[00:00:00] Speaker A: Actually, sorry, we'll get back to the embarkation. But Debarkation was hilarious because it was Disney and Viking and those are like two totally different audiences of people. So we're all getting off in the morning and you have Viking Cruisers and then you have us and they're like looking at kids like, I haven't seen anyone under the age of 50 in a week and a half.
[00:00:22] Speaker B: So it was very interesting as they wheel their Hermes luggage behind them to get to their Delta 1 flights home.
[00:00:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Foreign.
Welcome back everybody to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and Sam review time. As always, we start at the top of the show with our review and this, this one comes from a username that's really interesting to me. It is called Hot Tub Lovers and it will, it will connect to the.
It will be obvious why, but Hot Tub Lovers. Who writes Learning about the Wish? Since my wife and I are new to cruising and only have sail on the Disney dream. So this was very informative concerning how the Wish differs. We had heard so much fanfare about the Wish, but none of its possible downfalls. The use of hot tubs is a must for us on any vacation. After hearing about the limited amount of hot tubs, we will continue to sail on other Disney ships. So not so much a review as a commentary. But we appreciate the five stars to carry along with that comment.
[00:01:32] Speaker C: And listen, listen, they're saying thank you for us giving, giving them that level of detailed information. For those who don't know, the Wish class ships all have only one hot tub that is accessible only to adults. Unless you pay for a Rainforest Pass. And then you. There are two other hot tubs that are within the rainforest area of the spa.
[00:01:55] Speaker B: Or you pay for the upgrade to concierge, in which case you get access to two additional hot tubs on the concierge sun deck.
[00:02:02] Speaker C: Yes. Or if you've got like a two bedroom concierge suite, you might have your own hot tub on your balcony.
[00:02:08] Speaker B: So it's not that there's fewer hot tubs, it's just that they're all behind paywalls now. So that's how it works. You need to get your paywall, you need to get your Disney cruise line plus subscription in order to get to those hot tubs.
[00:02:18] Speaker C: Yeah, the one thing that's a really big downer, I think for people about the hot tubs, if they have kids who like hot tubs. Right. Like our son Nathan does enjoy a hot Tub. And that's just not a thing that he can access at all on a Wish class ship. He's busy and edge at this point in our lives, but he doesn't care that much.
[00:02:36] Speaker B: Kids, clubs, they can, they can skip the hot tubs, you know what I'm saying? Like, yeah. So there you go.
Well, Sam, we have a fun show lined up today. I want to let you introduce our guest and our topic.
[00:02:47] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm super excited to introduce first time guests to the show. Welcome to the show, Beth.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Thank you everybody. I'm excited to be here.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: First time guest and first time cruiser.
[00:02:58] Speaker C: Well, first I was going to say that, Brian, but it's a first time Disney cruiser. We have to be specific. So we're going to, going to talk about Beth's first time on Disney Cruise line.
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Is it really a cruise if it's not on Disney, Sam?
[00:03:09] Speaker C: Well, I mean, I don't know. My first cruise wasn't on Disney. In fact, my first cruise was on the same line that Beth's first cruise was on. Beth, why don't you give us an idea of your, your cruising background, your Disney background. Because I have one big question that I previewed in our pre show discussion, which is why the heck did you book a Disney cruise?
[00:03:32] Speaker A: That's a good question. So my cruising background, I had gone on one cruise prior to this, which was on Celebrity when I was in college with my family. They were like, hey, let's try a cruise for a family vacation. And we loved it.
And Disney, I grew up just loving the movies. Disney princesses.
I remember watching the Wonderful World of Disney on Saturday nights, like, or Sunday nights.
So really love Disney.
I've gone to Walt Disney World twice.
Once with my family as a kid and then once as a senior in high school. We actually marched in Walt Disney World with my high school marching band.
[00:04:10] Speaker C: So over the years, yes, high school musicians unite. I got to sing in Epcot and with my high school choir.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Yeah, we marched through Magic Kingdom in the beginning of July and it was so hot, but it was so fun.
So I had done Walt Disney World a couple of times. We've done a Cruise. I have two girls who are 8 and 5 and they both absolutely love Disney and have a ridiculously low tolerance for motion sickness. They will get sick driving like 15 minutes to target. And so my husband and I were trying to figure out like, okay, we all love Disney. They're old enough now to enjoy it and, you know, they're not napping anymore. We want to try this Disney.
Disney piece and we're like, I don't know how well the parks are gonna go. Yes, there's lots of other stuff to do besides rides, but I don't wanna be dealing with motion sick all the time. And I know there's motion sick on cruises and I'm sure we'll get to that. And we had some family friends who had done a Disney cruise about a year prior with kids that are about the same age. They ended up actually coming with us on this cruise and they're like, you have to go. It is so much fun. You're gonna love it.
And we said, why not? So we booked our Disney cruise from there. Kind of not sight unseen, but not really knowing all the details of what we would get into.
[00:05:35] Speaker C: Wow, I love that.
I don't really think of motion sickness and parks, but you're absolutely right. I mean there are. I was one of those kids when I was little. I would get car sick, like not throwing up, but I would get like really nauseous car sick on like 15 minute rides to Target or wherever. And so I definitely was one of those kids. I could not do like big roller coasters or anything like that. And there are, you know, of course non like intense rides, but even some of those involve spinning. Like I am not a teacups person that actually I can do roller coasters now as an adult, but I actually get the most nauseous on rides that spin a lot. So teacups, even Roger Rabbit ride at Disneyland, Mr. Toad's wild ride like some of those as particularly if you have somebody with you who decides to, you know, spin the, the center thing a lot. Yeah, those are the ones that, that kind of get to me. So interesting that you thought of a cruise instead of parks when it comes to motion sickness because we tend to hear from people that are like worried about cruising because of motion sickness. Well, let's talk about what cruise and I definitely want to get to the motion sickness thing later and find out how that all went and what you did to prepare. But I want to first talk about what cruise you chose for your first cruise on Disney Cruise Line.
[00:07:01] Speaker A: Yeah, so my husband is an elementary school principal and both of my girls are in school. So we were a little bit limited to times of year that worked when they were on sports spring break. And my work is pretty flexible. So I mentioned earlier we have for the last four or five years gone on a spring break trip with the same family.
Our kids are all the same age. So it's super fun.
And we happened to find about a year in advance, we happened to find this seven nights. We did a seven night Disney cruise and it was a repositioning one which added its own extra quirks to it, which I'm sure we can talk about.
But we started in Galveston, Texas in late March and ended in San Juan, Puerto Rico. So we wanted one that tried to fit. The week of their spring break was really kind of the big piece of it. And then we don't live near the ports, we live in Wisconsin. So if we're going to take all the time and effort to fly down there, we want to spend some time down there as well and actually like make a vacation out of it since you have to fly there regardless of if it's a three night or a seven night. So that's how we ended up with the one that we did.
[00:08:17] Speaker C: Awesome. Now you mentioned you went with another family. Was it just the two families that traveled together?
[00:08:25] Speaker A: Yep, yep. So there were eight of us total, which I know I've heard on your podcast before. But like, it is so fun to go with another family, especially with our kids being about the same age because you just have built in friends and built in playmates to go do stuff on the ship and do stuff in port and like grownups got some grownup time. So yeah, it was really, we had so much fun.
[00:08:49] Speaker C: Yeah. And built in dining companions too. Right. You can decide, you can link your reservations and decide you're going to eat with this family the whole time. And odds are you're not going to be paired up with additional people. Like if you're a party of eight, it's, it's, I would say 90 some percent of the time you are going to be seated as a party of eight and they're not going to add anybody else to your party. Whereas if you're a party of four, party of three, you're more likely to be paired up with, you know, somebody you don't know, which can be good or bad.
And different people have different thoughts about that. Well, let's talk about the planning process. Your friends were silver cruisers, I take it, or were they gold cruisers?
[00:09:29] Speaker A: They were silver. Yep.
