[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, I will say some of these caribbean itineraries are doing, as we mentioned, the duo dip. I mean, those to me are the worthwhile itineraries.
If you don't want to travel Europe or Alaska or whatever, there is a bunch of great itineraries with the dip.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Let's find out how fully complete lighthouse point is before we start recommending, because if it's adventurer kind of thing, then I would say go to NASA instead. But yeah.
Welcome back, everybody, to a very extra special live bonus edition of the DCL duo podcast, brought to you by my path unwinding travel. And brought to you in more ways than one today because we got a fabulous guest joining us, Angie from my path unwinding travel, who's also a former planned Disney panelist for Disney Cruise line, I think was the specialty you had, Angie, so welcome. We love having you back. Welcome, Angie. Thank you.
[00:01:05] Speaker C: It's great to be back with talking with the two of you today. Some exciting news today, right?
[00:01:09] Speaker B: It is Christmas Day for Disney Cruise line fans because it's 2025 itinerary release.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: I always think of it as Coronation day, actually. Like, open up the gates, right?
[00:01:20] Speaker B: There you go. There you go. Well, we're here to chat all about Disney Cruise Line's summer 2025 itinerary release. Today, we're going to be breaking it down for you live because Sam and I, we're not travel agents and this isn't our full time gig. And so we have looked at these itineraries briefly. We've studied a few things because we're interested in booking some things with a booking we need to move discount that we happen to have, but we're just going to be doing some live commentary here. I suspect Angie has studied these probably a little bit more than we have. So I have some headlines based on what I've been seeing on social media throughout the day. I have some poll results based on a poll I put out that's still active on Twitter that we'll share with you. But let's dive in to itinerary release. We got two different graphics today.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: The first one I want to shout out to Chris, our friend Chris Vorbeck out there, who shared this PDF with us that, I haven't seen this one before. Sam, have you seen this before, this type of format?
[00:02:19] Speaker A: I don't remember seeing this one before. I do think it's super helpful to look at because it gives us an overview of where the ships are. Like, where in the world is the wonder? Where in the world is the magic, right so it doesn't break it down with the minutiae of all the itineraries and the port stops. But it does tell us where in the world or what the general itinerary is for each ship, which is super nice. And it gives us a compare because it does give us some of the information. It's 2024 through 2025. So it's really helpful. It really highlights the thing that we predicted, right, which was the fantasy, going to Europe instead of the dream. I think that's the real big news from this, or I should say real confirmation. Finally, although we had that, I'd say confirmation we had on Monday from that Instagram story that Disney Parks UK put. Yeah, that was, it was nice to know that my sleuthing panned out and that we were in fact mean, look.
[00:03:22] Speaker B: The headline takeaways from this graphic I think are just shocking. The Disney treasure is going to be doing seven night eastern western caribbean cruises out of Port Canaveral. The wish is going to be doing three and four night bahamian cruises out of Port Canaveral. The fantasy is going to start off doing Bahamian in Port Canaveral and then obviously move over to Europe. Barcelona, Southampton, the dream, three and five night bahamian sailings out of Fort Lauderdale. The wonder will continue her rotation on the west coast between Australia, Hawaii and Alaska.
And the magic is San Diego.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Mixed in there, of course, with some.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: San Diego, thankfully, love having her in San Diego. And then the magic is going to be primarily doing four and five night, actually four and five night. Some three and four night from Galveston looks like one cruise from San Juan, some cruises from Fort Lauderdale, some cruises from Port Canaveral. That is a headline. The magic will be back in Port Canaveral. The original ship will be back in original home.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: I actually thought that was a surprising thinking. I don't know what you all thought, but I was thinking magic would be out of Fort Lauderdale because Dream is in Fort Lauderdale and they have enough space, I think, for two ships in Fort Lauderdale. And I was surprised that they now, according to this, in summer of 2025 are going to have three ships, three ships out of Port Canaveral. Wish treasure and magic, which is going to create, as a couple of people mentioned in our Facebook group, there's going to be some days, some Fridays where there's going to be two ships in port at Port Canaveral, which is going to necessitate Disney using another terminal. We suspect, I don't know that we have confirmation on this, but we suspect they'll be using terminal ten, which is what they have used in the past. So terminal eight is Disney's terminal at Port Canaveral. We suspect they'll use terminal ten for when, I don't know which ship, but when they have two ships in port.
[00:05:26] Speaker B: If you go back and you look at the intro video we roll before every show. That is video of the fantasy sitting, I think at terminal ten as we departed on the wish. It was back in pandemic times where we were on a Disney ship filming a Disney ship sitting at a terminal, not Disney cruise line. So that is where I'm suspecting that it will be sitting. Angie, were there any surprises for you out of where the ships are going to be and anything surprises from especially like Sam?
[00:05:56] Speaker C: I was surprised. I really thought they'd keep the magic of Fort Lauderdale.
I don't know the reasoning behind moving it, but I think one of the great benefits is going to come from that is the ultimate back to back cruises that we're now going to be able to like. It's nice to have an eight day back to back with some of these itineraries. So I think that's very cool.
I think we all expected the wish and the treasure to continue to go out of there. So that wasn't really a surprise. And with the fantasy going to Europe, it made sense then for the dream to go to Fort Lauderdale. So it seemed like it all aligned pretty well from what I was expecting. The only real thing that stood out to me was the magic going to Port Canaveral.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. We got a few comments here we should throw up so we can acknowledge some folks here. Linda's saying twice in one week. Yeah, it's a big week. Banner week for the DCL duo here. This is unusual, but when Disney makes big announcements like this, we do like to go live and talk about them.
Hey Drew, good to see you. I know you were looking at some itinerary or some of the sailings on these itineraries, but might be pivoting over to a different cruise line based on what he saw from his comments on our Facebook page. Ashley is excited for summer 2025. I think it's always exciting to see new itineraries. I have my own thoughts about these, but it's always exciting to see some new itineraries. Linda echoing day we've been waiting for for.
