Episode Transcript
00:00.00
dclduo
Welcome back to another episode of the dcl duo podcast brought to you by my path unwinding travel as you can tell because you're hearing my voice instead of Brian's Brian is not joining me today. He's actually under the weather so he's unable to join this recording today. But I am so lucky. Because I have with me a repeat guest but not just like a repeat guest. This is this guest is like a little I'll call her a mini celebrity. Um, because on Disney Cruise line she was a entertainment cast member and following our show. And I'm sure she got this a lot even before our show but following our show a lot of our fans would come up to her on the on the ship and tell her they had heard her on the Dcl Duo Podcast and they were so excited to meet her so I want to welcome back to the show Rebecca welcome.
00:50.40
Rebecca Bailey
Thank you so much Sam and to all your listeners I love you guys so much you made me feel like a celebrity and made me look really cool in front of my in front of my co-workers. So thank you for that back.
01:00.64
dclduo
Ah, oh we love that? Yeah well, we're so happy to have you back as I said I'm sorry Brian is not able to join us. He really wanted to chat with you? Um, he also wanted to chastise you for stealing our rapid fire round before the twenty Fifth anniversary fireworks
01:16.18
Rebecca Bailey
You know if it's rough out there Sam in the middle of the atlantic ocean using an hour of sleep each day you got to do what you got to do but now I love your rapid fire questions.
01:18.27
dclduo
But.
01:29.73
dclduo
I love it. Well we love it. We are so flattered. Um and actually really excited to hear that anything from our show was replicated on Disney Cruise line whatsoever. Um, and.
01:39.77
Rebecca Bailey
Um.
01:41.38
dclduo
But you know I I wanted to talk to you again or we wanted to have you back now that you have you went on your second contract with Disney Cruise line and you got to do the european season which I know is something you were looking forward to going back on the dream. But this time getting to go to Europe but before we do that I want to let folks know. What's going on or like why don't we let folks know what's going on in your life like right now because you're home. You finished your contract and you are not going back to Disney Cruise line but tell us where you will be going.
02:11.46
Rebecca Bailey
Know yes I am not going back to Disney Cruise line if you talk to me at all during the europe season. This I talked about this a lot so this is definitely the move I wanted to make but in Europe I was just having so much fun in these ports. Was just so amazing to be out in the world but still have that Disney magic at my back like it wasn't just a trip I was taking on my own and I've wanted to work for them for a while. So I'll be switching over to the adventures by Disney team as an adventure guide.
02:45.44
dclduo
Well I love it. We are so excited as you know Rebecca and as our audience knows we just got back from our very first adventures by Disney Adventure and we did a river cruise on the danube and the.
02:47.82
Rebecca Bailey
That's.
03:00.29
dclduo
Thing that we were huge fans of which was the adventure guides I mean they are amazing I think they are quite similar in. Um, it's a quite similar role to Disney Cruise line entertainment except plus right you are sort of. Entertaining the guests but you are also part of their sort of tour guide team. You are operations logistics you are basically everything all in 1 to all of the all of the guests on your adventure. So huge role huge congratulations to you. We're so excited and we can't wait to hear. What's going on and where you are in the world. Once you start? Um, once you start actually doing the the tours I know you're getting ready to go to training. So yeah, so why don't we we talk though about ah your last contract because I feel like that's the thing you know we have we want to update folks on. How things went in Europe on the dream. It was your it was the dreams first time overseas to to the european market. Obviously the magic had been going there for many many years and we know there were some logistical challenges. Um, but we want to know like from the cast. Perspective like what were some of the difficult things about whether it was the the crossing or arriving in Europe but what were some of the challenges you guys faced.
04:23.51
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, so I have so many thoughts but my contract started 2 cruises before the crossing. So I lucked out really like I really had the ideal timing I got over four months in Europe and like I left. With only 2 cruises left 1 of them was a repeat of what we had already done in 1 of them was the Uk which is a place I had most recently traveled on my own. So other than that I got all of the ports I think it ended up being like 40 of them. Um, by the time I left. So I saw a lot. A lot of things and we all learned a lot too. I think there was just so much like it wasn't new to Disney Cruise line the magic's been doing it for years but the dream is a very different ship from the magic. Not only is it almost like twice the size physically with cast and with guests and all of that. But I think that was a huge challenge and like I think there was a lot of expectations for things to stay the exact same and they just weren't going to be the exact same but we had a lot of fun too like I loved the transatlantic I thought it was so much and it was so great to be a part of that. Everyone was so excited.
05:33.69
dclduo
Yeah.
05:40.80
Rebecca Bailey
Like if you talk to like any crew member they had been waiting for this for a year because it had been a little over a year. Um that they announced so we were going to Europe so there had been people who had been working on the dream for almost like a decade who had just been doing the Nassau Castway Express and.
05:43.87
dclduo
Right.
05:52.65
dclduo
Wow wow.
05:58.78
Rebecca Bailey
Excited to go to a new place so there was so much excitement on the trend Atlantic was awesome. It was very hard with the time change I imagine going a lot more fun. But.
06:08.61
dclduo
Oh yeah, yeah.
06:14.50
Rebecca Bailey
It was very hard I won't lie like losing an hour of sleep almost every night was it was hard. It got to like C day six and we're like all right I'm kind of over it. But the things that we were doing were really fun, but the time change was really hard.
06:17.50
dclduo
A Wow what's up.
06:29.94
Rebecca Bailey
Um, but usually they kept it consistent like every morning I did art of the theme show into helping with the morning show which people loved they loved it. Yeah, definitely Lee was the cruise director at the time and he's amazing. It definitely got to his head and I would like say that to his face. But.
06:37.20
dclduo
Oh yeah, they did the live morning show right.
06:48.69
Rebecca Bailey
Ah, he was getting too confident. He was acting like he was Jimmy Fallon and like people greeted him like that that he was like a late night tv show hope and they were really funny like it was funny. But I think I got to their head a little bit too much silly, but that was something people. Loved.
06:54.60
dclduo
He was a celebrity.
07:07.10
Rebecca Bailey
Um, we had some imagineers as well talking about Disney history. So whenever I could go see that I would and just all of the entertainment that the cruise staff team does we were kind of running that ship at a certain point too. The character was all over the place but like six days at Sea Cruise staff is doing all of those events.
07:20.70
dclduo
Um, oh yeah.
07:24.72
dclduo
Oh my God Yeah, you're doing all these different trivias all these different game shows all these different like you know obviously meet and greets for the for the character and the character handlers like deck parties I mean.
07:26.95
Rebecca Bailey
Like.
07:39.55
dclduo
It's It's a ton and you keep losing an hour of sleep every night or every other night. Oh my goodness.
07:41.87
Rebecca Bailey
Exactly I lucked out I was on the morning shift like my manager did a good job of you were either up early ending around dinner time or sleeping in but going until late night in evolution that kind of situation.
07:56.71
dclduo
Me here.
08:00.60
Rebecca Bailey
So that helped but no it was it was busy um it it was but it was still really, really fun and then we were just so excited to get to our first port too like that Atlantic was just the very first thing that we were excited for um so seeing land and going out next wing for the first time everyone was just so so excited.
08:07.26
dclduo
Yeah, yeah.
08:19.16
Rebecca Bailey
But it was really cool to be a part of I done a transitlantic when I was a kid I was like 8 or 9 and I remember having a very good time but it was cool to do it as a crew member for sure. Definitely a bucket list cruise to work.
08:31.66
dclduo
Oh my goodness I imagine so um I would love to hear some of your favorite you know ports that you got to visit while you were over in Europe obviously the transatlantic itself is is a fantastic itinerary. But then you've got all these fantastic itineraries throughout. You know you've got some ah stuff out of Southampton. You've got some stuff out of Barcelona you've got some med cruises you've got iceland you've got Norway. It's like it's just every there's so many bucketless cruises on there. So what would.
09:01.40
Rebecca Bailey
Now.
09:04.46
dclduo
Say Actually let's start with itinerary. What would you say of all of the cruises that you did what individual itinerary was your favorite and why.
09:12.28
Rebecca Bailey
I think my favorite was some of them blur together a little bit but I'm pretty sure this all existed as 1 itinerary is out of copenhagen and it was the one that hit Oslo. FredericiaStockholm I'm forgetting a big one for sure. But like that Northern European Collection amsterdam as well. There is one that included amsterdam that's my favorite 1.
09:37.93
dclduo
Yeah, how fantastic.
