[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi, guys.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: Welcome. Emily was what I was saying. And I was asking, were you doing any of these fabulous. Did you do any of these fabulous excursions on your Alaska sailing?
[00:00:08] Speaker A: Um, I mean, I wish I could have gotten in on that. Glacierita. That sounds amazing.
That's definitely on the list for next time.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: 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 really good friends over at WDW magazine. In fact, we have one of them joining us this evening. Let me bring her on. Stephanie, welcome.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: Hey, guys. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Yeah, we are so excited for all of you out there. You hear me say it every week. Head over to dcl-magazine.com to sign up for.
You can get the issue now in your mailbox. You can get it. But Stephanie's here.
She's got the issue there. She's here to provide a little color as to why, because they have some great coverage in this magazine about all things Disney Cruise Line. And so we're going to be talking to Emily Carlson here in a second from. We do Disney write, and she's going to be talking to us about her Alaska sailing. And so we invite Stephanie on to both talk about a little bit about the magazine, but also to give us some of her picks for Alaska shore excursions. So, Stephanie, you want to kick us off with a good pick for an Alaska shore excursion for all those out there watching?
[00:01:31] Speaker C: I do. I have a few for you, actually, because I haven't been to Alaska yet. It's on my bucket list. I know you guys are going soon, and I can't wait to see and hear everything that you have to say about that. But as you know, Disney cruises wildly popular. And so are Alaska cruises, Disney or otherwise. But they only run part of the year due to weather. So that reduces the inventory, which makes them really hard to get into. It drives up prices. All of those factors mean that Disney cruises to Alaska are some of the most expensive you're going to find. Right.
And what we've heard from a lot of our readers is that people often ought to stay on board because they've already spent so much getting on the cruise.
I know, and I think that's such a big mistake for Alaska. I can understand if you've been to the Bahamas a hundred times and you want to stay on the Disney ships, but in Alaska, you're doing yourself a disservice and Alaska disservice. And I think that even if it means you delay your trip for a year, so you could save up a little more. You really need to be prepared to spend on those excursions and truly experience Alaska.
Disney's actually curated almost 200 port adventures I was looking up today to make sure I had my numbers right. And that's an insane amount.
So there are a lot of really great options.
I have really studied these and there's everything from physically demanding activities like alpine zip lining and seaplane flights to really family focused things like lumberjack shows or scenic steam train journeys through the mountains. You can also do really cool things like cultural experiences with local artists, drumming, even traditional fishing trips. And depending on those specific sailing dates and your ports, all of those may or may not be offered on any given sailing, but you're going to have a lot of options.
Now, just like Alaska is pricey, those excursions are pricey. So they really start from $49, not too bad. And they go up to close to $6,000, which is very expensive.
You know, maybe not if you're in the concierge level and money is no object.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: But I think money is an extra. I think money's an extra object when you're in the concierge level. But yes.
[00:03:56] Speaker D: Well, she's talking about like if you want to do like a private fishing boat excursion, deadliest right? Like, and you want just on that boat, like that might cost you, you know, or a private seaplane excursion, private helicopter excursion. Those are expensive.
[00:04:11] Speaker C: A lot of times those prices are not per person, it's for a group. So if you fill it up, it actually might be a pretty good deal. But most of the excursions that I found actually sit between 200 and $400.
And so I came up with three suggestions that I think are very uniquely Alaska. It's not something that you can do elsewhere, like riding a Segway or a cable car or panning for gold, that these are things very common in many tourist destinations.
But that being said, if you do have activities that you love, like going on a pub crawler, going snorkeling, and you do that everywhere that you go in the world, you should do that in Alaska for sure. It's going to be different there. But I think that reaching outside of your comfort zone, especially in Alaska, especially with Disney, you know, Disney is going to take care of you. It's not going to be unsafe. It's not going to be too scary.
I think that that's a really great chance for you to expand your horizons. So I have three suggestions for you and they're in no particular order, the first on the list, which will probably not surprise anyone who knows me or reads the magazines, is that I'm going to suggest a very special animal encounter. There is a dog sledding summer camp. And that's one of a few different canine activities you can do.
Apply it to it allows you to not only have the sledding experience, but you get to have up close and personal time with the husky, Alaskan husky pups. As you learn, you help them get their socialization in before they're fully trained to be sled dogs. You're going to learn a little bit about the gold rush and a lot about the animal husband husbandry that the mush. Mushers. Yeah, mushers. Not mushers. Mushrooms use to handle these animals and make them harder of the whole Alaska experience. I love Animal Kingdom at Disney World. I love learning about how they care for the animals. So this is really up my alley. And I think this one has it all. It has thrills, scenery, and that dopamine hit of, you know, snuggling some puppies. Who doesn't love that?
[00:06:16] Speaker D: It's puppies.
[00:06:19] Speaker C: They're so cute, right?
And, you know, it's open to all ages. So I think that this is a really good one that you could take the whole family on. Actually, all of my suggestions, I believe, are okay for the whole family.
So that's my first one.
My second is.
Thanks, Sam. My second is a classic in Alaska, which is whale watching. And I know you could do this in Seattle, you could do it in Vancouver, you could do it in Hawaii, lots of places around the world. But I think it really hits different in Alaska because of those glacier backdrops and beautiful mountains and that turquoise water that you're not necessarily getting in the other spots. There are a lot of different whale watching tours to choose from, but I'm going to suggest one that is called Alaska Whales and Rainforest Trails because it shows off the land and sea. It's five hours, so it is a big chunk of your day, but you'll have the chance to walk through the trail of a coastal temperate rainforest. And if, unlike I grew up on the Pacific Northwest and I know you guys live in Seattle, so if you don't live in that part of the country you haven't visited, that's a really cool type of forest to be able to see, then you get to beach, comb a little bit along the shoreline, and then you get on a small vessel to embark on a journey to Steven's Passage, where you might see Humpbacks and orcas and porpoises and seals and sea lions and eagles, all sorts of things. You're going to want your camera, you're going to want binoculars. And I think this is going to go down as one of those family memories that you talk about for years and years to come, 20 years at your kids weddings. You're going to be talking about this time that you saw the whales on your DCL trip. I do want to say though that this excursion is something that you really need to be quiet on board the ship so that the marine animals will come to the surface. So if you have, you know, maybe a fussy little one or a really chatty aunt, mom, sister, whatever, you might want to leave them on the ship if you would like to see some whales.
And then my third and final suggestion is actually one that was not really on my radar. I knew about it, but I kind of brushed it under the rug until one of our writers actually did an article for us about it. It is in our Disney Cruise special magazine and her name is Tricia Dab. She's wonderful. She writes for all of our magazines and I love. She did the photography for this as. Oh, she did the photography for this as well. And I was just so impressed because usually she only does writing for us, but you know, these Alaska pictures, they just take themselves. They're so gorgeous.
[00:08:55] Speaker D: Gorgeous, yeah.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: They show off the scenery and those turquoise waters we were talking about.
And I won't spoil everything in the article, but Tricia really takes our readers on this story of the journey of going to an Alaskan glacier, which is probably one of, if not the most popular thing that you can do on these trips, whether you stay on the, on the ship to view from the ship or you do an excursion. So she did a port adventure called the Glacier Explorer and it takes up two and a half, three hours of your day. And what you do is you sail. Well, in her case it might be different for other people depending on where your ship is sailing, but she sailed in the Endicott Arm and she got on a small boat that came and tethered itself to the wonder. And then that took her for an up close look to Dawes Glacier about a quarter of a mile out. That's as close as you can legally get. And she had about a hundred other guests with her on that boat.
