[00:00:00] Speaker A: I'm thankful that we didn't go to Castaway and I didn't have to run around the Hopper sun all day.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: The views expressed in this segment are my wife and my wife.
[00:00:11] Speaker C: I was gonna. I was gonna. I was thinking that. Willie.
[00:00:26] Speaker D: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by my path unw, finding travel and heading straight to the mailbag. Because we got a doozy of a show for you tonight and I want to get this review out of the way so we can get onto our guests. Our review this evening comes from Emma Mole. Emma Mole, who writes Love DCL Duo. We love listening to DCL Duo, especially the episodes where Nathan makes an appearance. Thank you for sharing your adventures with us. I have a feeling that might be. That could be. That could be Emma. As in Emma Moral. It could be.
[00:00:57] Speaker C: Could be, it could be. But all I know is I too love the episodes where Nathan joins us and gives his opinion and gives the kids perspective. Especially on the rare episode where he like, talks more than usual. Like he did in our our live episode from Animator's Palette. Well, it's technically not live, but you know what I mean. Live, actual in person recording from Animator's Palette on the magic. Yeah. Super fun. Well, anyway, we got to jump right to the show. As Brian said, you guys who are listening, you will know these guests pretty well. It's been quite a while since they've been on the show. They have been. I don't know. I feel like taking a break from Disney Cruise Line for a while, but I believe that they're back. I believe this cruise actually set them back straight to alter their vacationing ways because they were kind of veering outside of Disney Cruise Line. But let's welcome back to the show. What?
[00:01:54] Speaker D: The horror. The horror that someone might do something other than Disney Cruise.
[00:01:58] Speaker C: Absolutely. Absolutely. The horror that they would do this to me. Yes.
[00:02:02] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: But you might remember them because, you know, they got married last year. We went to their wedding. We went on their honeymoon basically with them.
But please welcome to the show the DCL duo, junior Willie and Rebecca. Welcome, guys.
[00:02:20] Speaker A: Hi. Oh my gosh. This is just seeing your guys faces again, like, it's so. Honestly, surreal is not the right word. But it also is because we're your best friends. But also we don't do this often. Like we text so much more than we just sit down and record together. So it's so fun to be back here and definitely talking about our return to the cruise line.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: Yes. I'm actually so excited to be back on the show and talking with you guys and talking about something fresh and new. That was a first for us in every way, shape and form, both DCL and non dcl related.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: Love it, Love it. Well, let's talk about this cruise we're going to discuss today, which was a seven night Mediterranean cruise leaving out of Sita Civicia. I hope I said that right. Which is like two hours away from Rome as Willie reminded me.
[00:03:12] Speaker D: What's your language, Sam? Watch your language.
[00:03:14] Speaker C: This is a kid.
[00:03:15] Speaker D: There's kids listen to this show.
[00:03:16] Speaker C: Kids. Yeah.
[00:03:17] Speaker D: Oh, I'm sorry, you were talking about a city. A city in Italy. Oh, my bad.
[00:03:20] Speaker C: Yes. But, but before we, but before we talk about that, we need to remind folks of your DCL background. It's like I said, it has been a while since you were on the show. We know Willie's got a little bit longer of cruise line history than Rebecca. So Willie, why don't you start and tell us how many cruises, what your castaway club status and what kinds of itineraries you have done. Obviously you were on our show to talk about Alaska a while back, but remind everyone.
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Yeah. So this was cruise number 19. So Platinum Cruiser, done Alaska, done the Southern Caribbean, done the Western Caribbean, done the Eastern Caribbean, done Bahamian, and finally got across the pond to doing a European cruise. This kind of opened up our eyes and desires, for lack of a better word, to wanting to do more European cruises because Disney has a whole, you know, European season that does so many different ports out there. And so this was our first time across the pond on a European cruise. But I think more importantly, this was a special cruise for my lovely wife because we have a new platinum member.
[00:04:24] Speaker C: Woohoo. Yeah. Becca.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Yeah. It's honestly crazy that within the past five, four years that we have been together, I've done 10 cruises.
Nine of those have been in the past like two and a half years because of the COVID season. But yeah, I mean to be in Europe in and of itself is an amazing experience and I think everyone should be able to get to do that if they can't. But to do it with the security and the comfort level that Disney was able to provide for us with the cruise portion of our trip was just astounding.
[00:04:57] Speaker C: Love that, Love that. Well, let's talk about like the technical stuff. Let's talk about why did you book this cruise in the first place? Why this itinerary? And then we got to talk about like how did you get there? Did you spend any Time we're not going to go into, you know, what you did on the days before and after the cruise. But, you know, did you go over there before the cruise? Obviously, yeah.
[00:05:19] Speaker B: So I actually enjoy telling this story, but, you know, you kind of briefly touched on it earlier that we've been looking at different vacations. And so we knew that the summer was approaching. You know, Becca's a teacher, and so she was getting out of school and we needed to just kind of settle on a summer vacation trip. And so our options really were in terms of newness and just new adventures, Alaska or Europe. And so we had very limited weeks. This cruise actually shared the exact dates as an Alaskan sailing. And so our decision came down to those two itineraries and eventually just asked Becca what she would prefer. And her decision really was, I want a hot summer vacation.
[00:05:58] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: And so not going to get a lot of hot in Alaska.
[00:06:01] Speaker C: No, she wanted a hot girl summer, and that's not going to happen in Alaska.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: So I said, all right, so I guess we're going to Europe because we book late in the game, right? We were two months out. We booked in April. And so before we embarked on this cruise, we wanted to know that excursions were available. So we actually did a little bit of a backwards booking. We joined the Facebook group for the cruise and then reached out to the group and asked what or what excursions are still available. And when we got a good list, we had kind of done pre studying of excursions we would want to do. When we saw that, I think three of the four destinations had our top choice and the fourth had our second choice. So we really weren't settling. We were like, okay, we're clear to book, let's book. But if we book, we got to get our excursions booked right now. And so it was just a one fell swoop. And then came the the flight game. The flights were very expensive when we.
[00:06:51] Speaker C: Booked, and flights to Europe right now are crazy.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Yes. And so we waited and waited and waited. And it was about, I think mid or early May when we found a deal that it's like, it's not getting any better than this. This is a steal right now. And so we kind of booked our flights a few weeks after the cruise backing up a little bit. We booked our hotel, didn't have the option of staying at one of the Disney hotels, meaning Disney approved hotels. But the great thing about Disney, when you go to Europe. And this gave me a lot of comfort, you know, us two traveling alone in a foreign country, way across the world. We wanted to, you know, have our transportation pretty settled and structured. We were able to work with Disney in the sense that you could stay anywhere in Rome and take a cab to one of their hotels and board the Disney shuttle to the port. You don't have to be staying at that hotel. If they run out of availability, you can just show up, or you could go back to the airport, but that. That's a much longer ride because that's not near the center of Rome. So after we booked our hotel, our flights, and the cruise, the last thing was transportation. So we went with Disney transportation to the port from one of their hotels and then from the port back to the airport.
[00:08:03] Speaker C: Yeah, that's very smart, because as you mentioned and. Or as I mentioned, because you mentioned before we started recording, it is two hours between Rome and Citadecchia. And so the Disney hotels are Rome hotels, not Citadecchia. And so you are basically trying to figure out transportation from that city, or as you said, from that airport down to the port. That's, I would say, in that circumstance, probably the smartest thing to do, particularly when you don't speak Italian. So, you know, I mean, you do speak Spanish, Willie, so, you know, you might have been able to get by a little bit.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: I was able to defend myself, but there were some words that are. Were like, okay, there's no baseline in Spanish for me to understand this one.
[00:08:47] Speaker C: Yeah. And the accent's pretty different.
