[00:00:00] Speaker A: They have this peanut butter and jelly old fashioned that comes with a little peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: I'm sorry. Can you say that again?
Welcome back, everybody, to a live episode of the DCl duo podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding travel. And we're going to take a little detour tonight. I gotta. I gotta put it out there for everybody. I had to do a work presentation at 630 this morning, and I tell you what, I'm dragging a little bit. Uh, I'm working hard here to try and keep the energy level up. So, uh, I'm looking forward to this conversation to pet me up a little bit. Uh, and. Gotta. Gotta get to bed tonight, man. Cause we got all kinds of Disney Destiny.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: I know we got all kinds of stuff coming out tomorrow, but. But tonight we're gonna, like you said, take a detour away from DCL. We're gonna talk about the newest royal caribbean ship, the utopia of the seas. And we are so lucky because we are joined by wonderful guest. She's not a first time guest. She's not a second time guest. I believe she's actually a third time guest. Is that right, Leah?
[00:01:10] Speaker A: I think only second.
[00:01:11] Speaker C: Oh, second. I thought we had you on twice. Okay, maybe I'm miscounting. But anyway, we're so happy to have you on, Leah, everyone. Leah is the daughter of Karen Shelton, who is owner of my path, unwinding travel. Leah is not a travel agent herself, but she is fortunate in that she gets to go along on a lot of these travel agent trips with her mom. And she was on the DCL duo podcast with us, of course, podcast crews with us, and so we are so happy to have Leah on. Karen is in Ireland right now. Is that right, Leah?
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm very jealous she didn't take me with her on that one.
[00:01:52] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, I know. She took your dad with her this time, so, you know, you can't get every trip.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: I guess I had to do school, unfortunately.
[00:02:01] Speaker C: Well, we like your hat very much.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Yeah, the hat is. The hat is. The hat is killer tonight. And very on point for the topic. Before we dive into talking about the utopia of the seas, though, I wanted to let folks know there was some Disney Cruise line news that came out this morning. I just. I can't even keep up any longer. But just quickly, because we also put it out there on all the social media places that we are, and I actually put a substack out about it. If you don't know about our substack, we have a Substack newsletter that you can sign up for and get fun news and commentary from us right in your email inbox. Just head over to Substack or head over to dclduo.com and sign up for our email list because that will be our substack. But news today is that Disney Cruise Line has apparently quietly upgraded the Wi Fi across the fleet to Starlink. Gasp.
They have also implemented new Wi Fi packages in response. So before there were three levels of packages started at like $18, $28, $42, I believe it was. And that was for basic something in premiere. It doesn't matter. Premium, it doesn't matter anymore. Those are gone. Those are out the window. And now there's only two Wi Fi packages you can buy. One is called Internet.
I guess what's in the name Internet. It starts at $26, if I'm recalling correctly, includes most of the stuff that basic surf had before.
Definitely an upgrade from whatever the lower tier package was. But I, you know, if you're doing entry level Internet today on Disney Cruise line, it does step you up another $8 to get the, the lowest level Internet package on the other side of the equation to support those higher long form streaming speeds at Starlink, you're going to be paying $48 a day, I should say a day for all these numbers that I'm giving you. It is not $20.
[00:03:54] Speaker C: Yeah, but they gave you. Right. By $6, they give you faster streaming. Right. Because the Wi Fi or the Internet, it's not faster.
[00:04:06] Speaker B: So you can do long form streaming now. So before you couldn't watch Disney or Netflix or whatever it was, now you can watch YouTube and all.
So that's, that's the new thing is that you can do that. I just want to put out there dollar 48 a day on Disneyland, Voom. At sea on Royal Caribbean, $25.99 a day for the exact same package. So.
[00:04:29] Speaker C: Oh, wow.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: It's not a place where I feel like Disney service can, can suddenly justify that.
[00:04:36] Speaker C: I wonder if we'll be able to do most of the stuff that we usually do on the, on the ship, on the lower Internet package, though, because the lower Internet package, that sounds like it's probably closer to the, what the mid level one was before. So we need it for like, email, Internet browsing, but also, like, uploading, like short pictures, like short videos and pictures. Right. So like, reels on Instagram, things like that. But we don't probably, unless you're putting up an episode and then you're uploading that. Right, Brian, that takes probably the higher level package? I don't know.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yes, it does. Yeah, for sure. I mean, look, I think the highest level, $48 a day, that's for people who have to get work done on board. They need Zoom calls, whatever it is, because it will support that. It was a little hit or miss on the old package. You know, how much would support? So it's for people who need to stay connected and get work done. If you're just doing social media stuff, sure, you can go with the highest package.
It's kind of funny that they, you know, you have that stateroom tv with the full library of movies and stuff. The reason Royal Caribbean gives you the streaming at that level with, because you.
[00:05:47] Speaker C: Have no movie, there's nothing to watch. Very, very few. I mean, and it depends on the ship, but sometimes you even have to pay for, like, the majority of the movies and there's like nothing on tv. So, yeah, I would say, um, yeah, that's not, that's not terrible, I guess. I wonder if they're going to have the, if it's going to be the same setup, though, because right now or before this, you could like, log out of one device and log into a different. So you could pay for only one device and, but use it across multiple people in your least within your stateroom. I wonder if that's going to be the case on this new plan. So we don't know. We just heard this. Who was it that told us this, Brian? This was somebody on board, right?
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Yeah. We had a listener who asked not to be named, but we had a listener send us some stuff in and named anonymous listener. Also, Scott Sanders was reporting it this morning. We have since learned, by the way, it was a little iffy this morning. Whether it was just on the fantasy, we've had confirmation from other folks writing in throughout the day that they've seen it now on the fantasy, the dream and the wonder. So it has made its wave into the classic ships. So the upgrade is Fleetwide, I would suspect. And actually the Krause mouse folks did email us too, to let us know that the packages were now live on the sailing they're on, which is the wonder in Alaska. So, um, it does look like it has gone fleet wide. So with that, bye bye Disney. Let's talk about Royal for a second.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: Let's talk about utopia. Yeah. So tell us, which class of ship is utopia with Royal Caribbean? It's not, it's not a sister ship to the icon, right. Which is that other new ship.
[00:07:24] Speaker A: Correct. It's slightly smaller. So I think it's technically an Oasis class ship. So it's the same as the wonder, which is the ship that came out last year.
It's a sister ship to the wonder, but has some new features. They're not quite as big as icon, but still lots of new fun stuff.
[00:07:43] Speaker C: Awesome. So this is how many passengers then on?
Because we went on Oasis and allure and I know those are the same class, but I think utopia. It's the same class, but it's still. There are some differences, I think, between it and they've sort of upgraded the class even though it's the same class. How many passengers does this approximately hold?
[00:08:09] Speaker A: I think it's about 7000. Wow. Yeah. Ours, I think, was a little bit more than half full on our sailing since it was a preview and I think we had around 4000 or so on board. Um, but yeah, I think it's close to seven for the full capacity.
[00:08:27] Speaker C: Awesome. Brian, should we bring up some pictures? I feel like let's do it.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: Let's do it. Yes. Leah, hopefully, uh, to all of you out there who want to be a live guest, this is the way to do it. You bring it. You bring us PowerPoint slides and. Oh, my God, it's amazing. It's amazing. So, yes, Leah has set up an entire PowerPoint to walk us through. This is great. So let's dive right in. Leah, should I go to the, like, the first slide?