09:45.74
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, the one that has copenhagen oslo Amsterdam and Stockholm that is my right? Um, but what I learned a lot is that I think there's some places that one of the best ways to visit them is on a cruise and I think there's a lot of places that are much better just to go.
09:48.10
dclduo
Oh amazing.
10:04.54
Rebecca Bailey
And actually spend time in these cities either on your own as part of something like an abd trip something like that. But just where with the cruise it's like dangling in in front of you and you just can't see it fully? Um, but yeah I loved all of the Northern European ports Some of my favorites.
10:15.60
dclduo
Um, yeah.
10:23.73
Rebecca Bailey
Are there like I know a trip I'm planning for myself just as a vacation not connected to a cruise I want to go back to Copenhagen and oslo because I loved those. So so much and did not have enough time for either of those 2 cities and just the nature that surrounds both of them that was my favorite part about oslo it's a fascinating city. So many young people so much like culture and fashion and all of that. But then you could take a boat ride and spend 15 minutes and be in the middle of a fjord like osla is in one of my favorite places and then Copenhagen like 1 So for Copenhagen.
10:53.20
dclduo
Um, ah amazingly yeah.
11:00.57
Rebecca Bailey
For some reason they didn't let crew get off the ship until every guest had left. No idea why no other port made us do that and 1 of our embark ports so we had to wait until like ten thirty or eleven to leave. But as soon as they let us off.
11:08.41
dclduo
Huh. Oh wow.
11:16.64
Rebecca Bailey
My friend and I rented bikes from a bike stand that was across the street from the port and rode all the way into the middle of the city and then explored a little bit and rode back like it was it was just it's a really special place for sure. But yeah so I loved Northern I Love Northern Europe But I.
11:27.13
dclduo
Yeah, that sounds.
11:33.86
Rebecca Bailey
Think my possible all time favorite port because we went there so much and people hate on it a little bit but I loved Naples in italy I think if you plan it well it can be like the best port for sure the actual city of Naples is whatever.
11:41.74
dclduo
Um, oh yeah.
11:52.28
Rebecca Bailey
I will say I had some of the best pizza I've ever had ever in people I know and you could stumble upon any place and it's going to be a great marery to pizza ass. It is the birthplace of marreed pizza. But there was this one restaurant I'm forgetting what it's called. But if you look up like best pizza in Naples it is that it was.
11:53.15
dclduo
But it's the home of pizza. Yeah, but.
12:11.67
Rebecca Bailey
So good. But with Naples and Naples is on almost all of the mediterranean sail. So if you're planning a mediterranean sailing. You'll go to Naples Naples we dock within like a 5 minute walk of a ferry station.
12:17.62
dclduo
A.
12:29.64
Rebecca Bailey
That has all of the ferries to capri and soento and postitanno as well. So just good gateway to that whole part of italy and I remember 1 of the first places I went like fully on my own when I was just having a super bad day I told my manager I was like I need a break so you gave me a very generous.
12:33.34
dclduo
Oh wow.
12:49.40
Rebecca Bailey
5 hour break and I went to capri and just took a boat right around the whole island I got sandals made to my feet like it was just a really special and easy to do um excursion on my own. But. I did an excursion with port of ventures as well in Naples that went and it's a very popular one. It goes to Capri Sorento and Pompei and amazing as well. It was fast but it was amazing to see three really cool places in one day. Yeah, so I love.
13:14.21
dclduo
Um, oh wow. Yeah yeah, that sounds that sounds awesome.
13:23.80
Rebecca Bailey
Was.
13:25.82
dclduo
Now Did you get to do when you were on. You know when you were in Europe for the season. Did you get to do a lot of port of ventures or are you I don't want to say stuck on the ship but stuck on the ship you know of most of the port days.
13:37.18
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, yeah, um, our team had a very special partnership with port adventures and I think this is actually where I shined the most and my job was for. We did dispatch as we call it so that's sending out all of the porta ventures.
13:50.81
dclduo
Right? right.
13:53.50
Rebecca Bailey
And some ports it was over 2000 people going on in port of venture usually within three or four hours of each other so we have to get everyone checked in and everyone on those where a bus a boat wherever they're going so that is the crewise staff team checking people in and then we give a little spiel and tell them whatever they need to know so it was a.
14:10.50
dclduo
Right.
14:12.58
Rebecca Bailey
Huge part of our job like most days looked like starting at 6 or 7 in the morning doing port of ventures dispatch. You have a little bit of a break depending on the day and then you come back at night for regular activities. Once we get sailing. So.
14:18.74
dclduo
Here.
14:31.66
Rebecca Bailey
So yeah, our team had a very special relationship with porto venturetures and since we were in europe and some of these ports. We only go to like 3 or 4 times a year they would often send either cruise staff people sometimes youth activities photography went a lot so did merchandise. They would send us on port of ventures and it would count towards our hours as well. So we were literally getting paid to go on them. It was really awesome. Yeah, so yeah, but we we were just we didn't know anything or we didn't really have a full responsibility with leading the tour because.
14:52.99
dclduo
Um, oh Wow yeah.
15:06.69
dclduo
Right.
15:09.53
Rebecca Bailey
All done by the third parties that we work with so we just got like talk to guests enjoy take pictures like all of that kind of stuff so I did that like 5 or 6 times and it was really really cool. A great opportunity. Exactly.
15:11.42
dclduo
Right.
15:18.64
dclduo
Oh Wow Yeah, so you get to be like a quasi guest slash helper right? like you're not leading the tour but you're there if like a guest needs some kind of you know assistance or asks a question but you're also getting getting to enjoy the tour yourself. That's.
15:27.95
Rebecca Bailey
And.
15:34.77
Rebecca Bailey
Exactly Yeah, it was cool and if you played your cards right? if you got on a long enough port of venture that would be your whole day of work which was really nice. Yeah yeah, that was really cool.
15:37.67
dclduo
Yeah, that's pretty great that sounds amazing.
15:47.43
dclduo
Ah, so when you came back, you wouldn't have to do like the nighttime activities or anything. Ah.
15:52.98
Rebecca Bailey
But I was there was one day where I did I did the long one in Naples I think it was like a nine or ten hour port adventure and then I came back and hosted the fireworks show at night. So like sometimes that's just how the cards fall as well. But yeah, that was.
15:57.88
dclduo
Um, yeah, ah that sounds exhausting.
16:08.71
Rebecca Bailey
And I that was a very difficult day. It had a hot tub break in the middle of it like once I got back and before I hosted the show my friend and I sat in the hot tub for like an hour which helps. But yeah, so it's not. It's not always like that but very cool to have those 2 very different experiences in one day
16:21.79
dclduo
Yeah, yeah, well it it sounds like um, you know from other folks that we've talked to and you know had on the show that there were some new things that were introduced on the ship for the European season The dream specifically. Um, obviously we know that we had animation magic and crush both on the dream which hadn't happened before um there was that new color Spin Deck show right? instead of the frozen deck show is that right.
16:54.44
Rebecca Bailey
It is right? Yes, no frozen because we're not magic. That was the main thought behind it.
16:58.00
dclduo
Yeah, no, yeah, So do you like how did that go because my impression is that people were a little one disappointed that frozen deck party didn't happen and were kind of meh about the color spin nobody thought it was bad. Had but it was just like it was just like another character dance party but I'm curious from your perspective. How did those land with the guests or how did those sort of decisions land with the guests.
17:27.57
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, so for frozen specifically I see the logic behind it a little bit I Just don't think since there was no communication around it I think that's what led to the disappointment but like it's an old show like it's an old in the frozen deck party I haven't.
17:44.40
dclduo
And it is no I'm I'm with you Rebecca it's it's cute, but it's not like a we've only seen it once when we we saw it in Norway when we sailed on the magic the season before you were in Europe and it was cute.
17:46.38
Rebecca Bailey
Done it or seen it in person. It's not like that's anything to like believe its not stuff either. You know so I see the thought.
18:03.74
dclduo
But I thought it was going to be better than it was I like I like the I like the saile away party better as far as deck parties. Go Yeah um.
18:07.10
Rebecca Bailey
Um, yeah.
18:10.17
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, So I think it was just that nothing was communicated and like sometimes there would be pirate nights and sometimes there wouldn't so that was weird and then we did like a pirate let night light where like we would do some but not all of it. So like I think just weird weird decisions followed by no communication. But like the quality of entertainment was still there. It was just like people didn't really know what was going on So I Thought that was weird like I think that I'm ah my other major in school was public relations I think that would have been a very quick like an email going to fix that. But anyway I worked on color spin as Well. So actually to go back a little bit.
