Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I think we have reached that point in the show. Look, Sam, people dread it now. Look what you've done. Look what you have done.
Welcome back, everybody, to this week's episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and Sam, Listener review time. Do your jingle, Sam.
[00:00:28] Speaker B: Simply the best.
Better than all the rest.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: There you go. There you go, folks. That's a solid gold hit right there. All right. As is the show, apparently, from our five star review here coming from CHW 1023. Who writes helpful, informative. Well, you know, usernames are usernames, right? You know, you want to be CHW. They added an H. They're the 1023rd version of it.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Who knows?
[00:00:49] Speaker A: All right, you're right. Helpful and informative, Sam. Brian's interviews and conversations helped prepare me for what to expect and how to make the most of my first Disney cruise. I appreciate you both these three cruises and I am still listening and learning. Well, 30 cruises in, we're still learning, so, yeah, we're still absolutely. Growth mindset. That's what they teach our children now. Growth mindset.
[00:01:13] Speaker B: Yeah. No, I feel like we learn things, like random things all the time. In fact, as we're recording this, we just learned from friends who are on the Treasure that now Mickey and Minnie announce what deck you're on in the elevators in the Treasure. And so I think it's the forward elevators that are. Minnie announces the deck when you. It's, you know, like, you know, men's shoes or whatever. Right? Like, it's just. It's like Minnie's voice and it's like deck three and. Yeah, so they do that in the.
[00:01:40] Speaker A: Forward and then buffet, pal.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So the forward elevators we think are mini. In the aft elevators we think are making. Now this is on the Treasure. I don't know if this is on.
I would guess it would be on the Wish, but I don't. I would doubt that it would be on the other ships because it's probably some kind of retrofit.
[00:01:56] Speaker A: I'm not sure that they announced. I can't remember if they announce floor numbers on the other ships or not, actually.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: They don't.
[00:02:02] Speaker A: Yeah, they don't.
[00:02:03] Speaker B: You have to look at the. That's why so many people start getting off even when the elevator doesn't reach their floor because they're not paying attention. Because you have to look up at the. At the little screen thing or lookout.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Anyway, thank you for the review. CHW H 1023 for all of you out There. Please remember, one of the easiest ways you can help support this show is to head over to Apple Podcasts, hit those five stars, and if you leave us a written review, we will read it on the air at the top of one of our main episodes. So big thank you to everyone out there. Head over there, hit those five stars. Sam, we have a fun guest, a fun topic, and yeah, it's always one of your favorite topics. First time Disney cruising.
[00:02:39] Speaker B: First time Disney cruising. Now, now, our guest today is not brand new to cruising in general, but brand new to Disney Cruising. And I'm super excited to hear her take. Cause she's been on Royal Caribbean before and she just went on her first Disney cruise here a couple months ago. So we'd like to welcome to the show. Megan, welcome.
[00:02:57] Speaker C: Hey, really good to be with you. Thanks.
[00:02:59] Speaker B: Yeah, great to be with you today.
Why don't you tell folks your sort of Disney background, like, where your love of Disney comes from and then what cruises you have been on prior to this first Disney cruise.
[00:03:12] Speaker C: Sure. Well, like any kid who grew up in the 90s, I wore out my VHS tapes of the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast and, you know, the new classics. Yeah, right. And I have a sister who's about five years younger than me, so it was a really great excuse. Like, oh, I'm sorry, my little sister wanted to watch the Little Mermaid for the five millionth time. It was me. I wanted to.
But then, you know, as I got into adulthood, just general appreciation until I had kids. I have two kids who are, you know, currently 9 and 11. And as they were getting older, you know, you start sharing those movies with them and you kind of remind yourself, like, oh, like, I like these independent of my children. I would watch them on my own. Oh, that's right. So you kind of relive those glory days. And then what really, I think turned it for me is that in what would that have been 2022, we went on our first trip to Disney. My husband and I and our two kids, we went to Disney World.
They were still, like, in some COVID protocols. Like, we couldn't hug the characters. We could wave at them from like 20ft away.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: Right.
[00:04:19] Speaker C: We didn't have to wear masks, but we did on the transportation. But, like, it was magical. I cannot even express, like, I'm so prepared for a vacation to not go well somehow, because you just like, set your expectations low. Right? Like, something's gonna fall apart. Nothing fell apart. It was so lovely. And our travel agent, when she set us up, I was like, we wanna do all the things because we're never gonna go back to Disney again. It'd be our one shot. And she was like, I would be careful about assuming that. But yes, do all the things you wanna do.
Yes. Well, flash forward to the fact that we have now since been to Disney World three times, including two just in the past from in June and October of last year, plus now this Disney cruise. So you were right, Emily. Thanks for nothing.
We've been to Disney a lot.
So that's the Disney part of it. The cruising part of it is that we went to Disney World in 2022 and we decided, hey, you know, let's try something different. Let's try a cruise.
And obviously we looked at a Disney cruise and went, oh, that's, you know, a little pricey. And we don't even know if we like cruising yet. Right.
So we went on a Royal Caribbean cruise, shorter length, four nights. And in hindsight, like, we try to revisit that trip and go, okay, what did we or didn't we like about a cruise? And in hindsight, there was really only one thing that we didn't like, like about cruising, and that was that me and my eldest got a little seasick. Not like bad, but enough that on a four night cruise, if you lose a whole day to feeling kind of icky, it's not fun, right? So we said, okay, well maybe we, you know, what did we like? Would we go to an all inclusive resort, like all these other things? And then as it turns out, just this past January, we were trying to plan a spring break trip for March.
And you know, with two months to go, we were like, well, why was it that we didn't want to go cruising again?
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Why didn't we like that?
[00:06:26] Speaker C: And sure enough, with like, with like less than 60 days to go, we booked ourselves a Disney cruise. And that was our we. Not really with the intention of the compare and contrast between a Royal Caribbean and a Disney cruise. But what we did a lot of that because we were like, okay, well if we're going to keep cruising, do we like cruising?
Would we go back to Royal Caribbean or would we go back to Disney? The whole seasickness component is a whole other conversation that we can indeed get into because it's an interesting story, but that's kind of when we went, you know, actually maybe we would do this again. Right? Like, I think we can have fun with this kind of vacation.
[00:07:01] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and I think it is definitely a consideration for, you know, we talk to people all the time who are worried about seasickness. And I like to tell people like it's not a thing until it is a thing. Right. Like if you're somebody who is super like sensitive, then for sure you need to come like well prepared for seasickness. If you're someone who gets mildly motion sick. I mean, I get motion sick in the car, but I'm most of the time fine on a cruise unless we happen to hit really rough seas. If we hit really rough seas, I'm going to be nauseous. I'm going to have to take some meds or wear some, you know, acupressure or both or you know, like it's going to be a thing. And so it is something I think to be prepared for.
I think if you're prepared for it, unless you are like one of the more extreme cases because there are people who just really can't cruise. And I, you know, I, I think that's a very small number of people. But there are some people who fit into that category where nothing is going to work. They're just going to be miserable. But I do think if you come prepared, you can find strategies to cope. I think it's a little bit easier for adults than for kids just because there's more options out there. There's a few, you know, Bonine is for me works really well. It's not drowsy like Dramamine. But Bonine is not approved for I believe under age like 12 or 13, I can't remember. Go look at the packaging. Don't ask me. I'm not a medical doctor. But yeah, so I do think there are, there are things that you, you know, sort of prepare for. Now you guys were booking very last minute. Two months out is, is last minute. Did that impact like what state room you, you know, decided to book or what activities of course you could do. Like I want to talk a little bit about the planning this, you know.
[00:08:41] Speaker C: Or the complete lack thereof.
[00:08:42] Speaker B: Yeah, or, or, or exactly. I mean you can, it's very difficult to do that with a Parks trip. I mean, you know, I think most people know that at least with.
[00:08:50] Speaker A: But much easier to do on a cruise to be perfect.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Yes, yes, exactly. It's not, it's not agree. Yeah, I don't think it's, it's super hard, but it's to do a last minute trip. I think it's actually relatively easy unless you have expectations of like things I must get like if you have that kind, if you're that kind of person, you can't plan it last minute, any kind of trip. But yeah. So tell us about process.
[00:09:13] Speaker C: Absolutely. You know, keeping in, in, in line with that whole set your expectations low thing.
We were like, we know that we are booking two months out and some people book like two years out. So we know that there's stuff that we, that we might not be able to do. Like, we literally, you know, we booked after the pay in full date.
So many of the activities had already had their, like, booking dates, like come and go. So we just kind of shrugged and said, like, you know, we didn't.
When we went on that other cruise, we didn't do anything particularly special. We just enjoyed the ship and we enjoyed the ports of call and that was enough for us. Right? So we thought, well, that's gotta be true for a Disney cruise too. Like, there's gotta be plenty to do for that.
