[00:00:00] Speaker A: You've seen Frozen. I know. On the, on the one day.
[00:00:02] Speaker B: I have to pause. Alan, Alan.
Alan just highlighted. To be fair, Alan is on board a lot, so he has to.
[00:00:10] Speaker A: Alan is on board for the entire European.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: He has to diversify here. But he's quoting. He said the KFC there is really good with ultra fast Wi fi, son.
Welcome back everybody to this week's live episode of the the DCL Duo podcast. Brought to you by my Path Unwinding travel and also our good folks over at the WWDW magazine. The DCL magazine float test edition is available now, so head over to dcl-magazine.com to grab your edition of the Float Test magazine dedicated to Disney Cruise Line with all the great photos, all the great articles, all the great things. And if you hit up their store and use code DCLDUO, all caps DCLDUO, you can take 10% off everything in the store from the magazine subscriptions, the digital magazine subscriptions to the wall calendar that Sam never got last year, all the great things. Actually, the new calendar just came out, so grab one if you want one because they go fast over there. So thank you to WTW magazine for sponsoring our show.
And we got another sponsor with actually what Introduce your guests. Because of the technical setup tonight, we got to introduce the guest and then we can bring on one of our fan favorites.
[00:01:28] Speaker A: Yes. And to answer Vanessa's question in the chat, yes, this is a new DCL cardigan sweater that I got on the.
[00:01:35] Speaker B: Disney Wonder in Alaska, matching men's version somewhere.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Yes. Mine is a cardigan brand's is a pullover. But I, I'm super excited for tonight's show. I say that a lot, but I'm even more excited because we're joined by two of our friends.
It's actually like a, a double reunion. I mean, we met both of these Wonderful Ladies in 2022. So three years ago we met them on the Disney Magic. Sailing out of New Orleans was our first time sailing concierge. They were with the My Path Unwinding Group cruise at the time and we were lucky enough to meet both Karen and Ashley who are our guests tonight. And then of course, we got to sail with them. We've sailed with both of them now a couple of times and we got to tell both of them again in 2024 on the DCL Duo podcast Cruise on also on the Disney Magic.
Or actually, sorry, the first time we met them was on the Disney Wonder, then on the Disney Magic.
[00:02:30] Speaker B: There's so much lead up. Sam, just introduce Our guest.
[00:02:33] Speaker A: I'm super excited to say welcome back to the show to both our lovely show sponsor, Karen from my Path Unwinding travel and our friend and fellow My Path Unwinding client, Ashley. Welcome, ladies.
Hey. We are so happy to have you both. On tonight's show, Ashley is going to be talking with us all about her European sailing on the Disney Fantasy that she just just came back from not too long ago.
And Karen is joining us for the top of the show to give some tips and tricks for cruising in Europe on Disney Cruise Line.
And I wanted to begin, of course, the show before we get into those wonderful topics by mentioning some Disney Cruise Line news. So I'll mention all the pieces of news and then ask for some reactions.
So the first piece of news I wanted to cover is that sea trials have begun for the Disney Adventure. So she has left Wismar, Germany to start sea trials. She was actually seen from the Disney Fantasy as the Disney Fantasy was traveling at sea the other night.
Another piece of important news for the Disney Fantasy is that she was supposed to sail the British Isles cruise from Southampton this week, I believe, starting today, Monday.
And they had to do an itinerary change. They announced it maybe a day or two ago and they had to swap to a completely different itinerary because of weather conditions that they're expecting to experience around the British Isles. And so they are headed to Norway this week instead, which I'll be honest, I don't think is a bad change.
Two other pieces of news are pirate related.
One is that Davy Jones has now been spotted on the Wish on Pirate Night. I haven't heard if he's been spotted on any of the other ships, but he was spotted on the balcony in the grand hall on the Wish.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Thanks to our friend Wes. Yes.
[00:04:27] Speaker A: Yeah, DCL dude, Wes for posting about it. And then the other pirate news is that the cask and cannon, which is the Pirates of the Caribbean themed bar on the Destiny, yet to be. Of course, they released some additional renderings, some additional artwork and a bunch of pictures of potential merchandise that are pirate themed. So I gotta ask, what do folks think about all this pirate themed news?
Let's start with Karen.
[00:04:58] Speaker C: I am so excited and I'm just ready to have a drink with you on the Disney Destiny in that new bar. Like just bring it on. It's beautiful.
It's the theming looks amazing.
And of course, like, anything to like make Pirate Night feel more pirate y. I'm all in. So I think it's cool.
[00:05:17] Speaker A: Love it. All right. Ashley, what about you? Are you. Are you all in for Pirate night and Pirate theme bar?
[00:05:24] Speaker D: I'm all in for any merch that I can buy. Clearly. I have my European half zip on and my ears. And I love meeting Captain Jack on the cruise. So bring on, bring on more characters.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Love that. I did see, you know, the map design that they have released and I. We have heard from our friends over at WDW magazine, Stephanie Schuster, who got to go on the Destiny for that preview, that that's actually what the ceiling looks like. So that ceiling is, like, carved. Of course, they weren't allowed to take pictures or anything, but that's supposedly what that rendering is representative of, which I don't think Disney was necessarily clear about, but I'm super excited to see that. She said it's beautiful in person. Brian, are you excited for pirates? I mean, I know you love Periscope Pub.
Are you?
[00:06:12] Speaker B: I'm excited for anything new.
I like Disney to do new stuff. Like, the thing I'm least excited about on the Destiny is the repeat of the Haunted Mansion Parlor. It's a great bar. I love it on the Treasure. I wish they had done something different on the Destiny. So anything that they want to do that's new, I'm. I'm excited to experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love ship differentiation. That's my thing.
[00:06:35] Speaker A: Yes, absolutely. And there's some folks in the chat talking about whether or not this is a good change, a bad change for the Disney fantasy, changing from British Isles to Norway. I mean, I think it's good, like, in part because Norway is so awesome, but also in part because you don't want to sail in bad weather. So isn't it better the Disney sail where it's, like, safe and where the seas are calm than being, like, going like this like we did on that one trip to. To Nassau? So I don't know, but I can.
[00:07:03] Speaker B: I can understand the disappointment of folks who booked a British Isles cruise who may have been on a Norway cruise already. Right. I get it. I get it. I do. I do want to just quickly shout out. We got two people watching, some from strange locations. So shout out to fan number one and number one fan Tracy, who is watching us, I think, from the Detroit airport, waiting to board her flight to Europe for her adventures by Disney and Italy this week.
[00:07:28] Speaker A: And she'll be on the show in a few weeks, you guys, so stay tuned.
[00:07:32] Speaker B: But winner is Alan, who is on the Disney Fantasy right now for the European sailing season on his way to Norway, watching us on board so for anyone out there who asked me about the quality of the Internet on Disney Cruise Line with Starlink, there's your answer. Alan's watching us live right now from the Disney fantasy. So thank you, Alan, for spending some time with us this evening. So.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Yes.
All right, well, let's jump into our tips and tricks segment for today.
We asked Karen to come on to give folks some ideas for how you can enhance your cruise experience, particularly in Europe on Disney Cruise Line, by the use of a good travel advisor. So, Karen, tell us some tips and tricks you've got for us today.
[00:08:15] Speaker D: Thank you.
[00:08:16] Speaker C: Thanks for having me. I was so excited to talk about this topic with Ashley on because Ashley got to work with the incredible, unmatched travel advisor, Kaylee de Gorcy from our team. Sadly, she couldn't be on tonight, otherwise she would have been.
But you know, what Kaylee did with Ashley is what all of us at MyPath unwinding can do for our clients. When somebody says, why should we work with a travel advisor? Why should we work with my path unwinding versus just going ahead and book it with Disney?
