[00:00:00] Speaker A: But we just booked the lumberjack show, so we were some of the first people in. And you don't meet on the ship with this excursion, which freaked out so many people. Like, meeting places. The show, it is a block away.
[00:00:15] Speaker B: You can't get lost. Well, if I do, you're really direct.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: I mean, you could, but, like, yeah.
[00:00:21] Speaker C: You'Re lucky you have to work at it.
[00:00:23] Speaker A: Like, how'd you get on the ship in the first place? Right?
How do you eat lunch?
[00:00:41] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's live episode of the DC l duo podcast, brought to you by my path unwinding travel. And we couldn't be more excited to have the Doug McKnight here from rope drop radio and rope drop on deck. Welcome, Doug.
[00:00:57] Speaker A: Well, thank you so much for having me, guys. I'm super excited to be on here and chat. Cruising.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Yes. The last time we talked, we came on your show on rope drop on deck and talked about one of our cruises. So we're very excited to have you come back and reciprocate. We love talking to you, obviously. And, of course, Michelle. We know Michelle is at Walt Disney World right now, so. Poor thing.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: Poor thing. She was complaining about being hot.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it is hot. It is very hot there. I will tell you. It's in the nineties here in the Seattle area.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. How are you surviving? Are you guys going to be okay?
[00:01:34] Speaker B: We're. We are air conditioning. Because you do have air conditioning, but many of our friends and neighbors are. Do not have air conditioning, and they are dying here. Cause we are not used to this kind of heat in the Seattle area. Although I think.
[00:01:50] Speaker C: And we. And we stupidly went out for a run at 03:00 in the afternoon today, which was just dumb.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Yes, it was.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: Here we are.
[00:01:59] Speaker B: It was. But it was the only time that the two of us could actually, like, get away from our computers and do our run, and so. Yeah.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Got to do what you got to do.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:02:10] Speaker C: All right, well, let's get some hellos out of the way before we dive into Disney cruise line news. So. Hi, Linda. Uh, who's looking forward to your trip.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Report here, but she just brought home Covid from the fantasy song. That's such a bummer.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: Sorry, Linda. And, uh, Tinfo mouse here. CT just got back in time to catch tonight's episode. Yes, we're excited to have you. Hello, Tracy. Always fun to have you on Mondays. And, uh, Jeff, Alaska, great travel destination. We hope to find out our ourselves next year. Josh McHenry, two of his favorites. Colliding tonight with DCl duo and rope drop on deck. And Martha Goodwin is excited. And Linda's asking, are those DCl medallions hanging up back there?
[00:02:49] Speaker A: No, those are run Disney medals. They're no all run Disney. No, there's a pass away. Five k. Oh, there you go. I did not earn.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: But she's also pointing out all of the ears you've got over your right shoulder. There's just a few eye bear those.
[00:03:11] Speaker C: Nice. All right. And then Bridget's also saying hello, as is Sarah, so.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: Hello, Sarah.
[00:03:16] Speaker C: Hi, everyone.
All right, well, we're going to dive in first, as we like to do on Mondays, if there is Disney news to talk, Disney Cruise Line news. And, man, it has just been a nonstop treadmill of Disney cruise these past couple of weeks.
In fact, I'm realizing there's one story I forgot to include in here that we'll have to talk about really briefly.
But I. What you see on the screen right now, for those listening afterwards, you should really head over to YouTube.com dclduo to watch these. Even if you can't watch them live, you can watch them after the fact. We've been trying to put up pictures and art and things like that to provide a little visual aspect to the show, but I got.
[00:03:52] Speaker B: Wait, I gotta say, matthew is asking, where's the Mountain Dew, Doug, by the.
[00:03:56] Speaker A: Way, it's too late for that.
[00:04:01] Speaker B: Right?
[00:04:02] Speaker A: I just have water.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Sorry. And AJ Parker is saying, three of my favorite DCL podcast hosts. So excited for this. Yeah.
[00:04:11] Speaker C: There you go. There you go. All right, well, what's up on screen right now in terms of news is this is a rendering, an artist rendering of the new tower suite coming to the Disney dreams.
They are going.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: It was a rumor at first, and now it has been obviously confirmed by Dcl. Yeah.
[00:04:29] Speaker C: Yes. And so they, during the dry dock coming up here at the end of the dreams european season, will be remodeling the funnel to add a new tower suite. So this is the rendering of the living room. And then right next to it, we've got a rendering of. Someone asked me, why do they have a kitchen? I had to explain. No, it's just a wet bar area because you can get the suite staffed for drinks by the concierge folks. If you want to have a little, you know, host a little party in your tower suite, you can not, not a ton to go on here. It is fantasia themed, and in fact.
[00:05:01] Speaker B: It is sorcerer's apprentice. Mickey. Right.
[00:05:04] Speaker C: Themed to the sorcerer's apprentice.
What do you vignette from Fantasia. And I mean, looks nice. I will never sail in it. It does look like it's laid out maybe just a little. Ever so differently from the ones on the treasure and the fantasy, probably owing to the fact that the funnel is in the wish. Yeah, the treasure and the wish coming to the fantasy. I mean, let's not kid ourselves. This is coming to the fantasy.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: Yeah. For people who are not in the know, right. Disney has not announced its dry dock for the fantasy yet, but we know based on its schedule and when it's going to finish the european season next year, it's going to dry dock about the same time that the dream is doing dry dock this year. And whatever upgrades they make to the dream, we expect they are likely to make the fantasy with perhaps different theming right. Like this. If they do, assuming they do a funnel suite, it will. They'll give it a different theme than the fantasia sorcerer's apprentice. Mickey. Yeah.
[00:06:03] Speaker C: Yes, yes. Tracy is saying, Tracy saying we should book it ourselves and have a big party. I tell you what, the Gofundme is DCLA.
No, I mean, there is, there is like, there is zero chance of me booking this in the next 20 years of my life. Like maybe, maybe one day for like retirement party or something like that.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: I'm saying there's a chance.
[00:06:26] Speaker C: There is a chance. I'm saying there's a chance. But yeah. Yeah, this is, but this is how our sweet. This is one piece of news, the other pieces of news that revolved around concierge. Although as we go, you'll find out most of the changes actually tie back to these concierge changes. So the other pieces of news that revolve around concierge, they are going to expand the concierge lounge and sun deck. On the Disney dream, they have not released renderings. Actually, they did release a rendering of.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: No, that's the lounge. Of the lounge. That's right.
[00:06:57] Speaker C: Of the lounge. If I can find it. Oh, actually, I wanted to pause for 1 second on the tower suite and just let folks know for a random week in January for two adults and two adults only, it is a $28,000 proposition. And that's sweet sleep six. So that's going to be at least a 32, $34,000 proposition for six people to stay in that thing. Actually, it might. Oh, it sleeps eight. I'm sorry? It sleeps eight.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: So now we're talking.
[00:07:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
And passengers 34567 and eight cost less, significantly less than passengers one and two, so. Yeah, but somebody's got to get the master bedroom there you go.
[00:07:37] Speaker C: All right, so this is a. I've got up the rendering now of the revised concierge lounge or the upgrade.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: The concierge lounge, supposed to be Hercules.
