[00:00:00] Speaker A: Listen, these are all personal opinions and thus they can't really be wrong. Even though I joke and say people are.
[00:00:06] Speaker B: But there are some that are more right than others. Right? Like right.
[00:00:09] Speaker A: There are some that are more right than others. Exactly, Vicki. That's exactly right. And when I say right, it just means whether or not you agree with me and have similar.
[00:00:30] Speaker C: Welcome back everybody, to this week episode of the DCL Duo podcast. Brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and Sam, the Review Time Jingle. Go for it.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Simply the best.
Better than all the rest.
[00:00:43] Speaker C: There you go. There you go.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: It's always live, by the way. I should just like record a little snippet of that. I just. I'm a little bit concerned about fair use and copyright infringement for those lawyers.
[00:00:54] Speaker C: If you're covering the song with your own voice, you're okay.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Probably. Okay.
[00:00:57] Speaker C: I need to go find this. I need to go find the stem for the. Like, the music. And then we'll have you sing over top of it.
Maybe we can find a way to parody it and get you completely safe on the fair use side of things. So there you go. All right. This week's review comes from Thomas R. Who writes great DCL podcast.
The podcast was incredibly helpful as we prepared for our first Disney cruise. Exclamation point. So short. To the point. It's good to know that we're helpful. It's good to know that we're helpful.
[00:01:23] Speaker A: Shout out to Thomas, who's one of our highest level Patreons. He's awesome. We have been able to. If you are at our highest level Patreon participation, then you get a quarter quarterly call like video chat with the DCL duo. So just putting.
[00:01:39] Speaker C: That reminds me, I have to set that up. So thank you for adding one more thing to my to do list, Sam, for the podcast. Appreciate you. I have to set up the quarterly call.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: All right.
[00:01:47] Speaker C: But thank you, Thomas, for that. For all of you out there, again, the easiest way to support the show or one of the easiest ways to support the show besides becoming a Patreon. By the way, head over to patreon.com TCLduo we truly appreciate our Patreon members for financially supporting this show each and every month.
And for those who have not heard us say it before, we don't make money off this show. We just use the money that comes in to defray the costs and expenses associated with the show and donate the rest of charity. So.
So just if you want to help support the show. No, it's not paying for us. To go on cruises or for fabulous drinks on board. But to go back to what I was originally going to say, one of the easiest ways you can help support the show, head over to Apple Podcast, hit those five stars. If you lead us, leave us a written review, we'll read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. Thank you, Thomas R. For the review. Sam, over to you. For our guests, our topic, it's going to be a conversation today.
[00:02:34] Speaker A: Yes, I am super excited. We have a new guest. Not, not brand new to Cruising, but new to being on our show. So welcome to the show, Vicki.
[00:02:44] Speaker B: Thank you. So excited to be here. First time caller, longtime listener.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: Oh yeah, she knows the right words, the magic to Brian's ears. He loves that.
He loves that old radio talk.
We're super excited to talk to Vicki. We're going to talk about a European cru that she did this season on the Disney Fantasy. The Disney Fantasy as we're recording, this show is still over in Europe. It went over about a month ago on its transatlantic journey and is doing the entire season of Europe. We have a friend who's on for the entire season. Shout out, you know who you are. I won't mention you by name, but we are super excited to talk about all the different legs of the European season because obviously there are unique ports, unique itineraries and you know, having the one of the Dream class ships over there. Of course, the Dream's been doing it for the last two years. This is the first time the Fantasy has been over in Europe for the, for the summer season. So super excited to talk about that. But before we get into talking about your this trip in particular, Vicki, why don't you tell folks Disney background how you got into Disney Cruising and how many cruises you've done.
[00:03:54] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So our true Disney background didn't really start until we had kids. I went one time as a child but and my husband went one time many, many, many years ago. But we did the obligatory let's take our kids to Disney world thing in 2019, I guess a year before COVID I actually got the got a wild hair to run a run Disney race. So I did the wine and dine and then we did the parks at that time. So they absolutely fell in love. We've always been big Disney movie people and so we went once and then we were hooked on the park. So we've since been back to Disney World. Once did Disneyland and then as part of this trip went to Disneyland Paris. So lots of park stuff.
But really the true thing that, that made me look at Cruising was that I wanted to get the kids over to Europe. They are 12 and 9. So I thought we were at that great age where they can do things that are not kids stuff all the time, like, let's go see some sites. But they also still like us and want to hang out with us, and they aren't going to be annoyed that they can't spend those two, three weeks with their friends. So this was actually the first cruise that we booked, was this European cruise.
So we booked it on opening, like as soon as the itineraries dropped, we booked it. And then we realized, my husband and I, that, hey, you know, we've not actually cruised before. Do you think maybe we should try this once, twice before we fly across the Atlantic to get on a cruise ship? So then we booked two. We booked a just him and I three night on the Magic, and then we did a maritime cruise on the Magic as well with the kids. So both, you know, shorter travel, shorter cruises. Just wanted to make sure nobody got severely seasick or, I mean, hated cruising. And honestly, they love it so much. Now we have a goal to hit every Disney ship, so we're slowly trying to knock those out. We've got two, a lot more to go.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: I mean, it's a, that's a good start. And in like, in like what, like one year of time, you've hit three cruise.
[00:06:03] Speaker B: First one was in September of last year. Wow.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah, that's. I mean, that's, that's definitely a good pace. You'll get to the, you know, you'll. The problem is going to be, I foresee the adventure. I mean, that's going to be the big problem for most of us is like, you know, right now Brian and I have done all, all of the, all the current ships, all six ships. Right. But. And we'll get on the Destiny for her maiden voyage and perhaps get on the Destiny even for a preview.
But once the adventure comes out the next, we lose that, like, we lose that status of having hit all of the current ships. It's going to be much harder to get over to Singapore. Well, you fell in love with Cruising, obviously right away.
You planned this trip in Europe.
Tell us, like, what was the itinerary? What were your plans for getting over to Europe? Give us sort of the, the overview of what the trip was.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So I knew that if we. I had been to Europe a few times for work, My husband had never been, my kids had never been, so I knew if we were going to go and we were going to sit a plane where we live in the Midwest, so sit on a plane for collectively, you know, 10, 12 hours. We were going to stay for a while. So we. Because the ship or the. The cruise left out of Barcelona, we decided to fly in the Wednesday before the Saturday embarkation to have a few days in Barcelona. And then the kids said their one place they wanted to go was Paris. And so after we got off, we took the train to Paris. And of course, when you're in Paris, you have to go to Disneyland. Paris.
[00:07:37] Speaker A: Right.
[00:07:37] Speaker B: So that was the whole point. I mean, you're already there. Exactly. You're there. You have to go. So we did a few nights at the resort and went to the park for a couple days. But the itinerary on this one was very Italy heavy. I actually think when we first booked it, there was one France stop. I think they were supposed to stop in Nice, but I think it was only a month after we booked the. I think it was everywhere. Right. They had to slow. They couldn't go as fast because of the whales. And so they ended up getting rid of Nice and they added Palermo. So we did Palermo, Naples, Livorno and Civitavecchia on the stop.
[00:08:12] Speaker A: Oh, Nice. That's. I mean, that's a great. Like you said, Italy heavy itinerary.
Yeah. Last season and this season, they've had these issues with the whales. They just, in order to not disturb their habitat and get like, attacked by the whales because apparently whales have been like, kind of attack, you know, for the last couple years, like attacking boats. I'm not sure if it, like if they can.
[00:08:33] Speaker C: Shirowa.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: That's exactly. Don't we all? I mean, come on.
[00:08:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: I'm not sure if they could do significant damage to like a cruise ship, but I think it's, you know, obviously.
[00:08:43] Speaker C: Let'S not find out.
[00:08:44] Speaker A: All right, well, we don't want to find out, but also we don't want to disturb their habitat. Right. Like, this is. That's where they live. And, and, you know, we've got issues with losing populations of. Of certain kinds of animals all across the world, so we don't want to lose some of those, those whales. Well, let's. Let's dive in and talk about where you stay. We're not going to cover the Barcelona end or the Paris end because this is a cruise focused podcast. Of course.
I'm sure that you had an amazing time, planned a great itinerary. Yeah. But we could, we could. That would be Its own show.
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: We got to talk about. Yes. We got to talk about though, the, some of the logistics.
Where did you fly into and where did you start stay pre cruise in Barcelona?
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Yeah. So we flew into the. I can't, I don't recall the name of the airport, but the main Barcelona airport.
We flew in like the Wednesday before. I'm. I am a very anxious planner and so I was like, I got to give myself a buffer of time in case a flight gets canceled so we can ensure we make it there on time. So we spent a few days there. We stayed and we are Hyatt Hyatt Points, people. So we stayed at the Hyatt Regency Barcelona Tower. It's a little bit outside of the city, so it wasn't super convenient. I mean, we had to take a taxi in every day. But the hotel itself is beautiful.