[00:08:52] Speaker A: Yeah, we can just kind of, like, use this as a guide. Um, you guys can, you know, ask whatever questions you want to know. But, um, I just put this together to kind of organize things, so.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Love it. Love it. Let's talk. Let's talk staterooms then. We'll start with staterooms on board. So this is a balcony stateroom. Looks pretty nice. I hate those rounded beds, though. Do those rounded beds annoy you as they much. As much as they annoy me, Leah?
[00:09:15] Speaker A: I feel like it does kind of defeat the, like there's less walking space where it could have just been flat. Um, but this was our state room, actually, so we were in a balcony stateroom and, yeah, it was a fine stateroom.
The beds that you see actually can separate into two twin beds. So I was sailing with my mom and we decided to have two twin beds instead of sharing a queen. So they separated them for us. And, yeah, there was plenty of space, lots of storage space. Even though this is a.
The ship is going to do three and four night sailings, so there was a lot of storage space. Considering that it's pretty short cruises. Um, the bathroom was, you know, standard cruise bathroom. Um, one thing I noticed was that the bathroom door is like, I think it might be magnetic or something, but it's not super heavy. And, you know those Disney cruise line bathroom doors?
[00:10:09] Speaker C: Oh, they're so heavy.
[00:10:10] Speaker A: So heavy. And they're like, the same weight as, like, the normal door to open the cabin. So if you're going to the bathroom in the middle of the night, like, you don't really know if you're opening, like, it's the worst.
So these were a lot lighter, which I noticed and appreciated. And quiet.
[00:10:27] Speaker C: Yeah, that's really nice. Well, one thing we have to say, and I always have to compare to Disney, of course, for those who are watching on the video live with us, there's no split bathroom. It's one bathroom. So that's. That's standard on all the cruise lines outside of Disney. Did you guys get a chance to tour some other staterooms, maybe some of, like, the suite class stuff or.
[00:10:51] Speaker A: We did, we did, we did. Yes. We got a chance to tour most of the suites. So actually, I have some pictures of those in here if you want to go to the next slide.
[00:11:02] Speaker B: Yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. I also love, by the way, in the bathrooms on royal that you get the, what is it? The body wash shampoo conditioner.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: I was going to point that out. I was going to point that out. It's so annoying. It's like they give you the three in one.
[00:11:15] Speaker C: Three in one.
[00:11:16] Speaker A: If you're going on royal and you're not staying in a suite, bring your own.
[00:11:20] Speaker C: Bring your own shampoo and conditioner. Yeah, I bet the shampoo is not terrible. But I would want my. I would want a separate. I need a separate conditioner. So I bring conditioner.
[00:11:30] Speaker A: Right. But if you stay in a suite like, this is the junior suite, this is the lowest class of sweets, I believe, but it's still pretty spacious.
[00:11:42] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: Yeah, nice. And they have better bath products, if you care about that.
[00:11:46] Speaker B: So, yeah, I was gonna say for our list, for our listeners, viewers out there, if you're thinking about doing royal in, like, a sweet class, they have, like, three categories. So Disney has concierge or regular, and that's it. It doesn't matter what room category. You get some marginal, different benefits based on your room type on Disney, but nothing that's groundbreaking or earth shattering on Royal. The benefits actually really do step up with each class of service. So the junior suite, I think, is their c class suite, which has the fewest benefits. You can go to coastal kitchen if there's availability. I don't think you get, you can.
[00:12:22] Speaker C: Go there for dinner.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
Reservations for dinner, but no breakfast, no lunch. I don't think you get unfettered access to the lounge either, correct. Yeah.
[00:12:32] Speaker C: Although I think on this new class of ship there are some junior suites that are part of.
What is it? Sky class.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Yeah. So it goes. So the tiering is c. Sky star. It's progressing up the horizon basically.
[00:12:48] Speaker C: Right. But normally the juniors are just part of c class. But I believe on this ship there might be even a few, a handful of junior suites that are actually sky class, which is an unusual, which is a difference from the previous ships. Is that right, leah, do you remember?
[00:13:03] Speaker A: I'm not sure. That's a question for my mother. I think she'll know better, but.
Sounds right. So, yeah.
[00:13:11] Speaker B: So yeah, it's sky class, which is where we have tended to sail. Then you get access to the lounge and all the coastal kitchen amenities and the concierge and just a host of other kind of benefits get thrown in. And then star class is the class that we've never tried. All we've had friends who've tried it, that is butler following you everywhere around the ship, doing whatever you need.
[00:13:30] Speaker C: Your genie, they call it your genie. And you have, you basically have whatever you want, whenever you want. They'll bring you, they'll bring you food in your room, all of that kind of stuff. And then they also, I believe it also includes all of your dining on your specialty dining is included and stuff like, and I think your, I believe your drinks are included as well. Oh, there you go. Somebody is saying chiffona. If CF Hippel is saying, I'm right, there are some C class juniors avail. Sky class juniors available. He corrected himself or himself. Or herself. Sky class Junior is available. I noticed this, I was reading up about this because this is something that's completely unique to royal has not had this before. Junior suites that are actually in sky class.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: So leah, this was a preview cruise and maybe we should set some context. So the utopia is the newest ship. She just had her naming ceremony like last week. PS, if you want a really fun video. So go out on the Internet and watch the naming ceremony because the Disney ship is departing at the same time and they sound their horn. So you get the little Disney music in the background of the naming ceremony.
How long were you on board? And like where, where did it go?
[00:14:42] Speaker A: It was three nights. It left out of Port Canaveral and it went to perfect day at Cococay, which was the only port stop. And we actually did not even get off the ship that day.
[00:14:53] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: We went on a cruise to the utopia that was our destination.
But, you know, we were really there to experience the ship and, you know, short cruise, we wanted as much time on board as we could.
[00:15:05] Speaker C: So this is great. It's a preview. Cruises, they typically have a lot less people on because it's just invited guests on. Is that right?
[00:15:13] Speaker A: Correct. Yes. And mostly agency owners, influencers, that kind of thing.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: All right. Yeah, we've heard about this thing. Yeah, we've heard about this. Yeah.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: This is a big jump from the junior suite to the ultimate family suite.
[00:15:28] Speaker B: And I don't know, we can compare. Yeah.
[00:15:34] Speaker A: One other thing I wanted to point out about the junior suite is that it technically sleeps four. However, the additional two are in a pull out couch bed situation. So it's good to know.
[00:15:47] Speaker C: So kids maybe can fit.
[00:15:49] Speaker A: Right. I think this is somewhere where royal kind of struggles a bit, is, you know, in their. In their suites that sleep four, it's often the pull out couch is the other two as opposed to a full additional bed. So just something to keep in mind. Yeah. If you're willing.
[00:16:05] Speaker B: It looks like in the regular stateroom, there was a trundle bed that came out of the couch, so you would get two twins. And it looked like there was kind of a trundle bed that came out.
[00:16:11] Speaker A: Is that sleeps three, I think, can convert as well. So. Yeah, I think it might be. I think it's three as well for that one. Yeah.
But definitely, like, you know, you don't want to pack two full size adults onto that couch bed, so.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: This is the ultimate family suite and I think sleeps at least eight.
[00:16:29] Speaker C: Yeah, it was like eight or nine. I was watching one of a YouTube video about this place. Yeah.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: There's like, a room upstairs that has two sets of bunk beds, which is really fun. And then a whole separate bedroom with the master suite. The fun little slide that you go down, they have the little stairs that are like the piano stairs. So when you go down, I mean, you can turn this off if it's getting really annoying, but it's like the.
