[00:00:00] Speaker A: I listened to your podcast when you went on a royal ship and I thought, hey, can't be that bad.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: How bad can it be, right? Sam and Brian didn't hate it, right?
[00:00:11] Speaker A: Yeah, they didn't hate it.
A lot of people go on Royal True.
[00:00:28] Speaker C: Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the DC Episode Duo podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and Sam. Yet once again it is review time.
This review from a year ago, I keep thinking we're catching up, but no, a year ago is from Cavapoo owner.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: Who writes I love a Cavapoo.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: Yes, who writes best DCL source, exclamation point. Great variety of guests, great format, high production quality, perfect length.
Go to listen when I need to escape for a bit. Well, thank you for that review. We're glad we can provide a bit of escape, especially these days.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: And I hope your Cavapoo likes the show too.
Listen, we're dog lovers.
[00:01:12] Speaker C: Have your Cavapoo leave us a five paw review on Apple Podcasts, please. But yes, thank you for that review, Cavapoo owner. And thank you for listening out there. And for all of you out there, easiest way you can help support this show is to head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars. If you want to take it one step further, leave us a written review and we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes just as we did for Cavapoo owner. So Sam, yes, over to you. I'm excited about this topic.
[00:01:38] Speaker B: I'm excited about this topic too. We have a repeat guest. She was on last year. The episode came out I think in July, but I think we recorded it, I think a couple months earlier than that. But we're super excited to welcome back Michelle to the show. Welcome, Michelle.
[00:01:54] Speaker A: Hi. Thanks for having me again.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for joining us again. We have a great topic to discuss because as we learned on our prior show with you, for those who haven't listened to it, it was episode 443. It came out on July 20, 2024 and it was about Michelle's first sailing on Disney Cruise line on the Disney Fantasy a seven night Eastern Caribbean Pixar day at sea that had a couple of hiccups, let's say, including not knowing where the room keys were going to be on the embarkation day. So spoiler alert, they are left at your stateroom door. So don't go wait in guest services, go to your stateroom door to get your room key.
[00:02:36] Speaker C: I remember this story now.
[00:02:37] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
A cast member gave her wrong information and wasted a whole bunch of Michelle and her family's time, which is an unfortunate event that happened at the very beginning of her cruise.
[00:02:50] Speaker C: As long as we weren't the source of the wrong information, I feel exceedingly bad, but not maybe just slightly less bad.
[00:02:56] Speaker A: Yeah, but I became a seasoned cruiser after that.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Exactly. Well, the thing I felt bad about was that we hadn't said anything about where keys were I think in months and months. I think we had mentioned it right around time of the restart because that was actually a new thing you used to get your key cards when you checked in at the port. And then starting with the restart post pandemic, they started putting the room keys right outside of your room. I don't, I'm not sure why they made the change.
As a general matter, like I, I understand why they were doing it that way with COVID because they were trying to like prevent from people waiting in long lines and that sort of a thing and sort of standing around.
But anyway, we hadn't mentioned it in quite a long time because it didn't really occur to us that a first time cruiser might not know where the room key would be. But it was helpful that Michelle brought it up.
[00:03:50] Speaker C: They also changed. Like I don't want to rabbit hole us down here too far, but they also changed. Remember you used to check in upstairs and they had a lot more room to hold the keys up there. They don't at those little kiosks downstairs. They don't anymore. But you can also just use your wrist as your room key now with your magicband or sorry, Disney band.
[00:04:07] Speaker B: Yes, true, true. Anyway, it's coded at check in at the port if you have one. But anyway, we're here to talk about Michelle's second Disney cruise. But it's not just a second Disney cruise. Tell us Michelle, what you decided to do for your second and third cruises.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: Well, we had booked a five night on the Dream but I felt that five nights was too short since I, we had done the seven and the seven was fabulous and I thought about, you know, maybe a back to back but then, you know, the price would be quite high.
So then I found a really cheap three night Royal Caribbean stopped off at Cococay and I and the timing just aligned where it would be just before the Disney cruise and then we'd disembark that and then embark on the Dream.
So we booked a three night with Royal Caribbean on their liberty of the seas and with the idea that we're there are really two port days with Cococay and Nassau. So how bad can it be? You know, like we're really.
[00:05:22] Speaker B: And if you hate it, you're about to go on Disney cruise.
[00:05:25] Speaker A: So I thought we'd end on a high note in that way. So that was what we did.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: I love that.
Remind us again who is in your sailing party for both these cruises?
[00:05:37] Speaker A: It was my husband and my two kids. I have a nine year old son and a four year old girl.
[00:05:45] Speaker B: And let's talk a little bit about the planning process. You obviously booked the Disney cruise first and booked the Royal Cruise second. But obviously the Royal Cruise was happening first. Any sort of major differences between the two in how you were planning? Of course there are different cruises. One is a three night, one is a five night and they go to different places. But like did you do any like specific research for your Royal Caribbean cruise?
And how did sort of your onboard or pre booking stuff go with Royal Caribbean?
[00:06:14] Speaker A: We didn't do too much research. I mean it was just do the dates align? Do they stop off at Cococay?
That was really the goal, to check out their private island.
And then we just booked online through their website. We got an onboard credit at the time. Usually we booked through Costco Travel but the onboard credit was valued more than whatever we could get back in like a Costco shop card.
So we did that.
Booking was pretty straightforward and easy. The only thing that my husband complained about was the aftermath of emails that came to him.
Bing, bing, bing, new deal, you know, 30% off. You know, it was like a barrage of emails non stop.
And I think this drove him absolutely crazy.
Yeah, that you got was a, that was.
[00:07:15] Speaker C: Yeah, you get a lot more marketing from, from Royal Credit for sure. But, but you know the other interesting thing is pre cruise did you look at with Royal, unlike Disney because they do these like sales and things. Sometimes you can reprice out and rebook your cruise and save a little money. Did you, did you look at that?
[00:07:32] Speaker A: We didn't. I mean and I don't think in the future we will probably be doing that because we've had some post cruise bad experience with credit and calling them and getting our final bill sorted. I mean I think we've had some like, we've probably spent like a total of like two days between my husband and I just sorting out some onboard credit issues that happened that I think my husband said I will never do this again, I'll do it again.
The value is there.
But I think he doesn't have a lot of patience for that stuff.
So in Terms of us like checking prices and seeing if they'll go down or. I don't think we want to deal with that. With Royal Caribbean, I think we're, we're fine to just lock it in at that price and leave it be. We don't want to call customer service.
[00:08:37] Speaker C: So this is where I will put in a very heavy. So that when people.
[00:08:40] Speaker B: I know exactly what Brian's going to say, because I was going to say the same.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: Well, when people I see online. Oh, I just. Who needs a travel agent? This is why. Because when things go wrong, then you're not the one spending two days of your life dealing with it. Like, usually your travel agent. And also, you know, when you think about repricing the cruise, I, I mean, like, I'm. Michelle, I'm with you. Like, I, I would see all this email coming in and be like, I, I don't know what to do with this. And like, like, I don't have, I don't have time to sit here and look at each email and understand if it would impact price. But a travel agent will do that. A good travel agent will do that. Um, we used a travel agent years ago that, you know, she would look at every offer coming in, run it across all of her clients, and then figure out if anyone would save money and then proactively call in and rebook and then just email you and tell you, hey, I just saved you $150 on your crew. Like, fantastic. That's a round of. Round of drinks or dinner or something.
[00:09:28] Speaker B: Right? So, yeah. Right. Yeah. And, and no, no shade on, you know, people who like to use Costco Travel. I totally get it because you do get that money back in Costco, and that is probably, if you're looking at pure price, like, that's probably the cheapest way to book a Disney cruise and on a lot of other cruise lines as well.
Um, I still will not use them because I don't like the idea of having to wait on hold for them and not having that personal service of a travel agent. But I, like I said it, I totally understand why people will go that route if it makes the difference between, you know, being able to cruise and, and, and save that money.
[00:10:07] Speaker C: I want to ask a question about upfront here.