18:32.64
dclduo
Yeah.
18:41.53
dclduo
Yep.
18:49.31
Rebecca Bailey
The super fun thing that happened it was not fun but they had the ah shore side team because for entertainment with Disney Cruise line there is shore side. Those is a people who usually work and live in Florida they are writing scripts their're workshoping choreography. They're directing and designing these shows. And then there is the shipboard team who is maintaining these shows doing schedules and being our managers so they work separately. But then sometimes shoreside will come on for a few weeks install a bunch of new shows and then they will leave so whoever scheduled this I i. I I have some words for them but they had shore side come on the day. The transatlantic started so all throughout the first four weeks of Europe we were having rehearsals and we learned 13 new shows as compared to like the already 30 to 40 we were doing so.
19:31.70
dclduo
Oh wow.
19:42.57
dclduo
Oh my goodness.
19:45.78
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, so our workload wasn't for the hosts mostly our workload was increasing so much and the whole time everyone was like oh go explore Europe like have so much fun seen the world like you have a rehearsal for 4 hours but
19:49.78
dclduo
Yeah.
19:56.41
dclduo
You're like I can't.
20:02.70
Rebecca Bailey
And then you have a 2 hour break but go explore Europe you're gonna love it. So it was like a huge jux but juxtaposition. But and our workload increased so much and like they're there's a very big like I don't know they they don't like to acknowledge when stuff sucks.
20:07.63
dclduo
Yeah, yeah.
20:21.98
Rebecca Bailey
Because then it can just lead to a snowbaling and a possible mutiny because it is still a ship but mutiny of the crew staff team exactly and make us stay in navals. So we can't leave no but I don't yeah so.
20:22.24
dclduo
He ah.
20:29.74
dclduo
Ah, entertainment's going to take over the the engine room. But.
20:40.33
dclduo
Yeah, yeah, right.
20:40.78
Rebecca Bailey
That was all going on and the all the things you said were part of it. Twenty fifth anniversary was part of it animation magic which many people don't know I won't ruin the magic fully but your crew staff team is running that even in animator palette. Um, the color spin dance party was part of that we probably had like.
20:52.86
dclduo
Um, right? yeah.
21:00.56
Rebecca Bailey
Fiveish shows in the kids club that were part of that. So a lot of new stuff got added most of it happened during the transatlantic. Um, we had rehearsals for it and would do tests and all of that but with color spin I was so excited for it. It's such a great premise.
21:03.67
dclduo
Um, oh okay.
21:08.12
dclduo
Wow.
21:17.31
dclduo
Yeah.
21:19.46
Rebecca Bailey
And but it doesn't replace a full themed night. It is just it will show. It doesn't come with a menu in the restaurants or like other satellite shows before it. So it's just I think it's a great show and I think it's one of the more.
21:22.77
dclduo
Yeah, right.
21:37.73
Rebecca Bailey
Energetic and like thought like more I don't know it feels it reminded me of Disneyland like I think a lot of our shows feel very Disney world like they've been going on for 10 years we love them like they're so fun. They're classic and they're great, but it's like the festival of fantasy versus like.
21:42.46
dclduo
Oh.
21:56.48
Rebecca Bailey
Um, magic happens. You know like it's those 2 feelings where there are 2 great parades but like magic happens just just so fresh, but it also has all that nostalgia and it's so fine. So that's what color spin felt like um and I did the workshop for it. So I was like.
21:57.59
dclduo
Okay, yeah.
22:08.85
dclduo
Yep.
22:14.91
dclduo
E.
22:15.17
Rebecca Bailey
The first host to do it and I did like the voice recordings for it and I worked on it. So so much ultimately got taken off of it which was a huge bummer. Um, yeah, yeah, it was. It was actually really bad and like was just one of those moments of like huh.
22:23.50
dclduo
Oh it did. We didn't hear that interesting.
22:34.85
Rebecca Bailey
You can work really hard at something and ultimately it's not really up to you or like not and not that it doesn't matter but in that situation it did not so I learned a lot from that definitely changed my my just perspective a little bit on things. But.
22:35.70
dclduo
Did not work. With it.
22:48.90
dclduo
Nice here.
22:53.56
Rebecca Bailey
But yeah, so they ended up having I did it a couple times but it just it was just changing. It's the Shore side shipboard just budding heads and and all of that. But yeah, when you're working. For Cruise Line. You just have to be able to go with anything they throw at you and I'm not good at that. So So um, part of my decision making there but but yeah anyway I think it is a great show.
23:13.99
dclduo
Rape.
23:21.11
dclduo
Ah, yeah.
23:26.72
Rebecca Bailey
And they wanted it to be such like a dance party which is fun but ended up just being the hosts kind of yelling at you and I wasn't as good at that because I didn't think it made sense and then they wait.
23:28.30
dclduo
Right.
23:36.18
dclduo
Ah, well I will tell you the feedback that we got from folks having not of course to experience it ourselves so you know folks who are listening. You can take this with a grain of salt like this is not my personal opinion of Bryan's personal opinion. Um, you know people said that the one of the misses to them seemed to be It was very. Kid geared but it was at ten o'clock at night so a lot of the kid on on nights that you were either in you know, transatlantic or you were um at ports for very very long days as you mentioned. You know some of these excursions are 9 hours 10 hours and they start often early in the morning or the meeting time is early in the morning so having a ten o'clock at night dance party that's geared to kids is a little rough right? And so the yeah so I know like a lot of adults that you know stayed up for it and went to it and they were like.
24:15.75
Rebecca Bailey
Um, from it.
24:28.19
dclduo
This is cute but it's for kids and I'm just going to go to sleep or go day or I'm going to go down to evolutions and go watch match your made or whatever else was going on there. So.
24:36.50
Rebecca Bailey
No, and it's it's honestly kind of a bummer that like it got that people thought it was for kids because the actual show itself is not. It was inspired by like the director for it. Went to a non Disney sponsored dance party.
24:44.47
dclduo
Um, yeah.
24:52.29
dclduo
Oh cool. Yeah.
24:54.55
Rebecca Bailey
In a club like an 18 plus club in Sub C where they were playing disney rave music and the people loved it and he saw that and said oh my gosh. That's awesome. We should do something like that so they want it that was the inspiration for it and it uses mostly ninety. S.
25:02.94
dclduo
Ah, oh Wow I.
25:14.10
dclduo
I How interesting yeah how I bet I would have loved it. Oh and you're telling me the music I feel like I would love that. Yeah.
25:14.41
Rebecca Bailey
Disney Music it's the goofy movie. It's Hercules and they wanted it. Yeah like it's a I would recommend a video of it like yeah, it's a great show but they wanted it to be a dance party because. They have it in their mind that dance parties are very popular. But if if they took out the parts where the hosts were encouraging people to dance ah continuously throughout it and you could just sit and watch it It's a great show and I don't think it is meant to come across as for kids because it's really not the Target audience.
25:32.96
dclduo
Maybe.
25:46.33
dclduo
Um, yeah.
25:50.80
Rebecca Bailey
Is that like millennial Disney lover. So yeah I think it was an experiment and I think they learned a lot from it and I hope they keep moving in that direction and just like flush it out a little bit more.
25:51.91
dclduo
Right? right? Yeah so younger Disney adult. Essentially yeah.
26:02.71
dclduo
Yeah, yeah, that sounds that makes total sense to me. What were some of the the highlights of like activities that you got to participate in you know throughout the the season whether new or old or what have you.
26:20.40
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, so I was part of we alluded to this earlier I was the main host for the twenty fifth anniversary fireworks on the dream. So I did all of that like every performance of it. Um, for the first.
26:25.82
dclduo
Yeah.
26:33.40
dclduo
Um.
26:35.34
Rebecca Bailey
3 it was a different show each time which was fun. It.
26:38.84
dclduo
Oh interesting like well can you tell us what changed because I wouldn't know obviously we so I mean we did see it. Um, but we saw it I want to say later in the season actually as we saw it in the middle of the season at the beginning of August then we saw it again. Um, ah on the wish first and then we saw it again on the magic but we only had the fireworks on the magic. We didn't get the fireworks and the wish because of the itinerary. What not? yeah.