[00:07:45] Speaker C: Hercules themed. Uh, interestingly enough, there's the portholes over there, but what they don't show you is what the portholes look out on today. Those portholes, I think, are the ones that look out on the hallway on either side of the lounge, like, no indication of getting ocean views just yet. They've said they're going to expand the sun deck. No indication of exactly how. And if they expand forward, which seems the only way they can go, they're going to be getting into satellite Falls territory. So I would say for expansions to the lounge we know of, we know they're going to put more rooms in play for concierge on board. Got to believe that that will lead to some refurbs of the existing rooms to get rid of the old style wood paneling and modernize them the way that they have some of the other rooms on the wonder and the magic. New updates to the lounge, new updates to the sun deck. Now, all of this, by the way, necessitates a bunch of other changes around the ship. First and foremost, the funnel is home to edge. Edge will be relocated to deck five and share an outdoor space with vibe, presumably the existing outdoor space for vibe, which will be getting a ball pit, which is an interesting choice.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Gross.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: That's what all tweens want, a ball pit.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Ball pit, right. I thought cobblers want a ball pit, not twins and teens. That part. That part seems to. I like that they're going to repurpose that outdoor space a little bit, only because it is a really nice and large space, and it seems kind of silly that right now it's exclusive to just the teens. But I. Yeah, the. But what are they going to do with it is still questionable. And the ball pit seems like a very odd decision, and I think it.
[00:09:28] Speaker C: Seems pretty clear to me they're going to have to take half a vibe away to build edge, and then they'll manage access to the outdoor area through the two doors on either side of vibe today, you know, be open open at some time of day for the tweens and at some time of day for the teens. But, yeah, so anyway, I think I just want to tell people it's always nice to get upgrades. I'll give my full opinion here in a minute, but you got to pay attention to what they take away in order to do some of this stuff. And so I don't know what vibe is like. Maybe it's just not oversubscribed right now or overused. And they feel like they can take half of it away. But I guessing they're going to take half of it away to build edge. The.
[00:10:11] Speaker B: The other part is the spa. Right. So because of the expansion to the concierge lounge, they are going to have to make some changes to the spa layout. They haven't really said what that is going to be or what that's going to look like, except that the reception area is going to be updated and they haven't released any renderings.
[00:10:27] Speaker C: And they're adding more treatment rooms because in order to expand the lounge, they're going to have to wipe out some treatment rooms that are currently. Like, when you walk into the spa, you have to go up some stairs, and there's some treatment rooms up there. I think they've reserved for teens, basically, but they sit kind of in the middle of the lounge space, you know, and on the ship. And so I think to expand the lounge, they're going to remove those. And they've said they're going to add more treatment rooms. Except if you look at a deck plan, I don't know where they're going to put more treatment rooms. So one can only tell what, what that's going to mean and or what it might take away.
[00:11:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:01] Speaker C: Scott Gustin, journalist over on Twitter, also pointed out if you look at the actual arrangement of the funnel, they've got a bar and two bathrooms there on the funnel. On the dream, my best guess is those will not survive the refurb or at least not survive in any meaningful way. So those are coming, the two updates that they gave us that are like, actual new things, or at least upgrades without sort of tying it back to any concierge upgrades they're making. The Oceaneers lab club will get an updated marvel area. This is not sure what this is, other than a rendering of Spider man playing with some kids, which I don't think is going to be what happens. But then we'll get the Marvel area and then. Fan favorite now, they did not call it Donald's cantina. They called it a cantina coming to the dream. And I suspect that's because it's not going to be Donald's cantina. They're going to try to fit it into the theming of the existing quick service restaurants that are there. But a cantina is coming presumably at the same menu as Donald's, even if it's not cold.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: Could be Coco's cantina or something, right? You never know.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:16] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: Cars theme makes sense. But yeah, that's our Disney Infinity room you're looking at right there. That just disappeared because Disney Infinity is relevant. It's still on the dream.
[00:12:29] Speaker C: There you go. There you go. Well, I would say this a couple of things. One, if you got kids out there, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the vibe edge thing. Sarah.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: There is one. Yeah.
[00:12:38] Speaker C: Yeah, Sarah's saying that.
Talked to my tween about the outdoor space issue and she was less than thrilled. In fact, she called vibe those kids and told a story of how they kicked the tweens off the sports court. So, yeah.
[00:12:53] Speaker A: The one kicking them off the sports court, same love of the change. They're like, well, I guess we're not going on the dream next year. That was the response.
[00:13:04] Speaker C: Excited to get on the fantasy one last time before they make these updates. I'll just say that much.
Yeah. So these are the updates I will say. I have said this on Twitter and a few other spaces and to some friends, I am fairly disappointed that Disney has chosen to invest so heavily and what I will call revenue generating spaces and return, as opposed to more general spaces that everyone can benefit from because a tower suite is going to cost them, I think, a very pretty penny to put in. It really only benefits one or two families who can afford it per sailing.
Same with the concierge lounge. It's really only benefiting concierge. I'm not even sure how much of a benefit it is because they're adding more rooms and that lounge was already not very big.
I'm a little worried too that they're investing in the spa is the same thing. I mean, they had to make the changes to the spa because of the lounge, but it's investments in a space that generates money.
I'm a little worried about what is going to be impacted as a result of all of the investment in concierge. Like, if satellite falls is somehow seriously impacted, that is a degradation of the experience for adults on the ship. Glad to get the cantina. I won't complain about a cantina, but I really wish Disney had invested more broadly in some of the spaces on the ship that everyone uses. PS, can we rip out the buffet tables and enchanted garden like and update the theming?
[00:14:27] Speaker B: Right?
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Like, give us something.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: Give us something. Give us some kind of like, mini show even you don't need. It could be like a cavalcade type show, but give us some kind of little performance in Enchanted garden and update the theming just a little bit. Like, it could easily be made into, like, a Mary Poppins theme or some other kind of garden theme. Right. Like, it doesn't have to be, like, fully new and completely 100% gutted. Right. But I don't know. My prediction based on these announcements is that they're not doing anything to enchanted garden.
[00:14:59] Speaker C: Yeah. Our friend Craig out there is saying his oldest is not excited to have a blended space with vibe. I don't think it will be blended. I think they will be separate and I think they will maintain separation for the outdoor space, too. With just. With, like, ten to twelve is vibe and, you know, two to whatever is.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Ten to 14 or. Sorry, eleven to 14 and then 14 to 17. Yeah. Bridget Casey's got a suggestion about a podcast cruise in 2028 in the funnel suite. A DCL duo podcast cruise. Raffle a spot and raise money for charity. Come on, Brian. For the kids.
[00:15:33] Speaker C: For the kids.
[00:15:35] Speaker A: All right.
[00:15:35] Speaker C: It's for the kids.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: A lot of raffle tickets.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: Yeah, a lot of raffle tickets. We're going to sell 28,000 raffle tickets.
[00:15:44] Speaker C: I'm going to have to call American Express and see what they can do with my listen in order to get the funnel sweep.
All right, let's shift gears. We advertised Alaska. It's time to talk Alaska. And I'm going to put up some fun pictures from Doug's trip here to Alaska with his family.
The wonderful Michelle McKnight, also featured in these pictures. Wish she could join us. We love you, Michelle Queen. Yes. Hope you were having a wonderful, wonderful time at Disney World.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: Wait, before we start. Wait. Before we start, I want to tell folks that Doug and Michelle did a full trip report on their show, rope drop on deck. So we are doing this as obviously a live show. We're not going to do a full trip report. We're going to talk highlights. We're going to focus on ports in particular from this cruise. But if you want to listen to their full trip report, please on your favorite podcast provider, Apple Podcasts, Google, Stitcher, Spotify, whatever. Go and find rope drop radio. Sorry, rope drop on deck. Also subscribe to rope drop radio. Of course. Two great podcasts and you can hear all about it. Full story from Doug and Michelle.
[00:16:48] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:16:49] Speaker A: All the little details like what I ate for lunch and the order of which I went and got different lunch items. Yes.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: Right. And when you. Right when you went to the bathroom in the various spaces with three teenagers.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: Which public bathroom the father is forced to only use.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: Oh, my God, I kind of want to go into this now, but that's.
[00:17:13] Speaker A: How cruising with teens works.
[00:17:16] Speaker C: All right, so, Doug, first, just remind people you were on a seven night sailing on the wonder. It was not that long. It was like two weeks ago, right?
