[00:00:00] Speaker A: And then the other thing we had learned about on the cruise from some of the guest speakers that they had was cannibal forks. So we had to go find a cannibal fork for something.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: Oh, what a fork.
[00:00:10] Speaker C: Like to eat people? Yeah, of course.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DC L duo podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding travel. And Sam, I'm throwing the mailbag to you this week. So you get to, you get to open the letters and see what kind of a. See what kind of questions and reviews. Mostly reviews. So Sam has a review to read. That's what we're doing.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: I do. Yeah. I'm super excited that you're letting me read the review today, by the way. Okay, so this is titled an excellent Cruising Resource, and it's from DJ Caver 2.0. So, DJ Kveremen 2.0, the DCL duo is a fantastic podcast dedicated to the DCL cruise line, featuring trip reports from guests, interviews with personalities in the cruising community, and shows devoted to helping you get the most of your cruise. The hosts, Brian and Sam, have wonderful personalities and are an incredible font of knowledge concerning nearly all things related to the DCL cruise experience. If you are at all interested in the DCL product, this show is a must add to your podcast lineup. Well, thank you, DJ Caver. That's awesome. They think we have wonderful personalities. They really don't know us, do they?
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Brian, I think you're just being nice. You have the wonderful personality, and I just exist.
[00:01:37] Speaker C: So, anyway, anyway, with that being said, thank you for the review. And for those of you out there who haven't yet left us a review, please go on to Apple Podcasts. Hit those five stars and tell us what you like about the show. And if you don't have time to tell us what you like about the show, just hit those five stars and we'll say thank you anyway.
[00:01:56] Speaker B: Yeah, and I just want to add real quick, too, if you're out there and you're looking for ways to support the show, a big way you can help us out right now is head over to YouTube. We have a YouTube channel. We're starting to put more of our video out. We're doing the live shows over there. Hit subscribe. It really helps us if we've got more subscribers joining our channel. So head over there and hit subscribe. We will not abandon the podcast channel. That is, that is what we do, is the audio format. But we're trying to push a little bit into YouTube over there. So. But Sam, introduce our guests. Cause we're. We're coming from Australia all the way back to the United States this week.
[00:02:28] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm excited to welcome our guest. She's a first time, not a first time cruiser, but first time on our show. She is an american, so she didn't come from down under permanently, but she sailed on the Sydney to Hawaii Honolulu, like, this year, the repositioning of the Disney wonder back for the Alaska season. Um, and so we wanted to, well, I guess technically for the San Diego season and then the Alaska season, but we're excited to welcome Amy to the show. Welcome. Thanks.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: Thanks for having me. Excited to be here.
[00:03:00] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, we've got to start our show the way we start every show, which is asking you your Disney background, Disney cruising background, and if you have sailed on other cruise lines beyond Disney.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Yeah, I am a huge Disney addict. I fully admit I have a Disney addiction problem. Parks, cruises, races, all of the above. I've been cruising about eight, nine years, but I did as a child. We were on the big red boat at one point when they did the land and sea, but I am narrowing in on Pearl at this point. This cruise was number 18 for me. So Pearl is inside now.
[00:03:42] Speaker C: Awesome. Wow. You're getting close for sure. And that's a long time sailing since the big red boat for sure. Now, tell us, have you sailed on any other cruise lines? Have you checked out the competition?
[00:03:54] Speaker A: I have. I've been on Norwegian Royal Caribbean and Carnival, but. But always seem to gravitate back to Disney.
[00:04:01] Speaker C: Yeah. Nice. Now, this is obviously a longer itinerary and a unique itinerary. What was it about this itinerary or the time of year or the ship or what that led you to book this longer cruise from Sydney to Honolulu?
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Yeah. As soon as I heard Disney was going to be cruising out of Australia, I said, yep, this is. This is fate. It needs to happen. I've always wanted to go to Australia, and this was just, you know, merging together Disney with Australia. It was something I needed to do, so I think I booked through my path unwinding the very first day that I was able to book.
[00:04:43] Speaker C: Yay. Nice little shout out there to my path unwinding travel. Our show sponsor. That's awesome.
What kind of stateroom category did you choose, and had you sailed on the wonder before? I'm assuming. Yes. Given how many cruises that you have under your belt.
[00:05:02] Speaker A: Yeah, I've cruised on the wonder before. The wonder and magic are definitely my favorite. I've done the wonder in Alaska twice now to two Alaska cruises. I'm going back again in September.
So we did book concierge for this cruise. We did just the family concierge room. I forget what the number class is. I can't keep this straight in my head, but I can't have the concierge. That's what was available.
[00:05:29] Speaker C: The family Veranda stateroom. Yeah.
The biggest number of staterooms in concierge are actually just like the family veranda, which are the same size as the regular family veranda staterooms or maybe the deluxe family veranda staterooms, but they have nicer, like, upgraded fixtures and sheets and things like that. Plus, obviously all the concierge amenities. Yeah. So the room's not bigger per se, but you've got all these. You've got some amenities included. Nice.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: Yeah. And it was not at the time we were on. I'm not sure if it's changed. They had not upgraded these concierge rooms, although I took a peek in a couple of the one bedrooms that were on the same floor and those have been upgraded, but ours had not yet.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: Yeah. Now tell us, who was in your sailing party? Who was going with you on this fantastic two week long cruise?
[00:06:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I cruised. It was just my boyfriend and I for this cruise. So we kept the party small and really enjoyed it.
[00:06:33] Speaker C: Awesome. That's nice. Now, I imagine you flew over to Sydney and spent some time in Australia first. We're not going to go into depth on that, but am I correct in that assumption?
[00:06:45] Speaker A: You are. We left, I live in Jacksonville, Florida, so we left out of Orlando on Saturday, the 11th, and it was around 04:00 in the afternoon, went through LAX and we got to Sydney when the Super bowl was kicking off here in the US. So it was Monday morning in Australia, but the Super bowl was just starting here in the US, which was. Was pretty cool.
[00:07:10] Speaker C: Right. Cause they're, I mean, they're almost a full day ahead. I know our friends in New Zealand are 21 hours ahead of us in Seattle, so 20. Yeah. So it's.
Gosh, that means they're 24 hours ahead of these.
Yeah. So it is. It's very. Yeah, it's very strange to basically be living in the future. Of course, you know, time travel is real.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: Yeah. So we got, we got to Sydney and we took the train into circular key there, and the Super bowl was playing on the big screens. It was. It was really cool. Right. With the backdrop of the opera house. It was pretty neat. And the wonder just happened to be parked that day or docked. I shouldn't say parked, docked in circular key. That at that time. So it was really neat.
[00:08:04] Speaker C: Oh, cool. Yeah, that's very cool. You got to see, I bet. I bet people were watching the Super bowl on funnel vision.
[00:08:11] Speaker A: Absolutely. They had jerseys on. They were screaming. It was great. And it was Monday morning, so it was great.
[00:08:19] Speaker C: So very strange. So very strange. And how many days did you get to spend then in Australia before boarding the wonder?
