[00:00:00] Speaker A: Well, we found out that the people who were supposed to be with us had done exactly the same thing.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: Oh, that's hilarious.
[00:00:06] Speaker A: So both of us moved to second seating because we didn't want to be with the other, and my wife wouldn't let me. But they were at table 108, and I wanted to go up to them and say, hey, we rejected you, too.
But if they're listening, we rejected you, too.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Yeah. Table 108.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Looking at you.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the DC L duo podcast, brought to you by my path unwinding travel. As you can tell from the fact that Brian didn't do the show intro. I am solo here today hosting duties, but I am not solo on this show. I'm super excited to welcome longtime listener, but first time guest to the show, Kenton. To the show. Welcome, Kenton.
[00:00:59] Speaker A: Well, thanks so much. I've been looking forward to this.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I've been looking forward to this as well. You've got some great cruising history, and you went on a really unique itinerary, sailing the eastbound transatlantic on the Disney dream this year, which was in May, I believe. I think, the beginning of May this year.
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:19] Speaker B: And we haven't had, I don't think, somebody on the show yet to talk about the eastbound transatlantic, because, as I mentioned, it is a unique itinerary there. It only does this itinerary once a year. We do once a year eastbound once a year, westbound right across the. To get over to Europe. So always a fun one. But I'm. Yeah. Super excited to talk to you about this unique sailing. But before we do that, we have to, you know, ask you your cruise creds.
Where did your love of Disney come from? And how did you get into Disney cruising in particular?
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Sure. Well, my Disney experience starts, I think I was really early twenties. My mom and my brother, brother and I went, and it was just when Hollywood studios had opened, and I just. I don't know what hit me, but I knew I needed to work there or live there or always be there. Something had resonated really deeply with me. So when I met my wife, we went there on our honeymoon and then went with the kids about every year. And eventually, I think it was around 2014, a conference that I could go for work was held at Disney, not coincidentally, and so we would incorporate a vacation with that every year. So it was about 30 years of going to Disney that some of the podcasts I listened to started talking about how the cruise was as good, if not a better value and a better experience. So I knew we needed to jump in at that. So January of 2020 was our first cruise. Yeah. Right.
[00:02:48] Speaker B: Right before the shutdown. Oh, what timing.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: Oh, my word. We were on the dream, and we were in the room, and my wife was watching the news, and she's like, oh, would you look at that? Some. These poor people. This terrible virus that's happening across the ocean.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Right. This virus over in China.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Exactly. And little did we know. So, yeah, January of 2020.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: That's crazy. Now, tell. Tell me, what are the sailings that you've done and which ships? Prior to getting on the transatlantic, what were the ships that you had gone on and how many cruises at that point?
[00:03:25] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. The January of 2020 was on the dream out of Port Canaveral, and that was just a four night. And so that was the first one. And then in 2022, we took the wonder from Galveston. And that one was nuts, because that's when you had to get tested on port.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: And 360. Yeah, 360 people showed up. We all had to get our tests. 300 of us made it.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:03:55] Speaker A: Imagine the wonder with just 300 people. It was like a private yacht.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:59] Speaker A: It was so cool.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: That is so cool, because, I mean, I remember when we sailed in that timeframe, too, and, you know, having ships 30%, 40%, 50% full was sort of the regular, like. But having 300 passengers was not the regular.
Yeah. But we did see people turned away because, you know, if your stateroom even had one person that tested positive for Covid, the whole stateroom, assuming you were from the same party. Right. You lived together, you were traveling together. They excluded the whole party at that time because Covid was obviously rampant and scary back then.
[00:04:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:04:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:39] Speaker A: I mean, we flew. We flew all the way down to Texas from Chicago. And, you know, you just.
[00:04:44] Speaker B: It all comes down fingers. Yeah.
[00:04:46] Speaker A: Yeah. It comes down to, like, a three minute. A three minute moment to determine whether or not you're getting on the boat or what's going to happen. So that was nuts.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: That's true. Because, you know, there are people back then who were getting on, not knowing they had Covid and having tested negative, but developing symptoms a couple of days.
[00:05:03] Speaker A: Later while they're on the ship, the 2022. Later in the year, I went with my sister and brother in law, and wouldn't you know it, they got Covid on board.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Yeah. There you go.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: So in 23, we redid. We did a redo.
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: And that was magic out of Miami, which was a different experience. I figured I liked the wonder. I'd like magic. And not quite as much.
[00:05:27] Speaker B: Not as much. Yeah.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And then, of course, transatlantic was number five, and that was out of Fort Lauderdale.
[00:05:33] Speaker B: Oh, so you just made gold on your transatlantic.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: I did.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: That's so fun. That's a bummer. You didn't get the gold gifts, though, on your transatlantic. Right. You still get the. Just the silver gift. Yeah.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: And it kind of stinks that it's 13 nights for just one.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:05:53] Speaker A: You know, it just counts as one, whereas a three night counts as.
[00:05:56] Speaker B: Counts the same one. You know, it's funny. We were just talking about that with one of our friends because they were asking us now that we've sailed royal a couple times, they were asking us what our status was, and we have platinum status on royal now. Platinum status is not a high status like it is on Disney. And on Disney, platinum is a high status. On royal, platinum is. They have more. They have more gradations, but it's kind of a lower mid level status. And it's because we sailed on celebrity many years ago and we sailed multiple, like, we sailed on like, a 14 night and a 15 night cruise. And the difference with those lines, the ones that are owned by Royal Caribbean, but I think it's the same for the ones that are owned by, or similar for the ones that are owned by Carnival, which is like Holland and Princess and a bunch of those, they do it based on nights. Right. There's like a point system, and they do it like the morning nights you sail, the more points you get. And if you sail in, like, let's say, suite class, you get two points for every night that you're on versus what Disney does, which is just based on number of sailings. And it really doesn't. It doesn't correlate to the amount of spend. Right. Like, that's the, you know, that's the. Whereas on the other lines, it kind of correlates to the amount of spend, or at least is attempting to correlate to the amount of spend. But, yeah, I mean, there's. There were even at times two night sailings on the Disney sort of random ones. They don't do them very often, but where they've got, like a little, you know, where they have a unique sailing, maybe a nine night or an eleven night, and then they need to get back on their normal schedule and they throw in kind of a two night or something like that in there. But, yeah, it is. It is not really fair to get to get one credit for a 13 night sailing.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: But we're gold nevertheless. So here we go.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Now you're gold. And so, number six, you'll be gold on. We'll talk about what's next at the end of the show. But it's definitely, it's one of those things that I don't think Disney will ever change it because everybody who's already in the system and higher status would be mad if they got, they wouldn't be able to downgrade those people, and so it would just make more people higher status. And now that they have this, it expires after five years, sort of a thing if you don't sail. Yeah, I think that it's going to make more people mad. But anyway, let's talk about your booking of your eastbound transatlantic. Was it just you and your wife were kids sailing with you, or other families sailing with you? And why did you choose this itinerary in particular?
[00:08:24] Speaker A: Yeah, it was just my wife and I, and she had gotten a trip to Cortona, Italy, through a fundraiser at her work. And we think, you know, we were thinking, we're not going to go to Italy for three nights. You know, we got to wrap this around with something.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: Sure, sure.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: I wanted the transatlantic cruise really bad, but it just wasn't working in the schedule. So we started with a ten day norwegian cruise.
[00:08:50] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.
[00:08:51] Speaker A: In the Mediterranean. But then when I started doing my research, I'm reading about casinos and drink packages and sweaty, fat, hairy greek men in Speedos, and it started, you know.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Sorry, that's like, you're giving me a very funny visual right now.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: Well, that's what I got, too. So it was like, well, let's try something else. So we tried Royal Caribbean for an eight day, and that was going to be cool. But then as we continued to just mess with the calendar, I finally got it to work. And as soon as I could see that the Cortona place was going to work in the calendar, I jumped on it and my wife went along with it. So we ended up doing transatlantic that way.
