[00:00:00] Speaker A: Dennis even says, thank you, brian, for that PSA.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: I only got two psas right now. It's don't end rope, drop culture on DCl. And please stop posting about how you got sick on your career.
Welcome back, everybody, to this week's live bonus episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding Travel. And Sam got a fun show lined up tonight. We'll be talking Facebook groups and Disney Cruise line Facebook groups, right?
[00:00:39] Speaker A: That's right. We're going to talk not just like the general Facebook groups that are out there, like our DCL duo podcast and vlog Facebook group, but we're going to talk about cruise specific Facebook groups. Meaning if you're going on, I don't know, let's say, the Disney magic with the DCL duo, maybe, let's say on June 19 on the DCL duo podcast cruise, there is a Facebook group that you can join that's run actually by our own Kaylee Degorsi, who is with my path unwinding travel. So, yeah, that's what I'm talking about tonight.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Before we dive into the show, Sam, we did have a listener call in with a question. And so reminder out there, we do have a voicemail line. You can find the number for that in all of our show notes on our webpage. All that great stuff. I don't have it memorized because it's from Nebraska, I think, and we don't live in, but we do have a voicemail. So let me play that one really fast here for you.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: Hi, Sam and Brian. This is Karen calling from California. I will be a Pearl castaway member the next time I cruise with DCL. And I'm wondering, do I need to add the unlimited photo package to my reservation the way that I would add a Palo dining reservation to my itinerary prior to sailing? Or does Disney know that I'm Pearl and they're automatically going to add the photo package to my reservation?
This is a question.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Well, great question. I want to start with what doesn't Disney already know about you? Because they know all. So I don't think you have to worry about they will know you are Pearl. They know that. And so you don't need to physically or go in and add the photo package to your reservation. It will just be all automatically included once you hit Pearl. The only caveat tip I'll give around that is if you're like turning Pearl on a back to back sailing, sometimes the system doesn't catch up as quickly and you'll have to go to guest services on board and tell them that you're Pearl to make sure the package gets added. So nothing you need to do pre cruise.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Yep. The one thing I will say is because there have been folks with glitches in the past, like their first time sailing. Pearl, as Brian mentioned, particularly on back to back, I would say when you're on board, go to one of the kiosks and just make sure that it's showing there that you have the unlimited photo package. Or on the last night of the cruise, make sure you check that your photos are coming up so that you make sure you have no glitch with downloading them. Because as everyone knows, it's a little bit harder if you don't get your photos on board. Obviously, if they know you've got the package, it's not a big deal. But if they don't know you've got the package and you try to get them, once you've gotten off the ship, they're going to be gone. They're going to be wiped. So make sure when you're on board that you have access to them.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: Yeah. So let's Sam intro our fabulous guests. I'm going to go ahead and bring Sean in, but why don't you introduce him?
[00:03:41] Speaker A: Absolutely. We are so excited to welcome back to the show, Sean. Sean was on not too long ago to talk about a sailing out of Miami that he did a four night sailing. It's episode 379 for those who want to go back into the catalog. It's not that far back into the catalog to listen. It was a four night sailing on the Disney magic and we had such a great time with Sean that we decided to bring him back for this show specifically to talk about Facebook groups. Welcome back, Sean.
[00:04:14] Speaker C: Hi. Thank you so much. I have to say, I feel like I'm back like a year and a half earlier than I originally intended to be. But it is great to see you, too. Thank you so much. I was so shocked. Know, you've had people like Josh, the DCL villain on know, Rebecca from the big Facebook group, and now you're with me. So hopefully you stay tuned in.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: Well, listen, Sean, you are a Facebook group celebrity, as we know from talking to you on our previous episode with you. So that's what we're going to talk about today for folks who've just tuned in and don't know what we're going to talk about, we're going to talk today about why one might want to join a Facebook group for their particular cruise sailing the ins and outs of what information you can get on these Facebook groups. Maybe some do's and don'ts, maybe some good, bad and ugly from the Facebook groups as well. So we're going to get into the.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Nitty gritty before we do that, though, Sam. I think it would be good because we've got some folks commenting here about having run three Facebook groups for upcoming cruises and admin for ten. And so I think it'd be good for folks to know what our own credits are, I should say. I don't think you have to admin a Facebook group to talk about the Facebook group experience, but it helps. Yeah, we've joined probably. What are we up to now? 27 Facebook groups for our Disney cruise line experiences.
[00:05:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Sam and I are adminding a maiden voyage group for the treasure, the biggest one that's out there. And we're adminding a Facebook group for our April sailing. And Sam has admin other groups in the past.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. So I've adminned, I think about three or four groups in the past and I've got two where the cruises haven't happened yet. I guess I'm technically still an admin for some of these older Facebook groups because they're sometimes still a little bit active even after the sailing.
So I've maybe admin a total of like six groups. I know Sean has been admin of four different groups.
Dennis Keithley says if you admin a cruise Facebook group, then you're the real MVP. It is definitely extra work. And then we have a great message from Sean saying, hi, Brian and Sam. I definitely joined the Facebook group for my cruise, for my upcoming cruise. I even joined the groups for the four cruises before mine. Okay, well, that's dedication, but that's actually a great idea because you get to know what's going on on the ship even before you are getting on board. Some groups, I will say most groups require you to be sailing on that specific sailing for you to join.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: But let's, although they have no way to really verify that. We've been enforcing a rule in the maiden group, for instance, that we don't want sort of looky lose in the maiden group. So if we learn that you're not sailing or you comment in a way that suggests you're not sailing, we people out so that it's really sailing and everyone who's coming, not everyone who's interested in. But yeah, Sam, go ahead. You're going to transition.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So what I wanted to start with was first, Sean, let's start with the very nitty gritty of how does one even find your Facebook sailing group?
[00:07:36] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a great question. So I should start by saying, so I've been the admin of one of them, and then I top contributed two of them, and then I'm just kind of in another one. I think I'll have more info on that later. But they all have a formula, so you want to look up on Facebook. It'll be your ship name and then the dates, and they are as formulaic as possible to make it as easy as possible. So they're usually all private groups just because if they're public, then everyone swarms in, but usually they'll have some sort of a picture of the ship. We try to design them so that you can't miss it.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Yeah, really good point. Really good point.
If you're sailing on, like a maiden voyage, for example, like with the treasure, the words maiden voyage will probably be in the name of the group. So you're just like Sean said, it will be June 19, 2024, Disney magic. That's sort of what you want to put in that search bar in groups. And then there's usually going to be some questions that you have to answer in order to join the group. Sean, why don't you give us some examples of what kinds of things you might be asked in order to get admission into a Facebook group?