[00:08:27] Speaker A: We had four nights in Sydney and we stayed primarily in Sydney. There was plenty to do there and we got to get in everything off my list. I wanted to get with the exception of one thing due to weather, but just means I need to go back.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: Yeah. Awesome. Well, why don't you tell us where you stayed since folks are always asking for recommendations and as I said, we won't get into details of your sort of land part of your trip, but I think knowing where to stay and whether it's convenient to the port in particular is helpful. So, yeah. Where were you staying in Sydney?
[00:09:01] Speaker A: We stayed at the Marriott circular cay just because I had Marriott points to use and that was a good place to use them. Very convenient. If you're leaving on a cruise, going out of that port walking distance, two blocks, no worries. There are lots of little shopping around and, you know, you could easily pick up groceries, toiletries, whatever you needed. However, I wasn't aware that the cruise that we were boarding on Friday was leaving out of a different cruise port. So, yeah, that was. And it wasn't bad. It was a 15 minutes lift ride. It wasn't bad at all, but, you know, just wasn't walking distance like I thought it was going to be. So it looked like the wonder was going out, maybe depending on the itinerary or like ports it was going out of. Either that the circular key, which is where the opera house is, or white, I think it's white Bay on the other side of the bridge.
[00:09:58] Speaker C: Nice. Awesome. Well, knowing that you were staying at concierge, I imagine you didn't have any difficulty in sort of the pre booking excursions or wine tastings or anything like that. It's pretty easy. Easy. You send your email off at 130 days to the shore site concierge and they take care of it for you. And then 123 days, you look in your app and it's all, everything you've requested is there with the exception of if you're dealing with castaway key and cabanas and, you know, then that's a.
[00:10:26] Speaker B: Question mark, but can I ask a question there? But like, what were some of the things that you wanted to make sure you had booked heading into this cruise.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: Of course, Palo brunch is always a must, so really want to Palo brunch. And the fact that we had so many sea days on this one, I wanted to try some of the tastings, the liquor tastings and things like that that I hadn't done before on the shorter cruises or where I didn't want to use up a lot of time. So those were the must. And there wasn't a whole lot of research out there about the different excursions for me to know. Oh, I really want to do that one. And the one I ended up doing ended up getting canceled because one of the port times got shortened. But I'm sure we'll talk about that in a minute. Apollo brunch was a definite and wanted to space that out with Apollo dinner later in the cruise.
[00:11:17] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Well, you have those longer cruises and you have a lot of sea days. I mean, everyone's probably going to get Apollo brunch if they want it. It's just a matter of being flexible on what day exactly what day you get it. So, yeah, let's, let's move on to the ship and talk about the embarkation process. You mentioned you weren't leaving from, you know, from nearby. You had to take a lift to the port. How did embarkation, you know, go and, you know, did you all, like, leave in time? How did, how did that, how did that all happen?
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Yeah, there, there are two gates or entries into this specific port, and they were very clear on, like, which one you needed to go to. I gave the lyft driver, hey, we've got to go to this street, not this street. And there was just confusion on which gate to get to because it wasn't a typical cruise port like you see at Port Canaveral.
It was cargo and forklifts and all of that other stuff all around. So we had a little bit of confusion there with the Lyft driver and getting to the right gate, but we got there in plenty of time. I'm one of those crazy people that says I'm going to get there late, but then I'm always early. I just am so excited to board. So we got there early. They didn't have a huge waiting area like Port Canaveral or things like that. They were really letting you in right inside the building when it was time to board. You didn't have the fancy concierge lounge with the cooler, any of that. It was just, hey, go right on through and get your picture taken and head on up. I'd say we got there about 1030 and we were eating our concierge lunch by 1130. So pretty easy. No issues, no concerns there.
[00:13:01] Speaker C: Nice. I love that. Sitting at lunch by 1130. That's a. That's fantastic. That's the way to start a cruise.
[00:13:07] Speaker A: With your free drink. Makes it even better.
[00:13:09] Speaker C: Yeah.
Well, that's a good question. Actually. We've heard that they're no longer giving free drinks at the lunch.
[00:13:19] Speaker B: No, what we heard is they're no longer giving free mixed drinks. Sam. They would still do beer and wine, but no champagne was what we heard. But now I want to say we don't know if that's like 100% true. I'm not convinced that mixed drinks were ever included in the concierge lunch. So I don't know if that's true. The other thing is it could have just been like a random person who misinterpreted the policy. But anyway, I think you.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: I got a free mixed drink, so I was. Well, it's not free. Right. We certainly pay for it.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: But included. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:13:53] Speaker C: For those, for those who don't know what we're talking about, if you're selling concierge, typically the concierge lunch on the first day includes drinks.
You do not have free flowing alcohol and concierge. You do have free flowing alcohol and concierge from five to 10:00 p.m. nightly. But other than that, it's really just the concierge lunch on embarkation day and then five to 10:00 p.m. nightly. So that's, that's what we're talking about there. We, somebody was reporting to us that they had stopped doing the mixed drinks at the lunch. So we don't know if that's true. We'll have to, we'll have to hear probably more about that as people continue to cruise. Okay. Well, let's talk about excursions because you had, this is a very sea day, heavy cruise, but you did have, I think, three port stops, if I'm correct. I know. And I think that you had these, the same stops but in reverse as the folks who went from Honolulu to Sydney to head out to the, for the season. But let's. Yeah. So let's talk about your ports and what you did there. What was your first port of call after leaving Sydney?
[00:14:59] Speaker A: Yeah, we actually had four.
Yeah. Yeah. But I'll go through those. The first was Noumea, New Caldonia, and we did one of those. Best of Noumea tours.
It was good. It was a bus, which was air conditioned, which is important when I talk about American Samoa.
And it was a church and an aquarium with the only living nautilus in the world. So that was pretty cool to see. Really nice garden. Garden and nice aquarium. And then we went out and looked at, like, a lookout point where we were able to look down over the entire city and see the Disney wonder from up on top of a mountain. So it was good. It was good. It got us back in time to have an hour or two of shopping in the square there. And I think I heard on one of your other interviews, like, this is a port where you had to take a bus to get out of the Portland. It was good. It was not my favorite excursion, but it was good. It was solid.
[00:16:04] Speaker C: Did you hear of other folks doing any other excursions that sounded maybe like a better option since that yours was not? Maybe, you know, it sounds like you didn't hate it, but you probably would have chosen something else. Was there any, you know, did you get any other feedback from. From other folks that were cruising that they had maybe a better one?
[00:16:21] Speaker A: No, I didn't. I didn't. There weren't a lot of options. I think there were maybe three or four, and I'm sure it'll get better as they add more, but I don't recall any others that people talked about. That sounded really great.
[00:16:37] Speaker C: Yeah, well, it sounds like, you know, one of the issues with these ports is they just don't get a lot of cruise ships. They don't have the infrastructure for the tours, and they don't have really professional tour guides. And so that, I think, impacts the quality of the excursions and the limit of the offerings and all of that.
