[00:00:00] Speaker A: The stateroom attendant. That depends on the stateroom attendant. I generally tip the stateroom attendant extra because if they're dealing with my family, they deserve something extra for that one to clean up.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: I would love to meet your family, man.
[00:00:28] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL duo podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding travel. And Sam, I'm really excited for our guest today. He is. He is going to join us to help ease your apprehension, I hope, about sailing on Royal Caribbean cruise line.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm super excited about this guest, too, because I've been listening to him a bunch this week and watching some of his videos on YouTube and looking at his blog and all of this in preparation for my first royal caribbean cruise on Oasis of the seas. But before we get diving into our topic, which is basically me asking questions of our guests so that I can learn what I'm getting myself ready for. And so I know all the tips, tricks and hacks to making the most of my cruise. We've got to introduce our celebrity guest. He runs the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line blog, which is a website. It is a YouTube channel. It is a podcast. It is all things royal. He is loyal to Royal. Welcome, Matt Hochberg. Welcome, Matt.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: Thanks for having me on here today. I'm happy to talk Royal Caribbean. Happy to talk Royal Caribbean. And, and I'm here to hold hands. Sam, we'll jump in this together.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Help me get dive into the deep end or the shallow end.
[00:01:43] Speaker C: We learned right off air before we started recording the show that Matt actually does have some background with Disney cruise line. So we like to, Matt, we love to start our shows always by asking our guests kind of cruising background and so let folks know, like the lines you've sailed, how many times you've sailed, and you told us you'd sailed Disney. So, yeah, let folks know what your cruising background is like.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Yeah. In the nineties, we took our first cruise ever. It was on the Disney wonder. I think every single Disney cruise I took was on the Disney wonder. Now that I think about it, just that's how it worked out.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: She's our favorite ship, so it's perfect.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: It was a fun ship and we loved it. I mean, it was like we started off cruising because we didn't know if we liked cruising. Then we discovered, oh, I really like cruising. And obviously we had a great time on the Disney ships. And right around when we first started, this is back when I still was in high school and college. So cruising with the family, my parents and my sisters, and we did one on Disney, and then we started cruising. Then we did one on Royal Caribbean out of New York and New Jersey, and that was a little more convenient because we were living in Connecticut at the time. And then oasis of the seas came out back. This is like pre. This is Og Oasis. You guys are on amplified better than ever now, featuring more slices of cheese. Oasis of the seas.
And, you know, we started kind of going back and forth, but really, the difference was, as Disney became a little too pricey for me, Royal Caribbean really appealed to me. And also because, you know, as we started our family, the family aspect of it, that's what we like about Disney. I never mean, all things being equal, cruise with Disney for the rest of my life, but we kind of gravitate towards what rail offered, because it was just, uh, I liked their product, and. And as I discovered more about what rail offered in terms of their product and their different options and their ships, I was really blown away by it. And certainly when you. When you get on oasis, think you'll see it's like, wow. I mean, it's a cruise ship, but wow. Like, it's. It's. It's really impressive.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: I mean, I was just watching your video ship tour of the oasis, and I was like, holy cow, that's a big ship. Like, look at all the decks, look at all the things on the ship. And I will admit I haven't even finished the video. Cause it's an hour long video, but I can't imagine, like, I mean, I can't imagine. It's so big. It takes that long to, like, actually discover all the places on the ship, and it's not even the biggest ship. Cause we've got icon, obviously, which I know is your now favorite ship, right?
[00:03:57] Speaker A: That's accurate, yes. You know, the oasis class ships, especially, and icon, too, because they have the neighborhood concept. It's just, to me, it's just like, you know, the magic kingdom, where there are lands and the neighborhoods are lands, and it's like, yeah, it's big, but it becomes very manageable when you start biting it down into sizes. So it's like, oh, there's frontierland. You've got Central park, you've got boardwalk. It's that kind of a. Your brain compartmentalizes everything, and it becomes a lot more manageable than what would have otherwise been, like an old school cruise ship that just goes on and on and on. It's a simple thing, but it really makes a difference. So don't let the hour long video worry you at all?
[00:04:32] Speaker C: So Matt, we met you through, or got introduced to you through a mutual friend of ours, Paul Thornton, who we've had on our show, and we've been in his book. I know you've been in one of his books.
Stop and just say thank you to Paul for 1 second and remind folks he wrote a book called the Joy of Cruising and two follow on books. They're all fabulous, highly recommend. Go out and grab them. But Matt, you are one of Paul's, I think, cruise communicator personalities. And I'm curious, you know, we mentioned you had a blog, a vlog, a podcast, all that stuff. How did you get into to. Well, first tell folks where they can find you, but also, how did you get into that? How'd you decide to, like, take your love of this and start sharing it out with the community?
[00:05:07] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: Well, it's
[email protected] and from there you can find our YouTube channel and podcasts and everything else we got over there. You know what it really was for me, Brian, was, you know, I, coming out of Disney, I liked cruising. And the more I cruised, and it was more of like a, it wasn't even an annual thing. It was like once every two or three years kind of thing. Maybe probably closer to two years we would do a cruise. And it was like, it was a really big, like, it was a big deal. In the same way that I got used to. Get used to get excited to go to Disney World. It's like, wow, it's coming up. Can't wait. Starting to plan all those things. You get that I can't sleep excitement. Like, that was what it was for me. And so that just kind of, and this may come as a shock because behind the, this amazing facade that you see before you here, uh, there's a nerd that lives over here. And I, I know, sorry. If you were driving, you should.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: We were talking to two nerds as well, so love it.
[00:05:59] Speaker A: And it's a shock. But, uh, but, but I just was like, well, I got so excited. I wanted an outlet to share that excitement. And so essentially, it just kind of like, backed into this. I was like, well, what if I started a blog? Because back in, you know, 2012, blogging was a big deal. And so I was like, oh, yeah, yep. So I started a blog and I, and I was like, well, let me just see what I can do. And I ran across royalcaribbeanblog.com and the first two years was just kind of a. You know, it was just something I did, and after about two years, I noticed, like, wow, someone's actually reading this. Like, it's kind of weird. Like, it's not just going into the ether, and it just honestly just organically grew, you know? It was something I would do for fun. Some guys golf on the weekends or. I don't know. What do non nerds do? Whatever they do.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: I don't do those things. They watch football and basketball, I think. I think, yeah, yeah.
[00:06:46] Speaker A: I just. I sit on the couch, and I take out my laptop, and I'm like, all right, let me write about, you know, the latest new ship coming out or something like that. And it just kind of organically grew from there and evolved, and now it's. It's my full time job. We have a team of writers, and it's. It's awesome. It's. It's. It's incredible, quite frankly.
[00:07:04] Speaker C: Wow. Living the dream. Living the dream, in my opinion.
[00:07:07] Speaker B: I know Brian would love to change our concept, I think, you know, and someday be full time at DCl duo, but I. We don't. I don't know that that's in the cards for us. We're both full time lawyers, so it would be a big shift in our lives for one of us, especially for Brian to stop working. Cause he. He works. I work for the government. He actually works in private sector. So, as you can imagine, he makes a lot more money than I do.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: It's a. Yeah, it's a dream, for sure, but it's. I remember the first time I had. I think every. I don't know if you've run into this when you have. We. I used to go through, like, you know, every year you have to do your taxes. You go to, like, I used to go to h and r block, one of those kind of places. And then every year, I'd have to explain exactly what I do, which is not usual. Like, to explain, like, you know, that you're a blogger once. I remember the one lady was just like. She's like, yeah, I had my day job, so I had this, and you're making this, and it's like, never quit your day job if you can make this work, more power to you.
[00:08:05] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:08:06] Speaker C: Well, Matt, we brought you on, as I said up front, to help, uh, alleviate some of Sam's apprehension here. And I know she's been thinking through some questions that she has. I have tried to prepare her a little bit, but I'll say my only other royal experience was on independence. Of the seas on a short little three night cruise out of port Canaveral, which I think is going to be very different than the experience we'll have on board the oasis for a much longer cruise. But, Sam, I'm going to throw it over to you to ask a few questions, and I will pepper in some of my own along the way, but, uh, take it away.
[00:08:32] Speaker B: Okay. I'm going to start with a random packing question. Okay? This is. This is a very random packing question. I've got lanyards. You know, I've got lanyards because we sell Disney cruise line all the time. Right? And I know I should bring a lanyard, right? But what I want to know is, is the kind with a regular plastic pouch, okay. Or am I going to have to constantly be taking out my. My whatever the c card is called, the key to the world card on Disney, I going to have to constantly be taking it out of the pouch? And if so, should I get, like, use, like, one of those plastic ones where I can slide it out really easily? I know that's kind of, like I say, very technical question.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: No, that's.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: That's.