[00:08:48] Speaker B: But I will say the Italians do speak a lot of English. So if that is a concern, there were some places, especially when it came to good food and good dining, you didn't want a restaurant that was predominantly English speaking. And we had a couple restaurants where there was definitely some of a language barrier, but nothing that, you know, inhibited our trip in any way. I think I only ordered a coffee wrong once out of the four days we were there. And by wrong, I mean us Americans are used to a cup of coffee, whether it's 12, 16, whatever ounces you may drink. The Italians are very much. They just drink a shot of espresso.
[00:09:24] Speaker D: Yeah, there's no. There's no grande venti latte over there, and definitely, definitely no frappuccino.
[00:09:31] Speaker A: There is. If you go to the Starbucks, there's a Starbucks.
[00:09:37] Speaker C: I'm pretty sure there is.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: I caved once because I'm not a daily coffee drinker, but, man, there's something about, like, walking the streets with a coffee in your hand that I had to have it just once.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: It's so funny because it was like our last day in Rome and she just needed kind of like a treat. And she's like, I've held on long enough, but we need to stop at Starbucks, even though it's a touristy thing to do.
[00:10:00] Speaker D: Nice. How did you. How did you decide what you would do in Rome before the cruise or in Italy before the cruise? Like, where did you go to find the stuff to do and how'd you plan that out? Because obviously it's easier once you get on the ship. There's shore excursions and such. But how did you. How did you map out your time before getting on the ship?
[00:10:17] Speaker B: Yeah. You want to talk about the most stressful part of this cruise?
[00:10:21] Speaker D: That was it.
[00:10:22] Speaker B: And to preface that, there's always been two European destinations that have been the top of my list. And one. One was Rome, number one, very proud Catholic, and so couldn't wait to get to, you know, the Catholic capital of the world.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: And the second one is Spain, because that's kind of where my family heritage traces to. So going into it, I had a lot of pressure on myself that I didn't want to miss a single piece of Rome. So we did arrive four days before the cruise. We had four full days or three and a half full days, you know, because we arrived around 1pm in Rome time. We took Brian's advice. We didn't sleep when we arrived. We just showered and hit the streets for dinner. But in terms of booking actual things, we kind of had to start with what did we want to do? So, you know, Coliseum, Vatican, you know, St. Peter's the Trevi, the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon. And I'll be honest, all the credit to my wonderful wife. She just said, you know what? I'm gonna start looking and booking. And so. Yeah, tell them.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Yeah, so I. Using information from the cruise group because a lot of people were coming in prior to.
And actually, this is where we goofed. There was an Adventures by Disney trip that was like for three and a.
[00:11:35] Speaker C: Half days right before the cruise, the shortest excursions or short escapes, I think they call them. Yeah, yeah.
[00:11:42] Speaker A: It aligned perfectly with the days that we were supposed to fly in and fly out all of this stuff. But anyways, yeah, I took a lot of advice from people on our cruise group and just started scouring Google and Yelp and all of these other different places for reviews, for tours for the high traffic events. So like he said, the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. Getting a guided tour for those is a must because you get to skip the Line, all of that stuff. Same thing with the Coliseum, because you just don't know what you don't know. And they have a lot of insight on things that, you know, fun facts and stuff like that. So definitely for those high hitters. You want to go to a tour company, I'm literally forgetting all of the names. And maybe we can put them in.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Did you later. Did you use TripAdvisor or Viator or any of those to find the tours.
[00:12:32] Speaker A: Or live tours is one that we used. And then there was also someone called the Roam Tour guy. Like, that was his full website that he had had. We had heard a lot of people not Liking Viator and TripAdvisor, honestly, just because I think that they, like, hyped up things that weren't necessary necessarily what they actually were. So those were probably the two that I used the most. But then things like the Spanish Steps, the Trevi Fountain. Those are completely public areas.
[00:13:04] Speaker C: Right.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: You don't need to. We actually saw those two things every time.
[00:13:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Every single day. We were just going.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: And this is where your hotel matters. We did a lot of research into hotels in the center of Rome. We didn't know how good our hotel was from a geographic standpoint until our first night. And we went exploring for dinner. And we were five to 10 minutes, depending on your pace. Walk away from the Trevi.
[00:13:32] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: And another that was one direction. Another five to ten minutes away from the Coliseum. So we essentially took one cab from the airport into the city, and the only other cab we took was to and from St. Peter's because that's on the opposite side of the river. Everything else we did, we were able to walk to because of how good our hotel was.
[00:13:51] Speaker C: That's awesome. What was the hotel that you guys stayed at? Because, I mean, I feel like that's always a good thing to share recommendation. Particularly when it wasn't. The one that was the DCL Hotel.
[00:14:01] Speaker B: It was a Hilton brand, and it was a tapestry collection. And it's the Cosmopolitan hotel room.
[00:14:07] Speaker D: Nice. I'm curious.
So with the.
[00:14:10] Speaker C: Brian, I think we stayed at the.
So many years ago. This is like 20 years ago. No joke.
[00:14:18] Speaker B: It was tiny. It was tucked down the street, but it was right near the Coliseum.
[00:14:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Cute little bakery right outside the front that we stop for breakfast every day. Love it.
[00:14:27] Speaker D: Nice. I wanted to go back for a second, just let folks know. So we like to use TripAdvisor and Viator, but I would say the key to using those tools. Well, to avoid the problem that maybe your cruise Group is highlighting, I think is I look for stuff, but then I look for things that have not just good ratings, but good ratings from a lot of people. Then I go look at it further and the first thing I do is read the negative reviews. Like to find out if you didn't like this, why didn't you like it? And a lot of times then you can kind of get a sense of like, oh, someone had expectations for this that were well beyond what the description is. So that's not a problem. I also tend to look at those negative reviews when they were left because sometimes things start and they're not the greatest and they improve over time. So if the negative reviews are all two years old and there's a lot of positive reviews since then, I might give it a shot. But I like those tools for one simple reason. There's two things I love to find on them. One is private tours. So private walking tours, which are typically done with college students, university kids who are history buffs or who know the city really well, lived there their whole lives, and they'll take you kind of off the beaten path. The other thing, I've had excellent tours, by the way of like, I had a bar crawl in Prague that was fantastic that I found on Viator. The other thing I like to do is find off the beaten path stuff. So we've used it in New York a few times to do like, graffiti tour of the skyline we found on Trip Advisor or Viator. I forget which, so I wouldn't completely dismiss it. But I also think it's great that you use some other resources. I also think a lot of people love to use Rick Steves books for this kind of stuff. Shout out to Haley and Drew out there, who I know love Rick Steves. So, yeah. So what did you. So what did you end up doing in Rome? I know, I know what you did, but talk to our guests or talk to our listeners about what you end up ended up getting up to in Rome.
[00:16:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So first day when we arrived, exactly what we already kind of talked about. We just showered change, went straight out to having dinner. And this is where I do want to say things like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Viator really came in clutch when it came to finding food recommendations. And I did exactly what you said. I went to the most recent reviews and I scoured them by that. Like, I didn't want to find one from seven months ago. That was really horrible. I wanted to see, you know, past 90 days, past 30 days, things like that. So I will Say, for the day of, like, in a crunch, needing to find something quick and easy and efficient. Those sites were extremely helpful. But we showed up, we had dinner, took our pictures by the Trevi, by the Spanish Steps, did all the things that I had been really wanting to do, crashed back at the hotel and had an extremely early morning because someone had to play golf while we were there. And I'll let him explain this one, because it was not me.
[00:17:08] Speaker D: Yeah, I was gonna say this was a decision I did not fully understand, flying all the way to Italy to play golf. But will he convince me, Convince me why golf was a good idea?
