[00:00:00] Speaker A: What about. Let's talk about things to wear for. Because this is still the planning.
A lot of people do, like decide they're going to bring certain kinds of outfits. What are the typical things that people like to wear? I'm talking about the customers. I'm not talking about cats.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Talking about those pajamas, aren't you?
[00:00:20] Speaker A: You know, and those ugly sweaters.
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Oh, lots of sweaters. But I mean, can you truly call any Disney sweater ugly?
[00:00:29] Speaker A: No.
[00:00:29] Speaker C: I have to say, yes, I can. Y welcome back, everybody, to a special live episode of the DCL Duo podcast brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and also our friends over at DCL magazine or WGW magazine. We want to thank them for sponsoring our live and bonus shows these past couple of months. And they are gearing up. They are getting ready to to release their new DCL magazine.
I can't share timing, but you know, they are going to be releasing their magazine so coming soon, hopefully with an article by us in there about parasailing, one of our favorite activities at Castaway Cay. We're hoping, but just want to thank them. If you have not signed up for their waitlist, now is a great time to head over so you can find out when the new magazine is going to be publishing, potentially subscribe yourself. So head over to DCL magazine.com to sign for the waitlist. And if you want to buy anything out of the WDW magazine store, they've got the DLR magazine, the WDW magazine, forthcoming DCL magazine, calendars, merch, all kinds of fun stuff. Just use code DCLDUO for 10% off. That's DCLDUO all cap percent off in their store. But speaking of friends, Sam, we have friends from our fabulous sponsor MyPath Unwinding joining us. So welcome, Carolyn.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. Happy holidays, everyone. I'm so excited to be here and tell you all about maritime cruising.
[00:02:03] Speaker A: Yes, we're so excited to have you on first time on the DCL Duo podcast for Carolyn. But Carolyn, you have a really cool prior job that I kind of need to mention.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: Oh, that's right.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: Karen mentioned this to me.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: You heard about that?
[00:02:21] Speaker A: Yes. So Carolyn used to work for the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.
[00:02:27] Speaker B: I did, yes. I'm a former museum curator. Yes. And one of my. One of my former positions is with the Mob Museum.
[00:02:35] Speaker A: That is so cool. And apparently you had to like, go and ask mobsters for like, old memorabilia and stuff like that. Is that true?
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, I worked very closely with both law enforcement as well as some of the crime families to help find authentic artifacts for museums, you know, and, and overall museum curation took me to some really interesting places. I also work for the National Park Service.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Oh, cool.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: And went to many national parks, including some cruise ports as well. I actually worked out of Skagway, Alaska as a park ranger. And so I'm very familiar with many of the cruise ports up there as well and love to help clients that are sailing to that area.
[00:03:22] Speaker C: I just need to know if you had to read Miranda warnings like don't give me anything that's going to incriminate you.
[00:03:27] Speaker B: It was difficult to get some people to sign after Davids, of course. But that's awesome.
[00:03:33] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:03:34] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:03:35] Speaker A: Well, Carolyn, we're so excited to have you on the show tonight.
[00:03:38] Speaker C: Well, and Sam, before we dive into maritime cruising, we just a couple of news items for Disney Cruise Lines.
So one, the adventure still on sale. They have opened up now to silver booking and I think is it tomorrow? Tomorrow general on sale availability to the public. So if you've been wanting to technically.
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Tonight because they're like 12 hours ahead of us.
[00:04:03] Speaker C: 7Pm I think it is tonight on the West Coast. Yeah. So if you've been wanting to book the adventure and you have not sailed Disney Cruise Line before, interesting choice to sail the adventure first. Unless you already live in Asia. But if that's your thing, it's tonight is your night. And I don't think it's sold out. I think some of the stateroom categories have sold out. The nice thing about it is there is the same sort of, there are not the same sort of restrictions on this maiden voyage as there are on the maiden voyages we've experienced in the US So we are, we are booked. I'm putting that in air quotes. Well, I am. I am booked with my fabulous pa, my production assistant, not personal assistant who might accompany me over there or not. We're not sure. We may just move it out. But I was like I'll book it and we'll see what happens. But yeah, so that is out there. The other thing is the treasure. It's getting close, people. It's getting close couples. So the media is on right now for their three night media cruise. So yep, great time to follow by the way. P.S. again, WDW magazine, great time to follow them because they're on board and putting out a lot of great content. Also great time to follow some of the folks we had on last week. Scott Gustin, Laughing Place. So now's a great time to follow Those outlets because they're on board experiencing the Treasure for three nights. Quick, quick taste of it. And then Sam, Sam leaves in two days.
[00:05:26] Speaker A: I'm going to be on on Thursday. Me and Karen Shelton from my Path Unwinding Travel. Also, Karen's daughter Leia is going to be with us. So there's going to be the three of us on board the Treasure on Thursday.
We will be on for three nights. So we leave, of course, that means that we leave on Sunday. Yeah. So I will, I'll be posting on, you know, all the socials, but probably primarily Instagram. So if you want to follow along, you know, I'll be doing reels, I'll be doing stories, all that good stuff. So follow Instagram.
[00:05:58] Speaker C: Well, it, and, and you know, the, like, the breaking news from last week's show that I'm still working to get confirmation over is for everyone out there on the maiden voyage who's been like, there is no tree. There is a tree. So there will be a tree. There is not one. Now, we expect them to install some kind of decor on the night that the treasure is dark before the maiden voyage. It's when they bring a lot of stuff on board, more merch, deliver stuff to staterooms, all that fun stuff. But we are expecting a tree.
Media relations confirm that to one of our media friends out there who was Benji, who was on our show last week. So, yeah, that is, that is the news, the news of the week for Disney Cruise Line. Thankfully, it's a lot quieter than everything that they've been dropping for what they had Walt Disney World Day, they had Disneyland Day with just tons of announcements. The cruise line has been a little quieter, thank God. So we're looking forward to being on the maiden voyage here in what, just under 10 days, Sam? I think maybe 10 days out the 21st. Yeah. So.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: So 12 days.
[00:06:58] Speaker C: 12 days. 12 days. So there you go. So. All right, well.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: And Linda's asking so many podcasters going on the Treasure on Thursday, maybe it's basically, that's so the, the cruise. We know it's a travel agents cruise.
[00:07:12] Speaker C: It's a travel agent cruise. So if your favorite podcast has a travel agent engaged as a host on the cruise, there's a good chance, I think, I think west from the DCL dude will probably be on there with Sam. And we know some of the folks from the Diz are going to be on board as well because they get an agency invite. So, yes, there are a few podcasters we know who will be on board the Treasure with Sam, none of the typical folks got invited on the media cruise from this space. So they're all on the travel agent side of things this time around. So. All right, with that, with that maritime maritime cruising holiday season.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: We have a very busy holiday season because we're getting on the fantasy for New Year's Eve after, after we're on the Treasure also. So backward, not technically back to back, we got, you know, we get off and then we don't get on till the very next day. But before we talk about maritime. Carolyn, Hopscotch.