Have been. We have been waiting for a long time for these.
Looking forward to seeing you on the podcast going. I'm going to guess again. Facebook user is Tracy. We got to send Tracy an instructional sheet potentially on how to give streamyard permission to access her account so we could get her name up here.
I did want to say this since we're talking about where the ships are home ported. Why is San Diego getting such short shrift these days by DCl?
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Tell me about it.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Tell me. I love those San Diego cruises. And yeah, it looks like we're getting there is a seven night Mexican Riviera, which is a nice thing to have, but otherwise, three, four night Baja.
[00:07:56] Speaker A: Well, and it's only know April, basically, it's only the month of April that San Diego is even going to have a ship because as we know from this past year's itineraries, the wonder now being over across the Pacific Ocean in Australia, New Zealand, really makes for no ship on the west coast. And then this past year, they did have the magic go do the Panama Canal and come to the west coast. So we were able to sail the magic out of San Diego for several months. And now they're not doing that for, obviously they're not doing that for 2025. So that's a bummer because that means no other ship on the west coast. And yeah, it's a month of sailings. That's kind of, at least it's around spring break, but they're shorter sailings, as Brian mentioned.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: Well, nothing in here. The magic is not coming through the canal in late 2024 either.
Correct. Like she's not going either direction. No, it's the rest of this year and most of next year thus far. And actually, I would venture to guess you won't see a Panama canal cruise in the later releases because she's not making her way over there to begin with. So she doesn't need to come back.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: Correct.
So we might not see a ship other than wonder back on the west coast until 2026. I think that's what this is kind of telling us. What do you think, Angie?
[00:09:29] Speaker C: I think that you're spot on, and I think it's a miss because there is such a great demand for those cruises out of San Diego. And having that west coast availability for guests really makes it a little more difficult for families to travel all the way across to Florida to jump on a ship. So I don't know, I was really surprised that they aren't going to do that. And I don't think, based on what we're seeing for summer 2025, that we can expect that going into the fall.
[00:09:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: Well, let's deep dive in here. Let's put up the other graphic we have, which Disney hopefully supplies, which is kind of the breakdown of the cruises and a little bit more specificity.
I always like to say we got to start with our vegetables, then we get to the main course, then we get to the dessert. So the vegetables are, guess what? Disney's sailing like every other cruise line in the Caribbean and the Bahamas yet. So one quick thing, Brian.
[00:10:22] Speaker A: We've got a question about this graphic and the schedule and folks asking if it's where it is. I'm going to post it in our Facebook group, actually right now. So for those who want to see it, maybe up close or Zoom to, I'm going to make sure you've got that. So it'll just take me a second here.
[00:10:41] Speaker B: Yeah, we don't know where this came from on the Disney side. It was shared with us by someone, a friend of the show who's a travel agent. And so I don't know if that's something they put out for the travel agents. This graphic is available typically on Disney's website when you go to plan a cruise or sail with us. And then they'll have like a link for summer, new summer 2025 itineraries. If you click on that, there's usually a link off to kind of this two pager. In this case, sometimes it's a one pager of all the cruises kind of listed out with their embarkation dates. So you can really get kind of a sense of the itinerary. I find this graphic to be much more helpful if you're trying to figure out what you want to target because searching the Disney website and trying to figure all that out, it's a.
Right. So let's talk about. So caribbean cruises. I don't know, is there anything to cover here? I don't see any new ports other know, they'll be sailing more often to lookout K.
I like seeing that.
[00:11:38] Speaker C: I'm going to call the Disney bubble cruises. There's the ones that just are going to the private islands and they've cut NASA out completely. And I thought that was an interesting diversion from what they've done in the.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: Bahamas in the past.
[00:11:49] Speaker C: So be interesting.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: Those are, they've got this August 1 cruise. That's Disney castaway key and a day at sea. And that's it. That's interesting.
Same thing above. Well, I got Nassau on the three night above it. But then, yeah, they've got the four nighters going to Castaway Key and Lighthouse point with no stop in Nassau.
Yeah. And otherwise it looks like the eastern Caribbean's got Tortola St. Kitts Antigua that ten night Eastern is an appealing cruise, although from what I've heard it's very expensive in relation to the other caribbean sailings because it's unique, which is not surprising. But that is an interesting cruise. It's just make a. I don't know what we're going to call it. It's not a double dip. What do we decide to call it, Sam? Because it's not stopping at the same island twice. It's stopping at both.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Yes. What did we decide to call it? I don't even remember now.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: A double scoop? I don't know. Anyway.
Yeah. And then you do have these other. So it looks like there's some four nighters that stop at both the islands and no place mean. Those are nice sailings. Look, getting on a caribbean cruise, a bahamian cruise, always a nice way to experience. Disney Cruise line, tend to be much cheaper than Alaska or Europe. That much is assured and very popular sailing. So some good options out there for folks who may or may not want to sail to Nassau or not. But I think the real stars of the show we got to talk about this time around are Alaska and Europe. Let's start with Alaska.
I don't know. Not much seems different here to me.
[00:13:27] Speaker C: They're pretty consistent with 2024. It was interesting that on the seven night we lost icy straight point, which was. I'm curious to find out why that might be, but it's nice to see that it's still in the nine night. But I think most people are probably limited to the seven night for a lot of people. So it's interesting that that one was gone because that's a favorite of mine. I think it's a nice port stop, but otherwise it's kind of rinse and repeat from 2024.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: Yeah. It's also interesting to me that the nine night. So we've been looking at Alaska. That's the cruise we're looking to book in 2025. Someone asked, I hope you're not moving the cruise in April on the treasure because I think they're with us on the treasure. No, we have an Alaska cruise booked actually for a few months from now. We're just beyond the pay in full date and we have to move it to 2025 so we can finally get in our Alaska cruise.