27:06.70
Rebecca Bailey
Gotcha yeah, but I think it was it was one of those shows and each ship kind of had this increase in shows ours just happened to be at the transatlantic I think the magic was during their dry dock a couple weeks before us. So like all the shows were doing that and rolling out all of these new shows and that one was just the most open ended. So I think every ship kind of adapted it to make it work so I can only speak for the dream. But the first fifteen minutes of it. In the first iteration were meant to be interviews and that's where that question me asking that question came from um because they were it was unscripted. It was supposed to be like we had done it for New Year's eve and it was wildly successful where we like interviewed people in the crowd as we were waiting till midnight asking them. Cute questions.
27:42.40
dclduo
How interesting yeah.
27:54.50
Rebecca Bailey
And they saw themselves on funnel vision like it was so much fun when we did it for new year's yeah, exactly so it was supposed to be that but it was like weird to have that be the first fifteen minutes of the show and then that eventually changed to like.
27:54.83
dclduo
Yeah, it's like Golden Mickey's it's like the red carpet. Yeah I love that.
28:09.38
dclduo
Um.
28:11.18
Rebecca Bailey
That wasn't the actual show but it was the 15 minutes before so like it that's it shifted that but we would pick families from the audience and bring them up on stage and ask them questions so like my teammate and I who were doing it at the beginning had to like come up with all of these questions.
28:14.84
dclduo
Ah.
28:27.10
dclduo
All right.
28:29.63
Rebecca Bailey
And fill these 15 minutes um so that was definitely a challenge but it.
28:33.38
dclduo
15 minutes is a long period of time people don't realize this like if you're having to interview somebody for 15 minutes or interview multiple people over the course that that's a long that's a long time.
28:41.97
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, it is yeah it was definitely a challenge but I will say it contributed to how I feel now like this job has been huge for me of like how much I've grown as a public speaker like having to do stuff like that daily.
28:56.33
dclduo
M.
29:01.45
Rebecca Bailey
I know I could go in front of any group of people and say anything that needs to be said and I don't think there's many jobs that could prepare you for that on this scale. Um, another one happened during Marvel too that I use this as an example, all the time for Marvel day at sea where they would they would do heroes unite the big deck show.
29:07.48
dclduo
Oh yeah.
29:17.14
dclduo
Oh yeah.
29:20.19
Rebecca Bailey
And then we would usually work the accessible zone during that. So anyone who's either like using a wheelchair or has any other needs that require a zoned off space would come to us so crewstaff does that and during the marvel show. It's 4000 people on that deck trying to see it so it was a very just like chaotic situation. So we'd go from like running the wheelchair section or the accessible zone rather and then they would throw a host on stage after all of the Marvel characters had left to like Hype the crowd up tell them what's coming next and like.
29:35.73
dclduo
Oh wow.
29:49.80
dclduo
Wow.
29:52.62
Rebecca Bailey
Was often my job after Heroes unite as well. So even though it was so brief but like unscripted having to go up there and tell them whatever is happening next in the day and then run back and keep manning the accessible zone like moving sanchions and moving chairs. So like that's the sum up the cruise staff job. Um.
30:02.54
dclduo
Oh my good and less.
30:08.51
Rebecca Bailey
Of all, ah doing all of the grunt work but then also going up on stage and talking in front of thousands of people. But yeah, the fireworks I don't know it was cool and I got to count down so this is the back to the no more marvel back to the twenty fifth fireworks but I got to like count down the fireworks and then shot off from the ship. So I could say 3 to 1 and fire.
30:13.20
dclduo
Yeah.
30:21.97
dclduo
Oh fun.
30:28.42
Rebecca Bailey
Go That was really really cool. So it was it was cool to be part of a new show but it comes with this growing pains for sure.
30:33.51
dclduo
Yeah, absolutely that makes sense What what were? what would you say were your favorite things about being now that you're now that you've left I mean it's you didn't quit. You just didn't re-up your contract. But now that you've left. What would you say your favorite things about being.
30:48.56
Rebecca Bailey
Um, and.
30:52.93
dclduo
Part of Cruise entertainment staff were and then maybe one of your least favorite things.
30:57.99
Rebecca Bailey
I will say my 2 favorite things especially after being able to be on the dream in Europe is I went to like 13 countries in the span of 1 summer 40 different cities. There is no other way you could do that and not have to pay. Travel or a hotel once. So like that is insane so being able to do that was so unique and so special and even if we did only have 2 hours off in a city. It was still way better than not having done that at all. So I am like so grateful for that experience in being able to travel so much and I traveled a lot when I was younger with my family we would travel for months at a time as well. Um, back when I was really young. So like I knew that was always a part of me but it felt like I got to reup that a little bit and like as an adult be able. To get an intense level of travel. Um, it definitely helped for moving to adventure by Disney that's for sure. Yeah, um, so yeah, that was something I will be forever grateful for it and is such a special time. Ah for sure and I got to visit so many places.
32:00.57
dclduo
Ah, yeah.
32:12.22
Rebecca Bailey
And the other big one is lifelong friends like I have people on that ship that ah that are still there that I know I will be friends with for the rest of my life and we did a big trip over their most recent vacations and I like drove up and visited my friend who lives in Canada and our friends from the u k came as well.
32:28.11
dclduo
So.
32:31.39
Rebecca Bailey
And then my friend from California was able to fly and we were all able just to meet and like be with each other off the ship um and travel together too and that was really special and I just know there's like more years more of that to come like I do really have some lifelong friends that I got. From working for Disney Cruise line and who are from all over the world which is so cool exactly exactly it is kind of weird that I've I was gone for like I I worked for cruise on for like a year and a half so now coming back to Washington D C where I will.
32:47.13
dclduo
Looks amazing. Yeah now you can go visit them and crash on their couches too when you travel. But.
33:05.55
Rebecca Bailey
Which will be my home base as I move into adventures by Disney here. It's like oh I don't have as many friends here because all of my friends are all over the place. Yeah is.
33:10.75
dclduo
And oh yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah, that's a weird transition to come back to like home. But your friends are all yeah, all over the place.
33:21.61
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, ah, cool. So definitely like cool to have friends all over the place. But I'm like okay can you guys come here now exactly exactly. So yeah, very grateful to have had that.
33:23.44
dclduo
Yeah, right can you all move to DC so I have all my friends near me. Yeah, but.
33:36.10
Rebecca Bailey
And just like the confidence that comes with it too is insane like I was pretty confident before I started this job but just knowing that you can go on stage and make it work because you kind of have to like is is really empowering and very special I think.
33:37.33
dclduo
Yeah, like.
33:54.93
Rebecca Bailey
Because I went from not knowing anything to almost doing all of the shows that the dream has to offer like I was able to do like the evolution host. So I was an adult host. Um I didn't do it as much my Europe contract because it's a lot of late nights but I had done it. So like I hosted matcher may I've done all of that and. Being able to work with kids like I have such a newfound appreciation for kids in general and I just think that they are so amazing and I loved being in the kids clubs. Even if I had to clean up space scoo off of the floor like do is the worst but but like.
34:29.00
dclduo
I Mag The go is worst. Ah.
34:33.64
Rebecca Bailey
I Learned so much.
34:34.52
dclduo
But it is a really different.. It's a different skill set though I think like I don't I don't know how you feel about this but like I I was a camp counselor years and years ago as people probably I think people would probably when they people who know me would be like yeah that that makes sense. Um, but. Working with kids is very different than entertaining. Kids is very different than entertaining adults obviously and so you you got these? you know you got to sort of work on both of those different skill sets. Yeah yeah.
34:56.54
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah.
35:05.55
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, yeah, which was really cool like we would literally run from hosting an adult only trivia to then going upstairs and doing space school like it it. It was really cool to have so many different things squished into one day. Um.
35:20.81
dclduo
Um, yeah.
35:23.48
Rebecca Bailey
But yeah I loved loved working with the kids. Um, and I'm I'm excited to do that more because I know that's why a lot of people feel comfortable choosing adventures by Disney is because we like the kids are always like top of mind and valued as. Individual humans not just like extensions of their adults which I feel like it's so easy to just lose consideration for a kid because oh they're a kid but that is never true. It is they they have just as big of thoughts and feelings as we do and that often gets discounted but I'm I'd love that Disney never does that.
35:41.75
dclduo
Yes.
35:52.53
dclduo
Um, yeah, yeah, honestly I think you will have a great time with adventures by disney because there is that right? you get to interact so much with the adults but you also get to interact so much with the junior adventurers. Um, the kids at 12 and under a group and.
36:07.90
Rebecca Bailey
Um, yeah, actually.
