October 10, 2025

01:03:25

Ep. 581 - Live Bonus Show - Disney Fantasy Rerouted! Leticia’s Unexpected Voyage to Norway

Hosted by

Brian Sam
Ep. 581 - Live Bonus Show - Disney Fantasy Rerouted! Leticia’s Unexpected Voyage to Norway
DCL Duo Podcast: A Disney Cruise Line Fan Podcast
Ep. 581 - Live Bonus Show - Disney Fantasy Rerouted! Leticia’s Unexpected Voyage to Norway

Oct 10 2025 | 01:03:25

/

Show Notes

What happens when Mother Nature changes your Disney Cruise Line itinerary? Our guest Leticia joins us to share how her Disney Magic British Isles sailing turned into an unforgettable trip to Norway after weather forced DCL to reroute.

We dive into how Disney Cruise Line handles itinerary changes, what guests can expect when their plans shift, and what made the Norwegian fjords a surprisingly magical destination.

Listen now and join the conversation!

You can connect with Leticia on Instagram: @MouseMommas

Book Your Next Disney Cruise Line Vacation:

Head over to our show sponsor My Path Unwinding Travel

 

DCL Magazine – Your Ultimate Guide to Disney Cruise Line Tips & Tricks!

Join the waitlist for DCL Magazine and use promo code DCLDUO for 10% off at the WDW Magazine store.

 

Stay Connected with the DCL Duo

Website | Instagram | Facebook | Facebook Group

 

We’re listed alongside some other great Disney podcasts at:

Top 100 Disney Podcasts | Top 20 Cruise Podcasts | Top 30 Disney Cruise Line Podcasts

 

The views expressed in this podcast are our own and do not reflect the views of the Walt Disney Company, Disney Cruise Line or any other travel provider discussed or mentioned.