But we were talking to a friend because we've been looking at the nine night and he noted that Skagway is not on the itinerary for the nine night. And he thinks that Skagway is like the quintessential port, the quintessential alaskan port to see the eight night's going there, but the nine night isn't. Instead, the nine night stopping at Victoria, which, spoiler alert, we've both been to several times very close to our home.
Now we're struggling. Do we take a seven night or the eight night? The eight night's too late for us because it's after school. We'll have been back in session here in Washington. So not sure why that nine nights, dropping the skagway stop, but otherwise, I agree. Rinse and repeat. I don't know. Sam, what's catching your. We got to book an Alaska cruise.
What are you going to tell our fabulous travel agent to go know?
[00:15:01] Speaker A: I'm debating between the nine night and one of the seven nights because I want to go to, and like, I keep hearing how great Skagway is, and so it's really hard for me because the nine night doesn't include Skagway. Right. It has icy straight point, which I'm sure would be.
Yeah. Oh, it's a duo dip. Karen is saying. Sorry, that a duo dip. There you go.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Thank you, Karen.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: It was Karen's. I think it was Karen's idea. And, yeah, I loved it. But anyway, so I feel like our initial plan, to be perfectly honest with everyone, our initial plan that Brian and I had was whatever the nine night itinerary is in Alaska. That's what we're going to book.
But now seeing it's not going to Skagway, and I really want to include Skagway, I actually think we need to look and decide if we want to do one of the seven night itineraries. The eight night itinerary that's offered is a no go because it's like mid September and Nathan's back in school, so that's not possible.
So we're looking. The nine night fits in our schedule. It's in July. So we would probably be looking at other sailings in either July or August at the seven night.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Although it's tough for us personally, because Nathan goes to sleepaway camp now.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: Well, we would change, get too late.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: In July, and then this.
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Actually, the nine night conflicts with the sleepaway camp session that he's doing this year. But what we would do is we would just send him to a different sleepaway camp session. He wouldn't be able to do the three week session anyway. That's logistics. We'll figure out once we settle on a cruise. But anyway, I'm debating now between the seven night and the nine night. So we've got to look at the seven nights to figure out, do we want to give up the extra two nights on board in order to go to Skagway? Like, is that trade off worth it? And so I don't know, because I.
[00:16:55] Speaker C: Haven'T ever been to Alaska.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: So what do I know? Anyway, so I'm going to re listen to the episode that we did with Ashley on Alaska. I'm going to re listen to the episode we did with Willie on Alaska. I think we've got another one. I can't remember who it was with, but we, we have a few episodes in Alaska.
[00:17:14] Speaker B: Let's get Angie's recommendation. Angie, what would you do? What would you do?
[00:17:17] Speaker A: What would you do between the two?
[00:17:19] Speaker C: If it were me, I would do the night because as much as I can be, I know that it's longer. I like to be on board longer. But I will say Skagway is fantastic. So there is something to be considered about really feeling.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: But I don't care about going to Victoria. So that's the other part that night. Victoria is a beautiful city, so this is no insult to Victoria, but I've been to Victoria and it's only a few hours away, so I don't need to go to Victoria on a cruise.
[00:17:48] Speaker B: Ashley says, you don't need to listen to her episode. She says, go to.
[00:17:53] Speaker A: Because I know Ashley did a seven night itinerary and that's part of. Yeah. Anyway.
[00:17:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:59] Speaker C: You cruise enough, two nights won't kill you. Go to Skagway, book a different cruise. Take one of the duo dip cruises later on in the summer, and then.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: I like that idea. I like that. Plus, we could actually. So Nathan is definitely coming to Alaska with us. And if we book a different alaskan cruise, like, one later in July or in August, then we can send him to the same summer camp session that he normally goes to and then it won't be.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: All right, see, I'm going to cut you off. It's not group therapy here for us.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: I know.
Tell me what I should do.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: Yeah, we got to figure this out on our own. I did want to throw up this comment really fast just to answer it, which was, I'm still holding. Nope, that's the wrong comment. We'll come back to that one. It was, where will the new mega ship, the adventure, be positioned once it sets sail? Any ideas? Disney actually announced that it will be positioned in Singapore, so its home port will be in Singapore. We don't have additional details on the adventure yet, although we are all anticipating.
[00:19:01] Speaker A: We will hear it's going to actually sail. Like, what port stops it will make. There's literally no information out on that.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Yet, although Europe may give us some idea, because Europe seems to be following the trend from Australia and the UK staycation cruises this time around. So if Disney starts holding true to what they're doing with the european season, I'm going to venture a guess that those cruises are going to be four or five night sailings, primarily aimed at the local market. And so, you know, take a look today where some of those cruise lines sail from Singapore, and that's probably what Disney is going to be mimicking. We are expecting some more announcements about the adventure here. Hopefully soon, maybe at D 23, but probably not itineraries for a while longer. More like what's the atrium character and the stern character and all of that sort of stuff going to be? But let's shift over. We got to talk about Europe and the med.
Transatlantic cruise exists. It's a thing.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: So that's good to hear, actually, that itinerary, is it. I'm going to pull it up on paper because I can't really see it on the screen because it's just too small on my screen. But it starts from Port Canaveral. So there's a few other transatlantics that they've done. I feel like lately they go from either Miami or New York or to, depending upon where they are right before, but this one is going from Port Canaveral. So for folks from Florida, like our friends who know who they are, they're going to be taking this transatlantic right from their hometown, and it goes to castaway key.
So that's amazing. And then, of course, it goes to the Azores and then Lisbon, and it's like, I think that's a great know, it's a lot of days at sea, and they're going to be like, consecutive days at sea, and then you're going to have those three quick port stops at the very end. But that sounds awesome. You get, like, your beach day, and then you get to go over to Europe. And I don't know, that's amazing if we can't possibly make that work because of school. But I would love.
[00:21:11] Speaker B: My, my overview of the european season. And then I want Angie to just go to town and tell us what we should be focused on here.