[00:09:09] Speaker A: That's a good question. Uh, definitely the latter. You want the one that slides in and out, because the CPAs card, which is what it'll be called. Um, that is what you're going to use to order a drink. Open your door. Um, you're. Anytime that somebody needs, like, a waiter or whoever, you have to take it out of there. So, yeah, definitely get one that's easy in, easy out.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Gotcha. See, that's a. That's a question I asked Brian. He's like, I don't remember. I was asking. Because it matters whether you have to tap the card or swipe the card. If you only have to tap the card, it can stay in the plastic. If you have to swipe the card, it's got to come out. So.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: Thank you. The bigger issue is then so much tapping or sliding, because that's mostly in your door of your stateroom. It's really like when you're transactions. Right, right. You're in a restaurant, drinks, they're going to need it. There is no tapping. And that's it. You're just giving it over. So. Yeah.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: Okay. All right, well, I'm going to bring.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: The hardware hitting questions that Sam has been researching all week.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: But where do you find the answer to that question? Let me tell you that question. The answer to that question does not exist. I have. I googled it. I couldn't find anything so Matt's going.
[00:10:10] Speaker C: To be writing a blog post later tonight.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: It'll be a 75 word article, but it'll be the best 75 words I.
[00:10:18] Speaker B: Ever came up with. You can answer it in a tweet, actually. Right.
There you go. Okay. All right. I want to talk embark day. I want to talk embarkation process. We've got a. An arrival time. Uh, we, we're staying sky class, though, so we've got, I know, a little bit more flexibility on arrival time. But is the arrival time they give you? We're going out of Miami, if that matters. Um, is the arrival time that they give you, like, meaningful. Do you, like, have to wait to show up till your arrival time? Can you show up early? What's kind of the standard boarding time?
[00:10:53] Speaker A: That's a. I know what you're asking. Um, and, and certainly to remember, with sky class, you're allowed whatever your time is. You can arrive. You have an out plus or minus an hour flexibility on that one. The reality, it's definitely shifting. When the pandemic was ending and cruising was restarting, they were really stringent about. They would be like, all right, 11:00 over there. It would be like, it was like recess at school after it was over.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: Disney was the.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. That has not quite gone away completely. So I'm not going to sit here and say, sam, you can show up anytime you want. It's not like that. Like it was 2019, but I would say it's largely become very lax. I was just on wonder the seas last week for spring break, and we rolled in there and the guys on the megaphone be like, don't worry about your check in times. Come on in, like, you know, trying to be very helpful and like, you know, it's the, the good news is, I would say this for your check in times. You know, certainly with the. In the spirit of your check in time would be what I would recommend. And certainly that hour flexibility you have. My guess is no one's even going to ask you what time it is. There's be like, all right, lady, just right over here. Just go. Just go. Just go there. The situation in which that may not be the case, like this happened when I went on icon of seas was, if they're not ready yet to let you in, some people get in there, like, ridiculously early, the terminal. So don't do that in that scenario. Then they start separating you based on that. But I think if I wouldn't worry too much about it. The good news, though, the process is so simple. Royal Caribbean's apple is so well organized. If you do everything you need to do here at home, you will literally barely ever stop walking through the terminal. And. And. And Miami is even better because. Because you're in a suite. When you get to that terminal, there can be two entrances. You're going in the second entrance, the suite entrance. So you get an elevator. You bypass what is. It's not that bad. It's totally fine everyone else, but you get a whole different process, and it's a much more expensive, it's a lot quicker. The most important thing you can do besides adhering to your time, is go through that app. Make sure you have green check marks for everything. Take the selfie photo. I know it sounds weird. Do it. Put your credit card. Scan your passport in the app. You can do it on the website, but do it in the app. If you do it right. If you scan your passport in the app, take a selfie photo, put in your credit card information. Like everything, right? Your set sale pass will probably. You're in a suite. It's almost meaningless, but you probably get it like, an. They have a new, um, express boarding option. It almost looks like an easy pass if you know what those look like. But. But it's. It's purple, just like easy pass. And it lights up anyway. Do all those things. It makes it so much easier and faster. Zachary.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Now, can one person do it for the whole family, or does everybody individually have to do it? And, like, for example, Brian's usually the person who does that stuff, right?
[00:13:19] Speaker C: I've already done it, Sam.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Okay, we've got green text all the.
[00:13:23] Speaker C: Way, except for the. We have a health questionnaire we have to fill out. 48 hours. Yep.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: And so, yeah, another question, pre embarkation question is, do I need the Royal Caribbean app on my kids phone? I've got it on my phone. Brian's got it on his phone. Do we need it on Nathan's phone?
[00:13:40] Speaker A: You don't need it on his. On. On any child's phone. For the process of check in, you need one device. That's it. So you can have it on just Brian's and that's it. But, um, the reason why you might want it on there is for the chat feature. So royal criminal chat feature is free, and you can install it on that device and then be able to chat with them. Now, how old is. Can I ask how old?
[00:13:58] Speaker B: Yeah, ten. Yeah, Nathan is ten.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: So here's the problem. Ten, obviously, under 13, you can't have your own account. That's a legal thing. Um, as I'm telling lawyers here, it.
[00:14:09] Speaker B: Has to do with the child Internet exploitation rules. Yeah? Correct.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So what you could do is still sign in under one of your account as, as one of you guys, and then you can still message him there. We used to do that with my daughter, but she's, uh, she's 13 now, so now she's old enough to have her own account. But like, we signed in on my wife's account, so my wife can still message herself, which is kind of weird. It's a little wonky with the notifications because whoever gets it first then sees.
[00:14:32] Speaker B: It and the other one's a notification. Okay.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: But I think it is worth it to have the app on there because for that chatting feature, that way, number one, you don't have to buy an Internet package for them unless you're going to then work. Oh, you're in sky class. You're going to get it for free. Nevermind, don't worry about it.
[00:14:46] Speaker B: Well, and what about the schedule? Right? If he wants to look at the schedule of events, he needs to have the app on his phone, right?
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Correct. That's also true. But for communication, which is usually the reason for it, you'll have sky class, you can imessage or do whatever. Everyone in the room gets their own Internet.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Interesting. Okay, my other question was about, uh, messaging. So on Disney, you can, without a, an Internet package, you can WhatsApp message and imessage. That, that's it though. You can't use regular text messaging, you can't send photos. Um, but do they have anything like that on royal or do you have to have an Internet package?
[00:15:21] Speaker A: You have to have an Internet package. The exception being the, the Royal Caribbean app, which is free to use, to chat with. But if you don't have an Internet package, then you won't be able to use any Internet, anything that isn't the App Store to download the Royal Caribbean app or the Royal Caribbean app.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: Okay, so the Internet package then is key for us, I would say, because I think the messaging is probably going to be the most, uh, fruitful to do over like messenger or something, you know, over imessage.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:45] Speaker A: And, and you have this. And again, just to be clear, you have sky class. You don't need to purchase any Internet package. It's included in your cabin because you're on an Oasis class ship. If you were on independence like Brian did, this would not be included. It's one of the nuances of which ship you're on and the category of suite benefits that you get.
[00:16:01] Speaker B: Oh, we did not know that there were differences. But Brian did not sail sky class on his last sailing anyway, because he wasn't with me, so he didn't need to sail fancy. So I'm the fancy one.
[00:16:16] Speaker C: All right, let me. I want to pepper in a couple of questions here really fast. Sam, before we get too far into this, um, Matt, I'm curious about. So, on Disney, they obviously don't do pre sailing upgrades. They have this royal up program. Right. Can you, can you talk me through, like. So it's. I. I have submitted an upgrade request. I doubt we will get it, I'll perfectly honest. But I'm seeing other people in the cruise group start to say, oh, my request came through, all that sort of stuff.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Like, my sister got one. Yeah.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:16:40] Speaker C: What's your perception of the royal up program? And like, yeah. Have you been successful with it or do you have any keys for success for people who might be selling royal in the future and looking to use it?
[00:16:49] Speaker A: In my opinion, it's a waste of time. I mean, it can work. The problem with the, there's a couple of problems with the royal program. Number one, I think it sets unrealistic expectations. People get this and they're like, oh, wow, look, I can have, I can upgrade for this kind of amount. It's a blind bidding system. So you have no idea what anyone else bid. Also, you have no idea. And if there are any cabins available these days, ships are sailing full. So what you're really betting on is a last minute cancellation. Now, if you're in an inside room and you want to roll up to an ocean view, there's probably a good chance of that because these are both categories are unwell. Ocean views are definitely not that desirable. Either people are going for ultra cheap. Nothing wrong with that, by the way, getting inside, or they're going for like a balcony room, something that's a little more desirable. Right. And there is a possibility of doing it. The reason why I say it's a waste of time is because it says unrealistic expectations. You have no idea what the, what a good bid is because there's absolutely no way to know, like, if it's there. And the likelihood, especially when you get to the upper levels, which is most people dream about, you know, like a balcony, a junior suite, a grand suite, the royal. Like those. Those are, unless somebody cancel at the very last minute, it's very, very, very unlikely that you're going to get it. So when I get them, I usually ignore them completely. The other thing to keep in mind with, with royal up if they were to be accepted, Royal Caribbean chooses your cabin location. So if you picked out like that awesome location because you, you're worried about getting motion sickness or you don't want to be underneath a restaurant, you might end up with a location thats not favorable. And then on top of that with the cabin that you get, youre also at the mercy. Of course, the pricing in terms of it being whether or not its a good deal or not because some of these people go crazy with the pricing on there. Anyway, my perspective is if you want to upgrade, you call your travel age, how much is it to upgrade? Even after final payment, theyll take more of your money. They dont mind.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: Always take more money.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: You usually look the other way even though youre not supposed to. If you want to spend more money. Yeah, well take that from you.