So I'll be honest, like, I didn't even bother looking for, you know, reservations for any of the fancy sit downs. I didn't look at any of the, like, drink tastings, like, literally didn't do any of it. We kind of shrugged and said, let's see what's there. And that part was totally fine. I0 regrets there because we booked so late. We booked our room gty, which is where you buy basically a level of room, but you don't get to pick where it is. And this is where we really did admittedly take the gamble. Right? Because if me and my daughter both went, maybe a little bit of concern about seasickness, we really should have wanted to be more central on the boat.
But we kind of let that just go up in the air and be like, I'm sure it'll be fine.
Reader. It was not, indeed fine.
It's not. But honestly, like, I panicked about it when we got our room reservation. I did not need to panic about it. It worked just fine. We were all the way in the front of the ship. We were in an accessible room, which we did not need, but that was what we got. And so since we were in the very, very front, I thought, oh my gosh, you know, bitch, oh my gosh, the ship is gonna be pitching and rolling like, this is.
This is gonna be wild. It was okay. And I will say, the first night, the first day into the first night, we did have a lot of, we did have a lot of motion, you know, like at supper that night, watching the servers carrying the plates and kind of, you know, bobbing around to keep their balance.
So it should have a hot mess.
But to your point about you can be prepared for seasickness?
We came prepared for seasickness for my daughter.
We brought some kid Dramamine and some of those acupressure bands and some of those.
Not the prescription patches, but the kind.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: Of the over the counter patches.
[00:12:00] Speaker C: I don't remember the name of the herbal kind of thing. Yeah. And I reached out to my doctor and said, I'm gonna go on a cruise and I think I might get sick. And she wrote me a prescription for the.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: What are the name of those scopolamine pads?
[00:12:13] Speaker C: Scopalamine. Yeah.
Wrote me a prescription for that.
I started taking it right away and had literally no problems the whole trip. Little bit of dry mouth, but otherwise fine. So here we were in the front of the ship where it should have been a big problem, and it wasn't a big problem. So you can come with the right tools in your toolbox to manage that just fine.
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I also think the front of the ship is better than the back of the ship. I mean, I think you're right. Midship is probably the best for seasickness issues, but I still think the front is better than the back. And when you mentioned the dining, dining is all in the back of the ship. And so that is where, when you're eating dinner in the evening, you are likely the ship is often moving faster in the evening because we're trying to make time between the different ports. And that's where you, I would say, feel the most movement because you're at the back of the ship. And so you. You see a lot of that. And it is amazing to watch the servers carry these big, heavy trays.
[00:13:16] Speaker C: It's just all kudos to them. They're incredible.
[00:13:20] Speaker A: I also want to go back for a second. You know, you mentioned that some folks book two years out and just for everyone out there, like, folks book early to save on price. Although this summer we're seeing quite a lot of, you know, more activity on pricing from Disney than we've seen in the past. I don't know if that's so much INV inventory coming, people saving themselves for the Destiny, whatever it is, but, you know, 30 off pricing on some of the wish sailings out there.
And we're hearing rumors that, you know, concierge isn't always sailing full right now, which is fascinating.
And not like full as in one or two rooms not full. But we heard somebody the other day say that they were on the Dream and there were 20 concierge rooms unsold. And that is so, so I think, you know, there's, there may be some more of that sale activity that happens. It's not going to be anything like what you see on Royal Caribbean, etc. But people book two years in advance for the price for activity booking. Your only barrier is your castaway club status. And so if you book, you know, if you're a brand new cruiser and you book 90 days out, you're still some amount of time. Was it 75 days for booking window on new cruiser? Sam, does that sound right?
[00:14:26] Speaker B: No, I think it's, I think that's it. It's either 60. Well, maybe it's 75. It's 60 or 75. I'm sorry, I never, I never remember the, the number of days because it grad so much from you know, concierge, then pearl, then platinum, then gold, then silver, then no status.
[00:14:43] Speaker A: But my point being that like if you book late, you may be paying more but even then you've got GTY rooms like all of this sort of stuff. So don't be afraid to book later. You may end up paying a little bit more. You could end up paying a little bit less. I would never count on that with Disney.
[00:14:58] Speaker C: But yeah, it felt like a coin flip for us, right? Like we didn't have anything to compare it to when it came to having booked, you know, a year out or two years out or whatever, we were very comfortable with the price. We got gty. So it was, you know, it was very within reach for us for, for our budget. So I mean I would, I would definitely agree with you. You don't, you don't know until you look, don't, don't write it off.
[00:15:19] Speaker A: Yeah, and see, I'm just confirming, first time guest is 75 days, Silver starts at 90.
[00:15:23] Speaker B: Ah, gotcha. Okay, well. And you know, we didn't even talk about the itinerary you booked. I actually think this is where, this is actually a very smart itinerary to book as a last minute because excursions just don't matter.
I'm going to put that did a five night sailing on the fantasy that went to Castaway and Lookout. Did you go to NASA also or just.
[00:15:45] Speaker C: Yes, we did. Right, in between the two.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. So for those three ports, like I always will, you know, others might want to venture out in Nassau and book an excursion and there's tons of excursions in Nassau so there's still going to be some stuff available even if you book last minute. But at Castaway and Lookout you really need not book Anything. It is such a beautiful beach day at both locations.
And you just really, you know, you really don't need to book an excursion to have a wonderful time at those ports. And so it's not like a last minute booking to, let's say like Alaska or Europe where there may not be very many excursions to choose from. And you really want to book an excursion, whether that's through Disney or even through third party, a lot of those things might be booked for the last minute.
[00:16:30] Speaker C: One of the things we talked about when we, you know, thought about our Royal Caribbean cruise was we got to go to their private island on that cruise. And we were like, if there was a cruise where all you did was go to a private island, like literally every day we would sign up for that cruise. So when we saw this itinerary that had two different private islands, we were like, that's as close as we're going to get. That's going to do the trick.
[00:16:55] Speaker B: Exactly. And I honestly think that I'm with you. If I can sign up for cruises that just go to Disney's private island or Royal's private island, like that's, to me, that's like, like a wonderful cruise. It's a relaxing cruise. I know I'm not going to do like some of the historical things that I might do at other ports, but I, if I want a real vacation, a real relaxing vacation, that's the itinerary that I want. All right, well, Megan, you're traveling from Minnesota down to Port Canaveral for the fantasy. Tell us, like, when did you get into the Orlando area? Where did you stay?
[00:17:31] Speaker C: So this is part of where things got a little creative. Right. When you are going to book a cruise, like not last minute, last minute, but a little last minute. You also want to check flights. This was a thing we learned the hard way when we went cruising before was you get a good price on your cruise. Isn't that wonderful?
Holy cow. We're going to break the bank on the flights, right? So we really sifted through really hard to make sure that we found a flight that was still very much within our price range. And we found a flight that left earlier than we needed it to. Actually left two nights before we needed to be there. So what we did, we flew in kind of late on the first day we flew into Orlando and then we actually rented a car and we drove all the way in to Cocoa beach, actually stayed there and then went to, went to for the Kennedy Space Center.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Oh, nice.
[00:18:23] Speaker C: Linked on the name for a hot Second there, went to the Space center the next day, spent the whole day there, really had a lovely time. In keeping with the no preparation theme, almost no planning for it. We just kind of showed up like the night before. We were like, whoa, maybe we should, you know, where's, where does YouTube say we should go? And we had a wonderful time. Would recommend good use of time.
Stayed at the hotel one more night and then the next day dropped the rental car off right there in Cocoa beach and took the shuttle to the cruise terminal.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: Awesome. That's amazing.
That's a great plan or last minute plan. I mean the Kennedy Space center is fantastic. Highly recommend. And we ourselves have only stayed down in Cocoa beach the one time when we went to the Kennedy Space center actually in between cruises.
And we were very happy being down there. We didn't get to spend any time at the beach but we, you know, we enjoyed our time down there. We stayed at the, actually the Space Hotel, which I would definitely, yeah, I.
[00:19:22] Speaker C: Would recommend days in by Wyndham.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: It's very utilitarian, it works.
[00:19:28] Speaker C: But it was fine. We had a perfect, a perfectly good stay there.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. A place to rest your head. Right, well tell us, what was your port arrival time and when did you get to the port?
[00:19:38] Speaker C: Yeah, so our port arrival time was, I want to say it was 12:15.
We, you know, tried to hop online real fast to, to get that port arrival time and you know, for us that was about 11 o' clock at night and of course the site crashed and so it was much later than that by the time everything finally went through. But we got it all sorted and, and honestly we probably broke the rules a tiny teeny bit because we totally forgot that we were so close to the cruise terminal where we were. So we'd figured in all this time for like dropping off the car and making sure we could get the shuttle in. Like figured all this stuff in and we were to the cruise terminal like before even the first boarding time, like we were there way too early. And so we kind of looked around, we were like, well they'll tell us if we can't get in, right? Like they'll tell us to turn around if we can't get in and we'll figure it out if that's the case. By the time we arrived there wasn't any line, there wasn't any wait, there wasn't anybody backed up. And so we just, we walked up, we went through security, we got and, and just sat and waited in the terminal, which honestly for us was just Fine.
