[00:00:00] Speaker A: This looks like maybe salt shaker and pepper shaker.
[00:00:03] Speaker B: Zebra and the gazelle salt and pepper shakers. The gold cutlery. I hope there really is the gold cutlery because that looked fantastic on here.
[00:00:13] Speaker C: It'll. It'll survive at least the. Hopefully the maiden.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:00:31] Speaker C: Welcome back, every. Welcome, everybody, to a special bonus edition of the DCL Duo Podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and our friend WW Magazine. There they are. Yeah, we have them live. We have Stephanie live with us today. We're super excited. We're going to chat with Stephanie all about her experience at this Destiny Media preview event that happened about two weeks ago now, I think it was. Yeah, we were on board the Treasure. We did get an invite, which was pretty cool for us, and unfortunately we had to decline. And so we're just going to have to hope Disney lets us off the hook and invites us to something else in the future. But Stephanie was there live and we couldn't wait to sort of chat with her. And for those of you listening to this on our podcast channel, we are actually recording this on Streamyard and so we're going to put it up on YouTube. And Stephanie and your husband was with you, right? Tim was it.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: So Tim is our editor. He's your editor and Danny's my. And he's our creative director.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: Yes, there are. There are also many people at our.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: Company, but I think Danny was probably the one taking some of the photos here.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: I assume most of those photos are Danny's. I was focusing. So when we go on media events, depending on who on our team is going, we really try to divide things up. So on this one, Danny was able to take a lot of photos and I was doing a lot of the video content. So if you were over on our ww magazine or DCL magazine, Instagram channels, you or YouTube, all of those things, you'd see all the little videos. I took all the shots, sent them back to Tatiana and she made them into beautiful social media posts for us.
[00:02:03] Speaker C: Amazing.
[00:02:04] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: And we were following.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: Yeah. Be sure you're following at WDW magazine and at DCL Magazine. There's some great, great, great photos. And I say that because if you're listening later, we're putting this up on YouTube as well. We have some great photos that we're going to display of some of the things that they showcase at the event. So you don't just have to listen to us describe them. You can see them live and in color. And so I'd suggest heading over to our YouTube channel to. To watch this episode in particular. But I'm going to throw up on the screen.
[00:02:29] Speaker A: The beautiful ears.
[00:02:30] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:02:31] Speaker A: Stephanie and I are wearing. We are wearing matching ears. They are from the Destiny preview event.
[00:02:38] Speaker C: Yes. And here we are with the first slide. Destiny. Disney Destiny.
Stephanie, walk us through what the day was like. How early did you all start with this media preview event? And did they tell you anything in advance?
[00:02:51] Speaker B: They didn't tell us that much in advance. And honestly, I mean, the Disney events are always great, but this one was much better than I anticipated because they really showed us and let us experience, experience things on board. Sometimes when there's a preview for something in the parks, they just kind of show you a couple pieces of concept art or maybe give you a cupcake or a cocktail or something. They're like, this is sort of what we're gonna do, but it's not quite final. They were showing us what I believe to be finished or almost finished product in some cases. So we started at 6:30 in the morning, was check in in Disney World at the Contemporary Resort. And they did a nice breakfast for us. I walked in and I immediately thought it was haunted, man, because it had that kind of like purpley, graveyardy kind of vibe. But I realized as we were eating it was a Maleficent themed breakfast. I was like, there's no, there's no hitchhiking ghosts here. But I thought with the Haunted Mansion parlor being on the Destiny, maybe that's what they were going for. And then I realized and Maleficent came out and did a whole big, like, scary presentation to us, trying to figure out who we are and why we were there. And I was like, okay, cool. They're. I'm sorry, if you can hear there's like a police siren going outside my house.
[00:04:08] Speaker C: But Disney knows you're talking about them. They're coming for you.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: She was so fantastic and amazing. And we found out from our rep later that Maleficent is actually going to be appearing in Saga on the Disney Destiny, which is like Sarabi or Luna Treasure and the Wish. So she's actually going to be interacting with guests there in kind of the same way that she interacted with us during that like, brief show moment. And then we got on a bus to Port Canaveral. And this was really cool because they took us on the Wish for about two and a half hours.
And they took us into the Hero zone, which, you know, is kind of already hero themed. And heroes villains is the big, you know, motif of the Destiny. So we Walked into the hero zone. Spider Man's there, Black Panther's there. We got to interact and meet with, take some photos. Black Panther, like, kind of whispered to me like, that he thought some villains were going to be around and have a conference later to figure out how to handle them and save the ship. And I was like, yes, I am with you, T'Challa. Let's do that. And then it was just one thing after another. They showed us. We had already seen a lot of the stateroom concept art. Some more of the concept art. That's going to be the portraits, I guess, landscapes that are in each cabin. And they're different in.
[00:05:32] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Like the headboard, basically, of the bed, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:05:37] Speaker C: Here's. Here's some of those. We've got.
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:05:39] Speaker C: Sorcerer Mickey. We got the. The stateroom fish extender with Sorcerer Mickey.
[00:05:44] Speaker B: Yeah. And they showed us a few different samples of those. You can see there the Destiny blanket that goes on the edge of the bed.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: Oh, that's a blanket. Oh, yeah.
[00:05:55] Speaker B: Paper designs. I think that's a wallpaper design for the elevator, but don't quote, quote me on that. It's one of the wallpaper designs back there.
So they had all of that kind of laid out for us. They also had a bunch of merch, like these beautiful ears, but they had a bunch of the merch laid out many different product lines for souvenirs. So they have this kind of very brightly colored superhero theme. I actually have some of the pins from that collection here. Oh, boy. Where's my camera? But this kind of like comic book, cartoony, sees the day line. They had much more elegant line with some Junie and Bourke items, some more glassware type pieces, lots of different stuff. Obviously, Spirit jerseys are going to be big. And there was a red T shirt that was a gold, like a shiny foil gold print for Spider man on it that I'm going to have to buy the second.
[00:06:50] Speaker A: So cute.
[00:06:51] Speaker B: They also had a lovely cupcake and other sweet things display set up for Edna Alamode Suites. So we could see a lot of what those different cupcakes were going to be like. They kept trying to offer us the cupcakes, and I felt really bad. This often happens at media events. Everybody has all their cameras and their mics and everything. And then people are trying to hand you things to eat, and you're like, I have no more hands.
So I didn't actually sample anything just because I ran out of time and hands. But, yeah.
[00:07:21] Speaker C: How much? So you said you spent.
I Just want to say to anyone out there, if you sail on the Destiny and you have the ability to take one of these fish extenders for some reason, the Baymax one, please send it to me and I will reimburse you.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: No stealing fish extenders.
[00:07:36] Speaker C: Cutest thing I've seen. So you said you spent about two and a half hours on the Wish, so. Yeah. Amazing. And that's why you had to be up so early.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: That was the turnover day.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Turnover day. So they actually took us in through the bottom of the ship, through the crew. We couldn't take any photos, but through kind of crew passage area, you know, did a canine sweep and all of that. Good safety stuff, checked our passports, all of that. And then they took us in. We had, I don't know, maybe 30, maybe 45 minutes in the hero zone where we did all this stuff. They also did a video presentation for us in there where they shared a lot of things about the stern and bow characters coming to life. I'm sure you've seen that B roll because they shared on Disney Parks blog. They also shared about some of the effects that are going to happen in grand hall.