View Full Transcript

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: I just picture that little girl who had her merited dress and her wig and she did the port adventure in Scotland and she goes to Edinburgh Castle. And, you know, I just picture all these people just being so ready for this cruise and not getting spoiled. [00:00:26] Speaker B: 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 good friends over at WWDW magazine, the DCL magazine. If you have not gotten your flow test issue, they were close to selling out. But I think there's another one, another edition coming. So head over to wdw-magazine.com today to sign up for all of their great magazines. You get digital subscriptions to WDW Magazine, DLR Magazine, the special edition of a DCL magazine that hopefully will have a repeat here in the near future. There are calendars, all that great stuff. If you want 10% off of anything in their store, just use code DCLDUO. That's code DCLDUO, all caps. Thank you to the great folks over at WDW magazine for helping to sponsor our live and bonus shows. And I'll put their information to scroll along the bottom of the screen. But, Sam, do you want to introduce our guest? [00:01:20] Speaker C: Yes. I'm super excited. This gal I've been following on the gram for a while, she's a Disneyland girl, so of course she's one of us, Brian. And so I'm super excited to welco. Welcome to the show, Leticia. [00:01:38] Speaker A: Hi, everyone. [00:01:40] Speaker C: We are super excited to have you. Before we get started with, of course, our show today, which is to talk about your fabulous British Isles, I mean, Norway cruise, we've got to talk some news. And I'm glad you could join us for this segment because there's some, I think, pretty interesting pieces of news that came out this last week. Two kind of major pieces of news. The first one is there's another promo that Disney slyly introduced this week that I think most people aren't aware of. In fact, we would not have been aware of this if not for the folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel letting us know about this because it was something that was emailed to people who have sailed at Disney Cruise Line one time but have not booked a second sailing. So either they booked a placeholder and that placeholder expired or they never booked a placeholder. They were basically given an email opportunity to have a placeholder. So to get 10% off of a future sailing, there are some restrictions around it. I think it was for gty rooms and so. But it's another promotion. I feel like it's been the last three weeks we've had. Every week there's been a promotion that's come out. Leticia, have you been able to take advantage of any of these promotions? Not the first time or one, because you're a. A 19 cruise girl ultra Platinum. But have you been able to take advantage of any of these offers lately? [00:03:15] Speaker A: I have not, but they've been really, really tempting. I've done three. This will be no in December will be my third cruise this year, so I think I'm good for this year. I know a lot of the specials are for the end of this year, but yeah, they're definitely on my radar. [00:03:27] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Well, the other big piece of news is, of course, Destiny news. And we think that the Destiny news will continue to flow over the next month leading up until the first previews. Brian and I will be on the first media slash. TA preview has not shown up in the app yet. [00:03:47] Speaker B: I'm not. I'm not banking on anything until it shows up in my app. [00:03:50] Speaker C: So it hasn't showed up in the app. That's fair. But it's supposed to be November 10th, so barring any unforeseen changes, November 10th will. Will be on. We'll be boarding the Destiny. But there was a new. So I expected, you know, we're a month and four or no, a month and five days out because October has 31. And so they're starting to roll out more and more information. And the new information this week was about Ziya. Well, it was not just about Ziya and Gamble, but it was a bit about what new shows and entertainment are going to be on the Disney Destiny. So they were talking about in the grand hall, there's going to be a new musical celebration called the Sounds of Wakanda. It's going to be traveling percussionists going throughout the grand hall telling or inspired by the stories, legends and culture of Wakanda. So it sounds like an African style drum band, which sounds awesome. And then they also announced that Zaya and Gamble are going to be the storytellers. So for those who have been on the Wish or on the Treasure, there are storytellers on those two ships and of course, my favorite sage and coriander on the Treasure. These are going to be different storytellers, Zaya and Gamble. Zaya is going to be a fortune teller who will make predictions and weave tales with the help of a mysterious book. [00:05:07] Speaker B: I pretend she will book another Disney. [00:05:10] Speaker C: Cruise and Gamble will Conjure adventures with his collection of mystifying potions and elixirs. And they both are going to have an enchanted trunk that reacts to the power, energy and magic of classic Disney villains. So they're probably going to be doing some storytelling about villains. But I think the most incredible thing that was announced is this a new show that's going to take place in Saga. Saga is the same as Luna and Sarabi, and it is called With Great Power, a Marvel Comedy Show. And so that is going to be an exclusively adult show and it's going to be some kind of telling of Marvel. I think it's going to be. And you guys tell me what if you agree with my prediction. I think it's going to be. Ziya and Gamble are going to be telling the story of Iron man through Endgame in like an hour. And it's going to be like a hilarious. It's going to be playing all the characters. [00:06:06] Speaker B: It's going to be like the Indiana Jones choose your choose wisely. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure. And it's going to be great. [00:06:11] Speaker A: I'm here for it. [00:06:12] Speaker C: Yeah. Totally excited for this. This is going to be like. I feel like it's going to be hilarious if they have. I'm sure they're going to get two great performers to be the Storytellers. I mean, I still wish. I'm going to give a shout out to DeCarlo Raspberry, who is amazing on the Treasure. He is now in Japan singing in Disney in concert in Japan. And so he's definitely not going to be on the Destiny. But if he was one of the storytellers on the Destiny, I would just be dying. But I'm sure they're going to have two fabulous storytellers. I'm super excited. Leticia, I know you're going to be on the Destiny in December. What are you looking forward to the most for your sailing? [00:06:55] Speaker A: Oh, gosh. Just like the Treasure was so different than the others, I think this one is going to be even more different, just by the looks of everything. I'm really excited for the Lion King dinner show. I love a dinner show. I think that's going to be amazing and just. It's just going to have a different feel. So I'm so excited. I'll follow along with you guys. Hope you guys post a lot. I can't wait to see it all. [00:07:19] Speaker C: Yes, we're going to be posting a lot for sure. So if you want spoilers, you want to follow us on our DC L Underscore duo Instagram account. That's going to be where we're going to be posting the most while we're on the ship. [00:07:32] Speaker B: Non stop stories from Samantha. Non stop stories. [00:07:36] Speaker C: If you don't want spoilers, then just don't log into Instagram because we're not going to be the only ones on board. There's going to be a ton of other media and travel agents on board, and so you're going to see a lot. And of course, our shows, our live shows in November, once we're off the ship, are going to be Destiny related, of course, Hercules. [00:07:59] Speaker A: I can't wait to see Hercules show. Yeah. [00:08:02] Speaker B: If you want your food. [00:08:03] Speaker A: My outfit. [00:08:04] Speaker B: If you want your food hot. If you want your food hot. Main dining, don't sit anywhere near Samantha because she's going to take 500 photos of it. [00:08:12] Speaker C: The camera eats first. That's what we say. [00:08:14] Speaker A: All right, I got my husband's well trained. [00:08:17] Speaker C: Yes. I love it. I love it. [00:08:19] Speaker B: I gotta move us over to this view because. So Lindsey's saying so many promos to go back to the first news story. And unfortunately, Tracy has asked if I have any prognostications around so many promos. Well, I think just two quick thoughts for me. One is, look, I think the promos, the dates have aligned mostly to the sailings that they put out on the other promos, from what I could tell. And so I think that those ships were just not full. And so they're trying to sell more rooms. I don't know that it means much beyond that at this point, but it will be interesting to track how many of these promos we continue to see as they put more and more ships into the fleet. It's a lot of capacity to be introducing here with the Destiny coming online, the adventure coming online in March, and then a whole slew of ships following in 2027 and beyond. So it could forebode that Disney may need to, or maybe hitting somewhat of a pricing wall for some of these sailings in these ships. I don't know that I would say that just yet, but certainly it's more promos than we're used to seeing. I was also talking to