36:11.35
dclduo
And 1 of our favorite parts of adventures by Disney like I mentioned was the adventure guides but I would say even more specifically was the way that the guides would interact with Nathan the way that they would particularly um, our guides Danny and Shannon both who are both of whom are from California so shout out. Danny and Shannon if you're listening but both of them really interacted with Nathan quite a bit more that I mean they interacted with us also but like we had 5 guides right? because it's a River Cruise so it's a larger group than the land based abds.
36:39.71
Rebecca Bailey
Indian.
36:46.34
dclduo
And yeah, the way they would just interact with Nathan and really get to know him and ask him questions and it was just lovely and I think that's an amazing skill set that obviously you've you know gotten to practice and I'm sure gotten amazing. Um, at ah with ah with Disney Cruise line what would you say was maybe your least favorite thing or 1 to will just do one because we don't want. We want to keep this. You know mostly positive but of course everybody has parts of their job that they don't like um or just annoying. What would you say was maybe 1 or 2 parts of your job that. If you could sort of leave behind or you're excited frankly to actually be leaving behind.
37:26.87
Rebecca Bailey
So the hardest part about working on a ship is that as soon as you are missing something by being there like missing something back home or like I had both of my parents with extreme health issues that developed. During my second contract so then going back for my third for europe was extremely difficult and like a very hard decision to make like my mom was in the hospital most of my contract but had the support she needed for sure.
37:51.27
dclduo
And yeah. Oh my goodness. But.
38:04.96
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, so like she had the support she needed for sure and me being there wouldn't really have done anything if if anything it would have just made her like feel bad that I was giving up on Europe and like my dream job and all of that. But as soon as there is something else that. You're missing by being on the ship. It becomes exponentially harder like a little thing that you could have just brushed off as like oh whatever or like you ah rolling with the punches like being able to roll with the punches becomes so much harder once you're like why am I here like.
38:24.59
dclduo
Yeah.
38:36.42
dclduo
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
38:42.34
Rebecca Bailey
If I'm missing this at home. So that is definitely the hardest part and that was a huge reason why I left like it was very hard being away from my family and luckily they're both fine now. Both of them are good now. Um, so.
38:47.67
dclduo
Let me.
38:54.44
dclduo
Oh good. Well and you have to put on that happy face all the time when you're entertainment staff I mean you have a public facing role as a as a entertainment staff member. So you're constantly having to be on.
39:00.80
Rebecca Bailey
That.
39:13.11
dclduo
In a I'm going to call it a theatrical way. But you know what I mean being like engaging and energetic and I mean the cruise staff. The entertainment staff is like the most energetic bunch I think on the ship other than maybe the the folks and characters in there.
39:16.72
Rebecca Bailey
Um, and.
39:30.88
dclduo
Because I don't know how I mean they got to hug everyone they got to. They got to be really energetic and like you know yeah I believe it I believe it? Um, but at least they can their faces can be hidden too right? If they're in depending upon what role they're playing. But yeah I mean you've got to be on so much and so if you're dealing with stresses at home and missing your family.
39:33.61
Rebecca Bailey
You get more time off. Don't worry about it.
39:50.79
dclduo
I bet that becomes even harder to sort of keep that happy face on all the time. Yeah.
39:54.84
Rebecca Bailey
It it does but also like you could just get so into like a mode and I loved the job like if I do that job and somehow live in DC and
40:01.33
dclduo
Like yeah.
40:08.42
dclduo
Now.
40:11.11
Rebecca Bailey
Have a day off a week or like if I like I love love love the job so it wasn't even that like I enjoyed all of the things I did I even I liked checking put people in for port of ventures I liked like all of the parts of that job so like wasn't like it was ever.
40:14.23
dclduo
Yeah.
40:21.60
dclduo
Yeah, yeah. Um, sure. Oh you know.
40:31.90
Rebecca Bailey
Something I didn't want to do. It's just the whole lifestyle that comes with it. It's like when you go to the crew mess and there's like nothing that sounds good and you can't just like uber eat something that you know like it you know, maybe you my.
40:42.89
dclduo
Ah, right Ubras doesn't deliver out in the middle of the atlantic ocean. Unfortunately, but yeah.
40:50.26
Rebecca Bailey
That kind of stuff. It's the lifestyle or like when you just when you are done for the night and but you have a roommate in sleeping three feet above you like it is. It's it's that kind of stuff and the stuff I knew about and I knew would bother me. It's.
41:00.38
dclduo
Where ah.
41:04.29
dclduo
Sure.
41:07.99
Rebecca Bailey
It's it's that like for me, it was never the job. It was never my team like I loved what I was doing. It's just that even in the offtime you're not off like so so that was that was hard but no I'm so glad did it I've wanted to do it.
41:14.44
dclduo
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Um, what.
41:24.29
Rebecca Bailey
Forever and I had such a great time I lucked out I got to do most everything I wanted to do so.
41:29.58
dclduo
Oh yeah, that sounds well and with ab d tell us. Um, how that how it works because it's not like dizzney cruise line where you're out for a six month contract it's a little bit different. Can you give our audience just an idea about how it works as far as like. When you're on when you're off that sort of a thing.
41:48.42
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, so I'm sure my understanding of this will change as I learn more but currently as I understand it. It's mostly summer I'm they're moving more into. Other stuff even with what they just announced with like the more smaller ship voyages for 2025 and with their 2024 stuff right now they're moving more towards off-season stuff. But right now the main ab d season is summer so we're only required to be available for like may through.
42:05.87
dclduo
So.
42:14.55
dclduo
Here.
42:21.40
dclduo
Oh Wow yeah.
42:22.10
Rebecca Bailey
September and in my mind that is the time to go off and do whatever you want like I don't mind I have like missing anything during that time I don't know if anyone has been to Washington d c in the summer but it's miserable. It's so hot like other than fourth of July on the national mall I'm fine missing a d c.
42:41.19
dclduo
Yeah, we we used to live there so I know exactly what you mean I went to college in Baltimore we went to law school in DC and I will tell you my freshman year of college in Baltimore I had no air conditioning in my dorm room. It was awful. It was like so like thankful I mean we arrived at the end of.
42:41.95
Rebecca Bailey
So.
42:53.23
Rebecca Bailey
Oh no.
43:00.90
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, yeah.
43:00.97
dclduo
August the worst time of years like the first like month of school or month of living in the dorms is just disgusting like so gross and then that of course the end then if you're there over the summer it's terrible as well. So yeah, but that I mean I grew up in New York so similar but it's yeah.
43:07.33
Rebecca Bailey
On this. Why.
43:18.90
Rebecca Bailey
Yes.
43:19.91
dclduo
Yeah icky icky humid warm disgusting summer. So excellent choice I think and I think with am I impression with even the some of like the holiday trips at least from the guides that we had is they.
43:23.58
Rebecca Bailey
Exactly yeah.
43:35.38
dclduo
They were all going home to their families after that you know they were on ah a week long Abc River Cruise and then they were going home and so they were sort of often on you know they might be you know working a week or two weeks and then they get to go home and and then go back out and you know maybe a month later or something so it's not a. Ah, continuous job except maybe during that summer season.
43:56.34
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, and even during the summer we were told that like if it makes more sense to fly you home like if you have like a 3 or 4 day break between itineraries just the way they're scheduled. They're they're going to fly you home, especially if that flight is cheaper than 3 nights in a hotel. Like and you would obviously want that time to go home to like they fly you home. But yeah, the working hours on the the trips I'm not and that that will probably be more than cruise line but it's a different kind of work and.
44:26.82
dclduo
Yeah.
44:33.69
Rebecca Bailey
I'm looking forward to learning more about that and like exactly like I know the gist of what I'll be doing but I'm sure there's just so much I don't even know yet. But I'm excited for the like consistency almost and or just like the.
44:37.62
dclduo
Yeah, yeah.
44:52.69
Rebecca Bailey
The time spent with the whole group and getting to cultivate that group connection I'm really excited for that I'm excited to really get to know these places very well so I can act as like a concierge for whatever City or country we're in and to be able to recommend things to people. So.
44:54.94
dclduo
E.
45:06.53
dclduo
Here.
45:11.91
Rebecca Bailey
And they they don't put you in a different itinerary each week like usually you're doing a you could maybe do like 3 or 4 and be doing different stuff in the summer. But for the most part like you're on this one itinerary so you get to know it really well, especially for the first year or 2 So I'm excited to really.
45:17.77
dclduo
Right.
