[00:00:00] Speaker A: So I also love a seat in the shower because those of us who still, you know, have to shave our legs, you know, it's kind of nice to have someplace to put your leg rather than trying to put it up against the wall.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: For those at home, Sam's trying to demo. Sam's trying to demo her leg placement on live television here. So there you.
[00:00:32] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast. Brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and also our good friends over at WDW magazine. We've heard a lot from them lately. We had Danny, we had Stephanie. So they've been on and we just want to reinforce, help support WDW magazine, help make DCL Magazine a continuing and ongoing thing. Head over to dcl-magazine.com to sign up for your float test issue of the WDW DCL Extravaganza magazine article from yours truly in there before I. I'm stealing Sam Sunder on that one because she says it every time I do this promo.
And they've got the. They've got the newest calendar out. They've got the newest WDW magazine calendar out right now. It does sell out. And you can get 10. You can get 10% off of that calendar and everything in their store using code, dc, L duo, all caps, DCL duo.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: And don't forget, if you message them and poke them about creating a DCL only calendar, because that's what we're really pushing for now. We want them to create a dc.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: Don't unleash our fan base on our sponsor for feedback. Sam, that's not cool.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: No, if they have enough interest, I think they really. I think they're definitely wanting it. I mean, we were talking about that with them. I think that that could be coming. I think that they know that there's interest in it. So keep, you know, just telling them that there. There is interest in it. So, yeah, I'm just saying, like on the socials, you don't need call them and, you know, I don't know.
[00:02:02] Speaker B: That does not help support the show. No.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Message them on the social saying, we want a DCL only calendar. Yeah.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: Yeah, that's right. That's right. All right, Sam. We've got friends. We've got friends.
Podcasting is so much more fun with.
[00:02:16] Speaker A: Friends, the best guests on. I'm so excited to have Kaylee and Karen on from my Path Unwinding Travel. Welcome, ladies. We are so happy to have you on.
[00:02:26] Speaker C: Hello, friends.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: It's so good to See both of you, look at your cute hats.
Spoiler alert. So we're going to be talking about the Star of the Seas that Karen and Kaylee went on a preview sailing for. It is the newest ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet. I guess she maidens this week, maybe today. I don't even know what the. Her maiden voyage is like. I think it's this week. If it's not today.
Do we know.
[00:02:55] Speaker C: They've kind of. They've kind of moved it around a bit. It was. It's technically later in the month. And then the ship was actually ready earlier than expected. So then they added some additional earlier sailings, special opportunities. And I know that some folks that were booked on the Maiden were a little disappointed that there would be more sailings before theirs. But hey, at least the ship will be ready. There'll be lots of opportunities to shake it down and get all the.
[00:03:25] Speaker D: So is better than late.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: Right?
[00:03:28] Speaker C: Right.
[00:03:28] Speaker A: And better to have all that practice to be a well oiled machine and have everything open on the maiden voyage. Whereas you know, we always know from a lot of these preview cruises sometimes the offerings are somewhat limited. Maybe, maybe not all the dining venues are fully open. Maybe not all the shows are up and running or maybe like not all the water slides or things are up and running. Right. So like it's kind of nice when you haven't a lot of shake like shakedowns before.
Whether they're media previews, travel agent previews or. Or crew previews. It's. It's really nice when you've got a ship that's well, well oiled machine.
[00:04:05] Speaker B: I gotta ask, is pink a thematic color for the ship or just the color you two chose to get your hats in?
[00:04:10] Speaker D: So the hats were. That were given out were random and they were a selection of pink, purple, aqua, sort of my path unwinding travel, blue and green. And we just happened to get two pink ones.
[00:04:24] Speaker B: There you go. All right. Well I love the matching hats. I love it. I did notice that you sent that photo over pre show Karen of you behind the star of the seaside. And it was like it was all purple. It was like all. It was like purple all over the place. And I was like they're really leaning into these colors. So it's fun. That's.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: There was definitely a purple, pink, blue motif going. And they really elevated it for our sailing with incredible floral arrangements.
[00:04:52] Speaker B: Nice. Nice. Well, we got a lot of ship to cover.
[00:04:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: Because I couldn't. I was saying off air my background tonight, for those of you listening after the fact, again, head over to YouTube because we've got a great PowerPoint that's going to walk through some visuals along with the show. We will be sure to describe them throughout for those who are fixed on listening to audio only. But head over to YouTube if you want to check out some of the visuals from the ship. I've got Icon of the Seas behind me. I couldn't find a Star of the Seas. I'm trying to like move the right direction here, but I got Icon of the Seas behind me in my background today. So a lot of ship to cover.
I'm going to move us into your PowerPoint view here, Karen. Let's see if I can get this.
[00:05:28] Speaker A: I got to give, I got to give a shout out in the chat to the whole Gate family. I'm sure that's Stephen, but I love that you're watching Stephen. The whole Gate family are such an amazing family. They have their own YouTube that's way bigger than our YouTube. They're awesome. But I love that, I love that Steven's catching a live tonight and Leia's.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: Watching Karen, no pressure, watching also.
[00:05:49] Speaker A: Look at all the fun. Yeah, We've got Tracy in the chat. We've got Ashley in the chat. Jet lagged from just getting back from, from the uk.
We've got Matthew Kowalski in the chat. Love it. Yeah. So, hi everyone who's watching. Yeah.
[00:06:02] Speaker B: So, Karen, where should we start our discussion of Star of the Seas? Where do you want to start?
[00:06:10] Speaker C: You know, I kind of organized the photos in a way that I thought made sense and, you know, starting off with just the enormity of the ship because, because it does start out feeling enormous. And I think that one of the questions that, you know, people have is how big is it really? And am I ever going to find my way around and is it going to be too big?
And they, you know, even this very directionally challenged person, that's me, figured my way around with only three nights. And if you sail on the Star, you will have seven.
And it's, it will end up feeling like an incredible resort at sea. So I think we can kind of start talking about some of the public spaces.
[00:07:06] Speaker A: Let me ask a couple of questions here, though. So it's going to be doing seven night itineraries. Is that like Eastern Western Caribbean itineraries? And then this is sister ship to the Icon. Right? So this is, this is the, the largest ship currently sailing, Largest cruise ship currently sailing, tied with the Icon.
And so how many passengers are we talking.
[00:07:32] Speaker D: About?
[00:07:33] Speaker C: 5,000.
[00:07:33] Speaker D: 600 at double capacity.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah, Big ship.
[00:07:39] Speaker C: There will can be more because there are many triples and quads and.
[00:07:44] Speaker B: Yeah above.
[00:07:46] Speaker C: But you know what's interesting is they're trying to find a little angle to make it, you know, to add some excitement. Because the Icon was the biggest ship. It technically the Star is a tad bigger with a tad fewer passengers, which is interesting. They tweaked some minor things on board.
So in terms of size it's a little bigger. In terms of passengers it's a tiny bit smaller. Like 58 passengers smaller or something like that.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: Interesting. Well, that's a fun little piece of trivia.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: I'm trying to remember what the double occupancy is on the adventure because it's like 6,000 I thought was its capacity. So that would mean, I mean this one holds fewer people but is larger ship wise. So. Yeah, that's interesting.
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. I mean if you think about it for, you know, the Disney passenger, most of us are used to a 4,000 person ship or 2,400 2500 person ship. So it is certainly bigger. We have been on Icon or not Icon Oasis class ships that are bigger. I think those are more like 5,000 passengers. So this would be, you know, probably more like 6,000 passengers. If it's really like full with multi. Lots of families sailing on board. All right, well you mentioned the these public sort of spaces. What are we looking at here?
[00:09:11] Speaker C: This is the aqua dome area which is unique on Icon Class. Those of you who have sailed on Royal Caribbean ships or have learned about Royal Caribbean ships, know that there is an aqua theater on many of the ships that is outside where they do an aquatic show on Icon Class. It is inside and it is inside this gorgeous dome that during the day is this beautiful relaxation area with lots of unique seating areas and gorgeous views.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Is this adult only?
[00:09:52] Speaker C: This is not adult only. This is just a public area on the ship. It's not like a closed in bar.
You know, it's hard to judge how a space will be used from the preview sailing. There were children on board, we saw some toddlers and all the way up to teenagers. But obviously because it's a preview sailing with lots of travel advisors and media and employees of Royal Caribbean, it's hard to say exactly how it'll used. But I don't see that this would be a space that kids would tend to hang out.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think Brian's like thinking that this reminds him of like the solarium on the Oasis class ships. Right. Because the solarium is sort of this windowed in indoor space that has like some water stuff, it's got some food stuff, like inside. And so it kind of. It has that look about it, even though it's obviously a public space for all ages now. So this is where they do the water show with the divers and everything then.
[00:10:59] Speaker C: Yeah, we have a picture of that later.
[00:11:02] Speaker D: Yeah, it's just out of the frame of the photo, sort of to the left.
But it is the same space that on previous ships has been the solarium, that with the 18 plus area. So that's why you're associating it with it. And the aqua theater has been in the aft of the ship previously. So this is definitely a change for the design.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I am super excited to see how they incorporate that aqua because it's for the whole back of the ship. So, like, I'm really interested to see how that that fits in here. Tracy is wondering, is this area air conditioned? Because it can get. Seems like an area that could get pretty hot.
[00:11:35] Speaker C: It is air conditioned and there's no water feature in here. This is just a lounging area.
There's actually, I don't think in this photo, some kind of cool spaces that you take up. They're like little tree houses almost. I don't know how else you would describe it. You go up a little set of stairs and then there's a little seating area that looks out.