Europe is such a great example of how partnering with a travel advisor is so important. And I say partnering because I think that Ashley knows very well that it is a collaboration. It doesn't have to be the travel advisor telling you what to do and where to go. And it's not also going to be the client, the guest giving orders to the travel advisor. It's a conversation and it's a joint plan and process. And it's as much of that collaboration as you want. But when you book with directly with Disney Cruise Line, they're great. They're a great group over there. Right. They have great customer service, but they're going to give you what they can offer, which is the cruise, which is the Disney Cruise Line vacation protection plan, which is their hotel that they offer pre or post cruise, their transfers and their port adventures.
You may feel somewhat safe in that bubble of using all of those Disney products. And if you do, that's great. We can keep you safely in that Disney bubble. But you might think, you know what, there's a different hotel I'd like to stay at. I want to extend my trip pre or post then, well, how do I get there from the airport if it's not a Disney hotel? And then how do I get to the ship if it's not a Disney hotel?
So we can take care of those aspects for you by making recommendations for other hotels, by helping you with transfer options. Ashley how did you like those black lane transfers?
[00:10:37] Speaker D: Oh, they were wonderful. The drivers were great, the cars were great. On time. Yes, I want that service every time.
[00:10:46] Speaker C: Once you do it. Once you do it. We use them all over the world now. And it's so special having that black car waiting for you and knowing that, you know that they're available, whether it be, you know, the black car, the sprinter van, whatever is going to accommodate your family.
So we arrange all those pieces in parts. And then when it comes to excursions, Disney curates some great port adventures. And I'm going to be honest, there's a few ports where you are not going to find anything for you beyond what Disney offers. Because the cruise line sometimes book everything up with whoever are the reputable suppliers. But most of the time in the different ports around the world, in your embarkation, debarkation cities or towns, and in all the little ports all around, we have a range of partners that we can work with to find you different options. It could be that your family just, you know, maybe you just don't like what Disney offers or maybe you don't want a group experience for a variety of reasons. You want something that's timed differently or you want a smaller group experience just for, just for you and your family and friends.
We can arrange all of those things. We can customize excursions even, and we can put all of that together for you well ahead of your booking window with Disney Cruise Line. And that's another thing. I mean, we know that Disney cruisers are planners.
Ashley's a planner. I know, but sometimes it's frustrating. Even if you can start putting in requests, you know, 120 something days in advance, that's not, that's not enough planning for a lot of people when they are traveling all the way to Europe.
So being able to plan some of those short excursions ahead of time is also really helpful. And then last but not least, being able to take all of those components, whether your cruise, your hotel, your transfers, your excursions, and ensure all of that together. Disney can't do that. They will only insure the things that they have booked. So putting all of that together with your flights, having it all insured is really an economical way and gives you security. So I would love to hear more from Ashley about what she experienced and I'm sure we'll talk about that throughout the show.
[00:13:12] Speaker A: Yeah, and Ashley was mentioning pre show there were some exclusive things that you kind of like. It can't generally get outside of booking and adventures by Disney that sometimes going through your travel advisor you can have access to. So give us a couple of examples. We'll go into into more detail of course of some of these things on the show but give us a couple of examples, Ashley of things like that were helpful to have booked through Kayleigh and my path unwinding.
[00:13:40] Speaker D: Yes, definitely. The transfers to and from the airports in the sprinter van which we took every available space in that van.
But then also we looked at the ABD London excursion which was not available for our dates but we wanted to see what they offered because we didn't want to miss the highlights and we, we, Kailee and I sat down together one Saturday afternoon on a FaceTime and I had my list from watching YouTube videos and books and she had her list of what ABD suggests and then we figured out a way to book those together. So she had the Viator group or portal to then help me figure out which of the tours we wanted to do. The tour of Tower of London, the changing of the guards, Westminster Abbey, those highlights and I've heard the description of what ABD does for seeing those crown jewels in the Tower of London and that is the experience I felt like we, we got since that wasn't an option for us because we were the first in line with the security guards. We did meet that bee feeder and it was a group of about 20 of US and then we were the first people up to see those crown jewels when they opened and it was not crowded at all. So being able to to know that we were with a trusted tour group that had fantastic guides and then have it all packaged together and you speak of that insurance. We all want to use it for our trip but luckily we didn't. But it was a great peace of mind to know that the entire vacation was packaged together for that insurance.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Awesome. Well, thanks you guys.
We so appreciate Carol.
Yeah, we so appreciate you coming on the show. Karen. If folks want to reach out to you, where can they reach out to you? What is the best way to reach out to you and letting people know that they came from the DCL duo today.
[00:15:36] Speaker C: I'm going to lead with our email address which is dclduomypathunwinding.com the website address is also scrolling. You can see that. I will acknowledge we've had a few website glitches the last couple days. I think it's all fixed but mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email DCLDUOYpathunwinding.com or we are all over the DCL Duo Facebook group and our Facebook Groups and Instagram. So you'll find us on socials and be able to connect with one of our great advisors. Thank you so much for having me on.
[00:16:13] Speaker B: Thanks, Karen.
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah, we're so happy to have you on, Karen. Thank you so much. And we'll see you in the chat, Karen.
[00:16:19] Speaker C: See you soon.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: All right, well, that was fun. I love hearing all those tips and tricks. Now we've got an awesome presentation to show, to show our guests that Ashley put together, which I love. Ashley, I think, is the first one to have put together a presentation for us. And she's not now, like, she started a trend. Not every live show guest does this, but we love it when live show guests do it, and we love it when they do it. Not because necessarily we need it, but it's always, I think, helpful to show visuals to the audience. And it does help us, like, kind of go through their trip in, like, a logical fashion. And it helps, I know, for me, trigger memories and whatnot when I'm looking at a slideshow. So thank you, Ashley, for starting this awesome trend. Before we start in, Ashley, remind people, how many Disney cruises have you been on? And give us an example of some of the itineraries you've been on. I mean, obviously you've been on Eastern Caribbean with us, but besides that.
[00:17:17] Speaker D: Yeah.
Yes, we have. So this was our first platinum cruise. So this was number 11 for us. And we've done Alaska, which is great, reliving those Alaska memories with your show last week. We've done out of New Orleans, Port Canaveral. We've now done all the ships. And so for a few more months, I can say that I've been on every Disney ship. Don't know how long I'll keep that with the adventure so far away. But yeah, so we've done and out of New York City, and they've got to bring back those New York itineraries at some point. Point.
[00:17:50] Speaker A: Yes. Yes. All right, well, let's start with the details. You were sailing with your daughter, who is 10. Am I right? Is Catherine 10?
[00:18:00] Speaker D: She turned 11 on the vacation, but for Disneyland, yes, for kids club purposes, she was 10.
[00:18:06] Speaker B: Happy, happy belated birthday, Catherine.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Yes. Happy belated birthday, Catherine. And your husband Daniel and your mom joined you. And I know there was because your mom is a very fit and mobile lady, but she suffered an injury shortly before the cruise and was having to use a wheelchair for this cruise, right?
[00:18:26] Speaker D: Yes, yes. And this was a new adventure for us. It happened about two weeks before the trip, and luckily it was nothing that required surgery. She was cleared medically to join us. And I was there with her doctor who said, well, there are plenty of people in London who have wheelchairs. As long as there's somebody to push you around, go for it and use your cane. And that is what we did not let it hold us back.
We learned a lot through the experience.
So I have some tips on that as well. If you're a last minute or an everyday wheelchair user.
[00:18:58] Speaker A: Awesome. Fantastic. Now, we did have a question in the chat about a, about visas. Did you all. You didn't need visas, right? What did you need to get to the UK if anything?
[00:19:09] Speaker D: We did need the new travel UK visa, but it lasts. We got it back in February, it was $12 and it lasts for the leng of two years, I think year and a half, two years. And we did need it just to move around the airport as well because we changed terminals.
So that was a very specific thing. But the EU visa to visit Spain was not in place yet. We were told we needed it, but as of our sailing, it had not gone into effect yet.