She described so beautifully how she could see the details from the icy peaks and so many shades of blue coming through the ice and the sound of the white thunder, which is that phenomenon of the ice shifting and you can hear near it. And she was even lucky to see a piece of the glacier break off in an ice calving event.
And she said it was just incredible. On the way back, she even got to have a cocktail that was made with an actual piece of glacier ice. A glacier.
[00:10:21] Speaker A: It's a glacier.
[00:10:22] Speaker D: I can't wait to have one myself. I'm so excited. Stephanie, you're talking about this is just getting me. Yes. We're doing this excursion. We don't. So the, the one thing that it. It's all the same I think on every Alaska sailing on glacier day. Except you don'. Know which glacier you're going to until that morning because the. It's based on sea conditions and it's based on the captain speaking to the folks in Alaska about where you're. They're allowed to go and all of that. So it's it which glacier you get to go and see and which sort of part, which inlet you're in is very. It varies from cruising to cruising. So anyway, fantastic. Emily. I'm. I'm so excited.
[00:11:00] Speaker C: Yeah. And she said that on the way back she could get these beautiful views of the wonder because you're sailing back towards the ship. So she convinced me I have to. To do that when one day I get to go on an Alaskan cruise.
But like I said, there's an article in our magazine and if you want to get it, I. There is a 10 off coupon DCL duo on our website wdw-magazine.com if you want to get that for any of our other things.
But it's really worth a read. It's a very special article and I'm so glad that she brought it to us.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Well, Steffi, great recommendation.
Highly. We always highly recommend the magazine. Appreciate you supporting our show in these live episodes. But magazine is fantastic.
I would probably a subscribe and be recommended even if you weren't. So I just want to put that out there for people. We don't recommend things that we don't like ourselves. So I do before you go, want to bring and introduce in Emily Carlson, our guest for the evening who is going to be talking about her fabulous Alaska sailing.
[00:12:03] Speaker A: Hi guys.
[00:12:04] Speaker B: Welcome. Emily was what I was saying and I was asking were you doing any of these fabulous. Did you do any of these fabulous excursions on your Alaska sailing?
[00:12:12] Speaker A: I mean, I wish I could have gotten in on that glacier. Rita, that sounds amazing.
That's definitely on the list for next time for sure. We saw people getting on that boat and Going off and having quite the adventure. And that is definitely on the to do list for next time.
[00:12:30] Speaker B: Nice, nice. Well Stephanie, thanks again. We're going to hold on to you for a minute though as we shift into our news segment here. We forgot it's been a little bit. So it's been three weeks ago, but there was a news item that we forgot to talk about on the air, which is Mayor Werft put out their slate of ships for Disney. The hull numbers and the anticipated gross tonnages for these ships. And it included what is called nname ships. Three of them on the roster giving them the hull numbers 73332 and 3 1. So sequential unlike the was it came that has a whole number after the Destiny. Yeah, correct.
[00:13:10] Speaker D: The Treasure. Because the treasure. The Destiny was ordered apparently before the treasure was ordered. I think it was from what we heard it was the Mayor Werft had an open slot and said hey Disney, you want this open slot? And it turned out to be the treasure. So it was the Destiny was actually ordered before the Treasure. And that's why her whole number is a lower whole number than the treasures. Which is funny because why didn't they just move up the. I don't know. Anyway, I don't know why they didn't.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Once you're assigned a number, you're assigned a number. All right. And then they've also got the Oriental Land Company's no name ship on here AS hull number 722.
They also gave us a delivery dates. So delivery date of the OLC's new wish class ship is in 2028. That will be preceded. I forgot there is another no name ship on this list which is the fourth in the Wish class for Disney Cruise Line which will be delivered in 2027. Hole number 723.
So again that's interesting. It's being delivered ahead of the OLC ship. It has a whole number afterwards. This is boggling.
And so Oriental Land Company will get their ship in 2028. The next wish class ship for Disney Cruise Line come out in 2027 and then as we sort of suspected one ship a year after that in the new class of ships, 2029, 2030, 2031.
[00:14:28] Speaker D: Well, and remember the OLC ship, even though it's going to be fiscal year 2028, it's actually not going to until calendar year 2029 I believe. And so meaning Disney will get the ship probably the end of 2028 and then it will probably maiden voyage in early 2029. We don't know exactly when, but that's based on the information that was put out previously.
[00:14:57] Speaker B: And so, just to put this in perspective, they've also given us the gross tonnage of these ships. We don't know the whole length of the new ships yet. We just have the gross tonnage and passenger count. So starting with the biggest boy on the list, the Disney, she has a gross tonnage of 200,000 tons. Gross tons with a passenger load of 6,000.
And so to move down in class to the wish, you lose 60,000 tons. You're at 140,000 tons, and you lose 2,000 passengers. 4,000 passenger count on the Wish class of ships.
We come down to the Dream class.
You lose 10,000 gross tons here, 130,000 tons, 4,000 passengers. Same passenger count, which we know the Wish class was actually made slightly larger, more to accommodate the fuel, the fuel tanks they needed than anything else. When we hit the new ships, you're cutting the Adventure in half. These are 100,000 tons gross tons, and they only accommodate 3,000 passengers. And so that is half of the Adventure. A thousand passengers left less than the Wish Class.
I don't have the gross tonnage. I'm going to look up the gross tonnage while we're sitting here for the. The. The Magic class of ships.
But I wanted to ask this group, that's one. That's an impressive. That's half the size of the Adventure. So these are gonna be much smaller ships. A lot smaller than the Wish class, even smaller than the Dream Class.
Right. So these are gonna be small ships. Are we excited for the small ships? And what are we most excited for out of a small ship from Disney Cruise Line? I'm gonna start with you, Stephanie.
[00:16:37] Speaker C: I'm really hopeful that we are going to see more exciting ports. Not that the ports that we' to are not exciting, but they are, you know, usually very typical ports, whether it's in the Bahamas, Alaska, the Mediterranean. And I know that a lot of the really interesting ports, if you look at something like a Norwegian cruise, Disney does go to Norway, but they don't necessarily do every single stop along the way. And I think that that's maybe interest, but also maybe the size of those ships getting in and out of the F. So I'm hoping that we get some really interesting new destinations that weren't even possible before on these ships.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: And just to come in with the information here, 84,000 gross tons. So you're getting 15,000 more gross tons on the ship for these. This class of ship. Over The Magic class. Magic class has a maximum capacity of about 2700 passengers. So you're getting about three. Did I say 300 more passengers on board. So not, not a huge difference to put in the scheme of things. So Emily, what are you looking forward to out of these new ships?
[00:17:42] Speaker C: Ships?
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Well, what I. I don't know what I can't help but wonder get it wonder is maybe do you we think that one of the classic ships would be retiring and perhaps they are updating in the fleet. Is that possible? I mean they've been around for quite some time. I'm not really sure what the lifetime but the lifespan is of a cruise ship. But that, that definitely is interesting to, you know. Now they're going to bring the magic over there. I don't know if maybe one of them is going to be put out. I don't know.
[00:18:22] Speaker D: So I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna answer and say I think not immediately. And the reason I think not immediately is because Disney has said 13 ships, right? And so they can't say we're gonna have 13 ships and then like say oh no, now we only have 11. Right.
[00:18:38] Speaker B: Do whatever they want, Sam. But yes, right.
[00:18:40] Speaker D: But I mean I, I think that.
[00:18:42] Speaker A: We'Re gonna things and then do the opp.
