Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: I have to pause this because Ed is raising a very good point in the chat, which is, so what happened to the two people that were beefing?
You can't just drop that story and not how I saw it ended.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: Did they make up?
[00:00:12] Speaker C: I don't actually know how it ended. That's the worst part.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: Welcome back, everybody, to this week's live episode of the DCL Duo podcast, brought to you by My Path Unwinding Travel and also our fun friends and sponsors over at WDW Magazine magazine.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: We have the brains and the beauty behind the WDW magazine, DLR magazine, DCL magazine coming soon, of course.
We are super excited to be on tonight. For all of those watching live, you see we have Stephanie Schuster with us from WDW magazine and of course from all the other magazines as well.
[00:01:01] Speaker A: We have a guest in the green room.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: We have a guest in the green room, Sean, who'll be joining us in just a little bit. But we wanted to bring Stephanie back on and talk to her a little bit. We're going to start with our news segment, of course, because that is the, you know, we always have to hit what happened this past week in Disney Cruise Line news? I think there's just one news item, but it's a pretty big news item, which is there are cruises that have been released at 40% off that are in the fall and winter. So basically October, November, December dates on not all of the ships, the Destiny is not on there and the Treasure's not on there. But on all of the other ships there are dates on all of them. There are, of course, limited dates, but that's pretty exciting. I don't think we've seen anything that big in Disney Cruise Line history that I'm aware of, Stephanie. I mean, maybe not since the beginning. Maybe when they first started.
[00:02:01] Speaker D: Yeah, over the last 10, 15 plus years. I think the max I've ever seen is 25% off and then usually very limited. Something like for Canadian residents only or Florida residents only.
[00:02:17] Speaker B: Those prices are military or something. Yes, exactly.
[00:02:20] Speaker D: Those prices are wild.
[00:02:24] Speaker A: Vanessa's asking, aren't they GTY rates?
[00:02:28] Speaker B: They probably are. They might be.
[00:02:30] Speaker D: That's a great question for your travel agent.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: Yes, I was going to say if you're interested in finding out more about what the availability is for those cruises, which cruises qualify, what the pricing looks like, of course. Reach out to our show sponsor, My path unwinding at mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or email them at DCLDUOMYPATHunwinding.com and they can give you, of course, more information.
[00:02:58] Speaker A: And, Sam, you did forget one other news item, which is that the destiny conveyed itself through the Ems river and is now on her way.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: She's on her way. You guys, we're so excited we're gonna be able to see her very, very soon. And, I mean, it's.
[00:03:16] Speaker A: It's like six or seven weeks, I think, until we're on board. So. Yeah.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. Super, super, super exciting. And we'll get to hang out with Stephanie in person, I believe.
[00:03:26] Speaker D: Cannot wait. I met Brian in person, but not you, Sam.
[00:03:30] Speaker B: I know. Well, that was because you guys were on the. The. The lookout key preview. Right. And I was not on that.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: I'll just preempt it. Now, everyone likes Sam better than me, so just be prepared. She's. She is the. She's the one I bring everywhere because she makes friends, and I just diligently take notes. Film things.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Danny makes friends everywhere. Yeah, but. But Stephanie and I are kindred spirits, and we. We learned that she also is a topo chico.
So we have.
[00:04:00] Speaker D: So I fully expect us to not coordinate, but just show up in absolute matching outfits with matching coffees, matching everything.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: I could see it happening, Stephanie. I'm prepared for it. I love it. And the only thing is I need to, like, steal that hard hat of yours and just, like, make it say Sam instead of Stephanie.
[00:04:21] Speaker D: Your own hard hat. We got to get you to Germany and make that happen.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Don't let Sam near the hard hat. It will. It will disappear.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: You don't want that hard hat will disappear just like, hmm, I don't know. A frying pan may have disappeared in Rapunzel's royal table someday.
I'm not saying if it happened or.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: Didn'T wanna do the anonymous call in show things that you've taken off of a dcl ship that you're ashamed to admit. So. But anyway, we got Sean in the background. We brought Stephanie on to talk a bit about the magazine, but we posed sort of two questions to her. Because of tonight's episode, we're gonna be comparing the Wish and the Wonder, but also a little cold weather cruising and warm weather cruising. And so, Stephanie, you have some sort of pros and cons of each lined up, and so take it away.
[00:05:04] Speaker D: I do. Well, let me also preface this by saying, like, I'm Canadian, right? So I come from a colder climate as it is for a lot of people. They would be like, oh, I gotta get in the hot, hot heat as quickly as possible. I do better in a Colder climate.
Like my husband and I went earlier this year to Scotland on a non Disney trip but at a cold time of year where. And it's even colder there than it is here and we were very comfortable.
I do like the war. I like the sunshine, but I get, I can get heat sick. I have like a lot of swelling and things that happen when I go to Disney World. So I'm more comfortable and cool. So your mileage may vary on these tips, but I do have three things that I love about warm weather cruises and three things that I love about cool weather cruises that don't really apply in both directions. So warm weather water slides on the cruises. That's so much fun. Way too chilly when it's cold outside in that cold icy water slide water. But like to be something like the AquaDuck or the Aqua Mouse, Aqua Dunk, all of that really, really fun when it's warm outside.
And conversely on the cool side going in the hot tubs or the saunas and the steam rooms, whether that's in the Rainforest Room or I don't, I don't know if everybody knows this or I'm about to give away a secret hack, I'm not sure. But the change rooms that anyone can use that are associated with the gym and the spa on all the ships, on the Wonder and the Magic they sauna. And on the Wish class ships and the Dream class ships, they have a steam room that you can use without upgrading to that Rainforest Room pass. I love doing all that stuff and I just got off Halloween on the high seas a few days ago and it was very steamy for me to be in the Rainforest Room, let me tell you. So I wished that I was in Alaska or somewhere else.
My next thing is, well, these might all be outdoor things for the warm weather movies on deck. I love watching the movies on Funnel Vision especially, especially at night you get those like drive in movie vibes. I don't know about where you guys are, but drive in movies are not common.
[00:07:12] Speaker B: They don't exist here.
[00:07:14] Speaker C: So.
[00:07:15] Speaker A: But in the, in the, in the wilds of Oregon there's still some drive in movie theaters.
[00:07:19] Speaker C: So yes.
[00:07:20] Speaker D: Okay, there you go. Well, when I was a very small child, I have fond memories of my parents taking me to movies at the drive in and I don't even know where I could go do one now, but that's the vibe I get from that. But if you, if it, if you're in like Norway or Alaska or the British Isles or Iceland, that's way too cold. To be outside there, I'm watching movies.
But something that I do love doing in the cold weather is sitting on deck during the day. Again, if I'm in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean, it's way too hot for me and my pale, pale skin to just sun all day. Right. But if you're going to those colder weather destinations, you might still have like a flannel or a vest or something on, quite comfortable, sipping your coffee from COVID Cafe. And usually those colder destinations have a lot of scenery, wildlife that you might see. Not just the ocean is beautiful, don't get me wrong. But like not just the ocean, there's usually something else to see. So I really like that.
Oh, go ahead. Sorry.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: I was gonna say I love that because I. That's how I felt in Alaska. I liked being, you know. Was there a breeze? Of course it was a little chilly as we're going, but it was sunny so it was really lovely. Yeah. Being out on deck during the day. Yeah. I wouldn't want to be out there at night, but being on deck during the day, Perfect. Love it.
[00:08:35] Speaker D: Beautiful. Beautiful. And then the final one is for warm weather fireworks on the cruises. I think a lot of people especially who are maybe first time cruisers are new to Disney Cruise Line. They hear about the fireworks and the Pirates in the Caribbean show and the whole Pirate Day thing that they do. And that's actually not on every single Disney cruise itinerary. Right. It's usually just those Bahamian and Caribbean itineraries where they do fireworks at sea.
So being able to really enjoy that in those warm weather cruises. Perfect. And then conversely in the colder countries, I actually think you get a lot more interesting character costumes. If you go to Alaska, have all those, the cute little like galoshes and the parkas. If you go to a lot of places in northern Europe, they have the different European costumes. And unless you're going on like Halloween on the high seas or Very Merry Time or Marvel Date, see those themed costumes where you're getting the extra character costumes, you're just seeing the normal characters or the characters in their cruise costumes, which is super cute. But if you want more character costumes, I think that the cold weather itinerary is going to get that for you.
