[00:00:00] Speaker A: My teenager would meet up with friends and then they would go elsewhere on the ship to, you know, do whatever, hopefully not mischievous thing that they were doing. And usually it was just eating way too much ice cream and feeling bad afterwards.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: So if that's all the mischief. Yeah, if that's all the mischief they get up to, you know, bless them. I love it.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:00:31] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to another live edition of the DCL duo podcast, brought to you by my path unwinding travel. Can't forget that very important message. But, Sam, welcome back to our live episode, and we've got a fun guest tonight. Right, we've got Leslie from trips with Tykes with us.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Yes. Welcome, Leslie. And not just from trips with Tykes, but also from Disney. Deciphered podcast. Yeah, so as we were talking in our pre show, we've got, like, three lawyers who also podcast about Disney obsessively.
[00:01:03] Speaker C: Get ready for it to get chatty.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:01:09] Speaker C: Well, we're going to be talking about taking kids on a Disney cruise, making the most out of taking kids on Disney Cruise. But before we dive into the topic tonight, I wanted to send a very special shout out to some folks who help make our show possible each and every month. And that is our Patreon supporters.
If you are not already a Patreon supporter and you listen to this show a lot and enjoy the content, it really helps us out, helps us defray the cost of putting the show out and paying for platforms like streamyard and other sorts of things that keep the show going. So head over to patreon.com gclduo to check it out and maybe consider joining one of our many membership tiers. But I want to send a shout out to all of our patreons. So, starting at the animators palette tier, because we love food on the show, we named all the tiers after the different restaurants on the cruise line. Starting at the animators palette tier, we've got Steve Elsis, Robert Taylor, Robbie and Jillian Abney, Heather Wilson, the folks over at the Dillos, Diz, Derek Sassman, Dave Hall, Christine Christensen, Chris Brown, Chad Swindell, Bridget Casey. And then we move up to, sorry, Beth Gentry, Ashley Norton, Ashley darling. And then we move up to the Palo brunch tier, where we've got Thomas Rogers, Sonia Allen, Emily Faye Abbott, Edward Lynn, Drew Curry, Dennis Keithley, Cindy Leichner, Chris Wynn, Adrian, and Emily Vanzuli. And we move up then to the Palo dinner tier with Vicki Sue, Josh Wilson, Christopher Vorabeck, Chris Braga, Anne Witten. And then we move up to our Remy brunch tier, where we have Sean Burns, Doug Young, and then at our highest level of support, our Remy dinner tier, we have Ct. Sweet. So thank you so much. You recall Ct was the tinfoil ears from last week. And for all of you out there, he has started a social media account called Mickey Ears.
[00:03:03] Speaker B: No, tinfoil mouse ears if you want to, Brian. He says, hey, Brian and Sam, excited to see what the dynamic DCl duo has for us tonight. I also love Dennis's comment here. It's another multiverse episode between the DCl duo and Disney deciphered. I love it. We love all the multiverses for podcasting. We love our fellow creators in this space. But, yeah, we have to let Leslie say hi, but welcome to the show, or welcome back to the show, Leslie, welcome to your first live show on our show.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Yes. Thank you so much for having me. I always love talking to the two of you. I mean, I have to say it, you two are some of the nicest in the podcast creator space there can be. So I love the synergy that we keep crossing paths. We met in person for the first time at Alani during the pandemic, and then we kind of keep crossing paths, which is great.
[00:03:57] Speaker B: We love it. Well, we're so happy to have you on the show. For all of those watching live, welcome. Thanks for joining us. As Josh McHenry says, it's happening. Some people have Monday night football. We get the duo live show. I love that. That's awesome.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: Watch out, NBC. Watch out.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: I don't know who has it. Yeah. Hi, Dennis and hi, Bridget Ann and hi, DCl Dan joining us.
JD and Ashley. Thanks for joining. And Ashley says, always funny to hear your name as you join a live YouTube, like taking roll call. Yeah. And Daniel Lee is watching as well. Oh, Dennis Keithley says Joe Buck and Troy Acman have nothing on us. So thank you, Dennis. It's. I know who Troy Aikman is, but is it bad if I tell you I don't know who Joe Buck is?
I guess he's a football player, though.
[00:04:53] Speaker C: All right, well, let's talk Disney Cruise line, which is our specialty here. We brought Leslie on because we want to talk about sailing with kids. Tips and tricks for sailing with kids. We thought we'd just kind of move through the whole Disney cruise line process here and talk about some of the things you might want to consider if you're sailing with kids of kind of varying ages. But let's start with Leslie. Folks who want to sail with their kids, how should they think about picking maybe their first, you know, ship itinerary. What are some of your thoughts and tips for picking your first Disney cruise with kids?
[00:05:26] Speaker A: So, I mean, a lot depends on the ages of your kids. And I first have to say, you guys have far more experience sailing Disney cruise line with kids than I do just the sheer number of cruises. But I do have a teenager now, so I have experience that you guys haven't. We don't have yet. You're trying to prepare for it now.
[00:05:45] Speaker C: We're bracing ourselves.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: That's right. So a lot depends on sort of the ages of your kids. And I think that should drive. If you've got much younger kids, you have to think of just like the logistics of travel being hard. If you've got a toddler or a preschooler, you don't want to be taking a cross country flight and the kid being tired and then taking like a three day cruise where they're barely going to get to settle in and it's just going to feel like this race. Right. So you have to think about what your kids can handle just more generally in terms of travel. That's sort of how I think about it. And I say that because the first Disney cruise I ever did, I had a three year old and we did a three night cruise out of Port Canaveral. Was it hard?
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Yes, it was very.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: You know, it was a media cruise, so that was the reason I picked it. But we said after that cruise, no more three nights for us, at least not with younger kids. We like the longer cruises. It allows the kids to acclimate. And like you guys, I'm based on the west coast, so there are not a lot of cruise options out of the west coast on, if most of my options are out of Florida or overseas. So, I mean, I have taken a San Diego cruise, and so that was pretty easy. But if you're traveling of any distance, that's something you really have to think about.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And adjusting to the time difference, I think is an important part of that as well. I think, though, all things considered, do you have a ship, let's say you live in Florida or you live nearby to the port, and so a shorter trip is maybe not a big deal. Do you have any thoughts as to what ship you would recommend for someone with really young kids versus what ship or ships you might recommend for somebody who has teenagers?