[00:18:36] Speaker C: So I was playing the game of I'd go in every once in a while and like look at the different categories that we might roll up and see if they were still selling the ships. And then I saw, you know, like all the sweet classes sold out. So I'm like, I'm bidding in the blind now. Like I'm, to your point, I'm just hoping somebody like, gets sick and can't sail and that's the only way that this is going to come through. Yeah.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: The other thing to keep in mind, and one more thing I wanted to add, just not for you guys because you're all in one room, right?
[00:18:57] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: Okay. If you were to have two rooms as an example row, it also be a bad idea because now you're going to lose out on possibly connecting rooms or being near each other. So something else for the audience to keep.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. My sister is sailing with us, but she, with her family, they have, we didn't, we didn't request connecting rooms. We don't want connecting rooms.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Sure.
Love you, Liz.
[00:19:19] Speaker B: She has little.
[00:19:19] Speaker C: Love you, Liz.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: Yeah, we love you, Liz. But she has little ones and so we don't want them banging on the door in the middle of the night. That's, yeah, that's really what it comes down to. Okay, wait, wait, wait.
[00:19:28] Speaker C: I have one more question. Tipping. So on Disney, you get these tip envelopes and printouts and cash changes hands and stuff like that. Like, what is tipping, like on board for royal? And then more specifically, if you have any experience with tipping when you're staying in like a sky class or a star class.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: Good question. So it's all autom. It's all automatic. You don't have to do anything. You either prepaid it already in your invoice that you would have had made a final payment if you didn't. It'll be charged every day of your cruise. That's it. There's no more envelopes. I mean, they do give you an envelope, like on the last day if you'd like to, for additional tips. You should feel confident that the tip that you provide, which, by the way, that tip is for your stateroom attendant and the dining room staff. So if you order a drink, if you go to the spa or somewhere else, that's not included there. So you will get it. And that's an automatic tip as well. You'll see that on your bill, that it'll be like, you know, service charge is what they call it.
[00:20:12] Speaker B: I love that, by the way. I would rather they just do that and then it's a no brainer and I just sign the thing.
[00:20:17] Speaker A: I mean, I'm for. I want them to go one step further. I want gratuity to be part of the cruise fare completely.
And stop this, like, nonsense that it's optional. Cause it's not. It's. It's. It's obligatory. And you're paying it one way or another. So that's all sets. You're good on there. The reason why you might want to tip beyond, like, the drinks. You know, you're ordering a drink. I think you guys get that one. Um, there's a couple situations in which you still probably want to. Probably want to tip. Obviously, the porters, that's kind of that. That's a cash situation. The stateroom attendant, that's depends on the stateroom attendant. I generally tip the state attendant extra because if they're dealing with my family, they deserve something extra for that one to clean up.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: I would love to meet your family, man.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: Um, you know, that. That's a. That's a gut check. Again, you paid them already, so you're. You're. You're at the. You're at the. Don't feel like you're stiffing them if you don't do it. It's more of, like, I usually tip a little bit extra. The other one. And this relates to your sky class situation. You have the concierge. Concierge in the, um, in the suite lounge. Depending on how much you use him or her. And there's probably two of them on an oasis class ship, depending on how much you leverage them. That is also another gut check on that one. At the very least, if you never go in there once, there's once, you should absolutely use them for the last, for embarkation or sorry, for disembarkation morning because they will literally walk you off the ship and bypass the entire law.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: I love that.
Yeah.
[00:21:40] Speaker A: If nothing else, that's worth like $20 to me, if you ask me. But, uh, but beyond that, there your aid in this. And I'm not sure if you've gotten your email yet from the concierge. I know we're recording this.
[00:21:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:49] Speaker A: Okay. This is already your first step. And if you want to make dining reservations, like, if you already booked a dining package, maybe we'll get to that later on. And you can't make reservations to get on board the ship. The concierge can do it now for you. That's a huge benefit and time saver.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: Yeah, we didn't do the unlimited. We did specific ones instead of doing unlimited because we didn't want to be in the situation where you can't book until you're on board. We thought that was crazy.
[00:22:13] Speaker A: Yeah. And you can still change your mind, by the way. You can cancel every one of those reservations, buy the dining package, turn around, email your sweet concierge, say, hey, here's this day, this time, this many people, just give them a little bullet list and they'll take care of it. And that's like, I mean, that's worth so much because then you're going on that ship and you're going to be like, yeah, we can go relax a little bit. Well, that's.
[00:22:31] Speaker C: That's the huge benefit on Disney with concierge is you can just email them. You know, on Disney, though, you're emailing like 130 days in advance. So I think part of our, part.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Of our thing here was, like, apprehension about this.
[00:22:41] Speaker C: They were so used to. Yeah, I was like, I can just book dining now. I'm just going to book it now just to make sure we get it.
[00:22:46] Speaker A: Kind of.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: Sounds like we didn't need to, but, you know, this is, this is the problem with live and learn drop culture. So we, we refer to this as rope culture, which is everything Disney related. Right. You. Everybody feels like you have to be the first to do everything. You have to be. You have to be awake at midnight to book things for Disney. You have to be awake at 03:00 a.m. Our time pacific time to book dining for Disney World and Disneyland. I mean, it's just. It's madness. It's madness.
[00:23:15] Speaker C: You think people get to the port early on royal, you should see them at Disney these days.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
The good news is you're conditioned for it. Like, Disney people understand it. Other people are like, why do I have to plan everything out? Like, because this is how the world works. Like, it's just so much better this way.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Yes. I love it. Okay, it's embarkation day. I've boarded the ship. Where do I go first? Matt? Like, what are, what are the first things that you would tell somebody to do food wise or sign ups for anything important? Like, what are the things that I need to do in the first, maybe hour of embarkation day? And then I want to talk about even later in embarkation day, what stuff do I need to do?
[00:23:54] Speaker A: So first thing you should do even before you get on the ship, when you're driving to the port, somebody should get in the Royal Caribbean app and do the. Start the emuster process. Do the, first of all, you should do the health questionnaire, which you already knew we talked about, but then the mustard drill, which I can't believe Disney went back from this. That's a huge.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: It's terrible.
[00:24:10] Speaker A: It's. It's lame on a. Anyway, we hate that.
[00:24:14] Speaker B: We say, you're preaching to the choir. We hate it. Yeah.
[00:24:17] Speaker A: There you go. So do the first two steps. Watch the video, listen to the safety drill. That'll leave you the last step. So when you get on the ship, you should have the first two steps done. Go immediately in muster station, scan your seatbelts card, get the third one out of the way, and then that way you're done because you don't have to worry too much about anything else. Next, you should definitely go get lunch. Since you're in sky class, you have access to coastal kitchen for lunch. That's up in the sweet lounge area. Um, there's sweet lounge, coastal kitchen right next to each other. Um, that's your complimentary restaurant for sweet guests, and it's open for lunch there. It's a lot more relaxed. I mean, you might also, because you're Disney people, you might be more like a kid. Like, a sit down meal is not really how you want to start your cruise off with. If that's the situation, then the windjammer buffet is obviously the place to go. It'll just be busy in there. That's the reason why I'm, you know, telling you that it depends on your style. Like, I, when I get on board, if I'm by myself, I just go to. I just go to the windjammer to grab something to eat and be on.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: My way, I will say we actually like a sit down lunch as long as not like a really, really long lunch. Right? We like a sit down lunch because of the chaos of the buffet. At least on cabanas, on Disney is chaos on embarkation day because nobody knows what they're doing, where they're going, or anything.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: And so coastal kitchen is a good choice. It'll be sit down lunch. You're probably in and out about an hour, I would imagine. And it's included in your cruise fare, so good way to start there.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: If I wasn't staying sky class, where would you tell me to eat lunch besides Windjammer?
[00:25:32] Speaker A: Park Cafe. So Park Cafe is in Central park. It has salads, it has sandwiches, it has some soups. It's a really good alternative. It's complimentary, and that's an option. The other option, if you wanted to throw money at the problem, of course, you could go to, especially restaurants, betting on the ship and the itinerary. There's usually one or two special restaurants open for lunch. Probably chops grill is going to be one of them. Um, you could go to that and, you know, start your cruise off with a. With a meal there. But park cafe is fantastic. Um, it's. It's really good. And it's good enough to get something to eat in your stomach. Um, you're not going to get too full on it, but you're going to be have. It's certainly a way to bypass the buffet.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: Love it. Okay. I've eaten lunch. Well, I've done my muster. I've eaten lunch. Where do I go next? Like, do I. Do I need to go check out the gym and figure out what exercise classes are available and sign up for those? Like, do I need to go to the spa and book? Like, are there things I need to do in person in particular or that maybe are recommended to do in person?
[00:26:27] Speaker A: Yeah. So the big 101:00 is the time you're going to want to keep your eye on. 01:00 again, you have kids. So, like, uh, 01:00 p.m. Is when adventure ocean opens up. And you really want to get up there first just to be able to get your reservation in or not. Sorry. Registration in. There's nothing to reserve. It's just a registration process. And it's a lot easier when it first opens because later on it gets really busy. Get that out of the way. So obviously, if you finish lunch and it's like, you know, uh, 1215. Okay, well, now do something else, like walk around.
