[00:00:00] Speaker A: I love the treasure. I absolutely love it. Now, I like Wish class ships, but I love it. And I think it's very interesting that people that everyone seems to love it. And it's the same basic structure as the wish, and I know that makes me laugh. Like the basic structure of the wish. That's the biggest complaint about the wish is the basic and it's the same structure.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Welcome back, everyone, to another bonus episode of the DCL Duo Podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and the WDW magazine, which publishes both the WDW magazine, the DLR magazine, and Nuuly DCL magazine. I am your host today, Sam. As you can tell from the fact that I did the show intro, Brian is not available to be with me today. But of course I'm not solo because I always have a fabulous guest with me whenever I'm hosting by myself, and today is no exception. I am super excited to welcome to the show Tammy Whiting. Welcome to the show, Tammy.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Thank you very much.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: It's so wonderful to have you. It's your first time on our show, but you are no stranger to Disney Cruise Line. So before we jump into the topic at hand, and let's not spoil the surprise as to who you are, Tammy, but let's get your background with cruising and Disney. Cruising and Disney in general.
[00:01:34] Speaker A: Okay, let's see. Longtime Disney lover. We honeymooned at Disney many, many years ago.
[00:01:40] Speaker B: We started cruising. Oh, I love that.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: Yeah, we started cruising in 2005.
[00:01:46] Speaker B: Oh, awesome.
[00:01:47] Speaker A: Which seems like forever ago now.
And we started off.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: It was 20 years ago, Tammy.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: We started off a little slow, I guess, because our first One was in 2005, and I don't think our second was until 2008, maybe. And it wasn't because we didn't love it. We loved it. But, you know, time and money and all of that, you know, slowed us down a little bit. But they've picked up greatly in the last several years, and now we are. I have just passed, I think, 63 Disney cruises. Wow.
[00:02:19] Speaker B: Amazing. Do you have your name on Castaway Cay by any chance?
[00:02:24] Speaker A: I do.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. I love that. I can't wait till we have that. Yeah, it's very.
[00:02:30] Speaker A: It's pretty exciting. I go see it every time. I like to say it's the most expensive, you know, plank I've ever bought in my entire life. But totally worth it.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Totally. It's funny you say that because I always joke about my DVC backpack being the most expensive backpack I ever bought. True.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: That's true.
[00:02:46] Speaker B: But yeah, I love that. So 60 plus cruises. Wow. And you and I got to meet on, on one of those cruises very recently on the preview for the Disney Treasure. And you are also a travel agent. How long have you been doing that?
[00:03:03] Speaker A: I've been doing that for about 18 years. I opened the Storybook Destinations the agency 11 years ago. So for the last 11 years I've been doing that.
[00:03:13] Speaker B: That's awesome. And you sponsor the Disney Cruise Line blog, is that right?
[00:03:18] Speaker A: We do. We sponsor all their group cruises and we work closely with Scott. He's a wealth of knowledge, as you know, so we love working with him.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: Awesome. Awesome. Well, now I will spoil or spill the beans. You are the new lead author for the unofficial guides 2025 edition of Disney Cruising or Disney Cruise Line 2025. I should say that's the title. The Unofficial guide, Disney Cruise Line 2025. And so that's what we're gonna focus on talking about today. But Tammy, tell me, how did you, how did this gig come up?
I know that Aaron Foster and Len Test have been doing these unofficial guides for a long time. And you and the lead author. So how did that come to be?
[00:04:04] Speaker A: Yes, it's very exciting. I've been a fan of unofficial guides. I've read them now for, you know, 20, 25 years. Love the books always. And so when they. I wrote blogs for touring plans for several years and Disneyland at first and then I switched over to Disney Cruise Line blogs. And so I did that for many years. And so when Lynn told me that he and Aaron were going to write the first cruise line book, I was super excited that they were making Cruise Line Edition and I got to contribute a little bit, just a little bit every time and some stateroom updates, stateroom information and things like that. And so I did that for many years. So I think 10 years now they've been doing it.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Yeah.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Yeah. So when Erin was ready to move on last year and she passed it off, I got to take over and like it's a dream come true. Super excited.
[00:04:54] Speaker B: Yeah. That's awesome. I love that. It's. I would love to do something like that. I'm a full time lawyer, so I don't, I don't know that I have the time. Time to write a book.
But if there was going to be something that I would do instead of being a lawyer, that would seem like a really fun journey to take. But how much time? I'd love to know sort of some of the logistics of how much time it takes to write or I will say rewrite a book, because obviously there was an existing or several existing editions of the book, the 2024 one being the most recent. And I showed you I have them both sitting with me today. And I was looking at them and the 2025 one is quite a bit thicker than the 2024, like almost twice as thick. I'm going to say not maybe not twice as, but like probably a third, an additional third at least.
And so how does one go about writing or rewriting a book like the Unofficial Guide.
[00:05:57] Speaker A: So Erin, let me say, was a great help when I first started and she, she talked me through a lot of the process, when the do deadlines were for certain things and how she went about it and how she kept it up to date every year. And so I took that and started writing. I guess I was keeping notes before that, but I started writing last year, about a year ago now for the 2025 edition and started actually the re. Reworking the, the book that was there. You know, I took what was an excellent base, of course, and reorganized some things just what was more natural to flow to me. And then. So first I reorganized, made a plan of what it was going to look like when I was done with it, and then started writing the individual chapters. And you have to really go through and, you know, your brain sees what you want it to see and you, you go through and you read things and you think, oh yeah, that's, that's still true. And then later you, you go back for a second or third read and go, of course that's not true.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Well, and the crazy thing about writing a book like this, you know, for over the course of a year, I would also think is the fact that things are constantly changing, right? And at some point you have like a cutoff when this thing is due to print, right? So you can't make changes anymore. But like, how, how is it that, like, do you have to keep rewriting sections when, when Disney is constantly changing things on us?
