[00:00:00] Speaker A: All right, kind of cool now with Disney news. All right, that's a lot.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: That's a lot.
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Walter, we're handing the mic over to you for a little bit here.
[00:00:08] Speaker C: We need a Margarita first.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
Welcome back, everybody, to a live episode of the DC l duo podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding travel. And Sam, we got a great, great guest with us tonight. Right?
[00:00:31] Speaker C: I know, I know. And I love that he's dancing to our show. Music.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: You guys have fireworks? Oh, man, I need fireworks in my open.
[00:00:39] Speaker C: Well, you know what, Walter? You know, Disney Cruise line has the only fireworks at sea in the industry, so we've got to give it to them for that, right?
[00:00:48] Speaker B: They are cool. And it is cool, right? You say, oh, that's going to be kind of a joke. And then you see them and you're like, oh, my God, this is actually kind of cool.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: And they've got. They've gotten better because they've. Now they've equipped it so they can come off both the front and the back of the ship at the same time, double the fight. So. Yes.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: So cool. So cool.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: All right, well, we've got a fun show planned for you tonight. We've got sort of a show in three acts tonight. We're going to be talking about just a truckload of Disney Cruise line news that came out last week. Wanted to take some time to do that at the top of the show. Probably more news than Samurai anticipated with Disney Cruise line in a week. We did not expect all this unexpected. And then we are going to talk to Walter a little bit about his time on the Margaritaville because that's not a new cruise line, but it's a new ship. And so we want to hear about that. And then we want to hear from Walter. We're going to leverage Walter for a little couples therapy here to help allay our fears and concerns about virgin voyages. In October, I've grown increasingly apprehensive, so.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Oh, come on now, Brian.
[00:01:50] Speaker C: You've got to actually introduce.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: Yes, well, go for it. You do the intros. I just do the. I do the setups.
[00:01:56] Speaker C: So we have been on Walter's show. Walter is Walter from. Where's Walter? Travel. And he has his own YouTube show. He does live shows all the time about different travel topics, covers a lot of cruising content, of course, not just Disney, but other cruise lines as well. And Walter himself has experience on Disney Cruise line and on many other cruise lines. So we are excited for the first time to welcome you to the show. We've been guests on your show, I think twice now.
[00:02:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:25] Speaker C: We're like, we gotta figure a topic to have Walter come and join us because it was so fun being on your show. So welcome to the show, Walter.
[00:02:33] Speaker B: Well, thank you so much. It's so much fun to be here. And what a lineup of things to talk about tonight. Holy crap.
[00:02:39] Speaker C: Right?
[00:02:41] Speaker A: Lots of stuff. Lots of stuff. All right, let's start with Disney News. I'm going to have to scroll back to the beginning here. First. Big announcement. We got a ton of news.
[00:02:52] Speaker C: Announcement.
[00:02:52] Speaker A: Huge Disney adventure.
[00:02:55] Speaker B: Really big.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: Really big news.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: It was for a big ship. There was some big news. So the Disney adventure, they announced this graphic came out and it's supposed to represent this concept of spaces on the ship. I would call them neighborhoods. That's the term that Royal Caribbean uses for this kind of thing.
And they announced just a ton of these new spaces and what they're going to be geared towards. And so we wanted to share some of you with that tonight. Some of that with you tonight. So starting I'm going to just sort of read through some of the Disney information that came out about the ship. They talk about, it looks like about seven different spaces, maybe a few more on the ship.
[00:03:36] Speaker C: Seven neighborhoods.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Seven neighborhoods, yeah, yeah. Seven themed areas is what they call it in their announcement. And so we've got the Disney imagination garden, which they describe as the emotional heart of the Disney adventure. An enchanted valley, charming garden and open air performance venue all and all in one. Now, to me, that sounds like the atrium. It also sounds like they could be borrowing a page from Royal's book and have a nice, like, open air central garden, kind of Central park on the ship. We'll find out.
[00:04:07] Speaker C: Yeah, good folk.
[00:04:08] Speaker A: We'll find out.
Next up we've got Disney Discovery Reef, where it says families will shop and dine in an ethereal and ever changing retreat, evoking favorite aquatic characters and nautical stories, including the Little Mermaid, Lilo and Stitch, finding Nemo and Luca. So this sounds to me like Disney's going to be employing some of that screen technology that we've seen on other cruise ships. They can sort of change the mood of the venue using screens.
[00:04:37] Speaker C: So I love the quad theming. Like, I think all of these, you know, all of these movies that are all this ip that's aquatic themed, I think that's going to be great.
[00:04:47] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:04:47] Speaker B: Should be beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
[00:04:49] Speaker A: Next up, we have what I think is going to be my favorite part of the ship. San Fran Pyo, a family entertainment area pulsing with the energy and atmosphere of a vibrant street market and boasting an assortment of interactive games and activities, shops, cinemas, and more. So a little Baymax theme there. You can see that in the upper portion, upper back portion of the. The ship there.
[00:05:12] Speaker C: This also sounds to me like it could be like a, like a downtown, like, shopping district, boardwalk type of.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that could be kind of cool.
[00:05:23] Speaker B: Kind of like the boardwalk on the oasis class, but, like, way over the top, right?
[00:05:28] Speaker C: And arcade focused and all that kind of stuff. I love that. Yeah.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Next, we've got Wayfinder Bay. Guests will be called by the line where the sky meets the sea, to an open air oasis under the sun where relaxation and exclusive entertainment await a sophisticated yet casual poolside retreat. So that's going to be the pool area. Then we've got, of course, a dose of marvel. Marvel landing. This area will offer Avenger level adventure with all new attractions and experiences that showcase imaginative representation of guests favorite superheroes. Now, this sounds interesting because this sounds like we could be getting beyond just an aqua mouse and into some more exciting stuff on the top deck of a Disney ship. So that is going to be like.
[00:06:15] Speaker C: A coaster type thing.
[00:06:17] Speaker B: You know, if you ever saw the animation of the original ship, there was a whole amusement park on the top of that ship. So, yeah, I mean, there was kind of a roller coaster planned for the original ship. So maybe.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: Yeah, they may have kept it. They may have kept it.
Next up, we've got toy Story place, a whimsical interactive playland with themes, food venues, and water play areas where the world of Pixar's toy story movies and shorts spring to life in surprising and inventive ways.
[00:06:47] Speaker C: This is like splash pad, water slide, like we see on the wish. That's what I'm thinking.
It's going to be for younger kids. I'm not. I think they're borrowing from different ships, and it seems like they're putting a lot of stuff, a lot of inspiration from the other ships onto this ship, plus more, because they have more space.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Well, if you look at the graphic, right, you've got San Fransokyo in the back where we have the hero zone today on the wish class ships, you've got the avengers kind of in the middle, where you'd have kind of the aqua mouse and those kinds of slides. You've got your, your central park area there, what they call that again, Disney imagination garden kind of running right in the middle of the ship. You got your toy story up front, and then you've got, I think town square is the one that we haven't talked about yet, which is a fantastical forest filled with shops, lounges, cafes, restaurants and entertainment venues. Celebrating the Disney royals will exude the enchanting feeling of summer in full bloom with nods to tangled, cinderella, frozen snow white in the seven dwarfs, the princess.
[00:07:50] Speaker C: Frog, and like a fairy tale land. Yeah, this is a fairy tale. This is like wish fairy tale space.
[00:07:57] Speaker A: Yeah, fairytale central. I'm going to pause there. The only other thing I'm going to say, well, I'm going to pause there, get reactions from you all. I think this, like, this sounds amazing. I say sounds amazing because I need to see how they execute on it, but sounds amazing, certainly. Has my interest peaked to potentially try to get on board the adventure? I will flag for everyone out there. The adventure is not going to be targeted at the north american market. This is a ship that is targeted at the asian market.
It's due to set sail in 2025. We don't know when in 2025. There are websites set up for the adventure on Disney Cruise lines websites, but they are nothing visible through the us website at the moment, further underscoring that this is not a ship that they are expecting to, like, target into our market.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: So.
[00:08:47] Speaker C: And they have a special Instagram that is like a Disney Cruise line, Singapore Instagram. So they're definitely aiming towards that asian market. It's going to be, I think they said three and four night sailings.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: I think five and like some random news article.
[00:09:02] Speaker C: Yeah, but that's not what it said on the most recent announcement from Disney. Brian. I know, I think we saw that earlier, but that was on a random news site months ago. On the most recent announcement, it was three and four night, I believe, sailings out of Singapore. And it sounds like they might be cruises to nowhere, if that's the case. Right. Because there's not necessarily, you know, ports close by. That will be obvious stopping points on that short of a cruise. So it could be kind of like what they have done in the Australia New Zealand market and what they did in the UK, staycations where they are, you know, cruises to nowhere. Walter, what is the thing that you're most excited about for the Disney adventure? And do you think you'll make it over to Singapore at some point? To.
