[00:00:00] Speaker A: Josh is an active guy, avid biker.
Do they have a decent gym? Do they have decent classes? They have a running track. Our big criticism of the wish, of course, is that it doesn't have a decent running track because of all the stairs. But yeah. Curious about what kind of active things are available to do on board.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:20] Speaker C: Thank you for clarifying because when you said I couldn't hear you, I thought you said extra fries instead of extra.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's bonus episode of the DCL duo podcast. And welcome to our first and what we hope to be a series of live episodes of the DCL duo podcast. So if you are watching at home, you can mark your calendars now. Every Monday at 05:30 p.m., Pacific. 08:30 p.m.. Eastern. We will be trying to do a live episode here going forward, be weeks here and there where we have to miss because we're traveling. We're going to try to preview the next show at the end of the current show. So we'll have some more info on what our next show is going to be here at the end of this show. But we're excited. We're excited for the format. Right, Sam? We're going live.
[00:01:20] Speaker A: We're live. Hi, everyone who's watching. Hi, Dennis. You just said hi on Facebook. Hi, friends. Great to see everyone.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: And a big shout out to everybody out there. If you are watching us on Facebook, you need to make sure to give streamyard permission to display your name or we will not know who you are when you're commenting. You can also drop your name in your comments if you want. So we know who it is, but just a big shout out there for folks. I want to give one more other shout out before we get started with tonight's episode. And that is a shout out to our Patreon supporters. If you are not familiar, we do have a Patreon that helps us defray the cost of this show. Our commitment remains. We won't make money off of the show, but these things are expensive to do. And so if you have not already, you might want to head over and check out our Patreon
[email protected]. DcLduo choose from one of our tiers and we really appreciate it because it helps support the show. But I do want to run through a list of names that we haven't been able to run through for a while, which is our Patreon supporters. So in no particular order, and I'm going to look this direction so I can see their names on my screen over here, but I want to thank Chris Wynn, the Dillos, Diz, Heather Wilson, Sonia Edward, Lynn, Christine Beanie Christensen, Robert Taylor, Beth Gentry, Matthew Kowalski, Chris Brown, Derek Sassman, Sean Burns, Thomas Rogers, Anne Witten, Dennis Keithley, Robbie and Jillian Abney, Brian Call, Ashley Darling, Cindy Leichner, Vicki Sue, Doug Young, Ashley Norton, Adrian and Emily van Zuli, Drew Curry, CT Sweet. Christopher Forbeck, Daily MTB rider, who will be on with us here in 1 second. That's Josh, Dave Hale, Chad Swindell, Jennifer Swart, Chris Braga, and Steve Elsis. So thank you out there to all of our Patreon supporters. We really, really appreciate it. And with that, we have to bring in the DCl duo villain.
[00:03:14] Speaker C: Josh.
[00:03:15] Speaker B: Josh is back.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: Hey, Josh, I don't think you can hear you.
[00:03:18] Speaker B: Josh, can you not hear us? Hi, Josh.
All right, well, while Josh works on his technical difficulties, maybe we will set up the show a bit here. Sam, do you want to message Josh? Josh, can you hear us?
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Oh, no.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: I don't know if you guys can hear me. I cannot hear you for some reason, which is unfortunate, and I'm trying to figure that out. I'm sure you had a lovely introduction that I couldn't have beat, and I'm sure you only said good things.
Don't mind me. Just figured out how to hear you guys.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: All right, well, we're going to set up the show here that we're going to have with Josh while he's working on his technical difficulties, which is we're going to be talking about Princess Cruise line versus Disney cruise line. Josh took a cruise recently on Princess, so we're excited to have him back to chat about that. I think we have Josh back. He's giving us a thumbs up. There he is.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: There he is.
[00:04:11] Speaker B: Josh.
[00:04:12] Speaker C: I don't know what happened. The show started and I could see you guys and I couldn't hear you. And I was like, that's not right. And then all of a sudden I was like, oh, no.
Good old restart. Use that power button. Turn it back on. We're all back and rolling.
[00:04:28] Speaker B: There you go. You tried unplugging it and plugging it back in.
[00:04:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: There you go. There you go. All right, well, Josh, let's dive in. We got some questions rolling in for you already while we were vamping. Thank you for saving our audience from us. So remind folks, Josh, you are the DCl villain because you have cruised Disney Cruise line. You've been on some other cruise lines. We've had you on a bunch. Love having you on, remind folks about your cruising background so they can catch up with who you are and what your cruising experience has been.
[00:04:55] Speaker C: Absolutely. So I started cruising with my wife in the fall of 2021. We've done three Disney cruises since then, two royal Caribbean and now one princess. So this was our 6th cruise. My first cruises were Royal Caribbean and then Disney back to back. And I have since had a love for all things cruising and also a love for comparing Disney with other cruise lines, which is why I'm so excited to share today.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Yeah, we love, you know, from your first episode where we did a compare that back to back Disney and Royal, you had some really controversial hot takes. So I'm really hoping that today we have a few more controversial hot takes so that we know make fun of you more, basically.
[00:05:43] Speaker B: Well, I joked with Josh off air. I asked if there were pursettes on board princess, so we would know whether or not he'd have an opinion there. But we'll get to food a little later. Josh, tell folks what this princess Cruise was that you took.
[00:05:57] Speaker C: Yeah. What a great question. It was the most ridiculous cruise I've ever heard about. So let's start with that. So Brian and Sam live in the Seattle area. I'm north of the Seattle cruise terminal an hour and a half, and princess had this relocation cruise, or I forget the other word, but it was from Seattle. It went out to sea for a day, went to Victoria, Canada, and then ended in Vancouver. So for those who have driven from Seattle to Vancouver, it's like, what, 3 hours? Maybe three and a half.
And since I live perfectly in between, I was like, you know, I could get dropped off in Seattle and convince somebody else to pick me up in Vancouver because I'm just so delightful. People just love driving me places, and.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: It worked out great.
[00:06:42] Speaker C: So my wife and I just, the two of us got away for three nights. And the reason we picked this cruise was only because of the price, because the price was phenomenal. And when I say phenomenal, I'll just tell you right now. It was for three nights. It was an ocean view cabin. It was $1,000. But here's the big but in this situation, included two specialty restaurants, all your drinks, a photo package, and there was a couple of other things that was all included with that. All in price of $1,000, which I was like, I got to try it for that. And here's why. If you were to drive your car up to take the ferry to go to Victoria and stay, like, a night and go and buy food, and come back, you're like, almost at $1,000 right there. And I was like, let's do it.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: Well, yeah. I mean, hotels in Victoria and in Vancouver are kind of expensive, so that seems like a really good price. If you think about three night hotel stay, frankly, would cost you that much easily in any of Vancouver, you know, at least someplace nice, obviously not like your motel six.