Yeah, I would spa the adventure ocean. Um, those are two of the big ones there. You don't, since you're already pre booked, your dining, and even if you take my advice and cancel and get a dining package and then email your concierge, like, you still don't have to go do dining, which is the big thing I would have told you to have done before all of this. So really exploring the ship is truly a big one. Keeping in mind, by the way, if you really want to take advantage of the embarkation day, have your bathing suits with you. Because the water slides, the flow rider, the pools, they're all open and they're going to be far less busy on embarkation day afternoon, they will be the rest of the crew. So, um, this would be a really good opportunity. And your rooms won't be ready till like one or 02:00 so you have a little bit of time over here to. To burn. It might be a really good opportunity to, you know, again, enjoy some of those things. Um, on embarkation day, do they.
[00:27:43] Speaker C: Do they offer for suite guests? So I did the key on independence, and one of the things I loved is when I got on board, I could hand them my backpack, they tagged it and then it showed up in my room.
[00:27:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:27:52] Speaker C: Uh, do they do that for sweet guests on. On the oasis and.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: No, no, they do not, unfortunately. Um, and that is. That's like the only benefit I like of the key. I think the rest of it is. Is a way waste and not worth it. But that is certainly something nice to be able to have there. I mean, you know, realistically, I mean, the earliest you get on the ship would be like 1030, 11:00 and then, you know, you're talking about a couple hours before the room is ready. But no, they don't offer something like that for sweet guests.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Okay. Are there exercise classes on the ship? I know this sounds crazy, but, like. And like what? Like, give me an idea of what they are. And are there some that are included and some that are extra?
[00:28:26] Speaker C: I don't think we've covered exercise this much on a Disney cruise. So, like, I'm curious.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: Brian, we have been working out, like, so hard at home. I am not going to give up on this progress.
[00:28:38] Speaker C: Right.
[00:28:38] Speaker B: And let myself completely backslide on vacation.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: Good. I admire your gumption. Cause I would have been like, you know, a nap sounds like a great idea. Instead, yes, there are classes. There are like one or two that are complimentary, I think, like stretching class, something like that might be complimentary, but the majority of them do cost extra. They either have a per class charge, and you have to check if oasis offers this. Sometimes they have. They offer, like, a bulk discount. Like, if you book, like, a five class package, you'll save, you know, whatever, a couple bucks off that. Um, but you need to preserve it on board the ship. There's just sign up sheets and, um, you know, if you actually show up to it, then they charge you for it, that kind of situation. And spin class is by far the biggest one, the most popular one that they have. There are other ones, I think, like pilates, and there might be one or two others. Uh, forgive me. Believe it or not, my knowledge of the. Of the gym classes is not quite as deep as you might imagine. But, um. But there are classes there, and you can actually sign up in the fitness center. You go to the vitality spa. Go up there, you'll see the sign up sheets, and. And you can obviously ask them any questions that you may have.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: Sounds very similar to Disney in that respect. That is like, the one place where you have to do the old school signup, where you write your name on a clipboard, basically.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:29:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. All right. Best place to run on the ship. I know there's a gym, so there's treadmills. Right. But is there some outdoor running tracks anywhere on the ship?
[00:29:55] Speaker A: Oasis is fantastic. The Oasis class has a dedicated running track that you don't have to dodge people on the pool deck for.
[00:30:02] Speaker B: Oh, that's fantastic.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: So it's on deck four, I believe it's, like one deck below the promenade or it's off the promenade. It's an enclosed space. There are some windows. Occasionally you'll warm by and you'll see something, but, like, if you were on independence, you would have been up on the pool deck and navigating those folks. Anyway, this is a dedicated one. It's got signs, it's got mild markers and things like that. So, yeah, this is if you're a runner. I think the Oasis class is really the best in the fleet for that.
[00:30:27] Speaker B: Awesome. Okay. All right. I need to understand the drink package. We got the drink package. I understand. I can get whatever the crazy one.
[00:30:37] Speaker C: So we got the full freight drink package, but we did it because I talked to. We had a travel agent on who's done a lot of royal, and she was mentioning. I said, I penciled this out. I never see it actually being worth the amount of money you're paying for the drink package. I just can't fathom drinking that much. Probably people who do and make the most of it. Fantastic. Good for you. But she said a lot of her clients book it just so that it feels more all inclusive that they get on the ship. And it's just like, I'm just showing my card. Everything's coming matter. If I get my money's worth out of it, it's worth it to me just to be able to do that on the ship and the island. So it's.
[00:31:09] Speaker A: It's a lot like. I don't know if it's still like this. The Disney dining package used to be like this, where it was more about the convenience than the quote unquote value that you might get out of it. Um, that being said, you could definitely. So, yeah, it includes, you've got everything. You've got your sodas, you've got your, uh, beers, cocktails. Basically, everything's included. Drink wise. Starbucks is not included. Oh, this is confusing. So, hold on.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: Yeah, this is. This is the. These are the details I need to know. I need to know about the coffee specifically.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: So Starbucks. There's a Starbucks Starbucks kiosk that's not included. If you go to cafe promenade, they have, literally, it says Starbucks, and they have macchiatos and espressos and lattes and. And that is included, which seems bonkers, but.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: Oh, so it's the same coffee. It's, like, in a different location, basically.
[00:31:54] Speaker A: Correct. It's the same beans and everything. It's just one's a licensed kiosk. One is not. And that's the reason why that's included there.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: See? Tips and tricks, Brian. This is why we need. We need to go to promenade instead of going to Starbucks. This is Matt. You have all earned your value in this one tip drink.
[00:32:14] Speaker A: Thanks for having me on here.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: We're big coffee drinkers, so, like, this is going to make the dining package actually worthwhile.
[00:32:22] Speaker A: I think this is. I mean, really the way to look at it, Brian, and the break even, depending on how much you paid for it. And by the way, you can still reprice your drink package up until a couple days before your cruise. You know, look at it this way. You get up in the morning, you're going to get at least one. It sounds like you'll get two. You'll get your one coffee in the morning, right? You'll do that. Maybe you have a Bloody Mary or some. Some drink. Even if you forget you're not drinking in the morning, you don't want to, you know, you got to ease into that. So you have your coffee in the morning, you get to lunch, right? And maybe you have another coffee, maybe you have a beer. Right. The afternoon, it's a long day. You know, you have one or two drinks in the afternoon. One or two. That's it. You get to dinner. Another one or two drinks at dinner. It's unreasonable. And you have a drink at, in the evening at one of the shows. And that's, again, this is not counting the sodas, not counting the bottled water, which is also included with it. Right. That you're probably going to get anyway. Youre getting really, really close to that break even point for that drink package. When you factor in the fact that a cocktail is basically with tax and gratuity, its like $14. Right. And the beers are eight or $9 and the coffee is $6. So it adds up more than you might think. And dont forget, Im assuming youre on a coco key. It works there as well.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes. Okay. Now if Im going up to the bar and Brian and I obviously both have to have the drink package, which we do. Can I order two drinks, like at one time? Like, are they, are they, or is there an issue because I have just my one pass.
[00:33:42] Speaker A: As long as you have. No, you can only, you need to have both CPAs cards. That's the only catch.
[00:33:46] Speaker C: One drink per pass.
[00:33:47] Speaker A: You got it.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: Gotcha. So if I bring his cpas with me and my cpas, then I can get two at any given time?
[00:33:54] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:33:54] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. What if I want a soft drink and a, and an alcoholic drink? Will they give me that on my one cast? Okay.
[00:34:01] Speaker A: They usually don't care about soft drinks. Bottled water. It's a good tip, actually, sam, like, you know, you're ordering a drink and, uh, you know, it's getting late, it's in the evening. You need to start hydrating. Uh, you know, a drink in a bottle of water, no problem at all. They usually don't really care with the drink package for the two, you know, ordering multiple drinks per cpas for, for that. It's, it's the, you can't order two alcohols at one card.
[00:34:23] Speaker B: Okay, that makes sense.
[00:34:24] Speaker C: They give you cans of soda, too, at least on the independence. Like depending on where you walked up, you'd show your card.
[00:34:28] Speaker A: Depends on where you are.
[00:34:29] Speaker C: Yeah. They give you a can of soda.
[00:34:31] Speaker B: Bar, probably they have fountain soda versus cans.
[00:34:34] Speaker C: So wait, while were talking about packages, lets go back to this dining package discussion for a second. It seems like the dining package can be worth it. I got a little skittish about it because it seemed like there were also a number of restaurants that we were sort of booked at where it was like, well, youre paying the package and theres still an upcharge. And so I was doing math back and forth to figure out is it worth it or not? Because were not going to eat specialty dining. Were probably not going to eat specially dining for lunch. We want to do coastal kitchen a couple times or like, you know, we'll.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: I want to eat those tacos. I want to eat at that taco place that you told me about. What is it called? It's called El Loco fresh. I wrote it down. I wrote it down, matt, from your video, because I, there you go. Because I'm all about the guacamole, too, by the way.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: I mean, it's like, it's not the best guacamole variant in your life, but it's free guacamole. And listen, if it's even half as.
