[00:00:00] Speaker A: Yeah, this one's right next to the police department because their overflow tables are actually right in front of the police department.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I know.
[00:00:06] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Like, in their courtyard. It's like, how can I deal this?
[00:00:09] Speaker C: Give them free beignets or something when you beignet. Safety first. All right.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: Safety first.
[00:00:26] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DC L duo podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding travel, and Sam, yet again, review time. Yeah.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Yes. I need. I need a review today because I broke my favorite coffee cup, and so I need a bit of a pick me up right now.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: Oh, there you go. Sam broke her.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: California.
[00:00:46] Speaker C: We are here all together. I can't keep up with the series of mugs for California adventure.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: I don't. What's funny about this is we don't have, like, all the different series of Disney mugs. I had most of the collection of the 2019 been there set, and now I think I'm down to just two out of the six mugs that I originally had.
[00:01:06] Speaker C: I just feel like the set names are turning into, like, a. What do you want to call it? Who is the piano player? Not a Ray Charles. Stevie Wonder. They're turning into c. You've been there. We've been there. You are here. We're together. Like, come on. So, yeah, yeah. So I like Stevie Wonders music, so it's not a knock on Steve.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: Anyway, I'm sad. It's my favorite California. It was my favorite mug, and it was the California adventure one specifically, so.
[00:01:29] Speaker C: Well, here you go. Listener review to brighten your day. And this one comes from CDE 48, so have no idea who that is, but thank you for the review. It reads, great show. We truly love listening to this podcast. Gain so much info from listening, and the hosts and guests are great. Well, thank you. Especially, I want to take a minute to thank you for leaving the review, but also thank all of our guests out there. Show is not possible without great guests. Speaking of which, Sam. Yeah, great guest today.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: We do have a great guest. We have not had this guest on for quite a while. It's been way too long. But we're so happy to welcome back to the show our friend Chris, who is also known as Chris in the concierge lounge on all things social media. Welcome to back to the show, Chris.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Thank you for having me again. It's good to be back.
[00:02:18] Speaker C: Yeah, it's great to be here, Chris. I gotta ask, at what point do we update the username? Chris in the star class lounge, Chris in the celebrity I don't even remember the haven. Yeah. Yeah. You're all over the place in terms of your cruise lines these days, which is great, in my opinion. Yeah.
[00:02:32] Speaker A: Yes. We're branching out. My son's just turned 19 and my daughter's turned 22, so they're ready to explore other things. We have icon booked. We have a celebrity cruise booked, so we're branching out. We have several Disney cruises booked, too, but we're branching out.
[00:02:45] Speaker C: Well, we should talk about your cruise line experience, but I want to continue this. This thread for just 1 second to say or ask. What keeps taking you back to Disney cruise line? Cause this sailing we're gonna talk about was just you and your wife. Um, what. What keeps bringing you back?
[00:02:57] Speaker A: The service, the familiarity of it. It just feels like home for us. And I'm very much a creature of habit, but we know it's going to be good. It comes down to the service, the quality of the service, the quality of the food. It's glamorized wedding food at the main dining rooms, but it's a little better than maybe the other lines. And so that's what brings. It's just like home for us. We were on the ship two minutes and three cast members recognized us. This was cruise number 27 for us, I believe, on Disney.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. I love that.
[00:03:27] Speaker C: Well, there you go. There's the summary of Chris's cruising experience. 27 Disney cruise line cruises. How many cruises you've been on overall, Chris, because you've sailed celebrity royal, you've sailed a few.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: So we've done two on celebrity, one on Royal, one on Norwegian, and this is really embarrassing. I've done two on carnival.
A long time ago, we did a carnival three night out of Long beach. Our kids were little kids. It was great to get away for the weekend. This was awesome because we were away from the kids for the first time. Let's do this again next year. Did a four night. That fourth night was just a bit long, and the ship had some trouble. So it was a long. It turned into a kind of a cluster of a trip. What's your, what's your flight? And even because ship got in late.
[00:04:09] Speaker C: What'S your second favorite behind Disney? I'm assuming Disney is your favorite, by the way, but what's your second favorite behind Disney? Who do you tend to gravitate toward?
[00:04:17] Speaker A: We really like celebrity. I've been on a new celebrity ship and I've been on an old celebrity ship and liked them both equally for different reasons. The food was outstanding on both of them. But we thought, you know, we were on a, you know, a magic size size ship in Alaska, and we were on the edge, which is more of a dream sized ship. So, like. Like, the one royal ship we were on was the freedom of the seas. It was our first cruise after COVID. So fun to go on a cruise, but I was like. So we're looking forward to icon.
[00:04:47] Speaker C: Yeah. I feel like Royal doesn't take as good a care of some of their older ships. I think celebrity actually does a pretty good job keeping up even the older fleet. So for Royal, I think those newer ships are the ticket to get the best of the royal experience. But we'll find out soon enough. We'll find out soon enough because we're weeks away from oasis of the seas, I guess. Sam.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: Well, Chris, we're here to talk about a fabulous cruise you took out of New Orleans.
I think you're the only guest having on for the New Orleans season. It was so short this year. It feels like maybe it was the same amount of time, but it felt short this year to us.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: I don't. I don't think it was even a month. And I know in 2020, when we first did it, it went from, like, January to, like, April almost. And two years ago, it was, like, maybe 40 days or so. So it was the shortest of all the seasons. Cause I.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: Excuse me.
[00:05:35] Speaker A: I did it two years ago. So we've done in 20, 2022 and 24. And this, by far, was the shortest season.
[00:05:40] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:41] Speaker C: And she's not gonna be back there in 2025. So there's at least some hiatus in New Orleans.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: And when they've done the seasons before in New Orleans, there's been a couple times where they've gone sort of back and forth between New Orleans and Galveston, you know, and so that's. They didn't do that this time. They just did, like, a few sailings in New Orleans and then back to Galveston. Yeah. So, yeah, you're right, Brian. I don't know that we've had any. We have heard there was some chatter in our facebook groups about some of the New Orleans sailings that were impacted by weather that ended up not having any. Not having. Yeah. Not having, like, any port stops or having altered port stops significantly. But I know yours was not impacted in that way. So let's start with. It was. This was a. How many nights and where did this cruise go? Obviously in and out of New Orleans, but to what port or port?
[00:06:30] Speaker A: So this was just a four night cruise. It's a quick getaway for me and my wife. And it just stopped in progresso, Mexico. In the past, we'd gone to Cozumel, so I was excited for a different port down there to see something different.
I wish we went to Cosmo.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Well, tell us about Progresso. So we haven't really talked too much about Progresso. Actually, I can't remember if we've ever talked about Progresso.
[00:06:50] Speaker C: Well, wait, wait, Sam, before we get to Progresso. Cause I wanna talk about New Orleans. Oh, yeah, sure. We actually. Dear Patreons, I apologize because I had said to you that we were gonna put out a special show of our favorites about New Orleans, and we just completely got lost in the shuffle. So for our patreons, a special message. I think we will probably share a few of those right now. Cause I wanna hear from Chris about some of his favorites in New Orleans pre cruise. But Chris, what did you get? You came in, did you just come in the day before? I think you came in a couple of days before. Right before the cruise.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So the cruise was Monday morning. We got in about Saturday, about four in the afternoon. So we had two nights there.
[00:07:28] Speaker C: Yeah. And you like to stay in the quarter, right? There's a hotel, you like to stay in the corner, correct.
[00:07:31] Speaker A: We stay in Omni, which is right there, kind of by the courthouse and the police station.
