[00:00:00] Speaker A: We have to go back and try the pirate night menu one more time because we keep hearing it's so good and we keep poo pooing it and we need to like go try it again.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: So you know what the perfect time to do that is? On the maiden voyage.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Really? That's the perfect time?
Yes, on the destiny maiden voyage because I strenuously disagree. But okay.
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 fabulous sponsors for our live and bonus shows. The good folks over at WDW magazine, DCL magazine, the float out edition or the float test edition they just released. So if you have not had a chance to check it out, please head over to dcl-magazine.com to get your issue today.
And we're hoping that they have more issues in the future. But thanks to good folks over at WDW magazine for putting that issue together and you can read our fun article in there. So head over to dcl-magazine.com to get your issue today. And yeah, you can use code DCLDUO for 10% off everything in their store. But with that, Sam, we've got a fun guest joining us to start the show.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Yes, of course.
Good evening everyone.
We're super excited for tonight's show. Of course you see on the screen Karen Shelton with my Path Unwinding Trap. We're going to have Tracy and Michael join us in just a little bit to talk about their treasure cruise. But before we do, I want to bring up one point of cruise news. And then I want to talk to Karen a little bit about a topic. I asked her to come and give, you know, like a five minute chat for our audience on how to best and effectively use your travel agent for booking your vacation cruise, vacation or other vacation. But the one piece of news I gotta bring up is the DCL Navigator app. Got a little makeover friends.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: Meh.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: What do you think about it, Karen? They got a little bit of a makeover. Got a little zhuzh.
[00:02:21] Speaker C: I know that my team is actually really excited about it. I haven't had a chance to play around with it, but I mean, you know, they've tossed us a few little nuggets. So I think everybody's just, you know, maybe it's grasping at straws. But our team seemed to be thinking there was some, some good to it. They, I think in particular not, I don't know if everybody could, but some were now able to see more of their cruise history than before.
[00:02:46] Speaker D: So.
[00:02:47] Speaker B: Yes, yes. And I think you're right. Not everybody. We did hear some feedback from folks who didn't have any of the prior cruises on there. We had cruises going all the way back until like about March, April of 2022. So I don't know if they just had cruises going back to 20 because that's a lot of Bruce's products.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: 2022 seems to be the universal cutoff, but they could be adding more data over time. Who knows? Right? Like so. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: But anyway, I thought that was just fun. And you know, there's a little bit, there's a nice little weight screen that's got like a cute little palm tree on it and stuff.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: We shouldn't have a wait screen period.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: Well, anyway, so it's a funny little, you know, piece of information, but with there's no other big cruise.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Actually, I do want to say one thing about the app.
We have used several different cruise line apps and Disney Cruise Lines app is not as bad as some out there. So let's just be perfectly clear, like we are a little bit better off than some. So, yeah, some cruise lines.
[00:03:51] Speaker D: Yeah, that is very true.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Looking at you, Virgin Voyages.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Yeah, Looking at Virgin Voyages, who now.
[00:03:57] Speaker A: Has two different apps.
Two different apps in the App Store.
[00:04:04] Speaker C: Virgin is a little bit chaotic. And I have to say I've had some clients and tears over Royal's app here and there. So especially if you have a couple of reservations traveling together. So nobody's perfect. Hopefully everybody's moving, you know, towards the greater good.
[00:04:22] Speaker B: So.
Well, you know, Tracy and Michael, who we're going to talk to in just a couple of minutes. They sailed recently on the Treasure. They actually booked their cruise through my Path Unwinding Travel. Their travel agent over at my Path Unwinding is Chelsea. Chelsea is on vacation. We, we wanted to have Chelsea or Karen come on, but. And, and so Chelsea's on vacation now, so we thought we'd have Karen come on. But we thought it'd be great for folks to know, like, what's the best way or what are the best ways to utilize a travel agent? Because I, I do think we sometimes get the question of, well, why do you use a travel agent? What's, what's, you know, the cost is the same whether you use a travel agent or not. Why use a travel agen. I thought it would be great to have Karen on to maybe talk about some of the reasons to use a travel agent and how best you can use your travel agent.
[00:05:13] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:05:13] Speaker C: Thanks for the opportunity. I think I want to just go ahead and give three quick hits about how to best work with a travel advisor. And I polled my team and I think just from being in the industry 10 years, I think these are some pretty universal go tos. And, and the first one is going to be to get to know your travel advisor and let your TA get to know you. And really the best way to do that is get on the phone or a zoom. Don't just rely on email or messenger. We want to be available to you in whatever way is most convenient. But nothing really replaces the conversation. So especially early on if you can, you know, take the time to set up that call or that zoom or you know, if you're.
Our clients are all over the country, sometimes all over the world. But if you happen to be local, go have a cup of coffee if your TA might be available to do that.
But really the phone call is probably the easiest way to get to know each other. And that helps us help you just to build that relationship over time and touch base. You know, we're not just schmoozing, we're listening. We're getting to know you. So take the time to do that.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: Take the time.
[00:06:31] Speaker C: So the second tip I think is to provide feedback to us. It's okay if we make a suggestion and you say that's not the right thing for us. Like to say, this isn't a good fit.
Especially again, early on as we're getting to know you, we need that feedback. We need you to say this is great, this is not so great for us. So give us that feedback and hope, hopefully do it in a responsive way. It really helps us to hear back from you sooner than later.
So that's a great point.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: Yeah, like that's a great point. If your TA says to you, hey, like I, I would do, you know, Disney transportation to the port? Or says to you, hey, I would do, you know, private transfer to the port. And if you're like, well, I'm not a private transfer person or I'm not a group transportation person, like that information to tell your ta, that is great because then they can know, like, okay, well there's like 12 different ways I can get you to the port. What's the way that you want to get to the port?
[00:07:40] Speaker C: That's such a great example. Because for example, if you have, you know, maybe you have a group of six to 10 people traveling together, private actually can be more economical. But sometimes clients say, you know what, we love the experience of being on the Disney cruise line. Coach, we want all that, you know, we want every moment to be. Be immersed in Disney. So have that conversation and give us the opportunity to get to know you and your preferences.
And then the third one is something that can be touchy for a lot of people, and that is to try to be honest about your budget. And a lot of times I think people are afraid to tell us their budget. They, you know, they think that maybe we're going to squander it or, you know, we're going to try to find the most expensive thing. But nothing is more frustrating trading for somebody to just say, I don't know what my budget is. Pretty much everybody does. And what's going to happen, what we'll do. A lot of times if you say you don't know what your budget is, I'm going to probably throw something out there that might be kind of on a little bit on the extreme side.
And then, you know, you're going to say, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
And then we can quickly start getting towards something that's realistic for you. But if you can start off and say, hey, you know, we had this other vacation and we spent this much, or we're comfortable, we have this much set aside, then we can let you know what's a realistic plan for the funds that you have. And then sometimes you might say, okay, that's great.
Maybe we'll help you save some money and get in under a budget. Or maybe you might say, let's spend even a little bit more than we thought because we want to be able to get more for our, you know, for our money and invest a little bit more in our vacation.
So develop the relationship, communicate with us, be comfortable giving us feedback, and be comfortable sharing your budget. Those are my top three tips for today of how to work best with a travel advisor.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: I love that. I'm going to add Sam's number one, which is be clear about what portions you want your TA to plan and what portions you want you to plan. Right. So, like, onboard booking for Disney Cruise Line is the perfect example. Make sure you have a game plan about who's going to be up at 9pm West coast time or midnight east coast time to do those onboard bookings so that you don't miss anything. And like, you want, let's say you want to do it yourself, but you want a reminder from your TA or you want to call ahead of time to, like, plan what to book. I would say for Disney Cruise Line, that's, I think, the number one area where people just, they don't communicate. You're destined to have, you know, a miscommunication.
Absolutely.