Did you do any, did you do any research about Royal before you booked it? And if so, like, what kind of research did you do? I noticed that the Liberty of the Seas, I think you said, is a freedom class, which is for all of those listening out there. It's Right, the class. Right before the Oasis class came out.
I'm just curious, did you look into the ship or look into Royal further before you booked them? Did you have any sort of like, I got lots of questions and I want to know what's going on here or was it just really kind of. This makes sense. We're going to give it a shot.
[00:10:40] Speaker A: We just thought we'd give it a shot. I mean, the price was way cheaper than Disney Cruise.
It stopped off at these two places.
We. I listened to your podcast when you went on a Royal ship and I thought.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: How bad could it be? Right. Sam and Brian didn't hate it, right?
[00:11:02] Speaker A: Yeah, they didn't hate it.
A lot of people go on Royal. Yeah, true.
And yeah, I mean, we tried to see what the rooms would look like because you know on the app, when you can choose an interior, an ocean room view or balcony, you know, the photos on the app are not what you actually do get. And I was really confused by that. I thought, oh, you know, the YouTube video of this room looks really old.
Does this mean it's been upgraded since that video? Because the video was really old and these pictures on the phone don't look like that.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: Yeah, no, because they're showing you an example based on their newest ship on the fleet was the same room type. Right. Or same room category. Right. Which might even have a. Yeah. And it might have a different room arrangement. It's kind of like what hotels do though, because kind of hotels kind of do the same thing. Right. Where you're booking a room and it's like showing you an image of a room with two queen beds. Right. And it's a newer room and then you get to that property and it ends up being a much older looking room. Right. So I don't think it's that. I agree with you. I think it's misleading.
But I, I do think the, the only, your only re. Recourse in that situation is really to do what you did, which is looking at YouTube to look at the specific room if the room matters. Right. Or to sail only on the newer ships. But Royal is kind of notorious for updating things on the ship but not updating their rooms. And so like, so the room decor tends to be more dated and maybe a little bit more worn than what you will see on Disney. That's not to say that Disney is perfect by any means in updating their rooms. We have been in rooms on some of the ships that are, you know, you can see they're in need of updating but on the whole, they're still always in better shape than.
Than rooms on a royal. An older royal ship. The brand new royal ships are, you know, beautiful and updated because they were just built.
[00:13:08] Speaker C: The other good resources, cruise critic, because they have like basically dossier on each ship and then deck plans. And a lot of times they link off to specific YouTube videos for specific rooms. You can just like see them on the deck plane, like, oh, there's my room. And you click on it, you can go watch it. So that's another good resource that I use sometimes, especially for cruise lines, not Disney cruise line, just to understand what things are like.
[00:13:29] Speaker B: But yeah, yeah, yeah, let's talk about booking, advance bookings. You know, on Royal, there's a lot of different things you can, you know, book in advance, like dining, you know, specialty dining. You know, you get to choose whether you want to do the my time dining or set dining or the drink packages.
[00:13:46] Speaker C: The specialty drink package.
[00:13:48] Speaker B: Get to choose. If you want to do drink packages, you might be able to make reservations for certain shows. Not all the shows, but some of the shows. You can, you know, do that in advance. And of course, just like Disney, you can book your excursions in advance.
Did you guys book anything for, you know, royal. And. And what was your decision point on drink packages? And when I say drink packages, I'm not just talking alcohol. I'm also talking about, you know, soda packages, especially for, you know, the kids.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: Yeah, well, in terms of drink packages, we didn't book that just because my kids don't drink soda and neither do we.
So we were okay with forgoing the drink package. But we did book an excursion to Baja Bay Water park that was in Nassau. And we, and I had seen that that was an excursion through Disney also. But because we had this on board credit, I thought, let's apply it to this excursion. And plus, you know, it was during one of their 30% off excursions deals that, you know, just seem to be recurring every week anyway. But we booked the Baja Bay water park.
Nice.
It was canceled when we got on board, which was like a whole.
That was the issue that kind of.
[00:15:11] Speaker B: Like trickled down that led to this onboard credit issue. Getting the, Getting the refund properly and all that or getting it credited to something else, sir.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: Right. Yes. Yeah, yeah.
[00:15:21] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. What did you guys end up deciding regarding specialty dining and also main dining? Like, did you, did you choose a set dining time or the anytime dining? And did you choose to do any specialty dining? I'm not sure what's Available obviously on Liberty of the Seas because that's, we haven't sailed on, on that one.
[00:15:40] Speaker A: You know, for this one we did the late dining and we kept it to main dining because it was only three nights and it, I didn't know also because it was a new ship, like whether kids would want to go to the kids club and they didn't want to go to the kids club. So I'm glad we didn't do any specialty dining.
But yeah, we, I didn't even do much research into that at all actually. We just kept it at main dining three nights and that was kind of it.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Yeah. One of the things I should sort of point out is specialty dining on Royal, other than the chef's table is kid friendly. So you can bring your kids to, you know, Chopped Steakhouse or the Hibachi place or really any of the specialty dining. The only one that I believe is for adults only is just that chef's table that they have. But I also understand folks might not want to spend the extra money for, for their kids to go to specialty dining because, you know, it's a, it certainly is fancier and your kids might be just as happy with, you know, chicken fingers and french fries in main dining or at the buffet. But let's, let's then jump into.
[00:16:57] Speaker C: I have a question. Pre cruise, you said your husband didn't love the barrage of emails he got after booking. How did he feel about, and how did you feel about having to pay for the shore excursions up front? Uh, because Royal charges you when you book, not when you, not when you board. So was that at all kind of annoyance in the beginning or, or not?
[00:17:17] Speaker A: I guess that would have, for us, it didn't matter at the time. But I think, you know, with this whole onboard credit and the excursion canceling, I think maybe if we didn't have to pay ahead of time, that would have alleviated some of these issues we had later on down the line.
And yeah, but because it was just one excursion, it wasn't such a big deal to pay for that upfront.
[00:17:46] Speaker C: I was going to give the tip too. You mentioned the sales. So on the upfront fair, if, if anyone can ever show me Royal Caribbean's website when they're not having some sort of sale, I would love to see it because the prices they quote you, like Disney cruise line prices, but you know, then like child sales for 3, 60% off everyone in your cabin. And so like I've, I've never, it's, it's that false pricing scheme That a lot of companies do where it's like the thing is perpetually on sale for 30% off. And so that's just really the price.
[00:18:16] Speaker B: If anyone play pays full price on a drink package on Royal Caribbean, you are a sucker.
[00:18:22] Speaker C: Well, no, no, but on the, on the packages and add ons, I would say this, the sale. The, I'm talking about the cruise fare packages and add ons. I was going to say the sale prices are variable. They do vary. So the, they do. The depth of the discount you can get can vary based on the sale.
The tip that we got when we had a sailing that was, you know, if you book it before November and then it's happening, you know, later, you know, in the next year or whatever it is.
Black Friday is a big day for that kind of stuff. On Royal Caribbean, you can see like 50% off some of that stuff. So like you, you do want to play a game of kind of watching what's available in the sale because it could be 20, 25%, 30%, 35. So like you kind of want to play that game. And I would say if you ever get on and you see a better sale than the one you got, you can always cancel what you booked. They will refund you that back and then you just buy it again at the lower price to save the money. So assuming they don't have all kinds of onboard credit card issues like they apparently had.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: All right, well, let's, let's jump on to the, let's jump right to this Royal Caribbean cruise so that we have enough time to talk about the Disney cruise, which is of course the main course here.
But, you know, tell us about boarding. Were you at Port Canaveral or Fort Lauderdale?
[00:19:33] Speaker A: We are at Fort Lauderdale.
[00:19:34] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:19:35] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: And how did the boarding check in, boarding process go at their term at Royals Terminal in Fort Lauderdale?
[00:19:42] Speaker A: I think it was pretty straightforward.
It was very quick. I felt like we got on very quickly. I don't know if it's because we were in a suite.
We got in quickly. The muster was very easy.
