[00:00:00] Speaker A: Beware of pirates. I've heard you guys talk about this. I did not warn my husband and we definitely got a little bit taken advantage at this point. The woman was super sweet. He had literally just got his haircut and he. She talked him into getting it trimmed up again, which was another $60.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: So he got a shave and a haircut for more than 2 bit foreign.
Hello everyone and welcome to another live episode of the DCL Duo podcast brought to you by my Path Unwinding. And because this is a live episode, we are also brought to you by the WDW magazine and specifically the DCL magazine. Let's help make this a thing, you guys. We know that their float out edition is available for for pre order currently. So make sure to order that because of course you do want to read Brian's article all about parasailing at Castaway Key. And of course, if you want to purchase anything in their store, remember to use the code DCLDUO for 10% off. All right, well, we've got a great show for you tonight. As you can tell, I am hosting without Brian, but I'm super excited because I have a wonderful guest today. Christine is joining me. Welcome back to the show, Christine.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Thank you. I'm so excited to be back. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm so excited to have you. We've got a lot of people joining us. I wanted to make sure everybody notices I am wearing green. I am not going to get pinched today.
[00:01:43] Speaker A: Pinch me, pinch me, pinch me.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: I'm not happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone. Not only am I wearing green, but I'm actually wearing a green wish shirt. So this.
Yeah, this shirt was purchased on the Wish. It is a wandering Oaken big summer blowout. It's actually, it says music festival. It's Wandering Oakland Music festival. So perfect for our discussion today. Of course, I also want to wish people a happy belated PI day. Of course it's Monday, March 17th, but Friday was PI Day 3 14. And I have to give a special shout out to the DCL duos. Plus one, Nathan, who won his class challenge for reciting the most digits of PI along with his best friend. Yeah, they decided to tie at. I kid you not, Christine. 230 digits of PI.
Three. Yeah.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: So it's amazing.
[00:02:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I can only name 1 4, 1, 5 9. I don't know past the first five digits of PI. So yeah, so Nathan and actually he apparently knew 285 digits and his friend knew similar but they, they were worried about messing up and so they decided to both share the championship and stop at 230 digits. So amazing. Yeah, he's just incredible. I just needed to say that because I'm such a proud mom.
[00:03:12] Speaker A: That's awesome.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: And he came home with a pie tattoo on his cheek today. It is a temporary tattoo, thank God or somebody would be being murdered right about now. But anyway, we have a great show. We're not going to talk about kids. In fact, we're going to talk very much not about kids today because Christine just recently got back from a sailing on the Disney Wish with her husband and they left the kids at home.
Yeah. So we need to talk about this amazing sailing, this adult only. So it's cocktails only, no kids sailing on the Disney wish. And of course, as I teased in our last show and actually our last couple of shows, they also were able to do an upgrade to concierge. So we're going to also talk about some of the concierge experience on tonight's show. Now before we get into the nitty gritty, Christine, remind people you only just started sailing on Disney Cruise Line, right?
[00:04:14] Speaker A: Yeah, we did. So if you remember back to our499 I think is when we were episode we went on Halloween on the high seas was technically the second cruise for myself and my oldest daughters and the first for half of my family, my husband and my two youngest children. We went on the Magic to Lookout Key and prior to that we'd had a Hurricane Irma canceled 2017 cruise and we had my mother in law, myself and my two daughters went on the wonder on a seven night Eastern Caribbean in 2018. Then we didn't cruise again until that Halloween cruise. And then my husband and I got a really good deal on a guarantee room on the Wish on a three night and we decided that if concierge port upgrades were available, we were going to do it. And we did.
[00:05:06] Speaker B: That's amazing. Let's start there with how you decided to take this cruise and what made you decide to leave the kids at home. How did this all work out? Because I think those of us with child or children know that sometimes we got to finagle things in order to get away without those kids. And so I'm curious, how did this even come up?
[00:05:29] Speaker A: Yeah, so there was finagling involved for sure. My mother in law thankfully was coming into town for a dentist appointment at the same time at the guarantee rates were available for this cruise. And so we said, hey, can you just stay and watch these kiddos while we do this? And she was like yes, now of course there was some extra things like the dog had to go to puppy training and my kids go to a homeschool co op and I'm the lunch lady and she, you know, there were things to work out, things to arrange, you know, be us, which we're busy people. And it, there were some hiccups but by and large it all worked out. Nobody died.
And then so we worked out all of that part and said, okay, we're good to go. So then we booked the room because of course you worry like, are other people going to get this? Is it going to, you know, book out? So the one kind of hiccup was our airfare went up like the day I was looking at it and then made all the plans and the next day one, the flight there went up like 200, like a hundred dollars each. And so I was a little bit upset about that.
[00:06:44] Speaker B: What a pain.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: You know, when you're making last minute plans, that kind of stuff happens. Yeah, but yeah, I mean our total, you know, the cruise itself was only nineteen hundred dollars for the two of us for the three nights on a 5C. That was the room category, which is not bad.
You know, veranda. Previously we've only done like ocean view paired with an inside when we had to do the two rooms. So we hadn't had a veranda and we still didn't actually get a veranda because we went with an ocean view concierge room.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: So let's, let's, let's rewind a little bit to why did you decide to take the cruise without the kids? Like, why not bring them? Yeah, why not bring them along on the cruise? You see, there's a GTY available for this cruise. It's a three day weekend because it's a three night on the wish. Why, why, why the decision to leave the kids? Right.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Well, we had just taken them in September and we're taking them this coming September with us. And this year my husband and I are turning 40 and we're celebrating 20 years of marriage. And that's really why the big Alaska trip is coming. But we decided that we needed to do something just for us. And so that's where we went ahead and decided to take this little weekend getaway just for ourselves. We have two teenagers and we used to say toddlers, but our kids are now 15, 14, 6 and our daughter will be 4 on Wednesday with two girls and a boy. And so we really needed to just have some time. Just us.
[00:08:25] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean one that's a Lot of kids. And to those little one, I mean, the big ones require lots of schlepping and the little ones require a lot of attention. So I told you need a break, Christine.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: We really did.
[00:08:39] Speaker B: I totally appreciate that. Well, let's, let's start then from your, you know, transit to where are you guys coming from again? And your transit to Port Canaveral for this cruise.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: If you'll go to the next slide. I'll tell you a little bit about that. This is us like, you know, checked in. We've got our concierge stickers here. So we stayed, we flew in the night before because that's, you know, the latest you should get to the cruise.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: And we stayed at the Hyatt inside of the mco, which was super easy.
We were able to do a Disney transfer. So even though I booked the separate from Disney, I was still able to get the Disney transfers in the morning. And they took our bags right from inside of our rooms. And they did something different this time. In the past, I guess they have met you at the main level by the check in desk, but this time they have a bar. I forget what it's called, but it's on level nine.
And that was where they were meeting everybody and having them wait instead.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: So I meant to take a picture there, but I wasn't able to. So we were like one of the first people there. We were really anxious because we did get a great port arrival time. You know, we booked this cruise very last minute, which, you know, would normally mean you're gonna, you know, check in really late. Everybody's already checked in. But we were going to originally be in boarding group three with a port arrival time of 11:15.
But you know, we would have gotten right after concierge anyways and, but they, and I've heard that Disney transportation will normally get there pretty early. Right. So if we wanted to just walk right on, essentially we would have. But we had to just wait around still for the bus. So we kind of just hung out and played some games together on our phone while we waited for the bus to take us. And you know, you watch the little Disney videos on the bus when you go, and it was all pretty easy peasy. I was asking there if they knew about upgrades, but that team of people didn't know.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:11:01] Speaker A: They had no idea.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: Yeah, the transport folks are really. That's just their, their part. Right. It's. You're not going to be able to deal with room upgrades until you're dealing with the staff at the port or even occasionally the staff on the ship. But typically the staff at the port. At port can.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: Yeah. So nobody there knew anything.