The western Europe cruises, man, those are not really inspiring me. They have shortened a ton of three night, four night, five night.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: There is only a lot of short ones.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: There's only two, seven night sailings. In western Europe. One is going to Spain and Portugal, and the other is doing kind of the British Isles cruise that we've seen before.
It really feels to me like a return to that staycation model that they had in the UK to get the locals back on board, which, at the end of the show, we'll talk about pricing and then when you can, book these. But I'm a little worried. Like, I can't spend that kind of money on even a three or four night cruise.
Northern Europe, that's where they have one seven night and one eight night. The northern Europe, that's going to Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, and then an eight night. That's doing really, the norwegian fjords cruise, which looks amazing, by the way. That norwegian fjords cruise absolutely catches my attention. And then for the med cruises, you've got one. Those are good med itinerary, four. You've got four, six, seven night sailings, a nine night, a twelve night, and then a five night. So their longer sailings are in the med western Europe. Much shorter cruises this time around, and some unique itineraries in northern Europe, from my point of view. But, Angie, what catches your attention, and I'm going to scan here to see if I see any new ports Europe?
[00:22:50] Speaker C: I don't think it's a new port, but it wasn't offered in 2024, was Tulan, France, which caught my attention, because I don't know if anybody's also the national treasure fan, but there's a whole Templar segment in that town, and if you ever wanted to do something very different from a port perspective, they do have this really cool treasure of the Templar port adventure in there, where they actually give you a puzzle and you go through looking for the treasure. They dress the kids up at Templar nights. It's just kind of a cool thing. So seeing that one on there kind of was interesting to me, just because it was something that I haven't seen very frequently on their itineraries and not one that I had personally experienced. I think that cruise going in May 17 and 24th is kind of one that's interesting just because it offers something a little bit different. It also goes into Rome from Barcelona, which I'm not a huge fan of because I like Rome being where you start versus a port, because there's so.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: Much time back, far away.
[00:23:45] Speaker C: Yeah. So for me, I don't love Rome as a port, so that was the only downside of that seven night med that was there. I'm also a big fan of the twelve night, because I like that you have a little bit of Italy. You got Malta in there, you've got the greek isles. The price tag on that one is a little tough to swallow, I'll be honest. That's the one that I'm like. I would really love to do that, but then I'm probably going to do one cruise for the next three years to cover it. So if you can do it, fabulous. But that one, if you're considering booking it, I would highly recommend you book it opening day because I have a feeling those prices are going to continue to go up. But it is a really great itinerary. I mean, they've got some great stops in Greece. Nothing that's necessarily new for Disney cruise line, but there's something to offer in each of them that I think is really a nice package that they put together for that twelve night. I'm with you. The norwegian fjords is the one that I want to do. I'm trying to talk my son into doing it. It's his senior year. Next year he gets to pick our trip. So I'm trying to gently persuade him to do the norwegian fjords because I like that there are some new ports on that one this year.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Are they making it further like. So? Stavenger, we recognize that's the southernmost city that they visited when we were on the cruise, north Fior died. Sand. That was the northernmost city we visited before we started coming back down to Eidefior died. And no, it wasn't north. It was North Fior died then I'd Fiore died. Yeah. I'm trying to remember the name of the city that we visited that was all the way north. Olsen. So they're not stopping at Olsen, which I thought was a gorgeous, gorgeous city.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: I don't know where this year. I'm pretty sure in 2024.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm surprised to see them going back to Nord Fior died because the fantasy that's a big ship and Nord Fior died was not a big city. As I recall, it's bigger than I.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Did, but Olsen's was smaller. Olsend was tiny, tiny, tiny. So it's good they're not going.
[00:25:40] Speaker B: No, no. I'm thinking of Olison, the one that was out on the point, though, that we walked up to the top of the hill and took photos down and we got the gorgeous Olison was much bigger than Nord Fjordide. And where, I don't know where Christiansand, Norway is or Huggersund, Norway. And I'm wondering if they're finally making it maybe just a little further north.
Because that was one of the complaints on our cruises. We didn't quite get far enough north to be like, oh, we're in the Arctic Circle. And that sort of thing makes it.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: More likely to get to see the northern lights. There actually were folks on our cruise who stayed up until God knows how late, early hours of the morning to see the northern lights. But at the time, you couldn't actually see it with your naked eye. So they were just taking pictures, and then you could see the northern lights in their pictures, which was cool. But I can look at that on Facebook. I don't need to stay up till 02:00 a.m. 03:00 a.m..
[00:26:37] Speaker B: I highly recommend it. Angie. If you haven't done it, get your.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: Son to do such a great. We loved the few words. Yeah, we loved the fjords.
Yeah. But I think your point is right, though, about these.
A bunch of, like, there's a three night, a three night, a four night, a four night, a five night, a five night. I don't know. I can't imagine going all the way over to Europe and then just doing like a three night cruise or a four night or even a five night cruise seems kind of short because you only get three ports on most of the five nights. You get four ports, I think, on one of them. Yeah. On the one that's July 19. But that seems kind of short. I mean, they are certainly a five night. Certainly more affordable than, let's say, the seven night, the nine night or the twelve night. As Angie pointed out, that's really hard to swallow. Price tag. But I don't know, if you go, obviously you wouldn't just do the cruise then you'd have to do like, I would imagine if you did a five night in Europe on Disney Cruise line, then you would back it up with know some land based trips. Whether that's, you know, on your own kind of a saying. She's doing a DCL add on to their first time in the UK. That's a smart way to do mean we're going to go over.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: That's actually one thing I heard today online. I heard consistently there was a know growing voice of people saying, I don't mind the four, five night sailings in Europe because it means I can do what I want to do, which is I want to go over, I want to do a land based vacation for a little bit, maybe add on an adventures by Disney, take a short cruise, maybe spend some time, if it's not a closed loop cruise, maybe spend some time where the cruise ship, like, I think there was a group of people sort of saying, seeing it by cruise purely means I don't get kind of the full experience I want to have. So this opens the possibility for me to go, which I thought was a really interesting way to look at it. I think we're seeing it as a drawback, but that's because you and I like to go to Europe for weeks at a know, most people are going to go over for maybe a week, so.