[00:17:17] Speaker B: All right, so the. Every other year. So last year, not this year, but last year, there is what's known as the Ryder cup, and it's a big tournament in golf, and it's basically the 12 best US golfers versus the 12 best European golfers. And every. Every hosting shifts between the US and a European site. So in 2023, when this tournament was played, it was. It was played at a golf course in Rome called Marco Simone. And so I had to go and see this golf course and play this golf course that I had watched for over three days while some of my favorite golfers played it. It is not in Rome. It's not as far as the port. It's only about 30 to 45 minutes, but Rome is the nearest biggest city. But it was so cool. There's still a lot of memorabilia and decorations and infrastructure from the Ryder Cup. So I've got so many cool pictures of, you know, the locker rooms and the hallways the athletes walked. And so it's. It was much different than the way it was set up, and you see it on tv, but it was one of those where not very many chances, like any of the Ryder cup courses in America are hundreds and hundreds of dollars. And, I mean, the cheapest might be 3 or 400 to play, whereas it was a little bit more affordable to do the one in Italy. And also just cool that the first Ryder cup course I ever play is not even here in America. It was in Rome.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Yeah. And I do have to say that we went to Ireland for his mother's 50th birthday over Thanksgiving last year, and he was supposed to play in Ireland, which is, like, besides Scotland, the hometown of golf, like, they have tons of courses over there. And it rained on the only day that he was allowed to play. I say allowed because we had, again, booked every minute, packed full of stuff to do in Ireland. So this was like a redemption round of getting to Just enjoy golf in Europe, because he hadn't gotten to do that before, so I was okay with it. I was not okay with the elevation changes.
[00:19:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. I was exhausted. Like, I was. Yeah, it was really intense. How different. Even on one singular hole, you could probably climb two to three stories just from going from the T to the green, and it was intense to do that back and forth over and over again.
[00:19:27] Speaker D: Wow.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: The reason she mentions that is because we walk the entire course. You don't.
[00:19:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: You don't.
[00:19:31] Speaker D: Europeans don't.
[00:19:32] Speaker B: They don't really use carts. Yeah, much so. And I wasn't going to show up as the only tourist. And I'm glad I didn't take a cart, because when I walk got to the first tee, it was some locals from Rome who were members at the club, and they were pushing their golf, their little carts, their hand carts, and carrying their bags. So. Yeah.
[00:19:51] Speaker D: Did you know that? Did you know that going in, like, I'm curious, Rebecca, if you were expecting to be able to hang out in the cart and you ended up doing a hike instead?
[00:20:01] Speaker A: I want to say relatively active person, so I was going to be okay with either. I knew on my. On my average golf rounds where we're just playing at, like, any of the Disney courses, I take my Kindle or my phone and I will sit in the car and just, like, read my book and hang out. But I knew that this was an important round for him to. For me to be active and for me to be, like, paying attention to his shots and, like, read the green.
[00:20:24] Speaker D: Exactly.
[00:20:25] Speaker A: Pulling the right irons and cleaning off the driver and all of that stuff. So I was willing to walk, but I. I would. I would do it again. Like, I would do it anything for him to see that joy and that smile for me just to be there. So, yes, I would do it again in a heartbeat.
[00:20:43] Speaker C: Well, he needs to buy you a cute caddy outfit. That's all I'm saying.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Will buy. He will buy me anything if I say, like, I think we have a Target cart right now, and there's a bingo stuffy, like, inside of it already. Because I have the bluey one. Yeah, I have the bluey one. So I need. I need her sister, obviously.
[00:21:01] Speaker C: You obviously need to have bingo if you have bluey. Yeah.
[00:21:04] Speaker B: But I will say that even without fast forwarding too much to the other things we did in Rome, we did get to our final day and have a lot of free time. So we. We left Rome very satisfied. And if we ever do cruise out of Rome again, we would probably only show up two days before the cruise. And the one thing we would want to do this time is just the very expensive. But I think the keys to the Vatican tour, where you essentially open up everything at St. Peter's that would be more of like, we've done everything, let's condense, you know, and go big on one excursion, since it would be significantly more expensive than. Than all the tours we did combined. So we were able to get it all done even with golf and only having arrived four days before.
[00:21:46] Speaker C: Yeah. So you guys ended up doing a tour of the Vatican and a tour of the Coliseum those other days. Is that, is that fair? Am I summarizing that those, those two.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: Were actually on the same day and we got a. We got a lot of like, what? You already did that? Like, how did you. Especially at our Coliseum portion, they were like, what do you mean you were at the Vatican this morning? Because most people do separate those things into other days just because it's. I mean, Europe is an extensive amount of walking in general, but you know, those two sites are so huge and magnificent that you really are doing 10,000 steps in each area on its own. But yeah, we did both of those on the same day. And then our last full day that we had there, we did, we did a tour of the Pantheon. I say it was a five euro ticket to just enter in. And when everybody else did, they had like audio tours that you could listen to that were free with an app. And it's a very small, very, just rotunda building. So we were there for maybe an hour and a half, read the things that we wanted to, and then kind of headed out from there.
[00:22:57] Speaker B: Yeah, just backing up our timeline because if somebody seems like, oh, that might be too much for one day, we really even had a break between our tours. So, you know, our Vatican St. Peter's tour kicked off at 9 and it went to 12 noon. And we did everything you can imagine. The Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica.
We wrapped up around a little bit before noon, and Beck and I were able to jump in at a 1205 Mass inside St. Peter's Basilica, which for me will always be special to have taken communion in that building, in that very special and sacred building. So that was super cool that we attended mass. So now it's 1:00, we, we wrap up, we head to lunch, and at around 2 o'clock we jumped in a cab and headed back to our hotel. And we had about an hour of just resting and relaxing until 4. And that's when we walked over to the Coliseum again, shout out to the location of our hotel. And we did. We did about a three hour walking tour of the Coliseum, but it also included the Roman Forum as well. And so it might sound like a lot, and it was a lot that we did, but it was never. I don't want it to sound as like we were pressed for time or even stressed. We were able to do more than just the tours and not in a. In a manner where, you know, we were hustling and bustling. We even had.
[00:24:10] Speaker C: Yeah, it's just a longer day of touring, basically, is what you did, because you did three hour tour, one hour Mass, lunch, a little bit of a rest, and then another three hour tour, which. So, I mean, it's just a. It's just a longer day.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. But it is feasible. If you can't afford to get there for three or four days earlier and you have maybe one or two days, it's good to know that you can do the two biggest sites, Coliseum and St. Peter's in the Vatican altogether in one day.
[00:24:40] Speaker D: I just want to know, Willie, what it was like to actually attend a Mass at the Vatican. I just picture a sea of people and you're all the way in the back. Is it more intimate than that? What was that?
[00:24:51] Speaker B: Yeah, so that is not what it was like at all. And that's what I think made it special. So the Vatican has, I'll call them, satellite chapels all along the side and the front. And so the sea of people are inside St. Peter's Basilica. But for example, when we finished our tour and our shopping and we were kind of going back into St. Peter's since our ticket allowed us to still stay in there, we were kind of looking at all the chapels we didn't see in all the kind of monuments for the popes that are buried there and the crests and the graves. And then we found that we saw the times of when the masses were being offered and we realized one was starting in two minutes. And it was in the main altar all the way at the front of St. Peter's and so as we were walking, I'll be honest, I saw a couple things that I've never seen in any of the church. First off was security in that area. They said, this is for Mass only. You get in, you cannot leave. And they were stern about it. And we were like, yes, yes, we want to be here for the Mass. And then when we got into that area, when we got past the security guard. It was quite a bit of a walk and I think that's important to know because it helps drown out some of that sound. The crowds that are in St. Peter's aren't necessarily near the altar or where mass is being held. And it wasn't full. I would say there was maybe 30 to 50 people in this small. But there were empty rows all around, all around us. You know, we sat in the back. The only tough part is it is all in Italian. No, not that I was expecting English. But you know, it does impact how much of it you get and how much of it, you know, you understand. But in terms of the intimacy, I mean, it's just the images I have in my head of just the statue and the architecture there. Just. It was moving and powerful. So it was intimate and just a surreal setting.