[00:07:35] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. It's a federal courthouse there, if I'm remembering correctly.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:07:39] Speaker C: Yeah. And I know you've got a favorite restaurant there. We ate there. We were messaging because we actually had breakfast there while we were on our trip, just by happenstance. And I'm trying to remember the name of the place, but you love to go there for steak.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: It's called the rib room and it's outstanding. Steaks. I said, oh, I've had their steak. My wife had shrimp and grits and she said it was the best she's ever had.
[00:07:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:00] Speaker B: Wow, that's high praise. I mean, because you can get shrimp and grits in. Not every, like any New Orleans style restaurant should have shrimp and grits on the menu. And so you can get it a lot of places in New Orleans, and I happen to love it as well. But it's got to be. Yeah, it's got to be really good. I love that.
[00:08:18] Speaker C: So, yeah.
[00:08:20] Speaker B: What else did you have dinner next time we're there, Brian?
[00:08:22] Speaker C: Oh, for, yes. We should try it for dinner. The breakfast was. Psych.
[00:08:26] Speaker A: Probably hotel breakfast, right?
[00:08:27] Speaker C: It was hotel breakfast. It was good. I mean, it was not a bad.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Breakfast, but it was just a breakfast.
[00:08:31] Speaker C: It was an $80 breakfast for three people, which is just not necessary. But our son really wanted pancakes. He was not going to budge off of the pancake train. We tried to offer him beignets and waffles. He wanted pancakes. And so we're just walking down the street and we're like, oh, they have pancakes. Let's go. Let's go there.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: So I found the dinner to be not cheap, but not expensive either. So.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Very much cheaper than in Monterey. I'm from the Monterey Carmel area of California. Much cheaper than this area here and much higher quality.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, and we have a steak restaurant recommendation for you, actually.
[00:09:05] Speaker C: Oh, I gave, I gave Chris this recommendation because we ate at a new place. It was a locals place. It's not walkable from the quarter. You'd have to take an uber, I think you'd have to take an Uber from any of its sort of downtown hotels. Do you remember the name of it, though, Sam? I'm trying to remember it.
[00:09:20] Speaker B: Wasn't it Crescent City Steakhouse?
[00:09:23] Speaker C: You know what? It's in my back and forth with Chris.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: It's something like that. That sounds kind of familiar.
[00:09:30] Speaker B: I feel like it was. Yeah, it was here. I'm going to look it up right now as we're speaking, but I feel like it was Crescent City Stakes. Yeah, Crescent City Stakes. That's it.
[00:09:39] Speaker C: There you go. Crescent City steaks. This is the kind of place where you walk in and it is. It is a locals joint. They. Very dark, old New Orleans, dark wood. They had booze with curtains on them. You know, that's probably where the mayor and the district attorney are getting up to some shady deals and. But excellent steaks. Very simple menu. It was just like steaks. Some sides, some salads, you know, not very fancy in terms of that. Certainly not fancy in terms of the dress code. You can go and pretty casual, that place. Uh, so, uh, highly recommended as kind of a locals place. We also tried a new italian place, Sam, or it's not a new italian place, but an italian place that I think I had been to once years ago you had not been to. And now I'm trying to remember the name of the italian place that we went to.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness, Brian, it's. You're. You're going to make me look up the italian. You're going to have to look it up. That was. It was also. It was in the french quarter. Kind of at the edge of the french quarter, I want to say it was.
[00:10:31] Speaker C: It's walkable from the quarter.
[00:10:33] Speaker B: It was really good. It was near the french market, actually.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: It was. And it. And it was also. It was walkable, and it was also clearly kind of a local spot. So I will pick up the name of that. Will you and Chris discuss the best beignet in New Orleans? Cause we finally did a beignet off. We did a beignet off while we were there. We went to Cafe du Monde, had a beignet, and then walked down the street to Cafe Beignet and had a beignet. And so, yes. Sam, your verdict?
[00:10:59] Speaker B: No. Well, first thing you need to ask, Chris, when you were in New Orleans, where do you beignet?
[00:11:05] Speaker A: So we've been going to Cafe Beignet lately because it's just a block away from our hotel, and I could go there and be in and out of there in ten minutes on a Sunday morning.
[00:11:15] Speaker B: Right.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: My wife still claims the other ones are better.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Your wife is right.
[00:11:23] Speaker A: I wasn't gonna argue with her, but the last time we went to Newmont, it was like a windy morning. You're in that tent. It's like wind is howling through there. The tent's, like, flapping against my back.
It looks so dirty in there. This was, like, right when COVID was hitting too right. I'm thinking, this place is just gross. And she was having the time of her life. It was so happy we went there, but the last two times, we just been going Cafe Beignet.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, so the lines. This is the issue. I think the biggest issue is you're going to wait in line at Cafe du Monde. Whether you want to do takeout or you want to sit down, you're going to have to wait for a table. It's just a crowded place. It is the most famous, right. It's the one right on the waterfront at the french market. So it's the most famous beignet place in all of New Orleans. There are other locations, but they're not really, like, walkable to that. That area. So, yeah, you're going to wait. So if you want a quicker beignet, I will also say, and a larger beignet, cafe Beignet has, I think, very good beignets. They were just a little bit, for me, a little too big and a little bit too doughy. They were more. They were like, a little bit more traditional. Doughnut like, I would say. Yeah. Then, I don't know. Both are good. Cafe DuMont won, in my opinion. And so that's why I agree with lisa.
[00:12:44] Speaker A: So that answers it. They're more like a donut I am the doughnut king.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: And I went there Monday morning before our cruise, and I think I left the room and was back in twelve minutes, and I had to walk a walk Monday morning. There was three people in there ahead of me. It was great. It was just quick, easy, grab some back.
[00:13:00] Speaker B: Well, and there's three different cafe Beignet locations right nearby. There's two kind of centrally located in the quarter. And then there's. There's one that's also on the waterfront. And so you probably. It's one issue of it's maybe not as famous as Cafe DuMont. And then the other issue, there's just more of them.
[00:13:19] Speaker A: There's more of it.
[00:13:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: This one's right next to the police department. Cause their overflow tables are actually right in front of the police department.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I know.
[00:13:26] Speaker C: Exactly.
[00:13:27] Speaker A: Like, in their courtyard. It's like, how can I deal this?
[00:13:29] Speaker C: Give them free beignets or something when you beignet. Safety first. All right.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: Safety first.
[00:13:34] Speaker C: So the name of the italian place we went to was called the italian barrel. It was down by the, like, the jazz hall museum on the waterfront, all the way toward the marina. If you go through the french market there, it's kind of at the end of the block. So it's a great little spot for italian food. If you were so inclined. A couple of other sort of make.
[00:13:54] Speaker B: A reservation, though, there.
[00:13:55] Speaker C: Yeah, make a reservation there. A couple sort of hidden gems. I think one Chris may have visited, and I want to hear about if he did, on the beignet topic. What did we discover this time, Sam? We discovered an amazing, wide open cafe du Monde in the middle of City park, next to a kids play, a really nice kids play area. So if you're going with kids and you can get an Uber to city park, it is a great place to walk around. They have a children's science museum there that I'd say is geared more toward younger kids than even kids Nathan's age.
[00:14:23] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a good museum, but it's for, like, a little kid children's museum.
[00:14:27] Speaker C: Lots of wide open spaces for kids to run. They had a putt putt golf course. It's a little bit of an extra fee. They had a small amusement park kind of thing called storybook land over there that's, again, geared toward younger kids. Nathan. We played putt putt with Nathan, which was a lot of fun, but they also had just a big park, like a swing set playground. Yeah. And it was right next to a Cafe du Monde. And that place had no line. It was wide open. So that's a great.
[00:14:51] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:14:52] Speaker C: Great recommendation.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: And it was cleaner, too.