[00:08:08] Speaker C: A hopscotch cruise. That's what we call it.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: We call it a side to side. But Carolyn, tell folks about your Disney cruising, like, history, like, how many Disney cruises have you been on? I know you obviously book a lot of Disney cruises for your clients, but what's your sort of Disney background?
[00:08:24] Speaker B: You know, we, our family has always loved cruising and we've always loved Disney parks. You know, we have a big family with lots of, lots of allergies and lots of neurodivergency. And I've always said that Disney is kind of the golden ticket for anyone that has, you know, neurodivergency with different abilities and with food allergies because you can really go anywhere and you have those safe places. Disney is very accommodating for anything that you need to do or anything different in your diet that you need to do. And I love to help families that have, you know, food difficulties or differences. We have Celiac disease in our family. We have egg allergies, we have soy allergies, we have tree nut allergies. We have adhd, we have autism. And Disney really is a place, you know, both in the parks as well as on the ships, where everybody can have a good time, everybody has a safe place, everybody can find something that suits their needs. And Disney cruising makes it even better than in the parks. And we are recent, you know, converts to Disney cruising. We've been going to the parks for a long time, and it wasn't until really after the pandemic that we discovered that this would suit all of our family's needs as our kids got a little bit older and able to move around a bit more and appreciate it, but we wish we'd found it earlier. So we've been doing Disney cruising for all of our vacations since then, along with the parks and land and sea trips as well. And we've been trying to do as many different types of cruising and as many different ships and locations as we can. We really love Disney's Day, special days at Seas, their holidays. We've done Marvel Days at Seas. We've done. Our first cruise was a Halloween on the High Seas Adventure.
And we've done, now we've done a maritime cruise as well as, you know, their regular cruises in between. So we just really embrace it and love it. We've gotten our parents into it and we do multi generational cruises, which is what we did here with the maritime cruising. And it's just really a fun way to travel altogether and to find something for everyone's needs.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: Yeah, love that. And for folks who want to know more about not just maritime cruising, but specifically cruising with food allergies, cruising with various disabilities, Carolyn has a special interest in those things, and so she's a great resource for that. Of course, if you're looking to book with my path and one day we always tell you to reach out to them. But if you're have this special issue thing, I mean, similar to our family, we don't have food allergies, but we have obviously autism and ADHD in our family. And Carolyn is a great resource for all of those things. Well, let's jump in. You decided to book a maritime cruise on the Disney Magic, is that right?
[00:11:25] Speaker B: Yes, we're fresh off the Disney Magic. We actually got off the boat just a week ago this time. So it's all fresh in my head. I'm still, you know, enjoying the high of the Disney cruise. And, you know, this one I was a little unsure of. This one was my husband's idea. I had to be talked into it, and it was one of his best ideas ever. I'm always a little hesitant about traveling on the holidays. And I was worried that my dad is our family chef when it comes to the holidays. And I was worried we'd be stepping on his toes a little bit if we said, hey, we don't, we don't want to do Thanksgiving at your house this year. But they were so excited, my parents, that they wanted to come along along with us. And you know what, it was just the best for everyone. I think every now and then everyone needs a little bit of a break at the holidays. You know, we all just need a chance, the adults, and especially to take a break, have a break out of the kitchen, especially when you have a lot of food allergies in your family. The chefs are trying to cover everybody and have all the magic taken care of for you. And that's really what we had on this cruise. It had, it's been a long fall. There's been a lot going on and we just really left all the baggage behind, all the politics behind, all of our stress behind and we had Disney make all of the magic for us.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:12:47] Speaker B: It's really great.
[00:12:48] Speaker A: Well, let's talk about planning. Brian, you wanted to start right with the planning aspects.
[00:12:56] Speaker C: Sure. You can start with wherever you would like.
[00:12:59] Speaker A: No, I just am forgetting the order that you had sort of that you.
[00:13:03] Speaker C: I don't think I taught, I don't think I mentioned planning, but go ahead. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I do think there's some planning aspects here to talk about. So like, you know, a lot of people we were experiencing this with the main voyage on the Treasure because it's over the holidays. You know, one maybe help people understand how you even identify a very maritime cruise because not all the cruises are very maritime. Some of the ships started into different times and you know, so how do you even find the very maritime cruises? Why don't we.
[00:13:31] Speaker B: So very maritime cruises are a specific category when you search. I mean, it's always best to have a travel agent help partner with you so that not only can this be a stress free vacation for you, but also the planning can be a little more stress free. But you're going to notice that it's a specific category when you search for cruises on Disney Cruise Line and that that category is also going to have a lovely little string of lights next to it as well. Now the time frame for these cruises goes from about mid November just before Thanksgiving. Usually it's about one or two rounds of cruising before the Thanksgiving holiday start. For us on the Magic, there was one cruise before Thanksgiving that had the very merry time happen and then it goes until the Christmas cruise. Now unlike the Parks, there's not an additional buffer after the holidays where they're continuing that very maritime theming. Once the cruise that happens on Christmas ends, that is the end of the very maritime season. So if you're looking to do a New Year's cruise or something like that, you're not going to find a very maritime theming. It ends when Christmas ends and it is very focused on that very maritime Christmas.
[00:14:43] Speaker C: That's, that's P.S. that's true for Castaway Cay as well. Day after Christmas those decorations come down and in fact, well, yes and no.
[00:14:51] Speaker A: So, so it is 100% true for the ship. The ship. As soon as Christmas is over, as Carolyn mentioned, then the decorations come down. So even if your ship sails like on Christmas Eve, by the, at the end of your cruise, the next cruise, the People that get on for New Year's because they're only seven night cruises or less, they will not have maritime stuff. Castaway, occasionally this has been, it has been different, different years. There have been times where there have been reports of castaway decorations being up until New Year's, but it's not a guarantee because technically maritime season.
[00:15:29] Speaker C: Yeah, I think they've, I mean we have seen the photos at least of the ships of the like the people are getting off and you can see them offload all of the decorations like that that day.
[00:15:39] Speaker A: So an early maritime cruise. This is a good point if Linda is commenting. Her dream cruise was the second maritime cruise on the Dream and she was bummed the tree wasn't up on Castaway. So this is true to the, the Maritime Decker. The decorations on Castaway don't always go up before the maritime cruises start sailing. And so I haven't seen.
[00:15:59] Speaker C: Have we seen photos of any decorations on Lookout Key this year?
[00:16:03] Speaker A: I have not seen any, but I don't. Oh no, I have. Yes, we posted them. We posted them on the, on. Gosh, I can't believe I'm saying this. Yeah, they were really cool. Like Bahamian decorated trees. We posted them on our, on our Instagram.
[00:16:15] Speaker C: Now I haven't, I haven't seen those. I missed those. I don't watch.