My kids and my kids walked in, they were like, oh my gosh, this is so fancy. I'm like, it actually is. It has this whole glass atrium. It's crazy.
So we stayed there beforehand and we just taxied from the hotel the night before. I had scheduled a taxi to make sure we had one at that time, one of the big vans because of course we came with lots of things to take us to the cruise for. And I think it was like a 20, 25 minute jaunt down to the cruise port. So it was not far, very easy, but yeah, pretty smooth.
[00:10:34] Speaker A: Now, was the port kind of in the center of the city or is the port like outside of the city? I'm just curious as to where Disney was going in and out of this city.
[00:10:44] Speaker B: It's pretty central to the city. I mean, I don't know if, you know, if you're familiar with Barcelona. There's the big really tall W hotel that sits there. You can see it from the cruise port. Like it's right down, right down the shore from there. So it's pretty central. So I think regardless of where you stay, it's not going to be really far to get there.
I almost think it was a little bit. It probably took us as long as it would people staying in the city because we didn't have as much traffic to contend with. So.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Yeah, that makes sense. That can be one of those things you got to sort of add in time and planning for if you're in a major city. Just, you know, Saturday is not as bad as obviously a weekday for when you're dealing with rush hour traffic and all of that. But like, you just want to sort of put that into your, you know, planning time and whatnot. All right, well, you guys get to the port. You are Silver Castaway club members. What was your port arrival time and how did the boarding process go?
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Yeah, so I had heard from your podcast previously that especially early in the season, the Barcelona cruise port is kind of madness because they haven't really hit their stride yet. So I had gone in with very low expectations. Like, guys, this could be chaos.
It's fine. So we get out of the taxi, we drop our bags. We just kept a couple backpacks with us with, you know, necessities and some suits, and of course, the. The wine that we could bring on included in the backpack.
And it was very, very smooth. They actually had tents set up. We were in 11:15, port arrival time. We got there about 11.
They had tents set up with little sheets of paper that had port arrival time on it. So, like, all the 1115 people gathered under this tent. 1130, I think they let us in.
Um, so they were ahead of schedule when we got there. Security was very smooth. Um, and then once we got into the actual waiting area, got through check in, also very smooth. We maybe waited 20 minutes. We were boarding group six. Um, so we were on by, I mean, easily 11:45, if not 11:30. It was very, very fast.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: That's great. And it's also great to hear they had tents set up because it can be hot in Barcelona in the summer. That sun is. Is strong. And so if you're standing outside waiting, you know, to enter the terminal for your port arrival time, like, you're just. You can be dripping. And just that summer season is, Is. Is.
[00:13:10] Speaker B: And there's not a lot of shade around there. They have one overhang that comes off the building, but that's where they were queuing up the next group to go in. So anybody who got there early, which, you know, even though we know port arrival time says a certain time, we know there's so many people that get there super far in advance.
They were just going to be forced to sit out in the sun if they didn't have the tents there. So it was really nice. I was happy. Happy about that. Yeah.
[00:13:33] Speaker A: Now, tell me where your kids already out of school or did you pull them out of school early?
[00:13:38] Speaker B: So they were out. We are. The best thing that I say about living in the Midwest, we get out of school really early. So their last day of school was May 16th.
They got out the Friday we left on the 20th. They got out the Friday before.
So the end of May is typically our Vacation time because so many other schools are not out yet. It's not nearly as busy.
The weather is a lot nicer. We're not having to deal with mid July heat. And especially on. On dcl, the pricing is far better.
I think they're doing the same itinerary in July, and it was like, a $4,000 difference between the two.
[00:14:15] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I feel like, you know, it's the same as with Europe and with Alaska. Right. Because those are sort of the main cruises for the summer. Like, if.
If you can sail in May or you can sail in, like, late August or even September. Of course, most people, obviously, with. With kids can't do. September isn't going to work. But if you can sail in May or late August, depending upon. Like, for us, we end super late. Like, we. We're still in school right now. It's June 14th. Kiddo's still in school for, like, another week and a half. So.
Yeah, but. So for us, like, for us, the late August is the thing that can work, but. Yeah, that's amazing. The prices are significantly, significantly different.
All right, well, let's. Let's talk about boarding the Disney Fantasy. You guys had been on the Magic. Obviously, the atrium setup is the same, but it's bigger on the Fantasy. I'm imagining you guys are boarding on deck four, boarding into the atrium.
Tell us, like, how.
What was that like, seeing the Fantasy for the first time and having your family name announced.
[00:15:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it was amazing. And the Fantasy is a beautiful ship. Heard from so many people.
It's been the favorite probably pre Treasure.
And so. And it. It met all of our expectations. It was amazing. It was beautiful. I loved how big, how much bigger the atrium was. We, like, I had done some magic cruises, the Maritime on the Magic, and trying to cram everyone into that little atrium for the tree lightings and things was just overwhelming. And I'm not even, like, a claustrophobic kind of person. Even still. I was like, this is really small. So the Fantasy had a nice big atrium, which was great, and it was beautiful. The chandel, I think, was my favorite. I love. I love the chandelier on the Fantasy.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: I love the chandelier on the. I think that's probably my. My favorite chandelier as well. It's the sort of peacock design. It's like the. The fantasy is art deco style versus the dream is art nouveau. And it's just. It's just lovely. It's just a really beautiful, beautiful ship. Yeah. And she's so classic. Yeah. Well, tell us what Is your embarkation. I mean you're starting traditions.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: We are.
[00:16:24] Speaker A: I don't know if you know this, but Absol.
Yeah. What is your now. What is your now embarkation day tradition for lunch because. Or embark tradition period. Right. Like everybody. I feel like once you start sailing on Disney you have like sort of that game plan that you do. Right. When you board after, of course you get welcomed aboard and all of that. And you might have some logistical things to take care of. But what, what's your family's tradition?
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. We are cabana's first thing people. So we ate a very light breakfast that morning knowing that we were going to hit up the buffet as soon as we got on board.
The first sailing that we did, we had a later port arrival time and we tried to go to cabanas at like one o'. Clock. And it was just. I worried we were going to have to stand and eat our food because there were no seats available. So we go immediately. There's plenty of seating still. The food is all fresh because they've just put it out. So we enjoy a nice lunch, fill up our water bottles or you know, whatever we've brought with us.
And then we always do kids club check ins so we have an edge and an Oceaneers club lab. So we go to both of those and get them registered.
We have been very fortunate. Fingers crossed. We haven't had a need to immediately go to guest services for anything yet. But if we have to, I think that would be early, very early on.
And then if there is any kind of dining reservations or things that we want to make that we didn't quite get, we'll go take care of that. And then I mean this one, since we hadn't been on the fantasy, we really just walked around and explored and tried to get our bearings with where everything is.
[00:18:00] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean the good thing about going from like the magic to the fantasy is generally speaking things are in the same place. Like you know where Cabanas is, right. Where like Paulo is where the kids clubs are like it. While the deck numbers don't correlate exactly right. It's still like generally layout is pretty much the same when you go to the Wish and the Treasure. There's more differences. There are some things that are kind of generally the same. But obviously adult bar space is very different layout on the Wish and the Treasure than on the Magic through the fantasy. The first four ships. Yeah. So let's jump in and talk about actually the. Or jump back I should say and talk about the Planning process. As a Silver Castaway club member, you. You don't have a super early booking window for booking excursions, booking Paulo booking, or Remy, actually, because you have on the fantasy as well.
And, you know, even the drink tastings and whatnot, were there things that you guys wanted to book and did you have any difficulty in booking? We'll. We'll talk more specifically about excursions, but sort of as a general matter, did you.
Did you feel like you missed out on, you know, booking things because of your Castaway Club staff?
[00:19:21] Speaker B: The only thing that was sold out that we wanted was Palo Brunch, and we had done that on the previous one. And to be honest, with this cruise being so port heavy, I wasn't quite sure where we were gonna squeeze it in anyway. So Palo Brunch was. Was booked. But we did get Remy dessert, which I really wanted to do.
We got a champagne and wine tasting.
And then the other. Which this is kind of a funny story. The other thing I did couldn't get was Prima Note, so it wasn't even listed right when they released everything. So I'm like A. It's 11pm Central Time when we can check in. I get on right at 11 and start grabbing things. And Prima Note wasn't even an auction, so I had put a note in the. The Facebook group to see if anybody else had heard anything, because I thought that was strange. We had done. We had. How. I don't know how it happened. We actually got Prima Note. The first cruise that we did. I don't know if somebody had booked it and then dropped it right when we were gonna do it, but somehow we got it and loved it, so.
So I did notice probably two months out, it randomly popped up, but then it looks like it was available. When you tried to book it, you would get this red warning that it was full, which I thought was very strange. So I actually called DCL and asked about it, and they said, no, it's completely open.
Don't know what's happening. So they booked us on it.