[00:14:54] Speaker C: It was cleaner. It was cleaner.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: And indoor seating as well, Chris. Yes, indoor and outdoor seating.
[00:15:00] Speaker C: And anyone who's listened to the show long enough knows we love us some Pat O'Brien's dueling piano bars and hurricanes. And so Sam and I did spend some time in Pat O'Brien's this time. Just a. I mean, it is a New Orleans staple. It's been around forever. They, they really do have the best hurricanes there. And if you're not inclined to sit around and listen to the dueling pianos, which, ps, you really should, uh, you can grab one just like most places you can grab it to go in New Orleans. Put it a go cup for you. And they call them go cups. Not to go cups.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: It's go cups.
[00:15:28] Speaker C: You can get it in a go cup and walk out the front door and just, uh, wander around bourbon street drinking a terrific hurricane.
[00:15:34] Speaker B: And for those, and for those who are familiar with jelly rolls, the bar at Walt Disney World on the boardwalk, Pat O'Brien's, has one area of the bar that is the dueling piano bar, similar to what they do at jelly rolls.
[00:15:49] Speaker C: And they run it for a long time, like, it is a long stretch of, like, rotating each hour. Piano players. I mean, it is hours upon hours that they run that piano bar most days of the week. We did discover Pat O'Brien's is closed. I think it's on Mondays. And they don't do the piano bar.
[00:16:02] Speaker B: Until like, Mondays and Tuesdays.
[00:16:05] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. So check, check the, uh, check the hours before you head over here. Last one I wanted to, uh, talk about is, and we've talked about in the show before, is a favorite of ours, is port of call, which is on the edge of the French Quarter. It is a tiki bar, has amazing drinks, but they are known for burgers and baked potatoes. That's all they serve are burgers and various toppings. Oh, steaks. Did you have some steaks? That's right. Chris, I think I sent this recommendation to you. I don't. I can't remember. Did you, did you give it a try? Have you been over there?
[00:16:30] Speaker A: No, we did not. So it's. This is actually kind of embarrassing, but. So on the day we're walking around, we ended up decided, let's go down to the World War Two museum. So as we're walking, I had that in my mind, the place you told me. But as we're walking, I'm looking at all these cafes and restaurants, thinking, this looks pretty good. Maybe we'll eat lunch here. Maybe we'll eat lunch here. We get to the museum, and we spend probably twice as long as I thought we were gonna spend it. We've been there before, but I wanted to see. They had a new. A new part of it. And at one point, Lisa goes, I don't feel good. I need to eat. And I'm like, okay, do you want to? She goes, can we just get something here real quick? So they have a restaurant there that is absolutely delicious. But it's in the museum, right? I was shocked how good the food was. I had a shrimp po boy. She had. I forget what she had. She said it was outstanding. And then. I'm not usually a dessert person at restaurants and stuff. I don't know why I go, do you want. I was like. We were sitting there. I'm like, you want to order some dessert? They have some beignet dessert things. I ordered it. It's french fried beignets with, like, a strawberry sauce on it.
[00:17:31] Speaker C: Oh, you sent me this? Yes.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Oh, my God. It was so good. I mean, it's horrible for you, but it was delicious.
[00:17:38] Speaker C: Yeah, we. You know, interestingly enough, at the children's.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: No dieting. You're on vacation.
[00:17:43] Speaker C: Yeah. Interestingly enough, at the children's museum, they had a really good cafe there. We didn't eat at it, but I saw some of the food coming out, and I noticed afterwards that it was being run by. I think it's Dicky Brennan, who owns Brennan's restaurant in New Orleans, which is very famous. So. Yeah, New Orleans.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: I imagine this kitchen must be something similar. And I was, like, so excited to try one of these restaurants. On our walk back at all these places, I kept scoping out, we ordered there, and it was like, when the food came, it was delicious. I'm like, I didn't regret it at all. I had a great sandwich, and so it ended up being great.
[00:18:14] Speaker C: All right, well, next time. Next time we got to go to the.
[00:18:18] Speaker B: Well, next time we've got to go to the World War Two museum, because I keep hearing how good it is. We've just been waiting. Because of Nathan, right? Because he's.
[00:18:25] Speaker C: Yeah. Do you think it's a good museum for kids, Chris?
[00:18:28] Speaker A: I do. Nathan's nine or ten.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: He's ten now.
[00:18:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: So he's. They have a movie that's done by Tom Hanks. That it is. You know, it shows the. What war is and is outstanding movie. It's, you know, it has D day footage. It's, you know, so for some younger kids, some of the stuff might be a little extreme. I think ten years old, probably. That probably be fine. And all the exhibits there are very. They show you what war is. There's no sugarcoat in anything.
And the new part of the camp, they call it a campus. A new part with the Liberation Pavilion has a lot to do with, you know, the Holocaust and freeing the camps. And so it has a lot of pictures that can be very disturbing, but it shows you the truth of war. And then had that part. And then they also had part of the liberation pavilion was all the artwork, how they hid the artwork during World War Two, which I thought was fascinating, how the statue of David, they enclosed it in bricks, the Mona Lisa was moved like three or four times. So that's how we end up spending so much more time there because there was just so much to see. I mean, you could literally spend six, 7 hours there and not see everything because there's two movies and a lot of interactive stuff. It's geared towards kids where there'd be like a kiosk, we push a button and it tells you someone talking, the actual person that's in the picture. They recorded them like 1998 or something, retelling the story of what happened here.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: It is an outstanding museum. I cannot recommend it enough. It's just.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Yes. Sounds a lot like what. You know, the Holocaust museum in DC is like. And that's. Which is also a wonderful museum, but one that you could spend an entire day. I mean, you could spend 8 hours and still not see everything, probably, you know.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: And this new pavilion, it touches on the Holocaust a little bit, and the artwork a little bit. It's kind of adding to all the stuff. So it's like they recreated like showing where they had to sleep, you know, and just. They kind of look like stacked bunk beds that look like little cubicles. Right. They recreated that there. And they had the picture of like, when they found it and they recreated it. They do a lot of that kind of stuff there. So it's. It's really a powerful experience, I think. And I think all high school kids should have to go there.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:20:38] Speaker C: Well, we got to talk about your crews now. How was it. How was it embarking through the port of New Orleans this time around? I know in your. In years past, it's been hit or miss in terms of lines and waiting and, uh. And that sort of stuff. But how was it for you getting on the ship through the port of New Orleans.
[00:20:53] Speaker A: Um, it was really simple. We got there, we got picked up at 1030 at the hotel. So we're probably at the port 1040. I found the line for concierge. They let us in about five minutes after that, went through security, went to their little concierge waiting area, and the ship was a little delayed because I think the coast car was doing an expansion. So I think we were actually on board, though, by 1110.
[00:21:12] Speaker C: That's not bad.
[00:21:13] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:21:14] Speaker A: It was really, really good. So it's pretty seamless. The biggest problem was my magic band wouldn't work. So we had to go to the separate desk, the specialist or whatever, and he got it working.
[00:21:25] Speaker C: So it's funny because I've started to see posts of people. They're talking about the. We actually booked our first princess cruise for next year at thanksgiving, I think it is. And people raving about those princess bands and how you can find people on the ship and order things that get brought right to you. And then people are like, well, why can't Disney do that with these magic bands? I keep thinking, well, I got to get them to just work reliable.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: And I've had this problem twice now. I've used it, I think maybe three times. Once they initial thing at the check in, got it working. It worked flawless throughout the cruise. It always worked. Open my door then. It always worked fine.
[00:21:59] Speaker C: All right, so you get on board the ship, Chris, we won't spoil the surprise. So you, what stateroom were you staying in on board?