[00:16:18] Speaker A: Yeah, somebody had, someone had shared that.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: They are decorated at both Castaway and lookout. Keith.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Yes. Yes, we have.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:16:27] Speaker A: Yeah, and we have photos of that, Brian, for sure. Because I definitely posted them on our Instagram when they first went up.
All right, well so let's. Okay, so the planning part, you gotta look specifically for, you know, whether or not something is designated to Carolyn's point. And I want to be clear, our cruise that is over Christmas on the Treasure, it is the Maiden. And so it is not designated as a maritime cruise. Which from my belief means we will not have all of the trappings of maritime that we'll talk about on this show. But I know that we will have a tree. So. So generally speaking, if you don't have a maritime cruise, though, if it's not designated maritime, you should not expect any Christmas decorations.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: Absolutely. There are absolutely some exceptions to this. You always want to make sure if you're looking for a maritime cruise that you're not just looking at the date, you're also looking for that maritime designation. You know, the Disney Wonder, which is sailing down in Australia during this time last year, they had absolutely no decorations or any kind of theming. This year they are decorating for the holidays on the boat, but they're not necessarily doing the full maritime itinerary and cruising and activities. So who, who knows what they'll be doing next year. You have to wait and see for each.
[00:17:43] Speaker C: We'll be super interested to see what they do with the adventure, actually. Yeah, absolutely. To probably do some stuff with like, you know, Chinese New Year and like the. Or. Yeah, yeah.
[00:17:52] Speaker B: Well, I have to say I lived in Singapore for six years and let me tell you, they start decorating for Christmas in about September, early Octo. It is a very big holiday over there, at least commercially, and they do some amazing decorations. So I'd be surprised if there wasn't some kind of decorating or nod to it in some way. But it might take some time to build up to that as they figure out, you know, what their agenda.
[00:18:18] Speaker C: Especially because they. Especially because her maiden voyage is also in December.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: I think these maiden voyages in December create some difficulty for all of the things that Disney wants to accomplish in those short times.
[00:18:31] Speaker C: Let's talk about some other. Some other stuff. Pre planning. So before you even set foot on the ship, I think you have some decisions to make right around stateroom decor, door decorating, if you're going to bring. So we've sailed over the Christmas holiday. Am I bringing presents with me? All of that sort of stuff. Let's start with stateroom decor because before you even set foot on the ship, Disney does usually offer some special decor packages. So do you want to talk about some of those? Carolina going.
[00:19:02] Speaker B: I would love to. I've actually got part of ours behind me here. You know, it's going to be different for every ship. What they have available I definitely saw for clients and for myself, different packages for the different ships. And so we. I've got part of mine here. I had some magnetic, you know, hangings here, some a stuffed animal, a cool pillow. We had a holiday blanket and a basket to put it all in. They offer something like this on every ship. They have offerings like seasonal flowers and poinsettias. They even have a Christmas tree that you can order to your room. Now, of course, it's a smaller sized one. It's a miniature that you can. That you can have in your room. For you.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: It's more of a plant than an actual tree, though, to be honest, we've had it before and it's like, it's kind of this, like it's shaped like a Christmas tree, but it's like a.
It's some kind of plant.
[00:19:59] Speaker B: It's not actually like a rosemary One on some and like a little mini pine on others kind of depends on, but it creates the spirit of it. And all these kind of holiday prepackages start to be available to order kind of in early November. Once the holiday Halloween packages are over, that's when they'll be available within your My Disney Cruising app. You can also talk to your travel agent and they can help you purchase those items as well.
[00:20:25] Speaker C: Every year it seems like they come a little later and a little later. And I will just tell folks if you're interested in these packages, like the moment they go up, sometimes they're gone that day for your sailing because they're.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: They are very.
[00:20:36] Speaker C: People love the blankets. People want the trees. The kicker with the tree is I don't think you could take it off the ship with you.
[00:20:43] Speaker B: Cruise for all of the plants and flowers and things. Do not expect to be able to take those off with customs. It can be a difficult sort of thing. I mean, I know people have taken them, but it can be, you know, difficult to get those through.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: You can take the ornaments. The ornaments are removable and they like the one that we have gotten in the past is sort of a nautical themed one. And so it's got little like Mickey, Captain Mickey, Captain Minnie, that sort of thing. So you can take those off to take home with you and then of course you can put them on your tree at home after the fact. But yeah, the packages sell out. The best tip I can give for folks is join your Facebook group for your sailing because people will be like checking. There are some people who check the app every single day. That's not me, but I will notice a Facebook post that's got a lot of activity when somebody posts and says the room packages for Christmas are up or whatever.
[00:21:36] Speaker C: They're like Michael from the office. It's all happening. It's all happening.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They will keep you informed whether you want to be or not.
[00:21:44] Speaker A: Let's. Let's talk about decorations that you can bring on with you because I think that's another thing a lot of people decide. I'm going to. I want to decorate our room and I want to bring decorations. What can I bring? I think the biggest question is what you can't bring. Carolyn, why don't you tell folks what are the. What is sort of the parameter of things you cannot bring?
[00:22:05] Speaker B: So you want to be careful with size and you want to be careful with how much space you're taking up and, you know, door decoration. Decorations are a really fun way for you to share, you know, the Disney cruise love and things. But you're gonna want to avoid wrapping your entire door. That's definitely a no, no. You keep your decorations, you know, to the space of your door. Don't expand it beyond to the hallway. We did see some of that, but it had to be taken down by room attendants, unfortunately.
You know, be careful with some of your electrical components. If you do want to bring lights on board, keep it small into a battery pack. We found some great. That, you know, had an automatic six hour to a small battery pack that had a six hour on, 18 hour off. And that was really, really kind of a fun way to have some twinkle lights in the room or add it to a tree if you want to. Also, if you do want to bring on your own tree one that takes apart and puts back together, just make sure it's within some size requirements for Disney Cruise Line. I believe that's within two feet or two and a half feet at absolute most. You know, Dark Target always has some great ones every year that people seem to go for. But again, those are very large when you're staying in a small state room.
[00:23:30] Speaker C: We did have some, we did have some success on the tree size thing. They make this one tree that's like, it's collapsible, so it's like, it looks like a wreath.
It's really like a big garland and it collapses down and you just hang the garland and it all drops down. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So it's. Yeah. So if you want something a little great option.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: And it's real skinny, so it doesn't take up a lot of room, but it's a little taller. Yeah.
[00:23:51] Speaker C: Got on Amazon.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: So that's a good option.
[00:23:54] Speaker B: Those are good ways to decorate for sure.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: Yeah. What about. Let's talk about things to wear for the. Because this is still the planning.
A lot of people do like decide they're going to bring certain kinds of outfits. What are the typical things that people like to wear? I'm talking about the, the customers, not. I'm not talking about cast.
