[00:00:00] Speaker A: Now, I want to put this out there because you brought it up. The idea of there being swingers on board. We have heard that that is a thing as well. We've heard that. I'm going to be clear.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: We're stay away from the upside down pineapples.
[00:00:14] Speaker C: The upside down.
[00:00:15] Speaker A: Right.
[00:00:16] Speaker D: I learned that.
[00:00:17] Speaker A: Right. We've heard the people who engage in that will put upside down pineapples, like on their door, on their clothing, on their person.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: I only know that. I only know that because Emma. Emma Latisse, who's Emma Cruises wrote an article about it. Everyone makes teases me, like, how do you know that? That's how I know it.
[00:00:36] Speaker E: Just, I know it because I went on this cruise.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's live episode of the DCL duo podcast, brought to you by my path, unwinding Travel. And now also the DC DCL magazine. That's right, folks. We are excited to announce the upcoming DCL magazine, packed with stunning photography, in depth stories, and interviews with imagineers about all the behind the scenes Disney cruise details you've always wanted to know. Flip through the pages to feel transported to your favorite ship or island and start planning the details of your next voyage. We are going to put up a link in our show notes for DCL magazine, but basically you can head over to DCL Dash magazine.com to sign up, register that you're interested in getting a copy of the DCL magazine. They will take that interest and the magazine starts selling to homes across the globe soon. So head over to DCl Dash magazine.com and we will have a link in our show notes. Please use that because it'll let you know that the DCL duo sent you their way. But we are excited for our partnership with the DCL magazine, our sponsorship of their sponsoring our live shows. We're really appreciative of them. And so head over there, show them some love with that, Sam. We got some exciting guests, exciting topic. It's near and dear to our heart in about two weeks.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: About two weeks. I'm so excited. We're so excited to have Larry sprung back on our show. But with him, of course, we have his wife Denise sprung with him. We're super excited to have both you guys on our show this week. Obviously, we've mentioned previously on the show, Larry, you are a host of your own podcast, the Mitlin Money mindset. You're also a frequent guest on television news programs all across the country, mostly talking about financial stuff. But you guys are huge Disneyland cruise line fans and you did come on our show to talk about adventures by Disney previously as well. Tell folks your cruising background and specifically where your love for Disney comes from.
[00:02:46] Speaker E: Well, I'll talk about our love for Disney and then Denise will talk about our cruising background because I blur some of those, some of those details sometimes. I'm just the pretty face for this, for this podcast today. But love for Disney really came from before we had kids. Denise and I took a trip to Disney. We really enjoyed our time there. It was somewhere where she went very frequently as a child. I only went once. My family drove from Rockland County, New York, down there when I was like twelve or 13, spent a week there. And that, that was really my experience. So I had very little experience. She had a lot. And then we went together. We had a great time, really enjoyed ourselves. And then when the kids started coming along, it became a frequent thing where we were going, you know, almost annually with both our boys.
[00:03:41] Speaker D: Well, what we did was actually when our younger son was born, who's now 18 that year, we didn't go. We actually bought our Disney timeshare.
And like Larry said, I've gotten every, every year since. But when I was a kid, I went twice. We stayed on property at the contemporary and I absolutely fell in love with sort of being immersed in the magic. So for our first wedding anniversary, I said to Larry, we're gonna go to Disney World. And he was like, wait, it's our anniversary. And we stayed at the Wilderness lodge. And night two he said, can you not take this the wrong way? But this was way more fun than our honeymoon, which was the sandals. So for our 10th wedding anniversary, our boys were probably six and three around that age. I went to a travel agent, I booked a Disney cruise. And my husband is a gentleman who actually does practice what he teaches. And I came home and I said, I booked this cruise for our 10th wedding anniversary. And he said, I'm sorry, how much money did you spend for seven nights?
And I said, a lot of people don't make it to ten years and who's going to watch our kids for ten days? And shut up. You're going.
My boys will tell you that come night two, dad was at the desk booking our second Disney cruise.
[00:04:58] Speaker A: Yes, he was a convert.
[00:05:00] Speaker D: We are gold castaway k members also having done the eleven night cruise, southern Caribbean, that they actually haven't done since the pandemic. And that was, Larry will actually tell you that was his favorite. Just lots of c days. Just, it's probably the one place he gets done.
[00:05:13] Speaker E: I also lie. I think, like five days is too short and seven days is okay. But I got off the eleven night and I felt like that was just right. I felt like it was a good amount of time for me.
[00:05:26] Speaker D: So you don't want to do the nine months around the world?
[00:05:27] Speaker E: I don't know.
[00:05:30] Speaker A: Maybe someday. Maybe someday. Now, you guys are also, of course, adventure insiders. You've been on some adventures by Disney.
What made you all decide you were going to book virgin voyages? I know your boys are now, you said 18 and the other one was in college, right? Yeah. So your boys are adults now. So it was. Is that the sort of the reason or the motive?
[00:05:55] Speaker D: Do you want to take that one?
[00:05:56] Speaker E: Yeah, I'll take that one. Originally we had a Disney cruise booked to go this past summer. And our youngest son, because of his hockey career, I guess you would say some things came in conflict with that opportunity to go on the Disney cruise. So we didn't know.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Some championship stuff.
[00:06:21] Speaker E: Yeah, no, it wasn't the championship. We had to go to a training camp for a hockey team. And it was right smack in the middle of the Disney Cruise that we had, so.
[00:06:31] Speaker D: Job interview.
[00:06:32] Speaker E: Yeah. So we had a. We had. Well, I didn't have to. Denise had to scramble a little quickly to find what options exist. You know, really? There wasn't an option through Disney that worked. But we did take a look and we found one through Virgin and we decided to take the leap and give it a try.
[00:06:49] Speaker D: So I will tell you what he probably doesn't know. Cause he doesn't do vacation planning. I actually said to the boys, hey, look, it's your vacation. What do you want? Yeah, folks, both boys simultaneously. Because there was a very short window between when Jeremy didn't have to be a training camp and Zachary had to start work. They both sent me the exact same virgin voyage out of Miami separately. Now, the backstory to that is when we were on a Disney ship, I won't say when and who because I do not want to get a cruise director in trouble. Pulled us aside and said, my boys were older. Our younger son has gone to boarding school, so he behaves very much like an adult. And that cruise director pulled us aside and said, the next, when this boy's 18, if I were you, I would get on a virgin voyage. All my friends work there and it's the only place I cruise now.
[00:07:36] Speaker B: Well, that's something we. Yeah, that's something we've heard.
[00:07:38] Speaker D: That's what happened in their head. Yeah, they sort of had the virgin voyage implanted their head, but by a Disney cruise director.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Well, and we've heard this, that virgin voyages has actually poached quite. Quite a bit of Disney, like, cruise line staff and folks, even from the, like, corporate and back office headquarters. So, like, you know, they're most often compared to, like, you know, their Disney cruise line for adults. Like, that's. That's how they sort of, you know, we've heard people position it like that. So I'm, like, super curious to hear. Yeah, I'm super curious to hear if that actually played out at all. I mean, like, the content on board is not Disney appropriate, from what I understand. But. But, yeah, yeah. So. So you book. You booked this cruise. It's a five nighter out of Miami, I take it?
[00:08:19] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. On the. Was it scarlet lady or the valiant lady?
[00:08:23] Speaker D: The valiant lady.
[00:08:24] Speaker E: Valiant lady.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Valiant lady.
[00:08:25] Speaker D: The valiant lady.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Their ships look very different than some other cruise line ships. So I'm curious, first impressions, you know, seeing them from the outside and getting on board, like, how. What was that like?
[00:08:37] Speaker D: They're very beautiful.
They sort of feel like the smaller Disney class cruise ships with smaller, intimate spaces around the decks.