[00:17:23] Speaker A: Yep, yep, yep.
[00:17:25] Speaker C: We just got home.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: Still time. Adjusting to the time zones, I suppose.
[00:17:29] Speaker C: There you go. There you go. And so what, what were your port stops? And we're going to talk through each of them, but what were your port stops?
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Well, we were out of Vancouver, as Disney does, and then we had a day at sea, a glacier day, which was down Tracy arm or no indica arm. Sorry. They don't decide which arm they go down until that moment.
And then we went to icy straight point Juneau and Ketchikan.
[00:17:54] Speaker C: Nice. Now, I know you flew into Seattle to start because we were supposed to try and meet up and.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: Yeah, we were too busy laying on a beach.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, we were too busy on.
[00:18:07] Speaker A: Seven cruises in a row or something. I swear, every other day I'm like, you're back there. What, do you live there?
The cabana is named after you by now.
[00:18:23] Speaker C: So you took the train from Seattle up to Vancouver, and you always loved to first.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: No, they didn't.
[00:18:31] Speaker A: Oh, they booked the train.
[00:18:32] Speaker B: They booked the train to Vancouver. Seeing this on your.
[00:18:37] Speaker A: We got bumped. We got the email phone call saying we overbooked the train. Like, you know how many seats you have? Amtrak. So the first 30 people that elected to take the bus got on a bus and off we went on a nonstop bus. So we actually left before the train did beat the train by like 3 hours. So it was a win. I didn't mind taking the bus. The scenery's not as good. But we were going to Alaska. We didn't need that scenery.
[00:19:04] Speaker B: Yeah. And that train can be really, really slow because it definitely gets, like, stopped because of freight train traffic because it doesn't have the Amtrak trains. Passenger trains don't have priority on the tracks on the west coast at all. And there's only, like, there's like one set that goes all the way up to Canada. And so, yeah, they're not the best. And they're generally running behind. And they do take a long time. It is pretty. You do get a nice view. A lot of it. Yeah.
[00:19:30] Speaker A: Really cheap. So for a family of five, we saved a lot of money by flying to Seattle and then doing the train. Plus we went to a sounders game where they won. So it was all good.
[00:19:43] Speaker C: Did you go up the same day you were boarding? Like was the bus dropping you off and you're getting.
[00:19:47] Speaker A: No, we didn't trust the train that much. We spent one night.
[00:19:51] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Yeah. One night in Vancouver. Had lunch, had dinner, walked around a little bit.
[00:19:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay, so we tell folks if you're coming to Seattle, the train is an option. Bus is an option, but also renting a car is an option. It's about a three hour drive. Nodding. Including the wait at the border. I say that because the wait at the border can be anywhere from, like, 15 minutes to 2 hours. Right. So it's just one of those things where you have to build in that time.
[00:20:18] Speaker C: I've never looked. But the jet. The jet ferry doesn't go all the way. It just goes to Victoria.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Yeah, it goes to Victoria. The clipper. The Victoria clipper. Yeah, it goes to Victoria. You could then. They. You could then take another ferry to Vancouver. But that wouldn't be a very efficient way of getting to Vancouver.
[00:20:34] Speaker C: Planes, trains and automobile situation. Yeah.
Yeah. So, okay, so let's. Let's focus on the ports then, Doug. So, uh, remind me, it's already left my memory. The first.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: The glacier day. Well, first glacier day.
[00:20:46] Speaker C: Glacier day.
So was there a glacier viewing excursion or anything that you want?
[00:20:52] Speaker A: There was ours. Our. The glacier viewing excursion wasn't offered until, um, we boarded the ship. Nobody book it. So there was, like, when they announced that that was a thing, there was kind of pandemonium of people running to portaventures to try to book that. So that was interesting. They did do that. We had no intention of doing it.
The glacier viewing. If you're looking at the video right now, that is the view from the ship. And you can see the port adventure boat in that picture. And that's a big tender boat. Double decker. And you can see how tiny it looks as it approaches that glacier.
[00:21:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:35] Speaker A: Glacier view.
[00:21:37] Speaker C: You've been to Alaska several times before. So this was not your first trip.
[00:21:41] Speaker A: Our second time, we did a five night Disney cruise in 2017.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: So, yeah, we did the weird five night. It fit our schedule. That was all we could do. So it was nice.
[00:21:54] Speaker B: It's the one that's the week before or after the nine night, right, to get it back on its seven night schedule. Yeah.
[00:22:02] Speaker A: Seven nights is not the same. On a different day of the week for cruise lines. Evidently, they have to readjust for some reason. I don't. Whatever, Zachary.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: I think it just has to do with the ports and, like, getting their spot at the port for the. You know, for most of the season, the same. They get the same slip at the port.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: Have the same day.
[00:22:20] Speaker B: Yeah. All right.
[00:22:21] Speaker C: So if you wanted to do the glacier viewing, you had to sign up on board.
[00:22:25] Speaker B: That's hot.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: Yeah, we didn't. It didn't bother us because Glacier day is. So you enter the fjord. They made the announcement at about ten which one we were going in, and that we are cleared to enter by the US Parks department. And then it's like a two and a half hour journey down the fjord to the glacier. You pivot a couple times for about 20 minutes, and about two and a half hours back out because it's like a no wake zone crawling along.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Now, this is also character day, if we go back to those pictures. So this is for folks who haven't traveled Alaska, which we haven't. But this is the day where you see photos from people on deck with Mickey, Minnie, whoever, you know, fab five in their Alaska outfits.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: This is like, what this day is hugely about. Right, Doug?
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Right. So you're gonna. Your day is based around watching nature. Right. And if you're gonna watch the nature go by for of 3 hours, you're going to stand on the top deck against the rail and look at the nature. Well, what Disney does is they have the characters meeting on the top deck, on deck, ten along the rail. So the line goes along the rail. So it's essentially what you would do anyway. But every 20 minutes or so, you're meeting a different character. And so we would go from meet Mickey, go to, you know, on the port side, go to the starboard side, get in Minnie's line, meet many, go to the port side, get in Donald's line, then go getting Daisy's line. And it was just back and forth all day. There was like a couple half hour gaps where we ate lunch. Um, I actually got a sunburn on our glacier day.
[00:24:07] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: Like, a very mild one, but it was like, oh, my gosh, I'm sunburnt.
[00:24:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And you guys are all wearing sweatshirts in these pictures, so. Yeah, you know, people don't realize it's still sunny out, even though it's not. It's not warm, it's not hot. It's. But it's still sunny. Yeah.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: Yeah. There was points where I was ready to take my sweatshirt off, but when you take the picture without the shorts and flip flops, then it looks like we're really in Alaska. So, you know, I left it on for all the pictures, but it was a good day. And, like, our kids, like, our son, kind of bounced around and he would show up, like, as we got to the front of the line, like he was bouncing around, taking pictures and stuff, different places and hanging out with his friends throughout the whole day. But, yeah, met the whole fab. Five.
Six. Sensational six, I should say, up there and then. Yeah. Daisy. And then coda was wandering around for a little bit.
[00:25:03] Speaker B: Oh, the bear, right. Yeah, yeah. Brian, go to the next pictures because I think there's some more of the character pictures here. Oh, yeah, there is. Donald. Oh, there's coda. Yeah, love it.
[00:25:14] Speaker C: So Donald's got the, Donald's got the quilted puffy vest.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
Still no pants, but yeah, he's geared up. They're all ready to go. But you can see like the picture with Michelle and I. The glacier is behind Michelle's head. Yeah. And so, like, and so when they, we have those pictures with Mickey, they rotate the ship and then our pictures with Minnie also have the glacier behind it. So they, they know what they're doing. It's like they do it once a week or something.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: I like that.
[00:25:43] Speaker C: And you said. You said 1520 minutes. So wait, each time. So 30 minutes.
