[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, so, as you both know, Bibbidi Bobby boutique is amazing and excellent. It does take a hit on the wallet, right?
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: And so, thankfully, the day that the kids did Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique, you're in the presence of a minor celebrity right now. I won. Bingo.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:00:28] Speaker C: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DC L duo podcast that's brought to you by my path unwinding travel. And Sam, we have another review this week. It comes from Marseille Marie. I really hope she lives in France, because that just needs to happen. But Marseille Marie, who writes like a vacation in your car or at work? My kids and I love listening to Sam, Bryan and all their interesting guests. I particularly enjoy how inclusive the show is and the range of guests and their experiences. While we still have nearly a year before our cruise, I enjoy all the trip reports as well as the other cruise line reviews and insider tips. Thanks for the high quality content. I look forward to listening to more episodes ahead of our crew as well. We appreciate the review, Marseille Marie, and we're glad you're enjoying the content out there. Sam, anything you want to.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: I love it. I actually want to ask our guest if Brian's pronouncing that correctly, because our guest is a Canadian and Brian's trying to pronounce french.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: Je Parlempois. Don't know too much of the french.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Well, that's a good segue to introducing our guest today. He's a first time guest to the show. He is a first sort of first time cruiser to Disney cruise line as he sailed on the big red boat many, many years ago. But we're excited to welcome another canadian to our show. Welcome to the show, Rob.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Thanks, guys. Excited to be here and tell you my story. It was a fun time on both the big red boat and the Disney fantasy.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, so before we talk about your cruise, your first cruise on what is now the Disney cruise line, we gotta ask you about your Disney background. And obviously I previewed you've been on the big red boat, but have you sailed on other cruise lines beyond that one experience?
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Not really, no. I feel like I did maybe three days on a greek cruise, like 15 years ago. A kon tiki. You know, one of the youth travel things.
[00:02:20] Speaker B: I did one of those, too.
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. It was like a land and then. And then a big sea.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: I did the exact same thing, Robin. Hilarious.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe we were on the same cruise. Knows? It was 2008, I think was the year that mine was.
[00:02:34] Speaker B: 2002. Fair enough to say that's how old I am.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: A few years apart. A few years apart, yeah. And then, other than that, had done a big red boat for three days as part of one family trip to Disney World when I was, I think six and eight were the two trips we made as a family as a kid. Went a few times as an adult to Disney World. I remember one year we had a conference in Orlando, Wrestlemania in Orlando and Disney World. So we packed. We were in an Airbnb for, like, two weeks going to all of these, you know, wonderful things. And then since my kids have been born and Maisie and Trevor are six and three, they're quite spoiled. Maisie is six years old. We live in another country, and half her life has been spent in a pandemic. But she has been to Disney World five times, so she's very, very lucky little girl. But we hadn't done a Disney cruise proper yet prior to this one.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, what made you decide that a Disney cruise was going to be the vacation for your family? I mean, you've got a six year old and three year old. Those are, of course, perfect Disney ages. But what made you decide to switch from, like, a parks vacation to trying out the cruise line?
[00:03:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think the inclusion on this is funny, that this is my most immediate reaction. The kids club, I think, was, it was a big part of it of, like, we don't need to have everybody go, go, go all the time, and we can sort of, you know, breathe a little bit. I'm a big theater buff, and so the idea of some live theater while you're at sea was, was very compelling as well. And I'll be honest, like, we, it's not an either. I think it's an and rather than an or. Right. We actually just did, we did the parks in November and probably will fit another one in this year. Maybe nothing's booked yet. So it's, it's now a question of, man, do we have, do we have two? Like, do we do the cruise and the parks every year all the way from Canada? We'll see.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: But, yeah, well, I mean, you can always back to back them, of course. Like, there is no formal land and sea like they used to have with the packages, but you can make your own land and sea, of course.
[00:04:30] Speaker A: That's good. That's a good point. But these are exhausting trips, you know, and, and that's one maybe sort of immediate reaction I had was, man, every, everybody says these cruises are so relaxing. I don't know if I'm just so FOMo chasing that.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: I'm. You're bad at relaxing, Rob.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: I am bad at relaxing. And so I. I mean, spoiler alert. We love the cruise. It was awesome, but it was quite exhausting. And so the prospect of going to Disney for six days afterwards was, you know, a little intimidating. Maybe. Maybe when they're over.
[00:04:59] Speaker C: Never do it after. Always do it before.
[00:05:01] Speaker A: Fair enough. Yeah.
[00:05:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:04] Speaker B: But I'm with you, Rob. I am bad at relaxing myself, so I'm always exhausted after Cruz, as well. I think. I think Brian is better at relaxing than I am, and I don't think he's that great at it either, to be perfectly honest. He's better at, like, editing a podcast.
[00:05:19] Speaker C: On the ship isn't relaxing.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: Right. That's what I'm saying. He will sit by the pool or, you know, in the COVID cafe or something like that, but he's. He'll be editing the podcast, whereas I'm running around from activity to activity.
[00:05:31] Speaker A: The Wi Fi is so strong on board. How could you not try and get some work done, right?
[00:05:35] Speaker C: I mean, I have uploaded a show from the ship. Did it take half of a day? Yes, it did. But we made it happen. Yeah.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: First world problems, right? I think that's the worst thing of it. It could be worse, right?
[00:05:48] Speaker B: That's right. Right. And, you know, we have to. We do it all for our listeners. Come on. All right, well, let's start with the booking process and the choosing a particular cruise. You were booking spring break for you all, which is in March. Right.
Was it just the dates, or was there something about the itinerary that made you choose the fantasy seven night western Caribbean?
[00:06:12] Speaker A: I'd say mostly the dates, to be honest. Maisie is now in grade one, first grade, and so the prospect of missing. We do travel a lot, and so she has missed a lot of school, and we had already done Disney and pulled her out of school for the November trip. Right. So it's like, you know, we wanted to try and corral around some time off. I will say that we booked it, at least, I want to say maybe June or July prior. So, like, you know, nine months in advance, which is odd for us. Usually we're sort of fly by the seat of your pants book last minute, but we wanted. I don't know, we wanted something to look forward to. That was part of it. I think it was nice to have this and, you know, watch the. Watch the videos, watch the, you know, promotional stuff and, you know, kill time on a Saturday of, like, hey, here's what we can look forward to. Right. We know during bedtime we would get in the habit of like, oh, can we watch cruise videos? Can we watch cruise videos of, of having something to look forward to. So, yeah, it was very much the date and the time felt, felt right. I think, you know, I'm sure a three or four day cruise would be lovely, but seven kind of felt not too, too long, not too short. And we've done, you know, some of the caribbean islands before and, of course, been to Mexico before. But I think it was really more. It was, frankly, more about the cruise than it was about the destinations that we were going to.
[00:07:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, let's talk about the planning process. You know, you booked, you said nine months in advance, so that's plenty of time to plan. Watch a lot of YouTube videos. That's a great way. I think that's always a good, you know, if you want to prepare your kids especially for, like, what they're going to see, what they're going to be doing. I know some people want to keep it all a surprise. Others are more of the mindset of let's watch everything we can. I think others are somewhere in between, but, yeah, what kinds of, what kinds of things did you do to prepare, you know, to figure out, like, for example, are you going to do shore excursions? Are you going to do them through Disney? Are you going to do them, you know, through a third party or on your own? Were there, like, resources that you looked at to help with that?