[00:09:49] Speaker B: I would like to. I can tell you right now, I'd like to, not only just for this, but, I mean, I just want to make it to Singapore because it looks freaking amazing over there. We have sent, you know, clients over there and you see everything that's going on. So I'd like to make it over there, not just for the adventure, but to see it. Oh, man. What has me most excited? Well, the big hero six area, definitely. But I'm really intrigued to find out what's going to happen with the Marvel land, because when they announced Disney was buying this, I immediately went and found the original animation of the global dream to see what was it supposed to be. And basically, the roller coaster looks just like the boat that is on carnival right now. So big old. It was a huge amusement park sitting up there at the top. So that's the part that I'm very, very intrigued with. And I'm really interested to see if there is a, like a central park, because we never saw it was only about a halfway built, three quarters built. So we never really saw what the middle was going to look like. So that's what I'm intrigued about.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: I want to, I want to throw up a few of the comments here. First, I want to say some hellos. Ashley Norton, who's out there.
Sue Strobling, who's saying she's got her blue margarita in the mixer. Walter. So there you go.
[00:11:06] Speaker C: Walter's got a.
[00:11:07] Speaker B: Make it soon.
[00:11:08] Speaker C: He's going to make a margarita for all of you today.
[00:11:11] Speaker A: So hello to cross mouse adventures and Lindsey diamond, who's joining us for the first time. Time. So a couple of questions that have come up. So Josh McHenry is saying, so no casino or yes. It wasn't really clear from this image. I don't think we can make any call on casino at this point. Yes or no?
[00:11:28] Speaker C: Although they haven't been advertising it in the announcement. So that could mean something like, because they're already starting to market to the asian market and they haven't said anything about a casino. So I have always been of the mindset. Oh, they'll probably have a smaller casino. Brian has always been of the mindset. No, they're probably not going to have any casino. I would say. I don't think this is definitive, but I do think this leans me more towards thinking Brian is right, that they're not going to have a casino. Because I feel like the advertisements, I think it's. Might have mentioned that. I mean, yeah, it could be. I don't think you can make any conclusion, but I'm just saying I'm starting to think Maybe Brian's prediction is more right than maybe.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: I mean, if they come out with an adult only area. Now, this ship was originally supposed to have one of the largest casinos at sea. So you know, there's still a possibility they could stick a small one somewhere, but I would doubt it. But look at that. Oh, my gosh. What is that?
[00:12:24] Speaker A: This. So this is one of the concierge staterooms, or rendering of a concierge stateroom on board the adventure. Again, rendering. And so this is a. This is one of the images you can find on kind of the ship specific website that is available, but you have to kind of find your way to it.
[00:12:41] Speaker C: Is that te Fiti in the background or is that one of the. Oh, yeah, that's from LA.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: Yes, that's Te Fiti.
[00:12:46] Speaker C: That's Te Fiti. Okay.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Moana theme.
[00:12:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: Which makes sense with the where the ocean meets the sky theming up top.
I wanted to point out one thing that was unique about concierge. Here. It says, the Disney adventure will also feature extensive concierge accommodations providing ultimate luxury and a heightened level of personalized service and convenience, including access to exclusive areas and amenities such as a private indoor lounge, which we have today on most of the ships, an expansive sun deck, which we also have on several of the ships with pool and whirlpools, high end shop shopping venues, and dedicated spa and fitness facilities. And so it sounds like there may be some extra special access to shopping and spa or a dedicated spa facility for concierge, which would be a net new concierge benefit. We've not seen that before, so we'll be interesting. I thought my first reaction was, I really wish Disney would go the way of doing a restaurant for the concierge area like other lines have done.
I actually think it would be really cool if Disney did a special themed restaurant just for concierge with its own show, because I can't imagine the number of rooms and concierge they would sell just to get to that restaurant. But. But, yeah. So some special touches for concierge. And then the other renderings I wanted to make sure to show here were. These are the renderings of the family. I don't know if. We don't know exactly. This is a veranda stateroom. I don't know. Yeah, yeah.
[00:14:13] Speaker C: Probably family veranda stateroom. Who knows?
Actually, I would say the first one looks like a regular family veranda veranda. And then the one on the.
[00:14:23] Speaker A: Oh, this is the same. Like, this is the same room. It's the same room. It's just a different angle pulling you back out.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Looks like finding Nemo there above the bed.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:14:35] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:14:36] Speaker A: And little mer. Actually, there's a little mermaid sketch over there too. It looks like on the.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: Oh, there it is.
[00:14:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:14:43] Speaker C: So I'm trying to see it up close my eyes or not that.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: I also wanted. There was a comment in here about, I think, in response. Am I saying it's not target the us market? Could you use a VPN to change? So these websites are available. You can find them. They're just not, like, surfaced as a link off of Disney's homepage. So Scott Gustin over on Twitter found these images and a link to the sites. I don't think it's that they're not going to sell this ship in the US. Oh, they'll take anyone's money. I just don't think they're targeting it into the US.
[00:15:16] Speaker C: Yeah. And it sounds like the food will also be more asian forward food. So we're not going to see targeted to the american market in, in multiple ways. And, and frankly, language on the ship may also, you know, there might. I'm sure there might be multiple languages in Singapore.
[00:15:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:36] Speaker C: English is spoken widely in Singapore. But, you know, there may be multiple languages that are sort of the main languages on the ship versus the ships we currently see. Really? English is. Is the language that you hear. Maybe some Spanish?
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Yeah, good point.
[00:15:50] Speaker A: We're at the phase right now where this is like, when they release the treasure map and you got a lot of ideas of IP that are going to be on the ship and no idea what it actually looks like. So I think we should wrap this discussion up and get into some more definitive details that we have out of some news. I will say ct, tinfoil, mouse ears is asking, did they make any mention of an aqueduct or mouse or ship? Nothing yet, but I think that's the next announcement, the big reveal of the ship when they start to get into the nitty gritty on some of these spaces. So. All right, next set of announcements. Out of nowhere.
[00:16:22] Speaker C: Let's talk about the treasure.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: Treasure.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: Let's talk about it.
[00:16:25] Speaker C: More details coming out in December. We'll be on it. And we've been waiting and waiting and waiting to find out what Nightingales on the Disney wish is going to be on the treasure. And now we finally come in. Yeah, we didn't. We definitely did not predict this one. We were completely wrong.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: What year is this? I can't remember what year this film is.
[00:16:45] Speaker C: This is from like the, I don't know, the eighties. I think it came out the Aristocats.
So this is the cat cat lounge, which is aristocats themed.
It's, I will say, like, we said, we were not expecting this. Aristocats Ip is not one of the most valuable ones within the Disney portfolio. That movie, while it has a cult following, and while Marie, the white cat that wears a pink bow, is a very popular character, it is not really a movie that people. That is beloved by Disney people. However, I will say, as much as I'm surprised, and I'll be honest, I'm a little disappointed there's not going to be a cave of wonders bar.
I am thinking that they're going to do this beautifully because they have done the soul cat lounge and keys on the magic really beautifully. And so I kind of do like a jazz bar feel. And so I'm not. I'm not mad at it, even though I'm not really a cat person. Let me just put that.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Thomas Rogers is correcting you that the Aristocats came out in 1970.
[00:17:51] Speaker C: I thought it came out after I was.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Thank you, Thomas.
[00:17:54] Speaker C: That's why. Thank you, Thomas. I thought it came out after I was born. To be fair, 20,000 before it was.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: 20,000 leagues under the sea, which is a theme of one of the bars, is also not the newest movie. Fair.
[00:18:04] Speaker C: Fair.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: No.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: Yeah. So they're reaching in deep cuts here. This is. These are some of the specialty drinks that you will find in the scat cat lounge.
[00:18:13] Speaker C: Those look cool. Yeah.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: The one on the left, we believe, is the creme de la creme martini, which is infused with cognac, chocolate and a nutmeg topping.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: Oh, my.
[00:18:22] Speaker A: The cat drink, which you can guess which one that is. It's clarified bourbon with amaro aperol and freshen lemon P's. Clarified bourbon is actually taking the bourbon and removing all of the color out of it, probably through a milk wash or some other.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: I am very intrigued by that. That's an interesting combination.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:42] Speaker C: That glass is creepy, though. And apparently we have one.
[00:18:45] Speaker A: Apparently. Apparently for sale. Yes, because I just bought one. So there you go.