Lighting effects that might happen when, say, Loki is visiting, that sort of thing.
[00:08:33] Speaker C: That's a green hue we've seen. Yeah, yeah.
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Neon. Yeah.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: 60 degree lighting, which I think is a really fun play on the chandeliers that have been happening on the other Triton class ships. And then they also, at the end it was like. And by the way, we couldn't bring you to Sanctum, but which is going to be the Bayou or Skipper Society kind of bar area on the Destiny.
We can't bring you, but we can bring the cocktails here. And like a wall just disappeared and a bar popped up and cocktails for us to try and that were on display and everything. So that was.
[00:09:08] Speaker C: That's Disney storytelling at its finest. Yeah.
[00:09:12] Speaker B: Hypes you up, right? And it worked. It was great. And so we have, like I said, 30, 45 minutes ish there and they actually took us through the ship. So guests were not quite on. All the guests were off. Not all the guests were on. They took us very quickly to the other end of the ship to the Walt Disney Theater. And we had a present from the creative team behind the Hercules show. And that was really. We learned so much. They were so great to hear from. And then they had Corey J. Bradford come out. He's gonna be playing Hercules in the show when it debuts. And he sang Go the Distance for us. Everybody had a good moment to Cry.
And then we just went. We went upstairs, or I guess not upstairs, just across the hall to 1923, where they did a nice little lunch for us of some of the items from 1923. Paolo, Worlds of Marvel and Arendelle, because those are the restaurants on the. On the Wish. So we just had, like, tiny little sample courses of those. So doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the destiny, but always nice.
[00:10:16] Speaker A: Just a way to feed you.
[00:10:17] Speaker B: You're on a cruise. You've got to eat, right? That's right.
[00:10:21] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:10:21] Speaker B: Let's.
[00:10:22] Speaker C: Let's. Let's pause. I want to walk through some of the photos because we've. We've. Because I think there's a lot of photos of some of the stuff that you've talked about. So. So for folks at home, I'll just describe what we're seeing a little bit so you can. You can decide to maybe head over to YouTube and see it. But we've got the brave backdrop here for the stateroom. Interesting. I'll say. Did you. Did you see they have Baymax as one of the fishing centers, but I haven't seen anything about the big heroes. Six backdrops. Yeah.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: Give us any concept art for that.
[00:10:46] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:10:47] Speaker A: And same with, I think, Raya, because there are Raya themed staterooms, but we haven't. We haven't seen any concept art for that. But the. Now, the Sorcerer's Apprentice. Mickey. I've heard. Heard that that's. Those are going to be concierge rooms. Is that right?
[00:11:02] Speaker B: There's room.
That's the only place that you'll see that one.
[00:11:06] Speaker C: Yeah. Then we've got a photo here of T'Challa for his statue in the atrium with. With a panther. The Black Panther.
Close up here. It's. It's a stunning statue. I know Disney has taken a bit of flack over this choice, but it's. It is a stunning statue.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: It is so detailed. And I can't wait to see it in person because I think all of those little facets are just going to really pop.
[00:11:28] Speaker C: Yeah, it is a really cool statue. And then we've got a photo of Black Panther, the character who I. I am guessing he will have to be making appearances on board the ship. There's no way. Yeah.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: This is one of the cool things that I thought came out of the showcase. Stephanie and I noticed from. From your socials, but that, like, all of these, we have all of these villains and hero characters, most of whom we haven't seen on the ships. I mean, we see Spider man on the ships. And occasionally you see T'Challa, particularly if you're on like a Marvel Day at Sea. But, like, there's no regular meet and greets with a lot of these characters. And of course, we got hero hero Minnie here, who's, you know, a brand new costume for. For many as well, but like Maleficent and then I think I've heard Dr. Facilier and Loki. And so we got a bunch of villains that.
[00:12:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I'm really hoping that they do a lot of interactions. It sounds like they're going to be out and about on the ship throughout the sa having more interactions with guests. Because I know, like, for me, I don't get to see Spider Man a lot. I don't have kids. I'm not a kid in the kids clubs. And I don't really, you know, get to see him unless I line up for the one or maybe two meets that he might have on board. So I'm really hoping. And like, the way T'Challa was talking to me, it sounded more like the kind of script that they might use if they're just wandering through the hallways and whispering to you that the bad guys might be coming.
[00:12:55] Speaker C: Well, that's that. Somebody said that there's a whole storyline that's going to take place like that the villains are going to come and sort of take over the ship. And then, you know, there's kind of a storyline that the ship is won back by. It almost sounds like Star wars day at sea where you would have like the First Order or the Empire take over the ship. And then it culminated in like a big death party that night and suddenly the whole ship is won back for you kind of thing. I don't know. I don't know if they go that far, but that's. That seems like, what is it?
[00:13:20] Speaker B: That seems like what it's shaping up to be. That is not explicitly what they told us, but my reps did say that Loki would be there and he would be trying to mutiny the ship and kind of ask guests, like first warm guests up, like, oh, what is cruising? What is this cruising?
And then he would come and say, like, no, now. Now the ship is mine. I'm declaring myself the captain. So that sounds very much like that. And that's really what I hope they do because I think that so interactive and fun.
[00:13:48] Speaker C: I wonder if you. You'll see instead of like a Coriander and Sage, you'll have like a couple of villains that are like the Coriander and Sages of the ship. Maybe Loki's one. That could be really like one good.
[00:13:58] Speaker B: Guy and one bad guy.
[00:13:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:14:00] Speaker B: Yeah, that would be really fun.
[00:14:02] Speaker C: Yeah. All right. We stopped on hero mini because I know every time Sam sees hero mini, she's got a. You know, she's got to make a comment. I love the little gaiters for her, for her shoes, to turn them into kind of hero boots. So she looks. She looks really fun. Can't wait to meet her.
[00:14:16] Speaker A: She's so cute.
[00:14:17] Speaker C: She is. It is the best. Oh, and here's Maleficent making her appearance. That. That is a really stunning costume actually for Maleficent, I have to say.
[00:14:27] Speaker B: It's beautiful. And in person, it flowed so nicely.
[00:14:31] Speaker C: Yeah, that is really great. Cruella. Okay, I gotta pause on Cruella. Did they give you any more info on the Cruella de Vil bar?
[00:14:40] Speaker B: Yes. So at the. After we were done on the ship, we went back to the contemporary and they did like a cocktail party and a dinner for us. And the cocktail party was all themed to Deville's, which is going to be the piano lounge on the Disney Destiny. So the whole thing inside, we've seen concept art, right? It's going to be all the reds, blacks and whites. And it's a Hollywood Regency kind of design, architectural aesthetic inside. We got to sample some of the cocktails that are going to be served. And they're going to be served in these beautiful goblets on a dalmatian printed tray. I think a photo for you.