[00:07:16] Speaker A: We do. And I think I probably drove my editor crazy this year because the deadline to turn it over to her was July 1st. And then she goes back and forth with me for a while and we turned it in, I think, to the publisher, I think September 1st and. But you know, multiple days she's, she's doing, sending me the finished product of each chapter and I'm, I'm, I'm like, oh, that's great. And then two, Disney would make another announcement and I'd go back And I'd say, no, wait, can we change this?
And the last one I changed was really important. I had put a tip in there. I'd added my own tip because. Because I've had to do this before, that you could if you forgot your passport on a closed loop cruise, a cruise that starts and ends in the same United States city, which I sadly have done. I did once and almost.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: Oh, really?
[00:08:00] Speaker A: When I realized the night before that I had not packed it, that you could get on with a copy of your birth certificate. And so my husband emailed me a copy from home of my birth certificate. I printed it out. I had a very bad print out of it, took it, no problem at all. So I put as a tip to keep a copy of your birth certificate in the cloud just in case, and it might get you out of a hard spot like it did me. And I think it was September 1st, I think the publisher had it and Disney changed their policy that it has to be the original. Now you cannot take a copy anymore. And I just thought, thought, oh, my goodness, if people got to the cruise port and said, you know, this book right here told me I could.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:08:43] Speaker A: Emailed her. I said, please, please, please. Is there any way we can change this?
She worked with me. We put something else there in this place and it all worked. So.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: Oh, that's so good. Yeah, that would keep me up at night, too. I'm the same way. Brian and I are very much about accuracy, right. And there are times where we can't be 100% accurate because we're not sure. Or Disney hasn't said, you know, what their policy is. Or we know that Disney might have a policy that says X, but sometimes they'll do Y or Z. Right? Like sometimes things are. And so we're always trying to give that caveat on the show. And we can do it orally. Of course. You know that Disney changes things all the time and you might have different luck with different cast members and things like that, but it's hard when it's in print, right? Because it's in print. It's not changeable in the same way as I can pop onto the podcast and tell people, hey, remember that thing I told you six weeks ago? Ignore that. It's wrong now. Yeah, right.
[00:09:42] Speaker A: The page of updates of corrections. I should say that things that Disney have changed after we went to print, you know, and we'll update that all year long because things are going to change all the way up until the next edition, of course.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: Oh, of Course. Of course. So, yeah. And that would be on your website then, right, for the unofficial guide website?
[00:09:57] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That makes complete sense. Now, I want to jump in and talk about what additions, because, like I mentioned, the book is a lot thicker this year. I can think of a couple of things that have happened in the last year that would necessitate the book being longer in particular.
But what were the things that are really big additions to this year's book as opposed to last year's book?
[00:10:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I really expanded the stateroom section.
I think that's one of the hardest decisions that people make. And really, it's not as consequential as you think it is when you're making that decision, but it's very hard, especially for a first timer. That's not. What on earth do they pick? Are there bad rooms? Are there good rooms? So I feel like that's really important. So I spend a lot of time on that and updating the floor plans for every category because they vary enough. Some of them vary enough that you really should see a different floor plan than the other ones. But most of them are similar in the same category. But there are exceptions to that. So I tried to really build on that. And then also for. I added some suggestions for where to stay the night before for some of their most common departure ports and excursions. Added up. I know that Erin, she used to do a lot of excursions, but as Disney grew and as their ports grew, it became a lot to keep up with. So I tried to add some of that back in with their most common itineraries. I can't do, you know, 15 different.
[00:11:29] Speaker B: Europe itineraries, Of course. Well, and that's a good point, because European itineraries are so varied and they go. They go to so many cities. I mean, you can give recommendations maybe for Barcelona or City or Southampton, where they're sailing out of fairly regularly. Right. But you can't do it for every port stop because they had to do so many different port stops. And they might do, you know, one like the Azores. They only do that on the transatlantic. Right. Back and forth. Right. So it might not make sense to give, you know, a lot of deep recommendations for the Azores, but it makes sense to give recommendations for where to stay in Southampton or London or something like that. Yeah. Right.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: So that's what I did. I picked some of those ports like you mentioned in the next year. I'm hoping to keep expanding on that every year and add some more ideas for what you're going to do on. If you want to do something on your own, you know, what's a walking tour of that port, like, things like that. And that's what I'm hoping to add to every year.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome. And I imagine that you're covering the Caribbean ports and Bahamian ports more deeply than like some of those ports in Europe.
Yeah. Now, another big thing that is added, of course, is Lookout Key. There was no, There was no Lookout Key prior to this, this June 2024. How, how difficult was it to put in information about Lookout Key when you're. I mean, Your deadline was July 1st.
I think you. That's when you met, I think Brian for the first time was the Lookout Key preview cruise. But how hard was that to get information into the book about Lookout Key when you had just this really short time of sailings to Lookout Key before your book draft was due, Right?