[00:09:34] Speaker B: Nice. Now, have you ever sailed on other cruise lines?
[00:09:38] Speaker A: I haven't, no. Disney was the first one, and it's a little bit like staying at grand Floridian. Once you've done it, it ruins you for everything else.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: I know, I know. I say that about concierge, too. Although, to be totally honest, we have sailed on concierge and we have sailed non concierge since we sailed. We started with non concierge, and then we sailed concierge several times, and then we went back to regular. And you do miss the things that you don't have but I would say still, I'm still happy to get on a Disney cruise.
And now that I've sailed on royal, and I had, obviously, I had sailed on celebrity many, many years ago before we ever sailed on Disney Cruise line, I have to say, like, there are things that I missed when on the royal ship and not on a Disney ship, but there are also things to enjoy on those other ships. So I feel like I should tell people there is more out there than just Disney cruise line. But Disney cruise line is always going to be number one in my heart, so. So no danger of us becoming the Royal Caribbean duo or trio, because Nathan seems to love royal.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: I don't know, these last couple episodes, I was wondering.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: So, yeah, it is.
It is honestly quite a bit of fun. So I would definitely recommend if people are looking for something maybe a little bit less expensive than Disney to consider some other lines. But anyway, so you make it work in the schedule. You get booked. How far in advance were you booking this? Are you planning far out or because you had some sort of rejiggering of the schedule, did you end up booking later?
[00:11:19] Speaker A: It was still in a pretty good time. I think we might have been about six months out.
It was a gty that I found.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: And in fact, we've done GtY every cruise we've taken.
[00:11:32] Speaker B: Wow. Okay. So we've never done Gty. And as I understand it, you basically are picking your room category, but you're nothing picking your room. Tell folks what are the benefits and maybe drawbacks of booking Gt.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Yeah. The benefit is the price, for sure. It's significantly less, which, for a transatlantic, it was cheaper than what a friend of mine did for a three day couple weeks ago. And I was like, okay, that's, you know, that's hard to pass up.
[00:12:01] Speaker B: That's amazing. And so I assume they didn't do Gty on the wish. I assume they picked a veranda room or something like that.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Right. With kids and the whole deal. But for us, the GTY, of course, its price, the disadvantages, which aren't terrible, but you have to pay the whole thing up front.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: Gotcha.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: There can be no changes in names or anything like that. No cancellation.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: So really non refundable.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: Totally.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:26] Speaker A: And we have lucked out. Our assignments, we are always vgt the veranda ones, and they've always been midship, eight nine deck, almost always near the elevators. But that's never been a big deal for us.
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Oh, we love that.
[00:12:43] Speaker A: We don't hear it.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Yeah, that's my preferred location.
I like to be midship and not. I don't. I'm fine if I'm, like, the first room in the hallway, the closest to the elevator, but I'm also fine if I'm like four or five down. That's fine as well. But, yeah, I like midship and I like those upper decks. I'm surprised you've always gotten higher decks and because there are some verandas further, you know, down in the ship.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:07] Speaker B: I. But, yeah. So that's great. So great to know. So some risk, in the sense of you might. You won't necessarily get your preferred location. I mean, if it's a big price difference, that doesn't seem like such a bad thing.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I mean, I've done. I've done dty with my sister and brother in law, and we even got adjoining rooms.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: Wow, that's amazing.
[00:13:29] Speaker A: Yeah. And obviously your mileage will vary, but that's the situation we've dealt with on this trip. Uh, it was deck ten, midship. The great things about it. Right. I mean, it's just one deck up and you're on the pool deck. I mean, come on. Laundry room was six doors away, and I love doing laundry. It's a weird thing about me.
[00:13:49] Speaker B: Same.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: So, uh, I just love it. You get a beginning, a middle and an end. It's a project you can do and you can see it and it's done and. Yeah.
Yeah, that's right. So it was near there. Um, things I had read on the Internet said two things that I would want to be concerned about. One is the full deck noise.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:09] Speaker A: And the other was because deck eleven extends out farther than deck ten does, you don't get a great view of the sky.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Ah, okay. So you got kind of an.
[00:14:19] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:14:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:21] Speaker B: That's actually a really good tip to know, because that I wouldn't have thought about that. I would have thought the pool deck noise would be the thing that I would think about. We've. And we've. We've been right under the pool deck on other sailings, and you will hear the chairs getting moved around in the morning. I think that's kind of the issue when the, when the deck crew is setting up for the day, you tend to hear them dragging those pool deck chairs around. If you're an early riser like I am, it's not a big deal. If you happen to be someone who sleeps in late, you might get woken up. Or if you end, particularly if you're a light sleeper, I think. Yeah.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Yeah. It didn't mess with us at all. And we were below like, flows.
[00:15:01] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: So it was just, you know, it was just the tables and chairs. It's not like pool deck chairs or anything like that. And it's really nice because when you're headed eastbound, the sun is on the starboard side.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:15:16] Speaker A: And we were on the starboard side, so that little ledge kind of prevented too much sun from coming in and warming up the room too much. So it actually. It actually ended up being a pretty good thing.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: That's great. Love it. All right, well, we got to talk about, you know, pre booking stuff. Um, obviously, you're going to. You're headed to Europe, across, you know, across from, uh, this. This one came from Florida, right?
[00:15:40] Speaker A: Mm hmm. Fort Lauderdale.
[00:15:42] Speaker B: Yeah. So you're. Oh, actually, we got to talk about. Well, we'll go. We'll go there next. But I want to talk about pre booking things. Did you have any difficulty, you know, getting, let's say, excursions or on board things that you wanted through the online system at your booking when your booking window opened?
[00:16:00] Speaker A: No, it worked out pretty well. You never know.
I learned from this cruise that I don't have to be quite as worried as I have been about the boat leaving without us and the excursions, but I still, two of them were Disney excursions, and they were fine. And it's the ones we wanted, and we got them.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Okay, great.
[00:16:19] Speaker A: I got Palo brunch, but it was on the very last sea day.
[00:16:23] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: And then I wanted to take a risk and get another one, but then I'd have to lose the one I had, so I stuck with it.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:30] Speaker A: It ended up being a great thing to look forward to.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: So, yeah, we got that. No judgment, but I got the princess royal gathering.
[00:16:40] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:16:41] Speaker A: So we have some pictures.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: Pictures of you and your wife at the royal gathering.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: That's right. And we did primanati.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I hear that's wonderful. We haven't done it yet, but we're scheduled to do it, actually, by the time this show comes out. Have done prima note, but I'm excited to do that. For those who don't know, it's a wine experience at Palo. I think it's usually done for most cruises. It seems like it's done on the first night of the cruise.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: And longer cruises. I don't know. It might be offered more than once. On shorter cruises, it seems like it's only offered once, and it's small group experience, and they pair it with little, like, appetizer bites of food.
Yeah. And awesome.
[00:17:20] Speaker A: I love that the wagyu beef one was good, but no, it's a good experience. I would say it was probably a once and done for us, but the price landed similarly, you know, a little more than a typical wine tasting. So it was, I felt like it was a good value, and I'm glad we got to do the experience for sure.
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And it just rolled out, actually, across the fleet. I mean, it's been on some of the ships for a little bit longer, but I think it just came onto the wonder like, a month or two ago. So it's fairly new across the fleet. I think it started on either the dream or the fantasy. So it's been on those a little bit longer, but. Awesome. All right, talk about embarkation, because you went out of the new terminal in Fort Lauderdale. So I'm curious, as someone who has sailed out of now Galveston and out of Port Canaveral, what did you think about the experience at the new terminal at Port Everglades?
[00:18:14] Speaker A: Obviously much better than Miami or Galveston because, I mean, you might as well be in a factory.
But no, I felt like it was nice, kind of a retro design. You walk in and the whole design has you under the sea, kind of a nemo thing, and it has the big ears to walk through, like Port Canaveral does.
[00:18:34] Speaker B: Love that.