[00:09:31] Speaker C: And you all are, were first time cruisers. This is a repositioning cruise you mentioned. So you had some, some, you had probably some different ports than some of the folks see. But did you guys plan on booking excursions through Disney? Did you plan on booking excursions outside of Disney? And I'm curious as to, you know, were the things you were looking to book that you maybe had some Difficulty booking as a first time cruiser.
[00:09:59] Speaker A: So we had. So this particular cruise we basically went across the entire Gulf of Mexico, which is huge when you do it. So we actually ended up with three sea days out of our seven night cruise, which I think is more than normal actually than what I've seen on other cruises.
So those were fun, but that left us with three days in port and two of those were the Disney Islands. So I think you guys call this a duo dip, but we did.
[00:10:30] Speaker C: You got it.
[00:10:31] Speaker A: Yeah. We did Cast Away one day and we did Lookout the other day which really only left us with NASA to book shore excursions. So we did the. Because we were first time cruisers and you know, we knew that we're going to get the last pick of everything. And so we were up at 11pm Central Time on the computer like, okay, here we go. And we were able to book what we wanted.
We did a Dolphin encounter in Nassau and then, which we booked through Disney and then the Royal gathering too, because my two girls are just all Disney princesses all the time.
And so we were able to get the Royal Gathering as well too. But that was like, okay, we're staying up late one night and making sure we get everything.
[00:11:23] Speaker C: Yeah, well, but that's an awesome itinerary because you get to hit both of the private islands on your first cruise. I mean, that's incredible. I will say so for seven night itineraries, the Eastern Caribbean also has three ports and three days at sea versus the Western Caribbean has four ports and only the two days at sea. Obviously we don't really count embarkation day. So there are other itineraries that have the precious three sea days. But yes, there are lots of itineraries that do not have those. And I call them precious C days because I love a sea day on a Disney Cruise Line ship. I mean, what better than to explore the ship and you know, relax on the pool deck and eat a bunch of ice cream?
[00:12:10] Speaker A: Yep, that sounds right.
[00:12:13] Speaker C: Right, right. I mean, it's perfect. Well, let's talk about. Since. Well, let's talk about the traveling process. You guys are flying to Galveston for embarkation and of course you're flying home from San Juan. How far in advance did you arrive? I assume you flew to Houston, but how far in advance of the cruise did you arrive in Texas?
[00:12:36] Speaker A: Yeah, so we, we did fly into Houston, which worked great, and then took a shuttle from the Houston airport. They dropped us right off at our hotel, which was just fabulous.
But we arrived the day before our cruise just in the. You Know, it's late March in the Midwest. Someone is getting a snowstorm somewhere. So we wanted to make sure we had a little bit of extra buffer built in. And also that too, you know, if luggage got lost or, you know, the kids were just exhausted from traveling, that they really felt like they had a, a good first day on, on the ship. So would highly recommend that we probably would have done a little bit, even a few more days, if we didn't run into a school issue.
But we want, we didn't want to take the kids out of more school than, than necessary, so we kind of compromised there.
[00:13:27] Speaker C: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, you, you mentioned, obviously you're going to end in San Juan, so you're going to have a longer trip, a little bit of a longer trip, but back. And if you wanted to spend any time in San Juan, you got, you'll probably. At that point, you're over one week of school.
And so. Yeah, so you've got to sort of. We're in the same position, elementary school, try to minimize the number of days. And of course, your husband being a principal, I mean, he's got to minimize his days off as well. Yeah. So let's, let's talk about where you stayed. Oh, you mentioned you stayed at like, the airport or near the airport. So how did you get down to Galveston from near the airport?
[00:14:08] Speaker A: Yeah, so the shuttle that we took, it was a, like, coach bus company. They actually took us from the airport down to Galveston. So we stayed. So the, the port in Galveston is on the, like, shore side or Texas side. And the hotel we stayed at, I believe it was a Holiday Inn, was on the, like, actual Gulf side, which was great. We were able to, like, grab a bite to eat. When we got there the next morning, we went, like we told the kids, like, you are not going to get shells on any of these Bahamian beaches. So if you want shells, we're walking out and we're getting Texas ones.
And so we beachcombed for a while that morning just to burn some time. And they played in the water and we walked up and down the beach and it was just so it was a great, relaxing way to start, to start the morning. And the weather was just beautiful. So we just kind of hung out on the beach that first morning, waiting to eventually go over to the port and get on the ship.
[00:15:08] Speaker C: I love that. What, what was the hotel that you stayed at? Which one?
[00:15:11] Speaker A: I think I want to say it was the Holiday Inn and Suites. It's on Seawall Boulevard. Why? I remember that part I don't know, but that's what it was. And it was by. They have a pier, like a, like an amusement park pier into the gulf. And we could see that from, from our hotel. But it was great. It was centrally located, had a nice, like the kids just wanted to swim, go to the beach. So we just kind of kept it low key that very first day.
[00:15:40] Speaker C: Perfect. Now did you have to get transportation to the port? Did your hotel provide a shuttle service or were you like walking distance to the port?
[00:15:50] Speaker A: Yeah, so we ended up just taking an Uber.
We, when we had booked the hotel, we thought there had been a shuttle. I don't know if we just read wrong or they had changed their policy or whatnot.
So we just ended up catching an Uber. It was like five, ten minute ride, very easy to get over to the port.
One thing that was interesting, I don't know if I would do this again or not. This is like first time cruiser mishap here. So we had to check out of our hotel at 11, which is standard checkout time.
Our port arrival time, however, was one. And so we had these like two hours of like, what are we going to do with all of our luggage?
And so what we, what we ended up doing is we actually went to the port at 11, dropped our luggage off with the porters.
And then in Galveston, the port is kind of right by the old downtown area. So we just, it was like three blocks. We just walked into kind of the old town Galveston with our backpacks and just hung out for a couple hours till our port arrival time came. And that was so nice because we could just be like, here's our luggage, we'll see it on the ship. And we just had a couple backpacks to walk around. And it worked. It actually worked pretty well considering we had a slightly later port arrival time.
[00:17:17] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, that doesn't sound like a mishap at all. That sounds like a really smart decision to me. I mean, I think your other alternative would have been to, to have your hotel hold your luggage for a couple of hours while you're just out exploring.
[00:17:32] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:32] Speaker C: And, but then that means you have to come back to that hotel and then traverse yourselves to the port. Right. So I, I mean both of those are fine options just depending upon what you planned on doing for the day. But I feel like, you know, it's, it was actually, I think really smart the way you did it, you know, just, just made it frankly easier because you get rid of your luggage and you know, you're. And frankly, putting your luggage.
Putting your luggage onto the cruise ship earlier I think is a very smart decision because you'll probably get your luggage earlier at that point.
[00:18:08] Speaker A: Yeah, we did end up getting it like before dinner. So again, I don't know like if that's normal or not. But yeah, we had it before dinner.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: So yeah, but I'd say before dinner is typical.
Before the ship sails away is usually pretty typical because it should all be on board by that. By that point for sure. If it's not, you're in trouble.
But we have had some luggage straggle, obviously past the point of the ship leaving port because it's on there but hasn't been delivered yet. I think we might have had one instance where like one bag got delayed until after dinner, just like right before our, our late dining. So, you know, I always tell people, like, don't freak out. Like, you know, like, it's very. It is rare that luggage gets left behind. And the cases where it does a lot of times is people who arrive just super late to the port and like, they just didn't have a chance to like, get it onto the ship. So.
[00:19:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Yeah. And sometimes to your luggage, you may get all of your luggage except for one piece. In which case be sure to check the notifications in your app and your stateroom phone, because it is possible, like in the instance where Sam decided to bring scissors on board the ship, that the luggage has been waylaid by security and they have removed a prohibited item. And then you have to go down so that they can get your permission to open the luggage and remove the item and confiscate it.