Because it meant just kind of, you know, by a fluke there, that we didn't have to do a lot of waiting, we didn't have to do a lot of standing around. We would rather sit in air conditioning, which is what we got to do. So I can't necessarily, you know, commend that plan because I can't promise that it's going to work out for everyone.
But again, one of the other things I've kind of learned about taking trips with, with anything Disney is that you can always just ask.
People will say no to you if the answer is no.
But you can just ask and say, is it okay our arrival time isn't for a while.
Is it okay if we check in now and if they say no, say, cool, thanks, have a great day. Don't be a jerk about it. But you could always ask. And that is what we did and it worked out fine for us. So we got to hang around the terminal for a little while. We walked out onto that kind of platform that looks out over the ship as they're loading everything. There were manatees playing in the water below us.
Yeah, it turned out to be kind of a nice little time waster.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, and it is cool actually to watch them load the supplies and stuff onto the, onto the ship because you're sort of, see they're, they're down below and you're, you're kind of up above because the gangway for passengers is obviously on a higher floor than where they're loading the goods on. But it is kind of cool to watch. I think that's a great tip though. I think asking is always recommended because oftentimes the answer will be yes. And if the answer is no, then you haven't lost anything. Right. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Right. So. So it is certainly perfectly appropriate to ask and, and oftentimes as long as there's not a line if they have been able, like Port Canaveral is such a well oiled machine at this part, at this point, unless they've been delayed by the Coast Guard or some kind of inspection or things like that.
[00:22:39] Speaker A: And boarding group two is so massive now too. Like if, depending on status, I think most of the pearls and platinums end up in boarding group too. So.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Yeah, so it just ends up like if they have cleared those lines that were like ahead of you. Right. And a lot of other people haven't arrived yet, they, for them it's actually easier if they get you into the terminal and, you know, checked in earlier. So if as long as they don't have a backup of a line. It's very common, I think, for them to let folks in at least into the terminal early, as Megan mentioned. That doesn't mean you aren't going to wait inside the terminal, but at least you're waiting in the air conditioning. You know, you're checked in, there's bathrooms, there's vending machines, and so you're comfortable inside. And you can even take your picture ahead of time in front of one of the backdrops or take your picture in front of the ship model. Once in a while, Mickey might be out in the. In the terminal and take your picture with Mickey before you board. So things like that, it just sort of makes for a smooth day if you're. If you are, you know, lucky enough to get into that terminal early. What time did you all end up boarding the ship?
[00:23:44] Speaker C: I mean, pretty much at our boarding time. Everything moves along really well. I mean, it is very efficient. I don't think we ever saw the line, you know, once we were in the terminal. I don't think we ever saw the line get too out of hand, really. That, that moved on just fine. So, you know, by the time they called our group, it got in the line and it moved on quickly. And all of a sudden we were trying to decide what name we were going to give them when they called them in the atrium when we walked on the boat. And my, My. My husband and I have different last names. And the kids were like, we should combine the two names so that we had to decide how to combine the two.
It was moving along quickly enough that we barely had enough time to figure out how we were gonna, you know, jam these two names together. It worked really well. I would say it was pretty efficient.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: I love that we. We don't usually have much of a debate. We usually go with Brian's last name. Cause we also have different last names, but Nathan and Brian have the same last name. And so we tend to go, do.
[00:24:38] Speaker A: You have the Flanner family?
[00:24:39] Speaker B: We do. We. We are one of our. Our shout out, Lisa. I know you're probably not listening to the show. She's not a big Disney person, but she has. She nicknamed us the Flanners. And so, like, that is, like, if we need to use a mashed up name, that's what we. That's what we use. But we do use.
Yeah, but we do usually use the Flock family, Brian. So.
So you, you. You won.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Almost never, actually. The dcl duo. We never. Almost never. I think we had one time that we got announced on that way and I was diametrically opposed to it.
[00:25:11] Speaker B: So there was, there was one time I actually asked for it and they wouldn' though they would only do a. Yeah, they would only do like a family name. And I can't remember what if our.
[00:25:20] Speaker C: Last name is dcl Duo?
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Then I know, right? How exactly.
[00:25:24] Speaker A: That's our last name. The dicko.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: I'm going to go to court and get my name changed legally and then what are they going to do about it?
[00:25:32] Speaker A: You talk to me about tattoos all the time. You're going to get your name legally changed. Yeah, no, that seems like a bad idea.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: Oh my goodness.
[00:25:40] Speaker C: I.
To the point of like just asking for things. Right. As well as, you know, the general theme of oops. This is what happens when you book a cruise a little later.
You know, we were obviously in the late dining group because, you know, 60ish days before your cruise, that's what's left. And we're not a late dining family. We are definitely a, you know, man. Sometimes we'll have supper at 4:30, depending on what's going on in the evening.
[00:26:05] Speaker B: Right.
[00:26:06] Speaker C: So we were like, this isn't going to work.
[00:26:08] Speaker B: 4:30, my goodness, that's special.
[00:26:12] Speaker C: Don't, don't overthink. Think it. It's fine.
So we were like, this is going to be kind of weird. And we, you know, we talked ourselves into it, right? We were like, there's, you know, we'll go get some snacks, we'll have a little extra pizza, we'll get some popcorn during the show. We'll be fine. Right.
But in, in the line of just. Hey, what if we just ask. When we got on, I went down to the. What is it like the restaurant manager had a little table signing down.
Yeah, yeah.
[00:26:40] Speaker B: Probably by Enchanted Garden. Right, Right outside Enchanted Garden.
[00:26:43] Speaker C: Yeah. Don't stand in the line at the, at the desk. The desk.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: Yeah. Don't.
Yeah. And it'll tell you in the app. So it's different on different ships. On the Dream Class. So the Dream and the Fantasy, it's usually at the little desk in front of Enchanted Garden. On the other ships, it is in different places. I think on Wish End Treasurer, I think it's usually in Tritons. I can't remember. I think in the Magic and the Wonder, it's usually in French Quarter Lounge or Soul Cat Lounge.
But again, look at the app because the app will tell you exactly where to go. But yeah, for dining changes, don't wait in the long line for guest services you might need to do other stuff at guest services, but not for dining changes. Yeah.
[00:27:28] Speaker C: She says, as one who stood in that long line for. Not, like, ever, but, like, at least a bit long enough that there were cast members who were walking along down the line, like, does everyone here really need to be in line for guest services? Right. And so I said, well, I'm just trying to see if I can change my dining time. And they were like, yeah, no, you don't need to be here for that. Oh.
So I go down and I. And I, you know, sit down at the table with the restaurant manager and say, I just. I'm wondering. Wondering if it's possible, you know, to switch to an earlier dining time. And he was very sweet and said, oh, my goodness, no. Just no options whatsoever. And I said, oh, okay. You know what? Just.
Just thought I'd ask. Totally fine. Thank you for your time. And he. He looked at me kind of surprised and said, but that's. That's okay.
I was like, what are you gonna do? Like, build more tables?
You've either got seats or you don't.
So, no, that's. That's totally fine. And he said, oh, well, thank you for being so understanding. And I was like, do people give you a hard time that there are limited numbers of seats in your. And he indicated that, indeed, that was true.
[00:28:47] Speaker A: Phrases like, you have ruined my magic. My. You have ruined my vacation. I need a full refund on my career.
[00:28:53] Speaker C: I paid for this. I gotta get. And so I, like, I. I don't really have that in me, even if I felt that way, which I didn't.
And he said, you know, how long ago did you book your cruise? And I was like, two months. And he was like, yeah, early dining's been booked for a year. I said, yeah, I figured. That's fine. He said, well, I've got a. I've got a waiting list. Do you want to be on the waiting list? I said, yeah, you know what? Sure, that's fine. Put me on the waiting list. That's no big deal. He said, well, would you be comfortable sitting with other people? I said, yeah, sure. We like people. That's fine, you know, so we had this lovely. Just like, whatever works. Thank you so much. I'm not going to worry about it. So that was the exchange. I go back to my husband. Late dining. No problem.
So flash forward to that evening. The evening entertainment was the. The live action Snow White movie. Because that was the day that it opened, actually. So we're like, hey, free movie. We're or, you know, yeah, premiere several thousand dollar movie. Whatever you want to think of it as, well, let's do it. Right? So we got our popcorn and we strapped in and the movie started. And then my. My app dinged on my phone and said, you, dining starts in 15 minutes. I was like, that's silly. No, it doesn't. Don't start for like three hours.
And then I triple checked and was.
[00:30:12] Speaker B: Like, oh, oh, let's get out of the movie.
[00:30:15] Speaker C: Restaurant manager changed our time.
