[00:00:00] Speaker A: And I don't know if it's that they just, like, interview people really well. To find such great people in general, or if it's a training or if it's a combination thereof, I tend to think it's a combination thereof. They find really good people, and then they also train those good people really, really well.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: We don't know what goes on below decks. The beatings continue until morale improves.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: So, you know.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's live episode of the DCL duo podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding travel. And, Sam, it's going to be a fun show tonight.
I want to hand it over to you first because we got some reminders for folks, and I think people listen to you more than they'll ever listen to me on this show. They trust you. They hold a healthy skepticism for me.
Three reminders for our audience, Sam, of ways that they can help support our show with some very easy, easy, lightweight things. So you want to give those reminders really fast.
[00:01:08] Speaker A: Number one, Apple podcasts. Go on to Apple podcasts if you have not yet already done so, and hit those five stars telling us that you love our show. If you really love our show, write a comment and we will read it on the air in one of our regular episodes. Okay? Number two, go right now onto YouTube. If you haven't gone onto YouTube yet and you're not watching us on YouTube and hit subscribe. The more people we subscribe have subscribed to our YouTube, the more we will come up in people's search results. Right? So let us get us. Help us get out there into the world by subscribing to our podcast on YouTube. Okay? The third thing is, like, episodes that you've watched on YouTube, that also helps with regard to that algorithm and getting us out there. And you keep seeing my thumbs going up because. And my apple is, is giving all these emojis. I love it. I'm loving how, how Apple's working with the live shows today. So remember, do all those things and you will help us spread the desale duo love out in the community. So thanks for all of you who've already done so. We've got lots of friends watching us today already saying hello. We've got Linda saying hello, DCl duo, fam, got Bridget saying, good evening, everyone.
We've got CT, who's also tinfoil mouse ears, saying, excited to see what the duo has for us tonight. We've got Krause Mouse adventures watching. We've got Jill watching. And Linda is saying, remember to check your Apple podcast nickname. She didn't realize hers was like a super old irrelevant nickname. So if you want to, if you want us to know who you are when you are posting on Apple Podcasts. But.
[00:02:52] Speaker B: All right. Yes. Before we dive in. Yeah, before we dive in, we got to introduce our guests, Sam. So let's get Alex in here. Second dad to the right. Welcome, Alex.
[00:03:01] Speaker C: Hey, how are you guys doing? Thanks for bringing me in.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Yeah, thanks for joining us tonight. For those who don't know, we've had Alex on the show before, but it's been a little bit of, a little bit of a while. We had him come out and talk to us about all of the ins and outs of the nursery on board as Alex has a bunch of kids and he knows everything about the process of getting your kids signed up for the nursery, what the ins and outs of going to the nursery is and all of that. But he also has his own blog. He's second dad to the right. So if you look for his blog, you'll get all kinds of great information about Walt Disney World vacations and about Disney Cruise line vacations. I even gave a shout out to him in our Facebook group earlier today because my sister posted asking for a packing list. And, and Alex has a fantastic packing list. Now it says it's for Disney Cruise line because it does, of course, reference, like bringing costumes and things like that for pirate night. But I think it's a great packing list for any cruise. And I actually directed my sister to it, even though we're traveling on Royal Caribbean next week with her and her.
[00:04:12] Speaker C: I feel like everyone should wear a pirate costume on every cruise.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: Just.
I love it. I love it. I think that's a great idea.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Well, before we dive into our topic tonight, we've been trying to do a little roundtable of Disney Cruise line news when it's available. So had some news items this week and thought we could all discuss them. Nothing earth shattering in the world of Disney cruise line, but still fun nonetheless. And starting off with some new lighthouse point merchandise that has been announced by Disney Cruise line. Obviously not on sale yet because no one's gone to Lighthouse Point yet, but this is what you can expect to see. I've started off with, I think, our favorite, the Mickey and mini Caribbean plushie.
Next up, we've got the lighthouse point ears. Of course, no Disney Cruise line merchandise compliment would be complete without ears. Spirit jersey. Shocking. I know another spirit jersey from Disney. There was rumors of the premature death of the spirit jersey a few months ago. And. Nope, still alive and kicking. Alive and well. And, of course, we got to get the Disney cruise line where the lounge fly and some lounge fly ears, it looks like.
Sam, are you buying all this stuff when we get to Lighthouse point? None of it. Some of it. What do you think?
[00:05:31] Speaker A: So, the answer is definitely some, but not all. I will say the only must have items on my list are Mickey and Minnie plushies. And that's probably to Brian's dismay. But I love them. I love the new bahamian Mickey and Minnie. It matches their new costumes that they will have on the island. In fact, I think they've already introduced those costumes on Caster. Yeah, but they'll have the same outfits on lookout key as well. And so, yeah, I'm super excited. I'm definitely going to. I know Brian doesn't want more plushies in the house, but there are going to be more Mickey and Minnie plushies.
[00:06:10] Speaker B: No, no. I'm pretty stoked. Cause I like this thing that we picked up from adventures by Disney where you take one of the plushies around with you for vacation. I think that's kind of fun. Like, take pictures of them, you know, that kind of thing. Something that's kind of fun. I will say. The only thing that, like, I was like, the color scheme. The color scheme feels weird for the spirit jersey and the purse and the ears. I mean, it's, like, bright red, and, I mean, it's got this, like, I don't know, it's got this native american vibe to it almost.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: It's supposed to be, you know, those costumes that they wear when they do the welcome ceremony for the ship? It's the traditional bahamian. It's like, these dance costumes. They are kind of. They kind of remind me, like, of, like, a native american dress, but they also kind of remind me of, like.
Like, the hawaiian dress, but it's clearly, like, the traditional bahamian attire for, like, those welcome ceremonies.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: My favorite comments on this was just like, are we really going to sell spirit jerseys in the middle of the Caribbean? Like, I guess. I mean, they sell out great in the parks in the middle of Orlando summer, so I don't know. I don't know.
[00:07:09] Speaker C: They sell $300, $300 parkas in Norway, in Epcot, if you want.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:17] Speaker C: It looks like from this distance, it's kind of small on my screen, it looks like a roulette wheel.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: Yeah, it does kind of look like.
[00:07:25] Speaker B: Maybe it foreshadows what we can expect on the adventure. All right, well, I think we've about drained the slide here. On Disney cruise line merchandise on Lighthouse Point. But next up, actually, some big news. I had to zoom in on this photo so everyone could see it. If you're listening to this later, you should head over to YouTube afterwards to see some of the visuals we have. But that is water sitting underneath the Disney treasure. So the Disney treasurer experienced water under her keel for the first time. She was floated, not floated out. She was floated this week. They will be floating her out pretty soon, I would guess, because they got to start making room that destiny is being built directly in front of her. So, um, they are. There are pictures of the. The treasure sitting right behind the destiny. So they're going to have to move her out of the building sooner or later so they can make room to keep working on the destiny. But water under the keel for the first time of the Disney treasure. It's a big moment. Uh, can't wait to do maybe another mystery science 3000 theater 3000 episode with you, Sam. When they do the, uh, the. The float out or the christening. I haven't decided which, but definitely be bringing one of those back.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: Brian, we're. Brian, we're getting some feedback that your mic is much louder than mine and Alex's and mine and Alex's are about the same volume. So thank you to Lindsay, who's given us that comment. It's one of those things that we can't. We can't tell the volume levels for the listener on this live platform. So we do appreciate that feedback. If you can't hear one of us or one of us is too loud, please let us know. And Brian, I'll turn his game down on his mic.