And I think we just spent some time in the beginning of just kind of going around the ship and seeing what all these places were. And yeah, it was interesting.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Let's jump in and talk about your suite in particular. Which class did you end up staying in? Were you in? What is it? Star.
What? I never remember. Something. Sky and star.
[00:20:22] Speaker C: Sea, Sky, Star.
[00:20:25] Speaker B: I never moved.
[00:20:26] Speaker A: Okay. I don't know. But it was, but it was a junior suite.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: I think it was the lowest level. C class. Yes.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, the ship is very golden girls era. Like that is the decor.
That's fine because we were just there to go to these two places.
But you know, the suite itself, like I was expecting a dump. I know that sounds really bad, but that's what I was expecting. It wasn't. I mean, yes, it's old, but it was clean.
It had a huge walk in closet, a lot of space.
The balcony was huge. It had like two lounge chairs and then another.
A lot of seating on that balcony versus the Disney ship balcony. Like I found that very small.
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, well, and you're talking like you're able to sail in suite class for a lot cheaper than in. On Disney, obviously. And, and, and of course, you know, there are different benefits with each level. With different levels. Because you, you wouldn't have had the, because you were C class, you wouldn' sort of the full array of concierge type amenities, but you still have this really much, you know, bigger room than like a regular veranda room on Disney. And a bigger veranda, of course. Yeah. Which is really nice.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Yeah, the room was bigger. There was. My husband liked the coffee that came with the room and I think I remember from listening to the podcast that the shower amenities were better. Like the, the products.
[00:22:01] Speaker B: Yes. You actually get like a shampoo, a conditioner and a body wash and not a shampoo, conditioner, body wash all in one.
But you do. You get an Nespresso machine, I think, I think that's what Royal had. Right? Yeah. If I was remembering, we, we always went and got like our, you know, lattes or whatever at like Starbucks. But yeah, they do have, they do have a decent coffee machine in the room, which is really nice. Yeah.
Well, let's, let's jump in and talk about onboard activities because I think the ship amenities are of course one of the things that people want to know about when they decide to venture outside of Disney. And this is, I think, one of the areas where Royal can have a leg up depending upon the ship. What kinds of things or what kinds of amenities did you and the kids and your husband take advantage of on board?
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Well, the, my family tried the pool. I didn't. I, I just remember it being very cold that day. But my husband noticed that the pool wasn't heated, so it was like very freezing.
So we tried that.
My son tried the water slides and the wall climbing.
I think that, you know, for my daughter, she wasn't quite the height to, to do any of those things. So for her, I felt there was actually Very little on board for her to do.
And I, I tried the fitness classes. I enjoyed that.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: All right, so, Michelle, one of the things I think a lot of people want to know about Royal Caribbean ships are the amenities on board. So I'm curious as to what amenities you and your family used on the Royal Caribbean ship.
[00:23:45] Speaker A: Well, I think there was more, there were definitely more things for my older son to do than my daughter. So he was able to go on the water slides and do the wall climbing, whereas she couldn't do anything like that except for go to the pool.
But I, I actually never went to the pool myself, but my husband did go with them and he said that, you know, the pool was very empty. Compared to like a Disney.
Yeah, compared to Disney pool. But he said the water was absolutely freezing, so that could have been why.
So there was some time in the pool where they hung out. I did some of the fitness classes in the morning.
And yeah, we, we didn't really get to too much because two days were at a port. It goes fast.
So we spent little time actually really checking out the amenities.
[00:24:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Did they have one of the flow riders, which is that like, sort of wave thing?
[00:24:47] Speaker A: They did. Yeah, they did, but I think my son and husband were a little too intimidated by that.
[00:24:54] Speaker B: Nice. Yeah, Yeah, I would say that, like, that is a thing for your daughter would have been, you know, probably too small for, but definitely your son and husband and maybe yourself. We, we three all, all tried it. Um, Nathan was certain way better at it than Brian or I, and Brian and Nathan both were better at it than I, I, I was terrible at it. But yeah, but it's a fun, it is definitely a fun thing to do. And then water slides. Did your, did your son enjoy the water slides on board?
[00:25:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I think he did. I mean, he didn't. I think he just went down the one time and that was good enough for him. And I think it was one of those things where, you know, it was toward the end of the cruise and I'm like, you, you guys didn't do the water slides. Did go.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: Do, Gotta try it.
[00:25:38] Speaker A: Yeah, go do them quickly before dinner and then come back.
[00:25:42] Speaker B: Right. I gotta be able to report to the DCL duo what the water sports are like.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Yeah, he went and I think, you know, he went and he did that and, you know, that was fine. And it wasn't anything memorable for him, I thought.
[00:25:54] Speaker B: I think I'm curious about the kids club. You said your kids weren't really interested in going, so I'm curious I'll give you sort of two questions. One, they did go on Disney, I'm thinking on your first cruise. Right. And then tell us what, what didn't they really enjoy about the Royals Kids Clubs? Because I'm assuming they went in to try it or to at least explore it.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean during the, the open house, like the first day we did go to the Kids Club, I think it might have been a combination of.
There were really no kids in the kids Club checking it out themselves. Like it was pretty empty and lifeless to be honest. Like it didn't seem like there was much going on there and it was hard for us to envision what kind of fun activities they could have there.
Yeah, it just, it just seemed like a, a space without anything set up. It was just hard to envision and I don't think it captivated them.
So there was really no interest and also kind of no interest for us to take them because I wasn't sure what they'd be doing there either. But yeah, they had no problems on, on the Dream. They loved the Kids Club.
I really enjoyed their time there.
[00:27:22] Speaker B: Yeah. I think a huge part of that is the space is just kind of like an all purpose space. Right. In all the Royal Kids Clubs entry is kind of can have cute decoration and things like that, but it's the actual rooms, they just look like all purpose rooms. Right. Like they don't look like anything really inviting and fun as a, as compared to on a Disney ship. And you have all these like themed rooms and obviously interactive, you know, things on, you know, the walls or iPads out or things like that. And then usually during open house or open house times in a Disney Kids Club, you know, not all the time, but occasionally they'll have sort of an organized activity going on that anyone can participate in. It's kind of a good way to sort of demo like what, what kinds of things might happen in this wonderful space. And on Royal it's more of a here's the space, here's how you sign up kind of a deal. It's not really any kind of demo of what would actually happen in there. That's not to say they don't have great activities like we can, I can tell from, you know, from Nathan's perspective, he had a great time at On Royal and the Kids Clubs and they were mostly doing activities. It's mostly. Or it was mostly organize activities because they don't have just like iPads sitting out like, or interactive stuff like the Disney Kids Clubs have. So I can attest that they do have fun things going on. But I can also understand that a kid is not able to, like, envision that when they don't see it happening.
[00:28:49] Speaker A: And the. And the staff member, she did say that they do activities like science experiments and things like that, but. But with the room bare and no kids there and nothing really set up, it just didn't seem like the place to be.
[00:29:08] Speaker B: That's a funny way to put it. Yeah, for sure. Well, let's talk about shows a little bit. Did you all get up to seeing. Well, I don't even know what shows are on the liberty of the seas, but did you guys go to see any shows that might have been on board the ship?
[00:29:24] Speaker A: Yeah, the first night there was an ice skating show, and the second night there was supposed to be Saturday Night Fever, but when we got on board.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: It'S a little dated.
[00:29:36] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, this is the Golden Girls, right?
[00:29:38] Speaker B: This is the Golden Girls. I love it. I love that description, by the way. I'm going to call it Royal ships. Golden Girls ships from now on.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: But when we got on board, I noticed Saturday Night Fever was removed from the app and what was reported placed was like a singing variety show.
So we did catch the ice skating one. I mean, it was.
In my opinion, it was cheesy, but it satisfied my children and it was something to do.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: Right? It's something to do. The ice skating and tricks are usually pretty good. Right. But like, not maybe a great plot and kind of cheesy. So it's like, fun. It's enjoyable to watch, but it's not like something I would, like, pay money to go see.