[00:11:22] Speaker B: Yeah. So let's. Let's start.
You get to Port Canaveral, easy transport, of course, on Disney transportation. I very much recommend Disney transportation for a lot of folks, unless you're a larger group. If you're a larger group, you actually would save money with a private transfer. But the transfer through Disney, super easy from the airport or from one of the Disney hotels, and then you get to the port, you get through security and all of that. And at what point were you able to find out whether or not upgrades were available?
[00:11:56] Speaker A: I'll get to. I want to say too, that going through security was so great because they already went. You essentially, you are already all checked in at the hotel.
[00:12:06] Speaker B: Oh, great.
[00:12:07] Speaker A: You got to bypass. You only went through security. They'd already checked in all these things. So it was so fast.
[00:12:13] Speaker B: So they checked your passports and everything.
[00:12:15] Speaker A: And everything at the hotel. So it was so nice to kind of really breeze through. So once I got there, I was like, where do I go to check? And the lady goes, oh, you will go up here. And we have plenty available, which I sort of knew because I had been looking on the website the last few days prior at what kind of concierge rooms were still available.
And I had tried really hard to look online to get an idea of how much it might cost to do that, because there's not a lot of information people sharing, because I don't think a lot of people are doing it, because you just don't know, you know, if it's going to be available. And I don't think in peak cruising times like the summer that it's really something that's happening a whole lot.
[00:13:06] Speaker B: Yes, it's. It is. From my anecdotal evidence, and so from our own sailings and talking to a lot of people who sail, it seems like it's less and less that port upgrades are available. It's just not very common. I wonder if maybe on the Wish it's more common because you've got a lot of shorter sailings, but I really don't know. But from what I am hearing from people, it's not that often. So it's surprising that there were so many. But of course, you can tell if right before your cruise, if there's still a lot of concierge rooms that are bookable online, then you can tell that there's a decent chance there's going to be port upgrades available. And if you want those port upgrades, I'm going to say the important thing is going to be to be there early. Right. And so if, if you are someone who has a Disney transfer, you are likely to be one of those earlier folks or if you are someone who has an early port arrival time. So if you're pearl or platinum, you're likely to get, well, if you're Pearl, at least you're going to get an automatic early arrival. Early or open port arrival time. Really. And so, you know, that's definitely something to consider or at least the Disney transfer is something to consider. Okay, what did they have available and what did you end up upgrading? And if you're willing to share how I was going to say if you're willing to share the prices I'm sure would love. Love like all the science. I got it.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: And I have prices for what they had cost online prior to booking too. So what they had available, There were originally 18 rooms available prior to booking and then it went down to about 15. So a few people ch purchase or upgrade or whatever right before sailing. And the when we got on, I didn't ask numbers wise which ones. I'm assuming it was still probably about 15. And there may have been some people because some of them still already had their concierge stickers ahead of me. Maybe they were choosing to upgrade from one kind to another.
But how it works is they, it doesn't matter.
They say what you paid for your room, it's the type of room you have to the type of room that's available. And so they had the wish is the only kind currently wish class that has ocean views and so those are just underneath the bridge. And then they have the veranda rooms which are, you know, similar to regular veranda rooms. Then they have one bedroom suites and then they have one story royal suites and then two story royal suites.
And so they don't forget the Funnel Suite.
[00:15:56] Speaker B: Christine.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: Well, the funnel suite was taken already. It was not available.
[00:16:00] Speaker B: Okay. You weren't even considering the upgrade.
[00:16:03] Speaker A: We weren't even, we didn't even get to know how much that was because it was. You're right.
And so, so prior to sailing the ocean view room was going from for $5,574.
And of course we got an ADA which those aren't technically like shown as listed but they're about same price. And our price, the upgrade for us was 2454 so we paid 43.566 and so we got. Let's do some math.
[00:16:51] Speaker B: My Savings. Yeah. It's over a thousand dollars saving.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Yes. Divided by.
Yeah. So it's almost like 20% off of what it was.
[00:17:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: And then next was the veranda and it was. They were going for 50.
What I thought was interesting was they were going for 53, 58. So they were actually less.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: Yes. So the ocean views on the. The Wish and the Treasure, which are those front ocean view concierge rooms, they are actually a little bit more expensive than the standard concierge veranda room. Because they are bigger. They actually are almost. They're like as big as like a one bedroom.
[00:17:38] Speaker A: But it was going for more at the gate, the veranda.
[00:17:41] Speaker B: Oh, oh, interesting, interesting. Okay, well, maybe it depends on what room was actually available in particular.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know, a little variant for 25.94. Well, they. Even though I could have had my pick of a couple different ocean views, even though I got pretty much the biggest one available because it was the ada, I could have had a not ada. That would have been smaller for the same price.
[00:18:02] Speaker B: Right.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: But the verandas, even though online they were going for 5358, which was less than the ocean view. It was going for 25.94 for the veranda.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:15] Speaker A: And then the one bedroom suites they were going for.
And there was another staterooms that were.
They were going for 79.92.
And the upgrade for those would have been 47, 18. So again, still about a thousand dollars off. And then the Royal, it was.
Oh, that. Oh the one. Oh no, the one bedroom suite was 11, 8, 74. That's what that was. That must have been something. What was that? So, yeah, one bedroom, is that right? Yeah. And then it could have been. No, because those are two. Yeah, that must have been the one. The one bedroom could have been 47, 18. And then the royal we could have had for 12,144 and the two story you could have had for 14, 792.
[00:19:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, if you had all that cash lying around.
[00:19:19] Speaker A: Yeah, but they were going for 20,000.
[00:19:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: And you know, no big deal.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: So let's talk a little bit about the concierge experience on the Wish. This was your third cruise, your first time sailing concierge and your first time on the Wish and of course your first time adults only. So there's a lot. We've got a lot to cover. You started out with the concierge lunch. Tell folks what, what, if anything, is special and different about the concierge lunch.
[00:19:49] Speaker A: Of course.
[00:19:50] Speaker B: It's a sit down lunch at 1923.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Yeah, sit down lunch in 1923. It was wonderful.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: There's my Oreo cheesecake, by the way, on that picture. I see that right there in the right hand corner. Yes.
[00:20:02] Speaker A: Although I will say it was not quite as cold as I would have liked, but it was delicious.
[00:20:07] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:20:08] Speaker A: And the food was amazing. The empanada was delicious. I got into it before I took a picture.
The staff was not like part of your regular rotation. So we did have an opportunity to tip them separately at the end, which I thought that that was nice and appropriate since we wouldn't be seeing them again. And what I found interesting was I've always heard that we would have opportunity at this time to meet with our concierge team to discuss plans and.
[00:20:40] Speaker B: Not on the Wish. Yeah, not on the Wish or the Treasure. Yeah. We've talked about this a couple of times on the show, but I'm glad you bring this up, because on the Wish and the Treasure, you don't get an opportunity during lunch to talk to the concierge team. They do usually a kind of an intro talk.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: They met us.
[00:20:55] Speaker B: Yeah. While you're in the Port, still, while you're in sort of the waiting area of the port and sort of the concierge lounge in the port, they come in and they just give you some general information. And then if you want to go make specific changes or talk to them about your itinerary or put in special requests, you've got to actually go to the concierge lounge. And one thing I would recommend is to kind of do that on the early side, maybe even before you go to lunch, if. If there are things you need to, you know, book or change or whatnot, because otherwise you're basically going to be on par with all the other guests as far as timing, even though the concierge host will have, you know, they have access, obviously that's greater than a lot of the other staff, but still, you won't sort of beat the rush. Right.
So that's a really good point, Christine.