[00:07:52] Speaker B: So, Josh, which ship were you on? And my perception would be the ship doing this cruise would not be one of the newest, latest and greatest princess ships. So how old was she? How many people did she hold? Yeah. Tell us a little bit about the ship itself.
[00:08:05] Speaker C: It's so interesting because in cruising world, this ship is ancient because it had its first sailing in 2006, which, as we know, Disney, the magic and the wonder are. What is it? 98. 99, I think.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: 96, isn't it? 96? I think it is. 98.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: 98.
[00:08:23] Speaker C: Okay, so 2006. It holds 4800 passengers, max capacity. So it's bigger than the dream and the fantasy and. Yeah, 2006. And the thing about princess and royal does this, too. They update the ship in, like, dry docks, but they don't update the rooms. So the rooms have the original decor that they were going for without replacing things.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: Wow.
Did you say 2006?
What does a 2006 stateroom look like?
[00:08:53] Speaker C: Josh, what does a 2006 stateroom look like? I mean, if you remember the glory days of 2006 and can imagine some gold accents, some flower curtains, it was very beige. How about that? Just very beige.
[00:09:10] Speaker B: There you go. All right, well, so, Josh, stateroom secured. Screaming deal.
Port of Seattle. We Disney fans can't ever go out of the port of Seattle. So how was the port of Seattle for you?
[00:09:25] Speaker C: Yeah, it was great. And my wife and I and our kids cruised out of Seattle on our alaskan cruise on Royal Caribbean. So we were familiar with getting dropped off, obviously, I grew up in Seattle. I don't have any desire to go and tour Seattle. I'll do that a different time. Yeah, just got dropped off. They're used to having cruises come out of there all summer. This was in October, so it was the end of the season. Very smooth sailing altogether.
And the coolest thing about Royal Caribbean, about princess, is that the online check in is absolutely phenomenal. And when I say absolutely phenomenal, you put all your information in. It's so easy. They mail you a medallion, which you're going to hear me say medallion, like 100 times. So if you have a la Croix or topuchico nearby, every time I say it, you can drink the medallion. Experience is absolutely amazing. It's basically an apple air tag that you can buy little accessories and put it on your watch, wear it as a necklace, put it in your fedora wherever you want, and they mail it to you. And basically, you show them your passport and you scan that and you're done.
You don't wait in a line. Everything's done. Here's the kicker. I figured out, spoiler alert, we're going on another princess cruise.
I just did this last week, and I was like, I have to put in all my passport information. I have to put in all my stuff again. So I delayed it. Delayed it. And then, like, two nights ago, I was like, okay, I have some time. I'll do it. I go. And it was like, has anything changed? And I was like, no. And they're like. You're like. I was like, Disney.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: What are you doing?
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Hallelujah. My goodness.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Yeah, that's impressive. I mean, it shouldn't be impressive, because the ability to save information on a computer has existed since the invention of the computer. But, yeah, that's. So can you just go on board with the same medallion you had last time, or will they send you a new one?
[00:11:21] Speaker C: They send you a new one every time if you get the additional package. So they have, like, a plus package and then a premium package, and that's like drink packages with gratuity included. So I forgot it was $1,000 drinks, specialty dining gratuities, and $150 onboard credit. And we booked through Costco because it was last minute with another $45 Costco card.
[00:11:45] Speaker A: It's just like, wait, gratuities were included in this price also.
[00:11:49] Speaker C: And the picture package, like the photo package. So every time you see a photographer, it's all included as well. It was amazing.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: Talk about booking ahead of time. You've got excursions you could book, right? So what kinds of things can you book ahead of time? And we've got a question from on the screen that matches exactly what I'm asking. How nice is that? Thank you, Facebook user. Yeah. What stuff can you book ahead of time? And then what did you book, Josh, as far as excursions? I mean, you've been to Victoria and Vancouver before. Did you even think about booking an excursion?
[00:12:25] Speaker C: Yes, we did think about it. And just like a Disney cruise, you can go on the app and look at the excursions.
I don't know this, but I know with Royal Caribbean, they just randomly put out their excursions. And I think princess is more like that. We signed up very late, I think, like, two months out. So you could see all the excursions in Victoria that Disney would have. We wanted to go to Bouchard Gardens, which we did, and we weighed how much it costs to pay for a shuttle. And we're like, do we want to deal with a bus? In reality, we wanted to go and eat in Victoria because we heard about a really great asian sushi restaurant. And so we just got off and went and called an Uber. It was really a taxi. You have to do taxis there. And that was great. Flawless. And so just did our own excursion, but everything was available through the app.
[00:13:14] Speaker A: Awesome. What other things can you book ahead of time? Obviously, you already had a drink package booked as a sort of included thing. If it hadn't been included, is that something you would have or could have booked through the app ahead of time or is that something you just do on board?
[00:13:33] Speaker C: Yeah, you can pre book drink packages and all that. They didn't have any tastings, but your dining you could pre book for every night. And so they had, I think, two specialty sit down restaurants. They had some more specialty, like casual restaurants. And then they had three main dining rooms. They all serve the same meals, but you could each night choose, hey, I want to eat dinner at 06:00 p.m. On the first night, 630. The second specialty dining the third. And choose the dining room and set all that up.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Oh, wow. So you can even book your times in advance for dinner.
[00:14:07] Speaker C: And it's your time. So you pick whatever time you want. They show you the options from like five to eight.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Got you. So you wouldn't necessarily have the same servers then from place to place, not like on Disney, for example.
[00:14:20] Speaker C: Correct. And I think you can, if you go in the same dining room at the same time, you can ask for the same server. And I'm getting to learn more about princess and hearing that other people have done that. Nice.
[00:14:32] Speaker B: We have quite a few questions around age demographic, kids activities. It was just you and your wife, so you probably weren't sending the kids.
[00:14:41] Speaker C: To the kids club.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: But what was the age demographic like on board? Were there lots of kids, or did it skew older? What did it look like to you?
[00:14:49] Speaker C: Very much skewed older. And I think that's kind of the reputation princess has, is being for those who are more vintage in their years or their flavors. And, yeah, so there wasn't a lot of young people. We went and just looked into the kids clubs and those look spectacular. Those look newly done. They had theming that looked like up to date, like it had been done yesterday. And again, Disney knocks it out of the park with the kids club. Nobody can compete. But it looked really good. Like, my kids would be excited to go in those kids clubs.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: I mean, was it themed mean because Disney. Right. You've got, like, slides in different areas. So was it themed out like that, or is it more like royal? Was like a meeting room, for lack of a better word, where they did some activities and had some video games, but it was not slides and activities and things like that?