[00:22:06] Speaker A: We were in the wall suite.
[00:22:10] Speaker C: Just you and your wife knocking around the wall suite. That's a lot of space for two people, I gotta say.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: So it was funny because one of the concierge hosts said, well, I know where I can come to hang out. Between you guys and the people in the two bedroom, it's just a couple too.
So people down the hall from us was another couple, and they're suite. Wow.
[00:22:28] Speaker B: So plenty of room. Yeah. Now, this was your first time on the magic post, its last dry dock, I believe.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:22:37] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah. Tell us what you thought of, you know, you've been in, I think, the Roy and the Walt suite before and on both on the magic and the wonder, what did you think of the upgrades? Let's talk first about the suite upgrades. What did you think about them?
[00:22:56] Speaker C: Well, maybe before we do that, let me bundle just one question ahead of that, which is describe for folks the Walt suite, who may not be familiar with what it is. I think let's give them a little context for what it is. And then Sam's question is right after.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: When you walk in the walled suite, you'll walk in the door, you have a little bathroom to your left. You keep walking straight ahead into a family room, which is the size of a normal stateroom, what with the walled suite is best, basically three staterooms with. And let me take that back. It's four staterooms with. So the family room is two state rooms width. And then to the right, you'll have a dining room table with eight chairs. And the master bedroom to the left, you'll have, I call it the library room, which has a Murphy bed that comes down. It's now a queen size where it used to be a twin or double.
So it's bigger, I believe. And then you have the second bedroom, which used to have just two twin beds in it. Now it has queen beds in, I believe they're much bigger. So I sent a picture to my kids because, like, of all the years you guys are complaining how small these beds were, you're not here. And we got big beds and another bathroom. So you have three bathrooms in total, two walk in closets in total, a bar area, a family room. So it's, it's probably, I think it's about 900 sqft, if I remember correctly. So you have a lot of room to stretch out.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it's pretty luxurious. And there's only. So on the, I'm talking magic and wonder. I mean, they exist on the dream and fantasy, but they're different. Right. But on the magic and the wonder, you have two, you have a roy and a walt, and they are like mirror image of each other. I know on the wonder, they're actually, they're decorated differently, but I don't know on the magic, if they're, I'm guessing they're probably, they used to be before the refurbish.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: I imagine they still are.
[00:24:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. But why don't you. Yeah, why don't you tell us what you, what your impression was of the, the refurb, not just the, obviously, you mentioned the bed sizes are bigger, so that's, I mean, that's an upgrade, I guess. But what would you say overall of the refurb, of the suite?
[00:24:57] Speaker A: They, the layout? They, they, it's more open. Like more open concept. Right. When you're redoing the house, they took down a wall and made it more of an open. So there used to be, when you walked in this hallway, you had a bathroom, a wet bar came out to the family room and had, like, another wet bar and some bookshelves. Well, they took out the first wet bar that was, like, in a little skinny hallway and just moved everything back and made it all open.
Made it, like a real bar, like a couple bar stools. So it's kind of that. That is actually nicer than what they did on the wonder. So it's. The layout's a lot nicer. And you get a king bed, and the master used to be a queen. But the fit and finish and the materials they use, they kind of went cheaper than they did on the wonder. I was kind of disappointed with that at first sight. It looks gorgeous and beautiful. And then you're sitting there kind of looking like, why is there a gap over there? It's like, is that particle board? And it's just they kind of. You know, I think the wonder, they said better craftsmanship on it.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: We felt the same way. The one thing I will say I prefer about the magic, the redo, is that it's not creaky. Right. So the. On the wonder, all of the finishes in the concierge rooms is this beautiful wood. Right. It's all. And it's real wood. You can tell. The problem with the real wood is with the ship movement. You get, actually, a lot of noise caused by sort of the rattling of the. Particularly, like, the sliding door.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: There's a lot of creaking and cracking in those rooms.
[00:26:18] Speaker B: Yeah, just a lot of creaking and cracking. Yeah.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: But on the wonder, those rooms are original from 98 or 99.
[00:26:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:25] Speaker A: So they only did the royal suite on the upgrade.
[00:26:29] Speaker B: Okay, that makes sense.
[00:26:30] Speaker A: So, you know, my theory was it was a test for the wish, and I'm pretty sure I'm right, because the wish rooms look a lot like the wondered rooms thrill suite, where the magic looks nothing like them at all. So I think it was a test of materials and finish and stuff, because it. It.
[00:26:45] Speaker B: You.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: If you were blindfolded, you think I could be on the wish right now, when you're in the wonder row suite, that makes sense. It looks nothing like the other concierge rooms.
[00:26:54] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:26:55] Speaker C: We've heard reports from people about, like, you know, some mechanical problems with their rooms and things like that. You know, from talking to your pre show, it sounds like you didn't experience any of those kinds of setbacks. And everything was fine, except.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: Let me take that back. I. The. It has the keypads for the drapes. For the shear and the drapes. Right. And I can't. I couldn't give them the work. So I'm just pulling them manually. So I let concierge know. I'm like, you need to have someone look at those. I let them know on the day we were leaving because I didn't want to deal with their chain. Like, oh, yeah, they haven't worked since the second sailing. I'm just like, you could have told somebody.
[00:27:28] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: But. But I, you know, it's not just a Disney thing. We were on celebrity in Alaska, and Lisa kept saying, this room is so hot. Can you turn it down? I kept turning down the thermostat, turning down the thermostat. Finally, on the second day, I asked our butler, I'm like, am I doing something wrong? I knew I wasn't. I can't get this room cool. He goes, oh, yeah, the thermostats don't work in your room. They gotta do it from the bridge.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: I'm like, this would have been helpful information.
[00:27:56] Speaker A: He goes, you want down a couple? I go, turn it down ten degrees. I'll let you know how that works.
[00:28:00] Speaker B: And then.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: So, for the rest of the cruise, lisa was happy because it wasn't so hot in there. But, yeah, it's like, again, just tell somebody.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:28:09] Speaker C: Maybe put an idiot counter in the room. Like, just keep pressing that button.
[00:28:12] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I kept.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: I know how this works.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: I'm going to the blue.
[00:28:17] Speaker C: All right, well, stateroom aside, I want to ask you this because some of the amenities folks might not be familiar with in the wall suit, or one of the amenities is you can have Paolo dinner in your room for the wish and presumably the treasure. I think just in the high end, the tower suite. You can also get enchanted dinner in your room. I don't know if they do it in the royals on those ships, but.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: I believe you can. The royals, too. But we've never done it.
[00:28:40] Speaker C: Royals. Yeah. So did you get Paolo dinner in the room? I'm just curious. Or did you.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: Do you like to go to.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I kind of feel like the food's going to be hotter and better if you go to Paulo.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: So we did not get it in the room this time. We've done it in Europe a couple times when the kids are with us, and it's the last, you know, especially after a nine night cruise, we've got to do a lot of packing, that kind of stuff. Um, so, no, we did not get in the room this time. When the kids are with us, usually do it one time in the room, especially when the kids couldn't go to Palo. So it's kind of a treat for them. They both have it. They're. They're both 18 now, so. You're right. So the food is always good, but sometimes your steak's a little cooler because it's, you know, been sitting in a cart for, you know, took ten minutes to get there. I have no idea.
[00:29:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:20] Speaker A: So, no, we did not do it in the room this time.
[00:29:22] Speaker C: All right. All right. Well, that makes sense, too. I mean, I've always wondered if that's a really good benefit just because for the point you're raising, like, you know, the food. The food is not as fresh coming out of the kitchen and walking down the hallway, so. So, yeah.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: And in the past, we've done it where, like, our in laws were on the trip with us. We left the in laws in the room with the kids, got them.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: Pow.
