The important questions your Disney Cruise line favorites. What is your favorite Disney Cruise line stage show on any of the ships that you've been on. 01:05:55.80 John Guin Ah, tangled the musical and it's because mother gathered was the broadway visiting actress when she came out and sang the first note a mother knows best. My wife can attest to. 01:05:59.44 Sam Yes, visiting per yes. 01:06:08.30 John Guin I sat up Bolt up right in my chair I started grabbing her Knee is oh my gosh. This woman is amazing. This woman is amazing. Ah, she was absolutely standing. 01:06:13.67 Sam Yes, yes, and it's always I should say always the times I have seen it. It's always been a broadway visiting artist as well and I've seen different ones and all fantastic. Mother Gothle is fantastic if you get a you know one of these broadway visiting artists. You are. Getting a treat. Absolutely all right? Yeah, oh that's amazing. All right? Your favorite adult bar space on board a Disney Cruise ship again on any crew. Any of the ships. Nice are. 01:06:34.13 John Guin Um, it was her performance that made tangled my favorite movie. Yeah. 01:06:45.88 John Guin Um, ah the crown and fin on the wonder it's got the Mary Poppins umbrella stand in it or umbrella in it. Ah love me so Mary I love me some Mary puppins. 01:06:53.10 Sam Oh yeah, oh oh all, right Favorite onboard activity. 01:07:05.97 John Guin Relaxing by the pool up on deck tenth. 01:07:08.63 Sam Love it. Favorite rotational dining. 01:07:14.70 John Guin It varies from the ship but it would not be like the the Triton's royal table on the wonder the enchanted garden that restaurant which is a nice quiet experience. Lets me have conversation with my family at the table. Love that experience. 01:07:35.70 Sam Nice all right favorite Port I'm going to set aside and aside from Castaway key. Ah there we go all right Aqua dunk versus aqua. 01:07:42.14 John Guin Um, Pago pogo. 01:07:49.47 Sam Duck I'm not going to ask mouse because I know you haven't been on the wish yet. That's the that's the dunk on the magic. Yeah wow, you're in Brian's yeah 01:07:52.74 John Guin Ah, which is the one that drops you out at the bottom I can't remember yeah I'll go with the dunk. 01:07:54.12 dclduo The dunk. Yes finally I get a winner. Finally, the score is only 99 to three I think so. 01:08:06.74 John Guin Um, no. 01:08:07.64 Sam But yeah I So I tend to win that question with the ah Aqua duck but you know it is what it is all right? absolutely. 01:08:12.16 John Guin Um, can I throw out a herbot brag here real quick the day after the morning after we had crossed the equator the aqua duck opened I was the first person down the slide in the south southern hemisphere on a Disney ship. 01:08:25.47 Sam Oh love it. Love it or actually you were on the twist and spout not the yes yes because the Aqua duck is only on the fantasy and the dream The wonder is the only one that doesn't have another another slide. 01:08:29.79 John Guin More the twist and spell. Okay there we go. 01:08:44.71 Sam All right? Um, what is your ah favorite suite item on board a Disney Cruise ah Ah, that's a great answer because I didn't even say food did I yeah. 01:08:49.60 John Guin My wife. 01:08:53.45 dclduo Ah, ah oh. 01:08:59.10 John Guin Are. 01:09:02.25 Sam All right? What's a favorite savory item on a Disney Cruise 01:09:07.79 John Guin Oh ah, late at night some of the bars will put out the the jalapeno poppers and hot dogs and spicy foods like that. So those late night snacks. 01:09:14.79 Sam Oh nice, all right so late night snacks love it okay really important question here John which one is your favorite ship. 01:09:28.68 John Guin I'm going to go with the wonder. 01:09:29.50 Sam Yes, that is the right answer John congratulations. 01:09:34.69 John Guin Um, it's the one we've been on the most where we love it. Um, it's a great ship. It's small. It's more intimate. It only has 1 drink station on deck 9 when we complain I wish it had the other one like the bigger ships have. But yeah. 01:09:51.50 Sam Yeah I'm with you on that too. All right bucket list. Cruise you have been on a whole bunch of bucket list cruises I'm going to first put that out there. These 2 were bucket list cruises I know you did one of them previously in the opposite direction. Um, but yeah, what have you not done. That if you could go you know any place in the world on a Disney Cruise line this is where you want to go. 01:10:15.38 John Guin I'm going to hold out for the Disney adventure and do one of the southeast asia cruises I haven't been there so I want to go experience that culture that whole Miloo and ah let it just. 01:10:20.60 Sam Ooh I Love that awesome. 01:10:29.52 John Guin Let it take me by Surprise see what we get when we get there. 01:10:30.41 Sam Awesome! Well thank you for playing. 01:10:33.80 dclduo Well if you make it if you make it on the Disney adventure. We want to hear about it because I doubt that we will make it over there anytime soon. So and that goes for anyone out there who decides to say on the Disney Adventure Once she ah when she embarks yes, see what you repeat what you're saying. 01:10:42.89 Sam Yeah, yeah, well thank you for playing John and for being a good sport as I said because you picked the disney wonder you are an automatic winner. Even though you picked the wrong water slide. Um, but you get special bonus points for saying your wife was the sweet thing on the disney ship. So I love it. 01:10:58.20 John Guin Um. 01:11:03.89 dclduo Love it. Yes, well John just thank you for coming on and sharing your fabulous experience with our audience we we really really appreciate you taking the time out of your day. 01:11:06.59 John Guin Um, it's It's been a blast. 01:11:17.50 John Guin Um I appreciate you taking the time out of your day. Best of luck to you moving forward. 01:11:20.18 Sam Thank you.