[00:00:00] Speaker A: Can you go to Costa Rica on your own and whitewater raft or zipline or whatever?
[00:00:04] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:00:05] Speaker A: Can you book a wildlife cruise?
[00:00:06] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:00:07] Speaker A: But I think going with a wildlife expert like Brian and what is really unique and different is just the level of knowledge that he brings to the table and his passion for it. Because, like, I didn't know anything about these birds, but he got me really excited.
[00:00:35] Speaker C: Welcome back everybody to this week's live episode of the DCL Duo Podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and also our good friends over at DCL Magazine. If you have not headed over there and gotten your copy of the float test edition of WDW Magazine's All Disney Cruise line edition, the DCL magazine head over there now. Dcl-magazine.com sign up, get your edition of the DCL magazine coming to mailboxes now. Today we already have like five copies in our house, so. So if you're ever over, we'll be happy to give you one. But with that, let me bring in my lovely co host Sam here.
Fair warning, fair warning.
We are hoping that this does not end in disaster as last week's livestream did.
We got it up and running. We did a test on Friday evening with our good friend CT from Tinfoil Mouse Ears. Things seem to be stable and working. My MacBook is over here rebuilding itself right now, so hopefully that will also become a home for this platform once that finishes up. But we're hoping that everything's going to work out tonight. We're going to have a fun show and a fun topic and we will be back to our regular schedule. Please do bear with us as we work out some of the kinks on this new platform.
So, you know, apologies actually to our show sponsor, Karen. I had the wrong intro reel loaded in so we did not get your fabulous MyPath unwinding stuff in there. But we're going to be working on this, evolving it. I got to build templates for it because it's all custom, so I got to build a whole bunch of stuff over the next coming weeks. But anyway, yeah, we're excited for the show.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Yes. And assuming everything goes well tonight, we're actually going to have Gina come back since she was supposed to come on last Monday. We're going to try and have her on this Friday instead of on a Monday. Add in a live show this Friday at our same time though, at 5:30 Pacific, 8:30 Eastern. And then of course we'll be back next Monday with our lovely guest Tracy.
As you all know her, she's one half of the DCL duo senior, and she'll be on for our regular live broadcast on Monday.
So again, our normal time, 05:30 Pacific to 08:30 Eastern. So assuming this stream goes well, we will have lots of content coming to you in the coming weeks.
[00:02:52] Speaker C: So far, so good.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: So good.
[00:02:54] Speaker C: So here we go. I get to use sound effects.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: We'll be talking about a lot. Yeah, we'll be talking about Alaska with Gina. Hold on one second. We'll be talking about Alaska with Gina. We'll be talking about the treasure with Tracy. Just to let folks know.
[00:03:05] Speaker C: But now that I get to use sound effects, let us bring in our fabulous guests. Here we go. It is.
I gotta find the view alien.
[00:03:13] Speaker A: Drew.
[00:03:16] Speaker B: The sound effects are kind of awesome.
[00:03:18] Speaker C: Guys, I'm going to try and build some of the Disney horns into the soundboard here so we can play those on occasion. That'll be fun. So. Yeah, yeah.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: But it's okay. We don't have them today. There's no horns on abd.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Yes, that's right. There's no horns on abd. I love that. Yeah. So today we're going to. We're super excited to talk to. Haley and Drew are recently back from their adventures by Disney Adventure. That's what you call one of their trips, an adventure in Costa Rica.
Now, Haley and Drew have been on our show many times. We have mentioned we've sailed with them before in our cruise to Norway out of Southampton a couple years ago.
Hailey and Drew, why don't you guys remind folks of your cruising creds. This was your first adventures by Disney Adventure. So let's focus on your Disney cruise cred and other cruises as well, because you come on to talk about those as well.
[00:04:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. So we have been on six Disney cruises. We've been on each ship once and we have not repeated an itinerary. And we've only repeated one departure port. We've been out of Port Canaveral three times, but also been out of San Juan and Dover and Barcelona.
And then we've also been to Alaska on Holland America once. And I got to go on a celebrity cruise with some of my high school friends that I've also been on this podcast to discuss.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: Yeah, and you did your. And you guys did Alaska. You mentioned on Holland, not on Disney as well.
[00:04:51] Speaker A: There's an episode about that in the back catalog somewhere. If folks are interested, they can find it somewhere.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: And I actually have on our Facebook group or within our Facebook group, I actually have a list of all of our Alaska Episodes. There's also a Facebook group that is focused on Alaska sailings at. I don't run, but a friend of mine, Sean Connor, runs, and I posted a list of all of our Alaska Episodes there, too, covering both Disney and other cruise lines. So people who are really focused on Alaska planning for Alaska. I've got a list of episodes specifically that you can look at for ideas on port excursions and what Alaska's like, what to pack, that sort of thing. Well, but today we're going to talk about Adventures by Disney. Now, as I said, this is Hayley and Drew's first adventure, but unique, uniquely enough, this is actually an adventure they didn't pay for, which is kind of amazing and awesome.
Drew, why don't you tell us how. How this came to be?
[00:05:50] Speaker D: Yeah. So sometime, I guess last spring, you know, I don't know if it was in Disney files or on.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: It was. I think it was one of the emails that you get.
[00:06:00] Speaker D: One of the email.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: We're DVC members.
[00:06:02] Speaker D: Yeah. And so we were just going through, and we got the email that they were having a competition that you could send photos in, potentially win an abd, I think, specifically to Costa Rica. When it said so. We spent 30, 45 minutes, a long time, picking the three pictures out that we wanted to submit. We picked one from our balcony on Copper Creek one day with a beautiful sunset. We had one from our Norway trip because we had the DVC lanyard on of Haley in front of a waterfall.
And what was the third one?
[00:06:39] Speaker A: The third one was either a picture of us at Pompeii or a picture of.
I think I was the only human in these photos for, like, rules reasons, because I was the one who entered and. Or one of me in Florence. But either way, it was like, what.
[00:06:52] Speaker D: Again with the DVC lanyard?
[00:06:54] Speaker A: Help them market DVC to people. But I'm a nerd, and I read the rules, and there's, like, a whole rubric for the scoring. And turns out that being a rule nerd pays off.
[00:07:05] Speaker B: So, like, wearing something that marked you as dvc, something to help promote you at, you know, promote DVC was part of the contest. Oh, interesting.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: What? Like, I think 50% of your score was, like, relevance to DVC and helping, like, promote it. And there was. Part of your score was originality. So, like, if you submitted a photo of fireworks above Cinderella's castle, like, Congrats. So did 5,000 other people.
So you were looking for things that were more unique.
So. Yeah.
[00:07:35] Speaker D: Yep. So we entered that last spring, and we were Actually in Switzerland on a trip with Haley's parents last summer. When we're sitting there eating lunch or dinner, some meal, and we get this email and it's like grand prize winner. And we're, of course, the first thing we think is, okay, this is a scam. This is some kind of spam email and things like that.
[00:07:57] Speaker B: But you mean a Nigerian prince wants to marry you?
[00:08:00] Speaker D: Exactly.
But we checked it out. The email checked out.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Everything looked official and we remembered entering.
[00:08:06] Speaker D: The contest and we did enter the contest. So you had to respond within like 48 hours. Yeah, 48 hours. Or we didn't get it. And so I would have.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: For an email that would be me. I would like, I would just miss the email because I don't check my email enough.
[00:08:24] Speaker C: Totally.
Sam is one of those that has a little icon on the bottom of her screen that like 9,999 unread emails or whatever.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: I am also that person. But I do, I have like my, my, my, my, like my fake email that I use for all my e commerce. And then I have my real email and I use that for important things like entering to win a free abd. And so anyway, we, we got, we were able to fill out the docusign and we got to choose the week that we went.