[00:19:40] Speaker A: Okay, so you have the uk, I think it's called the eta. Alan saying in the chat, of course you have your passport. You all need passports. If you're going to Europe, you need passports. This is not like a Bahamian sailing where you can go with a birth certificate and driver's license. So you need passwords, passwords. Okay, so you all are flying, you live in North Carolina. You flied, you flew, you flied.
Sorry, my grammar is not great today. I read real good.
You flew from Atlanta to London Heathrow, is that right?
[00:20:15] Speaker D: Yes. My mom was out of Atlanta and we live in Charlotte, but we flew out of Raleigh because on point points and that was a better deal for points. And so we flew out of there about two and a half hours from us and we got in super early in the morning. Thank goodness that sprinter van was there. And they were also. The driver was very helpful with helping with luggage because we are not light packers. Plus we had my mom's transfer wheelchair, so it was a whole experience.
But that was, was, that was great. And we stayed pre cruise two nights. We wanted to make sure we adjusted to the time zone a bit. And at the Disney cruise booked hotel, so it was part of our Disney package. So that same paid in full date. And it was beautiful. It was the Churchill, which is a Hyatt Regency property.
My daughter wants to stay there now all the time. And I have a picture in the slides of the most amazing pastry Buffet bar that. And we had breakfast included with our stay for those two days as well. So it was a gorgeous room. We overlooked this private little park from our beautiful windows and perfect location near Hyde Park.
[00:21:32] Speaker A: Awesome. Love that.
And how was the accessibility with the wheelchair with. For your mom, the hotel? Because not all European hotels are super accessible. How. How was this one?
[00:21:44] Speaker D: Well, actually they're typically smaller. Right. And so it very much was similar to the cruise room, which was smaller. So actually for us it was great because then she always had something to hold onto and it wasn't a large open space. So we're gonna turn that into a positive.
[00:22:03] Speaker A: The small room is a positive because you can hold on to things. I love that.
[00:22:07] Speaker D: And then the bed were two. Two queens and a king. In the other room we had two different rooms and great bathroom. I mean it was absolutely lovely.
[00:22:16] Speaker B: What about the elevator, Ashley? Cause we've stayed at the St. Urman's and the elevator is a little tight. I'm not sure a wheelchair would fit in there easily.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: I think just a wheelchair. Not even. I think maybe the wheelchair and nothing else could fit in that. That elevator at St. Urman's that you're thinking of, right? Yeah.
[00:22:30] Speaker D: Yes, it was. It was tight.
All four of us can fit in that one. Later in the trip at Fortnum and Mason, only my mom could fit into it. So we made the elevator situation work. But she also had a smaller transfer wheelchair. Not a full size wheelchair or a scoot or somebody. A wheelchair that with the larger wheels that you could self power. This was one of those more narrow. They call them transfer wheelchairs.
[00:22:56] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Versus like, yeah. And those. If you think about like those scooters, like those scooters probably wouldn't fit in most European elevators, period. Now it looks like you packed a ton in to your pre cruise. Two days. I mean, Hyde Park, Portobello Road, which is in Notting Hill, Nottingham bookshop, Sunday roast, eating, changing of the Guards, St James Park, Buckingham Palace.
What was the favorite? I mean this is a ton of stuff you did, Ashley. And we want to get to the cruise. So what was the favorite from the pre cruise?
[00:23:29] Speaker D: I think I'll say two small things. Which is the playground in Hyde park, the Diana Memorial playground.
It's like a pirate. And it was very hard for me to find a photo that was only my daughter because there was a million kids in a great way. And she instantly started playing with kids in languages she didn't even speak. So it was. That was great.
Sunday roast was phenomenal. Obviously but then the white pelicans, because we have. I've read novels where they talk about these white pelicans in St. James park near Buckingham palace. And we thought we were going to have to go searching for them. And they are large and they're in the middle of all the benches that you want to sit. You can't walk down the pathways. So that was just. That was a joy and a great way to start our very quick know, get used to London.
[00:24:18] Speaker B: There's a question in the chat about how you got around London. I was going to say, I hope you use the tube system because it's pretty great. But how did you get around London to all of the different activities?
[00:24:28] Speaker D: Great question. We used every single mode of transportation possible.
So my mom set out the Portobello Road experience because that was a lot of small streets and cobblestones.
But we used taxis, a lot of taxis because of ease of transportation. And we had a great app, the London transportation app. Of course we were using Google Maps, but not all of the tube stations are. And train stations are accessible. And so having that app tell us which ones not only had the elevator or the lift, excuse me. But also where they were working or not.
So maybe they would work one direction but not the other. And then Daniel rode around on the line bikes. And we used the Uber tax taxi or the Uber water taxi. Yes.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Oh, we saw that. We saw the Uber water taxi. Yeah.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Yeah, very cool.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Nice.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: All right, so embarkation day. You are sailing out of Southampton. So tell us. Yeah, tell us how you get to the port.
[00:25:30] Speaker D: Yes. So we, because we were at the Disney Hotel, I actually wanted it for the transportation down there. It was a typical coach bus, like we would have not branded with Mickey, but the same coach bus bus.
And it was a two and a half hour without traffic down to the Southampton terminal. And Disney travels in and out of the horizon one or at least they are this season. And that was very important for transportation. And they actually had weather on the sailing before us. And so they sent an email out the night before that said, hey, everybody, delay at least an hour, maybe two, because we're not going to be able to clear customs and do all of that. Well, the Disney coach bus did not do that. So who was the very first person at the port?
Our coach bus, which was great. We didn't have to worry about traffic or transportation changes which are always a little dicey right now would be a problem, for example, with the transportation strikes. And so we had that satisfaction of getting down there.
We literally opened the port. We had a porter who helped with the wheelchair. And we got in so easy. Everybody was lovely.
Except for the big yellow tunnel that you walk through in Port Canaveral. This felt exactly like Port Canaveral. Open, clean, great air conditioning. And we sat next to the family of the day. And technically we were boarding group too. But I think maybe we're the fifth family on the boat.
You know, that's a great idea to use transportation.
[00:27:00] Speaker B: So here's the question. When exactly was this cruise? What? When? Yeah, when did you go? Were you July? August? I can't remember.
[00:27:07] Speaker D: Yes, August 5th. We departed August 5th.
[00:27:12] Speaker B: And how was. How was weather in terms of temperature and rain?
[00:27:17] Speaker D: London was hot.
The sea days, because we had two sea days, one on either end. They were both foggy, so there's a great picture coming up where it's just complete fog. It was very similar to our Alaska summer cruise with that fog. And you had the foghorn going.
The seas, we were moving a bit, but. But, you know, nothing my patch and sea bands couldn't handle.
And then it was hot and sunny in Spain. So we had great weather, I think.
[00:27:44] Speaker A: Awesome. All right, so let's talk about embarkation day.
What were some of the things we did on embarkation day? Did you. Did you do sit down lunch? Did you do cabanas? Lunch? I see you had to do some changes to adult dining. So tell us about the start of the day.
[00:28:01] Speaker D: Yeah. So like any good Disney cruiser, the first thing you do with the port is open up the app and figure out what your dining rotation is when the shows are the main stage shows, which are very important for us. And we found out that Palo, because we had first night Palo thinking, oh, there won't be a show that night. We were wrong. It was the Frozen show. So the very first thing we had to do. Yes, Excuse me, Remy. We had Remy. And it overlapped with Frozen. And we had to see that show.
So that was our first change. We. We switched our Remy reservation night.
We missed Animator's palette, but that's okay.
And then we also wanted to change our brunch time and to also make sure they knew that she had. For Palo brunch on our last seating, that we had a space that did not require step ups. Because, you know, sometimes in Palo they have those booths or those step up areas.
And we wanted to make sure we were just on a regular table. Table.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good idea to also do that ahead of time. Because if you show up to the restaurant, they will, of course, Try to accommodate you as best as possible. But if their only tables left open in the restaurant, happened to have the step up and they didn't know you were coming with a wheelchair, then it's. It can be an issue. So, yeah, absolutely. A very, very smart idea to make those changes.
You. Now, had you been on the Fantasy before or was this your first.