[00:15:18] Speaker C: Yes, there it is.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: And there's going to be a signature popcorn snack that is served alongside of those.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: Oh, my God, that looks so cute. I love it.
[00:15:26] Speaker B: So I was like, is this just presentation? And they were like, no, this is how it's actually going to be served. So the cocktail that I tried was like a banana and strawberry tequila infusion cocktail. It was really good.
[00:15:38] Speaker C: Interesting.
[00:15:39] Speaker B: And then there's going to be a Dalmatian spotted piano, which. So there was a live pianist playing for us during the cocktail party. They didn't really tell us what was going to happen, but it was kind of. It was not the exact couches or the exact ostrich feathers that will be in the final version of the space. But it really gave the vibe for that. And they were like, just hang around. Something's gonna happen. So we didn't really know. And they brought out Cruella and she went around. She. Everybody kind of cir up around her because she's so fabulous and she whips everybody into a frenzy and Then she kind of went around and critiqued people's outfits. Some of them she liked, some of them not so much. Everyone was really into. It was all good fun, even if she was saying something critical about your outfit. And then she picked a few people who she really liked and she did like Runway walks with them. And it was, it was really entertaining. And apparently she is going to be doing that. I'm not sure if that's happening in deville's or just maybe in the grand hall that's adjacent to deville's. That would make a lot more sense space wise. But at the end she went over to the piano and she demanded that the pianist play a better song. And he tried a few things, landed on Cruella De Vil and then we kind of all joined in a Cruella de Vil sing along.
I love that lyrics. So I think that that part will likely happen. My rep confirmed all of these show elements will happen on the ship. So I do think that she'll probably do the demanding her song inside the bar and then maybe scooch people out into the atrium, have that bigger audience that Cruella deserves.
[00:17:18] Speaker A: Plus, plus she can have kids do like Runway walks and stuff. If she's out in the atrium, deville's will be one of the few spaces that is adult only all the time. And so she probably wouldn't be able to do it in. Well, one, the bar space will be too small to really do like a Runway walk. But also two, you wouldn't be able to get kids involved there.
[00:17:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I love these costumes for the cast. For folks at home listening again, we're showing these over on YouTube. These are costumes. And I gotta say, on the drink front, these, these bars, Cruella, Scat Cat and Nightingales, they've, they've, they've done some really good cocktails in these bars. So I'm pretty excited to try.
[00:18:03] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Fun, fun glassware as well. I feel like they've done like, even in Scat Cat, they have this cool like teapot type things that they do. And obviously they have the glass that has the cat's face in it. And of course Nightingales, they had the bird glass, of course. Unfortunately, a lot of those from the ship or got broken. But yeah, I just feel like they're doing a really nice job with glassware.
[00:18:25] Speaker C: I will say the glasses we're showing in this photo, Disney has fallen in love with this kind of glassware because it first, I think it first made its appearance at the Villains Lair at Top of the World. At Walt Disney World. And then they brought it on to Haunted Mansion. They're using it in Haunted Mansion Parlor and now in deville. So it is really, it is really nice. It kind of evokes that kind of almost like an Incredibles futuristic. But you know, I don't know how to describe it. It's. It's for folks that you got to see it.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: It's.
[00:18:50] Speaker C: It's the coupe glass style, but it's like painted either white or black. And then some of the other things I've seen, it's painted black. But the gold, the interior is gold kind of thing. So it's. Yeah, it's very cool.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Star Cruiser. They might have also had.
[00:19:04] Speaker C: Yeah, that. Yeah, that would make sense.
[00:19:07] Speaker B: But yeah, they are also doing zero proof cocktails. Danny tried zero proof take on an old Fashioned. That was really nice.
[00:19:16] Speaker D: Nice.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: So I appre that they're not just doing like, here's a Diet Coke if you, if you want to have something a little bit more elaborate.
[00:19:24] Speaker A: Right.
[00:19:24] Speaker B: I think Disney's doing a great job at creating something that's equally as special.
[00:19:28] Speaker C: What was, what was the signature popcorn, Stephanie? It looks like popcorn drizzled in something that looks like blood, but it looks.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: A little bit more red in the photo. In person, at least with the lighting, it looked more pink. Okay, get a chance to try it. I, I don't think it's strawberries and cream flavor, but it looked like strawberries flavor. They did not give a description on it and it was just kind of there as a prop. I think there might have been some on the tables, but again, I only had so many hands with all of the, all of the cameras and everything that we were holding, so I didn't get a chance to snack on any.
[00:20:04] Speaker C: Very cool. Well, all right, let's keep going here. What else we got? Oh, the, the Incredibles themed. It's going to be Incredibles themed for the, the, the ice cream. Ice cream shop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Edna Modes. Edna Modes. Yeah.
[00:20:19] Speaker B: Edna Alamode. And it looks, I mean it looks incredible. No pun intended. But I love the theming that they're doing in all of the Triton class sweets shops that. It's so cute. It's Instagramable. You can go and kind of take your photo in there. And all of the desserts looked really great. They looked like they were, they were picture perfect plucked from the Pixar screen.
And.
[00:20:43] Speaker C: Oh, here's the cupcake you were describing earlier. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:20:47] Speaker B: There were several different cupcakes they were showing us I think one of them might have been Rice Krispies square. One of them might have been some kind of mousse dessert. Again, we didn't get to try them all. And they did not have little place cards out to tell you what they were. They were. Do you like orange? Do you like chocolate? Take one of these.
Like, being by that table, it smelled so good and chocolatey and. And rich and delicious.
[00:21:13] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:21:14] Speaker A: I wish they'd given you little to go bags or something, because obviously, like you mentioned, you. You don't. You only have so many hands when you're going through these events and you're trying to take pictures and, you know, video content at the same time. So how can you do that and then also snack on something?
[00:21:28] Speaker C: I was gonna say, I remember when we got off the Lookout Point preview and they gave us that whole host of Rice Krispies, and I was in my stateroom going, they gave us these on the last night. Are we actually allowed to bring these back on? Eat. Yeah, all sorts of stuff. So, yeah, it was. Yeah. Too bad they couldn't give you something to just take with you to try.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: Bad for the crew members. They were like, they're not just for photos, everybody. They're for eating. Please take one. And we were like, they smell delicious. But we're. We're trying to do so many things, and you have, you know, you have a short time frame, so I wish I had gotten to try one.
I did see a few people who were, you know, trying them. Trying them. And everybody seemed to have a smile on their face, so I'm sure they're delicious. This.
[00:22:08] Speaker C: There you go. When we've got the. I'm forgetting his name now.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Corey J. Bradford. Yes.
[00:22:13] Speaker C: Corey J. Bradford here.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: He's a star.
[00:22:16] Speaker C: I can tell. I can. And also, we got to hear the performance. Yeah. So, yeah.
[00:22:20] Speaker B: Him sing Go the Distance.