He does no research. I'm the kind of person that sort of, like, wants to see it before I've been there, so I knew where a lot of the spaces were to eat. There certainly are cute little bars everywhere.
I found my favorite bartender, and there's no main dining. You book dinner, so it feels more personal, really, everywhere you go.
[00:09:14] Speaker E: And I would say one of the things I.
I love Disney, but one thing that I didn't like was the 05:00 dinner. I believe it's five was too early for me, and the 08:00 was almost too late. So having the ability to be able to go when you wanted and book a time that works for you was very much in line. But I would agree. I think the ship itself was fantastic.
They have a lot of extra room compared to the Disney because they don't need the kids club and those extra areas, those clubs that they have set up for the kids. So think about having all of that extra space for the adults, you know, as a whole. So that was good. And then, you know, they also have the addition. If you are a gambler, you know, one of the things Disney doesn't have is the casino. I am not a gambler, but it's there for those that are interested in doing that as well.
[00:10:10] Speaker D: Yeah, I should add for. I do want to just add for people that those are adult only. There's not smoking everywhere, so.
[00:10:16] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:10:17] Speaker A: That's helpful to know.
[00:10:17] Speaker D: The casino was even non smoking.
[00:10:19] Speaker E: There was no smoking.
[00:10:20] Speaker D: There was no smoking.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: You had to, like, go outside, probably. Yeah, that's.
[00:10:24] Speaker D: There's no smoking.
[00:10:25] Speaker E: There was really. We only encountered it maybe once or twice, and it was all. It was in an outdoor area, which was designated for smoking. So once you figured that out and if it wasn't of interest to you, just stayed away from that area.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is, like, similar to on Disney Cruise line. I feel like, you know, there's always, like, one deck area that is open for smokers. And other than that, you really don't encounter smoking. If you don't want to know, I want to back up and figure out what kind of. What kind of stateroom did you book? I mean, I know the answer to this because we talked a little bit pre show, but our audience doesn't. I want to know what you guys book for you all. And did you book the same for the boys, too, who were, you know, young adults but also sailing with you?
[00:11:05] Speaker D: No. So they were. They were sailing with us. So what we did, and some of this is because we'd never sailed with them before as a. As a cruise line. So we went mega Rockstar, so the highest you can sail with virgin. And we did that because we were celebrating a lot of things. It was one boy turning 18 and his high school graduation, because we do experiences over parties. Our other son had turned 21, and I turned 50, and all of that was actually within a 45 day period.
[00:11:34] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Congratulations to all of you.
[00:11:36] Speaker D: Thank you. So we booked a posh and a gorgeous suite, both in the mega rockstar status. The only difference was the one that was a little bit bigger gave Larry and I half bathroom, so we had a full bath and a half and a larger seating area so we could have food with the boys in our room. And then my boys knew when they came over, the half bath belonged to them, because when you send your children away to live with other boys, they come back like bulls.
[00:12:02] Speaker A: This is good to know. This is what we have in our future.
[00:12:05] Speaker D: Very important to understand.
I love that. So the rooms were gorgeous.
Each of our terraces or verandas had a yellow leaf hammock on it, which they were on shark tank. They're made in. Help women out of poverty. And I will tell you, he's not a hammock person. And at one point, I was like, get out of the hammock. I want the hammock. Like, they're very comfortable and easy to.
[00:12:29] Speaker E: Get in and out of, too.
[00:12:31] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:12:31] Speaker D: That's a little bit harder for me.
[00:12:36] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Well, I hear they sell the hammocks on board. That's how comfortable they are.
So mega Rockstar is like concierge on Disney plus. Plus plus. Right. And so I'm curious, how much help did you get pre sailing with your bookings and such? We're sailing mega Rockstar. We got an email maybe a month or so ago about arranging ground transportation, but that's about it. That's about all I've heard from the mega rockstar folks.
[00:13:02] Speaker D: Yeah, probably better, because we got an email before asking, you know, what our alcohol preferences were, what albums did we want in our stateroom? None of that was there.
[00:13:13] Speaker A: No.
[00:13:14] Speaker D: So I went through sending them. Like, our boys literally went and pulled up the Google Doc that they created with the albums to try to get them. So probably better. I will tell you, the pickup is beautiful.
They come.
[00:13:26] Speaker E: Can I just say one thing? Although it wasn't there when we got there, when we talked to the butler agent, the rockstar agent, and let him know what we wanted and what we needed, then it was like, it wasn't an issue. It was all. It was all done within a couple hours after that.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: So.
[00:13:43] Speaker E: Although. Although we were a little bit disappointed when we got there that it wasn't all there. It was easily rectified. Within a couple hours, we came back.
[00:13:51] Speaker D: From dinner, and the bar was restocked. And when I'm saying restocked, we're talking about a full size bottle of bullet. A full size bottle of gray goose. These are not baby bottles. This is a full on, full on bar.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:05] Speaker E: Wow, wow, wow.
[00:14:07] Speaker D: And then the other benefit since. Since Brian, as you said, people won't know what that is at mega Rockstar, they actually replace your bar every day. So they actually tell you if you like it, put it away, and we'll bring you a new bottle. And I'm not joking. And then Larry is a bourbon fan. So we had mentioned Blanton's, and we showed up the next day, and instead of bullet, we got Blanton's. And if there are any bourbon people listening, it is a very expensive bottle of bourbon. And she just showed up in our room.
[00:14:36] Speaker E: And hard to find some places, too.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: Yeah, well, Brian is a bourbon man himself, so.
[00:14:45] Speaker E: You could collect a lot of the horses on that trip.
[00:14:47] Speaker D: Yes, but try the higher end stuff. So an interesting thing to understand what happens, and we didn't understand this until we got on the boat. So Sam and Brian, they're going to, you're going to go to the bar, you want to order two drinks and that's it. And then they can literally close the tab out and reopen it. But you're going to see those drinks hit on your app and then your rockstar agent goes in and clears them off.
Interesting. If you're very clear with the bartender that you're a mega rockstar, and some of the better bartenders will know that your drink can be dollar 24. So for instance, with a McAllen, they gave him, I think it was an 18 at a pour and a half to keep him under the 24. And then for the second drink he's like, well, it doesn't matter now. So they gave him a double pour of a twelve. So the bartender knows what you're trying to do and they'll be very good with you. But the sort of interesting part of the agent going in there and checking is when we were on Bimini, the private beach club, he ordered buffalo trace in coconut water.
We got back to our stateroom, there was a small bottle of buffalo trays. Oh, my level of service. Right. That's the level of magic.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Wow. Let's talk about what is included in your cruise a little bit so that folks understand what are sort of add ons and what are obviously there's differences between your level of class with rockstar, mega rockstar or just sailing regular, of course. But what are sort of the general things that are included? Like, let's talk like maybe, I don't know, dining excursions. What kinds of things are included in the Virgin voyages booking.
[00:16:26] Speaker E: Yeah. So let me take that for a second. So I think it's easier, especially with them, if you're going to go mega rock star status, it's almost easier to talk about what is not included.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:16:36] Speaker E: Because most of it is included. The only things that are not included are your excursions, your gambling money, your shopping money and the spa, the spa. And there are some at the restaurants. There aren't even that many that I would even worry about. But there are a couple of items at a couple of the restaurants. Usually one item at each of the restaurants. That's a bit of an upcharge.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: Yeah. Like a caviar add on or something like that.
[00:17:08] Speaker E: There was a steak, a tomahawk, ribeye.
[00:17:11] Speaker D: And a seafood tower.
[00:17:12] Speaker E: Seafood tower. So I mean, there aren't that many, but besides that, virtually everything else is included. You're nothing really having to pay for anything else.
[00:17:23] Speaker D: And Sam, to ask your question about a general, just a regular virgin passenger yeah. So they have their version of room service.