[00:29:40] Speaker A: Then me and Lisa went to Powell hatter.
[00:29:42] Speaker B: That's what I would do. I would totally.
[00:29:44] Speaker A: So everybody was kind of happy.
[00:29:46] Speaker C: Like, see, now we need a term for the double dip of Paolo on this, on the. On the same night on a cruise. So, yeah, there you go.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: I've done it.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Now I'm curious, Chris, now we know that you are, as you mentioned, a creature of havin. So I'm curious. Did you go to main dining at all, or did you just go to Paolo?
[00:30:08] Speaker A: So, on the magic and the wonder, we always hit either rampunzels or Tiana's place. So we did go to main dining on the second night. And I gotta say, you know, the food's always good. It's never bad. It's always good. Sometimes things are better than others. But I had the shrimp and scallops, and it was probably the best main dining meal I have ever had on Disney.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: It was like they just made it, like, hadn't been sitting. And I had the shrimp appetizer was outstanding. And another appetizer, ahi tuna, which was outstanding. And then I ordered a Caesar salad just because the other salads didn't. And one thing I know, people know any of the Disney dine restaurants. You can just get a Caesar salad. They just can make you one right there. It's no problem. I never got it. And I was like. I was like, okay, whatever. It didn't bother me in the least. Right? I had enough food. Well, the next night, we're at Palo. Our server's taking care of us. Well, this other server came over that we had met the first day on the concierge lunch. The concierge lunch is usually Powell servers. He goes I want to come over and tell you that I can't remember his name. I wanted to apologize. They forgot your Caesar salad last night.
I was like, I probably forgot about it. We were good, but thank you very much. But they wanted to make sure. They were so upset that they forgot to bring me my salad.
[00:31:25] Speaker B: Well, that goes to show you, when the service is great, even when they do forget something, because they are so busy with, you know, many tables and many guests that they're serving in main dining in particular, that sometimes something gets forgotten or, or they bring it out of order when, if they realize. But sometimes they realize it's already gone.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: And I partially to blame for me, because I ordered two appetizers. I wanted the shrimp and the tuna, and I wanted my Caesar salad and dinner and dessert. I assume at the end of the night, they had a tray or station. They took the lid off, and it was my Caesar salad. And they realized at that point, probably, but I was, you know, I was fine. It didn't bother me in the least, so.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:32:07] Speaker A: But the fact that he was worried about it and wanted to get a message to me because, you know, he wasn't going to see us that night.
[00:32:13] Speaker B: Right, right. I'm curious, for dining, what you do, like, are where do you guys tend to eat breakfast and lunch? Like, are you pool deck eaters? Are you cabanas eaters? Are you main dining eaters for the other meals?
[00:32:27] Speaker A: So Lisa is not a big eater in general. Like, she can't. She hates going to brunch. And since she can't eat dinner. So if the kids are on the cruise, Nick likes to go to sometimes sit down dining for lunch. Otherwise, I'll just grab pool deck food sometimes. Or grab, especially on the wish. I love Donald's.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:32:47] Speaker A: In fact, I got in trouble last time. Cause we boarded the ship. And the sit down lunch on the wish seems like it takes forever for concierge. I told Lisa, let's just go to the lounge and grab something at Donald's. Right. And I walked off. Right. She was like, I wanted my muffuletta sandwich. It's the only time I can get it. I was thinking about getting my burrito from Donald's. So I learned my lesson. Other wish or the treasure? I gotta make sure you go to sit down lunch and breakfast. I usually go grab stuff from the lounge. She likes the oatmeal type stuff, the overnight stuff they have.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:33:19] Speaker A: She loves that. So I'll grab her a couple of those, and then I'll grab some sweets and.
[00:33:23] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: Nice. Yeah.
[00:33:24] Speaker C: Well this, this cruise stopped at a new port for you. I think you mentioned that up front progresso. And we started down that path when I so rudely cut Sam off. But, but, but talk to us about progreso. We haven't been. What did you, what'd you think?
[00:33:37] Speaker A: So I was excited for a new port. I was a little disappointed. I think I rather gone to Cozumel and it just could have been the excursion we picked. But it's not. Progresso. The pier is four and a half miles long so you're not getting off the ship and just walking to the stores, walking to a bar to get a drink or something. You have to get on a shuttle and go four and a half miles. And from I could tell the shuttle takes you at the end of the pier. There's a beach area and that's where it drops you off because our tour bus went through town and I don't think there's anywhere in town that you need to be going or want to go. It looks pretty, you know, rough.
Yeah, it's, everything has, you know, bars, steel doors, the broken glass bottles on top of the fences. So it's a very, you know, kind of a rough area. That's their, you know, of their environment unfortunately. But the beach area. I talked to someone, art Palo server. He said he, the first time he'd gotten off, I said where's the shuttle take you? And he said there's an area right there by the beach. There's some nice restaurants and the beach is really nice there. So from what he told me that area sounded very touristy and nice. But you have to take a shuttle to get there as opposed to Cozumel just walking off the ship and wandering around. It's like a freeway on top of the ocean. It's four and a half miles because I guess the ocean's so shallow there that they go out so far out for the ship's a dog.
[00:34:52] Speaker C: Wow. Four and a half for our run. Disney fans out there. There you go. There's your long run for the cruise out and back on the pier.
Four and a half miles. That is. Wow, that is crazy.
[00:35:02] Speaker A: And they actually said you cannot walk on that road either. Don't try to do it.
[00:35:07] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: And then you get to the end of the road.
[00:35:09] Speaker B: Oh, no running. So no running. Run. Disney friends.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: Yeah. When you get to the end of the road there's like a military checkpoint there to like let you off the pier or let you onto the pier.
[00:35:17] Speaker B: No way.
[00:35:17] Speaker A: And that's another thing I noticed there. The get to our excursion was about a 45 minutes bus ride total. You know, we're only going 23 miles an hour. I think we went through nine like checkpoints. So I'm like, this is either really good, they're keeping the cartel out, or they got so much problems here they have to. So I'm hoping they're trying to keep the cartel out and that's why it's like that.
[00:35:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I experienced that in Guadalajara. Actually, I think it was that we went and visited. We were with a family that did. My dad was in the liquor business and we were with a family that he was doing some business with. And we would kind of get driven around in these big suv's and there'd always be up a checkpoints coming up and like our suv would pull off to the side, another suv would go past up to the checkpoint. Some things would be said, some stuff might be exchanged and then we would go through the checkpoint.
So yeah.
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[00:37:18] Speaker B: I'm curious to hear what your excursion was and what you thought of it. I take it you booked it through Disney?
[00:37:24] Speaker A: Correct. Yeah. Especially. I tend to book through Disney. Just the fact that I don't want to get left somewhere. And, you know, in Nassau, I'm comfortable walking around. I've been there enough times, but never been there before. So I put it through Disney, and I had. It was the. I have it on my phone right here. The all exclusive beach resort getaway. PG 00:11 it had a picture of this beautiful beach, and that's why I booked it, because it just looked very relaxing, very castaway ish. Sandy beach. And that's all I was looking for. The reality did not match the picture.
[00:37:57] Speaker B: Oh, no. I hate when that happens. Tell us, what was the reality?