[00:07:25] Speaker A: To me, it's more about the itinerary than the ships. And you guys may disagree. It's more about what ports are the best fit for your kids because all of the Disney ships are fantastic and I haven't even been on all of know for me, I'm never really looking. I want to pick a ship I haven't done yet. Maybe that's what you're being driven by is a ship that you haven't done. But I think it's more about the itinerary. And all of the ships are going to be a great fit for every age because they all have similar kid amenities. They have the kids club, they have the teen and twin clubs. They have the entertainment, they have the dining. You're not going to be missing out on anything major for the kids, at least in terms of the ships. But I bet you guys have your favorites, right?
[00:08:07] Speaker B: Well, I would say Nathan has his favorites for kids club. He would tell you that the wish has the best kids club. And so the treasure is going to have an equal kids club to the wish. Right? So he would say that's the best kids club. But he also really likes the wonder and the magic because they have a slide in their kids club. Right. Whereas the fantasy and the dream don't.
I think the nursery on all of the ships is very comparable for young kids. But the wish has the biggest one and has sort of the more space and has access to that Captain Mickey and Minnie room. So I think that's a nice bonus. But I will say the teenagers have it the best on the dream and the fantasy. Not that the club, not that the activities are any private pool.
Yeah, they have this really cool area. It's basically what the wish has that is now the rainforest room. It's this outdoor area with hot tubs in it. So they have this cool, exclusive sun deck. Will that make or break your cruise, though? Probably not. I think it's more about the activities and the friends that you make than necessarily just having access to a cool sun deck.
[00:09:21] Speaker C: We should pause too and say when we talk about sailing with kids, Sam, can you remind folks, or Leslie, do you recall what the youngest age you can be to sail on Disney cruise line is?
[00:09:32] Speaker B: It is six months old. That's the youngest. But certain sailings actually have a one year minimum, which I believe like Panama Canal. A couple of the longer cruises. Yeah, a couple of the longer ones have like a one year age limit. But I believe most of the cruises, it's like the standard is six months. Yeah.
[00:09:50] Speaker C: And the other thing I was going to say about kids clubs on board, one thing to keep in mind.
So for a long time, we love the wish kids club because Nathan loved it. But if you're thinking, oh, I'm going to try the treasure, I bet it has a great. It's the exact same. It's rinse and repeat. They are not changing anything as far as we know.
If you've been on the wish and you're thinking, I'll get my kid a new experience on the treasure, it won't be.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: And really, the same can be said for the dream and the fantasy. There are some differences and same with the wonder and the magic. There are some differences between the two. But in general, if you're talking same class, very similar, if not identical kids clubs. Yeah.
[00:10:32] Speaker C: I love this comment from Ashley.
Actually, let's do one more step and then I'm going to put Ashley's comments up. So we've picked our sailing stateroom.
My impression is, look, pick the one that's going to fit your family the best. Like if you're a family of three, almost any stateroom on board is probably going to be able to handle you. And so it comes down to cost and preference. Know verandas and not if you're a family of four. I think it gets a little trickier for some.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Almost all the staterooms, it's more five and more.
[00:11:03] Speaker C: If you're family of five. Now you're getting into family deluxe. Veranda is probably the only stateroom on board, and not even all of them, if I'm remembering correctly, will accommodate a family of five. And then when you get into some of the people we've had on our show who know bringing four children in tow, you're now automatically into double state. You have achievement unlocked. It's double stateroom time. And then your question is, am I getting adjoining staterooms? Are my kids old enough and responsible enough that I might be able to get away with like teenagers across the hall in an inside cabin? Ps, you still have to have an adult assigned to that.
You know, I don't think Disney really wants you doing that trick. But you could have adjoining rooms, though, and put all the kids in one room and the adults in the other at some point, too. If you're booking two cabins, depending on the sailing, it can get pretty cost effective to start looking at concierge in like a one bedroom or a two bedroom situation on especially the magic and the wonder. So I don't know, tips and tricks around choosing your stateroom after that landscape discussion there, I don't know. Sam, Leslie, what do you think?
[00:12:07] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I'm a family of four, so we have it pretty easy. I mean, you guys have an even easier a family of three because they all work. But I haven't had any problems fitting our family of four. Even now with a teenager and an older kid, we fit just.
It does. Especially having that split bathroom with the teenage girl. That's super helpful in terms of getting ready. Very helpful. And we've done other cruise lines. We just did a celebrity cruise, as you guys know, last year, and that was a little bit tighter for getting ready than Disney. So I think really, most of the cabins do work for families of four. I also like to think about location of the cabin in the ship. And we usually like to do just ocean view. We don't need the veranda because we're never in the cabin with older kids. We're never in the cabin now with younger kids. We had a veranda and that was helpful just to have that extra space and one's going to bed early. But we actually like ocean view just to save a little bit of money. But I don't like being very low on the ship because older kids, we like to be able to dash everywhere, climb the stairs, not wait for the elevators, be masters of our own destiny. So getting somewhere, like deck six, something like that, that works out really well for us. So think about location, and we, again, don't want to be too far forward, too far back. I try to get a couple of staterooms off of the elevator lobby.
Not. You don't get the noise, but get the access.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: Yeah. We've got some great comments from Bridget Ann about how we see a lot of people posting on Facebook about verandas and whether or not they're safe for kids, young kids. I think the answer is it depends. Right. They do have a lock that's up kind of high. So they're not like a kid can't just turn the handle and open the door. The doors are quite heavy. They're sliding doors, but they're quite heavy. And again, they have handles.
[00:14:00] Speaker C: Take a lot of work, too, to get like. We've had handles where it's like trying to pry the thing open.
[00:14:07] Speaker B: Child safety lock. Exactly. That's up high. Now, that doesn't mean your kid can't access it by climbing on some piece of furniture and open it. It is possible, but it does take some amount of strength and it would probably take quite a bit of effort that you would notice. Right.
So unless you have a kid who's really mischievous and strong, then I would worry.
[00:14:35] Speaker C: A lot of the discussion tonight is going to be, we're just talking about your average prototypical. You know your children better than we ever will.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:14:45] Speaker C: Well, if your kid prefers to sleep in absolute darkness and you're a family of three, then an inside cabin may be kind of the way to go. Right. If your kid is a climber and you think they might be able to climb up and get the balcony unlocked, then Ocean View stateroom may be for you. So, yeah, always sort of in these conversations, know thyself. Know thy kids. I also wanted to put up Ashley's comment here because it starts to get us into some of the amenities, so to speak, that they offer on board for kids. So she's saying, make sure that the diaper pail is in your room as soon as possible. They ran out once on the dream when we had kids in diapers. So that highlights for me is Disney will provide a diaper genie in your room for kids. Disney will also provide a pack and play in the room for kids. But as supplies last, I suppose.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: Right.
You should be requesting those, actually, before you board. And if they're not in your stateroom, as soon as you get into your stateroom, you need to let your stateroom attendant know ASAP and get that put into your room. Yeah.