[00:19:33] Speaker C: I want to be clear. You're allowed to have like small scissors. So if you have a pair of scissors that is like child size scissors, like, those are okay, but if you have like a pair of crafting size scissors, those are not okay. So that's kind of the. So like now I know if I need scissors like for like fish extender or something like that. Like, I'm grabbing Nathan's like, school size scissors.
Like elementary school size scissors and not like my, like nicer crafting scissors. That's.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Yeah, that makes sense.
[00:20:04] Speaker C: You get them back after. Yeah, you'll get them back after. It's just. It's an annoying, annoying thing. All right, well, let's talk about the, the boarding process or check in process. Boarding process at the port. You're at the Port of Galveston. It's not Port Canaveral or Fort Everglades. Port Everglades, where they have a Disney Terminal. But what was the terminal experience like? Was it smooth sailing? Was it organized? Did they have good signage about, you know, where to go and if your port arrival time was X, what line you needed to be in, that sort of a thing?
[00:20:37] Speaker A: Yeah, they were super smooth. Um, I was actually pretty impressed with the efficiency that they had. So our port arrival time was one.
So we walked back from downtown Galveston to the port at about 12:30 because we had heard that they were letting people on a little early. We just kind of stood around right by the entrance. There was room for people.
I think my girls sat and played a game of UNO for like a half an hour while we waited. And then from the time we got, like, okay, your port arrival time has been called to the time we got on the ship was maybe 15 minutes. I mean, it was fast.
They were moving people through. They were moving people through so quickly. And like, I have to assume most of the people that were in our group were first time cruisers as well. So, like, we don't know what we're doing. We're just kind of, you know, we've never done this process before. So the fact that, the fact that we got through so quickly I think is a testament just to the process that they have.
It was, it was incredibly smooth. I was pretty impressed with it.
[00:21:44] Speaker C: Now, did your friends stay with you and like, board with you all at whatever your port arrival time was or did or. I mean, it's possible they had the same port arrival time, but it's also possible, knowing what I know, that they had a slightly earlier port arrival time. How did that all work out?
[00:22:00] Speaker A: Yeah, so their port arrival time was noon.
So they were on about an hour ahead of us. And so we said, you know what, just go ahead, go grab lunch, we'll meet you at the pool. Like, we could still text each other and all that sort of stuff. So they got on at about noon and they said too, like, they were on within about 15 minutes of, you know, starting the process. It was really, really smooth. So it was a good way to start off.
[00:22:30] Speaker C: Yeah. Awesome. All right, well, you've got through check in. You're walking across the gangway into the beautiful Disney magic, I'm assuming.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: Yes, yes, yes, we are in the magic. Yes.
[00:22:42] Speaker C: I realized we didn't actually say what ship went on, but based on. But I can figure it out based on the ports typically. So this is the depth of knowledge that Brian.
[00:22:52] Speaker B: Beautiful carnival pride.
[00:22:55] Speaker A: You know, there was a carnival ship right next to us when we had two ships in port. There Was us and there was carnival.
[00:23:02] Speaker B: Carnival's everywhere. Carnival's everywhere.
[00:23:04] Speaker C: Yeah. I feel like whenever we're in port somewhere, there's one exception in San Diego. I don't think I've ever seen a carnival ship out of San Diego. But every other port I feel like we're at, it never fails. There's a carnival ship like right next to us. Whatever.
[00:23:19] Speaker B: If you're anywhere near water, just cup your ear and you should be able to hear the party music and people cheering. That's a carnival ship just off the coast. So.
[00:23:26] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Actually, sorry, we'll get back to the embarkation. But Debarkation was hilarious because it was Disney and Viking and those are like two totally different audiences of people. So we're all getting off in the morning and you have Viking cruisers and then you have us and they're like looking at kids. Like, I haven't seen anyone under the age of 50 in a week and a half. So it was very interesting.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: As they wheel their. As they wheel their Hermes luggage behind them to get to their Delta 1 flights home. Yes, yes.
[00:23:57] Speaker A: The airplane was quite comical.
[00:24:00] Speaker B: Viking, for anyone who doesn't know, is like the ultra luxury cruise line out there.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:05] Speaker C: And it is. It is adult only as well.
[00:24:09] Speaker A: It is.
[00:24:10] Speaker C: And it. And it tends to skew on the older end of adults. It's not. It is not a young person's cruise line. That doesn't mean there aren't like 50 somethings on there. But most of the folks who are on there are like 70 plus. I would say.
[00:24:24] Speaker A: Yeah. It was not carnival. It was about as opposite as you could get between the two of them. It was pretty funny.
[00:24:30] Speaker C: That is hilarious. Well, what did you think when you walk into the atrium of the beautiful Disney magic and your family name is announced?
[00:24:38] Speaker A: I'm going to be so cheesy here. For a minute, I almost teared up. I was like. Because we had booked this almost 14 months in advance and I think I missed my calling as a travel planner. Maybe that'll be my retirement gig because I love planning and we travel a lot as a family. So I almost teared up seeing my girls looking up and just seeing the atrium and being like, we're finally here. They were just.
My 8 year old just had the biggest grin on her face and she was just like absorbing it. And it was like one of the most special moments over the entire vacation was just walking in and seeing that. It was so cool.
[00:25:17] Speaker C: Oh, that makes me so. See, my little heart just sings when I hear stories like that, because we do hear stories from Josh Wilson and others who I won't name, who find the.
The embarkation experience and the family name and the clapping to be either cheesy or not meaningful. And I, like, I love it.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: Josh is just a grinch. He just needs his heart to grow three sizes that day. You know, like, that's. That's what he needs to have.
[00:25:45] Speaker C: It is. But we've had similar moments.
Yeah, we've had similar moments to you, Beth. Like, especially after the restart. Brian has told this story of, like, you know, seeing Nathan's face, like, light up and seeing, you know, even with the mask over his face, being able to tell, like, how much he was, like, smiling ear to ear. And both of us, like, having a reaction to that. Right. A reaction to your child's reaction is, like, the most special thing, I think. And so it's lovely when I. When we get to hear that, well, what was your plan of attack? Your friends were already on board, probably eating in cabanas. But where did you guys decide to go? Did you explore the ship? Did you go eat? Did you go to the pool? Like, what was the plan?
[00:26:27] Speaker A: Yeah, so it was like, 1:15 by that point.
My girls are noon lunch people. So the magic was, like, at the top, but it was going to quickly wear off. And so we were like, okay, we need to go find you lunch.
And so we chose to head up to Cabanas. I don't know if I would do that again. I might actually try a sit down option next time.
But we went up to cabanas, and it was a circus up there. But again, what do you expect? Everybody's getting on. It's lunchtime.
We grabbed a bite to eat. We actually found a table out on the very back outside, which was really nice. We got to sit outside and eat lunch.
But while we were sitting and eating lunch, actually, we got a text in our app saying our room was ready.
We didn't have our luggage yet, and we had packed in the couple of backpacks. We had, like, swimsuits and, like I said, an UNO deck and a couple of other things. So we went down to our stateroom, met our stateroom attendants, just kind of got some of that stuff initially unpacked. And then my two girls are like, okay, mom, where's the pool? We are off to the pool.
And so we went up to the pool deck. And I did not tell them ahead of time about Funnel Vision.
I knew about it. I knew about it, but I didn't tell them about it. And we walk up onto the pool deck, and I don't even remember what was showing anymore. It was definitely a princess movie. But my youngest, Anna, was like, mom, it's a movie theater with a pool. I mean, she was just like, this is the greatest day of my life was kind of the look she had on her face. And I was like, yeah, this is called Funnel Vision. They're going to show it on the pool deck. And you can play in the pool and you can watch a movie. And she couldn't process it for, like, 30 seconds.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: Just wait until you see the free soft serve.
[00:28:30] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, that came on the next day. Yes. Oh, I have a good story about the soft serve. Um, so they immediately got into the pool, and then we just found lounge chairs, and I brought my book. Um, we eventually, at that point, I'd met up with our friends.
