[00:00:00] Speaker A: It seems. It seems like the Disney cruises had, like, a premium, but then, like, wonder kind of stepped it up a little bit. Icon kind of stepped it up a little bit. And then. And their prices were increasing, like, kind of dramatically, I think, as I've been watching them over the past, like, year. And then Disney was like, hold my beer. Here's the treasure.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL duo podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding travel and Sam, I don't have a good intro for the reviews anymore. I mean, we're just. We're going to read a review, right? That's. That's what we're doing. Everyone knows we're doing it.
[00:00:46] Speaker C: We're going to read a five star review that gives us some accolades so that we feel better about ourselves. You know, when I'm having a bad day, this is what I like to do. I just go on Apple podcasts and read reviews. So those of you, those of you who haven't left us one, if you want to help my mental health, go on Apple Podcast and read us a review.
[00:01:04] Speaker B: Yeah, if you want to help my energy level, because it's. I do all of the work on this show. It always helps me to see that people appreciate it. So this review comes from Stephanie Fidi. I hope I'm pronouncing that right. F I t t e. Who writes hands down my favorite. This is hands down my favorite podcast out there. I have listened to many podcasts relating to Disney, but there's something about Sam and Brian's podcast that keeps me coming back for more. I absolutely love that they have guests on and we get to hear different opinions and viewpoints from what they experienced, not just the host talking each time. I have learned so much about what to plan and for with my upcoming cruise. If you haven't listened to episode 308, question in the back, I highly recommend it. They also have a few episodes that discuss sailing with a child having special needs. These were also super helpful. Sam and Brian, thank you so much for fueling my much needed DCL addiction. I listen religiously and get so excited when I see a new show has been released. I can't wait to be a guest myself after our February 2024 Pixar Day at Sea Cruise over Valentine's. I wish so bad we could join you for your inaugural podcast cruise to see Lighthouse Point. Maybe next time. So don't make it your last. All right, there you go, Sam. Now you can comment away.
[00:02:05] Speaker C: Oh, I love that. What a great review. Thank you so much. And the, the thing I wanted to comment on was that episode question in the back. I also love that episode. That was totally just an email we got from now a friend of the show, because we met him on board a sailing pretty recently, Chris. And yeah, he just, he hadn't sailed, but he had been doing lots of research and he just had some questions that he couldn't find answers to. And we answered them on the show just with his questions, his written questions. He wasn't even a guest on the show. And I think it turned out to be a great episode myself. So I'm glad that others appreciate that. I think it's a really, we've done.
[00:02:43] Speaker B: That a couple of times, actually. We had, we had, yeah, we had a guest on and did it live with them about sailing. I forget which sailing that was. It wasn't the one with Chris, but we did another one where just let them ask us questions and we responded real time. So if you send us, so if you have questions you want to send them in, you can, you can always send us questions over email. You can raise your hand and say, I got like 20 questions about our upcoming cruise. We might try to bring you on the show. For instance, this morning someone reached out and asked me for recommendations for Disneyland planning podcasts. And while we cover Disneyland rarely on the show, more for our patreons these days than anything, I'd say that there's some great podcasts out there, like rope drop, radio Disney deciphered, and our friends over at Market House who cover Disneyland a lot. So send us questions. We love to give that, give those answers out to the whole community. But for now, I'll just say thank you for the review. We really, really appreciate it. And with that, sam, you want to talk about our guests and our show for today?
[00:03:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm super excited about our guest today. He's got quite a bit of cruising experience. He's got Disney cruising experience, but also cruising on Disney's major competitor, Royal Caribbean. And he's booked on a sailing on the wish pretty soon and less than about a month away from now and, but he's got some apprehensions about the wish, so we wanted to bring him on the show to talk about those apprehensions, understand why maybe allay some of those apprehensions, and then follow up after he's actually sailed on the wish. So we'll see how that goes. But we'd love to welcome to the show first time guest, Wesley. Welcome, Wesley.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Damn, Brian, it's so good to be here. Thanks for having me.
[00:04:16] Speaker C: Yeah. So good to have you. Thank you for reaching out. Why don't we start with your cruising background? As I mentioned, you have, you know, quite a, quite a bit of it. Why don't you tell folks where you've sailed, how many cruises, and I already spoiled it, that you recently went on royal.
[00:04:34] Speaker A: That's all right. It's not much of a spoiler. So I took my first cruise. Oh, gosh. Back in 2004, 2004 with my brother and two of my brothers and one of our friends. We sailed on the wonder out of Port Canaveral. We just did a three night back then. I think they used to market land and sea cruises pretty heavily or vacations. And so we did, you know, we did a three night and then we stayed at Walt Disney World for my first visit to Walt Disney World also.
[00:05:04] Speaker C: Oh, wow.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: And, yeah, so it was, it was quite, it was a lot. It was a, it was a big experience. But yeah, we did a three night. We went to Kasuekey and Nassau, obviously, and then spent a couple days at the resort. And it was fantastic. It was great. It was, at the time, it was something that I thought this was like a once in a lifetime, like, I'm never going to do this again. I think I was like early twenties. My parents paid for it. It was, it was like a makeup trip because I had gone on like an educational tour to Europe, like a year before that with one of my brothers. And then my other brother was mad he didn't get to go. So then we went. So as a consolation prize, we went to Walt Disney World.
I got to do both of them. So it was a win win. It was a win win for me.
[00:05:53] Speaker C: Are you, are you the favorite child? It sounds like it.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: I wouldn't say that publicly, but probably. No, actually, that's actually not true at all. My sister, she's our youngest, and in our family, she's clear. There's three boys and then one girl.
[00:06:14] Speaker C: Ah, so she's the favorite.
[00:06:16] Speaker A: We had no, yeah, we had no hope.
Like, up until she was born. I was in like 6th grade. Yeah, I was clearly, I was the favorite. The girl was born and then it was all downhill from there.
[00:06:30] Speaker C: So what were your other cruises after, after that young twenties cruise with your brothers?
[00:06:36] Speaker A: Yeah. So after that, then we went, we, after I got married and had kids, we took a three night cruise out of port Canaveral.
Same one, just on the Disney dream. But this time we took our kids in tow and they, like, really just like, solidified, like, okay. Like this is what we do now.
We kind of tacked it onto a Walt Disney world vacation again. My whole. My wife's whole family was there, so there was, like, 18 of us.
[00:07:11] Speaker C: Oh, wow.