[00:08:02] Speaker A: Yeah, a little bit. A little bit. Some of the videos, I'll be honest, a lot of the videos were almost just more getting the kids excited and sort of, you know, frankly, getting ourselves listening to you guys was certainly a part of it as well. I will say, though, one, one, I mean, not snag, but our cruise, I think our booking window was, I want to say, 75 days for, like, all the, all the stuff. Wouldn't you know it? 75 days prior to March 9 is Christmas Day. And so we got a little bit of what we wanted, but, you know, a lot of the, a lot of the, like, mojito tastings and, you know, some of the more popular things, I mean, clearly would have been booked anyway, but we had presents to open from Santa Claus, and so we weren't, you know, waking up at the crack of dawn to book things on Christmas. Like we perhaps we should have. So good lesson for next time. And now we get the slightly earlier booking as well, so.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we try to tell people, you know, the concierge and pearl and platinum are going to take a lot or book up a lot of that stuff, but a lot of the times people book a ton of stuff and then drop it later so things become available or, you know, Disney holds back a lot of the inventory so that you can book stuff on board as well. So there's, you know, it's not, you're not at a total loss if you're a new cruiser and you don't get something that you want. There is a chance, although it's not 100% chance, but there's, I think, a decent chance you'll be able to get what you want later on.
[00:09:22] Speaker A: I will tell one quick story on an error I made that hopefully others won't. I think I was used to Disney World where it's, you know, you have to pay 60 days in advance, something like that. And for our tier, that deadline passed me by and we get the email of, oh, sorry, your cruise is canceled. And so foolishly, foolishly, I then at like 630 in the morning on a Saturday, went and booked another cruise and I called in once the office opened at like 09:00 and they said, you should not have done that. We could have just reactivated your old one if you had waited two and a half hours to do that. But pay for the cruise, make sure to remember to do that and not have it get cancelled on you because as a result, our early dining time was full for the second time and so we had to go on for the late and get on the waitlist for the early. Thankfully, we got the early, which was a good fit for our family, but we almost lost out on it because dad did not pay the bill on time.
[00:10:15] Speaker B: Yes. Pay attention to that pay in full date people, because they will automatically cancel your cruise. Good to know that. They said that they will actually reactivate your booking because the other thing that can change is the price. So the price can go up significantly between when you originally booked. I mean, there's very tiny, small chance it could go down, but generally speaking, the price is going up.
And so, yeah, you want to make sure you have that locked in price and the locked in, whether it's activities or dining time or things like that. Let's talk about, we know something not so great happened while you were awaiting your cruise. Why don't you tell us about that and how that impacted your planning and contact with Disney prior to the cruise.
[00:10:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So our cruise, of course, was in March of 2024 and in November of 2023, I do a little bit of teaching at a university just around here. And of course, in Canada, this university does not celebrate American Thanksgiving like our family does. My wife is from upstate New York, and so she was. And I, we were headed to the US for American Thanksgiving, but I traveled separately because I was teaching in Canada on Thanksgiving Day. And so we had two separate vehicles in the US. And then, unfortunately, coming back, I had gotten back a few hours prior, but then 20 minutes from home on a three and a half hour drive, unfortunately, I understand there was a medical episode from a driver in the other lane on the freeway who had this medical episode and crossed over the middle of the, you know, 70 miles an hour freeway and hit my wife and her Kia Tellaride and the two children in the back head on. And it was pretty rough.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: Terrifying.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: It was pretty rough. Yeah. I got the text and call from a stranger on the road, and turns out everybody was okay. Fine is probably a stretch, but okay. And so, spent nine nights at a children's hospital with my daughter. My wife broke her leg, you know, in a couple of places, and it was really hard. Not so good, but all of better now, I think, is the headline. And certainly I could talk about the accident for an hour, but no good for anybody there. Everybody's doing well now. And it really was. Honestly, having the cruise to look forward to was like a nice, you know, you know, light in the distance of a very dark tunnel. But my daughter was largely back to normal in about a month or two. Right. Like, she was. Was good to go. But as it related to the cruise, really, the challenge was, was my wife, who broke both parts of the leg and her ankle as well. So this is like mid November, right? And we're set to sail in early March. And, you know, we're super smart people who think travel insurance is a waste of money and didn't bother to get any of that. Right.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: I love your sarcasm there. Right.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: But although we did get the good insurance on the car, and so that the car was a total write off, but we got the new replacement value, so we do make some good insurance decisions. Thankfully, though, and I really have to give Disney credit on this, we didn't end up using any of this, right. Because the recovery was quick enough that we didn't need to. They basically told us up until 24, 48 hours, even though you did not buy anything special because of the nature of what happened to you guys, you know, completely no fault, near death, in hospital, et cetera, kids involved. I think the ultimate outcome would have been we would have lost, like, maybe $300 a person or something like that.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: Your deposit basically much.
[00:13:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And up until about a week or so before, like, it was a very, very, very liberal policy that they sort of noted on the account of like, you guys focus on getting better, let us know what you need to do prior. And granted, I think that would have been a credit. Right. Like it would have been a credit to a future cruise rather than a full refund, but that they went above and beyond as far as I'm concerned in that regard. But one thing we did do that it looks like insurance has been able to pay for, so hooray. We were booked for the. And you guys don't know the exact terminology better than I, but one of the veranda rooms, six. Six deck, one of the, just the sort of standard veranda room, so much bigger to begin with. But they were able to get us into the accessible version of that, which we did in, I think we booked in like December or so and it was another thousand dollars or so for it. And thankfully insurance was able to cover that because we weren't sure. Right. Like, are we bringing a wheelchair on board? Like we don't know what recovery is going to look like three months down the road.
[00:14:32] Speaker B: Right. Do you need. Does she need a wheelchair? Does she need a walker? Does she need some kind of assistive device for getting around on the show? Yeah. Or a scooter or whatever? Yeah, there's a whole bunch of different options and you just don't know in November what march is going to look like.
[00:14:47] Speaker A: Exactly. Exactly. And so I really do give them credit for being very accommodating on that. Don't know if you guys have stayed in the accessible room. It's huge, which is awesome.
[00:14:55] Speaker B: It's huge. We've never stayed in it. I've seen them. I was invited by a listener and friend of the show, Vanessa and Andrew. Andrew uses a wheelchair, a motorized wheelchair. And so they always stay in an accessible stateroom. They, she showed me their accessible stateroom with, was also a veranda. It was ginormous, like it was. Yeah. And the bathroom was great. I mean, with the wheel in, like to get in the shower. It's all one level in that bathroom so that there's no stepping in over something into a shower. Yeah. Fantastic room. Yeah.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: The only, and even to call it a snag is not accurate, but the door opens and closes by itself. Right. And so if you are leaving the room, you have to wait for the door to close or sort of make it halfway down the hall and then look and make sure. That it's closed or jam against it with all your might to shut it. So that was the only thing with the door, but can't complain otherwise.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and that's like a really good feature for people who use wheelchairs, right? Sure. Because those, especially in cruise ships, those doors are super, super heavy. And so there are actually quite a few cruise lines that have rooms that are considered accessible but don't have that technology.