[00:24:15] Speaker B: Talking about those pajamas, aren't you?
[00:24:17] Speaker A: You know, and those ugly sweaters.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: Oh, lots of sweaters. But I mean, can you truly call any Disney sweater ugly?
[00:24:26] Speaker A: No.
[00:24:26] Speaker C: Yes. Yes, I can.
[00:24:31] Speaker B: I embrace it all. I loved it. You know, I think that pajamas and casual wear are a time honored tradition. On any cruise. I think by the last day, everyone's keeping it really comfortable. But on a maritime cruise, pajamas, especially matching Christmas family pajamas, are just really a fun thing and a very popular Thing to wear, especially for all of that picture taking.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: So Hanukkah cammies are popular as well. I just want to put that up.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Absolutely. Definitely the holiday of your choice, for sure.
And I think that a very popular thing, both in taking pictures off of cruise ships as well as on board. And it's just so easy because you're so near your stateroom. You can change any time. It's really comfortable, and, you know, it's just something you can wrangle. Everybody. And we tried to do the Christmas sweaters this year, but just, you know, everybody every. When we. When we got in line for Santa, we were just glad everyone had clothes in, clothes on by the time we were doing it. And luckily, you know, so during these maritime cruises, you know, there's just a lot of opportunities to have character photos, Santa photos. They make sure to space out the times for these during all different times a day. It's not just in the evening. It's also in the daytime. It's all the time so that you can really have a chance to do it by the end of the cruise. I would say on our last night, at least 50% of the passengers were in their holiday pajamas, and they wore them through the night and exited the next morning. And I was really jealous. I was like, oh, that's what we gotta do next time.
[00:26:17] Speaker C: So Sam made a really good point. You have some great photos of your own door decor here. So this is Carolyn and her family on the bus. On the bus on the way to ship. I'm not sure what happened with this slide.
[00:26:30] Speaker A: It's the. Yeah.
[00:26:31] Speaker C: Oh, darn it. It's all compressing. Let me do this and see if. Nope, that doesn't help.
Oh, well, the slides are not cooperating, so we'll just go slide this.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: Let me see if I can. Let me see if I can share my.
All right, I'm going to remove yours. Brian. You guys keep talking. I'm going to see if I can do this.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: So.
[00:26:50] Speaker C: So, yeah, let's talk about some of the. Some of the reasons you might want to bring some special wear on board. Obviously, if you're on the cruise for Christmas morning, that can be a really special time, Especially. Especially for pajamas. I think they kind of do something similar on all the cruises. Like they designate a day that Santa is going to be in the atrium. But on CRU, Christmas morning, you can wake up early in your PJs, head to the atrium, get a photo with Santa. They've usually got cookies and hot cocoa out. Do they do that on the non like Christmas day sailings too.
[00:27:20] Speaker B: Yeah. So how they do it for most of the sailings, I mean, obviously. So maritime sailings range from three nights to seven nights. So it's going to differ depending on the sailing you have. But it's a lot like the other day at sea sailings where there's one day they pick specifically to be extra Christmassy and be focused on all the holiday offerings and have extra characters out in their Christmas wear and their holiday outfits and be hugging everyone and wandering around the ship. Not just in lines. They have extra holiday activities. Everything is themed. They have a deck party. They have above and beyond holiday and that's like the focus of it. Much like Marvel Day at sea or the Halloween days and the Pixar day at sea. So that's like a focus day for it. But beyond that, there's also holiday offerings all throughout. So there's. When you get on board, you're going to right away be greeted with the smell of gingerbread. There's a beautiful giant gingerbread house as well as a big tree on. Yes, that's the gingerbread house. I was obsessed with this gingerbread house with one caveat.
[00:28:33] Speaker C: One. One caveat which is if you're on the wish, things are a little different than on the classic ships. So the gingerbread house tends to be a little smaller and the tree is not non traditional, I'll just put it that way. So.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: Yeah, that's true. The wish, you're going to get a more of a gold princess.
You know, the wish is different in a lot of ways. So that of course they're going to do the holidays with more of a wish and enchanted theme, for sure.
You know, and. And on the more traditional, I think nautical themed, original four ships, they definitely go with a little bit more of a traditional holiday look, you know, but all the trees kind of have their own different dcl look to them. Our tree on the magic was all decorated in a lot of seashells and, and kind of like that tropical feel. So we definitely felt the Disney cruise. I mean, that gingerbread house was 500 pounds of gingerbread dough before it was cooked.
[00:29:39] Speaker A: Crazy.
[00:29:39] Speaker C: Do you know, do you know what they do with it after? It's a great fact. Fun fact.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: Oh, you know, I don't do I want to know.
[00:29:46] Speaker C: They. They feed the fish with it.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: They feed it to the fish. Yeah.
[00:29:49] Speaker B: There we go.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:52] Speaker B: Well, they.
[00:29:53] Speaker A: I love, I love the garlands too. Like. So in this photo that I pulled up that you sent us, this is the Garlands behind, of course, the atrium statue of Mickey. So this is, you know, just really nice decorations. I also want to show you. Oh, there's just the tree, which is beautiful. But I also want to show your door. Let me get.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: Oh yeah, that was actually my parents door. We were cute. A different floor and our door goes a little crazy. It's a little chaotic. We let the kids go wild on it. But I thought my parents did such a nice job of bringing, you know, a little holiday decor to their theming this time, you know, but within the limits of the Disney rules and everything. So it's just a fun way to spread the holiday cheer.
[00:30:40] Speaker A: Yeah. And here's another picture of your kids obviously with one of the trees. This isn't even the atrium tree. This is up one level, right? This is up on.
[00:30:49] Speaker B: Yes. This is up by the movie theater. And that's the thing is you're not just finding all the decoration in the lobby. It's in all the dining rooms. It's like in the hallways. You have the Disney Christmas music playing in the hallways on the day that you embark on the Christmas, on the merry time day at sea and when you disembark as well. So it's just kind of pervasive throughout your whole time is that you're on this holiday filled cruise and that the magic is happening all around you and that you're not in charge of it. Which I think as a parent is great because that's what we're doing all holiday season. I don't know about you guys, but we are in charge of the magic and in charge of making the magic of the holiday season. And what Disney does is it takes it out of your hands and lets you enjoy the magic with your family.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: Totally. I honestly that's what I love about sailing on either Thanksgiving or Christmas or even. Even in between. But. But it. But more specifically over Halloween or Halloween over Thanksgiving or Christmas because then I don't have to do all like the cooking and the cleanup and all that stuff.
[00:31:57] Speaker B: Exactly. I got take the work out for you.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: I gotta share this comment from Karen, but is the gingerbread house gluten free?
[00:32:04] Speaker C: No.