[00:26:30] Speaker D: Nice. Well, I'm glad you get to experience that. I know, I know, I know it's important to you, so I'm glad you got to experience that. Let's, let's shift gears. We'll be here all day if we do like the full on Disney Cruise Line trip report.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: You didn't even get to hear my horror story about dinner on the last night. But we can save that for later.
[00:26:46] Speaker D: Oh, no, no, no, we can't. We need to hear it now.
What was the horror story at dinner?
[00:26:55] Speaker B: So I was big on if we're going to eat, we're going to eat at authentic places. And it's our last night. And so I reach out to my best friend back home, Dariel, and I ask him because he had gone to Rome the summer before with his fiance, said one last night in Rome, what are your three restaurant recommendations? So he gives us three. Two of them were closed, so it left one. It said it was a 50 minute walk, but it was only two miles. And so we said, oh, we'll walk two miles in way more than. Way faster than 50 minutes. It was a 50 minute walk. And we get there and they say, reservations only.
And we have no reservations available.
So Becca was very upset at this point. We then walk in a direction where there's a sign for another restaurant.
[00:27:38] Speaker A: This is farther away than where we started. So it was 50 plus the opposite way to this next location.
[00:27:47] Speaker B: It was closed.
So now we begin to commute back.
[00:27:51] Speaker C: She's getting hangry at this point.
[00:27:52] Speaker B: Oh, I am sweating. And it's not because it's hot. It's starting to be nighttime. We start to walk back and a block closer to our hotel, we find a nice Spot. It seemed like authentic Italian. Very, you know, authentic. And not chain or tourist trap, because we were in the suburbs at this point. We were outside the main city of Rome, and they had room for us. They sat us down. But it didn't come without an hour and 15 minutes of trekking across Rome, probably more than she walked on the golf course. So.
[00:28:20] Speaker A: And what had made it so frustrating, I think, was because. And this is going to happen on. On every single trip that you ever do for the rest of your lives. But, like, you are so hot. You're so tired of walking. You're, you know, on a completely different time zone. Like, everything is so different. I was so overwhelmed by that point. Like, not even, like, before we had even decided on dinner. We were just talking, like, what we wanted to do. We had ran through all of The Viator and TripAdvisor options that were close to our hotel. Everything else was seeming, like he said.
[00:28:52] Speaker C: Very, becky, you should have gone to Mickey D's. I'm telling you that at the moment.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: They had approximately three, like, Wendy's in the area. And I was like, oh, we can go to that when we get, like, jokingly, but, like, no, honestly, we really have stopped.
[00:29:06] Speaker C: Honestly, like, there. There comes a point in travel, I feel like, where all you want is something familiar, right? And sometimes that's like, an American hamburger. And I will be totally transparent and say that in foreign countries, I have absolutely eaten American fast food. When I have gotten to that point. And it isn't. Doesn't necessarily have to be at the end of your trip this time. It was, you know, four days into your trip, but you were just going, going, going. You're hungry, you're exhausted, you're hot. And the familiar is often the thing that will comfort you when you're having those feelings. Right? So, yeah, I. No judgment on people who end up at McDonald's or Wendy's or Pizza Hut or KFC or wherever on a vacation when that happens.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: And this was on top of. Again, not to scrutinize my husband, but he was denying me gelato because it wasn't authentic in, like, 90 places.
[00:30:01] Speaker C: What? Willie, this is wrong. Okay, I'm sorry. Now we're going to judge.
[00:30:06] Speaker D: Wait, wait, wait. How do you judge the authenticity of gelato in Italy? Isn't it automatically authentic?
[00:30:11] Speaker C: No, it's whether it's covered or not. I know he's going to say this.
[00:30:14] Speaker B: Yes, that's exactly it.
[00:30:16] Speaker A: Covered. And below the tin, like, it can't be like, the mountain top piled on with, like, Toppings and everything has to be below the top level of the tin and have a cover on top of it.
[00:30:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I don't care. I would. I'll eat it regardless.
[00:30:29] Speaker B: Denying is the wrong word. I was just not settling for an authentic one.
[00:30:33] Speaker C: Postponing, Postpone. Over and over again, over and over again. Listen, listen, When. If that happens again, Rebecca, I want you to just say no. Willie, I'm going to eat this gelato now, and I will eat an authentic one later. How about that? Like, just. I'll have two gelatos. That's always the answer. Always. The answer is always more gelato, not less gelato.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: He got me a gelato or a Bridgerton themed gelato later, trying to make up for. And then let me take him to this really ridiculous light museum. That was just a bunch of. What are those. What are those things called? Like, optical illusions. That's all that it was. But they framed it as this light museum. And I was like, oh, my gosh, we have to go. And you don't have to go.
[00:31:14] Speaker C: I love it. All right, well, let's. As Brian said, let's shift gears. Let's move to the next morning. You wake up, you get breakfast at your hotel. I presume you take a cab to the other hotel where Disney Cruise Line has folks already staying. Do they put you on like a. Like a bus, I presume?
[00:31:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So this was the one hiccup we had. We were told that the desk and buses started at 8am so we do get up nice bright and early. And we left our hotel at about 7:50, got over to the Disney Hotel. We'll call it the Disney Hotel because that's where the bus is leaving at. We get there at 805. And the representatives, remember, they're not cast members. They're kind of like contractors in. In a foreign country. They hadn't got into the desk yet. And so we waited for a few minutes. They. And then they did arrive closer to about 8:10. And they inform us that the buses do not leave until 10:45. So now we.
[00:32:07] Speaker C: Are your luggage there?
[00:32:09] Speaker B: Yes. Well, they took our luggage from us. They stickered them up, and they put the luggages do not go on the bus with you. The luggages went on like a separate van. Those were loaded in and they left.
[00:32:18] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: So those went straight to the port. And then we waited in the lobby of this hotel for two hours or a little more than two hours. The good news is they came to us. Apparently there were cancellations on the 1015 bus and they said we can move you onto the 10:15 bus. Are you okay with that? Yes. So our, our downtime in that lobby of this hotel was about two hours. And so yeah, we check in, we get our stickers, we get I guess our ticket onto the bus and 10:15 rolls around, we get onto the bus and we make the two hour trek to the port.
[00:32:47] Speaker C: I would have gone and gotten another gelato. I'm just, just putting that out there. It doesn't matter that it's 10. It doesn't matter. It's 9 o'clock in the morning.
[00:32:53] Speaker D: Gelato.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: Breakfast gelato. That's. Or breakfast pizza maybe. I don't know. I don't know. All right, well, let's, let's talk about. You get to the port. Tell us how does check in go? Any hiccups there? Obviously, Sita Civekia is a port that Disney Cruise Line does use in the European season quite often. So it's not like a new place for them. But they hadn't been. I mean this was mid June, your cruise. So it's not like the season. It's not like we're at the end of the season. We're still towards the beginning of the Europe season. Did everything go smoothly there?
[00:33:24] Speaker B: Yes. So that's where the bus was beneficial. The bus took you all the way up pretty much to the door of the check in building. And the reason we say that is because we watched and witnessed those who took cabs or rented a car and parked it there at the port making a long walk with their luggages. Think the Port Canaveral parking garage, but maybe like another block over and you making that and no drop off for luggage. So you've got to walk your luggage. Whereas our luggage was on a van.