[00:10:25] Speaker C: And I think just have again, having that initial contact and getting to know each other is a big part of that. And it all flows from there because once we kind of get to know you and your personality, then we can do a quick, you know, a quick text or email and kind of figure some of these things out or get back on the phone at different key points in the booking process to, you know, review everything and answer your questions. But we need to kind of get to know what you like to do. And it may be like, oh, I never want to get on the phone with you again. Like, it's just really hard for us, or my kids are screaming in the background. But let's try to make that first time, you know, just to kind of get to know what your, you know, you and your family and. And your vacation, all of that, because we want to build a relationship with you not just for this one particular cruise booking, but kind of for a lifetime of your vacation planning.
[00:11:17] Speaker B: I love that. I love that. Well, and the best way, of course, to reach out to my path Unwinding Travel is through their website. If you go to mypathunwindingtravel.com mypathunwinding.com no travel. Just right. Thank you.
We usually have a banner and I'm able to read it, but we haven't gotten that done yet.
[00:11:39] Speaker A: I'm judging you now, Sam. I'm judging you.
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Sorry.
[email protected] got it right that time.
[00:11:49] Speaker C: Or reach out to any of us and we can.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:11:52] Speaker C: Figure out how to connect to each other.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: And this, all of this information is generally in our show notes, the YouTube notes. You can visit our website, DCLDUO.com, click right at the top, the banner, there's a button that says book your travel today. All this stuff.
Please, please go over. Help support Karen. She supports us.
[00:12:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: She's fabulous.
[00:12:10] Speaker B: And you can find out a little bit of information about each of the travel advisors that works with Karen. If you have a specific preference, you can always put that in the notes if you want to work with a particular advisor or you can learn about all the advisors on their website.
[00:12:26] Speaker C: Absolutely. And maybe you'll hear something from your next guest, you know, about how.
How their experience has been, hopefully positive. It's been great meeting them and our team. Chelsea, I know, has enjoyed working with them. So that's been awesome, awesome, awesome.
[00:12:41] Speaker B: Well, thank you for joining us for for this Karen's Corner today. Karen, we, we so appreciate you. We obviously always love working with you. For those who want to learn more, of course, reach out to Karen and don' if you're interested in booking our second podcast cruise with Adventures by Disney. That's also the way to get more information about that because I don't think the sailing is sold out yet, so certainly possible to join in.
[00:13:11] Speaker C: Reach out. Thanks, guys.
[00:13:12] Speaker D: Thanks, Karen.
[00:13:13] Speaker B: Thanks, Karen.
All right, well, with that we're going to bring on our guests.
We affectionately refer to them as the DCL Duo Senior. They are our friends.
They have their own Instagram account now called Adrift Together. But welcome back to the show, Tracy and Michael.
I know Michael's pointing at crazy Sam.
[00:13:38] Speaker E: You did forget, honestly, she put it in both names.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: But Sam, you did forget one piece of very important Disney Cruise Line news today.
[00:13:46] Speaker B: What's the very important piece of Disney Cruise line?
[00:13:48] Speaker A: Well, the DCL duo got their 500th review.
He just wanted to use the approval 503. 503 by the end of the day. So there you go. We hit the 500 mark. Oh yeah. You know, we always.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:14:04] Speaker A: You know me so well.
[00:14:05] Speaker B: My daughter.
I love it.
We've got some great comments, you know, folks who, and folks who've been checking to make sure our episodes are showing up. So we appreciate that. We're so happy to see you all watching us live and watching us after.
And so, yeah, we love to see that. We love all the chats. Tracy and Michael are on live. So Tracy won't be in the chat tonight, you guys.
Mystery chat.
Awesome. Well, and she dragged me along so.
[00:14:38] Speaker E: I'm not even commenting to make up for it.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: I know, I know. I love it. I love it, you guys.
[00:14:43] Speaker D: I love it.
[00:14:43] Speaker B: You guys are dressed for the show and everything.
For those who haven't, I mean, you're living under a rock if you haven't heard us talk about Tracy and Michael before.
We met them in 2019 on a catamaran excursion in Martinique on the 11 night southern Caribbean cruise. That's how we met them.
And we, the friendship blossomed from there. We've been friends ever since. Now we have sailed with them I don't even know how many times.
At least a half dozen times, I think at this point.
And obviously on the Wish multiple times on the Treasure, maiden voyage, New Year's on the Fantasy we're going to be sailing with them again later this year on the Destiny. Well, actually we're sailing with them in like A month on Virgin Voyages and then on the Destiny later this year and spending Christmas with them in Aulani. So these are our real friends. So for those who don't understand that, but Tracy and Michael have done lots of different itineraries. They've done Panama Canal, they've done lots of Caribbean and Bahamian itineraries. And this was their second sailing on the Disney Treasure. So we got to talk to you guys about the Disney Treasure, going, going back to the Treasure, revisiting the Treasure. Now this trip was different because it wasn't with us, which obviously hears about that, but it was also with two other special guests. Tell us who came with you on this cruise.
[00:16:09] Speaker D: So this cruise happened to coincide with a graduation in our household. Our youngest daughter, Lexi graduated her undergraduate from Heidelberg University.
And so we asked her what she wanted to do for graduation and we said, what about if we take you on a Disney cruise cruise now? Lexi is now officially gold. She has gold status.
And so she said yes. And so she brought a friend. And so we cruised with two 22 year olds, which is very different than cruising with, you know, 10 year olds.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: Or 12 year olds.
[00:16:44] Speaker D: So there was a lot of insight, there's a lot of insight that happened during that cruise.
[00:16:48] Speaker E: And, and she chose the itinerary and, and the ship. So she wanted to go on the, the new ship. She had, we figured out she'd been on the, the Magic, the Wonder and Fantasy.
So the only class, the ship left was the Wish class ship. So she wanted to check that out.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: Nice. And you guys did the Western Caribbean. Did she choose the Western Caribbean as opposed to the Eastern? Or was that just the week that worked in the schedule?
[00:17:16] Speaker E: She actually did that because I had never been to Jamaica, so it included Jamaica.
[00:17:22] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:17:23] Speaker E: Love that she hadn't been there either.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: But yeah, but it was knowing you had not been there either. We have not been to Jamaica either, but yeah, it's, it's definitely a different experience, I'm sure sailing with 22 year old than when she was, you know, a teen tween age. And of course different sailing with two 22 year olds than sailing with the duo in our 11 year old.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: So now there is, there is nothing that quite measures up to sailing with the duo. Let's just be careful. Hey, and Sam, you totally, you totally forgot another big thing which is, you know, Michael's here because we wanted to at least give a nod and wish people a happy Father's Day on the Monday after Father's Day. See how quickly the dads are left behind.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: I did, I did mean to do that, Brian.
[00:18:09] Speaker E: You know that by now.
[00:18:10] Speaker B: I know I did mean to do that. At the very top.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Happy Father's Day, Michael. Happy Father's Day.
[00:18:15] Speaker E: Happy Father's Day.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: Happy Father's Day, Brian and Michael and.
[00:18:19] Speaker E: Everyone else out there.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: And everyone else and all the dads and dad figures who are out there watching in the community. We appreciate you and we're sorry that the children like us better. All right, moving on.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: No, that's a sorry, not sorry right there.
[00:18:37] Speaker B: Anyway, moving on. We gotta talk about the treasure and the fact this is your second time on. This is, you know, you hadn't been on since the maiden. I gotta ask, like, what were some, some main differences besides, you know, sailing with your 22 year old, which is different in and of itself. But were there like significant differ you saw from the first sailing to now? I mean, now she's, she's been sailing for six, six months at this point, right.
[00:19:06] Speaker D: For me, I could tell that she'd been sailing for six months and not necessarily in a bad way, but there were, there were things on the ship. And, and the one thing I will say is, throughout our seven days on the ship, we. I could smell painting and varnishing happening. I could, could see them really keeping things up.