And then the.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: I want to see it in a future episode. I want to see that.
[00:18:54] Speaker A: It will be. I'll be drinking my clarified bourbon out of it. And then we have a turkish. Turkish tea experience, which is a tea based cocktail for two or more guests. You can see that there on the bottom right with a little piece of turkish delight, actually. So, yeah, there you go. Thanks for that.
[00:19:08] Speaker B: Wow, that martini looks insane.
[00:19:12] Speaker A: It does. It does. These look really good. Dear Disney, please order enough of the cat glasses and put enough restrictions on them that we don't have the same problem on the maiden voyage of the treasure that we did on the wish, where all the nightingale glasses were broken or stolen for the voyage before the end of voyage.
[00:19:29] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. There you go. All right.
I think the amazing.
[00:19:36] Speaker C: Right?
[00:19:36] Speaker A: Well, second to last big announcement. Well, actually, Plaza de coco.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Oh, my God.
[00:19:44] Speaker A: We got some food from Plaza de coco. I don't know exactly which pictures I yanked here, but we've got just a ton of announcements. We've got a abouleta alana shrimp diabla with chili chipotle sauce, cilantro, pickled red onion and toasted chorizo. Street croquettes with chili lime crema cojita cheese and cilantro blistered poblano pepper stuffed with oaxaca cheese and green.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: Definitely in the lower right. Look at that.
[00:20:11] Speaker A: Yes, that is, that looks good. A pan seared adobo spice sea bass, a red capsaicin and green parsley, grilled snapper, Luisa's pollo asada citrus chicken, Enrique's port wine braised center cut beef short rib. I think that's probably what's up in the upper left there. A mexican chocolate tart, a warm coconut, tres leches. What's the one food item we're missing? Sam? What is the one food item they have not confirmed?
[00:20:37] Speaker C: Chips and guacamole or queso. We have not heard. So we keep saying bread service on plaza de coco needs to be chips and guacamole or chips and queso or both. I would love, actually, one thing of guacamole, one thing of queso. Side by side. Maybe, actually, maybe it's 30 with salsa, but. Yeah. Don't know. But I can't imagine that they're going to say no to chips. Chips are so easy. Much easier than bread. So we'll see. But this looks, it sounds all delicious and it looks delicious, but this is actually what I'm super excited about, which is jumbo's sweets.
We've got some pictures and descriptions of what some of the offerings at jumbo suites, which is going to be the ice cream and sweet shop on the Disney treasure. So similar to sweet on you on.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: The vanellope.
[00:21:31] Speaker C: On you on the fantasy, vanellopes on the dream and. Oh, my God, I'm blanking. Oh, and the inside out themed one. I can't remember what.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: On the wish. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:21:41] Speaker C: So, Brian, tell us what these are. Walter pointed out already that the, the pause could be popsicles. Be pops.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: They should at least be frozen, even if they're just an ice cream sandwich. Why are they not frozen right.
[00:21:55] Speaker C: There's some kind of shortbread cookie sandwich.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: Yeah. So what I think. What I think we've got up on the display right now are paw shortbread sandwich with two paw shaped red velvet shortbread cookies, vanilla frosting, and dolce de leche. And then I think we've got the carrot chocolate covered strawberries with cookie crumble soil and a white chocolate coating.
And then we've got the zootopia chocolate bark postcards with a distinct character inspired decoration. And then I think the. Yeah, those are the postcards. So that's. I think that's everything that they talked about. There's some other desserts that they released.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: Really good.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: They all sound decadent and wonderful.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, I'm still going to eat the paws, but I'd rather they'd be frozen. Go ahead.
[00:22:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:38] Speaker C: Josh McHenry is asking a question about the aqua mouse on the treasure. It is an aqua mouse. There is a third storyline, which is the. What is it?
[00:22:48] Speaker A: It's egyptian. Yes.
[00:22:51] Speaker C: The golden egg storyline. So there's going to be a third storyline on the treasure. So you're going to have the Yeti storyline and the under and the Kraken storyline and then a third storyline.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:23:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:04] Speaker B: All right.
[00:23:06] Speaker A: Last announcement. Last announcement.
[00:23:08] Speaker C: I keep forgetting. There's more.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: There's one more thing.
[00:23:11] Speaker C: I am proof.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: Yes. So they have announced. They have announced a new Avengers show dinner show. So this will be the b show to the a show that is on the wish. So you'll get the. We call it the quantum core. The Avengers Quantum encounter will still be on the treasure, but since it's a seven night, they need a second show. So you're going to get Marvel celebration of heroes Groot remix. The new story will follow Groot as he brings guests along for an on screen quest to throw the ultimate surprise party for his friend rocket. All the while, diners will eat to the beat of an awesome mix of hit songs and contest their knowledge of the Marvel universe with trivia for the whole family. I'm excited about the music. I'm excited about the music.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: Yeah. I like the disco balls in the picture. I mean, that's a nice little hint. And look how happy that family is. They're having a great time.
[00:24:02] Speaker C: They are. They're having an awesome time. They're not paid to smile or anything.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: I mean, they're just so happy. Come on.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: And, Lindsey, to your comment about not realizing there are two shows, so. Yeah, because this is a seven night sailing. All of the restaurants with shows will have to have an a show and a b show. So we also know that Plaza de Coco will be having two shows. One of them will celebrate Coco's grandparents and tell their story. I forget the other one is more of a straight coco kind of show. And then, yes, worlds of Marvel will have two shows as well. So. Right, there you go.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: Very cool.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And we. And we should also have the pilot pirate party. Pirate parlay deck party. That's a mouthful.
Exactly. Exactly. That's where the fireworks that you mentioned up front are from. The pirate parlay.
[00:24:46] Speaker C: Yeah. Which also means that we expect there will be a pirate menu because you'll have to have two rotational dining menus in each of the restaurants. But that only gets you to six menus. And so the 7th menu is likely to be. I can't say for sure, because they could do something like the let the magic begin menu as the 7th menu. But I would doubt that. I would highly guess that or highly anticipate the pirate menu will be on the treasure like it is on the wish, but only on four night sailing.
[00:25:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Gotcha.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: All right, cool. Now with Disney news. All right, that's a lot.
Walter, we're handing the mic over to you for a little bit here.
[00:25:26] Speaker C: We need a margarita first.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: Margarita. Yeah. So, because, you know, we're going to talk about margaritaville at sea and basically their second coming out, I figured, you know, we should make a margarita. I did invite the two of you. I even sent you the recipe. But if anybody's watching at home and you've got a glass, why not?
[00:25:44] Speaker C: I am having a mexican beverage. It's just called Topo Chica for those who know.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Have you gotten that sponsorship yet? Because I know you're working hard on that.
[00:25:53] Speaker C: I've been working really hard. Call me, Topo Chico. Call me.
Apparently, Coca Cola is really drinks it.
[00:26:01] Speaker A: We did have a listener reach out to us from the city in Mexico where topo chico is made.
[00:26:07] Speaker C: Swear to God, it was amazing. Yeah.
[00:26:09] Speaker B: All right, so I've got my shaker with the ice in it. So this is the margarita recipe I'm going to use, is from my favorite cocktail book, which is death and company. Amazing bar.
So this is what I got here. I got 2oz of tequila. And, like, this is the real deal. This is the patron tequila. I got 2oz of tequila, and I got three quarters of an ounce of cointreau, which is, you know, like, a triple sec.
[00:26:34] Speaker C: Love it.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: And then I've got the juice of one lime. It calls for an ounce, but I just, you know, just squeeze a whole lime, whatever that ends up being, right.
A quarter ounce of agave, you know, Kirkland brand, you can't go wrong with Kirkland brand.
[00:26:49] Speaker C: Can't go wrong.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Can't go wrong. Whatever that is.
[00:26:52] Speaker C: Especially with the. We're in the home of Costco here, so.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: Yeah, we live in Kirkland.
[00:26:57] Speaker B: That's right. That's right. From your home to ours.
Very nicely done. And because I can. I actually throw a little bit of aztec chocolate in there.
Why not?
[00:27:10] Speaker C: By the way, one of our listeners, Dennis, is saying he's loving the live mixology.
[00:27:16] Speaker B: You're digging it, huh? That was 2oz of tequila, three quarters of an ounce of cointreau, quarter of an ounce of lime juice, and a quarter of an ounce of 1oz of lime juice, and quarter ounce of agave. And then I'm supposed to have a lime wedge to serve it with, but I forgot. I'm going to shake it over here.
[00:27:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:34] Speaker B: Get it away from the microphone.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: All right, well, next live show, Sam, we'll have to make the Colette cocktail on screen.