[00:33:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Delivered and we, we got dropped off right at the door. Very organized. There were multiple buses at the same time. They unloaded one by one and then they put you in a line and then you do it is. There is no Disney feel to the port. Obviously. We're, we're, it's not a Disney terminal, but once inside there were the different lines for, you know, silver, gold, platinum, concierge. And so you get in your line. Our line was very quick. There was a security to go through which was a little bit more extensive than the ones we're used to at Port Canaveral. We got through that. We then went over to the desk, did our check in and from there, because of the time we arrived, we were able to walk straight onto the ship. Well, first we had to take our welcome aboard picture and then we were able to walk right onto the ship.
[00:34:35] Speaker E: 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. My Path 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 Aulani, 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 Path Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already 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 DCLDUOMYPATHunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:35:33] Speaker C: I gotta ask. So pictures, right?
[00:35:36] Speaker E: And it was good.
[00:35:36] Speaker C: Wait, wait.
[00:35:37] Speaker D: Hold on, hold on. Let's tee this up for listeners who may not have maybe new Willie and Rebecca like to maximize the opportunity of the photo package on board. They can't wait until they're their pearl because then they don't have to pay for it. But let's start with on your last cruise, how many photos did you get out of the photo package before. Before this cruise? The cruise before this one. Do you remember?
[00:35:59] Speaker C: Actually, let's talk about the one that you maxed out because the one that. The one that you had the highest number because I think that one was over 800, if I'm remembering correctly, in like five days or something like that.
[00:36:11] Speaker B: You so flip it. It was 500 and like eight days.
[00:36:14] Speaker C: Oh, okay, okay.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: 508 days. That was so funny. And glad you asked. That was a big talking point for Becca. She was like, if we do this cruise, we are not running around for all the pictures. We already have. Mentally went into this knowing we may not even hit 200 pictures. We got somewhere between three and 400 pictures.
[00:36:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I knew that was gonna happen.
[00:36:35] Speaker B: Regardless, we stuck to our word. We did not run around for pictures we normally had. This was a game changer for us. And we're not trying to give fast forward too much, but a couple of our excursions, the Disney PhotoPass photographers from the ship got off and were on our excursion.
[00:36:51] Speaker C: Oh, love that.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: And one of the pictures we took in Mykonos was actually submitted for photo of the month across the entire fleet. It was an amazing picture and we did sign another waiver. So now our faces are on Fantasy and the Dream.
[00:37:05] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness. For those who don't know, you can see pictures of Willie and Rebecca in shutters on the Fantasy. They are the models or one of the model families on the Fantasy. And so now you are going to be one of the model families, couples on the Dream. I love this. This is amazing.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: It was an overnight sensation. Like, literally, they were talking so much about this one picture that we had taken. And if you haven't seen it, it's the two of us. I'm giving him a kiss on the cheek in front of the windmills inside of Mikro. So the windmills are like a very picturesque, monument type style thing in the city. And so our, like, he said if it's PhotoPass photographer was there, he got these pictures of us. They were great. It was the one that we chose to print out and take back to our home. But they were talking so much about this picture and they were telling us, like, you know, we're gonna submit it. Like, it's one picture per ship for the entire month.
[00:38:02] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:38:02] Speaker A: Cast member on board gets, like, really incredible perks if theirs is chosen. And we were like, well, how are we going to keep up with you guys and, like, know if it gets chosen? Like, we would love to know. And so they were like, well, you could release your photos and then we have, like, your contact information. So we were like, okay, we're already here.
Really? Like, I guess I don't get a lot of people that, like, are choosing to. And now I have, like, personally committed to how do I ask, but not ask to have my photos released on every ship?
What type of picture do I have to take so that I can be on all of them, but I don't want to be the one to ask for it.
[00:38:41] Speaker C: I love that. Oh, my God, I love that. Okay. I'm not surprised that you still took like three to 400 photos because I think even, even with you guys not seeking out, like, every photo opportunity, you guys still take lots of photos, whether yourselves or in front of the PhotoPass photographers. You guys are big, big into pictures and I love that about you. And I think that you are the poster children for why the unlimited photo package can be worth it. It is not worth it for everyone, but why it can be why it can be worth it. Okay.
[00:39:13] Speaker D: I was going to say there's a new goal. Well, there's a new goal now you need to get. Yeah. To Rebecca's point, you need to get. Become the models on every ship in the fleet.
[00:39:19] Speaker C: Yes. And there's exactly, there's.
[00:39:20] Speaker D: There's like five new ships coming. So you got a. You got a long run here.
[00:39:23] Speaker C: So you got a long way to go and it's in it.
[00:39:26] Speaker A: Honestly. It started with two. Being asked by Disney Fairytale Weddings to use one of our getting ready photos of the bridesmaids as well. So, like, I just feel like I'm waiting for call from Disney to.
[00:39:38] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:39:38] Speaker A: And I will be a model.
[00:39:40] Speaker C: I'm in that picture, by the way. And I did sign a release for my picture to be in Disney Fairytale Wedding. So I might be a model as well. So I just want to put that out there.
[00:39:50] Speaker D: They've carefully cut you, extracted you from the photo. Sam. Don't worry. You did not give permission apparently.
[00:39:55] Speaker B: But I will want to say game changer on whoever came up with that idea to have the photographers get off in a foreign country. This isn't Castaway, this is Mykonos. You know, I can't remember if the other stop, I don't think it was Athens. It might have been Chania, which all three of those are in Greece. But just to have they're on your excursion with you and taking pictures of you in settings you never thought you would have the opportunity. Total game changer.
[00:40:20] Speaker C: Yeah. Fantastic. And we've heard of that from other guests who've sailed in Europe. That, that happens not on every excursion, but it does happen on. On quite a few excursions. And I think they give the photographers maybe a little bit of say as to where they go. So that as well. Well, let's, let's talk about the ports that you guys went to and what you did at each port. Obviously, we could talk for forever. We're not going to be able to cover every onboard experience and we're not going to even try today. But we want to cover the ports because those are the stars in Europe. So tell us how many ports you stopped at. And I think you maybe said four or three.
[00:40:57] Speaker B: So yeah, it was four. So we boarded in Rome. We had a. We get to Naples the very next day. So Naples is also in Italy. And then we had our first sea day followed by three straight days in Greece and then a sea day to wrap it up. So, honestly, there is not a whole lot to talk about on board because onboard time was really recharge time because we've got excursions and long days ahead of us. These were long port days. The first two in Greece were 7 to 7, 7am to 7 or 7am to 8pm These were long days. Naples was till about 5 or 6pm and then Chania, the last one in Greece was only until 2 because the ship has to go from Greece all the way back to Rome. So it's got that plus the sea day. So these were long. It's a very poor, intensive cruise and very unlike any other cruise we've done before.
[00:41:43] Speaker C: Yeah, let's start with Naples. Then what did you guys book or not book for Naples? And what did you end up doing?
[00:41:51] Speaker A: So we did not book Pompeii, which was what everyone else had booked to go on that day, except for this lovely couple that we met on our excursion. So we chose to do a biking tour of Naples that ended with a stop for pizza. You can't go to Naples, Italy, and not have pizza.
[00:42:09] Speaker C: Right? But was the biking terrifying? Because traffic and cars are terrifying in Naples. I just want to put that out there. Like, we've been in a cab in Naples and I never saw my life flash before my own eyes more times than in that one cab.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: I was more terrified driving in the cars than I was on the bike. And I think that's because I was looking for that adventure. A lot of these excursions, like, I had, like, I don't want to say chosen, but I was like, I want to do adventure, I want to do activity. I want to be out. So I was like, living for the thrill of being on the side of the road and, like, trying to go faster than everybody else and stuff like that. So I was never scared. There was one point when we were making our trek back to the port where I got beeped at by a Vespa and someone shouted at me in Italian.
You just keep going. I'm like, okay, bye, and you just keep going. But I love the thrill.