[00:08:51] Speaker C: So this is where one of my really hot opinions comes, you know, you might just give me the hook.
Know, are you sailing on this particular trip? And then one of the really big ones that people talk about are, do you agree not to actually spam people with links to buy things? Or if you're a travel agent, are you going to move in and try to get clients out of it? Because these are people who should have already booked their vacations. So these groups are supposed to be, like, a very safe place for people to plan without the pressure of that.
And then really just courtesy rules. Don't be rude to others. That rule isn't always followed, but they're really just courtesy rules to show that you're on board with the etiquette of these Facebook groups.
[00:09:42] Speaker B: Yeah, the no spamming rule is one that most of these groups have. I will say, when you join the group, make sure to read the rules and also understand who's organizing the group, because there are groups that are organized by travel agents, and they're aimed at sort of advertising their services a little bit. That's by no means takes over the group in many cases, but as an example, for the maiden Voyage group, we have three or four other maiden voyage groups on Facebook. They're all smaller than the one that we're admining, but we made it known upfront, like, we're not travel agents, we're not here to sell you anything. We just want to admin. We want to provide a good Facebook group experience. The other groups are run by travel.
[00:10:27] Speaker A: Yeah, and there are some groups run by travel agents that are perfectly great and that have the rule that nobody can advertise. In fact, they won't advertise even their own services in the group. They'll just tell you they happen to be a travel agent. So I would say that's not necessarily a red flag. It's totally fine to join a Facebook group that's run by a travel agent. Oftentimes they're a good resource for information, but it is just know that at least a secondary point of the group might be to recruit some clients. So that's just something to be aware of. So speaking of that, I think we should talk about why would anybody want to join a Facebook group for their cruise? Like, what's the point of this whole thing? Why does it matter? I'm going to go on a cruise. What do I need to join a Facebook group? Don't I find out all the information I need to know from Disney? Sean.
[00:11:18] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, if you're anything like me, which. If you're anything like me, I'm sorry, but if you're anything like me, you love to, you know, once you press that book, like, this is what you're thinking of for the next six to eight. Like, this just becomes your life. Your family's sick of hearing about it. So by joining these Facebook groups, you're joining this community of people who all have something in common, because you're all going to be on this ship together, for better or worse, for however long your sailing is. And so it's a great chance to join different activities, discuss advice for people who maybe haven't been on a cruise before and really just build that sense of community. There are people who are from one of the first sailings that I ever took back in 2022 who I now exchange Christmas cards with them. And I know I've met their families. Like, we've had lunch together. So it's really a great chance to make these friends and build this community before you share that experience. And it's really something that is really new because the Internet hasn't been around forever. Cruising has been for a little bit of time. So it's really this great kind of social experiment to bring people together and see what it can become.
[00:12:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that. I mean, I will say I didn't used to meet people before the cruise through a Facebook group, but it's one way that I actually learned to keep in touch with people. Right. So if there's somebody that know, met on the cruise, and then I can connect with them through the Facebook group, and now I've got contact information, now I can message them. Right. So it is definitely something.
When we first started sailing DCL, I didn't sort of use it in that way, but I will say now I do use it in the way that you've described, Sean, which is that sort of sense of community. It's just building excitement, answering questions, all of that kind of stuff. So let's talk about some of the information that might be. So let me just put this out there. These Facebook groups are not run by Disney Cruise line. Disney Cruise line does not run any of these Facebook groups. So actually, Sean, who runs the Facebook groups, right?
[00:13:31] Speaker C: So they're completely run by, you know, all the people who help make this happen, all the admins, the top contributes, the group experts, they don't get paid. We're all just doing this for the love of the travel.
And so that's something that can be a little frustrating sometimes, especially if you have rude people in the group. We've all had that experience if you've ever been in the Facebook group. And that's why one of the biggest things that I always try to tell people is if you're in these groups, the first thing that you should always remember before you post things is to remember that human behind the screen, because it's really easy to send a rude message and say something clever but devastating. But that's going to be someone who you're going to see on this trip.
Yeah, the keyboard warriors experiences with, but, you know, they're all run by Disney fans just like me and you, who really just want to help build that. You know, we're pretty normal people.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: I love that. I love Dennis's comment. One of the best reasons to join your cruise Facebook group is just to extend and expand the excitement of your upcoming cruise. I think that is an apt description. I think that's what most people are looking for. But let's talk about some of the nitty gritty of what kinds of things you might learn from a Facebook group. Let's say you're a new cruiser. What kind of information is available in some of these Facebook groups. John yeah.
[00:15:06] Speaker C: So you can sign up for different activities like the fish extenders. There will be sign ups for things like pixie dusts if you're on a maritime cruise. My favorite activity is actually the ornament exchange. I bought a new Christmas tree this year and so my tree is just full of just Disney cruise ornaments that I got on my fish.
Then, you know, it's a lot of just little tidbits that people contribute because the more that you engage with these communities, the more that people kind of come out of their shell. So I didn't know that door decorations were a thing. My first time going on a Disney cruise. So when someone put a picture of their door and I realized that they were magnetic, it was like the record went off the track and I was suddenly in the car going to hobby lobby to get as many crafts as and other things like meetups, bar crawls. One of my favorite things that ever happened in a Facebook group was that all of the women organized to get their husbands to all wear the same shirt one night. And it was this terrible Darth Vader hawaiian shirt pattern.
And there's just this great picture of all of them on the stairs in that one.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Even I wonder if the husbands even knew that was this. Like the wives all surreptitiously decided to do this and then the husbands show up and there's twelve of their guys wearing the same shirt as them.
[00:16:31] Speaker C: That's exactly how it went. It was like one of those Instagram reels and I mean, I totally would have caught on, but I'm also not married, so I pack my own clothes. But that's just one of those little small fun activities that happen that are just kind of spontaneous and they come out, know some random person makes a joke and then people say, ok, well, let's know, what would it take to do that? I love that they're really personalized activities and they're a lot of, let's, let's.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: Pause for 1 second because I want to drill down on one of the big reasons that you mentioned in there to join the Facebook group, which is the fish extenders. And so for everyone at home, I'm going to put up on screen, if you have no idea what we're talking about. A fish extender is basically a gift exchange that's organized between usually small groups of cabins.