Oh, my goodness.
[00:29:24] Speaker D: Very first time. She was our last ship. I know because we did all these odd great itineraries instead of your typical standard seven night itineraries with our Disney Cruise history. And so this is our last time, last ship. And we had not been on the Dream, her sister ship, in probably nine, eight years. So it was a while for the ship, so we had to figure out our way around. And part of that was checking out the kids club because this was Catherine's last sailing. Being in the Oceaneers kids, we also got to check out the Vibe. I'm sorry, Edge. Yes, yes. Which I included a photo to remember to say these are one of the last sailings that she gets to be in the funnel suite and gets her magic band hooked up to go up to the elevator to get to be an Edge because it switches after dry dock.
So that was. We had to explore those clubs, explore the Tube, the adult situation, and look hot, take people.
I know that that adults area in the front has a lot of fans out there.
We did not like it.
We were itching and jonesing for the Treasure Wish layout because of how everything spread out in different places. I know, I did not think I was going to say this, y', all, but the having all the adult spaces in the front and especially the kind of curvy, windy spaces and having to go through some adult lounges to get to others.
Not now. I take me back to the. To the Wish and the Treasure for the adult.
[00:30:57] Speaker A: Well, you know, I don't spend a lot of time in that carousel themed bar because it's kind of a hallway also. So I agree with you there. I mean, I actually really love the. The adult bars on the Fantasy in particular because I really like the theming of them. I love the European theming. It's called Europa for those who haven't been on.
And I really like the theming in the Tube, but I do, I get what you're saying. Some of the spaces, because you do have to walk through them in that carous bar being one of them. I'm blanking on the name of it. It's the Italy themed bar, Palazzo, isn't it?
[00:31:30] Speaker D: Oh, Palazzo sounds right.
[00:31:31] Speaker A: Yeah, that sounds right. Anyway, but that one, it does kind of feel like a hallway instead of feeling like a bar. But it has my favorite bathrooms. The Barcelona bathrooms. What did you think I'm gonna get you?
[00:31:45] Speaker D: This may not be your favorite bathroom after this conversation.
[00:31:47] Speaker B: Thank you, Lindsay.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: It sounds right, but I didn't think it was exactly right. Anyway, sorry.
[00:31:53] Speaker D: Okay, so adult moment here. The.
The last question in Match or Mate about where you find the magic. That restroom was one of the answers, so you might want to change your.
[00:32:07] Speaker A: Maybe I have to change my favorite bathrooms because that's just wrong.
Bathrooms should just not be on that list. Let me just. I'm just gonna say that. Okay.
[00:32:16] Speaker D: Thank you. Talking to. Saying. Don't do that again.
[00:32:18] Speaker A: Yeah, don't do that again. All right, well, so you got to check out the. You got to check out the ship, which said you hadn't been on before.
What did you think of the sail away party?
You hadn't seen that probably in years. Because the dream and the fantasy have a different sail away party than the sail away party that the magic and the wonder have, which is also different from what the wish and the treasure have. So it probably was new, or at least you didn't remember it if it has. Even if it's the same as it was on the dream eight or nine years ago.
[00:32:47] Speaker D: It was odd because everyone sat down.
I'm not kidding you.
Interesting things that we noticed about the folks on the European sailings and, Alan, I don't know being on the ship if you've noticed this as well. And this was one of them. For the pirate deck party and the sail away party, there was nobody dancing. Catherine and I went off to the side and danced during the pirate, but everyone sat down. You know how they cover the pools with, like, the decking so that you can stand. And. And the cast members on stage were saying, everybody, stand up and clap your hands and dance around. And here are the moves. And not a single person moved. Everyone was sitting down.
Adults, they were sitting in chairs, sitting, you know, on the ground. It was weird. Katherine kept asking me, when do we get up, Mom?
[00:33:34] Speaker A: Well, and Catherine loves to dance during all of the deck parties and all of those, like, kinds of events. Like, I. I know I've seen her do it when we sailed with you guys. Like, she's really into it and loves to participate in that, so that must have been ultra weird.
[00:33:47] Speaker D: And.
[00:33:47] Speaker A: But you mentioned something to me when we talked about your trip. Right. Right after you had come back over text, if I'm remembering Correctly that there weren't a lot of Americans on board. In fact you guys only met in all of your interactions like one or two other American families.
[00:34:04] Speaker D: Yes, we did. And I think because this was one of the shorter sailings, it wasn't your 9, 10, 14 night itineraries in the European season. And it was right before school going back for the folks in Europe as and it was great in that it was people from all over Europe but it was a lot of really younger and first time sailing because you know when in the theater they say hey, is it your first time first cruise? I think we were the only people who didn't clap in the theater that it was not our first cruise. It was all first time cruisers. So you had more madness than normal in terms of people finding things. We were one of the only people in the sit down lunch on the first day. And yes, they had the good cheesecake. That's the top photo.
So it was a different experience having people who are not as Disney and also just a lot of younger kids. Catherine never went back to the Edge because there were no kids in there and the cast members confirmed them. And it was interesting in the Oceaneers club too because the kids didn't know what to do and there was so many young ones. So it was a lot of that preschool, kindergarten age group.
That's what there was just loads of that age group on this cruise.
[00:35:20] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. I wonder if it was based on their school schedules or something. I wonder if they were back in. Well the older kids maybe had been been back in school in August because obviously in the US there's some of the some kids are back in school even in early August in different depending upon where in the country you live. Now in your previous slide, before we get to this slide that we're going to jump in, you mentioned a smell on the slide and I know about this because obviously you and I talk outside of the show and we're.
But tell us we gotta cover this because it's part of the cruise. This is not a good part of the cruise. Sorry guys who are listening, watching but there was a smell in your room. Describe the smell please, Ashley.
[00:36:01] Speaker D: Yes, I will describe the smell.
So we walked in and we were on the deck eight in the middle. We had an ocean veranda room. Not the deluxe family, just a regular veranda room connecting with my mom. And and it was an overwhelming it hits you smell of the sewage situation in the little bathroom room. And so I had known from listening to one of your other podcasts that this can sometimes happen. And our stateroom host says that it happens after particularly rough seas because everything kind of churns up down there. And so immediately after the muster drill, I was right down to guest services and told them about it, and they sent up a maintenance crew and they did. Did this super plunging thing, and the smell was gone. Right? So we're like, okay, this is great.
And then day two comes and the smell is back and is still there, but not from the bathroom section. And we didn't notice it for several hours because the weather was perfect and we had our doors open and our balconies connected and we were just enjoying the sea day. And we were out and about exploring the ship and. And they tried to fix it again.
We had the main person for housekeeping with the stripes and everything. I forget what the actual title is.
[00:37:27] Speaker A: The manager.
[00:37:29] Speaker D: Yes, the manager. The top manager person for housekeeping. And they brought fans and air purifiers and little scented things, and the smell did not go away. Our stateroom host said it had something to do with the particular pipes that were above our room because my mom's room connecting was totally fine.
So turns out. And it's something that they're going to be able supposedly to address during dry dock. So I think maybe this is just one of those.
The ship needs to have a bit of maintenance where they take out some of the walls and fix things. We never had any liquid. Let me just be clear. There was never any physical. It was just a very, very overpowering small odor.
And spoiler alert. We did get moved on day three of our cruise. So Disney worked with us to move our rooms. It took a while for them to find somewhere where we can move with my mom for connecting rooms because they did offer us a room on Deck 10 pretty much immediately, but we had to be connecting with my mom to be able to help. So. But yeah, we did get moved to the deluxe family ocean view room right next to the laundry room, which was great because I needed to do laundry. Laundry.
[00:38:43] Speaker B: It also provides endless hours of entertainment as people bicker over washers.