somebody this week about how tech companies hired lots of people during the pandemic to staff all of this great technology that everybody was using because they were all working from home. And then when everybody started going back to the office, suddenly they didn't need as many people. And so, you know, I wonder if there was a lot of quote unquote, revenge travel at the end of the pandemic people had a lot of money, they'd saved up, they spent a lot of money on travel because they'd been cooped up and with, you know, with that kind of tapering off and also, you know, just, you know, the polls are the polls. I'm not getting into politics, but the economy is not as on top of everyone's mind right now, I think regardless of your politics. And so, you know, people may be kind of ramping back some spending a bit on travel. So I think it could be kind of a bunch of different factors colliding here that Disney is, you know, got some capacity on their ships that they want to fill. [00:10:21] Speaker C: So, and, and they're not the only cruise line that's doing this. [00:10:25] Speaker B: You know, every other cruise line is always selling something. [00:10:27] Speaker C: Well, they've always, they've always. But they've been, I think there have been a slew of promos on the other cruise lines as well. It seems like a lot of the cruise lines have increased capacity quite a bit over the last couple of years. And I think you're, that the pandemic had something to do with that. And so I do think that they all could be facing that. But one thing to note is that Disney doesn't have to sail full to be making a profit. None of these cruise lines have to be full at full capacity, like every bed filled or even every room filled in order to be turning a profit. So I think they're doing just fine. [00:11:01] Speaker B: They do report occupancy and you know, shareholders and others tend to look a little dimly on, like why is that ship may be profitable, but she's only sailing 80% full. Like there's 20% profit not happening there. So, yeah, you know, it's, they got, they got to answer to people just like everybody else does. So anyway, yeah, let's move on to happier topics, more fun topics. [00:11:22] Speaker C: Yeah, well, kick us off and yeah, let's, let's start with Leticia. Why did you book a British Isles cruise? You live all the way in California. What was the impetus for booking this particular cruise out of Southampton doing the British Isles? [00:11:40] Speaker A: Well, first of all, My youngest is 19, so I'm able to travel a lot more now. And I travel with one of my besties. My husband doesn't always want to travel, so we're both kind of in the same boat. And I started with a 12 night Norwegian Iceland in 2016 and that set the bar really, really high. That's one of my most favorite ever. And I've done the Med last summer, we did Barcelona, Southampton, we did Spain and Portugal. So this was just another one that I haven't done yet. So I was super excited to go to Ireland and Scotland and I bought a green sweater. And I don't buy green. I don't wear green. I bought that. Just my Kiss of Larney Stone picture. And we had everything planned for British Isles, let me just put it that way. [00:12:33] Speaker B: When did you actually learn that the cruise had been shifted? I mean, it was like a week before maybe, or like. [00:12:40] Speaker C: No, no, just days before, right? A day or two before. [00:12:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. We flew out of San Diego Friday and we landed in London Saturday morning or Saturday afternoon. And I just went on my phone and went right to my cruise page and everyone is just sounding off. Check your email. Check your email. Itinerary change. And I looked and I saw the email from Disney and it said, itinerary change. Yeah. [00:13:08] Speaker B: Wow. So I guess in that moment, how disappointing was that? Or was it disappointing? [00:13:16] Speaker A: You know, it's almost like a death. There's different, like, phases over those next two days before boarding, where I was shocked at first and I was happy for my friend because she's always wanted to go to Norway. Honestly, I had no reason to go back to Norway. I've already been there, so I was excited. And then reading the comments, they were really negative, so I kind of got down. And then you kind of get mad and then you're kind of bummed and then you're thinking, well, what are we going to do now? Like, everything's changed. This is not what we planned for. And I booked late couple months ago. But, you know, people book 18 months sometimes ahead and are all ready to go for this particular cruise. So a lot of it was just sadness for people that, you know, they were somewhere people are going to go see families. Some people were going to, you know, just get in touch with their roots. And yeah, I just kind of felt it was kind of overwhelming for those two days. [00:14:10] Speaker C: Yeah, well, there's a lot of logistics to. To deal with. Like, what, what, if any, help did Disney do in terms of like, logistic and figures figuring out, like, I don't know, even excursions, right? Like, you have a couple of days, like, could you book things in those two days? Were you able to book anything? Of course, all your excursions, if you booked through DCL for British Isles, were all automatically canceled. But was there anything that you could do in those two days leading up to the cruise to figure out, other than on your own excursions, but to figure out like DCL excursions? [00:14:48] Speaker A: No. And let me just say, the only email we got was sometime overnight on my flight from Disney thing. We had an itinerary change. There was nothing, no other communication from Disney up until Monday morning, which is when we boarded. It still said British Isles on our app and nothing. We didn't get any communication go live on this time. I actually got it from my crew page. I don't know how someone found out. They might have called, but they said something about port adventures will be on, let's say around 2:00'. Clock. Disney didn't notify us or I didn't see it on the app. I got no email. So we were kind of in limbo. We were just waiting to see when they popped up on the app, on the Navigator app on Monday. And when I remembered to go on my Navigator app, it was just before the drill. Just about everything was sold out. [00:15:44] Speaker B: Tracy's asking the question I had, which is, did they do anything from a future cruise credit percentage off or anything like that to, you know, because it is a big deal to go from a British Isles cruise to a Norway cruise, especially your point, if you've booked it 18 months in advance and you've already done Norway, like, did they, did they give you any kind of compensation or future cruise credit for the itinerary change? [00:16:08] Speaker A: Unfortunately, they did not. I do know that people were allowed refunds if they wanted refunds and I think you probably have to be a local, really want a refund. We flew San Diego to London. We weren't going to get a refund. Yeah, we didn't get a future cruise credit, onboarding credit. We didn't get anything. [00:16:28] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. That's a little disappointing. That feels out of character to me because to your point, a cancellation, what am I in London? What am I supposed to do? [00:16:38] Speaker A: And I love London. I love England. But. [00:16:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:16:42] Speaker C: I mean, if you're, if you're in the uk, if you live in the UK or you live in continental Europe, you may not have flown to the UK yet. If you're coming from the US two days before you are on the way, you are already in London or you are on your way to London to sail out of Southampton. If you're coming from the U.S. like I said, if you're coming from continental Europe, then potentially you might not have traveled yet. And so, yeah, cancellation might be a possibility. But yeah, it's. That's not quite a lot of notice, I will say. I mean, this is a good example. I mean, of just be aware that your cruise itinerary can change. You'll get refunded your port excursions and your port fees for the difference in the port fees. Of course, if your port fees are lower, you'll get refunded, whatever that difference is. But you don't. Technically, under the contract for the cruise, you don't have the right to go to a particular port. I mean, they just. [00:17:43] Speaker B: And this wasn't a shift in itinerary because of like a mechanical issue that was foreseeable on the ship. [00:17:49] Speaker C: It was weather. [00:17:50] Speaker B: It was a weather issue. I mean, they just couldn't sail there safely. But still. Yeah, Disney, you're right. Disney reserves the right to change the itinerary without doing anything. [00:17:58] Speaker C: Right. I mean, it's just the contra. [00:18:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:00] Speaker C: It doesn't feel fair, but it just is what it is. And so it's a good. I think it's good to point this out so people know this. I mean, people complain all the time when their ship doesn't get to dock at Castaway because of weather. Right. Because the swells are too big and they can't safely dock. And while you'll get. If there are port fees, you'll get those port fees back. That's all you'll get. And it's a bummer, but it just, it happens. And you kind of have to. You take that risk when you, when you book a cruise. I will say this is one reason why you're safer booking through your