Well, then I had a little bit of panic because we didn't know when all of the shows and stuff were going to be. My son love, love, loves the Disney shows. That is his favorite part of the cruise. And so we ended up canceling after all of that because I'm like, we might miss the show, and we can't do that. We had late dining. And so anyway, the day we get into the port, I pull up the WI Fi and it's still available. And I knew at that point, we were not going to have a show night one. So I booked it and we got in.
We were the only ones that booked it. We had a private prima.
[00:21:11] Speaker A: No, private.
[00:21:14] Speaker B: So I told them, I said, I think there's an issue with your app. Yeah. And because they had said that sailing after us, only one other couple had booked it as well. And so I said, you might want to look at that. I'm not complaining. This is great.
However.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Yeah, no, that's a. That's a great point because that. That shouldn't happen. I mean, it's wonderful. You get a private tasting, but, like, it shouldn't happen that there's only two people, like, they have, especially on. On the Fantasy. They actually, like, use part of the dining room. They don't even put you in the private room typically. And so, yeah, they should have, you know, a group of, you know, 20 people or more like. I think. I think we had more like 25 people when we did it on the Fantasy over in December.
[00:21:59] Speaker C: You know, this isn't the first time I've heard about the private. I feel like we had someone on recently we talked to also ended up with, like, a private priminote.
So, yeah, I do wonder if there's something on the tech side that's like.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:10] Speaker C: Causing some issues for them. Yeah.
[00:22:11] Speaker A: Or it's probably that.
[00:22:13] Speaker B: I mean, I also wondered if people don't know, like, there were so many Europeans on the cruise. Right. Who. Who don't get the chance to sail as frequently as we do here in the US and so I kind of question that too. Maybe they don't know what it is.
[00:22:26] Speaker A: Yes. Well, and I think. I think that is one of the things that is beneficial about sailing in the European season is that, like, if you're like a hardcore Disney cruiser and you know, what's available, like, you might actually even as a lower castaway club status, be able to get things because people don't know what they are. Like Paulo and Remy. And a lot of those FOL folks don't even know about the onboard booking window because they're not listening to our show.
Listen to our show.
[00:22:54] Speaker B: Exactly. I learned everything I know from you guys. So this is how I knew when to do all of this.
Thanks.
[00:23:00] Speaker A: Well, and a lot.
A lot of people don't even know about the, you know, Facebook groups. Like, if you are listening and you've never been on a Disney cruise and you're listening to our show for the very first time, pretty much every sailing for Disney Cruise Line, it's not Started by Disney but like somebody who is sailing on your sailing is going to start a Facebook group and it's a great resource for asking questions or finding out what's available even before your onboard booking window opens. And a lot of the time the admins will post like information about different experiences. Information about onboard booking meaning our onboard booking for those who again who haven't listened to our show is when you can book onboard activities and it, and it is different depending upon your castaway club status or if you're sailing concierge. So earliest booking for those activities as concierge sailors right after that is Pearl, then Platinum, then Gold, then Silver, then first time cruisers. And so it is, you know, it is sort of spread out over, over time. And it's midnight eastern or for Vicki, 11pm Central. For us on the West Coast, 9pm Pacific. It's really great. We never have to stay up late. I'm in bed by 10 o' clock same.
[00:24:15] Speaker B: I just set an alarm to rewake myself at 11 o' clock to get on and, and book everything.
[00:24:20] Speaker A: Yeah, oh yeah. For us though the like Parks dining is where it's the opposite problem. We have to be up at 3 in the morning for the 6am East coast dining drop. So Parks dining is a nightmare for us. But cruise line onboard booking or check in is a dream. So. All right, well let's, let's jump to talking about these amazing European ports and then of course we'll kind of jump back onto the ship to talk about some of your onboard experiences. But of course, course in Europe the ports are the star and I know that that's you know, occasionally why people decide to book outside of Disney Cruise Line. Even, even loyal Disney cruisers will sometimes book outside of Disney Cruise Line because it's such a port heavy itinerary. But let's, let's talk about what you guys did.
Let's start with your first port of call. What was your first Palermo.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: The first, first stop.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: Oh nice.
And what did you guys book if anything? And you know, did you use Disney or did you book outside and what'd.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: You end up doing? So this was the one port we did anything. So we had looked Palermo when, when the ship pulls up, you are in Palermo. So we felt pretty confident that we could research on our own and just kind of walk around, explore the city. So that's what we did. We kind of went and saw all of the sites. We had a lunch reservation made. So we knew at one o' clock we had to be at this sandwich Place best sandwich. Oh, my gosh. I don't know how, like, somehow I'm like, how do you make a sandwich that good?
[00:25:47] Speaker C: It was called, like, what kind of sandwiches?
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Oh, it was like a really good. Almost like a focaccia bread. And I think I had one that had the. Was a buffalo mozzarella and some prosciutto, and they had some honey and pistachios. I don't know, the most random array of things, but, man, it was. I think about that sandwich still was so good.
[00:26:08] Speaker A: I have dreams about Italian sandwiches myself. There's a place here in Seattle called Salumi that is like.
And only in the summer they have this sandwich that is goat cheese, prosciutto, and fig jam.
And I literally dream about that sandwich. And they only offer it, like, for a short time every summer, and then it's gone. But they also do, like, these, like, Italian salamis and things like that. And it's very. It's very like, it's. It sounds like kind of what you would get. Of course, it's. It's not. You're not in Italy eating a sandwich. You're in Seattle eating a sandwich. So it's not the same atmosphere, but I have dreams about those sandwiches, so I know exactly what you're talking about. What else did you guys get up to when you were walking around?
[00:26:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, really, we just kind of saw the sights. We did a little bit of shopping.
We got some more wine to bring back on board because we're in Italy. Like, how. I think you. You could go to a random supermarket and they had like five and six Euro bottles of wine that were just amazing.
[00:27:06] Speaker A: And they're.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: They're very good, very good wine. So we bought some wine.
Yeah, I mean, we literally just walked around.
There was. There. There's a big fountain in Palermo that everyone likes to go to. Of course, it was. Was under construction, so they had, like, scaffolding and stuff up around it, which was fine.
There's one corner or one like, intersection you can go to that has these four really neat buildings around it. So we went and saw that. We stopped and had in a cafe and had some pastries and coffee. And we just kind of lazed around that first day because we knew the next three were going to be very busy.
So. But yeah, we loved it. It was great. It was beautiful city.
[00:27:46] Speaker A: I'm going to take a guess and say, was there gelato?
[00:27:49] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely.
So much gelato and cannolis. You know, you can't have enough pistachio Cannolis when you're. Especially in the south of Italy. So yes, lots of dessert. Lots of dessert.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: Cannolis. Oh my goodness. Love pistachio in general.
Yes, same.
[00:28:09] Speaker B: Yeah, lots of gelato. But it was great. I mean, I think we were back on the ship that day by probably 2 or 3 o'. Clock. My daughter really wanted to hit up the aqueduct and we didn't have a chance to do that the first sea day because we had a sea day in between.
And so we, we went that day, rode it several times. I think it was like a 15 or 20 minute wait. So it was very short. So we did some swimming and then got ready. That was the night of our first show as well.
Oh wait, no, no, no, not a show that night. We had a show the night before. So we had, we did not have anything that night. Just swimming and dinner.
[00:28:46] Speaker A: Swimming and dinner. Sounds like a perfect evening on the Disney Fantasy. Yeah.
Well, let's jump to your next port of call because I know that these next three, as you mentioned, were kind of intensive. Longer port days and lots of running around, sightseeing and whatnot. What was your next port?
[00:29:03] Speaker B: Yeah, so the next one was Naples and we opted to book a excursion through Disney. So we did the NP31. It was the Pompeii half excursion. So I think we met in the Walt Disney Theater around 8:15 that morning.
They loaded us onto a bus and we drove to Pompeii. It was probably 30 minutes or so, so not super far from the port, which was great. And we did a. Just a guided walking tour. It was a couple hours, so it was a pretty long, lots of walking. I mean, I don't think we even touched the surface of how big Pompeii is in that time. But so it was, it was amazing. And we had, I mean we had. I've never been to Italy. None of us had been. So it was just really cool to see some of the areas there that were just so insanely well preserved considering they're 2000 years old. So that was just awesome.
And part of that tour is when we end, we go back to the little entrance and we all get gelato as part of it. So more gelato, more gelato.
[00:30:03] Speaker A: I love that. I love that now it the Port of Naples. Were you, were you guys like right in town also or you guys outside? Oh, nice. So then when you're coming back to. So they bus you 30 minutes. When you, when they bring you back, are you able to like go around and you know, kind of sightsee on your own.
[00:30:21] Speaker B: Absolutely. Yeah. So we, we got back. On the way back, we stopped at a cameo factory and kind of got to see how the, how cameos are made, which was kind of cool. And then we came back from there and then we didn't get back on the ship. We actually went out in search of pizza.
Because you're in Naples, the birthplace of pizza. You have to.