[00:32:06] Speaker B: That's a good thing. Or else I probably would have taken a bite because it felt so good.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: I love it. I love it. That's hilarious. I love that Karen jumped in to ask that question. I. I'm going to show some other. Some other. It's. Sorry I'm going to have to slide through pictures so I apologize if I'm making people dizzy. Let's talk about characters and their costumes because one of the benefits of a maritime cruise is exactly what I'm showing here which is your one of your kiddos with Goofy. But Goofy's not in his regular outfit. What's he wearing?
[00:32:40] Speaker B: No, he's in his holiday outfit. All the characters are in their holiday outfits all day long on the maritime at sea day. And they also put on a spectacular show at night dancing in their outfits. Outfits.
You know we both those pictures of my eldest there are really just taken from our walk from breakfast back up to our room.
I mean there were just characters wandering. That was a special moment for me.
I'm a girl.
But I mean there were just.
[00:33:13] Speaker A: I don't think I've ever seen Belle by the way in. That's her like her regular outfit. I always feel like I see her always in the gold dress. Right? Yes. This is her like at the beginning of the movie or most of the movie. This is what she's wearing. Like you know when she's going to buy, going to get her books and all of that. Like you know the whole opening sequence she's in this dress. I, I actually so the whole cruise.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: She was either in that dress or in her Christmas dress. Which is also special because you don't see Belle in the Christmas dress except at the holiday season. So she came out.
[00:33:45] Speaker C: Well, you two are talking, talking really just really fast. We two are talking. Keep, keep going. I'm going to show. We actually put together a 360 tour of the ship decorated for Christmas. The whole atrium and different vantage points. We did this a while back from a couple years ago. So I'm just going to scroll through this while you guys are talking so folks can get a sense of what the ship decorations look like. And if you are listening after the fact at home, you should head over to YouTube. I keep saying head over to YouTube because we got usually some great visuals to go along with the guests we're talking to on these live shows. So anyway, sorry Carolyn, keep going about the characters.
[00:34:15] Speaker A: Yeah, so, so special. So Belle you said was in her, her regular outfit. We need the blue dress and then she had a holiday dress. So she wasn't in her normal Christmas.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: Her red and white Christmas dress. For the big Belle fans out there like myself, she was in her Christmas outfit which you can really only see at the parks or on a Disney cruise at the holiday season. It's pretty rare and we saw a lot of Belle. She was, she was out and about in her Christmas outf or her blue dress a lot. And we just saw a lot of the characters in general. I mean Disney Cruise always does a great job of having the lines available and the times available so that you can go and get a picture with the character you want and line up for that. But we also just had, I think during these holiday cruises and the maritime cruise at sea, they do a really great job of having the spontaneous interactions and having the characters wander around during those times when you're not expecting. And it really makes for those special moments with family.
And you know, I even found myself kind of getting caught up in it and a little teary eyed with Belle because you know, it's really special and you just don't expect to have that. And you're so surprised by it when you just meet someone randomly in the hall and get that great hug, you know, that Disney hug from your house.
[00:35:38] Speaker A: I love that. I love that.
[00:35:40] Speaker C: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation? Great news. The fabulous team over at My Path 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 booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:36:38] Speaker A: As we're speaking. Brian mentioned he's showing a 360. This is actually on the wonder. So you're getting to see. So this is kind of nice to see a little comparison.
[00:36:47] Speaker B: Right.
[00:36:47] Speaker A: We had a. The Carolyn's picture of for example the gingerbread house was on the magic. It was in a different location and it was different decor. Right. And the one on the wonder is, you know, like I said, slightly different. And same with the tree, slightly different Color trees like different ornaments. Right. It's. They all have this like garlands everywhere, of course, on all of the ships. But they do decorate them differently. And it's really cool to see different sort of color palettes and sort of unique designs. Let's talk about some of the activities. I know one of the first activities on maritime sailing is the tree lighting.
[00:37:25] Speaker B: That is my favorite.
They. I loved the tree lighting. So when you first get on board, you know, a maritime cruise, they have all the garland and the tree and the gingerbread house, but it's. All the lights are off, it's a little dark. You know, you're being welcomed on board and it's magical. And they're like, welcome to the Disney magic. The Fisher family.
But. But it's not quite as magical as it can be yet. And when it really kicks off is the tree lighting. Now for us, they had two different times for the tree lighting. And I suspect it's. It's very similar on most of the ships as well. They have one in between the main and secondary seatings for dinner. So it was about. At 7:30. This one was pretty crowded because you had so many people after dinner and before dinner.
And so I went to both. This one, I sat with my kids on the floor, but there was just a really festive atmosphere. They have a pianist beforehand and everyone breaks into songs singing Jingle Bells and all of the classics together while you're waiting for everyone to come out. And then the second one happens at 10pm a little bit later, a little bit less crowded. And I took some pictures from higher up on the deck so they're a little grainier. But I wanted to make sure all the kids got the seats down below. And I took some pictures from above and it's really fun. All the characters come out, sing some songs together with the crowd. Pluto sprinkles a little snow. I know on some of the bigger ships it comes down from above. And they have some other dancers as well. And then there's a surprise visit, of course, from Mr. And Mrs. Claus. They come down.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: At the very top of the stairs in the picture. Yeah, yeah.
[00:39:14] Speaker B: And they come down and all the lights in the atrium go dark and they light up the tree and the garlands all at once. And it's just beautiful and it's so special and such a great way to kick off the cruise and it really leaves you feeling full of holiday magic. I just loved it so much. I'm glad I went to both. And I definitely recommend if you have the time and Energy on your maritime cruise that you don't miss this. If there's any one activity that, that you go to that it's the tree.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: Lighting and that later one. Definitely. I mean, I would recommend the later one only because that's the one that is less crowded.
[00:39:50] Speaker B: But if you can make it, if you are a late night person, I definitely recommend it. I mean, my kids were already in bed and I just kind of snuck away for it.
Well, we like to do sometimes the.
[00:40:03] Speaker A: Earlier one and then you go back later one. Good video.
[00:40:08] Speaker B: Sneak a little magic in there. Exactly.
[00:40:11] Speaker A: I love that. Well, let's talk about the deck party, because that's another big thing that people think about when they think of maritime cruising. I know that we got to see the updated deck party last year when we were sailing over Thanksgiving on the Magic.
I think it's the same deck party that's happening this season. I think it's great. What would you tell people about, you know, is this something you should definitely go to? Is this. You can miss this. What do you think about it, Carolyn?
[00:40:41] Speaker B: I think it just depends on how you feel about deck parties. Right. Deck parties aren't for everyone. They can be quite crowded and overwhelming and loud. There's the sail away of party. There's the pirate party on most sailings, and then there's also the maritime deck party. So that means three very crowded and exciting dance parties for your kids and loud areas.
And depending on what cruise you're on, there may be only one time. For the maritime deck party and for the magic, it was at 10:00 at night. So for everyone it is late and so it may. I know on some of the bigger ships they also offer an earlier time just because they have the capacity to do that. So it wasn't for everyone in our group. You know, some of some of our family finds deck parties to be a little overwhelming. And that's perfectly fine. My dad and I stayed up late and we went to it. It was a really great, fun bonding moment for us.