[00:15:44] Speaker C: And I love Dennis's comment. It's a game changer when your kids can be in their own stateroom, even if it's a connecting stateroom. Yeah. Yes. I would guess that is absolutely the, um. All right, so one other thing before we even get on board the ship that I think we should talk about is preparing your kids to sail.
We actually were cleaning out our tv cabinet the other day, and we found we had bought these DVDs that were like. It was like a five DVD box set from Disney.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: They were promotional DVDs.
[00:16:17] Speaker C: Were they sent to us for free? I forgot.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Yeah, they're promotional DVDs about the Disney parks. There was one CD or DVD that was cruise, and then the rest were parks ones. Right.
And so, yeah, we had watched those with Nathan, I guess, years and years ago. I couldn't believe it when we found those. But now you don't have to do that, because now there's YouTube and there's a million.
[00:16:45] Speaker C: Do you show your kids videos to prep, know, that sort of thing? So, yeah, I don't know. Leslie, what do you think about prepping kids in that way? Like, our son needed it, but I don't know if every kid needs it. Some kids may want to be surprised. I don't know.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's fair. I mean, I think it depends, again, on the age of your kids. If you have younger kids for anything Disney, I think prepping them is helpful. I mean, we do that for dark rides or scary rides. For my younger one, he sometimes tends to be a little bit on the sensitive side. So we definitely did watch some videos and things like that before our first cruise.
Now, I think sometimes we're just watching them so that they know the layout and can hit the ground running. Like with my teenager, she wants to know what the teen club looks like immediately. And so she knows what video game is going to be there, what the layout is for hangout and that kind of thing. So that's sort of the purpose of that. But I do think if you have kids who have any sort of anxiety or just slow to warm up to new places and new spaces, that it's worth showing them. And we do that for a lot of different aspects of Disney Cruise and other Disney vacations. And that does tend to help our younger one as now, you know, once they go on one ship, they're hooked. And then it's really more about, like, how big know, what are the flavors on the ice cream machine.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: Right.
I think a great thing to do for really little kids is show them the videos with the characters. So we have all seen those poor toddlers who are afraid of the characters. There are many who are very happy. They see Mickey or Minnie and they run up and they give them a hug and they don't want to let go. But there are a handful, you see that are just terrified. And I wonder whether those parents ever showed them a video of the characters ahead of time. Because I think if you got them used to what Mickey looks like in real life instead of on, not if.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: They didn't want to give them nightmares before bedtime, they.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: The, I'm not saying imitation, Mickey. I'm saying a real know, there's, you can definitely warm your kids up to that. And, you know, some people are like, oh, I don't want to ruin the surprise, but I think your point, Leslie, of kids with any kind of anxiety in particular, they're going to do a lot better if they have an understanding of what they're getting themselves into.
[00:19:09] Speaker C: Go ahead.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: The other thing I should mention really quickly, because the first cruise we went on, my son was just barely three.
[00:19:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: And so he was at that age where he was technically old enough to go to the kids club. He still could go to the nursery as a backup. And he had been going to preschool at that point, but not for very extended periods of time. So if you want to drop a younger kid, you have got to get them prepared for that separation. And if they go to preschool, they go to daycare, something like that, they're going to have a much easier time. But if this is the first time you've ever just plopped them off with like, a group setting, they may not last. And in fact, my son, even with his experience, he thought the kids club at age three was a little bit overwhelming. The Oceanier lab and the Oceaneer club, and it got a little crazy. And so we did take him out and put him in the nursery for a little bit. And that was like the good reset that he needed to be the big kid around the younger kids. And then he was able to sort of go back and forth. But that's something to keep in mind because a lot of people are like, hey, free childcare. But if you haven't used childcare for three or four years, then the kids may not be ready.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: That's a great point. We actually talked with somebody the other day in a show that's not going to be out yet, but they mentioned that their kid goes to daycare, but their kid knows those teachers and so their kid is very comfortable going to that environment. And they noticed, though, because they started taking their kid to the gym, daycare, where they don't know and has got a lot more turnover of different caregivers, that they felt like the drop off at the kids club on a cruise was a lot easier because their kids had that kind of experience where it was a less known place than their regular babysitter or their regular daycare provider. So I think that's a good tip for those with really young kids in particular.
[00:20:56] Speaker C: Yeah. So one thing I want to move us forward here a little bit.
There's a couple more good comments here on the stateroom, though. Side of things I just wanted to put up Daniel saying, surprising. We have found that on most cruises, booking two staterooms with two and three people is only slightly more costs than a single deluxe family ocean view stateroom. We now usually try to book just two rooms. I think it's a good point to really look for the cost of that in there. And then Daniel was also mentioning that they're looking at doing a Royal Caribbean cruise to try it out for the five of them. But royal wouldn't let them book for five people through their. Yeah, at least Disney's got that. Look at that. Disney technology beating another it.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Holy cow.
[00:21:35] Speaker B: They just got a compliment.
[00:21:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
The other thing I wanted to point out, pre cruise is the check in process. So if you're sailing with kids, when you check in, you will have more steps to the process than those without kids. And so there are ways to get around some of this and get right to your port arrival time choosing that. But you will have to go back and fill out paperwork. That's where you can register them for the kids club. If your kid has any sort of medical conditions that they need to know about on board, that's where you need to note it for can. I don't think you do it through the online process about requesting diaper genies and such. Although we didn't sail with Nathan when he was young enough to need one of those. I think you have to call into the cruise line to get that taken care of. But you'll have a little bit more paperwork and just an asterisk if you happen to be sailing. If your grandparents out there watching planning to sail with the grandkids, even more paperwork because you'll need some authorizations and some letters and some other things for Disney to have on file for you to travel with them outside the US and take them off the ship in the ports. Even if you are traveling as parents with a kid. If aunt and uncle want to take your kids off the ship, more work to do in the check in process to make sure that they're authorized to do that stuff. So just be prepared. It's a little bit more of a process when you're sailing with kids with the paperwork. I also wanted to put this comment from Tracy, another good pre cruise tip. As soon as you book your cruise, find the Facebook page and you can leverage. We talked about this in the show we did about the Facebook groups. You can use the Facebook groups to meet other kids or find other kids and parents sailing who are similar in age and kind of meet up and make some friends in advance. So that is definitely a great tip.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: I love Beth's tip, Brian, though. Actually, wait, before we get on board, Beth has a great tip of the character call so you can get a oh, I forgot about you. Actually, you took up the wrong comment. The one before that, Brian. It's Beth's comment about the character call is a fun thing to set up for the little ones. They had a lot of separation anxiety when their first cruise when her daughter was four. So what you do is you get a call from like Mickey and Minnie being excited about the cruise. And it's not just for kids.