excursions through the cruise line. I mean, because if you booked excursions through third party. I don't know if you had Leticia booked any excursions for the British Isles. Yeah. What did you do about your third party excursions? Were you able to cancel those without penalty or how. Or did you have travel insurance to cover it? What was the result of that? [00:18:52] Speaker A: I did, I did book one independent tour company for Ireland. It was similar to Disney. So it's a longer day to go kiss Blarney Stone. And I think there was a couple more stops along the way. And I did not buy the insurance on that. I'm an insurance girl. I usually buy insurance for everything. I did not get it for that particular excursion. I emailed them and they sent me an email saying, as soon as we can verify that the ship really didn't come in, we'll give you a refund. And they certainly did give me a refund. I'm very, very happy. [00:19:21] Speaker C: Wow. And the good thing about if as soon as, you know, obviously you give them notice and then of Course, like if that excursion happened to be later in the cruise, you might have been within their cancellation window and that. But that's very nice. They don't always do that. So I think that's, that's really nice to know. [00:19:37] Speaker B: Yet another good. I love what Leticia said, which is you get another good reason buy that travel insurance. [00:19:43] Speaker C: Travel insurance, yes, yes. [00:19:45] Speaker A: I preach that because you never know. And I just say I trust Disney. They made the right decision and we cannot control the weather. We did get $38 and support fee back as a credit for the difference. I just wish we got a little something. I just picture that little girl who had her merit address and her wig and she did the port adventure in Scotland and she goes to Edinburgh Castle. And you know, I just picture all these people just being so ready for this cruise and not getting spoiled. I don't, I'm kind of, I'm like, I don't care where I go as long as I'm on a Disney cruise ship, it's fine. But there's still that. Oh man, we're expecting this and we didn't get that. [00:20:25] Speaker B: Especially with all these promos flowing through the system these days. You think they could probably afford to give people a 10 off future cruise credit or something, so. [00:20:32] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:20:33] Speaker B: Well, absolutely. Let's dive into the cruise you did have. [00:20:36] Speaker C: Yeah, well. And we're going to talk a little bit of the pre cruise stuff. So get Brian to the next slide. So you flew from San Diego to Seattle to Heathrow three days pre cruise. And this is when you're finding out about your itinerary change. I love it. [00:20:52] Speaker A: Yes. We flew up to Seattle and from there we did the nonstop over to London. So we got to London when I got my email. [00:20:59] Speaker C: Awesome. All right. And then this is cool. This is. Yeah, Downton Abbey. So this is one of the things you did in London. How far outside of London is this? [00:21:09] Speaker A: So I wanted to share this because it's only 45 minutes from Southampton. So close. It was definitely on my bucket list. I've been to London several times and I hadn't made it over. And I just checked their website and it just so happened they had this big weekend to remember, which they have like World War II vehicles there and celebrations and exhibits and everything. So along with seeing inside the castle, they have like this big weekend celebration. And we went. That was Sunday, the day before our cruise. And it was just worth. If you're a Downton Abbey fan or like Castles like me, like, I highly recommend it. We actually didn't stay in London. We took the bus to Southampton to stay there before cruise. 45 minutes. Just a short Uber ride away. Yeah. [00:21:55] Speaker C: That's awesome. I, I, we love Downton Abbey, Brian and I, so this would be right up our alley. [00:22:01] Speaker B: Ted Lasso is top of my list. Next time we go to London. [00:22:03] Speaker C: Oh, we got it. Yeah. Next time we go to London, we're gonna go to Rich so he can see all the Ted Lasso locations. But this would be fun. I mean, obviously we, we would, we haven't, we actually haven't sailed out of Southampton. When we sailed to Norway, we sailed out of Dover. And so we haven't been to the port of Southampton, but this would be a great either stop on the way there or, or our excursion to do. [00:22:25] Speaker B: Did you find, did you find that, did you find the hotels more affordable in Southampton than I'm assuming central London by far. But like did, did you find it to be a bit more affordable proposition for you pre cruise? [00:22:37] Speaker A: Completely. Like, I would recommend this in a heartbeat. We flew into London, we took Flixbus, which is half the price of their other bus company. It was like $27 per person. It was dirt cheap. It was a direct no stop. So it was direct from London to Southampton. And the hotel we booked was the Novatel, which is right across from the Horizon terminal where the ship comes in. And we just walked across the street. Our hotel was there. It was cheap transportation. Like, it was amazing. [00:23:09] Speaker C: That's awesome. Now what other things did you do in Southampton while you were there? Because you had a couple of days to kind of explore. [00:23:20] Speaker A: We got. Well, Sunday was busy because that was the high car castle all day. So Saturday we got in, we didn't really do much. We probably slept and then we went to bed early so we can get to the castle early in the morning. We left around 7am and then at night we just walked a little more to Central Town by the docks and we met up with some other cruisers at a pub. And FYI, Southampton closes early for dinner. Like mostly everything was closed. So you can't eat anywhere past six. So we didn't eat. But right next to our hotel there's a TGI Fridays and we're eating dinner and we're like, we're here in England and we're eating at Chichi. [00:24:01] Speaker C: Yeah, it's not like a restaurant. Yeah. It's not like a big city. And it was a Sunday night too. So Sunday night is also the, I think the combination of one. It's like a, not a Big city. And then two. It's. It is a Sunday night, so people are home doing their Sunday night roast dinners. [00:24:18] Speaker B: So Ed is asking in the chat, I think I know the answer to this. Your bus transfer was through a third party, not directly through Disney. I think you gave the name of it. But can you give it one more time? [00:24:27] Speaker C: Right. [00:24:28] Speaker A: It's Flixbus F L I X B U F. Okay. And they're super cheap, but they were just like a normal motor coach. And I would do it again in a heartbeat. Yeah. Okay, cool. [00:24:40] Speaker C: Love that. Well, tell us about embarkation day. What time did you. You said you were able to just walk to the port from where you were at Novatel, but what time was your port arrival time? How was the check in process? Give us all the details about that. [00:24:55] Speaker A: We could have walked, but we're two women with a lot of luggage, so we did take an Uber and it took not even five minutes and it was great. So I like to arrive about five minutes past my port arrival time. I don't want to wait outside at all. So we were able to walk right in. There was no security line. Yeah. Nope. It was a breeze. So it's practically empty when we got there. And it was like, what? I get maybe 1145 ish port arrival time. [00:25:24] Speaker B: I can tell from all of the door decor and your Minnie Mouse, you are so prepared for a British Isles cruise with all of them. [00:25:31] Speaker A: I wish I could have shown you everyone's door. They all kept the original door decor and it had some were so good. But you know what, we started and ended in the uk so mine was still kind of on fame. [00:25:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure. [00:25:47] Speaker C: I love it. I love it. [00:25:49] Speaker B: What do you like to get up to when you, when you first board the ship, Leticia? Like, what's, what's your go to? Are you a cabanas person? A sit down lunch person? I'm headed to the pool person. [00:25:58] Speaker A: No, I never do the pool. And the weather was probably not okay, you know, warm enough this time to do the pool. We've done sit down a few times, most of the time with cabanas because we always pretty much board early. So with our early morning time, it's pretty empty. An hour later, it's like jam packed. [00:26:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:15] Speaker A: So we do that and then we kind of just hang around for our room to ready, you know, settle in the room and then maybe we'll do a spa raffle or something like that. [00:26:25] Speaker B: Nice. [00:26:25] Speaker C: Yeah. Now, you mentioned you had, you had forgotten to check the App sort of right away. And then when, by the time you checked the app on board for Port Adventures, everything, pretty much everything was sold out. What did you, what. What did you do in terms of planning for your new ports? And did they give you your new itinerary? Like, was it in the app show, like, what day you're going to be? Because at this point you're like, just kind of figuring it out, right? [00:26:51] Speaker A: Yes, it is. When I did remember to look on the app, it was, what's the drill? Maybe around 4, 3, 30 or 4. [00:26:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:26:58] Speaker A: So it was about 30 minutes before. And it just talked