[00:25:49] Speaker A: So the characters were like, every 30 minutes their lines were open 30 minutes. You know how Disney cruise line. Because the. The lines open so many minutes and so it was very easy. There was a lot of times where we were waiting to be like first or second in a character's line. Like the. The one wasn't closed yet, so we waited a half hour a lot of times just because that's the character schedule. But, yeah, it wasn't like hours for these. I don't think a lot of people understand what glacier day is and that meeting the characters is the best thing to do. There's a ton of people that camp out at the very front of the ship, like, all day. Like, they get up there first thing in the morning, front of the ship. And, like, the ship goes right up to the glacier. That's cool. You see it navigate through. But then as soon as you get to the glacier, it goes right. Like Michelle was talking to one guy's like, I sat there all day, held space for my family and then it turned.
I was like, yeah, you should have just been in line for the characters, right?
[00:26:48] Speaker B: Because you'll see everything turning. You'll see.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: You met characters on glacier day. Like, yeah. The whole time we waited, I'm just. You're staring at like a 3000 foot waterfall. You know, it's an icebergs and seals and whales. One bear that. That people argue was a rock. I'm confident it was a bear.
[00:27:10] Speaker B: I love it. Well, listen, we've got to plan our day like this. I'm going to do what you did. Jump from character to character. We'll let Nathan bring his iPhone so that he can watch YouTube while we wait. Cause I know he won't stare off at the nature.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: We leave him in a chair.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: Oh, fair. And then you just grab him. Or grab him. Yeah. That's so smart. You just leave him in a chair and then grab him. When. When you get. When you're a couple, you know, families away from having your picture taken.
[00:27:39] Speaker A: Yeah. The thing I really love about the fjord is so narrow. Like the picture with coda, if you're looking at the screen, like, you can see that rock face looks like it. Right behind the funnel. Right. Like, you're so close to everything. It's fantastic.
[00:27:57] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, Josh.
Josh Daily, MTB writer, is the TcL villain. Sorry, Josh, you're going to.
[00:28:06] Speaker C: You're fitting right in in the Pacific Northwest with your shorts and flip flops.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: With your shorts and your flip flops. So with your sweatshirt, it's the classic. That's Pacific Northwest style.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: Best way to go.
[00:28:15] Speaker B: You got it. Well, let's. Let's talk about your first actual port of call. You said it was. I think I see straight point. Is that right?
[00:28:23] Speaker A: Icy straight point? Yes.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Tell us what you guys got up to in icy straight point. And did you book an excursion through Disney? I think that's always one of the key things people want to know about is, you know, what did you book and what way did you use to book it?
[00:28:37] Speaker A: That's. That is a great question, is how did you book? And first, let me give props to icy straight point. This is the model of what Alaska needs to do everywhere with their ports. Instead of passing legislation to limit cruising, go 15 miles down the road, build a port and do excursions. Icy strait knows what they're doing. Come on. Juno and Sitka, like, get your act together. Anyway, they're off my soapbox. But because it was fantastic, you walk right off the pier and there's an excursion hub. There's a shop, there's restaurants. It is set up perfectly for cruising. We booked a third party excursion because in icy strait, we got in at about 07:00 a.m. and I believe we were there till 07:00 p.m. or eight.
[00:29:32] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: We were done with dinner and waiting for the show when we saw them cast the lines.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:29:40] Speaker A: So it was like 750 athlete when it was. So it was probably 730 when we saw him cast the lines. Yeah.
So we booked third party. We booked hooked adventures. We did a whale watching excursion. Three of the pictures on the screen right now are from that whale watching excursion. So we had a little boat with.
[00:30:00] Speaker B: Look at that orca, by the way, the orca, the upper right hand corner of the screen. That is pretty crazy. Ridiculous. Orca whale or killer whale as folks know them. You know, if you know Shamu, that's what that. That's what that we're seeing. It's amazing. Amazing.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: Orca, killer whales. Same thing.
We saw about a pod of 20 to 30, and they were just going kind of crazy. They swam under our boat multiple times.
There was, like, two other boats in that area. While this was all happening, our captain picked up his phone and started filming because he's like, this is crazy. And so that's a good sign when they start filming. So it was fantastic.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: And, you know, it's better than they usually seem.
[00:30:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Right. And the picture of the seals on the buoy, also from that excursion. Then we went over to check out some humpback whales that were doing some bubble net feeding. So the picture in the bottom center is when they all come up together, up through the circle of bubbles that they make and they all feed that way. And we saw them do that about five, six times. There was one of the Disney excursions over there because, of course, we were the. We were the only ship in port that day, so we knew the other boat was Disney. It was two stories and, like five people deep from the rail. And here we were, like, all this space. Our captain guy talking, giving us personal stories. And his dog, of course. There's always a dog on a boat.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: So tell us again the name of this third party excursion. This sounds like one to recommend.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: It was hooked adventures.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: Hooked adventures. And I see straight point.
[00:31:48] Speaker A: Yes. And Hoonah is the name of the little town. So, like, my son actually got off the ship at about 730 in the morning and went running with a kid that he had met, a new running partner. They had.
[00:31:59] Speaker B: Of course he did, right?
[00:32:00] Speaker A: So he ran all the way over to the town, ran around. It's the first time on a cruise he's ever ran in port, so he thought that was really cool. But we were there so long, you didn't have to stress about getting back. But the neat thing is this excursion is center. You walk right off. It's basically right there. They pick you up there. They drove us over to the little town. They said if you want to look around Hoonah? You can. And then walk back, or we can drive you back to the excursion center. We're like, you can drive us back. We're good.
There's really not much there. And then, yeah, we got back on the ship and relaxed some after exciting day of whale watching.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: That's amazing.
[00:32:41] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:32:42] Speaker B: All right, port number. I'm going to call this number three, even though technically, because glacier day is number one. So even though it's not a port, but there's excursions and whatnot, and it's a big event. So that was that Juneau or Ketchikan? I can't remember what you said.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: Juneau. Juneau was next.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Tell us what you looked in Juneau, Juno.
[00:33:03] Speaker A: It was the place where every cruise we like to do something that. That pushes us a little bit out of our comfort zone. Like the Dun river falls in Jamaica. Definitely. Like, why should we climb up a waterfall? That doesn't even make sense. But we did it. Um, we. We did, like, a marble sculpting thing in Greece. You know, like something that's a little different that you get back on the ship. Not everybody did. So Mendenhall glacier is in Juneau, and it feeds into Mendenhall Lake, and it's part of a national park, and so only so many people can go on it. There's no motorized boats or anything. So there's canoes or there's kayaks. I'm like, let's kayak. Have we kayaked? No.
Did the thing say, you don't need to, like, zero said that in the description. First question when we got over there to the kayaking, they're like, so everyone's kayaked before, right?
[00:33:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:58] Speaker A: Right. And we're like, no, but it was, you know, a group of twelve. So just six kayaks. And we're odd numbers. So our youngest ended up going with the guide. So she was literally just passenger princess the whole time, like, so the picture on the screen is Claire just being.
That is how hard she worked the whole time.
[00:34:21] Speaker B: Because the rear person is really the one steering doing most.
[00:34:24] Speaker A: Yeah, it's in. Claire did. Not much.
So the pictures.
[00:34:30] Speaker C: And so the other photos of Alden in the front with you, was he just dragging you the whole time?
[00:34:35] Speaker A: Then he was splashing me most with very cold water.
And then Michelle and Sam were together. Probably not the best pair. There was some yelling.
Sam was not exactly thrilled to be kayaking, and I don't know that that made Michelle very thrilled. Will we kayak again? No, no, we will not. But we did it.