[00:18:35] Speaker A: Yeah, it was really convenient. We stayed at a hotel nearby the night before. As you've told people, always never go down the day of. So we were in a hotel the night before, took an Uber in, dropped us off right where the porters were. They took our luggage, walked right in, and I was maybe 1520 minutes ahead of my port arrival time, but the line was a little long. So we just. We just got in line, and the guy looked at our ticket and said, yeah, about 15 minutes early. Go ahead.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: It seems that way. As long as you're not, like, hours early. It seems they're not. You know, in Covid times, they were really, really strict about those port arrival times. And if you were even like, five minutes earlier, they're like, nope, go wait over there and then come back. And now it seems that unless there's, you know, some kind of delay, they're taking people sort of as they show up. And like I said, as long as your port arrival time is close, they're kind of letting you through. All right, well, so easy check in process.
And was it an easy boarding process as well?
[00:19:39] Speaker A: It was, yeah, we just kind of just followed the line. I mean, it just kept moving. And, of course, our name gets introduced, which is always a lump in your throat, then it's, we are. We are cabanas right off the top. So that's where we went. We were talking the other day just about how the only day we get peel and eat shrimp is day one.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: Day one.
[00:19:58] Speaker A: And we never do it after that. No, we do that the first day. And then for some reason, and I know this is ridiculous, but I am convinced that the chicken tenders are better on pool deck than they are in cabanas.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: They are. I think they're better.
[00:20:12] Speaker A: Is that a thing?
[00:20:13] Speaker B: I don't know that they actually, like are any different, but I think here's why. I think they're better. I think they're just fresher. I think there's more turnover of the chicken fenders at the pool deck because people are constantly getting them, and so they're constantly making fresh ones. I'm convinced that the ones that are in cabanas from just from the times that I have been in there, they're just sitting too long. Right. And so it's like with all food at buffets. That's generally why I'm not big on buffets. I don't like that food is sitting so long. Right.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: Agreed.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: I worry about, you know, the health consequences of those things. And so I think, you know, the food tends to dry out. So I think the chicken fingers or chicken nuggets, whatever you want to call them, because sometimes they have the smaller ones. Yeah. I just think they sit out too long, I think. And they dry out, and they're just not as good. Yeah.
[00:21:01] Speaker A: There you go.
That's our embarkation tradition, is we need to go up the cabanas, and then I got to get to chicken tenders from the pool deck.
[00:21:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I love that. That's a fantastic embarkation tradition. Well, let's talk, before we start talking about stuff on board, let's talk a little bit about the ports that you all went to. This is a, this is a longer cruise. So we're going to, obviously, it's mostly sea days. We'll hit highlights from the CD's of activities you did on board, but instead of going on a day by day, we'll do day by day for the ports, but we won't hit day by day for the onboard stuff, or we'll be here for like, 3 hours, probably, for sure.
So let's talk. Yeah, let's talk about ports. What was your first port stop?
[00:21:46] Speaker A: It was.
I always say it wrong. Ponta Delgada. All right. In the Azores, which is part of Portugal. Yeah. That was one that we actually did get an excursion for. Glad we did it. But it was the first time seeing land for eight days.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Yeah.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: Which was kind of cool. And so pulling in was a good experience there. We need to talk about the time changes. Let's not forget that. So I'll throw that in there in a second. But that being said, we got off the ship and the bus was ready for us, and it was a trip to. I think it's lake Ceiades. I think it said it's pronounced, which is this lake. That part of it is blue and part of it is green, except when it's cloudy, we found out. So it was all green.
[00:22:29] Speaker B: Oh, what a bummer.
[00:22:31] Speaker A: Yeah. And then the bus took us into a little village, which was having a. It was a Sunday morning, and they were having a celebration, a parade, I think they said, in honor of the Holy Spirit. And I don't know if the people liked us being there or if we were in their way, but a nice parade came right down through this middle of town and walked up to the church, and it was a cool experience to see. And then a pineapple farm. Apparently, pineapples are a big deal in the Azores. They're greenhouses. And we had seen a pineapple tour on YouTube. These vloggers had put something up, and it was not that pineapple farm.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.
[00:23:11] Speaker A: So that was a bit of a disappointment, but we did get to experience that. And then afterwards, we found a cafe and had our first big experience because this is my first time out of the country.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness, Kenneth. I didn't realize that. Wow.
[00:23:27] Speaker A: So, you know, we're in a cafe that's out, away from all the touristy stuff and trying to navigate the waters of, you know, using my 8th grade Spanish in a portuguese speaking place, trying to get something, but it all worked out.
[00:23:43] Speaker B: And the Azores, this is not like being in a major city like Barcelona, where there's a lot of people who will speak English. This is a much smaller port and also not a port. I mean, they're get cruise ships, obviously, particularly the ones that are doing transatlantic sailings on. Even on other cruise lines. But they get it a few times, you know, a handful of times a year. They're not getting it, like, regularly. Like, you get in, you know, in sort of those bigger cities in Europe. So, yeah, that's really. That's a difficult one. Now, this. This excursion you booked through Disney, is that right?
[00:24:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: Okay. And so this one, it sounds like maybe not the best of excursions, or at least, you know, there were parts.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: Of it that I'm glad we experienced, but the vloggers that we watched who were braver than us, they actually got most of the experience just by walking around and doing it. And so that's probably a lesson for us, that we can continue to get brave like we did in Lisbon, which is the next stop after a c day.
[00:24:45] Speaker B: Awesome. All right, well, tell me about what you guys got up to in Lisbon.
[00:24:48] Speaker A: Yeah. My wife was watching a video. It was this vlogger who was badmouthing tuk tuks. And so this tuk tuk driver reached back out to him on his channel and said, I will give you a free trip. So his name was Mario, and he actually, we watched the video of his free trip, and Mario was amazing. So my wife reached out to Mario on Facebook, and he said, I can't do it. But my friend Nuno, Ken.
[00:25:16] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:25:17] Speaker A: And so we met up with Nuno and four and a half hours of Lisbon on a tuk tuk.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: Holy cow.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: He took us. I'm street art. And we stopped at a restaurant or two and just the major tourist stuff. And we got to see Lisbon in a really unique way. And he was great.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: And, I mean, it's a private tour is essentially what you got on a shop. Yeah. I mean, that's a fantastic idea. I love that you. I love that your wife thought of this. What a great, you know, what a great way to sightsee in really, any major city. If you get, you know, you get the right guide. Right. That's awesome. Wow.
[00:25:57] Speaker A: Yeah. And he did it. It was total custom for us. So she had emailed him a list of some of the Rick Steves highlights, and he put them all on the list. So we got to see all of them. And it was. Yeah, it was really cool. I'm glad we did it.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Very smart. Very smart. Probably a little. Well, I'm sure it was not cheap to do this because it's still a private tour, but maybe a little bit more economical than some of the private car tours.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: Yeah. It ended up. We talked with some other folks on the ship, and they had gotten just walk up to the guy and paid probably half of what we paid, but it wasn't nearly what we got.
[00:26:34] Speaker B: Right. Right.
[00:26:34] Speaker A: Of course.
So, I mean, I don't know if you want me to throw the number out there, but for 300 euro, it was. It was 4 hours of custom, you know, just us.
[00:26:44] Speaker B: Yeah. That's fantastic. That's a great price. I mean, I think so. A lot of private, most private tours will cost you well above that or will cost you, you know, that per person and they require a minimum number of people or something like that. So. Yeah, that's fantastic.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: Yeah, he showed us, he showed us behind the curtain, he said, we know what Disney charges and we charge a little less.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: Yeah, smart. Very smart.
What was your next stop?
[00:27:10] Speaker A: It was Cadiz.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: Ah, Cadiz, okay.
[00:27:12] Speaker A: In Spain. And that one we did on our own. We just walked and we had, again, some Rick Steves highlights that we wanted to see.
We did notice that apple maps tends to get you from one point to the other, regardless of scenery.