One of the things I really loved about the pool deck and we spent a lot of time up there on our sea days, is that there's multiple lifeguards, and they are like, safety first lifeguards. And my youngest is in Sermaine lessons, but isn't quite tall enough to reach the bottom. And she had no problem wearing a life jacket. So, like, I could truly relax. I could truly relax and watch Moana or read my book or read a magazine and not be trying to keep track of my kids every 30 seconds while they were in the pool. And that was one of the most reassuring things as a parent to know that, like, I can pause for a little bit and do something that I enjoy, even though I'm sitting there and they know where I am and they can come find me and I can tell em to put on more sunscreen. Like, they could go do their own thing. And I was available, but I didn't have to be watching them. And that was really, really nice. We had not seen that on a vacation before that we had done.
[00:29:42] Speaker C: Yeah. This is the magic of Disney Cruise. When everything goes right. Like, this is where those magical moments where you're the parents, you can sit back, relax without a worry or a care in the world. And even though you have these parental responsibilities, they're not, like, giving you anxiety in the moment. Like, you have to watch like, a hawk, right? Like. And that's the best part of an actual vacation. That's why I think, like, a Disney Parks trip is a fun trip, but, like, a Disney cruise can be. There are some exceptions. It can be an actual vacation as a parent, and that is priceless. I mean, take my money, Disney. Right? I mean.
All right, well, I love. I love hearing that. I gotta hear. You know, you mentioned there's an ice cream story. So I gotta jump.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: I'm.
[00:30:32] Speaker C: I'm gonna. I'm gonna jump around because I gotta ask them what the ice cream. The.
[00:30:35] Speaker B: As long as it does not clean. Involve a cleanup on poolside. Starboard four. Yeah.
Or deck 13 or whatever.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: So, like I said, when we were on our sea days and we had three of them on this cruise, we spent a lot of time on the pool deck just out in the sun. The girls were in the pool for, like, hours.
And the lifeguards take a break at the top of every hour for 15 minutes. Like, it's like top of the hour to quarter after or whatever. By day two, the kids had figured out that the 11 o' clock break was also the same time as the soft serve happened. And so not even just my kids, but, like, the entire pool would just get out of the water, form a line, go get ice cream and then like, walk back and sit on the pool deck. They were like the.
What's the character in Zootopia where they're all grabbing popsicles.
[00:31:28] Speaker C: It's the lemmings. It's the Lemmings. It's. Nick Wilde is handing out the popsicles. And they would.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: They were the lemmings. It was like 11am they would all get out of the pool and be like, mom, it's banana or it's mango. And there would be like 40 kids on the pool deck all eating ice cream at the same time every day. It was hilarious. And all the parents are looking at each other and we're like, you know what? We're on vacation. We don't care. Eat ice cream. So, yeah, they. They loved that. They were like. It was like clockwork, man. 11:00am Grabbing ice cream.
[00:32:01] Speaker C: These girls were living their best life.
[00:32:04] Speaker A: I love that.
[00:32:05] Speaker C: I love that.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: The other thing I'll mention about the pool, that the last. So our very last day was a sea day.
And it was super windy. Like, really, really windy. To the point. I don't know if you guys have seen this before, but we're in the pool and the water is like sloshing back and forth. Like it was rocking pretty good. And the lifeguards were doing great.
And while that was happening, Frozen 2 was on the Funnel Vision. And one of the lifeguards, I wish I could remember his name, and I don'. But he was like, okay, guys, we're probably gonna have to close the pool because it's getting really windy and it's not getting safe anymore. But into the Unknown is coming on because Frozen two was almost done. So I'm gonna be the conductor and we're all gonna sing into the Unknown in the pool. And he's standing on the lifeguard deck and he's pointing at kids and like parents are in the pool and they're singing Frozen 2 at the top of their lungs, knowing that this is kind of the grand finale of the pool. And it was so cool. I was like, this guy's a lifeguard and he loves, like, clearly he loves his job as a cast member so much that he is directing these like six year olds singing Elsa at the top of their lungs. Like, it was so funny and so cool. And then the pool shut down right after that. He's like, okay, everybody out.
[00:33:27] Speaker C: We're done.
I love that he timed it so perfectly.
[00:33:31] Speaker A: He did. Yeah, he totally did. So. And then that was the end of the pool. Like, it was was too windy the rest of the time of our cruise to go in it, but man, what a way to go out. Like on a bang.
They were just conducting us in the pool. It was great. I love it.
[00:33:47] Speaker D: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at MyPath Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. Mypath Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, 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 mop mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks MyPath Unwinding, for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:34:45] Speaker C: As we're talking about the pool deck, I gotta ask if the girls were brave enough or if you were brave enough to try the Aqua Dunk, which of course is the intense floor drop water Slide on the Disney Magic. It's only on the magic. It's not on any of the other things.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: Just forecast the answer you want to the quote, the intense floor drop slide that no human could possibly withstand. But did you. Did you try it? Did you give it a go?
[00:35:11] Speaker A: Did you like it? We did not.
Because in addition to both of my girls having motion sickness, like, we will go on a carousel and they will get nervous. So I offered it and I said, I will go with you and I'll do it first. And they were both. They watched a couple kids and they like, no.
So we just stayed. We just stayed in the pool area itself.
[00:35:36] Speaker C: Did they do the twist and spout slide, which is that yellow Mickey slide?
[00:35:40] Speaker A: We tried. Oh, my gosh, we tried. I was like, this one isn't scary. I'll go with you. And they're like, nope, not interested.
[00:35:48] Speaker C: Give it time.
[00:35:49] Speaker A: Yeah, they did do some of the slides on the Disney Islands, but not the ones on the deck. No.
[00:35:58] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, the ones on Lookout are very tame, and you can see where they start and where they end. They're not out in the water like the ones at Pelican Plunge at Castaway. So I would say that's a great. Like a great starting water slide is the ones at Lookout Key. So that. That's great to hear. All right, well, speaking of the. The ports, I mean, let's jump right over to the ports and talk about those.
You got to go to a Dolphin excursion in Nassau. You got to go to Lookout. You got to go to Castaway. What was the order of the stops? Because I don't. This is one thing I wouldn't know. And then let's talk about them in that order. Sure.
[00:36:39] Speaker A: So the first. Well, actually we had an extra stop. So I want to explain this story because I think it would be good for listeners.
So we were on Sea day number two, having a blast watching the funnel vision.
Somewhere in the course of the middle of the afternoon, there was some sort of medical emergency that happened.
And so, you know, we're cruising through the Gulf of Mexico. We. We hear the captain come on at about 4:00 clock saying, hey, folks, we're going to have to make a stop in Key west to get a passenger off who had a medical emergency. That shouldn't slow us down at all. Whatever. So they stopped the bus.
In true Midwest nosy neighbor fashion, the promenade deck on deck four is, like, lined with people watching the Coast Guard trying to come out.
The Coast Guard never came.
We still don't know what Happened, but the Coast Guard never came. And so we started going again. And then about an hour later, the captain came on again and said, actually, we have to go all the way up to Miami, so we're in Key West.
And they said, we got to go all the way up to Miami to drop off this passenger who had a medical emergency, and then we'll make our way down to Castaway.
Because of that, we got in late to Castaway, So we were, I think, an hour late or an hour and a half late to Castaway, which, like, okay, yeah, you missed some beach time. But we were talking about it at dinner that night, and we're like, you know, what if we were that family? Like. Like, they did the absolute right thing of going to Miami, getting that passenger off, who is fine, by the way. We found out in our Facebook group afterwards. They're just fine now, thank goodness. But it was like, yes. Did this throw a kink in our vacation? Yes. But we still got to have a great time. And this is still better than being at home in the snow at work, so so be it. So we ended up seeing the Port of Miami at approximately 2:00am Cause we were. Our ship was. Or our ship. Our cabin was all the way in the back of the boat. So we woke up because we could hear the engine going to try to get them into port in the middle of the night.