And it's kind of a problem because somebody, depending upon what the person's disability is, right. They may or may not be able to pull open that, you know, that door. So, yeah, it's a great technology, but you're right, it requires you to wait and make sure your door actually closes behind you. Yeah, well, I think that's great. I mean, that's great. It's not great to hear about the accident. You know, I'm sure it was traumatic and awful for you, of course, your wife and the kids. But I'm super happy and grateful to hear how Disney handled it has been similar with, you know, when I got quarantined on the, on the ship and getting Covid back in 2021, the way that Disney handled things was just top of the line. I can't complain about. About it whatsoever, except for the men in turvus suits following me with the antibacterial suit.
Tyvek's Tyvek suits. Sorry, not Turvus. Turvis is the cup. Tyvek is.
[00:17:03] Speaker C: They're being kept hot and cold at the same time.
[00:17:06] Speaker B: Thank you. But anyway, those timings. No, because it was just like a funny, weird moment. Right, of course. But, yeah, I think people, you know, when something happens, you gotta call Disney. And generally speaking, I mean, it's gonna. You're gonna have to wait for it to get escalated. It's not gonna be the first person you talk to. That customer service person has no power to do anything. But once you get escalated to that next level or the level above that, there are a lot of accommodations that Disney is generally willing to make and dealing with Disney special services if there's any sort of disabilities, and they can help with arranging for accommodations in advance as well. So it's, I think, a really important thing for people to know that just cause you're told no at the first level of customer service doesn't necessarily mean that's the end of the road when you have it happen.
[00:17:56] Speaker C: Also, let's just be reasonable out there. Okay? Let's be reasonable. There are plenty of instances where. Yeah, this is a good instance where Disney leaned in and did the right thing. I frankly think it would have been a horrible look if they had been like, we're charging you the whole cruise fare and you can't cancel, but, you know, there's other inconveniences that we can experience that you shouldn't expect Disney to really do much about. So. Yes.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well, so let's, let's talk about then. You, you guys are flying, of course, down for the cruise. Where did you, where did you stay before the cruise? You're obviously going out of Port Canaveral. Did you stay in Orlando or did you stay down in Cocoa beach? What did you, what was your, what were your accommodations?
[00:18:36] Speaker A: Yeah. And so we, we made the, I would say, rare decision, actually, to get in two days early. And so the, the cruise was, was departing Saturday. We got in Thursday, took private transport to, to Port Canaveral and stayed, I think it was called the Radisson at the port for two nights. It was interesting. The, the Margaritaville cruises were all boarding from there as well. So we had some good, my daughter calls them Ricky Tikkis. That's, that's what daddy enjoys. So we had some Ricky Tikkis with the older crew that were getting ready for their, their margaritaville departure there and Linda partying it up until, you know, 06:00 in the afternoon. But it was, it was a very busy resort or busy hotel. But I enjoyed it. I actually really did enjoy it. And I think I would go back. There were some good dining options walkable from there since we didn't have a car. And one thing we did just on the Friday, the kids are young enough and we wanted a day to breathe, so we didn't make it out to the, to the space center. But I am a big wizard of Oz aficionado. I was part of the International wizard of Oz club as a kid. And so there is a, there is a very small wizard of Oz museum in Port Canaveral that I just give a big recommendation to. It's small. Like, it's just a quick, you know, hour to hour attraction. But we enjoyed it quite a bit. And they had some neat merch merchandise there.
[00:19:50] Speaker C: I have never heard of this.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:52] Speaker C: Never heard of this. No one has ever brought this.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: I love this.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: This is, it's in a random strip mall. I think it's like next to a dry cleaner or something. And, yeah, it was like a, it was like a, you know, seven, eight dollar uber from the hotel and, you know, not worth driving to Port Canaveral for but worth an hour or two if you're trying to kill some time. So we really enjoyed it.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Awesome. I will tell you, I was terrified of the wizard of Oz when I was a child, so I, like, I was definitely not a part of the wizard of Oz Club because that witch was, like, the scariest thing to me on the face of the planet. And the flying monkeys were terrifying.
[00:20:28] Speaker A: You gotta read the books. People don't realize there were 14 books. It was like the Harry Potter of our time back then, and so they weren't maybe quite as terrifying as the movie.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: Okay, fair enough. I don't think I've read, like, the wizard of Oz, but I have read Wicked. So I, you know, because I'm a big fan, and I'm a big fan of that musical, so I've only seen it six times.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: We're taking. We're taking Maisie for her. She should be seven in August. We're going to take her for the first time.
[00:20:53] Speaker B: Well, I was going to say it's. I know the national tour is. Because it's coming. It's in. It's coming to Seattle for our season. It's a season add on. And because I've already seen it, I didn't buy tickets, but now you're making me think I should.
[00:21:06] Speaker A: Well, the movie's coming, too. You know that. That'll be around the corner.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Fair. Fair. All right, well, so let's. Let's talk about boarding the ship. Obviously, you're taking an Uber to the port from your hotel, which is probably. Or is there a shuttle service?
[00:21:20] Speaker A: There was a shuttle. Yeah, there was a shuttle, and I give them credit. There were many, many, many people and many, many shuttles, and a lot of coordinating to be done there at the hotel.
It was about as stress free as it could have been on the way out. We can talk about the way back in on the way, on the end if we like, but it was relatively straightforward. We did not book the port arrival time very early, and so we were right at the tail end. It was totally empty when we got there. Our room was ready when we got on, which I think actually was a good thing for us. I know a lot of people say, get on there early and, you know, be able to ride the slide before, you know, it's crowded. But I think for us, it actually was a positive thing that we got on and immediately were able to go to the.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I think that's good. Especially on a seven night, it's a little bit less of a rush. Right. I think on a three or four night, you're, like, trying to pack in everything every single day. And so that port arrival time is maybe more important on the shorter cruise. Well, what was the impression, your first impression when you all get to the port and the kids see the ship for the first time? You see the ship for the first time. Other than, of course, videos that you.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: Had seen prior, it was pretty cool. It was pretty cool. I mean, you can see it in the distance as you're coming over, and it was. I mean, sounds kind of stupid, but it's really big, and you don't realize how big it is till you're there. I think the fact that the port was empty, like, relaxed us a little bit. Right. Like, we were able to take our time. We were able to look around, able to take some pictures. It's not like it was a line or anything like that to get on. And I think that helped them kind of breathe and digest and sort of appreciate the magnitude of the moment. I think we did the picture stop on the way in and stuff, so, no, it was cool to sort of see them, know about it and then actually, oh, like, this is what it's like when we're actually on the.
[00:23:08] Speaker C: There.
[00:23:08] Speaker A: Whereas they've been to Disney so many times that that's. That's impossible now. Right. Like, they know what to expect there.
[00:23:13] Speaker B: Right. It's. Seeing Mickey is not that exciting anymore because they've seen Mickey five times, right?
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: Or more. Well, how was the actual, you know, boarding, and you've, you know, your family name is announced, and you're standing in the atrium of the beautiful Disney fantasy. How. How did that feel? Did it have a wow moment, or was it just a. Oh, I know this was coming.