[00:27:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: So we did walk through a lot of side streets and alleyways that maybe weren't as scenic because apple maps just wanted us to get from one point to the next.
[00:27:36] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:37] Speaker A: There is something to be said about walking, walking down alleyways in a foreign city and we got to experience a lot there. Yeah, it was very cool.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: So one thing I will say is if you want to avoid those kinds of, you know, paths, then you've got to, like, look up on the Internet for, like, a specific walking tour and find and follow their route. And it might not be the most efficient route, but as you mentioned, it might be a more scenic route to do it that way. But I think it really, to your point, I think it's great to really see the real city. Right.
And not, and not just the rose colored parts of a place that you're visiting.
[00:28:13] Speaker A: 100%.
[00:28:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: And the cobblestone tile work on all the streets. It was just nuts.
[00:28:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, and there you got to use your spanish a little bit, right?
[00:28:22] Speaker A: Little bit. A little bit. All eight, 8th grade worth of it.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: I love it. All right, so I love that you guys were more adventurous on both of these, the second and the third. What was your next port stop?
[00:28:38] Speaker A: Cartagena.
[00:28:39] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: And that was, we did a Disney booked walking tour.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: Nice. How did that go?
[00:28:46] Speaker A: Don't regret it at all.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Oh, good.
[00:28:48] Speaker A: It was really nice. I did not realize that Cartagena was a, was such an ancient roman city.
And so they, we had gotten to see the, the archaeology all the way down to, all the way down to the roman road.
[00:29:03] Speaker B: Oh, cool.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: Spoiler alert. At the end of the trip, we're in Italy and I see the roman road. And when you put that together that it was all connected, and at any point in history, it's just mind numbing. They had this beautiful theater that had been underneath a neighborhood for centuries, and somebody had stumbled and suddenly realized as they dug in a little bit that there was this beautiful theater that they've now excavated just there in Cartagena. Yeah. And so we did that. We went to a tapas bar and kind of walked around on our own as well. And Cartagena was. 08:00 was the back on ship time.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Oh, wow. So you got a real full day there.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Went from one to eight. So we got to experience quite a bit, which was cool.
[00:29:47] Speaker B: That's awesome. Now, was Cartagena your last port stop until your disembarkation port?
[00:29:55] Speaker A: Yeah. There was another sea day after that. It was supposed to be. There was one that originally was booked and I forgot to write down what it was, but they changed it to a sea day before we signed up for it. So, yeah, the last stop was Barcelona.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And I imagine that had to do with the whale traffic. Right.
[00:30:17] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Yeah. So the thing that we've been hearing is Disney and other cruise lines as well have had to cut back the number of ports in Europe on these sailings, mostly this summer because they have to slow down significantly in certain waters because of the whale populations that are interesting. Yeah. So it's been super, you know, we've been hearing it consistently on multiple sailings where they found out, you know, usually several months before, sometimes closer, but generally several months before that. They've had to remove a stop or change the, the stop because of the speeds that they need to go and they. So they can't get to quite as many ports. Yeah. Interesting. But it's getting an extra sea day when you've got these jam packed days of pouring is probably kind of nice because you need some rest.
[00:31:08] Speaker A: Well, yeah, and a sea day the night before debarkation is always best.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: The best. The best.
[00:31:16] Speaker A: Yeah. There were WhatsApp channels for like, everything that.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:31:21] Speaker A: There was a superhuman Facebook admin who had set up easily dozens of exchanges, a five k, and all these WhatsApp channels. And one of the WhatsApp channels was dolphin and whale sightings.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: Oh, awesome.
[00:31:37] Speaker A: Every time an alert would come through, we'd miss it. So we never saw a dolphin or a whale, but we knew they were there.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: WhatsApp messages. Wait, so they did. I think I heard about this. A five k they did at sea. This was guest organized. Not, not Disney Cruise line organized, but they did a five k and they even made, like, medals. Right.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: I have one.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: I saw this on one of the face, one of the larger Disney cruise line Facebook groups. I think somebody posted about this. Yeah. Tell me. Tell me about this. This sounds really fascinating.
[00:32:10] Speaker A: Well, the Anika, I think, and Jazz were the two people who hats off to them because I'm sure they, they spent hundreds and hundreds of hours doing all of this. But, yeah, we paid ahead of time for the medal, and then it was just on your honor system. And so my wife and I walked, what is it, nine. Nine laps on the dream or whatever it was to get to five k?
[00:32:36] Speaker B: Yeah, about three. About three laps, I think, per mile.
[00:32:39] Speaker A: So.
[00:32:39] Speaker B: Yeah, that sounds about right.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So we did that and got our medal and that was the extent of that.
[00:32:46] Speaker B: But was it on a particular day? Was it just on your own?
[00:32:50] Speaker A: It was on your own. The pickup for the medal was like nine to eleven on Thursday. So a lot of people did it then. Yeah, we did it the day before.
[00:32:59] Speaker B: Wow. What a smart idea, though. It was fun. Yeah. I mean, hats off to your Facebook group admins. I know how much work it is to admin those Facebook groups and then to also organize a five k ondemen board and all of that. Yeah. Wow. That's. Plus they had to schlep all of those metals then with them to Europe so that they could then hand out. I guess the only benefit. Well, the big benefit is then you've got room in your luggage after for all of the souvenirs you have to take up.
[00:33:31] 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 my my path, unwinding travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email dclduoypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks Mypath Unwinding for sponsoring todays show now back to the episode.
[00:34:30] Speaker B: You mentioned at the top of the show about the time change. Yeah, yeah. So let's talk about how they did the time change. You've got 6 hours, I think, to cover by the time you get from Florida to mainland Europe. Right?
[00:34:45] Speaker A: Correct.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: So, yeah, tell us, it would have been five if you stopped in the UK, but not. But the sailing did not go to the UK. Yeah. Tell us, how did they do the time change while you, I assume while you were at sea.
[00:35:00] Speaker A: Right. It was. There needed to be six of them where it was just like daylight savings time, where you just, you lose an.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: Hour at midnight every day.
[00:35:07] Speaker A: Every day.
[00:35:08] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:35:09] Speaker A: So it was, you had a day or two without it and then there was a stretch of them and then a day off and then a stretch again. I knew that was coming, so I asked chat GPT how to avoid the disadvantages of time changes on a transatlantic cruise. And it actually gave me four of them. Them.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: Whoa.
[00:35:26] Speaker A: I know, right. And so waking up on time regardless.
[00:35:30] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:35:31] Speaker A: I think if we had had an inside room, that would have been extremely difficult.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:36] Speaker A: But because the sun was coming up and the chairs were scraping above us, getting up on time wasn't a problem. Lots of water, not drinking too late. There was one other, and I forget what it is now, but. So anyhow, so we. I worked really hard at not letting that get in the way because the things that I had read had said a number of people. It was a real struggle for them.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:35:58] Speaker A: Losing that time every day.
[00:36:00] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, it's a lot of hours to lose and sometimes it's, I don't know, sometimes it's easier to just do it all at once. Right. When you fly over to Europe.
[00:36:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: Totally kind of adjust really quick and then you might have one rough day, but at least then you're adjusted, whereas when you're doing it over the course of essentially a week or more. Yeah, I think that can be rough. I mean, I feel like we all struggle when we, when we have spring forward.
[00:36:26] Speaker A: Right.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: And that's only an hour.
[00:36:29] Speaker A: Right. And this is a bunch of those.
[00:36:30] Speaker B: And this is a bunch of those every night. Did it impact when you all went to bed? I mean, did you go to try to go to bed, you know, a little earlier, knowing that on the nights, knowing that this was coming, didn't mess.
[00:36:43] Speaker A: With that so much? It was as long as I got up at the same time every day, that, that kept things pretty calibrated.
[00:36:50] Speaker B: Yeah. That's good.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: Yeah, we did the. I mean, the coffee obviously is as bad as it always is, but we would order it from room service the night before.
[00:37:00] Speaker B: Okay. You are. I've heard of people doing this.