And like all everything was included. Flights, hotels, you know, the whole, the whole experience.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: That's amazing. Now when you say you get to choose the week that you wanted to do, like how many options were there? Because obviously they don't do the Costa Rica itinerary like a million times during the year. But how many, how many options were there?
[00:09:09] Speaker D: We basically had like almost a whole year in which we could choose to go. So any of those weeks and we actually choose. The week we chose was an adults only because we don't have any kids and it's just the two of us, so why not?
[00:09:23] Speaker A: Yeah, we were like, we might as well enjoy being adults only and make friends with other adults. And so we went Memorial Day week too. Which means one less day of pto.
[00:09:34] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: So some of us have unlimited and some of us don't.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: Now was it specifically like any abd or was it Costa Rica that you.
[00:09:44] Speaker D: Specifically Costa Rica.
[00:09:46] Speaker B: Okay, that's what I thought it was because I remember you texting. I mean, this is a year ago now, but I remember you texting us when you like, I think you were still in Switzerland. You texted us.
Yeah. And we're like. And you have to come on the show to talk about it.
[00:10:02] Speaker A: Of course.
[00:10:03] Speaker B: This is for those watching this is like this show is planned a year in advance. I mean, obviously not the specific date that they were going to come on the show, but it was planned like, yeah, obviously you have to come and talk to us about it. Okay, so let's, let's start with like itinerary, right? Like how many days was this? Like, I know obviously you have to fly down to Costa Rica before. But like, like how. And you said it, everything was included. But what was included specifically?
[00:10:31] Speaker D: So yeah, we flew down on a Saturday and flew back the next Friday. So it was six nights.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: And we could have done pre or post nights. We did not because of our other travel plans for this year. We were actually in Italy three weeks before this, which I sound like a terribly pretentious person saying that, but it.
[00:10:50] Speaker D: Just worked out that way because this is what happened. We picked this free trip because we had to pick and plan everything, you know, right after we won it. And then last fall her family comes to us, is like, oh, the whole family is going to Italy, but it's got to be this week because her younger brother is in physical therapy school. So he only had like a week and a half. He was off.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: So okay, I guess we're going to two different countries.
It's fine. My job will be fine with this. No problem.
It worked out. But, but you could have done pre or post nights and some of the people in our group did do that. We just, like I said, chose not because of our other travel plans.
[00:11:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So let's, let's talk about some of these logistics you have. ABDs are typically around, I think 40 people outside of river cruises. Like river cruises are, are larger. Cause it's. How many people fit on the ship? Cause they charter the whole, the whole ship. So that's usually like 150 people. I think for most land based trips it's usually about 40 people because that's how many can fit on like essentially a coach bus. And so that I think that.
So tell us like, and, and usually two guides tell us like what were, what were the. Of course, as you mentioned, this was an adult only specific itinerary to those watching. They do Costa Rica trips that are not adult only. They have both family versions and adult only versions. My guess is the itineraries are pretty similar, but there might be a couple.
[00:12:19] Speaker A: Almost exactly the same.
[00:12:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So there may be a couple of activities that are, you know, they'll swap out something that might be more kid friendly, but in general they're going to be really really similar.
So tell us how many people were on the trip and then like what's sort of the age range we're looking at for. For these number for these people?
[00:12:40] Speaker D: There were only 22 of guests on the trip plus two guides.
There was supposed to be 24, but they said somebody dropped out at the last minute. But it ranged. There were.
Us were in our mid-30s.
There was maybe one couple that was younger than us, but I would say the imagineers.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: Yes, there were a couple who were imagineers, but they didn't want to talk about it, so.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: Oh, what a bummer.
[00:13:09] Speaker A: I got the vibe that they just, you know, they're on vacation. So I get that you don't want to spend your whole vacation talking about work, but.
Yeah, so they seemed really nice. We did not get to have them especially well.
[00:13:21] Speaker D: But it ranged from that. And there were up to people there with their like adult children.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: Yeah, so they're the adult kids that people brought. It was like one family that had their two adult kids. One of the kids was 19 and the other was 23.
[00:13:35] Speaker D: And the other one was. There was a father, daughter too.
[00:13:37] Speaker A: Oh yeah. But Tessa is like 29 or something and her dad is however old he is. So we. And then there were a couple of people that I would guess were probably late 60s, early 70s, if I had to guess. I didn't ask. But you definitely have. Yeah, you definitely have a wide variety there. Our, our besties that we made on the trip were a couple in their 40s and another couple, I don't even know how old, Peter and. Or Peter. Oh my gosh.
[00:14:06] Speaker D: Very young if you're watching this.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: Very young at heart and delightful, delightful company. But they were probably, I'm gonna guess at least in their 50s based on the age of their kids.
[00:14:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It's always. I feel like ABD is a good variety. I mean like, like a lot of travel. Right. It does tend to skew older than. I mean generally not super young families. Right. Because young families that have young kids, it's. Some of these things are harder to do and obviously yours was an adult only itinerary. So you're not going to have families with young kids unless they could find a babysitter to watch their kids for an entire week.
But yeah, there it's going to be a nice var of ages. I think Adventures by Disney really does attract a lot of multi generational families as well.
[00:14:54] Speaker A: So the age range, I'm sorry, I was going to say, I think if you're bringing children on this, the Minimum age that they recommend is 8. Yeah, but you can't. They have done, I think maybe six or seven year olds. I really would not go any younger than that though.
[00:15:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I think a lot of the trips are actually like a hard minimum of like four or five, but they have a recommended minimum of like eight. And I would say, I think that's right. I don't. I actually think, you know, I think Nathan was, I think he was nine when we took or he had just turned nine when we took him on his abd and he was, I think on the younger end. I think, I think he will enjoy our next ABD more than the first one because he will be closer in age to the, you know, the kids that will be on it. So. Yeah, well, let's talk logistics. Where do you fly to? I know you guys are flying out from Charlotte or the Charlotte area, but where you fly to, where does this ABD start?
[00:15:57] Speaker D: Yep, we flew into San Jose and you fly out of Guanacaste. So you. We move across the country. Thankfully, like you said, we're in Charlotte and we have direct flights to both of those.
So it wasn't too bad. In fact, going down and coming back. We were on the flight with a couple of the older retiree people that were coming down to go on the trip and we figured that out.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Yeah, we all got in the same van to go to the hotel and it was like, oh, where are you from? And they were like, oh, north, north and South Carolina. And we were like, oh, you must been on our flight.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Oh, that's so funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had the same thing when we flew on our abd, we had another couple, but we flew actually through Charlotte funny enough. Right. And so yeah, we flew through Charlotte to Munich and we had another couple that was on our ABD and we got in a van with them. We baggage claim, basically. Yeah. So yeah.
So when does it start then? You arrive in San Jose in the evening, daytime. Like when do you all meet up?
[00:17:02] Speaker A: You meet up for welcome dinner so you can get there whenever. And I'm sure that your arrival will depend upon the flight times from your point of origination, but they don't. The first, first like scheduled group activity for us was at 6:30 and that was our welcome dinner on that Saturday. We had like orientation when we arrived at the hotel with our two guides, but that was like, you know, a 10, 15 minute kind of meet and greet and then you were getting to go to your room and get settled and if you wanted to go to the pool or something. You could.
[00:17:31] Speaker D: Yeah, we probably got there about 2:30 or 3. So we had some time to walk.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: Yeah, we got lunch because we were like, it's a weird, like it's a four hour flight. So for us like we did not get served a meal on the flight, on the plane because we were in, you know, coach, economy, whatever the. Whatever they're calling it these days. Disney did not for some reason want to pay for us to fly first class. And we did not want to pay to upgrade ourselves. So we were pretty, pretty hungry. We brought snacks on the flight, but we were like ready for something substantial by the time we got to the hotel. And they had. It's the Costa Rica Marriott Hotel Hacienda Belle.