[00:15:38] Speaker C: Yeah, it was just like royal. The room was themed, but it was just a meeting room. And that's where they hang out. Yeah.
[00:15:44] Speaker B: Okay. So presumably lots of structured activities going on for the kids across the day if they're not sort of unstructured playroom kind of situation.
All right, so you mentioned that embarkation was pretty smooth out of the port of Seattle.
So what did you get up to on the first day of this three night cruise? Josh, what did you do for adult activities on board, and what were some of the offerings and things that you did? Yeah.
[00:16:11] Speaker C: So this was in December out of Seattle, which is basically 95 degrees and sunny all the time.
[00:16:20] Speaker A: Swimsuit weather, dark and darker and overcast.
[00:16:25] Speaker C: Yeah, overcast and drizzly. Not raining, but drizzly. So we just explored the ship kind of the first night, and we're really trying to figure out what's this drink package? How does the medallion work? I hear Princess has the best pizza medallion. Yeah. Of any cruise line. There you go. Good job. Sam had to take a drink, has the best pizza, quick service pizza of any cruise line. And so really, we just got to lay a land of the ship. Checked out like the adults only area at the back of the ship, ordered a couple of drinks. The coolest part about the medallion, and this is where the tech really comes into play, is that, for those of.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: You listening to the audio afterwards, Sam is literally drinking every time he says the word medallion. Okay, keep going, Josh.
[00:17:12] Speaker C: As soon as you walk near your room, it knows you're there with your medallion and unlocks your door so you don't have to. Sam, you're going to be drinking all night. Don't do it. Sam's going to have a topo chico. Yeah. Hangover. It's not alcohol.
[00:17:27] Speaker A: Yeah, it's just water, folks. It's just fizzy water. That's all I'm drinking.
[00:17:31] Speaker C: But as soon as you walk up to your door, your door is unlocked. You want to drink, but you don't know where the nearest bar is. You open up the app, you find the drink that you want you click order and they come and find you within 10ft.
[00:17:43] Speaker A: Oh, that's.
[00:17:44] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh, that's through the entire ship. So you can be somewhere, order a drink, be like, you know what? I really need a piece of pizza. Go upstairs and they will find you. And it's like, anywhere on the ship. And it was incredible.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: Wait, pizza delivery wherever you are?
[00:18:04] Speaker C: Yeah, there's food delivery wherever you're at. And it's not all foods, it's, like, pretty selective, but sure.
[00:18:10] Speaker A: Service type stuff.
[00:18:11] Speaker C: Yeah. And did I try it out, like, up on the pool deck? Could you see the burger place and be like, man, I really want a burger, but I'm really comfortable reading my book right now.
[00:18:19] Speaker A: I want to be really late.
[00:18:20] Speaker C: Let me just see if I can get a burger over here. And sure enough, they brought it over. Oh, hey, Josh. And here's the other thing. When you walk up to order a drink or order food, they go, oh, hey, Josh, what can we get you? And your name pops up. They hand it to you, you walk away. There's no interaction, there's no touching, there's no signing. It's all done, which is just phenomenal.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: I wonder if they can go to the next. Do they go to the next level? Which is you're walking up and it's like, hey, Josh, you want another gin and tonic? Because they know that's the last drink you ordered. It would go to that level.
[00:18:52] Speaker C: And I would say, they have the technology. I'm guessing they don't use it because.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: That would be creepy.
[00:18:57] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't think it would be creepy. I would be like, sure, I'll take another whiskey on the rocks. That sounds great. Like, thank. But it'd be great if it was.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: Like virgin, where they have the shake for champagne, which is a similar kind of thing. Right. But maybe if you could shake the app but customize it for the drink, you know, for Josh, it's shake for my tie and then the mai tai appears kind of thing. So. Yeah, there you go. There you.
[00:19:19] Speaker C: Oh, go ahead.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: Yeah, keep. No, no, keep going.
[00:19:21] Speaker C: Oh. I was just going to say in. Our goal of this cruise was just to relax. It was only three nights with two little kids at home. We brought books. We wanted to find little nooks and places to just relax, have somebody bring us fresh fruit and croissants and a drink. And we found a whole open area. The equivalent would be like the Cadillac lounge. And it was just nobody was there. It was kind of like it wasn't a library, but it was, like, very nice, cushy seating, and we just sat there all day, had drinks delivered, read our books, looked out the window. It was awesome. So that was our goal. We didn't do hardly any activities, except did we try our luck in the casino? Of course. Did we think we were going to win? Of course not, because we're wise people, but we really did just relax and eat too much food.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
What was the general layout of the ship? Josh, I'm just curious.
Is it like a Disney ship? It sounds like there was adult areas, kind of like a Disney ship. But what was the layout of the ship like, and where was the casino on board? Did you have to walk through it a lot to get to different places?
[00:20:24] Speaker C: Yeah, that's such a good question. So they have a main atrium, just like Disney, but the difference is, I want to say three or four decks. And off that there's, like, different eateries, like the steakhouse or the italian. The italian restaurant was up above, actually, kind of like where Paulo is. But there was shopping. There was a cafe that you can go get snacks and treats and sandwiches and that, like on the base one shopping. The casino, you could walk through that to go to.
What's it called?
[00:20:56] Speaker B: The stage.
[00:20:56] Speaker C: Right, where they did the shows.
Three stories, eateries, photo station, everything. Just like Disney cruise line, just like the atrium. But their atrium is much more grand, and they kind of have spiraling staircases that make it really easy to get to the next level, regardless of if you're on the. I was going to say right or left, but port or starboard, it makes it super simple.
[00:21:18] Speaker A: Yeah, well, and there's no know. Taking pictures at the bottom of the staircase, so they don't close off the staircase for pictures at any time of.
[00:21:27] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. But, yeah, just like any ship guest services, they had computer stations. I was like, why do you need an Internet cafe? It's called a smartphone, but, yeah, they had everything you'd normally see on a cruise. Nice.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: You said Internet was included with your booking. How was it?
[00:21:44] Speaker C: Internet up to four devices. It was starlink. It was excellent.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:21:48] Speaker C: Yeah, wow.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Well, I would love to know what kinds of activities. I know you didn't do a lot of activities, but I'm sure you were surfing the app to see kind of what was offered on board. What kinds of stuff were offered on board, and did it look like a lot? A little. Just the right amount. What would you say?