We did it. We touched an iceberg. The start to kayak over towards that waterfall. And somebody else in the group, because there's three other kayaks, was like, what waterfall? And they're like, oh, that little dot over there, that's the waterfall. Nugget falls. That's where we're headed towards that. And it was like just this little dot on the other side of the lake. I'm like, oh, okay. And we get halfway there, and the guy's like, yeah, so that waterfall is bigger than the Statue of Liberty. Or like, oh. And like, we realized, we went, we went 5 miles kayaking, and the wind did shift halfway through to where we kayaked into the wind. Both ways.
[00:35:39] Speaker B: Both ways. Oh, God, that's hard.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: That was awesome.
[00:35:42] Speaker B: Kayaking against the wind. So kayaking is hard. It's a lot of exercise. It's a lot upper body and core exercise, no question. We've been kayaking, we've been sea kiking a few times in, I mean, in the Pacific Northwest, this is a thing that people do, but it's a good workout, and your shoulders and arms are usually really sore afterwards.
[00:36:05] Speaker C: You have the worst luck with any form of transportation.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: And like someone else, automobiles and boats.
Great luck with whale watching, right?
[00:36:17] Speaker A: We had great luck with whale watching. We used all our luck that, that time. And all the pictures they used to market Mendenhall glacier.
The glacier still covers the whole bottom area. Now it's like this, just one little narrow thing off to the left. It used to cover that whole thing. There used to be a whole bunch of icebergs. Now most of the ice that calves off of the glacier just falls on the land and melts.
[00:36:40] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: So there's not like the pictures they market with. There's like hundreds of icebergs. Yeah, there was two.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: So now, now, did you book this through Disney or through a third party?
[00:36:51] Speaker A: So this one I was ready to book through a third party, but Disney, like, but when we went to, because. So we're platinum. When we did our final payment so that we could book our excursions, the third party, one that I'd been looking at the whole time, was full. It was unbook.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:37:12] Speaker A: I was like, yeah, sold out all of a sudden. And so then I booked through Disney. Same company, same everything. So Disney did one excursion here. So only twelve people from the Disney ship did this experience.
It was just like, I was, okay, we paid in full. We're definitely going. I went to book it through the third party. It's like, oh, this is gone. Okay. Oh, it's available on Disney. So I booked this through. Disney would have done the third party because it was like $50 cheaper.
[00:37:46] Speaker B: Yeah. Per person.
[00:37:48] Speaker A: Yeah. We paid for the sticker of Maleficent.
[00:37:51] Speaker C: So what you don't know is the third party people had battery powered motors on their kayaks. So.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: That'S. That's the funny thing, though, about a lot of these third party vendors is it's. It's very common that they are vendors that Disney already uses. I mean, it's not always. There are multiple companies that do some of the same excursions or very similar excursions. But you might pay, you know, 25 to $50 to $100 more per person if you're booking it direct from Disney, it's just hard to know.
[00:38:25] Speaker C: Would this day have been with the alternatives here been, when do we get to sled dogs and helicopters so that.
[00:38:31] Speaker A: A lot of Mendenhall, a lot of Juneau is helicopters. And the helicopter, the weather was good. The helicopters went. People got to pet their sled dogs. Everybody is happy. We paddled for 5 miles.
[00:38:43] Speaker B: It sounds like a great decision.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: Our other funny to me, whoever designed a kayak was not thinking about comfort at all. Like, is there a seat? Isn't there a seat? The big boots. My, like, one leg was numb. It was.
Alden had blisters. It was fun.
[00:39:06] Speaker B: Good times.
[00:39:07] Speaker A: We have stories now.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: And Alden's the really athletic one. He's the runner.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: Yeah, he's a cross country runner, so it was more weightlifting than he'll do all summer combined.
[00:39:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:39:22] Speaker C: 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 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, Mypath 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.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: All right, what's next?
[00:40:21] Speaker C: What's next up here? Doug, where are we headed next to Ketchikan.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: Ketchikan, the salmon capital of the world. We did nothing with salmon.
So this is one where the gangway is weird. I just want to shout that out because it goes into the atrium, and it's a super narrow little metal thing that goes in turns, and people are coming and going. We were there where, you know, people are getting off and on constantly, and it. We finally had true alaskan weather. It rained and was, like, 55 degrees, so. And sometimes it would pour. Other times it's just a mist.
Yeah, they get a lot of rain and Ketchikan. So this was the first time ever in our history of cruising that we split up as a family.
[00:41:09] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:41:10] Speaker A: So this was a little different. And so Michelle and Aldouse, they went and did a catch can photo safari, and then myself and the girls, we went to the lumberjack show.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: Oh, I've heard about the lumberjack.
[00:41:25] Speaker C: I've heard good things.
[00:41:27] Speaker B: Let's talk about their photo safari, and then we'll talk about the lumberjack show. But were both of these booked through Disney, or were these third party bookings?
[00:41:36] Speaker A: So same price as third party or through Disney? I decided to just do through Disney since it was the same price, same times was like, okay, we'll just do through Disney, because then I don't have to pay for it now. I pay for it later.
[00:41:54] Speaker B: That was canceled. I don't have to worry about cancellation if the port time gets messed up or you have to divert or whatever.
[00:42:03] Speaker A: Exactly. So same price. I was like, we'll go through Disney. I'm never afraid to go through a third party. But this time I was just like, it makes sense. So Michelle and Alden's excursion was first, and theirs was longer. Much longer. So they met in the nightclub, which the name I've already forgotten from the azure. Azure. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So they get there. They're the only two from Disney going on this excursion.
[00:42:34] Speaker B: Interesting.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: They had their own sticker, their own paddle of power, their own cast member. Every other excursion in there was, like, 40 people.
[00:42:43] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:42:44] Speaker A: And so we got asked, like, five or six times later, like, in the hallway, by our neighbors, at dinner, by the people sitting around us. You know, you have a private table, but it's never really private. Right.
So they're like, what excursion did you go on? Because I feel like half the ship must have been in Azure with them, and they just got their own little personal paddle of power. So they ended up being the only two in the photo safari. So they got their own private tour.
[00:43:12] Speaker B: Private tour.
[00:43:13] Speaker A: Shocking. It didn't get canceled. Right?
[00:43:16] Speaker B: Like, yeah, because often if they. Yeah, if they under subscribe, they often will cancel, refund you and say, book something else.
[00:43:22] Speaker C: So what do they do? Like, what, what did it involve?
[00:43:24] Speaker A: Did they took pictures of totem poles and waterfalls and eagles and nature. Some flowers. They got some very cool pictures.
Alden's an aspiring photographer because, you know, he's in journalism, right? And so he thinks he's a photographer. He has it instagram shot by Alden. It's shot by Alden, Alaska pictures on there. But, like, they learned there's one totem pole that's fairly new, that there used to be a Disney excursion where the kids made little feathers. And so this Totem pole is covered in these feathers. And. Yeah, right there in the lower right hand corner. And you can actually, when you really look at it, there's one kind of right in the center where there's Mickey heads on your little feather. So that totem pole is not authentic in any way, shape, or form, the design on them. But the design overall is like, it was one of those cultural things. They no longer do that excursion, unfortunately, because probably under subscribed. Right. But, yeah, so they took a lot of pictures, some very artsy pictures of totem poles. It was pouring that day at times, so they had to do some alternate stuff. But so they went and they did that for like 3 hours with their guide and then got back to the ship. They got done about the same time. We were in the middle of our show.
[00:44:53] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:44:54] Speaker C: All right, so tell us about the lumberjack show, Doug.
[00:44:57] Speaker A: So there's about a dozen ways. Every excursion in Ketchikan can be booked, like, four different ways. When you're looking at, it's very, there's a billion excursions because it's like you can do this and this and this. Like, you can piece together like two or three little excursions to make a big excursion in Ketchikan. And so, like, a lot of people came in from their excursion to the lumberjack show, but we just booked the lumberjack show. So we were some of the first people in. And you don't meet on the ship with this excursion, which freaked out so many people, like, meeting places the show. It is a block away.