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I booked a second cruise in June just for that reason. I thought, oh, my goodness, what if we didn't make it for it? Or I can't. I need to go at least once and preferably twice. So I did go twice before I had to turn it in. But, you know, every time I go back, I see something different that, you know, I'll add to for next time. But there were some things that I, you know, I had to make an educated guess on, like that Christmas decorations. You know, I was like, I'm 99% sure they're going to put Christmas decorations up there. And so I put that there were. But then when it actually happened, I.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Thought, oh, thank goodness, I love that. Like, well, and then we're still, we still have things that are not, like, done at Lookout. Like how do you deal with those things? For example, There is no 5K at Lookout Key yet. Right. But I think all of us big Disney fans think that there will eventually be a 5K at Lookout. The bike paths, you know, you can't do bike rentals yet, but we've been told you will be able to. But we don't know anything about, you know, a lot of these excursions that haven't happened yet at Lookout. How do you handle things like that when you're trying to educate, you know, as people as much as possible about what Disney Cruise Line offers?
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Yeah. That it is tricky, like you mentioned. And you know, bikes, we've all been thinking for months there's going to be bikes and there's still. They're still not using the bikes. And so we, we certainly don't. I don't want to say anything, mislead anybody, you know, and say things that have not happened. But there are some things, like, there are some things we can make an educated guess on. We can make an educated guess next year on what the Destiny is going to look like, you know, what. What the layout's going to be because of our previous experience with other ships. So there are some things we can make educated guesses on, but there's also things that we have to avoid talking about because we're not positive yet, you know.
[00:14:53] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, even. Even, right. The announcement to 13 ships. Right. I think that probably happened before the book was due, but we didn't have any information about what those other ships would look like, you know, beyond the Destiny.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Right. We had no idea it was going to be. Well, I could have speculated that it would be a smaller class ship, but we had no idea if that would actually happen. And so, no, yeah, we can't say anything about the size or anything like that yet. Or we couldn't.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: That's such an interesting, you know, difference between a podcast and a book because we love to speculate all the time. This, I mean, we always tell people, hey, we're speculating here.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: We're.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: We like to call it prognosticating on this show.
And, you know, there are. They are educated guesses, like you said. Right. You could speculate based on your, you know, you and I and others in this space who are sort of deeply into Disney Cruise Line. We are Disney Cruise Line devotees, as I like to call us. We. We can make pretty decent educated guesses about what the cruise line will or will not do. But again, it's still. There's quite a bit of speculation in those thoughts. And so, yeah, we can do that, but we're not promising anything in our podcast. We're telling people this is a prognostication. It's a little different to put it in print and to say this is a prognostication.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: Right, it is. I did make one short chapter. The very last chapter of the book is all speculating on what may come one day. But it was very clear. This is all speculation. This is not. Nothing firm here.
[00:16:28] Speaker B: Well, I want to hear about your thoughts then. I want to, actually. So I will confess, I haven't had a chance to read the book yet. We only recently got it. And so I want to talk about what you think the future is, and then I want to talk a little bit about the treasure, because I know you just got off the treasure. As I mentioned, you and I were on the preview together and then you just got on a seven night sailing or just got off, I should say a seven night sailing like this past week. So I'd love to hear of course your thoughts on the Treasure and then thoughts on of for the Destiny that's coming out later this year on the adventure. But I wanna talk prognostication a little bit. We now know for the 13 ships we have a little bit more information.
We now know how the fleet is going to grow to 13 more than just the number 13, but we know what years the ships are coming out and we know the sizes of those ships. What do you think about this smaller class of ships and the expansion of the Wish class? We didn't know until most recent announcement that we were going to have five Wish class ships essentially and I'm including the OLC Wish class ship in that number. But what do you think about Disney Cruise Line's decision to have five Wish class ships the first time they'll have that many ships of the same class. And then of course about these three new ships that we'll have that will be 3,000 passengers, 100,000 gross tons, bigger than the Magic class, smaller than the Dream or Wish classes. Love to hear your thoughts.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: Yeah, the Wish. You know, when the Wish first came out, I don't think anyone would have predicted that they would add on more Wish ships because it wasn't overly well received. And I'll qualify that by longtime Disney fans. I first timers loved that ship. You know, everyone we talked to that was their first time on a Disney cruise loved that ship. But longtime Disney cruisers were expecting some things that were not there and they didn't love it. And I will say that even in that category of people, when they go back, they tend to like it more. That's the other thing I'm experiencing 100%.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: We have said the exact same thing, Tammy, that like it's a stark contrast. I will say we liked the Wish when we first went out. There were certain things we didn't quite understand, but we thought she was beautiful. We were on the maiden voyage, she wasn't quite ready. She wasn't quite show ready. But other than not being show ready, we, we loved a lot of the decisions that they had made, even though we questioned others. But I feel like there were a lot of longtime Disney Cruise fans who hated the Wish. When she first came out and then went on her and we were like, I guess she's not so bad and then maybe went on her a second time and we're like, oh, she's really, she's really fantastic. You know, she's got a lot, she got a lot of good. Even though I don't, you know, they must still say, I don't like that she doesn't have midship elevators. I adore. I don't like that she doesn't have a running track. But there's a lot to love on the Wish.
[00:19:27] Speaker A: There is a lot to love on the Wish. And it's interesting because some of the things that people dislike the most were very standard on other cruise lines. You know, other cruise lines don't have walking tracks. They don't have three elevator banks, you know, and nobody questioned those. But as soon as Disney did it for the first time, because we were used to something else, people were upset about it.
[00:19:44] Speaker B: Absolutely. It's so funny, you know, everybody with Disney, Disney fans always want, you know, they want something new. But we want you to keep everything the same at the same time. Absolutely.