[00:27:41] Speaker C: I like it. I like it.
[00:27:42] Speaker B: Yes, you've talked about it. I want to see this thing.
[00:27:45] Speaker C: Yeah, it's fantastic.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: Not near a lot of shaking. I know. If you guys are mixologist, you're like, wait, you should have shaken it for at least another 30 seconds. I know, but we're on television, so we're just gonna pour it. I don't have the ice in the glass.
[00:27:58] Speaker C: This is live magic.
I gotta tell you the next comment, Matthew, one of our listeners is saying, I think I tuned on to the.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: No, this is. This is the. This is the new scat cat lounge live.
[00:28:14] Speaker C: No, we're heading to Margaritaville today.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: There you go. So it's a little darker because I put the aztec chocolate in there. So cheers for everybody out there if you have a drink. Cheers to you all.
[00:28:25] Speaker C: Cheers, Walter.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: All right, Walter, how is it?
[00:28:29] Speaker B: Yeah, that is good. Yeah.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: Speaking of Margaritas, Walter, tell us about Margaritaville, because I am, like, I will say I've seen positives, and I've seen not so positives. Like, what was your experience on Margaritaville? Tell people a little bit about the brand and the ship and all that sort of stuff.
[00:28:46] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And I'm sorry, Matthew, if I could hand it to you through the screen, I would.
[00:28:52] Speaker C: Feels robbed because he doesn't have a drink. And Josh is saying. Cheers. Nice.
[00:28:58] Speaker B: Thank you, Joshua.
Yay. So, Margaret Ridaville. So they have had a horrible launch. The paradise was not a pretty thing. And what happened was, they're actually here in Orlando. Margarita Villecia is actually here in the Orlando area. And they saw me commenting on my channel that there was one cruise line that I would never send my clients onto. And they're like, hey, can we have lunch and tell you what's coming? And they owned up everything that went wrong on the first ship. It actually wasn't even their ship. It was another company that licensed it. They did a terrible job. And they said, look, we're buying another ship. And when they said it was a spirit class ship, I'm like, oh, that's a real cruise ship. You know, anybody familiar with carnival spirit class? It's the same ship. It's Acosta Atlantica, which they bought. And they said, you know, we're buying this ship and we're gonna do it. I said, you have my attention. And so we went on the two night preview, and we went on the four night inaugural. Now, look, she is a 24 year old ship. So if you're trying to go onto a ship that's brand like when the Disney treasure comes out, everything should work brilliantly, right?
[00:30:08] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:30:09] Speaker B: But this is a 24 year old ship that they spent five months, about five and a half months, lovingly refurbishing, restoring. And what they did is absolutely beautiful. It is so much fun.
Very vibrant colors, beautiful spaces, the lobby. I don't know if you've seen the footage going up and down the glass elevator in the lobby, but you go from under the sea up to the sky and back down. It's very Disney. You know, it's very Disney, and it's done in a beautiful way.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: And to be fair, the magic is 26 years old. So, yeah.
[00:30:41] Speaker C: Yeah, she's about 26 years.
[00:30:44] Speaker A: We know that people trust Disney for their vacations, and it can sometimes be a little nerve wracking to think about trying something new. Right, Sam?
[00:30:50] Speaker C: Yeah. Whether you're considering branching out to a new cruise line, an all inclusive resort, or exploring Europe, the team at mypath unwinding travel has the expertise and connections across the globe to plan almost any vacation. They can even help with the universal parks. They've helped us plan our vacations beyond Disney, including royal caribbean princess cruise line and virgin voyages, their team of travel.
[00:31:09] Speaker A: Professionals all understand the needs of a Disneyland traveler can help you decide if another option is right for you, and then guide you through every step of your new vacation experience. Whether you are dreaming of a fun getaway to an all inclusive resort, a river cruise in Europe, or an adventure in Costa Rica, the folks at Mypath unwinding are ready to help. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your next vacation even more amazing.
[00:31:29] Speaker C: If you want to learn more and take advantage of the amazing team at mypath unwinding travel, then head over to mypathunwinding.com or email
[email protected] to let them know we sent you their way. Thanks. My path unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
Well, tell us, Walter, who is the target audience for Margaritaville cruises? Who are they, who are they targeting in the market? Because the market is a big cruising. Market is big. Are they trying to target families? Are they a adults only? Are they somewhere in the middle? Are they skewing older?
Where do you see them going for in their piece of the market?
[00:32:14] Speaker B: Yes. Everything that you said. Yes. So the interesting thing about margaritaville, so we've got one ship, really.
And I love the fact that they said, look, there's an audience that loves that paradise. That ship is going nowhere, basically going to leave it as is. But their focus, and I don't know if I'm permitted to say how many ships are coming in the fleet, but there was a pretty high number thrown at me by the executives when I was on that ship. And I was like, well, I know you're getting another one. They're like, oh, no, we're not just getting another one. We've got a fleet. And this is what we're thinking. And I was like, oh, I haven't heard that number in public, so I'm not going to say, but it's a pretty, they're going to have a fleet. And I think the interesting thing about Margaritaville, like right now with the islander, that's not a ship you're going to go on every single time because you're going to kind of get bored with it that you might, you know, it's just not one that you're going to go on every single time, but right now it's that ship. Hey, I'm looking for a cheaper alternative. I'm looking for fun. The ship radiates fun. That is like the number one theme of that ship. They don't take themselves seriously. They, the crew is so over the top friendly. I mean, over the top friendly.
[00:33:22] Speaker C: Oh, wow.
[00:33:22] Speaker B: I think, I think the target is just really, if you're just looking for a fun getaway and you know what you're walking into, you know, you know that you're walking onto a ship that, you know, the food, like, if anybody tries to compare it to Disney, that's just, you know, but you could compare to. You can compare parts of it to a carnival experience. You can compare parts of it to a Royal Caribbean experience, to a norwegian experience. It's just a fun ship. And I love older ship to have character like the. The promenade is all deak. Tell me about. We were in an extended balcony. We had teak on the balcony. Wow.
[00:33:57] Speaker C: I love teak too. Yeah. Especially if they, well, maintain it and, like, lovingly care for it in the, you know, upgrades and whatnot. So that's lovely.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it was nice. And to get to some of the negativity now, there were two big problems in the beginning. Number one, the food was not coming out hot. Okay. The buffet was not hot. The food wasn't really cut. It wasn't, like, stone cold, but it wasn't hot.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:24] Speaker B: And I happened to talk to the vice president of food and beverage. Of course, he was on the ship, and he explained that, you know, when we were doing the crossing, and while there's a small crew on here, everything's working great. But once we turn on everything, and even though you test it for ten minutes and say, yeah, it works, it's not until that thing is running for two or 3 hours that you realize, oh, there's some issues with some of these things here that we need to address. And they were addressing them.
[00:34:50] Speaker A: Sounds so familiar, Walter. It sounds so familiar.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: Right, right. Until you're stressed out, something you really don't know. And so that's what happened. And I will say, by the 6th night on the ship, our main dining room meal was phenomenal. The flavors were good. It was hot. So it was that quick that they were making these adjustments. And then the other thing you heard about were the toilets. Like, they would work. They wouldn't work. They'd work. They wouldn't work. I learned all about toilets on this cruise. It was really interesting.
Apparently, what they did, the engineering team, they did something called descaling the whole system while it was on the crossing. And apparently, when you do that now, I know you're supposed to have. You've got to keep flushing the system to flush the stuff out.
[00:35:40] Speaker C: Right.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Of course, nobody's on the ship.
[00:35:42] Speaker C: So they weren't flushing.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Yeah, they weren't flushing until we came on. And then it was like, you know, they would work for a bit, and then they stopped working, and then they'd work for a bit. And so by the time we left the ship, it had kind of flushed its way out and that's what they were expecting it to do. They figured it would take about a. A week for it to work its way through.
[00:36:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:36:01] Speaker A: What kinds of stuff could you do? Actually step back and ask what's like, what's the price point is more around a carnival cruise, I'm assuming, than a. Certainly a Disney cruise and probably somewhere around carnival, royal pricing. And then what kind of stuff did you do on the ship? Like what kind of stuff could you get up to on board? Do they have full schedule?
[00:36:23] Speaker B: In fact, I wish I would have brought it out here with me, but they had a freaking packed schedule. So far side of the world. They have some beautiful lounges, by the way, on this ship. Far side of the world has a stage. It's where they do all their family friendly games up in the front of the ship, the coral reef lounge, which is basically under the theater, unlike anything I've ever seen. Of course, I've never been on spirit class ship, but that's where they did a lot of karaoke. They would do other games at night. The main stage, I would blown away, actually, by the main stage, and I was a 24 year old ship. The stage has eight lifts and it can completely rotate.