[00:35:18] Speaker B: Good as Chipotle's guacamole, it'll be fine.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:35:22] Speaker C: So what's the story at the dining package? Is it worth it? Is it a good idea? What am I missing?
[00:35:26] Speaker A: Do they have a three night dining package available on your selling?
[00:35:29] Speaker C: I think they do for the, you.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: Don'T because you, based on what you're telling me, the unlimited dining package would not be worth it for you. But if there's a three night dining package, that would be fantastic for what you need because it will save you money. Granted, there are some restaurants that do have additional charges. Hibachi is the biggest one. That one you'll get charge extra for. But I still think it's worth it, provided that you're going to eat at those restaurants. If you're not going to eat lunches and you want to eat a coastal kitchen once or twice, the unlimited is probably not going to be a good value for you, especially since you already paid, you already shelled out the money and you're already good with it. So like, no reason to dig up that body. But if you were to look back on it now, Richard, and there is a three night dining package, there's a good argument because I think you would love 150 Central park chops and Giovanni's. And those are all restaurants that have no additional surcharges to them. They're good food, solid restaurants to go to. I would not have any qualms about that at all.
[00:36:22] Speaker B: We have reservations at two of those three that you just mentioned.
[00:36:26] Speaker C: We have 150. We're doing the chef's table and we have hibachi one night for the kids. Yeah.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: Okay. So the Chef's table wouldn't apply to the dining package. That's something to keep in mind about that. And Hibachi, you'd pay a surcharge for it.
You can make a good argument for the dining if they have the three night one to cancel everything but chef's table and then rebook it under your concierge and go about it that way. And then.
[00:36:46] Speaker C: And then my understanding of it is you have to do one dining on night one. You have to do one special.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: They say, yeah, it's like. It's like the speed limit. Like, it's kind of. That's what it says on the sign, but nobody actually follows it. It's. That's basically what you don't know, that they are going to assign you one automatically. That's how they usually do this. Like it's just a placeholder. But you don't have to. In fact, I don't even think it's funny you mentioned it, Brian. Cause I'm almost laughing to myself. I was like, do they even, like, I don't think that's really enforced at all. So I think you're good on that.
[00:37:16] Speaker C: 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. 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 mypathunwinding.com dclduo so they know we sent you their way.
[00:38:18] Speaker A: Thanks.
[00:38:19] Speaker C: My path unwinding for sponsoring the show. And with that, back to our episode.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: Okay, now, speaking of food, I have a bunch of questions in the food category, so I'll stay in this food category since Brian talked about dining packages. Okay, best place or places for breakfast? I loved your little hidden secret about Johnny Rockets for breakfast is free. Um, but what, what are the other. What are the places that you like to go for breakfast and you think have the best breakfast on board? Let's say that's included.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. So, I mean, the wind jammer is the most. Is the busiest option because it's the wind jammer. So we'll skip that one. Johnny Rockets is a great one for breakfast. This is complimentary. And you're going to get american breakfast and your omelettes and what have you, and it's all good. Solarium bistro, also underrated. Good option there. Um, those two. Those are two good places to go. Those are sit down restaurants. So that's like, you got time as a sea day. If you're going on a shore excursion, you're in a rush. You got to get going. You just need a fuel and go. Park Cafe is a great spot for that. They've got a whole breakfast menu that's over there. It's far less crowded, and they also have some coffees over there, so it's a good spot.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: Nice. Awesome. Okay. I love that. Okay, now we got to move to lunch, let's say, included again, let's say, because I don't want to do specialty dining, really for lunches, because I feel like I don't like a longer, I don't like a more involved lunch because I like to run around and do trivia and all kinds of other activities. So, yeah, where should I go for lunch? What's, what's your favorite?
[00:39:48] Speaker A: Once again, Park Cafe is a great choice. Don't forget, and I should say this for breakfast, um, uh, coastal kitchen is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for you guys. So that's always a good fallback. If it's a sea day, the main dining room will be open for lunch as well. So you might compare. What you should do is pull up the Royal Caribbean app that day and compare menus to see which one is of interest to you to see, because the menu changes in the dining room for lunch is a different lunch menu on whatever sea days you have. And coastal kitchen, I think, also changes daily for lunch compared to contrast to which one jumps out at you. Again, Park Cafe would really be for, like, you're either rolling out of your nap or you're about to roll into a nap and you just want something like. You just want a sandwich and something like. You're not looking for anything remotely resembling sit down, then that's your best option as a good alternative to the windjammer.
[00:40:32] Speaker B: Okay. All right. Are you saying I shouldn't get a loco fresh or barbecue? Barbecue. That stuff is. Some of that's included. Some of that's not included.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: Right.
[00:40:40] Speaker B: So the barbecue looked really good, I.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: Have to say, is a great choice for lunch. And I. And I apologize. I should have mentioned that one. Um, that that's actually. That's. That's a really good one. The only downside, it's not air conditioned, so if it's particularly warm out, you might. But it's fine. You're probably in your bathing suit if you're up on the pool deck.
[00:40:55] Speaker B: So.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So portside barbecue is an a la carte restaurant. And this is actually good since you don't have a dining package because it's overkill for the dining package or the dining package. Overkill for it. Anyway. This is a great restaurant. I wish it was on more ships. It's only on oasis. It's really good. My my daughter, oldest daughter loves it. I would tell you that it is worth the cost. That is like. That is a spend the money, but it's not like. I know what you're saying about it. You don't want to sit. You don't want to. Especially restaurant for lunch. That one is worth it because it's so, um. It's. It's such a good value. And make sure you look at the schedule, because they have a country singer that's only in that venue, and it's someone different than any other venue. So I don't know about you. I like entertainment while I'm eating, and it's nice to have that in there. So look at the schedule. Trying to maybe time that.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: All right, awesome. Okay. I love that. Now we've got to talk dinner. And for dinner, no holds bars, right? I'm going to do a sit down dinner. So that's specialty dining is fine. Sit down dinner. Where? What do you think are the best places now, Brian already told you where we've got reservations. But is there, you know, should we drop any of the ones that we've booked in favor of something else? Or is there one that we must add on, in your opinion?
[00:42:02] Speaker A: Good question. I mean, the one that I like. Everything you have there. Hibachi 150 Central park. Those are good chops. Is tough because I've eaten there so many times that I would personally not eat at chops, but that's a math thing because I've eaten there so many times. I think there's other restaurants that I personally prefer. That's not a slight on there. Like again, 150 is fantastic and you're going to get a steak there. Probably their steak is better than chops in my opinion. So that's like to check off the I'm going to have a steak option and you're on a chef's table which is going to have a steak also. So like again, if maybe you love.
[00:42:29] Speaker B: That I could eat a steak like every night, so, but I like other things too. I like other things also, so, but I do love my steak. Yeah.
[00:42:36] Speaker A: You should be planning, though, your dinners. You should have uh, you should pencil in coastal kitchen every night and then work off that. Coastal kitchen is your base and now you're going to take off. Okay, 150. And the restaurants you talked about take those away, leaving you with a couple of nights at, at coastal kitchen. That's really not a bad option at all. Um, beyond that, the, the dining options, um, on oasis, beyond that, I don't know that they're really quote unquote. I don't say they're not worth it. I don't think they're necessarily, you're hitting the highlights. You're getting your Giovanni's 150 hibachi. Those are by far the three best restaurants on the ship in my opinion. The three that I would highly recommend for you to go check out.
[00:43:12] Speaker B: So Giovanni's is maybe the only one that we're missing on that list, which.
[00:43:16] Speaker C: We had booked originally. And someone talked us out of it. Someone talked us out of it in favor of chops.
[00:43:21] Speaker B: Yeah. So we had originally booked.
[00:43:23] Speaker C: Yeah, chops is good.
[00:43:24] Speaker A: This is tough because this might be like Matt is jaded kind of argument here. I feel like it would be like imagine maybe, you know this, like if you had Apollo or Apollo's fantastic. I don't know, maybe you can eat Apollo every single, I cant eat a chopstick. Ive eaten there so many times. And its steak. And like I said, youre eating at a couple of the restaurants that are going to be serving you filet mignon. Again, nothing wrong with having steak every night, but I like variety a little more personally. So thats something to think about. One other thing we didnt talk about is playmakers. So I want you to, thats an extra cost restaurant. The good news is its a la carte, so you have to pay for what?
[00:43:59] Speaker B: The barbecue? Yeah.
[00:44:01] Speaker A: Yes. So here's a scenario that I want you to think about. You're one of the port days. You're going to be coming back. You're spent. Like, coco key is a great example of this. You spent all day in the sun. You had a great time, lots of. But, like, now the idea of, like, going upstairs and putting on your nice clothes and, like, that just seems like, oh, God, like, please, no, I just want to put on a pair of shorts and just have a burger and whatever. Playmakers is a great choice for that one. So maybe back pocket as a, you know. You know what? Forget it. We're going to playmakers. And if you're going there, you know, get the, get the campfire cookie. Sunday. It is. It's going to rock your socks. Amazing. It's so, so good. That is the food. There's wings, the burgers. You're going to. It's a great backup dinner for a day that you're feeling a little bit lazy and maybe you just don't feel like doing it at all. That's. That's my only thing I want to mention about it.