So a super, you know, kind of private, intimate place, really. Just again, a lot of unique, unique nooks and crannies here.
[00:12:09] Speaker A: Love that.
[00:12:09] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: All right, Brian, let's move to the next slide.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: I'm going, I'm going. There we go.
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Okay, Kaylee, why don't you tell us about what this space is?
[00:12:18] Speaker D: So this is the Surfside neighborhood. The ship is divided into neighborhoods. And this is the Surfside sort of family, most family friendly part of the ship. Right. So on previous ships, and I'd been on other Oasis class, this is the boardwalk area. So it's sort of that same.
That same theming, but they've, you know, changed it and tweaked it a little bit. And you can see there are some staterooms that are surfside facing. So instead of being interior rooms, they look out over this area that's just filled with all kinds of activities. There's a carousel and, you know, an ice cream shop and a sugar shop and all kinds of like, sort of fun water features.
And it's all, you know, open up top, like open air. Just like the boardwalk area would be. And it goes right back towards the aft of the ship just like it does on the previous ships. But then there's not the Aqua Dome back there or I'm sorry the aqua theater back there the way that we were sort of expecting. Instead there was a big sort of splash pad area.
Lots of fun for the kids.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: This looks really cool. This is like I remember hearing about this with Icon that like if you are a family with young kids, you might spend like 90% of your time, you might spend in this like Surfside neighborhood. And that there's even a lot of food places and stuff sort of in this neighborhood also. So that you could really. Everything you need and that the kids clubs are also nearby if I'm remembering correctly.
[00:13:45] Speaker B: So is this is it. This looks like a much bigger version of what's off of an Oasis class ship. Is the central park area still. They still have that kind of an area on the ship too.
[00:13:54] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: This thing is so big.
[00:13:57] Speaker C: I think everything is a little bit wider, a little bit longer.
But you kind of, when you start thinking about it in comparison to the Oasis class, you start, you can start mapping it to understand what it all is and it's just a little bit more. So yeah, as mentioned when you had Margaret and Sarah on talking about the Icon last year, it is, this is such a great area because there is food right there. Like kind of like the easy fun snack, you know, kid friendly food. There's also kind of a casual beachy type theme restaurant. There's. And just everything is so fun for the kids. And then if you book one of the family Surfside staterooms or suites, you're right there too.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Yeah, that's really nice and convenient. If that's like going to be your sort of that's area that you're going to spend the most time in that I feel like that would be really, really nice to have.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: So these rooms that have the window that look out onto the balcony, those are the family suites I think. Right. Because that little alcove that comes out is where the floor family like bedroom situation is. Is that right?
[00:15:12] Speaker D: Yeah. These ones that we're looking at here. Yeah. You can see the veranda that's sort of in front of the adult bed and then to the, to the right or the left on either side or it's the little alcove where there's sort of a kid sized bed and an area that can be closed off by a curtain that you can put sort of the littles in that area and it gives it that sweet Feeling with two distinct areas. And those rooms do have a split bath also, which is a nice feature. I know.
[00:15:38] Speaker A: Oh, look at them trying to copy Disney.
[00:15:42] Speaker C: We saw a few that they added some split baths. And we can get back to it, but just know that those Surfside family suites, those little areas for the kids, are tiny. You really can only put little littles in there. Yeah.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: Okay, so we're talking. We're talking like young elementary and. And preschoolers then.
[00:16:02] Speaker C: Correct. Otherwise it would be, you know, maybe we could put one child in there otherwise, but it would be a.
Yeah, yeah.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: So maybe a Nathan now, but probably not a year from now.
[00:16:13] Speaker D: Much longer.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah, he is eleven and a half. He's getting big. It's little by little.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: All right, so what are we looking at here?
[00:16:23] Speaker A: These are cool. I love these pictures, you guys. These. You did such a great job in capturing what all this is.
[00:16:29] Speaker D: Yeah, go ahead and take this one, Karen.
[00:16:34] Speaker A: Sure.
[00:16:36] Speaker C: So this we have the entrance to Thrill island, which is just the crazy water park on board.
I don't know if we counted how many slides. At least 6.
[00:16:50] Speaker D: I think there are 6. I think there are 6.
[00:16:52] Speaker C: Six slides of different thrill levels.
There is also a walk the plank type.
Type activity where you.
[00:17:06] Speaker A: It's that. That like zip. It's kind of like a little zip light. Like you walk the thing and then you. You get like dropped off to like on a zip line.
[00:17:16] Speaker C: You go off the side of the ship and then the platform that you're standing on drops, and then you are hanging and suspended. And then it. You kind of zip back to the ship.
So that's there. The rock climbing wall is there nearby. I think if my visual spatial mind remembers well is also the wave, the flow rider is in that.
In that general area. So lots and lots of fun things. And again, this is. This is more on the top. One of the top decks on the ship. So this is more geared towards, you know, your older kids and adults.
We do have, you know, information about all the height minimums and all that available.
The right side is just more pictures of the massive ship. To give you an idea of the scope, I believe that's looking down at the Central park area.
And then in the middle was kind of our favorite thing is the elevator lobbies.
There are so many elevators. I think it's brilliantly designed.
[00:18:34] Speaker D: There are 12 elevators in each bank. And so you touch an iPad that's in the center and tell it what floor you want to go to. And it says what letter elevator you should head over to. And Then you get on the elevator and there are no buttons inside, which took me, you know, the entire time to sort of figure out. But it's very quick and very easy.
[00:18:55] Speaker A: This is the smart elevator system that all the office buildings in any major downtown are doing. It's much more efficient way of. Of moving people around.
We had heard that initially for the Wish class, Disney was planning on this style of elevator. And then it got like, cut because of the cost or something. Right. We don't know this for sure. That's a rumor. So I can't, like, verify for sure if that was what was planned, but that's what we had heard. And it makes sense, especially when you have elevators that don't all go up to the top, you know, one or two floors. Disney, I hope you're listening because it is. This is a much more efficient way of moving people around. I gotta ask a question about Thrill Island.
I think I know the answer to this because based on the. The two royal ships that I have been on. But all of Thrill island is included. Right. The way the flow rider, the water slides, the.
The walk the plank thingamajig, that stuff is included. Right. Not an extra cost. Right.
[00:20:03] Speaker D: I'm not positive about the. Around the anchor, the sort of zip line thing, but I believe everything else is included. Yeah. All the water slides are the flow Rider ends. I believe you can book a private session for an additional.
[00:20:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And people are asking, and I was wondering this too, about the water slide that has the significant drop on the icon. Obviously it had that issue where it broke when somebody was going through it and somebody got injured. And Matthew's asking, and I'm curious whether or not the. Because I know they have the same slide on this ship. Was it open? Were they letting people use it?
[00:20:39] Speaker C: I think all the slides were open.
We saw water running through that slide for sure.
And I don't think there were any restrictions on the slides that I had heard about or observed.
[00:20:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm guessing they've been doing extra inspections of all their slides just because obviously that got such a ton of press and no cruise line wants to be in the news for something like that. And so I'm. I'm guessing that they've done extra inspections to make sure that everything's, you know, safe and ready to go. Ashley's asking, how many of those six water slides did you all try, if anything?
[00:21:20] Speaker B: Any.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: Oh, Kaylee's saying zero. Big goose eggs.
[00:21:26] Speaker C: Nope. We should have brought Leia with us.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Yeah, Leia, what it says, I know.
[00:21:31] Speaker B: Someone's saying they just watched the Ben and David and they slide was not open. But I don't know if that, if that was on. Star, I know icon slide is not reopened yet.
[00:21:43] Speaker A: Have not reopened it. I was just curious.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Star, while we're here, I'm just gonna throw this question up and maybe we can talk about as we go. But like, we should talk about what activities you have to book in advance on Royal and what costs extra.
So we'll, we'll talk about that as we go, Vanessa. But yes, there are definitely going to be activities on this ship that you should seek to book in advance and things that you will have to pay for is. That is 100% the case.
[00:22:08] Speaker A: But the stuff we've talked about so far, for example, the, the flow rider has specified times that is open for everyone. And you just, you might have to wait in a line, but other than that. And same with the water slides, you might have specified times that it's open, but you have to. And you might have to wait in line, but it's not a reservation unless you're doing that private lesson that Kaylee mentioned. You can do a private lesson on the Flowrider on any of the ships, actually, that have them with Royal, and that is reserve and an extra cost. And so that's, you know, and there.
[00:22:42] Speaker C: Was also mini golf up there that's available and included.
It's just, you know, really everywhere you turn, there's another fun nook and cranny. There's so much packed into this ship. It is really, I mean, it, it just feels like an amazing, fun resort at sea.
[00:23:00] Speaker D: And I will say, like, that adds to the fact that it doesn't feel so massive and overwhelming when you're there because it is broken up into so many different areas.
And unless you're in one of the big public spaces like the Royal Promenade, you're not going to be in a space with 5,000 other people. And so the way the ship is laid out with so many small areas and nooks and crannies, like Karen said, really, really was well thought out.
[00:23:27] Speaker B: Matthew's also on that point. Matthew's asking, with the ship carrying as many people as it does, did you ever feel like it was crowded? Did you ever feel like you were in a big, big, big crowd of people? I don't know also how full the sailing was that you were on. But I'm just curious, did it feel crowded?
[00:23:42] Speaker C: I think that, like on any, like on any cruise, it felt the most crowded when we were boarding.