[00:37:02] Speaker C: Oh, that's. Yeah, that's amazing.
[00:37:06] Speaker B: Oh, and they did this country show called Conky tonk, and at one point it literally, like they had carousel horses and it looked like, you know, a carousel, the way they were rotating stage. And I was like, my gosh, I was not expecting that. I'm so old. All of your trivia games, you know, all of your games during the day.
The thing that really blew me away.
Well, first of all, there's 13 bars and lounges on the ship for adults.
[00:37:32] Speaker C: How many passengers does this hold?
[00:37:34] Speaker B: Around 2600.
[00:37:36] Speaker C: Okay, so similar size to the, to the magic and the wonder of. On Disney.
[00:37:40] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:37:41] Speaker C: The bars, but twice the bars. Exactly.
[00:37:45] Speaker B: Yeah. So 13 bars and lounges and everyone, and I did not know this until night six makes their own martial arts. So you could do a margarita crawl of all 13 bars if you wanted.
[00:37:54] Speaker C: To, and you'd be passed out over six nights. You wouldn't do it on one night. I'm joking.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: But, but the thing that really surprised me, that I was totally not expecting, was the hemisphere dancer craft spirits bar. So the hemisphere dancer was Jimmy Buffett's plane. The famous plane.
[00:38:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Which, by the way, I learned the one at Universal Orlando is, is the actual plane. Yeah. I didn't know that.
[00:38:24] Speaker C: I didn't know that. Either.
[00:38:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: Yeah. So. And then, by the way, they just took it away to be refurbished. So don't go running down there to look at it. It'll be back in a few months. But they had the hemisphere dancer craftsmeer bar and it really reminded me of the world class bar on celebrity. But that's still a better. That's still my favorite bar. The best bar I see. I think it's a world class bar on celebrity. But it was a high end bar. I mean, drinks starting at 1415, $16 and it was packed. It was absolutely packed because the drinks were really good. Nice high end drink. They were making a smoky old fashioned. They had, you know, that that was the biggest surprise for me was finding a bar like that on the ship. And I was like, wow, this is pretty cool. What's your.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: What's included? What's included, Walter? Like. And do they operate on the model like a royal does where you can buy a drink package or like. Yeah. What's included in the fare versus what you had to pay for extra.
[00:39:19] Speaker B: And you were asking earlier, I mean, you can get. So right now they're running four and five night when they get to the new year. In fact, we're going to be on the very 1st, 6th night in February. But they're going to be running six and seven nights starting next year.
[00:39:31] Speaker C: Oh, awesome.
[00:39:32] Speaker B: And they have ideas to run even longer because that ship is a Panama Canal ship. So they could send her into the Panama Canal if they want to. Margaritaville to Alaska could happen.
But what's included it is so you can get like on the current sailings like the fours and five nights, like easily, you know, maybe $800 for two people, get an interior and get a balcony for around $1,000. So you are talking very low cost. What is included with the cruise fare? You got the Finns main dining room. They did an interesting concept with the main dining room. I'm not sure I agree with it. And I told them, I gave them four pages of feedback when we were done. But it's a two story main dining room. Finns is the bottom, Islander is the top. The islander actually comes with a $20 cover charge to go in.
And what's interesting about it is. So the second story has the table cloths and definitely more one to one service. Like they take care of less table. Plus it has an insert of items that are not available downstairs. But other than that, the two menus are identical except for those like six items that are in the insert that are add on. Interesting it's up to you whether it's worth $20. Now, if you're staying in a suite, you automatically get no additional charge. So included in your base fair, the Finn main dining room. The cheeseburger in paradise. Oh, yeah. It could be better than guys.
Mexican cutie cantina makes excellent breakfast burritos.
[00:41:07] Speaker C: Oh, my God, I love this burrito.
[00:41:10] Speaker B: You got your buffet.
So those four items are included in terms of food and then, of course, your port fees and taxes. So no drinks. You know, it's like your standard, like a royal Caribbean. Right? You get. You get on the ship.
[00:41:24] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: And then you have some food items. Now, in terms of packages, they have too many of them. I hope they pair them back because they've got about a dozen packages.
[00:41:34] Speaker C: So confusing.
[00:41:36] Speaker B: Food, drinks and food. They got spa packages. I got so many packages. So I think at some point they'll probably pair them back a little bit. But what is nice, it's more like carnival in the sense that the price is the price. It's not like Royal Caribbean where you buy the drink package for $60 today, you pay $120 tomorrow, it's the same cruise. It doesn't make any sense.
But the nice thing is to the drink packages and all the packages are 10% off if you buy them before you go on the cruise. That's kind of cool.
[00:42:04] Speaker C: Yeah. So if you buy it, pay early, they're willing to give you a discount. That's great. Yeah.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: You liked it enough. You're going to go back for a much longer sailing. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:42:15] Speaker B: So, so, yeah. So we went. So we were on it technically for six nights over two cruises. And we're going to go back in September, October just to go see, because, you know, there were certain things that weren't working right. And, you know, we want to see how the bars are going once you have. Everything's going. What was really nice about it, the pools are great, by the way. They did a beautiful job. You got the land shark pool. You got the 05:00 somewhere pool, the tiki. Oh, there is an adults only area. So this, you were asking about family. This is a family based ship. They are, they do the kids sail free? They do the bogo. They do all that great stuff.
[00:42:45] Speaker C: Nice. Do they have a kids club, too, as well?
[00:42:47] Speaker B: They do four. Four levels of kids clubs. Yeah, yeah. And like I said, the far side of the world, which is the lounge up in the front, is family friendly games all day long. And I do mean all day long.
But then the back of the ship deck nine. That's where the tiki bar and the tiki pool and all of that. That is adults only. The whole back section of the ship is adults only, which does include two of the upcharged. There's Tiki grill and then the island east. Those are two little upcharge outdoor eateries. You have the JWB steakhouse up on the top of the ship, and then you have the far side sushi, which is up in the front of the ship. So those are your upcharge eateries.
[00:43:32] Speaker C: Right. So those are either you pay a fee or it's a la carte or some. Some kind of arrangement like that.
[00:43:39] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The JWB is a flat fee. The island eats. And all that in the back is up charge. And the sushi was $10 a roll. I mean.
[00:43:51] Speaker C: Oh, that. Yeah. So it's all a car, but it's not reasonable. Yeah. The amount. Now a great question. I want to bring up Josh's question.
[00:44:00] Speaker B: I love this question.
[00:44:01] Speaker C: Thank you. How much Jimmy Buffett should you expect? I'm guessing this is not for me if I'm not a fan. I think what Josh is asking is, is there, am I going to Jimmy Buffett? Am I going to hear cheeseburger in paradise 20,000 times a day? Or am I escaping?
[00:44:17] Speaker B: No. And that was one of the things that they did really well. Like, you know, this is a Margaritaville ship. Okay. Just from the colors. The atrium is the flip flop atrium. So there's a massive flip flop. You get the flip flop bar.
Yes. You were going to hear Jimmy and. Yes. Like, pretty much like every morning, they got a Jimmy Buffett concert playing up on the big screen by the pool. But the sound, the songs that they're playing on the ship, it's just a lot of great classic rock and roll. So he sprinkles in, but it's not. Jimmy Buffett is not in your face at all on the ship. So I think if you're. If you're a fan of good classic rock and roll music and you're just a fan of having fun, then I think you should give it a try.
[00:45:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:45:05] Speaker A: I feel like my dad would have loved this cruise line or. Well, you might still love. He's not like he's. He's still alive.
He's just not cruising much right now. I just feel like he would have. I think he loves the beach boys and he loved Jimmy Buffett. I feel like he would have.
[00:45:20] Speaker C: I agree. I will say. So I went to a Margaritaville resort down in Mexico. For a friend's bachelorette party. And, like, I. I mean, there was a lot of Jimmy Buffett, but princes, I know they're not the same run necessarily by the same company, but there were a lot of Jimmy Buffett references, like the names of things. All of the names of the bars had, like, song names, like. Yeah, somewhere, you know, things like that.
[00:45:47] Speaker B: Right.
[00:45:48] Speaker C: But. And there was a lot of Jimmy Buffett music played. But I would agree with Walter in the sense that it wasn't all Jimmy Buffett. There was a lot of, like, classic yacht rock, beach rock, that sort of. Yeah, yeah. So it was. It was a lot of. Yeah. Music was fun.