[00:19:55] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: Something new.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: But we also want the exact. We don't want anything to change that.
[00:19:58] Speaker B: We loved Impossible. Impossible. Well, what do you think about the decision to expand? Well, let's talk about expanding the fleet as a general sense. Right. This is a lot of growth in a short period of time. I mean, even just the Wish, the Treasure and the Destiny, and then, of course, the adventure coming out all in within five years.
That's a lot of growth. And now we have this decision that they're going to grow the fleet even more with another other five ships after that. Right. So we're going to be going from eight at the end of this year, at the end of 2025, to 13 by the end of 2031. I mean, what do you think about that decision by Disney Cruise Line? It's somewhat of a risky proposition.
[00:20:44] Speaker A: It is a little bit risky. And when you look at a company like Royal Caribbean that, you know, has 20, not 30 ships, almost 30 ships maybe now, I think you think, well, Disney still has a long way to go. But also, you do have to wonder, when do they, when do they tap out? You know, when, when have they met their potential? But I, I do think there's room for growth. The cruise industry as a whole is just growing by leaps and bounds as more people try cruising some for the first time, but as more people try it and realize, hey, I really like it and want to, you know, try different lines. And so it's growing. Clia, the cruise industry organization, is predicting just huge growth in the next couple of years. So Disney adding on makes sense that they're going to try to get some of that growth.
So I'm not totally surprised. I'm excited, super excited. I was also watching the D23 when they made that announcement, expecting them to announce two ships probably to replace the Magic and Wonder. And when they put all those ships up there, it was so exciting.
[00:21:39] Speaker B: Totally so exciting. That was our reaction. We actually had the DCL dude Wes on our show. We were doing a live show watching D23 announcements with Wes and with our other, other friend C T who is known in our community as Tinfoil Mouse Ears because he loves to prognosticate. And so all of us, like when they announced all those ships, we are we, our jaws just dropped. We were just like what, like what are you talking about? But what about the thought to go smaller with these three ships that have just been announced by Disney specifically as I mentioned, to be, to carry 3,000 passengers and to be approximately 100,000 gross tons which is I mentioned is in between the Magic Class and the Dream Class and of course the Wish Class and the Dream Class. People always think Wish Class is bigger but passenger wise it's really not bigger. It's only slightly bigger. They're really just bigger because of the fuel capacity areas and the crew areas are bigger but the passenger areas are really not bigger. But yeah. What do you think about the decision to go smaller? Royal mostly has gone bigger, although now they have some smaller ships, new smaller ships announced as well. But overall the industry seems to go bigger and bigger and bigger and Disney's decision here is to go smaller with the exception of the Wish class.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: Yeah, it's true. The industry as a whole is going bigger and bigger or super small and they're leaving this gap in the middle here between expedition sized ships and these giant cruise ships. And I think, think, I mean I'm, I'm super excited about the size. I, I think the Magic and the Wonder, you know, they can't sail forever. As much as we love them, there's, there's going to be a point where it costs too much to upkeep them and to Disney standards. And so I'm not totally surprised that they're going smaller, a little bit smaller than their, you know, bigger ship. I'm not totally surprised they're going smaller to one day replace those two ships. The people that love the smaller ships will still have something similar, if not the exact same size, something similar though that. So I think they do need something for those people that, that love those smaller sizes and just really don't like the giant, you know, mega cruise ship.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: Yeah, agreed. What do you think about the, the adventure and how that's going to do? You know, sort of in relation because the Adventure is a class of its own. Right. It will be the, the only ship in the Adventure class. I, I doubt that Disney will make another unless, I don't know, maybe I'll be proven wrong. It, maybe it'll be wild, wildly successful and they'll build one from the ground up just like it. But I would be kind of shocked if that happened, but curious what you think or how you think the Adventure is going to sort of fit into the Disney portfolio.
[00:24:27] Speaker A: It is going to be interesting. I feel like, I mean if it's a huge success, I can definitely see them building another one one day. But it's going to be also hard to measure that success because I think for a lot of Americans that are going to be traveling over there, and I am in January, I'm so excited to see it and to try it. But at some point the number of people that love Disney and are willing to, you know, get on a 30 hour flight to, to go experience this new ship is probably going to run out.
[00:24:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, they can, they can probably.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Still fill it without us, but I, I'm not sure that will be a true measure of success if they built one closer to, closer to us. And it'll be interesting. I'm really excited. I think it's neat that they took this giant ship that's so different than any other Disney ship they have, but they put some of the things that we love on it like animators and you know, some of our familia on there, so. Oh, I cannot wait to try it.
[00:25:19] Speaker B: I think it's going to be wildly successful, at least at the beginning and then we'll kind of see. I mean, it seems like it has already been wildly successful in terms of inaugural season sales and whatnot. But it will be interesting to see. You're right, like how much, you know, there'll be completionists like you and like Brian who are going over there the early end and then there's people like me who don't want to be on a 30 hour flight. And as much as I want to be a completionist, I will say I do eventually want to sail on her, but I'm not. Well, the timing isn't going to work out for me to sail on her in the first couple of months and so that will hopefully be down the road. But yeah, it will be super interesting to see how Things grow. I'm curious about what you think the lifespan we've got left on the Magic and the Wonder. You mentioned in your comments about they can't keep refurbing them forever because at some point it becomes prohibitively expensive to upkeep them. Of course, we also know that the fuel standards change year after year and different ports have different standards about that. We know that both ships have been, you know, retrofitted more recently. In particular, the Wonder, they had to do a lot of work before she was able to sail over to New Zealand and Australia because they have very strict environmental regulations in that part of the world. But yeah, I'm curious what you think the lifespan, like, when do you think they might retire? And again, this is complete prognostication. We have no inside information from Disney. But I'm just curious as a big fan and somebody sort of deep into this and in researching and thinking about Disney Cruise Line, what you think, Tammy?