[00:16:51] Speaker C: Big piano, but it's. But I. The stairs instead of. Instead of a flat.
[00:16:58] Speaker B: So the dining room table there and the wall behind it is also kind of weird. Is that like a Lego wall or something behind it? And then, like, the dining room table looks like it has like some sort of, like, screen set into it.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Because they were showing some kind of video. You can't see that in the. But I think it might be some kind of game table because it was actually like a screen that was playing a video on it. But, yeah, there's actually another bedroom back there, if you can see.
So there's a bedroom down there. And then to the right, there's a little, like, movie room that has some fun beanbag chairs and, like, big screen tv. And then upstairs is the bunk bed and then the master suite as well. So quite a bit of bedroom space.
[00:17:33] Speaker C: Yeah. And a huge, huge balcony with a hot tub as well as, like a little climbing structure thing I saw for the kids.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: Tracy's saying that's.
[00:17:45] Speaker C: I know it goes down this. Right? I saw some videos of adults going down.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I did not personally go down it, but I watched some other people go down it and it goes very fast. They were flying out the end.
[00:17:58] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: All right, well, we're moving from the kid focus suite to the adult focus suite here. This is the Royal loft suite, which I assume the last two that we've seen are star class. So you're going to get the sort of highest level of service. This one has a outdoor deck with a hot tub and a gorgeous little, gorgeous little sizable little large living room there. Yeah.
[00:18:19] Speaker C: Huge living room.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Yeah. This suite is beautiful, beautiful living area. Those little chairs in the corner over there are super cute, kind of like hanging rocking chairs and then this amazing balcony with the Jacuzzi outdoors. I mean, that would be just like, so ideal to hang out in.
[00:18:38] Speaker C: Wow, that looks awesome. I wonder how many. Do we know how many people that one sleeps? The Royal. That royal.
[00:18:44] Speaker A: I think that one's slightly lower because it doesn't have all of the bedrooms on the one bedroom on the first floor? I'm not. I'm not sure. I don't know that off the top of my head.
[00:18:52] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I. Yeah. All right, well, let's move on to the ship spaces because I think that's what's going to get people a little bit more excited about the cruise experience here because this is where royal really excels, is all the activities that you can do on board. So this looks to be the. I can spot this right away. This is a pool deck on a.
Wow.
[00:19:09] Speaker C: On an oasis class trip, you are good.
[00:19:12] Speaker B: Well, no, but I mean, it has the central park split. It has the two pools on either side. Yeah. Right.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: It has the open. It's probably a zip. Does it have the zip line in between so that you can go across the.
[00:19:22] Speaker A: I see zipline there. There might be one somewhere else.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: There's one on the back by the flow riders usually.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: Yeah, that's what it is.
[00:19:30] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:19:31] Speaker A: But it's not over Central park. But, yeah. The thing that just gets me about these ships is how wide they are, because I feel like the length, you don't really feel as much while you're on board, but when you're up on the pool deck and it's literally like a double wide cruise ship because, I mean, one of these pool decks is like a normal Disney ship. Right, right.
[00:19:46] Speaker C: It's like the wonder. Right. Like, half of it is like the. It's like the wonder side by side of long and then longer, too. Yeah.
[00:19:54] Speaker B: Well, and this photo had to be taken on Coco ki day, I'm guessing, because I've never seen a Royal Caribbean pool this empty.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: First got on. This was right after we got on the ship, so not a lot of, you know, all of the people that were on board were scurrying around, trying to explore everything, so not a lot of people were jumping right in the pool, but, you know, a few people were.
[00:20:18] Speaker C: The handful of people with their kids are in the pool.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:20:23] Speaker B: So is that. Are you. Are you at the back of the ship now looking into whatever the buffet area is? Is that like. Is that what. Yeah, okay.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the aft, I believe, and then I think that's going towards Windjammer there.
[00:20:37] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:20:39] Speaker A: And then the front has, I think that's where the solarian bistro is.
[00:20:45] Speaker B: Yep.
Were there any big, like, you know, I mean, look, on an Oasis class ship, im expecting two wave riders off the back, a zip line, maybe the ten stories, the dry slide, the pools, the skin room. Lime and coconut bar.
Yeah. Did they do anything like new on this ship that they havent done on the other Oasis class ships? Or is it just the newest in that series? Does that make sense?
[00:21:13] Speaker A: Yes. So there are a few new things. So, like you said, I mean, totally all of the fun, like water sports and slides and everything, like that many lime and coconuts, all that's the bars everywhere. Everywhere.
[00:21:27] Speaker C: That was everywhere on Oasis, by the way. They're nowhere to be found on allure, but everywhere on oasis is lime and coconut bar.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Right, right. They have the El logo fresh, which I don't know if you had that on.
[00:21:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: The other ships that you were on. Yeah. So that is the. On the pool deck, it's kind of the like Tex Mex taco bar. And that's really great for some good pool deck food. I'm not really sure. I didn't see a lot of people taking it out of the restaurant area, but I did, and nobody stopped me. So went up there, grabbed some tacos and chips and guacamole, and brought it to the solarium. And it was a great lunch. So they also have this spare tire place. I know we're kind of getting into food, but this is. I'm talking about, like, new things.
[00:22:12] Speaker B: So I guess we can skip ahead. We can get to the food.
[00:22:16] Speaker C: Yeah. What is the spare tire?
[00:22:18] Speaker A: So the spare tire, it's this, like, quick service kind of grab and go. I would compare it to almost like a taco bell sea based on some of the things that they had.
They had this tornado, which is like a ranchero beef and cheese, kind of like taquito type thing.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: I saw this. I saw this online because somebody was counting the number of tornadoes they ate throughout their cruise on these.
[00:22:40] Speaker C: And a chipotle chicken sandwich.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Yes. So I did not personally try the tornado. I heard that it was very good, but I had had my tacos that day, so I didn't feel like I was in the mood for this. But my mom tried the chicken sandwich.
It was not great. So I think that in terms of prepared food, they also had a wrap that's kind of there. You can see on the side. It's like a green wrap. I can't remember exactly in that, but, um, you know, it's just for grab and go. If you don't feel like going to the windjammer, you really need something. They also had some kind of, like, dessert thing. I think it was like a churro type situation that you could grab. So just kind of a fun, cute new addition.
The other thing, one other thing that's new is the pesky parrot, which is a kind of like tiki bar. I don't have any pictures of that, but that's in, like, that atrium promenade area. So new bar space, which is super fun because I feel like they haven't had a new bar in a long time.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: Did they have the. What was that called? The rising tide bar? Did they have one of those?
[00:23:49] Speaker C: Oh, we love that.
[00:23:50] Speaker A: They did. They did.
[00:23:51] Speaker C: Yes. We love the rising tide bar. To be honest, though, I'm probably not going to be on this ship, though, because it's only three and four night sailing.
[00:24:00] Speaker A: Right, right. But honestly, that's. And it's great that this is a new ship that's three and four nights because most cruise lines aren't putting a new ship on these shorter itineraries. So it's a great way, you know, if you want to try the ship, if you want to try suite class on a royal ship and you don't want to commit to a full, like, seven night itinerary, you can try it out with a shorter cruise.
[00:24:25] Speaker C: That's a good point, especially for people who are, you know, Disney cruisers but are curious to try something different and bigger because you do have some. I mean, look at that pool deck. That's a really nice pool deck. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. Now, it's not. Royal's not going to replace Disney in my heart because there are some things that Disney just does better, but there are some things on.