We loved it. It was really fun. I think what's really great about the maritime deck party is the snow. You know, it's just super fun. It's another great opportunity to wear your fun, creative Christmas sweaters or your Christmas pajamas. And then everyone goes, your Christmas ears. I had some antlers on.
[00:42:07] Speaker A: Well, I had to take mine off because they were with the headphones. They were like just digging into my skull. So I had to take them off. But I love wearing them for the.
[00:42:15] Speaker B: If you love a deck Party. It is a great deck.
[00:42:19] Speaker A: You know what's funny? I don't love all the deck parties. Like I'll skip most of the sail away parties and on most of the ships I'll. Unless it's one I haven't seen. Right. If it's a new one, I have to go. But if it's not a new deck party, I will often skip a deck party. Except I won't skip the maritime one because I really like that one. I think it's great. I think we're going to have a the. What is it called? The color spin one on the Treasure. So I'm looking forward to that because we haven't seen that. Yeah, we haven't been to that deck party before, but it's going to be on the Treasure. I just heard that or saw it on, I believe Instagram last week when they had the cast member cruises. And so, yeah, so I do think that the maritime one, if you are okay with deck parties, it's a good one to go to. And you can always bring, you know, noise canceling headphones. We do that for Nathan often for deck parties. And so that's always a good way to cope. It's not like you said, not for everyone. I really like this one in particular because it's got a storyline about Goofy and Max and that's a really a father son storyline. I'll just leave it like that.
[00:43:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I do think this is one of the better deck parties that Disney does. And I think because it's so different from the other deck parties and it offers, you know, that snow factor and it offers an interesting different storyline that it's a really good one to go to if you have that time and energy at that time of night.
[00:43:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Let's talk about some of the other types of offerings. These are much smaller, less formal offerings. But there's some other stuff that tends to happen on maritime cruises. What are the other activities that one might find on a maritime cruise?
[00:44:00] Speaker B: There's kind of two different, you know, camps. With this one, there's the activities that you're already used to seeing on Disney cruise line that they've just modified to be more holiday themed. So if you've done, everyone can cook, which is the, you know, Remy themed cooking demonstrations that they do. They have some holiday themed. One of this, my dad went to a great one featuring some ravioli, but there was also a Yuletide log chocolate chocolate cake one that he went to as well, which was really. Yeah, there's ravioli one.
[00:44:33] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: We Love some Italian food.
[00:44:35] Speaker A: It just took me a while to get there. Sorry, Fuzz.
[00:44:37] Speaker B: There's also, you know, a Yuletide log and cake one as well that they did that was very holiday themed as well. That was a lot of fun. You know, they always have great crafts on board the Disney cruise. And so they were all, of course, holiday themed, making various Christmas tre and ornaments and other things of that nature. So that was really fun that they kind of kept everything within the season. And on the other hand, there were a lot of things that are definitely exclusive to just a maritime cruise. So there were the maritime carolers, which would pop up every now and then in the atrium and were just really fun and beautiful and such a great way to have a little holiday spirit within the cruise.
[00:45:25] Speaker A: They're so talented, too. They're usually like the main stage cast and they put a group together and they will sing different holiday songs. They're just really wonderful. Super good.
[00:45:37] Speaker B: I could have had them every day and I would have loved it.
[00:45:40] Speaker C: Tracy's asking Sam if they replay the deck party that we were talking about. I don't think I've ever seen them do a deck party on the tv. The Stateroom.
[00:45:47] Speaker B: No, I didn't see that on our offerings as well. We do love to watch some of the stuff on the TV because it's a less impactful space, but I didn't see that. I have seen the pirate one sometimes played, but.
[00:46:01] Speaker A: Yeah, well.
And to your point there, the main stage shows very often will be broadcast on the tv. So if you have a kid who maybe can't sit through the show in the theater, or you yourself maybe can't sit through the show in the theater for whatever reason. Oftentimes they are streaming on the tv, like a couple minutes delayed. And it's really great. And they might show up multiple times during that evening as well. So that's a great. A great option. Sorry, we were talking. You were talking about some of the other things that are available that are exclusive, really, to a Mary time.
[00:46:36] Speaker B: Yes. So another great one is story time with Mrs. Claus. So she does. Down in the atrium again, she does a great story time for the kids, you know, and adults, frankly. I loved watching it from higher up. My kids. My kids decided they were a little too old for that now, but I think they would have. They would have loved it. I'm not too old for it. I thought she did great, you know, and for each one, she'd bring out a special guest, and it was usually one of the Disney characters that Would come out and wave to everybody and kind of play a little part alongside, you know, with everything. And so that was really fun for everyone involved to have a little special character time as well with that. So those were some of my favorite of the exclusive offerings.
[00:47:24] Speaker A: So I want to put one thing out there. If you are Jewish, like I. I am. And you like to watch movies on Christmas, that might be your Christmas tradition.
[00:47:34] Speaker C: Well, yeah, hold on, Sam, though, before. But you just hit on something I want to make sure people know about, because we've gotten this question in the. In the Facebook group, too, a few times, which is very Mary time. They also celebrate other religions on board. And so Kwanzaa has been a thing that they have celebrated. And also Hanukkah. Hanukkah. If Hanukkah overlaps with your sailing. They do. They had nice little gatherings, each candles. And they supplied, like, wine one evening.
[00:48:04] Speaker A: And wine and latkes.
[00:48:06] Speaker C: Latkes.
[00:48:07] Speaker A: And there was gelt, which are the chocolate coins, and there are usually some dreidels. And then depending on the ship, some of the ships you are. They will have menorahs that you can light actually with real flame. But most of the ships, it is just an electric menorah. And it is guest led. It is not crew led unless there happens to be a crew member who is.
[00:48:27] Speaker C: But there was crew there. There was crew there to help with the food and that sort of stuff.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:48:30] Speaker C: So check your onboard navigator if you're, you know, sailing over one of these holidays. And frequently they will do events because, you know, Hanukkah doesn't always, like, neatly align with Christmas Day or anything like that. So there's two other categories of things we need to talk about, though, Sam, which are biggies. And I want to make sure we.
[00:48:48] Speaker A: Only talk about food. I know.
[00:48:51] Speaker C: Not food. Not food. Food was not the first category. You're skipping a whole category of things.
[00:48:55] Speaker A: I know.
[00:48:56] Speaker C: Merch. Yeah, merch.
[00:48:57] Speaker A: I just wanted to mention, though, movies. You can watch movies on board. And right now Moana, too, is on board. But.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: Okay, well, I did want to say, you know, Moana came out while we were on the ship. And of course, if you don't know this, like, if Disney has a new release while you're on the ship, they will usually release it on the ship, too. And they showed it in every theater as well as the Walt Disney Theater over and over and over again. So we had quite the exclusive premiere, which was also really fun.