[00:09:49] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:09:50] Speaker B: Yes. Preach on all the costumes. I love it. Like I've seen them all in their pirate costumes a million times. I don't need more pictures of them with their pirate costumes. I want more unique costumes. European Alaska, what have you. I love that. I love all of your answers. Stephanie, Stephanie, why don't you tell folks where they can find all the great content that WDW magazine puts out?
[00:10:15] Speaker D: So if you go over to our website, which is wdw-magazine.com that's where you're going to be able to find all of our magazines on sale, single issues, memberships, including our Disney Cruise Line special which we only have a few left of. And everything in our shop you will save 10% on if you use code DCLDUO. But beyond that, we have online articles on our blog that we put up every day, usually three, four, five pieces a day.
Disney Cruise and Disney World, Disneyland, all the Disney stuff. And then there's also in the footer links to all of our social media channels. And because if you're listening to DCL Duo, I assume you love cruises. We have specific cruise channels for DCL magazine on Instagram and Facebook.
[00:10:59] Speaker C: Awesome.
[00:11:00] Speaker A: If you lose track of any of these things, all you have to do is go to DCLDUO.com right at the top. Big ad banner for DCL magazine, WDW magazine. Just click there. I'll take you right over there.
Head over there. It's also a great way you can connect with us and all of our sponsors, all of our content1place, dc duo.com so head over there. Check it out. Stephanie, it is always fun to hang out with you. I think we got next month we're going to, we're going to October. We're going to have you on and or someone from the magazine on. But then November, I, you know, first round of drinks in whatever bar we happen to be in is, is on us. So can't wait to see you.
[00:11:40] Speaker B: That's what I'm angling for. Yeah.
[00:11:44] Speaker D: Sam, it looks so good. When I was on the Destiny the other month and even though it wasn't all finished, it's looking really nice.
[00:11:50] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:11:51] Speaker B: I love it. I love it.
[00:11:51] Speaker A: All right, it's a date. We will see you there. Stephanie, thanks so much for spending a few minutes with us tonight.
[00:11:56] Speaker D: Thanks so much. Have a great show, guys.
[00:11:58] Speaker A: See ya.
[00:11:58] Speaker B: Thanks.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: All right, let's welcome our guest in for this evening. It is fan favorite Sean. Fan favorite Sean. Yeah, Everyone loves to have Sean on. So we're cool.
Super excited to have you back, Sean.
Sam, what are we talking about tonight?
[00:12:13] Speaker B: We are going to talk wish versus wonder. Sean, tell folks you just got back from both basically tell folks when did you go on the Wender? When did you go on the Wish and what itineraries did you do? And then we're going to pull up your PowerPoint and talk about all of it.
[00:12:29] Speaker C: Yeah. Hi, guys. It is great to be back. I actually. I have been catching up on the podcast this last week, so when you called me a fan favorite, I was so touched. You guys are such liars. But I love you.
[00:12:42] Speaker A: Sean. I'm not lying because we get people.
[00:12:43] Speaker B: Asking, get Sean back on.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: There was people in the chat a couple of episodes ago on the live show. They were like, are you gonna have Sean back on? So there you go. You are a fan favorite.
[00:12:52] Speaker B: Linda. To be fair, it's usually Linda.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Yes, Linda. Linda is actually screaming Sean in the chat. So there she is.
[00:13:00] Speaker C: So I was on the Wonder back in August 11th to 18th for my mom's birthday, and I actually just got off of the Wish. That one was a little bit of a whim, but we'll get into that.
And today's actually kind of my first day back in the real world, so it's a little bittersweet. But it was two amazing trips.
They were very different, but in a lot of ways, they shared a lot of similarities. So I'm really looking forward to breaking that down with you guys tonight.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, it's funny because, like, the Wonder is the second oldest ship, Right. And the Wish is the second newest ship right now. I mean, because the Destiny hasn't come out yet. So I think it's actually super timely to talk about these two ships and put them head to head. Of course, we've got smaller, bigger, warm weather, cool weather for the itineraries that you went on, and of course, shorter, longer. So let's. Let's dive in and dive into your PowerPoint as it guides us through your two journeys. I love this.
[00:13:56] Speaker A: It's actually a flattened PDF this evening, but we will work through.
[00:13:59] Speaker B: Well, whatever. It is a PowerPoint. Same difference. It's a slide deck. Yeah.
[00:14:03] Speaker C: Here we go.
[00:14:04] Speaker B: I love this. Tell folks. Yeah. Who you are and all of the cruises you've been on, which you have a great, great variety of cruises.
[00:14:12] Speaker C: Yeah. So I'll speed run this.
So I came from a Parks family. I think mom and dad Connor are out there watching tonight. At least I hope they are. So we did the parks in 0405 14, and then we got really bored during COVID so I put my foot down and said we were going to the parks. And then I actually had the chance to go to the parks last week with some friends right before we ended up going on that trip. And then I started cruising in 2022 in December because two of my friends were going on one. They actually got engaged during that trip and I just kind of caught the cruise bug.
So I went on the 2023 silver anniversary at sea on the Magic and then I took a year off and with that deposit I got from the Magic, I was war chesting my money to get to Alaska and an opportunity came up to go on the wish and I had a little bit left over, so we made it happen.
And then you might actually recognize me if I was an admin or a moderator on one of your groups because I have some friends who we all help to moderate each other's cruise groups.
And so sometimes you'll see me online and I won't actually be on your sailing, but I love meeting different people from across the fleet. Anyway.
[00:15:25] Speaker A: You actually, didn't you actually pitch in on helping us with the. What was it, the Treasure Maiden voyage?
Our last Facebook group ever?
I don't even remember.
[00:15:36] Speaker C: Oh yeah, you did.
I have perfected how to make fish extenders, like as painless as possible.
So if anyone's ever interested in that information, hit me up.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Yes. And our friend Linda in the chat, she has also helped. She actually helped us do run the fish extender for I think the last Treasure, not Maiden, but for the Treasure Spring break cruise that we admin the group for. And now we have, we have given up the reins of admin in groups. It's too much work and there are people like Sean and Linda out there who are doing a great job.
Unfortunately, there's some, still some people out there who are running groups who don't do such a great job. But very, very high praise for Sean in running groups. He's amazing at it. It takes a lot of, I think it takes a lot of hard work, a lot of talent and somebody who willing to volunteer. So absolutely, yeah, absolutely. Love having you on the show, Sean. All right, Brian, let's go to the next slide, please.
[00:16:33] Speaker C: Yep. So the first thing I got to mention in all of this discussion is to remember that as we talk about these two different ships, there is no right or wrong answer here. What works for me may not work for you. I mean, I am a 27 year old single man with no kids.
That is going to be a very different perspective from a multi generational cruise or someone cruising with their family. So that's the big point. I want you all to go home and remember before you start saying how awful my opinions are.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Listen, I'll throw this comment up from Taryn because I think it hits on this a bit when she Says there's so many factors to consider in the decision. Ports, cruise length, Halloween on the high seas, Mary time, Marvel Day of the.
[00:17:15] Speaker B: Thanks, our Dancy.
[00:17:16] Speaker A: Thanks, our Dancy. Thank you. I was like, pd, yeah, but for me will always be the Wonder. So. Yeah, totally fair. And Ashley in the chat was actually saying that the Wish and the Wonder are her family's two favorite ships. And I was saying, well, it's not close for me between the Wish and the Wonder, but the Treasure and the Wonder. So, yeah, everyone has a choice.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: Yeah. But if you're. But if you're a princess person, like, the Wish and the Wonder are actually like, great picks. Right. Because if you're. Especially if you really love Rapunzel, if you love Tangled and you get like, you get double the Tangled because you get at Rapunzel's royal table. Tangled the musical.
Yeah. So I can totally understand why those two could be someone's two favorite ships. All right, so let's talk.
Yeah, let's talk. Alaska.
[00:18:02] Speaker C: So I got the deposit, because you always get the deposit when you're on a Disney Cruise back in 2023. And I got home and I was telling my family.
Exactly.
So I was telling my family all about the trip that we had taken. And Alaska was a trip that we had kind of talked about doing before COVID hit. And we never really had that push to go do it. Just other things got in the way.
So I actually decided with my family that I was going to try to just kind of slowly shanghai them into this idea.
They also say that they shanghaied me, but who's to say?
So I brought them on this trip and this was a little bit of a challenge for me because I am someone who will never get off the ship unless you make me.
So I had to learn a lot about the different excursions and port adventures and Disney versus third party.
And so that was one of the big challenges of this trip. The other big challenge was the difference in room prices.