One of the things that I know you guys will understand because you've been to the spa and use like the locker room, you know, we were so excited about the locker room showers because they had glass doors on them that you could lock, except for at least in the women's bathroom or the women's shower room now gone. And there's just a curtain. So I don't know if it got broken or they haven't replaced it or if they're not going to replace it, but it was just little things like that. Like, you know, I remember when we got on the Treasure, you know, everything was, you know, so brand new and, you know, oh, we were so excited about this and that. And, you know, you could see little things. I mean, the carpet still looked beautiful, our room was still great. But there were just little things that you could, you know, and if you think about the amount of people that are running through this ship, you know, on a weekly basis, you know that those things are going to happen. But those were some of the things I noticed. But I also noticed that the crew was really working hard all the time, trying to keep things up. So that was definitely one thing that I noticed was that there was just maintenance going on constantly just to Keep everything up and looking good.
[00:20:31] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, to your point, there is some stuff that, over the course of thousands of people walking across or touching that things need. Now there is a necessity of that keep up. Whereas on the maiden voyage, they don't need to varnish everything because everything's brand new already varnished. Right.
Yeah, that. That makes. That makes sense.
Ashley is saying treasure head glass door in women's spa locker room in April. So interesting. Yeah. I don't remember. I don't remember that, to be perfectly honest. I don't. But I'm not sure I would have paid attention to that. Although I did shower in that locker.
[00:21:08] Speaker A: Room on the men's side. It had it, too, in April. It was like frosted glass. Yeah.
[00:21:14] Speaker D: Yes, correct. Correct.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:16] Speaker D: But there was one of the doors in the women's. It was just gone. And they just had a shower curtain up like they do on the older ships. Ships, yeah.
[00:21:23] Speaker B: Yeah. And that's a lot easier to maintain.
[00:21:26] Speaker D: Yeah. Oh, I'm sure. The other thing I did notice, too, was I didn't feel like the Aqua Mouse was down as often as it was when we were on the Maiden. Like, do you remember? Like, on the Maiden, like, you'd see it was down for a while. There was no water running through it, and it was like, every time I kind of looked, it was running. So I don't think that there was a lot of downtime, which was, you know, nice, obviously.
[00:21:50] Speaker B: Yeah. I think that is definitely operations. They get things smoothed out after a while. And then the other part is wind. Right. When we were on for the Maiden, there's. It's just the season is a higher wind season, and so there's more times that the wind is going to make them have to shut down. So it's. I think, a combination of both of those factors. But that's definitely.
Yeah. And Cindy saying no glass mid May. So between April and May, they must have removed. Yeah, mid May, Exactly. They must have removed that glass because you guys were on at the, like, May 30th, right. So. Yeah. So just 31st.
[00:22:26] Speaker D: Yeah, we left on the 31st.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: So, yeah. Yeah. Interesting. I am curious about on payment side of things. I know you sent me a picture, and it looked like both Sage and Coriander were on your voyage. And it was. I will.
I recognized the female character. She was the one who had joined with Treasure cast number two and who had gotten injured and had left the ship. So she definitely came back. So she must have recovered from her injury. But I'M curious, what stuff did they have on board that were the. For those who haven't been on the Treasure, Sage and Coriander are the storytellers on board. So they are characters who do a bunch of different shows and games and stuff. But I'm curious, did they have all of the variety of Sage and Coriander appearances and shows and games?
[00:23:23] Speaker E: I believe they did. I mean, their headlining is the Choose Wisely, the Indiana Jones retelling. So that they definitely had. We went to that.
The girls went too, and they really enjoyed that. And then I know they did Tales from the Lamp.
[00:23:42] Speaker B: Oh great. That was the one that was missing.
[00:23:46] Speaker E: Okay.
I saw that one. And I think they had the one at the end where they do the hodgepodge.
[00:23:52] Speaker D: Right.
[00:23:53] Speaker B: Treasure found.
[00:23:55] Speaker E: Yeah.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: And did they, did they have the Jungle Cruise game?
[00:24:01] Speaker D: Jungle Cruise game? I don't remember.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: In the atrium.
[00:24:06] Speaker D: We might have missed that, Sam. I don't know.
[00:24:08] Speaker B: Yeah, it's okay.
[00:24:09] Speaker E: It's a midday thing and this was my 24th cruise and it's the first one I actually had to work during. I only took one day off, so I, I spent a lot of time in, in the COVID Cafe. So I, I know Lindsay said she was there and would have liked to meet us. If you went into the COVID Cafe, you probably saw me there because every morning except Wednesday I, I was there.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: So, so this is a question we get Michael from People is did the w.
Were you able to do like done or.
[00:24:39] Speaker E: I had no, no problem. I. The, the only issue was the, the first zoom call I had. I usually use earbuds and the mic off that and they're noise canceling. So it, it canceled my own voice out so they, they couldn't hear me. So I had to use the built in mic on, on the laptop so that it didn't. Didn't do that. But once I figured that out about five minutes into the call that then, then it was, it was fine. So I, I had no, no problem.
I, I did. I, I'm a technical trainer. So I actually had some audio recordings that, that I had to do while on the ship, which I, I. And I told my boss this today. It's like the only quiet place on the ship is your own state room.
They don't pipe any music in, they don't announce it.
There's a few things you have to watch out for, but I, I could. Could avoid those. But then I had to upload those. I did notice that that was, was much slower than it is from my, my other but, but they got there in a reasonable amount of time.
It wasn't. Wasn't a problem. So, Michael, it's definitely possible. I moved around from the, you know, Cove Cafe, then just the once worked in the stateroom. I went to the, the. The tables off the atrium on either 4 or 5. You work there usually in the afternoon. I, I'd break for. For lunch later, then. Then would go back there.
But around 3:30, 4:00, that starts getting noisy with kids and pictures and, and everything. So then, then I was usually wrapping up the day. So I think, Michael, I think.
[00:26:23] Speaker A: I think your headphones must have just been powered by AI and decided that whatever you were saying was just not important enough, or they knew you were on a Disney cruise and they were like, just give up. Just go have fun.
[00:26:35] Speaker D: Right?
[00:26:36] Speaker B: Go have fun. Go enjoy yourself.
Well, I want to pivot to talking a little bit about your excursions because I know you had.
[00:26:45] Speaker A: Is this PowerPoint time, Sam? Is this where we're headed?
[00:26:47] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I forgot we had the PowerPoint.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: I even pinged you in our little chat window to be like, do you want me to go to the PowerPoint?
[00:26:54] Speaker B: I'm sorry, I didn't see that.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: This is our first time using presentation mode on this software, so get ready for potentially abject failure, but we're going go for it.
[00:27:04] Speaker D: Well, here's the deal. It's the first time I've made a PowerPoint like for presentations, so anything could go wrong here.
[00:27:11] Speaker B: I love it, Tracy.
All right, we got this beautiful picture of the ship. I haven't looked at the PowerPoint at all, Brian, so you're gonna have to lead through this.
[00:27:20] Speaker A: I. I haven't. I have not looked at it either, Sam, So I was too busy building this view that is apparently already messed.
[00:27:26] Speaker D: Up because it's not a big deal.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: Okay, good.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: You can't see the title, so here we go. Oh, all right.
[00:27:31] Speaker D: I'm just gonna keep up with CT and all the rest of them.
[00:27:34] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: Perfect. This is great. Oh, no, this is great. You started exactly where I wanted to start, which is Port Adventures. Okay, so tell us about what you did in Cozumel. I love that you have all this great information. For those who are watching live or on the video on YouTube, we've got a bunch of what's included, what's not included, the cost, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. So tell us about this portaventure.
[00:27:57] Speaker D: This is the second time we've done this Port Adventure. That's how much we like this one. One It's a simple. Yeah, somebody had to work. One of us got to go on a port adventure. So you get off the ship, you walk a little ways, you hop on a catamaran. Are there a lot of people on the catamaran? Yeah, but it doesn't ever feel like it. It actually reminds me of the one we were on with you guys when we first met you.