[00:28:43] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good point. And a lot of these are from Southampton, which is only a couple of hours from which. So if you're going to spend time in London or spend time in other parts of the UK, that's probably pretty easy. Or if you're going to pop over and go to Disneyland Paris. Right, you can take the train.
[00:28:59] Speaker C: That's what I was going to say. I would channel it over to Disneyland Paris in a heartbeat after one of these, you know, you could make it that whole trip. You can do an ABd add on, you can do the cruise and you can do Disneyland Paris if that's truly what you want to do, but then make some time to see everything else that's there as well is really worthwhile. I think a lot of these, though, are probably to what you said, Brian, earlier, where it's trying to appeal to the locals. So your european cruisers that might just want to experience Disney cruise line versus people that are going over there specifically for a cruise.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's a really great point. Because a three night from Southampton to France or to Belgium might be one stop or in with. With only one stop is probably more attractive to somebody from the UK, for example, who's a Disney fan and wants to try out Disney cruise line, but doesn't want to maybe spend the price tag of a seven night northern Europe cruise or a seven night med cruise.
[00:29:58] Speaker B: So Angie, you're getting a special shout out here, so we'll throw it up. Angie, love to see you here. Hugs from your planned Disney, Julie.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: So hi Julie, thanks for watching. Julie. We love planned Disney. We love all the planned Disney alums as well. And by the way, for those who are watching, if you want, you can still sail with Angie and other alumni from planned Disney through my path, unwinding travel. So reach out. There are still some spots available and they've actually got significant discounts from what Disney is currently selling that cruise for. So reach out to. Yeah, my path I want to sail with.
[00:30:38] Speaker B: I. Can I skip the podcast cruise and sail with Angie instead. Sam.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: No, honey, we could do both.
We could do both, but we can't afford to do both. Angie, I was hoping to cruise with.
[00:30:49] Speaker C: You guys because your cruise is leaving on my birthday.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: So I was trying to talk my.
[00:30:53] Speaker C: Husband into letting me because I was the same way I depicted the other. And obviously, I'm going to sail in July with my planned Disney family. But there was a lot of excitement today because today was our advanced booking window for our concierge cruise. So we got our cabanas today and all of that. So it's been an exciting day in the Gargaro household, trying to get all this.
[00:31:11] Speaker A: Oh, my head.
[00:31:12] Speaker C: Around all these vacations.
[00:31:14] Speaker B: Next milestone is Mickey Mail. Mickey Mail is the next milestone.
[00:31:18] Speaker A: We're saving our pennies for we, you know, between the podcast cruise and the DVC charter. Right know. And then Alaska the following year, we can't go on any more cruises.
[00:31:29] Speaker C: That's perfection, though. I love Drew's comment. I don't know if I can butt in here, but, yeah, I was really hoping to see Iceland on this release.
[00:31:39] Speaker A: And they're doing it this year. They were doing it in 2024, right? There's like a long Iceland. It's actually like a fjords and Iceland kind of mix, right? Oh, that one looks amazing. But I can't believe they're not doing it in 25. Yeah, I was born. Disney cruise line.
[00:31:54] Speaker C: What's up?
[00:31:55] Speaker A: Are you watching? If you're watching, what's up with that? Why are you not going to Iceland? Yeah.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: Angie, here's a question for you. I don't know if you know the answer to this. We haven't sailed the med, so we haven't experienced this. But Linda is asking since they aren't stopping at. And I'm going to butcher this. Hera Kalian in 2025, only Shania or Shinai. I'm butchering it. Is it likely they will offer a port adventure to kenosis or is it just too far away?
I don't know. I don't know if you know enough about the med.
[00:32:23] Speaker C: I don't know enough about that specific location to say if it's too far or not. I'd have to take a look at the actual port adventures and see if they're offering something. And it would depend on how far away it is and how much time you want to invest in that for sure.
So I'd have to take a look, but I would imagine if they could. They're going to. It's just going to be a matter of how much time are they in that port too?
[00:32:46] Speaker A: Well, and it might be like Rome, right, where you are going to. I'm going to butcher this name, but Chita Tvcchia. And then you have like a two. I know that's the wrong way, but it's like close enough. Okay, that's pretty good.
[00:32:57] Speaker B: Closer than I get with my Kentucky accent here.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: But it's like 2 hours. Or actually it might even be like La hav to Paris. Right? It's like several hours on a bus. Right.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: But yeah, I was going to say they did that one to Paris. It was like 4 hours in a bus. Get off, see the Eiffel tower, wander around for 30 minutes and then head back.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: Yeah, but some people want to do that if that's the only time they might otherwise get to Paris. Right. So it really is. How do you want to spend your vacation?
I personally, I might stay on board, know, eat some Mickey bars and watch some funnel vision, especially because the weather know nice and warm in the summer in Europe. So some might say too warm, especially if you're in Italy. And so.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: Well, do we have any other big thoughts on these itineraries? If not, I want to talk to people about when they can book. And then I think we got to have a discussion about pricing because we've been talking about it in and out here for a few minutes.
[00:33:59] Speaker A: One thing that I would say is right now based know, this is all fantasy that we've got up on the screen, the Med and the western Europe and northern Europe and transatlantic. It doesn't have the transatlantic back on this itinerary because that's going to be in the fall release. So that'll be in the next release. We won't see that for several months, I'm sure.