So my parents, this was their first cruise in decades, and there was a $10,000 difference on opening day between the ocean view and the veranda.
I am someone who we'll talk about later. I am very motion sick of a person. So I like that, you know, deck two area. Well, guess what? You're not getting a veranda if you're on deck two. So that was something that was a little bit of a give and take with my family.
[00:19:25] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a really good point. You do have to have those. Take those considerations into your, you know, booking process of where you're going to be on the ship. And there are a lot of people who say, I must do a veranda for Alaska. I don't think it's a must do because you can spend a ton of time up on the deck enjoying the scenery. But I can understand why the convenience of having the veranda is quite nice. So let's go to the next slide, Brian.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: All right, next slide.
Did I go too far, Sean?
[00:19:57] Speaker C: There we go.
[00:19:59] Speaker A: There we go.
[00:20:00] Speaker B: I love. By the way, I love your Flynn Rider outfit is just.
And I love that you have a caricature of you as Flynn Rider. That is you. By the way. I know people might not be like.
[00:20:11] Speaker C: You have it tonight, too.
[00:20:13] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:20:14] Speaker C: They just can't get my nose right. And if you were listening to this in the audio medium, that made no sense at all.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: But that does look pretty ridiculous.
[00:20:24] Speaker B: Who drew that, by the way? Who drew that?
[00:20:27] Speaker C: It was definitely not our good friends at ChatGPT.
But, yeah, I started making that costume about a year and a half, and I realized that the way that the vest was cut, I couldn't gain or lose any substantial weight. So that was my motivator for over a year of the gym.
So the Bahamas, and the wish was a cruise that the stars had to just kind of align just right. It wasn't something that was entirely planned out, and a lot of the pieces just had to come together for it to happen the way that it did.
And one of those big factors was a shout out to my friends at Capital One and Discover, because if you're like me and you hoard your credit card points like a dragon, a lot of the funding for that trip came from there. And this was a really special trip for us because me and my friend got to go to the parks beforehand. And I actually have my friends Beth and Alan, who I met on the Wonder. They're also a friend of Linda's. Shout out to Linda. They're all in the Orlando area, so we were able to get them to go to the parks with us. We did 14 hours and 17 individual rides. So it was a long day.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: That is a long day. All right, Brian, let's get to the next slide.
There's a very. Yeah. Very different packing. One more up, Brian. One more up.
[00:21:48] Speaker C: So, initial concerns. Yep, I got it right. My initial concerns with Alaska, Like I said before, I am not a port day fan. Like, I would just stay on board and just sit there and watch the world go by for the rest of my life if I could and admittedly, Alaska wasn't on my list of places to go. It was really something that I think was my mom's idea initially, and they really wanted to do that. So while it wasn't, you know, I wasn't vetoing Alaska. But I think that for me, as I started becoming a DCL fan, I kind of saw that price tag and I thought, well, that's just never going to happen.
So it somehow happened and it took a little bit of saving, but I'm really glad that it did.
And then the other big concern I had was that this was going to be the longest cruise I ever did.
My previous cruises were all three and four nights, but this was a seven nighter, and I was really concerned knowing that the Wonder is the smallest one in the fleet. Would I get bored after so much time?
Spoiler alert. The answer is no. I was able to find something to do at every moment of the day that was just as magical as the first day on the last day.
And then with the Bahamas, my biggest concern is and always has been because up until now, I've always stayed on that magic class.
They're going to have to rip those ships out of my cold, dead hands.
But I was always concerned about those crowd levels, knowing that at its max capacity, the Wish is almost double that size.
I was really worried, like the magic was just going to go. And I think for the most part, this is a little bit of a spoiler that ended up being not as bad as I thought.
[00:23:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
All right, well, let's talk on the packing. Let's talk packing. Yeah, packing is. Obviously, we get lots of questions about packing for Alaska. We get less questions about packing for the Bahamas. But yeah, this great, great little tips here. I love this. Be an onion. I love to be an onion. John, explain what that means, being an onion.
[00:23:51] Speaker C: Yeah, this was some advice that cruise director Matthew was telling us about. And the idea of digging an onion is that Alaska is really an area where you can get all four seasons in like two hours.
And so because of that, you want to wear a lot of layers.
Again, sorry to my audio friends. That's how I usually listen. But this is not the episode for you. You can see in that photo, I have on a vest, a sweatshirt, my dcl like fleece spirit jersey, and then like an outer furry shell jacket because it was cold near that glacier. It's cold when you're around ice. But then, you know, 20 minutes after that photo was taken, I'm walking around in a T shirt.
And so because of that you have to pack a lot of layers. And so the difference between the two is that suitcase room is really at a premium.
And at the end of the trip, I said to my mom, you know, do you think there are things that we could have left behind to save some suitcase room? And we really had to say no. We wore all the different layers from the beanies and the hats all the way down to the hiking shoes.
And the Bahamas is different because it's almost always summer. The real only big considerations for that is that if you do a Halloween on the high seas cruise, you need a Halloween costume and a pirate costume. There were a lot of people who didn't know that and I saw a lot of pirates on two different nights.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I will say for the Bahamas, it's nice. Yeah, I will say for Alaska. And yes, suitcase room is a premium because you do need a bunch of different stuff for from like potentially shorts all the way to the, you know, your. The parka for the cool weather. But I will also say don't forget that there is laundry available on board. You can either do the laundry yourself or you can pay a little bit more or a lot more, I should say, and send out your laundry. Although they tend to do it a special on like, I think it's like day three or four of the Alaska cruises in particular so that you can send out like a whole bag for us for like $25 or something, which is cheap for sending out laundry.
So in general, like, yes, you, suitcase room is a premium, but don't forget that laundry is something you can do on a ship. I always do it and it saves me packing space. I'm an overpacker by nature.
If I didn't have laundry available to me, I would overpack back probably three times as much.
All right, next slide. Brian.
[00:26:16] Speaker C: Ports, ports, ports.
[00:26:17] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:26:19] Speaker C: So Alaska is really a port heavy cruise.
When we first booked it, before we had booked anything, I was thinking, okay, well, maybe it's not as port heavy as I thought it was going to be. It was.
Thankfully, my mom and dad really took the lead on that and they knew how to party.
So we did the Icy Strait wilderness island tour with this couple, John and Marilyn, and we love them. Like, if they ever came to visit New Hampshire or Boston, I would be down to go, like, have a great time with them. And they just took us around in their van and told us all the different stories about the island.
Like the terrifying fact that bears outweigh outnumber people in that area. Like, I think it Was like five or eight to one.
[00:27:02] Speaker B: Oh, my God.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: Yeah. And we actually were able to see two different bears. One of my photos in the slideshow is how close we got to one. Because when you go to Icy Straight Point, they have the option to, like, ride in the ATVs in the Jeep. And what they say is, local people, the bears are actually very scared of those.
So they hear them coming and they hide.
But they're used to the sound of cars from all those years, so that's a really great way to see them that you might not on the Disney excursion.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:32] Speaker C: In Juneau, we did the dog sledding on the helicopter. We had amazing weather on this trip. We only had one day of rain, which is extremely unusual for August. So we were one of those rare days where that dog sledding helicopter tour wasn't canceled. And it was one of the scariest and most thrilling experiences of my life.
And in Ketchikan, we did the Lumberjack show. And I was really sad to say, even though we did the Disney show, there was no Disney special guest because of the rain.
[00:28:05] Speaker B: Yeah. They couldn't bring out the character, probably because they would have gotten soaked.
[00:28:11] Speaker C: It's still a lot of fun.
The story that I tell was.
I don't know how it is in the other shows, but the show is hosted by Lasagna Joe, who's the cook for all the Lumberjacks, and he does this whole monologue about the food he cooks. And we watched the show, and we're waiting to get back on the ship, and then it hits me like a ton of bricks. That had nothing to do with the Lumberjack show at all.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: Love it.
[00:28:35] Speaker C: But then in the Bahamas, we did my favorite thing to do in Nassau, which is not visit Nassau.
I'm just saying that is not a place that I ever need to go again.
[00:28:47] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and you have, of course, in the Bahamas, you also had a beautiful castaway key. When you're on the Wish, you're gonna. Unless your port day gets canceled because of, you know, weather getting into Castaway, you're gonna go to Castaway in Nassau. So, yeah, you can go out to Nassau and go to a resort or whatever, or you can stay on the ship and enjoy a sea day at port, which is what I like to do. Matthew in the chat is saying, like, Blue Lagoon is great. I know a lot of people, of course, like, like Blue Lagoon or like Pearl Island.
