[00:00:00] Speaker A: And so that was also a bucket list kind of thing. Like, I needed to find a wine window. So it was so fun to try it and to see other people do it as well.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: I gotta tell you, Sam, that may beat ringing the bell at Club 33 for me. If you can just ring a little thing and then wine comes out. That's amazing.
[00:00:17] Speaker C: And wine appears.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: Amazing.
[00:00:18] Speaker D: That's amazing.
[00:00:31] Speaker B: Welcome. Welcome back, everybody, to this week's live episode of the DCL Duo podcast. Brought to you by my Path Unwinding Travel and also joined by two fabulous guests, one from My Path Unwinding Travel and one from DCL Duo fandom. It's fan number one and number one.
[00:00:50] Speaker C: Fan number one fan.
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Tracy joining us. And Chelsea, of course. And Chelsea. Welcome, Chelsea and Tracy.
Before we dive into the discussion this evening, I do need to give a good shout out to our friends over at WDW magazine, the sponsors of our live and bonus shows. You've not had the chance to show them a little love. Head over to wdw-magazine.com today. I think they are running low, as last we heard on float.
Yes, yes. But you can subscribe today to the magazine. You can take 10% off everything in their store by using code DCLDUO. That's code DCLDUO. And we heard from Stephanie when she was on, I think it was last week, that another edition of the Float test kind of magazine, potentially the DCL magazine might be coming soon. So head over there, check them out, show them some love for supporting the show with that.
Chelsea, Tracy, welcome on. Welcome back.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:01:51] Speaker B: Hey.
[00:01:52] Speaker C: Hey, you guys. I feel like spooky season is upon us. I know we're technically still in September, but here in the Pacific Northwest, we had a very rainy day. And so to me, it feels like it must be October. And so I decided. I decided it is October. So I decided to be fair, it's.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Only two days away. So you're. You're getting close.
[00:02:13] Speaker C: I know, but I feel like, yeah, it becomes my birthday month and it becomes spooky season, even though I'm actually not a Halloween girl, but I am a Disney Halloween girl, let's put it that way. There you go. Well, we've got some news to cover. There's just, I think, one news item unless I miss something and others can jump in if I. If I did miss something. But actually today there was a new Disney visa promotion announced, and I'm going to ask Chelsea to chat about it and tell folks what it is and how you can take advantage of it. If you are a Disney Visa card holder.
[00:02:54] Speaker E: Yeah. So they kind of announced this promotion very softly. They didn't really tell a whole lot of people about it. Just kind of showed up.
And it is for very similar dates to what we saw with the previous one week promotion. It a lot of the same restrictions where it falls with those guaranteed with restrictions rooms.
It's up to 35% off select sailing select dates and then $250 in onboard credit you do have to pay with your Disney Visa card.
And I did confirm today that it actually is combinable to get that onboard credit if you are currently booked, so long as you are currently booked in a guarantee with restrictions room.
[00:03:44] Speaker C: Awesome. Yeah. And it's also stackable on that third and fourth passenger sale at 50% off offer that was out last, as you mentioned, as long as the dates line up. Now there is a list of specific sailings going around the Internet.
I'm not going to read off the entire list because there are more than a dozen, probably a dozen and a half. But they are only on the Magic, Dream, Fantasy and Wish. So you can't do it on the Wonder, you can't do it on the Treasure and obviously not on the Destiny. And these are only sailings through the end of the year, but they do include some Christmas sailings. I gotta say, the ones on the Wish are. And I mean a lot of these are Halloween on the high seas or maritime themed. Right. There's October ones on the Wish that are Halloween ones. And then of course maritime ones in all of the November and December dates are pretty much maritime until you get to right after Christmas. But Yeah, even like December 21st on the fantasy, December 19th on the dream. So like cruises that are on Christmas are getting promoed, which is not a very common thing that we've seen on Disney before.
[00:05:03] Speaker E: No, they tend to gatekeep those holiday sailings that run over Christmas with pretty much all of their discounts. They tend to have pretty significant blackout dates surrounding that timeframe. So it was interesting for sure to see that.
[00:05:17] Speaker C: Yeah. And the placeholder, placeholders are always blacked out during those dates as well. And you know, we see that for spring break, certain spring break times as well. So yeah, it's very interesting to see such a broad discount. Well, you know, we're here today to talk about the amazing Italy adventures by Disney that Tracy and her husband Michael.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Spoiler alert. Spoiler alert.
[00:05:42] Speaker C: If people didn't watch the promo or see the promos on social media or they're living under a Rock. But yeah, Tracy and Michael went on this amazing Adventures by Disney Adventure. It was their first Adventures by Disney Adventure. And Chelsea just happens to be their lovely travel agent. And so we're gonna. We wanted to. It's like we planned this. It's like we wanted to bring Chelsea on. As people know, we've had Chelsea on a couple times before. We've talked itineraries with her at least twice.
And we wanted to bring Chelsea on to help explain to our listeners how, you know, how my path unwinding travel and your travel advisor can add value to a trip like an Adventures by Disney, where the Adventures by Disney portion is already sort of planned out for you by Disney. Right. There's not a lot of planning of activities that goes on pre adventure because it's all planned. But where Chelsea and others can add value is maybe you're doing something before or after your adventure. So Chelsea, if you give us maybe one or two examples of stuff you were able to book for Tracy and Michael for this amazing adventure that they did over in Europe.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:58] Speaker E: So specifically for Tracy and Michael, when they booked their Adventures by Disney, they knew that they wanted to extend their trip at the end. They were celebrating an anniversary. They wanted to extend their trip and have this amazing European adventure. And so they ended up wanting to leave their Adventures by Disney at the end and fly to an entirely different country.
And so they flew to Paris and spent a lovely.
Yes, Tracey's lovely Disneyland Paris years, which I love.
Spend three extra days in Paris. And I was able to help arrangement private transportation for them to get them from the airport to their hotel and back to the airport, as well as a couple of tours while they were there, as well as some tickets for them to get to Disneyland Paris.
And I believe one of their excursions that I booked for them, which I believe they loved a lot, was a private walking tour for them, which I believe was a half day walking tour. But, uh, so seven miles is all.
[00:08:10] Speaker A: I can tell you for sure.
[00:08:11] Speaker E: Oh my goodness.
I kept it very busy.
[00:08:16] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely.
[00:08:17] Speaker E: Well, and.
[00:08:18] Speaker C: And you also gave them a great hotel. I know that they, they loved whatever the hotel was that you recommended. Do you remember either one of you, which was the hotel that you recommended?
[00:08:29] Speaker E: It was the Grand Powers in Paris, which is in a really great location. It was fairly close to, you know, the center of Paris, where they wanted to be near a rail station that was walking distance.
And you know, we have a personal relationship with the general manager there and we know that he really takes great care of his clients. So we were excited to send them there.
[00:08:54] Speaker C: Awesome. Now, Tracy, you gotta give us the Paris, the quick review.
How is the hotel? How was the private walking tour?
We don't need to talk about Disneyland Paris. I know that wasn't as good as Walt Disney World or Disneyland in California. Let me just put that out there.
[00:09:11] Speaker A: So we actually the mad props to Chelsea because we were so nervous after the ABD because we didn't have Disney taking care of us. And we should have not been nervous because Chelsea took care of everything. So we had like a black car service pick us up from the airport with the guy with the iPad with our name on it, you know, and he drove through the ridiculous traffic of Paris, which 0 out of 10 do not recommend the driving portion. I would never drive there.
[00:09:41] Speaker C: You were driving in Paris? Not the driving service.
[00:09:45] Speaker A: The guy who drove us there was great.
This fancy big car of his didn't have a scratch on it. I don't know how, but it did it.
So the first night we actually did a river cruise down the Seine River.
And it was.
The food was okay, but the view was spectacular. And he, the captain of the boat, actually stopped the boat right in front of the Eiffel tower for the 11 o' clock sparkle.
So we got great video and pictures of that. So that was a great way to start our Paris trip. And then the next day was our trip with Ruben. Highly recommend Reuben. He was great. Chelsea. He was absolutely fantastic.
Easy to understand. His English was really good.
And he knew, I mean, he was a young guy, like, I would guess he was probably maybe 26, 28, maybe like young guy. But he knew everywhere he was taking us. There was a metro strike that day. So only like one or two of the lines were running. So he had already adjusted our touring for that. That's why we didn't get any up close and personal pictures under the Eiffel Tower during the day because we couldn't really get on that metro to get there.
So he. But we walked everywhere. We hit the Louvre, we hit the Arc, we hit Notre Dame. He took us to this beautiful garden. I mean like everywhere. He took me to Angelina's for the best hot chocolate you'll ever have, which was amazing.
And so that tour was fantastic. And then we had directions on how to get our tickets and get on the metro to get to Disneyland Paris. And that was our last day, was Disneyland Paris. So overall it was seamless. And oh, and the grand powers, people, mad props. They had heart balloons on either side of our bed. We had a bottle of wine in our room with a lovely card congratulating us on our anniversary. And so, I mean, they were spectacular. We walked in the door, they welcomed us. Would you like a glass of champagne? Yes, yes, I.