And he was. I mean, that's a great song. Everybody loves that song. But he was incredible. Everybody had goosebumps. People were crying. We all just kind of were silent afterwards looking at each other.
And he just had incredible stage presence. And all they did was really project some stars and some clouds behind him. We're not seeing him like, he's in a suit here. He's not in the toga. He's not. He doesn't have the big, beautiful set behind him. So I can only imagine how great his performance is going to be when they give him a bit more to work with.
[00:22:54] Speaker C: What. What did they say? So, like, you know, on the. The. The treasure. They've Got this massive Taka puppet. It looks like they're doing something similar for.
[00:23:03] Speaker B: Yeah, Hydra working with Curry Studios again. So Curry Studios work with them on Moana, but also so many other things like Tapestry of Nations, that big commander suit that gets walked around in Pandora Rivers of Light, many of the things on Frozen on Broadway and Frozen Live at the Hyperion at Disneyland. They've done a ton of work together. So they're coming on board again. They're working on the Hydra, which they confirmed for us. But they also said there's a huge finale that's going to be really great with the Titans. So I don't know if. If they're also going to have Curry Studios puppetry for the Titans or if that's going to be something that's on a screen. But apparently the finale is going to be very different than in the movie and very unique and just quite incredible.
The costumes are all going to be themed to like haute couture Runway fashions. Some of them are going to light up, which I think is great because if you remember back to Hercules, right, it's all the gods and goddesses and they're shiny up in the clouds and then the normal people are down on Earth. So I'm assum. It will be the gods and goddesses who have light light up costumes, which is very Main street electrical parade vibes. And I'm here for that.
And the set is going to be kind of really a mix of staircases and contemporary kind of scaffolding features, along with more Grecian elements like a gazebo and some pillars. Whole thing is actually going to start inside a museum or a gallery of some sort that's full of ancient Grecian artifacts. And then they're going to bring you into.
So that really reminds me of when in the Disney Animated Studios films when they show you the storybook at the beginning and then you have.
That's the. That's the feeling I got from that the two show directors are brothers, but they have. They were like. We grew up in the church, we totally understand the gospel elements of this music. But we also worked on, you know, pop tours with Janet Jackson and Christina Aguilera, so we get that too. So I think they are just perfect to do this show. They get the whole thing. Are the exact right age to have grown up with the Hercules movie too. Right. So we all love it and yeah, very exciting.
[00:25:21] Speaker A: I love that they're gonna do this. The storytelling aspect of it, like you said, where they open the storybook because they do that In Beauty and the Beast on dcl, they also do it in Tale of Moana on dcl. And so they have really been. They lean into that. That it's not exactly the replica of the movie, but they are telling. They're in modern times now, and we're telling of old. And it's just a really. Thematically, it just really works on the stage the way that they do it.
[00:25:52] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:25:54] Speaker C: All right, let's. Let's keep going here. What do we got next?
Oh, looks like some elements, maybe from. Not Sarabi.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Pride Lands.
[00:26:03] Speaker C: Pride Lands, Yes.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: Yeah, we're in a ballroom in the contemporary resort. So they were like, this is not exactly what the restaurant is going to look like, but they did a great job. They had these Pride Lands savannah kind of screens up all around the side of the room. And as dinner progressed, they actually went from more like orange daylight into purple into blue for the end of the evening. So that is what is also going to happen with the walls once you are in Pride Lands Feast of the Lion King. And that is going to be. Instead of the Coco restaurant or the Arendelle restaurant, it's all going to be Lion King themed. So you're going to go down that long hall, and they said, as you go down the hall, we're going to draw you into the story. You'll. You'll end up inside a boma where you're coming in, and there's. They have some, like, ornamental grasses for people who are watching on YouTube. You can kind of see ornamental grasses and lots of drums and woven baskets and things around to really set the tone for inside the restaurant. We did not see the official show that's going to happen, but we saw something that's inspired by the show. So we had some drummers come out, do some more traditional African drumming. We also had a lovely duo of singers come out and sing a few of the songs from the Lion King. We heard from some creatives behind one of the Imagineers and the show director, behind the look of the restaurant and the tone and the feel and then the production of the show. So I feel like we got a good sample of what that entertainment venue was going to be like.
[00:27:39] Speaker C: I'm curious about the food.
[00:27:41] Speaker B: We got to try six different dishes and two different. A mocktail and a cocktail from Pride Lands. And it was all really, really good. I'm a huge fan of all the food at Animal Kingdom and Animal Kingdom Lodge, Boma, Sanaa, Chico, all of that. And it definitely. I was like, are they gonna tone it down too Much for the cruise line. Now, I'm sure they will have more plain dishes as well. We only got to try six things. There's usually, what, about 20 things on the menu. So what did we try? We had had a fish, a white fish. I don't remember what it was. It might have been halibut or cod or something, but it was crusted in, like, a not spicy but very spiced African seasoning mix. And it was really, really good. I will be ordering that again. There was a short rib that had some carrots and I think a tamarind glaze with it. There was really spicy piri piri shrimp on an incredible goud.
Like grits, like, kind of like chocolate or not chocolate pap, but it was really creamy from that gouda. There was also, oh, a chicken bear bear spice bear bear bear berry. I'm not sure how to pronounce.
With all kinds of little sauces and little bits of, I think, plantains and other interesting root vegetables with it. All of it was absolutely delicious. And then they did the chocolate malva cake for us and the pineapple upside down cake for dessert. Pineapple down cake does not sound like it's African, but the elf was made with something different. I'm not sure exactly what it was, but it was a little bit more. It was still fluffy, but a little bit more granule, like, similar to a bao bun almost.
So I don't know what it is, but the flavors were all great. The presentation was beautiful. And then we tried one of the cocktails, which was can you feel the rum tonight? And it has amarula liqueur in it. And then there was the slimy yet satisfying mocktail, which had a big gummy worm in it. And it also had, like, little bits of jello kind of stirred into it. So not quite cubes, but more like they had just kind of blitzed it up in there. So you get these little tiny bits of grubs. And I thought that was really fun. We saw all the place settings. They had some of the, like, games and mazes out for kids that will come as part of their play setting.
[00:30:15] Speaker C: I'll say some of this is reminiscent of Coco a little bit. Yeah. But it's. It. It all looks the. The place settings. The glasses look really cool.
[00:30:24] Speaker A: Brian, scroll through because you. Yeah, here we go. The place settings. The kid play setting is awesome with the baby simba. It's like the drawing that Rafiki does. I just. Yeah. I love that fruit.
[00:30:36] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:30:37] Speaker A: It's so cute. Oh, my goodness. And Then. And this looks like maybe salt shaker and pepper shaker.
[00:30:43] Speaker B: Those are the zebra and the gazelle salt and pepper shakers. The gold cutlery. I hope there really is the gold cutlery because that looked fantastic on here.
[00:30:54] Speaker C: It'll survive at least. The. Hopefully the maiden.
[00:30:58] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:31:00] Speaker C: Nice. Oh, yeah. And here's the full place setting. Yeah, really cool. The surface looks really cool.