We're hearing good things about Margaritaville as well. And then, of course, there's always Atlantis. If you Want to do the whole water park or the aquarium, or gamble at the casino, whatever you want to do.
[00:29:31] Speaker A: I find, I find the real reason to stay on the ship in Nassau is that a lot of those trips are like short trips. Like, not. Not like most of the trips to NASA, three, four nights. And you want to get, like, suck the marrow out of like the experience of being on a Disney ship. And so, you know, beach excursions, things like that you can do in just about any of the Caribbean ports. So.
[00:29:52] Speaker C: Look, Brian, I already paid for the lunch. I'm going to enjoy the lunch on the ship.
[00:29:57] Speaker B: I love it. I love it.
Fair. Fair enough. All right, next slide. Brian?
[00:30:03] Speaker D: Yes.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: While I'm doing that, I wanted to comment. Sarah's asking about Baha Mar and whether anyone's done it. I think we did Baja Mar one time, didn't we, Sam?
[00:30:13] Speaker B: No.
[00:30:14] Speaker A: No. Okay, Sarah, we'll put that out as a call on the show out to our listeners. If you've done Baha Mar, head over to the Facebook group and leave us some feedback on Baha Mar. And Sarah, you can head over there and see that.
[00:30:25] Speaker B: I think we did a show with somebody who did, but I'll have to dig and figure that out. But we'll look and if we find one, we'll post it in our Facebook group and then I'll come back and post it in the comments on this, on the YouTube here as well.
All right, crowd levels. Let's talk about that. Sean, because this is one of the things you were concerned about in particular.
[00:30:48] Speaker C: And I think that this was the thing that kept me from ever wanting to go on any of those bigger ships.
But both of the ships, both for Alaska and for the Wish, they were nearly sold out.
So there's that difference between being sold out and being at capacity, because sold out just means there are no more rooms available. Capacity means that every single bunk and spot on that lifeboat is full.
So if you have, say, two people in a stateroom, but it sleeps five, you're not going to be at capacity.
Almost every single cruise that I've ever taken was sold out.
This was only really a detriment once on either of those two cruises, and that was on the Wish on the first day after Sail Away, because people crowd around those elevators and staircases and it's just absolute pandemonium.
I think that that's a really tough thing if you're on one of those really short cruises because that just takes up so much of the block of time compared to a seven night cruise where you can kind of just go, okay, we'll go watch a movie in the room and come back.
But that was really the only time that I felt the burn of the crowd.
Now this brings up the question of why do I love those smaller ships so much? And for me, it's always because I love that intimate feeling of getting to know people and see like the same people day in, day out. It's really funny because my dad on the Alaska cruise had this one little kid who he just kept seeing the whole time who just ticked him off so bad.
But we saw this kid like every single excursion, every single shop we went in, like he was.
[00:32:22] Speaker B: He was everywhere. He was following you. Oh, my God. I love that. But it's. But you're right, you do tend to see now not, of course you're not, not everybody you're going to see over and over again. It's still 2,500 people or 2,400 people right on your ship. But you're right. Like you will. If you meet someone on an excursion, you won't be surprised to run into them again on a different somewhere around the ship. Maybe it's at bingo. Maybe it's a trivia. Maybe it's at dinner. Right. Like you, you. There's the pretty good chance you'll see that person again. Yeah. I love your snippets. Getting, getting involved in the Facebook group. Sean, tell us why. Why should people get involved in the Facebook groups?
[00:33:00] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, so if you're like me, like I'm hitting that 27 mark in life where I don't really make a lot of new friends and I work with a lot of people who are a lot older than me.
So it's really great getting to go on Facebook and meet new people who you're going to be sharing this experience with.
And I always think that Facebook is a little bit of a double edged sword because you can use it to build community like we try to in these Facebook groups, but inevitably there's always that one person who starts a really big fight in the Facebook group. And I love when that happens because one time I had these two people get in this giant fight in a Facebook group and then they got sat at dinner together.
[00:33:41] Speaker B: No.
[00:33:42] Speaker C: So it was like no one cared about the dining experience. We were all just glued watching that.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: Oh, my God. That's crazy. That is crazy.
[00:33:51] Speaker C: Getting involved in the Facebook group is a great way to meet people. And I think that because, you know, I spent so much time on that Facebook group talking and interacting with people, I had People still recognizing me and coming up and having those conversations about the things we had talked about every single day and every single meal. It drove everyone who I was sailing with, from my family to my friends, absolutely nuts.
But one of the best icebreakers that I do is actually really unique to me. Brian, you can switch to the next slide. Now, I have this tradition that I do where we play Where's Waldo? But it's Where's Sean? And if you find me, you get an I Met Sean sticker.
I have, like, 250 of these printed, and I was just giving them out to people.
And it always, like, people either get the joke or they don't.
But I think that that is always a lot of fun because everywhere I went, people were asking, like, where is he? Where's the stickers?
[00:34:47] Speaker B: Where's Dawn? Where's the stickers?
[00:34:50] Speaker A: I have to pause this because Ed is raising a very good point in the chat, which is, so what happened to the two people that were beeping?
You can't just drop that story. And not how I saw it ended.
[00:35:01] Speaker B: Did they make up?
[00:35:02] Speaker C: I don't actually know how it ended. That's the worst part.
But once we got back, it was very clear that everyone was watching it. But no one wanted to comment that we were all being real nosy.
So who knows? Maybe they became best friends. But I get the feeling that wasn't the case.
[00:35:21] Speaker A: So, Sean, you need to turn these into magnets, and I want one because we'll put it on our door.
[00:35:28] Speaker B: Yeah, you know what?
[00:35:29] Speaker C: If you guys want magnets, help me crowdfund and I will send you as many magnets as you want.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: Yes. I love it. I love it. Well, and Sarah in the comments is saying, we love a sticker with someone's face on it. So. Yeah. Yeah. And Matthew's guessing that those people are maybe best friends. He's agreeing. He's. Yeah. Yeah. Linda's volunteering to help with the magnets. Sean. She's very crafty.
[00:35:52] Speaker C: So Linda's a great friend.
[00:35:55] Speaker B: She is a great friend. She's a fabulous friend. All right, Some highlights on the Wonder. We gotta.
[00:36:01] Speaker C: Yeah, we love the wonderful super quick.
The Wonder has great adult activities. They have that area Azure in the adults only area, which is just fantastic for hosting all those events. They have this one called Piano Party, and my family stopped to go into it after dinner, and we kind of thought, okay, we'll just kind of stop in, see what it's about, then go back to the room. It was the most fun I've ever had on a Disney cruise ship. So they do a dueling piano. They take requests, but they play games.
They do like conga lines and dance offs. It is so fun. I can't even describe it succinctly but it is a wonderful experience if you ever get the chance to do it.
My bedtime is usually a good 7:30pm I stayed up past midnight to watch this show. It was amazing.
[00:36:50] Speaker B: So this is only really on Alaska itineraries and it's not necessarily on all of the Alaska itineraries, but it is on, I think most. I think they do it for most of the Alaska season and they do it multiple nights. So you'll see it on the itinerary for the. It'll be, as Sean mentioned, it's an adult only activity. It's late at night. It doesn't start till like 10 or 10 30, maybe even 11 some nights depending on the night.
But it is fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. I. I agree with Aaron. I wish they would do it on other sailings. All right.
[00:37:19] Speaker C: And adult activities on the Wish are amazing.
My parents almost got picked for Match youh Mate. They were the couple that was together the longest. And I told them like, like flat out, if you get picked, I'm not watching that.
Yeah. But thankfully there was one other couple who were the parents of the other couple that got picked. So I did not have to suffer the mental scars.
Glacier Day. So I got in line for 8:15am for a 9:00 clock start for Mickey Mouse. I know that this is one of the biggest questions that we get in your Facebook group. I was able to just team up with some people around me. We bounced from one side of the deck to the other and back and forth. I was able to get all the characters plus code up by 1:36pm wow. So I just want that on the record. You can do it.
And the last thing about the wonder that I really love.
[00:38:08] Speaker B: You probably didn't eat at all, I'm guessing.
[00:38:11] Speaker C: No, but we took shifts. People are usually pretty good about saving each other's spots. If you need to go to the bathroom, get a drink.
Be friendly to the people around you. They're your biggest allies in that.
[00:38:23] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:38:24] Speaker C: And then formal night on the captain's reception. In that photo, it was actually my mom's birthday.
It was a landmark birthday that I'm not sure if I'm allowed to reveal the number on the Internet, but she got us all those awesome jackets.
