[00:00:00] Speaker A: Florida was hit by a hurricane and they closed Disney. They actually evacuated and closed Disney. What do you call it? Reservations.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Yeah, Walt Disney World.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Yeah, the reservations.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Oh, the reservations team, too. Uh huh. Yeah.
[00:00:16] Speaker A: So.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Have you ever wanted to strangle a cartoon line of dwarfs?
[00:00:37] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL duo podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding travel. And I got to get a better intro. Sam, it's review time. It's mail time. I say it all the time.
[00:00:48] Speaker A: It is.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: It's time to read another five star review at the top of our show.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Listen, Brian, I love a five star review at the top of the show. I think it's a great way to start. It gives us a lot of energy. It makes us even more excited than we are to talk to our current guest. Or at least I'm super excited to talk to our current guests, but I'm going to let you read the review first. All right.
[00:01:08] Speaker C: Well, this week's review comes from just a Disney geek, and I should say we are catching up here, Sam. It's July, from July 23 of 2023. So we're getting closer. We're getting closer to bridging the gap, but it comes from just a Disney geek. It's titled entertaining, fun, informative DCL podcast. The DCL duo are one of the absolute best Disney and Disney cruise line podcasts out there. The hosts and their guests are always a great look at how individual people choose to enjoy their cruise vacations. A real treat to listen to. As an avid Disney cruiser and cruise lover in general, I love hearing other fans stories about their DCL experiences and each episode gets me excited for my next cruise. So there you go, Sam.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: I love that. And I love that it fits perfectly with our show today because we have a first time Disney Cruiser. We have a guest who is a huge Disney fan but lives someplace where there is no Disney parks. And for a long time, there was no Disney cruising out of this continent whatsoever. But she has cruised before, just not on Disney Cruise line until very recently. So let's welcome to the show, Hannah. Welcome. Hi.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Thanks for having me.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Yeah, we are super excited to talk to you. Well, I mentioned, of course, already a spoiler. You are a huge Disney fan. But tell us, where does your love of Disney come from? When did you get into Disney and have you been to the parks? You are all the way across the Pacific Ocean in Australia. I should say so, yeah. How did you your love of Disney begin?
[00:02:36] Speaker A: Well, I'm the lack of being a bit overdramatic. So my genesis original Disney movie was actually the first movie my mum ever took me to see on the big screen and that was a little mermaid. And I actually got to see it three times on the big screen because the first time I actually went to the biggest. We're a little tiny country town, and so my mum took me to the big, the big town an hour away to see it on the proper big screen. And then my mum was the usher, the volunteer usher for the local showing. We've got an old heritage movie, normal theatre community thing. And of course, when your thumbs, their volunteering, got to sit the steps and be quiet, so I got to watch it twice because mum was ushering for two of the episode and that was it. I was hooked. I love Disney. I am. And also, then I've also got a coming back. So of course, I, all through childhood, love Disney, love everything about Disney, have watched all the vhs till they were dead. And then I must have, I must have been a very, very annoying tween teen on this day when Mullah was released on the theatre and I was obviously being so awful, my mother told me, I'm not dealing with you right now, and stuck me in the movie.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Theater and I cracked, oh, that's so horrible.
[00:03:53] Speaker A: So I cracked a major sass attack and said, I'm too old for baby movie Disney. It was Milan.
And I came out born again. I've never, never strayed from the path since. I went straight out and used my own money to buy the CD, the soundtrack CD, and that's it. Disney all the way. Classically. I'm a Disney movie person. The Fab five sort of is not so much a thing here in Australia because we didn't get the Disney Channel until our paid television did it when I was probably, I want to say late primary school, early high school. And of course, it wasn't a, that was a rich person thing. You didn't have Disney Channel, so we had the movies on, like the wonderful world of Disney on the weekend, on the nights. And also, like I said, I had all the, and I think we all did a bit of that recording off the television.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: That's right. As soon as you said vhs tapes, I was like, okay, well, she's, she's got to be around our age, so.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And so when I. And then it just grew from, it grew from there. Teens were really kicked off into the sort of like, fandom side of things. And then when I became I grown up in my own money, then I move and then I've. So I think some of the first things I bought my DVD player, when I bought one was Disney.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: And I still.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: I still keep them. I still have Disney plus, but I keep my DVD's. I like my DVD.
Yeah. And then what happened was I actually did an exchange here in America when I was at the end of my senior year and for a year, and I went to Florida and didn't go to Walt Disney World. And.
I know. And so from that point, I then made a promise to myself, if I was ever going to be in the place, I would go. So I have been to Disneyland in Anaheim, and I was also lucky enough to drag one of my long term girlfriends to Woodpeck. Whether you're purist or not, Euro Disney or Disneyland Paris, I've also done that.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: Sure. Yeah.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Desperate to do Hong Kong, especially now with the new, with the frozen land and the new Princess castle. And the big dream, of course, is a see and stay vacation at Walt Disney World. But unfortunately, as you've already mentioned, that's not only getting to America, it's getting to the other side of America. And so you're looking numerous thousands in flights before you even get there.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: Yeah, totally makes sense. Now, you mentioned before we started recording that your husband is a big cruising fan. He's not the Disney person. He's the cruise person. But how many cruises had you all been on prior to going on this Disney cruise that we're going to be talking about?
[00:06:38] Speaker A: All right, so we have both done one separately with friends. We had done one together.
The thing that happens, like from Australia, we have a few of the shorter cruises, but a lot of our cruises around here are a little bit longer.
My first cruise was an absolute newbie mistake. Me and my friends went, I've actually done the trans, the Trans Pacific with someone else. So we did Hawaii back to Australia for first time cruises.
That was a learning curve.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: Wow, that's a lot.
[00:07:10] Speaker A: 18 nights. You couldn't have paid me to get back on a cruise for a year.
And then we did a 16 night, my husband and I together, we went from Australia to Singapore and then.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Wow, that's a long one, too.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a long one, too.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: What lines? Those? What line? Royal. Okay. Both of them run royal royal.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: And I think my husband on piano.
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Okay, so let's dive into how you decided to book on Disney Cruise. We know obviously you were on a cruise out of Australia, so you waited until the cruising came to you. But tell us, like, what was your reaction when you heard that Disney cruise line was coming to Australia. And did you book right away or did you have to think about it and decide whether or not to cruise?
[00:07:58] Speaker A: Is squealing, running around the room, jumping up and down a reaction.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: That is a reaction, yes.
[00:08:06] Speaker A: Been waiting a really long time, been watching, been overly researching and I was hoping there was always the hope because even in the last, say, five years, cruising in Australia has exploded. See, we now have carnival, which we never had. Our virgin has now come, we've always had princess has been a big one round here. P and O, which also is a UK brand. We occasionally get there and then royals come in the last sort of ten ish years and got bigger. And we eventually, as we're getting the bigger ships and the newer ships and as long as, oh, maybe, maybe Disney will come. And then they did. And so I was actually at work when it got announced. I was very excited. Now, as you guys know, as vivid disneygoers, they announce and then you have to wait for all those people ahead of you to get tickets. So we're sitting there with the countdown, waiting for the general public to be able to buy tickets. And I don't know if you can remember this, but when it was announced Florida was hit by a hurricane and they closed Disney. They actually evacuated and closed Disney, what do you call it? Reservation.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Walt Disney World. Yeah. The reservations or the reservations team too. Yeah.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: So.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Have you ever wanted to strangle a cartoon line of dwarfs?