It's a long name.
That hotel has like three different restaurants in it, which was pretty convenient. There were other places that you could walk to, but it's not like a super like nice walkable area. It's weird because you can like walk a block or two and there's like a subway and like a little plaza with some other things like that. And there's also like a donkey and horse farm across the street.
So we just were like, we're just gonna stay to the property. There's food here and it seems like it'll be good and we're just gonna keep it simple.
[00:18:36] Speaker B: Yeah, well, tell us like who were your guides? And then I want to ask about the planning process of choosing excursions and things like that.
[00:18:45] Speaker D: Yeah, so our, we had one local guide and one ABD guide. Our ABD guide was. Well, they're both but.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: You mean American.
[00:18:54] Speaker D: Yes, one, one American.
Our American guide was Caitlin. She's from Nashville and she was amazing. She had, we met working at summer camp and we've never said that, that before. And she comes from a summer camp background. She worked as a director at a few summer camps and things like that. So it was fun getting to connect with her over that.
And then our in country guide was Brian with a Y.
[00:19:21] Speaker C: So wrong. So wrong.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: Well, we were like Brian Costa Rican name. Interesting. Okay.
[00:19:28] Speaker D: But he, he was like a wildlife specialist, specifically ornithology and birds. Like he was, he loved birds.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: He knows everything about.
[00:19:39] Speaker B: Yeah, that's so cool. Which I mean makes sense why you got some really great photos. Of course.
Yeah, well let's, let's, let's dive into the planning if there was any pre planning as far as excursions. So I'm calling them excursions. But like, yeah, people should know what I mean. Your activities, like your daily schedule. Did you were there choices I mean, with a smaller group, I just don't know. Do they give you choices for your daily activities?
[00:20:06] Speaker A: So. Not really because, like, it's, it's pretty much a set itinerary. So they, as the, the, the default assumption is that you're going to do the itinerary as planned. If you don't want a whitewater raft or you don't want a zipline, they have alternative activities for both of those. So if you didn't want a white water raft, you could go to do a Heart of Palm Farm tour kind of thing.
We had one person do that, so she had a private tour with Brian.
Caitlin came rafting with us.
Then if you didn't zipline, you go on like a nature walk.
My philosophy on that is maybe like, don't pick this ABD if you don't want to do these adventurous activities because that's part of what you're paying for. But your mileage may vary on that.
But there's no real planning to it. It's just when you show up in country, your guides are like, hey, if you don't want to do something, let us know and we'll let you know what your alternatives are. But, but like I said, the assumption is that you're going to do the activities as planned.
[00:21:05] Speaker D: And I think because we want it, our planning process may have been a little different because, you know, they were just like, hey, here's three flight options. Which one do you want to take? Or whatever, and you know, things like that. Whereas normally it may have been a little more challenging logistically.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: Yeah, but I mean, and there's no, like, I think from what I've heard about Yalls episodes on the river cruises, it's like, do you want to do A or B in the morning and do you want to do C or D in the afternoon? There's none of that. And the way that the Costa Rica ABD is set up, it's most of the time you've got an activity in the morning, and then if you have any free time, it'll be like in the afternoon after lunch. And part of that is because of the weather, especially in. We're like on the beginning of rainy season.
And so especially during rainy season, you're gonna have more likely to have rain in the afternoon. So if you do your activities in the morning, that's gonna work out better.
[00:21:57] Speaker B: That makes sense. Yeah. So let's, let's talk about this amazing itinerary.
What's your, you know, what are you doing day one? Because we're not Going to count. I mean, I know night one is the dinner, but let's move to the actual activity stuff. Let's talk.
Oh, there's your pin. Yeah. So every day, for those who don't know, every day when you're on an adventures by Disney, there's a different themed pin. I don't know if they gave them for us. They sent us to us ahead of time, so we didn't actually get them on our abduction for you guys. Did they send them to you ahead of time or did they give them to you when you're.
[00:22:29] Speaker D: We got them on. They said they just started doing that again.
[00:22:32] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, so I think it was how.
[00:22:33] Speaker D: It was pre Covid and they just started doing that again.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: It was pretty fun because they came out of a sloth backpack called Pearl. And so when you saw Pearl appear, you got excited because that meant that you were getting the pin of the day.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Love that. And I will note Drew, for those who are not watching, Drew is wearing a lovely sloth shirt. And Hayley, you can't see her ears earrings, but she is wearing a sloth earrings as well. And she's wearing a star cruiser shirt. For those who, you know, for those who've been on the star cruiser Halcyon forever, of course.
Okay, so day one, what's. What are you guys up to on day one?
[00:23:13] Speaker D: Day one was rafting. So we hit the ground running. Like we get there, we get up. We had to be out of our. We had to have our luggage outside by like 7am and we left by like 7:30 because it was like maybe an hour and a half, two hour drive to where we were rafting. And so we got on, got to the bus. And it's wonderful because you put this little tag on your luggage and you just set it outside of your room and then it disappears and then it just reappears in your next room. Whenever you move hotels, it was great.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: Yeah. They call it magical luggage service. And it is magical.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: That sounds.
[00:23:52] Speaker A: And we're normally carry on only people because we don't like schlepping around a lot of luggage, but you had to bring a lot of varieties of shoes for all these activities. So we did end up checking a bag, like a medium sized suitcase. And it was kind of like, well, why not? Because we don't have to deal with it.
[00:24:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:07] Speaker A: Once we get. Once we become and get into APD custody, we don't have to touch it again until it's time to go get out at the airport in Guadalcasta So.
[00:24:15] Speaker B: Why not exactly tell me. Actually, that's a great point though. How. What kind of shoes? What are the. What are the varieties of shoes that you needed to bring?
[00:24:25] Speaker A: So I was gonna say, so for rafting you need something with a. That, that you don't mind getting wet, that has a back. Like flip flops are not gonna work for rafting. You could do like Chacos or Tevas or keen sand water sandals, that kind of thing. We actually wore water shoes because we decided that like, we've been rafting several times previously in our camp counselor lives, so we prefer to have our toes covered for rafting purposes. So we had like water shoes. I think we bought them at Blizzard beach, actually. So crocs would work fine. They got to be in sport mode. But you can wear crocs rafting. For zip lining, you need to have closed toed shoes. That can just be tennis shoes. It can also be like a hiking boot or something like that. I think I wore my hiking boots, my low, my low top hiking boots because I was like, if it rains, then I don't want wet feet. And my boots are waterproof roof.
And then you've got a catamaran adventure. So you can wear like your water sandals if you got those on the catamaran or like you could do flip flops. So I just wanted to have options. So I had tennis shoes, hiking boots, water shoes and flip flops and my choco sandals. I lived in my Chacos most of the trip, actually.
[00:25:37] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's like five. That's like five pairs of shoes just for you, Haley. So yeah, I can understand that's quite a variety.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: Okay, so quite as many.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: But you know me, a couple that hit multiple purposes. I, I can understand that. Well, let's. When you're talking about whitewater rafting, are we talking about like super intense water? Like what are we talking about here?
[00:26:04] Speaker D: No, they didn't get above a Class 2.
[00:26:06] Speaker A: I think it says Class 3 on the website.
[00:26:09] Speaker D: But the, the, the route they take you down is very tame. And I think.