[00:08:54] Speaker B: I have now turned my mic down. I hope that that is. Is acceptable to folks. Um, all right, uh, next up, facial recognition is coming to port canaveral as you exit the ship, which should speed things along for you. We've already heard from people who have experienced this off of Disney Cruise line recently. So, uh, I've used this off of royal, uh, and I think, uh, it's super fast. You don't even have to have your passport out. Like, you just walk up, they scan your face. They're validating it as against a picture they have on file from when you boarded. And if the two things match, you're free to go. So really speeds things up and moves things along. I don't know. Sam, you excited to have another opportunity for some biometric data recognition? I don't know. Oops.
[00:09:40] Speaker A: I'm giving you two thumbs up. And apparently the fireworks have just started behind me. I think this is great.
[00:09:45] Speaker B: For those watching home, Sam has not turned off her reactions on apple pot or on apple. She's on a Mac and they've built.
[00:09:53] Speaker A: Alex gave you two thumbs up and nothing happened.
[00:09:56] Speaker B: Yeah, if you do two thumbs down, it just starts raining.
[00:09:58] Speaker C: I'm on a laptop, so I'm on a pc. Don't get anything. Cool.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: There you go. Well, facial recognition coming to Port Canaveral. I suspect they might already have it at Fort Lauderdale. I can't remember.
And so, yeah, that'll be speed things along, which is always nice because those lines at the end are.
The lines at the end are just long and churches. So, anyway. All right, so let's move on to the topic of the day. Let me pull the slides down, get us all back together. Sam, it's your show. It's your topic. You came up with this, so you intro it. Go for it.
[00:10:33] Speaker A: So tonight we're going to talk top five reasons to sail on Disney Cruise line. But in an attempt to make sure that we are fair and balanced, you know, we are your news source. We want to be reliable and make sure we give you all of the valid information. I asked Alex to tell me five reasons why one shouldn't sail on Disney Cruise line. So I'm going to hand this over to Alex to start with. Your number five, count us down to one. But what is your number five reason to not sail on Disney Cruise line?
[00:11:08] Speaker C: Okay, so, I mean, Facebook user, whoever, that's an interesting first and last name has already kind of hit this. But, uh, you know, I've been saving up a ton of money for. I got three kids and they got this college fund, and I feel like I could double it on a DCl cruise if I had some slot machines. Yeah, it'd be great if I could smoke in the middle of the boat while I'm playing these slot machines.
[00:11:35] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:11:36] Speaker C: And then the other thing is, after I'm done with that, after I've doubled their college fun, I want to head over to one of the, you know, one of the bars, and I need, like, that, that, that r rated comedy where it's the same jokes they told the theater, but they just say a lot more f words.
And then, you know, if I have to cover my kids ears every once in a while while we're walking around the boat, that would really add the extra adrenaline that I'm missing.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: I love it. I love it when you've got to.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: Be able to use a drink package, right? I mean, you got to package in there. Yeah, yeah.
[00:12:07] Speaker C: Right, right. Because, I mean, if I have to spend money on a coke zero anyway, I might as well spend money on alcohol. So.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: Nice. You got any other reasons for us why one shouldn't sail on Disney cruise line, Alex?
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:12:24] Speaker C: So, like, I don't do a great job making my kids eat vegetables at home. And I feel like if I could get the cruise line to make them eat vegetables, that would be helpful. But instead, they just give them all the stuff they want and they already have it ready for them when we get there. And it's frustrating because I can't get them to parent for me.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. Come on. I feel like your way, your wait staff absolutely should be feeding your kids vegetables. Maybe we should, like, hide the vegetables, you know, in something, but they should definitely force feed your kids vegetables. Absolutely.
[00:12:58] Speaker C: Right, right.
[00:12:58] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:59] Speaker C: Speaking of, speaking of the cast members, uh, like, you know, on every cruise ship, you have these amazing employees that will do what you ask them to do. But I've found that on a dizzy cruise, there are certain employees that you ask them for something, they do nothing. Like, I was in one of the restaurants, this one of the waitresses was in a purple dress, and I kept asking her for a drink and she would not give it to me. And she had this long blonde hair and she was singing songs and, like, they just completely ignored me.
She wanted to take pictures with me. She signed autographs, but she would not.
[00:13:30] Speaker A: Darn it. That's really.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: That's terrible. All right, all right, all right. I gotta. I gotta stop this madness. If you're out there watching, if you're out there watching. This goes along with our news item from earlier today of the Baymax bar.
[00:13:45] Speaker C: It was April Fools.
[00:13:47] Speaker A: April Fools.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: April fools.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: We're never going to give you balanced and a fair assessment of Disney Cruise line. We love Disney Cruise line.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: Oh, no, that's not true. That's not true. We try to be fair. We try to be fair. All right.
[00:14:01] Speaker C: I hadn't gotten into how I want my toilet and my shower next to each other.
My wife really wants to sit on the toilet while she shaves her legs.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: She told you that?
Oh, Alex, that one might be my favorite. Yeah, I love it. I love it.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: And for everybody, because I don't want to.
[00:14:24] Speaker C: Casino. Mister Pitt. Confusing.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: No casinos. Yes. Yeah. Somebody told you just to go to Vegas. And then I think they signed off of the stream. So there you go.
[00:14:34] Speaker C: Aww. Not bad.
[00:14:36] Speaker B: I did want to tell people. I did want to tell people that we did post this image earlier today in our facebook and all of our social media about how Disney had provided an artist's rendering of a new bar space on board the adventure, a big hero six themed bar with Baymax bartending a la some of the robotic bars we've seen on other ships is completely false. It's fake. For all of you out there listening, watching. It's not real, which is something we used good old AI to generate and have a little fun.
[00:15:03] Speaker C: Seriously, for a split second, I was like, they didn't tell me we were talking about this.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: I was like, this is amazing.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: This is amazing. I love it. Well, I got it. We got to pull up this comment from Josh. From Josh McHenry. Alex is hilarious. Thanks for the laughs in this section. And then we've got Audrey. I wonder who that is. That guy Alex is so funny. That's Alex's wife. Hi, Audrey. But we asked Alex if he would be our funny man for this section of the show because we knew that you all wouldn't believe us if we told you that we wanted a casino on board Disney cruise line and that we wanted Disney Cruise line to force feed our kids like vegetables.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: To be fair, my idea for the show was that we were going to announce that we were shifting gears and becoming the Royal Caribbean cruise line duo. You can see here now our background has changed to our new logo, the RCCL duo. No, it's actually the RCCL trio because we would get Nathan more involved in the show since he loves Royal Caribbean so much. But alas, I was downvoted for that. So back to our regularly scheduled programming.
[00:16:08] Speaker C: Oh, speaking of other cruise lines, another one I was going to mention is how Disney ever saves.
Saves electricity by turning off the power for a couple days.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: I like it. I like it.
[00:16:20] Speaker B: Nice. If any of you out there have seen some particularly good cruise line April fool's jokes today, feel free to post them in the comments. I'd love to see them. My favorite one was Royal Caribbean announced that they would have these massive water slides coming off the side of the ship so you could slide all the way down into the ocean, off into the ship. And, yeah, it looked hilarious and dangerous. So there you go. All right. Well, the real meat of the show is, in fact, our top five reasons to sail Disney cruise line. I guess I will manage the order here and we'll just round robin.