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Hours?
[00:09:30] Speaker A: I refreshed that website.
I was at work. I didn't do it constantly. I wasn't as bad as some people. I had three devices going at one point. Phone, iPad and the computer. Refresh. Refresh. Eventually I gave up. Kept getting though, just mind our pixie dust. I was going to stick their pixie dust because of course, and we had. So my best friend also came with us with her family. She ended up doing it and actually in doing a travel agent as well. We had people at the end of it who end up like four bookings because they were trying desperately to get out in any way they could.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:10:07] Speaker A: And as fate would have it, my cat walked across my head at 02:00 in the morning the following day. And as one does, I thought I'd get up and use the bathroom. I thought, well, I'll just try, I'll just check. And I got it.
So I thought I controlled myself. I didn't wake up my husband. I think he would have came at 02:00 in the morning, but I was as soon as he woke up the next morning. I was very excited to tell him, but yes. So people tried for hours and hours and hours. And because the hurricane, people couldn't get on. People couldn't get through the phone. And I also think Disney couldn't have planned it better for panic buying.
[00:10:51] Speaker C: I want to ask this. I want to ask this, as you head into the booking process, what was your expectation? I guess, let me say it this way. When Disney announced, what were you hoping to see in terms of itineraries and what was your expectation around pricing? So before they put any information out, what were you hoping to see?
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Didn't care as long as they got here.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: Okay. I love that.
I had a feeling that was going to be your answer.
[00:11:15] Speaker A: I knew it would be expensive because you pay a premium for Disney. It would also be expensive because it's the inaugural year and they also know if I. So like I said, my, when my, when I did take way too many screenshots, when I got the first little app and get your countdown, we were well over 400 days. Well over.
And so we didn't go the cheapest. Cheapest because we missed out because we didn't care. I just wanted on the boat. I really didn't care.
By the time we booked at 02:00 in the morning the next day, the first level of internals was completely sold out already. And by the time my girlfriend got her confirmation and stuff, she got a cv one, level two, they had all gone completely.
So basically, I think within, I want to say, a month minimum, maximum after you were looking at concierge only or the odd cabbage. It wasn't. And so I think I would have, we actually luckily lucked out with the booking we got because we also wanted the least amount of children. And so unfortunately, not unfortunately.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Did you, did you choose when school was in session then?
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Yeah, but so our summer break is. We're opposite to you guys. So our summer break is over, like just before Christmas, and then it goes to like the end of January, roughly. And so they started in October, but basically. So from other than the. And they started up higher than us. So I'm at the very bottom of Australia on the east coast, and they started up on the top of the east coast and worked their way down. And so by the time they got to Victoria, which is where I'm coming from, so from Melbourne, they, it was well into that December, January, February timeframe. So all of those I would have would vary. The ones, I think someone, the one, one of the ones out of Sydney had some ridiculous amount of children. And I think that was more children than adults or something like, I mean, someone mentioned it in the Facebook groups.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense. Yeah. Well, so if you're booking in, like, here in the United States, it's the same way. Right? There's going to be more kids. If you're booking where there's a kind of a normal school break, whether that's spring break or summer break or Christmas break, you're more likely you're going to have more children on board than if you're booking while school is in session most places that. Yeah, that totally makes sense. Okay, so you just were like, we're going to book whatever room we can get. I know you said you ended up. You went for an inside cabin, but you couldn't get the cheapest level inside cabin, so you're one level above that. And your friends, you said, ended up with an ocean view cabin because they couldn't even get an inside cabin, so those must have sold out. Oh, like hotcakes.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Real.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Really?
[00:14:06] Speaker A: And with the kids, they wanted that little bit. They wanted the split bathroom, too, with the kids.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.
[00:14:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: All right, well, what was the itinerary that you chose then? What, like, where did it leave from and how many days was it?
[00:14:19] Speaker A: So probably my biggest goal was I was very interested in the rotational dining, so I knew I wanted a four nighter because I wanted to also do polo brunch. So we actually lucked out and got the last sailing from Melbourne. So that's Melbourne, Victoria, and it did a four night cruise down to the capital city of the state of Tasmania, which is Hobart. Lovely city. We've been there before, so we. We were only off the boat for a very short amount of time, but. Oh, sorry, ship. And then it went. Came back up. So it was literally two nights, two days down there, Hobart, and then come back up. So two sea days, and then the stop day in Hobart. We were early, early February. So we were the last cruise out of Melbourne before they went back to Sydney to head back towards Hawaii. And we were also one of the first cruises after school went back before nighter. So we really, it was ticked all the boxes for us.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Awesome. So let's. Let's talk about. Okay, so you got the cruise all booked up. You are, of course, anticipating this cruise for more than 400 days when cruise day comes. You mentioned to us ahead of the show you actually went to the port the day of, but you're only, like an hour or two away, right? So we tell people, don't go the day of, but this is the one, one exception. If you live really, really close to the port, it's okay to go the day of. But what, what was your port arrival time? And how did the boarding process go out of Melbourne?
[00:16:05] Speaker A: So we actually came. So we're about 3 hours, three and a half hours away from the port. So we actually.
[00:16:11] Speaker B: Oh, so you're further than I thought. Okay.
[00:16:13] Speaker A: Yeah. So big area, big country. So we actually public transported in with the regional and then took the trip from. To the main, main hub of a. Of a main station in Melbourne called Southern Cross station. And then we took the tram, just because Melbourne's renowned for its trams. And we took the tram literally, when you got off the tram, you could see the ship. Very exciting. So we did that rather than pay to have our car and everything, pay for parking and all that. So we were. Our arrival time, if I remember correctly, was 1215. Because like I said, that's one good thing about being in Australia. When the click over time, the clickover time is all in american. So it's not 12:00 at night here. It's like, oh, in the app, set your alarm so you're ready to sit there and get your bookings. So we were boarding group 13 off. Top my head. And so. And unfortunately, but luckily we got there a bit early and there was people everywhere taking photos of the ship. And everyone dropped off. Cause everyone's overexcited. And then it started to pour rain.
Good summer cruising weather. He likes a bit of weather change to Snellbourne. And so luckily we actually got on early. So we actually got on. We were on the ship for our actual port arrival time.
[00:17:37] Speaker B: And that doesn't happen very often, but, yeah, that's pretty.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: And compared to when we cruised out of Sydney, which was the abs, which. It was a bigger ship, but it was the absolute shimmusuls. We were, I think, in line for over 2 hours when we tried to get on the boat at Sydney. It was ridiculous. It was chaos. Like, we were in line for a little bit, but that was because we were early. So you take the. You take the hit for that.