So overall, that's the right way to start everything. It was so lovely.
[00:12:03] Speaker C: Oh, yay. I love that. Well, fantastic. Well, Chelsea, if folks are looking to book with you specifically, of course they can always go to mypathunwinding.com gclduo but if they want to reach out to you specifically, Chelsea, tell us what's the best way for folks to get in touch with you?
[00:12:22] Speaker E: Yeah. So obviously you can go to our website. We do also have a DCL duo specific email which is DCLDUOMYPATHUNWINDING.com and so we can all take referrals through there.
If you want to reach out to me specifically, I'm all over social media. I'm in the DCL Duo Facebook groups all of the time.
You can reach me there also at my Path unwinding email address. This is chelseyypathunwinding.com awesome.
[00:12:53] Speaker C: Thank you so much for joining us, Chelsea. We will say good night to you and let you. You can of course watch on on YouTube if you like and we will.
All right.
[00:13:04] Speaker B: You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. Sorry.
[00:13:08] Speaker C: You can stay in the background. We're going to pull up Tracy's PowerPoint and get started talking about this amazing Italy ABD. But thank you so much, Chelsea. And I know on behalf of Tracy and Michael, I'm going say thank you for booking them on such an amazing vacation.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: Five stars, highly recommend.
[00:13:24] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:13:25] Speaker E: Thank you. Thanks for having me.
[00:13:27] Speaker B: See ya.
[00:13:31] Speaker C: All right, Tracy, we are going to get started here with your beautiful PowerPoint that you prepared which again, always give shout out to Ashley Norton who started this trend. She is a trendsetter. She's in the chat and so I, of course I always have to shout out to her whenever I see her in the chat.
Yeah. So the DCL duo senior Tracy, as we love to call you and you like to call yourselves, but I'm going to call you Adrift together as well because that's your new ish Instagram handle. So Italy and the Amalfi Coast 2025, tell us what made you decide to book this adventure having not booked an Adventures by Disney Adventure before. I mean, I know you're going on the river cruise with us next year, but why did you choose to do an Adventures by Disney and why a land tour of Italy well, we had.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: Talked about Italy for a long time. That was like kind of a bucket list place for me because, you know, and most of your listeners know I'm a very picky eater. And pizza is one of the things I will eat all day long, every day. So in my head, Italy is pizza and wine and pasta, all things that I love to eat. And I had heard a lot of things about how beautiful the country side was. And so that was kind of on our bucket list.
And we chose obviously, Adventure by Disney, because like you said at the beginning of the show, it's always done. Everything was done for us, which is so nice. Like, there was never a worry about whether I was in the right place at the right time. Did I have a ticket? Did I need a ticket? It was all taken care of.
So this particular Adventure by Disney, to answer Ashley's, it wasn't an adult only abd, so there were no kids on this one. And Michael and I talked about it honestly, for this particular one at least, our children, I can't speak for anybody else's kids, but our four kids when they were younger, I don't know that they would have loved it. I did talk to the ABD guide and asked him, like, what the differences were between, like, one with kids and one without kids. And he said they definitely do try, like, especially the museums and things like that, to do things like scavenger hunts and things to kind of get them active and into it more. Because it is a lot of walking. This particular one was a lot of walking. And it was. We did a lot of museums for short periods of time, an hour or two tops, and hit the highlights of those museums. So it.
I don't know that our kids would have appreciated it. I'm sure there are other kids out there that would. But this was adult only. And it was just one of those things that just looked like the timing was right for us.
Our youngest daughter is out of undergraduate, not playing volleyball anymore. And after 16 years of watching her play volleyball, I needed a distraction. This was it.
[00:16:29] Speaker C: Now, I know you were a little bit nervous about doing a vacation like this because you and Michael cruise a lot, and cruising is a very different vacation than doing a land tour.
What were your biggest fears going into this?
[00:16:47] Speaker A: I think for me, it was what specifically we were going to be doing, not necessarily how much walking, although I will say we walk between five and seven miles a day on average. It's a lot of, you know, for me, vacation usually like, you know, with. With dcl, can be relaxing.
And I Just didn't know how I was going to like something that was a bit less relaxing. Not that it wasn't fun or good or anything because it was fantastic and I would do it again, but it was just so different from what we generally do that it just, I just was nervous about it. In the end it was all for naught because it was a great time and it's just a different vacation.
And if you go into it with that mindset, I think that that really helps as well.
[00:17:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I think that's a really good point. Like if you go in expecting a relaxing vacation on any Adventures by Disney Adventure, you are going to be smacked in the face with reality because that's not what an ABD is. It's a lot of going in and sightseeing, a lot of different things. And there are active activities built in as we'll talk about and even, you know, obviously more so probably on some of the family focused ones. I will say even the family friendly ABDs they do skew towards older kids. These are, I think in general ABD is not for families with young children. They're families for families with older adult, like older elementary and older. But I would say really like middle school and older is probably your sweet spot. Lots of teenagers on the family ones or maybe sort of some preteens on some of those family ones. But not like you're not going to see a lot of 8 year olds.
Even though technically an 8 year old is allowed to go on an ABD. And I wouldn't generally recommend it unless you have an 8 year old that's really into like history and museums and things like that. But let's jump in.
You, you guys traveled from Detroit? Tell us, tell us the, the travel day.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: Yeah, so we traveled from Detroit. We flew out about 10pm so we did the red eye, we flew into Paris and we did have like a five hour layover. And fortunately for us, because we did, we did do the pods, which we'd never done before.
And that was great because we did get a couple hours of sleep. But that also allowed us to stay in the Delta Sky Lounge which was great because then we could get some breakfast, we could have a croissant.
And then from there we flew into Naples.
And then from Naples we were transported to Sorrento to our, the hotel. And this was.
So we got there during the day, then their daytime. But it was the day before the ABD started. But we still went to the hotel. We stayed there, we met our guides and we basically went to the rooftop bar and like Went to bed because it was a long. It was like a. I want to say it was like. I think I counted like 17 hours of travel or something. It was. By the time you have the layover and everything was a long day.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Sam.
[00:20:06] Speaker C: Oh, I was going to have you jump in, Brian.
[00:20:08] Speaker B: No, no. I'm advancing the slides here, so I know now I got to do my standard. For everyone watching at home or for everyone listening at home later, please come to YouTube. You can see all the fabulous photos that Tracy's sharing. Tracy Sorrento.
Is this on your adventure start day?
[00:20:24] Speaker A: That this was. Yeah, this. So this evening of this day was when we had our welcome dinner. So this was our pre adventure adventure. So Michael and I adventured out of the hotel and wandered around in Sorrento, not really knowing where we were going. But we just, you know, kind of took a little. We. We did talk to the adventure guides and they told us, like, oh, go to Lemon Street. Okay, that sounds good.
Anything and everything you could possibly want that is lemon, lemon decorated, lemon ceramic, lemon soap, lemon cello, lemon curfew. You name it, it was there. And it was like a massive, like, street. The stores are about this big.
Everyone. They're teeny, tiny little stores. But this particular picture of the limoncello display, that is how the whole store was with all of the things. I was terrified I was going to bump something and like, break all the ceramic.
Yeah, yeah.
[00:21:19] Speaker C: If you knock one of these bottles, it's like one. It's like one of those dominoes.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: Thank you.
[00:21:24] Speaker C: Yeah. Tick, tick, tick. And they all fall.
You're saying if you have a kitchen that is lemon themed, like, this would be your heaven. Right. Like, you could get like, the bowls and like the. The. The dish towels, the spatulas.
[00:21:38] Speaker B: If you have a. If you have a lemon themed kitchen, can you send us a photo? Thank you so much.
[00:21:43] Speaker A: I feel like that was the most.
[00:21:44] Speaker B: Bizarre connection to me. If you have a lemon themed kitchen.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:21:47] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean, that's what she was saying. Like the, like lemon bowls and things like that, Everything.
[00:21:53] Speaker A: It was crazy.
Yeah, it was really fun. Yeah. So we just wandered around until it was time to go back to the hotel and get ready for the welcome dinner.
[00:22:04] Speaker C: Nice.
[00:22:09] Speaker A: We did maybe stop and get a pizza, which if Sylvia is watching or is watching later. Sylvia was our Italian ABD guide, and she taught us one very important thing about Italy.
One does not share pizza.
I did not know this was a rule. They do not believe in, like, half pepperoni, half mushroom pizzas.
And you don't like, like Michael and I got a pizza and we cut it in half, and I ate half and he ate half. And it was delicious. It was delightful. It was at this Il pazzo restaurante pizzeria. It was delightful. Had a glass of wine and we went back to the hotel and we told Sylvia, yeah, we got a pizza. And she's like.
And we said, yeah, we shared a pizza. And she looked at us, and the next time we shared a pizza, we mentioned it again, and she was like, we don't share pizza in Italy. And I'm like, what? What do you mean?