Alex, you're the guest. You're the guest. You already brought the humor. So let's start with you. What's your number five reason in particular or no particular order, why you would sail Disney cruise line?
[00:17:04] Speaker C: Well, you're going with me first, so I'm going to go with. The obvious one is that Disney has all these ips that they can do all this theming with. And so I'm a dad of three kids, and so having all the restaurants, all the bars, all the shows be their favorite movies, their favorite characters is. You can't do that. I mean. I mean, maybe if Dreamworks were to sign a deal with a bunch of cruise ships or the Grimm brothers. I don't know.
That's the only way you could have this. Yeah. It's the only way you could have this cohesiveness that I feel like Disney brings.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: I think that's absolutely true.
[00:17:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Sam, what's your. What's your first one? Top reason.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: My first one is there's only a couple of places in the world where you, as an adult, can dress up and not look totally foolish. And.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Are you going. Wait, let me. Are you going in from five to one, or are you just. Just given five reasons?
[00:18:03] Speaker A: I'm going from five to one, but some of these.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: Okay. All right. I'm still holding out hope. I'm still holding out hope. I know what number one is. Okay. All right. Keep going.
[00:18:12] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. So in some places in the world, like at Disney parks, right. You can dress up as an adult, and people don't look at you strangely, and you can kind of do that if you're headed to a Halloween party around Halloween. But generally speaking, you don't get to do that. But Disney Cruise Line is one of the places where you can dress up and get to Disneybound. So you get to dress like your favorite character and wear crazy ears, and people don't look at you funny at all. Like you're just one of the gang. You're one of the people. So it's.
[00:18:46] Speaker B: You just don't notice the people looking at you funny, Sam.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: No, no. They really. I swear, they really don't look at you funny because they're all dressed the same.
[00:18:54] Speaker C: I'm wearing stuff just to get compliments, you know.
[00:18:57] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:18:59] Speaker C: But I'm here in Clearwater, though, which is the headquarters of Scientology. I can get away with a lot of weird stuff here.
[00:19:07] Speaker A: I love it. And there are people who told us on our show that we talked to from, like, Australia and New Zealand that they were actually. They were a little surprised at how much Disney bounding was happening on the ships, because obviously they don't really see that every day. Down under, they only see that at like, a Disney park. And so, yeah, I think that's, that's my number five, Brian.
[00:19:33] Speaker B: I mean, I think the number five reason to sail Disney cruise line is the technology. Right? I mean, it's just so fabulous on board. It always works. All right, number five reason to sail Disney Cruise line. This is tough. I'm not going to go in a particular order because I just don't. I think they're going to come to me as I go and I'm going to have to adjust real time. In response to all of your great comments, I think one of the top reasons is the staterooms on board can accommodate families and you don't have to get, like, a suite in order to accommodate a family. Now, one thing I'll say is some of the staterooms that are labeled families, veranda staterooms, and Disney Cruise line would qualify as suites on some of the other cruise lines. So that may be kind of an in apt comparison. But I think the fact that they've got the split bathrooms, they've got rooms that can accommodate up to five people at a time and that the beds are, like, comfortable for multiple people. Right.
They're not like the royal caribbean bed I had on the independence of the seas was not super comfortable. So I think those rooms, I think the way that they've designed the rooms and laid them out, I think that's a. I think that's a great reason.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: To sail and split bathrooms, right? I mean, having as Alex, the toilet and the. And the shower not in the same room. That's lovely.
[00:20:42] Speaker C: And having two sinks so someone can brush their teeth while somebody's in the bathroom.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:20:46] Speaker C: Bedtime.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: Yep. We should say to our audience out there, if you're. If you're watching and you've got good reasons to sail Disney cruise line, let us know. Uh. Cause we will, uh, we'll throw them up in the show here. Uh, it looks like Josh is saying that, uh, one of the good April fool's jokes, uh, he saw was water skiing behind the ship as a new paid activity.
[00:21:03] Speaker C: Can you imagine how much air you could get that wake?
[00:21:06] Speaker A: That would be awesome.
[00:21:07] Speaker B: And then CT is saying Disney does have the best ip in response to Alex's comment, except psych. I think CT and I both psych.
[00:21:19] Speaker C: So I would say the office could use a Disney purchasing. There you go.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:24] Speaker C: I can combine those two things. What we have on t shirts, but.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: All right, number four, Sam, we're going to go reverse round robin here. What's number four? For you.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Number four is castaway key.
[00:21:38] Speaker B: That's only number four.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: Yeah, number four is castaway key. I mean, listen, number three, lighthouse point. No, I'm adjusting my order, to be fair, but, no, I mean, it's a great private island. Of course, not every sailing goes there, but I think it's the best beach day you will have. It is beautiful. There's plenty of places to sit. There's umbrellas for shades. There's great bars. I like the cookies, barbecue. I mean, I have no problems with it. I know other people have criticism of it, but I actually really like it. I really love a day on castaway, and a day on castaway is better than any day at home. Right? So, I mean, a day on a ship is also better than any day at home, but castaway is just a special place to me. And so, yeah, castaway is my number four.
[00:22:31] Speaker B: All right, Alex, you're up, number four.
[00:22:34] Speaker C: All right. I don't think mine are any particular order. There's mostly undoing my jokes from earlier, but I want to follow up with what Brian was saying. I think the veranda options.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:22:47] Speaker C: I fact checked myself to make sure I was right about this before we started. But 70% to 80% of Disney ship staterooms are verandas.
And even the best of Royal Caribbean is, like, 60%. Their oldest ship has 12% verandas.
All of carnival is below 50%.
It's just like. So, number one, it means that you get to enjoy the ocean and the view so much more, but it also means that the verandas are so much cheaper compared to the other ones, because I remember when we first got married and we would look at carnival cruises, it was like, you know, a hundred percent jump to go from, like, a ocean view to a veranda on a carnival cruise because there's just so few of them. And so that that's just, like, the standard. Most people you see are in a veranda on a Disney cruise, which is just awesome.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:37] Speaker B: And I feel like some of the other cruise lines pull some shenanigans when it comes to verandas, like the oasis ships that have, like, the interior view veranda staterooms now, or it's like you're looking into contemporary hotel or something. I don't know. Right. Like, it's just. Yeah, I think that's.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: I. I think if there was a monorail, I'd want that.
[00:23:57] Speaker B: Don't give royal any ideas. It's coming probably soon to a ship near you. The ship is so big, we had to put transportation inside.
All right, so back to me, number four here.
I could totally steal Sam's thunder, but I'm not going to do it. I'm not going to do it because I know what she's going to say. I'm going to say number four, is that it's fun for all. So we have sailed Disney Cruise line as adults only. We've sailed Disney Cruise line with our son when he was younger. He's now getting a little bit older. He'll age out into edge here pretty soon.
Have seen families successfully sail with teenagers, have seen multi generational families sail with grandparents. And I just think Disney Cruise line does a really good job of bringing out the kid at heart and everyone and providing a little something for everyone. Could they do more for adults? Sure.
Could they provide more activities on board? Absolutely. But I think that they're not really good.
No casinos. That's going to be actually, I'll get to that in 1 second.