[00:16:57] Speaker A: The one thing about this one, too, that they had shared was that we were there on a Monday, and it sounds like that's a day where most of the businesses are closed. So I think that was part of the issue there as well in terms of what was offered.
[00:17:12] Speaker C: That makes sense. It's kind of like restaurants in the US. I feel like. I feel like Mondays or Tuesdays are like the restaurants are all closed, so.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And that's how it felt in the city. There were a couple of shops open. We picked up a really good macaroon, but. But there were limited shops open when. When we went up into the city. We were able to get some. Some good souvenirs, though, at the bus terminal. They had some local crafts and local market tables set up there at the bus station, terminal building, and that. That was good.
[00:17:45] Speaker C: Is it a place that you would want to go back to, do you think?
[00:17:48] Speaker A: I don't. I don't think so.
When we were in Sydney and we were. I talked to anybody that, you know, we were. That wanted to talk to us, and I was asking them about, hey, have you ever been here or here? And they said, new Caledonia for Australians is similar to, like, how we are in Florida, about, like, the Bahamas. It's. It's like. Yes, it's. It's. It's the Caribbean. It's. It's exciting and it's different than home, but it's. It's local. And they go there often, like, weekend type traveling.
[00:18:20] Speaker C: What was your second port of call?
[00:18:22] Speaker A: That was Fiji. We were in Suva, Fiji, and we did do another excursion through Disney. That was a great excursion, that one. We boarded a bus, also air conditioned, and it took us up a mountain and then down into a rainforest and a park. Really beautiful, really rocky, very bumpy. But once we got there, we were split off into groups. And the typical excursion, you kind of got a little bit of cat herding and waiting for people in the restrooms. But they put us into groups and we went on a hike. You had a choice between a more strenuous hike and a less strenuous. We went with the less strenuous, which I was very grateful that we did, because that was even strenuous to me. It was very hot, very muggy. But we stayed more on a main path than the other groups who went on the more strenuous hike. And our guide, it was a group of maybe ten people, so that was nice. We didn't have, like, the massive groups to try to keep together.
Our tour guide was great. She showed us all of the plants and explained to us what they used them for and told us about what could be eaten, what couldn't, and talked about just some of the tools and things that they make out of the plant. So that was fun. But ultimately, we got down this rocky path and we ran into our concierge host, who had also gotten off the ship, and they had just gotten out of the waterfall where we were heading to swim. So they were really excited to see us. And I was looking forward to the waterfall by them because it was so sticky and hot. And we went down a pretty steep climb down into, like, this pool of water with a beautiful waterfall coming over, and. And we were the first two to get out, get down to our bathing suits and jump right in. And it felt really good.
[00:20:27] Speaker C: Love it.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: So swimming in waterfalls, chasing waterfalls in Fiji. So that was great.
[00:20:34] Speaker C: That sounds amazing. I mean, obviously, the weather being hot and muggy makes that waterfall even more enticing and more refreshing.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: Exactly.
But the great part, too, was, like, our group was the first one down there, so we got to be in the waterfall without a lot of other people and just enjoy it. So by the time all the crowds were coming, we were ready to head up and walk back to the bus. Got on the bus, and we headed to a lunch at a hotel resort that they had set up for us. Got to try some local foods and see some. I'm a big dog lover. They had some dogs and all kinds of fun local, like, desserts and things to try. So it was nice. It was good. We then left and got back on the bus, and our driver stopped so we could take some pictures from up on the mountain and see the wonder down below. We saw some goats skidding in someone's front yard. So that was interesting.
On a clothesline, I thought, oh, they're hanging up their laundry. But it was goat skinning.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: Oh, wow. I'm not sure I'd want to see that part, but, no, it's the year.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: You'Re in the culture. So it was interesting and got back to the boat, and we had a couple of hours where we could shopping in. This was one where you could walk to the shopping.
There was a market with, like. And we got there right around. It was like three or four. And the market had a bunch of school buses. So you saw a lot of school kids getting off their school buses. It was fun. And school kids coming up to you and saying, are you on that Disney boat? Did that come from the castle? And they were super excited to ask us questions about the slide that they could see and, you know, is Mickey on that boat? And it was fun. It was fun getting to talk to them and just interact. And the one, there were two souvenirs we were trying to find. Fiji. Money is really pretty, so we wanted to find some currency from Fiji. We did not find the $7 bill that everybody talks about, but we found some fives and other really pretty currency.
[00:22:51] Speaker C: I have not heard of this $7 bill. What's the $7 bill?
[00:22:55] Speaker A: We actually came home and bought one off of eBay, so I'll send you a picture of it. It's really pretty. We couldn't find it in Fiji, but you can find anything on eBay. The other thing we had learned about on the cruise from some of the guest speakers that they had was cannibal forks, so we had to go find a cannibal fork for something.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: Oh, what, a fork?
[00:23:14] Speaker C: Like, to eat people? Yeah.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Yep. Yep. There's a special fork that was used to cook. Cook the flesh and feed it to the chief of the tribe. And we needed to come home with one, apparently. So you need it.
[00:23:30] Speaker C: If I were you, I would have also said, I want to come home with one of those just for fun. It's just a novelty.
[00:23:36] Speaker A: Well, we came home with four boomerangs from Australia and two cannibal forks.
[00:23:42] Speaker C: You need a pair, right? I mean, like, you and your boyfriend, you have to each have one.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: I don't know if I'm eating them.
[00:23:49] Speaker B: It gives a whole new meaning to feeding each other, I guess.
[00:23:55] Speaker A: Thanks for having that one.
[00:23:58] Speaker B: Well, I am excited for the next day, because after you leave Fiji, you cross the international date line for the all important double day. As I understand it, you relive the same day twice, right?
[00:24:11] Speaker A: Yeah. We had 2222s, so February 22, we repeated, and I could not wrap my head around it. I just had problems understanding, how do I have the same day twice? How does this work? And they had a guest lecturer who explained it. It's a 23 hours time zone change. And I'm like, for some reason in my brain that that was able to compute. So I'm like, okay, I get that, but, yeah, 222 twice.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: That's crazy. That's crazy. Well, let's. Let's talk about your last couple ports, and then we'll get back to talking about onboard stuff.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Wait, hold on, hold on. I wanted to understand on the 222 double day, because there's a lot about this on the Internet leading into this cruise about how, essentially, you were able to pick cruise activities on, like, the first day, but you had to wait until you were on board to pick activities for the second day or something like that. Like, how did that work?
[00:25:02] Speaker A: Yeah, you're spot on. So they explained to us, because people were all asking, like, hey, I'm missing a day. It's supposed to be 15 nights. Where's my other night? And Trent explained in one of his morning shows, our app can't do that. Our app can't have the same day twice. As great as the app is, and this was one time, the only time that Disney is handing out the paper navigators again for that reason, because you don't. You can't pull it up in the app. But they said they had somebody who was waiting until 1201 that was going to refresh the wrap and sure enough, when I woke up on the second 222, the new 22 was there with all different activities. So. Yep. 222 times two.