[00:27:02] Speaker A: I would have said not long. I would have said two or three years. I would have said it was coming quickly. But when they said 13 ships, I said, okay, right.
Unless they're going to build two more somewhere else in there, then they're making it to make at least have 13 for a few days.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: Right. I know that same. We said the same thing, like at least through the end of 2031. Right. Because they say we're going to have 13 by 2031. You got to at least have 13 for a whole year.
[00:27:33] Speaker A: You would think.
[00:27:34] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. And. But I think it's going to be, I think, a little bit past that.
[00:27:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: Like I think a couple years, because I do think, I don't think the three that they announce are actually going to be the replacements for the Magic and the Wonder. I think we're going to see two more ships coming in the early2030s. You know, when I say early 2000 and 30s, I mean before maybe 2035, not necessarily 2031, but like to actually replace. I hope, I keep saying I hope there'll be like the Magic too, and the Wonder too, and they'll be. And that they'll port in a lot of the IP and a lot of the, you know, the theming that we love from those two ships, but who knows? That's again, that's just me hoping, you know, and hope is not a strategy, so. Hope is not a business strategy.
Well, I'd love to talk about the Treasure and the Destiny. You know, you mentioned you are a fan of the Wish, despite the fact that we know and what we've talked about, lots of people did not maybe love the wish when she first came out, but you got to go on the Treasure now twice. So we've spent what, 10, 10 nights on the Treasure between the preview and your recent sailing. Love to know your thoughts. What are the pluses, the minuses? You know, give it to to me.
[00:28:53] Speaker A: I love the Treasure. I absolutely love it. Now, I like wish class ships, but I love it and I think it's very interesting that people that everyone seems to love it and it's the same basic structure as the wish and I.
[00:29:07] Speaker B: Know that makes me laugh.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: Structure of the wish. That's the biggest complaint about the wish is the basic and it's the same structure.
[00:29:14] Speaker B: I wonder though, if you think though, then we were not sailing when the dream first came out. But I wonder if that was kind of the same thing that happened with the Dream Class. I mean, they were very similar to the Magic and the Wonder in their layout, but quite a bit bigger obviously.
And then certain spaces are of course very differently themed. Like the adult spaces, I'm thinking have this completely different Personas on the Dream Class than the Magic Class. I wonder. And you started cruising earlier than we did. I wonder if maybe that was the same thing that happened or if you know, if the same thing happened. But by the time the fantasy came out, everyone was so used to to the Dream, they were like, oh, it's a great ship. You know, you may be right.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: I do. I don't remember people disliking the Dream as much as some people dislike the wish. But I definitely remember people like, oh, I don't. I never want to go on that ship. It's huge. There's too many people, you know, too many people.
[00:30:09] Speaker B: And then now they're going on Icon of the Seas on Royal Caribbean with like 6,000 of their closest friends.
[00:30:19] 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 Alani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation or adventures by Disney or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse. My 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 DCLDUOMYPATHunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: I'm curious, I know you have a chapter about other cruise lines and other cruising opportunities. Of course, we know in this space you mentioned a couple of different options. We have these smaller expedition ships. We know of course, river cruising on Adventures by Disney. But there's a lot of large ship cruising competitors for Disney. And I'm curious for the Disney cruises, what if somebody were to come to you either as their travel agent or as the writer of the unofficial guides Disney Cruise Line 2025 and said, you know, I love Disney Cruise Line, but their pricing has just gotten out of control and I just can't, I just can't spring a Disney cruise for this year's spring break trip.
Which cruise line would you send them on if not Disney Cruise Line line?
[00:32:11] Speaker A: It would depend on the cruiser. If we were talking about adults, then I would probably steer them towards celebrity. Although celebrity can, you know, their newer Edge ship, Edge class ships are, are beautiful. I love them and that's my favorite when I'm doing celebrities, one of those ships. But the, you know, adults I would steer there. But if someone had teenagers, younger kids, you know, more, then I'm probably gonna go to Royal Caribbean. And yeah, I'll caveat that by saying they're newer ships and it doesn't have to be a giant ship, but just one of their newer ships because I do feel like their older ships don't have quite as much to do, you know, and they are, they are feeling their age in some places. But the newer ships are great and they're not in my mind there's a reason, I mean in, in to me I should say Disney charges more for a reason. There are some things that are upgraded experience and I can nitpick some little things at Royal Caribbean, but I, I, I've had great Royal Caribbean cruises. So even and it cost me less and there's, you know, sometimes there's a reason why it costs less and sometimes it's totally worth it, you know, it's totally worth that reason. I can bring my own shampoo and Conditioner and pay less and be happy.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: That's right. Because if you're sailing in the, in the non sweet class on Royal you get shampoo, conditioner, body wash all in one.
That's terrible. I don't know. It's horrible. And so yeah, wait, Tammy is right though. It will still cost you less if you're going to bring, even to bring along your own. You can bring on some fancy, you know, you could buy some nice Paul Mitchell shampoo conditioner body wash and it'll still cost you less than the difference between. Yeah.
What about the sort of all inclusive.