[00:38:47] Speaker A: People watching. Yeah, there is. There are some fun people watching. But I want to say one thing, which is you do need to be persistent with advocating for yourself. I know from our text exchange, Ashley, that you know their original solution of just moving you guys, they tried to push that several times, and you kept pushing back and saying, no, that's not going to work. You need to be able. You need to. We need to move both of these rooms because you needed to be joining because, you know, your mom's not a regular wheelchair user, so this is not something she's like, you know, used to transferring herself and all of that. She needed your assistance. And so this was really important. I know you had to really advocate for this. So I want to put it out there and say Disney made it right, but.
But not without some pushing. And so, you know, that's just a matter of. I want to tell people if something like this happens to you, you got to be an advocate for self. And what. This is one of those things where you're dealing with the onboard folks. And so it really needs to be you adv.
Your ta, who's on Boots on the Ground back home, isn't going to be able to communicate with the onboard stuff in the same effective way that you can in person.
[00:39:54] Speaker D: And that's why I wanted to bring it up today is just to make sure people know that I met with the housekeeping manager in the room so that we could discuss where the smell was coming from, how it was different from that first night after the super plunge and really kept saying, this is not going to work. And I see in the chat they moved to family. I think they actually moved a cast member because we got this. Their tip slips in our room on the last night. And so I think it was someone. You know how they bring people on.
[00:40:23] Speaker A: Yeah, Like a magician or somebody like that. Yeah.
[00:40:27] Speaker D: Yes. Because the other room that we. The joining room we had had not been occupied, so I think they just had to move that. And it was a single person.
And so based on kind of our sleuthing skills, we didn't have to put a burden on any other family, on the sailing.
[00:40:44] Speaker A: Absolutely. All right, well, we got to talk. Day two, Bibbidi bobbidi. Boo. Remy, date night.
And you have some other observations for your. This was your C day.
Why is this her last? Bibbidi bobbidi. She can go through 12.
[00:40:58] Speaker D: Yes, I know, but as.
As some of your guests know, we're doing the South Africa ABD next year, and so we don't have another cruise booked right now. And that's. I know. It's a. It's a horrible thing. I'm not sure how I'm gonna survive life with my first world.
So the next time we sail, she will have aged out of the body. So we had to make sure that she got that last experience. And we had a wonderful fairy badmother in training, this gentleman who was just wonderful. So, yeah, it was a great last experience, and we just love Remy, Sorry. Enchante. But Remy just takes the cake. And we have gotten the same booth every time on the ships, so. And we got this elevator selfie for you, Tracy, because I know you loved your elevator selfies.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: So.
[00:41:43] Speaker D: Yeah, we did the champagne pairing. Daniel had the wine pair sharing. And what is.
[00:41:49] Speaker B: What is going on in this bottom left hand picture with Daniel? He looks like he's either having a bout of indigestion or he is so enamored with his food, he's just, you know, in bliss. I can't tell which.
[00:42:00] Speaker D: It's probably both. That was the dessert.
So we had a great experience. We were one of two people in the entire restaurant, so that was another thing. There was anybody in adult dining, because.
[00:42:13] Speaker A: The Europeans, they haven't experienced rotational dining, so they don't want to pay for the additional. And also miss regular dining.
[00:42:20] Speaker D: Yeah, and miss regular dining. So it was. It was great. It was wonderful being in both adult dining spaces because we really had so much attention. And this is Daniel saying, oh, my, I can't eat anything else. And then he tries his dessert of whatever this peanut butter mousse foam amazing thing is. And just like, oh, my gosh, this is amazing.
[00:42:41] Speaker A: Oh, I love that. I love that. Well, you know, one, this is a good time for me to mention food allergies, because I know Catherine has an egg allergy. You have since been able to. You had a soy protein allergy, but now you're able to eat soy protein. I want to. I always love to ask you questions about how Disney's handling food allergies on board. I want to ask you sort of generally, how did that go with Catherine's egg allergies?
[00:43:06] Speaker D: Yeah, we had a great time, a great experience. Disney Cruise does a great job with that. Of course, we're notified in advance, and you always check and ask and. But had a great experience with that. We know to order the days the next day in advance so that her meals come not without much delay.
On the sailing, we also had. Except for one place in London, we also had a fantastic experience there. Every server asked us if anyone had any dietary preferences or allergies. So I really think the world is just catching up, which is good. But the food was different in Europe on that sailing because the provisions are different. I know you experienced that a little bit. Maybe in Alaska, they ran out of lemonade.
They had no ginger ale in main dining, so I'd have to go to the adult bars and get ginger beer. And then the pasta was different.
So just some of the Heads up that when you've gotten to different ports for different provisions, there are going to be some different things.
[00:44:02] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm telling you. Nathan was after embarcation day lunch, he said the Mac and cheese was the normal. And then the next day at dinner, it was a lighter color Mac and cheese. It was not the same color and it was slightly different noodles. And he was. He didn't have Mac and cheese on this sailing after that. He really didn't. He switched. He went and ate like pasta with tomato sauce pretty much every meal after that.
[00:44:27] Speaker D: So, yeah, same thing. Catherine had it sit down lunch on the first day and said, nope, I'm good. I'm just gonna have chicken fingers and fish stick and broccoli. So.
[00:44:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:36] Speaker A: Well, let's talk about vgo, Spain.
Tell us about this port and what you. What you got up to.
[00:44:42] Speaker D: So I included a picture of our doors because since we did have to move rooms, I got to redecorate our doors. And there was a lot of door decorations. Even though these were first time cruisers, they knew to decorate their doors.
So that was fun. We saw Pluto's little door we hadn't seen before.
Katherine and I did.
What's the thing where you go around the ship?
[00:45:03] Speaker B: The Midship Detective.
[00:45:04] Speaker A: Midship Detective Agency. Yeah, the best.
[00:45:06] Speaker D: Yeah. We had never done that before. So we really relaxed this day. We enjoyed the ship. It was practically empty and we just took advantage of a quieter ship. It was Pirate Night and some of the different paintings around the ship and just seeing the characters. Daniel decided to go for a run because as we know, he loves to go out and about and go for runs at these different ports. And I'll say for the two ports we went to, Vigo and La Coruna, there were some beach break type type excursions, but the water's fairly cold and we don't need to go see the beach.
And there was a lot of seeing old things and ruins, those types of. And there was only one wine and cheese adventure which did sell out after we booked it.
So there was very few port adventures for these two. Two ports, which was fine because we docked right in the middle of the port. So you didn't need to have taxis or anything to get around. And so Daniel went on a run. He loves to do that. And this picture is actually the Castello Castro, one of the old forts that's in the, in the top of the.
That you can see on a mountain. And he ran up there and met people on Disney excursions that were on a tour bus that Got up there. And so it's very safe, very welcoming, very easy. And you can tell you, you can see the port, it's a working one kind of industrial port. And it's all fogged in.
[00:46:33] Speaker B: I was going to say you can see a heavy fog layer down there for sure. Yeah, heavy fog.
[00:46:38] Speaker D: And you can see out of Catherine's porthole photo, it's heavy fogged in. So not a great pool day, but beautiful weather. Once you got up a little bit above, above the port.
[00:46:48] Speaker B: So you did some wine shopping, did you?
[00:46:52] Speaker D: Daniel did with his Spanish.
[00:46:54] Speaker B: Did you. Did you? No. Did you bring some wine back to the States with you?
[00:46:58] Speaker D: Of course. We, we went wine shopping before we got on the boats for local wines to take on the boat. And then we did some more shopping in both of our ports, Vigo in La Caruna. And Daniel got to try out his Spanish. And apparently he's so good with Rosetta du Lingo that the guy started immediately speaking in full Spanish back to him very quickly.
[00:47:18] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
Wait, slow down. Right? Then he has to be like poco.
[00:47:24] Speaker D: Yeah, he came back with red and white. And that was all he.
[00:47:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:47:30] Speaker B: I do want to call out because I agree with this comment. I was going to say something. That photo of Catherine with the Peter Pan picture is. That is an amazing photo. So always a reminder when we do these live episodes and people are kind enough to share photos with us, if you're listening to us afterwards, you can head over to YouTube and watch the live episode there. So you can. You can see some of these great photos we're seeing.