[00:25:47] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:25:48] Speaker C: Works to me.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: However you want to.
[00:25:53] Speaker C: I love it. I love it. Now that. Listen, that sounds like a. It's like, you know when you were dealing with, like, y two k, right? Like they've got figure out some kind of technological fix in the moment for this thing that's going to happen one time, right, or once a year now that Disney keeps going back. So I just wonder if there was.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Like a. I wonder if there was a cult of people on board who firmly believe, like, when this ship crosses the international date line, we will all go. You know, it will disappear. It'll just disappear.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:26:21] Speaker C: It'll be like some kind of lost moment. Like, you know, like the show lost. I mean, and the whole ship disappears. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. All right, well, let's talk about your next port. And then I. Obviously, we've got. Actually, we've got two more ports to talk about, and. And then we'll return to onboard activities.
[00:26:39] Speaker A: Sure, sure. So the next one was Pongo. Pongo, American Samoa. There was a lot of controversy on the ship on how you pronounce the. Because it looks like Pago Pago, American Samoa. I think both pronunciations are fine, but they embedded in our brain. Like, we're going to pronounce it correctly. It's Pongo. Pongo, American Samoa.
[00:26:59] Speaker C: We have American Samoa, something like that.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: Samoa? Yeah.
[00:27:05] Speaker C: That's hard to say. Yeah.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: And I was a Girl scout and sold, like, the cookies, so, like, I had to. Yeah.
So the welcome there, we got in a bit of a ritual. I'm an early morning riser, he's not. So I would go out and go for my run on deck four and get my coffee, and I sneak back in with his coffee and try not to wake him. That morning, there was such arrival music. Like, we could hear it before we had even docked. They had brought, like, a local school out to do dancing. And the music was so loud, we could barely see the port, but we could hear the music. It kind of reminded me of John Cusack and say anything with the boombox. He had this big, loud boombox thing he was holding over his head, and it was just blaring music, but the dancing and music and just energy and excitement was a great, great welcome. Ton of fun. Definitely different than any cruise port I've been on and just got you excited. But he wasn't awake yet, and he's like, what is going on? I said, they're welcoming you. Get out here.
[00:28:11] Speaker C: Get out. Get off the dalcony and come see.
[00:28:15] Speaker A: Yeah, it was great. It was great. We were able to watch their show and drink our coffee and get ready for the day.
[00:28:21] Speaker C: That's awesome.
I love when they do any kind of welcome ceremony for a new port, but something like that, that sounds just, like, really special, you know, when it was. Yeah, yeah. Because it's not just the first time the wonder has been there, but the first time Disney cruise line has been there ever as well. Yeah, yeah.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: And it was exciting because it's like high school kids and, you know, I'm sure it's exciting for them. It's exciting for us. But, yeah, we had an excursion booked through Disney that time as well. I don't remember. I think it was like Kava ceremony and. And pongo. Pongo tours. This one was the non air conditioned bus, and the buses were small and it was very warm. They did. This was an interesting one beforehand because they sent us a warning to say, hey, the drivers might be young.
They're excited to welcome you, but they might not be as experienced as you would like. If you have any concerns, come see us and we'll rebook you, you know, cancel kind of thing. So I was a little apprehensive, and then when I saw the bus, I was even more apprehensive because it was. It was a very small bus. It might have been like eight benches. We could barely fit on one bench between us, super warm. They had lots of flowers hung up that were attracting bugs. And I was like, but so glad I got in and did it because it was probably my favorite excursion the whole time. Our guide, she had just moved back. She was born in American Samoan, just had moved back to take care of her grandparents, who weren't doing well health wise. So she had spent time in the US and then come back and she was, you know, talking to us about what that transition was like for her. And so that was fun. We got to hear kind of like a firsthand account of what life's like. And she explained how much they appreciate the cruise ships and just what it does for their economy. So it kind of made you feel good to be there. They split us into about eight or nine buses. We were in the second bus. The first bus had an exhaust problem.
[00:30:28] Speaker B: Oh, no.
[00:30:29] Speaker C: And you're behind them?
[00:30:30] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. And poor Melissa, our guy didn't have a seat, so she was, like, hanging out. And it was. Yeah. And that was bus number one. We called it the pigpen bus and it did break down at one point, but they took us up a mountain that made the exhaust even worse. And then we went down. Beautiful, lush, you know, rainforest. Just beautiful green. Don't see green like that here in Florida.
Just really, really beautiful scenery to drive up and to drive down despite the bus issues.
But we got to the kava ceremony.
They cut off the coconut and, you know, put a straw in it and gave it to us to drink. We were super excited about that. And they ushered us into a tent or a hut, I think they called it a hut.
Witnessed this kava ceremony. They had the traditional costumes and explained the kava ceremony to us. They picked a couple of people out of the crowd to pretend that they're on one side of the visiting team and then the other side was the kind of home team. And they walked us through the whole Kaaba ceremony and let us actually try the Kaaba afterwards, which was exciting because it does, like, they had warned us during the, the guest talks that if you do try it, it leaves a bit of a bitter taste. It's part of like a pepper plant. And it definitely does leave a bitter taste that leaves your mouth numb. But, like, I'm never going to ask.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: This is the. This is the numbing drink, right? Like this numbs. Yeah, I've had that. There was a coffee shop in Portland, Oregon, of all places. It's service. This is kind of like a specialty thing and. Yeah, I remember having some. And it like, numbs your lips and mouth. Yeah, yeah, it does.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: Definitely does. But I figured I had to try it.
[00:32:14] Speaker C: I mean, when in American Samoa, right? Like, you gotta try it.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: Gotta try it. So we, we had the. Drank, the kava, we got some pictures. They let us kind of walk around there. There was really pretty scenery there. We were right on the ocean. So we had gone up over the mountain and then back down. So that was really cool to see and just really enjoyed it. And so then.
[00:32:39] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:32:40] Speaker A: So then we got back on the bus and we headed back towards what they, they call flower pot rock. That picture everybody sees when you see American Samoa. Really, really pretty up the coast. And they took us to a couple other little, like, get out, take a picture, come back in type of stops. But the whole excursion was just, you felt like you were more part of, like, the culture. We were able to talk to people and get to know them and just really experience the different part of the world that you never really thought about before. Really enjoyed that one.
[00:33:16] Speaker C: Awesome. Did you get any time on your own at the end like you had at the other ones?
[00:33:21] Speaker A: Yes. Yeah, we did. I typically plan on my port, my excursions, so I know I've got a couple of hours at the end because I just like to shop and walk around and look around. This one in particular, there were some shops open, not a ton, in panga pongo. Apparently there's other parts of American Samoa that are more have more like of the tourism type places. So just some basic shops and little markets and things that we were able to get, get some things, got some clothes and other cool stuff and yeah, it was good.
[00:33:58] Speaker C: That sounds awesome.
[00:34:01] Speaker B: Are you listening to our show? Because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at Mypath Unwinding travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. Mypath Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, relaxed at Alani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, my path, my path. Unwinding travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email dclduoypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks mypath unwinding, for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:35:00] Speaker C: What was your fourth stop before? Of course, before you make your full way across the rest of the ocean, the Pacific Ocean, to Honolulu?