Yes, yes, yes, that's true for us there. You know, everyone has their own experience with it and things like that. But like I said back when, like Haley said, I used, we used to do it as camp counselors and I used to guide rafts back then. So I've been down much heavier. We have the National Whitewater center here in Charlotte where they can go and adjust the rapids because that's where like the whitewater kayakers and things that participate in the Olympics train. So we've done, like, much higher rated stuff. So it was pretty calm from our standards. But it was cool that as you were floating down the river, you saw a lot of wildlife. And so that was a pretty unique experience.
[00:26:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say, like, it's like stretches of kind of just flat, like, do. To do. To do. I mean, there's some ripple to it. And then you would get to, like, a couple of more intense rapid sections, but there's a lot of, like, chill sections.
And so, like I said to us, it was like, this is pretty placid, but there are some pictures of some of our friends where they are just, like, shrieking the entire time, every photo.
And we have about 200.
[00:27:24] Speaker C: We got one question here that I wanted to ask. It was Ed's asking, did they give you a packing list?
[00:27:32] Speaker A: They did. So it came in the. They send you an adventure handbook. And I think these must have been originally printed, but now they are a digital handbook. So it basically opens up like an app on your phone. It's like a.
You bookmark the link and then you can turn that into a. Essentially a shortcut on your phone. So there's a packing list in there?
[00:27:51] Speaker B: Yeah, and they do that even for the river cruises as well. They'll send you a packing, like, suggested packing list. It's just guideline, obviously, but it might have, like, you know, suggestion of hiking boots or suggestion of water shoes or things like that. So gives you an idea. What was the. What was the main activity for day two?
[00:28:14] Speaker D: That was the boat, the nature reserve.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. I was like, yeah, yeah, that's true. You're looking at the pins. Because we have the pins in order.
[00:28:23] Speaker B: That's helpful.
[00:28:24] Speaker A: On the kitchen table in front of us. So we went to the Canyonegro Wildlife Refuge.
There we go.
So the pin says Call of the Wild. It's got Minnie Mouse with a little monkey peeking over the top of her bow there. So Canyonegro is.
And I should have. I back up and say the only night we were in San Jose was the first night. So the next three nights after that, we were in the Hotel Kyoro in Arenal, which is where the volcano is.
We were mostly, I would say, unlucky with our volcano views.
It was very foggy.
And sadly, I was looking at Adventure Guy Kailyn's stories from Instagram, like, for the following week. And it was, like, so clear. It's like, of course. But that hotel is really nice. You've got, like, a nice, nice kind of Juliet balcony going on and you've got a hot tub in your room, which is cool. So in theory you can sit in your in room hot tub and look at the volcano if it is visible.
So the Kanye Negro Wildlife Refuge is about a two hour drive from that hotel. So you, it's another fairly early morning.
Then you've got your bus time and adventure guide Brian, or whoever your local Costa Rican guide is, does some narration about, about the wildlife and about just Costa Rican culture, about the geography. You're going through the cloud forest and different things and then eventually you get there and you get on the boat and it, they call it the real life jungle cruise. So you're, you're cruising along and just looking at animals.
[00:29:51] Speaker D: And this is where our Costa Rican Brian really shined because his knowledge of all the animals and he got so excited.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: So excited.
[00:29:59] Speaker D: Like every. We would see the birds and he'd be like, oh, that's this, this, this and this. And we saw a bird he had never seen before doing this. And he's been doing it for like 10 or 15 years. Quite a while.
[00:30:12] Speaker A: Yeah, he's been guiding, he's been guiding.
[00:30:13] Speaker D: And he had never seen this bird on this cruise.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: Oh my God. But he knew what it was from a book or something, right? Wow.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Like he has studied this bird, but it's called the Great Potoo P O T O O And we, we had tried to do a slideshow and we had pictures of it, but we'll maybe we'll share the link for y' all to post somewhere or something.
[00:30:36] Speaker B: Oh, that's a great idea.
[00:30:38] Speaker A: I mean we've already made it, so we might as well. But the bird is, it's a nocturnal bird and it looks like a tree trunk. Like it looks like it's part of a tree because it's so camouflaged. So the fact that like we were able to spot it, I mean, not us personally, but that our boat guy, boat captain. I'm like, how are you like seeing all these animals and also driving this boat at the same time?
[00:30:59] Speaker D: Yeah, he was driving the boat and you would just see him like he's looking forward and then he's like, oh, there's a monkey up there and he's pointing off the side.
[00:31:06] Speaker B: Oh my God.
[00:31:07] Speaker D: There's a bird up in the tree at the very top of this tree.
[00:31:10] Speaker A: I think that the most remarkable was the bats. There were these like tiny, tiny bats. They were like this big on the, they're like a couple inches and they're on the underside of this like, log sticking out of the, out of the water of the river because you're going over the Rio Frio, which means cold river in Spanish.
And so, so little brief aside, a lot of times with abd, you get to do things that the general public does not get to do. Like if you're in Rome, you get to go into the Vatican museums before they're open to the public. So we were one of the days we were in the pool chatting with some of our new friends and one of them asked, well, so what did, like the normies not get to do that we get to do by doing this through abd.
I thought about it and I said, I think the answer is Brian, because I, you know, can you go to Costa Rica on your own and whitewater raft or zipline or whatever?
[00:32:01] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:32:02] Speaker A: Can you book a wildlife cruise?
[00:32:03] Speaker B: Sure.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: But I think going with with a wildlife expert like Brian and he has just like the best personality. So does Caitlin. They're both amazing.
But I think like, in terms of what is really unique and different is just the level of knowledge that he brings to the table and his, his passion for it because, like, I didn't know anything about these birds, but he got me really excited with his own, like, force of his enthusiasm.
[00:32:30] Speaker E: 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 MyPath 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. Mypath Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation plan planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, MyPath 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.
[00:33:28] Speaker C: I remember we had Jennifer on to talk about this Costa Rica trip a while back. I think we had her on the show to talk about it. But regardless, she was messaging me when she did this trip because she was. She did the trip trip with abd and then I think she went back to Costa Rica with her kids and just herself and she was like.
[00:33:49] Speaker B: And she tried to replicate. She tried to replicate the abd. Like a lot of like, she used a travel agent, I believe my path unwinding travel to try and like create an itinerary. Like, similar, but to hit things that they hadn't done. But it's the same sort of level of experience.
Yeah. And to Brian's point, well, she was messed.
[00:34:10] Speaker C: She's like, I miss our guides. I miss the ABD guys. Like, they were what made that trip. So.
Oh, you brought back some wildlife from the Amazon, I see. Yeah.
[00:34:20] Speaker D: Lord Neuron, huh?
[00:34:21] Speaker A: This is our orange cat for people that can see him. And if you are listening to the audio only, sorry, you're missing out on a very cute cat.
[00:34:28] Speaker B: A great cat on Drew's lap right now. I love it. I love it.
[00:34:31] Speaker D: He just loves to be held.
[00:34:32] Speaker A: So I'll say the other cool thing with the wildlife is that we haven't talked about this yet, but you get a ton of photos when you go on an abd. And I didn't know that was going to be a thing because we won this. I didn't really do any research. It was like, cool. We're going great.
And so we got about a thousand photos that we got to Download from this 6 day trip. And like for rafting, for example, the raft company has a photographer that like meets you at different points along the shoreline to take your photos of your group. So we have a ton. And when you. If and when people get to see the photos, Drew is like a supermodel, like, looking at the camera every single time.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: Oh, I love that he can find the camera.
[00:35:14] Speaker A: He's looking for the camera at every turn of that race.
[00:35:17] Speaker C: Drew, give us your best. Your best Zoolander there.
[00:35:20] Speaker B: Yeah, your best.
[00:35:22] Speaker A: You gotta do him.
But like with the paddle.
[00:35:25] Speaker D: Yeah, it's an action shot.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: They're all action shot. An action shot.