It's all centrally organized through the Facebook group usually, but they assign, if there's 100 people, they'll assign ten groups of ten cabins to exchange. And you get information about how many people are in the cabin. Sometimes they'll maybe ask you, like, what's your favorite Disney characters? That kind of stuff. And the idea is, outside of the stateroom door on all the ships is a little fish of some sort sitting next to the door. It was a place where Disney could clip messages initially, they would clip little messages there for you if you had dining reservations and such. And people figured that they could hang these probably what were shoe organizers in the beginning, but know kind of thing on the door. And then people leave them gifts. And so the gift exchange is organized through the Facebook group. As Sean mentioned, there are lots of these have expanded over time from just like small little gifts for the cabin and the people in the cabin to everything from an ornament exchange, recipe exchanges. I've seen craft beer exchange groups, magnet.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: Exchanges, magnet exchange extender exchanges where just the kids are exchanging adult only fish extender exchanges, where only adults are then the family ones. And it runs the gamut from exchanging with maybe five different rooms or five different individuals or ten different rooms. I would say those are kind of the standard. And then as far as rules go, most of these groups don't really have any defined rules other than you have to give a gift. Right. But they will sometimes set, monitor.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: We'll talk about the good, the bad and the ugly at the end, because I will say fish extenders is where things can come off the rails a little bit in these groups, depending on who's admitting it, who's running the fish extender group, and the rules and parameters they want to put on this. But we'll talk about that later. I just wanted to set up, if you're interested in participating in one of these gift exchanges, the only way to do that is by joining the Facebook group and signing up for the fish extender.
When those get started can vary. You don't want to wait until 30 days before you're sailing to try and join the fish Extender group.
But if you join the cruise group, like a year and a half advance at booking, they're not going to be ready to go with fish extenders. So like the maiden voyage, for instance, we've been sort of holding a line of, we will wait until we are past the pay in full date before we organize the fish extenders.
[00:19:45] Speaker C: Yeah, that brings up a really great point about this, and you kind of just stole my talking point here, Brian.
One of the great things about the fish extenders, too, is that, like you said, there are a lot of different types. And if there's a type that you really want to try that isn't being offered. You can offer to do that, too, with the group and kind of take that initiative. But I have been working on the fish extender format for a while, and I think I have near perfected. Oh, the secret is, Dennis, you just rang in. I feel like you should be the guest on this episode, not me. You have a lot more experience than I, actually. The problem is with a lot of the groups that I've seen is that they'll just drop a Google spreadsheet in and say, here we go, sign up. And that has a lot of touch points that people can manipulate, and a lot of people just kind of forget about it if you start them too early.
And so what I do is I actually use a Google form because then you have one set form that everyone fills out and then it gets sent off to the admin team to kind of help get everyone into their groups. I really like to do the fish extenders in that small number of cabins because if you do five, everyone can kind of figure out five. I think ten can be a really intimidating number. I agree. You can always sign up for multiples, right?
[00:21:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:04] Speaker C: But if you have ten, you can kind of get a little scared off. But everyone's had that fish extender experience who's been on Disney Cruise, who. You get all your gifts, you give them out, and then you don't get anything back from certain cabins. I'm not going to call anyone out on this, but it's definitely happened to me before.
[00:21:20] Speaker A: It's definitely happened.
[00:21:22] Speaker C: The formula that I figured out is that if you open your sign ups two days after the paid in full date, that's when you know that people aren't going to just randomly drop out for no reason. Because if you do, you're not getting that deposit back. So then you want to keep that sign up open for about. I figured it out that it's about a month and a half to two months, and then you take about three or four days to sort it all out, and then you want to give people one solid month to get all their stuff together. And I found that that really kind of balances that idea that there's always going to be those last minute people who join the cruise at the last second and say they want to join, but the ship kind of sailed. So if you want to do those fish extenders, you really want to make sure that you are joining the group as early as possible. Because if you join the Facebook group two weeks before your sailing date? Well, you kind of miss the party.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: Yep. Absolutely. And that brings up a good point of what pixie dust is. So this is another term you mentioned earlier, Sean, and pixie dust has two different meanings on Disney cruise line. Pixie dust can be a generic term for the Disney cruise line. Pixie dusted you, meaning they made some special magic happen for you on board, whether it be a physical thing or gave you special access to something, that sort of a thing. Or getting pixie dusted in a room upgrade, that's another pixie dust. But pixie dust in this context means random acts of gifting, I will say. So it's like fish extender, but in a non organized form. So it does tend to be something where folks who are not wanting to commit to a full gift exchange, meaning they don't want to commit. I'm going to give five gifts to five different rooms, but I want to get involved in some kind of exchanges or some kind of gifting. Or it's for those last minute folks who didn't get into the Facebook group early enough or didn't get booked on the cruise early enough to participate in the fish extender exchange, who decide I want to be involved in a gift exchange or gifting. And so they usually will do what's called pixie dusting. And different Facebook groups handle pixie dusting differently. Some will actually do a sign up where it's, like I said, real informal, but everybody will just sort of put their names on a sheet and their room number, and they might put a little bit of information about themselves to say, we want to pixie dust be pixie dusted. The one thing I will say with pixie dusting is you've got to have no or low expectations, because this is not the same thing as agreeing to a more formal fish extender exchange. So we'll leave it there with pixie dusting, because, as I said, it can vary quite widely. But I'd love to talk about.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Well, I'd love to tackle a couple of the comments here really fast. First, is Daniel saying your members back from 2013, before they had multiple fish extenders, it's definitely grown.
I wanted to provide one last comment on fish extenders, which is, I really want to emphasize there's no one right way to do a fish extender exchange. I've seen many, many different ways to do it. I mean, not organize it, but, like, the rules around it in terms of it must be of this value and this kind of thing. And I've seen people come home after cruises and in their Facebook groups complain about, oh, I just got garbage. This is meant to be a low stress thing. And so if you feel like it's getting stressful, feel free to just raise your hand and opt out. That is a perfectly acceptable thing to do.
So just wanted to point that out. I also wanted to put up here we've got Dennis saying, I don't know, Sean. Sounds like you have the patience of a saint, so you'd be a great cruise admin.
[00:25:06] Speaker A: That's why we brought him on Dennis. That's exactly the point.
[00:25:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I like this comment.
[00:25:12] Speaker C: I didn't plant Dennis in the audience.
I promise that.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: He's not a plant. Now we know him from our facebook group. Yeah.
[00:25:19] Speaker B: I also love this. You should also have a low or no expectation for normal fish extenders. Totally agree. We just take what we get. And look, frankly, sometimes we get stuff and we're like, it's cute, but I'm not going to take it home. I don't need it, but I don't complain about it. I appreciate the effort that somebody put into it.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: And sometimes you get really good fish extender gifts. I will say we've gotten like a cool beach tote bag.