[00:46:06] Speaker B: And I will say the live music was phenomenal. They had some really good bands. I had great. What was really cool was, you know, they did have a live band for the stage of show, but then a lot of those musicians would be playing around the ship, and it was just a lot of really, like, a lot of good guitar players. We had the steel drum player. We had a violinist, of all things, a violinist who would playing anything from queen to classical to beach boys, you know, to modern. It was pretty crazy. I was like a violinist. I did not expect to see that. And then you have the bubble champagne lounge where you've got the pianist every single night up there. So there's a little bit of something. The ship will surprise you with some of the things that are on there. Like I said, I did not expect a high end craft lounge. I certainly didn't expect a champagne lounge to be on the ship. So there's a little something for everybody on there.
[00:47:02] Speaker A: I got. I got to believe if they're building out a fleet, sooner or later they're going to have, you know, a paradise island destination kind of thing going on for these ships. Like, it just. It seems like a no brainer at some level if they're. If they're successful. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:47:17] Speaker B: I mean, Key west is obviously a major part of a lot of the voyages, and that's what it really shocked me. On the inaugural, we went to Cozumel. We didn't go to Key West. I was like, well, that was kind of odd. It was the second cruise that went to Key west.
[00:47:28] Speaker C: Oh, yeah.
[00:47:30] Speaker B: So that's one of the reasons why we want to go back in September, October, and then our big group cruise in February. We are going to Key west. So, you know, I had to make sure of that.
[00:47:38] Speaker C: Oh, awesome. I love it. Well, now, let me ask just one. One question. So the. The folks who are running the Margaritaville cruise line know this is like a licensing agreement, right? So it's not like Jimmy Buff family running this.
[00:47:55] Speaker B: No. So what's really interesting, so the original company was Bahamas paradise. So they own the paradise ship and it was a licensing agreement with them.
[00:48:05] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:48:06] Speaker B: And they are the ones who, to put it politely, you know, they basically failed the company. They did not represent the brand well with the license licensing. And so Margaritaville at sea, the new form, newly formed company bought them out.
[00:48:20] Speaker C: Gotcha. Okay, so Margaritaville. So now they are running that ship.
[00:48:25] Speaker B: And Margaritaville Sea is now an entity that is licensing the name from Margaritaville, the mothership, the main brand. But what was really interesting, and Christopher Ivey is the CEO. Christopher Ivey is the one who stepped into SeaWorld when the whole blackfish documentary came out and turned that company around. And now he's the CEO of Margarita Bella c steering this whole relaunch of the brand. So this is basically their second coming out. So Margarita Bellase is a stand up standalone company licensing the brand from Margaritaville. But what was really cool was a lot of the Margaritaville executives were on the ship for the preview and the inaugural and they were just as excited as everybody else. And they were in there like helping and assisting and doing what they could. And from what I was told, that was like a completely different experience from when the paradise launched that Margaritaville, the brand is like now. Yes, this is, this is our baby. And the idea with the islander was this is what it looks like when Margaritaville built a margaritaville at sea experience, not letting somebody else do it for us.
[00:49:35] Speaker C: Gotcha.
[00:49:36] Speaker B: And they succeeded, man. They really did. They did a bit of job there.
[00:49:39] Speaker A: Between the big red boat and the Disney magic right there. That's the difference. Yeah.
[00:49:44] Speaker B: Big red boat.
[00:49:45] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:49:46] Speaker B: The original Disney cruise line.
[00:49:48] Speaker A: There you go.
So Walter, I think you answered, we had one more question about where their closest competition is. I think you answered this as sort of they slot probably somewhere in between a carnival and a royal.
[00:49:59] Speaker B: I mean, they're going to pull, I'll tell you what, if they do this right, they could pull. They could, they could pull quite the carnival crowd, especially the carnival crowd that not liking, like the bigger sell, like they want that more intermittent. There. There is a fan club for the smaller ships, as you well know. And we happen to be on the cruise with this cruise life. And these guys are like hardcore carnival. They've been on every carnival ship. They thought this was a better representation of the spirit class than what carnival does.
[00:50:30] Speaker C: Oh, wow, that's.
[00:50:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:50:32] Speaker C: That's pretty big.
[00:50:34] Speaker B: They loved it. So if they do this right, they will draw from the carnival crowd. They will also start pulling from the Royal Caribbean crowd. People who are getting tired. I'm paying so much money and I'm not getting what I think I should. Because, you know, when you go on Royal Caribbean, you're paying for those millions of dollars invested into shows and ice skating rinks and flow riders and all of these things that you may never partake in, but you're paying for it.
[00:50:56] Speaker A: Right.
[00:50:57] Speaker B: Whereas Margaritavilla sea is kind of. I don't want to say it's a no nonsense, but it's just. It's a fun, pure way of cruising.
[00:51:04] Speaker C: Right.
[00:51:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, speaking of Key west. Awkward transition coming here. No, but speaking of Key west, seriously, we are on a virgin voyages for night fire, summer fire and sunset. Fire and sunset. There it is.
[00:51:19] Speaker B: So bad. And see him watch this.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: So on valiant lady document dcl duo.
[00:51:24] Speaker B: On virgin voyages, like, you know.
[00:51:28] Speaker C: Yeah, we're going to have paparazzi. Walter's going to come on and be our roving paparazzi because we did have a listener on the magic.
[00:51:36] Speaker A: We did have a listener. AJ, if you're out there watching this, who said, you know, I would actually do the behind the scenes documentary. And I told Sam, you should tell AJ. Our only stipulation is it be filmed in the style of the office documentary.
[00:51:47] Speaker B: Yes, I would totally do it. You know what? I'm going to. You tell me when you're going.
You never know. You might see me on there.
[00:51:58] Speaker A: October. October. We're on virgin voyages. So just let me set this up really fast to say for folks out there. We're not going to do a comprehensive review of virgin voyages. We actually have a couple of episodes in our back catalog where we really went into end and deep dived on virgin voyages.
[00:52:13] Speaker C: Yeah. One with our show sponsor, Karen Shelton. So we have a few episodes on that.
[00:52:18] Speaker A: Yeah. But to set this up, I wanted to sort of say. So. Virgin Voyages is an adult only cruise line, obviously started by Richard Branson and the Virgin company. I don't know how many ships they have right now. Maybe I'll ask Walter that question in a second. But they started with three. Three and fourth on the way. Yeah. So the valiant lady, the scarlet lady.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: I forget the other resilient lady. And the brilliant lady is the one that will be out next. Sure. Yeah.
[00:52:42] Speaker A: So it's. It's an adults only cruise line, 18 and over. They've. They really came into the market to up end cruising, like the cruising concept. So they've got some unique offerings on board in terms of staterooms and, like, you know, solo staterooms that are, like, shared spaces, almost like, you know, like, I don't want to say dormitory, but. But, you know, you have a shared living space and, you know, bathrooms and bedrooms that are separate, but that kind of thing. Uh, they've. But then they go all the way up to, like, mega rockstar, where you're getting whisked to the port in a private car, and you've got an unlimited bar tab and record player Nintendo in your room and access to Richard's rooftop, and so. But their goal was to upend things. I will say the first ship that came out, first people went on it not impressed.
Many of them not impressed. They seemed to kind of turn things around, and we got really excited in kind of that second wave when everything was like, oh, my God, this is so amazing.
Lots of, like, you know, sort of a choose your own adventure crew. You know, kinds of Disney for adults. Disney for adults. It can get as wild or as tame as you want it to be kind of things. And so we booked one of these. We're sailing mega rockstar on the. On the valiant lady because, you know, we bougie. We don't play which cabin we're in, like a posh suite maybe, like the.
[00:54:03] Speaker B: Nice. That's nice. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:54:05] Speaker A: I mean, it's just the two of us. So I figured, you know, I would.
[00:54:07] Speaker B: Put you in, but that's enough. Nice one.
I would have put you in the cheeky corner. Anybody bird looking at corner on the back. That's the best cabin.
[00:54:17] Speaker A: Yeah, I've heard that. I've heard that for sure.
But, Walter, it's interesting. Of late, I've started to hear some, like, mixed things bleeding through again. And I don't know if that's just people who got caught up and went on and didn't understand what they were getting into versus not. What should we expect here? Because I have grown a little bit nervous about this cruise. Excitement has faded to nervousness.
[00:54:39] Speaker C: I'm less nervous, I think.
[00:54:40] Speaker B: Brian, you shouldn't be nervous. So. So virgin voyages is the most, like, one particular cruise line that you guys love the most, believe it or not, because it was started by Tom McAlpin, who used to be the CEO of Disney cruise line. And when I tell people that it is the cruise line that it resembles the most is Disney. They think I'm crazy. And the reason why it resembles them the most is because the service is top notch. And the food, when the food is on, the food is top notch. Now they have off nights like every, everybody else, but when that food is on, I mean, it is just top notch. So, so gen in general, like the, what I absolutely love about the ship is that they, they feel like a mega yacht. So this ship holds 2700 people. So it's not a small ship, it's a mid sized ship.