So we had some amazing pizza and then we just continued to walk around. There is a area of Naples, it's called Gregorio Armino. It's. They also call it Christmas Alley. And they have all kinds of like hand carved, you know, figures and nativity scenes and just all these different things. So I wanted to go see that. So we went and walked around down there. We got ourselves a pistachio cannoli to eat while we were shopping.
And then, and then from there we kind of trekked it back to the ship. So I think that we were back by probably four that day. So still not super long. But I mean, eight hours off the ship, a decent.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: I mean that. That's a long day for. With a 12 year old and a 9 year old. That's a long day.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: Exactly. They were lots of walking.
[00:31:31] Speaker A: How did they do. Yeah, how did they do with.
Because you. Palermo, you took kind of like easier, right? You were just a couple of hours, your family walking around at your own pace. This one is, you know, they're doing the tour at Pompeii, probably at a good pace because obviously you said it was only a half day tour. I know there's a full day tour that Disney offers as well, but. Yeah, how, how did they do with that pace on this, you know, heavy port?
[00:31:56] Speaker B: Yeah, they loved it. They did fantastic. I mean, I think we were, you know, my husband and I were kind of cheering them on along the way. Like, you guys are doing great. Oh my gosh. But the whole, I mean, honestly, the whole. I was shocked. There was very little complaining. They did great. We always joke that they're completely different kids on vacation. Like they were eating things that they would never dare touch at home and they were like, this is delicious. I'm like, yes, yes, I know. Maybe you should move outside of your chicken tender Mac and cheese repertoire at home and try this there.
But they did fantastic. They loved it.
To kind of prep them for the trip. They both had read some of the who was book. So there was like, what. And I think they had like, what is Pompeii? And so my son actually read that for school a few years Ago. So like he knew all about Pompeii. My daughter had read it. They were all, you know, educated and ready to go and just, they thought it was really, really cool and they just couldn't believe that it was. I mean, I don't think they could really comprehend what 2000 years old plus means.
They're just like, wait, what?
But no, they didn't.
[00:32:59] Speaker A: That's awesome though.
I mean, that's because some, I mean, in the heat. But you're, I mean your point earlier though was, was super good in that going in May can really make a difference also because it is still hot, but it's not like July or August hot when you're in May. And so the kids have. Well, I know with our kid at least. And I feel like kids in general, the hotter they are, the worse your tour experience will be. Right. Like it's just they get more exhausted in heat. But like keep them hydrated, keep them well fed, keep them gelato, keep em gelatoed up.
[00:33:38] Speaker B: I also think that supply sunscreen, lots of sunscreen, gelato. Yeah. I think the one thing I did notice we did in a later port, we also did another Disney excursion. And I know those are operated by third party providers, but I think they're, they work with Disney frequently. I think this guide, he did a great job. There's not a lot of shame shade in Pompeii, but he somehow found all of the shade. So anytime we would stop, he would stop us all in a shady spot so we could kind of sit outside of the sun and listen to what we were gonna see next or you know, what we were gonna come upon. And that was really helpful too. And there were some opportunities for them, for all of them. We loved them all.
I think we were very, very fortunate. We had a really, really good genie. So Aladdin was fantastic. He had really great jokes. He was very, very peppy. I've heard that, you know, if you have a bad genie, the whole show is just kind of of, you know, lackluster. But he was fantastic. So that was the first one that we had and we had Frozen. And I don't think you can really go wrong with Frozen. I mean, Frozen is wonderful.
And then we once again, then we had the last one, which is Belize.
[00:34:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it feels a lot hotter. Yeah. Well, and I think to, to that point it's also helpful when you're on a cruise line that is family friendly because then the tour providers are going to expect there's going to be kids and so they're going to be a little bit more intention with what stuff they talk about to keep the kids interested and also making sure there are, you know, sufficient breaks and shade and gelato available. And so that I think that makes a difference. Even if you're sailing on a different cruise line, if you're sailing on one that more gears towards families, you're going to be hooked up with this tour operators that are better at that kind of thing. Well, let's jump to your next port. What was the next port after Nathan?
[00:35:26] Speaker B: So the next one was Shiva Tavekia.
So we opted to go third party for this one. We used Roman Limo, which we had heard a ton about in all of the Disney cruise Facebook groups. And I know it's been one that people have talked really highly of. Our travel agent had used them before as well. And so she had said they were very reputable.
My fear was not getting back to the port on time. As with, you always worry about with a third party, but they do have a pretty solid, we guarantee to get you back. If not, we'll get you to the next stop. So we felt really comfortable with them.
But we did a private, private. A private tour. So it was a. This. A van came and picked us up, drove us into Rome and then kind of showed us all of the sites. It was a couple hours into Rome, but the kids, I think my daughter, my daughter can nap anywhere and so I think she fell asleep. She's the nine year old. She fell asleep for a little bit, took a little nap to give her some energy for the day.
But we saw the nice thing about going this route is they do have kind of a, a cookie cutter version that they do, but you can stray from that at any time if you want to. So he kind of asked what we wanted to see and you know, where we wanted to go. The plan originally was in the morning, just kind of hit the top spots. And then in the afternoon we went into Vatican City and did a tour of the Vatican Museums.
So we, in the morning we immediately drove in. We stopped at St Paul's Cathedral, which is kind of outside of the walls. And it's, it was beautiful. It was kind of interesting to go like right after they've just selected a new pope. That cathedral has all of like mosaics of all of the popes around it. And Pope Leo is not yet in there. His circle is blank. Currently there's open spots for them, but he's not there. So he told us he was like, let me know if he's in there yet because I don't know if they've got him up, so he wasn't there. But we went and saw that and that's actually where like the tomb of St. Paul is. Is. So we saw that and that was really cool. And then from there we went in through the walls into the city, saw the Coliseum. We actually opted not to get out at the Coliseum because already at that point it was probably 10 o' clock in the morning and it was packed. So many people. I mean, keeping in mind it's also a jubilee year in Rome this year, which we did not know that when we booked all of this. And we actually booked this, this tour provided provider probably a year ago just to make sure. And I'm glad we did because I guarantee we wouldn't have found external tor provider availability.
[00:37:55] Speaker A: They would have all been booked up. Yeah, they would have all been booked up. Especially with. Especially with the new Pope being elected and all of that too. Right. Like, you gonna. Just. A lot more tourists are going to want to come and sort of make their patronage to Vatican City and obviously, you know, see the sites in Rome. So, yeah, very, very busy time to be.
[00:38:13] Speaker B: Yeah. So we didn't get out of the Coliseum, but we then went on to the Spanish Steps, which the. Our guide, and he was telling us kind of a funny little joke. He's like, you know, the steps aren't actually Spanish. He said, the square itself is Spanish. He said, but the French actually built the steps. So he's like, so they're actually the French Steps in the Spanish Square in Rome. And I was like, that's an interesting little caveat there.
[00:38:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:38] Speaker B: So we went to see those and we did get out and walk around and then. Yeah, I'm trying to think what else. We stopped at another.
[00:38:46] Speaker A: You had to hit the square.
[00:38:46] Speaker B: We went to the Trevi Fountain, which, because there was some disappointment there because it's a jubilee year and they expected a lot of people to come. You actually have to pay to throw a coin into the Trevi fountain. I think it's like one or two euros. It's not a lot, but there's a line and you have to like queue up and wait in this line to go do it. And I was like, I don't know that we care enough. We only have eight hours here. I don't know if we care enough to wait in line to throw in a coin. So later on, actually on the way to the Vatican, he stopped at this other fountain that overlooks the city and he was like, you can throw a coin in here, it's going to do the same thing.
We all threw our coins in there, and it was great. And it had a beautiful view because it was a little higher up. You could see all of Rome. So it was amazing. But yeah, so we did see Trevi Fountain, and then we stopped at another, a little square, and we got out and kind of walked around. And it was beautiful, just that city in general. And he did a great job of explaining all the sights that we were seeing.
But one thing that was really important.
Go ahead.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: I was gonna ask, did he do your tour in the Vatican?
[00:39:50] Speaker B: He did not.
[00:39:51] Speaker A: Or was that. That. Okay. So we had to use a Vatican tour guide. Essentially, when in the Vatican and they.
[00:39:56] Speaker B: Offer that up in the package, they say, do you want to pay for a Vatican tour guide? It's this much. So we opted to pay for a guide we knew we weren't going to have. Once again, just a few hours there.
I'm not going to really know what I'm looking at if I'm just walking through. And so it was great. I would highly recommend adding on the tour guide for the Vatican.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: Yeah. The other part I want to make sure people know is if you're doing a tour that includes or is says you're going to the Vatican, make sure it actually includes the tickets to the vat go inside the Vatican, because those can actually book up and be sold out and things like that. So you have to make sure that, like, either you're buying it or your tour provider is buying it, but you don't want to just be like, oh, I'm just going into St. Peter's Square and I'm not going in. When you think that you're going in and. And the lines can get super duper long if you can even get in day of. So just something to sort of note, if you're booking a tour, make sure you understand exactly what it includes and what it doesn't include.