to my mind. I was like, court Adventures. And I looked on the app and I'm scrolling and it's ghosted, you know, sold out, sold out, sold out. I'm like, oh, my gosh, what are we going to do? I ran down to the Port Adventures desk and there was probably 20, maybe like 10 people in front of me. And one of the crew members came out, okay, you guys gotta go. I'm not moving. Some people in front of me did move, but I'm like, I'm gonna stay in line. I. I know how fast I can get down to deck four, wherever our drill meetup was. [00:27:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:27:33] Speaker A: Just as he was telling everyone to leave, someone opened up. So I ran up to her and there was just no time. There was no time to research. There's a little description on the app, and I didn't want anything that was two or three hundred dollars. You know, we weren't prepared for that, especially not knowing, you know, what to do. So I booked a couple things really quickly and I said, if I cancel this, is that going to be okay? She's like, we'll waive any cancellation fees. You know, you can go back to the room and research them some more. So it was just, it was stressful, to be honest. I'm a planner. I plan things. Like, I have, you know, printouts of everything we're going to do from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed. I am such a planner. And this is just so unfamiliar for me to, like, just be spur of the moment and pick something up really quickly. [00:28:20] Speaker B: So is there like a. Just a massive line at Port Adventures or like. Yeah. Wow. [00:28:25] Speaker C: Wow. And probably throughout the whole day, I would guess. I mean, because they're. And like you said, I mean, they were going to waive cancellation fees and let people switch things up because, you know, you don't have really a lot of time to research. But even then, like, one once you leave port, the Internet's, you know, you got to purchase the Internet in order to be able to really do research. And so it's not the, not the easiest thing to do on the fly. When they had told you about the itinerary change, had they given you at least the names of the ports that you were going to or just did they give you just, we're going to Norway and Belgium. Like, did they give you any detail in that first email? [00:29:00] Speaker A: No, they did, they did give us the new port. But again, it's just like different phases of like denial. Like, is this really happening? Like, navigate. Like for sure. Wait a minute. Are we real? It was just, it was so surreal almost. It was just kind of unbelievable. [00:29:14] Speaker C: So plus you're, you're in transit, right? I mean, you're in transit to trying to get to Southampton. And then of course, you've got your castle day. So it's not like you have a lot of time to sit like at home. I know Brian is a big researcher at home. He's on, you know, TripAdvisor. He's on Viador. He's researching the port adventures. If we're looking at doing the Caribbean, he's researching like the private, you know, boat things. And you know, he's going to do a lot of research. I'm just the passenger princess. I just go along for the ride. But he's going to do all that research talent, folks. [00:29:44] Speaker B: She's the on air talent. Yep. I got to keep the talent happy. [00:29:48] Speaker C: He's going to do all that research and planning, but like, I know like he's going to be really stressed if all of that gets like thrown up in the air and then he has to, to do it all on the fly on just his phone. [00:29:58] Speaker B: So what, what were your ports? So I, I've got, I've skipped ahead. So we're on. We're on. I have no idea how to pronounce this, but what were your ports in Norway? [00:30:05] Speaker A: Yeah, Hugson Hugs. And that's how they pronounce it on the ship. Hudson was the first port. And then we went to Olden and then we went to Stavanger, which is the only Norway port. We did on our first Norway cruise is. So that was. Okay. Two ports I hadn't been to, so I wasn't totally mad. We were repeating ports and the last one was the Bruges, Belgium. [00:30:32] Speaker B: Okay. [00:30:32] Speaker C: Okay. Yeah. [00:30:34] Speaker D: Are you listening to our show because you want to make the most out of your next vacation. Great news. The fabulous team over at 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 expert expertise and service. They have sailed on all the Disney ships, including in concierge, visited the theme parks, Adventured with Disney, Relaxed at Aulani, and so much more. Whether it's a Disney cruise, a theme park, vacation or adventures by Disney, or if you are looking to expand beyond the mouse, My Path Unwinding Travel will elevate your next vacation planning experience. Even if you have already booked, reach out for a complimentary consultation to make your vacation even more magical. Ready to talk to the experts? Head over to mypath on unwinding.com forward/dclduo or email dclduoypathunwinding.com so they know we. [00:31:25] Speaker B: Sent you their way. [00:31:26] Speaker D: Thanks My Path Unwinding for sponsoring today's show. Now back to the episode. [00:31:33] Speaker C: So let's talk about Hogson. What, what did you all get up to in Hogson? What did you see? It sounds like you explored on your own, but what, what was. What was there to be seen? [00:31:47] Speaker A: And we did do our own. Again, a lot of these ports port adventures for this stop were Trekkie, hike or just things that we really didn't want to do. So this was very, very limited. And I just heard that they have a free shuttle that'll take you from the port into town, which is just, I don't know, a couple miles away, but too far to walk. Some people did walk, but too far, too far for us to walk. And they just have a couple streets of shops and restaurants. And I hope I don't offend anybody, but it's kind of like the Ensenada of Norway. To be honest, there wasn't a lot. [00:32:26] Speaker B: The Nassau of Europe. We found it Ensenada. [00:32:30] Speaker A: I mean, I think for this port you really need to do a port adventure that takes you out of the port. The one I particularly wanted was a cute little town, but again, it was sold out. I kept checking, there was no availability. So we just kind of walked around and it started raining and it was cold and I'm like, oh, just take me back to the ship. [00:32:53] Speaker B: That's the thing though. I mean, British I've looked at some of the port adventures for British Isles. You know, visit Abbey Road. Like there's more in the towns that they're stopping at to do. And I feel like in Norway most of the port adventures that we saw were. They're pretty active. It's a different. Different cruise entirely. Not just different towns, but a different vibe. [00:33:14] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Like rib boats and hikes and you know, things like that is definitely a. [00:33:19] Speaker A: Different than my kids or with my husband, we're a little more active. My friend, she has a little bit of mobility issues. So we were just trying to navigate, you know, something that fit for us. And that wasn't like three or four hundred dollars too. [00:33:33] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. [00:33:34] Speaker D: For sure. [00:33:34] Speaker B: For sure. [00:33:35] Speaker A: And everything is expensive in Norway. So it's not like the gift shops were cheap or anything. So, you know, that's a good point. [00:33:44] Speaker C: Yeah. And I mean the British Isles is expensive. Norway is definitely expensive. Like food is expensive in these places especially because they don't. There's not a lot of stuff that they can grow because it's very hilly. Right. So there's certain. It's not a big farming community. They have like lots of goats and stuff. But it's. Yeah, it's. It's definitely. Things are. Are kind of expensive. So Olden, we have heard really great things about Olden that people. People saying it's adorable. Loving it from a few. Few folks who have got. Went to Olden on a Norwegian itinerary on Disney this year. Um, but tell us what you guys got up to in Olden. [00:34:22] Speaker B: I gotta put a quick plug in. That photo on the left is stunning. Uh, yes, that's a gorgeous photo. I will take my opportunity to remind folks listening to this show afterwards, head over to YouTube. You can see the full PowerPoint. We've gotten some questions recently around people go over. So both the audio version gets published to YouTube and the video version persists. So if you want to see the PowerPoint, just make sure you click on our live shows and find the show and you'll be able to see the whole thing live in living color. All that great stuff. But that photo is stunning. So. But tell us what you got up to in Olden. [00:34:53] Speaker C: I like the photo of you in the rain poncho. I think it's cute. [00:34:58] Speaker A: That photo is in the afternoon after Port Adventure. The sun came out, so I was able to put my bathing suit on and go on the hot tub. So I was very, very happy. But when we got in, it was very cloudy and a little bit drizzly. So for Olden I had to get Internet. But I really wanted to research this. I looked on another Disney Mediterranean page and just researched Olden and this Porch. It's an independent company called Olden Adventure. It came highly recommended, and people chimed in saying it's great, you know, favorite of our trip. Awesome. Awesome. So I booked that direct. It was sold out on the Disney app, but not through the company. So I was able to book