[00:21:43] Speaker A: They were all outside, like, while we were lining up to walk in, which I think that was, like, the only line I entered during any meal at all was that very first line for concierge lunch. And so we said hello to several of the members of the concierge team on our way in. Then I noticed, hey, they're not coming to talk to us at that time. Because I know that they serve Indian food, if you ask. I made requests of a team. And so a member of our head dining staff was there during the lunch, so we discussed that, and it was nice. So they did offer us drinks. So normally drinks are not included for, you know, your regular meals, but in concierge lunch, they offered that. We didn't take them. We're not really big drinkers, so we just had regular things there. They kept commenting on, like, this beautiful view that was not. So they were trying to be funny about.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: Well, you're in 1923. You're, like, staring at the port, right? I mean, yeah.
[00:22:45] Speaker A: And, like, we had this window. We were on the Walt side, and we were looking at some like.
[00:22:50] Speaker B: Like, I don't know, like, parking lot or loading area. Oh, yeah, yeah.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Looking at the parking lot. So it was just like a weird thing, though. They were really fun and sweet, and it just. It was very nice because it was a smaller thing. So I actually took the opportunity to get up and walk around and look at some of the artwork inside of 1923, which would have felt much more awkward during our regular dining rotation to, like, walk around and look and see, but because there were so much less people in there, it was nice to do that.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great. That's a great idea. We do have a question Karen's asking. This is Karen Shelton from My Path Unwinding Travel. Did they encourage you to tip the dining team at the concierge lunch, and how did they arrange the gratuity? This is a great question because I myself have never thought to tip the lunch team at the concierge lunch because it's the only. It's only a single meal, and typically it is the staff from Paloma who I'm probably going to see anyway, and so I'm probably going to tip them later. But I hadn't really thought about that. Christine, did you just ask somebody, hey, how do we add gratuity?
[00:23:57] Speaker A: No. And I don't know if they made it clear to me where they belong to. You're mentioning that they worked at Palo? I don't usually. I mean, it could have been note. I don't. And then my head server, like I mentioned, he came there. They definitely weren't on my dining staff other than my head server, but they pretty much brought me, like, a checkout pad that you would any other time and said, you know, it's zero balance due, but there's opportunity here for you to leave this. So they just wanted me to, like, sign it. And so I, you know, pretty much like a room charge added it on there.
[00:24:34] Speaker B: Oh, that's nice. Okay, well, I haven't heard of that before, but that's great. And Jeff is commenting that setting up the Indian food in advance is a great idea. Totally agree. I never would have thought of doing that. But the best we've done is just on our first night of service asked for like, you know, a later night. But then of course it's not going to happen the first night because that's just, you know, not.
We haven't set it up that far in advance. So I want to jump to talking about your room a little bit because I just brought up that your. You mentioned you had the concierge ocean view room, which there's pictures here and I know you. We've got an embedded video in here as well. I'm gonna hit play on that. I don't know if the sound will work. So this. I.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: If not, I'll walk you through it.
[00:25:23] Speaker B: Okay, here we go. I can hear the sound. Can you hear the sound?
[00:25:28] Speaker A: So this is walking in. I don't see it. I hear it. But there, there's a little. The little cabinet there. This is where the closet is. We had some in room gifts that we had ordered and they provided some snacks. Little seating area. It's huge. There's another that wasn't really a closet but there was a little thing there that's opened in that picture above it we had two TVs aerial, Little Mermaid themed king size bed.
There's another TV I think we'll get to see that was above the bed there. Kind of like a walk around space there. There's the view of the, you know, kind of like Jack King of the world space. And the adult only pool area which we never even went to.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Oh yeah, the rainforest is right, right in front below you. Yeah. Yep.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: And then so there's the view of the port because we're still there. Nice little mirror and kind of vanity space.
The hair dryer was horrible. Again, another view of the seating area. There was a bunk there above that.
And then I think we're gonna. We didn't have the key in. So the first view of the bathroom is pretty dark and we figured out there were buttons to open the curtains.
So again it's dark because we didn't have the key in by the door to turn the lights on. But a huge shower. We loved that.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: We.
[00:26:51] Speaker A: When you did have the key in the light, there was little lights underneath the bathroom vanity. So at nighttime, you know, you could see to go to the restroom. Unlike on the old ships, you have to kind of bring a nightlight with you.
And it was just such a big, beautiful, wonderful space. It really just felt like very homey because it was so big. I think I'm going to open these. Maybe now he's going to help. Yeah. So we had lots of space to hang our clothes. The concierge robes stayed in the room. They were warm. But we got to take the slippers home with us. And the guy even was like, oh, well, you can wear them while you're here and I can get you some more to take with you. I'm like, no, just take the ones that you gave me.
My daughters, we love the cloud and blue and our kids do too, which is why there's two of them. And.
And then the snacks that they provided for us. And then that drawer there is in that side underneath the safe. And so had we booked right here.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: Is the drink right there.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: Yeah. We could have asked for certain things to be in there, but they put waters, Cokes, spry, and then they have monster on board. So my husband asked for our stateroom attendant to bring us some of and so he put some in there. And the door to the ada, it's neat because it auto opens, so you just like swipe your card or your magic band and it just automatically opens for you. And you can do it on the inside too, so you don't even really have to like open the door.
[00:28:20] Speaker B: That's perfect. That's really nice. Yeah. These rooms are beautiful. One thing I will say is this room is slightly different and even bigger than its counterparts of other ocean view rooms we have stayed on. I think it's room 11,000, which is kind of the center room. I think it's like right next to where you stayed, actually. Or maybe it's either one or two doors over from your room.
And it is ginormous, but not quite as big. And yours kind of has a bit of a wall separating the bedroom. I'm using air quotes because it's not completely separated the living room space from the bedroom space, but in the one that is not ADA accessible, there is no sort of.
That may something for folks to know. Those rooms, they are beautiful, they're ginormous, but there isn't a separated space between the two. Magically, Vanessa is saying the bedroom area doesn't look like it has enough room for a wheelchair. But it may have just been the angle of the video.
[00:29:26] Speaker A: It may have been because there really was on both sides of the bed. It was pretty large. I think it may have just been the angle of the video.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: Okay, so I want to talk a little bit about the concierge experience. Since this was your first time doing concierge, I know that you've got. Oh, here's a. We'll go back.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: I'll stay on for now.
[00:29:48] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll stay on the room pick for now before we move to spa.
But tell, you know, tell folks what kinds of things were included in the concierge experience.
Because obviously we have folks who sail concierge who listen to us. We have folks who sail regular who listen to us. We have folks who, you know, only sail in inside staterooms or only sail in veranda staterooms. So we like to cover all. All, you know, aspects of sailing. We know. I mean, we've had folks on who've sailed in the. In the funnel suite, so. Yeah, and of course.
[00:30:23] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:30:23] Speaker B: And. But I will. I will say that our sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel, does have an affinity for concierge. And so I would say they are very much. Even though they. They book all kinds of Disney cruising sailing, but they definitely have a specialized expertise in concierge sailing. And so they are super, like, wealth of knowledge on all things the concierge experience. But I know not everyone who listens to our show knows that much about that experience. So why don't you tell folks what kinds of things are included, what kinds of benefits its sailing concierge has.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: It's one of those things that you definitely. You're in it for the experience.
This particular room was really nice. It's really big. It was really nice. But we really didn't, like, spend a whole lot of time in there. Right. The view was great. It was really neat to look up and be like, hey, that's our room right above the captain, you know.
But we were in it because we wanted to be essentially, like, waited on if we needed to do anything that we could get it. So, for example, you saw this spa we had originally booked that, you know, Brian's kind of recommendation to be the day the next day, but that was going to be right after Enchante, which essentially would have been during. So we wanted to do it prior so that he would look nice and it wasn't going to have to shorten our experience. And so we immediately got it to be moved. They're like, you can go right now. We're like, perfect, perfect. So we went right then.