[00:28:22] Speaker B: That's the only way to make friends.
[00:28:23] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:28:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:25] Speaker D: So they take you out for about 30 minutes, maybe. They. They take you out in the water, and then they stop at a place, and you can get off and snorkel if you want. You don't have to. We did fabulous snorkeling there. We saw.
Oh, what are they called? Not an eel. Stingray. We saw stingray. Lots of fish.
Lots of coral.
I think they may drop a little food, you know, to, like, get the fish to come. But, I mean, we saw Dory. We saw Nemo. We, like, saw them all.
And you do that for about 40 minutes, and then they have you hop back on the boat, and once the snorkeling is complete, then they have water pop, beer, and margaritas.
And all I will say about the margaritas is. Pace yourself.
[00:29:18] Speaker B: Translation for all of you and translation for the people who live outside the Midwest. Pop is soda.
[00:29:29] Speaker A: So. So the drinks were actually.
[00:29:31] Speaker D: Okay, we get it.
[00:29:32] Speaker A: So the drinks, Tracy, were actually strong. They were actually like m. Like, good mixed drinks. Because I'm looking at the line here that says not included food, but Mexican cheeseburgers were.
So I'm wondering if the drinks were as suspect as the food.
[00:29:47] Speaker D: No, the drinks were really good. Now, they were premixed. But they did have a bottle of. Of what tequila they said they used in the margaritas sitting there, so you could see what type it was.
So it wasn't like you're. It didn't appear to be a cheapo, you know, tequila.
Then after you snorkel and you get back on the boat, then they drive you another 40 minutes or so to this beach where the picture is taken. So the girls were on the beach, and they have all these inflatables in the water that the kids can. Anybody can swim out to. There's a couple of slides. If you look to the left of that photo, there's, like, a trampoline that you can jump on.
They also have kayaks. They have paddle boards. They have floaties, like, all the things, and it's. And they have beach chairs, umbrellas. It's all included. Now, the Mexican cheeseburger. There's a bar on the beach.
The drinks. I could still. We could still go up there and get free drinks.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: Drinks.
[00:30:46] Speaker D: But the food was not included. And all they make is cheeseburgers. And the last time we took this excursion, the guys on the boat told us that they begged this company to do tacos.
[00:30:58] Speaker E: Like, the company that has the catamaran runs this area of the beach.
And they've told the owner, there are people like us that it's like they want tacos, they want Mexican food.
Like they're Americans. We want to give them hamburgers.
[00:31:14] Speaker D: Yeah, cheeseburgers.
[00:31:15] Speaker E: Cheeseburgers. And. And he's like, they. The. The owners won't.
[00:31:20] Speaker D: They won't do it. Yeah. So. So they. So we did not. When Michael and I did this the last time, we did get the cheeseburger, it was delicious.
It was.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: I want to say it was like.
[00:31:31] Speaker D: 11 or 12 bucks.
[00:31:33] Speaker E: That's what I.
[00:31:33] Speaker D: And we ended up splitting it because it was a pretty nice size burger.
But the girl. Girls didn't want to eat, so we didn't get anything to eat. Rookie move.
[00:31:43] Speaker A: And especially with the margaritas going.
[00:31:48] Speaker D: So we.
The girls laid on the beach. They did swim out and do the slide. I paddleboarded, which is what this picture is, because I had to prove that I can stand up on the paddleboard. It may or may not have taken me two falls into the ocean to get there, but I did do it.
[00:32:03] Speaker B: You're awesome. Because I would not even attempt to stand up on the paddle board.
But, yeah, the water wasn't deep, so I wasn't scared.
Yeah. We have a question in the chat from Ashley, because this is Cozumel, and other folks go to Cozumel. Is this water inflatable park one that you can see from the pier, like from the ship. Okay, so this is not. This is because they had to take.
[00:32:26] Speaker A: A catamaran to get there. It sounds like.
[00:32:28] Speaker B: Well, sure. But they also went to. They also went to snorkel first. So I didn't know if this was coming back. And near the.
[00:32:35] Speaker E: Yeah, this was. If I remember, it was like 45 minutes.
[00:32:39] Speaker D: It's like an hour back to go back. So it's like they took you like 30 to 40 minutes to snorkel and then like another 30 minutes to keep going to get to this beach. And the beach is beautiful. I mean, it's. It's really quite lovely and the water is clear and it wasn't super rough. Obviously, if I'm standing on paddleboard. So it was. I mean, it's a Great one. And it was $89 a person, which I think is reasonable for the day.
And so the girls gave it two thumbs up. They had a great time.
And then on the way back, they play a lot of music.
The crew from the boat get on the back deck and they start doing line dances.
And it was just a really fun day. And the weather was great for us that day, so. So, I mean, overall, two thumbs up.
[00:33:31] Speaker E: On this one and should say, you know, we've since found great places and this was one of them to go snorkeling. We didn't always have the best luck when the kids were younger. And one of the times I forget if we were on Cozumel or one of the other places in Mexico, but took them snorkeling and really saw nothing. I mean, the guides took us all up and down the beach looking for things and if anything saw as much as you do at Castaway Key. But we promised Lexi. It's like, if this is like last time, you're gonna like it. And I know she came back and said, yeah, that this was awesome. So if you like to snorkel and you want to see fish and it's not deep snorkeling, so you can stay right on the surface and see everything.
There's a lot of variety of fish, a lot of color, a lot of nice, nice coral in the reef.
[00:34:27] Speaker B: Awesome. An important note. There is a bathroom available on the boat. I love that piece of tidbit of information because sometimes they are like, oh, the bathroom's the water.
[00:34:38] Speaker D: And so, yeah, sometimes there's not a bathroom on the boat. Correct, Sam.
[00:34:42] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:34:43] Speaker A: Hey, if they're using it for liquor storage, I can let that one go. Which is what they were doing on the boat we were on.
[00:34:50] Speaker B: All right, well, let's.
[00:34:50] Speaker E: Liquor and snack storage.
[00:34:52] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:34:52] Speaker B: Right, exactly. Well, let's go to the next pour. This is Grand Cayman and you had an excursion that was canceled.
And so tell us what you ended up, what had you booked that got canceled and then what did you end up doing?
[00:35:08] Speaker D: We booked a Seven Mile beach because I was with two 22 year olds who just want to land beach and get a lot of sun.
And the weather was horrendous. I mean, sideways rain. It rained most of the night. The seas were pretty rough the that that night. And when we got up in the morning, I mean, it was raining sideways to get to the coat. And you know, the COVID Cafe is like, you know, you gotta walk far outside to get there. And I went to go see him in the morning before, you know, we did anything. And it was like raining sideways. And I'm like, well, I made it.
[00:35:38] Speaker E: There before the rain sideways. But there were people coming in to get coffee that came in, ordered the coffee, got it, and then had to wait 10 minutes to be able to walk back outside.
[00:35:49] Speaker D: Yeah, it was, it was crazy. So, so they canceled our beach excursion. So we just like, that was kind of a chill. It was basically like a sea day until the afternoon. We just kind of chilled. Obviously we couldn't lay out in the sun, you know, didn't really want to get the pool because it was raining. But the rain did stop like after lunch. And so the girls and I got off and walked through the port area, which was very nice and the stores were nice. And then there's like a gated area just past that and you have to kind of like go past a security guard. And we went onto the main street there and hit a few stores, just, you know, kind of checked them out, looked at stuff.
I think we were probably maybe only off the ship an hour, an hour and a half. And the girls are like, eh. And so we just went back to the ship and they were fine with that. I mean, they were obviously bummed out we didn't get to do Seven Mile Beach. But, but you know, it is what it is. Can't. Can't do the weather.