But we do know that based on the schedule for dry docks. Right. I should say we believe that the fantasy will be doing her dry dock over in France, just like what the dream is going to be doing this year in 2024. And so once she finishes, I believe it's the seven night British Isles cruise, September eigth. Right. So it would end on the 15th. She should be going into her dry dock nearby, I would say. So it'll probably be in Brest, France, which is where the dry dock for the dream is happening. And I don't know how many weeks she'll be in dry dock. I think the dream is going to dry dock for like six weeks or something like quite long. And so the timing of when the fantasy will come back for the transatlantic crossing would be like late October, I think, or maybe even like the first week of November. I haven't looked at a calendar, but that would tell us better. So just for those thinking about the transatlantic coming back, you're talking about really much further into fall than it's not going to be mid September.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: But we can wait for the next release cycle to discuss that one in more detail.
[00:35:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: Let's get on to some other topics about this release cycle. So first off, I want to highlight for folks, let me put this one up first.
So they call it how to book. They call it how to book. I'm going to tell you it's window book.
How to book is either through the website or our recommendation, which is called one of the fabulous agents like Angie at my path unwinding travel.
[00:35:54] Speaker A: Angie, call Karen, call Kaylee, call Kelly, call Margaret.
[00:36:00] Speaker B: They'll be up at ungodly hour in the morning to help you get it booked.
But just for when you can book these. So Pearl Castaway Club members starts on Monday. Monday, March 18. You got the weekend to think things over and then you got to get on it. Platinum Castaway Club members is the next day, Tuesday, March 19 along with Golden Oaks club members. Tuesday, March 19 I will repeatedly put out my call. If you live in Golden Oaks, we'd love to chat with you about what that experience is like. So contact us
[email protected] duo for dinner, too? No, we're not going that far.
[00:36:30] Speaker A: I want to see their houses. Come on, Brian.
[00:36:33] Speaker B: Okay, see, now you just turned off everyone who was going to email us about living in Gold noaks. Gold Castaway club members can book on Wednesday next week, March 20 Silver Castaway Club members Thursday, March 21 along with Disney Vacation Club members and Adventure insiders, which is what adventures by Disney calls their sort of loyalty program. And then they go on sale next Friday for the general public March 22. So that's when you can book. All right, now we get into the more exciting topic that's been burning up on social media today, which is, man, these cruises seem expensive. And we've got a couple of comments here to that effect.
Drew wrote in, yeah, I love DCL, but these prices are rough. JD said, agree with Drew. We're still booking, but Disney needs to step up the value proposition with all the competition.
And so these two comments represent a bit of a theme that I saw on social media today. I did post a very highly scientific, I really grabbed the core demographic of Disney cruise line here. No, I posted a poll on Twitter earlier today, and as of now, the poll is still open and running, but as of now with about 100 votes, I asked, based on today's itinerary release, do you believe a Disney cruise line vacation is worth what DCL is charging?
Now, I'm a social scientist, so I worded that question very carefully. I think 24% of respondents say yes, 45% of respondents saying no, 31% are saying, I just want to see the results of this poll. But I would say that about twice.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: That's how I would have voted. I just want to see the results.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: Twice as many votes for no as yes.
I also just wanted to frame up a couple of other things that I'm seeing here. Like, I completely agree with the comment that some of these prices are crazy. I'm going to give you a specific example in a second just to sort of set the tone here a little bit. I think some of these prices are crazy given the level of competition that Disney faces. Now. Someone commented to me today, well, but I mean, they're filling the ships. No, they are not. Because if you go look at the treasure inaugural season, there is still plenty of availability on that ship. In fact, you can still book a veranda stateroom on the maiden voyage if you want. And that is mind boggling to me because the wish was gone within days.
[00:39:09] Speaker A: Yeah, within less than a week, she was full.
[00:39:12] Speaker B: So the example I've been using, we've talked on the show before. We had an example where we're sailing in April for spring break. We had booked the Disney fantasy in a one bedroom concierge stateroom.
And the price was, I was like floored by it. We paid the deposit. But then I went and looked at royal a few months later and very similar kind of stateroom in their suite class was half the price. And even after us buying drink packages and other things, we're still all in, like easily half the price. A lot of Disney for the exact same week, the exact same sailing. It is a larger ship. I mean, it's the oasis of the seas. The fantasy is smaller. The other example I want to give is we've been talking about Alaska like two years ago, Sam. I think it was. We first put a deposit down on Alaska, maybe it was three years ago, but I think it was two years ago. And we decided we were going to splurge because Sam, Nathan, myself, Sam's mom, and we wanted to know enough room for everyone to have space. And I decided, let's go for it. We're booking the Roy Disney suite.
[00:40:22] Speaker A: Well, I'm going to say I was.
[00:40:24] Speaker B: Against booking the she was not in on that decision.
I faced the but so we have know booked right now and we're going to move it forward. We've moved it forward a couple of times. I looked at the pricing today. The pricing for a base concierge stateroom on the nine night Alaska sailing is what we were going to pay to sail in the Roy Disney suite.
On the wonder at the four people. This is for four people. And I don't want to make this all about concierge. A friend of ours wrote in and did some math, and this is back of the napkin. But prices for regular staterooms on Disney Cruise line for the summer season have gone up about 20% in the last two years, and concierge is up 35% over the last two years. I don't know how that's a winning business strategy.
[00:41:23] Speaker A: On Facebook.
Disney knows they can charge for the magic because we want the magic. And she's not talking about assuming that's Tracy, but it's not talking about the ship we're talking about.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: Clearly that's not working because they're not filling the itineraries they have.
[00:41:39] Speaker A: Well, a lot of Alaska this year is apparently on cast discount. I have heard from friends who are cast members. Yeah. So Alaska for 2024 is not sold out.
We know Alaska is one of the most expensive cruises you can ever book. Right. And then don't forget, you are going to pay just as much for excursions as you paid for your cruise. Or maybe not just as much, but a lot of money for the excursions.
[00:42:04] Speaker B: Look, I don't want to say three things really fast. One, you should not be where you spend your dollar on my ranting and raving here just because I have the bully pulpit microphone.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: Let's be honest, we're still going to book something.