[00:47:49] Speaker D: And she's flying. She's Tinkerbell and beautifully flying over the floor.
[00:47:52] Speaker B: That is fabulous.
How many takes did that take? How many takes did that take?
[00:47:55] Speaker A: Only one. Oh, sorry, that's not that many. But listen, Catherine is, she knows, she knows how to work the cat camera. She's also a ballerina. She. So she knows, like, she's really good with body movements. Like, she, she's easily photographed. She's very photogenic kid. And, and you guys have a, you know, you have a good routine of, of taking lots of photos all over the place. This was moving day you mentioned as well. So you had to, you had to move rooms this day, right?
[00:48:22] Speaker D: Yes, actually, no. La Crunia was moving day, so.
[00:48:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:48:26] Speaker D: And it was unfortunately in the middle of.
Disney was going to help move us, which is fantastic. It was great. But it was during a very in depth crew drill because the night before we had a helicopter rescue. I know y' all had one of those off your cruise. But there was a medical rescue, a helicopter evacuation, and it was about, I don't know, 11 o' clock at night. Daniel's at the movie because the first run movies had just been released. Released of one of the Star wars or one of the something, I don't know, some superhero movie. And he went to go see that. We saw Freakier Friday was just released, which is a lot of fun.
And I thought it was a massive thunderstorm because you have the helicopter searchlights trying to figure out where to hover and then you have the massive wind and the room is shaking and we're on deck eight, which is not even that high and the doors are shaking. And I didn't know what was going on, but turns out it was a helicopter evacuation. So we found out the person was fine.
So the next day was a big crew drill and they did man overboard drills and it went on for about two hours. And so nobody could help us move.
So that was a bit unfortunate, but gotta do safety first.
[00:49:40] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think Alan's saying probably Fantastic Four, that released in the US mid July, but it probably released in Europe after.
So that would make sense because they're going to do their releases probably based on what's local now. Okay, so we're talking La Coruna. So Daniel did an excursion, a hike along the Camino de Santiago.
[00:50:04] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:50:05] Speaker A: What was his review of that excursion?
[00:50:08] Speaker D: Absolute best port excursion he has ever done. And yes, that includes Alaska.
[00:50:13] Speaker A: Wow. Okay, that is high praise. That is high praise. Now you guys had some friends in this port that you got to visit and they actually gave you some info. I remember part of your consideration with your mom's injury was did you need to cancel? Right. And. And were you going to be able to get off the ship at all? Import. You, you, you, you know, of course there was consideration about London as well. But you have friends who live near here. So what did they tell you and how did it go?
[00:50:42] Speaker D: Yes. And Daniel's excursion was through Disney, Disney. And it was a guided hike, I think seven miles. And it was very small, only 10 people. So fantastic, fantastic, fantastic excursion.
And so we had friends that are living around the world and they happen to be in this port city for a month and they checked it out and the port is fantastic. There was just a few excursions that you could do. And I actually have a picture of the swimming adventure because it literally was right there. You're in this little bay and you've got these two old forts from like 700 years ago. 700 year old, built in 7 hundreds. Excuse me. And then they have this roped off area of the bay to swim in and so that you could literally swim very close to the ship. You could probably get some cool photos like that.
So it was a great port city. Step right off.
And we got great gelato and very accessible port. Everything was flat. We went to two different playgrounds, had some great Iberico ham, saw live just street dancing. It was. It was a fantastic wander around port city.
[00:51:54] Speaker A: Awesome.
[00:51:55] Speaker D: Not many. You'll notice a picture if you're looking on.
On YouTube. It's not kid soup. So it was great weather that day.
On this day, the second day. And the pools were not kid soup. There were not many people. We did have to wait in a good bit of a line for the Aqua.
Aqua duck ride. But the big water slide. But the pools were great.
[00:52:18] Speaker A: Awesome. Love that. Fantastic. Now back on board. You got the Aladdin stage show this night. You had mentioned you had to go, of course to Frozen the first night. I haven't asked you yet about the shows, but you hadn't. You've seen Frozen. I know. On the, on the Wonder after Posk.
[00:52:40] Speaker B: Alan just highlighted. To be fair, Alan is on board a lot, so he has to.
[00:52:44] Speaker A: Alan is on board for the entire European.
[00:52:45] Speaker B: He has to diversify here. But he's quoting. He said the KFC there is really good with ultra fast WI fi.
[00:52:52] Speaker A: He downloaded a few movies. He said there. But listen, he's on board for the entire year.
[00:52:56] Speaker B: Good on you, Alan.
[00:52:57] Speaker A: Good on you, Alan. This year he's not doing the crossing because they've got dry dock before the crossing.
But he did the crossing on the way there. So he's been on board. He's still on board. As we said, he'll see our friends. The Morals will be on next week. He'll see them. Them next week. Probably so. But anyway, okay, you get to see Aladdin. You had you seen Aladdin? Oh yes. You probably had seen Aladdin on the. On the Wish. That's right. Yeah. How were, how were the productions of Frozen and Aladdin? And you probably then also saw Believe on board.
[00:53:29] Speaker D: Yes, we did see Believe.
I will say that I saw a lot of kids eating at KFC and McDonald's at this port. So Alan's right here.
[00:53:38] Speaker B: I've been. I've been guilty. When we've been in Europe for an extended period sometimes, you know, just want a hamburger from someone who knows how to make a hamburger. So I totally appreciate it.
[00:53:50] Speaker D: Oh, so to answer a couple of quick questions. The port excursion that Daniel did, that hike, it was most of the day we were in port, so it was pretty much the only thing he did. So multiple hours, you really had to be fit.
And then the food allergies in the port, I'm going to say we had this ice cream place, this gelato place. Usually we can't eat gelato with Catherine's allergies. And they had. I can send you a picture if you want it. In the Facebook group, they had every allergy listed on the sign on the outside of everywhere we ate and walked around.
Yeah, it was fantastic. Yeah, it was a great surprise.
So this is where the fantasy is showing her age and that she really does need that dry dock. A lot of the cast members talked about it. They kept saying, we can't wait for the dry dock. The carpets didn't show their age, but the technical stuff did. And that main stage show of Aladdin was completely different because they just don't have the lighting and the mapping of the theater to do the extra stuff that they do. They don't have the same. It was the exact same production but different stage sets. Aladdin doesn't swing on like he does in the Wish version. So it was a really interesting comparison. So I know that the Walt Disney Theater is going to get a good, good upgrade.
[00:55:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, did you hear, because we haven't. We haven't heard about theater upgrades out of her dry dock. Did you hear from crew on board that the theater is getting some upgrades from the.
[00:55:19] Speaker D: Yes, from the technical side, like the sound and audio production value. So I don't think that the stage show itself is kind of strange.
[00:55:29] Speaker A: Well, and maybe the projection mapping technology that they're using on the Wish class, on the sort of. On the walls, there might be some of that kind of additions, hopefully.
[00:55:38] Speaker B: I wish Disney would highlight that stuff because I complain const that they're only investing in spaces where they make more money and the theater doesn't make them ton of money. I don't. Maybe they treat it like a bar space and they count the drinks sold. I don't know. But like, it's good to hear them investing in spaces that everyone can use and not just building a tower suite in the funnel.
[00:55:55] Speaker D: For what sort of. I talked to several people. We had to get there. This is a tip for people. If you do need the accessible seating that is reserved for you, there's two different seating areas that. Where you walk in at the very back. On both levels, there's Accessible. And my mom was a transfer wheelchair use. She would sit in like the more comfortable seat and that worked out great. But there's only a few of them. And so the other option, and this is how we got the information about the technical behind the scenes style upgrades for the theater is we got to go down to Deck 2 or 1 in a behind crew space into a watertight door to be able to come in at the bottom of the theater. So it is like the concierge early seating entry on the Wonder and Magic, but this is through a crew area and this watertight door that they have to open and close from the deck. It was incredibly thick. It was a really neat experience.