[00:30:22] Speaker C: It would be better.
Yeah, it would be better. Like, so I remember the ice skating show was great. And actually I was watching, like, they're actually doing really hard things in a very confined space.
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Yeah. Are cool.
[00:30:33] Speaker C: And I think it's great. My only, my only quibble with these shows that they do is like, that all the music to your point about the golden, all the music stops like the 1970s. Like, like I. I watch this whole show and I'm like, okay, we're past the 50s, the 60s. It's time for the 80s. The 80s are gonna be so fun. And then it's like, show over. And I'm like, what? Like, like, it's true.
[00:30:52] Speaker A: The. The songs were dated. Very, very dated.
Even the variety act show, like the singing show that replaced Saturday night Fever, I went with my daughter and I lasted about 10 minutes. They were singing songs. I had no clue what these songs were. I. I couldn't even tell you because they weren't hits that anybody knew.
It was very bare in there. Like, you know, the Walt Disney Theater.
There's a lot of people that come out to see these shows, but not on the Liberty of the Seas. Like, I mean, the ice skating show was probably half full.
The singing show, even less than that. And we left after 10 minutes because I just couldn't take it anymore, and I. I just needed to go.
[00:31:42] Speaker B: That's funny.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: Yeah. I think. I think a lot of the, you know, there's a difference of what people are going Royal Caribbean to do. Right. I think it's more about socializing in maybe the bar spaces or in the casino or out on the pool deck, and less about shows or entertainment, to be perfectly fair. I just think because Royal, other than. There's a couple of shows that they have that are fantastic, like Aqua 80 we saw, which is one of the water shows on the Oasis.
It's a fantastic water show with all kinds of acrobatics and stuff, but in general, they're not, like, that's not where they shine. But I want to switch gears and ask about food because obviously food is a huge, important thing on any cruise.
And, you know, Royal has a lot of different food options on board. I know you didn't do specialty dining, but they have, of course, your main dining. They have your pool deck food, and you've got a buffet, always usually called the Windjammer. What did you guys think about the food variety and the food quality? And also what did the kids think? Because that's always, I think, an important distinction because they might think very differently than the parents on that.
[00:32:53] Speaker A: I think that the Windjammer, I would say, was probably better than mean dining.
I wasn't expecting that, but.
Yeah, but I didn't think anything about main dining was particularly special. Like, it was.
It was very much like banquet food, I would say. And the one thing I noticed about Royal was anytime there was, like, baked goods, like a baked bread or any. It was very dry and stale. Like it.
That's something I noticed that stuck out because, you know, you go on a Disney ship and you always get, you know, the bread basket, everything is soft and warm. And it wasn't the case with Royal. I don't know if it was just particular to this ship.
And the other thing I noticed, and maybe it's just the ship, but their soft serve is not really soft serve. Like, I don't know what that is it. Because it was like ice milk, maybe like it wasn't even like white, it was like an off white. And it didn't have like a creamy texture to it. And I thought maybe this is just like the ship. But Coco Key was the same thing like that.
That soft serve was not soft serve like that.
I don't know what that was, but that's not what I think of. I think of soft serve.
Yeah. So I'm not sure if that was just this one experience, but I don't know if it's always like that, but that's kind of what I noticed.
But with dining, I thought it was really interesting because we were seated by a couple that came from Israel and my husband, he lived in Israel and he speaks Hebrew. And this couple, it was, you know, they would have to ask my husband, you know, like, what things to order for food. But they kept kosher.
But I felt like it was, it was entertaining because every night when they'd get their food, it was almost as if Royal Caribbean didn't know what kosher was.
And they would serve them this food that looked like each thing was.
It would always be like a protein and steamed vegetables, no seasoning, individually wrapped. Their dessert would come in like a plastic container, sometimes frozen. Like it was pretty awful. And it.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: Oh, I bet.
[00:35:35] Speaker A: Yeah. It became a funny joke every night to see like what they would get for dinner because they would get this and have to reorder based off of what we ordered. And then, you know, they pick and choose what they liked based off our. What they saw. But it was just a, it was just kind of silly that, you know, I don't know if it was almost treated like they had a severe allergic, some severe allergy to some, some sort of food. But it was interesting. I felt like they didn't know how to deal with this particular couple.
[00:36:09] Speaker B: If I wonder if they just ordered like food for them like through a third party delivery rate and, and had like frozen meals basically put on board the ship. Because I don't think that most of the cruise ships can truly accommodate kosher dietary needs because it would require having separate kitchens and it would require having two separate kitchens, actually a dairy and a meat kitchen.
And those have to be separate even from the allergy kitchens because you can't have cross contamination of even just the silver. So I'm kind of. Yeah, I'm not sure. I would probably say for anyone who is like keep strictly kosher, I would say you probably either can't cruise or you've got to do. Or you've got to just go vegetarian. On the cruise and strictly eat vegetarian and not worry and at least be a little bit more, I don't want to say lenient, but be okay with the fact that there might be some cross contamination. And obviously it's not like an allergy, it's a dietary restriction. But yeah, that would have been.
That's kind of mind boggling to hear that. They didn't kind of really know how to, how to deal with that. But curious about the kids food in particular, what the kids thought of the food. And then I wanted to hear the comparison to Disney food because you said you thought the food was better in Windjammer than in main dining on Royal. But I'm curious as how you think it all compares to the Disney food, both cabanas and main dining. But let's start with the kids food stuff first.
[00:37:54] Speaker A: Yeah, I think the. I don't think there was a. The kids didn't mention, you know, the food was bad. They didn't say the food was bad.
They didn't rave about the food either. Like, I don't think food for them is. They could care less, you know, about what they eat. So for them it didn't really matter to them.
Yeah, nothing really stuck like, stuck out to me about the food.
Yeah, I think the kids were just.
[00:38:23] Speaker B: They were just fine.
[00:38:24] Speaker A: They were fine. Yeah. Completely fine.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: And what about how the food overall compares to, you know, Disney food? And I'm talking Disney main dining and cabanas because obviously we can't compare, you know, you can't compare main dining to like Paulo or something like that.
[00:38:40] Speaker A: Yeah, well, of course, Disney is like, you know, way above there in terms of main dining. Like you can't compare. I mean, even sir, even service. Though this time around, I didn't feel that our dining service at Disney was great.
I think overall, you know, you just can't compare.
The food will be better on a Disney ship.
[00:39:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And I feel like occasionally on a Disney ship you'll get, you know, a dish that, you know, is a miss. Right. Like not everything is a hit. You might get something that's not hot enough or that's, you know, maybe the pasta is gummy or something like that. So you. But I've never had like anything, you know, truly inedible from, you know, on a Disney ship. And I have had some standout, even in main dining. Right. Like some standout dishes even in, you know, even in main dining. And of course, very standout dishes and specialty dining on Disney.
[00:39:42] Speaker C: We know that people trust Disney for their vacations. And it can sometimes be a little nerve wracking to think about trying something new. Right, Sam?
[00:39:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Whether you're considering branching out to a new cruise line, an all inclusive resort, or exploring Europe, the team at MyPath Unwinding Travel has the expertise and connections across the globe to plan almost any vacation. They can even help with the Universal parks. They've helped us plan our vacations beyond Disney, including Royal Caribbean Princess Cruise Line and Virgin Voyages.
[00:40:06] Speaker C: Their team of travel professionals all understand the needs of a Disney traveler, can help you decide if another option is right for you, and then guide you through every step of your new vacation experience. Whether you are dreaming of a fun getaway to an all inclusive resort, a river cruise in Europe, or an adventure in Costa Rica, the folks at MyPath Unwinding are ready to help. Even if you have already booked, reach out to for a complimentary consultation to make your next vacation even more amazing.
[00:40:28] Speaker B: If you want to learn more and take advantage of the amazing team at MyPath Unwinding Travel, then head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com to let them know we sent you their way. Thanks, MyPath unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
All right, well, let's. Let's shift gears and talk about the private island, Coco Cay, or Coco Cay as they like to call it on Royal, but I like to call it Coco Key because that's the way the Bahamians call it.