So I don't know. I don't know what string he pulled. I don know what table he built. I literally don't know. But all of a sudden, I'm ripping my kids out of the movie and they're like, but we want to watch the movie. I'm like, I know. So we're dragging a popcorn bucket to supper and whatever. But it was like, first of all, it was fine. Obviously we made it work because, you know, here we are and enjoy it ourselves. But it very much to the point of, like, just. It's okay to ask and just as long as it's okay for the answer to be no.
The corollary point, make sure you keep checking the app because sometimes things.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: Good point. Well, I think the other lesson is you catch more flies with honey, right?
And so generally speaking, like, cast members will try to make magic happen for you where they can, right? And so, but if you ask nicely and you're appreciative and kind and understand, you know, and when they say no, oftentimes that actually makes them want to go out of their way to help you with whatever the request is. And so I often, often think that people who get magic, you know, it's a little bit of karma, right? Like, you. You get back what you put out into the universe. And so I do think. I do think that can. That can make the difference. Now, Megan, I want to go back to the moment where you entered the ship because you had your, you know, your. Your mashed up family name announced, but you'd never experienced this before. This entry into a Disney ship. You'd walked into, you know, probably the.
I forget what they call it, but like the equivalent of the atrium in a Royal Caribbean ship. But what did you guys think when you walked into the Disney Fantasy Atrium? It's that beautiful art deco. I'm curious what that was.
[00:32:06] Speaker C: Like, we'd done just enough research, like, we'd watched just enough YouTube videos to have a sense that, like, oh, it's gonna be pretty, right? So we kind of, you know, did the little pass through? And it feels weird to say it, but I was so struck by how nice it smelled.
And especially notable considering how sweaty we all were and, like, you know, how people had been crammed together. Right. It should not have smelled nice. It definitely smelled nice. Yeah. So that's a nice touch. Right? I can't remember which character was standing.
[00:32:40] Speaker B: I.
[00:32:41] Speaker C: Honestly, it's all a blur. But, you know, there's a character up there greeting you, and you're like, oh, hi.
It just felt. I don't know, it felt sweet. It felt nice. And you're a little disoriented, especially on your first cruise, because you don't have your suitcases. Oh, my gosh. Are my suitcases gonna come? And. Oh, my goodness, where is my room? And will it. You know, you've all these, like.
[00:33:02] Speaker B: Yeah. You don't know which way is. Which way is forward.
I still don't.
[00:33:06] Speaker C: It's fine.
But it.
Don't let it kind of steal from that moment of just going, oh, this is really. This is really pretty. And, like, look around. People are happy. Like, they're excited to be there. Like, let that moment be special, even if it's just like, six seconds of special, until your kids are like, no, seriously, I'm hungry. Where are we eating? Right?
Which, by the way, when we ate on the first day, we went to the buffet because we are big buffet fans in our family. It was when we hearkened back to our previous cruise, like, top three favorite things, buffet. So we were like, all right, we are going to the buffet. And my youngest is deeply obsessed with shrimp, so she wanted me to make sure to tell you that her favorite thing was the unlimited shrimp.
[00:33:59] Speaker B: I love that. I. Listen, I. If you are a peel and eat shrimp fan, then you should be going to the buffet. You should be going to Cabanas or Marceline Market on that first day. And frankly, you should go there every day for lunch, because I'm pretty sure they have it every day.
[00:34:18] Speaker C: I aggressively agree. It is too much work.
We were going to do it anyway because we like buffet. Right? Like, so just, I mean, do know, like, we were fully prepared right. When we walked into that buffet that first day, we knew there were going to be lines. We knew we were going to have trouble finding a table. We knew we had no sense of, like, orientation in the buffet. So where even were the shrimp? We didn't know. And it was not just us. Right. Everybody else, by and large, was in. Was literally in the same boat. Right? So it's so we knew it would be chaos.
And that made it a little bit easier because we were a little more willing to just say, all right, this is going to be a kind of a debacle, but the kid wants shrimp. So here we are. Right?
And it was fine. It really was fine. Although I will say that probably the only hiccup was they have beautiful outside seating. You know, if you keep going all the way deep into the buffet, there's outdoor seating. That first day, when we, when we boarded, it was actually kind of cold and windy. And so we went. The only table we could find was an outside table.
And we realized very quickly why it was the only table we could find because it was real chilly and real windy and I almost lost my french fries. Right. So pretty quickly we hightailed it back inside and found ourselves a table. It was, it was fine. You've, you've gotta be okay with that if you're gonna do the buffet on the first day. If you're not okay with that chaos, my presumption is to go to the sit down restaurant and you will be very happy.
[00:35:42] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know, like, we tell people the sit down lunch just, just, it's going to be much slower. And so it's just a matter of like what you prefer. It is either there's no chaos in the sit down lunch, but it will be slow. And so, you know, that's not a bad thing, I think, for most. Well, not for, for some people, that's not a bad thing. For us, it's not a bad thing. I kind of like a, you know, I like the leisurely aspect of the sit down lunch, but I also understand people whose kids are getting hangry. They need to get some food in those gullets and so they gotta run to the buffet real quick and get that. Now, um, did you guys, you know, you had been on a cruise before, so you knew it was going to take time to get to your room, take time to, you know, get your luggage to your room. Did you guys, you know, bring swimsuits or, you know, to change into so that, or under your clothes so that you could take advantage of like the pools, the water slides, anything like that on that first day, or did you spend the first day more exploring the ship?
[00:36:37] Speaker C: Yeah, we decided not to do pool on the first day, at least partly because.
So we, on our first cruise, we had, we had NASA as a stop on that cruise as well. And we, we'd felt like we'd seen Nassau enough on that first cruise, so we knew that on that day, we were probably just going to have a ship day. So we thought, okay, that can be swimming, that can be poolside, that's totally fine. So we didn't really feel super interested in trying to fight for the pool that first day. What we did that first day is we did all the kids club orientations. We went and saw all those spaces. And the irony of that is not lost on me that we spend tons of time exploring those spaces, enjoying them, playing in them. And that was the first, last and only time my kids went in those spaces. That whole cruise after that, no interest. Not because it didn't seem fun, not because it didn't seem welcoming.
We were just kind of having fun family time. And for us, that's really what this cruise was, was really intended to be dedicated family time. I have zero judgment if what you need from your cruise is for your kids to go have a great time at Oceaneers, right? And you are going to go, I don't know, stare into the middle distance on, on one of the decks, right? Like, that's totally fine. But, but for us, we, we actually kind of wanted to be together. Like that was part of the goal of this trip. So we were okay that the kids didn't feel super interested in returning. If we would have pressed it with them, they probably would have, but we didn't particularly want to press it with them.
[00:38:10] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and you mentioned you didn't book any adult dining. So it wasn't any sort of time where you necessarily were going to be in a space that was not open to, you know, kids as well. And so unless you're going to adult dining, the spa, or, you know, some adult only activities, which most of them are in the evening, although there are some during the day, like adult only trivias and things like that. You know, there are really.
The spaces are open to all ages, most of the spaces are open to all ages. And so there's, you know, it's really easy to just sort of have that family time. Even some of the lounges are open, particularly during the day to, you know, kids being inside them as well. Well, Megan, I want to, I want to talk about the, the ports you went to.
You mentioned, of course, Castaway. And then is this where we fight.
[00:38:58] Speaker C: Over which island is best?
[00:38:59] Speaker B: Yes, exactly.
This is where we fight. We're not just going to fight over Castaway and Lookout, but I also want to fight over Coco Key, which is Royal Caribbean's private island. And I know you, you were there in 2022 on your on your first cruise, I take it you did not get off at Nassau on this cruise, since you mentioned your plan. Okay, so because your plan was to sort of use it as a ship day, so you basically had two sea days. One where you were docked at NASA, one where you're actually at sea, and then you have your two port days. So, yeah, I want to talk about what you guys did at Castaway, what you guys did at look at, and then I want to do some compare and contrast with each of them, but also, like I said with Coco. So let's start with your first port of call. Was that Lookout or was that Castaway?
[00:39:44] Speaker C: Was that Castaway?
[00:39:45] Speaker B: Castaway. Okay, this is great. That's the way to do it. Castaway first, lookout second.
[00:39:50] Speaker C: Do it however you want to do it, because both of them are great. I would say for different reasons.
I liked starting at Castaway, at least partly because it felt like there was more to do. I don't think that's true. But just because Castaway is a little more built up, it's a lot easier to go, oh, there's that. We can do that. We can go there. So it was much more fed to you. Right? You know, a couple days later, by the time we went to Lookout, you were like, I just want to chill out. And. And this feels more like that. Right? There's really pretty beach.
There are some really nice structures, obviously, but it's not quite as built up feeling.
So it's. It's much more that, like, oh, this is going to be our last stop before our sea day, before our cruise is over.
I am planting on this beach and never leaving.