We've gotten some really good stuff.
[00:25:44] Speaker C: I love so many of the gifts. If you looked around my apartment, it is mostly just fish extenders.
The coolest thing is that one of the admins, her name is Beth. I don't know why I'm like referring.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: To shout out to Beth.
[00:25:59] Speaker C: I think she's watching tonight. I don't know.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: Hi, Beth.
[00:26:02] Speaker C: She lives in Orlando and she'll go to the different outlet stores and you can see there's a popcorn bucket on my shelf. If you're only listening to the audio, you have no idea what I'm talking about.
You have your popcorn bucket and you don't have to buy the bucket to get the refills.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: That's a great idea.
[00:26:18] Speaker C: And another person gave us a tray to help carry drinks around and food from the deck.
[00:26:24] Speaker A: Food.
[00:26:25] Speaker C: These little genius things that you would never think of. So really, you may think it's a small and kind of worthless gift. I promise I'm the kind of sentimental nerd who loves everything.
[00:26:36] Speaker A: Oh, I love that, Sean. So we have a question here, and the answer is. Well, read the question.
[00:26:42] Speaker B: No, hold on. It comes from Josh. And the answer is no, you can't do this because it's liquor and not beer.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: Or let's read the question for those who are listening in the audience.
[00:26:55] Speaker B: What I get in trouble for starting a whiskey extender exchange. Instead of gifts, you just bring many alcohols to exchange. I love the initiative. I love the idea. But the answer is unfortunately no.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: Yeah. However, Daniel Lee says, and I know this is true, back in 2014, they did many bottles of Crown Royale. Not sure that would fly, leaving those in the fish extenders. And that is true. So the rules have changed over the years. It used to be that you could bring a certain amount of liquor on board with you, but now, of course, you can't. You can only bring beer and wine, and it's limited. So that's why you can still do a craft beer exchange, but you have to do it amongst a smaller group, obviously.
And so, yeah, you cannot bring liquor on board. They will confiscate it. It's not just that you can't exchange it. They will confiscate it. You will not even get it on board. I promise.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: Let's chat about some of the things that you can learn in your fish extender group.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Facebook group. Not fish extender.
[00:27:53] Speaker B: Sorry.
You won't learn nothing in your fish. Your Facebook group. Ashley pointed out she really wished that she had known about the cruise specific group before our first cruise because she had no idea how helpful it would be, especially for packing. And I think that is a great point. When we sailed in Norway and we did the hike up pulpit rock, I had lots of questions about what kinds of shoes I really needed to bring for that because I didn't want to bring hiking boots if I didn't have to on a trip to Europe because I was only going to use them once. And so I was able to kind of fare it out through asking others who had sailed on the cruise before what kind of shoes I could get away with on that hike. And so the packing angle is a really good one. Sean, I don't know if you've had any suggestions in your Facebook group for packing that were especially impactful for you.
[00:28:39] Speaker C: So the first cruise that I actually went on was to San Diego and it was a maritime and it was like the first couple of days of December. And then I did Labor Day on the magic. But this is my plug. I am telling Disney, if they are listening, I need you to drop those 2025 itineraries. My family is looking to go to Alaska and I have no idea how to pack for it because I got to get the foot in the door first. So I would love a Facebook group to discuss how to pack for Alaska in August, but I can't do it yet.
I wish I could say yes, but I need them to release the itineraries now. Say it with me in the chat.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: Release the itineraries now. Everyone. Release the itineraries now. We're going to make it happen. We're going to will it right to happen.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: If it's going to happen this week, I think it would be tomorrow that it comes out. So fingers crossed, maybe.
[00:29:36] Speaker C: I have been gaslighting my parents and the rest of my family into thinking we were doing Alaska. I have been doing this since like the week I got off the magic in September. And so I just need it to pay off before they realize what I've done.
[00:29:51] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: Release those itinerary. And we've got a tip for you from Edward Lynn packing for Alaska. Layers and binoculars. I would give you that same tip because the weather can vary so much from what we. Oh, and Ashley is saying she will also help you with DCl Alaska.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: Well, and she will be on in a few weeks for us to talk about recommendations on things to do in Seattle before you head out to an Alaska cruise. So maybe we can share a few packing tips for you there, too. Sean, I want to talk about some Hampshire.
[00:30:21] Speaker C: I'm used to that.
[00:30:22] Speaker A: Yeah, you can.
[00:30:24] Speaker C: Alaska. So I'm assuming it's a little bit colder than it usually is around here. Even know the snow doesn't melt till June.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: Hey, DCL 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 dclduo. The folks over at Athun winding 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 dclduo so they know we sent you their way. Thanks mypath unwinding for sponsoring the show. And with that, back to our episode.
[00:31:45] Speaker A: So I think we should talk about some of the other informational stuff that you can find out in a cruise group. So here's a great one. You can learn from the collective wisdom, whether it's transportation, where people are staying, and what cast members are saying for certain issues. And I think that's a great point, finding out what hotels people are staying at, or if they have recommendations for the area, finding out what the best way to get to the port is, either from, let's say, a downtown area or from the parks. If you're sailing at a port canaveral and going to Orlando, first, that kind of information. Now, Sean, you have a way that you like to organize this in your Facebook groups. Tell us how you like to organize these kinds of topics.
[00:32:27] Speaker C: So I'm not going to lie about this. I kind of started doing this because I didn't know all the answers. And I think that one of the really important things about being in a Facebook group is admitting that you don't have an answer sometimes instead of just making one up and then being caught in a lie. And so what we like to do is we'll have threads of information. Because if I had a dollar for every time I've been in a Facebook group and someone said, where can I stay for a hotel? I would be so rich that I would be in concierge every day of my life. It would be the good life. But if you put it into threads, so what I do is I'll put a post. It has a big picture that just says something like reservation thread or hotel thread, then people can put all the information into one post and then it's easy to refer back to because I don't think people really have the time to scroll through a year and a half of content to find 84 hotel posts. But if they have it in one central information point, it's easier for everyone. Absolutely, go ahead.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: I was going to say, I think a lot of people should know that when you're in a Facebook group, a good thing to do is use the search function before you ask, let's say a question that might be a common question, meaning it might not be just a question you have, but a question that everybody might have. Right? So it's a good thing to do. A little bit of a search function before you post because they might actually have the answer. There you go. Dennis even says it. Look, Dennis, you and I are sympathico today. You and Sean are sympathico today. I love this. But you always search your cruise Facebook group for an answer to a question you might have before you ask.