[00:44:46] Speaker C: Let me ask one question about something that Matt, you just mentioned. Dress on the ship. Dress code on the ship.
[00:44:51] Speaker B: Oh, great question.
[00:44:52] Speaker C: Like, on Disney, things have just gone totally relaxed. I mean, there's some people who show up and, yeah, everything has gone casual. I mean, they've even relaxed the standards for the dine, the adult dining on board Disney. Right. What's it like on royal? Because, you know, we see mention of formal nights. We see mention of, like, white pants. Yeah. Like all this sort of stuff. Like, what's it like?
[00:45:09] Speaker A: It's the exact same thing. The only restaurant that you might have an issue is chef's table. That one. I think they actually maybe do enforce it, but, yeah, everything else is like, you'll have some people that are still dressing up, but, yeah, it's gotten far more relaxed. Formal night, you know, obviously, the dress codes, first and foremost, only apply to the main dining room. So outside of that, every other restaurant supersedes its own dress code. So your especially restaurants, as an example, have their own dress code. For a lot of people, I think the people that get dressed up these days really want to get dressed up because they want to take photos. That's, I think, the biggest thing. I don't think most people go, even newbies. I don't think even go into it thinking that about if we don't dress up, we're gonna be ostracized yeah. If you wanted to show up, I'll give you the guy thing. Brian, if you wanna show up with just jeans and polo shirts, and that would be probably still a higher standard than some other people, especially in the dining room. Yeah. Um, that'd be like, no one is gonna bat an eye at you or say anything to.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: Okay, and what about for kiddo? So he's like, I've got, you know, do I need to help him in pants every night in the. In dining rooms? Or can he wear his, like, khaki shorts? Right. He's gonna. He has these cute little short sleeve button down and polo shirts, so he'll look adorable regardless. But, you know, pants, shorts, does it matter?
[00:46:11] Speaker A: I will answer your question by simply saying, well, I'm not the arbiter of what someone should or should not wear. I will tell you that your son will not have any. They won't say a word to him.
[00:46:18] Speaker B: Nobody will wear it. Okay, good. All right, awesome. His comfort is paramount.
[00:46:23] Speaker A: I would need to clarify that, because I feel like some people think, well, Matt said you should, like, I'm not saying anybody should or shouldn't wear shorts of the dining room. I'm simply saying that the rules are not, in fact, force at this point. There are merely suggestions.
[00:46:32] Speaker B: Yes. And that's. This is. These are the things we want to know because you read online on Royal's website and it has what the rules are. But, yeah, enforcement of the rules are very different. And we know that because Disney doesn't enforce, like, any rules anymore on dress code.
[00:46:47] Speaker A: Same, same. Unreal.
[00:46:48] Speaker C: I have one more question for Matt here, where we're talking about kids kids clubs, since this is a Disney Cruise Line podcast. I mean, we talked about getting registered, uh, for kids clubs and things like that. But they work a bit different on royal, in my experience, in the sense they're not kind of, like, open all day. They have hours and, you know, that sort of thing. So do I. And I can't remember. I don't think you need to make reservations. I think you just need to get people registered, and then they can kind of check in during the hours they're open. But what are the big differences, Matt, that you've seen with the kids clubs on Royal, as opposed to maybe some of the other cruise lines you've been.
[00:47:16] Speaker A: So Oasis has, like, adventure, ocean 2.0. There's kind of a nuance. Some of the ships have the old one, some of the ships have the new one. Oasis has the new one. The new one is, I think, a little closer to Disney's approach to adventure, to kids club than old Royal. Old Royal would have been a little more program specific. Like, okay, guys, we're going to do this at this hour, this, at this hour, this and this hour. This was a little more free range. This is like we're doing this activity. You can join on this one or you can go to the corner. There's books, there's, there's video games, there's coloring, there's whatever. And it's a little more free flow. You are right about the hours. Um, on an, on a, on a c day, they'll be went from nine to twelve, two to five, and then seven to ten for free, and then ten to, depending on the ship, somewhere between 01:00 a.m. And 02:00 a.m. You could pay extra for per hour for the late night one.
[00:48:02] Speaker B: I didn't know that was even available. That's kind of nice to know for, for example, the chef's table night. Right? We know that's going to be a longer dinner. Nathan's not coming to the chef's table because he's not going to eat the food that's served there. So we're planning on taking him to windjammer. Or maybe, frankly, maybe we'll take him to playmakers that night or something like that, and then take advantage of.
[00:48:22] Speaker A: And I will tell you that my kids, their favorite thing in adventure ocean was the after hours, the 10:00 p.m. And later. Because like, 75% of the kids get picked up by 10:00 because people, there's some people have an aversion to spending any money on, so they just don't want to do that. And the great thing is, at that point, then it become the counselor to kid ratio drops significantly or increases. I don't know, whatever. You know what I mean? And it becomes a lot more, I think, personable in the sense that they get a lot more attention and they get to really, they get to do some fun things and just kind of like, what do you guys want to do? Kind of situation. And it becomes. They always enjoyed that. I'm not saying not guaranteeing anything for you guys, past performance is not, you know, standard lawyer thing.
[00:49:00] Speaker B: Disclaimer. Just disclaimer.
[00:49:02] Speaker A: Yeah, but that's a, that's actually, look, don't look at it as like, a negative. Um, by the way, one other thing to keep in mind is when you're in port, adventure ocean is open throughout the day in which you're in port so if you wanted to leave him in adventure Ocean while you go on a shore excursion, you could do that as an option. Um, speaking of that, they, on sea days, they will not feed your kids. You can't bring food in there. There's no food. There's a water fountain. That's about it. On sea days, if you were to, again, in the scenario, leave your kid on board the ship and you guys were to go somewhere else.
[00:49:32] Speaker B: Oh, I know.
[00:49:32] Speaker A: They feed them.
[00:49:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:49:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Because then, then they have, they presume.
[00:49:36] Speaker B: You'Re off the ship and they need to feed them. Okay, that's great to know. We're not planning on taking Nathan or we're planning on taking Nathan on with us for shore excursions, but that is a good tip to know in general.
[00:49:46] Speaker C: One more question here. So we give Nathan a lot of freedom when he's on a Disney cruise, so he can check himself in and out of the kids club, kind of wander around the ship. He keeps in touch with us, you know, that sort of thing. Do you have that level of comfort with, with royal? Do you give your kids lots of independence and, you know, is it is? Yeah, let me just stop there.
[00:50:02] Speaker A: Yeah, we do. For our kids. We will. As they've gotten older, obviously the leash has gotten longer. You'll see roving bands of teenagers from place to place. My kids are not part of the roving bands, believe it or not. But what we usually do is, okay, she'll be like, I have two kids, so, okay, you guys stick together or they have friends on board that they already know before the cruise began. You guys report back at this time or we'll message you or something like that, and they will go do those kinds of things for your son because he's not a teen. The dynamic, I think, is a little bit different because obviously the teenager's not going to, no offense to your kid, or probably not going to hang out with a ten year old that much. So they kind of do their own thing and kind of roam in their own bands, whereas he is on the older edge of the spectrum. Twelve is pretty much the maximum for adventure ocean before you get to the teen club. So I would imagine that, number one, he can't sell on himself in and out. There's no problem at all. Number two, do I have any concerns about my kids going around the ship? No, I don't have problems at all. It's certainly as safe or just as safe as any other Disney ship or anything like I was out there. Lots of crew members, people looking out and plenty of adults who overstep their bounds in terms of who they think they should be doing with. Just like worry warts of people who.
[00:51:12] Speaker B: Like to parent other people's children.
[00:51:13] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:51:14] Speaker B: I know exactly what you mean. Yeah.
[00:51:16] Speaker A: Yeah. So I think that's totally fine. I wouldn't worry too much about that. Oftentimes my kids will go, like, if they were an adventurous, like, they want to go back to the room and just hang out in the cabin.
[00:51:25] Speaker B: Right. That's what our son usually likes to do. He wants to. He might want to stop and get himself a burger. Well, in Disney on the pool deck, or get himself a soft serve ice cream and then head back to the room and watch YouTube on his phone or something like that. He just wants a break, you know? So that's. I'm not too worried about that. I think as long as we give him some parameters. We do know he liked the arcade on independence of the sea, so we're a little bit nervous he's going to want to be spending a ton of money in there.
[00:51:51] Speaker C: Well, I got him the arcade card in the begin early. I got him the discounted arcade card. Yeah.
[00:51:56] Speaker A: Okay. That's good. One other thing you can keep in mind is you can actually disable his charging privileges on his card if you like to, too. Yeah, that's another option.
[00:52:03] Speaker B: Yeah. He's actually the most frugal of the three of us, oddly enough. Okay. Um. Okay, I got a couple more questions for you. I know we're. We're at the. Towards the end of our time, but. Okay, I need to know, what can I get in the suite lounge? Like food, drinks? Like, I know that alcoholic drinks are from five to eight or something like that, but are there like, snacks and stuff throughout the day? And are there beverages, non alcoholic beverages available to me in the. In the concierge or sweet from.