[00:38:01] Speaker A: The reality that there was no beach. I don't know if they had a hurricane last year. And so the resort was. It was a nice place. The people working there were really attentive and really trying really hard. I actually gave them a nice tip, like, in the food area, in the bar area, because I thought they were doing an astounding job. Had two big pools that looked nice enough. Lounge chairs and stuff. The beach, though, there was no. In the picture, it's hard to tell. The beach is like, ten foot below this wall on the pitcher. Well, I walked up to the wall, I looked down, and there's just rocks and broken wood, and there's no sand. I don't know if a hurricane destroyed it last year because there's four sets of steps to get to the beach. Only one was serviceable. The others were, like, half gone broke. I mean, I understand COVID hit these resorts hard. The economy is bad. If they would just clean up, spend a day, clean up the garbage off the beach, it would give you a different impression. There's cement with rebar sticking out of it and pieces of wood. It's like, it just gave me. I was like, whoa, this is. And I was. A kid could get hurt there.
And most of the families stayed in the pool area. I thought four or five people in the ocean. And when we first got to where the lounge chairs were at, where in the pictures, it was hammocks. There's, you know, 20 families within ten minutes, it was just my wife and I and one other person. Everyone else went back to a pool area because they were just, like, so dissatisfied with it.
[00:39:25] Speaker C: Well, and you sent me some of the photos of the food, Chris, in particular, a bean dish that looked like it had cut up hot dog in it or something. And so, like, I don't understand. I don't understand in Mexico why they just don't serve what really, every american tourist wants, which is just some mexican food.
[00:39:43] Speaker B: Right?
[00:39:43] Speaker C: Like, we can't get it on the cruise line, so give it to us in the port stop. So, yeah, talk to us about the food experience.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So I was, and I've, my cousin's gone to cancun and sent me a picture of a steak and eggs one time, which was eggs with a cut up hot dog. And all of a sudden I see this, I'm like, oh, my God, those were cut up hot dogs in this, like, chili type stuff. And so, yeah, they had, and their nachos was the yellow cheese, like, with the. It's like, I'm not at my son's little league game. They did have some chicken fajitas that were. But then they're pushing the hot dogs and the hamburgers. I'm like, I get that on the ship. I don't want that here.
[00:40:16] Speaker B: Right?
[00:40:17] Speaker A: And we have french fries. I'm like, great. I don't want. I want some rice, some beans, some tacos. And so, and another thing, when we were getting ready to leave, I was playing ball of waters in our bag, and Lisa goes, why are you taking all that? I'm like, well, I don't know what they have there. She goes, it's all inclusive, isn't it? I'm like, yes, but just in case. Just in case they had, they had no ball water.
[00:40:39] Speaker B: I was not.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I was not going to drink the water.
[00:40:42] Speaker C: I'm sorry, I. Yeah, no, that's a smart move, actually. That's a really.
[00:40:47] Speaker A: That shows pretty happy I had the ball water.
[00:40:49] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. If there's no bottled water, your only option. Yeah, your only option, no bottled water is cerveza because that's what we used to do.
[00:40:56] Speaker A: Well, their beer was all on tap, too, and stuff. So I'm like, I'm not. I like things in bottles.
[00:41:04] Speaker B: Yeah. It's just safer. It's, you know, not that their water.
[00:41:09] Speaker A: Is bad, but our stomachs aren't used to. It's the problem. Right, exactly.
[00:41:12] Speaker B: Exactly. Well, and it's some, some parts and some resorts in Mexico are great about filtering everything. Right. And so, like, you can drink the water and it'll just be fine. Like the higher end luxury resorts that you're. You'll probably be okay, but you're right to be cautious because the regular tap water, they have different bacteria in their tap water than what our stomachs are used to. Right. And so even though it might not make a person who lives there sick, it might make you sick. And you do not want Montezuma's revenge while you're on a cruise, you know?
[00:41:47] Speaker C: Well, and if they're not cleaning up the beach and leaving exposed rebar and concrete, then I'm not sure that I would suddenly start trusting the tap water, so.
[00:41:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So the whole resort just gave me a vibe of, like, you know, hey, and I get it. COVID probably killed these places. It was tough.
[00:42:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:00] Speaker A: But when we. When we went to the resort, we pulled off off the road, under this big archway, there's this big resort. I'm like, this place looks really nice. I'm thinking to myself, right? All of a sudden, we make this right turn, and we drive down a dirt road for a mile to come to our place.
[00:42:13] Speaker B: What a bummer. What a bummer.
[00:42:15] Speaker C: Well, Chris, anything. Let's go back on board the ship for a second. Anything new that you experienced on board the ship this time around? I know. I think you're fairly much a kind of get on board and relax kind of guy. Not a hundred percent run around and do a bunch of activities. But I don't know, if anything, you're.
[00:42:28] Speaker B: Not a Sam O'Brien.
[00:42:30] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Anything new on board that you caught your attention?
[00:42:33] Speaker A: I mean, the soul cat lounge looked really. We didn't have any drinks, anything there. We just. I kind of forgot about it until we were going. The Tiana's that are rapunzels that night, I'm like, oh, yeah, they redid this. And it looked. I, like, really liked. It was really nice looking. And the stuff they did to the concierge lounge, I really enjoyed.
[00:42:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: Otherwise, the ship was. You know, we were on the ship last in 2022 in Europe, so we spent nine nights on it there. So I know the ship really well.
[00:42:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:56] Speaker C: Nice. Well, let me ask this question, Chris. They're taking a hiatus from New Orleans. A, you think they're going back? And b, is it a place you'd like to see Disney continue to sail out of?
[00:43:06] Speaker A: 100%? I hope they go back. And so I'm hoping 2026 has it. If they don't, I'm gonna go on. I think there's a Royal Caribbean ship there. It was a carnival, but there's a Royal Caribbean, too. I'm gonna find another ship to sail on out of New Orleans, because we love. Just going to spend a couple nights there experiencing the. The culture, the atmosphere. I love the architecture of New Orleans. So I. This is, you know, we've done that now every two years, you know, in the last six years, so four years, actually. So, yeah, we love it, and I hope they bring it back.
[00:43:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I would love to see them.
[00:43:35] Speaker C: I'd love to see them send, like, the fantasy or the dream out to the west coast, you know, send them. Send that ship on to. Onto Australia.
[00:43:43] Speaker B: I don't think they can. I was talking with someone and it's not their width, so they're not too big for the new canal, part of the Panama Canal, but it's something about, like, their, their height. They're like, too tall to pass under, like, a couple of the bridges that you need to pass under. And so I'm not saying I know this for sure, but I was talking to someone and they were telling me that, and so that was so I don't know that we're going to see one of the larger ships come over. I love it, too. But don't they?
[00:44:13] Speaker A: Yeah, they lower it.
[00:44:15] Speaker C: They installed a retractable mast on the wonder during her dry dock. But I think that was more about the bridge in Australia that she has to pass under and being able to retract the mass so that it can pass under there. It's like the river cruises. The river cruises. When they go under bridges, they can actually fold the mast all the way down on the deck so they can fit under, and then they automate back up. I don't know. I hope they reposition maybe one of the fantasy of the dream out this way. I don't know what the challenges are about with that specifically. Sure, others could educate me on that, but I really love to see, I think the magic is getting toward. I said this before, I think she's getting toward into life. I think the wonder has got a few more good years under her belt. She seems to be holding up a little bit better than the magic. And I'd love to see that ship return to New Orleans, frankly, because they put Tiana's place on there. You know, why don't they have her going to New Orleans?
[00:45:04] Speaker A: So it's baffling to me because I know our sailing was full. And going back to your show last week, I had joined the Facebook group for the sailing before ours. Just kidding. I vibe of what was going on. Their sailing was full.
And so it's just, I don't understand. And it's like you have the treasure coming online, so you have an extra ship. Why they're not going to New Orleans? It just. Yeah, unless their port costs are higher there or something. I have no idea. To me, it was just kind of baffling.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: I wonder if it has to do with the commitments they made to Port Canaveral and Fort Lauderdale. Right.
