Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: During trivia, the cast member who was doing it, she was Jamaican. She'd never seen Star wars in her life. Like, didn't know any Star Wars. Oh, it was unbelievable.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: She said C3 Poe instead of C3 pound multiple times.
[00:00:13] Speaker A: But here's the thing. She pronounced Mustafar like she was pronouncing all kinds of stuff.
[00:00:18] Speaker B: All kinds of stuff. Yeah.
[00:00:19] Speaker A: And she gets to see three Poe. And Chuck and I look at each other and we're like, did you hear that, foreign.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: And welcome back to another live bonus episode of the DCL Duo Podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and also brought to you by the DCL magazine, brought to you by WDW magazine. For those of you who have not subscribed yet, make sure to go to wdw-magazine.com to subscribe right now to that magazine and hopefully to the DCL magazine, which we're going to make it a thing. We're committed. All right, well, I am excited. Obviously, for those of you listening on the audio channels, you are hearing my voice, Sam, not Brian's voice. So you know that I am solo hosting today. But never fear, I am not alone. For those of you watching live, obviously you can see I am joined by the lovely Erica and the handsome aj so nice to see you guys and welcome back to the show, you two.
[00:01:30] Speaker A: Hey, thank you. This is our first time on the show. We've not been on the show before.
[00:01:33] Speaker B: I thought you were on the show once before, aj.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: No, this is the best day of my life because I finally got on the show.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Oh, my God. How did I. I swore that we had you on before, but anyway, I had it in my head.
[00:01:45] Speaker A: That's okay.
[00:01:45] Speaker B: As we have, like, I feel like we've known each other now for. For several years. You guys have been watching the show. We met, of course, in person at Disneyland during my first half marathon weekend.
And it was, yeah, lovely to meet you guys in front of. Of the castle. Essentially, I'm at the partner statue. It was right over by.
By Walt and Mickey. But it's so nice to have you guys on the show.
[00:02:10] Speaker A: Thanks for having us.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: We're.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: We're thrilled to be here. And I didn't realize that was your first half. Like, I probably would have congratulated you more at the time if I'd have known as your first. I thought it was just running. You did it so well. I thought it was just old half for you.
[00:02:21] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, I've now done two, so I guess old hat now, right?
[00:02:27] Speaker A: You're pro. You're pro.
[00:02:28] Speaker B: I'm a pro. Yeah. I mean, I'm not as fast as either of you guys. I mean, well, I know AJ is like the fast when Erica, I know you're pointed at him, but like, you're actually quite fast too. I mean, so.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: Yeah, she is. She is.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: You might think, not think that you're fast because AJ's faster, but you're fast.
But it's so good to have you guys on.
And it's, you know, really great, of course, to always talk about some Disney Cruise Line stuff. We don't have any news to report today. I don't have. I don't think there's been any significant news other than something we talked about last week, which is just the fact that DCL seems to still be having some issues with its IT systems. So we keep hearing about boarding delays for people, or at least people being warned to bring their documents with them to the port and have everything, all the paper with them in case they have to do check in all over again at the ports. It seems to be an issue in both Port Canaveral and Port Everglades. So just want to put that out there for folks. That's something to be aware of. If you're sailing sometime soon.
There seems to be Disney IT issues. Big, big surprise. Right.
Another thing that I think we're expecting sometime soon, although we still don't know when is DCL itineraries. Right. We still haven't heard next round of itinerary release. We don't know exactly when that's coming. We're hoping sometime soon, but you know, who knows?
[00:03:58] Speaker A: It's usually around this time.
[00:03:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel like, yeah, I feel like it would be the release. But you know, they, they have at times, at one point they were doing three different releases a year and then they said they were gonna switch back to two times a year. And then it seemed like though the timing was more like three times. So I don't know what's going on.
[00:04:15] Speaker A: So they'll take, they'll take our money either way and we'll give it to them gladly. So it doesn't really matter, I guess.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Well, let's dive into talking about your cruise on the beautiful Disney Fantasy. Of course, our first, she was our first love. I have to say, the way we fell in love with Disney Cruise Line. And it is one of those iconic. Well, all of the ships, I think are iconic. But of course we gotta dive into talking about your cruise with three other couples on the Disney Fantasy Yes. And I want to. You did a great PowerPoint, so I'm going to pull that up.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: That's the foreshadowing of the planners that we are, is that we have a PowerPoint.
[00:04:58] Speaker B: I love it, though. I mean, our. Our audience loves a good PowerPoint. We love a good PowerPoint. It's a great way to sort of organize your thoughts and to help folks understand about your cruise. So.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:05:13] Speaker B: Yeah. All right, well, we got to talk about the characters involved in this. In this cruise, as you titled it. And, of course, here's the two of you guys.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're AJ and Erica. We've been married 22, 22 years. And, yeah, we've been Disney the whole time. So, I mean, from being little kids. Erica, you went to the park the first time when you were. That's you four. I think I was four or five. So both of our parents took us when we were kids all the way kind of up through. Erica's dad was born the day Disneyland opened, so July 17, 1955. So her was his mom, like, dove in, like, bought him Disney stock that day or something.
And so, like, he's. He was a Club 33 member for a long time. Like, he was fully, fully Disney. So he took you a lot, right?
[00:06:05] Speaker C: Yeah, we went every summer, pretty much.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Yep. Yep.
[00:06:08] Speaker C: And our kids got stuck almost immediately. So.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Yeah. From grandpa, that is.
[00:06:16] Speaker B: And remind us how old your kids are. I know your kids didn't sail with you on this sailing, but remind us how old they are.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: Yeah. So we have Nicholas, who's 19, Taylor is 16, and I'm sorry, Taylor.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Oh, you're way off.
[00:06:27] Speaker C: I'm way off.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: No, you're a few years behind. Erica's still living. Back when they were young.
[00:06:32] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:06:32] Speaker C: Nicholas is 20, Taylor is 18, and Addie is 16.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness.
[00:06:38] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:39] Speaker C: Started the wrong job.
[00:06:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. Yes. And you guys are. Well, let's hear. I'm going to. I got to show these pictures, because these are just adorable.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that's baby. A.J. and Erica. When we were dating, we went to school in California, and so we both worked at the park, and so Erica worked on It's a Small World. I worked. Do you remember interventions? Do you remember when whatever carousel of progress turned into interventions? That's where I worked during college. So.
[00:07:06] Speaker B: So cool.
[00:07:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So we were at the parks all the time. Like, every. You know, we were working. But then I say Parks California Adventure opened while we were there working. So we got. We got the, you know, the. The Failed launch of.
[00:07:19] Speaker B: I was gonna say the abridge and all that. People did not really like, we thought.
[00:07:23] Speaker A: The maliboomer was great back then, you know that.
But yeah, so we, yeah, we've done the park. So that picture. And I'm sorry for audio people, but that picture of Erica and I in the Cinderella's, you know, royal table chair, that was on our honeymoon. And then we went back on our 20th anniversary, which was our fantasy cruise, the first cruise we'd ever been on, and they let us get our picture in the same exact spot. And so we. We're little babies in that picture though.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Yep. Oh, you guys are little babies there. I. I said to this, you all like off air. And I'm like, I think you. I mean, you guys are adorable.
Like, you might even get cuter with age though. Like, let's see some of these adorable Run Disney pictures. And this, this is the thing that I feel like I know about you guys the most because our obsession.
[00:08:09] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:08:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. You guys are like hugely obsessed with rundisney, as anyone could see from all of these rundisney pictures. But I mean, you guys also put out a ton of videos on your socials. Well, A.J. i mean, you are a media person. I mean, you do for a living, you do fantastic, fantastic work and. But I feel like you're constantly, when you're at the races, posting tons of pictures and videos about the races.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So we just finished our 16th race.
When did we start? I mean, it wasn't very long ago. 2023.
[00:08:45] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:45] Speaker B: Well.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Well, Erica did her first princess back in 2016 and then didn't run it again until we both did it together. She talked me into it in 2023. We were supposed to do it during the COVID year, but it got canceled.
We missed the Star wars race. But yeah, so our first race was 2023. And since then, I mean, if you've done one and you don't get caught up in, you know, trying to be fast or, you know, how crowded it is or any of that, and you just truly enjoy it. Like it can. It can be a ton of fun and give you a lot of purpose and whatever in, you know, your trips to the park. So then, you know, you train for months and you, you know, you're living a healthy lifestyle and all this stuff. Then you go to the parks and eat all the snacks to carb load.
[00:09:26] Speaker B: And help all the carbs. Exactly.
[00:09:28] Speaker A: That's the only reason we did the marathon. That was it. So we could eat as much as Possible.
But yeah, we love rundisney. So I mean we've done. We born raised Disneyland all the way up through college. Then we moved to the east coast where we live now. We've done Disney World. So we're passholders here on the east coast and we do Disney World. Our kids know nothing of other vacations other than Disney vacations. That's all they know and run Disney. Even the girls have run a few races. You can see in those pictures. The girls have run with us a few times.
[00:09:53] Speaker B: I love that. Now, what age did they start running? Because we. We're like thinking about how do we get Nathan, like involved. And so he starts middle school in the fall.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: And they've got the only no cut sports are like cross country and track and field. So we're kind of like. And it. And of course, for someone like Nathan who team sports and physical, like sports with any kind of physical contact. Not going to be his jam. Like not at all. He does not have.
He just doesn't have that aggressiveness in him for. For good or bad. Right.
Yeah. So I. But I would love for him to get involved in, you know, maybe running something like some kind of athletic activity that I feel like you can do for a long period of time. Right. That you can. I don't mean long period of time, like hours. I mean like well into your life. Right. And I think running. Yeah. And I think running is a great. I mean running, cycling, you know, those kinds of things are, I think, great, you know, cardiovascular activity.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Do I remember right, that he did the 10k with you guys?
[00:10:53] Speaker B: No, he hasn't done missing any race with us. Not yet.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: But he went with you. But he just didn't run. Is that.