And when you see it in port, you're like, dang, that's a big ship. Right. But when you go on the ship, yeah, right.
Every, every deck is only a single level. So you don't have that massive three, four story atrium on the ship to give you that sense of scale.
So when you're on the ship, every, every deck is just one level. So it feels like a very small, intimate ship. And that's what they wanted. They wanted that mega yacht intimate. There is more seating than you have ever seen on any cruise ship. That just encourages you to sit and relax and enjoy the yourself where some of the issues do come in. So first of all, the app still doesn't work.
[00:56:12] Speaker A: That I have noticed because I had to crash, I had to reinstall it and it started working again. The app was awful.
[00:56:18] Speaker B: So the app is terrible. And one big tip for you all, I know you guys have an amazing travel agent. If you're going to book Virgin voyages, book with a travel agent that knows what they're doing. Because I think one of the biggest advantages for us is we can book your dinner reservations without using that app. So I can get in there in like five minutes. I book all your dinner reservations, I'm done. I've had some of my guests literally spend like three, 4 hours trying to get dinner reservations on that app. It's terrible.
And that is probably the biggest negative divergent is that, and they admit this, the restaurants are too small for the amount of people that are on the ship.
[00:56:55] Speaker C: Right.
[00:56:56] Speaker B: I can't put everybody.
They thought, you know, they never anticipated that, that many people would actually want to go into the restaurants every night. You know, you always figure a certain amount are going to go to the galley, which is the food hall, their version of a buffet where they serve you. They always figured out a certain amount, we're going to go up there. But then at the same time, the ramen's not open at night, the paninis are not open at night. So.
[00:57:18] Speaker C: And their restaurants are supposed to be very, very good. And so I feel like that's, the other part is like if you hear all these great things about the restaurants. And I can go to the galley for breakfast and lunch. I'm going to go and have a really nice sit down dinner every night.
[00:57:33] Speaker A: Well, they kind of eschewed the whole main dining concept. They just have a bunch of restaurants around the ship and you just kind of go where you want to go. What? So let me ask this. What should we definitely not miss in terms of food, in terms of shows?
[00:57:49] Speaker C: I don't think we've booked our dining yet. Yeah.
[00:57:51] Speaker A: Well, I think with mega Rockstar, we should get someone reaching out to us at some point, asking us what we need to.
[00:57:59] Speaker B: Your travel agent can book your dinner starting 60 days from your cruise. So just remember that with every other. Anybody else, as in any other cabins, 45 days before the cruise. So check with your travel agent. First things that I would not miss, especially first time going on the ship.
I think pink agave and razzle dazzle are now two of my favorite restaurants. Pink agave is your mexican restaurant. It has over 125 tequila and mezcal in there.
[00:58:27] Speaker C: So they got to make a decent margarita then.
[00:58:30] Speaker B: Well, that I don't know, because they make a mexican old fashioned with mezcal and tequila, which I make all the time here at home as well.
[00:58:38] Speaker C: That's going to be right up Ryan's alley. But I'm going to go for the margarita.
[00:58:43] Speaker B: In fact, they have a mezcal class, a tequila mezcal class. I recommend it. So I think pink agave and razzle dazzle for me are two of the don't miss the wake is really inconsistent. It can be amazing one night, it can be off another night. So we kind of stick with the wake, which is the steakhouse. We stick with that for brunch and extra virgin when it's on. Oh, my God. Extra virgin is a really good italian restaurant. They make some of the best steak on the ship, believe it or not, there. So don't miss that.
Dual reality. In terms of the shows, I think dual reality is the most interesting show because that's their take on west side Story.
Romeo and Juliet. Done.
[00:59:24] Speaker C: I must see that. Brian, are you right? Taking notes? It is really good because I love west side Story.
I love really right up my alley.
[00:59:36] Speaker B: And basically both halves of the audience, you get the red half and the blue half. And we're cheering for our teams. It's actually, it's very clever how they do it. The untitled party dance thing. If you guys go to that, I want to see the footage because that will be hilarious. What's kind of cool is. So the theater, the red room is a black box theater, for lack of a better term. And it can be configured in four different ways, you know? And for the untitled party dance thing, it is just all the seats are gone, and it's just a big dance floor. And the whole show, you are, like, in the show if you're down on the floor, which is actually kind of cool. It's not really my thing, but I do. I appreciate modern dance, modern interpretation. Um, I think around the world in 80 minutes with the diva is a do not miss, uh, the only ship that I know of that has a drag queen, and we all, the drag queens we've had have been phenomenal.
[01:00:28] Speaker C: I love the drag queen. I mean, drag queen and bingo.
[01:00:33] Speaker B: Uh, bingo with the diva. If they do bingo with the diva.
[01:00:37] Speaker C: Okay.
[01:00:38] Speaker B: Do not miss that. Yeah, yeah. Um, but, yeah, those are some of the things. Now, uh, in terms of music, there is a bar called on the rocks. It's a whiskey bar. Phenomenal bar. I don't know where they find these bands and musicians, but they will have anything from a soloist to a quartet playing there. You may have latin, you may have blues, you may have country, you may have rock and roll, you may have, you know, two or three different sets are going to be played in that bar every single night. That's a fabulous bar to just sit and chill and listen to whatever's going on. You know, that's the thing about virgin voyages. Everybody sees Scarlet night and they think, oh, my God, this is an insane, insane party ship. That's an insane party there. There is nothing like scarlet night at sea. I can tell you. We've been on eleven cruise lines. Now. There is nothing that comes close to what scarlet night is. It is insane. I highly recommend you bring your plug because it is the volume of an outdoor concert.
[01:01:30] Speaker C: Oh, wow. That's good to know because I actually have a lot of noise sensitivity, so that's good.
[01:01:35] Speaker B: Yeah. So bring earplug because it is an insane party. It is a fun party. It really is. But it's almost one night, right?
[01:01:41] Speaker C: And everyone does wear red, right? Everyone really does wear red.
[01:01:44] Speaker B: You're supposed to wear red. Yeah, I. I have a red shirt that says I pooted from one of my favorite cartoon shows, Foster's home for imaginary friends.
And it makes the crew laugh every time I wear it, so I always wear it. It's just fun.
[01:01:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:02:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:02:01] Speaker B: But that. And here's one of the really cool things. So at 08:00 at night, they have. They have fabulous coffee. You have the grounds club on deck seven. You have the grounds club two up in the galley, up on deck 15. And at 08:00 they close. And, you know, sometimes you're hankering for a nice cup of coffee in the evening. Where do you think you would get coffee in the evening? On the ship? You go to the champagne lounge.
[01:02:25] Speaker C: Yes. That's where it should be.
[01:02:27] Speaker B: Champagne. Not only do they have coffee, it is a machine. Oh.
[01:02:32] Speaker C: But I can actually.
[01:02:33] Speaker B: Marquee shot.
Yeah. So, yeah, so they're. It's for an espresso martini. But I just go up there and I get what is literally the strongest coffee on the entire shift when they pull that and they serve it to you. Oh, my God. So, yeah, champagne, lots. So.
So don't be scared. Don't be nervous. You're gonna have fun. The pool, obviously is a joke. Is so small, but we gave it a pass because of what it is. The pizza is amazing. Oh, my God. Pizza's good. And I'm gonna tell you the best breakfast, but you can only have one because you'll die if you have more than one. The french toast burger.
[01:03:09] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness. Sounds like a heart attack waiting to happen.
[01:03:13] Speaker B: It is, it is. It's french toast. Scrambled eggs, a burger, and then tater tots on the side with syrup.
[01:03:22] Speaker C: Yeah, that's. You had me at french toast burger.
[01:03:28] Speaker A: All right, Walter, you've gotten me excited again. I'm actually excited now to go again. My apprehension is we're going to gain.
[01:03:37] Speaker C: Like, ten pounds in four days.
[01:03:39] Speaker B: Oh, and the Bimini beach club, by the way, Bimini Beach Club is my favorite cruise line resort. My absolute favorite cruise line resort. And you're going to have the Rockstar area, which is going to be absolutely lovely.
[01:03:50] Speaker A: And I've heard they stay late into the evening on some of the sailings at Bimini.
[01:03:55] Speaker B: Late 708:00. You know, it's not as late as they could. Yeah, it's later. But the sand. The sand is so incredibly soft. I think you were talking about that at lighthouse Point. How nice the sand was. The sand is beautiful. And you can walk almost 100 yards out and you can still touch the bottom. Oh, that's a really nice shallow drop off. So you can go way out there.