And Disney had umbrellas, so that's always welcome. So I would say the actual boarding time, once we got the all clear, less than half an hour from walking through to getting onto the ship.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: That's awesome. Now, what was it? What was the feeling like when you, you walk on to the beautiful Disney wonder for the first time? Of course, she's one of obviously, Disney's older, two ships. She's the second oldest, not the oldest. But you'd never been on a Disney cruise line ship before.
How did you feel?
[00:18:32] Speaker A: I was waiting, so it sounds stupid. And obviously in probably I've shown you've heard of this from the Kiwis saying it. A lot of the Australians in the Kiwis get quite surprised and taken back by the welcome on board. I am not gonna lie, I was waiting with bated breath for that. I have it recorded and I may have cried because when you've been researching and waiting and dreaming and planning for as long as I have, and you walk on and they actually say your name and that's when you know you're there. I know it sounds stupid, but any other cruise line, that doesn't happen and that's when you know. So my two big I'm on a Disney cruise moments was the whistle or the horn, the dream horn and the welcome aboard the family. And it was, yes, I have it recorded.
My husband also recorded my best friend's family coming on for it because I don't know if she knew. So the kids are very excited. So record it to them. Because for me, that was just once you heard, it's like, that's it. That is the moment, that's when. And it's just such a beautiful ship. I was actually very excited when I heard it was the Wanda, because I think princess and the Frog is one of the most underrated Disney movies. It's in my top five. I love it. And it's got Tiana's. And also the frozen stage show is also on the wonder.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: So, yes, I agree. The wonder for us, there's just something special about her. Tiana's is wonderful. The french quarter lounge is fantastic. The frozen stage show is amazing. Yeah, she's such a great. She's such a warm ship as well. I don't know if it's the decor or the cast members, but there's something warm about the wonder. And I will say, I'm not saying the other ships don't have some warmth to them, too, but there's something special, I think, about the wonder, but I love that. I love that you got to experience that. So let's talk about what you all got up to. You've got four nights, but one day you're in port, you mentioned at Hobart in Tasmania, actually, why don't we talk about. Why don't we start there? We'll start with your port day and then we'll talk about onboard stuff. So Hobart, you said the capital of Tasmania. Did you book an excursion there? Had you ever been there before? And what did you do?
[00:20:49] Speaker A: So Hobart is an absolute cracker of a town or city. Basically a big country town to cruise into because you literally cruise right up to downtown. So we didn't book anything. We have spent over a week in Hobart previously. We love Hobart. So we basically got off, did a few errands and did a few things and then got back on the ship. Had to do a check because there's a quite a famous local distillery in Hobart that makes gin. Had to put the phone call out for the family. Does anyone need a top up while I'm here?
Cause it's much easier to bring it back by a cruise ship.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
I imagine adult beverages.
Yeah. And for those who don't. Who are listening and who don't realize this, even though you're not allowed to bring liquor to drink on board, you are allowed to buy liquor at a port and bring it on board. But what they do is they hold it for you. So it basically gets checked and then you. You get it from the ship right before you. Or right as you're. You're disembarking at the end of your cruise. So you can buy alcohol. And people do it a lot in the Caribbean. They buy rum in the Caribbean and so I guess they buy ginger.
[00:22:06] Speaker A: Luckily my family was fully stocked, so didn't need to restock. But it's much cheaper than postage, I tell you. Having someone get off a cruise ship and just walk in and pick it up.
[00:22:17] Speaker B: Yeah, that's great.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: But yeah. So beautiful weather at Hobart. We had a really nice, lovely warm day. Hobart is very walkable. It's a very walkable city. Beautiful. There's a museum you can go that's free. We've seen quite a few people did that. There's a lot of lovely parks. It's a really old, old city. Lots of beautiful buildings. Lots and lots of kids. Didn't get very far past because in the port area there's a lot of really lovely. There's like seal statues. And because one of the big research schools leave from Antarctica there. So there's seal statues and huskies. And so lots of people just went around the port and that kind of thing. But like I said, the day we were there, one of the big ticket items wasn't open because we were there during the middle. And that's the Mona, which is the museum of old and new Art. I don't know if that had. I don't know, if that was an excursion you could do, maybe it was open for the boat, I don't know. But, yeah. So basically we just got off, walked around, checked, checked out the local haunts. I'm a crafter, went to one of my favourite yarn shops and then, love that, had an ice cream. And then basically thought, well, we spent all this money to be on the ship. So then we went back to the ship and also we went, much to my mother's dismay, we didn't do buffet lunch. Once.
I went to Tiana's. Cause I love Tiana's. I want that plate setting so bad with the frogs on it.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: Love that.
[00:23:43] Speaker A: But, yes. And then we thought, well, we paid all this money for this, food included. We went back and had lunch on the ship.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: Yeah. I honestly think that's a great way to do it, especially if it's a port that you've been to before and you have a shorter cruise and so you do want to take advantage of. Frankly, an emptier ship is also lovely. Before we talk about the onboard experience, I'd love to know. I mean, my guess is that most of the passengers were australian, but am I correct in that assumption, or were there any Americans that you could tell on board other than some crew?
[00:24:18] Speaker A: I think when the crews directed the shout out at the beginning, we had a few sort of more asian, I think we had people from China and stuff. More. I don't know if there would have been many. I think, also coming to Melbourne, I think on the cruisers leaving Sydney, you probably would have had more possible Americans coming on for. If you're coming to Melbourne, you need to know why you're coming down there, because it's a brute city, but most of the. Most of the major, a lot of them, they think it's Sydney. Melbourne's a better Sydney.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Don'T you?
[00:24:54] Speaker A: And we've got better coffee, too, but.
[00:24:56] Speaker B: Oh, we love our coffee, so that's important.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: I am married to the. One of the biggest coffee snobs you've ever met. We did, we did traveling in a travel trailer, as you would call it, a caravan, for a few months, and we took the coffee machine with us.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: That's my kind of van life. That's coffee.
[00:25:14] Speaker A: Well, let's just say my husband only drank cove cafe coffee. He did not touch the stuff anywhere else.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: Well, then he knows what he's doing, because the stuff in the dining rooms and on the pool deck should not be allowed to call itself coffee. Let's see.
[00:25:31] Speaker A: He calls it water. Yeah.
[00:25:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Because he's also a strong coffee drinker.
Yeah, pretty much.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: Well, then. Well, then he would enjoy Seattle because that's. This is a strong coffee town for sure. For sure.
[00:25:43] Speaker A: So Melbourne's probably one of the few places in the world that I think we've only got. I think it's probably less than a handful of Starbucks because they just didn't work in Melbourne because we have got such a strong, small coffee culture boutique copy culture. And we're not. And coffee snobs such as my husband, we're not into adding things.
[00:26:04] Speaker B: They have, like, flavors, things like that. Yeah. Right.