[00:07:13] Speaker A: At the parks. Only my family of five went on the cruise, which was great. We were at the. We were at the parks for, like, a few days, and then we went on the cruise, and then we came back, went, and all 18 people were there. And so it was a nice, like, kind of calm before the storm of that. But the kids, we have three boys. I think at the time, they were, like, ten, seven, and four. It was, like, just after COVID. So we had to do, like, testing. They had just dropped the mask mandate.
The ship wasn't, like, full capacity, but there was a lot of people. And it really just.
It was so relaxing, and it was such contrast to going to the parks these days, where everyone knows you have to make reservations, you have to get genies, and you have to wake up early, and you have to stay up late, and you have to do this whole rigmarole. That used to not be the case. We found that the cruise was kind of like old school Disney parks, but we booked it. We showed up, we ate as much food as we wanted, and we played, and we hung out together. And it was just easier than trying to decipher the code that is, like, chapex parks these days. I know he's gone, but, like, freaking a. He's.
It's like a labyrinth of who knows what. Every time you go, it's different. And the cruise was just like a breath of fresh air, you know, it was classy, it was fun. It was relaxing, which is a rare term used for a Disney vacation. And let's be honest.
[00:08:51] Speaker C: What about any vacation with children? I feel like, in general, vacationing with children is just. You, like, surviving in a different place than home.
[00:09:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah.
[00:09:04] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't know about that, though, Sam, because on the cruise, right. We actually do get to relax. Nathan's got to be independent on the cruise.
[00:09:11] Speaker C: No, no, I'm saying Disney. I'm saying Disney cruises are unique in that way.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: I feel like most. Okay, now I understand.
[00:09:18] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm saying most. I think vacations with young children, I think it gets easier as they get older. But most vacations with young children, to me, are just, like, surviving just someplace else, you know, and not really that relaxing.
How many. How many cruises have you guys done now? It sounds like you've kind of traded in. You've hung up your. Your parks shoes for maybe some cruising shoes. Is that an accurate.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I think that's kind of accurate. Kind of like, I didn't. It wasn't intentional necessarily, but, yeah, that's kind of what happened. We even let ourselves, we live in southern California, and we recently just let our magic keys expire. We didn't want to renew, and, yeah, we're just gonna, we're just gonna. We're just gonna cruise, man. It's like, it's cruising. It's chill. You know, my dad works at Disneyland, so we can kind of get in and go and, like, get our fix if we need to. But, like, for years before marriage and afterwards, we had annual passes and then magic keys with the kids, and it was. Yeah, it's too much. It's too much. Yeah, it was, it was consuming us in a way. Like, we're supposed to be the consumers of them, and we felt like they were consuming us. We got to switch that up. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we kind of did. We. We went on another Disney cruise out of San Diego to Ensenada, and, like, my wife's parents came and her brother came with his girlfriend again, it was just, it was just relaxing. We walked around Ensenada for a little bit. We had a sea day. We had our first Paolo brunch on that cruise. We, you know, to the rainforest room. We went and we relaxed. Kids went to the kids club, and they loved it. It was fun.
[00:11:01] Speaker C: Love that. Love that. So how many cruises total have you been on now?
[00:11:07] Speaker A: So far? We've been. I've been on four cruises, and I don't know. Should I? Oh, well, we already said we're going on the wish in a couple weeks, and then not to spoil the end of the show, but we have another Disney cruise planned for 2025. We're going to sail out of Galveston, Texas, and we're going to go to that one way cruise to, to Puerto Rico.
[00:11:29] Speaker C: Oh, nice. Yeah.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: Lighthouse. Yeah.
[00:11:32] Speaker C: Oh, fantastic. Yeah, yeah, that'll, that'll be a great itinerary, for sure.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: That's on the map and that's on the magic. So we're kind of low key. I'm trying to, like, check off all the boxes for all the ships. I'm not really advertising that to my wife, but that's my plan.
[00:11:51] Speaker C: Gotcha. You're. You're just checking them off without. Without even mentioning that. That's the decision.
[00:11:55] Speaker A: Just like, hey, look at that. We've gone on all of them.
[00:11:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, so I hope she doesn't listen to the show then, because she may find out.
[00:12:06] Speaker A: Well, she's going to find out sooner or later, and some of them are already booked, so she'll be intel. She loves it, too.
[00:12:12] Speaker C: Awesome.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: So, Wesley, I wanted to ask about the royal cruise that you went on, I think more recently, because you set off air, some of your apprehension about the wish kind of came after you took that sailing. And so maybe tell folks, what ship were you on? What was the itinerary? Uh, let's just start with some of the background there.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. So my wife recently turned 40, and leading up to this, we were like, okay, we got to do something big. We gotta. You know, she took me to Spain for my 40th birthday, so I was like, what are we gonna do? And then, obviously, we're, like, on this cruise kick. So I was like, I wanted to go to Europe. She kind of wanted to go on a cruise, and we could have decided we were kind of at odds with that, so I kind of relented. It was her birthday. She could do what she wanted. So I booked a seven night eastern caribbean cruise on wonder of the seas, and I did it, and I was like. I was like, check this out. I booked this cruise, and immediately she was like, oh, she, like, got fomo or something. Like, immediately she's like, I do want to go to Europe. And I was like, but I just booked this cruise. And she's like, I know, but, like, I really want to go to Europe now. And I was like, okay. So I got on the phone, like, the same day I booked it with Royal and rebooked it. I didn't cancel it because I was like, now I'm committed to the cruise, but she's committed to Europe. So I thought, well, let's just take a european cruise. And so we rebooked on Symphony of the seas on a seven night mediterranean cruise.
[00:13:43] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Okay, nice. And so symphony is one of their. It's like the class right before Oasis. Right? So a little bit smaller than the Oasis class.
[00:13:53] Speaker A: No, actually, it is an oasis class. It was actually. It was actually the largest cruise ship in the world until wonder of the season.
Okay, so it was just right, right before wonder and obviously before icon, so. And it's not terribly old. You know, it's, like, less than ten years old. I think it was, like, 2017. It came out, so I still felt good about it. I'm like, kind of like, new is better, bigger, better, shiny. Like, that's what I want. So that's why at the time, I was like, okay, we have to go on wonder if we're going to do this royal thing because, like, some of my other family members were kind of, they were saying how expensive, like, the Disney cruises were. And so they're like, we want to check out royal because they seem a little more price friendly and they have some different offerings. So I was like, okay, like, we want to see what the difference is and how they compare.