[00:40:52] Speaker B: Yeah, we did. They were very clear when we booked that we would have to buy our own. And they did offer. They said, if you don't feel comfortable or you don't feel like taking the risk, we can put you in touch with somebody who procures Vatican museum tickets. It was obviously going to be an upcharge for that, but I was like, nope, I got it. I'll get it on my own. So we bought our own tickets. Even still, though, like, with having tickets and typically if you have a tour guide, you do get kind of a special line. We probably waited outside 20 minutes, which isn't super long, but still to get in, there were a lot of people.
[00:41:25] Speaker A: Busy day of touring there in Rome. I imagine you had to get some more pistachio cannolis and some gelato on the way.
[00:41:33] Speaker B: Our big thing, we did have gelato when we were leaving Vatican City. But the one thing that we did tell him we wanted to do is we wanted to have carbonara in Rome. Right? You got to have pizza in Naples, carbonara in Rome. So he made sure we had enough time to actually do a sit down lunch and brought us to his favorite little local restaurant. It was actually out outside of the walls and kind of on the way, but it was amazing. The food was just delicious. Once again, my kids are chowing down on, you know, cacio pepe and carbonara and all these things and I was like, great, I'm glad that you're loving it.
[00:42:03] Speaker A: And they won't ever eat that at home.
[00:42:05] Speaker B: I'll have to try to recreate it and see if the leave and not that mine would be anywhere near the quality of what they're getting in Rome. But yeah, it was great. It was, everything was delicious. So we had a nice sit down lunch with pasta and wine and then got on back in the van and he took us to Vatican City where we met our tortoise guide.
[00:42:23] Speaker A: Did you have time after hitting up Vatican City to walk around at all or hit any other sites or did we. At that point you had to head back to the ship.
[00:42:30] Speaker B: We had to head back. So at that point it was probably, I think it was three o'. Clock. The all aboard time wasn't until five or was. Sorry, it wasn't until seven.
But he was like, we, the goal is to get you guys back to by five. Just to make sure we've got a little window so we have wiggle room. Exactly.
[00:42:46] Speaker A: Just in case there's, in case there's something happens, there's traffic, whatever. You always want to have a lot of buffer in there because you have like a two hour drive right back to the ship.
[00:42:56] Speaker B: Exactly. And honestly we didn't hit any traffic until we got back into Civicia. They had a big like naval celebration or something happening. So around the port the traffic was terrible. So it took us, I mean we got back in. It probably took us 45 minutes for like in Chiva Tabeca to get back to the ship. So we got back on the ship, it was probably 5, 5:15 or so.
Just enough time. My daughter was really excited to go see the new Lilo and Stan ditch in the theater that night.
[00:43:25] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a great thing to do before dinner. I know. I assume I didn't ask you this, but I'm assuming based on what you just said that you had late dinner.
[00:43:31] Speaker B: We did have late dinner, yes.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: Okay, so your goal was to get back certainly in time for dinner and maybe if you had time to see a show or do an activity before heading to dinner. Nice, nice. Okay, well you have one. We have one more port to talk about, is that right?
[00:43:47] Speaker B: Yes, we did. Livorno was the next one.
[00:43:50] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:43:51] Speaker B: And so we opted to do a day in Florence versus going to Pisa. And it was funny because our tour guide in Rome had said, he was like, well, where are you going tomorrow? And he said, well, we're going to Livorno. He's like, don't go to Pisa. And I was really. He's like, it's just the tower. Like just don't do. Just not worth it. And I was like, oh, okay, well we don't have it booked anyway, so.
So we did another excursion through the cruise line.
It was LV04 discovering Florence. And the one that really drew me to this one was that it was a, when we got there in the morning, it was a guided like hour and a half walking tour. So we had somebody once again kind of show us all of the main spots, explain what we were seeing, which was great. And then we had three hours of free time in the afternoon after that that we could kind of go have lunch, explore on our own.
And so I did really enjoy that. I think Florence I would love. I mean my husband and I have already said that we absolutely want to go back to Florence and spend, spend more time. A day is not nearly enough, but it was nice to have some, some free time set aside that we could walk around, you know, have a nice sit down lunch and not feel rushed and then just kind of go see some of the, go back to some of the spots. We maybe walked really quickly by whenever we were doing the tour, but that one was the same way. I think they, the tour operators did great with the kids and there was plenty of opportunities for them to sit or be in the shade.
Of course we started as soon as we got there. We had a little bit of. He let everybody have some time to go to the bathroom. Conveniently one of the restrooms that was free was in a gelato shop. So we had some gelato to start the day. I mean at that point it was probably 10 o' clock in the morning, but still some 10am Gelato. And then we, we got on our way.
[00:45:37] Speaker C: You can have a, you can have a breakfast burrito or breakfast pizza. You can have breakfast or, or a.
[00:45:42] Speaker B: Churro waffle, let's be honest.
[00:45:45] Speaker A: Right? That's a dessert for breakfast. Exactly. It's not really any different.
[00:45:49] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, it's, hey, gel purveyors out there, you know, just you make a little gelato, throwing some granola, maybe some fruit.
[00:45:58] Speaker B: And I think, you know, I think I had a coffee gelato in my defense, so that it really, really is a breakfast gelato.
[00:46:06] Speaker A: That is absolutely. I actually love coffee gelato. That's my favorite. Is any of those, like coffee flavored gelato. Oh, the best. The best. Well, how, well, how did you guys like Livorno? Did you, did you enjoy your time?
[00:46:19] Speaker B: We loved it. Yes. I think that was probably our favorite stop.
And the city itself is beautiful. And I mean, I will say Livorno. There's not a lot in Livorno. So if you're planning on going and just getting off and walking around the city, not a lot there. I think Pisa is a lot closer. So if the idea of being on a bus for an hour and a half to two hours is not your thing, Pisa's a little bit closer. But for us, it actually worked out so in, both in Rome and in Livorno, and we had these really long drives back. Like, both of the kids fell asleep. So by the time we got back to the ship, they were awake and ready to go. Yeah, Round two. So that worked out perfectly. But it was great. I mean, we saw the Duomo. We didn't go in. Once again, we had a very short tour that morning. So we saw the Duomo. We went to see Ponte Vecchio and all the, all of the hot spots there as well. The leather market. I mean, he kind of took us through, took us through everything and then, yeah, explored. My daughter was really excited. We went to a restaurant. Restaurant, and we sit down and as with any, you know, restaurant Italy, there's wine everywhere. And right behind her there's this bottle of Chianti and it's called Aria. That's her name. Aria Chianti. And she was like, oh my gosh, it's my name. And so we had to order a bottle of Aria Chianti. It was delicious. It was great Chianti. But she was really excited. She was telling him, like, that's, that's my name.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: Oh, that's so cute. I love that. That's amazing.
[00:47:43] Speaker B: So she was pumped, but it was, it was Wonderful. We love Le Borno or Florence.
[00:47:48] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, I want to jump back onto the ship and talk a couple of topics, a couple of highlights.
Obviously we can't cover your entire onboard experience, so we're not going to even try to do that. But this was your first time on the Fantasy and so I've got to ask you about the shows because you have different shows on, on this ship. Then you have three different shows from what you have on the map. Magic. So did you go see all the shows? You mentioned your, your 12 year old, your son is, is into the shows. What'd you guys all think?
[00:48:19] Speaker B: Yeah, we saw Believe. Yes.
[00:48:21] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. And once again the father and so the genie kind of helps.
[00:48:25] Speaker B: So, I mean, we were, we loved the shows. We thought they were, they were great.
We had the early, we saw the early shows. So I think because of the, the fact that some of the port days were longer, I don't feel like there was many people that went to the early shows. So I don't know if people were sk, you know, either skipping dinner to go to Lakewood or not going at all.
I said the first, the first night, the first at sea day was Aladdin and that it was packed that day. But then Frozen was on the same night that we were in Naples. So I think a lot of people probably weren't back yet. And then the last one was the last sea day, so they were great.
[00:49:01] Speaker D: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at My Path Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. My Path Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, Relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, My Path Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUO mypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks. My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:49:59] Speaker A: I've been curious about. So you had late dining. I, I'm actually imagining on this sailing that late dining would have been like quite full. I don't know if you had any sort of, you know, I, I, I say that because one, Europeans tend to eat dinner later than Americans in general. And so you got more Europeans on the sailing. You're going to have more people who are selecting late dining and also less people with young kids on the cruise because of just the timing and long port days. I'm curious, was, was your dining like, did it seem full? And I guess I didn't even ask like how full was the ship?
[00:50:34] Speaker B: The ship was very full. I don't think there were a lot of, I never heard exactly how many people were on board, but it was full again on the sea days. You could really feel it. There were up on the pool deck, there was not a chair to be had.
So we had to be the ones like standing in the corner just staring at people waiting for someone to get up and swoop in and grab a chair.