Know. And he says, preach it. Yeah, we're on. You know, you can just look up the word hotel or place to stay in your Facebook group, and I guarantee somebody has already asked the question. Unless the Facebook group was started today. If the Facebook group was started today.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: Let's stop for a second and talk about the kinds of things you might want to search for.
Hotels are one transportation to and from the port? People a lot of times will ask about Disney transportation versus private transportation if folks had experience with it. Shore excursions at the destination that you're headed to or the destinations you're headed to. People frequently seek guidance from a lot of these times. The cruise groups have people who've cruised on prior sailings and done the shore excursions before. And so you can kind of get a heads up on what's good, what people would recommend that you do.
So I think those are kind of the questions that a lot of people ask repeatedly over and over and over again are that where to stay, how to get there, the shore excursions.
Then you get these other questions that I think, sam, you have a tip around on how to get some of this information. Like what's the rotational dining schedule going to be? What are the shows on board? What are the movies going to be? Do we know if that movie is going to premiere at sea? Like those sorts of things where that's not really based on prior knowledge, that's going to be based on your sailing. But Sam, how can people find out that information potentially?
[00:35:32] Speaker A: So there's a couple of different ways you can find out that information. The main way that most people use is to probably sit on hold with Disney Cruise line maybe for an hour, 2 hours just to find out the dining rotations, what shows, what night, pirate night, know, that sort of stuff. But I would say the best way to find out that information is find someone in your sailing group who is sailing concierge. Because they can email the shoreside concierge services and ask those questions. They can get the schedule of what the dining rotations look like. They can find out when formal night is, when pirate night is, if you've got a formal night and a pirate night on your sailing, of course they can find out the show schedule now, certain things they won't be able to find out, let's say six months in advance. Some things they'll only be able to find out closer to sailing, but they might be able to find out before it's even released. They'll be able to find out things like what beverage tastings are going to be offered and when. So concierge can usually find out that information at about 135 days or 134 days before the sailing. They can at least email and ask that information and they should be able to get a lot of that type of information back. So the other part is concierge gets access and pearl gets access, as Daniel is pointing out here, to the app before everybody else does. So at 123 days, that's when platinum can book activities on board.
The platinum and concierge guests can actually look at the app and see what excursions are offered and what beverage tastings and when is Palo brunch being offered and all that kind of information so they can check if there is a specific opening. Now, I will say do not exploit the concierge and platinum and pearl guests with every question under the sea, but if you have a specific excursion that you're interested in and you want to know if it's available, most of the time, people are totally willing to do those kind of one off requests. It's a little bit harder. If you want them to tell you, tell me all 30 excursions that are being offered. That's a little bit, probably too much of an ask. So that's an interesting way. And I think the easiest way to get that information, I love that version, 55.71 says whoa. Would love to know the dining rotation ahead of time. Well, you absolutely can. Like I said, you can call Disney Cruise line and wait for that information over the phone, or you can ask someone who's sailing concierge to email shoreside and they can find, and there's generally, there will be three rotations and you can request which rotation you want.
[00:38:12] Speaker B: I can tell Sean wants to add here. So Sean, go for it.
[00:38:15] Speaker C: And this is another really great reason to join the Facebook group because by the time that you get to the booking phase of things, if I have a Palo reservation and I'm not going to use it, which I always am, but let's just say that I do.
[00:38:29] Speaker A: Let'S say you decided Palo sucks.
[00:38:32] Speaker C: I'm not going to. You have a couple of options, right? You can either throw the reservation out overboard and just see who gets it, or if I know that Jen, the really nice woman who I've been talking to on Facebook for so long, has been looking for it. What you can do is you can kind of organize of, okay, I'm dropping it at this time. Go in now. And that's something that I think is really helpful about that. So reservation threads are a really popular thing that I've seen on all these different groups, no matter what group it.
[00:39:05] Speaker A: Absolutely.
Yep.
[00:39:07] Speaker B: And then I like this comment about know folks posting screenshots. I see this all the time in the Facebook groups where folks are. I'm. My booking window is open. Can somebody who has a higher status than me let me know what is still available from a shore excursion standpoint so they know what they need to target? Because if you're not in concierge, sometimes you got to sort of figure out what's my first priority and head straightforward. If Palo brunch is completely gone, well, then don't head there because you're not going to make any headway. Right. So that's a good tip to look out for those posts. Someone asked, this is an interesting question. They ask, should a person who is interested in choosing a cruise join the Facebook group beforehand to get intel on the cruise, or is that frowned upon? I think it depends. So for like the main voyage for the treasurer of the group that we're admitting, we would say, please don't do that, because we're trying to sort of keep the group about the people who are sailing on that cruise. And it's a unique sailing. But I have seen other groups where people kind of pop in and they're trying to get an understanding of, like, what's going on here. And I should say, even for the maiden voyage group, in the beginning it was open to a ton of people, and then we weeded people out. We basically said, okay, now's the booking date. All the booking windows are open. If you haven't booked, it's time to sort of leave voluntarily. So I think just check with the group, be respectful. If you want to go in and kind of look through the post and understand what's happening, just be respectful about that. But I say check with the group.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
I would answer a little bit differently in saying it depends. I typically say that you can't join my Facebook group unless you are booked on that particular cruise, not that you're considering joining, because the discussion is about what's going to happen on board and people are committing to joining fish extenders and meetups and things like that. And so to me, it's not really a lucky loo group. It's more a, we're a part of this community. So that's how I look at it. But like I said, or like Brian said, each group is different. So I would say in general it's probably frowned upon. But if you were a little bit of a lucky loo but didn't sort of bother anyone and didn't join any groups, you'd probably be.
[00:41:17] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I got to agree with Sam on this one. I feel like we're like a judicial panel trying to hash out issues right now.
[00:41:25] Speaker B: I dissent.
[00:41:27] Speaker C: There's one exception that I would make to that because I agree with Sam's position is that sometimes what I've been doing with a couple of groups is that admins will sometimes if it's the magic, it's going to be a smaller group than the dream because you have half as many people. But sometimes on those bigger sailings they'll actually bring in someone just to be kind of helpful administratively might not always be on the sailing me to just kind of help create some content and kind of, if the sailing people aren't really talking as much, you kind of help perform a little CPR.
And so that's the one exception I would make is know, you know, an admin and they kind of say, hey, can you help me out with this? Don't be as surprised.
Know all that. But it isn't the most unheard of.