If you aren't mega Rockstar or rockstar, you would pay a $5 fee.
[00:17:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:40] Speaker D: But if you order something. So if you were to order a cappuccino or a juice, which are $7, then it's free.
[00:17:48] Speaker A: Ah, gotcha. The delivery is free because you're paying $5. Minimum is essentially what they're doing.
[00:17:54] Speaker D: But then the food would be included. All of those. So then the food is included. Right. So if you just order the food that's included, there's a $5 fee. If you order something that you would have to pay for, then the $5 fee goes away and then all of those dining restaurants are included. So what you would think of as a specialty restaurant, that's all that virgin has. You pick one of your five specialty restaurants every night and you book a dinner reservation as if you would if you spent five nights in Miami.
[00:18:21] Speaker B: I want to throw up a couple of the comments here. One hearkens back to me were talking about, so Kareen saying, sitting in extra virgin, which is one of the restaurants, there were three couples within your shot of us actively comparing DCL diversion voyages, and there was no clear winner. That's exciting to me to see. Karen's asking, did you status match and how did that work? I will say we did submit our DCL perl status match and basically it put us in, I don't think it gave us like top tier status with virgin or anything, but it gave us like some status with virgin. But PS, if you're sailing rockstar or mega Rockstar, like, most of the benefits of the status match are included. So it's not going to be much benefit to us, it turns out. But yeah. What was your experience with that, Larry?
[00:19:04] Speaker E: Denise, with the status match, you're right on. I mean, unless you, if you, unless you're going at a lower tier, there could be some benefits there. But at the rockstar, mega rockstar, there's really not a lot of benefits, I would say to the comment about the comparison, depending upon what's important to you. For us, there were certain, you know, there were certain things that we felt virgin won out on and there were certain things we felt Disney won out on. I think overall it's probably pretty darn close. But if you had, for instance, I would say the food on virgin was good. And I feel like the food on Disney is actually better. Oh, wow. I felt like the food was better on Disney. I don't know if you agree with that, but I did. I felt like it was. I think the choice was greater on virgin, but the actual quality was better.
So there are things depending upon what you're looking to do and what's important to you that might tip you in one direction or another.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:05] Speaker D: And I was back to the status match. So the only way to get top virgin status is from virgin. They don't give that. They don't match that. But with that mid status match, probably the best perk. I mean, you can get a cappuccino a day, but the best perk, and you will get it with mega Rockstar, is they'll do your laundry.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: Oh, that's really nice. That's a mega rock star.
[00:20:27] Speaker D: They'll do your laundry every day.
[00:20:29] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:20:30] Speaker D: The status would be one bag of laundry. So they'll tell you when it come back. I highly recommend that anyone who has status or sales, mega rockstar or rockstar. Your last day, man, give them your laundry. We came home with literally one day of dirty clothes. It was epic.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: That's the best. I love that. I love.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: Sam's going to put that one to the test. I can already.
[00:20:49] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I absolutely will put that.
[00:20:51] Speaker D: How many nights are you sailing for?
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Just, just four nights, right?
[00:20:54] Speaker B: Just four nights. Yeah.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: Yeah. Just four nights. But I'm definitely, I mean, I would send it out every night, frankly.
[00:20:59] Speaker E: Well, we spent, we spent a few nights in Miami before we took off, so we had dirty clothes before we even got on the ship and we put it all in a bag and the minute we got on, we just threw it in the bag. And the next, the next morning, everything was clean and ready to fold it. Ready to go.
[00:21:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Even. Just like your traveling clothes. Why not, right? Like, I think that's. I love having clean laundry, so I may be the weird one, too, but I love it. I want to talk entertainment a little bit. Now, we know that virgin voyages, it's adult only, so there's going to be some different types of entertainment than there are on Disney cruise line. Why don't you tell us, like, some of the examples of what kinds of entertainment people can expect and how it compares to Disney. And I would say sort of production quality, because obviously you can't. It's apples and oranges. You can't compare them directly.
[00:21:49] Speaker D: Yeah, we'll start and he'll finish. So I'll start with a thing I found to be completely hysterical.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:56] Speaker D: So if any of your, if anyone listening has sort of done some research, virgin's big thing is scarlet night. So come as you are in any red so I recommend you both buy red. Everyone does. It was super cool.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: I already have a dress. I bought a dress.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: I bought a red shirt, and I got some white pants. I think I'm gonna be.
[00:22:13] Speaker D: I think Larry wore this in red jacket.
[00:22:16] Speaker A: I loved it. I saw. I remember seeing the pictures, Larry, and I loved it. I loved it.
[00:22:20] Speaker E: I had red sneakers.
[00:22:21] Speaker D: He had red sneakers, actually, for Wesley Krause from the man in the red bandana from September 11. We happen to own a pair of his sneakers, so Larry wore those. The absolute most bananas thing, and I might be the only person who noticed it beside my older son was they open Scarlet night with, what do you do with a drunken sailor? Which is the exact same way Disney cruise lines opens pirate night. So Scarlet night up on the main deck was awesome. And I would say, don't miss that. And you can speak.
[00:22:49] Speaker E: Yeah. And our sons were one of the first to cannonball into the pool with all their clothes on. So they really enjoyed that as well. But I would say, you know, and I can only speak for the, you know, the voyage we were on. Right. In terms of the entertainment, it was hit or miss.
We had a comedian who was completely awful.
It went from bad to worse. I mean, our boy. Our boys literally left shortly into it. It just really just didn't hit the mark. There was one other show that we saw. The name, I don't remember, but it was an acrobatic type, almost like a Cirque du Soleil type show. That was very good. Excellent. But they don't have, from what I saw and what we experienced, they don't have the production type entertainment that Disney has. So if that's what you're looking for, is more Broadway driven type shows, I think that tilts the scale to Disney. If you're looking for more fun, little bit more loose entertainment and relax, I think virgin was better. I think, you know, the Scarlet night compared to Pirate night, I think Scarlet Night was, you know, a lot of fun and, you know, obviously two totally different experiences.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:24:14] Speaker D: But if there are people who are concerned about adult being overly adult, there's no concern for that. If you don't like it, just walk away.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:24:23] Speaker B: What. What kind of stuff happened on scarlet night? Like, that's what I'm curious about, because.
[00:24:27] Speaker D: I've heard, well, no joke, our boys cannonballed into the pool, which Disney would never allow.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: Right. With their clothes on. Right.
[00:24:33] Speaker D: That would never happen.
[00:24:35] Speaker E: Yeah. I mean, you know, Brian, I mean, people were in the pool dancing. People were on the pool deck dancing, they brought it, you know, they had dancers who were typically in the shows around the pool deck, around the outer edge of the pool, you know, dancing and singing and they had a dj. It was like, if you think about it, like a big nightclub. And, you know, the way the pool is kind of situated, the two ends are like foot and a half decks where you can just walk and stand. And then the middle part of the pool is where it gets deep. And when I say deep, maybe 4ft. So there's a lot of room for people to just hang out there and dance and have a good time and listen to music and have some cocktails.
It wasn't anything that crazy. It was, it was actually a lot of fun. And, uh, you know, I didn't see anything that was, like, out of the ordinary.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: What's, what's life like on board during the day? Right? Cause, like, is it, is everyone up on the pool deck? Like, Disney offers, like, activities to kind of spread the crowds out a little bit. Like, I'm just pooling.
[00:25:38] Speaker D: The pool deck is very crowded. So there are, there are two pools. One is I'm old. It was too loud for me, like, so I didn't get off when they got off at Dominican Republic. So on the, on that day, it was nice and quiet and I sat at the main pool. The other pool is a quiet pool, so it's not super. And when I tell you loud, I got my pedicure. The pedicure room is next door to the main pool. And literally, the lady sitting on the floor doing a pedicure, her seat was vibrating. Like, it's loud.