No cruise line is 100% all. No large ship cruising is really 100% all inclusive. I should say there are, there are add ons where you can make it basically all inclusive. But what do you think about the Disney's sort of differentiation to be sort of mostly inclusive versus other cruise lines being less inclusive? As far as you know those sort of add ons and you know, does, you know, I'm always curious when you think about the price point, we've tried to crunch the numbers on this and generally speaking we still think most of the time Disney cruise line comes out more expensive. But I'm curious from your perspective as a TA and as someone who obviously wrote this book where you think those sort of the value lies with Disney Cruise Line versus some of these other cruise lines lines.
[00:34:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I think some of the value is not, you know, quantifiable in dollars. You know, it's, it's the crew, it's the entertainment, it's the family friendly atmosphere. And as a parent when my kids were younger for sure, I mean that really mattered to me a lot. I didn't need to walk by a pool where they were doing, you know, that where a movie was playing that may not have, may have some colorful language, you know, on the, on the, on the Funnel vision, their version of funnel vision. And so I appreciate the family friendliness of Disney and the, and the lack of a casino. I'm. Some people love casinos, that's totally fine. But I also, I appreciate not having them on every ship and so some of it's not quantifiable. There are if you start changing, you know, dollars to dollars. Royal Caribbean icon, since you mentioned icon is actually pretty expensive for royal.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: Quite expensive. Yeah, no, I, I, you're right. The newest of the. So I think when you're talking about new ish ships, right, like with Royal you can get more bang for your buck. But if you're talking about the newest ships, probably not so much. So, like Icon and Utopia are quite expensive. And you look at them, you look at them, dollars to donuts to Disney Cruise Line and there's really not a whole light between them. And Disney Cruise Line is more inclusive in stuff. But of course, then if you look at some of the sweet class stuff and what it includes, I will say Royal Caribbean's doing a lot of really great things with, you know, with that class.
And I mean, I look at sort of the concierge experience and we sail both regular and concierge lately, more regular.
But I will say I think that's one area where Disney Cruise Line is maybe falling behind some of the industry. I'm curious what you think about that.
[00:36:21] Speaker A: Some of the inclusions for concierge, you mean?
[00:36:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Some of the. I feel like you get a lot more in terms of. Not that Disney concierge isn't wonderful. It is a wonderful level of service, but you get more inclusions, inclusive stuff. I'm thinking, you know, more your alcohol fully included, your specialty dining fully included. You know, more, more priority for reserving things, you know, butler service, things that you don't get on Disney Cruise Line. Curious what you think about that trend.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: A restaurant that only concierge guests can go to. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I concierge on Disney. Like you said, it's a wonderful experience and one of the best things about it are those hosts. They're amazing. Those concierge hosts are just amazing. Amazing. But could they do more? Yeah, they could. And, and especially with the price that they're charging, they absolutely could do more there. I think it's very interesting what they're going to do with the adventure and we'll see, we'll see how it plays out. But they're, you know, they're saying concierge is going to be like a ship within a ship and they're going to have everything.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: I've heard people say they may have their own kids clubs. They may. Which seems a little interest. That seems interesting to me, but I've been told that a couple of different times. So we'll see interesting stores, their own restaurant, of course, you know, their own.
[00:37:37] Speaker B: Area, their own spa. I heard that part. Yeah. Yeah, I did. I. I have heard at least one, like, restaurant space or. I don't know if it's Quick Server or what, but. Or if it's just going to be breakfast or, you know, what it is exactly going to be. But yeah, the spy had heard and I had heard some exclusive stores, but I hadn't Heard Kids Club. That would be very interesting.
[00:37:59] Speaker A: Very interesting. I don't know if that. How well that will go over, but it would be very interesting.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: Ye.
[00:38:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:04] Speaker B: Well, you'll have to report back to us, Tammy, after your January cruise, because, you know, Brian is booked on the maiden voyage of the adventure right now. But as we've said on the show, we're not 100% clear whether he's going to actually go or we're going to reschedule that. Because the interesting thing about the adventure is they did not do restrictions on the maiden voyage like they do on maiden voyages for all of the other ships. And I'm not exactly sure why. Um, but it is to the benefit of, of course, the, The. The sailor, because it doesn't lock you in. Of course, you know, if you're concierge, your deposit is locked in, but you can move your. Your sailing date. No, you know, no big deal. And actually, Brian and. And our friend who are going. Who are. Who are scheduled to go or. Or reserved to go, they're actually in an inside concierge stateroom.
[00:38:55] Speaker A: Yes. Which is crazy.
[00:38:56] Speaker B: Which is crazy for those of us who are like, wait, that's a thing? Like, that's like. Yeah, it' well, I'd love to turn to some of your favorites, Tammy.
You know, as someone who is deeply immersed in the world of Disney cruising and who sails obviously very, you know, quite often, I'd love to know your, you know, some of your favorites. I'm going to give you basically my standard rapid fire round of questioning, but I'll skip the general Disney favorites because I want to hear maybe a few more Disney Cruise Line favorites from you. We got to start at the most important place to start. We start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.
And that is your favorite Disney Cruise Line stage show.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: Oh, well, it's going to be Moana now, because that was amazing.
[00:39:46] Speaker B: Amazing now. And you. And you've gotten to see it twice now, too. Is it still as good. As good as it was on the preview?
[00:39:54] Speaker A: Just as good. Yes.