Yes, he's tinfoil mouse ears for those who remember him from our prognostication show. The other night. Yeah. And then special requests. Craig is saying online now.
[00:24:06] Speaker C: Yeah. Craig is saying they do have special requests online that you can fill out. So. All right, let's get on board. Let's get on board. Let's talk about the big elephant in the room. We've been talking around it. Kids clubs on board. Sam, I feel like you have this stuff memorized in terms of the age ranges, so I'm going to make it work for you.
There's 40 to three levels of kids club. Four levels. There's the nursery. Nursery?
[00:24:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a small world nursery. Zero to three. That includes three year olds. So anyone who's younger than four, then you've got Oceanier Club, oceaneer lab. That's the kids club, as we all refer to it. That is inclusive. Age three through age ten. So anyone who's age three, anyone who's age ten. So that means three year olds can go to either. As Leslie mentioned, the only difference is three year olds that go to the kids club must be potty trained. That's the difference. Whereas you don't have to be potty trained to go to the nursery, but a potty train through your go to.
[00:25:09] Speaker C: The nursery potty train means no assistance. The counselors will not help them with the restroom.
[00:25:15] Speaker B: No wiping. No wiping.
[00:25:17] Speaker C: All on their own.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: Yes. Okay.
[00:25:20] Speaker C: After the kids club.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: After the kids club, you've got edge club. Yeah. So the way I remember this is you're on the edge of being a teenager. You're a preteen. Right. So that is ages eleven through 14, again, inclusive. All eleven year olds. Through all 14 year olds. And then you've got vibe. 14 through 17, again, inclusive. So that means 14 year olds can go either to edge or to vibe. And then once you're 18, you can't go to any of the kids clubs, except if they're in open house mode, which is you can look at them, but you cannot go into a kids club if you are 18 or older. With 18 to 20 year olds, they have a special 18 to 20 society, which is basically just like a meet up group that they'll have activities for, but they don't have their own space. They don't have their own club. And we should say for check in. Checkout.
[00:26:15] Speaker C: And we should say these age ranges are new ish. The zero to three has always been that way. But it used to be three to twelve could go to the Oceaneers club and lab, and then the edge kind of picked up.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Eleven to 14, you could choose to.
[00:26:34] Speaker C: Go to the lab or edge at eleven and then the vibe kind of stayed the same. Disney has now made it so that you age out at ten, which was a bit of a shock in the system for many, actually age out at eleven also age out eleven. Sorry, you age out at eleven. And the other thing they've done is they've started putting wristbands on the kids who are, I think three to five is the age group and they kind of circulate them through the club as a group. They're not like free play any longer. They're like in kind of more organized activities. Yeah. For that age group, everyone else is kind of free play around them.
I am not going to force us into a discussion of the ins and outs of the wisdom of Disney's decision to change the ages of the kids club. We are where we are.
I appreciate Craig did ask, with a ten year old aging out, I wonder if that will change their favorite ship based on the club.
Possibly.
I feel like the older the kids get, the more they just kind of want to do their own thing.
Know, maybe. Maybe it will change the favorite ship. I did want to put this question up, though.
So cross mouse adventures is asking thoughts about how long kids should stay in the nursery. I think before we answer that question though, Sam, you have to make reservations for the nursery, is that right?
[00:27:56] Speaker B: Yes and no.
[00:27:58] Speaker C: You're not. Leslie nodded her head.
[00:28:01] Speaker B: Leslie knows this better than I because we actually never had to book the nursery.
[00:28:05] Speaker C: That's true. That's true.
[00:28:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: Well, my information is a little bit dated because my youngest is ten now, but when we used it, yes, you have to make reservations, but often they do have like walk up availability and that was how we tended to use it because my son, I was on a media cruise actually, at the time, so I had meetings to attend. So I needed my son to stay for longer periods of time. So if he got sick of the kids club, then I moved him to the nursery. And usually they were able to find space. And so it may just depend on sort of how kid heavy your cruise is. And one thing I've noticed, and I don't know if you guys have noticed as well, there seem to be a lot more young families now than there was pre COVID. A lot more families are cruising earlier with kids. It used to be like, I felt like when my kid was three and we took our first Disney cruise, we were cruising early. And now I think a lot more families are cruising with little ones. So that does probably change the capacity calculation.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's know I think the answer to that question is however long you think, Remy, dinner will last you.
But honestly, it really depends on your kid in the nursery. They will feed your children, but you tell them what they can feed your kid or you bring their formula, if they're still in formula or breast milk or whatever with them, but they will actually feed your kid in the nursery. This is the only kids club where there is food served, and that's the nursery.
[00:29:44] Speaker C: Since the post pandemic, a few things have gone away. One of those things being they do not offer dinner service in the kids club any longer. They used to offer that. They also do not come to the main dinner seating to pick kids up and take them to the clubs. So they have to be dropped off by a parent. Or we should say one of the things you can select in the check in process is whether or not your child can have. We call it check in check out privileges. Although we've been told by the counselors at the club, like any kid can come check themselves in time they want, it's whether they can take themselves out of the club on their own.
So you can give your kid that ability if they're sort of old enough, mature enough to just check themselves out, but you're going to need to check them in. A lot of this just comes down to, can they find the kids club on their own? Do they know how to get back to your stateroom without your help? That was actually a big thing when they changed the age ranges. There were kids going into edge who really had had no experience checking themselves in or out of a club. And edge and vibe have no check in, check out process. You wander in, you wander out. You're on your own. And so there were some kids who we heard stories about kids who couldn't find their way back to their own staterooms, all that sort of stuff. There is more structured programming in the oceaneers lab and club than anything you will find in edge and vibe. They do some scavenger hunts and I think councilors organize some icebreakers and things like icebreakers and stuff. But those two clubs are really meant, I think, for kids to find each other, find their tribe, hang out, play together, move about the ship together. It's not super organized activities like you find in the Ocean years club and lab. Leslie, is that your impression as well?
[00:31:29] Speaker A: Yeah, that's definitely. I mean, they do have a schedule, and so the kids can say, I want to meet up here because we're doing some sort of board game tournament or something like that, or scavenger hunt. So they do have that in the older kids, the tween and teen clubs. But oftentimes this was a place where my teenager would meet up with friends and then they would go elsewhere on the ship to do whatever, hopefully not mischievous thing that they were doing. And usually it was just eating way too much ice cream and feeling bad afterwards.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: If that's all the mischief they get up to, bless them. I love it.
[00:32:05] Speaker A: Exactly. It's very old fashioned family fun, right?