direct with them. And it was so fun. Let me just say, Olden, you have to sail there. It takes a while. I did the sale out. It is absolutely gorgeous. So I can just imagine getting up early and doing the sail in absolutely stunning, charming little town. You dock there. In town, there's a couple shops, and the bus takes you over to Brixdoll. And along the way, they're just like crystal blue lakes and mountains and waterfalls and just green everywhere. It really is just classic Norway. Absolutely stunning. And we got to the lodge there, and then you get on your little atv or troll. They call it a troll car, and you make your way up. [00:36:22] Speaker B: They love their trolls in Norway. [00:36:26] Speaker A: People can hike it. I mean, we're hiking, and it's quite a hike. You go through a huge waterfall and water's pouring over you as your car's going. You're just going all the way up to the viewpoint, and then from there, it's maybe 10, 15 minutes to walk to. It's closed up to the lake right in front of the glacier, right in that picture. That's the viewing point. We actually got closer than that as we walked all the way up there, I felt the water in the lake. It looked like a crystal aqua blue. And yeah, it was rainy and it's really windy, but I totally forgot about that. I just felt like Elsa, and it was just so beautiful. [00:37:03] Speaker C: Oh, I love that. I have to say, I think Norway was the most beautiful place. Norway and Alaska are the two most beautiful places I think I've ever been in my life. And just seeing those glaciers behind you and it's just. Yeah, it's incredible. Now, did you guys have to take these ATV troll cars, like, back down? Was this, like, rough terrain? How was pretty adventurous? [00:37:30] Speaker A: It's. It's not rough. It's not bumpy or anything. It just saves you from having that long walk again. We couldn't. She couldn't walk that far. But it's just worth fun to be in a troll car and just kind of take the little buggy ride up and buggy ride back down afterwards. There's a lodge and they have a great gift shop, and they have a little cafe, and if you're on the Disney Port Adventure, a little room off to the Side had like coffee and pastries. We didn't get that. I just bought my own cake and then took the box back to port. So, yeah, it's a good one. I recommend this port adventure for olden. [00:38:05] Speaker C: I'm gonna guess that even if you counted the amount you spent on your coffee and pastries that you still paid less than what the folks paid for the Disney version of the excursion. [00:38:16] Speaker A: So, yeah, I think it was at least $20 difference, if not 30. [00:38:20] Speaker B: So Ed's asking in our chat, how long was this excursion? [00:38:25] Speaker A: I would say it was 30 minutes there, 30 minutes back, and maybe a couple hours or maybe about four. [00:38:33] Speaker D: Okay. [00:38:34] Speaker B: No, that's not bad at all. [00:38:35] Speaker C: Nice. [00:38:35] Speaker A: Yeah, we didn't need any more time than that. [00:38:38] Speaker B: So when we went to Norway, one of the nice things is the ship would get in at kind of a reasonable time to the port, but then it was there until, you know, sometimes like 6:30, 6:00'. Clock. And so you could like, you could go off and do an excursion and then come back and still explore around the town. Was it similar or were the port times more compressed? [00:38:56] Speaker A: Not in this port. I think we left around five. Okay. I think the only one that was Extender was. [00:39:03] Speaker B: Okay. [00:39:03] Speaker A: I think that was like a seven or eight. [00:39:05] Speaker B: And how was your weather overall? It sounds like cloudy and rainy was the theme of the theme of the. [00:39:09] Speaker A: Day on our seating. It was great. It wasn't hot or anything like that, but it was fine and old and it was raining in the morning. Then it cleared up. Yeah, our first port, it was. It did get rainy for a couple hours. So. Yeah. So when I went to Norway in 2016, we went in mid June and we had stellar weather the whole time. So this was a bit different being in mid September for sure. [00:39:36] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:39:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:37] Speaker B: That's what we went. We went in September and it was. It was similar to what you're. It was similar. [00:39:41] Speaker C: You're going to deal with like, it wasn't like pouring rain or anything, but you'll have like, you have periods of drizzly rain and then it kind of clears up. And so you're not going to have necessarily full days that are clear, but you're probably not going to have a full day of pouring rain either. So it's usually especially more rain in the morning and more sun in the afternoon. [00:40:03] Speaker A: Let's talk about really quick. They did give us free ponchos as we're getting off the ship. So that was nice. [00:40:09] Speaker C: Nice. I love that the ponchos are key because finding a poncho outside of like a Disney park is kind of a difficult thing to do. And they're expensive. All right, well, Stavanger is the. A big city. Of course you got to go to two bigger cities because Bruges is also. Bruges is kind of a bigger city as well. Tell us what you got up to in Stavanger. [00:40:34] Speaker A: So we did the. A walking tour. I think I wrote it on there. I can't read it. [00:40:40] Speaker C: Oh yeah. [00:40:40] Speaker B: Walking through historic. [00:40:44] Speaker A: So we did that. So if you've been there, it's really cute. Right. When you get off the ship, it's all the white buildings. They're really, really cute. We started. Let me just say there wasn't a whole lot to do when we were there last time. We did the fjord cruise with the little Waffle Stop with the kids and that was amazing years ago. We weren't going to do Pulpit Rock or anything. So this was one where it's like there wasn't a whole lot of options for us either. So I chose this one. The first stop was a canning museum, which is interesting. You want to know about canning? It was interesting. But, you know, we learned about canning and it was a really big industry for them for many, many years. Our guide was very sweet and then she took us around the town and, you know, just blocked and just printed out buildings and it was just kind of a little historical block tour around the port, which was nice. Stopped by that church there and right behind that, that little pub on the lower right was the oldest cafe in Norway. So we had to go in there and get some pastries. So it was just another low key day. You know, it's a cute little town. Well, it's more of a bigger city I guess than the other towns. It is definitely a city, but it was, it was fine. [00:42:09] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a. I thought it was a pretty little. I mean it's not a huge city, but a pretty sort of medium sized city. A lot of folks we've heard have liked the rib boat excursions there. But hope, you know, if you do that, you're hoping for like a more clear day. Of course, this site looks like you had a, you know, a fairly decent weather day that day though. [00:42:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I have to say, now I think about it, it was. I don't think we had any rain at all and it was pretty much blue skies, a mild temperature. So. Yeah, that actually was a beautiful day. [00:42:38] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and the good thing about, I guess pivoting from British Isles to Stavanger, at least clothing Wise, you're in kind of the same, you know, temperatures and weather conditions. And so you're packing for September, the British Isles, you're. You're going to be covered. It's not like you're going to, you know, you think you're going to Great Britain and you're going to Greece instead. No, it's at least like weather wise. [00:43:04] Speaker A: On our cruise page, I said, is anyone taking their rainbows? And everyone's like, no, no. But something told me to take my rainbows and it was the best packing decision. Even though they weigh like 10 pounds to bring them, because I used them a couple times and I'm so, so happy I bought them. [00:43:20] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I think if you're any. If you're going in September to the British Isles, you're going to northern Europe. Like, waterproof shoes are a thing. Like, whether that's boots or waterproof sneakers or, you know, galoshes, whatever. Like it is. It is definitely a recommendation. And a good waterproof jacket as well. Yeah, yeah. Asking a great question. She was wondering if the. Were the ports, did the ports have other ships in port when you guys were there? She's asking because of the itinerary change or are they too small for more than one ship? And that she's asking about the ports in general, not just Bruges, but, you know, your first port, Hogson, your second port, Olden, and then Stavanger as well. [00:44:11] Speaker A: No, that's a great question. There were still other ships, which is interesting because this was a quick logistics change for them. Ogdenson did not have enough. Not that we saw. Unless there's another area. Yeah. Holden did not. I think maybe they only allow one. That's a very, very small port. The longer, just. No, now they think about it. Yeah. [00:44:34] Speaker C: Yeah. I bet that's why they chose these ports in particular, because there are a lot of options in Norway for ports to go to, you know, some medium, some small, some bigger. But you've got to have one that has a birthing, you