[00:18:46] Speaker D: I think what we're going to see is the next like the next ship announcement is going to be the replacement. But I wouldn't be surprised if it's exactly the same class as whatever's coming out, right? So like these, this new class of ship that we're going to get. I wouldn't be surprised if the replacements Magic and the eventually this new class there I'm going to say the ship 4 and 5 of class rather than ships number 1, 2 or 3 of this new class. That's my, that's my guess. But I'll jump in and say would I'm looking forward to the most is I want Muppet theming. Give me more Muppets all the time.
Muppets Day at sea. Of course we want too. But I want Midship Detective Agency just in case.
[00:19:31] Speaker B: Just in case. Cause I've heard people say, well when you do that kind of stuff and Disney can't do it because they're like they're afraid that you're gonna Disney. I am on this show royalty free perpetual license for this idea which you've probably already had. All right, so just make it happen. Let's do it.
[00:19:47] Speaker D: Just make it happen. I don't care where the ship go. Is I'll be. Yeah, we can. We can be. We can be doing stations at sea. Yeah. All Muppets all the time. I don't care.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: Waldorf in the balcony of the main theater. That's. That's what we need on these ships.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: So good. That would be.
[00:20:02] Speaker D: We'll bring Muppet Vision 3D on the ship. It'll be revived.
[00:20:06] Speaker B: I hear they've got some. I hear they got some props available now, so. There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:20:10] Speaker D: Repurposed.
[00:20:11] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I, I am. I. I don't really have anything to add here because, like, I think the ports are the thing that I was looking forward to the most. And what I just. I guess I'll say what I love. What I love is that they're going smaller. They're not. Not just following the trend of getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And I think people love these intimate ships, and I think something the size of the Magic and the Wonder is needed. I agree. I don't think they're going to retire Magic and Wonder immediately, but I won't be surprised if they say we're going to build two more in this fleet. I can only hope that if they do retire the Magic and the Wonder, they send them both on an around the world jaunt for one last hurrah before they beach them in someplace in India to be sword to scrap. I also hope.
I kind of hope.
I. I wouldn't mind if they announced that they were retiring them early and pulled some stuff off of those ships to put on the new ships. I'd also love to see them reuse the names. I'd love to always have a Magic and a Wonder in the fleet. So I know Carnival's done that. Other cruise lines have done that. I'd love to see them, you know, reuse the names for those two ships. So.
[00:21:07] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would love to have a Magic 2 and a Wonder 2. I don't want them to be Magic and Wonder. I want them to be Magic 2 and Wonder.
[00:21:15] Speaker B: I just want to be Magic and Wonder. There's nothing stopping them from just naming them the same thing.
[00:21:18] Speaker D: That's what. That's what people will just colloquially call them. But I want it to be a. Officially the TV Wonder plus Disney Band.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Stephanie, before we let you go, I meant to say A.J. parker left a comment here for you. Said we loved the Flotest issue of the WDW magazine. So thank you. Thank you, A.J. for that.
[00:21:39] Speaker C: Thank you so much, A.J.
[00:21:41] Speaker B: Yes, yes, thank you for that. But, Stephanie, we will bid you adieu as we shift into talking about Alaska with Emily. Thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for sponsoring the show, and we'll see you soon.
[00:21:49] Speaker E: I'm sorry.
[00:21:50] Speaker D: Sure.
[00:21:50] Speaker C: Happy to be here. Have a great night, guys.
[00:21:52] Speaker B: All right, see you later.
[00:21:53] Speaker D: Thanks, Stephanie.
[00:21:54] Speaker B: All right, shift over to talking Alaska. I did want to say that some folks left in the comments. Someone, Ashley, is saying she snorkeled in Alaska. And I was sort of like, I can't imagine how cold that water would have been snorkeling.
[00:22:06] Speaker D: No, you can listen. The water is not that cold in the summertime, so you can find places that are warmer to snorkel in the Northwest. It is possible. It's not.
But you can't be somebody who. Who is not averse to a little bit of cooler water, let's put it that way. Well, Emily, we're so excited that you joined us. I want to start by welcoming you back, of course, to the show. We love having you on. Thank you for being here.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: I love talking all things cruise all the time, especially this Muppet idea. I'm all on board. This is fantastic.
[00:22:40] Speaker D: Well, and we also have to congratulate you on your grand Slam because you now have sailed all of the Disney ships currently in rotation, or The Big Hero 6, as we like to affectionately call it. But you've now sailed on the Wonder. So congratulations. Welcome to the club. We'll all be kicked out of the club in a few months when the.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: Adventure get really hard.
It's going to get really hard.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: It is. It's going to get really difficult.
[00:23:08] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:23:10] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:23:11] Speaker D: It's amazing.
[00:23:13] Speaker A: I love that I got to experience all of the range of the Disney cruise ships because I think it certainly gives a really great perspective of what are the things that we like about certain ships. What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses? And I love that the last one I did was the Wonder. It just felt just so special. I. I was not. I didn't have big expectations.
I'm not a huge fan of the magic, so I was kind of going into it like me.
But I loved the Wonder. I loved it so much. Oh, my gosh. I can't even say enough good things about the wonderful Wonder.
[00:23:53] Speaker D: Yeah, she's an amazing ship. That's why she. It honestly was only. You know, we've said this before on the show, like, it was only the treasure that, like, just narrowly kind of beat her out for our favorite because there's just something so special about the Wonder, and we haven't been on her now in a couple of years. And we're super excited to get back on her in August for our Alaska sailing.
I have to tell people, like, the Magic is great and she's the original, right? And so next year in Alaska, they're going to have the Magic and the Wonder to choose from. From. I'm still going to tell people. Salem the Wonder, because she's just wonderful, right? But, well, she's.
[00:24:30] Speaker B: But she was the second in the class. She got a few of the, you know, she had a little extra care and attention and fixed a few problems for them. So. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I. The Wonder is fantastic.
[00:24:39] Speaker D: I think she's just an amazing ship. Now, of course, Emily, this is your first time in the Wonder was also your first time to Alaska. You were invited on, meaning you were hosted by Disney for this cruise. I want to put that out there because whenever somebody is hosted by Disney, they have to disclose that because obviously it's a different circumstance than paying for your own cruise.
So you were, you were invited on and you and your whole family got to go. Your husband, your two kids, all four of you got to go on this cruise. Is that right?
[00:25:08] Speaker A: Yes. And, man, I'm so glad that my family got to go because it was one of those things that was on our bucket list we really wanted to do.
So when Disney contacted me, I was so thrilled that they had invited myself, but really wanted my family to go because they really wanted to showcase what an Alaskan cruise was like for a family.
And it was. It was just so wonderful. It was wonderful.
[00:25:36] Speaker D: Yeah, I love that. And now you, because you were hosted, you didn't have to really do any of your own planning, right? You didn't choose your own excursions like Disney chose the excursions for you to give you kind of a variety of what, you know, what it looks like to be a family on an. An Alaskan cruise.
[00:25:51] Speaker B: I gotta ask a question here. How was that for you? Just. Just ceding control of the entire vacation as a. As a travel agent yourself? I mean, like, I'm a type A, but that would have. That would horrify me. But yeah. How was it for you?
[00:26:02] Speaker A: I felt a little twitchy here and there, but honestly, it was kind of nice to have a little break from planning things, but also the, you know, unsure of what was happening, you know, not being able to pick dining time, that kind of stuff was like a little unnerving as a person who likes to their own vacations.
But I was very grateful in what Disney selected for us to do, and I completely understood why they picked certain things to showcase and I'm, you know, there were things that I really enjoyed doing. There were things that I enjoyed doing that I wouldn't do again.
And then there were things that I was. Not that I didn't enjoy doing, but that I probably wouldn't suggest it to people. So it was really helpful to be able to have kind of a wide range of different things that we do.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: Did. Yeah, well that, that's a great way to break this down. Let's, let's talk through that. So what did you like really enjoy about this cruise? Like what were some of those things, those highlights that you were like, this was amazing. You're going to Alaska. Must do. Must see.