So that put us into Castaway a little bit later.
Castaway itself, though, was so great. It was not windy at all. We had beautiful weather.
We swam quite a bit. We did do the Pelican Plunge. So my youngest was like, mom, I want to do the water slide. And I'm like, yes. After three days, I finally convinced you. I'm fairly certain she picked the scariest one of the entire vacation to go on, though, so.
[00:39:15] Speaker C: So I went down other than the Aqua Dunk, probably.
[00:39:17] Speaker A: Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So I went with her. I went down first. Fine. I don't mind water slides. I'm in the water waiting for her. She comes out of the Pelican Plunge. She's five. She comes out of the Pelican Plunge backwards. I don't know how she went down backwards, but she did drops down, comes back up and is like, mom, I'm never doing that again. And I was like, oh, well, maybe we'll try when you get a little bit older. But I'm glad, you know, I'm glad you tried sort of thing. So we did Pelican Punch.
I think we ate our weight in chocolate chip cookies. On the islands, there was a lot of cookies that were, that were consumed. We saw some fish. We didn't snorkel, but we saw some fish when we were in Castaway and yeah, just really enjoy getting off the boat. We had kind of been on the boat at that point for three days, so it was nice to feel land for a while too.
[00:40:07] Speaker C: I love that. What a great day at Castaway. I love that she tried this water slide, even though she maybe tried the wrong one.
And, and you know, the cookies are really good. On Castaway. We. I sometimes forget the cookies and the brownies are really delicious on Castaway. And of course you still have soft serve. You can get the soft, the same soft serve that they have on the ship. You can get on on Castaway as well. But. But you get, you know, some different, some different options. So fantastic.
[00:40:35] Speaker A: I mean, we. So we had brought sand toys and the kids like made sandcastles and you know, we're in and out of the water a million times and we just sat on the chairs, you know, with our feet in the water and just really relaxed and just enjoyed. It was really nice. And it didn't feel, I don't know how full our ship was. I mean, it's spring break, so it's probably. It felt pretty full. But with the Magic being one of the smaller ships like there, there were plenty of chairs, there was plenty of space. It didn't feel like you were on top of another family. Everybody could kind of spread out, which was really nice too.
[00:41:10] Speaker C: Yeah. I'm always surprised when I hear people saying that even Castaway was crowded. But for sure it's not crowded when you're on the Magic or the Wonder, even if your ship is full, because it's just not. And there are people who don't actually even get off at Castaway because they've been many times and like to enjoy the ship. For example, I know that sounds crazy for, you know, a first time cruiser, but, you know, there are times where people are like, oh, I just want to enjoy a quiet ship. Adult only cruisers often do that if they don't make their way out to Serenity Bay. Well, let's talk about your next port of call. Was it NASA next or Lookout Key next?
[00:41:48] Speaker A: So it was NASA next.
So we had originally booked a dolphin excursion. I think it was at Baja Martin.
And I mentioned earlier that this entire cruise was incredibly windy. The only day that wasn't windy was actually our Castaway Key day was pretty quiet.
And then you're in the bay. So we Got a text in our app about a day before to say, we're really sorry, but your excursion is actually canceled in Nassau because of the wind.
So what it sounded like when we talked to the desk was the water taxi that you would take to that excursion. The water was too choppy to take the water taxi out there. So anybody who had an excursion booked, I think it's Baja Mar.
Anybody who had an excursion there, it got canceled.
So we were like, oh, gosh, okay, what do we do? So we're on the ship, we're trying to figure out, like, what we're going to do. We ended up not booking anything else because there really, I mean, again, there were hundreds of people that were probably going to all the variety of excursions that they had. So there wasn't too much to pick from that we were super interested in. And so we said, you know what, we're just gonna walk to the beach. We're gonna get off at Nassau, we're gonna walk to the beach, we'll hang out at the beach for a few hours and then we'll get back on the ship.
So we walked to Junkanoo Beach.
We went through the, like, market right when you get off on the port.
We got off the ship relatively early. We were told.
I want. I don't remember which cast member it was, but they had told us, like, hey, guys, there's gonna be like five or six ships in port in Nassau that day, so it's going to be busy. If you want a beach chair, like, you should get off sooner rather than later. And so we got off pretty early, walked to Junkanoo, which was actually. I know people have differing opinions about NASA and the safety of it. We felt safe.
We stayed in, like, pretty, pretty populated areas. We didn't like, go off into any dark alleys or anything. So we felt totally safe walking with the kids to Junkanoo. It was like 10, 15 minute walk.
We rented a couple of beach chairs from like, a local restaurant that was there. And again, the kids just played in the water, made beach castles for three or four hours. We were on Junkanoos on the side where all the cruise ships come in. So we actually had fun trying to watch them park all of the other cruise ships coming in.
The kids actually enjoyed watching that, to be honest.
And then we also saw some fish that were there too. My youngest, like, screamed bloody murder because she saw a fish. And she's like, mom. And I was like, oh, it's a fish. It's so exciting.
And she was not excited about it, but I thought it was cool.
And then we got back on the boat.
I want to say, like 11 30. We went through the straw market a little bit.
The girls wanted to see that stuff. So we walked through that, and then we had a late lunch on the ship. And then it was back to the pool, back to funnel vision. And they were happy as can be. We got three or four hours on the beach. It actually worked out okay. So I think if I could do something differently, maybe a piece of advice I would give to myself is like, have a backup plan ahead of time if your excursion gets canceled. Because we kind of were like, oh, gosh, what do we do? And I know that there are other beaches in Nassau that are a little bit bigger to go to, but we were. Our server, our head server was like, oh, this is a good one. Here's how you get there. So we took their advice and it was fine, but I didn't expect something to get canceled. And when it did, it was like, okay, now what do we do? So we know that for next time now.
[00:45:33] Speaker C: Yeah, and. And that can happen. You know, it happens often on Castaway, for example, where the excursions, the boating excursions often get canceled. Parasailing, we've talked about a million times, gets canceled, like, more than 50% of the time.
So, you know, it's. There's plenty to do by just sitting on the beach at Castaway, of course. But when you're at one of these other ports where you don't have a private, you know, beach club that basically is waiting for you, if you haven't had a backup plan or you haven't thought about what you might do if your, you know, excursion gets canceled, you're going to be scrambling a little bit to kind of figure that out. But I do think asking the cast is a great piece of advice to, you know, if you haven't had a chance to do research and you don't have the Internet, for example, then, you know, ask a cast member. They often know where, frankly, where free beaches are, where close beaches are, where, you know, a decent restaurant might be, that sort of a thing. It's super helpful.
[00:46:31] Speaker A: We actually ran into one of the head servers. I think he had the afternoon off in Nassau.
So, yeah, they got off the ship, too, and went and enjoyed a nice afternoon as well.
[00:46:42] Speaker C: Well, let's talk about what I think is the star, which is Lookout Key.
I don't know if it was the star for you all, because you did have a windier day, as you mentioned, you had the best day of weather you had was at Castaway. And so I imagine you had a fairly windy day at Lookout, but. Yeah. What did you guys think of Lookout Key? And what did you. You get up to there?
[00:47:03] Speaker A: Yeah, I loved Lookout. I think that was my favorite port of the three.
It was incredibly windy, like, to the point. So they have umbrellas out, and the cast members are going around to say, please don't put up the umbrellas if they're too windy. They're going to, like, float away and become. Become a hazard. So we couldn't even put the umbrellas up, it was so windy. But I guess when I think of the ocean and I think of being at the ocean, I think of the big. Like, I can. Can see the coast for miles on either side, and the waves are, like, rolling in, and you can play in the surf, which is not really what Castaway is. Castaway is more of a cove area, which is nice, too. It's much calmer.
But we played in the surf, like, the entire day at Lookout. The girls just had a blast again. I sat in a chair and read my book for a while. They were in the water.