[00:32:08] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:32:10] Speaker C: I'll never forget the moment that I offered Nathan some charging privileges on his stateroom account in case he wanted to buy ice cream in the sweet shops that they have on the dream, the fantasy, the wish. And he was like, no, I'm good. They got free soft surf. I was like, how responsible of you. I appreciate that.
[00:32:25] Speaker B: He's thrifty. He's thrifty.
[00:32:27] Speaker C: He is a thrifty kid. Daniel has a good tip. If you have an older kid, they can be registered to check in and out younger siblings. So that is a really good tip to get that done.
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Anything else about the kids clubs that we haven't talked about that. Folks should know when traveling with kids.
[00:33:56] Speaker B: I would say for edge and vibe in particular, if your kids are of those ages and they're interested at all in checking them out, make sure they go to the first couple of sessions because that's when the counselors do engage the kids in some more get to know you games, some icebreaker games. And we've heard anecdotally, because our son obviously hasn't been old enough to go there yet, that that's really when a lot of those early friendships are formed. And so if your kid ends up going to edge or vibe, not until day three of the cruise or even day two of the cruise, those clicks might already be formed and it may be harder for them to make friends. And so if they're interested in making friends and not just hanging out with you parents the whole time, which some kids are, no judgment there. If they love hanging out with their parents, that's awesome. Just means you can't go to Palo. But I would say it's important to prioritize getting them to the clubs that first day and for those first get to know you activities.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I totally agree. We were all over that on the last cruise that we took my teenager on, and there are a couple of things I guess I should add, especially with the older kids.
One thing that we found out is when we cruised, most recently, my daughter turned 14 on the cruise. So she boarded at 13 and got off at 14. And we learned that actually at vibe you can sign a waiver to allow 13 year olds to go into vibe. And this isn't just if their birthday happens to be on the cruise. This is all 13 year olds. It does depend on capacity, and I think the same is true for ten year olds and edge, that you could potentially get them in there as well if you sign a waiver and they approve. So if you've got kids, siblings or cousins or friends who span those age ranges, there is a little bit of additional flexibility. So that was really important. We wanted to give her that waiver when she was 13 so she could make the friends. And that was important because obviously that was going to be her crowd for the entire cruise.
But I will say because of these waivers, everybody tends to be aging up.
There aren't 14 year olds in edge. The 14 year olds are in vibe. As a result. I think sometimes the 17 year olds almost are too old for vibe. So that's something that you kind of have to keep in mind. It feels like eleven and twelve and we haven't sailed since they've changed the age range, but it doesn't affect the tween and tea clubs as much. The eleven and twelve and younger 13 year olds think junior high is edge and then high school is vibe.
[00:36:35] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. I will say this, you can't age down. So that's the one thing Disney lets you age up if you're within that time frame. And as Leslie said, based on capacity. So they can say no, but that you cannot age them down.
[00:36:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I was going to say if you're 13 or 14 years old out there and you happen to be catching this podcast, you should immediately go find your parents and get them to book you onto the dreamer. The fantasy, because it has a kids club I want them to make for adults, is amazing.
[00:37:06] Speaker B: It's amazing.
[00:37:07] Speaker C: So I'm so sad I didn't get to experience it. I wanted to throw this comment up from Beth really fast, who just said her daughter wasn't that into the edge, but luckily found two friends in the text group they set up through just. I did want to highlight, we've had sailings with other families where they do age up a little bit and the kid just isn't loving it, they're not digging it. It feels maybe like they're just not ready for that kind of a crowd. That's something to be aware of. The other thing this comment sparked for me was communication on board. So on Royal, I've learned you can't use their app if you're under a certain age to communicate and text back and forth. But on Disney, really, you can give your kids permission to use the app and message, and that is a great thing. If they happen to have their own device or if you have an old phone lying around and you can put the Disney Cruise line app on, it is a great way to stay in touch. Just install the app, give them permission and then they can chat back and forth. You can figure out.
[00:37:59] Speaker B: But you don't set up a. Yeah, you don't set up an account in advance for the kids, by the way. You download the app onto their device ahead of time, and then once you board, you're actually setting up an account because it's just linked to that particular cruise. They don't need like a my Disney experience account or anything like that for app.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: Sorry.
We use that app quite a bit with my son. The last cruise we were on, he was nine, I think. And so one thing I loved, we did give him checkout privileges so he would check himself out and then it would send a push notification to my app that he had checked himself out and he knew how to get back to the room. I love that. And then he had a device in the room that he could then further communicate with us. Like, I'm doing fine, mom, don't come back and leave what you're doing or whatever. That was really nice. And we did sail celebrity, same company that owns Royal, and we did not have that with him. And it was much more frustrating. So I did find the logistics of just giving that little bit of independence these pivotal ages like Disney has helped train. And the next cruise we take, my son will be eleven. So we will be aging up to edge at that point and we'll see if he's ready.
[00:39:13] Speaker B: He will just be eleven.
[00:39:15] Speaker C: That's a good discussion. First of all, Liz, I wanted to give you, one of our listeners out there giving you a shout out that they loved your article covering Disney versus celebrity that's coming from CT. So thank you for that. It's a good point. I want to pause here and ask the question. I think Disney, one of the plus we always talk about Disney has pluses for kids with the kids clubs and a whole bunch of other stuff. But I think one of the pluses for Disney too is that level of independence you can give a kid on board and feel relatively safe that they're going to be your. To your discussion point there. Just a second. I'm not sure how comfortable I am giving that level of independence to Nathan on like a big royal caribbean ship.
It's a different experience.
I don't want to say it's a different crowd. It may not be, it's plot of crossover between Disney cruisers and royal caribbean cruisers, but it's a much bigger ship. And while geared toward families, I think Disney thought about sort of families first. And I'm not always sure Royal was thinking that they don't. I don't know, maybe they don't have some of the safety protocols that Disney would. I don't. Do you have any thoughts there, Leslie, on the level of independence you might give your kid on a Disney cruise versus other cruise lines?
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. I mean, I am glad that this past year we did Disney first and then we did celebrity because Disney really helped my son feel confident in that. You know, we've been to so many other places like the theme parks and Alani, and we try to sort of give that little bit like the last time we were at Alani, we let him, gave him a key card, like get yourself back to the room on your own from the pool. So Disney's been really great for that because, like you say, there are so many safeguards. He knows that if he does get himself into trouble or he gets turned around or confused, he knows where to ask for help and that he will get well taken care of. And I feel confident in is Disney is a parenting helper.
This is harder with some kids than others. I mean, definitely it was not a big deal with my older. My younger has needed more training and more handholding for all of these kind of things. And I think it's been great for him to see that he can do these things and then do them in real life. He's walking home from school, across busy streets these days.