[00:27:07] Speaker A: Well, I'll talk about the. One of the excursions that I thought was if you don't do this excursion, you're crazy. But first I'll just talk about Glacier Day and, and the.
How do I put this in words? It was so wonderful being on such a small ship because it felt so intimate when we were on this beautiful ship and we are seeing the most beautiful scenery and then we're looking out and on the deck and we're seeing this massive glacier and we're all kind of like in this together. So we all, even though there's, you know, 2,000 something people, it felt so intimate and it felt so special. And I will never forget that moment when we were experiencing Glacier Day because from beginning to end it just seemed like we were all experiencing this fascinating just, I don't know, it was like out of body experience. It was so incredible.
It just reminds you how big and wonderful this world is and how small we are and we should really go and see all of these beautiful things at this earth has to offer.
[00:28:20] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:28:22] Speaker B: Did you get to do the boat excursion off of the ship or just.
[00:28:25] Speaker D: Mentioned you did not? Yes, that's right.
[00:28:28] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:28:29] Speaker A: I'm an old era glacier.
[00:28:33] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. And I hear there's wonderful views still from the ship. Like, and to be fair, the glacier excursion is one of the things that does book up like early on. And so I'm not saying as like a first time cruiser that you'll never be able to book it, but you gotta be, be like you're not going to be able to book it. Like when your booking window opens, you might be able to book it if somebody drops the excursion. Right. Like, and Emily's not a first time cruiser, but obviously she was in a circumstance where Disney was booking the excursions for her and so she didn't have like the choice to book additional things on her own.
But if you are a lower castaway club level, you may not have an opportunity to book this excursion. But it is one of those ones that folks really love and it books up really fast.
[00:29:22] Speaker B: Talk to us about the characters on Glacier Day. Cause Sam is. Yes, Sam is worried to some extent that she's gonna miss her photo ops. So.
[00:29:30] Speaker D: Well, I saw Emily's post about her first line that she was on. So Emily, why don't you tell folks how long you waited in that line that morning and what and where you had the kids and your husband do while you were waiting in line.
[00:29:43] Speaker A: So I think the smartest thing we did was we came up with strategy and we tried to divide and conquer. So we had already of come up with this plan but we are also on this cruise with some other travel agents and some other influencers. So we all kind of joined together and we said, all right, listen, we are going to divide and conquer. We're going to take turns waiting in this line, waiting in, you know, whatever lines that they there might be so that we could have someone who's watching the kids inside. Because there were points in the day where it was very, very cold and points in the day where it's very, very hot. It was a very confusing weather day, but it was wonderful.
So we kind of took turns dividing and con ring waiting in line. The line for Mickey Mouse was, I mean he's got to be the most popular character that you want to see, that you want to get your picture with. And I believe it was like two and a half hours.
It was pretty crazy. But again, we had a plan and we were dividing and conquering.
So I guess my best tip that I could give people is that if you do go on the one of the Alaskan cruises, pick the characters and people are going to say to wait and go later. But I think, think even though.
[00:30:58] Speaker D: I.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: Don'T know, we, we did wait in the morning for the characters but I think it was better done in the morning because there's, you're going to lose your steam, you're going to lose that adrenaline and you're not going to want to do it. And the worst thing will be like, oh, never mind, I don't want it. And then a couple days go by and you're like darn it, I should have gotten that picture. So I think just get it done in the morning.
Make sure that you're there within that 10 minute time span that they have listed on the navigator app because they will cut line off right at that 10 minutes, and then you are out of luck and you can just meet the next character. So they will let the line just build up for that block of time and then cut it off. Which, you know, I, I was like, oh, geez, I feel bad. What if these people try to join the line? No, they will make sure that, you know what character it's for. You're not going to stand there and wait and wait and wait and then not be able to meet whatever character it is that you want to meet. So I think that Disney did a great job communicating all of that. It was very eas.
But like I said, you know, dividing and conquering is the way to go with those characters.
[00:32:04] Speaker B: On a scale of 1 to 10, how cute are the outfits? That's. That's all I need to know.
[00:32:08] Speaker D: That's really the only thing.
It's a 10. It's a 10.
[00:32:12] Speaker A: And, you know, they do have the characters that are in their Alaska outfits later on in this in the week, so you can get your pictures still with them, but it's not out on the deck and there's not that beautiful background. So it is so worth it. That's why people want to get that shot of the. Just the background, because otherwise you're just going to get the cruise ship background, which is also nice, too, but nothing compared to, like, this beautiful mountain and all the greenery and the glacier in the background. You know, you just can't beat that.
[00:32:46] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, I think you've got to pick like your. Your maybe pick your top couple of characters that you have to. That are the must use on the deck and then maybe get those other characters that are not like your must do, you know, in the atrium or wherever they might be taking pictures, you know, on the ship on later days. Because if you want to spend. If you don't want to spend like your whole day in a line or something like that, so that might be like a good. A good balance of things. And of course, Mickey and Minnie are probably going to be the most popular. But I will say I do think Donald, you know, is. Is a big one, too. There's a lot of people like Brian who are obsessed with Donald, and they'll wait two hours for Donald for the number one doc.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: I just wanted. Yep, I just wanted to do this. That's all I wanted. That was my number one choice. I really, really wanted Donald for myself. Selfishly. Had to get Mickey because, you know, you got to get Mickey and then my Family. We all kind of came together and decided which characters were our most important that we needed to see.
Thankfully, Disney had set up for us a private meet and greet with Daisy, so we knew that one was already checked off the list. So it made it a lot easier to manage that they had organized that for us.
[00:33:58] Speaker B: Yeah, that's nice. Awesome. Yeah. I always like to remind Donald he's the only one with any sailing experience on board, but they.
[00:34:03] Speaker D: That's right.
[00:34:04] Speaker B: Make Minnie and Mickey. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:34:07] Speaker D: He was in the navy.
[00:34:08] Speaker B: Yeah. What else is on your list, Emily of Mike Must Dos.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: So we just kept going towards talking about some excursions.
The one excursion that I. The one port adventure that I would say you. You just can't this Alaskan cruise without doing this is the Lumberjack show.
It was phenomenal.
[00:34:32] Speaker B: You've just. You've just stepped right into the middle of an argument in our household. But thank you. Keep going, because I really like how you're headed here.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: Okay. Are you, Sam, are you against the Lumberjack show?
[00:34:43] Speaker D: I'm. I'm not against the Lumberjack show, but we haven't. We don't have it booked because we have something else booked. And I don't know that we can add it on because our other excursion, I think is too long in order.
[00:34:55] Speaker B: Like, we're doing bear viewing that day. Right. Isn't that right, Sam? Is it bear viewing day?
[00:34:59] Speaker D: It's Ketchikan. Yes. So it's bear viewing. Yeah. And Nathan is obsessed with bears. And so I feel like. And I feel like we can do a Lumberjack show outside of Vancouver before the cruise.
[00:35:12] Speaker B: Not with a Disney cruise. I know. We can't do the Disney one.
[00:35:16] Speaker D: I know, Emily. Go ahead, though.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: Tell us. Tell us.
[00:35:19] Speaker D: Tell me why I'm long and.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: And I've done the Lumberjack show before. Right? You have never done it before. Okay, Sam, you know, you have to decide what's best for you. But let me tell you, this Lumberjack show was awesome. It was so fun. It was so engaging. It was incredible. And what I learned about this Lumberjack show is that Disney Cruise Line is the only cruise line that offers this particular show.