[00:37:02] Speaker A: Yeah. And that way, you know, you hear the scrapes. We got the romance package, so we. You hear the scrapes on the ceiling, you put on your really awesome robe that comes with the romance package and drink the really bad coffee from the veranda every morning. And that's the way you start your day.
[00:37:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And then once you get yourself all dressed, you head to Cove coast to get some real coffee. Right, exactly. Decent coffee.
[00:37:25] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:37:26] Speaker B: Instead of that Joffrey's sludge. Yeah.
[00:37:28] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:37:29] Speaker B: It's so bad. I don't know how. You know, I can. I'll drink sometimes, like, a coffee or like a decaf coffee with dessert after dinner, and that's like, okay, but I can't drink that dawfree stuff in the morning at all. I can't even. I can't even power through and drink even one cup of excited. It's in the morning. I need my coffee to be good and strong, and that coffee just doesn't cut it.
[00:37:54] Speaker A: No, but we did it anyhow, so it was fine.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: All right, let's talk about some of the onboard experience.
[00:38:01] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:38:01] Speaker B: You know, obviously, I always love to talk about shows.
I know that on the Disney dream, of course, you have my absolute favorite of all time. Disney Cruise line stage show, beauty and the Beast. I'm guessing that you went to see it.
[00:38:16] Speaker A: We did.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Awesome. And I want to hear, in general, about some of the other though performances, because often on these longer cruises, they bring on some special performers in addition to kind of having, like, the standard maybe juggler or magician, but, yeah. So what were the evening performances, if you remember, that were offered beyond the three main stage shows?
[00:38:40] Speaker A: Sure. And I will confess I didn't go to Golden Mickey's, and I didn't go.
[00:38:44] Speaker B: To believe, you know what? I would have been probably with you.
[00:38:50] Speaker A: But they did have a couple of things that were pretty cool. There was this magician who was, like, top notch. There was a contortionist kind of magician y kind of guy that was really intriguing. And then there was a mentalist who. Oh, my gosh. And this guy was, like, on Broadway and the West End, and so he was. I think he got in, in Punta Delgada, I think, is when he got on the ship, and he was fabulous. They did the USO show.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: Oh, they did.
I haven't gotten to see that yet. Oh, that's cool with Captain America and all the lady dancers love that.
[00:39:33] Speaker A: That was very cool. The comedian was, Jonathan Burns was his name, and he was hilarious. The magician was Eric Jones. I just saw him.
[00:39:40] Speaker B: Oh, Eric Jones is phenomenal.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: Is he, though?
[00:39:43] Speaker B: Yeah, I've seen him on, I'm trying to remember which ship it was on. I believe it was on the magic, actually. But I only saw his adult show. I missed his main stage show and I was floored. Oh, my God. He was so, so, so good.
[00:39:59] Speaker A: That's something.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:01] Speaker A: And I did notice probably because there were, I didn't mention this yet, but there were about 2900 on the ship.
[00:40:06] Speaker B: Oh.
[00:40:06] Speaker A: And because it was so adult focused, there were so many adults, evolution was way too small.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:40:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:40:15] Speaker A: You had to get there so early.
[00:40:17] Speaker B: To get a seat. Yeah.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: For any of them. Met your maid, all the stuff.
[00:40:21] Speaker B: That's a bummer. I mean, it happens on these. So I think on the european sailings in general, particularly the earlier ones. Right. The ones that happened in May or the later ones, the ones that happened in September, they tend to be very, they tend to be a little bit under subscribed, which is good overall. Right. Meaning you don't have a full, crowded ship, but they also tend to have more adults and, and very few kids because a lot of this, obviously, schools are still in session. And so the, you know, unless the kids are homeschooled or have some sort of alternative type of school, it's, it's obviously a lot harder for those of us with young kids to, to get on board. For a transatlantic, I would love to do a transatlantic cruise, actually. But they always, both, the, both the eastbound and the westbound are always during school. Right. We're talking about May, usually for the heading. You know, eastbound and westbound is usually actually October. I want to say early October.
And actually, I think it'll even be later this year because there's dry dock. Dry dock. Yeah, the dry dock. All right, well, let's talk about other stuff on board.
[00:41:26] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:41:26] Speaker B: What, what did you guys get up to on board, on your, you know, you've got these great sea days. The first, like eight days or seven days, I guess. The first seven days of the cruise, you're at sea just enjoying the beautiful Disney dream. What did you all get up to?
[00:41:41] Speaker A: Well, there were a lot of cool things. There was.
Well, let me get this out of the way right away. I can confirm that SpaceX Starlink is on the dream.
[00:41:52] Speaker B: Ah, nice. I love it.
[00:41:54] Speaker A: There was lots of rumors going on that the Internet was going to be better, and so I was able to. I can confirm Starlink has come to the dream.
[00:42:01] Speaker B: Yay. That's awesome.
[00:42:02] Speaker A: Yeah, it really is. They had a show, and you had mentioned the shows, and I forgot to mention this, a Disney 100 show, and that's where all the cast from the shows sang Disney songs, and it was great. And it was the first time they had done it, so I could tell that the tech was running it live. So the light cues and the sound cues, they were just. They were slightly behind, but nothing terrible. But musically, it was off the charts. If anyone hears of the Disney 100 show and has a chance to see it, highly recommend. We did a lot of. I took advantage of a lot of doing nothing, which is something I don't get to do a lot of. So I appreciated that big time.
[00:42:44] Speaker B: A lot of time at satellite falls.
[00:42:46] Speaker A: Yeah, 100%. Now, this was, and maybe it's because there were so many adults, but the tal people were a little annoying when the time change happened. Sometimes they wouldn't get out there till nine to put their towel in their seat and keep it there all day long, but usually it was 730. I'd walk up and there would just be a mount, you know, a sea of towels everywhere. And that's.
[00:43:06] Speaker B: It's so frustrating because you're not supposed to be able to, like, save your seats in this way. And Disney sometimes, like, enforces, but most of the time, I think, doesn't. I think they are, like, afraid of making guests unhappy or guest conflict and all that. But then they're making the other guests who show up to the pool deck at a reasonable hour at 09:00 a.m. or 08:30 a.m. to actually sit in the seat, and all the seats are gone, but nobody's actually sitting in them. Yeah. It's just. They need to enforce that. It's just not. Yeah.
[00:43:38] Speaker A: But we were able to be on the deck quite a bit. It was pretty much 70 degrees the entire time.
[00:43:43] Speaker B: Oh, beautiful.
[00:43:44] Speaker A: The entire time. Yeah. It was remarkable weather. I don't know if they're able to steer around things or if it just was, but it was. Yeah. And just smooth as glass. I mean, it was just unbelievable. The captain's reception is something we did, and that's Rebooz.
[00:44:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: And anyone can cook was pretty cool. And that's celebrity chef John Ashton was his name. And of course, there's wine at that, too.
And then let's see. Oh, they did the morning show live.
[00:44:14] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. I've heard they've done that on those longer sailings. We have not experienced that. How did you get to go to the morning show?
[00:44:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I went to a couple of them. Yeah, it's really good.
They used three hosts, and I had a couple of running gags that would go through every one of them. And, yeah, it was a good time. My wife was particularly enamored with Tony from Spain.
[00:44:36] Speaker B: Everyone loves Tony from Spain.
[00:44:38] Speaker A: That's right.
I did go to a bourbon tasting because I don't know a lot about bourbon, and that guy was there. There's always that guy who wants to be the guy who's talking, and he just kept going. Hope he's not listening. He's just going on and on. And it's like, hello, there's a guy up there who's trying to tell us about bourbon.
[00:44:56] Speaker B: Right. The bartender is trying to teach us about bourbon, and you've got this guy who wants to be the center of attention, and it's like, no, no, you're just a guest. You're not the host.
[00:45:05] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: Get a job with Disney cruise line if you want to be the host.
[00:45:08] Speaker A: That's right. Hey, I won $94 in bingo.
[00:45:11] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome.