[00:26:07] Speaker A: Coffee.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: And raw sugar, because they get really thingy about their sugar. So does he.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: Coffee.
All right, well, let's. Let's talk about the onboard experience, because obviously that's what you were there for. You weren't there. Not to say that Hobart wasn't lovely, but you weren't there to go to Hobart. You could go to Hobart some other way. So. Yeah.
What are the things that you planned on doing? I know you did a lot of research ahead of time because you are a Disney fanatic. What were the kinds of things that you were hoping to take part in or an experience? And were you able to take part in or experience the things that you had planned on or were there any sort of big changes, I would say to the itinerary as opposed to what you had seen in videos?
[00:26:51] Speaker A: I unfortunately did not fulfill my goal of winning trivia. Oh, I know. I was in the top three numerous times. I did not walk away with a coveted medal because I am not a competitive person in. Until you put me onto trivia and then you put me onto Disney trivia, I'm a little bit scary.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: All of the Disney trivias on the cruise line are really hard, though. I think people don't realize, like, they ask some really difficult questions that even really die hard. Disney fans don't always know or they are tricky with the questions, right, where you're thinking the answer is one thing and then it's the other.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: A group of absolute trivia.
We followed them round a trivia. They probably thought we were doing the same thing to them, and they were numerous because they actually had a group of. One was a Marvel person or Star wars, one was traditional Disney characters. And I think they. I think they walked away. Was it five medals or something? They were on fire. I got, like I said, I was. That said, I was very happy. Other than the fact I did not get my eye, my wounded heart, I did not get my trivia medal. But I would say I was happy with the fact that I was usually only one or two points at max away from the winner. And I will take that.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: That's pretty darn good, I would say. Hannah. Yeah.
[00:28:21] Speaker A: So for me, I know it sounds silly, but I think one of my absolute favourite, favourite, favourite things about the Disney cruise. And it sounds silly, but for me, the boat wouldn't have to have moved. I would have quite happily have done the Disney cruise parked. I don't know if that's berth parked. I don't. Whatever you duck. There we go. Because it was, for lack of a better word, there was two very clear sections on the boat, which I'll talk about in a second. But to be full of a ship of my people, for lack of a better word, the outfits were incredible. The fact that there's Disney music playing everywhere, the people spontaneously, randomly bursting into Disney songs in the hallway.
They are my kind of people.
And so the actual cruising side of things was like, for me was a side note. It was good. It was a nice extra perk. We also took part of. We weren't part of a fish extender group. We were part of a. We just pixie dusted and I was pixie dusted. Such a niche. A niche Disney minute detail. Pixie dust, which was my favorite pixie dusting of the whole trip. It was. It was just the fact that it was the. Just the whole. The being absorbed around in Disney, but also being by Disney. Lots and lots of Disney adults on our cruise. Lots of, you know, because we also had a marvel day at sea and a pirate night. So we had lots of marvel people and lots of Star wars people. My best friend's husband's actually, he's a Star wars man. And you should. You've never seen anything as cute as a fully grown man chasing us. Um, he was so excited.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: That's so funny.
[00:30:13] Speaker A: It was very cute. Um, and he got his photo. Important thing. But for me, it was definitely just that. The immersion and the fact of being in the Disney with the Disney's. So you. There was also a population of people who were on the Disney cruise ship as it was a family cruise and their kids happened to like Disney. That was. They were more around the pool deck and that kind of thing. And then there was like a. And probably in the kids club, which was incredible. I walked that carpet with the fairy pixie dust. Actually, I was carpet from the whole ship, to be honest. But. But then there was this whole other level of put it the Disney crazies and that was just.
[00:30:59] Speaker B: Of which you're a member, which I.
[00:31:01] Speaker A: Remember, very proud and that kind of thing. So we didn't, other than Paulo Brunch, which I got. I was there when they opened it and I got my booking. We didn't do well because I'm, my husband drinks minimally, and I don't drink at all. So I would have really liked hot chocolate tasting without the champagne.
[00:31:24] Speaker B: Mm hmm. Sure.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: I'm happy to do mixology mocktails or mixology milkshakes, but the adult beverages are wasted on me. But I would have liked the royal gathering. But that was gone. I think someone said that was gone in like two minutes or something ridiculous like that when it went up for that meet the princesses thing. But yes, really, I just wanted to, I just, well, the main one was trivia and also just to be on the ship and in the ship and with the, with the people. With the people, like I said, and the pixie dusting. So the thing I talked about is I got a keychain of, I don't know, you might not. Alice in Wonderland, you know, the, the walrus and the carpenter song.
[00:32:11] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: I was given a baby oyster.
[00:32:16] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:32:17] Speaker A: To be that niche someone's got, it's gotta be someone's favorite movie, and I don't even know where you find them. I was so excited. I was like, there are Disney crazy people who are as deep as this is me.
[00:32:31] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. That's so much.
[00:32:34] Speaker A: And looks it.
[00:32:38] 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 Mypath Unwinding provide an amazing service. They are so knowledgeable and so friendly. We rely on them ourselves to book our family vacations and they provide an amazing service. And the best part is you don't pay anything extra for it. Disney, other tour providers and other cruise lines have built the cost of their commission into their pricing. So if you're booking directly, you are just paying that money back to the provider when you could be spending it on the kind of service you would get from my path. Unwinding travel. You've heard from their agents on our show. They are so knowledgeable, so giving of their time. They know so much about Disney Cruise line, sailing, concierge, other cruise lines, other all inclusive vacations and adventures. By that, if you have a vacation in mind, they are the ones to book it for you. So again, head over to mypath unwinding.com dclduo so they know we sent you their way. Thanks. My path unwinding for sponsoring the show. And with that, back to our episode.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: Now. Did you guys, did you guys get up to some of the, like, there's obviously regular trivia, then there's like family game shows on board and then there's of course, Disney crafts going on, on board. Did you guys get up to any of those things?
[00:34:02] Speaker A: So we, we did see a couple of the drawings. I like watching everyone else. I do not need to make a fool of myself. Thank you. I have nothing but sympathy for the beautiful craft work that I saw carried around by some children. How you get that back in a suitcase and off the boat, I do not know. I don't know how you do that because some of the wounds, they were great. I did see. But yeah, like I said, we did, we did a lot of time. We love trivia, a lot of COVID We like, we really enjoyed cove, the quiet co barrier. We did, we like our first sea day, we actually did polo brunch and that took up the whole morning as she care. And also we did a lot of people watching and a lot of live.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: I love people watching. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:34:48] Speaker A: So I.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: We love people watching. But you, you watched a lot of, well, I'll call it accused, right? You watched a lot of lines. Now, did you guys wait in line for characters or were you the ones sitting back watching all these people wait in line forever?
[00:35:04] Speaker A: So I, obviously you've heard about this from previous people, so I don't think it's a thing anywhere else, but because this was the first cruise. So to put it in perspective, I don't know if they do this on other cruises. You guys can tell me. Here in Australia, they did a timed cruise queue. So basically how they had it was, let's say Mickey was coming out 11:00 and they would have in the program Mickey 11:00 eleven till, say, 1115. Mickey wasn't there for 15 minutes. That was the amount of time they had allocated open for the queue. So if you were not in line at 15 minutes past, you were, you're out.