[00:31:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: Oh, and there's the wait staff out fit probably.
[00:31:08] Speaker B: And there it was, a really intricately woven vest. It looks just beautiful. And then the cocktails, actually, that are on the screen right now. Those are from the sanctum.
[00:31:18] Speaker C: I was going to ask, did they tell you anything about the sanctum? Because I've been curious to hear more about that.
[00:31:22] Speaker B: So they didn't tell us really anything that's going to happen. They showed us some concept art, including a Dr. Strange cape that's hanging on the wall. And I'm really hoping there's some, like, animatronic magic in that cape because we all know it does amazing things. They try. They show us one of the cocktails and one of the mocktails. So this is the official. What's on the screen now is the official plating for that, where there's going to be for the cocktail. I don't remember what they're called off the top of my head, but the cocktail was gin based and it had, I think, butterfly pea extract in it, some other things. And then it has a really bubbly, foamy top coming out of it. That's really quite fun to look at. It's almost like a bunch of those tiny. In Nightingales, they do the one big bubble on top of the cocktails. This look like a bunch of tiny bubbles.
Not tiny golf ball size, but smaller. And then an upside down martini glass out of which you can sip your mocktail. And this, I don't. It was a very citrusy mocktail. I don't remember exactly what was in it, but it was quite refreshing.
[00:32:28] Speaker C: It's fascinating glass.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, it kind of. I mean, it does look like an upside down martini glass, but also kind of looks like a beaker at the same time. Yeah.
[00:32:37] Speaker B: The other piece also looks like it could be something that's coming out of a science laboratory, right?
[00:32:43] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely.
[00:32:44] Speaker B: They look very mystical. So I would assume here they're going to be doing probably some. Some like the smoked old fashions and things that have a lot of effects and showmanship.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure.
[00:32:56] Speaker D: 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 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 and 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.
[00:33:54] Speaker C: All right, we. We've gotten into the merch now, which you mentioned, and we've seen photos, some photos of this. It's. It. It is a really cool line of merch. So we've got a Dooney and Bourke. What is that, Sam? A wallet. A class wallet.
[00:34:07] Speaker A: Wristlet.
[00:34:07] Speaker B: Yeah. And there. There were a bunch of other Dooney and Burke pieces. You can kind of see something.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Yeah, you can see in the background. It looks like a big tote behind it.
[00:34:14] Speaker C: Well, this is cool because it's like the ship. It's like the outline of the. The ship on it. That's really cool.
[00:34:18] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like a bird's eye view of the ship. Yeah.
[00:34:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And at first when I saw it, I thought it was haunted mansion from across the room.
[00:34:25] Speaker C: Oh.
[00:34:25] Speaker B: Y of has that like duck chair vibes to it. When I got close, I realized what it was.
[00:34:31] Speaker C: Yeah. And here's the. The obligatory spirit jersey for sure. I see your spider man shirt there in the back.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: Stephanie coming home with me. I can't wait.
[00:34:40] Speaker C: Yep. And there's the. The pins that we've seen in the. The Dooney and Burke backpack, of course.
[00:34:45] Speaker A: No, that's a lounge fly, Brian.
[00:34:47] Speaker C: I'm sorry. Lounge fly. I can't. I can't keep up with my.
[00:34:51] Speaker A: And you. Mickey and Minnie plushie, which are hero Mickey and hero Minnie plushie. And then here's a. Here's lounge fly, which is the hero mini, which is the one that. That I got and Stephanie, you probably got at the event.
[00:35:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:04] Speaker A: And then here's some more of the. I love this. This one has a cape. So if you look behind in this picture, behind the lounge fly backpack, what looks like a kid's shirt that's got one of those like probably detachable.
[00:35:16] Speaker C: Like reminds me when Nathan had his Batman one with the.
[00:35:19] Speaker A: Yes. Not Batman. He had Superman. Nathan had a bunch when he was little. I used to buy him these shirts that like, I would buy them at Target and they had. It was like Superman shirts with a detachable cape that was velcroed on. They're the cutest things. Yeah. And so I love this, this hero line of. Of kids wearable. Also looks like they probably have some adult stuff in there.
[00:35:39] Speaker C: And. And here's a photo of the thing that Sam will be rushing to get as soon as she gets on board.
[00:35:44] Speaker A: Yeah, it's Take my money, Disney. I want plushie.
[00:35:48] Speaker C: Hero plushies.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes, yes. Take my. I mean, literally, they could just like take it now. I don't care.
[00:35:56] Speaker B: Like I just a pre order of all the plushes. Right?
[00:36:00] Speaker C: That needs to. Dear Disney. That needs to be a preorder item. I don't want to have to fight crowds because Sam's going to want one.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: That's not a bad idea actually. They would sell a ton of merch doing that because when you are on a cruise, they can't restock the merch. So you've got to go that first day and get anything that's really important to you. But if you could pre order and then pick up for on board or have it waiting in your stateroom, I'm sure people would still shop in the shop.
[00:36:23] Speaker C: They have done that on the maidens. They have done that on the maidens.
[00:36:26] Speaker B: Really good.
[00:36:27] Speaker A: They really should do it for Alaska because the Alaska Mini in particular, like always sells out on for the Alaska season. And people are always like scouring ebay or asking in cruise groups like if anyone sees, you know, Alaska Mini on board. You know, she's in her like Eskimo parka and. Or I don't know if it's Eskimo, but you Inuit probably parka. But anyway, it's. She's like an iconic plushie and so everybody is always trying to get her. I feel like with these it's the same. They're such iconic plushies.
[00:36:57] Speaker C: Sam is already worried she's not able to get hers because we're doing elite season sailing so in Alaska, we're talking.
[00:37:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I was on the Fantasy last week and I heard two kids crying because they couldn't get the just normal Captain Mint, Mickey normal stripy. Everybody's.
[00:37:15] Speaker A: Oh, the blue. Yeah, just his normal blue.
[00:37:17] Speaker B: Just the normal one where they have Pluto and Chip and Dale and Minnie and all.
[00:37:20] Speaker C: I have, I have said it before, they had a system for this for starcruiser, where if you just want to make sure someone was actually on the sailing before you sell them the merch, then you, you, you'd go, you go to the portal for starcruiser. You'd enter your reservation number and details, you'd place your order, and then it would ship to you. I, I don't understand why cruise line can't figure out a way to leverage Shop Disney to do something similar if something sold out on board when people sail. Because it is frustrating. We spend thousands of dollars to get on a ship and you can't get the one souvenir you're hoping to get.
[00:37:49] Speaker B: Or they don't have your site size. Right. I mean, I lucked out on the sailing, but I have been trying to get those. Theodore Elliot lookout key. Beautiful pants finally. Actually one size bigger than my size, but I was like, I can still make that. They'll take them. But, like, they have eight sizes and there's only the first and the last one left usually.
[00:38:12] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, Stephanie, let me ask this. Anything that, that we missed going through the photos that, that you heard or saw, that you thought, wow, that's amazing. I really want to make sure people know.