[00:43:11] Speaker B: Funny story, though, it was intimidating. Can be intimidating to navigate the traffic. But. So, like Becca mentioned, we were just with one other couple, so very small, private tour. But the wife of the other couple asked, are we riding on the sidewalk or are we going to be maneuvering through traffic? And for those of you that don't know, there are not very many streets that the Italians don't drive on. We noticed that in Rome, so there are no sidewalks. And so. But the funniest part of that interaction was when the guide responded, no, we will be driving amongst the cars. And she responded, is that safe? And his response was, well, I haven't had anything happen yet.
[00:43:48] Speaker C: Such an Italian thing to say. And the answer really is no, it's not really that safe. But we're going to do it anyway, I feel.
[00:43:57] Speaker A: But I feel like when we booked it, it had said bike trail or bike path. Like, they had kind of told us that we were going to be in a designated spot on the bikes, and we just weren't. We were with within the rest of the people there.
[00:44:11] Speaker D: This is. This is why Sam will let me drive in London, even though I keep saying, let's rent a car in London. And she's like, no, absolutely not. Absolutely not.
[00:44:19] Speaker C: Yeah, it's the wrong side of the road, even. I mean, that's like, yeah. I don't know what's worse in the traffic in Naples or driving on the wrong side of the road. All right.
[00:44:27] Speaker B: Well, again, though, we would do it again.
[00:44:29] Speaker C: How. How was the pizza? That's the really important question.
[00:44:33] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. I mean, it was exactly the. How do you describe the best thing that you're. That you've ever had to eat? My favorite food is pizza. My favorite food in all of the world is pizza. Every time we go to trattoria, I'm getting pizza.
[00:44:49] Speaker C: Yes. But they don't have ranch dressing with the pizza in Italy.
[00:44:51] Speaker A: I never ask.
[00:44:53] Speaker C: Asked.
[00:44:53] Speaker A: I had pizza three times, I think, and I never asked.
[00:44:57] Speaker C: And I was boat.
[00:44:59] Speaker A: When I tell you, when I got to cabanas on day one, it was the first thing that I grabbed.
[00:45:05] Speaker D: I just picture Rebecca, like, popping the top off of a ranch dressing bottle and just drinking or just like, carry.
[00:45:11] Speaker C: Like she like carrying like some Hidden valley ranch in her purse or something.
[00:45:14] Speaker B: So at dinner, I finally asked our server, can you just bring out one of those big, like, ranch dressing dipping cups and a straw? He didn't understand I was joking. He brought her out that big pouring cup and he opened the straw for her and he put it in the ranch.
[00:45:31] Speaker C: I love it.
[00:45:32] Speaker A: And every single night, even though I only asked for it once, I was brought that entire ramekin of ranch in the silver container and french fries to go with it every single night.
[00:45:44] Speaker C: I love it. I love it.
[00:45:45] Speaker D: At least they stopped bringing the straw, though. At least they stopped with the straw.
[00:45:51] Speaker C: Obviously, for those who. Who maybe didn't listen to the beginning of this Show. We're good friends with Rebecca and Willie, and I have seen Rebecca eat her pizza with ranch dressing or french fries with ranch dressing on many an occasion. And I'm very familiar with being basically her favorite food besides pizza is ranch dressing, probably.
[00:46:13] Speaker D: I'm picturing them dropping off the ranch dressing and putting the straw in it on the first night and then going to, like, one of the little server stations and, like, peering up over the wall, trying to be discreet, to be like, is she actually going to drink the ranch dress?
[00:46:26] Speaker C: Love it.
[00:46:27] Speaker A: I think we scared a lot of the people that were around us, too, because one fan, like, I heard one of the little boys from another table was like, she got that much with french fries. And, like, they were just completely shocked that I was getting it every day.
[00:46:41] Speaker C: I love it. I love it.
[00:46:42] Speaker D: There's no shame in Rebecca's ranch game at all. You know?
[00:46:44] Speaker C: That's right. Let's. Let's jump to your second port of call, which you mentioned was in Greece, but I don't know which port it was. If it was Santorini or Mykonos, I'm not sure.
[00:46:58] Speaker B: So we went to Athens first.
[00:46:59] Speaker C: Athens, okay, nice.
[00:47:01] Speaker B: First, a little bit of a bummer. We had a long, you know, port excursion planned for Athens, and this impacted everybody on the ship. But there were protests in the city of Athens that specific day, and it hampered traffic. So every single tour group pretty much was late to. To getting to every single tour. We did go to the Acropolis, which was the first part of tour. We were late in arriving, so obviously late in leaving. They didn't shorten our time there, which is great. But what it did. What it impacted our free time in Plaka, which is a smaller city in Athens, in the shopping district that my mom had just been there about a month or two before and was highly encouraging that area. And so we missed out on it. But no big deal. You go to Athens to see the very historic sites, and we did get to see the acropolis, got to see the temple of Nike, which, big, for me, the Nike fan. But, yeah, it was very cool to see that site on the heels of the coliseum, which have their similarities. They're not identical, but they have their similarities and the historic value. You know, within the span of a week, we were at some of the most historic places in the world.
[00:48:05] Speaker C: Yeah, very cool. Very cool. Yeah.
[00:48:07] Speaker A: For me, this was a much more exciting historical site because I liked Greek mythology and Greek history way more than Roman history.
I enjoyed learning about all of it, but hearing about how much they love the Greek gods. And, you know, I know all those stories. I'm a big Percy Jackson fan. So just having all of that kind of wrapped in and, like, seeing these things in life was very surreal. And it was, like, actually interesting. Not just this is a big stone that was left here from 500 years ago, and next to it, another big stone. It was nothing like that. It was really cool to see, like, why these. These monuments were so important to the Greeks and to how they continued to be that important.
[00:48:52] Speaker C: So their temples, their places of worship, and their monuments to the gods were these places. Yeah. Very, very cool. Well, long day in Athens.
Your next port of call would have then. Oh, you're about to tell me something.
[00:49:10] Speaker B: Yeah. So before leaving Athens, before going back to the ship, we did have some time in, like, the shopping district, and our tour guide was trying to take us to stores. And the funniest moment of that was when the entire tour group fell off in unison together. And we all bombarded this gyro shop that was on her walkway because it was also late in the afternoon, like around 2:00. So we were getting ready to head back. And so we. Everybody wanted, you know, authentic Greek cuisine. And so we had some very authentic gyros and Greek feta cheese and Greek salad that Becca really loves. So we did get to try some authentic Greek food, which I think was important in highlighting.
[00:49:48] Speaker C: Love that. Love that. Okay, your next port of call then would have been Mykonos, right? Yeah. Okay, so tell us about Mykonos. What you end. You booked, obviously, a Disney excursion because you had a photopass photographer with you. Tell us about that excursion.
[00:50:04] Speaker A: Yeah, so I think prior to, we had been. We got really close with our assistant server throughout this trip. She was from Dublin, and, you know, we had just been there and so getting to talk to her about her hometown and, like, we were sharing, like, sights and memories and stuff was really cool. And she had actually informed us that we were not planning on stopping in Mykonos, that the winds were so bad. It's actually called the city of Wind, which I had no idea leading up to. But the winds were so bad that prior cruise ships had not even docked the day before. So it was iffy if we were going to be able to do it. Very, very thankful that we did because it ended up being the number one spot of our entire, entire trip.
[00:50:45] Speaker C: Such a great. I mean, this is such a great city, such a great port. I'm so glad you didn't miss it.
[00:50:50] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, Rebecca was Sam, our assistant server, actually told us. So we've. We finished in Mykonos, we go to dinner that night and she tells us that the captain had told the crew the night before that we were not going to stop there.