You Know, just as everybody's getting on and you walk into the promenade and you've kind of are like staring around and not sure exactly where you're going next, and everybody's, you know, saying hello, and that's when it feels the most crowded. Otherwise, you know, even when during the.
[00:24:09] Speaker D: Show is the other time when you're sitting and you're seeing all of these people, you know, during the.
The live stage show.
[00:24:16] Speaker C: Yeah, even as you were like, as we were leaving the stage show, it felt like leaving any other, like, smallish event, you know, like, you know, like less than leaving, you know, a big NFL game or something, you know, I mean, you have to take your time to walk out, but the crowd quickly disperses. Some take the stairs, some take the elevator, some walk away. And so it never felt like, oh, my gosh, I'm jostling around. It doesn't feel like, you know, a Disney park at firework time.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a really good point. I would say even on Oasis, which is bigger than any of the Disney ships, we felt like the only place where we could feel crowds was like, of course, embarcation day, but also the pool deck, certain at certain times, in the sort of middle of the day on a sea day, the pool deck, it will be like, really packed. So that was. Those were the places where we felt like, okay, there, this is a bigger ship. This is where the crowds are. But you get that on Disney Cruise Line also, even, you know, the pool deck will be crowded on a beautiful sea day. So, you know, it's. So I'd say it's. They do a pretty good job, like Disney does, of sort of dispersing the crowds. And the neighborhood concept, I think, is fantastic. I have to say, my favorite place on the royal ships, the two royal ships we've been on has been Central Park. And I see we've got a picture of Central park here on the left. Tell us, does it feel a lot bigger than, like, on, let's say, an Oasis class ship to be in Central park, which is this big green area kind of in the middle of the ship?
[00:25:52] Speaker D: Ship.
It did not feel bigger to me. I mean, you know, I have been on Central park in Central park before on other ships, and it felt comparable. I mean, it was. Some of the restaurants were the same and some were different, but the way that the paths are sort of meandering and there was so much greenery, I was very impressed with how mature a lot of it was. And in fact, I feel like there was possibly more greenery on this, in this central park, because it was all up the sides of the, the walls. And you can see in that picture on the left there were sort of murals on the ceilings when you walked through.
And it just, it felt very lush and peaceful. It was hot. I mean, it was August, so, you know, hot as expected. But it was warm in that area.
But it felt peaceful and like a nice, really nice departure from sort of some of the more, the louder and more sort of bright and active parts of the ship.
[00:26:50] Speaker B: Speaking of louder and bright and active, I see the central promenade here, a fixture on every royal ship I've been on.
What was that like? And I kind of need to know what that giant sphere looking thing in the middle is.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: It looks like a stage. Yeah. Tell us what that is, Karen. Yep.
[00:27:06] Speaker C: So that's the Pearl. You may have heard about it on the icon. And it is basically a beautiful domed area covering a staircase that leads up from, from floor five of the promenade. Is that right, Kayleigh? Up to floor six.
And so it is.
Is covered in tiles that move and change colors and it just creates a beautiful photo opportunity in the Promenade. Think about it. The way that I mapped it is if you think about rising tide on the Oasis class ships, that is about where it would be.
And so instead of having a rising tide, it has this beautiful staircase and the Pearl. And at the top of the Pearl is a pearl.
I don't know what they call it. Like maybe they just call it the Pearl up there. It is another beautiful seating area with a large cafe. There's still Starbucks on Deck 5, but on Deck 6 in the Pearl is another full coffee bar serving all the Starbucks coffees and serving some incredible great and included food items. So from your little egg bites and breakfast sandwiches and croissants in the morning to sandwiches and some Oreo cheesecake that we're gonna have to talk about for.
[00:28:38] Speaker A: The rest of the night.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: And, you.
[00:28:42] Speaker C: Know, some grab and go items too. So you can get your sandwich heated up, your egg bites heated up. They'll make your specialty coffees, so. And plenty of seating area with.
So it's just another unique kind of architectural feature of the ship that really doesn't necessarily add, you know, anything specific, but, you know, it's. I think this is one of the great things about this ship is it's not all about where can we charge you something, where can we squeeze more people in. It's just, it's just a beautiful, unique spot.
[00:29:14] Speaker A: Cool. I love it.
[00:29:16] Speaker D: The Pearl is described as sort of this Kinetic art, sculpture. So if you're sort of walking through it and like Karen said, it's moving and it's this dynamic space and it was consistent with the. I mean the, the amount of art, of original art on the ship is staggering. Every corner there is artwork in all mediums. And some, you know, I loved all of it, but it was like some were to my taste and some weren't. But overall I was so impressed with the art. It's. It's consistent through every little corner of the ship.
[00:29:46] Speaker A: Yep. Awesome. I love that. So we should have put some of.
[00:29:50] Speaker C: Kaylee's photos in here because Kaylee, Kaylee was really impressed with the art. We could probably have a whole podcast.
[00:29:58] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: There's a lot of art on those Royal ships. I mean, even walking around an Oasis ship, there was this art everywhere. I mean they had. Remember the binocular things? It was a binocular or tell. Remember you like look through and it was a different scene each time. Yeah.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: Yes. They look like those like lookout binocular, round kind of oval things that you would see it like on like a, like a, like a state park bridge or something. Yeah, like you to look at a landmark. Yeah. But they actually had art in them. So when you would look in them, you'd see like some kind of artwork, you know. I want to, I want to answer Matthew, part of Matthew's question. Matthew's asking about the dining. What's included? What's the extra cost?
You know, Royal has the drink packages and so different levels of drink packages include different things, whether they include coffee, you know, or, you know, generally speaking, there are drink packages that do include like Starbucks in them, but there are drink. There's like a soda package, I think that doesn't include that. So there's definitely different levels. And of course the ones that include alcohol and what they include, whether it's like premium alcohol or just sort of rail level alcohol. So Royal has that and then a lot of. I would say most of the quick service food is included. On Royal, it's really specialty dining is where the, the add on costs are. Right. So you have main dining that's included, plus lots of quick service options that are included and then specialty dining. And we're going to talk about this a little bit later in the slideshow. But like the steakhouse, the hibachi, like those kinds of places are the add on specialty dining, but you can do specialty dining packages. And also if you're sailing, like suite class, some of those things are some. There are some Inclusions depending upon what level of their suite class that you're sailing. So we'll get to a little bit more of that when we hit the dining. But I wanted to give just that.
[00:31:48] Speaker B: Overall, like there was some quick serve on Oasis that was extra. Like, wasn't Johnny Rockets an extra cost?
[00:31:53] Speaker A: Yes, Johnny Rockets was extra. But all. Yeah, but I think pretty much everything else.
[00:31:58] Speaker C: Johnny Rockets on this, on this ship. But we'll get to it when we talk about dining. There's so many included options that were actually really good.
[00:32:07] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and here we've got. This is a pool deck picture.
I obviously you can tell it's the pool deck, but this, it looks beautiful as well.
[00:32:16] Speaker D: This is the Simon Tonic bar.
And you can see there's a sort of a shallow area in the, in the closer part of the picture with these large day beds and the pool. The chairs along the pool are sort of in the shallow part. And then in the depths of the area, you can't really see in this angle, but it's a swim up bar. So a large like pool area and swim up are really, really nice. There were like lots of sunny areas, a good shady area. I was always, always seeking out those, those shady area. Yeah, it was nice that there was a good part of that area that was in the shade as well.
[00:32:51] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:32:52] Speaker C: And while this is not in the hideaway, which is the adult only pool area, based on feedback from travel advisors on the icon, they have chosen to make this an adult only pool as well because it does have the swim up bar and you know, kids and swim up bars have their place. But you know, swim and Tonic bar, it does have more of a Virgin Voyages vibe in a way. Absolutely. So yeah, it was a great, great space. Great space.
[00:33:24] Speaker B: I have to say we didn't mention this in our review of Virgin Voyages, but one of the thing I absolutely loved about their pool deck was they had this special decking material that did not get hot so you could walk on it on your bare feet. It looks like they may be using something similar here. Like I really hope other cruise lines start to use that material because it was like so nice to be able to get out of the pool and not have to like race across a hot deck. So that was, that was really nice.
[00:33:45] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: Let's see here. Oh, the elev. The elevator lob.
[00:33:49] Speaker C: Huge.
[00:33:50] Speaker B: This is which by the way, we got two comments saying, Disney, are you taking notes about the elevators? So yeah, yeah, exactly. That is so big. The elevator lobby is massive.
[00:33:59] Speaker C: And see, that's Only A through D and it goes like A through F on one side and so it's half on one, half on the other. It's absolutely massive.
[00:34:14] Speaker D: It.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:16] Speaker B: All right. Okay, we're getting into state rooms because we got some questions about state rooms. So. Yeah, let's chat state rooms.
[00:34:21] Speaker C: This is kind of. This is the stateroom that Kaylee and I stayed in. We did ask the stateroom attendant to split the bed. So we had a little table in between our two twins. They can be made together as a king.
King is queenish.
It's a lovely room for two people. I think technically it could have hold a third on the sofa bed.
With that bathroom, I would say, you know, think carefully if you want more than two in there, depending on who the third is.
[00:34:55] Speaker D: This is well said.
[00:34:58] Speaker C: However, the shower was quite spacious.
I've been on other royal ships that have had smaller showers and standard balconies. They've done a nice job with the shower design.
Kudos to Kayleigh for using the word.