[00:10:57] Speaker B: Yes, he has gone with us to the race weekend. But he didn't. Yeah, but he did not. He has not run. And so I'm like trying to figure out, like, could we, you know, train him up for like a 5k? I think.
[00:11:08] Speaker A: Yeah. The kids run the 5k. So there's no age limit on. On the 5k. I don't know what the age limit is on the 10k. I don't think there is one. I think.
No, I think you're good. The half marathon. I think you have to be 14 and up.
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Or I can't remember what. Yeah, I think there are definitely different age limits for different. I think you're right.
[00:11:24] Speaker A: There's.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: I don't think there's. I mean, I think there is an age.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: It's like five years old.
Taylor. Taylor who's our middle child? Ran the Princess with us when she was 14. I remember that. And she's.
No. 16. I'm so sorry.
[00:11:41] Speaker C: I was going to say I have the ages right now.
[00:11:43] Speaker A: Now. Now it's.
[00:11:45] Speaker C: Both of the girls ran it when they were 16.
[00:11:47] Speaker A: That's right. 16. 16.
[00:11:49] Speaker B: Well, let's. I'm going to jump back to this picture because this is obviously a picture of you guys on a cruise. And I'm going to ask Erica, why don't you tell us your. Tell us your. Your cruising creds now with Disney Cruise Line, when you started sailing with. With Disney and how many cruises? And then we're going to dive into talking about the friends that you guys cruised with on this particular sailing.
[00:12:11] Speaker C: Okay, so our first cruise was on the Fantasy for our anniversary. That was two, three years ago.
[00:12:18] Speaker A: It was 2023.
[00:12:19] Speaker C: Yes, 2023. And then we took the kids on the Magic, and then AJ And I went on the Wish, and then this cruise was back on the Fantasy, which is my favorite ship.
[00:12:32] Speaker B: Yes. I mean, it's. Well, you've sailed between the Fantasy, the Magic and the Wish. Absolutely. The Fantasy is the top of those three ships, the Fantasy and beats the other. The other two.
Of course, there's no Salja on the Magic because she's the first in fleet, but you can't go wrong with the Fantasy. You got the Midship Detective Agency.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: I mean, which we've never done. Can you believe that? I know.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: Yay. What?
You guys, I guess you got to get back on the Fantasy or on the Dream, and you're going to have to do it. Yeah, you got. You have to do the Muppet storyline, though. No.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Yes, I've heard that, and I've heard it on the. On y' all show a lot. And the problem is that, like, we get to the end of these sailings and we're like, oh, we forgot to do these 12 things, you know, on the cruise, you think seven nights or whatever's enough. And it's not.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: It's not. It's never enough. It's never enough. That's why, like, our friends Tracy and Michael are always like, no, like, you got to do like the 12 night, the 14 night, the Panama Canal. Right. You got to do like, these longer, longer sailings.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: Or I guess transatlantic or Trans Pacific. Right.
[00:13:36] Speaker C: He wants to do that.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: Oh, I would love to as well. All this, all the. Bring me all the sea days. Give me all the C days. I love it. All right, well, let's. Let's Talk about who you sailed with for this cruise. I'm going to jump over to Alex and Kimberly. Tell us about Alex and Kimberly. They're lovely looking couple.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: Of course, I'll let Erica talk about them, but I do want to set up, if it's cool. So all these people that, that came with us there, so there's eight of us total. They're all in our church, small group. So, you know, and I know that's. I don't know if all churches call it a small group, but basically we get together, you know, on a Wednesday night every week, you know, and there's 13 of us in our group and they meet at our house and we do Bible study together. Right. So we also serve with these people. So we're all, almost all of us are in production. Erica is a musician, Alex is a musician.
You know, other people you meet a sound guy, we got a lighting guy. Like, I'm the video guy. So like we all kind of, you.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: Know, help with the production side of the church. Right.
[00:14:32] Speaker A: We're all. Yeah, we're all, you know, we serve.
[00:14:34] Speaker B: Volunteers in that way.
[00:14:35] Speaker A: That's right. So just for a little bit of context, like that's how we know these, these folks. We all live in the same town and we all meet every week.
[00:14:42] Speaker B: That's cool.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: Yep. So Erica, who's you want to describe, how do you, how do you describe Alex and Kimberly?
[00:14:47] Speaker C: Like the fun ones of the group?
[00:14:51] Speaker B: I could see them being the fun ones of the group. Yes. Now, did they have any cruising history on Disney or otherwise?
[00:14:58] Speaker A: Not on Disney, not on Disney. They just went to the Med this summer and did on. I don't remember what cruise line they were on. Royal or something.
So they're travelers for sure. And they're foodies. I mean, they are foodies. It is like. Yeah, I can't hold a candle to the kind of stuff that they like to eat, you know. So they, their travel.
Kimberly's pregnant. She was pregnant. You know, this cruise she kind of squeaked in right before that. 24.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: Oh, right before the cutoff. Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:23] Speaker C: They did their baby moon with us.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: That's right.
So they, they don't have kids yet. So they, you know, kind of snuck in that last, last travel before, before life changes for them a little bit.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: Before their life really translated. Alex and Kimberly, if you're listening or watching, like, good luck. It's a journey, you know.
[00:15:44] Speaker A: Next thing you know, you're going to be A.J. and Erica forgetting how old your kids even are.
[00:15:48] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly. Or toting Toting baby all around on. On Disney Cruise Line. We'll say it's easier to bring a baby to a cruise line than it is to the parks. That trip is easier, I'm sure. Yeah. All right, well, let's jump to Chuck and Jamie. Tell us about Chuck and Jamie.
[00:16:04] Speaker A: Yeah. One last thing. On Alex and Kimberly, they were pass holders. So they're Disney people.
[00:16:07] Speaker B: Just like, so you know, they're Disney people.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Chuck and Jam. I do not mind calling them out on this because they've said it directly to me on video. I'm working on a video right now about our sailing. They've said it on camera. They hate the parks.
They do not like the parks. I think they had a bad experience. Like, you know, it's like a long lines. And Chuck cannot get over the idea of paying for a fast pass or Genie. Plus, he can't. He cannot get past it.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: His brother works for the company and can get him into the park for. For free, and he still won't go.
[00:16:39] Speaker C: You know, like Disney Cruises. They do like Disney cruises, but he.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: Loves the cruise line. This is their third, and so they're. They partially are the ones that talked us into our first one.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Wow. Oh, that's interesting. Well, I will say, like, there are definitely people who are not parks people, but are. But like Disney and like cruising and love Disney cruising. Right. And so, I mean, I think more people out there kind of have love for both. Like you all like us. Right.
I think that's more common. But I do think there are people who are like, you know, all in on cruising and just not. Not parks people. Those lines are. Are difficult to navigate if you're not a planner. That's another thing. I think that's a real negative. If you're not much of a planner, the parks can be a really difficult experience because you really, you. In order to maximize your time, your effort, all of that. I think planning can. Can really help. And so. All right, well, let's jump to Kevin and Jennifer.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: I do want to call out Chuck and Jamie, though, for their. If you're watching their outfits, I mean, he's Captain Jack Sparrow on pirate night and he had a queue of kids waiting to get their picture with him.
And poor Captain Jack over there with the photopass guy.
[00:17:54] Speaker C: People were leaving his line and coming.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Well, I mean, it's a very. It is a really professional looking costume.
[00:18:01] Speaker A: Yeah, he did a good job with that. So for not being like super Disney folks, they. They pulled it out for sure. It was awesome.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: Yeah, awesome. All Right.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Kevin and Jennifer.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: Yeah, go ahead.
[00:18:11] Speaker A: Well, I think they came on the cruise because we were on the cruise.
All the friends were on the cruise. That was it. Like, you notice there's no Mickey Mouse ears. There's not. There's nothing.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: I was gonna say. I was gonna say. This picture to me just reads like, no. Like they're just wearing, you know, summer clothes.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: That's right. We could. I think we could have been on any cruise line. They still would have come.
[00:18:31] Speaker B: Right?
[00:18:31] Speaker A: You know what I mean? Yeah. Now, I will say this. Like, just getting ahead of myself. They probably had more fun, I think genuine, like, more fun than anybody else, because they have no Disney history. Like, they've been to the parks before with their. With their kids. Their kids are grown, but, like. Like, they don't have. Like, I don't think they've done it the way we do it. You know what I mean? Like, they don't. They don't have that inside whatever. And I think they genuinely like Kevin. I said, hey, I'm going to go on the Aqueduct. I'll be right back. And he's like, I'm coming. Wait for me. And I'm like, you want to ride with, you know, like, two grown men going down the Aqueduct? You know, and every time I showed up with ice cream, he would look at me and be like, hey, where'd you get that? You know, it was awesome. Like, I think they really settled in, and it wasn't just a vacation. Like, they really dug the Disney way of doing it.
[00:19:16] Speaker C: I think they really loved it.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. I love that. Now, you know, we kind of talked before the show about, like, what sort of this sailing is about and how, you know, sailing with a group is always interesting, but if you're not the planner type, how the best thing to do is to sail with planner type. Sure. And. And you guys are. Are the planners of the group, Is that right?
[00:19:39] Speaker A: Well, yeah. Well, if you. If. If we're doing rundisney on a regular basis, you have to be a planner. Right. Because that's like the. It takes the most planning of all the things in.
[00:19:48] Speaker B: I mean, you got to be online. Right. At 10am Eastern to make sure. Before 10am Eastern, make sure you get in that queue and with multiple windows open on multiple devices. Right? Yeah.
[00:19:57] Speaker A: For better or worse, we have. We know how to do rope drop culture now. We don't. We don't. We don't push kids out of the way. You know, we're not. We're not like that, you know, but we know how to do it. All we know when online check in is we know all the things. We know our booking window, we know our port arrival time. Like, we know all the things. You know, and poor Kevin and Jennifer, if they're, if they're watching or ever listen to this, like, I'm not calling them out, but like, I swear they were just like, actually, Jennifer said it to me one time. I think she's like, hey, dad, thanks for coordinating everything, you know, like, you know, And I was like, I just. They very much tell us when to be there at what time. And even sometimes they didn't even show up at that time.