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Oh, awesome. So he went on embarkation day and had the minute. I love that. Yeah.
[00:32:00] Speaker A: Yes. And now, you know, there'll be People who say you have to sell concierge to get a cabana. I got a cabana before we even book concierge, Sam. Two times in a row. Now I got it.
[00:32:11] Speaker B: I'm using. You are. You are batting a thousand on cabanas, and you're right both times. You didn't have concierge when you booked them. I will tell you. I am. We're on a spring break break. Sailing. We are sailing. Non concierge. And I keep checking the app just in case, hoping that there might be. And nope, I have not seen a single cabana.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: And I tell you, check that day. Yeah, I saw. Oh, that's a good five cabanas open on the board, like before we book, before we sailed. And I saw three cabanas empty on the beach, and one got filled that day.
[00:32:52] Speaker B: Wow, that's amazing.
[00:32:54] Speaker A: You ask.
[00:32:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I will. I am. I'm gonna keep. I'm gonna keep scouring the app like I. Like I do. And I'm also going to. On board. I'm gonna go and I'm gonna ask. But I'm. I think I'm gonna even go to the concierge staff because I know a lot of them, so I feel like if I go directly to them, I might have a better chance than if I just go to guest services. I don't know if it'll work, but we'll see, you know, and then I'll report back on the show and tell people if that. If that worked. If that worked. But yeah, so you definitely. I will say the. The only. Well, there is no way of guaranteeing you're gonna get. Gonna get a cabana. Your best chance of getting a cabana at Castaway or at Lookout is if you're sailing on one of the older ships, obviously because they're smaller. Right. So less people, less concierge rooms, you know, and sailing concierge. Right. That's going to be your absolute best chance, sailing concierge on any of the ships. You have a decent chance as long as you get that onboard request in at 130 days. Right. @ midnight. Right. So that's that email we've talked about on other shows. If you haven't, if you don't remember, go back. I did a whole show with Kaylee on all the benefits of concierge. It's back in our catalog, I'm sure. Maybe I'll. I'll. I'll make sure it goes in the show notes when this goes onto our. Into our regular recordings on Apple podcasts. But it's absolutely one of those things that you want to put in a request for early. But you can get lucky like Christine. I mean, she's a lucky lady. She got the cabana and she's lucky lady because she got the. She got the port upgrade. As Tracy said. You are one lucky lady. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so. But tell us some of the other. So they book your spa appointments for you. Did you need to change any of your adult dining or anything like that?
[00:34:41] Speaker A: No. Really? I had everything else that I wanted, but the things that we got. Right. So I had some trouble with my magic band. When we got to disembark and re embark, it was saying that I was like, not in the system. So they had to manually on and off board me, say I was ashore and not ashore. And then it wasn't allowing me to tap in for photo experiences.
So we were using my husband's band. So as soon as we got back on board, they fixed it, you know, so if I was having room key issues, whatever, they printed me new new keys, that kind of stuff. So I never had to go to guest services. We had a question because I had prepaid gratuities for my, you know. Oh, on your dty. Right.
[00:35:30] Speaker B: But how does that work when you upgrade to right?
[00:35:33] Speaker A: Because obviously my dining staff is the same, but now I have more and different people to give money to.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Right.
[00:35:40] Speaker A: I want to make sure that they get the money that they have, that they get the money that they're supposed to have and additional monies. Like, so they were telling me to make sure that all that stuff went through.
And then the best part was like, so the concierge lounge, they had great snacks and they were so friendly. So friendly. I love people. And my.
[00:36:04] Speaker B: Who was your staff? You got to tell us. Who are your concierge hosts?
[00:36:08] Speaker A: So there was a new gentleman, Jean. He was great. He came from a different line, and he was so wonderful. He'd only been. This was his third cruise. He was so nice.
Danny was the main host. He was fantastic. Venusa. We found out that we actually. We probably never saw each other, but she had been on the Wander with us on the 2018 cruise. Because I was like, hey, were you there then? And she's like. I was like, well, so this is what happened on my cruise. We got that double dip to Castaway and we missed Tortola. She goes, yeah, I was really upset because I wanted to go to Tortol. So she had been. And it was neat to hear because she previously had been in food service. And so she was on a dining team then. And then now here she was in concierge, and she'd been in different ships, and there was Corneal. He was. We had some interaction with him.
Oh, I can see his face. That I write a name down. I have this little.
[00:37:10] Speaker B: Your little teacher.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: Right down.
I know. Ashley was our head server there. Oh, you know what, man? I took my print out with all their names on it, and I meant to bring it, and I forgot.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: No worries.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: Oh, a sort of Susanna. Susanna.
[00:37:31] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:37:31] Speaker A: She was amazing.
She really helped us a lot with Castaway and getting us on. We spent a lot of time back and forth on golf cart doing some different things. So, yeah, they were.
[00:37:48] Speaker B: All of them.
[00:37:48] Speaker A: They were so fabulous.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: And the servers and concierge are fantastic as well. I got to give a shout out to the servers and the bartending staff and just amazing staff across. You know, just across the board. In concierge, you've basically got another, let's say, 10 to 15 people. In the concierge, I want to say it's probably closer to 15.
Oh, yeah, yeah. Total.
Because you've got the five hosts on the Treasure and the Wish, both of those. They have the most number of hosts, and then you have at least like. I want to say it, like three bartenders and then a bunch of sort of staff that are kind of servers and roaming. Roaming staff to do different things, whether it's to bus tables or to refill the snacks or to serve the snacks. Right. There's. And there are snacks all the time. Right. I mean, you've got, like, in the morning, you don't have to go anywhere for breakfast. I think especially on the Wish and the Treasure, because they have hot items. Yeah. I mean, on. On the other ships, you can you get like any sort of continental breakfast items. In the concierge lounge on the Wish and the Treasure, you get all of those continental breakfast items, plus some specific hot items that you can order, like Mickey waffles. Not churro Mickey waffles.
[00:39:02] Speaker A: I got. Yeah, I got churro Mickey waffles.
[00:39:04] Speaker B: You got churro Mickey waffles. Wow. In the lounge.
[00:39:08] Speaker A: In the lounge. I got a picture of it.
[00:39:10] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:39:11] Speaker A: They told me to order them, and they brought them to me.
[00:39:14] Speaker B: I love it. That's fantastic. And the other. You know, I think the huge benefit is you don't deal with anybody else. You just deal with the concierge host for any problems, any issues. And of course, you get that early entry into the theater for the main stage shows. You didn't do that, that's fine. But it is one of the benefits. And you can also get popcorn and soft drinks. They usually have have right there for you to take in. But of course you can always get an alcoholic drink at the concierge lounge and bring it with you as well. And for those who haven't heard us talk about what the benefits are, the, the drink benefits in the concierge, the main benefit is between 5 and 10pm you have an essentially an open bar in the concierge lounge. Now you have to get your drink there. You can't go to just any bar on, you know, on the ship, but you can get your drink there and take it with you. And as Christine mention, you also get drinks included at the concierge. The first day, embarkation day concierge lunch. It's just beer and wine at that concierge lunch and champagne. Not. It's not a full service bar.
[00:40:21] Speaker A: Some people say on another podcast that they got mixed drinks and smoothies. But again, they weren't really like offered up too much different things and we weren't really into it. So. Yeah, I think you're.
[00:40:36] Speaker B: Yeah, that exactly. That certainly may be possible. I think the benefit explicitly is those, is the wine and beer. But you know, sometimes people throw in things that aren't necessarily included. Exactly, exactly. And then of course you get access to the concierge lounge and on the Wish and the Treasure. The lounge is two stories. It is sort of a seating area with, you know, nice chairs. There's of course a kids sort of seating area with a TV that's plays Mickey cartoons all day. And then up on the deck is a sort of a second level that has an open, beautiful deck. It's got like, well, it's got hot tubs. And then you also have kind of a. Yeah, well, they were. We've had them be hot. It just, it probably depends. But then there is like a, I want to call it like a wading pool that you can like sit in and relax in. It's not like a pool pool.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: It's like a splashy kind of cool down thing.