I would say not dissimilar to probably every cruise ship we've ever been on. The pool's too small.
[00:26:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:26:15] Speaker E: And I think, I think where Virgin fell on in this regard is, you know, if you're rock star and mega rock star, you get Richard's rooftop.
[00:26:22] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:26:23] Speaker E: You could go to Richard's rooftop, which is like a private area to lounge and relax. There's a couple bars up there also. There's some hot tubs, but what isn't up there is there's no pool. So although it's a private place and not crowded, if you're really, if it's a really hot day and you just want to kind of take a diphthere, you got to go down to the regular floor and jump in the pool there if there's room for you to even get in. So it's a little bit of a challenge. I felt like that was a little bit of a fail that if, you know, if you have these people who are paying for the higher end, there should be some kind of cooling off mechanism, there should be a kind of pool.
[00:27:01] Speaker D: Well, there were two showers, I would tell you.
[00:27:04] Speaker E: I mean, the ship was great, especially with mega rockstar. We got access. Me and the boys went to the gym and then we went to the spa, which we didn't necessarily get a treatment, but we had access to the eucalyptus. I don't know what they call that eucalyptus room. The sauna. Cold, cold plunge, hot sauna.
[00:27:24] Speaker A: So it's kind of like a rainforest room.
[00:27:25] Speaker D: It is a rainforest, correct?
[00:27:27] Speaker E: Yeah. Mud bath.
[00:27:28] Speaker D: Mud bath. And so the thing about that is when you talk about things that you might experience on vacation that you wouldn't normally do, I go to the spa all the time. He'll never come with me. My older boy, maybe the younger boy, yes. But one day we actually, the four of us went into the spa and went into the eucalyptus room and he didn't put mud, but he sat there where I did. And had we not had status, guys, we never would have done that.
So there was that. And it's absolutely gorgeous in there. They did an unbelievably beautiful job. They did upsell me on my treatment for Dominican Republic Day. It was worth every penny.
And the staff was, I mean, the spa staff was amazing. They come from, actually, the lady I had actually came from the silo in South Africa, which is one of the top resorts. Right, right in Cape Town, so.
[00:28:18] Speaker A: Oh, cool.
[00:28:20] Speaker E: And Brian, to your point, there's also other activities going on. We saw like they had a horse racing thing during the day where the day before, four people bid money on a horse and then they, you know, whoever was the high, the four highest bidders, I guess they got this horse and then they had 24 hours to decorate it and then, you know, get it all decorated up. It was a little like, you know what, competition, like a broomstick horse. And then it was a dice rolling game and, you know, they, they moved on and, you know, people got into it. It was pretty, pretty fun. And I think the winner won some part of the money that went into, you know, purchasing the horse, et cetera. So there were all activities like that going on.
[00:29:00] Speaker D: The slot tournament, the drag queen, Washington somewhere. We actually watched them fall down the stairs. So that was interesting. Oh, no, I will also say the other thing our boys did, which was really nice, is there's a barber.
[00:29:12] Speaker A: Oh, cool.
[00:29:13] Speaker D: So they each one got a haircut and a shave. And one got a shave, and that.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: Was right up Brian's alley. The shave. I mean, he loves me up. Yeah. He loves the men's facial on Disney.
[00:29:25] Speaker E: A lot of people get tattoos on the virgin voyage, so.
[00:29:28] Speaker A: Oh, wow. Okay, that's. That's. That's not going to happen. Here, let me just put that out there. That's not going to happen.
[00:29:33] Speaker D: So I will give you a hack.
[00:29:34] Speaker E: I'm nervous. If it's a rocky day, I'm not trusting that.
[00:29:39] Speaker D: So I will give you a hack. So there are a number of things that even as a mega rock star, you cannot book until you're on board.
[00:29:47] Speaker A: Okay?
[00:29:47] Speaker D: But on board is when you can catch virgin Wi fi. So we got into the rockstar, and we're waiting online so that I could book my spa and so that the boys could book their shave. And I will give credit to my older son. Zachary comes and goes. Hey, mom, I caught ship Wi Fi, and by the time I got up to the front of the line, I already had my spa, and he already had his shave.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:09] Speaker D: So when you get there, turn your phone on. If you can catch Wi Fi at the phenomenal, you can actually book it.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: That's fantastic. So you can't. Can you not book spa appointments then, in advance? Okay. You're shaking your head no. Okay. That's. That's helpful to know because I have not been able. I'll be perfectly candid and say I have not been able to log into the virgin voyages app yet. It has not. It's not finding my booking. So I'm having my travel agent work on that to figure out if there's some issue with my name or date of birth not matching. I want to make sure that that's all figured out, obviously, before we get that or if it's just like a glitch in the app, I don't know. Brian has been able to access the app, so that's something I just have not been able to.
[00:30:49] Speaker D: We had that with Zach.
[00:30:51] Speaker E: Our son couldn't access it, and I don't remember what he did, but it.
[00:30:54] Speaker D: Ended up travel agent 50.
[00:30:55] Speaker E: It ended up getting rectified. And the other thing is, you know, with. With, you know, the mega Rockstar especially, I wouldn't be too concerned with it because, you know, the Rockstar agents, they were really good. We had different ones. We had one, and our boys had somebody different, and they were both fantastic. Nothing was ever an issue. You know, sometimes if we wanted something, it might have been plus or minus a half hour, if anything but it always got done and we got what we wanted. So it was. It was nice.
[00:31:24] Speaker D: I will give you my favorite mega rock star tip if you'd like.
[00:31:27] Speaker A: Yeah, we love all these tips. Yeah.
[00:31:29] Speaker D: So as a mega rock star in an. A rock star, I think in a. But you can't quote me on that. In addition to ordering from the ship eats menu, you can order food from any restaurant. So best tip last night, and I don't care if it's after dinner, if there was food you loved from every restaurant. We did this the last night. We got a little bit from every restaurant. We sent the list to our agent, and showing up in our room, carried in their little ship beads beds were four sets of foods from all our favorite restaurants. And I'd gotten that tip in a Facebook group.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Oh, my God, I love that.
[00:32:02] Speaker D: Super cool. Just have the opportunity to resample, like, you know, what your favorite bites were.
[00:32:07] Speaker E: And the only thing I would say about the restaurants, you could try it out for yourself. But maybe I'm going to skew this data a little bit. But test kitchen, you could pass on that experience.
It's really not a great experience.
Kind of weird combinations. And it is the most underutilized restaurant on the whole ship. So much so that they were talking to us about, it's going to be gone. They're looking at getting rid of it.
[00:32:35] Speaker A: Oh, wow. So they're going to reimagine it.
[00:32:37] Speaker D: Yes. He is an adventurous eater. So when we were in Miami, and if anybody's going to the port of Miami to take virgin, and you can get reservations at Mila. Highly recommend. It's our second time we've eaten there, except this time we had a dual experience. He and our younger son did Omakase, and the older boy and I ate upstairs. So he went from having eaten an omakase dinner where they just serve you whatever you can eat, to he sat down at tech and both he and that same young man were like, could we leave? This food is not.
[00:33:05] Speaker E: Yeah, it just didn't hit the mark. I'm pretty adventurous and it just didn't hit the mark for me.
[00:33:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, that's good to know because we obviously are trying to figure out what our dining is. I think we have booked our dining, but we can always switch that up.
[00:33:16] Speaker B: Of course, I'm checking it. I'm checking it now because this test kitchen tip is making me a little worried that we.
[00:33:21] Speaker D: I would short test kitchen.
[00:33:24] Speaker C: We know that people trust Disney for their vacations, and it can sometimes be a little nerve wracking to think about trying something new, right, Sam?