So I feel like it was very full. The late dining was very full. And it was funny because the first two cruises that we did, I feel like in the Facebook groups you hear, hey, I got late dining, how do I move up to early? It was the opposite in this one. It's like we got early dining. How do we move to late? It's full. I don't know how we're going to like we have these ports, all these long ports. I don't know how we're going to make dinner. And so there were a lot of people kind of panicking about not being back in time for dinner. And now that being said, there was a few of the nights because we had late dining, we were up on the pool deck at five or six o' clock and the lines for the pool deck food were very, very long. So I think a lot of people opted out of their early sit down dining and they just got food on the pool deck because it was, I felt like the lines there were a lot longer than what I had seen on our previous two cruises.
[00:51:43] Speaker A: Oh, interesting, interesting. Yeah. Well, and I definitely think that for any of those summer sailings, like I've mentioned Alaska and Europe, the late dining is actually going to be the dining that's the more, more, more difficult to get if you don't book early. Right. And it's going to be, it's going to be perhaps more full than actually early dining because of those long port days in both places, and then because of just the cultural difference between Americans and Europeans on when we eat dinner. Right. I mean, I don't like to eat dinner at 5:15 in general, but like. Or, you know, or 5:45, I guess. But, you know, it's.
It's too early for us from. Particularly from the west coast that just. Yeah, out of Florida. That's just too early.
[00:52:29] Speaker B: We struggle with that too. The previous, I guess, the first cruise that we did, my husband and I had late dining. That was fine for the two of us, but the one that we did with the two kids, we had early dining, and none of us were hungry. By early dining. Like, you eat this giant breakfast and then you don't eat lunch anyway until one or two, and you stuff yourself full of chicken fingers on deck, and then it's dinner time, and you're like, well, I guess. Guess I'll order.
I'm gonna eat half of this because I'm not even hungry. So lady dining in general, I prefer.
I think that's probably what we'll stick to. The one thing that made it a little tough was that, you know, knowing we had an early day the next day, most of these times, like, once it started to wind down, we were pretty like, okay, we. We gotta. We gotta get out of here. We gotta go to bed. We're. Yeah, we had had a tour that day, and so I think we were all kind of. Of running on fumes by the end of dinner. But from a. From a food standpoint, I would definitely recommend the late dining because we were actually hungry and ate. Ate the food that they were putting in front of us versus picking at it. Because we were ordering because we were supposed to.
[00:53:34] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I want to ask about a couple more things, which are. You did a drink tasting, and you did the dessert tasting at Remy. So you did. I know you mentioned a champagne and wine tastings, and then you did the. To start.
That was your first time doing Remy, because obviously it was the first time on a Dream class ship.
So I guess on the. On the drink tasting, give us a thumbs up, thumbs down. Would you do it again? Give us the short version of that. I want to talk more about Remy.
[00:54:05] Speaker B: We love the drink tastings. It was funny because the sommelier on board was actually the exact same. So we had on the magic the first time that we went. So he did our. He did our. Our prima. No, the first time we were there and I recognized him. So we heard, you know, we got we got to do Priminote with him again. And then he was the one that did the champagne and the wine tastings, and his name is Matia and he's. He was really funny and he had lots of, like, fun stories. I'm talking about the wines and, you know, where they came from and how they are as famous as they are. And it was great. We really enjoyed it. And it was in. Both of them were in Ulala, which is just a really fun little area. Right. Like, the walls look like bubbles. At least behind the, behind the bar it is. So the. The environment was aw. Great.
Never can never hate on a drink tasting.
[00:54:52] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:54:52] Speaker B: Well.
[00:54:53] Speaker A: And the fantasy has the best, I think, adult bar spaces. Sort of like in of the first four ships. I think the fantasy has the best of the adult bars. You know, the Treasure and the Wish have some really beautiful spaces. Of course, they're all spread out, so it's a little bit different. But yeah, the fantasy has amazing, amazing spaces. Well, let's hope talk about remy dessert tasting 1. Are you big dessert people? Is that why you decided to do that? Or was it just like the thing that fit in your schedule best? Like what. Why did you choose the Remy dessert tasting of. Of. Of all of the things that you could have chosen?
[00:55:30] Speaker B: Yeah, so Remy brunch was the other thing that wasn't available. Cause I did look for Remy brunch first.
And then as far as Remy dinner goes, like, my husband and I are what I would say, like semi adventurous eaters. And even some of the stuff on the Remy menu, I was like, I don't know. I don't know that we're gonna.
This, this could backfire. Like, we could order some of this stuff and just, I don't know, it's. It's a little bit. A little bit more adventurous for our taste. I am a big dessert person. I love dessert. And so I thought the dessert experience would be fun. Obviously was this was the first ship that we were on that had that offered Remy. So I wanted to somehow get into Remy and try it.
So we did. We opted for dessert. And my husband, you know, reluctantly went with me. But he.
I mean, a lot of the desserts, I will say, weren't super sweet. Like, they did a lot of, like, fruitier or there was a pistachio dessert. So it didn't feel like you were eating, you know, a ton of chocolate constantly or really heavy things. They tend to be a little bit lighter. We had a really, really good creme brulee that was actually in Like a little pie tart. And then you had the custard and then the top, which was delicious. So it was all. It was lighter dessert. It didn't feel nearly as heavy as I was worried because we actually, we did it at three o' clock in the afternoon too. So dessert tasting, then a nap.
[00:56:47] Speaker A: Yeah, well, that, I mean, that's actually a good time because I feel like if you went after dinner, you're like, full from dinner and. And you know, your servers are probably pushing dessert on you at dinner also. And so it's like, I'm not sure you'd want dessert. Whereas, like, 3:00 clock in the afternoon, you're like, oh, I could. I could eat a snack now, right? Like, that seems like actually a good time. Well, that's. That's awesome to know. I think that's a great way to experience, Remy, if you're maybe like, you look at the regular menu and you're like, I'm not sure I'm this Adventist.
[00:57:17] Speaker B: Exactly. We're adventurous. Maybe not that adventurous. We did. And we also did have a. We did do a PAO dinner on one on pirate night. We opted to skip the pirate night menu and go to PA and the kids got food on the pool deck. So we already had dinner at PA and so we. We thought maybe a. A midday Remy experience was better.
[00:57:37] Speaker A: Awesome. Love that.
I did want to ask about before we jump to Rapid Fire, and.
[00:57:42] Speaker C: Well, I have some questions.
[00:57:43] Speaker A: Okay, sorry, sorry. I want to. I want to ask about kids clubs, but I'll let you jump in here, Brian.
[00:57:48] Speaker C: No, go ahead. Go with the kids clubs.
[00:57:50] Speaker A: You. Okay. You have one kid in the kids club, one kid in Edge.
Are they into the clubs? Do they like them? Or could that. You mentioned they're at that sort of age where they are, you know, somewhat independent, but they also like spending time with you and your husband. How did it go on this. On this age?
[00:58:07] Speaker B: Yeah. My daughter would probably spend the entire time in the kids club if we. If we allowed it. Right? Like, she'd be like, oh, I don't need to eat. It's fine. Send me to the kids club. I'll be fine. She really loves all the crafts on board. In fact, one of the nights we have, it may have been the night that we did.
We did the day we did the Remy tasting. We picked her up and she was like, but, mom, in an hour they're making forky. Like, I have to go back. I have to make forky. So we ended up sending her back and picked her up. Right before the show. And so she had Forky. Forky got to see Aladdin with us. And then the rest of the trip, it was like, where do we pack Forky to where he doesn't just get completely destroyed. Destroyed on. On the way home. So for he somewhat survived, we had to. We had to fix him a little bit when he got home. But she absolutely loves the kids clubs. My son, I think, is kind of a. He's definitely more of an introvert. He's kind of a take it or leave it. Like, he will go and he will play video games and, you know, talk with the kids and make friends. But he's. He's my older one. He's 12. So there were some days that if we were going to do something, my husband and I, we would send Ari at a kids club and Kingston would just hang out in the room and like, watch a movie. So it was kind of hit or miss for. For him. He does really enjoy it. I don't think that he is nearly as, you know, gung ho about it as she is, but I think all of that is personality.
Not. Not the kids club itself because anytime he went, he was like, oh, I had a great time. I met some kids and we played Mario Kart and because he was an edge and loved it. So no complaints from the kids club. I think that, like I said, it is nice being, you know, parents going on with your family. Obviously we were there for two weeks and that's a lot.
A lot of together time uninterrupted. And so it was nice that, like, they got some time to kind of be away from us and do their own thing. We had some time to go, you know, visit some of the adults only spaces. We went to Skyline one of the nights and loved that, that bar, that one was really cool. And so we got to explore a little bit on our own.
So highly recommend the kids clubs. They are fantastic.
They also got. She got to meet Stitch in the kids club. For whatever reason, Stitch was not walking around the ship at all. There was a lot of feedback, a lot of drama in the Facebook group about how there was a Stitch premiere on board and Stitch was nowhere to be seen.