[00:41:31] Speaker B: Wow. We haven't done that one yet. We haven't taken that leap yet. Leslie now, did going on the Disney cruise and getting that level of independence, did it help him then? Was he able to sort of translate that independence over to celebrity? Because, to your point, he didn't have access to the app to message you. So if you were going to give him that level of independence, there needed to be a little bit more trust or a little bit more assurance that it all was going to be well. Right? Did that work?
[00:42:00] Speaker A: Yeah, it did work. And so he actually was not allowed to check himself out of the kids club. At celebrity, you have to be ten. And he was a month shy of his 10th birthday, of course, which was annoying, but his sister could check him out or things like that, so she did do that. But we did let him roam the ship, and we did go on a smaller celebrity ship. It was an Alaska cruise, so it was more like the size of the magic or the wonder or something like that. But he could go back to the room, we could trust him and say, like, look, I could be back to the room for an hour, so if you head back yourself, you won't be able to get in touch with us. And it worked. It worked. We managed to get through without that communication during the course of that week. And I think it was because we had had that dry run with Disney first.
[00:42:45] Speaker B: Yeah. For those who have issues with the app or don't want to download the app, if your kid has an Apple device, you can also iMessage, or you can actually also use WhatsApp on Disney ships Wi Fi without paying for Wi Fi. So those are the two ways you can still communicate with a child that has a device, understanding little kids. You're not giving them their own device to carry around with themselves.
We gave Nathan an iPhone relatively early. I would mean, he was nine. Or was he? He had just turned nine, I think, when we gave him his phone. Yeah. So that was young.
[00:43:28] Speaker C: It was primarily so he could have some independence on the ship because he was doing really well with. Check himself out. He'd go back to the stateroom. He might go get himself something to eat. Right. He demonstrated a level of responsibility. We felt like we wanted to give him independence, but we needed a way to keep tabs on him for sure. I think for most people, getting them a phone is probably a bridge too far. It was probably a bridge too far for us at that age. But if you've got an old iPhone lying around that you can just activate the Wi Fi on works. It'll work great. So I want to move us on to another big topic, which is pools really fast, because I think this is an area where, you know, few rules and restrictions around the water slides and the pools and stuff on board and the different offerings that they have. So, Leslie, what kind of pools have you experienced on the Disney cruise ship and splash pads and all that kind of fun stuff.
[00:44:18] Speaker A: So not too much because, like, you know, three days.
Well, no, we didn't have Alaska.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: Oh, no. That was celebrity. It's too cold.
[00:44:27] Speaker A: But we had San Diego during spring break, which is pretty chilly and chilly down to cabo. And that's really the only day that you're warm enough to swim.
But the big thing to think about, kids who are not potty trained can't go into the pools and the hot tubs, so not even with swim diapers. So they do have, of course, like the splash pads on the different ships. So there is something for the little kids to do to get wet. And I have to say, my son wouldn't have even been interested in the bigger pool at age.
Know, it just can get kind of loud and chaotic and lots of bodies in small spaces. So the splash pads are good enough usually for the little ones, and a lot of cruise lines don't have that. I think where Disney really does shine for even those families of toddlers and babies. So that's something to keep in mind. But the water slides, that's kind of the big thing for older kids, even when it's frigid. My husband and my son on our last San Diego sailing, did get out there, and I took videos. I did not get out there myself.
It was too cold. It was too cold.
[00:45:31] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. But that's a good point about the diapers. And I want to say this is not just children in diapers. So if you have an adult in your family who is also not potty trained, they will not be allowed to use any of the pool facilities. So we're talking like, even there's a large splash aquazone, I forget what it's called. The Aqua lab that's on several of the ships. That is not. It's not the little kids splash pad, but it's more like a big kid splash pad. And that also, you need to be fully potty trained for. So it's really the only area, the only water play area that you can be in diapers for, and you have to be under a certain age, is those little kids splash pads. On one of the ships, I think it's up to age four. And then on some of the ships, I think it's only up to age four or five. And on one of the other ships, it's up to age like six or something, because they're obviously bigger areas. But yeah, there aren't a ton of options for the non potty trained crew. So I just like to tell people, and same goes for water slides. They have to be potty trained for water slides. And there are height restrictions. There are height limits even on some of. There are some water slides that are meant for kids, and then there are other water slides, obviously, that are meant for all ages over a certain height.
[00:46:51] Speaker C: And Daniel's pointing out it's because they don't use chlorinated water in the pools. They're using basically seawater, salt water to fill the pools.
[00:47:02] Speaker B: I read it's actually not salt water, but there is some chemical they're using. It isn't salt water, but it's not the same level of chlorination that you use in swimming pools at home. Plus, it takes so long to empty and clean the pools that it basically shuts down the pool for hours and hours. And so that's, I think, part of why they don't let anyone with a diaper.
[00:47:25] Speaker C: Josh is asking, is it surprising there are no all ages hot tubs on the Triton class ships? I think it was surprising to the Disney fans, I will say, as a design element for ships sailing the Caribbean, I've always been curious. A hot tub in the middle of 90 deg weather does not sound appealing to me. So I also think one of the reasons they may have done it, they have a tiered pool system, right, where they have a couple of smaller kind of pools where kids can swim in on a higher deck. And they've got these cooling pools that aren't very deep that you can kind of sit with water running down your back. And I think they had a main pool down at the bottom there. But point being, I think the hot tubs on the other ships just get overrun with kids watching funnel vision and they have to pull them out and take breaks. And so I think they were like, let's just not have hot tubs and see if we can spread the crowd out a little bit in the pools. I think that worked effectively. Which reads to Josh's comment, other than the lack of hot tubs, the wish pool layout seemed to be a hit with kids and their adults, and it's gotten a lot of criticism. There are plenty of don't like it, actually like it because it did spread people out pretty good. And I could go, I like to sit on the edge of the pool and watch funnel vision, and now I don't have to. I can go sit in one of the little just lounging pools that doesn't have deep water and watch the funnel vision. And other kids can be swimming.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: Yeah. Plus the kids end up sitting too long in those. Everyone who sits in those hot tubs ends up sitting in them for longer than they're supposed to based on how hot they are. But the kids especially, particularly on the magic and the wonder, because as Brian pointed out, there's like two hot tubs on both of those on the family pool deck that actually have great views to funnel vision. I'll tell you, Nathan loves to sit in those hot tubs, or even with just his legs in the hot tub. But yeah, probably those kids are in those hot tubs for way too long in the sun.
It's not probably cooking in the hot tubs.
[00:49:21] Speaker C: Speaking of cooking in the hot tubs, we got to talk about dinner. Let's talk about food.