[00:52:34] Speaker A: And I believe you'll see this in your email that you should have got from the concierge. I believe from 1111 you get beer and wine in the evening hours, five to eight, whatever it is somewhere around there. That's when you get the cocktails. And, like, the full bar menu that's included, there will be, um, for. We'll call it breakfast, lunch. It's not a meal, but in the breakfast hours, the lunch hours and the dinner hours, there are hors d'oeuvres that are served. So for breakfast it's going to be like, you know, fruit and maybe a donut or something like that. There's a coffee machine you already have the drink package. So that's almost irrelevant for you. But if you wanted to, there's a complimentary coffee machine in there for lunch in the afternoon. They have, like, afternoon snacks. It's just, you know, like, minor things. And then for dinner, it's like hors d'oeuvres, like, you know, pigs in blanket, chicken wings. It'll change every day. It's a little things a nosh on. But the drinks, by far, probably why you want to spend time in the. In the suite lounge and of course, the great views out there. It's a really nice space up there to be able to enjoy that. And then, of course, the concierge. I mean, I really don't want you to over or underlook the overlook, the concierge services, because they're very helpful. You should never go to guest services. Basically, they are there to make your life easier.
I didn't even know this was a thing until last cruise. They can actually deposit money for you, like, if you want to. Like, you know, I bought something and I want to offset the accounts. I want to put a deposit down. I didn't know they could do that. And they were like, yeah, they took my money, ran it downstairs, came back with a receipt for me. I was like, and I, sitting there sipping my drinks, I was like, this is great.
[00:53:52] Speaker B: That's awesome. And they can change, I assume, like, reservations you have if you want to cancel something or just change the time of it or all of that kind of stuff. All right, I love that. Okay. All right. Moving on to relaxing places on the ship. Okay. I know that the pool deck can be kind of crazy, particularly on a, on a sea day. Are there any sort of hidden gems of a quieter space? And I know there's going to be some that are probably not kid friendly and some that are kid friendly, but can give me a couple of options of, like. Like, okay, the pool deck is really crazy. Where is, like, a good place that I can, like, sit and read a book and relax and it's not going to be a belly flop competition in front of me.
[00:54:31] Speaker A: Number, I would say, actually, Central park. Um, if you're not interested in getting wet, I mean, Central park is the best place for that in the daytime. It's beautiful over there. There are seats you can go to. That's a great spot. The only, I think the issue with Central park is that seating is not that comfortable, but it's certainly an option for you. Um, but otherwise, you have access to the suite deck. So there's a special suite deck just for you on the. On the pool deck, which is nice because you don't have to compete nearly as much for seats out there. You can get your sun. It's quieter. It's. It. That's a great alternative. And, of course, there's a solarium. The solarium is for adults only, 18 up the suite deck. And the. And the suite lounge are for kit for all ages. So please don't let any old person browbeat you into feeling like you shouldn't bring your son there. Bring your kids there. I brought my kids there. Forget them. You paid your money. You can go in.
[00:55:19] Speaker B: Nice. Now, is there a pool there on the suite deck, or is it just a sun?
[00:55:23] Speaker A: No, unfortunately, it's just a sun deck. Yeah. So you're gonna have to go down for. For that. But if you want to read a book, it's a great spot for that. There's a bar up there, so it's kind of nice to kind of just chill out, especially in the evening hours, is also a great spot.
[00:55:33] Speaker B: Awesome. I love it.
[00:55:34] Speaker C: Sam only mentioned the belly flop competition because when I was on independence, someone decided to bring the belly flop competition to the adult pool and was fascinating to watch. Fascinating to watch.
[00:55:44] Speaker B: He told me about that, and I was like, I don't want that. Okay, that's. I don't want that. Okay. Thermal spa. Do I want to go to the thermal spa? Can I get a day pass? Do I have to buy a length of cruise pass? Like, what are my options?
[00:55:57] Speaker A: And you have to buy.
[00:55:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:55:59] Speaker A: You have to buy a length of. Length of cruise pass. So the question is not for me, Sam, it's for you. If you go there every day, sure, it'll be absolutely worthwhile to you, but you gotta. If you go there twice, it's not. You're not really getting your money's worth because it's just a. It is limited capacity. There's facilities. Very nice. You could tour it when you get on board the ship. It's a really good idea. But ultimately, it is your, like, if you can make it worth it, then it is absolutely worth it. But you gotta, you know, make the effort to get out there.
[00:56:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm probably not gonna. This is gonna be what happens with Brian with the rainforest room on Disney. He buys the length of cruise pass, and then he only uses it once, and I get mad at him. Yeah. Cause he's a waste of money. Okay. All right. Well, that answers that question. Okay. Rockwall. I was surprised by the way. I didn't realize the flow rider was included until I watched your video. But Rockwall, is the rock wall included? And.
Oh, nice. Okay, so golf, mini golf included, rockwall, flow rider, all included. And all those water slides and that dry slide too, right?
[00:56:59] Speaker A: And the abyss slide. Yeah. The shows are included as well. Cats, the Broadway musical included.
[00:57:04] Speaker B: I know. I hate cats, though.
[00:57:06] Speaker A: It's very. You're not the only one.
[00:57:09] Speaker B: I know.
It's funny. We've talked about this on the show a little bit. Cause I'm a big show person. So I was gonna ask you, like, is there a must see show? Cause we've got the water show and the ice skating show booked, I believe. I think those are the only two. Brian has cats booked for him.
[00:57:28] Speaker C: I've never seen cats, so I have to see it, and then I can hate it.
[00:57:31] Speaker B: So it's a terrible, terrible show.
[00:57:34] Speaker A: Aqua eighties, which is the Aqua theater show I think you're gonna love. That's my favorite of the Aqua theater shows. We are all of the same generation, I believe. And eighties music is just. I mean, it's. They did such a good job with that show. It's really good. The ice skating show. I know what you're thinking. Ice skating, really? Trust me, the show is great. Um, it's. It's very entertaining. They do a great job with that. I like that quite a bit. Cats is cats. You know, it's either going to love it or hate it. Uh, my advice is generally, see, as if on Oasis class ships, you get the best of roller entertainment. Make an effort to see the shows. The only thing I never recommend doing are any of the headliners that are like, magicians or jugglers. Those, you might as well don't waste your time. I feel like those are always dumb. If they have adult comedy, that's usually good family comedy. It's like you're gonna get jokes about the windjammer. I mean, I wouldn't waste my time there personally, but otherwise, the rest of the shows are worth it.
[00:58:25] Speaker B: What about the dance? There's a dancing through the decades kind of a show. Is that any good?
[00:58:30] Speaker A: If you're into. I mean, I don't think Disney does this, but, like, basically on the royal promenade, there will be different. Like, there'll be seventies night and there'll be eighties night, and they do these things like, these. These dances. It's a big. It's a big dance party out there. Kind of like, imagine, like, Times Square on a much smaller scale, like Times Square New Year's Eve kind of situation where you're all standing around and you're all like.
For some people, they love that. I personally couldn't be bothered to do that.
[00:58:57] Speaker B: Right.
[00:58:57] Speaker A: I prefer the. If you're like me, maybe you should look at some other venues. Scooter bar will have a piano player every evening. The pub. The english pub has a guitarist and that's my favorite place to go to on there. I mentioned the country singer up in portside. Barbecue also is another option for you. So look for those venues for the evening. Like after dinner.
Your son's over in adventure ocean. You're ready for that. You got to get the drink package value because you already had your couple earlier. Now go to the pub, go to the schooner bar, check those out and start to work those in. In between the big shows you already reserved.
[00:59:31] Speaker B: Okay. And zip line. I forgot to ask. The zip line, is that. I mean, yeah. Included. And can kids do that?
[00:59:38] Speaker A: Yes, there's a minimum height.
[00:59:40] Speaker B: I don't know how, how height or weight or whatever.
[00:59:42] Speaker A: Ten years old, I'm going to guess he's probably.
[00:59:44] Speaker B: I'm sure he'll be. Yeah, he can usually do. He could do all the roller coasters at Disney. So I feel like he's probably big enough to do that.
[00:59:50] Speaker A: The zip line is very short, but a couple things. Number one, it's free, so who cares? Number two, the biggest thing is like, it takes the longest time to get yourself set up. Like, to get all the equipment on. But once you have the equipment on, you can run back and get right back on the zip line. Like, I know you're thinking, oh, God, I spent all this time putting all this junk on and I only those up line was like 5 seconds over and over again, back in again. We'll have like that. Because that if you do it two or three times, then I think you're going to say, you know what?
[01:00:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Worth the time and the wait. Okay. I love that. All right. Anything that is an add on cost that you would say that's really worth it, right? Like, there's something that's really cool to do on the ship. We're doing the escape room. I don't know if that's a really worth it thing. We like escape rooms. We have lots of them.
[01:00:31] Speaker C: Indy was really cool. I thought that went on indie.
[01:00:33] Speaker A: Yes.