[00:35:09] Speaker A: Well, we had five days at sea and then we had a stop at Kahului.
[00:35:14] Speaker C: So that was closer.
[00:35:16] Speaker A: Yeah, so that's in Hawaii. And we were originally supposed to have over 12 hours there. We were supposed to get there at 08:00 a.m. and not need to get back on the boat until 10:00 p.m. and they had sent out an email a couple of months before to say, hey, we're actually only going to be there for 8 hours, so you're going to need back on the boat around five. And that meant that the excursion that we had planned through Disney, the road to Hana, ended up getting canceled. We were like, oh, shoot, we're on our own. And we started researching and learned about the road to Hana and said, hey, what part of it can we do ourselves on a time crunch? Found an app that I think it was like, shaka guide or something and. Yeah.
[00:36:02] Speaker C: Shaka guide. Yeah, we use the Shaka guide in Honolulu or on. I guess on. I guess it's. Where do we use it, Brian?
I'm getting the Honolulu. Oh, no, no. On Oahu, though. It's not on Oahu. Yeah, on Oahu. Yeah, we use the. It's a great, great resource. Yeah. It's basically a driving tour, but if you stop at every place it tells you to stop at, like, it'll tell you how long it'll take you and all that, so. Yeah, fantastic. So did you rent a car then?
[00:36:33] Speaker A: We did.
He rented a Mustang convertible, because we decided if we were going to do the road to Hana, we were doing it right, and it was a really good rate, and we were able to, you know, get a discount and we would save money because we weren't doing the Disney excursion. And we called it Uncle Shaka because, like, uncle is a term of endearment in Hawaii. We referred to our app as Uncle Shaka and that only 20 or 30 books. So we were like, you know what?
We'll do this right. And it was a lot of fun. We. We took our time kind of going up because we had to. At one point, there was a rock slide, and we were, you know, stopped dead in our tracks and had to. Had to stop and wait. But it. I highly recommend the road to Hana. It's a little bit. A little bit scary at times with the tight curves and the one lane bridges. I think. I think the app told us there are, like, 333 curves on that road, and most of them, you can't see what's coming at you the other way. One lane roads. And there's locals on that road they have to use. That's the only road to get from Hana into the city. So they know the road much better than we do. So overall, everybody was really patient and just took turns where they needed to take turns. But I was glad we had the app because it kind of told us where to pull off what we needed to make sure we saw. It was really helpful. We would not have seen everything that we saw without the app guiding us along the way.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: Yeah. For those who don't know, we talked about this on one of our shows way, way long ago. But I highly recommend this tour that Amy's talking about because you basically buy the tour through the App store on iOS, I think probably available on Android as well. But you buy the tour once, you don't have to, like, pay some subscription for the tour. Uh, it comes down to your phone. Uh, when you light it up in your phone and attach it to like, you know, plug it into a car stereo or whatever. Um, they have a couple different tours you can do. But basically, like, the one we did was a tour around the islands. And it's gps, uh, located. So as you would pass certain points on the road, suddenly your radio would light up with, you know, some information of stuff you were looking at out the car windows. It would give you directions, you know, of where to go along the way to get to each site or location. And it was like a comprehensive tour of the island. And then when you get out of your car, they'd be like, okay, take me with you. And you get out of your car and you'd learn a little bit more. And then you get back in your car and you keep going. Right? So it was a really great, like, you know, for whatever it was, $30, $25 might have been when we bought it, but as many times as you want to do it with as many people as you want to shove in your car, like, you can get it done. So, like, I just really highly recommend this app. It was really great.
[00:39:17] Speaker C: And it's all over Hawaii, I don't think. Different ones. Yeah, different ones.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: You have to buy a different app for, like, each island, basically that they have it for, you know, but for $30. Like, and they, and I believe they provide updates to it over time. I don't know how often that happens, but it was just a great app. And by the way, you then don't have to worry about, I need to be at like, x location at 930 in the morning to catch a bus. And, you know, you could bypass, like, if you were like, you know, that. That sounds interesting. Let's stop. You could do that. Or there was like a button in the app where you'd say, nope, skipping it, let's keep going. And it would just be like, oh, okay. In fact, I mean, I don't even know if there's a button. I think if you just kept driving, it would just start to be like, oh, you skipped all those waypoints. Now we're going to this waypoint. So it was great. I really highly recommend it if you're headed to Hawaii.
[00:40:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I totally agree. It was super helpful. It pointed us to probably the best banana bread I ever had. And this little booth called halfway to Hana. We ended up bringing some home with us, but we got to Hana, and then we turned around and came back. And the app gives you the entire history of Hawaii. So as you're driving back, it does say, hey, if you didn't stop the first time, here's this. But it doesn't give you all it is just telling you. It's more like a storytelling of the history of Hawaii. So, yeah, we really enjoyed it. I was. I wasn't. I wasn't happy that the time got shortened, but I'm happy that we ended up doing this instead of getting on a bus and, you know, kind of going with a group because we were able to go at our own pace and do what we wanted to do.
[00:40:43] Speaker C: Plus, you got to do it in a mustang. I mean.
[00:40:47] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:40:49] Speaker C: I mean, that sounds like a fun way to do it.
[00:40:52] Speaker A: It did rain a couple times, so we had to, like, hurry up and put the roof on and then, like, you know what? Rains over, put it back down. So it's fun.
[00:41:00] Speaker C: That's Hawaii for you.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: So we got back, back, and everyone on the ship had talked about, you have to go to Costco. Costco in Hawaii has really, really cool things and really cool hawaiian shirts. And so we stopped at Costco and got some chocolate macadamia nuts and hit a couple of other small shops and returned the car and got a lift back. Tobacco in the shit.
[00:41:23] Speaker C: That's funny that people are saying, go to Costco. I mean, it's true. They do have, like, specific hawaiian things. Like, you can get way more and for way cheaper, those Mac. The chocolate covered macadamia nuts and all that you buy at the store for, like, you know, here in the mainland. $7 for the little tiny one. Right? Like, you can get them for way cheaper there. But it's still. It's just. It's a funny. It's a funny thing that people are like, go to Costco, you know, while you're in Hawaii.
[00:41:48] Speaker A: The recommendation of the WhatsApp group from the cruise ship. So I was like, yeah, well, we'll try it. What the heck?
[00:41:55] Speaker B: Well, so we know after this, you hit Honolulu and you disembark. So let's rewind a bit and let's just hit some of the highlights from onboard and maybe answer. Let me start by asking you one question, which is a lot of people, I think, get a little nervous about being on a cruise ship for 15 nights. Me, like, give me more. But some people are like, that's a long time to be on board a cruise ship. Did you find that there was enough to keep you busy? Because the other aspect of this is you had a lot of sea days coming in from American Samoa into Hawaii. And some folks, again, they find that a little repetitive. I'm like, I'll be on a chair next to the adult pool, but fine. How did you find the length of the cruise? I mean, with your cruising background, I'm assuming you've been on like 14 night sailings before, perhaps or longer sailing, so you might be used to it. But talk to the people out there who are, like, a little apprehensive about that. Like, you know, what makes that great?