[00:41:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
[00:41:36] Speaker A: To sit in. It's a, it's a cooling area.
[00:41:38] Speaker B: Yeah. But it's really nice because it's not like the actual. The pool deck can get pretty crazy. Right. Even the pool deck on the Wish and the Treasure is, is really nice, but it can get quite crowded and you'll never have the same crowds in the concierge sun deck as you have on the pool deck.
[00:41:56] Speaker A: Yeah, we only Walked through the pool deck, with the exception of riding the aqua mouse one time, which was. Was a, you know, nice enough experience I had. We wanted to, like, swim a bit more. We would have found the Chip and Dale pool.
We did sit in the lukewarm hot tub on the concierge deck for a while until we were like, this isn't hot enough for us. We maybe could have asked, but we were pretty well done with it. That is a very nice deck space. And I. We would. Of the amount of pool time that we wanted. We got there, and it was really nice. We did not go to any deck parties. I. I kind of wanted to watch the pirate parlay. But we. Honestly, we were so tired. We kind of looked out and saw a little bit of fireworks from our window.
I think they actually, like, woke us up. I was like, oh, noise. Oh, yeah, fireworks. We were having. We had so much fun.
[00:42:57] Speaker B: We.
[00:42:57] Speaker A: We really just enjoyed. And because it was just the two of us, it seemed like time just, like, naturally expanded because we didn't really have anywhere really particularly to be other than what we planned to do. So it was kind of like, what do you want to do? So these are the things that we did do, right? So we mentioned that we went. The first thing we did was go to the shave at Hooks Barbary. Now, this is where I want to say, beware of pirates. I've heard you guys talk about this. I did not warn my husband. And we definitely got a little bit taken advantage at this point. The woman was super sweet. He had literally just got his haircut, and he. She talked him into getting it trimmed up again, which was another $60.
[00:43:43] Speaker B: So he got a shave and a haircut for more than two bits.
[00:43:46] Speaker A: Yes. And right on the little paper, which he agreed to because there were some extra little things they had, like, check if you want these additional things, which we agreed to, and that was okay. But the haircut. Then he's talking to her about, you know, whatever she's putting on his face and stuff, right? And so I sign one form, which I can see the charge for the three things we agreed to. Some other charge that I'm assuming is this stuff I hear her talking to him about.
And then the shave and stuff that we originally agreed to, I signed this form. Then the. The woman who was talking to him, she shows me this other one, right? Because there's two women in there, right? So then she hands me this other one. I go, oh, no, I already paid for this. She goes, oh, no, this is for this stuff. $317 for the crap she put on his face. And I look at him and he's like, it's okay.
That's scary. So I. It.
[00:44:53] Speaker B: I'm telling you, they know how to upsell people on these spa treatments. And so I will tell you, I always. Whenever they offer me any extras on my service, even offer. Yeah, yeah.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: He said the way she did it was just like, the things I'm putting on you. This is how you use it. This is what you do.
[00:45:12] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:45:13] Speaker A: She didn't even ask me, like, if I need it.
[00:45:15] Speaker B: You should have. I would have. I will tell you. I would have.
[00:45:18] Speaker A: I returned it.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: That one. Oh, good, good.
[00:45:20] Speaker A: I returned it.
[00:45:20] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: I looked at it to make sure it wasn't that she had, like, actually opened this product.
[00:45:26] Speaker B: Oh, it was a product. Okay.
[00:45:27] Speaker A: I see three products.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:45:30] Speaker A: And I was like, is this the actual product she put on his face or just, you know, brand new? Products of the same.
[00:45:38] Speaker B: Yeah. So it should be brand new.
[00:45:39] Speaker A: We took it out. We. I mean, we took it. We brought it back. And he was just like, man, I'm really, like, perturbed about this. And I looked at it and I go, they're all brand new. Yeah, I'm gonna take them back.
[00:45:49] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:45:49] Speaker A: And so he's like, well, I'm a little. You don't have to go. And so I went. And I was just like, you know what? We don't need this. She's like, you're right. I'll just put it back on your room. And she did. And it was no trouble about it, but, yeah, man, she was slick.
[00:46:02] Speaker B: Yeah. So I. Yeah, I would have just said, no, thanks. No, thanks, but I would have, but.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: He looked at me.
[00:46:08] Speaker B: I know.
Listen, this is something. I'm kind of glad Brian's not on the show today because I'm gonna say these husbands need to learn how to say no to these sales ladies. O Right.
So that's a really good point, though. Really good warning. Beware of pirates in hooks, Barbary. And in the spa of these upsells of, you know, products and treatments. You're right. The ones that are the treatments you actually do typically, you know, sign to basically that you're agreeing that this is the price and that you'll pay it before they do the treatment. But these products. Yeah. Don't let them upsell you on them. All right. Right.
[00:46:46] 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.
[00:47:44] Speaker B: Well, I'm going to move to the next slide.
[00:47:47] Speaker A: We went on the slide and we walked through the clubhouse and it was fun. So then we put up our pixie dust receptacles and we got our pixie dust stuff ready. And after Mustard Joe, we did it. This is me just showing that it's frustrating to not be able to walk all the way around. But I have heard also on several podcasts that people say they can't find that very front point on the wish, but all you do is go up the steps that you see. And I'm like, it really wasn't that hard. But I saw very few people going up there. So, people, this is how you get up there. When you're walking around the promenade. You go up the steps and that's how you get to the front. And you turn around and if the captain sees you, he'll wave.
[00:48:30] Speaker B: He waves.
[00:48:31] Speaker A: So when you're looking right here at this photo, we are on the left above the bridge, right? The bridge sticks out really far.
[00:48:40] Speaker B: And that was over here. Yeah. Love it. Yeah.
[00:48:45] Speaker A: I was saying about Mascarino in the group before, I was really excited because when we were in our other room. Oh yeah, you were supposed to be.
[00:48:51] Speaker B: In inside, and then you end up on deck right inside in the theater.
[00:48:55] Speaker A: And this time we got moved outside, but it was a lovely day and it wasn't that. And. And it was okay to be outside. It was worth the trade to have a concierge room.
[00:49:03] Speaker B: There are ways you can look up before you sail. Like you can look on like the deck plans or on. I forget which. You know whose websites, but you can.
[00:49:11] Speaker A: Figure out Disney Cruise Line blog.
[00:49:13] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. You can figure out where your, where your muster station is based on your room number. And then you know that. Then you know you're going to be in the theater. You're going to be out on the deck. And so Christine had done that and had mentioned that in our. In our Facebook group. But of course, when she upgraded at the port, she no longer a spot in the Walt Disney Theater, funny enough. But yeah, that say it's a worthy trade off. All right, well, here are your beautiful. This is your beautiful time at Prima Note. So you. Obviously, this is something. Now you don't have to be an adults only sailing to do Prima Note, but it is an adults only experience. So it is easier to do any kind of adult dining experience without the kids being with you. Tell us what you guys thought of Prima Note. For those who haven't experienced it, it's only done on the first night. Prim noti means first night in Italian. It's done at Paulo and it is a wine and food tasting. And so it's about five courses, I think, and. But it's small portions of each course.
[00:50:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it might only be these four things.
[00:50:17] Speaker B: We're looking at maybe four. Okay.
[00:50:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Because I, I think I took a picture of everything. So we're sitting in the rows outside first waiting for our turn. And then we went inside. This tuna, the wagyu, the gnocchi, and then the orange dessert was delicious. This was my second time going to Prima no Day. I had previously gone on the Magic by myself. This is my husband's first time. We really enjoyed it. I got a different pin this time because, you know, the other one is the gondola with the grapes. So this pin is different. And I don't think the chef came to see us on the Magic. So that was really neat.