[00:45:37] Speaker B: You can't get lost. Well, if I do, you're really direct.
[00:45:40] Speaker A: I mean, you could, but, like, yeah.
[00:45:43] Speaker C: You'Re lucky you have to work at it.
[00:45:46] Speaker A: Like, how'd you get on the ship in the first place?
[00:45:48] Speaker B: Right?
[00:45:50] Speaker A: How do you eat lunch?
So we got. We got in there, we sat, and, um, I would say it's definitely geared towards mid elementary age. That's their target audience. Younger would be totally fine. A little bit older is like, oh, this is campy. I don't think they would use that word, though.
[00:46:12] Speaker B: They would have campy men.
[00:46:14] Speaker A: They have something else, like, yeah, mid ris. I don't know.
It definitely wasn't Riz. Um, so I. I was there for. I was trying to explain to the girls, like, this is on ESPN, like, these contests, and, like, these guys are legit athletes. Like, they work out, they lift weights, they train. This is. This is just them performing their skill set, and they're like, this is a thing. I'm like, yes. And so we have that conversation, but the show, they add a lot of energy to it. There's, like, two different teams. So you're cheering for one team and they're cheering for another. There's two different mills going against each other, which are actual real mills historically.
So they. In the game, there was an annual game between the two mills. They explained the history. Not that anybody really cared, but they did. They even mentioned the blueberry festival in Ketchikan, which the last time we went to Ketchikan, it was the blueberry festival, and everything was closed except the festival. Yeah. So we had a really weird day in Ketchikan our first time around, but we had blueberries.
[00:47:24] Speaker C: How long is the show? How long?
[00:47:25] Speaker A: Not an hour. About an hour. So. And it did not feel long. It didn't feel too short. It felt right. Um, if I was. I was looking at this more from a research perspective of I didn't know what to do with the girls. They didn't want to go fishing. They didn't want to go eat salmon, which everything is eat salmon, right. Every excursion, you can add on a salmon bake. Like, every excursion, it's this lumberjack show and salmon bake. It's whale watching and salmon bake. It's kayaking and salmon bait. Everything.
All the salmon. We never did that because evidently we love. We want salmon to be alive. I don't know. They die anyway. Right.
But that's a whole different. So the show is good, except. So there's this one character that, like, so when you cut off the end of a log, it's called a cookie, which they didn't really explain. They just talked about the character that wanted to steal the cookies. And I'm pretty sure 90% of the kids are like, I don't see any cookies.
Because my kids didn't know in their.
[00:48:24] Speaker B: 18 and 14, I wouldn't know that that was what? A cookie?
[00:48:27] Speaker A: Yeah. So, you know, the chainsaw goes. They cut off in. It's called a cookie. And so they kept making cookies throughout the whole performance. You know, some kids, like, there's no oven, but, um, so they talk about there's a one person that got kicked out of the competition, and they'll run in and try to steal the cookies. And when you see them, you have to make a lot of noise and say that he's there. And it was a very, very. So my kids are like, swiper. No swiping.
It was a lot of Dora. Like, you see the cookie, right? It was. There was some Dora esque moments. We heard one other kid yell, swiper. No, swiping. Really loud.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: Oh, my God. That's hilarious.
[00:49:10] Speaker A: But, like, they hand out postcards throughout it. Like, the winning team then hands out stuff. And, like, the kids went crazy trying to get a postcards. Like, guys, it's a postcard signed by Lumberjack, who you're not going to remember the name of for more than five minutes. But whatever. But the crowd involvement was nuts. They got people down on the. On the stage, like some ladies, threw some axes, even.
It was entertaining. I had a good time. It was better than I expected.
We were at the Disney specific one. You could book it all day. It runs all day. But there's one that's just for Disney park us. And that's what we did. I believe sometimes there are Disney characters, but it was raining and the stage is not covered, but the audience is.
[00:49:55] Speaker C: Oh, the stage is uncovered. So it's outside.
[00:49:57] Speaker A: Yeah, they're getting wet. You know, I guess they're lumberjacks in Alaska. They should be used to that. I don't know.
[00:50:03] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. I was thinking of. We did a tour in Budapest. It was an equestrian thing, but, I mean, they had an equestrian center and they brought all the horses indoors and all that sort of stuff. But I guess if you're working with large logs, you really can't.
[00:50:19] Speaker A: And they did the thing where they, you know, ran on the log and somebody fell off and all that stuff.
[00:50:24] Speaker C: And what did. What did the girls think of the show? Would they do it again? Or was it just as you said? It was like. It was not really targeted to their demographics. They were like, kind of whatever.
[00:50:34] Speaker A: They laughed. They enjoyed it. They won't say they did, but they did. I think Claire enjoyed the shopping afterwards in all the gift shops of Ketchikan, but she enjoyed that more. But it was, it was entertaining. We all laughed. We laughed, we cried. We went home hungry. I don't know. It was good. It was. The girls liked it, but they wouldn't say, you know, it's kind of like, they used to really like all the variety acts, like the ventriloquist, the magician. And when we go to them now, they're kind of like, I don't think that was for me, like, no, I don't think you're the target audience anymore, the average Disney, but sometimes there's illusionists, and their audience is much older, and that works, but you got to know what you're going to. And, yeah, they were too old for it, but it was still entertaining, I think. So what do they. Oh, I am getting a live text from Claire saying, I was laughing at the kids, which. The kids were hilarious. So Claire nicknamed a lot of the children on the cruise. Basically every. Every toddler or small child that was having a main character moment, as the kids say. She had nicknames for, like, lord Froot Loops was there. So that was exciting.
[00:51:46] Speaker B: Oh, Lord Fruit Loops. I love.
[00:51:49] Speaker C: We did that on our first cruise. There was. My favorite was speaker. Speaker guy, because he was wearing a speaker on embarkation day, just wandering around the show. His music, you know, he was partying.
[00:52:01] Speaker B: It was the oddest thing ever.
[00:52:04] Speaker C: It's his party. We're just invited.
I'm curious, before we go to the next port here, Doug, I'm curious about two things.
[00:52:10] Speaker B: One, that's the last port, Brian.
[00:52:14] Speaker C: Well, this is perfect. Then. I got a couple questions for you. Kind of unreal, the ports then. So perfect one is, what. What could. Like, what were the souvenirs? What, like, what kinds of stuff did you see in these ports that were like, the. You must get this from Alaska, I'm assuming somewhere somebody was trying to sell you a bunch of salmon, but, you know. Yeah.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: Um, but they don't throw it, so. Second rate Alaska.
[00:52:35] Speaker B: Second rate.
[00:52:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: You gotta go to Seattle for throwing.
[00:52:38] Speaker A: Okay. Just wanted to give a nod to my host there. Um, so one thing that you see everywhere is this bowl, this wooden bowl, chopping block bowl with a curved knife. You see that everywhere. Which Disney also confiscates when you get on board, so be ready for that.
[00:52:57] Speaker B: Which means you can still get it when you would disembark.
[00:52:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:52:59] Speaker B: They're gonna hold kind of knife that they don't want you having in your stateroom.
[00:53:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:53:05] Speaker B: Herbs and stuff. Right.
[00:53:07] Speaker A: My mom uses one for garlic red. I mean, use it for whatever. I don't know.
So, like, one of my favorite things about disembarkation day is looking at the confiscated table and seeing, like, what did people think they could bring on this cruise? And all the irons and steamers.
I laugh, but this one was full of knives. Like, all the knives.
[00:53:32] Speaker C: It's apparently called an ulu knife. An ulu knife?
[00:53:35] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:53:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:53:36] Speaker A: There you go. You nailed it. Yeah. Yeah. Um, other than that, it's like, if you can put a moose or a bear or a whale on something, they sold it. Um, not. I don't know if there was anything else specific.