45:31.85
Rebecca Bailey
Dive into whatever Itinerary having get to know it so well whereas on Cruise line people would ask like oh what do you recommend doing here like I have no idea I've never been here and I won't and well I have very strong opinions about but some no I don't know. But yeah.
45:42.13
dclduo
Ah, yeah.
45:45.35
dclduo
Ah, yeah, well actually going to that I think that'll be great if do you have some recommendations from your time over in Europe this past summer um and in telling us what excursions you either got to do that. You would recommend. Or excursions that you heard really good feedback about um and I'm not going to limit you on ports. So whichever ones you heard about because ah you know the dreams going back to Europe um, the my prediction is that the fantasies going to Europe the year after they had hasn't been announced by Disney I don't think yet. But it's clear from when ah when this how the schedules look before the summer or before the yeah before the summer is very obvious to me based on the timing that it has to be the fantasy going. It can't be the dream because dreams itineraries go ah into the time when the transatlantic crossing would be so.
46:40.25
Rebecca Bailey
Interesting.
46:43.33
dclduo
Yeah, so um, this is we we sort of noodled this out when the last itinerary release came out. We don't have obviously summer 2025 yet um but I know that should be coming out and probably.
46:52.52
Rebecca Bailey
Is.
46:58.20
dclduo
And then you know either probably February or March or something but in the next couple months I'm hoping that we'll see summer itineraries. But yeah Disney's going to be going back to a lot of these ports. Um, whether it's with the dream the fantasy or another ship. Frankly.
47:04.87
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah.
47:11.47
dclduo
Um, I'd love yeah I'd love to some advice if you have for our listeners on some great port excursions.
47:15.48
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, 1 thing so I listened I'm a huge I was I was listening to hear things about myself which I did I'm very happy whenever your guests gave me a shout out but I did listen to all of your episodes or close to all of them where people were on on the dream and in Europe I am a lot. Of what I noticed is that there's in which it's totally valid and I understand and and like don't want to make people feel bad about in any way is that there's such a hesitancy to go explore on your own or like. And which is great. The trust in Disney which is true like there's many port of ventures that are awesome and people want to hand reins over to Disney and especially as someone going into apd like I understand that want to have someone else? Yeah yeah.
47:56.59
dclduo
Sure.
48:02.95
dclduo
Right? And not wanting to have to plan it. Yeah I think part of it is just like I don't have to think about transportation I don't have to think about you know, getting a tour guide all all the things but you're right, There is definitely a hesitancy part of that I think is also about like. Missing the ship thing which I know is like if you're smart, You're not going to miss the ship but it's still something that I'll be honest I personally get nervous about even as an experienced cruiser. But yeah, yeah.
48:26.26
Rebecca Bailey
For sure. Yeah I think there are some cities and this is the hard part. It's hard to know I guess but there are some cities that a port adventure you're going to walk by so many things and be like oh I want to go there I Want to go there.
48:35.33
dclduo
Yeah.
48:42.30
dclduo
Yeah.
48:44.50
Rebecca Bailey
But there's a schedule to keep but then there's some cities where like the port of venture probably is the best way to go and it's hard because you can't really know that until you've been there or unless you are really talking to someone who has been to those places as well. But for example Reykjavik um, in Iceland.
48:48.90
dclduo
Yeah.
48:59.95
dclduo
So.
49:04.40
Rebecca Bailey
I had been I did a week long trip in Iceland with one of my best friends like a year before um, like during my first vacation from cruise line but a year before we were back there and so I'd already been I'd been all over the place I had seen all of the things that any port of venture could go to from raikovic.
49:11.50
dclduo
And.
49:21.50
Rebecca Bailey
And I actually had friends sailing on that cruise and I advised them like you guys should just rent a car. There are 4 main things or however, many you want to see that you should see and just do it yourself because you're just going to be like.
49:34.51
dclduo
Um, yeah.
49:38.72
Rebecca Bailey
Shuffled from place to place because you don't have the full time to settle into that place so you might as well just pick the 1 or 2 things that you know you want to see and go do it yourself, but then on the other hand if you were in acuary I think that's how you say it I wasn't able to get off of that 1
49:40.78
dclduo
Right.
49:54.16
Rebecca Bailey
But then like more than an Iceland one you probably couldn't do that as easily but it's it's nuanced and it's difficult to know fully what to do. But I guess I can say the ones I recommend did port a venture. It's rakovic rent a car.
49:56.72
dclduo
Um, yeah, um.
50:06.81
dclduo
Um, yeah.
50:11.26
Rebecca Bailey
It's not hard to drive in Iceland it's so easy I drove there for a week um very doable. You go see? Yeah yeah, this I would I don't think I would drive if it was on the left. But yeah, um, but you can go to Blue Lagoon you can get your own tickets. You can go to.
50:14.34
dclduo
Yeah, and they drive on the right side of the road. So yeah, yeah.
50:30.33
Rebecca Bailey
Different waterfalls. They all have different icelandic names that end in Foss which means waterfall and you can go um to geyser which is incredible I love geyser and that's a great day in Iceland and then you can spend the evening in a little cafe.
50:33.43
dclduo
Yeah.
50:40.51
dclduo
No cool.
50:47.79
Rebecca Bailey
In the city. You don't need a port of venture to do that? Um Naples with if I loved the long one I did and if you don't feel comfortable during your own that is the one to do like Pompei so rento capri. Um, if you don't feel comfortable navigating ferries and all of that do that one.
50:56.58
dclduo
Okay, hey.
51:07.36
Rebecca Bailey
Um, but if you want to spend a little more time you could very easily walk up to the ferry stand buy a ticket to capri on your own spend as much time as you want there look at the board see when the time's coming back are and take 1 back like I want to empower people to.
51:21.00
dclduo
Um, yeah.
51:26.58
Rebecca Bailey
Do either a little bit of research or like know the basics to figure it out when you get there and like to pre you I when I did it on my own I don't think I did any research I Just knew where the ferry station was I looked for the right time I went I walked around.
51:33.55
dclduo
Yep.
51:37.85
dclduo
E.
51:43.89
Rebecca Bailey
Someone came up to me and they're like Miss Miss. do you want to tour I'm like you know what I do like what do you got I took a tour around the island and loved it. Um, still like there is a lot you can do on your own so I don't know it enableples. You could do it on your own.
51:46.37
dclduo
Yeah, how awesome.
52:00.58
Rebecca Bailey
Micanos is another one of my huge favorites some of the greek ones go there, not all of them but Meanos is that like Mama Mia blue doors with the white pavement. It is that um.
52:03.70
dclduo
I'll love it.
52:15.00
Rebecca Bailey
That you do not need a port of venture a port of venture will take you away from the pretty town but the town was it for me like they have this harbor and it has some of the like the touristy restaurants tour so stores as to be expected. But as soon as you go 10 steps down any little side street. You were in a maze of all of these beautiful Greek streets with like handmade artisans at every store like insane. It was so cool I had some of the best coffee I've ever had in my entire life Greek iced coffee was delicious. So Meenos I loved just exploring on my own. Santerini I have thought about santerini I'm kind of a santerini hater but I just don't think Spiritually Cruise ships are meant to be there like I don't know have you ever been to santerini on a cruise ship.
53:06.76
dclduo
Not on a cruise ship. No I have I have been so I've been to Meanos and Santorini um I did ah so I did a ktiki tour I don't know if you're familiar with Kti Tours ok so for those who aren't familiar.
53:19.60
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, we knew.
53:24.30
dclduo
It is a tour group or guided well guided as bus tour. Let's call it un really for 18 to 35 year olds I did this? Um, right out of college before starting law school I spent my summer in Europe and I did a five week tour through kontiki tours. And part of the tour included this add on which was the Greek Isles we actually did a ferry boat to the Greek isles so you were sleeping on board but it was not like a cruise ship. There was like no. No activities like no, it was just like where you were sleeping so you would get back on the ship to sleep and then you would get off the you know the next so we went to Miano Santorini Rhoads Crete I think that's oh and we went to ephesus um turkey so I got to drink holy water where that's apparently.
54:11.13
Rebecca Bailey
Um, catch who.
54:16.78
dclduo
Supposedly, where ah Mary as in Jesus's mother was born or died I can't remember 1 or the other. Um, but there's like a spring that's supposed to be literally. It's like a natural spring. It's supposed to be holy water and Brian and I like to joke. No I did not burn when I drank the holy water. Ah, being being jewish we just like to joke about that. but um but anyway but so I I remember me andos but I'll be honest I this was Twenty twenty some years ago now so I really don't remember it's also the same summer I went to Disneyland Paris for like 4 hours um
54:41.40
Rebecca Bailey
Um.