Fantastic. This room was much larger than on the Magic, so I think there was almost two dozen people in here, whereas on the magic, it really was only 12 people. So it was a little.
[00:51:09] Speaker B: Now in here, they do it. Do it in the main room. Right. They don't do it in the private. In the private dining room.
[00:51:15] Speaker A: Well, so, like, we walked through what was definitely main because there were still people, like, eating their regular dinner. And then we were in probably what's. I would say probably part of the main because there was a private room in the back where they were like, plating the food and then bringing it to us.
[00:51:32] Speaker B: Ah, perfect. Yeah. So, Paulo, on the Wish and the Treasure, it kind of is almost three rooms. Right. There's the. The first part of it and the second part of it are typically just sort of regular dining room, and then there is a private room all the way in the back. But it sounds like the. They used the first room for just regular dining, and they used all of the second room for Priminote. That's similar to how they did it on the fantasy where we were in. Although we were in sort of the first part of the dining room in Palo doing Prima note there.
Whereas on the Magic and the Wonder, they do it in the private room, so it's much smaller. But that's. It's a really nice experience. We loved it. Did you guys enjoy. I mean, you had done it before, so obviously you enjoyed it the first time, but did you enjoy it as much the second time? And did your husband enjoy it?
[00:52:18] Speaker A: We did. We really did. He had never done anything like this. It was really enjoyable. I was glad to get a new, new, different pins. So now I'm like, ooh, maybe we should book it for the Wonder when we go in Alaska and see if we get a new one. Because the food is delicious.
[00:52:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:52:32] Speaker A: And the sommeliers are different. And so even if everything is, like, literally exactly the same, the experience is still different.
[00:52:41] Speaker B: Yeah. And I will say the food is the same across the different ships, but I think the wines, typically, they're the same wines, but they can change them out depending upon what's available. Right. And same with the food. They could change it out based on what's available or seasonal, but it's thus far from what I've seen over the last. I guess they've been doing it now for maybe a year and a half, two years, something like that. It's. It seems to have been fairly consistent from ship to ship. I will tell you that Paulo pin that you got is the same one that they have on the treasure. So the wish and the treasure, at least both have that pin. And the one that I have from. Believe it's from the Magic is different. I think it's the gondola pin.
[00:53:21] Speaker A: So that's the one I have. So I wonder what the.
[00:53:24] Speaker B: And Vanessa is asking, can you ask for different food if you don't eat. Eat seafood? She thinks she's thinking of Andrew not eating seafood. I can answer that question with certainty. Yes. Because we went to Priminote with Tracy and our friend Tracy, who also does not eat any fish, any seafood by either fin or shellfish. And she was able to get the tuna course subbed out for something else. Right. So they will sub out. You just need to tell them.
I will say it's probably not. If you have, like, a lot of food allergies or complex food allergies, it's probably not something they're going to be able to accommodate. But if you are just somebody who either doesn't eat meat or doesn't eat fish, I think that. That, you know, it's just really subbing out, like, one course. Not a big deal. Yeah. And Tracy's giving a hot tip. Ask one of the servers to order you a flatbread if you're still hungry. And they've had good luck doing that. So. Yeah. So if you decide you want to stick around and not do main din, you can probably, you know, sit at the bar or stay where you're seated and order flatbread to have as your. As your dinner. All right, I'm going to move us to the next slide, which is lots of main dining food. I love it. I love it.
Tell us, like, what was different about eating on a Disney ship without the kids there?
[00:54:50] Speaker A: Yes. So we. I think this may have been a concierge note. We did not. We mentioned that we were on our anniversary, but I was told at the concierge lunch that they were moving our tables because we had originally been seated at 108, and we got moved to 208, and we were seated alone. So we had not necessarily made that request, but we were seated alone, and we did have, really, what I would consider to be good seating. We, you know, as you can see there in this photo is Spider Man. We were on an aisle seat all the time, so the characters were always coming close to us, and. And, you know, we never really had to worry about, you know, the kids. Are they hungry? Are they gonna go? Although we do do second dining, even with our children. It works for us. And I'm so glad they brought back the stay and play, because my kids on our first cruise had that, and that worked well for us, so we're looking forward to that in Alaska. Yeah, we're even on the ship when it's time to eat. But anyhow, it was nice to kind of have this extra space at the table to ourselves. But I will say I had heard someone comment on that. They thought that the wish regular dining staff was maybe a little less attentive. My husband commented that he kind of felt that way, having just come from September from a very friendly staff. So I don't know if, like, not having the children made them feel away about us adults only or something, but we weren't really getting the super warm and fuzzy from our staff.
[00:56:26] Speaker B: They.
[00:56:26] Speaker A: I wouldn't say that they were rude to us by any means, but I don't know, it was a little bit different in that way. I saw other people who had children.
[00:56:38] Speaker B: I.
[00:56:39] Speaker A: You know, we didn't really have magic tricks and stuff for our kids before, but I did witness some of that at other tables. And so, like, I was happy for them. So I don't know if they felt like we wanted, like, private, intimate time or something, but they just weren't really very interactive with that. Whereas we felt very close to our other staff on the magic, and we didn't really have that this time.
[00:57:01] Speaker B: Well, that's a very interesting point.
I'm sure it can vary based on the servers, and I'm sure it can, but I'm sure it does vary. Sometimes if you don't have kids, they might think, oh, they just are having dinner, the two of them. I'm going to step back and let them enjoy and sort of more of that fine dining. Dining experience. And of course not. I'm not saying that main dining is fine dining. It's not by any means, but I just mean this sort of. If you go to a fine dining restaurant, it's very typical for the staff to not be unfriendly, but to not really engage and chat with you. They are sort of there to deliver the food, take the food, make sure you enjoyed everything. But they don't want to sort of interfere in your experience and your conversation between you and your dining companion. So it might be more of that vibe, but that's definitely, definitely something to think about. You know, if you don't have the kids, you're probably not getting the magic tricks, let's be honest.
[00:57:58] Speaker A: And then pro tip here, I want to say, before you leave Adventure Adventures, is to get the gnocchi and the schnitzel and dip the schnitzel and the gnocchi sauce.
[00:58:10] Speaker B: Ooh, I like this tip very much.
[00:58:12] Speaker A: I heard it on, I think, rope drop on deck. Somebody mentioned that, and I tried it and it was very, very good.
[00:58:18] Speaker B: I like that tip because I find that schnitzel to be quite dry.
[00:58:23] Speaker A: Yeah, it was very good.
[00:58:24] Speaker B: Yeah. All right. And that gnocchi is pretty good. Although the gnocchi is not as good as Paulo or Remy gnocchi.
[00:58:29] Speaker A: Agreed.
[00:58:29] Speaker B: But the sauce is good.
[00:58:30] Speaker A: And it's good with the schnitzel.
[00:58:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Or sorry. Enchante. Yoke, I should say. All right, well, here. Here we are at. Enchante. Now, again, this is something you absolutely can do if you're sailing with kids, but it is a longer meal. And so we're talking, like, it can be more than three hours, depending upon your pace. Right. Like, I would say generally about three hours, but you could go three and a half hours easy if you're kind of slow in your eating. I'm talking a lot to the servers and asking for, you know, information.
But it's a wonderful experience. I'm imagining that you all did the full. The collection experience. Am I right?
[00:59:07] Speaker A: We did the collection and the.
What's the other one? The pairing. The something we did.
[00:59:14] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, the wine pairing also.
[00:59:16] Speaker A: No, no, not the wine pairing.
We did. What's the other one? We picked two things.
What's the picture show? What is it called?
We didn't do the wine pairing. It was two different meal taste choices. Oh, like to share.