[00:23:33] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think we were right at the tail end, I think, of people getting on, and so it, you know, the cast was great, right? Like, clapping and exciting, but, you know, it wasn't like there was a, you know, a lot of other people there. And so, you know, maybe that was, like, slightly underwhelming of what we had expected, but the ship itself was awesome to see, and, you know, it was wonderful to get on board. So overall, really positive. The only. The only, like, maybe minor negative. And I'm sure this isn't Disney explicitly, but we had one security person that was, like, really maybe not the most pleasant to deal with and, like, you know, didn't want stuff in the bag. Like, wanted everything in the bag. And we're like, well, no, we've got a bunch of different bags and, kid, we want to just put it in the little bucket to go through security. And she didn't like that. So that was the only, like, kind of, you know, and you let you roll with it and whatever. It's not a big deal.
[00:24:22] Speaker C: But my biggest pet peeve right now, not at Disney security, but at the airport security, because we have the TSA pre check. We go through the line with, like, do not take anything out of your bag. And I'm coming through with a backpack that has a laptop, a tablet, and, like, you know, camera equipment. So it's like, stacked electronics. And I know this is going to cause a problem. And one out of three times, I have to take my bag out and rerun it, and one out of every five times, I have to take my bag out of the rerun and open it. And so I just come down. I, like, start to take my laptop and, like, keep it in the bag.
This is going to be so much faster if they just let me take it out of the bag. So, yeah, I share your. I share your pain.
[00:25:00] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, different security people want different things, so it's just. It's frustrating because there's not actual consistency across. Yeah, across different.
[00:25:09] Speaker C: My favorite was our TSA experience a few months ago where the guy was literally pulling, like, every other bag out, scanning, and I was like, oh, this is going to be a long day.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: It was the slowest line, of course, we picked. It looked like the shortest line, but it was the slowest line. So now we know better. Okay, so let's talk about your ports before we start talking about the onboard stuff. You had four ports of. I don't remember the order, except I know castaways last. But what was your. I know you went to Cozumel, grand Cayman in Jamaica. What were the. What, is that the right order?
[00:25:42] Speaker A: Yes, I believe it is.
Bingo. Right? You guys are good. We did Cozumel first, and we had booked through Disney shore activities for each day. Generally just the, you know, get on a bus and go see, go to a beach, go to a resort sort of stuff. Right. Pretty. Pretty basic with the age of the kids, not to mention, you know, my wife's condition. And we ended up cancel. I'm kind of going holistically here, but we ended up canceling only one of them just for Grand Cayman. We needed a breather. Like, we needed the data just. And we got off the ship and explored a little bit and took an hour or two in the shops, but that helped break up the week a little bit better because we were. We were pretty, pretty beat after. After the first one. But Cozumel, we did that. I think the Cozumel beach break was what it was called. And it was great. It was great. I felt like, you know, maybe we could have had a little bit more time. But that said, the kids are young enough that. But I think we got out of them. We wore them out with the time that we were there. Right.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: Is a three year old still a napper?
[00:26:38] Speaker A: No, no, he's not like his sister. I mean, he will by need here and there, but I mean, he will be four in June. So he's on the older end, but no, he runs his little heart out till.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: Wow. Yeah. I've always feel like that's. But you're right, a shorter beach excursion is not necessarily a bad thing at that age because they do kind of wear themselves out and, you know, there's also, like, only so much sunscreen you can put on them.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: Well, and I made the mistake one day. I think I had every bit of me covered except my back. And then you were a lobster. So focused on the kids. I was a bit of a lobster for the next couple of days.
[00:27:17] Speaker B: Yeah, of course. Okay, so decent excursion at Cozumel. You then are at Jamaica for your second. Your second port excursion.
[00:27:26] Speaker A: And we did a similar, similar sort of thing. I think it was. It was. They bring you to a private resort that's got a beach and a pool and serves you food and. Yeah, I think we. We made, Maisie made a couple of little friends, two sisters, one slightly older, one slightly younger that we saw in Cozumel and we saw again in. In Jamaica. And so that was. That was a nice part of it. We exchanged some contact information with them and, you know, kept running into them on the ship. So that was. That was cool.
[00:27:51] Speaker B: Awesome. And then you said you canceled Grand Cayman. I'm not. Not surprised in the sense. Not that there's anything wrong with Grand Cayman. I actually have never been there, but just in the sense that people don't realize, like, how full your days are. And so if you even on a seven day cruise, you might want more downtime or more time to explore the ship. Tell us what was sort of the deciding factor in canceling that shore excursion.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: I think that was it. We had done the cozumel on the Monday, and then Grand Cayman was set for the Tuesday, and we knew we had yet another beach break on Wednesday in Jamaica. And honestly, the other thing, I don't want to skip ahead too much, but I think Tuesday was pirate day. And so we had booked the kids at Bibbidi Bobbity boutique, and the only slot that was free was the morning. And so we had gotten in for pirate day in the morning, and they're like, oh, are you sure you don't want to come back? Like, we might be able to now. Let's just do it now. Right? Let's. Let's. Let's do it now. And so the idea of then, and this was our thinking before, was like, well, we're going to get them nice, expensive pirate costume. Pirate it up, and then take. No, let's go to a beach excursion.
[00:28:55] Speaker B: That seems crazy. Yeah. Because then all the makeup and stuff is washed off and whatever you paid for is just kind of wasted and said they could be pirates the whole day. Exactly.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: So I love it. Good idea. Okay, well, I have to talk about castaway because castaway tends to be not always, but tends to be the highlight, I think, for a lot of people. As far as ports go. What did you guys. Did you plan anything for castaway and what did you end up doing at Castaway?
[00:29:22] Speaker A: Not really on the planning. Most of it was. I mean, I think we had booked the, like, the water bikes prior and most of the, you know, heavier duty stuff had been booked up at that point. But I would concur. I think it was. It was the highlight of the trip. It was. It was awesome to be on there. I would, you know, there's a way we could go two days there or something. Like, even something like, you know, the kids. You talk about FoMo, it's like, the kids love the cot, like the castaway kids club, but also love the beach and love this and that. The only. The only snag on there was, I think we had booked. We must not have booked the bike in advance because Trevor was not old enough to do the bike, but we had paid for it. And I'm like, I'm not gonna, like, I'm not gonna, you know, take ten minutes to get $10 back or $20 back or whatever it was, right? But I felt bad. Cause he was, like, loaded up and on there, and then somebody's like, oh, how old is he? And he's. Well, he's three, so. But he went back to the beach with mummy and had a good time. So, you know, you roll with all.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Of it, but, yeah, that's a bummer. So I wonder if it's probably five and up.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: I think so, yeah, I think so. Which, again, probably was clearly posted somewhere. So it's our error.
[00:30:26] Speaker B: But it happens. It happens. Well, castaway, I feel like, is always, you know, a fun day of, you know, relaxing and beach time. You mentioned the kids really liked the Kids club on the island. What. What was their review of it or why did they like it so much, do you think?