[00:51:01] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:51:01] Speaker B: So the crew went to bed thinking they were going to have a free day, which has benefits to them. They were very excited. And lo and behold, the captain, I guess, changed his mind. And, and you know, like Becca mentioned, we were very thankful. There were four cruise ships expected in port that day. Disney was the only one that docked. All the other three pulled out before even trying. And when we got up early in the morning to get ready for our day, you all know when we go to Castaway and there's winds, the vibrations of the ship mean that the captain is struggling to get it, you know, docked and he's really working and trying. That sound woke us up at around 6am and was prevalent for about an hour. And I remember thinking, that's a sound I normally hear at Castaway. I wonder what's happening that they're having trouble. Lo and behold, we come to find out it is the city of wind. And yeah, the captain really did his best and he pulled off a miracle because we were the only ship that docked. And we found out that the 10 night or 11 night sailing, which was right after ours, also had to skip Mykonos. They couldn't get in. And so we think we were the only crews of the Mediterranean season that made it to Mykonos, which, like Becca mentioned, our favorite stop and was a true blessing. But our excursion there consisted of we get off on the port, we walk the pier and we jump on another smaller boat and we took that boat as kind of a ferry over to Delos island, which is an uninhabited island of ancient Greek ruins.
[00:52:19] Speaker C: Oh, cool.
[00:52:20] Speaker B: They were offering refunds and free cancellations that day because of how choppy the waters were to anybody that didn't. They wanted to pull out of that excursion.
And yeah, when we got onto that boat and started the journey, which was only about 20 to 30 minutes, there was one point where the boat where we were on one side of the boat and the other side of the boat was directly beneath us with how high the waves were taking us.
[00:52:46] Speaker C: Oh, crap. Yeah, yeah, it was. I would not have been able to. I, I mean, I. You guys know I get seasick on smaller boats. I can usually do okay with the patch or something, but something like that does not sound like I would have been. I would have been in bad shape.
[00:53:02] Speaker B: Yeah, it was luckily only 20, 30 minutes. We got there, had a great time, and we had about two hours, so it was, like, complete reset on this island. Saw the ancient Greek ruins over there, and then got back on that same boat. This time, we made the. I don't know if it's a mistake, but we made the choice to go up to the top of the boat, to the open air to get more fresh air and, you know, kind coolness and breathe.
[00:53:25] Speaker A: It was a mistake.
[00:53:26] Speaker C: It was a mistake. More movement. Yeah, yeah, right. More movement.
[00:53:29] Speaker B: No, it was a mistake because we got splashed with all the water rising all the way up on the boat. 1. One man literally was drenched. They looked like they dropped a bucket of water or two on him. Poor guy was sitting in the back, and he got drenched. But we were. Someone wet, Somewhat wet, but we dried relatively fast. And so we get back to the same pier we left on, and then our tour guide took us throughout a walking tour of Mykonos before wrapping up with a lunch.
[00:53:57] Speaker C: Awesome.
[00:53:58] Speaker A: Yeah. And this day was the only day, too, that we chose, after our excursion to stay out in the port that we loved the city so much. We loved the feels of walking between all the buildings. And Mykonos is actually known for being, like, the party town of Greece. So Santorini is, like, the really calm, like, relaxing getaway spot, and then Mykonos is the nightlife. So, like, a lot of bachelorette and bachelor parties go there. A lot of, like, honeymoons happening there and things like that. What even not getting to experience that portion of it and still just, like, being immersed into traditional Greek culture and seeing all these tiny little shops that maybe are selling the same things, but, like, there's a little unique aspect to each one of them. We had been looking the entire time for souvenirs to get all of his family, and I'm actually wearing ones that his mom had gotten me when she was in Greece. What's the. The evil eye is, like, a very symbolic symbol, obviously, to the people of Greece. And so we had gotten them or his entire family bracelets from multiple different shops that all had, like, a special and unique touch. So it was really cool to get to do that. Getting some, like, traditional Greek clothes and, like, that was. It was the best day. I wish that I, you know, could have gone back every day just to sit in Mykonos and honestly, just listen to the. The waves, like, crashing up against the shore and everything. It was very spectacular.
[00:55:26] Speaker C: Awesome. All right, well, let's talk about your last port. This was a shorter port day. You mentioned Willie, at the beginning, because you had a longer journey back by sea, of course, a day at sea and then the journey back to Rome or city Civicia. Tell us what you guys got up to on that final sea day or. Sorry, final portion.
[00:55:47] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:55:47] Speaker A: So we got off in Chania, still a very early morning. We did a countryside cityside tour. So for the countryside, we went to a botanical garden up in, like, literally the mountains of Chania.
We got to enjoy traditional wine and a lot of foods made and grown from all of the botanics that they have inside that garden. Got an amazing tour of a guy making, like, a Greek salad, like, right in front of your eyes from things grown there. Like, it was very. It was so peaceful to just be in that type of environment and to see the beauty of nature. I think they had some over four or five thousand different species of plants, things that had been extinct everywhere on the island, except for in this garden. They allowed us the ability to walk down into, like, on a trail into seeing more of the plants and the animals that are around. Before heading to our city side tour, which was exactly as it sounds. We just, again, walked along the streets. This one, they had a big, huge pier, like, think boardwalk at Disney World that you could walk along. And there were, like, water sports going on at the. At the same time that we were there. So it was very lively. Like, a lot of people were at the different shops and restaurants, like, on the water. Just like watching these water sports happen. By this point, how I was being dragged through the city, we had no more euros to spend. So no sous vides, no gelato and no, no gelato. I'm like, what else am I here for? We had two hours to just sit in the city. This was the one that I think, and I think my husband would agree, that I didn't really feel guided like we were. Yes. On all of our excursions were through Disney. We didn't book anything outside. But this was the one that when we went to the botanical garden, we had other people explain to us what we were doing, and they were telling us about what we were seeing and getting to do. Then when we went to the city, she was like, there's these places. This is where we're going to meet up again. Be back here in an hour and a half.
[00:57:55] Speaker C: No, so not really a tour.
[00:57:56] Speaker A: We weren't really guided. Yeah, pretty much. But she did talk about a couple of churches that we went to go in and see, which are very huge in all of Europe, really. But then most of it was just Walking on your own and doing your own thing. I think by the time 2:00 came, we, we were ready to get back on the boat and just kind of enjoy a half sea day, half port day and just really getting to relax by the end of it.
[00:58:23] Speaker B: Yeah. And in true Disney cruiser fashion, one of the lines of the, of that excursion when we were in the botanical garden and doing like the hike through all the, the different species of trees and animals that are there, we overheard one person say it's like a real life living with the land.
Yeah, this is living with the land. For real?
[00:58:44] Speaker C: For real, for real, for real. Oh my God, that's hilarious.
[00:58:49] Speaker D: Well, we've hit all the ports and we can't get too much into the onboard experience. So I'm gona ask this question which is one big highlight each from on the ship that we haven't talked about.
[00:59:03] Speaker B: Paulo, we didn't do brunch this time, we did dinner. And the only other time we've done Paulo dinner is with you all on the honeymoon. So we had kind of made up our mind that we want, you know, we want, we don't need to do the pirate menu anymore. So we got on board the first day, went straight to like the Apollo booking desk. That was when we saw your friend from Palo and he was able to help us get one for pirate and night. And I think what made it extra special is we got some really good pictures. But we had golden hour. And as you all know, for all those who have, you know, had a meal in Paulo, you it's all windows right around you and so very quiet, intimate dinner, golden hour. And we had like an 8 o'clock dinner but the sun didn't go down until like 9ish during that week. And so perfect lighting as we were leaving, you know, Athens. I think that was the day we were leaving Athens. So as we're leaving Athens, you know, we have the city in the background, the perfect lighting and just like a nice, you know, very delicious meal. One of the best, you know, steaks that I have all year. So that was just a nice intimate, quiet setting.