But I think they provide a good balance for everyone to enjoy themselves and keep it like really family friendly and fun throughout. So I think that's the number four reason for me. But since I'm in control here, I'm going to skip straight to number three. And it's exactly what Alex just said, which is no casinos. I am not a fan. Look, I used to, when I was younger, I loved to gamble. I loved to go to Vegas. I frequented the casinos.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: Not slots, though. He would do. He and I would do blackjack or poker.
[00:25:29] Speaker C: You guys counting cards?
[00:25:31] Speaker B: You guys sitting there in a couple.
[00:25:32] Speaker C: That would get together and count cards.
[00:25:34] Speaker A: We'D signal each other.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: But I think it's great that Disney doesn't have casinos. I really don't need one on the ship and I'm really happy that it's not there.
When I was on the royal ship recently, I went to the casino for a bit. It was fine. I mean, it was fine. Got some free drinks. The only way to get a free drink on royal without a drink package, I suppose, or I guess an included drink. But I didn't need it and I certainly didn't need the smoking on board and all that sort of stuff. So I thought it was. I thought it was really great not to have a casino. So reversing once again, Alex, number three. Number three from you, I think.
[00:26:12] Speaker C: Rotational dining. No, that's a good one that you know, and I can't say for sure that I'm assuming that most crucial ads don't, but the idea that you've got these different venues with different menus with different shows. It's great for adults because they get to try lots of different types of food. It's great for kids because they get to see the new environments and the shows, even if they're eating chicken tenders or pizza at every single meal like mine.
But I just. I love, like, going. And then even if you go to the same venue, you know, you're going to get a different experience the second time.
You know, it's great.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: Yeah. And it is not. It is not something available on any other cruise line. It's something that Disney Cruise line invented. And, you know, there are other cruise lines where you have multiple choices of where to eat. Like, there might. It might have more than one, like, sort of main dining or some included specialty dining, but there's nothing like rotational dining in the industry where, you know, the server follows you from place to place. And so.
[00:27:15] Speaker C: Yeah. And that. That personal touch is so amazing. Sorry, go ahead, Brian.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:19] Speaker B: To say yet, I'm sure that sooner or later, someone might copy this, uh, kind of, uh, you know, kind of set up. I wanted to pile onto this by saying rotational dining is also great because your kids can order off the adult menu, and it's a great way for them to try new things that you might not otherwise really be able to expose them to. And, I mean, like, who gets escargot out at dinner, right? And it's on the cruise ship. And so if your kids want to try something and be adventurous, they can take a no, thank you bite, and then, you know, that's it. Like, you're not. You're not out, like, the money for the appetizer or whatever it is, because.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: And they could still eat Mac, and they can still eat Mac and cheese as their main, you know, or they can get a steak and the waiter is going to cut it for you. I love that.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:59] Speaker C: I mean, yeah, the ketchup's always in.
[00:28:01] Speaker A: Mickey ears, and the ketchup is always Mickey ears. You gotta love that. Love it.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Hey, DCl duo fans, you know, we get the question all the time. Should I use a travel agent to book my next Disney cruise, or should I just book with Disney directly? And I'm going to tell you, if you have that question in the back of your mind right now, you should stop what doing and head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo. The folks over at my path unwinding provide an amazing service. They are so knowledgeable and so friendly. We rely on them ourselves to book our family vacations and they provide an amazing service. And the best part is you don't pay anything extra for it. Disney, other tour providers and other cruise lines have built the cost of their commission into their pricing. So if you're booking directly, you are just paying that money back to the provider when you could be spending it on the kind of service you would get from my path. Unwinding travel. You've heard from their agent on our show. They are so knowledgeable, so giving of their time. They know so much about Disney Cruise line, sailing, concierge, other cruise lines, other all inclusive vacations and adventures by Disney that if you have a vacation in mind, they are the ones to book it for you. So again, head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo so they know we sent you their way. Thanks my path unwinding for sponsoring the show. And with that, back to our episode.
All right, Sam, I think we're rounding the horn and coming your direction. Number three.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: I can't believe neither of you have mentioned this yet.
Characters, I mean, their characters are everywhere, right? You can. Where else? What other ship can you see Mickey on?
[00:29:32] Speaker C: You know, they will not take your drink order.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: They will not take your drink order. Rapunzel mate will not bring you a drink. Neither will one of the thugs in Rapunzel, at Rapunzel's royal table. But they will laugh with you, they will hug you, they will sign autographs, they will sing with you, they will take your kid's hand and walk around the ship with them. I mean, there is nothing better than the character interactions on board Disney cruise line. You've got Marvel characters, you've got villains, you've got the Fab five. I mean, it's just. And then, of course, pirates. Right? So there. There's nothing better than Disney characters. I don't know if they're just the best at training them and they have the best costumes, but it's all of the above. And, yeah, you can't. You're not going to see Mickey on princess cruise line or Holland America.
[00:30:22] Speaker B: Well, you might, but it'll be one of those creepy Mickey and minnies that we see in, like, Times Square that, like, haunt your dreams for, like, months afterwards.
[00:30:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[00:30:30] Speaker B: Truly terrible.
[00:30:32] Speaker C: My goal, eventually, is to see the sleepwalking goofy.
[00:30:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, we've seen him. We've seen him.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: We've seen him once. Yeah.
[00:30:40] Speaker B: I think he comes out on the longer cruises. I haven't seen him come out on a seven night.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: I like the track running, Mickey. Yeah, that's definitely exercise Mickey.
[00:30:50] Speaker B: Exercise, Mickey. All right, before we get to our number twos and number ones, I want to change it up a little bit. And I'm going to toss another question in here in a second. 1st question I have for us just round the horn here, itinerary you must do. You must sail on Disney cruise line. Like, what do you think it could be one you've sailed or one that you have heard so many great things about. You have to do it yourself at some points, like on your bucket list. Alex, I'm going to throw it to you first.
[00:31:18] Speaker C: So, you know, I've got really little kids, so we don't travel very far. So we've only done caribbean cruises with them. So either now they're all over the place. Would love to do an Alaska itinerary. Love to do a Europe itinerary. Would love to. Because my kids, I mean, they're so little, we don't like to get off the boat at the ports very often. So a transatlantic, or like around the, you know, if they do a repositioning around the Panama Canal, you know, going all the way to Hawaii, like any of those sound amazing.
[00:31:49] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:31:49] Speaker C: So I don't really have a good one because we've only done, again, like only caribbean cruises. So anything but that's a bucket list.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
Okay.
Because I don't want to take Brian's because I think I know which one he's going to say. I'm going to say eastern Caribbean. I love the eastern Caribbean itinerary. It is.
[00:32:12] Speaker B: I thought you'd go southern. I thought you go southern Caribbean.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Well, I was debating, but the southern is it. Sometimes it's a really great itinerary and sometimes it's not as good. It just kind of depends where they're going. But I feel like the eastern is reliably always a really good itinerary and it stops at Castaway Key. Right. So you gotta, you know, get on Disney Cruise line and go to castaway Key. But I don't really want to recommend. People do, like, the Nassau castaway on the wish because that's only a three or four night cruise. So if I'm going to pick just an itinerary, that's awesome. Tracy is saying southern eleven. I understand. Listen, Tracy, I'm with you. That's probably the one I would choose. But if I'm going to recommend to somebody in general, I'm probably going to say the seven night eastern caribbean itinerary, which is currently on the fantasy, but will be on the treasure, I definitely.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: Prefer that two week countdown for the eastern. Eastern is our favorite. Go to just stand standard itinerary. We love it. Love it. Absolutely love it.