Great segue there, folks. So I do think this is another area where we tend to get a lot of questions. Questions like, what will my kids be able to eat? Do they have special menus? What are the food offerings like? Do they have to order off the kids menu? What if they know dietary restrictions? Should I do main dining, late dining? I don't know, Leslie. Anything in there that you have thoughts around in terms of dining on Disney cruise line with kids?
[00:49:53] Speaker A: Well, I'll start with the main versus late dining part, because this is something that actually came up on our last cruise because I was a main dining person. Right. Especially with younger kids, they get hungry, they need to go to bed. And that was what I thought we wanted. We booked our last Disney cruise very last minute. And we're not able to get on, even with, like, waitlisting, all of it, whatever. We're not able to get onto main dining. We had to settle for late dining, and it ended up being wonderful. Now, that's with older kids, they were, what, 13 and nine at the time of the cruise. But I thought even a nine year old, it would be too late for him. And I mean, it kind of is. But he wasn't eating much of the meals anyway. He just wanted to go and eat the burger beforehand and then very quickly sit with us at dinner and then go off to the kids club or do whatever he wanted to do. So I would say, unless you have toddlers who truly have a bedtime, it's not as much of a make or break kind of thing to worry about, because people who are booking that last minute, they may not get the choice that they want. And that's just the reality. And I did like that it's less crowded and late dining because Maine dining is just really tight in a lot of those spaces. And we were on a very full spring break ship, most recently even late dining, I felt like was too many people. I couldn't have imagined being in Maine.
[00:51:14] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and those of us on the west coast going east, that early dining is also just so early. So I find that actually, the late dining for us when we're on the east coast just doesn't feel as late because our body's not completely adjusted to coast time.
[00:51:32] Speaker C: Yeah, that was the point I was going to make.
[00:51:35] Speaker B: Sorry, Brian.
[00:51:36] Speaker C: No, I was going to say that.
Know what time zone you're coming from? Because we've had both experiences. Right. We've also had the experience where we went to Disney World beforehand. Nathan gets adjusted the time zone and now.
[00:51:46] Speaker B: True.
[00:51:47] Speaker C: Head on the.
[00:51:52] Speaker A: No, that's totally fair. But in terms of the food itself, I will say I have the world's pickiest eater, just about my youngest. And Disney does as well as anybody can do. And that doesn't mean that they're going to find something they want all the time, but they're not going to starve on a Disney cruise. And if whatever is not hitting right for the main menu, there are the options to eat on the pool deck a little bit beforehand. Something like. So we just sort of did a little bit of everything. I will say I don't love on Disney cruise line that they don't have cabanas at.
Don't I wish you didn't have to always have a seated dinner, especially for these longer cruises, and that was something I really felt like when we did sail celebrity, I really appreciated the difference when we did that. So that's something to keep in mind. You don't have that flexibility.
[00:52:41] Speaker B: Of course.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: You can get room service or something like that.
[00:52:43] Speaker B: Yeah, but no buffet.
[00:52:44] Speaker A: No buffet.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: Yeah. And you can get a burger or pizza, but that's it. The other stuff on the pool deck has basically shut down by like 06:00 p.m. So, yeah, it is quite limited and dinner is long. I always try to remind people dinner on Disney cruise line is long. So it doesn't matter whether you're main dining or late dining. It's a longer meal experience.
It's got the show.
Some of the restaurants have a show involved, and those might be entertaining for your kids, but, like, really young kids, I'm not sure that any of it works well for the really young kids.
[00:53:25] Speaker C: So one thing I want to point out, which is implicit, Tracy's got a comment here that she loved allowing her kids when they were younger to order and try whatever they wanted from any menu. And I just want to point out your kids are not limited to the kids menu. They have a kids menu every night. It's always got Mickey's Mac and cheese and chicken fingers and pizza and that kind of stuff on there. They tend to be pretty small portions. So if your kid is older and eats a lot, like, you may need a couple kids meals to actually satisfy them. Keep the french fries coming. I always find it comical. It comes with a vegetable. It's usually like two pieces of broccoli, but they can always order off the. They are free to order off the adult menu. They have paid a full cruise fare. There's no discount.
[00:54:04] Speaker B: And vice versa. And vice versa. And I'm looking at you, Tracy, who orders the dessert in Arendale off of the kids menu, and I copied her and it was delicious. It was like some kind of s'mores dessert thing, but, yeah. So adults, you. Absolutely. If you're not in the mood for whatever is on the adult menu, you can order that barbecue chicken pizza and nobody's going to look at, you know, so order whatever you want. The other thing, any menu.
[00:54:30] Speaker C: Sam, you mentioned shows. I want to talk briefly about the shows. Right. So kids are welcome in the shows.
Main seating, the show that corresponds to main dining, is always kind of a know. It's got more kids in it and it's a little rowdier is the wrong word, but I can't think of the right word here in the moment.
[00:54:48] Speaker B: There's more chair kicking, let's put it that way.
[00:54:50] Speaker C: Yeah. They're very accommodating of families coming to watch the shows. I want to offer one tip and then see if either of you have others. But one tip that we have told people several times is if your kid's not super into the show and you don't want to have to worry about getting up and right, you can sit toward the back. That's always an option. Right. No one's going to look at you weird if you're leaving either in the middle of the show. That corresponds to main dinner, really. But the tip I have is they show the shows on the stateroom tv, and so we have successfully leveraged that to watch the show with Nathan while he's sitting on the couch. If he wants to get up and wander around and move away from the show for a little bit, he can. Then he can come back. Right. So that is also a friendly way to watch some of these shows, especially when your kids are younger. But Leslie, Sam, any tips for the shows on board and bringing mean? I think they're sensitive to the fact that kids are in the audience. Nothing like going crazy. Certainly. They've got confetti cannons in almost every show. It seems like the kids love. So there you go.
[00:55:50] Speaker B: I have two tips. One is occasionally there will be a matinee show. It depends on your sailing, but every once in a while, they'll show one of the shows at like 02:00 p.m. In addition to the evening shows. And that's a great opportunity if you have young kids and you think that they might be awake, more awake and better able to watch a show at 02:00 p.m. That is sometimes, but not, I will say not most of the time, but sometimes an option. Another thing I will tell people is if you have a kid that you're not sure will sit through the show, take an aisle seat. Please take an aisle seat so that when you do inevitably get up, like 20 minutes into the show or a half hour into the show, the shows are only an hour, hour and 15 minutes on the long end. You'll be able to get out more easily. Right? Like if you need to leave nobody, like Brian said, nobody will look at you twice. If you have to leave a show early because your kid's having a meltdown or doesn't want to sit through the show, totally fine. But just if you are concerned if your kid's not someone who will sit through a show or you're not sure if they will, I would recommend either that or as Brian mentioned, also sitting towards the back. I will tell you, we don't really bring Nathan to the shows because they are long and he doesn't want to sit through them. With maybe one exception. I think we've brought him to seize the adventure a couple of times, but that's the shortest show that they do in the main stage theater. It's only like 30, 35 minutes and he's ten. But I know there's five year olds who can sit through a two and a half hour Broadway show. So it's really very child dependent.