So that's what got us looking into royal in the first place. And then we weren't going to take our kids on this birthday trip, so it was just me and my wife solo. So royal seemed like a good fit for, like, a first time. Let's see what's going on, and then if we like it, we can bring everybody else back.
[00:15:06] Speaker C: Yeah, that's a good call. Especially if the rest of the family is more apprehensive about spending the Disney level dollars, because as we've talked about a lot, there really is a big price differentiation, although maybe less so with icon. It seems like icon is kind of pretty pricey.
[00:15:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it seems like, it seems like the Disney cruises had, like, a premium, but then, like, wonder kind of stepped it up a little bit. Icon kind of stepped it up a little bit. And then, and their prices were increasing, like, kind of dramatically, I think, as I've been watching them over the past, like, year. And then Disney was like, hold my beer. Here's the treasure. And who knows where it's going to go from there because I don't know. Like I said, I want to get on all the ships, but a seven night on that ship is like a whole other story.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: Yeah. So. So, Wesley, I'm curious. You're sailing on royal because I want to make sure we get into this sort of, like, what about your sailing on royal? Started to make you think the wish might not be a great idea for a sailing, so. Yeah. What were some of those things that you saw on board royal that kind of piqued your attention?
[00:16:18] Speaker A: This is going to be kind of like a sticking point with me, and it's not. It was never something that I even thought about. And this is going to be, like, a minor detail, but on royal, I don't know why this is the first thing I'm going to mention, but on royal, there's, like, plants.
This seems like a really kind of stupid, trivial thing, but, like, on, like, it's very lush. You know what I mean? Like, they have the Central park area. They have other areas of the ship that have, like, actual, like, live living plants. And you're on a ship, you're in the ocean. It's like, kind of, like, you know, most of the time we sail in the. In the Caribbean and the Bahamas, it's, like, tropical. I don't know, the setting just felt. I don't want to say more relaxing, but, like, it was calming in a way that I hadn't experienced before when you.
[00:17:05] Speaker B: I know.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: I think. Brian, you've been on royal. Sam, have you? I can't remember if you.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Nope. Sam's first sailing on Royal will be in April, so she has not been on royal. Yeah. And to be fair, I was on the independence of the seas, which is one of their older ships, and we will be doing one of their bigger ships for the first time. Oasis of the seas in April. So I would say Indy did not have a ton of lush greenery on it. My biggest criticism of it was actually that you couldn't see, like, if you were in the middle of the ship, there was really nothing that faced outward toward the ocean.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good criticism because, as I've kind of, like, try to reconcile, like, the differences between the ships, obviously, size is one thing. You can build a bigger ship, but, like, the layout and the flow of these bigger, like, oasis and icon class ships is that. This is what I've determined is, like, they've taken, you know, they just push the staterooms out to the edges, and there's not really any way to, like, walk around the ship with a view of the ocean. You know, like, on. On the Disney cruise ships, you can step out from, like, the clubs and the. And the bars and stuff and walk along, like, I don't know, for lack of a better word, like a lido deck or, like, I don't know what you.
[00:18:21] Speaker C: Yeah, the prom. It's called the prop. The promenade deck.
[00:18:24] Speaker A: Yeah, the promenade deck. Yeah, yeah. And so. And you can walk all the way around. You can look at the ocean, and there's, like, shuffleboard, and there's, like, places to sit and lounge, and that's. It's, like, quiet, and that is peaceful in its own right. But then, like, on the royal ships, the promenade. And that makes sense because they call the little middle part like the promenade the royal promenade. And it's not on the outside, it's on the inside, and you can walk up and down. When you first step on. It's like when you first step on a royal ship, it's immense.
And it took me some time to reconcile. I had some dissonance and what's happening, because I have this idea of a cruise ship is one thing and then you basically walk onto a large building that's wide and spacious and it doesn't calculate right away what's happening to you because you're just in this big, long, I know people call it like a mall. It has like a mall vibe and I don't want to go there right away because it's better than that.
[00:19:25] Speaker C: But like a luxury hotel, right?
[00:19:27] Speaker A: I mean, yeah, it's tall. I guess it's two stories or two decks tall, but like they're, they seem taller than like a normal deck height and it's long. You like, you can't see the end of it. But there's no, but the difference there between Royal and Disney is like Disney has this like grand entrance where you, you're welcomed in and there's like, and there is a purpose immediately in front of you. You're in the atrium on like the fantasy or the dream or the earliest wonder and magic and, and its purpose is immediately evident. You know, there's the atrium, there's a band staircase. It's very ornate and luxurious in a way that you kind of fantasize about ocean liners being and walking onto a royal ship. It's just chaos. Like immediately.
[00:20:17] Speaker B: What else, Wesley? What else besides sort of the layout, the greenery?
Yeah. What else is sort of catching your interest here as you starting to think about the comparison of the wish.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: So some of it has to do with scale and you can't they scale, you know, you get a larger ship, you might get an extra pool. You know what I mean? Because you have to scale for how many people are on the ship. So there's, so people are spaced equally. But it did feel just like there was more diversity in the options of the scaling. So it's not like, okay, we need a pool that will fit the extra 2000 people that are on this bigger ship. But the variety of pools was different and they separated them in a way where, you know, some of them were in the sun, some of them were deep, some of them had a kind of like beach entrance where it was just kind of like gradually gets deeper. There was an enormous amount of hot tubs. And this is like my main sticking point and I'll probably bring this up many times, is there was, I could, we kept counting them when we kept losing track and had to go back and count them again. There was like at least four on the main pool deck. And then there were some in the solarium. There were some obviously in the spa area like the, where you get massages yeah.
[00:21:38] Speaker C: Like their thermal. Thermal spa.
[00:21:41] Speaker A: I forget what they call their thermal spa. Yeah, which we. Which we took a tour of their thermal spa and it was, meh. We were like, pretty gung ho about doing it. Having experienced the rainforest room on the dream back when. When you booked it, you got the whole thing because it was still COVID protocol. So there's nobody else in the rainforest room?
[00:22:02] Speaker C: Yeah, the private booking.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: Yeah, the private one. And I was like, this is the way to go. And so, like, we had that fresh in our mind going on to. Onto Royal. And after touring it, it was nice, but it was nothing we were gonna pay extra for because we had to pay extra for a lot of other things once we were on the shed walking.
[00:22:22] Speaker C: So let's pause there and talk a little bit about pools and hot tubs, because I think your concern.