[00:35:28] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: I love it.
He's a blue steel.
[00:35:32] Speaker D: Yeah, I was watching out for it.
[00:35:35] Speaker A: Yeah.
But on the wildlife refuge tour, they bring like a legit camera with the telephoto lens. So you're getting like really good photos of the wildlife that you can't just get with your phone. I mean, the iPhone and I'm sure the Google, pixel, et cetera have come a long way in terms of their abilities. But, you know, you're talking howler monkeys, spider monkeys, white faced capuchins, like way up there in the trees. And I mean I got like some okay photos with my phone which is a, like a pretty brand new iPhone. But the real camera photos were definitely a lot better. So that's a nice benefit too. And just in general with the photos, like you're not having to like worry about like I have to document this. You can just be more in the moment, which is nice.
[00:36:14] Speaker D: Nice.
[00:36:14] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, let's jump to the next day so we can get through it all. What was the big, what was the big activity on day three? You're still in that, that same hotel I think on that day. Yes, ziplining. High in the sky.
[00:36:30] Speaker D: Skyline. Yes, ziplining.
So yeah, we at the start, when you start, you go up in a gondola kind of like they have in Switzerland or eats a ski. Kind of like a ski.
[00:36:42] Speaker A: It's not like a chairlift though. You're in an enclosed little.
[00:36:46] Speaker D: But it is open air and it takes you way up into the top of the jungle and then there are seven or eight zip lines down and you just go back and forth and at the peak you're 650ft above the jungle.
So it's pretty incredible. And there were photographers, there were photographers from the zipline company along the route taking pictures.
And so we got those pictures too, included with. Oh, the abd.
[00:37:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:37:20] Speaker D: And that's not something we just got for winning. That's something everybody on the ABD got.
[00:37:24] Speaker A: Right? Yeah, Yep. And your guides?
Our guide Caitlin did the ziplining with us and she also took some photos with her, her company phone. So we got a good mix of like company wrapped zipline company pictures and not. But I would say the ziplining is pretty accessible for most as long as.
[00:37:44] Speaker D: You'Re not afraid of heights.
[00:37:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:37:47] Speaker D: And if you are afraid of heights, do it anyway. It's incredible.
[00:37:49] Speaker B: Do it anyway. Do it anyway. I mean, Brian has convinced me a couple of times to do ziplining at different places. Once.
[00:37:57] Speaker C: Both times. Both times.
[00:37:59] Speaker B: Both times. I loved it. I loved it. I'm still terrified.
[00:38:02] Speaker C: We did the steepest zip line on St. Thomas or something like that.
[00:38:05] Speaker D: St. Martin.
[00:38:05] Speaker B: St. Martin.
[00:38:06] Speaker C: And Sam was like, oh, I'm gonna hate him. I hate him. I hate him. She got to the bottom and we're like walking back to like look at our photo or whatever and she was, was like so I mean, I could do that again if you wanted to go again and yeah, we did.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: We did go again.
[00:38:18] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:38:18] Speaker B: And then the other one we did was in St. Kitts. I believe it was one of those, like, rainforest ones, treetop ones, which is more similar to what you did where you go from zipline to zip line. And that was just like four or five smaller zip lines. But yeah, terrifying but awesome. I totally highly recommend, even if you, like me, are terrified, do it. But yeah, Tracy was asking, are there photographers on ABD river cruises? And so it depends in general. Like, sometimes there might be. There might be locations where you do things where there's a photographer. But generally Speaking, on most ABDs, the photographers are actually your guides. Your, your, your ABD guides will be taking pictures with their phones, usually, you know, iPhones or what, whatnot, and they will put them all onto a website for you to download at the end of year. And that's all included. As, as Hayley and Drew mentioned, it's not because they won this trip. It is part of the ABD package is basically a shared photo album. And so what's great about that is you may not always think to take a picture of yourself and your spouse or yourself and your family, and they will take a picture of you, and so you won't. Not every photo has to be a selfie. You can actually get some decent photos. And they are actually quite good at taking photos because they take photos all the time. So even though they're not professional photographers, the guides, I mean, even though they're not professional photographers, they're actually quite cool. Good. All right, so go ahead, say one.
[00:39:50] Speaker D: Little thing like, that was great. Was after all of these activities, you know, you're been hot, you're out in the. The thing. They always at the bus, when we were getting back on the bus, our bus driver always had a table set up with bottles of water and like Costa Rican snackies and candies and things like that.
[00:40:11] Speaker C: What do we got there? We got. We got some sort of Costa Rican.
[00:40:12] Speaker B: Flavored, some type of chocolate.
[00:40:14] Speaker D: Yes, this is, this is yippee.
So this is like Costa Costa Rican KitKat.
[00:40:21] Speaker C: Oh, nice.
[00:40:23] Speaker D: And then we have some chips. So yakitas are kind of like.
Yeah, they're yucca potato chips and Moderitos are plantains, plantain chips.
[00:40:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I love both.
[00:40:40] Speaker A: Yeah. There were other options, but obviously we've grabbed extra to bring home with us.
And I, I forgot to say, after the whitewater rafting, we had like a dinner at the hotel and we had a dance demonstration with like five Latin dances and we did a guaro sour cocktail making class. And this is included as a standard on all the. Itineraries the kids can do a tropical fruit juice tasting.
When it's a family adventure and adults only, everybody's just making the cocktail. But so guaro is like a rum, but made with sugar cane, and it's a Costa Rican thing. And so the guara sour is that plus lime juice and simple syrup.
So it's pretty simple. Cocktail, usually with the sugar rim, usually with a sugar rim. Like you kind of roll the rim of your glass in pineapple, like on a slice of pineapple, and then do that on top of the sugar.
But we enjoy the guara sour. We ordered that, like anytime we were having a drink in Costa Rica, we were typically ordering those because, like, we can't get them at home. So we were like, let's just enjoy that. That was not included in any alco is not part of your abd. Well, there's a couple, like the welcome dinner and the farewell dinner tasting. They have wine that like you get two glasses of wine, I think, included, but by and large. And the catamaran has an open bar.
How many, when you get to Guanacaste.
[00:41:57] Speaker C: How many meals were included on the trip? Because, like a river cruise, everything's included. But I don't know.
[00:42:02] Speaker D: In Costa Rica, everything except for one lunch. One lunch we had to get on our own, which was when we got dropped off in one of the towns and was able to like, walk around and things like that. That was the only time that we had to pay for our own meal.
[00:42:18] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:42:18] Speaker B: It's really nice. It's, it's. It's really nice when you do an A B D because you really don't have other things to pay for outside of like a tip. Right. Or souvenirs. Right. So it's really nice to have same with a river cruise. If you, if there is, there might be like, I think one lunch. Well, you could always come back to the ship. But if you wanted to go out on your own into the town and you had that free time, then if you're off the ship, obviously, then the lunch was own. All right, well, let's, let's jump to the next day. So you got, you did day after. Zip.
[00:42:49] Speaker A: One more thing. Sorry. We had one on the ziplining day, which was Hot springs. So we went to Hot Springs and we got to have like an hour, I think hour, hour and a half to like sit in the hot springs. And there's like, you go from one to the next to the next, and it's supposed to get like progressively colder, but it's like a 1 degree difference according to Drew's Apple Watch.
And they have like, they will have people who can bring you drinks in the hot springs if you want that.
And then you also had dinner there. And something we haven't mentioned yet is that the sun rises at like 5:30 and sets about 6:00 year round.
So because you're, I guess you're closer to the equator. So.
[00:43:32] Speaker D: Yeah, a funny story that our guide Brian told us is like when he used to watch soccer or football on television in other countries and it would be like 8:30 at night and it's still light outside. He's like, well, clearly that's not true. That's not right.