[00:30:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I think the. It was. It was with some of the kids and the counselors and stuff that they had or cast whatever term that they had met on the boat, but now in a totally different environment and playing games and doing this and that. So we were. We were overall with the kids club, not, I think we were just right in terms of the Usage. Right. It's not like, you know, leave the kids there for 12 hours a day and go, you know, have Ricky Tikkis all day, but an hour to an hour here to an hour there.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: Awesome. I love hearing that. It's, you know, we. We've only taken Nathan to scuttles cove on Castaway, which is the Kids club, a couple of times, and it's only the younger kids club that exists on the island. Let me just be clear. Edge and vibe don't have island locations, although there are obviously activities geared towards those age groups. But he seemed to really like it. I feel like they did a lot of, like, water fights and things like that. Yeah. And crafts and, you know, they just have. Have a good time. They don't have ocean access, just to be clear for those listening, because obviously they don't want to worry about your kids and whether or not they can swim or if they're going to drown. So that's just not something. The kids club is a sandy area, not at the edge of the, you know, not at the ocean.
[00:31:50] 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 a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable, and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. Mypath Unwinding travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, relaxed at Alani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park, vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, 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 thanks. My path unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:32:49] Speaker B: Okay, well, let's talk about onboard stuff, because, you know, we obviously, we talked a little bit about. You booked them bibbidi bobbidi. What other things did you book in advance or. Let's actually back up. And what thing is, were you hoping to book and what were you able to actually book? Because you were a first time cruiser, so your booking window was that last booking window.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: So, you know, honestly, we were able to get a good chunk of what we wanted. I might have wanted to do a few more of the, you know, mojito margarita tastings and things, but we did Paolo, we did Remy, and we did two bibbidi bobbidi boutiques, both pirate and princess theme. So we jammed a lot in all the time.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: That is a lot.
[00:33:28] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:29] Speaker B: Wait, did both kids do both makeovers?
[00:33:32] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:33:32] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. I love that, Rob. Okay.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:33:36] Speaker B: And they had both about the prince makeover zone.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: This is how spoiled these kids are. We had been to Disney World in Orlando in November, and they had both done the makeover that day. But I've got to say, and, I mean, I can send you guys a picture for the, you know, content if you like. He was Captain Mickey.
[00:33:56] Speaker C: Oh, very cool.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: And it's the cutest. It's the cutest, cutest thing, you know, in the world, so. And she, I think, was on to Tiana by now. This is her fourth or fifth time there. Right. But it was. It was really enjoyable both times. And convenient, too, I think. I think bibbidi bobbidi for the. For the second time was, like at 04:00 after the Jamaica, you know, excursion. So we were back and sort of in time for that.
[00:34:20] Speaker B: Oh, perfect. And then. And then the kids are dressed up for the dinner in their, you know, in the princess and Captain Mickey. I just. Yeah, I love that. Oh, my goodness. Well, how would you compare the experience for bibbidi bobbidi on the ship to on land, since your kids have done both, are they really, like, the same experience? I mean, we really just don't have. Have. We don't have any experience with it because Nathan's never done it. We've asked him multiple times. I really want him to do Captain Mickey actually makeover, although he's going to be aging out, I think, very, very soon. But, yeah. Is it, is it really the same? Is it better? Lesser? I don't know what.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: I think we enjoyed both equally. There are some differences. I mean, at Disney World, it's a, it's a, it's a building. Like, you've got a whole blown thing there. And, you know, they, they, it feels a little grander. They walk you into a room and have the mirror talk to you and it's sort of a little bit more involved. But they put in a really good effort. And the cast there was just great.
I'm sure you guys know this, but the same cast for Pirate Day and for Princess Captain Mickey Day, maybe it wasn't because it was their evil pirate cousins that were very scurvy on the first day. So they put a lot of effort in and maybe didn't have quite the amenities to work with that they did online, but was still, you know, was, was still a lot of fun for them.
[00:35:44] Speaker B: Well, that's good to know.
[00:35:46] Speaker C: I want to, I want to put in a quick plug because Bibbidi Boppity is like one of our favorite things to talk about, and it is still, I always tell people, don't go past, like, geez, these days, like episode 100, but episode ten gets into some dark territory for this podcast in terms of its quality, in my opinion. But, you know, you do. You. But one of my absolute favorite episodes of this show is episode number eight, where I actually brought a co worker of mine on who had gone down to Disneyland and she shared, just from end to end, her daughter's experience at Bibbidi boppity boutique. And it is just, it brings a smile to our face. So you can't, unfortunately, can't find this on Apple because our feed is limited to like 300 episodes and we're up over 400 now. But if you head to our hosting provider, which is castos, they have all of our episodes there. And so I really, I love this episode. If you're new to the show or you haven't been with us since the beginning, like, go back and listen to that one. It was a fun one. And I think hearing about these experiences with kids in Bibbidi Baptiste Boutique is just so much fun.
[00:36:43] Speaker B: It is. I love it. I absolutely love it. Well, let's, let's talk about some of the other onboard experiences. But we can't. We'll save food for the end because that's obviously our favorite thing to talk about, and especially Remy and Paulo, because. And it's great.
[00:36:59] Speaker C: I get to talk about food. You've talked about everything else. I get to talk about food. So get to your shows, and let's move on to food.
[00:37:06] Speaker B: You know exactly where I'm going. Well, I want to talk. Before we get to shows, let's talk about some of the family activities and pool deck activities and then adult activities. What kinds of things were you all able to get up to? Obviously, it's jam packed. You're not a relaxer. You're running around from activities. We can't cover all of them, but what were the highlight activities that you guys got up to, and what did the kids love also?
[00:37:32] Speaker A: Well, as you both know, bibbity Bobby boutique is amazing and excellent. Does take a hit on the wallet, right?
[00:37:38] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:37:39] Speaker A: And so, thankfully, the day that the kids did bibbidi bobbidi boutique, you were in the presence of a minor celebrity right now. I won bingo. Oh, my goodness. The first game of bingo and didn't split the pot with anybody. And so it was about $600 from this bingo.
[00:37:56] Speaker B: So it paid one visit to bingo.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: One and a half. Right. So that was. That was a lot of fun. My wife kind of had to talk me into that one, but good thing she did, because it was. It was a good, profitable.
We did. We managed to do one of the beer tastings, which was fun. And my wife, Emily, got called up to do, you know, made a snake bite behind the. Behind the bar, which was fun. One of the beers they had us taste is this french beer from Canada that we are very familiar with. So it wasn't quite as exotic for us as it was for everybody else, but that was. That was a lot of fun. And I think was a good preview of, you know, maybe we could fit in a few more of the, you know, the Rikki Tikki tastings.
[00:38:29] Speaker B: The Rikki Tikki tastings.
I love it. What did the kids like to do on board? Like, what were they. Did they like being on the pool deck? Did they like family game shows? Like, what were their kind of favorite activities?
[00:38:41] Speaker A: We didn't do a ton of the family game shows. I do feel like they'd enjoy that, and so that's a good, you know, next time activity. But pool was. Was a big one for them, and Maisie and I rode the aqueduct, you know, probably 20 times. We were pretty strategic. And when we went, right, like, we turned into, we're not. We're not line waiters either. Right? Like, so we went, you know, we would go at night a couple of times. Right? Like, kind of get in there at the end and not do it at the beginning. Beginning. Trevor's a little more cautious, and so, you know, was not a huge fan of the slides, but the little splash areas and, you know, those. Those spots were a lot of fun for them. I guess this sort of gets into food, but they both love, I think, sweet scoops or whatever. The ice cream shop on the top level.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: Yeah. So it's. It's vanilla. Is it vanilla peas there, or is it sweet on the fancy, sweet on you.
Vanellope's is the dream. Yeah.