If there's anything where you're like, you know, I wish it had a little bit more to do on XYZ day or something like that. Like, let's talk about that, too.
[00:42:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And this was the longest cruise I've ever been on, so I was a little nervous going into it. And, you know, we had spaced out our activities and the bookings that we did on board to make sure we had kind of something every day. But there was so much to do. There's no way I could have been bored. If anything, I was like, oh, when am I going to squeeze a nap in? I need a nap this afternoon. Because there were just, there was so much to do that you didn't want to miss. And you kind of got into a routine because many of the same types of activities are offered at the same time, and they sometimes build on each other and you really want to do it. The other thing, I would say we're two adults. Like, we're the crazy Disney adults that are on there without kids.
[00:43:39] Speaker B: You're in a safe space. You're in a safe space.
[00:43:41] Speaker C: I know.
[00:43:42] Speaker B: That's why I can say it.
[00:43:46] Speaker A: But, you know, the Disney wonder holds about, what, 2400 people? Typically, we only had 1600 on the boat, so. And over 90% of the rooms were sold out, which means you had a lot of couples like us.
There were not a lot of kids. They said there were under 150 kids, which makes sense because taking kids out of school in February, like, it's difficult unless you homeschool. But, like, there were not a lot of kids. There were most nights the kids activities were shut down and, like, adults could come in and do pajama parties and we could play games and arts and crowd.
[00:44:24] Speaker C: Did they do Pluto's pajama party for the adults?
[00:44:27] Speaker A: They did.
[00:44:28] Speaker C: They wanted to do Pluto's pajama party.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: But, like, bibbidi bobbidi boutique, they said they only had, like, 20 or so appointments, so it was only open in certain times. And, like, it was just very different than other cruises I've been on, especially the weekenders out of Port Canaveral where you feel like half the ship is kids. So it was just, it was different. And because you're on for so long, you get to know people and you talk and all that. So, no, there did not feel bored whatsoever. The one thing I would say, too, that really helped. I'm almost six foot tall, so I've heard other people talk about get your shower, wash your hair in the spa.
[00:45:09] Speaker C: Oh, in the spa.
[00:45:10] Speaker A: That was life changing for me know, washing your hair and those when you're tall is impossible. So that really helped me.
[00:45:18] Speaker C: Tall people problems.
[00:45:20] Speaker A: I know it's rough.
[00:45:24] Speaker C: I'm only five seven, so I can't, people think I'm taller than I am always. I don't know if it's my personality or these long arms I have. I have, I call them like my, my monkey arms. I have long, long arms and long legs, but I'm only five seven, but, so I don't have those. I don't have your tall people problems.
[00:45:42] Speaker B: Amy, two other questions on these lines that are more general. Amy. One is, how are the seas getting between American Samoa and Hawaii? Weve had some experience going from Hawaii back to mainland us, and that can get a little rough. So curious how the seas and maybe the weather were. And then the other question I have for you is, did you notice if any Australians got on board with you to take this long sailing to the US and then fly home? Because id be curious if they were interested in this or if this was really just a bunch of us people coming over to Australia and heading back to Hawaii.
[00:46:14] Speaker A: Yeah, they did let us know over 80% were from the US. You had some from different parts of Asia. And there were definitely australian people. And I like to do the souvenirs with the picture frames to get the character sign. And, like, I was in line with the same families that we got to know each other and definitely some australian kids and families on board. But they had said over 80% were from the US, that there wasn't a lot of rain.
It was definitely hot and muggy.
I packed for all seasons and I did not take out any of my jackets or anything like that, except for one day with just a quick rain shower. I think that was actually in Kahului. The seas were rough in the beginning. Coming out of Sydney and that stretch up to New Caledonia. I never have problems on the seas and that. But that day in particular, there were quite a few of us that didn't make it through dinner that needed because, you know, the restaurants are in the after the boat and you could just see looking out the window and matching it with the horizon how bad we were bobbing. I think it's the coral sea, they said, is pretty rough. And yes, definitely was rough. Green apple and ginger oil did the trick, and the next day was still rough, but not as bad as the ones overall. It was rough, but you're on a Disney cruise, so it's all good.
[00:47:44] Speaker C: Yeah.
Let's talk about some of the special activities that happened on board.
Talk to us about sort of special performers or talks. Let's sort of start in that category of things that happened on board this cruise.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: Yep. They had someone on board who had retired from the Disney Institute. Her name was Katie Sanchez, and she did a talk every day talking about the different ports. She referred to herself as a passionate globetrotter. And this cruise, she was hitting her hundredth country. So she was really excited to share just nh port currency, language, things to keep in mind for etiquette, you know, things the country is famous for. And just gave us the helpful hint about cannibal forks that I mentioned earlier. She had worked at Animal Kingdom, so she talked a lot about, you know, Disney transportation for people that weren't familiar, Disney parks and all that good stuff. So she was helpful and useful. And we found lots of good tips from arcady speaks. The other thing that was super exciting, they did one of those, you know, hey, all the platinum, pearl gold members come to the theater at this time. And I thought it was going to be what I learned from your show about kind of the behind the scenes type thing. But then we walked in and all there was, was an easel on the stage, and they had shared that 1200 of the 15 or 1600 people that were on board were gold, platinum and Pearl members. So the theater was packed. But his name is Don Ducky Williams. He does all of the prints.
[00:49:20] Speaker C: He does all the prints for, like, Disney Cruise line. Oh, my gosh.
[00:49:25] Speaker A: He also draws Mickey on your key to the world card. He's the. Yeah. So Don was on and he talked. I think it was supposed to be an hour. It ended up being like two and a half, but it was great. He talked all about his story and how he got his start. And, you know, he started at the age of 14 and wrote Walt a letter and Walt replied and told him to keep trying. But while he was talking to us and giving us his life story and whatever his love of Disney, he was drawing the whole time and ended up raffling off his drawings at the end. He had drawn a bunch in his room the night before and had just. I didn't win any, but I would have loved one. But it was. It was really great, and it was really great to hear his story. And later on in the cruise, he autographed for you so you could take your lithographs. I got to take my concierge one and one that was special for this crossing for the equator. But I also had him sign, like, our key cards and those little certificates of authenticity. I was like, just sign everything.
But he showed us, like, the ring that he got for 25 years of service with Disney, and it was great. The other thing, I would say, that was probably more unique for this one, they had folks from Ilani on, so they did, like, how to make a lei, which I'm really not good at. They did the teaching of the hula, the ukulele, like, storytelling. They did hawaiian dances before dinner and atrium a couple nights. So that was fun and just got everybody excited, because I think most of the ship went to Alani after we got to Honolulu.