[00:49:25] Speaker A: Yeah, love that. All right, well, Brian, as Brian said, we got to Talk about merch. Okay, we've got two pictures that you sent us on merch. This is obviously mostly shirts and some hats. And then we've got. Here, we've got like some, I think, lounge flies and some stuff here. So, yeah, tell us about what is sort of the typical maritime merchant look like.
[00:49:49] Speaker B: So it's a lot of the same Spirit jerseys and things that you're going to find in the parks, but it says Disney Cruise Line on the back. And so those green Spirit jerseys were a hot item. So were those ears. I would say that I saw, you know, by. After the first day of cruising, I think I saw, I don't know, a good 10% of our crews wearing those jerseys. They were. They were a hot item for sure. I think especially because, you know, it's extra special when the back says Disney Cruise Line and not just Disneyland or Walt Disney World.
[00:50:21] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:50:22] Speaker B: I have a little bit more.
[00:50:23] Speaker A: I have one from last year that I will be wearing on board the Disney Treasure. No question. Yeah. Not on the preview sailing, but over. Over the. On the Maiden, because that's over Christmas. So. Yeah, absolutely. I love. I love a. I love a good Christmas T shirt, a good Christmas spirit jersey, some Christmas ears. I will say I'm not a big fan of most of Disney's Hanukkah stuff, so I don't usually buy their.
[00:50:48] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. They didn't have as much of the other holiday stuff as I think that we were hoping to see. But we did talk to the. Some of the cast members who said that more comes throughout the season. We were only the second maritime cruising for them, and they said that sometimes it's a little slow to catch up to those other holidays.
[00:51:11] Speaker C: Yep, yep. All right. Food. We gotta talk about food, particularly if you're sailing on, you know, the holidays. Holidays you get a. You typically get a special meal. And Sam, we should also talk about our experience having sailed on Christmas and some of the things that they did for us, Christmas, even on Christmas. But talk to us about sort of the menu for Christmas dinner, Carolyn.
[00:51:33] Speaker B: Yes. Well, we had Thanksgiving dinner on board, and the Christmas menu is very similar, although it's maybe a little less pumpkin, a little more cranberry, a little less turkey, a little more ham. But as frequent Disney cruisers, you know, we will do anything for a new menu. We love a new menu.
[00:51:51] Speaker A: A new menu. Yes.
[00:51:54] Speaker B: Anything exciting.
[00:51:55] Speaker A: Standard rotational menu.
[00:51:57] Speaker B: Right. Oh, no. More pirate menu. Right. And we get. We get very excited about new options, new stuff. And especially excited, I mean, with so many food allergies and, and you know, things in the family, you know, about Disney Cruise Line being so excellent at being able to modify so many things for all of our particular food issues in our family. And so this menu was fantastic. We loved it for Thanksgiving. You know, it had a lot of great options that were so holiday themed for all of the courses and it was really fun. You know, if you want a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, they have everything on there that can get you a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. And I think same with the Christmas one as well. But if you want something different, you can go for something different too.
[00:52:52] Speaker C: Oh yeah, I'm just putting up. This is the dinner menu for Christmas dinner on the Wonder from a couple of years ago. So, you know, to your point, they specialty cocktails, warm spice, old fashioned.
They have some special appetizers, the liver parfait and I don't know whether Christmas seafood sampler, but I guess they have those seven fishes.
[00:53:14] Speaker B: Yes, we had the Thanksgiving seafood sampler. I was a big fan.
[00:53:17] Speaker C: Yeah. And then, and then, and then for entrees, I think I have it here. They had, yeah, they had sea bass, pumpkin. They did have pumpkin, pumpkin and bars, Capone ravioli, baked Virginia ham, ham instead of turkey, to your point. And then a rib, A rib roast. Although they did have the roast turkey dinner as well and they had a rib roast, pumpkin curry.
So yeah, this was kind of the.
[00:53:40] Speaker A: It's the same. It's literally the same. Because I, as you're reading it very close, I'm looking at. Yeah, there's like. Yeah, maybe like one or two differences, but it's almost. Yeah, it's almost like.
[00:53:49] Speaker B: But it's pretty much like, I mean, they're very close and it's pretty much the only two times you can get that menu are Thanksgiving and Christmas on Disney Cruise Line. And so it's very exclusive menu and going on one of these maritime cruises is the only way to get it. And we loved it. It was really nice. You're not going to have, you know, no matter what dining room you eat in, you're not going to be having one of the typical shows during that time. Rapunzel is not going to be having a party during that time. It's just a great family atmosphere for you to have a special meal all together without anyone having to do the cooking, without anyone having to do dishes, without anyone having to say, oh, I can't eat that. I have this diet now. You know, everyone gets what they want and how they want it and then no stress. It's fantastic to Take a break.
[00:54:41] Speaker C: And I. So I want to add a little bit more color too, for Christmas. So on Christmas Eve after dinner, I think it was it after dinner, when did they do the toast? Did they come in and do a toast on Christmas or. That was that New Year's.
[00:54:53] Speaker A: They did a toast during dinner on Christmas giving and Thanksgiving too.
[00:54:59] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the crew, like a, you know, an officer in the crew, and they pass around like champagne and sparkling applesauce and they give a little toast in the main dining rooms and everyone clinks glasses after dinner. What was nice is as we left the dining room on Christmas Eve, they had a table set up with milk and cookies. I think you could take back to your room to have for Santa.
[00:55:21] Speaker A: They gave you the little carton of milk and then you could pick some chocolate chip cookies or maybe some other cookies.
[00:55:27] Speaker B: Disney Cruise line thinks of everything. They have every detail thought out. You don't have to worry about anything being overlooked when you're planning at home holiday with Disney Cruise Line. For sure.
[00:55:37] Speaker C: But I'm gonna, I'm gonna give you, you gave some great reasons to go on a holiday sailing with with Disney about not having to do the dishes. Blah, blah. I'm gonna give you the best reason because as I was looking through our photos to find the menu picture, I saw some other pictures from the morning of either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I think it was Christmas Day morning. There is nothing better than Palo brunch on the morning of a major holiday.
And you just head for brunch in Palo. It's like, life is good. So there you go. That is my main reason to do sailing over a holiday.
[00:56:08] Speaker A: Well, and I love this picture of your son with the cloud. And by the way, Matthew saying cloud. He says the red is the best one. But I love that this is multigenerational cruising at asbestos. The grandparents on the cruise. Yeah.
And then of course, we've got the whole family picture in front of the tree. To me, the best reason for sailing over the holiday is that you can do this all with different people and you can like, you can come together and then you can separate. You're not like stuck in one house with like the entire.