[00:33:30] Speaker A: Yeah. Whether you're considering branching out to a new cruise line, an all inclusive resort, or exploring Europe, the team at Mypath Unwinding travel has the expertise and connections across the globe to plan almost any vacation. They can even help with the universal parks. They've helped us plan our vacations beyond Disney, including Royal Caribbean Princess cruise Line and Virgin Voyager.
[00:33:48] Speaker C: Their team of travel professionals all understand the needs of a Disney traveler, can help you decide if another option is right for you and then guide you through every step of your new vacation experience. Whether you are dreaming of a fun getaway to an all inclusive resort, a river cruise in Europe, or an adventure in Costa Rica, the folks at Mypath unwinding are ready to help. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your next vacation even more amazing.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: If you want to learn more and take advantage of the amazing team at mypath unwinding, then head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email
[email protected] to let them know we sent you their way. Thanks, mypath unwinding, for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:34:29] Speaker E: Yeah, and should I give him the, should I give him the tip on Gumbay?
[00:34:34] Speaker D: Oh, that's funny. Yeah.
[00:34:36] Speaker E: Don't win Gumbay.
When you go to Gumbay, they have.
[00:34:40] Speaker D: A little japanese barbecue.
[00:34:42] Speaker E: It's a japanese barbecue, and they do a little drinking game to kick things off with sake or some form of sake. And you think that winning, you actually win. So I won, and basically everybody else lost. So when they lost, when they got knocked out, they had to do one shot of this sake. Then when I won, I had to drink whatever was left in the bottle, which was like three quarters of the bottle of sake. So if you like sake, it might be you actually winning. I'm not, I'm not a big fan of sake.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: I'm not a sake fan.
[00:35:15] Speaker E: Yeah. But it was, it was a lot of sake that night.
[00:35:19] Speaker D: And through the dumbbell experience, it will be the one time you will eat with other people. So remember that as a mega rock star, you actually can buy them a drink.
[00:35:27] Speaker A: So that's so nice.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I remember they were telling us, actually, we could use our transportation for someone who wasn't mega rockstar. Like, we can invite them to come to the port with us. Like, it's very interesting. They seem to, like, be okay with you sharing this stuff as opposed to, like, Disney, who's like no one in the concierge lounge except the people who belong here, you know?
[00:35:44] Speaker D: So that's. Except. But you couldn't bring them to Richard's rooftop, so they're only doing that because they're sending you an Escalade and it's empty anyway.
[00:35:51] Speaker A: Right.
[00:35:52] Speaker D: Can't bring them on. Everyone has to have the black bracelet to get into Richard rooftop. So yes and no, if that makes sense.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
Like, if we were with friends. Mega rocks.
[00:36:03] Speaker D: Or just buy them how they charge that, because they have to know to charge it two at a time or you're going to eat that bill.
[00:36:10] Speaker A: Gotcha. Okay, what were some of your.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: Hold on. Speaking of food, for a second, what places did you really like?
[00:36:16] Speaker A: I wanted to ask about bimini. Brian.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: We will. We will ask.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: We'll start with the food. Okay.
[00:36:23] Speaker E: Gumbay was my favorite.
The japanese steakhouse, that was my favorite.
[00:36:28] Speaker D: And the last dish was the best.
[00:36:30] Speaker E: Yes. The Korean. It's like korean barbecue.
[00:36:32] Speaker D: They saved that as a last morsel and we asked for more.
[00:36:34] Speaker E: Yeah, that place was the best.
[00:36:36] Speaker D: I felt I will say might have.
[00:36:38] Speaker E: Been all the sake.
[00:36:42] Speaker D: I'm actually not a huge mexican fan person just because I have a really low tolerance for spice. But I'd been told that they have the best ribeye on the ship. Just ask for it with no cheese. And I will tell you, it was actually the best bite of steak I had on the ship was the ribeye at pink agave.
[00:36:59] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:37:00] Speaker E: And I would also say, similar to Disney, they're very accommodating to allergies, or they were always very mild about asking about that and accommodating in any way for the food that you wanted to order.
[00:37:16] Speaker D: Oh, and the Nokia extra virgin. Outstanding.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. We've heard good things about extra virgin. That's their italian.
[00:37:22] Speaker D: And then the other thing for us personally, because we had that mega rock star status every night. Tell your agent what you want for breakfast. Now, you can not only get cappuccino espresso, you can also get fresh juice. So I got fresh tangerine juice every morning. And he got fresh grapefruit juice every morning. Larry loves to joke. It's already baked into the cake, so have all the things show up. So we had fresh juice show up every morning. Literally fresh press. It was an awesome way to start our morning.
[00:37:50] Speaker A: Love that. Love that. Now, I assume it's like hot breakfast. They'll bring you to your room. It's not just like a continental breakfast, right?
[00:37:56] Speaker D: Yeah, no, anything on any menu. So brunch at Razzle dazzle. Brunch at. Our boys did brunch from week to their room, I think, every morning.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:38:05] Speaker D: I think Zach had a steak every morning for breakfast.
[00:38:07] Speaker E: I didn't leave the room for breakfast one day.
[00:38:09] Speaker D: No.
[00:38:09] Speaker E: Maybe once.
[00:38:10] Speaker D: No. We went to razzle dazzle for brunch. Brunch at razzle dazzle was very cute. Brunt of razzle dazzle was very cute. So we went there once.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Based on how crowded the pool deck, did you find yourself using your room more than you might otherwise on a Disney cruise or about the same?
[00:38:25] Speaker E: I think we just used it more or less for meals a lot of times because we had the space. We used it for the breakfast. And then I know you want to get to the excursions. For instance, when we went to the Dominican Republic, myself and the boys did a seven hour excursion.
[00:38:42] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:38:43] Speaker D: He didn't pick that.
[00:38:44] Speaker E: It was a. It was a dune buggy drive dive where we jumped off of, I don't know, cliff dive or whatever. And then what was the other piece?
[00:38:54] Speaker D: I wasn't there.
[00:38:55] Speaker E: Oh, and a hike. So we went away for 7 hours. So that day we were like, you know what? I don't think we're going to want to go to a restaurant and sit down. So we put in an order. Denise put in an order, literally, as we walked in the room back from the excursion, and the meal was there, ready to go. So I think from that standpoint, we spent a fair amount of time there, and I guess cause of the hammock also. But I don't think it was because of the pool, per se.
[00:39:18] Speaker D: I don't think we're being there during the day, though, like, morning. But again, the benefit of now our children being in another room was we could just sit and hang out and have breakfast. Right? Cause no one's like, mom, do you wanna go? Mom, can we go here?
[00:39:30] Speaker A: Right? They can go off on their own. Yeah.
[00:39:32] Speaker D: I will say we invited them to brunch with us. And my older son text back, why would I go to brunch when they bring me steak in my bed?
[00:39:39] Speaker A: Okay.
I love it.
[00:39:42] Speaker D: Have steak in your bed. Fair.
[00:39:44] Speaker A: I mean, he's not. He's not wrong.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: Not just a hat rack, my friend. Not just a hat rack.
[00:39:48] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: Well, let's talk about Bimini, because, you know, you mentioned dominican, but, you know, that's not a private, private resort. I want to hear about the private resort that virgin voyages has in Bimini, what you guys thought of it and how it compares to someplace like castaway key.
[00:40:07] Speaker D: Um, I might back up for 1 second, if that's okay.
[00:40:10] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:40:11] Speaker D: Although he did an excursion. The very interesting thing is, Larry will tell you, historically, if I'm not there, there are no photos.
And a little bit into the excursion.
[00:40:20] Speaker E: Well, yeah, when I, when I went to the excursion, I forgot to bring, because it was water, I forgot to bring the like, pouch that my phone would go into.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: Oh, sure.