Yeah. And then they do the boat building where you get to, you know, make a. Try to make a boat with stuff that you find around the ship. And then at the. They have a competition where the captain and his crew come out and judge the boats, and you want to try to make sure your boat floats. Troy made a boat with milk cartons, got himself sick drinking chocolate milk, but the boat floated, so that was fun.
He passed the test. That was different, but it was. The boat building competition was a day that the seas were little rocky, so the water was sloshing in the pool, and. But that. That part was really fun. But I. And then, of course, you know, the crossing of the equator and the big party there, that was pretty neat. Do you want me to go into that one?
[00:51:44] Speaker C: Yeah, let's talk about that. I think that's another. That's another one of these sort of special things that happens, you know, only on this kind of cruise.
[00:51:52] Speaker A: Yeah. And our. Our captain did almost like a zipper line when you watched it going over the equator to time it with the fire works. So it was, you know, the typical dancing and excitement and stage show, but just the fact that we were crossing the equator and there's fireworks going off, and they had. During the day, they had had a party, you know, where you go from being a Pollywog to a shellback and just a lot of fun, little games and water guns and, you know, kiss the fish and all of those types of fun things to do. It was good.
[00:52:28] Speaker C: I love that. Yeah. So you had, you mentioned fireworks. So the fireworks were for crossing the equator, and then, of course, I assume you also had pirate night fireworks while you're at sea.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, we had a pirate night. It was, it's different than I've been on the wish for a couple times now, so it's different because it's a smaller stage, but also it was fun to see pirate Mickey come down instead. The captain Jack Sparrow. So I was really excited to see that. But, yeah, we had fireworks for the pirate men, too, then.
[00:53:01] Speaker C: Yeah. Did you also have heroes unite?
[00:53:05] Speaker A: We did not. No, I wish we had because I've heard about it, but we did not have heroes unite.
[00:53:11] Speaker C: Yeah, well, we have not experienced it ourselves, but obviously we keep hearing amazing things and we know it was done on the wonder over in Australia, New Zealand, at least for some of the cruises. I don't know if it was all of the cruises. Well, it sounds like an amazing cruise. You know, you did a bunch of drink tastings you mentioned at the front. I'm curious, you said that you hadn't done a lot of those on previous cruises because those other cruises were shorter. What did you think of the drink tastings and did you have a favorite and maybe a least favorite?
[00:53:43] Speaker A: Yeah, my favorite was probably the chocolate and liquor. I'm a big chocolate fan, so pairing chocolate with liquor was a lot of fun. And, you know, I just, I love the cadillac lounge. I think it's so pretty and, like, so thoughtful and how they've put together the, the fixtures and the furniture and just, just really pretty mixology was probably. I mean, I've done that one before, so typical to what we've done before. Each time, depending on who the host is, it's a little different. But, you know, I wouldn't say it's my least favorite, but I still like them all. Chocolate and liquor definitely was at the top, though.
[00:54:20] Speaker C: Brian, anything you wanted to ask before? I was going to ask sort of a catch all, if there were anything, any, like, topics that. Or special things that we, we miss. Obviously, we can't cover everything you did on this amazing cruise, but I'll stop there and let Brian jump in in case I missed something.
[00:54:38] Speaker B: No, I was going to ask the catch all. So.
[00:54:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:40] Speaker B: Is there anything we missed, Amy? That, that we haven't touched on before. I subject you to our rapid fire round here.
[00:54:47] Speaker A: Oh, boy. I guess I want to come up with something here to delay rapid fire.
[00:54:58] Speaker C: I guess I got to be nicer.
[00:55:02] Speaker A: The only other two things I had jotted down here, the dancing under the stars. So, couple on who did a different dance. Like some days they did, too, but they taught you different dances. So. So the waltz, the foxtrot, the tango, they kind of taught you these dances. And we quickly learned we weren't good at them, but we laughed and had fun. And then one night, they went out on the main deck stage and kind of turned the lights down and Amber and Jackson did their dance. Then the rest of us tried to fumble along and tried to do the different dances with them. But that was a lot of fun. That was pretty cool. And then another night, there were two nights they did it when the weather didn't quite work out. They did the stargazing where they turned off the lights at the, at the front there, and everybody got to kind of look at the constellations and they were pointing them out. So that part was really neat, too. I hadn't done that one before.
[00:55:59] Speaker C: Oh, that's really cool. Yeah.
[00:56:01] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:56:02] Speaker C: That sounds awesome.
[00:56:03] Speaker A: It's a great trip.
[00:56:04] Speaker B: Well, with that, Amy, I think we can delay it no further. We have reached that point in the show where you get to be subjected to Sam's arbitrary questions, arbitrary rules, and her more than a dash of judgment are the round we know as rapid fire. So, Sam, take it away.
[00:56:21] Speaker C: Thank you, Ryan. Now I feel bad, but I'm still going to do it anyway, so.
Amy, I feel so bad torturing these.
[00:56:29] Speaker B: People, but it's my job. I must do it.
[00:56:31] Speaker C: It's my job. It's my job. I have to give the people what they want. Brian, this is what they want.
[00:56:38] Speaker B: I should put the call out. If you would appear on this show without rapid fire, please let us know in your comments or email us. Yes.
[00:56:46] Speaker C: All right, Amy, I'm going to ask you some Disney favorites, and then we're going to. I'm going to ask you Disney cruise line favorites, and you can answer for your Disney cruise line favorites with anything on any of the ships that you have been on. All right, so actually, have you been on all of them now?
[00:57:00] Speaker A: I have, yep. Okay, so I think I'm scheduled on the treasure with you guys, too, over Christmas.
[00:57:05] Speaker C: Oh, look at that.
[00:57:06] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:57:07] Speaker C: All right, maiden voyage friends. Love it. Okay, we'll start with your favorite Disney character. And when I say Disney, that means everything now that Disney owns.
[00:57:17] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm Daisy duck all the way.
[00:57:20] Speaker C: Love it. All right, favorite Disney movie?
[00:57:23] Speaker A: Moana.
[00:57:25] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:57:25] Speaker A: So Moana or brave? Brave. Brave is a tight closest.
[00:57:28] Speaker C: Oh, it's a tight. Yeah. Okay. Favorite song?
[00:57:33] Speaker A: Oh, boy, that's a hard one.
I'm liking princess and the frog right now, but I'd have to say almost there. That one is. Yeah, it's a good one.
[00:57:45] Speaker C: That is a great song. Okay. We're going to stick in that sort of music category, but we're moving on to the ship. And I have to ask you your favorite Disney cruise line stage show?
[00:57:55] Speaker A: Oh, boy.
Frozen is like my least favorite movie, but I love that stage show. It's so good. Yeah.
[00:58:04] Speaker C: And I have to tell you, it's. It's not my, like, least favorite movie, but it's not. It's not even close to being one of my favorite Disney movies.
[00:58:12] Speaker A: And I played, for me, it is, it is.
[00:58:15] Speaker C: And it got, you know, it got like, the kids got so obsessed with it. Right. So it was like, everywhere. But that stage show is so good. Okay, well, we're simpatico on that one. All right. Your favorite adult bar space on any of the ships.