[00:45:34] Speaker C: Because they had Galveston.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: Well, in Galveston, yeah, because they committed to two plus. So two ships full time out of Port Canaveral, one ship part time out of Port Canaveral and then one ship full time out of Fort Lauderdale, one ship part time out of Fort Lauderdale and then obviously one ship part time out of Galveston. And then with keeping the wonder on, you know, in the, I'm going to just say in the Pacific. Right. Because it's, it's, it hasn't, it's not coming back and forth through the canal. I think that's where the issue really is. So. Yeah, yeah, I would, I would love to see, you know, if we can't get the wonder for those sailings, I would be happy to get the magic for those sailings, but, yeah, I don't see why I'm frustrated that they're not sending the magic through the canal out to the west coast and then obviously on the way it would do that New Orleans and Galveston season as well.
[00:46:27] Speaker C: Yeah. They've really curtailed that San Diego season, which I know impacts you, too, Chris, because you are in California. So popping down to San Diego to get on a Disney cruise is one of the nicest treats we get on the west coast. And, man, that's getting fewer and fewer far between.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: We have a very merry booked in November out of Port Canaveral. And I got a lot of other cruises booked and stuff. I was like, you know what? Maybe we'll just find one out of San Diego. And I go, there is none this year.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: There is none. Yeah, exactly.
[00:46:53] Speaker A: And then I don't understand why they don't, when they leave New Orleans, they don't have like a repositioning cruise. I would love to be bored in New Orleans and get off in Galveston, fly direct home from Houston because I got to go through Houston anyway to get home.
I would purposely book that cruise.
[00:47:10] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great, I don't know.
They seem to reposition those ship empty always.
[00:47:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, they do a dead day, which makes no sense to me. I'm like, make it a five night cruise and, you know, do a reposition one. I would, I would. That's the one I would have booked this year because I got to take a connecting flight through Houston or Dallas anyway.
[00:47:29] Speaker C: Well, Chris, anything we missed about this cruise before? Maybe I let Sam do a little bit of an updated rapid fire with you.
[00:47:36] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I love that.
[00:47:38] Speaker A: No, I think we covered everything we had a great time. I had too much palo and too much food in general, but it was a great time. The quick, you know, I treated kind of like a weekend cruise at Port Canaveral. Just an extra day.
[00:47:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:52] Speaker A: And you get a couple days there and just, you know.
[00:47:55] Speaker B: Who. Who's your favorite server on the. On the magic in Palo right now?
[00:48:00] Speaker A: It is. Oh, my God. I have. Now I cannot remember his name. And we've had him. We had him in Europe. Oh, my God. I feel horrible.
I can't remember his name.
[00:48:09] Speaker B: That's all right. That's all right.
[00:48:10] Speaker C: We'll edit that part out.
[00:48:12] Speaker B: No, we won't. On purpose.
Just kidding.
[00:48:16] Speaker A: I don't care. I mean, it's like as soon as you walk on the ship, like, oh, and they just remember his name, right? But now it's like, yeah, I can't remember it.
[00:48:24] Speaker C: You keep getting great servers and keep getting moved to other ships, so.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:27] Speaker C: And then every time, and then we get on and suddenly there's two of them that we love both of, and we're like, oh, gosh, Sophie's choice here. Who's going to be our Alice servers?
Well, Chris, with that, I think we have reached that point in the show where I'm going to hand you over to Sam for some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules and dash of judgment of the round we know as rapid fire. So, Sam, take it away.
[00:48:47] Speaker B: Okay, so, Chris, I'm going to just ask you. We're going to ask some updated questions about your Disney cruise line favorites. I'm not going to ask you your general Disney favorites, but I got to know which one is now your favorite rotational dining restaurant.
[00:49:01] Speaker A: Rapunzels.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: Oh, really? I thought you were going to say Tiana's interesting.
[00:49:05] Speaker A: So it's always. I think it's rapunzels because it's always been special cruises. We've been on the magic. It's been in Europe, it was out of New York. And I have a memory of being in New York and Thanksgiving dinner, eating rapunzels with my family, my kids. And it always makes me smile when I sit down and think of that. But Keanu's was right there behind it.
[00:49:25] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, favorite thing to do on board a Disney ship.
[00:49:30] Speaker A: I love. I drive. My wife, she thinks it's hilarious. Cause we'll get back from doing some bingo or doing something. I'm like, I'm gonna go see what they have in the lounge right now for food, what snacks they have. I love to go see what snacks they have. Sometimes I walk in and don't get anything. And sometimes like, ooh, I like those. And take some of those back. That's kinda like.
[00:49:47] Speaker B: I love.
[00:49:47] Speaker A: It's kinda like a joke. She goes, she goes, I assume you're going back. We got back from massage. Are you going to the lounge? I assume, like, yeah, I'll be back in a minute.
[00:49:55] Speaker B: Speaking of lounges, which one is your favorite concierge lounge across the fleet?
[00:50:01] Speaker A: The one on the wonder.
[00:50:02] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the right answer. Obviously.
Across the entire fleet, which suite is your favorite to stay in? So, for our listeners who haven't listened to our previous shows, with Chris, he only sails really? Concierge. And even in concierge, he only sails in, like, the best suites. Right? Like the two bedrooms, the waltz, the roy, the princess Aurora, briar Rose, whatnot, all that. So, yeah, across the fleet, which ship and which suite is your favorite suite?
[00:50:33] Speaker A: So I discovered it by accident, but on the wish, the aft suites on deck ten.
And it was booked because it was a short notice for us to book a cruise. Was right. You know, 130 days out. I'm like, let's do this very. Marion, this room is available. I liked it so much, I booked it on the treasure.
[00:50:50] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: It is far away from the lounge. It's a hike to the lounge. But they'll bring you stuff you really want them to. But I need some exercise. But it has a nice balcony, which is aft, so in the evening, you can walk out there and you're not getting blasted by wind.
[00:51:05] Speaker B: And that one is a two bedroom. Is it that. Is that when the two story or the one.
[00:51:09] Speaker A: It's a single. It's a single story.
[00:51:11] Speaker B: Okay. Because the other ones I know that are on the front are two stories. Right?
[00:51:15] Speaker A: So those two story ones are much prettier inside. You know, this beautiful staircase. But I really like this. I discovered it and I liked it, and I booked it again for the treasure.
[00:51:25] Speaker B: All right. I love it. Okay, I gotta ask your favorite food item across, you know, on any of the ships or so across the fleet. I gotta ask a favorite sweet item and then a favorite savory item. So let's start with sweet, because my favorites are the savories. What is your favorite sweet item they.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: Have on the fantasy and the dream. Sometimes these donuts and cabanas that are, like, actually are good looking compared to the donuts. Like the magic that had two weeks ago. They're like a white with, like, chocolate stripe, and they're like, delicious donuts. It's like, why can't all their donuts be like this?
Because the one on the magic, I walk by, and they're like, these glazed looking donuts look like they've been sitting there, like, a week.
[00:52:04] Speaker B: Yeah, those ones, they look like. But, like, sad Krispy Kreme donuts.
[00:52:08] Speaker A: Exactly. And on the lounge this time, you're familiar with the little donut holes they have. They're usually really good. They were stale. I think they were frozen, and they thawed them out. They were horrible every day.
[00:52:21] Speaker B: Yeah. All right. Favorite savory item on a Disney cruise.
[00:52:25] Speaker A: I just like a steak. So I'm just give me a steak and some risotto, and I am happy.