They built some sandcastles.
We had booked some snorkeling rentals, and it was too windy for my oldest to go snorkeling. She's not a strong enough swimmer yet that we were like, ooh, I don't. And, like, she. She hasn't quite learned. I don't know if Nathan is this way, but, like, how to breathe with a snorkel on. So then you add wind on top of it, and it was just like, no, we're not gonna do this today. This is just not gonna end well. But my husband snorkeled and had a blanket blast at Lookout. He was. He saw lots of fish and lots of coral. It was windy, so he was like, I'm actively swimming to try, you know, it wasn't just kind of floating. But he still really enjoyed the snorkeling at Lookout.
The. My youngest also went on the water slide, so I think there was some peer pressure for the Lookout because her. Our friends who came with their oldest and mine are the same age. And so I think there was some peer pressure of, like, you can do this. I think they went down the slides at. What is that? It's not Pelican Plunge. It's rush out, gush out.
[00:49:00] Speaker C: Yep.
[00:49:00] Speaker A: I think is what it's called. I think they went down those slides like, 40 times in a row. It was just like, circle and circle and Circle. And so we just sat there and chatted and hung out in the sun and watched them go down the slides lots and lots of times. So they, they had a blast with it.
When I was doing research on lookout, we were well aware that the walk was much longer. We knew that ahead of time it wasn't overly hot. Like it was not a big deal for us to walk with those. And they had like red wagons by the dozens, like lined up right when you got into port. So if you had stuff to carry or you had little kids, it wasn't a big deal to put them in a. We saw lots of people carrying little kids and stuff in wagons.
So I actually, it was interesting. I was talking to my oldest when we were walking and I said, the reason why they put this pier out so far is to protect the natural habitat and the coral. And she's like, oh, I'm so glad they did that. That's really cool. So it was kind of a cool teaching point to be like, we're trying to enjoy ourselves but also preserve the nature and the animals and the plants and the, you know, flora and fauna that live here. And she thought that was pretty cool and worth the walk to get there. We'll say so. Yeah. I think lookout was my favorite of the three. The three stops we did.
[00:50:20] Speaker C: I love that. Well, I gotta ask you about this whole motion sickness thing because as we've talked about, you know, this trip and it, the wind was obviously a factor at, you know, at least two of your three ports. And you mentioned even on sea days and you mentioned that both your girls, the eight year old and the five year old old, both have motion sickness in the car and you know, can't do like big rides or maybe even spinning rides because of motion sickness. And I imagine you had some movement on this sailing. How did you all deal with the movement of the ship? Did the girls need, you know, kids, Dramamine or Bonine or something like that or how did they do with the movement of the ship? Ship, yeah.
[00:51:06] Speaker A: So we came prepared really. Anytime we travel, we have it with us because we know that there's a possibility that someone could get motion sick. So we brought Patches, we bought Bonine, we brought Dramamine.
My youngest never needed it. I was actually quite surprised. She, she said she could feel the ship moving, but it didn't really, um, it didn't seem to impact her at all. Didn't really slow her down at all. My oldest seemed to feel it more at night and it just, it's hard to tell, like Are you just tired? Are you sunburned? Is that causing the nausea? So we just gave her Dramamine and then she was completely fine. So the motion sickness and the, the rocking of the boat never impacted or stopped anybody from doing what they wanted to do, essentially, which I thought was really good. We, our cabin was on deck two, all the way in the.
We could feel some rocking there. And then the other spot we felt it was when we were in the theater. So when we were at a show, you'd be sitting and then you're like, oh, yep, we just hit a wave sort of thing. But again you could feel it. But nobody got motion sick at all. And if anyone felt nauseous, we just gave them Bonine or Dramamine and they were fine. So it actually didn't. I was very glad because I was a little nervous, but it actually didn't cause any problems at all, which was good.
[00:52:30] Speaker C: Awesome. You know, I, I neglected to ask you about stateroom. I'm curious. You mentioned you were in the after the ship. What stateroom type of stateroom did you select and did you do some research ahead of time? Was it just like, oh, I'm looking for what the cheapest option is. Did you have a. I must have a veranda. Right. Like what, what were your sort of thoughts about picking a stateroom and were you happy with whatever you ended up booking?
[00:52:54] Speaker A: Yeah, so I was fine with the cheapest there was because.
And again, the first cruise I took when I was in college, we pretty much slept and got ready in the cabin and that was really it. So I didn't need anything fancy.
My husband's non negotiable was at least being able to see the ocean. So we kind of compromised and settled on an ocean view, which was perfect. We were able to open up the windows and see the ocean. We actually saw dolphins out in the ocean one day, which was very cool. And then when we came into port on San Juan, we actually went right past the fort. So we saw it outside our stateroom, which was pretty cool. I don't feel like we missed out having a veranda. I know there's lots of veranda rooms, but we were a little nervous.
I think our 8 year old would be very responsible. I'm not so sure about our 5 year old.
And so I was like, we don't feel like we have to have a veranda. And like I said, we spent so much time either up on the pool deck or on the promenade deck. If we really wanted to sit outside somewhere, that's kind of where we spend. Spent our time. So I. I feel like the room that we picked works actually really well for our needs. It felt big enough for four people.
The bathroom. I love the dual bathroom situation with kids. That was really nice because somebody could be getting ready in one spot and going to the, you know, taking a shower in the other spot. And it wasn't. Wasn't too bad at all.
[00:54:18] Speaker B: What did your kids and you think of the food and dining experience on board?
[00:54:22] Speaker A: Oh. Oh, my gosh. They loved. They absolutely loved it. So my youngest is found out from. We did tell her this ahead of time, that she could bring Disney princess dresses and we would let her wear Disney princess dresses for dinner. And so she did that every night, like Pirate Night. Everyone is dressed up like Jack Sparrow and Peter Pan. She is dressed up as Elsa, not giving a care in the world, walking down the hallway, like, sticking out like a sore thumb on Pirate night. Cause she wanted to be frozen. So she left.
[00:54:55] Speaker C: Loved it.
[00:54:56] Speaker A: The servers were absolutely fantastic. Like, they.
They were like, hello, Princess. How are you? Like, she was. We got home and she's like, I'm not. I'm Princess Elsa. Today you have to call. Like, it has continued for weeks after this cruise.
My oldest also really enjoyed it. She is kind of an adventurous eater. So we told her, if you want to eat off the adult menu, you can.
And she did. Actually, most nights, she looked at the kids menu and was like. Like, she's like, what are you having? And it was so cool because she tried all these different sorts of foods that she hadn't had before. Some of them she did not like, and she was honest with them, but some of them she really liked to the point where she asked our server to go. We were eating. Oh, my gosh, where were we eating? I think in Lumiere's. And she wanted what she had in Animator's palette the night before. And our server was so sweet. He went over and got it and brought it for her and said, okay, if you want this for dinner, I'll go and get it from that kitchen.
They absolutely loved the dining, Even lunch. I mean, we talked about the ice cream already or breakfast.
They just loved all of the food.
One tip I would give for newer people. I'm glad we did this. They have, like, a couple of the restaurants have shows. Rapunzel had a show. Animator's palette had a show. And they have, like, activity booklets the kids can do. But we brought. Brought, like, Uno. We actually brought Disney Spot it with as well, thinking we would use them. In the airport.
We ended up using them every night at dinner. It was always, like, we'd look in the cupboard in our stateroom, like, okay, which game do you want to bring with? And I think we played, like, 40 games of spot it with the kids while we're sitting at the dining room table or at the table, or we went to Soul Cat Lounge for, like, happy hour before dinner sometimes, and, like, they needed something to do, and somebody grabbed Spot it or somebody grabbed Frozen Uno, and they just sat and played and just had a great time with it. So I would recommend that for folks who have kids they don't want to send to the kids club at all is bring one of those little kind of card games, because it kept them occupied for quite a while.
[00:57:09] Speaker B: Any standout food items for you?