[00:20:34] Speaker B: You know what I mean?
[00:20:35] Speaker A: And that's okay because they still had a really good time.
[00:20:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Well. And, you know, were they the ones who didn't, like, do the check in process?
[00:20:42] Speaker A: Well, here's, here's the thing. You know, I don't have to talk to this audience about check in. Right. Like, you know, when you're supposed to check in. I told everybody, I told them what their status was. You know, first time Silver Rally, I told them, here's when you check in, do it at this time. You need all these documents. And I said, you know, I told everybody, all right, we got our port arrival time. We're 11:30, you know what I mean, whatever. And, and I think everybody said, oh, yeah, we'll check in tomorrow. Or, you know, like kind of that vibe. And I'm like, what time do you plan to get to the port? You know, and so they all had like a 1:32 o' clock port arrival.
[00:21:14] Speaker C: Time, but some of them were okay.
[00:21:15] Speaker A: With that and they were fine with it. That was. The thing is, like, here I am. And I. This was, this was a defining moment for me. We're driving to the port and I'm getting a little irritated. Not with them, but just like, they're not going to have a good vacation. You know, looking at Erica going, they're not going to like it. And then I just had this moment. I just looked at Erica and said, their happiness is not my responsibility. Like, they're going to have a good time either way. Disney's got, got it covered. They're going to be able to get on the ship. The extra two hours on the ship doesn't matter. Like, they're going to be fine. And they were like, they probably had more fun than us because they were, they were more chill about everything.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I feel like, you know, if you're a go with the flow kind of person, you Absolutely. I mean, that's why a parks trip. I mean, that's why I kind of understand Chuck and Jamie not liking the parks maybe so much. Because if you're a go at the flow, I don't want to plan like. Like the parks. You're not really not going to get the value out of it, I think. But on the cruise line, I think you can still get value out of that vacation, even without. Even without doing, you know, any planning. Of course, you still have to check in at some point before your cruise.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: And they did. They followed all the rules. But it was just very funny, that rope drop culture over here. AJ And Erica, we were on the rope, you know what I mean? Like, we were. We were there ready to do our things at the time we were supposed to.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: You were ready to run to Seven Dwarfs Mine train so you could get it. Get that ride in at 8:30 in the morning. Morning.
[00:22:36] Speaker A: Exactly. Right. Everybody knows to go that direction, you know, anyway, but. But, you know, like I told them, hey, if you want to see the show at 6 or 6:15, whatever, you need to be there 20, 30 minutes early, you know, and if they followed the instructions and we got great seats and all that, but somebody kind of had to communicate that, I think, and that fell on us.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Right, right. Well. And, you know, as long as you're okay with that role, but you're also okay with like, their happiness and their enjoyment is not my responsibility. I feel like then it can go fine. If you take on that, if you take on that burden in addition to the planning for yourself, it can be a little too much. Right. Like, because you don't want your happiness to depend on their experience. That's. I think that's where the line is. Well, let's jump in to talk about. I know you had some. Some, of course, a priest day because, you know, if you're going to Port Canaveral, you're. You're going, you know. So you guys stayed, it looks like Port Orleans.
[00:23:31] Speaker A: We did, yeah. We got to make use of that annual pass, you know, and so I gotta make justify that high cost. And so we had to at least step foot in the park.
We basically just went over. I think we just ate some stuff, rode one ride and left.
[00:23:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: But we still got it. Still got it done.
[00:23:46] Speaker B: I love it.
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Yeah. So Erica and I spent the day together in the parks. We just hit. I think we hit Epcot in Magic Kingdom, I think that day.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:23:51] Speaker A: And everybody joined us. Everybody drove kind of separately, I guess, kind of came in Kind of different. And I'll throw Kevin and Jennifer under the bus here in a second about what day they arrived. And you'll probably have a heart attack about that.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: Oh, God.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: And so you see, there's only six of us the night before. Yeah, you can see that. You know, so Jennifer had work. She. She had to fly in the morning of. And so I was a little bit stressed for him, but I was like, you know what, they're gonna, they'll, they'll be okay. You know, coming from Atlanta.
[00:24:17] Speaker B: Right. I was gonna say, you guys are coming one state away. So the worst case scenario, you can like. How many hour drive is that?
[00:24:25] Speaker A: 7 hour drive from where we live. Yeah.
[00:24:26] Speaker B: That's a long drive if you think about it.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. But. But here's the benefit is Delta is the. You know, Atlanta is the hub for Delta. There's an hour, every hour there's a flight. Flight from Atlanta. And Delta is very reliable. Right. I would not take Southwest or JetBlue or whatever right out of Atlanta to try and get to Orlando for a cruise. But Delta, I think you're okay. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't do that.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: I think the only issue. Yeah, I mean, the issue would be weather. Right? Like, that's. The issue is like, it's not an issue of like, like so much about a single flight getting canceled. The issue is if you've got like some really bad weather issues, it's a bit of a drive. I mean, you could jump in the car, but you got to jump in the car early enough to make it before you know that. All aboard. Time.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: And we have a Bucky's halfway, so we stop at Buc EE's halfway.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: I have to show this then because I literally took this out. This.
My friends Ashley and Daniel, who sailed with us, said, I still haven't eaten this popcorn. I literally took it out because I was gonna snack on it before the show and then I kind of forgot about it. So it's sitting right with me. It's the Buck triple mix popcorn. I still have not eaten it yet, but I did eat the jerky, and jerky was delicious. And I have not been to a Buc EE's myself, so. All right, well, let's talk about.
We've got these cute embarkation pictures, of course, but we've got a particular person in this photo with you.
[00:25:48] Speaker A: Erica can tell this story. Because Erica made this connection, so she can tell the story.
[00:25:54] Speaker C: So when we sailed on Fantasy the first time, Raphael was one of the photographers and A.J.
i mean, we're both friendly people, but he's always chatting it up with anybody that we run into. So. So we kind of got to know Raphael on the trip. And this picture of us in our pirate garb, we found out that was actually his birthday that day. And so we were like, raphael, can we get a photo with you? And so anyway, we just have talked about him for, like, the last two years. And so as we're in line getting on to getting ready to get on the boat, I'm like, oh, my gosh, there's Raphael. And AJ's like, are you sure? And I was like, yeah. And I'm, like, pulling up my phone, like, scrolling through to find his photo.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: We're like, look.
[00:26:32] Speaker C: And you could tell, like, at first, he didn't remember. Then when he saw the photo, he was like, oh, my gosh. I totally remember who y' all are. And so then the whole rest of the cruise, he would, like, if he saw us, he'd come running over and, like, take his photo with us.
[00:26:43] Speaker A: And so, yeah, we probably have 10 photos of Rafael.
[00:26:46] Speaker C: Yeah, so.
[00:26:47] Speaker A: So, yeah, it was. It was super fun because then, like, there were other photographers that were on the sailing from 2023 as well, and I think, like, they kind of, like, dialed in. They're like, actually, I think I remember this situation happening, right?
So, yeah, it was cool. It was great to see Rafael. He. He hooked us up on our 20 sailing, our 20th anniversary. We missed. We didn't know. We didn't know the stuff. So formal night. We didn't know the lines are six hours long and you gotta be there early for photos. We didn't know that.
[00:27:14] Speaker B: Just to be clear, AJ's exaggerating. They're not six hours long, but you can, like. Especially if there's, like, a magic shot or something. Like, like, they can be 45 minutes long. I mean, you're talking. I'd say most of them are probably more like 20 to 30 minutes long. But you can. But, like, the one. That's the one magic shot of the evening. 45 minutes long. Yeah.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: So we missed our grand staircase photo opportunity because of it.
Three nights later, it was our wedding anniversary. We're dressed up. We went to Palo. You know, we're all dressed up, and we head over to just get some pictures, and goofy or somebody's on the stairs that we did not want our picture with.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.
[00:27:49] Speaker A: But we hung our formal stuff, so we hung back, and we hung back, and we go up to Raphael right at the end. You know, we're like, hey, could you get our picture on the stairs, you know, with no character or whatever, before you shut this down? And he kind of looks around and makes sure there's no managers around, you know, and we have our formal picture that we missed on formal nights.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, I love that. Well, you know, you could get one with. With Goofy, and without Goofy, you can always ask.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: We didn't know that back.
Like, we've learned that we've come a long way since.
[00:28:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well. And that. That is one of the things that I think about, you know, when we first started sailing in 2018, and like, where we are now and what, like, there's so much you don't know when you first start sailing. You don't even know. You don't know that. Right?
You don't know that, like, oh, the backdrops in the atrium are going to be different every single night. And so if, like, if there's a backdrop you really like and you want a picture in front of, like, don't count on it being there the next night, because it's not going to be there the next night. There's going to be an entirely different backdrop. Or if there's like a themed picture, you want, you know, let's say it's a Star wars picture with the, with the lightsabers, which I know we're going to get to this, but, like, that's only going to happen one night of your cruise. It's not going to be back on. Or if there's like a magic shot. Now, there are some magic shots that they'll take out on the decks, on the pool decks, and you won't know them, but, you know, it will be like Donald and Goofy and different characters will appear in your photos. Those may happen on a couple of days of the cruise. Those are daytime photos, typically, but.
But yeah, those backdrops and, and are going to be different and the characters maybe in different costumes at different times, but those are things, like, I didn't know that when we first started cruising. I just, you know, might not even, like, sort of notice these things.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Right.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: Well, let's. Let's jump to talking about this wonderful sailing. So it sounds like it didn't take a lot of convincing to get these friends to come with you. Is that.
[00:29:50] Speaker A: Here's what happened. Here's what happened. We invited.
Not. Not on the sailing. Trevor and Leanne went on sailing with us on the Wish in November. It was her birthday. They had gone through a lot and they just needed a break, and we were already going For a race weekend and tying it to a race weekend. And I just happened to mention it. And so they went with us. Right. And it was great. It was us. But they're in our small group. Well, we got home and we were in a lot of trouble.