[00:40:42] Speaker B: So I liked that order, itinerary order, too, because you had the sea day on your last day, which is the, like, 100%. Oh, the, like a lot of cruises, and I would say almost.
Well, all of, like, the eastern and western Caribbean itineraries, the seven nights, they all end at Castaway. That's your last day. And then the next morning you're back at Port Canaveral.
[00:41:02] Speaker C: I would have fully panicked. I would have spent my whole day at Castaway going, oh, my gosh, I have to get my bag packed. I'm going to. I've got sand in everything. How am I going to sh. You know, I would have. I would have lost my mind. And as it was on our. On our last day, our sea day, like, there's some of that evening stuff that we just couldn't hang on for because we absolutely had to get back to the room. We absolutely had to pack and we absolutely had to get like at least four hours of sleep. My goodness. Like, so that as it was, was already a little harried. But you can manage that a lot better when you've got a sea day at the end.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: Yes, absolutely. I think that's if you can book an itinerary like that is just golden.
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[00:42:44] Speaker B: But yeah, so let's start with Castaway. What you guys get up to on Castaway? Where did you plant yourselves for the day and what did you think of Castaway?
[00:42:54] Speaker C: The first thing we did was the 5k. We did not run it. We walked it at an incredibly leisurely pace, which I have no regrets on.
I was just as sweaty as anyone else. So tell me I'm wrong.
But we liked that especially too because you got to kind of explore the island a little bit. You got a sense of how big it actually was. And then you felt a little bit better about hitting the buffet for lunch because you'd gotten in a good 5k walk, right? And by that day, the morning was already getting kind of warm. So we were ready to go find some shade. We went about as far down the beach as you can go and still be family beach.
And incidentally, it was just because of where we found chairs like it that just. It just took us that long to find a spot. Cause it was a little later in the morning. By then, a lot of people had already kind of claimed their spot. What ended up being really great about that location is we were really close to the buffet there.
[00:43:52] Speaker B: So cookies 2 is right there.
[00:43:54] Speaker C: Right. Like, literally, like right on the other side of the trees.
So we went and got our trays and seriously just brought it back to the beach with us. We sat and ate our lunch on the beach.
We could hit up the soft serve machines until they shut them down for the day, and we did.
So the. That location for a spot for our family actually ended up being a really good place to be. We were a little further away from the.
I forget what it's called. The kind of water slide thing out in the water.
[00:44:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:44:22] Speaker C: Which my kids. There it is. My kids thought they wanted to go on that. And every time they looked at it, the line was a little longer than they were willing. And they were having plenty of fun. And it's such a calm bay. They had no trouble playing in the water, playing in the sand, running around with other kids.
It was just very relaxed and very easy. So Honestly, after the 5K, that's kind of all we did was eat ice cream and sit in a lounger and play in the beach.
[00:44:55] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:44:56] Speaker C: Right. And so if you're. I mean, if you're the kind of person who needs to. To do things, may you be blessed on your journey. Enjoy. There's plenty of things to do.
If you, like, literally just want to sit and let the kids go a tiny bit feral and just enjoy a beach.
It's really easy to do and it's honestly quite nice.
[00:45:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I love Castaway for exactly that. I will give people a warning if you bring your food back to your chairs. Watch out for the birds. The birds?
[00:45:29] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness, yes.
[00:45:30] Speaker B: Birds everywhere on Castaway. Even if you're sitting in the, you know, in the picnic table area, like, they're super aggressive. And so if you leave food for even one second, I'm not kidding. If you don't cover your food with a napkin and you leave it, the birds will be on your food eating it immediately. And so you just don't want to. Like, if you take it to your seat, that's fine, but then bring it back. Back to, you know, don't leave it unattended. Yes.
[00:45:56] Speaker C: Don't assume that you can have like, half your hamburger and then, like, go for a. I don't know why you would do that, but don't, because it won't be there when you get back.
I had to on a Trip. Once upon a time I had a seagull eat my ice cream and I tried to fight it with the remaining stick.
So I have a little lingering resentment in my heart about birds stealing my food. So no, we ensure like we all, we brought the food, we stayed around it, we carried the empty trays away and even the, you know, even where you leave behind your trays, even that the, the birds are, are super thrilled to descend upon your leavings. So just know if you're not a bird person, you might want someone to go ahead of you. I guess when you put your tray away, it's not like they were dive bombing or anything, but they want your French fries really badly.
[00:46:43] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Well, and Castaway, no French fries, but they do want your potato chips at Lookout. They want their, you know, French fries. Although one way to get french fries at Castaway, which is if you have an allergy meal or you know, if you have like a dietary restriction where they need to bring your meal from the ship. Cause they don't have, I don't believe they have an allergy kitchen on the island. So what they do is they're major food on the ship and they bring it to the island. And so that is the only way to get French fries on Cassoway. I personally have not experienced it, but we have friends who, with allergies who have done the pre order and so and we were a little jealous of their French fries.
[00:47:20] Speaker C: So yeah, we were perfectly happy with the, with the food there too. It's, I, this was a, generally speaking, the food was kind of a point of contention for us.
[00:47:32] Speaker B: Oh, interesting.
[00:47:33] Speaker C: Yeah, well, not like contention but like, huh. Because we were constantly comparing Royal Caribbean and Disney. Right. Like, was it worth the cost? Was it worth the cost? And we're not, not, we're not particularly fancy people. You know, we're, we're, we're generally pretty relaxed and we were pretty impressed with the food on Royal Caribbean. Like we, we had a very positive experience with the, with the dining room and with the buffet. And so we were always, you know, we were constantly comparing and don't, don't come for me.
I could say that the food on the Disney cruise was necessarily notably better than the food we had on Royal Caribbean. It was definitely not worse.
And it was, you know, depending on the meal, depending on the, on the food item, there were things that were better. But like as a general rule I didn't experience significant quality difference between the two. So you know, in it, if you're concerned about expense, if you Are, you know, if you're going to go Royal Caribbean, you're like, oh, well, we're going to eat, you know, like a bunch of plebes or something. No, you'll be fine. Like, you'll be treated perfectly well.
But I will say that, like, you know, Disney has a lot of food to manage. You know, there's multiple different restaurants, there's a buffet, there's the private islands. And as a, just as a lump sum of food, it was all pretty good. Right. Like, we were never disappointed.
So I'm not gonna say, ah, Disney, now we're at food. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that we were perfectly happy. If you wanted to ask me to fight Royal Caribbean and Disney on the food, I would, I would maybe call it a draw in our experience.
[00:49:24] Speaker B: Wow.
Yeah. I think people.
[00:49:27] Speaker C: That's no dig on Disney. That's one that. Our Royal Caribbean experience was good.
[00:49:30] Speaker B: Was really good. Yeah. Well, and I do think a lot of people really love Royal Caribbean's buffets because they do have just more. They're bigger, typically.
[00:49:41] Speaker C: That is very true.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: Yeah. And they're open all the time, whereas Disney's is not. So I do, I can see how. I personally, the two ships that we went on, I didn't really love the buffet. I thought the buffet was chaotic and kind of gross, but I'm not.
[00:49:55] Speaker C: Ivanic is not wrong.
[00:49:56] Speaker B: Yeah. But I'm not a big. I'll be honest, I'm a little bit of a. I'm not an extreme germaphobe, but I'm a little bit of a germaphobe. And so I don't. I don't love a buffet in general.
And so for me, I prefer Disney's buffet to royals, but I can understand, with the variety that Royal has, I can understand why there are a lot of people who differ from me on that and really prefer Royal's buffets. Well, I want to. I want to shift to talk about lookout. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah. And what did you guys. You mentioned by that time you're sort of ready for another just relaxing beach day. Where did you guys end up, you know, sitting? What did you guys end up doing? And what did you think of lookout?
[00:50:38] Speaker C: Sure. So we. I don't know if you'd call it a rookie mistake or what, but we did not get off the ship very early.
It was pretty late in the morning. By the time we sort of wandered out of bed and found our way down, we had had a lot of trouble finding a chair. Like, we had, we couldn't, we could not find a place to sit. And, and.
[00:50:58] Speaker B: Oh, that's such a bummer.
[00:50:59] Speaker C: It's not that. I know, I know, right?
And do you need a place to sit? No, but we, we wanted someplace to be able to dump our bag and feel like, you know, if the kids were gonna kind of go wandering, they knew where to come back to.
So that was, that was a little frustrating. We did eventually find one and just kind of post it up. And again, literally all we did was play on the beach pretty much the whole time. Like, there are wonderful things going on there. There's that, there's that little parade thing and there's crafts and, and we saw kids doing those things and we kept telling our kids, well, do you want to go check that out? Like you want it? And they were like, no, we're having fun here. Good. Go. Like enjoy, enjoy. It's. That sand is, is so beautiful. Like that was that just like the beach part of that beach is so beautiful.
It was a little choppier, water wise, and it gets deep a little faster.