[00:42:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:42:15] Speaker B: Yeah. So Tracy saying there are lots of general DCL Facebook groups out there. There are tons. We had Rebecca on more recently who runs the largest of the Disney cruise line Facebook groups. Always a great place to go and get feedback about particular sailings. You can just do a post in some of those groups and say, has anyone taken this itinerary before? What did you think about it? And you'll get a ton of responses usually. So that is a good tip. I also wanted to put up here. We've got two comments, one from Kaylee saying I'm jumping in late, but it's a great place to connect kiddos, pinpal groups, et cetera. And Sam, I think. I think you agree with that.
[00:42:49] Speaker A: Yeah. So I think one of the great things, and Sean mentioned meetups. I think meetups are a great thing. You can organize.
People can organize an onboard meetup right where everyone's going to meet at the ice cream on deck eleven at 03:00 on embarkation day. I mean, there are people who do that and they'll sort of do it with like anyone who has kids, ages nine or ten or nine to eleven. Meet up at this time, on this day. And then there's even folks who will start WhatsApp groups or Facebook messenger chats to connect before the cruise. So they will actually get their kids in touch with another. You know, I've got an eight year old who's interested in Minecraft. Does anybody else have a similar age kid with a similar interest? And they'll sort of connect to the kids. But even adults do mean, I know on a sailing that we went on recently, there was a WhatsApp group for people who were really into board games, and so they created a WhatsApp group through the Facebook group. That's how they sort of met each other, for lack of a better term, created this WhatsApp group. And then they would send WhatsApp messages while on board so that they could meet up at whatever place was available that particular day, at whatever time they decided to play, like risk or settlers of catan or whatever games they were playing. Right. So that is a very, I think, common thing now, particularly WhatsApp. And the reason they use WhatsApp is because it works on Wifi without having to pay for Wi Fi. So that's really the secret tip there is. You don't have to use the Disney Navigator app to talk to people, which you need to have their id for. You have to have their id number, which you can't get before you're on the sailing. So it's kind of a pain. Sean, and tell us, why is the navigator app maybe not the best way to keep in touch with people on board a Disney cruise?
[00:44:51] Speaker C: You are absolutely correct. So my first pitch to Disney is you got to give me my? 25 itinerary release, because then I can start a Facebook group and you all can join and we can all go to Alaska. That's happening.
[00:45:03] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:45:04] Speaker C: Say that now, but the thing that I really hate about the chat is the fact that you don't get your number until you get on board. And if you're like me and you have a certain cell phone provider that shall be unnamed, the second you get near water, or like, within 100ft of it, your service is gone.
And so the nice thing about WhatsApp, as I've been told, is that you can do that ahead of time and it's still going to work on board. So it's not that last minute scramble, especially if your cabin gets upgraded, but you're in fish extenders. Yeah, that's a great point. So then you're not rushing to put notes on cabin doors and things like that. But one of the great things I love about the group chats is that you can have just random information thrown.
You know, the biggest one that I've ever seen was the Mickey Churro waffle day that hit the group chat. Everyone bolted to the.
You know, you don't get that on the navigator app as well because there have been times where I'll get a message that someone was trying to send me. It'll be like the next.
[00:46:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great.
[00:46:14] Speaker B: I got to believe this is Craig pointing out you can also use your fish extender group or, sorry, your Facebook group to organize some games of lines you've been along, the lines you've been discussing. I really wanted to get to this comment about using the group itself while you're on board, and I've seen this where people are posting pictures or sharing the kind of information. Sean, you were just mentioning.
It's a great way to stay connected to the cruise on board. And so I think that's another plus is using it while you're there, not just before you get there.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: Yeah, just for those listening, the post that we're talking about says Brian just took it down. You can see posts during the cruise for certain events that are occurring now. Meaning, like example, sleepwalking, goofy is walking on deck four right now or this port adventure just opened up, or formal nights. Wrong. It's on a different night. So yeah, it's great. For those onboard information. I saw some great comments. One was from Daniel and one was from version 55.71. It's especially great for teen kids that might not find as much to do. His 13 year old has met other kids doing that. And the other comment was the person found the Facebook group helpful to connect eleven to twelve year olds who were abruptly age out of the Oceaneers club. So for those who are listening and haven't heard, Oceaneers Club is now only three to ten year olds. Your eleven and twelve year olds are having to go to edge instead of to the Kids club. And so it is a little bit different. And so that was a great option to obviously connect.
Um, I know there are sometimes people organize special events on board. Sean, have you been involved in organizing through the Facebook group? Organizing special events for onboard?
[00:48:07] Speaker C: So there usually is a meetup. I know Covid kind of threw everything off a little bit. Thankfully, all my cruises have been post Covid and we've just kind of gone for it. But one thing I want to see if any of your listeners from my magic episode remember this. I am kind of the world's oldest man.
It is 09:00 in New Hampshire. This is like 2 hours past my bedtime. So we did a bar crawl in my group, but I also had someone else who organized that because I was like asleep at 830 every night. But we do different meetups and they're usually pictures. But one of the really fun things that me and Beth, my other admin from the magic did was that we did kind of a game of if you find us, you win a prize. And we talked about this before, but what Beth did was she is an annual pass holder and she has all those know, like the. I'm celebrating, really, we don't have that in New Hampshire, that you can just go up anywhere and get buttons. So I went online and I ordered stickers and I brought one with me. It's on my water bottle. And so again, if you're listening to this just in audio format like I do on the treadmill every week, you're going to be very confused. So I'm going to try to narrate it. But I made these stickers and they were a picture of me making a funny pose that said I met Sean on a Disney cruise.
And that was just like a random joke that I had that if you find me, yay.
But it actually kind of became a thing. And so I ended up having to order like 50 something stickers and just constantly had to hand them out. But my friend didn't know I was doing that, so she was really confused why people kept running up to us.
I love that.
Little fun things.
[00:49:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I thought that was a great idea. I know we talked about that on our prior show with you, but I thought that was fantastic. I think it's a really smart idea, I will tell you. And for those who are listening who don't know, I tend to carry magnets with me almost everywhere I go when I'm on a cruise, not when I'm at home. So if you see me in the Seattle area, don't ask me for a magnet. I'm not carrying one. But if I'm on a Disney cruise, I am likely carrying magnets with me. So if you see me, you come up to me, you tell me you watch the show, and do I have a magnet that I could share? And I'm happy to do so. So, yeah, I love that. I think that's a great way. It's a great way of just like meeting people and sort of connecting with them.