[00:43:49] Speaker A: He's like, that's fake.
[00:43:50] Speaker D: The sun always sets at 6:30.
[00:43:52] Speaker A: Everyone knows that.
[00:43:54] Speaker B: That's so funny. You don't think about that though, because.
[00:43:57] Speaker A: It'S very dark when we're at the hot springs.
[00:43:59] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:43:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Wow.
[00:44:01] Speaker C: Well, so. So we're heading into day five now, right?
[00:44:03] Speaker D: Yep, yep.
[00:44:04] Speaker C: All right, what's on tap for day five? Hold on, let me get the, let me get the camera switcher ready so we can see the pin.
Oh, yeah, go ahead.
[00:44:12] Speaker D: Okay. This one, it says vamos Guanacaste.
[00:44:16] Speaker A: Vamos Guanacaste. Which means like we're going to Guanacaste. So you've got another monkey and like an adventurer Donald going on here.
[00:44:24] Speaker D: So this was mainly driving across the country. Like we drove, I think it was like a four, four and a half hour drive across the country. Country. That was the big thing. Well, that was a big thing. But we also did the chocolate tour and that chocolate tour, short look, we got a whole bunch of Costa Rican chocolate. We are not into coffee and so that was not our thing, but we loaded up on the Costa Rican chocolate.
[00:44:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:57] Speaker C: How many days have you been back now?
[00:45:01] Speaker D: Two weeks, A week and a half.
[00:45:02] Speaker A: Yeah. We got back on the, on May 30th and today's June 9th. So yeah, yeah, we have already eaten like one, one or two of these, but we bought like 50 bucks in chocolate.
[00:45:13] Speaker D: These are the two. So this is the two little monkeys is the one that the guy at the chocolate place recommended. And the chocolate fusion, this one is the one that our guides recommended. So if you're in Costa Rica and you're looking for chocolate.
[00:45:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Your guys, your guides will give you chocolate coffee recommendations of all, all sorts. Brian was pretty much mainlining coffee the entire day.
[00:45:38] Speaker D: I mean, he, he had it as soon as we woke up. He would still be drinking it at 9:30. At night. He had a cup always.
[00:45:47] Speaker A: And it's like this little tiny, like ceramic cup that he just carries.
[00:45:50] Speaker D: It's not like a travel box get refilled. He took it with him everywhere.
[00:45:54] Speaker A: I'm like, is that your personal cup that you. If he doesn't have a lid, I have questions.
[00:45:59] Speaker D: But anyway, this chocolate tour, this was something they told us about on the first day because they were like, a chocolate tour is a chocolate tour, but you need to be prepared because of the man that does the chocolate tour.
His actual name is Kaylor K E I L O are, but his local name is Chapo Guapo, which means it's.
[00:46:33] Speaker A: Like kind of like a handsome bandit or handsome scoundrel. That kind of vibe you've heard of like El Chapo, the drug lord.
He is Chapo Guapo and he looks like, like Costa Rican Santa.
[00:46:47] Speaker B: What?
[00:46:48] Speaker A: Our slideshow has a couple of photos of the man, the myth, the legend.
[00:46:53] Speaker D: This is the great loss of not having the slideshow is you all not getting to see Chapo Guapo.
[00:46:58] Speaker A: It's like if the most interesting man in the world and Santa got together with a stand up comedian, Brian, Costa Rican Brian, adventure guide. Brian described him as feral.
[00:47:14] Speaker D: And that was accurate.
[00:47:15] Speaker A: That is accurate.
And adventure guy Caitlin said that you might think that's like Brian struggling to find the right English word, but no, that is the right English word.
And Chapo Guapo spent the entire time joking about how he was going to marry Caitlin and she was going to be Costa Rican.
[00:47:32] Speaker B: She's going to be Mrs. Chapo Guapo.
[00:47:34] Speaker A: That's one of the recurring bits. And basically like, he will give you as much as you give him in return. So we were like egging him on.
[00:47:43] Speaker D: So we think because we were adults only, he was letting it go even a little bit more.
[00:47:48] Speaker A: So I mean, he never crossed the line. But he was definitely like, it was very engaging. And it wasn't. I mean, yes, we learned a lot about chocolate and a lot of pictures. And you get to like sample chocolate by the, like kind of like the little teaspoonful at the end. And you can like. He pours like different toppings on it. He was like lighting some of them on fire, putting like marshmallows on it, lighting it on fire, like dousing it with rum. You're like, what is happening?
It was. And then you went and took it like a two hour curvy bus ride after all the chocolate.
[00:48:15] Speaker B: So you're full of chocolate and then long bus. Yes.
[00:48:20] Speaker A: So that was Like a surprisingly delightful experience.
[00:48:26] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah. We had done a chocolate tasting in Mexico on a Caribbean cruise and things before. This was.
[00:48:33] Speaker B: Yeah, you guys did the one in Cozumel, I think, right?
[00:48:36] Speaker D: We did, we did. This is nothing like that. This is on a whole nother plane.
It was.
It was honestly a highlight that you wouldn't expect, you know, you expect it to be zip lining or rafting and things like that. And those were amazing. But this was highlight and a very. Again, you're talking about like things that you might not otherwise get. You wouldn't know to ask or get this particular guide and get this particular experience if you weren't on an abd.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: Yeah, there were a couple of times throughout the week where we stopped at like a local business that wasn't like on the itinerary. Like, we went to a Trapiche, which is like a place where they grow and process sugar can cane. So we saw like a demonstration of how they get juice out of sugar cane. Yeah. One of the uses of which squirrel. But. And they showed us like how to make tortillas and we like more snacks. You're never hungry. They feed you constantly.
But it was cool because it was like these three sisters who own the Trapiche and we just like stopped there for like 30 minutes. It was like bathroom stop and little snacks and a little bit of education. But Brian was history adventure guide. Brian was saying, oh, yeah, like, these sisters are awesome. One time I had a hernia and they like took me to the hospital and. And so like, these are people that he actually, you know, knows and has a relationship with. And he and Chapo Guapo, like hang out sometimes.
So it's fun because you get to know the. The locals more.
And I saw Tracy had a comment that she doesn't pay mind paying for a breakfast or lunch out in the area.
[00:50:07] Speaker B: So the.
[00:50:08] Speaker A: When you do the lunch in la, the town of La Fortuna, that's cool. There's not really a lot of other opportunities to do that because the resorts that you're staying at are pretty isolated.
Like you're kind of like way up in the jungle and there's nowhere for you to like walk to.
So there's no little town, really. Yeah, no. And you're probably not gonna like Uber or anything because I don't know that like these smaller towns, like these more rural areas have that.
So just. That might. That's a difference from like being on a river cruise where you like get off and you're in a town with lots of options there.
Anything else on this day. Let's see.
[00:50:45] Speaker D: I think that's it.
[00:50:46] Speaker A: The chocolate tour is the main thing.
[00:50:47] Speaker D: The kitty.
[00:50:48] Speaker A: Well, nobody cares about the kitty. We got like smoothies on the road. That was fun. They just like, they ask you, like hypothetically, if you could choose from these flavors, what would you choose? And you're basically like pre ordering your smoothie for this, like roadside, like stop by the side of a river. That's like a souvenir store slash smoothie bar, slash whatever.
So just like little fun stuff like that. But this was the day where we were transferred to Guanacaste, which is on the Pacific coast. And we were at El Mangrove Hotel for the last two nights, which is adventure guide. Caitlin described it as a bougie beach resort, which is accurate.
[00:51:20] Speaker D: And this is on the Pacific coast and it has the black sand beaches because it's the volcanic beaches.