[00:36:45] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I remember you telling me, and I heard this previously, that there was one issue about being able to get a drink at Grand Cayman when you're on the ship and that this became an issue because of the weather. So many people, and you mentioned it's also a tender port. So a lot of people when the weather is bad, decide, I'm not going to get in a tender and go off to port. I'm glad for you guys, your sake that your port excursion was canceled because otherwise you're sitting in the, you know, in torrential rain on a beach. Not really fun.
But tell us what's the issue in on the ship and getting a drink on the ship when you're in Grand Cayman. And this happens regardless of weather.
[00:37:26] Speaker E: Right.
It's not Disney, it's Grand Cayman law.
The Grand Cayman only allows the ship to have one bar open on. And I believe it has to be on an open deck.
[00:37:39] Speaker D: Deck.
[00:37:40] Speaker E: So the only one that was open was lookout on, on the, the pool deck. They talking to the crew. They had seven bartenders working that bar.
Anyone who's been at any of the, I mean, on any of the ships and it's probably a little bit bigger on the. The Treasure, but the seven bartenders are standing shoulder to shoulder to. To be able. Now I will say when. When I walked by throughout the day day, they were handling the crowd just fine.
You know, there wasn't. Wasn't long to wait.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Yeah. So everybody who wants a drink, it has to come up to the adult only area then for an alcoholic drink.
[00:38:23] Speaker E: When I'm saying drink, it wasn't the adult area.
[00:38:26] Speaker B: Oh, it's not the one at the adult.
[00:38:28] Speaker E: The one. The one around the food places on the pool deck.
[00:38:31] Speaker B: Oh, that one. Okay, gotcha. I was thinking it was the one in the adult only, but. Yeah, both. I mean, neither of those is a big space. That's tight. Yeah. Tight space. Yeah. So it's the one that's kind of opposite or over next to the ice cream.
[00:38:47] Speaker D: Ice cream, yeah, yeah, yeah, next to the ice cream.
[00:38:51] Speaker B: All right, well, so it's Grand Canyon.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: Tracy makes Tracy's ability to get her mudslide much easier or much.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: Well, much more difficult. But with those lines, I got it.
[00:39:01] Speaker D: On a different day. Brian. It was fine.
[00:39:03] Speaker A: This is interesting. Andrew's accessible adventures with Andrew's. Andrew is saying on our Treasure cruise to Grand Cayman, they had little margarita carts near the festival of foods. That's an interesting.
[00:39:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:13] Speaker E: Oh, maybe because they consider that the. The same bar, but even if you have a little circular kiosk out, they couldn't serve alcohol through. Through the day.
[00:39:22] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:23] Speaker E: So.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: All right, well, let's talk your next port of call.
[00:39:30] Speaker D: Yeah, this one's.
[00:39:31] Speaker B: This.
[00:39:31] Speaker D: This is our spicy take right here, my friends. Yeah, this is our spicy take.
So we had originally booked the Reggae sail and snorkel party of some sort. End of our trip, we got a notification that was canceled due to low participation.
So we had to kind of scramble, and we ended up finding this one that was going to Duns River Falls in Dolphin Cove. Obviously, we weren't planning that, so we didn't bring, like, water shoes to climb the falls, but they were like, you don't have to climb the falls. You know, it's still a pretty place, and there's things, you know, whatever. So we're like, yeah, we'll just it do debt.
[00:40:10] Speaker B: So it was a knee.
So climbing the falls might not have been a great idea with your knee even if you had the right footwear.
[00:40:18] Speaker D: Right. Yeah. I mean, and I've. And I've climbed the falls before, so it wasn't, like, on my bucket list, which is why we didn't book it in the first place because I asked him and he was like, I don't care, you know, like we don't have to do that. We enjoy snorkeling and going on these little catamaran trips. So you know, that's why we chose that one. But, but this particular one now stated that it was $119. It included lunch which was either jerk chicken and rice with beans or there was hot dogs and fries. It also stated.
It also stated in the write up that you would be greeted with a fruity drink and water would be available is how it was word.
So the first place. So first we get on a bus and there was a gazillion of us. There were multiple buses. I think there were at least four or five different name stickers, you know, that were going to the same places. So they were trying to like. Some of the buses went to Dolphin Cove first and some of the buses went to Dunn's River Falls first. And then they were like crisscrossing to try and get everybody through. So I understand that that is a logistical nightmare. Mayor and the. And the host that we had on our, our bus, her name was Esmeralda. She was lovely. I want to make sure that I make that really clear. She was really nice. She tried her best.
This excursion was a hot mess.
So we get to Dunn's River Falls and she. We all get off the bus and everything was hurry up and stand and wait in the hot sun. And it was 91 that day and it was like stand in the sun. We have to. But we can't go here yet because there's another group. So we just have to stand here. And then we'd go to the next stop and they'd be like, okay, we have to stand here. And there were people that like us did not do the falls. And she took us to an area and she said when the people are walking up the falls and they get here, go up to the exit.
So we're thinking as soon as they get here. It was like an hour before they got to us and we're just like standing. I mean the falls were pretty obviously. There's some pictures. There's a picture there of us. We, we did get in the falls. As you can see, our little toesies are in.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: Yep, your toesies are in.
[00:42:33] Speaker E: Off one of the exits.
[00:42:34] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, off one of the exits. There are several exits. As you're coming up the falls, if you decide that the next section is too scary for you, you can exit. There are certain places where you can get out.
So we hopped in there. But anyway, so we stood in that area for at least an hour before the first set of our bus people got there. But our bus people got mixed up with other bus people from a different bus.
And so then you don't know who came with you, who's ready to leave.
Esmeralda's got an entire bus full of people. She doesn't know who everybody is because she's been on the bus. She gave a great talk on the way there, but she didn't meet us individually.
So when it was finally all done and she's trying to get us all back to the bus to go to the Dolphin Cove, it was. Again, it was another hot mess. She's trying to gather people up. People are. They had photographers in the falls taking a ton of pictures. Like, if I'd have been able to climb it, the pictures would have been amazing.
But then everybody had to go to this little kiosk and pay for their pictures. And so those of us that didn't do that at. Are just standing out in the water.
[00:43:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:43:48] Speaker D: No water was offered. No fruity drink was offered. We finally asked, and. And they're like, oh, you can go over here and buy a bottle of water.
[00:43:55] Speaker E: Well, we did there at the bottom.
[00:43:57] Speaker D: So we bought a bottle of water each and shared it because, I mean, it was. It was hot.
When we finally get back on the bus, and then we drive to Dolphin Cove and we get there, she's asking people on the bus because this was supposed to be. You're just going to Dolphin Cove to observe the dolphin. Dolphins. It was not. It was not a swim with dolphins.
[00:44:19] Speaker E: It's specifically saying you will not interact.
[00:44:22] Speaker D: Yeah, you will not interact with the dolphins. So she says on the bus, has anybody changed their mind? Do you want in it. You want to get in with the dolphins? So a whole bunch of people are like, yeah. She's like, for 20 bucks more, two families, you know? No, I think there's like seven people. Oh, I don't know. Anyway, so.
[00:44:38] Speaker A: Oh, there was an upside.
[00:44:39] Speaker D: For an extra 20 bucks, you can swim.
[00:44:41] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:44:42] Speaker D: It was a hot mess.
[00:44:45] Speaker B: I mean, that's annoying because there.
[00:44:46] Speaker E: There were people at Dauphin Cove that had paid for that excursion, so. So they went in there. Then these other families now had to be integrated in. And.
[00:44:55] Speaker A: Well, and if you're not.
[00:44:56] Speaker E: At one time, it was like, well, we'll see what happens with them and then decide. Because she's like, at Dolphin Cove, it's two phases. You kind of do one side with the pool and the, and, and some of the dolphin area area. And then there's the, the small, it was a beach that was about 20ft wide.
It was awful. And, and on, you know that, that was going to be phase two for us and that's, that's where lunch was.