[00:50:37] Speaker B: Hold on. I want to transition us to because we had ten minutes left here I want to keep us on time tonight because last week we ran 20 minutes over.
This week I'm keeping us on time. I want to transition us to. I think we got two topics left. I think we got the good, the bad and the ugly with Facebook groups. And I think we got sort of a use of the Facebook groups after the cruise.
I don't want to harp on the good, bad, the ugly, but I just want to ask each person to give maybe one highlight from a Facebook group that they had and one place where there was opportunity for the group to.
[00:51:13] Speaker C: Do for growth better.
[00:51:15] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:51:16] Speaker B: Sam, why don't we start with you? One highlight, one opportunity. Rapid fire round here a little bit.
[00:51:23] Speaker A: Ten night southern caribbean rainy and Robin admin, the group, it was just positive vibes all around. I don't even know how to describe why, but it was such a great group, so much information.
[00:51:34] Speaker B: And if you want to learn more about Facebook groups after listening to this episode, you can head all the way back in the catalog.
It's like single or initial double digits. And we did a whole episode with Rainey and Robin on running Facebook groups that people love. So there's another episode out there for you if you want to listen to it.
[00:51:49] Speaker A: Okay, so that was a good. So the bad was Norway. We had two different Facebook groups and there was this one Facebook. She was actually the admin of one of the groups. The other group was great. She was like crazy.
[00:52:02] Speaker B: It was like, let's be kind. Let's keep it kind.
[00:52:06] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:52:07] Speaker C: She would not let you in horror right now. For those of you who are not.
[00:52:11] Speaker A: On video, she would not let you ask a question unless it was strictly related to the cruise, you could ask, what is the best excursion in Stavanger? But if you asked people, hey, who is an annual pass holder at Walt Disney World? Right? That was literally, your post was shut down, deleted. She had to approve every single post, and she would not approve a post that was not strictly related, which was crazy in my mind, because part of the joy of a Facebook group is getting to know your fellow cruisers and getting to find out who might have something in common with you and maybe you want to be friends with them and meet them on board. And the only way to do that is to spark conversation. I understand you might not want to have political posts or something completely off topic in your Facebook group. That might not be a great. The kinds of things you stay away from when you talk to. But, like, this is a Disney cruise line group, you should be able to talk about Disney related things in my mind or travel related things in my mind. Anyway, those are my two.
[00:53:16] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree with Dennis's comment here. The Facebook groups can be drama when new, controversial DCL policy changes happen. Speaking from experience, when the cruise duck policy change happened. Yes, cruise duck gate. DCL 2023 was a thing.
[00:53:30] Speaker A: 2024.
It's still going on. Yeah, absolutely. All right, Sean, what about you? What are a good and a bad?
[00:53:38] Speaker C: I mean, I think that my favorite moment was really just making friends. That admin, Beth, who I mentioned, we worked together on my magic sailing, I still talk to her almost every day, and we're lifetime friends at this point. You know those friendships where what you do is you send 4000 Instagram reels to each other every day. That's us at this point.
[00:53:59] Speaker A: Oh, I love that.
[00:54:02] Speaker C: Okay, I'm going to try to really tread carefully here because I feel like everything is going to get traced back to me in the end.
I think that the hardest memory I had was that there was a cruise group that was in helping them to just kind of pinch hit and do administrative stuff on content creation. And there was this one person who, no matter what you said, it was always just like wet blanket city. Every single thing.
I love the food here. I'm so excited. The food's not great. You don't need food.
I love the gift shops. I will buy anything limited edition. No, you don't need to spend money.
I think the biggest tip that I have to avoid that is just don't be a jerk. It's really common etiquette, rules of the road. I mean, there are going to be times when your post might get locked because maybe you asked where to stay at a hotel. And I do not want to have to answer that question any more times. But I feel like there are just courtesy rules, right? Like, we're all going to be together. Let's try to be as nice as possible.
[00:55:06] Speaker B: You know what I will say on that? Like, it drives me crazy when I see people asking the same, but then I stop and I think, well, people, other people, someone else will answer them this time. And that's right. Like, I agree with just, it's a Facebook group. It should be light. Keep it light and fun. I got to echo Sam, hands down, one of the best. I don't want to say the best because we're in some Facebook groups right now that are really good. Hands down, one of our best Facebook groups of that southern caribbean sailing met so many people, some of whom are watching this show right now. I can tell they're still friends of ours, we still sail with them and love hearing from them. So that was just a great and excellent Facebook group. And I'll just say, I don't want to get a specific experience. I will just agree. Someone had commented in here, they don't care for controlling admins. That's the thing that drives me crazy.
Our approach to admining the groups we admin is like, look, we'll foster a community. I'm going to pay attention for people who are being jerks, people who aren't respecting the rules. But beyond that, have a conversation.
I don't need to participate in every conversation. I don't need to control every conversation. I just want to make sure that the conversations are appropriate and not devolving into something that doesn't let people have a good time. So I've been in some groups like that. I've been in some groups that are, I'll just call it professionally admin, meaning there is a group out there that loves to admin as many of these groups as they can as a marketing technique. And some of the admins in there are very particular about rules of fish extenders and how much value needs to be in each gift and what can be said and approving posts. And those groups just aren't fun. And you can tell they're crickets. They don't have a lot going on in them. So I think finding that group with the right mix of people to meet before the cruises is fantastic. And Sam, I know you want to jump in with something, but I just.
[00:56:58] Speaker A: Need to say there's one comment in here. I know it's from Craig Moral. He said, I can't forget my favorite thing that happened in a Facebook group. We met Sam due to a random question in a Facebook group, and that is true. They asked if anyone was going to the Starbucks in. I'm trying to remember. It was Cabo, I believe, or maybe it was ensenada. I can't remember. It's one or the other. And would they check if there was one of the you are here mugs? And I responded to the post that we were going to Starbucks and I'd be happy to check if they had the mugs for them. So that's how we met. The morals. Yeah.
[00:57:31] Speaker B: And clearly Rainey or Robin, or it might be Tracy, I'm not sure, showing up today.
[00:57:36] Speaker A: Her name.
[00:57:37] Speaker B: Okay, so Rainey or Robin. One of them is giving me a hard time. You win the crown. You have been some of the best Facebook. The best. You're the best Facebook admins that we've ever had. So sorry, apologies.
Apologies to Kayleigh's admitting our podcast cruise Facebook group. You're also doing fabulous work, Kaylee. All right, I got one.
[00:57:56] Speaker C: Just one last point. One last.