[00:33:09] Speaker C: We definitely prefer the eastern over the western.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: Yeah, agreed. It's a better itinerary. All right, Brian, what is the top one that you would recommend to someone?
[00:33:18] Speaker B: So I suspect you thought I was going to say Norway, but I'm not going to go there because Norway is a fabulous itinerary. I would say everyone needs to sail to Norway, but I don't know that you need to sail it on Disney cruise line. I don't know because we weren't on the ship for it. Nope. Not going to say Alaska either, because I'm a little annoyed that Disney doesn't go Seattle. I'm sure it's going to be a fabulous itinerary, but I just want to sail out of my home city once in my life, and I'll have to make that happen at some point. I am actually going to say that it is either a double dip or a triple dip or a duo dip or whatever it is on Disney Cruise line. So if my question was, itinerary, you have to sail on Disney. I think one of those triple dip itineraries are the. Not the triple dip, the duo dip. I guess we're calling it one of these, like, multiple stops at Castaway and Lighthouse point. I think that is the quintessential Disney cruise line experience. You will never.
[00:34:09] Speaker C: That's what we're looking at in January. We're looking at doing one of the dreams, castaway and lookouts.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Love it. Love it.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: What I'm looking for, the DVC cruise is basically castaway, lighthouse castaway, or lighthouse castaway lighthouse. I forget which. But I'm like, we're never, never setting foot in Nassau. We're never leaving Disney. So, yeah, yeah, Nassau is great if.
[00:34:31] Speaker C: You need a medical emergency.
[00:34:33] Speaker A: True.
Yeah. They have full hospital resources there. That's absolutely fair.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: All right, let's get to number two. Uh, number two on the list. Sam, coming back to you. Number two, the number two reason to sail Disney cruise line for you.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: This is a hard one, but number two is Disney cast members.
There are no better crew at sea, on land, what have you, than Disney trained people. Like, they go out of their way for above and beyond service down to, you know, as I mentioned them, you know, cutting up your kids steak at dinner, to making sure that you've got everything in your stateroom that you need to, making sure that you get to your excursions on time to, you know, making fun of you on stage and a dance competition, running trivia. I mean, just every person on that ship is doing their part to make sure that you are having an amazing vacation. And I don't know if it's that they just, like, interview people really well to find such great people in general or if it's a training or if it's a combination thereof, I tend to think it's a combination thereof. They find really good people, and then they also train those good people really, really well.
[00:35:50] Speaker B: We don't know what goes on below decks. The beatings continue in tomorrow, improve.
[00:35:53] Speaker A: So, you know, but in general, I just think that there is no staff or whatever you want to call them, crew, better than Disney cast members. So my number two is them.
[00:36:08] Speaker B: All right, Alex, number two.
[00:36:11] Speaker C: I want to piggyback on that one. Just like my best memory of Disney cruise is, I think our first, maybe our first or second cruise. Belle just sitting on the stairs with my oldest daughter and just talking to her for, like, five minutes. Like, you can't beat that. And, you know, she was still young enough at this point that it was, like, the most magical thing she'd ever experienced in her whole life.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: And they're just constantly, like, creating magic and pixie dust for adults, for kids, for. I mean, just for everyone, I think. And they do a great job with, like, lots of differences, too, right? Like, people who have disabilities or other kinds of differences. I feel like they also just. I don't know what it is. They just know how to connect with people on such an amazing level. Yeah.
[00:36:59] Speaker B: All right, I got to put in a plug. If you're watching the show and we haven't hit one of your top five reasons, start throwing them in the chat. Cause we're going to go back through some of the chat items. I've been starring them along the way. We're going to come back through and bring them up.
All right. My number two reason, and I can't believe we haven't.
[00:37:18] Speaker A: You didn't get Alex's number two reason.
[00:37:21] Speaker B: Oh, I thought he was piggybacking on yours. No, Alex.
[00:37:23] Speaker C: No, I was just. I was. I was elaborating on her.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: He was elaborating on mine, Brian.
[00:37:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:27] Speaker B: All right, number two, which is also.
[00:37:29] Speaker C: An elaboration of my ip one.
So I think one of the big things for me, I mean, I think we've touched on this. You talked about it for everyone. But I want to, like, really dig into how awesome the kids clubs and nursery are.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:37:44] Speaker C: That, you know, I just, you know, it's a shameless plug. But I just finished a blog post a couple weeks ago about Disney cruise versus Disney world. And one of the big things is, you know, you can have these amazing experiences together as a family, and then there's somewhere for everyone to go so you can just relax as adults.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:38:03] Speaker C: Without having to find some random, you know, babysitter somewhere or bring somebody along that, you know, my, my two year old loves going to the nursery. My older girls love going to the, you know, the Oceaneers club and lab, and we can just enjoy a book for a while and then get back together like that. That's just, it's combination of relaxing adult time and family time is just unbeatable.
[00:38:26] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. That's a great point you bring up. I mean, you've ran your kids ragged around the parks and then there's no escaping them. Right.
Whereas on the cruise, you can do a bunch of fun stuff altogether and then you can put them in the kids club and you can go have Paulo brunch or go sit on the pool deck and relax for an hour or two. There's. Yeah, there's really nothing better than that.
[00:38:51] Speaker B: All right, I have to put this comment up because I don't think any of us are going to say this.
[00:38:54] Speaker C: As a. I know. I was, I was going to bring it up. I was going to pick it up.
[00:38:57] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:58] Speaker B: But, but I love this comment from Peggy says the top reason is Mickey bars. We have Doc next to other lines, and NASA and guests have pleaded with us to throw them on Mickey bar. I would actually love to see that happen. Just Mickey bars being hurled at like some sort of, like, you know, kind of weird pirate attack against a carnival cruise line ship as people are throwing Mickey bars at them. But, yeah, Mickey bars are great. Mickey bars are great.
Where is it? She also put up, Peggy also put up her secret recipe here, mickey bars with warm chocolate chip cookies for me. But I like it. I like where you're headed with that. All right, so my number two reason, because Alex just took my number two reason, but I'm ready. I've got backups for days. All right, so my number two reason is attention to detail.
And I say that just because there are these times on the cruise ship, and I've talked about this in the show before, one of my favorites is you're in the main pool area, funnel vision's going. Kids are screaming, splashing, having a great time. You saunter 50 yards ahead, pass a divider, and you're in the adult area and you can't hear any of that. There's spa music playing, drink servers circulating, sound of the waterfall. It's amazing to me that that level of detail that they put into these spaces, the themes, the little touches on board, to just. It just makes it matter. The music playing in the hallways.
I am beyond excited to get on the treasure and see this. 20,000 leagues under the sea bar. Cause if they just execute that well, it's gonna be so cool to see. So I love all the little touches, some of the understatement that they do, and some of the dining rooms. 1923 hidden Mickey. I just think it's so elegant.
[00:40:45] Speaker A: Easter eggs everywhere.
[00:40:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So that attention to detail, and then it extends to the service, it extends to cleanliness of the ship, all of that sort of stuff. I just think that that is, like, probably actually my number one reason to sail Disney cruise line, but I got to save room for, I guess, one other thing, so, uh. But it'll be my number two reason this time around, so. All right, before we get to our number ones, our number ones, I got another sort of, uh. Another sort of, uh, a hand grenade to lob into the discussion here.