[00:39:31] Speaker A: The self serve was not sufficient for them. They wanted, you know, the mint chocolate chips paid ice cream. Right. No, but I think they just. They had a really great time. They would ask, go to the kids club, you know, saw their. Their friends there. And on that note, maybe I will tell this story briefly. I saw one of my friends there completely out of the blue on the very first day. I'm looking, and I'm saying, is that. Is that Chris and Jenna? Chris was my first year roommate at Western University one years ago, and, yeah, we were in a, like a. Like a quad of four. Four guys. And we've kept in touch with all of them. Don't really see him a ton here and there, and I had no idea, clearly, he was going on this cruise, but he and his wife and their three kids just happen to be on this cruise the whole week. And so we kept saying we'd grab a drink here or there, and with five kids between us, it just wasn't meant to be. But we'd grab 20 minutes here and there as the kids are in the pool or, you know, outside the theater or whatever, and it was. It was just a nice, you know, random, random occurrence.
[00:40:27] Speaker B: That's so fun. What a great coincidence to just randomly be on the cruise with somebody you went to college with. I think that's awesome.
[00:40:35] Speaker C: Well, it's. It's kind of funny. I was gonna say, recently, we just got pinged by two people who are, like, friends of. Very good friends of our friends of who officiated our wedding, and, like, they're on board with us. And I was just like, it's such a small community sometimes, so.
[00:40:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it is. Yeah. So it's not our friend who officiated our wedding, who's on our cruise, but it's close friends of his, and so we have. Yeah, friends in common. So it's just really. Yeah. Random coincidences of people you run into. I have definitely met friends of friends on cruises several times. So I think that that's going to be fun coming up for us. All right, well, we've got to talk about shows. You mentioned not just the wizard of Oz, but that you are a Broadway fan, a theater fan, and that that was part of the draw for, you know, going on this cruise. What did you think? You saw three different shows on the beautiful. Well, I'm assuming you saw all three and maybe some variety acts. I don't know if you're into that thing, but yeah. What did you think of the shows?
[00:41:33] Speaker A: It was great. It was great. And I think great for the kids as well. I think it was Aladdin to start with. One, like, little tip there with some of the accessibility stuff for Emily, it was maybe a little bit of a crapshoot sometimes as to whether it was worth it or not. Right. So some of the excursions, they were able to get you on the cart and zoom past and go straight through everybody. But rather than wait in line for half an hour, I said, yeah, can we figure out a way to like take the elevator down into the theater? That was a bad decision. The elevator took, I got in on the stairs faster than they got down on the elevator. And so she ended up having to stand even longer. But anyway, the shows, despite that were great. We are also popcorn people. And so we would go back for more and more of the refills there. But I thought the quality of the shows was awesome. The kids were super engaged. Everything is like the right length, in my opinion, as well. Yes. You know, it's like, again, not too, not too long, not too short. My kids are wonderful, but can get squirmy if things take too long. And they weren't, they were engaged and with it, a frozen was during the day at sea. I assume that's, that's fairly common. And so they had three showings there. So it wasn't quite the mad dash and mad scramble to get seats you, as it maybe was for the first day on Aladdin.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: I love when they do the matinee. I think it really helps spread out that crowd. They don't do it on every sailing. It just kind of depends on whether it falls on a sea day or a port day and what other things they've got going on. And, you know, if they're short on cast members or whatever. But it's wonderful when they do because it really, it really helps with that, I think.
[00:43:03] Speaker A: Big fan of the matinee. That was, that was good. We ducked in and out of a few of the variety acts, you know, come for 20 or 30 minutes, but we are early to better as it is, and let alone after jamming so much in that, you know, we needed a breather at night a few times, as well, so.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Did you go see believe, or as I like to call it, the man and the old man in the flower?
[00:43:25] Speaker A: Well, I did, and Emily, by that point, had, you know, Trevor, three year old, was done, and so Emily. Emily and Trevor did not go to that one, but Maisie and I did.
[00:43:35] Speaker B: And so the story of father daughter.
[00:43:37] Speaker A: Right? So, yeah, the story of. And, you know, I've already written her my speech for her wedding 20 years from now, so. Right. Like, the prospect of everything that's in that show was, you know, was very touching, but particularly given, you know, what we had been through a few months prior. And, you know, it was. It was pretty special to do that with her.
[00:43:54] Speaker B: Oh, that's really nice to hear. I love that it's not my favorite show, but I can totally understand. It does pull on the heartstrings, and there's some great musical numbers, but I just think the others are better, so.
All right, well, now I'm going to. I'm going to pass to Brian. I'm going to let him ask you about food.
[00:44:10] Speaker C: Yeah, well, you've already done it, so tell us about the food.
What do you think about the rotational dining setup and, you know, the food itself and how do the kids do with the food? Yeah, tell us all about it.
[00:44:21] Speaker A: It was great. I think overall, it was great. The rotational was fun. Obviously, we missed a couple of the rotation nights with. With Remy and Paulo, but those nights, our hack was basically go to the self serve on the. One of the upper decks, right, where you can just get burgers and pizza and things like that and literally bring it to the room. I suppose we could have done room service for the kids, but it was just quicker to just, you know, go up and sort of take it down. I was generally a big fan of a lot of the options at the buffets for lunch. That was. That was good, as well, although sometimes the temperature was maybe a little bit cooler there than would have been. Would have been ideal, but. But, again, still. Still really good. I'm generally in the family. We're not huge breakfast people, so we would. We would duck in, have a little bit, but then kind of be on our way. Obviously, the animator's palette, that was a highlight of. Of sort of doing the drawings in my. My. My daughter is very, very artistic, and so that was quite magical for her to see, you know, everything come, come on board there. I really give Disney credit for, you know, the quality of the food for the rotationals. I wouldn't necessarily say ten out of ten, but to hit an eight or a nine for that many people with that level of consistency is just really, really solid. I used to, I used to own ice cream stores back in the day, so, like, I can appreciate, you know, how challenging it is to, to be consistent with quality with a few dozen.
[00:45:36] Speaker B: People and serving that many people. Exactly. It's just the larger the scale, the more difficult. That's why the quality at Palo and Remy is always going to be able to be better because you're serving a lot less number of people and not all at once. Right. Whereas in the main dining, you're serving everyone at the same time. Well, in two different seatings, of course. And yeah, I agree with you. I think in general, most dishes are probably not a tendency, but to, you know, to get an eight or a nine a lot of the time is, is pretty darn, pretty darn good, I would say, considering, yeah, the, what they're trying to do. And I mean, I feel like, you know, you pointed out animators palette with the show. You know, was it, was it everything you'd hoped it would be? I mean, you probably heard about it on this show and on, you know, maybe saw in some YouTube videos, but like, you know, hearing about it and seeing it yourself is two different things. Did the kids enjoy it or, you know, sometimes it's a little long. That's one.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: Yeah, well, yeah, the video was, was the preambles a little bit, but I'd say it exceeded expectations. Yeah, it was, it was really a big, big highlight for us. And they think that's one thing they, they still talk about now of like, my, my little guy came to life. Right. And I think we did manage to get their people on video as we were, we were filming it. So it's been a good, been a good memory for us. And the other, the other two, you know, were quite strong as well. But I would say animators palette was probably our number one. Our number one there. Yeah.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, and I would say. I would say that your, your plan of action with regard to the deck food as their dinner, when you're going to do Paolo and Remy, that's what we do. We don't bother doing room service because it takes a while. You have to like really pre plan and then be in the room waiting for the room service. It's much easier. I mean, our kid's going to eat a burger or pizza anyway, so why would we order it from room service when we could just grab it off the deck? It's just a faster option, so. But it sounds like then the kids obviously were happy enough to go to the kids club because, you know, for Paula and Remy, those are decently longer, you know, dinners longer than main dining. And main dining is already. We tell people, we warn people, main dining can take a long time. So it's just something people should be aware of. But, yeah, they were happy to go to the kids club then for, for those hours.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: They were. Yeah. The one learning we had that we sort of knew better after it happened. So we did palo first, and I think we were down for like, honestly, maybe 30 minutes or so. And then we get the notification in the app, like, oh, Trevor has been asked to be picked up. And so we panic. We're like, oh, waiter, can you call the, you know, and it's like, no, everything's fine. Right? They just. They have to send you that notification if it comes up. And he was perfectly fine.