[00:22:08] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say just the right amount. Lots of trivias. There was lots of entertainment. There was a stand up comedian that was doing the thing in a little side area that you could walk by and listen to. They did karaoke and their karaoke, oh, my goodness. It was the best karaoke. And I've looked into princess and everybody says princess has the best karaoke.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: What's the best about it? Because, you know, I love.
[00:22:34] Speaker C: Would you and me at karaoke. It would be a night to remember.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: It would be a spectacular, a duet.
[00:22:42] Speaker C: Of did I, did I sing the song escape while my wife was sleeping? And clarify, I'm not singing this because I'm cheating on my wife. Absolutely.
But people line up to sign up and it's like filled up and you get the perfect mix of terrible singers like myself, who don't care and give it their all, and then amazing singers and people that you're like, this lady who's definitely a grandma and her kids and grandkids are here. I don't know if she's going to be good and then she's just absolutely kills it. And I'm like, this is amazing. And I guess that's really common on Princess Cruise line. So karaoke trivia, they did like, cooking classes, towel animals, all the typical cruise fun activities. We were never bored, but we weren't looking to be entertained, so it was great for us.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: Okay, we've got to ask you about shows, though. You mentioned there was a stage, so I imagine there were stage performances. What kinds of things did you see and how does it compare to both Royal and to Disney? Because you were sort of famously talking to us about how royal, the performers are good, but there's no thread of a story. So their performances kind of fall flat, not because the performers aren't good, but because they're like, using all this technology and then they don't tell you anything in a story form.
[00:24:03] Speaker C: Yes, Royal Caribbean performers are great, but they are the worst. And, I mean, they have zero storyline. It's like the exact opposite of Disney, where Walt Disney was like, it's all about the story and take people on a story. Royal Caribbean's like, who needs story? Let's just have a third grader. Just pick out random cards from a deck. I don't know why third grader and just put it together.
Princess was more your traditional variety shows. They had one night that was like, I want to say it was like music through the ages, which was great because it was a theme and they've stuck to it and you need a story.
[00:24:35] Speaker A: If you're just doing like a variety show of songs, just don't tell me there's a story and then there isn't one. Right? Like, tell me what it's going to be and I'm happy to just enjoy some different music of different decades.
[00:24:46] Speaker C: Yes. So there was, like, music through the decades. There was a disco night that was actually pretty cool. And again, they have the stage designs, they have the costumes, but it's not a Broadway style show. The next Princess cruise we're going on does have two of those, but I hear the storylines aren't necessarily spectacular, which I'm just like, how hard is it to get a storyline right?
If the three of us were going to come up with the show, we'd be like, ok, what's our storyline? What's the know, what are we going to show? And I feel like I don't know what's going on. Maybe people are drinking too much and so they think they don't need a story, but they do.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
We do have one Facebook user here who is saying that on icon, which is Royal's newest ship, they had some great entertainment. We actually talked to some folks who were on icon a couple of days ago and I was going to comment that royal may be getting its act together there because they had put on a production of wizard of Oz, which obviously has a storyline to it. And they have some other shows that.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: Seem to have storylines to have. Mamma Mia has no storyline. But don't get me started on talking about cats. Apparently they have cats on Royal Caribbean. And I have vowed, even though we're going on the ship that has cats, I will not be seeing that show. And you can take that to the bank. I am skipping that show. So don't expect a review of cats because the review of cats would literally just be two thumbs down. I don't care where the production is done or how good the performers are.
[00:26:08] Speaker C: Sam views cats like I view black truffle prosettes. They're never good and they're just not worth it. I mean, you just nailed it.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: Them's fighting.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Was the Josh, I know you really love to interact with the crew and get to know the crew. What was the service like on board and how was the crew interaction?
[00:26:29] Speaker C: Absolutely spectacular. And this is one area that I felt like was really important for Disney Cruisers to hear is I hear about how Disney set the standard and that for years they just could not be. And I going on Royal Caribbean twice, going on princess, I honestly don't really notice a difference. And I say that in a good way. Being on Royal Caribbean, hearing that your main server is going to be up in the Cabanas equivalent. Right. And then they see you and they bring my daughter a bowl of grapes. It's like that happens on Royal Caribbean, being in princess and somebody seeing you. Oh, Josh, how are you? How's your day going? Wanting to stop and talk, your waiters and your wait staff just being super attentive, sommele. I can never say that. Right? Coming over. Yeah. And they're like, what do you like to drink? And I was like, I don't know. And so they're like, great, we'll help you. Right. It was excellent. So no critiques at all. And honestly, do I believe Disney steps it up a notch more? Yeah, I wouldn't debate that. But it's not ten steps above, and I'm disrespected and rejected. It's nothing like that.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I've heard really good things, actually, about the service on princess. Very much in line with what you're saying. And same with royal. I think with any of the cruise lines, some of that is just going to be hit and miss depending upon who the individual crew member is. I agree. I think Disney sets sort of a minimum standard, but on the other ships, you're going to get some great service as that's agree. I don't think that's completely unique to Disney Cruise line.
We do have a fun question here that I got to ask, but CT is asking, how are the scrambled eggs in the buffet? Are they better than Disney?
Super low bar. I know for those who have not listened to our show before, we constantly talk about the cabana's eggs because they're generally just the. They're know in the vat of eggs. They're not really real. They're made from, like, egg beaters or.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: See. Let me see if I can up level the question. Definitely touch on the eggs, Josh. But was there a buffet? Was it self serve or cruise serve? And how was it?
[00:28:45] Speaker C: There was a buffet. It was self serve. The scrambled eggs were fine, which is ten steps above Disney scrambled egg.
The buffet was not great. And that was the one area that we felt like, this is not great. We're actually booked on this. It's not the newest ship as of, like, a few days ago, I think, but the second newest ship of princess that came out, like a year ago. And the buffet is, like, absolutely stellar. But this buffet wasn't great. The food was fine. It was just a selection. There wasn't as big of a selection.
But, yeah, scrambled eggs, great. And anything beats Disney. Disney's tech Wi fi and scrambled eggs. Step it up, Disney.