There were some things on Royal that I had to say were better than, you know, some things on Disney and just things that are available on Royal that weren't available on Disney.
[00:24:58] Speaker B: I don't remember the tiered seating like this on the Oasis class ship. It looks like that could be a little different from what we're used to. So. Yeah, yeah.
[00:25:06] Speaker A: All of those in those lounge chairs in the water. Those are so nice.
[00:25:10] Speaker C: Those are so nice.
[00:25:12] Speaker B: I see the casitas up there that you can book for the day on board. Yeah, yeah. The pool deck. The pool deck is. Well, I'll say this, this pool deck looks lovely. It looks very different when you're actually on board. A full sailing, though. Like. Sure about that? Yeah.
[00:25:27] Speaker C: Right. When it's filled with people and children. Yeah, it's different, but it's still a. That's actually a pretty nice pool.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Yeah. The day after day and we had a. It was, it was packed for sure.
[00:25:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: Yeah. This is actually the view from one of the Central park view balcony cabins. Oh, cool.
[00:25:45] Speaker C: We've never gotten to see this view because you have to be staying in one of these. One of these balcony Central park balcony suites or cabins, rather. Not. These aren't suite class. These are just regular.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: These are just regular. Yeah, these are just regular. Like, same as the balcony stateroom that we were in. Just with the view of Central park, which honestly is quite lovely. You don't really feel like you're on a cruise ship, but it's a beautiful view. So.
[00:26:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: What are the rest? What are the restaurants off Central park on this ship? So obviously chops is probably somewhere around here.
Giovanni.
[00:26:17] Speaker A: Giovanni's actually has a new location on the utopia. So it is, I believe, at the aft of the ship. I can't remember what deck it's on, but it's overlooking the boardwalk and where the Aqua theater is. So I actually have a picture of that in here, I think in the dining food section of the view from Giovanni. It's kind of now like a two story restaurant with the top part being like the bar. And it has a balcony overlooking the boardwalk. And then the lower part of the restaurant is, like, the actual seated restaurant area.
[00:26:56] Speaker C: Brian flipped to it. She's got a picture of it in the dining section. She said, I think so.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: I think I'm going, I'm going, I'm going. Oh, I want to talk about the mason jar. There it is.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah, you can see the view. So it's a really cool view.
[00:27:09] Speaker C: That's cool.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: And where the Aqua theater is, these are some drinks that we got because you can just go. We did not have an invitation to eat at Giovanni's, but we were able to go to the bar, got a martini. It was very nice.
We did, however, get to try some of the specialty dining food on the first day. And I just have to say, I know you guys did not have a good experience at Giovanni, but, like, justice for Giovanni's. I love Giovanni's.
[00:27:38] Speaker C: Justice for Giovanni.
[00:27:40] Speaker A: Iceberg we had. We ate there when we sailed on.
[00:27:44] Speaker C: That's gonna be a new hashtag, by the way. That's my hashtag.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: Yeah, justice for Gabon. I mean, they made a great martini. The food that we sampled, we have this, like, amazing little caprese thing, this pistachio of panna cotta, which is super good.
So maybe you guys should give it a, give it a second.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: To be fair. To be, to be fair. Sam didn't love it. I thought it was good. I just didn't think it was the best meal I had on board. And then I've heard really good things about, is it Jamie Oliver's, the other italian restaurant that they put on the, some of the ships?
[00:28:20] Speaker C: Different name. It is. Jamie Oliver is the chef, but it has a different name. It's maybe, I don't know.
[00:28:26] Speaker B: Jamie's. Yeah. So I've heard really good things about that. So I would give Giovanni, my problem is I love, so I've loved every meal we've had at chop, and I'm trying to remember the other restaurants we.
[00:28:35] Speaker C: Had and 150 Central park.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, yes. 150 Central park.
[00:28:39] Speaker C: So we really, I will say I actually really loved the meal at chops and really loved the meal at 150 Central park and really hated my entree at Giovanni's.
[00:28:50] Speaker B: But to be fair, Matt over at the RCCL blog, who is, like, the definitive resource for Royal Caribbean, to me, feel like we're just here. We're tourists in this space, sharing our understanding of royal for people who like to cruise Disney. He loves Giovanni's. He told us when we talked to him, he's like, you should book Giovanni.
[00:29:07] Speaker C: Well, and I'd be willing to try it again. I'm like, sometimes a restaurant has an off night, right? Like, that doesn't mean that everything on the. And I had a good appetizer. It was just really my main. That was really just not good. And so, you know. But every other. All the other specialty dining was really good, including Hibachi. Is there a hibachi on here that I saw?
[00:29:29] Speaker A: Yes. So we were talking about restaurants that are off of Central park. So this is actually a new thing on the utopia.
They're calling it Izumi in the park. So it's the same kind of concept of sushi, hibachi restaurant, but it's in the park. And they have expanded the hibachi tables. They also are offering this omakase experience. So the picture on the right is, like the private dining room for the Omakase experience. So that's kind of a new fun thing.
And then they have a little window. It's like a little sushi window. So this was also invitation only, strangely enough, on this cruise. But normally, you could go up, and it's still an additional fee, but you can just get sushi while you're walking through the park from the little counter.
[00:30:15] Speaker C: I love that. Oh, my goodness. I mean, sushi to go. We actually. So we have a conveyor belt sushi place. Place near us that we love. That we actually. Yeah. That we. We either go to or we get takeout from. And so sushi to go sounds perfect for me.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: Talk to me about. Talk to me about the mason jar here a little bit, leah. So where. Where is this? And is it, like, quick serve, sit down. Like, what is it? Yeah.
[00:30:39] Speaker A: Also in the aft of the ship. I think it's near windjammer. I can't remember exactly what duck it's on because there's so many ducks on the ship. It's like they all run together.
But, yes, we didn't actually get to eat there on this sailing. But when I went on the wonder of the seas, which is Utopia's sister ship last December, or I guess, two decembers ago now, we did get to eat at the mason jar. So I'm assuming it's very similar. Great vibes they have every night. They have this country trio band that plays. It gets super lively. Tons of people come, even if they're not eating in the restaurant, just to be at the bar.
They have this peanut butter and jelly old fashioned that comes with a little peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: I'm sorry, can you say that again?
[00:31:25] Speaker A: I think they do also have a smoked old fashioned because when I was in there, I smelled some smokiness.
[00:31:29] Speaker C: Everyone has a.
[00:31:30] Speaker B: Do they have a smoke? Do they have a smoked old peanut butter and jelly old fashioned?
[00:31:36] Speaker A: Honestly, I'm sure you could probably get them to make it for you.
[00:31:39] Speaker B: I gotta take the headphones off. I'm headed to the airport.
[00:31:42] Speaker C: Peanut butter and jelly old fashioned. All right. That's.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it's great vibes in there.
There's like, you know, it's kind of traditional southern food. So deviled eggs, fried chicken, that kind of thing.
[00:31:55] Speaker B: Restaurant is speaking my love language.
[00:31:57] Speaker C: Like, yeah, all of Brian's love languages are.
[00:32:01] Speaker B: Who in the comments wants to go on the Utopia season? Brian, let's go.
Sam's. Like, I'm good. I'm going to go on the fantasy. Yeah. Yeah. All right, well, this sounds like a fun venue. What. Any other dining that we should.