[00:35:14] Speaker D: It has a cantilever door. So it sort of cantilevered comes in. You know, it sort of takes up half of each space when you open it and it just, it's not too intrusive. So it was a very well designed small bathroom.
[00:35:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean it looks.
[00:35:31] Speaker C: The shower has a seat in it. So, you know, which is really nice. I mean it's really well designed.
[00:35:37] Speaker D: Only one product.
This girl who's used to sweet glass.
[00:35:42] Speaker C: Was a little.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: Covetous.
[00:35:45] Speaker D: There was one little disc of hand soap and then there was one product in the shower that is like an all purpose cleanser.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: Right? Shampoo, conditioner, body wash, all in one.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: You can wash your hair, your face and condition. And by the way, you can take it outside and use it on your car. Yep, it's all purpose.
[00:36:01] Speaker D: It was fine.
[00:36:02] Speaker A: It was absolutely fine.
[00:36:03] Speaker D: I used it the whole time. It was fine. I survived.
[00:36:06] Speaker B: I gotta say, that shower looks weird. Oh, go ahead, go ahead, Karen.
[00:36:10] Speaker C: Or you can pack your spongelli and you know, feel like you're having a little taste of luxury from somewhere else and not have to add liquids. But it really is. There is lots of little nooks and crannies for shelf space in the bathroom area.
Kayleigh and I had plenty of room. We had many unused shelves in the bathroom space.
A whole drawer that was.
[00:36:35] Speaker A: We.
[00:36:35] Speaker C: I didn't. I think Kaylee knew it was there. I didn't know it was there. So we never used it in the bathroom. A pretty large drawer kind of under the, to the side of the sink.
So it was great. And, you know, there was a quick, a quick 60 seconds where we were concerned about the plumbing not working, and then it all got fixed.
That's part of a shakedown cruise.
[00:37:00] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Well, you might have been the first people to stay in the stateroom. Right. Even though they. They have multiple preview. Right. But not. They don't necessarily fill every room. And so you could have potentially been the first people. I gotta say, this particular room, the.
[00:37:15] Speaker B: Shower looks bigger than the one that I experienced on the independence of the seas. So that's. That's nice.
I gotta. You know what I love about the shower? The towels are in the shower. So I appreciate that.
[00:37:26] Speaker A: Yeah. I also love a seat in the shower because those of us who still, you know, have to shave our legs, you know, it's kind of nice to have someplace to put your leg rather than trying to. To put it up against the wall and doing actual.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: For those at home, Sam's trying to demo. Sam's trying to demo her leg placement on live television here. So there you go.
[00:37:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I love it. All right.
[00:37:54] Speaker B: Actually, before we move on from this.
[00:37:55] Speaker A: So there's another stateroom.
[00:37:57] Speaker B: No, I know. I just want to ask, like, this stateroom that we're looking at feels like a fairly typical kind of mid range stateroom on the ship. Is that fair?
[00:38:08] Speaker C: It's one of the. Now it's an ocean view balcony. They do charge more for ocean view than they do for central park view or surfside view, but otherwise very, you know, very standard. And if you choose a balcony, one of those other views, it's going to be mostly similar to this.
If you choose one of those standard balcony rooms, not like a family one or one what, you know, and so very typical.
[00:38:37] Speaker B: Okay.
All right. This is clearly a step up. What are we looking at here, Karen, in terms of stateroom? I can tell this is. This has got to be a suite.
[00:38:46] Speaker C: This is a suite. Kaylee, was this your suite that you fell in love with?
[00:38:51] Speaker D: I think this is the one that I was so enamored with. This is. I believe it's a sunset suite. And we saw several sunset suites, which means they're in the aft of the ship.
I'm not sure if this was the regular sunset suite or the corner sunset suite, which has a wraparound veranda, which was very n nice. But it's an incredibly spacious room, an incredibly spacious bathroom with a tub and a double sink.
And then you can see in the middle of the room with the. The photo with the bed there's a curtain that you can close to sort of separate those two spaces.
And the suites were just. They were beautiful. Really beautifully finished. I mean the colors are very relaxing.
I was very impressed with this room.
[00:39:34] Speaker B: Yeah, this is.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: I like that a lot of these suites you guys posted also on, on I think on Instagram, Karen, you had this beautiful, like the loft that we stayed in, which has the bed up above and then it's got the living room down below with the couch that turns into like a bunk bed. It's a really beautiful suite and a really nice layout as well.
[00:39:55] Speaker C: Yeah. And what you'll see in a lot of suites, if you see the tv, it swings. It's up against the wall, but it swings out. But also the bed is facing the balcony, which is a really nice touch. We saw a number of suite, had that.
So, you know, really great. So this is a step up. This was a sky level suite. So it does not have the royal genie, but it has, has a lot of the benefits of the concierge lounge and the concierge restaurant and you know, different priorities.
But you know, I think we have another. The next slide has some more suite pictures.
You know, there are a number of suite types on this ship. I think this is, this is one of the loft suites that's going to.
[00:40:43] Speaker B: Be like a crown suite.
[00:40:44] Speaker D: I think this is the royal loft suite. Royal loft.
[00:40:47] Speaker C: I think this is the royal loft. So it's two stories.
It has. The royal loft has a second bedroom downstairs with its own bath. It has a wraparound balcony with a hot tub and seating area and like.
[00:41:04] Speaker D: A baby grand piano.
[00:41:09] Speaker A: I mean, you need one of those in your suite.
[00:41:11] Speaker C: Right.
[00:41:11] Speaker A: Every practice Chopsticks, I guess.
[00:41:13] Speaker B: I mean, when I'm at sea. When I'm at sea, I'm constantly tempted. Tickle the ivories, you know.
[00:41:18] Speaker A: Yeah, he wants to play. You know, he doesn't know. I could play Heart and Soul and Chopsticks because I took lessons when I was a kid and that's about it.
Maybe I could play Mary Had a Little Lamb.
[00:41:28] Speaker B: The art here is also stunning. This, this art fixture, it looks like so beautiful.
[00:41:33] Speaker C: There's so many different little features in the. In details in these suites. And you know, I think that the ultimate family townhouse, which is, you know, the over the top family suites on Icon and Star. They're the ones that are getting a lot of press and we have photos of those. I did not include them in this slideshow here.
Those are like over the top, really bright and colorful and have the slide and the bunk beds and the video games.
You know, it's important to know that you can have an elevated experience on these ships and have it be more subdued and relaxing and calming. You don't have to go over the top.
[00:42:15] Speaker B: Well, and for folks at home who aren't aware. So Royal Suite class is kind of divided into three categories. They've got sea, sky, Star. So it's like progressing up from the ocean in terms of the categories. And so the last suite we saw was Sky Class, kind of that middle ground where you get access to usually the, the lounge, the restroom, restaurant, the combined concierge team, but not your own butler. This has got to be Star class, right, Karen?
[00:42:40] Speaker D: Absolutely.
[00:42:40] Speaker C: It absolutely is. You have a royal genie who's basically a butler. And the Star class suites are all inclusive with your beverage packages. Specialty dining, WI Fi, gratuities. Except for the laundry.
Laundry, yes.
You know, very, very few things, you know, that you would have to pay out of pocket for. There's a few specialty dining upgrades that are not include a, you know, a few experiences here and there, but a very inclusive, elevated experience. But it's, you know, you're going to pay for that in this case.
[00:43:14] Speaker B: Yeah. Although, dear Disney, this is where I want you to take notes because that is a concierge experience.
Like that inclusivity of dining and, you know, Wi Fi and laundry and all that kind of stuff like that, that really puts it over the top for us with Virgin. And it also does. Even when we sailed sky class on Royal, there were more amenities to Sky Class than what we've experienced sometimes in concierge and Disney. So this is an amazing looking suite, probably outside of our price range. But if anyone books this suite, we're happy to come and carry your bags for you. So.
[00:43:49] Speaker A: And get you espresso martinis maybe before we go ahead.
[00:43:53] Speaker B: There you go.
[00:43:54] Speaker C: Go to the next one.
[00:43:55] Speaker B: One more.
Yes.
[00:43:57] Speaker C: And here you guys were talking about sweets. Just thought this was a good segue. This is a couple of shots of the sweet sun area.
[00:44:07] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:44:08] Speaker C: It is two stories. I mean, so many beautiful seating areas. There is a large hot tub, but this is a true pool. If you zoom in, I think it says 4 foot 6 or something like that with a lifeguard in the. On the concierge deck. It's not a splash pad, it is an actual pool.
And there's a section called the Grove as you enter, which is a, a pool buffet area, basically.
[00:44:38] Speaker B: Look at that.
[00:44:41] Speaker C: And bar. They had everything from, you know, like sliders to, you know, lamb Chops. So everything from like, you know, the kind of pool thing you want to elevated food item available there.
That's in addition to the offerings inside the concierge lounge and Coastal kitchen. So I just wanted to really kind of showcase this because the pool, full on pool in the concierge deck, it's pretty cool.
[00:45:05] Speaker B: Sam, we've gone beyond. We've gone beyond tea sandwiches now.
[00:45:07] Speaker A: I'm sorry, I mean, I love the tea sandwiches in the concierge lounge on Disney Cruise Line, but I love me.
[00:45:15] Speaker B: One of those burgers. Or is that like a steak or a rack of lamb over there?
[00:45:19] Speaker A: Oh, it's lamb.
Lamb lollipops. Yeah, it look.
[00:45:23] Speaker D: I mean, by the pool.
[00:45:24] Speaker A: Yeah. This is a. This is a fantastic offering for those who now is this. This Axis access to Star.