[00:38:22] Speaker B: I mean, I think we've covered all of it, but I would say the feeling that I got from this is that it's going to be. I hesitate, I hesitate to say that I think it's going to be more like Star Cruiser, because I think people will come for me. And I don't think it's going to be that storyline heavy, but I think you're totally right. It's going to be more like a Marvel day at sea or Star wars day at sea or even some of those, the Frozen Day at Sea kind of sailings that they did where maybe throughout the cruise or maybe on one specific day, they are going to have more of a storyline element that you can play with or not play with. I know that in Saga, we talked about how Maleficent is going to be there, but Dr. Facilier is going to be there doing sleight of hand magic. And we were told if you want to get involved with the characters, be on the ground floor, be up close with them. If you don't want to, you can totally be an observer. Hang to the back or go to the second floor where you can watch everything but from kind of a safe distance. And I really think that having those interactions with the villains, with the heroes, I'm not really a villains, but I enjoy seeing them from afar. I enjoy watching the hijinks and then having those heroes there. Like if I can be walking down the hall and have Spider man ask for my help, I'm definitely going to go help him. Right.
[00:39:39] Speaker C: I mean, I'm not a first order person, but it was really fascinating to watch them on the star cruiser and I do think it would be interesting. Something that Virgin does really well is this idea that if you get in good with the entertainment cast, you get kind of invited to these little special, special things and that's sort of what you're doing with Star Cruiser. You get, you get good with the cast member, you get invited to a little mission and you know that's. It would be really cool if they could bring that element onto the, onto the ship for those who are, who are interested and it would solve the problem of all the people who are on the star cruiser going where's the spa? Because I really don't want to participate in this. So yeah, right down the hall.
[00:40:17] Speaker A: Forward.
[00:40:17] Speaker C: Stephanie, can I just say that the most impressive thing about this story is that you didn't just stow away on the wish for a cruise.
[00:40:25] Speaker B: About it. And I was like, please don't that phone call to me that I have to take.
But you know what, I was going on the fantasy six days later so I felt much better get. But I, you know, still a little tear as I got off the wish. I watched it sail away.
[00:40:42] Speaker A: Well Stephanie, okay, I got, I want to ask a question. Any indication. So we know obviously from you know, Wish class ship we got the Wish has the, the three and four night sailing. So you only get one show in each of the restaurants. We know on Destiny you're doing or sorry treasury doing seven night sailings. So you get like two shows in the entertainment restaurants meaning Worlds of Marvel and Coco. Any indication as to. Because this is going to be four and five night sailings so slightly different. My assumption is we're only going to get one night of shows in Lion King, Pride Lands and in Worlds of Marvel. But did they give any indication whether or not there's going to be sort of a secondary, you know, show for Pride Sidelands they did not give an indication.
[00:41:26] Speaker B: All they told us about for World of Marvel was the group show that's happening on the Treasure, which we already knew was the one that was going to be on the Destiny, but that's all they said about that. I cannot imagine that they're going to do two different shows. If anything, maybe a musical act one of those other nights. Kind of like when they do the Full Tiana show and then it's just kind of the musicians. But on a five night sailing, not everybody's going to get that. You're going to have Pirate Night in the middle. So I think that you'll have a lot of people upset if.
[00:41:54] Speaker A: Right. If they. Some people get a second show. Yeah.
[00:41:56] Speaker B: However, I know that while it's primarily four and five night sailings, there are a few weird anomalies. There's a three night or a seven or an eight night. So possibly on those nights maybe you'd get. Not a full other show, but you know, maybe. Maybe a night of acoustic African guitar happening.
[00:42:14] Speaker C: Worlds of Marvel. I mean, so Worlds of Marvel, you're getting the second night show as your primary show. But it strikes me that on a longer sailing, it's not hard for that. Hard for them to listen. Load in this.
[00:42:23] Speaker B: It's the same other DVD with you.
[00:42:25] Speaker A: Well, yeah, right.
[00:42:26] Speaker C: Spider Man's already on board, so it's not, it's not going to be that. That crazy to do. It will be interesting. I actually am curious. I mean, I know they will, but it kind of seems like an opportunity for them to move away from Pirate Night on this ship. Given how heavy villains and, and heroes seem like the Treasure, it makes a ton of sense. And you know, the Wish is, you know, at this point I would say the Wish is kind of bland enough. It can accommodate just about anything on board. But this ship would be so heavy themed to villains and heroes. It'd be interesting if they just said, you know, we're going to do, instead of Pirate Night, we're going to do Marvel Night at sea on the ship.
[00:42:57] Speaker B: So yeah, what they were saying about Loki trying to mutiny the ship would absolutely go in that space.
[00:43:04] Speaker C: Pirate Night space.
[00:43:06] Speaker A: Well, and they have the Heroes Unite deck party that they've done already for Marvel Day at Sea. So they could, I mean, they could port that onto the ship or they could.
Yes, exactly. Or they could, they could rewrite it for whatever the theming for this Loki storyline and sort of do it slightly differently, but on, on. And it would be exclusive, of course, to the Destiny. So I. I would like to see them move away from that. The only problem I see with that is everyone has sort of come to know Disney Cruising as if you go on a Disney cruise, you're going to have a Pirate night. And you do. Even if you only have a three night sailing typically. Unless you're sailing obviously in there's a couple of destinations like Alaska in Europe. Yeah, exactly. You might not. You might have a Frozen night instead of a Pirate night.
[00:43:51] Speaker B: I would love a Frozen night.
[00:43:53] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm not, you know, I think the Pirate Night is fun, but I would be happy to have something different. But I do think it's, you know, sort of Pirate nights become synonymous with dcl and so we a little bit of a hard. A hard move away.
[00:44:07] Speaker C: Well, Stephanie, Animator's palette was synonymous with dcl and we have that on their ship.
[00:44:13] Speaker A: You're right. Stephanie, I want to know what you're looking forward to the most for the Disney Destiny. Because obviously, you know, we've had all of these things have been announced now. I don't know that there's anything that's still a secret. I don't think there is. I think every space has been announced as to what its theming is going to be. But I'm just curious what you're looking forward to the most.
[00:44:36] Speaker B: I'm really looking forward to the Hercules musical. Huge, huge Hercules stand. And the fact that they're bringing Frozen. We've talked about Frozen a lot today. But they're bringing Frozen onto this ship as well. And that is my current favorite DCL ship show. So that's really exciting for me. And I'm a big theater nerd. So I love the idea of Hercules coming and them doing something totally new and fresh with it. I am very much looking forward to all the really fancy cocktails and mocktails because I feel like on some of the ships they have like one bar where they do something really nice and then everywhere else is not bad, but more simplistic cocktails. So the fact that there's many spaces where I can go if it's too packed in Cruellas, I can go to the sanctum and still get like a weird fun bubbly drink. Like if I'm going to be paying 17 or $20 for a cocktail, make it fun. Take my money, make it fun.