[01:00:06] Speaker C: Love that. And I love that you guys see Gonzalo, he is awesome. He's one of the managers at Paulo and he was on the Wish actually for when the wish first maiden and then was on the wish quite for quite some time I think before he transferred back over to the Dream. I'm sure he had been on the Dream or the fantasy prior to that. I just, I can't remember because they obviously Move them around. What about. What about you, Rebecca? What was a highlight for you? Other than the ranch dressing and the pizza on board, obviously.
[01:00:38] Speaker A: I actually think this is going to ruffle some feathers. I'm so happy we didn't go to Castaway.
[01:00:43] Speaker C: Oh, whoa. Oh, my goodness.
[01:00:47] Speaker A: First cruise I had ever taken where I didn't go to Castaway Cay.
[01:00:51] Speaker C: Wow. This is a hot take. I'm not sure if our listeners like this.
[01:00:57] Speaker A: You know what the main thing is, is that I. I, as much as I don't like the pirate menu, I don't like the food there.
I'm not a big on the barbecue fan type either.
And I was just happy to sit by the pool and switch between the pool and the hot tub and the lounger and getting as many croissants and Rice Krispies from COVID that I wanted and running through six punch cards of free iced lattes and stuff. It was just actually relaxing. I feel like Cast Away is not actually relaxing. Like, the few times that we've gotten to get cabanas is different because we have, you know, more service being brought to us. We have a lot. We've never done it just the two of us. So having you guys there and. Or his family there, like, those things really up the ante when it comes to those. But as far as just the cruises that it's just been the two of us going to Cast Away, I feel like I don't actually, like, sit and relax and recharge while we're there. Not because we're doing the 5K, but just, like, we just want to go do all the things we're wanting to run and see the character there, and it's so hot and there's so much to see and do. You don't want to miss a thing. Like, that was not the vibe of this trip. The vibe of this trip was literally just seeing sights in Europe that we had never gotten to see before and then truly shutting our brains off and relaxing the entire time that we got to on the boat. So I'm thankful that we didn't go to Castaway and I didn't have to run around the hop all day.
[01:02:30] Speaker B: The views expressed in this segment are my wife and my wife.
[01:02:35] Speaker C: I was gonna. I was gonna. I was thinking that. Willie, listen, I. I love that you got to relax. I. I don't necessarily think that. That it has to be intertwined with Castaway. I think you can relax at Castaway, but I understand that for you, it's harder to relax at Castaway because You have fomo, and so this, I think, helped ease you of some of that fomo, and I totally understand that. So I really love that you guys got to relax a lot on board. All right, Brian, is there some. Is there anything that we have missed? Obviously, we said we kind of limited the onboard experiences. Willie is signaling to me that we have missed something. So, Willie, tell us, what have we missed that you wanted to share with us and the audience?
[01:03:14] Speaker B: Yeah, so we were mutual on this. This was a new event for us. We'd never experienced this, but Mickey's Color Spin Dance Party, first time we ever attended it, first time we've ever been offered on any sailing.
[01:03:24] Speaker C: So, yeah, we haven't seen either.
[01:03:26] Speaker B: Yeah, there were no fireworks on this sailing, so also a bit different than, you know, our Caribbean Bahamian island type sailings. So this was the nighttime dance party aboard the deck. And so I'll be honest, it was pretty cool.
It's still tough to beat the Marvel at Sea stage show at night and still tough to beat the Pirate Party, specifically on the Wish, but I think I'd put that in the third spot there. The music's pretty good. The characters are. Are in some cool colors, and, you know, it's a cool and active dance party. And honestly, one of the cool things was it wasn't packed at all. I think it's because people don't turn up when there's no fireworks. But it was, it was. I feel like Brian usually asked, like, did you do anything new or is there anything new to share? And this would be like, our mutual. Completely new. Like, this hasn't even been an option for us before. So it was cool to experience that.
[01:04:12] Speaker C: Wow. So Heroes Unite is number one pirate parlay party on the wish. Number two, which will be supposedly on the Treasure, and we assume on the Destiny, and then number three, Color Spin. Wow. So it beats out the other Pirate deck parties. It beats out the Frozen Deck Party and any other retired deck parties, probably including the Sail Away party or Sail Away parties on the other side.
[01:04:34] Speaker A: Oh, that was the one I was going to say, probably. Like, what's that phrase? Throw toss. A toss up in the air. Like, I'm in between the Color Spin Dance Party and the Sail Away. Because I feel like the Sail Away is. It's obviously the kickstart. Like, you're so excited that it's there. And the Color Spin. After the fourth character has come out and danced for his minute and a half, you're like, okay. Like, okay, I'm done. Yeah, next one.
[01:05:00] Speaker C: But that's like every deck party, right? Like every deck party is introduced a character, they do a dance with the exception of really the first two that Willie mentioned. Right. Those have a story like that. Heroes Unite has a storyline. I haven't seen it myself, but I know from talking to people about it has a storyline. And Pirate Parlay deck party also has a storyline. And. And the other pirate deck party does have a storyline, but that one's better. So we can just all universally agree it's just a better pirate deck party. All right, well, awesome. Thanks, you guys. Brian, is there anything that we have missed? Oh, we probably want to ask you what's next.
[01:05:34] Speaker D: You keep asking me. You keep asking me if we've missed anything and then you just keep going.
[01:05:38] Speaker C: I know, I'm sorry.
[01:05:39] Speaker D: Maybe I could ask. Maybe I could ask the question what's next?
[01:05:42] Speaker C: There you go.
[01:05:44] Speaker B: Yeah. So kind of like you mentioned at the top of the show, we are itching again to get back on board. Really want to get a chance to see Lighthouse Point sooner rather than later. So we don't have a definitive answer to what's next, but more so a hypothetical list. And so a holiday sailing of some sort, whether that be, you know, Thanksgiving or a New Year's Eve sailing, preferably with you all.
[01:06:09] Speaker C: You know, there's still room on the Christmas maiden voyage of the treasure.
[01:06:13] Speaker B: I'm just saying, I saw Brian's post this week and if I could only convince my family, I think that would be a no brainer. If we're only talking dcl after that, we actually have to head back to Ireland next year for my previously mentioned friend's wedding. And we've kind of decided that it's very quick and easy to fly from Ireland to Barcelona. And I mentioned I want to see Spain. And so we are thinking of a Barcelona cruise which hits, I think one repeat stop from our current cruise. I think it was Naples which would allow us to see Pompeii, but it hits completely new stops. That would be beginning of next summer, possibly Alaska with some friends towards the end of next summer.
[01:06:53] Speaker C: And then I wonder what friends those might be.
[01:06:55] Speaker B: I don't know. And then rounding it out with most likely the destiny maiden voyage at the end of next year.
[01:07:02] Speaker C: Awesome.
[01:07:03] Speaker D: Nice. Well, guys, it's always fun to catch up with both of you. I'm sad that we don't do this more often and we have to record the conversation, but it was great to see you both and I just want to thank you. It's late there where you are. This evening. So thank you for taking time late in the evening, late in your evening to come and share your fabulous adventure with our guests. We really, really appreciate it.
[01:07:27] Speaker A: Of course, I think we'll get to see each other in January, if not sooner.
[01:07:31] Speaker C: That's right.
[01:07:32] Speaker D: Race weekend.
[01:07:33] Speaker C: Yes, we'll definitely see you for race weekend. We might see you sooner when we're down there for the maiden, depending upon the schedule, your schedule, our schedule, all of that. So we'll plan that out.
[01:07:48] Speaker E: 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, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.
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 mypath unwinding.com DCLDUO or email them at DC 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 it's got links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast, links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon 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
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[01:09:52] Speaker C: SA.