Yeah. So I think your concern about hot tubs is valid for the wish because it will tell you the only hot tubs that are accessible or the. Actually, there's no hot tubs that are accessible to everyone. Let me just put that out there. There's no family hot tub, so there's no. There's no hot tubs on the. On the pool deck that I can think of. There's a lot. I think there's actually lots of variety of pools. There aren't a ton of really deep pools, but there's a couple of deeper pools that are usually the ones that are the kids soup, but there are actually quite. There's quite a variety of pools on the pool deck, but the only publicly accessible hot tub that I can think of is on the adult pool deck, and it's only one. There's only one hot tub and it's not huge. So there's that one, but there's no kids ones. And then there's two in the rainforest room and they're actually outdoor. They're great. So if you buy a rainforest pass, you get. You can access those. And then there's two others that I know of, but they're in the concierge sun deck. So. Right from my counting, five. Five that you potentially can access. But let's be honest, if you're an adult, there's only really three you can access. If you're not sailing concierge, two of which you have to pay for. And if you're a kid, the only time you could access one is if you're staying concierge.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: Right. So does this make sense to you? Does this.
[00:23:59] Speaker C: That is a valid. If your kids like hot tubs, one yes.
Yeah. So that's a valid concern. I will say pools are heated, so they're. There's. The pools are warm, but, yeah, not. Not great as far as hot tub access. And two, even if you're an adult, unless you're willing to pay for the rainforest room or you're. You've already paid the upcharge to stay in concierge, then not a ton of hot tub space because you're limited to that one on the adult pool deck. And that adult pool deck, one can get crowded.
[00:24:31] Speaker A: But so, you know, Disney on our last. I think it's the one that you're gonna have to help me because I think on the wonder, there's two hot tubs on the main pool deck.
[00:24:41] Speaker C: Yes. Yes. The wonder and the magic, I believe also two on the main pool deck. And you can actually watch funnel vision. Not from, like, every spot in that pool, in those hot tubs, but you can from quite a few vantage points. Yeah. Nathan likes to sit in there and watch funnel vision, no question.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Yeah. And more in my mind, this is perfect because you can sit in the hot. I can sit in the hot tub. I can watch my kids in the pool, and I could watch funnel vision, and they can come over if they need anything. And everybody has a view of kind of everything.
[00:25:13] Speaker C: Yeah. That's fair.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: And so. And that. So. So this is my last experience. Right. We were on the wonder last with my family, and then. So going over to the wish and trying to plan what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. I was kind of beside myself or befuddled about, like, oh, they took away, like, my perfect situation. And I know maybe it's just me and they obviously, like, focus group this stuff, but, like, I don't know. It made me sad that, like, the. And then the one public hot tub that there is, again, in the adults area, but kind of an afterthought. Like, not even, like, a cool. You can look over the edge. Like, you can on, I think, like, the dream and the fantasy. It's just kind of, like, stuck under a. Stuck under the water slide and not really in the adults area. Right. It's kind of on the side. It's not in the back where everything else is.
[00:26:06] Speaker C: It's. It's not in the back, but I would say it's still in the adult area. It's sort of more on the way to, like, the infinity pool that's in the very back. And it is. But it is set back from, like, the railing so it's, you wouldn't really have a great view of like trying to watch your kids from there. Like, you really, that wouldn't really be.
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Hey, DCl duo fans, you know, we get the question all the time. Should I use a travel agent to book my next Disney cruise or should I just book with Disney directly? And I'm going to tell you, if you have that question in the back of your mind right now, you should stop what you're doing and head over to mypathunwinding.com 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 agents on our show. They are so knowledgeable, so giving of their time. They know so much about Disney Cruise line, sailing concierge, other cruise lines, other all inclusive vacations and adventures by Disney that if you have a vacation in mind, they are the ones to book it for you. So again, head over to mypath unwinding.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.
[00:27:38] Speaker C: I want to get back to the regular pools, though I will say there are actually way more number of pools in the family family pool deck areas on this ship than there are on any of the other ships. And there is a lot of variety between sort of regular depths pools and, you know, wading type pools. So there is, if you're, you know, and there is a more tiered deck, so you can, if you're laying on like a chair, for example, it's actually easier to keep track of your kids on the wish than other ships. You just the only drawback being not from a hot tub.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Yeah, I do like, I do like the tiered pool deck situation. I think that's clever. I think that's a good way to do it. It seems similar to what they did. It's like, it's like they had a good idea when they, when they redid like New Orleans Square and Disneyland to have like the tiered kind of viewing areas for fantasmic. It used to just be, like, all flat, and then they kind of built up these tiers so people further back were up higher and they could see. So I like that idea on, on the wish where, you know, things go up. And when I first reached out to you and kind of enforced my concerns about the pool I was having, I will admit I was, like, in the middle of a freakout moment about what have I. What have I done and how.
How am I going to get past this? I've since kind of what I needed to do was adjust my expectation. Yeah, you're going to get that ship. Yeah, how am I going to use this ship to my advantage?
[00:29:14] Speaker C: Yeah, you're going to get past this, Wesley. You're just going to have to. You want to do. When you want to be in the hot tub, you're going to have to book the rainforest room. So if you're really set on, like, spending a lot of, like, hot tub time, the rainforest room is beautiful on the wish. So there's that. It's got its own private sun deck, that sort of a thing.
[00:29:35] Speaker B: So, Wes, you mentioned that there's a lot of greenery on the royal ship. I can confirm none, if any, that I can remember on board the wish. But what I do like about the wish for my earlier comment is Disney builds the ship so that you can, there's always some connection out to the ocean, except in the dining rooms, which is a little bit of. A little bit of a fault that I have with Disney, as it feels like you never quite get that ocean view unless you're in, like, Remy or Palo or. Enchante. Or one of those.
[00:30:01] Speaker C: 1923.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: But what else? Yeah, but sometimes it's just too dark to see it. Sam, what else, Wesley, are you concerned about on the wish?
[00:30:09] Speaker A: I think having this one royal experience, there was a lot of lounge space. There was a lot of kind of clever, inventive nooks and crannies that you can chill out in post up and kind of relax without it being overwhelmed like you would on the pool deck.
Either. Either cruise line, basically, there's lots of this. This may or may not be a fault of Disney, but, like, they design their cruise ships so that they know basically where people are going to be at all times. The rotational dining countered with the evening shows. Like, that's what people are doing. Everyone's at dinner or everyone's at a show. This is why the pools may be close earlier than they do on royal, and they kind of have. Have this going, whereas on royal at least on symphony of the seas, it's a little bit more loosey goosey. Like, the shows aren't necessarily counter programmed to any type of dinner, and I think that's mostly because they don't do rotational and they don't do. And they have a lot of other paid dining options. So it's not like you're going to go to dinner and then you're going to go to a show.