[00:51:27] Speaker B: So beautiful.
[00:51:29] Speaker D: Don't go there expecting them to be pitch black, but they are definitely dark. Dark.
[00:51:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Dark color. So what was, what was that your first day there? Like? I guess this is your last, like full day of your abd.
[00:51:41] Speaker A: I know. We got one more full day after this day.
[00:51:44] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:51:44] Speaker A: Yeah, we got, we got to the beach hotel and you basically just had the afternoon free to go to the pool or go to the beach or whatever. And then we had, we were. Dinner was like. Dinner was included, but on your own.
[00:51:56] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:51:57] Speaker A: So you just like made a reservation with.
[00:51:59] Speaker D: Went to one of the hotel restaurants and went and ate down here. We had dinner with some of our friends we had made.
[00:52:04] Speaker A: You can go with people if you want, but. Or you can. If you just want it to be your party, you can do that as well.
[00:52:09] Speaker D: But our very last day, our Saturday had our last full day, says osta.
[00:52:15] Speaker A: Luego, which means see you later.
[00:52:17] Speaker D: See you later.
[00:52:19] Speaker A: Which is the phrase you don't. You never want to hear.
[00:52:22] Speaker D: Yeah, but that, that was our catamaran day. So we got to go out on the catamaran.
[00:52:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like a three and a half hour, four hour ish experience. So you. And there's an open bar included.
We started at 8:00am but you know, it's noon somewhere or 5:00 clock somewhere or whatever.
And so we, you know, you got the net so you can lay on. And we went. We got to snorkel and the water was a little murky because of the weather. It had been raining some, but we could still see some things. We saw eels and pufferfish, which was cool. Sometimes people will see turtles or dolphins. The week after Us, I think, had better luck with that. We did see starfish, but you get like a pool noodle to do your snorkeling with. Of course, all the snorkel equipment is included. There were snacks on the boat. It was a really fun time. They have music playing and we were just vibing, having a good time. It was like a nice. You kind of do like the, all the, like really hardcore activities are front loaded at the front of this trip. And so you kind of just get progressively more chill and relaxed as the trip proceeds.
[00:53:33] Speaker B: I mean, it sounds like, oh, it was great to be out on the water. Yeah, yeah.
[00:53:37] Speaker A: And then when you get back to the, to the resort, you have the rest of the afternoon free. A lot of people go straight from the catamaran into the pool. And that's basically what we did. We had lunch at the like, pool bar. They had like a set menu to choose from for that. And.
[00:53:55] Speaker D: And then if you're me, you get food poisoning and spend the rest of the day sick in the room.
[00:54:00] Speaker A: That is true. He. He was, he was in the pool for a while and then he abandoned me. And I thought he was just like done peopling because he's pretty introverted and I'll talk to anyone for any length of time.
But yeah, I got back to the room to like, shower and he was like, I'm dying. And I was like, oh, no.
So he actually missed our farewell dinner.
[00:54:18] Speaker D: Which was very sad.
[00:54:21] Speaker B: Oh, that makes me really sad.
Speaking of food, I mean, we got a kind of, you know, obviously that was your farewell dinner. Your farewell dinner usually has a slideshow. I'm sure that we had a slideshow that evening.
It's a secret. They don't tell you it's going to happen. But anyone who's been on an Adventures by Disney or has talked to someone who's been on Adventures by Disney Adventure knows that they do a slideshow. But I want to kind of back up and talk about food. Overall.
[00:54:54] Speaker C: I'm really curious, like, for the food stuff, did you get an authentic taste of Costa Rica?
[00:55:01] Speaker A: I think so. Like, they had a list in the handbook ahead of time that was like, here are some traditional Costa Rican dishes that you may encounter. And we kind of made it our mission to try as many of them as we could.
[00:55:10] Speaker D: And I think we got everything but one.
[00:55:12] Speaker A: So everything but shaved ice, which is like, okay, that doesn't matter to me. But every meal basically has rice and beans in some form or fashion.
Including, including breakfast. It's got different names depending on what time of day? Drew's got another visual aid here, which is lisano sauce, which is like the Costa Rican national condiment of choice.
And I don't even know how to describe it. It's not spicy, but it's really tasty. You put it on your rice and beans, you put it on your meat, whatever.
I would say, like, the way that most of these buffets are set up, it's like there is salad, salad. There is vegetables, there is meats, and there might be a pasta, and there's usually rice and beans. And so it's pretty easy, like, for everybody to find something that they want.
So whether you're vegetarian or vegan or whatever, there was actually two of us with the same tree nut allergy, which is odd and uncommon, probably, but they handled that really well.
You know, never felt like that was going to be an issue, with the possible exception of desserts. But I do feel like a lot of the buffets, like, if you wanted to try something more authentic, I think, like, as just a steak with chimichurri sauce, is pretty authentically Costa Rican. And something to note about Costa Rican food is that it's not especially spicy.
Like, they're not trying to, you know, kill you with spice levels there the way that maybe some other Latin American, Central American company countries might. So if you are more of a less spicy person, there'll be plenty for you to eat. And I think they try to appeal to a wide variety of palates, but you definitely can still try traditional stuff.
[00:56:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Well. And were there other people with maybe more difficult food allergies to accommodate? I know you have tree nut allergy, and you said somebody else had a tree nut allergy, but were there other ones?
Maybe a shellfish allergy or anything like that? That.
[00:57:10] Speaker A: Not that we heard about a vegetarian.
[00:57:12] Speaker D: But I think that was about the only. Yeah.
[00:57:14] Speaker A: I think Robin, who is one of our new friends, the other tree nut allergy, she's more susceptible to cross contamination than I am. So there were several.
Definitely desserts that she passed on.
And I also should have mentioned there's usually fresh fruit at every meal, and Costa Rica is actually the number one exporter of pineapple.
So there is really delicious fresh pineapple at every meal.
[00:57:35] Speaker D: Except don't eat. If you eat their fruit, then you will come back here and not want to eat this fruit.
[00:57:42] Speaker A: That is true. That is a hazard that you run because you will come back and be like, this pineapple is not the same.
[00:57:50] Speaker C: So here's my question, all right. As we wrap things up here, you got to do an ABD for free, which is, like, amazing.
Your first Adventures by Disney. Yeah. First Adventures by Disney trip here for free.
[00:58:05] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:58:06] Speaker C: Knowing what they cost, would you pay to do one now that you've experienced the free version?
[00:58:13] Speaker D: I think so. We even, I mean, we talked to some of the friends we made on the trip, and we all want to do the Egypt one together.
So I think that, you know, not to belabor the point that kind of gets at it right there is. I don't think that we're pretty.
I don't know if accomplished is it the right word. Experienced travelers. We've planned lots of trips ourselves and for places that we would feel comfortable or that we've planned before. So we've been all over Europe and things like that. I don't think that we would necessarily feel like we needed a guide or that we needed to take an ABD there, but somewhere that we, I think, would be harder to plan. Like I said, Egypt, maybe. Maybe going to Machu Picchu, maybe somewhere over in Asia, either Japan or China or something like that.
Where the language barrier is a little bit higher. I think that we would definitely consider doing it again.
[00:59:15] Speaker A: Yeah. I think one of the strengths of abd too, is that they take care of all the logistics for you. So, like, just getting from point A to point B around the country, like, easy to do in Europe. There's trains to everybody everywhere.
But when you're talking about, like, you know, can you rent a car and drive across Costa Rica? Absolutely. You can. Can you arrange all your own internal flights and Nile river cruise and all that in Egypt? Like, yeah, but I think, like, for Egypt, for example, which is somewhere that I'm especially interested in going because I'm an archeology nerd, I would rather go with a tour company of some sort, just because totally different culture, language barrier, et cetera, and just the, like, sheer size of the country. Country that you're trying to navigate around. And frankly, I like getting a pin every day. And if I can get a pin with Mickey Mouse and a pyramid on it, I'd be pretty excited about that.