Not the vegetarian option. It was the passion and the collection. That's what it was.
[00:59:44] Speaker B: Okay, gotcha. And the collection is the longest of the meals. It has the most courses. The passion is, I think maybe two less courses than the collection.
[00:59:54] Speaker A: I think so. And so, like, we started out with, like, the same things, and then at some point we kind of split off and had different things. And. And some of it was really delicious, and some of it gave me nightmares. And if we didn't like something, they replaced it. So for example, that little star shaped sort of gnocchi thing there at the top next to the desserts. Yes. That was a replacement dish for something my husband didn't like.
[01:00:26] Speaker B: Oh, interesting. Okay.
[01:00:27] Speaker A: And something else probably was too.
But the. The worst part for me was the very first thing that amuse Bouche. I could not like that.
[01:00:38] Speaker B: You did not like the amus bouche. Okay. All right.
[01:00:42] Speaker A: But really, like, the lobster was delicious. The pigeon was not so bad. The wagyu was really amazing. The leafy thing, which I think accidentally got buried because I had. There was so much food. I think this is the one that has so many pictures. There really were some wonderful, wonderful, wonderful things.
[01:00:59] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:01:00] Speaker A: But. But by the time this three hour ordeal ended, we had spent over. We had what we did get one glass of champagne each at the front, and we chose still water and went through two bottles of that. There is a shared gratuity, and then we added additional gratuity for our main server who served us this was a $600 deal. And we were like, this was wonderful. I'm so glad that we had this experience together.
Lots of stories in time and to, you know, really connect with one another. It was funny because, as you can see across in this photo with the dessert, we're at Nassau this day, and so we're looking at a carnival right here.
[01:01:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:01:51] Speaker A: That had a very janky dive in theater. That was playing Moana, too.
[01:01:58] Speaker B: Funny. That's really funny. And this is. So you were doing this as your. As a brunch, not as dinner. Then it was.
[01:02:05] Speaker A: Well, technically, it's lunch. I. They got rid of brunch.
[01:02:08] Speaker B: Right. They don't. It's. I say brunch, but. Right. It's. Right. It's actually a dinner. It's really a dinner menu just done earlier in the day, correct? Yeah.
[01:02:16] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:02:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:02:18] Speaker A: So it was a very nice experience. It took up the. The majority of our day, and we enjoyed our time together, and they were very nice celebrating our anniversary, but it was a one and done for us. I would like to try Remy. You know, I would have liked to have had that, like, lemony dessert. I've heard you guys talk about some things, so I would maybe go a la carte sometime. But, yeah, it was an interesting experience.
[01:02:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. You know, it's a lot of food. I mean, that's. The other part is, I know all the dishes individually are small, but it's very rich food. And it's a lot of food. When you think about all the courses and when you order the collection, it is just like, you end up with extra courses, too. I don't know how, like, it's so much. They're. It's like. They tell you it's like nine courses, but in the end, you're, like, getting, like, 11 or 12 courses because there's multiple, like, dessert things that you get as a part of the experience.
[01:03:12] Speaker A: That we traded desserts at the end because they gave me, like, a mango something, and they gave him, like, a peanut butter or something, and I. He likes peanut butter, but I don't like mango.
It was delicious.
[01:03:24] Speaker B: Delicious. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. I mean, sometimes it does require swapping, too. And we.
[01:03:29] Speaker A: We tasted everything, which was the idea.
[01:03:31] Speaker B: That's the way to go. That's absolutely the way to go. We. I did get a comment here I want to pull up about. Your experience with servers is not an anomaly, according to Ed. He thinks Disney intentionally put the more friendly and outgoing staff for families with kids, even if adults would prefer the More friendly, outgoing staff. That's interesting. That would not surprise me.
And then Matthew is saying he thought there was a lot of food at Palo brunch. Wow. So the. The difference between Palo brunch and Remy or Enchante brunch, you are going to get more.
Each plate is going to have more food on it. At Palo. Remy, those portions are going to be. Or at Paulo, I mean, sorry, the portions are going to be much bigger at Palo for brunch than they are at Remy. Me, this is probably this picture or these pictures might be a little bit deceiving because you can't see scale.
[01:04:22] Speaker A: Yeah, they're smaller portions.
[01:04:23] Speaker B: These things are smaller portions. But it is a lot of courses. And of course, because Christine and her husband each ordered different menus, they got a lot of different courses. So there's a lot of. Yeah. And. And Vanessa saying Paulo is not that expensive. That is true. And the brunch is a. The brunch at Palo, or lunch, however you want to call it, is a flat fee, whereas this is not a flat fee. I mean, there is a flat fee for the collection, but there are, you know, add ons and whatnot. And it's. It's certainly, certainly different in a higher, Higher price point. All right, so one and done for Christine. I'm, you know, I'm still gonna go back and do my Remy dinners. You know, I love.
[01:05:05] Speaker A: I mean, I would love to try Remy. I haven't been on that. So now this is the smorgasbord of the rest of the food that we had, so.
[01:05:11] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. And I see there's some concierge food in here too. It' mix a mix of stuff.
[01:05:16] Speaker A: Yes. So over here on the top left, the top two pictures, we stopped in hyperspace. No, to the left of that, there's the little snacks that they give you. To the left. Left, left.
[01:05:30] Speaker B: Oh, sorry. My. My cursor is on.
[01:05:34] Speaker A: I'm pointing to my mouse, but you can't see what I'm doing.
[01:05:37] Speaker B: No, and my. My mouse is actually.
My mouse is on it, but not on it. On the right.
[01:05:43] Speaker A: Yeah, that's okay. So they had like chocolate covered pre and little candied berries and something else. I can't remember what's in the middle. And I ordered this drink because my daughter accidentally broke my nephew's porg mug from Olga's Cantina. So that's not shown here because I kept it in the box. And I ordered this twisted temple that they have this little Yoda kiwi thing. And this straw is Peach flavored. It's actually like a candy.
[01:06:13] Speaker B: It's one of those edible ones.
[01:06:14] Speaker A: So delicious. I really liked it. And we actually had a really fun, like, photo. We walked in there the first time to try to order this drink and cup, and they were taking, like, a photo shoot that I didn't, like, notice in the Navigator app. So bar was closed, but we got this really cool photo shoot of us in Hyperspace Lounge.
[01:06:33] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:06:34] Speaker A: We got to, like, feel the vibrations in the seats and see the screen change. And so then later, when it opened for regular, we went in to get this. And then we didn't need to stay. We just wanted the drink to leave. So I gave the snacks to this woman who was there with her small children. I was like, here, take these. She was like, thank you. Oh, that's nice. So then underneath that, those are the churro, waffles, and bacon that I was able to get in the concierge lounge. Then the next two things. That's the Indian food that I had. This was 1923, I think. Yeah. On the last night.
[01:07:05] Speaker B: This is the corn. Corn soup, right?
[01:07:07] Speaker A: Yes. That was so good.
[01:07:09] Speaker B: That's one of my favorite soups. Yeah.
[01:07:11] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:07:11] Speaker B: And then where are these meatballs? Oh, is this.
[01:07:14] Speaker A: That's arendelle. And I actually didn't like them. And I was so. And that's. My husband had the prime rib, which he really did.
[01:07:20] Speaker B: Enjoy.
[01:07:21] Speaker A: Enjoy. And next to that is more Indian food. They brought me Indian food on the second and the third night, and I was so glad because I wasn't as impressed with those meatballs as I had hoped I would be. So I really enjoyed the Indian food both of those nights that Mickey bars. My husband's last dessert, which was at 1923. That's the bayou. I got those. We ate them in the concierge lounge.
[01:07:43] Speaker B: Are fantastic.
[01:07:44] Speaker A: They were really good.
[01:07:45] Speaker B: Not as good as the quarter, right? Yeah. Yeah.