We said, we'll be done in a few hours to them. And they were fine with that. And everything was just fine. So panic. No panic, but no need for concern. And I will say the servers and the cast for both, both restaurants, like, if you tell them, I want to try and be out of here for the show, or I want to try and be out of here for the. They'll. They'll work with you. Right. We did the tasting menus at Remy and it was. I think we did them maybe not on speed mode, but we did them a little faster than, you know, maybe they were designed to, but that was okay. That's what we wanted. That's, you know, it was. It was still a lovely experience. And they were very accommodating in terms of keeping it to two and a half hours rather than three or four. Right?
[00:48:54] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a really good point. And a really good tip that if you wanna get out there, out of there quicker, if you let them know, they'll definitely try to accommodate. We don't ever ask to do that. Cause we wanna have a four hour dinner. We are like. And Nathan's happy to stay at the kids club till later. That wasn't the case when he was six, though. I'm gonna say that like, he's ten now, so it's a little bit of a different scenario. When he was six. He wouldn't. I mean, we couldn't do Remy at all when he was. When he was six, when he was on board, I should say we did it when he was not on board. So I love it. So it sounds like it was a really good experience. Did you consider doing brunch, or were you just like, no, we're just gonna do dinner.
[00:49:35] Speaker A: I think it was more of an affinity for the dinner meal to begin with. And, you know, we had jammed a lot in by that point. Anyway, I will say with Remy, though, and I'm sure this is common, but I think I did the sort of american focused tasting menu, and my wife did the french focused, but mix and mingle like crazy as it. As it happened, which was a really good way to, you know, to set things up there.
[00:49:59] Speaker B: So, yeah, that's exactly what we do. I do the American and Brian does the French, and then we usually take a taste of each other's. And honestly, we're always just more. We're always having to be fair.
[00:50:10] Speaker C: No, no, no. Let's be fair. You eat off my plate, and I really don't touch your plate. That's what happens to.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: That's not true. He lies, everyone.
No, we tend to be. We're honestly, I'm usually happier with the American, and he's usually happier with the French, so it's perfect. It's a perfect combination there. All right, well, is there anything that we forgotten to ask you about or any topics that we haven't covered that you think would be helpful to somebody out there, maybe, who hasn't been on Disney Cruise line or anything sort of remarkable? Before I subject you to my rapid.
[00:50:47] Speaker A: Rapid fire rank, so, you know, maybe two quick things. Number one, right outside the kids club, is the peppy's room thing. And we saw that, and I figured it was, like, an actual phone number you could call. I don't know what I was doing wrong from the room phone. I wasn't able to figure it out, but Emily finally did, and so we were calling Pepe all the time for jokes and, like, can we call Pepe? Can we. Like that? That became a real thing for us. So make sure if you're a Muppet person at all, to, you know, to find Peppy's room and give him a call.
[00:51:17] Speaker B: You do the midship detectives agency.
[00:51:20] Speaker A: We sort of started it. Yeah. The kids are just a little bit young to really dive in, but we got a little bit out of it. Yeah.
[00:51:27] Speaker B: All right. Well, the Muppet one is the best one, but it also takes the longest amount of time because you have to go to Pepe's door. You also have to go to the call board that's down by, like, the adult bars and stuff. So there's a. Or I guess not by the adult bars. I'm trying to remember where that is. But anyway, it's, like, all the way at the other end of the ship, so you have to go so many places, but it's really fun. I think it'll be better when they're a little bit older, but we love that. Like, we do it whenever we're on the fantasy or the dream, we have to do midship detective. It's the best. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, it's essentially an interactive detective game.
[00:52:01] Speaker C: It's a scavenger hunt. Scavenger hunt.
[00:52:03] Speaker B: It takes you all around the ship, and there's, like, these pictures that then come to life. So it's a really fun activity on board. And there's three different games that you choose from or storylines you choose from. One of them, which is the longest one, is the Muppethen. It's one. It's the best one by far. And for those of us who are old enough to remember the Muppets, it's nostalgic, too.
[00:52:25] Speaker A: I had a Muppet shirt on for a muppet. Hawaiian shirt on for pirate day. So muppets are still alive and well.
[00:52:31] Speaker B: Perfect. Perfect. And you probably had. Did you go to watch funnel vision when they put on the Muppets treasure Island?
[00:52:39] Speaker A: We stayed awake as long as we could for that.
[00:52:40] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: Yes. I look forward to keeping them up later for it next time.
[00:52:44] Speaker B: I love it. All right, Brian.
[00:52:47] Speaker C: I mean, at this point, you can just introduce yourself, right?
[00:52:51] Speaker B: Introduce me. Come on.
[00:52:52] Speaker C: It's been the Sam show today.
[00:52:54] Speaker B: Hey, there we go.
[00:52:55] Speaker C: I can't hand you back to someone who's been doing all the questioning. So there.
Well, I guess we have reached that point in our show where I need to hand you over to Sam for some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules, and a dash of judgment of the round we know as rapid fire. So, sam, why don't you continue to take it away?
[00:53:12] Speaker B: All right, thanks, Brian. All right, Rob, you know what's coming. I'm going to ask you your Disney favorites and now your Disney cruise line favorites. I'm going to say that the Disney fantasy is your favorite ship because you haven't been on the others except for the big red boat, and there's no way the big red boat can compare to the Disney fantasy. So there you go. But we'll start with who is your favorite Disney character. And Disney means anything and everything that Disney now owns.
[00:53:37] Speaker A: I am staring at Uncle Scrooge. I have a number of uncle Scrooge memorabilia pieces right in front of me as we speak, so. I love that DuckTales kid.
[00:53:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Woohoo. All right, favorite Disney movie?
[00:53:49] Speaker A: I would say, honestly, Aladdin. I was, like, right at the right age when that came out. Yeah.
[00:53:53] Speaker B: And of course, the classic Aladdin, not the live action.
[00:53:57] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:53:59] Speaker B: Which, I mean, I say that because it's, like, just understood. I feel like, yeah.
All right, favorite Disney song.
[00:54:06] Speaker A: That's a tough one. Honestly. One of the. How far I'll go from Moana has kind of tugged at the heartstrings a little bit lately. Kids and growth, and I picked up and moved away when I was right, so I would. That's maybe what immediately comes to mind.