[00:31:24] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: I would actually tell you the reason why they don't counter program in that way is I don't think that everyone can go see the show on a royal ship. So I think. I think what they're. Yeah, I think. I think Disney can accommodate everyone on board between two show seatings.
[00:31:39] Speaker C: Not everyone, but everyone who wants to, probably.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I think. I think you're right. I think most of the people on. On the Disney cruise will go to the show. Not all of them, but I think most of them.
The theater has always been full, in my experience, for one of their stage productions. Yeah.
To counter that, also on royal, like, there's not enough room for everybody on the ship to see the show, but the shows aren't really worth seeing there. You would go somewhere else and do something else, and they program for that. A la. Like the solarium, for instance. I'm like a huge solarium fan now because the solarium was this, like, oasis of, like, away from, like, the royal promenade, where it was busy and malish. The solarium was legit, super relaxing, calm, lush, had two hot tubs, had a pool. And this is an adults only area. It was multilevel, it was. Had viewpoints, like, out on either side of the ship. I know there's a specific name for it, but I can't think of it where you can look down the side of the ship, you know, kind of how the bridge, like, sticks out.
[00:32:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: And so that's another one of my sticking points, is like, there was this kind of place away from everything where you can quietly and I privately read a book, take a nap, sit in some warm water with bubbles.
[00:33:08] Speaker C: I'm going to put another plug in for you for the rainforest room then, because one of the things, actually, I forgot to mention the one lush green place on the ship. The rainforest.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:19] Speaker C: The only place where they have, I don't know if they're real plants, fake plants, but I actually think really matter.
[00:33:25] Speaker B: They don't.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: It doesn't really matter. It's just a. You know what I mean?
[00:33:29] Speaker C: Yeah. I think that's gonna be your saving grace plan?
[00:33:31] Speaker A: Yeah. We've been trading all our live plants around the house for fake ones because we keep killing the live ones. So there's several fake ferns, like, around our house.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: Yeah. I would look, I would say Disney is not. I would say the wish. It certainly has spaces during the day where you can go hang out and read a book. Right. A lot of them on the pool deck. Of course, adult areas of the ship. I think they did a good job spreading out some of the bar and sitting spaces, but there's not a lot of. I would say there's not a lot of variety. You can go sit in the bayou lounge in the middle of the day, and no one's going to be there, but it's kind of in the middle of the ship in a more enclosed area. You can still see the ocean, that sort of thing. Promenade deck is okay, but hobbled, uh, severely on the wish. So you can go sit out there like you would on any of the other ships. There's just not as much space for that. And then obviously, up on the pool deck, you're just contending with, you know, do you want a shady spot to sit and, you know, all of that sort of stuff? I actually think the, um, there's a nice area over by the kids splash pad that has kind of tiered deck chair seating, uh, which is really nice. And then there's a quiet pool area up on the front of the ship that is, uh, kind of a sensory pool. So if you're looking for, like, a really quiet experience, that's probably not a terrible place to head either. But, yeah, I would say the theme of the wish is pretty much more of the same in terms of the seating. And, yeah, I think Disney is expecting. Okay, everyone's going to go to this show, then they're going to be in this dining rotation. So, yeah, they're directing the traffic on the ship a lot differently than I would say, my experience with Royal. As limited as it's been, you might be in the casino, you might see a show, you might duck into a show and duck out of one. Right. You're kind of all over the place, and you just kind of pick what you want to do for the day, especially on those bigger ships. I suspect you can't do it all, so you just kind of do what you can and hang out where you can. But, yeah. Yeah. What else? What else, Wesley? What else? What else is concerning you?
[00:35:26] Speaker A: I think those were maybe some of the major points. The other thing that kind of gives me qualms about the wish is. Let's talk about, like, water slides for a second. There's two water slides. One of them's like, I haven't been on it, but it's slow.
[00:35:44] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a. It's a kiddies well. Well, the wreck, the slidosaurus rex is a kid slide. We. We have gone down it. You get stuck in it. So it's not, um. Yeah, it's not an adult. I mean, an adult can go on it, but it is not for adults.
[00:36:00] Speaker A: And I've been on some of, like, the yellow slides on the other ships and like. Yeah, like, you get on and you have to kind of push yourself. And it's that. It's like a one and done for, like, me. Obviously, it's not for me. That's fine. My kids still love it and they go multiple times. But let's. But what about the Aqua mouse? Is it just like a glorified version of the Aqua duck where you sit on the thing and. Yes, it's not.
[00:36:24] Speaker B: It's just.
[00:36:25] Speaker A: It's like a lazy river. More than like a ride, right?
[00:36:29] Speaker C: No, it's not. I would say it's. It's. It's similar to the aqua duck in intensity. It is not any more intense than the aqueduct. The water slide part of it is about the same, but it's a little bit shorter because you have the. The ride part at the beginning, which is you on the raft being pulled up a. What's the name of that, Brian?
[00:36:53] Speaker B: Conveyor belt track.
[00:36:54] Speaker C: Conveyor belt. That's. Yeah, like a conveyor belt. And you've got video on both sides of you, and then you get, like, sprayed with some water, and it is a storyline, so they're telling a story. And then at the end of that conveyor belt, you are entering into what is just a regular raft water slide, very similar to the aqua duck. So I think people, you know, they're really similar. Like, I. I don't know which one I like better at this point, to be perfectly honest, because I do like the show aspect of the mouse, but I think the duck has a better water slide because it's a little bit longer. But I would say it's just fairly equal to. So maybe not really better than. That's the one thing I will say. I think they oversold it. So I think if you adjust your expectations and say it's really, like, not going to be an upgrade from the aqueduct, it's just going to be slightly different from the aqueduct, then I think you'll probably enjoy it.
[00:37:47] Speaker B: I think it's actually a bit of a downgrade, if I'm honest, from the aqueduct, because the aqua duck is almost. It's like almost all open tubing. You're on a water slide the entire way. This is easily a third, if not a little bit more of the slide, but a third of the slide is just going up the conveyor belt and looking at the fun scenes on either side, which. It's fun, don't get me wrong. It's fun, but, you know, the actual waterslide portion of it is just once you get to the top of the conveyor belt, you kind of shoot around the side of the ship and come back. Right. So it's not. I just don't. I think aqua Mouse would be second for me to aqua duck. I mean, I'm the big aqua dunk fan. But I also think Disney cruise line just doesn't do thrill stuff at sea. Right? I mean, they don't have the ropes, obstacle stuff that the icon does. They don't have the huge water park at Castaway Quay or at Lookout key.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: I think it's climbing wall. Yeah.