[00:39:55] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:39:56] Speaker A: That cast is incredible.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: So. Well, yeah. Oh, so good. I'm a little worried for when the cast changes, because it should be. I should be coming up soon. Right. Because they've all been on for quite a while, because you have to count their contract not just from the maiden. When the maiden voyage started or when the preview started, but even before that because they were in rehearsals and all of that. But yeah. Oh, my God, what an amazing. An amazing, amazing cast. Okay. Well, of Course, you. That you have an A plus for. For that question. So we. You're starting off. You're starting off with a bang. I gotta ask, what's your favorite rotational dining restaurant is?
[00:40:31] Speaker A: Oh, let's see why that's a hard choice. I. I think I'd have to go with the animators, though. I love some of the newer restaurants on the Wish and the Treasure. But I think I'd have to go back to the classic animators. Although I shouldn't go back all the way to the classic, classic animators. I like the fantasy animators. I love.
[00:40:47] Speaker B: Oh, okay.
[00:40:48] Speaker A: And I love the drawing. You know, the drawing.
[00:40:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Animation, magic. Absolutely. Yes. Love that. Okay, what about your favorite space to relax on a Disney cruise ship? And it can be on any of the ships. So it doesn't, you know, obviously the adult pool deck is different from each, you know, each ship to ship or each class of ship, but. Yeah. What's your favorite place to relax on a dizzy cruise?
[00:41:10] Speaker A: Well, it would be deck four.
[00:41:12] Speaker B: Yeah. The promenade deck. Yeah. So that means we're talking. We're not talking about the wish class. We're talking about either the dream or the magic glasses. But that's the right answer. Absolutely. All right, what's your favorite onboard activity? Favorite thing to do?
[00:41:30] Speaker A: Do? I love trivia. And, you know, even if it's a subject that I'm horrible in, I always enjoy going. It's always fun to, you know, to try to get a couple of them at least. I love trivia. I love to watch Jack Jacks.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: Oh, yes, Jack. Jack's diaper dash is so, so fun.
[00:41:47] Speaker A: So good.
[00:41:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, Hilarious. It's always funny, too, when. Well, and the wish. Maiden voyage, it was kind of hilarious because there were only two babies on the whole ship, so that was. Yeah. So it's just, like, really funny to see there. Only one heat and that was it.
All right, well, what about your favorite. We gotta talk favorite bar space? Um, there's a lot to choose from now that we have the Treasure and the Wish, because I feel like they really upped the ante in terms of bar spaces. Although I absolutely love all the spaces on the fantasy as well. But. Yeah. What. Which one is your favorite? Tammy?
[00:42:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Boy, that's hard to pick because I would have, you know, the fantasy and in particular has some great ones. All of them have some great ones. On the dream, I would have said 6, 8, 7. On the fantasy, I would say skyline. But overall, I mean, Haunted mansion was. It's just so incredibly immersive that, you know, you don't feel like you're on a cruise ship anymore. You feel like you, you stepped off into the Haunted Mansion attraction, which is incredible that they can pull that off. And they did. The details in there are really impressive.
[00:42:50] Speaker B: Absolutely. All right, I gotta talk adult dining. We gotta talk REM versus Enchante versus Paulo. This is a hard decision because they're all like, really wonderful, but, you know, for an adult cruiser.
Well, I guess it depends how adventurous you are, but I guess I'm going to find out how adventurous you are. Tammy, which one, which one is your favorite? And you can specify, you know, brunch or dinner if you like.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: I am not adventurous, but I'd still love going to Remy and Enchantee just for the experience. It's just such a really neat experience. And, And Remy and Enchante. Have that lemon dessert. That's one of the best desserts I've ever. The one that looks like a lemon.
[00:43:32] Speaker B: Yes, I know, Exactly. It's so funny. I hate that dessert. Even though I, I, I love, I, I actually prefer Remy over Enchante. But I, I hate that dessert. But I don't like, I'm not a dessert person and I, and I don't like lemon flavored things that are not. But it is. But Brian loves it. He loves all things lemon, so he loves it. So that's, that's very. Yeah, that's funny.
[00:43:55] Speaker A: If I was speaking overall meal, just as far as my food taste, it would definitely be palo and probably, I'd probably give a slight edge to brunch. Although I love dinner, but brunch is just. It has everything.
[00:44:06] Speaker B: It has everything. Absolutely. It. Absolutely. I love that. All right. Aquadunk, AquaDuck or Aqua Mouse.
[00:44:16] Speaker A: Probably Aqua Mouse. I love Aqueduct to Aqueduct was great, but, you know, I don't feel the need to do that every time.
[00:44:28] Speaker B: Love that. Okay, I want to ask, before I ask you your favorite ship, I want to ask best ship for families with young children.
[00:44:39] Speaker A: Let's see. I, I'm probably going to say one of the wish class ships because I think though the nursery, the kids clubs are just so well done and I really love how they can shut off part of them now. So, you know, they can use different spaces for different things and different activities and ages, even different. And so I think I would, I would lean towards those. They've all got great kids spaces, of course, but I think I would lean towards the two newest ones.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: Yeah, totally agree. All right. Best cruise ship for families with teens.
[00:45:11] Speaker A: Friends with teens you know, the Dream and the Fantasy have that amazing space for Vibe and now Vibe and Edge. And I'm sure on the Fantasy it'll soon be Vibe and Edge as well. But there, that's a great space. That's a really, really good space.
[00:45:25] Speaker B: Yeah, totally agree. All right, Best for adults only.
[00:45:31] Speaker A: Ah, let's see.