[00:54:20] Speaker B: Oh, I love that song. Such a good one. I mean, that whole soundtrack is just phenomenal. Okay, staying with the, you know, song theme, what is your favorite Disney cruise line stage show?
[00:54:32] Speaker A: Probably frozen.
[00:54:33] Speaker B: Yes, that's the right answer. Probably frozen.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: Tough, tough, tough. But, yeah.
[00:54:37] Speaker B: Right. Even though Aladdin's your favorite movie, Jeannie was really good.
[00:54:39] Speaker A: Jeannie was really good in that.
[00:54:41] Speaker B: Yeah, but the frozen production is just such a good production. Yeah, yeah.
[00:54:45] Speaker C: Come on, admit it. It was really the old man in the flower, but scared you and everyone else off.
[00:54:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:52] Speaker B: I mean, I understand it pulls on people's heartstrings, and there are some great musical numbers, but storytelling and scenery and costumes and puppetry and all. I mean, frozen has it all, so. Yeah, as long as, like, I mean, all the. I feel like all the performers are generous, you know, really high quality and some Broadway level. Some, I would say maybe off Broadway level, but, yeah, all really good. Okay, we're going to talk on board activity. What was your favorite on board activity?
[00:55:22] Speaker A: Honestly, the beer tasting was a lot of fun. We really enjoyed that. I wish we could have done a few more similar to that, but that. That's what immediately comes to mind.
[00:55:29] Speaker B: Yeah, awesome. You'll have to do the martini tasting. That one's a really good one. Or mixology. Those are two. Those are, I would say, my two favorites. I mean, I like champagne, so that's a good one, too. Okay, favorite rotational dining. I think you already told us this, but I'm gonna.
[00:55:44] Speaker A: I'd say the animators, pal. Just the whole experience, I think, was what contributed that. The food of the others was great, too, but, yeah.
[00:55:49] Speaker B: All right, favorite bar space. I'm not sure if you had a ton of time to spend in the bar spaces when the kids were in.
[00:55:56] Speaker A: Bed, I would grab the odd cider at the irish spot where they did the beer tasting, ultimately.
[00:56:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:56:02] Speaker A: That was kind of tucked away. You know, a little bit more privacy there, I would say there. Yeah.
[00:56:06] Speaker B: Gotta love a good pub. All right. Favorite space to relax. On the ship, we would have the.
[00:56:12] Speaker A: Odd morning where we'd have the kids at the kids club. And I think it was like, not the tippy top deck, but the adults only section where if. But tucked away a little bit. Right? Where it was like the streaming. The water streaming down. I'm sure there's a name for this.
[00:56:26] Speaker B: Satellite falls.
[00:56:27] Speaker A: Yeah. That was great. What were you talking about? It was not busy. Right? It was. It was nice and, you know, nice and relaxed there.
[00:56:32] Speaker B: That's a great spot. We love that. That area of. That of both the fantasy and the dream. Have that. It's a wonderful, wonderful place to relax. Okay, we're going to talk food. I need a favorite sweet item and then a favorite savory item. So. Favorite sweet item.
[00:56:45] Speaker A: I really did like the sweet on you ice cream myself. I got a couple of cookie dough, you know, scoops there for an ice cream guy. Right? Like, not. Not as many as my. My daughter had of the mint chocolate chip. And then for savory, they had a wagyu course for Remy that was tip top.
[00:57:00] Speaker B: Oh, love it. Okay, well, then my next question, which I don't get to usually ask this, because most people don't do. Remy. Remy versus Paulo. You did dinner, so it's like a head to head competition between the two.
[00:57:13] Speaker A: You know what I think I would say Remy by a hair. By a mouse hair tail. But I will say Paolo. I couldn't quite convince my wife to do the 24 ounce. I think it was a ribeye or something on there. And I could probably say porterhouse. I probably could have done 20 on my own, but 24 was just, you know, a bridge too far. So next time, Paolo may come back swimming, swinging, if I can, you know, if I can come with an appetite and have the whole steak.
[00:57:38] Speaker B: Yeah, we've done that. We've shared the porterhouse. It's fantastic. It's a great, great dish. And when we don't do that, it's because Brian wants to do the Dover Sol or the Osa Bucco, and then I stick to the. I do the price fix with the. The beef tenderloin. Fantastic as well. Yeah. All right. That brings me to the end of my rapid fire questions with, what is your bucket list cruise. If you could go anywhere in the world on a Disney cruise line ship, it doesn't even have to be someplace that Disney cruise line currently sails. Where would you go?
[00:58:09] Speaker A: I don't know if this is even a thing, but I took two years of Japanese in undergrad, and so chota nihongo o hanashi mas, but I have never been over, and so if there was some way to, like, cruise around, that part of the world would love to get over, but I don't believe they have an itinerary there. They do have Europe, and I think we're going to do Europe soon. That's my second choice. Yeah.
[00:58:28] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, they don't have Japan yet. I say yet because with a ship over in Singapore, there's a chance they might start expanding into that market. We don't know, but, yeah, we'd love that. And a stop at Tokyo Disneyland as well would be fantastic.
[00:58:45] Speaker C: It seems like a sure bet, considering it's called Tokyo Disney Sea.
[00:58:50] Speaker A: The boat pulls right up into the.
[00:58:51] Speaker C: You know, I'm just saying, let's dredge a canal and get it right up in there.
[00:58:55] Speaker B: I know. I know. That would be fantastic. Well, thank you for playing Rob. You did pass the flying colors, you know, especially because you chose frozen and you chose Aladdin for a movie. I mean. Yeah, all good things. So thank you for playing. Really. No judgment.
[00:59:10] Speaker C: Well, Sam asked you where you want to go. I want to know what's next.
[00:59:14] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:59:15] Speaker A: Yeah. Good question. We did put a deposit down. Cause they're really good about offering you a discount. Discount. Right. The idea of going over March break is helpful. We're on the fence of, like, is this a once a year thing for us, or is it a. Is it. Is it an every two year cadence? Partly because we still want to go to the parks every year, and it gets a little ridiculous at some point. I mean, I will say, just in terms of pure travel, we're going. My wife and I are going to Vegas next week, so that's. That's around the corner is some. Some grown up time. But we'll definitely be back on a Disney cruise, either Europe maybe next summer, or. Or do more or less the same itinerary over March break in two years as well.
[00:59:49] Speaker B: Awesome. Nice. Well. And you'll be able to do the same itinerary on the treasure, so you'll be able to hit a different ship.
[00:59:54] Speaker A: That was the thinking. Yeah, that was the thinking. And I think it's fantasy that's doing most of Europe next. Next summer as well, so yes.
[01:00:00] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, you can't go wrong with either. So yeah, good luck choosing because they're both, both fantastic options.
[01:00:07] Speaker C: Well, I just want to pause and say thank you for coming on and sharing your fabulous, you know, we're going to call it a first time cruise. We know you're on the big red boat, so not being able to remember it, it's like resetting it, right? So there you go. See, it's first time cruise. Thank you for sharing your and your family's experience on this fabulous sailing and we just really, really appreciate you taking the time out of your day to do so.
[01:00:27] Speaker A: Thank you guys. Had some fun.
[01:00:33] 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 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 to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course, you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, mypath unwinding travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation, head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email
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