Favorite food item on Disney cruise line. Uh, Sam, you got to name one food item. We already have one food item. We already have a guess. We already have a guess in here.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: Morgan, I know. It's not that, so. It's not. It's. I like the truffle percents, but it's. Those are not my number one.
[00:41:33] Speaker B: So the guest coming from the DCl villain, Josh, is that Sam's number one would be truffle presets, and mine would be chicken tenders. Wrong on both counts, Josh, but I like where you're going.
[00:41:43] Speaker A: Yes, Sam.
Number one. Number one. Oh, my God. This is too much pressure. This is too much pressure. Okay. I'm going to actually go with the sweet food, which is crazy, because I always pick savories, and I'm. And it's not going to be Apollo item, even though I absolutely love that chicken parm. But I'm going to say that my number one food, and this is crazy, but I'm going to say it.
Oreo cheesecake on embarkation day. That is the best dessert I think I've ever had in my life. Honestly, I'm not. I don't know.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: That is high praise from a New Yorker right there.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: I'm not sure that there's a better dessert that I've ever eaten. Other than that. Like, I can't. I really can't say. And even, like, I know people love the Paulo souffle, the chocolate souffle, the amaretto souffle. Those are good. Oh, churro Mickey waffles are great, too. Cross mouse adventures. But, yeah, I think that. Or embarkation day. Oreo cheesecake is. Yeah, I know. That's surprising. That's number one, not chicken parm. I know, Linda. I know that chicken parm is. It's fantastic. But I can get really good chicken parm other places. I've never had oreo cheesecake like that anyplace else.
[00:42:54] Speaker B: All right, Alex, give us your favorite food item on Disney cruise line.
[00:43:00] Speaker C: Man, it's hard to even say. I'll go with pretty much everything at Tiana's place.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:09] Speaker C: The bread pudding, beignets, the.
I mean, like, just all that's so good. But I would say one of the most unique things to me that I've never seen anywhere else. So it seems like anyone can have. The technology is going up to cove Cafe and getting a coffee with, I don't know if you guys with the foam on it that has the images of the characters on it. That's one of the most creative things I've ever seen.
[00:43:32] Speaker A: I do love that. I do love that. I love Peggy's comment. Yes.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: Peggy's writing. Oh, my God. Sam, my husband, insists on cruising concierge just for the Oreo cheesecake on embarkation day at their lunch. You can also get it in cabanas, though, right?
[00:43:45] Speaker A: Yes. Well, you can't. It's not the same piece. There'll be, like, smaller pieces of it. So it's. It's. It's a. It's not. It's tastes the same, but it's in a different, like, shape. And I think you can get it at the sit down lunch. That is the non concierge sit down lunch as well. So you can get it multiple places. You don't have to be in concierge to get it. It's just they give you the bigger piece at the sit down lunch than you get at cabanas. You got to grab, like, two or three of them, because these are the.
[00:44:10] Speaker B: Kinds of hard hitting tips we give you to help you save $10,000 on your next Disney cruise.
[00:44:15] Speaker A: Like, three or four of them in cabanas. Nobody. I will. I won't judge you. I'll actually be sitting right next to you eating.
[00:44:22] Speaker B: Linda's saying her number one is the souffle and Bridget saying, fried Brie, anyone? I have. You know, I've never tried the fried Brie on board. I'm not a big fried Brie person, but maybe I'll.
[00:44:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not a big Brie person. You like?
[00:44:32] Speaker C: That's really good.
[00:44:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not a big person.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: I do like person.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: And I love that CT is thinks I'm running a fever because I didn't say travel per sets. I do love the truffle percents. They're just not number one. Let me put that out there. They're like. They're in. They're in my.
[00:44:47] Speaker B: This is not April fools, people. This is live tv right here. This is not April fool fools.
[00:44:52] Speaker A: All right, Brian, what is your favorite, your favorite food item?
[00:44:56] Speaker B: Oh, okay. So I'm going to give two because one is.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: Yeah, you're fleeting.
[00:45:01] Speaker B: No, it. One is transient and fleeting and it's probably not even on the menu anymore.
My favorite food item I've ever had on Disney Cruise line was that poulet rouge chicken dish and remy where they like stuffed cornbread between the skin and the chicken and like really good. I could have eaten that for days. It was so good.
[00:45:17] Speaker A: That is the best chicken I maybe have had.
[00:45:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So good. But the one that you can get reliably lasagna at Palo, I think it's still one of the best lasagnas I've ever had. It's delicious and I love it. So that is my favorite Disney cruise line food. Maybe second, maybe second place in my heart is the smoked old fashioned from Hooks barberry. But that's not really a food item, I guess. I mean, it's a drink maybe.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: I love me a banana creep, too.
[00:45:42] Speaker B: So there you go. There you go. All right, we're down another if you want a good.
[00:45:48] Speaker C: Oh, random tip. If you want a good smoked old fashioned. The Edison at Disney Springs, they use like these, like weird, like, like glass tube. Like they're doing some kind of 1920s science experiment. It was a fun experience just for the girls to watch me get a smoked old fashioned.
[00:46:04] Speaker B: Everyone's making a smoked old fashioned out Disney. Like, there was a memo that must have gone around. They said, like, they must have extra wood to burn or something. I don't know.
[00:46:12] Speaker C: Yeah, well, it's everywhere. It's like the big thing. We went to the Ritz Carlton and Amelia island and like, we walked into the bar and the whole thing was like just a giant cloud of smoke from all the smoked old fashions that all the golfers were getting.
[00:46:25] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: I got one at a really nice steakhouse here when we were out to dinner. And like, you know, it smelled like a campfire for a good ten minutes after the waitress left the table doing it.
[00:46:33] Speaker C: So, yeah, I think it's like a sauna if they get the right oak.
[00:46:37] Speaker A: There you go.
[00:46:38] Speaker B: There you go. All right. Number one with a bullet. Your number one reason to sail on Disney cruise line.
Alex, I'm gonna start with you. You're the guest.
[00:46:48] Speaker C: So again, I have been going completely. I mean, I prepped really hard for the first part, and I have not really prepped very hard for the second one. So I'm gonna go. And I wrote an article about this with the bed. I mean, you talked about the bed a little bit, but the bed, I mean, I don't know what it is. My kids. Well, there was that one cruise, but my kids usually sleep through a night better than ever before. It might be the rocking of the ship.
[00:47:14] Speaker A: I think it's the rocking of the ship.
[00:47:15] Speaker C: And if they don't sleep, we can go back and take a nap. That bed is just so comfortable.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:21] Speaker C: It's actually made by Biscayne. Cause I. You know, I did all the research to find.
[00:47:26] Speaker A: And you have the pillows on your website also, right? You listed out where the pillows come from as well.
[00:47:31] Speaker C: I remember.
[00:47:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:32] Speaker C: But it's just. I don't know what it is. It's just like, it, like, hugs you and tells you everything's gonna be okay.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: Yeah. For me, I think the sleep is the bed, but the rocking, I think, also helps. Like, you get really fantastic sleep. And I know that folks who like to sail in inside staterooms say the same thing about the darkness. Right. That it helps as well. So, yeah, I think all the things.
[00:47:57] Speaker B: All right, Sam, number one, I'm putting it up. In fact. Yes, it is.