[00:30:15] Speaker B: There was some explaining to do. Is that. Yeah.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: So Alex, who is, you know, he's bigger than I am and taller than me. He cornered me in the green room at church and said, when are we booking our sailing? You know, like I remember feeling cornered, you know, like. And I was like, oh yeah, we should do something sometime. He goes, no, pull out your phone and find it. Right.
[00:30:33] Speaker C: You know, they wanted to go to Alaska, which we really want to do.
[00:30:37] Speaker B: So for a few months we were.
[00:30:39] Speaker C: Trying to convince everyone to go on the Disney Alaska cruise.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: That's right.
But we tried to do. We decided to go a little easier, you know, first, first time around, you know, not, not, you know, no one has castaway status to get all the excursions. You know, I mean like you were just.
It seemed like a heavy lift at the time.
[00:30:53] Speaker B: Alaska is a heavier lift, I think for a couple of reasons. One, it's a lot further away for all you guys to travel. Right. So like it's going to be. Well, it's going to be a longer cruise. Right. You're talking seven nights. I mean there are a couple of five night itineraries mixed in there. But you really want a seven night itinerary for Alaska. It's. You're coming all the way across the country and then up to Vancouver, of course.
And it's a more expensive cruise. Right. Like the cost of the cruise is more expensive. But then the excursions are like another hu. Heavy. Another heavy lift. I mean the cost of. We're, we're. We've booked our excursions for our last cruise at the end of August for this year. And I mean the excursions, some of them are thousand dollars a person just for the excursions. Yeah. So, you know, not excursion but like the one that's the helicopter to the glacier where you're going to then sled. Do the sled dog thing. Right. That's $1,000 a person or not the.
[00:31:46] Speaker A: Ones you want to do. Yeah, right. Yeah.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: So it is, I think it is a bigger investment, a bigger commitment, all of that. So it makes sense to, you know, to pick something a little closer to home. And, and for folks who are maybe, I think cruise curious. Right. And Alaska cruise is a very different experience. It's not warm weather cruising, it's not you know, sit by the pool or at a beach. Like, I feel like most people when cruising, they think of, like, Caribbean, Bahamas. Cruising, right? That's. Yeah, that's sort of the. So, okay, so you can. So you didn't have to do any convincing of anything. You got piece of cake. Piece of cake.
[00:32:19] Speaker A: I mean, the bottom line was schedules, you know, and then coordinating a bunch of, you know, working people with kids, you know, that's a challenge. So in this picture that you're looking at, you notice Kimberly's not here. And I think Erica's taking the picture. And the reason Kimberly's not here, she was at the spa winning, like, a free massage, right?
[00:32:36] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: And so she won whatever the raffle they do on the first day. Well, she comes back and is like, hey, I won. And we're like, oh, Congr, congratulations. You know, when are you doing that? She goes, oh, it's 6 o' clock or something like that. And I'm like, oh, well, that's a bummer. And she's like, why? I'm like, well, you're gonna miss the show tonight, you know, and she was like, oh, I'll catch Aladdin another time.
[00:32:54] Speaker C: And I was like, no, are you.
[00:32:58] Speaker A: Going to see it at 8 and you're gonna skip dinner?
No, I'll just see it another day.
[00:33:03] Speaker B: And I was like, no, it doesn't work that way.
[00:33:07] Speaker A: I feel like I explained rotational dining in the shows. I feel like I explained it before, but, like, I just, you know, that.
[00:33:12] Speaker C: Was on page 27. Bullet.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: Did you. So now, this is a. This is a great point, Erica. Did you guys, like, make a slide deck for your friends, like, here?
[00:33:22] Speaker A: I tried not to. Like, I did my absolute best. Erica can testify. I said, should I send all this information or should I just let it flow? You know? And there were times where I was like, you know, just let it. Leave it alone.
[00:33:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:35] Speaker A: So. So Kimberly had to go back to Sense's spa and reschedule her free massage because she wanted to see the show and go to dinner. Dinner.
[00:33:44] Speaker B: Well, you know, at least she told you and you're able to, like, Right. You know, help her. Yes. Help stop her from making that mistake. Now, I'm not saying it's a mistake. There are people who have. If you've seen Aladdin before.
[00:33:54] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:33:55] Speaker B: Or you're not a show person. Right. Like, go to the spa during the show or sit by the pool during the show, or ride the aqua dock during, you know, the show. Like, those are great things to do if you're Not. But if you're somebody who wants to see the show on most sailings, occasionally they'll do two different nights. But most sailings, each show happens. Happens one night, and it happens twice. Only on that one night, as you mentioned, aj the morning or the morning, the earlier show, the later show. So you're either gonna. You're. If you. If you have something going on during the early show, I guess you're skipping dinner if you've got late, right?
[00:34:29] Speaker A: Yeah. So I told her, you can skip dinner if you want, but then you'll never see Enchanted Garden ever. You know what I mean? Like, I was explaining how the rotation worked, which, you know, I mean, it's up to you. Do you want to skip that? She was. She ran right back to the spa and rescheduled it. So she. She won in that situation because she got all three right. She got the redness massage, followed by the show, followed by dinner. So it worked out for her.
[00:34:49] Speaker B: I love this, by the way, Jamie's watching because she said we had such a great time on the cruise. So she's watching live right now.
I thought I would let you know.
Yeah. And one. I. We did get a comment here about the backdrops we were talking about, so I just want to bring this up from Linda. Don't snooze on the plain white backdrop. Her friend fought her on it and turned out to be her favorite photo. And for anyone who knows our DCL duo photo, that's Brian and I, that is the logo of our show. If you are looking at Apple podcasts, that picture is Brian and I on the Disney fantasy on that white backdrop. So that is. Yeah. So definitely don't snooze on that white backdrop. All right. Well, I love. This is so embarcation day. Sounds like it starts out a success.
[00:35:34] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:35:35] Speaker B: We got some other pictures here I want to. I want to look at.
[00:35:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I know we're talking a long time so we can blaze through stuff. We had dinner at Enchanted Garden the first night.
Everybody. Everybody loved rotational dining. Just the idea, like, immediately.
[00:35:46] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, there's the first time, you know, four of the eight of us had experienced a, you know, a diet serving team that was going to care for you that level. And so they loved it. They do. They. Everyone dove right in and.
[00:35:56] Speaker B: Awesome. Awesome. I think that's like a perfect way to describe rotational dining. They. They follow you. They cater to you.
They become the team, becomes your people. Right. They're like other. That them in your room. Steward are the cast members that you spend the most amount of time interact, interacting with. And obviously it's somewhat, you know, dependent on how friendly they are and how busy they are and. But also dependent on how much you make of it as far as how much you interact and try to get to know them. Of course. A major thing. Character experiences. I love these pictures of you guys.
[00:36:32] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So we love doing the characters on the cruise because in the parks it's so hard, you know, and it's so hard in the park. So we usually. We get our picture with a lot of characters.
[00:36:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:36:41] Speaker A: See, 3PO is new to us. I don't know if that's a new thing in general, but he was in the kids club and it felt a little weird, I'll be honest. You know, like there wasn't a photographer but. But I wanted to see him. So we did it and it was great.
[00:36:53] Speaker B: I have this picture myself.
Not just me, it's me and Nathan and I got him solo. I made him, you know, stand with C3PO and then I jumped in. But yeah, we. I loved this picture opportunity.
I did it on the Fantasy in December. I don't know how new it is. I feel like they've done it before, but I don't know that they were doing it back in like 2018 when we were sailing on the Fantasy. But it's not brand new, but know like how long they've been doing it for. But yeah, it's a great. It's during one of the open house times. So adults can go into the kids club and get. And you know, as kids can go in of course as well and get their picture with C3PO.
It's cool because it's in like the Star wars area.
[00:37:34] Speaker A: Very cool. Yeah.
[00:37:36] Speaker B: Then you can kind of interact with that. That stuff.
[00:37:38] Speaker A: So this day was the day that everyone did whatever they wanted.
[00:37:41] Speaker B: Yeah, makes.
[00:37:42] Speaker A: Makes sense. It was our 1C day.
[00:37:44] Speaker B: And so choose your own adventure day.
[00:37:46] Speaker A: Yeah. And the benefit to having all these people varying different, you know, interests and what like, I don't like to lay on the pool deck. I move too fast and I like. I just don't sit very long. And so Erica, I will go to the pool deck with her. No problem. But about an hour in, she knows I just can't even anymore. But she does not love the trivias and she does not love the art of the theme show tour. And I will go every single.
[00:38:07] Speaker C: That is not true. I did it one time.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: One time.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:10] Speaker A: I'm on tour.
[00:38:11] Speaker B: You know what? I was going to Say, Erica, you don't feel like you need to do it over and over again. Whereas AJ's like, I want to learn something new. And I bet I'll get a different from a different.
[00:38:19] Speaker C: Well, I didn't until he got back.
[00:38:21] Speaker B: And he was like, yeah, we had.
[00:38:22] Speaker C: Like the best for, you know.
[00:38:23] Speaker A: Yo yo. Do you know yo yo.
[00:38:25] Speaker B: I, I, I do kind of know yo yo. I mean, I know. Yeah, I know.
[00:38:29] Speaker A: Apparently, he's the longest standing, according to him, the longest standing entertainment staff.
[00:38:34] Speaker B: Oh, cool.
[00:38:34] Speaker A: Crew member. He's been there 20 years, so wow.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: I know. I can picture him in my head. I don't feel like I know him personally.
[00:38:41] Speaker A: Super fun guy. The longest art of the theme show tour you will ever go on. I mean, he knew everything and it was multiple hours and I did not mind and it was fantastic. So it was awesome to do that. I took Chuck to Star Wars Trivia because I thought, hey, Chuck would like to tag along and I'm going to go win Star wars trivia. Right? That was my mindset. And I know Chuck likes Star Wars. He's pretty big into Star wars, so I thought he would like it. If I had gone to Star Wars Trivia, I would have gotten a whopping five out of 20. I just want you to know I contributed five points.