54:55.88
dclduo
But I was running around so much I I don't remember half of the stuff that I did Rebecca. So yeah I don't so yeah, tell me about santorini because I like I said I've been there but I don't remember it.
55:04.90
Rebecca Bailey
Yes, to paint a picture. It is beautiful like it is gorgeous. It is like the little city on top of the hill the volcanic crater it is a really cool place but I didn't feel like cruise ships are meant to be there. And my main like piece of evidence for that is that there's a trolley car that barely runs and it has like 6 cars and that's the main way to get up the hill or a very yeah.
55:34.87
dclduo
So now I remember this yes I remember this because 1 of our one of our guests that went on one of the cruises that went there and like you wait like people waited like an hour and a half just to get up or to get down unless they had a port adventure book right? So if you had a port of venture book you had like.
55:45.24
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah.
55:53.52
dclduo
You're with a group you still to wait but like you might only wait a half hour versus if you were on your own yet to buy like a ticket and you might wait forever and you hardly get to? yeah see the town then.
56:00.87
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, so with that being the only way to get up and down I was like this just does. It didn't feel right and like while it's a cool place to visit it just like there wasn't the infrastructure to support a cruise ship. So yeah.
56:14.22
dclduo
You right? or you could ride a donkey or walk through Donkey poop or something. Yeah, ah yeah, like terrifying. Yeah.
56:20.23
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, and like I did the walk down and now I was like never again I will I wasn't about to do the walk up but I we got the cable car up relatively easily because it was like 11 a m um, but I walked down and it was it was not fun.
56:36.17
dclduo
Yeah, yeah.
56:38.38
Rebecca Bailey
So you know I became a santerini hater not the place in general but just as a poor I was like I don't it wasn't my favorite. Um because Meinos is amazing and like the same thing close to the same thing. But.
56:51.58
dclduo
And well and some ports some ports just have a harder time accommodating. You know a four thousand passenger ship too like bringing the magic at like 2400 passengers versus bringing the dream 4000 passengers these are two very different things I mean I we heard from. Ah, some folks that at smaller ports. Sometimes there weren't enough port excursions to even accommodate the number of guests or like the entire town was essentially overrun by the ship I mean yeah because of that. So.
57:21.10
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, was there was one in Norway where every port of venture got canceled because it was a school day and all of the tour guides were teachers like it's easy to think like oh well, why wasn't that figured out before. And like definitely a valid question but it's just one of those things that's like okay then why is a huge cruise ship coming to this place anyway and so and there are places that like Amsterdam is not letting cruise ships come after a certain point in 2024 so like there is there is a movement of cities.
57:45.58
dclduo
And right right.
57:54.67
dclduo
Oh interesting. Yeah.
58:00.67
Rebecca Bailey
Banning Cruise ships or whatever reason whether it's environmental or for the capacity of their city or I'm sure there are some economics that's above my pay grade of like how that would contribute to it but like there's I would look into that too when you're choosing.
58:09.53
dclduo
Yeah, sure.
58:17.80
dclduo
Yeah.
58:19.76
Rebecca Bailey
A cruise just a quick search of like does X Y Z Port like cruise ships and some of these is no and that is just a reality um me.
58:24.37
dclduo
Yeah, yeah, well some of it is also about like the carbon footprint and that sort of stuff I think there's you know some criticism obviously of and Disney is is of course better than most of the cruise lines as far as environmental stuff but there's still.
58:39.28
Rebecca Bailey
I mean.
58:43.85
dclduo
Is an impact to the environment from from Cruise ships. So we they can't be denied. Um, one thing I'm curious about so we hear we know like I'm going to just pronounce this name wrong but sit at cheeia is like really far. Yeah, the closer right? there something like that is like quite far away from.
58:46.64
Rebecca Bailey
Any.
58:55.70
Rebecca Bailey
Um, your class. Yeah.
59:03.35
dclduo
Rome and so everybody does the excursions that go to Rome and so you're sitting in a bus for like 2 hours what other ports um, were like that where you the port was really far away from where most of the excursions were um I feel like that's something we don't always necessarily hear about um.
59:07.31
Rebecca Bailey
Money.
59:21.20
dclduo
But you would um, you would probably know that from your experience and then maybe we can talk about some of the ones where you're like docked right in the town or the city that you're going to want to tour.
59:30.63
Rebecca Bailey
Yes, I'm trying to pull up my big list of all of my ports because 1 thing I will say I want to encourage people to do their research I had a full spreadsheet of all 40 ports. We went to I wrote down what currency they use what language they so they speak what.
59:46.97
dclduo
Um, ah.
59:49.21
Rebecca Bailey
Places to go to I had links to stuff I wanted to do like if I can do it for 40 I empower you to do it for the 5 on the crews that you choose and it was fun. It was so much fun like researching all these places. Um, but the ones that are far I have it pulled up now.
59:59.15
dclduo
That's amazing.
01:00:06.20
dclduo
So I loved us.
01:00:08.20
Rebecca Bailey
Is liorno in italy that is the gateway to Florence and pisa I went to pisa loved I would definitely recommend going once. That's not a hot take like many people have said like you knowt it's.
01:00:15.11
dclduo
Right.
01:00:22.68
dclduo
Yeah, yeah, you go you walk around to little shops you get your picture holding to holding the tower up like it's a it's a one and done. It's but it's like a it's a cute. You won't regret going but it's a 1 and done. Yeah.
01:00:25.42
Rebecca Bailey
Place you go back to but it was very cool to see the Laney. He said. Yeah.
01:00:39.30
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, exactly um, another one is pereus to an extent in Greece it's labeled as Athens and it's not that far like you can't just walk into Athens by.
01:00:46.65
dclduo
M.
01:00:55.68
dclduo
Um, all that that's not bad at all.
01:00:56.73
Rebecca Bailey
It was like maybe a 20 minute 30 minute drive and there were taxi so that one's not that bad. Um, some like you're a little far away but like it's a 10 minute walk so I won't mention those but the hove is the other big one.
01:01:13.71
dclduo
Oh that's the Paris one that right? Paris quote unquote Paris um, where you're going to go to Disneyland Paris but you're going to spend a 2 hour bus right there and back. Yeah.
01:01:15.10
Rebecca Bailey
Is yeah.
01:01:22.23
Rebecca Bailey
Exactly Um, but also lahav itself. There wasn't much there I got my haircut that day that was about it which that was difficult I took a little bit of French No I took a lot of French but I retained a little bit of french.
01:01:26.99
dclduo
Nothing.
01:01:39.78
Rebecca Bailey
Um, but I so I somehow got my hair cut and it looked awesome, but that is that is Paris la have um, very far. Um and then a lot of the northern european ones you're there except for Stockholm um Stockholm was.
01:01:42.14
dclduo
Oh good.
01:01:55.35
dclduo
Um, yeah, who.
01:01:57.25
Rebecca Bailey
9 a sham I think is how you say it and that one was hard that that's like an hour into Stockholm. Um, if you had better luck and timing than I did there were hop on hop off buses parked outside of the ship and once again, if you had.
01:02:09.56
dclduo
E.
01:02:16.22
Rebecca Bailey
Walked onto that bus within 5 minutes of it leaving that would have been awesome I sat there for like 40 minutes but you pay and it just brings you to Stockholm you could ride around if you want and it brings you back. So like there are ways to do that without a port adventure. But that one it is that one's far and you're in the middle of nowhere for sure.
01:02:21.35
dclduo
Ah.
01:02:25.41
dclduo
Oh nice.
01:02:31.97
dclduo
Yeah, yeah.
01:02:35.41
Rebecca Bailey
Um, za bruge is another weird one. That's Belgium supposed to be rouge, but like that's the next city close to and you are far away from the city of zebruges too that one was really hard. But then once you got to bruges. It's an awesome place. Um, those are the.
01:02:39.13
dclduo
Right? The big city. Yeah.
01:02:51.32
dclduo
So.
01:02:55.34
Rebecca Bailey
Main ones honestly that like it's random port cities that are close to big city. But that once again with planning That's the one though there places cruises go so there is usually some infrastructure.
01:02:58.80
dclduo
Um, yeah.
01:03:06.42
dclduo
Right.
01:03:11.21
Rebecca Bailey
To support because many people don't choose port adventures. So like there are still ways to get around and if you're nervous about missing the ship which is totally valid you you you change the all aboard time in your mind to 2 hours early and then you're not going to it. You know, but.