[00:45:12] Speaker A: I spent dollar 200 in bingo, but I won 94.
[00:45:17] Speaker B: So you lost $106 at bingo is what you're telling me.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: I did, but it was. But I had fun. I'm not old, but I love bingo. I don't know why. I just love.
I just love bingo.
[00:45:32] Speaker B: You know, some people love bingo. You know, shake it up, Betty. You know, she's.
I love. Yeah.
[00:45:40] Speaker A: There was a free cheese seminar, which doesn't sound thrilling. It was sort of like cubes of cheese, and they would talk about them, but across the table from us, we met a couple named Kat and Ryan, who ends up they live less than an hour from where we are.
[00:45:57] Speaker B: Oh, that's fun.
[00:45:58] Speaker A: So in the middle of the ocean, we meet these people who live right outside of Chicago like we do. And so we did the cheese thing with them. Did, you know, drinks a couple of nights, and then while we're talking, we discover that we were both, once we got off the ship, gonna be in Florence at the same time.
[00:46:16] Speaker B: Oh, awesome.
[00:46:16] Speaker A: So we ended up getting together for dinner on the Wednesday after the cruise in Florence for dinner, which was so uncanny, but.
[00:46:22] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome. You know, I always say, like, cruise friends are the best friends. Like, we love making new friends on cruises now that we. I feel like we. It's very rare that we're on a sailing where we don't have some friends sailing with us now.
And it does really enhance, I think, the cruise experience. Not that I don't like spending time with just my family. Brian and Nathan, you're both awesome. If you're listening, I know Brian will listen because he has to edit the show, but.
But it is nice to have, you know, other people, other friends to talk to at dinner sometimes or at drinks sometimes. So that's, that's really lovely. Now, did you guys get to attend, you know, you had mentioned master mate and other adult activities. You had to be there really early in evolution, which is the larger club space on the, on the Disney dream, just like the tube on the fantasy. Did you guys get to attend some of those adult only, you know, shows, game shows?
[00:47:19] Speaker A: We did just a few. Mostly we went down for the adult version of the family friendly shows that the different guys would do. So that's mostly what we did.
[00:47:31] Speaker B: Yeah. Nice. Now, you had mentioned to us in an email that you all had one match, your mate previously.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: We did. We did a couple of years ago.
You know how they always pick a couple that's brand new?
[00:47:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:46] Speaker A: And then a couple that's been married for a while.
[00:47:48] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:47:49] Speaker A: And then a couple that's just wacky. And we were the married for a while couple because this was this, this cruise actually celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary.
[00:47:58] Speaker B: Oh, congratulations.
[00:47:59] Speaker A: Thanks. And, yeah, we rocked it. We won, got the prosceno, the whole deal and the rest of the, the rest of the crews. You're a celebrity.
[00:48:07] Speaker B: You're a celebrity. I was, yeah.
[00:48:08] Speaker A: Everybody. Everybody, you know finds a you.
[00:48:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
Everyone talks to you after that. And then they might bring up something embarrassing like where you discovered the magic. Yes, exactly.
[00:48:20] Speaker A: That.
Exactly that.
[00:48:23] Speaker B: That's fun.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: You had mentioned about eating with other people. Here's a story. First night we were at early dining, and first night we get there and our servers say, oh, yeah, there's another couple that's going to be joining you. And I had put in the request to be by ourselves and first dining was very full. So we talked to the head server who said, oh, yeah, we'll put you at second dining and you'll have a table by yourself. Well, we found out that the people who were supposed to be with us had done exactly the same thing.
[00:48:54] Speaker B: Oh, that's hilarious.
[00:48:55] Speaker A: So both of us moved to second seating because we didn't want to be with the other and my wife wouldn't let me. But they were at table 108 and I wanted to go up to them and say, hey, we rejected you, too, but if they're listening, we rejected you, too.
[00:49:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Table 108. Yeah.
[00:49:11] Speaker A: Looking at you.
But it ended up being really fortuitous because of the time change. Had we been early dining, it would have been like eating at three, like eating at two, like eating at one, so.
[00:49:23] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, that would have been.
[00:49:24] Speaker A: So if you're doing a transatlantic, even though first dining was the most popular, second's the way to go.
[00:49:30] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think it's funny. I think everybody seems to have, like, preferences about early versus late. I always tell people, if you've got young kids, the early is probably the right one. If you don't have young kids, the late is probably, you know, if you have older kids or no kids, late is probably the better fit. Then again, I know people who don't necessarily fit into those. They fit in those boxes that I've labeled, but they, like, exact opposite. So it's definitely something particular. I think, though, you know, you want late dining when you've got, particularly some of these long port days, so you don't miss dinner. Right. Because if you. Yeah, because if you're out at port in, you know, one of these european cities, you're not getting back on the ship. I mean, maybe I'll get back on the ship at, like, six. Right. Well, you've just missed early dining because early dining is at either 515 or 545, depending upon the sailing. And so, yeah, I mean, to me, you've paid for the onboard food. Not that the food in Europe isn't great. It's probably better, frankly.
But you might want to be back on the ship, especially if you have kids, because then they want their Mac and cheese like Nathan does.
[00:50:36] Speaker A: Well, for me, dinner was really loud the last cruise I took, not this one, when we had early dining, but for me, the bigger thing, beauty and the beast, was really hard to watch on one of the ones where I had early dining. Oh, yeah, because.
I'm sorry, late dining. Nope, wrong way. Early dining. Because the show was just filled with kids.
[00:50:57] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:50:58] Speaker A: And it's kind of hard to follow along what's going on. And especially something with beauty and the beast, where there's so much going on.
[00:51:05] Speaker B: So much going on. There's so much like. Yeah, there's the. The set and the technology integration is, like, so good, and you really want to be able to watch that. And I've. We've had the same experience, the early. The late show, which tends to have more kids because that's coordinates with early.
[00:51:20] Speaker A: Dining, and they're all sleepy.
[00:51:22] Speaker B: Right. They're tired. They're kind of cranky. They are not necessary. Some are wonderfully engaged, and that's lovely to see. But in general, my. I find the theater experience to not be as good if I'm at that, if I've got early dining. And so I would rather have, you know, I don't mind. I know it's a Disney ship. I love kids. I have one of my own. Right? Like, I have no problem with them being on the ship. It's just I like less kids at the show. So.
Perfect. Are there. I'm trying to think if I. If we've covered all of sort of the general topics before I subject you to rapid fire, but if there's. Is there anything that I. That I've missed that we haven't covered about this sailing? Anything fun that happened or any. Any experiences that you thought our audience might be interested in?
[00:52:07] Speaker A: Well, dining is really something on a cruise like this because there were no repeats.
[00:52:13] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:52:14] Speaker A: So we had a number of different kinds of menus, which was great. Highlight. A couple of highlights. But we did have the frozen menu one night, and there was Anna's honey mustard marinated salmon. That is worth considering for folks. I learned that the indian food, because if you mention. If you even say indian food in a sentence, you're going to get it the next day. I had always thought that came from the crew mess. Yeah, but it doesn't. He told me, no, we make it in the kitchen when people request it. And I was like, nuh uh. Every. Every podcast I listen to, he's like, no, we make it in the kitchen.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: I didn't know that. I thought it came from the crew mess.
[00:52:58] Speaker A: I always did. I probably did. Because you probably said it.
[00:53:00] Speaker B: We probably said it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure we said it. Yeah.
[00:53:03] Speaker A: So unless Raj was wrong, heads shout out to Raj and Isadora. But our servers. But, yeah, that's what he had told us, which I thought was interesting. Yeah, it was the Thanksgiving menu one night.
[00:53:17] Speaker B: Oh, would love that. Yeah, that's a good menu, too.
I like the.
Well, they don't have pumpkin pie, but they do have a decent apple pie on that menu, and they have a peanut butter chocolate piece. That's. That's not bad, too. Yeah.
[00:53:33] Speaker A: Yeah. And I hate to report that the truffle presettes were not good on this trip.