So shout out to Mom Connor. Even as she cruises into the next decade, she's still styling.
[00:38:45] Speaker A: It's amazing you could all be together to celebrate her 21st birthday like that. Shine on. So it's amazing.
[00:38:50] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. We're not going to do the math there.
[00:38:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:38:55] Speaker E: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at MyPath Unwinding Travel can help guide you so you don't miss a thing. Their team of professional travel advisors are caring, knowledgeable and experienced. It's why we use them to book our own travel. Mypath Unwinding Travel is an authorized Disney vacation planner, which means they are recognized by Disney for their expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, adventured with Disney, relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park vacation, or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, MyPath Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypathunwinding.com DCLDUO or even email DCLDUOMYPATHunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. Thanks, my path unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode.
[00:39:53] Speaker B: All right, Brian, let's see the next slide. There we go. The wish.
[00:39:57] Speaker C: There's me and my friend Chewy. I'm on my tiptoes.
He's quite tall. So the wish was Halloween on the high seas. Now, if you're like me, Halloween is not a Sean Connor holiday. I am sorry.
So when we. When I got onto the sailing, I was thinking, it's so early for Halloween. But that first New Hampshire breeze came in and it was pumpkin spice season.
And the thing that I love about the wish is the bar spaces. They run circles around every other ship. And I love that you can kind of pick how immersive you want those spaces to be.
My other hot take, I really like the hyperspace lounge. It was full every moment of that cruise. I know. The writing's on the wall. I'm gonna miss it.
[00:40:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm actually. I'm actually. I'm actually not sure that they will. They will renovate that space.
[00:40:46] Speaker B: Brian and I. I know there's a lot of people out there who think they're going to retheme that space. And Brian and I have both said, and I'm gonna put this out there. I don't know that we've said it on the show, Brian, and I do not believe that they're gonna retheme Hyperspace Lounge. I don't think we're gonna see Haunted Mansion. Get on the Wish. I'm gonna put that out there. I'm not saying it would be a good or bad or whatever, but I just don't think they're gonna. Not now. Not now.
[00:41:09] Speaker A: The only reason that they would do that is if that bar was so underperforming every other bar on board that they felt like the only way they could get more revenue from it would be to re theme it. I'm not going to say that that is not a potential like thing, but it's going to be expensive, I think, to renovate that bar. And they seem to be doing more investment in places based on money. Like how can we extract more, how we build more spa suites, more concierge rooms, put a tower suite on board, whatever it is. So may, maybe, maybe, but I think they'll leave hyperspace alone. I just hope they bring back. I think they should bring back Star Wars Day at Sea on the Wish. I think it makes a ton of sense to do it.
[00:41:47] Speaker B: So anyway, yeah, or they could just, as Ashley says in the comments, plus up Hyperspace Lounge. Right. They could do some renovations to make it.
[00:41:55] Speaker A: I hear there's some props lying around from the Star Cruisers.
I also love Ed's comment here. Hyperspace Lounge, Haunted Mansion, Fusion, Jedi's coming back from the great beyond.
[00:42:05] Speaker C: Great.
[00:42:06] Speaker B: I like it, Ed. I like it. All right, sorry, we took that on a little detour. Se other highlights from the Wish. So you love the bar spaces, theater shows?
[00:42:16] Speaker C: Yeah, the theaters are amazing. I love that balcony. And you know, the thing about the wonder and the magic is that those theaters are old theaters. They're lovely. But the Wish was built for projection mapping. So even just sitting there and then, you know, as you go under the sea into Ariel's Grotto, you know, you're looking around and it's just the other ships don't stand a chance with how awesome that is.
The Wish also has the Festival of Foods look. I mean, I love to eat. So having that Donald's Cantina and that smokestack barbecue, just next level, Aqua Mouse. I love the Aqua Mouse. I did it six times in a row on the castaway day because when we docked there was no line.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: I mean, that's a smart take. That's always a good tip. Like if you are docked in port and particularly a Port like Castaway, where everybody is getting off the ship. Unlike NASA, where not everybody is getting off the ship like you. If that. If that water slide is still open, like. Yeah, take advantage. And you. You just. With the Aqua Mouse, you don't have to get off and get back on like you do with the Aqua Duck. They will. If there's no line, they will just let you go over and over and over and over again.
[00:43:29] Speaker A: Pizza is also better on the Wish Class ships because they're making that dough.
[00:43:32] Speaker C: Yeah, that's true. Here's the thing. I can make pizza at home. I am too lazy to cook ribs and brisket. Okay, now, okay, this is the part where I think I'm about to start complaining.
So the thing that I really was frustrated with on the Wish was that unlike on the Magic Class, where, you know, you have the carpets to point you in your direction, it's a little harder to know where you're going sometimes. And missing that midship elevators makes it a little disorienting. So they taught me this trick on the walking tour, and had they told me this earlier, I would have no problem the whole time.
So you'll see that green ring of plants around the carpet in the photo. Again, sorry, my audio medium, people, but the Wish has a couple different themes in it, and one of them is the forest. So the forest carpet with the green ring is in the forward and the front of the ship. The blue rings are in the back of the ship.
I really wish I'd known that. So don't make the same mistakes that I made.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: So I knew about the blue and the green, but I never did the forward forest and blue back. I never made that connection, Sean. So I love that tip. That's a great one.
[00:44:44] Speaker C: I don't think anyone else made that connection either. And I think that Disney gave us a little bit too much credit in being able to pick up on it.
[00:44:51] Speaker A: I wish I had a more. The more, you know, graphic. Yeah, Sarah, my mind is now blown. For sure. Sure, for sure.
Nice. All right, are we moving on to the next slide then?
[00:45:00] Speaker C: Sean, Next slide.
[00:45:02] Speaker A: All right.
[00:45:02] Speaker C: Okay. And to answer Linda's inevitable question.
So for Trivias, I won four of them over the two cruises. 2000s music trivia. I got a 39 of 40. DCL was like 16 out of 20.
Pixar trivia. I got a perfect score. And I got the bonus round dead on. And live music. We were 39 for 40. So shout out to all of my friends for that one. Uh, I'm usually the Team freeloader. So I appreciate you piggybacking me for the win.
[00:45:33] Speaker A: Nice. All right, I want to throw up a couple comments here. More about the navigation here. Vanessa's saying there are smaller Mickeys on the wish carpet with his ears pointing the way forward in the hallways.
That's a good tip. And Ashley's saying, and for classic ships, red is front because they are rolling out the red carpet. I never knew that. That's amazing.
[00:45:54] Speaker B: Yeah, I just look at the maps on the ground or the stars on the ground on the older ships, and.
[00:46:00] Speaker A: Vanessa's saying even the elevators are color coded on the wish class. Yeah.
Those little details are what set Disney apart for sure.
[00:46:07] Speaker C: You know, now that they're not doing the wishing wands, they told me it was because they wanted to cut down the plastic, but, you know, maybe they should give us a nice map or a brochure so that we're not all wandering like idiots the whole first day.
[00:46:20] Speaker A: Sean, you know how Disney Cruise Line feels about paper. We all know what happened to the.
[00:46:24] Speaker B: Yeah, no, paper. Paper is.
Is not allowed anymore.
[00:46:29] Speaker C: All right, so this is the point where, to borrow the phrase from Seinfeld, I've got a lot of problems, and now you're gonna hear about them, and I think I'm about to turn the audience against me. So let's go.
[00:46:43] Speaker A: I can't imagine that Ed's saying they now have Paper Navigators you can request.
[00:46:49] Speaker B: But it's just like a.
[00:46:50] Speaker A: It's the printout.
[00:46:52] Speaker B: It's not like the old Paper Navigator. It's not like an old. Yeah, it's like.
[00:46:56] Speaker C: Okay, now, having admin, the Alaska group shout out to our awesome group expert, Sam Ganner. And having admin this Halloween, 1. I could go the rest of my life without ever hearing two questions again. Number one, what is a good hotel in Vancouver? There are a lot of them. Number two, what night is Halloween? It's probably your C day.
[00:47:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
So, okay, sorry.
[00:47:23] Speaker C: I'm number two.
[00:47:25] Speaker B: Because that hotel question, I can't tell you how many times I've seen the Hotel Quest.
[00:47:30] Speaker C: Even my mom, who had never been in a Facebook group for a Disney Cruise line before, after, like, a week of being in it, she pulled me aside and she was like, are they going to be asking that every day?