[00:57:12] Speaker A: I really, really liked. It was at Rapunzel's, and it was the scallops with the angel hair pasta. I don't remember the name. It was so good. And my oldest got that as well. And she's like, mom, this is really good. And then the silliest one was. It was on Pirate night. It was the carrot soup with banana bread croutons. And I was like, there is no way this is gonna be good. And our server was like, you gotta try it. And I was like, okay. It was delicious. It was the weirdest combination, but it was so good with carrot and banana. Banana bread croutons. So if I could get that recipe, I would be so happy. I didn't ask.
But, yeah, that one was one of my favorites. My husband loved the beef Wellington. He had lamb one night.
Pretty much any dessert you could put in front of us, we were like, this is amazing. So I think the girls had some. Whatever the ice cream sundae was, I think they had for dinner every night. But they're like, I just want the ice cream sundae. And so they would bring. Bring those out. They love, loved it.
[00:58:16] Speaker C: Oh, that's awesome. Well, what did you guys think of the show is. I'm imagining that you for sure went to see Tangled on Board and that you probably went to see twice. Charmed is the second show, and then the third show would be, I believe, Disney Dreams on the Magic. So all three, in my opinion, good shows. But I. I got asked, did you go see them? And if so, what did you think and what did the kids think?
[00:58:41] Speaker A: So we saw all three of those, and they loved all three of them.
I think their favorite one was the Disney dreams one, which they did on the last night of our cruise. They actually Did a matinee, which I thought was really nice. It was packed. But they did a matinee, so we went to that one. They loved the songs and the dancing. And like, I remember Elsa came out and my five year old, like, lost her mind because she's like, it's Elsa. And then the snow's falling down. She's like, like, it's snowing. I mean, she was just enthralled with it.
[00:59:13] Speaker C: She.
[00:59:13] Speaker A: Yeah, we loved, loved the shows. They were so much fun.
I think my favorite was Rapunzel, actually.
I really just like the movie Rapunzel and I love the music in it. So that one was probably my favorite. What was funny, though, the girls would. We would go to the show at night and they would see the characters, and then the next day they were like the handlers for whatever Disney princess or character. And they're like, I've seen you before sort of thing. Like, they could pick out that they had seen them. You know, you were the evil stepsister yesterday, weren't you? And like, kind of taking the cast members off, a little off guard. So I thought that was kind of funny. I'm sure it happens with other people too. So we were also on board for the premiere of the new Snow White.
So because this was a longer cruise and there wasn't a show every night, one of the nights they just showed Snow White in the big theater. And so we went to the. That and the girls really enjoyed that too. We actually brought the blanket from our stateroom and sat in the chairs. They were in their pajamas and we just like snuggled up with a blanket like we would on the couch to watch a movie and just watch Snow White. And they really, really enjoyed that too.
[01:00:27] Speaker C: Awesome. Now, did you make it to Pirate Night? I mean, obviously Pirate Night's a little bit. Well, the fireworks and whatnot are a little bit late for kiddos of your girl's age, but curious whether or not you were able to keep them up for that.
[01:00:41] Speaker A: So they did not make it to Pirate Night. They melted down by Pirate Night. We made it to dinner. They got their bandanas, they got their picture with Captain Hook and Jack Sparrow, but they did not make it to Pirate Night. They were conked out.
My husband, on the other hand, though, was doing a bourbon tasting that evening during Pirate Night. So he got to see the fireworks as a part of his bourbon tasting. That was like the. It was like the finale to the end or whatever. So he said they were good, but they were. Were. We had been. I think it was castaway day and like we had been in the sun all day, had dinner, like they were conked out by the time the fireworks happened. So we missed those next time.
[01:01:23] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, no, totally understand.
That's, that's normal for kids that age to generally speaking, Miss Pirate Night.
Curious if there's anything we, we missed that was, you know, sort of a memorable activity that you guys did on board. I know you spent a lot of time on the pool deck. It sounds like you hit a bunch of different, you know, highlights on, on the, you know I didn't ask about the kids clubs but did the girls go to the kids club and I guess were you able to do any of the adult only activities on board?
[01:01:52] Speaker A: Yeah, so they did go to the kids club a couple of days.
I think their favorite thing they did was actually make slime with Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. That was the big hit. The slime had to fly back with us and it is still sitting in our house.
So that was a big thing. They just enjoyed kind of playing with each other and it was nice. Nice. Like we live in Wisconsin in winter. We are not used to spending hours and hours in the sun and so it was nice to give them like okay guys, we're gonna take a 90 minute break and not be out in the sun for a while and do something different.
So they went to the kids club. They enjoyed it. We went the adult sun. We went up to the COVID Cafe and like the quiet pool area up there and just like hung out and had drinks and chit chatted and ready our books and it was, that part was really relaxing too just to have some time as grown ups in particular. We really enjoyed that.
So yeah, we did that. I think each of our 3C days the kids went to the kids club for like an hour or two. It wasn't an all day, an all day thing at all. But it was nice to give them some time just to play on their own too.
[01:03:01] Speaker C: Is there anything that we missed before we wrap up here? And of course subject you to some rapid fire questions. But yeah, is there anything we've missed?
I know we've hit a lot of different topics but of course as I mentioned to you pre show, we weren't on your cruise so we don't know, you know, what happened. We didn't, we didn't know about the 11 o' clock ice cream line which is fantastic to hear but yeah. Were there any other things that you all did that you really enjoyed or perhaps didn't enjoy?
[01:03:31] Speaker A: Yeah, so one thing that we were surprised on. So like, we didn't make a ton of plans on our C day. We would just wake up for the day or, you know, look in our Navigator app and be like, hey, are you guys interested in, in doing this?
We tried to do trivia that was a flop. The girls were like, nope, we're out. I think they're a little too young for it. I think that will become more fun as they get older. But one thing we stumbled upon, actually our very first night in the D lounge was a silent D or a silent dance party. Oh my gosh, did we have fun with that. We were probably in there for like an hour and 15 minutes. Like, my husband was like, I'll see you later. Like, I don't know what he did for an hour. He's like, this is not my jam. I'm like, that's fine. Like go do what you want. I'll keep the girls. And like, we had our headphones on. We probably looked ridiculous, but we had an absolute blast just dancing and dancing and dancing and switching between the different stations and like, we'd never done anything like that before and like, didn't plan on that at all. We were just, you know, we were just stumbled upon and we're like, hey, let's give it a try. And so that, that part of like when I think about going to the parks and I, I know I, I was a kid at that time, but I know what my parents did. There's so much planning that goes into that and execution and it's so different on a Disney cruise. You just kind of like walk into and you're like, well, this looks fun and you go do something for a while and it's just so relaxing. So I really, really appreciated that part. The girls also loved any and every character they could possibly find. It was like a seven day scavenger hunt. We bought little like signature notebooks, books that they carried around and the character just meet and greets. We literally ran into Belle walking up the stairs one time and she stopped and talked to us.
That part was pretty special too. We really loved seeing all the characters and the lines were, I think the longest we did in line was maybe 10 minutes. Like the lines were not very long at all. So that part is also, I think was a huge advantage to what I remember in the parks where sometimes the line line is really, really long to see a character. So they also loved that part.
[01:05:38] Speaker B: Well, it sounds like an amazing cruise and I'm going to have a couple.
[01:05:42] Speaker D: Questions for you after rapid Fire.
[01:05:44] Speaker B: But we have reached that point in the show where we need to subject you to Sam's arbitrary questions, arbitrary rules, and a dash of judgment of the round we know as rapid fire. So, Sam, take it away.
[01:05:56] Speaker C: Thank you. All right, Beth, I'm going to ask you some Disney favorites and then some Disney cruise line favorite favorites. And of course, we know that the Disney Magic is your favorite ship, so I'm not going to ask you that question. You also already answered that Tangled was your favorite stage show, so I'm not going to ask you that question either. But we're going to start out with who is your favorite Disney character? And Disney means everything and anything that Disney owns.