[00:56:42] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. You know, and you don't have to do everything. You don't have to do it all. I mean, during the day we all went out and we did different activities, you know, and we had special bonding moments in small groups. You know, I got to hang out with my mom in the. At the adult pool and have some froze for the afternoon while my dad took one of my kids to a movie and my husband took the other kid to play some basketball. You know, we all went and did different activities at different times in smaller groups or just went off on our own. You know, thank goodness for those kids clubs, right? Yes.
And then we all came together every night, you know, at the dinner table. And that's really what Disney does so well, is those dinner spaces and those rotational dining.
And so we really felt that close family bond and those meal experiences without anybody having to do that work. And so when I came off the cruise ship, I was gung ho ready for the holidays. We came home, we set up the tree, we're ready for the lights. Let's go. Five different days of the schools wanting themed shirts. Sure, let's do it. Okay, we're ready. We're ready for the holiday season. Now we're in the mood, we feel festive, we're re energized. And Disney Cruise Line really gave us that holiday path, that holiday energy that we needed to kick off the season. And I can see how from the other end, you know, closing out your Christmas and having this be how you spend your holiday really just makes it all so much better and brings everything together so that you can relax. So I think it's a great option on either end.
[00:58:25] Speaker A: Yeah, totally agree. I mean, frankly, to me, I'd be happy to even go on a maritime cruise like at the beginning of December. Right. Like it's. I love all of the activities. I love seeing the ship decorated.
My ideal is to go over Thanksgiving or Christmas. Right. To be on for an actual holiday so I don't have to do dishes. But I would be happy to go on one even, even in between. And as you mentioned, and as Matthew is saying, a very maritime cru can really ramp you up for the holidays. I think that you, you used it as your kickoff and then put up your decorations at home. It makes perfect sense.
[00:59:01] Speaker C: Well, well, yeah. I wanted to ask, is there, is there anything that we haven't covered here before we wrap up for the evening and. Yeah. So anything we haven't covered?
[00:59:11] Speaker B: Well, you know, I think people think it might be too late for this year, but it's not. I checked today. There are still ways to get on a maritime cruise this year if you're ready to jump on board. Contact to your my path unwinding travel age or contact anyone at our agency and you will be happy to help you out. We've got tons of agents who are ready to help you Know, make it, make a booking for you today. We can get you on board. And also, you know, this is a great time to give the gift of a Disney cruise. You can go ahead and you know, if you're having trouble finding, finding something for someone in your family, get the maritime cruise for them, them for next season. Give them the gift of an easy Christmas season next year. You know, if you're looking for more affordable ways to book that maritime cruise, you know, don't go right on Thanksgiving, don't go right on Christmas, go a little bit more maybe when school's in session or you know, before it gets out, go during that early December or right before Thanksgiving time. We can help you find, you know, the best, the best time, the best ship, the best situation that can help you, you and your family out. That works for you stress free. We're happy to help you out anytime.
[01:00:28] Speaker A: Love it.
[01:00:29] Speaker C: I was trying to head over to the cruise line website to see if you could still book the maiden voyage but apparently not the main. Yeah, apparently the adventure has bogged down the site and we have waiting rooms.
[01:00:39] Speaker B: It is very slow today. It is very slow today. Just another great reason why you want to use a travel agent because we will, we will spend that time on the phone and on the website waiting for you.
[01:00:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I've got the ticker down at the bottom of the screen if you're watching. But if you reach out to my path unwinding, find them at mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email them at dclduomypathunwinding.com so that they know that we sent you. And if you want to work with Carolyn specifically, just make sure to put that in your email or in your comments on when you enter your info onto the website. So as we mentioned, Carolyn, she specializes of course in all things Disney and of course other travel as well. But she has a real passion for working with families with special needs and families with food allergies. So make sure to reach out to her. Carolyn, we just want to say thank you for joining us tonight. It's been wonderful having you on the show. Brian, what do we have for having me? Of course, Brian, what do we got next week?
[01:01:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm going to, I'm going to talk about that. I just want, I would want to put one more plug in for my path unwinding by saying it is one of the easiest ways that you can help support our show because costs you nothing to use a travel agent to book your Disney cruise line travel and my Path Unwinding has been a fabulous show sponsor for us. So show them some love when you're looking to book your next Disney vacation with that as we wrap up tonight. Next week it's a biggie. It's a big E week for us because not only are we headed out, but on Monday night at our regular time, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern, we will have our very own Samantha along with Karen from My Path Unwinding travel on for a live show to talk about their preview cruise on the Disney Treasure. So you will get, you'll get. I may have to like just let you and Karen do the show because I don't want my opinions swayed before I even step foot on the ship because if Sam says she likes something then I feel obligated to like it and if she says she hates it, then I may be like, well, I got to hate that. So you know, that's why I didn't see Cats when we went on a Royal Caribbean cruise.
[01:02:43] Speaker A: So that was a good decision.
[01:02:46] Speaker C: By the way, next next week maybe it'll be Karen and Sam and not me because I really don't want to be swayed here. But it'll be 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern on Monday, on Tuesday. On Tuesday we're doing it again. We got another live show this time with one of our fan favorite guests, Chris Vorabak from from Dreams Unlimited Travel. The Diz. He is going to be on. He is on the same sailing Sam and Karen. He's going to be on to share his thoughts. We always love to hear Chris's thoughts about the new ships so can't wait to have him on as well. And so we've got those two shows coming for you. Fun will not end. We still have regular shows coming out even while we're gone and we're you can go ahead and mark your calendars now. We're going to do a special hopefully the Internet cooperates travel and we're going to do a special live show off of the maiden voyage. I'm trying to find the date of this that we're planning to do it because I have it in here.
The 28th. That's right. Yes. Here it is. DCO DCL do a live show on December 28th TBD on time. So watch out for time. But on December 28th we're hoping to bring you a live episode of the DCL duo from the hotel. It's the one port day we have in between getting off the maiden and getting on the fantasy for new Year's Eve. So we will be live to share our combined thoughts.
[01:04:02] Speaker A: My might even have the Space Hotel. Right?
[01:04:05] Speaker C: The space Hotel because we're going to NASA. That, that, that day that we're off the ship might even might might work in some special guests. We're trying to figure it all out. But yeah, we will be live on December 28th. So next week two shows about the treasure and then we're going to be live again on December 28th. And so really, really excited for that. But with that, Carolyn, thank you once again for coming on. Thank you to everyone out there who is watching or if you are listening after, afterwards again, please head over to YouTube, watch these shows, help us, you know, drive up the content here on YouTube as well. It's a great way to kind of see our guests and interact with our guests. So head over there and watch if you can. But if you're listening afterwards, thank you for listening. Thank you everyone out there for watching. And with that, we will see you next time.
Well, thanks 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.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want to help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email them at dclduomypath unwinding.com 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 DC clduo.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.com DCLDUO also has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here at least and if blog articles that we've written, so DCLDuo.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
[email protected] or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney Family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective. Use 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 My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo.