[00:38:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Wave rider go karts. Yeah. Yeah. So I think Disney is really catering to families with young kids or teens who are really into Disney, or adults who are just really into Disney. Right. And I think, you know, where they blow royal out of the water is on food, at least in some cases. We're hearing icahn has pretty amazing food offerings. And if you're looking for that, like, hey, I want to have a Johnny Rocketsburger or whatever it is today, obviously, you're not going to get that on Disney. You have main dining. You have the buffet, you have the poolside stuff. It's all Disney theme. They're not going to contract with a third party, but they haven't really innovated. Like, they innovated dine. They're the original innovators of dining with the rotational dining. But then I think a lot of the other cruise lines, you know, like. Like Virgin has basically said, I think, who needs main dining? Just here's a bunch of restaurants, and go pick one and eat at it, right? So I don't know that the innovations Disney made back in the day are going to continue to carry the day going forward, and I hope they're starting to recognize that, but it doesn't seem like it, so. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:39:40] Speaker A: Well, I think they're pretty. They're pretty pot committed, right on this wish class design, at least for the next two, shit like the treasure and whatever comes after it. I do think that's going to put them a little bit behind because, yeah, the rotational dining, I think, is great. I love it. If virgin's getting away with main dining, royal should follow. Like, their main dining was kind of terrible, in my opinion, and we only ended up going there twice, which means we had to buy it, which means we kind of foresaw that. And we bought a dining package on Royal, so we had to pay for what we would have gotten included as far as, like, quality wise from rotational dining on. On Disney cruise.
[00:40:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:22] Speaker A: And then going back to expectations, I think it's that, like, my kid, my oldest kid is twelve, or he will be twelve in April. I'm sorry. He'll be 13. Don't tell him I forgot. He'll be 13, and he'll be 13 in April. And so maybe my kids, like I said, they're all boys. They're rowdy. Maybe. Maybe. And I don't. Maybe I just don't want to admit it, but maybe they're outgrowing what these Disney cruises have to offer, which is going to be a huge bummer because, like, I'm really going headfirst into it now that I have the means to do so. And maybe they're just getting to the point where they need more than just an aqua mouse and a beauty and the beast show.
[00:41:05] Speaker B: Yeah, it does. And I've seen some comments from people who are like, you know, eventually, you know, you go on Disney cruise line with your young kids, and then eventually, as they become, you know, preteens, teens, you know, you may reach a point where it makes more sense to go on royal for a while, but, you know, still occasionally cruise Disney.
[00:41:23] Speaker C: This hurts my heart. Can I. Just hurts my heart.
[00:41:26] Speaker B: I think it really just depends on the kids because there are plenty of teens on Disney Cruise line who have a great time, but I think the common denominator is they're super into Disney or they're super low key and they don't need the thrills. Right. But I'll tell you, Nathan, we took him to perfect day, right? He loved the water park. He loved it, right?
[00:41:43] Speaker A: So I know my kids watch YouTube videos of that place all the time, and I'm like, hey, you need to. I'm like, you need to turn it off because, like, we're not going. That's not.
Watch this castaway g video or look at the arc floor lighthouse and, you know, get excited for that. But that's where their attention is, like, naturally going to.
And again, it's me kind of adjusting my expectations.
[00:42:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:42:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I think it's tough. I think it's tough. I mean, it's hard for me not to be responsive to my son having a fabulous time on a royal cruise, especially when it's, you know, half the price sometimes of Disney. So, you know. But Sam and I love going on Disney Cruise line because we really appreciate the service and royal lack that heavily for. For at least me and Nathan on board. And I found the staterooms dated and the ship not well maintained, so, like, I'll see what Oasis looks like. I think it could be just too, you know, I don't say crowded, but just too. Too much crazy, like too much going on. On board for us to really feel like we're getting the kind of vacation we want. But at the same time, I bet Nathan's going to love that stuff. And I know he already loves that stuff. He loved having an arcade on board, which Disney doesn't have. Right. So we'll probably end up splitting some time here between Royal and Disney, provided Sam doesn't completely prohibit our family from ever sailing royal again.
[00:43:02] Speaker A: I'm going to be very curious about your oasis of the seas tread, because Oasis is, like you were saying, getting old. And you're right, they don't keep up on the updating, like, state. They don't update their staterooms. Right. They update. And plus, like, other areas of the ship that they purposefully don't update stateroom, like decor and stuff. And so that's going to be. That's going to be interesting to see. I think symphony of the Seas was still new enough where it didn't feel old to us at all.
We actually like some of the things better about our stateroom. Like, there was two closets on either side of the door. My stuff fit on my side, her stuff fit on her side. There was still room under the bed, but again, Disney does it better because they have the split bathrooms and the room was bigger. Our room on symphony was 180 sqft with the veranda. It was small. It was fine for two of us, but we couldn't take. Yeah, even in their bigger rooms, we couldn't take all five of us in one state room. And you can't even book that on their website. You have to get a travel agent. Yeah, prohibitive for me, anyway. I don't want to talk to anybody. I just want to book my cruise.
[00:44:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm.
I'm excited for you to try dining on the wish, though, Wesley, because this is like the area in my mind where Disney just shines spectacularly. On the wish in particular, I think that while I know there are some complaints about how loud it is and how tight the seating is in the main dining restaurants, and those criticisms are valid.
The food and the shows in main dining are really, really good. And then the pool deck food, which we've talked about, obviously a lot on the show, are also just, they knock it out of the park. And so, you know, and all of that is included without any upcharge. Right. So there's no. You don't have. Yeah, you don't have to do any, you know, specialty dining. In fact, on the wish, I actually tell people really not to because you only have, you know, three or four nights, so it's not like you have, you know, a lot of extra days to go to Palo. So I personally think that that's the area where you're going to be, one, probably wowed, and two, you're going to be like, oh, this is so much better than royal.
So maybe no flow rider. You're going to have awesome food.