I'm curious what you and the kids and your husband, what you all thought of Coco Key. And then of course, we'll have to switch gears and compare to Lookout and to Castaway because I know this was your second time at Castaway and your first time at Lookout, but yeah, let's start with Coco Key.
[00:41:16] Speaker A: I thought Coco Key was nice.
Very similar style to Castaway.
I thought that it was nice. We just, we just hung out at the beach.
I remember there was like a stingray that kind of was in the water that was really neat. The kids just kind of had a pool floaty. They played with that. We tried to snorkel. Snorkeling was okay there.
Yeah, it, it wasn't. It was fine. It was just a nice beach day. The food was good. I thought, you know, having like the taco bar was a nice touch.
The only thing I didn't like about Coco Key was I could, I could smell smoke, like cigarette smoke. And I, and I wouldn't know where it was coming from. And that was kind of the same thing with being on the pool deck of the ship.
Like, half the ship is non smoking and half is. But, you know, the wind blows and you're gonna smell it. So that was kind of another thing.
[00:42:20] Speaker B: It was like, yeah, they don't. They. I would say they don't have quite as good. I mean, if you. If you're on Disney and you walk through the smoking area, of course you're gonna smell smoke. But if you're not walking through or right by the smoking area, you really don't notice it at all on Royal because that smoking area is a lot bigger. You're much more, I think, likely to get the waft of smoke and especially indoors if you go anywhere near the casino. Right. Like, if you go on the same floor as the casino or even in the gym, if it's like right above the casino. I remember we went into the gym on. I can't remember if it was a lower oasis, but there was one day I went in the gym and it was. Smelled fine. And then the next day I was in the gym and all I could smell was the stench of smoke that was clearly like coming through the air ducts or whatever from the, you know, from the casino. And it was during the day. It wasn't even like at night when you expect a lot of people to be down there smoking.
But, yeah, it's. I. I think that because there's more. Well, there is indoor smoking, and because there's a bigger outdoor smoking area, it tends to be more of an issue on Royal. Well, let's.
Did you check out the pool at all, or did you mostly spend time at the beach? I think Coco's, you know, really. Coco is a nice, private island experience. I don't, you know, I can't really say anything bad about it, except for the fact that you have to, like, pay for certain, you know, activities on the island. But did you guys enjoy, you know, spend any time enjoying the pool? I think that's one of the, you know, one of the benefits.
[00:43:45] Speaker A: Of course, we didn't do the pool. I think. I think we just spent the whole day on the beach. That's.
That's all we really did. We didn't do the pool because the day before we were in Nassau and we did the water park, even though. Even though it was canceled, we went on our own and just went ahead with that.
So. Yeah, so we had a pool day that day.
[00:44:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, let's switch gears a little and move to your dream cruise. And talk a little bit about. I want to specifically talk about Lookout and Castaway. Which one did you go to first on that cruise?
[00:44:24] Speaker A: The first one was Castaway.
[00:44:26] Speaker B: Okay. And you'd already been to Castaway. What did you guys decide to do on Castaway for that day?
[00:44:33] Speaker A: You know what? We did the same old. We did the snorkeling.
We hung out.
My husband and daughter, they did. They rode the bikes.
[00:44:41] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:44:43] Speaker A: It was just another relaxing beach day.
[00:44:46] Speaker B: Cool. Love that. Awesome. Now. And what did you guys decide to do at Lookout? Because obviously this was going to be your first time at Lookout. People, of course, are always wanting to know, what do we do at Lookout? Well, there aren't really excursions or that many excursions available yet, but curious what you guys got up to.
[00:45:05] Speaker A: Lookout was just stunning. That. That is a gorgeous beach.
Even though they don't have, like, a lot of things to do per se. Like there's no floaties and there's no excursions. I mean, the beach was just lovely.
Even though we couldn't go snorkeling, you could still, you know, go. Go in the water and you'd still see fish in there, which was really nice.
We did the nature trail, which was lovely.
Yeah, it was like another beach day nature trail. Between that and rush out, gush out, we did. The kids love that.
That was a nice spot.
And. And cookies.
[00:45:50] Speaker B: What is it called, Brian? True, true, true, true and true true too.
[00:45:53] Speaker C: True, true and true, true too.
[00:45:55] Speaker A: I could not. I couldn't find true true too, but I did find true, true.
And yeah, the food was lovely too. So it was just a lovely, lovely beach day.
[00:46:06] Speaker C: Talk to us about that nature trail. How was that? Because I think we've had maybe a couple guests on who've done it, but I don't know that we've ever asked them about it specifically. And it was not available to us when we went. So how. How was it?
[00:46:17] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, the nature trail, I. I don't know if it still under construction. Like, I don't know if they plan to do the. The pat. Like put more gravel down the path or maybe a little pavet.
It seemed like it was just finished and you could access it, but maybe that there's more to be done with that nature trail.
It was a very quick walk, I would say, but there were some really breathtaking views.
That is a gorgeous piece of property.
Look out. It is stunning.
We did want to ride bicycles and I don't know, like on the app at the time, it wasn't available.
And I'M not sure if it actually was, but when my husband.
[00:47:07] Speaker B: No, yeah, it's not yet because they haven't finished the paths where the bicycles are going to go yet. So that's it.
We keep hearing, like, it's coming. It's coming, but it. I don't know. We don't have any information on when it's going to come. And same with actually, the 5K. We're seeing, like, Lookout here. Key 5K merchandise being sold, but. But not the actual race happening yet. Right. So. And I think that the holdup is really just them finishing all the. The pathways that people are going to be running and biking on. Yeah. Okay.
[00:47:40] Speaker A: I didn't know if we missed something because you didn't.
Okay.
[00:47:43] Speaker B: Didn't miss anything. Yeah, not yet. Not yet.
[00:47:45] Speaker C: You should really put it out to our community. Like, is it appropriate to buy the race shirt for a race that doesn't exist yet?
[00:47:51] Speaker B: I. I think it's actually.
It's like when you wear the. The. The band T shirt to the concert.
[00:47:58] Speaker C: Don'T wear the T shirt of the band that you're gonna go see. Don't be that guy.
[00:48:01] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I think it's. I think it's actually. It's kind of funny that it's. It's up. You know, that the merchandise is there, but you can't.
[00:48:09] Speaker A: They have really good merchandise. Like, I would have to say their gift shop is way better than Castaways Gift shop.
[00:48:16] Speaker B: Totally.
[00:48:17] Speaker A: I enjoyed the merch.
[00:48:19] Speaker B: Yes.
I love that. I love that. And so this was in January. We're recording in March. Just to be clear as to when we're talking about. This was in January of 2025, and we're recording now in March of 2025. Because I know this episode will probably come out in a couple of months, and I just want to make sure we're giving people accurate. I want to be clear to people on accurate information that as of March, mid March, 5K merchandise is out, but they're not actually running it. And still the bikes, as far as we've heard, are not able. You're not able to rent the bikes and ride around the island. All right, well, let's. Let's shift gears back on to the. The boat onto the Dream. Or the Ship. That's the proper word, the ship.
You had been on the Fantasy. This was your first time on the Dream. They're sister ships, so there's not like a huge amount of daylight between them. Right. They're not very different, with some slight exceptions here and there. I'm curious what you thought of what kind of state room you had. What you thought of your. The state room.
And then we'll move on to. I want to talk, of course about shows. Because shows on the Dream and the Fantasy are different.
[00:49:32] Speaker A: You know what? Initially we booked an ocean view room, but once we got to the port, we upgraded to a veranda.
Yeah, we found out the ship was probably like about a thousand people under soldiers, so. Yeah, so it was. There was a lot of room upgrades available.
The ship didn't feel as busy as the Fantasy that we took last year, but yet felt like there were less people on the ship.
You could feel that.
[00:50:01] Speaker B: Nice. That's awesome. Listen, a port upgrade is always great option because you get that bigger, nicer room for at a, you know, at a pretty nice discount as well.