Just to go back to the admin style. I think the best cruise groups are the ones that are kind of laissez fair about things you don't want to be ringing in all too much. I mean, there's those occasional cruise things where even if you have to lock something, you go, okay, look, we've talked about this. Here's how you can find that answer. But really, just like, people are going to do what they're going to do, but even if someone's just being a wet blanket, like I've experienced, people will dm you and just kind of be like, what's her deal? You can still make a great situation out of these things.
[00:58:28] Speaker A: Absolutely. You can commiserate a little bit, too. I love that.
[00:58:32] Speaker C: Okay, I'm sorry I interrupted.
[00:58:33] Speaker B: No, no, you're good.
We have two minutes left to cover the last topic here, which was, guess what? The Facebook group fun continues after your cruise.
I know. I saw a comment in here from Ashley who was saying she mentioned using the Facebook group after the cruise to help connect kiddos who might have met up in the club and you don't.
[00:58:56] Speaker C: Know who they are.
[00:58:56] Speaker B: You can post in the group and try to ferret that out. I've seen people who post their post cruise photos.
I want to hear from Sam and Sean about how to use the group's post cruise. But I just want to put one public service announcement out there, which is, please stop posting about everyone who got sick in your stateroom after the killing. It's absolutely killing me. Every Facebook group postcrews within hours.
And it's like, just for my own mental health.
[00:59:27] Speaker C: Like, please, one thread.
[00:59:29] Speaker A: Just do Sean's method. One thread about everybody who is sick.
[00:59:33] Speaker C: Okay, look, a gentle breeze. And I'm like, am so. You know, I agree with you on this one.
[00:59:39] Speaker A: Dennis even says, thank you, Brian, for that.
[00:59:45] Speaker B: Got. I only got two psas right now. It's don't end rope, drop culture on DCl. And please stop posting about how you got sick on your.
[00:59:52] Speaker A: So. So I will say the most common things I see in Facebook groups after the cruise has ended is one, people trying to connect to each know post cruise like they met on board, but they didn't get each know contact information. And so they want, uh, establish that connection so they can do that through the Facebook group. Another one is questions about photos or the photo package. Know, I didn't get my photos. Who do you know? I accidentally left my kids favorite stuffy on board, and so who do I contact? So there's a lot of that kind of information that often gets shared after the cruise. As Brian mentioned, sometimes people take great photos and they decide to share them. And I don't mean just photos of their own family, but they might have taken a great photo of the ship or of the truffle pursettes or know Mickey, and they just want to share it. And if anybody else wants it, they're happy to share that. So, Sean, your thoughts about what might be a benefit of still some activity post cruise?
[01:00:55] Speaker C: I'm going to try to be quick, but Brian, I'm going to say something that's going to credit something that you've said in an episode. So my degrees in communications and I studied all social media theory in college. I promise this is going to turn out. But there was something that you said in that interview that you two did with DCl villain Josh, and you said that the key to doing your podcast was consistency. Because the second that you're not there, people are going to go look for something else to do. I hope that you see where this is going on this, because that is something that even at work, as I'm helping to run social media pages, that is like the first thing that I tell people.
And so that's why they wonder why I'm so control freak about that. But that's no different. When it comes to after your cruise is over, one of the best things that we do, we do Christmas cards in our magic group. And so for the first time in my life, I had to go buy Christmas cards, and I just sent, like, 20 something of them out. I think that I spent more money on stamps than I've ever done before.
But you do that and then even just asking people when itinerary drops happen, Disney hint, hint. Then you'll go out and say, who's going on this trip? Who's going on that trip?
It's really just a great way to keep connecting with people. I mean, one of the people on our magic cruise is going to have a baby any day now. And I'm so excited because we're Facebook friends and I'm just like, what's the name?
So it's kind of fun to watch these people who you shared this magical experience with and seeing where does their life go? Because it's really amazing to kind of see who people are afterwards. Too. I love, love it.
[01:02:32] Speaker B: I love this comment from Edward. A fun post cruise set of comments is finding out what people booked with their onboard credit, which leads me to, I guess, one more psa for the evening. Because every time we sail, I see a whole discussion thread pop up in the Facebook groups afterwards about I don't see my onboard credit. I didn't get the email confirmation for my onboard credit.
They don't even call them onboard credits. They're called onboard bookings or placeholders. I didn't get the email from my placeholder. Pro tip if you get a placeholder on Disney Cruise line, take a screenshot so you have record that you paid for it. And then if you don't get the email, Disney Cruise line will ensure that you get the placeholder that you paid for. If you don't have a screenshot and you don't have an email, Disney Cruise line will do nothing to help you at that point.
[01:03:20] Speaker C: Because.
[01:03:23] Speaker A: I will also tell you that at the end of your cruise, if you decide to come on a podcast like ours and talk about your, you can share our Facebook or our episode with you in your cruise group. Right? So Dennis is writing. He's also writing that this is a great topic. And Sean, you are great for this. So I have to say that. But Dennis also made another post just above that saying it's fun to hear from those that end up doing cruise reports on their YouTube channels or dare I say, podcasts like the DCL duo. So that is something if you want to relive your cruise and you come on our show, you can share that with the rest of your Facebook group. They might want to relive the cruise as well. So thanks so much you guys, for tuning in and watching. Those of you who are commenting, special shout outs to Edward, Daniel and Dennis, who I would say were probably the most prominent commenters on the show tonight.
[01:04:17] Speaker B: Before we wrap up, we got to say we're going to be back next week. 05:30 p.m. Pacific 08:30 p.m.. Eastern we're talking to Kraus Mouse adventures about short sailings on DCL, why you might want to consider a shorter sailing as opposed to our advice, which is take the longest possible Disney cruise that you can find. So we're going to be talking about short sailings and why you might want to take one of those. So Sean, thank you so much for joining us this evening. Thanks for sharing your own experience and expertise with Facebook groups and for everyone out there watching. Thank you for watching. And we will see you next week.
[01:04:55] Speaker C: Bye everyone.
[01:05:00] 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 care feedback best way to do that? Head to dClduo.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, Mypath 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
[email protected] if you'd like to connect with us, or you can call our voicemail line if you'd like to leave us a message. We love to include the voices of our listeners in our show. Just dial 402-413-5590 that's 402-413-5590 and that will head straight to our Google Voice voicemail line. The DCL duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company, or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective views of the Disney Company or Disney Cruise line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or a Disney vacation, please contact Disney directly or your own travel agent or the great folks over at my path unwinding travel. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous Disney adventure with the DCL duo good night.
[01:07:07] Speaker A: One close.