[00:45:23] Speaker A: I mean, here's the thing. I didn't even go on flow rider on the royal ship. Like, I didn't do the flow rider, I didn't do the wrong, I didn't do the abyss dry slide that takes you from the top to the bottom. So there was a lot of stuff that, like, we didn't even get to and we were on the ship for a week. I think that Disney wish, and this is why I stand by my booking, even though I'm a little apprehensive, is that I think a three day sailing or a four day sailing on the wish is like a perfect amount of time. If it was a seven night cruise, I might be a little bit more like wondering what, where my money is going, but for what I'm getting. But I think the three night that we're going on is great. We're not going to have a ton of time to spend running around trying to go on all six water slides, like on the icon, like all day. You know what I mean? We've booked an excursion on NASA. We're going to go on a snorkeling excursion in the afternoon. We have Paulo brunch booked for 10:00 that same day. So they're going to go to the kids club, we're going to go to Apollo brunch, then we're all going to get together, we're going to go snorkeling, and then it'll be pretty much time for dinner. So we might not even get in the pool or do anything.
[00:46:32] Speaker C: Those days, you're going to have a day. It's going to be so jam packed. Wesley, you're going to be like, there's too much for me to do on this ship, honestly, because of the. Yeah, because of the three, four night sailings, you're going to be like, wow, we need to come back because we didn't get to do everything we wanted to do.
[00:46:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that's great. This has been actually a really good therapy session for me to make me even more excited than I already was to go on a cruise. I mean, we talk about what's good or what's bad, but, like, at the end of the day, like, I'm still on a cruise, I'm still better than.
[00:47:06] Speaker C: The day at work.
[00:47:07] Speaker A: They're having good time. It's infinitely better than the day at work. That's for danger.
[00:47:12] Speaker B: Yeah, I guess. Wesley, let me round out our episode here about, like, what are you looking forward to? There's got to be some things that you're excited about. So, yeah, what are you looking forward to?
[00:47:22] Speaker A: Absolutely. I'm really excited to go to Palo Steakhouse for brunch, even though I think the menus are about the same, but it'll be a different look and feel and vibe, and I had so much fun the last time we went by. Mother and father in law are coming with us on this cruise, too, so. And we like dining with them, so that's going to be fun. I'm excited for the shows.
[00:47:44] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:47:44] Speaker A: I think they've always been great, and I love them, and I can't wait to see what they have going on. I'm excited for the rotational dining. I'm excited to go. I think the one I'm looking forward to the most is 1923, because while I like Disney, I work for the company. I've done all kinds of things. I've worked in Florida, I've worked in California. We've had annual passes. We've done this whole thing. While I love Disney, I like subtle Disney. Yeah, 1923 is like this, kind of. This is why I like Paulo, too, because it is like a Disney experience, but it's not, you know, there's not characters in my face. There's no one.
[00:48:26] Speaker C: There's not, like, they're not throwing up those music.
[00:48:31] Speaker A: That's what I. That's where I think Disney is its best, is when they are subtle and not in your face about everything. This is why we'll probably skip the deck parties like the pirate party. We'll probably skip it we're not.
[00:48:45] Speaker C: Oh, this pirate party.
[00:48:47] Speaker A: Oh, this.
[00:48:49] Speaker B: This pirate party is actually. This pirate party is actually one not to miss, in my opinion. And I don't like the deck. I don't like pirate night or the deck party in most cases, but this one was actually, I think, really fun for us as adults because of the music behind it. So I actually highly recommend not skipping this deck party.
[00:49:06] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm in agreement. Yeah.
[00:49:09] Speaker A: I wonder what night do you know, like, what night they do it on? The night cruise. Probably the third night.
[00:49:16] Speaker C: It's. Well, it depends on the order, but it's. I want to say it's usually NASA night, so usually the second night, but it really depends on. Yeah, but, you know, you can look in. So the best way to figure it out, look in the app and look at the Bibbidi bobbidi boutique offerings. And whichever day they offer the pirate makeover, that's pirate night.
[00:49:37] Speaker A: Okay, perfect. That's a good pro tip. Thank you.
[00:49:40] Speaker C: Yeah, of course.
[00:49:41] Speaker A: Another thing, one more thing, and I can't believe I forgot about this, because this is, like, a major, like, thing for me, is like, the recent and sudden changes to the kids club. Like I said, my kid is twelve and we booked this cruise specifically so that he could go to the Kids Club club, which is obviously something that no other cruise line can compete with, like, at all. Especially on the wish, the upgrades that they meet. The kids club are, like, fantastic looking. He'll never really know because he can't go. Just all of the sudden, he can't go. And he's a little shy. He's the oldest one is a little shy. He's a little timid. And so, I don't know, like, his. I've been trying to, like, set his expectation, too. Like, yeah, hey, we're gonna go tour. You can check it out. But after the open house, like, that's it. We're gonna. You're gonna go to edge. And I'm a little worried how that's gonna go for him, especially if, I mean, he's gonna have to find something to do while we go to follow. And we did book the rainforest room, and he's gonna have to find something to do while we go to the rainforest room. And that seems a bit rash and unfair to do to people.
[00:50:49] Speaker C: I know. How old is your middle. How old is the middle child?
[00:50:53] Speaker A: He just turned ten this week.
[00:50:55] Speaker C: Okay. So he is also going to be at edge, right? Or no.
[00:51:01] Speaker A: I thought it was eleven. I thought it was.
[00:51:02] Speaker C: Oh, no, it is eleven. That's right. That's right. No, you're right. It is, it is.
[00:51:06] Speaker A: And I have no qualms about him. If he was going to edge, I'd be like, okay, see you later. And, you know, he'd sit right in or not and he wouldn't care and he would just do his thing.
[00:51:14] Speaker C: You might be able to opt him into edge. You might want to look into that to opt him into edge so they could go together because that might actually be a little bit easier. But I sympathize with you there because I think we are obviously not big fans of that change. It's going to impact us at the end of this year. And I 100% do acknowledge the wish is the best. The wish has the best. Kids club and edge and vibe are beautiful spaces, but they're not like big upgrades from, if anything, at least vibe. The teen club is a downgrade from the dream and the fantasy because they have that cool pool deck thing. But yeah, I would say, honestly, that is a bummer.
But I would definitely take him to the open houses because he will be able to play with some of the stuff that they've got in there during the open houses at least. But yeah, that's what I can't, I can't disagree with you on that one is a big bummer.
[00:52:19] Speaker A: I think this, I think the saving grace of like edge is like that there's video games.