[00:52:31] Speaker B: Yeah, but which do you want the steak from, Paulo? Do you want the fancy Miziaki steak? That's. No. Or do you want, like, 1923 steak?
[00:52:41] Speaker A: No. 1923 steak is horrible.
I have never had a real good one. I don't. 1928 steaks. It is what it is.
In Paolo, I usually get the filet multiple nights, and then one night I'll get the porterhouse. I don't need it. I don't eat all of it. At least I'll have a bite of it. But the Porterhouse is outstanding. I would order it more often since I can't. I don't eat if my son's with us, I order it because he'll eat his dinner and then he'll finish that. Yeah, but I don't want to waste food.
[00:53:10] Speaker B: Right. And the porterhouse, I think, is a stake for two, isn't it? I think that's basically.
[00:53:14] Speaker A: Yeah, but I'll.
[00:53:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Well, listen, I'm not saying you can't order it if you're only one person. I'm just saying it's, like, intended to be for you people. Brian and I have ordered it. It's fantastic. But, yeah, I wouldn't. It would be something that would be, you know, I'd be less inclined to order on my own, even.
[00:53:31] Speaker C: That's. That's what we mean by a dash of judgment here, people.
[00:53:33] Speaker B: That's what we're okay now. Are you a waterslide person, Chris? I don't know that I've asked you this question before, so I am a lot of times.
[00:53:44] Speaker A: I don't want to even deal with it, though. But I was excited to do the water slide on this sailing. I never saw it open.
[00:53:49] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: I don't know if there's something going on with it, because, like, a couple times, it was, like, during the sea day, and I'm, like, walking by thinking, oh, maybe I'll get my suit on, go on the slide. It's like, oh, it's not open. That's weird.
[00:54:00] Speaker B: I would have no idea. We had heard that there were issues because of weather. You know, like wind. There was too much wind that they closed down. The aqua dunk is what we're talking about on the magic. So I wonder if it was having to do with a too high of a wind, but it felt the same.
[00:54:17] Speaker A: Thing, but didn't seem that windy of a day. But, yeah, on the day sailing down, it was really a nice day. Coming back was a lot windier. So, yeah, I don't know. I never asked. I met the asked concierge, and I forgot.
[00:54:29] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, well, then I'm going to jump to your favorite ship, because you've been on all of them. You're obviously going to be going on the treasure when she comes out. But of the five currently in rotation, because we can't pick the treasure until we've actually been on it. Which one is your favorite, Chris? And it doesn't have to be because you like the sweet the best it could. I just sort of. Overall, which one's your favorite?
[00:54:51] Speaker A: I think the dream or the fantasy? The dream, especially. We sail it so much. When my kids were little, my kids kind of grew up on the dream. I think we've been on the dream, like, eight times.
So it's really kind of, you know, I have a lot of good memories, and I like the suite and the bout and the deck on that one.
[00:55:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:07] Speaker A: Let's say the dream.
[00:55:08] Speaker B: Okay, then the last question of rapid fire is, what is your current bucket list cruise? A cruise you have not yet been on. It might even be going to some place that Disney doesn't currently cruise to. But, yeah. Where do you want to go on a Disney cruise ship that you haven't yet been?
[00:55:23] Speaker A: I want to do the Panama Canal, but the trouble is, I'm not the kind of person that can handle six sea days or five sea days or I just have a hard time. I like to do a lot of stuff, and it's just I'm a very busy person, and Lisa knows that, so she's kind of like, nose, you'll get itchy.
It comes back to when we were on that sailing during Hurricane ian, and it got three sea days in a row that I got burned out on c days real quick. I never thought I would, but when you're forced upon you, all of a sudden, I got burned out.
[00:55:57] Speaker B: Interesting. Okay, so maybe. So it's maybe somewhere in the future, but not in the immediate future.
[00:56:02] Speaker A: So I did look, and we had it booked and circumstances or some personal stuff. I had to cancel it. But last year we're supposed to do a celebrity sailing that went to several stops when the canal came back and then went back. So only had like two c days in a row, Max.
[00:56:19] Speaker B: Oh, that would be nice. Yeah.
[00:56:20] Speaker A: So.
[00:56:20] Speaker B: And I've done that might be perfect for you.
[00:56:22] Speaker A: We did the New York sailing, which was two c days, two port duties and two c days. And I never got stirred, crazy or felt, but that third day in a row on the wish I was a miserable person.
[00:56:33] Speaker B: Well, thank you for playing and updating your answers on my rapid fire, Chris. It's always so much fun having you on. We've got to ask you. I'm going to take Brian's question since I let him kind of dominate the conversation today. But I got to ask you, what is next? What are you booked on?
Let's talk Disney first.
[00:56:54] Speaker A: So we're on the inaugural lighthouse point on the fantasy in June.
[00:56:58] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: And then a month later, we're in Barcelona doing Barcelona to Southampton.
[00:57:04] Speaker B: Oh, fantastic.
[00:57:04] Speaker A: So on the dream, and we get off in Southampton and we have an abd with that.
[00:57:10] Speaker B: Oh, awesome.
[00:57:11] Speaker A: And then we have the fantasy in November for Lighthouse Point Castaway. Castaway, maybe, but I might be changing that one. I'm not sure if we're going to do that one.
[00:57:22] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, sounds like you've got a lot of great stuff planned. And you also. I'm.
[00:57:27] Speaker A: And the treasure in March.
[00:57:28] Speaker B: Yeah, I was going to say, I'm sure you have something booked on the treasure and then you also have some non Disney cruises booked as well. Tell us what you've got booked there.
[00:57:37] Speaker A: So we have the celebrity for New Year's with the family, and then we have icon the seas next June with the whole family.
[00:57:44] Speaker B: Oh, awesome. Fantastic.
[00:57:46] Speaker C: I'll be so curious to follow along and hear your thoughts about Icahn, Chris, because I'm really interested. I've said this before. We got to wait until Sam see what she thinks about the Royal Caribbean cruise experience overall. But icon of the seas really intrigues me. And actually what's fascinating to me is they're already selling the next ship. Well, Disney's still, we did just have the 2025 itinerary release, so I should say we're back to about a year's worth of cruises, a year and a half worth of cruises out there now. But it's amazing to me that some of these lines are selling.
[00:58:12] Speaker A: You can book 2026.
[00:58:14] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And on the new ship, it's not like we don't have itineraries for the adventure or the next ship before it's even launched. So yeah, yeah. So. Well, Chris, as always, we appreciate you taking time out of what we know is a busy day for you to spend some time with us and our audience and share your experience sailing out of New Orleans. So thank you so much, Chris. Love having you on and hope to have you back.
[00:58:34] Speaker A: Thank you for having me again. I appreciate it.
[00:58:40] Speaker C: Big thank you to all of you out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Please be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from the DCL duo each week. We'd also love it if you'd head over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a five star review. If you hit those five stars, that's great. If you leave us a written review along with a five star review, we will be sure to read it on the air at the end of one of our main episodes. If you're hovering over anything less than five stars, we really want you to reach out to us so we can take your feedback. Best way to do that? Head to dclduo.com to find all the ways to connect with us. It links to our podcast, our vlog. Our blog has all the ways you can connect with us on social media, has our Etsy store where you can find our fun beach bags and magnets that we designed as enthusiasts of each of the Disney Cruise line ships has a link off to our Patreon if you'd like to help support the show. We really, truly appreciate each and every one of our patreons for helping to support the show. Each and every, every month has a link off to our show sponsor. My path unwinding, where you can get more information about booking a fabulous vacation, which also really helps to support our show. All the things are there, including a way you can sign up to be a guest on the show if you'd like to share your Disney Cruise line experience. Most importantly, you can always email
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