[00:32:13] Speaker D: We're here.
[00:32:14] Speaker C: Let's.
[00:32:15] Speaker A: Yes. We got to talk about the new restaurant. I think I put pictures in there. It's the railroad. The Utopia railway.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: Oh, I heard about this.
[00:32:23] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:32:25] Speaker A: This is a big deal because this is a brand new specialty dining restaurant and it's super different from anything else that royal's done before. So this is basically an immersive entertainment dining experience.
I think this is their kind of like closest thing that they're getting to a Disney theme park ride on their ship. So basically there's like characters that are, you know, welcoming you on to this train ride and you board and you feel like you are on a train through the Wild west and you're.
[00:32:56] Speaker C: And you have a ticket and everything, I think.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. You are like boarding the train as a passenger on the train. It like, actually moves and feels like you were on a train. Like it's vibrating and stuff. And then this window, it's like kind of. It looks like you're driving by all of these sites.
[00:33:11] Speaker C: So you're basically in the. On the Hogwarts Express.
[00:33:15] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:33:15] Speaker C: But at sea is what it seems like.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. And like, all the food and stuff is themed and there's like a storyline that goes along with it.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: How big is the restaurant? Like, how many. How many tables would you estimate?
[00:33:29] Speaker A: It's very small and I think that the maximum. There's only tables of four. So you couldn't really do, like, a big group at one table.
So this was a very exclusive invite on the. This.
On this sailing. We just got to.
[00:33:44] Speaker B: How long is it? How long is the experience?
[00:33:47] Speaker A: 90 minutes.
Yeah. So that's how they kind of time everything with the dinner. And it's actually. They're talking about using this as, like, a jumping off point for different themed experiences. So they were saying at Halloween they can do, like, a Halloween themed one, and now they're talking about, like, a wine. You could do a shorter, like, wine tasting. Like your I riding through Napa and you're doing a wine tasting or like, the Polar Express at Christmas time. So there's a lot of really.
[00:34:18] Speaker B: I think Jeff is hit on the right first.
[00:34:21] Speaker C: Brian, I said it's the hot.
[00:34:22] Speaker B: No, no, but. But imagine if actually licensed Harry Potter and.
[00:34:28] Speaker C: Oh, no. That. I mean, I was thinking that if they. If they came up with a deal with JK Rowling and. Yeah. And did a Hogwarts Express, like, train, it would be.
Right. Like a blow up. But, I mean, this is cool. It's a wild west. When this. This gives me, like, Westworld vibes, though, I'm not sure I want to go on this train. Like, I don't know if, like, the. The robots are going to take over. It might not be.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: It's not Westworld, Sam.
Okay. This is high praise from CT when he says this is very cool.
[00:35:02] Speaker C: It is very cool. Yeah.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: Because he's got some great ideas for Disneyland. Leah, I'm curious, did the food so, like, the scenery is changing? Is the food meant to kind of match? Like, are you having ribs while you're rolling through the wild, wild west kind of thing, or is it.
[00:35:16] Speaker A: I think so. I took a picture of the menu there, and I can't remember all that was on it, but I think it is supposed to kind of be themed to go with that. The drinks that they were giving us were kind of, like, themed towards, you know, western country, cowboy kind of vibes.
[00:35:29] Speaker C: Which means they'll have an old fashioned on there, too.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: Is there stuff happening outside the window that creates, like, a show aspect to it? Do some cowboys ride by, like, shooting each other a stagecoach or something?
[00:35:44] Speaker A: They were kind of alluding to some stuff that might be going on. We didn't see that when we were on because it was just like a five minute little walkthrough of us on a nice little pleasant ride through these sites. But, yeah, I think that could. I'm not really sure you'll have to try it and see.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: Let us know.
[00:36:00] Speaker C: There you go.
CT is saying a train show with the train hijacking would be cool as long as it's not robots, right? That's right. Without Rahsaan's robots. He writes. So without robots, as long as they're not robots, as long as they're actual people, that would be a cool. Yeah. I love this idea. I think the only negative is that it's such a small venue. I wonder, like, how many people will actually get to book this, this if it's only a three and four night sailing.
[00:36:29] Speaker B: Pink Bunny is saying they're going in September. Super excited. Craig and Michael will go with you, right? Yes. Craig and Michael will always go on a cruise with me. I'm fairly certain I may have to pay, but they're. They're going to come. No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Much love to Craig and Michael up there. Much love to Craig. What? Are there anything else that's unique from a dining standpoint here? Leah, on the utopia. I mean, this is very unique. So I don't know that we can top this, but, yeah, I think those.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Are the main things. So just the pesky pair at that new bar, Azumi in the park, the new location of Giovanni's, and then this Utopia railway, this new restaurant. I think those are kind of the main things from a dining standpoint.
[00:37:05] Speaker D: We know that people trust Disney for their vacations, and it can sometimes be a little nerve wracking to think about trying something new. Right, Sam?
[00:37:11] Speaker C: Yeah. Whether you're considering branching out to a new cruise line, an all inclusive resort, or exploring Europe, the team at my path unwinding travel has the expertise and connections across the globe to plan almost any vacation. They can even help with the universal parks they've helped us plan our vacations. Beyond Disney, including Royal Caribbean princess cruise line, and Virgin voyages, their team of.
[00:37:29] Speaker D: Travel professionals all understand the needs of a Disney traveler can help you decide if another option is right for you, and then guide you through every step of your new vacation experience. Whether you are dreaming of a fun getaway to an all inclusive resort, a river cruise in Europe, or an adventure in Costa Rica, the folks at mypath unwinding are ready to help. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your next vacation even more amazing.
[00:37:50] Speaker C: If you want to learn more and take advantage of the amazing team at mypath unwinding travel, then head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email dclduoypathunwinding.com to let them know we sent you their way. Thanks. My path unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
What else is off the park as far as dining? Is 150 Central park there? And do they have a wine bar there or what are. Cause I know have had different things depending upon different ships.
[00:38:24] Speaker A: I did not see it. I just saw the restaurant at 150 Central park. And then chops is also there.
And then Izumi in the park, they also have the Central park cafe. Is that what it's called?
[00:38:35] Speaker C: Yeah. Park Cafe. Yeah, cafe.
[00:38:37] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's kind of, that's included. That's not additional, that's not specialty dining. But they kind of have like sandwiches and salads and that kind of thing for during the day. Kind of a quicker meal option if you don't want to go to windjammer.
[00:38:49] Speaker B: Nathan saying views and queues. Put a video out of the train dinner. Yeah, I've seen a few folks out there with that and yeah, I would definitely. I'm going to go check it out and just be curious what it, what it looks like. Speaking of, did you actually see what's the escape room theme? Did you get a chance to check it out?
[00:39:03] Speaker A: They did not show us inside. They said it was not quite done yet.
[00:39:06] Speaker C: Okay. It wasn't finished.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: Yes. We walked up, we went and saw the kids club, and the escape room is right there off of the kids club, but they would not let us inside. So we'll have to stay tuned for that.
[00:39:17] Speaker C: Yeah. Speaking of the kids club, um, did it look nice? Like it. Did it look like a nice space? Obviously you guys got it, but you weren't traveling with kids. So I know there weren't any kids that were in the party to go and play in the kids club, but any, any feedback from the kids club?
[00:39:34] Speaker A: Yeah, it seemed great. Um, I mean, there were kids on our sailing, so when we went to go see it, there were kids already kind of getting checked in. And so that's why I didn't get too many pictures because there were kids there, so. But it looked great. It looked very similar to the kids club on the wonder.