But we didn't care. Like we, we weren't there to, you know, swim laps. We were there to play in the water and enjoy the sunshine and dig in the sand. And we, we did that in spades. So we literally only left the beach beach to go to lunch.
[00:52:13] Speaker B: Awesome.
[00:52:13] Speaker C: So, yeah. No regrets.
[00:52:15] Speaker B: All right, well, I gotta ask the question with. Of the three private islands you islands you've been to, right? You've been to Royals, Coco. They call it Cococay, but I. It's Coco Key because that's how the Bahamians say it. You've been to Castaway and you've been to Lookout and you've been to each one of them one time. And so that's a good sort of comparison. It's not like you've been to, you know, one of them multiple times and sort of have an affinity for, for a particular one. But yeah, if you were to compare all three of them, you know, is there what's sort of the order, like rank them, like 1, 2 and 3. It's okay if something ties, but I'm curious what you think as far as what are the, what's the best private island experience? And they're different, no question.
[00:52:57] Speaker C: They're completely different experiences. So you gotta think about what, what it is that you really want.
One of the things I will note is that like the Cococay has a giant pool. Like it has a really built, built up pool. So if you're the kind of person who's a little weird about open water or beach, man, that's you. You're going to want to go there. That's you. You won't find that at Castaway or Lookout.
But if you are there to relax on a beach, I think I'm going to give the edge to look out there.
We had particularly good weather. The beach was exceptionally beautiful that day.
It. That sand, I don't even know what it's made of. Magic maybe. I don't know. It. There's something that just in there. Right. I think it's possible I would meet. If you're just going for a. A beach, like you just want to hang out on a beautiful beach all day. I would maybe give the edge to look out there.
If you are a more active family, you gotta have stuff to do.
You might kind of get the edge on Castaway there. There's. There's kind of more rental options, more play options.
The Coco we. The advantage that we had at Cococay was that they can have two boats there, but we were the only boat there that day. So it was much more.
[00:54:24] Speaker B: Oh, you got so lucky.
[00:54:26] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was much more wide open and so that no lines, no crowd. Crowds that felt pretty special there.
That advantage would leave quickly if there were a second ship. Right. Like that's you. You just.
You would be much more crowded. The two Disney Islands did feel a little more crowded in comparison. But I realize for us it's because we're cheating. Right. Because the Royal Caribbean island was only technically half full. I did also really like that. The Disney Islands, yes. There were some, you know, know, pay upgrade kind of options, but mostly kind of everything was just there for you to use.
There's a really big water park on, on Cococay, but you have to pay extra to use it. So we didn't. It's fine.
[00:55:12] Speaker B: It's kind of expensive too. It can be and it changes depending upon the season. But like in prime season, you're talking like a hundred bucks a person to use that water park.
[00:55:20] Speaker C: Like going to an actual water park for a day. Not on a private island. Right.
Whereas any of the kind of splash pad kind of elements you'll find on the Disney Islands are. Are just included. They're just part of the experience.
You could argue that you've already paid for it upfront, but frankly I would prefer that. Right. Like, I. I kind of want to be all in. I kind of want to know what I'm in for.
So if I have to rank. I would maybe go lookout one cast away to Coco K3 only because I know that once you got a second vote there, it would be a little more chaotic.
There is also that kind of Disney edge of that everything is so much cleaner and so much tidier and so much more well kept up.
There's just a little less of that that you experience. On Royal Caribbean. We felt perfectly healthy, perfectly clean. It's not like we were ever in a place where this is sketchy. It just kind of goes the extra mile on anything Disney. You know, anytime we were in a port, they were.
They were putting a fresh paint coat on the boat. They were. I mean, they were always working on the ship. It was. There's obviously so much pride and that showed on the islands too, and that maybe just gives it a little bit of an edge for me.
[00:56:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm with you. I agree with your ranking perfectly. Exactly.
[00:56:37] Speaker C: Well, yes, I win.
[00:56:39] Speaker B: Yeah, you win. I mean, this is a great. It's a great ranking for all the right reasons, and that's even, you know, including that you have to take a tram to get to the beach at Lookout Key.
[00:56:49] Speaker C: So that was not a problem as far as we were concerned. Unless you need or want to go back and forth from the ship, I could see where that would be a little more problematic.
It was not for us. We had everything we needed with us. We traveled light, we were going. Planning on just being on the beach for the whole day.
So that was not an issue at all for us.
[00:57:11] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, let's jump back on the ship. I want to hear a couple of highlights for you on the cruise. On the onboard experience, you did, as you mentioned, a lot of family time. What were some of the favorites activities that your family got to do? Whether that's hanging out on the pool deck or trivia or family game shows, what have you. What were the sort of the highlights for your family?
[00:57:35] Speaker C: Yeah, I think the two biggest ones for us, first and foremost, my kids would throw me out a window if I didn't mention midship detective. They had so much fun.
Please, please go figure it out for yourself. Please go play with it.
It is a whole blast.
Our eldest daughter, you know, on the day where we were at sea and everyone was enclosed, we felt really comfortable giving her a limited amount of independence playing midship detective because we knew where to find her. We knew where she would be, and she got to feel like she was a big kid doing her own thing.
I think they would have played midship detective. I mean, all Day, every day, if we'd let them. They just had so much fun with that.
To the point where, spoiler alert, you're gonna ask us about upcoming cruises. When we've asked our kids about upcoming cruises, they're like, well, we can play Midship Detective on those, right? And we're like, ooh, no. And they're like, well, then we can then forget it on the fan dream class. Yeah, right. That's it. That's the only. We're like, oof. Okay, well, you really liked that then. That's good to know.
The other thing we really liked the shows.
We.
We were those people who staked out a spot in line a little bit early because our kids had a spot they wanted to be in. They wanted to be in the very front of the balcony. If that were not true, we would really not have needed to get in line very early at all. So, you know, pro tip on that, if you've got a spot, you need get there early. Otherwise, yeah, you're going to be okay.
[00:59:13] Speaker B: But we loved them.
[00:59:14] Speaker C: We loved the shows. They were fun. They were funny. The kids still sometimes quip lines from the Genie, right?
So that was a lot of fun for us.
[00:59:25] Speaker B: Awesome. I love that. I mean, the shows are unparalleled on Disney Cruise Line. As a general matter, you're not gonna get anything like that on Royal. You can't even compare.
And then, yeah, I wish that Midship Detective Agency were on the other four ships. It's only on the Dream and the Fantasy, but it is hands down the best game experience on board any cruise line I've been on. And we've done some escape rooms on Royal, and those are great, but those are adult only. And the Midship Detective Agency is just fun. I am still baffled that they decided to not put it on the Wish and the Treasure and instead go with a completely new game that is glitchy and. And while really good when it works, it's terrible when it doesn't work well. So it's just.
[01:00:15] Speaker C: Don't tell my kids.
[01:00:16] Speaker B: No, it's like, listen, I'm just gonna. I'll cross my fingers for you all that it works if you're headed on the Wish or the Treasure, because when it works, it's pretty cool, but it's not. I personally don't think it's as good as the Midship Detective Agency.
[01:00:33] Speaker C: And if you do not have kids with you, I will say I saw plenty of grown playing it all on their own just for funsies. And they appeared to be having a Blast. It is not kid specific, although it is very kid friendly.
[01:00:45] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. I will do the Midship Detective Agency with or without Nathan. He enjoys it. He's 11 now. He has enjoyed it really since we started cruising and yeah, but I'll do it even if he's not interested in doing it and he'll do it even without me as well. So it's, you know, I think both kids and adults will enjoy it.
Before we subject you to, or I subject you to some rapid fire, I'm wondering, is there anything that we've missed as far as, you know, really memorable experiences, either, you know, good or bad? You mentioned obviously food being on the whole, good, but. But not leaps in a bounds above Royal. I'm curious if there were other things that you notice either either just that are different than Royal Royal, for example, or that were just really memorable that you maybe didn't expect.
[01:01:35] Speaker C: I mean, just in general, the quality of the ship, the quality of the people, the cast members, the service, it just all felt up a notch to me.
And in my mind that's what we were paying a little bit extra for. Right. Was a little bit higher quality. Also knowing that we were definitely coming for any. A family vacation.
A Disney cruise is again, not exclusively family, but definitely family friendly. Right. The Royal Caribbean is just a much more mixed group of cruisers, which is totally fine.
We were looking for a family vacation and a Disney cruise for us was a really great family vacation option.
So if you're planning your girls trip, I think your options are maybe a little more wide open.
If you're planning a family trip, any kind of multi generational trip, I think, I really do think you're going to get your money's worth out of a Disney cruise.
There's something for everyone. It's so friendly, it's a little less alcohol going on, those kinds of things. Right. So it just feels a little more family friendly.
One thing I didn't talk about though, I'll admit is that we did get a tiny bit crazy on, on like fish extenders and pixie dusting. Now we joined our Facebook group really late. Right. As far as fish extender exchanges go.