I got to ask you about shows, Michelle. I know the last time we talked, your husband really liked Believe on the Disney Fantasy, which as we talked about is not one of my favorite shows. But of course you were on the Disney Dream, which has one of, I'll say one of my favorite shows on board and has just a great array of shows because you've got the Golden Mickeys, you've got Disney Dreams and you have Beauty and the Beast. Did you go see all of those shows or were they available on your sailing? Because I know this was a five night sailing and if so, what did you think of them all?
[00:50:50] Speaker A: We did. We did see all of them. Beauty and the Beast. It was fantastic.
I would say that there were a lot of technical difficulties.
Yeah, I think they stopped the production of that maybe like four times.
[00:51:07] Speaker B: Oh wow. That's a lot.
I've seen it a couple times where they've had to stop it once or twice, but never that many times.
[00:51:14] Speaker A: There were, there were a lot of stops, but it was so fantastic that it didn't take away from the show. The actors were phenomenal. It was a really wonderful show. So you are right that Beauty and the Beast is fantastic.
Golden Mickey's also fantastic. Technical difficulties too, but I really enjoyed it. I didn't know what to expect.
Yeah, it was very cute.
And even though we saw Believe, it was better the second time around, I think because the cast is different.
[00:51:52] Speaker B: So it's dreams. So I wonder if you saw dreams. Cause this is the one isn't on the dream. Oh no, it is believe. You're right. It's the man in the flower on the dream. That's right. Disney Dreams is not on the dream. That's what we always Talk about we.
[00:52:04] Speaker C: Would never put the show name on the ship.
[00:52:07] Speaker B: Right. So you've got the man in the flower again.
Yes.
[00:52:12] Speaker A: But it was very good because it was a different cast and you know, I enjoyed it.
There was also. Yeah, it was fantastic. There was also a magician who was very good. So we saw that one night and.
[00:52:26] Speaker B: Did you do Pirate Night?
[00:52:28] Speaker A: Yes, there was a Pirate Night.
It was during our night at Animators and this was the part that I, I was a little bit confused because I was expecting like we're at Animators twice and we had Crush the first night and I was expecting.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: Was it Animation Magic?
Yeah. So you only have both shows meaning Crush and Animation Magic if you're on a seven night. Oh, and if you're on it.
[00:52:56] Speaker A: Yeah, we were expecting that. We're so excited for that.
And it was coincidentally Pirate Night, so I thought. But did we miss it because it's Pirate Night?
[00:53:06] Speaker B: No, they never. So this is one of the bummers of going on a less than seven night cruise is you're only going to get one of the animator shows. And on the Dream class, you're only going to get Crush on the Magic class.
You're not going to get Even Sorcerer. You're going to get Sorcerer Mickey. You're not going to get even Animation Magic. You got to be on a seven night. So on the. On the Magic class you'll get.
They don't have Crush on the Magic class. So you'll get Animation Magic one night on a seven night cruise and you'll get Sorcerer Mickey on the other night.
[00:53:43] Speaker C: Wouldn't you also get it on a six night though? Wouldn't they do the standard show?
[00:53:47] Speaker B: They don't. They only do it. Nope. I know. They should, but they don't because they give you a. You get a full Pirate Night. Yeah. So it's only seven nights.
[00:53:56] Speaker C: I'm just thinking, haven't we been on sailings before though where they like the show stays the same. They still do a Pirate Night celebration, but you don't get the Pirate Midnight. And so that's.
[00:54:05] Speaker B: That is on a three night sailing. So on a three. Yeah. So on a three night sailing, three night sailings are the only times where like a Pirate Night gets kind of merged with a regular night because you only have three rotational restaurants and you want to have like one of those.
[00:54:22] Speaker C: It's just two times.
[00:54:23] Speaker B: I know. Yeah.
[00:54:24] Speaker C: So you really have to follow the same model.
[00:54:26] Speaker B: I know, but this is what you really have to go on seven night cruises in order to get like the Full array of everything on any, any of the ships.
And I would definitely say on like the magic or the Wonder for sure you want to because you, you will. You know, then you only get Sorcerer Mickey coming in and doing kind of this like fantasmic type.
[00:54:47] Speaker C: I love that show still.
[00:54:48] Speaker B: I love that too. But you want, but you want anime. You want at least like, at least animation magic or Crush. And like I said, there is no Crush show on the Magic class. But you still got, you know, a great experience. But yeah, it's a.
Typically on a pirate night they don't do any show. The only like I said, the only exception is on a three night cruise you might have a in dining show because if you're in like on the Wishes really in the Wisher or what used to be what the Dream used to do. So anyway.
Okay, so. But still great. I mean you got great shows on a five night sailing. There's plenty, plenty to see.
We haven't talked about onboard activities on the Dream. But you already told us the kids actually did do the kids club on the Dream. So that's great to hear. But what kinds of other things did you all get up to on board the Disney Dream?
[00:55:43] Speaker A: We did towel folding class.
That was fun. Yeah. The kids loved the water slides. My daughter, finally she was able to participate. So she just loved that yellow slide.
[00:55:55] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:55:57] Speaker A: Is that yellow Mickey slide?
[00:55:58] Speaker B: Yeah, Mickey slide.
[00:55:59] Speaker A: She loved, loved the, the aqueduct.
That was fun for her and she was just the right height for that. So that was perfect.
We watched Moana too.
Me and my husband, we had brunch at Remy. We spent a bit of time at the adult pool hot tub area. We did some fitness classes.
We did a bit of everything.
We watched the adult magic show in the evening one night.
So we did some things.
[00:56:34] Speaker C: How was the brunch at Remy? It's usually it traditionally had been a champagne brunch with more sort of breakfast y kind of French takes on breakfast dishes. I should say gastronomical plays on breakfast dishes. But I think they've shifted more toward almost a. It's like a lunch version of the dinner menu.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: Yes, I would say that's what it was. It was a lot. It was, it seemed like more of a lunch dinner type of menu. Definitely not a breakfast dinner. Not, not a breakfast brunch.
[00:57:12] Speaker C: Was it still like champagne focused or did they there.
[00:57:14] Speaker A: They did give us some champagne and then they offered us a flight too. Yeah, it was, it was very delicious.
[00:57:23] Speaker C: Well, Michelle, I would be remiss and not shifting gears here for a second. And I'm just going to co op Sam's rapid fire for a segment I like to call the DCL RCCL Throwdown.
And that's what I was going to do.
Instead of arbitrary questions and arbitrary rules, we're just going to, we're just going to go head to head here. And I apply no judgment in this space. So Sam's just going to have to shutter yap for five minutes and let me ask some questions. So here we go. Love you, Sam.
All right, so I just want to go over some categories and you can give it to Royal Caribbean or Disney Cruise Line. And yeah, that's how, that's how we'll work this. So the, the pre booking or. Sorry, the, the booking and sort of pre cruise experience, like who's doing that better? And from your standpoint point, I think Royal is okay.
[00:58:18] Speaker A: It's just less stressful.
You don't have to think about dates like the, the windows of booking.
You don't have to race to book things like Royal Gathering or things like that. But I guess that speaks to the fact that there aren't enough activities maybe to be racing too.
But I think just the ease of things Royal.
[00:58:42] Speaker C: Nice. Yeah, we were just dealing with this last night because we are going on a Virgin Voyages cruise actually, and the shore excursions have been open for quite a while. None of them are sold out and not quite a while, maybe a week. None of them were sold out. And we were messaging our friends like, oh, what do you think about this? Like, do we have to go on and book tonight? I'm like, this isn't Disney. So yeah, it's a very different experience for sure. Okay, all right.
What about the boarding experience? The terminal and boarding experience, how was that? Who's winning there?
[00:59:14] Speaker A: I think Disney is at Fort Lauderdale. Like, that is a beautiful terminal.
It was easy, fast, clean. I don't know, the Royal one didn't have that vibe. It was very much chaos and you didn't know where you had to go. And yeah, I think Disney does it better at Fort Lauderdale overall, sort of.