I liked this little up the top left corner here. This picture is the space for. I think it's four to six year olds. I can't remember the exact. It's like older than nursery, but a little bit on the younger side. And they have a little bookstore. It's just a super cute little space.
And then that bottom middle picture is kind of the main kids club area. So it's mostly just kind of like open play space. I think they do a lot of activities there, and it's less like, you know, free play. Less structured.
[00:40:18] Speaker C: Yeah, more structured, less free, right, yeah.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: And then the.
[00:40:22] Speaker C: Is that when the toddler area, the top right corner, that's the nursery.
[00:40:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the nursery goes and it's like nursery and toddler. Yeah.
[00:40:29] Speaker C: Yeah. So cute.
[00:40:30] Speaker A: One baby in there. When we went to go see, there was a baby sleeping, so.
[00:40:34] Speaker C: Aw.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: So this. This has to be the rainforest room space that they. That we've seen before. I thought it was fairly small for a ship of this size and class. Did they enlarge it at all on this one, or is. It strikes me as about the same size as what's on the wonder and the magic.
[00:40:52] Speaker A: Frankly, it seemed about the same, you know, not super huge.
These chairs are nice, but, you know, there's not too many of them. The whole spa area is. Yeah, it's. I mean, it's pretty sizable, but not huge. We did actually get to experience the spa. Both my mom and I got massages.
They were a bit chaotic just because we booked the first evening. And the time that we booked happened to be right during sail away. And the spa is located right over. Whatever engines, they start to sail away.
[00:41:31] Speaker C: So not ideal.
[00:41:32] Speaker A: In the middle of my massage. Well, first we had the drill, so the alarm went off during my massage. And then, you know, they start. They were making the announcements about people needing to disembark if they're not sailing. And then the ship starts rumbling and it's like, vibrating under the massage.
[00:41:52] Speaker C: So not the most relaxing.
[00:41:55] Speaker A: It was a bit chaotic. But, you know, any massage I feel like is better than no massage.
[00:42:02] Speaker B: I find. So I'll just say this. I find the spas on Royal to be not as nice as the ones on Disney. They're perfectly adequate. It's good technicians and all that stuff.
[00:42:14] Speaker C: The technicians are all from the same company?
Yeah, well, not Elemis. It's.
Elemis is the product, senses is the. I can't remember the name of the company. But anyway, there's a company that contracts with all of the cruise lines, and so they have. They train them or make sure that they're trained, and then each cruise line actually does additional training for folks who are coming onto their ship. So they do have different, like, standards and whatnot. But in general, I thought that, you know, the technicians on royal were good. I just agree. I didn't think the spaces were quite as nice or the products quite as nice. But they have a really nice gym.
[00:42:52] Speaker A: They do. And I didn't include a picture of it, but I did actually make it to the gym on this cruise ship, which I do not normally do on a cruise. But I was like, I got to check it out. And it was great. It was big. They had, I mean, this is just the peloton area, or not peloton, the spin area.
[00:43:06] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:43:07] Speaker A: Um, but then, you know, the actual gym, many, many machines, like all of the cardio machines. I'm a stairmaster, girly. And they had stairmasters, which they do not have on DCL. So that was a nice, um, perk there. And then, you know, lots of strength machines and good views of the water. So, yeah, I was very happy with it.
[00:43:25] Speaker B: All right, we missed a couple of food pictures here, which led to a question for me. Um, so I just wanted to let everybody know, first and foremost, they do have a Johnny rockets on board, which is a hallmark for, for Royal Caribbean. And these, uh, oasis mean, who doesn't.
[00:43:38] Speaker C: Like Johnny rockets, right?
[00:43:40] Speaker A: So there's a story behind this burger because they actually did. So we had a reservation at the solarium Bistro, which is not usually reservation, but on our cruise it was. And our reservation was for, I believe, 830. And we had, they did fireworks on our sailing. It's kind of like a special thing for the first crew. So they were not off the ship. I don't think they've figured out, decided to do that like Disney has. But we were sailing out of perfect day and they kind of like docked or not docked, but like stopped the ship off the coast of perfect day and then shot the fireworks from the ship off the coast of perfect day.
[00:44:20] Speaker C: Oh, interesting.
[00:44:22] Speaker A: Those were at eight and so. And then there was also. Meghan Trainor was the godmother of the ship.
[00:44:27] Speaker B: Oh, yes. Oh, my gosh. Did you get to see Meghan Trainor in concert on the ship?
[00:44:30] Speaker A: I did not. But I saw a video of Meghan Trainor in concerte. Yeah, that was another, like, you know, exclusive invite. But then we were looking at the video and there were all these empty seats and we're like, well, we could have gone and filled the build the stands a little bit more. But no, we heard her.
She was great. So that was finishing, and then the fireworks were starting and then we were running from the fireworks to dinner. And we sit down at dinner at like 845 and they're like, we're closing at nine. You need to go get your food right now. What? And it was very disappointing because the food had kind of been sitting out on the buffet for a while, so.
[00:45:05] Speaker C: It was the end of the solarium buffet.
[00:45:07] Speaker A: We were like, not really, you know, refreshing.
[00:45:12] Speaker B: It looks like you made up for it because this looks like a delicious burger. And I think it was chili fries in the back there.
[00:45:18] Speaker A: I was like, hey, when can we ditch and go to Johnny rockets? And she was like, all right. So we went right after and got a burger and milkshake. That was exactly what we needed. So this.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: My question for you, lay, is this main dining?
[00:45:33] Speaker A: This is main dining, yeah.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: How was the main dining food?
[00:45:37] Speaker A: It was good. It was honestly, like, very good. I. You know, it's not. It was not the best meal I've ever had, but it was very solid. This was from the first night. They kind of did a welcome aboard special menu. So it was a bit of more of a limited menu, and the surf and turf was one of the options. Usually, I believe that's an additional charge in the main dining room. But it was great. My filet was, like, cooked perfectly. Lobster was delicious. The chocolate dessert, I feel like Disney often does not hit on the chocolate desserts. Like, I want a good breed, and they're just, like, not the best. This was a really good.
[00:46:13] Speaker C: Other than the Paulo chocolate souffle.
[00:46:16] Speaker A: Yeah, that's.
[00:46:16] Speaker B: That aside, I find people just over complicate chocolate. Just make a chocolate cake, just a plain chocolate cake, and make it really well. And it's delicious, you know, and that's what this was.
[00:46:25] Speaker A: I mean, it was kind of like, you know, a denser chocolate cake, but not, like I. A super, like, flourless chocolate cake, that kind of thing. And then it had just a really good frosting, and it was great. It really, really hit the spot. The escargot royal wins on this one.
[00:46:42] Speaker C: Wow. That's. That's what Josh tells us. He tells us we had. We had good escargot in coastal kitchen.
[00:46:47] Speaker B: But I didn't think covered in. It's. It's covered in cheese.
[00:46:51] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, I will say this one looks different than the one that we had in coastal kitchen. And I actually just.
[00:46:57] Speaker A: They. I asked. It was just butter and garlic, like, no cheese. It's just kind of really a thick layer, and it gets kind of brown.
And recently, having been on the magic, I had the escargot on the magic. Very solid, you know, no complaints. But having royals escargot, I thought it was better.
[00:47:15] Speaker C: Wow. All right, well, that's a good. That's good to know. We're going to have to give it another try, that escargot. I want to get us over science.