So it was me and just a couple other people who had come in late who are like, we'll just exchange between our own kids. It's fine. So that's not really where we went, you know, totally wild. Although we had fun with that. That was a little special something for our kids. I'm not 100% sure I do fish extender exchange like that again. Again, But I'm glad we experienced it.
Pixie dust, on the other hand, we had a blast. We put together just the little, little pouch, something like a little, little toy and some stickers and like, no big deal, right? We had a ton of them. And so my kids had a really good time. We'd be like, okay, we haven't done floor five yet. And we'd go around and we'd find as many fish extenders as we could and pop. We'd look at the door and be like, okay, it looks like there's kids in this one, so we'll give them some of the kid wants. Like, we honestly had a lot of fun with that. So it's not a thing you have to do. If you go to your cruise Facebook group and they're. All they're talking about is pixie dusting, you're like, whoa, I've got to do it. No, you don't have to do it. It's definitely an add on.
But we had a lot of fun with.
Was pretty fun. And our, our Facebook group switched over to WhatsApp when we were on the ship because then we could still communicate. And every so often someone would say, hey, you know, you know, my kids haven't gotten anything in our fish extenders yet. And like, okay, we will go. And we'd rally. We're right there.
That group, even somebody in our group went a little wild on trivia and got like, I don't know, 30 medals or something. Bananas. Like, it was insane.
And we were literally waiting in line for the show. And I said, hey, girls. Because it was like on the same floor. I was like, hey, girls, if you go to room, you know, whatever, 54, 32, grab yourself a medal hanging from the door. And they did. And they came back and they had their medals because we didn't actually play any trivia, but they got medals for no effort. So I will commend that, you know, if you have a, if you find your Facebook group, your cruise group, and if you can get them to switch to something like, like WhatsApp, that will still work when you're on the ship. Wi Fi. That was actually kind of fun. And it was actually kind of nice to stay connected to people and ask some questions. So, like, when the ship was really rolling on that first night, everybody was like, is this Norma?
And several people are like, it is not normal.
Oh, okay, well then good, then I'm going to be okay, right? If I can, right?
[01:05:25] Speaker B: It's not going to be like this.
Yeah, it's not going to be like this the whole cruise. So I want to. I just want to. For those who don't know what we're talking about when we talk about fish extenders and pixie dust.
Fish extender is actually the thing that's sitting outside your door that you can hang like a little pocketed organizer off of. And a fish extender exchange is a gift exchange. It is, it is organized by passengers. It is not sanctioned by Disney, and it's usually organized through the Facebook group for that particular sailing. Pixie dust is. Well, pixie dust can mean two things. Pixie dust can just be like random magic that a cast member bestows on you. But what Megan is talking about in terms of pixie dust is random acts of gifting, which is, you know, folks who decide to bring on little gifts or gift packages and they leave them in people's fish extender, you know, little organizers, just as a sort of random gift of kind. Random acts of kindness, really. So it is one of those things where sometimes Facebook groups will also put together a list of people who are participating in pixie dust. But it doesn't have to. Some Facebook groups won't do that because it is supposed to be random. And so there's not an expectation of receiving anything back. It is just, you are just gifting because you want to. It can be really fun. That's what I tend to do nowadays. I've done fish extender exchanges before and it's a lot of work and I. I find it to be more fun to just engage in the gift giving side of things and not worrying about whatever is coming back or not.
[01:06:56] Speaker C: I would definitely agree. You know, I.
I would focus. For me, having done fish extenders once in that kind of formal setting, I don't feel a great need to do it again. But I would do the pixie dust just for fun. Like, nobody would even have to leave me nothing. I would totally just run around and hand it to people. And my kids had fun doing it. And sometimes they just carried a few of them on hand and we'd see some little kids somewhere and they'd be like, I'm gonna go give one to that kid.
It was a lot of fun.
So that felt special, that felt unique.
A would do again.
[01:07:30] Speaker A: Well, Megan.
[01:07:31] Speaker C: Oh, no.
[01:07:32] Speaker A: I think we have reached that point in the show. Look, Sam, people dread it now. Look what you've done. Look what you have done.
[01:07:39] Speaker B: She's joking. I can tell.
[01:07:41] Speaker C: I'm fine. My goodness. Say the words, man. Build it up.
[01:07:45] Speaker A: She says she's fine. Like, you know, it's like that picture of the dog sitting at the table with the coffee. I'm fine. Everything's fine. Yeah, it's fine.
[01:07:54] Speaker B: The dumpster fire next to the.
[01:07:56] Speaker A: Yes. So it is that time for Sam to ask you some arbitrary questions, apply some arbitrary rules, and probably heap more than a dash of judgment or the round we know as rapid fire. So Sam takes.
[01:08:08] Speaker B: All right. Thank you, Brian. All right, Megan, I'm going to ask you some Disney favorites and then Disney Cruise line favorites, but I will start. But I'm going to start by saying that your favorite ship is now the Disney fantasy. You're not allowed to answer with anything else because you've only been on the fantasy, so it's just by default.
[01:08:26] Speaker C: It is absolutely true. I heartily agree.
[01:08:28] Speaker B: Exactly. Well, and it's a great favorite to have, so no judgment there.
[01:08:32] Speaker C: We really enjoyed it. Like, honestly, if we just went back to that show, we had a lovely time, so we wouldn't be mad about that.
[01:08:40] Speaker B: I love it. All right, we're going to start with your favorite Disney character. And Disney means really anything and everything, because Disney owns pretty much everything. So. Yeah. Who's your favorite?
[01:08:49] Speaker C: Yeah, fair enough.
Well, we did magnets on our doors.
We decorated our door. We didn't go totally wild, but everybody got to choose a decor for their magnet.
My kids joke that I'm in my villain era because I picked a maleficent ear, but I think that's a more modern evolution for me. That's more my current phase. I would probably say somewhere between Ariel and Belle. Ariel. Because it's just, like, classic. I cannot avoid how much I love her, But Belle ended up with that amazing library, and that sounds pretty fantastic. So that's a close one for me.
[01:09:28] Speaker B: Okay. I love it. All right, what's your favorite movie?
[01:09:32] Speaker C: I still have to go with the Little Mermaid on that, even though as I get older, I'm more on team King Triton than team Ariel, because he was absolutely right. She was 16 and needed to get her act together. Exactly.
[01:09:45] Speaker B: She needed to be in school. She didn't need to be going on to land and making child.
[01:09:50] Speaker C: Girl, you are 16. Get your life together. My goodness.
[01:09:56] Speaker B: College. Not about boys.
[01:09:57] Speaker C: I mean, come on.
But I just.
I can't help myself.
It has to be the Little Mermaid.
[01:10:05] Speaker B: All right, well, in that vein, what is your favorite song and why is it part of your world? No, I'm just kidding. Well, what is your favorite Disney song?
[01:10:13] Speaker C: I mean, it is part of your world, so I feel like You've got me pegged. Although, as kind of a weird side note, I don't honestly know the name of it, but whatever that song is that Moana sings to Te Fiti at the very end, that I have crossed the horizon to find you. I don't know what it is about the. Those, like, 16 bars, but I weep every time. So special honorable mention for just that one tiny little musical exchange.
[01:10:40] Speaker B: All right, I love that. Okay, now we're gonna move on to the Disney fantasy.
You mentioned you loved the shows. I gotta ask you which one was your favorite?
[01:10:51] Speaker C: I knew you would ask this, and I feel like I should say Believe just to try to, like, get a rise out of you.
No, I can't do that. Okay, so in full honesty, you gotta enjoy Believe for what it is, Right? Think of it not as a show. Think of it as, like, a musical review, right? So if you put your head in that space, you'll enjoy it just fine. If you're looking for a plot and a story, just forget about it.
I really liked Aladdin, at least partly because Aladdin was part of my VHS repertoire. But I'm also a real sucker for fireworks. And they got pyrotechnics on a ship somehow. I don't know how to explain that, but it was. But it was fun. And I. And I will admit to kind of loving, you know, them bringing the genie back for Believe and Care, you know, tons of tons of callbacks to jokes from three days ago. I just. That felt clever. That felt fun. I. So I will give the edge to Aladdin on that one.
[01:11:52] Speaker B: All right.
Okay. Well, moving on to your favorite onboard activity.
You mentioned shows, so let's put shows aside. If you have to pick a favorite onboard activity that's not watching a show in the Walt Disney Theater, what would it be?
[01:12:07] Speaker C: I would say it was sitting in a pool deck chair with one of the drink of the days in my hand while my kids sat in the kid soup that they would like to point out was not nearly as kid soupy as they thought it would probably be.
It was crowded, but not wild crowded. Um, they like sitting in the pool and watching the Funnel vision and just letting the day go by. That was a. That was a lovely way to spend my time.