She and her husband have two kids, and she said when they go out for pizza, they each get their own pizza. And I mean, they're like 1214 inch pizzas.
I'm like, you don't. You can't. No, don't even worry.
[00:23:11] Speaker C: Do they take it home if there's leftovers?
[00:23:13] Speaker B: So the other half of the dcl duo, senior is saying she let it slide once, but the second time we told her, we shared.
So must be a story there.
[00:23:22] Speaker C: I. I wonder, I wonder if everybody orders their own. Like. Well, yes, they don't do half and half. Right. So that's different. Like in the States, obviously, you can do like half of a pizza with certain toppings and half of a pizza with other toppings. They don't mix toppings there. Like, that's just not done right. So. So, like, maybe if you want different pizzas, but if you're just getting like a. I don't know, like a margarita pizza. Pizza, why can't you. Yeah, I mean, you and I could share a margarita pizza anytime, Tracy.
[00:23:48] Speaker A: I don't see it.
[00:23:51] Speaker B: Michael's also popped in to say she also told us no leftovers.
Is that a. Eat it all at once and on one sitting, or does that leave behind what you don't eat?
[00:24:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It was crazy. She was very, very like, we don't share pizza. Like, that's just a. No, no, it was like, okay, we got it. We're on it.
[00:24:11] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:24:11] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: And then, of course, we had our pizza that night.
[00:24:15] Speaker C: Yeah. All right, well, so tell us, was the welcome dinner then, that night or was the welcome dinner like it wasn't the night you.
[00:24:23] Speaker A: Or was it correct it was the next night.
[00:24:25] Speaker C: Yeah, next night. Okay.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:24:26] Speaker C: So, yeah, tell us what a welcome dinner looks like.
[00:24:30] Speaker A: Okay. So they basically had it in the hotel and they had tables of eight for, you know, all of us. And that's the only night that you have, like, a seat that you're supposed to sit in or like, you know, a table that you're supposed to be sat at. And so we ended up getting there while we got our pins. This was our first pins.
There's a pin every day. And it was. It was so fun the way they presented them each day was a little bit different every day. And they were kind of funny, so I won't spoil the. All of the. The surprises, but they had some pretty funny ways to give us the pins. So.
So we. We were running just a little bit late, and we got down to dinner. And this will lead into the next slide, I believe.
And when I sat down to dinner, the people next to me introduced themselves. This was Helene, this was Sally, this was Judy. And then I turned and looked directly across the table from me, and I said, and you're Susan. It was Susan Lucci, Emmy winner, actress, like, sitting across the table with me, like, my little fangirl heart. I tried so hard to not fangirl out and just be cool.
So it was a big surprise. We did not know that. And as it turned out, she was traveling with the other three ladies. And we had two Emmy winners with us on our abd. We had a retired Disney exec on our abd. We have somebody who works for Disney on our abd.
We had an animator on our abd. So we felt very under.
Whelming.
[00:26:15] Speaker C: Listen, you guys, you are.
[00:26:16] Speaker A: You.
[00:26:17] Speaker C: You always like to say you are celebrity adjacent, right? But the problem with that is you. You rely on us for the celebrity part. And I'm just gonna put this out there. We're the detail duo. Not celebrities.
[00:26:29] Speaker A: Not at all.
But now you are.
[00:26:32] Speaker C: But now you are celebrity adjacent because now you're friends with Susan Lucci. So you're really like.
I mean, you like. Yeah, you just kind of. You just said, bye, DCL duo. Like, you're just not. You're like, D list. And so I'm. I'm jumping up to a list.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: Emmy.
[00:26:50] Speaker C: Emmy winner, I gotta say. We got this text from Tracy while she was sitting at this dinner with this sneaky picture. If Susan's watching. I'm sorry, Susan, But Tracy took a.
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Little picture, and she's like, look who's.
[00:27:04] Speaker C: Sitting across from me. And I was like, oh, my God, that's Susan Lucci.
[00:27:08] Speaker B: See, I'm Hugh Bonneville from Notting Hill meeting. You know, what's her name?
Yeah, yeah.
[00:27:18] Speaker A: Meeting Julia Roberts.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: So what do you do?
[00:27:25] Speaker A: I was surprised, actually. Michael knew who. I figured he wouldn't have a clue, but his mom used to, like, they used to watch so he knew who she was right away, too. But the funny part was, is our guides did not know who she was.
[00:27:37] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:27:38] Speaker A: And so that was kind of, you know, I was like. Because I wanted to ask her for a picture and I wanted to check with. Because I thought that the guides would know if, you know, it was okay or not. Like, maybe she didn't want. And that's fine. Like, if that's cool. And they were like, why are you asking us?
[00:27:52] Speaker B: And I was like, tracy, it's because.
It's because everyone on an Adventures by Disney is a VIP themselves. So there you go. That's. They. They treat you like vip. Like, vip. So that is true.
[00:28:02] Speaker A: You.
[00:28:03] Speaker C: You are. If you are on an abd, you are treated as a VIP pretty much wherever.
Well, let's jump into the actual touring. This is a five day tour, right? So. Oh, Brian, you're going.
[00:28:16] Speaker B: I got it. I got a handle.
[00:28:18] Speaker C: All right. Oh, sorry. Seven days. Okay. A seven day tour. Okay. So we're gonna have to go through things quicker because there's been too much time.
Sorrento and Capri. Tell us about this day.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: So Sorrento. We did a walking tour of Sorrento. We got to see some of the churches, the cathedrals.
We got to hear a lot of stories, mythological stories. They took us to this beautiful garden. I will absolutely butcher this name.
Giardinia. Augusto.
[00:28:48] Speaker C: And that's the next slide, right? Muy bueno.
[00:28:51] Speaker B: Muy bueno. Tracy.
[00:28:53] Speaker C: Brian, I think you need to. Brian, you need to move slides.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:28:56] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:28:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: Okay, Calm down. There we go.
[00:28:59] Speaker A: Yeah. So the garden on the right hand side there. Yeah, that was the garden that we got to walk through.
And we got an additional tour guide, Luciana, and she was fantastic. And she was telling us all sorts of stories about this garden and just the history behind it and all the things. And then we went on a catamaran, and they took us out into the water, and we went backwards into, like, a grotto, like, you know, this cave, which there was a little teeny boat that went in before us, and we were in this big catamaran. And I'm just looking like, there's not a chance that we're. And then he turns it around and we're going in backwards. And I was like this. Like, people had to duck. Like, it was. But it was so cool to me.
[00:29:46] Speaker B: This is the one of the seven wonders of the world. The Blue Grotto. The Blue Grotto, yeah. Yeah.
[00:29:51] Speaker A: And it was so cool, but I was, like, terrified because I'm like, this Boat's not gonna fit.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Like, Sam's hiding from the camera right now because we went to the Blue Grotto when we were down in that area of Italy, and Sam did not get along with the waves and left, you know, some of herself and her lunch in the Blue Grotto.
[00:30:09] Speaker A: So.
[00:30:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yes. Your lovely co host Samantha has upchucked in one of the seven wonders of the world. So there you go.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: That is true.
[00:30:20] Speaker C: That is true. I have.
[00:30:21] Speaker A: I cannot tell swimming there.
[00:30:25] Speaker C: I mean, the fish have eaten it. It was 20 years ago, Tracy.
[00:30:28] Speaker A: Don't worry.
Once we got out of the grotto, then the captain took us to an area that was. We could. He could, like, throw at an anchor, and they're like, you want to get in, Jump in. Like, jump off the boat. And so I would say probably about half of us came prepared for that and did get in the water, and it was delightful. It was warm. It was the saltiest water I've ever been in.
Like, I got out. I literally felt like I could just.
[00:30:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. I notice I still have a pool noodle because I don't float, so.
But I felt like I was brushing the salt off me after I dried off. Like, that's how salty it was.
[00:31:08] Speaker B: It's exfoliation. People pay good money for that in New York, you know, so.
[00:31:11] Speaker C: That's right.
[00:31:12] Speaker A: I know, right? It was an amazing experience. This was one of the things that I was looking forward to very much, was this opportunity, because you know me, I'm not a big risk taker. And I was just like, you know what? I'm going to do this. I don't care how cold it is.
And then we did the second thing that I wanted to do in Italy, which was make pizza.
[00:31:34] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: If the pizzas in Italy are this size, Tracy, now I can understand the no sharing, no leftovers. Like, we can polish up.
[00:31:41] Speaker A: It looks small, Brian, but it's actually the size of a large dinner plate.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: Okay, well, yeah, I can still knock it out.
[00:31:47] Speaker A: It's like a good pizza.
[00:31:49] Speaker C: Yeah. But it's still. The thing is, is that they don't put a lot of toppings on in Italy, and the pizza crust is thin. Like, I could definitely that whole plate of pizza myself, like, easy. I mean, I might leave, like, one small piece over, but not enough to make leftovers worthwhile, probably. So I can see where your tour guides were coming from. Like, I would eat that whole pizza myself. I wouldn't share that one either.