[00:47:24] Speaker B: I want to get us over to entertainment so that we can get leah off on time this evening. I did just want to pull up a couple comments that have floated through that to respond to quickly. So one, Wes, is Wes Davenport saying another good thing about royals, they make a big effort to iterate newer ships in the same class, whereas it seems like all the wish class ships will be basically the same, just like fantasy and dream. I agree to some extent. I mean, the Oasis class, they've moved things around, but, like, the bones and layout of the ship are largely the same. So I do think it's nice to see the move of Zoomy and, you know, they've put an escape room in a few of these ships and they've done some things. So, like, yeah, I agree, I agree.
[00:48:00] Speaker C: There's some variety. There's some more variety. There is more variety within the same class of ships. There's a little bit more variety.
[00:48:07] Speaker B: And then he's saying, it seems like they're using Central park as more of a hub for venues. I love the whole concept of Central park. And when I saw that they might, they might. We don't know for sure, they might be doing something similar on the adventure. I love it. I love that Central park space. It's just fabulous and it's like outdoors and you feel like you're kind of in a park. So I love it. I love that space. And then Aisha is saying how far before the cruise they let you start making reservations? This is the one thing, if you're a Disney Cruise line fan and you're thinking about going on a royal cruise, it's not like Disney.
Whenever stuff just kind of releases and you can start making dining reservations, like, way far in advance. There's plenty of people who wait until they get on board to make the reservations.
[00:48:50] Speaker C: Like, check when you, when you booked your cruise with royal, you just check online every once in a while while and all of a sudden stuff will be available to book whether that's.
[00:49:03] Speaker A: Well.
[00:49:03] Speaker B: And I should say if you bought. So royal does a really good job of pushing a dining package. So if you're like, on a seven night cruise and you think you're going to eat in specialty dining three, four nights, what they, they tend to do is try to get you to buy a dining package. The trick with that, though, is then you book the dining package. They do a placeholder reservation on the first night. You have to book all the dining, once you get on the board and.
[00:49:24] Speaker C: You need to book it, like day.
[00:49:25] Speaker B: One and, oh, you have to book at day one because if you don't, otherwise you want, you certainly won't get the times you want. And so there's just, there's a little bit of a gamble there whether you get into the places you want to get into at the times you want to get into it. If you're super flexible on when you eat dinner and you don't mind, there's no restaurant that you're like, I got to eat there.
[00:49:43] Speaker C: Or you don't care which night. Yeah.
[00:49:45] Speaker B: Or you don't care which night, which, then it's, it's fine. We have tended not to do the dining package because we're able to then book all of our reservations in advance, know exactly which nights and when we're going and all that sort of stuff.
[00:49:57] Speaker C: We also worked with.
[00:49:58] Speaker B: Very different thing than Disney.
[00:49:59] Speaker C: Yeah, I think with one of the, so the two of the two sellings we've done, I think we should have done the dining package on one of them, but we didn't really know. We had added on specialty dining kind of a last minute, so we didn't really know.
[00:50:14] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, let's get to entertainment because that's like, you know, royal is a very different entertainment experience. So this is the Aqua theater. I can tell already what's the theme of the Aqua show and how was it?
[00:50:26] Speaker A: Aqua eighties and it was great.
[00:50:29] Speaker C: This is Aqua Eighties too, right? Yeah.
[00:50:32] Speaker A: Or, yeah, I loved Aqua eighties. I was like, the dancing was so good. The music is so fun. There's like, disco ball comes in, everybody's like, jamming.
[00:50:45] Speaker C: I will tell you, Nathan loves eighties music now because of Aqua 80.
[00:50:49] Speaker A: He was like, yeah, I thought it was so fun. I mean, if you're expecting like, a plot line and a story, that's not what you're getting. But it doesn't matter because the dancing and the stunts are, like, so freaking cool that you don't need a story because you're just like, mesmerizing to the music. Yeah. Yeah. It was really fun.
Beware if you're sitting in the front couple of rows, you might get wet.
[00:51:14] Speaker C: Yeah. Oh, yeah. With any of the aqua shows, they actually have, like, it's pretty clearly marked. And so you'll see the first, the first, like three rows will be empty when they let in, like, the early entry folks, which are any suite class folks. And that's on purpose because the people in the front several rows get splashed with water, and you will be, like, soaked. I'm not.
[00:51:37] Speaker B: They love to do that move where they, like, kick the water out.
[00:51:40] Speaker C: Yes. And they do it on purpose. Yeah, they do it on purpose. So, I mean, there are people who like to sit down there, and there are definitely kids who want to sit down there, but in general. Yeah, I don't. I don't want to sit down there because I don't want to be wet when it's, like, nighttime. Yeah. Although it's warm in the Caribbean.
[00:51:55] Speaker A: And, yeah, we were. We were quite warm that night, so, honestly, wouldn't mind a little splash from the water. But my tip for this is we grabbed some espresso martinis from out there on the boardwalk, and we saw some people, we had them in our martini glasses. We're, like, you know, balancing our way down into the stands, but we saw some people who had them put the espresso martini in, like, a normal glass.
[00:52:19] Speaker C: Very smart.
[00:52:20] Speaker A: That would be my wreck.
[00:52:21] Speaker C: Pro tip.
[00:52:22] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:52:23] Speaker C: Pro tip.
[00:52:24] Speaker B: All right. This is the balloon drop that they, they love to do.
This is the promenade, basically. So I'm assuming we're going to find pizza, some coke. Coke, freestyle machines, some sort of a pub, some sort of a carrier.
Yeah, all that.
[00:52:43] Speaker A: All of that. Yeah. Same kind of vibe as any other promenade space. You got your schooner bar on the second story there. You got your, um, irish pub, Sorrento's pizza, um, which was solid. It wasn't the best pizza I've ever had, but, um, we got on the ship and we were just absolutely starving. We flew in that morning and we, um, were handed a glass of champagne when we got on, and we sat right down at Sorrento's and had a slice of pizza and it hit the spot.
[00:53:08] Speaker C: So, I mean, I feel like the perfect meal is either champagne with french fries or champagne with pizza.
[00:53:15] Speaker A: I agree. It was great. But, yeah, this was the balloon drop on the first night at midnight. It felt like new year.
[00:53:21] Speaker B: I gotta say, you just lost all credit. From a food critic perspective, it's a great pairing.
[00:53:28] Speaker A: Honestly.
[00:53:29] Speaker C: It is. It's a great pairing. I don't know what you're talking about, Brian.
[00:53:33] Speaker A: I think the pro can say that, too, honestly, so.
But, yeah, something I wanted to highlight about this ship is because it's the utopia, the three and four night cruises, they're calling it the world's biggest weekend. And the vibe of the ship, even if the spaces are not super different from other Oasis class ships, it's very much more of, like, a weekend party vibe. And I think they do it in a classy way. I don't think it's like, you know, just people who want a booze cruise. I think the vibe is more like, hey, you're here to just have, like, a really fun weekend and you might leave exhausted because you're partying all weekend, but you're going to have a great time.
So this was the midnight party drop. They actually had a party starting at 01:00 a.m. after this balloon drop. I think they called it Royal Kappa Theta or something like that. It was like a fraternity themed party thing.
[00:54:31] Speaker B: Find on Disney cruise line party starting at 01:00 a.m. or a fraternity theme party.
[00:54:35] Speaker C: I can't rock and roll all day. I can only rock and roll part of.