[01:12:39] Speaker B: Love it. Awesome. All right, favorite rotational dining. And now this can be, you know, one of the three rotational dining restaurants. But, like, it doesn't have to be because you liked the food the best or the atmosphere the best, or it can be for whatever reason, but your reason. Which one did You, Megan, like the best animator's palette.
[01:12:58] Speaker C: And it was just the most fun presentation.
And we felt especially spoiled because we had animators palette all on its own. We also had it for Pirate Night. So all of those screens and everything they used for all sorts of pirate adjacent art. Right. Sketches from different movies and stuff.
And that was a lot of fun. That was really lovely.
Crush did come to our table and did make fun of our Minnesotans accent. So that was a lovely little touch. Thank you.
[01:13:32] Speaker B: Crush.
[01:13:34] Speaker C: He couldn't hear most of what we were saying, but he heard us say we were from Minnesota and he lost his mind. So definitely we had a lot of fun. That was.
We enjoyed that pretty much.
[01:13:47] Speaker B: I love it. I love it. Crush is real. We've only had Crush come to our table once. And that was just on our last time on the fantasy over New Year's Eve and he talked to Nathan and it was fantastic. I. It's just. It's so enjoyable if you do get a visit from Crush. It's. It's really. It's really a fun interaction. All right, well, I gotta ask you for a couple food items. I'm gonna ask you a sweet item and then a favorite savory item. But I always start with the sweets because the savories are my favorite. So we save the best for last. It doesn't matter that dessert comes at the end of the meal. I feel like a soft pretzel should come at the end of the meal. So let's start with a few favorite sweet item on board at Disney Cruise.
[01:14:29] Speaker C: I gotta go a little sideways on this. That banana soft serve.
I don't know. It was taking me back to like eating runts as a kid or something. I don't even know. But I could have eaten that straight up all day, every day. It was delightful.
I will give a special honorable mention to the Mickey Churro waffles.
I'm gonna call that sweet. Even though I guess it's technically breakfast.
That's not breakfast. It's a dessert.
[01:14:58] Speaker B: It's a dessert. Absolutely.
[01:15:00] Speaker C: I like sweet.
Nothing can be too sweet for me. That was like a shade too sweet for me, so plan accordingly. But it was delightful.
[01:15:11] Speaker B: No syrup. Exactly. No, don't, don't.
Brian is a sweets person himself. And that is like the one.
[01:15:17] Speaker A: No syrup.
[01:15:18] Speaker B: Yeah, he works. No syrup.
[01:15:20] Speaker C: Don't do syrup. Just eat it. Just eat it as is. And then, I don't know, chase it with some bacon or something. Cause that is a lot of sweet.
[01:15:26] Speaker A: Chase it with some insulin.
[01:15:28] Speaker B: Insulin and a Cup of coffee.
[01:15:31] Speaker C: Well, the cup of coffee, I will note, again, not fussy about a lot of things.
The base rate onboard coffee is not great.
So if you are fussy about your coffee, prepare yourself to go to Cove Cafe and get something nicer.
I drank the swill because at that point, I needed caffeine slash, the ability to chase the sweet from the churro waffle. But if you're fussy about your coffee, just know you're going to be physically hurt by that.
So just be prepared.
[01:16:05] Speaker A: Swill brought to you by Joffrey's.
[01:16:07] Speaker B: Yes, we are.
[01:16:08] Speaker C: Right?
[01:16:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:16:09] Speaker C: I was like, we can't be that bad. Oh, it is that bad, friends.
[01:16:13] Speaker B: It's really bad. Yeah, I think it is probably acceptable just for washing down a churro waffle, but other than that, I think it's.
Yeah, other than that, I won't drink it. All right. A favorite savory item.
[01:16:26] Speaker C: Oh, that.
The avocado tuna tower. What is that from Enchanted Garden?
[01:16:33] Speaker B: Yeah. Ahi tuna tower. Yeah.
[01:16:35] Speaker C: I thought that was. That was just lovely. That was just kind of an unexpected little thing. And I would have just. I mean, again, maybe I just should have asked. I should have just had four of those for supper. It was lovely.
[01:16:45] Speaker B: All right, my last question of Rapid Fire, since we already know the fantasy is your favorite ship, is what is your bucket list cruise? Megan, if you could go anywhere in the world on a Disney ship and it doesn't even have to be someplace Disney Cruises, currently, where are you going?
[01:17:02] Speaker C: I have agonized in expectation of this question.
I really do think that a Norwegian fjord tour is probably where I would go with that. The only thing that holds me back from that is that one of the things I liked about the itinerary we were on is that you could also just enjoy the ship. And I know full well that if I'm cruising Norwegian fjords, I'm off the ship as often as possible. So you don't get to, I don't know, maybe an itinerary where I just go back and forth between Lookout and castaway for, like, 12 days maybe.
[01:17:35] Speaker B: I love it.
Listen, both of those are great options.
[01:17:38] Speaker C: So you tell me which one, you let me know.
[01:17:41] Speaker B: Yeah, all right, well, I'll come with you on any of them, Megan. Sounds great to me. So I got to tell you, you got an A plus, because, you know, there was a little moment there where I was worried about you joking with Believe, but you saved yourself. You would have gotten an A if you had chosen Frozen over Aladdin.
[01:18:00] Speaker C: I understand.
I decided That I had to tell the truth. And so I understand. Yep.
[01:18:07] Speaker B: As someone who, you know, grew up in the golden age of VHS Disney movies, I can understand that affinity for Aladdin. So well played. I know Brian's gonna want to ask you the question because you've already given us a little bit of a hint that there's some other stuff brewing. So I'll let Brian ask.
[01:18:24] Speaker A: I don't know why you just don't ask it now, Sam. Cause it's like you give us lead up and it's a simple two word question. What's next? What's next? Megan?
[01:18:32] Speaker C: This is so funny because we were just talking about this yesterday.
I was like, oh, I'm gonna record this podcast. So tell me again, what was everybody's favorite things? And. And through the whole cruise? My husband was like, I don't know. I don't know, maybe Royal Caribbean's better.
And at the end of the cruise when they're like, hey, are you gonna put down your placeholder? And I was like, I kind of want to. And he was like, ugh.
I mean, fine. Okay, okay. But now he's the one who's been looking at YouTube videos of like the Haunted Mansion lounge and like all the other. Right. All the other other things. And he's the one who last night said, oh, wow, you know, if we're gonna go on another spring break cruise, we better make that booking soon because we would like we should do that sooner than two months out this time around. So. Yes, we have a placeholder. No, we don't have one booked yet.
Yes, there's a really good chance we'll be going on another cruise this coming spring break. 20. 26.
[01:19:32] Speaker A: Nice.
[01:19:32] Speaker C: Who knows where? Tell me where. Tell me what, Tell me what ship to go on. Let me know.
[01:19:36] Speaker A: Spring break 20. 26.
[01:19:37] Speaker B: 6.
[01:19:38] Speaker A: I'm gonna go treasure.
[01:19:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm gonna go seven night. If you can do the Easter, it. Well, whatever your spring break is, you're gonna. It's gonna be eastern or western, depending on what your spring break is. But a seven night on the Treasure, that's what you should book. Absolutely. I mean, the other.
[01:19:53] Speaker C: Here's me taking that note. Seven night on the Treasure.
[01:19:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, if. If you only have four or five nights, but you really want to hit up Haunted Mansion parlor, then you're gonna go on the Destiny out of Fort Lauderdale. So those are. I think those are. I mean, there's great options on all the ships, of course, but I think those are going to be probably the best ones. If you really want to hit up Haunted Mansion Parlor, that sounds great.
[01:20:19] Speaker C: I will hit up our travel agent and see what she can find for us because you know, she went from thinking she was only helping us once to I'm going to have to send her Christmas cards now because we're awfully close.
[01:20:29] Speaker B: I love it.
[01:20:30] Speaker C: I love it.
[01:20:31] Speaker A: Well, Megan, thank you so much for taking time out of your weekend to come on and share your cruise experience or your first time Disney cruise experience with our audience. It's been fun. Hopefully we'll have you back and we really appreciate it.
[01:20:45] Speaker C: Thank you so much. I really appreciated hearing other people's experiences. It helped me so much as our family was frantically trying to plan. So thank you to both of you for making a forum for that and especially for helping first timers kind of take a breath and go, oh yeah, this is going to be better than okay. This might actually be a lot of fun.
[01:21:04] Speaker B: It's piece of cake, right?
[01:21:07] Speaker C: That's you can just walk on that boat, no plans. That's anecdotally, I've got evidence that, that it can still work out.
[01:21:14] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[01:21:20] Speaker D: Well, thanks to 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 those. 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 to 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 dclduomypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things, full catalog of the podcast episodes, including a searchable catalog for the podcast, links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store. 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 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 us@info dcdclduo.com or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney Family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective. Use the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney Vacation, please contact a Great Folks folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo.
[01:23:21] Speaker A: Good night.