[00:47:42] Speaker B: Every day? Yes, someone is going to ask it. They don't search. By the way, if you're in a Facebook group, you can search for prior questions. Just search in the group.
[00:47:50] Speaker A: See?
[00:47:50] Speaker C: So comment. Are there fireworks?
Ed, I swear, I could throw someone out A window after hearing that.
[00:47:58] Speaker B: So true.
The Alaska cruise. Yes. Oh my God. Every. Okay, so the answer to that is no. There are no fireworks on the Alaska cruise, just like there are no fireworks in the European cruises.
[00:48:11] Speaker A: Here's another fan favorite. How much blood pressure rising.
[00:48:14] Speaker C: Reading these comments.
[00:48:15] Speaker A: Here's another fan favorite question.
And is it necessary to use the Navigator app to have WI Fi?
[00:48:20] Speaker C: No, it is.
[00:48:21] Speaker A: You don't have to have WI Fi. You have to have your WI Fi WI Fi on, but you don't have to have a Disney WI Fi package to use the Navigator app.
[00:48:27] Speaker B: Oh my God, this is cracking me up.
[00:48:29] Speaker A: And on the hotel question, so we've talked about the Pan Pacific. We've talked about the Fairmont, which is also right across the street from the port. We've also heard the Auberge in Vancouver is good.
[00:48:38] Speaker C: There's lots of great hotels.
[00:48:40] Speaker A: Yeah, there's lots of great hotels.
[00:48:41] Speaker B: And there's ones by the airport too.
[00:48:43] Speaker C: So that Fairmont hotel, we were right across the street from it at the Hyatt Regency, and I kept looking at it like, why does this look familiar to me? And as we were taking the walk down to the port, it hit me. It was the top half of the Tipton Hotel from the Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
[00:49:03] Speaker B: That's awesome.
[00:49:04] Speaker C: Once I realized that, it was like my eyes had been opened.
[00:49:07] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, Sarah, Chad is being flooded with all the questions.
[00:49:14] Speaker B: My blood pressure is going up too. All time. The questions. The annoying questions. Sorry, there are not. There are no dumb questions, but you can ask questions, but you can. You can search for it if it's already been asked. And most of the time it has been already asked. So anyway, there. There folks are just cracking us up with these terrible questions in the chat. Okay, adult areas on the witch. What is this weird looking star you created?
[00:49:40] Speaker C: This is. This is a meme and it's a star that's very poorly drawn that says, I don't think you tried at all.
[00:49:46] Speaker B: All.
[00:49:47] Speaker C: And I think that that goes to the people who designed the adults area on the wish. First of all, who thought it was a good idea to put the hot tub right under the Aqua mouse? No one except for the person who got to put it there.
The second complaint I had was, why are the pools so small when you have two times as many people on the Wonder? And the Wonder has a bigger adult spool?
[00:50:11] Speaker B: What is that?
[00:50:12] Speaker A: That one of the best adult pools in the fleet on the Wonder, in my opinion.
[00:50:16] Speaker B: Yes, the Wonder and the magic. I Think have the best adult pools. No question. Absolutely.
[00:50:21] Speaker C: You know, adults area on the Wish. I don't think they even tried at all.
Okay, next one. Motion sickness. Now I am a very motion sick person.
It is bad. Like my mom will tell you, I am terrible.
But I never actually felt it on the Wonder. Maybe it's because I just took enough boning to kill a small elephant.
But the Wonder was like sailing on glass. You couldn't feel it at all.
[00:50:52] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:50:52] Speaker C: Results may vary but I will tell you sailing on the Wish was not that great in terms of motion sickness. So I came up with some reasons why the motion may have been bad on the Wish Wish. Reason one, DCL is testing out a new tumble dryer experience.
Number two, maybe we hit a pack of whales in the middle of the ocean.
[00:51:14] Speaker B: I mean they've been known to attack both.
[00:51:17] Speaker C: Number three, we were secretly filming an ad for Boney.
[00:51:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: I. I do, I do have to say. I do have to say I think Ed is right here that Inside Passage because you've got land on both sides. Like I think it really seriously unless.
[00:51:31] Speaker B: You'Re in a storm that's down on the wake.
[00:51:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Whereas on all of the Wish class all ships going down to the Caribbean at some point they have to cross from the was it the Atlantic into the Caribbean Sea and they hit that current. And I think there's always one night on those cruises when they're hauling to get down and they have to cross that current. That it just.
It. It just adds a bunch of. The amount of motion can vary wildly depending on if there's storms in the area or not. But there's always a little bit of motion.
[00:51:58] Speaker B: It's funny we. We do tend to. To recommend to people to do like the Bahamas or the Caribbean for if they have motion sickness as opposed to doing a Pacific coast Cru still think is correct. Right. Like going out of San Diego. You're going to hit more rough seas in the Pacific typically. But Alaska is probably that exception because on Disney as Brian mentioned they you're going through the Inside Passage. The cruise lines are different as to where which way they go up to Alaska. But Disney always goes up the Inside Passage from Vancouver. And so in general except unless you hit a storm. Yeah. You are going to have pretty. Not always Taryn saying we didn't do the Inside Passage route north due to timing and it was rough, lots of seat. So yeah. If they don't do the Inside Passage you are more likely because you're out more into the Pacific Ocean. You don't have land on both sides sort of protecting you from. From larger swells. And so, yeah, that's not. That's not super surprising. But general, most of the cruises are going through the inside passage, unless, of course, there's something that prevents them. All right. Dining.
[00:53:02] Speaker C: So dining is a really. Like I've said before, I love to eat. If you ever question that, just Venmo me some money for McDonald's.
But dining is a super important part of my cruise experience. And what I found on the big ships was that the dining team felt like they were super stretched thin, especially with the timing of those shows. I'll be honest here. I didn't know my server's names or really who they were up until the last night of the cruise. And that was really tough.
We were sat with two other couples, and they were awesome. So shout out to Nate, Allie, Chris, and Beth. They are amazing people. It turns out we were all kind of wondering, how did we get sat together? We were all the same age.
So, you know the server on the Magic and the Wonder. We love them. That in that picture, that is Pablo and Mare. If they ever come to visit Boston, My parents have volunteered to be their hotel for the week.
But I think the difference is with those big ships, they don't get the time to know you, and they kind of get a little bit more of a pass because of the shows compared to the Magic and the Wonder, where they really do become that full family experience, and they have more time to get to know you.
So this was. I really hate to complain about that part because I know that everyone's trying their best, but the dining on those big ships just was not up to par with what I've known. And the next part of this.
I know this was a really weird complaint that I had across both cruises. DCL knows one way to make a chocolate mousse and 5,000 different things to call it, as my friend said.
I asked my mom, like, I felt like a lot of the desserts, even when I was ordering, like, a piece of cake, were, like, nursing home mushy.
That was, like, the only way I could describe it. But I was thinking, like, I would love a dessert that I would need teeth to chew, so.
[00:55:00] Speaker B: This is a hot take. Well, you're not talking about the chocolate souffle in Palo, so I just want to put that out there. Sean is not talking. He's talking about main dining and. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, fair enough.
[00:55:12] Speaker C: Like, you'll know if you're eating what I'm Talking about if it's just another word for a chocolate mousse.
[00:55:19] Speaker A: I did want to go back to somebody said so about your dining staff and just say two things. One is there is something special about on the Fantasy and the Wonder.
Those crews are really like they just, it feels like they all know each other and they're well oiled machines and like they've been, they've been on those ships for a while. They're all very experienced. It seems like like I have knock on fake wood here on my desk. I have yet to have a bad experience on the Fantasy or the Wonder. And I think part of it is those crews just have it down like and it just feels like a different crew atmosphere. I mean on those ships. But the other.
[00:55:57] Speaker B: You can say that about the Magic too because remember we have our, our favorite server on the Magic.
[00:56:03] Speaker A: That's true, that's true. The Magic has some other problems for me. But yes, I agree the Magic is probably in there as well. I think the other thing that you're going to find these days is as Disney is expanding the fleet so rapidly they've probably got a few ships that are kind of the training grounds. And I suspect those three Fortnite cruises are training grounds on the Wish.
I know that they're getting ready to suck a bunch of crew off the Treasure. Already have to head to the Destiny so might experience some like those new crew members too tend to be the ones where it's like I've had the most difficulty because they just don't you know, they kind of don't know the Disney way. Right. And they're coming from potentially other.
[00:56:40] Speaker B: Still learning like where all the food is in the back. Right. Like so they and they're still learning like wherever like where everything is in the different dining rooms too because they've got to learn three different dining rooms plus cabanas or Marceline market plus the private islands. Right. So they have a lot more to to learn I think than people realize.