And sadly, they wouldn't let us videotape any of it. But it's right up here forever right up here.
Like I said, it was just so engaging, so exciting. The kids were yelling and screaming. They were just out of their seats.
I just felt so engaged in what was happening. It was so fun. It was absolutely so Disney.
But also very true to the culture and the arts and of lumberjacking. I don't even know what you call it.
[00:36:20] Speaker B: Being a lumberjacking seems right.
[00:36:22] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, lumberjacking. But it was. It was incredible what these men were capable of. And I don't know. Sam, I understand where you're coming from with the bears.
I get it. You always have to do what your children want to do, right? But this lumberjack show, I'm telling you, it's awesome.
[00:36:40] Speaker D: I. I really.
I'll be honest. Like, I would love to do this, but I also, like. So Nathan is also not like a show in general. Right. Like, he doesn't like to sit and watch a show.
And so this one might be different because it's entertaining and interactive and stuff. Right. I don't. I just don't. I just don't know. It's just so hard to know.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: Like, I would go to the lumberjack show by myself.
[00:37:05] Speaker D: I'm literally on. I'm. I'm on the app. I just want to show you. I just opened up the app as we're talking, and I'm just going to see, like, I don't know, would it be able to, like, would it. Would we be able to even do it?
[00:37:16] Speaker B: So Jeff is asking, is it lumberjack, Big Alice, the show? I. I don't know if that's a.
[00:37:20] Speaker E: Is that a Disney character?
[00:37:21] Speaker B: The Disney character is like a traditional Disney character, like a Goofy or a Donald or somebody who shows up.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: Yeah, they have Goofy and he. He comes out in the beginning and he's getting ready for the lumberjack show. He has the kids come down. He gets them all stretched out. They're doing like a little workout.
And it's. I mean, my kids were both out there. They were so engaged. They. They felt like they were part of this show.
And, um. I don't know. Sam. Yeah. You gotta at least promise you'll think about it. You'll. I'm looking at it.
[00:37:54] Speaker D: Is it. Is it the exclusive grade Alaskan lumberjack show? Is that what it is?
[00:38:00] Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
[00:38:01] Speaker D: I don't know. There's a bunch of different. There's a few different ones that are.
[00:38:04] Speaker B: We can deal with this off here.
[00:38:06] Speaker D: I know you're just making me. You're making me double listen. You're making me double double think my or double check my.
[00:38:14] Speaker B: Are you listening to our show because.
[00:38:15] Speaker E: You want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at my path Unwinding track travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. My Path Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney Vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, Adventured with 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 looking to expand beyond the mouse, My Path Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOMYPATHunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show.
[00:39:08] Speaker B: Now back to the episode.
What else is on the must do list?
[00:39:14] Speaker A: Emily so one thing that I really enjoyed, that I thought was really cool was when we went to Icy Straight Point and they had us signed up for a scavenger hunt. It was a family scavenger hunt. It was they basically, they took us through the woods, they told us different stories from, I don't know, from growing up that they had, you know, whatever passed on and learned about, and that explains different things in nature.
The guide was very engaging and she had the kids kind of looking at different plants.
One of the plants was edible, so the kids were picking up the plant and they were able to kind of like try it and see how it tasted.
But all throughout the scavenger hunt, there were these cute little animals along the way that the kids could look and find and pick them up and put them in a little basket. And then they got to keep them as a little keepsake. So it was really, really cute. They got these little bald eagles and little like chipmunks or squirrels or whatever it was. And I thought that that was really neat. It was really engaging. It was beautiful to kind of see the area too, around Icy Straight Point. And there were parts of the trails though that were closed because there were some bears, I guess, so they had to close those.
But my kids thought that was pretty cool that there were bears around and we were like around where bears were. And I thought that that was really, it was a really cute family scavenger hunt. It was a good excuse to kind of slow down and take your time and just kind of go for a little walk in the woods. And learn about some of the different plants and different features that are all around the scavenger hunt area.
[00:41:01] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: And we saw a lot of whales too, as we were going through the scavenger hunt. And they were just coming out of the water, which is really cool.
[00:41:07] Speaker B: That's, that's what we've heard. So we did Norway and we were like, well, you know, we can do Alaska, but like, we live in Seattle and the scenery is probably. And somebody was like, yeah, but the difference between Norway and Alaska is Norway is. Got great scenery, Alaska's got all the wildlife. And so yeah, that's, that's, that's amazing. We had a question in here from Jennifer Alexander, who says. Hi, Emily. From Jen and Mia.
I know nothing can match the last night of our Memorial Day dream cruise, but how did your kids like Alaska versus Caribbean and how they do with the time change?
[00:41:37] Speaker A: So honestly, I can't believe that my kids did so well with the time change.
But we tried really hard to kind of plan accordingly.
We were a little bit limited to the flights because the only flight back to The Northeast was one at like 10 o' clock at night. So we booked a hotel for the, for the day. We hung out, we relaxed, we tried as best we could to kind of get a nap in and prepare them. I think it took like about a day. And they, everyone kind of worked themselves out with the time change. It wasn't as bad as we were expecting, but the kids loved, loved the Alaskan cruise and, and I think that it was almost.
I think it made it more special, the fact that it's not like an easy place for us to get to. So it's not something we can just hop on a plane and then hop on a cruise ship going to the Caribbean.
It was one of those like, well, we can't go again for a while, guys. And I think that made it more special. It was a really unique experience. We were all experiencing something for the first time together, so they really did enjoy it. But our last night on the on the drive dream was something for the books for sure.
[00:42:50] Speaker D: It was magical.
[00:42:52] Speaker B: Emily, I'm curious what makes your. I like to do the ice cream sandwich of feedback. So we've got a few great, girly, great things, you know, so let's. It's not really called an ice cream sandwich in the corporate world, but I'm not gonna use the unfamiliar friendly term that we use.
[00:43:04] Speaker D: Corporate. Yeah, yeah.
[00:43:07] Speaker B: What are some of the ones that you said? You said two categories. One that, like, you're not sure you would do personally again, but it was good to experience. And then perhaps some that fell a little bit lower than that. Things that you did, but not necessarily even recommend.
Why don't I ask, Talk us through some of those. And to be fair, it's always a personal opinion. So there's probably people out there who'll be like, that was the most amazing short of my life. Great. Exactly.
[00:43:33] Speaker D: Part of that is also what you want to do on your vacation versus what somebody else might want to do on their vacation.
[00:43:39] Speaker B: I think it's important in these moments. Tell us why, Emily. So that people can make that decision for themselves. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:43:46] Speaker A: So I think one of the mistakes that perhaps was made when scheduling the different excursions was that Disney had booked us, and I'm so grateful that they had booked us on anything to begin with, which was so generous and so kind, but they booked us on a whale watch. And then right after the whale watch, we went to Mendenhall Glacier. So it was a very long day and we didn't get any time to kind of poke around. And Juno, which was kind of stinky. I really wish that we had been able to kind of just like walk around, explore a little bit. We were able to do that at Ketchikan, which was really nice. It's really cute town.
So we. We missed out big time on that opportunity to explore a little bit.
So I don't know that I would have booked two things in one day because it really was a time suck when we really wanted to explore, since we had never been before.
The whale watch that we on was fantastic. We saw so many whales, it was ridiculous how many we saw.
And whatever the, the whatever we did, whatever it was called in Juneau. I'm not sure what it's listed as on the Navigator app, but the. The guide was wonderful. They were super knowledgeable, giving us tons of information.
They knew exactly where to go. And like I said, we saw so many whales, the Mendenhall Glacier could. It was fantastic. The scenery was beautiful. But again, it really felt like it should have been two different days doing it. It was just a lot in one day. And by the time we were done with Mendenhall Glacier, we were just.