Sorry, not start to C Class access.
[00:45:35] Speaker C: C does not get this access only.
Only sky and Star.
[00:45:42] Speaker A: This is the one thing where I would say, like, I think Sweet Class and Royal is. Personally, I think Sweet Class and Royal is worth it. But I think you've got to be at least sky or Star. I mean, I don't. You don't have to do Star. That's really where you get the butler. And you said everything, really almost everything included. But I think in order to get the benefits of their concierge like offerings on Royal, I don't think C Class is really going to cut it. I think you're better off just staying regular or making the junk to Sky. That's just my personal opinion.
[00:46:15] Speaker C: C Class is basically a junior suite category only for the most part. And you can have occasional access to Coastal Kitchen if it's available with a reservation for dinner. But otherwise it doesn't really get you a lot of benefits, so.
And you know, it's just a slightly better room.
Exactly, exactly. So moving up to Sky Class, I think is the way to go. Having done a Royal Genie, I love the Royal Genie, but I don't necessarily feel like I need a Royal Genie most of the time.
I don't necessarily see the value in it all the time, but I think the value in the sky class is fantastic.
[00:46:55] Speaker B: It's what I appreciate about you, Karen, because even when we sailed Mega Rockstar, we had like, you were like, are you sure? Like, maybe Rockstar. And we want it mega. No, we want Mega. And so I appreciate that sometimes if you bring us back to reality. And I appreciate that.
[00:47:08] Speaker A: Yes. But I also appreciate that Kaylee's like, no, I stay Mega Rockstar.
[00:47:12] Speaker D: And I'm gonna say I was ready to Book the.
I was ready to book the. The Sunset Suite there, which is sky. And, you know, Karen wisely said, when you're thinking about it, you have to think about the things that are no longer included. Included. Now you're buying, you know, the beverage package or the specialty dining package or. You know what I mean? There are definitely different ways to look at it, and you have to decide which of those amenities are important to you.
[00:47:38] Speaker B: Of course, Kaylee's gonna book Mega because she tries to shake her phone when she's at home to get champagne, and it's just.
[00:47:43] Speaker A: And nothing happens.
[00:47:45] Speaker C: I don't know. Rob. Rob comes running.
[00:47:48] Speaker A: Probably does come running with the. With the glasses and the bottom.
[00:47:54] Speaker B: So we did have some comments. Questions coming in through comments about staterooms. I think this is a good time to sort of just dig into some of those.
We had someone ask about the.
The infinite ocean view room and whether the window goes all the way up. So I don't know if you got to see one of those or know anything about those.
[00:48:12] Speaker C: We did. We did. I don't have photos of that in this presentation, but I'm happy to share them. And, you know, Kaylee, maybe what we can do is share some of these questions and. And over the next few days. The infinite verandas are awesome because you have kind of that balcony space inside your room. You have a curtain that shuts it if you want to have somebody sitting in that seating area.
And then the window opens like, halfway, and you have a switch that comes down from the top and goes down. So it's like halfway open. Like. Like a veranda would. Like a. Like a veranda balcony would be when.
[00:48:57] Speaker A: It'S closed, it's just a window. A wall of windows is essentially right.
[00:49:01] Speaker C: So windows. And there's another switch for a blackout.
A blackout. A shade that comes down that does a really good job.
[00:49:12] Speaker D: Or those rooms are available with the ocean view and with the Central park view and with the Surfside view. So they're not just ocean view.
[00:49:21] Speaker B: These are like the celebrity suites that they started with.
[00:49:24] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:49:24] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. Makes sense, because Royal own celebrities, so they've borrowed something from the. The luxury end. So. Yeah, that's cool.
There were some questions about those Surfside. Surfside family suites. And so Elizabeth is asking, do. How many people. Do they sleep? Are those the ones that sleep six? I don't think they sleep six. Right. Or do they.
[00:49:43] Speaker C: There is a Surfside family suite that sleeps six.
[00:49:47] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:49:47] Speaker C: I said that. I'm ready for the.
[00:49:50] Speaker D: That was good.
[00:49:51] Speaker A: Peter Piper.
[00:49:52] Speaker C: I'M ready for the song at the dueling piano bar where you had to say some S's and sh.
[00:49:59] Speaker A: The.
[00:49:59] Speaker C: There is one you have.
We have photos of that as well. Bunk beds when you come into the room with each with their own individual tv and then a sofa bed that can sleep too, and then the regular bed.
And did that have a. Did that have a split bath also? Kaylee?
[00:50:21] Speaker D: I don't. That one did have a split bath. Yep. That one did have a split split bath.
[00:50:25] Speaker C: That one also had a split bath. So those. I think we may be getting the names mixed up because there's also the Surfside Family Suite. There's one of them that has been. Is currently classified as Sky Class.
And we recently noticed, I think I shared this somewhere, that they are reclassifying it. They are bumping it down to see class.
[00:50:58] Speaker B: That was. Yeah, that was the suite I was looking at on Icon at one point. For us to go on Icon, because that was the low. It was like the lowest in Sky Class suite.
[00:51:06] Speaker C: Right.
[00:51:07] Speaker B: Available. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:51:09] Speaker C: I guess they didn't want six kids and, you know, they didn't want to have to put all those people into the Sky Class category.
[00:51:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
Vanessa is also asking on those. The. From the Surfside area. I mean, do you. Do, you know, can you hear noise from the Surfside area in the rooms? I mean, my sense is that, like, when the windows are closed or the balcony doors are closed, they're pretty. Pretty quiet.
[00:51:29] Speaker D: But you cannot hear a thing when the windows are closed and the balcony doors, when you open them. Yes. There is plenty of ambient noise coming wafting up. But we were very impressed when you closed those, whether it was the infinite or the veranda at how noise proof it was.
[00:51:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
Vanessa was also asking if by any chance you were able to see any accessible staterooms and what those look.
[00:51:52] Speaker C: We sure did.
We sure did. And we have some photos of an accessible Surfside view balcony. I think it's outside.
[00:52:02] Speaker D: Family balcony. Yeah.
[00:52:03] Speaker C: Yep. And, you know, it has all the features that you would expect of an accessible stateroom. Lots, lots of floor space. Lots, you know, lots of all the great standard features. And we can share some of those photos as well.
[00:52:17] Speaker B: I feel like maybe speaking out of timber, I feel like Royal has a pretty good, you know, accommodation or accessibility with the champagne.
[00:52:28] Speaker A: This is literally the best moment ever. Rob, where's mine? That's. I want to know.
[00:52:35] Speaker B: For those listening after the fact, going.
[00:52:36] Speaker C: To be shaking our phones.
[00:52:38] Speaker B: For those after the. For those listening after the fact, Kaylee's Husband Rob just came in and delivered a bottle of champagne in a glass. So there you go.
But I was going to say I feel like Royal has a decent track record with accessibility. I haven't, I haven't heard about too many issues for them with accessibility.
[00:52:54] Speaker C: I think they do. I think we should make note that we did notice the hideaway area, the adult only pool.
While we saw a lift for I guess maybe the hot tubs to get down to the pool and bar area. We could not identify an accessible route.
So it's possible that there was some sort of, you know, crew way in that would be accessible. But that may be one part of the ship that is not accessible and something that we would need to look into a little bit further. But everything else is. Seemed great.
[00:53:34] Speaker B: Okay. And then I think there's one more, there's a couple more questions here. One was Wesley's asking. I'd love to hear about regular staterooms that sleep five or more that are not infinite balcony. I think those are the family suites that we've been talking about. But I, I wonder what about for like folks who might have not littles as well. Like what are the options for kind of those folks who would normally I think be in like a family deluxe family veranda on Disney.
[00:54:01] Speaker C: Yeah. So I mean there's a lot of different stateroom configurations and really we just, it's hard to put them all, keep them all in our head. Yeah.
But they do have kind of a sofa bed with trundle situation and Kaylee and I were trying to figure it out back and forth. Kaylee, I finally did confirm that the beds can actually be set up as a trundle with one low and one high. Or you can lift it up and make it into one kind of queen size bed. It's an option on those beds that have that trundle feature. If you see a room that has a handle under the sofa, that's a trundle bed.
And then for the families of five, they do have a drop down bunk.
There's also a different way of connecting rooms.
[00:54:52] Speaker D: I was just gonna say this. Yeah, yeah.
[00:54:54] Speaker C: Why don't you go ahead and share about that.
[00:54:56] Speaker D: So this is a different type of connecting room than I've ever seen before.
So instead of an interior door that connects two staterooms for connecting, it's an exterior door that closes that they can sort of bring out into the hallway and then a little vestibule and the interior doors open. So if you've ever stayed in like a hotel, like a Four Seasons or someplace where the connecting is on the outside and then your interior, you know, your actual stateroom doors can open up and so you can go back and forth that way.
[00:55:28] Speaker B: So they can sell.
Oh, go ahead.
[00:55:32] Speaker D: No interior connecting doors on this class of ship. They're all exterior like that.
[00:55:37] Speaker B: So they can sell them as non connecting rooms basically or if you want them. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's exactly. Matthew's asking and this is an impossible question to answer. So Karen, feel free to punt this one but I do, I do wonder the first room.
[00:55:54] Speaker A: Just that question with your. It was your room. If there's a. We don't know if. And even give a ballpark.
[00:55:59] Speaker B: I was. Is there like a, like I think about Disney Cruise line being about $1,000, you know, a day at times for like a family veranda.