[00:57:21] Speaker C: It's know your kid. If they're into magic, they'll probably sit through the entire magic act and have a great time. If they're not into it, then you probably.
[00:57:32] Speaker B: Real quick.
[00:57:33] Speaker A: Go ahead, Brian. In terms of knowing your kid, I mean, try the first night show. If you haven't been on a Disney cruise, they haven't been to a theater.
Be ready to exit and then don't push it. Like we found when my son was three, he was not going to make it through a show in any way, shape or form. He wanted to be at the kids club, so we just would drop him and then we would see it. And by the time he was ten, now he does musical theater.
[00:57:55] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:57:56] Speaker A: Sitting through an hour long frozen, something like that. Dream come true. He loved every bit of the last cruise that we went on, every single show. He didn't miss it. I do see a comment from Daniel Lee. Bring a popcorn bucket for cheaper refills. We were all about the popcorn bucket at the shows for sure.
[00:58:15] Speaker B: I love it. Absolutely. And the refills are only like $2 for them to refill. Now, I will say some of the bartenders will tell you you need to buy your bucket on board, but others are happy to fill the bucket that you brought with you.
[00:58:29] Speaker C: I did want to throw up. Best comment about to refer back to the conversation we had earlier about the buffet and just say it was fabulous on royal that they had that buffet open because Nathan and I could pop in there for dinner and not have to worry about a dinner seating. So I 100% agree with you, Leslie. That'd be nice if they did that buffet.
What I want to do is round out the show with. We haven't talked anything about onboard activities, but we only have a few minutes left. And so I thought we would do this kind of rapid fire and each give kind of. We'll go around twice. We'll each give two favorite activities on board for kids. And so, Leslie, you're the guest. Start with you. Take one off the board. What's one of your favorite activities to do with kids on board?
[00:59:12] Speaker A: Family karaoke. As I hinted, both my kids are performers and thankfully did not get my inability to sing. Gene. They got it from their dad. So we love the family karaoke. We did that every time it was offered on our last cruise.
[00:59:28] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:59:29] Speaker C: Sam.
[00:59:30] Speaker B: I'm going to family trivia. If you have a family of, I don't know, parks fans or fans, like, there are a ton of different family trivias around. Or I'll say family game shows. Family trivia. Because there's all these family game shows that are interactive as well. But yeah, go to those. Those are fun. Yeah, Brian.
[00:59:50] Speaker C: All right, I'm going to give a sleeper hit in our household, which is family silent DJ or silent.
If you have not experienced silent disco on Disney cruise line, like, for adults, it's really fun. Have a drink or two and watch the adults disco with no music in the room. And then for those of you who don't know silent disco, they give you headphones, and they have three or four different channels on the headphones. So everyone's listening to potentially different music and dancing. And then if you take the headphones off, all you see are people dancing with no music. And it's bizarre with kids. It's like twice the says family silent DJ is one of my favorites. Leslie, coming back to you.
[01:00:28] Speaker B: All right.
[01:00:28] Speaker A: I don't even know if this is on every ship, but it was on our last sailing on the wonder. Anyone can cook where one of the chefs comes, you know, of course, ratatouille themed comes out and they show how they make a certain dish and then you get to eat it. So that was a lot of fun for my kids to get sort of that first taste of learning how to make fancier things. So that was a hit.
[01:00:50] Speaker B: I love it. It's not on every sailing, but they have offered it across most of the fleet. I'm not sure on the wish, actually. Okay. So coming back to me, I have so many, but I'm going to go with crafting because Nathan does love to do crafts, and they have lots of family craft activities throughout the ship. They're usually making like, I don't know, paper, like 3D Mickey and Minnis. Or, I mean, you could even do like, origami or towel folding, right? So there's lots of different crafting activities.
[01:01:24] Speaker C: Tracy agrees with you, and Ashley agrees with characters and family crafts. We didn't say anything about characters. I think characters is a great thing to do. And the lines are much shorter than in the park, so that's a good one. I can't believe none of us did. Midship detective agency one of the or uncharted adventure now? Yeah. Or uncharted adventure. One of the best things you can do with kids. I absolutely agree.
My pick though is going to be if you can get on the wish the incredible course. I have never seen kids have more fun than trying to race adults through the incredible course and adults just failing miserably unless they cheat. So I think that is such a great time and a fun thing to watch. One other tip on an activity on board, we didn't get a chance to talk about it, but if you have very young kids, scope out the Jack Jack's diaper dash on board.
[01:02:13] Speaker B: Go watch it. If you don't have very little kids, go watch it. It's baby racing, and it's like the funnest thing to watch on board by far. Yeah, no question. I love it.
[01:02:23] Speaker C: Well, we will have to leave it there. We've run over our hour. We'll have to leave it there. But before we hop off of this show, Leslie, remind folks how they can find and connect with you across your blog, the podcast, all that great stuff.
[01:02:37] Speaker B: Sure.
[01:02:38] Speaker A: So I have the blog, tripswithtykes.com, lots of Disney, everything on, uh, and then lots of family travel as well. I'm at tripswithtykes everywhere on social media. And then I co host the Disney deciphered podcast with Joe Chung, who you guys know as well. And we've been at it for, gosh, I think about six amazing busy on that front as well. It's mostly Disney world, but we've been doing Disney elsewhere. And of course I squeeze in my Disneyland love every so often on that podcast. But yeah, I love connecting with folks. So please feel free to reach out to me. I will say next up for me is Tokyo Disney in a little over a week. I'm so excited. This is the second to last Disney destination I have. The only one I have not been to is Shanghai after.
[01:03:25] Speaker B: Really excited. Yeah. Well, we are looking forward to hearing about that on Disney deciphered. Leslie, thank you so much for joining us, friends who are watching. We will be back next week at the same time, same place, 530 Pacific, 830 Eastern. It will be an April 1 show and that's all we're going to say about it.
[01:03:51] Speaker C: Now. You've ruined it. You've ruined it already.
[01:03:54] Speaker B: But we will be joined by Alex, the second dad to the right. So it will be a great show. Please join us next week again, same time, same place, and thank you all for joining us. We will see you real soon.
[01:04:15] Speaker C: 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 ship 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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