[00:45:22] Speaker A: Well but if, if you're not planning to swim with the dolphins too, you're not going to be prepared to do you know what I'm saying? Like, like you may not.
[00:45:30] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, well, but there was a.
[00:45:32] Speaker E: Hole in a beach there to use.
[00:45:34] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
[00:45:35] Speaker E: I mean people did have have suits on and there was a changing room to, to do it, but it was much smaller than it probably should be for the number of people that were there each side they have like you said, the, the beach was small. The, the pool that they had that you can swim in.
[00:45:55] Speaker D: It was sus. It was definitely sus.
[00:45:58] Speaker E: So we, we didn't do that walking by where lunch was when we got there which was I think already one o' clock block. The, the line was at least a half hour long to, to get in. So she's like, you know, come back in in a half hour. You know, when we did it's like there were people finishing up. There were already tables available. We walked right, right in and did it. But it seemed like they were kind of scraping the, the bottom of the pans for, for the food at that point.
[00:46:24] Speaker A: Yeah, so we, we were lucky.
[00:46:26] Speaker E: We, we got food got to sit down and other people by two o' clock and we're leaving. They're getting to go containers at best.
[00:46:34] Speaker D: And eating outside the bus.
[00:46:36] Speaker A: Right? Yeah. So Linda's, Linda's saying in the chat, which I just want to, I want to put this out there because I 100% agree with this comment.
So what I'm hearing is eastern is better than western. We did the seven Mile beach last year and it wasn't anything to write home about. I, I, I tend to agree like we Sam and I tend to agree that the eastern is kind of our go to Caribbean seven night Southern. Well that can't be a go to Michael. And they only offer it once a year.
[00:47:03] Speaker B: So yeah, been longer itinerary than a seven night. Occasionally they do a southern that is a seven night but it's usually a one way. Right. Like it's usually a repositioning to San Juan or something. But yeah, I agree with you Michael. But for a seven night when you're choosing eastern or western for us, the go to is definitely the eastern yeah.
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[00:48:22] Speaker B: Let's jump.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: Lindsay's saying they had a really good excursion on our Western itinerary. Jamaica was our least favorite, but not as much of a mess as what Tracy and Michael experienced. Lindsey, I'm curious what excursion you did in which port on the Western that you really enjoyed. I'd love to. I'd love to hear what we're glad.
[00:48:38] Speaker E: I mean, we would agree between eastern and western. We'd choose the Eastern, especially if it's going to Puerto Rico.
But in this case, it was one of the only ones going to Jamaica. So.
[00:48:50] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:48:51] Speaker D: And I posted on. On our cruise Facebook page asking if the other groups we were the. What were we? Ariel was our sticker.
[00:49:00] Speaker E: Jasmine.
[00:49:01] Speaker D: Jasmine. We were Jasmine sticker. And I asked people if you were not a Jasmine sticker and you went on this excursion. Every single person said the same thing about it was chaos. It was dirty. It was, you know, not. So I would not. I mean, if you want to climb the falls, if that's your goal, I feel like that portion of it was probably good. The water was beautiful. They had tons of people helping. They had lots of photographers. But yeah, the rest of it. The food was decent. It was nothing to write home about. But yeah. So.
[00:49:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
Well, let's. Let's talk about your next port of call.
What port of call did you do? Adventure Falls and River Tubing.
[00:49:46] Speaker D: Well, this wasn't us. So when we went to the Dunn's river falls, this was Lexi and Grayson.
So they did a separate one, and they did the adventure falls in river tubing. And Lexi and Grayson both said it was great. It was very easy down a river in an inner tube.
It was not a bunch of rapids. There was. They were not, you know, nothing rough or anything.
The only thing that she said, there was no food or drinks included. So they did take their own water bottles with them.
[00:50:15] Speaker E: It was only like three hours.
[00:50:16] Speaker D: Yeah, it was a short excursion. And she said they were kind of under, like a jungle kind of. So she said they didn't get a ton of sun. But she did suggest because when she got home, she was like, oh, my gosh, I have bug bites everywhere. And that's the only place that they went that we didn't. So we're kind of guessing that that was where they got the bug bites. So she does recommend, in addition to sunscreen, please, please spray for bugs. So, yeah, that was her suggestion.
[00:50:46] Speaker B: Unless she's like me, where everybody else can be. Have no bug bites. And she could be covered in bug bites because that's what the bugs like is something about I don't know, my pheromones, my blood type. I don't know what it is, but those bugs, they just eat me alive. They love me alive.
[00:51:00] Speaker A: They just know.
[00:51:01] Speaker D: You're so sweet.
[00:51:03] Speaker B: I'm so sweet. I know I'm sweet as sugar. Yep.
All right.
[00:51:07] Speaker E: Something about type A blood. I've heard, too. Or iron rich blood. They like.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: I am type O positive, so I know it's not. I'm not type A. So I don't know. I mean, I am type A but not type A blood, so.
[00:51:23] Speaker A: So I do. I do want to. I want to spend some time on this slide. But I did want to highlight. So Cindy wrote back and said that they did a cave. They did cave excursions in Grand Cayman and Jamaica and enjoyed those. And Lindsay said in Cozumel, they did chocolate and pinata workshop. That does sound fun. And. And in Grand Cayman, they did starfish and mangrove. Mangrove. And in Jamaica, they did skyride ragamuffin bobsled, zipline at Mystic Mountain, so.
[00:51:52] Speaker B: Oh, that sounds like fun.
[00:51:53] Speaker A: That last one does sound like a fun one. So there you go.
[00:51:55] Speaker B: Although she said that was their Jamaica day was better than what you. It was their least favorite. It was better than what you experienced, but they didn't say it was great. Well, all right. We've got a fun Picture of you guys in your pirate shirts. I have a matching pirate shirt. Nathan has one too. But his says just add fun instead of just add rum because Tracy made it for him and she knows that kids shouldn't wear shirts that advertise alcohol.
But let's, let's. We. We did already talk about the, the first three on this list, but you, you mentioned lots of crew getting off soon. I think this is like, there's a lot of, you know, turnover that happens. Especially because this is like the. Probably towards the end.
Some people. Yeah, exactly. Some people. Although some people. Some people started before the maiden, some people started after the maiden. But this would be about the eight month mark for a lot of people who had to start, you know, a couple months before the maiden. So that makes sense.
[00:52:52] Speaker E: And the, the other thing Crew crew mentioned is they were going off now because the timing gets them back in mid August to go on the Destiny.
[00:53:02] Speaker B: Ah, that makes sense.
[00:53:04] Speaker E: They were being told, take your vacation now and come back. Like Luke Luca from. From Palo.
He hadn't gotten a contract. He was leaving with us at 4 o' clock the day before he. He got his email on, you know, you come back on on August 15th. And he was having to work some things out with that because it's a national holiday in Italy.
[00:53:25] Speaker B: Oh yeah. It's a Catholic holiday and it's like impossible to. Nothing's open that holiday.
[00:53:31] Speaker A: So. Yeah, I have a couple questions here that I want to make sure we get to as we start to wind things down. So one is, um, 100% agree. The 1923 Night Two menu is not great and we actually experienced.
[00:53:43] Speaker E: That includes the 22 year olds.
[00:53:45] Speaker D: Yeah, the kids. The kids didn't like it either. It was awful.
[00:53:47] Speaker A: All right. Yeah.
[00:53:48] Speaker D: So pub food it is.
[00:53:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And the pub food on board. P.S. i know people don't like having to pay for it, but it's fantastic. It's really good. So. So I agree that 1923 Night 2 is a menu to skip. I wanted to. You said pleasantly surprised. I ate at the regular restaurant on Pirate Night.
Tracy, what did you think of the pirate night menu? And Sam, we have to go back and try the pirate night menu one more time because we keep hearing it's so good and we keep poo pooing it and we need to go try it again.