[00:32:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
So this particular farm that they took us to, they make their Own mozzarella. They showed us how to make mozzarella. They showed us how to make ricotta. They showed us how to make limoncello. They talked to us about their olive oil.
You know, how they squeeze the olives and all that stuff. And then we use their ingredients to make our pizza. And we did get to throw pizza in the air. There is video.
I'm not very good, but you know, Michael's very good at that. So.
[00:32:39] Speaker C: I mean, Michael's a cook of the house.
[00:32:41] Speaker A: I know. He really is. And then they popped it in a 700 degree oven and two minutes later our pizza was done.
So this was. And. And they had several different kinds of wine for us there.
[00:32:54] Speaker B: Oh, did we lose Tracy?
Oh, we lost.
I'm not sure what's going on here. I can't hear you either, Sam.
[00:33:08] Speaker C: Oh, sorry, I was on mute. Sorry, I didn't realize I was on mute.
[00:33:11] Speaker B: But all right.
[00:33:11] Speaker C: But no, Tracy is frozen.
Hopefully Michael is watching and. Well, we know Michael is watching because he got back from ball. He was reffing volleyball. That's why Michael wasn't on with us. But hopefully Michael can help Tracy and maybe log out and then log back in.
[00:33:27] Speaker B: Yes, I'm going to take us Back to our 2cam view for a second while we sort out the technical difficulties.
Yes. And we will go from there. But yeah. So, Sam, while we're waiting, how long did Tracy and Michael spend in Paris after? Because I'm going to toss it out to our community that we are wrestling with the decision.
[00:33:52] Speaker C: That's a great idea.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: As to whether we go to Paris after our abd next year. But it feels like a lot to try and put Paris and maybe a stop at Disneyland Paris in the last few days of our own adventures by Disney.
[00:34:04] Speaker C: But yeah, so they did. As she recounted. They did. Basically the first day was just kind of check in and dinner in Paris. So like, let's call that a third of a day. They did one full day touring Paris, but they didn't go into any museums. Ah, here she is.
There we are.
[00:34:23] Speaker A: I don't know what happened.
[00:34:27] Speaker C: So, yeah, so they did one full day touring, but they didn't go inside any museums. And then they did one full day at Disneyland Paris and they did the train there and back that day. They didn't stay at Disneyland Paris. So they did. Let's call it two and a half days or really three days because I guess they left the next day. They had to get to the airport. So yeah, the question for us, for Brian and I, is Is that enough time for us to do Paris and Disneyland Paris? Cause we are debating without Adventures by Disney.
[00:34:59] Speaker B: Let's return to our regularly scheduled programming about Adventures by Disney. But I'm putting out to the fan community is our. What is it? I think we have like five. Five nights that we could pop down to Paris and maybe see Paris and Disneyland Paris. But we're a little nervous. That's a lot to add into the trip. So if you have thoughts, we want to hear them. But Tracy.
[00:35:16] Speaker C: Well, it's funny. Ashley was asking about to hear about our Italy trip from 20 years ago, by the way, so maybe we'll do. I don't remember it that well, but maybe we'll do a separate bonus show.
[00:35:25] Speaker A: On that at some point first, where.
[00:35:27] Speaker B: There's one stop here that Tracy did. Tracy and Michael did that we absolutely fell in love with in Italy. And so we'll get there in a second.
[00:35:33] Speaker A: All right.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: Pizza. You, you, you. You made pizza.
And then next day you're at Positano and Amalfi.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: Correct. So then the next day we were bused up at a harrowing drive up curvy roads, up mountains in a giant bus that there is absolutely no room for.
And stop signs and middle lines are just opinions. They're not law, for sure.
[00:35:57] Speaker B: They're guidelines, not rules.
[00:35:59] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, they're definitely guidelines.
So we went up to Positano. We did a bunch of photo ops up on this beautiful area.
They went. We went to a black beach.
We did a lot of shopping.
The picture of myself and the sandals. And the gentleman there, that's Carmino. And Carmino is a third generation sandal maker. He had a little shop, and Luciana told us that that was the place to go if we wanted to have sandals made.
So I went there and he made you pick out, like, what you. What you want the top to look like, whatever. And then he puts it together, he sizes it to your foot, he tightens it. He's a third generation. His grandfather started the business, and he actually pulled up on his phone a black and white photo from a newspaper of his grandfather sitting in the exact same spot that we were sitting in making sandals for somebody.
[00:36:55] Speaker B: Okay, well, but the real question is, Tracy, were they comfortable?
[00:36:59] Speaker A: Yeah, they're actually very comfortable.
They don't have any arch to them. So I'd warn you about that. If you need, like, arch, I wouldn't wear them for long periods of time walking. I will wear them for pretty.
[00:37:13] Speaker B: Here's a question I want to ask you, Tracy, because You mentioned something about the buses and things like that. So. So land based abd is very different than the adventures by Disney River Cruise that we did in that you get on the ship, you unpack and they kind of move you from place to place and they still bus you around and you get to see sights, but you're coming back to the same place every night.
Was it a pain? Was it annoying to have to kind of pack and repack and move around or how much moving around did you do? You only did one time.
[00:37:39] Speaker A: We only moved one time other than Paris.
[00:37:42] Speaker B: That's great.
[00:37:43] Speaker A: And that was another reason why we chose this one was because we didn't want to have to pack up every night. We felt like that would be a lot.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:37:50] Speaker A: And I feel like that would take away from what, you know, like there's not a ton of free time. You have free time, but you know, some days you're just tired of walking seven miles, you just want to go to bed. And so some of that free time, you know, and I didn't want to, we didn't want to spend it packing. So we only moved one time. We, we were in this spot for three days. Four, three and a half, four days. And then we moved to Florence and we were there for the rest of the trip. So we didn't move again until we went, went to Florence or to Paris after that.
[00:38:18] Speaker B: So kudos to your personal photographer, by the way. Tracy. I saw a lot of great shots. A lot of good use of portrait mode. Michael, way to go.
So yes, these are some great shots. All right, so we're in Pansa Amalfi pastries for lunch. Yes.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: And so talking.
[00:38:34] Speaker C: Wait, can I jump in with one question? Ed is asking a question. Did they have any laundry facilities in the hotels where you could either do self laundry or send out your stuff for laundry?
[00:38:44] Speaker A: There might have been sent out, but I didn't see anything, any papers in the room for that. I did ask somebody at one of the two hotels we were at and they said no, there was no laundry available. So we packed as though. Because we don't do laundry on vacation, Sam. Unlike some people I know and love.
So we packed accordingly to not have to do laundry.
[00:39:06] Speaker B: I'll say this is if you're doing one of these trips. One thing to look at as well is not just the hotel, but there's like apps now for different countries where like in the UK we used an app called Laundry Heap or something like that, I think at one point.
And basically they, you just give them your Laundry. They take it off and do it, fold it and bring it back to the hotel. And so there are. There are some apps out there if you need to do laundry and you're staying put for, I would say, at least two days. Because there was a couple. I did have one experience.
I did have one experience in Ireland where they did this, and they brought back my stuff and I was supposed to be leaving on a flight the next day, and they did not bring back any of my pants. None of my pants were there. I was like, whoa, like, I'm heading home tomorrow, so I need to. You need to find these. But. Yeah, so. But those. Those things do exist. Sorry, Tracy, go ahead.
[00:39:55] Speaker A: That's okay. There was a couple on our. Dennis and Laura, and they had been on a. This was towards the end of a three and a half week trip through Europe. And they went out, they found a laundromat and went out and did laundry. I do remember them saying that now, but it was not in the hotel. They had to take their laundry somewhere.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, sorry. I'm assuming the pastries in Italy were amazing.
[00:40:19] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Actually, we really enjoyed all of the food in Italy more than. Than Paris. Other than the croissant, I would say the croissant I had in Paris was really good, but the food in general we really liked. In Italy and France, we were kind of like, yeah, I mean, it was all right, you know, but this particular place, we had the. After we had like a couple of hours and there really wasn't anything in this area that I wanted to shop for. So we were like, well, let's grab some lunch someplace. And then Sylvia told us about this place to go to to get these pastries and she highly recommend this lemon pastry. So we had pastries, and then I had this cute little hot chocolate over here in a little cup.
And so we sat on the street and we enjoyed this and. And people watched, which is what they do in Europe. Both in France and Italy, it's a lot of sitting and watching and chatting. And a couple from Germany came up. We had two extra seats at our table and they asked if they could sit with us. And we're like, yeah, sure. And they weren't super talkative, but they had a snack and then they moved on. And it was just. It was a. It was really a lovely way to spend, you know, a couple of hours.
[00:41:27] Speaker B: CT wants to know if you manage to find a souffle.
[00:41:30] Speaker A: I wish.
I'm waiting for the destiny. Ct, I'm waiting for the destiny.
[00:41:37] Speaker B: All right. Now we're at Terrazza della Serene.
[00:41:41] Speaker A: So the first night of our abd, the guides gave us a paper, and they said, we are going to book you some reservations, and you have choices.