[00:35:50] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: To let, to put it in perspective, people were lining up 45 minutes to an hour before the queue opened.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So I will tell you in, yeah, in general. In general, on cruises out of, let's say, Florida Port Canaveral, specifically, you will not have lines that long, and they will not have as strict of a line structure. However, I will say when there are things like Halloween on the high seas and they've got the Sanders and sisters so bad. Yeah. So when they do, like, when there's a special character or special costume that's coming out, they do exactly what you're talking about, because then the lines get out of control and it's the only way they can manage it. So they cut it off at whatever time or 15 minutes after the start time. Right. Because usually, like you mentioned, people are there waiting 45 minutes, sometimes an hour before.
I waited for a picture with the Sanderson sisters. I probably waited about an hour to get my picture, and I got there 30 minutes, I think, before the scheduled time and then still had to wait another 30 minutes after that. So, yeah, I mean, the lines can get long even on sailings out of the US, but not like what we've heard happened over in Australia because there's just, as you mentioned, I mean, there's no other place to see characters in Australia. Not Disney characters.
[00:37:22] Speaker A: No.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: You can see Bluey maybe, though, but not.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, yeah. But so I don't know how far.
[00:37:27] Speaker B: We're obsessed with Bluey, by the way.
[00:37:29] Speaker A: We like Chili and Bandit and so to put it. So, so to put it in perspective. So they have quite often had one on. Is it three and one on four or one on four and one on five above the atrium?
[00:37:42] Speaker B: Oh, usually. Yep.
[00:37:45] Speaker A: Would go from the corner where they were waiting, and it would go right round the three sides, past the elevators, and start going back towards the other end. So coming around to the back of the character. So they're literally going the whole way around the atrium, however far that is. Same as they had. Yeah, same as they had. Problems? Well, not problems, but a bit of a bottleneck with the, like the photos of the golden Mickeys when they had Captain Jack Sparrow out there near preludes.
Because you've got also. I don't know if this is a thing also, in the normal sail, regular routine sailings, is there normally a line to get in to the shows before the doors open?
[00:38:31] Speaker B: Yes, but depends. Like, yes, there always is, but depending upon the ship and the itinerary and if it's something new, it will not necessarily be super long, but yes, there are people line it. This is the problem with. We call it rope drop culture. Right. So Disney unfortunately has, and it starts from the parks, rope drop culture, where everybody's trying to get in as soon as they open so they can get you first on a particular ride or whatnot. Well, and it used to not be nearly as bad on the cruise line, but unfortunately, some of that culture has permeated over into the cruise line. And so I don't think it matters whether you're in the US or you're in Australia. There, people line up for things earlier than 15 minutes before, 20 minutes before, even 30 minutes before because they want to get a good seat or they want to make sure they get in. And most of the time, they're going to get in anyway if you're on time, not, not if you're late, but if you're on time or five minutes early. But unfortunately. Yeah, that's, that's become a thing here, too. Yeah.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: Yes. So for, for frozen, we were there early, and so we were there early, early, and there was already. So we were past the elevators at 40 minutes before the doors opened for frozen.
[00:39:49] Speaker B: Wow. Wow. That's, that. That is. Yeah. Case more.
[00:39:54] Speaker A: We'll go. Keen.
[00:39:55] Speaker B: Yes. Now, did you, did you go and see all of the stage shows on. Okay, well, tell us what you thought of the shows on board the Disney wonder on the beautiful Walt Disney theater stage.
[00:40:09] Speaker A: They make it snow.
I want a baby spend so bad. They were just, I wasn't expecting the puppets.
[00:40:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: They're just gorgeous.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: Puppets are great.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: It's just gorgeous. So we. I have, I'm now one of those people. I have found. I have found my row for the Walt Disney World Theatre. I now know where I want to go next time. So we were quite far forward the first time for the Golden Mickeys and then for frozen because we were so early, I got my magical row, which I found. And then for the third one.
[00:40:44] Speaker B: What's your, what's, wait, what's your magical row? I'm curious.
[00:40:47] Speaker A: It is. It's at the break from the back. Where is. There's the wide walk through area. And there's no, because I'm six foot, my husband's six foot four, so we don't like to block people if we can help it. And so that row, because no matter when you're six foot and six foot four, there ain't no way people getting past your legs. Whether you push back, you got to stand up, you got to get out of the way. People are getting past you. It's just not happening. So we, I usually like to be near the edge and with that wide area, that's what's my magic spot. I found my spot. I got that for frozen. It was fabulous. And then for dream, which is just. It just incredible. So frozen wasn't as bad because frozen, we got matinees because it must have been a sea day. And that worked really well with dreams. They didn't, and I kid you not, when we went and saw. So we were the late Dina. So for the twelve, what is it? 05:15? Is it 515? 05:00 yeah. But obviously, because by that point, it was the last night of the cruise, there were more people. There were people through, obviously, children. They didn't think we're gonna last that.
[00:41:59] Speaker B: So instead of going to dinner. Yeah, yeah.
[00:42:02] Speaker A: There were people basically hanging from the chandeliers for dreams. It was wonderful. But it was busy, busy, busy.
[00:42:09] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:42:11] Speaker A: But it was great. So.
But, yeah, loved. I loved them all. I heard some people say that they think, like, I could see how golden Mickeys, I don't know if it changes the songs and stuff each time, but I could see. I really enjoyed golden mickeys. And the woman who. The woman who does the actress at the beginning and then does the Lion King. That woman can sing.
It was incredible. Well, I can see how that concept, if you've been on your 5th, 16th, what is it? What is Pearl now? 25? Is it for Pearl?
[00:42:42] Speaker B: That's right. That's 25. Yeah. It is the same. They don't. So it's not a fresh show. It's the same show every time. And so it's. The musical numbers are fantastic. I know, but. And the musical numbers are still fabulous, I have to say. I mean, I. I love it when they do the Lion King. I mean, there's nothing better. It's. It's just fantastic. But, yeah, it's. But some of it is a little bit tired. In fact, in my, in my.
[00:43:10] Speaker A: Well, you could actually do four versions, Cruella, and just rotate it.
[00:43:14] Speaker B: Yeah, you could. You could, you could. Yeah. But they don't, unfortunately, Disney listening. Yeah, yeah, I'm there.
We don't think they're listening. But if they are. If they are, they haven't. They haven't listened to us yet. Let's put it that way.
I shouldn't say they haven't listened to us. They might have listened to us. They're not taking our advice. Let's put it that. Let's phrase it a little bit differently there. Well, I'd love to know if you. So it's obviously, you mentioned it's the two of you. You have dogs, you don't have children. Did you get to. I know you don't drink, but did you get to enjoy some of the adult evening shows, like match your mate or some of the other sort of game shows, like pop or majority rules, that sort of a thing?