[00:42:18] Speaker B: Yes, but here's the rub. For us, we're definitely going to book something, but it's because we already have a significant amount of money tied up in an existing reservation.
I will tell you, I went online today to look at what it would cost for us to sail like royal or princess to Alaska out of our hometown. We wouldn't even have to drive to Vancouver out of our hometown. Man, that's a tough pill to swallow. The difference there.
[00:42:42] Speaker A: Well, listen, Brian, JD is saying coming soon, the RCL duo, we joke about this all got.
[00:42:50] Speaker B: I got hats, I got investments here.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: A whole new logo. Like, what are we going to do?
[00:42:57] Speaker B: I love Disney cruise line. I love Disney Cruise line. I think for us, what it's meaning is if we've sailed three, four times a year, we're going to sail less, and we're probably not going to sail in concierge. And I'm hearing that routinely from people that we know where they're like, well, we used to be concierge sailors. I can't justify the price anymore. And in part for me, it's because the product doesn't seem to be keeping pace with the price itself. And we've said this on the show before, I just don't know how they're getting to the value that they're assigning, the costs that they're assigning here, because it just doesn't feel like what's new? What is new? Right.
I want to know Angie's thoughts. I want to know Angie's thoughts while Angie's talking. And for those listening home, I'm sorry. While Angie's talking, I'm going to scroll through and just kind of show you kind of some of the pricing on some of these sailings.
[00:43:47] Speaker A: I just want to also say, I know Angie also sells Royal Caribbean.
[00:43:51] Speaker C: I do. And I sail on Royal Caribbean.
[00:43:54] Speaker B: And celebrity and princess, we do a.
[00:43:58] Speaker C: Lot of business with. The thing is about finding the right vacation for you.
[00:44:02] Speaker A: Right.
[00:44:03] Speaker C: And so as my kids have grown up, Disney, they love Disney cruise line. They like the comfort of, they know what to expect. They know the ships. They feel comfortable talking to cast members. They love the food, they love the entertainment. And so it comes down to, what is that worth to you?
[00:44:22] Speaker A: Right.
[00:44:22] Speaker C: And so, especially with the concierge experience talking about that specifically, I love being pampered and knowing that I can ask them for anything and proof it's taken care of. I like to know that for the first time in my life, I'm going to be able to have Palo in my stateroom. There's a certain aspect of that. But then it comes down to what you said is, then, do you have to sail less? And is that what you're willing to sacrifice for that? Now, when we went on royal Caribbean last summer with my son, and we brought a group of their friends and they all had a great time. And at the end, I asked my son, I said, what did you think about royal versus Disney cruise line, and which one would you do? And he, hands down, said, I don't care if I have to only go on one vacation. I just want to be on Disney Cruise line.
So I think there is an audience and a clientele that feels that connection to the stories, to the experiences, to the memories they've made on those ships. And I think that's what Disney's banking on is they know that there's going to be a following. There's going to be people that will pay for it. They may not go on as many, but they're going to go on the cruises. And I'm guilty as charged. Like, I'm still looking at itineraries going, okay, I just got to figure out where am I going to tighten up my belt and maybe I won't go to Walt Disney World before or after the cruise. I'll just go on the cruise. And those are the decisions that you make. But it is.
[00:45:41] Speaker B: Do you think that's a winning strategy? With the amount of capacity, that feels like a winning strategy. Okay, well, people will sail less and we'll attract more audience, but that seems like a winning strategy. If your fleet staying static, they're adding more capacity steadily. And just like, how do you keep filling those rooms with new capacity if you're alienating your existing audience? Right.
[00:46:05] Speaker C: Position? Probably not the way I would do it because I would probably believe that I'm maybe more in the minority of far of. I'm going to sacrifice everything else to make sure that I'm on a Disney cruise line. Cruise.
But with the draw with some of Royal Caribbean's newest ships and the opportunity to explore different ports that royal caribbean offers, that Disney Cruise line doesn't, I think that's going to draw an audience away. And right now I'm hearing from my clients that give me both choices and I'm going to really look. And a lot of it is now coming down to.
[00:46:41] Speaker B: And sorry, Sam. In business, I'll just say the mantra is always keep the customer you have, because the cost of keeping the customer you have is always much lower than finding the new customer. And Disney strategy really does seem aimed at constantly getting new customers.
That's expensive. That's expensive. Anyway, sorry, Sam, go ahead.
[00:46:59] Speaker A: No, I was going to say, though, I feel like for us, well, I still haven't been on Royal, so this is prefaced with I'm going on Royal next month for the very first time. So let's assume I like it. I'm going to say I'm going to guess that I'm going to like it, but I'm just going to guess I'm not going to like it as much as Disney, but I'm probably going to be willing to do more of a combination of think. I think I'll probably be more open to because the price tag on Disney is just getting over the top.
Take some Disney cruise line, some maybe royal, maybe, frankly, maybe celebrity. I think celebrity is a fantastic product. I mean, we haven't been on it in, I don't know, 15 years, but that would be fantastic if it was kid friendly.
[00:47:50] Speaker B: You are 100% right.
The comment that we've shown Brian with a y is saying we're all subsidizing Disney plus losses 100%. Right? There is no way around that.
Someone here. We've been pricing August 2025 cruises, and it seems RCL and celebrity price 100% true. In fact, the icon of the seas to stay in Star class is like equivalent of what Disney is charging for concierge on these sailings. But I will continue to say star class offers a ton more benefits than what they're offering today.
[00:48:27] Speaker A: More variety of ships. Right. So that's the other part is if you're willing to not sail on icon, there's a lot more out there. Kaylee said.
[00:48:36] Speaker B: Kaylee. Hey, Kaylee.
[00:48:39] Speaker A: The magic is in the stories for her family. I love Linda's comment. Brian, can you pull this up? The RCL duo will be hosted by Ryan and Pam. Instead of Brian and Sam. It'll be Ryan and Pam, our alter egos. That's right. That is great, Linda. That's perfect. Yeah.