And so there were several different. I think there were three or four different dates where we could pick from.
Let's say, three ideas, three different places. And so this was one of the places. This was on the Bay of Naples, and we chose it because it was on the bay, and it was, you know, we figured the sun would be setting. We. We got to pick, like, our time, like, to be one of seven, 7:30. Eight, 8:30.
And so we chose this particular restaurant, and it was fantastic. We got to watch the sunset over the bay. And there were two weddings going on next to us. And one of the weddings had fireworks to take pictures with the bride and groom, which was right next to our table. And the fireworks caught on fire and almost caught the bride's dress on fire.
[00:42:44] Speaker C: Oh, my goodness.
[00:42:45] Speaker A: Oh, gosh.
And the funniest part was we were sitting there. We were far enough away that as long as the fire didn't get bigger, we were safe. There was, like, a planter between us, but they're, like, trying to pull her dress away from the fire, but nobody was, like, running over with water to dump it. And they just let. It just burned for, like, a long time. And I was sitting there, like, should I get up and dump my water on it? Like, I don't know what. I don't know what the proper international thing to do here is.
[00:43:15] Speaker B: Well, they don't want to waste the wine, Tracy. So, you know, you got.
[00:43:19] Speaker C: Obviously not.
[00:43:20] Speaker A: Well, you don't want the wine.
[00:43:21] Speaker C: Yeah. So I want to ask a question about that. The. The dinners. And this is more about inclusivity as far as what's included and what's not included.
Our experience from the river cruise is pretty much all of the meals were included, save for maybe, like, one lunch. I remember there was even, like, one lunch that was on your own, but they gave you cash to, you know, spend. How was it with your abd? Because this was. Obviously, they made a reservation for you. They gave you a choice of, like, you know, two or three restaurants.
And so were these meals included? And were most of your meals included or were. L Is sort of. Lunch is sort of the one usually. This question mark, I see you got notes.
[00:44:00] Speaker A: I wrote myself a sticky note because I was like, I need to. I know this is gonna be something Sam's gonna ask. All of our breakfasts were included because it was a Breakfast buffet in each hotel. So all of our breakfasts were included, and two lunches were included and three dinners.
Anything else we did was on our own. So, like, this particular dinner was on our own.
[00:44:20] Speaker B: I will tell you.
[00:44:21] Speaker A: We didn't pay for this.
[00:44:23] Speaker B: I will tell you. Breakfast buffets for breakfast in Italian hotels. Sleeper hits for some amazing food. We had some of the most amazing cheese I've ever had in my life.
[00:44:32] Speaker C: The most amazing, favorite coffee.
[00:44:33] Speaker B: My most amazing cup of coffee ever was. Was from a buffet in an Italian hotel in. I think it might have been Naples, actually.
[00:44:41] Speaker C: I thought it was in Rome.
[00:44:42] Speaker B: I think it was in Naples, but who knows? Anyway, okay.
[00:44:45] Speaker A: Yeah, no, the breakfasts were really good. They had tons of variety.
The first hotel we were at, they had this. They just called it vanilla cake. And it was just this piece of cake. I'm like, for breakfast. And so I got one the first day, and I was like, oh, now I know why we're eating this.
It was delicious.
[00:45:06] Speaker B: All right. And Tracy seems to have sussed out the best gelato in Sorrento.
[00:45:12] Speaker A: Yes. This is the place. It's called Rocky's, even though it looks to me like racky, but it's Rockies, and we went there three times.
It was that good.
[00:45:20] Speaker B: Wait, how long were you there that you managed to go there three times?
[00:45:24] Speaker A: Three days.
[00:45:25] Speaker B: That's fair. We ate the same restaurant in Capri three days in a row, so there you go.
[00:45:29] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. You know, so it was good, right? And the thing. The thing is, somebody mentioned. I think it was on maybe my Facebook. I'm not sure. I had posted a picture like this, and they said, oh, I could eat way more ice cream than that. That's such a tiny little ice cream. Cream. Oh, no, you can't, because it is so rich and creamy. That. That is plenty.
[00:45:49] Speaker C: Yes, I agree. That's the thing people don't realize about gelato. And I mean, it's super rich and super creamy and super flavorful. And so while, I mean, you could eat more than that, that is a small amount, but, like, you don't need a lot.
I feel like you can have, like, one scoop of gelato versus, like, three scoops of ice cream, maybe because it is so rich and creamy. And Del, um, I'm a big sorbet fan that you can eat more of because it doesn't have the creaminess, but.
Yeah, but I'm. I'm jealous. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:46:26] Speaker A: This place was absolutely fantastic. Highly recommend.
[00:46:29] Speaker B: Nice. All right, next up is Pompeii.
[00:46:33] Speaker A: So the night that Morning of Pompeii was the day we had to have our luggage out. We put our luggage out at like 6:45, went to breakfast, and before we got on the train to go to Florence, our luggage was already there. They had taken it, thrown it in a van somewhere and I don't know how it got there, but I thought it would go on the train with us. It did not.
So I am not a history person at all, but this absolutely blew my mind.
Pompeii was massive.
I will tell you. It's a lot of uneven walking.
There is very little shade. That picture shows some shade, but there was very little shade. We did have one person that wasn't feeling great because of the heat. It was very warm that particular day.
But we had another special guest guide who walked us through this area, talk to us about this was a home. And this is how you can tell it was a home. This was a place of business. This was a bath of sorts of.
This is how they got hot water here.
And then we talked a lot about, you know, we took some pictures with Mount Vesuvius behind us and then we talked about like, how far away that actually is and how far the ash had to travel in a big pile to get there and drop on this giant city. And I mean, like, I. I'm not into history at all, but I was absolutely blown away by this particular part of the tour.
It was made, the terrazzo flooring and the tile done in such artsy ways. And the fact that they built this so long ago when they didn't have AI or anything, you know what I mean?
It's just my mind was blown away.
[00:48:22] Speaker C: They didn't have excavators. Right.
It's amazing. And it's amazing to see how much is actually there, like how much they've been able to uncover and how well it was preserved from, of course, the volcano. And so it is really cool to see the. The what they could build with just more, more simple construction tools than what we have today. Right. I think is a. It's a really cool thing. I mean, the ruins in several parts of, of, you know, of Italy are fantastic. Pompeii is, of course, the main attraction. I think for most people if you go to Italy, that's, you know, that is one of those, you know, things you want to see that along with maybe the Colosseum, right? Like two of the. But yeah, the Roman Empire was pretty incredible in there, in their.
[00:49:07] Speaker B: There.
[00:49:07] Speaker A: And it was interesting to me because, you know, we. Because it was an abd we again, like the museums. We didn't spend hours and hours and hours there. So if you want to do like a deep dive, the ABD might not be, you know, good enough if you, you know, you might want to make that a separate day, like afterwards or something. If you really want to do a deep dive or if there's a museum that you just really want to do a deep dive into. And we did, you know, an hour or two in all of these different places, which for me was perfect because it gave me a little taste. And then if there's something else that I really want to, you know, dive into, that's another trip. Oh, darn.
But yeah, so that was. It was. I was fascinated. I didn't think that I would really care that much about Pompeii. Like, I didn't. I. But it was definitely worth the trip for me for that.
[00:50:01] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, tell us about traveling, obviously between these cities because you've got this great photo of Michael sitting, eating lunch.
Yeah, tell us about.
This was a high speed train. So this is not regular train Italia that Brian and I still commiserate about. Yeah.
How was the comfort level of the train?
[00:50:25] Speaker A: It was great. Some people thought it was a little warm in there. I was very comfortable.
The seating was.
There was some forward facing seating and then there was some seating that. Oh, I was like, forward and backwards. So you could put like a group of four together and talk or like Michael and I were together. So that was really nice. There was an area you could open a table up if you wanted to, you know, put a computer on it or you wanted to watch something.
We had box lunches that were provided for us at the train station and took those on with us. It had this really great sandwich with this great bread. It had a chocolate muffin.
Michael, jump in and tell me what else it had. No, it's okay.
[00:51:07] Speaker C: We don't.
[00:51:08] Speaker A: We don't need to. We don't need the details on the box. I don't even know.
[00:51:13] Speaker B: I do want to highlight Europeans. Like, even the train food is. Is good. Like, I had this happen.
[00:51:18] Speaker C: This was a box lunch. This wasn't the train food, Brian. This is what they brought with them.
But it was from a place in.
[00:51:25] Speaker A: The train station that was Italian. It wasn't from Five Guys or Starbucks or McDonald's. But I did think of you guys when we saw the Starbucks.
[00:51:34] Speaker C: Of course. Of course.
[00:51:35] Speaker A: Did I go get a Coke zero at the McDonald's in Italy? Yes, yes, I did.
[00:51:40] Speaker C: And Brian. Sorry, Brian. Michael is mentioning you guys did have business class seats for the train. So you were in probably a nicer car.
I would say if you. If other people said it was warm, it was warm. Cause, Tracy, you are cold.
[00:51:56] Speaker A: I'm always cold. I know you're always cold.