[00:45:36] Speaker D: We were.
[00:45:36] Speaker A: The kids were like, all right, we've been at this for six plus hours at this point. Like, what's, what's happening now? So it was.
[00:45:47] Speaker D: If you, if you had to choose between the two for your family and knowing, you know, the ages of your kids.
I know your son Q is 11. Remind me how old Your daughter is.
[00:45:57] Speaker A: Yep. Beckham is eight. She's eight. Yeah. And yeah, I would say we would have picked to do the whale watch, although I don't know that going back, we would pick to do the whale watch since we already have done that. But they are animal lovers through and through. They absolutely love that kind of stuff. So that would have been more than their thing that they would want to do.
I would have picked to probably skip the whale watch since I'm from the New England area. I've been on a whale watch before, but my kids haven't, so, you know that. That's why I would pick that one. But I like the scenery. I liked going to these different places and checking out what everything looked like that was so different from seeing things in the Northeast. So that. That's tricky. I think for next time, we will definitely make sure that we pick one thing to do.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: Yeah, so, I mean, that's one that we just had somebody on our time out, like, don't over sched yourself.
You know, she was saying that one of her biggest tips for new cruisers is like, don't, like, make time to relax and just kind of stumble into things. And so I. Yeah. So less about the excursions themselves and more about just don't over schedule, which is always, I think, a good tip for sure.
[00:47:04] Speaker D: What else would probably say that whale watching is one of those things you've got to do at least once, but you don't. It's not something you necessarily need to repeat. And so if you go back to Alaska, it makes sense that you would choose something different, I think, particularly in that circumstance.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:47:20] Speaker D: And we were lucky that we saw.
[00:47:22] Speaker A: Whales around when we were just standing around in, you know, icy straight, like, we. We saw whales just. Just out in the water. So we didn't need to go on, you know, any kind of formal excursion to see something like that. But so, yeah, I mean, I honestly, I think that what they picked. I understood what they picked, and I had a blast with all the different things that they picked. One thing that was really frightening, though, were the. We called them the Alaska Skyliners. And we went up in these gondolas up top. That was the most frightening thing. And we just got. And I both were trying to keep our cool, but it was getting a little like we.
[00:48:04] Speaker D: We were sweating.
[00:48:05] Speaker A: We were getting a little nervous because it was so high and the incline was just. It was very scary. It was very treacherous. We felt like. But we were like, oh, we gotta.
[00:48:15] Speaker D: Play it cool for the.
[00:48:16] Speaker A: The kids probably would not do that again myself just because it was so, it was just. We got great pictures, great views, but man, that was scary.
[00:48:26] Speaker B: This is making me think, Sam, of last night. We walked to dinner. We walked over the freeway overpass. So Sam, you're not allowed to get on the gondola. She was, she was nervous about a fully enclosed pedestrian overpass over the highway. She was like, I'm going to walk down the middle because I can't be on the edge. And I was like, what do you think's going to happen here?
[00:48:41] Speaker D: It's all, it was fenced. Listen, Emily, it's fenced in. Like you, Nothing can happen. You can't like go over. But, But I'm still like totally frightened. And we're on, we're walking over what is in each direction a four lane interstate highway. Right. Like we're talking. This is, this is on i405 in the Pacific Northwest, for those who know it.
Yeah. So we literally walked across that and I'm like shaking. Like I would not have done that by myself. Thank God Brian was with me.
[00:49:10] Speaker B: I'm scared of heights. I'm like, whatever. I mean I've run down like ridge lines, you know, that have like very narrow single track kind of stuff. And yeah, I, I, so anyway, I, I would love the condol experience.
[00:49:22] Speaker D: I would do it, but I would be terrified squeezing Brian's hand the entire time. Yeah, yeah.
[00:49:26] Speaker B: What's, what's something that you would just, you would, you would say, you just, you would. I mean the over scheduling aside, like was there anything that was like a, not a, just like a, A great experience for you and the family on board?
[00:49:39] Speaker A: Gosh, I, I don't know. I, I hate to be that person, but I feel like from beginning to end, the trip was just perfect in all these different ways.
Our servers were great, the cast members that were working were wonderful.
Just every day that went by we were like, well, this is our new favorite day now. So it was hard to pick at the end what day was our favorite because every day kind of just became like the favorite day. Well, how do you top that day and just kind of going through this cycle?
One thing I really do like about these Alaskan sailings and the itinerary that we had is that it was sandwiched of two at sea days.
So off of the embarkation debarkation day. So it was nice to kind of have a day of nothing and then have stuff all sandwiched in the middle and then have a day to kind of get back together and another Day at sea and then you're getting off the ship. That was really nice. I appreciated that. Because nothing is worse than when you have a port stop, especially Castaway or something. If you're on the other coast and you're packing your room, the. It's just the worst. It is the worst punishment because it's a beautiful place and then you have to pack your room up.
[00:50:57] Speaker D: Yes, absolutely. I'm curious about some of the shipboard experience. I want to talk about the wonder. But I got to also ask you before we get there, you did some really cute, like, sweatshirts and matching stuff, and I got to like for your family and coordination.
I'm trying to get my family to do that, so I got to ask you some.
[00:51:20] Speaker B: Just be fair. You're trying to get me to do it because Nathan's going to wear whatever you put on the bed for him.
[00:51:24] Speaker D: To put it out. Yeah, exactly. That's absolutely true.
[00:51:27] Speaker A: He. He's not.
[00:51:28] Speaker D: He doesn't like to really dress up, but if I set out clothes for him to wear, he will put them on. Brian is another story. So tell. Tell me like one. Did. Did your family. Did Q. Beckham or Scott have any trouble with your planning their outfits for, I don't know, like, Glacier Day or your matching sweatshirts that you were wearing on the other days and where get them? Tell us.
[00:51:50] Speaker A: I. I am not the person that has their family matching in outfits for. I have given. I gave that up a long time ago. I just. It's just become way too hard to coordinate. Nobody has time for that. I am not that person saying that. I was told a few things.
Number one, my rule for embarkation day is that we always have to have some type of outfit that I have planned out for that picture because I don't know what I'm gonna do with those pictures yet. I'm gonna do something. So we're gonna have some kind of matching something.
So I went on Etsy for those babies. I just got, you know, Alaska sweatshirts. Nothing. Nothing too crazy.
But I was told, and I forget who told me this, and it'll come to me probably after we're done. But I was told that I couldn't go to Alaska and ever, like, and not wear plaid or a vest.
So I figured, you know what? If that's gonna be on the list, I have to add that to the.
Be our Glacier day picture, and that will be it.
So really, those are the only two outfits that we planned.
I don't think Scott was very happy with me that I Had him wearing a flannel and a vest. But you know, you got to do, you got to do it sometimes. Because I was like, guys, we got to do this for Disney. These will be great pictures. And everyone was thankful afterwards.
[00:53:12] Speaker B: What's funny is we live in the Pacific Northwest and I don't own flannels, Sam. So I gotta buy a flannel shirt just for the.
[00:53:19] Speaker D: I own flannels and puffy vests. And I actually just bought a new one at the outlet mall yesterday for Alaska because the puffy vests that I have are a little bit too big on me. So I was like, that's a good reason. Listen, I'm okay if I, if I go down to size, I'm okay with that. So anyway, so I just.
[00:53:35] Speaker A: And then you have tons of options.
[00:53:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:53:38] Speaker A: And you'll have things to wear when, when you're on your Alaskan cruise. And speaking of clothes, I think one of the, the best tips is to bring layers. Layers are your friend, you know, make sure that you're packing for all kinds of weather. Because we had days that were really cold and we had days that were extremely warm. Like, I'm Talking like high 70s was our day in Ketchikan. It was very, very warm.