[00:59:40] Speaker C: Aesthetics and feel of the ships. Did the Golden Girls win or does Disney win?
[00:59:48] Speaker A: Disney wins for sure. Hands down.
[00:59:50] Speaker B: That's not even a real question, Brian.
[00:59:53] Speaker C: Some people really love the Golden Girls. Okay, Sam, we gotta, you know, to each their own.
[00:59:58] Speaker A: I think when my husband stepped on the Disney ship, you could see just like the weight lifted off his shoulders. Hugh just like was relaxed. I think that Royal Adventure was just stressful for him. I don't know why but it just.
He was just happy to be on a Disney ship.
[01:00:18] Speaker C: I find, like, when you enter Royal and you're in this, like, shopping mall, like experience, almost immediately I feel like my stress level goes up. And when I get on Disney and I walk in and it's just like, I don't know, it's open, airy, there's that connection to the sea. It's just like my stress level immediately goes down.
[01:00:34] Speaker B: So, Brian, admit it though. Your stress level doesn't go down until we're done unpacking and we're done with muscle.
[01:00:40] Speaker C: No, I will not admit that because my. Because, because I did. When I. When I did that preview cruise on the Magic for Lookout Key. We had sailed several non Disney cruises up until that point. And I remember stepping onto the Magic just being like a weight is lifted. I like, why. Why did I think those other cruise lines were so much better? I feel so much more relaxed on this ship already. So there.
[01:01:01] Speaker B: I told you so. I mean, that's all I'm gonna say there. I told you so.
[01:01:05] Speaker C: Just put that back on repeat. Okay, so, okay, so ship staterooms.
Which stateroom did your family prefer? Disney.
[01:01:13] Speaker B: This is hard, though. She did stay on suite class, so.
[01:01:17] Speaker C: It is what it is, Sam.
[01:01:18] Speaker A: It's still Disney. It's still Disney.
The bunk beds, you cannot beat the beds. I think my kids had to sleep on the Palote sofa in the junior suite. So they did not like that. You know, they did not want to be sleeping together.
They just really enjoyed the bunk bed system. We enjoyed it. We like the privacy curtain that's not on the junior suite at Royal Caribbean.
Even though the room was bigger.
We just really enjoyed the Disney room better.
Yeah.
[01:01:56] Speaker B: The layout. I feel like Disney knows how to do the room layout. They had the bathroom layout.
[01:02:00] Speaker A: The double bathroom.
[01:02:02] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's just. There's a lot of, like, little. Even with a bigger room on Royal, which we've done, you know, suite class and had a much bigger room on Royal than we've had on Disney. And I'd still say most of the time I would still prefer even the smaller Disney room.
[01:02:16] Speaker C: It's so funny too, because on Royal, even in the larger suites, they still love like the privacy curtain over giving you, like an actual, like, in a loft suite, it's a privacy curtain, even though the expectation is probably that you're gonna have someone sleeping down below. And so it's just. It's just a weird. I do think it's a weird setup. I appreciate the variety of room types you can get on Royal, but I'm not sure that any of them are like really nailing it from the standpoint of the design and layout.
[01:02:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember my husband was really disappointed with the Royal privacy curtain only going halfway and he was just really disappointed in that.
[01:02:53] Speaker C: All right, onboard activities. I think we already know the answer to this question because you've said that they were sparse and few and far between on Royal and it seems like the kids enjoyed them more. So I'm gonna assume you give that one to Disney.
[01:03:04] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. It goes to Disney. I, I felt like on this Royal trip, young children are really an afterthought. It's really catered to the adults on board.
[01:03:17] Speaker B: I think. I think Royal is also good for like the teens. I think they do a better job. The activities, the more active stuff is more geared towards older kids. Right. And so like, even though your, your 9 year old probably was able to do, you know, most of the things, I still think the, you know, it's more like a 13 year old would enjoy those things even more.
[01:03:39] Speaker C: Yeah, I think when you step up into the Oasis class, it gets a little bit better. Like they were really sort of more like we got to lean into the family market here a bit. I think I class was supposed to do that, but I'm not quite sure it succeeded or not for families because of the. Just huge crowds. But yeah, what about so food, who's doing it better, Royal or Disney?
[01:04:03] Speaker A: Definitely Disney. And what I really enjoyed about the dream was that they had upgraded the pool deck. Food.
[01:04:12] Speaker B: Yes. Oh, yes. You had, you had Chipotle at Sea Festival of Friends.
[01:04:16] Speaker C: Although they didn't have barbecue, they had room at barbecue.
[01:04:20] Speaker B: Right.
[01:04:21] Speaker A: That was awesome. I really enjoyed the taco bar.
[01:04:25] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
[01:04:26] Speaker A: It's a huge, really good upgrade. For sure.
[01:04:29] Speaker C: You have not been on the Wish yet. Right. This was your second Disney cruise. So.
[01:04:33] Speaker A: Right.
[01:04:33] Speaker C: You gotta get, you gotta get on Mickey's Festival of Friends. Because that food is just some festival of foods.
[01:04:38] Speaker B: You keep saying festival of Friends, whatever.
[01:04:41] Speaker C: Festival of friendly foods.
[01:04:43] Speaker B: Yeah, okay.
[01:04:43] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. They've got the cantina, they've got barbecue.
[01:04:47] Speaker B: When we say barbecue, like we're talking like brisket and stuff. Not like we're not talking like hamburgers. Hot. They have hamburgers. Hot dogs too, but they also have like real barbecue.
[01:04:56] Speaker C: They also have better pizza than on the other ships because they're like making the dough. So yeah, it's, it is, it is a now fan favorite. Like people love to hear it.
[01:05:03] Speaker B: Their wish and treasure pool Deck Food is a step above on all the other ships. Although obviously Dream and Fantasy. Dream has the Chipotle at sea, I like to call it.
And Fantasy will, we believe, will have it after it strikes dock. But that's a great addition. But it's still not quite there because of the other stuff.
[01:05:23] Speaker C: The only thing I love on the classic ships is they still have the. The. The shawarma, Gyro.
[01:05:28] Speaker B: Yeah. Place on the magic and the wonder. Yeah.
[01:05:31] Speaker A: Oh, yum.
[01:05:33] Speaker C: All right.
Onboard entertainment shows.
I mean, ice skating. Okay. All right.
I was trying to set it up.
[01:05:42] Speaker B: Ice skating show beat Beauty and the Beast or the golden even.
[01:05:46] Speaker A: No, they. You. You cannot even make a comparison. It's just.
[01:05:50] Speaker B: Even with technical difficulties, it's unfair, right? Yeah.
[01:05:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, it's just a different league on its own.
[01:05:58] Speaker C: Yeah. All right, we know that Royal loses on customer service based on the several days you've been spending with them on the phone. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna ask two more questions. So this next one's a biggie.
Look at key vs. Castaway, key vs. Coco K.
Got them. All right, Sam. See that?
[01:06:17] Speaker B: See that?
[01:06:18] Speaker C: I did it right. All right. Which.
[01:06:19] Speaker B: You're supposed to call them all key, by the way.
Well, I don't care what. I don't care what Royal calls it. It's key.
[01:06:26] Speaker C: Fine, whatever. But they call it Cococay. So it's really two questions here. Whose island experience overall is better? I actually think that's a tough. I think that's a tough question. And then which island experience did you prefer? The best of the three.
[01:06:40] Speaker B: Great.
[01:06:41] Speaker A: I think island wise, Disney has it.
Island experience. I really enjoyed Lookout.
I didn't think anything could be cast away, but, man, that's a beautiful piece of property. That beach is stunning.
The water is gorgeous.
I think the infrastructure that they built there is great.
They've incorporated the culture. Really lovely. The food is excellent.
Even though nobody can seem to get barbecue corn right on the island.
[01:07:22] Speaker B: You're right. None of them can get it right.
[01:07:23] Speaker A: I think they should just remove it off the menu. Like, it's never.