[00:54:19] Speaker B: You know what the perfect time to do that is on the maiden voyage.
[00:54:23] Speaker A: Really? That's the perfect time?
[00:54:26] Speaker B: Yes. On the Destiny maiden voyage because.
[00:54:29] Speaker A: Strenuously disagree.
Okay.
[00:54:34] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:54:34] Speaker A: I want to hear from Tracy And Michael about. So pirate night menu, was it good?
[00:54:38] Speaker D: Well, you know, I'm not a fan. I've never been a fan of the pirate night menu. I've never liked it. But the girls wanted to go.
You know, they. They didn't want to. They didn't really want to go get the pub food, because what that's what sometimes we've done as well, is we've gotten pub food on pirate night.
And we went and I ordered the jerk chicken, which I've had before and I didn't really love.
Was 100% better this trip and better than what we had and better than what we had in Jamaica, for sure.
So the cornbread. The girls raved about the cornbread.
I mean, they. They thought. Because what they ordered, obviously was different. What I ordered, you know me, I'm fussy, but I was pleasantly surprised at everything that I got. It was not overcooked. It wasn't dry. It had really good flavor. So I. I'm kind of. I'm kind of like leaning on the pirate night menu maybe isn't the worst menu. Maybe it's 1923 night too do.
[00:55:35] Speaker A: Fair enough.
[00:55:36] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:55:37] Speaker A: The new to you magic shots.
So what were the new to you magic shots that you saw?
Sorry. For those out there, listening, watching, who have not been on Disney cruise yet, magic shots refers to, like, when they stitch in characters or other kinds of effects into the photo they're taking against the backdrop. So lots of fun ones on board, but. Yeah. Tracy, what were the new to you ones?
[00:56:00] Speaker D: This one was. Was one. I don't remember the pirates and sitting. Because what. The parrot, He. He kept telling me to move my hair off my shoulder. And so I was like, oh, he must be gonna put something on my shoulder. They put on Michael's shoulder anyway, so I don't know what that was about.
[00:56:14] Speaker E: I think they don't know.
[00:56:15] Speaker D: Yeah. Which side it's on. So I think this was a new one because I don't remember having this one before. And then the other one was a Coco one. And I can't right off the top of my head, remember what. What they put in the picture. But there was a couple new ones. And even. I think there might have even been a different backdrop. I feel like there was a different.
The back. Just some of the backdrops are different. So for those of us that cruise excessively, you know, sometimes you get the, you know, same pictures over and over again. And of course, it's the same pose. It's, you know, put your arm around each other look in each other's eyes, you know, all the. Oh, the holding of the hand, you know. And so it's nice when they change that up or they do a little something different. And so it was nice to see that they had added a couple of things they also did on the deck. They had a Mickey head ring on the first day and we did get pictures there as well. And I don't always go up there on the first day of the cruise, but we did happen to see it. So we grabbed. There was no line, so we just grabbed the, you know, like, I, I took like, I don't know, maybe eight, nine shots of us.
And those were really cute too.
[00:57:24] Speaker A: So I do. I do need to compliment Coco.
[00:57:27] Speaker D: That's what it was.
[00:57:28] Speaker A: Oh, Don. Yeah, I do. I do need. I want to compliment Disney, like, since they have made the shift on the photography side to more of the park model, you know, photographers, as opposed to just being totally outsourced. Like, they're doing some really good things. Like those magic shots. I hate taking photos on the ship as everyone out there listening. Who's listened for any period of time. Nose. I actually really enjoy. I got bummed out last time because Sam went and did some magic shot that I couldn't do because she went and did it by herself. And I was like, what? You didn't tell me? And she was like, well, I don't think I did. I was like, I like the magic shots. Those are fun.
[00:58:01] Speaker B: I know, but you usually don't want to wait in line for pictures, so that I just assumed. Okay, well, I'm going to wait.
[00:58:06] Speaker A: I will wait in line for a magic shot. What I won't wait in line for is the Sears photography of, like, can you just put your hand on your.
[00:58:13] Speaker D: Chest before you hold your hands?
[00:58:14] Speaker A: Oh, God, yeah. Like, yeah. Senior year all over again in high school pictures.
[00:58:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:21] Speaker A: You said you were able to get a Palo brunch. I assume that means after you got on the ship or.
[00:58:27] Speaker E: No, we.
[00:58:28] Speaker D: Well, sort of.
[00:58:29] Speaker E: We, we had actually, because of the way it worked out, we. We had two staterooms, but. And they were linked. But when it booked Palo, it wouldn't allow all four to be chosen. Chosen. And we had it on the wrong day. Well, and, and then I realized, wait, my birthday is on Thursday. Why are we doing Palo on Monday or Sunday? You know, let's do it for, for my birthday. Well, I took one. One of the reservations, moved it to Thursday. When I went to move the other one, it wouldn't move.
So we, we went we stood in the. The restaurant dining line and. And got to Palo and. And you know, 30 seconds, they're like, yep, you can do. Do four on Thursday at the same time. And it's no. No problem.
[00:59:19] Speaker A: So did you have. With the two staterooms, did you have one of you in each stateroom?
[00:59:24] Speaker D: Correct.
[00:59:25] Speaker A: All right. Okay. Just want to make sure that.
[00:59:27] Speaker B: But remember, they had different statuses because Tracy was actually Pearl status is only platinum. So they were. Because they're one cruise difference. Because Tracy sailed with.
With Kelly and the girls. Oh, she sailed two times without you. So I know that she had sailed earlier this year with Kelly and the moral girls.
[00:59:49] Speaker A: So maybe Michael and I do need to fire up the frequent flyer mileage and head over to Singapore then just to get him one cruise closer.
A little bit closer.
[00:59:59] Speaker B: But anyway, so they would have had to book at two different times, but. So that might have been where the Paloma glitch came reared.
[01:00:08] Speaker E: And then it doesn't. It doesn't let you add. But even when I tried to move it, it wouldn't. Wouldn't allow. So I didn't want to give up the second reservation until we could work it out. I was 99% sure they'd be able to accommodate us because we've had before where they've been fully booked. We've had a table for two, had another couple go in to say they want one. They. They'd like to get a brunch too.
Nope, nope. Can't do it. I said can. Can we add them to our table? They're like, yep, yep.
[01:00:40] Speaker A: Yeah, I did want to make sure.
[01:00:42] Speaker E: It'S not the number of people. It's a number of tables.
[01:00:45] Speaker D: Right?
[01:00:45] Speaker A: Yeah, I did want to make sure. I'm not going to throw this slide back up, but there was one final slide, which was Lexi. And is it gracian? Is that how she says her name?
[01:00:53] Speaker D: Grayson.
[01:00:54] Speaker A: Grayson. Lexi. I'm just using the French.
Lexi and Grayson's take on DCL as adults. So obviously, Lexi sailed with you all as. Not an adult.
[01:01:05] Speaker D: As a teen tween.
[01:01:07] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:01:08] Speaker A: And so just a couple of things to highlight for the folks transitioning from teens to adults throughout here. It says they both noticed the details and how organized everything was, especially Haunted Mansion the Rose for me to eat some crow here. They said they love the app.
They both last cruise with wave phones. Okay, now. Now I understand the comment that they love the app.
Yeah, exact. They loved how they could see when things were happening and could harden and set a reminder, even if they just Wanted to sit in the sun and chill. Love their serving team and how they took time to really explain the menu.
Notice those details that set Disney apart. Getting to know the crew was easier as an adult. Yeah, that's fair.
Reactivated a bunch of core memories of Funnel vision at the pool. And they both loved the new barbecue and Donald's Cantina. Who is not like, bring me someone who does not like Mickey's Festival of Foods, and I will show you a liar. So, like, just. That is such a great upgrade that they did on those ships. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:02:08] Speaker B: And they still enjoyed soft serve, right? They still enjoyed soft serve as a dog.