So she got to meet him during the Stitches space goo craft that they did. So that was her one. She's a big Stitch fan. That was her one Stitch meet and greet that she got to do.
[01:00:23] Speaker C: I want to ask this question.
Did you find it worth it to sail Disney cruise line in Europe?
And so what about it was worth it you. Because I Think there are other cruise lines that are less expensive, maybe not as tailored to kids and families. And, you know, my sense is you also spend a lot of time off the ship in Europe, so, like, balance out, like where you found the value on Disney Cruise Line, as opposed to maybe saying, ah, you know, we'll do Royal Caribbean and it won't cost us.
[01:00:49] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%. I mean, I think for us, the, the idea of going, bringing the family to Europe, I was trying to find.
You know, keep in mind, this was the first cruise that we booked. I was trying to find a way that we could go and we could spend all day going to see sites that maybe the kids were fine with, but they weren't as nearly as excited about as me and my husband were, but still get something out of it for them. So I felt like they're huge, huge Disney fans. And I just thought, you know, if we do a Disney cruise every night, we can get back on the ship and they can go to the movie theater and watch a movie or go to the kids club or go see a show. And so it felt like there was just as much in, in it each day for them as it was for us. And so I think that honestly is what helped a lot with, with, you know, less whining during, during some of the excursions. And, and so, I mean, I definitely think for us it was absolutely worth it. I mean, if, if your kids are. I mean, I would say most people who are sailing on DCL are probably Disney people, but if they're not, maybe not, right. Maybe a Royal would be fine. But for them, like my son, specifically the shows, like, he talked about the shows for months leading up to it. And so on some of those days where it was a little bit longer or it wasn't nearly as fun for them, it was like, well, but tonight we still see Frozen. I was like, oh, yeah, that's right. Okay, awesome. I can, I can wait till Frozen. And so it was a really good balance. Right. The other thing too was food.
We know they love the food on, on Disney Cruise, right. My daughter ordered. They. She ordered the Mickey's Mac and cheese every, every night we were there, our server just automatically brought it. We didn't even have to order for her at dinner.
[01:02:21] Speaker A: She's Nathan. She's apparently Nathan's soul.
[01:02:23] Speaker B: Exactly. She loves the Nicky Snack Mac and cheese. And so they, you know, during the day, while they are more adventurous on vacation, I thought it was nice that they could come on and eat like a little bit more standard American fare than, than, you know, spending it eating strictly European food that maybe they're not quite as. Quite as into. So for us, it seems like a really good balance.
Something for them, something for us. I mean, I, I definitely do know the. That cost was more and we haven't sailed on any other cruise lines, so we definitely just went in to DCL whenever we started. But yeah, for us, it was definitely worth it. I mean, I think we've, we've already talked about doing some other longer Disney cruises such as Greek Isles or, you know, maybe Northern Europe or something along those lines to kind of get that same feel like we can be somewhere new that's very foreign to them. But then they can get back on this, like, comfort of a Disney ship at night and be able to eat there, um, eat their Mickey's Mac and Cheese and get some soft serve from the, from the pool deck and, and be happy. So.
[01:03:29] Speaker C: And, And Vicki, did you do anything to prep the kids for the fact that this is probably going to be a different vacation than what they've experienced in the past? And, and I also am curious, did you get their little legs out there exercising before you got on this cruise? Because I think these European cruises can be a lot of walking and tiring days in the heat and so just. Yeah, I'm curious to know what you did to prep the kiddos for, for the.
[01:03:52] Speaker B: Yeah, we watched a lot of trip reports. Obviously we listen to your res's podcast religiously, so they had heard a lot of that. But we did actually, like, I would take the kids for walks and they'd be like, my legs are doing tired. I was like, well, that's fine, but you can go a little bit further. Like you're gonna be fine.
And you know, during that time we, we did a lot of that in the spring when the weather here was really nice, so it wasn't nearly as hot.
So yeah, we definitely did do some, some, some pre training of their legs to make sure that they could handle it and definitely set the expectations. Like today's gonna be a really long day, but we're gonn on the way there where you can relax and then we're gonna sit down for lunch so you can relax there. So we kind of made sure they knew, like, there will be an opportunity for you to like, sit and relax. So when you start getting tired, just know there's gonna be something in an hour where you can sit down for the next hour and a half and eat your, eat your lunch and follow it up with some gelato.
And get a chance to relax. So that helped a lot too. Just kind of realistically setting the expectations with them of what the day was going to be like, I feel like was very, very helpful.
[01:04:57] Speaker C: Nice, nice.
Well, Vicki, I think we have reached that point in the show where Sam is going to subject you to some arbitrary questions, some arbitrary rules, and a dash of judgment of the round we know as rapid fire. So, Sam, take it away.
[01:05:11] Speaker A: Thank you, Brian. All right, Vicki, you know, I'm going to ask you some Disney favorites, and then I'm going to ask you some cruise line favorites. So we're going to start.
Who is your favorite Disney character? And Disney means anything and everything that Disney owns at this point. Absolutely.
[01:05:26] Speaker B: So I am Jasmine, hands down. Love Jasmine. It's always been my favorite. My favorite princess, so absolutely 100% Jasmine.
[01:05:34] Speaker A: All right, what is your favorite Disney movie?
[01:05:37] Speaker B: Aladdin. I mean, it goes together. Aladdin was my favorite Disney movie as a kid. So it just kind of, you know, it's all part of it. Yeah.
[01:05:45] Speaker A: And obviously you're talking about the animated version.
[01:05:47] Speaker B: Animated version. Yeah. I thought she had the coolest princess. Princess outfit when I was a kid. Like, she gets.
[01:05:53] Speaker A: She did have.
[01:05:54] Speaker B: She had a great princess outfit. She gets to wear pants and, like, I don't know.
[01:05:57] Speaker A: Yes, love.
[01:05:59] Speaker B: Love the.
[01:05:59] Speaker A: All the other princesses had to wear dresses, and she was the only one who wore pants. Yeah.
All right, what is your favorite Disney song?
[01:06:08] Speaker B: I mean, I'm gonna stick with the Aladdin theme here. And it's gotta be a whole new world.
[01:06:12] Speaker A: Oh, I love it.
[01:06:13] Speaker B: Love that one. I tend to go more towards the lovey. The lovey ballads, but that one is for sure my favorite. I think a close second would be the Lion King. Um, can you. Is it. Can you feel the love tonight? Is that Lion King?
[01:06:24] Speaker A: Yes. Yes, yes. Oh, good. Yeah. All right, well, now we're gonna jump on board. You have been on the magic. You've been on the fantasy. So we're choosing from those.
From those two ships. But what is your favorite Disney cruise line stage show? You have some really good choices here.
[01:06:41] Speaker B: I know this is a really tough one for me. Cause I think we had a really good tangled on magic. So it's Tangled and Aladdin are really close. And I will say I think that the reason Aladdin might win it out, and I think it's because of the genie that we had. Like I said, we had such a good genie that I feel like it really made the show. And it was great. He was very funny. He Even threw in some very, like, modern pop culture jokes, which was fun.
And so I think Aladdin has been my top for all of them.
[01:07:09] Speaker A: All right, all right. I have to. I have to agree to disagree because I think Tangled is better. But as you said, you had a great genie, and so that does make.
[01:07:17] Speaker B: I know. If not, it would have been Tangled all the way. We loved Tangled. It was great. Yeah.
[01:07:22] Speaker A: All right. Favorite bar space from either the Magic or the Fantasy. Which. Which bar space was your favorite?
[01:07:29] Speaker B: I mean, I liked the fancy bar space better, I think, you know, ooh la la. We really loved. We really liked Skyline.
I think on both of those ships, we're really fortunate that it's all kind of congealed together. It's one spot and so it's always very quiet back there.
But I just thought the vibe of the bar space on the Fantasy was better and it really aligns to it being in Europe. Like, they're very European themed. Themed bar spaces, which was great. We really. It's Europa. I know.
[01:07:58] Speaker A: Exactly. I know. It totally works in the European season.
And of course, you guys left out of Barcelona, and you've got the best bathrooms in Barcelona on.
[01:08:08] Speaker B: I know, I know. I was like, yes, the bath. Everything about it. The bathroom space is fun. Yes. It was perfect. We loved. I would definitely prefer that one. The only thing that I felt like it was missing was a piano. Piano bar. We spent a lot of time in keys when we were on the Magic, and so, you know, if they could throw a piano in one of those spaces, that would be great.
[01:08:28] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, you sometimes will have a keyboard in the. The Carousel bar, like in that. In that space, but you don't have a full piano. And so you don't really have. You're right. You don't have a full piano bar vibe like you have on the older ships. And also on the two newest ships.
[01:08:45] Speaker B: The wish classes, we did have a really nice. There was the piano playing or a piano in the atrium. And there was one of the nights before dinner. They were doing like a 90s throwback, which was great.
I mean, you could tell like this they were hitting the perfect age. Age range, right. 80s 90s for all the parents. Like, the kids are like, what is this? And all the parents are dancing and singing along.