He got us the other 12, you know, so he got us, we got, we got 17 out of 20. We lost. We lost, unfortunately, because someone got 18.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: Somebody got like. Oh, I was gonna say somebody get 20. I will say, like, these trivias, like, they are hard, but, like, there are some hardcore experts, like whether it's Marvel or Star wars or Disney parks or whatever, like, there are people who, like, know the answers to every single question. The only ones that I'm like, really strong in are Disney cruise line trips, trivia and brain teasers trivia. Those are the only ones that I can come. Like, I can't win every time or anything. I don't come close, like, but yeah, and I love Star wars and I, there's no way I would get 17.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: I couldn't believe I only knew five answers. And Chuck was saying names of people that I'd never heard in my entire life. And I'm like, are you sure that's the answer? He's like 100%. Like, he's so confident. Like, he's just, gimme the next question, you know, like he knew it all. And so I'm glad I took him with me or I would have embarrassed myself. Myself.
[00:40:14] 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 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 with Disney, Relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, My Path Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks, My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:41:13] Speaker B: Well, I gotta say, if you're not watching andor you are living under a rock because.
[00:41:19] Speaker A: Finished it.
[00:41:20] Speaker B: Oh, I just finished it myself. Oh, my God. It is. I honestly think that Andor might be like, one of my top five TV shows of all time. I'm not joking on that. And I'm like, not a hardcore Star wars person. Like, like. But Rogue One is my favorite Star wars movie.
[00:41:36] Speaker A: Oh, mine too.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: Yeah. And of course, this is the. The prequel to Rogue One. The entire andor series leads into Rogue One. And it's. It is. If you think of it as like, I don't want to. I like, it's like political commentary. It's, you know, it's a. It's just. It's an incredible.
It gets you all. It's so smart and it's emotional and it's like the storylines are so good, and the comeuppance for some of those characters at the end is just Chef's kiss. That's all I'll say.
[00:42:08] Speaker A: I know.
[00:42:08] Speaker B: No spoilers. No spoilers.
[00:42:10] Speaker A: No spoilers at all. But it's so good. Go watch it right now.
[00:42:12] Speaker B: Yeah, well, finish watching our show and then go watch it.
[00:42:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we got. We got. We got 18 more minutes.
[00:42:18] Speaker B: So, yeah, start with season one and go all the way. Marathon it through. But speaking of Star Wars, I mean, you guys.
[00:42:27] Speaker A: You guys, like, sorry, audio people, but these are our Photos. We've not seen the lightsaber thing before on, on the cruise ship.
[00:42:36] Speaker B: So fierce in this picture. Like, thank you. Yes.
[00:42:39] Speaker C: It was super awkward to take.
I was like, can you impose me, please?
[00:42:44] Speaker B: This is. First of all, both of these pictures are phenomenal pictures, like, just so, so, so, so, so good. But you guys look awesome in these pictures. Like, thank you. So good. I love it. I love it.
[00:42:55] Speaker A: So what happened is we came around the corner, we're like, oh, look, a Star wars thing. So we took our picture and there was no line. And we went to dinner with everybody and we showed them the picture. We're like, hey, look what we did. And they said, oh, man, we need to get that picture. So then we had to go wait in the long line between the show and dinner, you know, to catch the.
[00:43:14] Speaker C: The 20 minute line.
[00:43:16] Speaker A: Felt long to me. But anyway, so everyone was in.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: Don't forget to talk about C3POE.
[00:43:22] Speaker A: I wasn't gonna throw the cast member under the. Oh, no.
During trivia.
The cast member who was doing it, she was Jamaican. She'd never seen Star wars in her life. Like, didn't know any Star Wars. It was unbelievable.
[00:43:35] Speaker B: She said C3POE instead of multiple times.
[00:43:39] Speaker A: But here's the thing. She pronounced Mustafar like she was pronouncing all kinds of stuff.
[00:43:44] Speaker B: All kinds of stuff. Yeah.
[00:43:45] Speaker A: And she gets to see 3PO.
Chuck and I look at each other. We're like, did you hear that? And so we let it go. Anyway, I think like a 10 year old kid on like the 4th or 5th time raised his hand and said, it's C3PO and corrected her. I felt terrible for her. And she was. She played it off really well. But yeah, unfortunately, she did not know that's how you pronounce it.
[00:44:06] Speaker B: That's funny. Well, and that's hard. That is hard. If you're not. If you don't have some, like, awareness of the Star wars universe. Like, there are some difficult names.
[00:44:14] Speaker A: If you asked me to name anything on Lord of the Rings, I'd probably mess it up because it's not my franchise. Like, it's just.
So I would pro. I should not host that tribute.
[00:44:23] Speaker B: You don't want to butcher all the names. Well, this is. I love, I love that your friends demanded to get this picture, though, because I think it's a great one. Well, here is. Here you guys are at, at Royal Court.
[00:44:34] Speaker A: We got the big table in the middle. Have you ever sat at that table?
[00:44:38] Speaker B: I have not sat at that table.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: Okay, so we walk in. What's your table number. We're table 88. We have no idea what that means.
And they look at us and go, oh, you're table 88?
Yeah. They said, right this way. And they took us down. And we're like, why did she say it like that? Anyway, we get to the table, and all the lights and everything all point towards this one table. So we got. We took over the big table in the middle, and it was our pirate night dinner spot, too. So we got that table twice.
[00:45:06] Speaker B: Oh, awesome. Love that. And then, of course, you had animators as well. Now you had animation. You didn't have animation magic on. Well, did you have animation magic? Oh, we have. Crushed. That's right.
[00:45:18] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:45:18] Speaker B: Because it's the fantasy, and it's a shorter than Seven Night Cruise. Thank you. Okay.
[00:45:21] Speaker A: That. I do want to say that I was looking forward to Royal Court because it has some of my favorite items.
[00:45:27] Speaker B: Right. Chateaubriand? Escargot, right? Yeah.
[00:45:30] Speaker A: No, not escargot. I'm thinking more like the fried brie, you know?
So anyway. Anyway, it's got. And their Grand Marnier souffle is in there.
[00:45:40] Speaker B: Yes. People love it.
[00:45:41] Speaker A: Well, they were practicing for the transatlantic Atlantic. They were practicing Night three.
[00:45:45] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:45:46] Speaker A: And it was awful. Like, I mean, not awful.
[00:45:48] Speaker B: It was like an alternate menu.
[00:45:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it was like a multiverse situation.
[00:45:53] Speaker C: What AJ wanted.
[00:45:54] Speaker A: No, it's just not what I wanted. So Kiko, our server, I didn't eat what I got and whatever. And I was kind of just. I was probably pouty more than anything. And he says, AJ was everything okay? And I'm like, it's fine. Like, I was just really looking forward to that fried brie, and I was really looking forward to that souffle. And he goes, oh, oh, okay. And I was like.
Like, I was really looking forward to it. And I'm trying to, like, you know, hey, you can work some magic here, right? Yeah. And he just kept looking at me like, yeah, well, this is night three. We're practicing. I'm like, yeah, are you practicing Night one anywhere on the show or any other night? And he said, nope, we're night three the whole time. And so, unfortunately, it wasn't a great menu. I mean, it was fine, but. But I. I missed a couple of my signature things I like to get.
[00:46:35] Speaker B: Yeah, we just lost your video. We still have your audio.
[00:46:39] Speaker A: Well, as long as you can still hear us, I'll see if I can fix the video while we're chatting.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: All right, well, I'm going to. I'm Going to move on to your pictures. Lookout Key, because I know that there's some. I know there's some hot takes from you guys on. On Lookout Key. Here we see this. It's a really good picture you took of the pier, by the way.
[00:46:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I get up early. Like, it's. That's my thing is to get up early. So I got. I got a nice little sunrise over. Over the island. It was great.
[00:47:04] Speaker B: Awesome. It's a beautiful picture. And then here's, of course, you guys, this is after you walk. So for those who haven't been to Lookout Key, if you walk across the pier to kind of. There's a great picture spot. And so if you're watching on the video, you'll see this picture of Ashley. Ashley of AJ And Erica standing with the ship in the background. And so it's basically you're already crossed the pier. And then you've also got this map here. And I'm pretty sure I know what this is because I think you guys created your own Lookout Key. 5A. Am I right?
[00:47:39] Speaker A: We did. We did. So it's not official 5k yet, but we ran, you know, we got to the tram stop and we asked first, are you allowed to run on the road? You know, because that was the only thing on my mind that would make sense on the map, you know, to. To get the mileage. So they said, yeah, just stay on the left of the yellow line and you're good. So we, we ran the road, nature trail, and I figure, math wise, if you go back, I think you did go straight back, right?
[00:48:01] Speaker C: I did.
[00:48:02] Speaker A: Did it give you 3.1 miles? Yeah. Okay, so Erica went straight back. I wanted to explore the island a little more because I'd never been there. So I went down to Serenity Bay and kind of did some of those boardwalk things and then. And then made my way back. I think I ended up just over four miles. But yeah, we did a little unofficial 5K on the island.
[00:48:17] Speaker B: Yeah. And they're selling 5K merch just for those who haven't seen in the like on our Facebook group or in some other Facebook groups, like they are selling Lookout Key merchandise at the shops at Disney Tings, which is the shop at Lookout Key, the main sh.
But they don't have medals because there is no official 5k yet and we don't know when it's coming. But I love, by the way, that you're wearing your rundisney shirt in this picture. Yeah, I have to represent at all times. Yeah, Exactly. I see AJ's wearing Princess and Erica. You're wearing the, the Rundisney logo, which I love. And then this is a great picture. Is this at Serenity?
[00:48:56] Speaker A: I'm sorry, I'm still trying to fix the camera. I think I might switch our FaceTime. Well, I don't know. Apparently the cameras are just like not, not helping. So sorry about that. You don't, you don't have to look at us anymore.
[00:49:04] Speaker B: You can just hear us.
[00:49:06] Speaker A: That is, that is on.
No, no, the opposite end of Serenity. Down kind of by the lighthouse.
[00:49:12] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Cause where the rocks are.