Yeah.
[00:53:53] Speaker B: Um, getting live texts.
[00:53:55] Speaker A: Yes. Christmas ornaments. Claire is chiming in. Oh, my gosh.
We got lots of Christmas orange. We're going to need a second tree after this.
[00:54:06] Speaker B: What about, what about on the, on the ship? So people are Alaska merchandise, and sometimes Disney does well with the Alaska merch and stocking it well, and other times not so much curious as to what was the stock like? And was it like.
[00:54:23] Speaker C: I have to share this comment speaking, because, Doug, you and I are the same. I'm always eyeing the table of confiscated items and.
[00:54:31] Speaker B: Rifles, getting off the wonder in April. Wow.
[00:54:33] Speaker A: Bravo.
We. We thought we'd have a friendly game and vibe. Yeah.
So, yeah.
What? One thing they had is spirit jerseys, of course. Yes. That were very Alaska.
They had every kind of sweatshirt. Claire might have gotten, like, it felt like a dozen sweatshirts, but I think.
[00:54:57] Speaker B: It was three or four sweatshirts, though. Wow.
[00:55:01] Speaker C: She.
[00:55:02] Speaker A: She.
She got so many. But whatever it was, one was a quarter zip. That was actual DCL. And she'd always correct me on how many sweatshirts she got, and I'd be like, oh, and a quarter zip.
[00:55:14] Speaker B: A quarter zip.
[00:55:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So that was a lot of it was that there's no traverse. I was very saddened. Disney no longer feels like I need these cups.
Yeah, the, um, there was a very ugly cup that I did not purchase.
[00:55:35] Speaker B: Uh.
[00:55:35] Speaker A: Cause normally I like to get a cup the first night and then use it for my diet coke or coke zero addiction. Um, but I did not do that, so I had to drink out of paper cups. Although I got a lot hot chocolate. There was a lot of hot chocolate consumed on this cruise at night. We get ice cream and hot chocolate every night. Um, there was. Yeah, there was plenty of merch, enough that we had to buy a suitcase in Ketchikan, so.
[00:56:00] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:56:02] Speaker A: It's a good port for buying a suitcase, I'll say that. Claire and I went on that adventure.
[00:56:06] Speaker C: And the ports that sell small carry on suitcases are smart. They're very smart.
[00:56:11] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, they're smart. That carry on size. Just. You need another one.
[00:56:18] Speaker C: Oh, it's saying maybe Mickey and mini plushies in their last.
[00:56:21] Speaker B: Yes, we see those. Those are the ones you see online a lot.
[00:56:25] Speaker A: They're definitely there. One to match every character. Lots of kids getting pictures with that character. We saw one whole family dressed up as Mickey, like, in his alaskan gear.
[00:56:36] Speaker B: Oh, in his, like.
[00:56:37] Speaker A: Yeah, they were all wearing that. And then we saw his Gortons.
[00:56:41] Speaker C: His Gorton's fisherman's gear. Yeah.
[00:56:42] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:42] Speaker A: Someone was dressed up like Daisy. Like, they have their little kid dressed up like Daisy in her outfit, which is a. I mean, that's. That's a deep cut.
But Claire still wants me to mention Lord Froot loops. Lord Froot loops was like a one year old that. I don't know.
[00:56:58] Speaker C: We.
[00:56:58] Speaker A: We ate at cabanas with. I I don't know what she wants me to say about lord freelancer. Shout out.
[00:57:03] Speaker B: Shout out if you're out there, lord.
[00:57:07] Speaker C: And you know who you are.
[00:57:09] Speaker A: I know who you are.
[00:57:10] Speaker C: Hopefully you don't.
[00:57:11] Speaker B: That's really embarrassing.
[00:57:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:57:12] Speaker B: His parents don't even know who he is.
[00:57:14] Speaker C: All right, I got. Yeah, I got. I got two wrap up questions for you, Doug. The first is, I want to know your kids are older. You got one head of the college next year, if I recall correctly.
[00:57:26] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:57:27] Speaker C: And Alden's getting close, and Sam's getting.
[00:57:29] Speaker A: No.
[00:57:30] Speaker B: Claire. Claire. Closer. Sam is. Claire is the youngest freshman in college.
[00:57:36] Speaker A: Junior in high school. Freshman in high school.
[00:57:38] Speaker C: So are they still in the Disney cruise line? Are they still having fun?
[00:57:43] Speaker A: Yes.
Okay, so, like, we did a royal cruise last Thanksgiving, and they all came away from it with let's do Disney for the next few years while we can still go to vibe before we start venturing other places. It was a consensus it was pretty uniform. Sam did go to some of the 1820s society stuff, mainly for the free food and free drinks.
She said that one's very different from cruise to cruise, I've heard, and was mostly very unique individuals at turs.
[00:58:25] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:58:26] Speaker C: There you go. There you go. Your. What's. Oh, go ahead, Sam.
[00:58:30] Speaker B: I was gonna say, I just. I love that they all chose Disney cruise line. And, you know, even having been on. On royal, do you, can you get them to go to, like, family activities on the ships, or are they just off doing their own thing between, you know, vibe and 1820 society or making friends or hanging out with each other?
[00:58:50] Speaker A: So they're all different. Different kids are very, you know, they're all different children. So Alden, basically, we see him at our excursions at dinner, and then he's off.
[00:59:03] Speaker B: That's it. Okay.
[00:59:04] Speaker C: Social.
[00:59:04] Speaker A: He's making friends.
He must have friends with a curfew on this cruise because he was back earlier.
He was back before the sun came up, which is actually saying something on alaskan cruise that's not quite so crazy.
The girls, though, they tend to go to the show with us sometimes. They might go do like, they did some stuff in the d lounge together.
Some of the different, they went and watched some of the different game shows. They usually met characters and did photos with us after dinner, a little more after the show, but they went to all the broadway style shows. We also saw inside out, too, on our cruise.
[00:59:46] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:59:48] Speaker A: So they did that while Alden goes off with his friends.
[00:59:53] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:59:53] Speaker B: Cool.
[00:59:54] Speaker C: Nice. All right, Doug, I got to ask. You've done it twice now. What's your one tip for somebody who's getting ready to take a Disney cruise line? Alaska. Sailing the deep. And let's be like the deep cut tip. The thing that you're like, you may not think about this, but this is definitely something you should do.
[01:00:13] Speaker A: So they're already booked. They're definitely doing it cut.
[01:00:16] Speaker B: Like, so don't do kayaking unless you're kayaking.
[01:00:22] Speaker C: Don't stay at the front of the boat for 5 hours.
[01:00:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, the obvious, like, the simple tips are pack layers.
Bring binoculars. We used our binoculars a lot on glacier day, but a deep cut, I think, is try to, like, enjoy the sunsets, stay up the colors and the way they change from 09:00 to 1130 at night, the sun's setting for like 2 hours, so try to see that whole thing. Plus we had a navigator's veranda. This might be a deep cut here. It was awesome. We were kind of like, ah, we got a book at navigator because we booked late because we had to move the cruise around a few times because the kids schedules and that was kind of the best available for the price, booking late. And, uh, but it kind of boxes you in so you're protected from the wind. So we could sit out there in just our sweatshirt and be okay where I think on the other verandas, it was cold at times. Right. You have the wind flowing through where we had no wind and that nice little bench. I think the navigators veranda is a low key, deep cut type of. It might be a nice thing to do.
[01:01:40] Speaker B: I like that recommendation because people are always asking us, what kind of room should I book? And it's so individual to the family and what they like. But we've never stayed in a navigator's veranda. For those who don't know, that means that it's a partially blocked, essentially, veranda where it's. It's where the. They have. Usually have higher walls than a regular veranda. And sometimes they are solid color instead of being completely see through. But it kind of depends. Some variety. Yeah.