[00:40:29] Speaker E: Pictures and whatnot. So I was keeping it in a dry pouch that didn't have a clear, you know, clear section on it. And what I noticed was there was a guy who was taking pictures and video, like from the beginning, who worked for the tour company. So shortly into it, I went up to him and I said, oh, are you taking pictures the whole time? And he said, because, you know, he started at the beginning. I thought maybe he was just taking him at the beginning to get everybody. He goes, no, no, I'm going to be taking pictures and video the entire time. And I said, okay, so curious, how much is this going to cost me at the end of the excursion for the pictures and video? And he goes, sir, no, no, this is included in the excursion price.
[00:41:07] Speaker D: I was like, oh, really?
[00:41:09] Speaker E: So I was like immediately relieved because I forgot that the pouch that I needed put my phone away. I said, boys, we're just going to enjoy this and hope that this guy gets us some good pictures. And we probably walked away with two dozen good photos and videos that he took of us. And it was within 24 hours. It was in a Dropbox emailed to us. And he had given us the Dropbox, the link on the bus ride back. But in our app from virgin, we got a notification saying, hey, your pictures are ready.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Oh, that's so cool.
[00:41:43] Speaker E: Yeah, it was cool.
[00:41:44] Speaker A: So it was like double checking. Yeah, double checking. Make sure you get it.
[00:41:48] Speaker D: Yeah. So if you remember Larry, when he, when he came out and talked about the adventures by Disney in South Africa, that was one of the things the guy did was, these are all the best places. Take pictures. No, you enjoy. We're going to take pictures. And he, literally, the first thing he said to me when he got back on the boat, he goes, you got pictures? But not because I took them and they were included. We didn't have to pay for them because we've been on excursions before in the Caribbean where they're taking your picture, like at a dolphin excursion. And then you go to walk out and you just drop $400 on pictures.
[00:42:14] Speaker A: And the dolphin excursions, they won't let you bring your own phone because they only want you to buy their pictures or take you by their video. And so there are several, lots of excursions exactly like that, Denise, I. It's. It's very frustrating because.
[00:42:29] Speaker D: So that. How much.
[00:42:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. I would have. I would have said the same thing, Larry. That's. I would have had the exact same expectation. Well, thank you for backing up there, Denise. I think that's sort of. That's super helpful to know. Let's talk about Bimini, though, and what that was like and how that compares to like, as I mentioned to castaway, Bimini was great.
[00:42:48] Speaker E: I thought. I thought it was fantastic. I'm not a big beach person, so I'm probably also not the best person to talk about. But I think that because I'm not a big beach person, there was a nice area that had no sand, that was, had an overhead covering that had food and drink in there. And I spent a lot of time in there, which was nice. I did spend some time on the chairs, and the water was nice. It was a great experience.
I thought epimoni was excellent. I would go back there for a few days if given the chance.
[00:43:25] Speaker D: Well, so I'll say I agree. I'd love that there was somewhere for Larry to sort of hide.
[00:43:32] Speaker E: It's very difficult staying this, you know, white, not tan.
[00:43:36] Speaker D: Our younger son and I probably spent 3 hours just standing in the water. It is the softest sand I've ever put my feet on.
It was like Disney. A protected cove.
One of the best drinks I had was on Bimini. It was, you know, I picked one of their drinks.
Probably two tips I would want. Two things I would say is the food on the island. Castaway definitely wins that one. The food was like, okay. And then if you're a mega rock star, wait for the golf cart.
If you're a regular passenger, there's a tram. They're going to tell you, if you want, you can walk. Don't walk. It's too far.
[00:44:19] Speaker E: It's very far.
[00:44:20] Speaker D: We actually said if we were to ever sail and not be mega rock stars, you can rent a golf cart for like, what'd they say? Like $40? Yeah, we would do it.
But the beach club was beautiful. So much so. And I'll make the offer to come back on in January. Larry and I are going to have the privilege of going to Mister Branson's private island in the Caribbean. And I'm even more excited after being there because it was just. It was absolutely beautiful. It's probably the best beach I've ever been to.
[00:44:49] Speaker A: Wow. No, you haven't been to lookout key yet, though, am I right?
[00:44:52] Speaker E: No, we have not.
[00:44:53] Speaker A: The cruise canceled.
[00:44:54] Speaker E: What are you supposed to.
[00:44:55] Speaker A: Okay, so I want you to. I'm going to tell you to book a cruise that goes to lookout key also, because that beach was the most beautiful and the softest sand that I have ever, you know, felt. So I would actually say beyond it being a long walk from the pier and there's some of the sort of logistical things of it not being a well oiled machine just quite yet when we were there. But I will say I thought its potential is higher than castaway, to be perfectly honest. Fantastic, fantastic peach. But I'm excited to check out bimini and to sort of do that compare. Interesting to hear about the food. Now, is the food like, is it like barbecue style food like you have at castaway or what kind of food are they offering?
[00:45:47] Speaker E: It's caribbean.
[00:45:47] Speaker D: It was caribbean cuisine. And that was, again, just me.
[00:45:51] Speaker E: Chicken, fish.
[00:45:52] Speaker D: So the chicken was spicy ish.
[00:45:54] Speaker E: And the other thing is. Right, so where we were, because rockstar or whatever, they. There wasn't a. There wasn't a buffet, if you. If you were, you know. Right. Staying regular cabins, it was served via buffet. The only difference was, because of where we were, they basically went and got the food and brought it over to us. It wasn't any different food or any different. You know, there was no differences there. So it was pretty much the same. Not that it was bad, but it was just, you have to like that kind of food. There wasn't a lot of. There wasn't a lot of variety.
[00:46:28] Speaker A: Now, I would love to sort of talk about service in a more general sense. So we've talked a little bit about service here and there, but what's the service, service like in comparison to Disney? I know you had the Rockstar agent, which is obviously a very high level of personal service. It's different. But what about sort of service overall, like from dining staff or from any kind of guest services staff that you would have encountered?
[00:46:54] Speaker D: Well, I can pause, maybe, and say we do have a point of comparison. So we sell Disney to Alaska for our older sons bar mitzvah and actually did sell concierge. So in the second largest suite on Disney or third large. So in one of the big cabins. Yeah, the big one bedroom. So we do have a comparison in terms of mega Rockstar at concierge, everybody. I don't think we encountered a not nice human on virgin. Everyone was very kind. The wait staff was great. Like Larry said, you know, I. It's not that I don't like spicy food. I like, physically can't eat it. They were very good about, you know, telling me what was spicy and what was worn and what they could modify and what they couldn't. We have one son who has a food allergy, and they would come back and say, you know, he probably really shouldn't eat this, which was, which was very kind. Like I said, the spa staff couldn't have been more amazing in terms of just, like, telling you where things were. You know, another thing probably to keep in mind is so they're under water bottles on virgin, they encourage you to bring a water bottle. There's no plastic on the ship.
So the staff is also very good about telling you where you can get water. You're left, regardless of your status, you're left a bottle of sparkling or flat water. You're allowed to swap them out if you want. So you are encouraged to bring a water bottle.
So the staff is also good about telling you where on deck you can get in. Fill water.
[00:48:17] Speaker E: Yeah. And I think the service was excellent. I mean, compared to the concierge on Disney.
I don't know that there's a comparison, because I think the rock for me, the rockstar agent for me, is better than the. Was the concept of service hands down. I think that was excellent. I would say, you know, in terms of rockstar, mega rockstar, we talked about it, and I think if we were to go again, we may not go mega rock star. We would definitely go rock star, because the main difference is that refilling of the bar every day. And, you know, for us, we're not, you know, we came home with a lot of bottles this time, just because it's what we experience. But next time, if they gave us a bar from the beginning on a five or seven day, we'd be perfectly fine with that. We don't need to keep refilling it. And I don't think our bill would be as big as maybe some other people's would be from a drinking standpoint. So I would be more inclined, probably rockstar over mega rockstar. But the people were very nice. I mean, they were always helpful, looking to help out.