[00:53:39] Speaker B: Oh, that makes me sad.
[00:53:41] Speaker A: They were a little gummy.
[00:53:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, they can be that way.
[00:53:46] Speaker A: I ordered two because I was so excited about it as one does.
[00:53:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:51] Speaker A: And bit of a drag.
I know.
[00:53:55] Speaker B: Now, you did. You mentioned you got Apollo brunch on your last sea day.
[00:54:00] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:54:01] Speaker B: And you all have been to Paulo, I assume, for brunch before. We have, yeah. What did you think about? How was it on this sailing? You mentioned you were initially didn't want it really, on the last day, but that's what was available.
But did that work out well? And how was that?
[00:54:16] Speaker A: It did, yeah. My concern was it was the day before we got off and once we spent the day in Barcelona, which unbelievable town, by the way, and I can mention a few things there in a second, but we knew we were flying to Italy next. And so it's like, I'm going to eat at Palo two days before I'm.
[00:54:34] Speaker B: In the real Italy, eating the real italian food.
[00:54:37] Speaker A: That's right. But no, it was a great experience.
We stayed away from breakfast, like any smart Paulo brunch person would do, and.
[00:54:48] Speaker B: Stuff your faces with the italian food.
[00:54:50] Speaker A: Oh, tell me about it.
It was weird. Lasagna beat chicken parm this time.
[00:54:54] Speaker B: Sometimes it does. You know, you can. Sometimes I will say there's been a couple of times where, like, if the chicken parm is just a little too dry, sometimes lasagna is. It can beat it out. For me, it's usually the chicken parm beats out lasagna for Brian. It never does. Brian always, I mean, he likes the chicken parm, but he will always say the lasagna. But I've, I've had it a couple times where it's, you know, maybe it's a little bit dry and then. Yeah. And then I take a bite of Brian's lasagna and I'm a little bit jealous.
[00:55:21] Speaker A: Yes.
But no, Apollo brunch was a winner. It always is. We were glad we got to do it for sure.
[00:55:28] Speaker B: Well, you mentioned Barcelona. I would love to get just a couple of your recommendations since, you know, since you had such a great time there. A couple recommendations for, you know, places that you really enjoyed in Barcelona, whether it's hotel or restaurants or even sites, obviously.
[00:55:45] Speaker A: Of course, there was something.
On paper, this was a great idea. There's a tour company that picks you up at the port, gives you a four hour tour of Barcelona, then drops you off at your hotel. On paper. In reality, I'm not sure I'd recommend it.
[00:56:00] Speaker B: Really interesting.
[00:56:01] Speaker A: Yeah. The tour was now granted Park Grewel, which is a major thing to see. Gaudi, the architect, the brilliant guy, designed it. That was closed for the day, so we didn't get to see, probably a quarter of what the tour was supposed to be.
[00:56:18] Speaker B: Right, right. That's amazing.
[00:56:19] Speaker A: And I could tell that they were throwing in the bee material to try to fill out the tour, and so that could be part of it. But on paper, it seemed like a great idea.
[00:56:28] Speaker B: Right, because your hotel room's not ready yet, probably. And so you can't really. You could check in, but you can't. They'll hold your luggage, but you don't have any place to kind of relax.
[00:56:37] Speaker A: Exactly. So, uh. But anyhow, so we did that sagrada familia church.
Everyone in the world must experience it once. Oh, my goodness. I mean, just. And I mean, it's been in process for 130 years or whatever.
[00:56:53] Speaker B: It'll never be finished.
[00:56:54] Speaker A: No. They say 33 now.
2033 is the target date, but it is an unbelievable thing to experience.
Our hotel was right off of Las Ramblas, so we were right in the old town. Pickpockets are a huge deal. And so I had a Rick Steves money belt on, which was uncomfortable, but did the job. But no, Barcelona is. We were only there for less than 24 hours, but we got to experience a number of things that I would love to go there again someday. It was great.
[00:57:26] Speaker B: Awesome. What was the hotel you stayed at for folks that are wondering?
[00:57:30] Speaker A: It was called La Petite Palace, I think was the name of. Of it. Kind of a boutique place in the zone where you can't drive cars. So we had to walk down the sidewalk a little bit to get to it, but it was just kind of nestled back in a. In a corner. It was. It was really nice.
[00:57:48] Speaker B: Awesome. Sounds great. Well, sounds like it was, you know, like a perfect location to. To get to all the touristy places as well. So that's really nice. All right, well, that brings me to the point in the show where I have to subject you to some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules, and a dash of judgment, or the round we like to call rapid fire. All right, Kenton, I am going to ask you your favorites. First, we'll start with your general Disney favorites, and then, of course, I've got to ask you Disney cruise line favorites. Now, of course, your answers for Disney Cruise line favorites got to be limited to ship that you have been on shows. You have seen yourself, right? So, yeah. So if you haven't yet been on the wish, which I think is correct, don't answer with the wish. Right. Okay, so let's start with who is your favorite Disney character?
[00:58:35] Speaker A: Now, there's a story behind this.
[00:58:37] Speaker B: All right, I love this story.
[00:58:38] Speaker A: Part of what I do for a living is I'm a choral and orchestral conductor.
[00:58:42] Speaker B: Oh, awesome.
[00:58:43] Speaker A: And so my favorite character is sorcerer Mickey, because when you see him up there at fantasmic.
[00:58:49] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:58:50] Speaker A: That's exactly how it feels to conduct an orchestra.
[00:58:53] Speaker B: I love that. I love that.
[00:58:54] Speaker A: It is unreal. So sorcerer Mickey. Mickey.
[00:58:57] Speaker B: I love that. Okay, awesome. Okay, your favorite Disney movie.
[00:59:01] Speaker A: That is tangled.
[00:59:03] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. So good. I'm guessing you really enjoyed that show on the Disney magic, then.
[00:59:09] Speaker A: You got it.
[00:59:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:59:10] Speaker A: Yeah. That was one of the reasons why when I saw that cruise come along. And the tangled restaurant.
[00:59:15] Speaker B: Yes. And the show.
[00:59:16] Speaker A: And the show. Yeah, totally.
[00:59:18] Speaker B: Yeah. I think that both of those are big hits, I would say for me, on the magic, in fact, while I agree with you, the Wonderland just is just, for some reason, better than the magic.
There are. I feel like the shows on the magic are just fantastic. And then Rapunzel's is fantastic. Not that Tiana's isn't fantastic, but something's wonderful about Rapunzel's. All right, favorite Disney song. I'm super interested to hear what you say for this one, Kenton.
[00:59:48] Speaker A: All right, here we go. Happily ever after.
[00:59:51] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. What a great answer.
[00:59:54] Speaker A: I listen to it in the car. You know, you tear up that moment when Tinkerbell comes down right at that you can fly moment. And the whole thing, it's just. It's such a good song.
[01:00:05] Speaker B: Such a good song. All right, now we're going to move on to the cruise ships. This is a really important question, as you know. What is your favorite Disney cruise line main stage show?
[01:00:16] Speaker A: All right. It is Beauty and the Beast.
[01:00:19] Speaker B: See, even though tangled is your favorite movie, Beauty and the Beast is the better. I mean, they're both the amazing, right? They're both so well done. But Beauty and the Beast just takes the cake. Oh, man.
[01:00:29] Speaker A: The projection mapping, there's so much I wanted. I wanted to love frozen. I really did.
[01:00:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:35] Speaker A: But the sailing we were on, they were having technical problems.
[01:00:39] Speaker B: Oh, that's a bummer.
[01:00:40] Speaker A: It would go. Each scene would go about halfway through, all the tech would shut down. The actors just put their heads down and walked off the stage.
[01:00:49] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[01:00:50] Speaker A: And then they started the next act, and then that scene would cut halfway through, and it was like, just as you started to see, this could really be something. So I never got to see frozen.