[00:56:09] Speaker C: I will just tell you I'm horrible at keeping numbers in my head. I think the question then was cost. Not sure exactly where the question was.
I quoted Star and icon for early June 2026, seven night ocean view balcony for two people and I would say it was starting around 3200 per person.
So 64, 6500 for the week at that time.
That was earlier today.
I think I got that correct. So these are the newer ships. If you look at like the newly renovated all that's doing six and eight night alternating western and southern in the same time frame, it's quite a bit less expensive. So you, you know, just like with any product, you're paying a premium for the new, for the newest shoes, I have to say I think it's worth it. I mean personally this ship is amazing. I, I just think that like if you're going and want to have a fun time with a group of people or with families, this is, this is just such a fantastic option. We haven't even started talking about the entertainment and the food.
[00:57:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I know we're already running up to an hour but let's, let's spend, let's, let's hang out a little bit longer here and talk food.
So this looks like some amazing food to me. Talk to us about this.
[00:57:29] Speaker A: Are Quick Bites. Love it. Yeah, Quick service.
[00:57:33] Speaker D: So on the left we have the soft serve ice cream station that's in the Surfside area. So that's available, you know, at no additional cost. Just like we're used to on our Disney cruise ships in the center. I believe this was at Base Camp which is sort of a family friendly ex, like outside poolside sort of place that had all kinds of Great options. I mean they had burgers and fries and tots and all of that, but then also many other things with a whole outdoor seating area.
And then on the right you've got some of the goodies at what Karen was talking about earlier, the Pearl Cafe. So up at the top of like sort of in the Royal Promenade area.
And they would change these out throughout the day. Down on the bottom are those egg bites that Karen loved.
And they had this is breakf. So they had a number of different breakfast sandwiches and then they changed them out with different things throughout the day. And there are like four or five cases with all different things.
[00:58:31] Speaker B: So that's just such a variety of food there that like I'm just not used to seeing on Disney.
[00:58:37] Speaker A: Well, I will say that's one of the things that Royal does really well. In fact, it's just like the, the variety of food on board is generally greater than what's the variety on Disney. I mean that's, that's the quality is not always better or even as good. But there is generally, you know, more variety, I would say, than on Disney. And I think the buffet reflects that.
[00:59:03] Speaker C: One of my like disappointments about Royal until now has been the lack of easy to grab food on the pool deck. And you know, then they added LF Logo Fresh, which is kind of like your, you know, text match on the pool deck. But, and, but now on Icon and Star, in addition to El Loco Fresh, they have this base camp and I was just so excited to see like a burger and tots or they had pretzel bites and you know, things like that.
[00:59:37] Speaker A: You're speaking my love language with pretzel bites. I There you go. There you go.
[00:59:41] Speaker C: And pizza.
Sorrento's pizza is a classic on all royal ships. It's open to like 3am they also have, have a gluten free pizza that you can, that you can order, you know, really solid pizza. If you want something more elevated, you can go to Giovanni's wine bar and get something there.
Haley's got to talk about the pad Thai.
[01:00:07] Speaker D: Oh my gosh, I'm still dreaming about this pad Thai. It was so delicious.
So one of the included options is the Aquadome market which is sort of a food food court kind of vibe. So like kind of similar to Virgin where there are a few different stalls that are offering different typ the food and there's like a barbecue stall and there was this Thai food stall. There was a stall where they were making French crepes and then there was a Mediterranean Stall.
And we tried out almost, I think all of them, actually.
We ended up going for dinner one night to the Aqua Dome market. And this is the pad thai that I had. And I woke up dreaming about it the next morning. And we had to go back for lunch. Which on a ship with so many options really tells you. You.
[01:00:56] Speaker B: It looks amazing.
[01:00:57] Speaker A: It looks really good.
[01:00:58] Speaker B: All of this food looks amazing. Yeah.
[01:01:02] Speaker C: So, yeah, I'm just gonna. I'm gonna owe to the pad thai and Brian, you gotta go back a second. I know, I know we're talking a lot, but I also had the Mediterranean at that same food court, but on the right there are the Oreo cheesecakes. And I have to say, I have to say that they are better. I believe that they're better than Disney's.
[01:01:26] Speaker A: I gotta tell you, the new Oreo cheesecake thing that they're doing on Disney is just trash. And like, it is not the old. The Oreo cheesecake that I love is the one that's the wedge that looks like a real piece of cheesecake. Now they're doing this weird oval looking thing that just looks like a fancy dessert. It's not. And it's like whipped and it's just not the same. It is not the same. So I am open to finding a new Oreo cheesecake. So if you're telling parents that this is a better one than I.
[01:01:55] Speaker C: We did see two varieties, one in Windjammer and one at the Pearl Cafe. I think the Pearl Cafe had like some more like cream on top, but the base was identical. And I am a fan. Absolutely.
[01:02:11] Speaker B: Is this main dining dining?
[01:02:13] Speaker C: Yeah, main dining. Now, I have to say we did pay the upcharge to get the surface and turf. $35 a person. You can get the filet and lobster tail at main dining any night you wish.
Everything else, you know, we had standard, you know, soup, salad, desserts.
And I think we agreed they were all on par with Disney Cruise Line, basically, you know, good to very good.
Not necessarily anything like excellent that we had in main dining, but, you know, very standard fare. And we felt like after one night we had experience main dining. And that's why we decided to try some other options, like going to the food court that one night.
[01:03:03] Speaker B: These look like the specialty dining. So I'm. I've clearly got hibachi here, which I love this location for hibachi off of Central park because the ships we've been on, it's been kind of in the basement.
[01:03:14] Speaker C: They have made the. They have made Izumi so gorgeous. It's expanded and I think that's one of things. It's like, it might seem like the same number of restaurants in Central park, but I feel like Central park is longer because, you know, they have expanded it and there's so many hibachi tables inside Izumi now. And that space that, that's like the prime table right there with all the windows just gorgeous hooked is over there by the Aqua Dome. It's seafood.
On the right we have the Supper club, which was just a gorgeous venue that, that does not photograph very well because it's dark and intimate with like a little stage on, you know.
And then Kaylee and I had girl dinner the last night at Giovanni's Wine Bar and it was fantastic. We had apps and pizza and wine and. Highly recommend.
[01:04:07] Speaker A: Love it. I have to say I have. Oh, I've been super impressed with Royal's specialty dining. Of course it's an add on charge, but you can pay for like an add on, like a three nights of dining in, you know, specialty restaurants or unlimited specialty dining. That's one of the different packages that you can buy and I think or you can upgrade and have the Royal Genie and on and be in Star class and have it all included. But I do think that's one area where it's worth the upcharge, although maybe less so on this ship because there are so many other options like the, like the Pad Thai. I'm. I'm thinking I got to try that.
[01:04:47] Speaker B: Is there. So in terms of. Let's talk just between Icon and Star. Are there different. Any different or new dining experiences on Star that aren't on Icon?
[01:04:57] Speaker C: I think that they've changed the name of the supper club between the ships.
[01:05:02] Speaker B: Okay.
[01:05:02] Speaker D: And otherwise I believe Marketplace is a little bit different. The offerings and the Aqua Dome Marketplace are a little different on Icon.
[01:05:09] Speaker B: Okay. And what's the supper club has a show aspect of. To it, Karen?
[01:05:14] Speaker C: Yeah, there's a stage where they can do kind of like a little. I mean, I don't know what the, what the music is, but it felt like a little like a jazz club.
[01:05:23] Speaker D: It's supposed to be like a spring 20s kind of. Yeah, yeah.
[01:05:27] Speaker A: Well, and the one on Icon is called Empire Supper Club and I think that that one is kind of like that, that Boardwalk Empire vibe.
[01:05:35] Speaker C: Right?
[01:05:35] Speaker A: Like, like that show with the gangsters and it's like a roaring twenties kind of feel.
And so I, yeah, I think that's what going for with this.
[01:05:46] Speaker B: Does this ship have any like speakeasy kind of bars on I know that's something that they were doing on. On, I thought the Oasis class refurbs or maybe the icon.
[01:05:59] Speaker C: We didn't find any speakeasy.
[01:06:01] Speaker B: Maybe you just didn't look hard enough or know the password. But no.
[01:06:03] Speaker C: Okay.
We didn't hear any buzz about a speakeasy. But I will tell you that after. On the first day we had a couple misses with cocktails and I think it was more like. More the wrong thing and the cocktails not being good.
The cocktails overall on this cruise were fantastic. We're usually not fans of the mixology on Royal Caribbean and they have definitely upped their game here. And just know to ask for the kind of liquor you want.
We were in the Dueling Pianos bar and they have a drink. All the drinks are themed towards music and wanted to order the Gin Blossom. And I just thought to ask what kind of gin do you use? And she pulled out like the, well, gin. But I saw the Botanist and Hendrix behind her. So I said, can you make it with botanists? And she said, absolutely.
So I don't. I think that with beverage packages that's probably included. There might be enough charge depending on what type of alcohol you request. I don't know the exact chart, you know, prices for everything. But it's worth it to ask, you know, if you're picky about certain things to go ahead and ask for what you want. We go had a great espresso martini at Giovanni's versus being disappointed at the espresso martini on tap at Schooner Bar.
There's a great bar, Kaylee, what is it called on the.
[01:07:34] Speaker D: The top right picture that's 1400, like off of the Royal Promenade.
[01:07:40] Speaker B: Okay.