know, spot available. And so that probably plays into how they figure out. But I think most of. I mean, a lot of these ports are pretty small. And so a lot of them only have one, maybe two spots. Stavanger would have more than one, but there's other ports probably. Probably not. Well, let's talk about Bruges. Zee Bruges. You did another Disney port adventure. Full day in Bruges. [00:45:16] Speaker A: Yeah, full day in Bruges. On your own. We had the choice of Bruges or the other town was Ghent again. I didn't have time to research either one before, so we just thought, let's just take a free day and wow, what an amazing town Bruges is. It's just something out of a storybook. And it was absolutely beautiful. We were told in advance that it was a Sunday, so it might be. A lot of things might be closed. Everything was open. Oh, cool. It was amazing. It's a town you can just walk around. You can't necessarily get lost. It's the Belgian or chocolate is the bright capital. Chocolate. So every little block is chocolate, Chocolate, chocolate, gift shop, gift shop, chocolate, chocolate shop, chocolate galore. So if you love chocolates, you need to take this cruise and stop in Bruges. It was just amazing. They have little canal line up to boat rides. So we did that and last minute. [00:46:19] Speaker C: We did a picture on the left and the middle. Like you can tell these are the canals that you're like. I didn't realize that Bruges is such a canal city. Like kind of like Venice, you know, where you're just going through all the. Instead of streets. In a lot of places it's just water. That's awesome. It's beautiful. [00:46:36] Speaker A: Yeah. The charming little bridges over the canal we did take. [00:46:41] Speaker B: I also see some Belgian fries here. [00:46:46] Speaker A: Thank you for not saying fresh French fries. [00:46:50] Speaker B: No, those are Belgian. They're twice cooked. Right. I mean, it's a special method of making fries that they haven't built. [00:46:55] Speaker A: Yeah, well, we learned that. My girlfriend, she booked a last minute foodie walking tour that morning, I think, and it was like $3. And we went on that walking tour and she took us to get Belgian fries. Fries were invented in Belgium, not in France. She made sure to make that point. They are twice fried. This place was amazing. They just found fries. They don't call them French fries. We also tried chocolate and Belgian waffle and it was a great little add on we did when we were in town. [00:47:28] Speaker B: Nice. [00:47:28] Speaker C: Awesome. So now this one was like, it was a Disney port adventure. But was it just the transportation but like two Bruges and then they, you know, took you like to and from the ship. Is. Is that how it worked? Yeah, yeah. [00:47:42] Speaker A: And it was maybe 30 minutes. There was a half day and a full day and we chose to do the full day on your own. And it was perfect. We just, like I said, we just walked around and ate. And the buildings are just beautiful. They have some beautiful cathedrals. Cute little swan swans were just all over. And they also have horse drawn carriages and you can take a Horse drawn carriage and go through the town so you hear the little, you know, sound on the cobblestone street. It was just, just the most darling town. It was just amazing. [00:48:16] Speaker C: Ah, I want to go to Bruges now. [00:48:20] Speaker B: That might be one of the towns on our rare cruise. We are cruising in Belgium. [00:48:24] Speaker C: We are going to Belgium. That's true. Oh my God, I hope it is because we are going to Belgium. I don't remember. [00:48:30] Speaker B: Ed's asking in the chat and I think you've. I think you've kind of answered this, but he's asking like, how did you decide what to do in these cities given how short of a time you had? I think it sounds like a lot of it was just availability on the fly and on the fly, but I don't know if you had any other thoughts there. [00:48:47] Speaker A: Definitely on the fly. We knew that Bruges was small and just a walking town. So, you know, we were just happy to just walk around and go into shops and we knew there'd be lots of chocolate shops. We had no idea there'd be that many. But we visited many of those, got our chocolate souvenirs and had fries. Did the little boat cruise down a canal and just kind of winged it. This is a great town to wing other apart. Like Hoxton is not a town to wing it. Bruges is definitely a town where you could just totally wing it and have an amazing time. [00:49:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I love. I gotta give like a special plug for food tours in general. I think a food tour is a great way to experience any city in town. And I also think that's one where like, if you do have a last minute itinerary change, like I think it's if you can, even if Disney's not offering one. Right. Like if you can find a local food tour, I think that's always going to be a great way because then you can get like a great way to explore the city and find out about the culture and then it will, you know, that guide will take you around to a bunch of different places. [00:49:55] Speaker A: So yeah, I recommend it to everyone. We've done them in Barcelona, in Rome and even Puerto Rico. You get history, you get fed and you get your bearing. So I always recommend it. A foodie walking tour, especially in Europe. [00:50:09] Speaker B: We had a great one in London with the Borough Market. [00:50:12] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:50:13] Speaker B: Which was fantastic. Yeah, I love those, those food tour. I also will put a plug in for if you are a drinker and you will, you know, there's some places you can find a nice little private, like Beer tasting, pub crawl, tour with a small group of people, which is a fun way to meet some people while you travel. So. Yeah, absolutely. TripAdvisor has all kinds of like uni, TripAdvisor and Viator, like they have all kinds of like unique, private and I. [00:50:35] Speaker A: Think they're so worth it. [00:50:36] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. [00:50:37] Speaker C: You know, before we get to the debarkation stuff, I've got to ask because I love asking, you know, favorites from onboard experiences. Of course this was an unexpected, you know, you have unexpected stuff that you're doing in port because this was not planned and where you were going to be. But all the standard stuff on the ship is still happening and you're going to have all of the activities that you would have had regardless of what the itinerary is. I want to know what some of. I mean, Leticia, you've been on 19 Disney cruises, so you're a pro. What are some of your favorites on. [00:51:11] Speaker A: Board on this particular cruise? I guess Aladdin, because I've been on the Wonder and West coast cruises the most. So to see Aladdin, that's definitely a highlight. On the longer cruises they always have a Broadway star come on board. And so I like to see they change the names but it's always like in an adult lounge. They'll do a special show. I always go to those because those are really neat. They get to really show off their skills. And the performer we have, he played Jafar on Aladdin, so went to his show and then classic like Match youh Mate. I always have to watch Mat. But being with a time change like we did sleep a lot. [00:51:58] Speaker C: Well and that's why it's important to come in at least a couple nights before especially. And if you're a West Coaster, it's so hard, you know, it's. We've got like, we've got the three hours of the US and then we've got the like six hours of Europe. Basically time change. And so it's a lot. It's a nine hour time change if you're coming from the west coast all the way over to Europe to mainland Europe or you know, eight hours if you're going to the uk. [00:52:23] Speaker B: I remember it vividly from being up in the middle of the night and watching Australia. Australian Cops with Sam and I were telling. Because it was like three anymore because. [00:52:31] Speaker C: We were just like we could not sleep. We're just. Yeah, absolutely. [00:52:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, Kenny, the only good part is I could FaceTime my husband and talk to my grandkids because they were up. But I'm like at 3 in the morning on my phone FaceTiming them. [00:52:43] Speaker C: Too funny. Too funny. Well, tell us what you guys did post cruise because obviously this was all planned out before the cruise. What did you guys do in London after the cruise? [00:52:56] Speaker A: So we said goodbye. Let me just shout out amazing servers we had. Naya was our head server and Sam was our assistant server. [00:53:06] Speaker C: And. [00:53:09] Speaker A: Nya was so stellar. By night two I knew he was special. And during our cruise we just found out that he had just been promoted a head server. So we got an amazing server. I'm so happy for him. Big shout out to. He's one of my favorite. But my favorite server is actually on the Wonder. He is my second favorite by far. So we said goodbye to them and then we had three nights in London. So we did take Disney transportation from the ship to London to our hotel. And a couple of things that I've always wanted to do. I'm a big royals junkie and castle junkie and I try to go to all the castles. Big castle off my bucket list was Hampton from Port Peller. [00:53:53] Speaker C: Oh yeah. [00:53:54] Speaker A: I love Henry VIII and all those stories and everything. So that was a phenomenal day for us. We of course have