So if you do need accessible seating, you might want to show up not the first person. So you get that experience.
[00:57:07] Speaker A: That's cool. That's cool. All right, well, your last day of your cruise before of course, embarkation day, was a sea day. And you got to do Palo brunch. Of course, the, the, you know, the best brunch in the world in my opinion and debatable best brunch in the.
[00:57:25] Speaker B: World, but certainly maybe the best brunch at sea.
[00:57:28] Speaker A: The best brunch at sea. All right, and then you did tell us about the day. You did, of course, the Midship Detective Agency. I mean, that's the best thing on the, on the Fantasy and the Dream. The Dream Class ships. I would do that pretty much every day.
[00:57:43] Speaker D: I mean, I didn't realize there's 30 different ways it can go because there's different tracks and there are 30, like so many different outcomes. So yeah, the, the Midship Detective was huge.
So many.
And this is another observation from the EU sailings. It was. The character lines were extremely long. But all the other magic shots, we have some really cool magic shots from Star wars and I guess the Avenger people, I don't know. But the really cool magic shot.
And yes, yeah, lots of great background backgrounds. No lines for any of those photos. So we took advantage. And two other things to note here. It was my daughter's birthday and so as I mentioned, and so she got her Happy birthday Mickey Mickey bar.
We had great servers.
I put a picture of these crayons because every night we'd had a different crayon puzzle to solve with main dining and our servers. We got a lot of information about them, about the dry dock and if they were staying on through the dry dock or what their next contract was. Because I noticed on the Fantasy, all of these, they seem like lifers or multi year crew they were. They had been on the fancy a very long time in our stateroom hosts and a lot of them are excited about the adventure actually because they live in that area of the world. So it's going to be such an easy commute home. And so I think a lot of the crew members are excited about the adventure coming back. We talked to a lot of are coming out in their sailings, so that's I think great for them.
[00:59:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I think a lot of particularly folks who are from Indonesia, it's like super close to Singapore and a lot of folks from Indonesia work in Singapore even. And so I think there's, as you mentioned, a lot of folks from sort of that part of the world are. Are looking forward to being, you know, quite a bit closer. Quite a bit closer at home. Now there was a Broadway sing along. How did I.
[00:59:37] Speaker D: You. You wouldn't know it. So this was one of the piano players that are just playing in the atrium.
And it was. We come. We were on these lines for photos and it's the three stories in this beautiful atrium. I love the fantasies Atrium. And he starts playing Wicked and the wizard and I. Oh, nice. All three levels get quiet and you just start hearing people sing and Catherine singing and dancing. And then he goes into Les Mis.
And I have chills because you have. I swear this entire crews were all in choirs because every person I heard four part harmony all around me. I have chills thinking about it. And just so we kept playing these wonderful Broadway songs for 30 minutes and you have hundreds of people around you singing and you just can't plan this. This is not something on the app.
This is just the magic of Disney.
Oh my God, it's such a wonderful moment.
So yeah, shout out to that. Just, you know, magic.
[01:00:47] Speaker A: Oh my God, I love that. Yeah. That. I have never experienced that on the cruise. The only thing that came close was the dueling pianos on the Alaska sailing, which I gotta say were fabulous. You had. Actually, I think you were the first one who maybe told me about that. That was even a thing. I didn't know it was a thing. It's only in. Alas, again, not necessarily every sailing. But anyway, it sounds like a fantastic cruise. Now you got to go back to London. You of course sailed back into Southampton the next morning.
You had the same sprinter van reservation or same company for your. For the transfer back to London and you spent some more time in London. I. I know for several days right after. How many days did you guys spend in London And Sunday to Sunday.
[01:01:32] Speaker D: Yeah. So we had to hit some stuff. And I know we're running late on time, so I'll hit the highlight for you.
But we did all the touristy stuff, right? The London Eye, the Harry Potter Studios. I'm not so much of a Harry Potter person, but if you like behind the scenes movie making, it's completely different than going to Universal's Harry Potter worlds, which are great too.
So my husband and daughter absolutely love that. My mom skipped out and so that was fantastic.
And we went to two musicals. We saw six musical six for the third time because we're in London. We have so, so good. And the theater was 18 seats wide. And that was it. And so we were. It was very. It was amazing. It was awesome. Right? Because they're just right on top of you, no balcony or anything. And then we saw Hercules, which was the complete opposite experience because it's at the very recently remodeled Royal Drury Lane Theater with the King and the Queen's boxes and phenomenal pre theater dress, drinks and just a gorgeous theater.
And I'm going to have a hot take on Hercules, y'. All. I'm excited for the Destiny. I listened, of course to your show a couple weeks ago where you had folks that actually went behind the scenes to see the rehearsals for the Destiny's version of the show.
That was a completely different show than we saw.
[01:02:55] Speaker A: Wow. So do you think that the one on DCL is going to be better? That's what I think. I think it's good. I think that, I mean, I've heard good things about the one in London, but I think the one on Destiny is going to be even better with its like puppetry and all that.
[01:03:07] Speaker D: There were some, there was puppets, but not to the extent that we heard about and then saw those photos.
I think it's going to be better for one main reason and that's because it's going to be shorter. It's not going to be this extended. Join up. Now. Let me say the performers were phenomenal. Great. The Muses were our favorite part. The Muses would use muses and two of them were understudies and they were great. Hercules was great, great. But it, it felt like, well, let's throw another song in here because we have an extra couple million bucks. Let's do another costume change because we got a couple million bucks. So I'm glad we went.
You can skip it and just watch it on the Destiny is my hot take.
[01:03:46] Speaker A: Nice, Nice.
[01:03:47] Speaker B: All right, I gotta ask a couple questions here.
One is, I want to know. I mean, Katherine Looks to be having a fantastic time. It's been the one thing I've been sort of nervous about taking Nathan to like London for a week. Is he going to enjoy it?
[01:04:01] Speaker A: It.
[01:04:01] Speaker B: Because, you know, it's just old buildings and museums. I mean, I had to say, by the way, that's not a knock on London to any of our British listeners out there. If I could move to London today, I would.
[01:04:11] Speaker A: Yeah, we love London. It's just a matter of we don't know how Nathan will love London.
[01:04:15] Speaker B: What did Catherine think?
[01:04:17] Speaker D: So we.
I thought about this a lot because I wanted her to enjoy it. And the fact that she loves 6 the musical helped with that because we went to Hampton Court. We took the trip train out, about an hour train ride and we went to Hampton Court and it was the best day because they. They immerse you with audio guide for that. Not a lead tour, but they immerse you in. She's sitting at the Privy Council table, she is picking up the feast, the bowls and, you know, mugs that they used for the feast. Goblin goblins, I guess. We saw the chapel in. In. They were having a service in the chapel. There was an amazing playground with Beatrix Potter charact.
Just amazing grounds they had from accessibility standpoint. They had an elevator that you had to have the staff like, you know, call up and down for you. It was great.
And the rooms, everything you could just. It wasn't like walking through a museum, it was like walking through a house that you then got to touch and feel and experience things. So that was a fantastic day. One of our best meals was at the Muted Swan or the Mute Swan that's just outside Hampton Court Palace.
And we just. We approached it like a park day. We sat down in the shade, we had some cool drinks and it was a great experience for this age range.
Same thing for. We did the Westminster tour. We had a great guide, but then we said, you know, we saw Changing the guard. We're gonna. We're not. We don't need to see the Parliament palaces with her. And so we just kind of took it at her speed, which was great.
The food was phenomenal.
[01:05:56] Speaker B: I gotta ask because I see. I know you did two things that we've recommended on our show. I can see the menu for the Punjab in here, which is for those out there listening. We love it. It's an Indian restaurant in London, supposedly allegedly the oldest north Indian restaurant in the city, frequented by the Royal family, although I don't know what places are not frequented by the Royal Family. I wanted to be perfectly honest.
Did you like it? Did you like the food? Was it a good recommendation or would you skip it? Next.