[00:43:58] Speaker A: Well, because we were the late dining by the time we finished, and because we were very lucky because we had marvel and pirate night. So basically, by the time we finished dinner, it was basically, get yourselves organized because as you said in Australia, we love a good line. And so even for the shows, you had people. So after dinner, so what, we would be out about the 915 930 ish mark. You had people lined up on the deck already.
[00:44:29] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:44:29] Speaker A: For the shows.
[00:44:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So you had to get up for heroes unite or for the pirate. Yeah.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: We were one of the very lucky ones. We got. I don't think it happens very often. We got double fireworks.
[00:44:43] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:44:44] Speaker A: So that was.
[00:44:45] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:44:45] Speaker A: Very good. But yes. So basically, once we sort of finished dinner, we might know, go, and if we're going to get changed or whatever, we're going to do. So we did quite. We did a few things after, like later, we did karaoke one night and we did the silent dance party.
Unfortunately, there was no sleepwalking goofy in the. On the australian cruises, apparently, because I would have been hanging out for him.
[00:45:12] Speaker B: But that we probably needed his beauty rust.
[00:45:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:16] Speaker A: That was the time difference. We were told the time difference didn't suit sleepwalking goofy, but that was one thing.
Later at night, we quite often had. Not very late, but that sort of roaming the characters coming and going, that was good because that's what I end up enjoying more than actually the people who wait in line. I just like the spontaneous characters appearing, but, yeah. So at night, we basically, we did the time of dinner show. The dinner was finished. You, Ben, basically got in line for the waiting for the pirate night and the marvels, and this going to probably make some people very cross at me. I like the pirate show better than Marvel.
[00:45:56] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:45:57] Speaker A: I know. Well, I don't know Marvel. I'm not a Marvel person.
[00:46:01] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:46:02] Speaker A: And I just thought the pirate knight's just fun. It's cute and fun.
[00:46:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:46:06] Speaker A: And the marvel. Unless you know what they're doing, you sort of don't know what they're doing. I know that sounds silly, but, yeah, it's like, okay, the fireworks were good. Really liked the fireworks. The music was good, but the storyline was wasted on me. Does that make sense?
[00:46:22] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense.
[00:46:24] Speaker C: Totally. We can't do a show on Disney cruise line and first impressions of Disney cruise line without talking about food.
So I know you had your palo brunch. I want to set that aside for a second. We'll get to that in a minute. But what did you think about the rotational dining on board and the food on board? Did it meet expectations? How are the show aspects of some of the dining? What did you think?
[00:46:45] Speaker A: For me, the food everywhere? I'd say there was a few outstanding things.
I had a few that were, they were fine, but there's some really outstanding things. I say the quality all over was a pretty good quality for me. One of the biggest joys of the dining rooms was definitely the theming and I'm a detail person. So the fact that at Tiana's, they all have matching coordinated cutlery and they're different and all the glassware in each dining room is different and all the bread bowls are themed and different, and I'm that crazy person who runs around, takes photos of lights, fixtures and plates. I'm that person.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:24] Speaker A: But so really enjoyed that. My husband's a big steak person, so he was very excited. How big? He had steak every night, so he was excited. We.
I. Unfortunately, the first night was I missed out on the show in Tiana's. So our next spoiler alert, we have booked a place saver for our next cruise. We will actually ask if we can possibly get Tiana's not on the first night if we're still on the wonder, because with the travel and the getting there and they're getting unpacked. I just had a headache and I thought, nah, I'm not going to enjoy this. That said, we actually. So I missed the show. My husband loved it. He really enjoyed Tiana's. I missed Lewis, I was so cross. But he really, really enjoyed the food. We. But yes, so. But then we had Tiana's, I think, for lunch at least three times. So we actually really enjoyed the food in Tiana's. We didn't do the buffet for lunch once. My mother thought, because mum's cruised before, she thought, Bashi does a buffet all the time. We don't. But then we're the type of people, if we're going out for lunch, we like to sit down and that's the joy for us. We like coming and having a menu and having the interaction with the staff was wonderful, I must admit. For us, the food in Tiana was fabulous. The food in animator's palette was fabulous. I struggled a bit with Tritons because I don't do adult beverages, and I don't like adult beverages in the cooking. I can still taste it. I found Triton's quite a challenge because everything has a wine sauce or a jus.
In hindsight, I probably should have just done the Mac and cheese off the kids menu.
[00:49:19] Speaker B: Mickey's Mac and cheese is excellent, I will tell you. Yeah. So I don't hesitate next time.
[00:49:24] Speaker A: Yeah. My, my start, my starter was wonderful. The dessert was lovely. It just. I found the mains. Lee had prime ribbon, that one. Or whatever. Whatever he had, he loved it. He had the steak and loved it. But.
[00:49:38] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that's the shot. That's the chateaubriand. That's the. So it's the best one because it's. It's. It's a really. It's a filet and it is. Yeah. It's the best.
[00:49:47] Speaker A: And also where the lamb is, is that the crowned lamb, the crumb lamb was very lovely, but. Yeah. So for me, Tritons was the challenge for me. But that's just personal preference. Everything Lee had, he really liked.
[00:50:00] Speaker B: Did you, did you all do cabanas for breakfast or did you do sit down breakfast as well?
[00:50:07] Speaker A: With breakfast? We did whatever. My husband has a talent for locating pizza at any time. Day you lose him for 30 seconds, he comes back with pizza. He's very good at it.
[00:50:21] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a good talent.
[00:50:23] Speaker A: Yeah. So breakfast for us was wherever we got there, whatever we did. We had cabanas for breakfast on Hobart Day. We had Paulo brunch on the first sea day. And then, I can't remember, we did on the last sea. And then we were animators for breakfast on our last day. So four day cruise. Everyone's so busy trying to squeeze everything in.
[00:50:47] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:50:48] Speaker A: I'd like to. I think on a longer cruise, you'd probably a bit more calm and settled and then.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well, we've got to talk about Palo brunch because that's. It's one of our favorite things on board any Disney cruise, frankly. And I'm curious to hear what you guys thought of it.
[00:51:07] Speaker A: Loved it.
Loved it.
Loved everything about it. We loved it. Absolutely loved. I didn't realize, though, so I put that in my note for next time. You can actually get full size Mickey waffles at Parlo.
[00:51:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[00:51:25] Speaker A: I didn't know that.
[00:51:26] Speaker B: Now I do.
[00:51:28] Speaker A: Everything was fabulous. We love Paulo brunch. We're brunch people. Anyway, we love brunch. And we were also lucky the time we were there. We actually had a couple of time. We had roaming characters walking around the back of the ship as we were having fun. So if I remember correctly, our service was Addy, and he was phenomenal.
So they haven't got the buffet back yet. They're still table service.
[00:51:55] Speaker B: It's not coming back. Spoiler alert.
[00:51:57] Speaker A: Yeah, that's all right.