It'd be interesting to see if we weren't rockstar, mega rockstar, how that experience would change or if it would change.
[00:49:33] Speaker D: Well, I will say we have friends who we talked to before we went on virgin, and they always sail with status everywhere they go. They did like the double decker giant suite on royal. And she had actually told me the only thing she could get on their virgin cruise was non status, and she was very nervous.
[00:49:51] Speaker A: Oh, interesting.
[00:49:52] Speaker D: And Barbara looked at me and said it was amazing.
[00:49:54] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:49:55] Speaker D: Like, she still said she probably would sell with status next time. But there were no disappointments. No. Like, they had no issues. They were. They thought the service was amazing.
[00:50:04] Speaker E: And the only thing I would add is, you know, 18 is an adult.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: Right.
[00:50:08] Speaker E: And 18, they're. They're basically treated the same way as everybody else from standpoint. Well, I don't even know. We didn't really even experience that. I mean, even import. You know, the bar is available to them if that's something that your kids or you're interested in allowing kids to do gambling. You know, they. They have basically, they can do anything and everything and be involved in anything and everything on the ship. There's no, you know, requirements.
[00:50:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And that makes sense. I mean, as you said, you know, they're in international waters, and so they're not. Everyone's 18 and older, and in many countries, they are permitted to drink at the age of 18. We're quite unique in that way in the United States, and so it's not. Not super surprising that they would do that. Yeah.
[00:50:53] Speaker B: How full was your sale, would you say?
[00:50:56] Speaker D: I'd say, I think we were almost sold out.
[00:51:00] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:51:00] Speaker D: We did have some of what other people thought. We did have a fairly large group of swingers interesting themselves as people who sailed together with like minded interests.
Fine. Except there was one man who told me that three nights in a row, and finally, I think it was my older son who was with me, was like, dude, enough.
[00:51:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:51:21] Speaker D: So. And then I would also.
[00:51:23] Speaker E: I would also say, you know, even though we. We talked a lot about alcohol and stuff. Well, you know, in our time today, I will tell you that at no point did I ever see anybody like some of the other cruise lines that you've heard about seeing stories. There was nobody like that. There was nobody that was sloppy.
There wasn't anybody who I would have been like, man, you know, that person had too much to drink, and I don't want to be around it, really. It wasn't like that. It was pretty controlled, I felt, with. With the amount of, you know, you know, with the number of adults and alcohol, gambling, et cetera.
[00:51:58] Speaker D: Yeah, I would agree. Cause even we went to the club two nights. I went one night with just my younger son, and then one night we were there all together. I think it was after red night. Right. So we're talking like midnight, 01:00 and people just dance and having a great time. There was. Yeah, you're right. There was no one.
[00:52:14] Speaker A: Now, I want to. I want to put this out there because you. You brought it up. The idea of there being swingers on board. We have heard that is a thing as well. We've heard that. I'm going to be clear.
[00:52:24] Speaker B: We.
Upside down pineapples.
[00:52:28] Speaker C: The upside down.
[00:52:29] Speaker A: Right.
We've heard the people who engage in that will put upside down pineapples, like, on their door, on their clothing, on their person.
[00:52:39] Speaker B: And I only know that. I only know that because Emma. Emma Latisse, who's Emma Cruises wrote an article about it, so don't. Everyone makes teases me. Like, how do you know? That's how I know it? Just so we're kind of.
[00:52:51] Speaker E: I know it. Cause I went on this cruise.
[00:52:54] Speaker D: So I'll tell you. So a funny story is, apparently this group of them, one night had all planned to wear white, and there was another couple we'd sort of, like, interacted with.
They were like, I think they were the cabin next to us. And he walks out of his cabin in white, and my older son goes, oh, I didn't know that was a thing. Wait, no, we saw him 45 minutes later.
[00:53:14] Speaker E: He changed.
[00:53:15] Speaker A: He changed. Cause he wasn't planning on. Right. He wasn't trying to match that.
[00:53:19] Speaker D: So you didn't. Had it not been for one gentleman, it wouldn't have been an issue at all. Like, I knew where you sort of got to see where they were. Like, I saw them up on Richard's rooftop. Some of them were there. But other than that one gentleman who I've been on other cruises, and one gentleman who just, like, walk away, dude.
[00:53:34] Speaker E: Yeah, but it wasn't even, like, I know, like, what the perception is when people hear these things. It's not like it wasn't out in the open. It's not like you had a walk. You know, you're walking down the. You know, the gangway of the. The ship, and you're making a. Right. You're like, oh, you got to go. Yeah, there wasn't.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: Right. These things are. These things are done in private spaces, not in public spaces, I think is the message. Yeah, no, we had it. We have a question about the. The bed and how comfortable it was.
[00:54:00] Speaker B: I wanted to. I wanted to pull this up because I also wanted to tee it up a little bit. So. So I had that as a bed on. Yeah. So how was the bed comfort? I remember they had a unique setup, so I want to. I want to address this. So, like, the rock star, mega rock star rooms just have, like, a regular bed in them. But some of the cabins that virgin built, they did this setup where it was, like, couch by day, bed by night, in order to facilitate, kind of, like, you can have a living space in the stateroom, and then it turns into a bedroom at night. And we did hear varying things about kind of the comfort level of that setup. I should also, like. Virgin is one of the few cruise lines that really embraces solo cruising. And they have these, like, some of the staterooms that are, like, almost like, dormitory style, where they have, like, multiple one bedroom staterooms off of, like, a core common living area with some shared facilities to them. So virgin has some very unique cabin setups. But how was the comfort of your bed in Megarockstar?
[00:54:55] Speaker D: Well, he can sleep anywhere.
[00:54:56] Speaker E: Yeah, I can sleep anywhere.
[00:54:58] Speaker D: I can show you some pictures I did the first morning we woke up. I had our agent put the mattress topper on, which you can ask for before. And then it was very comfortable. It was a little bit too hard for me.
[00:55:11] Speaker E: And I would also say our boys were in a room, like you described, Brian, where they had the best. And then there was a couch by day.
[00:55:18] Speaker D: That's not the room he's describing.
[00:55:19] Speaker E: No, but it was a couch by day, in bed at night, and.
[00:55:22] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. The way I'm talking about is they have some, like, interior or, like, fit or, like, where the. The couch is. The bed. The couch.
[00:55:30] Speaker E: Oh, no, no. So this was the second one. This was the second one in the room. Originally, the boys were thinking about sharing a bed, but one of them is a little bit too, you know, restless during the night. So our younger son. And they were going to switch it up. Our younger son, who's six foot two and, you know, like, 200 pounds, he slept on the bed couch, and he ended up staying there the whole time. And he said it wasn't an issue. It was. It was rather comfortable.
[00:55:55] Speaker D: So it probably is. But he also has furniture.
[00:55:57] Speaker E: A little bit of me in him in terms of being able to sleep.
Could be that, too.
[00:56:02] Speaker A: I did see a picture of you sleeping, sitting upright just from, like, maybe yesterday.
[00:56:07] Speaker E: Which one?
Which one?
[00:56:11] Speaker D: I take those because I'm just jealous, Sam. I take this because I'm jealous that the man can sleep anywhere.
One of the things we didn't talk about was my favorite part.
[00:56:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:56:22] Speaker D: This is where they hand down beat Disney.
There were no children.
[00:56:30] Speaker E: The whole time.
[00:56:30] Speaker D: Pretty much, no, but not really because it affects your experience. So there's no one running through the hallways. You know, there's no one screaming at dinner.
[00:56:39] Speaker E: And we love children. We had ours with us.
[00:56:41] Speaker D: Keep that in mind, for instance, and I'll give you a great example. We stayed at the fountain blue before, and I went down in the morning just with a cup of coffee and my kindle just to relax. And there was a kid screaming across the cool deck for papa, like, clear across a giant pool.