So going from Glacier Day, where it was ranging from in the low 60s to Ketchikan, which is 70, it was like 78 or something craz like that.
Layers. Bring layers.
[00:54:19] Speaker D: Yeah, this is actually like one really. This reminds me, we had a conversation with our, our friend Tracy just the other day and she saw a picture of us this Yesterday we dropped off our son at camp. We were wearing sweatshirts because it was 10 o' clock in the morning here in the Pacific Northwest. At 10 o' clock in the morning in the Pacific Northwest, it was a 64 degrees. Okay. By mid afternoon, well, by 4pm it was 77 degrees. Okay. So we get, we get swings in the Northwest, they get it. Get them in California as well. So on the west coast we get these swings. So it can be 20 degrees cooler when you wake up and go outside in the morning than it is in the afternoon. And so that's exactly why layers are important. Alaska is similar.
You are going to have these big swings where it's cool in the morning and it's going to be cool after dark. And it might get warm in the middle of the day or the sort of the late afternoon. So that's exactly why layers are really important. You want to be able to shed layers and so that you are comfortable. Yeah. Well, let's jump on board, as I mentioned.
[00:55:23] Speaker B: Well, that's also why you see the, like, the prototypical is like the, the long underwear underneath the flannel with the vest on because you can just start to shed. I'm going to say I'm going to give you one other packing tip, one we discovered as we were talking to someone we were recording with the other day, and she asked if they do laundry on Disney. I said, well, they have laundry. And she's like, that's a godsend for a place like Alaska because you have these layers. You're going to want to like, wash T shirts and that sort of stuff. Socks. And I highly recommend bring extra socks because.
[00:55:53] Speaker D: Right. If your socks get wet, well, you're going to want to.
[00:55:56] Speaker B: Your feet get sweaty from walking around. Like, just have some nice, like woolen sweat wicking socks and like just. Yeah, you can just change them out. So.
[00:56:04] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah.
[00:56:04] Speaker A: Agree, agree.
[00:56:06] Speaker D: Anyway, let's jump back on board and talk about the Wonder and what, what you loved. Because obviously you. You loved the Wonder. We. We are constantly extolling the virtues of the Wonder and how wonderful she intended. But. Yeah. What did you love, Emily?
[00:56:22] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, I'm so in love with the Wonder. It's funny because earlier you were saying that until the. The Treasure came along, it was no question.
I still feel that if I had to rank my ships, I still feel that the Treasure is my number one favorite only because I really do. I'm convinced that they somehow got in my brain and they developed everything that I'd like in a shop ship and boom, that was the Treasure.
But the Wonder, that is a very close second. And I cannot even believe that I felt this. That way and I feel this way about this ship. I was expecting something completely different, and I think it just surprised me in every which way. French Quarter Lounge is so awesome. It is so thoughtful, and I wish that they had that type of vibe and that type of design on the Magic. It just kind of felt like, well, this. This is way better compared to this. But I thought that every little space on the Wonder was so well thought out.
It was very intentional and really unique. Unique, too. Loved it. Loved it.
[00:57:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:41] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:57:41] Speaker A: I love.
[00:57:42] Speaker D: I. I love the French Quarter Lounge.
It's. I. It's probably our favorite space to get a drink on the ship other than if we're staying in concierge, when. Which is. The concierge lounge is the other favorite place. But it's honestly so wonderful. It is like you're right outside of Tiana. So if you're going to Tiana's for dinner, it's of course perfectly convenient, but it's not, it's not a big ship. So everything is convenient. On the Wonder and the Magic, I also feel like they have such, like, they have great live music there.
There is great drinks there. You can get a beignet if you want.
[00:58:22] Speaker A: The treasure is missing. The treasure's missing that really good snack. You know, the Wish has those beignets and not saying it has to be a beignet, but the. With the Treasure, it has to beignet.
[00:58:34] Speaker D: I think, Emily. Yeah, I think it has to be.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: A beignet for everyone.
[00:58:38] Speaker D: Beignets for every beignets across the fleet.
[00:58:42] Speaker B: Not those Zeppelis they put on the.
[00:58:45] Speaker D: Magic, but they do. The other part I love about the French Quarter Lounge is it is a. Because it's an open space. It is one of those spaces that allows kids to be in at all times. So it doesn't. It's not like the Cadillac Lounge or the other adult only spaces where kids are only allowed in them. Well, not, not at all, I think, in Cadillac, but there are others where the kids are allowed for certain daytime activities, whereas French Quarter Lounge, you can have a nice drink and it feels like an elevated ad space, but it's one of those spaces where Nathan can be sitting with us and we can just be enjoying music together and family time. So I, I love that about the French Quarter. I also think the Wonder cable car was so cool.
[00:59:25] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:59:25] Speaker A: That right at the end. And the fact that of course, because Disney thinks of all the details, they have just the artwork that's on the walls near the cable car. But my kids spent a lot of time in that cable car. They were, they thought it was the coolest thing. They, you know, were in there playing cards and drawing and making videos and just chatting in there.
[00:59:48] Speaker D: They.
[00:59:48] Speaker A: They thought it was really neat and I thought it was a really cool addition to really make that space even more unique than other spaces that were on the ship.
[00:59:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I was. I, I think the Wonder, frankly, the Wonder still tops my list if it's going to just be Sam and I sailing. Because the adult spaces on the Wonder up on the pool deck are just so much nicer than anything on the Wish class ships. And I even find them nicer than what's on the. The Fantasy and the Dr. Albeit they have like far fewer deck chairs, which makes that a little bit more complicated.
So. Yeah. But I love those spaces. Emily, let me ask this as we sort of wind down here, would you do an Alaska cruise again?
Do you think that? So a lot of times we get questions.
[01:00:31] Speaker D: I thought he was going to ask the controversial would you do it on another cruise line?
[01:00:35] Speaker B: But anyway, but that's where I'm headed. That's where I'm headed.
No, that's where I'm headed though, because I'm sure you get this as a travel agent too. Disney is very expensive for Alaska. There's a lot of other lines that have been doing Alaska for a long time. Princess, Holland, America, Norwegian, they sell to Seattle, which sometimes makes it just maybe a little easier that aren't as expensive. But they don't offer a lot of these really cool Disney touches. For the Disney enthusiasts out there, what do you think after experiencing it yourself, what do you think about the value proposition of Disney in Alaska overall? And are there clients you'd say must do Disney? Are there clients who maybe say, ah, you know, Disney's really, really nice, but maybe be open to a different cruise line experience too.
[01:01:21] Speaker A: So have it being. My only experience doing Alaska was with Disney.
I mean, I thought that the value was there. I thought it was very distinctively Disney. But it was also, it kept true to the culture. It was educational but also really fun.
And I think that if anyone has kids, if you have kids, you have to do Disney. I have sailed other cruise lines and not Alaskan cruises. But there's just really nothing compared to the way that Disney knows what kids want and need and they deliver. And they are really, really good at that.
I mean there's just. How can you, how can you compare that? And I look at it too, is sure it might be a little bit more expensive, but if I'm thinking about it like in the, the idea of like child care and my kids are going and they're making friends and they're engaged in these different activities and my kids are kids, club kids. They love it so much. Q Loves Edge. It's there. It's really great for the, for them. They're socializing, it's awesome for their self esteem. They feel good about what they're doing and the activities that they're doing. They're making connections with all of these different people.