[00:29:31] Speaker B: Duo fans. You know, we get the question all the time. Should I use a travel agent to book my next Disney cruise or should I just book with Disney directly? And I'm going to tell you, if you have that question in the back of your mind right now, you should stop what you're doing and head over to mypathunwinding.com slash dcl Duo. The folks over at Mypath Unwinding provide an amazing service. They are so knowledgeable and so friendly. We rely on them ourselves to book our family vacations and they provide an amazing service. And the best part is you don't pay anything extra for it. Disney, other tour providers and other cruise lines have built the cost of their commission into their pricing. So if you're booking directly, you are just paying that money back to the provider when you could be spending it on the kind of service you would get. From Mypath unwinding travel. You've heard from their agents on our show. They are so knowledgeable, so giving of their time. They know so much about Disney Cruise line, sailing, concierge, other cruise lines, other all inclusive vacations and adventures by Disney that if you have a vacation in mind, they are the ones to book it for you. So again, head over to mypathunwinding.com slash DCl duo so they know we sent you their way. Thanks, mypath unwinding, for sponsoring the show. And with that, back to our episode.
All right, well, since we're talking about there, since we're talking about food, we've got another question here in the chat that I should put up, which was how was the food and what was the best meal on board, and why was it the fettuccine Alfredo and a Parmesan bowl? I don't know if you actually had that, Josh, but how was the food experience, the dining experience overall, and especially in relation to Disney?
[00:31:01] Speaker C: Yeah, sit down. Dining was really good. And I feel like even on Royal Caribbean, my wife would tell you that Disney is again, a notch above. I felt like it was pretty equivalent for main dining. We had a great waiter. They had a good menu. The one night we went, the other two nights it was a three night cruise. We were in specialty dining.
And so the cool part is the first place we went was it was called Crown Grill, which is their steakhouse, just like Paulo. It was really good. And the cool part is, since it was included in our fair, I felt like I can explore and try other things because to me, it's not like I'm paying extra for this. I really need it. Probably should get the filet. I know I like filet. My wife kind of stuck to her, tried and true, so I got to switch it up. So we went to the Crown royal, the crown grill, which was great. And then the italian restaurant sabatinis. Both of these on their own ala carte, are, like, a $39 a night upcharge.
[00:31:57] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:31:58] Speaker C: And the italian restaurant was phenomenal.
And both of them just like Paolo. Hey, here's a random appetizer that's included. Would you like a glass of champagne or a bellini that's included? Here's your four courses. Here's what I would recommend. I'll bring two of this. I mean, it was just excellent. And so the food quality on those restaurants I would put on par with Palo.
[00:32:23] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:32:24] Speaker C: I would say the best thing I ate, and this is the coolest part. And what I'm most excited for on the next princess cruise we're doing is our package also came with unlimited casual. It's like casual, upcharged dining. So they have a gastro pub, and it's like, per person is normally $19.
But for us, it was like, you can go there as many times as you want. And they had one of the best cheeseburgers I've ever had. Lobster Mac and cheese. That was delightful. And I was just like, this is a random casualty restaurant that's just popped up, basically. And it was spectacular. So all the food, very good. Zero complaints.
And with Disney, I think I'm harsh on Disney because the price point. Because you're paying twice, three times as much.
And I think I said the last time I came on, the more I go on Disney, the less I critique the food. And I think it's. The older my kids get, the more I'm just really happy to not do dishes.
Pick the meal out for me.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: I don't have to cook. I don't have to clean. I don't have to do the dishes. Exactly. That's a huge part of it. On any cruise, that sounds amazing. But it also sounds like you might have to worry about gaining, like, ten pounds in a three night cruise.
What's the exercise life like on board? Do we have a good running track? Listen, Josh is an active guy, avid biker.
Do they have a decent gym? Do they have decent classes? They have a running track. Our big criticism of the wish, of course, is that it doesn't have a decent running track because of all the stairs. But, yeah. Curious about what kind of active things are available to do on board.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:06] Speaker C: Thank you for clarifying, because when you said, I couldn't hear you, I thought you said extra fries instead of extra size.
They had a workout room.
A workout room that shows you how much I go to the gym. I call it a workout.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: A fitness center.
[00:34:24] Speaker C: Yeah. I don't go to the gym. I do all my own stuff. But, yeah, they had a fitness center. They had a ton of classes you could do, and our package included unlimited classes as well.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:34:34] Speaker C: And they did have a running walking track. It was great to walk on. It was up on the highest deck, and I want to say it was like ten laps for a mile.
[00:34:42] Speaker A: So it's like you're looping small ones.
[00:34:45] Speaker C: A lot, but, yeah.
The fitness center was not updated.
And so I was going to say narrow, but, like, low ceilings. But they had all the equipment people would normally want. When I go on a cruise, my favorite thing to do is run or I will get on a stationary bike at times, but I'm kind of anti pedaling on a bike and not going anywhere. I'm like, what's the point? The bikes are literally designed to get you.
Yeah.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: You're not a peloton guy is what you're saying.
[00:35:15] Speaker C: Right?
[00:35:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:16] Speaker C: Yes. Correct.
[00:35:18] Speaker B: Tracy wanted to know about the age demographic, which I think we answered earlier in the show. You said skewed a bit older. But I'm curious about the second part of this question, which was nightlife, because I've discovered on the cruises I've been on with my parents ages ago, when the cruise line skewed older, the sort of inverse was the nightlife.
So there's not a great nightlife on Disney cruise line or not as robust as, like, on a royal and especially a carnival. But I've also found that some of these cruise lines that skew a little older, the nightlife isn't there either because everyone's kind of going to bed early. But how is the nightlife? The bar set up. Live music is usually something that we see a lot of on cruise lines, not Disney and the bars at night. So. Yeah. How was the nightlife?
[00:35:57] Speaker C: Yeah, the nightlife was great. My cruise style is wake up early. I'm weird like that on vacation. I want to wake up early because it's like I have to enjoy packing the whole day.
[00:36:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:36:07] Speaker C: And then it's like, and then I'll take a nap in the afternoon. So I'm awake up early, take a nap, stay up late. And the nightlife was great. There was stand up comedians in separate areas. There was two showings of the variety shows. There was, like I said, the karaoke, which was a huge hit in musicians all over the ship in different areas, just like Disney does. And the cool part is in their atrium. There's usually always a musician at the bottom. And they do as well, like cornhole competitions where they'll put cornhole out. They'll do a bunch of know. Maybe chintzy isn't the right word. Cutesy games and activities that people enjoy.
[00:36:46] Speaker A: How did you find out about activities? Is it all in the app? Are there signs in different places that tell you what activities? Or do you get, as somebody mentioned from Facebook, a paper princess patter. Say that ten times fast paper.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: I think they mean planner. I think they mean planner or something.