[01:00:03] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:00:04] Speaker D: And we did get one final pin because it was the 20th anniversary of Adventures by Disney.
So we got one extra final pin.
[01:00:15] Speaker A: There you go.
[01:00:16] Speaker B: That's cool.
[01:00:17] Speaker C: Nice.
Yeah. I mean, I gotta say, I think ABD's at its best when you're talking about a country where it's difficult to plan the trip, the. Where you're moving around the country a lot. Like, Egypt's really cool because I know Jennifer came on and she, like, they, they took planes, trains, automobiles, boats, like, everything to get around that country.
[01:00:37] Speaker D: So, I mean, I think we heard that episode. That's when we were like, okay, we're gonna do everything.
[01:00:42] Speaker A: It sounds exhausting. But at the same time, like, you can't.
[01:00:45] Speaker B: You.
[01:00:45] Speaker A: I don't know how you could plan to accomplish more, more in your time in that country than what ABD does.
[01:00:51] Speaker B: Although.
Although Jennifer had, like, possibly the worst, like, experience.
[01:00:58] Speaker A: That's true.
[01:01:00] Speaker E: Yeah.
[01:01:01] Speaker C: She doesn't fault ABD for that. Right.
[01:01:02] Speaker B: No, I know, I know.
[01:01:04] Speaker C: I think ABD is at its best if you're a family wanting to travel, wanting to know that the vendors are going to be amazing, you know, that you're going to get some really high quality guides and that you might, you might get some things that the general public doesn't.
I've always thought the river cruising thing is, is I'm saying this knowing that we're going on one as our next podcasters, it's a little harder. It's a little harder to sell for me. Although it's perfect with kids. Like, I think that's the only way. If you want to do river cruising and you've got young kids and you want the three people in a stateroom, that kind of thing, like, ABD kills it for that. I think if we were, you know, older, Nathan was out of the house, you might just go do an AMA Waterways cruise on our own, to be perfectly honest, you know, the ABD upsell there doesn't seem as valuable to us. But I think if, if I was going to go to Egypt, I'd probably pick abd, even if it was just Sam and I or the safari in South Africa that I know, you know, I know.
[01:02:00] Speaker B: Ashley and Daniel are doing.
[01:02:02] Speaker C: Yeah, Ashley and Daniel are headed down there. That would be an amazing ABD to do.
So. Yeah, I, I'm glad to know that you're ABD converts because you know.
[01:02:13] Speaker A: Other companies for these things yet. So that's a caveat is like, I may look and you know what an Egyptian adventure costs with another company and go.
I mean, if it's twice the price, then I might have to go.
[01:02:26] Speaker C: You know what, though?
[01:02:27] Speaker A: You know, if it's $2,000 difference or something, you know, it's definitely a conversation.
[01:02:33] Speaker C: Here's what I would say, though, on that, on that point, even if it's twice the price, like, when we were on our ABD wandering around Europe, like, I did pay attention to, like, how many guides did we have for our group of whatever version versus those other ones where it was just like throng of people all trying to keep up with the umbrella or whatever it was. And they had the earpieces on. So we had those ear things on. But usually that was only, like, if we were walking long distances between places. We started to spread out a little bit, but I probably could have kept up with the guide the whole way and not even had to use those things. So anyway, I think there's more value there than people probably ascribe to abt.
[01:03:12] Speaker A: I mean, it's a really high, high quality product for sure. And I mean, we were staying in these super nice hotels. And like, we're. I mean, we're not super budget travelers, but we always are, like in an interior stateroom on Disney because just the entry point to get on the ship is a lot higher than it is for other cruise lines. But I prefer the Disney Experience entertainment, so forth. But, like, I would never stay in these hotels if I was booking them myself, because I would be going like, I'm not spending $800 a night.
But if you. If it's just like part of your package and you don't have to think about the sticker shack all throughout the planning process, then it's kind of like, I deserve this.
I work hard.
I can be bougie a little bit.
[01:03:53] Speaker D: You say that, but we did stay.
[01:03:54] Speaker A: At St. Herman's I know, but it wasn't $800 a night when we stayed there.
The next time we stayed there was $800 a night. We stayed somewhere.
[01:04:02] Speaker B: We had to make a home bed for those who don't know what they're talking about. St. Erman's is a hotel in London that we actually recommend did to Haley and Drew, and we stayed there.
[01:04:11] Speaker C: Bougie. Not on a budget.
[01:04:13] Speaker B: It's Bougie. Definitely. It is a really lovely hotel. It's a Marriott property, But I would highly recommend it for folks staying in London. It's very also well located near tube stops and near the palace. And you can walk to Buckingham Palace. You can walk to a lot of the sites.
[01:04:28] Speaker C: Not one, but two Starbucks. So there you go.
[01:04:31] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, close by two different directions. Yeah.
[01:04:34] Speaker C: Brian and I would not get along on his spelling of his name, but we would get along on the coffee. So there you go.
[01:04:39] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thanks you guys for joining us. We obviously so appreciate you guys coming on to talk to us about this abd. It is obviously a very unique itinerary. It's not one we've done ourselves. For those who know, we have only done one adventure on Adventures by Disney ourselves. But we of course, love to cover it because we do think that DCL is often the gateway drug to Adventures by Disney. It's a very similar luxury product by Disney.
For those watching live or watching this recorded, don't forget this Friday we will be back at 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern to talk with Gina, to finally talk about why Alaska is a bucket list itinerary and why Alaska is basically the best on dcl. Then we will also be back next Monday again at our regular time, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern Eastern, to talk with our good friend Tracy about the Treasure. She just went on her second sailing. She was on the maiden voyage with us and this was her first time back on the Treasure since the maiden voyage. So we got to hear, you know, what's different.
She also sailed with one of her kids, who is a young adult and recent college graduate who hadn't been on Disney Cruise Line in many years. And so Tracy's going to give us all the deets on what her daughter liked, didn't like, and what she thought had changed over the years. So we will be back at our normal, normal time. So please join us.
[01:06:09] Speaker C: And can I just say, we made it. We made it through a whole livestream.
[01:06:13] Speaker B: On the new platform that in and.
[01:06:16] Speaker C: Of itself deserves the applause. So there we go.
[01:06:20] Speaker D: There we go.
[01:06:20] Speaker C: All right, thanks everybody out there.
[01:06:22] Speaker B: Yeah, we're hoping to get this platform more up and running so that we can do more fun things, more than obviously just sound effects, but PowerPoints and all that good stuff as well.
[01:06:33] Speaker C: We might have the ability to let people call into the show if they want to ask a question, question live. So there you go.
[01:06:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm not sure we want to use that, but we'll see.
[01:06:42] Speaker C: But then I can't use my first appropriate. I can't get my, you know, first longtime listener, first time caller.
[01:06:47] Speaker B: First time caller. I know, I know. Brian loves that line. All right, anyway, thank you all for watching. We will see you on Friday and then see you next Monday. And again, big thanks to Haley and Drew for coming on tonight's show. And, you know, we'll have them back because, you know, they'll be sailing on Disney. They'll be doing different, different trips. You know, they'll be back.
[01:07:05] Speaker C: Yeah. See everybody.
[01:07:06] Speaker A: Thanks, y' all for having us. Bye.
[01:07:13] Speaker E: 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 alive, we have a live show now every week week Monday nights 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email them at dclduomypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here, at least on a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
[email protected] 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. Use the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney Vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL duo.