I think that that is so worth it. That itself right there, that's what's worth it to me. So if somebody has a family, if you've got little kids, and I say little kids, but if you have kids in general, even those kids that were going to Vibe, I mean there were whole pods of these teenagers just walking around the ships together and doing activities. They were mini golfing in the atrium. There was just so much for kids to do.
Like I said, I think that that is what makes me okay with the price because I know that I'm getting so much for what it costs.
[01:03:17] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I think, I think the other thing to consider here is, you know, not all the cruise lines send the newest ships to the west coast or the newest ships to Alaska. Now some. The Virgin is going to be sending their newest ship up there next year, but not all of them do. Which means the amenities, I think, to your point, for kids are sometimes much more limited because, you know, the older cruises, cruise ships for some, something like Princess or Holland, like, they're not geared toward K.
And I also think Disney has well maintained their ships. So if you're talking about an older fleet, I'd rather be on the Wonder from an older fleet standpoint than some of an older Royal Caribbean ship, to be perfectly honest.
And also, look, Alaska is the star of the show here.
So I think having those Disney touches within the boundaries of Alaska are just really, it's once in a lifetime. So if you're at all a Disney fan, you're not going to get this anyplace else. So, yeah, I think that's a good point.
[01:04:10] Speaker A: And I will say too, that a lot of people ask if the. If Disney cruises in general, not just Alaska, but like Disney cruises in general, like, is it like overly Disney? And I would say no, it's absolutely not. It's as much Disney as you want it to be. So every time you walk down a hallway, you're not seeing characters coming out of you all the time. It is really, honestly as much Disney as you want it to be. There's something for everybody. So if you're not a huge fan of characters or any of that kind of of stuff, then just you choose to go on a different path. And that's okay if you like that stuff. There's so much to do.
So it's really a cruise for everybody. And you don't need to be a huge Disney fan in order to appreciate what's going on.
[01:04:53] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree. I will say, if you're a Disney hater, don't go on a Disney cruise. But if you are probably not listening.
[01:05:01] Speaker B: To this podcast, so that's good.
[01:05:03] Speaker A: Who's a Disney Disney hater? There's no.
I don't understand.
[01:05:07] Speaker D: I don't understand people who are. But there are some people out there. I, in fact, One of my co workers is. And like, it's funny because I have, you know, he knows I have a Disney cruise line focused podcast. And so it's, it's one of those kind of funny things. But he's like kind of anti parks and cruises and all of the Disney things. And so. But I would. So I, I do think there is a person who a Disney cruise is not for. But I think if you are at all Disney curious, you don't have to be a hardcore.
There are things for the hardcore fans, as Emily points out, particularly the Treasure is really great for the hardcore Disney parks fan, but I think in general these Disney touches are just wonderful. My mom is not a big Disney person and she's not a big cruise person, but she is more excited for this Alaska cruise than Disney.
[01:05:52] Speaker B: So what are we doing?
[01:05:53] Speaker D: What are we doing with her?
[01:05:55] Speaker B: What are we doing with her? We're talking about Disney. Disney Alaska cruise.
[01:05:58] Speaker D: We took her. Listen, we took her on a Disney cruise and she really enjoyed it. She thought the service was wonderful. She thought the food was wonderful, the entertainment was wonderful. Would she, like, go out and seek another cruise? No, like, because cruising is not really her thing, but like, she's really always wanted to go to Alaska and she's very excited to do it on a Disney cruise with us this summer. So I absolutely think that it. If you're, like I said, if you appreciate Disney or you're Disney curious or you're die hard Disney, then you know, Disney is for you, whether that's in Alaska or elsewhere. Now, Brian did ask another question that I interrupted, so I'm gonna ask it again. Emily, would you and your family do Alaska again on Disney?
[01:06:44] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, absolutely. We are already trying to scheme when we're gonna do it again.
I. I can't wait. And Scott, if you're listening right now, we need to talk about this.
The minute we got back, we were saying, okay, when. When can we do this again? This was magical. It was amazing. There's so much more to do once you do it once, you haven't done it all. There's still so many different adventures to that to be had. So we will definitely go back, if not next summer, then definitely, definitely the summer after.
[01:07:18] Speaker B: Well, stop over in Seattle and we will take you all out to dinner here in our backyard.
[01:07:22] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, that would be amazing.
[01:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah, it would be. We will find a great spot. We actually have just took someone in to dinner here not too long ago. We're meeting up with another cruise person. We know to take them to dinner tomorrow night. Tomorrow night. Yeah.
[01:07:38] Speaker D: So yes, Emily Scott saying 2027 and there you go.
[01:07:42] Speaker A: It's exciting.
[01:07:43] Speaker D: In the coming comments.
Let's go, Emily.
[01:07:47] Speaker B: Let people know where they can find and follow along with you and if they want to book a vacation with you, where they can find you as well.
[01:07:52] Speaker A: Sure.
Well, you can find me over on Instagram Edo Disneywright and come visit me over there. And if you would like to visit my website, it is www.wedotravelright.com.
[01:08:07] Speaker B: Awesome.
Well, unfortunately, we have some bad news to share, which is we will not be back next Monday or the Monday after.
So I unfortunately have a work conference next week. And because of this new live streaming platform we're on, I have to be here to produce the shows. And unfortunately I'm not going to be.
[01:08:25] Speaker D: So I don't know how to use it yet.
[01:08:26] Speaker B: Really.
[01:08:26] Speaker D: That's just what it boils down to. And I don't have it on my computer because it's apparently something a little finicky for us.
[01:08:32] Speaker B: It's been a little finicky for us. And then the week after, we are actually going to be out sailing ourselves on Virgin Voyages with some friends of ours. And so we will be back. Back in two weeks. No, three weeks, I guess it is now, right, Sam? Three weeks.
[01:08:45] Speaker D: We will be back three weeks from today.
[01:08:47] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:08:47] Speaker D: Which I will give you the date.
[01:08:50] Speaker B: It's us.
The guest is us.
[01:08:53] Speaker A: Yes.
[01:08:54] Speaker D: July 28th, we will be back on. I believe Tracy and Michael are going to join us, Brian, for that trip report we're going to do. We're going to talk to you again about Virgin Voyages. And so we're going to tell people we're going to give our trip review. And of course, Tracy and Michael have not been on Virginia Virgin Voyages ever before. So you'll hear from them as well.
So join us live. We will have. Don't worry, we will have episodes for you. In the meantime, even though you will not have us live, you will have extra.
[01:09:24] Speaker B: I'm just going to preview for Monday. We got a really exciting show we just recorded with Sheri from Cruise Tips tv. She's a massive cruise.
I'll call her influencer podcaster. Yeah, she's been doing it for a long time and had some great, great tips to share with us, although she has not sailed Disney Cruise Line, but I think we might have convinced her.
But come on and hear some of her tips and some of her experience. She's really fantastic. So that show will be coming out Monday in lieu of our live episode. So with that I just want to once again thank you Emily for coming on, sharing your experience. It's always fun to chat with you.
Thank you, thank you all of you out there for listening, watching, sending your questions in.
I'll be Sam for a minute. Remember to like subscribe all those great things. Head over to Apple Podcast, hit the five stars. Just do everything fantastic for us and with that we will see you next time.
[01:10:18] 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.
[01:10:30] Speaker B: And if you want to watch us.
[01:10:31] Speaker E: Live, we have a live show now every week Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want 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 spot sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com forward/dclduo or email them at dclduomypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way.
[01:11:08] Speaker B: If you've got questions or you'd like.
[01:11:10] Speaker E: 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 to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here at least, and a few blog articles that we've written. So DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
[email protected] or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Dual Podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective views the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney vacation, please contact 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 next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL duo.
[01:12:19] Speaker B: Good night.