[00:45:31] Speaker A: I think that that's to me is the Wish class in general has done a good job with that. Now the wish maybe on sort of the basic level the Treasure has stepped it up a notch. And so I really feel like We. We had that exact experience, Stephanie, when we were on and we wanted to go, let's say, to Scat Cat, but they. There was a piano player doing, you know, ABBA music. I kid you not. It was very oversubscribed. Like, there were tons of.
[00:45:56] Speaker B: So we ended up to get in there for abba.
[00:45:59] Speaker A: Yeah. And so we decided to go to the Skipper Society instead. And there's still, you know, or you could go to Haunted Mansion, etc, and there's different, you know, creative cocktails in all of the spaces. And of course, you can just order an espresso martini wherever you are.
[00:46:15] Speaker C: I just wish they would up the game on Haunted Mansion parlors. Cocktails or not Good.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: Yeah, we don't like. We haven't found one that we like. They're creative, but we haven't found one that we really like.
[00:46:25] Speaker B: They didn't say anything about this at the event, and because they haven't announced it yet, I doubt it's coming. But if there's still room for Disney to change things, I was hoping that for this Haunted Mansion parlor, we would either get different drinks or maybe slightly different decor. Like instead of a fish tank, a bird cage or something.
[00:46:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: Or maybe a slightly different story or another part to the same storyline line. I mean, they haven't told us anything, so it's not too late. But that would be really cool. I have. I have not sailed on the Treasure yet, but I've also heard that a great cocktail is hard to come by.
So, you know, I.
[00:47:05] Speaker C: It's a shame because at the Top of the World Villains layer, they have some excellent cocktails I think would just easily import into Haunted Mansion. Yeah, I think they would work just fine in that bar. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:47:16] Speaker B: I'm very excited to try the full menu at the Pride Lands. And so usually we often sail with a bunch of members of our team, so I hope we get to do that because then we'll order, like, we'll just be like one of everything.
[00:47:29] Speaker A: Everything for the table. That's right. And everybody tastes everything.
[00:47:32] Speaker B: But, like, that food was all excellent. And I really hope that they don't dial down all the spices and everything too much, make it too bland. I also, I'm sure that they will have some more plain dishes as well, but I also hope the quality of that stays up really high. They were cooking dinner for 100 people. Now they have to cook dinner for a thousand people. It's totally different. I understand. But a lot of the main dining room dishes are very good, so I feel like they're able to find ways to make that hold up. And even though I said I'm not a villains person, I am a Loki person, so I really hope that I get to see a lot of Loki on the ship. And I'm very interested in them using this 360 degree light kit that's happening in the grand hall to make that into a much bigger, better performance venue. I think even between Wish and the Treasure, the Wish has a couple little tiny things. The Treasure has more of the interactive things like the jungle cruise boat thing that they do. So I'm really hoping they use this space again. My very first cruise ever was on the Dream, and it was a very merry time cruise. And I loved how on the. I think it was the first night, it might have been the second night, but they had a whole big show on the first night in there where Santa was there and Elsa was there. And I have actually really missed that on every single cruise. When I did Pixar Day at Sea, they didn't even have anything like that and like having that additional show element at the start or the kind of middle of a cruise in addition to the Pirate night. So I'm really hoping we get more of that in there.
[00:49:06] Speaker C: Did they, you know, one. One thing I'd be interested in. Did they say anything more about what 1923 is going to look like?
[00:49:13] Speaker B: They did not, but I would anticipate that it's going to look exactly the same and then just have different artwork and.
[00:49:21] Speaker C: Well, that's what. That's. I mean, I wonder if. I wonder if the artwork is going to be more like comic book stuff and, you know, Marvel and superhero stuff, or if it's going to tend toward the animation side of the heroes, you know, to keep going there.
[00:49:33] Speaker B: I hope it's a nice mix because I think that 1923 is such a great space for many fandoms to come together, so everybody gets a little bit of what they want. They also didn't say what menu they'd be serving, but I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say I think it's gonna be Treasure night too. Because if there's doing Marvel Night 2, why would they just stick with the Night?
[00:49:54] Speaker C: I. I sure hope they do 1923 night one, because that's. I think people burn that place down if they can't get that steak.
[00:50:00] Speaker A: That's. But also the. The Night 2 menu is the lobster tail menu and it's not a good menu that 1920. So I'm hope I. You could be right. I'm hopeful they're gonna do 1923 Night One Menu because that's just the Wish.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: Class ships, the Triton class ships have really surprised us. Right. They took away animators palette truffle pasta, Percy ets. I know. I can't believe there's a like riot or a petition about that.
[00:50:28] Speaker C: I heard, I heard they, they're off the menu and animators from somebody that's that, that they, they did not have the truffle presets on their animators menu this time. I don't know the factual thing there, like if that's true. Wow.
[00:50:39] Speaker A: I, I wonder if they had though. I want. If it was like a four night sailing or something. They might have had the let the magic begin menu. Right. Like so they might have. If they had two nights in animators, they would have only had like their first night in animators might not have been the night one animators menu. That can happen. And so I'm hopeful that that person is just wrong because I haven't heard that. And you were just on the fantasy.
[00:51:01] Speaker B: I was just on the fantasy and I don't order it as my appetizer. I just say bring me a whole bunch for my entree. Yeah, that's a pro tip. What was interesting though, Royal Court, they did not give us the normal menu with the Grand Marnier souffle and escargot and all of that menu that not only have I never seen in person before, but I have read all the menus of every sailing and I could not remember. There were a few dishes. I was like, okay, there's a gravlax, but not everything else on, on the menu that would go with that. And I went through all the menus online that I could find like about a hundred of them and I couldn't find an exact pairing of the menu. And I asked the servers, I was like, oh, what is this? You guys are about to sail to Europe? Are you testing some new things out? And they said, oh, we don't know. Just a couple sail ago they started serving this instead.
So it was, it was a pretty good menu. I liked it. I, I hope it sticks around. It did not have my Grand Marnier souffle, so I wasn't that happy about it.
[00:52:03] Speaker C: You know, as I say, they took away the truffle, which we don't know like. But as I said, I'm reminded I'm falling into the exact trap I tell people because we ask all the time, Disney, can you give us new food? And Then you know, they do and we're like, where am I?
[00:52:14] Speaker A: We complain.
[00:52:14] Speaker B: Yeah, the food we don't like.
[00:52:16] Speaker A: Yeah, right, exactly.
[00:52:19] Speaker B: All have dishes that nobody else thinks about. Like for me, I actually love the arugula leaf salad in Animators palette so much. I don't know what it is about it but like I could eat 10 of those and if they got rid of that, I'd be really sad.
[00:52:33] Speaker A: I really love the pork chop in Animator's palette and I, I would be really sad if they got rid of that. And I'm, I think I'm one of the very few people who orders that.
[00:52:41] Speaker C: So, so we just all want a Cheesecake Factory style menu on.
[00:52:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean that's the hard part. Right? So yeah, I, I mean, but it's, it's good to hear. Maybe they are switching things up and kind of giving us more of a mix of menus so that it's not so cookie cutter from one ship to the next. So I, that's a good thing. I mean, I, I, as much as there are dishes that might go away from one ship, I, I still, you know, it's better to have more variety so that it's not exactly the same when you go across the fleet.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: Yeah, I would agree with that.