[01:04:18] Speaker A: So we had a couple. Had a couple questions for you here, Walter. One was on the dining. Do they let anyone book the dining at the same time, or is it staggered based on loyalty users?
[01:04:27] Speaker B: No, the only staggering in the tears is rockstar or sailor. That's it. Those 60 days, if you're on the suite 45 days out if you're in any other cabin. Yeah.
[01:04:37] Speaker C: Yep.
[01:04:38] Speaker A: And then, Matthew. No, not the Bimini Hilton. Uh, the Bimini beach club is a virgin voyages version of Castaway key, basically. So that's their private island destination.
[01:04:48] Speaker B: Well, it's. It's actually part of Resorts World, so it was built in combination with the Bimini resorts world and other ships when. When virgin is not there. It was actually an excursion called the Resorts World Beach Club or something like that.
[01:05:03] Speaker C: So others can go to it, but only if you gotta pay for it.
[01:05:07] Speaker B: You guys. You guys are going to get a private golf cart, which is kind of nice with the Rockstar experience. You're going to get a private golf cart. You're going to get driven over there. You get your own area off to the side. And what's really nice about that, there's a big covered area where you can sit and relax and eat, which is really nice over there. Yeah.
[01:05:25] Speaker A: See a golf cart. Sam, they're already one step ahead of lookout key.
[01:05:30] Speaker C: Don't even bring.
[01:05:31] Speaker B: I'll take that walk in for tender any day.
Go get on a tender and do the same thing and see how much you like that. Yeah.
[01:05:41] Speaker A: When you get off on the other side, throw up and then continue your day. Yes, exactly.
[01:05:45] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. So.
[01:05:47] Speaker A: Well.
[01:05:52] Speaker C: Alex is saying the best part is that they'll let you sleep in on disembarkation day, the saddest day cruising. I agree with you, Alex. Disembarkation is the saddest day. 1030. Holy cow.
[01:06:03] Speaker B: The last exit off the ship is 1030. Now, you don't board until 130. So that's the trading.
[01:06:09] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah, yeah. So you have a later boarding. Okay.
[01:06:12] Speaker B: And very important to know, anybody going on virgin for the first time, they are very strict about the boarding times. So what they do is they have corrals. They do a great job with this. So if you. You show up at 01:00 and you got a 03:00 boarding time, you're going into 03:00 corral, and you're just gonna have to wait until at least 230 whenever they open it up. So they do a really nice. You don't have that mad line of people just trying to crush and get into the terminal.
[01:06:35] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:06:36] Speaker B: Like I've seen in, like, Royal Caribbean and Carnival and other things. They literally have corrals. Okay. 03:00 go get in that line. 02:00. Go get in that line. They do a good job.
[01:06:45] Speaker A: Really just incentivizes you from showing up early, for sure. Yeah.
[01:06:47] Speaker B: It does. Like, don't do it. Just show up 30 minutes early. That's all you need to do.
[01:06:52] Speaker C: Yes. Perfect. Awesome.
[01:06:54] Speaker B: Except for you guys, because you're going to have your own little rock star. You're going to be up on the upper level looking down at all the.
[01:07:00] Speaker C: Down and all the people below.
[01:07:03] Speaker B: Everybody's gonna be like, oh, you have a black wristband.
[01:07:06] Speaker C: Yeah. Like I said, we know we're bougie. We, we fully admit it. We, you know, we're vacation bougie at home. We're not bougie. I mean, look at me. I'm wearing a sweatshirt and I'm wearing like a workout shirt for all day. I'm a Disneyland half marathon. Yeah, but home, I'm not one of.
[01:07:21] Speaker B: The, one of the good things they did. So they do a champagne happy hour, like from 530 to seven every night for you guys up in the Richards rooftop, which is the exclusive sun deck. Well, now they've expanded that out. So there's actually a menu of cocktails that you have besides just the champagne.
[01:07:36] Speaker C: So that's awesome.
[01:07:39] Speaker B: You're gonna have fun. You're gonna have so much fun. The sail away is so unique because you know you're gonna sail out of Miami and you know, she's right there at the turning basin. So you would think she's gonna pull out and turn right and just go down and leave. She doesn't, she pulls out, she does a 270 spin and then she goes, wow.
[01:07:56] Speaker A: So the, the magic did that out of Fort Lauderdale basically. And we were like, I don't understand what's going on. Like, it kind of, she had to turn, but the way they turned it, it was like, it feels like we're spinning all the way around, you know, to get. Yeah, I'd be so curious why they have to do that. It's so interesting.
[01:08:12] Speaker B: Well, apparently they can't turn right. They would run the risk of running into something to a safer to spin it around and go. So it's actually kind of cool. You get a really beautiful look at the skyline of Miami while she's doing the spin. It's very cool.
[01:08:27] Speaker A: Nice. Well, Walter, thank you for allaying my fears and concerns.
We hope you'll follow along with us because we'll give you some credit for all the fun things we're going to be doing.
[01:08:38] Speaker C: He's going to jump on and be our paparazzi. He's going to take over for Tracy and Craig who are following us around.
There's going to be spotted sightings of the DCL duo on anyone out there.
[01:08:51] Speaker A: Watching who hasn't seen this was the running gag on our instagram while we were going to lookout key was we had some friends on board who would take these, like, distance pictures of us and be like, spotted. The DCL do all it got. It got rather absurd, but it was a lot of fun.
[01:09:03] Speaker B: I love it. That's so much fun.
[01:09:06] Speaker A: Well, Walter, let people know where they can find you. You are a fabulous travel agent. Let them know where they can find you if they're interested. Yeah.
[01:09:15] Speaker B: And of course, you have a fantastic travel agent as well. But you can find me at whereswalter travel.com dot. Our services are 100% free to you. And we book cruises, land tours, luxury expedition. In fact, our land tour business has been growing and we've been talking about Margaritaville. If you don't mind, I'll give a little shout out. We have a big group cruise that is sailing February 11, 2025. It's going to be a valentine's cruise for six nights on the Margaritaville islander that will include a vow renewal led by the captain.
[01:09:51] Speaker C: Brian, are you wanting to get our vows for you?
[01:09:54] Speaker A: Well, I'm just impressed that the captain's doing it.
[01:09:57] Speaker C: That is cool. Yeah.
He doesn't have to officially marry you because it's just a vow renewal.
[01:10:02] Speaker B: Exactly. Just a vow renewal. And he may have a hawaiian, you know, they do this thing now where he puts on a hawaiian shirt for the toast. So I'm kind of hoping he might have the hawaiian shirt with the epaulettes on it, which would be super cool. But I can tell you our prices, our group rates are not only lower than what you see on Margaritaville's site, but the prepaid gratuities are actually included. We negotiated that in. So we have ridiculous rates. If you want to come join us. And we're going to put together some sort of Jimmy Buffett history tour in Key west while we're in Key west, too.
[01:10:32] Speaker C: Very cool.
[01:10:33] Speaker A: Nice.
[01:10:33] Speaker B: So, yeah.
[01:10:34] Speaker A: Well, we thank you. You're excited. Yeah. Thank you for coming on, Walter, and sharing all of your experience. We're excited to sail to Key west finally ourselves. We've never been and so excited to.
[01:10:42] Speaker B: See Key West DJ's clam shack. DJ? Like a DJ. DJ's clam shack. It's about a 15 minutes walk. Straight up. Duvall street is on the left. I'm telling you, lobster roll and fried clams like you never had before.
[01:10:57] Speaker C: You have. You have me at lobster roll.
[01:11:02] Speaker B: Amazing. You grow up at Howard Johnson's because if you grew up at Howard Johnson, that takes you right back. So good.
[01:11:09] Speaker C: My first trip to Disneyland, we stayed at a hojo's. I just want to put that out there.
[01:11:15] Speaker B: I love it. I love it.
[01:11:17] Speaker A: Well, once again, Walter, thank you so much for taking some time. Love having you on. Love being on your show. So let's keep the relationship going and we will see you next time. And to everyone out there, thank you for listening. Thank you for watching. We will be back next week again. 05:30 p.m. pacific 08:30 p.m. eastern I think next week's show is going to be with the fabulous Doug McKnight from rope drop radio talking all about his Disney cruise to Alaska that he just disembarked.
[01:11:47] Speaker B: Awesome.
[01:11:47] Speaker A: So Doug, we're looking forward to having you on. Everyone tune in, same time, same place. We'll see you next week. And with that, we'll just say thanks for watching and have a good evening.
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