[01:02:13] Speaker D: Lexi. Lexi nearly canceled the cruise. When I mentioned to her that since COVID they fill your ice cream cone for you on the ship versus getting to do your own, she's like, that's it. I'm done. I don't want to go. But saving grace on castaway key, you can still make your own cone. Literally. On castaway key, she had three ice cream.
[01:02:32] Speaker A: You know what they should do? They should do, like, a Brazilian steakhouse style soft serve where you just stand there with a sign and they go until you turn it to red. Right. Like, it's just green. And then just keep filling the cone and then you go red and then they stop. That should be how they do it. There you go. All right, Tracy, you're about to tell some things they didn't like. Yeah, yeah.
[01:02:50] Speaker D: So there wasn't a ton.
They did go to, like, the spa and checked out the gym. Them at the. On the first day because they were just walking around the ship trying to figure stuff out. I don't think they actually went and worked out, but they thought that was impressive. But like Lexi said, the. The adult pool area is so tiny and there's no place to, like, lay by the pool. So if you're laying out, you know, you're laying away from the pool. So if you're one of those people that wants to lay out and then you want to jump in the pool to cool off and you want to get back out and lay back down, there's like a lot of walking and checking is the pool available? And that sort of thing. So they, you know, mentioned that, of course, the day Grand Cayman, when it rained and rained and rained in the morning, all of the padded chairs were sopping wet.
So when the sun did come out at like 4 o' clock in the afternoon, you still couldn't lay out because the chairs were all wet. Unless you just did one of the regular like vinyl chairs. Chairs. So those are some things that they noticed, you know, that, that they were like. Yeah, you know, like it would have been, you know, nicer if kind of a thing.
I'm trying to think what else they said. Oh, they did not like night two of 1923 either. Yeah, they definitely said next time we would, would go to eat pub food.
[01:04:12] Speaker E: And the, the only show we could talk Lexi into going to see was Moana.
Grayson absolutely loved it as much as we all do. Lexi was like, she said the last.
[01:04:25] Speaker D: 15 minutes was great, but she's not a, she's not a Broadway musical girl. That's not her jam.
So we did also take them to see the coriander and Sage choose wisely. And she was kind of like, I'm not going to like this. And when she was done, she was like, that was pretty funny. That was pretty good. So she did enjoy that.
[01:04:43] Speaker B: That's cool that she enjoyed that. Because I would say she's not the target audience. I would say that like I would say that us more middle aged folks are the target audience.
Yeah, yeah, it is. It's very funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:04:58] Speaker D: We, we did, we did do a couple of trivias. Just knowing that I thought maybe having two 22 year olds would help. We did not win trivia. And then when we did the music trivia, just the two of us, I.
[01:05:09] Speaker E: Literally everybody had fun being last.
[01:05:12] Speaker A: I'm embarrassed. I was embarrassed for you when you sent the photo. I was a little embarrassed for you.
[01:05:16] Speaker D: Yeah, it was absolutely awful.
[01:05:21] Speaker E: And what one thing they hadn't done before because they were under 18 before was Palo. So they got to do brunch which they liked. We didn't do dinner because Lexi and Grayson both remembered the dinners and the rotational dining. So they didn't want to miss that.
[01:05:37] Speaker B: That.
[01:05:37] Speaker E: But, but we did ask when we were there and talked to the, the restaurant manager to get a, a dessert seating on on last night. He said yep, that's, that's fine. It's, it's a less busy night. Come at, at 7:30, 7:00.
[01:05:56] Speaker D: Something right after we had early pre order.
[01:05:59] Speaker B: Did you pre order your souffle, Tracy?
[01:06:01] Speaker D: Well, no, we actually ordered it when we got there. He knew we wanted souffle. I mean let's be honest.
[01:06:05] Speaker B: Honest.
[01:06:05] Speaker D: Yeah, like, because Luca was there and so.
[01:06:07] Speaker E: Well, and, and he thought he did. He had four chocolates ready and then Grayson decided she wanted the amaretto, so she got an amaretto and a chocolate.
[01:06:19] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:06:20] Speaker D: It was nice because they got to Experience that which I always talk about.
[01:06:25] Speaker E: And at least see what the restaurant was like at night. And they. They both enjoyed the dessert. They both love, loved brunch.
I mean, they. They both love steak.
[01:06:35] Speaker D: So I'm sure, I was gonna say they absolutely raved about the food.
All the food, whether it was the pool food, the food in Marceline's market, or the dining. Other than 19, 23, 92, everything else got rave reviews. And I asked them both as we were leaving the port, if you, if, you know, if. If you could go on another Disney cruise, Cruz, would you do it and would you do it as an adult without kids? And would you do it as an adult with kids? And they both emphatically said, yes, they would do it again without kids or with kids, even if they had to pay for it.
[01:07:10] Speaker B: Even.
[01:07:10] Speaker D: Yeah, I said, even if you have to pay for it.
And they were like, yeah, they were like, it was worth it. They really enjoyed it. So it was fun to see it through their eyes and to see things like Lexi would be walking and she'd be like, oh, I remember when. And, you know, whatever. So that was kind of cool for us.
Oh, she does remember that. Oh, okay.
[01:07:34] Speaker A: Nice. Well, Tracy, Michael, it sounds like a success. I'm going to label it a success.
Sounds like a fun cruise.
Sad we couldn't be there with you on this one. But we will see you again soon, I'm sure.
Remind folks about your Instagram handle your substack for your new venture there, Tracy.
[01:07:56] Speaker D: Oh, so the Instagram is adrift together, and it's just ra. I'm just random. It could be travel, it could be organization. It could be empty nesting. Empty nesting. It could be any, like, any of those things. And then I do have a substack.
And so there I just write again. Random things. Just like life. Like if. If you, you, you know, are trying to enjoy your life, come hang with me. And. And Michael pitches in, too.
[01:08:29] Speaker A: Nice. Well, Michael, adrift together. It's nice that Tracy made room. So, yeah, it's nice that Tracy made room for you on the door out there in the ocean.
Yeah. So she's already a step ahead, but yeah. Thank you both for taking time to come on, share this fabulous cruise with our audience. Always love talk. Talking to you too, Sam. We're. We're back next week, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern. I am still waiting on final confirmation from the guest, but assuming that comes through, she's out there sailing to Alaska right now, so I think she gets off the ship.
[01:09:03] Speaker B: I Think she got off today? Yeah, she should have gotten off the.
[01:09:06] Speaker A: Ship this morning on Monday. Yeah. So, yeah, yeah. So we will have Carly Wiesel, I think is how you say her last name. I think I got that right. Carly Weisel. Did I say that right? Sam Weissel, I think.
[01:09:18] Speaker B: All right. I don't know. I think it's.
I don't know.
[01:09:20] Speaker A: All right, well, we've got Carly. I mean everyone knows Carly. She is Disney influencer extraordinaire and we are excited to have her on and.
[01:09:27] Speaker B: Reports on reports on theme parks and has her own podcast. She's. Yeah, she's amazing. So we're super excited to have her. And we'll be talking a little bit about her elastic cruise that she just got off of, but I think she's doing a full trip report on her own show. So we'll just talk some highlights from that. And we're also going to talk a little bit about the destiny and what the future of Disney Cruise is.
[01:09:47] Speaker A: I want to hear Carly's take on Parks versus Cruise Line too, because she's a big Parks fan and she lives, I think she lives down in California. So like she's at Disneyland all the time. So you know, west coast, best coast there for us. So.
[01:09:58] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. Anyway, I know.
[01:10:00] Speaker A: Join us, Join us next week, Monday, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern. And with that we will say good night to everyone out there. Thank you for watching. See ya.
[01:10:12] Speaker B: Good night.
[01:10:13] Speaker D: See you real soon.
[01:10:20] Speaker F: 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, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube. YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email them the
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[01:12:23] Speaker A: SA.