Did you. Did you feel like. So, you know, I think people have this image in their mind and it sparked the question earlier about does it feel crowded? You know, been in some nightclub venue type of spaces on the Noasis class. I feel, you know, I can feel a little full. Right. And did you find that if you wanted to just get a quiet drink in the evening, you could find a spot to do that and not feel like you were sort of surrounded by tons and tons of people or like. I'm just curious about the nightlife aspect.
[01:08:09] Speaker C: I think, I think that, you know, Central park was a great place to grab a glass of champagne. And they had. I think I have a photo, a harpist one night.
You know, there's different parts of the ship that are going to be quieter or busier. And then sometimes that could change from hour to hour. Right. So, you know, a lounge that might be quiet all of a sudden might get full with the next activity.
So, you know, I think that when you explore the ship, you'll find, as we noted, there's a lot of music in the daytime, especially on the pool deck. You're going to kind of go from area to area and there's a lot, a lot of music.
But then at night on the pool deck, hot tip.
The hot tubs did not seem to close and they were quiet and peaceful and beautiful and, you know, a great place to unwind.
[01:09:08] Speaker B: So nice.
[01:09:10] Speaker C: You can always find something, I think.
[01:09:11] Speaker B: Yeah. We learned on Virgin that The pool's open 24 hours, so like you can just sit out there with a drink anytime you want. It was. It was fascinating.
Awesome.
[01:09:20] Speaker A: That's what you get when you don't have kids on a ship.
I mean, that's really what it is.
[01:09:25] Speaker B: It's a complete running track.
[01:09:27] Speaker A: Complete running track.
So I will say Royal does a nice job with its running tracks. They are quite protected. You don't have a lot of people like walking through them and they're not like there are really people walking, talking. You don't have people just like standing and playing shuffleboard and in your way and having to dodge them. So that's one thing. And then here's of course, obviously a shot of the gym.
They've. They've got full, you know, full gyms on board all of their ships. Cardio and weight machines as well. These are the venues I'm more interested in talking about.
[01:09:59] Speaker B: Pianos.
[01:10:00] Speaker A: Yeah. So dueling is this full time. A dueling piano bar. And then obviously this is like an act. This is the Aqua show on the right. The right hand side, but yeah. Is this full time at Dueling Piano Bar?
[01:10:11] Speaker D: This is the dueling pianos bar. That is the name. It is a. Every time it's open, there are dueling pianos.
And it was fantastic. And we tried out both adult dueling pianos and family friendly dueling pianos. Karen is a huge aficionado and so she dragged me back again and again and again, but I really enjoyed it.
[01:10:34] Speaker A: Yeah, you and me at a dueling piano bar anytime. I'm all about them. Love the sing along.
[01:10:40] Speaker C: I'm gonna just go and park myself there and it was so fun. You know, there still is the designated karaoke spotlight karaoke venue as well on these ships. But these, these is a guy and a woman and they were fantastic.
I mean, when we went the first night, we caught the tail end of the earlier show because we had been the future. And it was standing room only, but you could stand and you could still participate. And then we just went. We're like, we're going to go early and get a seat for the next show because people did kind of clear out. And we just went and had a drink and had our prime spot.
Super, super fun and highly, highly recommend. We talked about the Aqua show on the Right. Amazing.
And it was not. There were some technical issues that they were still ironing out. So. So we miss little components of the show, but the talent and the visuals, the acrobatics, the synchronized swimming, the diving, the dancing, all there.
[01:11:45] Speaker A: Love that.
[01:11:46] Speaker B: Amazing.
[01:11:47] Speaker A: Now I know you mentioned the show and here's the stage I forgot about.
[01:11:51] Speaker B: Back to the the Musical. Tell us how it works.
[01:11:54] Speaker A: I know I had texted you guys ahead of time about this and I was like, please tell me you're going. Cause I need to hear your view. Let's throw this one over to Kayleigh. Kayleigh, tell us, what did you think of Back to the Is it as good as a show you might see on Broadway in New York?
[01:12:11] Speaker D: It was phenomenal.
I have not seen Back to the the Musical, although I'm very familiar with the movie. So it, it stayed very close to the storyline. I don't know how that compares to the musical.
It definitely had a little bit of a campy vibe to it in a way that really worked and was very fun.
[01:12:31] Speaker A: Fun.
[01:12:32] Speaker D: And this, the show that we saw was actually the first time that they performed it live for an actual audience, even though they'd done plenty of, you know, rehearsals and all of that.
And it was, we had one little, I think there was one little glitch where they, you know, said, oh, don't you love live theater? Hang, stick, stick with us for a few minutes and we're figuring something out. I don't know what happened. We couldn't sort of of figure it out, but it didn't take away from the show at all. The, the acting was fantastic, the actors were great and the singing was very fun. There's a 16 piece orchestra that plays the music, which just blew me away, especially as the mom of a musician.
I thought that was a really, really cool addition and absolutely comparable to other shows that I've seen either on Royal or on Disney or even on Broadway.
Yeah, I loved it.
[01:13:28] Speaker A: Love it. Yeah. I mean, I think it is really close, if not identical to the national tour version, which obviously was a slight adaptation of, you know, the West End and the Broadway show. And so, you know, because obviously they've got a. They probably have to. The sets might be a little bit different. I think that's probably the main issue is just the sets and the. The car and stuff. Might have to be a little bit. A little bit less special effects for on the ship. But it was incredible.
[01:13:59] Speaker D: I cannot even believe they did that at sea. I mean, it was.
[01:14:01] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Not to give it all away, but the special effects were like, jaw dropping.
And this is something that is included. But you do need to make a reservation ahead of time. They have, you know, our sailing. They. They showed it three times.
So I assume there'll be plenty of performances on a week long.
So fun. So fun.
[01:14:26] Speaker B: Amazing.
[01:14:26] Speaker D: Including a matinee. I do like that they offer the matinee.
[01:14:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:14:30] Speaker B: Sorry if I missed this in the discussion. Did they have the DeLorean on stage and did it do anything?
[01:14:35] Speaker A: Well, yes. We were giving away all the way.
[01:14:39] Speaker D: Yes.
[01:14:39] Speaker A: Yes. You said yes.
[01:14:41] Speaker C: There's a DeLorean.
[01:14:43] Speaker B: We'll talk off air.
Amazing. All right.
[01:14:46] Speaker A: Yeah, Fantastic. And then here's the harpist. And that was the harpist in Central park that Karen had mentioned.
They do have music musicians that perform around the ships on Royal, obviously.
[01:15:00] Speaker C: So many performances, live music, nighttime, like, parties through the promenade, like, you know, balloon drops, all kinds of activities. I mean, really, you could never say you're going to be bored on this ship. We didn't talk about the spa, you know, which is, you know, massive and. And gorgeous. Still not a fan of their.
What do you call it, their thermal rainforest kind of does not have windows. So I'm not a fan of that.
[01:15:35] Speaker B: When we saw it on Harmony or one of. One of the ships that we were, the Oasis ships, I was like, this is the size.
This is the same size as the ones they have on the Magic and the Wonder. And the ship is like twice the size. So, like, I'm like. I was unimpressed. I. I agree. I was kind of unimpressed with that one.
Okay, well, so as we wind down here, I'm going to do. I think we've reached that point in the show, Sam, where I'm going to ask some arbitrary questions, apply no judgment and have no rules.
And we're going to do a little bit of Brian, some Brian Rapid Fire here because I have some questions.
[01:16:04] Speaker D: I need my champagne.
[01:16:07] Speaker A: Exactly.
[01:16:08] Speaker B: My first question is to each of you. I just want to do some favorites from onboard. So what was your favorite dining venue on board, Kaylee?
[01:16:18] Speaker D: So because this was a preview cruise, the specialty dining reservations were all allocated so you couldn't just book specialty dining, so we sort of had to fend for ourselves.
And my favorite that we experienced was that we went to Giovanni's table. We sort of tweaked the system and walked up to the bar and like Karen said, we had sort of girls dinner, heavy apps and great wine. And I didn't realize that you could just walk up to the bar and have dinner. Like, I thought you had to have a reservation, so that was really cool.
[01:16:49] Speaker B: Nice.
[01:16:49] Speaker D: The ones as for ones we didn't experience, I'm super intrigued by the supper club.
[01:16:53] Speaker B: Well, I was going to ask is like, when you go back, what's the one that you didn't get to do that you most want to do? So it sounds like it's a separate club for.
[01:16:59] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:16:59] Speaker B: Karen, what about you favorite onboard that you experienced and the one that you want to do if you go back?
[01:17:06] Speaker C: Definitely want to. Definitely just love the vibe of girl dinner.
I would probably eat that pad Thai and that Mediterranean bowl that I had, like, you know, 24 7. That was just great, easy food. If you don't need to sit at the dining room, I want to go back to Izumi and do the tep, not the hibachi, but do the O Makase. Is that how it is where you do like a whole sushi dinner? I think that would be incredible.
[01:17:36] Speaker B: Nice. Yeah, that would be. That would be fabulous. Favorite bar space on borders. Favorite place to grab a. Grab an adult beverage.
Karen.
[01:17:47] Speaker C: I loved the vibe in that 1400 on the first floor there. It's just a fun venue. You felt like the bartenders, like, really knew what they were doing and had great cocktails.
Oh, Haley has another answer.
[01:18:03] Speaker D: My favorite was the hideaway in the afternoon and evening. So the hideaway is an area of the ship that we haven't really talked that much about. It is adults only.
It's got some hot tubs, a pool, like a really massive pool.