[00:51:58] Speaker C: So I know this about Tracy. She's always cold. So if other people say it was warm, it was warm on the train.
[00:52:04] Speaker A: I mean, nobody was sweating to death, but they were just like, oh, you know, they could have turned the air a little bit, but we were booking like 300 km an hour. Like that thing was moving.
[00:52:13] Speaker C: Yeah. So tell us about this, this cool looking hotel you guys were at.
[00:52:18] Speaker A: So this was the hotel we stayed at in Florence. I don't know how to pronounce it. So I'm just. That's why I typed it in there.
And that tower we're not.
Okay, I'll go with that.
The tower actually was like, you know, part of the hotel.
So Michael actually thinks that our room was in the backside of that. We couldn't really tell from our window. But again, another, like, old building that you would think like, oh, this is going to be not great. Our room was giant. We had king size beds everywhere. The bathroom was big.
Every bathroom had a heated towel rack. Every bathroom had a bidet. I mean, there was so much that was just. It was just beautiful. And then the second picture on that slide is actually the basement of this hotel. And it was actually in the old days used as a woman's jail.
[00:53:14] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:53:14] Speaker A: Just saying. Yeah.
[00:53:16] Speaker C: Wow.
[00:53:16] Speaker A: So what that picture of right there is like a. Is like a bathtub or like the bathroom bath, Roman bath kind of a thing.
[00:53:23] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:53:23] Speaker A: But there was an area where they had pieces of pottery that they had excavated from this site. And then they had like the areas and they were like, yeah, this, this was the part that was like a woman's jail. And we're like, good deal like that. So we toured that and then we had a welcome dinner there that night as well. So that was another one of the dinners that was included.
[00:53:47] Speaker C: Nice.
And so that was that part. That day. Was it mostly a travel day or were there. I mean, obviously you. A little bit of touring of the hotel, of this, you know, the. This.
[00:53:58] Speaker A: Well, and then Pompeii was in the morning.
[00:54:01] Speaker C: Oh, Pompeii went to Pompeii.
[00:54:03] Speaker A: Yeah, Pompeii was the same day. So the train trip was about. I think it was about three hours.
[00:54:08] Speaker C: Okay, that makes sense.
[00:54:09] Speaker A: I remember.
[00:54:10] Speaker C: Right.
[00:54:10] Speaker A: So we did Pompeii in the morning. Then we went to the Train station.
Then we had the three hours, Then we got to the hotel, and everybody got their luggage and got situated, and then we had the welcome dinner, had a tour of the hotel. And that was that first day.
[00:54:24] Speaker C: Perfect. All right, so the next day, you've got a walking tour of Florence. Tell us about that. Had you been to Florence ever before?
[00:54:33] Speaker A: We'd never been to Italy.
[00:54:35] Speaker C: Oh, gosh, I didn't even realize that. Yeah. So this is your really, your first.
[00:54:39] Speaker A: Your first.
[00:54:40] Speaker C: Well, not just your first adventure. I was gonna say your first adventure, but your first adventure in Italy. But not just Adventures by Disney Adventure.
[00:54:46] Speaker A: Yeah, really. Our first adventure in Europe because other than Michael was in the Netherlands this year. But prior to that, the only places we were were airports in Europe because of our kids being adopted from Belarus.
[00:55:00] Speaker C: Oh, my gosh.
[00:55:01] Speaker A: I've been in the German airport. I've been in the Poland airport. I've been in the.
Let's see, Germany. Oh, England at Hethrow Heathrow.
But I'd never been anywhere outside of an airport. So, yeah, this was our first European adventure for sure.
[00:55:18] Speaker C: Wow, Tracy, I didn't realize that you really hadn't spent time in Europe other than adopting, other than Belarus and Poland.
[00:55:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:25] Speaker C: So, yeah.
[00:55:26] Speaker A: Yeah. So we did a lovely walking tour. We got to see a ton of beautiful buildings, lots of his history.
We did the Palazzo Vecchio, which is behind us in that picture there.
And the nice thing was the ABD guides knew all the great places to take pictures, and they took pictures. Now, we have not gotten our pictures yet.
We got our video today. The slideshow at the end, we got that today, but we haven't gotten the actual photographs. But they were so good at, hey, we're all going to do a picture here. Like, every, you know, and they got every couple and every group, and, you know, there was a couple mom and daughters that were traveling together, and so they were, you know, getting pictures together. And so if I didn't want to worry about the photographs, I didn't have to, which was awesome.
[00:56:18] Speaker C: That is one of the really nice things about Adventures by Disney that they. Your. Your guides, they will take pictures as you're going, and they're. Then after the trip is over, they will upload. It does sometimes take a little bit of time because they've got to upload everything onto, like, a website, and they give you the link for that, and then everybody can download all the pictures. And really, it's like we're talking probably thousand pictures or more because they're taking pictures of everyone. And so you'll be able to get all of those pictures after the fact. So if there's something that you didn't capture yourself with your own phone, chances are they have. They captured it. Not just like you, but even the sites. Right. Like the David in that. In the.
You know, in the Palazzo in Florence.
[00:57:04] Speaker B: I need to know, Tracy. I need to know how that. How that lasagna. That lasagna looks like. I just want to. I want to rip this lasagna off of the computer screen and eat it. It looks amazing.
[00:57:15] Speaker A: It was. And compared to. I'm not even that big of a lasagna fan. Like, I've never had the lasagna palo because I always get the chicken parm. Brian, that you would have. You would have asked for more. It was that good.
[00:57:26] Speaker B: Doesn't look like it has bechamel, though.
[00:57:27] Speaker A: Delicious.
[00:57:28] Speaker B: It doesn't look like it has bechamel. I don't know.
[00:57:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it was so good. It was so good. And this was a place where we all went to eat lunch together.
But I'm 99% sure we paid for this one. I don't think this one was included.
Michael could jump in and tell me for sure, but I'm pretty sure this was one we had to pay for. Like. Like, you know, and. And so. But we were all in the same room. They brought us the bread. Hot bread. You know, it was. It was so good when you.
[00:57:58] Speaker B: Yeah, so big, big question here. You're in Italy, so, you know, wine's a big part of the vacation. I noticed lots of wine in the photos. Like, was the. Was there wine included with your meals as you went through as well, or did you have to pay for that stuff?
[00:58:09] Speaker A: The places that the meal was included, yes.
So, like, the different places that, like, when we. When we get to the farm pictures, there was, like, a wine tasting. So that was all, like, included.
This particular. What was. I. I just had a thought about the. Yeah, the lasagna was amazing. Oh, this was the place that. This was one of the places where they gave us a choice of what to order at this restaurant. And they said, order lasagna. And then the second choice was you could order this, but we really highly recommend you order the lasagna. And then the third choice was just order the lasagna. And so I think everybody but two people ordered the lasagna, and there was not a complaint. It was that good. So, yeah, it was. For this particular one, I think we did have to pay for the lasagna. Oh, lunch was included. Any drinks needed to pay for separately. Okay, that must have been an included one then.
[00:58:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Michael has come into the chat and clarified that point, so. Yeah. And also echoed that the lasagna was amazing. So. Yes.
[00:59:05] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:59:06] Speaker A: Well. And.
[00:59:06] Speaker C: And as Tracy alluded to earlier, all of the breakfasts were included, but about half of the dinners and a couple of the lunches were included. So this is a mix of, you know, meals included and meals not included.
So not, as I will say, your excursions, which is all the tours. That's. That's all part of the ABD price. Of course, that's the main thing that you're paying for is, of course, all of your.
All of the things that you're being taken to do. It's a little bit different than the river cruise, because the river cruise, obviously all the meals on the ship are included, and it's only whether or not meals off the ship are included. And so that's one of the differences between a land based and a and a river cruise based abd. Okay. Leather free time at the leather school. This is where you got a special purse with your initials. Is that right, Tracy?
[00:59:55] Speaker A: That is right. So this is a special school where they teach younger people the art of the making of the leather purses and leather wallets and passport holders.
It was a little bit difficult to find. And but once we got there, we went up. It's a small area. It's up in a. You go up like some stairs.
But we got to watch a lady working on a strap app.
And then they had all these purses out so you could like pick and choose it, what color, what style, picked a purse. And then they have people that actually will heat up this metal thing with your three initials in it and emboss the. The purse for you. So I got my purse embossed. I was very excited. That was also on my Italy bucket list. So leather sandals, check. Pizza, check. Wine, check. Leather purse, check. I'm good.
[01:00:44] Speaker C: Yes. They basically branding. They're basically branding your initials into. Into the leather. Now this is such a cool thing. You sent us some photos of this ahead of time or I think while you were there. Tell us how. How does one get wine out of a wine window in Tuscany?
[01:01:01] Speaker A: Well, so the story behind it is back in the plague days that they put these windows in to be able to put things in and out of their homes without having to step out of their home homes. Now these places are, you know, bars and restaurants, and then during COVID they kind of reawakened.