[00:52:24] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:52:24] Speaker A: And he can play video games and he doesn't care who he's with. But from my point of view or my perspective as parents is like, we're taking you on this tropical vacation cruise and you can play video games at home. I wanted him to have like a different experience. It's an obvious, there's opportunities to do that, but he'll be on his own and I think on his own he'll default to right to video game playing an Xbox. Although, funny story, when we were on the wonder at Palo, we were sitting there, me, my wife, my father in law, my mother in law, we were having a good time. We were talking about pizza or something delicious like that. And just on the deck outside, my son comes walking by by himself, just walking by. He couldn't see us because the windows are tinted. And we dropped him off at the kids club with the other two. So all three of them were in the kids club and like, hey, you guys play here, we're gonna go to Palo. And then in the middle of our meal, he was eleven at the time. He had, oh no, he was, he was eleven at the time and he just comes walking by. We gave him checkout privileges, so he was obviously, we trusted him to, like, check himself out. But it was just funny, like. Like we're sitting there minding our own business, and here comes Preston just. Just traipsing along, doing his own thing. I popped out of the entrance just to be like, hey, what. What are you doing? What's going on? And he's like, nothing. I just wanted to check out the ship and see what was going on.
[00:53:54] Speaker B: I'll say, I'll say Nathan. Nathan loves to wander and check out the ship. So, yeah, so, yeah, he usually has a friend with him, and they go, yeah, they go, like, to go by the different stateroom doors and find the places where they're giving out free, you know, lollipops or candy or something.
[00:54:10] Speaker A: So I trust him. He's responsible. He'll be fine on his own for a little bit. But again, it's just not what we were expecting when we booked this situation.
[00:54:21] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Well, Wesley, I know we mentioned up front we got to have you back after this sailing, because I want to hear how it went for you and your kids and whether or not you. You just went ahead while you were on board and booked another royal caribbean cruise, or whether or your kids had a good enough time that you were like, you know, we're coming back. We're coming back on Disney, so we'll get that scheduled so we can bring it back.
[00:54:43] Speaker A: That'd be great. And just so you know, like, ahead of time, like, I'm a sucker for a placeholder. Like, a placeholder is going to happen. We'll figure something out. It's not going to be. I'm not going to go on this cruise and be like, it was terrible.
I just. Here's what I want. Here's what I want. I want the diversity of some of what royal has to offer, but I want Disney to.
[00:55:07] Speaker C: To do it, to.
[00:55:08] Speaker A: To make, you know, I want Disney to do. Because they could do it better than royals doing it.
[00:55:14] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:55:15] Speaker A: But they just. They're not doing anything. They're just. The wish is just a little bit bigger, a little bit different than the fantasy and the dream, it appears. Obviously, I hadn't been, but we'll talk about that later.
But there was many times on our royal cruise where I just, oh, if Disney did this, it would be right. If Disney did this water show, it would be fantastic. Instead, it was a total snooze test.
[00:55:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:55:39] Speaker A: Yeah. Just every. Everything just could have been a little bit better. On royal and it would have been near perfect if Disney did. If Disney did it. If Disney did it, then it would be.
[00:55:51] Speaker C: Yeah. The problem is Disney would take like twelve years to do in like five minutes. It was the same with universal, too. So it's, you know, I have, we had to give the same criticism on the park side, too. It's just Disney just is painfully, painfully slow, even though when they do something they do, they knock it out of the park most of the time.
[00:56:13] Speaker A: We could do, we could do a whole show on that. It's like they're too big for their own good. It's like, I'll say this about Disney right now, like, current Disney is, I feel like, very concerned about their current, like, appealing to, like, current fans, people who are already invested, and I don't think they're paying enough attention to people who could pres.
[00:56:37] Speaker B: Well, what's interesting is from a business strategy, I think you'd hear a lot of people say the opposite because Disney is really trying to go after high dollar park guests, but not doing enough to actually make the experience worth that dollar. Right. So we've talked about on our show, for instance, if you're a high dollar cruiser, you're a target for concierge, but if you sail concierge versus star class on Royal, and we'll have a live show coming up about later this month or at the end of this month, the amenities for that cruiser on Royal are much more than what Disney offers potentially. So, so, yeah, I think, I think that there's a lot of people out there who would say they're trying to eschew their, their core common fans in favor of getting new people into the parks. And that's what's driving some of their decisions. I just think that they, it's unclear to me what their approach, what their strategy is at all because they're not, they're not doing what they need to do to get the high dollar guests in because you can say for far less than what they're charging for Disney deluxe resorts at a four seasons and get a much better experience.
And they're kind of alienating their core and common folks by making the whole experience harder and more difficult and taking things away and charging for them and all that sort of stuff. So I don't know. I keep coming back to you every time someone mentions Disney's business strategy. I keep coming back to dodgeball in that scene where they're like, that's a bold move, Scott, and we're going to see if it works out for them or not. So, yeah. Yeah, we'll see. We'll have to see. We'll have to see.
[00:57:59] Speaker A: Yeah, you bring up a good point, too, and we're a good example of that, right? We had magic keys. We don't anymore because there wasn't, it wasn't worth it. And even our, our Disney world trip, after our cruise, we're going to go to the parks for like, three and a half days. Whereas last time we went, we got an eight day ticket and went to each park twice. But it's just not going to. The place just isn't worth it, that much money for us anymore.
In fact, we've even considered just doing one day, doing a one day vip tour. We can hit up all the rides that we don't have in California in one day, and then we can just call it good, and then we can go swimming or something. But I haven't been able to talk my wife into that either.
[00:58:42] Speaker B: Or visit.
[00:58:43] Speaker A: That's my strategy.
[00:58:45] Speaker B: Or visit the dreaded universal, right?
[00:58:49] Speaker A: You know, out of all the time, I work at Walt Disney World and lived in Florida, and I have still never been to Universal Studios Florida. And we've been on many vacations there as a family, before kids and after kids. And adding universal onto a Walt Disney world vacation just has never. We've never been able to justify it. I think epic Universe will change that, especially with the ages that our kids are, with all the Harry Potter stuff plus the Nintendo stuff.
I think their case is very strong. And I think maybe after epic universe opens, that will be the time when we maybe go to Florida and just go to Universal.
[00:59:31] Speaker B: Nathan loved his trip to universal, too, so, yeah, it's probably going to be in our rotation going forward, unfortunately for Disney, but perhaps fortunately for my pocketbook.
But we'll see.
Well, Wesley, let's wrap things up here for now, because I can't wait to hear how the cruise goes. But for now, we'll just say thanks for taking the time to share some of your trepidation. I'm glad we could perhaps provide a little bit of solace for you as you head into this wish cruise next month, but we can't wait to have you back to hear more. And thanks so much for taking the time.
[01:00:04] Speaker A: Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me.
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