Best escape room. It has a NASA theme to it. Um, so totally different. So whatever you learn, Brian, there is completely useless on this one. But it's really cool. You're like, watch. It's a really neat one. I think that one is absolutely worthwhile. It's not. You just reminded me of something that's. That is included laser tag. Make sure you do that. Your son will love that.
[01:00:54] Speaker B: Oh, he loved laser tag.
[01:00:56] Speaker A: Sign up for a set. Look for a session in the. In the app when you get on board the ship, connect to the Wi Fi. Do that. Also ice skating. You can go free skating on there, and they provide all the equipment for you, so make sure you sign up for a session. That's really important because it'll get really busy for those things. Things that cost extra, though, that are totally worth it. I'm trying to think of. I'm, like, mentally going through the ship now in my head on the spot. The escape room is a really neat one to do the ship tour, I.
[01:01:21] Speaker C: Thought was really good on independence of the seas. So we signed up to do that, because on Disney, there is no ship tour. There is no.
[01:01:26] Speaker A: You can't do that.
[01:01:27] Speaker C: Yeah, there's no behind.
[01:01:27] Speaker B: There is a tour, but not behind this. It doesn't go behind the scenes.
[01:01:30] Speaker A: I often tell people, you know, it's where if you think to yourself, boy, I would. It'd be really cool to see the bridge and this and that, then it's worth it. If you're thinking to yourself, oh, my God, I would rather, like, do almost anything else than see the bridge in the. Then it's not worth it.
[01:01:43] Speaker B: Poke my eye out, right?
[01:01:44] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[01:01:45] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:01:45] Speaker A: Um, yeah, the. The cupcake and, like, the making the cooking classes. Eh, not so much. I think that's really not as important.
[01:01:53] Speaker B: I need to write down laser tag and ice skating because. I got it. We gotta do the sign ups for those, it sounds like, on, like, you know, the first day. Yeah, yeah. All right.
[01:02:01] Speaker C: Well, Matt, I know we have kept you well beyond time. I don't know, Sam, if you have one last question. I have one final question to round out the show.
[01:02:08] Speaker B: I don't. Matt answered every single one. I was just going through to check, and he answered every single one of my questions and more. So thank you, Matt. And I'm really excited now, actually, I'm going to be perfectly honest.
[01:02:19] Speaker C: There you go. Well, and if he didn't answer your question here, I'm sure you can find the answer over on his blog. But, Matt, I want to ask you one last question, which is just this. What is the one mistake that you think people going on royal for the first time kind of consistently make or that you. You sort of guard them against as they head into this experience?
[01:02:36] Speaker B: Oh, that's a good question.
[01:02:38] Speaker A: That's a really good question. I mean, there's some obvious ones that are just general stuff. And you're not going to do it, like, you know, flying the same day of your cruise. You know, some of the. I'm not talking about those. I think the, the check in process is probably the biggest one. People don't do it. They just assume that it's like, well, I was doing the cruise terminal and that kind of thing. And if you do everything ahead of time, which you've already done, you're going to walk past people who are sitting there and you're like, what were these people doing? They're just sitting around waiting for the. Nothing against old people, but the old lady who's trying to figure out, enter your zip code and then your son's zip code. I mean, just do it all. That's a really big one. One other thing you should be doing in the next seven days before your cruise. Read a past cruise compass. I know this is a shameless plug because we have an archive of past cruise compasses at royal caribbeanblog.com dot. But get an idea of the activities and the timings and the availability. Look at one for Oasis for the same western eastern Caribbean. Whichever one you're on, that one is going to be pretty much like 90% of your cruise. And get an idea of what to expect in terms of the cadence of the activities and when things are available. And so that way you're just, you understand it, um, going into it better. So you have a better, like, you know, these things exist, but you don't necessarily know when they're available or how long they're available for, and made a lot of other activities that you had no idea was gonna be there. Like, you know, different trivia events and things of that nature that really be like, oh, that's kind of a neat thing to do.
[01:03:58] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. That's great advice. I'll definitely do that. Um, I'm actually, like, rethinking about the ship tour because it sounds like there's a ton of other stuff that I want to do, and the ship tour is kind of a long block of time, so it's great. Yeah, I'm one, but I'm one of those people who I love doing, like, all the different activities and I want to fit everything in. And, you know, we only have a few sea days.
[01:04:18] Speaker A: Yeah, I know we were way over time, but what do you have planned for cocoa?
We have a poolside cabana.
[01:04:25] Speaker B: A poolside cabana, the regular pool at the big pool, not in the beach club, because I wanted to experience the, I wanted to experience what the regular people experience.
[01:04:39] Speaker A: No, that's great. Obviously, get off the ship early to be able to take advantage. Your value is how much time you spend over there. Your drink package works, which I mentioned, and make sure you take advantage of that. That's great. I was going to ask you because obviously, obviously it's a big part of the cruise experience and having a plan for that day and obviously not overdoing it. Sometimes people say, oh, I booked the waterpark, the zip line, and this and this. I'm like, timeout too much. You're going to not get any value out of anything. So the cabana, my favorite thing to do, odds, all things being equal, we spend. It's a really chill experience. You get the service with the cabana host. You're going to need cash to tip on that one. That's something else you mentioned.
[01:05:16] Speaker B: Okay, good point that. All right, we'll bring cash for that, too. That's good to know. And then, um, food at cocoa on Coco key is, uh, what brings you in your cabana. Oh, fantastic. Okay, good.
[01:05:28] Speaker A: I'm going bring to you food from the snack shack if you want to, though. See, Sam, we talked about you love Chipotle. There is, though, if you want to take a walk, um, at Skipper's grill or chill grills. Same place, same menu. They do have a make your own, um, taco station. It's basically like a chipotle bar over there. And they have fresh made tortillas that they pop out immediately. And I prefer just making my own little bowl of whatever, and then you can go to town on that. So while that being said, nothing wrong with having food delivered to you in your cabana, but if you were inclined, like, I could really go for, like a taco or a taco salad.
[01:06:01] Speaker B: I want to do both.
I might get, like, a hamburger and french fries delivered to my cabana and then go get some tacos later in the day.
[01:06:14] Speaker C: All right, well, we'll have to have an indigestion specialist on the next episode of this.
[01:06:19] Speaker B: We'll bring a lot of pepsid. Yeah.
[01:06:23] Speaker A: One more tip. One more tip. I'm sorry.
[01:06:24] Speaker B: You just know I love it. We love it.
[01:06:26] Speaker A: At, at this, at the cabana. Ask your attendant for the secret sandwich. It's not on the menu.
[01:06:32] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a, is this, is this a Matt special? Did you invent this sandwich?
[01:06:36] Speaker A: No, I didn't invent it, but it's, I perpetuate its existence. Um, it's basically the chicken sandwich with mozzarella sticks and sauce on top. So it's like a poor man's chicken parmesan.
[01:06:44] Speaker B: It's a chicken parm sandwich. That. Okay, I forget the hamburger. I'm getting the secret sandwich. That's it. That's done and done. I mean, I. Yeah, chicken parm is basically my favorite food ever. Okay, sold. All right, I'm sold. We're changing our name to the Royal Caribbean duo. Brian, I haven't even been on yet, and it's sold. I'm sold.
[01:07:06] Speaker A: There you go.
[01:07:07] Speaker C: All right. Well, Matt, you have done your duty then, tonight, because you have taken apprehensive Samantha and turned her into excited Samantha for a Royal Caribbean cruise coming up. So I can't thank you enough for that because I wasn't moving the needle. So thank you so much for doing that. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to come share your. Your thoughts, your tips, your tricks with us and our audience. We just. We really, really appreciate it. Thank you, Matt.
[01:07:28] Speaker A: Of course. Anytime. Glad to be a felt.
[01:07:34] Speaker C: Well, a big thank you to all of you out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you can keep getting great content from the DCL duo each week. We'd also love it if you'd head over to Apple podcasts and leave us a five star review. If you hit those five stars, that's great. If you leave us a written review along with a five star review, we will be sure to read it on the air at the end of one of our main episodes. If you're hovering over anything less than five stars, we really want you to reach out to us so we can take your feedback. Best way to do that? Head to dclduo.com to find all the ways to connect with us. It links to our podcast. Podcast our vlog. Our blog has all the ways you can connect with us on social media, has our Etsy store where you can find our fun beach bags and magnets that we designed as enthusiasts of each of the Disney cruise line ships. Has a link off to our Patreon if you'd like to help support the show. We really, truly appreciate each and every one of our patreons for helping to support the show. Each and every month has a link off to our show sponsor, Mypath Unwinding, where you can get more information about booking a fabulous vacation, which also really helps to support our show. All the things are there, including a way you can sign up to be a guest on the show. If you'd like to share your Disney Cruise line experience. Most importantly, you can always email
[email protected] if you'd like to connect with us, or you can call our voicemail line if you'd like to leave us a message. We love to include the voices of our listeners in our show. Just dial 402-413-5590 that's 402-413-5590 and that will head straight to our Google voice voicemail line. The DCL Duel podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company, or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflect the views of the Disney Company or Disney Cruise line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or a Disney vacation, please contact Disney directly or your own travel agent or the great folks over at Mypath unwinding travel. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous Disney adventure with the DCL duo. Goodnight.