[00:51:59] Speaker B: Buffet. That buffet is a COVID. It's a COVID casualty. Meaning that it's probably something they would have loved to gotten rid of before, and COVID gave them the excuse, and now they just don't need to give and make any excuse and not bring it back. It was probably pretty wasteful food wise anyway, but, yeah, I don't think it's ever coming back.
[00:52:19] Speaker A: Um, so we start, so I must admit we started with some cheese. With the cheeses we start with, and we may or may not have got more than one refill of the truffle cheese. That was divine.
Um, that's. My husband had. We. I had eggs Benedict. My husband had pancakes. We also had pizza. We had way too much food.
It was just, everything about it was just wonderful. I'd like. I want to go back again now to try the things we missed the first time and obviously get the Mickey waffles. I didn't know they were Mickey waffles, but, yes, it's a good excuse to need. But we were. It was one of the things we're most excited about. It was one of the things we budgeted for extra, and I do not regret it for a minute microsecond, especially for us, because we're foodie types, because we're adults traveling by ourselves, and we. And we. We love brunch. It's one of our things we really like. It was just. And the fact being dressed up and going to brunch and the service was incredible. It was just one of the top things we did on the cruise, and it was just amazing. Well worth the money. I know, I know. It's a lot of money. And it's even more money for us because the australian dollar right now is not real good, but especially for us. Worth it.
[00:53:45] Speaker C: So funny you mentioned that. So a couple of things I wanted to ask about as we wind down here before we get into rapid fire. So the first is, now that you've taken one of these sailings, sounds like you got a placeholder. Sounds like you're going back. Is there anything you wish they'd do differently around the Australia sailings the next time around? We're expecting summer releases here soon. We'll be getting back into the Australia season, the end of the year again, anything that you wish they would do differently, because I'll just say this on our side of things, I think we wish there were a few sailings that were more inviting to folks from the US coming over, wanting to see Australia, which is not the setup they had this past season, which is totally understandable. But as someone local looking to get on the ships, would you like to see them do longer sailings, different destinations, a different ship over there? Like, what would you like to see out of the next time around or the time after that?
[00:54:35] Speaker A: At the risk of being very unpopular, I would love, even if it was only one or two out of each port of call, I would love, for lack of a better word, like a D 23 on a ship. So like a child free. Not because I've got. I have nephews and nieces. I love my friends kids. We love kids. But to have that level of Disney, like I said, one of my favorite things was the Disney being with one's people, I would love that. And I think just the fact that I would. I would. I think they could, especially in Australia, because we do not have the regular cruising every, like, what is it? What is it? Six a week out of Port Canaveral.
[00:55:15] Speaker B: Or whatever it is something like that.
[00:55:17] Speaker C: Because you've probably more than. Probably even more than. Oh, for Disney Cruise line. Yes. Like you're talking.
[00:55:23] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:55:23] Speaker A: Four or five sailings a week when you've only got a set. I don't know. But we'll say 20 cruises because you also got to remember them. We're adding the New Zealanders as well, I think. I know they'd sell out and they'd probably be dearer. I think that'd be really great. One of the big pain points. I was expecting it. I wasn't surprised. But lots and lots and lots of people were surprised that the. They didn't change the currency of the ship to australian dollars.
[00:55:52] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:55:53] Speaker A: That was a big shock for a lot of people. And so the other cruise lines who have been in Australia for a few more years have included in the price the automatic gratuities straight off.
Because tipping culture is not a thing in Australia. We don't generally tip. And if we do, it is a extra little thing. And it's usually not. It's not a 17 or 18 or 20% as I know. It's getting stronger and stronger in America. I think last time we were in Hawaii.
[00:56:26] Speaker B: 25%. Yeah, the automatic.
[00:56:30] Speaker A: 15%.
[00:56:31] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, the automatic one. If it's an automatic one. It's 18% in the US, but I would say for most people at a restaurant, we're talking 2020. 5% is the normal. Like, that's a normal range. But, yeah, it's very, very different. Of course. Yeah.
[00:56:47] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's not a thing here.
[00:56:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:50] Speaker A: So a lot of people found that quite confronting and wasn't sure how to go about it. Whether you tip in australian dollars, whether you trip in american dollars, whether you do cash. That was quite messy. I wouldn't be at all surprised if next year, with the risk of making. I think they didn't do it this year because the sticker shock was already quite high to then also add the extra hundred dollars a day for a family of four, whatever it was, onto the price.
I think that's why. But that might be something they do in the future. Cruises. We're quite.
[00:57:26] Speaker B: I think you're right. We heard. We heard that they did for like the, like, coffee purchases and stuff like that. We heard that there was a switch over at some point to the just starting, just doing it automatically and including it in the price rather than doing it as a sign because we're used.
[00:57:43] Speaker A: To GST in Australia, which is general. So in Australia, unlike your poor guys, when you. The price on the sticker on the shelf, then you get to the cashier. That's a totally different price in Australia that's added. So the price on the sticker is the price you pay at the register. So they worked out that pretty fast. So the coffee and stuff, what you paid was what you paid. So that made it a bit easier. I would love longer cruises, but I can also understand they wanted to get as many cruises they can coming and going. My. Oh, actually, no, that's a rapid fire question. I'll keep that one back. I think I would be interested to see now that the first year, panic, excitement over. It'd be interesting to see if the next, it settles a bit more and goes Z. I don't know if you heard about the great Mickey bar debacle, the premium Mickey birds.
[00:58:36] Speaker B: Couldn't get them.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: You couldn't get them. They ran out. Yeah, I think it was like the second or third cruise. They were gone.
Also lots of people. I would really like one, but I've also got my eye on Halloween on the high seas out of San Diego. Haven't told my husband I would love because they didn't do. Even though the wonder was here over Christmas, they didn't. And lots of people really wanted a merry. Was it merry? Very merry cruise that we. That wasn't a thing. They were here over Halloween. They didn't have Halloween on the high cruise here on the high seas here. So I can understand why they didn't, because they haven't got the containers of the decorations just hanging around at port here. You know, you've got to get it over here.
But I would. Now that I've done a four nighter, I think my husband definitely thought that was too short. But I could also see why they did the smaller regular, because that's quite common out of Florida, isn't it? Three nighters, four nighters. And then they have a couple of longer ones, don't they?
[00:59:39] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:59:41] Speaker C: Well, Hannah, I think we have reached that point in the show, speaking of rapid fire, and your answer there just a second ago where I need to hand you back over to Sam for some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules and a dash of judgment of the round we know as rapid fire. So, Sam, take it away.
[00:59:57] Speaker B: Why, thank you, Brian. All right, Hannah, I am going to ask you a couple of Disney favorites, and then I'm going to ask you Disney cruise line favorites. And of course, your answers need to be limited to the wonder because that's the ship that you've been on. But we'll start with who is your favorite Disney character? And by Disney, I mean anything and everything that Disney owns. Tricky.