01:03:25.80
dclduo
Right? right? yeah.
01:03:31.17
Rebecca Bailey
But yeah, yeah, but also like I have some sympathy but very little like a quick search would tell you Thatributa via is far from Rome you know, but.
01:03:37.63
dclduo
Far from yep, exactly exactly? Yeah I think this is these are this is sort of super helpful though because I do there's a range right? There's some that are 2 hours away like lajave in Paris and you know an hour and a half away like Rome and said it. But whatever. However, you say that very difficult city name. Um, and then there's ones that are like 20 or 30 minutes which really isn't that bad and if there are shuttles or some other way means of transportation relatively simple. What were some of the your favorites where you were basically.
01:03:57.34
Rebecca Bailey
Um.
01:04:01.26
Rebecca Bailey
Yes.
01:04:13.86
dclduo
Docked right? at the either the middle of the town or middle of the city or you know right? there within you know, steps to the city who yeah.
01:04:19.49
Rebecca Bailey
Yeah, the best was lisbon like you are right there and you could see it from the ship. It was gorgeous. It was the second port we went to ever the first was ponta delgata in the azores.
01:04:30.33
dclduo
Yeah.
01:04:35.88
Rebecca Bailey
Um, which is an island off of Portugal. But then our first like mainland stop was lisbon and lisbon's a cool city that is up there on my top of my list of places I want to go back to but you're right there you cross the street. There is like a little hill if you really want to get up to like the viewpoints and all of that. But There's also not a hill if you just go to the left and there's the big plaza I forget the name of it. But if you if it it is like the plaza of lisbon which you could see um, coming in that was a beautiful sailing into as well. I was super random but I got like scheduled wrong. So I was up an hour earlier than I needed to be.
01:05:05.71
dclduo
Oh yeah.
01:05:14.30
Rebecca Bailey
Which ended up being awesome because I just stood with my coffee for an hour on deck for and watched us sail into lisbon and we went under a bridge. You could see the plaza from the water. It was gorgeous. So lisbon is especially with it being a big city that were the ctest 2 amazing I loved.
01:05:17.88
dclduo
How fantastic.
01:05:26.73
dclduo
Yeah.
01:05:32.25
dclduo
Oh amazing I Love that.
01:05:32.84
Rebecca Bailey
Love love lisbon. Yeah um, con was another good one as well in France you have to take a tender and tender boats was a whole thing as well. But tendering aside, you're right there? um.
01:05:43.63
dclduo
Right. So.
01:05:51.65
Rebecca Bailey
Which was really fun Micanos kind of you had to take a water ferry but it was free and I love a free boat ride personally. So I I quite liked that. Um, where else were you super close.
01:06:01.76
dclduo
Um, yeah.
01:06:10.19
Rebecca Bailey
Sometimes we were close in Copenhagen. Um, yeah, one of them was far away in the middle of nowhere but I rode from there on a bike so when I did the bike right? It was the further away 1
01:06:13.69
dclduo
Depending upon which port you were at.
01:06:24.40
dclduo
Oh gotcha.
01:06:26.47
Rebecca Bailey
It was like a 20 minute ride like it's still not even that far and I felt like a local like everyone in copenhagen rides their bikes everywhere so that was really fun and I will respond because I see it on my list right now. A lot of your guests did not like Keel in Germany and I agree. There's not much to do there I don't know why we stop there.
01:06:47.56
dclduo
Yeah, well you know sometimes Disney has to learn from whether or not these ports can actually accommodate and I think as we you know mentioned earlier on in the show. This was the dream's first time to you know to Europe or at least you know since she was built basically um and so. This was her first season doing you know the european season and there's it's a there's it's a different ship as you mentioned different than the magic in size. It's different in that the cast and crew were really hadn't been over in europe they'd been doing.
01:07:11.38
Rebecca Bailey
Um, yeah.
01:07:20.76
dclduo
As you mentioned the Nasa castaway express for for many many years and so that that certainly is a big adjustment so Rebecca we've got to wrap things up here. Um, but I would love to know is there anything that we we didn't cover that was either.
01:07:24.63
Rebecca Bailey
Um.
01:07:37.32
dclduo
Maybe ah the highlight or a low light on this european season or on your last contract you obviously did Marvel day at sea on this on this contract as well. Um, because it was but that that season as well. But yeah, any any highlights or low lights that we haven't really touched on.
01:07:53.92
Rebecca Bailey
It and I'm not even just saying this because I'm back on your podcast but it was truly so nice. Whenever any of your listeners would come up to me and say hello. It really did like it made me feel so good just being able to talk to people or that that was the gateway into a conversation too.
01:08:10.39
dclduo
Yeah.
01:08:13.21
Rebecca Bailey
And if I was better at names which I am not and that is the number 1 thing I'm working on before starting abd because I'm so bad things I know face is so well. But I'm so bad with names if I was good with names I could list the people I talked to but I know their faces. Um, but there are so many of your guests who like I got to know really really well.
01:08:17.33
dclduo
Oh yeah.
01:08:32.60
Rebecca Bailey
Um, so it was so nice. Um, just to have that connection point too and especially when the most frequent way of meeting them was the art of the theme show tour because that's one of my favorite things to do and I did it a lot and with the type of activity. It is I feel like a lot of people who enjoy art of the theme show. Also listen.
01:08:42.80
dclduo
Yeah.
01:08:51.59
Rebecca Bailey
To your podcast as well. Just it's just oh Disney Cruise line you know? Um, so like people would talk to me after that about like either like listening to your show of course and just all of their other Disney Cruise line adventures so getting to know all of the guests throughout Europe was so so cool and like hearing everyone's stories.
01:08:53.39
dclduo
It is It is.
01:09:11.39
Rebecca Bailey
Either with the transatlantic and how they do it every year or just the different trips they did that day in port like really getting to talk to the guests was just it hit different in Europe because it was there was just that extra excitement there. So.
01:09:12.25
dclduo
We yeah.
01:09:26.97
dclduo
I Love that.
01:09:28.85
Rebecca Bailey
Very grateful for anyone who said, hi and anyone I got to know and maybe I'll see you on an Avd trip I know I talked to someone about that too of how they want to do an Avd so again with it.
01:09:34.89
dclduo
Yeah, there you go? Well, we always say like I feel like Disney Cruise line is certainly the gateway to adventures by Disney I'm not sure that there are that many people who do adventures by Disney without having done a Disney Cruise I actually think that's where a lot of people learn about adventures by Disney. And I will say this is from the ads on the Tv. It's a problem but it it literally because you don't see like we I don't see advertisements for adventures by Disney like on regular tv at home right? I see advertisements for adventures by disney two places tv in my. Room at the riviera or alani or or a Disneyland hotel or you know, whatever it's on on that and it's like those rolling um advertisements or the same advertisements. But while I'm on Disney Cruise line so they're definitely targeting. Disney people. It's definitely that. That's certainly the market. Well Rebecca thank you so much for joining me I am really hopeful that we will get to be on and adventured by Disney with you in the future as one of our adventure guides. Um, really looking forward to following your adventures. Why don't you tell people how they can follow you because I know you are on the graham and um I feel like people will love to follow your adventures that way.
01:10:49.18
Rebecca Bailey
I as of right now it is DC to Disney as in Washington d c to disney I created that five years ago for my college program. It may or may not say the same if you don't find that it's because I've changed it to adventure guide Rebecca.
01:11:06.52
dclduo
Now. Yep.
01:11:08.32
Rebecca Bailey
I'm not sure because all the venture guys have a venturegrad instagrams so I may change it but I DC to Disney is like so so me so one of those is on Instagram.
01:11:19.19
dclduo
Yeah, all right? Well folks if you're following her right away then follow her at DC to Disney and then it will just change her name will just change at some point probably so yeah, well we will be following your adventures as I mentioned Rebecca we're so happy and thankful that you agreed to come on the show. We wish you the.
01:11:26.96
Rebecca Bailey
Exactly you may we'll we'll see.
01:11:38.50
dclduo
Best of luck in your new role as adventure guide Rebecca and hope that you'll be ah able to come and visit us and talk with us about some of your adventures once you're once you're doing that gig. Thanks all right? well.
01:11:40.59
Rebecca Bailey
Mr.
01:11:49.17
Rebecca Bailey
Yes, it'd be so fun. Thank you so much for having me again.
01:11:56.33
dclduo
With that we will say see a real soon to our audience good night.