[00:56:59] Speaker A: And so likes to gravitate towards. They like they like longer sailings because it's not the deja vu every three to four days of like on off they get to know people which probably improves crews their, their tips. You know the ships that get to go over to Europe are always a crew favorite. People want to kind of be on their ships if they can to see Europe if they haven't before I know Australia was a, was kind of a hit in the initial season with the crew to head over there and see Australia. It's less so as we've understood it over time, just because of the. The differences in tipping culture and. And Europe can be kind of the same way with tipping culture. So.
But yeah. Yeah. So anyway, the crew make the experience on board these ships, and so if.
[00:57:35] Speaker C: You get a really good crew, you're.
[00:57:37] Speaker A: Gonna have a good time, so.
[00:57:38] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:57:38] Speaker C: And it wasn't.
[00:57:39] Speaker B: Even if every.
Yeah. Even if every dessert is a chocolate mousse, you're still gonna have a great. Yeah, yeah.
[00:57:45] Speaker C: I think in the end, like, what it boils down to is they did their jobs. Like, we got food, but, you know, I would have killed for a spoon that wasn't the size of a snow shovel.
There were some dishes where I would take a bite and I'd just be like, yeah, I don't want this. But it sat on the table the rest of the day. Dinner.
[00:58:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:03] Speaker C: So, you know, always room for improvement. But we loved the people that we sat with, so lots of love for them. Now, this is a random tangent. Do you know what the box in this photo is?
[00:58:14] Speaker A: Yes, it is spraying scent into the air.
[00:58:18] Speaker C: Yes. So. Oh, I didn't know that. On the magic and the wonder. I never have seen these boxes there. But there was, like, these things just started popping up on the way wish, and then by the end of the cruise, they were like, every two and a half feet. So we would just be walking around thinking, like, why does it smell like. I love the smell of the ships. I actually have it in a can behind me that I got at Disney Springs. But these boxes were just everywhere.
And I was thinking to myself, like, they're just sitting there. Like, you could just. Like, I could just go up and unplug it and scoop it and take it home with me.
I think we can improve on that design a lot. Little bit. Like.
[00:58:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:57] Speaker C: I shouldn't just be able to, like, drop. Kick it off the side of the Grand Hall. Yeah.
[00:59:01] Speaker A: It's interesting because I think there actually is a scent on the other ships, but they're pumping it through, like, the normal.
Yeah. Someplace else. So I. I've seen these boxes around. I'm like, it's bizarre to me that this wasn't thought of in the design because they do love to pump that DCL scent and. And you. Yeah, you can go to magic candle companies, have a version of it and. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:59:23] Speaker C: But, like, it's just so weird that they're just sitting on the floor, like, unguarded. So that is weird. Like the intrusive thought in the back of My head was just like, scoop it up and take it.
[00:59:32] Speaker A: All Ed is warning, you never know, it might have an ink dye pack in it that goes off if you try to take it off the ship.
[00:59:39] Speaker C: So there you go, right?
[00:59:40] Speaker B: It's like a skunk that you think is, you know, not a skunk.
[00:59:45] Speaker C: And then this is my other random tangent. So this photo is the Magic and the Wish right next to each other. This season the magic is at Terminal 8, which is that like famous one that you walk through the Mickey ears. I've never been through that one before.
But the Wish is at Terminal 10, which is a much smaller terminal. Like they, they have you checking in literally right next to where people are sitting. And I can't help but think maybe it would be a little more efficient if they just switch a route to two. So like, do you guys have the reason why they have it the way it is? Because it, it just scheduling backwards to me.
[01:00:24] Speaker B: So the Treasure and the Magic are at Terminal 8 is why. So Terminal 8, which is Disney's terminal, has the treasure and the, the magic when they're both. Well, they're going different days. Right. The wish.
Oh, sorry, not the treasure. Sorry, not the treasure of the Magic. The fantasy is there sometimes on the same day as. As the Wish is. And so I'm not sure why they chose which one at which terminal.
[01:00:51] Speaker A: Fantasies in Europe.
[01:00:53] Speaker B: Well, yes, but the fantasy was there right before the magic was there. Right. The fantasy was going there, the treasure was there. And then magic kind of swapped out for the, for the treasure. But yeah, they, they can't. I mean, I'm not sure why they chose other than to say that the Treasure was at Terminal 8 when the wish was at Terminal.
[01:01:13] Speaker A: Chess. Right. It's all dependent upon like when their ports are as they're going to be in Port Canaveral. And so yeah, it's just, it's an artifact of the scheduling for the various ships.
[01:01:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:01:22] Speaker B: And they share, I believe they share Terminal 10 with other cruise lines as well. So they don't have it every single day. So it just might be the availability of Terminal 10. All right, your verdict, winners and losers.
[01:01:34] Speaker C: The biggest winner is obviously me because I got a very nice couple vacations out of it.
The biggest loser, JetBlue.
So I was coming home from Alaska, Alaska. And our flight had like an hour long delay that turned in to six and a half hours.
And JetBlue decided they only had to compensate us for five, so we didn't get that next bump in compensation.
So, you know, I was a little mad, but I got over it eventually because I was flying them down to Florida. Well, they did a little better this time. It was only a five hour delay, so we didn't get to Orlando well past midnight. So, you know, once I use my flight credits, which they gave me, which really weren't worth it, I think that I will be going to the good people at Delta.
[01:02:17] Speaker A: There you go.
There you go.
[01:02:19] Speaker C: So my final verdict here, and I'm about to give you guys the ultimate cop out, which infuriates me when I watch these podcasts. But the answer for what ship is better? It really depends. It depends on what kind of one, what kind of vacation you want to have.
[01:02:34] Speaker A: Sean, did you, did you go to law school? Did you? Because that's the answer we as lawyers give all the time to, like, can we, can I do this? It depends.
[01:02:40] Speaker C: I wasn't smart enough to get into law school, so it depends on the vacation you want to have. And my mom and I were arguing about this in the car as I was driving home today. But you know, to me, if you want a relaxing vacation where you can just kind of sit there and like really luxuriate, Alaska is not the cruise for you, in my opinion, like, Alaska was the kind of trip where, like, I was running around doing all these crazy activities and things that I would never do back in home. And by the end of it, like, I came home tired. But it was all worth it in the end.
You know, if you want a ship where you can kind of sit around for four hours and you don't miss a thing, you can go on the wish. Like it, it really just depends on the trip that you think you need for that moment.
[01:03:26] Speaker B: Well, and to be fair on the wish, there's a ton to do. So you could actually run around. You're just not running around out at port necessarily. Right. You could run around to all the different activities. And of course you're not running, running to get the characters in those Alaska costumes, but you might be running around to get them in their pirate costumes or their Halloween costumes if you're on Halloween on the high seas, right? So there, there is, especially on a three or four night cruise, you can completely, you know, run around with FOMO and try and do everything. But you also can, especially if you've been on one of those cruises before, just relax, sit by the pool, go to the spa, skip all the ports. I mean, stay on even when you're at Castaway and just kind of enjoy the ship, right?
[01:04:06] Speaker A: So you just Stay on a castaway is Disney blasphemy. Although we've done.
[01:04:11] Speaker B: I know, I know, but listen, we've done it once before.
[01:04:14] Speaker A: Send your hate mail to samdclduo.com so.
[01:04:16] Speaker B: Yeah, but I, I mean, I do, but you're right. If you're going, like, you're spending the money to go to Alaska, you want to go see those ports, right? Like you do. You aren't. You aren't going to be. You can relax on your sea days and you get a couple of those, but it is not a true relaxation cruise. So I. I think you're. You're absolutely right. And yeah, neither. Neither ship. Like you've said here, neither ship is like 100%, you know, everything perfect. Right? You. You're making sacrifices for whatever vacation you've chosen.
[01:04:49] Speaker A: Well, and London makes a good point. I pick whichever ship fits in my budget and vacation schedule. Hence all San Diego sailings next year, which. The San Diego sailings are fa. Fabulous. Like, I would go on a San Diego sailing again, for sure. So.
[01:05:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:05:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:05:01] Speaker C: Like, you know, the big thing with the perfection rate is that, you know, for example, with the Wonder. Right. I really love those bar spaces on the way Wish, but the Wish is not going to Alaska. And if it ever did, then, you know, I was wrong about every other thing that I've ever thought about the Disney Cruise line.