And so basically this Particular little archway has a wooden door on it. And so I walk up and there's a video on our Instagram if you want to watch it, where you ring the bell and then somebody from the inside opens the little wooden door and you tell them what you want and they get it for you and you pay for it and they hand you the one wine. This particular place.
He actually saw that we were filming and he said, do you want me to take a picture of you from inside? And I was like, absolutely. So I handed him my phone and he took a ton of pictures and videos of like going up close and backing up. It was. He was so sweet. And so that was also a bucket list kind of thing. Like, I needed to find a wine window. So it was so fun to try it and to see other people do it as well.
[01:02:05] Speaker B: I gotta tell you a secret cam that may beat ringing the bell at Club 33 for me. If you can just ring a little thing and then wine comes out. That's.
[01:02:13] Speaker C: And wine appears.
[01:02:14] Speaker A: Amazing.
[01:02:15] Speaker B: Amazing.
All right, this looks like Tuscan. A Tuscan steak here. It looks like perhaps.
[01:02:21] Speaker A: Yes. So we. This was another time where we actually had seen this restaurant. And then we asked our guides if they would make us a reservation.
So this is a Trattoria dal Osti Oste. I don't know how to say it.
Anyway, what I will say is if you're trying to eat high protein, Italy is not the place to go. Protein is difficult to come by. And so we had walked past this place and we asked our guide about it, and she was like, oh, yeah, it's a great place. And I'm like, oh. And in the window, they had steaks that were, you know, 2, 3 inches thick in the window. And so we were like, yeah, that's where we want to go. So this is a steak Florentine.
They brought it pre cut and on a sizzling plate. I actually have video of it sizzling on our table.
And it was probably one of the best, if not the best steak I've ever had.
[01:03:20] Speaker C: Yeah, it looks amazing.
The one exception to the protein thing in Italy is actually Florence, because Florence is actually is. Florence is not known for pizza and pasta. Florence is not.
[01:03:32] Speaker A: We didn't see many pizza places.
[01:03:34] Speaker C: Yeah, well, because Naples obviously is the home of pizza. So you spent, you know, time in places in, you know, places that have both. But yes, not all. Not all of Italy, but Florence is definitely known for steak. You can find steak at almost any restaurant in Florence. But yeah, it's not the same as finding, like, I don't know, grilled chicken and things like that.
[01:03:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:03:53] Speaker B: We also learned on our. From our Palo server that, you know, the interior coast is known for lots of great seafood, so you can get a little protein there too. Yeah.
[01:04:03] Speaker A: If you like seafood, that's great.
[01:04:06] Speaker B: All right.
Siena. Siena, Italy.
[01:04:10] Speaker A: Siena. This was a walking journey. I don't know if you could really tell from that picture, but everything in Siena was uphill or downhill, depending on which direction you were going.
But it was a great story. So Siena is a place that. That they have, like, little towns. They call them contradas.
And each contrada can put a horse into this horse race called Let me find the. Let me find the right name for it so I don't mess it up.
Palio de Siena.
And they. There's 17 contradas. They can take 10 horses. And then they take the. Like. Basically, it's. I would call it a square, except it's circular, like their city square. And they put a bunch of, like, clay and dirt in it. And then they run this horse race, and they go around, like, three times. And whichever horse crosses the finish line first, with or without a jockey on it, the jockey's ditched, it doesn't matter, as long as the horse gets there first, they win. And then their contrada gets to put the flags up. So if you see in that one picture, there's, like, a flag from the side of the building.
Each contrata is like an animal. So there's like, you know, the she wolf contrata, and there's the dragon contrata, and there's the ram contrata. And so then if your horse wins this horse race that happens every year, then you get to put your flag out on your. In your contrata for a whole year. So it was a fascinating story and it was fun to hear about. You know, we got to see, like, how far back it dated and see, like, they get a special painting done when they win it that goes into this museum. And it was. So that was a really fun one, but it was a lot of hills, a lot of climb on that place. So you saw, obviously, the chapel there, too. So. And then that day we went to. We got on a bus and we went to Tuscany, me to Sarah's farm, which is where we did the wine tasting. And this was another farm, similar to the one we went to in Naples, where they make their own olive oil, they make their own balsamic vinegar. They make their own. You know, all of the wine was theirs.
And so we were sitting outdoors under umbrellas these big, beautiful picnic tables. And then we got, you know, an antipasta plate and then a salad and then multiple pastas. The ravioli was ridiculous, and I don't generally eat ravioli, but it was so good.
We got four different kinds of wine.
They talked to us about how they, you know, run their farm and things like that. She actually has a cookbook and then. So they had cookbooks that they. You could buy there as well. But the scenery is obviously, it gives you that real Tuscan countryside feel. And that's what we were sitting out and looking at the whole time we were eating.
[01:07:14] Speaker C: Yeah, I feel like this would be. That's like a classic view. You looking over at the vineyards is like, that's what you sort of picture when you think of, I want to go to Tuscany. Right. Well, here's another amazing city in Tuscany that you got to go to. Luca. Brian and I have a special affinity for Luca because we got to go 20 years ago when we toured around Italy and we spent just a single day at Lucca. But we got taken around by. By a gentleman who's actually from Lucca, who was a friend of Brian's dad and who took us to this amazing wine store, took us to a bakery, walked us around the city a little bit, and we sat on this very wall. So that Lucca is the city as a walled in city. And you can bike ride or walk or at the top of the wall and sort of look around, look over the little city in the middle. Middle. It's also known as, Michael put in the chat, the city of a hundred churches, because there's like tons of little, little tiny churches all throughout the city. What did you guys think of Luca? I. I just can't say enough about it because I just love it so much.
[01:08:20] Speaker A: It was so beautiful. And honestly, I couldn't wrap my head around how we were going to ride a bike on top of a wall, you know, because to me, I was thinking, you know, a wall. And then they told us about how somebody was coming to conquer all the cities in Italy. And Luca kept adding to their wall and made it bigger and bigger so they couldn't be conquered. So they're the only walled city left.
And so it. I don't know how. I can't tell you how wide it was, but it was wide enough for cars to drive through if they, you know, if they would allow it. We ended up. It's a two and a half mile loop.
So we biked and we did it twice. So we got our five Miles in that day, on top of all the walking.
But it was absolutely beautiful, like, just the area and the buildings. And it was funny. Our tour guide from that area said we are known as the city of 100 churches.
They showed us, like, one church. This is number one. Only 99 to go.
[01:09:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
I remember from Luca that one of the stories is it's known for its iconic. There's an iconic tower in town that has a tree growing on top of it. And the story. Story went, the towers were the signs of your wealth. And so the higher your tower, the more money you had. And they couldn't build higher than, obviously, the. The one of the churches, like, main church in town.
And so that landowner, being upset, planted a tree on top of his tower and allowed it to grow higher than the church.
[01:09:50] Speaker A: I feel like we heard that story, too.
[01:09:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, It's. It's a. It's kind of a famous story in Luca. Yeah. All right, so you had pizza by the kilogram. Tracy, I'm going to move us along here a little bit. You had pizza? Yeah, that's okay.
[01:10:02] Speaker A: Go ahead. I just. I just thought that. Funny you could buy pizza by the kilogram.
[01:10:05] Speaker B: The obligatory leading tower of pizza.
The. The obligatory leading tower pizza photo.
[01:10:10] Speaker A: Meaning.
Yes. So that was the next. That was the next day.
No, that was the same day as Luke. I'm sorry. Same day as Luca.
Yeah. They took us there, and fortunately, we had tickets for, like, a little train to take us actually to this area, because it's quite a walk from where the buses drop you off and where the actual tower is. And then they took us through the baptistry, and this was the place that we had to make sure we wore pants and wore something over our shoulders, because we did go into the cathedral there and spent some time in the cathedral, and this was the only place that we had to do that. There was another cathedral earlier in Naples that we went in, and when I asked, they were like, oh, no, you don't have to worry about that here. But this particular one in Pisa we did. And then, of course, they took us over to. Told us the story about the leaning tower, how they try and fix it every so many years, you know, to keep it from continuing because it continues to lean. And then they have to, like, kind of put it back up a little ways. And then, of course, they sat on the ground and took pictures of us all holding, you know, and some of our. Our adventure adventurers with us did some really funny stuff with this. It was the. The pictures are going to Be so good when we get them because they did some fun. Like, one couple, like, he held her up on his knees. Like he was kind of squatting, and she was, like, standing up on him, trying to push it over. And there were just some really cute ones that people. One guy was leaning up against his wife. She was holding it up, and he was, like, trying. He was, like, texting, like, he wasn't, like, no care in the world, you know. So there were some good ones.
And then our farewell dinner was within walking distance of our hotel, and it was. Was Napoleon's sister's palace in Florence. Oh, cool. And it was. It was one of the coolest rooms I've ever seen there. I feel like there was something about seven mirrors. There's these giant mirrors everywhere. Everything was gold and the chandeliers and the dinner was really good. And then they had some entertainment come in, and they sang some Italian songs, and they did some fun things with. With.
With some of the adventurers.