[01:06:27] Speaker D: Fantastic recommendation. 100%. Everyone should go. Great location as well. And not as spicy as Daniel got more spice. Excuse me. More spice than I would want. But it was. They really discussed it. Right. So it was a good level of spice for him.
That was fantastic. Catherine ate fish and chips almost. Almost every day. So we. Now can we eat fish and chips all over the place.
The Dickens Inn and St. Catherine's Docks was great. St. James Cafe also had really good restrooms. And then we went to this Franco Manca pizza place. Three times, y'.
[01:07:02] Speaker A: All.
[01:07:02] Speaker D: Three times we went to this place. It is in West End. It was convenient, it was easy. It was great local food. It was a local place. It was not a touristy spot, even though it was in one of the little West End Maiden Lane offshoots. They had a Nutella pizza that Catherine celebrated her birthday with a Nutella pizza, Aperol spritzes, great salads and.
[01:07:25] Speaker B: It's a birthday season, Ashley. It's a birthday season.
[01:07:27] Speaker D: Oh, it's a birthday season. Yes. And so with all of that heavy food from the pubs, it was nice to have these great sourdough pizza pizzas that was real light and just delicious. And we spritzed our ray around London. That was the joke of the.
[01:07:42] Speaker B: And I see you did Borough Market. That's a good. That's a favorite of ours. Great spot to go wander around and get some food from food stalls down there.
[01:07:50] Speaker D: Ye got Iraqi food and Pakistani food. I mean, it's just like great food. And my picture was, I want that. And I would just point to something and they would prepare it for. You got the overhyped chocolate strawberries as well, but you gotta get them. Yeah.
[01:08:08] Speaker B: All right. I gotta wrap us up here by asking.
I mean, there's no better way to end than afternoon tea.
Did it live up to the hype? Ashley, did you have a nice afternoon tea?
[01:08:20] Speaker D: Yeah.
[01:08:20] Speaker A: We recommended Fortnum and Mason. I don't know how many times on our show. And then directly to Ashley when she was planning. I'm like, you must go there. I know they can accommodate allergies, but it's also just like the best tea experience and such great food.
[01:08:35] Speaker D: And we are not tea people.
I'm moving to Fortnum and Mason. It was the best three hours of our life. And we rope dropped it. So we got there very early. First people in, they opened the door for us. And so we basically had Our own private shopping before the crowds got there beforehand.
And best tea experience. The pianist saw that Catherine had a bell doll and he played Beauty and the Beast songs. And of course, she danced to it and she received, you know, an applause. It was the best experience. We took so many things to go in those cute little boxes and then ate them later. I mean, I'm moving there for forward all my mail. It was unbelievable. A thousand out of ten recommend.
And then our other two core memories. My daughter, as you mentioned, is a dancer and she gets her first pair of pointe shoes. So we went to the Freed of London, the original pointe shoemakers, to get fitted for her first pair. And then Daniel, my running husband, met up with three different run groups while we were there. And just the community in London welcomed him in.
And it was just a great way to explore the city. If you are the type of person that loves a belly, a particular athletic thing, just get on.
I don't know how he found these run group people, but he did. And so he just went running through all different areas of the city that we would not have explored as a tourist and made some friends. So, like, like my dad always says, when you're sailing with the Mouse or vacationing with Disney, like, it's just the best fun.
[01:10:02] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I used to do when we go to London, there was like a woman who had like a running tour company and she would, like, you know, you just meet her someplace and. And then she would. You'd map out kind of the. Here's kind of what I want to see, and here's how far I want to go, and here's how fast I can run. And she would kind of run with you through the city and take you different spots, and she'd always bring a camera and a backpack with water so you didn't have to carry it with you. And it was, it was lovely. She's. I think she's. During the pandemic, that business went to the wayside, but yeah, it was unfortunate, for sure.
[01:10:31] Speaker A: Well, I, I love that you did her, her. Her shoe fitting at Freed of London. I mean, that is just like an idea, iconic place to go and thing to do for a ballerina especially. So I think that's wonderful. I love that you got to experience this all with your mom as well. She's a lovely person. We got to meet her on the podcast cruise. I know how much she loves traveling with you guys as well, so definitely sounds like a fantastic trip. Oh, you had to bring up CT's comment.
[01:10:59] Speaker B: I have to bring up CT's comment because there is only one right answer to this question. So CT is saying no such thing as too much hype for. For Mason. Jam or clotted cream first on your scones.
Sam, what's the. What's the correct answer to this?
[01:11:13] Speaker A: No, I can't. I can't say, because I have a different answer than everybody because I only put clotted cream on my scones. I don't put jam on my.
[01:11:21] Speaker B: Is the correct answer you put it on first and then you add the jam because the clotted cream makes thicker fall off?
[01:11:26] Speaker D: Yes, I watched. We watched the crown before we went as part of our research. So we knew how to drink our tea and take our tea. So. And. And all of the pastries. Pinkies.
[01:11:36] Speaker B: Pinkies up. Pinkies up. Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I gotta. I gotta get this comment off the screen now. How do I. How do I. Oh, there we go. Sorry, Ashley.
Yes, yes. Well, Ashley, it sounds like a fantastic sailing with Disney. You know, the room issue aside, but they took care of you. It sounds like an otherwise fantastic family vacation and sounds like you had a great time. Sounds like Catherine had a great time, which gives me hope that maybe Nathan will join London if we take him over there. So, you know, thank you for coming on and spending some time with us this evening. Sam, what do we got up next week? Are we. Are we back? Are we back on our regular schedule?
[01:12:11] Speaker A: I don't even now I don't remember. I'm blanking.
[01:12:14] Speaker B: I know the live shows. How do you not know what's up next? I know I pulled it up.
[01:12:19] Speaker A: I honestly, I just blanked. I had it in my head at the beginning of the show.
[01:12:22] Speaker B: Isn't it. Aren't Kelly and Charity joining us to talk about a ladies on Wish cruise?
[01:12:28] Speaker A: Yes, that's right. We're gonna be joined by friend of the show, Kelly and her friend, who we have not met before, but Charity, and they went on a recent cruise. Just a bunch of girlfriends, Girls weekend on the Wish. So we're gonna be returning to our Bahamian roots and talking about Disney cruise line adults only with Kelly and Charity next week. Absolutely. Now, Ashley, you mentioned you've got that South Africa abd coming up next year. You know that you're coming back on the show about that, right? I'm just. I just gotta. You gotta pencil that.
[01:13:01] Speaker B: I'm still disappointed she's not coming on the DCL duo group cruise.
[01:13:05] Speaker A: I know, but this is why. It's because she's going to South Africa. So she had.
[01:13:10] Speaker D: I Can't do both. I have a budget. I have a bank account. I know. I'm really upset. We can that it that the South Africa and the river Cruise overlapped. But 2027, 27, summer of 27. We'll make something happen.
[01:13:26] Speaker A: She wants to come back to Alaska with us. I know.
[01:13:28] Speaker B: There you go. Alaska. So we joked last live show about the Alaska cruise. I'm just gonna go ahead and say I think we know we're gonna book Alaska in 2027. Provided we book 2027. We will make it a DCL duo podcast cruise. We'll break from tradition of every other year to do one again in 2027. But yeah, there you go. There you go.
All right. Well, with that we will wrap up. I will say thank you to everyone out there for hanging out with us. I know we've ran a little over time, but we have had a lot to cover. Thank you for hanging out with us tonight, Ashley. Thank you for coming on and otherwise we'll be back same time.
[01:14:03] Speaker A: Special thanks to Karen as well.
[01:14:05] Speaker B: Yes, yes, we will be back next week, same time, same location, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern and otherwise. Have a great evening everyone. See you real soon.
Well, thanks everyone, everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email them at DCLDUO mypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to come connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things, full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast links off to our vlog A link to our Etsy store where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets link to our Patreon if you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start reading. 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
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[01:16:29] Speaker D: Sam.