[00:37:02] Speaker A: They mean pattern patter, Brian, that's what pattern. Like, we called the Disney Cruise line navigator. Right. It used to be the paper navigator. This is the paper princess patter.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: Wow. Okay. I haven't heard that term before. All right.
[00:37:13] Speaker C: Yeah, I did get a pattern. I was just going to give you a hard time, because I have no idea if that's right or not, but Sam's smarter than both of us.
[00:37:20] Speaker A: I think it is. I think it's had this.
[00:37:22] Speaker C: So they had the app that worked really well, and then, weirdly, the app was in real life, in real life form on a piece of paper. So I don't know if that. Yeah, that's what we're talking about. Yeah, they had the whole print on a piece of paper every night, which.
[00:37:35] Speaker A: Is really, you know, that's what Disney used to do before they forced us into using the app. And even when they forced us into using the app, they still had upon request, you could get a paper one. Now you can. But spoiler, it's just excel spreadsheet.
[00:37:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a print out of a spreadsheet.
[00:37:53] Speaker A: It's not, like, fancy, easy to read like it used to be. So for those, it's there because they.
[00:38:00] Speaker B: Might have to accommodate somebody with a paper version of the schedule for the day, but they don't have to make it look nice.
[00:38:06] Speaker A: It's because there are actually some people who don't have smartphones.
[00:38:09] Speaker B: Yeah. No, but Josh, I'm curious. You mentioned the app worked really well. What's the key differences between how it was showing information about the activities and cruise and that sort of thing from the navigator app that we have on DCL? Why did it work better, in your opinion?
[00:38:26] Speaker C: Well, I would say one, the Wifi is really great, so it's really smooth. I will say, I'm 33, I'm a young guy, but the paper navigator, it just works like you just can very easily see everything. So that was really nice. But the app, it was everything they had. Ordering food, ordering drinks, looking at the ship layout, every deck had a huge interactive screen that showed you what deck you're on, where you're at on the deck, and it's massive, so you can't miss it. And so all that made it very easy to know what's going on, find where you want to go, see what's open to eat. The app just worked really well. I personally do feel like Disney's app works really well. It works well for excursions and when you're on the ship. I don't have any issues with that. My tech issues with Disney are beforehand and all the registration and all that garbage is what it is.
[00:39:16] Speaker A: We have a couple of food questions that I feel like I need to follow up on in the chat, which know was there pool deck food offerings outside of ordering on the app? And was it good and did they have chicken tenders and were they life changing chicken tenders, as Disney likes to proclaim its own chicken tenders to.
[00:39:37] Speaker C: Not a. I'm not a chicken tender kind of guy.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: I think they're just ok, too. Josh. That's actually one thing we can't agree on. Truffle prosettes. We might not even agree completely on escargot, but we can agree on chicken tenders. Not that they're not okay. They're just, to me, there's nothing special about them.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: They are life changing.
Yeah.
[00:40:01] Speaker C: And we can agree that the escargot and every other cruise is far superior than Disney.
But no, they had, like, burgers, hot dogs. They had, like, nacho fries and other tacos, street tacos. All were pretty good. Their pizza rated the best pizza on any cruise line. Absolutely phenomenal.
So good. All my one bite pizza review lovers. I don't know if you guys are familiar. I think I referenced this before, but, yeah, there's a scale of pizza. I would give their pizza an easy 73, which sounds bad, but that's pretty good. I would give Disney pizza like a five one. Like, Disney Pizza is like as run of the mill as you can get. Royal Caribbean, I felt like was like run of the mill, but this was like, crispy crust with a little bit of softness. I really like pizza, if you haven't figured it out. And I'm getting very hungry for pizza. Right.
[00:40:54] Speaker A: But are you putting this on the scale of all.
[00:41:01] Speaker C: Oh, all pizza.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: Okay, but is this, like, New York style pizza, or is this more like, your know, cruise line? Smaller. Know, I'm talking like, a big piece that you can fold. Is it like that, or is it.
[00:41:16] Speaker C: Sam, Sam, your lack of knowledge of pizza. I know you're from New York, okay? I know you know good pizza. I'm not denying you do. But of all the styles, it's like a thin crust.
I don't know it that much either. So I'm making fun of you, but I don't know.
It's not New York.
[00:41:34] Speaker A: It's just like large New York. It's a small piece pizza.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:41:37] Speaker C: Yeah, but it's the dough and the ovens and. All right.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: Hold on. We have Ct saying, josh, you really are the DCl duo villain here for not liking the chicken tenders. And then we've got somebody else who wants to know, did they have a lava cake on board? Because they love the DCl lava cake.
[00:41:55] Speaker C: So the problem is we only ate in the main dining room once, so I can't speak to what they had and didn't have. I didn't get to eat the escargo, my favorite dish of any cruise line everywhere. Escargo is the best, but, yeah, so they probably do, but I didn't try it.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: Now, Tracy's also noting that there would not be any Mickey churro waffles on a princess cruise.
[00:42:18] Speaker B: Of course.
[00:42:19] Speaker A: Mean, of course there's that.
[00:42:22] Speaker B: I want to go to this question. Were there any special activities offered on board? So on other cruise lines, you get ship tours or officer Q a special guest speakers, anything like that that you caught on board?
[00:42:33] Speaker C: Josh, the answer is there are, but not on a three night cruise. So there are all those things. But it's usually a longer itinerary, which shouldn't come as a surprise. We know from Disney it's the same thing. They have the crew talent show, which you guys keep talking about. I'm like, that's the only thing I want to see. I can't wait to experience that. I know you guys, maybe guys, the three of us. The three of us will book a cruise. We'll all experience it together. Sam and I will go do Karaoke. It'll be great, right?
[00:42:59] Speaker A: That's right. Absolutely. And we'll get video of that, because I feel like people would want to see video of the two of us doing karaoke together. Josh.
[00:43:07] Speaker B: So, Josh, I want to hear about, was disembarkation as smooth of a process as embarkation? How was it in comparison to Disney with the big lines and the crowds trying to get off the.
[00:43:17] Speaker C: Oh, so the coolest part is you get a boarding time from princess and you just ignore it and you show up whenever you want and walk right on the ship. And then when you get off, you just get off whenever you want. And it took us two minutes, literally, in Vancouver. So super smooth, no issues. And the medallion is all you need as well to get off at port. And so that was all we needed to get off at Victoria. And again, so easy. I just love.
[00:43:42] Speaker B: Wait, you didn't have to bring id with you. You just needed the c medallion.
[00:43:46] Speaker C: I think you did have to bring id, but we didn't show it because it has our right, so.
[00:43:50] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Okay.