[00:54:41] Speaker B: I can't rock and roll a night and party every day. I can only part of the day.
[00:54:47] Speaker A: I'm the same way. I really wanted to make it to that because I thought it was hilarious and I wanted to check it out. But I had an espresso martini at like, ten during that aqua 80 show and I thought that would carry me through. But after this balloon drop, I was ready to go to bed.
[00:55:03] Speaker B: Okay, but. But be honest. Your mom stayed out the whole night, came dragging in at 06:00 and I'm like, we know you, Karen. We know what you were doing.
[00:55:14] Speaker A: I was like, I'm going to bed. She's like, I'm ready to roll.
[00:55:16] Speaker C: I'm ready to party.
[00:55:19] Speaker A: No, no, we. You know. Yeah, we had to get our sleep, so. But if that's your vibe, then there's like, totally. We went just for a minute to look at it. I think I put a picture in there of one of the dance parties that started, like, right after. Yeah. So, I mean, this is before anyone was really in there. But we went kind of straight there to check it out and then go to bed when we left.
[00:55:39] Speaker C: This is the ice skating rink, right?
[00:55:41] Speaker A: And they turned it into, like, a nightclub. And they had the bar out, a DJ. And when we left, there was a line, like, down the promenade of people waiting to get in because they were checking ages to make sure people were 18.
[00:55:54] Speaker C: They're checking ids at the club at the bounty.
[00:55:59] Speaker A: A really cool vibe. Like way cooler than. Yeah. Virgin voyages. Light. Totally, like, very similar to something they would do, especially with this kind of red theme. So.
And then.
[00:56:09] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, the red theme in particular.
[00:56:11] Speaker B: Right.
[00:56:12] Speaker A: The second night they had a white part party where everyone dressed in all white and they had, like, music and stuff in the atrium one of the other nights, they had decades, like, countdown through the decades party also kind of in the atrium. They were pumping music throughout. So definitely lots going on in terms of entertainment, things to do other than nightlife, other than casino, which I think is important that if casino is not really your thing, there's still places to hang out and dance and.
[00:56:44] Speaker C: Yeah, now, you mentioned, I know this was a preview cruise, so we're going to have less kids, but there were things for families, activities for families and kids as well. I'm presuming. I mean, that royal seems to hit both, I think, pretty well and hitting the family aspect, but also hitting this adult only aspect.
[00:57:06] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. They had other, like, family friendly shows. They had the ice skating show that we didn't make it to. They had one other kind of variety show that I'm not really sure what the theming was on that. And then the Aqua 80 show, they have the escape room, the wave. Is it the wave runner? Wave rider.
[00:57:24] Speaker C: Oh, the flow rider. Yeah.
Do they have a Broadway style show? I mean, I know, like, we had Mamma Mia and cats on some of the other ships. Do they have a show on this ship?
[00:57:36] Speaker A: They did not have it on our three night. It's possible. Maybe on the longer sailing they have one, but I'm not sure. Thoughts if they're doing that on this ship?
[00:57:46] Speaker C: Yeah. I don't know. Because it is a shorter sail. It is shorter sailings. I'm going to. I'm going to look that up.
[00:57:51] Speaker A: Yeah, we got it. We got to know that for sure.
[00:57:55] Speaker B: I'm looking at it right now. You got Aqua 80 to 100.
They talk about shows including, let's see, Aqua 80, Royal Railway, which you talked about, Battle of the sexes, which is a game show utopia, which is the ice skating show, and, oh, all in a high tech Royal theater original production is what it's called, so I'm guessing.
[00:58:18] Speaker C: It'S more of a Broadway style show. Okay.
[00:58:23] Speaker A: I think that's the show that we didn't. One of the shows that we didn't make it to. Yeah.
[00:58:28] Speaker C: I mean, you only have three nights, so you're not gonna hit everything.
[00:58:32] Speaker A: Right. There's. You gotta pick and choose sometimes when there's lots to do, but it's nice that there's lots to do and there's options, so.
[00:58:39] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:58:39] Speaker B: Well, I will wrap us up because we promised Leah we would keep ourselves to an hour, and I want to make sure we stick to that. She's got a very early warning tomorrow, so I want to thank you for coming. On Leah and sharing, I want to say to our listeners and those folks viewing, if you want to watch this on YouTube, after, if you're listening on the podcast channel, you can head over to YouTube and see all the fabulous photos we've been sharing. Royal Caribbean is a great alternative option to Disney Cruise line. It is not Disney Cruise line. So you're not going to find Disney Cruise line replicated someplace else with, you know, cheaper fares and, you know, all that sort of stuff. So Royal Caribbean is a very different experience. I think it's an interesting experience to have in the arsenal. I know Nathan has. He enjoys it. He likes Coco key.
You know, he likes some of the activities on board the ship, like the flow rider, but it is a very different experience. There's a lot more people. It's a different dining experience with all of the specialty restaurants on board. There's a lot of choices you can make there. It's a different island experience.
It's a different ship experience. I think the service on Royal is good. I've never found it to be on par with Disney.
So I think if you're individuals who are individuals, there are always individuals in every place that go above and beyond. But I will say on Disney Cruise Line, we've had many, many people go well above and beyond what they needed to do to make us happy and done. Little touches of madness. I've. I've. I'm sure it's happening on royal. Much like I've said, you know, I don't ever really see it universal. Like those moments we see that constantly get recorded and put out about Disney interactions in the parks. I'm sure that they happen. I just don't know that they happen as often. And so, you know, it is just, I'm just highlighting it is a different experience, but it is a lot less experience or a lot less expensive in many cases than a Disney cruise. I don't know the specific pricing on Utopia. So if you're interested in, you know, exploring Royal Caribbean as an option for your family. Family, you want to understand pricing, you want to know what it costs to go in the utopia this season, or the icon, which is the much bigger version of these Oasis class ships. You should absolutely reach out to our friends over at mypath unwinding travel and get that information. You can head over there to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or you can email
[email protected] dot and they can help you out with that information. For now, I want to thank Leah for coming, coming on. And last but not least, I want to remind you we'll be back tomorrow night, 05:00 Pacific 08:00 p.m. eastern. The fun begins tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. eastern. 07:00 a.m. pacific as we are expecting. We don't know what it's going to look like, but the way it's been suggested, we think it's going to be kind of just a nonstop three days of Disney Destiny releases. And so we will be back tomorrow with our friend CT from tinfoil Mouse to talk about what we learned on day one and what we expect out of days two and three. We will have an episode that Sam and I are going to be recording over the three days of our kind of live reactions to some of the announcements as they're coming out. And then on Thursday, we will be back again live this week. 05:00 p.m. pacific 08:00 p.m. eastern to talk about what we hope will be a day that we get itineraries for the destiny so we can talk about some of the pricing and we will have Chelsea joining us from my path unwinding on that show to help talk us through some of the itineraries and where the destiny is headed when the maiden voyages you can book. So we'll be back tomorrow night. Thanks everyone out there for watching. Thank you layer for joining us and have a great night everybody. We really, really appreciate you.
[01:02:10] Speaker D: 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.
[01:02:23] Speaker B: And if you want to watch us.
[01:02:24] Speaker D: 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 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 sponsor, Mypath Unwinding travel. If you want to book your next Disney vacation, head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email
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[01:03:08] Speaker B: Full catalog of the podcast episodes, including.
[01:03:11] Speaker D: A searchable catalog for the podcast links off to our vlog, a link to 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] 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 direct or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL duo.