[00:48:54] Speaker B: Hi, Karen, all the way from Amsterdam.
Karen, all the way from Amsterdam.
[00:48:59] Speaker A: She is doing a very cool river cruise summit. I don't know. She's going to see, like, a million different river cruise ships and looking at several different.
[00:49:11] Speaker B: We're hoping to have her on live to talk about all the river cruising options out there. And Ps, we've been toying around with what, podcast cruise, too. River cruise in Europe.
So there you go.
[00:49:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
Start planning summer 2026.
[00:49:27] Speaker B: No conflicts this time.
[00:49:29] Speaker C: I'll pencil it in this time.
[00:49:33] Speaker B: All right, well, I think, look, we've set our piece on the pricing. It is what it is. Look, everyone assesses value differently for us, I think Disney is hitting a point, especially the concierge product is hitting a point where I'm just not convinced the value is there for us and our family any.
So, you know, we may be sailing, you know, kind of back in the standard categories of staterooms, and that's fine.
[00:49:57] Speaker A: Can I just say that if anyone is booking that ten night eastern Caribbean.
[00:50:03] Speaker B: Yes. We want to hear from you.
[00:50:04] Speaker A: We want to hear from you because that.
[00:50:06] Speaker B: I also want to hear from the Norway. Anyone who books that Norway cruise. Yeah, I want to hear from you because I'd love to hear how that itinerary has evolved since we took it because I still would love to go back to Norway at some.
[00:50:18] Speaker A: Well, I will say some of these caribbean itineraries are doing as Brian, as we mentioned, the duo mean, those to me are the worthwhile itineraries.
If you don't want to travel Europe or Alaska or whatever, there is a bunch of great itineraries with the dip.
[00:50:37] Speaker B: Let's find out how fully complete lighthouse point is before we start recommending. Because if it's build your own adventure kind of thing, then I would say go to NASA instead. But, yeah, I was all excited when.
[00:50:49] Speaker C: The pictures came up and I was like, it's still looking a little life into it here.
[00:50:55] Speaker B: Yeah, Matt's saying he's going to be booking an Alaska cruise. We're right there with you. We just got to pick which one JD is just highlighting for any Disney execs in the room. Take notes. Don't worry, they haven't taken a note yet. They're not going to take a note now.
[00:51:07] Speaker A: They're probably not watching. But if they are watching, they don't actually take our advice ever.
[00:51:14] Speaker B: And then one last comment. One last question I just want to make sure to address here is, is the Wifi and the treasure going to be better than the wonder? We went on a wonder cruise last year and I couldn't answer work. So they have upgraded Wi Fi Fleetwide. The treasure will obviously be upgraded. Yeah. Wonder was the last one to get the upgrades. The treasure will come with the newest Wifi. I will say it does depend on where you're sailing, the signal strength and all that sort of stuff because it's satellite based Wi Fi. So in, you know, more extreme regions, like especially Alaska and northern Europe, I think it gets a little iffy, but it should be fine if you're sailing the. Yeah, it should be fine for sailing the should.
[00:51:52] Speaker A: Yeah, you should have great Wi Fi. The wish has had really great Wi Fi. We were able to record with Karen when she was on the preview cruise for the wish while she was like, I think, at castaway docked and she was on the ship's Wi Fi because there was no good Wi Fi on land at that. The ship. The Wi Fi has actually been really good post updates and like Brian said, there is some depending on where you are. So treasure should have, I mean, maybe not as good as Starlink on some of the other cruise brands, but it should have certainly sufficient Wi Fi to send and get emails. Streaming is the only thing that is harder. I would.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: There was, there was some news recently about a cruise line that's actually, they're like doing overlapping Starlink and another provider in order to really just fill in all the gaps and be super fast. So I think it might have been princess or norwegian somebody. So look, the Wifi is getting better and better on these ships. Disney's always just a little bit behind on their technology. So it's a thing.
[00:53:00] Speaker A: But they have Mickey.
[00:53:06] Speaker B: He also does the tech support. He also does the tech. Sorry, Goofy does the tech support.
[00:53:11] Speaker A: Goofy does tech support for sure.
[00:53:14] Speaker B: There you go. All right, I think we should leave it there. I think we've beaten this topic to death. Angie, just super appreciate you coming on. You want to let folks know where they can reach out to you directly if they are interested in booking one of the if we haven't completely turned off all of our viewers listeners to booking a Disney cruise line vacation, which would be hilarious because we are the DCL duo. But yes, go ahead, Angie.
[00:53:35] Speaker C: So I'm available at angie
[email protected]. I also have a Facebook page, Angie G. At mypathon winding. So certainly take a look. I'm happy to help you. Anybody here at Mypath Unwinding is our team is amazing. We have a request form that you can fill out as well to get on our list for priority booking next week. And we're happy to help get you set up.
[00:53:55] Speaker A: All right, thank you so much.
[00:53:57] Speaker C: And I still want to cruise on.
[00:53:58] Speaker A: It, so we're good. Disney is.
[00:54:00] Speaker B: Thank you, Angie, for coming on. Thank you all of you out there for watching again. Special live Edition. We will be back live on Monday night for our regular slot again with Wes, the DCL dude. Can't wait to have him on the show. So thanks everybody out there for watching. We'll see you next time.
Well, a big thank you to all of you out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you can keep getting great content from the DCL duo each week. We'd also love it if you'd head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a five star review. If you hit those five stars, that's great. If you leave us a written review along with a five star review, we will be sure to read it on the air at the end of one of our main episodes. If you're hovering over anything less than five stars, we really want you to reach out to us so we can take your feedback. Best way to do that? Head to 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 my path unwinding where you can get more information about booking a fabulous vacation, which also really helps to support our show. All the things are there, including a way you can sign up to be a guest on the show if you'd like to share your Disney Cruise line experience. Most importantly, you can always email us at
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