[00:58:33] Speaker A: I really. I really like Meridian.
[00:58:35] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: And I like Nightingales on the wish.
[00:58:39] Speaker C: Yeah, those are both great choices. Yeah. All right. Favorite rotational dining. Again, any of the ships.
[00:58:49] Speaker A: It's definitely animator's palette where they animate my drawing. Yeah, I don't like animators palette any other way, but I like it when the animate drawing. You like animation mastery too loud and bright for me.
[00:59:00] Speaker C: Yeah, I hear you. I hear you. Okay. A favorite space to relax on the ship.
[00:59:06] Speaker A: Oh, the rainforest room.
[00:59:08] Speaker C: Nice. You and Brian are simpatico there. All right, we got to talk food. Favorite sweet item and a favorite savory item. So let's start with the sweets because I love the savories. So what is your favorite, a favorite food item on Disney cruise line. That is sweet.
[00:59:26] Speaker A: That's so hard.
It's chocolate souffle from Palo. But then I've also, I just tried the tiger's blood, which I never heard of. They brought it out like our last. It's a flavor of ice cream on the ice cream machine. It's tiger's blood. It's almost like, it's like a fruit punch. Tutti frutti type flavor.
[00:59:48] Speaker C: Interesting. Sounds like a cannibal thing.
[00:59:50] Speaker A: Exactly. They brought it out on our very last night. I'm like, where have you guys been hiding this one?
[00:59:57] Speaker B: The soft serve machine.
[00:59:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:59] Speaker B: Like, wow, I have never seen that flavor. Wow.
[01:00:02] Speaker C: I wonder, though. I wonder if it's something that they got over, like, in, you know, in the South Pacific, because, you know. Yeah. All right.
[01:00:11] Speaker A: WhatsApp was blowing up.
[01:00:12] Speaker C: They're like, you gotta get to the tiger's blood. All right. Okay. A favorite savory item on Disney cruise line pasta percents. Yes. Eat your heart out, Josh Wilson.
[01:00:24] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure.
[01:00:26] Speaker B: But now we know people are just saying it, Sam, so they don't incur your wrath. So.
[01:00:30] Speaker C: No, but you know what's funny? I actually would not choose truffle percents as my favorite, like, savory item. They all. I do really enjoy them, but I wouldn't pick them as my favorite because, I mean, I've got to choose, like, I don't know, like, the chicken parm at Paulo or. I mean, there are so many good savory dishes, right? And, I mean, even just the french fries on the pool deck are super good. So there's a lot of good savory food. So I'm not sure I'd put it as, like, my number one, but it's definitely one of the ones I really enjoy, and it's unique.
[01:01:02] Speaker A: Have you tried the eggplant rolatini at Palo?
[01:01:06] Speaker C: I have not, Brian.
[01:01:07] Speaker B: Yes, we have.
[01:01:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:01:09] Speaker B: No, no. We've had it. We've gotten it to share. We've gotten it to share one time.
[01:01:13] Speaker C: No, I don't think I ever tasted it, Brian, I know I have had the ravioli with you, but I don't think I. I think you have gotten that.
Try it.
[01:01:23] Speaker B: There was one time we ordered it for the table at the insistence of the waiter. I know we did. We had a bite of it.
[01:01:29] Speaker C: I don't remember.
[01:01:30] Speaker B: I am not the world's biggest eggplant fan.
[01:01:33] Speaker C: Not a big eggplant fan. Yeah.
[01:01:34] Speaker B: But it was good. I mean, it was good. It's just not my favorite.
[01:01:37] Speaker C: Okay, so we're gonna be on in June, and, Amy, I'm gonna. We're gonna be on the magic, and we're going for brunch. So I'm gonna order the eggplant rolatini for the table because I still have to order chicken parm. So I can't be. I can't give up my chicken parm for eggplanthenne plant. I do like eggplant, though, but I can't.
[01:01:54] Speaker A: Yeah, chicken parm is pretty great.
[01:01:56] Speaker C: Chicken parm is great. Okay. Do you do. Remy. Enchante. I know you do. Paulo. Are you.
[01:02:03] Speaker A: I did Remy once it's just. It's a really long time for me to sit. I just. I just. Yeah, I like.
[01:02:12] Speaker C: So I was going to ask you, Remy versus Paulo, but your answer is clearly Paulo, so. Okay. No judge, no judgment there. I love. I love both. They both have a place. Okay. Aqua dunk, aqua duck, aqua mouse. Choose which one is your favorite.
[01:02:29] Speaker A: Aqua mouse.
[01:02:31] Speaker C: Wow.
I feel like most people have been choosing the aqua duck. So I don't think your answer is the most popular, but I don't think it's a bad answer. I actually think the only wrong answer is the aqua dunk on that one because it's terrifying.
[01:02:44] Speaker A: I agree.
[01:02:46] Speaker C: All right, which one is your favorite ship? This is like the hardest question of all of the five that are currently sailing, which one is your favorite?
[01:02:56] Speaker A: Not the wish. Probably the wonder. The wonder of the magic. It's one of the smaller ones. I just like them.
[01:03:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
Special.
[01:03:07] Speaker A: It's classic. Yeah.
[01:03:09] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay, and the last question of rapid fire bucket list cruise. You just completed a bucket list cruise, so you check that one off your. Listen, if you could go anywhere in the world on a Disney cruise line ship, and it doesn't even have to be someplace Disney cruise line currently goes, where would you go, Amy?
[01:03:27] Speaker A: So I still need to do Panama Canal, and I'm really disappointed they're not offering it next year because that was my plan. But Panama Canal, I haven't done that one yet.
[01:03:37] Speaker C: All right, well, Amy, thank you for playing.
You got an a plus plus, Amy.
[01:03:43] Speaker A: Oh, good.
So, yeah, great.
[01:03:47] Speaker C: You were nervous for nothing. Your ice cream. Your ice cream answer with tiger's blood threw me for a loop, but I haven't tried it. So what do I.
[01:03:55] Speaker B: This is the new Sam relax. Grading curve is what I'm hearing, you know, to help encourage people to play rapid fire people.
[01:04:03] Speaker C: I don't want to scare people.
I'm a benevolent dictator.
[01:04:08] Speaker B: We're going to get Sam an executive coach. Don't worry. We're going to help her out.
[01:04:13] Speaker A: Well, go find me out. I'm sure everyone will contribute.
[01:04:18] Speaker B: There you go. There you go.
[01:04:20] Speaker C: Well, I love it.
[01:04:21] Speaker B: Amy, it has been a blast talking to you about this fabulous, this amazing trans Pacific cruise from Sydney to Honolulu. And so just want to say thank you for taking the time to come on and share that experience with us and all of our listeners. We really, really appreciate it.
[01:04:37] Speaker A: Thanks for having me.
[01:04:43] Speaker B: Well, thanks to everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights 05:30 p.m. pacific 08:30 p.m. eastern over on YouTube.com dclduo so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show. So be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course, you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, Mypath Unwinding travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email
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