[01:00:17] Speaker A: It depends on my mood. I have fair quite a few. I have a soft spot, probably for really a lot of the sidekicks. I love pua. I love mushu. The sidekicks, probably. And I have a princess is up there, too, for me, but, yeah, I.
[01:00:33] Speaker B: Haven'T because we actually love it.
[01:00:36] Speaker A: Our table numbers at our wedding were Disney characters, so.
[01:00:39] Speaker B: Oh, very fun. Very fun. All right, a favourite Disney movie.
[01:00:44] Speaker A: If I'm going for classic, classic Disney. Probably my childhood. One of the little mermaid. Or probably princess and the frog.
[01:00:52] Speaker B: Love it. All right, favorite song.
[01:00:54] Speaker A: I've got to go back to Princeton. The frog. And it's probably dig a little deeper.
[01:00:58] Speaker B: Oh, I love that.
[01:00:59] Speaker A: God, I love the crazy lady in a tree.
[01:01:02] Speaker B: I love it. All right, now we're going to move on to the cruise ship. On board the Disney wonder, what was your favorite main stage show?
[01:01:12] Speaker A: That's tricky. Frozen was incredible because it was frozen, but I think because it was different and you didn't know what to expect. I really liked dreams.
[01:01:20] Speaker B: Really? Wow.
[01:01:22] Speaker A: But I didn't love it.
[01:01:24] Speaker B: You're losing a couple of points here. Sorry.
[01:01:28] Speaker A: Come on.
[01:01:28] Speaker B: I'm not saying dreams is bad.
[01:01:30] Speaker A: There's a Sebastian puppet.
[01:01:31] Speaker B: I know. No, there, listen, I.
Yeah, the musical numbers are fabulous, but I personally think that on that ship, that. That there's nothing that beats that frozen show. And the puppetry is just incredible. But you're allowed to. You're allowed to disagree.
[01:01:47] Speaker A: But I didn't get frozen and it snowed.
[01:01:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And Brian, remember, though, Brian says rapid fire comes with a dash of judgment. That's part of the fun. So at least that's what I tell people. All right, well, tell me, what was your favorite onboard activity?
[01:02:04] Speaker A: Actual activity organized by Disney was definitely trivia because that's my stand, but un Disney organized people watching and the outfits, because, like I said, it was. It's so exciting because we do not get the Disney culture, and we don't get lot of Disney banding and stuff. That's not so much thing here. And everyone had their full Disney flag flying, and it was. That was absolutely my bat and pixie dusting. Absolutely my favorite things. Just being in the Disney bubble.
[01:02:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I totally agree, though. I mean, I love seeing how people are bounding, whether that's at the parks or on the cruise line, and what ears they're wearing and all of that good stuff. All right, well, what was your favorite rotational dining restaurant? And this could be based on the food, the atmosphere, the show. I don't care. Whatever you think makes the experience the best. So which one was your favorite?
[01:02:58] Speaker A: I loved Tiana's, and we ate their numerous times for lunch, stuff for the actual, like, I didn't unfortunately, get to see the show, but animators palette with the lighting up and all that is incredible, too. But, yeah, gonna go to fun.
[01:03:08] Speaker B: All right. Okay. A favorite space on the ship to just kind of hang out and do that.
[01:03:14] Speaker A: People watching french quarter, hands down. And they're the most comfortable ship. They're the most comfortable seats on the whole ship.
[01:03:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it is a great. I think that is a perfect, like, listen to music, watch as people go by, eat some beignets. I mean, there's. There's really nothing better than all of that. All right, I need to ask you a favorite food item. First, we're going to do a sweet item, and then we're going to do a savory item, because savory is my favorite. So what is a favorite sweet item? Notwithstanding that we didn't have any Mickey.
[01:03:44] Speaker A: Bars available, all my desserts were really lovely. I did as your recommendation. I did do the cheesecake on the first day. That's only available at embarkation day. Cheesecake's not usually my thing.
But probably our dessert from polo was amazing.
[01:04:02] Speaker B: Oh, did you have the souffle? No. You had brunch there?
[01:04:06] Speaker A: Wreck brunch?
[01:04:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Which dessert things?
[01:04:10] Speaker A: No, we had a mixture of all.
[01:04:11] Speaker B: Oh, I love it. Awesome. Yeah, they have some really great desserts there. All right. A favorite savory item on board.
[01:04:19] Speaker A: At the risk of being like everyone else, I really liked the truffle pasta at animators.
[01:04:24] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[01:04:26] Speaker A: Truffle percentage and basically. And also anything from Palo.
[01:04:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, that's fair. I feel like anything from Palo in general beats everything from main dining because it's being made in such smaller batches and so they can really give it the love and care that that kind of food takes. But, yeah, that, that makes perfect sense to me. And if you're going to be.
[01:04:48] Speaker A: That cheese imperlo was.
[01:04:49] Speaker B: Oh, love it. Love it. Okay. Well, I've got to ask you, what is your. Well, your favorite ship is the wonder because that's the ship you've been on. But what is your bucket list cruise? If you could go anywhere in the world on a Disney cruise ship, where would you go? You ready?
[01:05:07] Speaker A: I want. Yeah, a Disney world park, theme park, round world cruise?
[01:05:14] Speaker B: Yes. Yes. Same. I want that. I'll be on it.
[01:05:18] Speaker A: I think so.
[01:05:19] Speaker B: Yeah, we're going to. We're going to Shanghai.
Yeah, I reckon.
[01:05:23] Speaker A: Yeah, I reckon they'll do. I reckon they'll do Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. Because where else can they be so close in such a one?
[01:05:33] Speaker B: Yeah, it's definitely possible. I'm.
Yeah, I'm not saying, I'm not saying it's going to happen, but I'm not saying it's not going to happen. It's definitely.
[01:05:41] Speaker A: Are they listening? Do that cruise.
[01:05:43] Speaker B: Yeah, do that cruise. Exactly. Well, it's got to be a different. All right, well, right. Yeah. Right. Well, thank you for playing, Hannah. Like I said, I think you. You did. You did great. With the only exception being that Walt Disney theater answer. So congratulations. You passed.
[01:06:02] Speaker C: Well, Hannah, we really appreciate you coming to us all the way from Australia to share your experience with your first Disney cruise. It sounds like you had a great time. You're planning to go back, make use of that placeholder, and we'd love to hear all about it the next time you sail. So please reach out. But for now, Hannah, I'll just say thanks for spending some time with us this weekend. We really, really appreciate it.
[01:06:21] Speaker A: Thanks for having me.
[01:06:26] 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. 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. Media has our Etsy store where you can find our fun beach bags and magnets that we designed as enthusiasts of each of the Disney cruise line ships has a link off to our Patreon if you'd like to help support the show. We really, truly appreciate each and every one of our patreons for helping to support the show. Each and every month has a link off to our show sponsor, my path unwinding, where you can get more information about booking a fabulous vacation, which also really helps to support our show. All the things are there, including a way you can sign up to be a guest on the show if you'd like to share your Disney Cruise line experience. Most importantly, you can always email
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