But, you know, I'm willing to put up with smaller bar spaces to be able to go to those kinds of places.
You know, maybe I had one experience on the Wish where the dining wasn't as great as the magic, but guess what? You know, that deck food, it was up at 11. So, you know, neither one is perfect.
[01:05:33] Speaker B: Perfect.
[01:05:34] Speaker C: But both have a lot to love. You're going to find things you love on both of them. You're going to find things that you really don't like.
But it's a gamble. You pick the ship that you think is going to be the best vacation for you, and you're going to have a magical time.
[01:05:47] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[01:05:48] Speaker A: Before we move on to the last slide. So, Sean, you've given us your verdict. It depends, Sam.
Wish versus wonder. Which one's your favorite?
[01:05:58] Speaker B: Oh, it's always going to be the Wonder. The Wonder has my heart.
I love the treasure. So, like, if you give me the. If you gave me the treasure versus the Wonder, it's a closer call, but I'm going to choose Alaska. I'll be honest. I. I loved Alaska so much, and we had such perfect weather. I feel like I might choose Alaska. Like every single time. Even over the, even over warm weather cruises now. I just love. I, I thought it was so incredible. Um, I'm okay with the fact that I'm can't like sit in the pool for hours on end. So for me, I, I love it.
[01:06:33] Speaker A: For me, the biggest detriment to the wish right now is the three four night sailings. Like the seven nights on the Treasure. I honestly, I love the Wonder and I love like, but she's become like my adventure ship, right? Not, not the adventure, the new ship coming out. But she's like, she's the one that I want to go. Like, we didn't we use the magic or went on the magic in Norway, but if the Wonder had gone to Norway, like those classic ships have become a, like way to go do something that's adventurous.
So I'm really hoping the new ships that they build, if they eventually do retire the Magic and the Wonder or when they, they do retire them, I hope they use those smaller ships they're building as the, you know, the ones that go to Alaska. So, so yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:07:12] Speaker C: I think that the, the big thing with me is I don't think you can do Alaska in less than seven. I know that there's the five nighter. I don't know how they made that work, but I think that by like the seventh day, like I was sitting in my room thinking I'm ready to go home, sleep in my own bed and eat a vegetable.
Like I think for the Bahamas. I think that five night is like something that I'm looking into to, for, you know, a future sailing. Because I think that's kind of my sweet spot where four days you can get it all done. But there's still a couple things where I think, oh, wow, I wish I had done this again. I think five nights gets you that closure in the Bahamas. But I think seven, like, you can't do Alaska unless in it. But seven's a little much for me.
[01:07:53] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I agree with you. I mean, seven is not too much for me ever, ever, ever, ever.
I will say that. But I agree with you. I think that five nights for Alaska would be really, really tough, you know, at port every single day or not be able to see as much. And so. Yeah, absolutely, I agree with you there.
[01:08:12] Speaker A: All right, Sean, you answered my question. I was going to be like, sean, what's next? Oh, here's the slide. So, Sean, what's next?
[01:08:19] Speaker C: So my friend Bailey from the Disney Magic, we met in 2023. She was one of our co admins, she's getting married next year and I hope that I'm allowed to say that.
So she's getting married on the Disney Fantasy September 2 to 6.
So our co admins from that sailing are actually going to go watch her get married.
So that was a really fun thing to be able to plan with her family.
And so I'm going for the full class sweep except for the adventure. But who knows, maybe they'll just keep pushing her off so I can actually say that I did all the different classes for once. Well, that's.
[01:08:55] Speaker A: So that's. I was going to ask you because you mentioned that big ships are kind of a gamble. I was going to ask you about the venture before I asked about that question though, just for everyone at home.
If you're listening to this after the fact, there was a great slide presentation. So you can head over to YouTube and watch the whole show. It's, it's, it's up there on our YouTube channel, YouTube.comtcl2 oh, you can see the whole show. You can see the comments that came in, all the great photos from Sean. And for those listening to this after the fact, I will highlight. You can follow along with Sean on instagram at its SeanConnner. C O N N O R and Sean spelled S E A N. So it's Sean Connor on Instagram, Instagram or look him up on Facebook. But Sean, I want to know the adventure. Is it in the cards for you? Are you even interested in going on the adventure? Or is it more of like a completionist? Like I'd like to have gone on all the ships kind of thing?
[01:09:41] Speaker C: Yeah. Before I answer that question, Brian, have they invented teleportation yet?
Because if they haven't, that is too long a flight for old Shawnee C.
[01:09:52] Speaker A: You don't want to take JetBlue all.
[01:09:53] Speaker C: The way to Asia.
[01:09:54] Speaker A: Come on. I'm sure it will only be a 15 hour delay, but.
[01:09:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, I think I would rather get a root canal in hell than have to go through that.
You know, maybe I'll just experience the adventure in the same way that all those people in those first months will in my dreams.
Sorry. I know my good friend Dustin on deck. He was booked for one of those first sailings and he is a great friend, but yeah, yeah, yeah.
[01:10:20] Speaker A: Well, at least they gave people 50% off another cruise. Which I will go in my soapbox for a half second and say if you got that offer, remember that is not like a. That is not like a Set amount based on what you paid, that's 50% off. So if you like want 50% off the tower suite on some sailing.
[01:10:38] Speaker B: Yeah, they're allowing people to use it on concierge even if you weren't booked on. So if you were booked in a regular room, you could still use that 50% off to a concierge room on a different sailing. Even on a different ship.
There are some blackout dates, I believe, like for holiday sailings and things like that that are blacked out. But like, it's a very generous offer. I understand there are people with flight issues that are having to, you know, that's costing them a lot of money to change.
[01:11:04] Speaker A: Lots of empathy for people who. Yeah, yeah.
[01:11:07] Speaker B: But I, but I will say I do think it's a generous offer, particularly for, you know, some people who are able to change their flights really easily.
[01:11:15] Speaker A: Ed is 1000% correct. Don't blow the 50% on a three day Bahamian cruise. A thousand percent.
[01:11:21] Speaker B: Unless maybe you're staying in the tower suite. Well, I mean, I do it, but if you want to do it.
[01:11:26] Speaker A: But if you've been thinking about going on D.C. to Europe or going on DCL to Alaska and the thing that's been stopping you is that the cruises are so expensive, like, yeah, you just cut it in half. You can, you can sail in Alaska or sail in Europe for like the price of going on, you know, playing.
[01:11:40] Speaker C: With half of the house's money. You don't blow it on the kids chicken tenders. You get the filet.
[01:11:47] Speaker B: Right. You get the surf and turf. Sean, come on.
[01:11:50] Speaker A: Exactly, exactly.
[01:11:51] Speaker B: Maybe the caviar on the caviar appetizer as well. Anyway, Sean, thank you so much for joining us. For those listening after the fact watching after the fact and for those listening or watching us live right now, we will be back next week. We will be back at our same normal time which is 8:30pm Eastern, 5:30pm Pacific. And we'll be back with another fan favorite guest which is our friend Tracy from the DCL duo. Senior also from Adrift Together, which is her Instagram page. Paige, we're going to be talking about her Italy abd that she and Michael just got back from. Unfortunately, Michael won't be able to join us because he has volleyball that he's going to be reffing at the same time. Mike, boo to Michael. But don't worry, we have Tracy joining us.
[01:12:40] Speaker A: Only Michael, Sam, only we know they're watching.
[01:12:47] Speaker B: That'd be hilarious. That'd be hilarious. But again, Sean, thank you so much for joining us. We love having you on.
We're obviously going to have you on again after your next Cruise, your next 10 cruises, whatever, right? Like, you know, you have an open invitation to come back on the show whenever you like.
[01:13:06] Speaker C: Well, thank you guys and I hope I speak for the whole audience in saying thank you for all of the hours of content. I mean, I am so far behind because I kind of war chest my episodes for when I travel so I have something to listen to. So I'm so far behind. But thank you both for an amazing show and for all that you do to bring our community together.
[01:13:25] Speaker B: Thank you.
[01:13:26] Speaker A: Very nice of you. Thanks. Thanks everybody for listening. Thanks everybody for watching. We'll see you next time.
[01:13:31] Speaker C: Bye guys.
[01:13:37] Speaker E: Well, thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact, twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us live, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want 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 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 where we sell some fun fan inspired magnets. Link to our Patreon. If you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month, just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also as a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here at least on a few blog articles that we've written, so DCLDUO.com is the best way to connect with us. You can also, of course, email us atinfoCLDU duo.com or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Dual 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 the great folks over at my 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.