[00:48:03] Speaker C: I wasn't going to say that one because I knew that had to come up. Zachary.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: It is, in fact, Disney stage shows. Not. It's not just that they're better than every other cruise line, although I like that comment. But it's just that they are fantastic Broadway quality and. And in a shorter timeframe. So instead of, like, two and a half hours of sitting in a theater or 3 hours of sitting in a theater with intermission, you get a fantastic Broadway style show in an hour, maybe an hour and 15 minutes. That's like the longest ones they have. So you're talking fantastic stage performers, fantastic special effects, beautiful sets, beautiful costuming, wonderful dancing.
It's. Yeah. I mean, there's nothing better than a Disney stage show. I would rather be in the Walt Disney theater any day than sitting in a broadway theater with my legs cramped up to my chest and having to sit in that spot for 3 hours. So, yeah, give me Disney stage shows on the Walt Disney theater, on Disney cruise line over any other theater experience.
[00:49:15] Speaker B: All right, let's work back through some of our comments. We've got some potential detractors here who are taking issue with some of our, some of our picks.
[00:49:22] Speaker A: Or maybe you have to give your number one and Alex's number one, Brian.
[00:49:26] Speaker C: Well, he's going to pick from there, so he saves the base.
[00:49:29] Speaker B: No, alex.
[00:49:30] Speaker C: No, I did mine.
[00:49:31] Speaker B: Alex. Oh, you didn't do any of yours.
[00:49:33] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:33] Speaker B: All right.
[00:49:34] Speaker C: I said the bed because that's right. Yeah. If you do it right.
[00:49:39] Speaker B: All right, well, I'm going to disappoint some fans out there. Let me just start by saying a lot of people are saying fireworks should be in the mix. Someone else are great.
[00:49:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Someone else was talking about pirate night on here as being kind of a. Kind of a reason that you have to. You have to do it for the fireworks. I mean, look, I enjoy fireworks at sea, but I think my number one reason I'm going to go with Tracy's fabulous friends you meet on board. So thank you, Tracy. I think that that is a great one. To cap off the number one reason, Ashley has a similar feeling here of my number one is a feeling of home and memories and happiness. I think all of that is right. I will never forget when we step back on the Disney fantasy, I think it was after the restart and they did the little show in the atrium, and we got to watch the character cavalcade in Enchanted Garden one, one evening. And Nathan was just the happiest I had seen him since the start of the pandemic. And when they played that Mickey Horn, the Mickey horn is. Really tugs at my heart. Like, I think I was in tears or near tears multiple times on that cruise, just watching everyone have so much fun after so many years of, of a pandemic. So I agree. It's. It's got to be the friends and the memories and all that sort of stuff is the number one reason. All right, let's walk through some comments, and I've got one more question to round out the show, maybe to us all the way back to the April fool's theme of this show. We shall see.
Josh is saying that castaway has to be one of the best reasons to sail on Disney cruise line. I think we completely agree. Peggy was saying at one point that she's got a cruise in the fantasy in October. That's doing two castaway stops and one lighthouse. Nothing can top that. I'm going to tell you. I think the DVC cruise tops it with the reverse. Two stops at Lighthouse point and one stop at castle.
[00:51:29] Speaker A: We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. We don't know.
[00:51:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:51:31] Speaker B: With a podcast cruise right after. Which makes it three stops at Lighthouse .2 stops at Castaway key. So, you know, it's going to be all Disney all the time there.
What else we got here that I wanted to work back through? There you go. Disney Entertainment. Sam, elizabeth is saying Disney Entertainment. First round movies and Disney themed games.
[00:51:47] Speaker A: Yes, I'm with you, Elizabeth.
[00:51:49] Speaker B: I think that's a cool.
[00:51:50] Speaker C: I watch a lot of first round movies.
[00:51:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:51:53] Speaker B: That's. There's nothing. The premiere at Sea is a lot of fun. Although I hate taking 2 hours of cruise.
[00:51:58] Speaker A: I know.
[00:51:59] Speaker C: Well, for me, it's the went to bed at nine. My wife wants to go to sleep. And so I go watch the 10:00 and then I still get a great night movie. Night sleep.
[00:52:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Along my lines of the sort of the attention to detail ct saying one of the. One of my reasons, the deep, the details Disney puts into a restaurant like Paolo. I think a cast member told us the wood in the restaurant was from Italy. There is a weld on the wonder. So she matches the magic. Yeah. Paolo. They also have the hand blown italian glass. Like. Yeah, there's just. There are little details in Remy.
[00:52:34] Speaker A: They've got chateau la tour. Right. The wine from the movie. Right. All of these touches. Yeah.
[00:52:41] Speaker B: They sold one of the bottles.
[00:52:42] Speaker A: I know, but they apparently. Yeah, but that's like, all the detail that they put into those restaurants. I mean, down to the fabric on the seats in Remy. They have little rat figures in them. Like, they're. It's amazing. Amazing.
[00:52:57] Speaker B: Although I still contend they need a window into the kitchen and, like, the rat kind of standing in the window or when the chef comes out, he's got the hat with the backlit rat in it or something. I think that would be a lot of fun. Uh, and then, uh, Peggy's saying number one is the crew. I think you mentioned that Sam is one of yours. Uh, the crew on board is fantastic. And, yeah, they do a great, great job. Uh, let's see what else?
[00:53:17] Speaker A: Congrats on 45 sailings, Peggy. My goodness. You've almost got that castaway plaque. Five more cruises and you will have your name on castaway Key.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Crossmas is saying their younger daughter's number one reason DCL is safe. Yeah. We feel much more comfortable letting Nathan kind of run around wild on a ship on Disney cruise line. I'm, you know, I'm going to be interested to see what happens with us on royal and how much independence we give him, so. And they also say their older daughter, older daughter's number one reason is the entertainment on board. So, yes, I think all of those are great, great reasons. All right, one last question to round out the show to take us all the way back to the April Fools theme. But let's be serious about it this time. I want each of us to give one reason why people might not want to sail on Disney Cruise line. Ooh. Giving them lots of good reasons. I'll go first. I'll go first. Price.
[00:54:11] Speaker A: Ah, you stole it.
[00:54:14] Speaker B: And I will say very little after that. I had my tirade a couple shows ago about price.
I think the price has gotten wildly out of line with what the actual value of the vacation is. And I think that on balance, you could probably find a really fun cruise for your family for far less. So you really got to be convicted that that Disney level of service, attention to detail, those Disney ips that you're getting to see are the reason that you're paying that premium. And if you are, then Disney Cruise line is the only place you're going to find some of that stuff. It is a really good, great cruise lines, typically rated number one for families, royals working hard to catch up with them there or pass them all together.
I think one reason I would counsel someone against it is if you're really, really stretching to make a Disney cruise fit in your budget, I think there are ways to get on another cruise line and have a really great time as a family and experience cruising without paying the exorbitant premium that Disney's charging.
[00:55:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:14] Speaker B: All right, Sam, what's your one reason? Maybe you would say Disney cruise line is not for you.
[00:55:20] Speaker A: So, I mean, I can think of a couple that might make sense for certain people. Not necessarily for me, but I would say just they have a limited fleet, which means limited itineraries. So there are certain places that Disney, because they only have five ships, soon to be six, soon to be seven, soon to be eight. But they, because they have a limited number of ships, they just don't go as many places as some of the other lines that have a bigger breadth of ships.