[00:49:14] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So we did. Yeah, we, we took a. Later in the day. We just kind of walked down to that end. We did some snorkeling down there. Me, all the boys did. So we went out and did some snorkeling. And while we were down at that end, I made sure to grab a picture.
[00:49:27] Speaker B: Awesome. Now tell, tell me about the snorkeling at Lookout because we have not snorkeled there ourselves.
[00:49:32] Speaker A: I didn't love it. We brought our own masks because we were doing two islands. I figure, hey, you know, by the. For the cost of buying one, I, you know, that's a one day rental. You know what I mean? So we brought our own and our masks worked great. But like, I think it was more the weather. Like that. We did not have good weather on, on this day. That picture is false.
[00:49:50] Speaker B: Oh, so the picture is deceiving.
[00:49:52] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:49:55] Speaker B: Yeah, this picture is less deceiving. We got a lot of cloud cover, got rain.
[00:49:59] Speaker A: How many times, Erica, did we just kind of get rained off the beach?
[00:50:01] Speaker C: Like three times. Two or three times heavy rain. Super windy.
[00:50:05] Speaker A: So that meant heavy, heavy waves and all that. So the snorkeling was hard because you were fighting.
[00:50:11] Speaker B: Oh, fighting a car the whole time.
[00:50:12] Speaker A: So I don't really know if, you know, I mean, the coral was. Wasn't beautiful or whatever. I just don't know.
It was so much work, if that makes any sense.
[00:50:21] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and it's, it's a beautiful island. But as we've talked about on the show before, the a.
It's not a protected cove like at Castaway. Right? Castaway, you've got this like berm kind of that protects all of the Castaway beach. And so you're not getting waves like directly from the ocean. Right? You're get, you've got like, they have to hit this reef and kind of come around before. Whereas here you're really out on the open ocean. So the, I mean, that means you're going to have really nice tides. You're going to have a lot of water. Right. But, like, it does mean you can get more of a current and it can be a little bit.
Yeah, I mean, it's just not a protective coat, which is why you don't have all those floaties. Right? They don't use. They don't give you those floaty.
What do they call them, like, little beds? They're like those blue things that you.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: Can lay on or the inner tubes.
[00:51:11] Speaker B: Right? Yeah. You can't rent those at Lookout, because guess what? If they let you rent them, they would be out into the Atlantic Ocean by the end of the day. Whereas at least with a castaway, they can at least, like, collect them because they will all end up, like, kind of in. In this little, like, cove area. Castaway. So, yeah, they'll all get caught some at some point. All right, well, what did you guys think of Lookout? Now, you guys had been to Cast Away before, but this is your. Your first time at Lookout.
[00:51:38] Speaker A: I have an answer, but I'll let Erica go first because I'm. I'm the talkative hog, so.
So go ahead.
[00:51:44] Speaker C: I mean, I still love Castaway more, but I really liked. I really liked Lookout. Um, this is kind of a silly thing, but there were these little crabs everywhere, all over the island, and I just loved seeing them, especially when we were doing the 5K.
So those were fun. And I. I really liked the food. I thought the food was really good.
Oh, there's the video.
[00:52:04] Speaker B: There's. There. Your video.
I can see you again. Yes, yes.
[00:52:09] Speaker A: Sorry, audio podcast people that. You had to. Had to hear that.
[00:52:15] Speaker C: Anyway, so. Yeah, so I. I really liked it. I liked it a lot. But Castaway, I think, is still my favorite.
[00:52:20] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I love to look out as well. Here's, you know, on a scale of one to 10 castaways and 11 for me and so on. If castaways on 11, I give a lookout right now until it kind of, I think, figures out it's, you know, matures. Yeah, I think it's a seven. You know what I mean? So it's not. Not. But. But. And I know you probably know this, but Hard scoop ice cream over in Serenity Bay with a. With the cookie toppings. And I mean, she said, what do you want? You want Oreos on that? I'm like, yes, I do.
[00:52:50] Speaker B: And so I wouldn't. You want Oreos on your vanilla ice cream?
[00:52:54] Speaker A: Yeah, so that was. That was a win. And the spicy chicken sandwich was there. You Know, and so we, we were no kids, so we stayed the whole time at Serenity Bay. And so we, you know, I liked it, but here was another thing for me. Castaway is to the Magic Kingdom, right? Like, like those are like.
Or Disneyland.
Yeah, like the magic, like, you just know it's Disney. You know what I'm like. You feel it, right?
[00:53:19] Speaker B: You feel it?
[00:53:19] Speaker A: And so I feel like Lookout, for me is more like an animal kingdom. Right. Like, it's better designed.
[00:53:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:53:25] Speaker A: Better layouts.
[00:53:26] Speaker B: That's a really great comparison.
[00:53:28] Speaker A: Yeah, like, like it's more efficient. It's well thought out, you know, all that. But it doesn't have the same, like.
[00:53:34] Speaker B: I don't know, magic for pixie dust.
[00:53:36] Speaker A: I don't know.
[00:53:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. That's fair. I think the promise of Lookout is 100% than the promise of, of Castaway. I'm not saying, like, I think Castaway is like a well oiled machine. It runs, runs like, you know, really well. You're never gonna get French fries, but, you know, it's. But that's okay, right? Like.
[00:53:56] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, there was Mac and cheese too, at.
[00:53:58] Speaker B: Oh, there was Mac and cheese.
[00:54:00] Speaker A: Can I change my answer? I forgot about the Mac and cheese. No, I'm just kidding. I still stay with Castaway. Yeah, there was Mac and cheese. That was good. Yeah.
[00:54:06] Speaker B: But I feel like the beach at Lookout is a more beautiful beach, but like, you know, they still, like, the foliage doesn't. Hasn't fully developed yet and you know, give you enough shade. Right. And they haven't. Like I hear, you know, about the signage at the food places is all messed up and things like that. So. Yeah, there are things that they, they need to kind of figure out and tweak. And of course, as we've talked about on the show before, they're, you know, still in the planning stages of like, things like the, the 5K things like some of the, some of the excursions, you know, so there are things that I think will come in the future that are just not, you know, not ready yet. And so I think the promise of Lookout is really fantastic because that beach is incredible.
Got some, some fun pirate pictures that we got to look at.
[00:54:51] Speaker A: Of course, I, we already talked about Chuck and Jamie who were Captain Jack, and she wasn't a character, but she was perfectly pirate.
[00:55:00] Speaker B: Pirate Wife.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: You can kind of see in the background of the photo is that Alex is Captain Hook being eaten by TikTok.
[00:55:08] Speaker B: Oh, that's what the green is. Oh, that's brilliant.
[00:55:11] Speaker A: So swallowing him all the way up to his chest. And so he had a little arm, like all the way down.
[00:55:16] Speaker B: And then of course, me.
[00:55:17] Speaker A: I mean, with her pregnant belly, you know, like, it was cute as.
So here's another.
So Erica and I just, we love Pirate Night, but we just wear a themed shirt, you know, and Erica brings her ears, right. Chuck and Jamie blow it out of the water. Alex and Kimberly just crush it. And earlier that day at Lookout, I said something about pirate night menu. And you know, we gotta go get dressed for pirate night. And Jennifer or Kevin, one of Em, looked at us and said, what's Pirate night?
[00:55:48] Speaker B: And I was like, oh, Jennifer and Kevin, Did I not.
[00:55:51] Speaker A: I mean, maybe I missed it. Maybe it was one of those moments where I thought, just let it flow, you know, I don't.
So they granted, they went and somewhere found pirate shirts on the ship.
[00:56:02] Speaker B: I mean, I see they're wearing pirate shirts. They must have bought it at the shop because they did. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:56:07] Speaker A: And so our other pirate night story is that Kevin, Kevin and Jennifer are up at Meridian and they're enjoying a nice cocktail whiskey and wine. And we're all. The party crowd is down just being silly somewhere. And we text him, where are you? You know, they said, we're at Meridian. And so they said, come on up. And I had the thought, I don't think we belong at Meridian right now.
Like, but everyone else said, let's go. And we go up there and Captain Jack, you know, comes waltzing in and Captain Hook being eaten by a crocodile.
[00:56:41] Speaker C: Walking, like, hitting people on the way in.
[00:56:43] Speaker A: Awkward moment of all time. How loud and amazing. Obnoxious. You know, we felt we were getting some looks by, by the whiskey sippers, you know.
[00:56:52] Speaker B: Well, because you've got like. And you've got people who are going to Paulo and Remy, right? Like, they're all. And they're not dressed for Pirate night. I'm going to put this out there. If you are going to Paulo or Remy for dinner and it happens to be Pirate Night, you're dressed for Paulo or Remy, maybe you'll wear pirate ears or something, but you're really not pirate ready.
And that's most of the people hanging out in Meridian or.
[00:57:16] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:57:17] Speaker B: You know, in the evening, it's sort of of, you know, pre dinner time. It's folks heading into. But it's not. There's no dress code in Marie and so there's not.
[00:57:25] Speaker A: It was just awkward for us. That was it. And we didn't stay long, you know, we just, you know, We. We came and said hi, and. And I love it. Moved on.
[00:57:33] Speaker B: So I. I think it's adorable. I love that your friends found T shirts in the shops. I will tell folks, like, there are not always, like, pirate T shirts in the shop. Sometimes they have them, sometimes they don't. It really just is sort of supply, you know, based. And, you know, sock, I. There are sailings I've been on where I've seen they have pirate shirts and a lot of other sailings I've been on where they have none.
They will typically have, like, pirate accessories for the kids. Like, you might be able to buy like a. A pirate sword or a hook or eye patch, things like that. Those are more plentiful as well as some different pirate ear options as well.
[00:58:10] Speaker A: Right.
[00:58:11] Speaker B: All right, well, I love this because this is your. This is the journey of Pirate Night.
[00:58:16] Speaker A: That's just. That's me and Erica for four cruises doing Pirate Night.
[00:58:19] Speaker B: I love it. And that's it. I see your first.
You didn't really go all in on Pirate Night. You didn't know. Right.