[01:06:23] Speaker A: My favorite, and it has been my favorite since I was a little girl, is Belle. I am an avid bookworm. I love to read.
I have a little bit of sass to me, and I feel like Belle embodies both of those, so she's been my favorite forever.
[01:06:36] Speaker C: Love it. What's your favorite Disney movie?
[01:06:39] Speaker A: Oh, that's a hard one. I feel like it's probably changed over time. Right now. My favorite is probably encanto. I just love the color in it and I love the soundtrack. My girls love the soundtrack. We listen to that a lot too. So probably encanto.
[01:06:53] Speaker C: Love that. It's such a good soundtrack. What is your favorite Disney song?
And if it's surface pressure, I'm going to give you an extra. I'm going to give you an A plus plus.
[01:07:05] Speaker A: Actually, the one that I really love, and I think this is why I like that show, is I See the Light from Rapunzel.
I just. It was so cool on stage to see it on the cruise.
My oldest actually did it for her dance recital a couple of years ago, so there's some sentimentalness to it there too, that she got to dance to it. So it's probably my. My favorite.
[01:07:26] Speaker C: I love that. That's such a great song too. All right, we gotta move on to the cruise ship. What was your favorite? This is your personal favorite. So not what the kids loved, but what was your personal favorite activity on board the Disney Magic?
[01:07:39] Speaker A: Oh, man. I think the silent dance party. Because I was so surprised how much I loved it. Like, if you had told me, hey, we're gonna do a silent dance party, I'd be like, what are you talking about? But we just had had so much fun doing it. It was such a surprise. I would. I would totally recommend it to every. Everybody to do.
[01:07:58] Speaker C: Love it. What was your favorite place to relax on the ship?
[01:08:02] Speaker A: I would Say, for adults only. I really like the adults only pool. The, like, loungers are super comfortable.
It's really quiet as well. Like, you don't hear the other side of the ship at all. So probably that spot to relax. The other spot I really like the promenade dock deck as well. I ran that a couple of mornings and it was just pretty to see the ocean. And again, it's kind of a quieter spot on the ship. And there's some nice benches down there too.
[01:08:30] Speaker C: Yeah, perfect. Now, tell me, what was your favorite rotational dining restaurant? I mean, you had some great options between Animators and Rapunzel's and Lumiere's, but which one did you like the best? And it could be because you liked the food. It could be because of the show. It.
Whatever, you know, whatever is the thing that draws you in. But yeah, which one was your favorite?
[01:08:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I think Lumiere's was my favorite. I just really like the decor in there.
I also liked. We were sitting kind of in the middle part of Lumiere's, but they had the windows open so you could still see the.
The ocean. And we saw the sunset. We ate in there three times because that's where we started. And we saw the sunset each time when we were eating, which is cool because Animator's palette and Rapunzel, you can't. You. Everything's closed. You can't really see outside. So I think that was probably one of the reasons. And the food. Food was so good in Lumiere's too. We just. Yeah, I really like that one.
[01:09:25] Speaker C: Awesome. All right, I gotta ask a food question or really two food questions. Which is a favorite sweet item and then a favorite savory item. We always start with the sweets because I love the savories. So we save the best for last. Even though I know desserts at the end of the meal. I don't understand it, but Brian tells me that's a thing. So tell me, what was a favorite sweet item on this cruise?
[01:09:46] Speaker A: I. I think so many people on your podcast have said this answer, and I'm going to include it, which is the Mickey Churro waffles.
We had them twice because this was a longer cruise. So we actually got two mornings of Mickey Churro waffles, and I think I ate three or four of them both mornings. I loved them. They were so good. So it's not a dessert. It probably should be a dessert, but that was definitely my favorite sweet.
[01:10:11] Speaker C: Listen, I think Mickey churro waffles are better as a breakfast than as a dessert. So I'm with you. I think they're wonderful. I'm really jealous that you had them twice because we were on the Treasure for seven nights and we only had Mickey churro waffles once. We only had them on castaway day, so.
[01:10:27] Speaker B: And zero Mexican roll ups. Like dear Disney and zero Mexican rollups. Zero Mexican rollup. A seven night cruise and no Mexican roll ups.
[01:10:36] Speaker D: Disney.
[01:10:36] Speaker B: Come on.
[01:10:37] Speaker A: Come on.
[01:10:38] Speaker C: Speaking of savory foods. Yeah. What was your favorite? What was a favorite savory food?
[01:10:44] Speaker A: So I'm going to stay with the breakfast theme here. They had salmon, eggs, bacon, Benedict. That was really good. They had that a couple of days. That was like the breakfast special.
And it was so good. Really, really liked that. I was a little sad. I think I went down for breakfast one day and realized it wasn't a regular thing. It was like a special thing. And I was like, oh, man.
So, yeah, I think I probably put that for my favorite savory. It was delicious.
[01:11:13] Speaker C: Awesome. All right, the last question of Rapid Fire. It's the same question I ask everybody. Everybody, what is your bucket list cruise? If you could go anywhere in the world on a Disney Cruise Line ship and it doesn't have to be someplace that Disney Cruise Line currently goes, where would you go?
[01:11:29] Speaker A: That's a really good one. I can think of one came to me right away. So I should say that one, it would be to the Galapagos Islands.
I think just the habitat of the Galapagos, which I've studied in school, has been so fascinating to me. And so I think going into Ecuador, going around the Galapagos Islands and doing more of like a nature conservancy cruise with Disney, I think would be pretty cool.
[01:11:54] Speaker C: Awesome. All right. Well, you passed with flying colors, Beth. So straight A's. And then I'm. Yeah. And I'm gonna pass you over to Brian because he said he has a couple of questions.
[01:12:04] Speaker B: Well, I mean, maybe it's just really one my favorite question of all. You know, what's next?
Did you get a placeholder? Are you eyeing another Disney cruise?
[01:12:13] Speaker D: Which.
[01:12:13] Speaker B: I mean, would you go back on Disney Cruise Line after your first experience?
[01:12:16] Speaker A: I would absolutely go back. Absolutely go back. It was such a fun vacation. Every. I feel like everybody got something out of it that they wanted to do. It didn't require a huge amount of planning, which was really nice. So we did get a placeholder.
I think it was day two when my girls were like, mom, when are we doing this again? Like, we have. I'm not even sure we had been on the boat 24 hours at that point.
So we did get a place on Butler and we are booked to go back on the Magic out of Galveston next March again. So Sam, you had mentioned the Western Caribbean. We're doing the Western Caribbean cruise next March with another three days at sea. That was a almost, I don't want to say a requirement, but it was a lucrative offer to say because we were looking at a couple and we're like, man, three days at sea was really nice. We really enjoyed that. So, yep, we're going back again in March on the Magic.
[01:13:12] Speaker B: Nice. Well, we'll have to have you back to hear what the second trip is like on the Magic and yeah. Well, Beth, for now I just want to say thank you for taking time out of your day to spend with us and our audience and sharing your experience. Your first Disney cruise experience. We love, love, love telling the stories of first time cruisers. It's always great to relive these memories with you and to look at Disney through a fresh pair of eyes. So thank you for spending this time with us. We really, really appreciate it.
[01:13:44] Speaker A: Yes, thank you guys for having me. This has been great. And thank you for your podcast. You were one of the main things when we booked this first cruise. I was like, I gotta know what I got myself into. So I have been listening to DCL Duo for a year and a half and you guys gave me so many great tips to make this a successful cruise. So thank you for what you do with this.
[01:14:03] Speaker B: Aw, that's always nice to hear. Thank you.
[01:14:10] Speaker D: Well thanks everybody everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email them at DCLDUO mypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to comment, connect with us. The best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things. Full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast, links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start reviewing. 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 duo 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 individual individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective. Use the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney Vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo.
[01:16:19] Speaker A: Sam.