[01:07:28] Speaker B: It's always mushy. It's never.
[01:07:29] Speaker A: It's always mushy.
[01:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:07:31] Speaker A: It's such a waste. But the food is excellent.
I really enjoyed Lookout. I. And I'm kind of kicking myself because we. We did, you know, make another booking, and it only stops at Castaway and thinking, oh, man, when. When can I get back to Lookout?
[01:07:48] Speaker C: I know. Yeah, we have the same problem. Yeah. We're not back at Lookout until Like November, I think. And that's after last time there was last June. So like we have not been back since. Yeah, I so want to. I mean, we did go four times, but that's true.
[01:08:03] Speaker A: I just didn't think I would like it as much as I did.
[01:08:06] Speaker C: Yeah, I really, Yeah, I really enjoyed it.
[01:08:08] Speaker A: And there were no fly problems, so.
[01:08:11] Speaker B: Good.
[01:08:11] Speaker A: Yeah, so none of that. We had no issues there.
[01:08:14] Speaker C: Yeah. All right, the last question. This takes a little bit of a setup. So you, you know, you paid a price, you mentioned several times, like the price for the Royal Cruise a lot less than Disney. And so I, I don't like to ask the question like, you know, who wins on price? Royal wins on price. I'm trying to get it like sort of the experience and the value here. And so, so take whatever the difference in price was between the two and I guess my question is, does Disney's price sort of, or does the experience on Disney justify the cost difference? In your mind, did you feel like the value was there to support that different cost for Disney Cruise Line?
[01:08:53] Speaker A: If you were to ask my husband, he would say yes. He does not want to think about Royal Caribbean ever again in his life.
[01:09:00] Speaker B: But I love that your husband is me. I'm just kidding. I don't, I. We're going back on Royal in 2026. So it's not.
But I would be perfectly happy never sailing on Royal.
[01:09:13] Speaker A: And that is my husband, me.
Royal is not my top choice. Like I would for sure do Disney. I would never do a Royal on its own, but. But I would do a Royal to piggyback with the Disney if I wanted to make my trip longer.
So right now we're kind of at that point where I'm trying to convince my husband. I don't know if enough time has passed yet where he can move past the trauma.
But I think we're getting there because his memory isn't so great.
So I think, you know, I got like a couple months more to work, work, work with him because you just cannot beat the Royal price. Like, I think a six day Western Caribbean cruise is like 2800 Canadian, like for four. And you cannot beat that price.
So despite him being against it, I think, you know, we're, we're gonna do it.
[01:10:21] Speaker B: Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, Royal has its place, right?
If you go in knowing, okay, I'm going to spend this cruise to see the places, like to go to the ports, right. I'm going to spend a lot of time off the ship and the ship is more of a place to sleep, maybe a place to eat and maybe I'll do a couple of activities. But I don't need it all to be. I don't need to be entertained in the way that I am on Disney.
I think you can have an excellent cruise on Royal Caribbean. I think there's nothing wrong with it. I think you just have to go in with different expectations.
And I also think you can choose which ship Royal. Some of the ships do better on certain amenities and certain entertainment. And so I think leaning towards an Oasis class ship, I think is a great option. I also think, Michelle, for your kids, I think that they're going to like royalty more than they do when they're a little bit older. I think. Right. Especially your daughter, most of the activities she's really too young for at this point. And so, you know, when she's maybe your son's age and when your son's in his, like, tween or young teen years, like, that's kind of a better, better fit for a Royal cruise than the current ages.
Just my opinion. I mean, I know there are people who, like, who are happy with Royal, with young kids and that's, you know, that.
[01:11:46] Speaker A: But I agree with you. I think older it could be, you know, they'll, they'll get more out of it. But at this point, yeah, I mean, I'll still do it. I didn't have any problems with it.
I'm just there to get off, get off on the stops and enjoy myself. And I. And we did do that. Like, we had great time and twice in Nassau, we really enjoyed ourselves.
[01:12:15] Speaker C: Yeah, I would say, I would echo what Sam said about an Oasis class. If you can get on a short cruise on an Oasis class or. I don't know if the Icon class will be sailing, you know, shorter cruises or wind. But like those ships, one, they're newer, so they don't give you that Golden Girls vibe.
Two, almost all of the Oasis class have gone through their refresh. I think the last ship's going through refresh this year, so. So, you know, there's things that are updated, lots more to do on board. Escape rooms, you know, in addition, all the activities you saw before, updated show experiences, lots more. I would encourage specialty dining too. I think the food is much better and some of the specialty dining on board. So, you know, if you can get past that, like nickel and diming a little bit and do some of that stuff, I think you can sort of cobble together something that's close but not quite a Disney experience for a little bit less money.
I mean, my heart's still with Disney. I'm with you.
The atmosphere, everything about the ships is like that.
[01:13:14] Speaker B: Well, and it helps if you're not a soda drinker and the drink package is just not a thing. Right.
That's a bonus as well.
[01:13:22] Speaker C: Michelle, what's next?
Sounds like other than waiting for your husband's memory to reset, what are you eyeing now next?
[01:13:33] Speaker A: Well, we did book a five.
[01:13:35] Speaker B: We do have one of those flashy Men in Black things that you can just like zap his memory.
[01:13:40] Speaker A: I need one of those.
[01:13:41] Speaker B: You need one of those.
[01:13:43] Speaker A: We, we did book a five night on the Destiny.
But again, I'm trying to make it longer and so I'm looking at Royal to get us there because I'm thinking, do I want to do a back to back Destiny and see, you know, it'd be the same shows. I'm assuming. I don't know how much they change in terms of like not this main stage shows, but in terms of like the magician or the whatever. I don't know if they change those out.
[01:14:14] Speaker B: They do sometimes, but it's really variable. Cause like sometimes a magician or variety act performer will come on and do multiple cruises in a row, but sometimes they won't. Sometimes they'll do one and then they'll come back in three weeks or then and somebody else will come on. So it's really variable and. And it's honestly impossible to predict as far as whether or not you're going to have the same variety act. If you do a back to back, you will have the same main stage shows, that's for certain. I will say though, I'm always happy to see one of my favorite Disney stage shows. Twice. I would go see, I mean Moana obviously twice. I'll go see Beauty and the Beast twice. I wouldn't go see Believe twice, but that's okay. Right? I might see the Golden Mickeys even twice.
[01:15:01] Speaker C: Right.
[01:15:02] Speaker A: So yeah, so we're just kind of thinking about that right now. But I'm trying to make it longer and I think Royal just Price Point just has it. It's. It would be like the Allure of the seas. So I think it would be better than that Liberty class of ship.
There's an escape room on there. So I think maybe this could be something that everybody is happy about at the end of the day. So we'll see.
I'm still trying to work, work the husband there.
[01:15:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I did. I did not like when we went on the Freedom Class Which Liberty is part of. When we were on the Freedom Class, I think it was Independence of the Seas, the Indy that I went on, and I was less than impressed.
And then when we got on the Oasis, I started to see kind of the opportunity for it. But I would say at the end of the day, they feel like two totally different vacation experiences in some ways. And so it's sort of like, like which vacation experience are you looking for if you want a lot to do?
You know, lots of stuff going on, a private island experience that's much more sort of, you know, party vibe, atmosphere, you know, pools, all that kind of stuff, big water slides, totally different than what you're going to find on Disney. And I think, you know, it just depends on what you're looking for out of your vacation. So. Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Well, Michelle, we super appreciate you rejoining us once again to share your family's fabulous experiences and to help us make some sense out of Royal Caribbean and Disney Cruise Line.
And I hope Royal gets their act together and helps you out with the problems you're having. It's super disappointing to hear that you encountered those difficulties, but for now we'll just say thank you for taking some time out of your day to share your experiences with our audience. We really, really appreciate it.
[01:16:50] Speaker A: Thank you so much. Have a good day, everyone.
[01:16:57] Speaker C: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us live, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want to help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course, you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email them at dclduomypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you 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
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[01:19:04] Speaker B: Sam.