[00:58:27] Speaker A: I called Kevin and Jennifer out, and then here I am on our first one wearing the bandana on my head the best I can because I'm like, oh, we were supposed to dress up for this. So, yeah, that's on us. And there's our kids.
[00:58:39] Speaker B: You can see them.
[00:58:40] Speaker A: They're full Disney.
They're bought into.
[00:58:43] Speaker C: So the thing that I love is that we're totally fried. We've come off the beach. We're burnt in every photo.
[00:58:49] Speaker B: Yes, that's right.
Right.
Because it's usually. Yeah, it's usually a beach day. That. Right.
I love it. All right, well, of course, your. Your next day was. Was it the beautiful castaway key There is your picture with Mickey. It looks like. Did you. All of you did the. It looks like all of you. Except.
[00:59:08] Speaker C: Except for Jamie.
[00:59:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I was gonna say except the pregnant one. Right.
[00:59:12] Speaker A: No, Kimberly did it.
[00:59:14] Speaker B: He's the one next to me. Oh, my goodness.
[00:59:16] Speaker A: I don't remember what Jamie.
[00:59:17] Speaker C: She heard her. She was wearing some boots for Pirate Night, and she messed up her foot and so she couldn't do. She was so bummed.
[00:59:23] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:59:23] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, good on you. You guys. Everybody did the 5K training runs. Yeah, this is. Yeah, this is. I mean, you guys run all the time, so 5K is. Is nothing for you, probably.
[00:59:36] Speaker A: Yeah. But a 5K when it's 85 degrees and 100% humidity is different, so.
[00:59:40] Speaker B: That's true. That's true. You do run in Atlanta aj, come on.
[00:59:45] Speaker A: I do. I do. So the. The. I think the promise of the churro waffle is what got everybody in, is I told everybody, here's how we do it. We go. We're first ones off the ship. We do the 5k. We come back on the ship, we eat our churro waffles, we go back out on the island. Like, that's how we roll. That's the plan, and that's how we did it. And Alex had. How many churro waffles do you think he had?
[01:00:09] Speaker C: I don't know, Five?
[01:00:11] Speaker A: Yeah, six, something like that. He brought a three.
[01:00:13] Speaker B: Wow.
[01:00:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[01:00:14] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:00:15] Speaker B: That's some dedication.
I think the max I could eat is two. I mean, I love them. Yeah, I can do toast, but I don't think I could eat more than. More than two.
[01:00:25] Speaker A: Chuck dipped his in syrup, even though.
[01:00:27] Speaker B: I can't do that. I was gonna say, even though I know Brian.
[01:00:30] Speaker A: I knew Brian would say no to that.
[01:00:31] Speaker B: You know, it's so funny. Brian has such a sweet tooth. So, like, it's. It is like him dipping. That's like. Would be a classic. Brian like to put. But it's. They're so sweet that even Ryan is like, no, I don't. I. I don't. I won't dip them. I mean, he tried it the one time and then was like, no, too much. And here you guys are through the years on.
[01:00:50] Speaker A: That's us doing.
[01:00:51] Speaker C: That's Taylor.
[01:00:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So Erica didn't. I don't. Oh, you were injured or something. Yeah, injured. One at a time.
[01:00:58] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:00:58] Speaker A: So that's my daughter Taylor. So Taylor did it with me instead.
[01:01:01] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:01:02] Speaker A: So we've done it.
[01:01:03] Speaker B: And so every cruise that you guys have chosen to take, of all four cruises, all castaway stops. So.
[01:01:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it's hard to picture a cruise without Now. Now that we've done four, it's hard.
[01:01:14] Speaker B: To picture a cruise without castaway stop.
[01:01:15] Speaker C: I don't know if you would do one without castaway, but.
[01:01:17] Speaker A: Yeah, it's my favorite place, you know, on the planet. Jamie, too, by the way. Jamie, who's on the cruise. She says. I mean, she was dropping me off.
[01:01:25] Speaker B: And pick me up.
[01:01:26] Speaker A: Yeah. Pick me up on the next sailing.
That's her.
[01:01:29] Speaker B: You can. I mean, there are people who live there on. You know, on Gastroy. You got to get a job.
[01:01:34] Speaker A: I've been on the. I've been on the Disney cruise line careers website and looking for some opportunities.
[01:01:40] Speaker B: You know, they. They do have production videos. AJ Like, I mean, you don't have to actually work on the ship like all year long. You could probably get a gig doing some production videos for them, though, I bet.
[01:01:52] Speaker A: Trust me.
Have a family.
[01:01:56] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I, I feel like. Honestly, I wish, like, part of me wishes I could go back in time, right? Before maybe. Maybe before I went to college or before I went to law school and taken some time off from, you know, sort of working towards my career as a lawyer and. And worked on a ship. Like, I could call bingo. I, I mean, you know, I. That's. That would be. That. I mean, that would be my jam. I would absolutely, absolutely be like, try and be part of the team. That would be. That would be. That would be.
[01:02:27] Speaker A: You should host Match your Mate. That's what you said.
We did that on this cruise. That was our first time. We've. We'd never seen Match your Mate and we took. Our whole small group went. And none of us got selected and none of us really wanted to. I don't.
And so. But it was so fun. Oh, so good. Well.
[01:02:44] Speaker B: And, you know, you might. There might be things you don't want to talk about in front.
[01:02:47] Speaker A: That's why. Yeah. We knew every. We knew each other. Right. Like, we all.
[01:02:51] Speaker B: You might not want them talking about those things because they might tell the. You know, you said there's like 13 people in your church group. They might tell the rest of the people.
[01:02:58] Speaker A: We might not be able to go back to church.
[01:02:59] Speaker B: Right. You might tell your pastor if they knew, you might not want them talking about.
[01:03:04] Speaker A: I mean, you've been to Match your mate. Like, we've. We saw the people that were one. You know, saw them later on the, on the ship, and I'm like, they're.
[01:03:11] Speaker B: They're famous. They're always.
[01:03:13] Speaker A: They're famous. And I also kind of kept my distance a little, you know, I was like, I know where you've been.
[01:03:18] Speaker B: You know, you're like, I'm a little uncomfortable.
[01:03:21] Speaker A: They was getting on an elevator and I waited for the next one.
[01:03:24] Speaker B: You know, you're like, yeah, it's a little uncomfortable.
[01:03:26] Speaker A: You guys can have that elevator.
[01:03:27] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Here's, of course, a beautiful. You got a beautiful shot of the ship, of course, parked at a castaway.
[01:03:34] Speaker A: I, I spent. Erica is like, hey, I'm going to head back to the ship. And I'm like, go ahead. They're going to drag me off this island.
[01:03:40] Speaker C: Right?
[01:03:42] Speaker A: And so I just hung around. I was taking pictures. That was. That was it. Yeah.
[01:03:45] Speaker B: I love it. I love it. Well, and we've got. Of Course, there's one food picture that you. You included in this slide deck.
[01:03:52] Speaker A: I don't normally take pictures of my food. It's not.
[01:03:54] Speaker B: Listen, listen. We always say the camera eats first. That's what I. I know.
[01:04:00] Speaker A: I know that y' all are like that. I'm not like that, actually.
[01:04:02] Speaker B: Ryan's not like that.
[01:04:04] Speaker A: Oh, he's not.
[01:04:04] Speaker B: Okay. I mean, he will. He just. He. He looks at me with. With, like, disdain. Like, really? I have to take a picture of every piece of food. Yeah, but I love.
[01:04:15] Speaker A: But I love that you do, because I like watching it. I just don't. I just don't do it myself. So the truffle, right? The story here, Sam, is that two years ago, before we went on our first cruise, I'm listening to your episodes, you know, before I knew y' all, and you're talking about all the little things in all the different restaurants. And I'm like, I don't even know what that is. You know? And so I get there, and I ordered a bunch of things. You know, the fried brie and the. I was not willing to try the escargot. That was not going to happen. But. But the truffle presets. Erica's like, ew, you're going to eat that?
[01:04:44] Speaker B: Gross.
[01:04:44] Speaker C: Well, not ew, gross, but AJ's like a very picky eater.
[01:04:48] Speaker B: Non adventurous eater.
[01:04:50] Speaker C: No, I mean, his palate is like, you know, six things.
[01:04:52] Speaker D: It.
[01:04:53] Speaker B: So right. Like, Mac and cheese is right. He's Nathan's palate.
[01:04:57] Speaker A: I ate more chicken tenders on this cruise than I want want to admit.
But I ordered two plates of the truffle. Of the truffle cassettes on this crew that said, hey, Fabian. He was our server. You can put it in both. Both of them in one plate if you want. Like, I'm eating it all. I'm not sharing it, so.
[01:05:12] Speaker B: Oh, delicious.
[01:05:13] Speaker A: Anyway, so I just wanted you to know that I tried it because of y' all, and. And it's. It's one of my favorites. And of course, the churro Mickey waffles. I should have gotten a picture of Alex's plate. I mean, he was just held high. It was. It was cr.
[01:05:24] Speaker B: I do notice there's syrup in this picture, though.
[01:05:27] Speaker A: That was not for me. Yeah, that was not for me.
So the other Alex story is that. And this is an Alex. Jennifer story. So Alex is our young, fun, wild kind of guy. And then Jennifer is our. She's corporate America, non Disney per se person who had never been on Disney cruise. Anyway, Alex Comes into the theater on, on the last night for Believe.
[01:05:54] Speaker C: Yes.
[01:05:55] Speaker A: And he's got a napkin and he's heartbreaking. He's. He's sneaking something in. He's got a whole napkin full of chicken tenders.
[01:06:03] Speaker B: I love it.
[01:06:04] Speaker A: And, and I, and he, you know, he asked if anybody wants to share. Well, it turns out Jennifer had not eaten the chicken tenders at all on the cruise. Even though I told them, wow, six months ago is going to change your life.
[01:06:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:06:16] Speaker A: She had tried them earlier that day.
[01:06:18] Speaker B: That's what they said. Life changing chicken tenders, right?