And then there's a very large bar on a whole back corner of the ship. And it gives sort of meridian vibes. Like, it's like the place to be for a sunset. And I could not believe how empty it was. I mean, we sort of had it to ourselves. And I had the best drink that I had on the whole ship there several times. So it was. That was my favorite spot. But not during the day when the DJ was playing, but in the evening. Evening when it had sort of thinned out and the sunset was spectacular.
[01:18:49] Speaker B: Okay, I gotta ask a personal question here from. For me personally, do they have an escape room on board the ship.
[01:18:56] Speaker D: They do indeed.
[01:18:58] Speaker B: My new favorite pastime.
[01:19:00] Speaker C: I think there might be two themes for it if I understood what I was reading correctly.
[01:19:05] Speaker B: That's cool.
[01:19:05] Speaker A: Well, it is a seven night cruise, so you can absolutely do two escape rooms in a seven night cruise and a Broadway show that's like three hours. So yeah, no question you can fit all that in.
[01:19:16] Speaker B: Okay, just a couple more questions. Questions for me. All right, favorite, like non bar, non restaurant, like favorite space on board the ship to just relax and hang out. Kaylee.
[01:19:29] Speaker D: Oh, gosh, I don't know. Can I pass to Karen and come back?
[01:19:35] Speaker B: There you go.
[01:19:36] Speaker C: Karen, am I allowed to say dueling pianos?
[01:19:40] Speaker B: Yes. That's fair.
[01:19:41] Speaker A: That's fair.
[01:19:42] Speaker B: Totally fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice.
[01:19:44] Speaker D: Yeah. Dueling pianos was pretty amazing. Like I said, Karen C aficionado for sure. But I had a really good time there. There were a couple of bars that we didn't spend much time in. One of them called Bolero, which I think has live music pretty often that we sort of passed through. There were a number of spaces that we didn't get to actually spend time in, but very. Some very pretty spaces.
[01:20:04] Speaker B: Nice.
All right, so I've got one question here from Tracy and then one last question for both of you. So the question from Tracy was Karen and Kaylee comparing the cost service to Disney. What are your thoughts? And I will say I have talked about this on the show before. When we've sailed Royal, I always feel like it typically clocks in at a lower price tag than did not. If you're sailing star class, let me just set aside star class, but usually at Skyclass and below, it clocks in at a fairly comparable or below what Disney would price a similarly sized stateroom and sailing for.
And I always break this question down into sort of the.
If Royal gets me 80% of the Disney experience and I'm missing what I feel like is 20%, is the 20% worth the additional charge to me on Disney or not?
That's kind of how I've thought about this question, Karen. Kaylee, I don't know how you think about this, like as you compare this between Disney and something like icon, as opposed to the sort of the full Royal Fleet. Where do you come out on sort of this cost service equation between icon and like sailing on a Disney cruise?
[01:21:11] Speaker A: He means icon class. So icon.
[01:21:13] Speaker B: Icon, sorry, Icon and star. Yeah, yeah.
[01:21:17] Speaker C: You know, I personally think that Disney is its own category of vacation. Right. Like we always say, like there's a piece of our heart that is connected to Disney in a way that I won't have that emotional connection to a Royal Caribbean cruise, except for the amazing memories that I'm going to make on it. Right. So, so, but you know, so I think of it more as do I want to go on a Disney cruise or do I want to go on like a really fun all inclusive vacation or really fun Vegas trip? Because that's more of what I would put the Royal Caribbean thing in. So it's, it's just, it's not, it's a different type of vacation experience and there's a great place for that. Like I think it would be, it's an amazing vacation experience. It's just different. Right. So there's hopefully room in my vacation hard for, for both.
You know, I cannot pay a little extra for that. You know, you pay a little extra for that. Those Disney, those, those Disney, the Disney nostalgia.
[01:22:26] Speaker D: Yeah. I couldn't have put it better. I think it's too, I don't think it's apples to apples. Like it's two completely separate vacations for me. And Disney will always have our heart. I mean, my daughter grew up on Disney. We have the connection to those stories and those characters.
But this was super fun. And like Karen said, when you go to Vegas and you sort of spend the whole time going, wow, wow, wow, you know, that's sort of what Royal felt like. And you know, I put this teaser in my, my travel group and I said, like, I boarded this ship. Think that I. Thinking that I was going to learn some things for my clients and sort of, you know, this would be a great experience. And I left the ship thinking that I would book it for my family because we had an amazing time. So.
[01:23:06] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I, I, Sam, I've secretly been looking on the web browser for, you know, spring break 2027.
So. Yeah, let me just ask, I mean, I think you've kind of implicitly answered this. Let me just ask this straight out, which is who would you. So Disney Cruise Line family is over here and they're thinking about taking their next cruise.
Like, what is the, what is the reason why they should think about Royal instead of taking, taking that, that Disney cruise?
[01:23:37] Speaker D: Well, maybe they have older kiddos who are looking for something sort of more than the Aqueduct and the kids club. They want something, some more sort of thrills.
Maybe they're a couple who is traveling without their kids and they want something that's got more adult options. Not that Disney doesn't have them, but there are going to be more options. On Royal, um, you know, it's, I think a Disney family would have an amazing time on a Royal Caribbean Cruise, but it's not a Disney cruise, you know.
[01:24:04] Speaker A: Yep, yep. I agree. I think also, like, if you, if you're okay without like character experiences right on board, like you, if you, I'm not saying you will, you know, like, yes, you, you might miss them. But like if it's, you know, you can enjoy the cruise experience without having those character experiences and without having the Disney storytelling and having some really good storytelling that's just not Disney themed. Right.
And not all of the ships, I think we're really, when we're talking about this, we're talking about Icon and Star that have the newest amenities, the newest shows, the newest restaurants and they've really like leveled up the experience. I think not all of the older ships would, I say are necessarily something I would recommend, but I do think just depends on the ship, right? Like it depends on the ship and when, how much they've been, you know, retrofitted or, you know, dry docked or whatnot. So it really depends. But in this case, like, I do think we're talking about a leveled up experience on these brand new ships and I think the thrills part is a huge part of this as well because I do think like some of the tween teenagers and older, they might feel like they've sort of grown. Not all, but some feel like they've sort of grown out of some of those Disney experiences. It kind of depends on the personality, reality. Everybody knows their own kids, right? Some kids do kind of grow out of those Disney experiences and maybe they rediscover them again as adults, maybe they don't. But those are the kids that I think are really royal. This is sort of that Royal Cruise is really designed to, to really serve. And I do think Nathan loved some of those. He's not the biggest, you know, he's not, he's not a rock climber, but he loves like the wave, you know, the flow rider. Right. So do you think that's, that's a super great recommendation for that family particularly whose kids maybe feel like they've outgrown some of those Disney experiences.
[01:26:01] Speaker B: Well, as we round out, what is a super sized episode for a super sized ship, Karen, We've been flashing it on the screen, but remind folks if they want to give Icon a try or they want to book for really almost any cruise Star a try or.
[01:26:17] Speaker A: Any Royal Cruise, frankly, if they're interested.
[01:26:19] Speaker B: Tell them how they can so find.
[01:26:21] Speaker C: And reach so Kaylee, I want to just mention Kaylee and I came back with gifts. We are, we were able to book the next cruise offer that we can share with our clients. So that's why I had the next cruise logo up earlier.
So only that onboard offer that you usually can get only if you're sailing. We were able to get a limited number but a fair amount to share with any of you all who want to book any Royal Caribbean Cross cruise.
We're going to give away some swag for anybody that books the Star.
So the first two Star bookings that we get are going to get some a swag pack.
And you can reach us at the DCL duo at mypathunwinding.com or mypathunwinding.com forward/dcl Al duo.
[01:27:13] Speaker B: Well, Karen, Kaylee, it is always a treat to have you on and tell Rob next time we're recording at your house, Kayleigh, so that we can, we can all have champagne.
[01:27:22] Speaker A: So we can all have champagne.
[01:27:25] Speaker B: But fabulous to have you both on. Thank you so much for sharing this fantastic cruise and all this information about Star. We might have to have you set aside one of those offers. We will see. But thank you so much for coming on. For everyone out there listening, watching, we will be on hiatus next Monday because we will be aboard the Disney Wonder sailing to or actually we embarking on the Disney Wonder to Alaska. So our first time in Alaska.
Yeah, but we will be back Monday. Well, we will be back either Monday or Tuesday a week later. Stay tuned. We're trying to figure out the date for a live episode with us to.
[01:28:02] Speaker C: Talk about Alaska Cruise.
[01:28:03] Speaker A: Alaska cruise.
[01:28:04] Speaker B: Obviously I've been joking all summer. Everyone that we know who has some kind of podcast or vlog has been on a Disney cruise this summer to Alaska. So I've been saying like we may not have have the first word, but we will have the last. So we will let you know how our sailing went. Plus we've got some fun things to share with you about some things we're going to get up to in Vancouver before the cruise. And also our excursions I think are going to be pretty fantastic hopefully. And we will be sailing in the Roy Disney Suite, so there's that. So we'll be talking all about that experience one and done on that probably for us, but it will be fun nonetheless. So stay tuned for for that. But with that, everyone out there, thank you for listening, thank you for hanging in, thank you for watching and we will see you in two weeks to talk more about Alaska. So thank thank you everyone for watching.
[01:28:50] Speaker C: Thank you everybody.
[01:28:56] Speaker B: 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 published shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us live, we have a live show now every week Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want 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 forward/dclduo or email them at dclduomypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things, full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast, links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon. 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 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 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.