[00:55:50] Speaker C: Yeah, I'll agree with that. Yeah, I'm there for the ship and I don't care where it's stopping. Because we, with a two year old, we hardly want to get off the boat much anyway.
[00:56:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:56:02] Speaker B: Although let me ask you this in that vein, which is, if you get on a royal ship, there's a ton more to do on the ship itself. Like, the ship is even more of an attraction than Disney.
[00:56:13] Speaker A: That was actually. So I was. Those are the two I was deciding between. I was deciding between itineraries because of the limited ships or somewhat limited activities on board. And I'm not saying that. I mean, I think Disney has plenty, but we don't have roller coasters and go karts and climbing walls and not the same number of water slides and things like that. So there are. Yeah, there are other things. And Tracy's making the point. They have less activities for adults than other fleets. That's probably true as well. The evening activities are a little more limited. So, yeah, I think if you need that level of entertainment on the ship, there. There might be other cruise lines that have that. But the quality, I think, of the entertainment isn't going to be as good. So quantity versus quality, in my opinion.
[00:56:58] Speaker B: Tracy is agreeing with me about cost and Josh is agreeing on price. Bridget's got a comment here.
[00:57:04] Speaker C: Too many kids, you know, that's going to be mine.
[00:57:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:57:08] Speaker C: If you are. So I can't see myself in the near future going on a Disney cruise without my kids. Number one for the guild, but number two for, like, if I'm trying to escape the kid noise, like, I love kids and I love other, you know, other people's kids, their noise as well. But if I want an adult experience, I'm not going on a Disney cruise. I'm going to an adult all inclusive, like secrets or, you know, we're just going to go get a hotel room at a nice hotel that, you know, usually don't have kids at. Like, it's just there. There's a lot of kids, which means it's focused on them, which is awesome, which is what I want, which is what I love about UCL, but that's not what I want if it's just my wife and I. Yeah.
[00:57:49] Speaker A: And I think, to your point, that's why there is a market for, like, virgin voyages. Right. For a cruise line or even Viking and some of the other ones that don't necessarily not allow kids, but certainly skew older or skew towards all adults. Right. So you are going to have a.
[00:58:04] Speaker C: Yeah, we're not looking for a party scene, so probably looking more for the sightseeing, biking, or, you know, ventures by Disney kind of thing if we had that money.
[00:58:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:58:13] Speaker B: And Tracy's saying, don't worry, Alex, you will get over your guilt.
[00:58:17] Speaker C: Yes, we've got over it.
[00:58:19] Speaker A: Get older, though. So Tracy's got adult children. Alex, you have little kids. And so it will with an eight.
[00:58:25] Speaker C: To ten year old and a COVID surprise. So it all started over again.
[00:58:29] Speaker B: And Bridget's saying that guilt is the worst. So you're in good company. You're in good company.
One person commented on the cost side of things they said, but all activities at an additional cost on others. That's true. I'm going to tell you some, not all up on a screen I have over here that you can't see.
I've cut our budget for our upcoming royal cruise that we switched to off the fantasy. Same exact week, nearly identical kind of stateroom. So we were sailing concierge on the fantasy in a one bedroom stateroom for a week. Eastern Caribbean. We're doing royal for a week, essentially eastern Caribbean. They're calling it Caribbean, but essentially eastern caribbean port stops in their suite class category.
That's essentially a one bedroom for us. And all in for the cruise fare and the upgrades, all the dining. So we bought four nights of dining so far.
We got Nathan and arcade credit. We got drink packages for Sam and I and a soda package for Nathan.
[00:59:31] Speaker A: And we have a cabana at Coco Key. But at the main pool, we're not doing the the beach, we have a cabana.
[00:59:39] Speaker B: We have one royal excursion at another port stop we're doing. So the food, the drinks, the arcade card for Nathan, photo package, Internet, all of that stuff still came in under $4,000 less than what we were going to be paying Disney Cruise line just for the base fair for the week before we even bought Internet, before we even got. Well, I guess we don't need a photo package anymore because we're Pearl. But before you got any shore excursions from Disney, anything, like before he paid for an adult dinner on the fantasy or at Remy. So, like, I mean, I agree these costs add up, but they're still adding up less than the same cruise on Disney cruise line in a comparable state.
[01:00:20] Speaker A: Yeah, it depends. Depends how much extra stuff you want to add on, though, to some, you know, if you want to add everything extra on. Yeah, you can get pretty close or equal, maybe.
[01:00:30] Speaker B: We've added just about everything we could. I'm not sure what else there is to.
[01:00:34] Speaker A: Well, the water park and the beach club. There are some other things. And we didn't do excursions at every port. Right. So there are some additional things.
[01:00:41] Speaker C: Did you get the soda package?
[01:00:43] Speaker A: We got the drink package, actually, which is even higher level than the soda package. Yeah. So that one includes its soda, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks as well. Yeah.
[01:00:53] Speaker B: More on that as we, as we get past the cruise. So I just wanted to let folks know what our upcoming live show schedule is like. Be here again Monday nights, 05:30 p.m. Pacific, 08:30 p.m.. Eastern, except we are heading out of town. So next Monday there will not be a live show, but we've got a really great bonus episode planned. We have Matt Hochberg, who runs the Royal Caribbean blog. So the sort of equivalent of a Scott Sanders on the Royal Caribbean side. He runs the largest and most well respected blog on the royal side, coming on the show to answer Sam's questions as a bonus episode. So we're going to get Sam prepped and ready to go for her first royal cruise and let her ask questions of the expert, of which I am not. And so I'm excited to have someone come answer those questions for her. We're going to be back with our live episode on Monday, April 15, fresh off of our royal caribbean cruise. We'll be having our friend of the show, Haley Curry, joining us to talk about celebrity cruise lines versus Disney Cruise line live. And later that week, it's going to be a double live show week on Thursday, that week after spring break. So not this week, not next week, week after Thursday, we will be back, just the two of us live to debrief on our Royal Caribbean sailing. To let you know what we thought. I'm hoping to have some nice slides, some photos, some video we can show along the way so we can talk through all of really Sam's thoughts and impressions since it's her first time on royal, but some of mine as well. So lots of great content coming out over the course of the next couple of weeks.
[01:02:23] Speaker A: Brian, before we end the show, we've got to let Alex tell you where you can find him, where you can find his blog and where he is all over social media as well. Alex, why don't you tell our listeners and watchers where they can connect with you on all things social media and your website.
[01:02:41] Speaker C: All right, so I'm primarily a blog. So you can go to seconddadtotherite.com, like secondstarterite.com and, but I'm also on Facebook, second dad to the, you knowecondadothright and instagram, eondadothright and pinterest at second dadtothe right. So if you want to follow me on any of those, I'd be super grateful. I always post a blog post, but I usually post a lot of, you know, dumb pictures and stuff too, elsewhere, so.
[01:03:14] Speaker A: Well, thanks so much, alex, for joining us. We really appreciate it. And thank you for being our, you know, doing our silly stunt that we wanted to pull for April fools. We could think of no one better to join us for this episode.
We loved having you on the first time. We loved having you on again. And of course, you are always welcome back to the show.
[01:03:36] Speaker C: Appreciate it. Thank you guys for having me.
[01:03:39] Speaker B: All right, thanks everybody. 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. You can keep getting great content from the DCL duo each week. We'd also love it if you'd head over to Apple Podcast 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
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