There was none of that. So it makes for a very different experience.
I mean, we taught our boys, you don't talk when you walk in the hallway. You don't talk till you're in the elevator. People might be sleeping, but a lot of people don't.
And our boys both mentioned enjoying that there wasn't that not everyone's children behave.
[00:57:16] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
[00:57:19] Speaker B: Well, as we. As we wind down here, I want to ask kind of the ultimate question, which is, would you sail virgin again? Like, where does it come out in terms, like, would you sail Disney again after experiencing virgin? How does it wash out for you in terms of the value?
And is it something you want to do again?
[00:57:38] Speaker A: And you guys can answer differently. I want to be clear. Like, you guys can each have different opinions on this. I think that's totally valid.
[00:57:45] Speaker E: Well, in full disclosure, we put a placeholder down for another version, so that might be next up. I don't know, but we'll have to see. But I don't mind them both. I think it depends on what. For me, it depends on what the flavor is, what you're going for. I have no issue with going on either. If I'm looking for, in my opinion, I think a little bit better food, maybe some better entertainment, that might be a good option. Virgin. If I'm looking to have a little bit more fun and just, you know, relax a little bit more, I think that might be a better option. So I think there's good and bad or good better? Good and better with each one of them, and they're right at the right time for what you're looking to do. So I think there's a room for both of them, really, in terms of.
[00:58:36] Speaker D: Us personally, he gets to have opinions, but he doesn't book traveler know how, so his next cruise would actually probably be a virgin voyage, as Larry said, I think the thing that, for me was really transformative in terms of the experience was the dining experience, although I love that my server goes everywhere with me on a Disney ship, and they get to know me.
I don't mean to sound like Goldilocks and the three bears. Five is too early.
[00:59:01] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:59:02] Speaker D: Eight is too late.
[00:59:03] Speaker E: That's always been a problem for me.
[00:59:05] Speaker D: And being able to say, I'd like to have dinner at 06:00 and sit at what is a dining room. And I'm not talking about a grand dining room. I'm talking about what looks like you're in a four or five star restaurant.
That really did transform the experience because there are a lot of days on Disney that we were rushing to leave the pool to get ready to get to dinner at 05:00 but I will say I have more pictures from my Disney cruise. Yeah, I would buy a picture package. My kids knew I paid for the picture package, take pictures like, I got home, guys, and was like, we didn't take enough pictures. So Disney wins a picture battle, which sometimes at the end of the day.
[00:59:43] Speaker E: I think the itinerary might play a part in it also, depending on what you're looking to do and where you're going.
[00:59:50] Speaker A: Well, and they're both smaller cruise lines. I mean, but virgin is really, really new. And so they're aren't, I mean, right now, Virgin doesn't go as many places as Disney goes. Right. And so, and Disney, of course, has limited offerings compared to, let's say, royal.
[01:00:04] Speaker B: Virgin goes one place that Disney doesn't, which is key west. So let's put that table, I mean, that's, you know.
[01:00:09] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:00:10] Speaker A: Yes, but they're right.
[01:00:12] Speaker B: They've got a ship in Europe. They got a ship sailing, and they've got a search coming online that's going to a really interesting itinerary from New York all the way down and through the panel and up coast and end in Vancouver. So Seattle, actually.
[01:00:25] Speaker A: But they've delayed that ship like three or four times this point.
[01:00:29] Speaker D: Well, and then our, well, some of it is, our agent said it's actually, they're redesigning it. That ship might not launch with test kitchen and is actually probably going to launch with more rockstar rooms because just like everyone else in the travel industry, they're finding whether it's the airlines redoing their planes because people are more apt to buy a Delta comfort seat or what is american airlines called the a plus seat, they're finding that people are willing to pay. I mean, heck, Disney did it. They added more concierge staterooms. Right.
Our agents sort of hit that. The delay was they're using the first two boats and then they're going to strip out and make some, some more higher price point ones. And if you look at what the cruise line is doing for the next solar eclipse. All of those ships have all, almost all of the higher end cruise lines have launched. Follow the eclipse at a really high price point and they're all sold out.
[01:01:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, right.
[01:01:18] Speaker D: Someone thinks about a 28 day solar eclipse.
[01:01:22] Speaker A: So I think, I think these, the luxury market is definitely where the cruise lines are, are focusing their dollars on because I think they realize that it pays off, as you mentioned. And so that's not super surprising. But all I meant to say in the, they go to different places. So I do think, as Larry mentioned, that plays into the choice of who you're going to sail with. Where they go is one factor and of course, the type of vacation you're looking for. Well, thank you guys so much for joining us today. I want to give Larry an opportunity to plug all of your projects that you've got going on, including the podcast. But why don't you tell folks where they can find you and follow along in your journey and maybe, you know, get some financial literacy from you.
[01:02:08] Speaker E: Yeah, I mean, you know, more than financial literacy. We talk about joy all the time, which, you know, if you're thinking about or going on a cruise, you're looking for joy. So the easiest and the best place is if you go to the Mitland money mindset, which is my podcast, you can learn all about all the joyful things we're doing. We had a book that we launched, which was financial planning made personal, which we just launched a joy journal to go along with that.
[01:02:37] Speaker A: Oh, cool.
[01:02:38] Speaker E: So when you're on your virgin or you're on your Disney Cruise line cruise, you can journal about all the joyful things you're doing. So that's really the easiest and the best place to learn more. And we've had a number of top Disney folks on the podcast in terms of we've had Dan Cockroach, who was a vp there. We had Doctor Mark, who oversees all the animals throughout the Disney brand. So you'll also get some exposure to some great Disney guests as well.
[01:03:11] Speaker D: And I will say, we'll give you the link so you can put it in the show notes. If you are someone who doesn't need a hardcover journal to journal, we actually offer the PDF as a free download. So you can just download it. And every day make sure to ask yourself, what did you do that brought you joy? And you can print it and, you know, write on as much as you want. If you want hardcover, that's on Amazon. But if you just want to print it out and use it. We have it as a free download just to try to help people remember that, you know, there's joy in today.
[01:03:40] Speaker A: Love that. Love that. Well, thank you so much for, for joining us once again. Brian, you want to tell folks about next week's show?
[01:03:47] Speaker B: Yes, we will be back again next week. We had a little bit of a speed bump there because I was sick. I'm still kind of recovering. But we will be back again next week at 05:30 p.m. pacific. 08:30 p.m. eastern. And we will have fabulous Angie Greggero Gargero. Gargero Angie Gargero from my path unwinding travel, she'll be talking about her fabulous group cruise on Disney Cruise line. Angie, as a refresher, is a former Disney parks panelist.
[01:04:17] Speaker A: Plan Disney panelist, formerly the Disney mom's panel, but she was a plan Disney panelist and basically she organized a group cruise for a bunch of alumni of the Plan Disney panel as well as some other guests who wanted to sail with some plan Disney alumni. And they went to look out key. So we're going to talk with her next week. As Brian mentioned, it will be at 05:30 p.m. pacific time. 08:30 p.m. eastern. So our regular time. Join us next Monday, live as always, and we will see real soon. And again, thanks so much, Larry and Denise.
[01:04:50] Speaker D: Thank you.
[01:04:56] 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 alive, 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 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
[email protected] so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us. The best way to do that is to head over to dclduo.com dot. It's got links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes, including a searchable catalog for the podcast links off to our vlog a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets a link to our Patreon. If you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com dclduo also as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here, at least on a few blog articles that we've written. So dclduo.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also, of course, email us at info duo.com or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 4024-135-5590 that's 402-413-5590 the DCL duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company, or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflect the views of the Disney Company or Disney Cruise line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney vacation, please contact the great folks over at mypath unwinding travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and well see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL duo.