[01:07:48] Speaker A: So that's on Castaway.
[01:07:50] Speaker B: Castaway, yeah.
[01:07:51] Speaker A: Yes. And we.
Because we had the cabana, we ate at Cookies 2, which I had watched a video recently of somebody showing the line for the food at Serenity Bay was ridiculous.
So that was part of my choosing. There was a Serenity Bay cabin that became available. I watched some videos of it and heard a lot of people say the beach of Serenity Bay and Castaway Key isn't as nice as the family beach. And I had heard cookies, too, was always a good spot to get food. So I ended up choosing to get the family beach instead. And I'm really glad that we did. And it was too easy. I mean, we just walked right up and got our food as much as we wanted and sat down. No line, no nothing.
[01:08:36] Speaker B: Yeah, love that. So I've. I've flipped to. It's. I. We're already past our.
[01:08:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So watch the cabana.
[01:08:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I want to. Yeah, let's. I'm going to play the cabana video that you took so folks can see and you can narrate as we.
[01:08:49] Speaker A: Yes. So this is as you're coming up. Of course, it started out dreary, and our parasailing was canceled. And then 10 minutes later was a beautiful, lovely day. They put your name on there. You walk right in, I think. And so they have these wonderful seats inside of there where you can sit, and there are. There's, like a speaker and radio to play. We couldn't figure out how to change it, but we like the music that was playing. There are snacks and chips and fruit. You do pick up your snorkel gear, whereas at Lookout Key, they provide the snorkel gear for you. Here, you have to pick it up yourself.
Then the fruit and the drinks and the cold towels. There's a button there to push if you need help from any of the concierge team. There's floats and tubes. They have the little sand castle things. I loved having the access to the water there to rinse our feet off. Hammocks, the beautiful view of the ship and the water. Water. Now, of course, this is towards the end. We're on 19. It looks like they're going to be doing some more construction. There was definitely new cabanas being built on the Serenity Bay side.
And we had. Excuse me, if you want to go to this. The next picture to get off of that.
[01:10:02] Speaker B: Exactly where I was going. Yep.
[01:10:03] Speaker A: Yeah, they had the water does, you know, really kind of go. And our favorite part about Castaway, we did, you know, ride the bikes and go on the tower and do the 5K. And this is snorkeling. Snorkeling was our favorite part. We snorkeled on our honeymoon. We loved going out and seeing all of the Disney things in the water and going to the white thing we used to see. That was the best, best, best.
[01:10:31] Speaker B: Yes. And. And honestly, I mean, you can't go wrong with the cabana at Castaway. We did have a question on our. In our Facebook group recently from Wesley. Wesley, about whether he should. He actually was able to snag a cabana at both Serenity or both Lookout and Castaway. And he was asking. But he was only going to do one, and so he was trying. He was asking us, which one should you do it at? I personally think there's more benefit to having a cabana at Castaway, especially if you haven't been to Lookout yet. If it's your first time at Lookout Key, I think you're going to want to spend the time on the family beach and exploring that area. And the cabanas are much further away, whereas at Castaway, the cabanas are still pretty close to Family beach, too. And you can access everything, including snorkeling, you know, fairly easily. And so it's. I would. I would recommend if you have not been to Lookout yet and you're choosing between a cabana Castaway or cabana lookout. Cabana. Castaway is the way to go. But I mean, like I said, you just can't go wrong. If you get the chance to get that cabana, get that cabana that's you around.
[01:11:42] Speaker A: I love it.
[01:11:43] Speaker B: And they'll cart you around. That's another. Yeah, you don't have to be concierge for them to cart you around, but if you are staying in a cabana, they will cart you around places. So they will take you to, you know, to the snorkeling area. If you don't want to walk there, they will take you back to the ship if you don't want to walk back to the ship right at the end of the. The day. So all of those things. But as Christine mentioned, they are building a whole bunch more cabanas past Cabana 21, which is the last of the family beach cabanas. There's more cabanas in Serenity Bay, but the cabanas they're building seem to be in between the family beach cabanas and where Serenity beach cabanas start. So I'm not sure which ones will be, you know, obviously the ones closer to Family beach are more likely to be Family Beach. But I'm not sure if they're going to be all family beach cabanas or.
[01:12:30] Speaker A: Definitely some of them appear to be Serenity Bay because, yeah, there seems to be bay. They were clearly okay on Serenity Bay because on at the end of the family beach, it appears to be more basic construction. Like, you saw that big pile of sand where Serenity Bay. There are cabanas coming up. All right, a picture of it. I can send it to you. But like, they are cabanas and they are on Serenity.
[01:12:57] Speaker B: All right, well, there you have it. Now I know you. You all went to Epcot after your cruise because, you know, what's better than than, you know, walking around the world showcase, Hitting a little Guardians of the Galaxy. We don't have time to talk about that part of your trip, of course, because and we are a cruise podcast. We try to focus on, you know, on the cruise. But Christine, did we miss anything that you wanted to make sure folks knew about what the benefits of adults only sailing on Disney Cruise Line or concierge sailing on Disney Cruise Line that you got to experience. Experience.
[01:13:32] Speaker A: My husband just wanted me to make sure everybody knew that he feels like cruising like a Disney snob is the best way to sail.
[01:13:41] Speaker B: Is the best way to sail. I love that.
[01:13:43] Speaker A: So we really did have a great time. We had a wonderful experience. If we had the opportunity to pour upgrade again, I definitely would. I don't know if there's enough benefit that I feel like I would rack rack great concierge because, you know, again, the things that you can get, I was able to do a lot of that myself. Right. I could get a cabana. I could get all the things that I wanted prior to so those things. But I really enjoyed the staff. I really enjoyed being able to get these other parts of it. So yes, I would definitely try for a port upgrade again. I, I really enjoy. Enjoy the experience, but not enough to pay rack rate. And I, I'm a deal finder girl. So I would do it again for sure. And cruising without my children. Yes, I. We definitely experience is just wonderful. Yeah.
[01:14:40] Speaker B: Thumbs up for leaving the kids at home.
[01:14:43] Speaker A: They were a little sad. We were like, we're going again in September. We made sure to, you know, book placeholders because even though we use gty, which doesn't use placehold with, you know, when like we used our last placeholders to book for the adventure when, you know, special release dates and stuff come out that you can't use GTY's, we'll use those for that. So, yep, absolutely makes sense. Made sure to still do those things. We got to still meet characters. We still did a photo package. And even though we didn't get maybe as many pictures as we would have with our kids, we still got really nice photos of us that we can remember. And. And I even still took around a little mat and had people sign it. I love it.
Really good.
[01:15:32] Speaker B: I will say you got some great photos. I used them to promote the show ahead of time. Of course on social media, if you haven't seen them, check out the post on Instagram has all the pictures as well as my posts on Facebook. But yeah, great pictures you got of you and your husband. I love the one with the lightsabers. You know, one thing I'll say is I think the question of concierge, is it worth it? Is a really personal one. And I want to just point out that you were able to get a cabana before concierge and before you upgraded to concierge. But I, as I mentioned earlier in the show, I think that's still a rare thing. I'm not saying it's not possible, but you got to just be really lucky. And Christine clearly has the pixie dust magic on her side. I don't think I have the pixie dust magic on my side, but as Tracy says, adult cruising is the best. I will end on that and say thank you Christine for joining me. Thanks for everybody who's watching either live right now with us or will watch us later. And of course thanks to those who are listening on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Don't forget to like and subscribe to us on YouTube. And also if you listen to us on Apple Podcasts, please make sure to give us those five stars. We really appreciate it. And with that I will say thank you and good night to everyone. And thank you Christine.
[01:16:53] Speaker A: Thank you.
[01:16:59] Speaker C: 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 live, 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 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 on White Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com forward/dclduo or email them at dclduoypathunwinding.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 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 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 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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