[00:53:10] Speaker C: Well, Stephanie, people get to hear from us every week about how fantastic, fantastic we think DCL magazine is than WGW magazine. I think they should hear from you. So like tell our listeners why they need to head over right now to dcl-magazine.com and subscribe.
[00:53:27] Speaker B: Well, so we have been doing this a long time. We are going into our 12th year of producing magazines. We started with Disney World and we went to Disneyland and now we're at Disney Cruise. We always tried to sprinkle in some Disney Cruise but we, our team, we are experts. We're not just getting a random writer, a random. Everyone who works for us is as passionate about Disney as I am, as Brian and Sam are and as all of your listeners I'm sure am. And we just, you know, we love Disney Cruise so much we could not wait to start putting out issues all about it. So we do have our Instagram account and our Facebook account that's all cruise centric. For a couple years we've been really building up our library of content online. And now this first issue of Disney dcl, well it's technically a WDW magazine issue but it is entirely Disney Cruise Line with a river cruise from ABD thrown into just to make sure that we get some well rounded cruising Going.
[00:54:24] Speaker A: Yeah. By the way, we have done that excursion, the article about that excursion. We did that excursion in on the Danube on our.
[00:54:31] Speaker B: Did you like it?
[00:54:32] Speaker A: Oh, we loved it. It was a fantastic. It wasn't. It's funny. We actually were signed up to do a food tour and they, they over subscribed the food tour and they asked us would we be interested in going to this Equestri place. And we said sure, why not? And it was fantastic. And honestly the food was amazing there.
[00:54:50] Speaker B: I still dream about that food. That's one of the best meals I've had in my life.
[00:54:54] Speaker A: So good.
[00:54:55] Speaker B: But what we've tried to do with, between WW Magazine, DLR magazine and DCL magazine, you've given them all their own personalities. So the layouts in here, it has a little bit more of an art deco classic ocean liner feel to it. It's a little bit more upscale. Whereas some of our Disney World content is really fun and our Disneyland content really leans in toward like nostalgia and like that retro, futuristic, like 50s, 60s kind of vibe. This I feel like when you open it, you feel like it is a Disney cruise. Oh, there's your article right there, Brian. You feel like you're.
[00:55:32] Speaker A: How convenient.
[00:55:34] Speaker B: Like you're going to Alaska. You're on the ship, you're watching Beauty and the Beast, right? And we have tried to just make it so that you can, we can't all be on a cruise all, all day, every day. We're, we're not billionaires. But you can kind of open this and feel like I'm looking at the ocean.
[00:55:52] Speaker A: If I win the lottery, by the way, there will be signs and the signs will be that I will be living on a Disney Cruise Line ship permanently.
[00:56:00] Speaker B: So we've tried to do that and give people that little piece of Disney cruise magic that they can just open up and have their like Calgon take me away kind of moment with their cruise line stuff every day. And we're really hoping, I mean the feedback far has been really good. We're really hoping to release a second issue in a few more months and then maybe from there into a subscription where it's two times a year, four times a year, something like that. So if you guys like it, please fill out the survey that we'll send you via email so we know what you like, what you don't like. Because if believe it or not, we read, we do subscriber surveys all the time. We read every single comment, we have a discussion about all of them and we do actively make changes from issue to issue, based on what we're hearing.
[00:56:47] Speaker C: From our fans, I will just say it is an amazing magazine. I will also say I was recently reminded of how great it is to have like a tactile actual thing. Now you can get a digital subscription to WDW magazine. I don't wanna, I don't wanna tell people you can't, but. But I loved getting the actual issue of the magazine. It was just nostalgic and great.
[00:57:06] Speaker B: So just one thing on the digital edition, this is a little scoop for you guys because this is happening tomorrow, so it will be done by the time this is this episod episode airs. We have reformatted our digital edition so now you get WW dcl, DLR and our attraction specials like the Haunted Mansion Special and Pirates of the Caribbean special, all in one place for the one all in one price. But even better than that is that you can look at it in magazine layouts so you can see the same beautiful graphic design layouts that Danny and Abby work on. For all of our issue, you can opt to read it in more of article format. So if you're familiar with like Apple News or something like that, where you can, especially on a smartphone, this is really easy. Where you can just kind of scroll and read the article and see all the photos, the videos embedded or you can listen to each article on an audio track. So that's really nice. I don't know about you, I mean, you guys are podcasters, so you probably hear all the time, but like if I'm doing the dishes or cooking dinner or packing for a trip, I can't be reading at the same time. So it's nice to just be able to like, like click that. It's great for accessibility too. So now you have all three ways that you can enjoy the digital edition and all of our magazines. We have over 150 issues right now and when you subscribe to that, you get all of them plus all our new issues that are coming out for the length of your membership.
[00:58:29] Speaker C: So amazing.
[00:58:30] Speaker B: Well, that's my little plug on that. You didn't even know that.
[00:58:32] Speaker A: Love it.
[00:58:32] Speaker C: Amazing.
[00:58:33] Speaker A: No, I didn't know. I love that. I, I. Honestly, Stephanie, that sounds amazing. I love the idea of somebody reading, reading the magazine articles to me, actually.
[00:58:40] Speaker C: I think that it reminds me, I'm a subscriber to the New Yorker and reminds me how they've got their magazine set up in different ways so that you takes advantage of the digital format. But if you want the, you want the paper kind of Feel you can get that too. It's amazing on the, on a tablet.
[00:58:53] Speaker B: I think the, the magazine layout is really nice on there. Still kind of flip through the page actually flips along and you can still get that big beautiful layout. You can look it on, on a computer too, but most people aren't like holding onto it.
[00:59:06] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I love the, I love looking at the pictures in print format. I will say, like I just, there's something, there's something lovely about that.
[00:59:15] Speaker B: We have a great printer that we work with and we have picked the special inks on the special paper so it all, it just pops so shiny.
[00:59:23] Speaker A: Right.
And the aesthetic you were going for, Stephanie, you hit the nail on the head because it like as soon as you said that, you know, the art deco, it like it feels very cruise line. It just, it just evokes those feel feelings. Right. So it's wonderful.
[00:59:38] Speaker C: It is a gorgeous magazine. We are so happy to be trying to, I, I, I constantly message you said we're trying to make it a thing. So we're trying to make this a thing. And so I, together.
[00:59:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:51] Speaker C: Yeah. So, and we're, we're very, very proud of our partnership with you, Stephanie. We love all the collaboration. So thank you for taking time to come on and share your experience at this, this amazing Destiny showcase with all of our listeners out there. We really, really appreciate it having me.
[01:00:04] Speaker B: I love being on the show. I love everything you guys do with the show. So it's always just a delight to be here. Thank you.
[01:00:14] Speaker D: 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 a lot, 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 Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email them at dclduomypathunwinding.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, 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
[email protected] or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-441-35590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney Family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective. Use the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney Vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel 8 thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo.