[01:01:00] Speaker B: Well, I will tell you, when you eventually get to see frozen, you're going to love it. It is a wonderful production. Beauty and the beast still beats it out, though. I mean, it's tangled and frozen to me are, like, tied for number two as far as the cruise line stage productions. But beauty and the beast is just at that other level. It's just because of the way that it's staged and the set design, the projection mapping, all of it together is just when it. Especially when it doesn't have. Well, when it doesn't have technical glitches. When any of them have technical glitches, it ruins the whole thing for sure. Favorite adult bar space on any of the ships that you've been on.
[01:01:40] Speaker A: Okay. I thought it was gonna be meridian, but it's not. It was skyline.
[01:01:44] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.
[01:01:46] Speaker A: I had never been, and when we met Kat and Ryan, that was their hangout. In fact, they knew their drinks, so clearly they had been there a bit, but. So we went there with them and, yeah, it's just. I don't know.
[01:01:59] Speaker B: It's a great bar.
[01:02:00] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. And I thought, what do I want to see skylines of places of America or around the world when I'm on a boat?
And it's kind of cool, too. The magic band makes a little. Does a little thing every time. It does it every 15 minutes when the scene changes in the bar.
[01:02:18] Speaker B: Oh, that's fun.
[01:02:19] Speaker A: Which is kind of cool. The first, like, three times, I'm like, what is going. Oh, it's synchronized.
[01:02:25] Speaker B: I love that. I didn't know that it did that.
I haven't been back on, actually, I haven't been on the dream or the fantasy since the magic band was put onto those ships. And so. Yeah, so I haven't gotten to experience that. But I love Skyline as well. I would say on the dream and the fantasy, I think Meridian is my favorite, but Skyline is a close, close second. Yeah, it's even better on the fantasy because it's slightly larger on the.
[01:02:51] Speaker A: Is it?
[01:02:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Cause they don't have that. There's kind of that weird outdoor balcony thing in the adult only area on the dream that doesn't exist on the fantasy. And so it's. Yeah. Yeah. So the layout of the adult bar spaces is different between the fantasy and the dream. All right, well, let's talk rotational dining.
What's your favorite? Rotational dining restaurant. I have a guess at what you're going to say, but I'm not going to say it because I want to hear what your favorite is. And it doesn't have to be on this cruise.
[01:03:23] Speaker A: Talking about any cruise.
[01:03:24] Speaker B: On any of the ships.
[01:03:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it would be rapunzels.
[01:03:27] Speaker B: Yeah. I knew you were gonna say that.
I'm gonna guess on the dream that it was animators.
[01:03:33] Speaker A: It was.
[01:03:34] Speaker B: There you go. Perfect.
[01:03:35] Speaker A: Well done. See, you're the mentalist. You could go on the ship.
[01:03:40] Speaker B: I can only guess people's favorite stage shows and favorite rotational dining, but. But I'm great at that.
All right, favorite place to relax. On the ship or on a ship.
[01:03:52] Speaker A: I should say on a ship.
[01:03:53] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:03:54] Speaker A: I really do like satellite falls.
[01:03:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a great place. Yeah.
[01:03:58] Speaker A: I mean, even though it wasn't, uh, we didn't get, like, up inside it as much as. As we have on, like, hotter ones because it's 70 degrees. It's, like, right on the. Right on the line. But we did do a lot of. Just in that general area on. On the beds and just kind of hanging out. It was. Yeah, it was a good time. Time.
[01:04:16] Speaker B: Okay, this is an important question. Aqua dunk versus aqua duck.
[01:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I am going to go with aqueduct.
[01:04:24] Speaker B: There you go. That's the right answer.
[01:04:26] Speaker A: Thank you.
The impending doom of the aquadunk.
[01:04:30] Speaker B: It's too scary. It's just too scary. So that countdown is terrifying, and then. Yeah, it's fun, but it's. Yeah, it's terrifying. Okay, favorite ship. Now, you already said this one, but I'm gonna let you say it anyway because it's the right answer.
[01:04:45] Speaker A: It's the wonderland. 300 people. I'm sure I'm biased a little because the experience was just so unreal, but still. Yeah. The wonder. There's just something special about that.
[01:04:57] Speaker B: Yeah. I can only imagine what experiencing Tiana is with that few people. I bet they only had one dining room open. Like.
[01:05:05] Speaker A: Yeah, they actually. No, they did three, but they made 1 hour.
[01:05:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:10] Speaker A: So they moved it down to just a 07:00 dining.
[01:05:13] Speaker B: Oh, so they had, like, a mid dining instead of an early. And that's actually way better because that's more of a normal time to eat for everyone.
[01:05:22] Speaker A: Totally. Totally. Yep.
[01:05:25] Speaker B: That would be great. I've never gotten to experience that. That would be a fantastic way to experience dining.
[01:05:29] Speaker A: It truly was a private yacht. Yes, it was unreal.
[01:05:32] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. Okay, now the last question of rapid fire, your bucket list cruise, if you could. I mean, this was a bucket list cruise. Let's. Let's put that out there. But if you can go anywhere in the world on a Disney cruise line ship, and it doesn't even have to be someplace that Disney cruise line currently goes to, where would you go?
[01:05:51] Speaker A: If I was going to do a real one, it would probably be Alaska. If I was going to do a pretend one. And many of your guests have said, this one, too. A cruise that goes to every park would be unreal.
[01:06:04] Speaker B: I had it in my head. I knew you were going to say.
[01:06:06] Speaker A: You are the mentalist.
[01:06:09] Speaker B: I knew if you were going to pick a real one, it was going to be Alaska, and if you were going to pick a made up one, it was going to be all parks. I love it. Love it.
I got to go on the road with this.
[01:06:20] Speaker A: I think you do.
[01:06:22] Speaker B: Awesome. I love it. Well, Kenton, I have to ask you, since Brian's not here with me today, I've got to ask you what's next? Did you buy a placeholder? Have you got something booked or you headed to the parks or something?
[01:06:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, the answer is yes to all of those things.
[01:06:39] Speaker B: All of them. I love it.
[01:06:41] Speaker A: We had actually booked the January 12. It's a five night out of Fort Lauderdale that goes to both of the islands.
[01:06:54] Speaker B: Oh, to castaway and Lighthouse. Love it.
[01:06:56] Speaker A: So I'll be definitely listening to you guys when you talk about Lighthouse to get because I know that's coming soon. So we had booked that, and then we got the placeholder, and our travel agent was able to do the switcheroo and.
[01:07:07] Speaker B: Oh, nice to get the placeholder. Awesome. That's great.
[01:07:11] Speaker A: So that's the one that's coming up next. I'm going to run the Disney marathon that weekend and so.
[01:07:17] Speaker B: Awesome. And then get on the ship.
[01:07:19] Speaker A: Exactly. Just drive down to Fort Lauderdale and then get on the ship after that.
[01:07:23] Speaker B: Perfect. Well, they won't have the run Disney, or at least we haven't heard yet that they're bringing back the run Disney version of the castaway key five k. But I feel like you're going to have to run a castaway and a lighthouse house five k right after marathon weekend and then take pictures with all your medals. I feel like this is something you got to do.
[01:07:49] Speaker A: I can't guarantee I'll run them.
I'll get five k done, but, yeah, the marathon takes a little bit out of you.
[01:07:57] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Kenton. I hope you'll come back. I would love to hear the your experience at Lighthouse and at Castaway coming up in January, so please come back and join us and tell us all about that. But I'll just say thank you again for joining me this kind of gloomy morning here in Seattle, and I don't know if it's nicer there. I hope it's nicer in Chicago than it is in Seattle today.
[01:08:24] Speaker A: It's sunny and in the seventies. It's a beautiful day. I'm going to go cut the grass.
[01:08:29] Speaker B: Wonderful. Well, thanks again.
[01:08:31] Speaker A: All right, thank you.
[01:08:37] Speaker C: Well, thanks to everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows, so be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us live, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 05:30 p.m. pacific 08:30 p.m. 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, my path unwinding travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com dc or email
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