[00:43:51] Speaker A: Just pops up. They probably want you to have id just in case. Right? Just in case. Even with Disney, you have to bring your id. But oftentimes you don't get asked for your id when you're coming.
[00:44:02] Speaker B: But I feel like. I feel like the last time we went, though, we couldn't exit with a magic band. You had to exit with a key to the world card and an id and you had to show them the id as you got off the boat because I swear, they wouldn't let us tap out with a magic band.
[00:44:16] Speaker A: No, they wouldn't let you tap out with the magic band. They would let you tap out with the key to the world card. But they didn't make you show your id that you had your id with you wanted. They wanted you to have it with you, but they didn't.
[00:44:28] Speaker B: But I think Josh point would be on Disney, they ought to just let you tap out with the magic band. They've got your photo and then take your id. You should have id with you when you're off the ship and you need that to get back into the port. But yeah, this idea that. Okay, I've got three different things I've got to figure out. What Combination of to bring is a little ridiculous when they've got the magic band technology, but yeah.
Well, I think we should do a little versus here who wins on different issues. So, Sam, are you ready to go?
[00:44:59] Speaker A: I am ready to go.
[00:45:00] Speaker B: All right, here, let me play the music for you.
All right. Disney cruise line versus princess.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: Okay, this is a head to head competition.
All right, who wins on ease of booking?
[00:45:14] Speaker C: 100%, I would say princess cruise line, way easier. The whole process, getting ready to go on a cruise.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: All right, who wins for onboard activities?
[00:45:26] Speaker C: Again, Disney is going to win and a lot of these things. Disney is going to win and here's what I think a better question is. Right. Is, is Disney worth two to three times the price?
[00:45:38] Speaker A: We'll get there. We'll get.
[00:45:40] Speaker C: Sorry. Sorry. So Disney wins. Disney wins.
[00:45:42] Speaker B: They always don't short circuit the process.
[00:45:44] Speaker A: Yeah, the process is really important. Okay.
Adult bar spaces. Who's got better?
[00:45:51] Speaker C: Oh, I'll say a tie. I really enjoyed all the adult spaces on royal. They weren't just adult, though. It's just kind of everywhere.
[00:45:58] Speaker A: But I'll say a okay, shows.
[00:46:02] Speaker C: Oh, Disney. If anybody beats Disney, any other cruise line, I need to go on it because that would be incredible.
[00:46:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Kids clubs. Now understanding you didn't have your kids with you.
[00:46:13] Speaker C: Disney again at the kids clubs, the entertainment, that's the two things Disney is going to win and beat everyone.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: Okay. Service.
[00:46:22] Speaker C: Oh, I would, I would say tied with Disney. I wouldn't say one's better than the other.
[00:46:27] Speaker A: Okay.
And cabins.
[00:46:31] Speaker C: Honestly, very similar size. And the layout I liked better on the princess ship, it didn't have the split bathroom, but you walk in the door and you turn right and it's kind of a walk in closet feel. And then the bathroom's on the side. So the aesthetic and the style and design, Disney's going to win on that. And it's really hard to beat Disney on that. But the room layout itself, both my wife and I really liked having kind of the walk in closet feel.
[00:47:00] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Actually, I'm going to throw in. Thank you for CT giving me an extra question. Cleanliness. But I'm going to make this cleanliness upkeep.
[00:47:11] Speaker C: Yeah. They still do two room cleaning services a day, just like Disney. I didn't notice any cleanliness issues or excessive wear and tear. The only thing I noticed was the buffet and the rooms were in desperate need of updating. And so they were clean. It was very nice, but it was just like, yeah, we're going on 20 years and that's about the time they're overdue. It's kind of like having Bob Iger be in the golden Mickey's from 1998.
It's pretty bad, guys.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: At least get a new video of Bob Iger, even if you're going to have him as the guy in the video. Okay, now this is probably the most important question of all, because on cruises, everyone loves to eat, right? So food. Who's got better food or more variety of food? Take this however you want.
[00:48:07] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm going to have to go princess. And it's because of all the additional options for specialty dining, upgraded casualty dining, delivering pizza, wherever you're at and having drinks delivered wherever you're at. I mean, the other thing I forgot to mention, guys, espresso machines, all your drinks included all your espresso drinks. They have machines everywhere. All the desserts as well. They have a bunch of specialty desserts.
They beat out Disney.
[00:48:37] Speaker A: Wow. Okay. Well, then, of course, the final question, know, you put them up head to head, and you've got Disney being, as you mentioned, two, even three times the price, depending upon the itinerary on princess. You get deals on royal, right? You can't really get very many deals.
[00:48:59] Speaker B: Let me ask this question slightly differently, Josh. You could take the cruise that you took on Princess on Disney, but instead of $1,000 for the cruise with all the inclusions, let's say it's going to cost you $2,500 on Disney Cruise line, and that may be low under their current racing, but $2,500 on Disney Cruise line, but it doesn't include alcohol. You still got to pay for the Internet. You still got tips. So let's just say it ends up costing you a total of three grand. Let's just say three grand to go on the Disney cruise versus the princess cruise you took. Which one are you taking?
[00:49:34] Speaker C: And here is where the answer is even more nuanced. Right. I would say if it was just my wife and I without our kids, I would pick going on a cruise three times as much and do Disney on special occasions. That's me personally. I think the upgrades are worth it, but not regularly. And again, if the equivalent is going on a cruise three times more, I'm going to pick three times more cruising and go on Disney once every two or three years and make that something really special, which is why I have a Disney cruise booked for April or March 2025.
[00:50:14] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:50:14] Speaker B: Okay, we need to hear more about that here in a second. I wanted to put up this user's question because I think it's similar to what we're asking, which is now, having been on Disney, royal and princess, do you see any way you would take a family with kids on princess? If there was a choice to take a royal or a Disney cruise on a similar itinerary? I'm going to say leave out the part about similar costs, because there's no way that these would be similar costs. I think it'd be princess than Disney in terms of costs in most cases.
[00:50:40] Speaker C: So do you see a way that.
[00:50:41] Speaker B: You would take your kids on a princess cruise?
[00:50:44] Speaker C: You think they'd have a good time?
Yeah, I think my kids would have a good time. Yeah. Similar costs. I think maybe icon of the seas is the only because it's a hot new thing and it is a big, family inclusive ship being. Again, reminder, I am a true Disney fan. I love what Disney does. I love all the touches they do. And I would say if you're a true Disney fan, you're always going to pick Disney. If you're not or you're a casual Disney fan, I would encourage people to branch out and try royal Caribbean, try a princess. But if I wasn't and I had kids, I would pick royal Caribbean or Disney. Those are the two cruise lines I would go with. Princess seemed fine, but it skewed a bit older.