They knew their audience for sure.
[01:09:08] Speaker A: Awesome. What was a favorite onboard activity?
[01:09:12] Speaker B: Oh, gosh, that's tough. I mean, I think for us, it's probably the shows. We really, really like the shows. I think a close second is going to be the.
Not necessarily the pool, but like the. On this one, the Aqua Duck, we did not do the Aqua Dunk. On the magic.
Not. It was a little much the drop. I just couldn't quite do it. My daughter couldn't do it.
But yeah, I think if we could have rode the aqueduct over and over again, we probably would have. And when I say we, it was me and my daughter. Like, we were the two that wanted to do it. My son and my husband were like, no, it's fine. You guys go.
But yeah, I think the shows is probably the top for us. And then. And the slide.
[01:09:51] Speaker A: Close second. Close second, yes. All right. Favorite rotational dining. And again, you can choose from either the magic or the fantasy. But which. Which individual dining room specifically?
[01:10:01] Speaker B: Yeah, I think for us it's animators.
100% love animators. I am happy to report I had heard on some prior podcasts that they had changed the menu. Our Animators Night one menu was typical Animators Night one. The truffle presets were alive and well and they tasted just as good in Europe as they do in the US So we really liked animators. And this was the first cruise we had been on that actually did the animation magic. So we really. We got to see that, which was really cool.
So. Yeah, right.
[01:10:28] Speaker A: Because you were on shorter sailings on the magic. And so you don't have. Even though you have animators palette, you just get Sorcerer Mickey.
Get the animation magic.
[01:10:37] Speaker B: So that part was.
[01:10:38] Speaker A: And you had crushed because you had a seven night.
[01:10:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:10:42] Speaker A: Awesome. Love that. All right, I want to ask.
I gotta ask. Remy versus Paulo. I know you only did the dessert tasting at Remy, but you've done now Paulo brunch and Paulo dinner. So I'm curious, like. Yeah. Which. Which one is your favorite? That doesn't necessarily mean you're talking like other people, what other people should do, because I think that we've talked about this a lot. Like, to go to Remy, you need to be willing to. To, like, give yourself over.
[01:11:10] Speaker B: Exactly.
[01:11:10] Speaker A: To the chef. And like. And trust them.
And trust them. And, like. And just eat whatever is put in front of you.
[01:11:17] Speaker B: And.
[01:11:18] Speaker A: And even. And you might have to, like, not think about what's in it. Right.
It's amazing, but it's not for everyone. So what do you think for. For you and your husband, Remy versus Paulo.
[01:11:28] Speaker B: We are definitely Paolo people. We're. We are big Italian food eaters. Anyway. I think that's what we're going to gravitate towards boards, I will say. And it could just be. So we did Palo dinner the night that we were in Rome. So it was a very long day. We were exhausted. The food was delicious, but once we were, like, falling asleep before dessert even came. So I definitely recommend brunch. I think I prefer Palo brunch, but we would definitely do Palo dinner. Again, the food is just, hands down, it's amazing. I mean, it's so good.
[01:11:58] Speaker A: Well, it's also hard, though, because you're eating, like, amazing Italian food all over Italy, and so then you're going and Paolo amazing. But you don't necessarily need that when you're in Italy. Whereas, like, on a Caribbean cruise, a night Apollo is, like, perfect. Perfect. Yeah.
[01:12:14] Speaker B: We did enjoy Remy, and I think someday I will hype myself up and we'll probably try to squeeze in, like, a Remy brunch maybe.
But I think Palo will probably be on the agenda for every. Every cruise that we do. We really, really love Palo.
[01:12:28] Speaker A: Yeah, that makes perfect sense. All right, second to last question, but possibly the most important, important.
If you have to pick your favorite ship, you can only choose between the magic and the fantasy. But which ship would you pick between those two?
[01:12:43] Speaker B: Hands down, fantasy. We loved the magic. It was. It was. The magic was beautiful, but the fantasy, I felt it was more our vibe. I liked the adult space better.
The slide. Right. Aqueduct won out over Aquadonk for us, and so the slide was better. And it just felt. And I get it. It's bigger, so there's more people on board. But I felt like we felt more spread out on that ship versus. Versus, you know, and like I said, keeping in mind, we did a maritime on the magic where everyone. It's. It's cooler outside. Everyone crams into the atrium. It just felt like there were so many people crammed into one small space. I never really felt that way on the Fantasy. Like, even we were waiting in line for photos. I think they had spread stuff out enough that nothing seemed like it was a super long wait.
So definitely the fantasy. Just the overall vibes. And I know that she's getting ready to go into dry dock at the end of the season, but she looked great. Like, I didn't see. See any.
Any issues. They were. Every morning, they were constantly, like, touching things up and working on things. I felt bad. One day we were up at the golf. The golf mini golf area, and there was this gentleman, and he was restaining one of the things, and then somebody hit, like, a ball, like, right into it. And so he had to, like, he. And he had just, like, cleaned up, and he looked At. He's like, okay. Then he got his stuff back out again. I was like, oh, I know. Okay, that's a bummer. But it felt like it was in great shape. I mean, it felt very clean. Very.
We didn't see any issues with, like, carpeting or bedding. Like, everything was great, and I think part of it, too. This was our longest cruise, so we had more time to be on this ship and really, you know, get to know the ship itself and our, you know, our room steward and our servers and everything. And so I think just the overall vibe just felt better on this one. But we'll see. Maybe if we do a longer sailing again in the future, we'll.
Maybe that will become our new favorite, but for now, it's the fantasy.
[01:14:32] Speaker A: Absolutely. I. That's a great answer. It totally makes sense.
The longer the cruise, the better. Midship Detective east on the Fantasy.
[01:14:40] Speaker B: We did the Muppets one, which was great.
I know. It was amazing. Yes. We loved it.
[01:14:46] Speaker A: Yeah, Love that. All right, well, my last question of Rapid Fire. It's a question I ask everybody. What is your bucket list cruise? If you could go any place in the world on a Disney ship, even someplace that Disney cruise line doesn't currently go or someplace they do currently go, where would you go, Vicky?
[01:15:05] Speaker B: So as I had mentioned earlier on, I feel like I'm. We're trying to hit every ship, right. I'm kind of a completionist, so I would really love a, like, an Asia cruise that, like, gave. Gave you a chance to stop at the parks or at least you know, one of them. So do some park. Some park time while we're over there. Maybe hit the, you know, adventure or the new OLC one when it comes out. So I think that would be my bucket list. I don't. I mean, hopefully they find a way to make that work at some point, but that would probably be the one that we would. We would find a way to get on a plane over there if that was enough.
[01:15:40] Speaker C: Well, it's on its way.
[01:15:40] Speaker A: Exactly.
[01:15:41] Speaker B: That.
[01:15:41] Speaker C: That is. Something like that is on its way with the OLC ship that they announced over Tokyo. So I'm hoping you'll get that for Tokyo. I don't know if they'll ever make it into China.
[01:15:51] Speaker B: Yeah, I know. At least part of it. I know. So I think that would be our. Our.
Our bucket list one there.
[01:15:58] Speaker A: Awesome.
Well, thank you for playing.
You definitely passed. I'm gonna give you, like, I'm gonna plus plus. And the only reason you get a B plus plus is it's not an A is because of Aladdin as your favorite show.
Your reason was good. Right? But your reason was good. So I, so I can't like, I can't flunk you because of. It's a good reason.
[01:16:23] Speaker C: But oh my God, if anyone comes on in flunks like Sam, I listen.
[01:16:31] Speaker A: I joke that people, you know, I nobody actually flungs. These are, listen, these are all personal opinions and thus they can't really be wrong. Even though I joke and say people.
[01:16:41] Speaker B: There are some that are more right than others. Right. Like that right.
[01:16:45] Speaker A: There are some that are more right than others. Exactly, Vicki. That's exactly right. And when I say right, it just means whether or not you agree with me and have similar favorites as me so that people know that when they listen to this show, the judgment is done in jest. So I appreciate all of you who are willing to play my silly game. Appreciate you, Vicky, for being willing to play as well. I will tell you folks that. But for people who come on our show, I always actually ask pre show like are you game for rapid fire? And occasionally we don't do rapid fire just because our show has gone too long, but occasionally it's because the per, you know, I can tell the person's maybe not comfortable with my, my level of judginess. So. But I always appreciate it when people are. Thank you.
[01:17:27] Speaker C: Well, Vicki, we super appreciate you taking time out of your day to come on and share your fabulous European cruising experience with our audience.
And yeah. So welcome back anytime. Vicki, the next time you sail, we'd love to hear from you. But for now we'll just say thanks and hope you have a great rest of your week.
[01:17:50] Speaker B: Thank you.
[01:17:55] Speaker D: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us 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 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 on a few blog articles that we've written. So dc dclduo.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also of course email
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[01:20:07] Speaker B: Sam.