You know, I love Luna and Sarabi. I think it's a great space for the adult, the nighttime adult shows and whatnot. But I also can appreciate the people that, that like having the. The adult clubs sectioned off from everybody else. You know, it's harder for someone to just struggle, stroll through. And so I would give the itch to Dream and Fantasy maybe for overall experience there. But there are some individual adult clubs on the Wish and Treasure that I do really like a lot.
[00:46:03] Speaker B: Yeah, Yeah. I would give it to the Magic and the Wonder because I just really love the. I like the adult pool deck on the Magic and the Wonder the best.
[00:46:11] Speaker A: Yeah, that is.
[00:46:12] Speaker B: But I do. But I agree with you on the bar spaces. Like, you've got some really innovative ones obviously on the Wish class. Although the district in Europa kind of being secluded is better on the Dream. So it's. Yeah, there's a little bit for. For everyone. Any. Any thoughts about multi generational cruising? Is there. Is there a ship that maybe or class of ship that better caters to sort of all of the groups where they can sort of go to their own places and come back together?
[00:46:40] Speaker A: I probably would say Dream and Fantasy for that. For that. You know, they kind of hit check all the boxes there. And I don't. I've done multi generational with our family on all classes, but I think I'd probably give a slight edge to Dream and Fantasy in there.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: Yeah, love that. All right, now the most important question of them all. Which one is your favorite ship? Tammy, your personal favorite. So this is not like what, you know, client likes, what your kids like, what your parents like. This is just Tammy's favorite and it could be for any reason whatsoever. However.
[00:47:17] Speaker A: So Tammy loves new ships.
I am very partial to new ships and I love to try new ships on other lines. I love to try new ships on Disney. So. But I, I probably would have said the Treasure just for that reason. But then when I got on it and realized how amazing it was, then, then I back that up 100%. I love the Treasure.
[00:47:38] Speaker B: I love that. That's awesome. That's my favorite right now too. I wonder if the Destiny will end up being my favorite because I do love the theming that the Destiny I love. I love Hero Mini, and I love all the Marvel stuff. So I feel like that's going to be a great ship and it's going to have some of the, some of the wonderful things from the Treasure, although that's controversial. Not everybody likes that. We're, in fact, Brian doesn't like that you're going to. Even though he loves the Haunted Mansion Parlor, he doesn't like that Haunted Mansion Parlor is going to be on the Destiny. And I understand, because it doesn't fit the theming. It also doesn't really fit the theming of the Treasure, unless you think of the Treasure as theme park theming instead of being adventure theming. But we'll set that aside. All right, now, my last, last question for you here, Tammy, is your bucket list cruise. So this is a cruise you have not yet been on.
And it doesn't even have to be someplace that Disney currently sails, but I'm going to let you pick. You're going to be doing it on a Disney Cruise Line ship. So you could, it doesn't, it could even be something that doesn't work, right? Like you could go on the Treasure to the Galapagos Islands, which we know will never happen. But this is an imaginary. I mean, it could be, it should be a real place, but an imaginary cruise that if Tammy could do this, this is what you would do.
[00:48:54] Speaker A: Okay, let's see. I, I luckily have done the Galapagos in Antarctica.
[00:49:00] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:49:01] Speaker A: Those would have been my top two answers for sure, but I've already done those. So right now, my big bucket list that I have not done yet is Australia. And that's my seventh continent. I, it's my last continent to do. And so I, my plan is in next January when I go to Singapore. I'm also going to go to Australia. You know, not that they're that close to each other, but when I'm all the way over there, might as well, you know, knock them both off, go to Australia, New Zealand, and, you know.
[00:49:25] Speaker B: So when you're already traveling 30 hours, what's another 12, right? Or 16 or whatever it is between Singapore and Australia. But you are, you're in, out in the Pacific. It does make more sense than coming from the east coast of the US and go to making separate trips.
[00:49:40] Speaker A: Of course, even my husband, who probably will not be able to go with me, said, all right, that does make sense.
[00:49:46] Speaker B: I love that. Well, awesome. Well, thank you so much, Tammy. I want to give you a chance to tell people where they can follow along with your adventures where they can find the unofficial guide, Disney Cruise Line 2025. And if they wanted to book a Disney cruise with you, how they can find you there as well. Okay.
[00:50:04] Speaker A: Yes, I. Let's see, I'm on Instagram cruising with Tammy.
The book is sold on Amazon, is going to be your easiest place to get it. But it's sold everywhere. It's sold target.com it's sold online all over.
I'm already working on the next book. I've already started 2026 here, so.
[00:50:20] Speaker B: Oh, a.m. of course. I mean you got to start early, right?
[00:50:24] Speaker A: You do, yeah. It's amazing how quickly that came up. And what was the last thing you asked me?
[00:50:30] Speaker B: Oh, where they can find you if they want to book a vacation with you. Yeah.
[00:50:34] Speaker A: Storybook destinations. Yes. Storybookdestinations.com or on Facebook Storybook Destinations. Yes. I have a great group of agents that are and I have some cruise specific agents that have done many Disney cruises and other cruise lines and are very good at what they do and can help.
[00:50:50] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, thank you again so much Tammy for coming on the show. We really appreciate it and we'd love to have you of course come back on the show to talk more Disney cruising, to talk about the book. But we gotta talk about the adventure and the destiny when they come out, of course. So I'll just say thank you and leave it at that.
[00:51:07] Speaker A: Thank you for having me.
[00:51:12] Speaker C: Well, thanks to everyone out there for listening 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 help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple podcast. 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 DCLDUO mypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us. The best, 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, and 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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