[00:51:27] Speaker B: Yeah, fair enough. So, Josh, it sounds like you've got maybe a couple more cruises booked here. What's next for you?
[00:51:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm full blown addiction. My wife, like, two weeks ago when we booked this princess cruise, she's like, can we not just do cruises for a vacation? I'm like, but the price is right. I mean, I'm just saying. So my wife and I in April are doing a seven night out of Long beach. No, not Long beach.
[00:51:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:56] Speaker C: In Lax, California. And it's a tour day, California. So it's San Francisco, San Diego, Catalina Island, Ensenada. It's a seven night cruise. And that's on their newest ship. It came out 2023, except for the brand new one. And so we're going to get a similar package. And we think with the seven nights, it's going to be even more awesome because they have a sushi bar so you can get fresh sushi, which the fact Disney doesn't have a hairy housens is still ridiculous.
[00:52:28] Speaker A: Absolutely. They are missing prime theming. I totally am with you on mean. I could just think of the decor with the octopus sushi chef behind the counter.
[00:52:42] Speaker B: So that one's on princess, you said, josh, it's a similar.
[00:52:45] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: But a newer ship. The newest ship outside of their latest second newest ship. Yeah. And then you mentioned another cruise on Disney. When's that one? Yeah.
[00:52:53] Speaker C: So that one, I think is April 2025. And that is me and my wife and our kids. My parents and her parents and our parents. Both of them live 15 minutes away and they live two doors apart, which talk about how rare that is. And we do a family dinner with all of us, like every week. It's great. We're all going out of Galveston and going down to San Juan via.
I don't even know the name Nassau because I don't care.
[00:53:25] Speaker A: You're not getting off the ship.
[00:53:26] Speaker C: Yeah. Nassau castaway Key and then Lighthouse point and then ending in San Juan. So that's seven night on the magic. I am really debating doing. I think it's a four night from San Juan back to Fort Lauderdale.
[00:53:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:44] Speaker C: So that's my temptation right now.
[00:53:46] Speaker A: Yeah. The back to back is a fantastic experience and it's a big draw. And of course, on the magic, as we've talked about, she's just come out of dry dock and so she's really looking beautiful in many places. Of course, there are still some issues in other places, but that sounds like a fantastic itinerary for sure. And of course, the better deals out of Galveston and Fort Lauderdale than you're going to get out of Port Canaveral for sure.
[00:54:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:14] Speaker C: And we wanted to do the treasure, but the price of the treasure was a lot higher and so we went, you know what, we prefer this itinerary. I really want to check out Lighthouse point. Obviously, Castaway Key is the best place in the world, so I'm excited to go on that itinerary.
[00:54:30] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:54:30] Speaker B: So I missed a couple of questions that we had over on Instagram. I just wanted to. One question, one comment. I wanted to make sure that we answered and said so over on Instagram. Someone's asking, is room service included on Princess?
[00:54:45] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a limited room service, but there is room service. So much fewer items than Disney.
[00:54:50] Speaker B: Okay. And then someone is correcting us that they have finally updated the Golden Mickey's. It now has Captain Minnie in the show as opposed to the old clips of Bob Iger. I hadn't seen that. We haven't seen that.
[00:55:02] Speaker A: Only on the saying. So Taryn's saying she's thrilled to see Bob gone on the dreams version of the Golden Mickeys and it updated with Captain Minnie. I hope that they've done that on the magic as well, although we haven't. Is it the magic now?
[00:55:16] Speaker C: It's the wonder.
[00:55:16] Speaker A: Sorry, the wonder. Thank you. We haven't been on the wonder in about a year now because she is over, of course, in Australia and New Zealand doing those sailings. But hopefully, if they haven't updated, hopefully that update is coming soon. So thank you for that info, Taryn.
[00:55:33] Speaker B: And one question we got on Facebook that was not about princess, but I wanted to answer was only been on DCL since 2017.
Have the magic staterooms been updated since it started? And the answer to that is yes. She just underwent a dry dock. I don't know, actually. I don't think they updated the regular staterooms.
Those staterooms have been updated since she first sailed. In the recent dry dock, they updated some of the concierge staterooms to improve those staterooms a bit. Although our last cruise on the magic, I would say the workman or the craftsmanship on those rooms was not up to the same standards as what we've seen on other concierge staterooms on Disney cruise line. So the staterooms have been updated since she first sailed. I don't know when the last time they updated those main staterooms was, but.
[00:56:17] Speaker A: Oh, and somebody else is telling us the wonder updated the Golden Mickey's as well. So great news. Thank you for telling us, folks. We haven't, like I said, haven't been on the wonder in a while, so we really appreciate the up to date information that we're getting from folks who've been on the wonder more recently. Amazing.
[00:56:34] Speaker B: Well, with that, I think we will wind down our show. We're trying to keep them to an hour here for these live shows. So thank you everyone out there for watching again. Next week, 05:30 p.m. Pacific 08:30 p.m. Eastern we will be talking with Rebecca Sutcliffe, who does the DCL community, the largest Facebook group for Disney Cruise line fans out there, and just a wonderful, wonderful creator in person. So we can't wait to chat with her. So mark your calendars for that next week and with that, Josh, our DCL villain. Thank you for coming back. You're welcome anytime, man. We love having you on the show. Thanks so much.
[00:57:06] Speaker C: You guys are the best. Thank you.
[00:57:11] Speaker B: Well, a big thank you to all of you out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you can keep getting great content from the DCL duo each week. We'd also love it if you'd head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a five star review. If you hit those five stars, that's great. If you leave us a written review along with a five star review, we will be sure to read it on the air at the end of one of our main episodes. If you're hovering over anything less than five stars, we really want you to reach out to us so we can take your feedback. Best way to do that? Head to dcl.com to find all the ways to connect with us. It links to our podcast, our vlog. Our blog has all the ways you can connect with us on social media, has our Etsy store where you can find our fun beach bags and magnets that we designed as enthusiasts of each of the Disney Cruise line ships has a link off to our Patreon if you'd like to help support the show. We really, truly appreciate each and every one of our Patreons for helping to support the show. Each and every month has a link off to our show sponsor my path unwinding where you can get more information about booking a fabulous vacation, which also really helps to support our show. All the things are there, including a way you can sign up to be a guest on the show if you'd like to share your Disney Cruise line experience. Most importantly, you can always email us at
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