[01:02:10] Speaker A: Yeah. So there's this. It looks like a. So a navigator. True navigators looks like a porthole from the outside of the ship. So there's obstructive view verandas where there's just metal and stuff in the way. This a true navigators is like. It looks like a porthole. They had a compass in there and a map as if.
[01:02:26] Speaker B: Oh, cool.
[01:02:28] Speaker A: But we went northwest for most of the time.
[01:02:31] Speaker C: You might have a photo through it. I don't know if I may have not put it in here. Yeah. I'll see if I can find it. Yep. All right.
[01:02:40] Speaker A: And, like, Alaska is so pretty. I was capable of taking some of those photos.
Yeah. And I'm not known for my photography.
[01:02:48] Speaker C: I was gonna say, for those who may not know, Doug is not known for his photos, but Doug is not.
[01:02:52] Speaker B: Doug doesn't have his own instagram for photographs like Aldous.
[01:02:56] Speaker A: No. No one. No one.
[01:02:58] Speaker C: Awkward character pics. Yeah.
[01:02:59] Speaker B: I love it.
[01:03:00] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:03:00] Speaker B: Now, Doug, would you go back to Aska now, you've done it twice, but obviously two different experiences and years apart. Like, would you go back and what do you think is, like, the perfect kid age for going to Alaska?
[01:03:15] Speaker A: That's a great question. I will definitely go back. Uh, next time, I would like to do the one directional type of cruise, like, from Seward to Vancouver to Seattle type of thing. Uh, that's next. You know, we did the inside passage loop. I'd like to do that. Uh, as far as ideal kids. Um, boy, our kids were pretty young when we did it the last time. Uh, Claire would have just been seven years old, I think. Yeah, eight. So she might have been a bit on the young side, but I think Sam being twelve, was kind of perfect. So what's perfect for your oldest kid isn't for your youngest kid, right? So I think we hit a pretty good age for all of them between the two trips.
[01:03:59] Speaker C: Trips.
[01:04:01] Speaker A: There is a naturalist on board that does some lectures. Like, one lecture is all about ice, which is fascinating. I watched all the lectures on our last cruise. This cruise that Michelle specifically was like, nope, we have to meet Mickey at that time and did not let me go to the lectures because I'm very annoying. After the lectures with facts about ice, which most of which I still remember is bubbles, they got a drill in and test the air. They actually bring an iceberg onto the ship that you can pet later on. I saw one kid lick it.
I wouldn't recommend that, unfortunately. I was all by myself when I witnessed this. I didn't even tell the kids about it because they wanted to, believe me. It was like two kids climbing on it. It was weird. But, yeah, they just let it melt there by the stage. There it is. But they have to pick one up for the national parks department. So it's not like the cruise lines is out there destroying the environment. Before anybody gets mad, they're collecting ice from a glacier, they have to pick one up. And then the naturalist on board actually does a few tests to it to determine how long ago that ice was formed.
Millions of years ago. And they look at the compensation of the gases in the air bubbles.
[01:05:17] Speaker B: So cool.
[01:05:18] Speaker C: Oh, very cool. Yeah, very cool.
[01:05:19] Speaker B: FYI, we got some comments about the navigator veranda, some other photos. The navigator veranda. Wesley, Davenport, Sarah and Ed. And Ed is noting that the wonders navigator Veranda has a larger porthole than the magix navigators veranda. So that's another. So there you go.
[01:05:36] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:05:37] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, Doug, this conversation has only reinforced for me, like, we have not sailed together enough. Cause I think we would. I think we would be like those two guys on stepbrothers. We'd be best friends. Like, immediately.
[01:05:50] Speaker A: When we did sail together, we weren't encouraged to do things together either.
[01:05:54] Speaker B: Yes. Cause it was Covid.
[01:05:56] Speaker A: Cruising had just started, and they're like, here's your ten foot pole.
[01:06:00] Speaker C: I'll never forget.
I was gonna say, I'll never forget four of us sitting in the grand cabana. Just the four.
[01:06:06] Speaker B: No, it was five of us. Because Nathan was five. Yeah, well, he was on the.
[01:06:11] Speaker A: No power.
[01:06:11] Speaker B: He was. Yeah, he was out at the water, but, yeah, we were. Yeah. Internet. There was no power. Yeah, electricity, that was. That had to do with the hard spot.
[01:06:22] Speaker C: I would be the annoying guy who also goes to naturalist and then comes back. He's like, sam, did you know this? Did you know this? Did you know?
[01:06:27] Speaker A: Right?
[01:06:27] Speaker C: And she would punch me, which is.
[01:06:29] Speaker A: Why I didn't get to go this second time.
Michelle was very.
[01:06:34] Speaker B: I'd be up with Michelle meeting Mickey, so no question about it.
[01:06:37] Speaker C: There you go. There you go. Well, Doug, sounds like a fabulous cruise. I want to reinforce what Sam said the beginning of the show. If you want to learn more about this cruise, head over to rope drop on deck. Great show. Everything Michelle, Derek and Doug touch is gold in my. In my opinion, from a podcasting standpoint. So you should head over and listen there for whatever, whatever reason you are not subscribed to rope drop radio. Definitely head over there. That is our personal go to podcast for parks related news, because I leave it to the experts. I can't keep up with it. So, uh, kudos to you and Derek for. For doing that weekend week out. Doug, I I don't know how you. How you do it, but head over, subscribe to rope drop radio. Rope drop on deck. Doug, let folks know beyond subscribing to your shows, like, where they can find you and Michelle. Michelle's a travel agent, so. Yeah, let them know all the places you can. Can find you.
[01:07:26] Speaker A: Yeah, Michelle's at Rope drop queen on all of the things. Just about, I believe. And rope drop on deck is our handle on all the things. Except tick tock. We don't tick and we don't talk, and then rope drop radio is rope drop radio on all of the things.
That's where you can find us. Rope drop on deck is.
Would be a every week show, unlike DCl duo, where you get, like, all the content because you guys are amazing.
[01:07:59] Speaker B: At least two times a week.
[01:08:00] Speaker A: It's crazy. We are lucky to get out two times a month.
We're going to do great this month. But, yeah, so it's kind of very low key. And then rope drop radio is once a week, so that's. Derek and I have been doing that for about eight years, and that's how I met Brian way back.
[01:08:20] Speaker B: So that's exactly right. Before we were the DCL duo, Brian was a guest, actually on the. Your show, and we have now both.
[01:08:27] Speaker C: And the ratings plummeted on Rope drop radio after I appeared, I was forced to start my own show.
[01:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah, we had to start our own because we wouldn't get invited back at all, you know. No, just kidding. Just kidding. But anyway, we love. We love listening to you guys for all of our parks content, as Brian said. And of course, we love the rope drop on Deck show with Michelle that you have for all those out there. If you're not listening, those two shows are fabulous, so we highly recommend them. But with that, we will just say thank you to Doug for joining us tonight. Thank you to all who are watching live and to those who will watch this recorded show. Get on the live stream. Come on. And don't forget to subscribe to us on YouTube and like all of the episodes that you have watched and maybe even the ones you haven't watched, and if you have not yet given us a review on Apple Podcasts, please hit those five stars right there. So thank you all for watching and listening and we will see you soon.
[01:09:24] Speaker C: 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 live, 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 to help support the show, be sure 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
[email protected] so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to dclduo.com dot. It's got links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes, including a searchable catalog for the podcast links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun, fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com dclduo. Also, as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here, at least on a few blog articles that we've written, so dclduo.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also, of course, email
[email protected] comma or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590 that's 402-413-5590 the DCL duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company, or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflect the views of the Disney Company or Disney Cruise line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney vacation, please contact the great folks over at mypath unwinding travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL duo.