And so that was kind of, you know, the end of our trip that after that was all finished, they took us into a different room and we watched our slideshow with all of the pictures that, you know, they had taken. Not all of them, but the pictures that they take. And they put a slideshow together.
And so that was our last night. And then the next day, everybody went their. Their magical witch ways.
[01:12:45] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, one of the lovely things about when you finish your adventure on Adventures by Disney is they have already arranged your transportation to wherever you're going, right? So, like, I. I mean, ground transportation, right. They're not. They're not paying for your flight, but they will arrange your transportation from the hotel.
[01:13:02] Speaker B: They will, if you ask them to and you pay them well.
[01:13:04] Speaker C: But they'll. If you book, you booked your flight to Paris, right? You had that ready to go. But they arrange your transportation on that leg from your hotel to. To Paris, unless you're staying in wherever, you know, city that you're staying in, and then they'll arrange it later. But it's. It's really nice benefit. Tracy, I'm curious, like, what's something you wish you knew about Adventurous by Disney, maybe before going that, you know now? Maybe.
[01:13:35] Speaker A: I guess the two things that I would say is don't stress about it because Disney's got you, like, everything. Like, we go into a museum and then Sylvia would be there handing out tickets, or David made sure that anybody who was maybe not as. As fast as the rest of us was staying with the group and, you know, walked behind them so they've got you, like, if you want to experience something like this where, like, for me to plan this ourselves would have been so much more work. Poor Chelsea would have been exhausted.
And so it was so nice to just go. And I didn't have to think about any of it. It was taken care of. Here's your ticket for the train. Here's your ticket for the museum. Here's where we're going to dinner. Here's a place that we can get you a reservation. They took care of everything.
And I think the other thing to know is when they say it's an adventure by Disney, it's an adventure.
I mean, we did, you know, swam in the Mediterranean Sea, biked on the wall in Lucca. It's not a sit down, lay by the pool kind of trip. It's very active. And we had some people who had some mobility issues that were on the trip with us, and they did great. But there were. There's definitely, like, some uneven surfaces. You know, we did a lot of walking. And so. So for somebody who maybe can't do a lot of, like, we did not see a wheelchair anywhere in any of the cities. So, like, you know, when you go to Disney World and you see people with mobility scooters or people pushing in wheelchairs, like, we didn't. And not just in our group, I mean, anywhere on the streets, we just didn't see it.
So, you know, take into account your audience. Take into account who's going with you, and can they walk these distances and can they, you know, handle the. The amount of time? Because there was some bus time, there was some train time, you know, which was downtime. And there were. There were pictures of certain people napping on the train. I won't mention any names, but it wasn't me.
So just, you know, know your audience, know who's going on the trip with you, but. But understand, it's not. But if you're a Disney cruise person who is used to the relaxing and the sitting by the pool or sitting on the beach, it's not that kind of vacation. And as long as you go into it knowing that, which it helped me to know, like when you guys talked about your riverboat trip, you know, that that was the same kind of a thing. Like, you get up every morning and you're getting off the boat and you're doing your thing, it helped me to know that ahead of time because it helped me prepare. I think if I had not been prepared for that, that it could have been a very different vacation. For me, but I had that prepared, you know, so I was able to kind of get my. Wrap my head around this is not going to be me sitting by the pool all day kind of a thing.
[01:16:33] Speaker B: So there. There are two questions in the chat I want to pose, and I have one last question before we wrap up for the evening. In the chat, Ed. Ed has asked two questions. One is, what was one site you wish you spent a little more time at and want a little less time at? And then also, were there any places that you visited with ABD where you felt like you were getting what I'll call special access or someplace that you only.
[01:16:54] Speaker C: Premium access?
[01:16:55] Speaker B: Premium access. You felt you had access only because abd, as opposed to planning a trip by yourself, is the question.
[01:17:02] Speaker A: We definitely got into the museums and stuff. We didn't have to wait in line.
So when we went to a museum, there was like a special. Like, our guide walked up and said, hey, this is my people. And, you know, go all the way back to the podcast Power, the Paddle of Power. And then we walked in.
So we definitely had that in multiple museums.
I think at Pisa as well. We kind of made our, you know, we made our way to that little train and got on all together where there were other people waiting. So those kinds of things were definitely, you know, taking over a room in a restaurant that was bustling. Otherwise, we had a whole room. So that was those kinds of things.
Places that I would have liked more.
[01:17:44] Speaker B: Time or less, or places you felt like they just spent a little too much less.
[01:17:47] Speaker A: Yeah, honestly, gosh, that's a hard question. I feel like every place we went, we were either doing something like we were in a museum, but we weren't there too long. Like, I'm like, again, I said, I'm not a history person, I'm not a museum person.
[01:18:05] Speaker C: And.
[01:18:06] Speaker A: And so they hit just the right amount of, like, this is the Statue of David. Okay, I know what that is. So I can, like, I can compute this. This is a painting, you know, that Michelangelo did, you know, his very first painting, you know, kind of a thing.
I wasn't overwhelmed by the history and, like, not caring about, you know, they're talking about all this stuff that I don't understand. I don't know what it is.
I feel like they did that very well. Again, if you're somebody who's really into that, you're going to want to go back and spend more time. So. But for me, it was kind of the right amount, really. And the only thing I guess I would say is the first hotel we had had a pool on the rooftop and I would have liked to have had a little time by the pool.
That's really, I mean, really about it, honestly.
I think everything else was, you know, we had a break in the bus so we were sitting for a little bit before we walked another three miles or we had a break on the train for a couple of hours so you could chill and you know, edit photos or videos or whatever.
So overall I would say for me personally, everything was, it was just right. It was just right.
[01:19:20] Speaker B: So I have, I have one last question to ask before Sam takes us out for the evening. And that is just Adventures by Disney, not an inexpensive vacation. Did you find value in Adventures by Disney? Would you do another land based ABD in the future?
[01:19:38] Speaker A: I would and I think there was a slide on that. But I know we're running late, so we definitely would. And I would use it for places that I wouldn't feel comfortable making plans again.
Like I wouldn't probably. I know there's an ABD like out in California that would get you into like Walt Disney Studios and all that of kind kind of stuff. I don't know that I would use it for that, for the price because I don't like. That's something I feel more comfortable that I might be able to do on my own.
But places like Italy or France or Switzerland, places like Asia, like I would 100% if you know, we wanted to go to Asia and do like Tokyo Disney or you know, any of those kinds of places, I would do an ABD because I would feel, I felt so safe.
And that to me is a value for sure, you know. And the guides were so good, all of them. David and Sylvia were fantastic. Like, Sylvia's like my new sister, my little sister.
She's, she's such a sweetheart and she taught me andiamo, which is let's go, let's go.
[01:20:45] Speaker C: I have to say they do such a good job at interviewing and selecting just the right personalities for these adventure guides positions.
Know like where they find them, but they're all just gems, right? Like I know you, you loved your two guides. We loved our five guides on our river cruise. We love Rebecca, who was, you know, a former DCL cast member and is now an adventure guide. So like they're, they just do such a great job. Well, we've got to wrap up the show so we'll say thank you of course to Tracy for joining us today. We'll say thank you to Chelsea from my path unwinding travel for also joining us at the top of the show show.
We so appreciate both of you coming on to chat with us about this amazing trip to Italy and we will be back next week. We will be talking about Disney Cruise Line. Don't worry, we ventured out of Disney Cruise Line for the evening to talk about adventures by Disney because we love to cover that. We think it's, you know, Disney Cruise Line adjacent.
But we're going to be staying over in Europe and we're going to be talking to Leticia who is Mousemamas on Instagram. She does a ton of posting all over the socials about mostly Walt Disney World tips and tricks, but this was her first Disney cruise. It was supposed to be a British Isles cruise, but it actually turned into a Norway and Belgium cruise. So find out next week on what happens when you think you're going to the British Isles but instead you end up going to Norway and Belgium. So we'll hear from leticia about her first Disney Cruise Cruise. Next week's show will be back 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern, our regular time on Monday. Of course we'll have recorded shows coming out in the meantime. But thank you all for watching live. Thank you all for watching and listening after on the recorded show. Don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube and don't forget to be following us on all the socials and give us those five stars on Apple Podcasts if you haven't already.
And with that I will just say thank you and good night to everyone out there and a big thank you.
[01:22:54] Speaker B: To Tracy for spending some time with us this evening.
[01:22:57] Speaker A: Thanks guys.
[01:23:03] Speaker D: Well thanks everyone out there for listening this week. We really, really appreciate it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast. You can keep getting great content from us every week. In fact twice a week we publish shows. So be sure to hit the subscribe button to get all of those great episodes. And if you want to watch us alive, we have a live show show now every week Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple Podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsor, My Path Unwinding Travel. You want to book your next Disney video 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 magazine 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 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
[email protected] or reach out to us on our voicemail line at 402-413-5555.
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 the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney directly or your own travel agent. Thanks again for listening listening and we'll see you next time for another fabulous adventure with the DCL Duo.