to eat our fish and chips. We went to the Natural History Museum which was just a few blocks away. Museums are free in London. And just so we just, we kind of took it easy. Go to Harrah's, we do our shopping and yeah, we had a great post group. [00:54:17] Speaker C: Yeah, awesome. Fantastic. Well, any lessons from this sort of crazy change in itinerary that you could help pass on to our listeners? If something. If you have an itinerary change, maybe it's an itinerary change and it's just one ports change or you have an itinerary change and it's. Your entire itinerary is completely changed like yours was. Leticia, what. What advice would you give to somebody in your situation of like what to do or how to roll with the punches? [00:54:53] Speaker A: Well, first of all, I'll say it again. I totally trust Disney. I think they made the right decision. Our last cruise night was rough and apparently those waves were half as big as the ones that were in this storm that we avoided. So I was very, very thankful for that. There's just nothing you can do. I didn't really see anyone, you know, getting mad or yelling at guest services. So that was really happy about that. The only thing I probably would have done different is just like, okay, we're going to Norway. These are the ports. Let's research our own because everyone is going to be storming that Port Adventures desk to try and book something. So have your backup plan. The only thing I wish they would have been different is I wish they would and they probably can't. It wise. I wish they would have said Earl can book at 1 platinum at 130 just to avoid like this mad rush. Because I really think people were booking things just to book and then they cancel later and it was just really, really hectic. So a great decision was to research Olden find a private adventure, private excursion. So just kind of like okay, this is the change, let's deal with it and let's figure out our plan before you wait to get on the ship and have Disney just all of a sudden release all these port adventures. [00:56:17] Speaker B: I love that you use the analogy about the stages. I use this at work all the time actually. When we have to make decisions and then we're communicating these decisions. You can just see everyone's in a different place. I'm like, they all have to go through the stages of grief. It's human and you're going to be disappointed at first. But yeah, if you can get to that action oriented place even a little faster than yeah, you can, you can, you could potentially nail some, you know, have figured out some Port Adventures and things to do a little bit quicker but you also just can't avoid it. It's, it's a human reaction of like I'm disappointed now and what are my options and all that sort of stuff. [00:56:49] Speaker C: So yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, it honestly sounds like a great cruise despite all of the hiccups of course. You know, Brian always likes to ask what's next. We talked pre show you will be heading on the Disney Destiny on December 3rd and I know you're super excited about it but Leticia, you are always posting mostly about Disneyland because you're there like all the time. You live real close to Disneyland but all kinds of tips and tricks for Disney vacations, even vacations beyond Disney. Why don't you tell folks how they can follow along with you, how they can get in contact with you if they want some of your assistance in all of these tips and tricks that you share with with the community. [00:57:36] Speaker A: Yeah, the easiest place is probably Instagram. It's Mousemamas. M O U S D M O M M A S I have a small YouTube where I really just post like state room tours and or Disney hotel room tours. I really should probably work on that more. But Instagram is probably the easiest way My phone number. Maybe not my phone number. My email is on there and I can get right back to you. [00:58:00] Speaker C: Well, thank you so much for sharing your adventure on the Disney Fantasy with us. We so appreciate it. For all of those listening, watching, however you are getting us, don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube. And also don't forget, if you have not already given us those five stars on Apple podcasts, make sure to give us those five stars. And if you leave us a written five star review, we will read it on the air at the top of one of our regular recorded weekly shows. We will be back next week. We've got, I got to tell you, we've got a great October. I mean starting with Leticia, but the rest of the month is fire as well. [00:58:40] Speaker B: Yeah, but we're running up against Major League Baseball right now and some other things. [00:58:45] Speaker C: So, you know, we got, we got, listen, we got a great show next week. We're going to be talking, get this folks, we are going to be talking with Amy, who is a former Plan Disney panelist. [00:58:55] Speaker B: This is a good show. I am excited for that show. [00:58:57] Speaker C: And we are going to be talking about Disney Cruise Line etiquette. So we're gonna be talking about like saving seats in the theater, saving spots in line for characters, what the actual etiquette is supposed to be in cabanas or in Marceline Market. You know, we're gonna talk all those different things. [00:59:18] Speaker B: I'm gonna have to give Sam a mute button for me or else I'm gonna go off on a bit of a rant every five minutes. But yes, I cannot wait. [00:59:25] Speaker C: We're going to talk about all things DCL etiquette. And this is going to be some of the stuff we're going to talk about is what Disney's rules are versus what they actually do in practice because there's a lot of differences there. And then we're also going to give our personal opinions about what we think good etiquette on Disney Cruise Line actually looks like as well. [00:59:44] Speaker B: We should ask, let's ask our guests before we sign off. Leticia, what's the one thing that you see people do constantly on the cruise where you're like, that's just not how this is supposed to work. You should be doing it this way. Do you have one thing like a pet peeve? [00:59:59] Speaker A: I have a couple for sure. I like you. I don't like that rote drop culture on the cruise. The biggest thing is, especially in adult only areas, just putting your stuff on there when you don't show up for hours. That is probably my biggest pet peeve. [01:00:17] Speaker B: I just wrote our DVC guide about something that we were dealing with at Aulani and I was like, I don't understand why I have to wake up every morning at 6am when I'm on vacation just to get a pool chair. [01:00:27] Speaker A: Like, it just I heard at Aulani they're putting timers and they're doing a lot better. [01:00:32] Speaker B: And I think. [01:00:32] Speaker C: Are they? [01:00:33] Speaker A: I know that's on the cruise line. They're doing better too. Yeah. [01:00:36] Speaker C: Okay, good. All right. [01:00:38] Speaker A: That's a really great show. [01:00:39] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:00:40] Speaker B: All right. Well join us next next Monday night, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern for all of you out there. And with that, Leticia, we will just say thank you so much for spending some time with us and this evening. And thank you to all of you out there for listening, watching after the fact, or coming and visiting the YouTube channel and watching after the fact. So thanks everybody. We'll see you next time. [01:00:57] Speaker C: See ya. [01:01:03] 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 live, we have a live show now every week, Monday nights, 5:30pm Pacific, 8:30pm Eastern over on YouTube.com DCLDUO so be sure to head over and check that out. If you want help support the show, be sure to hit those five stars on Apple podcasts. And if you leave us a written review, a five star written review, we will read it at the top of one of our main episodes. So please head over there and hit those five stars. Of course you can also help support the show by supporting our fabulous show sponsors or my Path Unwinding travel. You want to book your next Disney vacation? Head over to mypathunwinding.com dclduo or email them at dclduomypathunwinding.com so they know we sent you their way. If you've got questions or you'd like to connect with us, the best way to do that is to head over to DCLDuo.com it's got links to all of our things, full catalog of the podcast episodes including a searchable catalog for the podcast, links off to our vlog, a link to our Etsy store. We sell some fun fan inspired magnets Link to our patreon. If you'd like to help directly support the show each and every month. Just head over to the website or patreon.com DCLDUO also has a way for you to sign up for our substack newsletter that we're hoping to start really pumping out monthly here, at least on. [01:02:23] Speaker B: A few blog articles that we've written. [01:02:24] Speaker D: 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 list line at 402-413-5590. That's 402-413-5590. The DCL Duo podcast is not affiliated with Disney Cruise Line, the Disney Company or the Disney Family of theme parks. The views expressed on the show are solely those of the individuals on the podcast and in no way reflective. Use the Disney Company or Disney Cruise Line. If you have questions about a Disney Cruise or Disney Vacation, please contact the great folks over at My Path Unwinding Travel or Disney Direct 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.

Other Episodes