[01:06:21] Speaker A: Yep. And so now here, here we are. Like she' just put together and, you know, very polite and whatever and Alex is handing out chicken tenders and she reaches across all of us and is like, hand them over. Like, hand down the chicken tenders. And she's eating it in the theater. I couldn't even believe. That's how I knew we arrived with Kevin and Jennifer is that she's just chowing down on a chicken tender that was brought down in a napkin.
[01:06:43] Speaker B: In a napkin. I love it. I love it.
[01:06:45] Speaker A: So, yeah, yeah, it was, it was pretty great.
[01:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:06:48] Speaker A: So that was kind of the.
[01:06:49] Speaker B: Yeah. I feel like you gotta have them on the pool deck, though. I feel like there's nothing better than like midday.
[01:06:54] Speaker A: I don't eat them anywhere else.
[01:06:55] Speaker B: Yeah, you eat them on the pool deck, you know, with barbecue sauce or honey mustard however, you know, with some french fries or.
[01:07:01] Speaker A: I don't eat them in cabanas. I don't, you know, I don't room service them. I just get them on the pool deck.
[01:07:05] Speaker B: Yeah, that's where I like them too. I don't know why. Like, it just is something about sitting on the pool deck, chowing down on some chicken tenders and fries. Maybe some pizza, you know. Oh, yes, delicious.
[01:07:15] Speaker A: Erica is the pizza. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, you know, mid on the pizza. Erica loves it.
[01:07:21] Speaker B: I mean, I think the pizza on the Wish and Treasure is better than the pizza on the other ships. I'm not saying it's not good on the other ships, but it's definitely the best on the wish class.
[01:07:32] Speaker C: Yeah, I would agree with that. We don't really eat pizza at home, but I will, I will go to the, to the gym and run on the treadmill just so I can have a few slices of that cheese pizza every day.
[01:07:43] Speaker A: Erica came up to me and says, hey, did you know they'll give you a whole pizza?
[01:07:47] Speaker B: They will, they will. Yeah. I Mean, you might have to wait a little bit.
[01:07:51] Speaker A: You didn't order it, but you no.
[01:07:52] Speaker B: Doubt that you did it. Yeah, I love that. I love that. By the way, we've got a couple of comments. I wasn't able as. As I had the PowerPoint. It was hard for me to bring comments up. But I gotta say, Ashley is trying to recreate the Chir waffles with their desale Spring break friends. So the cruise we were on with them say they had some friends. They live in Charlotte. There's some friends that joined us on the cruise and they are trying to actually remake. So I wish you good luck and.
[01:08:21] Speaker A: We will take that recipe when you figure it out.
[01:08:23] Speaker B: Exactly. And they. They said that they have each tried different recipe for practice. And the dough needs to be like a French pastry and not an American waffle. Okay. So, Ashley, you must share of the. The varieties that you try. You must share who has, of course, the winning recipe. I also got to bring up that Linda is saying that the winning couple on their last cruise on their. She's talking about Match youh Mate.
[01:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:08:47] Speaker B: Had a perfect score and they cheated. So, you know, no cheating on Match people.
And then, of course, Tracy is also saying that the retirement plan for me is.
[01:08:59] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:09:01] Speaker B: I don't know if they'll. One, I'll be too old for them to hire me in entertainment, probably because they don't tend to hire older folks in entertainment. I'm probably too old right now for them to hire me in entertainment in my 40s now.
[01:09:15] Speaker A: They'll hear. They'll. They'll hear your. They'll know that you're the DCL duo and they'll know immediately.
[01:09:20] Speaker B: That will disqualify.
[01:09:22] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, we've heard you before.
[01:09:26] Speaker B: Be like, yeah, that's too much. Well, you guys, it's been so wonderful having you on the show. You. I. We're gonna wind down here, but I gotta ask, you know, what's. What's next up for you guys?
I know you've got. We talked before the show and you've got some Disney trips planned because obviously you're gonna run a bajillion races.
Probably have a perfect season. AJ I'm guessing no perfect season.
[01:09:51] Speaker A: No perfect season. We.
And this is a Disney phrase, as you would know, a run Disney phrase. We're doing just the marathon.
Marathon weekend. That's a Disney thing because there's so many races. You know, everybody likes to do them all. And it's, you know, too much.
[01:10:06] Speaker B: That's too much.
[01:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So we did we did Goofy Goofy last year. You know the two races back to back and.
[01:10:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Which is the half and then the full. For those who don't know that's. And they're back to back days. So you're doing half on Saturday and then you're doing a full marathon on Sunday.
[01:10:20] Speaker A: We're going just the full this year and so. I can't believe we even say stuff like that.
[01:10:26] Speaker B: Slackers, you guys.
[01:10:28] Speaker A: I mean what are we even doing?
[01:10:29] Speaker B: Right?
[01:10:30] Speaker A: But then we're also going to go out to California and we're doing the Disneyland half which is three weeks later. So I don't know if that count like makes up for doing just quote unquote, just the marathon.
[01:10:40] Speaker B: I don't know if that counts. That's absolutely. So you're getting your coast to coast medal then.
[01:10:44] Speaker A: We are. We are. Yeah.
[01:10:45] Speaker B: That would be awesome. That's fantastic.
[01:10:47] Speaker A: So those are plans and then this will be Mark's 10 year old years since Erica's first princess race.
[01:10:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:10:53] Speaker A: And so 2026 will. And so a lot of healthy lifestyle changes and, and growth and everything for us and her in that, that window of time. So we'll probably try and register for princess.
[01:11:06] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:11:07] Speaker A: And.
[01:11:08] Speaker B: Oh, that's awesome you guys. Well, congratulations on 10 years of run Disney racing. That's amazing. I gotta tell you, Kimberly saying thank you you for sharing your experience with us.
They're blessed to be part of their small group and they're hooked and they're ready for their next cruise. So yeah, they're trying.
[01:11:24] Speaker A: Alex is trying to talk us into the transatlantic. He's like ready.
[01:11:28] Speaker B: What's, what's the next cruise up for you all? Do you have the time?
[01:11:30] Speaker A: I see Alex now, he's like, so how about that transatlantic?
I mean, yo, you're about to have a baby, you know.
[01:11:37] Speaker B: Well, I mean you got to do it for the show. Right. Like you know, we need you guys to come back, of course. So you know, so you must sacrifice.
[01:11:46] Speaker A: I would love a transatlantic. I think that would be awesome. I'm a sea day person, you know. I love, I love the sea day. We don't have any cruises booked at the moment. I do think this is my opinion. I want to catch the dream, you know, four or five night or probably five night. We've never done a five night. I'd like to do that, you know and that will push us into gold status which then I feel like. And I don't know if this is good strategy. Sam, you can tell me that will put us into Gold status, which would help us in Alaska if we book Alaska.
[01:12:11] Speaker B: Yes, yes, it will. It will. Because there are definitely excursions that. That tend to book up quicker. And so any. Any status, you know, leap you can make before sailing to Alaska is good. There's tons of people, of course, who are silver, and then each as you get the higher in the levels, there's less and less people in those tiers. Right. So, I mean, especially. Well, the other part of. Of strategy with Alaska is sailing either at the very beginning or the very end of the season, because those tend to be less oversubscribed. Right. If you sail in July, that is the height of the season. Right. So all of July, it's the most expensive time to sail to Alaska. And it's also going to be the fullest. Of course the weather is going to be beautiful, but you know, there. There's that. That disadvantage as well. So.
[01:12:58] Speaker A: Yep. So we've got Alaska on our list for sure.
It's not the bucket list one, but it's. It's definitely on the list. And I think one more, one more. I want to get. I want to do the dream. I don't know why I want to knock that. I mean, the treasure is on my list too, of course, but I mean, as a Parks person, you got nights and money.
[01:13:16] Speaker B: I know, I know.
Well, I want to let you guys tell folks know where you can be. I mean, I tagged you in our social media posts, but like, you guys both post such really fun stuff, mostly following your. Your Run Disney Journey. I love that you do great videos, A.J. that's evident. I love. I love watching them. I want others to know where they can follow you.
Why don't you tell people?
[01:13:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So we've got a YouTube channel, AJ and Erica. Right. So we're starting to put the videos there. I. I had a YouTube channel and I started putting my stuff on there. You know, it's like just my name or whatever. And then all of a sudden, like, they actually started, like, people started watching them. I'm like, well, shoot, like, Erica's in all these videos. Like, so we had moving everything over to like a joint YouTube account, whatever. So AJ and Eric is where you can find us there. I'm A.J. parker. Are you Erica Parker on Instagram? I think you are.
[01:14:07] Speaker B: She's Erica and Parker.
[01:14:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:14:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:14:09] Speaker C: You're the one that set that up for me.
[01:14:12] Speaker A: How many years ago was a long time ago.
[01:14:14] Speaker B: How old are our children?
[01:14:15] Speaker C: I don't even know.
[01:14:17] Speaker A: Don't even know.
[01:14:18] Speaker B: Well, thanks you guys, for coming on the show. Thanks for having us. Yeah, of course. You're welcome any anytime you know the standing invitation, any Disney cruise line cruise you do, you're coming on. If of course if you do an abd, you're coming on.
Speaking of abd, the reason I mentioned that is because our show next week we will be here on Memorial Day U. We will be off from work but we will be live with you all because we are that committed at our our normal time, 5.30pm Pacific Time 8.30pm Eastern Time. We will be on with Gail and Kara, friends of the show, multiple time guests. They will have just come back from an adventures by Disney over in Europe. It's the tulip one so it's the one with Belgium and Amsterdam and it's going to be a fabulous show. So play please join us next week. As I mentioned, same same great time. But again thank you so much AJ and Erica for joining me and you all out there. Have a lovely evening and see you real soon.
[01:15:25] Speaker D: Well, thanks to everyone out there for listening this week. We really really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.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 star review. 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 forward/dclduo or email them at dclduoypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things, full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast, links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month. Just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here at least, and 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 us at any infoclduo.com or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Dual 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 views the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney Vacation, please contact contact the great folks over at MyPath unwinding travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL duo. Good night.
